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When University of Chicago professor William Dodd assumed the post of U.S. ambassador to Germany in 1933, he hoped for an undemanding position that would allow him spare time to write a book.
At the time, few in the United States or Europe considered then-Chancellor Adolf Hitler a serious threat, and few expected him to remain in power long. Dodd was no exception, says Erik Larson, author of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin.
Having studied in Germany as a college student in the 1890s, Dodd began his term as ambassador with "a predisposition to like the Germans and to like Germany," Larson tells NPR's Jennifer Ludden.
He arrived in Berlin, Larson says, with "almost a deliberate desire — deliberate objectivity, let's say — to view things as objectively as possible, without prejudging."
But over the subsequent four years, the Dodd family grew uneasy as they watched Hitler consolidate his power and impose increasingly severe restrictions on Germany's Jewish population.
Matters came to head as Dodd clashed with the Nazi Party and the State Department and eventually resigned over the failure of officials back home to recognize the threat the Nazis posed.
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Jennifer Ludden, in Washington. Neal Conan is away. In 1933, University of Chicago Professor William Dodd somewhat reluctantly took up the post of U.S. ambassador to Germany. He moved to Berlin with his wife, son and daughter. He hoped for an easy post so he could spend his spare time writing a book.
Dodd assumed then-Chancellor Adolf Hitler wouldn't actually be in office very long, but over the next few years, the Dodd family witnessed Hitler consolidate his power and impose increasing restrictions on the country's Jewish population.
In one of the year's most notable books, author Erik Larson chronicles Dodd's time in Germany, the adventures of his flamboyant daughter Martha and clashes with both Nazi Party officials and the State Department.
If you've read the book and have questions for Erik Larson, give us a call. Our number is 800-989-8255. Our email address is firstname.lastname@example.com. And you can also join the conversation at our website. Go to npr.org, and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, the secret about those year-end top 10 lists. But first Erik Larson joins us from member station KUOW in Seattle. His latest book is "In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin," one of the books we almost missed in 2011. Nice to have you with us.
ERIK LARSON: Hi, how are you?
LUDDEN: Good. So let's take our listeners straight to William Dodd's first year as an ambassador, and tell us about something his daughter actually saw. His daughter went down to Nuremberg with some friends, and tell us what she witnessed.
LARSON: Yeah, I'll tell you, this was in August of 1933. The Dodds at this point had been in Berlin only about, you know, a couple of months. And they had just gotten their home established, a house they were renting from a Jewish banker near the - opposite the Tiergarten, the Central Park of Berlin. And they figured it was time to see a little bit of Germany.
So all the Dodds actually set out on this journey and then split off into two groups, one of which consisted of Martha, her brother Bill Junior, and a reporter named Quentin Reynolds.
And they stopped one night in the city of Nuremberg, typically a fairly placid city known for toy manufacture, and they found something very different the night they arrived. And it was really kind of a horrendous story, a story about watching a parade of stormtroopers march through town, carrying with them a Jewish woman, tormenting a Jewish woman, much to the delight of the crowd.
LUDDEN: All right, would you like to read a little bit there for us?
LARSON: Gladly, yeah. Again, this is August, 1933: Immediately behind the first squad there followed two very large troopers and between them a much smaller human captive, though Reynolds could not at first tell whether it was a man or a woman. The troopers were, quote, "half-supporting, half-dragging," end-quote, the figure along the street.
Quote, "its head had been clipped bald," Reynolds wrote, and face and head had been coated with white powder. Martha described the face as having, quote, "the color of diluted absinthe," end-quote. They edged closer, as did the crowd around them, and now Reynolds and Martha saw that the figure was a young woman, though Reynolds still was not completely certain.
Quote, "even though the figure wore a skirt, it might have been a man dressed as a clown," Reynolds wrote. "Quote, the crowd around me roared at the spectacle of this figure being dragged along." The genial Nurembergers around him became transformed and taunted and insulted the woman. The troopers at her sides abruptly lifted her to full height, revealing a placard hung around her neck.
Coarse laughter rose from all around. Martha, Bill and Reynolds deployed their halting German to ask other bystanders what was happening and learned in fragments that the girl had been associating with a Jewish man. As best Martha could garner, the placard said, quote, "I have offered myself to a Jew," end-quote.
LUDDEN: And that was because she was engaged to marry a Jew.
LARSON: Yeah, she was associating romantically with a Jew, apparently...
LUDDEN: And this is 1933.
LUDDEN: And I guess the most remarkable thing, you read this horrid description and, you know, the crowd taunting and all, and the most remarkable thing is how little it impacts Martha and her father.
LARSON: Well, that's the thing that I found particularly surprising and striking is that for Martha, it's important to know that when Martha arrived in Berlin, she arrived with a real naivete about what was truly going on, whether it was part of the juxtaposition to what people wanted her to feel, that she was being just simply perverse or not, I have no idea, but she arrived with this very clear, obvious sort of naivete about what was going on around her.
And she - even after this particular event in Nuremberg, she found herself not defending what happened but arguing that, well, maybe there was another explanation. Her father arrived with a very different kind of naivete, almost a sort of a - almost a deliberate desire, deliberate objectivity, let's say, to view things as objectively as possible without prejudging, which in itself I suppose was a kind of naivete.
LUDDEN: Yeah, he's very determined to do that. He decides before he even leaves the U.S. for Germany that he's going to...
LARSON: Yeah.
LUDDEN: But he also had really good memories as a student, when he had spent some time in Germany.
LARSON: Yeah, yeah, see, and that's the other thing. Another part of the story is that he brought with him to Germany a predisposition to like the Germans and to like Germany. He had, in the 1890s, as had many, many young American men, had gone to Germany to complete his studies at a German university, in his case the University of Leipzig, where he had done his Ph.D. on Thomas Jefferson, strangely enough.
LUDDEN: A little hard to research from Germany, but he managed.
LARSON: I would think especially in the age before Google. But, you know, he had a wonderful time then. He experienced a very different Germany, a Germany - or at least what turns out to be a very different Germany. In the 1890s, he had a marvelous time. He loved the food. He loved the people. Every day, a young woman mysteriously put violets on his pillow in his rooms.
Then he arrives in 1933, and he finds a very different place.
LUDDEN: We have a call on the line. Let's go right to it. Steven(ph) in Portland, Oregon, hi there.
STEVEN: Hello, how are you?
LUDDEN: Good. Go right ahead.
STEVEN: I'm calling, so much of the book was fascinating to me because he was really being undercut all the time by other career State Department people, even to the extent of being edited by people who were lower than he was on the staff of the German Embassy. Could anything have been changed? Could his realism about what was going on in Germany in the later years of his tenure there have really made a difference in the United States?
And then also, is there anything, any kind of similar situation in the current State Department?
LARSON: Well, you've asked two very big questions. Let me address the first part by giving you my appraisal of Dodd as an ambassador. I happened to - unlike a lot of historians who tend to just to simply make Dodd disappear from the record, I look at him, and if I had to give him a grade average, a letter grade, I would give him a B-plus. Because frankly, I don't think anybody in that job could have done better than he did because there was nothing much that anybody else could do.
What he did do, what I think really stands out, no matter how hard the State Department tried to undercut him, is that he stood as a model of American values, and he did not shake from representing those values no matter what the flak he got from home and also from the Nazis.
So I think anybody - and, you know, in the end, anybody who earns the hatred of the Nazis, as he did, I think must have been doing something right.
LUDDEN: But let's explain a little bit more about - go ahead, Steven.
STEVEN: He took them on, too. I mean, he gave an address to the - some German organization, I'm sorry I don't remember the details well enough from the book, but he took them on, and he called them to task. And, you know, that scandalized Washington, certainly, but he was telling them you're not fooling anybody, and that was very admirable.
LARSON: Yeah, that was - it was very admirable. That particular talk, you're referring to his Columbus Day talk to, believe it or not, the American Chamber of Commerce in Berlin. A beautiful thing about – well, what was so interesting about that particular talk was because he knew he couldn't attack Hitler directly, or at least he felt he couldn't. That would be very, quote-unquote, "undiplomatic."
So he couched that talk in very oblique terms, using analogies to dictators, tyrants from the past. And it was very effective and sufficiently oblique that nobody could really get publicly angry at him in Germany, although of course they did.
What was surprising about that was the fact that the State Department got very annoyed with him for being so provocative.
LUDDEN: And tell us more about that. Why - he was fighting not only his relations with the Nazi Germany, but back home the State Department and its kind of lack of support for him. What was going on?
LARSON: You know, in part it was because Dodd was not a member of the club. Dodd was a very unusual kind of diplomat. He was a mild-mannered professor from the University of Chicago who was appointed directly by Roosevelt, thrown into this job for which arguably he had no qualifications and no training.
Meanwhile, the folks who typically could be expected to occupy these jobs and who occupied the senior posts in the State Department, you know, they were all from - I refer to it, quoting one diplomat, as the pretty good club. They all went to the same schools: Harvard, Princeton and so forth. They all - most were independently wealthy. Dodd was very much unlike that. And that was a big part of it.
But also, Dodd was not - he was not kowtowing to the Nazis. He was not doing the diplomatic thing in the way they all felt he should.
LUDDEN: Well, and this not only offended some of his State Department colleagues, who liked the little club they - the pretty good club, but a German official wrote about him, quote, "At a time when the U.S. needed a robust millionaire to compete with the flamboyance of the Nazis, the ambassador teetered around all self-effacingly as if he were still on his college campus."
LARSON: See, that's another element, actually I think kind of a charming element is that one of the things that Dodd, in trying to represent American values, one of the things that he did - this is just like modern-day America where we have oilmen flying in to testify at hearings flying coach, you know.
Well, what Dodd did was, for example he brought his old, beat-up Chevrolet with him to Germany so that he could represent good, old-fashioned Jeffersonian frugality. This also annoyed his independently rich colleagues back in Washington. But they also had a point, as did the person who made that other remark, and that is that the concern was that he could not stand up to the wealth and arrogance of the Nazis.
LUDDEN: We're talking with Erik Larson about his book "In the Garden of Beasts." If you've read it and have questions, now's your chance to ask them. Call us, 800-989-8255. Or send us an email, email@example.com. We'll have more with Erik in a moment. I'm Jennifer Ludden. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
LUDDEN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Jennifer Ludden. When William Dodd moved his family to Berlin, it wasn't his first trip to Germany. As a student, he attended the University of Leipzig and studied for his doctorate, digging through the archives in London and Berlin to write his dissertation on Thomas Jefferson.
Even then, writes Erik Larson in "In the Garden of Beasts," Dodd was struck by the atmosphere of militarism that pervaded Germany. You can read more about Dodd's early years in Germany in an excerpt from "In the Garden of Beasts," one of the books we missed this year. It's at our website. Go to npr.org, and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
If you've read "In the Garden of Beasts" and have questions for Erik Larson, call us at 800-989-8255. Our email address is firstname.lastname@example.com, and you can join the conversation at our website. Go to npr.org, and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
And let's take another call. Bill(ph) in Centennial, Colorado, hi there.
BILL: Hi there. I was struck as I read the book that many of the middle of the German political scale seemed to look at Hitler and his extremism and partisanship and think that it could not possibly last and therefore did little to oppose.
And I was struck as I read the book: Could similarities be present in our current American partisanship? Obviously, it's not at the level of Nazi Germany, but whether the center has not stood up to the partisanship that is present, and I wonder if the author had any similar thoughts.
LUDDEN: Erik Larson?
LARSON: Yeah, let me - the other caller had a similar question about this. Let me tell you what I've observed as I've gone around the country with this book. And first of all, let me just be very clear about something. When I set out to write this book, I set out to try to – to really address my own curiosity about what it must have been like to live in that period, 1933, '34, in Berlin without knowing the ending, you know, meeting all these dark characters without knowing how this was all going to turn out.
But as it happens, it seems to have struck a peculiar chord at both ends of the political spectrum, and I want to emphasize that, as well, both ends. And this became apparent to me from the very first conversation, very first talk that I gave in public about this book.
And as people at both ends of the spectrum are concerned about today, about there being the opportunity, the possibility, that something like the Nazis, a group like the Nazis will again rise in this country - now personally I think it's ridiculous, I don't believe that at all.
But what I find very important is the fact that there are people on both ends who believe it. You have people at the far right who quite literally think - make analogies between Hitler and Obama - I don't really understand it, but that's what they do. And then there are many others at the other side who make the same kind of remarks about groups like the Tea Party.
I find that very interesting, and I think actually, you know, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I think one always has to be vigilant about the surge of groups that satisfy a temporary yearning for who knows what.
LUDDEN: What about that other issue that Bill brings up? I believe that, you know, people kept expecting Hitler to fall. But William Dodd, the ambassador, kept thinking oh, surely any day now he's going to be overthrown.
LARSON: Right, right, even people in the - senior people in the Nazi hierarchy didn't really - didn't think that Hitler would possibly prevail. I mean, Hitler was so crazy, so off-the-charts that there was a persistent sense that, you know, how could he possibly go on.
That was especially the case among State Department officials who thought that he simply could not last. Dodd thought he couldn't last. And, you know, step by step, he proved that he could last.
LUDDEN: Bill, thanks for the call. Erik Larson, can you remind us, you know, one of the ongoing issues that Ambassador Dodd had there in early 1930s Germany was these attacks on Americans. I mean, you know, the State Department would get involved if it was an American citizen. They weren't - it wasn't really they saw it as their job to protect Germany's Jews.
But then there were Americans that kept getting wrapped up in this. What was happening?
LARSON: Yeah, that was a surprise to me. Interestingly, in this period, the primary period that I write about, which is from the summer of '33 through the summer of '34, which is really a crucible time for Hitler and his consolidation of power, but during this time, attacks against Jews had actually fallen off pretty significantly from a pretty serious rate earlier in the spring of that year.
What was happening now that really struck me as very interesting were attacks against American travelers, visitors, businessmen, American expats in Berlin. I mean, it's not to say that there were dozens and dozens of them, but they occurred on a regular basis, and they were almost invariably of the same pattern.
You'd have an American who'd be walking along. A stormtrooper parade would come by, and the American being American didn't feel like he had to issue the Hitler salute or otherwise pay obeisance to the troopers. The troopers would get annoyed, they would break formation, come after him, beat him up, and that was the essential nature of most of those attacks.
I found that fascinating. It's something that I had completely missed from my sense of that era prior to the book.
LUDDEN: And they keep thinking, well, should we issue a travel warning to Americans, and they keep deciding not to.
LARSON: Yeah, yeah, that's kind of an interesting element. I don't understand what they would have had to lose by doing so, but there was so much effort to sort of tiptoe around, you know, around that kind of warning to travelers. And in part, a lot of what they did, frankly, was motivated by the fact that they did not want Germany to renege on a billion-plus dollars of debt owed to the American creditors.
LUDDEN: They wanted the money, right. Let's take a phone call here. We've got Will(ph) in Carmel, California. Hi there, Will.
WILL: Hi, good morning. I have a question about the scenes in the book that describe the emerging affair between Martha Dodd and Boris. They are very affecting, I mean very real-feeling, and they're very intimate, as though the author were actually in the room with them. Is this material that he's just written fictionally, or does he get a lot of it out of Martha Dodd's journals? I'm just curious.
LUDDEN: All right. Let's say that Boris was a diplomat in the Soviet - is that correct, Soviet Embassy, one of her many scandalous affairs during her time there. Thank you, Will.
LARSON: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, nothing about that is fictionalized. The lovely thing is that in Martha's 70 – 70, 7-0 - 70 linear feet of papers at the Library of Congress...
LUDDEN: Wow.
LARSON: ...you know, there were not only a complete collection of Boris's love letters, which he wrote in fairly crude German, which I had translated, but she left a wonderfully detailed account of her relationship with Boris. You know, one of the things that writers often unfortunately do is they try to take liberties. Like, they have somebody, you know, some historical character, you know, smiling or thinking or doing something, you know, and you can't do that unless you know for sure.
Well, the beauty of what she left in this file, this very detailed account of her relationship with Boris, is she recounts some of those scenes, complete with, if you will, facial stage direction.
For example, the scene in the Soviet embassy, which is one of my favorite scenes in the book...
LUDDEN: You say embassy, but let's - he woos her in his bedroom there, right?
LARSON: Well, yeah, yeah, he takes her to his room, and there's a very - I just found it - you know, it's the kind of thing - the beauty - I hate to use the word beauty so much, but the beauty of nonfiction is that you can't make it up because it's just so strange.
And that scene in his bedroom at the Soviet Embassy is just wonderful. But let me just reassure the caller that no, none of that is made up. None of that is - there are no liberties taken whatsoever.
LUDDEN: All right, let's get to another caller. Rich(ph) is in Denver, Colorado.
RICH: Good afternoon, a pleasure to talk to you, Mr. Larson. On the gentleman's point, the first call you took from Portland, as to when the ambassador went to the - basically the Chamber of Commerce and was like you guys aren't fooling anyone, I kind of wondered, and in light of that last caller's question, it sounds like with his marriage kind of crumbling around him, at some point did he get and basically say - communicate back to America I'm done with this, this guy's crazy?
As you said, the attacks on the Jews started to wane in '33, '34, but I'm sure there was still - you know, obviously this stuff going on with Americans. Was he just not knowing of anything that was - any of the atrocities, or were they just not happening at this point where he was basically saying back to Washington I'm done with it, this guy's crazy, you know, I don't know why we're, you know, why we're still dealing with this country.
And maybe it's to the point where you said that they didn't want to renege on the billion dollars that Germany had - that they had promised to Germany. Was that not - I guess there's kind of a multitude of questions in there.
LARSON: Let me address it this way: When Dodd arrived, he was very naive but also very objective. He wanted to see, as he says in one remark, he says he believes in letting men try their schemes. But very quickly, in the course of that year, he came to see the Hitler regime quite differently, and he wrote back directly, in fact, to Roosevelt, saying that, you know, these - that something very troubling was happening and something that would really be a danger to the world in coming years.
And his sense of this became even more profound to the point where once he was forced out of his job essentially by resistance back home and also by Nazi resistance, when he was forced out of his job, he became really one of the few Americans if - of any prominence who had been in government to sound the warning against the Nazi threat.
So he learned quite quickly. He never had a sense, look, this is pointless. We've got to go home. The more he learned, the more he saw Hitler consolidate his power, the more evidence there was of armament, re-arming in the countryside and so forth, the more he became convinced that Germany was going to become a serious world problem.
LUDDEN: But he did have this pervasive sense of futility, like what am I doing here?
LARSON: Yes.
LUDDEN: I can't do anything. And Betsy Berger(ph) writes us from Seattle. She sends an email pointing out that Dodd, you know, as time went on, basically refused to engage with Hitler. His biggest...
LARSON: Yeah.
LUDDEN: ...statement was, I'm not going to your party convention. I'm not showing up here. And she asked: Do you think if Dodd had gotten closer to Hitler, he would have had more influence, both in Germany and with his own state department?
LARSON: Yeah. I can only - which is the question. The question, would he have had more influence had he gotten closer? No. Absolutely not. Nobody could possibly have had any influence over Hitler. What could have happened is that somebody who was less resistant to Nazi charms, if you will, somebody of a more conventional diplomatic stripe might have gotten much closer to Hitler and might have been more manipulated by Hitler. Hitler was notorious for telling people exactly what they wanted to hear, and an awful lot of people bought that at face value. Dodd did not.
LUDDEN: Hmm. All right. Let's get another call on the line here. Let's see. Michael is in Detroit, Michigan. Hi there.
MICHAEL: Hi. How are you?
LUDDEN: Hi. Good.
MICHAEL: Thanks for taking my call. My mother was born in '32 in Germany, as a Jewish woman, and my grandmother, who spoke several languages, got her Ph.D. there in 1927, and they left in '39. I thought the book did a really great job of filling in some of the blanks that my grandmother filled in for me, describing the life there, being, you know, aristocratic Jews. They had a lot of money to get - send my mother - my grandmother to college. But they were also pretty buffered because they just didn't believe that, you know, these isolated events could actually explode into a world event, and they left - escaped in 1939, went to Turkey, to Italy, to here, and we're still appalled to this day.
LUDDEN: Hmm.
LARSON: Yeah, yeah. You know, they left pretty late.
MICHAEL: Yeah. They were blessed...
LARSON: Yeah, yeah.
MICHAEL: ...to get out. My mother - I'm a first-generation American, as I tell people.
LARSON: Well, one of the things that I discovered as I - things - a lot of this that - I mean, I had no idea that this period was so interesting, so compelling and so rich and nuanced. I mean, you know, the things that scholars have unearthed about why Jews stayed in Berlin, what they were thinking, you know, among Jews, just as with the State Department, there was a pervasive sense that Hitler could not last, just couldn't happen. And...
MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah. And they didn't have the communication infrastructure that we have now. So, you know, in 19, you know, '33, '34, '35 in Bonn, Germany, they didn't - you know, Berlin is, you know, miles, hundreds of miles away, you know, Stalingrad is, I mean, another place. And they didn't have that knowledge base (unintelligible). All that is just a (unintelligible). That didn't happen the way - blah, blah, blah. That's what my grandmother said. She goes we just couldn't believe that these things could be happening.
LUDDEN: All right. Michael, thanks for the call.
LARSON: There's a lot of denial. Absolutely.
MICHAEL: Thanks so much for having me.
LUDDEN: You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Erik Larson, you say a lot of denial. As you read this book and you just - you know, things keep changing, and the atmosphere becomes rife with tension, and you talk about this aura of surveillance. What do you think was the turning point for Ambassador Dodd?
LARSON: Oh, the turning point for Ambassador Dodd was very clear, I think, was very clear. That was the Night of the Long Knives. That was the climactic purge that Hitler caused in June of 1934, and that was to remove the last potential opposition, which, interestingly, was his old friend and ally Ernst Rohm and the stormtroopers. And that was a very, very bloody, catastrophic weekend that really took - removed the last doubts from Dodd's mind about the true nature of this regime.
LUDDEN: Do you - you know, you write also that, you know, leading up to the Night of the Long Knives, and even afterwards, that if things weren't so serious that they would have been comical. I mean, at one point the Nazi regime says people spelling words over the phone can no longer say D as in David because David is a Jewish name. I mean, you read it and you're like, really?
LARSON: Yeah. And, you know, as Dodd's - one of the other compelling things to me was the fact that everything was so new, if you will, to American perception. We all know today what the tropes of the Nazi era are - you know, were, the, you know, the Hitler salute and so forth.
And Dodd's consul general in Berlin, George Messersmith, who was a fairly clear-eyed thinker at the time, tended to treat the Nazi regime as - the way an anthropologist might treat an aboriginal tribe. And so he was very interested in things like the Hitler salute and these changes from, you know, no longer being able to say David and so forth, so much so that he spent one 18-page dispatch. They nicknamed him 40-page George because he couldn't do anything shortly, in short prose. But he devoted an entire 18-page dispatch just to the Hitler salute because it was so novel. He commented on how exhausting it was to walk through a public building - it must have been for a German to walk through a public building because of all the saluting that they had to do. So it's just fascinating.
LUDDEN: We have an email from Sarah Park(ph), who says she kept having to put the book down since she knew the ending, of course, that when there seemed to be crucial moments, when pressure from other countries could have stemmed the Nazi tide, the passage describing Roosevelt's reluctance to speak officially because of the questions about ways of America's treatment of African-Americans was heartbreaking and infuriating. Do you think the world could have done more to intervene?
LARSON: You know, it is - one of the things that I really tried to do when I was working on this book was to remove as much of my sense of hindsight as possible. Could there have been more done, I have - I'm unable to say because it wasn't done.
LUDDEN: All right. Erik Larson. His latest book "In the Garden of Beasts Love: Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin." You can find an excerpt at our website. Erik Larson, thank you so much.
LARSON: Thank you.
LUDDEN: After a short break, Chris Vognar joins us. His review - he reviews movies or the Dallas Morning News and ranks his favorites. Plus, he'll tell us why compiling the list is more interesting in the name itself. It's TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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On-Field Diversity Task Force announces preliminary initiatives to address talent pipeline of diverse players
Former White Sox and Mets Manager Jerry Manuel will take on expanded role in task force's day-to-day efforts
Major League Baseball's On-Field Diversity Task Force, launched by Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig, has set three preliminary priority initiatives that will guide the start of the Committee's comprehensive long-term action plan, MLB announced today.
In the months and years ahead, MLB will strive to address the talent pipeline that impacts the representation and development of the sport's diverse players and on-field personnel, particularly focusing on African-Americans. The three broad initiatives now underway include:
- (1) Expanding MLB's reach and involvement with existing urban baseball initiatives, such as Jr. RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), the MLB Urban Youth Academies and various grassroots programs around the country;
- (2) Implementing programs focused on improving the quality of coaching as a way to make the game more engaging, including the use of new initiatives and mobile coaching tools being developed; and
- (3) Focusing MLB's marketing reach on urban communities by using a variety of resources, including raising the profile of current and former Major Leaguers. These players would not only engage youth, families and their communities, but could also serve as coaches, program leaders or inspiring figures for youth in urban communities.
MLB also announced today that Jerry Manuel, the former manager of the Chicago White Sox and the New York Mets, will take on an expanded role on the On-Field Diversity Task Force. Manuel will now serve as the day-to-day leader of the initiative under the direction of Task Force Chairman David Dombrowski, the President, CEO & General Manager of the Detroit Tigers.
"The recommendations made by the On-Field Diversity Task Force result from extensive research, meetings and conversations with people of various disciplines and unique perspectives," Commissioner Selig said. "I commend Dave Dombrowski and all members of the Task Force for their thoughtfulness regarding this complex situation, which will require strategic steps in order to reach a long-term solution. I believe that these recommendations mark the start of addressing our challenges and making the sport of Jackie Robinson more accessible to young players of all races."
Since the launch of the Task Force one year ago, the members have sought to better understand the challenges that have led to the declining number in recent decades. Some of their initial findings have included that:
- In many areas, youth baseball can be an expensive and unavailable sport in urban areas due to:
- the high cost of equipment;
- insufficient exposure to leagues that teach game fundamentals;
- a lack of urban training facilities; and
- the proliferation of for-profit camps and showcases, which limit exposure for African-American players.
- There is a shortage of active scouts and experienced coaches in dense African-American population centers.
- Talented, young African-American athletes have chosen to pursue other sports over baseball, in part stemming from fewer collegiate scholarships that are available to baseball players.
The Jr. RBI expansion will consist of a five-year outreach plan to markets where there are not currently Jr. RBI playing divisions, which are offered to young people ages 5 to 12. In addition to increasing participation numbers, this expansion will offer additional opportunities to existing RBI leagues with a new competitive element of Jr. RBI. The Jr. RBI playing divisions were created in 2009 as a friendly, non-competitive component of the RBI program in order to expand RBI participation ages from 13-18 to 5-18. The RBI program is Major League Baseball's youth initiative designed to provide young people from urban and underserved communities with the opportunity to play baseball and softball, while also encouraging academic achievement and success and teaching the value of teamwork and other important life lessons. Since the creation of Jr. RBI playing divisions, participation in RBI has risen from 125,000 in 2009 to more than 220,000 in 2014. More than one million young people have participated in the RBI program since 1989.
MLB Urban Youth Academies provide free, year-round baseball and softball instruction, as well as education opportunities in several other baseball-related concentrations, including umpiring, groundskeeping, broadcasting, journalism and public relations. Additionally, Academies offer educational support in the form of after-school tutoring, SAT prep and a book club for the youngest members. Each Academy features several fields of various regulations sizes as well as batting cages, pitching tunnels and an indoor facility where classrooms and administration offices are located. There are three Academies in operation in Compton (California), Houston (Texas) and New Orleans (Louisiana). Three more are in development in Cincinnati (Ohio), Hialeah (Florida) and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). MLB Urban Youth Academies have served more than 10,000 young people since 2006.
Part of Manuel's expanded role will be to oversee the day-to-day activation of the Task Force's new initiatives. He played parts of five seasons in the Major Leagues as an infielder with the Detroit Tigers (1975-76), the Montreal Expos (1980-81) and the San Diego Padres (1982). After a long coaching career, Manuel led the Chicago White Sox from 1998-2003 and the New York Mets from 2008-2010. He was the BBWAA's American League Manager of the Year in 2000, when he led the White Sox to an A.L.-best 95-67 record and the A.L. Central title. In parts of nine seasons, Manuel's Clubs posted a mark of 704-684 (.507).
Dombrowski said: "Jerry's experience and energy will be tremendous daily assets to our Committee as we continue to examine the factors associated with diversity in our game. We have made progress over the last 12 months, and I am pleased that Jerry will now help us pursue a mission that is vital to our future.
"These initial steps represent the beginning of a long-term process that we embrace. We also need to study additional educational opportunities, which would create stronger bonds with our game. Ultimately, we hope that our efforts will impact participation for youth of all backgrounds and communities where the economics of playing baseball and softball is beyond the means of their families."
Membership on the Task Force, which convenes regularly and presented to all Major League Clubs at MLB's Industry Meetings in November 2013, includes representation from Club ownership, front offices, MLB's Central Office, Minor League Baseball, former players, the Major League Baseball Players Association, the MLB Urban Youth Academies, the MLB Scouting Bureau, college baseball and academia.
"All Major Leaguers, both past and present, are passionate about the game they play, and they are eager to share that passion with future generations of players, especially those residing in urban areas," said MLBPA Executive Director, Tony Clark. "We look forward to working closely with the Diversity Task Force to help develop initiatives that make the game more accessible and affordable to minority populations. Unfortunately, and I think we can all agree, this is a very complex issue with a number of moving targets. However, bringing urban youth closer to the game and to those players they can relate to, is a natural first step toward re-engaging the next generation of young ballplayers."
Thirteen African-American players were selected in the first rounds of the 2012 and 2013 First-Year Player Drafts, and the selection of seven in 2012 was the most by total and percentage (7-of-31, 22.6%) since 1992. Approximately 60 alumni of both the RBI program and MLB Urban Youth Academies have been drafted the last two years.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Tour Africa's most popular region
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Our overland trips to Africa will still get you off the beaten track, letting you take in the continent's natural wonders as you drive through the deserts and savannas, trek through the Rwandan rainforest, canoe through lush waterways in the Okavango Delta, journey along the eerie Skeleton Coast, or explore the exotic white sands and turquoise waters of the fabled island of Zanzibar!
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text:
PARIS (Reuters) - Alcatel-Lucent almost halved its net loss for 2013 as cost-cutting, a tweaked product offering and asset sales under Chief Executive Michel Combes began to take effect.
The telecoms equipment maker, which competes with Sweden's Ericsson, China's Huawei and Nokia's NSN unit, said its gross margin was 34 percent and operating profit 307 million euros - both better than expected.
The group posted its first quarterly profit since March 2012 and in the fourth quarter operating margins went to 7.8 percent from 2.8 percent in the last quarter of 2012.
Alcatel shares rose 9.5 percent as investors bought into the operational momentum that Combes has built two quarters into his 'Shift' plan, which includes 1 billion euros in asset sales, 1 billion in cost cuts, and 10,000 layoffs through 2015.
Some of the spike was due to short sellers covering their positions, traders said. According to Markit data, 9 percent of shares were out on loan to investors betting against the group.
"The plan is already deeply transforming the company and comforting our view that we have made the right strategic choices," Combes said on a conference call on Thursday.
He also confirmed his target of making the group cash flow positive and sustainably profitable by 2015. But the results showed there was still some way to go on that front.
Fourth-quarter revenue at 3.93 billion euros ($5.32 billion) missed analysts' expectations by 5.5 percent. Its net loss was 1.3 billion euros, compared with the 2012 loss of 2 billion, caused largely by writedowns on the mobile business and restructuring costs from layoffs.
It also again used more cash than it made, taking free cash flow to a negative 636 million euros. It has not been free cash flow positive since the merger that created it in 2006.
Alcatel-Lucent's woes stem from intense competition not only from low-cost Huawei, but also from Nokia's NSN, which has signaled it will compete aggressively for contracts this year as it emerges from a painful restructuring and needs to grow its top-line.
In mobile network gear, Alcatel-Lucent struggles as the fourth largest vendor and relies on its stronghold in the high-margin U.S. market, while in broadband and IP it is a leader and is even increasing market share in some product areas.
The fortress of its North America business, which grew almost 14 percent last year, is protected by Chinese vendors being largely excluded due national security concerns.
Sales in Europe, its second-biggest region, shrunk 3 percent last year, while Asia saw a slight rise.
Combes' strategy is to streamline the group to focus on IP networking products, which help telecom operators carry mobile data traffic, and on high-speed mobile and fixed broadband.
He has also shored up the group's finances with a capital increase and refinancing debt.
He has sold two businesses units in recent months worth some 350 million euros. The latest deal, announced on Thursday, will see Alcatel sell 85 percent of its enterprise business, which sells communications products and services to corporations, to investment fund China Huaxin.
The transaction, which has yet to be finalized, prices the unit at 268 million euros on an enterprise value basis. China Huaxin, which is already partnered with Alcatel in its Chinese joint venture, will take on all its employees and contracts.
Alcatel-Lucent has a market capitalization of 9.2 billion euros.
Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Louise Ireland


text:
Posted 9 years ago
(72 items)
Some card / stickers and other cards from my childhood, not a complete set of Wacky Packages ( I wish ). And some other things I stashed away from my youth. The Wacky Packages are from around 1974 or so even though there aren't any dates printed on them.


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Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard and Gilbert Arenas Go on Planking Spree [PHOTOS]
[/caption]Orlando Magic teammates Dwight Howard and Gilbert Arenas tried their hands at planking -- a bizarre, imported Australian fad wherein people lie face-down and absolutely rigid on strange surfaces. Howard and Arenas documented their best planks, with surfaces including a vending machine and luxury cars, on Twitter. And, yes, planking is better when done by super-tall basketball players. Check out some of their best shots below:


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Hail bounces off inflatable hail protector
Hail storms often hits Omaha without much warning. Now, there is a new product offering protection anywhere you go.
The hail protector promises to keep you out of the auto body shop, beating hail before it even hits.
The inflatable car cover deflects hail, even tennis-ball-sized hail, according to the Texas-based investor Michael Siciliano's online videos.
"It's pretty interesting that it just bounces right off," said Jason Galvan with Dingman's Autobody.
The protector comes with a smartphone app to alert customers when a storm is about to hit.
"Again, they've already installed their cover, so then they just kind of walk to the window, press the remote control and within six minutes, five minutes, it's going to be fully active," Siciliano said.
The online videos impressed those who make a living fixing hail damage.
"It's a lot cheaper than fixing a hail job. You could have a $500 deductible or more in some cases. I mean it could pay for itself there," Galvan said.
Gary Dupuis, who travels across the country correcting damage done by hail, questioned whether customers would really go for it.
"People aren't that crazy about their cars and they pay for insurance anyway," Dupuis said.
The inventor said he got the idea while watching children play in an inflatable bounce house.
The hail protector costs $300 to $500 depending on the size of the vehicle.
To purchase it online, visit http://www.hailprotector.com/.


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Home ›
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You can send Birthday to Austria in the following cities.
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"I have to tell you...you folks did a wonderful job. All the fruit was fresh and large and my son was thrilled to see fresh fruits. Thank you."
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Read more testimonials.


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- Tech Trader Daily
Updated: Twitter Soars On Surprise Q2 Profit, Upbeat Revenue
- Order Reprints
- Print Article
Twitter (TWTR) was jumping after hours on its second-quarter earnings report.
The social media site said it earned two cents a share on revenue of $312 million.
Analysts were expecting the company to lose one penny per share on revenue of $283 million.
Mobile active users (MAUs) were 271 million in the quarter, up from 255 million in the first quarter and above the 256.6 million consensus, according to Briefing.com.
The company said third quarter EBITDA would be between $40 million and $45 million on revenues between $330 million and $340 million, compared to the $323.7 million consensus. It also raised its full year revenue forecast to a range of $1.31 billion to $1.33 billion, above the $1.27 billion consensus.
Twitter has had a rocky history of earnings reports since going public in November. In late April Twitter dropped after reporting first-quarter earnings, as its better-than-expected results were overshadowed by a downbeat full-year forecast, and took another big hit in early May when the expiration of lock-ups on stock sales by insiders arrived.
Its fourth-quarter report in January also sparked a selloff, as investors fretted over monthly active user metrics, overlooking a surprise profit and better-than-expected revenue. The company appointed a new CFO at the start of the month.
Read a roundup of analyst previews for the quarter here.
Update: At 4:20 the shares are up 27%.


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text: Job Discussion Forums :: View topic - Are degrees required in every asian country? Get TEFL Certified & Start Your Adventure Today! Job Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Are degrees required in every asian country? Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> General Asia Forum View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message JaredJoined: 07 Sep 2004Posts: 319Location: Canada Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:20 pm Post subject: Are degrees required in every asian country? Hello. I just have some questions with reguards to education required in Asia. I heard a rumor that a degree is required to "Legally" work ONLY in Taiwan and Korea. I heard that everywhere else in Asia, you can get by with just a TESOL certificate/diploma. I also heard a rumor that a degree is required to teach in Asia period, however there are ways to get around that. If you take a course that guarantees you a job in asia afterwards or if you take a course that focuses on teaching english in asia, you can get away with out a diploma reguardless of where you go. How true are these rumors anyway? I'd appreciate any info you guys can give me. Thanks. Jared Back to top GlenskiJoined: 15 Jan 2003Posts: 12844Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:04 pm Post subject: It just goes to show you that what you "hear" may not always be true. There is also some gray area involved. Take Japan for example. To legally work in Japan, you must have a proper visa. Which one may depend on your circumstances, and different ones allow different opportunities. To get a work visa, you usually need a bachelor's degree (3 or 4 year plan, depending on your nationality). Rare cases come up when they permit a work visa to be offered when the individual can prove several years of related work experience. A work visa is specific for the duties you will perform (that is, only for a teacher, or only for an engineer, etc.). Certain nationalities can be eligible for a working holiday visa, which does not require a degree. You must be a certain age, however, and prove you can support yourself with certain funds. Any type of work is allowed, except bar work. The WHV is only good for a year, once in your life. Taxes are different for people with WHV, too. If you are married to a Japanese, you can get a spouse visa, which permits work in any field, as long as the employer is satisfied with your credentials. No degree is needed for the visa, but employers might want you to have one. If you are married to a non-Japanese who has a FT job (and therefore a visa), you can get a dependent visa. This alone does not entitle you to work, but with some simple extra paperwork, you can request permission to work. It will only be for 20 hours a week, but it is in any field. No degree is needed, but like the spouse visa, you are subject to whatever requirements the employer has. Student visas permit work, too, although only PT. You must be enrolled in a Japanese school to be eligible. No degree is needed. Certifications like TESL or TESOL are not substitutes for degrees in Japan. Quote: If you take a course that guarantees you a job in asia afterwards Stop right there. Any place that GUARANTEES you a job is lying. Beware of such outfits, especially if they say such a piece of paper will allow you to skirt immigration laws on visas. This was discussed on a thread at www.teachinginjapan.com for a particular outfit that made such claims, so if you are interested, read it for details on how slimy the guarantee is. Back to top sojournerJoined: 28 Jan 2003Posts: 738Location: nice, friendly, easy-going (ALL) Peoples' Republic of China Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:12 am Post subject: Jared, To teach (legally) in Sth Korea, a degree is necessary in order to be issued with the required (E2) visa. It is possible, without a degree or TESOL certificate, to find work in China - although, probably not in Shanghai or Beijing. Without any such qualifications, you'll probably be able to find a job in a language school. (Refer to some of my most recent posts for my opinions regarding language schools). With a TESOL certificate, but no degree, you just MIGHT be able to find a job at one of the lowest ranking colleges and universities. With both a degree and a TESOL certificate, your chances of finding a 'reasonable job' (ie those in colleges,unis or state-run primary or secondary schools) would be greatly enhanced. The recent influx of many unqualified people into China may eventually result in a situation in which employers will become far more choosy in their teacher selection criteria. So, get qualified ! The best high quality courses to do are those that are recognised by reputable employers around the world. I'm referring , of course, to CELTA and the Trinity College certificate.There may be other high quality courses - but they would not have the same sort of 'brand name' recognition that CELTA and Trinity happen to have. If CELTA training is too expensive in your home country, it can be done comparatively cheaper in Thailand. (Forget about doing an online course . They may provide you with with some useful ideas but, unlike CELTA or Trinity, they don't involve any actual teaching practice). Apart from regarding a TESOL certificate as merely a means of getting a job, you should see it as a way of helping you to survive in the classroom and, more importantly, of providing a good standard of teaching for your students. You mentioned something about 'training course + job offer' package deals. Refer to Glenski's comments. Even if a particular package deal turns out to be legitimate, the sort of training you'd get may only be applicable to that school's particular teaching methodology and syllabus - and may not provide you with any transferrable skills. One possible exception,though, could be the training provided by the Boland Schools - I have heard some good reports about them. But, to be on the safe side ,you should consider enrolling only in a CELTA or Trinity course. Apart from China, you might wish to consider Vietnam.There's one woman who regularly contributes to Dave's China forums, who prior to coming here, was working in Vietnam - and she neither has a degree or a TESOL certificate ! However, Vietnamese employers usually don't provide FTs with airfare reimbursement or free accommodation. In conclusion, I strongly advise you to enrol in a CELTA or Trinity course. If you intend to teach for a number of years, I also urge you to get a degree - there are a number of reputable Australian universities that provide distance learning and online undergraduate programmes, should attending an on-campus course be difficult. In many countries, students expect teachers to be educated people - not merely experts in a narrow field, such as TESL methodology. Good luck. Peter Back to top jibbsJoined: 02 Feb 2003Posts: 452 Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:33 am Post subject: All they have seen from me in Vietnam so far has been a resume. It could have been all invented. The white face and the clearly spoken English seemed to work. I'm not too sure how legal things are here. Elsewhere they wanted to see everything for a full-time job, but as a substitute for, say, a month, or if a school is desperate, they might just hire the first one who shows up to help save their business. Back to top laodengJoined: 07 Feb 2004Posts: 481 Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:11 pm Post subject: But in China, of course, it seems that almost any old sheet of paper--particularly one with some Gothic lettering--is accepted as evidence of a "degree." I've never heard of a school's actually verifying the degree. Back to top dudeskyJoined: 16 Oct 2004Posts: 3Location: Toronto Canada Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:04 pm Post subject: i just have a quick question and i wonder if someone out there can give me some guidance. I am a 21 year old canadian college graduate with an advanced diploma in paralegal studies. i also hold a certificate from the university of toronto in international languages. can i get a teaching job in asia with my credentials? am i restricted? also because of my age are there some barriers in my path? thanks so much for your potential response. Back to top jibbsJoined: 02 Feb 2003Posts: 452 Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:11 am Post subject: If you are young and cute you will get work. Maybe not a place that cares so much about education as attracting parents and their kids. I knew of one 15 year old American girl teaching privates in Korea, not legal. Her father was at a university. Back to top dudeskyJoined: 16 Oct 2004Posts: 3Location: Toronto Canada Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:46 pm Post subject: well first of all im a guy so im not sure how cute comes into play for me obtaining a job. what i meen is based on my age (21) and my education (associates degree and certificate in internation languages) would any country allow me to work legally? Back to top sojournerJoined: 28 Jan 2003Posts: 738Location: nice, friendly, easy-going (ALL) Peoples' Republic of China Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 3:57 am Post subject: Dudesky, To teach legally in Sth Korea, an E2 visa is necessary - and to be eligible for such a visa you need an actual DEGREE, not a diploma. For Japan, why don't you make some enquiries about the JET scheme? I'm not sure whether you actually need a degree in order to be eligible. For China, you'd have no trouble in getting a job. Being both Nth American and quite young, you would probably be able to pick up a job at one of the major language school chains (eg 'Wall Street') in Shanghai. Most newbies appear very keen to find work in Shanghai - you might have a chance. If you are not too keen to work in a language school, or anywhere in Shanghai, you should be able to find a job at a college or university. Apart from the usual Oral English, your para-legal qualification should also help you to get you a job teaching Business English. I'm a bit curious about your 'Certificate in Foreign Languages' - is it to do with the teaching of foreign languages ? If not, it might be a good idea for you to undergo some ESL teacher training before leaving home, eg CELTA. Also, you should think about articulating your diploma into a degree. Having a degree will provide you with far more opportunities in the ESL world - and elsewhere. Good luck. Peter Back to top GlenskiJoined: 15 Jan 2003Posts: 12844Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 8:41 am Post subject: Quote: For Japan, why don't you make some enquiries about the JET scheme? I'm not sure whether you actually need a degree in order to be eligible. The JET Programme (not scheme) is for people with bachelor's degrees. Back to top naturegirl321Joined: 04 May 2003Posts: 9041Location: home sweet home Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject: sojourner wrote: Jared, One possible exception,though, could be the training provided by the Boland Schools - I have heard some good reports about them. But, to be on the safe side ,you should consider enrolling only in a CELTA or Trinity course. Peter I second that, BOland is a good course! 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If it were me, I'd let him do it for about a week, then CTRL+H to read his history file, you never know where kids (even really good kids) can end up on the net - before blocking him completely. At least then you know what you are dealing with and might thwart any future problems. Goog luck.
Ugghh....not looking forward to it, they are still so sweet when they are 8....Bless you my child
I like the keylogger idea.I installed Vista Home Premium and it has built in monitoring software. I can lock them out at certain times of the day, and get to see what programs they ran, websites visited etc.


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Mallow Charity Shop
Irish Cancer Society charity shops stock great bargains and lovely gifts for all the family, including clothes, shoes, books, bric-a-brac, giftware, collectables and household items at prices to suit everyone's pocket.
Donations accepted
- Ladies, gents and children's clothes; books; shoes; bric-a-brac; collectibles; pictures household items and small furniture pieces.
- We cannot accept electrical, gas or oil appliances, children's car seats or used bicycle or motor bike helmets.
Date Last Reviewed:
Thursday, August 16, 2018


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Thursday – The rest of my team shipped out Wednesday afternoon, my wife asked me to stick around another night to help with the boy which resulted in me leaving crazy early on Thursday. The good news was that I made it to Atlanta without incident (there were four different screaming children around me) and that I also was able to hook up with my team for lunch. Cosmin's tutorial on deploying Python Apps to AWS EC2 was great.
Friday – Day 1 of PyCon and I was already a little worn out. I was the session chair for the first three talks in the "testing" track by Michael Foord (Mock), Gary Bernhardt (Units Need Testing Too) and Kumar McMillan (Tox). I figured since I would be attending all three talks anyway plus all three guys are friends that session chairing would be easy. As expected, each of them gave great talks (all under time!) and had a question and answer session. I ended up hallway tracking it most of the remainder of the day.
Saturday – Day 2 of PyCon. I got to see Jason Huggins' talk on Selenium 2 and Jcon Kaplan-Moss' talk on writing great documentation. I caught the tail end of Alex Martelli's talk on API Design Anti-Patterns. Mike Pirnat's talk entitled "An Exhibition in Atrocity" was really my favorite talk of the day with Zed Shaw's talk on ZeroMQ a very close second. I was also able to catch part's of C. Titus Brown, Ned Batchelder and Augie Fackler talks.
TiP BoF – As the organizer "shit gets real" for me about 3:00 PM on Saturday. Given some of the issues that happened with the Chef and Scotch BoF's the previous night, I officially declared this "alcohol free" (notice the quotes). Paul Hildebrandt and Disney provided the pizza, Titus Brown and Doug Hellmann did a soda run and here's the list of lightning talks that we did.
Feihong Hsu – Stretching
Terry Peppers – Opening Remarks
Terry Peppers – Nagaconda
Alfredo Deza – Konira: A Testing Framework DSL
Augie Fackler – Mecurial's Unified Test Suite
Marty Alchin – Lab Coat Test Framework … Thingy
Roman Lisagor – Freshen Your Code
Kumar McMillan – Fudging It With Mock Objects
Anthony Scopatz – Scientific Testing in Python, A Hell Of A Workflow!
Feihong Hsu – How My Comic Book Obsession Birthed a New Functional Testing Tool
Michael Foord – Shiny New Stuff in Mock 0.7.0
Alex Gaynor – Writing 5 Lines of Codes, 16 Tests And Speeding Stuff Up
Jason Huggins – How to Test Canvas Based Web Applications
Gary Bernhardt – Isolating Isn't Magic
Armin Ronacher — Modern Approach to Monitoring
Brett Cannon – How to Pronounce PyPi: The Python Package Index
Mike Pirnat – Mock: It's Not Just For Testing Any More
Brett Cannon – Why You Don't Want to Get a Ph.D. in Comp Sci
Steve Holden – Ask the Chairman of the PSF
Jesse Noller – Ask a Board Member of the PSF
Tavvi Burns – Keeping Your Expected Files in Sync
Gary Bernhardt – Python Mock Library Comparison
Doug Napoleone – In Defense of Golden File Testing
A couple of more observations on TiP BoF. I think 2011 was clearly bigger than 2010. I also think having the additional space was a solid idea. All in all, everyone looks forward to the TiP BoF and it was rather amazing to see how many people were attending for the first time. I'm glad everyone turned out and made it a great open space. Hopefully we'll be able to keep doing this year after year! I know people are working through photos, but there is a Flickr pool where you can post them (Testing in Python).
Sunday – Final day of PyCon never seems long enough. Chris McAvoy's keynote about Threadless was great, and it was even better to see Luke Opperman mentioned as "the vanguard." Peter Portante's talk on Co-Routines really kind of blew my mind in a good way. I was able to catch Mark Ramm's talk on scaling Python which was also good.


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Flourysh needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 20 designs submitted by 6 freelance designers.
Kolobe means Bushpig. The owners have two farms - Kolobe Game Farm and Kameel. Have a look at the Kameel website - http://www.kameel.co.za
Kolobe Game Farm
Desired Color Scheme:
match logo, earthy colours, safari colours, outdoors
Desired Style:
use animals, outdoor feel, earthy colours, safari, must be an improvement on http://www.kameel.co.za
Download logo here: http://www.jws.co.za/client/kolobe/…e_logo.zip
You can see the other logo ideas over here: http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplac…ntest/2300
Download animals here: http://www.jws.co.za/client/kolobe/animals.zip (we own the copyright to these photos)
Welcome/Splash Page
The farm caters for two very different types of guests - eco tourists and bow hunters. The welcome/splash page must have the following:
* short introduction paragraph
* logo, look & feel graphics etc to fit in with the rest of the site
* two large graphics - one for eco tourists, one for bow hunting. Graphics should be labeled. Please see the comments on the main page: http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplac…ntest/2448 . We know that it is difficult to find a suitable photo/graphic for bow hunting so you can for example use a font instead. You can then include other general photos on the welcome page as backgrounds, watermarks, close ups etc.
* include the following solgans on the welcome page:
-- 'Close to JHB & Pretoria!'
-- 'Large variety of game!'
-- 'Bring the whole family!'
* welcome page does not contain a menu
The welcome page is very important as it needs to grab the visitors attention.
Do not include any images of hunting rifles/fire arms, the farm only offers bow hunting
Either the 'eco tourist' or 'bow hunting' menu is displayed once the user clicks on a graphic on the welcome page. Use the following options for navigation:
- Home
- Accommodation
- Hunting Rules
- Facilities
- Tarrifs
- Making a booking
- Contact
- Meet the staff
- Map of the farm
- How to get there
- Gallery
- Links
Note: If you use graphics for the menu items, and your design wins, we will ask you to make three additional menus (4 in total - bow hunting menu in English, bow hunting menu in Afrikaans, eco tourist menu in English, eco tourist Afrikaans)
The menu can be on the left hand side or on the top, depending on your design.
The menu should include a prominent option to change language. Eg above 'Home' menu option have 'View in Afrikaans'. We can't use flags to symbolise the two languages.
The design must include images of animals in some way (eg backgrounds, watermarks, close ups, parts of animals (eg only horns, eyes, ears etc) - go wild!). We are really looking for something creative that is an improvement over http://www.kameel.co.za. The farm has the following animals: bushpigs, impala, kudu, zebra blesbok. The farm does not have any lions, elephants, leopards, cheetah, rhino. The zip file above contains some photos that you are free to use. An extra $50 is available to purchase stock photos if needed.
The design must include the email address: firstname.lastname@example.com and Tel: +27 14 555 5555


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"The advent of Google marks off two very distinct periods in Internet history. The optimists remember the age before Google as chaotic, inefficient, and disorganized. Most search engines at the time had poor ethics (some made money by misrepresenting ads as search results) and terrible algorithms (some could not even find their parent companies online). All of that changed when two Stanford graduate students invented an ingenious way to rank Web pages based on how many other pages link to them." — Don't Be Evil, The New Republic
If you are under 30, you may not recall a time when Yahoo! was as central to the online experience as Google is now. In 1998, when the search provider was nearing its zenith, I had a realization: I no longer thought of Yahoo! as a "website", but rather as the Internet itself. I felt as if you could peel back any page available on the net and find Yahoo! beneath it, as though it were the canvas on which the entire web were painted.
Now, of course, I feel that way about Google. And I distinctly remember the day when my allegiance shifted. It was 1999, I was a programmer at Amazon.com, and one of my colleagues, a young guy fresh out of school with a degree in CS, was showing me this new search engine that everyone in his class swore by. He punched in a few words and clicked [Google Search] to illustrate. The moment the results came back I knew I would never use Yahoo! again.
Why? Was it because of Google's "ingenious way to rank Web pages based on how many other pages link to them"? No, of course not–I was nowhere near savvy enough to pick up on something like that. It was for a much simpler and fundamental reason: Google took your search terms and only returned pages that had all of them, whereas Yahoo!, by default, returned pages that contained any of them. Put another way, Google joined all your words with "and"s where Yahoo! used "or"s. Tired of punching "board games" into Yahoo! and getting lumber companies, I set Google as my home page that same day.
Google's rapid adoption in the late 90s owes a lot to its web page ranking system, no doubt. But the founders should also get credit for recognizing the fundamental shift in what searchers wanted: fewer results, not more. Where Yahoo! continued to boast about the sheer volume of websites that they would hurl at you, Google, simply by using a different conjunction, was delivering more specific and relevant information at a time when that was desperately sought.
It's small and simple ideas like this that can make you the most powerful company in the world.
Here are three more recent articles about Google:
- The Beginning, The Wall Street Journal
- The extended mind – how Google affects our memories, Discover Magazine
- What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health, The Atlantic


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Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake
The original spelling was xabe ma tolel. Xabe=:rock", ma=people/person. A variation of the meaning is "The people of rock village."
Who Are The Pomos?
From before recorded history, ancestral Pomo people occupied parts of central and Northern California, known as "Pomo Country". The Pomos, along with the Patwin and Wintun, were actually made up of numerous small bands or villages spread throughout the area North of the Sacramento River Delta and between the Russian River and the California River Valleys, as well as along the Pacific Coast. In large part, their well being depended upon the fruits of these waterways which were also the highways of the day.
In 1907, the Federal Government established the Upper Lake Rancheria in Upper Lake, California (a very small Rancheria) for the benefit of a group of homeless and landless Pomo Indians in the Clear Lake area. The U. S. Government held title to the land into Trust for them until 1958.
During the early 1950s, the U. S. Government took steps to terminate its trust relationship with all Indian Tribes, including those in California.
The Upper Lake Band of Pomo Indians were forced off its impoverished tribal lands about 50 years ago under the Federal Government's Indian Relocation program. Around 20 years ago, the Federal Government began permitting California Indians to return to their former lands.
For some, like Upper Lake, California, the land was no longer available. Today, federal law permits such Tribes such as Upper Lake to find a suitable site for restoration of its tribal activities and business operations near its aboriginal tribal lands.
For more information and a timeline please download the Tribal Brochure which is available in PDF format and can be opened with the free Adobe Reader. If you don't already have the free Adobe Reader you can downloand it at the Adobe website at no cost by clicking this link .


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Notre Dame is still No. 1, according to one BCS computer
Alabama is the best team in college football, and proved this with a 42-14 whipping of Notre Dame during Monday's national championship game. In this case, the 28-point margin does not do Alabama's victory justice. If Notre Dame is the second-best team in the FBS, the gap between the Irish and the Tide is so large as to truly discuss moving Nick Saban's bunch up to, say, the AFC West.
TWITTER:College athletes navigate a minefield on social media
Alabama is No. 1. On this we can all agree, right? I mean, we all watched the game on Monday, right?
It's unanimous… except for one outlier: The Colley Matrix, one of the six computers that tabulate the BCS rankings, had Notre Dame No. 1 in its final standings, ahead of No. 2 Alabama. The standings that came out after Monday. After the game which the Irish lost by 28 points. To Alabama.
The final ratings had Notre Dame at No. 1 with a score of .973997, ahead of No. 2 Alabama, which came in at .961139.
SABAN:Alabama coach slams the door on move to the NFL
What is the Colley Matrix thinking? The rating system, which has been part of the BCS standings since 2001, was created and is compiled by Dr. Wesley N. Colley, a senior research scientist at the Center for Modeling, Simulation and Analysis at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. (He is a very bright guy.)
Per the Colley Matrix's abstract, the system follows seven guidelines:
"1. has no bias toward conference, tradition, history, etc., (and, hence, has no pre-season poll)
2. is reproducible,
3. uses a minimum of assumptions,
4. uses no ad hoc adjustments,
5. nonetheless adjusts for strength of schedule,
6. ignores runaway scores, and
7. produces common sense results."
The Colley Matrix seems to have stumbled on that seventh step, no?
With the FBS moving to a four-team playoff in 2014, we only have to make it through one more year of the BCS computers. (As College Football Talk puts it, "2014 can't get here fast enough. Then we'll get to complain about the selection committee.") We're almost out of the woods.
PAC-12:Conference releases 2013 schedule; Oregon-Stanford on a Thursday
This reminds me of a snippet from Death to the BCS, a book co-authored by Yahoo! Sports writers and columnists Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter and Jeff Passan. The trio quote Richard Billingsley, a non-mathematician whose poll is also used by the BCS. Said Billingsley:
"I'm not even a highly educated man, to tell you the truth. I don't even have a degree. I have a high school education. I never had calculus. I don't even remember much about algebra. I think everyone questions everything I do. Why is he doing that? Does he know what he's doing, a crazy kook in Oklahoma? I had a guy tell me in an e-mail once that I'm a crazy Oklahoma hillbilly. Well, it's true, but it has nothing to do with my crazy rankings skills."
One more year. One more year. We'll make it.


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The two major benefit-song projects that preceded 1985's massive, multi-continent Live Aid concert pretty well set the tone for the show. Twenty years later, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" remains an uplifting holiday song that overcomes its "have a small scoop of shame with your fruitcake" message with brisk, bright performances by scarf-festooned, mostly flash-in-the-pan U.K. pop stars. USA For Africa's "We Are The World" seems comparatively pushy today—it's twice as long as Band Aid's record, and its bigger names strangle the life out of the one or two lines Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones gave them to sing. As for Live Aid itself, among the performance sites, London's Wembley Stadium looked like the fun place to be, with future Bands Reunited fodder like Status Quo and Ultravox dressed all spiffy and singing their hearts out to a crowd that knew every word. Meanwhile, at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium, rock legends like Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan took themselves and the occasion dreadfully seriously.
In spite of the performances' varying quality, it's good to be able to see and hear them again, rather than relying on memories and legends. Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof never intended for the show to be rebroadcast or repackaged, so it's been available exclusively via the bootleg circuit since 1985. Even the budget-priced four-disc Live Aid DVD set is incomplete, missing Led Zeppelin's "reunion" (reportedly because Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were dissatisfied with Phil Collins' fill-in drumming), about six hours worth of music from other acts (because the original tapes no longer exist), and any new recollections from the people who participated (for no discernible reason). And though it's a little hard to believe that an event seen by millions of people—many with operational VCRs—couldn't be reconstituted in full, it's probably petty to complain about missing songs when people are still starving.
So better to enjoy what's here, starting with all the corny ephemera: Jack Nicholson and Bette Midler introducing acts in Philly, Joan Baez prefacing her a cappella "Amazing Grace" by exclaiming, "This is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue," and Geldof temporarily stopping his song "I Don't Like Mondays" after the line "the lesson today is how to die," so that he can glare knowingly at the crowd. On the legitimately historic side, the Live Aid set offers Queen at the top of its arena-rock game—"Radio Ga Ga" and all—and a career-defining U2 performance, with a fully mulleted Bono telling the cameramen where to aim as he jumps into the pit. On a day where the political side of the occasion was largely ignored, U2 had one of the few socially relevant sets, culminating in Bono captivating a global audience during a 12-minute, dazzlingly digressive version of "Bad." By nightfall, millions of rock fans had a new hero.


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How to apply the Systemic Lessons Learned Knowledge model to wire an organisation for the capability of storytelling
- doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.004
- IJPM Syllk storytelling paper draft
International Journal of Project Management
Volume 34, Issue 3, April 2016, Pages 429–443
This study is an application of the Systemic Lessons Learned Knowledge (Syllk) model that enables management to conceptualise how organisational know-how for storytelling is wired (distributed) across various elements of an organisation. The research method consisted of action research cycles within a large division of a government organisation. Storytelling interventions and initiatives were implemented with two action research cycles completed. Actions and changes were observed, monitored, evaluated, and reflected on using an after action review process. This study has established that the alignment of the people and system elements (learning, culture, social, technology, process and infrastructure) can positively influence an organisation's capability for storytelling, and therefore learn lessons from stories of past project experiences.
Keywords – Project Management; Knowledge Management; Storytelling; Lessons Learned; Organisational Learning; Action Research


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She can do lots of fun stuff. I'm not even really sure how I ever used a single needle machine now that I have this one. My Naptime Craft Mommy business has taken off and I've also started listing a few items on Etsy. The Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday theme is hugely popular right now, and my shirt has been a hit too!
I try not to list too many so as to not get in over my head, but so far they are good sellers! I have to realize that on a daily basis, I'm good if I get 2 hours of work time (while the babes nap, of course) so I can *maybe* get two shirts or items done a day. In addition do making custom shirts, I have also started selling the awesome products from Oh Mint!
Here is my "Everything Tote" with my biz name on it. This bag is great!
Another neat thing that I have been involved in is Relay for Life. Since I was diagnosed with cancer, this has been an important cause to me. Last year I was on a team with other staff members from the school where I worked. Now that I am a SAHM and we live in a different city than where I taught, I decided to participate on a Relay team closer to home. One of my friends is also a Thyroid cancer survivor so we were co-captains. I held an auction on my FB page and was able to secure a sponsorship for Relay as well. These helped me finish as the number 2 top fundraiser out of 1,276 participants! Woot woot! I loved being so involved with Relay and have been asked to be a committee member next year! I am honored to be asked and will definitely do this!
The family is well- the kids are growing like weeds and keeping us busy! Being able to be home with them has been such a blessing!
I'm not making any promises that I can't keep, but I do HOPE to be able to blog more often. I have so many posts in my head and ideas of posts.... it's just a matter of finding the time to do so!