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Zero warming, according to an article in Nature Climate Change vol. 3, p767, September 2013. In an article entitled "Overestimate global warming over the past 20 years", three Canadian climate scientists report that over the years from 1993 to 2012 global surface temperatures have risen by 0.14 ± 0.06 degrees Celsius. This is "significantly slower" than the rate predicted by climate models. They also state: "The inconsistency between observed and simulated global warming is even more striking for temperature trends computed over the past fifteen years (1998–2012). For this period, the observed trend of 0.05 ± 0.08°C per decade is more than four times smaller than the average simulated trend of 0.21 ± 0.03°C per decade". According to the scientists "the observed trend over this period — not significantly different from zero — suggests a temporary 'hiatus' in global warming". They conclude: "Ultimately the causes of this inconsistency will only be understood after careful comparison of simulated internal climate variability and climate model forcings with observations from the past two decades, and by waiting to see how global temperature responds over the coming decades".
Editorial Comment: The assessment of "not significantly different from zero" is another way of admitting that there has been no global warming for the last 15 years, in spite of many computer model predictions of relentless warming put out by the IPCC and other proponents of man-made global warming. For those not familiar with the journal Nature Climate Change, it is a publication associated with the prestigious scientific journal Nature. This article is one of a number of grudging admissions in mainstream scientific literature that global warming has stopped. It is about time scientists stopped putting their faith in computer models, and started looking at the real world, and having the humility to admit there are forces such as the sun, ocean currents, clouds and winds that humans are never going to control, and these have more influence on the climate than man-made carbon dioxide. And to keep it in perspective: climate change is very real – it has been happening since Noah's Flood when it first began to rain, and has gone through many variations, in accordance with God's promise to Noah that from then until the end of the world there would be periods of heat and cold. (See Genesis 8:22.) (Ref. climate, weather, environmentalism)
Evidence News, 2 October 2013


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WNC leaders worry that region will be left behind economically
Western North Carolina business and political leaders are wondering who will go to the mat for them to attract new and expanding businesses now that the N.C. General Assembly has severed ties with two important rural economic development entities.
"Who is going to be our advocate, and where are we going to find funds?" said Ron Leatherwood, a member of Haywood County's Economic Development Commission. "Someone has got to fill that void."
The state legislature cut funding to the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center as well as another prominent economic development organization, AdvantageWest. Instead, the state will put the millions in funding toward a single, yet-to-be-created nonprofit that will address economic development statewide.
"The money will still be there, but what will be the vehicle by which it's applied?" Leatherwood said.
Few details of the state's new approach to economic development are known. N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory has appointed 39 people from across the state to sit on a committee tasked with crafting a long-term economic development plan.
Related Items
With little to go on, many in WNC fear that the decline of its economic development advocates, the Rural Center and AdvantageWest, will essentially mute the region's voice and ability to attract and grow businesses. They wonder who will be there to pick up the slack.
"If you don't have a spokesman, then you are not at the table," said Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown, who is also on the Haywood Economic Development Commission.
If the Rural Center is one of WNC's economic development arms, then AdvantageWest is the other. The Rural Center awarded grants and loans to businesses to expand and create jobs, partially as an incentive to stay in a rural part of North Carolina rather than move to a big city or different state.
SEE ALSO: Rural Center cut may negatively affect WNC
"These small businesses in the rural areas are what the Rural Center was all about," said Brown, who also heads the council of governments for the seven westernmost counties. The center was "set up so we didn't have to compete with the Raleighs and the Durhams."
The Rural Center recently came under scrutiny after a state auditor released a report questioning how it invested and tracked state grant money (see related story). Meanwhile, AdvantageWest sniffed out leads and tracked down businesses that might be interested in locating in WNC.
"I have gotten a lot of leads from them," said Mark Clasby, Haywood County's economic development director. "They have done so many unique things for our area."
If the Rural Center and AdvantageWest dissolve or take on a lesser role in the region's economic development efforts, then leaders in the rural counties will need to make sure state officials keep their word and don't neglect WNC when the state implements its new economic development plan.
"I think we are all just going to have to work harder," said Cece Hipps, the executive director of the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Rural Center board of directors. "We will have to hold them to that promise."
Not everyone can cram his or her business into a big city nor would they want to, said Hipps. There will still be economic development opportunities available for rural North Carolina.
"Not everyone can move to Charlotte and Raleigh. I don't feel like we are going to dry up and blow away," Hipps said. "I am going to try to be positive."
'A pig in a poke'
Currently, state officials are trying to bring all N.C.'s economic development efforts under a centralized entity in Raleigh. To help guide that process, McCrory created a 39-person economic development board that will draft a roadmap for job creation and establish a private, nonprofit to take over many of the Department of Commerce's economic development duties.
Brown took issue with the fact that the new state economic development organization would be a private entity.
"What the Republicans are going to set up is (a program) that is not subject to public scrutiny," Brown said.
Despite cuts to rural economic development groups, lawmakers in Raleigh have assured Western North Carolinians that they would have a say in that process. Tony Almeida, the governor's senior economic adviser, recently spoke at the annual meeting of the Southwestern N.C. Planning and Economic Development Commission, the council of governments for the seven westernmost counties. He said that WNC would not be forgotten.
N.C. Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, remains skeptical.
"What we have is a promise — a pig in a poke," he said, adding that he will be the first to admit he was wrong if the new state approach is actually a positive for WNC. "I'll be the first one to say 'By golly, you are on the mark."
However, only one person west of Statesville is on the new state economic development board — John Cecil, president of Biltmore Farms in Asheville. While Cecil is a knowledgeable businessman, Asheville is the big city compared to the small towns and rural landscape of the seven western counties. The problems in Asheville are not the same as those of its neighbors to the west.
"Western North Carolina and southwestern North Carolina are quite different from Asheville," said Ryan Sherby, head of Southwestern Commission. "Once you cross west over Balsam, we are distinctly different."
Because there is no one farther west than Asheville on the economic development board, many public officials in the region feel that the state has already gone back on its word.
"There's no representation in WNC to speak of, and that's a problem. I think it's not good at all," said Jackson County Manager Chuck Wooten. "Everyone is disappointed."
At the annual Southwestern Commission meeting, it is customary to present the guest speaker with a present to thank them for their time. At the end of Almeida's speech, though, Brown said he invited the state leader to return in four years and show the crowd of area government officials how economic development has improved in WNC.
"It doesn't speak well for WNC," Wooten said. "But the jury is still out on that."
With so many details up in the air as to how a new state system for economic development will work, Western North Carolinians will have to wait and see how everything will pan out.
"Then we will figure out if it's going to be good or bad," Hipps said.
After passing a state budget that included no funding for the Rural Center, the N.C. General Assembly seemed to do everything but shut off the lights and lock the doors to the center. The Rural Center board will talk later this month about whether to forge ahead or dissolve.
If the Rural Center continues operating, it will have a tough row to hoe. State funding to the tune of about $25 million a year made up around two-thirds of the Rural Center's budget. The remainder came from grants, donations and other sources.
"The state just cut off the Rural Center," Clasby said. "That is really big."
Clasby said he is currently in talks with three local companies that want to expand. However, without money from the Rural Center, those plans may or may not move forward.
"All of them have a desire to expand and create jobs," Clasby said. "It would curtail, or certainly bring a to halt, those expansion plans."
Others in the region also decried the state's decision.
"My opinion is all Western North Carolina and Haywood County is a better place because of the Rural Center. It has funded things that have to absolutely be addressed," said Pat Smathers, former Canton mayor and a recipient of a Rural Center grant. "Water quality would be down. Property taxes would be up."
During his time as mayor, Smathers secured a Rural Center grant to help Canton expand its water and sewer system, which the town hoped would entice new companies. The Rural Center has also helped MedWest Haywood renovate its psychiatric wing, funded the expansion of Sonoco Plastics in Waynesville, which added 35 new jobs, and supported projects at the Jackson County Green Energy Park.
It gave money to the renovation of the Imperial Hotel in Canton, which leases space to a restaurant. The center supported the construction of Stonewall Packaging, a recycled cardboard packaging manufacturer in Sylva. Its funding helped make the longtime wish for an inpatient hospice service west of Asheville a reality.
A grant from the Rural Center paid for part of the Haywood Vocational Opportunities facility in Hazelwood, which provides jobs for the disabled. Its money allowed Maggie Valley to hire a consultant to draft a town business plan — and those are just the grants.
The Rural Center also has a loan program, which offers business owners in the region better than reasonable interest rates. Frog Level Brewery owner Clark Williams has firsthand knowledge of how a low interest rate loan from the Rural Center can lead to exponential business growth.
Williams received a $25,000 loan from the Rural Center's Microenterprise Loan Program in March 2012 to purchase additional equipment for his brewhouse and thereby produce more beer. Right around the same time, representatives from the Charlotte-based Millennium Beverage had "secret-shopped" the brewery and wanted to distribute Frog Level brews across the state. Without the additional brewing equipment, Williams would not have the capacity to supply a statewide demand.
"Without that loan, we would still be a very tiny dot," Williams said. "There is no way we could distribute if we didn't have that brewhouse. That loan was everything."
As a condition of the loan, Williams had to spend all the money in North Carolina.
"I had to show receipts where this money was spent in N.C.," Williams said. "My feet were held to the fire."
He would have qualified for a bank loan, Williams said, but it would not have come as quickly as he wanted or with such a low interest rate. His interest rate now is a 3.15 percent. Plus, the Rural Center offers budgeting help.
"This loan also comes with support," Williams said. "There is a wealth of knowledge there because they obviously want you to succeed."
Since joining the loan program, Williams said he has told other small business owners to check it out for themselves. However, along with the grant funds, the loan program is currently frozen. While the state is still collecting money on current loans, it is not giving out new ones.
Ever since a state audit questioned the center's internal operations, things have continued to decline from the Rural Center. The governor froze its funding; both the center's president and board chairwoman resigned; and the state slashed the nonprofit from its budget.
Hipps said the course of events is particularly heartbreaking given the positive impact the center's grants have had in WNC.
"It has been disturbing to be a part of this and watch the demise of the Rural Center, knowing all the good things it's done," said Hipps, a member of the Rural Center board.
Silver lining
The outlook is somewhat brighter for AdvantageWest, which is not caught up in the same political turmoil as the Rural Center.
Although it also lost its state funding, the money did not comprise the majority of AdvantageWest's budget. Slightly less than half the organization's revenues came from the state, whereas the Rural Center's budget was two-thirds state funding. Last fiscal year, AdvantageWest's total budget was about $2.2 million; of that, $1.2 million came from grants, foundations, donations and other sources. The rest was allocated from the state budget.
Scott Hamilton, president and CEO of AdvantageWest, said he thinks that AdvantageWest can stay open; it will simply have to adapt.
"I see it continuing," Hamilton said. "Will we be different and look different? I think the answer to that is yes."
The AdvantageWest board will hold meetings to determine its future and will try to find a place in the state's new economic development framework — however it ends up working. In fact, all economic development entities, including the Southwestern Commission, which remains intact, will need to find their place.
"We are trying to figure out what role our organization needs to play as the new administration and legislature change the way the state deals with economic development," Sherby said.
Another silver lining for AdvantageWest is that it will have a year to figure out how to adjust. While the organization will only receive $250,000 this year as opposed to its usual $1 million allocation, it is not completely cut off right away. Starting next fiscal year, AdvantageWest lose all its state funding.
Queen noted the impact AdvantageWest has had on the region.
"It has helped us with heritage tourism. It has helped us with film," Queen said. "It is very local specific."
AdvantageWest enticed "The Hunger Games" executives to shoot the movie in WNC, created a small business incubator specifically for farmers and food entrepreneurs, spearheaded one of the first regional clean energy coalitions in the U.S., and assisted with bringing Sierra Nevada and New Belgium breweries to the area, among other achievements. The nonprofit is often first point of contact for companies that want to do business in WNC and an advocate for the region.
Queen said he hopes to see AdvantageWest continue in some capacity because of its microeconomic focus.
"We have never had any attention like that from Raleigh," Queen said. "It is absolutely mythical to think it's going to happen."
State decision could shutter Rural Center
Operations at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center are effectively stalled after the Office of the State Auditor released a report in July showing a lack of oversight within the nonprofit organization.
The Rural Center has awarded millions of dollars in grants to organizations, towns and companies in the state's 85 rural counties — including Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain — for the past 26 years.
However, the nonprofit, which receives about two-thirds — or $25 million — of its total annual budget from the state, came under fire earlier this year after it was found that it did not always exercise proper oversight.
The state audit looked at grants disbursed during fiscal year 2012, how the Rural Center monitored them and how it dealt with reported administrative expenses charged to state grant funds. The audit did not evaluate the effectiveness of the Rural Center's grant programs nor did it verify whether a project met its required goals set up as a condition of the grants.
Theoretically, a grantee may have met a grant's benchmarks; it just was not verified by the Rural Center. Then again, the grantee's project may have failed completely.
A review of 38 grant files showed that the Rural Center did not independently confirm that five of the projects had met their goals, according to the audit. As an example, the document states that the center did not check to see if the city of Marion had created 100 jobs as promised, even though the grant period ended 18 months prior.
It also found that 28 out of 48 grantees did not turn in progress or final reports on time, yet they were not given notice of tardiness or forced to repay the grant monies. The audit states that the Rural Center did not sufficiently document how it identified what risks could inhibit a grantee from meeting the grant's goals.
The Rural Center argued in the audit that it did not have enough personnel to sufficiently monitor each grant nor did it have the money to hire them.
The audit also scrutinized the salaries of the nonprofit's executives, bluntly stating that the salaries of the Rural Center's top officials were unreasonably high. In the end, the audit said the center did not properly address the report's recommendations and offered up no plan for corrective action.
"The Rural Center comments suggest it will keep doing what is has been doing," the audit stated.

subset: commoncrawl


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
The ball machine is available at the Mount Pleasant Tennis Complex only and is available during normal business hours. Mount Pleasant Tennis staff reserves the right to not rent the machine during peek hours. There is a $10 per half hour or $15 per hour charge for use of the ball machine. Call 856-2162 to check availability and reserve the ball machine.
Show All Answers
Tennis courts may be reserved at the Mount pleasant Tennis Complex only. They can be made up to 48 hours in advance for 90 minutes of play by calling 843-856-2162. If you are a non-member of the facility there will be a small court fee.
MPRD TENNIS COURT FEES:Hard Court = $3 resident/per player, $6 non-resident/per player Clay Court = $6 resident/per player, $12 non-resident/per player
We have active senior groups for both men and women that play Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Mount Pleasant Tennis Complex. Both groups meet year round starting by 8:00 AM. A MPRD annual senior tennis membership is required.
Tennis courts at the Mount Pleasant Tennis Complex on Whipple Road need to be reserved and paid for in advance during normal business hours. Tennis courts in the Old Village on Royall Avenue and at the Park West Recreation Complex are free of charge and are first come first serve, however; MPRD programs have court priority. No league play is permitted at Royall Avenue or Park West.
Adult annual membership (ages 18 - 54): $135 residents/$306 non-residents Senior annual membership (ages 55+): $95 residents/$251 non-residents Family annual membership (all family members): $250 residents/$476 non-residents USTA League seasonal membership: $50 per season, resident/$90 per season, non-resident


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Saturday, September 24, 2011
Experimenting on the Ipad
Just having a little fun with the "Artrage" app on my IPad. I like it for mimicking lush buttery oil paint without all the mess and clean up. I also like the ability to "dry" the painting so you can work on top of the thick paint you already put down. The wet into wet or alla prima simulation is almost unnerving in how real it feels.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
It's live on Folio Academy! - New Photoshop Tutorial
As Promised I'm finally finished with this series - I'll be updating accounts this week for all those who have already purchased "Digital Painting in Photoshop from either http://willterry.com or http://folioacademy.com So - I'm giving this tutorial away for Free to anyone who has purchased the first course. I'm not sure how long it will take to get all the accounts updated - we're working on a way to automate it but either way it will happen soon.
Friday, September 2, 2011
New Photoshop Tutorial
Whoooeee - I'm finished! This was a fun one and now I'm in the editing process for the video tutorial. As I mentioned before I'll be giving this one away for FREE to anyone who has purchased my "Digital Painting in Photoshop" Videos from either my site or Folio Academy. It's my way of saying thanks for all the support we've been getting and continue to get. I hope to be finished with the editing process in a week or so - I have a crazy hectic schedule at the moment.
I'm tired - having fun but tired - I'm wearing lots of hats right now. Just trying to get the colors right - this piece is a challenge because there isn't a lot of warm light which means almost everything needs to be on the cool side.
It's slow going but I'll get there. Just starting to add lighter values and colors and trying to figure out my color scheme as I go. One of the advantages of working digitally - testing colors on "throw-a-way" layers.
I've now added a "multiply" layer and started to work color into the background using the airbrush with the "texture" turned on in the brush pallet. The texture is a scanned texture I made with acrylic heavy gel medium and black and white acrylic paint.
I added the value on the ipad using the airbrush tool. I want to try to figure out where all the dark and light areas are going to be before I start adding color. This is crucial because once you get deep into the color process it's hard to fix value problems.
Since I've switched over to Photoshop 5 I thought it might be nice to offer another tutorial. I'm going to give it away for FREE to those who have already purchased my "Digital Painting in Photoshop" video series - I'll just update everyone's account at Folio Academy with this new video series. So what I'm going to do is work on it a little each day and post my results here on my blog as I have a big project for National Geographic Kids Mag going on right now too.
This is a little sketch I did on my ipad with my finger - I've gone paperless by the way - I never intended to go green but when technology makes it easier to use than paper...
I'm calling this painting "Class System". I find it ironic that often it's the working class/poor who are much happier in life than the rich who control everything but still turn to drugs, alcohol, and suicide. Oh no - I actually have something to say? This is weird.
Anyway, I'll try to post my results each day for a week or so.
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Help wanted: Two chief executives to replace one cult hero at regional grocery chain. Will be scorned by employees loyal to former boss, and may be fired within weeks. Successful candidates will share ridicule and uncertainty.
That might as well have been the ad James Gooch and Felicia Thornton responded to when they applied to become co-CEOs of Market Basket — and now their situation is becoming more precarious.
As the Demoulas family supermarket spectacle drags through a fourth week, Gooch and Thornton, who were appointed in June, are trying to return Market Basket's 71 stores to normal operations while ownership of the company hangs in limbo, shelves are bare, and thousands of workers continue their crusade to bring back the ousted president, Arthur T. Demoulas.
It's gotten so bad that Gooch's mother has received nasty phone calls from Arthur T. supporters, according to a company spokesman.
Even some of those who refuse to work for the new leaders are starting to feel pangs of sympathy for them.
RELATED | Shirley Leung: A simple 'sorry' could solve Market Basket feud
"Yeah, of course I do," said food delivery driver Roger Smith, a 12-year company veteran who plans to remain on strike unless Arthur T. Demoulas is reinstated. "They were just hired to do a job, just like we were."
At the top of Gooch and Thornton's unenviable to-do list is overseeing a job fair to recruit potential replacement workers. Any new hires would fill gaps left by Market Basket employees who quit or get fired. After two days of interviewing internal candidates, Wednesday marks the first time the company will consider outside applicants — a move that could further antagonize its deeply insular workforce.
Gooch and Thornton still have to figure out how to enforce a deadline they set for employees to get back on the job. While most full-time workers have continued to report for duty — protesting on their own time — hundreds of others have been staying away from the stores and ignored Monday's deadline to return. Some are showing up for work, but openly encouraging customers to boycott Market Basket.
Meanwhile, Gooch and Thornton's positions appear just as unstable. Market Basket's board of directors is mulling offers to purchase the majority shares controlled by Arthur S. Demoulas, Arthur T.'s cousin and rival. At any moment, the board could pull the trigger on a sale that almost certainly would mean pink slips for the executive tandem.
But for all of the drawbacks, the top gig at Market Basket does have perks — probably millions of them.
RELATED: Thousands gather at Market Basket rally
Two store-level managers who attended question-and-answer sessions with Gooch and Thornton shortly after the leadership change said they were open about having guaranteed contracts that will pay them for three years, no matter how long they survive. Chief executives at a company the size of Market Basket would typically command annual salaries of between $1 million and $3 million, said Clark Waterfall, managing director of BSG Team Ventures, an executive search firm in Boston.
Through a spokeswoman, Gooch and Thornton declined to comment on their compensation packages. They also turned down a request for interviews.
Waterfall said that given the chaos, many high-level job candidates wouldn't want to run Market Basket. But for certain people, he said, the challenge might be appealing.
"There's not really a downside if you're an executive in transition," Waterfall said. "It's such a mess already that if things go south, are you really going to be blamed? And if you somehow right the ship, there's a lot of upside."
Gooch and Thornton definitely fit the mold of executives in transition.
Gooch stepped down under board pressure as chief executive of Radio Shack in 2012 after failing to turn around the troubled electronics retailer.
Thornton cited personal reasons when she resigned in 2011 as chief executive of Knowledge Universe, a Portland, Ore., company that runs classroom and online courses from pre-K to graduate school.
Their co-CEO arrangement is unusual, said Andy Zelleke, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. But it's not unprecedented. In the grocery business, Whole Foods Market Inc. operates under two chief executives, and BlackBerry had two for almost 20 years before longtime partners Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis left in 2012.
RELATED: Meet the Market Basket protesters
Market Basket workers tend to focus on the job cuts that both CEOs oversaw in their previous jobs. Thornton served as chief financial officer of supermarket operator Albertson's between 2001 and 2006, a period when the grocery chain closed 165 stores and laid off about 20 percent of its managerial and administrative staff.
Gooch also led downsizing efforts at Radio Shack.
Those track records alarmed Market Basket employees from the start, and early interactions with the executives did little to put them at ease. Managers who met Gooch and Thorton described them as distant.
One galvanizing moment occurred last month when the CEOs fired eight high-ranking employees who led pro-Arthur T. demonstrations. Despite their decades of service, the workers were not called into an office or even dismissed over the phone — termination letters and no-trespassing orders were delivered by courier to their homes on a weekend.
Such actions, seen as cold-blooded, make it easy for Market Basket employees to demonize Gooch and Thornton, said Erik Gregory, who directs the organizational and leadership psychology program at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.
"It's the 'othering' effect, where we can marginalize people we don't really know and attach our fears to them," Gregory said. "The courier delivery validated those fears."
A dozen people who worked with Gooch or Thornton at other companies declined to comment or did not respond to interview requests.
Their reign at Market Basket may end up being brief, but it's been packed with enough drama for an entire career.
For instance, they spent their fourth day on the job at Indian Ridge Country Club in Andover — not to network on the golf course, but to quell a panic caused by the Market Basket board. The company owns the country club, and its staff is partial to Arthur T. Demoulas. Board members allied with Arthur S. marched into the clubhouse — accompanied by a police escort — intent on firing the club's managers. In the end, the managers stayed and the board apologized.
Then there was a seemingly innocuous public statement by Gooch and Thornton that referred to store staffers as "employees" instead of their preferred moniker, "associates." The semantic faux pas caused an uproar among Market Basket workers. They said it proved the CEOs did not understand the chain's culture.
John Garon, a front-end manager at the Burlington Market Basket, said Gooch and Thornton were doomed from the start — because neither one is named Arthur T.
"They're not part of the Market Basket family," Garon said. "Would we have been welcoming to anyone? No, but that's not the point."
Callum Borchers can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @callumborchers.


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The Gates Foundation released its Measures of Effective Teaching Project Releases Final Research Report yesterday, and many of us are still trying to digest it.
Here's a very beginning list of posts about it, and I'll be adding more and more (please let me know about ones I'm missing):
Gates Releases Final Report On "Effective Teaching" was my post about it yesterday, which includes many links to articles about it from the mainstream media that give simple summaries.
Gates Still Doesn't Get It! Trapped in a World of Circular Reasoning & Flawed Frameworks is from Bruce Baker.
The 50 million dollar lie is by Gary Rubinstein, and the title summarizes his conclusions.
Gary has written a good follow-up post, too.
And here are two tweets from David B. Cohen:
I think I missed something: did everyone agree at some point that purpose of teacher evaluation is predict test scores gains? #Gates #MET
— David B. Cohen (@CohenD) January 10, 2013
Maybe observations make poor predictor of test score gains because INDIVIDUAL teacher is also not a great predictor of test score gains.
— David B. Cohen (@CohenD) January 10, 2013
You might also be interested in The Best Posts On The Gates' Funded Measures Of Effective Teaching Report, which is a collection of commentaries on their report from a year ago, including my own.
The Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers) (look near the end of that post) also includes some posts specifically related to the report's emphasis on using student surveys in the formal teacher evaluation process.
And, since a big conclusion of the report is that Value Added Measurements work, you might want to check out The Best Resources For Learning About The "Value-Added" Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.
Coincidentally, an hour after the Gates report was released, Nate Silver made his first public comments on VAM.
Gates' Teacher Effectiveness Study: Surprised? is by Renee Moore.
Gates Foundation Wastes More Money Pushing VAM is from The National Education Policy Center.
Weighing and Weighting the Evidence: the Measures of Effective Teaching Project is by Barnett Berry.
Rick Hess posted a very articulate analysis of the Gates Foundation MET study on teacher effectiveness. It's definitely worth reading the entire post, but here's an excerpt:
But I do think it's a mistake to imagine that ability to move reading and math scores is universally a compelling proxy for being a "good" teacher. And when we calibrate all of our other instruments based on their ability to predict value-added gains on reading and math assessments, we build our entire edifice of teacher quality on what strikes me as a narrow and potentially rickety foundation. When we see policymakers mandate teacher evaluation systems that rely almost wholly on observation and value-added, and feel comfortable in doing so because of the MET findings, I fear we're getting way ahead of ourselves.
MET has made an enormously valuable contribution. Even when the results are mundane, they're useful. After all, the finding that nothing predicts value-added scores nearly as well as value-added scores shouldn't unduly surprise, nor should the sparse evidence on the value of observational protocols (much like professional development, I think observation has long been more impressive in concept than practice.) But, more than anything, I hope that we resist the temptation to narrow our conception of good teaching to a handful of things we can conveniently measure, and instead make smart use of the MET findings while also seeking ways to more robustly gauge teacher performance.
Think Twice: Measures of Effective Teaching is from The Great Lakes Center.
The Gates Foundation Leapt, Now MET Looks is by John Thompson.
Researchers Critique Final 'Measures of Effective Teaching' Findings is from Education Week.
The key to evaluating teachers: Ask kids what they think is an interesting interview with Tom Kane, head of the Gates Foundation MET project. And Kevin Drum from Mother Jones has an even more interesting follow-up to it.
'Effective Teaching' Study Seen as Influential, and Faulty is from Education Week.
Why Didn't the Gates Foundation Study the Policy Issues Regarding Value-Added Teacher Evaluations? is by John Thompson.
A Small Request for My Friends at Gates is by Rick Hess.
Re-Evaluating the Gates MET Study is by John Thompson.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 1000 other "The Best…" lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.


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Wednesday, November 04, 2009 8:24:54 AM by Kevin Hetmanski
This week I am in Las Vegas for the world famous SEMA show. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's one of the largest car and car accessory shows in the world. It takes days to see the show and if you're lucky you'll be able to see everything here. It can take you a day to get around and see everything they have going on in the parking lot. You'll see street cars, monster trucks, race trucks, hot rods, and more. It's the ultimate show for any car nut.
The last time I was here the Ford Mustang was the hot car to modify and this time there are Chevy Camaros all over the place. The latest Bigfoot monster truck is here and they have a really cool fiberglass replica of the first Bigfoot body on it. On one side of the parking lot is a small track with jumps and turns and they were sending Lucas oil race trucks in the air. The sound of the engines was amazing. On the first day we checked out central hall. Most of the hot rod stuff can be found there. Ford had a awesome display, Chevy had a lot of Camaros, Honda had some sweet race cars, and in the Subaru booth you can find a few rally cars. Ken block and Travis Pastrana's rides were in the house. At the Traxxas booth you'll find the truck that Mike Jenkins drove to victory lane at the last TORC race and it still has all the dirt on it from the track. They also have all of their radio control vehicles on display. The booth was packed full of people. I also saw a few celebrities while walking around. Robby Gordon, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Kevin Tetz, and Chip Foose are just a few that I saw. Next up are the truck and wheel sections. I shot a lot of photos and have a wicked slow internet connection here at the hotel so I will be uploading more photos from time to time.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 1:51:08 PM by Kevin Hetmanski
Day 2 at the SEMA show is going well. I made it over to the show early so I could get some shots of the cars in the parking lot and check out more stuff inside before the show opened. I still have a lot more to see. I met up with Pro Comp/Team Associated driver Travis Coyne and checked out his Lucas Oil truck. I've downloaded lots of photos. Enjoy!
Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:12:25 AM by Kevin Hetmanski
Last night I went to the Kicker Big Air Bash party over at the Palms. They were racing pit bikes on one side of the party and had freestyle motocross on the other side. Team Associated was on hand showing off their radio control cars. Richard Saxton and Ryan Mayfield were running laps on the 50 track and the crowd loved it. Later that night Ryan Mayfield took an RC8 and jumped it over the freestyle jump and easily made the gap. The crowd went crazy and famous freestyle motocross guys like Kenny Bartram and Tommy Clowers were super excited at what they saw. The only bummer of the night is that all the Playboy bunnies stayed in the hotel. I also hung out with a few of the Lucas Oil short course guys while I was at the party. It was a good time!
Friday, November 06, 2009 12:14:59 AM by Kevin Hetmanski
My week at SEMA is over and I had a great time. I met a lot of great people and hung out with a few celebrities. I shot lots of photos and will be posting more and some videos soon. Have to pack up to go home. Can't wait to come back next year!


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Ok, so this app made me feel really dirty when I downloaded it. It's called Badabing! and it basically goes through your friends' photos on Facebook to pull out the ones of them at the pool or beach. In other words, we're talking about scantily clad photos here.
I of course, for the sake of technology journalism, had to download the app and give it a whirl. It actually kind of works and it's really creepy. To protect the not so innocent, I'm not going to post any actual screenshots of my Facebook friends. They'd kill me. And probably the folks who made this app.
The app is $1.99 and all you have to do is log in with your Facebook account and then choose a few friends to dig up some dirt on. The company has some sort of image recognition technology that looks for…skin?
After your search is complete you can bookmark your favorite photos. Now let's get to the heart of the matter, is this wrong to do? I mean, technically, your friends have uploaded these photos and shared them with you anyway. All this app does is do a search, albeit a search with slightly icky intent.
Moral of the story, don't upload photos to Facebook and share them with friends unless you want them looking at them. Especially if you're in a bikini or tight swim trunks.
Creep you out? Cool use of tech? Tell us in the comments.


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The Mets throw all sorts of obscure statistics on their scoreboard in the hours before a game starts, including how they're doing at home on a given day of the week. For example, before the Mets opened against the Rockies, word was posted that the Mets were 9-0 this year on Tuesday nights at Citi Field.
Coincidence? Biorhythms? The tides? Whatever. Tuesday's obviously a good night for home games in 2010.
This most recent Tuesday was a great night at Citi Field.
You'd think a ballpark you've been hanging out with for 55 games plus various and sundry events isn't capable of showing you much new, but you'd be wrong. Then again, I spent more than 400 games with another ballpark and I was always getting something unexpected out of it. Part of why we go to ballgames is for the constancy it provides our lives — familiar team, familiar people, familiar sensations — but its magic is also embedded in giving you what you hadn't experienced before.
I keep going and I keep getting the best of all worlds.
Some of what was new to me from Tuesday…
• The Empire Suites. Through one of those Degrees of Separation you had no idea existed from you to this person as well as to that person, Stephanie and I made our Citi Field suite debut. Until last night, this level was merely a rumor to me, something behind carefully guarded doors, somewhere Kevin Burkhardt materialized every few nights to interview whichever Met alumnus didn't rate the SNY booth. Gary, Keith and Ron got Mike Piazza, Kevin got Benny Agbayani.
Not that there's anything wrong with Benny Agbayani. But I didn't see Benny on the Empire level. I did, however, break through those doors and saw what there was to see.
I saw what an Empire Suite looks like (gracious living, no more over the top than the Diamondview Suite of yore).
I saw the ballgame from between home plate and the visitors' dugout (at approximately Loge level; yes, I still translate most things into Shea).
I saw a very nice spread of ballpark fare for dinner (try as I might to translate, there is no word to describe how much better the Citi Field rendition of the chicken tender is than that which emanated from the Shea kitchen in 2004 and literally made me sick).
I saw the most padded seat I'd ever been permitted to sit in for a ballgame and, shall we say, sat my ass off.
I saw CNN instead of SNY on the men's room monitor, though I guess the real story is the Empire level has a TV in the men's room.
And I saw a lovely woman named Felicia who attended to our suite with a plateful of courtesy and chocolate chip cookies.
The real treat for me, besides the view and the — wait for it — amenities was getting to personally inspect the oversized Topps baseball cards that line most of the Empire level hallway. Ever since they were affixed to the walls early in the 2009 season, I strained to make them out from the Rotunda, and never did any better than 1983 on the right to 1988 on the left. Who, I wondered, was represented? Was every year up there? What other fun stuff were they hiding from those of us who were not Emperors?
I can now tell you there is indeed one Topps for every Met year, starting with 1962, 1963 and 1964 which, for some reason, are represented chronologically by cards from 1963, 1964 and 1962, respectively. I'd love to issue whoever hung them the benefit of the doubt, but no, I can't. You put stuff like this up for people who will obsess on them. Don't get them wrong.
Just because Marv Throneberry's signature year was 1962, you can't place his 1963 card first and call it 1962 on the nameplate (even though the Mets are Capital-A Awesome for continuing to embrace Marv Throneberry when the Astros likely haven't done a damn thing for Al Heist since LBJ was vice president). Duke Snider's only Met year may have been 1963, but his card is a 1964 model. Stick him over the 1964 tag, let Throneberry live in 1963 where his card belongs and for gosh sake, Casey Stengel's 1962 card — in which he's wearing a pinstriped jersey and an airbrushed cap — should not be filling the 1964 slot. By 1964, even Topps had pictures of Casey Stengel in the right pinstriped jersey with the right NY cap.
That said, what a collection. Yogi's 1965. Mets Maulers from '67 (Kranepool and Swoboda, who Mauled to the tune of 22 combined home runs in '66). The legendary Ryan-Koosman/Koosman-Ryan rookie card from '68. Matlack horizontally in '74. Grote in full gear in '76. Mazzilli's bedroom…I mean dugout eyes from 1979. Then the good players of the '80s for as long as they will last into the '90s (Eddie Murray shows up eventually, but no Bonilla), followed by Valentine's Men of Valor — Fonzie! Oly! Robin! — and a smooth transition into the recent relatively good times of Floyd, Reyes, Martinez, Wright, Beltran, Santana, Delgado and, standing up for 2010 for reasons nobody will be able to adequately explain to the Empire Suite holders of 2020, Jeff Francoeur.
Then again, I kvelled from Marvelously Misplaced Marv nearly a half-century removed from his not touching first or second, so the cult of Frenchy may have legs. It's not like it has a batting eye.
But to reiterate, no Benny.
Except for a few framed photos of Mr. Met and Citi Field construction workers, there wasn't much else that Metsified the otherwise chilly corporate Empire level. I could make suggestions, but I don't expect to be up there to inspect again for a while. As with the oversized Mets yearbook covers that line the corridor that leads from the press conference room to the field, what a shame this kind of cool Metabilia is seen by so few fans. Then again, whoever's paying big bucks for a suite deserve some kind of premium. They get a cookie and they get a big Jeff Francoeur.
Seems reasonable.
• The Chasins. True story from our trip to Philly on Sunday. A kid named Alex, early teens I'd guess, came up to me to tell me how much he was enjoying my book, which I appreciated, of course, but I thought he was a friend of the birthday boy we were there to fete, and it wouldn't seem out of the ordinary that someone who knew the Chapman family would have read Faith and Fear in Flushing. But he wasn't part of the Ross celebration. It was a chance meeting between two Mets fans on foreign turf — one who wrote the book the other was currently reading — which made the bump-into rather unusual and particularly wonderful. Or as Alex's mother said to me when I came across their brood a few minutes later, "He reads one book in his whole life, and he meets the author. I told him he should read more books."
Sound advice, no matter who you meet.
I've been lucky enough to meet or correspond with dozens and dozens of former strangers who read FAFIF and not one demanded his or her money back. It's amounted to an incredible emotional annuity for me since it began happening with the release of the hardcover edition in March of 2009, and it continues to humble me now that it's in paperback.
Within that realm of being recognized or sought out, nothing has ever compared to the Ryder Chasin experience.
The back story is here, but the Baseball Digest version is Ryder was, last September, a newly minted 13-year-old with a burgeoning Mets obsession that was on pace to match my own. He'd read my book and wrote me a letter that asked, really nicely, would I mind attending his Bar Mitzvah party at Citi Field in November?
Would I mind? Would Jeff Francoeur mind swinging on three-and-oh?
Stephanie and I were delighted guests of Ryder and his parents at a memorable affair last fall, an event whose only drawback was it didn't come with a baseball game. That little detail we took care of Tuesday night.
That's where the Degree of Separation I mentioned comes into play. It turns out Ryder, a young man of many talents (and nearly a head taller from when I last saw him), was pitching a whale of a season at the Babe Ruth level in his Connecticut hometown this summer. Somehow it came up in conversation between Ryder's dad and the dad of a teammate that I was at Ryder's Citi Field Bar Mitzvah.
And the dad of the teammate said, hey, I know that guy.
Small world strikes again. The dad of the teammate is somebody with whom I've communicated intermittently in one of my other online Met incarnations. I knew him only by screen name. It took Ryder to tell me his real name — Nick. And then I found out Nick has access to a suite…and since we'd been talking about going to a game together…and Nick (who couldn't make it himself Tuesday) turns out to be a super nice guy in real life…there we were, Stephanie and me, Ryder and his dad Rob, getting the cookie and the oversized cards and the outstanding view and a really fantastic evening that would have been off the charts even without Mike Pelfrey's crucial contribution.
It also would have been wonderful without benefit of a suite, but who's going to turn one of those down the only time it's offered?
When we met outside the park, Rob and Ryder were all, "We're following you, you know your way around this place." But the Chasins showed me at least one thing I had never seen at Citi Field. They showed me the Hershey's Dunk Tank. It was one of those things I vaguely knew existed but wasn't sure where it was and had never been curious enough to track down what it was. It's pretty cool, actually. The Mets make an employee (who treats it, truth be told, as grim duty) put on the opposing team's jersey and wait for a patron's pinpoint fastball to release the mechanism that will send him or her plunging into wetness. I don't know why they don't get dunked in chocolate since it's Hershey's. Probably insurance reasons.
Nick had clued me in that Ryder showed quite an arm in his summer league. I can confirm that. On the second of Ryder's three pitches, down went the grumbling "Rockies" player into the tank. Great velocity. Great control. Great fun. Only feature they could improve would be having Oliver Perez serve as dunkee. It's not like he's doing anything else.
Dunking done, the four of us together then discovered the Empire level, and from there we discovered all over again the properties that make the constancy of baseball so appealing.
How many so-called diversions can bring together people who didn't know each other a year before — and had only met once since then — as if they were all the oldest of friends? How many "events" are perfect for following intently while simultaneously chatting amiably? And how many topics come replete with an expansive vocabulary that give every user instant comfort? Go flag down somebody on the street and get into overuse of middle relievers or runners scoring from second on ground balls or long ago 0-0 scores and they'll look at you funny (or worse). Ryder and Rob and Stephanie and I…we all spoke the same language.
It was a terrific Bar Mitzvah last year, but this was better. This was a ballgame.
• Upstairs. It's worth noting that the date we arrived upon with Rob and Ryder wasn't so random. Sharon Chapman told me she and Ross (Stephanie's and my original 2009 Mets-themed Bar Mitzvah boy, he of the Citizens Bank birthday gala on Sunday; I swear this week has been like a reunion tour sponsored by Manischewitz) would be inviting a couple of people on August 10 I might like to meet — they were all going to their first Mets game together, too. Nice symmetry, it occurs to me now.
Sharon, as you know if you've been following this blog, has been training diligently for the New York City Marathon and, in concert with her running, raising funds for the Tug McGraw Foundation. The Foundation works like Sharon trains — all out — in search of a cure, better quality of life and awareness where brain tumors are concerned.
Sharon's and Ross's guests were another mother and son, Sharon and Connor McKean. Connor, just a little younger than Ryder and Ross, is who Sharon Chapman is running for. He and his family are dealing with something called ependymoma. It's a tumor Connor was diagnosed with three years ago. It's no understatement to say the McKeans have been waging a battle ever since.
Tuesday night, however, was a Mets game. Connor's a Mets fan. He was wearing a BELTRAN 15 jersey, which was nice to see not only for loyalty's sake but because Ryder, who joined me to say hello to these nice folks up in Promenade, was also wearing BELTRAN 15. More symmetry. More shared vocabulary.
I didn't get much of a chance to say anything more than hello to Connor and his mom before Ryder and I headed back to rejoin my wife and his dad in time for first pitch. I wouldn't have known what else to say besides enjoy the game. And I'm guessing they did.
The Mets are now 10-0 on Tuesday nights this year at Citi Field.
Scattered observations besides…
• A quick visit to the Hall of Fame and Museum before leaving filled me with naches or what people who don't get to too many Bar Mitzvahs would call pride. Pride of the Met variety. I wanted an up-close look at the four new plaques for our four new Hall of Famers. It gave me chills to see one for Frank Cashen, one for Davey Johnson, one for Darryl Strawberry and one, at last, for Dwight Gooden, Mets pitcher from 1984-1994.
Except the plaque says he pitched for them from 1984-1995. Which he didn't. He wasn't under contract to the Mets in 1995. Doc was suspended by Major League Baseball in 1994 for violation of his Aftercare Program. He was cut loose during the strike, before the new year. All in 1994. Back among the Empire card collection, Doc's Topps image is captioned with the correct dates. Other than it taking far too long to enshrine this quartet and establish a physical Hall of Fame, I can't think of a bigger mistake in this vein than getting an easily confirmed fact wrong. This is worse than the Game Seven "win" with which the Mets temporarily credited Sid Fernandez on the Fanwalk. Sid's middle relief really was the key to victory in 1986, Roger McDowell's gaining of the decision notwithstanding. Doc, on the other hand, did not pitch for the Mets in 1995. Doc was not a Met in 1995.
So why does his plaque say he was?
• Citi Field attracted just over 30,000 fans Tuesday night, a respectable showing for a home team that's been amazingly lousy for six weeks and an opponent that, despite its quality, is forever flying under the National League radar. The 30,000 sounded like 3,000 most of the night, and that's not just the suite level talking. It's simply not a season to get noisy about anymore. That'll happen.
But the Mets A/V squad, bless their button-pushing souls, is always trying to rev us up, particularly with meters and metrics to let us know just how loud we are and how loud we should aspire to be. This has been a staple of DiamondVision prompting for years. I can never remember whether "FRENZIED" is suitably voluble or whether it falls short of the desired "CRAZY".
Tuesday night Stephanie and I were fixated in the late innings on a new loudness measurement, one that likened our mass reaction to an array of venues. From lowest to highest, depending on the decibels we generated, it contained five steps:
LIBRARY (Universally understood as quiet)
CAFETERIA (Within the context of a school, louder than a LIBRARY)
SUBWAY STATION (Like a Mets game, those can be ear-splitting or deadly silent, but let's assume they meant when a train is rumbling through)
OK, let's back up here…
SMALL ARENA? What is that, a Family Feud answer? Name something that makes lots of noise…survey says…sorry, nobody said "small arena".
How big are arenas supposed to be? I think of arenas, I think 20,000 tops, like Madison Square Garden. So what's a "small arena"? Like a practice rink? An ABA home court? Why not just ARENA? Stephanie figured a really loud arena, 20,000 strong, could make more noise than Citi Field, particularly when most of the 30,000 Tuesday night seemed disinterested in a scintillating pitchers duel or had already left. I wondered if there had been a meeting about this.
"C'mon people, we need one more level of loudness, something between subway station and Citi Field."
"You know, I don't want to be counterproductive here, but I've been in some subway stations that are louder than Citi Field. It can get really loud at rush hour and it doesn't get all that loud here. I'm just saying…"
"You're being counterproductive."
"Well, we're twice as big as the Garden. We've got to be twice as loud, right?"
"I dunno. I was at a Rush concert there once and it got pretty fricking loud."
"Rush can really blow the roof off a place, all right, but what if the roof wasn't as big. How much noise could they conceivably make in an arena that's not as big as the Garden?"
"Are we counting the fans? Because if you add Rush to Rush's fans, I imagine it could get pretty loud."
"What if it's not the Garden. Not every arena's that big. Why don't we just say 'small arena'?"
"Small arena?"
"C'mon, Citi Field's gotta be louder than that."
"To tell you the truth, I've been in cafeterias that get pretty intense at lunch time. Citi Field not so much."
"Enough counterproductivity. Just write down SMALL ARENA and we'll come back to it later."
• Continental Airlines ads have replaced Budweiser ads in the Mets-Willets Point station. The Budweiser ads had Mets logos that I took great care to tap or rub on my way in and out of the 7. The Continental ads have U.S. Open logos. Thus begins the annual anti-tennis jihad from the baseball fans who resent the imminent August intrusion of that which doesn't exist from April through July. The Mets won 14 in a row while I was tapping and rubbing. "Don't blame me if they lose tonight," I warned Stephanie. They're 1-0 since Continental moved in. We'll see how this goes.
• The only Rockie I wouldn't have encouraged Ryder to dunk in the Hershey's tank led off the eighth pinch-hitting for Ubaldo Jimenez. When I recognized him, I applauded heartily for Melvin Mora, one of the last of the 1999 Mets still active. I'll applaud any 1999 Met not named Bobby Bonilla, but Melvin with extra fervor. I fell in baseball love with Melvin on October 3 of that unforgettable year and never fell out, despite his being gone from our midst by July 28, 2000. Melvin Mora remains one of my all-time favorite Mets. If there's a quotient reflecting time spent as a Met to my ardor for that Met, Melvin Mora would quite possibly rank as my favorite Met. But you can't apply sabermetrics to the heart, just as I can't get enough of the utilityman who sparked the rally and scored the run that made those playoffs possible.
So I applauded heartily. I sensed some momentary confusion from Ryder (who turned three years old at the outset of the extraordinary stretch drive of 1999), but he catches on quickly. He joined me in my applause for our nominal enemy.
Don't get me wrong, I assured my young friend — "I hope he strikes out." The applause was for 1999. The rooting interest is firmly planted in the present.
By the way, perhaps inspired by the return of Melvin Mora to the National League, I finally figured out an antidote to the unwieldy
banners (Bullpen Plaza and left field wall, respectively) that don't quite do justice to the year of seven-game losing streak; the Olerud grand slam off Maddux; the heartbreaking eleven-inning defeat the next night; the Friday night resurrection against the Pirates; the Reed shutout; the Brad Clontz wild pitch that allowed Mora to score; the Leiter two-hitter; the sneak attack on Randy Johnson; the Fonzie grand slam off Bobby Chouinard; the Tony Womack drop; Pratt; the 0-3 hole in the NLCS; Olerud again, off Rocker; the fifteen innings; the Grand Slam Single; Leiter's awful first inning; the comeback to take two leads, including one in the tenth at Turner Field; and dying with our boots on, Kenny Rogers or no Kenny Rogers. By not winning a division, a pennant or a World Series, it's not easy to encapsulate how 1999 is forever wallworthy.
But this might do the trick:
• Since April 3, 2009, I've reflexively referred to "Shea" when I meant Citi Field too many times to count. I wasn't making a t-shirt kind of point. It was just habit. Last night, on our way home, I was telling Stephanie some story from long ago and reflexively referred to "Citi Field" when I meant Shea. Good lord, time really does march on.
Sharon Chapman's run for Connor McKean and the Tug McGraw Foundation has surpassed its goal of raising $4,500 and has now hit the $5,000 mark. Let's help Sharon keep that total running. Please, if you can, donate here to a great cause.


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A Marine sergeant said he was devastated when he learned the corps will retry after twice-overturned murder convictions — the latest twist in a nearly decade-old Iraq war crime case.
Lawrence Hutchins III is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday at Camp Pendleton in California, where he is now stationed.
"I will continue to hope and pray that this ordeal is over soon, and my family is spared any more harm," Hutchins said Monday.
Hutchins led an eight-man squad that was accused of kidnapping a retired Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania in 2006 and shooting him to death in a ditch.
Hutchins has said he thought retired policeman Hashim Ibrahim Awad was an insurgent leader. Prosecutors accused the squad of planting a shovel and AK-47 to make it appear Awad was an insurgent.
The Marine Corps determined the seriousness of the crime warranted another retrial, and prosecutors have sworn statements and other evidence to support the charge, said Lt. Col. Joseph Kloppel, a corps spokesman. He declined to provide further details.
Hutchins said he was "devastated" by the announcement.
His wife is pregnant with their third child and "the stress this case has brought upon her is tremendous," he said.
Hutchins said that since his release last year from military prison, he has done everything he could to be a perfect Marine.
He was working in a marksmanship training unit at Pendleton until being removed two weeks ago, Hutchins said.
"There is nothing that I want more than for this whole situation to be over ... to be able to move on and begin a life with my family away from all of this," he said. "But even though it has been nearly eight years, it looks like that will not be possible."
Hutchins spent two stretches in the brig, amounting to more than half of his 11-year sentence. He was released in July after the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces overturned the conviction.
Prosecutors argued that Hutchins waived his right to counsel at the time and willfully told his side of the story without coercion.
Hutchins' conviction was first overturned in 2010 by a lower court that ruled his 2007 trial was unfair because his lead defense lawyer quit shortly before it began. Hutchins was released briefly before the military's highest court weighed in and reinstated his conviction in 2011, saying it did not believe the change in his defense lawyer was a grave enough error to throw out the conviction.
Former Marine Corps attorney Thad Coakley said the courts have thrown out the convictions for procedural errors rather than the merits of the murder charge, so it's important the prosecution exhaust every avenue.
"If we're perceived to have ignored this because it happened in war, or white-washed it because of procedural errors or to have not taken it seriously, then we are discrediting ourselves," he said. "This is not only about past conflicts but future conflicts and the way we hold other nations and ourselves to standards of conduct."
The overturning of the conviction had been considered a major blow to the military's prosecution of U.S. troops accused of killing unarmed Iraqis.
"The fact it's gone on this way is frustrating, but the case has still not been resolved, and ultimately a resolution is what both Sgt. Hutchins and the U.S. government want, even if the end result that each wants is different," Coakley said.


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The word for "crisis" in Chinese, weiji, is written with two characters: one (wei) means danger; the other (ji) means opportunity. That's because every crisis challenges the status quo and in so doing creates the opportunity for something new to emerge. "This process of Creative Destruction," wrote economist Joseph Schumpeter, "is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in."
We have experienced the destruction wrought by the financial crisis. Now it's time to focus on the opportunities it brings. The first place to look is the site of the greatest destruction: the banking sector. While finance will remain a pillar of a well-functioning economy, it's unlikely that banking will survive for long in its current form. The current banking model is broken. Citigroup has been on the verge of failing in three of the last four downturns: this is hardly a viable business model.
Even more important is that Americans are rapidly losing trust in their banks. A survey we conducted at the end of March showed that only 29 percent of Americans trusted banks, down from 34 percent three months earlier and 42 percent a year ago. Twenty percent of respondents felt that a bank had cheated or misled them in the previous 12 months, while 10 percent had withdrawn their FDIC-insured deposits and squirreled away the cash. The word "credit," speaking of telling etymologies, comes from the Latin credere, which means "to trust." Trust is essential in banking, and it's unlikely that banks can restore it. It's always difficult to regain trust; it's easier to start anew.
Luckily, starting anew is exactly what's happening in the banking sector, with the launch of several start-ups with innovative ideas. They range from new ways to insure mortgages to new models of lending to reliable consumers by bypassing the current banking system. Many others, such as Lending Club and Prosper, are popping up on the Internet, letting investors, rather than credit officers, decide who is creditworthy. It's too early to tell if these attempts will succeed, but it's vital that they occur. Through trial and error, a new world of banking will rise from the ashes of the old one.
Should the government subsidize these efforts? In a New York Times column this spring, Tom Friedman said yes, suggesting that it should dedicate a fraction of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money to promote innovation. Fortunately, several venture capitalists have rejected the idea online, and with good reason: the government's record as a venture capitalist is rather poor. Nevertheless, the government can foster the new and innovative in a crucial way: by ceasing to subsidize the banking dinosaurs. The evidence shows that subsidies to failing companies not only waste resources in keeping obsolete and inefficient firms alive, but also delay the entry of new and more efficient organizational models. (See "Too Big to Fail Must Die.")
TARP was sold as a way to keep credit flowing, but it could wind up delaying the success of new ventures that could help revive credit in the economy. For finance to begin allocating resources efficiently again, the government must stop propping up Wall Street.


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Contrary to the impression given by both parties, taxes have nearly doubled over the past 50 years, and our massive deficits are simply a function of runaway spending—on everything but defense.
While the press was distracted by the misnamed "fiscal cliff," we began the New Year with a 13-figure deficit and a 14-figure national debt—the result of today's Americans borrowing vast sums of money and putting it on future Americans' tab. The two parties offer rather different explanations for the cause of this unsustainable transfer of wealth from the young (and the unborn) to the old, which the "fiscal cliff" deal—at least on paper—only made worse.
President Obama and the Democrats suggest that federal tax revenues have fallen, while federal spending has generally proceeded at reasonable levels. Republicans suggest that tax revenues have more or less flatlined, while spending has skyrocketed. Neither explanation is fully accurate. In truth, taxes have risen—substantially. Yet these substantial increases in federal taxation have been dwarfed by an explosion in federal spending.
According to White House, Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and U.S. Census tallies, when John F. Kennedy was in the White House in 1962, federal tax revenues were $534 per capita, or $4,178 in today's dollars. Last year (according to those same sources), federal tax revenues were $7,793 per capita. So, from 1962 to 2012, taxes rose 87 percent even after accounting for inflation and population growth. In other words, across the past 50 years, real (inflation-adjusted) per-capita taxes have nearly doubled.
Of course, this 87 percent increase in per-capita taxation hasn't remotely kept the federal government from racking up higher deficit spending. With JFK in the White House in 1962, the federal government spent 7 percent more than it had available to spend—$1.07 going out for every $1 coming in. With Obama in the White House, it has spent $1.56 for every $1 available.
All other things being equal, if the federal government had taken its 1962 spending levels, increased them by 68 percent to reflect the population growth from 1962 to 2012, then increased them by another 682 percent to reflect inflation over that 50-year span, and then given itself a 70 percent increase in its spending allowance on top of that, it would have spent $2.392 trillion last year—and we would have run a surplus of $57 billion. But rather than settling for a 70 percent raise on top of inflation and population growth, the federal government gave itself a 151 percent raise on top of inflation and population growth. As a result, rather than running a surplus of $57 billion in 2012, we ran a deficit of $1.089 trillion.
The chart above illustrates what has happened. Despite the recent decline in tax revenues (a result of Americans' decline in income) during the Bush-Obama economic slump, the federal government now has 87 percent more money available to spend—per person, after adjusting for inflation—than it had during the Kennedy years. Yet while real per-capita taxation has nearly doubled over the past 50 years, real per-capita spending has come closer to tripling.
In short, we're on the fast track toward insolvency as a nation for one simple reason: Our federal government has been spending far, far more than even our hefty tax increases have been able to cover. Yet House speaker John Boehner reports that Obama told him during their predictably fruitless "fiscal cliff" negotiations, "We don't have a spending problem."
Liberals generally try to mask our rising levels of federal taxation—and our far greater increases in federal spending—by reporting them in relation to the gross domestic product (GDP), rather than in relation to inflation and population growth. That way, if Americans' taxes are doubled, but the economy doubles in size over that same span, it doesn't count as a tax increase. The same goes for spending. The underlying assumption is that any increase in economic growth should be matched by a corresponding increase in the size and scope of government. But there's nothing that says our government has to grow every bit as fast as our economy—especially when we're already $16,000,000,000,000 in debt and plainly can't afford to keep borrowing.
What are we spending such colossal sums of borrowed money on? Well, we're clearly not spending them on defense. According to official White House and CBO tallies, from 1962 to 2012, the share of total federal spending that went to national defense fell from nearly half (49 percent) to less than a fifth (19 percent). Where, then, is all of the borrowed money going? Here's a hint: Medicare and Medicaid—and now Obamacare—didn't exist in 1962.
In fact, from 1962 to 2012, real per-capita defense spending actually dropped—by 1.5 percent (from $2,194 in 1962 to $2,161 in 2012). If all federal spending had followed the same trajectory as defense spending, then total federal spending in 2012 would have been $1.385 trillion, and we would have run a surplus of more than a trillion dollars—$1.064 trillion, to be exact. Unfortunately, while real per-capita defense spending fell by 1.5 percent, real per-capita federal spending aside from defense rose by a whopping 298 percent (from $2,284 in 1962 to $9,098 in 2012). Thus, instead of a $1 trillion surplus, we ran a $1 trillion deficit.
The chart below shows how much the federal government has spent, in real per-capita dollars, on defense programs and on nondefense programs—from Kennedy to Obama. Over the past 50 years, defense spending has essentially flatlined, taxation has nearly doubled, total federal spending has far more than doubled, and nondefense spending has quadrupled. In that light, only the most stubborn ideologue could blame our mind-boggling deficits on insufficient taxation or excessive defense spending.
Just days after the 40th-anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that "private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as private extravagance." He warned that "public debt" is the "fore horse" of the "frightful team" of public mismanagement that leads to the "misery," "suffering," "wretchedness," and "oppression" of private citizens. As we begin 2013, we would do well to start heeding Jefferson's warning. The only way to escape our worsening fiscal calamity is by substantially reforming Medicare and Medicaid to make them affordable, replacing Obamacare (which will require having a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who can persuasively advance a replacement), enacting pro-growth policies, and—most simply—cutting federal spending almost across the board. A half-century during which we've nearly doubled our taxes and quadrupled our nondefense spending is a sufficiently lengthy experiment in gross fiscal mismanagement. It's time for overdue leadership and meaningful reform.
© 2013 by The Weekly Standard. Reprinted by permission.
Photo credit: Matthew Roth, Wikimedia Commons


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This article is more than 1 year old
BOFH: Spontaneous Legal Combustion
The truth? You can't handle the truth...
Episode 6
The following concludes episodes 4b, 4c and 5b, which are available exclusively to Register Platinum Cookie readers (with access to the content opulent Register Website). For the benefit of general (Lead Cookie) readers, the following flashback snippets have been approved for distribution:
Boss: You Bastards! (Episode 4b)
Replacement Boss: Bastards! (Episode 4c)
Replacement Replacement Boss: You B..*Boom!* (Episode 5b)
Chief Inspector Miriam Houser: You're nicked! (Episode 5b)
And now the exciting conclusion:
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, at this juncture it falls upon me to review both the charges and their relative merits before giving direction to you, the jury, prior to your retiring to make your decision.
Cases of this magnitude garner considerable media attention and I strongly direct you not to be swayed by any speculation that may have appeared in the gutter press about the defendants' guilt in this matter.
The two defendants stand accused of a number of very serious charges including forgery, theft, extortion, assault, kidnapping and attempting to pervert the course of justice - to name but a few.
The charges of attempting to bribe Police Commander Reg Stapleton, threatening Police Commander Reg Stapleton and finally successfully bribing Police Commander Reg Stapleton have been dropped now that ex-Police Commander Reg Stapleton resides in Majorca after a lucrative... uh... gambling windfall.
The prosecution's contention that this windfall was orchestrated in some way by the defendants - based on a sheet of paper found at the casino containing a number of sequential keypresses apparently setting the machine in 'debug mode' and forcing consecutive jackpots to occur - is preposterous.
Indeed, the link between the defendants and this note is extremely tenuous, and were we to condemn anyone in possession a piece of letterhead paper from the IT department of their company it would be a very sad day indeed. Who of us can honestly say they have not received such a page at one time or another? I know I have.
As you are no doubt aware, the four charges of arson have been withdrawn following an incident involving a carelessly placed bar heater in an evidence room. Drawing links between this incident and the access to the evidence by the aforementioned police commander are purely speculative and based upon the vaguest of suspicions and some very grainy closed circuit TV images - and should be discounted.
Similarly the assault and kidnapping charges may yet be withdrawn after the two incidents early this morning. If this case has cemented anything at all in our minds I would I hope that it has taught us to be more careful our footing on underground platforms when a train is approaching.
As regards the evidence proffered by the so-called witnesses, the prosecution would have us believe that their key witness, Mr. X, was so fearful of identification and retribution that his testimony was only obtained on the grounds that his identity was never revealed, and that for a trial to be fair that the same anonymity be extended to the members of the Jury. His testimony, if one can call it that, is typical of the feeble minded fabrications one all-too-often encounters when dealing with heads of financial departments located in corner offices with a South East view on the 4th floor of medium to large companies in this country. It would not come as a surprise to me if the man chose to recant his testimony as a drug fuelled flight of fancy in the next day or two in a fit of remorse.
My impression of him is that he is neither to be trusted nor relied upon - entirely the sort of individual to leave the country in the middle of a major trial on the spur of the moment for an extended holiday without telling anyone of his whereabouts and never contacting his friends or relatives again. Were he not under the protection of a single police officer with a history of narcolepsy, staying in room 203 of the Dorchester Hotel, I might seriously consider ordering the confiscation of his passport.
And now a word or two about the defendants, who have conducted themselves with the decorum of the true IT professionals that they are throughout this harrowing ordeal. Whilst one might quite reasonably expect them to harbour feelings of resentment and outrage at the perjurous casserole of untruths we have been served in the past week, their composure has been a glittering example to us all of the ability of honest men to shrug off vicious slights.
And finally, a few comments on the relevance of evidence on the most serious charges as they pertain to the law. Although the prosecution have proven beyond a shadow of doubt - through both DNA and fingerprint evidence - that the defendants were in the office concerned around the time of the alleged offences, they have chosen to pursue an intricate and convoluted conspiracy involving secret doors, tampered security cameras and access locks, cleaning alcohol and rolls of carpet when in fact a far simpler and more believable explanation for what transpired is blatantly obvious - though neither noted nor investigated - that of Spontaneous Human Combustion. The jury is directed to contemplate this fact in their deliberations.
And so I would like to direct the jury to retire to their chamber to review the case they have seen and heard in the past few days, setting aside any external influence they may have been exposed to, and reach a unanimous verdict of not guilty. They should set aside my personal opinions and the fact that I am so sure of the defendant's innocence that I have already ordered that they be freed on bail pending an appeal - should that be necessary - and judge the case on its merits. Finally, prior to my departure for my extended Majorca holiday, I would like to thank each and every juror personally for their selfless attention during this trial. Juror number 1, Steven West, 34b Windsor Drive, Peckham, Thank you very much. Juror number 2, Sumit Singh, Apartment 2, 41 Badger Close...." ®


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I've arrived at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada for DEF CON 21. Over the next couple of days, I'll be talking about what I get up to here.
The main event today is registration, which means getting a neat badge. This year's badge was designed by [Ryan Clarke]. According to the DEF CON booklet, they are "non-electronic-electronic" badges this year, and DEF CON will be alternating between electronic badges every other year.
The playing card design is printed on a PCB, and uses the silkscreen, solder mask, and copper layers to provide three colors for the artwork. The badge is a crypto challenge, featuring some cryptic characters, numbers, and an XOR gate. I don't have any ideas about it yet, but some people are already working hard on cracking the code.
Tomorrow, I'll be heading to a few talks including one on hacking cars that we discussed earlier, and one on decapping chips. I'll also be checking out some of the villages. The Tamper Evident Village is premiering this year, and they'll be showing off a variety of tamper proofing tech. I'll also try to get to the Beverage Cooling Contraption Contest, where competitors build devices to cool beverages (ie, beer) as quickly as possible.
If you have any DEF CON tips, let me know in the comments.


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"Russ Williams has led the charge at the Stock Exchange Veterans Charity Dinner Auction for some years now. He's a safe pair of hands and has helped us raise good sums of money from the Broking community to give to over 90 small causes and charities. The bonus for us is that he does it with great style and, by MC'ing the evening, gives us all a bundle of laughs along the way. If only I could remember the jokes In the morning! A true professional."
Nick Bealer, Chairman
Stock Exchange Vets
"We were extremely fortunate with Russ Williams as we not only gained an outstanding auctioneer but also a first class comedian... Thank you for such a successful evening."
Danny Lee
Showroom Events Ltd.
• Variety Club Of Great Britain
• Sparks
• Roy Castle Cancer Foundation
Copyright © www.charityauctioneer.co.uk 2017
Copyright © www.CharityAuctioneer.co.uk 2021


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Sue Toohey is an Australian astrologer with a degree in history and philosophy. She is currently enrolled in a Masters degree, researching the history of astrology and religious thought. Sue also has a Homoeopathy degree, using awareness of all these areas to further her understanding of astrology. Her main areas of interest lie in traditional astrology and philosophy, seeking to understand how they contribute to our current appreciation of these disciplines.
Email Sue


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The new service from West Palm Beach-based Galaxy Aviation guarantees its well-heeled members a seat on a chartered jet out of the hurricane zone, reserves five-star hotel rooms and limousine transfers and rolls out a red carpet — literally.Naomi Klein points out the flip side:"We call it evacuation in style," said Brian Rems, who came up with the HelpJet concept.
— Hurricane Victims Can Evacuate in Style, By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer Saturday, September 16, 2006
For the people left behind, there is a different kind of privatized solution. In 2006, the Red Cross signed a new disaster-reponse partnership with Wal-Mart. "It's all going to be private enterprise before it's over," said Billy Wagner, chief of emergency management for the Florida Keys. "They've got the expertise. They've got the resources." He was speaking at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Florida, a fast-growing annual trade show for the companies selling everything that might come in handy during the next disaster.So what are we looking at here? Clever entrepeneurs seeing a market need and filling it? Or the calculated privatization of every government function (Klein)? More to the point, is it good risk management?— Disaster Capitalism: The new economy of catastrophe, By Naomi Klein, Harper's Magazine, September 8, 2007
Oh, and is there really money in it? www.HelpJet.us currently is all about Galaxy Aviation, and doesn't say Help Jet anywhere, nor does it mention the kinds of services Help Jet was selling. (I'm pretty sure that's the right URL, since Google still shows old initial text for about.html as "Not any more with Help Jet, the world's first hurricane escape plan that turns a hurricane evacuation into a jet-setter vacation. Here's how Help Jet works. ...") Meanwhile, AIG has been known to start a line of insurance just to see if it will sell.


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The Indian Air Force had a great deal of experience in tactical reconnaissance during WW II.…
Category: The English Electric Canberra History Project
First, let me introduce myself – my name is Anandeep Pannu. I am an IAF brat, my father is Gp Capt HMPS Pannu who left the IAF in 1986 after a 29 year career. He didnt fly the Canberra (not officially anyway) – but I grew up around them, especially during my stint at Pune when 35 Sqn and 6 Sqn (which was my father's squadron) had Canberras. I work for Microsoft now and am an aviation fanatic. I have a pilots license and have about 300 hrs time mostly in light aircraft and gliders.
The idea for a Canberra book came to me after I realized that the Canberra was going to be celebrating 50 years in Indian Air Force service. Wing Co Marshall, dad's instructor in FIS and father of my friend Karl was putting together a get together in Pune. I was able to talk to Wing Co Marshall and that gave further impetus to the project.
Jagan Pillariseti (of Bharat Rakshak and 1965 Air War book fame) had already collected quite a few stories on the Canberra, and since we exchange notes on a regular basis we started bandying the idea of the book back and forth. In the meantime the IAF top brass decided to celebrate the 50 year anniversary in style. Wing Co Thomas also started the Canberra India newsgroup which collected a bunch of Canberra veterans in one venue – albeit a cyberspace one!
It was a foregone conclusion that I would need to drag Jagan into the project – his resourcefulness and knowledge would be needed for this book.
Wing Co Thomas and Wing Co Vineet Bhalla were kind enough to share some stories and Jagan interviewed Wing Co Nath, MVC and bar, for a related book project. The pieces were coming together!
I was able to find a number of references on the Canberra and make contact with some Canberra experts including Les Bywater of the Canberra Tribute Web site. These people were able to refer me to some previously unpublished photographs. (Some of these are in the article on "Canberra marks" on Bharat Rakshak).
I still need help from IAF Canberra veterans. Please bookmark this blog – and contact me with any stories, comments or just contact me regardless, if you were ever associated with the Canberra in the IAF.
I will be posting questionaires and articles on this blog for your comment. Please feel free to send me e-mail or write your comments on any article in this blog – it is open to everyone.
Hopefully this will be enjoyable process for all us!
Anandeep Pannu
Canberra : Trainer Marks T.4 & T.13
The Canberra presented a unique operating challenge to the RAF when it entered service. Fighter pilots…
Canberra : Early Development
Authors Introduction: This chapter is part of a book that I am attempting to write along with…


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"The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
Carl Jung
I recently learned that the leadership-training curriculum at Google places a heavy emphasis on self-awareness building.
The thinking, of course, is that managers can only become effective influencers of others once they're fully mindful of their own strengths and limitations.
Google's objective is to produce leaders who have profound self-knowledge along with the clear and humble understanding that whatever motivates their performance won't always match up to the styles and inclinations of every employee. Self-discovery, therefore, leads to a greater appreciation for people – and a compassion for all their varying personalities, behaviors and approaches to work.
I can spot genius when I see it and Google's insight is profound. I've known for years that my greatest leaps in leadership effectiveness came after I'd discovered some belief, practice or peccadillo that had unwittingly limited my success. Too often, and to my regret, these epiphanies occurred only after I'd blown an assignment or an interaction with a colleague.
If your organization hasn't yet devoted itself to helping you identify the components of your greatness, or the behaviors that might one day derail you, I urge you to find every way possible of discovering them on your own. In this regard, here are a few things I've learned along the way that may help you:
The Law Of Requisite Variety
Early in my career, I was introduced to what's known as the "Law of Requisite Variety." Also called "Ashby's Law," it essentially means that the most flexible and adaptable person in any situation is inherently the most influential. Keeping leadership in mind, this means that the more versatile your own skill-set and world-view, the greater value you'll bring to your team and organization.
Years ago, my brother gave me a book called, "Soar With Your Strengths," which made the seemingly compelling argument that we should spend far less time worrying about our weaknesses and devote ourselves instead to maximizing our natural talents.
What I've since discovered, however, is that some weaknesses can greatly hinder a leader's effectiveness and even stall a career. Tied to my understanding of the "Law Of Requisite Variety," I 've devoted myself to finding every means possible to minimize my limitations and even turn some into strengths.
Ask The People You Work With And Manage To Tell You What Needs Fixing
I've made this suggestion in other articles I've written but do so again because it's so valuable. People who see you in action every day come to understand you in the most intimate way. Tapping into that collective insight, and then taking real action against their list of needed repairs, is the fastest road toward leadership excellence.
The way I've accomplished this is the past is to solicit (in person) one thing that each person believes I do well. From there, I've given people permission to hit me with their best shot and describe one behavior they perceive is holding me back.
Long ago, I filled out a diagnostic tool ("DISC," if you're familiar) that helped identify my dominant behavioral style. After the workshop was over, I went up to the facilitator – someone who knew me very well – and asked him to review my profile and tell me one weakness I should be most concerned with.
I owe the guy a debt of gratitude for his incisiveness. "Based upon what I see here," he said, "you have more than one gap that will do you in if you don't fix them." First, you need to become far better organized, and you also need to learn to communicate in a much more direct manner.
The first rule of soliciting feedback like this is to not shoot the messenger. I knew what my friend had just told me was entirely accurate and, in that very moment, committed myself to a life-long self-improvement process. I can tell you proudly that I've not only become a highly detailed and planful person, I know how to be direct when I need to be.
Learn To Embrace And Emulate The Differences In People And Their Ways Of Operating In The World.
As Susan Cain points out in her new book, Quiet, people more consistently chosen for leadership roles tend to be extroverted and charismatic. According to her impressive research, this only has been true since the early 20th Century.
Extroverts, of course, have many admirable qualities that match up well to the responsibilities of management. They're generally good communicators – often inspiring. They have a tendency to get things accomplished quickly and to be very disciplined in achieving goals.
Introversion, on the other hand, is a "second class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology," Cain writes. Or is it?
While I've recently confirmed that I have a slight tendency toward introversion (you can determine your own proclivity here), in the days I believed myself to be an extrovert, I recall feeling slightly dismissive about the introverts I worked with and their more quiet and methodical ways.
Turns out extroverts also can be condescending and ego driven.
Over the next several years, while I managed large teams of people, I gradually (slow learner) came to better understand that my own unique way of operating in the world wasn't the only way of succeeding. More to the point, I realized that the introverts on my teams had a profound influence in shaping my understanding of circumstances and altering decisions I would have made all on my own.
This is because introverts listen far more than they speak, tend to ask a lot of questions – and actually wait for the answers. While introverts are not necessarily smarter than extroverts, they more often think more carefully and, as Einstein said, "stay with problems longer." This might explain why they tend to perform better on exams like the SAT's and earn more post-graduate degrees.
What I've come to believe with conviction is that leaders are best suited by being more "ambi-verted," a balance between being disproportionately extroverted or introverted.
In any given day, leaders need to take action and to be reflective. They need to move with great speed and with great caution. Before giving firm direction, they're wise to solicit the informed guidance from others.
My best advice: Step back from your own preferences and see what the world looks like from everyone else's. Over time, this will transform you.
Know that we're extremely grateful when you share these blogs with friends and colleagues via all social media. We want to make a difference and this is how you can help. If you would like to receive Mark's articles and updates directly, we invite you to join his tribe (no personal info is ever shared).
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Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie
Would you like to go for a walk in a native Kansas prairie? This nature walk is not a long one. We'll start at the bottom of a large hill, and the trail will wind around the hill through prairie that's never been under the plow so it's covered in native grasses and wildflowers. And soon we'll reach the top of the hill where we'll be treated to a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside. Interested? Well, come along then.
There are lots of wildflowers along the trail. This is Rose Verbena.
And this yellow one is called Broomweed.
This white one is called False Boneset.
This purple one is called Dotted Gayfeather.
This yellow one has a funny name. It's called Curly Cup Gumweed.
It lives up to its name too as it is very sticky.
Whoops, we've dawdled so much Harland got ahead of us.
Let's hurry.
Pant, pant…ok, now we're caught up.
Oh, stop! Check out this white flower that comes up to our waist with flowers at the very ends of its stems bobbing in the breeze.
So delicate. It's called Stenosiphon. It has no leaves at all. During a drought, this plant drops its leaves as a water saving measure, and conducts photosynthesis through its stems. Pretty good idea with the dry year we've had here.
Whoops, Harland got ahead of us again. Darn he moves fast!
Let's go… we're almost to the top of the hill.
And here we are, whew!
Worth the view huh? That's the Kaw River valley.
Look, a monument of some sort right here on top of the hill.
Let's take a closer look:
In 1953, Captain Mitchell's son gave 50 acres of prairie to the Kansas Historical Society in honor of his father, and with the stipulation that the land be turned into a nature park. This never happened, and sometime in the early 2000s, the Historical Society tried to sell the land. Outraged local residents got together to stop this from happening. They formed a volunteer group called the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards to fulfill the wishes of the original donor, Captain Mitchell's son. Finally, the Kansas Attorney General ruled that the land could not be sold, but could only be transferred to a non-profit organization. The Prairie Guards partnered with Audubon of Kansas. Since then, a road has been built to gain access into the prairie, the land has been regularly burned to encourage growth of the native plants, and walking trails have been established.
Look, there's another monument down the hill:
Harland's going to check it out. Let's catch up.
Whew. Well here we are. Let's take a close look at this monument:
Hmmm….. Must have been a friend or member of the Mitchell family.
Look, milkweed seeds and their fluff.
Here are some rosehips,
and sumac. The leaves are already turning red.
Well, looks like the sun is going down, and we have a couple hours drive ahead of us to get home, so we'd better get going.
But maybe a little rest first?
Let's breathe in the remaining warmth of this early fall day. Winter is coming and we won't see many more days like this one.
If you would like to learn more about Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie, click HERE to go to their website.


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The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years. The rate declined because more people found work, a trend that could have an impact on undecided voters in the final month before the presidential election.
The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 114,000 jobs in September. The economy also created 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated. Wages rose in September and more people started looking for work.
The revisions show employers added 146,000 jobs per month from July through September, up from 67,000 in the previous three months. The unemployment rate fell from 8.1 percent in August, matching its level in January 2009 when President Barack Obama took office.


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I'm starting out using Selenium 2/Webdriver, been using Selenium IDE for a few weeks, to automate some tests and decided to go with Python. I've been writing some simple tests using some basic documentation that I found: http://readthedocs.org/docs/selenium-python/en/latest/index.html
While this documentation is good to start off, I noticed it's missing a lot of other commands that I'm used to using with Selenium IDE, such as verifying and asserting text/elements. Eventually I'd like to put some conditionals in my tests, so being able to do an assert and seeing if that returned true or false would be helpful, but I have no idea how to do that.
Is there any detailed documentation online?