text:
At some point, every health club owner does a club renovation. Before you begin your next remodel, do a few things that will make the process easier on yourself, your staff and your members.
The most important thing is to plan ahead. Let your staff know about the renovation as soon as possible, but ask them to refrain from telling members until you are closer to the start of the project. You want staff to be included in the process, but if members know about it too soon, rumors will fly.
After determining the scope of work that will be done for the remodel, talk with your contractor to determine the most time- and cost-effective processes. Then, work with your staff to balance what is best for construction with what is best for the members. Ideally, you should do at least some of the renovations at night when the club is closed. During the bidding process, request a price that involves nighttime work for some or all of the remodeling. This usually increases the price, but often it is worth it.
Find out how long it will take to do each part of the renovation and in what order the work will occur so you can determine how to work around each step.
Do lead-time planning, which involves ordering all items necessary for the renovation early in the process so the items are at your club when needed. Leaving ordering until the last minute can delay the process or can force you to choose a substitute item, which can end up being less effective and costing more.
Obviously, certain areas of the club may have to be closed at times due to the renovation. Be prepared for member complaints about this and other renovation issues. Everyone will be inconvenienced at some point, and some people just don't like change. Make sure your staff members are good listeners who work to resolve complaints. They need to help you keep members positive throughout the remodeling process.
To help do this, your staff should be prepared to answer some of the typical questions they might receive. Prior to announcing the renovation plans, make a list of all potential questions, determine consistent and accurate answers, then communicate those answers to your staff and ensure they memorize them. Some of the questions will include: When will the work be finished? Why did they choose that color? Why are they spending all this money on new décor? Will our dues increase?
To help alleviate member concerns, communicate with them at every step of the renovation about what is happening so they understand (and get excited about) what is being done, why it is being done and how it will benefit them. Use various methods to communicate with them. Don't just leave the communication to a sign in the lobby, as some people do not come into your club on a regular basis. Communicate by e-mail, postcards, your Facebook page, your website and phone calls. Repetition is important, especially when heavily used areas of your club (workout areas or locker rooms) must close temporarily.
Help build a sense of anticipation by showing members what the renovated facility will look like. Once your plans are finalized, you can set up a display in the lobby showing a 3D drawing of the renovated club along with swatches of all the new finishes. During the renovation, minimize your members' discomfort. Dust and dirt are irritating, so keep the club as clean as possible. Consider using paint and adhesives with low odors and low volatile organic compounds, as many people are sensitive to the chemicals in paints, adhesives and new flooring. Finally, safety should be a top priority: make sure ladders, tools, tarps and other items are not placed where people might trip or slip on them.
When you renovate your club, you should look at it as a great marketing, sales and member appreciation opportunity. It is a chance to get members and staff excited again about your club, but if you have not thought out the process, it can create more problems than advantages for your club. Try to see the project from a member's perspective, and you will be able to better prepare for an exciting new phase for your facility.
Bruce Carter is the president of Optimal Fitness Design Systems International, a club design firm that has created about $650 million worth of clubs in 45 states and 26 countries. He can be reached at [email protected].


text: The Stockton Police Department and the FBI held a press conference July 24 at police headquarters to announce rewards totaling $50,000 for information concerning the July 16 robbery at a Bank of the West branch in Stockton that led to a rolling gunbattle and a shootout in which two robbery suspects and a hostage were killed. Police are looking for a fourth suspect who dropped off the robbers outside the bank the day of the holdup. Police Chief Eric Jones, FBI agent Monica Miller and Dawn Holt, sister of slain hostage Misty Holt-Singh, spoke at the conference.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Jacqueline Halbloom
Jacqueline Halbloom, now in her 14th year in classical public radio, currently serves as Iowa Public Radio's producer and host of Symphonies of Iowa, Performance Iowa and Iowa Arts Showcase. In addition to her on-air duties, Jacqueline serves on the Friends board of UNI's Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. A true lover of music and public radio, Jacqueline is indeed a great advocate for the fine arts in Iowa.
She brings to her work a background both practical and theoretical: Bachelor and Master's degrees in Music Education, which she used as a teacher of orchestra students. As a player, she performed in the viola section of the Eugene Symphony, the Des Moines Symphony, and Cedar Rapids Symphony (now known as Orchestra Iowa). She is adequately familiar with the numerous slanders against the viola versus the violin. (Why is a viola more useful than a violin? Being larger, it burns longer). Even after many bad jokes, Jacqueline remains positive about music and public radio's ability to enrich the lives of all who listen.
Jacqueline's favorite shows are University Concert and Choral Tradition.


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text:
Monday, November 7
Take The Healthy Thanksgiving Challenge and Get a Healthy Holiday Recipe
It's here. The holiday season. That joyous time of year when you suddenly experience murderous feelings in the mall parking lot, when you send Christmas cards to people you're not even sure you know, and when you're constantly struggling between whether to have that second piece of peppermint fudge or to stay on your diet. Fun times.
Here's some help. Skip the parking lot and shop online. Forget the cards; that's so pre-2011. Use Facebook instead. As for the fudge? Stop after one piece; that way you can have a piece of shortbread at the next party.
The Healthy Thanksgiving Challenge spearheaded by Cathy of What Would Cathy Eat? At the age of 44, Cathy underwent major heart surgery for a blocked artery. Two stents later, she recovered but realized she had to start eating more healthfully. While she no longer noshes on decadent desserts and bbq every night, she believes (and I agree) that healthy eating is NOT an excuse for bland food. Healthy food can and should be delicious food.
If you too believe healthy holiday eating can be fabulous, then consider taking the challenge and sharing your recipe with Cathy. I'm sharing a recipe for Minted Apple and Almond Stuffed Carnival Squash that I make all the time. Why? Because it's easy, attractive, healthy, and delicious. So, enjoy it guilt-free.
Minted Apple and Almond Stuffed Carnival Squash
Makes 4 halves or 8 if you cut them into quarters
Printable recipe.
2 small carnival squash (about 1/2-3/4 pounds each, cut in half, seeds removed
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 shallot, diced
2 small, crisp, mildly tart apples, such as Pink Lady, Gravenstein, or Pippin
The juice of 1/2 small lemon
A couple of pinches of salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped, lightly toasted almonds, plus extra for garnish
1-2 tablespoons fresh finely chopped mint, plus extra for garnish
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, if desired
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean-up. Slice acorn squash in half and remove seeds. Brush flesh with a bit of olive oil and place flesh side down on prepared baking sheet. Cook 35 to 45 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a fork.
2. In a medium skillet, warm 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add shallot and saute 3 to 5 minutes, until soft. Add apples, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper. Cook for 3 minutes, or until apples are just tender. Remove from heat. Taste. Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Stir in the almonds and mint.
3. Divide filling equally among the four squash halves and heat in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes. Before serving, garnish with chopped almonds and chopped fresh mint, and drizzle with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
Here are more healthy squash recipes you might enjoy:
White Bean and Kale Stuffed Delicata Squash recipe from Eat Local
Roasted Kabocha Squash with Orange Honey Glaze recipe from Food Blogga
Agave and Balsamic Glazed Roasted Buttercup Squash recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen
Roasted Acorn Squash with Honey-Lime Glazed Pepitas recipe from Food Blogga
Roasted Winter Squash with Cranberries, Pepitas, and Honey-Lime Vinaigrette from The Perfect Pantry
12 comments:
- Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...
We should all be eating healthily over the holidays, it is such a season of indulgence in every way.Loving your heart healthy squash Susan.
- November 7, 2011 at 5:53 AM
- Kalyn Denny said...
Love the sound of this recipe. I haven't seen that type of squash here; will look for it.
- November 7, 2011 at 7:17 AM
- Becky at VintageMixer said...
What a lovely recipe! I loved stuffed squash this time of year. I added your recipe to my 'Seasonal Thanksgiving' pinterest board. You can check out more seasonal recipes here:http://pinterest.com/VintageMixer/seasonal-thanksgiving/
- November 7, 2011 at 7:45 AM
- Sylvie said...
That's a delicious looking and sounding recipe and not just for the holiday season.
- November 7, 2011 at 10:05 AM
- Susan from Food Blogga said...
val-I agree. I feel better when I enjoy holiday treats in moderation, so I really avoid the holiday splurge.
kalyn-Really? I'm surprised. Keep looking! It tastes like acorn but it's just more colorful.
becky-Thanks for including me in your Pinterest board. I've got to get on that!
slyvie-Thank you! I appreciate that.
- November 7, 2011 at 11:42 AM
- Kasinka said...
Looks so delicious!!
- November 7, 2011 at 12:43 PM
- Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...
Carnival squash aren't that common here, so I'm going to look at Dame Farm and see if she's grown them this season. Love the combination of squash and apple. It's irresistible! (Thanks for linking to one of my squash recipes, too.)
- November 7, 2011 at 12:46 PM
- Susan from Food Blogga said...
lydia-I don't know that farm. I'm surprised by how many people have told me that carnival squash is hard to find. We have them everywhere here. Happy hunting! And you're most welcome about the link -- sounds delicious!
- November 7, 2011 at 5:40 PM
This year I'm promising myself to not gain weight during the holidays. Recipes like this will really help. Keep 'em coming! Please!
- November 8, 2011 at 5:44 AM
- Liz the Chef said...
I love this challenge - let's really make this a group effort!
- November 8, 2011 at 8:01 AM
- Cathy @ What Would Cathy Eat? said...
Great addition to the Healthy Thanksgiving Challenge, Susan! Can't wait to make it.
- November 8, 2011 at 11:16 AM
- Susan from Food Blogga said...
barb-Good for you! I'll do my best to help.
liz-I knew you'd love this challenge! Absolutely, let's spread the word!
cathy-I'm glad you like it. Your challenge is a wonderful idea!
- November 8, 2011 at 6:28 PM


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Leave it to South Florida's high-end resorts to raise the bar on romance. Two of the area's elite properties are offering Valentine's Day specials for couples interested in everything from spa treatments to five-star dining.
Among the available options Feb. 14:
• Mandarin Oriental, Miami: The award-winning spa (500 Brickell Key Drive) is playing host to couples with a variety of pampering options. The Valentine's Day Express package, priced at $200 per person, includes a Thai foot massage, scalp massage and shellac manicure (the first two offerings are available in tandem). The Couples Delight, priced at $720 for two, features two hours of treatment time in a VIP Couples Suite, Champagne and chocolate pralines—and even a book of love poems. On the dining front, the Mandarin's Café Sambal, overlooking Biscayne Bay (pictured), has a four-course special ($80 per person) that includes lobster bisque with seafood mousse and avocado oil; braised Kobe short ribs with shitake mushroom risotto; and a decadent bento box dessert with dulce de leche cheesecake lollipops, frozen passion fruit truffle, raspberry-rose macaroon and chocolate-pearl mousse cake. Call 305/913-8358 for dining reservations; 305/913-8332 for spa reservations. Visit the resort's website for more info.
• The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach: Love isn't the only thing in the air at the Ritz (100 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan), where the scent of culinary treasures is certain draw guests to restaurants Temple Orange and Angle for Valentine's meals. AtTemple Orange, the four-course experience ($85 per person) includes entrée options of sesame-crusted halibut or Creek Stone Farms grass-fed filet of beef. Meanwhile, Angle has its own four-course feast ($150 per person) that features everything from a Maine lobster/whiskey bisque appetizer to entrée selections of seared red snapper, seared diver scallops or slow-braised beef short ribs—and desserts ranging from flaming chocolate and strawberry crème brûlée to hazelnut chocolate fondue. Call 561/533-6000 for dinner reservations. Visit the resort's website for more info.


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text:
2 women, 2 dogs escape from Lakeshore house fire
Investigators say fire could be result of arson
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A fire that apparently started in the garage of a home on Lake Shore Boulevard on Wednesday morning consumed the house, but Jacksonville firefighters say two women and their two dogs made it out of the house safely.
Jacksonville firefighters reported heavy fire showing when the first units arrived just before 8:30 a.m.
The women who escaped said they heard an explosion and tried to put the fire out with an extinguisher, but it didn't work. Then the car parked in the carport exploded, they said.
It took about 25 minutes for firefighters to put the fire out. No surrounding homes were in danger.
The women said they will stay with neighbors while damage is accessed and the state Fire Marshal's investigation continues on how the fire started.
IMAGES: Images of explosion, fire, damage
Alan Lesley, the homeowner who was not home when the fire started, said he thinks foul play is involved. He said a month ago someone broke into the carport and he roughed him up. At that point, Lesley said, the man said he'd be back.
In between that incident and the fire, Lesley said one of his cars was broken into. Both times, he filed a police report.
The state Fire Marshal's Office confirmed the fire did start in the carport, and it could be a case of arson.
"I just thank God that all of us were all fine and they got my two babies out, Tebow and Gracie," homeowner Jan Vath said.
The house was almost a complete loss. When investigators are done at the scene, Vath will be left with the job of trying to see what he can salvage.
Because the fire was so large, JFRD had Lake Shore Boulevard at Attleboro Street still closed after noon.
Copyright 2012 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Sammy Hagar Reveals The Story Behind 'Big Foot'
When you crawl inside the inner workings of Chickenfoot, you learn the band uses some pretty interesting methods to write songs. Guitarist Joe Satriani, for example, names his guitar riffs, and his title for the first single from the band's most recent album 'III' wound up sticking for good.
Satriani's riff names normally don't make it into the final creative songwriting circle, but in the case of 'Big Foot,' some cosmic musical karma contributed the right juju.
'Foot vocalist Sammy Hagar tells the Chop Shop Guitar Show that the title for 'Big Foot' just happened to line up exactly with Satriani's working title for the riff that inspired the song, which was a complete surprise to Hagar. "It was so funny, because I didn't realize he called it that and there's this kind of magic that Joe and I have as songwriters."
Hagar goes on to explain, "He sends me that music and I'm listening to it and I'm singing to it, from the first time I heard it. I'm in this funky little hotel, because it was in a funky little town and I was listening to this funky little song and I started singing [something] like a "big foot on the gas," you know? "
Hagar called Satriani to share his lyrical idea and the guitarist said, "'Oh my God, did you look at the title of the song?' I said 'No,' and [he said] 'it's called 'Big Foot'!' [Laughs] It was fantastic!"
The pair have openly shared their mutual admiration in the past, with Hagar recently comparing his songwriting relationship with Satriani as being slightly similar to the one that Elton John and Bernie Taupin have shared through the years, with one major difference. While John finds inspiration from Taupin's lyrics to create the music, wiith Chickenfoot, it's the exact opposite – Satriani's music ultimately acts as the muse for Hagar's lyrics.


text:
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text:
Abortion Foes Perform Live Ultrasounds in Idaho Capitol
The Idaho Capitol was part medical clinic, part reality TV show and all cultural battlefield on Wednesday, as an anti-abortion advocate secured a basement meeting room to conduct live ultrasound procedures on six women before a mostly female audience of 150.
BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Capitol was part medical clinic, part reality TV show and all cultural battlefield on Wednesday, as an anti-abortion advocate secured a basement meeting room to conduct live ultrasound procedures on six women before a mostly female audience of 150.
Some were ejected from the room by Idaho State Police troopers after interrupting activist Brandi Swindell's descriptions of the ultrasound images shown on three projector screens.
Swindell, a Boise resident who briefly caused an international incident with her arrest in China for protesting abortion ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hoped the event would help convince state lawmakers to support a bill that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound first.
Currently, Idaho requires women seeking an abortion be given the option of an ultrasound. The House planned to take up the ultrasound mandate on Thursday. The measure has already passed the Senate, 23-12.
"How can anybody call this offensive?" Swindell said. "Who doesn't love an ultrasound image of a baby?"
Foes say Republicans who typically espouse limited government are encroaching on the doctor's office. They say the measure, Senate Bill 1387, is so extreme it provides no exceptions for medical emergencies, rape or incest.
"We just think it's another way that people are playing politics with women's health," said Hannah Brass, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood in Idaho who attended the ultrasound exhibition.
"Victims of rape, women who have fetal anomalies wouldn't love an ultrasound," Brass added. "The difference between what happened today and what we're talking about in the legislation is, the women today chose to have that ultrasound. The bill takes that decision away from them."
For an hour and a half, Swindell guided the women lying on a table shielded from the crowd by a bamboo divider.
"Does this feel invasive at all?" she asked.
"No, I'd do this every day, if I could," at least two of them replied.
As an ultrasound technologist ran a sensor over one woman's taut belly, Swindell exclaimed, "This baby is ready to testify."
The ultrasounds were done on the women's abdomens, not using the more-invasive vaginal ultrasound equipment employed by many doctors for women whose fetuses are less than 10 weeks old.
Swindell deftly deflected objections from audience members opposed to the bill, some of whom were pulled from the meeting after voicing their objections aloud. One woman was escorted out after shouting, "It's against Idaho code to insert anything up a woman without her consent."
At Swindell's suggestion that "women deserve access to medically accurate information," a Boise resident, Lea Bowman, couldn't contain herself.
"We have access, Brandi, already," Bowman called out, a response that resulted in a trip into the hall with a trooper.
Bowman, who was allowed to return, said she was frustrated by the one-sided nature of the event. Swindell had promised a question-and-answer session after the exhibition that never materialized.
"It's a dog-and-pony show," Bowman said. "Brandi Swindell is very good at what she does: Framing one side of an issue, and making people who don't agree with her seem like they're evil."
Swindell told several women she ran out of time and had to vacate the room.
Just six of Idaho's 105 legislators attended, only three of whom were from the chamber that has yet to vote on the bill: Republican Reps. Janice McGeachin, of Idaho Falls; Gayle Batt, of Wilder; and Brent Crane, of Nampa.
Event organizers called it a resounding success, in part because reporters also attended.
"There will be a ripple effect," Swindell said. "It was a home run."
Jason Herring, director of the group Right to Life of Idaho, said afterward he assumed the crowd of vocal opponents who gathered outside the meeting room and chanted loudly at times may have discouraged more lawmakers from stopping by.
"The main thing was to show the reality, the certainty and the humanity of life in the womb," Herring said.
For foes of the ultrasound mandate, however, the event represented something else.
"You have no right to impose your religion on me," said Boise resident Yvette Sedlewicz, before she, too, was asked to leave by Idaho State Police.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
We invite you to discuss and comment on this article using social media.


text:
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For a second year in a row I went to Miami fashion week. And because of the wonderful experience with Fox Rent A Car when I went to San Jose which you can read about at in Fox Rent A Car Review - Great Prices and Convenience and my great experience with them in Fort Lauderdale last year which you can read about in Fox Car Rental Review - Comfort, Ease, Dependability, I chose to use them again. It was a short walk from the baggage claim to the shuttle bus that took us to the Fox Rent A Car facility located just outside the airport. The shuttle buses run every 5 to 10 min. So as soon as I and my guest arrived at the shuttle point up came Fox Rent A Car's shuttle. A few minutes later we were at the rental desk. Out to greet us was Eric Ripert, disguised in a blue attendant uniform and an ID tag that red "Pedro". The rest of the smiling staff seemed to support this pleasant pageantry, but they weren't fooling anyone. "This was strange", I thought while I went with the program to get things going. I rented a fabulous white top of the line Chrysler. While from up in the plane, Miami inspires fantasies of wealth and power, up close the city is made of interminable, oppressive streets with names that will change into others. It's why I also made sure to request the GPS device which turned out to save my life during the seven days I meandered all around Miami and Coral Gables.
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text:
I originally posted this on MSF, but it got no response, so at the suggestion made in a comment there, I'm reposting it here.
(source: netstrata.com)
This should be called "up-votes", or something like that, showing a count ("1" in this case) instead of a value.
I'm not sure what should be done with down-votes. Perhaps the tab should say "votes" and show "+X -Y".
As it is it implies that reputation is awarded.


text:
Have You Seen My Cell Phone?
Wednesday morning, I felt naked. I'd lost my phone the night before, and spent all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday making sure all of my friends knew just how annoyed I was by making sure they were just as annoyed. The one thing more annoying than losing your cell phone is having your friend repeatedly complain that he lost his.
I was running late for a stand-up show and hopped in a cab to save some time. We pulled up as the show was supposed to start, and I checked my pockets quickly as I got out of the cab. Having left my cell phone in a cab two weeks after I first got it, I've been feeling the outside of my pants pockets every time I stand up for the last three years. Not just to check if my phone fell out, but also because it also feels kind of nice.
That day, I was carrying a tape of one of my past shows with me, and mistook this for my phone. Were I not running late, perhaps I would have been able to tell the difference between a tape and my phone. And were I not an idiot, I certainly would have been able to tell the difference. Either way, I left my phone sitting in the cab and the cab left me standing on the street, naked. This was not the first time I'd been left naked on the street by a cab driver, but that's another story for another time.
Ten minutes later, I was sitting in the club and I reached for my phone to make a call. It wasn't there. Frantically, I tried dialing the tape. When that didn't work, I checked my other pocket. Then, I checked my first pocket again, as if I could have somehow missed the phone the first time. I did that every half hour for the rest of the night. I even checked my pocket the next day, which was weird because I was wearing different pants. After a thorough search of every chair I had or hadn't sat on since I'd arrived at the club, I accepted that my phone was no longer in my possession.
I tried calling it. Nothing. I tried calling it again. Still nothing. I checked my pocket one more time to be safe. I couldn't think of any way I was ever going to see my phone again, so I left this clever message on the voicemail.
"If you have found this phone and are checking the voicemail, please call me at (insert home number here). There is a small cash reward."
As much as most people would jump at the idea of a cash reward less sizeable than an average cash reward, I had to try other methods. I hadn't gotten a receipt from the cabbie. I didn't have my home number written on the back of the phone. And I had left the thing on vibrate so it couldn't even ring. I hadn't done anything that would help me recover my phone if I ever lost it, even though I was thinking of all kinds of preventative measures after the fact (see hindsight, 20/20).
The next morning, I called Sprint. Apparently, when I switched plans last month, I didn't tell them to re-register me in the equipment replacement program. I'd saved the whopping $3, but was ineligible for a phone replacement. And just when I was about to yell at the Sprint woman for my own mistake, it dawned on me: I checked my pockets. After the phone still wasn't there, I asked Sprint if any calls had been made on my account after 9PM the previous night.
It turns out that the cabbie called a buddy of his to see what to do with the phone. The cabbie friend helped me retrieve my phone a few hours later, and I offered that small cash reward. He turned it down, but accepted two free tickets to a future comedy show of his choosing. To which I hope I am not running late because I don't want to lose my phone again.
Now that I am fully clothed once more, I have not written my home number on the back of the phone, have taken several cabs without asking for a receipt, and have continuously left it on vibrate. But it's still here, thankfully, residing comfortably in my pocket.
Though I'm going to have to check to make sure.


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NCAA Men's Basketball Top 25 Widget
Some one asked us for a NCAA Men's Basketball Top 25 Widget and in light of Maryland's upset over North Carolina, we went out and found one at the ESPN Widget Center. Now we can keep track of the top 25 teams and see how Maryland's win knocked North Carolina all the way down to number 5 on the AP Poll.
Now what's the chances Maryland can do it again and take down Duke on Sunday, January 27th?
ESPN Men's Basketball Rankings Widget
By the looks of the "Add This" tool, we believe this is powered by Clearspring. Seems like Clearspring has popped up a lot when covering widgets. Not surprising considering that comScore puts Clearspring tied at number 2 with more than 39 million unique viewer in November 2007, as reported on TechCrunch.


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Dave Chapelle Stand-Up Comedy At The Laugh Factory! [3 Minutes]
Dave Chappelle recently performed a 5 hour set at The Laugh Factory. 2 minute footage + cellphone video.
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Not every team uses the fullback position, particularly like the Texans do.
Depending on the flow of the game, the offense may use a fullback for about 30% of the snaps.
On the roster, James Casey is listed as the fullback. And he may be used that way a lot. But it may be in short yardage they might want a more traditional fullback option/size. And certainly, as intriguing as it is using James Casey as a multi-use fullback/TE/WR, there's a real question as to whether his body can hold up to an entire season doing that much. He's played through injuries, but he's had them.
I saw some of the work that rookie fullback Derrell Smith was doing in the offense during OTAs, and asked Gary Kubiak about him on the last day of organized team activities (OTAs):
"I feel good about him. He's behind mentally. He's a defensive player trying to play offense, so that's tough, but nobody is working harder. I think the future is very bright, but it just needs to happen quick. He's behind, but that's not his fault. That's us changing his position."
He added from questions from others:
(on his receiving ability) "Real good. They're very good."
When asked about his concerns going forward:
"I don't know. I'm concerned about the youth of the receiving group which we keep talking about. We've normally had a physical tight end around here to go with O.D. (Owen Daniels). We don't' have that presence right now. That's something Rick (Smith) and I are looking at. You just asked me a question about our fullback. I know what James (Casey) can do but I'm counting heavily on a young man (Derrell Smith) who hasn't played there. Those are some of the things right now and just the new faces that are going to be the new leaders along with the leaders we have to go with this team. Like I said, it's a totally different team, it's going to start taking on an identity as we get going here."
Next Steps.
With the youth at wide receiver, and the possibility that Casey functions more like the number 2 tight end, it wouldn't be surprising if the Texans try to find an inexpensive veteran to compete for the FB spot. Fullback Lawrence Vickers was picked up last year for that role. Prior to that, Vonta Leach wasn't known as a dominant fullback before the Texans acquired him. He was on the practice squad his first year with Green Bay, then had his first full season in 2005. In 2006, he was cut by the Packers and the Saints before the Texans acquired him.
It may make fans and fantasy football players nervous that Gary Kubiak is talking both of having the need for more of a blocking TE plus concerns for youth at fullback. But it is June. That they are talking about such things now is a good thing. It means that they likely will do something about it before the season starts. (On the other hand, they weren't able to do anything with the obvious concerns about young cornerbacks in 2010. Back to the original hand, I think finding functioning FB bodies in free agency is easier than finding functional corners. Also the coaching of fullback is better than the coaching of corners in 2010. Uh oh, I am talking to the hand. I'd rather being talking to you about this).
Minicamps are this week. Expect a lot of rookies talk. The Texans use minicamps as a way to catch their rookies up to the rest of their players with intensive instruction.
[UPDATE: Former Texans fullback and Houston native Moran Norris had a tryout workout with the team during minicamps on Tuesday. I swear I had no idea before I wrote this original post. If he is healthy and able, he's an option that would make sense.]


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It was a commonplace even back a few decades ago to insist that American writers, at their best, were beautiful and damned, to borrow a title from one of the most beautiful and damned of all. They either drank themselves to death too soon, or wrote themselves out too rapidly, became self-made cartoons like Hemingway or Life magazine pundits like Steinbeck, retreated into silence like Salinger or embarrassed us with noise like Mailer. The great American novels were one-offs—The Red Badge of Courage, The Great Gatsby—preceding either a sad long decline, or else a final stellar explosion.
This was so much part of the myth of American writing that it had, in a reverse twist, almost become a kind of deferred virtue of American writing. We might not have the longest arcs but we lit the brightest lights; the intensity of the radiance rose from the brevity of the explosion. So quick bright things come to confusion. (The few apparent exceptions to the rule of early bloom and sudden destruction, or else long late wither, were either writers excused as monastic recluses in the Deep South or the deeps of England—monks, like Henry James and William Faulkner—or else, as with William Dean Howells or Edith Wharton, those who kept a note of self-announced minority about themselves, even when, as with Howells and Wharton, there was nothing really minor in them at all.)
What then are we to do about John Updike? A bright light and a very long arc, youthful blossoming—the cover of Time at thirty-six—followed by a rich middle-aged variety topped by a late harvest of what the reviewers call "arresting departures." So quick bright things become slower, older, ever brighter things. Of all modern American writers, Updike comes closest to meeting Virginia Woolf's demand that a writer's only job is to get himself, or herself, expressed without impediments. Short stories and essays, book reviews and poetry, art criticism and even the occasional bit of commentary and reporting, all this wrapped like ivy around the red brick wall of those—what is it? Twenty-eight(!) novels. No part of the possibilities of writing seems to have eluded him. Waiting nervously in a dentist's office one bumps one's shins against Updike on dinosaurs in National Geographic; apprehensively turning the pages of the New York Review of Books in fear of being beaten up by a brutish British critic, one finds five perfect columns on Renoir or Chuck Close—and always the same shining serene sentences, the same puckish note of bemused praise, which he learned from E. B. White and the old New Yorker, and never disposed of (let's come back to that), the spirit of purposeful, slightly schoolboyish intensity: the feeling that this subject, whatever it may be today, is to be taken seriously, not slightingly, much less sneeringly, but still lightly, for reader's pleasure, not instructional pain. The willingness to write, to say "Yes" not merely to editors but to the writer's encompassing job of registering experience of all kinds, has something so inspiring in it to younger writers that it can seem like an achievement in itself. His rival and companion over the past fifty years, Philip Roth—and the "intertextual" comparison of those two grizzled vets, novel by novel and sex act by sex act, will make for several good, fat unreadable Ph.D. theses in the near future—has accomplished something similar, for sheer dint and grit. But Roth has over the decades withdrawn from all the littler labors of writing to become one more of those diligent American monks, a man at his hassock in his studio in Connecticut, a novelist tout court and a novelist alone, where Updike continues to amaze us as a man of letters, a pitchman for writing, up on the balls of his feet wherever readers may be found.
This has been so much the case that, I suspect, it is a source of exasperation to Updike; certainly one senses in his response to worshipful younger writers like Nicholson Baker in Baker's wonderful fan letter, U and I, a note of frustrated bewilderment: stop admiring the inscriptions and read the damn books. For—and this is what makes Updike unique—the micro-gift for prose is matched by a macro-gift for scale, with getting it all in. Updike wrote once that he admired Kerouac, and though this seems absurd—the perfect sentence-maker against the non-sentence non-writer—it is true, surely, in their twin desires to pay attention to American reality as it really is. The wires of poet and reporter cross in Updike as they do not even in his God, Nabokov: the language-loving, witty, inventive meta-fictioneer who delights us postmodernly in The Coup or Gertrude and Claudius is the same writer as the attentive, news-minding chronicler who gives us Terrorist and the Rabbit novels.
Updike remains both conjurer and chronicler, each gift serving the other. Updike began his pro writing career back in the fifties reporting for the "The Talk Of The Town" the jump-off section of short pieces that still begins the New Yorker, and there is something of the willing journalist in him still. His readiness, not to mention ability, to write a novel like Terrorist reminds us always of the roots of the novel in news, and of Updike's seismographic ear for the tremors of his time—just as Skeeter, the black militant in Rabbit Redux sprang credibly, as they say, right out of the headlines of his dark Nixonian era into Updike's pages. Each of his early novels, and many of the later ones, have been, as Updike has allowed, shaped to a presidential period—Truman's in The Centaur, Eisenhower's in Rabbit, Run, Kennedy's in Couples, to which one could add the discomforts and anxieties of the Carter era in Rabbit Is Rich and the bewilderments of Reagan in Rabbit at Rest (not to mention the more obvious Memories of the Ford Administration). The same will to get it down as it was happening that made Howells move to New York to write about unions and violence and brought Trollope out of the cathedral close to write about Disraeli and parliaments and politicians inspires Updike too.
But if the persistent journalist in him is one of the things that has kept his novels alive, it is the satirist and humorist in him that have kept his sentences aloft. Despite the "lyrical" surface of his prose, he is a realist, never even marginally a romantic. He is genuinely unfazed by, unseduced by, all of the myths of American romanticism—gorgeous Daisys and vast sinister Western landscapes are equally absent from his books. His girls and women are real with scratchy pubic hair and vaginas (albeit shaped like ballet slippers) and his American landscape of car dealerships and fast-food retreats, has no place for doomed, exciting, existential gunmen. Salinger and Fitzgerald anticipated Updike's kind of tenderness, the ability to summon a world in a phrase, the bouncing love of the surface of existence—yet Updike has written tartly of Salinger's self-enclosure, his need to make a world and a family more beautiful than can be hoped for in the real world; and I sense in his criticism of Fitzgerald, too, once more an unconvinced disdain for all those improbably beautiful girls whom, he remarks sensibly, the writer loves too much to give the reader any space to love them for himself. He is, for all those perfect shining sentences, a realist; the sentences sing, but they don't ennoble.
And though it has been too long since his parodies and casuals have graced the pages of the New Yorker, still, the urge to amuse (and mock) remains strong in him. Updike the humorist is probably the least known, or recognizable, Updike of them all, but something of the White-cum-Thurber sound of the old "Talk"—that bemused, high-spirited, ironically smiling but resolutely well-wishing, not merely un- but anti-malicious comic tone—still lingers in his work. There is at least the material of comedy implicit in almost every sentence he writes: the dancing recognition of the likeness of the unlike, the will to treat the organic mechanically—his sexual congresses are blissful but funny, never "transcendent," because they are so entirely acts of organic machinery, wise souls made into copulating machines. The simple common sense which regularly inflects his judgments of big writers and dubious ideas has its origins in a humorous tradition too; in his criticism he catches the notes of Wolcott Gibbs and Brendan Gill as much as of Edmund Wilson.
And he is a moralist, too, of a surprisingly old-fashioned kind. Throughout all that varied work, one theme has risen and been repeated over and over. Updike's great subject is the American attempt to fill the gap left by faith with the materials produced by mass culture. His subject is how the death of a credible religious belief has been offset by sex and adultery and movies and sports and Toyotas and family love and family obligation. For Updike, this effort is blessed—and very nearly successful, almost close enough to grace to count—and yet in the long run doomed, since the fact and shadow of death hangs over it all. Unlike his European contemporaries, who see the same space and the attempted filling as mere aridity and deprivation, Updike is close enough to, and fond enough of, the source of postwar material abundance to love it fully, and for itself. (And he knew enough of the decade of deprivation that preceded the big blossoming never to be jaundiced about plenty.) He views the material culture of American life with a benign appreciative ironic eye—like Wayne Thiebaud viewing his cakes. But he has no illusions about it either, for its ability to cover the failure or wish away mortality. His recent novel In the Beauty of the Lilies, which this reader suspects will emerge as his Golden Bowl or Our Mutual Friend, the late masterpiece overlooked or praised by rote in its day, only to be rediscovered by another generation, makes this almost schematically apparent: The death of American religion is matched by the rise of the American movies. The longing for the transcendent and numinous, wherever it appears —in cult camps in Oregon or in a computer lab in Cambridge—is to be respected, caressed, but not to be deceived about.
It is in the longing for the numinous, and the awareness that it can only be remade in our time from the normal, that, I suspect, his wonderful writing on art, placed in two fine volumes already and still being written, is far from a workingman's diversion. Updike recognizes in the struggle of the modern artist to make art at all the same spiritual struggle that fills his characters' lives, carried on in the thinner air of avant-garde experiment and with consequences that are blessedly semipermanent, very nearly death-defying feats. In the attempts of modern artists to wrest meaning from the flotsam and detritus of the world—in Cubist collage or Schwitter's Merz, or even in the less referential attempts of a Cézanne to register the apple as the apple appears to him, not in smooth certitudes of chiaroscuro, but in stabbing, apprehensive touches of direct color—Updike sees a trace, perhaps even a chart, of the common search to find religious meaning in experience previously deemed marginal or merely material. As much as Rabbit fleeing Reading, Cézanne or Picasso flees the regularities of perspective and illusion in search of something larger. In his essay (collected with the unfortunately too-jocose title of "What MoMa Done Tole Me") on his early experience of the then still spectator-sized Museum of Modern Art, he makes this likeness explicit:
A religion reassembled from the fragments of our daily life, in an atmosphere of gaiety and diligence: this was what I found in the Museum of Modern Art, where others might have found completely different—darker and wilder—things. Gaiety, diligence, and freedom, a freedom from old constraints of perspective and subject matter, a freedom to embrace and memorialize the world anew, a fearless freedom drenched in light: this was what I took away, each time, from my visits of an hour or so, usually in the afternoons, my day's journalism done, before heading south to my wife and apartment and daughter on West Thirteenth Street. I took away, in sufficient-sized packets, courage to be an artist. . .
In this way, his writing on art, far from being a minor chapel in the church of Updike, actually occupies, I suspect, a central place. More, I suspect, than among the countless writers he has sung and (mildly but unmistakably) chided, it is among the painters whom he has praised that he finds a pursuit that chimes with his own deepest ambitions for his art: to save something shining from the great garbage disposal of time. Certainly, a note of almost religious happiness rises from his art writing. However much it may be frowned on by the pros for being insufficiently "serious" or "critical," i.e., contextual or historical, it has always seemed to this ex-pro truthful in its unashamed enthusiasms, the desire to match the artist evocation for evocation, representational trick for trick. (In the decade when I wrote about art for the New Yorker, supplying context and history up the reader's wazoo and beyond, Updike would emerge a couple of weeks later in the New York Review of Books with a few diffident and amateurish-seeming pages which always seemed, frustratingly, closer to the true mark, more infused with the artist's own ambitions and resonating with the real feel of the thing.)
With all the other, dutiful things said, it is this note of happiness, there in unalloyed form in his art writing, that rings throughout Updike's prose, and that draws us to it, makes us happy when we read it. It is not a fatuous happiness, or a happiness made unaware of death—it is his preoccupation with death and dying that is most steady in his work, if anything is—but neither does it cede too much to mere mortality. One has a sense of someone who—as much as, though with more wit than, Andy Warhol—has spent a good deal of his life liking things. Women's clothes, their hair, American voices, the hybridization of American accents, the way girls smell in football season; the way that the hyper-cold of the airline baggage compartment can be felt like a secret in the bag as you unpack—all of these images and moments, recalled at random from his work, are not just reported but quietly rhapsodized, registered with love.
Since this happiness is, in a certain sense, banished by some of what I take to be his tougher-minded religious beliefs, which are hard and Protestant, not to say Pennsylvanian, I am inclined to believe that the act of writing, like the act of art-making, is such a source of quiet glee to him that it holds off death for a while at arm's length. And I wonder, too, if he does not still find in the act of sentence-making—not "construction," or "plotting," but getting one sentence down right about one specific thing—something of the serenity that illustrators still find in the act of confronting a sketch pad with a pencil. Surely some touch of his original ambition to be a cartoonist or illustrator lingers still for him in at least the act of writing. Certainly in the few times that we have shared a stage or a table—most often with the avid, nerve-rattled, high-voiced junior introducing the elegant silver-haired senior partner—I have been impressed by this slightly monarchical inwardness, a cordial but still remote, dancing-eyed detachment, as though at any moment he might disappear into the corner, cross-eyed, to register on paper, as sketch or note, some small improbability unnoted by everyone else in the room. (And, as I hope that sentence shows, the mere thought of this proximity is enough to set off pastiche, if not parody, in the junior writer's sentences.)
Having said all that, one thing I am sure of is that, while his triumphs have been mostly in prose, his emotional proximity to painters and poets has been one of the things that has kept his prose the thing it is. Updike's affinity for painting and poetry—the still felt desire to have been a painter or poet—is perhaps the secret fuel that keeps the prose shining and still in motion. One would want, therefore, in the end to triangulate him, as he once did T. S. Eliot, above all, among the poets, some near and some far: with Richard Wilbur, for a stubborn graceful adherence to craft and finish in a time of improvisation and amnesia; with Wallace Stevens, for the intimation of the numinous in the ordinary Sunday mornings of the mid-Atlantic states; and with Shakespeare himself for the ability to get himself expressed fully, unimpeded, and for the desire, even in the face of time, to set down, for readers still unborn, all the sweetness of our common life.


text: The stunning Harlequin Tuskfish usually has eight pairs of alternating orange, blue, and white bands on its body and prominent sharp, blue teeth. This species inhabits coral reefs and have been found as deep as 105 feet. The Harlequin Tuskfish is a solitary animal, but it can be aggressive and territorial at times. Did You Know? This fish is named for its multicolored body and its protruding, tusk-like teeth. Diet The Harlequin Tuskfish is carnivorous and primarily feeds on crustaceans, mollusks, worms, and echinoderms. Size This fish reaches up to 12 inches in length. Range The Harlequin Tuskfish can be found in the Western Pacific region from Taiwan to Western Australia and New Caledonia. Population Status This species is not threatened. Predators Larger fish, moray eels and sharks. Back to the Top


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SEATTLE — The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the case of a deputy who says he found spit in his Whopper that state law allows compensation of consumers who suffered emotionally because of a product failure.
Clark County Deputy Edward Bylsma has sued Burger King and a Vancouver-area franchise holder, claiming sputum found in his Whopper in 2009 left lasting psychological scars.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on the state's product liability law.
A report on seattlepi.com said the ruling doesn't settle the matter but could be used by the appeals court if it issues a decision.
The case was previously dismissed after a lower federal court found Washington law did not support such suits. The latest ruling will presumably allow it to go forward, though the state court was clear that a plaintiff must show the emotional distress is a reasonable reaction to circumstances and has manifested in a measurable way.
Bylsma sued Burger King in federal court claiming an employee with a criminal record ruined his late-night snack by spitting a "slimy, clear and white phlegm glob" into his burger.
Bylsma claims to suffer "ongoing emotional trauma from the incident, including vomiting, nausea, food anxiety and sleeplessness."
DNA testing showed employee Gary Herb to be the source of the sputum. Herb was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to a related assault charge.
Writing for the six-justice majority on the Washington high court, Justice Steven Gonzalez noted case law supports lawsuits seeking compensation for emotional harm in circumstances where negligence was involved.
Without addressing Blysma's claims, Gonzalez asserted that tainted food could, under some circumstances, cause extreme suffering.
"Common sense tells us that food consumption is a personal matter and contaminated food is closely associated with disgust and other kinds of emotional turmoil," Gonzalez wrote.
Writing in dissent, Justice James Johnson said state law does not allow product liability-related claims of emotional harm when a plaintiff hasn't been physically harmed. Johnson went on to suggest the majority's decision might clear the way for unwarranted lawsuits over hurt feelings.
"Unfortunately, it is the public that will bear the burden of the increased costs likely to emanate from this unprecedented expansion of products liability," Johnson wrote.
A message left with Burger King Thursday afternoon seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
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So I know this is a really basic question but... I couldn't find an answer anywhere online. I'm trying to initialize a List with the following line of code:
List<String> messages = ArrayList();
JCreator gives me an error in trying to compile it saying it can't find the symbol "List". What am I doing wrong? Sorry, I haven't used lists in ages. Is there something I need to import for it to work?


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Get DVD Talk Feeds
It is pretty much a proven formula for the entertainment industry at this point: write or adapt something primarily geared towards women, make it a romance, toss in a vampire, werewolf, wizard or some/all of the aforementioned, and you are bound to make a respectable amount of coin for it. Stephanie Meyer paved the way, y'all! And when Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl co-wrote the novel which would become Beautiful Creatures, little did they know of the popularity that would come their way, writing several other novels under the "Caster Chronicles" series, and Warner Brothers came calling to make a big-screen adaptation of their first.
Richard LaGravenese (Freedom Writers) adapted the novel into a screenplay under his direction. Ethan (Alden Ehrenrich, Stoker) is a kid growing up in Gatlin, South Carolina, and cannot wait for college to happen so he can run out of the town and never look back. He meets Lena (Alice Englert, In Fear), who is new in town but looks an awful lot like a girl Ethan has been seeing frequently in his dreams. Ethan wants to get to know Lena more, but she is reclusive, made all the moreso by her strict father Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons, The Borgias). The introduction of Lena's mother Mavis (Emma Thompson, Brave) and cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum, Poseidon) as a means to thwart Ethan from being with Lena can only go so far in Ethan trying to be with the girl that he seems to be destined to meet.
From a traditional storytelling perspective, the story is unlike many that have come before it. Two kids feel out of place in their current environs, strike a powerful emotional chord of familiarity in each other and decide to pursue it, much to the chagrin of everyone else they know but each other. And it is fine, I get it. But the chemistry between Ehrenrich and Englert feels superficial and without any resonance to speak of. Sure, you may want to put two good looking kids together as part of some sort of romance, but it is another to make it actually work. The former seems to be fine, the latter? Not so much, especially when one is pondering moments of a franchise like the story and subsequent releases seem to be. The attempts to make things work are entirely too forced and are not believable.
The settings in the film are fairly decent; goodness knows I felt as if I were dropped in the middle of South Cackalacky with little wonder as to where I was or how I got there, but the other more key portions of the locations felt entirely too sterile, and the accents of Irons, Thompson and Englert dipped into Jeff Bridges in Blown Away levels of authenticity. The lack of personality and authenticity in many of the key players within the story and film was more than a little discouraging. And for as good an actress as Thompson is, she lacks any real gravitas in the movie past the stereotypical 'disapproving parent.' It seemed unclear and a waste of Thompson's prodigious ability, and I have not even touched upon Amma, played by Viola Davis (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), another waste of someone's talents in this movie.
For as much as Thompson and Irons' collective talents are squandered, strangely enough the younger leads are actually quite serviceable in their lead roles. Ehrenrich is good not only with the voiceover but with the acted sequences, even when he is under a spell. Englert plays the expected role of the eye of attention nicely, occasionally floating between worlds with some convincing. As this is one of the few stories which shows a male lead falling for a female one (as opposed to vice versa), if nothing else this was a pleasant change of pace.
At the end of the day, Beautiful Creatures is a nice idea though ultimately is not entirely sure of what it wants to become when it grows up. Foundation to a franchise? Standalone teen movie, who's to say? But if this film goes along the Narnia route when it comes to future potential for sequels or film adaptations, that may be one thing. But if the first film is any indication, things are far from promising.
Warner presents Beautiful Creatures with an AVC-encoded 2.40:1 widescreen transfer, and the results are somewhat mixed. Film grain is present and image detail is ample, though the latter does tend to fluctuate over the course of the film. Flesh tones are reproduced nicely and the color palette of the film tends to flirt with oversaturation on occasion. Black levels do have a tendency to crush and on occasion the computer generated effects simply look murky. My jaw did not drop when watching Beautiful Creatures but it was decent viewing regardless.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround track does some good lifting during the listening experience. Whether it is supporting a slightly music-forward, the ample use of voiceover or in more dynamic sequences when the casters get down to business, is encouraging to listen to. It does not really get a chance to use all of the capabilities it could, but the story attempts to balance romance and supernatural action adequately and the soundtrack does this about as well as can be anticipated.
One would think that if there is the remote chance that this becomes a franchise that more thought was put into the bonus material. "Book to Screen" (3:58) looks at how LaGravenese adapted the book into a screenplay, what the cast liked about it and how the casting choices game about. "The Casters" (3:22) interviews the actors on their thoughts of definitions for the characters, "Between Two Worlds" (4:17) has the cast on the roles they play, and "Forbidden Romance" (3:12) is the cast on the story. "Alternate Worlds" (5:17) touches upon the CG and visual effects for the film and how certain sequences were shot, and the cast on working around them. "Designing the Costumes" (3:51) is self-explanatory. Four deleted scenes (8:10) are nothing special, while three trailers (7:11) complete the supplements on the disc. Beautiful Creatures is a combo pack which has a second disc with an SD copy of the film (where the screengrabs come from) and a code to redeem for streaming via Ultraviolet.
Beautiful Creatures may be trying to be part of a larger destiny past its first installment. Which is fine, but at the very least the film is something that we have seen countless times before, and if the film is attempting to make itself part of a larger mythology, it has some work to do. Technically it is okay and from a bonus material perspective kind of sucks. If you like the usual scenes of someone who is doing something all mythical than this may be for you, otherwise I would skip it.


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Back in September, Twitter introduced a new design for profiles with a header, which made your Twitter profile look a lot like your Facebook profile. Until now, uploading a header and switching over to the new profilehas been optional. Starting December 12th, it won't be any more, and your profile will be converted to the new design.
According to the blog post from Twitter:
On December 12, we're rolling this out to all users: you'll automatically get this new version of the profile on twitter.com. If you don't upload a header photo by then, you (and everyone else) will only see a default grey image on your page. That's not fun! To get inspired about what you can do, check out this video to see how to make your profile a little more "you", less generic. Have fun out there.
So for those of us who haven't gotten around to uploading a header image, now's the time to make a move. [Twitter]


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- Contactpersoon: Mr. Allen Wang
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Warmgewalst I Staal - fabrikant, fabriek, leverancier uit China
The knowledge of corrugated steel plate
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text: Tattoo Industry's Leading Talents Design Shirts to Support Japanese Relief Efforts By John Niederkorn As the dust settles from the earthquake and tsunami that shook Japan to its foundation, tattoo artists including Jeff Gogue, Mike Godfrey, Horitaka, Chad Koeplinger and Japanese resident, Shige, have come forward to donate their time and artistic talents to help raise money for people of Japan. Gogue was recently asked by Shige of Yellowblaze Tattoo in Yokohama, Japan to collaborate on a t-shirt design to raise funds for the victims in Japan. Jeff eagerly accepted the invitation and enlisted his colleague Godfrey at Gogue Art Tattoo, who was also happy to donate skills to the project. All three artists worked together creating three separate designs, which includes a collaborative design by both Gogue and Shige. All of these t-shirt designs including original drawings, limited edition prints, and stickers are available at www.allforjapan.org except the Shige shirt, which will be available only through him. All proceeds will be donated, through Shige, to the Japanese Red Cross Society and Gogue will be awarding a full day tattoo appointment to the person who makes the largest donation through the site. In addition, Horitaka and the employees at State of Grace Tattoo in San Jose, have started their own fund raising campaign: I Stand With Japan. Along with Koeplinger, Tamiko, Miles Rast from Rasteroids Design, Suzanna Enriquez, Phillip Nguyen, Charlie Ngo and Colin Baker, they all formed a collaborative effort together, and designed their own t-shirt. All proceeds from I Stand With Japan will also be donated to the relief efforts in Japan and State of Grace, to date has already raised and donated nearly $6,000 dollars to the Red Cross. Please visit their website for more details and to donate online: http://www.horitaka.com/standwithjapan/ (I Stand With Japan t-shirts are available at the following locations with a $20 cash donation: State of Grace, 221 Jackson Street, San Jose, CA 95112 (408) 441-7770. Strong Tattoo, 11561 Berryessa Road, San Jose, CA 95133. (408) 453-4545.) (Gogue/Shige/Godfrey shirts were printed for under cost by Paul Salem of Mega Merch, Los Angeles, CA. Website designed and hosted by Gabe Ripley and Mary Bowen of TattooNow, Easthampton, MA. Stickers printed by Tony Ciavarro of Stinky Monkey Tattoos, Kingston, MA.) Other Tattoo Industry Related Charity Organizations: Tattooers for Japan Art for Japan Japan Charity Tattoo Event Uncle Allan for Japan Ink For Aid


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It really is time to stop worrying about Microsoft's future with consumers.
So what if it doesn't have a tablet yet or keeps burning $500 million a quarter on Bing?
Its earnings today showed what we all should know: Microsoft is an enterprise company.
Its enterprise business units are now bigger than (or darn close) to Windows.
And that's not even fair because enterprise customers are the biggest buyers of Windows anyway.
Xbox sales are a tiny fraction and Bing is a joke.
There are a bunch of products that power Microsoft's business that most people don't even know about.
Look at its quarterly results today:
The Server & Tools Division (which is enterprise infrastructure software such as its database and its server management software) hit $4.57 billion in revenue and earned $1.74 billion. Windows was only $4.62 billion. And last quarter, Server & Tools revenue was actually BIGGER.
Bill Koefoed, the head of investor relations, told us, "SQL Server just crushed it." Sales of the high end data centre version were up 30% over last year.
Bookings growth overall in the unit was up 20%. Koefoed suggested that 20% bookings growth from Microsoft's huge base means that Windows Server is taking plenty of market share from virtualization leader VMWare.
The Business Division, (which is mostly MS Office sold to enterprises) hit $5.81 billion revenue and $3.77 billion in operating income). Sales of Dynamics CRM — Microsoft's competitor to Salesforce — were up 30%. Sales of Lync — a corporate videoconferencing product — were up 35%.
Now compare this stuff to the beloved Xbox, which had an awful quarter with $1.62 billion in revenue and a $229 million operating loss. Ouch.
And the company's consumer online losses are huge, but it's a drop in the bucket compared with its real business.
As long as the enterprise loves Microsoft, the company has a bright future.
Don't miss: Microsoft Windows Revenue Is On The Rise Again, Driving Solid Earnings Beat
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'Health Without Harm': Reducing Risk from Healthcare Waste in India
The Global Healthcare Waste Management project, implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Forests and supported by WHO and Health Care Without Harm is helping promote best practices in healthcare waste management and mercury waste management at King George's Medical University in Lucknow, India. The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility. As a result of a series of interventions, the hospital has been able to reduce the amount of infectious waste generated by 80 percent due to proper segregation, transportation and treatment of waste practices.
- The Global Healthcare Waste Management project is helping promote best practices in healthcare waste management in a hospital in the King George's Medical University in Lucknow
- The project, implemented by UNDP and funded by GEF, has helped reduce the amount of infectious waste in the hospital by 80 percent
- Training in proper segregation, transportation and treatment of bio-medical waste has also helped in reducing health and environment risks through bio-medical waste
- The hospital also earns INR 18,00,000 (US$ 32,700) annually through recycling the hospital waste
In the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the King George's Medical University (KGMU) has added a new milestone to its 100-year legacy. One of the largest hospital complexes in north India, it has been transformed over the last few years from a hospital that did not have any healthcare waste management system in place to an institution which today embodies sound healthcare waste management practices, generating less than one-fifth of the infectious waste generated three years ago.
Efforts at KGMU are a result of the hospital's participation in the Global Healthcare Waste Management project, an initiative underway in eight countries to demonstrate and promote best practices aimed at reducing the health and environmental risks of waste generated in hospitals. Implemented by UNDP with support from WHO and Health Care Without Harm, the project is funded by the Global Environment Facility. In March 2013, the Bio-Medical Waste Management Committee of the hospital received a Special Recognition Award from the global project team.
Spread across 1.5 kms, KGMU has 49 buildings and a 3,000 bed hospital in Lucknow, the capital of UP. Five-hundred resident doctors cater to almost 2,000 outpatients every day. However, with a ratio of one nurse to every 60 patients and limited human and financial resources, implementing sound bio-medical waste management practices was a challenge.
Before project interventions began in 2010, 2,500 kgs of waste generated at the hospital every day was simply disposed of in the open with the risk that it would find its way into the rest of the city's municipal waste. The health risk of such an approach is summarized by Dr. Kirti Srivastava, Member Secretary, Bio Medical Waste Management Committee, KGMU, who says, "Between 10-20 percent of waste generated by a hospital is infected waste but if you don't segregate this infected waste from general waste, similar to say household waste, then you will actually need to treat 100 percent of the waste generated in your hospital."
The hospital complex had no systematic bio-medical waste management programme in place to segregate bio-medical waste from ordinary waste. Handling infectious waste was considered the responsibility of sweepers and waste handlers who had no training on the infectious potential of the wastes nor given any protective gears. Bins of overflowing waste lying around were a common sight.
After three years of intensive efforts at KGMU, the situation has been completely transformed. Infrastructure for treating waste has been built and specially designed waste segregation storage containers are used by hospital staff. Special trolleys for collection and transportation of waste have been made. The KGMU Bio-Medical Waste Management Committee recruited a doctor from each of forty-nine departments to monitor progress of each unit. In addition, training in proper waste management practices is regularly provided to all hospital staff.
Today, KGMU generates less than 500 kgs/day of infectious or hazardous waste. The hospital also earns INR 18,00,000 (US$ 32,700) annually through recycling this waste. Further, initiatives have been taken to handle general waste. A general waste collection area and a programme to compost organic waste are being initiated. In addition, KGMU is shifting to non- mercury thermometers, sphygmomanometers, and other medical instruments, and is developing programmes to collect and manage its e-waste and liquid waste.
While India has taken many steps over the past few decades to address pollution caused by healthcare waste, it is estimated that only just over 50 percent of the country's 84,809 hospitals and healthcare facilities in India properly treat their waste and properly segregate infected waste from non-infected waste.
Improving healthcare delivery systems is a key priority for countries like India where, for example, there are only 45 doctors for every 100,000 people. The experience of KGMU holds important lessons for India's healthcare system to realize the objective of ensuring 'health without harm'.