text:
Analysis: New Bulger judge likely to stay
By David Frank, Managing Editor, Massachusetts Lawyers's Weekly
It is almost a legal certainty at this point that no one will challenge U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper's selection to preside over the James "Whitey" Bulger trial.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on March 14 ordered U.S. District Court Richard G. Stearns to recuse himself from the case based on his prior employment as head of the U.S. Attorney's Criminal Division in Boston and his close friendship with FBI Director Robert Mueller, which created an appearance of impropriety.
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, writing for the court, said the case should be reassigned to a new judge, "whose curriculum vitae does not implicate the same level of institutional responsibility" as Stearns.
The next day, Casper was tapped to take over the unprecedented case. In the highly unlikely event a recusal challenge is ever made to Casper, her resume would be easily distinguishable from Stearns.
Although Casper worked in the U.S. Attorney's office from 1999 to 2004 and served for a time as deputy chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, no one is alleging she had anything to do with the South Boston mobster's case.
On the other hand, Stearns' run as criminal bureau chief occurred in the early 1980s when some of the key events in the Bulger saga were unfolding. His role and decision-making raised the possibility that the defense team of J.W. Carney Jr. and Henry Brennan might end up calling him as a witness at trial.
It's worth noting that Casper, 45, was a teenager at the time. When she began working for the Department of Justice, Bulger was already on the run and had committed all of the alleged acts for which he is under indictment.
That said, one could argue that in a case in which public perception and the appearance of impropriety are at issue, the cleanest approach the court could have taken was to select someone who did not have any prior employment with the DOJ.
That would exclude judges like Casper, Douglas P. Woodlock, Patti B. Saris, Edward F. Harrington, Mark L. Wolf, F. Dennis Saylor IV and Joseph L. Tauro. If the court wanted to pick someone with no ties whatsoever to the DOJ, a candidate like Judge William C. Hillman would have worked.
I spoke with Carney – before the Casper pick had been announced – and he said he had absolutely no plans to bring another recusal motion.
"We do not have an objection to any other judge in the district overseeing this case," he said.
Follow David Frank on Twitter @davidfrankmlw


text:
Join Our Million Dollar Bracket Challenge for Your Chance at A Million Bucks
We're super-stoked to announce that brackets are now open for our Million Dollar Bracket Challenge! See if you can beat Roger Neel and pick the winning teams in this year's college basketball tournament.
If you correctly predict 60 or more games, you win $10,000. If you correctly predict every game in the bracket, you win a million dollars!
Additionally, our bracket leader (whoever picks the most games correctly) will win our local Grand Prize: an exclusive VIP party at Enfield's in Endwell for 10 people (our winner + 9 guests) with pizza, wings, and more!
Make your picks and fill out your bracket before Thursday at 12PM ET for a chance at a million bucks!
Want more details?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Section 1- The Basics
HTML is one of the easiest languages to learn, but has many uses in comparison, making it a valuable asset in all of your projects. HTML is a globally accepted language in Web Design, and honestly I don't get how anything could be made without understanding this base language, but you didn't come here to listen to me rant, did you? On to the content then!
Tags are pretty simple, with almost all of them having an opening <> and a closing </>. All documents start with the same basic tags.
 <title>Test Site!</title>
simple enough, eh? That's all you need to have a website up, but then again, its just a blank page, where's all the goodies?
 <title>Test Site!</title>
 WOW! A section title!

 blah

ya, no… You have text, but that's ALL it is, that's not even close to a website, it might be good to make yourself feel warm and fuzzy inside that you made something in HTML, but that's all it's good for. Let's get into some text tags to make this more interesting!
 – Bold tag
 – Italic tag
 – Underline tag

 – Header tag, can be 1-6 to make the size bigger/smaller
Let's try this again now!
 <title>Test Site!</title>
 WOW! A section title!

 blah blah blah blah blah!

better, but no good, all you have is still text, onto the next section then.
Section 2- Color
Color makes things more interesting to be honest, without it, all you have is black and white, which does absolutely nothing with aesthetics (how it looks…).
One more time with some color!
 <title>Test Site!</title>
 WOW! A section title!

 blah blah blah blah blah!

Ya, that was smart, you have a black BG, cool, eh? NO! You also have black text, good luck with that, now its not boring, its blank… lets try this again
 <title>Test Site!</title>
 WOW! A section title!

 blah blah blah blah blah!

Ya, there we go, that's actually readable, but honestly, who wants to go through all of that!? Lucky for you there's css, which brings us to the next section.
Section 3- Hex Color
Hex is, put simply, your best friend, or your worst enemy. Hex color codes are in, as the name suggests, 6 digits, sometimes different, but I wont cover that here. The hex system has 16 numbers, as opposed to the decimal system. 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F. 00 is the lowest value, meaning 0, and FF being equal to 256, notice something? It's similar to the RGB method, in fact, it is, just in hex. 000000 is black, of course, with no value, and FFFFFF is white, with all value, and RGB is the order, so
FF0000 Red
00FF00 Green
0000FF Blue
I'm not going to go through all the math involved in hex, but the dead basic, as not to bore you
Decimal – Hex
1 – 16^1
10 – 16^2 (256)
100 – 16^3 (4096)
And if this rings a bell, you used windows 95, and hopefully trashed it by now, and its 256 colors of joy. Thank God for 32-bit!
a color picker is very useful for these things, maybe color cop or something else, sourceforge is your friend
Section 4- CSS
This will save your life, quite literally. Your boss decides he wants another page, and a bunch more text with all red font, that leaves you to change EVERY LAST FREAKING FONT TAG. No fun, eh? Just hope you never learn the hard way. CSS can be a separate text document that controls the style for MULTIPLE pages, making it easy to change it up, and lucky for you, its not hard to learn either! For not, lets start with just css in the document instead of external. If I catch you with font tags after this, you will die a most painful death(not really, just don't use them…)
 <title>Test Site!</title>
 WOW! A section title!

 blah blah blah blah blah!

That's better, no more evil font tags! In case you didn't notice, the three tags up there demonstrate the different ways to define color, hex, names, and rgb values.
Section 5- Background images/colors with css
here's a basic rundown of how to get backgrounds to work using css
body { background: #FF0000; }
A colored background
body { background: url(pic.gif) no-repeat top; }
A pic with no repeat
body { background: #00FF00 url(pic.gif) no-repeat fixed top; }
A pic with no repeat, and is fixed at the top of the screen
Section 6- Links and Images
Again, all you have is text, what fun is that? You need some images and some links to get the site running! Lets use an image as a link for this example
 <title>Test Site!</title>
 WOW! A section title!

 blah blah blah blah blah!

just make sure you have the image, eh? You can use text instead, and notice that I changed the css too, now all links are green. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BORDER="0″ , lest you want a tacky blue border around your image(in this case, its now green)
Section 7- Tables and Div(ision) tags
Two tags that are probably life savers in organizing things, the table and the div tag, but lets start with tables. Think Microsoft Excel, with columns and tables, same basic idea. Table utilizes  (table head),
 (table row),  (table block).

 Apple	 Orange

 Strawberry	 Bannana

That'll make a 2×2 table with the information given, simple enough eh?
 can also be used
The div tag can be used to define sections, and as you'll learn in further learning in css, classes are a lifesaver. CSS can define multiple classes in the div tag, meaning different color, font, size, and other things in each different class.

red section

green section

But do me a big favor and never use that combination, please, for the sake of soon to be color-blinded web-surfers, don't do it (read color tutorial below)
hope that helped
Notepad ++
HTML Kit (also good for php)
Dreamweaver(good luck with the cash)
Color tutorial(also by me)
This will help explain the woes of color usage, make yourself look a little more like a pro early with the right color combination!


text:
Browsing Working papers by Author "Reisch, Lucia"
Now showing items 1-1 of 1
The first study on Danish consumers' tendency to compulsive buyingReisch, Lucia; Gwozdz, Wencke; Raab, Gerhard (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Background: The present study is the first study of Danish consumers on compulsive buying. It draws on a representative sample of 1,015 Danish consumers (aged between 15 and 84 years) and extends prior research undertaken in other countries (such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Canada, the US). It is the first study to shed light on the situation in a Scandinavian context and is designed to allow for a comparison with the situation in other countries. Results: The prevalence of compulsive buying tendencies in Denmark are: 9.75% of the respondents show compensatory buying behavior and 5.81% show compulsive buying tendencies. These percentages are similar to those found in Germany and slightly lower than in Austria. They are also within the range of preferences in other countries. Regarding socio‐demographics, age and sex play a decisive role while marital status, education and income cannot be associated with compulsive buying. If there is such a thing like "a typical shopaholic", it would be a women aged between 25 and 44 years, disregarding whether she is a single or not, has a low or high education and income. The internet offers shopping opportunities that lure both, potential shopaholics and compensatory buyers more than inconspicuous buyers. Compensatory and compulsive buyers have far more customer cards than others. Conclusion: To sum up, this study identifies diverse factors that are related to compulsive buying behavior. To find out what cause is and what effect, more qualitative research as well as experimental studies are needed. Additionally, more intercultural comparisons could lead to insights into the effects of the social and cultural consumption environment, i.e., the role of norms, values, policies, and the mass media on buying behavior. This type of research has, to date, not been undertaken in any Scandinavian country. A first step is the comparison of Danish, Austrian and German data which is currently undertaken. The results of the present study together with future analyses could feed into strengthening consumer education and informing debt counseling and consumer advice. It is also relevant data for credit card companies and retail. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8391
Files in this item: 1Lucia_Reisch_WP2.pdf (247.4Kb)
Now showing items 1-1 of 1


text:
Local Mormons lend a hand to hardest hit victims of Superstorm Sandy
NEW YORK -- For residents of New York City's hardest hit areas, it's easy to see what has been lost to Superstorm Sandy.
The walls, doors, appliances and the smaller sentimental mementos that made up their homes are all in plain view on the curbs or in the numerous Dumpsters that line the streets in the Belle Harbor section of the Rockways, just south of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Old records, magazines and antique radios sit near a Dumpster in front of Ed Schneck's home in the Rockaways -- he's trying to salvage what he can, but most will end up in the trash heap.
"I could have moved them upstairs, but I didn't know it was going to come in like Niagara Falls," Schneck said. "Who would have thought? It was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and I was here for it."
Over the past two weeks, Schneck and thousands of other Queens and Staten Island residents have been helped by a brigade of yellow-vested volunteers who have dug in to rip out mold-infested sheetrock, kitchen cabinets and carpeting and shovel out piles of sand.
The volunteers are part of the Helping Hands program organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including a contingent of about 500 Mormon missionaries from throughout Fairfield County.
"The Mormons are so conscientious and giving it makes me weepy," Schneck said as he stood outside his house Sunday.
John McFadden, a spokesman for the church who lives in Wilton, said about 4,000 Mormons volunteered in the New York area over the past weekend and they are planning to return this weekend along with other Latter-Day Saints parishes, or stakes, from across the country.
McFadden, who is also the church's hurricane specialist, said some of the stories he's heard have been unbelievable. He said mold is the biggest problem now and if they don't get rid of it soon, people's houses will have to be condemned.
The church's Helping Hands program is open to all, but priority is given to senior citizens, the disabled and people with special needs, McFadden said.
"We try to live up to being a church of Jesus Christ," McFadden said. "We like to help people that are in hardships."
New Canaan residents Todd Thompson and his daughter, Alyssa, were among a group of volunteers who gathered at the Stillwater Road meeting house in Stamford for a short service in the morning, then loaded into four school buses. They arrived at Belle Harbor School about an hour later, dividing into groups of 10 and grabbed their safety goggles, gloves, breathing masks and other supplies.
Thompson spent Saturday removing wheelbarrows full of sand from a woman's house and was gearing up for another day of hard labor.
"It was an amazing experience just to help people," he said. "Yesterday, we helped a woman who had seven feet of sand in her house. She was quoted at $60,000 to clean it out. She said she couldn't get any help otherwise."
Alyssa arrived early at Belle Harbor School, where she organized sleds for the volunteers, filling them with bleach, sprayers, trash bags, shovels, hammers, crowbars, brooms and water.
"We had people walking by saying 'Thank you for coming here, God bless you,'" Alyssa said.
On Sunday, the Thompsons joined Ashley Bardsley, of Stamford, to help clean out a flood-damaged basement.
"You just do what they ask you and sweeping is second nature," Bardsley said. "I'm eight months pregnant, so I'm doing the lighter work."
Homeowner Charlie O'Donnell told the volunteers that water filled his basement, where they had a recreation room on one side and his wife's psychiatry practice on the other.
"I never had a wet basement -- ever," he said.
O'Donnell said they didn't evacuate, but he placed sandbags outside the cellar door and put items on the pool table in case of flooding. The sand bags crashed through the door, water poured in and the pool table floated up to the ceiling.
"By the time (the bags) got to the front they hit my legs, but they didn't have enough force to knock me down," O'Donnell said.
Across the road at 258 Beach 140th St., volunteer Kevin Jackson, of Wilton, said the basement had been flooded with six feet of water and now contains a lot of sand. A chain of volunteers passed buckets of sand from the basement to the driveway to the Dumpster.
Former New York Knicks president Dave Checketts, of New Canaan, leads the Yorktown, N.Y., stake, which encompasses Fairfield County, and spent the weekend tearing up a kitchen floor in one home and installing a new kitchen in another.
"We could come here every day for the next six months and still not be finished," Checketts said. "This is going to take years to restore life as they knew it. Some have been here 20 to 30 years."
As the volunteers wrapped up their work, they headed back to the school, where they shared stories of their day's work. "The first house was great actually," said David Stankiewicz, of Darien. "We ripped out the drywall, which was soaked and we took out the wood."
Stankiewicz, who volunteered at Washington Village in Norwalk last weekend, said he also went into a couple of basements and swept them out.
"Sometimes you go to an address and knock on the door and they're not home, so you go to the next door," he said. "I came down and there's been a lot of people to help, so it's been nice."
Michael Miller, of Darien, called the devastation remarkable and said he saw people who lost everything, including their memorabilia.
"You can see it's difficult as they go through and see what's lost," Miller said.


text:
Disc storage capacity boosted self-assembling polymers
Keywords:directed self-assembly? copolymers? hard disc drive?
Fastest assembly, Smallest dots
The UT Austin research builds on pioneering work done on DSA by engineers at the University of Wisconsin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. DSA has for at least two years been considered a promising technology for potential use in replacing the semiconductor industry's mainstream 193-nm optical lithography in some applications.
According to Wilson, when the UT Austin team began working on DSA, the technique had been previously used to double the storage density of disc drives. The team was able to significantly improve on that by furthering shrinking the dots further and finding processing methods compatible with high-throughput production.
In addition to synthesising block copolymers that self-assemble into the smallest dots in the world, the UT Austin researchers have in some cases induced them to form into the right, tight patterns in less than a minute, they say. The team also reported that it has designed a special top coat that goes over the block copolymers while they are self-assembling, allowing them to achieve the right orientation relative to the plane of the surface simply by heating.
"I am kind of amazed that our students have been able to do what they've done," said Willson. "When we started, for instance, I was hoping that we could get the processing time under 48 hours. We're now down to about 30 seconds. I'm not even sure how it is possible to do it that fast. It doesn't seem reasonable, but once in a while you get lucky."
The researchers' work was described this week in the journal Science in a paper co-authored by Wilson, chemical engineering professor Chris Ellison and a team of graduate and undergraduate students. It's also being given a real-world test run in collaboration with HGST, formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, now a subsidiary of disc drive marker Western Digital Corp.
- Dylan McGrath
??EE Times
|Related Articles
|Editor's Choice


text:
by Hugh Gilmore
Catch-up from last week: I had been invited by Roberta and Terrence Foss, of Mt. Airy, to come to his mother's house to buy "thousands of old books." Once I arrived I learned that Terry's father, Ernest Foss Jr., had been killed in World War II three months before Terry was born. A few years later, Terry's mother, Jane Hosmer Foss, remarried, this time a man they referred to as "Bob." Terry's mother, Jane, and "Bob" produced three more sons. One died. When Terry's mother died a month ago, she left three sons by two husbands.
She also left a big house in Wyncote, lots of old furniture and thousands of old books, most of them Bob's. Bob had been a college professor. Though he'd died about five years ago, his books had remained in the house, on their shelves, gathering dust, as they awaited their inevitable fate: removal by The Bookman.
That would be I. The job would begin on the third floor, where Bob had his study (in fact it would turn out that the entire third floor never seemed to have been inhabited – nay: not even visited – by anyone other than "Bob."). As Terry Foss led me upstairs, I asked, "Can you tell me something about the gent who owned these books?" I always like to know who I'm dealing with when handling someone's bones … excuse me … books.
"Yes," said Terry, "He was a professor of English at Temple University, his name was Robert Llewellyn."
I almost fell back down the stairs.
Professor Llewellyn! The Professor Llewellyn who'd so captivated me when I took courses at Temple. Dr. Robert Llewellyn: master of Old English, Old Norse, Old Germanic and Old Icelandic sagas and eddas, Dispenser of Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, and, just for fun, 19th Century English novelists – that's who they were calling "Bob"?
I became worried at once. Was Terry about to give me a "blue book" and have me start writing the minute I hit the top landing? Surely I'd fail. It's been a long time since then.
No. Instead, he wished me luck and left me up there on the third floor in "Bob's" study. Never have I felt more like a burglar. More impudent. Left alone to prowl, left to handle or mishandle the brilliant, lofty-minded Professor Llewellyn's carefully arranged books. I doubt he would have remembered me if we'd met years later, though I sure never forgot him.
But I am a bookseller and I had a job to do. (Sooner or later the bookman comes for all of us, gentle reader. Hope that when he comes, he will be kind and fair and appreciative of the mental life you enjoyed when you were still mentis.) I set to work, heavily aware of the responsibility I assumed.
A library is a one-of-a-kind assemblage, a mirror of its creator's concerns through the days of his or her life. The most ideal thing one could do would be to pack it up and transport it whole somewhere it would be appreciated. J. Pierpont Morgan and a few others (including, in another medium, Albert C. Barnes) managed that, but they bequeathed genuine rarities.
Most people, including Professor Llewellyn, assemble a combination of reference and pleasure books that is often so personally eccentric it would not fit anyone else's life. In fact, to push the point a bit: Whoever receives another's library loses the pleasure of assembling his or her own.
Ah, but Professor Llewellyn's library was also a professional one, as it turned out. I'd venture that at least 90 percent of the books were either English literature or works analytical of the same. Couldn't the collection be shipped as a whole to an institution?
From the 1940s through the 1980s that sort of thing did happen.
The famed Philadelphia bookseller George Allen once had an emergent college order his entire catalog of Classic Roman and Greek books. And for a while, new institutions, often foreign, bought large libraries whole. But in this post-Internet world those days seem to be over. Far more often, books move in the other direction as libraries deaccess books to accommodate the incoming flood of electronic databases, e-books and "alternative" media.
Professor Llewellyn's library would have to be dispersed. The "Big Bang," as I call it: The books come in one at a time over the years and achieve a certain mass until (to borrow from Yeats) "the center cannot hold," and they explode back into the world of people who care about books. (My "Big Bang" analogy falls down here since that world is shrinking.)
If the professor had accumulated only literary first editions by important writers, or had built a library of books about the Civil War, or steam engines, or motorcycles, or early American trade catalogs, or 18th century hand-colored floriculture or several other topics that remain hot, the library would be easier to move. But he hadn't. He'd owned later printings of literature – usually worth much less than a new paperback of the same – and tons (literally) of literary criticism.
A word here: This selfsame topic of literary criticism, at which I tried to excel as a lit major in college, but which bored and confused most students, is of interest to very few people on this planet. People struggle to read fiction at all nowadays and, outside of classroom compulsion, almost never buy criticism, certainly not for reading pleasure. There is very little demand for it.
What's to do, then? Ah, of course: the Internet. I would try a sample against the Internet. I took home four boxes of lit and "lit crit." The results: a nearly complete strikeout, at least for my business model. Almost a hundred copies of most of the titles could be found for between $1 and $20. The average asking price: about $5. I am not set up to sell books in great daily quantities.
It takes me about an hour of handling (buying, researching, photographing, describing, listing, corresponding, collecting money, wrapping and shipping) for each book. At $5 (less book cost, shipping supply costs and Internet fees) I'd barely make a dollar (pre-taxes) for that hour's work. Besides, who would buy the $5 copy when dozens of $1 copies compete with it?
But there were Roberta and Terry Foss and the two Llewellyn brothers, Mark and Bob, to consider. Since they've decided to sell the house, they want – first of all – for the books to go away. Ideally to a good home. And to be paid fairly if the taker is able to profit by taking them.
I'm not the person for most of these books, but I promised to be helpful. I'll keep searching the house for rare or collectible books, but I'd like to hook these nice folks up with someone who can handle the great majority.
I phoned Eugene Okamoto, co-proprietor of Harvest Books in Fort Washington, one of the biggest Internet sellers of used books in the country. Gene was driving his bookmobile when I called. He pulled over. I told him the situation. He laughed and said, "That's amazing. I'm on my way right now to look at the library of another former English professor from Temple University."
Uh oh.
To be continued next week.


text:
My background is as follows. I've been programming since I was young, worked in BASIC, then Asm for M68K, then C, C++, and now I've spent the past 5 years in .NET becoming a rather good .NET developer. Somewhere along the line, I realized I have no clue how the internet works, I don't know how TCP/IP works, I have no clue what HTML is capable of, or how PHP plays into the picture, or why Ruby on Rails should make me happy. I have no experience with LAMP or IIS, and I only have an inkling of a clue what Sharepoint is.
In short: I'm internetstupid. I am intelligent and a capable developer, but I lack even rudimentary skills (routing, web hosting, hosting a custom DNS for intranet domain resolving, etc.) I have no clue where to start on web development learning.
Here's the good news! I know what I'd like to learn to do (at least for now!)
I want to be able to develop my own personal domain to host WSDL services, to power my applications, to showcase my work, to host my living resume, to market my brand so to speak.
Stackoverflow, I beg you, help this disconnected but talented developer become part of the current era instead of being a relic stuck in the previous great golden age of software!
Note: I'd prefer to stay wedded to MS for now for the most part as I'm already familiar with the .NET ecosystem. I'm okay branching out, but not ready to do so (I think?) If you can convince me otherwise that's fine.


text:
WINNIPEG – It's been almost six years since Brian Sinclair wheeled into the emergency room at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre seeking treatment for a blocked catheter.
Thirty-four hours later, the aboriginal man was found dead in the waiting room.
An inquest into his death is to conclude this week and there is frustration it didn't delve deeper into why many assumed the double-amputee was just a homeless person seeking shelter or a drunk "sleeping it off."
Story continues below
"What's really been missing from the equation is any analysis of the behavioural dynamic – how staff interact with the public, the assumptions that are made and the falseness of some of those assumptions when it comes to marginalized people," said Vilko Zbogar, a lawyer representing the Sinclair family.
"Based on the way (Sinclair) looked, people assumed he was not in need of medical care."
The final week is to include testimony from expert witnesses on how to improve patient flow and reduce long waits for care. The Sinclair family, the regional health authority and the Manitoba Nurses Union will then make final recommendations.
Two aboriginal groups and lawyers representing the family boycotted part of the inquest because Judge Tim Preston rejected calls to examine whether systemic racism played a role in Sinclair's death.
The inquest heard Sinclair hadn't urinated in 24 hours and so was referred to the hospital by a clinic doctor in September 2008. He wheeled up to the triage desk and spoke with an aide before taking a position in the waiting room.
Sinclair vomited several times as he languished there. A housekeeper cleaned up around him, but no one asked him if he was waiting to see a doctor.
By the time Sinclair was discovered lifeless by other patients, rigor mortis had set in. The cause of death was a treatable bladder infection.
An internal review found 17 staff members saw the man, but no one assumed he was waiting for care.
Some assumed he had been triaged already and was waiting for a bed. Others assumed he had been treated and discharged. Others thought he was drunk and was waiting for a ride or just needed a warm place to rest.
David Frayer, inquest counsel, said racism was not a recurring theme in the testimony from more than 80 witnesses.
"The only open evidence of racism was the observations made by people that they came to the conclusion that just because he was sitting there, he may have been under the influence rather than a person seeking treatment," Frayer said. "That, I guess, has some racist undertones but racism generally has not been the focus of this inquest."
Emily Hill, lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto who withdrew from the inquest halfway through, said Sinclair's case resonated with aboriginal people across the country.
"It's important to think about continuing this conversation and making sure that this doesn't just end this week and everyone goes back to how things were," she said.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority declined to comment until the final report comes out. Lawyers for the authority argued throughout the inquest that many of the issues that led to Sinclair's fate have been resolved.
The layout of the emergency room has changed so it is easier for nurses to keep an eye on the waiting room and triage has changed so incoming patients wear visible wristbands while they are waiting for care.
Sandi Mowat, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said those safeguards will help.
"The flow through emergency rooms throughout the city is still a problem at times," she said. "I think some of the recommendations that will come out of the inquest will help that."


text:
Korean BBQ – Kalbi & Bulgogi
This food blog thing really isn't good for my waistline. B.B. (Before Blog), the little angel on my right shoulder and the devil on the left used to have a healthy debate, often lasting for a couple of minutes. "Poached Chicken Breast or Gorgonzola Stuffed Hamburger?" The playground was fair, the game was clean. Angel used to win, oh about 51% of the time. The game totally rigged now – sweet angel gently tugs on my ear, reminding me that I really should be cooking healthy tonight, something under 500 calories, light, refreshing, a mixed baby green salad perhaps. And all the little devil on my other side has to say is: "
Oh, its for the BLOG."
POOF! the devil has won and without any consideration, the angel gets whacked in the head, pushed off my shoulder….she somehow ends up landing in the pile of carrot skin compost. Its totally insane that this blog is my reason for choosing to eat like a queen everyday. Its not like this little venture provides me with fame and fortune!
Korean BBQ
If you ask my friends what their favorite meal is at my home, the Korean BBQ Party wins, hands down. The meal itself isn't that unhealthy, its just that Korean BBQ is so damn good that you just can't refrain from stuffing yourself silly. Its also so incredibly easy too – the overnight marinade does all of the work, and you get all of the credit. There are 2 main types of beef in the Korean BBQ lineup: Kalbi (short ribs) & Bulgogi (thin slices of rib-eye). The marinated Kalbi gets thrown on the super-hot BBQ grill and the Bulgogi is cooked at the table on a portable butane-powered grill. You certainly could just cook it in your kitchen and bring it to the table to serve. I also have Kimchee (spicy, pickled cabbage/carrots) at the table, lettuce leaves and lots of white short-grained rice on the table.
KALBI are short ribs, cut on the cross-section (is that the right terminology?) They are thin 1/2″ slices of ribs that are marinated in soy sauce, brown sugar, pear juice, garlic, ginger and sesame oil. Every Korean family has their secret concoction for the marinade. But sometimes, I get lazy to create the marinade from scratch. I do the Sandra Lee thing…i know i know….(wince) just slap me for even mentioning her name…and use the marinade that comes in a jar + add freshly shredded carrots and onions. Get a good Korean brand (you can tell, usually the authentic stuff is in Korean, claims of using real pear juice on label (see below).
I promise you that it will taste mind-blowingly, lip-smackingly, soul-satisfyingly good.
This is Kalbi ready for the grill:
Store-bought Kimchee…because if I made Kimchee myself, dug a hole in the backyard to bury the Kimchee, the alligators that live 10 yards from my house would probably dig up the jar and try to eat it.
Headline: "Woman Kills Alligator with Kimchee" Anyways, I digress…..here is a Kimchee glamour shot:
And other banchan, or side dishes:
p.s. Did you know that the South Korean Ministry of Kimchee has developed an official scale for how fermented and spicy a Kimchee is? See Serious Eats for the article.
BULGOGI is paper-thin slices of rib-eye, marinated as well. I have a butane-powered little table-top grill: Inexpensive ($15 from Amazon) and it also is great for emergencies…like if we had a massive hurricane or flash flooding – we could totally still have our Korean BBQ Party!
A good hostess never lets a silly thing like a natural disaster ruin a party!. Grab the largest fry pan that you have (or a fancy griddle) – and now you have a table-top grill – everyone can cook their own Bulgogi. The Bulgogi marinade is slightly different from the Kalbi marinade – look at the jars and get one of each.
Step 1: fry a piece of Bulgogi
Step 2: lettuce in palm of hand, add rice, add Bulgogi, top with Kimchee
Step 3: eat Or, you could just skip the wrapping thing altogether:
What you need for Korean BBQ Party
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
3-4 short rib slices per person
1/4 lb of Bulgogi per person
1 jar of Kalbi marinade
1 jar of Bulgogi marinade
1-2 carrots, shredded or julienned
1 julienned onion
2-4 stalks green onion, sliced in 1" lengths
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
I get my meat from my local Asian market (the owner is Korean and he sells Kalbi and Bulgogi meat frozen. I defrost and marinate. Or you could go to your butcher and ask him to cut the short ribs for you. Instead of rib-eye, you could use thinly sliced flank steak or really any type of thinly sliced beef) - Combine marinade, some carrots/onion/green onion/garlic and Kalbi in large zip-top bag.
Do the same for the Bulgogi. Marinate the meat overnight, up to 3 days - Kalbi gets the BBQ grill treatment - Bulgogi is cooked at table
The Rice
Lots of white short grained rice (Korean or Japanese style) - I make enough rice to have 1-2 cups cooked rice per person. Here is a great 3-part tutorial on Korean Rice.
The Supporting Players
lettuce leaves (leafy, soft), kimchi, other picked radishes, salted seaweed sheets (you can use seaweed to wrap the meat instead of lettuce)
The Dessert Not Korean, but its the perfect soothing and cooling dessert after all the heat: Tapioca Pearls with Sweet Coconut Milk & Cantelope


text: Sijun Forums :: View topic - Dhabih and Team Evolve Log in to check your private messages Sijun Forums Forum Index >> Archive : Sep99 - Dec00 View previous topic :: View next topic Author Topic : "Dhabih and Team Evolve" ShrimpishGuestMember # Posted: Wed Oct 27, 1999 2:53 am Hey, Dhabih, what exactly did you contribute to the Quake2 Addon released by Team Evolve? (if you were involved in it). I just heard some rumors, and I bumped into an outdated site that had you listed as an artist for TE. Also, could you share more of how you and Guthrie became "friends?" (before you got hired at Valve, you said that you were invited down there to visit the Head Quarters by Guthrie. He must have trusted you a lot since he let you check out Half-Life, which was still in full development at the time.) Just wondering. A lot of us are wondering how things like that are possible. You're a lucky man, I hope you know that. Back to top DhabihAdministratorMember #Joined: 13 Sep 1999Posts: 532Location: Kirkland, WA, U.S.A. Posted: Wed Oct 27, 1999 7:38 pm Initially was started out spending a lot of time helping with some drawings and textures, but as time went on i had less and less time to do anything for them. What's mine in the final product (Zaero addon for Quake2) was a couple skins and textures and thats about it....one or two of the monsters were from concepts i drew. But overall the end product didnt have too much from me. I knew Guthrie from back when he and Wedge were running Quake Command. I had offered to help do textures for their Quake Kart mod and did a couple, but they got hired away to valve before they really got into that. Halflife was almost complete by the time i went to check it out so i think thats why i was able to see it. If it was earlier in dev they woulda been more hush hush maybe, i dunno. -dhab Back to top ShrimpishGuestMember # Posted: Wed Oct 27, 1999 10:33 pm Hey, thanx for sharing, man... Most people wouldn't. I'm "working" on the Fist of the Imperium HL mod with Phil Carlisle from Team17 doing concept art and textures. It's going really slow right now since Phil works full-time, but I gave it a try since any game-related projects look kewl in a portfolio. Check out the site at: http://www.nukeplanet.com/imperium/ There isn't much on there, but there will be eventually. Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Sijun Forums Forum Index -> Archive : Sep99 - Dec00 All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Digital Art----------------Digital Art DiscussionWork in ProgressGallery/Finished Work Miscellaneous----------------Random MusingsArchive : Sep99 - Dec00 You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2005 phpBB Group


text:
Notice: On April 23, 2014, Statalist moved from an email list to a forum, based at statalist.org.
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: st: how to cite Stata helpfile
Nick Cox <email@example.com>
"'firstname.lastname@example.com'" <firstname.lastname@example.com>
RE: st: how to cite Stata helpfile
Tue, 8 Nov 2011 17:34:49 +0000
Indeed. Standards, or perhaps rather styles, vary enormously. There are fields in which reproducible research is the norm and work is not publishable without a script that would re-generate the whole of the results from the whole of the original data as received _and elsewhere available_. There are fields that say nothing about the computing and in which even some minimal statement such as "the data were carefully edited" lifts the competent researcher above many others.
But this is difficult. When I am a consumer of literature, I also don't want to see papers bloated with lots of minor details. What next, that you acknowledge your mailer? In the end, as usual, people have to use their judgement. I did say "important" and there is always a grey area around that.
-----Original Message-----
From: firstname.lastname@example.com [mailto:email@example.com] On Behalf Of Richard Williams
Sent: 08 November 2011 16:58
To: firstname.lastname@example.com
Subject: RE: st: how to cite Stata helpfile
At 11:21 AM 11/8/2011, Nick Cox wrote:
>I disagree to some extent with Richard's recommendations,
>particularly on what he calls "utilities".
Fair enough. Perhaps it would be a good practice to include a
footnote or acknowledgement like "Several user-written Stata routines
were employed in this analysis. These include XXX (Cox, 2009); XXX
(Baum, 2007)." Authors can help their cause by explicitly saying in
the help file that they expect citations and show how the work should
be cited. If the editor wants to kill the citations, well, at least
you've tried.
Incidentally, articles often don't even say what major package was
used (e.g. Stata, SAS, SPSS) let alone the specific programs. I
usually harass authors to provide such details and to make their data
and code available if at all possible. I also tell people that if you
have written some sort of Stata program, you'll probably have a lot
more impact and get a lot more citations if you provide the software
so people can do it themselves rather than have to figure out how to
program from scratch.
>If anybody's published work, meaning work made public, was important
>to you in work with Stata that you in turn want to publish, then you
>have a moral obligation to cite it.
>Second-guessing how useful a citation might be to the original
>author is scarcely the point. Citations that don't help a career
>much don't do much harm either.
>Also, it so happens that many papers in many fields include little
>or nothing on the data management that lay behind the analysis, and
>so there is often not a section where citations would be
>appropriate, but that is an empirical question, not a matter of principle.
>Also, whether reviewers or editors of certain journals will accept
>citations to programs alone can be a tricky question, but authors
>are surely honour-bound to try to cite others' work responsibly and fully.
>There is a bizarre confusion in some quarters between "making freely
>available", which many people do in the Stata community, and
>"relinquishing intellectual property rights", a different matter altogether.
>Richard Williams
>At 03:05 PM 11/7/2011, Jet wrote:
> >HI, how to cite a Stata helpfile (e.g., betafit) if needed? Wonder if
> >there is any suggested way to do so. Thanks!
>The Stata 12 User's Guide says
>The suggested citation for this software is
>StataCorp. 2011. Stata: Release 12. Statistical Software. College
>Station, TX: StataCorp LP.
>For a built in command, I suppose you could also cite the appropriate
>reference manual. I would especially do that if I was directly
>quoting from the manual. The manual usually has the same text as the
>help file, and more.
>For a user-written command --
>I would suggest seeing if the help file includes a suggested
>citation. If you are using one of my programs, my strong preference
>is that you cite one of my published articles, assuming I have
>written a relevant article for the command.
>Barring that, or in addition to, you might try citing the repec
>pages. For example, the user-written ivreg2 help file makes this suggestion:
>ivreg2 is not an official Stata command. It is a free contribution to
>the research community, like a paper. Please cite it as such:
> Baum, C.F., Schaffer, M.E., Stillman, S. 2010. ivreg2: Stata
>module for extended instrumental variables/2SLS, GMM and AC/HAC, LIML
>and k-class regression. http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s425401.html
>As to when to cite - my own feeling is that if you are using a
>user-written estimation command, you should cite the authors of that
>command. Utilities, probably not, unless they had a really major
>impact on the analysis. If you do feel a deep debt of gratitude for
>some utilities, perhaps those authors could be mentioned in the
>acknowledgments instead. Citations of published work are what is
>going to help most scholars the most, but other types of appreciation
>are nice as well.
>* For searches and help try:
>* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
>* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
>* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
EMAIL: email@example.com
WWW: http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/


text:
The Election Commission has finalised and published the 2017 voters name list, the Government Information Department said today.
The name lists can be obtained via Election Commission website www.elections.gov.lk
Furthermore the Election Commission said that the 2016 voters name lists and details of the newly entered names and ruled off names can be obtained through respective Grama Sewa Offices.
The Election Commission said that individuals whose names are not mentioned in the 2017 voters name list are not entitled to vote in the upcoming election poles.
Any individual aged eighteen-years and above whose name is not found in the 2017 voters name list is required to inform the Commission, the Election Commission said.


text:
Thread: McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts
Results 1 to 5 of 5
#1 McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts10-08-2008, 12:01 PM
Medicare, Medicaid Spending Would Be Reduced to Offset Proposed Tax Credit
By LAURA MECKLER
John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.
The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan "budget neutral," as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn't given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn't dispute the analysts' estimate.
McCain touched a "Third Rail Issue" last night and didnt really have to: Really, really dumb.:mad:At Coretta Scott King's funeral in early 2006, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, leaned over to him and whispered, "The torch is being passed to you." "A chill went up my spine," Obama told an aide. (Newsweek)
I swear, both sides are trying as hard as they can to lose this election without coming right out and screaming "Don't vote for me!"
Cutting Medicaid would be the right thing to do if they do it right. Just kick off the able bodied deadbeats recieving it and that would cut it by at least 40 - 50%. But they won't do that. Even Republicans love to take care of deadbeats.I feel that once a black fella has referred to white foks as "honky paleface devil white-trash cracker redneck Caspers," he's abdicated the right to get upset about the "N" word. But that's just me. -- Jim Goad
- Join Date
- May 2005
- Location
- Hartford, CT USA
- Posts
- 2,091
Oh, good. Cuts in Medicare just when the baby boomers are retiring. Good plan!
A bit off topic, but not much, I was talking to my girlfriend recently about Medicare/Medicaid and their respective impacts on dentistry. First, it turns out Medicare has no dental benefits. Medicaid does, but it's a bit of a joke. For example, Medicaid will pay $500 for a crown, a procedure for which most dentists charge between $1000-$1500. The net effect of this is that virtually no dentists take Medicaid (as of now, at least, they're not required to) and those who do, you really don't want to go to anyway.
Gee - Ya think AARPs presses were running over-night? STUPID.:mad:At Coretta Scott King's funeral in early 2006, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, leaned over to him and whispered, "The torch is being passed to you." "A chill went up my spine," Obama told an aide. (Newsweek)
|« Previous Thread | Next Thread »


text:
Bazaar Bizarre boasts some eclectic gems
Getting into the holiday shopping spirit can be a bit of a nonstarter from behind a computer screen and completely maddening at the shopping mall. Don't fret, because the sixth annual indie craft festival Bazaar Bizarre is setting up shop Dec. 1-2 at San Francisco's Concourse Exhibition Center. The festival brings together 200 local artists hawking handmade art, crafts and giftable noshes. But it just wouldn't be Bazaar Bizarre without free DIY workshops and a crafty raffle.
Don't forget your shopping list because Ana Apple will be there with darling baby and kids' goods (including a must-have 415 onesie). Get your cozy on with chunky, oversize knits from Continental Knitware or fulfill the wish of someone quirky with a wood tie from Wood Thumb. Geek out on loads of San Francisco- and California-themed giftables, from greeting cards to graphic Muni T's and pint glasses. The first-time food market, run by underground market Forage, will include fanciful jams and pickled delights that make effortless hostess gifts.
Or warm up to shopping with some holiday DIY-ing, including a birdhouse challenge from Scrap. Try your hand at shirt and paper silk screening by Rock Paper Scissors Collaborative and Workshop SF, then head on over to the Youth Employment Coalition's DIY wrapping station.
Bazaar Bizarre runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday-next Sunday at the Concourse Exhibition Center East Hall, 620 Seventh St., San Francisco. Admission is free. bazaarbizarre.org/sanfrancisco.
Chantal Lamers is a San Francisco freelance writer. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Three men, two 8,000ers, 7 days and 170km. Mode of transport? Bike and skis only. Welcome to the quest of ski mountaineers Benedikt Böhm, Sebastian Haag and Andrea Zambaldi.
The German and Italian trio have just embarked on an epic mission to climb Shisha Pangma (8,013 m) then ride their bikes the 170 km to Cho Oyu (8,201 m) where they hope to make another speed ascent, all within a week.
They've spent the last week acclimatising up to 7,000 m and were all set to make their first summit attempt on Thursday September 18. However, bad weather and avalanche risk forced them to turn around. They're now back in base camp, preparing for a second summit bid.
"Another attempt to climb Shisha Pangma is being planned and scheduled to happen within the next few days," they blogged.
Big surprise of the trip so far? Bumping into Suunto ambassador Ueli Steck at base camp, no stranger to speed ascents himself.
"Ueli gave many useful tips," the guys said.
Ueli climbed Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu in 2011.
The three ski mountaineers, who are supported by Suunto, can be followed online here.
All images © Elias Lefas


text:
We protect your rights by making a wide range of information about University of Phoenix available to our students and potential students.
Regulatory information ranges from our research review board and the protection of student records to refund policies, campus safety and services for disabled students.
Institutional Review Board
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is our research review board formed to protect the interests of students. Read the IRB Mission Statement and Guiding Purposes and Principles for more details.
Disability Services Advisor listing
Each campus has a Disability Services Advisor to serve the needs of students with temporary and permanent disabilities. Locate your advisor on the Disability Services Advisor listing.
Consumer information
The Consumer Information Guide provides consumer information that potential students have the right to request and review.


text:
Clean Locker Brings About a Trashy Trade Rumor
This type of cluster-frack occasionally happens during this trade whisper time of the season when someone want to get that elusive scoop and be the primary media source as we go screaming towards the July 31st M L B non-waiver Trade Deadline.
It caught me totally off-guard in reference to an early Sunday rumor that the Cincinnati Reds were in some sort of discussions with the Tampa Bay Rays about possibly acquiring Rays hurler David Price.
A supposedly eagle-eyed individual saw something they felt dictated a informed and accurate Tweet/status update about a certain Reds slugger's clean locker and they seemed to take a gambler's chance that his hunch was a "solid fact".
He was oh so wrong.
I quickly had 3 facts come into my own mind that struck down this trade rumor concerning Price and Votto. But around the M L B the rumor gained speedy legs and sprinted around the web not unlike Reds speedster Billy Hamilton around the G A B P diamond.
"Strike 1": Votto is not entirely recovered from his early season quad situation. It might not be a daily occurrence or mild bother to him, but because of it any trade partner would want a 100% healthy player evaluation from their team medical staff before signing off on a player of Votto's stature becoming their concern.
"Strike 2": Votto has a ironclad no-trade clause in his contract and even if he was to change team colors, you might expect he would entertain a possible contract extension or fiscal reward from his new team to waive his no-trade, even if he was going to a contender for a possible 2014 World Series title.
"Strike 3": This style of trade is not within the Rays usual wheelhouse of trade notions and baring the fact the team in January signed their current 1B James Loney to a 3-yr, $21 million contract, it lacks feasible plausibility unless Loney also was a trade piece heading to Cincy along with Price.
What should have been an honest visual to all is someone forgot the pure fact that Reds First Baseman Joey Votto is a minimalist and keeps a neat and tidy "work space", especially during days when his Reds Manager Dusty Baker gives the Cincy mainstay the "day off".
I know for a fact playing sports up into my mid-20's, a fair amount of athletes do not have the "neat and tidy" gene within their game day clubhouse rituals.
In the end both "clean facts" were just a pair of trash trade rumors. How fast do you think they hit "delete" on their social media sites, then pulled down their Reds cap a little closer to their brow today.
Moral of this story: "Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy is your best friend when wanting to print anything, especially the truth".
That and possibly thinking twice before hitting the "send" button.
Editorial Note: I could of posted all the Twitter posts that brought about this debacle, but decided they were already possibly being punished enough by other bloggers smelling their blood in the water.


text:
HALIFAX – Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, the Halifax navy intelligence officer who sold secrets to Russia, has been given a 20-year prison sentence.
But the judge presiding over the case says Delisle will serve 18 years and five months behind bars because of time he has already served.
Provincial court Judge Patrick Curran said Friday that Delisle "coldly and rationally" offered his services to Russia.
Delisle pleaded guilty last year to breach of trust and communicating information that could harm Canada's interests to a foreign entity.
The Crown sought a prison sentence of at least 20 years, while the defence asked for nine to 10 years.
Delisle, 41, was arrested in January 2012 and became the first person to be charged under the Security of Information Act. That law was passed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
During his sentencing hearing last week in provincial court, Delisle apologized to his family, friends and colleagues for his actions, saying he was sorry for the hurt he caused them.
In an agreed statement of facts, Delisle admitted that his treachery began when he walked into the Russian embassy in Ottawa in July 2007 and offered his services for money.
For years, he funnelled classified information to the Russians for monthly payments of about $3,000.
The naval threat assessment analyst said he used floppy discs and memory sticks to smuggle information out of Halifax's HMCS Trinity, the military all-source intelligence centre on the East Coast.
He then took the information home and copied it into an email address that he shared with his Russian agent so he never had to send the email.
But he came under suspicion after returning in September 2011 from a trip to Brazil, where he met a Russian agent named Victor who told him that he would become a "pigeon" or liaison for all Russian agents in Canada.
Alarms were raised within the Canada Border Services Agency because he had no tan, little awareness of the tourist sites in Rio de Janeiro, three prepaid credit cards, thousands of dollars in U.S. currency and a handwritten note with an email address, the court heard.
Authorities intercepted two messages in January 2012 that Delisle tried to pass on to the Russians, and he was arrested shortly later.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has said that Delisle's crimes could mean it receives less intelligence from allies in the future and it is still assessing the fallout of his actions.
The Crown argued that Delisle damaged Canada's relations with its allies, endangered intelligence agents and exposed their methods of gathering top-secret material.
But the defence said Delisle's harm is "theoretical" because it isn't exactly known what secrets he leaked, adding that he was ensnared in the arrangement with the Russians and feared retribution if he tried to get out.
Delisle joined the navy as a reservist in 1996, became a member of the regular forces in 2001 and was promoted to an officer rank in 2008.


text:
Solar power researchers at Princeton University have discovered that by mimicking the surface of leaves, they can create solar cells that are better at capturing sunlight for a 47 percent efficiency boost.
In the kind of discovery that's obvious after the fact, the researchers have "roughed up" the surface of their cells, in imitation of the way that leaves use microscopic irregularities in their surfaces to maximize their harvesting of the sun.
As described in Photonics, leaves' surface structures are "designed to bend and control sunlight for maximum production of energy and nutrients."
The design tries to overcome the randomness of incident light – anything that doesn't arrive at the correct angle is going to be reflected. By adding microscopic folds to the surface of their cells, the researchers say they can create a kind of waveguide that helps capture more light, by reducing the amount that's reflected from the cell.
"Everything hinges on the fact that you can reproduce the wrinkles and folds," led by professor of chemical and biological engineering Lynn Loo told Photonics. "By controlling the stresses, we can introduce more or fewer wrinkles and folds" – allowing the scientists to design the surface for maximum capture.
The researchers say it's particularly important in the world of plastic panels, where low efficiency and relatively high cost give the older silicon technology its huge edge in the market.
As well as making a cell more efficient, the researchers found that efficiency doesn't fall in a hole when the cell is bent. They claim that a standard plastic cell can lose 70 percent of its output when bent – not surprisingly, since bending the cell reduces the surface area that presents the right angle to the incoming light.
By adding the "wrinkles" to a plastic cell, the Princeton group found that it could retain its efficiency when bent. They claim as much as 47 percent better efficiency from their device. ®
Sponsored: Webcast: Discover and secure all of your attack surface


text:
I got one of each color and style of piece offered. I had to use a few more bodies and legs to finish up a droid. All in all it made 14 droids for the time being. The light blue astromech body and head are not there yet. The other novelty hats and EU domes won't be released till later to make you have to go a second trip. Hahaha!
I wouldn't be suprised to see a third theme park within the next ten years.
Just saw pics of the new Disney BAD cards on the otheR site. They're pretty cool! Really small, not much bigger than the bubble.
Page created in 0.055 seconds with 19 queries.


text:
When the economic crisis erupted in Greece and the bottom fell out of the domestic wine market, the Kir-Yianni vineyard outside picturesque Naoussa decided to adapt. Like other wineries in Greece, it has increasingly tapped the export market, successfully marketing and selling wine in Europe, the United States and even China.
"If you ask me, this crisis has been good for us," says Stellios Boutaris, the son of the company's founder. "It's going to make us stronger."
But there's one big problem that poses a threat, even to the most competitive Greek companies right now, he says. It's become virtually impossible to borrow money in Greece.
"There's no credit. How can you do business without credit?" he asks.
Greek banks have little money to lend out, while foreign lenders, which once flooded Greek businesses with loan offers, no longer want to do business in the country. The possibility that Greece might leave the eurozone, however slim, makes lending money there too risky.
It's a huge challenge for companies like Kir-Yianni, which have to import virtually all of the materials and equipment they use in their production. Kir-Yianni buys bottles from Italy, paper from Turkey, barrels from France and cork from Portugal.
"Unfortunately, Greeks are very much traders, not producers," Boutaris says. "It's crazy, when there's not a single glass factory in Greece. It makes you upset that you have to bring in bottles from Italy."
Because credit is so tight, companies like Kir-Yianni have to pay cash for virtually everything they buy. In a capital-intensive business, where growing times stretch for years, that can be an enormous challenge. Boutaris has had to delay projects, like building a new wine cellar.
"You're squeezed from both sides," he says. "You have trouble collecting money from the markets, because some of the wholesalers have gone out of business, so it's very, very difficult to sell. So you try to get cash from them, but not everyone can afford it."
Meanwhile, he says, "your suppliers want to be paid in cash. So really, the circle has completely broken. The chain of business has completely broken."
It's a huge change from a few years ago, when a loan was as easy to get as a suntan in Greece. Successful Greek business owners were regularly flooded with offers of credit. Banks "would beg you" to borrow money, says Olga Panagopoulou, financial manager at Conex, a canned fruit company in Athens. "They would say, 'You just have to pay 3 percent. What's 3 percent for you?' "
Conex ended up borrowing money to upgrade its factory, which will produce 27,000 tons of canned peaches this year, exporting virtually everything it produces.
The credit crunch has greatly complicated life for Conex.
The company has a narrow window of time each year to process and can fruit, and needs tons of supplies, everything from sugar and citric acid, to tin cans and fuel oil. But canned fruit can sit on store shelves for years, so customers are slow to take delivery of their orders and even slower to pay what they owe.
In the past, Conex could borrow money to get by until it was paid for what it produced. But today, the credit flow has run dry.
But now that the banks won't lend, Conex has had to press its customers to pay what they owe sooner. It has also tried to persuade its shareholders to put more money into the company.
The company laid off some permanent employees over the years, but it can't afford to lose too many workers, especially during canning season, Panagopoulou says.
Conex's troubles are ironic, because for the most part the company is quite competitive. With production down in parts of the United States, demand for canned fruit is very strong right now, she says. But without credit, it has difficulty filling the orders it gets.
"Greece can export enough, and more," Panagopoulou says. "But the problem is not to export or produce. The problem for Greece is to find the funds in order to produce. This is the real problem, and the big problem now."
The crisis in Greece is taking a toll on the entire Greek economy because the Greek government has struggled to pay its debts, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty. Banks have pretty much stopped lending in the country. Now most businesses can no longer get loans. As NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, the problem is forcing Greek businesses to find new ways to survive.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Stellios Boutaris hails from one of Greece's best known wine making dynasties. His family owns the Kir-Yianni vineyard in a picturesque northern village. Today he walks through the room where the wine is made: an enormous dimly lit space permeated by the smell of red grapes.
STELLIOS BOUTARIS: Here's the winery. These are all stainless steel tanks.
ZARROLI: Nearly every piece of equipment we pass, he says, is imported.
BOUTARIS: Cork from Portugal, bottles from Italy, paper from Turkey. It's crazy. Unfortunately, Greeks are very much traders. They're not much producers.
ZARROLI: And that's left companies like his in a big bind. Boutaris heads into his sunny office overlooking the hills and settles down on his couch, dressed in a crisp monogrammed shirt. Boutaris, who studied at Wesleyan in Connecticut, has been pushing his industry to modernize. When the crisis began, the bottom fell out of the Greek market. Winemakers like Boutaris survived by exporting more with some success. But now, Greek banks no longer have money to lend. And foreign banks don't want to do business in the country.
BOUTARIS: In Greece, in general, the businesses have collapsed. There's no credit in Greece now. How can you do business without credit, you know? The thing has completely, completely collapsed.
ZARROLI: Because companies can't get loans, they have to pay for everything they buy - all those barrels and bottles and wine vats - in cash.
BOUTARIS: Now you're squeezed from both sides. Because you have trouble collecting money, because some of the wholesalers have gone out of business, so it's very, very difficult to sell. So you try to get cash from them. Not everybody can afford it. And your suppliers want to be paid in cash. So really, the circle has completely broken. It's, you know, the chain of business is completely broken.
ZARROLI: With credit so tight, Boutaris has had to delay some projects, like building a new wine cellar. It's a far cry from the old days. Before 2008, credit was as easy to get as a suntan in Greece. Olga Panagopoulou and her husband run Conex, a canned fruit company in Athens. She says bankers used to call her all the time.
OLGA PANAGOPOULOU: Because sometimes they press us, OK, take the money, take this equipment, do this, or prepare this or whatever. They beg you over money, you know. Eight years before they begged you.
ZARROLI: Today the money stream has dried up. It's a huge problem. Conex has a brief window each year to pick and can fruit. And during that period it needs to buy a lot of things like sugar and tin cans and citric acid. But customers tend not to pay right away. So the company borrows money to get by until it's paid. Only now, it can't get a loan.
PANAGOPOULOU: That means that we have to hurry up, to move fast, to find the funds, to press the clients to pay right away.
ZARROLI: The company has also had to press its shareholders for money. Conex has laid off some employees but it can't afford to lose too many workers during canning season. Panagopoulou insists that companies like Conex can compete on the world market.
PANAGOPOULOU: But the problem is not to export or to produce. The problem for Greece is to find the funds in order to produce. This is the real problem and the big problem now.
ZARROLI: But as long as the economic turmoil drags on, lenders are likely to avoid Greece. And even competitive companies will struggle. And with the unemployment rate near 25 percent, Greece needs to hold on to all the private sector employers it has. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
About this database
xThis database contains crimes reported in Norfolk since Jan. 1, 2008. The data comes from the Norfolk Police Department, which posts the information on its Web site (link). The Daily Press' database is updated daily.
Search near an address
Enter a Norfolk address and a radius to see crimes reported within that radius around the address. (Don't include the city name.)
Crimes by date range
To see crimes reported within a range of dates, click the start date and then the end date in the calendar below. To see crimes reported on a specific date, click that date twice.
Crime frequency
The bigger a crime appears below, the more frequent that crime is reported. Click on a crime name to see all reports of that crime.
Crime by street
These streets have the most reports of crimes. The bigger a street name appears, the more frequently crimes are reported there. Click on a street name to see reports of crimes there. List all streets
Crime by ZIP code
The bigger a ZIP code appears below, the more frequently crimes are reported there. Click on a street name to see reports of crime there.


text:
The Hustleboyz - Bout Paper [Unsigned Hype]
"Str8 outta Orangeburg South Carolina A.B.S. Entertainment LLC Brings you the 1st of 3 Official Videos!! 1st up is The Hustleboyz Smash Single "Bout Paper" If you know anything about this Duo then you know what it is!!! Leave a comment, LIKE Thehustleboyz on facebook n follow @thehustleboyz on twitter. "Revenue" The Ep available on Itunes,Amazon, Rhapsody n other online retailers!!!"
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.


text:
High Standard Other Handgun
About the Gun:
Derringer, OM 101, 22 mag, 3 1/2 inch barrel, 2 shot. Serial Number:1909xxx Prices are cash prices. Add 3% for debit and credit cards. Phone: 229-423-2462 Mailing address: P.O. Box 1014, Fitzgerald, GA 31750 Shipping address: 708 South Grant Street, Fitzgerald, GA 31750 We do not ship out side of the United States. You must get exporter to ship out side of the United States. For shotgun barrels please visit www.barrelexchange.com
Price: $425.00
Stock Number: 28136
Meet the Seller:
Broome Firearms, Inc.
Fitzgerald, GA
FFL Dealer
Return to BroomeFirearms.com's Storefront
Return to Previous Page
Extra Large Images Below
Scroll Down for Additional Image
Return to Top of Page


text:
Our latest Architecture Masters Thesis presentations made use of some big-time visual technologies. Rather than print miles of color images to cover 30 linear feet of wall space, several students opted to project their presentations, using a rear projection system and a 12 foot wide screen, multiple flat panel TVs, or in most cases, a combination of both.
As part of the ritual of graduating, these same students and their colleagues in the Urban Studies and Planning, Historic Preservation and Real Estate Development programs must put on an exhibit in our Kibel Gallery. And design the layout of said exhibit. It was suggested that the students do something 'high-tech' since so many presentations had used technology in the method.
No problem for this crowd. They set themselves some parameters – it shouldn't take long to set-up, and it shouldn't cost much either. In other words, they were Done with school already. Solution? Old School slides and some slide projectors. First, they laser cut the titles for graduation exhibit into the slide film.
Next, set up the projectors to project onto the wall surface in the gallery.
People walking by temporarily interrupt the titles before entering the gallery. Low budget, minimal time, looks good! Stop by on a weekday, if you are in the area.


text:
CBA Bestseller
Praise for Enemies of the Heart
"Andy Stanley touches the right nerve at the right time. We all have an understandable tendency to focus on the problems others need to address in their lives. But Andy encourages us to put ourselves on the hook and not let go until we've made any necessary changes. This book shined a spotlight on some of those areas I need to work on, and
I know it will do the same for you."
—Shaunti Feldhahn, best-selling author of For Women Only
"Andy Stanley is a master teacher for a generation that loves to be taught. Here is yet more proof of Andy's ability to take us deep in a way that makes us want to go there. This is a great book."
—Dave Ramsey, New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio host
"Read this book with caution! You will probably uncover some mean and ugly stuff in the depths of your own heart. I sure did. The good news is that Andy Stanley doesn't leave you there to struggle; instead, he offers wise, biblical remedies that every Christian should make part of their own spiritual habits. This is great stuff that I enjoyed teaching
at our church."
—Doug Fields, former associate pastor, Saddleback Church


text:
Honolulu Community College seeks homes for 9/11 flags
Annual tradition celebrates six years of remembrance flags created by sheet metal studentsHonolulu Community College
Sheet Metal & Plastics
HONOLULU- Students from the Honolulu Community College Sheet Metal and Plastics program and their professor, Danny Aiu, are planning to display two American flags they have fabricated in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The flags will be on the campus mall by the end of the class session on Monday and will remain on display for the remainder of the week. This is the sixth year the flags have been displayed in honor of those who perished on 9/11.
In addition to constructing this year's flags, the sheet metal students plan to clean the existing permanent memorial and etch the names of the 3,000 victims of the attacks into the back of the plexiglass case of the memorial. Also for the 2007 commemoration, retired HCC staff member Katsumi Ige, has donated red ginger to grace each display.
Students in the sheet metal program constructed two flags in 2002: a drab one depicting 9/11 and another one brighter and more defined, representing a strong, proud nation one year later. The two original flags are on permanent display in the Sheet Metal shop and two new flags have been created each subsequent year.
As has become tradition, at the conclusion of Honolulu CC's 9/11 remembrance week, the students will donate the metal flags to a non-profit organization that would commit to displaying the flags year round.
For more information or to express interest in obtaining one of the 2007 flags, please contact instructor Danny Aiu at 845-9237 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
One of our most frequently asked questions is, "Why don't you have direct flights to…Boston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, etc.?
Air Service Development is a lengthy process, and is more difficult than picking up the phone and calling an airline and saying, "Hey, we have a lot of people here who would like to go to place X, when can we have a plane to go there?" as I admittedly once thought when I first started my internship in the Marketing Department.
Before BGR obtains a new service route, we must first answer a lot of questions. Yes, we would like air service to almost anywhere, but is it the right fit? Is there enough demand for the service to make the route successful? What size aircraft would we ask for or like to have? Does the airline most likely to serve that route have any "spare" aircraft? What would the price of the tickets be to support the service? Is that price marketable? The Marketing Department studies where our passengers are traveling to and coming from, and tries to match our service requests accordingly.
Risteen Bahr, the Marketing Manager at BGR, is continuously in discussions with airlines and our air service consultants about new service, expanded routes and right-sizing of aircraft and the frequency of flights on existing routes. We attend air service development conferences each year where we have meetings with airlines to propose new and expanded service. When we do this, we discuss our "catchment area", the population of people within a predetermined radius, the demand for service at BGR, the local business climate, and potential support for new routes. Basically, it comes down to – the more people in the area, the more likely BGR is to get new or expanded air service.
We also have to show that there is interest in why people would come here. Many times we think about planes leaving, but what about the visitors traveling here? We need to demonstrate that people want to come here year round, as well as seasonally.
Finally, we look at potential ticket costs. As we know, the largest driver of air travel costs is the cost of fuel. And while we as the airport have no say in prices airlines set for tickets, we understand that there is a delicate balance between the size of the aircraft, the number of seats, and the length of the trip. It always goes back to the question about demand, and how sustainable and profitable the route would be if an airline starts service here. Air fares that are not priced right will not be supported with traveler purchases.
One final point – we get a lot of requests for Boston service. It's not that we do not want it, it's just we have not found the right fit for the service. We know that the size of the aircraft has to be right to sustain the route, but also pricing needs to be reasonable for people to want to fly instead of drive. Ever since the price of oil, and thus jet fuel, increased about seven years ago, airlines do not serve the short haul market as much. However, it is something we discuss regularly with airlines, and work hard to encourage an airline to bring Boston service back to Bangor.
We hope this helps answer your questions. If you have another question you would like answered, please send it to email@example.com.


text:
May 2, 2010
The Diary of an Obsessed Muppet Fan - Rocky Mountain Holiday
The Diary of an Obsessed Muppet Fan - Entry 7, May 2, 2010
Dear Diary,
Is it bad that I'm too tired to come up with something rude to say to you? ...Don't give me that look! You don't know my life! You just automatically assume that I'm tired because I was out late fondling some sleezy journal? How dare you, madame? To think, after all of these months of me only dedicating my inner-most thoughts to you that you suddenly decide I'm unfaithful and just plain gross. How dare you.
Anyway, last night I watched John Denver and The Muppets: Rocky Mountain Holiday on--gasp!--VHS. Talk about taking a trip to the stone age, eh? The special has a very simple premise: John Denver invites the Muppets out to the Rocky Mountains for a camping trip. Easy enough, right? Wrong. The special becomes very confusing and diluted and loses any semblance of a plot as soon as they step out of the truck and start singing. Thankfully there's plenty of fun, Muppety mayhem throughout to buffer this.
The first confusing aspect of this special that I came across was the fact that I couldn't help but wonder... Is this a John Denver special or a Muppets special? Quite frankly, it doesn't work terribly well as either. What I think would have worked better is sending the Muppets out on a camping trip and they just happen to run into John Denver in the woods. Along with John Cleese, Phyllis Diller, and other stereotypical 1980's guest stars. Doesn't that sound like more fun than hiking with John Denver and singing around a campfire for twenty minutes?
Another annoying/confusing part of this special is that there is literally no plot. The only things that happen are the Muppets walking to the campsite, running into a jug-band (that we never see or hear from again), Fozzie gets beat up by nature, Floyd and John go fishing, Robin is too small, and then the rest of the special is spent singing around the campfire. Everything else that happens in the special takes place in flashbacks of other Rocky Mountain holidays they've taken--which makes no sense because as soon as they get to the campsite John says, "I've been wanting to bring you guys up to the Rockies for a long time now." Umm... since last summer, John?
I just don't understand why all of those flashbacks (e.g., Miss Piggy comin' 'round the mountain, Rowlf floating in an inner-tube down the river) couldn't have taken place on this particular Rocky Mountain holiday. They sure like a lot more fun than all of the stuff they're doing..
And then... there's the music. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy John Denver as much as the next guy, I just think it's a little much to have at least ten, maybe more, songs performed by him in the span of 45 minutes. Yes, the Muppets get to pop in and provide back-up harmony every once in awhile, but the overwhelming majority is just John sitting with a guitar on a stump singing about rocks or trees or something. Literally the entire last half of the special is spent around the campfire singing. It gets to a point where it's just overwhelmingly boring and I think it's why there's no real plot--they had to fit in too many songs!
Then at the end there's this weird thing with a giant, man-eating chicken... and then Robin goes to sleep and everyone else follows suit. That's basically Rocky Mountain Holiday in a nutshell: too much singing and a giant, man-eating chicken. In the end there's just too many songs and too little plot in this special. There are some fun Muppety moments (Fozzie's hands catching on fire, Robin trying to break John's neck by tying the clothesline too low, Floyd and John fishing, the version of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" where Miss Piggy is she who'll be comin' round) but far too much of this one-hour special is dedicated to John singing while the Muppets stare at him. Enjoyable for one or two songs, but for ten or twelve it's just painful.
Ah well, maybe there was just more to the camping trip we didn't get to see. Or... maybe not.
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier
6 comments:
- Krazedmuppet aka KatieSunday, May 2, 2010 at 3:24:00 PM CDT
My family and I are from Colorado, and my mother and grandmother are BIG fans of John Denver, and sadly I think they (the Muppets and John Denver) were just keeping in tradition of all of John Denver's specials, they are pretty much all this boring. Him singing on a rock, way too many songs- its more like a concert with a pretty background. But trust me I know where you are coming from lol.ReplyDelete
- krazedmuppetSunday, May 2, 2010 at 3:28:00 PM CDT
oh and I forgot to add that my grandma and mother love this special, I am strting to think this was aimed toward John Denver fans, I think they like the all music and no plot thingReplyDelete
Hey, watchit man! I LOVE the Muppets, and I LOVE this special.ReplyDelete
I think I just take great comfort in that there's all these beautiful John Denver songs combined with the wacky humor of the Muppets, and no plot to worry about. It just kinda let's you, enjoy the special in a purely emotional way. After all, it's a John Denver special WITH the Muppets, not the other way 'round, meaning they're the guest stars for once.
Plus, the Muppets out under the real skies can't EVER be beat! Love that too, and I hope that the new movie is gonna avoid studio filming like hell!
Oh, and I should also mention that the Muppet puppet design team was top notch at this time. The characters all looked perfect at this time (with the exception of bad hair Piggy, but at least she went with the times back when -- which can't hardly be said about her anymore so often).ReplyDelete
But take Scooter for example: perfect head shape. Nowadays (as in Bohemian Rhapsody) he's just a deflated version of himself. 'Tis to cry!
I understand the criticism, sort of, but you seem to be criticizing it for not being something it's not supposed to be. It's a music special. It's a format that largely no longer exists, so it's understandable that it seems foreign and "boring" now.ReplyDelete
I would like "Twilight" better if it starred Bruce Willis as a cop named John McClane fighting terrorists who are holding hostages in a high-rise, but that's a different movie.
This is meant to be a series of songs, featuring John Denver and the Muppets (not the other way around), with some mildly humorous interludes that share a camping theme. On that level, I think it succeeds. Perhaps it's not so much the special as the genre that confounds you.
You all make very valid points. I guess I just didn't really follow the whole musical special idea as much because it is indeed foreign to me. The songs were beautiful and it's always great to have John singing them, it just didn't really do it for me.ReplyDelete
But the Muppets were indeed a lot of fun here and they looked fantastic and seemed very at home outdoors. I'm also hoping for more of that in the new movie.


text:
|"Are you a wizard or not?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
|Forbidden Forest Centaur colony
|Organisation information
- "Mars is bright tonight."
- —Bane[src]
A Centaur colony lived in the Forbidden Forest on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were led by the Centaur, Magorian.
Lord Voldemort's returnEdit
In 1991, the colony was disturbed by the arrival of Lord Voldemort in the Forest when he was stalking and killing Unicorns. Firenze rescued Harry Potter from Lord Voldemort while he was serving detention in the Forest. Bane and Ronan were furious at Firenze for letting Harry ride on his back, stating that centaurs were not "common mules." This led to the first idea that centaurs are hostile.[1]
Firenze's exile and the High Inquisitor's regimeEdit
In 1995, Firenze was exiled from the herd after accepting a post as Divination Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but not before they tried to trample him to death prior to being rescued by Rubeus Hagrid. Hagrid's intervention, along with his keeping of his Giant half-brother, Grawp, in the forest cost him his friendship with the centaurs.
- Main article: Skirmish in the Forbidden Forest
In 1996, Dolores Umbridge was tricked into going into the Forbidden Forest by Hermione Granger and Harry Potter, and after insulting them with her arrogant and racist ways she was attacked and dragged away by them. She was rescued from the forest by Dumbledore, and was left with a severe fear of the creatures after the traumatic event.[2]
Dumbledore's funeralEdit
At Albus Dumbledore's funeral in 1997, the herd paid tribute to the fallen Headmaster with a shower of arrows.[3]
The Battle of HogwartsEdit
- "BANE! Happy now, are yeh, that yeh didn' fight, yeh cowardly bunch o' nags? Are yeh happy Harry Potter's -- d-dead...?"
- —Rubeus Hagrid to Bane during the Battle of Hogwarts[src]
The Centaurs initially did not participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, though they certainly knew it was occurring because of the volume of Voldemort's demands. Firenze, however, did participate in the first wave of the battle, defending the school with the other Professors.
After Hagrid called them nags while carrying the seemingly dead Harry Potter back to the castle, the Centaurs watched from the forest while Lord Voldemort taunted the defenders at the castle. They were among the first to attack the Death Eaters during the second wave of the battle, charging in and shooting at the enemies with their bows.[4] Following the battle, the herd accepted Firenze back because they realised he was right.[5]
Rubeus HagridEdit
Rubeus Hagrid had an ongoing relationship with the centaurs that was typically much better than that of other witches and wizards. However, this relationship had its ups and downs, and varied by individual centaurs. During Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hagrid tried to get information from Ronan regarding a unicorn found dead in the forest, though the centaur gave very little information as he spent the time stargazing.[1]
When Hagrid brought Grawp to the Forbidden Forest, his relationship with the Centaurs reached a low point, and the Half-giant always brought his crossbow with him whenever he entered the forest. The Centaurs attacked Grawp, though the Giant survived and eventually managed to coexist in the forest with the centaurs.[2]
Hagrid also yelled at the Centaurs for not initially joining the Battle of Hogwarts, calling them cowardly as he carried Harry Potter from the Forbidden Forest with Voldemort and his Death Eaters.[4]
Known members of the colonyEdit
- Bane
- Firenze (exiled in 1995, returned to the herd following the Battle of Hogwarts)
- Magorian
- Ronan
- Unidentified centaur
- Unidentified bearded centaur
- Unidentified dun-coloured centaur
- Unidentified hard-faced grey centaur
- Unidentified thick centaur
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7


text:
In a Pershing Insite 2013 general session with Pershing's Chief Relationship Officer Jim Crowley on Wednesday, Mark Tibergien told the 1,400 attendees that "you can expect four things from us":
1) that Pershing will provide a dependable core of services and products
2) that Pershing will make it easier to do business with us
3) that Pershing will be an extension of your offerings, and
4) that Pershing will give you access to the world.
In a follow-up interview on Thursday during the 15th annual Insite conference, Tibergien (left), CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions (and a regular columnist for Investment Advisor) expanded on those comments in his trademark no-nonsense manner.
As for extending advisor offerings for clients, Tibergien pointed out the excellent response to two new offerings through PAS.
One is the provision of private banking services to PAS clients through an agreement with BNY Mellon Private Banking announced formally June 4, but which since its soft launch a few weeks ago has been well received by RIAs who custody with Pershing.
Designed for high-net-worth and ultra-HNW clients, the private banking services allow those clients to stay invested in the market but to use their assets as collateral for jumbo mortgages and an investment credit line (ICL) for loans of $1 million or more. More than $40 million in loan applications have been made since the soft launch, Tibergien said.
The second new offering is an integrated bank and brokerage custody arrangement that PAS has made with the Wealth Management Advisor Custody Group of BNY Mellon. Tibergien said that 20% of RIAs already use bank custody for some clients, and that 15% of the $2 trillion managed by RIAs is in bank custody arrangements.
While Tibergien said this group already had a "cross-referral arrangement" with BNY Mellon's custody group, "they now report into us," that there is a common service team for those bank-custodied assets, "adding a layer of efficiency" for RIAs, providing "one solution with a common service charge."
Extending these formerly BNY Mellon-specific services to PAS advisors fits into Pershing Chairman Brian Shea's stated goal in his welcome to attendees of Pershing Insite 2013 "to unlock the value of all of BNY Mellon to all of you in this room."
It's also part of PAS' "conscious decision to work with advisory firms, not just advisors," whose clients have "complex lives" and complex financial needs, said Tibergien in the interview. Taking this approach, "the high-net-worth market," and by extension advisors' clients, "start to look like an institution" that has institution-like needs. The extension of these services to PAS advisors, says Tibergien, is not part of Pershing's "value added" offerings to its RIAs, but rather the simple "value we offer to our clientele." That approach is central even to PAS' relationship management offerings. "If our clients can't execute, then they're not going to perceive the value" of those offerings, Tibergien argues. It is in "Pershing's DNA not to be noticed" by end clients of advisors, which is why, for example, the mobile app Pershing is rolling out to end clients to access its NetX360 platform will be labeled with the advisor's name, not Pershing's.
The approach reflects the "difference between seeing the advisor as a distribution channel and the advisor as a client," Tibergien says. "As another good sign of Pershing promoting advisors' brands rather than its own, as PAS begins to attract more advisor clients from outside its "tri-state area" home of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Tibergien reports that "lots of advisors don't even know who Pershing is."
A third area where advisors can benefit from PAS' parent company's breadth is in the global arena. "We have end clients in 50 countries," notes Tibergien, and regulatory reform and market demand are the drivers in growth of advisors in those countries. In Latin America, he says, there was a demand for Pershing to offer offshore funds; it now offers 130 of those funds. In Asia, he points out that Pershing will be launching an Asia Pacific separately managed account offering in Hong Kong that will be distributed through Chinese advisors; a similar SMA offering is in the works for Singapore. Heading that SMA operation is John Brett, formerly of Merrill Lynch and MetLife.
Any conversation with Mark Tibergien will eventually turn to the issue of the human capital challenge faced by an aging advisor force. "I've been talking about succession planning since the 1980s," Tibergien said, but he's now changing the way he talks about the issue.
It's no longer so much about "replacing the old guy" in an advisory firm, but is more about "people development" and a growth challenge for advisory owners. "Are you building a business? Are you becoming the employer of choice" in your geographic area? The issue is now "not about people leaving" the business, but why in a time of high unemployment there are "so few people" entering the business.
Check out Do Incentives Really Motivate People? on AdvisorOne.


text:
The most important member to appeal to during the busy winter season is the new exerciser. Many centers will experience more visits from new exercisers now than any other time of the year. A crowded, busy fitness center with lots of new equipment, activities and classes can be intimidating to the new exerciser. Offering introductory group fitness classes, new member orientations and equipment orientations create a more welcoming environment for new members and can prevent them from getting lost in the shuffle, but they are only the start. Following are some other ideas for turning new members into regular members.
Offer members an opportunity to work on New Year's resolutions. The club can offer a contest, challenge or event that will motivate them to come regularly to the center. Extend a prize or reward to every member who completes at least two regular workouts per week for two to three months. Even a small reward such as a t-shirt or a guest pass can motivate members to not skip their exercise session. Several months of regular physical activity may help members make a permanent lifestyle change.
Weather is another factor that drives many people into fitness centers. During the busy winter months, outdoor enthusiasts are forced indoors to train for their favorite outdoor activities like cycling, running, walking, rock climbing, basketball, volleyball and even swimming. Winter months present a valuable opportunity to turn outdoor athletes into fitness center enthusiasts. For example, creating indoor group cycling classes that will help people train for a local bike race is a great way to introduce cyclists to the benefits of group cycling classes. Running clubs, walking groups and adult swim teams can provide the same structured training to other race enthusiasts. Basketball and volleyball leagues, tournaments and conditioning clinics can also encourage members to continue to train during their "off season." Leagues, clubs and classes bring members with common interests together and form positive relationships between members and staff.
Introduce new group fitness equipment. This can add appeal to any class. Many of this year's innovations can be used in a variety of classes. In group fitness classes for example, balance and core stability training are hot topics. Equipment like balance boards and therapy balls are relatively inexpensive and can be incorporated into a variety of classes, including even the most traditional hi-low and step classes. The same equipment can be used to add interest and challenge to weight training, yoga, Pilates and aqua classes.
Pilates equipment companies have designed equipment that is stackable, portable and affordable. The purchase of portable Pilates equipment can allow a group exercise studio to convert into a semi-private Pilates studio in minutes. Small group training and other equipment-based Pilates classes are great ways to help Pilates enthusiasts take their training to the next level.
Introduce new group fitness classes during the busy season. This is key to exposing new fitness classes to as many people as possible to accelerate the success of a new program. Hot new trends include ballet-training classes like Balletone and balance/core stability training classes using balance trainers or core boards. One of the not-so-new-trends that continues to be a popular topic at group fitness instructor conferences is circuit training. With a little creative thinking, any instructor can design innovative circuits using inexpensive tools like tubing, balls, weights and steps.
Kick off an exciting year of fitness programs with a little creativity and special attention to the interests and needs of old and new exercisers. Offering a variety of new classes and refreshing their favorite programs with new ideas and equipment will keep members coming back for more all year long.
Laura Csizmar is the fitness programming manager at Akron General LifeStyles in Akron, OH. She can be reached at 330-665-8130 or by e-mail at [email protected].


text:
Costa Rica 2015
another amazing trip to Costa Rica with Natural Exposures! Fantastic monkeys - - Howlers, Spider and Capuchins, Scarlet Macaws, parrots, coati mundi, frogs and more!! PLEASE NOTE: IF ORDERING PHOTOS . . . © WATERMARK WILL NOT SHOW ON YOUR FINAL IMAGES! Thank you!!Read More
- No Comments