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Many personal computers run on a version of Microsoft Windows. How is this both beneficial and detrimental?
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I think that the answer to this is going to be dependent on your own personal position on Microsoft as a company and Windows as an operating system. On one hand, I think that a case can be made for Microsoft being one of the preeminent corporations to help widen computer and internet access. Microsoft recognized an emptiness in the marketplace and was able to fill a need that was embraced by many. The presence of Microsoft reflects how the free market can work and how consumer voice can validate product development. That is to say that Microsoft was embraced by many and its wide proliferation in the marketplace reflects consumer voice and support. On the flip side of this coin would be the argument that Microsoft and its primary operating system of Windows actually hurts free market competition. Part of this comes from the belief that Microsoft's philosophy is rotted in the idea of "embrace, extend, and extinguish." The United States Department of Justice found that Microsoft's business philosophy was driven by an ingrained desire to coopt competitive proprietary ideas in order to drive out opposition. Those who believe that Microsoft Windows is seeking to kill competition will argue that such a philosophy does a disservice to the marketplace in that it actually dis-empowers the consumer. In the end, I think that one's decision about Microsoft Windows is going to be driven by their own personal belief of the company.


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Blood Money*Blood Money* August 26, 2011 K12NN Site Admin
By Joseph K. We are being asked (key word "asked") to be trained (key word "trained", like dogs,) by Pearson "Learning" August 29th and 30th. Pearson is going to pay us. Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, the money they are going to pay us is blood money. And the blood money they are going to pay us with is our own blood. It is the blood we bled when LAUSD cut our pay. It is the blood we will ... »

subset: commoncrawl


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Photo by Son of Groucho
Need to catch up? It's that time of the week again--round up day.
But first, a quick reminder that if you're at DFWCon this weekend, I'll be teaching two workshops (How To Write Love Scenes and Erotic Romance 101), so I'd love if you checked them out. I'll be giving out a "Why Does This Love Scene Suck?" checklist and possibly a book or two, so how can you pass that up? :)
AND, if you didn't see the annoucement on Twitter, I sorta sold another novella this week. So yay! From Publisher's Marketplace:
National Bestselling Author Roni Loren's NOT UNTIL YOU, the next in her Loving on the Edge series, to Kate Seaver at Berkley Heat, for publication in 2013, by Sara Megibow at Nelson Literary Agency (World English).
Alright, enough about me, now for the good stuff...
Writing and Publishing:
33 things to do when you are feeling a bit angry with your novel via YA Highway
On The Privilege Of Being A Writer via Chuck Wendig
Kate Hart: Uncovering YA Covers: 2011 <--really interesting stats and cool graphics
Author, Jody Hedlund: Everyone Gets Jealous, Even Published Authors
Jungle Red Writers: Control Your Social Media So It Doesn't Control You by Elizabeth Craig
When Self-Publishing Is More Useful As a Marketing Tool | Jane Friedman
Copyright Terms Should Be Shorter via Dear Author
The Correct Way To Share | Kait Nolan <--great post about re-blogging etiquette
In E-Reader Age of Writer's Cramp, a Book a Year Is Slacking - NYTimes.com <--This has definitely been my experience so far
A tale of two royalty statements « Courtney Milan's Blog
5 Undying Myths About Published Writers And Their Eerie Powers via Warrior Poet
Keep Money in Its Place - Rachelle Gardner <--on not counting on publishing a book to get you out of a financial crunch
The Intern: Publishers Weekly: The Deals You Don't See
On Other Stuff:
Tim Gunn and me via Janet Reid
What You May Have Missed Here:
Made of Win Monday: People Who Can Laugh At Themselves
Patrick Stewart - Boyfriend of the Week by Leah Petersen
Follow At Your Own Risk: Why My Social Media Shouldn't Have To Be G-Rated
Alright, that's all I've got for the week. Hope you have a great weekend!


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GPS Based Time Code Generator / Master Clock
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The ES-103U is a low-cost yet very accurate GPS Master Clock/Time Code Generator. The unit receives time and date information from Global Positioning System satellites and supplies this data to the user in the form of four (4) different types of time code ... IRIG-B, ASCII (RS-232C & USB), ESE-TC89™ and ESE-TC90™. Nine amber LED displays (.56") provide a digital display of the Day of Year, Hours, Minutes and Seconds data. Two (2) One Pulse Per Second outputs and a GPS "Lock" output are also standard features. A twelve-channel receiver is employed that is capable of tracking up to twelve (12) satellites simultaneously, although reception of only one is required for time data to be output. Several options are available that allow the unit to meet most any demand required of a Master Clock or Time Code Generator.
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South Korean free-trade deal is long overdue
Posted by Québec de Droite in Canada, Corée, Libre échange, Mondialisation on lundi 14 mars 2011
Le libre-échange est un sujet important, car il influence les recettes fiscales du Canada et des provinces.
Sur notre supposément notion de libre-échange, beaucoup de pays manipulent leurs monnaies pour augmenter la compétitivité de leurs entreprises, malheureusement le Canada n'a pas ce privilège à cause des richesses naturelles des provinces de l'ouest.
Nous avons nos voisins du sud, qui imprime de l'argent et indirectement dévalue leur argent, les Coréens et les Japonais font des interventions sur le marché, la Chine contrairement aux autres pays empêche le Yuan de flotter et le maintien sous-évalué.
Alors, le Canada est en position de faiblesse, les provinces de l'Est s'en tirent mal, ils ont besoin d'un secteur industriel en santé pour maintenir un équilibre budgétaire, toute cette manipulation monétaire corrompt l'esprit initial du libre-échange et empêche une concurrence loyale pour nos industriels canadiens, d'ailleurs l'Europe a le même dilemme que nous.
Extrait de: South Korean free-trade deal is long overdue, BARRIE McKENNA, Globe and Mail, Mar. 13, 2011
It is Canada's forgotten trade deal.
Free trade negotiations with South Korea began in 2004. And nearly seven years later, there's still no pact.
It's not that the Harper government isn't hot on free trade. Ottawa is forging ahead on other deals with Europe, India, Ukraine and Colombia. It's pursuing perimeter security and regulatory harmonization talks with the United States. And it's in preliminary talks on a possible trade deal with Japan.
Canada's auto industry and its unionized workers hate the idea of free trade with South Korea.
But that's not the only reason talks are stalled.
Blame it on the United States. Washington has a pending deal of its own, which would include duty-free access for Hyundai and Kia vehicles in exchange for an opening of the closed South Korean car market.
Canada is waiting to see what kind of final deal the Americans and South Koreans strike before wrapping up a deal of their own.
But that deal is stalled as well. Trade is a tough sell these days in the U.S. Congress, where the South Korean agreement and other trade deals are being held up in the Democratic-held Senate.
And it simply doesn't make sense for the Harper government to move before the Americans because of the integrated North American auto market, argued Lawrence Herman, a trade lawyer at Cassels Brock in Toronto.
"Our deal is being held hostage by what's happening in the U.S. Congress," Mr. Herman said.
The apparent sticking
The apparent sticking point in Canada is a 6.1-per-cent tariff, which Ottawa puts on all imported cars not manufactured domestically. If a deal is struck, South Korean cars would eventually enter the Canadian market duty-free. That would give them an edge over North American-built cars as well as over Japanese imports, which would still face the tariff.
The fear is that Hyundai and Kia would flood the Canadian market. And that poses a problem for the Detroit Three auto makers and the Japanese transplants, along with their Canadian parts suppliers and employees.
It's hard to imagine the elimination of the tariff alone would have a significant impact on the market. The South Koreans are already grabbing market share in Canada – even with the tariff hit.
Oui, car il dévalue leur argent, ce que le chroniqueur a oublié de mentionner.
Since Canada began negotiating with the South Koreans in 2004, Hyundai and Kia have doubled their vehicle sales. The two South Korean auto makers sold 172,389 cars and trucks in Canada last year, up from 85,075 in 2004. (Some of those vehicles enter Canada duty-free because they are made in the U.S.)
The comatose South Korean talks don't sit well with many Canadian exporters.
"Perhaps the automotive industry has time to wait. We do not," representatives of Canada's pork industry complained last week in a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "Our third biggest export market is at risk. We do not need more process. We need action."
South Korea puts a 22.5-per-cent tariff on Canadian pork. Even with the tariff, Canada exported $100-million worth of pork to South Korea in 2010.
Pork producers complain that other countries are doing free trade deals with South Korea and will gain a substantial advantage in that market if Canada continues to dither. Europe and Chile already have free trade with South Korea.
Pork producers want Mr. Harper to carve out the auto sector and complete a free trade with the South Koreans.
That might not be the best way to do trade deals, which often involve complex trade-offs between sectors.
Notwithstanding the objections of the auto industry, it's hard to imagine what Canada has to lose. Canada isn't about to start exporting a significant number of cars to South Korea. That battle was lost a long time ago.
The tariffs that would be lost seem minimal. Ottawa collects roughly $100-million a year in tariffs on South
Minimal, pour qui les provinces de l'Ouest ?
L'Ontario possède une forte industrie dans le secteur de l'automobile, elle a déjà assez de difficulté à se justifier par rapport aux fabricants américains, qui jouissent d'une monnaie plus faible et une syndicalisation qui acceptent le droit de la non-affiliation, ce n'est pas le temps d'ajouter encore d'autres problèmes, sur leurs dos.
By not doing a deal now, we're depriving all Canadian exporters – and not just pork producers – of access to potential new markets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And consumers are paying more for cars.
The stakes are high. South Korea is a $1-trillion economy and Canada's seventh-largest trading partner. Canada exports more to South Korea than it does to either India, Brazil, Italy or France, and nearly as much as it does to Germany. And we're currently in a trade deficit.
The benefits of a deal clearly outweigh the cost of further delay.
Typique d'un chroniqueur, qui regarde qu'une seule variable
et qui ne regarde pas l'ensemble du problème.
It's about time Canada pulled out a pen and signed on the dotted line
Loin d'accord avec ces conclusions, c'est de type de d'arguments qui mets tous les pays industriels dans une fâcheuse position, en manipulant leur valeur monétaire, il manipule leur compétitivité, ce qui empêche une saine concurrence.
Les pays industriels sont de plus en plus réticents sur des ententes supposément
'free trade', avec les pays émergents qui maintiennent volontairement
leurs monnaies sous-évalué.
Extrait de: Congressman Kissell and Textile Manufacturers Lead Fight against Korean Free Trade Agreement, Congressman Larry Kissel, March 10, 2011
De plus en plus de pression provenant des concitoyens sur leurs représentants politiques pour limiter le libre-échange, en voici un exemple:
"No one feels the effects of our nation's trade policies more directly than American manufacturers, especially these leaders of our textile industry," said Kissell. "For far too long, bad trade deals and misguided Washington policies have ravaged our economy, shipping jobs overseas and furthering our mounting trade deficits.
No brand is better than Made in the USA, and I will work to defeat any trade deal that offshores American jobs and hinders our ability to better export our top-of-the-line goods.
The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement uses the same flawed model of CAFTA and NAFTA, and simply isn't right for the people of my district. I was glad to hear directly from these industry leaders on what will best help them increase their exports and create more American jobs."
This entry was posted on lundi 14 mars 2011 at 12 h 40 and is filed under Canada, Corée, Libre échange, Mondialisation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.


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FX 5950 Ultra 256MB AGP 20$ Free Shipping
psycotrip posted a topic in Windows 9x/MEOk, so the 5950 ultra wasn't as good as the 9800xt, but for 20$ its a great card for a windows 9x rig, I just ordered the single fan one. I also ordered a Arctic Cooling NV SILENCER 4 REV. 2 made specifically for the 5950, for 23$ (more than the card but well worth it). I know this probably isn't the right section but I thought the people running windows 9x would appreciate this because everyone hates the Nvidia 5 series because of poor shader performance, but people don't run windows 9x for games using a lot of pixel shading, right? http://www.ebay.com/itm/XFX-NVIDIA-GeForce-FX-5950-Ultra-PVT38FUC-256MB-AGP-4x-8x-Graphics-Card-4419-/360643453309?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item53f806617d http://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-NVIDIA-GeForce-FX-5950-Ultra-VCGFX595APB-256MB-DDR-SDRAM-AGP-4x-8x-4420-/390584261189?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item5af0a2da45 http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-in-Box-Arctic-Cooling-NV-SILENCER-4-REV-2-high-performance-VGA-cooler-/321097796658?pt=US_Video_Card_GPU_Cooling&hash=item4ac2eb8c32
(WInME) PCI-E 7300LE Shows up in safe mode, But only safe mode...
psycotrip replied to psycotrip's topic in Windows 9x/MEYeah when I just tried a fresh install to get it to output to the pci-e card that's the setting I use, it works fine on the bootdisk and for the first half of setup before it detects hardware, then it just goes black. Otherwise it uses the onboard graphics. I don't have a PCI video card or another PCI-E card besides a 2x gtx660.
(WInME) PCI-E 7300LE Shows up in safe mode, But only safe mode...
psycotrip replied to psycotrip's topic in Windows 9x/MEI've narrowed it down a bit. Fresh install always keeping it plugged into the pci-e card, setup continues until it starts configuring plug and play hardware, after it detects hardware, the screen goes black and I can't get it back. I tried with Windows ME and Windows 98SE, same results. So as soon as it starts configuring devices the screen goes black, just like when Windows was fully installed. If I keep it plugged into the onboard video it works all the way through, but after install the PCI-E card only shows up in safe mode. I don't think its an IDE problem, I install from IDE DVD then disable the IDE controller after the first part of setup completes when it reboots to solve that problem. The only settings for video in the bios are "1mb/8mb" "DVMT/FIXED/COMBO" "Internal/PCI-E/PCI". That's it I can't find a setting to completely disable. Thanks again for the responses and keeping Window 9x alive!
(WInME) PCI-E 7300LE Shows up in safe mode, But only safe mode...
psycotrip replied to psycotrip's topic in Windows 9x/MEMy motherboard is 945GCM5-F V2 (FSB 1333) http://www.msi.com/product/mb/945GCM5-F-V2--FSB-1333-.html#/?div=Detail I tried lowering the memory to 256mb, I tried updating with the INF's on the site you gave, everything. But I can't get the 7300 to show up outside of safe mode. I'm going to try editing the bios to look for hidden settings reguarding disabling the onboard video. I tried all the APCI settings. Its just weird that it shows up in safe mode. I feel I am so close, but so far. Thanks for the suggestions.
Service Pack for Windows ME
psycotrip replied to the_guy's topic in Windows 9x Member Projectscould you update the link of the winme sp3 link above, it doesn't work with or without adding exe, thanks
(WInME) PCI-E 7300LE Shows up in safe mode, But only safe mode...
psycotrip replied to psycotrip's topic in Windows 9x/ME(when connected to internal graphics) when I boot in safe mode, the 7300 shows up, when I boot in regular mode only the internal shows up (when connected to 7300le) can boot into safe mode internal graphics shows up, when I boot regular it goes black and either reboots or just seems to hang, cant tell because screen is black. thanks for the quick responses will try that VBEMP driver right now That pagefile command worked, now rocking 1995 mb of ram AND ddr2 dual channel mode. Happyest OS ever.
OK I wanted a nostalgia build and I had a 945 chipset msi board around, I was able to install drivers for almost everything. At first it wouldn't boot with 2 gigs of ram, but now with 1 gig it boots. I don't have any 512 sticks to test as it is ddr2. ANYWAY I have a PCI-E 7300LE 256MB. When I boot into safe mode it installs with the modded 82.69 drivers. Everything looks fine. And whenever I boot to safe mode, the 7300LE shows up. But When I reboot normally the screen turns off after a second. The computer will come up if I use the intergrated video, but the card 7300LE is not there. Maby the 256MB+1GB is too much. I heard people can use up to 1995MB on windows ME, how do they enable that. I tried using the XP chipset drivers and they did install but on the PCI to PCI ports that the drivers recognized as PCI-E ports. I get this error twice. One for each pcie port. Windows could not load the driver for this device because the computer is reporting two PCI.VXD bus types. (Code 2) Other than that, the system has no exclamation points, usb works. Everything works, the intergrated video has a proper driver loaded from xp but it doesn't work, stuck on 640x480x16. Ill try anything, thanks for reading and ANY suggestions you may have


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Is David Lenio a Canary in the Coal Mine?
by William Skink
Tomorrow David Lenio is being arraigned on felony charges for his hate-filled, threatening escalation online. It will be an interesting case to follow. My first reaction was one of weariness at the 9/11 conspiracist angle national media outlets, like Salon, were using.
Locally, the Cowgirl is making use of this case to bash the habitual push by Montana Republicans to put guns everywhere:
As the fight to nullify federal gun laws, force guns into college campuses and workplaces and encourage the proliferation of concealed weapons and ammunition stockpiles rages in in the Montana legislature, the Missoulian is reporting today that a man who threatened to kill hundreds of school kids and Jewish leaders will be arraigned in district court in Missoula this Thursday for "felony charges of intimidation and criminal defamation."
David Lenio is the white -supremacist, 9/11 conspiracy theorist, and holocaust denier who tweeted comments saying he wants to execute "grade school students" and "shoot up a school" and a synagogue, and put "two in the head" of a rabbi or Jewish leader. He also said he hoped to go on a killing rampage until "cops take me out."
What hasn't been acknowledged so far is the economic angle. This is a grouping of tweets Salon highlights because the time and frequency of the tweets indicates an increased level of agitation:
2:55 a.m. – 12 Feb. 2015: "Talk mental health all you want but if I must work for piss poor #homeless slave #wages & can't get property in my homeland..I may kill kids"
2:57 a.m. – 12 Feb. 2015: "I bet I could get at least 12 unarmed sitting ducks if I decide to go on a killing spree in a #school Sounds better than being a wage slave"
3:38 a.m. – 12 Feb. 2015: "USA needs a Hitler to rise to power and fix our #economy and i'm about ready to give my life to the cause or just shoot a bunch of #kikes…"
3:50 a.m. – 12 Feb. 2015: "If I had to pick between being homeless or shooting up a school and becoming dead, I'd say shooting up the school… Social security my ass"
Lenio can be prosecuted and imprisoned for whatever length of time the court deems appropriate, but that won't change the core economic reality guaranteed to exacerbate social unrest. I'll say it again, what we are seeing play out in Helena and across the nation is class warfare. David Lenio is a symptom of a larger sickness, a canary in the coal mine warning the air is too toxic to breathe.
Will we listen?
So you don't think he will be convicted, eh EV?
After all, convicting the mentally ill would, in itself, be mentally ill, wouldn't it?
Somebody would have to be crazy to kill thousands of school kids in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Guatemala. Not to mention Vietnam.
That would be nuts.
Yeah, nuts.
This just in.
"Sounds to me like somebody is still locked in the mindset of creating "Gun Free Zones" around all public educational properties. Sadly, history should have shown them that there are two major flaws with that thinking. First, there have been enough shootings in such zones – which might be better named "Safe Shooting Zones for Maniacs" – to show you that the concept doesn't work. And second, as has been repeatedly stated, you're passing a law which will only affect people who tend to worry about things like following the law. That's generally not a description which applies to folks who are inclined to shoot up a school."-Jazz Shaw.
I think this piece is spot on. If anyone took the time to read the news articles about this guy and the tweets quoted above, the economic pain is certainly a major part of his anger. I see other signs of this anger every day. The question is will most of low-wage workers lash out in violence or threats of violence like Lenio, or will they channel their frustration into organizing and building real power.
TPTB are usually one step ahead of "…organizing and building real power." Want to organize and raise the minimum wage in your community? Check this out: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/economy/legislature-set-to-ban-local-minimum-wage-laws/article_28c7322b-9f03-50e6-a369-c70e1ed9f79b.html?utm_medium=desktop&utm_source=block_937344&utm_campaign=blox
Maybe there wouldn't these increased levels of agitation if we all could spend time at a government sponsored Adult Fun Camp.
All abord the train to Fun Camp!


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Quick Reference
(b Bassano [now Bassano del Grappa], c.1515; d Bassano, 13 Feb. 1592).
Italian painter, the most celebrated member of a family of artists who took their name from the small town of Bassano, about 65 km (40 miles) north-west of Venice. Jacopo is regarded as a member of the Venetian School and among his contemporaries is ranked inferior only to the great triumvirate of Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. However, apart from a period in the 1530s when he worked with Bonifazio Veronese, he was not resident in Venice itself: he lived almost all his life in his native town, where he was easily the leading artist of the day, producing a large and varied output of pictures. Although he painted only a handful of pictures for churches or other public buildings in Venice, his work was popular with private collectors there. He also had clients in other cities of north Italy, including Treviso and Vicenza, and occasionally commissions from as far afield as Florence. His father, Francescothe Elder (c.1475–1539), was a village painter and Jacopo always retained something of the peasant artist, even though the influence of, for example, the fashionable etchings of Parmigianino is evident in his work. Most of his pictures are on religious subjects, but he often treated biblical themes in the manner of rustic genre scenes, using genuine country types and portraying animals with real interest. In this way he helped to develop the taste for paintings in which the genre or still-life element assumes greater importance than the ostensible religious subject. From around 1560 his work showed a concern with novel effects of light, taking on something of the iridescent colouring of Tintoretto.
Bassano had four painter sons who continued his style and sometimes collaborated with him—Francescothe Younger (1549–92), Gerolamo (1566–1621), GiovanniBattista (1553–1613), and Leandro (1557–1622). Francesco and Leandro both acquired some distinction and popularity working in Venice—indeed Leandro was knighted by the Doge in 1595 or 1596 (thereafter he sometimes added Eques to his signature). Francesco was mentally unstable and died after throwing himself from a window. Leandro's death in 1622 brought the artistic dynasty to an end. The work of the family is well represented in the Museo Civico at Bassano.
Subjects: Art.
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Tag: Business Jet (Industry)
Gulfstream G280 Business Jet Cabin Interior – AINtv
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Well, crack open the champagne folks.
I haven't been the most regular blogger this past year, I know, but a lot of stuff has been going on behind the scenes!
I am beyond thrilled to announce that, if you live in Australia or New Zealand, you will be able to walk into a bookstore and buy my book The Latte Years which will be published by Nero/Black Inc Books in January 2016.
This is what my publisher (!!) has to say:
Nero publishes exciting and entertaining commercial mass market books. Our authors include the iconic Diane Keaton, actor/singer Lea Michele, Oscar-winner Diablo Cody and proudly now, award-winning and popular blogger, Philippa Moore. An Australian expat residing in the UK, Philippa's forthcoming, frank memoir of weight loss and taking chances will resonate with many. Publisher Jeanne Ryckmans says: "I was taken by Philippa's candour and humour. We are thrilled to be taking Philippa from blog to book and reaching readers who will be as inspired as we were when we first read the proposal".
I am still pinching myself, to be honest. It is finally starting to sink in that this is real. After years of tapping away in Starbucks after work, scribbling during my lunch breaks, writing hundreds of thousands of words (most of which was just practice as it turned out!), it's actually HAPPENING! My book is going to be REAL and in BOOK SHOPS! This is something I've dreamed of since I was about nine years old! It's been a long, long road to this point but now that I'm here I realise it couldn't possibly have happened any sooner or any other way.
Whether you've been loyally reading my ramblings since my Melbourne days or have stumbled upon me only recently, thank you for your support and encouragement and letting me into your lives. I can't wait to share the next chapter with you all. It's going to be very exciting indeed.
In the meantime, the advice of a dear friend is to "make friends with your deadline", so that's what I'm doing!
I have so much to say and share with you all, so make sure you check in again. More details coming very soon! xx


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Balancing Act
Adam Tooze ▪ Fall 2018
Trump supporters at a rally in Nashville, Tennessee, Might 29, 2018 (Drew Angerer / Getty Pictures)
Can Democracy Survive International Capitalism?
by Robert Kuttner
W. Norton & Firm, 2018, 384 pp.
The Populist Temptation: Financial Grievance and Political Response within the Trendy Period
by Barry Eichengreen
Oxford College Press, 2018, 260 pp.
Panic concerning the disaster of democracy—Trump, Brexit, and the rise of authoritarian leaders in Turkey, Russia, and Japanese Europe—is in all places. The research of populism has turn out to be a cottage business. Intolerant democracy positions itself as the choice to undemocratic liberalism. However what's it that's forcing that juxtaposition to a head at this present second? The technocratic imperatives of complicated trendy societies stand in the best way of the unmediated realization of the individuals's will. Courts and central banks bind legislatures and presidents. In a posh, multipolar world, committing oneself to a world treaty, any treaty, means limiting in style sovereignty. However why is it that these limitations are articulated within the language of liberalism? In the long run what's at stake right here, on the coronary heart of the liberal rights regime, is the system of accumulation based mostly on personal property. In different phrases, the issue—the unique and first wedge pushed between democracy and liberalism—is capitalism.
However, as Jedediah Purdy has identified in these pages, a lot of the present dialogue across the disaster of democracy avoids this conclusion. It as an alternative talks blandly of globalization. Or it proffers fast fixes for inequality and exclusion with out analyzing the mechanisms that systematically generate each. So it's refreshing to seek out two analysts—Barry Eichengreen, a distinguished financial historian, and Robert Kuttner, a number one public mental of the American left—who don't flinch from the seriousness of the problem.
Kuttner and Eichengreen have in widespread the affect of the heterodox economist and anthropologist Karl Polanyi. They each draw from him the concept markets are usually not pure phenomena however traditionally constructed. They agree that making democracy and capitalism work collectively is a matter of taming markets. For each, the crises of the mid-twentieth century are a key reference level, as they have been for Polanyi. Societies then have been a lot much less prosperous than they're right now. In america, in buying energy parity phrases, GDP per capita was roughly one-fifth what it's at present. Class battle was intense and the Nice Melancholy appeared to pose an existential menace. In a lot of Europe, the end result was dictatorship. However a number of democracies, notably New Deal America and in Scandinavia, creatively repurposed the state for interventionist administration of the financial system. Within the aftermath of the Second World Struggle, these experiments can be subsumed right into a wider present of welfarism. For Kuttner and Eichengreen, that trans-war second nonetheless stands for instance of a "healthy" stability between democracy and capitalism. It was a interval through which organized labor was robust. The state and politicians weren't afraid to levy taxes or prohibit the motion of capital.
What's putting, nevertheless, is how broad the Polanyian church is. Eichengreen writes from the attitude of the enlightened centrist supervisor. He's an unapologetic market liberal. He believes within the primary logic of free commerce. For him "populism" whether or not from the left or the fitting is the issue. He doesn't linger over definitions. He is aware of a "populist" when he sees one, be it Trump, Hitler, William Jennings Bryan or, maybe, the German Social Democrats of the nineteenth century. In every case it's the response of elites to financial pressures that determines how critical the problem from the margins turns into.
Kuttner, against this, is an advocate of a populism that's left-wing, bent on radical social reform but in addition, unapologetically nationwide and, if needed, protectionist. Certainly, a considerable a part of his ebook is taken up with a polemic towards free commerce, acquainted, as an example from the Harvard economist Dani Rodrik. Kuttner is skeptical of the advantages of NAFTA for anybody however American massive enterprise. There's little doubt that globalization has tilted the stability towards labor. The query is how vital the impact has been, and whether or not it explains the large surge in inequality that has characterised current many years, notably in the USA. For Kuttner, in any case, politics is each the issue, when it promotes uninhibited globalization, and the reply, when it's mobilized in protection of the favored curiosity.
This isn't the one challenge over which Eichengreen and Kuttner differ. No much less elementary is how they conceive of the connection between politics and economics. What's hanging in Eichengreen's work is how his imaginative and prescient narrows with regards to political financial system. What Eichengreen analyzes are nationwide distributional struggles framed by worldwide economics. He takes us by way of the curiosity group battles one nation at a time. Liberal Britain of the nineteenth century, Bismarck's newly unified Germany, just lately unified Italy, and the post-bellum United States are every handled as separate entities to be in contrast. The result's a historical past that highlights fascinating variations. Liberals in Britain, Eichengreen argues, launched social welfare to purchase off opposition to free commerce. Against this, Bismarckian Germany used social insurance coverage to include a much more elementary menace from the rising Social Democratic motion. In the meantime, in the USA, nationwide welfare methods struggled to flee the gridlock of states' rights enshrined within the eighteenth-century structure.
The result's illuminating up to some extent. However, like a lot comparative evaluation, it reinforces quite than questions nationwide stereotypes. Should you begin by asking why Germany received the Bismarckian welfare state earlier than Britain, you'll are likely to conclude that a "tradition of a strong state" formed the German trajectory. The reply to your query is, in a way, baked in. You'll miss the truth that in different respects, for example, with regard to central banking or public finance, Imperial Germany lacked highly effective central establishments. It was in that respect much more like a "weak state," just like the nineteenth-century United States. Neither Wilhelmine Germany, nor Gilded-Age America had a counterpart to the Financial institution of England, a nationwide establishment with international attain, which greater than any others have been chargeable for setting the phrases for the primary age of globalization earlier than 1914.
To research crises of democracy one case at a time is to overlook the logic of the worldwide energy construction. It isn't accidentally that the present liberal panic accelerated with Trump's victory. The derailment of American democracy could have much more critical implications than people who preceded it in Turkey and Hungary. Erdoğan, Orbán, and Putin all invoke nationalist sentiment by positioning themselves as embattled champions of nationwide autonomy towards a world system orchestrated by "the West." In every case this isn't, in any case, a completely unreasonable view of their circumstances. Not the least exceptional function of Trump's hallucinogenic politics is that he has managed to domesticate small-country resentments on the coronary heart of world energy.
To know the present disaster, we have to grasp the couplet of democracy and capitalism at a nationwide degree but in addition the broader system inside which they exist. That is what units Kuttner's evaluation aside from Eichengreen's. If you would like a fast-paced historic survey of the strain between nationwide democracy and international capitalism in Europe and america because the late nineteenth century, it's Kuttner you must learn. Kuttner exhibits how cross-border flows of individuals, cash, and items, orchestrated from the facilities of the worldwide financial system, first the UK after which america, construction the choices out there on the nationwide degree.
His evaluation of the best way during which transatlantic finance has operated because the 1960s to unhinge monetary regulation on each side of the Atlantic is especially wonderful. The so-called Eurodollar markets of the Metropolis of London offered American and international capital with an outlet from the change and capital controls of Bretton Woods. Unfettered monetary engineering in London set the usual for deregulation in New York, with the identical banks lobbying on each side of the Atlantic. Nationwide efforts at regulation have been undercut by a concerted aggressive race to the underside.
However Kuttner rightly insists, it's improper in charge the evisceration of nationwide regulation on worldwide commerce alone. Finally, it's a matter of nationwide political selection to permit or to restrict these flows. And the nation with probably the most decisive position in setting the phrases is the USA. As Jedediah Purdy identified lately in Dissent, many discussions of democracy's vicissitudes are American-centric. In Kuttner's case, this isn't out of dangerous mental behavior, however as a result of international capitalism within the twentieth century has been American-centric. What, although, is the implication of this perception?
When seen in comparative phrases, as Eichengreen proposes, the New Deal loses a lot of its drama. It was one among a repertoire of fixes for the Nice Melancholy, an essential one little question, but in addition one which was basically restricted. Eichengreen's query is why American reform within the 1930s didn't go additional and the way these limitations constrain coverage choices all the best way down to the current, most significantly, over healthcare. Partially, this has to do with buildings of the USA' political financial system, the entrenched pursuits of massive enterprise, and the resistance of the conservative South. However for Eichengreen, the bounds of the New Deal additionally mirror the bounds of FDR's ambition. He was at greatest a extremely pragmatic centrist supervisor.
For Kuttner, the New Deal was excess of this. Exactly as a result of Kuttner emphasizes the contingent component of political selection in historical past and refuses structural willpower, he provides a heightened significance to the moments when the progressive stars align. The New Deal was such a second. And exactly because of the uneven hierarchy of worldwide energy, this mattered not only for the USA however for all the free world. FDR's America turned democracy's savior in army, monetary, and political phrases.
However when Kuttner continues this practice of thought into the current, his argument turns into more durable to maintain. If we nonetheless stay in a worldwide capitalist system and that system's middle continues to be the USA, and if what is required to rebalance capitalism and democracy is a left-wing populist motion, then it follows for Kuttner that the historic mission of the American left have to be not solely to redress the stability at residence, however to steer the world again to the sort of place by which the Marshall Plan left it within the late 1940s. As he places it "if a decent balance of market, society, and democracy does regain ground, the shift will almost have to begin in the United States, as in the 1930s and 1940s, and then once again spread outward."
In his highly effective critique of present laments concerning the decline of American democracy in n+1 earlier this yr, Aziz Rana recognized as a shared backdrop the assumptions of a Chilly Conflict ideology that reified dedication each to the "genius of America's domestic institutions" and "the indispensability of its global role." What Kuttner provides us is the New Deal model of that narrative of nationwide future.
Clearly, American politics does proceed to matter past its borders. However, it isn't clear that Kuttner appreciates fairly how tarnished the American model has grow to be and fairly how far eliminated we're from the second of the "New Deal for the world." Patriotic reformist populism could also be a logical method for the American left. However is anybody outdoors the USA ever going to thrill to that sort of rhetoric once more? It's clearly true that no necessary international options are attainable with out the USA. However the concept it has an exemplary position to play appears bizarrely anachronistic. To a lot of the world plainly removed from providing a mannequin, the USA must deal with a few of the elementary questions of social and political group it has signally failed to deal with. After Trump, anti-Americanism is much more more likely to gasoline progressive politics in the remainder of the world than earlier than. A brand new individual within the White Home won't change that.
The backdrop to Kuttner's misjudgement of the current conjuncture isn't just his nostalgia for the New Deal. Additionally it is formed by the best way by which his systematic effort to comply with the stream of energy outward from the USA leads him to a flat and undifferentiated account of current developments. Kuttner is true to be skeptical concerning the narcissism of "Social Europe" and its pretensions to supply a extra civilized "third way." Neoliberalism reworked Europe too. And neoliberalism unfold not merely as a set of concepts and ideologies. Above all it was impelled by the drive of capital mobility, pushed outwards from the Wall Road–Metropolis of London nexus. And there have been dramatic episodes of give up by European social democracy within the face of that menace, most famously the retreat of Mitterrand's reforming socialist administration in France in 1983.
However to conclude from this that the results for the welfare state on each side of the Atlantic have been basically the identical is just out of kilter with actuality. The shock of neoliberalism was widespread. However with regard to welfare and monetary redistribution, the end result has been to go away america and the members of the EU in basically totally different locations.
Within the 1940s the restricted improvement of welfare states didn't but distinguish america radically from its European counterparts. This enabled the New Deal to seem as a progressive mannequin. By the 1970s, European welfare states have been much more beneficiant and complete than something created in the USA. Within the years that adopted, the dismantling that passed off in Europe was much less radical. And because the 1990s, the Europeans have been much more artistic in extending new varieties of welfare provision, notably with regard to lively labor market coverage, parental rights, and childcare. The outcomes are the spectacular variations in inequality developments seen in knowledge compiled by economists like Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Tony Atkinson, and others. With regard to rights to parental depart, the USA ranks amongst the least developed nations, not solely within the rich membership of the OECD, however in the complete world. Its failure to offer medical insurance to a big a part of its inhabitants is exclusive. As measured by the essential metric of life expectancy, Tennessee now ranks alongside Gaza and Mississippi is on a par with Libya. Removed from there being any prospect of progressive management on the a part of the USA, deep obstacles stand in the best way even of the extra modest ambition to offer the individuals of this nation with the welfare and safety at present taken as a right in different rich nations.
Kuttner's flat account of worldwide neoliberalism downplays the primary structural causes of this deep divide between Europe and america. Right here Eichengreen's comparative strategy supplies a easy, one-word reply: race. The elemental divide inside American society over the colour line and the legacy of slavery has structured your complete improvement of the American state, erecting the principal impediment to complete welfarism from the late nineteenth century down to the current day. This isn't to say that Europe doesn't have problems with race, ethnicity, and faith. As Kuttner boldly declares: "The United States has always done a better job than Europe of integrating migrant populations." This can be a commonplace remark concerning the twentieth century. So far as the newer previous is worried, nevertheless, that is debatable. And with regard to the long-running improvement of the American welfare state, it's irrelevant. What issues is just not immigration, however slavery. The only largest impediment to a complete American welfare state is the racial order bequeathed by slavery and the failure of Reconstruction. No single issue is stronger than the enduring identification between poverty, the black inhabitants, and welfare. The civil rights motion may need been a second of overcoming, nevertheless it was a failure as a program of social and financial uplift, and the response from white officers of each events because the 1970s—specifically, the criminalization and incarceration of black males on an epic scale—has been crushing. Anti-black racism is in fact pervasive in Europe. However there's merely no analogue anyplace else within the democratic world for the USA' uninhibited escalation of state violence towards black individuals in current many years.
Regardless of these limitations, amidst the present panic about democracy, Eichengreen's and Kuttner's give attention to political financial system is refreshing. They clearly reveal that if we're to consider the disaster of democracy in relation to the event of capitalism, we can't confine ourselves to the nationwide degree. Each Eichengreen and Kuttner, every in their very own method, gives a capacious, transatlantic perspective. However studying them aspect by aspect highlights how troublesome it's to mix the differentiation of the comparative strategy, favored by Eichengreen, with an understanding of systemic interconnection and energy, pursued by Kuttner.
That is the essential problem of analyzing the democratic disaster beneath capitalism: to maneuver past the nationwide degree, to squarely acknowledge the importance of the worldwide energy construction, while on the similar time recognizing its essentially uneven results. That is really complicated. But when our predicament is as critical as the various prophets of disaster insist it's, then that analytical activity can not be prevented.
Adam Tooze is Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of Historical past at Columbia College, the place he additionally directs the European Institute. He's writer of Crashed: How a Decade of Monetary Crises Modified the World (Viking, 2018).
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Welcome to the RUF at App State website. Please know that we are here for you as you send your kids off to college. We have found that there are questions parents typically ask about RUF and so we have tried to briefly answer those here. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions that may not be included or for any reason.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is RUF?
RUF is the official campus ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America. For more than 25 years RUF campus ministers have been reaching students for Christ and equipping students to serve. Though receiving oversight from the PCA, RUF chapters are non-denominational in terms of their fellowship. Students from all denominations are welcome. For more information, look under the About heading.
2. What does "Reformed" mean?
In the simplest terms, the word "Reformed" simply refers to the theology and confessions that arose out of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Therefore, RUF's theology is in full agreement with orthodox Protestantism.
3. Is RUF a Bible study only for Christians?
Absolutely not. RUF is open to all who are looking to consider the truth claims of Jesus Christ.
4. What does RUF do?
RUF's ministry is composed of at least five different kinds of activities.
1. RUF Large Group is our "shop front" activity and usually the easiest way for students to plug into the ministry. The evening consists of a time of singing and worship ending with a message from Scripture, all in a non-threatening atmosphere. This is usually the place where your student can find out what all is going on within the ministry of RUF.
2. In any given semester, students participate in small group Bible studies over all kinds of topics. These small group studies are very informal in design and give students the chance to look deeper into a topic as well as make a few friends in the process. To see the small groups that are being offered this semester, click here.
3. RUF's commitment to reaching and equipping students means that one on one meetings with students is a vital part of our ministry. This time is usually spent getting to know each other personally, investing in ongoing discipleship, dealing with personal issues with which the student struggles, and addressing any crisis counseling that might arise during the students time at school.
4. RUF is committed to forming and transforming. That means that RUF desires to see a true body of Christians formed at App State and to see that body in turn transform the surrounding community. Living out a true sense of community is built into every activity that we do. Therefore, RUF is committed to serving the local community of both the campus and Boone at large.
5. Finally, at least a few times during the year, RUF is committed to getting out of town and gathering with other Christians for student conferences. Fall Conference in the Fall and Summer Conference in May are all great opportunities to get involved with RUF's ministry. In addition to these trips, RUF at App State will also be involved in mission trips.
5. Can you contact my student?
RUF is a ministry of the Church. We are more than happy to contact your student and give them a personal invitation to RUF. One small request that we make of you in this area is that you not ask us to contact your student if you are not willing for us to tell them that YOU asked us to call them. We have found over the years that the anonymous "cold call" can be counter productive.
6. But what if my student doesn't like RUF?
RUF is not so self-centered that we assume that this ministry is for everyone. Therefore, we are more than happy to suggest that your student contact any of the other evangelical ministries on campus to see if perhaps they can be a help to your student in a way that we can not. And if they need any help connecting to any of the other ministries, we would be more than happy to help in any way we could.
7. I would like to give financially to the ministry of RUF. How do I do that?
Click here.
All professional photography on this site courtesy of Daniel Barlow (www.daniel-barlow.com)


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Sepedia - a piece of art, algorithmically machine generated.


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The American Pit Bull Foundation is an organization with the purpose to promote responsible breed ownership through providing owner and public education. It is important that we use the established brand elements to better unify our message and tell our story. All material produced for, by and in conjunction with the American Pit Bull Foundation must adhere to the standards and guidelines set forth.
Our logo is always two toned, and can be used on both light and dark backgrounds. We do allow our logo to be used as a solid color when needed – under those circumstances the colors are always either green, black or white. No other color exceptions are allowed without written consent from our office.
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The American Pit Bull Foundation mark includes, but are not limited to the APBF Name, Logo, and any word, phrase image or other designation that identifies the source or origin of any of the American Pit Bull Foundations products. Do not modify or alter the mark or use them in a confusing way, including suggesting association or partnership by APBF, or in any way that confuses APBF with another organization. Use only the official full APBF Logo or the stand alone mark to represent the American Pit Bull Foundation.
The American Pit Bull Foundation Primary Palette. Each APBF gray has a touch of green in it to better pair with our logo and secondary colors. White (#ffffff), and Black (#000000), complete the set.
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There's a really simple fix to the spammer problem that would solve people muting trade worlds aswell.
A global shop in-game. Something where you can put an item/items for sale and people can search for them.
How this could work (just my idea): First, make an item for searching for items. When you put an item in a vending machine, it gets added to the searching item. People can then search for that item and it'll pop up along with a button to warp to the world. Items would obviously be sorted from cheapest to most expensive, this would also fix some vending shops having extreme price differences (mainly worlds linked from buy+ worlds muted with royal lock).
Example: I put dirt for sale 1/wl. Someone wants to buy dirt so they search for "Dirt" in the searching machine. They find mine. They click the button and warp to my world.
It could also be done so you just put the item for sale in the search machine itself, but that would make vendings almost useless, so I think my idea is decent... tho it can probably be improved. Either way, a global trading system is needed and would be extremely useful.
How this would fix spammers: People wouldn't use BUY+ worlds anymore, so the spammers would have nowhere to spam with a big audience.
This would also make it much easier to check on item prices reliably, as you could just search up the item you want to check the price of.


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Nomadic Live, 2.0. This essay describes my most current attempt into living mobile. Travelling from home to office to different locations around the world. Aided by the latest electronics and networks.
I have been living this way some what for the last five years. Work requires travelling for long period of times around the globe. As technology changes the nomadic live becomes easier and easier, or I thought. I just recently upgraded some of my equipments and network connectivity. So this is a first hand still being developed plan of the nomadic life, 2.0. or nLife2.0.
Terms: offline vs online offline storage meaning the data is stored, primarily, on a device that is not always available. A harddrive of a laptop that is not always connected to the internet is offline. The harddrive on a server connected permanently to a T1 is online.
Data Centric Analysis
It is easiest to look at the nomadic living possibility by analysing where and how to access key data items in ones life:
I live on email. I have been using imap for a long time. However I still store my email messages offline because I did not trust my old ISP. I am now experimenting with storing all my emails online, as IMAP folders. However I find that email clients in the windows world deal with IMAP folders with different level of successes. One thing that irritate me right now is the lack of standard as to where sent emails are stored. Eudora wants to store it offline in its own sent box. Pine stores in sent-mail? Opera M2 stores in ???
Contact information evolves beyond the address book now. There really are three and a half different types of contacts. Phone contacts are people that you call, from a GSM phone from anywhere around the world. That is usually stored in your GSM cellphone. The current cellphone software allows you to store multiple number per person (home, work, cell etc).
Email contacts are email address that you need to use inside your email client. There are usually stored within your email client. But if you are mobile this information has to be either replicated, or stored in a central directory. A personal directory service? Or?
Address information if you want to send a letter (?) or visit someone.
Essential Software
DVD player, or mpeg player, and DivX player. Music player.
The hardware that makes Nomadic Living possible includes:
- light weight laptop computer -- Thinkpad X31, 3.6 pounds
- Global and universal Power supply -- iGo Juice, which can be plugged into Car, Planes, and the Wall, and will power cellphone plus laptop
- wifi equip device -- the thinkpad
- GSM Phone that works around the world (except Japan and Korea).
*** This is work in progress, in true nLife fashion. I am using my blogging service as a writing tool. ***


text:
The service design process begins with the discovery phase: a focused round of formative research. We undertook a literature review of existing research, and conducted interviews and observation sessions with immigrants, immigration lawyers, financial counselors, and library staff. Understanding the different perspectives of our stakeholders helped us gain a systemic view of the issues and constituents.
Several common insights began to emerge during the discovery phase:
- Financial literacy needs span the breadth of the citizenship application process: the 5+ years before a Legal Permanent Resident is eligible to apply for citizenship, the 6 months to two years to complete the application process, and the indefinite time period after one becomes a citizen.
- The naturalization and financial empowerment processes are complex and often difficult to navigate.
- Many people are unaware of the long-term financial benefits of obtaining citizenship.
- Libraries are spaces of (communal) learning and, therefore, a good place for the NYCitizenship program to engage with its target audience in coaching activities.
- Motivation and time are important factors for participating in any social service.
- Family, gender, and community factors play an important role in an immigrant's integration into life in the United States.
- There are a number of barriers and stigma associated with seeking financial assistance and/or applying for citizenship.
Our observations from the discovery phase led us to create a set of "personas," which are profile sketches that reflect the different demographics and personalities that comprised our main audiences. These personas enabled us to build journey maps that identify opportunities and pain points that these audiences might face, and to gather together precedents to help inspire the co-design activities.
Stakeholder Map
Stakeholder Map. A stakeholder map shows connections and relationships across all of the individuals and organizations involved in the service. Doing this helped us gain a systemic view of all the organizations and actors involved in the NYCitizenship and financial counseling programs. Illustrating this information helped us tap into the existing network and knowledge to gain insights and feedback that would advance the project.
The stakeholder map below shows the interconnections between citizenship and financial services at Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library, one of our investigation sites during the discovery phase.
Journey Map
The journey map illustrates the process that a typical example of a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) might go through to become a citizen. Visualizing this journey helped us to see that there were three distinct time frames in becoming a citizen: the 5+ years before an LPR is eligible to apply for citizenship, the 6 months to two years to complete the application process, and the indefinite time period after one becomes a citizen.
We learned that one of the major connections between applying for citizenship and finances is the citizenship application fee. However, there may be other opportunities as one applies for citizenship to make financial connections—ensuring that one's taxes are paid, for example. This became a key insight for us, and informed later stages of the project.
Design personas are fictitious, yet representative archetypes or characters that embody key attributes of people in the service user population. Through our research, we learned that there are key differences in people's priorities, motivations, values and decision-making processes when it comes to applying for citizenship and seeking financial empowerment services. These differences were reflected in our three distinct personas: Responsible Rita who is prepared and educated, though nervous about her language skills; Single Samih who works long hours, lives paycheck to paycheck, and is nervous about talking to people; and Mixed Manu who is anxious and worried because of his mixed status family. Using the personas helped us to make sure that we were considering our diverse audiences.
We researched and identified 10 project case studies that had similarities to this project and that might provide some best practices and inspiration.
Design Principles
The following principles emerged from our initial insights and research with all stakeholders. The service concepts that were later developed were informed by these principles. They include:
The discovery findings provided the basic understanding of the system, the conceptual directions, and the design principles for the co-design phase, the initial period of open-ended creative work.
At the start of the co-design phase we decided to organize ourselves into three teams to develop different possible directions. We started by brainstorming ideas that connected citizenship and financial counseling services based on the needs of the different personas. From these ideas, each team honed in on three of their best design concepts, further fleshing out the ideas and describing them in detail.
With each team focusing on three separate directions, we ended up with nine different design concepts to connect NYCitizenship program participants to financial counseling services at various points in the user journey, as seen below:
Co-Design Outputs
Working together with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, we reviewed and sought feedback on each of the nine concepts thoroughly to assess the overall potential and feasibility of each idea, including which ideas might integrate best with the evolving NYCitizenship program framework. Based on this feedback, four of the most promising initial design concepts were selected for further testing and development.
This included:
1. New American Kiosks
What it is: Inspired by the utilitarian and private interfaces such as ATM machines, the New Americans Kiosk is a multilingual kiosk with a printer.
How it works: The kiosk runs an initial, private diagnostic of the LPR's financial health. With an easy-to-use interface and an option to print the report, LPRs can walk away with a personalized set of information from a private interaction in their own language.
2. New American Circle
What it is: A service that encourages informal networks and peer-to-peer learning on issues related to citizenship.
How it works: People who have successfully navigated the citizenship process can become community leaders to co-lead informal gatherings at the library with citizenship and financial experts. In this informal setting, they will conduct group problem solving sessions, and work towards citizenship and financial stability simultaneously.
3. Steps to Citizenship Planning Cards
What it is: A deck of cards that structures conversations about planning financial steps within the citizenship process.
How it works: The cards guide LPRs to learn financial skills and resources that will help them become successful U.S. citizens. It does this by using the immediate goal of citizenship to show the relevance of financial management in the LPRs lives, and create a concrete plan to move forward.
4. Financial Comics
What it is: A comic series that uses visual storytelling to break down and simplify various financial and citizenship-related concepts.
How it works: The comics are designed to be an engaging tool for learning. The content is intentionally objective and designed to empower people to learn about different topics related to citizenship and finances in a digestible format, allowing LPRs to fully understand a concept, connect with related resources, and make their own decisions. It is not a tool that tells people what they should or should not do.
In service design, prototypes are mock-ups – physical or digital -- that represent, in limited form, key aspects of the service design concepts so that they can be tested in the real world. Condensing the elements of each concept that most define the user experience, we crafted prototypes of the four designs to help evaluate and refine their concepts.
We then conducted field tests at library branches with potential users of each prototype in order to garner feedback from users similar to those who would be expected to interact with the proposed designs in their full implementation. This user feedback was an essential element for guiding the remainder of the design process.
The findings from the prototyping phase were used to further refine the four service design concepts which were presented in a work session to nearly 20 participants, including members from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, the Office of Financial Empowerment, Citi Community Development, representatives from New York's public library systems, and others.
In addition to the physical mock-ups, we created a variety of supplemental documents such as instruction guides, scenarios of use, service roadmaps, brand standards, evaluation metrics and roll-out plans detailing the prototypes' potential implementations.
"New American Comics"
"New American Circles"
"Steps to Cards"
"New American Kiosk"
Each concept also had a corresponding service design blueprint--a visual illustration of the processes, structures, and actions for the users, providers, and supporters throughout the service timeline.
Service Blueprints
The conclusion of the prototyping phase coincided with the 2015 National Immigrant Integration Conference where the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs hosted a panel discussion highlighting the NYCitizenship program, the prototypes, and a range of successful stories in the area of immigrant financial empowerment. The panel gathered over 100 participants from cities all over the country, indicating a broad-based interest in this topic and in New York City's innovative approaches. Panelists and attendees engaged in a lively discussion that focused on the challenges and best practices in integrating citizenship with financial empowerment programming.
Prototype Refinement & Pilot
Based on input from our partners at the library systems, financial empowerment providers, and staff from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, and after multiple rounds of iteration with clients, we realized that to introduce these new ideas and tools required a new and integrated touchpoint at the very beginning of the citizenship application process. To that end, we decided to design a new information session as the cornerstone to introduce the newly designed NYCitizenship process for prospective clients, guide them through these different steps and help them make the connection between citizenship and financial empowerment.
With that in mind, we tasked ourselves with creating a pilot for the info sessions.
The Info Session
The information sessions are 45-minute group workshops with prospective NYCitizenship clients. The goals of the Information Session were defined as:
To provide individuals with basic information about the U.S. citizenship application process.
To identify the need for financial empowerment services in connection with the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.
To explain the services available through NYCitizenship.
To make appointments for NYCitizenship legal and financial counseling services.
To prompt potential clients to organize relevant information and documents before they arrive at their first citizenship appointment to increase service efficiency.
Creating an Integrated System
The information session has been designed to help NYCitizenship attorneys guide participants through the process of applying for citizenship. To facilitate this process, we created a workbook with a narrated video that helps clients understand how citizenship and financial empowerment services are connected. The workbook and video are heavily influenced by the Steps to Citizenship cards in their structure, but also incorporate elements of the Comics in its narrative style and self-guided approach.
The workbook breaks down the process of applying for citizenship into five interactive sections, each of which contains related reasons for which a participant may consider taking advantage of NYCitizenship's free financial counseling services. Each section of the workbook has a corresponding one- to three-minute video in which the original comic characters--recent US citizens, themselves--serve as guides for the participants as they complete their workbooks and make the connections between citizenship and financial empowerment.
Additionally, we created a facilitation guide to help walk the attorneys through the process of using the materials during an info session, as well as branded pens, bookmarks, sign-in sheets, and additional marketing materials. We also enveloped the workbook with a folder to allow program participants to gather and store their citizenship and financial counseling documents in one place, after hearing feedback that many individuals are prone to misplacing or losing their important documents.
Pilot Outputs
Workshop facilitators received a customized packet of materials to help them lead citizenship workshops: a service blueprint, 16-page Facilitator's Guide, pens, a pen bag, promotional bookmarks and fliers, thumb drives that have the NYCitizenship video loaded on it (also viewable below), a 8-page Citizenship Guide for workshop participants, and a NYCitizenship bag to transport all of the materials.
Final Service Blueprint
Pilot testing of the info sessions began in May 2016, in the Brooklyn Public Library system and expanded to also include the New York Public Library and Queens Public Library systems. Download service blueprint link to PDF


text:
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2000 Award Recipient, Service
For more information
Susan Mays*
OMI, Inc.
6060 South Willow Drive
Suite 200
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
(303) 268-4280
Fax: (303) 740-6997
*At time of award
Employee-owned Operations Management Inter-national, Inc. (OMI) runs more than 170 wastewater and drinking water treatment facilities in 29 states and eight other nations. Nearly 95 percent of OMI's customers are U.S. cities, counties, and other public entities that have outsourced the operation and maintenance of their plants. The remainder are industrial and international customers.
Between 1998 and 2000, OMI's public customers realized first-year savings that averaged $325,000, their operating costs decreased more than 20 percent, and facility compliance with environmental requirements improved substantially.
OMI's total workforce of 1,400 associates is widely dispersed. Only one site employs more than 70 people; most employ fewer than 10. The company's policy is to hire workers formerly employed at facilities that OMI has been contracted to operate.
Headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colo., OMI was formed in 1980 as part of the CH2M HILL family of employee-owned companies. It was among the first businesses to offer the service of running publicly owned wastewater and water treatment plants, concentrating on small to mid-sized facilities. Such "privatized" utility operations account for 80 percent of OMI's annual revenues, which totaled about $147 million in 2000.
- Annual average revenue per associate improved from $92,600 in 1997 to almost $108,000 in 2000—an increase of more than 15 percent.
- Market share in its core business segment has increased to 60 percent, up from 50 percent in 1996. Over this span, total revenue grew at an average annual rate of 15 percent, as compared with 4.5 percent for OMI's top competitor.
- Associate turnover decreased from 25.5 percent in 1994 to 15.5 percent in 1999, better than the national average of 18.6 percent and the service industry average of 27.1 percent.
- For all six components of customer satisfaction, scores show an eight-year improvement trend, all rising above 5 on a 7-point scale for which 1 means "very poor" and 7 means "excellent."
'Obsessed With Quality'
At OMI, the pursuit of quality is an admitted obsession, but there's a carefully cultured method to this self-instilled organizational approach; OMI's Obsessed With Quality process. Corresponding with the principles and criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the process spans the entire company, links all personnel levels, and creates a common foundation and focus for OMI's far-flung operations. Key elements of this integrative process include a Quality as a Business Strategy leadership system, a six-phase Obsessed With Quality training program for new employees, and a company-wide Linkage of Process Model that facilitates systematic evaluation of more than 150 critical corporate processes.
Planning begins with the Red Team, consisting of seven top company executives and led by OMI President and Chief Executive Officer Don S. Evans, but it quickly becomes an inclusive affair. An expanded leadership team, which also includes regional executives and managers, sets organizational priorities and strategic directions, and team members communicate these to all sites. Teams at each site develop business and action plans that are consistent with the company's overall strategy, yet are specific to circumstances and customer requirements particular to their facilities.
To achieve shared focus and to coordinate efforts across sites, OMI uses a variety of approaches and tools to initiate and then drive progress toward the company's short-term and five-year improvement goals. For example, long-standing focus teams, first established in 1990, provide continuity of effort and sustain company-wide commitment in five key areas: leadership, information and analysis, human resources, process management, and customer satisfaction. Like many other teams at OMI, membership cuts across the entire organization in terms of function and personnel, including top executives and hourly workers.
Other techniques to foster alignment and to ensure that important information flows to all OMI offices and facilities include newsletters, regional meetings, e-mail communications, and the company's annual Project Management Summit, a Red Team-hosted event for exchanging information among OMI-operated facilities on best practices, emerging technologies, and training needs.
OMI as a System
OMI's management views the organization as a system--an integrated whole--and it aims for synergy in its decisions and actions. Key enablers are the company's Linkage of Process Model, which defines relationships among processes, and its Family of Measures, a balanced scorecard of 20 integrated metrics. These measures of operational performance correspond to OMI's four strategic objectives-customer focus, business growth, innovation, and market leadership.
Improvement initiatives in the company's strategic plan are selected and crafted so that each initiative contributes significantly to achieving one or more strategic objectives and key customer requirements. In 2000, OMI had 26 improvement initiatives under way, each one assigned to a team led by a high-level executive. All teams write charters that state their purpose, objectives, and timeline for completion. A team charter also specifies which of OMI's more than 150 critical processes are involved, the metrics that will be used for evaluation, costs, required resources, and other information vital to the success of the initiative. Charters provide team members and company executives with the means for a quick and thorough analysis of progress toward planned goals.
Every year, the Red Team reviews the entire set of critical processes, and it ranks each process according to its perceived impact on progress toward strategic objectives. Existing processes are modified and strengthened, and new ones are conceived to advance OMI's continuous improvement efforts. The Red Team also reviews the Family of Measures to ensure that the composite set of metrics continues to provide an accurate assessment of organizational health.
Systematic attention to these and other important organizational details points the way to high-impact improvement initiatives. For example, the Red Team's review of the company's measurement scorecard suggested untapped opportunities to reduce variable operating costs at OMI-run facilities. The outcome was a recently launched plant-optimization program that aims for a 1 percent reduction in variable costs, to be achieved primarily through more systematic deployment of home-grown innovations.
'Paid to Think'
OMI works to cultivate empowerment and innovation among its employees. Associates are "paid to think," a claim that OMI backs up by providing extensive training opportunities. Skill development is a high priority, and associates are given plenty of chances to apply what they learn. All employees are authorized to improve job designs, respond directly to process problems, and address customer issues. Empowerment is reinforced by compensation, reward, and recognition systems designed to encourage workers to think and act like company owners. With labor accounting for half of total costs, the company reasons that investments to motivate associates and to increase their skills will be paid back through gains in operational performance and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.
From 1996 to 2000, OMI's expenditures on training and tuition nearly doubled. Associates are evaluated every six months, and training plans are updated as part of every evaluation. Ongoing employee focus groups, new employee surveys, and biennial internal customer satisfaction surveys help management track levels of morale and motivation. Annual regional salary surveys are used to ensure that compensation levels are competitive with the rest of the industry.
Besides empowering employees, exceeding customer expectations and enhancing the environment are the two other defining elements of OMI's culture. The company uses a variety of listening approaches—surveys, interviews, focus groups, and market research—to learn customers' current and long-term requirements. A contract renewal rate of almost 95 percent in 1999 and the industry's top rank in the average length of customer retention indicates that OMI is well-versed in the requirements of its customers.
For OMI, protecting the environment is part of its contractual obligation. However, many OMI-managed facilities are model performers. The company has won more than 100 federal and state awards for excellence in the past five years; more than half of these were earned in the last two years.
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