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Developing Issues
- Oct 14, 2009
By: Rajesh Goel, Brainlink International Inc.
Q: We're refurbishing an existing building. What are the most important technological considerations today?
A: Whether you're involved in a new development or upgrading an existing structure, several issues arise.
Conduits, Conduits, Conduits. You can never have enough telecom space or conduits. Ensure each floor has sufficient conduits for telecommunications. Talk to your local telecom consultant, check the code for what it requires and really consider doubling it.
A challenge we face in older buildings is that sometimes conduits don't
reach the upper floors, or current conduits are out of capacity because
they were too small or they've been clogged with gunk–cables that
are no longer required, cables run by defunct providers and so forth.
Electrical Supply. More and more firms are requiring 120V and 208V circuits, especially in their IT closets. Further down the road, we see a growing need for more power. Does your electrical wiring plant have sufficient cabling to handle higher loads? Can your local electricity provider deliver enough power? In some locales, the electric company has problems delivering sufficient power. Investigate whether you can use alternative or additional suppliers. And find out whether your local code allows you to use diesel-based generators.
Investigate Efficiency. The largest expense in data centers and office spaces is the heating/cooling/electrical system. For data centers, heating/cooling/power costs are their largest expense, far exceeding salaries, bandwidth and equipment. In offices, we see more and more clients creating or building IT closets, and the cost of cooling these
small spaces using traditional methods is expensive.
Some alternative power sources to consider: If you have a high-rise tower, can you use the wind differential to your advantage? Whether you're in New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles, properly using the altitude and wind direction could reduce your cooling costs immensely. Furthermore, if you're in the Midwest wind plains or the Southwest, can you use a solar farm to provide additional power? One of the most interesting power-efficiency systems we've seen uses a closed-loop heat exchanger utilizing a local lake as a heat sink. This can be done in any coastal city–or just about anywhere else where there is a lake or a river. Water moves in a closed loop, gets chilled by the river or lake, moves to the top of the buildings, cools the air in the buildings by soaking up excess heat and dumps that heat back into the lake. Nothing is exchanged except heat, there is no pollution and the system is low maintenance.
Provide Telecom Defense in Depth. Is your facility held captive by a single local telecom provider? Or can you connect to multiple providers? Tapping into the nearest fiber junction, where multiple providers offer Internet connectivity is a huge asset to a building and its tenants. If your facility provides access to power from multiple providers or sources and can offer Internet connectivity through multiple providers, then you can position it as a destination for firms that need redundant circuits, as well as high availability and systems uptime. Trading floors, bank back offices, disaster recovery sites and headquarters for regional banks and manufacturers are all examples.
Smart-cards Integration. A lot of the older buildings rely on a security guard with a loose-leaf notebook to control facilities access. Newer buildings give you a badge. Smarter buildings use badges that can be integrated into the tenants' security systems–so one badge controls access to the building, the tenant offices and the sensitive areas, and the tenant can pull log data from the building security into their own reporting system.
Does your building do that? Having a good security system that allows
reporting and staff monitoring gives tenants the flexibility to manage
their staff more effectively. Deleting their building ID locks the
ex-employee from tenant spaces. Changing or replacing one card updates all credentials, et cetera.
Wireless Telecommunications. More and more, the cell phone is the lifeline. For many people, their cell is the only way to reach them. When building a new site or upgrading an old one, test your location and building materials for wireless connectivity. Many pre-war buildings play havoc with WiFi and cell phones due to the materials used in their construction. And cell companies are always looking for new locations to place their towers. It makes sense, ensuring that your building materials don't block cell signals and potentially even generating revenue.
Whenever a client says they're looking to move, the first thing we look at is who can provide Internet connectivity there. How good are they? Where's the nearest exchange? Can we get diverse-path routing for telecoms? The second consideration is available power and cooling. What can we put in there? How can we best utilize the space without overspending? Third, will their cell phones work in the new location? We test phones and data cards from AT&T/Cingular, Verizon and Sprint.
Last, we look at geographic factors: suitability for commuting, nearest hospitals, companies in the area, emergency response capabilities and so forth.
Are you doing the same?
Rajesh Goel is chief technology officer at Brainlink International Inc. (or the Technologist), which assists companies in selecting and managing their mobile workforce, including PDAs, email integration and new mobile applications development appropriate for the real estate and commercial property markets.


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Valentine Special Offers, E-Marketing & Email Template
This is set of 2 PSD files with 2 Header options, Great Typography, Flat style clean, professional & customizable Email Template which can be use for retail and e-commerce product special offers. It's very easy to edit; Layers and Smart Objects are very well-organized and structured, you can easily customize the design and color as per your need. Design is clean and professional. all you need to do is just to change
Template Features:
• 2 Different Header Options • Considering Standard Newsletter Guidelines • Smart Object • Nicely Layered & Grouped • Clean, Modern & Unique Design • Fully Layered Adobe Photoshop PSD files • Well Organized Layers (created with Adobe Photoshop CS5) • 72 Dpi, Rgb • 600px layouts – good for sending in emails • Completely editable • Easy to make html
Free Google Font used
Droid Serif -Free Google Font : http://www.google.com/fonts#UsePlace:use/Collection:Droid+Serif Montserrat -Free Google Font : http://www.google.com/fonts#UsePlace:use/Collection:Montserrat Allura -Free Google Font : http://www.google.com/fonts#UsePlace:use/Collection:Allura bebas-neue -Free Font : http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/bebas-neue
FontAwesome – Free Web Icon Font: http://fontawesome.io/
Documentation :
documentation file included : (documentation.html)
Images in preview are not included in main download file

subset: commoncrawl


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Y'all better listen up. The Marcus King Band is coming to town. The band is currently touring in support of its debut album, Soul Insight. The disc is gaining recognition from guitar aficionados and fans of "bands who jam," defying genres as it draws from the full gamut of American music styles.
At the ripe old age of 19, band leader and guitarist King is already a veteran performer, having earned his first paying gig at age 8, a year after taking up the instrument. By age 11 he was performing with his father's band, Marvin King & The Blues Revival. His current barnstorming tour, which includes dozens of dates scheduled across the US, in many ways is simply a continuation of the family business. And, when you listen to the album, you realize the younger King and his band mates have taken very quickly to their jobs.
I had the opportunity to talk to King as a preview to their June 15 show at Bemo's Bar (701 S. Madison, Bay City). Here's what he had to say:
Review: When I look on your website and I see the sheer number of dates scheduled and the amount of territory you are covering, I get the impression that this is the beginning of a master plan of sorts - like the start of something big.
Marcus King: Well, we'd like to think so. We are just having fun doing what we do. It beats the heck out of doing anything else. We just like to put everything we have into it. I guess there is a master plan to it all, but as long as we can continue to do what we love, we'll be happy.
Review: You are probably familiar with the "10,000 hour rule," that says you need to invest 10,000 hours into an activity to actually "get good" at it. You have most likely already gone past that just practicing your guitar. Now that you have the opportunity to gig like you are – you are playing to a variety of audiences and a variety of kinds of places – how do you see yourself changing as a guitarist or a musician or as a performer? Mastering those last two are certainly a way different things than just playing guitar in your bedroom, aren't they?
King: Absolutely. Especially, with the kind of music we play, it's never the same show twice. You'll find, yourself as a musician, trying to outdo yourself from the night before at every show and every pass. Everybody in the band, as a player, has to have that same mentality. I think that was sets performing apart from just playing.
Review: Let me pick up on something you said there. For the people who might be reading this that are unfamiliar with your work, how do you describe what it is you do?
King: We get asked that kind of thing a lot when people are asking about the group – what kind of music we play – and they haven't really heard of us before. We try to explain it the best we can. But, it is tough because we don't really want to put our music in a box. I think Miles Davis explained it best when he said he didn't play jazz, because he didn't want to put his music in a box. It was just an expression of his emotion. If I was going to have to put a title on it, it would be "Jazz Fusion Psychedelic Southern Rock," so we can get everything in there in one pass. You what I mean?
Continue Reading at Review-Mag.com


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The third and final adventure in the Paths of the Damned campaign, set in the city of Nuln. Includes the adventure itself, a guide to Nuln, a city map, plot seeds and pre-generated characters.
From the back cover:
"Forges of Nuln is the final step along the Paths of the Damned campaign, and the road thus far has proved long indeed. Having thwarted Chaos in Ashes of Middenheim, foiled plots amidst the Spires of Altdorf, there is one last chance for Chaos to unleash hell in the Old World. The gun forges of Nuln belch sulphurous smoke into the sky, yet beneath the fumes there is the inescapable reek of Chaos corruption.
The city of Nuln - 'The Jewel of the Empire' - is ready to unveil the Imperial Gunnery school's finest creation - the gleaming cannon known simply as 'The Magnus'. Nobles the Empire over have been summoned by the capricious Countess of Nuln - Emmanuelle von Liebwitz. Many seek an invite to one of her glittering Masquerades, but whilst the nobility dance, death stalks the streets.
Sharp wits and desperate measures are required if the city, and indeed the Empire, is to be saved a terrible fate. Would be saviours must see through multifaceted lies, track down damning evidence and uncover an artefact of daemonic origins if they are to overthrow an immortal enemy who would see them slaughtered at every turn.
What evil taints the Jewel of the Empire? Will your group of beleagured heroes stop the forces of Chaos before it's too late? Step onto the Paths of the Damned to discover your fate!"
Available microbadges for WFRP (all editions):
Reviews of various WFRP products and related items. Includes critiques of the WFRP3 Core Set, Black Fire Pass, The


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Executives familiar with the moves said four zone chairmen will be shifting jobs next month, though they will continue to report to Chairman-CEO and Chief Creative Officer Martin Puris.
Max Gosling, chairman-CEO of the Asia/Pacific zone, will become president of international operations, assuming all worldwide responsibilities except North America (AA, Jan. 13). He moves from Sydney to New York, and all regional directors will report to him.
Duncan Pollock, zone chairman for North America and also chairman-CEO of the New York office, will become president of North America. His responsibilities will remain the same.
London-based Terry Rosenquist, chairman-CEO of the Europe/Africa zone, becomes president-multinational clients and business development. New business and research will report to Mr. Rosenquist, and the agency will name a number of multinational client directors who will also report to him.
Jim Allman, Latin America zone chairman and worldwide client director-Johnson & Johnson, will serve multinational client operations, though his new title and


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A typist, a porn watcher, and how to live with your mother for the rest of your life
Populaire (2013)
I think the French have a knack for unique storytelling – and a love story set against the backdrop of a typing competition during the 1950's falls under that category. Déborah François stars as the quirky typist whose boss (Romain Duris) takes it upon himself to train her for a typing competition because of her quick-typing abilities, which she uses to make up for being a terrible secretary. The two begin to develop a romantic relationship, and from the trailer, it looks to be absolutely adorable, lighthearted, and charming.
Don Jon (2013)
Don Jon was received well by critics at Sundance, where it first premiered. Previously titled Don Jon's Addiction, first-time director and writer Joseph Gordon-Levitt (and star of the film) explained that the reason for the name change was to avoid confusion over the premise of the movie. In the director's own words:
Don Jon is a comedy about how men and women treat each other, and how the media we consume can create unrealistic expectations that we put on one another. That's why the story centers around a relationship between a young man (played by me) who watches too much pornography and a young woman (played by Scarlett) who watches too many romantic Hollywood movies. It's a topic I personally find fascinating and hilarious. [Screen Invasion]
The trailer is pretty entertaining, to say the least, and Johansson is serving up some serious Jersey Shore realness. I'm excited for this.
Girl Most Likely (2013)
I really enjoyed Bridesmaids, so I'm interested in Kristen Wiig's future projects. I like her more when she's mellowed out, rather than playing those weird characters on SNL (with the exception of Gilly… sorry). It's one of the few female-centric films to come out this year and one of the few 2013 comedies that looks like it might be actually be funny. (2013 has been a disappointing year for comedies, so far.)
Girl Most Likely tells the story of a woman named Imogene who has a breakdown and then is forced to live with her eccentric mother, whom she doesn't really get along with, and her mother's boyfriend (Matt Dillon). Darren Criss plays Wiig's potential love interest, so that should be interesting.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis, both written and directed by the Coen brothers, stars Oscar Isaac as a folk singer in New York during the 1960's. The film also stars Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund, John Goodman, and F. Murray Abraham. Early reviews from Cannes, where it was awarded the Grand Prix, have been really positive. Peter Bradshaw writes:
Ultimately, the heartrending thing about Inside Llewyn Davis is its meditation on career success and career failure, and the unknowable moment when the one turns into the other… The intense sadness that permeates every chord and every note of his music, could be a desperate requiem for his own dreams, his own musical career. What an intense pleasure this film is, one of the Coens' best, and the best so far at Cannes. [The Guardian]
I will watch this for the cat.
The Butler (2013)
Oprah! That should be enough to want to watch this movie, right?
It looks a little Lifetime, and I'm a bit skeptical of director Lee Daniels given his previous credits include The Paperboy, a movie in which Nicole Kidman urinates on High School Musical alumus Zac Efron. From the trailer, the movie seems to be vilifying the Black Panthers, as well, which doesn't sit right with me. But it's going to be interesting to see all these presidents packed into a single movie… That's really what I'm looking forward to the most. I'm just hoping this isn't another white savior movie.


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Independence Days 2011-12: Slowing Down
Here it is, almost mid-November, and I feel like the last two months of the year are going to speed by in a blink at this rate. I still need to finish cleaning up the garden for the year and harvest a little more, but uff da, I am tired and just not finding the time to do it justice, especially with other events and holiday celebrations starting to fill the calendar.
I'm also having to shift the way I eat -- cutting a number of old favorites out of my meals for the foreseeable future -- and that means approaching my food with more mindfulness and more creativity. I am very thankful that there's still a wide variety of fresh vegetables at Local Roots, despite the end of the season, because I have been eating a lot of greens, brassicas, and potatoes. (And you all know I loves me some tatties.)
So I'm still thinking a lot about food, even if I'm not so focused on the growing or preserving at this point. This will be a slim update for Independence Days, but ideas and plans are still simmering:
1. Plant something: Chesnok Red garlic at the Southern Belle's and German Extra Hardy at the Renaissance Man's
2. Harvest something: chard and carrots from the Southern Belle's garden; turnips from the Renaissance Man's; I've really got to get out and pick more before the harder frosts come!
3. Preserve something: dried lemon verbena, ground cherries, tomatoes
4. Reduce waste (Waste not): finally turned the compost pile at the Renaissance Man's and amended the garden with some of the good stuff at the bottom, along with shredded paper and straw (ahhhh, sheet mulching, I love you!); tucked some chard stems and other vegetable scraps into the freezer for making stock; turned chicken bones from my roasted chicken into 3 1/2 quarts of stock; saved leftover garlic pesto from garlic class for use in baking; saved pie dough scraps from a maple hickory pie for market and filled three mini tart pans (put two in the freezer for future use)
5. Preparation and storage (Want not): restocked cheeses, flour, honey, maple syrup for baking; wrapped last squash in newspaper and put them in cold storage; restocked flavored syrups
6. Build local food systems: baked for market and cafe; donated pita bread and cornmeal bread for a friend to use in her hummus samplings at Local Roots; bartered bread for produce; co-taught garlic class with the Delighted Gardener; worked on Local Roots newsletter; attended meeting for market bakers; took the Renaissance Man to the local orchard to pick up pecks of apples so he could make applesauce and I could bake; shared empty canning jars with the Renaissance Man for his applesauce-making binge; published a book review at The Ethicurean and submitted an article and three book reviews to Farming Magazine; baked for the Inn; baked for a Training for Transition workshop and supplied other food for the weekend
7. Eat the food: mini quiche with greens; roasted Brussels sprouts; hash browns with greens, egg, cheese; chili with homegrown Jacob's Cattle beans; celery and peanut butter (locally roasted); much more
Well, the gardens might be slowing down, but apparently I'm not!
Labels: baking, friends, herbs, Independence Days, preservation (drying), vegetables, victory garden


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Today I had a humble, thankful moment.
A couple came in to pick up their clean wool area rug and we got chatting about area rugs.
I had talked a bit with the husband last week when he dropped the rug off. I had mentioned that when shopping for a new rug to smell and rub the rug. Sounds silly, but with some of the new hand tufted rugs they can smell bad or shed and neither is desired in an area rug.
The rug they own had come all the way from Texas, USA. They got the rug at an amazing price because it was a custom order that someone didn't like. The rug came with them to Victoria, BC and now to us for cleaning.
They asked me about where to buy rugs in Victoria, which lead to a deep discussion about the different types of rugs, how and where they are woven.
I showed them some different types and what made that rug a Persian, or Turkish and so on. When I get talking about area rugs I can go on for awhile. It is something I enjoy learning about and sharing with clients.
The client made the comment that I was lucky to be able to do my passion as a job. I found that amusing because the job came first then the passion grew from there. I knew nothing about area rugs three years ago, but I love learning new things and I absorb everything quite quickly.
My boss has said that I learned about area rugs faster than anyone he has trained before. I have been given many great compliments about my knowledge of area rugs and I am always grateful.
Thanks to all the people who listen to me go on about area rugs, RugloverMary


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The soon-to-be-harvested golden seed heads of the waving flax rustled and twittered; Pagan, like a fat, furry bouncing bomb, sent bird shaped splashes of burnt umber, soft slate grey, dark iridescent blue flashing into the air. Above, the jacks watched, twitching, in pairs along the telegraph wires; a comedic translation of the neat, sharp swallows waiting to desert the harshness of a UK winter. Can I write without the aid of nicotine? Possibly?
Sometimes the whole world feels as though it's against you; the rabbits thumb their noses, the jackdaws mock from the treetops, and buzzards smirk from on high. Poor Hamish just had to duck as the windswept willow twigs – soft and malleable, just tapped him on his head; jumping sideways, he ran to hide behind me just in case! Life is tough for a 10 stone Alaskan Malamute!
Not that I have an interest in poo or anything, but there is a dog who walks in the fields before I get there that has really weird poo; it's bright green, and I mean bright, and full of what looks like wheat seeds, or corn. Anyway, I've been puzzling over this for a couple of weeks, as you do, and this morning I finally met the mystery walker. He has 7 or 8 cockers, sprockers, sprickers, or crickers (sorry, Hatty, I didn't ask for DNA proof, cos we all know it's not proof an…………they were sodding spaniels – okay? lol), a retriever, and a rather miffed GSD in a basket muzzle. Impeccably well trained to the whistle, they milled around his proper working mans wellies (unlike my cheap Dunlops – I have wellie envy; in what world is that right?). We exchanged a few words – his involved pheasants and guns, mine involved giggling and trying not to trip over Hamish. We parted, his dogs running off ahead of him, mine almost pulling me over, causing me to squeal in a 'I'm a feeble girl, who's scared of spiders and country stuff' kinda way. However, at no point did I ask about the mysterious green poo – bollocks, it's bugging me now, and will continue to. Can I google it? Best not, I feel……….
I have tried and failed to quit smoking for years – over and over again, the guilt of lighting up, the inhale, the false promise of relaxation, the empty wallet.Yesterday I was on 40 a day, and now I'm not!!! None at all – cold turkey, wham bam thank you ma'am – done! I am free at last and will not smoke again – there's no point! My GP's receptionist mentioned a phone app that she and her friends had had great success with – yeah right, a phone app?!! But I was desperate, so lighting up another cig, I downloaded it. It sat on my phone for a week or two, but yesterday I opened it, with great trepidation, and listened, agreed with what the guy was saying, and smoked my last cig!
I am tempted to light up – I won't lie, but won't do it, there's nothing to gain by doing so.
If you, like me, were desperate to quit, give it a go – honestly you have nothing to lose.
This is what I used (Believe it or not): https://www.juicemaster.com/stop-smoking-in-2-hours-app/
This whole quitting smoking lark is so much easier than you think; I struggled, cut down, limited myself, smoked low tar, vaped, etc, for years, and it was always a form of torture, coupled with self loathing guilt every time I gave in and lit up. But this time – 5 days down the line, and I can honestly say, understanding how the 'nicotine trap' works, is the key to giving up; understanding the relationship between you and smoking throws up questions and answers that make so much sense. I won't say quitting was pleasurable, but it wasn't the torturous enduring longing that it has been before. I even stood next to a smoker yesterday, and yes, I enjoyed the smell of the smoke, but did not have the urge to smoke at all!
One thing that gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling is watching Hamish's tail go into a slow but joyous wag – his whole body grins in childish glee. This morning he just didn't stop wagging – he cantered along the tracks, finding sniffs to sniff, before bounding onwards, sharking through the damp grass, staining his fluffy cheeks vibrant green, and smiling the whole way round. He's such a sweetheart! Still nicotine free too!!!
So, after the heavy and persistent rain last night, followed by more this morning, keeping my footing on the mud slides that pretended to be tracks, was challenging, to say the least; not helped by rabbits that were either as thick as shit, or more cunning than a box of cunning weasels studying for a degree in extra cunning. They sat in plain sight, causing the dogs to go absolutely bonkers, and us unable to continue at any pace other than a hanging-on-for-grim-death slow walk; finally, they would shoot off sideways into the undergrowth, before the next one would take position. The other trick that was, apparently, 'great fun' this morning, was to wait, hiding under the canopy of crops, before being flushed out by Pagan, running straight into Hamish, who would panic, and then be flattened by an excitedly manic Pagan. Me, all the while, trying to stay vaguely in control – Yup, right! Coffee and drying off time 😉 Still no ciggies BTW and no cripplingly hindering urges to light up, either xxx
Gertie the Pink – that little firecracker of ball-chasing energy, just lay there and watched the beasts approach, then they lay down next to her – all three dogs too hot to care. Grunting Owner tried to gain some interest by bouncing his ball (Hey ho) in front of each dog in turn – all three ignored him! The futility of life lol. However, still no cigs!!!!!
Now, I could say that whilst walking this morning I was planning world domination, the plot of my best selling novel, pondering obscure and ultimately pointless philosophical conundrums or watching the minutiae of the world around me; however I was actually trying to work out how soon I could get away with turning around and heading for home, who had stolen the air, and how alarmingly big Hamish's balls looked from behind now he's in full coat drop. Ho hum
Whilst the fog burned off after the night, and the sun was still rising, I walked, and the beasts bounced, around the fields and copses. In the never ending hunt for a bunny breakfast, their foraging led them off the tracks and into the fields of silvery blue flax; with heads down, only sleek, shiny backs and waving tail plumes were visible above the crops (unlike our blessed leader, this isn't the worst thing they have done lol). Pagan, stoical and surefooted as ever, trotted ahead, every now and then looking up to check I was still attached to my lead and hadn't broken free, while from behind her would come a rustle, a huff and an embarrassed snort as Hamish fell down another rabbit hole.
Walking back, the beasts trotting contentedly along next to me, it struck me just how much flora and fauna they carry home on their coats; before shaking it all off, they must have a whole ecosystem in miniature.
Just today Pagan is covered in silvery blue flax flowers, gathered as she bounded joyfully through the fields; somehow, though, on Butch Grrl, they change from beautiful garlands to warrior camouflage, enabling successful bunny stalking. Hamish's delicate petal coating gives, not the impression of a modern man wearing an 'in touch with my feminine side' floral shirt, but of a sparkling Mardi Gras queen complete with waving plume tail! Ho hum……:/ However amongst the flowers, there are also tiny green and black fly, perfectly created spiders, a beetle or three, a small elk, a couple of tawny coloured moths, a meandering cete of badgers, grass seeds, most of an oak tree, a small patch of clover, more grass seeds, and a weasel. Coffee time, I feel
Yesterday, after our walk, I was concerned to see a bloody paw print as I was removing collars and leads. I couldn't tell who it belonged to as they milled around waiting to be towel dried (Hamish loves doing his Yoda impression – go, on admit it, we've all done it!), so it was paw inspection time. Eight paws later and no sign of anything – no splits, slits, cuts, nothing. It obviously wasn't that bad then, thought I. This morning I was alarmed to see another blood red paw print – again paw check time, again nothing. Whilst they had breakfast, I stepped outside for a cig, and there it was – a little pile of red brick dust, which, when mixed with water, turned to bloody red! Haven't a clue where it came from. Is Pagan living up to her name and practicing a Voodoo protective spell? Or is she trying to purify and cleanse Hamish of his impure, and quite frankly, randy thoughts? Who knows, but whilst the mystery of the Bloody Paw is solved, my mind is now onto where the brick dust came from. Badgers – got to be the badgers


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Topic: Microsoft
Google's search deal with Apple expires in early 2015, could bring new default to Safari
11/25/2014, 01:11 pm
The Safari browser for both iOS and Mac could have a new default search partner as soon as next year, as Apple's current deal with Google is reportedly set to expire in early 2015.
Microsoft highlights lack of new Siri features to promote Cortana in new ad
11/21/2014, 06:11 pm
Microsoft on Friday released a short ad bashing lack of enhancing Siri when it released the latest iPhone 6 models, expectedly touting Windows Phone-based Cortana virtual assistant technology.
Apple's MacBook Air continues to bear the brunt of Microsoft's Surface ad budget
11/17/2014, 12:11 pm
As Microsoft begins ramping up the holiday ad blitz for its Surface tablets, the software giant has kept Apple's MacBook Air squarely in the crosshairs, continuing its string of television spots that pit the two devices against each other.
Review: Microsoft's health tracking, iOS-compatible Band
11/16/2014, 09:11 am
The competitive price, strong feature set, and universal compatibility of the Microsoft Band will make it a compelling product for anyone in the market for a wearable fitness and health tracking device, though it does suffer from some of the expected shortcomings of a first-generation product.
After losing Apple's iPad business, Intel has bled $7 billion while heavily subsidizing cheap x86 Atom Android tablets
11/16/2014, 03:11 am
Over the last two years, Intel's mobile chip division has lost $7 billion while heavily subsidizing the manufacturing costs of Android Atom tablet makers. It now plans to phase out those generous incentives, which will make it more expensive for iPad competitors to dump cheap tablets into the market.
Apple Inc. A8X iPad chip causing big problems for Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia
11/15/2014, 12:11 am
Apple's A-series Application Processors that power iPads--including the latest and greatest A8X in iPad Air 2--are inciting billion dollar losses for Intel and threatening major problems for rival tablet chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia, along with all the companies that depend upon those vendors for their mobile chips.
iPhone 6 already driving iOS enterprise share gains for Apple
11/10/2014, 01:11 pm
Enterprise mobile services vendor Good Technology reports that Apple's iPhone 6 launch helped the company win back mobile device enterprise share from Android, boosting iOS to 69 percent of all device activations as firms' deployment of custom mobile apps continues to grow exponentially.
Microsoft's own Office apps much better on iPhone than Windows Phone 8
11/07/2014, 08:11 am
In keeping with the growing importance of Apple's iOS platform, Microsoft's new Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for iPhone are now far superior than those Microsoft offers for its own Windows Phone 8 platform.
Microsoft Office for iOS overhauled to allow free creating & editing of documents without subscription
11/06/2014, 09:11 am
Dedicated versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, comprising the Microsoft Office suite, are now available for iPhone, based on a unified codebase with their iPad counterparts, and also offering both iPhone and iPad users the ability to create and edit documents for free without an Office 365 subscription.
Microsoft's Surface Pro stunt fails as CNN election commentators stick to iPads
11/05/2014, 03:11 pm
News commentators covering U.S. elections for CNN were given Surface Pro tablets by Microsoft, but continued using iPads on air, covering up the supplied Surface with papers or even the iPad itself.
EFF ranks Apple's iMessage, FaceTime "best mass market options" for secure messaging, ahead of BlackBerry Messenger, Google Hangouts, Facebook, Microsoft Skype
11/05/2014, 02:11 pm
In its ranking of electronic messaging systems for safety and security, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said no mainstream products passed all of its criteria, but that Apple's iMessage and FaceTime "stood out as the best of the mass-market options."
Microsoft continues ad assault on Apple's MacBook Air, features Lenovo in latest spot
11/03/2014, 09:11 am
Apple's wildly popular MacBook Air remains in Microsoft's crosshairs as the Windows maker seeks to break Apple's stranglehold on the premium laptop market, this time compared to Lenovo's Yoga 3 convertible PC in Microsoft's latest television advertisement.
Microsoft says public beta of new Office for Mac coming in first half of 2015
10/31/2014, 11:10 am
In releasing a new version of Outlook for Mac on Friday, Microsoft also revealed will launch an update to its Office suite for Mac next year, allowing users to test it in the first half of 2015 before a launch sometime in the second half of the year.
First look: Heart rate tracking $199 Microsoft Band connects to Apple's iOS & OS X, will integrate with HealthKit
10/30/2014, 05:10 pm
Microsoft issued a surprise on Thursday when it launched a new hardware product dubbed the Microsoft Band, a fitness-focused wrist-worn device that connects to both iOS and OS X, and will also integrate with Apple's HealthKit service and Health app for iPhone. AppleInsider offers a first look at the new wearable device.
Spotify brings its new look to iPad, Skype update lets users save and delete chat photos
10/30/2014, 12:10 pm
Popular music subscription service Spotify updated its official iPad app on Thursday with a new look in line with its iPhone client, while also giving users access to the "Your Music" feature. In addition, Microsoft's Skype for iPhone was also updated with the ability to save and delete photo, as well as a faster chat load time.
Rumor: Office for Mac to get Retina redesign, feature parity with Windows in Q1 2015
10/28/2014, 01:10 pm
Microsoft is set to release an all-new version of Office for Mac in the first quarter of 2015, documents revealed on Tuesday suggest, modernizing the Mac version of the popular software suite and bringing it to feature parity with its Windows counterpart.
Microsoft unveils Office 365 SDK and APIs for iOS app extensibility
10/28/2014, 03:10 am
Microsoft on Tuesday revealed a multi-pronged initiative to supply developers with new Office 365 APIs and open-source SDKs, which can be used to tap into the company's cloud-based productivity platform for deep iOS app integration.
Microsoft rumored to launch smartwatch this holiday season, beating Apple Watch to market
10/20/2014, 11:10 am
Microsoft is said to be planning to bring a smartwatch to the market "within the next few weeks," beginning sales ahead of the lucrative holiday shopping season and also beating the highly anticipated Apple Watch to store shelves.
Editorial: A friendlier Apple Inc now invites media through its Infinite Loop front door
10/18/2014, 07:10 pm
At this week's Apple Event showing off the company's newest iPads and Macs, invited members of the media weren't directed around the back of Apple's Infinite Loop campus to the Town Hall door, as usual. They were greeted at the front door and led through the private campus courtyard.
Skype for Mac 7.0 launches with new mobile-inspired look, 64-bit support, improved chat & file sharing
10/09/2014, 12:10 pm
Microsoft on Thursday launched a redesigned version 7.0 of its popular Skype chat application for Mac OS X, making it a 64-bit application, introducing a new file transfer presentation with inline images, and much more.


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The Hobby Lobby's Supreme Court Case, Explained by Puppets!
Earlier this week, I shared some of the more insane statements made in briefs to the Supreme Court about the cases challenging the birth control benefit in the Affordable Care Act. Companies like Hobby Lobby are using their own religious stance against birth control to try to take this benefit away. Not OK! That's why I'm obsessed with this video from the equality website UltraViolet. They teamed up with The Daily Show co-creator and activist Lizz Winstead to illustrate the absurdity of this case, break down the issue, and remind us why we don't want our bosses in our bedrooms. Watch the puppets explain it all below. HILARIOUS.


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Tips and guidance on effective study - simply choose the links that interest you!
The Skills Check is a short survey which should take you no more than 3 minutes to complete. Once you have completed the Skills Check we provide you with a personal learning plan targeted to your personal study needs and goals.Sign in to work on the Skills Check.
Preparation and practice are essential for success in your examination. There is no single best way to revise for an exam but you do need to adopt an organised approach. For example, timetable the work according to how much time you have and find out about the format of the examination. This section will help you figure out how to approach your revision.
Everyone revises differently and the techniques you use depend partly on what it is you are studying. However, the same principles apply to all subject areas. Rather than simply throwing yourself in and rereading your materials, try to adopt a strategic approach to your revision. The main principles are as follows.
Then do the work! Remember, it's less stressful to actually do some revision than it is to think about doing it.
Ged's advice to students who are revising for an examSign in to view this video
It is best to start revision early and keep revising as you study, by doing little but often. However, even if you have left it a bit late, you can make the most of the time you have by adopting the strategic approach described here.
Listen to Roger, an OU student, as he shares his thoughts about how to prepare for an exam. Bear in mind that 'it's never too late to start but, equally, it's never too early'!Sign in to listen to this audio
Revising as you study can make it easier to learn subsequent topics. Towards the end of a module you'll find that reviewing the material begins to bring everything together.
Some students collect material for their assignments while they study, which can be an effective time-management strategy. However, working through the material and then re-reading it for an assignment is very effective revision.
You tend to remember best the information received at the beginning and end of a learning session. So when you revise, it is a good idea to
Reviewing in this way is a very effective method of reinforcing memory.
Create and print your own revision checklistSign in to do this activity
There is also an RTF version (3.5MB) of this activity


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Experts Decry Torture Deja-Vu in Trump Presidency
WASHINGTON (CN) – As President-elect Donald Trump fleshes out his cabinet, experts across the spectrum are voicing alarm that the new administration has not heeded any of the lessons brought to light by exposure of the CIA's clandestine torture program.
Confirmation in 2007 that the CIA had waterboarded suspected members of al-Qaida spurred outrage across the globe, but Trump scoffed at these critics nearly a decade later during the early days of the presidential primaries.
Defending the need for what he called a "minor form" of torture like waterboarding, the Republican said he would approve "a hell of a lot worse."
"Believe me, it works OK," Trump said at one February speech in South Carolina.
The boast was concerning but former CIA analyst John Kiriakou said in an interview that he had hoped the real estate mogul was exaggerating.
Back in 2007 Kiriakou was the first U.S. government official to confirm the CIA's use of waterboarding, a practice he characterized as torture.
"I can't even believe that we have to have a conversation like this. It's sick to me, just sick," Kiriakou said in a phone interview. "It's as though we just as a country, we just don't learn our lessons."
Kiriakou is speaking out now out of concern that Trump's words are more than the braggadocio he put on display in debates.
"I've been appalled so far by his national-security appointments because I realize that he wasn't exaggerating and he wasn't kidding," said Kiriakou. "The only thing that prevents me from actively fearing for the nation on this issue is the fact that torture is patently illegal."
The hawkish Kansas congressman whom Trump picked for CIA director, Rep. Mike Pompeo, recently defended the Bush-era torture program, saying all Americans who carried out torture are "patriots."
And Trump's pick for national security adviser, retired Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, has said he would not ruled out the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Though Trump has not had a press conference since his Nov. 8 election, the president-elect has reportedly expressed a more nuanced view of torture thanks to a meeting with the retired Marine Corps general whom Trump is reportedly planning to tap as defense secretary.
Mattis, who once led the U.S. Central Command, reportedly told Trump that torture wasn't useful – something Trump told The New York Times he was surprised to learn.
"I'm not saying I changed my mind," Trump told the Times on Tuesday. He followed that by saying maybe torture is "not going to make the kind of difference that a lot of people are thinking."
One voice in the broad consensus that torture is actually ineffective is Kiriakou.
"Talk to any FBI agent past or present and they'll tell you that these techniques just simply don't work," Kiriakou said.
The 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture and the CIA Inspector General's report, which was leaked in 2009, show "definitively" that torture produced no intelligence that thwarted attacks against Americans or saved American lives, he noted.
Some years after Kiriakou blew the whistle on waterboarding, he faced prosecution for repeatedly disclosing classified information to journalists. Having served a two-year prison term as part of a plea deal, Kiriakou is vocal about his belief that his prosecution was retaliatory.
Noting that it's painful for him to compliment the FBI, Kiriakou nonetheless said the agency is good at what it does.
"They're terrific interrogators," he said. "And the reason they're terrific interrogators is because they have decades – almost a century of experience – establishing a rapport with their subjects."
"It works," Kiriakou added. "It's boring and it's slow, but it works."
Kiriakou said he cannot see a scenario where any CIA or counterterrorism director would risk their freedom and reputation. The CIA is not "bold and daring," he said. "It's a big lumbering, conservative bureaucracy." Any revival of the torture program would eventually become public, he said.
No Way, Jose
Jose Rodriguez, a primary architect of the CIA torture program, was apparently among those president-elect Trump considered to head the CIA, according to a post-election document published by law and lobbying firm Dentons, which the Intercept reported on Nov. 11.
Rodriguez, who headed the National Clandestine Service in the CIA from November 2004 to Septeber 2007, helped develop the program's secret black-site prisons overseas, where interrogators used waterboarding and other torture tactics.
Chris Anders, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberty Union's legislative office in Washington, said in an interview that "it would be exceedingly difficult" to restart the program Rodriguez helped design.
That's because torture is illegal under federal law, which was bolstered in 2015 with the McCain-Feinstein amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment reinforces already-existing restrictions on interrogation techniques, which are limited to those authorized in the Army Field Manual, which forbids CIA techniques.
The language of the McCain-Feinstein amendment was focused on the intelligence community, and the CIA specifically, Anders said.
"There are no questions – there should be no doubt in anybody's mind that the program that was used during the Bush administration is clearly illegal, clearly unconstitutional and is clearly a crime," he added.
Despite broad bipartisan support for the amendment, the 21 votes against it included President-elect Trump's pick for attorney general, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.
Anders noted, however, no president can change the law on his own: It would take an act of Congress to accomplish that.
Like Kiriakou, Anders also expressed faith that a change in culture in the intelligence community provides an additional buffer.
"You're not going to be able to find anybody to carry out the program," he said, pointing to comments that Gen. Mike Hayden, the former director of the CIA and National Security Agency, made to CNN's Jake Tapper on Feb. 23.
"Any future president, including a president Trump, if he wants someone waterboarded, he better bring his own bucket," Hayden had said.
Torture is an issue Anders said the ACLU will watch carefully, but he expressed confidence in U.S. laws to prevent it from happening again.
"Obviously these are areas of concern, but until and unless Congress changes the law, these are crimes and clearly illegal acts and there's no wiggle room," he said. "There's no glimmer of ambiguity on it – these are bright line laws that can't be broken."
As reported by the Associated Press, Sen. John McCain said at the International Security Form in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday that any attempts to revive torture would be quickly met with a court challenge.
"I don't give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do or anybody else wants to do," said McCain, an Arizona Republican who experienced torture himself as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "We will not waterboard. We will not do it."
Difficult but Not Impossible
Others are less optimistic, however, about the strength of U.S. law to prevent the re-emergence of torture.
"In the national-security arena, too often the law simply doesn't matter," said Patrick Eddington with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
"There are going to be plenty of people who are going to make the argument that it's going to be so much more difficult to do that this time out," Eddington said in an interview. "I disagree."
Eddington noted that torture was just as illegal when the George W. Bush administration implemented the program. But rather than resist the orders to torture, the CIA asked John Yoo for a "get-out-of-jail-free card," he said.
Yoo worked in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration, and authored a 2002 memo outlining how Bush officials could circumvent the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees.
For the law to matter, Eddington said people have to be willing to adhere to it, and there must be an accountability mechanism for those who break the law.
Kiriakou said the McCain-Feinstein amendment would enable prosecutions for torture, but Eddington insisted that we still have an "accountability problem."
Eddington said he is skeptical that a legal challenge would get anywhere because of judicial reluctance to interfere in policy disputes.
Additionally, the destruction of 92 video tapes of CIA interrogations by Jose Rodriguez, combined with Yoo's memo, effectively created a "legal shield" that made it impossible to charge officials for torture, Eddington said.
"That's what I mean when I say that at the end of the day, in the national-security arena, the law doesn't matter – because the law is made essentially to whatever the executive branch wants it to be," he said.
"I think it's a really troubling – deeply troubling problem – that we're potentially staring in the face here," Eddington said. "I just don't think that there are genuine barriers to Trump restarting something like this."
One way to revive the torture program would be to secretly outsource it to countries that have a close working intelligence relationship with the United States, he said – dismissing those who would say that international law would prevent this. Those countries could facilitate the program and U.S. officials would simply be there as observers, he said.
That is something the American public would only find out about after the fact.
"I believe that that's a very real pathway that is almost certainly being explored by Trump and the people that are advising him," Eddington said.
Not Impossible but Still Unlikely
Katherine Hawkins with the Constitution Project said in an interview that she thinks it would be "legally dubious and very high risk" to revive the torture program. She does see an opening, however, for the return of rendition and secret prisons.
"If Trump wants to get cozy with Syria," Hawkins said, "what's one more war crime to Assad? What's one more example of torture in Egypt?"
The United Nations has condemned Syrian President Bashar Assad for dropping chemical bombs on civilians in his country's civil war, but Assad just this week called Trump a "natural ally" in his joint campaign with Russia and Iran against the Islamic State.
The president of Egypt meanwhile, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, was among the first international leaders to call president-elect Trump to congratulate him on his win.
Hawkins said that the safeguards against transferring people for torture were not strong enough even under the Obama administration, where suspects were sent to Afghanistan.
What Trump does have going for him, Hawkins noted, was his campaign promise "that he wasn't going to ask troops or intelligence officers to violate the law."
"It's absolutely unambiguous that torture, that the CIA's EIT program, violated the law," Hawkins said, abbreviating enhanced interrogation techniques.
Hawkins noted that the Constitution Project is watching the issue closely, but that they lack sources in the intelligence community. The torture program ended the first time around because it leaked, she noted.
As Kiriakou's conviction shows, however, whistleblowers must tread a careful line.
"With leak prosecutions having increased in recent years – I hope it would leak again," Hawkins said. "I don't know."
Meantime, Eddington said that disclosure of the full Senate torture report would make it "vastly more difficult, at least from a PR standpoint," for the U.S. to torture again. Kiriakou told Courthouse News in February that he hopes someone leaks the full report.
Echoing Hawkins' concerns on Tuesday, however, the former CIA officer called this unlikely.
"I can't imagine any scenario over the next four years where a national-security whistleblower is going to decide that it's better to come forward with his information than it is to just keep his mouth shut," he said.
Kiriakou noted that Pompeo, the prospective new CIA head, has called for Edward Snowden to be executed.
"It's deeply troubling to me," Kiriakou said.


text: You have to connect the rocket ships and shapeships to make pairs of the same. You may not match them if they are within two 90 degree angles of each other. You move on to the next level when they have all been removed in time. Use shuffle or hint if you get stuck.


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You may have heard of the "tiny house" movement and wondered, with good reason, what in the world are those people thinking?
Tiny houses are architecturally unique domiciles that can range from as large as 400 square feet – the size of a decent sized hotel room—to as small as 80 square feet. Many are mobile, allowing the owners to move them at will. Enthusiasts claim the diminutive structures are not just oddities; they are, in fact, part of a new approach to life.
Less is more. Only use what you need. Don't live your life under the constant pressure of trying to acquire more and bigger and better things. Sarah Susanka, an American architect and author, is widely credited with starting the movement after publishing her book, The Not So Big Life. In it, she stresses the idea of building better, not bigger. And how building smaller can be more fulfilling.
"The not so big house is about how to introduce spirit and personality into our homes," Susanka tells readers on her website. "The book is also about giving up the spaces we don't really use and end up making a house feel soulless."
The symbolic message in Susanka's book is something that can be translated to so many aspects of our life. Such as our careers.
So many of us pursue career goals that are the equivalent of the overbuilt house: we are constantly angling for a bigger office, a more important job title, a leadership role, or more money and power. It's not unusual for people to achieve these things and find they are oddly unfulfilling.
As demonstrated by tiny house advocates, the best careers are the ones that give us all that we need, maybe not all that we think we want. The path to true career happiness is realizing when we're getting what we need, enjoying what we're doing and finding satisfaction and meaning.
It's not unusual for people of some accomplishment to diminish or disparage their own careers because they haven't become the biggest or the best in their fields. These people forget that the people who achieve biggest and best often do so by focusing on a career path that allows them to do things they are good at, really enjoy, and give them a lot of satisfaction. These people find happiness by doing things where they can succeed; it's never a good idea to pursuing a job you don't like, or that you are not good at, simply to get ahead.
The tiny house movement can also be a source of practical advice, particularly for those of us in the throes of job search. Tiny house enthusiasts take careful stock of what they really need for a good life, and ditch those things that are superfluous or that don't really deliver on their promise.
This is directly relevant to job search strategies. It's critically important while looking for a new job to ditch pointless or fruitless activities, and focus on the core activities that move us forward in our ultimate goal.
The same goes for structuring a resumé. Don't pad your CV with a lot of details about things you aren't really good at or don't want to keep doing; emphasize a smaller list of things that you know you do well and enjoy. That will help you find jobs where you have a much better chance at success and satisfaction.
Take a long look at your career, and set goals that will help you achieve all your dreams. But along the way, learn to take satisfaction from what you have accomplished and use that to help identify and focus on what's really most important in your career.


text: st40611 0 Posted March 22, 2011 Hi all, I currently have a HP Envy 14. After a lot of trials and errors, I've managed to boot 10.6.6 retail on my laptop on a MBR partition, but the dual-graphics card configuration of this laptop is giving me one last problem. I used checcco's boot file, installed Chameleon r5 with ATI support with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url], installed 10.7's ATI kexts and even dumped my card's ATI rom onto the /Extra folder (all seen here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=250905) but for some reason my laptop can never pick up the card, only the Intel one. But when I boot in verbose mode, I see the following: No DSDT found, using 0 as uid value. Using PCI-Root-UID value: 0 ATI card POSTed, reading VBIOS from legacy space ATI Redwood ATI Radeon HD 5650 series 4095MB (Nomascus) [1002:68c1] (subsys [103c: 1436]) **There's some more code here, but my camera didn't get a good shot of it; I'll take a shot again if this part of info is needed*** Intel VGA Controller [8086:0046] :: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0) (Currently Not SUPPORTED) Which means ... my ATI card is detected by chameleon and the boot file, but somehow never activated in OSX, right? Anyone got any input for me to work this out? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Steven Sheldon is an architect, general building contractor and developer who has been making a "green" impact in Sonoma County for the last 30 years. The core principals from which Steven evolves his sustainable and environmentally sound designs include: energy efficiency and conservation of resources; economy of space while creating a sense of spaciousness; utilization of natural light; healthy indoor air quality and the seamless integration of buildings with their surrounding landscape. All of this in pursuit of a nurturing environment to learn, work and live within.
© Sustainable Enterprise Conference | PO Box 522, Graton, CA | (707) 636-4732


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Orleans (formerly, New Orleans Bar and Orleans Bar) is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Weitchpec, at an elevation of 404 feet (123 m). The ZIP Code is 95556.
Originally known as New Orleans Bar, it was renamed Orleans Bar in 1855, when it became the county seat of the now-defunct Klamath County, California. The community is in the ZIP code of 95556 and the area code 530.
The Orleans post office opened in 1857.
In the state legislature Orleans is located in the 2nd Senate District, represented by Democrat Pat Wiggins, and in the 1st Assembly District, represented by Democrat Patty Berg. Federally, Orleans is located in California's 1st congressional district.


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DARKESVILLE, W.Va. - A 78-year-old man died Thursday after suffering first- and second-degree burns over most of his body, officials said.
Rescue officials responded to Lee W. Palmer's home at the intersection of Fish Hatchery Road and U.S. 11 about 9:48 a.m., officials said.
Officials would not say how Palmer was burned.
Palmer was transported to City Hospital and then flown to Washington Hospital Center, where he died at 4:11 p.m., according to a hospital spokeswoman.


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Cheap Food and Child Farm Labor
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, we invited three Foundation grantees to address the unfinished work of the Act and the next generation of reforms to protect working families at the bottom of the labor market. What follows is one of those responses. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and are not necessarily those of the Public Welfare Foundation.
By Celeste Monforton
Project Director, Beyond OSHA
U.S. consumers today expect to eat on the cheap. Many grocery chains offer lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, grapes and other produce for less than $1 or $2 a pound. The benefit to consumers comes at a cost to the workers who pick and process those goods.
Migrant farm workers in the U.S. earn subsistence wages – typically a piece rate – that often forces them to have their children assist in the fields. Farm worker parents have few childcare options and may feel their children are safer accompanying them in the fields than staying home alone. It's not unusual for farm worker children as young as six or eight years old to begin working the crops. During peak seasons, children may labor for 10 hours a day in working conditions that most native-born Americans avoid. Temperatures in the fields can exceed 100 degrees, pesticides pose poisoning risks, and heavy equipment and vehicles are a special threat to youngsters who are too small to be seen.
Young workers are not just employed in crop work. They have other agricultural jobs, from tending to livestock and operating hay bailers, to felling trees and working in grain silos. All of these tasks can be especially dangerous for youngsters who don't have the training or the maturity to manage the risk. Not long ago, two teens lost legs each lost a leg while operating a grain auger in Oklahoma. Two other youngsters were asphyxiated in grain at a silo in Illinois. One of the boys was only 14 years old.
Jobs in U.S. agriculture have one of the highest fatality rates. Put that together with a fatality rate for all young workers that is double the rate for all U.S. workers and you have a deadly combination for young workers employed in agriculture.
This is especially disturbing as we recognize the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The 1938 law mandated special protections for children under age 16, such as prohibiting them from being employed in coal mines, textile mills and other factories. Special exceptions, however, were carved out for agricultural employers, so children working on farms have less protection than those working in other industries.
As authorized by the FLSA, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) stipulates dozens of work activities that are too dangerous for individuals of certain ages. Workers under age 18, for example, are prohibited from operating cardboard balers in grocery stores, and from driving a forklift. In 2010, DOL issued a new set of rules governing hazardous tasks for workers under age 18 who are employed in non-agricultural jobs, such as prohibitions on using wood chippers. The safety rules governing young workers employed in agricultural jobs, however, have not been updated for 43 years.
All that was poised to change in 2010 when DOL drafted a proposed rule to address serious hazards faced by farm workers under age 16. The Department submitted the proposal to the White House's "regulatory czar" for review. Agricultural interests inside and outside the Administration raised objections to the proposal, and it was stalled from release for nearly a year. A campaign by children's rights, worker safety, and public health advocates—-along with more news stories of young workers dying on U.S. farms—-compelled the release of the proposed rule. It would have prohibited workers aged 15 and younger from working inside a grain silo or manure pit; serving as pesticide handlers; and operating a tractor without special vocational training, among other things.
But the ensuing public comment period led to a vocal misinformation campaign by the farming lobby about the proposed protections. Opponents of the rules claimed DOL was interfering in the wholesome activities of rural America. Members of Congress jumped on the bandwagon, calling for the Obama administration to withdraw the proposed new rules. Advocates' efforts to direct attention to the injuries and deaths suffered by young workers were overwhelmed by opponents' claims that the Obama Administration was destroying the family farm and 4-H programs. (There were exemptions for both in DOL's proposal.)
The heat was too much for the Administration. In April 2012 – on Worker Memorial Day, no less, the day that remembers and honors workers who have been killed on the job – the Labor Department withdrew the proposed rule. The announcement was punctuated with the statement "to be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration." The consolation offered was a promise to work with rural stakeholders to develop an educational program for youngsters to promote safety in agricultural work.
But child labor advocates are still waiting even for the consolation prize.
"There has been little or no information forthcoming from DOL on education about the existing regulations or about current enforcement efforts," noted Mary E. Miller, a registered nurse and a national expert on safety for young workers. "Meanwhile children and adolescent youth continue to be placed at risk in agricultural work environments."
The FLSA has allowed millions of children to avoid dangerous work and grow up safe and healthy, but its exemptions leave young agricultural workers at risk. With the Obama administration having withdrawn its proposed rule changes, action to improve safety protection for child farm laborers will have to come from a future administration.
The Public Welfare Foundation supports efforts to advance justice and opportunity for people in need. These efforts honor the Foundation's core values of racial equity, economic well-being, and fundamental fairness for all. The Foundation looks for strategic points where its funds can make a significant difference and improve lives through policy and system reform that results in transformative change. For more information, visit www.publicwelfare.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter or on Facebook.


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The bulk of this post consists of the Minecon event schedule reproduced from Mojang's website, along with my speculation about some of the sessions. I'll be using this as a guide to help decide which stream to view.
One thing I'm particularly interested to see is @jeb_'s (Jens Bergensten's) talk about generating map structures, which I'm guessing will be during the Mojang Developers' Panel on Saturday.
Mojang in October issued an open call for speakers, so its likely that most of the panels will consist of people from the community, as opposed to Mojang employees. Since the schedule (which Mojang called an 'agenda') doesn't list panel members or describe the nature of each session, it's difficult to determine the value of some of the panels. I hope conferees at least get a handout with that information to aid in choosing which panels to attend.
For example, on Friday there's a panel API for Game Developers while Saturday has one called Creating Mods. It would be nice to know more about these panels in advance.
Also missing is any mention of the 'lightning talks' discussed in the open call for speakers.
A distressing number of the panels are about YouTube, either making videos or featuring particular channels. With 1.1 million Minecraft videos, do we really need more?
Friday, November 18th10 a.m. Game Room and Exhibit Hall Open
1 - 2:30 p.m. Keynote Address and Minecraft Launch with Notch (Mandalay Bay Ballroom A-G) [Notch releases Minecraft! He hinted at surprise announcements—if they happen at Minecon this is the likely venue. Let's hope his fanbois don't overdo it; some of us have weak stomachs.]
2:45 - 3:45 p.m. Panels
- YouTube 101 (Jasmine ABEF)
- Composing Game Music (Banyan ABCD)
- API for Game Developers (Palm A) [Which API? Is this for modding? ]
- Minecraft as a Tool for Education (Palm B) [Probably presenting material available on The Minecraft Teacher blog.]
- Creating Custom Maps (Palm C) [Sounds mildly interesting.]
- Running a Server (Palm D) [Also could be interesting.]
5:15 - 6:15 p.m. Panels
- The Art of Games (Jasmine ABEF)
- Machinima Channel Panel (Banyan ABCD)
- Bukkit for Multiplayer Servers (Palm A) [The clear choice in this time slot.]
- Video Editing (Palm B)
- YouTube 101 (Palm C) [Again? Two presentations of this off-topic panel?]
- The Family that Plays Together (Palm D)
Saturday, November 19th10 a.m. Game Room and Exhibit Hall Open
10:00 - 11:00 p.m. Panels
- Making a Difference – Minecraft (Jasmine ABEF)
- YouTube Partners (Banyan ABCD)
- Amazing Builds (Palm A)
- Minecraft Community Ideas with Curse (Palm B) [Might yield insight into Curse's intentions regarding Minecraft, or it could turn out to be as lame as it sounds.]
- Creativity with Redstone (Palm C) [Pointless considering that Eloraam's Redpower 2 mod far surpasses Minecraft's built-in redstone logic.]
- Modder Concepts & Ideas (Palm D) [Really need to see a description of this. It almost sounds like it's describing the ridiculously ambitious pipe dream mods announced weekly by middle schoolers on the forums.]
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Yogscast Panel (Mandalay Bay Ballroom A-G)
2:45 - 3:45 p.m. Panels
- Creating Compelling Videos (Jasmine ABEF)
- Creating Stories and Comics Using Minecraft (Banyan ABCD)
- Minecraft Architecture (Palm A) [Is this in-game building architecture? If so, that's nice, but hardly critical.]
- The Shaft Podcast Live Recording (Palm B)
- Family Game Night: Bonding through Minecraft (Palm C)
- Creating Mods (Palm D) [Which mod API will be recommended?]
10 p.m. Into the Nether party – 21 and over (XS Nightclub, Wynn Hotel)


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New British Library newspaper website launches
After two years in development, the new British Newspaper Archive provides online access to almost four million newspaper pages spanning two centuries
Millions of archive newspaper pages can now be explored online following the completion of a major digitisation project.
The new British Newspaper Archive website, the result of an ongoing partnership between the British Library and digital publisher brightsolid, offers family historians the chance to explore thousands of publications dating back as far as 1750. More than half of these, including pages previously only accessible to students in higher education, are being made available to the public for the first time.
As well as national and international newspapers, the site features local titles and those aimed at religious groups, tradespeople and other specific sections of the community. All of the pages have been scanned and run through a process known as optical character recognition (OCR), meaning that they can be browsed visually or searched by a range of details including name, date, keyword and publication.
Users of the new website can choose between a 12-month subscription package, which provides unlimited access and costs £79.95, and membership on a pay-as-you-go basis for either a month (£29.95) or two days (£6.95). Searching the entire collection, as well as viewing short preview 'snippets', is free of charge.
"What this new website offers is a whole series of entry points," the British Library's head of newspapers, Ed King, told Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine when we visited the collection in October. "As well as the names of people and places that family historians are used to in other records, these newspapers provide social context – lots of colour and depth that you don't get anywhere else."
► For more about the new site, don't miss the Christmas issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, on sale now


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Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017 - GSEB 10th Class Exam Date Sheet
Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017:
Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017 has been declared. Candidates who are searching for GSEB 10th Class Exam Date Sheet 2017, they can check it on official website @ www.gseb.org and also on our website. As we know that this year GSEB Xth Class Data Sheet 2017 examination has been organized in the month of March. Every candidate must work hard to get good marks in the Gujarat Board Xth Time Table 2017. GSEB is only a secondary board in Gujarat that provides and establish secondary education in the state of Gujarat.
Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017 is available for all the regular & private candidates on the official website. The Exam Date sheet is very important for students because you have complete guide about exam dates and day wise subject. Students who are appearing to write the GSEB annual exams 2017 should download the GSEB Time Table. Students can download their Gujarat Board SSC Date Sheet here on this page. Gujarat Board 10th Examination starts in the month of march.
GSEB 10th Class Exam Date Sheet:
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board is commonly known as GSEB. It is very oldest board in the country. There is so many government, granted and private schools in various districts of the state which are tie up with Gujarat Board. All these schools perform as per the guidance of GSEB Board. Gujarat Board SSC Data Sheet 2017 will release on the official website www.gseb.org. The GSEB conducts 2 (including 4-semester type examinations)main examinations - The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam for Standard 10 and the Higher Secondary (School) Certificate (HSC)examination for Standard XI-XII students in Gujarat. The Board also holds a Talent Search for students of Std VIII & IX in five major subjects every year. It is divided into 2 major parts. Recently, GSEB has changed State level Examinations from JEE(Mains) to GUJCET.
We hope that the given information is relevant for candidates who are searching for Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017. The Time Table is very useful for all candidates who want to attend the exam. With the help of Time Table, students can easily get the clear idea about how to Frame their study Time Table according to date. Students can get their GSEB Xth exam routine 2017 on our page. Nearly huge number of students are enrolled in 10th class, now they all are eagerly waiting to check their Gujarat board 10th class date sheet 2017. GSEB is very popular board in the Gujarat State. It conducts state level exam. The main academic task of GSEB is the preparation of syllabus for secondary schools and also the recommendation of text-books.
About GSEB:The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board or GSEB is a government of Gujarat body responsible for determining the policy-related, administrative, cognitive, and intellectual direction the state's higher educational system takes. The main responsibilities of the Board include academics, conducting examinations and research and development. The Gujarat board was formed on 1 May 1960. It is very popular board in the Gujarat State. It conducts state level exam. The main academic task of GSEB is the preparation of syllabus for secondary schools and also the recommendation of text-books to be taught in government schools. The Board also performs the duties of recognizing new schools, performance evaluation of schools and inspections of various schools associated with the Board.
Brief Details About Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017:
|Name Of The Organization
|Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board
|Also Known As
|Gujarat Board SSC Exam Starts Form
|In The Month Of March
|Gujarat Board SSC Exam Ends On
|In The Month Of April
|Time Table
|Official Website
Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017 (Expected):
Students who are going to appear the 10th class examination can start getting their preparation for the exam it depends on the Time Table. In the below table we mentioned that detailed and clear information about Gujarat Board SSC Time Table.
|14th March 2017
|First Language
|15th March 2017
|16th March 2017
|17th March 2017
|Social Science
|18th March 2017
|Second Language
|19th March 2017
|Second Language
|21st March 2017
|Second Language
How to Download Gujarat Board SSC Time Table:
Students can download the GSEB SSC Class Annual Exam Date Sheet 2017 from our website follow the below steps to get GSEB SSC Exam Time Table.
- First of all, visit the official website www.gseb.org website
- Then search for SSC exam Time Table 2017
- Click on it
- After that, your GSEB SSC Time Table 2017 is available on the screen
- Download it
- Take a Hard Copy for future use.
GSEB SSC Result 2017:
GSEB SSC Result 2017: GSEB 10th exam will be conducted in the month of March/April. Candidates who had attended for Gujarat Board 10th examination are now eagerly waiting for their Gujarat Board 10th Result. GSEB will be announced Result in the month of May. Students can go through the official website to check their Result i.e., www.gseb.org. The board will announce the Result in the 3rd week of may. For checking the Result students have to use their roll number and name.
Following Time Table will give a clear idea about exam timings, subjects covered in exam and holiday slots. We will advise you to stay with us to get latest GSEB SSC Time Table 2017.
Note: The importance of Time Table in a student life is very compulsory because without TimeTable a student can not manage him/his schedule.
Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017: CLICK HERE
Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017: CLICK HERE
Gujarat Board Public Examination will conduct on March 2017 strictly as per schedule which will be announced by Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board on www.gseb.org. Please keep in touch with us and also the official website of the Board for the latest information in this regard.
Gujarat Board SSC Time Table 2017 - GSEB 10th Class Exam Date Sheet Reviewed by Keerthi Adusumilli on 2:34 AM Rating:


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At first blush, it appears that lobbyists had a down year in 1999. The roaring 13 percent growth of lobbying expenditures in 1998 slowed to a 2 percent trickle in 1999. The tobacco industry, which had accelerated the lobbying boom, slashed its spending from $67.4 million to $23.7 million. Congressional and federal authorities made headway in their corruption case against lobbyist Ann Eppard, while a lobbyist in Maryland allegedly solicited clients from the phone at the prison where he was serving time for fraud.
Yet despite it all, at $1.45 billion K Street's economy is bigger than Mongolia's, but without the yurts. Since 1997, lobbying expenditures has grown by a robust average of 7.3 percent annually. The collapse of tobacco spending was compensated by strong growth in pharmaceutical and computer industry lobbying. Lobbying firms were still able to find 129 former members of Congress willing to lobby on everything from postal rates to defense appropriations. Former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), who was once days away from becoming Speaker of the House, drummed up $1.14 million in business in his first year as an independent lobbyist.
The result is a mixed bag. The total lobbying expenditures of $1.45 billion are only a slight rise over the 1998 figure of $1.42 billion, but still a notable increase over the 1997 figure of $1.26 billion. However, the pattern of lobbying spending changed in 1999 as several large players cut back their presence in Washington while the number of smaller spenders proliferated. As a result, the falloff in big fees didn't stop Gucci Gulch from flowing along.
The number of lobbyist-client relationships (either an interest lobbying on its own behalf or paying an outside firm to lobby for it) grew faster than lobbying expenditures in 1999. The number of relationships grew nearly 6.9 percent to 14,205 in 1999, eclipsing the 6.3 percent rise in 1998. The fact that the number of relationships grew faster than overall spending in 1999 reflects a combination of cutbacks by big spenders and the growth of lobbying by small groups. In 1999, 281 groups spent more than $1 million on lobbying—a substantial increase over the 261 groups that spent a million dollars or more in 1998. However, the number of groups spending more than $5 million fell from 39 to 36 and the number spending more than $20 million fell from three to zero.
The number of active lobbyists rose from 11,043 in 1998 to 12,113 in 1999. The most popular issue for lobbyists was tax policy—nearly a quarter of all lobbyists spent time lobbying on taxes in 1999. On average, there were more than 22 active lobbyists and $2.7 million in lobbying expenditures for each member of Congress in 1999.
The biggest industries in the lobbying game remained basically the same, with the pharmaceuticals and health products industry edging out the insurance industry at the top. Only one of the top 25 spending industries in 1998 failed to make the 1999 list. However, the stability of this group's composition masks large shifts in the ordering of the top 25. Tobacco remained one of the top industries even though its total lobbying expenditures plummeted by nearly two-thirds. This $40 million falloff is also the primary reason why agribusiness fell from the sixth largest sector to eighth. Although it moved up only two places, the health sector increased its spending by more than $30 million in 1999 after growing by less than $5 million in 1998. The jump in health spending reflected increased Congressional attention to a patient's bill of rights as well as lobbying to extend soon-to-expire copyrights for various medications. For example, Schering-Plough, a pharmaceutical firm which was attempting to extend the life of its patent on the allergy drug Claritin, leapt from the 51st spot on the top spender list in 1998 to the ninth spot in 1999, when it spent $9.2 million.
Smaller clients did not dampen the growth prospects for Washington's biggest lobbying firms. Firms reporting over $1 million in grew from 117 in 1998 to 130 in 1999. The number of firms with lobbying income of more than $5 million rose from 14 to 21, and for the first time, one firm (Cassidy & Associates) broke the $20 million barrier.
Changes in the dynamics of lobbyist spending had a significant impact on the makeup of the K Street corridor. Three of 1998's top 25 lobbying firms dropped off of that list in 1999; two dropped from inside the top 25 to outside the top 40. The changes were largely driven by the collapse of the tobacco industry's spending. Lobbying firms that were dependent on tobacco lobbying in 1998 were hit hard in 1999. Overall, tobacco fell from the fourth biggest spending industry to 23rd. British-American Tobacco, 1998's largest individual spender at $25.2 million, fell to 107th in 1999 with total expenditures of $2.4 million.
For lobbying firms, the moral of the story is that diversification pays. Cassidy & Associates, which led all lobbying firms in 1999 income, has clients ranging from Adelphi University to Major League Baseball to United Space Alliance. As a result, it is well placed to ride out the booms and busts in each industry's lobbying needs.
Other firms were not as fortunate. In a year when overall lobbying expenditures grew, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, Washington's third biggest lobbying firm, reported a drop of nearly 15 percent in its lobbying income. The biggest cause of Verner Liipfert's drop was a sharp reduction in its income from tobacco firms. In 1998, the firm received a total of over $7.5 million from five tobacco companies. In 1999, it received a mere $160,000 from three tobacco clients. One of its clients, Philip Morris, slashed its contract with Verner Liipfert from $3.6 million to $80,000—a whopping 98 percent reduction.
Likewise, groups with a variety of interests, such as the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, tend to remain among the top spenders year in and year out. In 1999, the Chamber was the largest spender, with 75 lobbyists working on a host of issues ranging from the Juvenile Justice Act to U.S. aid to Kyrgystan.
The gridlock that has gripped Capitol Hill over the last few years has actually been a boon for lobbyists. Many lobbyists feel that their worth actually increases when partisan fighting grinds Congress to a halt. Their logic is that with few bills passed each session, someone who promises to drive legislation important to a client through Congress can be extremely valuable. At the same time, there are more opportunities to kill legislation harmful to a client.
More than anything else, the changes in lobbying expenditures reflect Congress's legislative agenda. When an issue that directly affects an industry is discussed, that industry mobilizes a lobbying effort to pursue its interests. For example, when Congress was considering legislation to regulate or fine cigarette manufacturers in 1997-98, the tobacco industry was spending over $50 million a year on lobbying. In 1999, with federal tobacco legislation effectively dead, tobacco companies spent less than $25 million.
Lobbying expenditures can fluctuate wildly in a short period of time. MBNA, the nation's largest credit card firm, spent $860,000 in the last six months of 1998, $640,000 in the first six months of 1999, and $800,000 in the last six months of 1999. By and large, MBNA's lobbying followed the fortunes of legislation to deregulate the financial services industry and to change bankruptcy laws.
The figures listed here are based on the semiannual lobbying reports that are mandated by the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) of 1995. The LDA requires that each registrant disclose its total expenditures or income for lobbying activity as defined by the Act. The LDA defines lobbying to include salaries for individuals who contact members of the legislative or executive branches and their staffs; overhead, support staff, and other office expenses; expenses for background preparation and coordination of lobbying; and payments to outside firms.
However, such expenditures hardly tell the whole story on lobbying. Grassroots campaigns, such as an effort by the National Rifle Association to get its members to write their members of Congress, are not covered under the LDA. Fees that are received as part of a judicial proceeding—for example, lobbying the White House for a pardon—are excluded from the Act. Money spent on preparation and presentation of testimony to Congress is excluded. Even a public relations campaign designed to pressure Congress falls outside the LDA's reporting requirements.
The LDA also requires firms to list the registered lobbyists they have hired. However, the definition of lobbying established by the LDA does not cover 'strategic advisors' and consultants who devise lobbying strategies. This class of individuals often includes former members of Congress who are prohibited from lobbying their former colleagues for a year after leaving office. For example, former Senate Majority Leader and presidential candidate Bob Dole works for the lobbying firm Verner Liipfert, but since he does not contact officials covered under the Act, he does not have to register.
Another loophole in the reporting requirements means that the lobbying expenditures reported by each organization are not strictly comparable. Filers get three options for accounting expenditures; one method laid out in the Lobbying Disclosure Act and two others defined by the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The dissimilarities among lobbying definitions in each piece of legislation affect the quality of disclosure. For example, 1999's top two spenders—the Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. and the American Medical Association—both used the IRC definition. As a result, their disclosure forms include state, local, and grassroots lobbying. The IRC also has a far more circumscribed list of 'covered' officials, so the Chamber of Commerce and American Medical Association numbers do not include contact with a number of executive branch officials. On the other hand, Philip Morris and the American Hospital Association both used the Lobbying Disclosure Act definition. Thus, neither organization had to report state or grassroots lobbying expenditures, while they did have to report contacts with the Clinton administration.
Even with IRC definitions, lobbyists find ways to skirt the law. Pharmaceutical makers, for example, provide seed money to small activist groups around the country. In turn, these organizations tend to push the drug makers' agenda to both their members and their Congresspersons. According to the New York Times, in 1994 the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a drug industry trade group, provided seed money and expertise in order to create Citizens for the Right to Know, a consumers group opposed to managed care. In turn, Citizens for the Right to Know pushed for more prescription drug benefits in managed care plans—a potential bonanza for PhRMA's members. PhRMA also contributes to a number of non-profit public policy institutions, many of which have subsequently come out against generic drugs or in favor of prescription drug benefits. None of these contributions to non-profits are included in PhRMA's lobbying disclosure forms.
Contributions are not limited to non-profit groups. Contributions to political campaigns constitute a parallel track to gaining influence on the Washington lobbying game. In the 1999-2000 election cycle, nearly $3 billion was spent on federal elections, or $1.5 billion per year. At $1.45 billion, lobbying expenditures in 1999 were virtually identical to the annual average for campaign expenditures.
However, industries that spend money on lobbyists do not necessarily spend on campaign contributions. The $90 million spent on lobbyists by the pharmaceuticals and health products industry in 1999 is more than the industry's combined campaign contributions for the last decade. By contrast, lawyers and law firms donated over $108 million in the 1999-2000 election cycle despite spending a meager $12 million on lobbyists.
Lobbyists themselves are big players in the money game. In 1999-2000, lobbyists donated over $15.5 million to federal campaigns. However, this figure masks lobbyists' true influence, since many are also key party fundraisers. For example, the Dutko Group's late chairman Daniel Dutko not only donated over $10,000 in hard and soft money to the Democrats in 1999, he also was a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party. Lobbyists deny that their campaign donations are a quid pro quo for congressional votes. Instead, they claim that contributions ensure access to congresspeople—in other words, campaign contributions get a lobbyist's foot in the door to allow them to make his or her client's case.
For some groups, campaign contributions and lobbying are only peripheral extensions of political power. For example, the Christian Coalition dramatically slashed its Washington presence from $8.0 million in 1997 to just $1.3 million in 1999. Since the Christian Coalition's real power lies in its ability to get its members to the polls on election day, a decline in lobbying spending hardly reflects a drop-off in the group's political power. Similarly, labor spending remained virtually constant from 1998 to 1999 despite a series of trade measures opposed by the unions. However, labor's power is in the votes its members possess and, to a lesser extent, in its campaign contributions. Thus, its lobbying expenditures bear little relation to its real power. Groups like the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the Sierra Club all fall into the category of groups whose lobbying power is greatly magnified by their membership base.
The result is that there is little correlation between campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures by businesses or industries. Among the 20 industries that spent the most in 1999 on lobbying, 12 also were among the top 20 political contributors in 1999-2000. Of the 20 organizations that spent the most on lobbyists in 1999, only four were also on the top 20 list of contributors to federal campaigns in 1999-2000.


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General Motors (NYSE: GM) announced its third-quarter earnings results before the bell on Oct. 25. Here's what investors need to know.
Continue Reading Below
The key numbers
GM posted strong gains across the board compared to its results in the third quarter of last year.
Source: General Motors.
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"EBIT-Adjusted" is the key non-GAAP measure used by GM's management to track the underlying performance of its business units. It's net income before taxes and the interest expenses related to the automotive side of GM's business, but after special items. GM's calculation of EBIT-adjusted has been consistent for several years.
How GM's business units fared during the third quarter
GM's North America unit earned $3.5 billion before taxes, an improvement of $193 million from a year ago, with an extremely strong EBIT-adjusted margin of 11.2%. While U.S. sales appear to have plateaued, GM has been able to maintain strong pricing for its high-profit pickups and SUVs despite increasing competitive pressures.
Strong demand for GM's big SUVs helped drive a 11.2% margin in North America. Image source: General Motors.
GM Europe lost $142 million, an improvement of $89 million from a year ago. GM lost billions in Europe over the last decade-plus, but it has long hoped to break even for the full year in 2016. "Brexit" has put that hope at risk, however. In July, CFO Chuck Stevens warned that the decline of the British pound following the U.K.'s decision to exit the European Union would hurt GM Europe's results by about $400 million over the balance of 2016. About $100 million of that impact showed up in the third quarter, he said on Thursday. Through the first three quarters of 2016, GM Europe has lost $11 million.
GM International Operations includes its vast China operation, as well as other efforts in Asia, Africa, and Oceania. The unit earned $271 million in the third quarter, up $2 million from a year ago. GM's joint ventures with Chinese automakers returned $459 million of equity income in the quarter, down only slightly from $463 million a year ago despite increased competitive pressure from low-cost domestic Chinese producers.
As in the U.S., strong SUV sales are driving good profits for GM in China. The Buick Envision has sold very well since its introduction in China last year. Image source: General Motors.
GM South America lost $121 million, an improvement of $96 million from a year ago. Conditions continue to be very difficult in the region, with Brazil and other major regional markets mired in deep recessions, but GM said that cost cuts and somewhat improved sales volumes helped it eke out that year-over-year improvement.
GM Financial, the company's growing in-house bank, earned $229 million before taxes in the third quarter, down slightly from $231 million a year ago. Despite industrywide concerns about deteriorations in auto lending, GM Financial's credit losses and retail delinquencies were roughly stable at just 2% of the portfolio (from 1.9% a year ago).
What GM executives said about the quarter
"Our record third quarter, led by strong performance in the U.S. and China, reflects our determination to deliver on our commitments," CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. "We will continue executing our plan to deliver earnings that enhance shareholder returns."
"Strong bottom line performance this year puts us solidly on track to deliver on our annual earnings outlook, and our cash generation has allowed us to complete our initial share buyback ahead of schedule," Stevens said.
Last year, GM committed to a $5 billion common-stock buyback as part of a larger program to return cash to shareholders. That program was completed in the third quarter, one quarter ahead of the promised schedule. Speaking with reporters shortly after GM's results were released, Stevens indicated that another share buyback program is forthcoming.
Cash flow, debt, and available liquidity
GM's adjusted automotive free cash flow was $3.5 billion in the third quarter, up from about $800 million a year ago. That was driven by higher earnings and lower recall-related cash payments, GM said, and is net of about $500 million in increased capital expenditures.
As of Sept. 30, GM had $21.5 billion in cash on hand and another $14 billion in available credit lines, for total liquidity of $35.5 billion. Debt related to GM's automotive business stood at $10.8 billion.
Outlook: Upbeat full-year guidance
GM didn't change its previous upbeat guidance for the full year. But it did note that it expects its full-year "adjusted" earnings per share to come in at the "high end" of its previously stated range, $5.50 to $6.00. GM earned $5.02 on the same basis in 2015.
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