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Monday, February 11, 2013
Global cooling hits Moscow
White-out in Moscow as the Russian capital endures its snowiest winter in a century
The east coast of America awoke to a thick blanket of snow today in the aftermath of a furious winter storm that battered the region from Maine to New York.
Relentless snowfall and hurricane-force winds swept the Northeast overnight, forcing airports to ground flights and leaving drivers stranded as they abandoned their cars on impassable highways.
But these images show how the hardy residents of Russia's capital have been enduring similar conditions for months, with Moscow in the midst of its snowiest winter in a century.
With more than 85 inches of snowfall recorded so far, this winter is the snowiest Moscow has seen in a hundred years, according to a report on foreignpolicy.com.
According to Moscow's deputy mayor for residential issues the snow in the city this year has already reached one and a half times 'the climactic norm'.
We're up against extreme dumbness
Have we finally discovered where the "dumb blonde" concept comes from?
CNN anchor Deb Feyerick asked Saturday afternoon if an approaching asteroid, which will pass by Earth on February 15, "is an example of, perhaps, global warming?"
Moments earlier, before an ad break, she segued from the Northeast blizzard to a segment with Bill Nye "the science guy," by pointing to global warming: "Every time we see a storm like this lately, the first question to pop into a lot of people's minds is whether or not global warming is to blame? I'll talk to Bill Nye, 'the science guy,' about devastating storms and climate change."
She never got to that question in the subsequent interview at about 3:25 PM EST during CNN Newsoom, instead transitioning from a snowfall update: "Talk about something else that's falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What's coming our way? Is this an effect of, perhaps, of global warming or is this just some meteoric occasion?"
Nye resisted confirming her hypothesis.
Warmists know they're losing
If you play team sports, or even just watch them, there's very often a moment in the struggle between the opposing teams, when one of them breaks. Sometimes it's sparked by a single incident but more usually, it's an acceptance by the whole group that they're going to lose. The opposition are simply too good. It's a moment of gestalt realisation, not so much them giving up but more like them accepting that they're going to lose. It's subtle, synchronised and solid as a concrete block hitting you right between the eyes. When it occurs, no team bounces back from it....
Whatever unit cohesion they once had is now gone. They're no longer working together. People are just running in circles. They even start to fight each other. The blame game kicks off, even before the game itself has finished. It's all your fault. No, it ain't, it's your's. I always said, we should never play this formation. Sorry, when'd you say that? Piss off. Who the f*ck are you anyway?
They start throwing each other to the wolves before they've even got off the pitch. All composure has been lost and there's not a shred of dignity to the thing. Even as a winner, it leaves a bad taste.
Since the turn of the year, I get a definite sense that us climate guerillas are up against a team who know they're going to lose. It's an intuition but a strong one. All the signs are there.
They're like a bad losing team and you can see the former supporters distancing themselves or just plain outright bailing in realtime. It's as if they don't want to be the last girl to leave the party, so there's a quiet but indecently increasing stampede for the exit doors. Even the bemused old geezers like Lovelock know which way the flatulence is blowing. No smoking please.
People are edging towards the exit.
The worst and most humiliating indicator of that change is the tenor of the skeptic blogs. There's been a subtle shift. Instead of doing the usual mentat deconstruction of climate papers, they're doing humour. There's nothing much left to hit so they're having a bit of fun. They're relaxing, having a larf really.
Finally, it's rest and relaxation time. As R&R goes, they have very definitely earned that, after so many years of brutal effort assaulting each of those islands, one after another. They're veterans, who've taken too many places like Peleliu and Okinawa and have a growing sense of the end of the war.
Sure, it'll drag on but we own them. At this stage in the game, we're just running down the clock.
Greens Now Stunned/Stumped By The Massive Environmental Damage From Climate Policies
Last week Austrian Broadcasting network ORF aired the controversial new film "Climate Crimes" in German.
Having seen the film in its entirety for the first time, I was truly horrified by the scale of the environmental destruction and mayhem brought on by the recent climate protection movement. It is truly madness at a whole new level and dimension. If you have the chance to see the documentary, then do so. You'll be shaking your head throughout the film.
Indeed the level of destruction with respect to loss of eco-systems, biodiversity, erosion, etc. brought on by the "green economy" is far beyond anything man-made climate change was ever fantasized of causing by the year 2100. The current damage caused by the "green economy" is real, and it's happening here and right now. Worse, it's all taking place with the official green stamp of approval.
In the film, environmental economist Nico Paech says: "Climate protection as it is practiced now is throwing the baby out with the bath water."
The green economy, intended to rescue the climate from a man-made climate catastrophe in a computer, is in reality systematically accelerating the wide-scale destruction of the environment today by at least a factor of ten.
Many greens are having their eyes opened for the first time, and are now grudgingly admitting that something has gone terribly awry. Wiping out the Earth's eco-system to rescue the climate is not what they had in mind.
Yet they still refuse to acknowledge that they've erred with the climate science, and that all the destruction was unnecessary.
They still insist the computerized catastrophe is real, approaching fast, and that we need to act rapidly. The only thing they're admitting is that the "green energy" sources of hydro-power and biofuel are no longer options. In their view the human race is now in a dilemma because so many sources of energy must never be used. There's no painless way out.
After showing the Climate Crimes documentary, ORF held a discussion round. The theme of the discussion round was what needs to be done to get out of the (imagined) energy dilemma?
Four experts joined moderator Michael Hofer were Kurt Remele (ethics and theology expert), Angela Köppl (economics expert in the field of environmental economics, energy and climate protection and Angela Kallhoff (philosophy). The other was co-author of Die kalte Sonne, geologist Sebastian Lüning. Clearly the discussion was not to focus on climate science. For moderator Hofer and the 3 other guests, the science is settled in their view, and there was no need to discuss it. Thus the discussion focused on environmental ethics and man's responsibilities.
Near the end of the discussion round, moderator Hofer asked each guest to tell us what has to be done to get out of the environmental dilemma. The three greenies were more or less unanimous, telling the audience that we will have to change our behaviour, get away from the model of growth, expand public transportation, consume less, and to even eat less meat.
Lüning, the only guest with a different opinion, said that it was necessary to get back to science and real environmental protection. In Lüning's view, the discussion had been taken over by extreme elements on both sides, and that it had to get back to the center. He also encouraged more critical thinking, and that we not immediately believe someone just because they have a doctor title.
Earlier in the discussion round, Lüning commented that there was too much fear-mongering by a number of opportunistic parties, for example re-insurers. Lüning said that the huge environmental backfire we've seen in the green movement so far should say something about the science.
Lüning also reminded the other guests and Hofer that climate science is not settled, and cited a recent study showing soot was a far greater factor in climate than previously thought.
He also pointed out that much more could be done locally and regionally with far less money, and with a far greater impact, than to try to solve the globe's problems by tweaking a single trace gas. Lüning said: "There are lots of high impact things that can be done for relatively little money."
An eminent naturalist becoming increasingly strange in his dotage
No, David Attenborough: Africa hasn't warmed by 3.5 degrees C in two decades
It's not often one looks to the Guardian's environment pages for an incisive and thorough critique of green propagandising. But hats off – really – to Leo Hickman for this ruthless deconstruction of an erroneous claim made by David Attenborough on his latest BBC nature documentary that in the last twenty years Africa has warmed by 3.5 degrees C.
3.5 degrees C in two decades? That would indeed be a remarkable temperature rise in anybody's money. (Remember, since 1850 global mean temperatures have risen by about 0.8 degrees C – and we're supposed to find that worrying and significant). Which is why, you might have thought, the BBC would have spotted so obvious an error and removed it before the programme went out.
To his credit, this troubled Leo Hickman, too.
"I'd never heard this arresting claim before. If that rate of temperature rise continued over, say, a century, then those parts of Africa would see a deathly rise of 17.5C?! Could that claim really be true?"
So began his wild goose chase to track down the source of the BBC's factoid. As you'll see from his superb piece he never got a terribly satisfactory answer.
"I was told that it came from a report published in 2006 by the "Working Group on Climate Change". The full title of the report was "Africa – Up in Smoke 2: The second report on Africa and global warming from the Working Group on Climate Change and Development" and it was "written and compiled" by Oxfam and the New Economics Foundation, with the support of a wide range of environmental and development NGOs such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF, Cafod and the Institute of Development Studies."
This, in turn, takes him to a report produced by Christian Aid; and thence to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia – which has a stab at citing a "peer-reviewed" article in Nature, which doesn't support the claim made in the programme either.
What's rather touching about this is that Hickman is so surprised. Those of us who follow Donna Laframboise's research, for example, will have long been wearily familiar with the extent to which the IPCC's supposedly authoritative reports depend on "grey literature" – ie propaganda – produced by activists at organisations like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Cafod, etc.
Hickman writes:
"Personally, I find it bizarre – and frustrating – that an otherwise exemplary series, which took years to film, has been tainted – in my mind, at least – by such a sloppy piece of research. Why rely primarily on a seven-year-old report published by an NGO? Why not just directly ask climatologists who would have the latest available data to hand? And how did the BBC's researchers even come across such an obscure fact? You get the sense they simply Googled "Africa temperature rise" and went for the first thing they found."
I agree. But it's so much nicer – and frankly more damning – when instead of my saying it comes from someone on the other side.
Three recent reports below
Leftist leader against carbon tax
WESTERN Australia's Labor leader Mark McGowan has distanced himself from Prime Minister Julia Gillard by saying he opposes the carbon tax ahead of next month's state election.
But Mr McGowan says he does support an emissions trading scheme.
A Newspoll commissioned by The Australian newspaper shows voters find Mr McGowan likable and caring but most think Premier Colin Barnett is a better economic manager.
The poll, published on Monday, shows 54 per cent of voters believe Mr Barnett is more capable of handling the state's economy, compared to 33 per cent support for Mr McGowan.
But the leaders are tied at 81 per cent when it comes to having a vision for the state.
Responding to the poll, Mr McGowan said he opposed a carbon tax but was in favour of an emissions trading scheme, and he would support the mining tax only if WA got back the exact share it put in.
"We see Western Australia as being more than just mining, whilst acknowledging the importance of mining," he told News Ltd.
Newspoll has pointed to a landslide election win for the WA Liberals on March 9, putting it ahead of Labor 57 to 43 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Australian Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt says Mr McGowan's comments show why Labor cannot be trusted on the environment.
He worries Labor could be "opening the door" for its MPs to vote against existing climate change law if it loses the September 14 federal election.
"Is this the first signal that WA federal MPs might not vote to keep this package," Mr Bandt asked reporters in Canberra.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese defended Mr McGowan's stance.
"I notice that he also said that he supported an emissions trading scheme," he told Sky News.
"Of course what we have is a fixed price on carbon evolving into an emissions trading scheme."
Mr Albanese talked up support in WA for Labor, citing big federally-funded infrastructure projects such as the Great Eastern Highway, Perth CityLink project and Gateway project.
Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella said Mr McGowan knew Australians were hurting from increased costs of living because of the carbon tax.
Climate boffins dine out on $1740 taxpayer dollars
A DOZEN Climate Change authority executives dining out at a posh Italian restaurant to get to know each other better left tax-payers with an almost $2000 bill.
The dinner was held so the executives of the outfit created in July to review and make recommendations about the carbon tax and other federal government green schemes could meet in "an informal setting" to better their "collective decision making" capacity.
Executives dined at swish Melbourne eatery The Italian Restaurant and Bar on a $135-a-head menu of New Zealand king salmon, calamari, caprese salad, southern supreme beef, gnocchi with oyster mushroom and vanilla panna cotta with dark chocolate.
The dinner, which the authority planned to spend $1620 on but receipts show a cost of $1740, on November 20 last year was the night before a major board meeting.
"It is bad enough that Labor established a raft of new bureaucracies to manage its carbon tax but now it seems that those bureaucracies are literally dining out on the taxpayer," Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham.
"Many Australians will rightly wonder why the carbon tax they're paying through their higher electricity prices is being used to pay for expensive dinners.
He said the Coalition would scrap the agency if it won the September election.
A spokeswoman for the authority said the meeting was to allow authority members to meet informally.
"We are a newly established agency, we have got nine authority members from diverse backgrounds and locations to date they have had one opportunity to meet informally," she said.
"We wanted to provide them with an opportunity for an informal gathering with both the board members and senior executives to get to know each other a bit better.
"They need to be able to be a collective decision making body so it is important they know each other.
"It was the night before one of our critical board meetings."
Authority members at the dinner included Bernie Fraser, Lynne Williams, John Marlay, Professor David Karoly, Heather Ridout, Elana Rubin, Professor John Quiggan and CEO Anthea Harris, the spokeswoman said.
In its first five months the authority has spent a total of almost $4000 on catering with one bill for a stakeholder meeting with authority staff at Sydney's Sofitel Hotel expected to cost $645.
Catering for meetings at Climate Change Authority offices has varied between $21.80 during staff interviews and $442.80 for a staff planning day in October, an answer to budget estimates has revealed.
CSIRO not scientific when it comes to climate: Report
Below is a summary of a much larger and very thorough document to be found here
Respected unpaid climate analyst, Malcolm Roberts, of Brisbane, Australia compiled the 'CSIROh! Report' on the invitation of ABC Radio's Steve Austin. Across 29 pages Roberts details a litany of evidence proving that the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, corruptly and unlawfully misrepresented science, climate and Nature.
Austin asked of Roberts, "Please read through the Australian scientific paper and identify where you believe the CSIRO data has been falsified or is wrong." To complete his task Roberts engaged in detailed correspondence with CSIRO's Chief Executive Dr. Megan Clark and CSIRO's Group Executive-Environment Dr. Andrew Johnson; extensive analysis and research of CSIRO reports and discussions with former CSIRO scientists including former chief research scientist Professor Garth Paltridge.
With evidence presented by the above authorities Roberts put Aussie government's climate science under the microscope to expose how bias and propaganda misled the public to support the government's tax on carbon dioxide (CO2). Even-handedly Roberts concedes, "CSIRO has many fine people and a proud heritage. In areas outside climate it appears to have capability and credibility. That is threatened by CSIRO's politicization." But, critically, his findings reveal that CSIRO had no empirical scientific evidence whatsoever that human CO2 caused warming (see Appendix 2). Instead, the reports shows a dearth of actual evidence but the policies so far enacted are implicated in causing the needless deaths of more than 40 million people, mainly in Third World regions.
Four Failures to Find Fault
The key litmus test applied by the study was the requirement that CSIRO's science should provide "yes" answers to these four key questions:
1. Is global ATMOSPHERIC temperature warming unusually in either amount or rate
and is it continuing to rise?
2. Does the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in air control or determine Earth's temperature?
3. Does human CO2 production determine the level of CO2 in air?
4. Is warming catastrophic or even damaging?
Roberts, who also provides research for the Galileo Movement, demonstrates that CSIRO failed to show any actual "causal relationships" to validate even one "yes" answer. On the contrary, Roberts identified evidence that shows CSIRO scientists used taxpayer funds rather to advocate for global governance at United Nations (UN) conferences than evince empirical data to support their position. Roberts says, "This is consistent with CSIRO's actions supporting implementation of UN Agenda 21, the UN's campaign pushing global governance. It bypassed Australia's parliament and people and threatens Australia's sovereignty and our personal freedoms."
What the study shows in answer to those four key questions is a very different reality as follows:
1. Global atmospheric temperatures peaked in 1998. Temperatures have since been flat
with every year since colder than in 1998. Since the start of atmospheric temperature
measurement in 1958 temperatures cooled slightly from 1958 to 1976. A sudden small
2. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in air are a consequence of temperature, not a cause.
This is the reverse of UN IPCC, CSIRO and government claims. It applies throughout
Earth's history and over every duration. It's true seasonally and long-term;
3. Nature alone determines levels of CO2 in air. This is the reverse of UN IPCC, CSIRO
and government claims. It means that cutting or increasing human CO2 production
cannot affect CO2 levels in air. It's useless to cut human CO2 production;
4. Warmer periods in Earth's history are highly beneficial to people, humanity, civilization and the natural environment. This is the opposite of UN IPCC, CSIRO and government claims. Warmer periods are scientifically classified as optimums.
As a result, this damning analysis, says Roberts, shows that CSIRO scientists are deeply enmeshed in producing corrupt UN IPCC reports. The evidence shows the IPCC colluded with CSIRO to enlist contributing scientists of various rank and to have papers referenced and presumably act as reviewers. Without applying any safeguards, CSIRO endorsed UN IPCC reports despite those reports being demonstrably corrupt and pushing a political agenda. UN IPCC contributors and officials are shown to have bypassed and at times prevented scientific peer-review. "As a method of quality assurance, the process of peer-review is now worthless" says the Roberts report.
Evidence reveals that all four UN IPCC reports to national governments and media—1990, 1995, 2001 and 2007—contradict empirical scientific evidence and provide no logical scientific reasoning for their core claim that human CO2 caused, causes or will cause global warming. "The corruption is pervasive, systemic and driven by a political agenda to achieve a political outcome," says Roberts. Empirical scientific evidence and discussion in Appendix 4 reveals corruption of ground-based temperature data and of CO2 data used by the UN IPCC and CSIRO.The propaganda relied upon by alarmists is ostensibly that collated by former U.S. Vice President, Al Gore, shows Appendix 3.
Major international banking firm Merrill Lynch is implicated in the climate shenanigans. (Appendix 6). They and other international banks are shown to profit enormously from trading in CO2 credits. This relationship raises perceptions and questions about the opportunity for conflicts of interest.
Evidence Proves Natural Forces, not Humans Drive our Climate
This telling Australian report lays out in black and white that our atmosphere is not warming, much less unusually. "Fluctuations since 1958 reveal modest natural cyclic temperature variation." While ground-based rural measurements reveal the same since 1890. In Appendix 4 it is shown that the strongest natural factors proven by empirical scientific evidence to control global climate. They are El Nino, La Nina and other regional ocean-atmosphere decadal cycles. Scientists have identified many factors driving climate. These include galactic, solar system, solar, planetary and lunar cycles ranging from 150 million years to 11 years. Strong drivers include:
* Solar: (1) variations in sun's solar output; (2) Output of solar particles; (3) Sun's magnetic field polarity and strength;
* Water vapour: (1) atmospheric water content; (2) Cloud cover;
* Cyclic regional decadal circulation patterns such as North American Oscillation and the southern Pacific ocean's El Nino together with their variation over time;
* Ocean: (1) temperature; (2) salinity; (3) currents; (4) sea surface temperatures;
* Volcanic activity.
The above natural drivers are either omitted from, or downplayed in erroneous unvalidated computerized numerical models used by the UN. CSIRO has thereby used deception dressed up as science to cede sovereignty over Australian science to an unscientific and corrupt foreign political organisation pushing a global political agenda. "CSIRO is thus abetting systemic and pervasive documented corruption of science," says Roberts.
Tellingly, the prestigious Inter Academy Council's (IAC) August 2010 review of the UN IPCC showed that there were "crippling deficiencies" in UN IPCC processes and procedures that should have sounded alarm bells that CSIRO is supporting implementation of UN Agenda 21, the greatest threat to Australian sovereignty.
Roberts invites readers to examine the evidence on offer in this new study and to verify for themselves that CSIRO has misled the media. He points to three key falsehoods that any objective examination of the available scientific proves. They are:
1. Human CO2 controls and determines global temperature and climate. False;
2. There is an overwhelming consensus of scientists supporting that claim. False;
3. Catastrophic consequences will result at some unspecified future date from human disruption of global climate: sea level rise, extreme weather, floods, drought, snowfall, fires, ocean pH (alkalinity), disease, species extinction, ... All false.
"Through the National Press Club and media, CSIRO misled the people and parliament of Australia. CSIRO has been actively engaged in UN IPCC corruption of climate and science, " concludes the Brisbane climate analyst. How Steve Austin, the listeners of ABC radio and other Australian citizens react to these damning findings remains to be seen.
For more postings from me, see DISSECTING LEFTISM, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.
Preserving the graphics: Graphics hotlinked to this site sometimes have only a short life and if I host graphics with blogspot, the graphics sometimes get shrunk down to illegibility. From January 2011 on, therefore, I have posted a monthly copy of everything on this blog to a separate site where I can host text and graphics together -- which should make the graphics available even if they are no longer coming up on this site. See here and here
Posted by JR at 7:23 PM
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Second is one of the hardest spots to write about for the Rangers right now. The major league level is pretty settled, for the next few years, and the minors have little coming through. Ian Kinsler had a good rookie season in 2006, and was entrenched at second as 2007 began. Pretty much the only Ranger to hit during April (1.042 OPS), his contributions weren't enough to keep the team afloat by himself. By May he was back to hitting badly (.495 OPS), and his fielding was atrocious. Once he succumbed to injury in July, a parade of replacement level players went through second base, so when he got back he easily took the position back, and slowly increased his numbers for the rest of the year.
Ian Kinsler summary: Moved up and down the lineup, playing at least 10 games in the first, second, sixth, seventh and ninth lineup slots, but spending most of the time hitting first or second. The second slot was his most productive spot, and he should probably stay there. Hit 20 home runs, but 9 of them were in April. If you can accept a slightly above average hitter with decent range fielding, he's your guy. He makes a lot of stupid errors, many of which appear to simply be lack of concentration. He needs to work on that (he lost one game when he dropped a popup with two out in the 9th), and on his fielding overall. But with a lack of challenging players coming up in the minors, he seems pretty settled in his Rangers uniform already, and will probably be there for a few years, improving a little each year until he hits his career peak in about 2009 or 2010.
Jerry Hairston summary: You know you're in trouble when Jerry Hairston is the utility guy, playing all over the field. He may have the guts and the motivation, but they count for nothing when you can't hit. If anyone thinks Hairston is part of a championship-caliber team, they're fooling themselves. He has been well below average his entire career, and really he's sucking playing time away from someone who could help the team more. Like a cardboard cutout.
Desi Relaford summary: Speaking of cardboard cutouts, when I heard Desi Relaford had been called up, I knew the season was over. There is no good coming out of a team when Desi Relaford is the next best option to fill in somewhere. With the 70 below-average fielding innings and the 26 wasted at-bats (go on, guess what his OPS+ was), they should have brought up pretty much anyone else. At worst, you assume the person is just there for a few weeks while Kinsler is on the DL, so you bring up some decent prospect and let them get a taste of the big leagues. Like they did with Travis Metcalf, and he actually stuck around for a while. The season was already dead (as evidenced by the fact they brought up Desi Relaford), what do you have to lose? So did you guess his OPS+, or did you look it up yet? Remember, 100 is league average. Laird, who struggled all year, had a 62. Hairston, who sucked his entire career, was a 39. Even Kevin Mahar, who only got a little look early on, was a 0. No, Relaford went lower: -21, to be precise. I didn't even know you could go below zero. So remember this: if Relaford is with the Rangers next year, even in the minor leagues as an emergency alternate, you will know that management has given up on the team for 2008.
Others: Ramon Vazquez got a hundred innings at second, and Matt Kata got thirteen. Both will be covered elsewhere.
Minor Leagues: The problem with minor league stats is that fielding numbers are not easily available, so we can only go off hitting. Arguably second and short are the most important fielding positions, but also arguably the difference between the best and worst fielder at those positions is not nearly as big as the difference between a good and bad hitter. So this analysis is all based on hitting results, and we may find some guys getting promoted because of their fielding prowess. Anyway, on to the players. Tug Hulett was the man at AAA, racked up decent numbers, and at 24 should be on the verge of the big leagues. He's likely to be blocked by Kinsler though. German Duran at AA was even better, and if I was the Rangers I'd be trading Hulett while he has prospect value and putting Duran in AAA next year. In Bakersfield Micah Furtado spent another year destroying his top prospect status, he's now too old to be a prospect in A ball (25) and is slipping into suspect status. Of the other guys that played there, Thomas Berkery showed a decent bat, but played a lot of positions. Jose Vallejo did the job in Clinton, was a little below average with the bat but ran like the wind (47 SB, 3 CS), which will always keep a prospect moving upwards. In Spokane Matt Lawson and Renny Osuna split time, Lawson was 77 OPS points better and a year younger. In rookie ball, Matt West was a top draft pick and playing well, but got a steroid suspension, leaving a few non-prospects to do not much.
2008: Kinsler is entrenched now, and a 20 home run second baseman is not a bad thing to have. In 2008 we can expect his fielding to be a little better, since Washington has been working with him on it, and his bat should keep improving since he is still young (25). As long as the injury thing does not become problematic, he should be out there regularly.
2009 and beyond: Expect Kinsler to be the guy for three or four years, and that will be a good thing, having one infield position settled. There's nothing in the minors to replace him, he's a decent player right now and should get better as he hits his peak years, and the Rangers have a lot of other problems to deal with before they get to second. He probably won't be an All-Star, but he should be solid.

subset: commoncrawl


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Adding a new user to Goplan
Sometimes you'll need to collaborate with other people on your projects. It makes sense, then, to add them to Goplan so that you can collaborate effectively. Adding somone means you'll be able to assign them to teams, delegate tasks. Here's how you add someone to yourcompany on Goplan:
- Click
Peoplefrom the Dashboard sidebar
- Click
Add useron the top of the People list
- Fill in their
Email address
- Click the
Addbutton in the form - Goplan then automatically emails the person a new password so that they can log-in to your company space.
You may then want to use the Teams page to add the new user to a given team (see instructions below) or the Projects screen to individually add the user to a given project.
Creating a new team
Teams are groups of users who share projects and permissions. Lets say you run a creative design studio and you'd like your designers to all have access to the same projects - you'd create a team for them on Goplan and then add that team to the projects you'd like them to access. Here's how you create a new team:
- Click
Teamsfrom the Dashboard sidebar
- Click
Create a new teamon top of the Team list page
- Give your new team a name
- Click
Createin the form
Your team is then added to the team list, and automatically expands to let you add people to it. Typing a user's name or email address will let you select from your current members. Clicking the
Add to team button then adds that person to your team.
Adding a person or team to a project
Once you have more than one person or team on Goplan, it makes sense to add that person or team to a given project. This can be done from the Projects list page, which you can access from the Dashboard.
- Click
Projectsfrom the Dashboard sidebar
- Click
Managenext to the project you want to update
- Start typing the name of the person/team you want to add to a project (this auto-completes, so you should only need to write a few characters
- Choose a permission level for that person or team
- Read and Write permission lets people create new assets inside projects (such as tasks, tickets, documents)
- Read-only permission lets the individual or team see assets only. They will not be able to create data inside this project
- Click
Addto add the person or team to the project


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I'm far away from home out on the dashing foam
Just how far I have travelled I'll never know
Sometimes I feel so blue and I long for home and you
But I must stay and fight the foe.
So I'm sending you red roses to tell you my love is true
And I send them so you will know dear that I'm always thinking of you
Enclosed you will find my heart dear so treat it with tender care
And ev'ry time you look inside dear you'll find my love is there.
May each petal be a memory of the happiness we knew
Each thorn may tell a story of the heartache that I've been thro'
So I'm sending you red roses although we're oceans apart
And remember when they fade dear that you'll always have my heart...


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McDucks's Department Store is a shop located in the American Waterfront area of Tokyo DisneySea. It is named after, and owned by, Scrooge McDuck. The department store occupies a whole block of New York City. What started out as a pawnshop is now a booming business. He's so rich he can even make a fountain out of gold coins! This duck is truly living the American dream.
The store is probably the second largest shop in Tokyo DisneySea, after Emporio. Like Emporio, McDuck's sells general DisneySea souvenir merchandise: stuffed toys, apparel, candies, Confectionery, accessories, stationery and much more are available here all with a DisneySea spin. The theming in McDuck's is a little nicer though, with a warm, old-timey department store feel.
Unlike most real department stores, McDuck's department store is only one floor.


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Back in the SUN
Soundgarden (clockwise from top)— Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Chris Cornell, and Ben Shepherd.
WHEN SOUNDGARDEN disbanded in 1997 after millions of records sold and the grunge style they helped birth having turned as clichéd as a plaid flannel shirt, acrimony seethed from every pore of their combined being. The band's black hole had finally sucked out the sun.
"We weren't behaving with the band's collective interest at heart," guitarist Kim Thayil reflects. "We had become selfishly oriented, and when you're selfishly motivated, that's not good for bands and families and other partnerships. When you're younger, you champion your own selfish interests. Those behaviors are oriented less toward the band and more toward one's self, and those can be destructive elements in the survival of a band. They can lead to friction and conflict, which isn't good for the creative process."
King Animal, Soundgarden's first album in 15 years, confirms the rebirth of the band's mighty creative approach, encompassing their songwriting, performing, and recording processes. Recorded simultaneously to Pro Tools HD and two-inch tape, it's a blast of raw rock passion in an industry sorely in need of a scourging cleanse.
"I really can't stand modern pop music in the sense that everything is pitch corrected and Beat Detectived and picked over to the degree that everything is perfect," singer Chris Cornell snarls. "I don't connect to it emotionally or in any way."
By contrast, King Animal is a natural, warm, and transparent recording produced by the veteran crew who helped track and mix 1994's Superunknown and 1996's Down on the Upside. Recorded on home turf at Seattle's Studio X, produced and engineered by Adam Kasper, assisted by second engineers Nathan Yaccino, Josh Evans, and Sam Hofstedt, and mixed by Joe Barresi, King Animal employed the digital domain, but with an analog heart.
"I recorded directly into Pro Tools HD and also off tape through a Studer A827," Kasper explains. "I lined up the tape portion with the Pro Tools track and that gave us both options. Coming from a tape background, you learn to record drums with compression and understanding how things hit tape. You want to get things pumping and sounding big, and I learned how to do that by understanding how tape responds to kick drums and snare drums and saturation. Running [the signal] through two-inch tape you get that flavor, so I always maintain that signal flow to Pro Tools.
"If you track directly to Pro Tools and tape simultaneously," he adds, "then blow up the waveforms in Pro Tools, you'll be amazed how the analog waveform looks rounded and limited, in a way, but the Pro Tools version has spikes and hard edges; your ears must be able to hear that."
Soundgarden's origins lie in the largely pre-digital mid-1980s, and they still favor the sound and style of analog recording. The band acknowledges the speed of digital tracking, but don't necessarily embrace the sonic results.
Ben Shepherd (left) and Chris Cornell work out a track."Obviously, technology has changed quite a bit since 1996," Thayil says. "Engineers have greater facility working with Pro Tools, but we have an aversion toward Pro Tools. We like the way records sounded in the '80s and '90s, and we definitely think there's a difference between analog and digital. We were raised with LP and even the 8-track! When CDs first came out, I didn't like their sound. Maybe those fairly audible scratches and pops were part of the general ambience philosophy that I was used to hearing with LP. The LP sounded warmer in terms of the low end, and it sounded natural. The CD, it sounded like something was missing. And it seemed thinner and colder."
Soundgarden tracked drums and bass in Studio X's large live room, then overdubbed guitars in the control room, tracking multiple amps and effects simultaneously in an iso booth. For much of the King Animal sessions, Cornell recorded vocals home, alone, like a painter splashing canvas.
"Chris sang through a 1966 Neumann U67 modified to the original specs," Kasper explains. "It's the best mic for Chris, a blowing-up, spinning, killer sound. We usually run two compressors, an LA2A, and a UREI 1176, also a third one for monitoring, which helps a lot because Chris has low-range vocal sounds, then he gets up high. He has two different tones, at least. I don't EQ his vocal, but it does get a little sibilant at times so I may adjust the attack or deal with it later by de-essing. But that nice distortion happens organically with the tube mics and Chris screaming into them." [Laughs.]
Cornell diagrams his home rig as a "Chandler preamp, an LA2A, through an Apogee converter using a variety of different mics including a hot-rodded U67. I used that on several songs on Superunknown and Down on the Upside." Logic Pro 9 is his platform of choice when going it alone.
Cornell records resonator guitar."I've had the best luck cutting vocals by recording when I am the only one there," Cornell explains. "I started recording at home for that reason. I'd written a song, 'The Keeper' for a film called Machine Gun Preacher. I recorded the track at a friend's studio, but it wasn't happening. So I tried it again at home and it worked. That led to me singing a lot of the new Soundgarden album at my home studio.
"I'm not communicating with another person there so I can try ideas very quickly," Cornell continues. "Recording digitally allows everything to happen so fast. For instance, there's a harmony vocal in the chorus of 'Black Hole Sun'; I was recording myself and I threw it on there. I liked the way it sounded. If I was in a room communicating with an engineer, I might not have bothered. I couldn't have immediately listened back to it on speakers, which is a better way for me because I hate referencing vocal takes on headphones. I can't tell if it's what I want until I'm standing in front of speakers. Then, if I'm singing through the vocal chain that I will be using for takes, what I come up with can be the keeper takes. I can capture that weird spark that a demo has. I'm not over-thinking. It's all brand new and for me it works."
Cornell elaborates on his "demo as final take" approach: "There's often a spark to a demo, to the first time I sing something, where I'm literally reading the lyrics off a piece of paper cause I just wrote it. I don't know what the phrasing is or what the melody exactly is yet. It's happening in the moment and I'm demoing it then I discover it. And I have better luck if the vocal is the last thing I do. On Down on the Upside Down, 'Pretty Noose,' 'Burden in My Hand,' 'Boot Camp,' those were all the first time I ever sang them, and those became the final vocal takes. I've beat my head against the wall many times where I did a demo at home, obviously not well recorded, but there's something about it that I just can't replicate no matter what I do or where I'm recording or who is engineering or what mic I am singing into."
But with Cornell and Thayil's unusual guitar tunings, it can be difficult for Cornell to get his voice around a track, even if it's one he has written. In those instances, he or Kasper (who supplied many of the guitars, basses, and amps for the session) will insert a reference note as an anchor.
"Harmonic tension is often a large part of what it is about the personality of a recording that I like," Cornell says. "That harmonic tension is necessary but there's a limit to how much that works. [Laughs.] There's a fine line between tension and awful. And I can straddle that line surgically; I will obsess over it. The first song I ever did with Soundgarden, 'She Likes Surprises,' we were out of tune but we liked the recording so I played a very clean electric guitar track strumming bar chords through it, which I never would have done as an arrangement. And then I sang to that and we liked the feel. If we add a track just for vocal reference, sometimes it will work within the context of the song. We do it to have something warm to sing to so I don't have to struggle for pitch."
"The big challenge has always been having something Chris can sing to," Kasper adds. "Chris has such volume in his voice that he projects acoustically. I have to get the headphone mix up above his singing volume so he can pitch off of the track. Everything is really hot, so sometimes a guitar might be too fuzzy or slightly bending oddly so we might put in a clean guitar or a piano chord for him to pitch off of. Once he has something solid to sing to, with the volume and the response of the compressors set, then he just nails it."
Kasper added effects both during and after Cornell's vocal takes. "When you hear panning, feedback, and delay," he explains, "that's AudioEase Speakerphone plug-ins. They're amazing. You can do three or four effects simultaneously, and they're all actual samples. You can have a Leslie effect in a bedroom or a garage with an old Neumann mic running through a speaker phone. We'd use that for vocals. We might run a guitar through a Speakerphone plug-in but we used it mostly for vocals. It has filters, compression, all kinds of EQ, speaker phones, and radio toys. These are actual things they have found and sampled and you can see little pictures of them. They even use a trunk speaker from an old Volvo."
Soundgarden was no less painstaking when tracking guitars. In a band where everyone, including drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd, compose on guitar, Thayil had his hands full. "On every record we've made except for our first Sub Pop EP, Chris and I would double the guitar performances," Thayil explains. "But these days, I like more of a streamlined guitar sound. And it's less time consuming to create. But the multiple guitars are still in there (Thayil: Guild S300, Guild S100, 1966 ES335 Trini Lopez, Gibson Firebird, Gretsch Duo Jet; Cornell: Gibson ES335, Gibson Archtop, Gibson Les Paul Custom, Martin D28). I'd record one guitar, Chris would do another one, sometimes an acoustic (Neumann M49, 10 inches away, aimed at the 14th fret), and we'd record different amps simultaneously (Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne/4x12 cab, Mesa Boogie Tremoverb, 1970s Ampeg combo, 1950s Fender Champ, Divided By 13 FTR 37/2×12 cab, Matt Cameron's 1960s Vox AC30). We miked them separately (Shure SM57, with Royer 121 and Neumann U87), isolated them with a room divider, and aimed each one differently. We'd create a blend of the different amps. We might put a delay on one guitar or treat them as separate tracks. And it's also easier to accent certain parts of the arrangement now. We'd have one main performance, then go back and overdub a chorus or color a certain guitar section. We're accenting or emphasizing different parts."
As on all Soundgarden albums, King Animal features some of the greatest guitar sounds this side of Frank Zappa's nicotine-drenched SG. "Been Away Too Long" buzzes with cathartic, manic tones; "By Crooked Steps" offers freakish delights; "Bones of Birds" closes with a dying crow's cry.
"The guitars in 'Been Away Too Long' sound like angry mosquitoes," Thayil laughs. "There's a number of things there: a delay, and tremolo, and vibrato. We were really trying to make it sound as dentist drill-like as possible—shrill and piercing. We cranked up the high end on some pedal. And we have a digital Leslie pedal that creates a Rotovibe, Leslie effect. It captures a fast spinning Leslie. We wanted to make that sound as irritating as possible.
"'By Crooked Steps' is more of a performance thing," he continues. "I'm playing beneath the bridge on a custom Gibson ES 335 Trini Lopez. I'd do that effect on my Guild S100, which I love, as well; both of them have a lot of room between the bridge and the tailpiece. You can get the string to sound out like harmonics playing it there, so I was picking beneath the bridge while bending the string either at the nut or above the 12th fret, which gives you this higher, shriller sound. Then we threw a delay on it. It creates a ghostly, spinning, turning sound when you add the delay."
Cornell's "Bones of Birds" is one of the album's most memorable, menacing moments, a study in sludge ecstasy spinning a tale of time lost and survival of the fittest. It ends with eerie cries. "I love guitar solos just being a swirling squeal for 30 seconds and not having to actually play anything," Thayil says. "'Bones of Birds' was like that. The effects at the end sound like a murder of crows. That was something Adam read about that Pink Floyd did on Mettle. It's a backwards wah wah and a delay and then controlling the volume knob and dialing it in until it's right about to squeal and twist and bend. You cock the delay pedal at a certain angle and just by turning the volume off and on you get that 'whee whee' bird's sound."
Ben Shepherd switched between Fender Precision and Fender Telecaster Precision basses, played through an Ampeg SVT VR head/8x10 cab and a Mesa Boogie Carbine head/6x10 cab. Nathan Yaccino printed a Little Labs DI combined with Neumann U47 FET "for each cab, placed far away—mic placement for guitar is close, but for bass it's backed off ten inches and aimed at a middle driver."
Currently playing switch hitter between Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, drummer Matt Cameron is the band's not-so-secret weapon, his staggering ease in navigating the band's odd metered grooves and oddly phrased guitar rhythms part of his formidable style. Add to that Cameron's incredibly deep pocket and musical phrasing, and you have a drummer beyond compare.
"With Matt Cameron, you could put up one 57 five feet away from the kit and it would sound awesome," Yaccino says. "He almost mixes himself while he plays, the way he hits all the drums is very even. It's so easy to record him, it's unreal. We did have room mics up, but Matt wanted more of a dry sound, so we didn't use the rooms. Studio X has a large live room so we stuck the drums smack center in the middle of the room, which is unusual. We were then able to bring baffles around him and be more strategic about placement. Having more control over deadening, we had 360-degree space to place baffles."
Yaccino used two mics on Cameron's bass drum: a Shure Beta 52 inside and a Neumann U47 FET out, Shure SM56s (the prototype to the 57) for snare bottom and top, Sennheiser MD421s for toms (tops only), and Audio- Technica MK40s as overheads left and right, and an old RCA ribbon 77 as center overhead, placed 12 feet high and 15 feet on either side pointing away from the drums. As with the guitars and bass, Neve 1073s were used throughout the signal chain.
"A big part of the drum sound is the overheads," Kasper explains. "Close-miking was just if we wanted to boost the level, the main sound is coming from the overheads. Matt wanted a dry sound. No room mic sound at all, no reverb, no triggers. I pumped up the low end and the compression to get a full kit sound. With a great drummer it's almost better if you use less mics. A player like Matt can mix himself in the room pretty well. He isn't hitting the cymbals too hard, and he plays as a performance. If a drummer is bashing cymbals way too hard, those mics will collapse and the toms will sound tiny."
Sixteen years on, stronger, still strange, and more proficient than ever and ultimately surpassing the hoary grunge tag, Soundgarden lay most rock bands to waste on King Animal. The album may create its own tsunami in style, and perhaps scald clean the sensitive croons and subdued strums that have replaced much of what used to constitute American rock. Cornell may not love gridding nor Beat Detective, and Thayil will probably never maintain a personal Pro Tools rig like his fellow band members. (He commits everything to memory.) But does he see any advantage in digital technology?
"Of course," Thayil replies, "it expedites recording. There's no downtime between takes. With Pro Tools, you can do 20 takes almost immediately and decide which one you like best. We used to do analog backward effects. Chris did that brief backward guitar part in the beginning of 'By Crooked Steps' when he was demoing vocals, on his computer. We used to do backward guitar solos by flipping over the tape and playing to the track. With Pro Tools, I tried turning the computer upside down but it didn't work! Doing things like that are pretty amazing facilitated by the computer. The benefits are pretty amazing in that things work quickly, but it's the way things sound. I do not like things that sound all Pro Tools-y, I like things to sound organic and natural."
Thayil hasn't forgiven digital or embraced Pro Tools. But Soundgarden has made personal amends, and accepted each other and their extraordinary musical kinship. "It's human nature to be somewhat altruistic in looking out for your brothers and offspring or parents," Thayil muses. "It exists in various groups like that. So as a band we grew up. We loved each other as friends and as individuals but when you put four guys together in one band we may have neglected the band's vision as a whole. We've matured, and we've all learned to appreciate our family and our band as a whole."
Ken Micallef has covered music for the usual joints, including DownBeat, The Grammys, Rolling Stone, and Emusic.com.
On his recording tools . . .
I use Pro Tools HD3 or Studer A800 tape machines for playback through my SSL G+ desk. If there is any digital processing, it may be a de-esser inside the box (like Massey or McDSP plugins), or the occasional delay effect with [Line 6] Echo Farm. All processing is usually analog and done on the SSL, with access to a wide variety of outboard gear as inserts, effects, etc. I have an Alan Smart compressor and Sontec EQ on the stereo bus into a Lavry A/D for the main mixes. For compressors, it could be Tube-Tech, Pye, Neve, Distressors, etc., along with the console channel compressors. Most EQ is done on the desk, except some Quad 8 and Neve strips for fattening; delays are always Wem. I have nine sets of speakers—everything from NS10s to KRK V6s, NHT Moos, NHT A-20s, NHT M100s, M-Audios, Radio Shacks, Acoustic Research, and Blue Skys—and I try to listen on as many as I can, to see how well a mix will translate on all types of systems.
On balancing the mix . . .
On this record, I tried to make the panning like the band plays live—with most of Kim's guitars on the left, most of Chris' on the right. I'd say this holds true on about 85% of the album.
When Adam and the guys tracked, they basically recorded multiple amps as a single performance, leaving them on three to four tracks, so I had complete control to rebalance the guitars as I saw fit. This flexibility allowed me to change guitar sounds in different sections of the song if I needed to.
On carving out an articulate low end . . .
My main concern was to keep the bottom end of this record big. I loved the bass on Superunknown; when those songs were played on the radio, they destroyed anything played before and after, so I tried to keep the bass on this record as important.
On the "hi-fi" aesthetic . . .
There are a few tracks that are on the dirtier side—that comes from overdriving the desk or certain pieces of gear. It's fairly normal in the analog world to think in terms of gain staging because there are so many variables: playback levels, line inputs, insert points, fader levels, parallel and serial processing, etc. I don't think many people think like that when mixing strictly digital. For instance, I could change the sound of the vocal by how hard I would push it into the channel limiter or the inserted compressor—not something I would ever think of in the digital world. But for the most part, I tried to keep the record open and more "hi-fi." Matt's drums sounded great, and a lot of that is derived from the overheads and room sounds, so that was the starting point for each mix. Then I made sure Ben and Chris' voices got heard through the wall of guitars. Sometimes reamping the bass and certain vocals through small amps worked to make them sit in the track better.


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I like denial. It's a game I play and I am good. Like, Olympic gold kind of good.
In my defense, it's gotten me through these past months of pregnancy in one piece. It's kept me off my bathroom floor at 3 am crying. It's kept me from spending every waking moment of these pregnancy not asking about the 'what ifs?'
But it's also made me a very unfair kind of person. It's made me someone I don't particularly like very much.
It's the hermit in me. It's my inability to trust my own judgement and to believe that my friends do actually care about me and won't think I'm an idiot for being scared.
It's made me avoid people and make excuses for why I'm not around or why I can't go out when really.... I totally could.
But if I'm perfectly honest with myself, and to be frank I'm not a very good liar in even my best moments, I'm petrified.
I'm in my Black Year again just waiting for things to go wrong. Because I know that they can. They have before.
And because there is still a part of me that doesn't believe I deserve to be a mother. That I've done too many bad things to have the right to any bit of happiness. And, aside from this insane fear, I am happy.
I have the one thing I always wanted but my mother was certain I couldn't. I have a family. I have a husband who loves me and would do anything to make me happy. I have beautiful, happy kids who never have to wonder if they're loved.
So why am I so sure that it's going to be taken from me?
I do my best to remember that my Dr is unconcerned, for the moment, with my contractions. I do my best to remember that I am feeling the baby move (constantly) and stretch (why yes, that is a rib). That alone should give me some piece of mind.
Instead I rely heavily on denial.
Something that I cannot do if I have to talk regularly to the people who know me best and are outside the worry.
I joke about my husband's concern because to admit that I share it means that there isn't anyone who can assure us, and that would leave me on my bathroom floor again and I can't do it.
I count down the days and just hope it goes quickly and pray that it will be alright.
And I hope that the people I've neglected won't hate me when it's over.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
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Tips to Improve Your Productivity
Do you feel like you never have enough time in the day?
Seems like most of us struggle to find time to do all the things we want to do. Is it because we are trying to do too much?
Are we being unrealistic in thinking we can do all the tasks that are screaming at us on our to-do list?
Or worse still, you've got no list but a million and one tasks are racing around in your head all day long vying for your attention.
Sound familiar?
Well, try these tips and tricks to help improve your productivity. You can thank me later 😉
We could all get more done each day once we realize the value of managing our time wisely. But, so many people just don't know how to manage their time well.
I hope the tips below will help you get started with managing your time more effectively.
- Use a timer when carrying out each of your tasks. This is especially effective if you have a hard time focusing on the task in hand. Start by getting a timer that you find easy to use. Then, set it for the time you think is reasonable to complete the task or the amount of time you have available to work on it if it is a longer task.
For example, if you have one hour to work on a task, set your timer for the hour so you are not constantly checking your clock.
- Another tip I've found useful is to set the timer for even shorter time periods. So, say you have an hour to work on a project but there is a risk that you'll get distracted in that time, set the timer for say 15 minutes.
- Just keep resetting it for the next 15 minutes until you reach the 1 hour you had available to work on your task. That way if you get distracted, the most you would have wasted is 15 minutes. Then you'll have the chance to get back on track for the remaining 15 minute time slots until you reach the hour you'd allocated.
This also gives you a chance to get laser focussed on the job so that if you feel that after say 30 minutes you are falling behind then give yourself a minute to think about how you can complete the task in the remaining 30 minutes.
Hopefully you can see that by chunking time in this way, you can become much more effective.
- Planning your day in advance is very important. Create a list of the main tasks you need to do, so you'll stay focused on those from the start of each day.
- Review your schedule again just before you start to make sure it is still valid. If you start your day with the knowledge of what lies ahead, you will be more likely to accomplish your tasks. Review your schedule carefully to make sure that you haven't planned too much.
- If you really struggle with completing your tasks, try to work out where you're spending your time and if you are using it wisely?
Maybe you have been unrealistic about the time you think it would take to get a job done and need to revise your time allocation in the future. It is something you get better at when you take the time to plan and review and then look back to see if you are on track or not.
- Are you constantly checking and responding to emails and voicemails as they come in? These can be distracting and cause you to miss doing your own list of tasks. So, set a specific time of day to review emails etc and then don't worry about them when you are working on other tasks. When you check your messages all the time, you lose focus on your tasks and instead you start responding to other people's priorities and not yours.
- If you work at home and there are other people in the house, close the door to your office so you are not disturbed while you work. When you have your door open, people tend to assume you don't mind being interrupted. There is less chance of interruptions if you close your door. Explain to others that when your door is closed that you want to be left to concentrate on your work and this will help you to get things done quicker.
- It is worth reviewing your schedule a couple of times through the day to see if any activities can be cut from it? Situations change, and you may find that a task no longer needs to be done.
- Consider if it is possible to delegate some tasks to provide you with extra time in your day.
- Delegating, including outsourcing, is one of the best time management techniques you can make use of … and once you delegate something, leave it with them and allow them to complete the task.
Please leave a comment below and let me know if you plan to use any of these tips to help you organize your day more effectively. I'd love to hear from you so please, don't be shy, share your thoughts.
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BiOptix to Highlight New Carbonic Anhydrase Data at IBC's Biopharmaceutical Development & Production Week
BiOptix is highlighting new and compelling small molecule kinetics data from the new BiOptix 404pi at the IBC Biopharmaceutical Development & Production Week to be held from February 25 to March 1, 2013 in Huntington Beach, CA. These new data sets continue to underscore the versatility of the BiOptix 404pi, an SPR instrument that is built for both
"The carbonic anhydrase data from the BiOptix 404pi demonstrate the cornerstone of the BiOptix value proposition: high sensitivity, low noise and an ability to evaluate small molecule models," noted Ken Wilczek, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for BiOptix. "Carbonic anhydrase analysis is the gold standard for evaluating SPR instrumentation and the BiOptix 404pi produces excellent data. BiOptix has designed and builtin the USAa versatile SPR instrument that is available to the research community at a reasonable price."
Researchers are invited to learn more about the new BiOptix 404pi via the BiOptix Innovators Programa unique to the industry "try before you buy" SPR instrumentation demo program. Additional details can be found at:
Surface Plasmon Resonance is an advanced and highly sensitive optical technology that measures refractive index changes on a sensor chip's gold surface due to a change in mass that occurs during a binding event. This change can be used to monitor biological interactions such as the concentration of target molecules, kinetic rates and affinity constants. BiOptix has developed and patented a novel
Source: The Herald, 27.02.2013
BiOptix Diagnostics Corporation is a privately held firm based in Boulder, Colorado, with leading investments from Boulder Ventures and RUSNANO. BiOptix has developed a new class of analytical biosensor instrumentation utilizing a patented high-throughput label-free technology known as ESPR Enhanced Surface Plasmon Resonance. BiOptix instrumentation allows researchers to study label-free protein-protein and protein-small molecule interactionwith high sensitivity and high throughput. Applications include: Protein-small molecule interactions, protein-protein kinetics, antibody affinities and epitope mapping, oligosaccharide characterization, nucleic acid (DNA-DNA or DNA-RNA) hybridization and biomolecule concentration measurements.
Additional information about BiOptix and our products can be found at: www.bioptix.com


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Delphinium caudatolobum W. T. Wang
Stems solitary, reddish purple; petiole reddish purple; pedicels reddish purple; spur blackish purple, otherwise tepals light purple with light purple stripes and central greenish spot.
|D. E. Boufford, B. Bartholomew, S. L. Kelley, R. H. Ree, H. Sun, J. P. Yue, L. L. Yue, D. C. Zhang & W. D. Zhu
|16 August 2006
Copyright 2006 Susan Kelley [Edit image] [View original in new window][center]


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Every year, nearly 72,000 vehicle accidents are caused by drowsy drivers. Further studies have shown that getting less than four hours of sleep increases an individual's crash rate by 11.5 times. Despite these alarming statistics, many drivers continue to get on the road fatigued enough to impair their driving. However, making an effort to get better sleep and taking action while driving can help lower incidents of drowsy driving.
The average adult needs at least seven to eight hours of sleep to function at peak efficiency. Sleep deprivation takes a serious toll on the mind and body. With each lost hour of sleep, reasoning skills, decision-making abilities, and reactions times are compromised. Without adequate rest, the neurons in the brain responsible for sending and receiving messages begin to slow down.
As the brain slows down, drivers start to show signs of impaired driving like drifting in and out of the traffic lane, missing turns or exits, and short-term memory loss. With memory loss, the driver forgets the last few miles driven and suddenly finds himself further along in the journey than previously thought. The driving impairment due to drowsy driving is comparable to driving while under the influence of alcohol. In this state, drivers cannot safely respond to changing traffic and road conditions.


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In the healthcare industry it's important to generate quality leads over time. Brick Marketing offers healthcare SEO services that will improve website traffic and conversions. In order to maximize SEO efforts, we will integrate your healthcare SEO campaign with all of your other marketing efforts.
Read More About the Brick Marketing Approach Specific to B2B SEO Here.
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Before beginning the healthcare SEO on-site optimization process it's important for us to have a clear understanding of the industry and competition. In addition, we will review the history and success of your website and how it has been marketed in the past. Using this background information, we will begin the keyword research process. In order for your website to be found by potential patients, donors, or other prospects in the search engines it's necessary to include important keywords on every page of your website. We will spend time researching these keywords and will review our findings with you. Together, we will hand pick the most relevant keywords per every page of content that will deliver the most targeted traffic to your website. Then, we will naturally incorporate these keywords into the content and meta tags of each page in order to drive qualified traffic and improve conversion rates.
Healthcare SEO Phase 2 – Ongoing White Hat SEO Link Building
Once on-site optimization has been completed, the second phase of a healthcare SEO campaign is ongoing white hat link building. The number of inbound, quality links that a website has pointing to it is a search engine algorithm ranking factor. While it's important to have a well optimized site, inbound links give a website additional SEO power. In addition, links help improve brand visibility across the web. The first step is to analyze your current inbound links and the inbound links of your main competitors. This will give us a better understanding of where your link building focus should be. A healthcare SEO link building strategy should be diverse. The content marketing component of the strategy is extremely important. Brick Marketing will help you develop and promote content that will improve your position as a thought leader in the healthcare industry. In addition, we will spend time researching healthcare industry directories, association site, and blogs to submit content to.
We will monitor the progress of your healthcare SEO campaign and optimize the strategy based on visitor growth and conversions.


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Decorative Backsplash Tile
We create beautiful artwork on natural stone tiles for any room in your home or office. Our products add a sophisticated beauty to kitchens and bathrooms. Using our dye sublimation printing process, we are able to create unique backsplash tile murals, borders, and single stones that will enhance the beauty of your home. Backsplash tile murals are our specialty. If you are building or remodeling your kitchen a tile mural will become the focus and centerpiece that will brighten any room in your home.
Spend just a second looking at our backsplash tile art and you soon realize there is a large selection of various types of art. However we are not limited to the art shown on our site, we are able to image your custom art as well. If you have a piece of art or an image that you are fond of, and would like to have it displayed in your home, we can help. We have the ability to shrink or enlarge most images to meet your needs.


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A number of rural organisations have joined forces in a bid to encourage the government roll out 2Mbps broadband in the countryside.
The Final Third First group, which includes the Country Land & Business Association (CLA) and Broadband Britain, is hoping to highlight the fact that many of the UK's rural areas currently only have access to dial-up internet access, let alone 2Mbps broadband.
"Those living in areas known as 'the Final Third' still receive no proper access to broadband, putting them at a severe disadvantage," said Dr Charles Trotman from the CLA.
Trotman said the group is calling for faster action on the progress already made in rolling out 2Mbps broadband across the UK "so that everyone can benefit from the Government's increasing array of online services", before next-generation broadband, with speeds of up to 100Mbps, is rolled out.
"I don't think the Government has dismissed rural communities, I just think they don't understand rural issues," added Trotman.
"2Mbps is only a start... a basic level [and] the Government has to put the money in."
The Final Third First campaign just days after the government announced the creating of Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) - a new group designed to help organise the roll-out of 2Mbps broadband across the UK.


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One in four adults and one in 10 children experience mental illness at some point during their lives, and mental health issues can affect us all.
If you are really struggling, support is available. But if you feel your mood start to dip, there are a few things you can do for yourself to give your mental health and wellness a boost. Tick these off your daily checklist to help you feel stronger and face the day ahead!
Everyone likes a hug. But did you know that, like eating, sleeping and breathing, physical contact is a fundamental part of human nature? According to research, regularly touching people promotes emotional wellbeing in everyone from babies to OAPs, while another study found that hugging can reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
'Humans are essentially social in nature and even though we have quite varying needs for contact with others, communication by talking, hugging and touching (as appropriate, depending on the nature of the relationship of course!) is a crucial "need" all of us require satisfaction with for optimal functionality,' says Dr Natasha Bijlani, Consultant Psychiatrist at Priory Group.
Obviously, we don't advise that you go around embracing total strangers. But if you're feeling blue, you can up your hug-game by asking a friend or family member for a cuddle. If all else fails, snuggling pets totally counts. If you don't have a four-legged friend to hand, visit BorrowMyDoggy and babysit a hound for the day.
It's well documented that following a healthy diet is important if you want to feel good about how your body looks on the outside, but nutrition can also play a vital role in how you feel on the inside. While mental health is traditionally thought of as emotionally-rooted, what you eat is now thought to play a key role in the onset as well as severity and duration of depression.
Depressed people tend to skip meals or select sugary junk foods which are thought to contribute to low mood. 'Healthy eating habits contribute to optimal body function including brain processes and performance,' says Dr Bijlani. 'All of us must have noticed how our mood, enthusiasm and energy levels slump when we skip meals or haven't eaten enough.'
As outlined in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, ensuring that you follow a diet rich in complex carbohydrates, essential fats, amino acids, vitamins and minerals alongside plenty of water can contribute to a balanced mood, so aim to eat well every single day.
When you're depressed, the first instinct is often to retreat inwards and isolate yourself, rather than reach out to friends and ask for help. If you're feeling down you might find yourself withdrawing from friends and family, avoiding nights out and ignoring social invitations.
'Loneliness can contribute to quite serious mental ill health,' says Dr Bijlani. 'Talking allows us to "share" our emotions and experiences, we gain and give support to each other and we can feel part of a community and be connected to each other.'
Studies have also shown that socialising alters brain activity which decreases stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms and supports calm and happy feelings. If you are feeling down, now is the time to call your friends, make new ones or put yourself in situations where you will be surrounded by others.
The importance of a good night's sleep is common knowledge these days. But the two-thirds of Brits who reportedly suffer with sleep-related problems on a regular basis might not realise that sleep deprivation also plays a vital role in your mental health too.
Insomnia is generally regarded as a symptom of depression, but new research suggests that lack of sleep may actually be a cause of it. 'Poor sleep or oversleeping can also affect mood, energy and concentration levels alongside very many adverse physical consequences,' says Dr Bijlani.
The good news is researchers found that treating insomnia with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could reduce mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and paranoia. Keep regular sleeping hours and aim to get a healthy amount each night to keep your mental health in check.
Just 30 minutes of moderate exercise should convince you that fitness is one of the fundamental elements of good mental health. Research suggests that exercise and physical activity are associated with better quality of life and positive mental health outcomes to boot.
'Mental health is inextricably linked with physical health and the old saying "a healthy body leads to a healthy mind" may not have been originally derived as a result of a sound evidence, as modern science demands, but is definitely true and has been proven many times since,' says Dr Bijlani.
'Exercise or any physical activity is also very important in mental as well as physical wellbeing,' adds Dr Bijlani. 'We release endorphins (natural "feel good" hormones) when we are physically active and regular exercising can be immensely helpful in boosting mood and maintaining a sense of well-being. Activity increases circulation, improves stamina and fitness.'
The documented benefits of fitness go beyond mood. 'Engaging in regular exercise allows for some structure into one's day and can provide relief from work and other pressures,' explains Dr Bijlani. 'There are added benefits of companionship and team work in group sporting activities.'
💡Combine exercise with socialising to tick off two tasks on your daily mental health checklist. Enlist your friends and go for a walk, try parkrun, or sign up to a class at your local gym.
A breath of fresh air in the great outdoors can work wonders for your mental health. A recent study found that walking in woodland contributed to decreased levels of anxiety and bad moods, and another found that outdoor walks helped with major depressive disorder.
'There is growing acceptance that exercising outdoors, especially in "nature" surroundings rather than built up urban spaces is significantly advantageous,' says Dr Bijlani. 'It is thought that there is an especially calming feel of greenery and nature.'
Walking in nature has also been found to boost memory more than urban environments and in another study, researchers found a decrease in both the heart rates and cortisol levels of of participants who spent time in the forest compared to the city, so pull your wellies on and hit the trails!
Mental health support
If you're feeling down or you are concerned you may have a mental health problem, always seek help. Your family doctor/GP will be able to discuss a number of treatments that could help. The charities below can also offer support and information:


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Beatrix Potter 150 years
2016 marks 150 years since the birth of Beatrix Potter, one of the world's best-loved children's authors, who has captured our imagination for over 100 years with her beautifully illustrated Tales. However, few people are aware of the fascinating woman that Beatrix was or the achievements she accomplished in her lifetime, during an era when ambitious women were firmly discouraged from flourishing.
Photos courtesy of The National Trust & Frederick Warne Ltd
An artist, storyteller, botanist, environmentalist, farmer and impeccable businesswoman, Potter was a visionary and a trailblazer. Single-mindedly determined and ambitious she overcame professional rejection, academic humiliation, and personal heartbreak, going on to earn her fortune and a formidable reputation.
The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction is also celebrating a special anniversary in 2016, 25 years of business since first opening its doors to visitors on 28 July 1991. To mark this special year, the Attraction is putting on lots of special events throughout the year and also producing two special stage shows: Where is Peter Rabbit? which celebrates the magical stories and Meeting Bea, exploring her lesser known later life as famer and countrywoman. Please see our events listings for more information.


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To learn the student the basic PHP programming. All codes are not in Object Oriented Base so everyone can learn easy.
Please this system is for learning purposes! don't try to use this system for your projects or something. Please make this as reference only. I am currently studying and I am trying to learn more and improving myself not only for programming i also explore myself from different I.T tasks such as Graphics and Designing, SAP Business


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This story was originally published in Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond
I see our great empire has retracted to squabbled chaos, retreated behind fortified walls, and abandoned me to my great chase. Yet I still pursue the dragon with a passion that amazes me. As a magician, I was branded to hunt her through ancient, worn-down cities, without ever sleeping.
All the hospitality has gone out of Perd; the ancient magician's city has faded to a resting place for weary warriors and monks. I pass an ancient portrait of the restricted God Ka, with smears of dried grease atop the canvas; I see the remains of a torched Inn, its burnt wood smeared with the blood of the empire's enemies. Once locked inside with the fire, their charred remains now traced the ancient archaic symbols they died to protect. Even the magician's schools near the mountains have been converted to forts towering over the snowed city, poised ready to turn against their own people. The children point to me, spot my dirtied cloak and empty eyes; they know I am among the last generation of magicians, we spell-casters who the empire once branded as heretics. The children take no time from me, for they must also know who I am hunting: a dragon, that last visible ghost to an empire already crumbling.
My spell of direction has picked up the beast's scent, and the children follow my furred boot-heels to the city gate, but they cannot go any further, for they, like myself, are prisoners of their own imperium. I am not yet asleep, and I have nowhere else, so I follow the dragon's diminishing cry.
The petrifying wind of the north stanches my thirst, numbs my skin, and freezes the grip upon my staff. The spell of direction leads me outside the imperium, towards untouched primitive land hemmed in by frozen cliffs scrawled with dragon's claws. The dragon knows I am behind her; her trail takes me on a mystic eddying ride down steep cliffs and frozen ice. I will follow her anywhere, even after my spells have drained. To death, to the greatest reach unmapped.
I pass the imperium's last archway, chewing on clumps of oats and walnuts. With my death, all magicians will finally fade into memories of pleasing songs, ritual dances, and parades, where our descendants will be held up, weak and sputtering, for the crowd's gaze. The empire could never dwindle our numbers by attacking us directly. No greater hatred could they exploit than that between magicians and dragons, for that ancient war brought purpose to our schools, gave us an identity beyond that of heretics. We felt useful, locked in a war with a radical, beastly enemy. The war between us, a war the empire had begun, would be our end.
Bereft of the spell of warmth, I continue into the grey, cloud-speckled sunlight onto the flatness of frozen ice, a still lake bordered by hardened seaweed. Standing under that heavy sky upon the remains of a vast, dim moor, I see the shadowy figure of that wild dragon Evald, the last wild dragon, her rugged skin so unlike her domestic brethren who play fire tricks behind iron bars. Her wings shine in the grey sunlight like a crescent moon; her nose expels a deep bright orange flame. Cornered in the harsh tundra, she seeks to frighten me away, the last primitive impulses of her life now caught in a rabid dance of flame, smoke and ice. I cast a multiplicity illusion so that I appear as a hundred rather than as one, and she takes aim at my copies, crushing them in the fierce fireballs that split open the frozen ice. Then she aims at nothing, her crazed dance now a spinning, fire-spitting pirouette, and below that chaos I hear the crazed near-death laughter of the wise beast, and following her, the fuzzed traces of my own incantations, ice spells, and weather alterations that bring lightning to strike her wings. She is battered across the frozen lake, her escape put to rest by the bright fogged cold, her tattered body too numbed for chasing.
With Evald's passing, I am left alone, waning across the crunched cracks of snow, stepping languorously across a spacious sky, the cold sometimes slowing my breath, sometimes shocking me into a fearful, flailing sorrow. With nothing left for me in the imperium, I march northward, through the foggy ruins and silver-imprinted runes of an even more ancient civilization: the Tydes, the legendary high-elves who we magicians once expelled from our own dominion. The Song of Wharre tells of the Tyde necromancers from the north with strange powers over the minds of men, powers of possession and resurrection, powers we could not understand nor hope to master. In one generation of war, we magicians wiped them out, with not even a single surviving elven child who we could ask repentance from. I join them now in their frozen heaths and haunted tombs, with my boots on death's step, far from the imperium's reach.
The ruins are frozen over, inhabited only by smog and mist, a circus' silhouette, where no voice can remind us how it once was and who it was for. In a frozen caved-in Tyde dwelling I sit and let my breath sink beneath the snow. With my magic drained, my staff can no longer emit light, yet the glow of that stark diamond sky brings me familiar, mindful offerings.


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BC: Love
3: I will always love you...
7: Ignore me for months. Fight me for days. Tell me you care. And then take it away. | Broken Rip my heart out. Tear my soul up. Insult me until i have to shout. Tell me top speak, yet interrupt. When will this ever end? | Laugh at my cry. Tell me to DIE. Love me and know that it's NOT a lie!
9: Love Me. You are my heart and soul. You are my best friend. You are the one i want to hold, Forever until the end. | They say love is blind, Though i believe i can see, That you are the one with whom i want to be. | Deny me or embrace me, For forever more, Keep my heart, it'll always be yours. | Unlock my heart and heal my soul. Amend the lies in which you told. Promise not to promise anymore. Open your heart and let me in the door. | Let trust lead us down this dreary path. Move forward and never look back. Reveal to me all that is within Your evil mind and every sin.
10: Inadequacy Please forgive my imperfection, My average being and inabilities. Please forgive my evils, The pessimism and negativity. My heart bets fast and my mind races. I'm not good enough for you. | It seems crazy to be thinking this. It seems insane to wonder why. I can't fulfill your past, Dark hair and smooth skin. Why can't that be me? I'm not good enough for you. | Each part of me flawed. Each part my own fault. From head to toe, Too small in an area, yet too big anywhere else. My silhouette large and unattractive. Who would want this? I'm not good enough for you. | All i can give is my heart. All i have for you is who i am. Will we survive this way? Am i good enough for you?


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Meet Justin Zeulner and the group making sports sustainable
This article originally appeared at GreenSportsBlog.
The Green Sports Alliance was founded in February 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission of "helping sports teams, venues and leagues enhance their environmental performance." Since launching with founding professional teams and venues in the Pacific Northwest, the Alliance has grown to include an international membership base that numbers over 260 professional teams, venues, and universities from 20 leagues. Green Sports Alliance members and teams have established recycling and composting programs, venues have installed on-site renewable capacity and the NHL issued the first league-wide sustainability report.
While all of this is certainly impressive, the organization is at a pivot point: How does it grow from here to go beyond its mission to help sports make a positive impact on the environment on a macro scale? The Alliance recently announced new leadership to help it take those next steps. Allen Hershkowitz, formerly of NRDC, was named president and Justin Zeulner, formerly of Vulcan, Inc. and the Portland Trail Blazers, became the new COO. GSB recently sat down with Zeulner for a wide-ranging interview to answer the simple question: "Where does the Green Sports Alliance go next?"
Lew Blaustein: First of all, congratulations, Justin, on the new role at the Alliance. You must be very excited.
Justin Zeulner: No doubt about it. Allen and I both are excited about where the Alliance has come from since 2010 and, especially, about where it will go moving forward.
Blaustein: Both Allen and you have been integral parts of the Alliance since the beginning, right?
Zeulner: Yes. I like to say we melded the best of the non-profit and business worlds in the service of green sports. Allen, as part of the Natural Resources Defense Council, brought the experience and credibility of one of the world's leading environmental non-profits into the forefront of the Green Sports movement at the Alliance's birth. And I represented one of the foremost capitalists and philanthropists of the modern era, Paul G. Allen (co-founder of Microsoft, owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA) on the Alliance Board as part of his consulting company, Vulcan. The NRDC and founding teams put up the bulk of the funding at the outset to get an independent non-profit moving back five to six years ago and off we went.
Blaustein: What is your background?
Zeulner: I've worked for the past 15 years or so in a variety of sustainability and venue operations roles for the Trail Blazers, Seahawks and Vulcan, Inc. That includes working to mitigate and minimize the environmental impacts of the stadia and arena, engaging partners and non-profits in those efforts and also trying to influence the politics of sustainability through sports.
Blaustein: That sounds like a big job.
Zeulner: You bet. And we've tried to bring the successes and best practices we've experienced in Seattle and Portland to the rest of the sports world via the Alliance.
Blaustein: How do you think it's gone to this point?
Zeulner: I would answer this question two ways. First, the journey has been incredible thus far and we are on the verge of a global movement. This is amazing. Another answer to this question would be that we haven't gone far enough. I mean, in the macro sense, the world and especially the U.S. have been largely stuck the last three decades or so on climate change, right? Muddling through in terms of the belief that's it real, that it's human caused and that we have to do something about it. (A current study from Yale shows that 63 percent of Americans think climate change is real but 37 percent think it's not or are unsure, and the "think it's not" number is, sadly, increasing.)
Our organizing principle is that sports is so iconic, so pervasive, so full of passion that if we can engage fans in green behaviors and attitudes, we can help change overall attitudes and behaviors about climate change. And that's why Allen and I each left great organizations, with their full support, to help lead the Alliance to, in turn, help the sports world move the world forward on environmental and ecological issues wherever possible.
95 percent of the Moda Center's food is organic and/or locally sourced, such as pizza from popular Portland restaurant Sizzle Pie.
Blaustein: Sports leading social change is not a foreign concept, right?
Zeulner: Absolutely. Whether it was Jackie Robinson in 1947 and civil rights, Billie Jean King in the '70s and equal rights or Michael Sam this year with gay rights, sports has often taken a leading role in social change. In perhaps a less dramatic way, that's what the Alliance will look to do with the environmental movement going forward.
Blaustein: Let's talk specifics: How does the Alliance plan to turn that goal into a reality?
Zeulner: Great question. Our work will focus on three main buckets.
1. Industry operations. Which is what the Alliance has mainly focused on to this point. Greening the venues, from stadium construction to recycling and composting. From access to mass transit to energy efficiency. We will continue to pursue and encourage best practices in this arena.
2. Supply chain. The Alliance can be a conduit to connect venues and teams to the greenest vendors from the beginning to the end of the supply chain. This can have a massive impact. And the thing is, teams and leagues are asking us for this.
3. And last but not least, fan engagement …
Blaustein: Fan engagement is the Holy Grail of green sports. How will that work?
Zeulner: We will develop templates for green fan engagement programs and green sponsorships that we will share with teams and leagues. And the goal is to change macro behavior. How can we help teams and leagues incentivize fans to take action on recycling, composting, use mass transit, etc.? Our approach will be more systemic, bigger and scalable.
Blaustein: What kind of new programs and initiatives can we expect to see?
Zeulner: We will continue to engage the sports industry to 1) protect species, 2) preserve natural resources and 3) enhance our communities and public health. One way we will do this is through a food report, due out early next year. What are the environmental impacts of food in the sports business? How can the industry enact dramatic change to lessen those impacts? This report will educate the industry about food.
Blaustein: You have firsthand experience with greening of arena food service with the Blazers, right?
Zeulner: Yes. 95 percent of food served at the Moda Center in Portland is organic and/or locally sourced. The team encourages the community to do the same and that helps local farmers.
Blaustein: Beyond food, what other new initiatives are on the drawing board?
Zeulner: We'll tackle big issues: mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiencies and clean energy, species preservation and water conservation.
GSA is consulting with Doha, Qatar, on making the 2022 FIFA World Cup a green event.
Blaustein: That is a big agenda. Now that you've set a plan for what you are going to do, what new audiences does the Alliance plan to reach?
Zeulner: College sports is one area where we see tremendous potential growth. In fact, we are excited to have Alice Henly join the Alliance. She worked with Allen at NRDC and is as well versed as anyone on the greening of college athletics.
The Alliance will also look to grow internationally. Right now we're in 13 countries, with plans to expand into Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom. We're beginning to consult with Doha, Qatar, on the greening of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Blaustein: That will be a tall and controversial order.
Zeulner: You're right. Our position is: If the Alliance can help Qatar put on a groundbreaking, sustainable World Cup, we will.
Blaustein: Any other new target groups?
Zeulner: There's one more — and it's a big one: corporate membership. We've been asked by a number of corporations about membership. The leagues are supportive. We will likely have an announcement about this at the Green Sports Alliance Summit in Chicago next June.
Blaustein: I'm glad you mentioned the Summit. What will be the theme next year?
Zeulner: Not surprisingly perhaps, it will be fan engagement.


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Description of the E02 from the official AIAIAI website:
Providing a vast range of interchangeable options across sound, function, comfort and design, TMA-2 Modular is a new headphone system that lets you create your own unique, personalized AIAIAI product – while enabling a quick and easy change of individual parts along the way. TMA-2 Modular provides 360 different configuration possibilities. For music professionals this means the opportunity to adapt and tailor the system to a creative context, from studio production or audio editing, to DJing or listening on the move. For everyone else it means the subtle dissolution of categories – the freedom to be yourself.
The E02 are soft on-ear foam cushion covered with PU leather. The thickness of the cushion and the materials used give a closed and intense sound representation. Produces strong bass and low end dynamics. High isolation. Good for DJing and electronic music. Centred sound stage and high isolation. Height 20 mm. Outer diameter 70 mm. Inner diameter 32 mm.
Please note, RIOTSOUND is an AUTHORIZED DEALER and direct partner of AIAIAI. Every AIAIAI product we sell comes factory sealed and includes an original factory warranty. With nearly a decade of pro-audio retail experience, at RIOTSOUND we offer you the expertise, commitment and attentive customer service to make sure you will be 100% satisfied with your purchase, each and every time. Please shop with confidence and peace of mind.
Shop with an AUTHORIZED AIAIAI DEALER and receive a 3 year warranty on your item:
All AIAIAI products are warranted to be free from defects in materials or workmanship for period of three years from the date of purchase by the original owner for all products purchased from an authorized AIAIAI dealer. Should your item malfunction as a result of faulty materials or workmanship, AIAIAI will repair the defect(s) or replace the merchandise, free of charge.


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300 S. Santa Fe Ave., Ste. C
Los Angeles, CA 90013
GROW'er Specials
Organic Bananas
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We have replaced the old default WordPress lay-out by a new lay-out based on the WordPress framework Genesis. Since blogs are mostly about contact, we decided to make the change.
The focus is much more on the content and the site is more minimalistic. Please let us know what you think.