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CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., November 28, 1864.
The PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES:
SIR: The resolution of the House of Representatives requesting the President to inform the House by what authority of law the War Department is now conducting an impressment of slaves in Virginia, without regard to the State law on that subject, which has been referred by you to this Department, has been received.
On the 17th of September last General Lee, commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, made known to this Department "that there was an immediate necessity for the services of 5,000 negroes for thirty days;" that the necessity was sufficiently urgent to justify calling for his labor at once; that he could not consistently with the exigencies of the service detail officers and soldiers from the army for this duty, and said "that if the agents of the Bureau of Conscription can be employed for this purpose I am prepared to give them such authority as I consistently may. They can consult with the local authorities and arrange for the impressment in such manner as to be least injurious to the public service. I inclose a tabular statement of the quota and the counties from which it is proposed to draw the negroes."
The existence of an urgent necessity for an immediate supply of the labor required was unquestionable. In conformity to the request of the commanding general the agency of the officers of conscription was directed for the impressment according to the schedule furnished by him, with orders to confine the impressment to slaves between eighteen and fifty years of age, and that not more than one slave out of every five on any farm should be taken, and where there were only three slaves of the ages required those should be exempt.
The question whether a commanding general, in the absence of any law upon the subject, under the pressure of an immediate and urgent necessity, be authorized to impress slaves for service with his army has been much debated in this country, and a diversity of opinion has been expressed upon it. In a discussion in Congress of a claim for compensation for the loss of a slave so impressed for the defense of a city in a state of siege, Judge P. P. Barbour, of Virginia, said:
The slave, as an item of property, is not a member of the body politic; he owes no service on his own account to the Government. The Government knows him only as the property of his master, and it can get at him only in two ways--the one is by the ordinary process of taxation, and the other is by the extraordinary exertion of power under a pressing public emergency. * * * If the officer wantonly or unnecessarily invade the property of the citizen, he is a tresspasser. But, then, this must be shown, and in the present case not so much as a doubt has been suggested of the existence of such a case of necessity. If the necessity exists, then that case has arisen in which the Government may take the private property for the public use.
The power of a general in the field to impress private property for the public use in a case of an immediate necessity has, since the discussion referred to, been judicially determined by the Supreme Court of the United States to be legitimate.
The fifth section of the impressment act of the 16th of February last, amendatory of the laws regulating impressments, seems to recognize this power as belonging to the commanding general, for it prohibits the impressment of a very large class of slaves "except in case of urgent necessity, and upon the order of the general commanding the department" in which the class referred to may be employed. It was to this class of slaves that General Lee had reference in his letter when he speaks of communicating the authority that resides in him. This Department, in ordering the impressments under the circumstances before mentioned, in conformity to the request of the commanding general and according to his plan, had some reference to the powers that belonged to him under the conditions that have been disclosed.
It also made reference to the powers with which it was clothed by the acts of Congress. The fourth section of the act of Congress of the 26th of March, 1863, authorized the Secretary of War to take private property for the public use whenever he shall deem it necessary by reason of the impracticability of procuring the same by contract, so as to accumulate supplies for the Army, or for the good of the service, in any locality, by general order, through the instrumentality of subordinate officers.
The ninth section of the same act directed that when slaves are impressed by the Confederate Government to labor on fortifications or other public works the impressment should be made according to the rules and regulations provided in the laws of the State where they are impressed; and in the absence of such law, in accordance with such rules and regulations as the Secretary of War shall from time to time prescribe, not inconsistent with the terms of the act. This act of Congress does not require the Department to employ the agency of State officers to secure the labor of slaves. The power to make the impressment in the fourth section of the act above quoted gives to the Secretary of War the power to impress any property liable to impressment through the agency of officers of the Confederate States, and in the ninth section of the act the terms used are, "that when slaves are impressed by the Confederate Government, * * * the impressment shall be made by said Government" in accordance with such rules and regulations as have been provided in the laws of the State wherein they are impressed, if there be such laws.
In an act passed by the State of Virginia, 3d of October, 1862, the Governor of the State was authorized and required to call into the Confederate States service slaves for labor on fortifications and public works. The act provided for the equalizing of the burden as nearly as may be among the several counties, cities, and towns of the Commonwealth, for the hire to be paid, the obligations to be incurred by the Confederate Government, and for the manner of the collection and delivery of the slaves. This act is not an act for the impressment of slaves, but a mode of drafting them for the public service. The execution of the act was dependent in a great measure upon the action of the county court, and experience has fully shown that its operation is dilatory, and that it is not suitable for an immediate and urgent necessity, such as existed in this case.
The only provision in this act that authorizes the impressment of slaves is conditional upon the event of the neglect or refusal of the county or corporation court to perform the duty imposed upon them. In that event the Governor is authorized, with the aid of certain specified officers of the county, to make an impressment of the slaves demanded from the county by agents of his selection.
The Department has usually collected slaves for work upon fortifications by a requisition upon the Governor according to the terms of this act. It is equitable in its provisions, and the agencies employed are probably the least obnoxious of any other for the accomplishment of the object proposed--that object being the assertion of an onerous and repulsive claim for service. But the existing circumstances did not admit of the delay necessarily involved in the use of its machinery. The Department has not supposed that this act was incorporated into the legislation of the Confederate States by the ninth section of the act of March, 1863, but it has in its general order under that section of act and its special order in the present instance preserved its leading features in reference to the apportionment of the labor, the compensation to be made, the obligations to be assumed to the owner in case of the loss or injury of the property, and the length of time for which the slaves are to be continued in the service.
Having thus shown the authority of law under which the Department is now conducting the impressment of slaves in Virginia, the answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives is respectfully submitted.
JAMES A. SEDDON,
Secretary of War.
SOURCE: United States War Department. THE WAR OF THE REBELLION: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901. | {
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Why You Should Travel to Dubai this Year
Dubai is among the few Middle East cities that are open to travellers. This city is one of the seven municipalities that form the United Arab Emirates.
It’s located towards the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula and to the southwestern side of the Arabian Gulf. Many people travel to this city due to its stunning coastline, constant sunshine, and a vast desert. Nevertheless, there are more reasons to travel to Dubai.
They include:
The tallest building in the world
The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building globally. It measures 828 meters and it makes the downtown Dubai sky stunning. Its architecture was inspired by the beach spiderlilly or Hymenocallis. This is a desert flower. This building appears in steel and glass aluminum as three towers around the central core. Traveling to Dubai gives you an opportunity to go to the top of this building where there is an open air deck on level 124. This gives you stunning views of the entire city at 360 degrees.
Shopping
There are many shopping malls in Dubai. Dubai Mall is the most famous among them. This is the largest mall in the world and it covers a space of 12 million square feet. You can also go shopping in the Mall of the Emirates when you travel to Dubai.
Desert Safari
The Liwa Desert has an unforgettable landscape. It has miles of red sand that stretches endlessly into the furthest horizon. Going on a desert safari provides the best way to enjoy an unforgettable experience in this city. You get a chance to view the rolling sand dunes across the desert. You catch better views of the desert sunset when you go on an evening safari.
Mosques
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is among the most impressive mosques in the world. Its size alone is simply overwhelming. It has a white marble that luminescent beneath the Arabian sun. The interior of this mosque is equally impressive.
Rest assured that you will live to remember the view of this mosque and tell stories about it once you visit it during your trip to Dubai. Jumeirah Mosque is also a large and impressive mosque that you should visit when you travel to Dubai.
Beaches
Dubai boasts of a coastline that is characterized by sparkling, clear waters and sand beaches. With high sunshine hours and hot temperatures, you can have great time at the beach. There are also coastal hotels with private beaches. Majority of them provide great water sport experiences.
These are some of the major reasons to visit Dubai. Consider traveling to Dubai for these and other reasons. | {
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Baltimore students ‘can’t feel their feet’ as schools struggle to properly heat classrooms
The teachers’ union requested the city close schools until the problem is fixed.
2018’s first blizzard, technically called a “bomb cyclone,” hit the U.S. East Coast on Thursday. For many Americans safe at home in their (relatively) warm apartments and houses, the storm is scary, but not particularly life-threatening. However, for kids attending Baltimore’s public schools, woefully incompetent heating and water problems were already making wintery weather conditions a nightmare, ultimately forcing schools to close before the storm.
Originally reported by local news outlets, the Baltimore Teachers Union requested the city close public schools amid major heating problems, impacting multiple educational facilities across the school system. Four schools were closed Wednesday, two additional schools dismissed students early, and NPR reports the entire public school system closed its doors for the snow storm on Thursday. But schools that remained open before Thursday faced temperatures resting around 40 degrees, forcing students to bundle up in layers just to attend class.
In one of Maryland’s best high schools, Baltimore City College High School, one student warned that she was freezing at school.
“She actually said she couldn’t feel her feet at one point,” mother Nikki Massie told NPR. “I texted her back and said are you joking? She says—no.”
This problem is systemic. The poor building conditions is not just happening at my school but all around Baltimore City….
Approximately one-third of all public school buildings within the city are suffering from some form of heating issue, with around 60 schools having sent complaints to the city as of Wednesday. In the Baltimore Teachers Union letter, the city’s educators called on the public school system to close schools “until your facilities crew has had time to properly assess and fix the heating issues within the affected schools in Baltimore City.”
“I do realize that you and your staff are managing the best you can to rectify the issue in this record-breaking cold weather, however, doing so on the backs of our members and the children of Baltimore City is unacceptable,” union president Marietta English wrote, NPR reports. “Additionally, your expectation that our members and the children that they teach endure bursting boilers, drafty windows, frigid temperatures in classrooms, and risk getting sick in these ‘less than ideal’ conditions, is utterly ridiculous.”
While all the bullshit is going on in our corrupt federal administration, there are real problems like freezing cold kids and teachers in Baltimore schools that won't be addressed. https://t.co/jyJXETZyht
As to why Baltimore’s students are left out in the cold, many argue it’s because the affected buildings largely service students of color. This is particularly damaging, because Baltimore’s schools often provide essential needs to children outside of schooling, like free meals and after-school programs. And, when they’re working properly, heat.
“I just think of all that stuff about needing to have perseverance and grit, and that’s all they can say to these children,” teacher Jesse Schneiderman said, the Root reports. “Things we only ask of black and brown children.”
It remains unclear when Baltimore’s school system will solve the heating issues, although the district has blamed “extreme temperatures” for the problem, suggesting climate change is also a factor at play. Regardless, for now, the heating issue is for the city to fix.
Ana Valens is an LGBTQ reporter and essayist for the Daily Dot. Her work has previously appeared in Bitch, the Establishment, Vice's Waypoint, Rolling Stone's Glixel, and the Toast. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. | {
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Call Us Free Legal Consultation
(800) 959-3429
Harassment Laws
Texas Harassment Laws: Criminal charges and Penalties in Texas
Harassment is a misdemeanor offense in which one person is accused of purposely annoying another person, usually by phone or e-mail. If the case involves threats of violence, the charge can become stalking, a felony.
To charge you with harassment or stalking, the police have to show that you were the person making the calls or sending the messages, and establish that you acted with criminal intent. The most common forms of evidence they use are phone records, copies of voice mail messages, e-mails and Internet addresses.
Occasionally, these incidents can escalate into violence, so prosecutors tend to take them very seriously, treating a harassment or stalking charge as a warning sign, especially in domestic violence cases or cases in which a stranger repeatedly expresses unwanted romantic interest in another person.
What is Harassment Under Texas Law?
The Texas Penal Code says you have committed harassment if you call, write or e-mail someone with the intention of scaring, embarrassing, annoying, or tormenting them. Specifically, if you solicit or describe sex acts, threaten to harm the person or the person’s family, falsely report the death or serious injury of a third party, let the phone ring over and over, or send repeated e-mails, you can be charged.
Harassment is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by not more than 180 days in a county jail and/or a fine of not more than $2,000. But, if you have been convicted of harassment before, it becomes a Class A misdemeanor, which could mean up to a year in county jail and/or fines up to $4,000.
As with most misdemeanors, it is likely that you could receive probation if convicted.
Charged with stalking in Texas?
In some cases, you can be charged with the more serious offense of stalking. That is defined as any repeated conduct that gives another person, or member of the person’s family, the reasonable fear that you might kill or seriously injure them, or even damage their property.
While the statute includes physically following someone as a form of stalking, it does not require that the offense be committed in person.
For example, repeatedly calling a former boss to tell him you’re going to hurt him could be considered stalking under Texas criminal law. Or, posting threatening notes on a Internet message board to a woman who turned you down for a date could also be considered what is commonly known as cyberstalking.
On the first offense, stalking is a third-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 10 years in a state prison and/or a fine of not more than $10,000. With a previous conviction, it is a second-degree felony, bumping the possible penalty up to 2 to 20 years in a state prison.
Get a Criminal Case Evaluation from our Attorneys on Texas Harassment/Stalking Laws
Of course, we can help you fight Texas criminal charges of harassment or stalking. Often, these cases rely on records showing only that calls or e-mails came from an account in your name. We can argue that you did not initiate the communications, or that there was nothing in the content of the communications to show criminal intent.
There are many possible defenses, but don’t delay in finding legal help, or your best defense options may disappear. Contact us today.
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Thursday, July 29, 2010
What Goes Up …: The Birth of Big Air
As irritating as David Blaine has become in recent years due to his tedious, surprisingly lusterless stunt (un)spectaculars, whenever I’m flipping through the channels and stumble upon the 1996 documercial David Blaine: Street Magic, I put down the remote control. By now I’ve seen the Leonardo DiCaprio-hosted special enough times to know all the tricks, even if I can’t explain how they’re pulled off. And although I’m still impressed by Blaine’s skill (I’ve always loved magic), the pure excitement I get from watching him turn an Ace of Diamonds into a 6 of Spades has long since passed. Meanwhile, Blaine’s undoubtedly effective stage presence, from his monotone monologues to his dramatic exhaustion shtick, has become downright tiresome. Yet still I watch. The difference is that I no longer watch Blaine. The genius of Street Magic is that in addition to allowing us to observe Blaine’s sleight of hand, the film also – and sometimes exclusively – allows us to watch the awed faces of Blaine’s marks. No matter how many times I encounter Street Magic, the sight of people staring in absolute amazement as they try to process the apparent reality of the seemingly impossible is nothing short of thrilling.
Incredibly enough, that leads us to the latest documentary in ESPN Films’ “30 for 30” series, The Birth of Big Air, which has nothing whatsoever to do with street magic but nonetheless has similar charms. Profiling a BMX daredevil named Mat Hoffman, the 50-minute film is peppered with moments in which Jeff Tremaine’s camera stares into the dumbstruck faces of people trying to process stunts so incredible that they might as well be illusions. That some of the stunts happened as many as 24 years ago, and that many of the guys shaking their heads in amazement have performed numerous gravity-defying feats of their own, makes their present-day wonderment, captured in talking-head interviews, all the more poignant. It’s one thing for a stuntman to dazzle in the moment. It’s another thing to pull off tricks so incredible that a decade or two later people still get goosebumps remembering what it was like to discover photographs of the tricks in trade magazines. Mat Hoffman earned his fame, and served as a trailblazer for his sport, by doing things on a bike that no one else could. Hoffman earned his legend, however, by nailing tricks no one else even imagined.
On that note, The Birth of Big Air is a celebration of vision as much as it is a chronicle of accomplishment. It’s the story of a kid from Oklahoma who built a halfpipe in his backyard and then spent every spare moment of his childhood testing his limits on it until he realized that it was the halfpipe that was holding him back. Driven by a heartfelt desire to honor his dead mother by reaching his full potential, and encouraged by the calculations of a stuntman who validated the attainability of the barely conceivable, Hoffman shifted his focus away from the standard 10-foot-tall halfpipe and began experimenting with something significantly more extreme, a 20-foot-quarterpipe, a nearly vertical ramp that he would use to launch himself toward a goal that was equally absurd: 20 feet of air. Such heights are commonplace in the sport now, thanks to better bikes and ramps, but at the time Hoffman was an explorer shooting for the moon in an era when his peers were still learning how to fly. So severe was Hoffman’s passion and so primitive were the times that in order for him transcend the 20-foot barrier he had to get towed by a motorcycle across a runway of loose plywood so that he could generate satisfactory speed. Pedaling alone wasn’t going to cut it.
It takes a special kind of person to take such risks – someone who is half-brave and half-reckless, or maybe all of one or the other. Hoffman is that man. Big Air is an ode to his perseverance and toughness. There are stories of broken bones, trips to the hospital and do-it-yourself stitches. There is respect paid toward the reality that big-air tricks are an all-or-nothing proposition. You nail them or you don’t, and when you don’t the failure can be ugly. The path to big air is fraught with big falls. If it wasn’t, anyone could do it. If Big Air is any indication, the only protection these guys get in the early experimental stages is a messy pile of mattresses to fall on (if they’re lucky). Other than that, it’s just a helmet and some woefully inadequate body armor between these guys and their wooden ramps. Big Air never mentions recent research about the cumulative effect of concussions, and perhaps it should have. Then again, the film isn’t an irresponsible, wholly romanticized depiction of the sport either. For many who watch this documentary, Big Air’s most memorable image won’t be Hoffman’s triumphant, jaw-dropping 20-plus feet of air. It’ll be the haunting sight of Hoffman’s inert body sliding down a ramp after a failed jump – an image made all the more grisly due to the tragic screams of Hoffman’s helpless wife, who just seconds ago was standing by her husband as the couple admired their newborn daughter.
The juxtaposition of Hoffman’s 2001 near-death experience with recent footage of ESPN’s X Games is chilling, precisely because they seem worlds apart. State of the art technology and years of refinement have made the formerly extraordinary seem almost commonplace to the point that it’s all too easy to forget the danger involved. To call these guys athletes is right on the money, but to call this stuff sport is to lure us into believing it’s all just a game. Big Air was produced by director Spike Jonze and Johnny Knoxville, the latter of whom earned fame by abusing his body on the TV show Jackass. It’s Knoxville we should think of when these big-air tricks go wrong, because if you’re not sticking a trick you might as well be hurling your body toward the ground from 20-plus feet in the air on purpose. From sport to Jackass-esque self-mutilation, just like that.
The risks inherent to BMX (or skateboarding, for that matter), threaten to keep it nothing more than a fringe professional sport. (Of course, that it’s a professional sport at all is in part thanks to Hoffman, who carried the fire during its lean years.) Perhaps fittingly then, Big Air isn’t anywhere near the top of the “30 for 30” series. It lacks the cinematic poetry of June 17, 1994 or the epic sprawl of The Two Escobars, and yet it has the thankless task of following those two superb entries in the ESPN Films series. Combining archival footage with talking head after talking head, Tremaine’s film is documentary bread and butter. Then again, I suppose you could say the same thing about a card trick in relation to magic. Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it won’t make your jaw drop.
The Birth of Big Air premieres tonight on ESPN at 7 pm ET, and will rerun frequently thereafter. The Cooler will be reviewing each film in the “30 for 30” series upon its release. See the archive.
Just saw the first ten minutes or so of this last night after having read your review. It reminded me a lot of Riding Giants/Dogtown and Z-boys, which is neither good or bad. All traditionally made but high quality documentaries, but all about extreme sports that I am tempted to think take themselves a bit too seriously at times, not in athletic prowess but social significance. Of course these are young sports, and these documentaries will likely age very nicely in the decades to come.
Clarence: Great question. I've decided my favorite is June 17, 1994. I'm sure on that one. After that it's hard for me to distinguish between The Two Escobars, Run, Ricky, Run and The U. My fifth would be Winning Time, though I admit a personal bias there because Miller slaying the Knicks is one of my favorite memories as a sports fan. On a pure cinema level, though, it's playful (the opera music) and smartly edited, so I think it stands.
Honorable mention to No Crossover.
Agreed with you on Silly Little Game. It was great to see it recognized. At the same time, it was almost a tease. Wish it would have been better.
Daniel: It really is cool to understand the history of big air, even if the history isn't that old.
It takes a special kind of person to take such risks – someone who is half-brave and half-reckless, or maybe all of one or the other.
Well said here and throughout - on a topic that has actually been dear to my heart ever since my son took his skateboard, picked up speed across the kitchen floor, and ollied out of the kitchen, over three steps, into the garage. Since then, he suffered scrapes, bruises, bleeding wounds, a slight concussion even with helmet, and a cracked elbow - but he persisted and mastered stunts at the nearby high school that were increasingly daring (though, of course, nothing compared to Hoffman's stunts). Still, I remembered myself at his age - a rather fearful guy - and I had to admire his courage and persistence at a sport that seems to defy gravity and other laws of physics. Now, fortunately, he's realized, I think, that the older you get the more damage you can do to yourself and his avocation has turned to music. Still, he and his old buddy will go off to the skateboard park of an evening to commune with big air (relatively speaking).
Good review. Seeing as how BMX is indeed a fringe sport, and one that I didn't know much about (aside from occasional X Games-watching the past couple years), I wish the separation between Hoffman and other riders when he started out would have been fleshed out a little more by Tremaine. He gives us a lot of talking heads in the first 5-10 minutes saying that Hoffman was on another level, but I wish he had expanded on that a little bit more, perhaps using graphics and numbers to show the disparity of Hoffman's air/tricks as an amateur compared with the pros that he was beating. (As opposed to just a stream of guys saying "He was getting huge air!") It just seemed like from a directorial standpoint, the film didn't get going until about halfway through, when you finally get invested in Hoffman's personality. I would have liked for Tremaine to give me more of a reason to care initially as to what set the kid apart. | {
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Two days after the CEO of Delta Air Lines Inc. said the company is taking a “serious look” at Bombardier Inc.’s CSeries jetliner, another major U.S. carrier dashed hopes that it too could be a linchpin customer for the troubled aircraft.
United Airlines announced Thursday that it will buy 40 narrow-body aircraft from Boeing Co. in a deal worth US$3.2 billion at list prices.
United had made it clear that it wanted to replace its 50-seat regional planes with larger aircraft in 2016. Chief financial officer Gerry Laderman said the CSeries was a candidate but the airline opted for Boeing’s 737-700 instead.
However, he said the airline “will continue to look at aircraft” and hasn’t ruled out Bombardier for future purchases.
Bombardier hasn’t recorded a new firm order for the CSeries since September 2014, and it desperately needs a big-name customer to restore confidence in the program.
The excitement starts to build when we have those conversations with a customer like Delta
In an interview this week, Bombardier’s president of commercial aircraft said he’s feeling “very positive” about how talks with potential customers are going, although he has nothing concrete to announce yet.
“We’re starting to get the inbound interest that we were expecting, so it’s very encouraging and I couldn’t be happier with where we are today,” Fred Cromer said.
Cromer showed the CSeries to Delta’s team in Atlanta right before Christmas and he said they were keen to learn about its technical specifications.
“They’re very interested in the 100-seaters and the 100- to 150-seat category is obviously where the CSeries fits,” Cromer said.
“You start getting deeper and deeper into those conversations and I can tell you, the excitement starts to build when we have those conversations with a customer like Delta.”
On a conference call with analysts earlier this week, Delta CEO Richard Anderson called the CSeries a “pretty impressive” airplane.
“We actually think that at the right price it is quite a competitive airplane, particularly given the engine technology,” Anderson said. “So we are taking a very serious look at it.”
The CSeries was certified by Transport Canada in mid-December and will enter into service with Swiss International Air Lines AG in the second quarter of this year.
Production is also ramping up, and the first plane designated for Swiss is now structurally complete. Cromer said Swiss pilots are currently at Bombardier’s site in Mirabel, Que., to train on the aircraft.
“I met the first crew when they came off the airplane and they couldn’t be happier,” Cromer said.
“It flew exactly as advertised and they were pretty excited about it, they were anxious to get in and do it again. I think it was all thumbs-up from their point of view, which was great feedback.”
However, National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen said the stock — which is down 70 per cent since the beginning of last year — will only move higher when new orders are announced.
A deal with Delta or another marquee customer “would be a significant program-legitimizing order and a major positive for the company,” Doerksen wrote in a recent analysis.
He added that the weak Canadian dollar could prove to be a “nice tailwind” for Bombardier’s aerospace division in 2016, with a potential $288 million in cost reductions, excluding hedging, if the current exchange rate holds.
However, Cromer said the loonie hasn’t affected discussions around the price of the CSeries.
“There has not been a lot of volatility in those pricing discussions,” he said. “The pricing discussions are really more deal-specific.” | {
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31 July 2012
Newfound Wisdom
I always look forward to Tuesday afternoons, when I pick up my CSA delivery on the way home from work. This morning, I had an appointment with a man about some wisdom teeth. The wisdom teeth are gone, but the second delivery of early tomatoes are here. What does this all mean? It's going to be a great week for Gazpacho. The golden plums, left, are likely to make a cameo appearance in some cold soup, too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Gisi of Good Everyday Things. Mark is a California native who currently lives in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. He's Co-Founder and a Partner at Eastern Standard, a Philadelphia-based agency. | {
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My Kids
Things I've Learned From My Children
Things I've Learned From My Children
For those who already have children past this age,
this is hilarious.
For those who have children nearing this age,
this is a warning.
For those who have not yet had children,
this is birth control.
The following came from an anonymous mother
in Austin, Texas.
1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. foot house
4 inches deep.
2. If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.
3. A 3 year olds voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing Batman underwear and a superman cape. It is strong enough, however, to spread paint on all four walls of
a 20 by 20 foot room.
5. You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using the ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before
you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way. | {
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Books, authors and all things bookish
Amazon drops California associates to avoid state sales tax
June 29, 2011 | 11:22
pm
This post has been corrected. See note at bottom for details.
Amazon.com dropped about 10,000 California-based associate sales partners late Wednesday so that it would not be forced to collect California state sales tax on purchases made through them. The tax is new and was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday as part of a plan to close a gap in the 2011-12 budget.
As passed, the law requires large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that California customers make on the Internet. Those taxes were lowered by 1 percentage point to ease the implementation.
Amazon's associates, better known as affiliates or marketing affiliates, use Amazon to help sell their products and either pay a percentage of each sale to Amazon or collect a small commission from Amazon on each sale, depending on the arrangement....
Apart from losing the income generated by the affiliates, the company would still have to pay sales taxes on goods purchased by Californians directly from its site, assuming the law stands up to likely legal challenges.
Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Arkansas and Rhode Island have all passed similar laws requiring Internet retailers to collect sales tax -- sometimes called an "Amazon tax" -- and Amazon responded by dropping its associate partners in those states, CNN Money reported.
Only in New York state, which also passed a similar measure, has Amazon not dropped its associates; there, it has challenged the law in court.
"It's odd that a company would voluntarily dilute its business in the most populous state in the country simply because it's being asked to collect what is lawfully owed," Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, told CNN Money.
According to two experts contacted by the Wall Street Journal, the California law is a likely candidate for a court challenge. California lawmakers maintain that it is designed to help level the playing field for brick-and-mortar retailers in the state.
[For the record, 6:16 a.m., June 30: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Amazon had dropped its California sales partners late Thursday and that Gov. Brown had signed the legislation Thursday.] | {
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12 GAUGE BASCHIERI & PELLAGRI 2-3/4" 1-1/5 OZ. 00 BUCK (10 ROUNDS)
The 12 gauge is not your run of the mill firearm. Putting out incredible amounts of lead at high velocity, this shotgun is phenomenal for hunting, self defense, sports shooting, and military and law enforcement applications. With this all purpose shotgun, you have everything you need in a close range firearm.
Baschieri & Pellagri was founded in Italy in 1885 and is dedicated to making high quality, precise, and accurate ammunition. Experimenting with different components, this fine Italian company developed the first white, smokeless gunpowder.
Each hull in this 10 round box measures 2-3/4" in length and carries a 1-1/5 ounce payload of 00 buckshot. With high quality ammo from such an esteemed and established company, you have the shells you need to go hunting or protect your family.
Don't forget, at AmmoMan.com all orders over $99 will receive Free Shipping!
Thank you for taking the time to let us know about how this product performed. We care about your shooting experience and want to be sure we do all we can to ensure you have a great one. Please let us know how to reach you in the fields below so we can get in touch if we have any questions about your review or so we can work to correct any problems you might have encountered. | {
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Portable USA Waterproof Case for iPod nano 2G - Clear (910-01.3)
Availability: Temporarily out of stock. Order today and we'll deliver when available.
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PCMG offers next day delivery on select products when you choose them before the stated deadline and use FedEx Standard Overnight, Priority or Saturday delivery. If you don’t need it overnight, we also offer great 2-5 day shipping options.
To make sure all the item(s) you're buying are all eligible for next day delivery look for the "Get it by . . ." message which displays a cut-off time and shipping method. This message lets you know that next day delivery is still available.
To take advantage of next day delivery:
Add the qualified items to your Shopping Cart and proceed to checkout.
Choose a shipping address within the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii, protectorates, and territories, but not P.O. boxes or APO/FPO addresses)
Pay using credit card or debit card in good standing to avoid payment processing delays.
Select FedEx Standard Overnight, Priority or Saturday delivery.
Place your order before the stated deadline and enjoy the fast shipping!
Canceling items, combining orders, or changing your shipping address or shipping options after you place the order might affect your next day delivery.
Next Day Shipping Options:
FedEx Standard Overnight: 3:00 PM next day delivery is available in thousands of cities. By 4:30 PM to remote locations. Order tracking & delivery confirmation available. The daily order placement cut-off time to ensure credit card approval and delivery within expectations is 9:15 PM ET.
FedEx Priority: 10:30 AM next day delivery is available in thousands of cities. Delivery by noon to most other areas, and by 4:30 PM to remote locations. Signature is required. Order tracking & delivery confirmation available. The daily order placement cut-off time to ensure credit card approval and delivery within expectations is 9:15 PM ET.
The 910-1.3 Otterbox for iPod Nano follows in the legacy of the OtterBox for iPod family. The case protects your iPod 2nd Generation Nano from your active lifestyle. This case fits all 2nd generation Nano's. Features include waterproof, dustproof, dirtproof, sandproof, and drop-proof with click wheel protected by a thin membrane which remains fully functional through the case, included belt clip provides cable management for headphones, external headphone jack usable with any style headphones with a standard mini stereo plug(1/8"). Note that Otterbox for iPod cases are NOT adapted to withstand pressures associated with scuba diving.
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Since 2002, PCMG has been a leading provider of IT products, services, and solutions to government agencies, educational institutions, and healthcare facilities. We provide access to over 300,000 IT products like tablets, laptops, desktops, servers, storage, and networking from leading manufacturers like Cisco, HP, Apple, Adobe, Lenovo and Microsoft. With powerful eProcurement tools, comprehensive software licensing solutions and dedicated Account Executives, it's easy to get exactly what you need to tackle your technical challenges.
In addition, we offer world class procurement and logistics, IT consulting, and implementation services delivered through over 1200 technical professionals. Whether you want to deploy tablets securely or move your data center to the cloud, PCMG is here to make it happen. Our Services experts will collaborate with you to understand your requirements and provide tailored services to allow your organization to lower costs, increase agility, improve efficiency and succeed in today's global economy and beyond. | {
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My order from blowout came today (3 boxes of crown and a star wars box) and decided to open one of the crown boxes tonight, but it wasn't all that great so I talked myself into opening a second and went for the one that's serial number ended in a 9, my lucky ending number when picking boxes.
My luck with boxes that end in 9 worked again as you guys can see, pretty happy with it, even though I could use the money to pick up some Stewart's, I'm not sure if I want to move it as he's killing it for me in fantasy this year and turning me into a fan of his.
It's my favorite product to bust, probably has something to do with having a ton of luck in my boxes (Sillouhette in all but 2 of my boxes and one of those 2 had a Cam auto) but its just an overall fun break. You get a couple inserts in each pack and they're all just cool looking cards, at the 67 a pop BO had them at, you just can't beat that value
One more box sitting here, trying to save it for the weekend, but will probably end up getting opened sometime tonight | {
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Steve Smith’s heartfelt press conference has been interrupted by a bizarre comment from a Kyle & Jackie O producer comparing the disgraced cricketers to ‘Married at First Sight’ participants.
As a distraught Smith broke down apologising to the nation and his parents for his role in the ball tampering scandal that has rocked Australian cricket, Peter Deppeler (known as ‘Intern Pete’) from the Kyle & Jackie O breakfast show overrode other reporters to ask him bizarre question.
Starting by saying he wanted to “take a different tact”, Deppeler said he wanted to offer the perspective of the “non-sporting community”.
“To see you upset tonight is very sad. We asked our listeners what we thought about this and we have opened up to them,” Deppeler said.
But it was his final comment comparing the cricketers to reality TV show participants Dean and Davina, whose on-air affair outraged 'MAFS' viewers, that drew gaps and groans from surrounding reporters and caused event organisers to cut him off sharply.
'Intern Pete' “And mate I have got to tell you, hold your head high for a little bit for what you have done because what’s actually been worse is what Davina and Dean did on ‘Married at First Sight’.”
Steve Smith was left speechless by the comparison to 'Married at First Sight' participants Dean and Davina. (9NEWS) (9NEWS)Davina and Dean caused outrage when they started an on-screen affair on reality TV show 'Married At First Sight'. (Channel Nine) (Channel Nine)
A teary yet seemingly gobsmacked Smith stares at the heckler wordlessly before event organisers eventually cut him off with “Thank you, next question”.
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The press conference continued without further incident, but that hasn’t stopped audiences taking to social media to slam the “embarrassing” and “tasteless” performance.
One viewer told Deppeler on Twitter: “Everyone in Australia now thinks you’re a d---head for asking Steve Smith about Married At First Sight. @kyleandjackieo – you’re a disgrace for allowing this to happen.”
Another suggested the radio producer will be “cooking Big Macs within five years”, while others labelled him a “moron”.
Others went so far as to call for him to be fired.
‘Intern Pete’ is infamous for his embarrassing and at times tasteless stunts – which have included attending the Logies dressed as the gold Logie man and turning up to a rival radio station stark naked – but his latest stunt may just have pushed community expectations - and Kyle & Jackie O listeners - one step too far. | {
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Welcome to the Exeter Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Website.
About the Exeter Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Our local group is broad-based, and comprises individual members of the community who are supportive of the Palestinian cause. We have around 430 members many of whom are actively involved in local and national events/campaigns.
Anyone who wants to be involved more locally, or just be informed, is welcome. We meet on the
first Tuesday of every month in Exeter and organise regular stalls, actions, culture, bazaar, public speaking and other events. Your input and support is always needed and appreciated.
The Exeter PSC also works with several other groups in Exeter and the South West to promote Palestinian culture and goods as well as political lobbying. We also aim to provide information and raise public awareness about the situation in Palestine.Click here to contact Exeter Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
As with all campaigning groups we rely on financial support for our work from members and the public. Our annual budget is currently about £2,000 the majority of which is used for targeted humanitarian projects in Palestine especially Hebron and Gaza where we have links. Some funds are raised through events, but our ideal source is many individuals donating regular amounts, naturally we would also be grateful for single donations. Click here to donate to the Exeter Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Exeter Palestine Solidarity Campaign is affiliated to the National Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which was established during the build-up to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and support for the new organisation was greatly strengthened by subsequent events, and particularly by the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla.
Since 1982 the PSC has become the largest and most active campaigning organisation in the UK on the issue of Palestine. The PSC aims to build an effective mass campaign, organising protests, political lobbying and raising public awareness.
The
PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation
with members from many communities across Britain - and increasingly throughout
the world.
PSC's (and our local group's) core values are:
Campaigning against oppression and dispossession
suffered by the Palestinian people.
Supporting the rights of the Palestinian people and
their struggle to achieve these rights, including the Right of Return in line
with UN Resolution 194.
Promoting Palestinian civil society in the interests
of democratic rights and social justice.
Opposing Israel’s occupation and its aggression
against neighbouring states.
Opposing anti-Semitism and racism, including the
apartheid and Zionist nature of the Israeli state.
Set up your own local group
Several of our members have set up their own local groups through the church, trade union and other organisations or simply with other like minded people. If you would like to do this, please contact us for help. You can also get materials for stalls or meetings direct from us. See also campaign material and merchandise available from the national PSC.
The national PSC has published a Branch Guide to help set up local groups, please contact us if you would like a copy.
Although we would strongly encourage you to become a member
of the national PSC, this is not compulsory. | {
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Dhoni is the only player in the current 15-man Indian squad to have featured in previous two World Cups (2007 and 2011). He took India to World Cup glory in 2011, winning the tournament with a six in the final at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. (Team India guide)
File photo: Dhoni (right) hugs Tendulkar after winning the World Cup in 2011
While 11 of the 15 will be making their World Cup debuts, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin were the other 3 to have been part of the victorious 2011 squad. (Team India's WC records)
At 33, Dhoni is not part of the young brigade. Citing the "strain" of playing all formats, and to concentrate on ODIs and T20s, he quit Tests last month (December 30), which came as a bolt from the blue to his colleagues and fans.
One of the best finishers and arguably India's greatest leader in shorter versions of the game, Dhoni will most likely not feature in the 2019 World Cup in England.
By the time the next 50-over big tournament comes around, Dhoni will be few months short of his 38th birthday.
Having played in all three formats non-stop (including Indian Premier League) for nearly 9 years, Dhoni is expected to bid adieu to ODIs in the next couple of years. (Photos from WC 2011 final)
Dhoni with the World Cup 2011 trophy
One cannot be surprised if Dhoni chooses to bow out of ODIs after this World Cup, in case he manages to steer the team to a second title in a row.
While there are still speculations over why Dhoni retired from Tests midway through the Australia series, the wicketkeeper-batsman has chosen to not reveal the reasons.
"You can ask questions, but it is my decision (not to answer them). I will answer if I want to," was Dhoni's reply when queried on his Test retirement.
And in recent times, all seems to be not well in the Indian dressing room. Virat Kohli seems to have become the "Chosen One" for most of the team management at the moment.
With Kohli in prolific form in all formats, rightly, the focus too is on him. The day is not far away when the Delhi lad is anointed as the ODI captain as well with having already got the reins of Test team.
Dhoni will be few months short of his 38th birthday at next World Cup
If Team India fails to defend the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, questions might be asked about Dhoni's leadership and a change in guard might be brought in.
However, irrespective of the results in ICC World Cup 2015, Dhoni is almost certain to not hang around till the next showpiece event in 2019.
As Sachin Tendulkar did in his final World Cup appearance four years ago, Dhoni too will be aiming to bow out on a high, making it two in a row. | {
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How Music Can Motivate Creative Momentum
This post is totally random, but I’ve been brain-deep in focusing on finalizing the playlist for the fifth book of The Black Wolf Series. It got me thinking about just how much I rely on music to motivate my creative momentum!
Music has always been a huge part of my life. My parents both love listening to and making music, so it has been a part of my environment since day one. I can play a few instruments (poorly) and can sing (in the shower or car, especially). But listening to music is my real joy.
Unfortunately, I can’t listen to music when I’m writing because it becomes a distraction. When I’m not writing, however, I find music to be especially inspiring. Certain lyrics, of course, can inspire thoughts or evoke emotions. More often, though, inspiration comes from the music itself. The feeling or mood the music gives me when I hear it is typically much more powerful than the content of a song.
Using music is a great way to motivate your creative momentum!
I have so many playlists on my personal Spotify account. The entire Black Wolf series is sketched out in music – along with the next planned series (The Crown Series) and two other untitled, un-figured-out things I might write in the future! Plus there are the playlists of songs that haven’t yet found a home but are so good they’ll have to end up somewhere.
As I’ve been working my way through the rest of The Black Wolf Series, I’ve been zeroing in on which songs are inspiring me the most. I’ve got playlists full of tunes I’ve been chiseling down. It’s not really an idea of what songs *belong* to the books, but more of which pieces get me feeling the way I need to as I mentally walk myself through the plots and problems.
I’ve found playlists to be the most useful when I’m doing chores or getting ready for the day. It’s a shock how many ideas come to you when you’re washing your hair or loading the dishwasher.
You can take a listen to the finished playlists for Books One through Four here: | {
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Republican Rep. Mike Coffman and his Democratic challenger, Andrew Romanoff, clashed over immigration, campaign finance and the budget on Thursday, in the first debate in one of the most competitive, expensive and closely watched House contests in the nation.
New York state's second-largest public-sector union endorsed Zephyr Teachout's long-shot bid to oust Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday, while the state's powerful teachers' union announced it will sit out this year's governor's race. | {
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One of the longest running jokes in Internet history revolves around VRML (an acronym for "Virtual Reality is Much Laughter"). In case you haven't heard of this idiotic language, and I truly hope you haven't, let me get you up to speed by presenting an alarmingly inaccurate historical description of VRML. VRML was initially created in the mid-90's to allow users to experience the utter joy of being in "cyberspace," which consisted of floating around gigantic neon cubes and cones. All the "cool" movies in those days featured people who would log in to their bitchin' 100 MHz Pentium 1 computers and enter some magical world where numbers are represented by dumb geometric shapes and nobody can find anything useful anywhere. The main point of going into virtual reality was to apparently teach your idiot children how to name shapes and colors. Despite heavy protests from people with over nine brain cells, VRML 1.0 was released in May of 1995, causing coders around the globe to immediately dismiss it and go back to playing "Rise of the Triad." Programmers who didn't have access to this game were forced by their bosses and college instructors to use VRML and create some kind of virtual reality world that not only took forever to load but also had the added benefit of being completely impossible to navigate. Most colleges offered at least one VRML-related course where the instructor was some short chubby guy with bulging eyes and a grey beard. He often knew as much about VRML as the students, so it was really easy to just answer "RED CONE" to every test question and end up passing the course. Here's an actual quote from the VRML 1.0C specifications:
"Finally, we move to "perceptualized" Internetworks, where the data has been sensualized, that is, rendered sensually. If something is represented sensually, it is possible to make sense of it. VRML is an attempt to place humans at the center of the Internet, ordering its universe to our whims. In order to do that, the most important single element is a standard that defines the particularities of perception. Virtual Reality Modeling Language is that standard, designed to be a universal description language for multi-participant simulations."
THE FUTURE!!!
Wow! That sure sounds exciting and revolutionary! With such a meaningful and detailed description, I can't even possibly begin to imagine why this useful language never caught on. I mean, read that again: "the data has been sensualized, that is, rendered sensually. If something is represented sensually, it is possible to make sense of it." How anybody could expect VRML to succeed when its description doesn't even make any sense whatsoever baffles even me, and I've seen things on the Internet that would make your head spin around so fast that it flies off your neck stump and lands on the collection of carpet samples you bought off of eBay. Anyway, everybody got really excited about VRML back then because they had nothing else to do but either program in that language or play "Rise of the Triad," and since most of them had already killed that utterly retarded demon-snake-terrorist-lizard-bug-alien end boss of the game, they tried making websites in VRML. The amazingly flexible nature of this language allowed developers to construct exciting "cyberspace virtual webpage e-worlds" that included such revolutionary creations as:
Planet of the Red Cubes A large blue square with a bitmap stretched across it reading "WELCOME TO MY HOMEPAGE" Something involving green pyramids A huge box that, upon entering, allowed the user to experience entering a huge box.
These were all incredibly exciting and wonderful concepts that were predicted to revolutionize the Internet industry just like how Dale Earnhardt revolutionized the "dying in a NASCAR race" industry. Can you imagine going to Amazon.com and seeing a whole line of red boxes underneath a shelf of orange spheres, some of which blink and read "WELCOME TO MY HOMEPAGE"? I can't! And also I'm impotent! Oddly enough, most Internet citizens felt the same way as I do (about the cubes, not the impotency), and VRML found itself grouped with such amazing ideas as Microsoft Bob and the script to "Maximum Overdrive." All the fat, bearded, smelly computer programmers simply couldn't figure out why VRML didn't catch on like Ocean Pacific t-shirts; it had all the elements of a successful product, which I will not list now because I cannot think of any offhand. Whatever they were, I'm just sure they were absolutely wonderful and possibly revolutionary.
THE FUTURE!!!
The programmers eventually gave up on VRML and decided to create another new, revolutionary, pointless language coincidentally named "VRML 2.0." See, this was intended to be an improvement to the previous version of VRML 1.0, which is the equivalent of moving up from Schlitz to Milwaukee's Best. VRML 2.0 promised to cram us into some exciting electronic three-dimensional world where we could see even more complex cubes and new shades of fuscia. In addition, it offered such revolutionary features as the ability to emit sounds from your computer speakers, allow cube doors to open inside cube rooms, and even support Javascript, the language that lets 50,000 porn site popup windows lock up your computer! Everybody had their hopes up for VRML 2.0 because the number "2" is larger than the number "1", by at least two times. However, programmers soon found out that the number following the acronym "VRML" wasn't referring to its release edition, it was referring to the number of people who will actually use it. The world once again was not ready for the sensory overload that VRML had to offer, and we tossed it aside like a Kleenex during a Kleenex-tossing competition. Everybody pretty much assumed VRML was dead at this point... but much like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Jackson, it has reared its ugly head once again in a brand new form: X3D.
...members of an emerging Web 3D standards group unveiled the first working draft of Extensible 3D (X3D), a successor to VRML. Among its claimed advantages, the new version is designed to work with Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is fast becoming the glue for a wide range of Web documents.
"There is a genuine pent-up demand for this stuff," analyst Peddie said. "What's out there now is primitive and not very satisfying, but that's partly because the people putting them out have to develop them from scratch. If they could get the same level of support and functionality with 3D that they do with XML, you would see amazing new developments."
Did you read that? AMAZING NEW DEVELOPMENTS! We're going to witness AMAZING NEW DEVELOPMENTS! Not just new, but AMAZING AND NEW! And DEVELOPMENTS! That's like two for the price of none! Now I don't know about you, but I've been having wet dreams about 3D graphic webpages for at least the last two weeks now. Before then I just had wet dreams of Johnny Fever. So look out WKRP in Cincinnati, X3D is in town and soon you'll be able to see rotating green squares on some kid's Geocities page dedicated to Slipknot! Gentlemen, the future is here once again! After being here before! And here again before that! Prepare yourselves for a sensory overload and strap on your 3D goggles because X3D is going to revolutionize the Internet as we know it, just like how PowerPlay turned my modem into a LAN party. Let's just hope our bandwidth is large enough to support all those cubes and cones and stuff coming through because I just looked at my cable modem's LAN wire and it seems awfully small. Oh well, back to "Rise of the Triad." | {
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it is full of cool games,onlinegames ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss | {
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2 comments
I have witnessed individuals running red lights at this intersection numerous times at all hours of the day from my window! Absolutely ridiculous and very dangerous as you can see! Speed bumps need to be put in by the city to rectify the ongoing problem at this intersection! I am so glad my friend, the driver of the black truck, was able to walk away from this accident. | {
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The bill, which expands on compassionate-use legislation passed in states across the country, will give patients the right to request trial drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies. Currently patients must submit an application to the FDA before approaching manufacturers.
The bill also ensures that patients are charged no more than the production cost for the drug, while providing pharmaceutical companies with a degree of legal protection if the patient experiences harm from the treatment. Safety issues that occur in compassionate-use cases must be reported to the FDA, the proposed legislation states.
“Patients with terminal diseases ought to have a right to access treatments that have demonstrated a level of safety and could potentially save their lives,” Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the author of the bill, said in a statement after the unanimous Senate vote.
Bioethicists are sceptical. Alison Bateman-House, of NYU Langone Medical Center, called the bill “inherently deceptive” because it simply says patients can ask drug companies for the treatments. Companies often are reluctant to provide unapproved products for a variety of reasons, and the FDA has an efficient system to handle requests for experimental drugs, she told the Washington Post.
In a scathing blog post, bioethicist Craig Klugman criticised Right To Try advocates for bypassing “logical arguments, reason, and good facts”:
“...A pure market approach to pharmaceutical distribution sacrifices safety, accurate labeling, scientific approaches to treatment, and protecting the public from harm. In their winner-takes-all arena, there must be winners and losers. If right-to-try wins, then we all lose”.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
In a recent article in the American Journal of Bioethics, bioethicist Art Caplan and three colleagues call for a complete overhaul of the venerable Belmont Report (see below). This is the 1979 US government report which set out three famous principles which have governed human research ever since: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.
Most government reports are already gathering dust within a few months after their publication. But the Belmont Report’s influence has been enormous, as it shaped the bioethical framework for clinical and research decision-making in the US and many other countries as well.
Caplan & Co make a good case for revising the standards in the light of experience and changing times. But it comes at an awkward moment: the Trump Presidency. What kind of commission would Mr Trump create to study this issue? Perhaps a noisy and truculent one, a bull in the bioethics china shop. Be careful what you wish for? | {
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Next story in Holiday Tech Guide
For those of you about to shop … we offer you the following list of great games to buy that Xbox 360 owner in your life.
All of these games were released during this last year and each one is not only well-crafted, it also offers many many hours of play time.
But a couple of quick notes for those of you thinking about buying games for someone else. First, make sure to check out the game's ESRB rating so you buy the right game for the player of the right age. Also, before you pick up a game, you might want to check with the person you're buying for to make sure they don't already own it.
And lastly, if there's an Xbox owner on your list, now is a good time to considering buying them Microsoft's new motion-control hardware known as Kinect. You can read more about the device and the games that go with it here, here and here.
Mass Effect 2
"Mass Effect 2"Rated M for mature audiences only
$60 (but can often be found at a discount)
This action-packed role-playing game has it all — epic quests, a stellar story line, vivid characters, smartly crafted love stories ... we could go on and on. A space opera of grand proportions, "Mass Effect 2" puts you in the boots of Commander Shepard as he (or she) takes a rag-tag gang of aliens and space farers on a thrilling and mystery-filled adventure across the galaxy. And talk about bang for your gaming buck — "Mass Effect 2" offers not only a massive main game but loads of top-notch downloadable content to keep players going and going. You can count on this being money well spent.
"Alan Wake"Rated T for teen
$60 (but can often be found at a discount)
If there's someone on your list who loves Stephen King, a well-told horror tale or just a good solid psychological thriller of a game, then get yourself a copy of "Alan Wake" ASAP. This Xbox 360 exclusive set in a creepy world that seems plucked from a Stephen King novel or perhaps "Twin Peaks," takes players through a dark and twisted tale that is delivered in episodic format, much like a TV show. Players must not only use guns but light itself as a weapon against the nightmarish creatures out to destroy novelist Alan Wake. Downloadable content gives this game some additional heft. (Read more about the game right here.)
Halo: Reach
"Halo: Reach"Rated M
$60
You can't play this newest game in the "Halo" franchise on any console but an Xbox 360. In the big "Halo" picture, this first-person shooter takes place shortly before the original "Halo" game, with gamers playing a super soldier diving into battle against an alien race known as the Covenant along with a squad of fellow soldiers. "Halo" has been a ground-breaking franchise for Microsoft and the Xbox, and this gripping and well-tuned installment is arguably the best in the series. But "Reach" has sold a whole lot of copies — so be sure your giftee doesn't already own it.
Fallout:New Vegas
"Fallout: New Vegas"Rated M
$60
Who knew that the apocalypse could be so fun? "Fallout: New Vegas" is one of those games that you fall into...as in, you fall into it as if it were a deep, deep hole. A follow-up to the hit role-playing game "Fallout 3," "New Vegas" takes place several years after "Fallout 3" and takes players to the city of sin in all its devastated glory. This game is full of colorful characters, delightfully twisted dialog and one gritty and epic mission after another. Start up this game and it'll be a long time before you stop. (Note: This is a great game for
all the PS3 owners out there
as well.)
Fable III
"Fable III"Rated M
$60
There's just so much to do in this absolutely epic action role-playing game we hardly know where to start. But here's the quick and dirty: In this third video game in the "Fable" series, players go on a massive journey that takes them from adventurer to ruler of their own kingdom. And rest assured, ruling the roost ain't easy. The story here is enthralling and the gameplay is absolutely addictive. If you want to give your gamer something to do for a good long time, this is the game to pick up.
Also see the "Red Dead: Redemption" and "Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood" write ups in our
PlayStation 3 holiday guide
. These superb games are available for the Xbox 360 as well and would make great gifts. | {
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47 - "all in this together" - angie checks in at front desk, goes up to room. jake returns to front desk, after getting story straight with stan. angie gives big tip to bellhop CHESTER, tells him she "needs a friend"
48 - "midnight swim" - return to al's bar. introduce PHIL O'HARA. who has dug up background on angie for vance and gracchus. first mention of possible art heist.
50 - "enter cosette" - jake reports to bernstein, who is skeptical but accepts his story of falling down and hitting head. cosette discovers stan in room 603. she questions him, is skeptical of his answers. he threatens her, then attempts to recruit her. | {
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After years of working with, and learning from, some of the most respected, forward-thinking labels in the game (Diynamic, Cocoon, Cadenza, Get Physical, 2020 Vision, Cecille, Visionquest), UNER is now putting down his own label roots… Solar Distance.
Established with a view to identifying and nurturing new talent and expanding his established CommUNERty, Solar Distance is an exciting new adventure for the award-winning artist. Inspired by deeper, more refined, harmonic and musical styles, Solar Distance will plot journeys between seemingly disparate monolithic techno moons and the twinkling stars of electronica… And help us realise they’re actually closer to each other than you think. | {
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[MEDIA STATEMENT] Andrew Weaver Opposes Trans Pacific Partnership
By BC Greens · April 13, 2016
13
April 2016
Victoria B.C. - “The TPP, especially the investor-state dispute settlement clauses, poses a serious threat to the sovereignty of our province. It places the interests of multinational corporations above the interests of British Columbians,” says Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head.
Today in the legislature Weaver stood to oppose the TPP in the Motion 11 debate.
“It is a 20th-century trade strategy applied to a 21st-century economy. Supporting the TPP will have dire consequences for our technology sector - one of British Columbians greatest economic opportunities,” says Weaver. “The BC Liberals have been going out of their way to try to court technology companies, talking about leadership in this sector and how government is there for them. Today we see that was all talk, as they swiftly cut the legs out from under this industry with this vote.”
“Signing this deal will also undermine our ability to be climate leaders. If we are serious about addressing climate change we will have to implement more aggressive policies to reduce our emissions, under this agreement that would put us at a distinct trade disadvantage if other countries did not follow suit.”
“This is not a deal for British Columbians, this is a deal for Petronas. The motion to support the Trans Pacific Partnership was put on the order papers in the fall before the text of the TPP was even available. The BC Liberals made up their mind before even reading the text.” | {
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While we strive for a lively and vigorous debate of the issues, we do not tolerate name calling, foul language or other inappropriate behavior. Please see our discussion guidelines and terms of use for more information.
While we do our best to moderate comments, we do not screen comments before they are posted. If you see a comment that violates our guidelines, please use the "Report Abuse" link to notify us of the issue.
Actually, if he has another good season, people can be pretty sure he is doing it all clean, and that maybe the drugs he took didn't help out his production that much, if any at all. The fans will be back on his side before too long.
I would hope that Milwaukee fans would turn their back to the plate every time that Braun is up....and not bothering watching. Kinda like Braun turned his back on the urine collector and tried to destroy the man, all in trying to save himself. Ryan Braun = Lance Armstrong = nobody we should ever cheer for.
These posters never made a mistake. they have never lied to their employee about work they did or didn't do. They have never posted on JSO while at work. They have never told their spouse that they weren't flirting with that attractive person they were talking to, or that they have no idea where the scratch in the car came from. They have never told a police officer that they hadn't a single drink. Even, better, they have never forgiven a family member, friend or loved one for making a mistake or lying about it. What a wonderful life they must live. Oh, and they have never voted for a politician who told a lie.
Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone acts like an arrogant prima donna before, during, and after they get busted for it. He's just not that good of a dude. It takes a bit of the luster off being a fan knowing i have to pull for someone like this in order for my team to succeed, but that is my human condition to deal with. I can see why some people have no problem with him, as there are plenty of people just like him.
So, if he had just refused to have a press conference, nobody would have a problem with him now? Not everyone has microphones stuck in their faces after making a mistake. I'm not condoning any of what he did. He caught cheating and lying and he was punished for it. I honestly don't know one person [myself included] who during the course their adult life hasn't done something stupid and then tried to talk their way out of it. The difference is most of us haven't had a horde of reporters asking why we did what we did. As for there being plenty of people just like him, I would have to include myself. Anyone else?
Doesn't matter if its a horde of reporters or a spouse. If you lie until there is no other option than to finally tell the truth. then you are on that side of the fence. Like I said, there are plenty of people just like him.
So every time you have made a mistake you came forward and admitted it? You never made a mistake or lied one time and got away with it? If you ever flirted with a woman not your wife, you immediately told her you had been flirting? If you ever played hookey from work, you went right to your boss and told him? If you ever drank too much and then drove, your first stop was the police station to turn yourself in? Or is this only a rule if it's not you?
To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having denied a proposition by replacing it with a different proposition. For example, when discussing one's actions when getting caught doing something wrong, Homer Jay counters with discussion of immediately turning oneself in after doing something wrong. if you don't see the fallacy in your argument, then there is nothing more I can do to help you.
Holy cow! When did going on a drug regimen constitute a "mistake?" Getting handed a $20 bill when you should have gotten a $1 and walking out is a mistake. Putting together a program of drug use is not a "mistake." He didn't lie about it by accident. Braun did drugs to help himself as a lifestyle. It's not the same as trying pot once and deciding it's not for you. It's not the same as saying you left one assignment at home when you failed to do it at all. There is a huge difference between a "pattern of behavior" and a "mistake."
Yep, that is my opinion. That fact that he was taking 'roids or whatever - fine, a bunch of guys were doing it, and it helped Braun put up better numbers. But he was caught red-handed (ok, maybe not red HAND, but a different body part). He knew he was guilty - but instead went after the collector. A real man would have stood up and admitted his mistake then and taken the punishment. But he continued to blame others and say he was innocent - until he was completely cornered, and could not lie anymore. That is the part that I can't live with. He had his chance to come clean when he was caught but chose not to. And it saddens me that so many view that as appropriate behavior. Yes, the taking of steriods can be forgiven - what he did after he was caught speaks to the true character of the man. It would be like cheering for Lance Armstrong. Sorry, can't do it.
His arrogance has no boundaries, even today. If he knew he would eventually get caught he would not have thrown people under the bus and lied his donkey off. Fantastic. Maybe one day he will get it, but as of now he's just the same person who was buying drugs in Miami.
Does anyone believe that the local critics actually CARE about the urine transporter? He's long forgotten, one of many people who have lost their jobs due to incompetence. Braun is in the fabric of the team for a long while, so get a life and enjoy the rosy looking future of the Brewers, with, his bat and defense.
Well this is definitely the best option for HIM, no doubt about that. Move on people, this is in the past. He gave us all plenty of closure, right? The press is inadvertently giving him multiple chances to offer closure, but he keeps going down this path. The boos will only get louder on the road, becuase he is what he is.
Braun's best option would be to make a public apology stating EXACTLY what happened i.e. when did he take the drugs, did he take them knowingly, etc. Until than he is still a coward in my, and many fans, eyes.
Tulowitzki has averaged 120 games a year for his last 5 or 6 years. Best shortstop in baseball when he's healthy, but he's never healthy. Plus, would you rather have Braun, Segura, AND Gomez, an MVP and 2 all-stars last year, or have McCutchen or Tulowitzki. We made the right choice, no matter what Braun did or didn't do because of the way it sets the rest of the roster up.
>>>There's no blueprint that this is how you deal with these things or handle the situation.<<<
Actually, Ryan, there is a blueprint. Here it is:
1. Don't take any banned substances.2. If you are taking banned substances, stop immediately.3. If you get busted for taking banned substances, tell the truth immediately and take responsibility for your actions.4. Teling the truth at all times prevents or reduces the negative consequences that will come.
Stay up to date on the Milwaukee Brewers wherever you are with "Milwaukee Baseball," the Journal Sentinel's mobile site for smartphones. Also available in both the Apple and Google Play app stores. Just search "Journal Sentinel baseball."Read more | {
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With free registration, you can ask and answer questions in our HYSTERECTOMY forum community, get free booklets, access Hysterectomy Checkpoints and more. You are not alone. The HysterSisters are here for you. Join us today!
can anyone tell me if they have experienced these symptoms. Not sure if it is black cohosh, vitamin e or evening primrose oil. I have had a migraine for 2.5 months. This week stopped all of the above and my headaches and facial swelling that happens at night are gone. Would like to reintroduce one of the above to stop hot flashes but I am not sure which is the culprit. Think it is evening primrose oil. Help!! Thank you all in advance.
Boy, it's so hard to tell! You're on the right track, introducing one thing at a time. It's possible that it's the EPO. Have you seen (((Trish's))) excellent article on EPO? It's HERE . There may be an answer for you there; maybe in your case flaxseed would work better??
Good luck with this. At least you know it's one of those things, and hopefully will find some relief soon! | {
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This Pastel Coffee Packaging Takes a Different Approach Than Most
This pastel coffee branding was designed to look subtle while representing the contents of the packaging.
'Luft Coffee' is based in Brooklyn, New York and its name translates to "air" in a few different European languages. The process of making this coffee is inspired by the Scandinavian technique of lightly roasting the beans and the branding reflects that fact. With minimal wording and soft pastel colors, the coffee branding takes a different approach than most others of its kind. The white backdrop of the coffee was designed to make it look as fresh as possible.
This pastel coffee branding takes a unique approach in marketing its contents and is successful in creating an eye-catching design that consumers will gravitate toward. | {
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Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital Redevelopment
Here is my petition in support of the Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital’s redevelopment. Along with the CPDMH email campaign that was launched October 3rd, your signature on this petition will go a long way to helping us secure the necessary and required funding to get our hospital redeveloped. This is a new petition, so even if you have signed my previous petition for the hospital’s redevelopment, you can sign this one too.
Please put your name behind our efforts to have our hospital redeveloped. Tell your friends and neighbours about this petition, and share it on Facebook and Twitter.
A Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario – Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital Redevelopment
To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
Whereas, the Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital (CPDMH) has been appealing to the Ministry of Health for redevelopment funding and approval since 2003;
And whereas, population growth and demand for services at the hospital have increased beyond the hospital’s ability to serve under current conditions;
And whereas, both the Carleton Place community and neighbouring municipalities have demonstrated their support for this redevelopment through the donation of land and other financial contributions, and the project has the support of the Champlain LHIN;
And whereas, continued delays in the approval and funding of this redevelopment will have a severe negative impact on the delivery of health services not only for the people of Carleton Place, but also for people in Beckwith Township, Mississippi Mills, Drummond/North Elmsley, Lanark Highlands as well as negatively impacting Stittsville and Kanata;
We the undersigned petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:
That the Ministry of Health and other involved agencies approve funding for the development of CPDMH before these communities find themselves facing a crisis situation. | {
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MUELLER SAID HE IS STEPPING DOWN AND LEAVING THE DECISION TO THE JUSTICE -- AND LEAVING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. SHERI: PRESIDENT TRUMP DIDN’T JUST ADDRESS THE MUELLER REPORT ON TWITTER HE ALSO MENTIONED THE 2020 ALABAMA SENATE RACE AND POTENTIAL CANDIDATE ROY MOORE. WVTM 13’S IAN REITZ TALKED WITH A POLITICAL EXPERT, ABOUT WHAT WAS SAID AND THE RACE. IAN: YOU MAY RECALL, PRESIDENT TRUMP BACKED MOORE IN 2017 EVEN HELD A CAMPAIGN RALLY FOR HIM. BUT TODAY, MORE THAN 500 DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION, PRESIDE TRUMP TWEETED THAT HE HAS NOTHING AGAINST MOORE, BUT MOO CANNOT WIN. IN 2017, MOORE WON THE PRIMARY, AND RAN AGAINST DOUG JONES IN THE SPECIAL SENATE RACE TO FILL JEFF SESSIONS’ SEAT. BUT MOORE LOST IN THE GENERAL AMID ACCUSATIONS OF SEXU MISCONDUCT. TODAY THE PRESIDENT SAID REPUBLICANS CANNOT ALL THEMSELVES TO AGAIN LOSE THE SENATE SEAT IN THE GREAT STATE OF ALABAMA THIS TIME IT WILL BE FOR SIX YEARS, NOT JUST TWO. I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST ROY MOORE, AND UNLIKE MANY OTH REPUBLICAN LEADERS, WANTED HIM TO WIN. BUT HE DIDN’T, AND PROBABLY WON’T. I ASKED DR. MARISSA GRAYSON, OUR POLITICAL EXPERT, WHETHER IT’S RARE TO HAVE A PRESIDENT TALK ABOUT A RACE THAT’S ABOUT A YE AND A HALF AWAY. PART OF THE REASON, SHE SAYS WHO CONTROLS THE SENATE, AND ISSUES LIKE SUPREME COURT NOMINEES, WILL BE KEY TO 2020. >> DOUG JONES SEAT IS A SEAT GOP WANTS TO TAKE BACK THAT WOULD MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR DEMOCRATS TO WIN. I’M NOT SURPRISE HE IS WEIGHIN IN I ALSO THINK IT DISTRACTS FROM OTHER THINGS HAPPENING TODAY LIKE MUELLER TALKING FOR FIRST TIME IN TWO YEARS. OPPORTUNITY TODAY TO BRING UP ROY MOORE. GU IN
The Latest on President Donald Trump discouraging Roy Moore from running for U.S. Senate again in 2020 (all times local):Alabama Republican Roy Moore is insisting he can win a Senate rematch in 2020, and says he won't be influenced by President Donald Trump's tweets urging him not to try.Trump backed Moore in 2017, but he tweeted Wednesday that Moore "cannot win" this time.Moore responded in an Associated Press interview on Wednesday, saying "everybody knows" he can win. He's blaming establishment Republicans in Washington for trying to keep him out of the Senate.Moore says Trump's tweets won't influence his decision as his weighs whether to enter the 2020 race. He's still planning to announce his decision in June.The former Chief Justice on Alabama's Supreme Court lost the 2017 race to Democrat Doug Jones amid accusations of sexual misconduct.___10 a.m.Former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore says he can win the 2020 U.S. Senate election if he enters the Alabama race, and will not be will influenced by President Donald Trump's comments urging him not to seek the seat.Moore said told the Associated Press Wednesday that establishment Republicans don't want him to enter the 2020 Senate race because "everybody knows I can win."Trump, who backed Moore in 2017 tweeted Wednesday that Moore "cannot win.""I think the President is coming under pressure from people in Washington scared I will run for the Senate, scared I will win and know I can win," Moore said Wednesday in a telephone interview.Moore said Trump's comments will not influence his decision whether to enter the 2020 race. He said he will announce his decision in June.Moore lost the 2017 Senate race to Democrat Doug Jones amid accusations of sexual misconduct.___ 7:19 a.m.President Donald Trump warned Wednesday the "consequences will be devastating" if Alabama Republican Roy Moore, whose 2017 U.S. Senate campaign was battered by allegations of long-ago sexual harassment of teenagers, seeks the seat again in 2020.Moore lost in the once-reliably red state in a 2017 special election amid the sexual misconduct allegations , which he denied. He told The Associated Press earlier this month that he is considering another campaign next year.Trump, who backed Moore in 2017 despite the allegations, tweeted "I have NOTHING against Roy Moore," but warned that "Roy Moore cannot win." He adds that if Democrat Doug Jones retains the seat in 2020 "many of the incredible gains that we have made during my Presidency may be lost."Trump's comments come as national Republicans have tried to keep Moore out of the race.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. —
The Latest on President Donald Trump discouraging Roy Moore from running for U.S. Senate again in 2020 (all times local):
Alabama Republican Roy Moore is insisting he can win a Senate rematch in 2020, and says he won't be influenced by President Donald Trump's tweets urging him not to try.
Advertisement
Trump backed Moore in 2017, but he tweeted Wednesday that Moore "cannot win" this time.
Moore responded in an Associated Press interview on Wednesday, saying "everybody knows" he can win. He's blaming establishment Republicans in Washington for trying to keep him out of the Senate.
Moore says Trump's tweets won't influence his decision as his weighs whether to enter the 2020 race. He's still planning to announce his decision in June.
The former Chief Justice on Alabama's Supreme Court lost the 2017 race to Democrat Doug Jones amid accusations of sexual misconduct.
___
10 a.m.
Former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore says he can win the 2020 U.S. Senate election if he enters the Alabama race, and will not be will influenced by President Donald Trump's comments urging him not to seek the seat.
Moore said told the Associated Press Wednesday that establishment Republicans don't want him to enter the 2020 Senate race because "everybody knows I can win."
President Donald Trump warned Wednesday the "consequences will be devastating" if Alabama Republican Roy Moore, whose 2017 U.S. Senate campaign was battered by allegations of long-ago sexual harassment of teenagers, seeks the seat again in 2020.
Moore lost in the once-reliably red state in a 2017 special election amid the sexual misconduct allegations , which he denied. He told The Associated Press earlier this month that he is considering another campaign next year.
Trump, who backed Moore in 2017 despite the allegations, tweeted "I have NOTHING against Roy Moore," but warned that "Roy Moore cannot win." He adds that if Democrat Doug Jones retains the seat in 2020 "many of the incredible gains that we have made during my Presidency may be lost."
Trump's comments come as national Republicans have tried to keep Moore out of the race. | {
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Designer Living Promo Codes 70% Off December 2018
Welcome to Designer Living 70% Off promo codes and coupon codes in December 2018. Find out the best Designer Living promo codes 70% Off and discount codes December 2018 for Designer Living online store. | {
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Saddam Hussein is the former dictator and president of Iraq in South Park. Shortly before the American-Canadian War, he was killed by a pack of wild boars and became Satan's jealous, emotionally abusive, and manipulative boyfriend (later ex-boyfriend). He is a recurring antagonist in South Park and the secondary--but eventually main--antagonist of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
Contents
Background
Hussein first made a very brief cameo in "Tom's Rhinoplasty" in an image shown by some Iraqis to the third grade class as evidence of Ms. Ellen being Hussein's mistress. He does not have the Canadian look in the photograph. Her connection to him is a significant plot point that results in Ms. Ellen's ultimate death.
Hussein first appeared in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus," in which he kidnapped Celine Dion and tried to take over Canada. He launched an assault on Canada, sneaking his troops through the air lines, the Canadians not noticing that large numbers of Saddam's troops were moving in. By the end of the episode, he managed to take over most of Canada, although he was killed when all the Canadians farted, and later becomes a very visible resident of Hell.
In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, he is the secondary later true main antagonist. Hussein continues his romantic relationship with Satan as he plans to conquer the world by taking advantage of Satan's power as ruler. Also, in the film, it was stated at the start that he got killed by a pack of wild boars six weeks earlier. That was an error because boars never killed him in the show, as he died in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" due to a "mass fart". He uses his position of power over Satan to launch an invasion of earth after the Canadian-American war made it possible for him to enter, and his demons briefly manage to take over the world. US soldiers tried to shoot him, but he was shown to be immune to their weaponry. He is defeated after Cartman hits him with several powerful electrical shocks, and when Satan, tired of his abuse, throws the weakened Saddam down a cliff, where he is impaled on a spike. He is later seen briefly singing Mountain Town (Reprise) while still being impaled on the spike.
In "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?", Saddam returns to Hell (having no where else to go after his death) and tries to move in with Satan. He constantly murders Satan's new boyfriend, Chris, however he keeps coming back since they are already in hell.
In "Probably", Satan deals with his decision to choose his current boyfriend over Saddam. He ends up choosing neither, and as punishment for Saddam's abusive, manipulative actions, banishes him to heaven to live with Mormons. He finds their kindness unbearable.
Saddam's "Chocolate Chip factory"
Hussein also appears briefly in "A Ladder to Heaven" when he is suspected by the US government of building a chemical weapons plant in Heaven. Being the manipulative character that he embodies in South Park, he even convinces God that he couldn't possibly be building chemical weapons in Heaven, despite the fact that he himself admits his cover up for the plant, a chocolate chip factory, is easily see-through.
In "It's Christmas in Canada", Hussein appears as the man controlling the Prime Minister of Canada, in reference to the man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz. He makes many new, unnecessarily hateful and eccentric laws, including one that forced Ike to leave the US and move to Canada. The boys travel to Canada to get Ike back, coming across several other people who were affected by Saddam's laws. When they finally reach Saddam, he kills Kenny with lasers, and refuses to give Ike back to his brother. When Kyle asks "What the hell is wrong with you? What kind of Prime Minister bases all his decisions on hatred?" he is unveiled as the Prime Minister of Canada, and is promptly arrested by Canadian soldiers. He is last seen being paraded through a city on a float, with the Canadians celebrating his capture.
If you look very carefully in "A Million Little Fibers" when it shows the reporter from the Middle East, you can see a portrait of Hussein in the background.
Appearance
Saddam Hussein appears as any other Canadian character except his head is a cut out of the real person. He has a floppy head and wears gray pants, a dark brown military jacket, and black shoes.
Personality
Saddam Hussein in South Park has mannerisms that differ from the real Saddam. First of all, he speaks English only, secondly, he talks in a whiny, high pitched voice, and thirdly, he is homosexual. He also is shown to be very manipulative, often accomplishing his tasks fairly easily due to the stupidity of nearly everyone around him, even God and Satan at certain points. He often creates schemes to take over the world. Most prominently in the film, where he manipulated his boyfriend Satan into invading earth, just so Saddam could push him aside and assume control of the world himself. He also organizes a gambit to invade Canada, sneaking his soldiers through the airlines, and apparently built a chemical weapons plant to take over the world in "A Ladder to Heaven". His most recent (and last) plot was to become the Prime Minister of Canada by tricking the Canadians. He becomes the Prime Minister for a short time, but is defeated when the boys find out who he really is, and Canadian soldiers arrest him. Saddam appears to be very sadistic, as evidenced by his torture of Kenny in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, he is heavily implied to have a sexual fetish for it. On a similar note, Saddam appears to be very sex-crazed. He satisfies both his lust for power and his sex cravings by being in a homosexual relationship with Satan, whom he is very abusive to. As shown in "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?" and "Probably" his first instinct when his relationship with Satan is threatened when Satan finds a new, much kinder boyfriend is to murder said boyfriend, and his first reaction after Satan breaks up with him is to constantly stalk him. He is a self-proclaimed psychopath, as evidenced in his song "I Can Change", which contained the following lyrics:
"I like to kill I like to maim but its OK because I can change!", during which he kills a dancer by breaking her back. He also apparently had abusive parents, as evidenced by other lyrics from the same song:
"Its not my fault, that I'm, so evil its society. society. You see my parents were sometimes abusive, and it made a prick of me." During these lyrics caricatures of Saddam's parents are seen hitting their infant son.
Saddam also is depicted as very power hungry (as evidenced by his constant plots to take over the world), he is greedy and dishonest. On one occasion, he is implied to be a religious bigot (unlike the real Saddam who allowed religious pluralism in Iraq), as evidenced by his line in "Krazy Kripples", where he recommends "Death to the infidels" as opposed to getting rid of Gene Hackman.
Quotes
U.S. Government Representative: "Mr. Hussein, the U.S. government is becoming worried." Saddam: "Worried? Aboot what? Take a load off! Relax!" Representative: "You seem to be taking over Canada." Saddam: "Taking over Canada? Me? Hey, you need a rest, fella! I'm not hiding any bombs!" Representative: "We didn't say anything about bombs." Saddam: "Oh. You didn't? Hey, relax!" Representative: "We're giving you just three years to clear your forces out of Canada. After that, we're gonna bomb all of Iran." Saddam: "I'm from Iraq." Representative: "Iran? Iraq? What's the difference?" from "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus"
Catchphrases
"Heeeeeeyyyyy! Relax, guy!"
Trivia
It is rumored by some U.S. Soldiers that the real Saddam Hussein was shown the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut while on trial for genocide/crimes against humanity as a form of torture.
Saddam is assumed to have been hanged like in real life, although he could still be in Canadian jail, as if he was hanged he would go back to hell, and he was not seen with Satan in "Best Friends Forever". He was depicted being hung on the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine, where his execution was photographed by Cartman with a camera phone.
Saddam has the most appearances of any villain in the series.
When Saddam talks, he pronounces about "aboot". This, combined with his Canadian style head and his habit of saying "relax guy/friend" when people are (usually rightly) suspicious about his motives, implies that he is Canadian in some way.
Saddam was described by Satan once as "fucking crazy." Considering this is Satan, this is fairly ironic, although Satan has been shown as considerably nicer and more sensitive than he is depicted in other media.
When Saddam Hussein first appeared on South Park, he was still the dictator of Iraq, making his appearance as Satan's boyfriend rather surreal, especially the first time they aired.
Although Saddam is South Park's biggest villain and a real person and celebrity, he does not appear in "200" or "201".
Saddam is referenced a few times as the Iraqi Dictator instead of Satan's boyfriend: | {
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Russia Reveals New Ballistic Missile Capability
President Vladimir Putin has announced the addition of 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Speaking at the opening of the Army-2015 Expo near Moscow, he said that “more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) able to overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defence systems” would be added to Russia’s nuclear arsenal this year. The Russian President’s statement at the international military forum is intended to show Moscow’s military might amid escalating tensions with NATO. An early warning system to monitor in ‘western directions’ for signs of a surprised Allied attack was also announced. This should put the world back to the era of nuclear brinkmanship of decades past, between the former Soviet Union and NATO. The spectre of nuclear war due to accident or foolishness is once again on the cards for the future generation.
It all started when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula after the velvet revolution in Ukraine. Russia blames the interference of western powers in the Ukrainian conflict right from its conception. The West blames Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, for its support of allies in Baltic and former Warsaw Pact countries, who were once allied with the former Soviet Union. These Eastern European countries are asking for support from NATO now and have no wish to be dominated again by their neighbour to the east.
The irony is that the modern Russian is not very proud of the communist era of the past Soviet Union, and considers the communist experiment as an unnecessary burden which was also imposed from the outside on Russia through a velvet revolution. Since loosing 27 million lives in WWII, the Russians are now reverting to brute force to keep any perceived threat at bay. The era of diplomacy has given way to trash talk among statesmen, officials and reporters. It comes at the cost of the spectre of nuclear holocaust for the world’s population. The East and the West need to settle past disputes once and for all and start nuclear disarmament talks, instead of waiting for it to become a priority, as it used to be at the height of the former cold war.
The Army-2015 fair is held to show off the latest developments in Russian military hardware, and Mr Putin promised generals an array of other new weapons – including the advanced Armata tanks that were shown off at a Red Square parade last month.
The president also announced that the military was beginning testing a new system of long-range early warning radar “to monitor in the western direction”.
After Mr Putin’s address, Russia’s deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov told Russia Today his country was being “pushed into an arms race” by Nato.
Referencing apparent US plans to bolster its military presence in eastern Europe, he said: “I believe the [US] statement must be looked at together with other similar statements, which have recently been numerous.
“A few days ago, reports started to turn up about certain [American] missiles put in a certain location and about certain ammunition depots in Eastern European countries and the Baltic.
He added: “It looks like our colleagues from Nato member states are pushing us into an arms race.”
Few countries in the world are known to possess land-based missiles capable of crossing continents. The US operates 450 Minuteman missiles across three bases, while Russia’s existing arsenal is believed to be slightly greater.
ICBMs are needed to deliver nuclear warheads over long distances, and some are capable of delivering more than one. Though Russia is less than open about its military stockpiles, it is thought to possess more than 8,000 warheads in total.
Mr Putin’s announcement, which included a general pledge to continue Russia’s “massive” military rearmament programme, comes amid the worst tensions between the West and Russia in decades.
On Monday, Russian defence ministry official General Yuri Yakubov said that US proposals to bolster an allied army on Polish soil would be “the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and Nato since the Cold War”.
“Russia will have no option but to build up its forces and resources on the Western strategic front,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. | {
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Fort Pierce Central’s Dylan Torello (15) shoots over Treasure Coast defenders Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast’s Donnavan Bonilla (24) shoots a layup over a Fort Pierce Central defender Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast’s Reggie Prevalon (3) shoots a layup over a Fort Pierce Central defender Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Fort Pierce Central’s Darvion Blackshea (30) puts it up with Treasure Coast’s Calvin King in his face Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Treasure Coast battled Fort Pierce Central Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.
JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM
Fort Pierce Central’s Dylan Torello (15) shoots over Treasure Coast defenders Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, during their District 8-9A semifinal high school basketball game at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie.(Photo: JEREMIAH WILSON/TCPALM)Buy Photo
Trailing Fort Pierce Central by six points with six minutes to go in a District 8-9A semifinal Wednesday night left the Treasure Coast High School's boys basketball team's dream season on the verge of unraveling.
It didn't.
Reggie Prevalon's 3-point goal ignited a 25-9 run to finish the game as the Titans prevailed 72-62 to advance to their second consecutive district final.
"They just stayed positive," Treasure Coast coach Pat Kelly said. "All the way through to the end, I thought they were looking to get stops. We held them scoreless for four minutes in the fourth quarter."
Donnavan Bonilla finished with a game-high 21 points — eight during the closing run — and three steals for Treasure Coast (24-1).
Tyrec Thompson added 15 points and five rebounds while Chris Brown had 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Calvin King had 12 points and five rebounds, and Elijah Williams had four rebounds.
The Titans made 23 of 29 free throws to win their eighth consecutive game while Central was just 7 of 15.
The teams were tied at 45 through three quarters before Fort Pierce Central (15-9) pulled ahead.
Darvion Blackshear hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 of his 18 points in the third quarter for the Cobras, who last reached a district final in 2014.
Vince Ventulan, who also had four 3-pointers, and Dylan Torello scored 14 points apiece.
Treasure Coast, a program-best 46-5 over the past two seasons, will host Vero Beach (18-6) at 7 p.m. Friday for the district title.
Both teams advance to regional quarterfinals next week.
Vero Beach 67, Martin County 61: The Fighting Indians erased an eight-point deficit by outscoring the Tigers 31-17 in the fourth quarter to win a district semifinal at Treasure Coast.
Javian Cuff scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half for Vero Beach (18-6), which trailed 44-36 through three quarters.
Tommy Lewis scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half and finished with seven steals, five rebounds and four assists.
Alan Glanville had 14 points and seven rebounds.
Vero Beach had 15 steals and made 21 of 27 free throws.
The Fighting Indians have won five consecutive games and 15 of their past 17, with both losses to Treasure Coast.
14-7A
Jensen Beach 61, South Fork 52: Triston Morris scored a game-high 20 points and Laverius Hampton added 18 as the sixth-seeded Falcons upset the third-seeded Bulldogs in a district opener at Heritage.
Emanuel Rogers scored 11 points for Jensen Beach (11-13), which led 18-7 after one quarter.
Jensen Beach lost to South Fork 63-34 and 63-58 during the regular season.
The Bulldogs (13-10) closed to within four points in the fourth quarter, but the Falcons hit 10 of 14 free throws down the stretch.
Nochley Rene scored 18 points for South Fork. Caleb Edwards, held to two points in the first half, finished with 15.
Okeechobee 65, Eau Gallie 37: Mark Youmans scored a game-high 19 points as the Brahmans rolled into the district semifinals.
Jamal Davis had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for Okeechobee (19-6), which has won five consecutive games and 11 of its past 12.
Jquan Ferrol had five points, 11 rebounds, four blocks, five assists and four steals while Devon Freeman had 11 points and seven rebounds.
Leo Kendrick scored 10 points for Eau Gallie (5-18).
Okeechobee meets South Fork at 5:30 p.m. Friday in a district semifinal at Heritage.
15-6A
Port St. Lucie 66, Lincoln Park Academy 41: Tyler Hedrick scored 13 points to help the Jaguars advance to the district final at Port St. Lucie.
Nate Davila and Ken Louis added 11 points apiece for Port St. Lucie (11-14), which led 36-16 at halftime.
Tyler Hogan scored a game-high 15 points for Lincoln Park (5-16), which closed the season with five consecutive losses.
Port St. Lucie will host Suncoast at 7 p.m. Friday. Both teams advance to regional quarterfinal games next week.
Suncoast 48, Fort Pierce Westwood 27: The Chargers (16-6) advanced to the district final while the Panthers finished 5-18.
5-4A
Benjamin 69, John Carroll Catholic 52: Ben Lubarsky hit five 3-point goals and finished with a game-high 31 points as the Buccaneers defeated the Golden Rams in a district semifinal at Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale.
Elam added 13 points for Benjamin (15-9), which led 22-11 after one quarter and 40-24 at halftime.
Ashton Singleton had 16 points and three assists for John Carroll (19-7). Raul Guevara had 12 points, four rebounds and two steals. | {
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Jesse Duplantis Net Worth
Jesse Duplantis is most popularly known as the Evangelical Charismatic Christian minister who is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries. His preaching is controversial in some areas, leading some Christians and non-Christians to call him “unbiblical.” Some sources have estimated his net worth near $40 million.
Due to the fact that many churches are considered nonprofits, and thus, are tax-exempt, his actual net worth is difficult to determine, since the line between his ministry and personal finances is almost nonexistent. Currently, between the two accounts, there is a house worth over $3 million.
Minister Duplantis is one of the most controversial people in the Christian church today. He began preaching back in 1976, introduced to the parish as “The Apostle of Joy.” In 1978, he became a full-time minister, incorporating his comedy and music skills into his sermons. In 1997, Minister Duplantis and his wife formed the Covenant Church, which was an outreach of Jesse Duplantis Ministries. Much of his speeches expressed a prosperity and abundance message, commonly referred to as the prosperity gospel. Many Christian organizations discouraged this message, but Duplantis’ popularity continued.
Known for an extravagant lifestyle, it comes as no surprise to other Christian leaders that Duplantis had a 35,000-square-foot mansion in St. Charles Parish, and has taken at least one 17-day trip to Hawaii in his private jet – a trip that cost his ministry close to $40,000 for flight expenses. Many journalists and publications have researched the ministry’s income, trying to discern what belongs to the minister and what belongs to the ministry.
Minister Duplantis continues to work as a minister with Jesse Duplantis Ministries today. He lives with his wife, Cathy, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is presently involved in leadership positions in the Covenant Church, Jesse Duplantis Ministries (JDM), the Jesse Duplantis TV program, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), and Covenant Compassion Center (CCC). | {
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A journey by train with a nod to Annie Brassey
Notes from a Journal…Arriving in China
“Waking up in China to a densely built up landscape. Gone are the forests of Siberia and the golden plains of Mongolia. It is autumn again, time goes backwards and we briefly travel through more familiar pine forests and woodland. Auburn leaves cling stubbornly to branches. It is rocky and flat alternately. There is evidence of agriculture with ploughed fields, the first since Siberia. The view is changing much more quickly now. Inhabited to wild, agriculture to city scape. House construction is different, older properties with tiled roofs. Evidence of man is more frequent here…”
It felt like I’d been cocooned by the train, my home for a full 7 days and nights of the three week journey. I have come to the end of my Trans Siberian/Trans Mongolian train journey. Nearly three weeks after leaving Moscow I am about to arrive in Beijing, leaving my new family behind as we all take our own paths onwards… | {
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A serious vulnerability in the Kubernetes that could enable an attacker to gain full administrator privileges over the open source container system's compute nodes, was confirmed this week.
The bug, CVE-2018-1002105, is a privilege escalation flaw in the Kubernete's platform and was spotted by Darren Shephard, founder of Rancher Labs.
It has since been patched by Red Hat, one firm that makes use of Kubernetes.
Unpatched, the flaw effectively allowed hackers to gain full administrator privileges on Kubernetes compute nodes, the physical and virtual machines on which Kubernetes containers run upon.
Once those privileges had been gained, hackers could then steal data, input corrupt code or even delete applications and workloads.
The flaw could be exploited in two ways: one through a 'normal' user gaining elevated priveledges over a Kubernetes pod, which is a group of one or more containers that share network and storage resources and run in a shared context, and from there they could wreak havoc.
The second involves the exploitation of API extensions that connect a Kubernetes application server to a backend server. While a hacker will need to create a tailoured network request to harness the vulnerability in this context, once done they could send requests over the network conection to the backend.
From there, the attacker has 'cluster-level' admin privileges - clusters are a collection of nodes - and therefore escalated privileges on any node. This would, in turn, allow said attacker to alter existing brokered services to deploy malicious code.
Due to the connection on Kubernetes API servers, where its authenticated with security credentials, malicious connections and unauthenticated users with admin privileges appear above board. This makes the flaw and its exploitation difficult to identify as would-be hackers appear as authorised users.
According to GitHub, this makes the vulnerability a critical flaw, mostly due to the fact it allows anyone with access to cause damages, but also because of its invisibility as abusing the flaw leaves no traces within system logs.
"There is no simple way to detect whether this vulnerability has been used. Because the unauthorised requests are made over an established connection, they do not appear in the Kubernetes API server audit logs or server log. The requests do appear in the kubelet or aggregated API server logs, but are indistinguishable from correctly authorized and proxied requests via the Kubernetes API server."
There are fixes and remedies to this flaw, but it's mostly about upgrading the version of Kubernetes you run. Now. There are patched versions of Kubernetes, such as v1.10.11, v1.11.5, v1.12.3, and v1.13.0-rc.1 and it is recommended that you stop using Kubernetes v1.0.x-1.9.x.
For those that cannot move up, there are cures; you must suspend use of aggregated API servers and remove pod permissions from users that should not have full access to the kubelet API.
“Kubernetes, like all software, is not immune to security issues - the privilege escalation flaw makes it possible for any user to gain full administrator privileges on any compute node being run in a Kubernetes cluster.This is a big deal. Not only can this actor steal sensitive data or inject malicious code, but they can also bring down production applications and services from within an organisation’s firewall,” said Ashesh Badani, general manager of Red Hat‘s cloud platform business unit.
“It’s important to note that all Kubernetes-based services and products - including Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, Red Hat OpenShift Online, and Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated - are affected. Red Hat has begun delivering patches and pushed service updates to affected users, enabling them to address this flaw either immediately or when it best fits their specific risk profile. A more detailed account of the Kubernetes privilege escalation flaw can be found here.”
Badani concluded: “As Kubernetes becomes more prominent for enterprises as they pursue digital transformation, it stands to reason that more flaws within the technology will be discovered. The community will be ready to fix the code, while Red Hat will be prepared to help you fix your critical systems in a way that can make the most sense for your unique organisational needs.” | {
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With Dragon Ball Super drawing ever so closer to it’s conclusion, leaks have come out that may hint at how the last two episodes will play out and fans ain’t too happy about it. This confuses me a bit because, if you’ve paid even a tad bit of attention, this was kinda hinted at for quite some time now. Plus, if you’ve followed the series this far, then complaining now will just be in vain.
So from here on out, we are entering spoiler territory so if you’d like to keep your innocence for the finale, I suggest you leave now. Oh, you still here? Alright then, lets go!
So according to the leaks, thanks to Ken Xyro’s tweet and translation, Goku still loses the battle and falls of the stage, leaving a wounded and extremely weakened Jiren the winner, only to be stabbed in the back and pushed off the stage by Frieza. OK, so when I said that this was hinted, I wasn’t referring to Goku ACTUALLY losing because that is still blowing my mind, but what I was referring to was Frieza winning the Tournament of Power.
When you look at all the possible outcomes for this battle, with the hints that have been thrown in the mix from previous episodes, there was no avoiding it. Now, I can understand why fans are frustrated with this ending. After much anticipation and hyping up the new form, Goku attains and masters Ultra Instinct to the point that even the gods stood up to pay respect, only to lose to Jiren. It’s fucked up right?
But then again, nothing ever made sense in Super to begin with. Also, fans are complaining that the ending is predicable. Well, what did you actually expect would happen? If Goku wins, then it’s “OMG GOKU ALWAYS WINS, BORING!” So this I feel like was the only way to make it work…..kinda!
I’m not gonna front here, Goku losing to Jiren kinda stings here. I’d much prefer if Jiren fell of the stage and then Goku gets shot from behind by Frieza but that would actually piss off the OmniKings and they may even erase him on the spot. At the end of the day, there’s not much anyone can do. The script is written, it’s already probably been animated as we speak, so all one can to now is just….enjoy the show for what it is, fan service.
Whether you hate the show or like it, there’s not denying that it gave us some of the best fights we’ve seen in a long time and introduced a batch of great characters. Who knows, as the leak suggested, there might be more coming in the future so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below on how you feel about the ending of Dragon Ball Super.
I have actually no problem with it the fact that Frieza is the winner, because it’s something different than usual. Goku is always the winner and I know he is the main character, but I think he had more than enough screentime in the tournament of power with obtaining Ultra Instinct and defeating most of the people in the tournament of power. I am not a Goku fan, I prefer Vegeta or Android 17 or something that would really surprised me in Dragon Ball Super, but Frieza doing the finishing blow is fine with me, plus it makes sense because he always does something dirty like that.
Yeah I’m cool with Frieza winning because now I’m curious to see how that will play out. But honestly, there really is no pleasing the DB community at this point. Despite all the flaws that are in Super, I can’t deny that I’d be willing and ready to watch more when or if they ever come back. | {
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We understand that you have a lot that you could be doing with your money we hope you will find that Feed My Sheep is an excellent place to give. We are a 501 (C) 3 organization and our mission works because of support from the Maui community.
Your donation can make a big difference for Maui's hungry. You can support one person with one week’s worth of food for $10. This includes purchase, storage and delivery.
For single-gift donations by credit card please use PayPal:
To arrange recurring donations or in-kind gifts please call:
(808) 872-9100
You can send checks by mail to:
Feed My SheepPO Box 847Puunene, HI 96784
Our Federal ID Number (FEIN) is 91-2196666
We Offer Many Creative Ways to Get Involved
Here are a few ways you can contribute doing as a part of your everyday life
Additional information
Feed My Sheep News
2017-18 Health Outcomes Survey
Feed My Sheep is releasing a new survey of health outcomes for our friends. Since 2012 our staff has focused on acquiring and distributing healthier food options and have seen many of our friends' health improve. For the last 3 years we have surveyed our friends to show the benefits our changes are making.
The linked PDF document is a summary of the results from this year's survey.
God, My Business Partner
For those interested in an electronic copy of "God, My Business Partner" by Myles Kawakami please send your requests to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Guidestar Gold Rating
Feed My Sheep has been recognized with a "Gold" rating for trasparancy by Guidestar, the largest source for information on Non-profit organizations.
You can turn your HI-5 Redeemable Recycling into food for the Hungry with one stop at Aloha Recycling across from VIP Cash 'n' Carry in Kahului. Aloha recycling has accounts for all sorts of local causes. Tell them you'd like your refund to go to Feed My Sheep and the full value of your donation will come to us.
For Food Assistance please call:
(808) 870-9421
Office Phone/Fax: (808) 872-9100
Feed My Sheep, Inc.PO Box 847Puunene, HI 96784
You can contribute using PayPal
Feed My Sheep is a 501 (c) 3 Non-Profit organization
Federal ID# 91-2196666
This program is made possible in part by support from the County of Maui. | {
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In an unprecedented move, Blue Nile has finally seen the value of using actual diamond images and videos to enhance their online diamond search! Savvy consumers can now utilize Blue Nile’s diamond visualization tool to search for diamonds that have a 360 degree magnified HD video feature.
How To Use Blue Nile’s Diamond Visualization Tool
Click on ‘360 View Available’ to see only diamonds that have a corresponding image/video
Blue Nile’s Diamond Visualization feature allows consumers to search for diamonds with a corresponding magnified HD video and image. In order to utilize this feature, be sure to check the ‘360 view available’ box which is under the ‘view filters’ blue tab. Keep in mind that most diamonds are round at this time, but more images will be added for all diamond shapes.
Why Is Blue Nile’s Diamond Visualization Tool Helpful?
The ability to ‘see’ a diamond prior to purchase is paramount. It is simply a necessity. With magnified diamond images and videos, we can easily confirm cut grade, brilliance/contrast and scintillation (aka sparkle which is a dynamic characteristic), clarity grade and visible imperfections, depth of color, and overall ‘personality’ of a given stone. It is still somewhat mind boggling to me that a consumer would spend thousands on a diamond without actually seeing it first – but luckily those days are soon to be obsolete as any good diamond retailer is now adopting current technology to showcase actual images/videos of their inventory.
However, we must be realistic in that most people with access to diamond images and videos still have difficulty navigating what they are actually seeing. Without a road map with defined locations, even seeing a picture will do little to assist in their evaluation process. So, let’s dig a little deeper to see how Blue Nile’s Diamond Visualization tool can help the common consumer…
Cut Grade – Generally speaking, Blue Nile’s ‘Signature’ line of diamonds offer the best in terms of white light brilliance and symmetrical dark contrast areas which result in a dynamic effect of overall sparkle and ‘scintillation‘. Though some of their diamonds aren’t the perfect super-ideal hearts and arrow diamonds that dominate the likes of Brian Gavin Diamonds, however Blue Nile’s ‘Signature’ line has improved over the years and offers ideal cut diamonds that rank in the upper 10% of all diamonds.
Sparkle – Seeing a diamond move under a light source tells us how much or little ‘sparkle’ it has. Blue Nile’s diamond visualization tool allows for the consumer to pause the image, view frame by frame, or view as a 360 degree video. The best diamonds show lots of white light reflection (brilliance), sparkle (flash and fire) across the full crown of the stone; taking full advantage of light from many different sources, under a broad range of movement, and show minimal underperforming (dead and dark) areas.
Clarity Grade – Many consumers get overly caught up in clarity grade thinking that a diamond that is VVS or higher is preferable. However, it must be restated that clarity is merely a rarity factor and not in itself a characteristic of beauty. There are many examples here on ODBA where a consumer saves considerable cash on a larger carat weight diamond while choosing a perfectly eye-clean stone. Now that Blue Nile has their 360 diamond visualization tool available, we can confidently search for diamonds that are as low as SI2 clarity grade as long as the inclusions/blemishes don’t affect overall translucency or affect the integrity of the stone. Here are two examples:
1.71ct D SI1 Blue Nile ‘Signature’ diamond that is prongable. See red arrow for dark crystal that can easily be covered under a jewelry prong when set in setting. This diamond offers great value without having to overpay for a super high clarity grade. However, we would never have been able to confirm this without the ability to actually ‘see’ the diamond via Blue Nile’s Diamond Visualization tool which offers still images and dynamic HD video.
.91ct G SI1 Blue Nile ‘Signature’ diamond that is perfectly eye-clean. Grade making inclusions are twinning wisps and feather. Another great example of saving cash on a lower clarity diamond that has an ideal cut and offers beautiful sparkle without having super high clarity grade. Again, without the ability to use Blue Nile’s diamond visualization tool, this would not have been possible.
Color – Color is most easily seen when looking at a diamond from it’s profile (side view) and not easily detected from the crown view. This is definitely the case with ideal cut diamonds that are cut to maximize light reflection and brilliance thus making it very difficult to detect any color saturation from this perspective. However, for those that are overly discriminating, the 360 degree video feature on Blue Nile’s diamond visualization tool allows for the consumer to view the diamond from all angles and therefore offers more insight into how much color saturation there is. Keep in mind that diamonds can have three different tones of body color including the most popular ‘yellow’, and also brown and gray.Diamond Personality – Perhaps the greatest reason for utilizing Blue Nile’s diamond visualization tool is simply the ability to view the diamond and gain a quick first impression of it’s overall ‘personality’ and life.
Remember that diamonds will be worn as jewelry and you or your loved one will be the primary appreciator of it’s overall beauty and symbolism. You will not have a report attached to the diamond for all to see it’s specs of carat weight, color, clarity or cut grade. Therefore, choose a diamond that ‘speaks’ to you. This is especially the case with fancy cut diamonds (anything other than round brilliant) which have less conformity and offer greater variance in shape outline, pavilion faceting, contrast patterns, white light reflection and overall sparkle.
In many cases, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder and one should keep this in mind when searching for their perfect diamond!
I’m so pleased to see that Blue Nile is yet again reinventing themselves and adopting technology that enhances their product offerings and provides greater security, transparency, convenience and economical advantage to the consumer!
Blue Nile’s diamond visualization tool offers consumers so many advantages that making shopping for diamonds online an obvious advantage to old school diamond district or brick and mortar shopping. Consumers can search through thousands of diamonds in the comfort of their own home without feeling the stress or pressure from sales assistants or be confined to a store’s small diamond inventory. For those that are looking for financing options, Blue Nile’s credit card offers yet another reason to go with the biggest online jewelry retailer.
If you need help shopping for a diamond from Blue Nile, please contact me for personal recommendations and advice. Get the best bang for your buck diamond today!
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Saturday, February 25, 2012
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress: Re-liability
I am being restricted to 750 words, as you may know, but I have fallen into the habit of providing the same material on both BLS Advocate and Flying Houses. This is unacceptable. From now on, flying houses will include what parts I "left out" of the column.
SO what was left out this time?
-That I was unreliable by not showing up to a SALSA dance event at Geraldo's on Friday night where the Harvard transferee would apparently be in attendance and where I might be able to get the answer to my question.
-That my back was in truly awful pain, that I spent 3 hours trying to move across the room to unlock my door, and then reach my cell phone, and then did not wake up until 3 PM--though I wrote this column in between 11 AM and 1:30 PM or so.
-That it is probably the worst article so far in the sense that it does not make a strong legal argument. This (along with the severely redacted Facebook Etiquette post on BLS Advocate - which, by the way, I consider the best column I have done in its full 2,900 word form here on this blog, and the worst column in its redacted form) is my second worst column - but I think it could also be considered the best for its poetic quality, reference to Marx, and random tangential quality. This is not just about reliability, but cell phones, answering machines, social life, and default judgments. Maybe I lost some of my focus along the way, but believe me, it could have gotten much, much worse. Enjoy.
It is with great irony that today I opine about reliability, as it marks the first time in my life I have ever committed the sin of the unexcused absence. I woke up at 7:30 AM and could not support and lift myself off of my mattress until after 10 AM because of horrible, horrible, back spasms. 75 minutes after I was supposed to show up, I finally got in touch with several people that work at the library. They understood, did not accuse me of lying, and covered for me.
I have noticed a lot of complaining of late about the alleged scarcity of jobs. Indeed I have written about it before. And perhaps it is no longer just an allegation – but a fact. But I would like to offer an alternative to self-pity: just show up.
A very famous man once said 90% of life is showing up. And when it comes to the practice of law, the statement is accurate (more or less). The only time you don’t show up in court is when you know you have nothing, and you would rather take a default judgment than waste your time fighting a losing battle. But when there is no more than a scintilla of hope, and you still show up, you set a good example. People will respect you for doing that. Unfortunately most of my argument rests on social and not legal grounds.
A spectre is haunting America—the spectre of communication breakdown. We have more tools than ever before to communicate with one another, but people have lost their love for the phone, and fallen for the text. Of course, everyone has cell phones, and few people have landlines, and it would follow that, a person keeps their phone on them at all times – so how come they’re more difficult than ever to reach?
Maybe they just don’t like you, or think you’re ugly. Maybe they’re “shy on the phone” and prefer to send e-mails. Whatever their excuse, it’s troubling. Every cell phone has caller ID (I think). Do you remember the days before caller ID? I do. It was a wilderness. Prank phone calls abounded. Answering machines were the preferred defensive method. I ask people, “Why don’t you ever pick up? Are you screening your calls?” They reply, “What do you mean by that?”
I may be two or three years over the median age, but I am not that old. Still, I have to say, these kids today drive me crazy! Oh, how pathetic it becomes! When, for example, I met with a certain committee a couple weeks ago, and we were waiting for all the other members to show up, and every single person was looking at something or texting something on their cell phone. I don’t have a Smart Phone and people make fun of me for only having 250 Text Messages a month to use.
Answering machines were vastly superior to voice mail because they allowed for a great deal of creativity. Your greeting could be a work of art, if you so chose. Once I left an incredibly long greeting on our family answering machine, and several of my parent’s friends thought it was just about the cutest thing in the world – could they record it and save it as their own? I have heard ONE “creative” voice mail greeting, and it sounded very dumb. The medium is not conducive.
Not only was there creativity – but there was screening. You could have that desperate moment, when you are listening to someone leave a message, and maybe they are saying, “I know you are there. Pick up.” And perhaps you do pick up – in 1993. But if it were 2012, you wouldn’t. You would be too intimidated by the prospect of telephonic conversation. You would write back a text, saying, hey I saw you called, what’s up? And then you are forced to fit your thought into 160 characters. You’re forced to be much more efficient. You’re also forced to ignore the finer details of the matter. Lose your feelings, just state the facts.
Christopher J. Knorps is a 2L at Brooklyn Law School. He has written two novels, a book of short stories, and a memoir of his 10-month-stint in L.A. He enjoys studying bankruptcy law. He ranks in the upper 54% of his class. You may find his blog by visiting flyinghouses.blogspot.com. | {
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Laverne Cox
Entertainment
ABOUT
Laverne Cox is an American actress, reality television star, television producer, and LGBT advocate. She became known for her portrayal of Sophia Burset on the Netflix television series Orange Is the New Black, for which she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer/musician Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she became the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds.
Cox is also known for appearing as a contestant on the first season of VH1's I Want to Work for Diddy, and for producing and co-hosting the VH1 makeover television series TRANSform Me. In April 2014, Cox was honored by GLAAD with its Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her work as an advocate for the transgender community. On June 9, 2014, Cox became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
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This page was automatically generated by a computer, mistakes may happen. Just click report or this link and we will try our best to correct this issue.If you are the copyright holder of this image and the attribution is incorrect or you want it removed, contact us using our contact form. | {
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A Queensland dairy company has sparked a heated online debate after announcing on its Facebook page that it will not seek Halal certification for its products.
The posting by Maleny Dairies has triggered more than 24,000 Likes, with some praising the business and others accusing it of promoting xenophobia.
"We do not wish to increase the costs of our products to cover the expense of Halal certification. We prefer to make sure our local farmers receive a fair and sustainable price for their milk," the post states. | {
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When i tried googling this all i got was posts on where to hide during earthquakes. What im trying to figure out on the other hand is which continents/countries are the most safe and which ones are the least safest regarding earthquakes?
The reason for my curiosity is that a guy from school mentioned this week that i shouldnt fear earthquakes in Norway, europe where i live because its the safest place on earth from earthquakes.
One of the least safest areas of the world is Istanbul and the countries along Adriatic sea. Specially Istanbul because it's located on top of two shifting earth plates(I don't know if that's the right expression)
"Be the change you want to see in the world"
Mahatma Gandhi
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace"
Jimmy Hendrix
i'd say one of the safest places earthquake-wise is most parts of Africa, which for a large part consists of ancient stable cratons, and apart from the east-african rift valley and its northern border where it pushes into europe only has passive margins
EDIT: I should expand by mentioning that earthquake preparedness varies considerably from region to region. For example in Japan PA speakers mounted throughout every neighbourhood tell people what to do, where to go, and "Hitomi-chan, your mommy's waiting for you at the schoolyard." etc. Also Californians and Chileans are relatively prepared.
Possibly the most dangerous place, because of earthquake intensity and non-preparedness, is Vancouver, British Columbia. We have essentially the same plate movement of California or Chile, yet "we don't get earthquakes" because in our case the opposing plates are "sticky" and so relieve their accumulated energy only every 400 years or so. This is a megathrust event. The compressed coast slides about 20m toward the Pacific, and drops about 1m. The last event occurred in 1700, striking Japan with tsunami. Part of Greater Vancouver is built on sea-level river delta, so at least those parts submerged needn't worry about fire. :|
Depends on the point of view and how you may analize the issue.
Chile is one of the most probable places, where an earthquake will get produced, but since this fact being right, we are kind of well prepared for these kind of events, since we are always certain that in a 20 year period, we will have to suffer a big one.
Imho, the unsafest place where to be if eventually an earthquake takes place its where it is unexpected by not being probable by any means, as Australia and Southern Africa. I don`t think that their constructions are even anti sysmic, so if building start falling down, the numbers of dead and injured would be huge compared to the places where earthquakes usually hit.
:?
You are correct. I used the word 'unsafe' to mean where there are most likely to be bad earthquakes, but a minor earthquake can be very dangerous if people are not prepared. The Haiti earthquake is a good example.
Chile is a country, like Japan and New Zealand, where earthquakes are expected, and buildings are designed to withstand them. Since earthquake deaths and injuries are mostly caused by falling buildings and parts of buildings, constructing to high standards makes an enormous difference. The recent Chile quake was an exception, since it was so massive at 8.8 on the Richter scale. At those energies, even well built structures may collapse.
When i tried googling this all i got was posts on where to hide during earthquakes. What im trying to figure out on the other hand is which continents/countries are the most safe and which ones are the least safest regarding earthquakes?
The reason for my curiosity is that a guy from school mentioned this week that i shouldnt fear earthquakes in Norway, europe where i live because its the safest place on earth from earthquakes.
To essentially restate what's been said: the safest places are those that are located on stable (shield) cratons. My own location, Manitoba, for example, hasn't had active tectonism in 1.8 billion years.
The next safest place would be areas of active tectonism in developed countries. For example, Japan and the west coasts of US and Canada.
Next in line would be developing countries such as Chile.
Lowest on the list would be examples like Haiti, where an earthquake 1000 times less powerful than Chile's caused x1000 the human death toll. | {
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Tuesday, June 12 (Russia Day) We are asking for a day of action to highlight the torture and detention of Russian Antifascist Anarchists who are being detained with forced confessions for charges of terrorism.
The Actions: Please take photos of yourselves with messages of support and solidarity for the Anarchist prisoners. You can include signs with the names of those detained and tortured (names are below).
Workers Solidarity Movement Ireland will be holding a demo outside the Russian embassy on the 20th of June at 7pm with such posters and signs.
The MACG thus defends Julian Assange, not because of his politics, which have curdled and are now quite suspect, nor because we consider him innocent of the Swedish accusations. The US ruling class has no objection to his politics, because they are riddled with the sort of people with whom he has been collaborating. And neither do they have any objection to sexual assault – if they did, Donald Trump would not be President. The United States wants to punish him, not for any crimes he might have committed, but for his good deeds. The MACG defend Assange for those same good deeds.
Very few South Africans are aware that currently in the north and eastern parts of Syria (Rojava) a revolution as progressive, profound and potentially as far reaching as any in history is taking place. There, an alternative system to the state, capitalism and patriarchy is being built and it holds the potential to inspire the struggle for a better, more egalitarian Middle East and indeed world.
On the 21st April 2015 the Magistrates Court in Sebokeng sentenced 4 community activists from Boiketlong, to a total of 16 years in prison. The activists are: Dinah Makhetha, Sipho Mangane, Dan Molefe and Pulane Mahlangu. Key witnesses could not even identify the 4 but the courts sought to use the apartheid law of ‘doctrine of common purpose’ to jail them. They were found not guilty of ‘public violence’ but guilty of ‘assault, arson and malicious damage to property’.
Pulane Mahlangu has run away and no one knows where she is or if she is in good health. Either way, she cannot come home.
Dan Molefe died of stress-related illness in December 2017.
Although released for a short period while the appeal process was underway, both Dinah and Sipho are back in prison as they lost the first level of Appeal. The magistrate is prepared to consider shortening the sentence but not the sentence itself. The appeal process remains underway.
There is now an opportunity for a mediated process that may assist in a process of early release. There is an urgent need to cover the costs of mediation which we estimate could come to about R40 000. Appeals have been made to the community to raise funds as well to the broader movement.
Tuesday, June 12 (Russia Day) We are asking for a day of action to highlight the torture and detention of Russian Antifascist Anarchists who are being detained with forced confessions for charges of terrorism.
The Actions: Please take photos of yourselves with messages of support and solidarity for the Anarchist prisoners. You can include signs with the names of those detained and tortured (names are below).
Workers Solidarity Movement Ireland will be holding a demo outside the Russian embassy on the 20th of June at 7pm with such posters and signs.
Friday, May 4, saw the swelling of the growing list of victims in the popular movement in times of “peace”[1]. In the outskirts of his home, in the El Triunfo neighborhood, in La Guadalosa, in the vicinity of Cartagena de Chairá, Jorge Vega Galvis received seven pistol shots from a group of hooded men, who left him there for dead. By a miracle, he survived to arrive at the local health centre, from which he was sent to hospital in Florencia, the area capital, because of the severity of his injuries. Today (May 8th), four days after this atrocious crime, he is still unconscious and battling for his life.
"Bulldozers, supported by 2500 riot police, armored vehicles, helicopters and drones, are rampaging through these forests, pastures and wetlands to crush the future we are building here on the to the zad (The zone à defendre). We are calling on you to take solidarity actions everywhere, it could be holding demos at your local french embassy or consulate, or taking actions against any suitable symbol (corporate or otherwise) of France !" | {
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Thursday, July 6, 2017
Named after one of my oldest SL friends who recently returned to SL, this sweet, casual summer dress comes in 2 sets, pales and colors. Each set has its own demo and "all colors" version, each with 7 shades. Watch for them in our My 60L Secret sale! Starting with Pales - Aqua on July 7, 2017.
NOTE: The ribbed cotton knit fabric was kind of lost in the picture taking. Please try a demo :)
AUTOHIDE - For the first time ever, the maitreya version comes with autohide. Also, the mesh dresses are modify so you can remove the scripts, add your own autohide scripts, etc. I did try to set up autohide for the 3 Belleza versions but sorry, I dont have 12 years to spare.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Just released! The new group gift is our comfy cotton loungewear PJ's in a pretty summer beach print with a texture change tank top. The top comes in 6 coordinating colors via a HUD. Find it upstairs in the group lounge.
Retired to make room for the new group gift was :KR: Eileen Business Casual - Neopolitan | {
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GOP word guru Frank Luntz, hoisted by his own words
Frank Luntz, the veteran Republican adviser, did something really weird last week during a guest talk at the University of Pennsylvania. At a public event, in front of roughly 100 listeners, he tried to go "off the record" while talking about Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio — and he actually assumed that those remarks would stay private. As if.
Is Luntz somehow unfamiliar with the digital information era? Did he somehow forget what happened to Mitt Romney last year, when the candidate dumped on 47 percent of the American people, ostensibly in a private meeting? These days, everybody has smart-phone video. Anybody can email video to a favored news dude — like Mother Jones reporter David Corn, who got the Romney recording.
You may be familiar with Luntz. He's renowned (and sometimes reviled) for telling Republicans which words and phrases resonate best with the voters, and which words and phrases to avoid. Luntz says, for instance, that Republicans should say "economic freedom" instead of "capitalism." He says that when Democrats talk about "raising taxes on the rich," Republicans should say that it's really about "government taking money from hardworking Americans." And so on. As HBO provocateur Bill Maher once told Luntz, "You think of words to get stupid people to vote against their interests."
So Luntz was a natural fit for Penn's student Republican chapter; he talks their language, and he's a Penn alum. The student GOPers invited him. The Monday event was heavily advertised on social media, and on political science listservs. The student paper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, duly sent a reporter. Luntz proceeded to hold forth in his usual way — making a Nancy Pelosi joke that he has made many times before; contending that Republicans need to connect with Hispanic voters, and reach out far beyond their older white base — but then came the key moment:
When asked to talk about political polarization, Luntz said he was reluctant to talk frankly. He asked if anyone was recording his talk; the Daily Pennsylvanian reporter identified himself and said yes. Luntz said he wanted to go "off the record" and asked the DP guy to stop recording. The DP guy complied (big mistake; more on that later). Luntz, now thinking that he was speaking privately, complained that conservative talk radio hosts make it tougher for Republicans like Marco Rubio to reach out to Hispanics on immigration reform:
"...they drive the message, and it's really problematic....Marco Rubio's getting his ass kicked....He's getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. (Rubio) is trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn't the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That's what's causing this (polarization) underneath."
We know Luntz said this, because a student in the audience recorded Luntz on his phone and sent the video to Corn — who posted it in an article last Thursday. The student, Aakash Abbi, a junior majoring in philosophy, politics, and economics, told Corn that he recorded and outed Luntz for this defensible reason: "To me, a man whose career is built on being viewed as the 'Master of Words' should be willing to always stand by what he says."
Big mistake
The thing is, what Luntz said "off the record" wasn't remotely controversial; a number of prominent Republicans have lamented the influence of talk radio. Last year, conservative commentator and ex-Bush speechwriter David Frum said that "Republicans have been fleeced and exploited and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex." As far back as 2007, when an earlier push for immigration reform died in the Senate, Republican whip Trent Lott lashed out at the talk-radio listeners who were calling his office: "I've had my phones jammed for three weeks. Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem."
Luntz's big mistake — inexplicable, for a guy who presumably owns a smart phone — was thinking that he could designate certain remarks as private during a public event. As a result, he virtually invited people to pay extra attention to those remarks. As for the college newspaper reporter, this was presumably a learning experience. You don't stop recording or note-taking during a public event.
Luntz actually says he's outraged that his remarks were leaked to Corn. He's vowing to never speak at Penn again, he's vowing to dissuade other Republicans from speaking at Penn, and he's vowing to cancel a Penn scholarship that he had established in his father's name, for students to visit Washington. (Does he really intend to target innocent scholarhip students as collateral damage?) He's saying, "Call me naive, but I thought it was possible to have an open, honest conversation about American politics and not make it into a national conversation."
To which I say:
OK, Frank, then you must be naive. Nothing stays private at a public gathering these days. You had three choices: You could've stayed mum about conservative talk radio; you could've spoken in general terms about polarization in America; or, best of all, you should've been willing to publicly own what you believe.
One other thing: A seasoned Washington hand should know by now that the titillation of a "secret recording" often trumps what is actually on that recording.
-------
Full disclosure alert: I teach at Penn, where I hosted guest speaker David Corn last October. The Kelly Writers House event was entirely on the record.
And this is also true: Roughly 65 years ago in Connecticut, Frank Luntz's paternal grandfather proposed marriage to my paternal grandmother. She turned him down.
Luntz and I have joked about that.
-------
Follow me on Twitter, @dickpolman1
Support provided by
In this 2008 photo political consultant Frank Luntz speaks to a crowd of Mississippi businesspeople. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, file)
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Illuminati and Tech
Spread the Truth . . .
Internet entrepreneur and creator of MegaUpload KimDotcom, speaks with Vice at his huge home in New Zealand about the importance of internet privacy in an age of unchecked and self-serving global government surveillance.
The larger than life nonconformist nerd who is still under house arrest one year after being subject to a ruthless raid by over 70 crazed cops which he describes as a “power play”, speaks of the “five eyes spy club” and the archaic copyright ‘laws’ entertainment industry fat cats use to coerce governments into silencing those who threaten their boundless greed.
…they undermine our rights, they destroy our freedoms, they censor our internet, so we are the ones who have to bring that change… I’m fucking tired of this nonsense, someone needs to stand up and change that. | {
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"Mitt Romney Refused to Answer"
"Mitt Romney Refused to Answer"
"Mitt Romney Refused to Answer"
Ashley Parker is one of the best reporters on the 2012 beat. This is the kind of story that reveals why, while also revealing the limits of the minute-to-minute narrative. W
Mitt Romney refused to answer questions on same-sex marriage, a topic about which President Obama is expected to speak this afternoon, in an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC.
“Not on the rope line,” Mr. Romney said, when pressed after an energy event by reporters to comment on the president and gay marriage.
After this, the Romney campaign promises to consider a presser about gay marriage and the North Carolina initiative, then welshes and leaves "without taking questions from the national media." And Parker puts it all in there, demonstrating Romney's dodge-and-grin strategy.
But this is where the story falters.
Asked by Fox News’s KDVR-TV about a bill that would have allowed civil unions for same-sex couples in Colorado, which died late Tuesday night, Mr. Romney reiterated his belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.
For all the derision it got, Eric Fehrnstrom's theory that Romney could evolve when the general election began -- the "etch a sketch" theory -- is being borne right out. Romney's on record supporting an aggressive anti-gay marriage agenda. And yet he gets to approach the issue as if he was teleported into politics one week ago. | {
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EU to Start Investment Pact Talks With Burma This Week
The EU will launch negotiations this week for an investment pact with Burma, a deal aimed at giving European firms preferential access to the country.
3.5k
By Martin Petty 18 March 2014
HANOI — The European Union will launch negotiations this week for an investment pact with Burma, the EU’s top trade representative said on Monday, a deal aimed at giving European firms preferential access to one of Asia’s final frontier markets.
Burma, an underdeveloped country closed off until 2012 to Western firms due to trade sanctions, is on the radar of many European companies seeking access to restricted sectors and guarantees against risks in an uncertain climate.
“We’ll negotiate preferential agreements and special deals, mostly because we have quite a lot to offer them. We are big investors and for a country like Myanmar, it’s of the utmost importance to have investors,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in an interview in Hanoi.
Located between the booming economies of India and China and offering low wages, big agriculture and tourism potential and natural resources like oil, gas, teak, copper and gemstones, Burma’s opening after 49 years of military rule has seen a rush of Western investor interest.
The country is looking to review investment legislation more than a year after passing a foreign investment law that caused rumbles among local tycoons and small firms worried about competition.
Many foreign firms have yet to commit fully to Burma, however, concerned about red tape and poor power and transport infrastructure. They are also looking for safeguards in an environment where cronyism exists among a political and economic elite with ties to the still-powerful army.
“Our investors must be protected and it’s important to Myanmar because if the investments aren’t protected, they simply won’t happen,” De Gucht said.
“If you don’t have that, it’s very difficult to take the risk of putting in money from abroad.”
De Gucht was in Hanoi to try to advance talks on a free trade agreement with Vietnam, which he said both sides were keen to finalize by October after six rounds of negotiations.
Such an agreement has been reached with Singapore and talks on a similar pact were ongoing with Thailand and Malaysia.
The push to finalize the bilateral deals, he said, did not mean the EU had scrapped its initial plan of a trade deal with the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), the 10-member bloc that covers a region of more than 500 million people, with a combined GDP of over US$2 trillion.
“It didn’t work out and we switched to a one-on-one solution,” he said. “The idea is …once we have agreement with majority of Asean members, we can then turn it into a regional agreement and that has been repeatedly discussed.
“We haven’t put this aside, we’ve approached this the other way around. A region-to-region agreement is the ultimate goal.”
De Gucht was due to visit Cambodia on Tuesday, where he said he would relay concerns from EU lawmakers about the rate of land grabs and forced evictions in the country, some of which implicate companies that have benefited from EU trade concessions offered to poorer nations.
“The European parliament has explicitly asked me to discuss this with the Cambodian government,” he said. | {
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RSL completes torrid comeback to beat Chicago 3-2
RSL completes torrid comeback to beat Chicago 3-2
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (ABC 4 Sports) – Real Salt Lake staged a stunning second-half comeback to recover from two goals down to beat the Chicago Fire 3-2 in an action-packed game at Toyota Park.
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (ABC 4 Sports) – Real Salt Lake staged a stunning second-half comeback to recover from two goals down to beat the Chicago Fire 3-2 in an action-packed game at Toyota Park.
The Fire raced into a two-goal lead with goals from Mike Magee and Juan Luis Anangono, but a stirring second-half revival from the visitors, with two goals from Joao Plata and one from Alvaro Saborio, gave Salt Lake all three points in the most dramatic of finales.
Anangono started up front in place of suspended top scorer Quincy Amarikwa, while Benji Joya replaced the injured Alex in the center of midfield. The visitors were unchanged from their 2-2 tie with Vancouver Whitecaps last time out, a game where they lost a win with two late goals from the 'Caps.
An eventful first half saw the Fire deservedly take the lead in the 22nd minute after enjoying the better of the opening exchanges.
And it was reigning MLS MVP Magee who was in the right place at the right time as he reacted instinctively to sidefoot home after Harry Shipp’s well-struck shot from 20 yards was parried by Nick Rimando.
RSL almost responded immediately when Saborio was denied by Sean Johnson from close range, while at the other end, a superb turn and pass saw Magee play Anangono in on goal, but he pulled his first-time volley wide from inside the box.
The Fire did double their advantage in the 31st minute when Greg Cochrane found space high on the left to receive Joya’s pass and his pinpoint center picked out the unmarked Anangono and the Ecuadorian headed powerfully home from six yards.
The outstanding Johnson then denied Saborio and Plata with two stunning saves to keep Salt Lake out, while Magee headed wide from a Shipp corner as the Fire went into the break 2-0 up.
Real were the first to threaten in the second-half as Saborio shot over twice in the space of six minutes before the hour.
Magee almost put the Fire 3-0 up in the 63rd minute when he got the better of Nat Borchers before hammering a shot off the crossbar, following which the Fire striker was booked for a handball on the rebound.
The lively Plata pulled one back for Salt Lake in the 72nd minute when he latched onto an incisive through-ball from Javier Morales to slot the ball low to Johnson’s right from 16 yards.
With a first victory of the season beckoning for the Fire, Salt Lake struck on the stroke of 90 minutes when Olmes Garcia’s cross from the left was missed by Bakary Soumare and Saborio slotted home from a yard out.
Saborio then turned provider three minutes into stoppage time when his left-wing cross found Plata at the back post, and the striker swept the ball home right-footed to give Real all three points.
Next up for the Fire is a road game at the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, while RSL visit the Houston Dynamo a day later.
Copyright 2014 abc4.com Nexstar Broadcasting, All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | {
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From 2000 to 2010, the country attracted $178 billion as FDI.[307] The inordinately high investment from Mauritius is due to routing of international funds through the country given significant tax advantages – double taxation is avoided due to a tax treaty between India and Mauritius, and Mauritius is a capital gains tax haven, effectively creating a zero-taxation FDI channel.[308] FDI accounted for 2.1% of India's GDP in 2015.[11]
Add Leverage (Mortgage) and you greatly increase the ROI especially from the perspective of using Rents (other peoples money) to pay down the mortgage and increase your equity in the property over time. At this point then yes price appreciation is secondary bonus and we have an arguement of how and why Real Estate can be better than Growth Stocks in some scenarios and for some investors.
If you have specialized knowledge in a certain topic, you can put together an online course to teach others. For example, if you have experience in real estate investing, you can create an online course “Real Estate Investing 101”. The benefit of an online course is that once you create the course material, you can sell it to as many people as you want.
Best financial planning is when we prepare for Bad Times during Good Times. Sounds quite philosophical but unfortunately it is harsh reality of today. Second Income is a back up during bad times or we can say its a blessing in disguise. Second Income should be planned during Good Times. Though it is not easy to generate second income source but it is not impossible also. Let’s find out 5 Ways to Create Second Income source.
Passive income is the gap in my financial plans at the moment. I started investing nearly 2 years ago but I’m so close to the beginning of that journey that I don’t quite see it as making income yet. I’ve been better with employer pensions and they’ve grown a really good amount over the last 12 months, but I won’t get my hands on them for a long time yet.
One of the most appealing options, particularly for millennials, would be #12 on your list (create a Blog/Youtube channel). The videos can be about anything that interests you, from your daily makeup routine (with affiliate links to the products you use), recipes (what you eat each day) or as you mention, instructional videos (again with affiliate links to the products you use). Once you gain a large following and viewership, you can earn via Adsense on YouTube.
Amazing that you saved between 50% to 75% living in NYC…I think that is one thing holding me back…the cost of living here. I’d like to invest in real estate, but I can barely afford to buy a place to live. I don’t need a large income to be happy, but I probably do need an income to support living in NYC as we don’t plan on leaving. The only thing I’m doing at the moment is saving in my 401K, IRA and a I dabble in stocks and P2P lending.
Last but not least Blogging, which is close to my heart. It require lot of patience, skills, knowledge and flair for writing to be a successful blogger. Besides basic skills, you need expertise in SEO & SEM to drive traffic on your blog. For successful bloggers, Blogging is full time income source. Though this place is full of copycats but trust me originality pays. Bloggers earn from content writing, affiliate programs, advertisement and through public appearance/consultancy. Organizations have realized the importance of social media impact and blogs are considered to be the best way to drive traffic on website & customer engagement. Infact many organizations have started hiring full time bloggers.
Why did P2P lending get a liquidity ranking of 6? It is quite possibly the most illiquid investment option you listed. You said you rank liquidity by “difficulty level of withdrawing your money without a massive penalty”, and for Lending Club notes, it’s not only difficult and extremely time consuming to sell all of your notes in their super illiquid market, but you would have to sell your notes at large losses to hope to get others interested in buying your notes. On top of that, it is impossible to withdraw your money any other way other than just waiting for interest/principal to pay off every month until maturity in 3 to 5 years. You can’t just one day tell Lending Club “I want to quit, please give me my money back.” One can even argue that it is less difficult to sell a home (in order to “withdraw” the money invested) than to withdraw all of their money from a P2P loan portfolio because it is very possible to sell a home before 3 to 5 years.
Ethiopia’s main challenges are sustaining its positive economic growth and accelerating poverty reduction, which both require significant progress in job creation as well as improved governance. The government is devoting a high share of its budget to pro-poor programs and investments. Large scale donor support will continue to provide a vital contribution in the near-term to finance the cost of pro-poor programs.
If you want to top up your income without taking on a strenuous second job, your first port of call should be your very own skillset. If you have a natural talent that could help others, you have an instant “in” to easy money. Whether you’re a gifted guitarist, mathematical genius or speak a second language, almost any talent can be turned into cash. Offering one-to-one coaching is a flexible way to make a solid hourly rate, and enables you to take on as much or as little work as you wish. Find local clients by placing adverts in the library, schools and community bulletin boards and share your talent in exchange for a fee.
Brian had found a huge need for web design in the restaurant and food truck space. After getting tired of working with client after client, he decided to turn his service-based business into a product-based one. He made his services more standardized and productized. He eliminated all his client work and created templates and products to serve that market instead. And it’s been going great for him.
You may think of a savings account as just that, savings. But it’s actually another form of income as the money in the account will draw interest. And while this interest may be small, it’s still better than $0. Eventually, you can invest this money whenever an opportunity presents itself in order to gain other income streams. Look into Tax Free Savings Accounts if you are going this route.
Network marketing, or multi-level marketing, seems to be on the rise. Companies such as Young Living Oils, Avon, Pampered Chef, and AdvoCare are all multi-level marketing companies. You can earn passive income through network marketing by building a team underneath you (often referred to as a down line.) Once you have a large team you can earn commissions off of their sales without having to do much.
P2P lending is the practice of loaning money to borrowers who typically don’t qualify for traditional loans. As the lender you have the ability to choose the borrowers and are able to spread your investment amount out to mitigate your risk. The most popular peer to peer lending platform is Lending Club. You can read our full lending club review here: Lending Club Review.
What spurred this blog post was an idea put forth by my friend at ESI Money in which he talks about how the first million is the hardest. ESI shares how his net worth growth has accelerated. The first million took 19 years of work (the clock starts when he started working, not at birth!) but the 2nd million took just 4 years and 9 months. J Money took this same idea and started at $100k, which took him 7yrs 11mos. Each of the next $100k milestones took close to 18 months each to reach.
I’ve been researching a path to financial independence, and the wealth of knowledge here is amazing, but at times overwhelming. I’m honestly not quite sure where to start. Whether it be paying off debt (which I’ve always heard is priority 1), or sinking money into realtyshares or CDs for growth. I’d love to generate a passive income (in a few years time) to supplement some of my day job to have time to spend with my little one during her golden childhood years, but not sure if there’s even a right order to go about it.
When you build a business, you're giving up active income (instead of working for pay, I'm volunteering at my own business) for future active and passive income. In the meanwhile, you'll need a way to pay for your expenses. It could be that you're building a business on the side, so you still have a day job, or you're living on those savings. Either way, you need a cushion.
I think the holy grail of financial freedom is having so many passive income. This way you will never worry about your financial needs because everything is taken care of your assets. You will have all the your time in the world and visit all places you dream about. You have your time and money. This is the dream of most people which only few ever achieved.
1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
I have two major dilemmas: (1) Should I wait to start investing (at least until the end of the year where I’ll hopefully have $5k+ in savings) in things like CDs? I ask because a little over $2k doesn’t seem significant enough yet to start putting my money to work (or maybe it is? that’s why I’m coming to you for your advice haha) and (2) I want to invest in things like P2P and stocks but I’m honestly a bit ignorant of how it trully works. I know the basics (high risk, returns can be volatile, returns are taxable). Do you have any advice on how I can best educate myself to start putting my savings to work?
With the way the economy is going Multiple streams of income is the way to go if you know what your doing. I luved your insight and your so right there are so many ways. The best way that i know of is to brand oneself cause people dont join business they join YOU. Like , trust is key ingredient along with building your list after all the money is in the list or should i say the people in the list. The best part with the system im presently using is i still get paid with affiliate even if they don’t join my primary biz…
40 Hour Work Week Active Income aerospace amazon Blogging budgeting College Compounding Interest Cubicle-Life Day Job Debt Engineering entrepreneurship Freelance Writing goals Hard Work Hawaii Incentives Investing Loyalty Lyft Money Motivation Networking Overtime Paid Time Off Passion Passive Income Paycheck to Paycheck Real Estate San Diego savings Second source of income Self-Employed side hustle Side Income social media Taxes Time Management Uber Unpaid Time Off Vacation Work Work from home xbottom
7) Never Withdraw From Your Financial Nut. The biggest downfall I see from people looking to build passive income is that they withdraw from their financial nut too soon. There’s somehow always an emergency which eats away at the positive effects of compounding returns. Make sure your money is invested and not just sitting in your savings account. The harder to access your money, the better. Make it your mission to always contribute X amount every month and consistently increase the savings amount by a percentage or several until it hurts. Pause for a month or two and then keep going. You’ll be amazed how much you can save. You just won’t know because you’ve likely never tested savings limits to the max.
India's current account deficit reached an all-time high in 2013.[298] India has historically funded its current account deficit through borrowings by companies in the overseas markets or remittances by non-resident Indians and portfolio inflows. From April 2016 to January 2017, RBI data showed that, for the first time since 1991, India was funding its deficit through foreign direct investment inflows. The Economic Times noted that the development was "a sign of rising confidence among long-term investors in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ability to strengthen the country's economic foundation for sustained growth".[299]
From 2000 to 2010, the country attracted $178 billion as FDI.[307] The inordinately high investment from Mauritius is due to routing of international funds through the country given significant tax advantages – double taxation is avoided due to a tax treaty between India and Mauritius, and Mauritius is a capital gains tax haven, effectively creating a zero-taxation FDI channel.[308] FDI accounted for 2.1% of India's GDP in 2015.[11]
4. Save, build and run a bread-n-breakfast place. Look at airbnb Vacation Rentals, Homes, Apartments & Rooms for Rent - Airbnb for inspiration. My wife runs one (Firdaus, Naukuchiatal) , it is not an income as of now but if you are on it for enough time, it would be, when you grow old. It doesn't have to be a fancy and glamorous thing. It could be a 2 nice-n-clean room in a city where you live. If you have a big house, it could be a part of your house.
The CPF also supports institutional accountability and assists in combating corruption by focusing on improving governance and promoting social accountability. The private sector is expected to be a key contributor to Ethiopia’s future development, and the CPF envisages prominent roles for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the WBG institutions that focus exclusively on it.
The CPF also supports institutional accountability and assists in combating corruption by focusing on improving governance and promoting social accountability. The private sector is expected to be a key contributor to Ethiopia’s future development, and the CPF envisages prominent roles for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the WBG institutions that focus exclusively on it.
As the third-largest economy in the world in PPP terms, India has attracted foreign direct investment (FDI).[301] During the year 2011, FDI inflow into India stood at $36.5 billion, 51.1% higher than the 2010 figure of $24.15 billion. India has strengths in telecommunication, information technology and other significant areas such as auto components, chemicals, apparels, pharmaceuticals, and jewellery. Despite a surge in foreign investments, rigid FDI policies[302] were a significant hindrance. Over time, India has adopted a number of FDI reforms.[301] India has a large pool of skilled managerial and technical expertise. The size of the middle-class population stands at 300 million and represents a growing consumer market.[303]
Hi, I’m an 18yr old who is about to enter college with a substantial amount of federal aid and scholarships but it is nowhere near enough to pay for the full amount. I know that I will be in debt but I need to figure out a way to generate multiple sources of income somehow to let money flow within the 4-6 years I will be in college. When I’m done with schooling I don’t want to be suffocating in my debt so much where I won’t be able to do anything in life.
Now I’ve been using Swagbucks for a while and have found the money works out to just under $2 an hour so this isn’t something that’s going to make you rich. You’d have to work 2,500 hours to make $5,000 so that’s about three and a half months, non-stop. The thing with Swagbucks though is you can do it when you’re doing something else so I flip through surveys and other stuff while I’m cooking dinner or flipping channels.
If you are good at some subject, especially maths, science subjects, accounts or economics, you will have an upper hand in this business. There are plenty of such coaching centers so you will have to face some stiff competition in the beginning. But if you can get good results from your students, congratulations! You have made yourself a name and now parents will send their children in big groups to your center.
The aviation industry experienced a rapid transformation following deregulation. Several low-cost carriers entered the Indian market in 2004–05. Major new entrants included Air Deccan, Air Sahara, Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet, GoAir, Paramount Airways and IndiGo. Kingfisher Airlines became the first Indian air carrier on 15 June 2005 to order Airbus A380 aircraft worth US$3 billion.[199][200] However, Indian aviation would struggle due to an economic slowdown and rising fuel and operation costs. This led to consolidation, buyouts and discontinuations. In 2007, Air Sahara and Air Deccan were acquired by Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines respectively. Paramount Airways ceased operations in 2010 and Kingfisher shut down in 2012. Etihad Airways agreed to acquire a 24% stake in Jet Airways in 2013. AirAsia India, a low-cost carrier operating as a joint venture between Air Asia and Tata Sons launched in 2014. As of 2013–14, only IndiGo and GoAir were generating profits.[201][needs update]
DonebyForty Yes, that makes total sense! I hear you on the savings rate, too. I always figured I lived lean enough (and had enough saved up) that I could handle things even without my main source of income. However, after leaving my job last year and having a tough time with freelancing, I realized not having a job was more of a mental drain than a money one. I like knowing I have control and can call on another source of income and increase it when I need to.
You can select any of the above-mentioned, based on your interest, skill, and capability to generate a second income source. However, these are just to name a few, there exist multiple ways to generate a secondary income channel. You just need to identify the right one, which suits you the best. Remember there is no shortcut to success and you need to work hard to be successful and rich in the long run!
I've got a $185,000 CD generating 3% interest coming due. Although the return is low, it's guaranteed. The CD gave me the confidence to invest more aggressively in risk over the years. My online interest income has come down since I aggressively deployed some capital at the beginning of the year and again during the February market correction. You'll see these figures in my quarterly investment-income update.
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The telecommunication sector generated ₹2.20 lakh crore (US$31 billion) in revenue in 2014–15, accounting for 1.94% of total GDP.[263] India is the second-largest market in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phones) with 1.053 billion subscribers as of 31 August 2016. It has one of the lowest call-tariffs in the world, due to fierce competition among telecom operators. India has the world's third-largest Internet user-base. As of 31 March 2016, there were 342.65 million Internet subscribers in the country.[264]
Wages received for services rendered inside the territorial limits of the United States, as well as wages of an alien seaman earned on a voyage along the coast of the United States, are regarded as from sources in the United States. Wages or salaries for personal services performed in a mine or on an oil or gas well located or being developed on the continental shelf of the United States are treated as from sources in the United States.
Perhaps a coworker purposefully tries to make your life miserable because they resent your success. Maybe you get passed over for a promotion and a raise because you weren’t vocal enough about your abilities, and mistakenly thought you worked in a meritocracy. Or maybe you have a new boss who decides to clean house and hire her own people. Whatever the case may be, you will eventually tire.
I wanted to specifically call out one particular strategy within equity investing that bears mentioning – dividend growth investing is when you focus on stocks that not only pay a dividend but have a history of strong dividend growth. When I was first building my portfolio of individual stocks, I focused on buying companies with a history of dividends, a history of strong growth, and financials that supported a continuation of both.
If you happen to be a photography enthusiast, consider selling your photos to stock-image websites like Shutterstock, Alamy, and iStockPhoto. The demand for high quality pictures in commensurate with the competitiveness of this business. So, if you find a niche (such as landscape photography or business photography) and establish yourself as an expert in it on even one site, you can certainly earn a lot of money in your sleep.
The combination of protectionist, import-substitution, Fabian socialism, and social democratic-inspired policies governed India for sometime after the end of British rule. The economy was then characterised by extensive regulation, protectionism, public ownership of large monopolies, pervasive corruption and slow growth.[55][56][57] Since 1991, continuing economic liberalisation has moved the country towards a market-based economy.[55][56] By 2008, India had established itself as one of the world's faster-growing economies.
If you can max out your 401k or max out your IRA and then save an additional 20%+ of your after-tax, after-retirement contribution, good things really start to happen. If one is looking for earlier financial independence, such as retiring in their 40s or early 50s, it may be a good idea to skew towards more after-tax savings and investments given one has to wait until 59.5 to withdraw from their 401k or IRA penalty-free.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry has grown in recent years to become a major manufacturer of health care products to the world. India produced about 8% of the global pharmaceutical supply in 2011 by value, including over 60,000 generic brands of medicines.[174] The industry grew from $6 billion in 2005 to $36.7 billion in 2016, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.46%. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.92% to reach $55 billion in 2020. India is expected to become the sixth-largest pharmaceutical market in the world by 2020.[175] It is one of the fastest-growing industrial sub-sectors and a significant contributor of India's export earnings. The state of Gujarat has become a hub for the manufacture and export of pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).[176]
Investing in real estate: Investing in real estate offers more passive income cash potential - but more risk - than investing in stocks or bonds. You'll need substantial amounts of cash to invest in buying a home -- it usually takes 20% down to land a good home mortgage loan. But history shows that home prices usually rise over time, so buying home a for $200,000 and selling it for $250,000 over a five-year time period, for example, is a reasonable expectation when investing in real estate.
I first discovered the power of passive income when I was a senior in high school. I started a mobile billboard business where I would rent a small piece of land from someone who had land along a busy highway. Then I would place one of my billboard trailers on the land and rent out the ad space on the billboard. I would usually charge about $300 per month for the ad space, meanwhile I was only paying $50 per month to the landowner for the ground rent. I got to the point to where I had 9 billboard faces and was making quite a substantial income for someone in high school. I really learned how passive income could free up my life… this business is what lead me into investing in real estate.
All materials(refer disclaimer note) in this website are the exclusive own property of onlinehomeincome.in and are protected under Indian Copyright Act 1957. We remind you politely not to copy any of these materials in any means nor in any way either directly or indirectly publishing, transmitting, distributing, copying and modifying, selling in any forms without explicit written permission from Online home Income Administration is a criminal offense and reserves all rights to claim for all our loses and damages by filing a complaint under India Copyright Act 1957 under Coimbatore Jurisdiction, Tamil Nadu.
What spurred this blog post was an idea put forth by my friend at ESI Money in which he talks about how the first million is the hardest. ESI shares how his net worth growth has accelerated. The first million took 19 years of work (the clock starts when he started working, not at birth!) but the 2nd million took just 4 years and 9 months. J Money took this same idea and started at $100k, which took him 7yrs 11mos. Each of the next $100k milestones took close to 18 months each to reach. | {
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By now, we all know what happened with Prop 37 in California. Even if it had passed, it only would have required the labeling of GMOs to give consumers the choice over whether to purchase them. It would not have done anything to determine the safety of these organisms for human consumption. I have only been seeing studies which confirm that genetic modification leads to horrific tumors and early death! I think it’s high time that we stand up and ask the government to do the testing they should have completed 16 years ago! I created a petition on the WhiteHouse.gov website to respectfully request that they fund some impartial testing by U.S. based scientists who are not associated with Monsanto or any of the several bio-tech/chemical companies that are responsible for creating these mutating genes in plants that they present as substantially the same as the natural plant. I say, prove it to us! If you support this initiative and want to make sure the food you’re consuming is really safe, please sign the petition and share it all over. Get all your friends to sign. We need this to go viral to get the 25,000 signatures required in the next 30 days in order to have this be reviewed by the White House. We can do this!
If you need more information about GMOs to refute the myths that are going around, I found this report on www.earthopensource.org that compares the known facts with the myths that are spread by big agribusiness: | {
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Description
Double productivity without doubling the price
The AA Duo is the world's only atomic absorption spectrometer with true simultaneous operation of flame and graphite furnace. The Agilent AA Duo provides simultaneous operation of two permanently mounted atomizers from one central computer. Operation is more flexible, setup and changeover times are eliminated, and simultaneous operation doubles your productivity. | {
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Dr G Yunupingu and Delta Goodrem - Silent Night
After making history together in 2013 with the highest charting Indigenous language single of all time, top five hit “Bayini”, Dr G Yunupingu and Delta Goodrem struck up a long-term friendship which has resulted this year in another special collaboration – this time a celebration of Christmas with ‘Silent Night’.
The coupling of Australia’s highest ever selling female artist with the Indigenous singer songwriter dubbed by Rolling Stone as “Australia’s most important voice” has created a traditional masterpiece celebrating the holiday season in both English and Yolngu languages.
About this track...
“Christmas is such a special time for me and to share time in the studio with Dr G Yunupingu always means our musical spirit and kinship takes over. I hope everyone enjoys Silent Night as much as we did recording it". - Delta Goodrem | {
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The question used to be whether or not to play a game. Now, it's whether or not to Let's Play a game, and man, we wish we had a better term for it. Controversy over whether or not Let's Play video cut into indie sales has us pondering the ways and means of the form. Elsewhere, we tackle the evergreen subject of "objective" game reviews.
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I finally signed up to comment on the Idle Forums (have been meaning to for a while) because of this episode, because the actions of the people behind That Dragon, Cancer got me upset. They seem to think that they deserve to have anyone interested in their game buy it, which is crazy. Not all art is commercially viable, and obviously lots of people are going to shy away from a game about a real child dying for real from cancer. There are lots of topics people tend to be gunshy about, because they're intense. There are people making games about them: They tend to release them for "pay what you want" on itch.io and run a Patreon.
Also I definitely would prefer experiencing That Dragon, Cancer via a video than a game, because I can pause a video and walk away and come back later. It's a vastly preferable experience because it's got that distance to protect my emotional state. Most of the people in the audience they are targeting with this game need that emotional protection! But they're punishing people, giving them copyright strikes on their account, because they think they deserve direct purchases, sight unseen, from people who would feel harmed by the experience of playing their game first-hand. It grosses me out, to be honest.
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Bringing up car reviews as an example of objective reviews is interesting, because as far as technical reviews go, car reviews are about as nonobjective as they come. By design. A huge part of car appeal is based on factors that have nothing to do with utility--comfort, aesthestics, even engine sound (which has been a big deal for the past 5 years, because makers of sportscars have been doing things like installing speakers and sound channels designed to replicate or amplify signature engine sounds that are no longer produced by the modern, more efficient engines). That isn't to say that information on whether a car drives and handles well is unimportant. But it can be sorted out in either a focused review, like Consumer Reports as Rob mentioned, or summarized as a part of a review with a more subjective focus.
Even bare data reviews aren't necessarily useful, because such reviews don't account for differences in how a thing might be used. For example, I've burned out a heck of a lot of paper shredders because consumer-grade paper shredders aren't rated for continual use. With this in mind, I might be interested in how far a particular shredder can be pushed before falling over, which wouldn't come up in an interview that simply evaluates how it performs within manufacturer-specified guidelines. But it would come up in a subjective review written by someone who uses paper shredders the same way I do. That perspective is of value to me because it's more personalized.
Finally, I'm honestly baffled why there's a continual cry for objectivity in reviews for products that are specifically intended to be fun. Or interesting, assuming you subscribe to the idea that some games might be designed to make you think, or feel. How does one objectively describe whether a game was fun? As for whether a game functions, if it doesn't function I'm sure the reviewer will tell me that. And the specifics of gameplay can be found from screenshots or video footage.
And for reviewers that are going for a pulitzer with their writing... more power to them. They'll find their audience, or they won't, and people who aren't interested can look elsewhere. Diversity is an amazing thing. It means everyone can get the kind of experience they want without imposing their desires on others. Amazing, huh.
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I'm honestly baffled why there's a continual cry for objectivity in reviews for products that are specifically intended to be fun. Or interesting, assuming you subscribe to the idea that some games might be designed to make you think, or feel. How does one objectively describe whether a game was fun? As for whether a game functions, if it doesn't function I'm sure the reviewer will tell me that. And the specifics of gameplay can be found from screenshots or video footage.
Well, we've seen time and again that these "objective" review hounds aren't actually satisfied by drier, barer, less passionate, and more technical reviews. "Objective" is just a dog whistle for what they really want: reviews that validate their instinctually-felt expectations and opinions about a given game, but with well-written prose—but not too well-written, lest they be made to feel stupid for not thinking of it themselves. That's why they can never decide who the most "objective" reviewers are, except to hold up the few who seemingly tailor their reviews to whatever the prevailing winds of hype are, and even then...
Maybe, in our dystopian future, this will be a solved problem, because data metrics will be used to guide those in search of "objective" reviews to sites that match their preconceived notions perfectly. Until then, I doubt we'll ever see the end of people carping about a lack of "objective" reviews.
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I finally signed up to comment on the Idle Forums (have been meaning to for a while) because of this episode, because the actions of the people behind That Dragon, Cancer got me upset. They seem to think that they deserve to have anyone interested in their game buy it, which is crazy. Not all art is commercially viable, and obviously lots of people are going to shy away from a game about a real child dying for real from cancer. There are lots of topics people tend to be gunshy about, because they're intense. There are people making games about them: They tend to release them for "pay what you want" on itch.io and run a Patreon.
Also I definitely would prefer experiencing That Dragon, Cancer via a video than a game, because I can pause a video and walk away and come back later. It's a vastly preferable experience because it's got that distance to protect my emotional state. Most of the people in the audience they are targeting with this game need that emotional protection! But they're punishing people, giving them copyright strikes on their account, because they think they deserve direct purchases, sight unseen, from people who would feel harmed by the experience of playing their game first-hand. It grosses me out, to be honest.
I don't know any of the background here, only what was mentioned on the 'cast, but I really don't think it's that cut and dry. A Let's Play is, necessarily, a derivative work (and arguably a public performance) and a Let's Play with no commentary or other transformative qualities really doesn't have a leg to stand on in a legal copyright sense, or even in an "that's an OK thing to do" sense (In my opinion, YMMV).
If That Dragon, Cancer had been a film I think we'd all agree that sticking a recording of it up on YouTube is a pretty not cool thing to do, so I'm not sure why it's different for what seems to be a linear, narrative driven game. We go and see movies at the theatre "sight unseen" all the time, or we choose to wait until it's available for steaming or on DVD or whatever because we'd prefer to experience it that way, or maybe we decide not to watch the movie at all because it might upset us.
If I understand you're arguments correctly, you seem to be implying that because somebody would prefer to experience the game in this format then they have the right to, and that anybody has the right to cater for this audience. That doesn't make sense to me at all. If I write a book and somebody wants to adapt it into a movie because most people prefer watching a movie to reading a book I think we can all agree that I have the right to say if it can go ahead or not. Actually, a better example would be if somebody scanned each page of my book and made a video showing each page in sequence for people who don't like turning the page. That would be a pretty shitty thing to do, right? And what if this style of video became really popular? It would be hard to quantify, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that at least some people who would have bought my book didn't because of the video, right? Then if I don't make very much money from the book I think I'd be pretty upset about the videos and the fact that people felt they had the right to read my book in this way just because they could. I don't think that's an unreasonable response, and doing what I can to prevent this seems pretty reasonable to me too.
I guess what I'm trying to say is it's complicated and I think it all comes down to context. In this case it sounds like the videos don't add to the game or recontextualise it, they replace it. This isn't the case for all games, or all videos of games, and the lines can get a bit blurred, but I think it's a far cry from the developers just being arseholes.
Oh, and welcome to the forums!
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Since Ruse is to all intents and purposes no more, I'll remember it here. Ruse was the first online multiplayer RTS I ever got into, having been a fan of the genre for years. The game was one of the first to do an open multiplayer beta, and I was sufficiently curious about the game to overcome my trepidation. I was expecting to lose every game, but to my delight I found myself winning from the get-go. I found a game whose units behaved in intuitively understandable ways, and whose pace was not so fast as to require high APM while remaining exciting. Thoughtful play and prediction was rewarded with success.
I didn't actually buy Ruse, getting drawn instead into Company of Heroes Online, and eventually finding my way to Dawn of War 2, a delightful RTS that I played happily for some time. I did buy a couple of entries in the Wargame series, though. Airland Battle is a remarkable work, although I never found the courage to play that online. Sometimes trying something you're wary of pays off in a big way. Thanks, Ruse.
I didn't realise X-Wing: Alliance didn't sell. That's a shame. It was a fine game. The sequences where you fly your family weren't always the best, since the Falcon-lite you flew wasn't as fun as a Rebel fighter, but the variety was solid. I loved starting off in the bay of a cruiser seeing the battle raging outside, and launching out to take part. Did X-WIng vs TIE Fighter do that well? That one had a multiplayer focus in a time where most of us used 56k modems. Rather before it's time, I always though.
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There's a weird thing that poisons the water when debating someone's right to lets play. Youtube disproportionately sides with the 'original content owners' (for lack of a better term). This isn't specific to games, but they make it very easy for the media owners to have serious effects on a streamers channel (which may be their livelihood). The streamers' primary recourse is a reportedly slow unfair and arcane process, while the original owner will at worst get told that their copyright claim was rejected.
Ultimately I fall slightly more on the side of developers because the internet has bred a culture where media is up for the taking. Even aside from piracy, it's seen commonly where people will take a picture some artist has drawn, remove any identifying marks (or sometimes wont bother with that) and repost it as their own. There's absolutely an argument to be made for not locking down media from discussion and criticism that can be more valuable when showing direct footage of the game, but there also seems to be an entitlement in a lot of people that refuse to allow the game creators to decide what people do with their game.
Returning to the DJ comparison, while provisions exist to reimburse producers, they don't really work, and many artists consider DJ performances to basically be free advertisement. And that's the big unquantifiable here as well. Do game producers benefit more from the increased visibility than they lose in sales? Actual sales, mind you, not simply people who like watching let's plays who never would have actually played the game on their own. I don't know that anyone has a clear answer to that. As Danielle mentioned based on that GDC talk I think game designers have to be cognizant of the let's play phenomenon, but whether there's any positive or negative effect on sales seems very much tied to the type of game they intend to make, if any connection is to be made at all.
By the way, Murdered: Soul Suspect was an excellent game, and also counts as one of the few games that year which I played to completion (possibly in part because it's so short). It had issues, but the theme was really cool. Weirdly, it ended up feeling kind of like a history lesson at times. I didn't at all expect that going in. So here's at least one more vote in favor of M:SS.
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I don't know any of the background here, only what was mentioned on the 'cast, but I really don't think it's that cut and dry. A Let's Play is, necessarily, a derivative work (and arguably a public performance) and a Let's Play with no commentary or other transformative qualities really doesn't have a leg to stand on in a legal copyright sense, or even in an "that's an OK thing to do" sense (In my opinion, YMMV).
If That Dragon, Cancer had been a film I think we'd all agree that sticking a recording of it up on YouTube is a pretty not cool thing to do, so I'm not sure why it's different for what seems to be a linear, narrative driven game. We go and see movies at the theatre "sight unseen" all the time, or we choose to wait until it's available for steaming or on DVD or whatever because we'd prefer to experience it that way, or maybe we decide not to watch the movie at all because it might upset us.
If I understand you're arguments correctly, you seem to be implying that because somebody would prefer to experience the game in this format then they have the right to, and that anybody has the right to cater for this audience. That doesn't make sense to me at all. If I write a book and somebody wants to adapt it into a movie because most people prefer watching a movie to reading a book I think we can all agree that I have the right to say if it can go ahead or not. Actually, a better example would be if somebody scanned each page of my book and made a video showing each page in sequence for people who don't like turning the page. That would be a pretty shitty thing to do, right? And what if this style of video became really popular? It would be hard to quantify, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that at least some people who would have bought my book didn't because of the video, right? Then if I don't make very much money from the book I think I'd be pretty upset about the videos and the fact that people felt they had the right to read my book in this way just because they could. I don't think that's an unreasonable response, and doing what I can to prevent this seems pretty reasonable to me too.
I guess what I'm trying to say is it's complicated and I think it all comes down to context. In this case it sounds like the videos don't add to the game or recontextualise it, they replace it. This isn't the case for all games, or all videos of games, and the lines can get a bit blurred, but I think it's a far cry from the developers just being arseholes.
Oh, and welcome to the forums!
Thanks for the welcome!
My perspective isn't really based on any kind of "legal" argument, and really has nothing to do with the Youtubers at all. I think that, as a creator of emotionally charged work, you have a moral imperative to be careful with it, for lack of better phrasing. You should consider how people consume things, and how different ways of experiencing something can change how you experience it, and how strongly it may hit someone sensitive to that content. I just want the couple behind That Dragon, Cancer to think about that, I guess.
For an example of the emotional content of things being effective on different levels:
(and spoilers for a character sidequest in Dragon Age: Inquisition)
If you're romancing Dorian, there's a quest early on where Mother Gisele says she got a letter from his family. They want to meet with him, and she wants you to trick him into meeting with his estranged parents, because he'd surely refuse to see them willingly.
This is a life situation I have been in, for real. I've been in Dorian's shoes, forced to interact with family I had cut out of my life through trickery. And it fucking sucked, as you might guess.
The game let me refuse, and not just refuse the quest, but completely work against their wishes, tell Dorian the truth, and confront his shitty magical gay conversion therapy family and tell them off. That was awesome, and cathartic, and it made me appreciate the game so much.
If the game had forced me to go through with it, to trick Dorian to see his family? It would've wrecked me. I would've put it down and not picked it up again.
If I had been watching an LP of the game and the person making the video made that choice, I would've been unhappy, but okay, because of the extra layer of removal from the content and choices.
That kind of saccharine "Family is super important, no matter what even if they hate you for who you are" crap is all over fiction and pop culture, and that sucks and I hate it, but having to be forced to take part in it personally would've been so, so much worse.
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So I had reason to reference Old Man Murray's original objective review system today, and it occurred to me that it would be useful here as well. The reason I went looking for it is because I was mulling over the game industry's obsession with butts, and I started to wonder if perhaps we need a "start to butt" evaluation vector, with Murray's crate vector as a template. Thoughts?
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Hm. It felt like the initial summary of the TD,C dev's statement on LPs was kind of inflammatory and reductive. First, by making it sound like they were harping on LPs as the reason the game wasn't doing well, and second making it sound like they were doing content ID claims in retribution or to try to make a profit (I believe they had been automatically enabled by the game's composer's music distribution and they announced at the end of the article that they were disabling it). I still disagree with the article in some ways, since it seems to presume that people who were watching a LP in the first place were potential customers, which isn't necessarily the case, but it was a very mild and nuanced take on the subject which I think has been portrayed as far more aggressive and finger-pointy in a lot of the following discourse. To be fair you guys did end up digging into that some as the cast progressed, but my initial reaction to the summary of the situation was "whoa, what? That's not what they said!"
Regarding objective reviews, the use of the word 'good' itself signifies that something can't be objective. To be good or bad implies a context within which it is good or bad: Stated absent the context, it usually just means the person liked or didn't like it, which is the case with most reviews. Where this gets a bit muddy is when you compare it to product reviews, because these reviews imply the context within which the product is good: A vacuum cleaner is good (at cleaning floors) because we tested it and it cleaned our floors well, this graphics card is good (at pushing polys) because we tried it on some games that push a lot of polys and it performed well.
To evaluate a game like a product, one must first establish a context in which the game should be evaluated. Something isn't just good or bad, it's good at and bad at: These are the measures of its suitability towards its purpose. But what is the purpose of a game? Even within the relatively narrow boundary of "military first person shooter", there's a lot of personal context to the purpose that is being achieved. Is it about movement, presenting a nice physical sense of motion? About sniping? About information flow? About fast reactions? Different military first person shooters emphasize these elements differently, and thus the same game could be considered very good or very bad within the context of any one of these. If you play military FPSes to snipe dudes, you're not going to be happy with a game with no sniper rifle.
Personally, particularly when I'm writing something critical of a game, I tend to write in terms of what I think the game is trying to achieve vs the final effect of its efforts. This establishes the context of my criticism, and is sort of kind of objective. Of course, choosing which elements I believe are important is highly subjective, and ultimately these criticisms have no bearing on whether the game itself is enjoyable to anyone else. It may be that objective criticism can only exist within a narrowly defined subjective context -- that some people want to see this context remain implicit, rather than presented explicitly to the reader, and want to call that 'objectivity' is troubling to me.
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I think objectivity is important when reviewing, but that doesn't have to mean it's exclusive to having an oppinion, or even being subjective during the review. If you take anything to it's logical conclusion it becomes useless.
Journalism is a trade and as such comes with the same responsibility that all other jobs come with - the Spiderman clause - with great power comes great responsibility.
When Reviewing a game and scoring it, rather than critique or commenting, you are putting a line in the sand and giving it a place in the world. As a professional journalist, you will often be asked to review things that you wouldn't normally play, and while a lay person will give oppinion, I would expect a trained journalist to review and score a game on it's merits irrespective of their personal preference. They really should know the difference.
I wouldn't want it to be souless and without oppinion, but I would want it to be fair when it comes to scoring.
If you hate StarWars would it be fair to mark the graphics on the new battlefield down because you are sick of X-wings?
Similarly if you are obsessed with starwars is it fair to score Battlefield High on Value when it feels like its the absolute minimum they could get away with putting out and is totally lacking in that area.
I think IF you are scoring a game, as a journalist, it should be based on your knowledge of the medium and you should know what is "your feelings" and what is "the game".
If you can't give a fair score on what the game is, then you stick to commentary and critisism without score.
I've noticed both Rob and Danielle manage to do this even when they are just talking about a game, they both recognise when they love something because it appeals to them personally vs what is a good game in general. This is the sort of thing I think we need to see more of.
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I don't know any of the background here, only what was mentioned on the 'cast, but I really don't think it's that cut and dry. A Let's Play is, necessarily, a derivative work (and arguably a public performance) and a Let's Play with no commentary or other transformative qualities really doesn't have a leg to stand on in a legal copyright sense, or even in an "that's an OK thing to do" sense (In my opinion, YMMV).
If That Dragon, Cancer had been a film I think we'd all agree that sticking a recording of it up on YouTube is a pretty not cool thing to do, so I'm not sure why it's different for what seems to be a linear, narrative driven game. We go and see movies at the theatre "sight unseen" all the time, or we choose to wait until it's available for steaming or on DVD or whatever because we'd prefer to experience it that way, or maybe we decide not to watch the movie at all because it might upset us.
I think there's a distinction here, on the basis that a film is already a "recording", so a "recording of a recording" essentially loses nothing in the translation, but I shall elucidate more in the next quote reply.
If I understand you're arguments correctly, you seem to be implying that because somebody would prefer to experience the game in this format then they have the right to, and that anybody has the right to cater for this audience. That doesn't make sense to me at all. If I write a book and somebody wants to adapt it into a movie because most people prefer watching a movie to reading a book I think we can all agree that I have the right to say if it can go ahead or not. Actually, a better example would be if somebody scanned each page of my book and made a video showing each page in sequence for people who don't like turning the page. That would be a pretty shitty thing to do, right? And what if this style of video became really popular? It would be hard to quantify, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that at least some people who would have bought my book didn't because of the video, right? Then if I don't make very much money from the book I think I'd be pretty upset about the videos and the fact that people felt they had the right to read my book in this way just because they could. I don't think that's an unreasonable response, and doing what I can to prevent this seems pretty reasonable to me too.
I guess what I'm trying to say is it's complicated and I think it all comes down to context. In this case it sounds like the videos don't add to the game or recontextualise it, they replace it. This isn't the case for all games, or all videos of games, and the lines can get a bit blurred, but I think it's a far cry from the developers just being arseholes.
Oh, and welcome to the forums!
So, your example is interesting, as what you're talking about here is essentially audiobooks, right? A conversion of a written work into a form for people who "can't be bothered to turn the pages (or read the words)". And, certainly, Audiobooks are generally not considered enough of a transformation to count as a re-interpretation - they're still the same story, told via descriptive prose, just spoken rather than written.
But movies do something different, right, because they transform the narrative content of the novel into a new form, which involves a certain amount of reinterpretation, and produces a work which is inevitably different (even slavish recreations of a written work into film form are a very different experience to the original written work).
Now, the question with "That Dragon, Cancer" is: if we can argue that the act of making a recording of someone "playing" it is not sufficiently transformative to make it a different form - if you lose nothing essential in the process which makes buying "That Dragon, Cancer" and experiencing it yourself - then what does that say about the value that "That Dragon, Cancer" provides in what was lost?
(As an avid consumer of Let's Plays myself, I would say that I do agree that there's not much point to a Let's Play of something like That Dragon, Cancer to me. I tend to watch specific Let's Players, who are particularly good at a particular kind of game (and particularly entertaining as people) - ChristopherOdd, for example, with regard to strategy/tactical games, or Sleepcycles with more arcadey things - watching a Let's Play of skill-based games is entertaining in a different way to playing those games yourself. I'll never be as good at XCOM2 as Chris Odd is, for example, so there's definite value in seeing him achieve things that I never could - and similarly, for skill-gated games, I'd never know what happens late in, for example, Nuclear Throne, if not for being able to watch Sleepcycles play.
There's certainly games that I've not bought that I've seen people Let's Play - but those are games which, for the most part, I wouldn't have bought anyway, because I know that I wouldn't enjoy playing them (or at least, not until they were discounted enough to justify the amount of the game I can actually get through / have the time to get through). In fact, the games I did buy on the basis of Let's Plays - Shovel Knight, for example - are actually games that I never really got very far in because of their challenge, and I regretted my purchase in some instances. )
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For TDC i think the problem is saying Let's Play is loosing them money and is ultimately bad for business and cheating the developers out of something that is theirs.
THis always reminds me of the piracy argument. Now I am in no way advocating piracy, but I would always get sick of companies saying either "their game would have sold better if it wasn't for those pesky pirates" or worse still a recent game where the devs complained of selling 660,000 copies, but 1.3mil people pirated it.
THeir figures, like the ones that will inevitably come out of let's plays soon enough will be equally as flawed. For piracy it's 1.3mil torrent downloads=1.3 million missed sales and "lost revenue". I'm still waiting for the "6mil people watched my game being played but only 2mil bought it".
The fact is that in the most part the figures are hugely distorted. When you look into piracy figures, a huge percentage comes from countries where games cost more than a months food, these people will never buy the game.
Similarly for Let's play watchers it's more about the person playing the game, or watching something that you just don't want to play, but are interested in seeing. My kids used to love watching 5 nights videos, but never once played the games themselves. This isn't a lost sale, and if anything it's a great advert - I doubt 5 nights would have anywhere near the following if no one played it on youtube etc
Good games sell, and as long as the marketing is "good enough" will usually make the money they deserve. Like has been said TDC is a very very emotive subject, I've had my father and father-in-law both die from cancer, and as a father myself I have no desire to ever put myself through that game. You *may* loose some sales from Let's play, but I would imagine you gain far more from the increased popularity.
Blaming poor sales on Let's play, piracy or "journalists not giving it enough press" is always a poor excuse and sadly one that has damaging consequesnces to gaming as a whole, with things like blocking Let's plays, scary DRM (just cause 3 etc) and copy right claims for bad reviews (as one developer did to someone who reviewed his game badly).
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Eeeh, I think it also betrays a certain lack of confidence in the product, though: if you're saying that a recording of someone interacting with your product is capable of replacing the actual experience of interacting with your product, then you don't have much confidence in how much draw the interactive experience actually has.
I think Danielle and Rob made a strong point about how Let's Plays tend not to harm sales (and producers of those games don't claim otherwise) of games with a big possibility space - strategy games, FPSes and the like - because you can only ever capture one possibility out of all of the configurations available.
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I think objectivity is important when reviewing, but that doesn't have to mean it's exclusive to having an oppinion, or even being subjective during the review. If you take anything to it's logical conclusion it becomes useless.
Journalism is a trade and as such comes with the same responsibility that all other jobs come with - the Spiderman clause - with great power comes great responsibility.
When Reviewing a game and scoring it, rather than critique or commenting, you are putting a line in the sand and giving it a place in the world. As a professional journalist, you will often be asked to review things that you wouldn't normally play, and while a lay person will give oppinion, I would expect a trained journalist to review and score a game on it's merits irrespective of their personal preference. They really should know the difference.
I wouldn't want it to be souless and without oppinion, but I would want it to be fair when it comes to scoring.
If you hate StarWars would it be fair to mark the graphics on the new battlefield down because you are sick of X-wings?
Similarly if you are obsessed with starwars is it fair to score Battlefield High on Value when it feels like its the absolute minimum they could get away with putting out and is totally lacking in that area.
I think IF you are scoring a game, as a journalist, it should be based on your knowledge of the medium and you should know what is "your feelings" and what is "the game".
If you can't give a fair score on what the game is, then you stick to commentary and critisism without score.
I've noticed both Rob and Danielle manage to do this even when they are just talking about a game, they both recognise when they love something because it appeals to them personally vs what is a good game in general. This is the sort of thing I think we need to see more of.
You don't have to be objective to be fair. For example, I don't think it's "unfair" to judge Dragon's Crown on its creepy art, it's subjectively really gross, but these "Objectivity in vidgamz!" people decried that daring to talk about an art form's artistic content was being unobjective and thus unethical as a reviewer.
There's definitely ways to fairly or unfairly review a game, but I don't think objectivity comes into it as a factor. Like, the Stardew Valley experience in Idle Thumbs a couple weeks ago, where he played it like a depression sim and refused to leave the house, that was hilarious but I don't think if he wrote that up as an official review it would be a fair one.
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You don't have to be objective to be fair. For example, I don't think it's "unfair" to judge Dragon's Crown on its creepy art, it's subjectively really gross, but these "Objectivity in vidgamz!" people decried that daring to talk about an art form's artistic content was being unobjective and thus unethical as a reviewer.
There's definitely ways to fairly or unfairly review a game, but I don't think objectivity comes into it as a factor. Like, the Stardew Valley experience in Idle Thumbs a couple weeks ago, where he played it like a depression sim and refused to leave the house, that was hilarious but I don't think if he wrote that up as an official review it would be a fair one.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding objectivity, but I would say when scoring a game it should be fact based. You can talk about artistic merit, ethics etc in a review, but what I'm talking about is being aware of what is your "feelings" about the game, and what is actually there.
Reviews these days seem to be far more about how much the reviewer "likes" the game, and not about "how the game lives up to what it says it is". If they don't like a particular genre they should either avoid reviewing, or be objective and review it for what it is (putting there personal preference aside).
If you review with no score, no problem - it becomes a conversational piece - but when you put a score at the end you are saying this how good the game is with a level of authority - especially from places like PC Gamer, IGN etc.
You see Rainbow6 and Battlefront getting good scores, but missing the fact that they are killing multiplayer games, with the lack of server browsers, private servers with either ranks or the ability to unlock everything. They also have little or no content and it's difficult to even get to it (And I love R6 as a game, but don't play it because you can't just crack on and play it how you want).
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Maybe I'm misunderstanding objectivity, but I would say when scoring a game it should be fact based. You can talk about artistic merit, ethics etc in a review, but what I'm talking about is being aware of what is your "feelings" about the game, and what is actually there.
Reviews these days seem to be far more about how much the reviewer "likes" the game, and not about "how the game lives up to what it says it is". If they don't like a particular genre they should either avoid reviewing, or be objective and review it for what it is (putting there personal preference aside).
If you review with no score, no problem - it becomes a conversational piece - but when you put a score at the end you are saying this how good the game is with a level of authority - especially from places like PC Gamer, IGN etc.
You see Rainbow6 and Battlefront getting good scores, but missing the fact that they are killing multiplayer games, with the lack of server browsers, private servers with either ranks or the ability to unlock everything. They also have little or no content and it's difficult to even get to it (And I love R6 as a game, but don't play it because you can't just crack on and play it how you want).
So what you're saying is that Paint Drying game is a 10/10, because it perfectly does exactly what it means to?
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So what you're saying is that Paint Drying game is a 10/10, because it perfectly does exactly what it means to?
What I'm saying is if a game is the best example of a first person shooter it should be regardless of what the theme is.
If a paint drying game was some amazing puzzle game then yes.
Conversely Starwars Battlefront should be judged as a game (rather than a StarWars OMG). The Graphics would still be marked high, because they are stunning, but as a game, should the fact that it's Star Wars matter much in how you score it.
Again,it's not about passing comment, you could say "If you're a star wars fan, add an extra 20 points", but the review score should be about how good is it compared with shooters of the time (ie against games like Battlefield4 should it really get the 80% IGN gave it?).
Most importantly it's not about any one game, its about what a review score should be. Personally I think it should be consistent, with a professional level of objectivity where the reviewer knows their subject matter and really looks at the game regardless of their personal preferences (positive or negative). A review can and should include their thoughts and feelings, biases and preferences but the score shouldn't in my opinion.
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Reviews these days seem to be far more about how much the reviewer "likes" the game, and not about "how the game lives up to what it says it is".
What I'm saying is if a game is the best example of a first person shooter it should be regardless of what the theme is.
You talk as if there is some underlying objective truth to this, but what a game "says it is" or what makes something the "best example" of a type of game is a fundamentally subjective call.
Lock a bunch of games journalists in a room and I'd bet you can't even get them to agree on the two best first person shooters (purely from a mechanical standpoint, leaving aside issues of theme) much less on one.
And as for the former (what a game "says it is") we had reviewers treating The Beginner's Guide as if it were non-fiction ferchrissakes.
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You talk as if there is some underlying objective truth to this, but what a game "says it is" or what makes something the "best example" of a type of game is a fundamentally subjective call.
Lock a bunch of games journalists in a room and I'd bet you can't even get them to agree on the two best first person shooters (purely from a mechanical standpoint, leaving aside issues of theme) much less on one.
And as for the former (what a game "says it is") we had reviewers treating The Beginner's Guide as if it were non-fiction ferchrissakes.
You are taking my point out of context, so maybe I'm not being clear.
Using the Division as an example: When reviewing, you shouldn't be marking the game down because it's an RPG set in the mostly present day because you don't think it's right. Especially commenting things like If it was orcs the game would score better.
This is the sort of subjectivity that needs to be avoided. If a game is sound, but it would score higher if it was a theme you prefer then you are not being objective enough.
There is an underlying truth of how a game works, and what it is. How does the mechanics work, is it playable. Is the game fair, consistent. Does the art all match or are some textures bad in comparison to others.
This is where a review score needs to focus on when reviewing a game, so when I say "a game is what it says it is "I'm not talking about marketing BS, I'm saying if CoD is set in the future, saying it's not realistic isn't fair IF it looses score for it. Though Saying you prefer modern day or WW2 is fine.
Listen to how Danielle and Rob talk about games, it's full of "This may not be a great game but it speaks to me" or "This game works well but I'm not interested in that setting".
This is what I think we need more of, Professionals who know what is personal preference and what is a fault in the game - this is the objectivity I'm talking about.
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The Division's mechanics and the way they combine with the setting and several artistic choices are dehumanising and cruel. This is the type of criticism that I want because it means I don't want to buy or play the game. A so-called "objective" review would be useless to me because that sort of thing would be left out. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Airline Relative Underperformance Continues
If you've been reading posts from All Star Charts as of late, you've probably noticed a lot of posts about the areas of the market showing relative strength, such as technology and consumer discretionary. However, one industry not getting as much attention is airlines. The reason for that is simple: the Dow Jones Transportation Average ($DJT) is sitting roughly 3% off all-time highs within a strong uptrend, but airlines continue to struggle to gain any altitude, sitting at 52-week lows on an absolute basis and crashing on a relative basis.
The chart below is daily chart of the NYSE Arca Airlines Index ($XAL). For the past 1.5 years, the index has made absolutely no progress, and it continues to chop around between 103 and 124. This chart is one we'd put in the "hot mess" category and steer clear of. While there may be opportunities on an absolute basis in individual stocks or opportunity for range traders in the index, there's often tremendous opportunity cost sitting in markets like this that just aren't trending. (See also: Why Airlines Aren't Profitable.)
With that said, the charts that I think speak volumes about airlines are the ones on a relative basis.
Below is a chart of the Airline Index vs. the Dow Jones Transportation Average showing the massive top this ratio has put in over the past four years. Prices broke decisively below the 2015-2016 lows in April and quickly accelerated to the downside, now approaching nearly four-year lows. While this move may be extended in the short term, this is not a long-term pattern we want to be buying. One technical analysis principle is that there is symmetry in price moves, which would suggest that this is the beginning of a multi-year downtrend, with a price target approximately 32% below the April breakdown level, with several levels of potential support along the way.
[Beyond the symmetry of price moves, I cover many more important principles of Technical Analysis in my course on the Investopedia Academy, which features over 75 lessons of on demand video, exercises and interactive content.]
In addition to this, the Airline Index vs. the S&P 500 broke down to 4.5-year lows in May and looks vulnerable to a decline similar in length and magnitude. The measured move of this symmetrical triangle is down near the 2011-2012 lows, representing a nearly 35% decline from the level prices broke below in May. Like the pattern we saw above, this is the beginning of a long-term downtrend that we want no part of on the long side.
The Bottom Line
On an absolute basis, there appears to be very little edge in the Airline Index until this 103 to 124 range resolves itself decisively. While there are several long and short opportunities that look attractive in individual names, it's important to take into account the relative performance of the industry to determine the opportunity cost of putting on a trade.
As of now, the weight of the evidence suggests that this group of stocks is likely to underperform the Dow Jones Transportation Average and the broader market. As a result, we want to continue to focus our efforts on the sectors making new highs to express our bullish thesis in equities. When the weight of evidence changes, we'll gladly change our minds, but for now, it looks like there are better places to be. | {
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Finding a Good Mentor
Have you ever had a mentor who helped further your career or better navigate your juggle? What about a mentor who steered you in the wrong direction?
This week the Journal looks at what happens When Mentoring Goes Bad and offers advice on how to create a good experience for both mentor and protege.
When these relationships work, benefits flow both ways, Protégés gain access to greater visibility, assignments and promotions, and mentors win broader influence, as those they help rise through the ranks.
The article mentions a number of things that could mess up the relationship. Of particular importance, the article notes, is for the mentor and protege to have some things in common, especially in values and personalities. The more in common, the the more they will put into the relationship.
We wonder, does it help the relationship if both mentor and protégé are working parents? | {
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What to do to beat the heat
With temperatures already having broken triple digits, and more hot weather expected soon, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta advises the following precautions to prevent heat-related illnesses:
• Drink plenty of fluids during vigorous or outdoor activities (including sunbathing), especially on hot days. Drinks of choice include water and sports drinks; avoid alcohol and fluids with caffeine such as tea, coffee and cola, as these can lead to dehydration. • Dress your child in light-colored, lightweight, tightly-woven, loose-fitting clothing on hot days. • Schedule vigorous activity and sports for cooler times of the day. Take rest periods in shady or cool areas. • Protect children from the sun by having them wear a hat and sunglasses and by using an umbrella. Use a sunscreen that is at least SPF (sun protection factor) 15. • Increase time spent outdoors gradually to get your child’s body used to the heat. • Teach children to take frequent drink breaks and “wet down” or mist themselves with a spray bottle to avoid becoming overheated. • Try to spend as much time indoors as possible on very hot and humid days. • Do not leave children unattended in a hot automobile. • Teach children to warm up and cool down before and after exercising. • If your child has a medical condition or is taking medication, consult your child’s physician for further advice for preventing heat-related illnesses. | {
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Of course: White House argues that Nuns are NOT exempt from birth control mandate…
(via LIFENEWS.com) – The Obama administration has filed legal papers appealing a decision by the Supreme Court to protect a group of Catholic nuns from being forced to obey the controversial birth control mandate.
As LifeNews reported this week, in a huge 11th-hour victory for pro-life advocates, the Supreme Court issued an order late Tuesday night stopping the Obama administration from forcing a group of Catholic nuns to obey the HHS mandate that compels them to pay for abortion-causing drugs and birth control.
In an interview after the decision,the White House saidforcing the Catholic nuns to pay for those objectionable things that run counter to Catholic Church pro-life teachings strike’s the right “balance.”
It followed up on that comment with papers asking the Supreme Court not to exempt Catholic groups from the HHS mandate. The administration responded just before the Friday morning deadline.
“Applicants have no legal basis to challenge the self-certification requirement or to complain that it involves them in the process of providing contraceptive coverage.,” the Obama administration saidin its papers.
This White House has never cared a whit about Religious Conservatives’ concerns about birth control. Not originally, and certainly not now.
The recent political speed-bump of Justice Sotomayor’s temporary injunction against the contraceptive-coverage mandate notwithstanding, the Administration is only concerned about getting Obamacare rolled through/around/over anyone and anything in their way.
So when I hear gentle assurances from the White House about how they are “confident” that they’re “balancing” Conservatives’ concerns in this area, I’m more than skeptical: I know they’re lying.
However, if you’re not up-to-speed on exactly who or what the Little Sisters of the Poor are, here’s a primer from last year:
And since that video doesn’t help you with why the Administration would maintain that the nuns had no “legal basis” to “challenge” or “complain” about the mandate, here’s what they’re talking about:
(via FoxNews.com) – The Obama administration crafted a compromise, or accommodation, that attempted to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. The law requires insurers or the health plan’s outside administrator to pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them.
“In short, under the accommodation, applicants must authorize their third-party administrators or insurance companies to provide the very products and services they find morally objectionable,” (Lawyer Noel J. Francisco) said. “Suffice it to say, the ‘accommodation’ does not resolve applicants’ religious objection to participation in this regulatory scheme.”
All the White House is trying to do is give plausible deniability to religious organizations, so that (if they want to) the organizations may claim to be acting within their religious beliefs. Of course, that’s plainly laughable.
Coverage costs money: just because it’s not itemized on the bill doesn’t mean the cost isn’t included. And if I am mandated to make that company (which offers that coverage) available to my employee, then I’m being mandated to facilitate their access to the coverage.
In short, I’m being MADE to assist in the process, which is expressly the problem.
Bottom line: if they’d wanted to, the Federal Government could’ve just provided birth control directly (h/t HotAir.com), rather than forcing insurance companies to provide it and employers to offer it. They chose to do it in this in-your-face way deliberately, knowing it to be an essential pillar of faith and church teaching.
Why, you ask? Because they want the fight, and because they believe they’ll win.
Last month Erick Erickson (over at RedState.com) wrote that in the current culture war, we are no longer being allowed to opt out of these skirmishes: we are being MADE to care. Which means we each will have to choose which side we’re on in these confrontations, and decide if we’ll stick together through their conclusion.
Which puts me in mind of one of my favorite sayings, from one of my favorite historical figures:
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately…”
12 responses to “Of course: White House argues that Nuns are NOT exempt from birth control mandate…”
I’m anxious to hear some Leftist argue this under a context of the “Separation of Church and State” that they always whine about. Of course, these are the same people who thought it was acceptable to reduce discrimination by legalizing discrimination for a select group.
Your one line made me jump out of my seat with a “YEAH! THAT’S exactly the case!”:
“Why, you ask? Because they want the fight, and because they believe they’ll win.”
Watching this administration trample on the beliefs of individuals (and the individuals themselves), in the case of these nuns should send shivers up the spine of every person in this Country.
Excellent.
I believed that at the beginning of this birth control mandated in the legislation too. They were intentionally shoving it down our throats because they believed they would win. (I still want to know what they have on everyone in DC. Got to be something in those closets).
This: “The recent political speed-bump of Justice Sotomayor’s temporary injunction against the contraceptive-coverage mandate notwithstanding, the Administration is only concerned about getting Obamacare rolled through/around/over anyone and anything in their way,” Made me think…
Three branches of government, checks and balances… What we learned in high school civics class is now obsolete. This is dictatorship. And the reason I think so is because of everything we’ve witnessed over the past 5 years. This regime will get exactly what it wants. Period. This is no longer democracy. You don’t know how much it pains me to say that. | {
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New Life daily devotion - May 19, 2011
Mid-Career Check-UpI can do everything through him who gives me strength.Philippians 4:13
In March 2006, the Harvard Business Review published an article regarding the findings of a survey of 7,700 American workers at mid-career. What did they find? Among other things, they found a fair bit of fatigue and frustration. Only 43% of people surveyed said they were passionate about their jobs. Only 33% feel energized by their work. By way of contrast, 36% say they’re in dead-end jobs, and over 40% are suffering from career burnout.
In what category of people would you find yourself? I hope you’re among those passionate and energized by your career. But if you’re not, you’re clearly not alone. Nevertheless, it’s a problem that I think deserves your careful consideration. God’s image isn’t best reflected in a person tarnished by frustration and discontent.
If you’re unhappy in your career, take a good look to determine the root of your dissatisfaction. Sometimes it’s something we can’t do anything about; but sometimes we make it worse than it is with our sorry attitude.
So, look at what you can change . . . especially your attitude, and take steps to make it better!
“Those who have easy, cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments, regardless of money, making it, or success.” - Dr. Joyce Brothers (1928- ) | {
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CATHEDRAL GORGE STATE PARK, NV - AUGUST 12: Perseid meteors streak across the sky on August 12, 2013 in Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada. The annual display, known as the Perseid shower because the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the northeastern sky, is a result of Earth's orbit passing through debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. (Photo : Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Earlier this year, we've had sightings of the super moon, which will again grace the skies come next month's full moon on August 10. There will also be the more well-known Perseid meteor shower happening next month, peaking from august 11-13. However, these two are not the only celestial events wort... | {
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We help Texas note sellers turn their problems into cash, even with late payers, non payers, and missing paperwork! | {
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I’m assuming you have done your keyword research, defined your no1 keyword for each page and selected between 1-3 keywords relevant for each page on your website.
1/ Title: The first thing Google bots look at, try to insert your no1 keyword towards the front of the title. As with all metadata, each title on your site needs to be unique to that page. Titles should be between 20 and 66 characters in length.
Want the long explanation head over to MOZ, these guys are online experts. SEO Title Tag.
2/ Meta Description: This is an SEO copywriting exercise, it is important for click throughs. You customers read this in a list of google results and make a very quick decision on weather to click through to your site or keep looking.
3/ Meta Keywords: Keywords in metadata need to be aligned with the content on-page, they should reflect the keyword used in your title and any other relevant listed keywords should appear throughout your page.
4/ One Page Content: An ideal web page should do all of the following:
Some great tips in here, even if you only take one thing out of it, it will make you look at your Analytics differently next time you get in there.
Google Analytics provides a means of measuring what your site is trying to achieve online. Take a step back and reflect on what your business objectives are and what actions you want visitors to perform on your site. By defining your goals in Google Analytics in terms of these website actions, you will have specific, quantifiable measures with which to gauge the success of your online efforts.
Google Analytics tracks these actions as conversions. We typically talk of conversions as being:
Macro conversions – Those actions that directly increase revenue or leads and drive performance, such as making a purchase on an ecommerce site; and
Micro conversions – Those actions which are good indicators of performance but do not by themselves generate revenue, such as signing up for a newsletter, viewing a video or sharing content on social media
If we think about the aim of SEO (aside from achieving top rankings for your target keywords) as driving qualified consumer traffic to your site in order to generate sales or sales leads for your business, you start to clearly see where you are headed with your analysis. We are interested not only in the traffic that is arriving at your site, but also in the quality of this traffic, as measured by the conversion rate.
Let’s take a look now at a high-level approach to analysing your SEO performance in Google Analytics…
PLEASE NOTE: This article is concerned with assessing the performance of an SEO campaign. All analysis presented relates only to that segment of traffic generated from organic search.
Look for trends in your traffic over time
Reviewing trends in your organic traffic over time will provide far greater insight into SEO performance than a single metric like total visits. Looking at trends provides much needed context to your results.
How does the data look? Is there an upward trend or downward trend in organic visits over time?
Is there a significant proportion of organic visits coming from new visitors? Effective SEO campaigns should be successful at driving new visitors to your site.
We can refine our analysis even further by comparing results across two time periods:
Providing context around your results leads to better analysis:
Has SEO driven more or less visits to your site when compared to last year? Has your organic traffic performed in the manner you would expect based on your SEO spend between the two periods?
How have the other site usage metrics performed across the two periods? Is your site receiving more new visitors than the previous year? And what about bounce rate? Are there improvements here? Does this correlate to web design updates you have made to your site within the same timeframe?
Where is your traffic coming from?
Understanding where your traffic is coming from can tell you a lot about the strength of your SEO as well as providing inspiration for future optimisation efforts.
1. Which search engines are generating the most traffic?
Ideally, the proportion of traffic your site receives from each search engine should roughly equate to the market share held by the engine. Google controls more than 90% of the search market in Australia so we would expect the dominance seen in the table above. Optimising your site for Google is the hardest but will ultimately bring you the most benefit in terms of traffic and profit. Where results differ significantly to what you would expect, it may mean that the search engine in question is not indexing your site or providing consistent exposure for your site – all of which points to the need to customise your SEO strategy for this particular search engine.
2. Which regions are generating the most traffic?
Geography will most likely have an impact on the performance of your SEO campaign. Are there regions generating traffic to your site that you hadn’t considered previously? Are these regions providing quality traffic, in the sense that the bounce rate reflects a degree of engagement with the site? Can you optimise your site to cater for these visitors and in doing so generate further conversions and online revenue?
What keywords are delivering the best performance?
1. What are the top keywords driving people to your site?
The keywords driving the most traffic to your site are not necessarily the same keywords generating revenue or value for your business. Where keywords drive traffic but not conversions, look to the landing pages where traffic from these keywords arrive. Perhaps the content is inconsistent both with the keyword and with what consumers are expecting to find from their search?
2. What are the top converting keywords?
TIP: Utilise Advanced Segments to focus your analysis on the segment of organic traffic which produced conversions
I encourage you to try this out with your own Google Analytics account. I think you will be surprised at how different these two lists can look. Are there keywords you did not expect to see converting? Are you optimising for these in your SEO campaign?
We could refine our results even further by excluding branded keywords from the analysis using Advanced Filters. In fact this would provide a much more accurate picture of how successful your SEO campaign has been at expanding the exposure of your site to consumers not already familiar with your company.
Analyse the performance of your micro conversions
Only a small percentage of your traffic will convert. And here I’m talking about visitors performing the action which you have designated as your macro conversion…The reason for which your website exists…The action which directly increases revenue or leads for your business.
The remaining traffic, the percentage that did not convert at your macro goal, is still valuable. Actions that these visitors take may result in the prospect returning at a later date to make a purchase. We call these actions micro conversions and I cannot stress how important it is to track these within your Google Analytics account alongside your macro conversions. It will give you an excellent impression of the bigger picture and an appreciation of the other actions consumers are completing on your site which contribute to the overall success of your business online.
Is SEO driving direct conversions? What about assisted conversions?
Direct conversions result when a marketing channel drives traffic to your site (in our case organic search) and these visitors convert straight away. Not all traffic will immediately convert though. And just because something did not convert or generate revenue does not make it worthless. In those instances where organic search does not appear to be generating direct conversions, investigate whether this channel is playing a role higher up in the buying process.
This report may be quite revealing. Organic search could be contributing to conversion performance in a much greater capacity than first thought. Or perhaps there are other channels which have been hidden previously, that are playing a significant assist role and could be worth leveraging further.
High-level analysis is a good place to start when assessing your SEO performance. But real insight is gained by digging deeper into your data set. Look for features which characterise your successful traffic and promote these. Try and identify why segments of your traffic did not convert and make changes to your site optimisation. Start analysing today and improve your SEO performance with the information you find.
This research is from the UK, but in a global economy / online world I don’t see why it isn’t relevant. Nielsen conducted some research on the organic and paid search click-through-rates. Check the infographic below.
Interesting, if you still decide to focus on pay per click, then the demographic that is most likely to click on your ad is women who is getting on…
Of the 1.4 billion search queries, 94% ended up clocking on the organic search results. While only 6% clicked on the ads.
Content is King. Unique content, not copy, paste, publish. Words you have written yourself, keyword rich words. Not something everyone has time for, but if you want SEO results its still a big factor in getting you there. | {
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Tiny RNA linked to more aggressive leukemia
"If these markers are absent and TET2 gene is not mutated, then the 50 percent of leukemia patients without this marker would be spared harsher treatment such as high-dose chemotherapy or bone marrow transplants," says Jun Lu. (Credit: "blood test tubes" via Shutterstock)
A gene that helps keep blood free of cancer is controlled by tiny pieces of RNA, a finding that may lead to better ways to diagnose blood cancers and perhaps treat them.
In the past few years researchers have identified the crucial role of the gene TET2 in keeping blood cells healthy. Mutations of the gene have been found in about 20 percent of leukemias and indicate a poor prognosis for patients.
However, the gene was thought to be irrelevant in 80 percent of leukemia cases.
[related]
The new study, published in the journal Cell Reports, changes this view. The researchers identified the agents that could be responsible for many leukemias without TET2 mutation—a host of microRNAs from the large expanse of DNA that do not code for proteins.
They found that patients with large numbers of these microRNAs are more likely to have impaired TET2 function, even without a known mutation, and are thus likely to have aggressive forms of cancer.
This knowledge could help doctors develop a course of treatment for leukemia patients, says Jun Lu, assistant professor of genetics at Yale University and a researcher in the Yale Stem Cell Center and Yale Cancer Center.
Half of leukemia patients who lack these markers may be spared side effects of aggressive treatments.
“If these markers are absent and TET2 gene is not mutated, then the 50 percent of leukemia patients without this marker would be spared harsher treatment such as high-dose chemotherapy or bone marrow transplants,” Lu says.
New therapies that could block these microRNAs could in theory help treat blood cancers.
“However, there is currently no good way to do that, but it is a problem I am very hopeful will be resolved.” | {
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Improving research and education Internet infrastructure for tertiary institutions in Africa is a necessary condition for gaining an equal footing with their counterparts around the world. A solid information and communication infrastructure — that includes bandwidth comparable to that of Northern universities — could enhance the capacity of African universities to draw and retain its scholars. Notwithstanding the importance of stable political and economic contexts in African countries, improved ICTs and increased bandwidth to African universities could become more attractive places for Northern researchers and educators as well, reversing the flow of intellectual capital out of African universities and deepening the exchange of knowledge between North and South. | {
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In the 600-year-old halls of St Andrews University, a group of leading academics is discussing a piece of literature. Not just any old literature: this, they say, is “the narrative experience of an entire generation”.
Here at Magical Alley, we offer a large selection of unique and elegant handcrafted wooden magic wands. Each of our magic wands are made from only the finest quality hardwoods available, made one at a time, por hand. | {
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Williams brushes aside Barty
Serena Williams ruthlessly dispatched teenager Ashleigh Barty but Venus Williams and Petra Kvitova were both sent packing on the opening day at the Australian Open.
Facing the world number one was a daunting assignment for 17-year-old Australian wild card Barty and, not surprisingly, she could offer little resistance as Williams eased to a 6-2 6-1 victory inside an hour.
Williams is looking for her first Melbourne title in four years after ankle problems contributed to shock defeats in 2012 and 2013.
Last year's quarter-final loss to compatriot Sloane Stephens was one of only four she suffered during the whole season, while the Barty win was her 23rd in succession.
Williams said: "It was a little tricky out there. It's good to get through that match. She could be potentially a dangerous opponent."
The American applauded Barty off the court, and she added: "I just think she's so cute. I like her a lot. She's so young. I'd like to see her do really well. I think she has a game to do really well. We'll see."
Barty, who won the Wimbledon junior title two and a half years ago, said: "It was a fantastic experience for me. I think Serena really showed why she's one of the greatest champions of all time.
"It was an absolute pleasure to be out there and have the chance to play against her."
It looked like Venus would be the first Williams sister through to the second round when she led 3-0 in the deciding set against Ekaterina Makaraova.
But the Russian fought back to win 2-6 6-4 6-4, completing a notable double after taking out Serena in the fourth round two years ago.
Venus will play women's doubles with Serena and once again insisted she has no plans to hang up her racquet.
"The last 12 months I have had issues, but this year I definitely am looking forward to having a good run and feeling well," she said, adding: "I love Australia. I'd love to come back."
The shock of the day was undoubtedly former Wimbledon champion Kvitova's 6-2 1-6 6-4 defeat by little-known Thai Luksika Kumkhum.
The 20-year-old has been steadily climbing the rankings, reaching 88, but there was nothing in her results to indicate she could pull off an upset of this nature.
Sixth seed Kvitova has been plagued by inconsistency since her Wimbledon-winning season of 2011 and made 40 unforced errors.
The Czech could offer little explanation, saying: "I really want to know what happened out there. Unfortunately I didn't play well. I didn't play my game that I really tried all off-season to work on.
"It was a great off-season. I was really excited to be here, feeling good. But I think that probably I wanted it too much, and then everything just fell down." | {
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I suppose the Dope Swimsuit describes how the women wearing it look and feel, as well as what the men who see these women act like they have been smoking. A jet black one-piece with "Dope" spelled in hip cursive just slightly, and ironically, reminiscent of the D.A.R.E font, the swimsuit proudly pronounces itself made in the USA. Well, made in Los Angeles. So maybe a more appropriate assertion would be "Made on US soil, possibly by US citizens." Sizes are small, medium, and large, with the medium measuring approximately 22 3/8" in length.
Beach balls are classic and rectangular rafts still keep you afloat, but the creativity, tech, and fat wallets of today demand a little more of water-based entertainment. Here are my picks for the Top 10 Water Toys of...
aRks 3D has prototyped a series of 3D printed bikinis they call Coral. And I know what all the dudes out there are thinking: that's some Coral I'd sure like to come across in the ocean. In stark contrast what's running...
Bite down on a Scorkl and you'll score 10 minutes of untethered underwater breathing. No snorkel confining you to a foot below the water's surface, and no loading up with a 35-pound SCUBA tank and BC like an aquatic pack...
TRITON, the human gills design concept I showed you dudes here 2 years ago (and which many of you had mucho to say about in our comments section) is running a crowdfunding campaign to actually produce the equpiment. TRITONs....
Calling this beach gear cart and table combo The Wonder Cart might be a bit of an overstatement. Sure, it's handy to be able to use the carrier to schlep all your towels and floats to the perfect spot, and then flip it...
A sexy man chest to caress and a sexy swimsuit to wear to your next pool outing - talk about having your cake and eating it too, ladies. Good for more than just a few laughs or you next gag gift, the Sexy Chest Swimsuit...
American Paper Optics and their eclipse viewing glasses have a PSA: look straight at the sun during the total solar eclipse coming America's way on August 21, 2017, and you'll know exactly what people mean when they say...
Rather the seal him inside a shipping container bound for Abu Dhabi, why not fill that shipping container with water and let Odie dog paddle around inside it with you this summer? Dig up a big hole in your backyard, and...
Wonder if my dermatologist would approve of this kind of baking in the sun. The Sun Token is a solar vaporizer hybrid. A handmade pipe with removable glass dome, it harnesses the sun's rays to to vape your herbs and mellow...
Blinded by the light / Sucked it up like some juice / Powered my tech all through the night. SolarGaps window blinds aren't your average smart home addition. They don't just auto-open, close, and adjust based on environmental...
While great for your joints I'm not so sure how good the Swim Desk is going to be for your computer and mobile phone. Definitely recommend keeping a vat of rice on hand while work-stroking at it. And also maybe an EMT...
Black Milk Clothing's Batman Collection has a Batsuit for every type of crime a girl could want to fight. For example, not looking hot. Or not showing enough leg. Not showing enough cleavage. Not wearing a belted Bat-Signal... | {
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Gladiatrix
The Roman Empire is known for its powerful rulers, mighty armies, and gladiatorial games. But there is one last great untold story that has fought its way back into history - that of the female gladiator. Historians and archaeologists have uncovered evidence that many brave women fought and died in the arena. Based on these findings, follow the tale of a gladiatrix called Ardala, a Celtic warrior captured and traded into a Mediterranean gladiator school in 2nd century AD. | {
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Sunday, February 21, 2010
This year I’ve noticed a change in the villains in science fiction films—from machines to multi-national corporations. Both the “Terminator” and “Matrix” series were built around the concept that computers had become intelligent and after a period of evolution of machine intelligence, the machines decided that they would be better off without frail flawed human beings. The films revolved around the wars between the machines and humanity.
However, two new films, both up for Best Picture this year—“Avatar” and “District 9”—are very different. Their villains are corporations.
In “Avatar” an alien planet is being mined by a corporation, and when the native Na’vi people resist being moved so the corporation can get at the rare mineral lying under their home tree, the company’s private military is called in to drive the people off.
“District 9” has a twist—aliens have landed on Earth but something is wrong with them. They are sickly and weak, and the government isolates them in a camp. After a time they need to be moved and “Multinational United,” evidently a group of multi-national corporations, is called in to do the job of relocation. Once again a private military organization does the job.
Personally I find this a much more likely future than war with intelligent machines. Already there are multinational corporations with more power and wealth than many nations, and the whole point of a multi-national as far as I can determine is to avoid being controlled by laws and regulations of any particular nation.
Benito Mussolini said, "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power," and that is what I foresee as humanity's near-term future.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
I am feeling so angry and bitter about my country lately. I can’t believe how much the conservatives are dominating the national political conversation just a little over a year after being thrown out of power.
Why is it that the people in this country are so conservative? I have heard it said that in many European countries the members of the conservative party are akin to Democrats in this country—even more liberal in some cases—so you can only imagine how liberal their liberal parties are. What is wrong with this country?
I’m reading an article about Attorney General Eric Holder in the latest New Yorker and the firestorm of criticism about the decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the “9/11 mastermind,” in a U.S. civilian court. The author, Jane Mayer, documents the glaring hypocrisy of many critics and the fact that the Bush administration had used domestic criminal courts for some of the terrorists arrested under their watch. In fact, Mayer makes a strong case that the record under Bush demonstrates that the civilian courts do a better job in getting strong convictions and prison sentences than the military tribunals do.
But more than that, Mayer also clearly discusses the fact that we are talking about some of the most basic principles that this country was founded upon: habeas corpus, the right to know the evidence being used against you, etc. The critics say that if you weren’t arrested in the U.S. you don’t have the right to be tried in a civilian court—that’s why Bush and company set up Guantanamo in the first place; they thought if they held these prisoners outside the U.S. they could do anything they wanted to them. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled repeatedly that that wasn’t the case.
But the most dismaying part of the article was the poll statistics about Obama—people give him generally good marks for all foreign policy issues including terrorism, except for this one area. The American people are dead set against having an open civilian trial for Mohammed.
Meanwhile the bankers, who have been treated like kings by the Obama administration (I’m reading Freefall by Joseph Stiglitz, the book documents this point in detail), are now complaining that the administration’s plans for new regulations and taxes is an unfair punishment of the financial industry, and are attempting to scare the Democrats into submission by giving money to the Republican party.
The Democrats, as much as I hated them before 2009, have given me plenty of new reasons to be disgusted. They are incapable of doing anything. There is only one good reason for their inaction—they are so bought and sold by corporations and the financial industry that they can’t follow through on the promises they make to the long-suffering liberals of this country…who else are we going to vote for, Ralph Nader?
There are so many critical issues facing this country. And we can’t accomplish anything. Frank Rich ( I think) said in a column a week or two ago that no major legislative achievement has come out of Washington for thirty years. That’s quite a statement. The only thing I can think of under Bush was tax cuts and the Medicare drug bill, which just added onto an existing program (without figuring out how to pay for it I might add). What happened under Clinton except welfare reform, which was basically just getting rid of a program?
Everything that has a beginning has an end. Every nation that was ever dominant was brought down by one cause or another. Paul Kennedy’s classic The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers is a very instructive history of the hubris and decadence that precedes a great power’s fall. America’s reign will inevitably come to an end one day, but I think our country’s fall is being hastened along by the incredible short-sightedness of the people in power and the appalling ignorance of the average citizen.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Many economists take a much calmer view of budgetdeficits than anything you’ll see on TV. Nor do investors seem unduly concerned: U.S. government bonds continue to find ready buyers, even at historically low interest rates. The long-run budget outlook is problematic, but short-term deficits aren’t — and even the long-term outlook is much less frightening than the public is being led to believe…
Why, then, all the hysteria? The answer is politics.
The main difference between last summer, when we were mostly (and appropriately) taking deficits in stride, and the current sense of panic is that deficit fear-mongering has become a key part of Republican political strategy, doing double duty: it damages President Obama’s image even as it cripples his policy agenda. And if the hypocrisy is breathtaking — politicians who voted for budget-busting tax cuts posing as apostles of fiscal rectitude, politicians demonizing attempts to rein in Medicare costs one day (death panels!), then denouncing excessive government spending the next — well, what else is new?
The trouble, however, is that it’s apparently hard for many people to tell the difference between cynical posturing and serious economic argument. And that is having tragic consequences.
For the fact is that thanks to deficit hysteria, Washington now has its priorities all wrong: all the talk is about how to shave a few billion dollars off government spending, while there’s hardly any willingness to tackle mass unemployment. Policy is headed in the wrong direction — and millions of Americans will pay the price.
I’m also reading Joseph Stiglitz’s new book on the financial meltdown of 2008, Freefall, and he confirms my assertion that President Clinton was distracted from his campaign pledges by warnings about the size of the federal deficit after he became president. Stiglitz was part of Clinton’s economic team in the early years of his administration along with Larry Summers and Robert Rubin. Stiglitz wrote, “Bill Clinton had sacrificed much of his presidential ambitions on the altar of deficit reduction.”
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The New York Times had a “news analysis” today that proclaimed in its headline that “Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power.” The pertinent sentence was “Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors.”
Of course. This is part of the conservative strategy to hamstring this country’s liberals. While the Republicans are in power they drive up the national debt to dangerous levels which wrecks the economy, resulting in the election of Democrats. The Democrats then have to spend all of their time fixing the wrecked economy, leaving no time or money for their liberal initiatives. After a term or two, the electorate wonders why the Democrats haven’t delivered on any of their promises and fall prey to the Republican snake-oil pitches again.
Case in point: after 12 years of Reaganomics, the U.S. economy was sputtering in 1992. Bill Clinton’s internal campaign motto was “It’s the economy, stupid.” Ross Perot received a respectable number of votes for a third-party candidate because he spoke to people’s fears about the mushrooming federal deficits.
In the 12 years of the Reagan-Bush Sr. administrations, the federal debt quadrupled, from 1 trillion to 4 trillion dollars. (At the U.S. Treasury website you can see the official federal debt for every year from 1791 to 2009)
Bill Clinton won in 1992. One of his campaign promises was to cut middle-class taxes, but Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan scared him so bad about the risks of the deficit, Clinton reversed himself and didn’t ask for that tax cut. Clinton scaled back on all of his progressive legislative plans because, he’d been convinced, the country couldn’t afford them. The voters turned on him and the Republicans won big in 1994.
Despite the prosperity of the 1990s, the country was evenly divided in 2000 and George W. Bush got into the presidency. You could easily argue that the reason was partly due to the widespread perception that, as Ralph Nader famously said, there’s no difference between the two parties. The Democrats acted like conservatives--fiscally responsible ones, that is--in the 1990s.
The Bush administration took the prosperity and federal budget surpluses handed them by Clinton and squandered them. Tax cuts for the wealthy, two wars, and a massive drug bill, all unfunded, caused the federal debt to double during George W. Bush’s administration.
Yet during those eight years of profligate deficit spending, almost no one spoke of it. As long as a Republican is in power, it seems that deficit spending is not worthy of mentioning. It certainly never interferes with the legislative priorities of the Republicans.
But now the Democrats are in power we once again hear the warnings that the deficit monster is threatening to destroy our nation. Not only can’t the Democrats initiate any new programs, they have to freeze programs already in place.
Buried in the New York Times article was this sentence: “In the early years of the Clinton administration, government projections indicated huge deficits — over the ‘sustainable’ level of 3 percent — by 2000. But by then, Mr. Clinton was running a modest surplus of about $200 billion.” Those projections were wrong but the damage had been done.
Notice that no one mentions cutting the military budget, obscenely bloated to over $700 billion. Notice that no one mentions raising the income tax on the wealthy. A CBS news report on Obama’s budget stated that one of the groups who would be “losers” if this budget were enacted were families making over $250,000 a year, because the Bush tax cuts were going to be allowed to expire.
About Me
I'm a philosopher, writer, videographer, and entrepreneur. In 2013 I've released a new book, "We Are ALL Innocent by Reason of Insanity." I'm the co-author with my husband Arthur Hancock of "The Game of God: Recovering Your True Identity. | {
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Couple Receives Huge Community Support After Restaurant Damaged By Fire
When
the Pellegrini Ristorante Italiano Bar was heavily damaged by an
electrical fire, its owners got immediate community support to get it
back up and running.
The
husband and wife duo – Carlo Pellegrini and Jessica Morse – were
facing financial ruin as it wasn’t just their restaurant that was
down but also their catering business. This is when the Greely/Evans
Moose Lodge stepped in to help. The couple had managed to find jobs
for their employees, but they still had catering contracts to
fulfill. They could do it but had to find a place to cook and
prepare the food.
The
Moose Lodge, located in Evans, offered its facility to the couple,
allowing them to fulfill their orders that had not been canceled
after the fire.
According
to Morse, the couple received a plethora of support from the
community. When the word spread that catering was still being done,
many people reached out to see if the restaurant could cater for
them.
Currently,
the restaurant is undergoing structural repairs. Once these are done,
the interior will be addressed. The goal of the finished restaurant
is no more than five months.
Besides
lending the couple the kitchen, the Moose Lodge will also have a
fundraiser to help the restaurant with its repairs. Another
fundraiser is being held May 11 by Work Out West. And, a former
employee of the restaurant has started up a gofundme page.
Pellegrini
and Morse are grateful for the support the community has given them,
as without it, they would not have a business anymore. Morse said
they could not express their gratitude enough for the help they have
received during this trying time. | {
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Dale Evans(I)(1912–2001)
American leading lady of musical westerns of the 1940s. Born Frances Octavia Smith in Uvalde, Texas. She was raised in Texas and Arkansas. Married at 14 and a mother at 15, she was divorced at 17 (some sources say widowed). Intent on a singing career, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and worked in an insurance company while taking occasional radio... See full bio » | {
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It's summer! The best time to curl up with a cold book and a deep read. Recently, for Displaced Nation, I asked some authors and writerly friends to give me some ideas about their favorite beach books. The result? Two posts full of novels, memoirs and other adventures!
Take a look here at Part I, featuring Alli Sinclair (author of Luna Tango and a former Novel Adventurer), Brittani Sonnenberg (Home Leave), Christine Kling (The Shipwreck Adventure series), Heidi Noroozy (translator and a former Novel Adventurer).
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Beth Green
Beth is an American freelance writer who has lived in Europe and Asia since 2003. She grew up on a sailboat and, though now a landlubber, still enjoys a peripatetic life. She writes articles and suspense about travel, expatriate living, and many other topics. Find out more. | {
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NPR calls Houston the face of America's future
By Craig Hlavaty, Houston Chronicle
Updated 1:02 pm, Monday, July 1, 2013
NPR highlights jobs, the fast-growing Asian population and the Houston Ship Channel in their report. Look through the slideshow for other key things to know about Houston.
Photo: Lightkey, E+/Getty
NPR highlights jobs, the fast-growing Asian population and the...
1. Homes are selling in a flash: The housing market is booming in the Houston area because of the amount of available jobs. So you better act fast if you see something you like. Photo: David Hopper/Staff
3. A growing beer culture: Craft beer is growing in popularity across the U.S., and Houston is among the bright spots. The area has added a half dozen breweries in the past few years. Photo: Alison Cook/Chronicle
4. Food scene: Houston’s food scene is exploding. High-class restaurants are popping up around the city and local chefs are raking in honors, making a name for the city’s culinary chops. Photo: Houston Chronicle
5. Potholes: You’ll have a rude awakening if you expected smooth roads. Roads inside the Loop are littered with potholes, including some large enough to swallow a Mini. Photo: Nick de la Torre/Chronicle
6. Construction, construction and construction: Because Houston is constantly growing, you’ll hardly find a major highway or street that isn’t undergoing some kind of construction or road improvement. Photo: Karen Warren/Chronicle
7. Concert space rivals New York: It isn’t a secret for Houstonians, but it might come as a surprise to outsiders. Houston has one of the largest capacities for live entertainment in the country. J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle
8. Masters of the pre-built communities: There might be a cache to living inside the Loop, but Houston has some of the best master-planned communities in the nation. The Woodlands, Riverstone and Bridgeland are three of the eight communities recently recognized. Photo: Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle
9. Education stacks up nationally: Two Houston schools were ranked on US News & World’s high school rankings for 2012. Carnegie Vanguard and DeBakey High School for Health Professions, both in the Houston Independent School District, ranked 17th and 26th in the nation. Photo by R. Clayton McKee
10. What's zoning?: You are probably used to some kind of zoning laws. But Houston is a little odd with its policies. You’ll notice a little bit of everything in your neighborhood. Photo: Johnny Hanson/Chronicle
11. Traffic is among the worst: Houston’s traffic routinely ranks among the worst in the nation. A recent Texas A&M study found Houstonians spend 52 hours a year commuting to and from work. Photo: Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle
12. Speaking of that commute ... it might cost you: The state’s budget and the dwindling gasoline tax isn’t enough to pay for the miles of new roads and freeways needed to deal with population growth. As a result, you might prepare yourself to spend hundreds on the area’s tollways. Photo: Johnny Hanson/Chronicle
13. Cultural diversity: New York City might get all the attention for its diversity, but Houston also ranks among the most diverse cities in the U.S. Because of that, you’ll find all kinds of different food and cultural opportunities. Photo: Mayra Beltran/Chronicle
14. Houston does churches big: Religion is big in the South, and few might do it bigger than Houston. The city has some of the biggest churches in the nation, including Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, which has one of the largest congregations in the nation. Photo: Nick de la Torre/Chronicle
15. Jobs, jobs and more jobs: The energy sector is taking the lead in creating thousands of jobs to the Houston area, making it a destination for job seekers. Once here, you likely won’t have trouble finding your next job in the Bayou City. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
16. Salaries are climbing: The job market is good enough that it is also forcing employers to give employees bigger bonuses and larger salaries than other parts of the country. Photo: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg
16. Salaries are climbing: The job market is good enough that it is...
17. Never speak ill of the energy sector: You might not be a fan fracking or offshore drilling, but the industry is one of the biggest keys to the city’s success. You’ll be reminded about the importance of the industry by the numerous buildings and events adorned with their logos. Photo: James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle
18. Heat, humidity and rain, oh my: The weather can be a bit unpredictable, and the humidity could easily be classified as oppressive. You’ll also want to make sure and stash an umbrella in your car. Photo: Julio Cortez/Chronicle
20. Health care system is huge: The energy sector might be the king industry in the area, but the health care system is just as important and recognized around the world. Photo: Johnny Hanson/Chronicle
20. Health care system is huge: The energy sector might be the king...
21. Downtown is like an ant farm: You won’t see many people walking in downtown Houston because most are underground in the tunnels. It might feel weird, but you’ll get used to it. Photo: File/Houston Chronicle
23. Crime rates: Houston’s got crime issues. Hey, we’re a big city, it happens. The number of murders inside of the city went up slightly in 2012, according to FBI stats. Photo: Johnny Hanson/Chronicle
25. Taxes: If you are coming from outside Texas borders, you’ll be happy to hear that we don’t have a state income tax. Houston also ranks among the places with the lowest total tax burden. Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg | {
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The average woman should get 10 to 35 percent of her daily calories from protein. Protein helps prevent muscle tissue from breaking down and repairs body tissues. Sources of animal proteins include meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk and cheese. Vegetable proteins include dried beans and peas, peanut butter, nuts, bread and cereal. (A three-ounce serving of cooked chicken contains about 21 grams of protein.)
Trimming some fat may eliminate some guilt, but be warned: Buying foods labeled “low-fat,” “non-fat,” or “fat-free” may encourage you to eat up to 50 percent more calories, according to three studies by Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab. Fat’s not the issue when it comes your weight since most of these foods only have about 15 percent fewer calories than their regular counterparts. Go for the full-fat version and eat less—you probably will naturally since they taste better.
Health care experts haven't reached a consensus on the issue of vitamin and mineral supplements. Many say that if you are healthy and eat a well-balanced diet, you don't need any. But not all of us eat a well-balanced diet. And sometimes, you may follow a nutritious diet and still be deficient. Many women fail to get the adequate amount of vitamins and minerals. Stress increases your need for vitamins and minerals, especially C, B-complex and zinc.
Consider including peppermint in your pre-workout snack or drink. In a small study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, men drank 2 cups water with 0.05 milliliters (basically, a drop) peppermint oil mixed in and then ran on a treadmill to test their stamina and power. The mint appeared to help relax muscles, boost oxygen to muscles and the brain, and elevate pain threshold, leading to improved overall performance.
Many nutrition-sensitive approaches were delivered in broader community-based settings and more equitably reached women across the life course. Non-facilities-based settings more equitably delivered nutrition interventions to women who were not pregnant or lactating, and who were less engaged with health clinics and schools. For instance, food fortification, which was often delivered through markets, home visits, and community centers, seemed to be more effective at reaching women of reproductive age than health center–based delivery platforms. Community-level interventions are often reported as more equitable than platforms that require access to “fixed and well-equipped health facilities” (212). This aligns with our findings, where we found that community-based platforms such as home visits, community centers, homes of community leaders, work, mass media, mobile phones, and commercial settings were effective at reaching women across the life course (Table 1). Other delivery platforms such as marketplaces, water points, tailoring shops, and agricultural points for seeds or inputs were also effective. These locations need to be context-specific in order to capture where women spend their time. For instance, in countries where many adolescent girls do not attend school, school-based delivery platforms might be less effective. Delivery platforms also need to be sensitive to the sociodemographic differences that influence where women spend their time, such as differences for women in rural and urban areas, and of different socioeconomic statuses. Additional research needs to identify and report where women and adolescent girls are, and how best to reach them.
You know strength training is the best way to trim down, tone up, and get into “I love my body” shape. But always reaching for the 10-pound dumbbells isn’t going to help you. “Add two or three compound barbell lifts (such as a squat, deadlift, or press) to your weekly training schedule and run a linear progression, increasing the weight used on each lift by two to five pounds a week,” says Noah Abbott, a coach at CrossFit South Brooklyn. Perform three to five sets of three to five reps, and you’ll boost strength, not bulk. “The short, intense training will not place your muscles under long periods of muscle fiber stimulation, which corresponds with muscle growth,” Abbott explains.
What you eat is even more important as you enter your 40s. Women need protein (meat, fish, dairy, beans, and nuts), carbohydrates (whole grains), fats (healthy oils), vitamins, minerals, and water. These foods have been linked to some disease prevention, such as osteoporosis, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. The American Academy of Family Physicians supports the development of healthy food supply chains in supplemental nutrition programs so as to broaden the availability of healthy food. | {
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Let’s start again. It’s almost here…the moment so many of you have been waiting for. And by “so many” I mean my Mom.
Hi Mom!
What I mean to say is…my next book is almost on the shelves. YIPPPEEEE!
Please welcome Half A Giraffe? to my lineup of picture books. Coming to all good booksellers in the grand ol’ United States (and probably to an online retailer that is named after a really long River [not the Nile] or perhaps a tribe of kick-butt women. You know what I’m saying’…) in September 2018!
Here’s a lovely picture of 1/2 giraffes drawn by some lovely children from a lovely book fair I went to in Maine.
The *real* Gisele was drawn by Richard Smythe, an artist/illustrator here in England. Many kudos to him for such a sweet portrayal of a little giraffe who longs to be just half a head taller.
If you’ve ever wished to be a teensy bit stronger or a wee bit faster or a smidge different from who you are, this book’s for you.
Enjoy it folks!
(Except you guys in England. for some reason it’s not on sale there yet. But nevermind!)
You’re wandering the majestic halls for the first time and you’re hoping to see the Mona Lisa. You’ve heard all about this great painting and you are excited to finally see a masterpiece.
You somehow arrive at the Renaissance section (this Louvre place is huge), and there she is… at the other end of the gallery. This is it, your moment.
You advance.
Then the lights go out.
Da Vinci’s beautiful lady is somewhere in front of you but you can’t see a darn thing.
Of course you brought your keychain flashlight (motto: always prepared), which you power up and shine ahead of you.
And what you see is a forehead. An amazing forehead, mind you. An unparalleled hairline if you do say so yourself, but that’s it. The moment you’ve been waiting for and all you can see is the tippy top of Mona Lisa’s head.
Where’s the enigmatic smile? Where’s the impenetrable stare that follows you as you cross the room?
HOW DO YOU SEE THE BIG PICTURE?
Here’s where critique groups come in. (You knew I had to get to my point some day, right?)
For writers, critique groups are like an extra set of flashlights (okay, ‘torches’ for you Brits).
You may think your story is spot on brill (“A-OK” for you Americans) but maybe you’re just looking at a forehead. What if there’s so much more of the masterpiece to be discovered?
I know it’s scary to have your work read by others (What if they hate it? What it they’re mean to me? What if it actually stinks and they’re just being polite? Self-doubt much anyone?) But critiques can bring so much more to the table than what you originally wrote. Some of it might be as useless as Madame Lisa’s elbow but some might shine a light on that little part of the upper lip that curves delicately into a cheeky smirk. And KAPOW! You have a better book.
Dare I say….masterpiece?
So get out there and show your work to people. Heck, the postman probably has an opinion, right? You never know who might help you turn your spotty forehead into a Renaissance triumph. | {
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Great Gizmos Toys
For the most creative and innovative toys from wind up gadgets and solar controlled robots to creative bracelet kits and mouldable fairy plaques, Great Gizmos is a leading provider in children's toys and games.
Great Gizmos aims to provide a variety of high quality products that are exciting to both the parent and child and what customers want to buy. The company has a whole host of toys for children of all ages; from a luxury plush brand that is suitable from birth, right through to sky high rockets for the older kids. There is also a fabulous eco-friendly range of woodentoys that will aid with education, learning and sensory skills.
Recent range additions include Kid O and Meadow Kids; two great new brands that certainly fit Great Gizmos ethos of learning through play. They also supply children's ride-ons, gifts, nursery products, pocket money items and much more!
HERO PRODUCTS
LICENCES HELD BY GREAT GIZMOS
RECOMMENDED RETAILERS
Amazon
The world's most famous online retailer sells an unparalleled selection of toys. | {
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This is for any and all SuicideGirls and SuicideGirl Hopefuls who want to contribute to the social presence of SG on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. This is a place where you can share ideas and provide content to be used over our social networks.
Travel tips for South Korea...
1. If you've ever hear a group of kids point and yell in unison, "Meguk saram!"
They're just excited to see an actual caucasian in person, please don't kill any of them.
2. Join this group to find out where all the ...
A group for vegans and vegetarians. No meatcrashers.
Talk about food, recipes, events, ethics, activism, animal rights, science, nutrition, books, advice, lifestyle - anything you want, as long as it's relevant to vegetarians and vegans.
IMPORTANT: Hitler was not a vegetarian. Please do not post it because we've heard ...
Show us what you've got! Fan art of the beautiful SGs!
*** PLEASE NOTE ***
This group is NOT for general art. It's specifically fan art of the SuicideGirls. There is a group called "Artists" for that kinda stuff. Thanks. Also - please do not ask to be drawn - let our ... | {
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Ramblings of Charles Prier – Writer-Insomniac-General Know-it-All
Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
While sitting in a medical facility waiting room the other day I overheard a casual conversation between others also waiting concerning the Presidential campaigns currently in the news. It seemed that everyone was welcome to comment. Most of the comments were negative about the current Republican candidates. One man suggested that the right person to vote for could be determined by figuring out who you didn’t want to be President. To that a lady announced, “I sure don’t want Obama to win.”
I asked why she was so against the President. “Is it because he is Black?” She denied that emphatically and said, “Race has nothing to do with it. I just don’t like him.” Another man said that for him race did matter but that was a personal matter.
Another asked why I was for him. I admitted that I was just trying to learn why the current candidates would be better and wanted to be sure that my vote would not be against my own best interest.
A man behind me said, “He is head of the armed services and has never been in the service himself, so he is not qualified to be the Commander and Chief.”
It is true that he has never been in the military service, at least until now, but he ended the war in Iraq and took out Osama bin Laden. Do these accomplishments merit any consideration as qualifying factors?
The man to my left said, “He has never had a job and don’t know what it means to really have to work.” I wondered how that was different from the current leading Republican candidates.
“He’s a Muslim, and I think only Christians should be President, we are a Christian country and every citizen should strive to keep it that way.” He added, “Besides he wasn’t even born in America.”
I remembered that some believe that Mormons are a cult and not Christians.
“He believes in abortion and appointed liberal judges that passed on Roe vs. Wade” said the man to my left. Actually he appointed none of those judges and five of the seven judges concurring with that decision were appointed by Republican Presidents.
Since many of those waiting were senior citizens and obviously had some interest in health care, it would have been good to ask opinions on policies affecting Social Security, Medicare, and Healthcare. My business was concluded before I had the opportunity to raise the questions.
That encounter convinced me that many hard-working, down-home, folks are falling prey to the hateful and deceitful rhetoric so prevalent on the minds and lips of Georgia’s elected politicians today.
Charles Prier
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A scotoma is a visual defect or blind spot. People with this condition cannot see objects that fall within the affected area in their visual field. It’s as though the objects are just not there. Fortunately, in most cases, slightly shifting one’s point of view brings the objects into view.
The term scotoma is also used in psychology to refer to an individual’s inability to perceive, often bothersome, personality traits in themselves that may be obvious to others. They are blind to these; they do not exist.
I believe that there is yet another condition; a powerful ideological scotoma that presents its victims with a distorted view of the world. Facts and truths that fall outside the bounds of their ideology do not exist and are not processed as part of their reasoning and logical thinking. This condition, suffered by many Right-Wing and Tea-Party Conservatives, is a kind of mental illness giving rise to their illogical behavior and the creation of elaborate campaigns filled with fabrications and sometimes cleverly stated misinformation.
It’s not their fault; we have to be tolerant they just can’t see what is right before them. Confronting them with credible facts furthers their disillusionment resulting in more bizarre fabrications.
I do not know of an effective treatment for this condition; for friends and family; perhaps time and achieving a higher degree of personal maturity will alleviate some of the symptoms. Asking questions is risky but in a private forum sometimes allows them to get a glimpse at how out of touch they are and lead to a shift in point of view. Searching for common ground is hazardous but sometimes an effective strategy. Otherwise it is always best to keep your mouth shut, hide your pain and pray.
I wonder and worry about our world often – but then sometimes I just wonder what’s for supper; these are the best times. –CP
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” — Flannery O’Connor
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Although they do not often write back, it is important to email, write or call your congressmen with your concerns and encouragement. If you appreciate what Congressman Paul Broun is doing for America you should tell him; tell him that although Georgia’s 12% unemployment is a problem he should continue to fight to lower the nation’s debt limit even to the point of allowing the government to default on its bills; he should again shout that proposal from the House floor – jobs can wait.
Encourage him to stand firmly on his no-tax pledge because preserving the tax loopholes for gas and oil companies is certainly more important to America than preventing the layoff of 280,000 teachers and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. Don’t forget to remind him that preserving the corporate-jet tax benefit is preferred to helping our service veterans find jobs when they return from war.
Tell him to forget about modernizing 35,000 schools and instead fight to cut taxes for the very rich. Also, say to him, don’t give much thought to maintaining or improving our roads, bridges, and airports. They are good enough and we don’t need to put thousands of construction workers to work. What we need to do is lower taxes and to eliminate all regulation; free enterprise industry can take care of public safety and protect consumers. Besides, everyone should look out for himself, government regulations just get in the way of profits.
I’m sure that Congressman Broun will be happy to hear that you are in favor of these items; after all we elected him and have remained silent while benefiting from all that he has done. We expect that his politics will provide great benefits to our children and grandchildren for generations to come.
Then again… if you disagree with him you need only write six words: “Pass the President’s Jobs Bill now.”
Charles Prier
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As citizens of the Georgia 10th Congressional District, it is good to know where we stand with our Representatives in Washington. During recent weeks Representative Paul Broun has demonstrated that the wellbeing of “we the people” is a very low priority with him. His participation in the gridlock, national frustration, and actions resulting in lowering of our country’s credit standing is certainly jeer-worthy. The troubling fact that he actually proposed lowering the debt limit, putting the government immediately in default speaks loudly about his priorities. In my opinion he ignored the first item of his four-way test when considering how to act concerning the debt limit crisis. He apparently believes it would be morally right for the country to default on the debts incurred by money already spent by Congress. He devoted a lot of negative energy to this issue and no positive energy toward JOBS or anything else worthwhile.
On a broader scale, it is apparent that because he signed the Grover Norquist Pledge he is incapable of being a competent legislator. By signing this pledge he became accountable to Grover Norquist not to the citizens of Georgia. It is time he renounces that outlandish pledge and instead pledge to listen to all sides of the issues with everything on the table, compromise while working toward balanced tax reform, jobs, and the benefit of everyday citizens. Our elected officials should be able to rely on their intelligence to assess the merits of any proposal encountered instead of being blackmailed into goat-like following dictated by Norquist’s pledge. Any idiot can stand in the crowd and just say NO to everything; we need elected officials to actually represent the interest of the country not just their political party. CP
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I once knew a guy who talked about building a machine using an electric generator and an electric motor connected in such a way that the motor would spin the generator and the electricity it generated would power the motor. He further suggested that through a belt and pulley arrangement the wheels on a go-cart could be turned to move the go-cart along. He was adamant that his theory would work. Unfortunately he did not have the manual skills or financial backing to build a model.
Bob has stopped talking about his perpetual motion powered go-cart. Today he is a Tea-partier proclaiming that reducing taxes for everyone making more than $400,000 a year, continuing corporate welfare to the oil companies, and cutting Medicare while privatizing Social Security will end unemployment, eliminate the deficit, and fill the government’s tax coffers.
Bob elects and blindly supports legislators that make foolish pledges that limit any innate intelligence, judgment, or problem-solving ability they could bring to their job. Bob is too busy and ill-equipped to understand or keep up with the political issues. He is easily confused and will likely continue to fall prey to the Tea Party blather and vote against his own best interest.
The debt problems facing our nation are serious, yet Bob’s heroes, in blind defiance, are refusing to take a balanced approach to dealing with the issues. If they keep this up we all lose, even those making more than $400,000 a year will suffer significant loss.
(Originally published as a Letter-to-the-Editor The Hartwell Sun July 7. 2011)
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Republican and Tea Party policies are not about reducing the abuse by big government but destroying the role of government in our lives, thus allowing private centers of power (special interest, big business, and Wall Street) to operate unimpeded by laws and regulation. The losers are everyday citizens who believe in working hard to get ahead, to educate their children, to live the American Dream and to retire with dignity.
Congressman Boozman just voted against the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act, once again proving that he stands with big Wall Street banks and his Washington party leaders rather than the small businesses and everyday citizens in Arkansas. Pandering to special interest is becoming the norm for Mr. Boozman
His leaders are the same advocates that want to significantly increase the deficit to continue a tax cut for 2% of the population (the richest) yet adamantly opposed extending unemployment benefits to everyday citizens who lost their jobs because of their reckless fiscal policies.
There is danger in voting your anger. Someone has said “Speak when you are angry – and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.” Take a “Timeout” think about what needs doing and who is more likely to do it. Everyday citizens should not be bullied into voting against their own best interest.
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Arkansas voters are in danger of falling prey to politicians who have discovered the New Demographic, i.e., Low Information Voters; those citizens, who can quote historical statistics on major league sports and have thoughtfully formed opinions about the players and teams, yet have chosen to accept a low information diet dished out by the Party of “NO”, Fox News, and conservative radio talk shows.
Short memories and misinformation are close allies of these mountebanks who want to dismantle the progress being made and return to the policies and politics that brought on the worst recession since the great depression and nearly bankrupt our country.
Aside from the economic issues is the moral imperative to elect honest candidates who will actually participate in the legislative process other than through delay and obstruction.
We should not forget Tim Griffin’s role as Karl Rove’s closest protégé and his involvement in many of the most significant episodes of Republican sleaze over the last decade. Close to home is the U.S. Attorney scandal where, despite his lack of prosecutorial experience he was appointed interim U.S. Attorney thanks to Mr. Rove. He replaced Bud Cummins who was asked to resign although he was highly regarded.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) included Griffin on theirlist of Crooked Candidates for 2010.
What do you think? Do you want this kind of political operative making laws in Washington? | {
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Veterans program slated at PHS
Lynch, three others to share their stories
October 30, 2013
PARKERSBURG - Four military veterans will tell their stories during a panel discussion at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Parkersburg High School.
The Take a Veteran to School Day program is sponsored by the West Virginia Telecommunications Association and The History Channel and is part of a statewide series of events involving Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
The Sunday discussion will be held in the auditorium at Parkersburg, said Andrew Beckner, a Rockefeller spokesman in West Virginia.
Parkersburg High was chosen because of the senator's involvement and interest in the reinstatement of the Naval Junior ROTC program at the school, Beckner said. Because of dwindling participation, the Navy canceled the ROTC program, then reinstated it earlier this year when required membership levels were sustained.
Members of the program will be the backdrop on the stage, Beckner said.
Participating in the discussion will be:
* Fred Mayer, Charles Town, a World War II veteran.
* John Proe, Charles Town, a Vietnam War veteran.
* Jessica Lynch, a POW in the Iraq War who was rescued by U.S. commandos and now teaches in Wirt County.
* Thomas Lopez, a West Virginia native from Fayette County and a retired four-star admiral who was commander in chief, United States Naval Forces, Europe, and commander in chief Allied Forces, Southern Europe.
Their discussions will be archived in the Veterans History Project. Veterans Day is Nov. 11.
Rockefeller, who is retiring at the end of the term in 2014, also will participate in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease clinic ribbon cutting and celebration in Dawes, the Jackson-Jefferson Day Dinner sponsored by the West Virginia Democratic Party in Charleston and will be the host of a broadband summit in Morgantown.
The party dinner will commemorate Rockefeller's tenure in public office. He is a former governor and secretary of state in West Virginia.
* Monday, 12:30 p.m., a meeting at the Morgantown Events Center with Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation on connecting key sectors of the West Virginia economy to the Internet. Participants include FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Google Vice President Mohammad Gawdat. | {
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Community as Intellectual Space
The 4th annual Community as Intellectual Space symposium was held June 13-15. I will be chewing on all that transpired for some time. For now, let me express my pleasure at meeting Josue Pellot, an artist who did a neon project in a storefront on Paseo Boricua. I look forward to talking with him more about its location in the Puerto Rican community near Humboldt Park, its juxtaposition with the COORS sign, his takes on issues of authenticity and claiming space, and so on. | {
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The hospitality industry may not understand the component and architectural differences between a legacy copper deployment and fiber optic deployment. As a result, hotel owners and consultants cannot appropriately compare the cost of ownership between each technology architecture. Without proper cost comparisons, often times hotel construction or renovations may suffer lost technology capabilities, and potentially salable guestroom space.
Created by the HTNG Fiber to the Room Workgroup, this calculator can now compare a legacy copper deployment against a modern fiber infrastructure such as Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON). The comparison matrix additionally allows hotel owners to view the total cost of ownership and other less tangible benefits against competing technology categories. To use this calculator, an intermediate understanding of network infrastructure is required.
The instructions in the calculator will guide users through evaluations of hotel details, equipment details, fiber networks, and copper networks, along with providing other considerations.
HTNG's Fiber to the Room Workgroup was composed of over 50 leading hospitality technology companies. The group was led by Chairs Christopher Rivas, marketing manager, in-building networks of Corning Optical Communications and Greg Dawes, global technical director of Willard Solutions International.
"Working with industry experts and professionals from HTNG was a pleasure as we were able to piece together a calculator for hotel technologists," said Co-chair Christopher Rivas. "It's really great to be able to share these cost comparisons that really show the value of fiber for today's hotel network."
"The main question I have been asked over the past few years is how a fiber to the room network compares to an all copper network in a hotel," said Co-chair Greg Dawes. "What a privilege it has been to work with so many hospitality network experts to develop a tool that can be used to answer this question."
The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, nonprofit organization with members from hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards and also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.
Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including world leading hospitality companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 24 top IT leaders from hospitality companies around the world, itself has technology responsibility for over 2.5 million guest rooms and world-leading venues. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. HTNG releases specifications into the public domain as soon as they are ratified by the workgroups. For more information, visit www.htng.org. | {
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I decided to release the package containing graphics of the "Erodia" area from Parasite Amber, a former project finally never released. I know some of you could be really interested by this. See the attachment below. | {
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Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archivistische beschrijving
Naam van de archiefvormer
Biografie
Cyrus Eaton was born in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1883 and educated at McMaster University, receiving a B.A. in 1905. After moving to the United States, he had a successful business career in steel, coal, railways, public utilities and agriculture. In the 1950s he agreed to finance the Pugwash conferences, named after his birthplace. The conferences brought together scientists who were trying to diminish the threat of nuclear war. In 1964 Eaton travelled to the Soviet Union and met with Nikita Khrushchev in an attempt to bring more understanding between capitalism and communism. Mr. Eaton was the recipient of many honorary degrees and awards. He died in 1979.
Geschiedenis beheer
Bereik en inhoud
This collection of Eaton materials was created by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the production of the programme, "The Prophet from Pugwash". The producer was Carol Moore Ede Myers.
Aantekeningen
Materiële staat
Directe bron van verwerving
The collection was donated by Carol Moore Ede Myers in 1988 and 1989.
Ordening
The collection is arranged into six series consisting of: research files, interviews, correspondence, broadcast scripts, production files, photographs and slides, and reel-to-reel audio tapes. | {
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Category: Worldprofit Business Tips and Tricks
Whitelisting emails is the ONLY way to keep them out of the spam folder. Spam traps are amazing brutal since you can get email from someone you care about that talks about money. Google "the emperor" might not like that and send it to spam, forever forgotten.
Here’s the solution to that problem in 3 easy steps the "George Way".
Yours In Success,
George Kosch
Webmaster
George Kosch is co-founder of Worldprofit and has been in business online for over 20 years. | {
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They’re the cutest, most prolific aliens in the Star Trek universe—and also the furriest. They are, of course, Tribbles. And at six credits a head—or a body—they also make for good business. At least that’s what Cyrano Jones thought … until the critters got hankerin’ for some wheat. “The Trouble with Tribbles” remains one of the most beloved Star Trek episodes nearly 50 years after it aired, and in this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Matthew Rushing, Andi VanderKolk, and Zachary Fruhling to discuss why that is. | {
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Thursday, January 28, 2016
As is fairly obvious to people who've seen my homepage, I take quite a lot of photographs. While I'm a big fan of using file system hierachies to categorise information, and it's fundamental to the way my Gallery software works, there are nuances that are hard to represent with a single hierachy.
For years, I've used f-spot to maintain a tagged database of my photos, which makes various queries a lot simplere. Of course, f-spot has always been annoyingly buggy, and is now essentially dead and increasingly suffering from bit-rot. The official replacement, shotwell, is nice enough, unless you're the sort of person you cares about how the data is actually stored in the database, in which case it's not for you. (I shall not eloborate - the curious can easily shotwell's behaviour themselves). Since I'm the sort of that does care, shotwell's out. There is digikam, but Ive never hit it off with the KDE design philosophy, so that doesn't work well for me either.
Which of course leaves the traditional solution to minor inconviences with other people's software. Re-inventing the wheel. This does have a number of advantages. I can have something that just has the features I want, and drop a lot of stuff, such as all the image editing functionality, that there are better tools for. Furthermore, by writing in python 3, using gobject introspection and a pre-release of SQLObject, I can justify it both as a learning exercise (since I hadn't previously gotten beyond toy gtk3 programs), and also as testing SQLObject 3.
The net result of all this is Phototagger , something I'd actually decided to write in 2014 (but then as a python 2 program), but then didn't do any work on for more than a year, and which now represents far too much of my free time over the last month and a half or so.
There was a point early on where the actual code design was reasonably neat, but stuff got tangled as I worked around some questionable early choices without addressing the underlying problem, so a rewrite is on the cards at some point, but it now works pretty nicely.
The features are nothing special - photos can be added, tagged, tags can be edited and have various images assigned to them, and all that sort of thing. The search functionality is a bit limited - it doesn't allow constructing arbitary tag queries, but it covers the sort of queries I generally need.
Indivual photos can be viewed
And zoomed - this also supports mouse panning, which took a surprisingly long time to get right due to a misreading of the Gtk documentation.
As a learning experience, it was pretty useful. I got to play with some of the new Gtk 3 widgets, such as the Stack and FlowBox widgets, which are nifty, and work through some of the changes between Gtk 2 and Gtk 3. It's also given me a fair amount of confidence in SQLObject's python 3 support, although it doesn't stress the limits of SQLObject particularly.
As a tagging tool, it's now functional enough to replace f-spot for me, and has proved a great deal more stable. I now just need to rewrite a bunch of the tools I wrote to managing my f-spot database easier, and then I can finally move on. | {
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Pages
Monday, November 22, 2010
Because they call themselves Rational
The supporters of the RH Bill went to the Manila Cathedral to "listen" to what the anti-RH Bill advocates want to say why the opposition of the pro-lifers to the Bill.
They want to get in the Cathedral wearing the infamous Damaso shirts.
And here is what happened.
Did you hear that part where one pro-RH guy said that they have their "rights".
Right to desecrate a Cathedral?
Do they have the best intentions when they go inside the Cathedral wearing those shirts? Aren't those statements of their indignation and disrespect for Catholic clergy?
The gay and lesbian community once wanted to receive Holy Communion wearing a rainbow sash as a sign of protest for the Catholic Church's stand against homosexual sex and unions. But they were denied Holy Communion.
And these "Rational" people aka "New Jose Rizal" wanted to go inside the Cathedral and God knows what they will do in there. Luckily, there are some brave souls who prevented them from getting inside. Among them is famous election lawyer Atty. Romulo Macalintal.
That is what Celdran left. That is his legacy.
And he/she is still silent with my challenge.
Why can't they shed their pretenses and just admit that they are atheists who want to see the Church on Her knees.
The Filipino Freethinkers and the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines went to the Manila Cathedral where an anti-RH bill discernment mass was supposed to be held.
Unfortunately, they were denied entry from the chapel for wearing Damaso-printed shirts, which these organizations have worn to express their disagreement with the CBCP’s position.
Lorna Ferrer, a member of the DSWP, told Mr. Manalang that she was Catholic. Mr. Manalang responded with, “You are not a real Catholic! You are an oxymoron!” — implying that Catholics who use or support any form of artificial contraception could not possibly be “real” Catholics.
Here are just some of the statements hurled at members of the Filipino Freethinkers and the DSWP by Manalang and company:
“This is our territory. Get out of here!” “Damaso is a fake. You’re a fake! You are the Damaso!” “Get out of here, Satan!” “You should tell your mother that she should have aborted you!”
As the organizations walked away, Pro-Life advocates continued the barragewith “Get out of here, Satan!” “Away, Satan, away!”
Meanwhile, the anti-RH reflection service was going on inside. One of the speakers, Dra. Angie Aguirre, asked the churchgoers inside: How many have read the actual text of the RH Bill? Less than ten percent raised their hands. | {
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PLEASE NOTE: This is not an official website of Berkshire Hills and is not affiliated with the Berkshire Hills Homeowners Community Association.
Please contact the Management Company at at 973-267-9000
This website was designed to promote the Berkshire Hills Community, it's Homes and Lifestyle to Home Buyers looking in the area. | {
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Cecelia Tichi
Cecelia Tichi’s scholarship concerns US environmentalism, the social history of technology, and more recently the Progressive Era, notably in Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America (And What They Teach Us). She is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at Vanderbilt University and is also Professor of American Studies. In 2009 she was awarded the Jay B. Hubbell medal for lifetime achievement in American Literature.
Christie Toth
Christie Toth is an assistant professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies, where she teaches writing, rhetoric, and literacy studies courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. She has taught basic and first-year writing at several two-year colleges, most recently Diné College in Crownpoint, New Mexico. Her research interests include the intellectual work and professional identities of two-year college English faculty, tribal college writing instruction, community college students’ post-transfer writing experiences, writing assessment, and inter-institutional collaborations in writing studies. Her work has appeared in College Composition and Communication, Composition Studies, Journal of Basic Writing, Assessing Writing, Writing Program Administration, Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC), as well as the edited collection Class in the Composition Classroom.
Jason Tougaw
Jason Tougaw is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program at Queens College. He is author of Strange Cases: The Medical Case History and the British Novel (Routledge, 2006) and coeditor, with Nancy K. Miller, of Extremities: Trauma, Testimony, and Community (University of Illinois Press). Currently, his writing focuses on connections between neurobiology and the arts, new media pedagogies, and creative nonfiction. He has published essays and creative nonfiction in JAC, Computers & Composition, a/b: Auto/biography Studies, and the anthology Boys to Men: Gay Men Write about Growing Up.
Elizabeth Trelenberg
Eric Tribunella
Eric L. Tribunella is an associate professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research interests include children’s and young adult literature, lesbian and gay literature, and gender and sexuality studies. He is the author of Melancholia and Maturation: The Use of Trauma in American Children's Literature (U. of Tennessee Press, 2010) and has published a number of articles in journals such as Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, The Lion and the Unicorn, and Children’s Literature in Education.
Brenda Tuberville, Ph.D.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain was a humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, leading industrialists and European royalty. | {
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Related Articles
Australia's aviation accident investigation agency, the ATSB, Thursday released its final report on an uncontained engine failure that occurred November 4, 2010, on a Qantas Airbus A380 over Indonesia and severely damaged aircraft systems. Investigators concluded that an oil pipe in the jet's Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine had been "made with a thin wall section" that "did not comply with the design specifications." That pipe cracked, investigators concluded, led to an oil fire that eventually caused one of the engine's turbine discs to separate from its drive shaft. The disc then over-accelerated, broke apart and burst through the engine casing "releasing other high energy debris" tha damaged the aircraft's structure and caused a "multitude of system failures." The jet was carrying 469 people out of Singapore at the time and returned to the airport safely. Rolls-Royce issues a statement, Thursday, supporting the ATSB's conclusions and saying in part, "On this occasion we clearly fell short."
In the company statement, Colin Smith, director engineering and technology for Rolls-Royce, called the event "serious and rare" and one "which we very much regret." Said Smith, "the robustness of the Airbus A380 and the professionalism of the Qantas crew members assured that the aircraft and all its passengers landed safely." Rolls-Royce has already applied preventive measures through its engineering manufacturing and quality assurance procedures "to prevent this type of event from happening again." Adjustments include modifications made to engine software that Rolls-Royce says will prevent a turbine disc from bursting as a result of over-speed due to similar failures. The disc failure knocked out the aircraft's anti-lock brakes caused serious damage to a flight control motor, severed wiring, damaged a forward wing spar and tore open a fuel pipe. A hydraulic system was also damaged. In the aftermath of the incident, Qantas temporarily grounded its A380s and Rolls-Royce paid the carrier $88 million in compensation.
Question of the Week
Picture of the Week
As aviation photos go, this was the best this week but there are some great beauty shots when you click through. In the meantime, congratulations to Daniel Gillette for this very nice photo he calls Sunset Pitch-Out. The photo is copyrighted by Gillette. | {
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Tragic Unbelief
I’m thinking about what a tragedy resulted from Israel’s failure to trust God in Numbers 13. They were literally at the door of the promised land. Read Numbers 14. Remember that, in Numbers 13 and the first part of Numbers 14, Caleb and Joshua were confident enough in the Lord to say, “God wants to give us this land and He is able to do whatever He wants.” 10 other spies, all of whom had witnessed God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt and through the Red Sea, said “it can’t be done. Let’s pick a new leader and go back to Egypt.” What??!! Read it for yourself.
Their negative report had all the following effects, all recorded in Numbers 14:
1. All the people were upset. (v. 1)
2. All the people lost faith in God and their leadership. (v. 2-4)
3. God was angry – never a good thing (v. 11-12)
4. None of the adults of the generation that was brought out of Egypt, except for Joshua & Caleb, were allowed to see the promised land. That’s right, an entire generation was punished for the faithlessness of 10 men. (v. 20-35)
5. Those 10 faithless spies died immediately (v. 36-38)
6. God’s protective presence was withdrawn from the people – even when they later decided to try to fight the Canaanites (v. 39-45)
The Bible teaches that we all live in (not outside of) God’s story. We can either try to write a new story (which is the essence of sin from the Garden of Eden until now), or we can enter into the story and live as the Author intended us to live (which is the essence of faith).
My prayer is that I will live in God’s story, in which He is the hero and I find my greatest joy and satisfaction. | {
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PM2PM - Project Management in a Digital Agency Environment
Thursday, October 25, 2012
I try to use analogies that help stakeholders get their heads around some of the abstract concepts floating around in a marketing environment. Strategy and its proper relationship to Execution is one of them.
This is not a post on the elusive definition of strategy. Nor an attempt to define the difference between Strategy (with a big "S") vs. strategy (with a small "s") or Strategery or any of the other silliness that surrounds this term.
I like to think of the relationship between Strategy and Execution as a "What Sandwich" or, more specifically, a sandwich comprised of "What" needs to be built, that lives between 2 slices of "How" objectives will be achieved and "How" the features and functions will be executed.. The sandwich is made like this:
I'll leave the deeper question of "Why" for another time or other minds.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
It's tough to make predictions - especially about the future. - Yogi Berra
How much will it cost to build an x for us? Where x stands for Website, Microsite, Facebook Page, Mobile App (or even a House, a Bridge, an Aircraft Carrier). Tough question, right? The answer is, "It depends". What kind of x do you want?
Unfortunately, this question is asked by clients of their agencies every day. Given the recession hangover, fortunately it is still being asked. I find that a little education helps either avoid this overly, simplistic question or more productively, it helps point to a method for finding an answer. The approach pretty much has to do with helping your client (as well as your team) understand the variables that impact pricing.
While on the topic, in the spirit of precision, I like to define terms. In general, the price of services and/or deliverables is made of two components: fees (pretty much labor) and costs (usually pass-throughs, such as travel, licenses, equipment, etc.).
Below is a list of some of the variables impact the price of a project. As I hope you can see this list will generate some pretty interesting discussions that, if handled, properly will result in a level of professional empathy that should elevate all involved
The old Triple Constraint is also a valuable concept to help frame an agency compensation discussion with clients and your team.
There's a wide range of things on the agency side that also impact pricing, such as available staff, their skills, their rates, etc. Is it fair to charge a client an Art Director's rate to do a Production Artist's tasks? Same answer, "It depends".
Let us know your thoughts or if you have some other major variables that drive pricing.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Below is one of the best articulations (definitely one of the most humorous) of why there needs to be a person or party looking holistically at engagements and focusing her/his energies on driving stakeholder alignment. If you’ve been in an agency for decades or just arrived on the last boat, the issue highlighted in this strip should resonate.
Click on the strip image below to enlarge and/or check out the video variation on the theme below it.
Please add your insights, experiences and anecdotes in the comments section of this post.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I sent out a survey to some of the industry’s foremost interactive and integrated agency Project Management leaders to get at some of the major challenges that confront, not only PM’s but agencies in general. IMHO, these leaders are in a unique position to assess what it takes to make the ecosystem work and what makes things grind to a halt or worse. If you'd like to take the survey, see the link at the bottom of this post.
If being a PM is one of the toughest jobs in the biz, leading a PM group can be a real bear. Like other discipline leads within an agency, the Group Director of PM/Delivery or the Executive Producer has no real peers inside. S/he is faced with a learning curve that can go long stretches without gaining much altitude, and has responsibilities that pull in many competing directions. One lead told me that, “I gave up the illusion of making everyone happy long ago. I figure, if everyone’s just a bit, and equally pissed, and trust in my judgment is more-or-less intact, that’s about as good as it gets."
My hat’s off to these leaders and am thankful to those who took the time to share their perspectives for this survey. Although your successes don’t always yield overt evidence, the absence of your experienced hands often does (PM Success, Where’s the Evidence).
Results from the survey are not necessarily surprising but are illuminating none the less. The overall survey explored the following areas:
Areas of PM skill/responsibility that PM’s find the most challenging (e.g. tool usage, being too strident, being too passive)
This post features results and commentary on first topic: Areas of Greatest Challenge to project managers within agencies Subsequent posts will address the other areas.
Timing
No news here that Timing, which a full 88% of PM leads, ranked as either Consistently or Often providing a major challenge came out on top. Compressed timelines are always going to be part of this game. Actually getting more time for assignments is going to be tough. Using available time more effectively is where PM’s can have the most impact. A few thoughts on this topic include:
Improve the briefing process
This upstream event and the documentation surrounding it happen early enough to ripple through the entire process and a can be traced as the source of many common errors
Present solutions that can actually be achieved in the time available
It’s simplistic to lay the blame on, “Creatives Gone Wild”. PM’s have a responsibility to drive a team and client to put great ideas through the reality-filter of time – just watch out for getting labeled as a No-(Wo)Man
Be critical of your Project Plans
Just because you can make MS Project land on a date, doesn’t mean the work will. If you’re project plan has too many 1-hour durations or -2 day lags, it probably isn’t going hold up very well.
Consider phased releases
Not the way they are often landed on – as a reaction to circling the drain towards your deadline the days before launch, but as an actual plan at the outset
Money
Again, no surprise that timing’s buddy, money is near the top of the list. Once their backs are against the wall, clients or agency execs will often try to throw money, which often means bodies, at an issue. This approach has a pretty unfavorable curve of diminishing returns. Although, this does come up, I wouldn’t worry about that situation too much, as another common challenge, marked at a combined Consistent or Often ranking of 59%, is Pricing.
What puzzles me is the relatively low 17% of PM Leads that indicated Timing as only Occasionally a challenge and the remarkably high 41% that indicated that Pricing is only Occasionally or Seldom an issue. I’d love to know where they work, who their Account Management partners are or what’s in their secret sauce.
Communication
Of the 3 areas addressed, Internal Communications, Client Communications and 3rd Party Communications. Internal and Client Communications offer the most consistently identified areas of challenge. This too is an area where the project manager can have a substantial impact. Structured communications in a variety of media such as, Official Project Documents (e.g. SOW’s and Contact Reports), Emails, IM’s, Project Plans, Budgets, and PowerPoint and verbally are critical to PM success. This is one of the major areas where PM leaders can train and influence the efficacy of their teams.
The surprise in these areas was that a full 36% of the respondents reported that 3rd Party Communications was only Seldom a challenge area. More power to you. The rising complexity of deliverables and the amount of subcontracting by bigger agencies to smaller, specialist vendors would suggest that this would be a growing issue. Perhaps the experience and quality of individuals who have begun to populate these specialist organizations has added some stability to the ecosystem.
If you’re interested in adding your $.02 on the general Areas of Greatest Challenge for PM's as well as a couple of other related topics, please do so here, (it's just 3 questions) and/or do so in comments to this post.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
It's that time of year - where that is a variable for things like: "holiday", "peace", "joy", "depression", etc. For agency and client staff, it's Use-It-or-Lose-It (UIoLI) time. By UIoLI I'm referring both to:
clients' end-of-the year rush to spend their budgets in order to squeeze out a last bit of performance or to justify next year's budget.
vacation days & corporate policies for roll-over (or not as the case may be).
These two UIoLI events come to a nasty head at the end of year. To a lesser extent, summer time with its holidays and summer Fridays, also has similar issues.
How can a dedicated agency person, leave her client, or for that matter, her team in the lurch during these critical times of year? This conundrum becomes even more complex because people both have long-standing plans, or faced with UIoLI, slap together last-minute trips. To turn up the temperature a few more degrees, on the client-side the same thing is happening, making the end of the year pretty much the sloppiest, most pressured, time of the year.
It only took me a few cycles of being one of the few saps (dedicated employees?) still in the office at 11pm on 12/23 and 7/3 to begin managing my and my team's vacation schedules. One approach I've taken rounding the Q3 corner, when my team wasn't burning their vacation days fast enough was to implement Winter Fridays, where they could at least enjoy some additional 3-day weekends. If someone has two weeks of unused vacation coming onto the 4th quarter, they can pretty much work it out so that they can have 4-day weeks for the rest of the year. Another approach was to encourage them to come in late or leave early. Of course, the "good" ones (you guys know who you are) would still manage to put in over 50+ hours, even in those shortened weeks. At least they got some down-time that they otherwise would not have had.
So, if you're not fortunate enough to live in a state like California, where vacation days are considered earned wages that roll-over from year to year, take the time you deserve. Trust me, you and everyone around you will be better off than if you give them back to the man.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
One of Project Managers' most important roles is to drive continual improvement. In a multi-agenda, multi-stakeholder environment this pretty much means that conflict is inevitable. We're all familiar with the full range of conflict from the healthy kind, which results in the aforementioned improvement to the kind that comes from butting heads with those whose personal agenda and greater good aren't fully balanced.
A key to success for a PM in an agency environment is getting good at working through conflicts in a way that elevates the ecosystem. It's a refined skill, which on the weak side results in you caving on something that needs to be driven and on the other side has too strident an approach, which generates disproportionate resistance. In addition, to a lack of progress, too much of either approach will leave you ping-ponging between them and getting nowhere while building a reputation that you'll have to shake.
I followed an interesting string on the topics of conflict and leadership, which led from:
Tim's Ferris's blog post: The Benefits of Pissing People Off, in which he advises that, "Doing anything remotely interesting will bring criticism. Attempting to do anything large-scale and interesting will bring armies of detractors and saboteurs. This is fine – if you are willing to take the heat."
and finally to
Colin Powell's Leadership Primer on Slidshare, in which, among other things, he advises that, "Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad . . . you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization"
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
If nothing else, being a PM in an agency environment is about achieving balance. I'm just going to skim the surface of this topic in this posting. There are a myriad of competing forces to reconcile along the development continuum in order to find the win/win including:
On the PM side, whether we're talking about employing a service delivery process, using tools & templates or just how one manages communication and relationships, it often comes down to balancing rigor and flexibility.
PM is a robust and mature disciple with a successful history in a number of complex industries. However, an agency environment, is not a construction site, a military base nor a software engineering firm. Many of the PM tactics, tools and tenets that drive success in those environments will choke the life out of an agency. Applied with the right sensibility and professional judgment the methodologies promoted by PMI, Prince2 and the like can absolutely enhance PM and overall agency performance. However, without the appropriate judgment to achieve balance between the rigor supplied by those approaches and the flexibility that must exist in an agency, a clash or a lose/lose is inevitable. Similarly the lack of predictability that comes along with iterative approaches, like Agile is sometimes too nerve-racking for clients or agency stakeholders to bear.
A PM who can effectively depart from a plan to the mutual satisfaction of all is far more valuable than one who can create a 700-line project plan and hold a team hostage with it.
Friday, May 29, 2009
This one, "The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations", has been making the rounds. I've already heard from several colleagues that they've seen it and have even used it as part of internal, agency meetings. If you haven't viewed this, it will make you laugh and cry.
For any clients reading this: Please keep in mind that on the agency-side, we realize these are caricatures. And further, a spoof that could be produced on the many agency-side foibles related to pricing would similarly generate laughter and tears - (e.g. 2 weeks to generate a $10,000 high-level estimate).
However, determining pricing and managing expectations and scope as it relates to pricing are some of the most charged areas of agency/client relationships.
Like so much else in a partnership, clear communication up front and some organizational empathy can help avoid scenes like the ones depicted in this clip. Often issues surrounding pricing have more to do with poor communication and expectation-management than one party trying to pull something over on or unduly squeeze another - although there's certainly a bit of that floating around, especially in this pressured, economic environment.
A few things for all to keep in mind surrounding pricing include:
It is impossible to tell how much time and money it will take to develop even a modestly complex project prior to receiving a proper brief. For a long range/complex project, even once the brief has been given and a broad solution determined, time & money can't necessarily be accurately predicted - and yes coming up with a viable, broad solution also takes time and money.
All parties need to understand that there are both activities and deliverable that need to be funded and that sometimes seemingly simple features and functions are very interconnected to other issues and take a lot of thought to execute effectively and efficiently - Right, like one of those Tiger Woods ads: 75% Preparation / 25% Execution.
There is a wide range of variables that affect pricing of a seemingly simple scope of work, including: quality of briefing, state of assets, state of brand/style guidelines, condition of technical environment, timing pressure, client's internal structure/relationships and 3rd party involvement.
Any agency worth its salt should be able to clearly articulate what is known and what is not known and the basis for their pricing.
When bids come in with gaping discrepancies, more often than not, there are not shared assumptions about the scope of the project.
So, here's to hoping that collectively agencies and clients can bring "getting what you pay for" and "paying for what you get" a bit closer.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
For the purposes of this post, let's consider Project Manager and Producer roles the same thing. There is certainly no clear distinction in our industry - more on this in a future post.
Trolling around the Droga5 website, in the "Stuff" section. I found, "I Want to Marry aProducer"by Ted Royer, Droga5's Executive Creative Director. It's one of the funniest, most endearing (and somewhat creepy) things I've read recently. He discusses various intra-agency marital options: account person, client, even another creative but dismisses them all for a producer. I don't know Ted personally (not entirely sure I'd like to - I certainly wouldn't want to get too close) but he has a body of work that puts him in high-regard in the industry and, in my book, his romantic side adds to his rep.
I always appreciate it when PM's and Producers are recognized for the important roles they play. Unfortunately, recognition of PM contributions isn't the norm. If you haven't read my post Project Management Success - Where's the Evidence?!, which features a clip of Dustin Hoffman, playing Stanley Motts, the self-absorbed producer in Wag the Dog, give it a try. Hoffman delivers a hilarious set of tirades about producers and recognition.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Industry talk is tantalizing. Externally, aided in great part by the plethora of awards, trade pubs and blogs, buzz tends to center around account-wins, creativity, and to a lesser extent, results. Published industry evaluation reports (e.g. AdWeek's Digital Agency Report Card, Forrester's Wave Studies) evaluate similar things, but an agency's ability to execute efficiently is not considered. However, within the industry, peer-to-peer at the bar (like when one PM asks another about a shop she used to work at), an agency's working environment, and its ability to deliver, are main topics.
I've had the opportunity to get out and about to various industry events and conferences recently. Good form prevents me from listing details of what I've overheard. I will say that I was amazed at the consistency of buzz about certain agencies from one event to another and how well it aligned with the trash-talk I've heard inside of various agencies. The lack of understanding by some non-creative agency parties about the challenges of managing clients and creative/tech deliverables was striking as well.
An agency's reputation is important to maintain. Here are just a few areas where buzz comes into play.
Hiring - In the current economic environment, agencies that are hiring have the upper hand. However, the best talent out there, especially those that have a stable gig, will still be applying even more scrutiny when considering whether or not to join a new shop.
Business Referrals - Media companies often influence clients' choices of what creative agencies to work with or, believe me, to stop working with.
Headhunters & Agency Recruiting Personnel- These guys hear it all. They get a regular insider's tour of agencies from the slew of talent they interact with. I've begged one of my long-term headhunter friends to write a book, I, and I'm sure others, would love to read it.
Third-Party & Publisher Preference - Guess which agencies 3rd party vendors like PointRoll, EyeBlaster and EyeWonder are going to partner with and feature in their case studies for their newest, high-functioning units? Publishers are well aware of which agencies deliver on time, and which deliver heartache.
Who's Got Your Back? - When the trash talk about your agency starts flying (usually behind your back), you want/need someone who knows your agency's and your work to chime in and support you.
I don't need to tell you that clients care very muchabout an agency's ability to deliver. Any agency evaluation report card, or feedback given by a client (especially those leading up to or following an account being put into review) consider agency efficiency and reliability very heavily.
PM's main mission is to ensure high-quality output that is delivered on-time, on-budget and on-spec. It's incumbent on you to not only execute on this and to form positive relationships with those who share the ecosystem with you. Obviously, this will help improve your ability to deliver together, but it will also improve your company's and your own reputation and your ability to thrive. I assure you, you will need it someday. As the Oracle of Omaha suggests:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Last week I attended the Leadership Forum run by AdMonsters, the association dedicated to online advertising operations and technology. As is AdMonsters MO for these kinds of things, the Forum was attended by a pretty small and senior group. There was good representation from around the ecosystem, including publishers (e.g CNN, NY & Washington Times, MTV, Gawker, YouTube, Time, Inc.) top tier agencies (e.g. MediaVest, Razorfish, Universal McCann), Networks (e.g. Platform-A, Undertone Networks) as well as some of the usual, appreciated suspects in the 3rd party/sponsor set (e.g. Google/DoubleClick, BurstMedia).
I'm no stranger to the operations world and I was blown away by this Forum.
The deep dive I took re-impressed upon me the importance of operations work - here's the key: These people exist across the entire online marketing and advertising ecosystem (publishers, agencies, networks, 3rd parties). Throughout the day, I kept wishing that C-level executives on all sides could listen to the dialog. Understanding and improving the connective tissue of operations is critical to elevating our entire industry - and key to diminishing the pain in all of our professional lives.
I know it's scary to peer under the hood and see some of the dirty machinery, but it's a necessity. Support of operations staff by bringing them into the conversation early, so they can participate in defining execution and innovation strategies, rather than being relegated to playing defense, will yield benefits for all.
Do yourself and your teams a favor. Connect with the people in your organizations responsible for operations and learn about and support groups like AdMonsters. In addition to the Leadership Forums, AdMonsters runs conferences for junior team members that are invaluable. The next one in the US, Ad Ops 360°, will be held in New York in May. I hope that AdMonsters gets around to an executive conference or forum soon.
Monday, April 6, 2009
"Is there a signed Scope of Work (SOW)?" is one of the most frequently asked and important questions that comes up in an agency.
The competing needs listed below are among the most vexing, catch-22 components of a project's initiation phase:
agencies need to have a signed SOW before starting work and committing resources
the substantial amount of work and information required to develop a proper SOW
clients need to know what they are buying before they sign off
projects need to start quickly lest they go away or will not be finished on time
client-side vetting and delays in getting a full-blown SOW approved
Enter the Letter of Agreement (LOA). This short document can be enough to satisfy both agency execs and clients alike that there is value on its way. The goal of the LOA is to quickly and painlessly establish that the agency, under the direction of the client, will carry out a preliminary set of activities and deliverables and will be compensated for all substantiated fees and costs incurred.
Additional parameters such as upper fee limits, general timing and deliverables can also be included if necessary. However, it's preferable to avoid these details or you will find yourself on the road to developing a bad SOW. Once you get sucked into this, it is easy to slip into project kick-off with no agreement signed.
To help move LOA approval along, it's worth pointing out to the client and that the agreement protects them with phrases like, "directed by the client" and "substantiated fees and costs". Including a statement in the LOA that a subsequent agreement, such as an SOW, will govern the final compensation terms, activities and deliverables, also helps mollify clients and agency execs.
I've been advised that these letters really don't have much legal bite, but that's not the point. The LOA is simply a tool to break through the typical project initiation impasse and prevent projects from starting with nothing in writing and ending without the agency being paid for all their efforts.
Issuing an LOA is the lesser of many evils. However, standing firm by not allowing a project to begin unless there is a signed SOW, when there is a hard deadline that can't move, isn't so great either. Just make sure you get around to issuing a proper SOW.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A discussion in the Advertising Professional group on LinkedIn, posted by Charisse Louis of Charene Graphic Design, stirred up some unpleasant memories. She asked, "Is it OK to use clip art?" Clearly a seasoned professional, Charisse provides her learned opinion on her blog.
My answer to the question is, of course, a multi-part: "It depends."
QUALITYIt's certainly preferable to have a design using clip art that is well-executed and on-strategy over a design that is poorly executed, over-done. To me, it's also preferable to use clip art over a design that is well-done but is off-strategy.
COSTBeware of spending dozens of unplanned hours looking endlessly for a great "free" or cheap image because client is budget-strapped and hasn't been managed. Of course, in the process the agency has spent $x,000 of their time looking for this "free" image.
COST & INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS/MANAGEMENTThis scenario's my favorite:
Art Director uses non-original art or photo or content.
In the rush to complete, AM/PM, unaware, presents it to budget-strapped client.
Client loves it. And double whammy: client's boss, who never reviews work at the same time, happens to see this preso and loves it too.
Agency, which hasn't covered this situation in it's SOW, eats the cost - This is even more exciting (triple whammy?) if the image goes live and then you learn that a licensing fee is owed, a competitor has used the same image or some other rights nightmare emerges.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Stakes are higher now than ever for success - actually, high stakes for our survival are more like it. The level of dysfunction between agencies (and the various parties within), clients and publishers continues to elevate as campaigns gain complexity and economic pressure increases. To focus a bit: collaboration between media and creative teams, whether from the same or different agencies, has got to improve.
Gunther Sonnerfeld, in his March 13, iMedia Connection piece, Why Media and Creative Need to Cross the Aisle, addresses the topic to a degree, but veers into the high-ground of " . . . when innovation is the key to success." As PM's we are painfully aware: great thinking isn't worth the PPT it's printed on if you can't execute.
It never ceases to amaze me how seasoned, high-performing industry veterans, who know, work with and respect each other, will claim that the other's agency/team is nightmare to partner with. All day, everyday very smart people across the industry, including very senior talent, are mired in the collateral damage of poor partnerships.
Along the campaign development continuum, from Initiation to Deployment & Diagnosis, there are key activities and deliverables that require media/creative alignment in order to get projects out on-time, on-budget, on-spec - let alone reaching Sonnerfeld's ideal of innovation or, even high-quality. Below are some key milestones, grouped by project phase. Let's play a little game: See how many you recognize as dys-integration pain-points from your past experience (and likely, your future ones):
See comments re: Measures of Success in Definition Phase section above:How good are you at arguing both pro and con DL study results? Have enough time / budget / data to optimize creative?
There are a myriad of best-practices to be applied to address issues across this broad a spectrum. They all include better, more timely communication between media and creative teams / agencies. As far as serving the client, we only succeed together. In terms of CYA, if your partner blows up, the shrapnel could be headed your way.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
It's a commonly held best-practice to perform a Post-Mortem session following a project - especially one that doesn't go very well. I strongly support this practice and, along with teams I've worked with, have benefited considerably from them over the years.
One common risk with these, shall we say, charged events is that they become finger-pointing exercises (or chair-throwing if things really get out of hand). The typical objective is to generate actionable insights that improve the chance of success going forward. Obviously a certain amount of look-back is critical to the process but this should be done with an eye towards the future. To those ends, I've found the following to be helpful:
PRE-SESSION
Do some info gathering w/a broad range of stakeholders.
Identify areas to Sustain and areas to Improve. Including items to sustain helps keep a positive focus and is, of course, instructive.
Capture the initial observations on a grid (see sample below) that lists project phases down the left and disciplines involved across the top (note the presence of the client) - you can even divide each cell into Sustain / Improve subcells.
Use this info to help formulate your sense of what really happened and where you'd like to take the meeting.
Don't shy away from your instincts and ideas about what happened and definitely have a strong notion of what positive outcomes will be for the meeting.
Preview the grid and your ideas with a small number of key stakeholders and enlist their support around driving towards (not precisely at) your vision of positive outcomes.
SESSION
Choose a person to facilitate the session. Common sense is your guide here: ideally someone who can work dispassionately and has the strength and intelligence to deal with, shall we say, "passion".
Be clear about session objectives, desired outcomes, ground rules and keep a parking lot for issues that are not directly relevant or too deep for the scope of the meeting - you are not going to solve deeply rooted agency issues in this meeting.
Distribute the grid and share your thoughts on its value and how you want it used (fill it in further, just a guide, etc).
Allow for some venting, but keep the session moving.
Many process or change management initiatives jump too quickly to detailed solutions - a shared vision of the way things should be is a prerequisite for changing the way things are.
Recap findings and next steps.
POST SESSION
Share outcomes w/broader team
Publicly call out strong contributors
Implement and educate about any changes to the organizations processes, tools and documentation (or FINALLY commit to creating them)
Refer to the session as related issues (or the same damn ones) come up on other projects
KILL THE POST-MORTEM
Improvement is cyclical and iterative. The best way to avoid the tragedies that drive the need to conduct painful post-mortems, is to start out correctly in the first place (see: post on Project Initiation). Good Pre-Natal activities and health are the best way to avoid the slaughter that necessitates the Post-Mortem.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
I have developed and deployed numerous tools, techniques and templates that assist in completing high-quality projects on-time, on-budget and on-spec. However, the best aides in the world are of little use, without a framework or a way of thinking that guides their use.
The central idea of the framework that I advocate is that up-stream investments pay down-stream dividends. If you don't start right, it's difficult to finish that way. Simple idea, yes, but in the common rush to complete and succeed in an agency, groups of highly intelligent professionals (i.e. the team) frequently devolve into a 3-ring circus. "Ready, Fire, Aim" is a prevalent and unfortunate reality of day-to-day agency life.Up-stream activities, such as information gathering, synthesis and dissemination are the preventive medicine that keeps agencies healthy.
COURSE-SETTING to avoid COURSE-CORRECTING!
Now, one doesn't want to get carried away. This orientation should not be misconstrued as a recommendation that the end-state should, or even can be, known at the outset of a complex engagement. In fact, the very value that project managers bring to the table - thoughtfulness about process, planning and up-stream focus, can choke the life out of the place if applied rigidly. There is value to be lifted and applied from both waterfall (stringent) and agile (flexible) methodologies.
Perhaps a bit overstated in terms of the uselessness placed on plans, this quote frames the issue well:
In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ike realized that the very act of planning and the frame of mind that it creates, lays the groundwork for intelligently dealing with challenges.
Do yourself and your teams a favor and apply effort up front. The finest minds in an agency are a valuable resource to be used wisely. Time spent in the early phases of a project is a far more effective than time spent scrambling to find and apply resources hours before a deadline.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Not being able to find the soft copy (the latest version!) of a printed document is pretty high on the list of things at an agency that drive me nuts.
INSERT FILENAME & PATH!
To combat the effects of short, mid and long-term memory loss - effectively saving myself from myself, I have become reliant on inserting a field that dynamically generates the filename and path in the footer of all of my Microsoft Office documents. Combined with a proper file-naming convention, a "bread-crumb" path to the exact server or local hard-drive location of a document printed on the bottom of your document is invaluable. As far as I know, this doesn't work in PowerPoint, but as a bonus, it works like a charm in Microsoft Project.
If you've ever had the joy of updating a document from an older version, while a deadline or your boss is looming, you will agree that taking the time to include this in your and your team's SOP is worth the effort. The job you save may be your own.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Successfully managing client relationships, especially in these pressured times, takes the combined efforts of skilled interactive agency professionals. More PM's have lost more hair (or at least their coloring to gray) hearing phrases like, "XYZ Account person told the client that, we could do "it" and still meet the schedule. S/He made no mention of a potential fee increases."
I have toiled, presented, implored, cajoled, collaborated and otherwise tried to influence agency Account people not to play the game of, "Client says, 'jump', we say, 'how high'?" or to look at the advice/insult another way, to stop being "yes-(wo)men" (I can assure any offended Account people that this is a mild characterization compared to those bandied about an agency - especially in the wee hours of the morning.) Among the many benefits of removing the instant, "yes" are that it would take some pressure off of the PM's, who invariable are vilified when they assess the situation and have to say, "no".
The aim is to migrate towards more of aconsultative answer of, "maybe". Ideally, towards an Account Management-response along the lines of, "Client, I understand the request, let me talk to superwoman-PM back at the office, see how we can address this. I will get back to you ASAP with a recommendation and let you know if there are any impacts to the project's scope, timing or pricing." This is not a bait and switch. It actually gives the agency some time to thoughtfully address the request and be fairly compensated if there is a legitimate change in scope.
When discussing this issue with a wise agency president, he suggested that one way to facilitate the migration of yes-(wo)men on the Account team to the maybe column was to also move the PM's to the maybe column. He posited that one reason PM's are often met with resistance or, worse avoidance, is that in their zeal to defend, PM's can become very problem-oriented vs being solution-oriented - effectively turning themselves into "no-(wo)men". If PM's reflexive response was also, "maybe, let's see what we can come up with", the partnership would benefit, friction diminished, and the ecosystem would be better aligned for success.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
This is a send up to entry-level Project Managers. At 0 - 1 year of experience, vetted for the core PM skills: intelligence, work ethic and common sense, Associate/Assistant Project Managers are an invaluable part of any PM team.
There are more moving pieces, parts, assets, paperwork and points of contact to be managed than ever before in building Web sites or developing online advertising campaigns today.
An APM can elevate the performance of an entire PM team. Beyond the direct benefits of the myriad of listing, vetting, and distributing of tasks that APM's take on, they enable other members of the PM team to focus on higher-level activities and deliverables. Further, their presence gives more senior members of the team an opportunity to mentor and manage to the benefit of all.
I love having these smart, motivated, young guns around. Their on-boarding helps validate the efficacy of tools and methodologies, and contributes to process and tool evolution. These new-entrants also bring a native's view of new technologies and trends and inject much-needed energy into the "old school" of some agencies. Mike Carlton, of Carlton Associates Inc, is particularly compelling on this topic and related ones in his piece, Who's Going to Do the Work?
The best APM's invariably gain mastery of the support skills in a few months (right, if they can't then their probably not cut out for PM'ing?) and begin taking on higher-level tasks themselves. This doesn't hurt the agency bottom line and definitely raises the bar for everyone. Further, there's nothing like someone w/half the experience and salary, nipping at heels to keep a team on their toes - especially those prone to sluggishness (you know who I'm talking about, right?).
From an overall agency perspective, a junior PM role, with exposure to so many aspects of an advertising agency, is the perfect farm league for feeding all the disciplines in an agency. One could go so far as to say that all entry-level employees would do well with a rotation in PM.
If you've got 'em make the most of it. If not, you would do well to add an entry level PM if you are able. The job/agency you save, could be your own!
Monday, January 19, 2009
The premise here is simple: aligning agencies and clients around results, rather than squabbling about costs and time, which further drives the commoditization of agency services, is a win/win situation. Ad agencies are in a fight for survival. The opportunity for the brave and innovative to flourish has never been greater than right now. For those who don't/can't start thinking differently, look out for the tar pits.
This post takes up on some of themes introduced in the December 5th post, Achieving Balance in an Agency, where the value of certain agency activities and deliverables (e.g. a breakthrough idea) was examined.
Value-based pricing is not a new idea, but it's a good one that has been in place for a long time in the consulting and pharmaceutical manufacturing arenas among others. Many agencies and clients are stuck in the familiar worlds of commission-based or hours/labor-based compensation. At their worst, these approaches encourage reach-oriented (i.e. tonnage) marketing programs, support running up the clock to justify billable hours and perhaps worst, crush innovation and performance.
The barriers and risks to adopting this approach are not insignificant and include:
Agency and client comfort/momentum in doing things the way they've always been done.
Having enough influence on an overall program so that the value you envision and agree upon with a client can actually be created.
Clearly defining success and therefore value (raise your hand if you've been part of a view-through debate)
Determining pricing so that nobody loses their shirt and the agency doesn't miss out on the upside.
So, what does this have to do with Project Management? In a study that Ignition and VeraSage conducted on behalf of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertiser's (ANA), the 2, top-rated agency value-drivers according to marketers were:
Working in a collaborative way with the client by creating an environment of mutual respect.
Ensuring that agency functions are integrated and agency divisions
collaborate on behalf of the client
Along with the fact that Project Managers are often at the heart of conversations around pricing, these two tidbits should help give you voice on important discussions about evolving your agency's relationship with its clients. On the business development front, RFP's almost always allow responses for alternative means of compensation beyond the cost+ calculations they require. Putting a value-based option in front of a prospect isn't likely to get taken up at the outset, but at least it will show that your agency has some life.
Monday, December 22, 2008
You may have heard the old saying, "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan". Ironic and appropriate that the source of this piece of wisdom is unknown.
The best Project Managers are the unsung heroes of their agencies. I'm not knocking creatives or account management, but you know as well as I who gets the awards and the accolades, and if something is late or wrong, where the attention goes.
Precious few within an agency truly understand Project Management's value. Without PM's on-time/on-budget/on-spec/high-quality is a long-shot. One of my favorite illustrations of this point is from the film, Wag the Dog. Dustin Hoffman, playing Stanley Motts, the self-absorbed producer (feature film's version of a Project Manager) is hilarious. Check out this clip from Wag the Dog on YouTube (starts about 55 seconds in)
Motts again on the same topic:ANGLE, INT THE LIMO. BREAN AND MOTTS IN THE BACKSEAT.
I'm not in love with the plumber association. As long as we don't get known for "PM's crack", I suppose I can live with it.
Issue detection and avoidance, arguably Project Managers' greatest contributions, don't leave much physical evidence. Right, Stanely? "You do your job right, nobody should notice." I'm not suggesting Project Managers run around the agency shouting, "Look at me.". However, it's in your and your teams' best interests to "market" yourselves internally and externally whenever possible. One thing I have my team leaders do is submit a Project Management status report. This is generally a good business practice that gives quick reference for accomplishments and aides in the above mentioned risk detection/avoidance. I also ask my leads to send accolades they and their staff receive, which I pass up the food chain whenever I get the chance.
This was one recent note of appreciation from a particularly tuned-in Group Account Director:
"Thank you both for all of your time and attention on the XYZ scope. We know it always takes more back-and-forth than anyone expects but please know that none of your tireless efforts are lost on us." bless her heart.
This from an Executive Creative Director, while both his feet were firmly on the ground:
"I just wanted to drop you both a note to let you know how impressed I am with XXXX. She has performed exceptionally well on a very complex project, YYYYY. She has had to coordinate and schedule 3 separate offices and has done it with aplomb. Everyone has been really impressed with her performance and friendly, yet, professional demeanor. Thanks for putting her on this project, she's been a real asset to the team."
Project Management doesn't always get the credit it deserves, but it deserves far more credit than it gets. Keep it up. Try to get some attention. You deserve it!
Monday, December 15, 2008
I was surfing the ad agency advocate sites and came across the Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF), which initially drew my ire. When I came across a section of well-articulated advice from industry veteran, Bruce Kelley, Vice Chairman, The Martin Agency, my temperature came down a few notches.
Guess what position isn't even mentioned among those detailed by the AEF on their Careers in Advertising page. Not surprisingly, Project Management doesn't make the list among: Account Management, Account Planning, Creative, Media, Market Research -not even a mention of Project Management in their general bucket of Interactive Marketing. Not that I expected much from an organization with such traditional roots. However, one might expect more from a board that includes the forward-thinking, power executive, Shelly Lazarus, Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy and Barry Wacksman, EVP & Chief Growth Officer R/GA, a stand-up guy who is as progressive as they come.
I know that my ire about Project Management being a missing link is a variation on the theme introduced in my December 8 post on Account Management / Project Management partnership. But their crime of omission bears repeating - especially from an organization that misses so big as it seeks to enrich understanding, which is expressed in their Mission Statement: ". . .the advertising industry's provider and distributor of educational content to enrich the understanding of advertising and its role in culture, society and the economy."
I'm not feeling too terribly negative today, so I offer this very strong contribution from the AEF site as well: Bruce Kelley, Vice Chairman, The Martin Agency is arguably part of the old guard agency establishment. However, the guy has a lot of experience and you'd be a fool not to at least listen. Although his advice is offered for Account Managers (I'll forgive his omission in this context), the section he authored on the AEF Web site, Memos for Account Management, is fine reading, especially for Project Managers. If this kind of thinking permeated the entire marketing ecosystem of agencies, publishers and third parties, the world would be a more orderly place - right, that's what we project managers are after? Among the topics he covers are: How to Push Back, How to be Proactive, Handling Crisis and How to Think Defensively.
One would think that just having these topics up for discussion among colleagues in an agency has got to foster a productive working environment that is marked by better collaboration internally and with clients. Although, you never know - the distance between memos, theory and on the ground experience can be vast. Would love to hear from any of you Martin alum or clients.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Here's a refreshing topic from Andreas Roell and Sarah Kotlova of Geary Interactive in the iMEDIA Connection newsletter: 6 reasons agencies want to strangle clients. Despite the reference to violence in the title (c'mon, we've all been there), their piece is about how to collaborate better with clients. They provide insights on how to work through issues that are endemic to a B2B service industry and ultimately form positive relationships with clients. Clearly Roell and Kotlova have been around the block a few times and offer some sage advice.
Their suggestions make reasonable sense. Unfortunately, the importance of logic and reason diminish in the relationship-success equation as issues heat up. In my experience, it is extremely difficult to address issues during or following flare-ups.
As a project management lead, I try to instill a preventive medicine approach with my teams. I like to conduct audits and assessments as part of the upstream Initiation and Definition phases of any project. Sessions in these phases usually cover expected and important topics like:
defining objectives and strategies,
uncovering insights about the target and competitors
roles and use of relevant technologies
Importantly, we add an operational component, that seeks to establish the best working relationship between agency, clients and 3rd parties BEFORE and to AVOID strangling or being strangled. We define roles and responsibilities, establish review/approval cycle guidelines, and determine communication formats, processes and document-use (e.g. contact reports, status reports, change orders). Clients are very receptive to this early in a relationship or project and it pays dividends immediately.
Getting client engagements in a healthy place is critical when you're in the service business. Instilling this approach within an agency is important. Topics like this are perfect for running internal sessions with your teams. A simple exercise of breaking into small groups and throwing out a few, " What should you do if . . . " kind of scenarios and regrouping to share thoughts, generates lively interactions that help you guide the culture and personality of your agency - perhaps you'll find out that poison is better than strangling ; )
Monday, December 8, 2008
The relationship between the Account Management and Project Management teams is one that needs constant attention and definition. Like any partnership engaged in complex endeavors, there are complementary areas, supplementary areas and grey areas.
I've seen all points on the map from clear distinctions to planned reinforcement that form the foundation of strong partnerships. These models benefit both clients and agencies. Some agencies have Account Directors only and everyone else is a project manager. Some relegate the ugly, "just-get-the-job-done" details to the project managers and the glory to the Account team (and Creatives). Many agencies either don't understand the project management role or don't have it at all.
I hate (well not really) to put things in a competitive light, but the Account Managers do have an edge in that the role has always existed in the agency world and they benefit from external recognition. Guess which discipline is missing from the Agency Discipline's section on the AAAA's Web site. Project managers have a pretty uphill battle to define and claim their position in agencies. This funny video from Monster , which made the rounds a while ago, almost touches on the role when it mentions producers toward the end. Sadly, project management remains off the radar - even from a company like Monster that earns its keep selling the role to agencies.
This post by Lindsay Cotter on the Hill Holiday blog, HHblog: Rethinking Marketing, is inspiring in that she opines about the value of Account Management in, The Best Job in Advertising? . However, worse than no mention, is when your thunder is stolen. She concludes, with pleasure when describing the AAAA's 2008 Account Management Conference:
"Finally, we did not forget to tell our co-workers that the conference stressed the importance of account managers to an agency, as one peer put it, account management folks 'make sure the trains run on time.'"
Friday, December 5, 2008
An interesting bit of insight about the inherent contradiction of running a business that relies in great part on intangibles like creativity, from Phil Johnson, who blogs on AdAge.com in the Small Agency Diary section. For example, from: Balancing the Billable Day vs. the Creative Way
"A strange truth about the agency business is that it's very difficult to define productivity. An hour on Twitter may lead to a breakthrough idea. Half a day storyboarding a concept may yield nothing useful. . . . I've concluded that the art of running an agency is learning how to inhabit both worlds at the same time."
No mention of how PM's who might help achieve the necessary balance, but nice to see critical issues like this being discussed.
Related to achieving balance in an agency:
What adds more value ?
The strategically sound, beautifully designed campaign or The PM who does a double check to find and fix destination URL's that were pointing to the wrong pages.
The incredibly insightful campaign analysis program developed by a team of geniuses or The PM who notices that the whole application is being run on a PC that is doubling as a plant stand next to a geek's desk and gets the thing ported to a proper server that is backed-up regularly.
Your Guide
Jeff Thaler - Agency and Client-side Project Management, Service Delivery Process and Operations consultant. I have more than 15 years of experience leading Project Management departments and digital marketing groups within interactive and integrated agencies, as well as within client organizations. I've experienced enough triumphs and tragedies over the years, so that even an abysmal "mistake : wisdom" ratio makes this content worth considering.
The Obvious:
Neither the posts, nor the comments to them, reflect the policies, values or opinions of any of my former or current employers or my/their business associates.
E-Mail me | {
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Chopin - Étude Op. 10 No. 12 in C minor "Revolutionary"Étude Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor known as The Revolutionary Étude, is a solo piano work by Frédéric Chopin written circa 1831. It is the 12th of his first set of etudes - "Douze Grandes Etudes" dedicated to "son ami Franz Liszt" (his friend Franz Liszt). The two sets of Études, Opus 10 and 25, are known collectively as the Chopin Études, although Chopin also contributed three other lesser known études (the Trois Nouvelles Études). History The étude appeared around the same time as the November Uprising in 1831. Chopin was unable to have a strong participating role because of his poor health, and allegedly he poured his emotions on the matter into many pieces that he composed at that time - the Revolutionary Étude standing out as the most notable example. Upon conclusion of Poland's failed revolution against Russia, he cried "All this has caused me much pain. Who could have foreseen it!" Unlike études of prior periods (works designed to emphasize and develop particular aspects of musical technique, cf the much feared but essential School of Velocity, or the Five Finger Exercises by Hanon) the romantic études of composers such as Chopin and Liszt are fully developed musical concert pieces, but still continue to represent a goal of developing stronger technique Technique In the case of The Revolutionary Étude, the technique required in the opening bars is playing an extremely fast, long and loud descending harmonic minor scale mainly in the left hand. The length and the ...
Chopin - Étude Op. 10, No. 1 in C major "Waterfall"Étude Op. 10, No.1 in C major, composed by Frédéric Chopin, is a technical study in reach and arpeggios for the piano. It also focuses on stretching the fingers. Sometimes it is known as the "Waterfall" étude. It was composed in 1829, and first published in 1833, in France, Germany, and England. In a prefatory note to the 1916 Schirmer edition the American music critic James Huneker (18571921) compared the "hypnotic charm" that these "dizzy acclivities and descents exercise for eye as well as ear" to the frightening staircases in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's prints of the Carceri d'invenzione. Structure The work is executed at an Allegro tempo. The time-signature Common time is according to the first French, English, and German editions. Chopin's own manuscript reads Cut time. The right hand gauntlet consists entirely of broad arpeggios in semiquavers (sixteenth notes) on modulating scales. The left hand plays the deep melody in slow, droning octaves. The main difficulty of this piece is playing the etude accurately at its suggested tempo (quarter note equals 176). Given the lack of rests, the challenge lies in playing the entire etude accurately and uninterrupted, which requires extremely swift movement of the right hand and quick changes in octaves for the left hand.
Bartók's Three Etudes for Piano, Op. 18 - Visual ScoreJohn Casten plays Béla Bartók's Three Etudes for piano. No. 1 is a study in disjunct chromaticism; tiring to the hand. No. 2 involves extended arpeggios and a melody in three octaves. No. 3 has rapid figurations and capriciously placed chords. Bartók admitted, "I cannot play the Three Etudes. I haven't played them - ever or anywhere - since 1918."
Fernando Sor: Etude Op 6 No 11Fernando Sor: Etude Op 6 No 11. Study No. 17. Played by me, Samantha Muir. Photos by Josie Elias. Almond blossom time is one of my favourite times of the year and this is one of my favourite Sor pieces. Some of the photos were taken just yesterday! Hope you enjoy! This track is now available to download on iTunes itunes.apple.com for more info about me go to: www.samanthamuir.com www.josieelias.com | {
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Arab alliance close to capturing Hodeidah airport: Yemen military
Shares
Quoting residents and sources in coalition forces, Reuters news agency said the alliance, led in the Hodeidah assault by the United Arab Emirates, is attempting to capture the airport in the well-defended city and push the Houthis out of their sole Red Sea port, in the biggest battle of the war.
However, the Houthi movement put up stiff resistance today to keep the Saudi-led coalition from taking full control of the airport. | {
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Fordirelifesake Return With New Lineup
Fordirelifesake have apparently survived the departure of two members, as they are now back in action. Guitarist and founding member Brian Southall left the band (to join Boys Night Out) last August, followed by bassist Ryan Podlubny (who now plays guitar for The Fullblast), and the situation didn't look too promising for the group. However, former bassist Dave Wisbiski has rejoined the group, in addition to guitarist Terry Peake, and the band is currently working on new material. Moreover, they're gearing up for some local shows in May, with plans to tour more extensively later this year. In related news, a twelve-song collection of hard to find and out of print Fordirelifesake tracks, entitled "A Daydream Disaster," will be released by Thorp Records on July 26th. | {
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