text: The Google Street View car is like the ultimate street photographer, a robo Cartier-Bresson methodically scouring the streets and documenting what it sees. But most people use GSV for practical purposes, and they view any drama or comedy captured by the roving 360-degree camera as accidents. A few photographers are now looking for these 'accidents' intentionally. Instead of walking out on the street to find interesting scenes and people, they are simply curating the pre-documented streets from the comfort of their desk at home. Michael Wolf, for example, uses a camera to photograph scenes from Google Street View open on his computer's browser. In February, his honorable mention in the Contemporary Issues category at the World Press Photo Awards for A Series of Unfortunate Events ignited a storm of debate. Some balked at the idea that Wolf's project was photojournalism, while others embraced the decision and called for more conceptual leaps and redefinitions of photojournalism in the digital age. Wolf is not the first to employ an office-chair appreciation of the Google world. Before and since other photographers and artists have developed projects riffing on GSV and Google Earth. Read on for a collection of the most interesting projects with statements from their makers. Above: A Series of Unfortunate Events Wolf's first project with GSV was a compilation of fleeting moments of no particular location: People flipping the bird, actual birds in mid-flight blocking our view, dismembered shadows, a crouched woman urinating behind a car and so on. A former photojournalist, Wolf found many of the scenes in his early series on GSV forums such as Google Sightseeing and GoogleStreetFunny. With later series, all his finds were his own. "It's a real file that I have, I'm not taking a screenshot," he told The British Journal of Photography. "I move the camera forward and backward in order to make an exact crop, and that's what makes it my picture. It doesn't belong to Google, because I'm interpreting Google; I'm appropriating Google." Without specifying location or knowing the date of the original capture, A Series of Unfortunate Events amplifies Google's own dismantling of time and space. Google will update GSV, periodically fusing images from different years within the same town or city. If they have not been replaced already, the scenes from Wolf's browser will soon disappear from Google's world. "I think its extremely interesting what artists are doing with Google Street View, Google Earth, GPS and Twitter," says Wolf. "It's one of the important functions of art, to interpret contemporary issues." Top photo: Image #7 from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Michael Wolf. Bottom photo: Image #50 from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Michael Wolf.Nine Eyes The title for Jon Rafman's Nine Eyes project is a reference to the nine camera lenses in the original roof-mounted spherical rig atop Google vans (the rig now has 15 lenses). The project was one of the first to collate GSV scenes, and certainly the most expansive. Rafman's attentions fall upon ambiguous scenes of danger or serendipity or - as with Wolf - accidents. "A large part of the interest of GSV is the possibility and reality of exploration," says Rafman. "I see exploration as a fundamental human characteristic and I often organize my GSV exhibitions around the excitement of exploring a particular theme." Rafman, like Wolf, has made use of GSV forums as well as spending hundreds of hours cruising the virtual streets himself. But where Wolf focuses on humans, Rafman's selections seem particularly concerned with the condition of nature. His images of buffalo, penguins and performing sea mammals are from a vantage point so close, one wonders if they're GSV shots at all. When Rafman does portray people, his scenes of human interactions are antagonistic. Where Wolf incorporates scenes of strangers helping one another in the aftermath of an accident, Rafman shows us police lining suspects up against a wall. "Google's cameras witness but do not act in history," says Rafman. "For all Google cares, the world could be absent of moral dimension." Photo: 'Untitled,' from Jon Rafman's series Nine Eyes*.*A New American Picture At least partly an homage to Walker Evans' American Photographs, Doug Rickard's project is interested in GSV's dialogue with the legacy of American street photography, the roadtrip and the documentary tradition. With the Google car as proxy, Rickard takes us to the economically depressed towns of Detroit, Memphis, Oakland and Camden, NJ. It is a hypocrisy of the documentary tradition that audiences demand to see the poverty at home and abroad without physically taking themselves there. The insult, of which Rickard is presumably aware, is at play doubly in A New American Picture; as a photographer, Rickard never set foot on those streets and the Google cameras recorded the people and environment with mechanic indifference. Writer and photo blogger Joerg Colberg considers A New American Picture the "benchmark" for GSV projects. "Needless to say," adds Colberg, "Doug has been not very good at PR, so people now think that Google Street projects are basically just superficial fluff." Photo: #83.016417, Detroit, MI. 2009. By Doug Rickard.No Man's Land When England-based Mishka Henner hit a "conceptual dead end" with his documentary work he started thinking outside the box. "I knew of Doug Rickard's A New American Picture and felt there was fertile ground to do something interesting with GSV," says Henner. "I came across online communities using Street View to trade information on where to find sex workers. I thought that was the subject to work with." Self-published in book form, No Man's Land is a series of GSV screengrabs of roadside prostitutes in rural Italy. It's Henner's most recent project using Google platforms. Previous works include Dutch Landscapes which used Google Earth, Photography Is which used search engines and 51 US Militarty Outposts which used Bing and Google Maps. "I operate like a hunter (or a vulture hunting for scraps) from the comfort of my own computer," says Henner. "A bit like the US army drone operators, we seem to do most things remotely these days. We shop, communicate and even kill remotely. So why not photograph remotely? It makes perfect sense." While Henner confesses that at first it felt a bit "lame" to spend so much time in front of the computer as a photographer, he realized that most of a photographer's time was spent there anyway, working and processing files. "The assumption that artists are spending weeks and months roaming GSV looking for material is just not true," says Henner. "It isn't GSV that's being mined but all the community generated sites out there that point to all these sightings found on GSV. In this work, the artist is for the most part following the crowd or making work that tries to sculpt [the crowd's product] into a coherent and revealing form. The photo traditionalists haven't caught on to that yet, they seem to think other people's sightings are not valid material for making documentary work." Henner also noticed an odd dynamic introduced by Google's technology into No Man's Land that he felt was a poignant commentary. "The fact the women's faces are blurred by the software, that they look at the [GSV] car with the same curiosity that we have when looking at them, and that the liminal spaces they occupy are in the countryside or on the edge of our cities - it all has such great symbolism for our time." Photo: Contrada Vallecupa, Colonnella, Abruzzi, Italy. By Mishka Henner.Versificator Nick Mason's Versificator takes its name from the machine in George Orwell's 1984 that creates literature and music independently of human input. The project consists of gorgeous, eery landscapes from the UK, Scandinavia, Alaska and Canada where Mason says the light is cleaner and produces better quality images. "These images were never intended to be more than mere information, compiled by a machine and possibly never even viewed by a person," says Mason. "By my choosing of them they begin to become something else. I'm interested in the re-structuring of information and the 'rehabilitation' of data." For Mason, real and virtual worlds can be probed in similar ways with an artist developing a style in GSV the same way one would with a traditional camera. "I am attracted to particular content on Google in the same manner I edit information in the real world with a camera," he says. Photo: 'Norway' from the series Versificator*. By Nick Mason.*Street With a View Not limited to photography, GSV has also spurred performance art. Coordinated by Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett, Street With a View was a Pittsburgh neighborhood's response to the arrival of GSV camera vans. "At the time of Street With A View's conception, Google was just starting to map Pittsburgh," says Kinsley. "Our city was one of the first US cities to be mapped and GSV was in news a lot for issues pertaining to invasion of privacy, surveillance, big brother, etc. As artists, Robin and I saw an opportunity to play within this system and, instead of dwelling on the darker issues, to explore it as a site for artistic production." In 2008, Kinsley and Hewlett teamed up with the GSV crew to stage a series of performances in their neighborhood that were then incorporated into the map itself. The scenes ranged from a parade to a garage-band practice to a seventeenth-century sword fight. "For the first year or so of the project, ours was one of the few streets in the world of GSV where faces were NOT blurred, which was fantastic! Now, however, blurring has taken over even our street. I don't know when or why this change occurred as we were never part of this process." Photo: From Street With A View performance project. By Ben Kinsley.Hoaxes and Mysteries While not exactly art, Google Street View has also uncovered its fair share of pranksters and puzzles which deserve a mention in this list. Mischievous hoaxers in Berlin staged a fake birth (above) on the sidewalk for the benefit of the GSV van. For a short period of time speculation was frenzied, but Google soon confirmed it was a fake. Also, in Germany was the perplexing image of a naked man emerging from the trunk of his car. The image is no longer hosted on GSV. No country challenged the arrival of Google street view quite as much as Germany. Taking advantage of privacy laws, approximately 250,000 home-owners opted to have their residences blurred out. In retaliation, anti-privacy vandals threw eggs at the homes. In a separate incident a GSV car had it tires slashed and camera cables cut. Photo: Screengrab from Google street view.Virtually There For his Google project, Andreas Rutkauskus composed images of the Rockies in Google Earth and then hiked the actual Rockies with his large format camera to capture those same images in real life. Distinguishing between real and virtual landscapes isn't as simple as you might think. The best clue? The unlikely cloudless skies of Google Earth are the give away. "I examined historic photographs of the mountains, topographic maps, and images and GPS tracks on websites," writes Rutkauskus about Virtually There. "After considering this data, I composed views of the Rockies in Google Earth." "The title of the Google views are the latitude and longitude for my apartment in Montréal, where I created the images. The title of the real-world photographs are the GPS coordinates of the location where the shutter was released." Photo: Andreas Rutkauskus. N 45° 28' 34" W 73° 37' 18"Map Germany-based artist Aram Bartholl has built a physical manifestation of Google's map marker and installed it at the Google-determined center of several cities. At 18 feet tall, the map marker appears at the scale that corresponds to the most zoomed-in level of the Google map UI. Built in physical space, Map, according to Bartholl, "questions the relation of the digital information space to every day life public city space." Bartholl and his team have installed Map in Berlin, Germany; Szczecin, Poland and Taipei, Taiwan. "On one hand the markers cast a shadow on the digital map as if they were physical objects," writes Bartholl on his website. "On the other hand it is a simple 20 pixel graphic icon which stays always at the same size on the computer screen. When the map is switched to satellite mode it seems that they become part of the city." Photo: Construction and installation of Map*, Taipei, 2010. Courtesy of Aram Bartholl.*


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Phylicia Rashad Gossip
Phylicia Rashad gossip, latest news, photos, and video.
Phylicia Rashad For Coloured Girls
Always Mrs Huxtable, right? And she's ageless. Am late this morning because I got caught up on YouTube looking at old clips. Remember the Dragon Lady? And when Peter went to the dentist? I'm telling you, after all this time, it's still good. Maybe for different reasons, sure, but it's still good. Full Story

subset: commoncrawl


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Golden Contemplating Buddha Statue Showpiece
This statue depicts Buddha in his meditative state and has been brushed in gold to give it that extra mile of appeal. The color scheme coupled with the intricate engraving present all across the statue ensure this piece fits the showpiece description. It's the perfect Buddha statue for those who wish to bring home peace but also some style.
Dimension (LxBxH): 12x5.5x21.5 cm
Weight: 355 gm
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Has HHS Buried Reports on 'Head Start'?
According to sources within HHS cited by Heritages' Dan Lips, a congressionally mandated report on the persistence of academic effects from the federal Head Start program was completed in draft form in 2008, but, nearly two years later, has not seen the light of day. A further follow‐up report, to have been released in 2009 and covering persistence of effects through the 3rd grade, has also failed to materialized. Lips' sources say the draft they saw in '08 showed no lasting effects.
This timeline meshes with what I was told in a July, 2008 e‑mail exchange with a researcher familiar with the studies. The 1st grade report was indeed expected to be completed that summer — one and a half years ago. So where is it?
Could it be, as Lips' sources seem to imply, that its results were not flattering to the very expensive federal preschool program and that this is not something HHS officials want the public to know? There's one way to find out: HHS, release the studies.
This is all rather important, what with the Obama administration seeking to lavish many additional billions on large‐scale government pre‑K, despite the paucity of results we've seen from such programs to date.


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Eco-Systems Sustainable Accessories
From counters to kiosks, the sky's the limit for our Eco-Systems Sustainable Displays. All of our eSmart products are designed and constructed with the most environmentally friendly materials available. You can be assured that you cannot get a greener exhibit anywhere else.
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|Home >> Course Descriptions >> College of Arts and Sciences
|Research Problems in Biology
|Two semester hours.
A course in directed laboratory, field or literature-based research in biology for non-thesis students. Non-thesis students must successfully complete the course twice. Prerequisite: Graduate standing and permission of the instructor. Lab fee: $30, if appropriate.
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Six injured in Milwaukee New Year's shootings
Milwaukee police report six people were wounded in overnight shootings on New Year's Eve and New Year's morning.
The first incident was reported around 7 p.m. on Monday. Police said a 35-year-old man was shot while seated in his vehicle in the 1900 block of West Lincoln Avenue. Police are seeking a known suspect in the shooting.
Another shooting was reported in the 1400 block of West Congress Street around 9:35 p.m. Police said several shots were fired into a residence and a 7-year-old girl inside the home was injured. She is being treated at a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
A 23-year-old man told investigators that he he was shot during an argument around 1:10 a.m. New Year's morning. The shooting took place in the 1100 block of North 29th Street. Police do not have anyone in custody at this time.
Two men were reported to have been shot outside of a nightclub in the 4600 block of West Fond du Lac Avenue around 2:50 a.m. Two 33-year-old men were driven to the hospital by friends and are being treated for their injuries.
Another 33-year-old was injured in a shooting outside a tavern in the 2900 block of West North Avenue around 5 a.m.
Police said none of the shootings appear to be related.


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George Hyler with the former Dean of Wake Forest Law School, Blake Morant
The cases mentioned on this website are illustrative of the matters handled by the Attorneys at Hyler & Lopez, P.A. Case results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each case. Not all results are provided here, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Also, the information on this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding your individual situation. We invite you to contact us and welcome your calls, letters, and e-mail. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.


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H&S Scene High Waves, Man = = = = = = = ^ ^ ^ Against High Winds Make A month before the tall ships sailed into New York harbor last July in celebration of the Bicentennial, Houston AAAS manager Tom Chambers set out on a five-day sea adventure that would take him through the unpredictable waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Treacherous reefs, seventeen-foot waves, loss of radio communication and a vicious storm at sea didn't deter Tom and his fellow crew members from sailing the 650 miles from Galveston to Vera Cruz that make up the course of the Regata Amigos. The regatta is a biennial event which was first held in 1968. In 1976, twenty-four ships participated in the race to one of Mexico's busiest port cities. Tom was on board LaVida, a thirty-four-foot single-masted sailboat owned by his friend Gus Brann. Two of Gus's friends, Bert Foster and Dale Larsen, and his two teenaged sons, Ricky and Robby made up the remainder of the crew. Since Bert was the only one aboard with previous experience in ocean racing, the rest of the crew viewed their upcoming sailing venture with a mixture of excitement and trepidation in the weeks before the regatta. The crew's fears subsided during the first four days of the race as clear skies and calm waters made for smooth sailing. Because of strong, steady winds, La Vida was able to fly her spinnaker, the large head sail used in running before the wind, during most of the voyage. The sloop was under sail twenty-four hours a day, with the crew members taking turns in pairing off for three watch shifts. They used the Swedish watch system in which night watches are shorter than those held during the day The one disturbing event during those first few days was the loss of ship-to-shore radio communication which meant that the people aboard La Vida were completely cut off from the outside world. A welcome diversion was the arrival of a school of dolphins that swam alongside the boat, providing some unexpected companionship for the sailors. The relative tranquility of the voyage was broken on the final day of the race by a severe lightning storm. La Vida was tossed around in the Gulf by While Tom Chambers was battling the winds and waves in the Gulf of Mexico last summer, Dan Harrison was battling a 120-pound maneating shark in the Atlantic* Dan, a member of the Executive Office EDP Development group, was on his first shark-fishing expedition and was lucky — or unlucky — enough to catch two of those denizens of the deep his first time out* Shark fishing is not a sport for the fainthearted or the lethargic — the hours are long and hard* Dan and his cousin Robert Adamson, the owner of the thirty-eight-foot cabin cruiser they used, left Long Island at 5 A*M. and faced a four-hour run before they could even wet a hook* It took them that long to reach a point thirty-five miles offshore where the waters would be warm and deep enough for sharks* The equipment Dan and Robert used was standard deep-sea-fishing gear — a fiberglass rod and reel equipped with a static sixty-pound-test line* This means that the maximum weight the line can hold without breaking is sixty pounds* Having baited their hooks with squid, Dan and Robert secured their rods in harnesses around their waists and began chumming — throwing chopped-up oily fish into the water — in order to attract the sharks* Most sharks feed on fish, shellfish and even on smaller sharks* They have a keen sense of smell which, in some cases, enables them to track down prey as far away as a quarter mile* "Patience is a necessity in any type of fishing, and shark fishing is no exception," according to Dan* He and Robert spent three hours chumming and watching for fins before a six-foot Mako went for the bait and began tugging wildly on Dan's line* In order to keep the shark from breaking the line, he put a drag on the reel which enabled the fish to run with the line until it tired* Then Dan would reel in furiously before the shark regained its strength and began stripping off line again* The Mako, a ferocious fighter
Object Description
H&S scene
High waves, high winds
Man against make
|Personal Name
Chambers, Tom
Harrison, Dan
Haskins & Sells. Executive Office
Haskins & Sells. Houston Office
|Illustrations not included in the Web version.
H&S Reports, Vol. 14, (1977 winter), p. 30-32
|Originally published by: Haskins & Sells
|Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte
|PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi
|Deloitte Digital Collection
|Digital Publisher
|University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection
|Date-Digitally Created


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The assumptions and parameters which follow apply only to OhioLINK loans; they need not affect local Circulation/ILL policies or practices. The Library Advisory Council has confirmed the following as the guiding principles for OhioLINK Online Circulation.
- Institutions are encouraged to make available for circulation as many of their holdings as possible
- Courtesy borrowers should be limited to five outstanding OhioLINK loans at any given time.
This document has been reviewed, revised, and approved by the Library Advisory Council.
- Loan Length -- 21 days for all patron types except faculty, 7 days for media. Faculty may check out non-media items for 42 days.
- Paging slips will be run at a minimum at each institution daily, Monday through Friday. All materials are to be pulled and ready for U.S. Cargo pickup within one business day. If the material is not found, the paging slip can be held one additional day for possible retrieval before canceling with re-request.
- Renewals -- Up to 6 renewals of 21 days each for most patrons or 42 days each for faculty on books as long as no holds have been placed on the item. 7-day media has 3 renewals.
- Recalls -- Materials will be recalled only for Course Reserve use; materials may be recalled from any patron type.
- Hold Requests -- When there are no available copies, the system may allow one hold to be placed. If one hold already exists, the request will be canceled and the user will see the cancellation notice on his or her patron's record stating that the request cannot be filled within OhioLINK and suggesting they use Interlibrary Loan at their library. Holds will not be placed if the existing checked out items are not more than 10 days overdue or the due date is not more than 10 days in the future.
- Priority -- Requests will be filled in the order received.
- Missing in Transit -- If in-transit materials cannot be located at either location, a search list may be generated for statewide distribution and searching.
- Reserve -- Materials borrowed through OhioLINK will not be placed on reserve at the borrowing institution, unless special arrangements in support of distance learning have been made.
- ILL – Materials available through OhioLINK online requesting will not be requested or filled through traditional interlibrary loan services.
- Patron Records -- Complete patron records will be kept only at the home institution of the patron. Only authorized staff at that library may change, update, or enter patron records for their borrowers. Only staff at the home library may override blocks for their borrowers. No information will be kept in the central database.
- Load Balancing -- An attempt will be made to balance lending and borrowing over the course of time at each institution unless that institution chooses to be a net lender. To balance lending and borrowing, central site software may be manipulated annually by OhioLINK staff. The selection of the copy to be sent to a borrower should be randomized by the system to balance lending and borrowing. The patron will not be able to designate which copy is to be borrowed unless the title has one or more volumes attached to it. Circulation staff may override this rule in order to borrow a specific copy when deemed appropriate.
- Charges -- All OhioLINK patrons will be charged late fees at the rate of $.50 per day ($2.00 per day for failure to return a recalled item promptly). The maximum fine per item is $15.00. The patron's home library will be responsible for notifying its patrons of overdue materials and fees accrued. A lost book replacement charge of $75.00 will be billed to the patron who does not return an OhioLINK loan 30 days after the due date. A $50.00 processing fee will also be included on these lost book invoices. Only the replacement fee is canceled when the item is returned. The patron's home library will keep the monies collected for all late fees and replacement and processing costs.
- New Materials -- New materials will be automatically available for any OhioLINK borrower as soon as it is available to local patrons for circulation. If the material is ordered for a specific patron, the patron should place a hold on that order. Otherwise, new material should circulate through OhioLINK. Patrons at the owning institution will not have sole access for x period of time before other OhioLINK institutions can borrow the item.
- Availability of Materials – Coding in local records should accurately reflect whether or not the item is requestable.
Further clarification of policies regarding OhioLINK and circulation may be found in the OhioLINK Distance Learning Policy and the Interlibrary Loan Policy
If you are looking for a book that is not available at your library or any other OhioLINK library, please talk to the Interlibrary Loan department or librarians at your own library so they may verify information and help you locate a copy.
October 2013


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Mosquitos, skeeters and ticks targeting you tonight
You've probably noticed your yard is full of mosquitoes in the evening, but they're not the only bugs carrying dangerous diseases you need to be concerned about.
Skeeters and ticks can also target you.
"The mosquitoes are thick as you get near the river. You just run through packs of mosquitos, breathe them in as you're running," said McMullen.
One boy KCCI's Cynthia Fodor talked to Monday counted 14 bites from being outside last night.
What is the best way to protect yourself from all the various varieties of bugs? Grab some DEET or N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide, state health officials said.
Dr. Ann Garvey of the Iowa Department of Public Health is just starting surveillance for the deadly diseases mosquitos can carry.
"There are chicken flocks we test regularly for the West Nile Virus," said Garvey.
Experts said that if you do find a tick on your body, use tweezers to pull it out gently if it's embedded.
DEET will also protect you from ticks which can also infect you leaving you with a bullseye rash, headaches and fever.
Last year, Iowa had 163 cases of Lyme disease from ticks and 31 cases of West Nile from mosquitoes. If you've been bitten and develop flu-like symptoms, go see your doctor.
Wearing long sleeves and pants outdoors between dawn and dusk can also help protect you.


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Business Class
Take your travel to the next level with Jetstar Business Class
Jetstar Business Class, offered on selected routes, is our luxurious way to travel. With a generous carry-on baggage allowance (2 x 7kg bags), an extra-wide seat and a dedicated cabin and service, you'll fly and arrive in style.
Dine in style
Deluxe meals, gourmet snacks on demand and premium drinks.
Fly in comfort
Wide leather seats with greater pitch and in-seat power.
Board smoothly
With your dedicated check-in area and priority boarding.
Business Class includes:
30kg of checked baggage*
In-flight entertainment
Blanket, pillow, comfort pack
No change fees
Business Max bundle
Still want more? The Business Max bundle gives you our most flexible fare. No need to worry about making changes, plus, the luxury of Business Class can also be enjoyed in our airport lounges, so you can relax from the moment you check in. Follow the links below to find out more about each of the extra inclusions:
- Qantas Points and Status Credits or Emirates Skywards Miles loyalty points for members of affiliated frequent flyer programs, or a Jetstar Flight Rewards voucher
- No change fees for all changes, including origin and destination (fare difference applies)
- Flight cancellation (fee applies)
- Lounge access at Qantas Club or partner lounges (where available)
Extra baggage
Both Business Class and Business Max Bundle passengers can purchase an extra 10kg of checked baggage – taking your total baggage allowance up to 40kg.
Be sure to view the terms and conditions and fare rules applicable to your flight, before making your purchase.*A separate handling fee applies for oversized items, see Oversized baggage for details.


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This is the time of year that we probably consume our greatest amount of cinnamon between the fall desserts, beverages and side dishes. Good news – we're doing ourselves a big favor because cinnamon is said to have a very positive effect on blood glucose levels. Consuming cinnamon helps to stabilize our blood sugar, which in turns helps keep our energy levels and moods stable. In addition, stable blood sugar levels help prevent us from overeating.
If you know someone suffering from diabetes, cinnamon is a top spice to include in their diet. I recently told my dad about this (he has type 2 diabetes) and he has been trying to incorporate cinnamon into his diet on a daily basis. I'm hoping we'll see an improvement soon if he keeps up with it!
Need another more reason to add cinnamon to your next meal? Cinnamon has one of the highest antioxidant levels of all herbs and spices. So with Thanksgiving right around the corner, don't hesitate to add some more cinnamon to those sweet potatoes – hopefully you'll be feeling less groggy and less full than usual by meal's end!


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Festo Dashboards provides you with process transparency and status information over the entire lifecycle of your system. You can see at a glance the asset data, specific information for preventive maintenance, diagnostic functions and errors in plain text. This makes process data analysis and troubleshooting easier.
Smartenance – the app for mobile digital maintenance management
Get digital. Now! The digital maintenance manager for production managers and system operators finally makes maintenance management paperless. Smartenance provides you with a clear schedule and evaluation for your system maintenance and offers a fast and easy transition to digital maintenance.
- Simple, clear operation thanks to clear structure and buttons
- Reciprocal checking by system operators and production managers provides greater reliability
- Faster processing via mobile, digital apps
The PC-based Festo Automation Suite software combines the parameterisation, programming and maintenance of Festo components in one program. It enables the entire drive package, from the mechanical system to the controller, to be commissioned. Perfect for making industrial automation simple, efficient and seamless.
Our multi-part static system presentation comprehensively shows
• how Festo products can be connected to and integrated in various fieldbus and Ethernet protocols around the world
• how the communication hierarchies are related to one another
• and which networking and installation concepts Festo supports: for fluid and motion control for factory and process automation (FA/PA)
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Posts Tagged 'Charles I'
Nottingham and Sue Moorcroft
Yesterday I spent the day in Nottingham in order to attend my lovely friend Sue Moorcroft's book launch for her latest novel – The Christmas Promise. (A fantastic read – kept me up till the early hours as I couldn't stop reading it!) Waterstones in Nottingham have a wonderful event space and we had a perfect evening, listening to a reading by Sue followed by a Q & A session. Sue's heroine is a milliner so she wore a fantastic little cocktail hat made specially for her and some of the rest of us wore hats too. And to fit in with the theme of the book, the events manager declared the Christmas season officially started at the shop!
While waiting for this evening event, I wandered round the city as I'd never been before. Being a history buff, my first destination was of course the castle where Charles I started the English Civil War by raising his royal standard on 22nd August 1642. Sadly though, there didn't seem to be much left of the castle he would have known as most of it was razed to the ground and another house built within the castle walls instead later on. (That, in turn, was badly damaged by fire during riots in the 1800s). I was disappointed to find so little mention of Charles and the war, mostly just a plaque put up by the Sealed Knot on the 350th anniversary of that August day and what I assumed was supposed to be a reference to Charles's children on a pub sign – 'The Royal Children'. (Whoever painted that had obviously never seen Van Dyck's portraits of the king's offspring!)
The view from the castle grounds was fantastic though – if a bit scary for those of us who don't like heights – and underneath were caves (which I didn't have a chance to look at this time). And there was plenty of shopping to be had in the city centre, including a shop with my name on it – perfect!


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Juliana Spahr
Juliana Spahr is a poet, critic, and editor. She is the recipient of the 2009 Hardison Poetry Prize awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library to honor a U.S. poet whose art and teaching demonstrate great imagination and daring. Her latest book is That Winter the Wolf Came. It is available from Commune Editions/AK Press.


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Entries/Start Lists | Live Results/Audio | Live Video
Current and former members of the Harvard and Radcliffe crews have arrived in Bled, Slovenia to compete at the 2011 World Rowing Championships Aug. 28-Sept. 4 on Lake Bled.
Harvard/Radcliffe athletes will be representing the United States and Canada, two of the 68 nations competing at the regatta, which also serves as the primary qualifier for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The six U.S. competitors are joined in Bled by Canada's Malcolm Howard '05, who returns to the men's eight following a stint as the national team's single sculler.
Howard and his Canadian boatmates will begin competition Sunday. Henrik Rummel '09 will be competing in the same event—but in a different heat—with the U.S. men's eight. Both countries will look to earn spots in the semifinals Aug. 31 and the A final Sept. 1.
Fifteen events will get underway with heats Sunday. The first up is the men's lightweight single, where Crimson sophomore Andrew Campbell, coached by Harvard lightweight head coach Charley Butt, will race for the United States in the opening heat. In contrast, fellow lightweights Austin Meyer and Will Newell '11 will take part in the last event to begin competition, the men's lightweight eight. The final for that event is the last of the regatta, on Sept. 4.
Caryn Davies '05 will compete in the women's pair, also beginning Sunday morning with finals coming Sept. 1. Esther Lofgren '08-09 will race in the U.S. women's eight, which is seeking its sixth straight world title.
Many of the Harvard/Radcliffe rowers are World Rowing Championships veterans, while others are new to the competition. Howard is racing in the regatta for the fifth time, having captured a world title in 2007, a year before winning gold with the Canadian eight at the Beijing Olympics.
Davies, also a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, has won world championships as a member of the U.S. women's eight (2002,'06, '07) and four (2003). Lofgren was a part of the winning U.S. eight last year and medaled in the women's four in 2006 and '09. Rummel won gold in the coxed pair in 2009 and finished fifth in the four last summer.
Campbell, Meyer and Newell are all competing at their first World Rowing Championships.


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Item #: 207154
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Activist speaks out about mock twitter account, rape, death threats and police inaction
By Caitlin Roper
Earlier this year, Germaine Greer argued that women now are worse off than ever, citing the proliferation of pornography and the level of harassment and abuse directed toward women on social media as evidence. I tend to agree.
For a feminist campaigner like myself, threats of violence and rape have become part of the territory. I am used to being called a bitch or a slut (or worse) by unidentified men online for expressing an opinion. I've been singled out by Men's Rights Activist group A Voice For Men after writing a piece on the media's bias against women. I am no longer surprised when I receive unwelcome sexual comments from men online about my body or to let me to know they are masturbating to my image. I am no longer shocked when I receive rape threats while campaigning against sexual violence. And no, the irony is not lost on me.
So it came as no huge surprise when I received rape threats this week for publically sharing a petition against rapist Ched Evans. I received tweets calling me "rape bait", "f*ck meat", a "bitter whore", "cum slut" who "likes it rough" and "spreads without thinking" and warning me to "start prepping my anus". While these comments would never be accepted in the offline world, women are expected to just 'deal with it' online.
However, this time I decided to go to the police when I found a copy of my twitter profile offering sex to men on the Internet. It was so close to identical it even fooled me, and I initially thought my account had been hacked. My profile picture had been sent to an online community sharing images of women for masturbation purposes. My twitter bio had been updated to include graphic descriptions of sex acts I would perform for men, inviting men to follow me, "the biggest slut in Australia". My website was changed from collectiveshout.org to a pornographic website. Various tweets were sent out in my name, asking men to "f*ck me" and claiming that I enjoyed being raped.
I was gripped with panic. There were so many thoughts running through my mind as I watched tweets going out in my name soliciting some men I knew, and others I didn't.
I reluctantly went to the police station. As many women know, abuse and threats against women online are not regarded as a priority. My colleague Talitha Stone received international media attention when she was targeted with thousands of rape and death threats after criticizing Tyler the Creator's songs. (See here, here and here). His lyrics include 'rape a pregnant bitch and call it a three-way'. Tyler's 1.7 million twitter followers went after her. One tweet to Talitha threatened to 'cut her tits off'. A student from a Melbourne Catholic boys school shared her home address with the angry mob. He was out by one street.
Local police sent Talitha home with a stack of cyber-safety pamphlets.
Another colleague went to the police after one man described how he intended to mutilate her body and dissolve it in acid. The police officer suggested that the internet was "not a very nice place" and maybe she should stay off it.
Yet another colleague had to explain to police, who thought she should just go offline forever (despite the fact that the vast majority of her work was done there) that it was actually an offence in the Commonwealth Criminal Code to use a carriage service (e.g. the internet) to make a threat. The police seemed unaware of this fact.
These threats are criminal. They are designed to erode any sense of safety and security and to keep women in our preferred place. As Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency observed, Elliot Rodger used the Internet to make threats preceding his violent killing spree. How many other men, including unstable ones, feel supported if not justified in their hateful attitudes by an online culture of misogyny?
When I reported the man who was pimping me out online, the officer at my local police station suggested, "Maybe you should use a more plain picture." As if my standard portrait shot was somehow 'asking for it'? From my experience, how I look is irrelevant. I've been called both "fat, ugly and bitter" and "f**ckable". Regardless of the headshots women use, men will target us if they feel so inclined.
Women and feminist campaigners in particular, are increasingly being targeted, abused and intimidated online. Caroline Criado Perez was pursued relentlessly for her campaign for more equal representation of women on bank notes. Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency continues to be attacked for her educational videos highlighting the sexist and one-dimensional depiction of women in video games.
There is a pattern- women call for better treatment of women, they are vilified by men on social media who perceive this as a threat and feel the need to silence their voices. They believe if they can make us fearful enough, we will stop doing our work and stop challenging systems that privilege their rights and interests over ours. They are wrong. We just get back to work.
The man who targeted me has been identified. His name is Nader, he is 25 and lives in California. He has been linked to at least eight different twitter accounts he uses to abuse women, including survivors of sex trafficking. In fact, the first rape threats he sent me came from the fake account he had created of yet another feminist campaigner he had been targeting.
He is so brazen about his incitement to rape me, so sure he is untouchable, he barely even tried to conceal his real identity. Unfortunately for him in the course of harassing countless women on twitter, he left a trail leading to his name, image, phone number, email address, Facebook page and pictures of him exposing his erect penis which he had previously circulated on one of his trolling accounts.
Copies of Nader's threats and his personal information have been supplied to the LAPD, to Penn State (listed as his school on social media) and to Australian police, to be referred to a California branch of the FBI. I am also aware of complaints against him from women in Sweden and the UK. This has not stopped Nader.
To their credit, Twitter acted quickly to suspend the fake account once I had verified my identity with photo ID. However, the victory is only short lived. Once an abusive account is suspended, there is nothing to stop the user simply signing up for a new account- immediately. Why has Twitter failed to shut these abusive accounts down permanently? What is stopping them from flagging the email addresses of users who continue to use their service as a means to threaten women?
What is Twitter's response to victims? Contact the police. What do the police say? Contact Twitter.
There is a common assumption among police, and perhaps the wider community, that if men are threatening women online the solution is for women to go offline.
"Why don't you just close down your account?" asked the officer taking my statement. I explained how I used twitter in the course of my work for a non-profit organisation to share our campaigns with a broader audience. She pressed further, "But why do you need to use it?" as if it was somehow unreasonable for me to believe I had as much right as anyone to access social media without threats.
My experience with the police illustrates widespread cultural attitudes that place the responsibility to prevent crimes of violence with victims instead of perpetrators. Just as campaigns to reduce sexual violence have traditionally focused on women, advising them how to 'not get raped' rather than calling on men to treat women with respect, in an online scenario, the onus is again on women to bear the burden of responsibility for men's abuse. What did we expect, thinking we could use social media and have an opinion? We kind of brought it on ourselves, didn't we?
Whether it is rape, domestic violence, abuse or online threats, telling victims to modify their behaviour is a fruitless endeavor- the power to prevent men's violence against women lies completely with (surprise!) men.
I have encountered too many men on twitter who dish out vile abuse and threaten rape, confident they are doing so with impunity, with a firm belief that they will never be held accountable for their crimes. That's been true, so far.
The silver lining is that I have had the privilege of connecting with strong, incredible women online. These women are dedicated to challenging attitudes and institutions that promote and profit from sexism, exploitation and men's violence against women, despite the emotional toll. (Believe me, there is a real emotional toll to doing this work.) These are the women who stand with me and other women time and again in the face of ugly threats and misogyny, bonded by our shared experiences of victimisation and our refusal to be silenced. Together we are unstoppable.
This is an extended version of an article which appeared in The Guardian last week.
Caitlin Roper is an activist and Campaigns Manager for grassroots campaigning movement Collective Shout: For a world free of sexploitation.
It started, ostensibly at least, with an online debate about Ched Evans – a British soccer player who escaped fame but found notoriety after his conviction for rape in 2012. Last month he was freed from jail. Evans, just 25, wants to play soccer again. To that end, he released a video professing his innocence and describing the incident as regrettable but "consensual" infidelity. An online petition opposing his reinstatement to the professional leagues attracted more than 150,000 signatures.
One of those signatures belonged to Caitlin Roper, a feminist activist based in Perth. Quickly, the debate inflamed the world wide web and became a conflagration of sexualised threats. Roper was targeted. "In a way, given the nature of my work, I'm somewhat used to abuse and threats from men online," she tells me. "You have to try and disconnect from all of it emotionally, you put on a brave face and get back to work. As the threats kept coming, though, I felt my anxiety levels rising. There's a sense of panic, and I think that's the point. These men think if they threaten us with violence then we will be forced to stop campaigning against the objectification of women. They want us to be scared."
Roper's aggressor established a fake Twitter account under her name. He adopted Roper's profile picture, and in the hour before it was suspended, published personalised obscenity. The following examples are graphic, but representative: "Hi I'm Caitlin Roper, as a professional prostitute…" and "I sell my wet panties #anal #porn" and "Hey!! It's me Caitlin, just wanted to let you know I'm a rape loving little whore". There are many more. From other accounts, the man harassed different women: "You're a fucking whore and a slut" and "Perhaps when one day a random man rapes you, you will rescind your ignorance." There are hundreds of messages like these. Read more


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Posts Tagged 'Automotive'
The Definitive Guide to Job Hunting 4: Understanding Agencies
It is true that a large proportion of jobs never get on the open market. Organisations will normally explore many internal sources first, before placing jobs with agencies. Using a recruitment consultant to fill a job is an expensive strategy for any hiring operation.
However, the recruitment industry operates on a hugely diversified scale and the range of services on offer to employers means that it is quicker and easier to get a vacancy filled rather than do it internally. Many large corporate employers, who have high staff numbers and many vacancies, have in some cases outsourced ALL their recruitment process to external agencies.
Annually, the recruitment industry is worth about £22bn in the UK. It is a substantial and robust contributor to the UK economy. Realistically, every job seeker is likely to engage with a recruitment consultant during a job search. £22bn in fees represents a huge number of temporary, contract and permanent jobs being placed through agencies. Knowing how to deal with them, and what to expect from them, is crucial to reduce frustration and increase the likelihood of finding that desired job offer.
1. Who pays the fee?
In the UK, it is illegal to charge job seekers for finding jobs. Recruitment agencies, as all businesses, are commercial enterprises and require turnover to be continually successful. The fee is paid by the recruiting employer.
This focuses the relationship between recruiter and client (Fee payer). A different dynamic exists between recruiter and candidate (Job applicant).
The agency must always have the best interest of the client in mind, because that is were the transactional value is.
The candidate's best interest is represented by the fact that ultimately, there is a job for everyone and the agency, through their relationship with the fee paying employer, is a catalyst to achieve this objective.
2. What is the client paying for?
Selling people is tantamount to slavery. The agency does not own the skills and experience of the candidate, and for this reason has no business offering it for sale. In fact, this is a fact that many recruitment agencies themselves don't always understand! This is why the Gangmasters Act was brought to life a few years ago – To protect workers from abusive agency practises.
During a recruitment process, the recruiting employer pays for a service that provides them with a candidate pool. Sometimes, the candidate pool is provided by only one agency, but more commonly the service is divided between several agencies and the fee is only paid when a successful introduction is made, and the introducing agency walks away with the spoils.
3. It is a highly competitive business environment
The open agency market is highly competitive because in a "No solution, no fee" environment, it is crucial to win the fee for obvious commercial reasons.
This has developed a high focus on volumes in recruitment, and in most agencies consultants are targeted on a daily basis to deliver KPI's related to volume. The fact is that, the more activity that is put out, the higher the likelihood of achieving a win.
I don't personally agree with this form of recruitment, as I believe it to be detrimental to all parties involved. However, regardless of the seniority of the position being recruited or whether it is for a contract or permanent placement: The current recruitment market is driven mostly by volume.
For candidates, the unfortunate fact is that their CV often becomes a means to an end. The end is most certainly to the candidate's interest: After all, getting the job is the primary objective. But expecting an agency to work solely on a single candidate's behalf is unrealistic.
4. But its not all about numbers
At the risk of painting a very negative picture, I have to point out that not all recruiter / client relationships are based on volumes and competition. The industry has evolved to a point where recruiting clients have a wide range of choice. People are very important in the recruitment process, and many clients prefer to use the same agency or consultant over and over again because they have established a communicative business relationship. Many long standing business relationships exist where the consultant develops a deep and detailed knowledge of the recruiting business, and is in a position to offer a truly consultative service to both client and candidate.
Sometimes, for difficult to fill or senior roles, clients will retain the services of a recruitment specialist by paying a proportion of the fee upfront. In this case there is no competition from external sources, and the agency will actively search the market to find the most appropriate skills for the client.
These two scenarios are far more constructive for the candidate as information passes freely due to the limited volumes involved.
5. So what about the job applicant?
Finding a new job is like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Regard agencies as the magnets that would attract the needle. After all, this is what potential employers do when the engage agencies. The more magnets you have working on your behalf, the more needles you will find.
Of course, not every job you are offered will be appropriate and you should be entirely in control of the process. Remember, you own your skills, experience and personal information. You should never be placed under any obligation, asked to pay a fee for job seeking services in the UK, or have your details sent anywhere without your express permission.
Without candidates, recruitment agencies can not exist. Without agencies, it will take a lot longer to find a job. It is in a candidate's interest to develop good relationships with recruitment agencies but is equally important to understand what to expect.
Ask the agency how competitive a particular process is: If you know how many other agencies are involved, you know what to expect. If it is a widely assigned role, the likelihood of success decreases. If it is a retained or exclusive arrangement, then you know you will have better communication and a more controlled process.
Use this understanding to your advantage, and you will have a far more positive job seeking experience. Expecting anything different will leave you feeling frustrated.
Definitive Guide to #Job Hunting: Illegal #Interview Questions
Most job seekers and very often, interviewers have no idea what an Illegal Interview Question sounds like.
Interviews are discussions and most questions are asked sincerely in an attempt to make conversation and to find out more about the interviewee. But often, certain questions might also be asked with a view to discriminate or to exclude a person from a role. Whether intentional or not, the law addresses certain particular areas and ignorance is not an excuse. My suggestion would be that both interviewers and interviewees are sensitive to these and deal with them constructively to avoid potential litigation, and to ensure an objective recruitment process.
Here are a few examples of common stonkers that could potentially cause litigation on grounds of discrimination:
1. Age
- How old are you?
- When were you born?
- When did you graduate / complete high school?
- Confirming that you are the appropriate age for the required hours or working conditions (Minimum wage and Working Time Directive)
- Are you British?
- Are your parents or spouse citizens?
- Are you, your parents or your spouse naturalized or British born?
- If you are not a British citizen, do you have the legal right to remain permanently in the UK?
- What is your visa status (if no to the previous question).
- Are you able to provide proof of employment eligibility?
3.Criminal Record
- Have you ever been arrested?
- Have you ever spent a night in jail?
- Do you have a record?
- Do you have any unspent convictions? (A rigourous set of rules apply to the declaration of spent convictions, and there are certain jobs that are excluded and where declaration of all convictions are compulsory.)
- Doing a CRB check
- Do you have any disabilities?
- What's your medical history?
- How does your condition affect your abilities?
- Can you perform the specific duties of the job?
- What reasonable adjustments must be made to assist you in fulfilling your duties?
5.Marital status or Civil partnership
- Questions concerning spouse, or spouse's employment, salary, arrangements, or dependents.
- Are you married, divorced, separated, engaged, widowed, etc?
- Is this your maiden or married name?
- How will your spouse feel about the amount of time you will be traveling if you get this job?
- Are you planning to have children?
- Can you work overtime?
- Can you meet specified work schedules?
6.National Origin
- What is your nationality?
- Where were you born?
- Where are your parents from?
- What's your heritage?
- What is your mother tongue?
- Verifying legal work visa status to verify eligibility for employment – Are you eligible for employment here?
- What languages do you speak, read or write fluently?
- How many kids do you have?
- Do you plan to have children?
- How old are your children?
- Are you pregnant?
- How old are you? (To a woman between age 25 to 40, which is the average childbearing age in the UK)
- After hiring, asking for dependent information on tax and insurance forms.
- What race are you?
- Are you a member of a minority group?
- None
9.Religion or Belief
- What is your religious affiliation?
- Which religious holidays will you be taking off from work?
- Do you attend church regularly?
- "Our uniform excludes turbans" or anything else that relates tothis subject.
- Can you work on Saturdays? (If relevant to the job)
10.Sex or Sexual Orientation
- What are your plans to have children in the future?
- Are you gay?
- Will you be strong / tall / fit enough to do the same tasks as the men?
Appropriate: None
Definitive guide to Job Hunting: When did you last Google yourself?
So what are the pitfalls?
1. Inappropriate Pictures
Pictures of you in full party mode, chugging it down or falling over in the gutter might be a laugh to your friends. But that is NOT what you want a prospective employer to see! Unless you make sure that your security settings are watertight, especially on Facebook, simply don't put them online.
2. Complaining About Your Current Job
You've no doubt done this at least once. It could be a full note about how much you hate your office, or how incompetent your boss is, or it could be as innocent as a status update about how your coworker always shows up late. While everyone complains about work sometimes, doing so in a public forum where it could be found by others is not the best career move. Use this measure: If you won't say it out loud in front of your boss or colleagues, then don't post it online for the world to see.
3. Posting Conflicting Personal facts
Disparities will make you look at worst like a liar, and at best careless. Make sure that you are honest about your background and qualifications, and support this with the information you post online. Don't over – or under state your experience, job title or qualifications. Inconsistencies mean a high risk factor to potential employers and they are likely to simply avoid it by cutting you from the list.
4. Statuses You Wouldn't Want Your Boss to See
Statuses that imply you are unreliable, deceitful, and basically anything that doesn't make you look as professional as you'd like, can seriously undermine your chances of landing a new job. We have all heard of people losing jobs because of inappropriate statuses like the Receptionist who posted "I'm bored" during working hours. Worse even, are things like "Planning to call in sick tomorrow" or "I hate the time this project is taking". It doesn't only put your current job at risk, but future employers are most likely to avoid you too.
Manage your online profile
You can manage how you are viewed online by simply checking yourself out from time to time. If you see something that is risky, even if it was posted by someone else, just get it changed. The future investment will be worthwhile!
The Definitive Guide to Job Hunting 5: Get the Best out of Agencies
You never know what you are going to find when you set out on a path to find a new job. Allow the agencies to work with your data to give you the widest possible exposure but don't expect individual treatment until you embark on a recruitment process (I.e. go for interview). Until then, your CV is purely a number in a huge pool of candidates and it's the agency's task to match it to potential opportunities.
1. The Employment Agencies Act
More than one agency might be working on the same brief, so you might be matched to the same job more than once. Always go with the agency who tells you about the job first. According to the Employment Agencies Act, your CV should only be put forward to jobs that you are told about. In effect, you have to give your permission for your CV to be submitted. You must be told about the job first. Often, because it's competitive, Agencies will take a flyer at sending your CV in without speaking to you first. If this submission turns into an interview in competition with an agency that actually played the game properly and spoke to you first, thereby losing out time wise to the more aggressive agency, your judgement will be crucial to how the agencies will deal with you in future. If you know what your rights are, you can protect your own position whilst keeping both agencies on side.
2. Don't carpet bomb your CV
Because of the high unemployment rates, agencies literally get thousands of online job applications every day. It takes a lot of time to sift through these, and the associated cost of registering new CV's and posting them to databases can become very high. For the recruiter, it can be desperately frustrating to get the same CV day after day after day; applying to every totally unsuitable role on the Internet and creating spam in already overfull Inboxes. You can help by reading the ads before you apply, making sure the job is suitable for you first. Bear in mind that agencies will readvertise jobs until an offer is made. Keep a record for yourself: If you have already applied to a particular job, don't send your CV in again. If you do, it creates an impression of desperation that might keep you out of the selected shortlist.
3. Engage personally
If an agency to which you have already applied is advertising a job that interests you, why not give them a call? Your CV is already on file; they can look it up quickly and give you feedback there and then. You save them having to look at yet another ad response, you get the opportunity to talk to a human being and create a positive impression for yourself, and you might even be reinforcing your suitability for the role.
4. But don't pester
Rest assured: Because an agency will get a fee if they place you, they are unlikely to forget about you. Once your CV is on their database it will be exposed to every single search they do. If you are remotely suitable, they will be in contact to talk to you about the job. If you follow-up daily or weekly, you become the "candidate from hell", to be avoided at all cost because too many pointless phone calls waste time. Of course you are urgently looking for a job, but remember that the agency only has limited control over the process and they don't get access to every job in the country. Use the time you spend on making these calls more productively: Engage with a range of agencies.
5. Choose your representatives carefully
It is good for every job seeker to be registered with as many agencies as possible to give you the broadest exposure. However, it is also a good idea to choose 4 or 5 specialist agencies that operate in your specific field. They are likely to get more exclusive opportunities specific to your search. Develop relationships by engaging in intelligent, quick phone calls and e-mails. These are the agencies that are likely to work with your details if they believe you are a strong candidate, utilising their networks to create opportunities were other agencies will only respond to existing requirements. But remember: Because they work in the same sector, these agencies are in competition with each other. Be careful about giving blanket permission about submissions to avoid conflicts of interest.
6. Return agency calls!
A recruiter will call you if there is something immediate and specific on offer. If you don't return the call, or take weeks to do so, you rob yourself of an opportunity. You also create the impression that you are not interested. The same goes for e-mails asking you to make contact about specific jobs. Even if it is just to say " No thanks", the opportunity to engage gives you a chance to further establish your credibility as a top calibre candidate. Make sure the phone numbers on your CV or agency record is up to date so that you can respond to urgent messages quickly.
Guide to #Job Hunting 15: The power of preparation for #interviews
It is impossible to stress how important it is to prepare for interviews!
On 2 occasions during this past week, different clients have given me similar feedback: "If only John / Jane lived up to the expectations raised in their CV! They knew nothing of our company (In one case didn't even realise the company had no manufacturing facility in the UK!), didn't know what our products or markets were and gave weak examples to support the experience claimed in their CV."
The clients were left disappointed, having had their time wasted. Sadly, this also reflected on my own service delivery, and I was disappointed too because I spend time with all my candidates before interview to give them all the information I know about the company and role. All they have to do is build on the bricks I have already given them.
However, I've also heard from a client how impressed they were with the depth of research an interviewee had done, being able to bring up and discuss relevant business issues outside of his CV that proved his abilities. This set him apart from being a borderline "No" based on his CV, to a resounding "Yes!" based on his research and ability to deliver it concisely.
With so much competition for jobs and the tight current employment market, it still amazes me that candidates waste the interview opportunity. The hiring client wants you to do well; he's already bought into your CV by spending his valuable time to see you. Why not grab the opportunity to amaze him even further with your information-finding skills and interest in their organisation?
Especially in sales or commercial jobs, interview preparation is crucial. A good sales person will know his customers and competition, understand his product's routes to market, the issues that affect pricing and the supply chain. By proving at interview that you have the ability and knowledge to find this information, and use it to position your own objectives and abilities, you show that you have the natural traits of a good sales person on top of the information you provide in the CV. Of course, not preparing sufficiently proves the opposite and you will get short shrift from line managers who have achieved their own positions through doing exactly the same thing properly.
#Recruitment and the Data Protection Act – Did you know this?
Today, I received my renewal notice from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Because I last paid this a year ago, it has been out of mind for a while. Best practice with candidate details mean that I naturally store everything on a secure database, and that I don't send candidate details anywhere without their express permission. The same goes for client information: All data is stored on my database, safe from prying eyes. And I use it with great care and consideration.
I don't really think about it – It's an internal process that has simply become part of my daily working practices. But this renewal notification has drawn my mind to it again, and I wonder how many candidates and clients are aware of it?
To quote from the ICO's leaflet: "The Data Protection Act 1998 places obligations on organisations that use personal information and gives individuals certain rights … every organisation (data controller) the process personal information (data) must notify the Information Commissioner's Office …. Failure to notify is a criminal offence."
There are 8 data protection principles embodied in the Act. Summarised, they require that data shall be:
1. fairly and lawfully processed;
2. processed for limited purposes;
3. adequate, relevant and not excessive;
4. accurate;
5. not kept longer than necessary
6. processed in accordance with the data subjects' rights;
7. secure; and
8. not transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area without adequate protection.
Before you next engage with a recruitment agency, it may be worth asking the following questions:
- Is your recruitment agency registered with the ICO, or are they contravening the Data Protection Act?
- Do you know what they are doing with your personal data, how it is stored and how secure it is?
- Do you give permission every time your CV is sent out somewhere?
If they are not registered, you are vulnerable. Food for thought, methinks!
Discrimination – The recruitment black hole
Unemployment rates are at an all-time low. And the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reports that more private firms are planning to recruit even more staff in 2015 than last year.
Any company thinking of recruiting in the near future should be aware that changes to various parts of discrimination law in the past five years makes it an offence not only to discriminate against employees, but people who are interviewed for jobs. In fact discrimination law applies to every part of the recruitment process from job advertisement through to candidate selection to interview and offer/rejection.
This responsibility does not only fall to the HR department: Every person involved in the recruitment process are compelled to comply with the legal requirements to avoid discrimination and potential litigation.
It is illegal to discriminate against age, gender, pregnancy, married or civil partner status, colour, race, nationality, ethnic origins and national origins, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability. Each of these areas is covered by a separate section of legislation and it is very easy to fall foul of the law by using wording, treatment or documentation that is contrary to the legal requirements.
Its is also important to note that not intending to discriminate is not an excuse in the eyes of the law.
Hiring employers are recommended to document the recruitment process to ensure objective, consistent and structured decision-making. This applies equally to recruitment agencies. Also, an employer must always be able to justify their decision in recruiting a particular person in case of an application to an employment tribunal. If the issue reached a tribunal, you would have to provide evidence showing how and why you reached your decision, and tribunals place more weight on documented evidence than on oral witness. Please note that in some cases, it is not even necessary for the candidate to have applied for the job in order to be discriminated against – Job ads that hint at or contain potentially discriminatory or exclusionary text will stand up in a court of law.
Best practice
It is very important to have an equality policy in place, and to feed this through all the steps of the recruitment process:
- Job advertisement. It is unlawful for a job advertisement to specify that the applicant must be of a particular age, gender, race, etc – unless being of that gender, race, etc is a genuine occupational requirement/qualification.* (Words like young, mother language, etc. can be construed as potentially discriminatory)
- Job specification. Identify the qualifications, skills and experience required for the job, eg NVQ level or equivalent, customer handling with experience of difficult situations. Anything that is not specific to the job should be excluded.
- Person specification. Identify the personal qualities required for the job, eg focus, persistence, determination. You can set out any genuine occupational requirements or qualifications, but do not ask for any that are unrelated to the job. For example it would be discriminatory to ask for good written English, where this was not required to do the job.
- Application forms. Only ask for the minimum of personal details. However, there may be certain information you need to ask for in order to avoid discrimination during the selection process. For example, you should ask applicants to indicate if they have any special requirements should they be shortlisted for interview, but asking for their date of birth or marital status might be potentially discriminatory.
Structured process
A well-structured process actually aids decision-making and delivers an objective hiring decision. It is important to document each step:
- Short list creation. You should document how the choice was made in accordance with the objective criteria listed in the job and person descriptions.
- Interview notes. Keep a record of how the interviewees performed in relation to questions based on the objective criteria. When interviewing people for a job there are certain questions you should not ask, such as whether a candidate is married, is a partner in a same-sex civil partnership or whether they have plans to have children.
- Selection decision. Note down how the successful candidate was selected in relation to the objective criteria.
Dealing with Recruitment Agencies
How does your agency respond to the implications of discrimination in recruitment? Recruiters with up to date professional qualifications are likely to be aware of the requirements of legislation pertaining to the recruitment process. If they don't the implications for client and candidate alike can be severe.


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Alternatively known as Libanomancy.
The art and practice of divination by interpreting the patterns of smoke from incense, and its odor as well.
In this branch of Pyromancy, the air in the area must be still while the casting takes place, and prophetic observations are taken from how slow or fast the incense burns, as well as the formations and directions taken by the smoke.
Libanomancy was employed specially in times of war and conflict. Interpretation of smoke patterns were done after sprinkling the incense into the fire. Ancient Babylonian divination texts offer us a glimpse into Libanomancy interpretation:
"If the flame produces lots of smoke, it is a sign that your army will be soundly defeated; if the smoke drifted to the right, you will prevail over your adversary; if the smoke drifted to the left, your adversary will prevail over you; if the smoke goes to the east and does not go towards the crotch of the diviner, downfall for your adversary; if the smoke goes towards the crotch of the diviner and does not go to the east, your adversary prevails; if the smoke goes equally in all directions, equal weapons or stalemate; if the smoke clustered, a sign of success or profit; if the smoke were fragmented, defeat or financial loss; if the smoke was cleft in two, madness; if the smoke was cut off, hard times; if the smoke gathers like a date-palm, is thin and/or flows downward, hardship will seize the person or army; if the smoke after a while pushes through and gets out, hard times will come to an end; if the smoke looks like the brickbasket of Šamaš, disease is imminent."
Libranomancy is a very ancient form of divination, dating back to pre-Christian times. Incense was, and still is, an essential tool in the occult arts, including divination. Amongst its other uses are the invocation of spirits, and the promotion of states of meditation.
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Sexiest Man Alive 2010 Articles
Sexiest Man Alive 2010 handicapping and predictions.
George Clooney's SMA Chances
This was prewritten yesterday but I had prewritten so much I forgot to post it. Which in itself should be an argument against George Clooney. Like would I have forgotten about George Clooney 3 years ago? Anyway, here are George's pros and cons. Arguments for: It's George Clooney. Full Story
Jon Hamm vs Brad Pitt
Arguments for Jon Hamm: - Sigh. He's perfect. He really really is. - Don Draper, in short time, has become a television icon. He and Don Draper are inextricably linked. And Don Draper is a Dude. Dudes approve of Don Jon Draper Hamm. - There's the tv thing, but there's also been a well planned foray into film, complemented by a sense of humour that is so engaging and charming and so silly, he's hitting every single checkbox for sexy across all age groups - Blemish-free. Full Story
Colin Firth
Arguments for: - His performance in The King's Speech should earn him another Oscar nomination, making it two years in a row. And the timing was similar for Hugh Jackman two years ago like this too, as Australia was just about to open wide when the SMA was announced. - He's Mr Darcy AND Mark Darcy, he's Love Actually, there's an undeniable widespread affection that women feel for Colin Firth very closely associated with how they felt when they watched those movies, and these movies are among all time favourites. Full Story
Robert Downey Jr
Arguments for: - He now fronts two blockbuster franchises (Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes) and makes hit comedies and will get to work soon on The Avengers. RDJ is now one of the most profitable stars in Hollywood. So if it's a popularity contest, well, he's pretty popular. - Clearly then he's (mostly) forgiven for his past. Full Story
Denzel Washington
Arguments for: - He started the year with The Book of Eli, he's ending it with Unstoppable. After all these years, Denzel is still selling tickets.... - At the movies, and also on Broadway. He just won a Tony Award. You can't argue that this man is a winner - He is still as handsome and as elegant and distinguished as ever. Full Story
Leonardo DiCaprio
Arguments for: - Inception, Shutter Island... this has been a Major Year and he's already a Major Star. His professional track record is ridiculously impressive. - Somehow, even after Titanic, people take him seriously now. Very seriously. He is as A as A List gets. - I think he looks squidgy around the face. Full Story
Jake Gyllenhaal
Arguments for: - He's adorable. (I'm biased, obviously.) But those eyes, and that smile, and the body... it's all goodness and very American. - He's selling a movie right now. A movie that supposed to be a crowd pleaser. A movie that will prove to you when you see it that he is indeed a romantic leading man. Full Story
Justin Timberlake
Arguments for: - He grew up before their eyes. He is the Mickey Mouse pop star who has sold millions of records, with songs we can all sing along to, who finally starred this year in a hit movie. Justin is not a failure. - Unlike many of his child star peers, he has not f-cked up. He did not marry Kevin Federline. Full Story
Johnny Depp
Arguments for: - It's Johnny Depp. Please don't make me list all the reasons why. It's Johnny Depp. - He's about to open a new film. It's called The Tourist. - In a popularity contest, Johnny Depp beats almost everyone. And with the 25th SMA anniversary in mind, he is the choice for the democracy. Full Story
Ryan Reynolds
Arguments for: - It's been a great year. He is suddenly the most versatile actor in Hollywood: successful at romantic comedies, earning critical acclaim for his indie work in Buried, soon to be The Green Lantern, with a crowd-pleasing appearance at Comic-Con to placate all the geeks, and possessing enough man cred to have studio approval for two projects lined up with both Denzel Washington and Bradley Cooper. Full Story
Will Smith
Arguments for: - Will is a major, major power player. He is always up for consideration. And he has NEVER been the Sexiest Man Alive, despite having the most impressive box office records of anyone in the business. This is a major oversight. - The Karate Kid was one of the biggest surprise hits of the year. Full Story


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Kiteboarding Scenario #9 - Would you do this, if not, why not?
You've been kiting for about a year mainly inland. You go to the coast, travel past calmer more popular inland venues and head to the beach. Conditions are nuking, real uneven winds gusting up to 35, perhaps into the low 40 mph range with lulls to around 20 mph. There is considerable wind shadow from coastal hills upwind making the wind uneven. The ocean is a ragged mess with around 10 ft. real powerful swells. There are also rip currents, with the air and water in the 50's F. All you have is 10 m flat kite.
This is your first time kiting on the ocean in such extreme conditions.
Would you go kiting there? If not, why not?