ZANU PF welcomed the report of SADC’s election observer mission released on Monday, and immediately called on Western countries to accept President Robert Mugabe’s landslide victory.The Southern African Community (SADC) observer mission, which presented the summary of its findings in Harare, endorsed Mugabe's victory, stating that "there were so many elements that, when put together, elevated the election to a credible status".
“SADC had not pronounced itself on the all too important question of the credibility of the election. But today, SADC has spoken clearly and loudly that indeed the elections were credible,” Zanu PF politburo member Professor Jonathan Moyo said in Harare.“The whole world now waits to see what the Anglo-Saxons are going to do, whether they themselves are going to be credible. Their credibility will be judged by their standing by their word, they said they would be guided by SADC.”
Western countries, led by the United States and Britain, have raised concerns with the conduct of the elections and indicated they would wait for the African Union and SADC’s final reports before passing judgement.While offering criticism for the lack of access to the public media by Zanu PF’s rivals and delays in releasing the roll of voters, SADC said it was difficult to judge whether the elections had been “fair”.
The observer mission also said sanctions on Zimbabwe had been a factor in the elections, along with so called pirate radio stations broadcasting into Zimbabwe from Europe and the United States.Moyo said the key question in the July 30 elections was whether Zimbabwe could hold a peaceful election, following the violence that marred the presidential election run-off in 2008 – from which emerged a power sharing government between Mugabe and his main opposition rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.
“We must bear in mind that these elections were judged and evaluated against the backdrop of 2008 elections, with particular reference to their peacefulness. The issue of having peaceful elections was paramount, and it is not surprising therefore that fairness has been replaced with peacefulness, and we have passed this score with indoor Tracking.
“On the question of fairness, there can be no right-thinking person who imagines or expects elections in Zimbabwe to be fair, or fairness to be an important category, tool or yardstick for judging elections when the country has been under the grip of illegal sanctions for the last 12 years, and whose main purpose has been to replace elections as a method of changing government in Zimbabwe.”
Moyo said the sanctions had been used by Western countries to “destroy the economy, ‘make it scream’ – in their words – in order to turn the people against Zanu PF outside the electoral process”.
“The import of the sanctions was to manufacture suffering, attribute it to Zanu PF and expect a change of government through a public revolt, and not through elections. The economic sanctions were not designed to get people to vote Zanu PF out through elections, but to get them out on the streets. When you do that, you bastardise the electoral process, it becomes impossible to have fair elections. Fairness becomes a contradiction in terms, an irrelevant yardstick.”
Elections in Zimbabwe, he said, “will never be fair if sanctions remain in place”.
He explained: “We are very heartened to note that SADC, in their report, have called the unconditional and full removal of sanctions. They have said it would be foolhardy for any political party in Zimbabwe to expect to win elections when that party has called for sanctions or is the intended beneficiary of those sanctions.
“It was, therefore, a demonstration of astute diplomacy and commitment to principle by SADC to replace the irrelevant term of fairness with peacefulness. The question of peacefulness was more relevant to Zimbabwe than the question of fairness.
“There was no fairness before, during and after the elections. The fairness question is intertwined with sanctions, and it’s not in our hands but those of our erstwhile colonisers and their allies who have not left us alone. It’s a question which they should now deal with honestly in order to normalise relations and create conditions for fair elections in future.”
On Thursday, in anticipation of Labor Day weekend, thousands of workers at 1,000 fast food restaurants in 60 cities walked out on strike to protest their low wages, erratic schedules, lack of job security, miserable working conditions, and lack of benefits. The movement began last November in one city – New York. The idea has since spread. The protest is the largest mass action of fast food employees in history. If they reflect the nation’s McWorkforce, many of them were Black and Latino. Their average age will be roughly 28. Many have children to house, clothes and feed, which is impossible on the minimum wages they are paid. They are demanding a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to unionize without employer resistance or retaliation.
The Service Employees International Union, which has provided support for the fast food workers’ campaign, thinks America may be ready for an upsurge of activism not only among low-wage workers but also among middle-class employees who are sinking quickly, many with the additional burden of underwater homes.
What radicals once called the “objective conditions” seem ripe for such a mass protest movement. In a new report, A Decade of Flat Wages, economists Lawrence Mishel and Heidi Shierholz observe that "the vast majority of U.S. workers -- including white-collar and blue-collar workers and those with and without a college degree -- have endured more than a decade of wage stagnation."
Union activists know that American workers are filled with discontent. But sustained protest requires not only that people think that things should be different but also that they can be different. And that requires hope. If the fast food workers’ campaign captures the public’s imagination – and more importantly, wins some stepping-stone improvements at work -- it could help restore that missing ingredient, and perhaps contribute to launching a new wave of workplace activism.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
Showing posts with label boarding a bus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boarding a bus. Show all posts
Monday, September 2, 2013
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Broad changes to the internet now the story
Edward Snowden is safe from American ''justice'' for the moment, and he will certainly go down as the most effective whistle-blower in history.His revelations are going to cause a wholesale restructuring of the world's most important communications system, the internet. And that, rather than his whereabouts and fate, is now the real story.
On August 8, Lavabit, a United States-based email service provider that promised to keep its clients' communications private, closed down.The US National Security Agency approached it about six weeks ago demanding the same access to its customers' emails it has already extorted from big American internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Microsoft.
The company's owner, Ladar Levison, is under an NSA gag order, but he wrote to his clients: ''I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people, or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit."I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.''
The mass surveillance being carried out by the NSA not only gives the US Government access to everything Americans say to one another.It also destroys everybody else's privacy, because the standard internet routing protocol sends messages not by the shortest route, but by whichever route is fastest and least congested. That means, rtls, through the United States, and therefore straight into the hands of the NSA.
Snowden's revelations so far have told us about two major NSA surveillance programmes, both probably illegal even under American law. The first collects the cellphone records of more than 200 million Americans.
If one of those thousands of people ever spoke to somebody abroad with a Muslim name (or somebody who works for Siemens, or Samsung, or some other industrial competitor of the United States), they may take an interest in you.If you're an American who has never had direct phone contact with anybody abroad, they may then apply to access the content of your calls and emails under the Prism programme.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews such applications, has refused precisely 10 of them since 2001.Besides, the content of most Americans' messages can probably be examined without recourse to the judges under one of the blanket authorisations issued by the FISC.And if you're not American, or an American resident who once spoke to somebody abroad by phone, then you're in a free-fire zone.
If you are American, you probably don't care about that, because you are mesmerised by the guff about a huge terrorist threat the security barons use to justify the endless expansion of their empire (now almost a million employees).A recent opinion poll by the Pew Research Centre found 62% of Americans think ''fighting terrorism'' is more important than worrying about personal privacy.
But if you belong to the great majority of internet users who are not American, are not in a perpetual sweaty panic about ''terrorism'', and have no protection whatever under American law from the NSA's spying, then you will want ways to avoid it. And the losers? The big US internet providers, who will find that few of their customers want to store their data in American ''cloud'' services.
''If businesses or governments think they might be spied on,'' said Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, ''they will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it will be [American] cloud providers who ultimately miss out.''As Jennifer Granick, director of Indoor Positioning System at the Stanford Law School's Centre for Internet and Society, put it recently: ''America invented the internet, and our internet companies are dominant around the world.
Television identity and President of DockDogs Australia, 'Farmer Dave' Graham, will be bringing his 12m pool up from Sydney to host the first dock diving nationals competition in Australia since the 2009 World Dog Games.
The sport was introduced to Australia from the US during the games in Sydney.Angie Burke, 56, owner of All Paws Paradise in Pimpama, started the first training area in Queensland after building a jetty over her dam so Mudgeeraba resident Karen Moore could train her dog, Zoya, for the world games.The women now organise 'Dash and Splash' Saturdays and 'social splash Sundays' for anyone who wants to try dock diving.Dock diving is the fastest growing dog sport in the world with clubs forming around the country.
"It is as simple as it sounds, with dogs running along a dock and jumping into a pool of water and having an absolute blast," Ms Burke said."Any dog can do it as long as they like water and they can swim and learn to retrieve a toy.
"It's a sport any dogs can do - big dogs, small dogs - it doesn't matter what breed. It's a family sport so everybody's welcome to come and join in and even the kids can handle their dogs.''Depending on their size and experience, some of the bigger dogs can jump from 2m to 9m from the dock, which is about 1m from the water.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
On August 8, Lavabit, a United States-based email service provider that promised to keep its clients' communications private, closed down.The US National Security Agency approached it about six weeks ago demanding the same access to its customers' emails it has already extorted from big American internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Microsoft.
The company's owner, Ladar Levison, is under an NSA gag order, but he wrote to his clients: ''I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people, or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit."I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.''
The mass surveillance being carried out by the NSA not only gives the US Government access to everything Americans say to one another.It also destroys everybody else's privacy, because the standard internet routing protocol sends messages not by the shortest route, but by whichever route is fastest and least congested. That means, rtls, through the United States, and therefore straight into the hands of the NSA.
Snowden's revelations so far have told us about two major NSA surveillance programmes, both probably illegal even under American law. The first collects the cellphone records of more than 200 million Americans.
If one of those thousands of people ever spoke to somebody abroad with a Muslim name (or somebody who works for Siemens, or Samsung, or some other industrial competitor of the United States), they may take an interest in you.If you're an American who has never had direct phone contact with anybody abroad, they may then apply to access the content of your calls and emails under the Prism programme.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews such applications, has refused precisely 10 of them since 2001.Besides, the content of most Americans' messages can probably be examined without recourse to the judges under one of the blanket authorisations issued by the FISC.And if you're not American, or an American resident who once spoke to somebody abroad by phone, then you're in a free-fire zone.
If you are American, you probably don't care about that, because you are mesmerised by the guff about a huge terrorist threat the security barons use to justify the endless expansion of their empire (now almost a million employees).A recent opinion poll by the Pew Research Centre found 62% of Americans think ''fighting terrorism'' is more important than worrying about personal privacy.
But if you belong to the great majority of internet users who are not American, are not in a perpetual sweaty panic about ''terrorism'', and have no protection whatever under American law from the NSA's spying, then you will want ways to avoid it. And the losers? The big US internet providers, who will find that few of their customers want to store their data in American ''cloud'' services.
''If businesses or governments think they might be spied on,'' said Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, ''they will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it will be [American] cloud providers who ultimately miss out.''As Jennifer Granick, director of Indoor Positioning System at the Stanford Law School's Centre for Internet and Society, put it recently: ''America invented the internet, and our internet companies are dominant around the world.
Television identity and President of DockDogs Australia, 'Farmer Dave' Graham, will be bringing his 12m pool up from Sydney to host the first dock diving nationals competition in Australia since the 2009 World Dog Games.
The sport was introduced to Australia from the US during the games in Sydney.Angie Burke, 56, owner of All Paws Paradise in Pimpama, started the first training area in Queensland after building a jetty over her dam so Mudgeeraba resident Karen Moore could train her dog, Zoya, for the world games.The women now organise 'Dash and Splash' Saturdays and 'social splash Sundays' for anyone who wants to try dock diving.Dock diving is the fastest growing dog sport in the world with clubs forming around the country.
"It is as simple as it sounds, with dogs running along a dock and jumping into a pool of water and having an absolute blast," Ms Burke said."Any dog can do it as long as they like water and they can swim and learn to retrieve a toy.
"It's a sport any dogs can do - big dogs, small dogs - it doesn't matter what breed. It's a family sport so everybody's welcome to come and join in and even the kids can handle their dogs.''Depending on their size and experience, some of the bigger dogs can jump from 2m to 9m from the dock, which is about 1m from the water.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The selfie lets us express ourselves
In these hyper-connected, over-shared times dwell two kinds of people: those preoccupied with taking and uploading photos of themselves and those who have never heard of the selfie.
The raunchy, goofy, poignant, sexy or drunken self-portrait has been a common sight since phone camera met social media. Now, nearly a decade since the arm-extended or in-the-mirror photos became a mainstay of MySpace, selfies are a pastime across generations and cultures.
Justin Bieber puts up plenty of shirtless pics and Rihanna poses for sultry snaps, but a beaming Hillary Clinton recently took a turn with daughter Chelsea, who tweeted their happy first attempt with the hashtag #ProudDaughter.
Two other famous daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, selfied at dad's second inauguration, pulling faces in front of a smart phone. And Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide earned a spot in the Selfie Hall of Fame with a striking, otherworldly shot, arms extended as reflected in his helmet outside the International Space Station last year.
"It just comes so naturally after a point," said Elizabeth Zamora, a 24-year-old marketing account coordinator in Dallas who has taken hundreds of selfies since she got her first iPhone two years ago, with the front-facing camera that has become the selfie gold standard.
"You just take it and you don't even realize it, and then you're sharing it with all your friends," she said. "I try not to go crazy."If we're not taking them, we're certainly looking, regardless of whether we know what they're called. We're lurking on the selfies of our teens, enjoying the high jinx of co-workers and friends, and mooning over celebrities, who have fast learned the marketing value — and scandalous dangers — of capturing their more intimate, unpolished selves.
The practice of freezing and sharing our thinnest slices of life has become so popular that the granddaddy of dictionaries, the Oxford, is monitoring the term selfie as a possible addition. Time magazine included the selfie in its Top 10 buzzwords of 2012 (at No. 9) and New York magazine's The Cut blog declared in April: "Ugly Is the New Pretty: How Unattractive Selfies Took Over the Internet."
On Instagram alone, there's #selfiesunday, along with related tags where millions of selfies land daily. More than 23 million photos have been uploaded to the app with the tag #selfie and about 70 million photos clog Instagram's #me.
What are we to make of all this navel-gazing (sometimes literally)? Are selfies, by definition, culturally dangerous? Offensive? An indicator of moral decline?Beverly Hills, Calif., psychiatrist Carole Lieberman sees narcissism with a capital N. "The rise of the selfie is a perfect metaphor for our increasingly narcissistic culture. We're desperately crying out: Look at me!"
But Pamela Rutledge doesn't see it that way. The director of the nonprofit Media Psychology Research Center, which explores how humans interact with technology, sees the selfie as democratizing the once-snooty practice of self-portraiture, a tradition that long predates Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
She sees some key differences between selfies and self-portraits of yore. Unlike painted portraiture, selfies are easily deletable. And "bad or funny is good in a way that wasn't the case when people had to pay for film to be developed," or for a professional painter, she said.
"Albrecht Durer's self-portraiture is these incredible self-reflections and explorations of technique, and then when Rihanna snaps her picture it's just self-aggrandizement, or it's promotion, so you have a fairly interesting double standard based upon who's taking the self-portrait," said Rutledge, in Boston.
In selfies, we can be famous, and in control of our own images and story lines. As for the young, the more authority figures — parents, teachers — dislike them and "declare them a sign of a self-obsessed, narcissistic generation, the more desirable they become," she said.
The word selfie in itself carries multiple connotations, Rutledge observes. "The 'ie' at the end makes selfie a diminutive, implying some affection and familiarity." From a semantic's perspective, the selfie is a "little self" — a small, friendly bit of the Hands free access, she said.There's a sense of immediacy and temporariness. "Granted, little is really temporary on the internet, but it is more that by definition. Transient, soon to be upstaged by the next one," Rutledge said.
Self-portraits tagged as 'selfie' first surfaced on Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and on MySpace in 2004, Rutledge said. The earliest reference in UrbanDictionary was to "selfy" in 2005.In historical terms, elites in ancient Egypt were fond of self-portraits, Rutledge said. And then there was the mirror, invented in the 15th century and allowing artists like the prolific Durer in Germany to have at it in more meaningful detail.
While the self-involved Narcissus stared at his reflection in a pond in Greek mythology, it was the mirror that "really was the first piece of technology where an artist could see his own image long enough to paint it, other than just painting self-impressions," Rutledge said.
Fast forward to the 1860s and the advent of cameras, launching a new round of selfies, though they took considerable skill and expense.Leap with us once again to 2010 and the launch of Instagram, and on to 2012, when 86 percent of the U.S. population had a cell phone, bringing on the cheaper selfie as social media and mobile internet access spread.
"What's most interesting to me is how we're trying to grapple with what it means," Rutledge said. "We know what it means when we see somebody's picture of their kid holding a soccer ball. We're okay with that. And we know what it means to have a portrait in a high school yearbook or of a real estate agent on a business card. We know how to think about all of those things, but we don't know how to think about this mass production of self-reflection."
Is it possible the selfie doesn't mean anything at all?"In the era of the Kardashians, everyone has become their own paparazzi," mused Rachel Weingarten, a personal-brand consultant in New York.
Another New Yorker, 14-year-old Beatrice Landau, tends to agree. She regularly uploads selfies — from vacation shots on Instagram to fleeting images using Snapchat, a phone app that deletes them after 10 seconds.
"I know selfies are ridiculous, but it's definitely part of our 'teenage culture,'?" Beatrice said. "You don't have to have a person with you to take a picture of you, when you can take one yourself."
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
The raunchy, goofy, poignant, sexy or drunken self-portrait has been a common sight since phone camera met social media. Now, nearly a decade since the arm-extended or in-the-mirror photos became a mainstay of MySpace, selfies are a pastime across generations and cultures.
Justin Bieber puts up plenty of shirtless pics and Rihanna poses for sultry snaps, but a beaming Hillary Clinton recently took a turn with daughter Chelsea, who tweeted their happy first attempt with the hashtag #ProudDaughter.
Two other famous daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, selfied at dad's second inauguration, pulling faces in front of a smart phone. And Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide earned a spot in the Selfie Hall of Fame with a striking, otherworldly shot, arms extended as reflected in his helmet outside the International Space Station last year.
"It just comes so naturally after a point," said Elizabeth Zamora, a 24-year-old marketing account coordinator in Dallas who has taken hundreds of selfies since she got her first iPhone two years ago, with the front-facing camera that has become the selfie gold standard.
"You just take it and you don't even realize it, and then you're sharing it with all your friends," she said. "I try not to go crazy."If we're not taking them, we're certainly looking, regardless of whether we know what they're called. We're lurking on the selfies of our teens, enjoying the high jinx of co-workers and friends, and mooning over celebrities, who have fast learned the marketing value — and scandalous dangers — of capturing their more intimate, unpolished selves.
The practice of freezing and sharing our thinnest slices of life has become so popular that the granddaddy of dictionaries, the Oxford, is monitoring the term selfie as a possible addition. Time magazine included the selfie in its Top 10 buzzwords of 2012 (at No. 9) and New York magazine's The Cut blog declared in April: "Ugly Is the New Pretty: How Unattractive Selfies Took Over the Internet."
On Instagram alone, there's #selfiesunday, along with related tags where millions of selfies land daily. More than 23 million photos have been uploaded to the app with the tag #selfie and about 70 million photos clog Instagram's #me.
What are we to make of all this navel-gazing (sometimes literally)? Are selfies, by definition, culturally dangerous? Offensive? An indicator of moral decline?Beverly Hills, Calif., psychiatrist Carole Lieberman sees narcissism with a capital N. "The rise of the selfie is a perfect metaphor for our increasingly narcissistic culture. We're desperately crying out: Look at me!"
But Pamela Rutledge doesn't see it that way. The director of the nonprofit Media Psychology Research Center, which explores how humans interact with technology, sees the selfie as democratizing the once-snooty practice of self-portraiture, a tradition that long predates Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
She sees some key differences between selfies and self-portraits of yore. Unlike painted portraiture, selfies are easily deletable. And "bad or funny is good in a way that wasn't the case when people had to pay for film to be developed," or for a professional painter, she said.
"Albrecht Durer's self-portraiture is these incredible self-reflections and explorations of technique, and then when Rihanna snaps her picture it's just self-aggrandizement, or it's promotion, so you have a fairly interesting double standard based upon who's taking the self-portrait," said Rutledge, in Boston.
In selfies, we can be famous, and in control of our own images and story lines. As for the young, the more authority figures — parents, teachers — dislike them and "declare them a sign of a self-obsessed, narcissistic generation, the more desirable they become," she said.
The word selfie in itself carries multiple connotations, Rutledge observes. "The 'ie' at the end makes selfie a diminutive, implying some affection and familiarity." From a semantic's perspective, the selfie is a "little self" — a small, friendly bit of the Hands free access, she said.There's a sense of immediacy and temporariness. "Granted, little is really temporary on the internet, but it is more that by definition. Transient, soon to be upstaged by the next one," Rutledge said.
Self-portraits tagged as 'selfie' first surfaced on Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and on MySpace in 2004, Rutledge said. The earliest reference in UrbanDictionary was to "selfy" in 2005.In historical terms, elites in ancient Egypt were fond of self-portraits, Rutledge said. And then there was the mirror, invented in the 15th century and allowing artists like the prolific Durer in Germany to have at it in more meaningful detail.
While the self-involved Narcissus stared at his reflection in a pond in Greek mythology, it was the mirror that "really was the first piece of technology where an artist could see his own image long enough to paint it, other than just painting self-impressions," Rutledge said.
Fast forward to the 1860s and the advent of cameras, launching a new round of selfies, though they took considerable skill and expense.Leap with us once again to 2010 and the launch of Instagram, and on to 2012, when 86 percent of the U.S. population had a cell phone, bringing on the cheaper selfie as social media and mobile internet access spread.
"What's most interesting to me is how we're trying to grapple with what it means," Rutledge said. "We know what it means when we see somebody's picture of their kid holding a soccer ball. We're okay with that. And we know what it means to have a portrait in a high school yearbook or of a real estate agent on a business card. We know how to think about all of those things, but we don't know how to think about this mass production of self-reflection."
Is it possible the selfie doesn't mean anything at all?"In the era of the Kardashians, everyone has become their own paparazzi," mused Rachel Weingarten, a personal-brand consultant in New York.
Another New Yorker, 14-year-old Beatrice Landau, tends to agree. She regularly uploads selfies — from vacation shots on Instagram to fleeting images using Snapchat, a phone app that deletes them after 10 seconds.
"I know selfies are ridiculous, but it's definitely part of our 'teenage culture,'?" Beatrice said. "You don't have to have a person with you to take a picture of you, when you can take one yourself."
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Agents wait to scrutinize Justin Smith extension
He who represents himself has a fool for a client. That adage usually arises in connection with courtroom proceedings, where the litigant’s emotional attachment to the outcome will skew his efforts — even if he otherwise has the skill.
It also has some application in the NFL, where nearly every player has someone representing him when it comes to negotiating with teams.
For rookie contracts in the age of a true wage scale, it’s not nearly as critical. That’s why it won’t hurt players like Ravens first-rounder Matt Elam, who’ll get the slotted deal available to the 32nd pick in the draft.
For veterans, however, it’s more complicated. A skilled and honest agent (and, obviously, plenty are neither) can help compile evidence and fashion arguments to push back against the team’s legitimate belief that the player is worth less than what the circumstances otherwise suggest. It’s not because teams are dishonest (and, obviously, some team employees are), but because teams necessarily will pooh-pooh the prospect of paying more because they’re the ones routinely doing the paying.
As a result, it’s awkward for the player to argue on his behalf why he’s a great player who deserves more than the team is offering. Some guys (even football players) are too humble to do it, and some simply are so conditioned to defer to the notion of “team” that they can’t and won’t disagree with the coach or the G.M.
That’s why all agents are very interested to see what 49ers defensive end Justin Smith got from the team via his recent two-year extension. Smith confirmed on Wednesday that he negotiated the deal on his own, choosing not to hire a new firm after recently parting ways with CAA.
“At this point in my career – my agent and stuff – it wasn’t about that,” Smith said, via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. “It was about wanting to be here, wanting to play, having an opportunity to be on a great team. And go for the championship. That’s what it’s all about. Having that opportunity, I feel real lucky. Real fortunate.”
On one hand, the value of playing for a title means much more to the player than his agent. (After all, the agent doesn’t get three percent of the ring.) On the other hand, Smith’s desire to pursue a championship easily can result in Smith taking less than he objectively deserved.
Smith added that, if/when he gets to the point where he’s not a full-time player, he’ll walk away. In our view, there’s also a chance he’ll call if quits if the Niners get back to the Super Bowl and win it.
The real question is whether buyer’s remorse will creep into his brain, and whether he’ll act on it. Much of it will depend on the reaction to the deal he did. While Smith won’t be getting that kind of feedback from his agent, he may end up hearing it from other players who get it from theirs.
Some of the best work of the Festival was on show in the mobile category last night. Ogilvy Paris had a corker where they gave away free WiFi in exchange for online Scrabble points. The Score Cleaner Notes app will write sheet music for you when you hum into your phone. And please, please have a look at the Reborn App piece by Antwerp based Duval Guillaume Modem for Organ Donation. Pure genius. The clear and growing intersection of dev, creativity and tech innovation in mobile work is becoming more and more pronounced. I am sad to say we are way, way behind in SA.
The best idea of the Festival so far was from DDB Dm9 for Smart Textbooks. They recycled old sim cards and downloaded school textbooks onto them (the textbooks were proving too expensive to print). The sim cards were then handed out at schools and kids popped them into their phones. Voila. That’s what I love so much about Cannes, the ideas that prove that our industry truly can make a huge difference if we do what we do well. Technology is magnifying the power of creative thinking more than ever before Viva la revolución.
The innovation Lions were interesting, lot’s of software and apps and deep tech ideas. There was talk that it felt like the industry was stepping outside of its territory, which I think is the point really isn’t it? The Grand Prix went to Cinder from The Barbarian Group, who created a software development platform for creative coding. Another winner was the GetIn bank credit card from MasterCard, which reveals the balance of your card as a digital readout on the card itself. Not sure if that would be good idea in South Africa.
My absolute favourite talk so far has been “How not to be a douchebag in advertising” by the perfectly wonderful people from Mother New York. I can think of a few people back home who could have done with this information. The talk was really all about finding your happy place in advertising. They proceeded to skewer the big network structures and condemn us all to advertising purgatory. They don’t have account management at Mother. Now, while it has been tempting to occasionally exterminate errant account management people, I have never thought of leaving them out of the structure altogether. What would we charge our clients for if we didn’t have a brigade of client service people on their fee ? How would we make money? We would be forced to rely solely on our creative product for our income. Gasp, horror.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
It also has some application in the NFL, where nearly every player has someone representing him when it comes to negotiating with teams.
For rookie contracts in the age of a true wage scale, it’s not nearly as critical. That’s why it won’t hurt players like Ravens first-rounder Matt Elam, who’ll get the slotted deal available to the 32nd pick in the draft.
For veterans, however, it’s more complicated. A skilled and honest agent (and, obviously, plenty are neither) can help compile evidence and fashion arguments to push back against the team’s legitimate belief that the player is worth less than what the circumstances otherwise suggest. It’s not because teams are dishonest (and, obviously, some team employees are), but because teams necessarily will pooh-pooh the prospect of paying more because they’re the ones routinely doing the paying.
As a result, it’s awkward for the player to argue on his behalf why he’s a great player who deserves more than the team is offering. Some guys (even football players) are too humble to do it, and some simply are so conditioned to defer to the notion of “team” that they can’t and won’t disagree with the coach or the G.M.
That’s why all agents are very interested to see what 49ers defensive end Justin Smith got from the team via his recent two-year extension. Smith confirmed on Wednesday that he negotiated the deal on his own, choosing not to hire a new firm after recently parting ways with CAA.
“At this point in my career – my agent and stuff – it wasn’t about that,” Smith said, via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. “It was about wanting to be here, wanting to play, having an opportunity to be on a great team. And go for the championship. That’s what it’s all about. Having that opportunity, I feel real lucky. Real fortunate.”
On one hand, the value of playing for a title means much more to the player than his agent. (After all, the agent doesn’t get three percent of the ring.) On the other hand, Smith’s desire to pursue a championship easily can result in Smith taking less than he objectively deserved.
Smith added that, if/when he gets to the point where he’s not a full-time player, he’ll walk away. In our view, there’s also a chance he’ll call if quits if the Niners get back to the Super Bowl and win it.
The real question is whether buyer’s remorse will creep into his brain, and whether he’ll act on it. Much of it will depend on the reaction to the deal he did. While Smith won’t be getting that kind of feedback from his agent, he may end up hearing it from other players who get it from theirs.
Some of the best work of the Festival was on show in the mobile category last night. Ogilvy Paris had a corker where they gave away free WiFi in exchange for online Scrabble points. The Score Cleaner Notes app will write sheet music for you when you hum into your phone. And please, please have a look at the Reborn App piece by Antwerp based Duval Guillaume Modem for Organ Donation. Pure genius. The clear and growing intersection of dev, creativity and tech innovation in mobile work is becoming more and more pronounced. I am sad to say we are way, way behind in SA.
The best idea of the Festival so far was from DDB Dm9 for Smart Textbooks. They recycled old sim cards and downloaded school textbooks onto them (the textbooks were proving too expensive to print). The sim cards were then handed out at schools and kids popped them into their phones. Voila. That’s what I love so much about Cannes, the ideas that prove that our industry truly can make a huge difference if we do what we do well. Technology is magnifying the power of creative thinking more than ever before Viva la revolución.
The innovation Lions were interesting, lot’s of software and apps and deep tech ideas. There was talk that it felt like the industry was stepping outside of its territory, which I think is the point really isn’t it? The Grand Prix went to Cinder from The Barbarian Group, who created a software development platform for creative coding. Another winner was the GetIn bank credit card from MasterCard, which reveals the balance of your card as a digital readout on the card itself. Not sure if that would be good idea in South Africa.
My absolute favourite talk so far has been “How not to be a douchebag in advertising” by the perfectly wonderful people from Mother New York. I can think of a few people back home who could have done with this information. The talk was really all about finding your happy place in advertising. They proceeded to skewer the big network structures and condemn us all to advertising purgatory. They don’t have account management at Mother. Now, while it has been tempting to occasionally exterminate errant account management people, I have never thought of leaving them out of the structure altogether. What would we charge our clients for if we didn’t have a brigade of client service people on their fee ? How would we make money? We would be forced to rely solely on our creative product for our income. Gasp, horror.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Wells Fargo thunders to a buy among financials
This enormous scale has given WFC the ability to focus on their core growth strategy, which is cross-selling their very diversified list of financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, personal lines/loans, student loans, auto loans and wealth-management services.
Cross-selling has also led to a much higher ratio of products per customer, with a much longer tenure, as compared to other similar banks. Sanford and Bernstein report that at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, the Wells Fargo retail-bank household cross-sell was 6.05 products per household, which was up from 5.93 a year earlier.
Wells Fargo management believes that they can increase this number to 8.0 per household, which is approximately half of their estimated potential demand for an average U.S. household. Sanford and Bernstein also state that at the end of the fourth quarter 2012, one in four households had eight or more products per household.
Some investors have been focused on WFC's reduction in net interest margin (NIM) and are expressing concern over the fact that it declined by 71 basis points from the first quarter 2010 through the fourth quarter 2012. A 71-basis-point reduction in NIM is significant, but this figure was negatively impacted because the bank enjoyed $172 billion in new deposits over that same period of time.
Understanding that management's focus is on cross-selling financial products and services, it becomes clear that the new deposits of $172 billion will create an enormous opportunity for growth in lending and fee generation, and possibly the NIM reduction is temporary. We could see more NIM reduction in the short-term, because it appears that the new bank deposits will keep coming.
According to a recent study by Sanford C. Bernstein, Wells Fargo is seeing enormous deposit growth in the northern plains states, which is a key area of the emerging U.S. energy boom. According to the rtls, business customers in that region are flooding the banks with new cash, and WFC had the most deposits in all five states.
Wells Fargo’s management team does not manage to NIM, but is more focused on net-interest income. Additionally, WFC has a balanced business model, with revenue diversification from their various lending activities across consumer and commercial customers, and by non-lending activities such as banking fees, trust and investment services fees, card fees and insurance.
During this period of time, when NIM was dropping, Wells Fargo still posted record earnings-per-share growth, which speaks to how important their revenue diversity is to the bottom line. In fact, WFC has recorded 12 consecutive quarters of EPS growth, including seven quarters of record EPS growth, all during a tough period of time that included substantial regulatory change, declining interest rates, uneven economic growth and European and Asian economic challenges.
Cross-selling has also led to a much higher ratio of products per customer, with a much longer tenure, as compared to other similar banks.
As an investor, we search for management teams that demonstrate concern for their shareholders, by being good stewards of our money. Wells Fargo continues to be shareholder focused, illustrated by their continued desire to return capital to shareholders through the payment of dividends and repurchase of shares and/or smart acquisitions.
Last season's Champions League winners went in front when Branislav Ivanovic - victim of Luis Suarez's bite - won a header which went in off Victor Moses, who claimed his third goal in as many Europa League games.
The visitors should have scored again prior to Fernando Torres striking the post before Cesar Azpilicueta was adjudged to have fouled Valentin Stocker and Fabian Schar converted an 87th-minute penalty. However, Chelsea responded and Luiz's late intervention earned the advantage ahead of next week's return at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea, who had lost four of their five prior European away games, missed numerous chances and Luiz's shot skipped around the wall and inside the post after John Terry had been denied by goalkeeper Yann Sommer's point-blank save earlier in stoppage time.
Chelsea, playing in white, had to be patient as Basle started well before Azpilicueta raced down the right and crossed to the near post, where Lampard's prod towards goal was turned away for a corner by Sommer. Lampard's set-piece was met by Ivanovic, whose header deflected off Moses and bounced inside the far post.
Eden Hazard, playing centrally behind Torres, was doing his utmost to find openings in the Basle defence, but all too frequently Chelsea gave the ball away. Torres twice had half-chances before Lampard found Ramires and the Brazilian's dipping shot from the right was saved well by Sommer.
Much of the second half was disjointed and punctuated by mistakes as Chelsea were forced to repel repeated Basle attacks. Fabian Frei shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box and Cole received a yellow card for time wasting at a throw-in before Aleksandar Dragovic was booked for a sliding challenge on Torres, meaning the defender will now miss the second leg.
Hazard made way for Juan Mata and Lampard was replaced by Oscar as Chelsea's search for a second continued to prove elusive. Basle substitute Marcelo Diaz curled an effort narrowly wide and Cech collected at the feet of Mohamed Salah after the winger had been played in by Dragovic. But Chelsea found themselves level when Azpilicueta was ruled to have hauled down Stocker in the area and Schar sent the ball down the middle of Cech's goal.
Cross-selling has also led to a much higher ratio of products per customer, with a much longer tenure, as compared to other similar banks. Sanford and Bernstein report that at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, the Wells Fargo retail-bank household cross-sell was 6.05 products per household, which was up from 5.93 a year earlier.
Wells Fargo management believes that they can increase this number to 8.0 per household, which is approximately half of their estimated potential demand for an average U.S. household. Sanford and Bernstein also state that at the end of the fourth quarter 2012, one in four households had eight or more products per household.
Some investors have been focused on WFC's reduction in net interest margin (NIM) and are expressing concern over the fact that it declined by 71 basis points from the first quarter 2010 through the fourth quarter 2012. A 71-basis-point reduction in NIM is significant, but this figure was negatively impacted because the bank enjoyed $172 billion in new deposits over that same period of time.
Understanding that management's focus is on cross-selling financial products and services, it becomes clear that the new deposits of $172 billion will create an enormous opportunity for growth in lending and fee generation, and possibly the NIM reduction is temporary. We could see more NIM reduction in the short-term, because it appears that the new bank deposits will keep coming.
According to a recent study by Sanford C. Bernstein, Wells Fargo is seeing enormous deposit growth in the northern plains states, which is a key area of the emerging U.S. energy boom. According to the rtls, business customers in that region are flooding the banks with new cash, and WFC had the most deposits in all five states.
Wells Fargo’s management team does not manage to NIM, but is more focused on net-interest income. Additionally, WFC has a balanced business model, with revenue diversification from their various lending activities across consumer and commercial customers, and by non-lending activities such as banking fees, trust and investment services fees, card fees and insurance.
During this period of time, when NIM was dropping, Wells Fargo still posted record earnings-per-share growth, which speaks to how important their revenue diversity is to the bottom line. In fact, WFC has recorded 12 consecutive quarters of EPS growth, including seven quarters of record EPS growth, all during a tough period of time that included substantial regulatory change, declining interest rates, uneven economic growth and European and Asian economic challenges.
Cross-selling has also led to a much higher ratio of products per customer, with a much longer tenure, as compared to other similar banks.
As an investor, we search for management teams that demonstrate concern for their shareholders, by being good stewards of our money. Wells Fargo continues to be shareholder focused, illustrated by their continued desire to return capital to shareholders through the payment of dividends and repurchase of shares and/or smart acquisitions.
Last season's Champions League winners went in front when Branislav Ivanovic - victim of Luis Suarez's bite - won a header which went in off Victor Moses, who claimed his third goal in as many Europa League games.
The visitors should have scored again prior to Fernando Torres striking the post before Cesar Azpilicueta was adjudged to have fouled Valentin Stocker and Fabian Schar converted an 87th-minute penalty. However, Chelsea responded and Luiz's late intervention earned the advantage ahead of next week's return at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea, who had lost four of their five prior European away games, missed numerous chances and Luiz's shot skipped around the wall and inside the post after John Terry had been denied by goalkeeper Yann Sommer's point-blank save earlier in stoppage time.
Chelsea, playing in white, had to be patient as Basle started well before Azpilicueta raced down the right and crossed to the near post, where Lampard's prod towards goal was turned away for a corner by Sommer. Lampard's set-piece was met by Ivanovic, whose header deflected off Moses and bounced inside the far post.
Eden Hazard, playing centrally behind Torres, was doing his utmost to find openings in the Basle defence, but all too frequently Chelsea gave the ball away. Torres twice had half-chances before Lampard found Ramires and the Brazilian's dipping shot from the right was saved well by Sommer.
Much of the second half was disjointed and punctuated by mistakes as Chelsea were forced to repel repeated Basle attacks. Fabian Frei shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box and Cole received a yellow card for time wasting at a throw-in before Aleksandar Dragovic was booked for a sliding challenge on Torres, meaning the defender will now miss the second leg.
Hazard made way for Juan Mata and Lampard was replaced by Oscar as Chelsea's search for a second continued to prove elusive. Basle substitute Marcelo Diaz curled an effort narrowly wide and Cech collected at the feet of Mohamed Salah after the winger had been played in by Dragovic. But Chelsea found themselves level when Azpilicueta was ruled to have hauled down Stocker in the area and Schar sent the ball down the middle of Cech's goal.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Woodland meth-cooking case ends in plea
Donald L. Harrison, 55, will undergo prison-based drug rehabilitation during his confinement. He pleaded guilty to two counts of manufacturing meth, each of which could have yielded up to eight years in prison.
But Harrison, who has no prior felony history and was living out of his car when arrested in January, told Chelan County Superior Court Judge Alicia Nakata his own meth addiction led him to lose everything and eventually set up two cooking stills. Nakata assigned him to the Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative, which provides chemical dependency treatment and counseling to criminals whose offenses are related to addiction.
The case began when the multi-agency Columbia River Drug Task Force investigated two small meth labs found in the Leavenworth area last year — one found April 17 on U.S. Forest Service land along Camas Creek Road near Highway 97, another discovered Aug. 19 near an Icicle Irrigation District gate on Duncan Road.
Items collected from the cook sites included plastic buckets and gas cans, empty bags of dry ice, plastic tubing, ammonia compounds, and traces of pseudoephedrine — a chemical precursor that can be rendered into methamphetamine. Samples from both sites showed evidence of meth manufacture, detectives said.
At each site, a Safeway grocery receipt was found, both showing purchases with the same Washington Electronic Benefits Transfer card. A warrant search traced the card to Harrison, who was living in his car in Dryden when arrested Jan. 9.
The first thing you’ll notice when you buy a Dell Latitude 10 is how much of a hybrid between laptop and tablet form factors the unit is. Right from the start, this impression is reinforced when the packaging for the tablet arrives at your office. Apple’s full-sized iPads come in small, roughly A4-sized boxes, commensurate with their size, while the iPad minis come in even smaller boxes almost reminiscent of mobile phone packaging.
Not so the Latitude 10. It comes in one of those traditional Dell laptop boxes, with cardboard packaging inside and a traditional (if small) power brick, ‘resource’ DVD and instruction/warranty manuals all wedged in. Sure, there’s a lot of empty space in the box, but we were immediately struck with how different this was from the premium Apple iPad experience. This is clearly a different class of tablet than the iPad — even if they’re designed in practice for most of the same purposes.
The impression of laptop-ness is reinforced when you pick up the Latitude 10. The first thing you notice is the weight. The model we reviewed clocked in at 684g, which is virtually identical to Apple’s full-sized iPad at 652g (or 662g for the 3G version). However, the Latitude 10 feels bulkier. Part of this is its thickness; it’s 10.5mm thick at its thickest end, compared with the iPad’s 9.4mm, and part of it is also its different dimensions. The iPad and Latitude 10 both have about a 10″ screen, with only a few millimetres’ difference, but where the iPad has an aspect ratio of 4:3, the Latitude 10 goes for an narrower 16:9 footprint.
What you end up with because of this design is something which feels a lot like an elongated iPad, a little heavier and with a tapering rubbery back. It’s not a bad feeling, but it’s definitely not stylised the way the iPad is; it’s very reminiscent of the kind of enterprise-class laptops (such as the Latitude class for which the tablet is named) which have long been a feature of Dell’s range.
The next thing you’ll notice is how brilliant, clear and inviting the Latitude 10′s screen is. It doesn’t have that high a resolution — only 1366×768, compared to the full-sized iPad’s 2048×1536 — and if you get up close, you can see the pixels. However, that doesn’t stop the Latitude 10′s screen from being vivid and lovely, with great viewing angles and a brightness that serves it well even outside in the daytime.
Windows 8′s bright colours play very well into this aesthetic, and we like the combination of Dell’s rubbery dark grey back, hard plastic front and brilliant screen quite a lot. This tablet is quite a looker.
Now let’s get into the ports. If you hold the tablet horizontally facing you, on the right side at the top sits a 3.5mm headphone jack alongside a USB port (we know — a USB port on a tablet — how novel!) and a mini-HDMI output jack. On the left-hand side sits a small rubbery volume rocker, above a small security lock slot. On the bottom sits a largish power connector to charge or dock the Latitude 10, and you can also charge it or sync it with a micro-USB slot next to that.
On the top left is a very large slot for smartcard reading, while on the top right sits a memory card reader, next to a small power light, the unit’s power button, and a screen rotation lock button. Below the screen is a small physical Windows button which returns you to Windows 8′s home screen. Above it is a small front-facing camera. On the back you get a fingerprint reader (we know!), the unit’s main camera and the huge slot for its removable battery. There are also two small speakers on the back.
As with its design, under its hood the Latitude 10 is surprisingly full-featured for a tablet of this nature. It runs on an Intel Atom CPU at 1.8GHz, and comes with 2GB of RAM. We believe our unit came with a 64GB SSD disk drive, of which only 36.5GB was available for use when we received it (it comes with the full version of Windows 8 installed — no Windows RT here).
Apart from that, what you mainly need to know is that its basic battery is a 2-cell 30W/hr model, but you can also get a 4-cell 60W/hr model to swap in, which will pad out the back substantially. The front-facing camera is a two megapixel model and the back is an eight megapixel model. The headphone jack can also be used as a microphone input, and you can also insert a SIM card into the model for mobile broadband. Of course it supports the 802.11 Wi-Fi standards, and the card reader does full-sized SD cards. You can also get a couple of optional docking/stand/keyboard units, although our unit didn’t come with one. And the screen is the ubquitous Gorilla Glass.
And of course, there’s one more important thing to consider here: You also get a full version of Windows 8, which can run every version of every popular Windows app you can think of, and which allows the Latitude 10 to be used as a PC in every sense, especially if you attack a keyboard and mouse.
This is a killer feature which we know many enterprises will really love. You simply can’t easily, without a decent network connection and some virtualisation/emulation software (many people use Citrix) use an iPad as a fully-featured laptop; iOS just isn’t set up to match all of Mac OS X’s features. But the Latitude 10 can be used for that purpose; it’s — frankly — its main advantage over the iPad and the Android tablets.
For starters, its touchscreen is great. As we’ve mentioned previously, it’s vivid, colourful, and you don’t really feel the lack of a higher resolution as you find on the iPad. Touch-navigating around Windows 8 on the Latitude 10 is a breeze and represents one of the best Windows 8 experiences we’ve had so far. It’s even easy to use the touch interface to navigate the traditional Windows desktop environment, and we enjoyed doing so.
The typing interface on the Latitude 10 is particularly lovely, with great sound feedback, and you can easily get up to quite a clip typing on it. We actually like the Latitude 10/Windows 8typing interface a great deal more than we do the touch-typing interface on the iPad — unlike with iOS, it’s pretty close to a full-sized keyboard experience, and you can type a lot faster.
The USB port, a key feature of the Latitude 10, works perfectly — we pulled our Apple keyboard and Logitech gaming mouse out of our iMac and plugged them in to the Latitude 10. They worked perfectly and instantly with no setup, pleasing us mightily.
In general, the performance of the unit’s user interface was very fast, and we had trouble getting it to do anything at a pace we found slow. There wasn’t any jagginess or slowness, and we really enjoyed playing with the unit’s apps and browsing our web sites, taking notes and so on. Videos, including HD videos, streamed fine from YouTube and in general we were very happy.
The usual caveats regarding the performance of the tablet for 3D games applies; its graphics card is labelled as an “Intel Graphics Media Accelerator”; so not hugely powerful ;) You’ll be able to easily play low-end games such as Plants vs Zombies and older games, but don’t expect much at all in terms of 3D graphics performance for modern titles. This is a tablet, not even a proper laptop. And the Atom processor won’t help.
But Harrison, who has no prior felony history and was living out of his car when arrested in January, told Chelan County Superior Court Judge Alicia Nakata his own meth addiction led him to lose everything and eventually set up two cooking stills. Nakata assigned him to the Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative, which provides chemical dependency treatment and counseling to criminals whose offenses are related to addiction.
The case began when the multi-agency Columbia River Drug Task Force investigated two small meth labs found in the Leavenworth area last year — one found April 17 on U.S. Forest Service land along Camas Creek Road near Highway 97, another discovered Aug. 19 near an Icicle Irrigation District gate on Duncan Road.
Items collected from the cook sites included plastic buckets and gas cans, empty bags of dry ice, plastic tubing, ammonia compounds, and traces of pseudoephedrine — a chemical precursor that can be rendered into methamphetamine. Samples from both sites showed evidence of meth manufacture, detectives said.
At each site, a Safeway grocery receipt was found, both showing purchases with the same Washington Electronic Benefits Transfer card. A warrant search traced the card to Harrison, who was living in his car in Dryden when arrested Jan. 9.
The first thing you’ll notice when you buy a Dell Latitude 10 is how much of a hybrid between laptop and tablet form factors the unit is. Right from the start, this impression is reinforced when the packaging for the tablet arrives at your office. Apple’s full-sized iPads come in small, roughly A4-sized boxes, commensurate with their size, while the iPad minis come in even smaller boxes almost reminiscent of mobile phone packaging.
Not so the Latitude 10. It comes in one of those traditional Dell laptop boxes, with cardboard packaging inside and a traditional (if small) power brick, ‘resource’ DVD and instruction/warranty manuals all wedged in. Sure, there’s a lot of empty space in the box, but we were immediately struck with how different this was from the premium Apple iPad experience. This is clearly a different class of tablet than the iPad — even if they’re designed in practice for most of the same purposes.
The impression of laptop-ness is reinforced when you pick up the Latitude 10. The first thing you notice is the weight. The model we reviewed clocked in at 684g, which is virtually identical to Apple’s full-sized iPad at 652g (or 662g for the 3G version). However, the Latitude 10 feels bulkier. Part of this is its thickness; it’s 10.5mm thick at its thickest end, compared with the iPad’s 9.4mm, and part of it is also its different dimensions. The iPad and Latitude 10 both have about a 10″ screen, with only a few millimetres’ difference, but where the iPad has an aspect ratio of 4:3, the Latitude 10 goes for an narrower 16:9 footprint.
What you end up with because of this design is something which feels a lot like an elongated iPad, a little heavier and with a tapering rubbery back. It’s not a bad feeling, but it’s definitely not stylised the way the iPad is; it’s very reminiscent of the kind of enterprise-class laptops (such as the Latitude class for which the tablet is named) which have long been a feature of Dell’s range.
The next thing you’ll notice is how brilliant, clear and inviting the Latitude 10′s screen is. It doesn’t have that high a resolution — only 1366×768, compared to the full-sized iPad’s 2048×1536 — and if you get up close, you can see the pixels. However, that doesn’t stop the Latitude 10′s screen from being vivid and lovely, with great viewing angles and a brightness that serves it well even outside in the daytime.
Windows 8′s bright colours play very well into this aesthetic, and we like the combination of Dell’s rubbery dark grey back, hard plastic front and brilliant screen quite a lot. This tablet is quite a looker.
Now let’s get into the ports. If you hold the tablet horizontally facing you, on the right side at the top sits a 3.5mm headphone jack alongside a USB port (we know — a USB port on a tablet — how novel!) and a mini-HDMI output jack. On the left-hand side sits a small rubbery volume rocker, above a small security lock slot. On the bottom sits a largish power connector to charge or dock the Latitude 10, and you can also charge it or sync it with a micro-USB slot next to that.
On the top left is a very large slot for smartcard reading, while on the top right sits a memory card reader, next to a small power light, the unit’s power button, and a screen rotation lock button. Below the screen is a small physical Windows button which returns you to Windows 8′s home screen. Above it is a small front-facing camera. On the back you get a fingerprint reader (we know!), the unit’s main camera and the huge slot for its removable battery. There are also two small speakers on the back.
As with its design, under its hood the Latitude 10 is surprisingly full-featured for a tablet of this nature. It runs on an Intel Atom CPU at 1.8GHz, and comes with 2GB of RAM. We believe our unit came with a 64GB SSD disk drive, of which only 36.5GB was available for use when we received it (it comes with the full version of Windows 8 installed — no Windows RT here).
Apart from that, what you mainly need to know is that its basic battery is a 2-cell 30W/hr model, but you can also get a 4-cell 60W/hr model to swap in, which will pad out the back substantially. The front-facing camera is a two megapixel model and the back is an eight megapixel model. The headphone jack can also be used as a microphone input, and you can also insert a SIM card into the model for mobile broadband. Of course it supports the 802.11 Wi-Fi standards, and the card reader does full-sized SD cards. You can also get a couple of optional docking/stand/keyboard units, although our unit didn’t come with one. And the screen is the ubquitous Gorilla Glass.
And of course, there’s one more important thing to consider here: You also get a full version of Windows 8, which can run every version of every popular Windows app you can think of, and which allows the Latitude 10 to be used as a PC in every sense, especially if you attack a keyboard and mouse.
This is a killer feature which we know many enterprises will really love. You simply can’t easily, without a decent network connection and some virtualisation/emulation software (many people use Citrix) use an iPad as a fully-featured laptop; iOS just isn’t set up to match all of Mac OS X’s features. But the Latitude 10 can be used for that purpose; it’s — frankly — its main advantage over the iPad and the Android tablets.
For starters, its touchscreen is great. As we’ve mentioned previously, it’s vivid, colourful, and you don’t really feel the lack of a higher resolution as you find on the iPad. Touch-navigating around Windows 8 on the Latitude 10 is a breeze and represents one of the best Windows 8 experiences we’ve had so far. It’s even easy to use the touch interface to navigate the traditional Windows desktop environment, and we enjoyed doing so.
The typing interface on the Latitude 10 is particularly lovely, with great sound feedback, and you can easily get up to quite a clip typing on it. We actually like the Latitude 10/Windows 8typing interface a great deal more than we do the touch-typing interface on the iPad — unlike with iOS, it’s pretty close to a full-sized keyboard experience, and you can type a lot faster.
The USB port, a key feature of the Latitude 10, works perfectly — we pulled our Apple keyboard and Logitech gaming mouse out of our iMac and plugged them in to the Latitude 10. They worked perfectly and instantly with no setup, pleasing us mightily.
In general, the performance of the unit’s user interface was very fast, and we had trouble getting it to do anything at a pace we found slow. There wasn’t any jagginess or slowness, and we really enjoyed playing with the unit’s apps and browsing our web sites, taking notes and so on. Videos, including HD videos, streamed fine from YouTube and in general we were very happy.
The usual caveats regarding the performance of the tablet for 3D games applies; its graphics card is labelled as an “Intel Graphics Media Accelerator”; so not hugely powerful ;) You’ll be able to easily play low-end games such as Plants vs Zombies and older games, but don’t expect much at all in terms of 3D graphics performance for modern titles. This is a tablet, not even a proper laptop. And the Atom processor won’t help.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Recipe collection takes on a life of its own
That wouldn’t be too strange, but most of us keep right on cutting out recipes even though we have at least five recipes for every type of dish imaginable, including tuna casserole which most of us loathe. Even if we live alone and only cook for one we continue to snip away.
I’m not sure why the sight of a recipe so stirs us to keep collecting. Why the sight of yet another recipe for “easy” lasagna so excites us.
And since in my case, I’ve been snipping away for quite a long time, I’ve got a huge collection. They’re in my recipe drawers. They are all flung in there without rhyme or reason. So when I’m looking for the recipe for zucchini bread, I have to sort through 30-plus years of clippings to find it.
Oh, I started off neatly. I had a little recipe index card box. All the recipes were on neat little cards. That lasted a few years.
Then I started cramming the clippings into the index card box. After a time, I couldn’t cram anymore in. Then I shoved all the recipes into a small drawer. The collection outgrew that. Now the recipes are in two big drawers, but they’re full.
I have nightmares that someday I will be keeping my recipes in a room by themselves — like the hoarders I have seen on TV.
I tried to organize during the big blizzard of ‘82. I purchased photo albums with plastic pages and put the recipes in those. I labeled the pages with separate headings for meat, poultry, fish, etc. But my undoing was that I didn’t have enough albums for all the micellaneous items like pickles and mock Twinkies. So as my collection grew I resorted to tossing the recipes into the drawers.
And the worst part is, most of these recipes I’ve never bothered to cook. I have high hopes as I flip through magazines, clipping away, and thinking “Ah, roast pork with apple dumplings would make a great dinner.” But I always find I’m fresh out of pork and apples. So another recipe gets filed in the drawer.
I think I know why I still clip recipes. It’s become habit I can’t resist like shopping at a shoe store when they’re having a half-price sale, though I know I should stay home because I really don’t need any more shoes.
One thing that’s comforting about this habit is the thought that after I’m gone, if somebody goes through my recipe drawers, that person will be bound to utter in reverent tones, “This one must have been some cook!”
Beneficiaries of Vajpayee Arogyasri scheme in Karnataka, living in places close to the State’s borders, can now get medical attention at all networked hospitals in the city nearest to them even if they are in other States, said N. Ramesh, Regional Consultant, Mysore Division, Vajpayee Arogya Sri, Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust, Government of Karnataka.
He was speaking to The Hindu at a camp held to get more people registered for the scheme, organised by Father Muller Hospital and K. S. Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA) in Government Wenlock Hospital on Tuesday. The hospitals oganising the camp are part of the networked hospitals offering the scheme, said Dr. Saroja, Resident Medical Officer (RMO), Wenlock Hospital.
Dr. Ramesh said the change, effective from the current year, meant that beneficiaries from Bellary can go to Hyderabad and Kurnool, beneficiaries from Belgaum can go to Miraj and Sholapur, and beneficiaries from Raichur can go to Mehboobnagar and Hyderabad.
Sharif from Adyar, who brought his father for treatment, said there was “no problem” and Zameela from Irathottigram, said she had got her BPL card. Kusum, an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker, was one of at least five ASHA workers who were there to help their patients get registered for the scheme. Three more hospitals in the city have been inspected to see if they could be brought under the scheme. Some of the listed hospitals in Mangalore are: K.S. Hegde Hospital (KSHEMA), Father Muller Hospital, A.J. Hospital, KMC. Of 132 networked hospitals in the State, more than 70 are in Bangalore. From April, 447 hospitals (from 402) in the state will be networked for the scheme, he said.
The camp registered 144 people, of whom 40 were taken for treatment in networked hospitals. The rest did not have health problems covered under the scheme, said Dr. Ramesh.
Narayan, a resident of Derebail, looked crestfallen at the camp. He said the people at the counter had told him the BPL card was essential and he did not have the card. “I am single. I was told single persons cannot get a BPL card. What am I to do? Will I be left to die?” He said he lived in his brother’s house as he did not own a house and the brother did not belong to the BPL category.
There’s no escaping it, the Medion Erazer X7819, like most gaming laptops, isn’t just a brick, it’s the entire 6ft wall. At a 17-inch screen size, it was always going to take up desk space but once you open the thing up, it rather feels like you’ve stepped into a time warp and leapt back to the very first days of mobile computing when the term “portable machine” described a laptop that you could just about lift up.
Sure, you can rest the Medion Erazer X7819 on your thighs; hell, you can put it in your bag and carry it around with you if you want but, unless you’re heading off to a LAN party somewhere or simply moving to another room in your house, you probably wouldn’t want to. This is 3.8kg of super-mean gaming machine and, though technically a laptop, expect it to live out the majority of its existence atop your desk.
Nonetheless, there’s something satisfying about the design of the Medion Erazer X7819. It’s big, it’s black, it’s got a mock brushed-metal - but actually just nicely made plastic – finish but, despite being the physical antithesis to, say, Bang & Olufsen or Apple, it’s actually very pleasant. This is machine for fragging your friends and tea-bagging n00bs and there’s no subtleties necessary.
The blue LED streaks on the outside of the lid and the three to highlight the trackpad and stereo speakers, once you open it, are further evidence to fact. As it goes, Medion could have gone a lot further with the gaudiness and we’d probably have enjoyed. It’s certainly not the light show that you get with other big brand gaming PCs, such as Dell’s Alienware range, and it’s a pity that you can’t control the colour or the brightness of the LEDs but the money has been spent wisely here and, frankly, industrial design doesn’t win you PvP deathmatches.
I’m not sure why the sight of a recipe so stirs us to keep collecting. Why the sight of yet another recipe for “easy” lasagna so excites us.
And since in my case, I’ve been snipping away for quite a long time, I’ve got a huge collection. They’re in my recipe drawers. They are all flung in there without rhyme or reason. So when I’m looking for the recipe for zucchini bread, I have to sort through 30-plus years of clippings to find it.
Oh, I started off neatly. I had a little recipe index card box. All the recipes were on neat little cards. That lasted a few years.
Then I started cramming the clippings into the index card box. After a time, I couldn’t cram anymore in. Then I shoved all the recipes into a small drawer. The collection outgrew that. Now the recipes are in two big drawers, but they’re full.
I have nightmares that someday I will be keeping my recipes in a room by themselves — like the hoarders I have seen on TV.
I tried to organize during the big blizzard of ‘82. I purchased photo albums with plastic pages and put the recipes in those. I labeled the pages with separate headings for meat, poultry, fish, etc. But my undoing was that I didn’t have enough albums for all the micellaneous items like pickles and mock Twinkies. So as my collection grew I resorted to tossing the recipes into the drawers.
And the worst part is, most of these recipes I’ve never bothered to cook. I have high hopes as I flip through magazines, clipping away, and thinking “Ah, roast pork with apple dumplings would make a great dinner.” But I always find I’m fresh out of pork and apples. So another recipe gets filed in the drawer.
I think I know why I still clip recipes. It’s become habit I can’t resist like shopping at a shoe store when they’re having a half-price sale, though I know I should stay home because I really don’t need any more shoes.
One thing that’s comforting about this habit is the thought that after I’m gone, if somebody goes through my recipe drawers, that person will be bound to utter in reverent tones, “This one must have been some cook!”
Beneficiaries of Vajpayee Arogyasri scheme in Karnataka, living in places close to the State’s borders, can now get medical attention at all networked hospitals in the city nearest to them even if they are in other States, said N. Ramesh, Regional Consultant, Mysore Division, Vajpayee Arogya Sri, Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust, Government of Karnataka.
He was speaking to The Hindu at a camp held to get more people registered for the scheme, organised by Father Muller Hospital and K. S. Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA) in Government Wenlock Hospital on Tuesday. The hospitals oganising the camp are part of the networked hospitals offering the scheme, said Dr. Saroja, Resident Medical Officer (RMO), Wenlock Hospital.
Dr. Ramesh said the change, effective from the current year, meant that beneficiaries from Bellary can go to Hyderabad and Kurnool, beneficiaries from Belgaum can go to Miraj and Sholapur, and beneficiaries from Raichur can go to Mehboobnagar and Hyderabad.
Sharif from Adyar, who brought his father for treatment, said there was “no problem” and Zameela from Irathottigram, said she had got her BPL card. Kusum, an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker, was one of at least five ASHA workers who were there to help their patients get registered for the scheme. Three more hospitals in the city have been inspected to see if they could be brought under the scheme. Some of the listed hospitals in Mangalore are: K.S. Hegde Hospital (KSHEMA), Father Muller Hospital, A.J. Hospital, KMC. Of 132 networked hospitals in the State, more than 70 are in Bangalore. From April, 447 hospitals (from 402) in the state will be networked for the scheme, he said.
The camp registered 144 people, of whom 40 were taken for treatment in networked hospitals. The rest did not have health problems covered under the scheme, said Dr. Ramesh.
Narayan, a resident of Derebail, looked crestfallen at the camp. He said the people at the counter had told him the BPL card was essential and he did not have the card. “I am single. I was told single persons cannot get a BPL card. What am I to do? Will I be left to die?” He said he lived in his brother’s house as he did not own a house and the brother did not belong to the BPL category.
There’s no escaping it, the Medion Erazer X7819, like most gaming laptops, isn’t just a brick, it’s the entire 6ft wall. At a 17-inch screen size, it was always going to take up desk space but once you open the thing up, it rather feels like you’ve stepped into a time warp and leapt back to the very first days of mobile computing when the term “portable machine” described a laptop that you could just about lift up.
Sure, you can rest the Medion Erazer X7819 on your thighs; hell, you can put it in your bag and carry it around with you if you want but, unless you’re heading off to a LAN party somewhere or simply moving to another room in your house, you probably wouldn’t want to. This is 3.8kg of super-mean gaming machine and, though technically a laptop, expect it to live out the majority of its existence atop your desk.
Nonetheless, there’s something satisfying about the design of the Medion Erazer X7819. It’s big, it’s black, it’s got a mock brushed-metal - but actually just nicely made plastic – finish but, despite being the physical antithesis to, say, Bang & Olufsen or Apple, it’s actually very pleasant. This is machine for fragging your friends and tea-bagging n00bs and there’s no subtleties necessary.
The blue LED streaks on the outside of the lid and the three to highlight the trackpad and stereo speakers, once you open it, are further evidence to fact. As it goes, Medion could have gone a lot further with the gaudiness and we’d probably have enjoyed. It’s certainly not the light show that you get with other big brand gaming PCs, such as Dell’s Alienware range, and it’s a pity that you can’t control the colour or the brightness of the LEDs but the money has been spent wisely here and, frankly, industrial design doesn’t win you PvP deathmatches.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
CTA hearing sets sights on switch to Ventra card
A public hearing will be held Monday night about an upcoming fare-payment system that offers new options for CTA and Pace customers, but also contains costly penalties — most notably a $3 cash CTA rail fare — that transit riders can avoid, with a little effort.
Not all of the charges were disclosed when the CTA announced Ventra last September. Despite the lack of initial transparency, transit riders can dodge the new fees. Today's Getting Around column will explain how.
The advice will be particularly important to low-income individuals, many of whom often pay fares using cash and would be among the hardest hit by a $3 rail fare. CTA customers can obtain a Ventra card on a no-cost basis and, if desired, maintain a small balance to avoid paying the $3 rail fare.
About 6 percent of CTA fares are paid with cash, according to the transit agency.
Critics say the new costs will be painful for both low-income and infrequent riders, and some question the decision to turn over fare-collection responsibilities to third parties under the 12-year contract between the CTA and Cubic.
"It is very dangerous to allow a private company to have access to the fare box on each bus and at each 'L' station, which is what CTA is doing,'' said Charles Paidock, secretary of Citizens Taking Action, a group representing transit-dependent individuals. "It doesn't put one bus on the street or a train on the track.''
Under the new system, riders who do not use Ventra cards will be able to pay fares with credit or debit cards, CTA passes or the single-ride tickets. Paying fares using cellphones will be introduced at a later date, officials said.
Buses will continue to accept cash fares, but using cash to purchase a single-ride ticket on trains will become more expensive. Currently, people who pay bus fares using cash already forfeit the opportunity to buy a 25-cent transfer, which is valid for two rides, so these cash-payers must pony up the full fare for each boarding.
Starting this summer when Ventra is launched, CTA rail customers paying with cash will be charged $3 to purchase a single-ride paper ticket at train stations, instead of paying the $2.25 base fare that will remain in effect for all other fare-collection methods. The cash fare on buses will stay at $2.25, officials said.
The $3 charge includes a 50-cent fee to cover the cost of producing the disposable paper ticket containing a computerized chip, and 25 cents for a transfer, regardless of whether the rider uses the transfer.
Cash-payers can avoid the $3 rail fare by obtaining a Ventra card. The card costs $5 initially, but a $5 credit will be applied toward fares if the card is registered within 90 days, officials said.
Reloading the Ventra cards with money will be convenient, officials said, because by late this year or early in 2014 about 2,000 retail locations in the CTA service area will be outfitted for Ventra customers to add value to their cards. Most of the 2,000 locations are within one-third mile of a CTA bus stop. Currently, there are 600 locations, mostly at CTA rail stations, to reload the CTA's Chicago Cards, officials said.
The availability of many locations to add value to the cards across the CTA service area in Chicago and almost 40 suburbs, and about 500 additional locations in Pace's service area, should help transit riders who prefer or need to maintain small card balances and reload the cards often to pay bus and train fares and avoid the new $3 CTA rail cash fare, officials said.
President Obama’s so-called GOP “charm offensive” has received mostly rave reviews as it enters a second week. Now, the question is whether the political thaw will last. Several leading Republicans said Sunday they believe Obama’s overtures are sincere, but that the true test of a relationship reset will be seen in his actions, not his words. Translated: they want clear concessions from Obama in future deficit reduction talks, and curbed anti-GOP rhetoric in stump speeches on the road. The president will make his case this week before the full Republican and Democratic conferences in the House and Senate in separate, private meetings at the Capitol. Then he’s back on the road Friday to talk about energy policy in Argonne, Illinois. Will we see an Obama speech with a different political tone?
Let’s read the tea leaves this morning, shall we? “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” ―Rabindranath Tagore. Just a positive quote to start the week? No. It’s a tweet @AshleyJudd sent out last night. Does it mean she’s in? Well maybe not, but those who want to see her get into the race to unseat Mitch McConnell believe she will do it and it’s just a matter of time until she makes it official. Her biggest current obstacle is her living situation. She currently lives in Tennessee and famously said earlier this month that she “winters in Scotland.” Before she gets in the race she needs to establish residency in her home state of Kentucky. That has to be her first move before anything official whether it’s an exploratory committee or something more. Is she house shopping in Kentucky? Then we will know this is real.
Not all of the charges were disclosed when the CTA announced Ventra last September. Despite the lack of initial transparency, transit riders can dodge the new fees. Today's Getting Around column will explain how.
The advice will be particularly important to low-income individuals, many of whom often pay fares using cash and would be among the hardest hit by a $3 rail fare. CTA customers can obtain a Ventra card on a no-cost basis and, if desired, maintain a small balance to avoid paying the $3 rail fare.
About 6 percent of CTA fares are paid with cash, according to the transit agency.
Critics say the new costs will be painful for both low-income and infrequent riders, and some question the decision to turn over fare-collection responsibilities to third parties under the 12-year contract between the CTA and Cubic.
"It is very dangerous to allow a private company to have access to the fare box on each bus and at each 'L' station, which is what CTA is doing,'' said Charles Paidock, secretary of Citizens Taking Action, a group representing transit-dependent individuals. "It doesn't put one bus on the street or a train on the track.''
Under the new system, riders who do not use Ventra cards will be able to pay fares with credit or debit cards, CTA passes or the single-ride tickets. Paying fares using cellphones will be introduced at a later date, officials said.
Buses will continue to accept cash fares, but using cash to purchase a single-ride ticket on trains will become more expensive. Currently, people who pay bus fares using cash already forfeit the opportunity to buy a 25-cent transfer, which is valid for two rides, so these cash-payers must pony up the full fare for each boarding.
Starting this summer when Ventra is launched, CTA rail customers paying with cash will be charged $3 to purchase a single-ride paper ticket at train stations, instead of paying the $2.25 base fare that will remain in effect for all other fare-collection methods. The cash fare on buses will stay at $2.25, officials said.
The $3 charge includes a 50-cent fee to cover the cost of producing the disposable paper ticket containing a computerized chip, and 25 cents for a transfer, regardless of whether the rider uses the transfer.
Cash-payers can avoid the $3 rail fare by obtaining a Ventra card. The card costs $5 initially, but a $5 credit will be applied toward fares if the card is registered within 90 days, officials said.
Reloading the Ventra cards with money will be convenient, officials said, because by late this year or early in 2014 about 2,000 retail locations in the CTA service area will be outfitted for Ventra customers to add value to their cards. Most of the 2,000 locations are within one-third mile of a CTA bus stop. Currently, there are 600 locations, mostly at CTA rail stations, to reload the CTA's Chicago Cards, officials said.
The availability of many locations to add value to the cards across the CTA service area in Chicago and almost 40 suburbs, and about 500 additional locations in Pace's service area, should help transit riders who prefer or need to maintain small card balances and reload the cards often to pay bus and train fares and avoid the new $3 CTA rail cash fare, officials said.
President Obama’s so-called GOP “charm offensive” has received mostly rave reviews as it enters a second week. Now, the question is whether the political thaw will last. Several leading Republicans said Sunday they believe Obama’s overtures are sincere, but that the true test of a relationship reset will be seen in his actions, not his words. Translated: they want clear concessions from Obama in future deficit reduction talks, and curbed anti-GOP rhetoric in stump speeches on the road. The president will make his case this week before the full Republican and Democratic conferences in the House and Senate in separate, private meetings at the Capitol. Then he’s back on the road Friday to talk about energy policy in Argonne, Illinois. Will we see an Obama speech with a different political tone?
Let’s read the tea leaves this morning, shall we? “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” ―Rabindranath Tagore. Just a positive quote to start the week? No. It’s a tweet @AshleyJudd sent out last night. Does it mean she’s in? Well maybe not, but those who want to see her get into the race to unseat Mitch McConnell believe she will do it and it’s just a matter of time until she makes it official. Her biggest current obstacle is her living situation. She currently lives in Tennessee and famously said earlier this month that she “winters in Scotland.” Before she gets in the race she needs to establish residency in her home state of Kentucky. That has to be her first move before anything official whether it’s an exploratory committee or something more. Is she house shopping in Kentucky? Then we will know this is real.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
You don't know how good you've got it
After reading an excerpt "Sum it Up," the memoirs of legendary Tennessee women's basketball coach, Pat Summit -- 1,098 Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective -- co-authored by Sally Jenkins, the Old Coach was moved. For anyone who follows college basketball, women's sports, or just enjoys reading Horatio Alger stories (rags to riches, for you young folks), the Summit book will give you a greater insight into the historic struggle for gender equity in athletics.
What makes the story of Pat Summit's life so compelling is that she came from a rural farm background in Clarksburg, Tenn., was an All-American player at the University of Tennessee-Martin, was captain of the first United States women's basketball team when that sport was added in the 1976 Olympics, and, at the age of 22, became the head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers, a position that she held for 38 years. During that span, her Lady Vols won eight NCAA championships, never had a losing record, and graduated every player. She is the winningest college basketball coach, male or female, in history. In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to be added to her being named as the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in 2000. She was also named by The Sporting News as No. 11 in their 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time.
Sadly, at age 60, Summit developed early onset Alzheimer's disease, which forced her to retire after the 2011-12 season. Her legacy continues to grow, however, as 19 of her former players or coaching assistants have gone on to coach at the college level.
Reading about Summit's days as a high school and college player brought back some of my own memories of what sports were like in the 1960s and 70s. I can relate to playing basketball in matchbox gyms when a driving layup sometimes ended with a crash into the wall and too much arch on a jump shot could damage the ceiling tiles. Our practice football field and stadium at Annapolis High was a reclaimed landfill site that still had bits of glass in the dirt. Today's players enjoy the luxury of artificial turf and state-of-the-art facilities.
Although, unlike Summit's UT-Martin basketball team, none of the Shepherd College football teams that I played for had to sleep on the gym floor when we visited for an away game, I remember that our travel arrangements were far from first class. Twice we flew to far-off southern West Virginia for games against West Virginia Tech and Concord College on an Appalachian Airlines salvaged DC-1. We landed on a sawed-off mountain top that left no margin for error, unloaded our gear, and then had a bumpy bus ride to arrive at our destination just 15 minutes before game time. Just enough time to get dressed and go out on the field to get thumped 67-18, dress, and hop on the plane for the return traumatic flight.
Once, when we traveled by bus to Cleveland for a game, we pulled off onto the shoulder of the interstate and got off the bus to stretch our legs and enjoy the peanut butter and jelly boxed lunches provided by our cafeteria dieticians. Apparently, they hadn't done much research on pre-game meals. It was good that we stopped so that our good luck charm manager/mascot, who hadn't been included in our travel list, was retrieved from the bus's luggage compartment where he had him stowed away. Luckily, he wasn't asphyxiated by the fumes.
On another occasion, our team bus had to make the ascent over one of Pennsylvania's steep mountains, only to have the engine die a quarter mile from the top. Everyone exited the bus, grabbed all of our equipment, and walked to the top. The bus, thousands of pounds lighter, was able to sputter and inch its way to join us, and we loaded up and were on our way.
The point of this "Coach's Corner" column is that maybe today's athletes are spoiled by all the glamour and glitz of modern-day elite sports programs, where prestigious high school teams fly cross-country to play in games that are telecast on ESPN. Every signing of a high school recruit who has chosen some lucky university has his/her name appear on a rolling line on all the TV screens, trumpeting his/her fame and fortune. College players have tutors (and nowadays lawyers) provided to make sure that they can stay eligible or out of jail. Pro players have private eyes assigned by the club owner to make sure that the player can get to the team meeting on time or doesn't get shot in a nightclub the night before a game.
The Old Coach likes to think that what happened in Pat Summit's early days was closer to the way athletics were meant to be. You endured personal sacrifice and hardship. You appreciated the privilege of being able to play a game, not for fame and fortune, but for love of the game. You coached, not for the recognition and honors you might receive along the way, but because you could affect young lives in a positive way.
Slicing, hooking, even whiffing on the ball and picking up large chunks of turf can lead a golfer to fits, tantrums and hours spent correcting mechanics at the driving range. Hundreds, even thousands of dollars can be spent on some of golf’s finer points.
So, it’s no surprise that a niche industry has cropped up successfully alongside the sport.
An array of tools, manuals and other aids have been dedicated to the tempo of a swing, the short game, alignment and nearly anything else that might help players shave strokes off their game.
Ken Zuzik of Canfield and his son Matt, a graduate of Ohio State University who now works as a pharmacist in Florida, think they might have a place in that niche industry with a product that could impact golfers everywhere.
“I was taking lessons with a pro and, he told me to hit balls out to my target,” Zuzik, who has played the game since he was about 12, recently recalled.
Zuzik’s instructor asked him where he thought he was aiming. Zuzik naturally replied at the hole. But it turned out he was far left of his target. In this case, Zuzik’s swing was not at fault for landing the ball to the left of the green, but rather it was his alignment.
“He straightened me all out, and it felt really awkward,” Zuzik said. “I went home that night and I was looking at my kitchen floor, thinking if I lined up with these square tiles, I’d be all set — that’s how it all got started.”
It was about 31/2 years ago when Zuzik began tinkering around with an assortment of pipes, wood and dowels to mimic those squares on the kitchen floor, envisioning an alignment tool that might translate to a real course where golfers could easily pack it away in their bags as another convenient tool to help their game.
He began communicating with his son about his ideas. They soon began shipping various objects back and forth to hammer out a solid concept.
What began as a do-it-yourself project in the hands of Zuzik, a builder and developer by day, was slowly becoming a viable commercial product, as Zuzik and his son put their minds and passion into what they once called the “Golf Square.”
All at once though, the name was no longer an option. It already was trademarked under a very different product.
In January, when Zuzik and his son decided to display their square at the 2013 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., one of the largest events in the industry that featured more than 1,000 vendors.
The product won Most Innovative Concept, sending a wave of potential investors, distributors, manufacturers and merchandisers to Zuzik’s door.
“That’s when we decided this was for real,” Zuzik said. “We must have talked to 200 people at the expo. It’s one of the largest trade shows in the world. We’ve been approached by a guy from Ireland who lives in China and another guy from Germany. They want to be our distributors.”
Even if the square became an overnight success, designing, manufacturing and getting a product to market is no easy task.
Zuzik said the tool is about 80 percent complete, and he already has traveled to Canada to meet with a firm about mass-producing it for stores and pro shops.
Essentially, the alignment square is made of plastic. It measures 1 inch square, by 40 inches long. It includes four rods. The bottom one adjusts to accommodate a shorter stance for irons and a longer stance for drivers. The square is retractable as well so it can fit in a golfer’s bag.
The square quantifies a player’s alignment, which means a number is set to a golfer’s stance. Three measurements are visible on the rods to track how far away the player stands from the ball, the width of the player’s stance and where the ball is placed. The square is pointed at the target and the golfer is aligned.
“The most-common golf aids in the world are alignment rods,” Zuzik said. “If you go to a pro to get instruction, they’ll line you up with these alignment rods. Instead of two rods, we’ve made it into one apparatus and given you more features, rather than just fixing your aim.”
What makes the story of Pat Summit's life so compelling is that she came from a rural farm background in Clarksburg, Tenn., was an All-American player at the University of Tennessee-Martin, was captain of the first United States women's basketball team when that sport was added in the 1976 Olympics, and, at the age of 22, became the head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers, a position that she held for 38 years. During that span, her Lady Vols won eight NCAA championships, never had a losing record, and graduated every player. She is the winningest college basketball coach, male or female, in history. In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to be added to her being named as the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in 2000. She was also named by The Sporting News as No. 11 in their 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time.
Sadly, at age 60, Summit developed early onset Alzheimer's disease, which forced her to retire after the 2011-12 season. Her legacy continues to grow, however, as 19 of her former players or coaching assistants have gone on to coach at the college level.
Reading about Summit's days as a high school and college player brought back some of my own memories of what sports were like in the 1960s and 70s. I can relate to playing basketball in matchbox gyms when a driving layup sometimes ended with a crash into the wall and too much arch on a jump shot could damage the ceiling tiles. Our practice football field and stadium at Annapolis High was a reclaimed landfill site that still had bits of glass in the dirt. Today's players enjoy the luxury of artificial turf and state-of-the-art facilities.
Although, unlike Summit's UT-Martin basketball team, none of the Shepherd College football teams that I played for had to sleep on the gym floor when we visited for an away game, I remember that our travel arrangements were far from first class. Twice we flew to far-off southern West Virginia for games against West Virginia Tech and Concord College on an Appalachian Airlines salvaged DC-1. We landed on a sawed-off mountain top that left no margin for error, unloaded our gear, and then had a bumpy bus ride to arrive at our destination just 15 minutes before game time. Just enough time to get dressed and go out on the field to get thumped 67-18, dress, and hop on the plane for the return traumatic flight.
Once, when we traveled by bus to Cleveland for a game, we pulled off onto the shoulder of the interstate and got off the bus to stretch our legs and enjoy the peanut butter and jelly boxed lunches provided by our cafeteria dieticians. Apparently, they hadn't done much research on pre-game meals. It was good that we stopped so that our good luck charm manager/mascot, who hadn't been included in our travel list, was retrieved from the bus's luggage compartment where he had him stowed away. Luckily, he wasn't asphyxiated by the fumes.
On another occasion, our team bus had to make the ascent over one of Pennsylvania's steep mountains, only to have the engine die a quarter mile from the top. Everyone exited the bus, grabbed all of our equipment, and walked to the top. The bus, thousands of pounds lighter, was able to sputter and inch its way to join us, and we loaded up and were on our way.
The point of this "Coach's Corner" column is that maybe today's athletes are spoiled by all the glamour and glitz of modern-day elite sports programs, where prestigious high school teams fly cross-country to play in games that are telecast on ESPN. Every signing of a high school recruit who has chosen some lucky university has his/her name appear on a rolling line on all the TV screens, trumpeting his/her fame and fortune. College players have tutors (and nowadays lawyers) provided to make sure that they can stay eligible or out of jail. Pro players have private eyes assigned by the club owner to make sure that the player can get to the team meeting on time or doesn't get shot in a nightclub the night before a game.
The Old Coach likes to think that what happened in Pat Summit's early days was closer to the way athletics were meant to be. You endured personal sacrifice and hardship. You appreciated the privilege of being able to play a game, not for fame and fortune, but for love of the game. You coached, not for the recognition and honors you might receive along the way, but because you could affect young lives in a positive way.
Slicing, hooking, even whiffing on the ball and picking up large chunks of turf can lead a golfer to fits, tantrums and hours spent correcting mechanics at the driving range. Hundreds, even thousands of dollars can be spent on some of golf’s finer points.
So, it’s no surprise that a niche industry has cropped up successfully alongside the sport.
An array of tools, manuals and other aids have been dedicated to the tempo of a swing, the short game, alignment and nearly anything else that might help players shave strokes off their game.
Ken Zuzik of Canfield and his son Matt, a graduate of Ohio State University who now works as a pharmacist in Florida, think they might have a place in that niche industry with a product that could impact golfers everywhere.
“I was taking lessons with a pro and, he told me to hit balls out to my target,” Zuzik, who has played the game since he was about 12, recently recalled.
Zuzik’s instructor asked him where he thought he was aiming. Zuzik naturally replied at the hole. But it turned out he was far left of his target. In this case, Zuzik’s swing was not at fault for landing the ball to the left of the green, but rather it was his alignment.
“He straightened me all out, and it felt really awkward,” Zuzik said. “I went home that night and I was looking at my kitchen floor, thinking if I lined up with these square tiles, I’d be all set — that’s how it all got started.”
It was about 31/2 years ago when Zuzik began tinkering around with an assortment of pipes, wood and dowels to mimic those squares on the kitchen floor, envisioning an alignment tool that might translate to a real course where golfers could easily pack it away in their bags as another convenient tool to help their game.
He began communicating with his son about his ideas. They soon began shipping various objects back and forth to hammer out a solid concept.
What began as a do-it-yourself project in the hands of Zuzik, a builder and developer by day, was slowly becoming a viable commercial product, as Zuzik and his son put their minds and passion into what they once called the “Golf Square.”
All at once though, the name was no longer an option. It already was trademarked under a very different product.
In January, when Zuzik and his son decided to display their square at the 2013 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., one of the largest events in the industry that featured more than 1,000 vendors.
The product won Most Innovative Concept, sending a wave of potential investors, distributors, manufacturers and merchandisers to Zuzik’s door.
“That’s when we decided this was for real,” Zuzik said. “We must have talked to 200 people at the expo. It’s one of the largest trade shows in the world. We’ve been approached by a guy from Ireland who lives in China and another guy from Germany. They want to be our distributors.”
Even if the square became an overnight success, designing, manufacturing and getting a product to market is no easy task.
Zuzik said the tool is about 80 percent complete, and he already has traveled to Canada to meet with a firm about mass-producing it for stores and pro shops.
Essentially, the alignment square is made of plastic. It measures 1 inch square, by 40 inches long. It includes four rods. The bottom one adjusts to accommodate a shorter stance for irons and a longer stance for drivers. The square is retractable as well so it can fit in a golfer’s bag.
The square quantifies a player’s alignment, which means a number is set to a golfer’s stance. Three measurements are visible on the rods to track how far away the player stands from the ball, the width of the player’s stance and where the ball is placed. The square is pointed at the target and the golfer is aligned.
“The most-common golf aids in the world are alignment rods,” Zuzik said. “If you go to a pro to get instruction, they’ll line you up with these alignment rods. Instead of two rods, we’ve made it into one apparatus and given you more features, rather than just fixing your aim.”
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Narcissism Keeps It From Seeing Itself As A Platform Not A Product
All of Facebook‘s recent actions betray two underlying beliefs that I can’t help but think are related. The first is that Facebook still believes itself to be a maker of products as opposed to a maintainer of a platform, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. The second, and more pernicious, is that its users are objects to be manipulated in programmatic ways.
Both of these beliefs are deeply ingrained in the DNA of the company and—since this is an identity proof—in the mind of its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It is very understandable why the company and Zuckerberg continue to think this way. The Facebook product has been so successful that it is the world’s largest social network (at least) by a factor of two. (See my story from yesterday about whether or not Google is starting to catch up.) Zuckerberg is a brilliant product engineer who understood intuitively how to remove barriers to make sharing of social information easier. The corollary to making a faster, more enjoyable user experience on the front end is the vast data model he and his engineers built for processing all of the resulting data on the backend.
If you look at the API documentation for the “user object” on Facebook, you see that it now has 39 attributes ranging from name, gender and age-range to sexual preference, political views and favorite athletes, as well as 44 potential connections to external content like Facebook pages managed, apps, games, photos and videos of the user and their friends. When you put all of this together, it is a large “categorical sort” that helps to filter people and their interests.
But as Devin Coldewey writes on TechCrunch today, “Facebook’s conception of each of its users is an endless series of nested categories. Zuckerberg’s joke slide showing a galaxy of pull-down filter boxes was more revealing than they let on.” (Does he mean the image below?) The fact is, that if you are a programmer, you can’t help but think of users as objects. That’s the way you do it in code.
All of Facebook‘s recent actions betray two underlying beliefs that I can’t help but think are related. The first is that Facebook still believes itself to be a maker of products as opposed to a maintainer of a platform, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. The second, and more pernicious, is that its users are objects to be manipulated in programmatic ways.
Both of these beliefs are deeply ingrained in the DNA of the company and—since this is an identity proof—in the mind of its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It is very understandable why the company and Zuckerberg continue to think this way. The Facebook product has been so successful that it is the world’s largest social network (at least) by a factor of two. (See my story from yesterday about whether or not Google is starting to catch up.) Zuckerberg is a brilliant product engineer who understood intuitively how to remove barriers to make sharing of social information easier. The corollary to making a faster, more enjoyable user experience on the front end is the vast data model he and his engineers built for processing all of the resulting data on the backend.
If you look at the API documentation for the “user object” on Facebook, you see that it now has 39 attributes ranging from name, gender and age-range to sexual preference, political views and favorite athletes, as well as 44 potential connections to external content like Facebook pages managed, apps, games, photos and videos of the user and their friends. When you put all of this together, it is a large “categorical sort” that helps to filter people and their interests.
But as Devin Coldewey writes on TechCrunch today, “Facebook’s conception of each of its users is an endless series of nested categories. Zuckerberg’s joke slide showing a galaxy of pull-down filter boxes was more revealing than they let on.” (Does he mean the image below?) The fact is, that if you are a programmer, you can’t help but think of users as objects. That’s the way you do it in code.
The departure of employees may force Wall Street to consider a wider range of people for positions. Heidrick & Struggles' Boehmner gave a presentation to a group of young professionals in Davos about his biggest challenge recruiting for big banks these days: getting executives to think creatively when filling positions.
In the presentation - called "Hiring an oddball" - Boehmner described how hard it is to get bank executives to hire creative and "quirky" leaders who do not "fit in" with the prototypical suited-up Wall Street mold, but who could help revolutionize the industry.
Instead, those quirky types are sought by Silicon Valley, and they may be happier there. Many prefer the laid back atmosphere, not to mention the challenges of building a business, and the promise of lucrative rewards at companies like Google , Facebook and smaller startups, Boehmner said.
"Banks are not getting top-level talent out of universities anymore, so in 10 to 15 years, there could be a big problem when it comes to leadership at the senior level of these firms," Boehmner said. "They're seeing big gaps in talent."
Boehmner said he performed a search for a technology position at a major investment bank, calling on candidates from Silicon Valley who might be lured to New York with mega-paychecks. He was denied by everyone he approached, he said.
On the flip side, Heidrick & Struggles also did a search for a mobile-payments company on the West Coast that was looking for someone with financial expertise but offered just one-quarter of the pay. In that case, "we got tons of applicants," said Boehmner.
Both of these beliefs are deeply ingrained in the DNA of the company and—since this is an identity proof—in the mind of its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It is very understandable why the company and Zuckerberg continue to think this way. The Facebook product has been so successful that it is the world’s largest social network (at least) by a factor of two. (See my story from yesterday about whether or not Google is starting to catch up.) Zuckerberg is a brilliant product engineer who understood intuitively how to remove barriers to make sharing of social information easier. The corollary to making a faster, more enjoyable user experience on the front end is the vast data model he and his engineers built for processing all of the resulting data on the backend.
If you look at the API documentation for the “user object” on Facebook, you see that it now has 39 attributes ranging from name, gender and age-range to sexual preference, political views and favorite athletes, as well as 44 potential connections to external content like Facebook pages managed, apps, games, photos and videos of the user and their friends. When you put all of this together, it is a large “categorical sort” that helps to filter people and their interests.
But as Devin Coldewey writes on TechCrunch today, “Facebook’s conception of each of its users is an endless series of nested categories. Zuckerberg’s joke slide showing a galaxy of pull-down filter boxes was more revealing than they let on.” (Does he mean the image below?) The fact is, that if you are a programmer, you can’t help but think of users as objects. That’s the way you do it in code.
All of Facebook‘s recent actions betray two underlying beliefs that I can’t help but think are related. The first is that Facebook still believes itself to be a maker of products as opposed to a maintainer of a platform, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. The second, and more pernicious, is that its users are objects to be manipulated in programmatic ways.
Both of these beliefs are deeply ingrained in the DNA of the company and—since this is an identity proof—in the mind of its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It is very understandable why the company and Zuckerberg continue to think this way. The Facebook product has been so successful that it is the world’s largest social network (at least) by a factor of two. (See my story from yesterday about whether or not Google is starting to catch up.) Zuckerberg is a brilliant product engineer who understood intuitively how to remove barriers to make sharing of social information easier. The corollary to making a faster, more enjoyable user experience on the front end is the vast data model he and his engineers built for processing all of the resulting data on the backend.
If you look at the API documentation for the “user object” on Facebook, you see that it now has 39 attributes ranging from name, gender and age-range to sexual preference, political views and favorite athletes, as well as 44 potential connections to external content like Facebook pages managed, apps, games, photos and videos of the user and their friends. When you put all of this together, it is a large “categorical sort” that helps to filter people and their interests.
But as Devin Coldewey writes on TechCrunch today, “Facebook’s conception of each of its users is an endless series of nested categories. Zuckerberg’s joke slide showing a galaxy of pull-down filter boxes was more revealing than they let on.” (Does he mean the image below?) The fact is, that if you are a programmer, you can’t help but think of users as objects. That’s the way you do it in code.
The departure of employees may force Wall Street to consider a wider range of people for positions. Heidrick & Struggles' Boehmner gave a presentation to a group of young professionals in Davos about his biggest challenge recruiting for big banks these days: getting executives to think creatively when filling positions.
In the presentation - called "Hiring an oddball" - Boehmner described how hard it is to get bank executives to hire creative and "quirky" leaders who do not "fit in" with the prototypical suited-up Wall Street mold, but who could help revolutionize the industry.
Instead, those quirky types are sought by Silicon Valley, and they may be happier there. Many prefer the laid back atmosphere, not to mention the challenges of building a business, and the promise of lucrative rewards at companies like Google , Facebook and smaller startups, Boehmner said.
"Banks are not getting top-level talent out of universities anymore, so in 10 to 15 years, there could be a big problem when it comes to leadership at the senior level of these firms," Boehmner said. "They're seeing big gaps in talent."
Boehmner said he performed a search for a technology position at a major investment bank, calling on candidates from Silicon Valley who might be lured to New York with mega-paychecks. He was denied by everyone he approached, he said.
On the flip side, Heidrick & Struggles also did a search for a mobile-payments company on the West Coast that was looking for someone with financial expertise but offered just one-quarter of the pay. In that case, "we got tons of applicants," said Boehmner.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Visions of our moody Sun
“It’s not enough to observe the Sun’s magnetic field throughout the course of a day. You need to to be able to observe it several times an hour in order to understand what causes a solar explosion, for example. So what we need is a very large telescope, that would provide us with detailed imagery four to five times more precise than what we have now,” says Bernard Gelly, an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
That’s the aim of the scientists working on an EU-backed project to develop a new solar telescope, that would help them better understand some of the Sun’s elusive physical and chemical processes.
“The quality of the pictures we get from the Sun is disturbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. Very often, we just don’t see clearly enough. That’s why the future European Solar Telescope will have what we call “an adaptative optics system” that will correct, in real-time, the deformations caused by the atmosphere,” says Manuel Collados, coordinator at the European Solar Telescope project at the Canarias Astrophysics Institute.
Researchers hope the new telescope, combined with existing ones already orbiting the Earth, will help forecast more accurately the Sun’s dangerous spats.
“We currently know what regions of the Sun are more likely to develop those sudden, huge eruptions and bursts of energy. We are even able to determine whether those eruptions will happen in one, two or three days. What we are currently unable to tell is when exactly they are going to take place, and how violent they are going to be,” adds Manuel Collados.
“The Sun produces energy through a reaction known as “nuclear fusion”. We think that this source of energy could one day become the answer to the energy crisis here on Earth,” says Héctor Socas Navarro, astrophysicist at the Canarias Astrophysics Institute.
“In principle, it is a clean source of energy, non polluting, and virtually unlimited. Major research projects are currently underway to try and reproduce that same energy source in reactors. If successful, this research could provide a vital solution to the current energy problems faced by humankind.”
"We're in a steady incline on our sales and listings, and that's really what we want," Jones said. "We want it to be a steadfast but slow growth; we don't want a spike and then a drop off the map. We're very encouraged this year. People were buying and selling all year long, even through the holidays."
Terri Covington, broker and owner of Covington Real Estate in Belton, said 2012 was a good year, even if it had its downtime.
"For our office, our sales have been up quite a bit from (2011)," Covington said. "The year in itself, we had a pretty good spring and then in the summer it was real flat, but it picked up back in the fall."
While experiencing some drastic changes, the market in Texas didn't experience the severe drops that parts of the nation did during the economic crisis, Jones said. According to the National Association of Realtors website, Texas has outpaced the rest of the nation.
"We never had the huge bust like California, Florida, Arizona, Ohio – a lot of states had a tough time," Jones said. "We fell, but not like them. Now we continue again to slowly rise."
Not only has Texas's real estate market done well, but, specifically, the market in Central Texas has stayed strong, which Jones attributes to location and strong economy.
"We have such a strong economy because of our marketplace," Jones said. "Our job market is good, we have industry, Scott & White is the biggest employer in the area."
She went on to say that because our area includes Temple, Belton, Killeen and Fort Hood that we have a little more stability in the job market than other places.
Location is another contributing factor to the stability of our market.
"I-35 has a great deal to do with it," she said. "That's how we get so much business to move here. Our prices are attractive even to the rest of the state. We're attractively priced in an attractive location."
All being said, both Covington and Jones are looking forward to what 2013 will bring. While rises and falls are always expected in real estate, both are optimistic about the year overall.
"I believe we're going to have a good year in sales," Jones said. "Things will be changing the most this year. I believe it is not longer just a buyer's market. We were there for several years. And sellers are not going to pay as many concessions as in the past. There's not going to be drastic reductions in sale prices. We have to educate the public to that. That will make, as we even out, both sides participate in the market more."
As with many others who look at the developments happening now and planned for the future, Covington said her optimism stems from the influx of business to the community.
"I feel like we're going to have a positive year (in 2013)," she said. "I don't see how we can't have a positive year with the amount of business that we've seen coming in and the excitement that is going on in our area. This is a great place and everybody seems to be recognizing that."
That’s the aim of the scientists working on an EU-backed project to develop a new solar telescope, that would help them better understand some of the Sun’s elusive physical and chemical processes.
“The quality of the pictures we get from the Sun is disturbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. Very often, we just don’t see clearly enough. That’s why the future European Solar Telescope will have what we call “an adaptative optics system” that will correct, in real-time, the deformations caused by the atmosphere,” says Manuel Collados, coordinator at the European Solar Telescope project at the Canarias Astrophysics Institute.
Researchers hope the new telescope, combined with existing ones already orbiting the Earth, will help forecast more accurately the Sun’s dangerous spats.
“We currently know what regions of the Sun are more likely to develop those sudden, huge eruptions and bursts of energy. We are even able to determine whether those eruptions will happen in one, two or three days. What we are currently unable to tell is when exactly they are going to take place, and how violent they are going to be,” adds Manuel Collados.
“The Sun produces energy through a reaction known as “nuclear fusion”. We think that this source of energy could one day become the answer to the energy crisis here on Earth,” says Héctor Socas Navarro, astrophysicist at the Canarias Astrophysics Institute.
“In principle, it is a clean source of energy, non polluting, and virtually unlimited. Major research projects are currently underway to try and reproduce that same energy source in reactors. If successful, this research could provide a vital solution to the current energy problems faced by humankind.”
"We're in a steady incline on our sales and listings, and that's really what we want," Jones said. "We want it to be a steadfast but slow growth; we don't want a spike and then a drop off the map. We're very encouraged this year. People were buying and selling all year long, even through the holidays."
Terri Covington, broker and owner of Covington Real Estate in Belton, said 2012 was a good year, even if it had its downtime.
"For our office, our sales have been up quite a bit from (2011)," Covington said. "The year in itself, we had a pretty good spring and then in the summer it was real flat, but it picked up back in the fall."
While experiencing some drastic changes, the market in Texas didn't experience the severe drops that parts of the nation did during the economic crisis, Jones said. According to the National Association of Realtors website, Texas has outpaced the rest of the nation.
"We never had the huge bust like California, Florida, Arizona, Ohio – a lot of states had a tough time," Jones said. "We fell, but not like them. Now we continue again to slowly rise."
Not only has Texas's real estate market done well, but, specifically, the market in Central Texas has stayed strong, which Jones attributes to location and strong economy.
"We have such a strong economy because of our marketplace," Jones said. "Our job market is good, we have industry, Scott & White is the biggest employer in the area."
She went on to say that because our area includes Temple, Belton, Killeen and Fort Hood that we have a little more stability in the job market than other places.
Location is another contributing factor to the stability of our market.
"I-35 has a great deal to do with it," she said. "That's how we get so much business to move here. Our prices are attractive even to the rest of the state. We're attractively priced in an attractive location."
All being said, both Covington and Jones are looking forward to what 2013 will bring. While rises and falls are always expected in real estate, both are optimistic about the year overall.
"I believe we're going to have a good year in sales," Jones said. "Things will be changing the most this year. I believe it is not longer just a buyer's market. We were there for several years. And sellers are not going to pay as many concessions as in the past. There's not going to be drastic reductions in sale prices. We have to educate the public to that. That will make, as we even out, both sides participate in the market more."
As with many others who look at the developments happening now and planned for the future, Covington said her optimism stems from the influx of business to the community.
"I feel like we're going to have a positive year (in 2013)," she said. "I don't see how we can't have a positive year with the amount of business that we've seen coming in and the excitement that is going on in our area. This is a great place and everybody seems to be recognizing that."
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
New library director takes over
On his first day on the job, Spencer Watts settled into a chair in his office and pronounced himself pleased with what he had seen so far.
“It’s a good system,” the new East Baton Rouge Parish Library director said of the 1.9-million-item, 540-employee system he took over on Monday. “It’s not perfect, there are always things we can do better.”
Watts, who spent the morning at the city-parish Human Resources department filling out forms and completing a drug and alcohol screen, said he was ready to get to work.
“We have major construction projects,” he said first when asked about his priorities. “I want to make sure those stay on track.”
Watts, who left the top job at the Mobile public library system in Alabama, was hired partly on the basis of his experience in overseeing library construction.
The East Baton Rouge Parish library system has four branches under construction or in the design phase: the Fairwood Branch Library on Old Hammond Highway, a new main library on Goodwood, the Rouzan branch library on Perkins, and the River Center Branch Library downtown.
The latter two have both engendered their share of controversy — Rouzan because of its association with developer Tommy Spinosa and the $21 million River Center branch library, which critics, including some on the Metro Council, have decried as excessively expensive.
Watts also said he plans to “work hard” to rebuild any broken relations from the departure of former Director David Farrar, who resigned in December 2011 after information became public about a 15-year-old Alabama criminal case in which he was accused of sexual abuse and impersonating a police officer.
“I am a totally different individual,” Watts said. “This is a new chapter.”
Watts said he plans to focus on becoming familiar with the parish’s library system, with its approximately 542 budgeted employees and $44 million budget, both more than double what he oversaw in Mobile.
“It’s a process,” Watts said. “It will be weeks before I have a good handle on it like I want to.”
Since he accepted the job, Watts said, East Baton Rouge Parish Library staff have sent him the minutes and video recordings of the Library Board of Control meetings so that he could begin to familiarize himself with the system.
One of the first non-construction projects Watts will oversee is the installation of a Radio-Frequency Identity tag system.
Watts, who oversaw the installation of a similar system in Mobile, said the system will save time on check-in and check-out, because items will not have to be individually scanned.
The system will also make it far easier to locate lost items, he said.
The library system has budgeted $1.2 million for the project, which will be split between equipment costs and paying a contractor to physically tag each of the library’s inventory 1.9 million items, said Assistant Library Director Mary Stein, who championed the RFID project last year, said.
Watts, who with his wife has been in Baton Rouge less than two weeks, said he had a positive initial impression of the city.
In addition to new class schedules, University of Alabama students are adjusting to campus parking changes upon their return from the holiday break, as various roads and portions of parking lots have been closed.
An initiative known as the Campus Master Plan, which was approved by the Board of Trustees in November, includes plans for a new 750-space parking deck near Riverside Residence Hall and adjustments to various parking lots and streets.
The Riverside parking deck began construction while students were away over the holiday and upon return, residents noticed that the construction had taken up precious parking spaces.
UA’s Housing and Residential Department emailed residents on Jan. 11, informing them the construction removed roughly 290 spaces on the west side of the Riverside East Yellow Residential surface lot. The emailed also stated 190 new spaces were available on the east side of the lot to “offset this loss of parking.”
Despite these accommodations, less parking is available for the 22,454 parking permits that were sold in fall 2012, said UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen, and some students often find themselves hard-pressed locating an available spot.
Leah Horn, a freshman majoring in communicative disorders, enjoys the protected parking of the Ferguson Deck but has noticed a general decrease in available spaces.
“It has become a lot harder to find a spot in that deck because so many people who normally park elsewhere have had to move because of the construction,” Horn said. “I feel that it might have been wiser to wait until the summer since it affects a large number of students.”
Although parking is currently limited, the Riverside parking deck will eventually provide more parking for the rapidly increasing number of students who live and drive on campus.
“Parking in the Riverside lot has definitely been a problem,” Matthew Warren, a freshman majoring in aerospace engineering, said. “The addition of the new deck will definitely help.”
Other changes made to parking spaces on campus include the closing of the South Rose Reserve lot, the SEC Reserve lot and the northern half of the South Ferguson lot. Barnwell lot is now only available to those with an orange residential parking pass.
In addition to the several parking lots undergoing adjustments, 7th Avenue and Margaret Drive have also been changed.
Seventh Avenue is now closed to through traffic and parking due to construction in the area. A new gate has been installed where Margaret Drive connects to Capstone Drive behind Gorgas Library.
Access to the gate is only available for faculty, staff and those with a UA disability permit. The gate can be opened by swiping an ACT card or purchasing an RFID tag for $10 to open it remotely. The gate will go up at 4:30 p.m. every weekday and will remain closed until 6 a.m. It will be open around the clock on weekends.
Along with the new gate, two spaces to the right of Margaret Drive have been converted to a turn-around area. Chris D’Esposito, assistant director of parking services, said the gate was constructed to create a cleaner flow of traffic.
“It’s a good system,” the new East Baton Rouge Parish Library director said of the 1.9-million-item, 540-employee system he took over on Monday. “It’s not perfect, there are always things we can do better.”
Watts, who spent the morning at the city-parish Human Resources department filling out forms and completing a drug and alcohol screen, said he was ready to get to work.
“We have major construction projects,” he said first when asked about his priorities. “I want to make sure those stay on track.”
Watts, who left the top job at the Mobile public library system in Alabama, was hired partly on the basis of his experience in overseeing library construction.
The East Baton Rouge Parish library system has four branches under construction or in the design phase: the Fairwood Branch Library on Old Hammond Highway, a new main library on Goodwood, the Rouzan branch library on Perkins, and the River Center Branch Library downtown.
The latter two have both engendered their share of controversy — Rouzan because of its association with developer Tommy Spinosa and the $21 million River Center branch library, which critics, including some on the Metro Council, have decried as excessively expensive.
Watts also said he plans to “work hard” to rebuild any broken relations from the departure of former Director David Farrar, who resigned in December 2011 after information became public about a 15-year-old Alabama criminal case in which he was accused of sexual abuse and impersonating a police officer.
“I am a totally different individual,” Watts said. “This is a new chapter.”
Watts said he plans to focus on becoming familiar with the parish’s library system, with its approximately 542 budgeted employees and $44 million budget, both more than double what he oversaw in Mobile.
“It’s a process,” Watts said. “It will be weeks before I have a good handle on it like I want to.”
Since he accepted the job, Watts said, East Baton Rouge Parish Library staff have sent him the minutes and video recordings of the Library Board of Control meetings so that he could begin to familiarize himself with the system.
One of the first non-construction projects Watts will oversee is the installation of a Radio-Frequency Identity tag system.
Watts, who oversaw the installation of a similar system in Mobile, said the system will save time on check-in and check-out, because items will not have to be individually scanned.
The system will also make it far easier to locate lost items, he said.
The library system has budgeted $1.2 million for the project, which will be split between equipment costs and paying a contractor to physically tag each of the library’s inventory 1.9 million items, said Assistant Library Director Mary Stein, who championed the RFID project last year, said.
Watts, who with his wife has been in Baton Rouge less than two weeks, said he had a positive initial impression of the city.
In addition to new class schedules, University of Alabama students are adjusting to campus parking changes upon their return from the holiday break, as various roads and portions of parking lots have been closed.
An initiative known as the Campus Master Plan, which was approved by the Board of Trustees in November, includes plans for a new 750-space parking deck near Riverside Residence Hall and adjustments to various parking lots and streets.
The Riverside parking deck began construction while students were away over the holiday and upon return, residents noticed that the construction had taken up precious parking spaces.
UA’s Housing and Residential Department emailed residents on Jan. 11, informing them the construction removed roughly 290 spaces on the west side of the Riverside East Yellow Residential surface lot. The emailed also stated 190 new spaces were available on the east side of the lot to “offset this loss of parking.”
Despite these accommodations, less parking is available for the 22,454 parking permits that were sold in fall 2012, said UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen, and some students often find themselves hard-pressed locating an available spot.
Leah Horn, a freshman majoring in communicative disorders, enjoys the protected parking of the Ferguson Deck but has noticed a general decrease in available spaces.
“It has become a lot harder to find a spot in that deck because so many people who normally park elsewhere have had to move because of the construction,” Horn said. “I feel that it might have been wiser to wait until the summer since it affects a large number of students.”
Although parking is currently limited, the Riverside parking deck will eventually provide more parking for the rapidly increasing number of students who live and drive on campus.
“Parking in the Riverside lot has definitely been a problem,” Matthew Warren, a freshman majoring in aerospace engineering, said. “The addition of the new deck will definitely help.”
Other changes made to parking spaces on campus include the closing of the South Rose Reserve lot, the SEC Reserve lot and the northern half of the South Ferguson lot. Barnwell lot is now only available to those with an orange residential parking pass.
In addition to the several parking lots undergoing adjustments, 7th Avenue and Margaret Drive have also been changed.
Seventh Avenue is now closed to through traffic and parking due to construction in the area. A new gate has been installed where Margaret Drive connects to Capstone Drive behind Gorgas Library.
Access to the gate is only available for faculty, staff and those with a UA disability permit. The gate can be opened by swiping an ACT card or purchasing an RFID tag for $10 to open it remotely. The gate will go up at 4:30 p.m. every weekday and will remain closed until 6 a.m. It will be open around the clock on weekends.
Along with the new gate, two spaces to the right of Margaret Drive have been converted to a turn-around area. Chris D’Esposito, assistant director of parking services, said the gate was constructed to create a cleaner flow of traffic.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
How not to catch the norovirus
The laugh-a-minute pro-celebrity puking bug known by the streetname "norovirus" continues to squirm its way through the population, effortlesslytransforming ordinarily carefree human beings into spluttering, sulphurous geysers of molten waste. Everywhere the norovirus goes it leaves vast steaming lakes of freshly expelled vomit in its wake. It's like Piers Morgan, but invisible. Which actually makes it slightly better than Piers Morgan.
Everyone hates the norovirus, with the exception of two distinct groups. First: scientists. Professor Ian Goodfellow, who has spent the past decade studying it, has lovingly dubbed the norovirus "the Ferrari of the virus world", not because it makes the contents of your stomach accelerate from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, but because it's so ruthlessly efficient. Requiring a mere 20 particles to seize command of its victims, the norovirus is 200 times more infectious than Daydream Believer by The Monkees. Consequently many scientists claim to be "impressed" by the thing – a bit like admiring Nazi architecture, if you ask me.
It must be brilliant being a scientist during an outbreak like this because if you get infected yourself, you can at least take the edge off your suffering by admiring the sheer force of your symptoms. The fascinating pitter-patter of stomach contents against the back of your teeth as a fearsome torrent of spew erupts from within like a liquid poltergeist fleeing an exorcism. The impressive way your backside emits high-pressure jets of hot fluid, like the Hulk squeezing silty boiled water from a Fairy Liquid bottle by clenching it abruptly in his fist. The searing aftermath, as your throat rages as though sandpapered and your anus screams like a scalded button. This is nature in all its raw majesty. Film it in HD, get David Attenborough to record the soundtrack, and you've got a Sunday evening treat for millions.
Not that scientists do all the vomiting themselves. Researchers at Derbyshire Health and Safety Laboratory have developed a "vomiting robot" called Larry, to help them understand how far the virus can spread when someone spews it round the room. They push a button, Larry projectile-pukes, and then they analyse the spread of droplets. Must be a hard job to hold down when you've got a hangover. I imagine they have short lunch breaks.
The other group of norolovers are newspaper editors, who get to fill their front pages on the quiet post-Christmas news days with headlines like PALACE "FULL OF VOMIT" and BILLIONS DEFECATE. If, like me, you're an emetophobe – someone with an irrational fear of vomiting – such headlines are on a par with MADMAN ON LOOSE AND STANDING BEHIND YOU. Traditionally, I've been a bit of a wreck during puke season, but this year I seem to have finally conquered my fear of the norovirus. Mainly because I still haven't caught it. And unless I'm one of the small percentage who's naturally immune, I suspect I haven't caught the norovirus thanks to a very simple mental trick I observe religiously at this time each year.
It's easy. Just imagine you're a murderer, that the entire world is your crime scene, and that if you leave a single fingerprint anywhere, you are GUARANTEED to die in jail. If you adhere to this rule, you won't touch anything with your bare hands, and almost certainly won't fall victim. You'll also get so good at opening doors with your elbows you'll feel like a Paralympian.
Hey, it's not that impractical. You get used to thinking like a killer pretty quickly, and the sheer challenge of it can be fun. Using the office loo, for instance, becomes a task from the Crystal Maze. Using a clean bit of toilet paper as a makeshift "glove" you can lift the seat, shut the lock, operate the flusher and then, if you're really good, spin round and unlock the door, then toss said "paper glove" down the swirling pan before the flush cycle finishes. Do it correctly and an entire forensic team couldn't prove you were there. You're a devious villain conducting the perfect crime, like the dashing guest star in the opening scene of a classic Columbo. Just like that. Apart from the bit where you pulled your pants down and did a poo.
Sometimes you may have to shake people's hands, which is problematic. The trick here is to imagine that you're James Bond, and they're a double agent who's just stuck a small explosive device to your skin. If you don't scrub it off with soap and water within 60 seconds millions will perish – starting, perhaps most significantly, with yourself.
The revolting noro-friendly practice of shaking hands is reason enough never to become a politician or a movie star, or some combination of the two, like Barack Obama. Imagine how many faeces-encrusted palms he's had to shake. And then he's always having to pose for a photograph afterwards, eating a hotdog or something. He might as well be licking the damp porcelain rim of a great big bum-Pollocked bog bowl.
If things go disastrously wrong, and you've shaken someone's revolting disease-sodden hand and you don't have immediate access to hot water and a sink, it's imperative to remember your hand is "evil" until you've had a chance to wash it. Don't eat with it, and don't pick your nose or rub your eye with it either or you will die. Keep it in a pocket. Or sit on it, like a moron watching a lapdancer. Just don't use it.
The ladies once again had the day all to themselves last night (Jan. 5, 2013) as the all-female Invicta Fighting Championships held its fourth event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas where once again, a title was on the line.
While the planned pay-per-view did not go as planned, with credit card payments not being processed properly by Ustream, forcing Invicta President Shannon Knapp to jump the gun and remove the paywall, granting free access to all comers and offering a refund to anyone who wanted one, the ladies stepped up and continued to put on a good show for all the fans of the budding promotion.
The main event in particular was very interesting as unheralded Aussie Bec Hyatt stepped up on short notice to fight for the promotion's inaugural strawweight title against top 115 pound wrestler Carla Esparza.
Despite fighting on just eight days notice, Hyatt entered the bout as the better conditioned fighter and was actually having her way with Esparza on the feet. Her problem was she couldn't keep the fight there as the three time All-American wrestler was repeatedly able to take her down and work both ground and pound as well as guard passes and the occasional submission attempt.
The story of the fight was Hyatt's resolve, attacking with heavy right hands whenever the bout would get to its feet and scoring with big shots until being taken down over and over and over again.
While Esparza dominated the first three rounds of the fight with her wrestling, her pace slowed entering the championship rounds and Hyatt capitalized, scoring her best strikes of the fight and making fans and viewers wonder whether she'd be able to pull off the tremendous upset.
It wasn't meant to be, however, as Esparza would continue being able to drag the fight to the ground, although her output dropped and she wasn't able to keep the fight on the ground like she had in the beginning of the bout. With 15 seconds left in the fight, Hyatt threw a huge flurry that put "The Cookie Monster" on her back but she couldn't finish the fight before the final bell rang, granting Esparza the unanimous decision victory and the title.
The night's co-main event saw bantamweights Alexis Davis and Shayna Baszler put on a tremendous showing for the fans as both ladies battled for nearly three full rounds until one went unconscious. Baszler had won the initial match-up in 2010 when Davis took the bout on short notice, but this time, both ladies had a full training camp and plenty of time to prepare.
This time around, Davis was the aggressor, outstriking Baszler on the feet with a heavy right hand and occasional leg kicks and going after "The Queen of Spades" on the ground, nearly catching the veteran with a nasty leg lock at the end of the first round which may have altered the rest of the fight.
Baszler favored her other leg slightly from that point on and Davis never stopped going after her, working punches on the feet and more submissions whenever the fight would go to the ground, nearly securing an armbar in the second. Davis continued attacking in the stand-up, eventually overwhelming Baszler in the third and forcing the veteran to lose her balance backing up. After a series of heavy ground and pound shots, the Canadian pounced on a rear naked choke opportunity and squeezed until Baszler went unconscious, winning via technical submission and avenging that prior loss in emphatic fashion.
In another of the most entertaining bouts of the evening, Leslie Smith and Raquel Pennington put forth a spirited display for three full rounds in a battle between Pennington's superior wrestling and one-punch power and Smith's conditioning, pace and overall technical punching prowess.
Pennington started strong, scoring with heavy strikes on the feet and outworking Smith in the clinch and on the ground as her vocal fanbase cheered her on, but Smith persevered, surviving a first round wardrobe malfunction and coming back with superior output of punches in both the second and third rounds as Pennington's pace slowed.
Smith added fuel to the grudge match's flames by repeatedly walking back to the center of the cage whenever Pennington tried to maneuver the bout towards the fence and raising her hands in a taunting manner, trying to egg Pennington on and get her to open up on the feet. Her strategy paid off as she was able to outland Pennington in the final two rounds to take home a unanimous decision.
Everyone hates the norovirus, with the exception of two distinct groups. First: scientists. Professor Ian Goodfellow, who has spent the past decade studying it, has lovingly dubbed the norovirus "the Ferrari of the virus world", not because it makes the contents of your stomach accelerate from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, but because it's so ruthlessly efficient. Requiring a mere 20 particles to seize command of its victims, the norovirus is 200 times more infectious than Daydream Believer by The Monkees. Consequently many scientists claim to be "impressed" by the thing – a bit like admiring Nazi architecture, if you ask me.
It must be brilliant being a scientist during an outbreak like this because if you get infected yourself, you can at least take the edge off your suffering by admiring the sheer force of your symptoms. The fascinating pitter-patter of stomach contents against the back of your teeth as a fearsome torrent of spew erupts from within like a liquid poltergeist fleeing an exorcism. The impressive way your backside emits high-pressure jets of hot fluid, like the Hulk squeezing silty boiled water from a Fairy Liquid bottle by clenching it abruptly in his fist. The searing aftermath, as your throat rages as though sandpapered and your anus screams like a scalded button. This is nature in all its raw majesty. Film it in HD, get David Attenborough to record the soundtrack, and you've got a Sunday evening treat for millions.
Not that scientists do all the vomiting themselves. Researchers at Derbyshire Health and Safety Laboratory have developed a "vomiting robot" called Larry, to help them understand how far the virus can spread when someone spews it round the room. They push a button, Larry projectile-pukes, and then they analyse the spread of droplets. Must be a hard job to hold down when you've got a hangover. I imagine they have short lunch breaks.
The other group of norolovers are newspaper editors, who get to fill their front pages on the quiet post-Christmas news days with headlines like PALACE "FULL OF VOMIT" and BILLIONS DEFECATE. If, like me, you're an emetophobe – someone with an irrational fear of vomiting – such headlines are on a par with MADMAN ON LOOSE AND STANDING BEHIND YOU. Traditionally, I've been a bit of a wreck during puke season, but this year I seem to have finally conquered my fear of the norovirus. Mainly because I still haven't caught it. And unless I'm one of the small percentage who's naturally immune, I suspect I haven't caught the norovirus thanks to a very simple mental trick I observe religiously at this time each year.
It's easy. Just imagine you're a murderer, that the entire world is your crime scene, and that if you leave a single fingerprint anywhere, you are GUARANTEED to die in jail. If you adhere to this rule, you won't touch anything with your bare hands, and almost certainly won't fall victim. You'll also get so good at opening doors with your elbows you'll feel like a Paralympian.
Hey, it's not that impractical. You get used to thinking like a killer pretty quickly, and the sheer challenge of it can be fun. Using the office loo, for instance, becomes a task from the Crystal Maze. Using a clean bit of toilet paper as a makeshift "glove" you can lift the seat, shut the lock, operate the flusher and then, if you're really good, spin round and unlock the door, then toss said "paper glove" down the swirling pan before the flush cycle finishes. Do it correctly and an entire forensic team couldn't prove you were there. You're a devious villain conducting the perfect crime, like the dashing guest star in the opening scene of a classic Columbo. Just like that. Apart from the bit where you pulled your pants down and did a poo.
Sometimes you may have to shake people's hands, which is problematic. The trick here is to imagine that you're James Bond, and they're a double agent who's just stuck a small explosive device to your skin. If you don't scrub it off with soap and water within 60 seconds millions will perish – starting, perhaps most significantly, with yourself.
The revolting noro-friendly practice of shaking hands is reason enough never to become a politician or a movie star, or some combination of the two, like Barack Obama. Imagine how many faeces-encrusted palms he's had to shake. And then he's always having to pose for a photograph afterwards, eating a hotdog or something. He might as well be licking the damp porcelain rim of a great big bum-Pollocked bog bowl.
If things go disastrously wrong, and you've shaken someone's revolting disease-sodden hand and you don't have immediate access to hot water and a sink, it's imperative to remember your hand is "evil" until you've had a chance to wash it. Don't eat with it, and don't pick your nose or rub your eye with it either or you will die. Keep it in a pocket. Or sit on it, like a moron watching a lapdancer. Just don't use it.
The ladies once again had the day all to themselves last night (Jan. 5, 2013) as the all-female Invicta Fighting Championships held its fourth event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas where once again, a title was on the line.
While the planned pay-per-view did not go as planned, with credit card payments not being processed properly by Ustream, forcing Invicta President Shannon Knapp to jump the gun and remove the paywall, granting free access to all comers and offering a refund to anyone who wanted one, the ladies stepped up and continued to put on a good show for all the fans of the budding promotion.
The main event in particular was very interesting as unheralded Aussie Bec Hyatt stepped up on short notice to fight for the promotion's inaugural strawweight title against top 115 pound wrestler Carla Esparza.
Despite fighting on just eight days notice, Hyatt entered the bout as the better conditioned fighter and was actually having her way with Esparza on the feet. Her problem was she couldn't keep the fight there as the three time All-American wrestler was repeatedly able to take her down and work both ground and pound as well as guard passes and the occasional submission attempt.
The story of the fight was Hyatt's resolve, attacking with heavy right hands whenever the bout would get to its feet and scoring with big shots until being taken down over and over and over again.
While Esparza dominated the first three rounds of the fight with her wrestling, her pace slowed entering the championship rounds and Hyatt capitalized, scoring her best strikes of the fight and making fans and viewers wonder whether she'd be able to pull off the tremendous upset.
It wasn't meant to be, however, as Esparza would continue being able to drag the fight to the ground, although her output dropped and she wasn't able to keep the fight on the ground like she had in the beginning of the bout. With 15 seconds left in the fight, Hyatt threw a huge flurry that put "The Cookie Monster" on her back but she couldn't finish the fight before the final bell rang, granting Esparza the unanimous decision victory and the title.
The night's co-main event saw bantamweights Alexis Davis and Shayna Baszler put on a tremendous showing for the fans as both ladies battled for nearly three full rounds until one went unconscious. Baszler had won the initial match-up in 2010 when Davis took the bout on short notice, but this time, both ladies had a full training camp and plenty of time to prepare.
This time around, Davis was the aggressor, outstriking Baszler on the feet with a heavy right hand and occasional leg kicks and going after "The Queen of Spades" on the ground, nearly catching the veteran with a nasty leg lock at the end of the first round which may have altered the rest of the fight.
Baszler favored her other leg slightly from that point on and Davis never stopped going after her, working punches on the feet and more submissions whenever the fight would go to the ground, nearly securing an armbar in the second. Davis continued attacking in the stand-up, eventually overwhelming Baszler in the third and forcing the veteran to lose her balance backing up. After a series of heavy ground and pound shots, the Canadian pounced on a rear naked choke opportunity and squeezed until Baszler went unconscious, winning via technical submission and avenging that prior loss in emphatic fashion.
In another of the most entertaining bouts of the evening, Leslie Smith and Raquel Pennington put forth a spirited display for three full rounds in a battle between Pennington's superior wrestling and one-punch power and Smith's conditioning, pace and overall technical punching prowess.
Pennington started strong, scoring with heavy strikes on the feet and outworking Smith in the clinch and on the ground as her vocal fanbase cheered her on, but Smith persevered, surviving a first round wardrobe malfunction and coming back with superior output of punches in both the second and third rounds as Pennington's pace slowed.
Smith added fuel to the grudge match's flames by repeatedly walking back to the center of the cage whenever Pennington tried to maneuver the bout towards the fence and raising her hands in a taunting manner, trying to egg Pennington on and get her to open up on the feet. Her strategy paid off as she was able to outland Pennington in the final two rounds to take home a unanimous decision.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
United States Attorneys Standardize
Panzura, a leading provider of global cloud storage solutions, today announced that the Executive Office for United States Attorneys has awarded a contract to standardize globally on Panzura for its next-generation Storage-as-a-Service platform serving all United States Attorneys' Office locations nationwide. The solution will consolidate storage from approximately 265 USAOs, across all U.S. judicial districts, to an internal storage cloud. The Panzura Global Cloud Storage System will replace some legacy distributed storage infrastructure with a centralized repository to improve data access, meet stringent security and performance standards and dramatically increase operational efficiency.
The Panzura Global Cloud Storage System provides globally-distributed organizations with a consolidated storage infrastructure that offers cross-site LAN access to all files, integrated file locking, global deduplication, military-grade encryption, continuous snapshots, fast replication and DR, advanced access management and massive scalability in capacity. In addition, Panzura meets critical federal compliance requirements for FIPS 140-2, FISMA Moderate and USGCB certifications.
Government agencies and commercial organizations commonly store data on their own filers, incurring large costs associated with their purchase and maintenance and those for upgrades, facilities and personnel.
With electronic discovery pushing decades-old storage architectures and capacity to their limits, the widespread adoption of cloud computing amongst all U.S. federal agencies is an ongoing initiative by the U.S. General Services Administration to streamline the creation of sustainable, cost-effective IT services for the federal government. Addressing increasing storage costs and sprawl is one goal of this initiative.
The use of Panzura by EOUSA exemplifies the push to move mission-critical applications and data to the cloud to avoid spiraling CapEx, manual IT intervention and data retrieval delays, while providing encryption features to support a public cloud option with all necessary security compliance.
With approximately 265 geographically dispersed USAOs and two existing data centers, United States Attorney locations share common characteristics, yet each district also features unique business mandates and varied storage footprints. The amount of storage ranges from approximately 3TB for smaller offices and up to 17TB for larger offices. Panzura storage replaces a siloed, dispersed infrastructure with a seamless, fast and centralized storage platform that is interconnected by a global file system and drastically reduces system-wide duplication of data.
With ubiquitous real-time access to all data globally, the Panzura solution allows EOUSA to leverage efficient cloud object storage to reduce CapEx significantly, while making users much more self-sufficient in finding and obtaining data whenever and wherever needed. Panzura's award-winning Global Cloud Storage System leverages cloud storage at the back end and presents a seamless NAS-like interface at the front end, which, along with all standard NAS features and controls, makes data feel local regardless of location. Data is securely accessed on a need-to-see basis, and chargeback capability allows IT to allocate internal costs according to usage.
"Panzura is proud to play a central role in the efforts of EOUSA to centralize data access across all United States Attorneys Offices, reduce costs, and meet stringent security requirements," said Randy Chou, CEO of Panzura. "EOUSA is leading the way to tap into the benefits of the cloud for a globally-distributed organization while meeting compliance and SLA requirements. Panzura will fill a vital need for highly-secure access to the efficiencies of the cloud with a tightly-integrated NAS solution to meet these aggressive storage goals of EOUSA, all while reducing costs across the board."
You might not think the state’s most powerful politician would take the time to show up for Town Meeting, but John Lynch isn’t your ordinary Governor.
People in town say it’s not unusual to see Lynch show up to the annual session wearing blue jeans a sweatshirt. And you won’t hear any long-winded speeches in front of the other residents in town, they say. Lynch keeps to himself and leaves the town’s business to selectmen.
“It’s kind of nice to see him at Town Meeting, everybody just lets him be a citizen,” said Hopkinton resident Sharon Rivard. “He’s just like everybody else when he’s there.”
Similar to his approval record, residents of the 5,500-person town smile and speak fondly about their popular leader and neighbor.
Lynch drives himself to the Colonial Village Pharmacy-Supermarket to shop for groceries, and is an active athlete, playing in neighborhood hockey games at Kimball Pond in the winter and cycling Hopkinton’s hilly landscape in warmer months.
“Sometimes you’ll see him out with his wife, walking his dog,” said Susan Hencke, a potter and Gould Hill neighbor of Lynch’s who has lived in Hopkinton for 18 years. “He’s just a regular guy in the community.”
Still, for other Hopkinton residents, Lynch’s iconic house on Gould Hill is the first thing that comes to mind when asked about their neighbor.
Lynch built his 11,000 square foot home atop Gould Hill, which sits 850 feet above sea level and offers the best views in town, some say one of the best views in the Granite State.
“Nobody here has a more beautiful view of the mountains,” said one resident who declined to give his name at Everyday Cafe in Contoocook on Saturday. “And he enjoys it. That’s all I know.”
The multi-million-dollar home was built with a 20-by-40-foot swimming pool, a tennis court, a cabana, and a detached three car garage, among other luxuries.
People in town took notice of the construction in part because of the owner, and also because of its location on the former Gould Hill apple orchard.
Some neighbors recall the troop of trucks that rumbled through Hopkinton to build on the magnificent, nearly eighty-acre property, with breathtaking views of Mount Washington.
Others bemoaned the loss of a small section of the orchard – which dates back to the 1700s – when the Lynches started construction back in 2006.
“It’s a big house, but there’s a lot of those around this state,” said Erick Leadbeater, who owned and operated the orchard and sold the land to the Lynches through a revocable trust called “Gould Hill ‘B’” when Leadbeater planned to retire. “Some people criticized him for that.
“I think it was more the other party, the typical political sniping. But it’s a well thought-out place and can be very entertaining.”
Lynch built on a part of the Gould Hill Orchards that produced Macintosh apples, Leadbeater said, which were losing favor at the time.
Cutting-Edge Public Sector Work Keeps Technicians Busy
Integrating electronics into mechanical systems has been - and will increasingly continue to be – a bittersweet trend in the industry. The benefits are infinite, but the challenges are daunting if dealers aren’t making an effort to grow with the technology.
As system and component efficiencies hike skyward, controls become more comprehensive and remote location access becomes the standard; technicians need more specialized training. This holds true in the residential market, but is especially important in the commercial sector. For commercial and industrial mechanical contractors, moving across the fast-paced, higher-tech terrain will mean: adapt or perish.
One firm that’s gone far beyond adaptation is ECI (Energy Control, Inc) in Rio Rancho, NM. The company has not only embraced this shift in mechanical systems, but has entirely structured around it. They’ve proven that board room thinking can translate into substantive, profitable, real-world problem-solving and growth.
As one of New Mexico’s foremost intelligent building leaders, ECI combines routinely-honed technical expertise and training with cutting-edge technology and energy efficient equipment to deliver environmental comfort, security, access, and control. They’ve made it their charter to stay on top of the newest technologies since the mid-1970s and are poised to adapt going forward as the presence and influence of electronics in the HVAC industry grow exponentially.
According to Randall, the conservation program — which started in 2010 — is a speedy approach to retrofitting and updating most of the district’s 60 buildings. Facilities are undergoing renovation, new controls are going in, boilers are being replaced and solar arrays are being planned. All the while, energy and water use decreases.
Two laars Rheos boilers are the primary source of heat at Santa Fe High School.
But the service Santa Fe School District gets from ECI extends beyond shaving energy bills. ECI provides district-wide equipment assessment, HVAC service, a preventative maintenance program and remote water metering. “If you’re not from Santa Fe or the Southwest, you might not understand how important water metering can be,” Randall says. “Our water expense is almost double our natural gas bill.”
ECI installed water smart meters at all high-use facilities to help curb the District’s $750,000 annual expense. The meters identified a few large leaks and other problem areas immediately. After those were handled, maintenance prevented further challenges, and a variety of low-flow fixtures went in next.
One of the first facilities to go under ECI scrutiny for the Energy Conservation Program was Aspen School. The old school accounts for 80,000 of the district’s 2.3 million square feet of conditioned space. An all-out renovation took place over the summer of 2010. To ensure completion by the strict deadline, ECI kept 10-15 employees on-site for the duration of the project. The nearly-windowless, circa-1970 middle school was completely gutted and rebuilt, and turned into a K-5 school. A second phase took place a year later, when an addition was constructed to house a 6th, 7th and 8th grade academy.
“Our portion of the Aspen retrofit consisted of removing the old boilers and air handlers, installing new equipment and a new building automation system” Frederick says. “With the retrofit project and the addition going on simultaneously, it was a real challenge at times.” With a combined capacity of 4.8 million BTUs, two Laars Rheos boilers heat the renovated portion of the school with VAV (variable air volume) boxes. The modulating, condensing boilers boast up to 98% efficiency; more than enough to appease even the stingiest of Energy Conservation Program staff. Seven, 15-ton, and two 30-ton AAON rooftop units cool the structure.
“People hear ‘New Mexico’ and automatically think it’s always 100 degrees here,” Randall says. “Not the case. We’re at about 7,000 feet above sea level here. Although it’s dry, we’re more of a mountain city than a desert city, from a heating standpoint.” Average annual lows in Santa Fe range from 18 to 55F, and the highs are between 43 and 86F.
“All the buildings in the district use a 72F target,” Swick says. “There’s a three-degree ‘dead-zone,’ meaning that in the summer, indoor temperature will reach 75F before the AC turns on, and 69F in winter before the system calls for heat.”
In the Santa Fe Historic District, the Carlos Gilbert School faced its own set of challenges. The 83,000 sq.ft. building was entirely gutted and rebuilt, but every change to the facility needed to be approved by the Historic Review Board.
Six ECI technicians pulled out old cast-iron boilers and pneumatic controls. The old boilers came out in pieces, but there was no simple way to bring the new units into the basement mechanical room. After careful consideration, a portion of a block wall was removed so that the boilers could be craned in. Luckily, the building remodel happened to call for the removal of the same wall.
Most ECI hydronic installations have a supply temp between 130-180F, with a reset schedule. Carlos Gilbert is no exception; two, 750 MBH Laars Pennant boilers supply 180F water to a four-pipe unit vent system. “We’ve standardized on Laars boilers,” said Frederick. “The quality of the product and unparalleled support from Boyd Engineering Supply, made the decision easy. I don’t know why more dealers don’t do it; we can be much more proficient in service and maintenance utilizing only one line.”
The district’s new flagship facility —the Amy Biehl Community School — is in a class of its own. Named after the American social activist who, in 1993, was murdered in South Africa while working to eliminate racial segregation and apartheid in that country. Her family went on to start the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust in an effort to reduce violence there. Biehl attended Santa Fe High, so the district found it appropriate to honor her with the building’s dedication. LEED Gold status is currently being sought.
The school acts as the beta test site for the water monitoring equipment that the district seeks to install in all facilities. Live water and natural gas usage data is posted online for students and community members to view. On the same website, real-time photovoltaic electric production data will be accessible, once the school’s photovoltaic is complete, which will provide up to 65 kW. Solar panels weren’t the only green technology to make list during the design phase. What’s a super-green school without geothermal HVAC? ECI drilled and fused the large exchange field needed to serve 160 tons of geothermal heat pump equipment.
“The Amy Biehl project does a good job of showcasing our specialty,” Frederick says. “We’re strictly commercial and industrial, and energy efficiency is always our main design criterion.” The school also puts ECI’s other talents to good use, like security and high-tech building automation controls. “When the economy downturned, we saw the private sector projects taper off, so we’re glad to have the work that comes from Santa Fe School District,” he continues. “Hopefully, the savings from renovation projects like Santa Fe’s are going to gain more recognition, validating the expense for quality installations.”
As system and component efficiencies hike skyward, controls become more comprehensive and remote location access becomes the standard; technicians need more specialized training. This holds true in the residential market, but is especially important in the commercial sector. For commercial and industrial mechanical contractors, moving across the fast-paced, higher-tech terrain will mean: adapt or perish.
One firm that’s gone far beyond adaptation is ECI (Energy Control, Inc) in Rio Rancho, NM. The company has not only embraced this shift in mechanical systems, but has entirely structured around it. They’ve proven that board room thinking can translate into substantive, profitable, real-world problem-solving and growth.
As one of New Mexico’s foremost intelligent building leaders, ECI combines routinely-honed technical expertise and training with cutting-edge technology and energy efficient equipment to deliver environmental comfort, security, access, and control. They’ve made it their charter to stay on top of the newest technologies since the mid-1970s and are poised to adapt going forward as the presence and influence of electronics in the HVAC industry grow exponentially.
According to Randall, the conservation program — which started in 2010 — is a speedy approach to retrofitting and updating most of the district’s 60 buildings. Facilities are undergoing renovation, new controls are going in, boilers are being replaced and solar arrays are being planned. All the while, energy and water use decreases.
Two laars Rheos boilers are the primary source of heat at Santa Fe High School.
But the service Santa Fe School District gets from ECI extends beyond shaving energy bills. ECI provides district-wide equipment assessment, HVAC service, a preventative maintenance program and remote water metering. “If you’re not from Santa Fe or the Southwest, you might not understand how important water metering can be,” Randall says. “Our water expense is almost double our natural gas bill.”
ECI installed water smart meters at all high-use facilities to help curb the District’s $750,000 annual expense. The meters identified a few large leaks and other problem areas immediately. After those were handled, maintenance prevented further challenges, and a variety of low-flow fixtures went in next.
One of the first facilities to go under ECI scrutiny for the Energy Conservation Program was Aspen School. The old school accounts for 80,000 of the district’s 2.3 million square feet of conditioned space. An all-out renovation took place over the summer of 2010. To ensure completion by the strict deadline, ECI kept 10-15 employees on-site for the duration of the project. The nearly-windowless, circa-1970 middle school was completely gutted and rebuilt, and turned into a K-5 school. A second phase took place a year later, when an addition was constructed to house a 6th, 7th and 8th grade academy.
“Our portion of the Aspen retrofit consisted of removing the old boilers and air handlers, installing new equipment and a new building automation system” Frederick says. “With the retrofit project and the addition going on simultaneously, it was a real challenge at times.” With a combined capacity of 4.8 million BTUs, two Laars Rheos boilers heat the renovated portion of the school with VAV (variable air volume) boxes. The modulating, condensing boilers boast up to 98% efficiency; more than enough to appease even the stingiest of Energy Conservation Program staff. Seven, 15-ton, and two 30-ton AAON rooftop units cool the structure.
“People hear ‘New Mexico’ and automatically think it’s always 100 degrees here,” Randall says. “Not the case. We’re at about 7,000 feet above sea level here. Although it’s dry, we’re more of a mountain city than a desert city, from a heating standpoint.” Average annual lows in Santa Fe range from 18 to 55F, and the highs are between 43 and 86F.
“All the buildings in the district use a 72F target,” Swick says. “There’s a three-degree ‘dead-zone,’ meaning that in the summer, indoor temperature will reach 75F before the AC turns on, and 69F in winter before the system calls for heat.”
In the Santa Fe Historic District, the Carlos Gilbert School faced its own set of challenges. The 83,000 sq.ft. building was entirely gutted and rebuilt, but every change to the facility needed to be approved by the Historic Review Board.
Six ECI technicians pulled out old cast-iron boilers and pneumatic controls. The old boilers came out in pieces, but there was no simple way to bring the new units into the basement mechanical room. After careful consideration, a portion of a block wall was removed so that the boilers could be craned in. Luckily, the building remodel happened to call for the removal of the same wall.
Most ECI hydronic installations have a supply temp between 130-180F, with a reset schedule. Carlos Gilbert is no exception; two, 750 MBH Laars Pennant boilers supply 180F water to a four-pipe unit vent system. “We’ve standardized on Laars boilers,” said Frederick. “The quality of the product and unparalleled support from Boyd Engineering Supply, made the decision easy. I don’t know why more dealers don’t do it; we can be much more proficient in service and maintenance utilizing only one line.”
The district’s new flagship facility —the Amy Biehl Community School — is in a class of its own. Named after the American social activist who, in 1993, was murdered in South Africa while working to eliminate racial segregation and apartheid in that country. Her family went on to start the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust in an effort to reduce violence there. Biehl attended Santa Fe High, so the district found it appropriate to honor her with the building’s dedication. LEED Gold status is currently being sought.
The school acts as the beta test site for the water monitoring equipment that the district seeks to install in all facilities. Live water and natural gas usage data is posted online for students and community members to view. On the same website, real-time photovoltaic electric production data will be accessible, once the school’s photovoltaic is complete, which will provide up to 65 kW. Solar panels weren’t the only green technology to make list during the design phase. What’s a super-green school without geothermal HVAC? ECI drilled and fused the large exchange field needed to serve 160 tons of geothermal heat pump equipment.
“The Amy Biehl project does a good job of showcasing our specialty,” Frederick says. “We’re strictly commercial and industrial, and energy efficiency is always our main design criterion.” The school also puts ECI’s other talents to good use, like security and high-tech building automation controls. “When the economy downturned, we saw the private sector projects taper off, so we’re glad to have the work that comes from Santa Fe School District,” he continues. “Hopefully, the savings from renovation projects like Santa Fe’s are going to gain more recognition, validating the expense for quality installations.”
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