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Live life in color. The ContourROAM2 brings brilliant updates to our most loved camera, while retaining the features that made it a best seller. Still the simplest camera to use on the market, the locking Instant On-Record switch makes it easy to get the perfect shot. While black is always in style, we've spiced it up by offering the ContourROAM2 in two additional colors: red and blue. We've also upped the frame rate to 60fps at 720p, and fine-tuned the picture giving the video quality incredible clarity.
LOCKING INSTANT-ON RECORD SWITCHNo power button, no problem. Simply slide the Instant On-Record switch into its locking position to ensure you shoot exactly when you're ready.
VIBRANT COLOR OPTIONSWe understand that style matters and color can make or break a look. Match your kit, or bring in a little contrast by adding a ContourROAM2 in one of four colors: red, blue, green or traditional black.
60 FRAMES PER SECONDAs requested by our customers, we've bumped up the frames per second to 60 when shooting at 720p, meaning you can now get that smooth video quality you've come to expect from Contour cameras.
WATERPROOF WITHOUT A CASEGood things come in small packages. The ContourROAM2 sheds bulk by working underwater without an extra case. Minimalism is a good thing.
VERSATILITYWhether snorkeling, snowboarding, or tearing up single track, the ContourROAM2 is ready for any adventure. It's compatible with every Contour mount giving you unlimited angles. The 270-degree rotating lens means no matter where the camera is mounted, you'll always get the perfect, level shot.
LASER ALIGNMENTGet the correct angle any time with the built-in laser level.
LOW PROFILE DESIGNContour cameras have won numerous awards for their stylish, yet functional, low-profile design. The ContourROAM2 is exceptionally designed and lightweight. With the ContourROAM2, less really is more.
LONG BATTERY LIFEShoot up to 3.5 hours of footage. The Instant On-Record switch means there is no standby mode. The battery is only in use when shooting, giving you more bang per charge.
MICRO SD CARD INCLUDEDWe've added a 4GB MicroSD card so your camera is ready to use right out of the box.
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$2,999.00 – $4,997.00
Canada Call Center Benchmark for In-house/Insourced Call Center (report in PDF format) sample
Add-On – Excel Data File for Canada Insourced Call Center Benchmark sample
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subset: commoncrawl


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Summary of USDA December 2018 forecasts for U.S. agricultural trade in FY 2019.
ERS research in this topic area focuses on the economic, social, spatial, temporal, and demographic factors that affect the poverty status of rural residents.
ERS conducts research on USDA's child nutrition programs and their role in children's food security, diets, and well-being. ERS studies programs such as the National School Lunch Program.
Interactive Visualization: Costs and Returns by Region and by Commodity
The data include historical U.S. and State-level farm income and wealth estimates as well as U.S.-level forecasts for the current calendar year.
ERS compares the prices paid by consumers for food with the prices received by farmers for their corresponding commodities. These comparisons are reported for a variety of foods sold in retail food stores.
The share of food-insecure people in the 76 low- and middle-income countries included in this report is projected to fall from 19.3 percent in 2019 to 9. percent in 2029. The number of food-insecure people is projected to fall 45 percent.
State, metropolitan area, and micropolitan area estimates of access to healthy food, along with estimates of access for subpopulations.
Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2019, describes trends in economic, structural, resource, and environmental indicators in the agriculture sector. The indicators covered in this report provide assessments of important ch...
Selected ERS research accomplishments are highlighted in its FY 2018 Annual Report.
This section houses ERS' multimedia offerings, including webinars.
Stay informed by subscribing to our e-mail notification service! You will receive announcements of our latest reports and other news as shown on the ERS calendar.
Database contains current and historical data on pork, beef, veal, and poultry, including production, supply, utilization, and farm prices.
Price volatility, labor costs and availability, supply chain constraints, retail and consumer quality standards, contract incentives, and existing policy are factors influencing food loss on produce farms and in distribution channels.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food is probably the most widely used indicator of changes in retail food prices. ERS regularly updates food price forecasts for the short-term period.
Analyzing the U.N. Food Insecurity Experience Scale, ERS researchers found that low levels of education, weak social networks, and the inability of a person to count on family and friends in times of need were common risk factors.
The animal pharmaceutical industry continues to develop new drugs, but a growing share are generic versions of existing animal drugs or are designed for companion animals (instead of food animals).
ERS research found that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) redemptions were associated with increased local employment—with $10,000 of redemptions contributing to 0.4 additional urban jobs and 1.0 additional rural jobs.
Customer-Focused Research: How ERS Information Delivers for the American People
Receive announcements of our latest reports and other news as shown on the ERS calendar.
Highlights from our current and past research, Monday through Friday.
Chart showing the prevalence of food insecurity, 2018


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TWITTER was a miserable place to be on Sunday night. But those who braved seeing Clarets fans celebrating a first derby win since 1979 may have come across a tweet from a player Rovers could have desperately done with at Ewood Park.
Matt Jansen tweeted: "Shane Dunny ran out of steam, it definitely helped Burnley when he went off."
The former Rovers hero was spot-on as within eight minutes of David Dunn's departure the course of the match – and history – had changed.
In the days after the defeat it is Gary Bowyer's decision to replace Dunn in the 71st minute – and not Jordan Rhodes hitting the post when he really should have scored 16 minutes earlier – that many Rovers fans feel was the game's real turning point.
They argue that Bowyer should have kept Dunn on the pitch given the fear he induces in Burnley's players and supporters.
They have a point as it was clear that once their bogey-man was banished to the sidelines – with a well-deserved standing ovation – the Clarets were visibly lifted.
But you cannot blame Bowyer for wanting to protect a player who, when he starts, Rovers tend not to lose.
Statistics back this up.
Of the 19 league matches Dunn has started since the beginning of last season Rovers have won nine, drawn six and lost just four.
Those figures also prove that Rovers have to find a player capable of filling his boots.
As 12 of the 17 goals Rhodes had scored this season going into last night's Bournemouth clash came when he started as a lone frontman.
So who in Bowyer's squad can the place of the irrepressible Dunn?
Come in Tom Cairney, whose own importance to Rovers is underlined by the fact they have lost the three league games he has missed this season.
While he needs to develop Dunn's eye for goal Cairney already has the vision and awareness to make him an effective No.10.
But firstly the former Hull man needs to get back fit and then it needs Bowyer to shift him from the right-sided position he has occupied for the majority of this season.
And with Corry Evans back at long last and a plethora of wide players now to choose from, the Rovers boss will soon have the luxury of doing just that.


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Designed for business and retail applications, our new iPhone 4 Security Base is the perfect way to display the iPhone in a secure environment. The iPhone 4 & 4S sits in a solid acrylic base and is secured with an outer frame and tamper-proof screws. An optional home button guard frame is also included. The home button guard is ideal for continuous running apps that could be easily interrupted.
The iPhone 4 Security Base is constructed from 1 1/4″ clear acrylic and weighs just under a pound. The Base secures to any hard surface with the included screws or heavy duty adhesive strips (similar to the Apple store). In addition, slots are provided for the charging cable. earphones and manual on/off switch. The Iphone 4 Security Base is ideal for trade shows, retailers, business presentations, schools or anywhere security is a concern. Retail is $49.95. For additional details visit newPCgadgets.com


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|Lowest Gas Prices in Kitchener
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No matter what is being done, It is your choice if you wish to be informed, and from which source. There is a reason this is here.... Take a Look http://www.prisonplanet.com News
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*OpenOffice.org 3.1 is born* ... with many new features, enhancements, and bug fixes. Please see our news page.
Abbreviations for you too understand.....
CCIPS Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section
CHIP Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property
DCIS Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Service
DC3 Defense Cyber Crime Center
DHS Department of Homeland Security
DOD Department of Defense
DOJ Department of Justice
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
FTC Federal Trade Commission
IC3 Internet Crime Complaint Center
NCIS Naval Criminal Investigative Service
NCSD National Cyber Security Division Secret Service U.S. Secret Service
SAFETY Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act
US-CERT United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team


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Google paid out $1.61 million in the last three months of 2010 to lobby Congress on issues such as patents, online advertising, cybersecurity, nuclear energy, international freedom of speech, antitrust issues, tax relief, telecommunications and cloud computing. In contrast, Facebook paid out a mere $130,000 for fighting Internet access restriction by foreign governments.
So why so much in comparison to its Silicon Valley neighbors? First off, Google is considered a big company in Silicon Valley. It's also public and worth around $193 billion. Facebook is still private and valued around $50 billion, said Dan Martin, a Google spokesman in Washington D.C. .
"Technology has become a bigger part of our lives," he said. "We wanted our company and our users to have a voice in Washington to explain our issues and our position."
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Martin also mentioned that other companies, such as Comcast, spent $5 million lobbying the government from October to December 2010, almost the same as Google's yearly lobbying budget of $5.2 million. General Electric was the biggest company spender in 2010 with $39.3 million.
Still, Apple, a company valued at $300 billion, spent only $440,000 courting politicians about -- surprise! -- patents.
But to put it more in perspective, Google is also fighting several battles, including a government probe on its $700 million purchase of ITA Software and being dogged by antitrust issues and accusations from privacy groups and state attorney generals. Sometimes being a large company comes with expensive growing pains.


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Written by Lisa Phelps
One of the first friends you should make at college is in the financial aid office. While you may think you only need to worry about your finances once each year when you complete your FAFSA, there are all sorts of things your financial aid representative can help you with throughout your college career.
The Financial Aid Representative's job is to:
• help you make smart borrowing decisions,
• help you complete your financial aid forms,
• help you in any appeals you may have regarding financial aid decisions, and
• tell you how much aid you're qualified to receive.
The representative can give you valuable information on ways to pay for your education, including:
• Federal and private loan options,
• Aid programs your school offers,
• Deadlines for aid applications and
• Money management techniques.
They should also be your go-to resource for answers to any questions you might have about your aid package, what you can use it for, and where to go for additional private aid, should you need it. And if you need help with budgeting and financial planning (something most college students don't have a lot of experience in!), be sure to check with your financial aid rep first.
Your representative can also help you with your Entrance Counseling. Entrance Counseling, which you can access at StudentLoans.gov with your FSA ID,explains all the responsibilities that go along with getting a loan. You must read through the online information and answer related questions as a condition of getting your Direct loan. Covered topics include understanding your loans, managing your spending, plans to repay and how to avoid default. You'll need 20-30 minutes to complete the counseling.
There are a couple of other important people you should befriend at your school, including your:
• Admissions Counselor, whose job it is to help you find the right school —one where you'll be happy and successful. You may meet your admissions counselor before being accepted to the school and in many cases, your counselor becomes your go-to person for guidance throughout your college career.
• Academic Counselor,who will advise you on which classes to take that coincide with your life goals. Your first meeting will be during orientation and in addition to helping you select your first semester classes, they also make it their job to help you adjust to college life. You'll likely meet with your counselor at least once each semester to plan for the next one and to review and revise your long term plans, help you change your major if there's a need, monitor your progress toward graduation and discuss grades.
While each school is different, chances are there is lots of information on your college's website about the financial aid office. Be sure to check it out and don't hesitate to contact them with any questions you may have. They're a great resource for all things financial!
A better deal from your local not-for-profit cooperative
More than 1,500 approved schools across the country
Answers to your most common questions
Financial resources to help you succeed in college and beyond


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Forms Jobs
Amenities & Seating
- Seats approx. 50
- (8) 8-ft. tables
- 1 large grill
- No overhead lighting
- No restroom
- No electrical outlets
- Playground, soccer field & tennis courts in park
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Echo Park Paper is the newest brand of paper to slide across this desk, and I am really getting into it. Their first collection, Sweet Summertime, is based on a digital collection by Crystal Wilkerson (her digital version is available here). This is a practice that can ultimately be great for consumers as they can supplement product with digital product and stretch it farther through hybrid scrapbooking.
They have a second collection released called A Walk In The Park, a collection that I have and have been checking out. I really like this collection a lot. I enjoy that the bright colors are in shades that make them useful with a variety of subjects.
The product itself isn't especially groundbreaking or unique. In fact looking at the product, some designs remind me of several established companies that I've enjoyed for years. Not that this is a bad thing – on the contrary, I really like the designs they've come up with. I really like the patterns and the whimsical feel, and it is a solid buy for us scrapbookers because it's very easy to use and the double-sided papers offer both more classic designs (polka dots, stripes) and then bolder patterns on the opposite side.
While I chose to do a birthday page, any number of uses came to mind for this product. I have been delighted to find that it's especially easy to work with, and the quality is outstanding.
My one complaint is that the border stickers are 11″ long, so either they need to be cut creatively, or the end will need to be covered to disguise that it doesn't fully cover a 12″ sheet of paper.
The banner sticker is a favorite, though I really loved all the pieces on both the shapes and alphabet sticker sheets.
Overall? Aside from the really great sticker sheets the butterfly and the sunshine papers were my very favorites. Oh who am I kidding? This whole collection is great, and you can believe that I'll be watching out for their next line…
It looks like they're picking winners.
Note: While they have a website, I find their facebook page to be a better source for images and ideas.
Echo Park Paper can be found at CHA Summer 2010 in booth #2037.
[Giveaway is now closed]


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AIPG Sections
The American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG), founded in 1963, is the largest association dedicated to promoting geology as a profession. It presently has more than 6,000 members in the U.S. and abroad, organized into 34 regional Sections. The Institute adheres to the principles of professional responsibility and public service and is the only international organization that certifies the competence and ethical conduct of geological scientists in all branches of the science with members employed in industry, government, and academia. AIPG emphasizes competence, integrity and ethics. AIPG is an advocate for the profession and communicates regularly to federal and state legislators and agencies on matters pertaining to the geosciences.
AIPG is a nonprofit organization whose policies are determined by its Executive Committee.
The AIPG Sections are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Capitol, Carolinas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois/Indiana, Iowa/Nebraska, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginias, Washington, and Wisconsin.


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Pictured: Christo Schultz (right) and Aba Omodele-Lucien
Photo courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications.
The Harvard men's tennis team earned three All-Ivy League selections, in an announcement made by the league office Thursday evening. Junior Alexei Chijoff-Evans was named to the All-Ivy League first team in singles. The doubles pair of junior Aba Omodele-Lucien and freshman Christo Schultz was also tabbed to the All-Ivy League first team. The tandem of sophomore Alistair Felton and freshman Andy Nguyen earned a spot on the All-Ivy League second team.
To purchase photos of the Harvard men's tennis team, visit Harvard's photo store.
Chijoff-Evans posted a 5-2 record in singles action against Ivy League opponents. The junior won four-straight matches at the No. 1 slot and closed out the season with a victory in straight sets in the Crimson's final regular season match against Dartmouth. This marks the second time in Chijoff-Evans' career that he has been selected to the All-Ivy League first team. He was a unanimous selection last season.
Omodele-Lucien and Schultz played at the No. 1 doubles
position for Harvard throughout the year. The duo sported a 4-3
record in matches against Ancient Eight foes. The pair went on a
tear between April 9-17, picking up four consecutive wins.
Omodele-Lucien and Schultz are first-time All-Ivy honorees.
Felton and Nguyen were the Crimson's most dominant doubles team this season. They partnered to go 5-1 in conference action at the No. 2 spot. Felton and Nguyen posted five-straight doubles wins after losing at Columbia in Harvard's first Ivy League contest of the season. The sophomore and freshman earn their first All-Ivy nods of their careers.
Harvard finished in a three-way tie for second in the Ancient Eight with a 5-2 mark.


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After this next batch of tutorials goes up, I will start doing something different because the challenge to tackling some of the stuff that has been submitted recently is pretty limited. So once all is said and done, I will start a new chapter for the new month. Having said that, what do you say we start things off with something simple like "how to draw a devil for kids", step by step? This is also a very popular character to be if you are still unsure what you will be dressing up as. Devils are great and all, but how long has it been since that last time you saw more than ten devils in a trick or treating night? I think I may have seen one or two last year when we took my little sister out. The devil is a long lost oldie but goodie that can still please a crowd and even get a few comments along the way. I hope you have fun with drawing a devil for kids. Meet me back in a few where more drawing fun will be taking place.
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


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Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's golf team wrapped up its first action of the season by placing sixth overall in the Al Watrous Memorial Invitational hosted by Saginaw Valley State on Sunday (Sept. 11) in Bay City, Mich.
The Bulldogs carded a two-round total of 583 to finish 17 strokes behind champion Ashland, which totaled a 566 over the two rounds at the Bay City Country Club. FSU shot a 290 in Saturday's (Sept. 10) opening round before coming in at 293 on Sunday.
Bulldog senior Garrett Simons tied for fourth overall in the field with a score of 141 over the two rounds of action to finish at three-under for the tournament. He was in a four-way tie for fourth and only two strokes behind champion Josh Mitroka of Wayne State (-5), who won a playoff against Findlay's Michael Schmitmeyer for medalist honors.
Simons shot rounds of 69 and 72 overall in the two days of competition.
Ferris State's Sam Stark placed tied for 19th overall as did Trent Davison with both shooting a 146 (+2).
FSU's Tyler Robinson came in tied for 38th (150, +6) with Richard Weisenberger placing tied for 48th overall (153, +9).
A total of 65 golfers took part in the event on the par 72 course measuring 6,880 yards.
The Bulldogs will next take part in the Northwood Invitational on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17-18, in Midland, Mich.


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|The Heritage Foundation Since its founding in 1973, The Heritage Foundation has served as a research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense
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IranRussia S-300 Affair Takes a New Spin
On 08.30.11 09:15 AM posted by Ariel Cohen
Iran escalated its dispute with Russia recently.
Tehran filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the International Court of Arbitration as Russia refused to provide the Islamic Republic with the S-300 air defense system delivery and providing a new spin to the complicated RussianIranian relationship.
Tehran and Moscow signed an $800 million delivery contract in 2007 despite U.S. and Israeli protests. In June 2010, the United Nations Security Council passed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran due to its continuous violations of its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations.
While the S-300 system is not specifically mentioned in the U.N. register of conventional arms, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree three months after the sanctions were passed banning the S-300 system sale as well as delivery of other conventional weapons to Tehrans theocratic regime. Russia even returned the Iranian down payment on the S-300.
The prevention of the S-300 transfer from Russia to Iran was one of the brighter moments of the international effort to halt Irans nuclear weapons program. The S-300 air defense system would significantly complicate potential air strikes against Iranian nuclear sites if Israelthe U.S.s most important ally in the Middle Eastor the U.S. itself decide that Irans nuclear weapons program progressed enough to possess an existential threat to either nation.
Iran hopes that the court will rule in its favor and thereby provide the Russian Federation with legal grounds to fulfill its obligations under the original S-300 delivery contract. So far, Russian representatives expressed their surprise with Irans steps, stating that U.N. sanctions did not give them any other option but to cancel the sale of the system.
While the halt of this sale is a good beginning, it will not be enough to address the broader issue of Irans quest for nuclear weaponssomething the Obama Administration has neglected recently due to the focus on Afghanistan, Libya, and domestic economic woes.
As The Heritage Foundation suggested, a multi-faceted strategy targeting Irans ailing energy sector would contribute to compelling Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program. More broadly, the primary task of the United States and its allies must be to dissuade Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and work to advance liberty for the Iranian people by discrediting the radical regime.
Keeping pressure to deny Iran the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles or their equivalent is a necessary part of the strategy. Additionally, the U.S. should not shy away from articulating its priorities and values to its Russian partnersand have Russia halt its cooperation and arms sales to Iran.
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text: Updated 2016 Latvia is a small country sandwiched between Estonia and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea and it's joining its neighbors in becoming a very popular destination for travelers looking for the next big thing. It shares much of the culture and wonderful architecture of other Northern European countries, but the costs to the visitor are still far below those of nearby Scandinavia. Having been part of the Soviet Union, Latvia also has many East vs. West influences that set it apart from those more expensive countries. Start with the Latvia Travel Facts.


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Saying so long to View from Above
Almost 3.5 years ago, I started writing this blog and today represents my last post. At the time, I wanted to explore the cloud-mobile connection, and I still believe to this day, that while each can exist on its own, they work so much better together. That much hasn't changed since I wrote my first post in December, 2010.
But the notion was a tad radical back then. The iPad hadn't even been around for a year yet. The cloud in the enterprise was still somewhat foreign, Salesforce.com not withstanding, but over the years, many now recognize the power of this notion, that when you put content in the cloud, you can access it from anywhere, any time, from any device –and that's still as powerful as when I first conceived of this blog.
Millions of people now own smartphones and tablets. And the idea of apps connected to the cloud has completely transformed the way we do business. In fact, today people expect their business tools to work as well as the ones on their smartphones and that's proven to be a mighty high bar for business to reach. Businesses appear to have mixed results with their attempts at creating mobile apps so far.
But while they struggle to find their way in this mobile-cloud world, their users are already there using free and low-cost tools, not because they hate IT, but because IT isn't giving them what they need to do their jobs. This idea, sometimes called The Consumerization of IT, has completely altered IT's role inside organizations and the repercussions of that change are still being felt.
Meanwhile, the cloud with its cheap, elastic resources gives anyone with a device –whether mobile or a desktop or laptop –the ability to access software, infrastructure and developer resources for a minimal investment. In days gone by, you would need ridiculous amounts of capital to build out your own data center. Today, you can go online and get what you need for an increasingly low price. That means anyone can try a business model with very little risk, and that's putting pressure on just about every business.
While the cloud transforms the competition and end users, IT meanwhile has struggled to come to grips with it and how to take advantage of these devices. Without BlackBerry, IT has ceded control of mobile to users, and the Bring Your Own Device idea means that folks are free to use the phones, tablets and laptops that they like instead of the stodgy ones given them to by IT that were often obsolete months after they were issued.
Of course, for every new idea, there are unintended consequences too, and IT still has a job to do. They just have to learn that it's about protecting the data today, more than the device, and that's not always easy to understand.
Over the next several years, I think most of this will be worked out. We will see companies developing their own mobile apps as a matter of course. We will see them using cloud resources in great numbers and we will continue to see the power of using the mobile and cloud together. I'll still be watching, but it won't be from this space. So long and thanks for a great run.
Photo Credit: Sarah Joy on Flickr. Used under CC 2.0 license.
Amazon won't win smartphones with 3D gimmicks
Back in 2011, I participated in a press tour at CeBIT, the mega technology trade show that happens yearly in Hannover, Germany. Among the cool stuff they showed the press was the LG Optimus 3D phone that promised 3D without glasses on a smartphone. It looked pretty cool, a great bit of tech fodder for the journalists there, but it never went anywhere with consumers, who it seemed were unimpressed with 3D viewing.
So it goes with mobile. You just never know what's going to capture the attention of a fickle and often hard-to-please market. That's why I wasn't exactly knocked out when I read a recent TechCrunch report (where I'm also a contributor) that Amazon plans a phone with…wait for it…3D effects. I don't think a lot has changed in the 3 odd years since LG announced its 3D phones and I don't see a public clamoring for such a device.
Now, it's worth noting that Amazon is going for a different 3D effect. If I recall correctly the LG model was about watching video in 3D without glasses. According to TechCrunch, the 3D effects are going to be driven by head gestures and only a couple at that, out of the box (although it doesn't go into great detail about how that will work).
I have to admit the effect sounds cool as far as it goes, but is it cool enough to drive people to buy Amazon phones in large numbers? In other words, is it enough to get them to switch from the comfort of the Apple or Samsung phones? I doubt it. It might be enough to get some early adopters and tech geeks to try one to see what the fuss is about, but unless this is truly ground breaking (and it's always hard to know just how the final product will look when it comes to unnamed sources), this is probably not going to have the impact of even say the Kindle Fire.
It's worth noting that Amazon keeps sales figure close to the vest so it's hard to ever know with any authority just how well they are doing, but the Fire appears to be selling at least OK as Android tablets go. But I see very few of them in the wild in my checks of devices. And as James Kendrick, who is as big an authority on the tablet as you are likely to find put it, the iPad is everywhere; Android tablets not so much. He writes, "While I see iPads everywhere I go, the Android tablet is nowhere to be seen. Not even models from giant Samsung are evident."
So as hard as Amazon has pushed the Kindle Fire, and as much sense as makes to have a device that links to all of the great content on Amazon.com, including their music and video services, the buying public doesn't seem to be biting.
And Amazon faces an even stiffer battle in the mobile phone market. When Amazon came out with the Kindle Fire, while iPad had a big head start, the tablet market was still very much being defined. Today, the mobile phone market is far more mature and they face an entrenched market with two highly established leaders with loyal followers.
That's not to say that people will never switch and break that hegemony, but a few cool 3D effects are probably not going to give them the market lift they are hoping for. I understand why they want to try this, but I think the effort is doomed from the get-go.
Photo by Evan on Flickr. Used under CC 2.0 license.
Microsoft might not win mobile front end, but has a good shot at back-end management
The new version of Windows Phone OS, 8.1, was released yesterday to the developer community and early reviews say it's enterprise friendly, but is that enough in an age when people are choosing their own devices?
It may very well be as Simon Bisson wrote on CITEworld (where I'm also a contributor) that Windows Phone OS is the new BlackBerry, at least where the back-end administration is concerned. I can't speak to directly to the IT-friendly features, but Bisson tested them out and he was impressed with what he found.
That's all well and good as far as it goes. Of course, IT wants to protect the company's assets as people go out in the world with their smartphones, and even in the age of BYOD, that remains very much part of their job description.
But here's the thing: This *is* the age of BYOD and that means employees and not IT are selecting their phones, and as we've pointed out here before, when given the chance to choose their phones, employees tend to choose iPhones or Android phones (usually Samsung if marketshare statistics are accurate).
Microsoft isn't wrong of course to take this approach, and you will very likely hear the IT community applauding loudly, but end users want what they want. That's the whole point of BYOD and as long as they are making the phone choice instead of IT, that's probably not going to change very much.
You've seen the marketshare statistics. I'm sure I don't have to rehash them at this point, but outside of some isolated pockets of popularity, phones running Windows remain under 5 percent worldwide and a few features that make IT happy aren't likely to change that figure substantially.
End users like to choose a phone because of what's on the front end facing them. Even though they should probably care about the back end administration, it's not what they think about when they buy a phone. It's very much about how they interact with the phone. They probably aren't thinking, "Gee, this phone would be a great choice because IT will love it." I just don't see many people having that on top of mind when they're making their phone purchase.
Unless we are going back to the days when IT starts picking phones for people, and folks carry a phone for work and one for themselves –and I don't see that happening –the fact this update is friendly to IT just isn't going to matter very much in the scheme of things.
I'm not suggesting by the way, that IT concerns don't matter because of course protecting the enterprise is important, and Microsoft has been smart enough to create a mobile management suite that works across devices whether that's InTune for mobile management or Azure Active Directory for identity management in the cloud, as just a couple of examples.
This might not help Microsoft sell more Windows phones, but it could make their backend mobile administrative tools more attractive to a broader group, especially in companies that use a lot of the Microsoft enterprise software stack anyway. And that may be good enough for Microsoft in the long run.
Photo Credit: Microsoft. All rights reserved.
Counting down until BlackBerry's end of days
As I watch BlackBerry these days, I'm frankly astonished it's still here. The company that once ruled the smartphone market in its hey day, has watched its marketshare slip to levels so low, they barely register. The question at this point is how this company is still standing?
We have watched the once proud BlackBerry (nee RIM) stumble and bumble through attempts at touch screen smart phones and hard keyboards and back around again. We have watched the parade of CEOs and we seen them grasping at strategies, any strategies to find something that would stick.
Food writer Anthony Bourdain once wrote (and I paraphrase from memory) that once a restaurant starts making changes to the menu or the hours it's open trying a variety of ways to make the business work, you know it's in trouble. That's how I see BlackBerry these days, desperately trying to change their menu and nobody is coming to buy their food.
Unfortunately for them and the few hard-core fans left out there, nothing has seemed to work. How low can you go? We saw this week that BlackBerry has yet to hit rock bottom when CEO John Chen decided to cut ties with T-Mobile. As my friend and colleague Wayne Rash wrote on eWeek, Chen was clearly putting pride before profits in his decision to drop T-Mobile.
At this point, Chen can't afford the luxury of dropping anyone, even if he's upset that T-Mobile is apparently no longer making BlackBerry phones available in their stores, and have actively marketed iPhones to BlackBerry customers. I get how this could upset Chen, but as Rash pointed out he's putting pride before common sense here. Rash also pointed out that the deal could be salvaged, but that remains to be seen.
It would be reasonable ask if it even matters because Reuters reported this week that BlackBerry could be considering exiting the handset business. That wording suggest that BlackBerry actually has a choice in the matter because if nobody is buying their phones, they have little recourse, but at some point, to stop selling them. Quoting Chen himself in the Reuters' piece, he seemed resigned to the situation, "If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business," he told Reuters, adding the timeframe for such a decision was growing short.
As though to prove my restaurant comparison, Chen talked about a number of approaches including small acquisitions, strategic partnerships and machine to machine (M2M) communications. I wrote recently about their strength for now at least in the car OS market as they struggle to find a new identity.
Chen was frank in the Reuters article acknowledging his predecessor's errors and that he had little time left to waste to right this ship if it was going to be righted, saying "You have to live short term. Maybe the prior management had the luxury to bet the world would come to it. I don't have the luxury at all. I'm losing money and burning cash."
At this point, it seems some sort of ending for this company is inevitable and we are only counting down to the end days while Chen tries all manner of strategies to help his struggling company survive. Unfortunately, it seems at this point, he can only hope to make it more attractive for a potential suitor.
BlackBerry struggles to find a new identity
It can't be easy for BlackBerry CEO John Chen. He basically took over a sinking ship, a company that once dominated the smartphone market finds itself dropping well below 5 percent market share. Clearly it can't survive simply as a handset maker, but could there be another way for the company to redefine itself?
It's no secret that BlackBerry was once the darling of big business, but that was in the days before iOS, Android and BYOD, and despite a still fiercely loyal base of users, BlackBerry has watched while its market share plunged and the company desperately tries new phone strategies. Just last week, CEO John Chen suggested that BlackBerry would go back to its roots and offer a new high-end phone with a hard keyboard, but that clearly didn't work with the Q10 last year, so it's unclear how it would work going forward, even on a redesigned phone.
And even while BlackBerry tries to find ways to staunch the bleeding, even its most diehard customers in finance appear to be moving on. A recent survey found that a third of respondent companies had already abandoned BlackBerry and 41 percent of others are exploring alternatives in preparation for moving on. Even the government, the other hardcore customer is looking at alternatives.
Just last week came more bad news in the form of BlackBerry's latest earnings report, but even as CEO Chen pleads for shareholders to be patient, it's hard to imagine after watching the company decline for so many years, that there's much of that left.
Against this back drop, was there any good news for BlackBerry?
Well as a matter of fact there is a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered phone maker. Bloomberg reports that BlackBerry's QNX operating system is the system of choice for many of the world's car makers including Ford and BMW. And this is an area that both Google and Apple would desperately like to exploit. Chen sees an opening in the car market along with the burgeoning connected device market (also known as the Internet of Things) and the data these devices are going to be producing.
But the question remains whether BlackBerry can make this pivot and find a way to transform itself.
When I attended Mobile World Congress in February, a BlackBerry spokesperson also suggested that the phone maker would be trying to enter the low-end phone market in attempt to jump start marketshare anyway it could.
BlackBerry desperately needs to lead something and the developing car market is a good start. It's hard to imagine at this point that they can hope to capture any significant traction in the phone market, even with the new strategy to capture low-end market share, but if the company can begin to expand in different directions, it offers some hope that they can find a way to redefine themselves as a software and services company, a direction Chen has suggested could offer a future for the company.
At the very least, Chen could make the company more desirable for an outside buyer and provide a way to maximize the shareholder's return on investment. For now, Chen continues to push buttons and pull levers and hope for the best. What else can he do?
Photo Credit: m lobo on Flickr. CC 2.0 Attribution-ShareAlike License
Cloud competition is a beautiful thing
Scott Boras is the premiere agent in Major League Baseball. His players tend to make top dollar, and there is nothing Mr. Boras likes better than when two big market teams like say the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees have their eye on the same player and that starts a bidding war which drives up the value of his clients even further. Competition you see is a beautiful thing when it comes to ball players maximizing their value on the open market.
Competition in technology has the opposite effect though. Instead of forcing the price up, it forces them down. If one major player makes a price adjustment, it's pretty much a given that the others are going to follow.
We saw that in force this week when Google and Amazon, two companies going toe to toe in infrastructure services both announced aggressive pricing changes. On Tuesday, Google got the ball rolling when it announced a set of price cuts on its Compute Engine services, designed to draw people from competitor Amazon Web Services. Google was offering a 32 percent price reduction for on-demand instancing and 85 percent on its BitQuery service. It was clear Google was going for Amazon's throat with these moves.
But not to be outdone, Amazon held a press conference of its own the next day and announced, you guessed it, a series of price cuts. Nancy Gohring, writing on CITEworld (where I'm also a contributor) did a nice job of breaking down the price war and offering some means of comparison
Competition has always been a positive force for markets. It fights complacency, drives innovation and as we've seen, brings down prices.
Amazon had a massive head start in Infrastructure as a Service game, just recently celebrating its eighth birthday. As I wrote last week about AWS's birthday, it really was a game changer:
"And this week, that little service that could turned 8 –and it's a huge force that helped change the way we think of provisioning hardware, software and programming platforms. It helped change the business of enterprise computing and created entirely new businesses."
But being first is never enough. It only gives you the advantage of having a head start, but that advantage can melt away pretty fast when a company the size of Google decides to get involved. Google up to this point has been content providing other cloud services, especially around software, but now it has set its sights on infrastructure and just by virtue of its sheer size and reach, it's an immediate and formidable opponent for AWS.
But just because Google is big and rich doesn't mean it can come in and take over the market. It still has some things to prove and IT pros who were afraid of the cloud aren't very likely to be warm and fuzzy about Google, a company that many still don't trust with software, nevermind their hardware infrastructure.
Google has lots of cash though and it can afford to undercut Amazon and that could draw some customers away in the short term, but Google is still going to have to do more than cut prices. It's going to have to aggressively innovate and prove to a skeptical public that it's committed to this project for the long term.
Amazon might have changed everything, but Google is trying to sweep in and take away some of its customers –and as the competitive fires heat up, one thing is absolutely clear –consumers are going to win.
Photo Credit: Ron Wise on Flickr. Used under CC 2.0 license.
Microsoft finally readies Office for iPad…two years too late
Over the next couple of weeks, the Microsoft hype machine will be out in full force. It started quietly like a slow moving train leaving the station at the SharePoint Conference a couple of weeks ago. It picked up speed with the OneNote announcement this week, and it will reach warp speed next week when Satya Nadella himself, the new face of Microsoft, is expected to announce Office for the iPad.
You will hear many people say positive things about how Microsoft has new leadership and new direction. You will be told that this is the beginning of the beginning of a new day at Microsoft. You may even believe it because you will hear it a lot from a lot of people who should probably know better.
But when you get down to it, and you look under the hood, and you peer closely at what's going on, you will see there's not much to see at all. Sure, Microsoft is presumably coming out with Office for the iPad –see the machine is cranking already –but sorry to be the bearer of bad news, no matter how much that hype machine spins the news, it can't get around the fact Microsoft waited way too long for this announcement.
It should have released this two years ago. No, it should have released it three years ago, but Steve Ballmer was probably too fixated on fighting Apple, his Don Quixote-esque quest, to see that if you want to be the software of choice, you have to be on the machine of choice –and people were moving to the iPad in huge numbers. Perhaps Steve was too blinded by his odyssey to see that.
But in 2014, a full five years after the release of the iPad, it's way, way, way too late for Microsoft to play catch-up now. In fact, no matter how loudly that hype machine drones to the contrary, people simply don't care enough about Microsoft Office anymore, not the folks who have moved on from a PC-centered world, and if the numbers are true, that's a lot of people.
Microsoft wants you to believe its Reagan-esque message. It's morning in Redmond. A new day is dawning, but when you wake up the day after the announcement and the hype machine is jacked up like a meth head, nothing much will have changed.
Microsoft is not exactly a dead company walking, but its best days were over a decade ago when it ruled the desktop world. It still thinks of the world as a desktop, even as it gives a new cloud and mobile message.
The fact is I don't need a monolithic desktop-style office suite to do my work on a tablet, and if I did, I wouldn't use a tablet, I would use a laptop. Microsoft's cloud and mobile strategy to this point sounds great on paper, but when you look at it closely, you see it's just desktop Microsoft in a different guise.
Look, disrupted companies have come back from the abyss. IBM looked dead in the water in the 90s and it managed to reinvent itself, only to be disrupted again today. Adobe just announced a good quarter as its move from desktop to cloud seems to be working. It could happen that Microsoft suddenly gets it and puts out products for the cloud-mobile paradigm, but don't expect Office for the iPad to change all that much –no matter what that old hype machine might tell you.
Photo Credit: niXerKG on Flickr. Used under CC 2.0 license.
Let's put an end to the cloud-mainframe comparisons
There was an SNL skit in the 1990s with Mike Myers called If it's not Scottish, it's crap, and when people mixed up Scotland and Ireland, he would angrily point to a map and say "There's Ireland! There's Scotland! There's the bloody sea! They're different!" I feel that way when I hear old-school IT pros try to argue that the cloud is just an update of mainframe time-sharing.
Can we please put that comparison to rest. While they both involved sharing in a sense, they are not really related at all, anymore than Scotland and Ireland are.
Don't make me pull out my map and pointer.
Mainframes in the 70s were huge computers and when people needed computing power to do anything, they got in line, paid a fee and they got their few minutes of power for whatever time they got access. Computing power was a scarce resource. Memory and computing cycles were expensive and you used what you needed and nothing more (and there probably wasn't a lot left over even if you did need more).
In other words mainframe system sharing was based on an expensive scarce resource where little computing power existed.
Now, let's compare that with the cloud.
The cloud developed at the same time computing power was growing ever cheaper. It provided infrastructure (servers, memory and storage) for pennies on the dollar. Instead of being expensive and scarce, it was cheap and abundant. If you needed more, you paid for more. So if you had an event like an election or a Black Friday when you knew you would require much more server power temporarily, you could easily scale up for that event, pay for the extra resources and scale back when the event was over.
Imagine requiring 100 extra servers for a two-day period. It would make for awkward planning in a private data center, or it would be impossible. No CIO in his right mind is buying a bunch of servers for a temporary event, only to put them in storage when the event is over. It's simply not going to happen.
And it's not just infrastrastructure, programmers can build programs on cloud development platforms and have access to a bunch of services such as security and authentication and not have to build them from scratch. They only have to connect their application to those services, a much faster, easier and cheaper development path.
And of course, there's software as a service. Instead of worrying about seats and licenses you will probably never use, in most cases you buy only the number of seats your company requires and as your company grows or shrinks –because that happens sometimes too –you only pay for what you use.
The breadth of the cloud is completely different from the mainframe. The costs are turned on their head and you have access to as many resources as you need and competition is actually driving costs down over time. Just last week, for instance, Google dropped its storage prices in response to a similar move from Yahoo!. That's competition working for you as a consumer.
How low did they go? They dropped the monthly price of a 100 GB of extra storage from $4.99 to $1.99 and a terabyte from $49.99 to $9.99. That's a steep and significant price drop and it comes from abundance and competition, the opposite of what we saw with the mainframe.
The mainframes might have also involved shared computing resources, but it was an entirely different level and scale and today's cloud tools provide companies with the ability to build businesses for a fraction of the cost it would have if they were required to build their own data center. The Mainframe provided computing resources where little existed, but it didn't have the disruptive force that the cloud has precisely because it's so cheap and so widely available.
What's more, mobile and apps have developed in large part because of the cloud and the ability to store and access content across multiple devices from anywhere at any time. The cloud pushed this development.
Mainframes in the absence of PCs simply provided some computing resources for the few where none existed. The cloud provides resources for anyone in virtually endless abundance.
As Mike Myers might have said, "Cloud, Mainframe, resources, different!"
Photo Credit: (c) Can Stock Photo
Microsoft, Nokia and the struggle for marketshare
It's no secret that Microsoft is on the verge of completing a deal to buy Nokia's handset division, but Nokia raised eyebrows this week at Mobile World Congress when it announced an Android phone running Microsoft services.
The announcement triggered questions about Microsoft's mobile strategy moving forward, and highlighted their continuing struggle to gain additional marketshare.
I spoke to Greg Sullivan, who is a 24 year Microsoft marketing veteran. Sullivan was honest about the challenges Microsoft faces in an entrenched mobile market, but he was quick to point out Microsoft's successes and he was proud of the device ecosystem that's built up around Windows 8.
While Sullivan pointed to the huge growth numbers last year and the gains in certain markets, it's hard to get around the 3.5 percent worldwide share reported by IDC in its most recent report. The situation in the US is even worse with Windows struggling mightily to gain any traction, but Sullivan says Microsoft isn't about to back down any time soon.
"Here's what we believe: If you are in third place, you have to be faster than the guys in front of you. We agree there are challenges. It's an incredibly dynamic and competitive market. We are doing what we need to do to grow share."
The question is whether that's enough.
But Microsoft continues to push buttons and pull levers and hope that the market begins to develop for them. One way to do that is to offer a variety of phones at different price points. It's clear that Android was able to scale quickly by open sourcing the OS and watching as manufacturers all along the pricing spectrum built Android devices. This helped grow their market very rapidly.
"One of the strategies, is for our platforms to enable scale through a broader range of devices along the price curve," Sullivan told me. This could be the thinking behind the extremely low-priced Nokia X line, 3 phones that run 89, 99 and 109 Euro respectively. While Sullivan and the Microsoft PR team were quick to point out at the beginning of the interview, they couldn't address this approach because they are still separate companies, a Nokia spokesperson told me the phone had been designed to run Microsoft services and the shareholders should be pleased by this approach. Nokia also saw these phones as a gateway or feeder system to the higher end Windows phones as emerging markets where they are marketing these low-end phones mature.
Sullivan told me that when Microsoft bought Nokia they weren't just buying the Nokia Windows phone division, they were buying the whole package which includes many phones that aren't part of the Windows ecosystem. He pointed out that Nokia was selling millions of non-Windows phones before the acquisition was ever announced, and the X Line is simply an extension of that.
"[The X line] makes it more interesting because it's Android, but if you look at the larger picture, [Nokia] sells 100s of millions of devices that don't run our OS, and that [has the potential to] bring millions of people into the Microsoft system and act as onramp for Windows phone."
Microsoft is clearly not going to cede the mobile market to Apple and Google without a fight, and as a colleague and I were discussing earlier this week, having a healthy Microsoft mobile product line is good for competition, but getting over 5 percent is looking like a struggle for now, even while Microsoft is hoping they can attack the low end of the market to build share moving forward.
Photo Credit: Ron Miller. Used under CC 2.0 license
IDC: China smartphone growth slows for the first time in over 2 years
China is such a huge country, it probably seems like a bottomless pit of market potential to smartphone manufacturers, but nothing goes up forever, and growth took an unexpected tumble last quarter, as IDC reported, smartphone shipments to China dropped for the first time in 9 quarters.
Let's start with the raw numbers. According to IDC, manufacturers shipped 90.8 million units to the Asia/Pacific region last quarter compared to 94.8 million in the previous quarter, a 4.3% quarter on quarter drop.
Engadget kindly broke down these numbers a bit further by phone manufacturer.
For mainland China, Samsung was the big winner with 19 percent. Lenovo was second with 13 percent, Coolpad (which I've never heard of) came in next at 11 percent, followed by Huawei at 10 percent and Apple at 7 percent. No, that doesn't come close to 100 percent and the remaining phones were lumped together under Other with 40 percent of the phones shipped to mainland China apparently from a variety of manufacturers with percentages too small to measure on the pie chart.
Whatever the reasons, and IDC offers several theories as to why the shipments dropped, they predict it's likely temporary glitch, but there is also the possibility that China could be reaching market saturation. In spite of the population figures, those who have the money to buy smartphones, might have already done so or moved onto other devices such as phablets, leaving smaller screens behind (at least for now).
So where will manufacturers begin to look for growth areas? India is looking like the biggest up and coming market rising to the number 3 market in 2013, passing the likes of Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany and France, all of which ranked hire just a year ago.
For companies marketing low-end phones, this could bode well, but for a company like Apple, which lives at the high end of the market, and has not traditionally sold well in India because of the high price of its phones, it might not be great news.
Apple signed a couple of key deals toward the end of last year with Chinese providers, which on their face would seem to point to market growth for Apple in China, but if the market is shrinking that could have an impact on Apple's ability to grow its worldwide market over the next couple of years.
There is also the matter of Lenovo buying Motorola Mobility, which could give it further inroads into the higher end of the Chinese smartphone market in the coming year giving Apple more competition from a local company, possibly making China an even bigger challenge market for Apple. The Moto X is the most sophisticated Android phone I've seen to this point and perhaps the fact it's so customizable could appeal to that market.
It's clear that Asia represents a huge market for smartphone manufacturers to sell their wares, but it is also a tremendous challenge to conquer these markets and find a balance between phone quality and market demand to take advantage of the numbers that await them. The winners are obviously going to have great gains because even a small percentage of China and India represents huge numbers.
Photo Credit: (c) Can Stock Photo


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Student Rights
A student has the right to:
- know what financial aid is available, including aid from federal, state and institutional programs. In addition, a student has the right to know the deadlines, selection criteria, terms, policies, procedures and regulations that apply to each of the programs.
- know how his/her financial need was determined and how much of it, as determined by the college, was met. This process includes how costs for tuition and fees, transportation, books and supplies, and miscellaneous personal expenses are included in his/her student budget.
- know if he/she has a student loan, the terms of the loan, such as interest rate, the total amount that must be repaid, the length of time allowed for repayment, when repayment must start, cancellation provisions, deferment and forbearance possibilities and any special consolidation or refinancing options.
- appeal his/her financial aid award if he/she feels there are special circumstances that were not originally taken into consideration.
- know how the college determines whether he/she is making satisfactory academic progress and what happens if he/she is not.
- know how and when his/her financial aid will be disbursed.
- know the college's refund policies; the portion, if any, of tuition and fees that is refunded to the student if he/she withdraws before the end of the term; and the portion, if any, of the financial aid he/she received that must be paid back immediately if he/she withdraws before the end of the term.
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AUSTIN, Texas — The executive director of a troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting effort in Texas has submitted his resignation letter amid escalating scrutiny over the management of the nation's second-biggest pot of cancer research dollars, the agency announced Tuesday.
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The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas has not been able to focus on fighting the disease due to "wasted efforts expended in low value activities" during the past tumultuous eight months, Executive Director Bill Gimson wrote in a resignation letter dated Monday. Gimson offered to stay on until January, and the agency's board must still approve his request to step down.
Gimson has led the state agency since it launched in 2009. But he fell under mounting criticism over the recent disclosure that an $11 million award to a private company was never reviewed. It was the second time this year that a lucrative taxpayer-funded grant instigated backlash and raised questions about oversight.
"Unfortunately, I have also been placed in a situation where I feel I can no longer be effective," Gimson wrote.
Gimson submitted his resignation letter on the same day the Texas attorney general's office said it would investigate the $11 million grant to Dallas-based Peloton Therapeutics in 2010. An internal audit performed by the agency revealed that Peloton's proposal was approved for funding without being reviewed by an outside panel.
Gimson said last week that Peloton's funding was the result of an honest mistake that happened when the agency was still young and in the process of installing checks and balances. Agency emails surrounding the Peloton grant are no longer available, Gimson said, and state investigators said they will work to find them.
Only the National Institutes of Health doles out more cancer research dollars than CPRIT, which has awarded more than $700 million so far. The agency's former chief science officer, Nobel laureate Alfred Gilman, resigned earlier this year over a separate $20 million award that Gilman claimed received a thin review. That led some of the nation's top scientists to accuse the agency of charting a politically-driven path.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Thank You Just Doesn't Seem Enough
On the eve of the day all of us collectively gather together and pronounce our blessing and "thanks" for all the bounty and goodness life has exposed to us in our past year. Like so many other families around this Nation and Tampa Bay, my parents kept that honored tradition of everyone gathered at the table giving "thanks" a loud for the blessing and good things that had transpired over those last 365 days.
I loved those moments, but as the Rays begin to venture into their 15th year of baseball in the major leagues, I have some unfinished business. People and events that warrant not only a " shout out", but a significant remembrance or high-5 at this time we want to express ourselves. So, hang on, this list might be a long one.
THANK YOU to the relentless men of the original Tampa Bay Baseball group who shed tears, fought away drowsiness and endured their long path until we got our storied franchise.
THANK YOU to the cities of Seattle, Oakland, Chicago, San Francisco and even the Minneapolis/St Paul Minnesota community that were stepping-stones as the eventual Tampa Bay expansion franchise made it path through the MLB minefields. These MLB teams all brought bits and pieces of themselves to the table as the Rays fashioned their early patchwork franchise.
THANK YOU to our first owner Vince Namoli and his crew who fought the tides and battles early on in this franchise, and still do. Our Captain at the helm since 2007, Stuart Sternberg who has secured a new path, a new identity and a new reason to rejoice being a member of the Rays Republic crew.
THANK YOU to Wilson Alvarez for that first delivery to the plate on March 31, 1998. It completed the completed the mission and set into motion that events that are still unfolding, and will for a long, long time.
THANK YOU to players like Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff, Dwight Gooden, Johnny Damon, Matt Joyce, and St. Pete natives Casey Kotchman and Doug Waechter who came "home" to play in the Rays colors for Tampa Bay. Each of you have left footprints in the Rays historical sands that will stand the tests of time, and always be some of our fondest memories
THANK YOU to my friends within the Rays 4th Floor from BK to DJ Kitty's master. Each of your actions have brought together different scenarios and changes to the Rays experience from the concerts, promotional goodies to the foundations of fan-based gatherings like the "Maddon's Maniacs".
THANK YOU to the men who have assembled in the Rays Bullpen over the past 14 seasons who have sat, spat and even chattered with me on their journey's to and from the Rays "second Clubhouse" under the Rays Rightfield stands. From the gum-tossing and comedic activities of Andy Sonnanstine, to the Elvis-inspired guitar styling of Rusty Meacham, I am thankful for those moments.
THANK YOU to guys like Rays Clubhouse Manager Chris Westmoreland and his crew who let me see things behind-the scenes as their Pepsi vendor for years. Getting to see the Rays Clubhouse as it transformed, and even letting me take a piece of it home forever.
THANK YOU to the assembled hundreds who have graced the Rays roster sporting numbers from 1 (Joey Gathright, Akinori Iwamura, Miguel Cairo, Rey Sanchez, Antonio Perez, Sean Rodriguez) to 98 (Jae Seo) for your spent energies, blood and even heartaches as this franchise went through their growing pains and ultimate defeats and celebrations. I consider you all friends for life.
THANK YOU to the fans I have met, entertained and even fought verbally with our these years. Your opinions, insights and even diverse comments have molded these posts and even gave me more than a dozen reasons to question my own logic. From Jeff McKinney, Pat and Christine Manfredo to George, Charlie and the crew up in the 300's, if we could bottle your optimism and energy for this team, we could light up the Tampa Bay region indefinitely.
THANK YOU to the 2008 Rays team who let me grace a moment within a team photo etching myself permanently into the fabric of the greatest Rays team to date. Still hard to imagine that the Rays, in their rookie attempt in the post season fought so hard and valiantly had an element like rain play such a critical role in their first World Series.
THANK YOU to the Rays scout and player development people like Mitch Lukevics, RJ Harrison who have been linchpin in the development of so many of the Rays past, present and future stars. Their devotion and work ethic knows no bounds, and their tireless emphasis on quality has made the Rays farm system a model of player development efficiency.
HANK YOU to the people of Tampa Bay no matter if you are a long-time Season Ticket holder or someone who graces the stands only a handful of games a season. Your support is needed and appreciated from those among you in the stands, on the field and assisting you with your baseball experience. The lifeblood of this team is the interaction and reaction of the community, and our return to future games.
Giving "thanks" at this time of the year for things outside of Tropicana Field are also very important. So my last THANK YOU has to go out to Rays Manager Joe Maddon and his cooking crew of Rays Coaches, Rays staff and employees who have yearly venture out into the Tampa Bay region for Maddon's annual "Thanks-Mas" celebration.
But I would be remiss if I did not make one more "THANK YOU". I have to also make a huge and humble shout out to you, the readers of this blog. Since our change over in May 2011, so many of you have stayed the course and returned while others have gone away or have not returned. I "THANK" each and every one of you reading this right now for your support, your time and your comments that have made my writing better since 2007.
But then again, you can never hear the words "Thank You" enough these days.


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Church Angel makes it easy to add your church to our comprehensive directory!
yes, i want toAdd Christian Church Add Christian Counselor
New Jersey is located on the Eastern coast of the United States and is the third wealthiest in middle class household income. In New Jersey, you will find major cities such as: Newark, Trenton, Paterson, Jersey City, Camden, Bridgeton, Vineland, Elizabeth, East Orange, Hackensack, Perth Amboy, Asbury Park. During winter and spring, New Jersey has a tendency to endure nor'easters, which is a combination of wind and a storm coming from multiple directions. Church Angel has a huge list of churches in New Jersey that offer various Christian denominations including Baptist, Protestant, Pentecostal, Episcopal, Charismatic, and many more. Our church directory lists 6558 churches in New Jersey, so there are lots to choose from! We hope that you find a church in NJ that meets your needs.
Church Angel .com is a directory of churches and Christian counselors that can be searched for by city, state, and denomination covering the United States of America and Canada. We made it easy to browse through churches in your area. Our online Christian church directory makes it easy to list a church or find a church that meets your spiritual needs. Find a church today!


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Welcome to FPS Online.
Under Government legislation introduced on 1 May 1999 it is unlawful to send an individual an unsolicited sales and marketing fax without prior permission. Businesses have the opportunity to register fax numbers on which they do not wish to receive direct marketing faxes.
You can do this by registering with the Fax Preference Service. Although this Service is primarily aimed at businesses, as individuals have protection under the legislation, individuals may also register their fax numbers if they wish.
Before you apply however, you should be aware that registration may preclude you or your business from receiving information of value - thereby cutting you off from worthwhile business opportunities.


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Mindset is everything in this life Life has no definite meaning Your life is the product of your thoughts Your happiness is your responsibility Your success is your responsibility Social sup…
Source: Never Give Up!
Mindset is everything in this life Life has no definite meaning Your life is the product of your thoughts Your happiness is your responsibility Your success is your responsibility Social sup…
Source: Never Give Up!
Your daily source for inspiration and positivity
Thinking at the Intersection
Spreading Scientific Literacy
Finding meaning and inspiration in everyday life
Life. Writing. And all things #TMDBooks
Meditation, Guided Meditation, Shri Mataji, Kundalini awakening, Self Realisation, Self knowledge, meditation techniques, mental silence, Health & wellbeing, relaxation, balance, chakras, enlightenment, it's free
The TED Blog shares interesting news about TED, TED Talks video, the TED Prize and more.
Devotionals on A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A COURSE OF LOVE, and THE WAY OF MASTERY . . . with Celia Hales
Essayist, Contemplative, Teacher, Poet
On a Mission to Empower, Encourage, & Motivate
Where the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism is celebrated!
People who have contributed to society, Social Musings 101
Photography at a different level
We live to write and write to live ... professional writers talk about the craft and business of writing
Um espaço de partilha...
Read our Mission. Find out how you can help us adopt James.
Just another disturbance in the time-space continuum...
Designing delightful reading experiences, both innovative and traditional.
Books, reviews and all things worth reading
Reviews of Children's Board Books, Picture Books, Activity Books, and Graphic Novels
Reading my way through Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Novels since 1923 (plus Ulysses)
Where medicine intersects with public health
The Harmless Ramblings of Brad Trent...
In everything that my students and I do together, we strive to find ways to use reading and writing to make the world outside of our classroom a better place for all of us to be
A Nonprofit Literary magazine
An Archived Blog - Inactive
the wild life
musings of a not-quite-silenced (former) teacher
reading foods and consuming culture
Celebrating and bollocking stamp design and collector culture while swearing a bit
Reading, writing, philosophy, theology, documentary film, and, of course, fruit preserves
If Monsters Don't Exist, Why Are They Out To Get Me?
Putting the soft in soft science
Kerry Mark Leibowitz's musings on the wonderful world of nature photography
Searching for Wholeness and Finding Grace
easy vegetarian recipes with cinematic inclination
Expat wanderer
a messy collection of art projects, crafts, and various random things...
The words and wisdom of a wondering writer.
One Introvert's Adulting Quest
Stories, poems, photos, and bumbles for the soul
The only thing worse than being 'blind' is having a sight but no VISION


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Free Ground Shipping on Orders of $150 and up! Use Coupon Code: SHIPFREE150
This offer for free shipping and handling applies to ground ship orders over $150 and is valid for orders placed online at www.etundra.com from 01/20/2020 12:00:00 AM thru 01/24/2020 11:59:59 PM MST. This offer applies to standard ground shipping and handling within the U.S., excluding Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. Territories (other than Washington, D.C.). LTL/freight shipments are not eligible for this offer and may be subject to additional shipping and handling charges. Customers are responsible for all taxes and for all Rush Delivery upgrade fees for 3-Day Express, 2-Day Express and Next Day Delivery. Tundra Restaurant Supply reserves the right to modify or discontinue this offer at any time. Void where prohibited by law. This coupon does not apply to previous purchases, can only be applied to the website(s) listed above, and cannot be combined with other offers. The coupon code will need to be added to the shopping cart or during the checkout process.
Often described as the only knife you'll ever need in the kitchen, a chef's knife (also known as a cook's knife) is used for everything from chopping to slicing and dicing. Choosing the perfect Chef's knife is subjective because it's so dependent on how it feels and weighs in your hand. Some chefs prefer heavier knives to lighter knives, some prefer textured handles to plastic ones—there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to picking a knife. Ultimately though, you want a knife that will last. A knife that is sharp and can keep an edge longer will ensure even, consistent cuts. Unlike your at-home varieties, commercial knives are stronger and sharper, and are designed to withstand the rigors of the commercial kitchen.
At Tundra Restaurant Supply we carry a diverse selection of Chef's knives from the industry's leading manufacturers. Shop Chef's knives from Victorinox, Wusthof, Winco, Mercer Cutlery, Mundial, Dexter Russell and much more!
When shopping for a chef knife consider whether a stamped or forged knife is for you. A forged knife is often hand-forged from a single piece of steel that has been folded hundreds of times. Because of this, a forged knife is often heavier and thicker than its stamped counterpart. You can identify a forged knife with a quick glance at the handle; a raised bump by the handle is often referred to as the "bolster," and many find it makes a comfortable grip for the hand.
A stamped knife on the other hand are literally "stamped" from a single piece of steel. These types of knives are thinner and lighter than their forged counterparts, and often the steel only goes halfway through the handle (referred to as the "tang").
There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to a stamped versus a forged knife, it just depends on what feels better to you. Both knives are equally sharp, though due to the flexibility of stamped blades you may find that forged knives hold an edge longer.
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Hype is a dangerous thing. I'm almost scared to see Tron: Legacy! But fortunately for all of us, this video titled "Laser + Balloon + Fire Inside It = Awesome!" delivers. Bless their hearts, they even threw in some slow-motion.
What's exactly is going on here? Well, you've got your pocket laser, pointed squarely at a couple of bits of flash paper that are inside an inflated balloon. Then, uh... boom! You don't need any more than that on a Friday, do you? [Laughing Squid]


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I got the brand new Custodian badge today for reviewing posts. Inspired by that, I reviewed some more suggested edits. Now I ran into a limit:
You have no more suggested edit votes today; come back in x hours.
How is that limit calculated? I made today 61 reviews which seems to be some calculated limit.
I searched for an answer on meta but found nothing helpful.


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Pavano Connection Will Boost Allemand
Pavano Connection Will Boost Allemand
Yankees fans are pretty angry at their wasted $40 million investment on pitcher Carl Pavano. But think about this. Without Pavano, many of us would have never heard of Gia Allemand.The two were engaged but broke up in March. With those Maxim photos out this month--she first appeared as a "Hometown Hottie" in Maxim while she was with Pavano--our friend Gia should know she should probably be charging a little more for those autographs on her official Web site. A 24-by-36 poster of her is $9.95. An autographed one? Just five dollars more ($14.95). Now that's a bargain, folks.
Unlike Pavano, she's still relatively undiscovered, aside from the massive linkage I've seen on WithLeather . She worked her way to the top doing everything she could and despite some setbacks--finishing runner-up in both the Miss Hawaiian Tropic Contest and in the 2005 Miss Red Hot Taj Mahal Super Bowl contest--she has been named Miss Italia, Miss South Beach and Miss American Teen. I love how Allemand charges $5 for her autograph, yet Steiner Sports is selling a game-used road jersey the oft-injured Pavano wore in April and May for $2,000. Assuming he did wear it during every road game during those two months, he would have made one start in it, throwing 79 total pitches.
To be honest, we'd rather buy 133 autographed Gia Allemand posters.
WWE Death Stunt Comes To An End
It's pretty funny that all I've been writing about is the WWE since, before last week, I hadn't written about the organization once in seven years. Many wrestling fans were wondering how the WWE could continue the death stunt of Vince McMahon's character when another character Sherri Martel really did die just four days after McMahon's limo was blown up. Well, McMahon was forced to make an appearance on last night's RAW. It was supposed to be his fake memorial service, but instead it turned into a real one of sorts. That's because wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and son were really found dead in what could be a murder-suicide
"Tonight's storyline was to have been the alleged demise of my character Mr. McMahon," said McMahon, on Monday night's broadcast. "However, in reality, WWE superstar Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel are dead."
According to this siteBenoit is the 38th wrestler aged 40 and under to have died in the last 22 years.
Reader Response
I got many emails on my entry on Dean Karnazes, who was trying to break the world treadmill running record to garner attention for Accelerade. The most intriguing one came from John Lesko.
"The hardcore running community generally dislikes this guy and does not think highly of him, especially when his ultra record is compared to others. While winning the '04 Badwater and '06 Vermont 100 is nice, others in the ultra running world have more accomplished resumes without all the hoopla and money surrounding them. For you to say that he is the "world's best runner" can only be construed as opinion, especially when you have the likes of Scott Jurek - 7 time winner of the Western States 100 and only American to win the Spartathlon still running. What Dean is is the world's best marketer in the runner community. He has the looks and the story to push products onto the weekend 5Kers and running hobbyists who marvel at his accomplishments. While I tend to think he is vastly overrated, he does bring needed attention to a variety of charities during his circus-like routines, for which you cannot knock the guy. Love him or hate him, he gets people talking, but in the mostly obscure world of ultra running, where people run for the love of the sport and not for the attention and surely not for the dollars, not all are welcoming the exposure he generates."
Questions? Comments? firstname.lastname@example.com


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If you are thinking of upgrading to SQL Server 2012 in the near future then why not join me in London this December, Wednesday 18th to Friday 20th December at Learning Tree's London Education Centre (LEC) which is based at Euston House on Eversholt.
You can read more about the course and what we will be covering and also enrol on the course by following this link http://www.learningtree.co.uk/courses/2105/sql-server-2012-administration-skills-upgrade/ the link to enrol is on the right-hand side of the page.
If you any questions for me please let me know


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Adapted from Guide on Evaluation and Attenuation of Traffic Noise. AASHTO. 1974.
In conclusion, change in noise level is perceptible only when considerably more vehicles join traffic. This condition is often reported in noise impact studies for projects to widen existing highways, especially those with already substantial traffic volumes.
Source: SHA Travel ForecastingBack to Top
Sound barriers reduce the noise that enters a community from a highway by absorbing, reflecting, or forcing the sound to take a longer path over and around the barrier. Sound is energy that decreases in intensity as it travels away from its point of origin. Sound waves travel in all directions from vehicles on the roadways. When sound waves encounter an obstacle or barrier, some of the sound bounces off the barrier's surface (reflective surface). If the surface is porous, where there are small cavities or holes that extend into the interior of the barrier material, some of the sound waves travel inside the cavities after they reach the surface. The waves bounce around and eventually expend their energy. This process is called absorption. A noise barrier can achieve a 5 decibel (dBA) noise level reduction, when it is tall enough to break the line-of-sight from the highway to the home or receiver. After it breaks the line-of-sight, it can achieve approximately 1.5 decibels of additional noise level reduction for each meter (about three feet) of barrier height. To effectively reduce the noise coming around its ends, a barrier should be at least eight times as long as the distance from the home or receiver to the barrier.
Source: FHWA WebsiteMDOT SHA determines the height of proposed barriers using acoustic profiles (noise measurement equipment collects noise data, then displays and maps it so that a 7 to 10 decibel noise level reduction can be achieved. There are no standard barrier heights since each project site has different topography. Back to Top
Sound barriers do have limitations and are not always an effective noise abatement method. To determine if the construction of a sound barrier will provide a reasonable noise level reduction, both the distance of the impacted community from the roadway and the topography of the area are considered. Role of Distance Typically, the primary impacted residences (which we also refer to as first row residences) are within 100 to 200 feet of the roadway. Second row residences, which are often impacted, are usually a next-door neighbor or located across the street from a first row residence. As noise impacts and potential noise abatement methods are evaluated past second row residences, it is difficult to provide effective abatement. A sound barrier is not likely to reduce noise levels for residents who live far from the roadway. Role of Topography To work effectively, the barrier must be high and long enough to block the view of the road from the area to be protected. Sound barriers do very little for homes on a hillside overlooking a road. Source: FHWA Website
As seen above, the house at the bottom of the hill is protected by the sound barrier, but the one on top of the hill overlooking the roadway is not. Buildings higher than barriers, homes scattered far apart, and openings in noise barriers for driveways or intersecting streets are not good areas for sound barriers. In some cases, MDOT SHA can offer alternatives to reduce noise levels. These alternatives are evaluated on a case-by-case basis consistent with federal guidelines.
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