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They are the mavericks, the dreamers, the innovators. The 20 people paving the way to tomorrow and inspiring us to follow in their footsteps. We admire their smarts. We salute their achievements. And we can't wait to see what they'll do next.
For the greatest show on Middle-earth
• Film: Peter Jackson
He put 70,000 screaming computer-generated soldiers onscreen, and 70 million wildly animated fanatics cheered in multiplexes, chat rooms, and at awards ceremonies around the globe. At the box office, The Lord of the Rings trilogy has netted $2.5 billion and counting. The films have also turned Jackson's New Zealand-based effects shop, Weta, into one of the foremost f/x factories on earth. So what's a filmmaker to do after the triumphant Return of the King? How about a remake of a little art house flick called King Kong. – Jennifer Hillner
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Photo by Art Streiber
The hobbit king faces off with the original stop-motion animation skeleton used in the 1933 King Kong.
WIRED: The Lord of the Rings trilogy has reached its conclusion. How are you feeling?
JACKSON: It's every emotion. Relief that it's over. Pride that we ended with something bigger than we ever thought in terms of success. It was a very risky venture.
What was it like to make three f/x blockbusters end-to-end for seven years?
We were developing by the seat of our pants. There were two shots of Gollum in Fellowship. We kept him in the shadows – he wasn't good enough for dialog or a close-up in daylight. We worked on him for another year, and he was in 300 shots in Two Towers. A month before delivery of that film, [visual effects supervisor] Joe Letteri insisted on redoing all of it because we'd finally gotten the code for Gollum right. Even so, after Two Towers, we still weren't happy with the subtlety of Gollum.
Did that mean more pressure from the studio?
After the first film, they could have said, Well hey, you have the audience, we want to spend a minimum on the next two. But they kept their hearts in the movie. We were supposed to have 400 effects shots in Return of the King. It ended up being 1,500.
What were you like on the set?
It's a strange process this filmmaking. It starts with some imaginative vision of what the film is to be. I have an image in my head and I try to list practical steps so that we end up with that on film. Then others get involved and it morphs into being the collective imagination of several people. When you work on a project for 15 months, it's no longer a job,it's a lifestyle.
What did you do for fun?
We flew in helicopters with a list of locations that Tolkien had described, trying to find locations to shoot. He gave us very vivid mental pictures of what Middle-earth looked like. New Zealand has a familiar yet primitive quality that doesn't feel like it's in the industrial age. The landscape isn't tamed; the hand of man hasn't marked it yet. I'd never flown in a helicopter before. It's not the most natural way to fly. They don't feel like they belong there, in the sky, but they get up there. When the pilot zooms down canyons and riverbeds, it's like a roller-coaster ride.
How did you become interested in special effects?
I grew up watching the British TV series Thunderbirds. It was the first thing I ever watched that I realized I was looking at special effects. I understood that it wasn't real, it was magic. I wanted to become the magician who did those tricks. From the age of 7, I was making models and cardboard spaceships and monsters with wire to animate frame by frame. As I went through my teenage years, my interest shifted with an understanding that the storytelling was really the fun thing to do – ideally, with monsters and special effects.
Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, Dead Alive – your early work features some of the bloodiest scenes ever filmed. What do these movies say about you?
They all represent the type of film I would be entertained by. That's why you make movies. Because you're interested in a genre. I'm a huge horror fan and I always will be. My horror movies were made on the backs of films like Evil Dead that were extremely graphic. I had to top those films. I had to be more outrageous and more extreme. Not that I'm competitive with others, but when filmmakers raise the bar in terms of portraying something in a way you've never seen before, it's inspirational.
So where do you see movies heading?
I can't wait for films to get sold in high definition. I think at that point, we're going to see a plateau in the format that will last for 20 years. Laserdiscs and DVDs have been stops along the way to getting a system in the home that will be of sufficient quality to rival the cinema experience. Once that happens, studios will have to ask themselves, How on earth do we get people back in the cinema?
Why remake King Kong?
King Kong is my favorite movie – I love the original. It was initially the escapism that drew me to it. The adventure. Being swept onto an island. But it's 70 years old, and there is a generation of kids who don't have the tolerance for old black-and-white films. This will be a new vision. I'm trying to recapture what I loved about the film when I saw it when I was 9.
If you weren't a director, what else would you do?
I wish I could spend all day doing miniatures.
Danny Boyle 28 Days Later
Sofia Coppola Lost in Translation
Jacques Perrin Winged Migration
Andrew Stanton Finding Nemo
For imagining iTunes and Finding Nemo (then ditching Disney)
• Renegade of the Year: Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs has always prided himself on thinking different. Now the rest of the world is coming around.
Photo courtesy Apple/Michael O�Neill/Corbis/Outline
Apple CEO Steve Jobs
As CEO of both Apple and Pixar, Jobs is setting the agenda in digital entertainment. At the start of 2003, the recording industry chastised Apple for promoting piracy with the iPod and its "Rip. Mix. Burn." ad campaign – which one record executive told Wired was like saying "Fuck you, record labels." But Jobs convinced the industry that technology was its friend. Last April, he launched the iTunes Music Store with support from the five major labels. By October, Apple had a Windows version and was on its way to a catalog of half a million songs. Sales by year's end: 30 million songs. Jobs has made the world safe for legal downloads; we will never look back.
Across San Francisco Bay, Pixar is having an even better run. Finding Nemo – the highest-grossing animated film and best-selling DVD of all time – has raked in $850 million at the box office. This success made Jobs wonder just what his distributor, Disney, was bringing to the table. He publicly mocked Disney for the quality of its recent animated films, then brashly ended their 13-year relationship – and all but pushed CEO Michael Eisner out of the Magic Kingdom. With two anticipated films in the pipeline and studios scrambling to devise a Pixar-friendly arrangement, Steve Jobs has suddenly become the hottest man in Hollywood. – Jeffrey M. O'Brien
Burt Rutan founder, Scaled Composites; designer, SpaceShipOne
Linus Torvalds Fellow, Open Source Development Labs
Niklas Zennstr�m & Janus Friis cofounders, Skype
For rewriting the history of modern technology
• Books: Rebecca Solnit
Photo by Robyn Twomey
Rebecca Solnit
"In the spring of 1872 a man photographed a horse." In that moment, Eadweard Muybridge caught all four fast-moving hooves off the ground. That same instant, the beginning of Rebecca Solnit's transfixing River of Shadows, launched a career whose restless genius set the tone for the 20th century. Muybridge's stop-motion images settled a minor scientific debate (and a legendary $25,000 bet between railroad baron Leland Stanford and some East Coast businessmen). More important, his breakthrough revolutionized photography, laid the groundwork for motion pictures, and forever changed concepts of time and distance. Solnit's tale is part biography, part history lesson, and part meditative essay. In Muybridge, she finds the forefather of the Silicon Valley spirit. He was an indefatigable entrepreneur, she writes, "selling and inventing himself at the same time that he was inventing and selling his photographs." – Blaise Zerega
From River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West
Photo courtesy of Corbis
In the eight years of his motion-study experiments in California, he also became a father, a murderer, and a widower, invented a clock, patented two photographic innovations, achieved international renown as an artist and a scientist, and completed four other major photographic projects.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything
Michael Lewis Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Christopher Paolini Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1)
Neal Stephenson Quicksilver (Volume One of the Baroque Cycle)
For bending our minds with PowerPoint slides
• Art: David Byrne
Photo by F. Scott Schafer
David Byrne
PowerPoint is best known for mind-numbing presentations that transform bumbling salespeople into confident, corporate warriors. But David Byrne used the software to produce evocative – and controversial – art. Here are a few bullet points, as told to Blaise Zerega, about Byrne's PowerPoint conversion and his book/DVD Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information:
• A big part of American culture is business culture. I owe it to myself to acknowledge it, to say, OK, this is part of my life, part of my work, part of the world I live in.
• PowerPoint can make almost anything appear good and look professional. Quite frankly, I find that a little bit frightening.
• Slickness is not always something that is desired. It's just trying to knock you over, trying to hype you up. That's a danger if there's actually nothing there.
• Sometimes when you put on the mask or the clothes of a character, you take on some of the aspects of the character. I guess that's what happened to me. I found that I was enjoying it.
• In one of my favorite images, lots of overlapping words are tightly layered on top of each other. One of the few recognizable words is overwhelmed.
• Galleries are my obvious venue, but I find that my presentations work very well in public, non-art spaces, places where people who work in offices can interact with it. They gasp and say, "Oh my god, that's done with PowerPoint!"
Matthew Barney The Cremaster Cycle
Olafur Eliasson The Weather Project
Takashi Murakami Superflat
Gail Wight The Evolution of Disarticulation
For reinventing the book by day and moonlighting as a rocketeer
• Business: Jeff Bezos
Once upon a time, Amazon.com sold new books. Now it offers new and used music, videos, electronics, clothing, jewelry, food – and profitability. Perfect time to launch Search Inside the Book, an audacious project to digitize Amazon's entire catalog. Bezos has set his own sights even further out: His private jet propulsion lab, Blue Origin, aims to "create an enduring presence in space." To infinity and beyond. – Jeffrey M. O'Brien
WIRED: How do you push for change with the promise of instant riches all but gone?
Photo by David Ash
Jeff Bezos
BEZOS: We've created an environment where builders can build. The people here like to do new things. There's even more innovation than you see, like the way we configure software in fulfillment centers, tweaking algorithms.
WIRED: How do you push for change with the promise of instant riches all but gone?
How did you know it was time to get started on Search Inside the Book?
Five years ago, it would have been prohibitively expensive. But disk space and bandwidth are getting twice as cheap every 12 months. As technology – the fundamental raw ingredients – gets cheaper and cheaper, it creates an opportunity to be imaginative.
What's the next transformative trend?
With computers and display devices getting less expensive, when will half of households have four or five computers? Assuming they all have always-on broadband, this will eliminate a lot of friction in using the computer. I put a computer in my kitchen and it doubled my Amazon purchases! [Guffaws.]
Google has a product search engine, Froogle, and book search capability. I hear Amazon has a search engine on the way. Are you headed for a dogfight?
If you're competitor-focused, you can watch your competitor go down blind alleys and you don't have to invest there. That can lead to success but not a lot of innovation. We have a pioneer strategy. Ten years from now, customers will still want choice, selection, and the lowest price. If you base your strategy on foundational needs of customers, even if the world is swirling around you, you can keep your head down and don't have to worry about it.
Marc Benioff Salesforce.com
Sergey Brin, Larry Page & Eric Schmidt Google
Diane Greene VMware
Brian Roberts Comcast
For electrifying the grass roots
• Politics: Joe Trippi & Scott Heiferman
Polls, attack ads, talking heads – it seems like just another election year. But the primary season was anything but politics as usual. Consider Joe Trippi, former head of Howard Dean's presidential machine, and Scott Heiferman, cofounder and CEO of Meetup.com, two men who used the Internet to rewire grassroots organizing.
Photo by Lloyd Ziff
Joe Trippi
It wasn't just fundraising. "A lot of the political establishment now views the Net as 'Cool, it can raise money,'" Trippi says. "They don't understand the community-building that can get people to not just contribute but actually take action."
Trippi had been in presidential politics since the 1980s. But he spent the boom years in Silicon Valley. "I was always fantasizing about what would happen if you took an open source approach to building a political campaign," he says. "There were companies that had huge Web-based communities following their technology. If that could happen, why couldn't you build the same kind of community nationwide?" When Trippi heard that Dean supporters were using a Web site called Meetup to connect, he had his answer.
Heiferman, who sold his online ad agency itraffic in 1999, had his epiphany while in line for opening night of The Fellowship of the Ring – the costumed elves and hobbits there had used the Net to mobilize. "When people increase their sense of community, it strengthens things," he says. "And frankly, I wanted to do something that would help people more than advertising does." That became Meetup. By last winter, the activists scheduling gatherings for Dean, Clark, Kerry, and even Bush by far outnumbered the Middle-earthlings.
Photo by Matt Gunther
Scott Heiferman
Sure, Dean flamed out. But so what? Revolutions eat their young; blogs and the Web are now indispensable political tools. The children of the Internet finally have a name for their decentralized, networked, bottom-up philosophy. It's called democracy. – Adam Rogers
Joan Blades & Wes Boyd MoveOn.org
Ted Costa People's Advocate; California recall organizer
Ira Magaziner Clinton Foundation
HIV/AIDS Initiative
Tim Muris Federal Trade Commission
For changing the public face of JetBlue and Bloomberg
• Industrial Design: Antenna Design: Sigi Moeslinger & Masamichi Udagawa
What do JetBlue's new check-in kiosk and Bloomberg's streamlined computer terminal have in common? An extreme makeover, courtesy of Antenna Design's Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger, who nip and tuck pedestrian consumer products into hands-on fine art.
Photo by Aliya Naumoff
Sigi Moeslinger & Masamichi Udagawa
Though best known for tech projects with the likes of Fujitsu, IBM, Sony, and Verizon, Antenna has also designed space-age subway cars for New York City and created an interactive art installation for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
When it came to putting a new face on the Bloomberg terminal, they morphed it from a nondescript box to something more sculptural and akin to sleek executive furniture. There's also a wry new feature called Squawk for instant voice communication (think "Sell, sell, sell!").
For JetBlue, Udagawa and Moeslinger followed their curiosity, taking inspiration from classic sci-fi films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and old computer equipment like the IBM mainframe. The updated kiosk looks surprisingly ready to launch passengers on their own space odyssey. Currently, there are 20 of the boxes at JFK's Terminal 6, and there will be another hundred-plus at airports across the US by the end of the year.
"With products, people don't care what's happening with the technology inside," says Udagawa. "Design should make only the magical part of tech available to people." – Laura Moorhead
Yves B�har Birkenstock Footprints
Laurene Leon Boym Baby Zoo Rug Collection and Goodnight Nightlight
Rob Haitani, Jeff Hawkins, Phil Hobson, Dave Hoenig, Greg Shirai, Mike Yurochko, Peter Skillman & Cathal Loughnane Treo 600
Kenichi Sugino Game Boy Advance SP
For taking rock & roll to the fifth dimension
• Music: The Flaming Lips: Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne & Michael Ivins
Record an album. Tour to support it. Repeat. After more than a decade of making eccentric indie rock, the Flaming Lips decided to challenge the notion of what albums and concerts could be. "Not because it needs to be done," frontman Wayne Coyne says. "Just out of curiosity."
Photo by Michele Aboud
The Flaming Lips: Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne & Michael Ivins
So the Lips remastered their previous album in DVD-Audio and Dolby 5.1 Surround and took the music to the next dimension. Remixed to flow out of six speakers, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 5.1 envelops the listener in a cocoon of warm, sweeping psychedelia so perfectly realized that it's hard to imagine it wasn't recorded that way in the first place. (The new Yoshimi also includes an extra disc of outtakes and brilliantly imaginative videos.)
The band has been throwing curveballs at fans for years: The 1997 release Zaireeka, for instance, consists of four CDs meant to be played on four different stereos simultaneously. But in the past year the Lips also transformed their already mesmerizing performances into celebrations complete with balloons, confetti, and fans dancing onstage in fuzzy animal costumes provided by the band. (Disclosure: I was a bunny at New York's Roseland Ballroom in early 2003.) To top it off, they released two EPs with remixes that take their tripped-out rock for a spin on the dance floor.
And this blurry, Technicolor revision of rock is actually attracting more fans. "We're a band that makes whatever music we want and presents it to an audience any way we want," Coyne says. "People think when you go up there with balloons and animal costumes, that's not rock 'n' roll." He pauses. "But rock 'n' roll can do all this." – Robert Levine
OutKast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
The Postal Service Give Up
The Neptunes The Neptunes Present Clones
The White Stripes Elephant
For rebuilding the art of building
• Architecture: Zaha Hadid
During the '90s, Zaha Hadid's ambitious, competition-winning designs never made it from concept to construction, and critics assailed her as a paper architect with unbuildable ideas. All that changed with last year's unveiling of the long-awaited Rosenthal Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati. New York Times critic Herbert Muschamp proclaimed it simply "the most important American building to be completed since the end of the cold war."
Photo by Nathan Kirkman
Zaha Hadid
The $35 million structure, her first in the US and her largest project to date, is classic Hadid: She plays with space, blurring inside and outside by extending the sidewalk into the lobby, and connecting the galleries by a long snaking ramp (made by a roller-coaster manufacturer). "The concept is a jigsaw of diverse exhibition spaces, long, short, broad, and tall, each with different lighting conditions," Hadid says. "I think architecture can influence the making of art as well as the experience of viewing it, and I hope this space offers a new sense of possibility for artists."
Iraqi-born, London-based Hadid, who worked with Rem Koolhaas in the late '70s, finds right angles boring and remains determined to stretch architectural boundaries. Her next projects: the Contemporary Art Center in Rome, a BMW plant in Leipzig, Germany, and a $23 billion, 20-year master plan for Singapore. – Jessie Scanlon
Pierre de Meuron & Jacques Herzog Prada Tokyo
Norman Foster Swiss Re Headquarters, London
Jeanne Gang Starlight Theater,Rockford, Illinois
Frank Gehry Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
For unleashing fast, free swarming downloads
• Software: Bram Cohen
Photo by Chris Mueller
Bram Cohen
In 2001, at the height of the dotcom bubble, Cohen decided to take some time off. "I was feeling frustrated professionally," says the freelance code jockey and co-organizer of the hacker conference CodeCon. "I wanted to write something that got deployed on as many machines as possible – a general-purpose tool." Two years later, he had created an open source P2P program with a totally new transfer protocol that increases a user's effective bandwidth a thousand-fold, effectively ending traffic jams for popular downloads. Today his file-sharing software, BitTorrent, is running on an estimated 10 million machines. The principle is simple: The more you share, the faster your speed. BitTorrent requires users to upload what they download, meaning the more people who want a file, the more there are to serve it out. And because bits of the file are pulled from dozens of computers simultaneously, the result is lightning-quick copies of Linux distros, Phish concerts, and, yes, first-run movies.
"Historically, if you look at the movie industry, whoever controls distribution ends up controlling the product," notes Cohen. "But BitTorrent makes the cost of distribution very, very small." MPAA be warned. The program's two-year development was funded almost entirely by Cohen's savings and, now, by donations from grateful users. It's not lucrative, but that's beside the point: "It's pretty megalomaniacal to think that you can change the world just by hacking in your house for a little while," Cohen says, "but I like to think that I've made a small part of the promise of the Internet come true." – Adam Fisher
Jonathan Abrams Friendster
Toivo Annus, Janus Friis, Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallin & Niklas Zennstr�m Skype
iTunes Music Store team
iTunes Music Store
Dave Winer RSS
For reinventing how to be a player
• Games: Richard Marks
"Avoid missing ball for high score." The complete instructions for Pong and its basic up-down controller are hard to beat for simplicity. But Marks, special projects manager for Sony R&D and creator of the company's EyeToy, gave it his best shot. "I wanted a game you can jump in and have fun with immediately, something you could play with your grandparents."
Photo by Robyn Twomey
Richard Marks
Marks chucked knobs, joysticks, and buttons in favor of motion detection. Hook the EyeToy cam to a PlayStation 2, aim it your way, and watch onscreen as your mirror image interacts with objects in the game. Wave your hands in the air to scroll through menu options, then start slapping around ninjas, heading soccer balls, or wiping suds off windows.
Marks' first R&D gig was in the early '80s at his parents' game shop in Mishawaka, Indiana. "It was my job to know how to play all the games. Atari 2600, Coleco, Intellivision very rough for a 10th-grader." Fast-forward to a PhD in aeronautical-astronomical engineering at Stanford, where he developed "eyes" for deep-sea robots. "The robot could track a fish or gauge its surroundings and hold a position regardless of currents."
The debut EyeToy: Play was a smashing success, selling 2 million copies in Europe since autumn and 500,000-plus in the US since Christmas. The follow-up EyeToy: Groove is due in April. Marks can't discuss his work for the upcoming PS3 console, but he's bullish on direct interaction with onscreen events. Will we ever be able to ditch our desks and juggle windows the way Tom Cruise does in Minority Report? Marks says they're already doing it at Sony R&D. "Cruise was wearing these gloves with bright blue dots. We have a simpler device." – Chris Baker
Takehiro Izushi Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Petri Jarvilehto Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Hideki Kamiya Viewtiful Joe
Yannis Mallat Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
For making the Cartoon Network safe for adults
• Television: Mike Lazzo
High-school dropout. Forty-six years old. Obsessed with cartoons. Mike Lazzo is your guy if you want grown men to watch TV in the middle of the night. His brainchild, the Adult Swim programming block on Cartoon Network, regularly ranks number one in its time slot among cable viewers 18 to 34.
Photo by Ian White
Mike Lazzo
There's no doubt the senior vice president puts bodies in Barcaloungers during the wee hours – and Adult Swim's wild success is prompting Lazzo to expand the block's airtime to six hours a night (11 pm to 5 am), Saturday through Thursday, and add a half-dozen shows to the 20 or so already in the lineup.
Lazzo's trademark is bringing dead toons back to life. He got his big break when he created the cult hit Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1994 by splicing new celebrity interviews into old animated footage. Last year, Futurama and Family Guy reruns did so well that it's likely both shows (which Fox killed in prime time) will produce new episodes.
"Who would've thought that a cartoon network would be doing some of the smartest programming on TV today?" says the admittedly biased Matt Groening, creator of Futurama and The Simpsons. "Their promos are smart and funny and don't insult the intelligence of viewers." What's more, Lazzo says Adult Swim's promos were created on a Macintosh "for $5."
His latest project: an original cartoon called Squidbillies. Loosely autobiographical, Squidbillies stars a family of backwoods cephalopods stranded in the Georgia mountains when the ocean recedes from the Ohio Valley. "We have to write what we know," explains Lazzo, who grew up in the South. "We like seafood and we're rednecks, so we think we've got the tonality down." – Rebecca Smith Hurd
Ricky Gervais The Office (BBC America)
Ronald Moore Battlestar Galactica (Sci Fi Channel)
George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh K Street (HBO)
Jon Stewart The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
For nailing SARS. Next up: malaria and the common cold
• Medicine: Joseph DeRisi
Photo by Robyn Twomey
Joseph DeRisi
Some kind of super-pneumonia was making patients – and doctors – drop dead in Southeast Asia. Even the World Health Organization whiz kid who gave the deadly outbreak a name – severe acute respiratory syndrome – succumbed to it. The Centers for Disease Control obtained a sample of a victim's infected tissue and needed a diagnosis fast. There was just one man for the job: UCSF biochemist and biophysicist Joe DeRisi. He's the brains behind the microarray known as the virus chip, a glass slide embedded with 12,096 snippets of viral DNA. (Extra geek credit: DeRisi designed and built a robot in his lab to imprint the chip. Supergeek cred: He wrote the software, too.)
Within 24 hours, the virus chip produced a snapshot of the pathogen's genetic makeup. "It was a novel coronavirus, staring us in the face," DeRisi says. "It was just a blatant result."
DeRisi stands at the intersection of the disciplines driving the life sciences – genomics, bioinformatics, virology, materials science, and computer engineering. Wiry and hyper, the onetime black belt in aiki-jujitsu sees nothing especially daunting about taking on – even curing – the common cold, which he's investigating. He's also out to crush malaria, which each year kills more than a million people, mostly children. Last year, for the first time, his lab cracked the genetic code that drives the disease's distinctive 48-hour fever cycle. Just another blatant result. – Mark Robinson
Cynthia Kenyon aging research, UCSF
Robert Lanza stem cell research, Advanced Cell Technology
Erin Lavik spinal cord regeneration research, Yale
Tommy Morris Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center
For cracking the spine of the science cartel
• Science: Public Library of Science: Michael Eisen, Harold Varmus & Patrick Brown
Photo by Robyn Twomey
Michael Eisen
Photo by Richard Ballard
Harold Varmus
Photo by Robyn Twomey
Patrick Brown
If science is a search for universal laws of nature, why do scientific journals copyright the papers they publish and charge as much as $20,000 a year for a subscription?
"It's insane that the scientific community has allowed publishers to limit the impact of our research," says UC Berkeley geneticist Michael Eisen. Starting in the late '90s, Eisen and two of his colleagues, Stanford molecular biologist Patrick Brown and Nobel Prize-winning oncologist Harold Varmus, tried to work with traditional publishers to make research more widely available on the Web, but the publishers wouldn't cooperate. So the three scientists devised an end run: the Public Library of Science. In October 2003, PLoS published the first open source, peer-reviewed journal, PLoS Biology.
The key concept is what Eisen calls "open access." PLoS posts new research online, making it available to everyone from high school students to scientists in the developing world. Authors agree to let anyone annotate, excerpt, link, and otherwise add value. And that's not all: Online readers pay nothing. Funders of research – usually government agencies – cover the cost of publication up front.
The goal isn't to put old-line publishers out of business but to force them to embrace open access. "We'd be happy if every publisher shifted to open access tomorrow," Eisen says. "But they're not going to do it on their own. The scientific community has to take matters into its own hands." – Ted Greenwald
Charles Bennett astrophysics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Boldizs�r Jank� physics, University of Notre Dame
J. Craig Venter Center for the Advancement of Genomics
Alessandro Vespignani theoretical physics, Universit� Paris-Sud
The 2004 Brain Trust
• The experts & visionaries who helped select this year's Rave Awards nominees
ARCHITECTURE Cecil Balmond structural engineering, Arup • Aaron Betsky Netherlands Architecture Institute • Reed Kroloff architecture critic • William Mitchell MIT Media Lab • Terence Riley Museum of Modern Art
ART Barbara J. Bloemink Cooper-Hewitt • David d'Heilly filmmaker/curator/translator • Natalie Jeremijenko Experimental Product Design Initiative • Barbara London Museum of Modern Art • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer installation artist
BOOKS Natalie Angier science writer, The New York Times • Michael Cader PublishersLunch.com • David Gelernter computer science, Yale; author • Kevin Kelly Long Now Foundation; author; Wired editor at large • Lawrence Weschler NYU; author
BUSINESS Reed Hastings Netflix • Paul Jacobs Qualcomm • Andy Kessler Author, Wall Street Meat • Will Poole Microsoft • Vinod Khosla Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
FILM Roger Ebert Film critic • Geoffrey Gilmore Sundance Film Festival • Brian Grazer Producer • Gregg Hale Producer/director
GAMES Seamus Blackley Creative Artists Agency; Xbox cocreator • Dennis "Thresh" Fong pro game player • David Kushner author, Masters of Doom • Peter Molyneux Lionhead Studios • Will Wright Sims god
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN Shoshana Berger editor, ReadyMade • Tim Brown IDEO • Richard Koshalek Art Center College of Design • Chee Pearlman Chee Company • Danielle Spencer graphic designer & artist • Bruce Sterling author; Wired columnist
MEDICINE Atul Gawande surgery, Harvard Medical School • Robert Langer biomedical engineering, MIT • Sean Morrison cell & developmental biology, University of Michigan • Gregory Stock medicine, technology & society, UCLA
MUSIC John Flansburgh They Might Be Giants • Mark Juris Fuse • Sia Michel editor in chief, Spin • Moby recording artist & producer • Scott Spock The Matrix
POLITICS Sherwood Boehlert US Representative (R-NY) • Lawrence Lessig Stanford Law School; Wired columnist • Declan McCullagh Politech blog; News.com • Glenn Reynolds Instapundit blog • Hilary Rosen political consultant
SCIENCE Albert-L�szl� Barab�si physics, Notre Dame • Paul Davies natural philosophy, Macquarie University • Neal Lane physics & astronomy, Rice • Oliver Morton author; Wired contributing editor • David B. Wake evolutionary biology, UC Berkeley
SOFTWARE Paul Boutin Wired contributing editor • Doug Engelbart Bootstrap Institute; mouse inventor • Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Slashdot • Jonathan Schwartz Sun Microsystems • David Vaskevitch Microsoft
TELEVISION Gail Berman Fox Entertainment • Paul Goebel Beat the Geeks • Tom Shales TV critic • Martin Yudkovitz TiVoGo Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


text:
Altrusa International, Inc. of Waynesville and the Haywood Rotary Club will be spearheading a drive to collect school supplies for needy children in Haywood County public schools from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7, at Wal-Mart in Waynesville.
Residents are asked to pick up extra supplies as they shop during the tax-free weekend for back to school purchases.
All supplies and funds collected will be distributed by the Haywood County Schools Foundation to students in need by the start of this school year.
Donations of cash, check, and/or supplies may be given to Altrusa or Haywood Rotary members, or mailed or delivered directly to the Haywood County Schools Foundation.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
This Ain't Checkers
This Ain't Checkers is a mission in the episodic content The Ballad of Gay Tony, given to the player by Mori Kibbutz.
Mori explains to Luis that they must go to the Algonquin heliport to get onboard a helicopter. The two jump in Mori's Buffalo. Along the way Mori says that this thing is for 'high roller cats' only. Once arrived, they are greeted by 2 fellow competitors. The helicopter lifts up everyone to South Algonquin where the player must parachute down to their boat.
When done so, Luis must guide the boat through a series of checkpoints until he's guided to land to select a car, each equipped with nitro. The player then must skillfully use the nitro to take them across town to Middle Park. The cutscene ends with Mori making up excuses for why he lost, such as the fact someone 'sabotaged his car'.
Tips & Tricks
- When freefalling, make sure that you only release the parachute when you're in 1st place. This will instantly secure the "Always First" scoring mark - however keep in mind that you must keep 1st place the whole time though too.
- If you have mastered the art of parachuting then land in a boat, this will greatly speed up the process and will secure the "Land in a boat" scoring mark which will indefinately push your mission mark to 100%. If you're not so good then try your best to land nearest to a boat.
- After you use a part of the nitro, it will regenerate in some time. The nitro will be usable again when the exhaust fumes go a light purple color.


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Do they deserve the gift of your keystrokes?
There are a finite number of keystrokes left in your hands before you die. - Me
One of the most influential (to me personally) posts Jon Udell has written was his classic "count your keystrokes." I've mentioned this post in a number of my talks, including my talk on "Tips to make your blog suck less" at Blogging While Brown this last weekend. This point, in particular always seems to resonate with people, so here's my own take, before you read the original.
Let break it down. I'm 36 and change. I'll live to be 80, let's say, and I can type 100 words a minute (but 50 of that is errors and the backspace key) so let's say 50WPM. If I type for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, for the next 44 years, that means there are 198M keystrokes left in my hands. Max. Period. And that's generous; it's likely 10% of that.
5.1CPW * 50WPM * 60m/hr * 6hr/s a day * 5 days/wk * 50 wks/year * 44yrs = 1,009,800,000 keystrokes left in your hands.
Let's assume the average length of an English word is 5, plus a space, so six. That's a ceiling of 168M more words I can type in my lifetime. Nothing I can do, short of dictation, or some new brain invention is going to create more keystrokes. I am I/O bound by my hands. The keystrokes they contain are finite. And this assuming my hands don't give out.
Drink that in. OK. So now, next time someone emails you ask yourself "is emailing this person back the best use of my remaining keystrokes?" That includes both 1:1 and 1:many emails. You could even add a little hubris to it and say: "Does this person deserve the gift of my keystrokes?"
Instead, consider writing a blog post or adding to a wiki with your keystrokes, then emailing the link to the original emailer. (Like this email, er, blog post, for this example.) Send them to http://www.letmegooglethatforyou.com or http://www.letmebingthatforyou.com and teach them to fish.
UPDATE: This is about reach and effectiveness vs. efficiency. If you email someone one on one, you're reaching that one person. If you blog about it (or update a wiki, or whatever) you get the message out on the web itself and your keystrokes travel farther and reach more people. Assuming you want your message to reach as many people as possible, blog it. You only have so many hours in the day.
The best way to get more email is to reply to it. The best way to get less email is to stop answering it.
Conserve what remaining keystrokes you have left, Dear Reader. Or, use them in the comments area here and give me the special gift that is your keystrokes.. ;)
Related Links
P.S. This blog post is 435 words or 2362 keystrokes. Hope it was helpful. I've only got 1,009,797,638 left!
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
About Newsletter
50WPM * 60m/hr * 6hr/s a day * 5 days/wk * 50 wks/year * 44yrs = 198,000,000 keystrokes left in my hands.Your flaw? You are counting words, not keystrokes. Considering the average word lenght is 5.1 characters, your equation should be: 5.1CPW * 50WPM * 60m/hr * 6hr/s a day * 5 days/wk * 50 wks/year * 44yrs = 1,009,800,000 keystrokes left in your hands.
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- Yappy.com Exclusive Jack-a-Poo Design
- Adult Sized: Height 32", Width 22"
- Full Color Print
- High Quality Fabric
- White Straps and Tie
- Machine Washable
This pawtastic apron is a Yappy.com exclusive and features an edge to edge Jack-a-Poo silhouette pattern.
The white Jack-a-Poo silhouette pattern is accompanied by your choice of four furbulous background colors that truly make your dog stand out.
We're convinced that your dog will love this homeware addition just as much as you, so why not treat yourself!
Please note, this product is personalized with your chosen silhouette only.
Once we have created your item, it will typically be delivered within 3 – 8 business days after shipping.
As this item is 'tailor-made' it can't be exchanged or returned unless faulty. Please ensure you check that the item you are ordering is correct. If you have any queries regarding the ordering process, please contact us.


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A gift of appreciated stock to the Make-A-Wish can benefit you in two ways:
1. You receive a charitable income tax deduction for the full fair market value of the securities.
2. At the same time, you may avoid capital gains taxes on appreciated stock. This helps stretch your gift even further.
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MILWAUKEE -- Michael Redd, a former All-Star guard who became the fourth-leading scorer in Bucks history in a career hampered by injuries, will retire in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
The team announced Redd's decision Tuesday and said he will make a formal announcement when Milwaukee hosts Cleveland.
Redd was a second-round pick out of Ohio State in 2000, 43rd overall, and he played 11 of his 12 seasons with Milwaukee. Two separate injuries to his left knee cost him large chunks of three straight seasons with the Bucks, and he last played for Phoenix in 2011-12.
He finishes his NBA career with 11,972 points (11,554 with Milwaukee) and as a 44.7 percent shooter, 38.0 from 3-point range. For Milwaukee, he averaged 20.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
Redd, a reserve on the 2003 All-Star team, reached the playoffs three times with the Bucks. He was also on the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Redd tore ligaments in his left knee in January 2009, then did it again in January 2010.
On Nov. 11, 2006, Redd set the franchise's individual game scoring record with 57 against Utah, breaking the mark set in 1971 by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (55). Redd also holds the NBA record for 3-pointers made in one quarter (eight in the fourth quarter against Houston on Feb. 20, 2002).
"It's been a glorious 11 years," Redd said as he wrapped up his career with the Bucks in April 2011. "I wouldn't trade anything. Just had a tremendous journey over these 11 years. They've seen me grow up, because I've been here since I was 20 years old. It's been an amazing journey. Some ups, some downs. But through it all, the fans have been great, the organization's been great to my family."


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- Fonds
- 1934-2001
Fonds consists of the following series: records relating to research, 1934-2002; records relating to courses, 1950-1980; records relating to students, 1962-1993.
Field, George Wallis
Fonds consists of the following series: records relating to research, 1934-2002; records relating to courses, 1950-1980; records relating to students, 1962-1993.
Field, George Wallis
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Students' Administrative Council fonds
Fonds includes photographs and consists of eleven series: Constitution, 1970–1998; Minutes and reports, 1970–2011; Directories, 1981–1993; Financial records, 1970–1987; Correspondence of the President, 1971–1995; Records relating to member organizations, commissions and committees, 1970–2009; Records relating to orientation, 1977–2004; Records relating to elections, 1976–1998; Records relating to land and property issues, 1973–1989; Subject files, 1969–2007; and Photographs
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Students' Administrative Council
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Board of Regents fonds
Fonds consists of the records of the Board of Regents and its committees
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Board of Regents
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). President's Office fonds
Fonds includes records from the terms of:
Nathanael Burwash (1887-1913), Richard P. Bowles (1913-1930), Edward Wilson Wallace (1930-1941), Walter Theodore Brown (1941–1949), Harold Bennett (1949-1950), A. B. B. Moore (1950-1970), John Edwin Hodgetts (1970-1973), Goldwin S. French (1973-1987), Eva Kushner (1987-1994), Roseann Runte (1994-2001), and Paul Gooch (2001-2015).
It consists of the following series:
General correspondence, 1907-2005; General subject files, 1897-1970; Records relating to the Board of Regents, 1912-2008; Records relating to the Senate, 1954-2008; Records relating to the Victoria College Council, 1928-2008; Records relating to the academic administration, 1915-2013; Records relating to the financial administration, 1905-2000; Records relating to awards, 1918-2005; Records relating to student assistance, 1916-1976; Records relating to students, 1915-2007; Records relating to alumni, 1928-2008; Records relating to functions, 1913-2010; Records relating to the University of Toronto, 1929-2011; Records relating to the United Church of Canada, 1928-2001; Records relating to gifts, 1897-1973; Records relating to the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, 1981-2006; Records relating to fund raising, 1974-2008; Records relating to Emmanuel College, 1968-2008; Records relating to Victoria College, 1975-2012; Records relating to Victoria University, 1968-2008; Records related to the Chancellor and Chancellor's Council of Victoria University; and Records relating to Senior Administrative Meetings (SAM), 2001-2007.
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). President's Office
Fonds consists of records related to the teaching and writing career of Joan M. Bigwood. Records include lecture notes, course administration and course material (outlines, assignments, exams, etc.), research notes, copies of articles, bibliographies, correspondence, etc. Also includes draft typescripts and notes related to articles that were eventually published as well as reviews written by Joan M. Bigwood on other academic articles.
Bigwood, Joan M.
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Alumni Affairs and University Advancement Department fonds
Fonds consists of the records of Larry Davies, the Director of the External Relations and Development Department, primarily outgoing correspondence as well as records documenting the relationship between the Department, alumni, and alumni groups such as the Alumni of Victoria College (AVC) and the Emmanuel College Alumni/ae Association. Records also document fundraising and development activities as well as the planning and hosting of events such as reunions and milestone celebrations.
Fonds contains lists of Permanent Class Executives of Victoria College, guest book and transcripts of addresses given at the Memorial Service held for Victoria University President A.B.B. Moore, promotional material, questionnaires, notes, lists, correspondence, research material, reports, financial records, annual reports, and photographs.
The fonds is made up of seven series: Series 1: Special Events and Celebrations; Series 2: Campaigns and Fundraising; Series 3: Records of the Director; Series 4: Records related to Victoria College Alumni; Series 5: Publications and Newsletters; Series 6: Records related to Emmanuel College Alumni; and Series 7: Photographs.
Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Alumni Affairs and University Advancement Department


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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced Monday that a hearing panel fined Brookstone Securities $1 million for fraudulent sales of collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) to unsophisticated, elderly and retired investors.
The FINRA panel ordered the Lakeland, Fla.-based firm's owner and CEO, Antony Turbeville, and a broker, Christopher Kline, to also pay restitution of more than $1.6 million to customers.
According to the FINRA panel, from July 2005 through July 2007, Turbeville and Kline intentionally made fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions to elderly and unsophisticated customers regarding the risks associated with investing in CMOs. All of the affected customers were retired investors looking for safer alternatives to equity investments.
According to the decision, Turbeville and Kline "preyed on their elderly customers' greatest fears," such as losing their assets to nursing homes and becoming destitute during their retirement and old age, in order to sell them unsuitable CMOs. By 2005, "interest rates were increasing, and the negative effect on CMOs was evident to Turbeville and Kline, yet they did not explain the changing conditions to their customers," FINRA says.
Instead, they led customers to believe that the CMOs were "government-guaranteed bonds" that preserved capital and generated 10% to 15% returns. During the two-year period, Brookstone made $492,500 in commissions on CMO bond transactions from seven customers named in the December 2009 complaint, while those same customers lost $1.6 million.
The panel's order says that two of Kline's customers were "elderly widows with very limited investment knowledge, who, vulnerable after their husbands' deaths, were convinced to invest their retirement savings in risky CMOs." Kline told the widows that they could not lose money in CMOs because they were government-guaranteed bonds, and Kline further increased their risk by trading on margin.
Also, the panel noted that chief compliance officer David Locy completely ignored his responsibility and "should have been a line of defense against Turbeville's and Kline's egregious conduct." but instead "he looked the other way while Turbeville and Kline traded CMO accounts that were unsuitable for their customers." It barred Locy from acting in any supervisory or principal capacity, suspended him in all capacities for two years and fined him $25,000.
The hearing panel concluded that Brookstone was responsible for Turbeville's and Kline's action. According to the decision, "the firm neither acknowledged nor accepted responsibility for the misconduct at issue in this matter. Instead, through Turbeville and Kline, it attempted to blame the customers for their own losses."
The FINRA panel also barred Turbeville and Kline from the securities industry. Turbeville must pay $440,600 in restitution, and Kline will pay the remaining $1.2 million.
The ruling resolves charges brought by FINRA in December 2009.


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Sex, money and chocolate are supposed to be the three things you can't have too much of. There is a fourth: Bandwidth. One way to have twice as much bandwidth is to have two lines, but getting them to work together isn't simple. Sharedband, a spin-off from BT Martlesham, is poised to launch a UK service to do just this.
An ugly truth about broadband is that the speed you get falls far short of what's advertised. But while complaining might change the ISPs advertising, it won't change the physics. In the past, networks have relied on everyone being so happy with the upgrade that it didn't matter what the true speed actually was. If you went from dial-up with a rated 56kbps (in reality usually closer to 30kbps) to 512kbps (in reality 300kbps) and "always on", it was such an improvement it seemed churlish to complain. So the claim "up to 24Mb/s" really means 15Mb/s on a good day. Five means three, and three means one.
But you can do something about the speed. I know of one person who chose his house by drawing 1km circles around telephone exchanges on a map, and only looking at properties inside the circles where he knew he'd get the fastest connections. And I know another person who pulled out of a deal to move house when he found that the new place didn't support the 100Mb/s broadband he enjoyed in his previous house. He said that moving from regular broadband to 100Mb/s was as big a difference as going from dial-up to ADSL.
You know that the speed isn't going to be what's promised, and that uploading will be even slower. And that you'll want more of it
So what's a speed-hungry surfer to do?
Well, if you are dedicated then you can tweak the performance. Try disabling the ring circuit on the phone line, make sure you have filters in all the right places, and run a diagnostic tool like DMT. It's the bandwidth equivalent of blueprinting an engine, but even with a huge amount of this tweaking, my friend with the circles on his map only gets 21Mb/s out of his 24Mb/s line.
Then there's bonding. Using a second DSL line is a bit like fitting a second engine - but it has similar transmission problems. Getting the speed to one computer has been a mess. If you had two lines, two routers and two network cards you couldn't aggregate the speed. You'd get greater reliability - if one line went down you had the other - but you couldn't download files faster.
The solution adopted by Sharedband is not to aggregate the channels in the PC but in the router. Sharedband has code which runs in the best selling ADSL routers which gives one router control over the other. This manages the biggest problem, which is skew between the two lines. There are limitations: there's a limit to the speed of lines which can be aggregated, and the processors in the routers might not be able cope with two 24Mb/s lines. For those applications Sharedband is investigating a PC-based solution.
At a demonstration in their Ipswich office - with the poetic postcode of IP4 - the start-up showed downloads of between one and a half and close to two times the single line speed. It was also fault-tolerant: one router could be unplugged and although of course the speed dropped correspondingly, the download continued. The resilience is improved if you use two ISPs, ideally through two different exchanges, although this might be hard to arrange. There is no need to have both lines through the same ISP - indeed Sharedband recommend that you don't.
Sharedband is concentrating on wholesale deals and already has reseller agreements with BT Wholesale and Netgear.
Trial installations have shown that it's the increase in upload speed which is often most attractive. An installation at Mallory Park race circuit for the British Superbike Grand Prix allowed the attending journalists to upload stories and pictures at three times the speed they had the previous year. As a robust, high-speed solution Sharedband is concentrating on the small business market, but it might also be just the thing for the dedicated surfer, or enthusiastic home user.
Sharedband says it will go live in the next few weeks - the company's FAQ is here. ®


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- Exclusive limited edition of 50
Special art print
Special art prints are issued in lower numbers and produced with superior printing techniques on extraordinary material with a high-end finish. The size of the work is often larger than the original and they come 'ready-to-hang' with a suspension system included.
The limited edition special art print "Revelation" by Marleen Leën bears the artist's signature and a handwritten edition number.
Certificate of authenticity
A unique certificate of authenticity is issued and included with every purchased print. The certificate contains an image of the artwork, material specifications and the edition number. The certificate is signed by the original artist and the master printer and carries the embossed Certified Art Giclée™ quality mark.
Lifelong warranty
Mr. Wallski offers a lifelong warranty on conservation and colour retention, provided you treat the print correctly. The certificate of authenticity is your proof of ownership. We therefore recommend that you keep the certificate in a safe and dry place.
Hahnemühle German Etching
The fine art print "Revelation" by Marleen Leën is made using 310 grams German Etching paper which is a traditional machine-made etching paper. It has an extremely soft surface with a light structure and is very popular amongst graphic designers. This paper is extremely suitable for complex prints and belongs to the absolute top of digital printing materials. German Etching meets the highest standards set by museums and art collectors.
|Fine art print
|Limited edition of 50
|Marleen Leën
|Title work:
|Hahnemühle German Etching
|Size print:
|110 x 54.5 cm
|Size image:
|100 x 44.5 cm
|Certificate of authenticity:
|Artist signature:
|Lifelong quality guarantee
We ship this artwork within 3 days
Mr. Wallski offers free insured global shipping for all our prints. We aim at getting your purchase delivered to your doorstep as soon as possible. We put a lot of care in the handling (and that takes a bit of time) and packaging and work with trusted global shipping companies.
Free returns, no questions asked
The people at Mr. Wallski and all its affiliates are passionate about their products and services and total customer satisfaction is the number one priority to us. If in any case, for whatever reason, you are not satisfied with the quality of your purchase you can return it within 14 days. With our free on-demand pick-up service, we collect the return package at your home or at the office free of charge and we will reimburse the full purchase amount to your account, no questions asked!
Need more information?
Feel free to contact our customer service at [email protected] or read our FAQ. We are happy to help you!


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Lean Business Program
The Lean Business Program is designed for business that offer sales, and service to customers, as well as brining Lean principles to the office setting.test
Lean Business Program: The Lean Business Program trains leadership and staff at businesses in the science of lean disciplines that help these organizations implement strategic plans, eliminate waste, build intercultural teamwork, reduce intercultural conflicts, reduce or eliminate mistakes and deficiencies and improve customer service.
With four (4) modules, Northland College's Lean Business training program offers all the principles to implement and create a culture around Lean: Fundamentals of Lean, Continuous Improvement, Workplace Organization, and Value Stream Mapping. We highly recommend that they be delivered in the sequence outlined for best results. This is because each module builds on the skills, self-confidence and teamwork developed in the previous modules. Modules can be delivered in 4, 6, or 8 hour segments, as the organization desires.
Module #1: Fundamentals of Leantest
Is a course that provides a foundation for success in applying all of the additional Lean tools. It helps participants to significantly enhance productivity and eliminate waste through designing work roles and responsibilities that support and sustain their natural areas of strength, mitigate heir areas of weakness, and design strategic partnerships and structures to capitalize on the unique blend of capabilities found within a work team. It helps participants identify goals that assist them in better achieving the strategic objective of their organization by clarifying, capitalizing upon and enhancing their intrinsic faculties and that of their work team. (12 hours)
Module #2: Principles of Continuous Improvement
Expands upon the organization's current strategic plan. This module looks at the outcomes desired by the organization's leadership in a wide variety of areas, helping the organization identify, explain and target areas of both problems and opportunities. These become the focus of the lean projects that follow, so that learning is practical, not theoretical. This module lays a strong foundation for the work that follows, explaining some of the tools that will be used throughout the program, including charting, waste elimination, defect (mistake) reduction, and more. (6 hours)
Module #3: Workplace Organization/6S System
This module helps eliminate obstacles to efficiency, promoting quality, safety, productivity and employee involvement in all areas of the organization. A 6S project, called a Kaizen Blitz, is performed, allowing employees to sort, set-in-order, shine, standardize and sustain an optimum working environment in any one particular area, all with safety in mind. (24 hours; should be delivered in back-to-back sessions, if possible)
Module #4: Value Stream Mapping
Gives the leadership or employees the opportunity to succeed with positive change immediately. This module examines current processes within the organization with an eye to eliminating waste and improving value and satisfaction for patients and their families. During each session, sequences are mapped for greater understanding and identification of where waste occurs. Participants then use the remaining sessions to change their processes to eliminate problems of waste. The results of Value Stream Mapping are exciting and energizing, as they almost always deliver immediate cost or time savings that grow over time. Value Stream Mapping projects can and are often done on a regular basis in business organizations, delighting both the patients and staff with increased efficiencies and saving money in places that are often overlooked. (16 hours)
Northland Community and Technical College's Lean Business Program helps organizations build safety, consistency, cooperation, quality and better bottom line performance into their day-to-day operations by training and empowering leadership and staff to use their skills and experience in ever-expanding ways. It helps build employee achievement and satisfaction for higher retention rates, and creates a culture of continuous improvement that will continue to add to the bottom line for years to come.
Call us for more information regarding contract costs and taking the first step on your Lean Business journey.


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Over the past year I have put a lot of time into designing and making my own lightweight backpacking gear. I recently took a 2.5-day trip using many Make Your Own Gear (MYOG) items to cover 60 miles in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Trip Planning
The trip began in my head nearly a month before the first trail day. I usually start by pondering what I want to accomplish. This might be something like explore a new backcountry area, set a new daily distance record, achieve a new lower base weight, take fantastic pictures, test out new gear, or try out a new technique. The objective for this trip would be to see a new region of the Great Smoky Mountains using my own MYOG big three (shelter, sleeping bag, and pack). After several canceled trips because of work, I finally had firm dates of May 5 through 7, 2010.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a gem in the southeast U.S. It contains over 800 miles of hiking trails, including long sections of the Appalachian Trail (AT), Mountain to Sea Trail, and Benton MacKaye Trail. Some of the East's highest peaks are located within the park, like Mount Le Conte and Clingmans Dome, both over 6,500 feet in elevation. My favorite reason for visiting the park is the incredible variety of mountain streams and waterfalls.
Backpacking is a popular activity within the park, and with many visitors come rules. First, a backpacking permit is required. These permits and entry into the park are free. Self registration stations can be found at any Ranger station and can be used twenty-four/seven. Camping is only allowed in designated locations. These sites are typically flat areas near water, though some are trail shelters. Fires are only allowed in fire rings. Each site also has at least one bear bag pulley system, allowing backpackers to easily store their food out of the reach of the park's many bears. Trail shelters and some camp sites require reservations to control overcrowding. Reservations can be made by calling (865) 436-1231.
For planning a trip, I recommend getting the National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map #229 ($12) and the book Hiking Trails of the Smokies ($20), also known as the "little brown book." The map shows trails, waterfalls, and the location of all camp sites, indicating which ones require reservations. The book provides a detailed description of each trail and campsite found within the park. Lastly, current park conditions can be found here.
As my trip date neared, I purchased my food, planned my route, checked my gear, and called for reservations. I had planned to camp at site #37, but the reservation desk said the site had been closed due to aggressive bear activity. I made some quick changes and asked for campsite #38 at Mount Sterling, not my first choice, but it would have to do. The change also required me to increase the hiking distance to my second day's camp at site #34 (non-reservation site). Going lightweight certainly provides advantages, like the flexibility of being able to cover long distances when needed.
After a couple of tough days at work, Wednesday couldn't come quickly enough. I packed everything up and set out my clothes, ready to make a quick getaway. This trip was different than most, as base weight was not my primary concern. Instead I wanted to test out my MYOG setup. Most important would be the first-time use of my new 4.95-ounce pack. Other MYOG items (that had seen previous use) were my 13-ounce mini tent, 21-ounce down quilt, and my V8 can stove. I tallied up my pack, and the final base weight came just under 6.3 pounds. Loaded with consumables (fuel, water, and food), the pack weighed less than 12 pounds. Though I could have easily swapped out some items given the warm weather, I decided the list was ideal for testing my set of self-made gear.
Jamie's Gear List
|Weight (oz)
|Clothing Worn:
|Other Items Worn/Carried:
|Packed Clothing:
|Shelter & Sleeping:
|Cooking & Hydration:
|1 – Total Items Worn/Carried (lb)
|2 – Total Base Weight (lb)
|3 – Total Weight of Consumables (lb)
|4 – Total Gear Weight Worn+Packed (1)+(2)
|5 – Total Carried Pack Weight (2)+(3)
|6 – Total Skin Out Weight (1)+(2)+(3)
I left my home near Raleigh, NC at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at the Big Creek Ranger station close to 10:30, which wasn't too bad as it included stops for breakfast and gas. I surveyed the area, lent my phone to an AT thru-hiker, filled out my registration form and hit the trail just short of 11:30 a.m.
I would take the long route to Mount Sterling: Big Creek Trail to Swallow Fork Trail, then finally Sterling Ridge Trail to campsite #38. Big Creek was an incredible stream, flowing high, it kept me entertained for hours. I even took a quick dip in cold waters at Midnight Hole.
Rushing waters of Big Creek.
A quick swim in Midnight Hole.
MYOG pack sitting on a rock while I grab a snack.
Although the Big Creek trail has a near continuous incline, it is a relatively easy trail for the Appalachians. I reached my original desired campsite, #37 by early afternoon. It was a large camping area with a number of fire rings, a big stream, and plenty of bear bag riggings. Warning signs were posted that the site was closed due to aggressive bear activity. The area was empty except for a lone tent that appeared to have been abandoned. Though I would have liked to see a bear, I have no desire to see an aggressive one, and thankfully the area was quiet.
From the campsite I picked up the Swallow Fork Trail. The gradual Big Creek hike had lowered my guard, and now I found myself on one steep trail that climbed for many miles. My progress slowed, but I reached the Mount Sterling Ridge Trail and continued my climb to finish at the top of Mount Sterling near 6:30 p.m. The total elevation gained was close to 4,000 feet, and my GPS odometer logged seventeen miles.
At the top of Mount Sterling (5,820 ft) lies campsite #38, one of the highest camps in the park. Though not my first choice, this site did not disappoint. There were a number of fairly flat areas for camping; a spring located 700 feet down the mountain and a couple of fire rings interwoven within a spruce fir forest. The highlight of the site is an old fire tower that was erected back in 1933. This fire tower is still climbable and offers a spectacular 360-degree view of North Carolina and Tennessee. I will admit that my first solo attempt to climb it ended mid-way as the height got the best of me.
Mount Sterling fire tower, elevation 5,842 feet.
When I arrived at the campsite, I met two fellow backpackers. It was nice to see they had already started a fire. Later they would give me the courage to get to the top of the tower. I settled into camp by pitching my mini tent and getting my quilt uncompressed. I started up the V8 can stove by the fire and talked with a third backpacker that had joined the group. Dinner was a tasty freezer bag meal of instant rice, dehydrated hamburger, dehydrated black beans, and spices.
MYOG mini tent and down quilt ready for the night.
After dinner, my new friends decided to get me up the tower to watch the sun set. With me in between the two of them and constant commands of "Just don't look down," I climbed the old wooden steps. At the top, I pulled myself into the windowed room that sat perched on the steel structure. The view was incredible. The spectacular site of the changing sky as the sun dropped below the mountainous horizon left me speechless.
Sunset viewed from the Mount Sterling fire tower.
The evening was one of those great times when the hustle of being an everyday 42-year-old father of two starts to settle down a bit. Watching the coals of the fire die and talking with fellow hikers as a chill set into the air brought a welcome moment of peace. As darkness settled in, the night opened up a sky full of stars like none seen from my suburban home.
We decided to make one more trip up the tower to view the mountains in the dark. I clung to the rails as the wind picked up and climbed the dark staircase. From the observation room, I could see speckles of light from the inhabitants beyond the park's boundaries. If you get a chance to camp at this location, I really recommend climbing the tower after dark.
After saying good night I tucked myself into my quilt and slept peacefully. The temperature dropped to 45 degrees, which was cool, but I slept extremely warm in my 20-degree quilt. I woke up a bit before sunrise, heated water on my V8 can stove and ate some breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. As sunrise approached, I woke my companions for one more trip up the tower (they had asked me to do this). The few clouds hanging in the air only added to the view of the day's first light
I packed up and hit the trail, backtracking a short distance over the Mount Sterling Ridge Trail, then continuing down the trail past the junction with Swallow Fork. My favorite time to hike is in the morning. I enjoyed the cool air and was charged for a big day. I had planned to hike at least 24 miles to get to my next campsite.
At the end of the Mount Sterling Ridge Trail, I reached the southernmost point of my trip and picked up the Balsam Ridge Trail heading northwest. This trail took me to the AT, where I made my way north. The hiking was composed of short ups and downs along mountain ridges. Though not entirely flat hiking, it was much easier then the previous day's incline. At many locations the forest would open up and provide a nice view of the valleys below.
I continued along the AT around Mount Guyot, the fourth highest peak in the East (6,621 ft.). This peak is distinguished as being the highest peak in the East with no road or trail to its summit. I continued to Old Black (6,370 ft) as the sun warmed the day. By mid-afternoon the temperature approached a hot 85 degrees. About a mile and a half past Old Black I reached Snake Den Trail, where I came across the wreckage of an F-4 Phantom fighter that had crashed in 1984.
Wreckage of an F-4 Phantom that crashed into the mountains.
After a short distance down the Snake Den Trail I picked up the Gabes Mountain Trail. This trail dropped in elevation through beautiful, stream-filled forests. Campsite #29 is found not far down the trail, and I rested here, picked up water from a crystal clear stream, and set my sights on campsite #34.
Lush forest along the Gabes Mountain Trail.
Scaredy Bear
It wasn't far past the campsite that I started seeing bear dung. Though this is common in the Southern Appalachians, seeing an actual bear along the trail has always eluded me. I quieted my step and continued another half mile where fifty feet ahead, I spotted a black bear. He was digging for grubs at the base of a rotted tree beside the trail. I stood still and reached for my camera. The bear spotted me and took off crashing through the rhododendron. I was able to get a picture of the bear in the distance, but you have to look mighty hard to see him.
The spooked bear, looking over at me. Can you find it?
Excited about seeing the bear, I hardly noticed my tired legs that had moved me 35 miles over the last 24 hours. Less than a mile later, I spotted my second bear as I rounded a sharp bend, this one was much closer: only about 15 feet separated us. It jumped instantly down a steep incline, traveling a hundred feet in a quick moment. I was amazed by how fast these awkward looking animals could travel. I was also relieved by how avidly they avoided humans.
Being Doubted and Envied
The trail now headed towards the east. As the time approached 6:00 p.m., I arrived at campsite #34 in Sugar Cove. Exhausted, I planted myself down on a log in the midst of many small tents and asked the only awake hiker if it was okay if I rested a bit. He asked me how many miles I had come, I glanced down at the GPS, and the day's mileage showed 27.2. I told him 27 miles. He asked how many days that took; I answered that it was since this morning. The young hiker appeared doubtful.
Campsite #34 was a beautiful spot nestled in the woods beside a crashing stream. Further downstream from the large group, I found a spot near two hikers, they welcomed me. These guys were state of the art backpackers that knew the Smokies well. We spent the night comparing my homemade gear to their high tech items. These guys probably had some of the lightest base weights possible for traditional backpackers, likely fewer than 20 pounds. They still had all the comforts like double wall tents, Osprey packs, full-length air mats, and Jetboil stoves. There was an appreciation for both techniques.
We ate dinner together without a fire, but the stream provided wonderful background noise. I pitched my mini tent, removed my sleeping gear, and they watched as my packed collapsed into thin air without the sleeping pad to give it shape. As the night wound down, we hoisted up our food bags and climbed into our respective tents, falling asleep to the sounds of the rushing water.
I woke up around 6:00 and ate a quick breakfast of grits and coffee. I packed up and hit the trail at 6:30 while most of the other campers slept. The sun was just beginning to bring light to the wonderful cove of hardwoods. I continued down the Gabes Mountain trail with a 15+ mile day ahead of me to get to my truck. I made a nice stop at Hen Wallow Falls to take a few pictures.
Hen Wallow Falls along the Gabes Mountain Trail.
The trail continues completing the decline, dropping hikers into the Cosby camp ground at approximately 2,200 feet of elevation. This would be the first and only road I would cross over the 60 miles. My tired legs were not looking forward to the next section of trail, but I had my heart set on seeing the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower. The original tower was built in the 1930s and modeled after the Yosemite towers found in the western U.S. The tower was reconstructed in the 1970s and considered a must see. It sits at approximately 4,900 feet in elevation, nearly 3,000 feet higher then where I was standing.
Hardwood canopy in the lower elevations.
I found the Low Gap Trail at the southern end of the camp ground. Initially the trail was gradual through lush forests and streams, but over a short 3 miles the trail climbs 2,500 feet before it intersects with the AT. I traveled north along the AT as the temperature began push 90 degrees. I hiked the next two miles shirtless in the surprising hot spring day before I reached the side trail to Mount Cammerer. This 0.6-mile trail was fairly flat and ended at the famed fire tower. Though the hiking was uncomfortably hot, the tower made up for it. The fire tower was a beautiful piece of architecture constructed of squared stone with a shake roof and wooden decking surrounding all sides. From the deck a full 360 degree unobstructed view was available.
Mount Cammerer Fire Tower sitting at 4,928 feet in elevation.
View from the wooden deck of the Mount Cammerer fire tower.
Enjoying the incredible view, I finished the last drops of water and ate a quick trail snack seated on the steps of the tower. I took pictures and headed back down the side trail to return to the AT. Just shy of the Davenport shelter I found the Chestnut Branch trail: the last leg of my trip. The path was steep, luckily in a direction that was down. At times I found it easier to run at near sprint speeds, allowing gravity to pull me down the mountain and eat up distance.
Approaching the end of the trail, I decided to take a quick dip in Chestnut Branch Creek. The icy water felt like electricity against my hot skin at first, but minutes later it provided a great relief from the hot day and cleaned off two days of salty sweat. Refreshed I hiked the last minutes of the trail to my truck.
Being a husband and father makes time a dear and scarce commodity. Although the trip was only a few days and nights, I was grateful to my family for giving me the time that was so needed. When I reflect back it was a perfect trip. I experienced the outdoors by swimming in icy waters, watching the sun set and rise over the Appalachians, stumbling onto black bears, talking with fellow backpackers over a fire, and hiking full days with a light pack.
This trip gave me an extra level of satisfaction knowing I had completed it with gear that I had made. The gear performed beyond my expectations and for that I owe thanks to the BackpackingLight community for input and guidance with each piece. If interested in making your own gear, I highly recommend the BPL article series Make Your Own Gear: Five Yards to SuperUltraLight by Jay Ham and the BPL article Make Your Own Gear – Down Quilt or Sleeping Bag by Roger Caffin. Although I hiked alone I could not have done it alone. If you would like more information about me or my gear, please visit my website.


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I want to tell you about an experience with food recently because I see that dining, food, new cafes, recipes and famous chefs are the way to go these days, if one wants attention.
If ever you are in New York City, you are about 90 minutes from the rapidly-becoming-more-famous Blue Hill at Stone Barns Farm. (The name is tricky to remember! But better to remember the fact that it is a nonprofit farm/education center with a mission for creating sustainable food systems.) It is located near New Bedford, which is where a lot of famous VIPs and rich people live, but that didn�t scare me off.
I was being �taken� to the Blue Hill restaurant in a gang and nobody knew or cared who I was or that I grew up on Texas road kill, tacos and chicken-fried steak.
Our host had secured the precious reservation so when we got to the farm � observing hogs, sheep and chickens grazing and pecking en route � and its restaurant, we were just enjoying the twilight and the bucolic fields. We were too late for the more informal daytime cafe or garden shop.
The formal dining room was all but dark with only a few glimmering candles on the tables. This was just as well as there were really no menus to read anyway. One just waits for the waiter to give choices for September, which was the month, and he asks you to express likes, dislikes and allergies.
We dined on what had been harvested in the field, the greenhouse, the pasture and forest, and from the hives and cellar. Of course, there were famous wines to accompany our surprises. I had a great time during a superb dinner and the only thing I didn�t like was that the waiter was grand and supercilious. But that�s OK. He was catering to our whims. He refused at one point to give us bread, although we pointed to it being carried around the room. He said, �In time, but not now or you will fill up on it!� (Just like being at home under the electric fan with daddy slapping our elbows off the table!)
I especially recommend the September tiny, tiny veggies that are spiked onto a long board and eaten raw. Little carrots, cauliflowers, onions, etc. And we had some small tomato sandwiches. They were delightful. Also lamb, free-range chicken and fall honey. Like that. So, go, if ever you are near Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, Briar Cliff Manor, Tarrytown or the Rockefeller State Park Preserve.
The phone number for reservations is not a secret, but it�s hard to find. It�s (914) 366-9600. Don�t tell �em Liz sent you. They won�t care. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is too pure for publicity!


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Photo from Facebook
Twenty-four-year-old real estate agent Lindsay Buziak, centre, was found dead in a vacant house in Saanich, B.C., on Feb. 2, 2008.
Louise Dickson, Canwest News Service · Feb. 7, 2008 | Last Updated: Feb. 7, 2008 4:00 PM ET
SAANICH -- Jason Zailo, the boyfriend of slain real estate agent Lindsay Buziak, returned to 1702 De Sousa Pl. on Wednesday to help Saanich police re-enact events surrounding her killing.
At the same time, investigators confirmed that Ms. Buziak died from multiple stab wounds, according to a forensic autopsy conducted Tuesday. But in order to protect the ongoing investigation, they wouldn't reveal the extent of her injuries, other than to say there was no evidence she was sexually assaulted.
So far, Saanich police have refused to identify Mr. Zailo as the person who made two 911 calls Saturday around 6 p.m. about Ms. Buziak's welfare. But friends say he went to the vacant house in Gordon Head that evening with a friend to check on Ms. Buziak, who had been uneasy about a 5:30 p.m. appointment to show the home to a new client.
Mr. Zailo told friends he found Ms. Buziak's body up against the wall on the floor of an upstairs bedroom in the newly built home.
During the re-enactment Wednesday, members of the media were asked to clear away from the scene. Torquay Place, which leads to De Sousa Place, was closed to traffic while investigators filmed a non-descript beige sedan pulling onto the cul de sac, then pulling into the driveway.
After a while, the car turned around and drove off in the same direction. Then, Mr. Zailo arrived with Bradley Hickford, a high-profile local criminal defence lawyer.
"I have no comment with respect to anything," Mr. Hickford said Wednesday night when asked about representing Mr. Zailo.
He added: "My client's not charged with anything."
Saanich police have said emergency crews raced to the home on Saturday evening after receiving two 911 calls. The first call at 6:15 p.m. came from outside the house. The caller asked police to check on Ms. Buziak.
The caller then entered the house through an unlocked door and found her body upstairs. He made a second 911 call asking for medical assistance.
When police arrived at the scene, they met two witnesses.
"They are being very helpful in our investigation," said Const. Brad Brajcich.
Police are also very interested in finding out the identity of a woman with a strong foreign accent who called Ms. Buziak Saturday afternoon and asked the young woman to show her properties in the $1-million range. The woman allegedly told Ms. Buziak she intended to buy that day. Later, Ms. Buziak reportedly received a phone call from a man who said he alone would meet with her. Ms. Buziak told friends in her Re/Max Camosun office that she was uncomfortable about the appointment. She asked Mr. Zailo to meet her at the house.
Const. Brajcich did not say if the caller wanted to see the vacant house on De Sousa Place or if that was a property Ms. Buziak chose to show.
Investigators are interviewing many of Ms. Buziak's friends and checking into her background to try to find out the motive for her killing. Mr. Zailo, ex-boyfriend Matt MacDuff, and his new girlfriend have talked to police.
Another young female real estate agent, Jasmine Parsons, who previously dated Mr. Zailo, told police she received a suspicious call from a woman with a heavy foreign accent the day after Ms. Buziak was killed.
Before the re-enactment Wednesday, Saanich detectives continued their investigation inside the home, which is still sealed off with yellow crime tape. Investigators were seen taking photographs inside the house. Twenty-five officers have been assigned to the case.
Meanwhile, Chris Markham, president-elect of the Victoria Real Estate Board, attended an already scheduled meeting Wednesday with about 15 senior real estate professionals to discuss safety.
"People in the profession are concerned and they're still in shock," said Mr. Markham. "It's just a bad feeling right now. We have big concerns about the cause and why. We still need to carry on."
The group has created a task force to try to enhance security for those who work in the profession.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Andrew's Cathedral, 740 View St. at 1 p.m. In her obituary published in Thursday's Times Colonist, Ms. Buziak's family says: "We wish to thank everyone for their kind words, support and comforting actions. The outpouring of love is overwhelming. We also wish to thank and acknowledge Saanich police for all their hard work and efforts in bringing justice to those responsible for this heinous crime."
Finally, the family asks anyone with information to contact police.
Saanich police have established a tip line and are encouraging the public to come forward even if they think the information is minor. Call Saanich police at 475-4321 and ask for the tip line or call Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
Victoria Times Colonist


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Recipe from Ashley Broussard from Lake Charles, La.
5-6 slices of white bread cut into cubes (stale if possible)
1/2 chopped onion
3 ribs celery diced
2 tbsp butter or margerine
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup green apple peeled and diced salt and pepper to taste
1 1/4 cup water (1 cup for gravy 1/4 cup for stuffing)
2 tsp cornstarch
1 chicken boullion cube (cornstarch, boullion and water is a slurry)
Soak raisins in water to plump, about 15 minutes. Wilt onion and celery in butter, just until clear. Combine all ingredints in bowl. Moisten with water, just to hold together, but not wet. Cut a slit in pork loin, lenghtwise. If loin is too long for the knife, cut from end to end tomeet in the middle. Stuff with the bread mixture. Sear loin in hot pan just till golden. Place pan with loin in oven at 375 for 10 minutes per pound. Remove loin from pan and let the meat rest for 15-20 minutes prior to slicing. Return the pan to the burner and heat to make gravy. Mix boullion cube and cornstarch in a jar with 1 cup water. Once drippings are heated, add slurry to deglaze the pan. Stir gravy untill desired thickness. Strain gravy,slice loin and drizzle gravy on top.
Bon appetit!
*DISCLAIMER*: The information contained in or provided through this site section is intended for general consumer understanding and education only and is not intended to be and is not a substitute for professional advice. Use of this site section and any information contained on or provided through this site section is at your own risk and any information contained on or provided through this site section is provided on an "as is" basis without any representations or warranties.


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LOL–707 has a rare trick: twofold rotational symmetry. Turn it around a point in the middle of the dash separating the letters from the digits and you end up with the same license plate.
Further geometric geekery could be attained by prying LOL–707 off this old C–Class, transferring it to an M3 CSL, and taking it to the Isle of Man like Jeremy Clarkson did on Top Gear:
The triskelion in the Manx flag is one of the rare objects with threefold rotational symmetry.


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I've returned to the Village after a bit of a Sabbatical. Life is hectic, so I won't visit every day.
My dad passed away 18 hours after my second son was born. He and my mom just finished a lunch date before a planned visit to meet their newest grandchild. My dad sat in the passenger seat, clicked his seat belt, then gave up the ghost. Because of my parents' insurance, they had to go to a different hospital. My dad was really gone. A year later (to the day!) my 97-year-old grandmother passes away due to pneumonia.
That son is now a toddler and starting two-word phrases. he has taken to staring at our front door, laughing, and conversing with someone we can't see. When I say converses, I mean he babbles words, waits for a reply, then babbles more. He points to photos on our walls and says "gram gram" or "gram great" so we think it's family.
My other son is almost 2 years older. Very smart and articulate. He talks about seeing grandpa in heaven and sometimes in the guestroom. I've sensed something or someone but can't put my finger on it. I feel love and brightness, not malice.


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- apa.az
- Social
Presidential aide: "Bans on holding of wedding parties and funeral ceremonies still in force"
"The classes are not held on Saturdays and Sundays. The movement of public transport in the cities and regions where the toughened special quarantine regime is applied is restricted on Saturdays and Sundays so that the infection wouldn't grow", said today Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration at the press conference organized by Task Force under Cabinet of Ministers, APA reports.
H. Hajiyev said the monitoring activities conducted so far show that when functioning in the open air spaces, the restaurants and most shops comply with requirements: "Meanwhile, the decision regarding the functioning of restaurants in enclosed spaces hasn't yet been adopted".
The assistant to the President of Azerbaijan noted that the prohibitions on holding of the wedding parties and the funeral ceremonies on the national scale are still in force.
Ramiz Mikayıloğlu
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Quake death toll rises to 20 in Izmir, 763 wounded - UPDATED-7
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs issue statement on the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian FMs
The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia ended in Geneva
Public transport is suspended in several other cities and regions of Azerbaijan until November 2
Defense Ministry: "Azerbaijani Army does not fire on civilians"
All means mobilized to help quake-hit people: Erdogan
4 football matches in Turkey postponed after Izmir quake
Bakcell supports the residents of Barda
MoD: Another "Osa" anti-aircraft missile system was destroyed - VIDEO
Azerbaijani FM Jeyhun Bayramov met with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs - UPDATED
First Vice President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva conveys condolences to the people of Turkey
CBA: Credit investments in Azerbaijanəs economy increased by up to 2% during January-October
MoD: Precise strikes were inflicted on the enemy
Armenian Armed forces inflict rocket attack on Alasgarli village of Azerbaijan's Tartar
MoD: Situation on the frontline is under the control of the Azerbaijani Army
Greece and France offered Turkey help regarding earthquake in Izmir
Azerbaijani President: "From the point of view of effectiveness and efficiency, the Minsk Group, of course, didn't justify itself"
Head of Turkey's MFA thanked Azerbaijan
Rally against Armenian terrorism was held in Venice
Azerbaijani President: "I think that co- chairing countries should seriously think about what sanctions could be applied against the aggressor in order to make them leave the occupied lands"
Azerbaijani President: "I think it is premature to speak about peacekeepers in conflict zone"
Ilham Aliyev: "Pashinyan's statement on Pakistani, Turkish special units is nonsense"
Supreme Commander-in-Chief: "Azerbaijani soldiers and officers are liberating the lands, raising the flag"
President Ilham Aliyev makes phone call to Erdogan: "Azerbaijan is ready to provide any kind of assistance to brotherly country"
Azerbaijan's MES conducts awareness raising works among population regarding rules of safe behavior during war period
President: "There are no moral norms, no honor, dignity, and no understanding of how wars are fought for them"
Ilham Aliyev: "Azerbaijani Army has demonstrated its advantage on the battlefield"
Putin discussed situation in Nagorno Garabagh at meeting of Security Council
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Azerbaijani President: "Armenian state was created artificially on the lands that it never owned"
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One of the Armenian militants captured during military operations turned out to be a clergy - VIDEO
President Ilham Aliyev: "All three violations of ceasefire were committed by the Armenian side"
Azerbaijani state flag hoisted at four more outposts liberated from Armenian occupation
Azerbaijan offered help to Turkey regarding earthquake occurred in Izmir
President Ilham Aliyev was interviewed by Russia's Interfax news agency - UPDATED
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Meeting of Azerbaijan and Armenia Foreign Ministers kicks off in Geneva
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In the true spirit of healthy competition, LG Electronics has launched a rival to Pioneer's in-car SatNav entertainment device. The LG LAN9600R has a seven-inch touchscreen DVD monitor, MP3 player and CD tuner with European street-level navigation and integrated Bluetooth hands-free calling.
Drivers will also be able to navigate across Europe with a seven digit postcode search, providing you have country-specific DVDs.
It plays CDs, MP3s and DVDs while telling you where to go, but also has the safety option of shutting down the movie when the handbrake is off. It has a removable front panel for improved security and a front-mounted USB input for flash memory devices and MP3 players.
Halfords is the only shop where you can buy this within the UK for £999 as of this week.


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COVID19 - Deliveries are guaranteed - Art can be discovered and bought online too
Online only
Inspired by a grandfather artist, Moogly began painting instinctively as a child. He turned to visual communication and learned the techniques of illustration, then becoming a freelance graphic designer. This autonomy allowed him to spend time on his own creations. He enjoys the balance between graphic design and art. His work attracted notice very quickly and he began rather quickly to exhibit. Sensitive to the environment, Moogly is highly critical of humanity. Ashamed of what man has done to the world, he has developed even further his commi…
All artworks presented by Carré d'artistes are unique, signed by the artist and come with a certificate of authenticity.


text: Quotidian Tom 1,365 #1 Posted October 31, 2017 Interstate Cuteness Quote According to a Supreme Court brief filed today, Utah prairie dogs "produce nothing of importance except the annoyance of the surrounding population," and "they make terrible pets." The brief, which urges the Court to hear a constitutional challenge to a federal regulation protecting the rodents, concedes that they are "adorable little critters" but notes that "the protection of cuteness is not a congressional power" granted by the Constitution. ... Although Utah prairie dogs have no commercial value and live only in the southwestern part of that state, the 10th Circuit reasoned that the power to protect them is a crucial part of a broader regulatory scheme. A similar argument was the basis for Gonzales v. Raich, the 2005 case in which the Supreme Court upheld the federal power to criminalize production and possession of homegrown medical marijuana. But unlike marijuana, Cato et al. note, Utah prairie dogs are not a fungible commodity, and their status has nothing to do with that of other animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. Contrary to what the appeals court implies, the brief says, it is obviously not true that "removal of the prairie dog from federal jurisdiction will render the government impotent to bar trafficking in eagle feathers." More on point are various lower court decisions about critters such as California's hapless toad, bugs that live in caves in Texas, smelt in Alabama IIRC, and others. They all affect interstate commerce, though Justice Roberts didn't think killing a Cali toad did at the time. He did say that the regulation could be upheld on other grounds. A curious statement at the time. Now it's more clear what he meant: if Congress said they were regulating interstate commerce by protecting the cute prairie dog, what they really MEANT was that they were taxing them. Or something. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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