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I rarely if ever veer from the standard post of recipe with pictures. I don't do book reviews, product reviews, talk about cupcakes in general, etc. This blog is about recipes I create and pictures that go along with them. I am veering with this post though.
I baked for an event a month or so back and I had been thinking about posting just about that process. As I would heartily recommend to you, when baking for an event I stick to what I know. So, there are no new recipes or experiments to share – just the process that I go through when baking in bulk for events.
I decided to bake for an event for my daughter's preschool (even though she doesn't officially start until September). The event was a country fair and the highlight would be the sheering of the two school sheep. (Yes, there is a school in the middle of San Francisco with two sheep…) This is the basic process I followed and have followed in the past.
Step 1: Find inspiration and come up with a high level plan
Whenever I am asked to or offer to bake for an event, I always look for at least one bit of of inspiration. If the event is for a person, I might ask their favorite color. Or if I know the person well, I will use whatever color I associate with them. I will look to something special about the event for inspiration. Is it themed for example. Flavor-wise I tend to just ask – are you a chocolate person? What's your favorite fruit? Spice? Etc.
In this case, my starting point was sheep. So I did some googling and came across the PERFECT little sheep already done up for me in royal icing. I wanted to have both a chocolate and non-chocolate cupcake and something color-wise to contrast. I thought brown plus green would be a nice combo, so I quickly settled on vanilla cupcakes with green tea frosting and chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel frosting. The wonderful ebay shop owner, Lisa, hooked me up with a custom order and made up a bunch of sheep and birds shipped individually packaged and shipped all the way from the UK. The school also has chickens, but I settled for birds as I knew she could make them.
Step 2: Write out all your recipes
At a minimum you should print out all your recipes with the correct quantities. I also recommend writing them out as this ensures you read the recipe through and orients you to the steps involved, the equipment you will need, etc. I tend to write out my recipes like this and cross things out as I do them so I don't forget. Most standard cupcake recipes make 24 or so cupcakes – at least on my blog. Sometimes I will halve them and make only 12. Usually for events you are baking a lot of cupcakes. This is where it gets tricky for the home baker. You really should make NO more then 30 to 36 at a time. Most mixers can't accommodate more batter than that and you don't want to over stuff the home oven. So do know that if you are making 100 cupcakes you likely have to make them in 3 batches. Professionals have quite an edge with their jumbo mixers and large, commercial convection ovens. Baking in bulk at home is a pain and I really try to avoid it. That said, I do occasionally give in…
When changing the quantities of a recipe start with the eggs. If there are 3 eggs in the recipe don't halve the recipe for example. Either multiply everything by 1/3 or 2/3s. Regardless, get ready to do some fractions. Google can also help with this. Just be careful, check your math, and write everything down clearly.
Step 3: Prepare a plan and your ingredients
Now that you have your recipes you need to write down your shopping list and come up with a plan of action. The shopping list is pretty easy. So I won't cover that, although I do write out my shopping lists in the order in which I will come across the ingredients at the grocery store – but that's me – and I am a bit anal about being "efficient". The important thing is to plan what you will bake when. If you are an amateur baker such as myself, you likely have a demanding full-time job and/or have a family to take care of. So it's likely you won't have the large swath of free time it will take to get something like this done in one go.
I always start from the time of the event. I like to leave assembly for the day of the event and usually leave an hour or two for assembly and packing assuming I am making 100 or so cupcakes. If the event is at 11am on a weekend for example, plan on getting up early and focusing on assembly. If the event is in the afternoon, say 3 or so, you can plan on finishing up some recipes the morning off. Regardless, leave plenty of buffer for unexpected events. This will definitely help minimize stress.
This event was on Saturday at 11am, so I wouldn't have the weekend to work and would just have the morning to assemble. I had to bake after work during the week (my least favorite time). I try to spread the work out as much as I can without having to resort to freezing anything. Buttercream and chocolate ganache frostings can store in the fridge well covered up to three days. Cupcakes also store in the fridge well covered up to three days, but I like to bake them as close to the event as I can. So, I tend to do the frostings first. One note: meringue frostings don't store well. So forgo them when you are doing a large project.
I always try to fill and frost the day of the event if I can, the night before if its for very early in the morning or I am taking them to work. In this case I started on Wednesday with frostings, made a batch of cupcakes Thursday, and another on Friday. I assembled on Saturday morning. I purposefully didn't make these filled cupcakes as that basically doubles the work involved. Making the fillings takes more time, but doing the actual filling can be very time-consuming. I have filled cupcakes when making about 120 or so once, but it was for a wedding and it was before I had a child and other demands on my time. In those days I could spend the entire weekend in the kitchen without a second thought. Those days are over… Take on what you can manage without causing undo stress.
Step 4: Prepare all the recipes and store them for final assembly
A bit earlier I recommended baking in 30 to 36 cupcake batches in order to avoid disaster. I still recommend that. I rarely heed my own advice and made 2 batches with about 46 cupcakes in each batch. I have a larger sized mixer, but it was still a challenge. Don't even attempt doubling a standard recipe if you don't have a 6-quart mixer.
I managed the over-stuffing of the oven by starting off the baking at 375 with the convection fan on. You just have to be careful to lower the temp and/or turn off the convection at the right time. And the right time is pretty hard to determine. I usually turn the oven back down to 350 after a few minutes and turn off convection around 12 minutes. I find if the oven isn't hot enough the cupcakes tend to overflow. But really, you should just bake in batches of 30 to 36 (which is about 1.5 times a normal recipe you see on my blog). The last thing you want after all that work and all those ingredients is a bunch of overflowed cupcakes. A couple is fine – that happens to me and those cupcakes tend to be the taste testers. On that note, always make more than you absolutely need. In this case, I was aiming for a number but had flexibility.
Like I mentioned, I absolutely recommend baking and storing for assembly as close to the event as possible. If you can do it all in one day, great. But for me and perhaps many of you, it's not possible. With the frostings, I tend to just transfer the frosting into a bowl and wrap well with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge. With the cupcakes, I let them cool all the way off then put them back on a sheet pan and wrap that very well with plastic wrap. If you have enough tupperware to store all your cupcakes even better, but I don't. If you must bake more then 3 to 4 days before the event you can freeze them (I wrap them in plastic wrap in small quantities that can fit in freezer bags) but there will be some dryness after thawing. So I recommend not doing it.
Step 5: Assemble, pack for delivery, unpack and present
I won't cover assembly much other then watch for cupcake toppers that will work for your event. For example, fresh fruit doesn't hold up very well. It can dribble juice on your cupcake or start to look old. Candied fruit works as do sugar toppers. I tend to top my cupcakes with something simple that alludes to the flavor of the cupcake, but for some events – like a kids fair – I will do (or purchase) a more typical decoration.
I pack all my cupcakes in cupcake boxes with inserts that have individual holes for each cupcake. I bought the boxes in bulk (about 200 boxes) and it will be a while until I will run out. But many places sell paper or plastic cupcake containers in smaller quantities. I recommend going for a good box as it will help hold them in place and avoid delivery disaster. You will still need to watch for bumps in the road, but not have to worry about sliding. I also stick with disposable boxes for events given I have found it difficult to get my more permanent containers back promptly. Its totally up to you, just pack them carefully so they arrive safely.
Lastly, you may need to think about display. Thankfully there are many sites out there that have both disposable and non-disposable tiered cupcake holders. I also had a vintage, wood cupcake stand that I used for a few events. Usually its a challenge to get more then 30 or so cupcakes on these things, unless they are monstrous. I tend to put what I can on the tiered display and fill out the rest on the table around it. For this event I new I would have a hard time getting anything back given we hadn't started at the school, so I settled for a something disposable.
Well, that is all that came to mind. If anyone has any questions around something I may have missed, feel free to post it. I might have missed something…


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Filmpalast Kassel installs cutting-edge JBL Professional audio system to provide world-class audio in 14 theaters.
KASSEL, Germany—In order to deliver immersive surround-sound experiences for cinemagoers, Filmpalast Kassel equipped 14 theaters with state-of-the-art JBL Professional cinema audio systems.
Located in the heart of Kassel, Filmpalast Kassel's distinctive architecture and interior design makes it a popular entertainment destination and tourist attraction. The theater includes 15 halls with a total of 1,800 seats, featuring IMAX, 4DX and ScreenX technologies. In order to deliver world-class sound quality, Filmpalast Kassel installed new state-of-the-art JBL Professional cinema audio systems, featuring over 500 JBL loudspeakers and 100 Crown DCI-N amplifiers.
In the Dolby Atmos theaters, Filmpalast Kassel installed JBL 9320 loudspeakers to provide immersive surround sound. JBL 9320 cinema speakers offer high power handling, impressive sensitivity and extended bass response. Custom painted JBL CBT70J loudspeakers provide even, balanced coverage while maintaining the theater's ornate aesthetic. JBL SCS8 and SCS12 loudspeakers installed on the ceiling deliver class-leading surround sound with precise imaging. Filmpalast Kassel selected Crown DCi-N amplifiers to power the system for their versatile, compact and highly energy-efficient design.
The large halls feature JBL 5732 reference loudspeaker systems to deliver clear, detailed sound in every seat of the auditorium. With wide dynamic range, extended bandwidth and inaudible levels of distortion, JBL 5732 loudspeakers are designed to meet the most demanding needs of today's premier cinemas. Filmpalast Kassel also installed 10 DSP-steered JBL 4645C subwoofers in each large hall to improve bass distribution and reduce noise bleed through neighboring walls. The system is powered by Crown DCi-N power amplifiers.
Filmpalast Kassel equipped the small and medium-sized halls with the JBL 3732T ScreenArray systems to deliver world-class sound with maximum output, optimal coverage and minimum distortion. Designed for critical film sound reproduction in small to medium cinema environments, 3732T ScreenArray cinema speakers offer extremely uniform frequency response. The system is powered by Crown DCi-N power amplifiers.

subset: commoncrawl


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David Gardner
Mr. David Gardner
One of the country's most respected and trusted sources on investing, David Gardner co-founded The Motley Fool with his brother, Tom, in 1993. As Chief Rule Breaker, David wears many hats including innovator, stock picker, author, lecturer, and media personality. David graduated as a Morehead Scholar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988, and wrote for Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street newsletter before starting The Motley Fool. He has received the University's prestigious "Distinguished Young Alumni Award." Since 1999, David has been a member of the NYSE's Individual Investors Advisory Committee. Since 2004, David has served on the Board of Governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Among his many accomplishments at The Motley Fool, David is perhaps most proud of his conception and development of Motley Fool CAPS.


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In this chapter preview from Pathways to Freedom: Political and Economic Lessons From Democratic Transitions, John Campbell explores Nigeria's transition, which, though successful in moving from military to civilian governance, has perpetuated a political system marked by corruption and patronage and an economy dominated by oil.
May 31, 2013 10:54 am (EST)
- Expert Brief
- CFR scholars provide expert analysis and commentary on international issues.
This preview highlights the main points of the Nigeria chapter from Pathways to Freedom: Political and Economic Lessons From Democratic Transitions, a publication of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative. For previews of other chapters, please see the Table of Contents.
In 1960, when the British abruptly brought Nigeria to independence, its social and economic development was comparable to that of Taiwan or Malaysia. Now, following generations of bad governance and an economy distorted by oil, Nigeria is near the bottom of most human development indices. Sixty-nine percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
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Starting in 1966, military coups undermined civilian institutions and marginalized or destroyed the late-colonial political elite. The secession of Biafra in 1967 sparked a three-year civil war that left at least a million dead, mostly from famine and disease, before the military reintegrated Biafra into the federation.
Nigeria's military governments were largely unaccountable to the population and failed to address social and economic issues. Corruption and the focus on oil, which began to produce previously unimaginable riches for a small elite around 1970, siphoned off resources, crowded out investment in other sectors, and caused much of the rest of the economy to atrophy.
Nigeria began its democratic transition in 1999, following the unexpected death of military dictator Sani Abacha. A small group of army officers and their civilian allies, motivated by a desire to distance themselves from Abacha's excesses, orchestrated a move from military to civilian control of the government. Their goal, largely achieved, was to introduce democratic forms but preserve their personal power and wealth.
Although it marked the end of gross human-rights abuses, Nigeria's transition was halting from the beginning. Despite institutional changes, politics continued to be shaped by patronage, client relationships, and elite competition. The country's post-Abacha constitution affirmed a federal system with power divided among branches of government at the federal and state levels. Although intended to reverse the military's centralization of authority, the constitution has failed to do so.
"Election-like events" have also been manipulated by elites and failed to establish meaningful accountability to voters. Between 1999 and 2007, each election was worse than its predecessor, with widespread, blatant rigging. (The 2011 election represented a slight improvement.)
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Conscious of ethnic and religious divisions, the transition's architects reaffirmed the principle of "zoning," or presidential-candidate alternation, within the ruling party. If the president was southern and Christian, his vice president would be a northern Muslim, and vice versa. The arrangement persisted until 2011, when President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, ran for president even though it was still the North's turn. Jonathan had taken over from his predecessor, the northern Muslim Umaru Yar'Adua, upon Yar'Adua's death in 2010. Jonathan's election victory precipitated the bloodiest post-electoral rioting since independence in the predominantly Muslim northern states.
Still, elections are slowly promoting a more democratic culture. Today, the expectation, if not yet the principle, is that the chief of state will be a civilian who comes to office through a process that involves voting. If the transition to democracy is incomplete, that of military to civilian governance is further along.
Pathways to Freedom: Political and Economic Lessons From Democratic Transitions, a new book from the Council on Foreign Relations, explores Nigeria's progress and challenges in six areas of economic, political, and social development.
Socioeconomic Exclusion and Inclusion
Since independence, no national government has successfully addressed poverty and gross inequality. Free from organized challenge, elites have continued to profit from their hold on power and failed to address basic needs. Weak institutions and erratic funding dependent on petroleum revenues have also limited the implementation of development strategies.
Aside from elites, most Nigerians are powerless and poor. The country's Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality on a 0-to-100 scale, rose from an already-high 38.7 in 1985 to 48.8 in 2009, some eight points higher than in Russia. This gulf between the wealthy elites and almost everyone else is probably Nigeria's most significant division.
Social and economic disparities also persist between the North and the South. With modern education, trading opportunities, and, later, oil, the South developed more quickly. One indicator is the 2010 primary-school attendance rate: in the northern state of Zamfara it was 18 percent, in the southern state of Anambra, 86 percent. Unemployed youth, a problem everywhere, are particularly so in the North and provide the foot soldiers for radical Islamic movements such as Boko Haram.
Some observers see a middle-class revival in Nigeria, noting the country's ninety million mobile phone subscriptions and well-stocked shopping centers, though only in Lagos and Abuja. But the middle class is invisible outside these cities, and—except possibly in Lagos—it remains too small to demand more transparency and accountability.
Economic Structure and Policies
At independence, Nigeria was the breadbasket of West Africa. Agriculture, mining, palm oil, and industry were important components of the economy. Trade was growing and Nigeria exported goods over a regional rail network. Today, most of that is gone for reasons ranging from misguided agricultural marketing policies to inadequate power generation and failing infrastructure.
Instead, oil dominates Nigeria's economy. By 2009, oil and gas exports amounted to more than 95 percent of export earnings and more than 80 percent of federal revenue. Elites depend on oil funds for their well-being, giving them little incentive to promote a diversified economy. Most of the federal government's share of oil revenue is consumed by day-to-day operations or simply disappears. Members of the National Assembly receive more than $1 million per year in salary and allowances.
Despite its production of crude, Nigeria has to import refined oil and gasoline. Its refineries, all state owned, have rarely functioned at the same time, due to underinvestment and maintenance issues. The government also subsidizes fuel for home use, an expense that amounted to almost a quarter of the federal budget by 2012. Many Nigerians view the subsidy as their only tangible benefit from the country's oil. Arguing that the funds could be better spent on economic development, President Jonathan tried to abolish the subsidy in early 2012. But this led to widespread unrest and Jonathan restored about half the subsidy.
Civil Society and Media
Civil society and the media have positively influenced Nigeria's transition by encouraging the growth of a more democratic culture. However, civil society is probably more fragmented now than under the military, when it was united to restore civilian government.
Civil organizations did play a strong role as election observers in 2011, likely contributing to improvements over previous elections. The Nigerian Bar Association was a leading participant, with some 55,000 educated members across the country. The Occupy Nigeria movement, which began as a small, generalized protest and mushroomed after President Jonathan tried to eliminate the fuel subsidy, also recently showed that civil society could—if only briefly—overcome public apathy and the divisions that have inhibited true reform.
In the media realm, military governments often sought to suppress news stories they did not like. Since the restoration of civilian government, the media has officially been free. While television is mostly an elite medium, radio reaches nearly everyone. Print media, too, is published without state interference. However, international advocacy groups have shown that journalists are regularly subjected to intimidation and even murder. Though this appears to be perpetrated by local elites and not the government, the state habitually fails to prosecute, convict, and punish those responsible.
Legal System and Rule of Law
Three legal systems operate in Nigeria: the legal code inherited from the British; customary law that varies by ethnic group; and sharia law, which applies in the twelve predominately Muslim states. The latter two are popular for their relative speed and affordability in resolving cases. The penalties of sharia law, however, are suffered most often by the poor and virtually never by the rich. Radical Islamic groups such as Boko Haram decry what they call political sharia, where small thieves are punished while government contractors get away with massive fraud.
Nigeria's widely hated police contribute to a culture of impunity, which promotes a feedback loop of popular antipathy to government authority. Training levels and pay are low, regularly leading the police to extort money from citizens. This combination of multiple legal systems, a weak rule of law, and a culture of impunity encourages lawlessness and inhibits foreign investment—except in oil.
Government Structure and Division of Power
Despite the post-Abacha constitution's federal character, the division of power across central, state, and local governments has been more aspirational than real. Indeed, a civilian president's power may be less circumscribed than that of former military leaders.
State and local governments depend on the federal government for oil revenue, allocated to governors according to a formula. Governors and local leaders, in turn, dole out patronage with no accountability. Because they pay few if any taxes and many receive minor monetary benefits from the government, citizens appear reluctant to hold public officials accountable. Only the state of Lagos collects taxes to fund its operations effectively. Something approaching a civil contract is emerging there in which citizens receive meaningful services in return for their taxes.
Education and Demography
Nigeria's current population may be as high as 165 million, and some project that it could reach 400 million within two generations. Urbanization is proceeding rapidly. Nigerians are proud of their population size, and both Muslims and Christians have large families. Although condoms are commonly available and affordable, no national policy exists to limit population growth.
Starting in the late 1970s, governments moved to make primary education universally available and to vastly expand the university system. Alas, they starved education at all levels of funds, partly because fluctuating oil prices wreaked havoc on government finances.
Today, literacy levels remain low, especially in the North, where in some places only 20 percent of women can read. Schools usually charge fees and require uniforms, posing hardships for many families. Educational quality is also poor thanks to underfunding and overcrowding. With a lack of decent alternatives, Nigerians are increasingly turning to private education. Even if it is expensive and limited to a small proportion of the population, its example is proving salutary in developing higher expectations for state schools.
Given its ethnic and religious divisions, a weak sense of national identity, and exploitative elites, it is no surprise that Nigeria's transition to democracy since 1999 has been incomplete. There has been more continuity than change from the days of military rule, and the gulf between those with power and those they govern remains vast. Still, Nigeria's political culture—if not its governance—is more democratic today than before, and its rulers are civilians rather than military officers. That is progress, if not democracy.
Additional Material
Nigeria: Full Chapter Preview
Nigeria Timeline
Further Reading


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Although the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was passed more than two years ago, more questions than answers still exist about how the law will affect bakeries and snack manufacturers.
To clarify the many convoluted issues surrounding this law, Baking & Snack Editor Dan Malovany interviewed Richard Stier, an expert on food safety and contributing editor to the magazine. Mr. Stier is a consulting food scientist with international experience in food safety including Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs, food plant sanitation, quality systems, process optimization, good manufacturing practice (GMP) compliance and food microbiology.
The biggest issue with FSMA is that FDA has only now started issuing regulations to enforce the act. On Jan. 4, the agency announced two proposed rules, the first requiring food manufacturers to develop a written plan to prevent their foods from causing foodborne illness and the second covering farms.
In this exclusive report, Mr. Stier talks about the myriad pocketbook concerns that may arise as the government issues regulations.
Baking & Snack: What's the biggest lesson learned from the past year in food safety as it relates to bakeries and snack food operations?
Richard Stier: The biggest lesson is the importance of vendor quality, which incidentally is one of the elements in FSMA. The problems caused by the now defunct Peanut Corp. of America in 2009 seemed small compared with the number of recalls that resulted from mangoes, onions and especially the nuts and nut products distributed by Sunland, Inc., in New Mexico. In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration responded to an outbreak of salmonella linked to salted peanut butter product. To date, Sunland issued recalls on approximately 300 products, which resulted in excess of 100 companies having to make recalls of their own because they had either distributed Sunland products or used its ingredients without further processing.
Surprisingly, the list of companies affected by the Sunland recall includes large processors that should know better. Sunland's problems were underscored by a third-party audit, which highlighted various issues. And to top it off, FDA in November used its new authority under FSMA to suspend Sunland's facility registration, thus effectively halting the company's operations.
So, the message is this: Take a step back, and take a long look at your vendor quality program. Are you relying solely on certificates of analysis? A third-party audit? Or are your requirements more stringent? Small companies may have to take an even longer look because they often do not have the money, personnel and expertise to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive and effective vendor quality program.
What can bakers expect from FSMA regulations in 2013?
When we saw drafts of regulations early this year, people must remember that they are only drafts. There will be a comment period, probably 60 to 90 days. Among the first responses to the draft regulation could well be requests to expand the comment period by one to two months. So, even with the draft regulations issued early this year, the comment period may last for five or six months. The agency will then need to evaluate all the comments and prepare the final regulation. Realistically, the industry will probably not see the final regulations until 2014.
Some experts speculate that FDA may also issue guidance documents to the industry. There are pros and cons to this tactic. In FDA-speak, guidance documents are not really guidance at all. Instead, they seem to have the force of law. For example, FDA investigators expect processors to follow the guidance — or clearly do something as effective as what is described in the document.
Since FSMA became law, what issues have surfaced that will need to be addressed?
Perhaps the biggest is the processors' rights under current and upcoming regulations. In working with the industry, I have heard several reports of FDA investigators informing companies that they would be allowed to take photographs in–plant under FSMA provisions. This is not the case now, nor is there such a provision in the act.
Bakers and snack food producers must have a documented policy to deal with regulatory inspections. This policy should include how to work with investigators, what records the agency can access, a camera policy and rules regarding collection of samples. In addition, the camera policy should be posted in the main lobby.
Additionally, the company needs to make sure that all employees, including clerical staff, understand their roles in the event of an inspection. This is something that will need to change when the FSMA enforcement rules are finalized.
What are the biggest pocketbook issues posed by FSMA?
Food processors will face potential costs involving reinspections, recalls and proper development nnd validation of preventive controls.
Let's look at reinspection first. The agency has already issued regulations that establish the costs for reinspection, which conveys the veiled message to get it right the first time. FDA's guidance for fees can be found at www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FSMA/ucm257982.htm. There are no fees for an initial inspection, but if there are issues, the agency will come back, and it will cost the company. Fees include $221 per hour for inspections requiring no foreign travel and $289 per hour for projects involving foreign inspection. So, the cost for one 8-hour day for one domestic investigator is $1,768.
The second matter with potential hit to the pocketbook could be developing and validating all preventive controls and critical control points. The assumption in the industry has always been that if a food is baked, fried or cooked, then it is safe, but the salmonella outbreaks from breakfast cereals were an eye-opener. Some bakers and snack food processors are doing in-house research to evaluate their current processes. Are these cakes, pies, snacks or cookies actually receiving enough heat to kill microorganisms of public health significance? The validation work will determine if this is a myth or not.
Validation will entail a great deal of work for the industry. Large operations have the people and instrumentation to do this, but it will be a challenge to smaller operations. What large companies do will remain their proprietary data, unless they come to the realization that problems with small companies can potentially impact their business. Perhaps the baking trade associations can fund the research necessary to determine methods, target organisms, surrogate organisms and the other issues associated with validating baking processes.
What equipment design changes need to occur in the next couple of years to improve food safety?
What is needed — and what I believe is already being done — is that food process equipment manufacturers must make an even greater commitment to sanitary design of equipment and conveyors. The 10 Principles of Sanitary Design established by the American Meat Institute for ready-to-eat foods are really applicable across the board.
These principles should be used by all food equipment manufacturers. Because most food processing equipment is custom ordered and built, food processors should seriously consider working with the equipment manufacturer to make any modifications that ensure the equipment is easier to operate, clean and maintain. It may add to the initial cost, but the changes and benefits resulting from more efficient operations could very well end up paying for the equipment in short order.
What best practices should facilities adopt to deal with allergens and pathogens?
Allergen and pathogen control are two distinct activities. Their only real similarities are that both are potential food hazards and that good sanitation, especially cleaning and sanitizing, can help minimize potential problems.
First, let's talk about cleaning. When developing an effective cleaning program, the key is validation. A validated program is one that is proven effective at removing soil from the surface. Once the cleaning procedures have been validated, you must implement programs to verify that the work was done properly. However, the real challenge in the baking and snack industries is that many operations cannot use water for cleaning.
The real difference between the two potential hazards is that allergen control is a function of the label, whereas pathogens must be eliminated from or kept out of the food. Because baked foods and snacks are low in water activity (Aw), they generally will not support the growth of pathogens. But if salmonella or another pathogen gets into the product, it could survive and cause an illness, as with the salmonella outbreaks attributed to puffed cereals and potato chips.
What is the best advice you have ever given or heard about for improving food safety?
Never skimp on training and education. A commitment to properly educating workforce and management is an investment in the future, especially if you can make it seem like a reward. For example, many plant workers never get a chance to get out of the plant on company business. Getting people out to a workshop education session, with lunch included, at a local hotel or business center can be perceived as a day off or a bonus. This kind of program builds goodwill.


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Dubai Financial Hub Sees Growth in Asia, Africa Business
DUBAI, Feb 14 The Dubai International Financial Centre, a business zone, says it aims to double the number of companies there over five years by serving as a base for business with China, south Asia and Africa, not merely the Gulf.
With political unrest plaguing parts of the Middle East and Western financial firms still retrenching because of debt problems in their home markets, the business environment is challenging for Dubai.
But Jeffrey Singer, chief executive of the DIFC Authority, which manages the business zone, said Dubai could keep expanding rapidly as the Gulf's main financial centre by becoming a conduit for trade and investment with a larger region.
"Increasingly institutions are using Dubai not just as a base for business in the Gulf, but as a base to access a much wider area," he said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.
The DIFC, opened in 2004, is one of the United Arab Emirates' "free zones", offering foreign investors 100 percent ownership of their ventures and business-friendly regulation.
The number of registered firms operating in the DIFC rose 7 percent last year to 912, while workers at those firms jumped 16 percent to 14,000. The DIFC has declared it wants to double its size in the five years from 2011, when it had 848 companies.
The DIFC has had to contend over the past year with the shrinkage of some of its top U.S. and European clients. This week, Citigroup Inc began laying off investment bankers across its Europe, Middle East and Africa division, with 50 positions to be eliminated in the near term.
But Singer said that overall, cutbacks of investment bankers and back-office staff at Western institutions in the DIFC had been more than offset by their expansion in other areas, as foreign firms tried to capture part of the oil-rich Gulf's infrastructure spending boom.
In some cases, retrenchment by foreign firms in the Gulf has prompted them to bring staff back from other parts of the region to Dubai, actually boosting their presence in the DIFC.
"The European presence has grown every year in terms of both employment and the number of firms here," said Singer, an American who took his job last July after heading the NASDAQ Dubai exchange.
Much of the DIFC's future growth is expected to come from Chinese institutions. Assets at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China's (ICBC) Middle East unit, which operates from Dubai, soared 128 percent from a year earlier to $6.1 billion in the first half of 2012.
Four Chinese institutions - ICBC, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and Petrochina - now have presences in the DIFC. Singer said the DIFC was discussing the possibility of others coming, but declined to elaborate.
Trade in the Chinese yuan by banks in Dubai has been increasing; ICBC said it conducted $2.1 billion of yuan transactions in the interbank money market in the first half of 2012, up 58 percent. Last week Emirates NBD, Dubai's largest bank, said it had started offering yuan accounts.
Dubai may struggle to become a major market for trading the yuan, however, if it does not arrange for clearing of trades to be done locally.
Yuan clearing is conducted in Hong Kong and Taipei, and last week China named ICBC as the clearing bank for yuan business in Singapore, but Singer said any similar arrangement for Dubai would depend on discussions between UAE and Chinese authorities.
"Banks in the DIFC would like to have yuan settlement occur here but that is an issue for the UAE central bank to handle," he said, without predicting when that might happen.
Risks for the DIFC include political instability in other Arab countries, which Singer said could deter foreign investment throughout the region, and any major slowdown in the Gulf's infrastructure spending.
The DIFC also faces competition from nearby financial centres, particularly Qatar, but it has maintained its lead over them in recent years. The Qatar Financial Centre Authority's register lists about 140 active, licensed firms.
Bahrain's status as a financial centre has been hurt by political unrest that erupted there two years ago. Some financial operations moved to Dubai from Bahrain for that reason, though Bahrain has been successful in preventing a mass exodus of financial firms, Singer said.
Some fund managers complain that new UAE investment fund rules introduced late last year could hurt the DIFC by placing a bigger burden of regulation on it and making it harder for funds to market themselves in the wider country outside the free zone.
The DIFC is continuing to hold discussions with the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority on how to apply the rules to the DIFC, Singer said without elaborating.
(Editing by Susan Fenton)
Copyright 2010 by Reuters. All rights reserved.


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The four-legged promotion team Ejector Seat are already somewhat legendary 'round these parts (by which I mean both the geographical location of the UK's south coast as well as the underground music scene that often operates therein), and it's not like it's without reason. They first introduced us to 65daysofstatic, they brought Bearsuit to play Southampton on a wet Thursday, and, as just about all the bands that they've invited to their gigs will attest, they cook a mean pasta bake. For these things alone we should applaud them until our knuckles erode. However they've also provided us with some of the greatest and most revelatory gigging experiences in the past year or so that they've been operating. A far cry from the turgid emo, unimaginative pop-punk and vacuous hairstyle bands that many venues willingly put on to reel in The Punters, ver 'Seat exist to give spotlight to the sort of hidden magic and euphoria that would, for the most part, slip through the net otherwise. Because of this, the quality and variety of acts they've put on thus far has been extraordinary. During the Black Nielson slot last year you wanted a lie down 'cos it was so mellow. After the hip-hop fusion of Captive State you wanted to hug the soundman for agreeing to put so much equipment up there. After The Retro Spankees you just wanted to hug everyone.
But I digress. To celebrate a predominantly successful year as promoters, the lads have put together this, their first compilation. Tentatively titled 'The Theme Is Music', it attempts to collate on disc a smattering of the various/varied artists they've showcased at that bastion of indie legacy The Joiners Arms. Of the aforementioned only Black Nielson appear (to which we attempt to hit that high note), in a collection that naturally includes a wealth of local talent. Scumhampton's most-likely-to bunch The Objects appear early on, and prove that they've been dabbling in this Eighties synth-rockery before it became the latest Jamster-glamster accessory, only with added robotic hanky-panky, ferociousness and (whisper it) a better song than The Br*very will ever muster. The resident electronic scene is out here in force, with Birdpen doing their Beta-Band-go-even-more-electronic stuff so well and Bonemachine providing a mix of 'This Ocean's Angry' that makes them sound like the trip-hop Mansun. There's also a fair bit of post-rock presence, whether it be the mantra-like plucking and buzzing of Tri-City President's 'They Went Insane' or the mammoth, celestial and, frankly, gobsmacking nine-minute wonder of 'Blood Will Flow' by Moly. Add to that the much-celebrated wispy twang thang from Goldrush, Alaskan Pipeline reclaiming epic 'bed-wetting' indie from the stadium giants, the piano-laced atmospheric balladry of Soma High, the dainty but unnerving beauty of The Sways…a mixed bag, full of goodies.
Indeed, some of it is a bit too good. For instance, tracks like the rollicking Blueskins stomp of 'Trouble' by Ill Starred Captain and the heavy-handed alt.rock of Daughters Courageous stand up well on their own, but considering they're sharing plastic with spiralling mightiness like Turncoat's 'Heads Above Water' they don't really stand a chance. Not that that's a complaint, though, as overall the ES two have done themselves proud. Whether you're a local completist or simply hanker for something a bit different, then here's where you should be directed.
8Thomas Blatchford's Score


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Ebola outbreak in West Africa now the largest on record
DAKAR, Senegal - Deep in the forests of southern Guinea, the first victims fell ill with high fevers. People assumed it was the perennial killer malaria and had no reason to fear touching the bodies, as is the custom in traditional funerals.
Some desperate relatives brought their loved ones to the distant capital in search of better medical care, unknowingly spreading what ultimately was discovered to be Ebola, one of the world's most deadly diseases.
Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that can cause its victims to bleed from the ears and nose, had never before been seen in this part of West Africa where medical clinics are few and far between. The disease has turned up in at least two other countries - Liberia and Sierra Leone - and 539 deaths have been attributed to the outbreak that is now the largest on record.
The key to halting Ebola is isolating the sick, but fear and panic have sent some patients into hiding, complicating efforts to stop its spread. Ebola has reached the capitals of all three countries, and the World Health Organization reported 44 new cases including 21 deaths on Friday.
There has been "a gross misjudgment across the board in gauging the severity and scale of damage the current Ebola outbreak can unleash," the aid group Plan International warned earlier this month.
"There are no cases from outside Africa to date. The threat of it spreading though is very much there," said Dr. Unni Krishnan, head of disaster preparedness and response for the aid group.
Preachers are calling for divine intervention, and panicked residents in remote areas have on multiple occasions attacked the very health workers sent to help them. In one town in Sierra Leone, residents partially burned down a treatment center over fears that the drugs given to victims were actually causing the disease.
Activists are trying to spread awareness in the countryside where literacy is low, even through a song penned about Ebola.
"It has no cure, but it can be prevented; let us fight it together. Let's protect ourselves, our families and our nation," sings the chorus.
"Do not touch people with the signs of Ebola," sings musician and activist Juli Endee. "Don't eat bush meat. Don't play with monkey and baboons. Plums that bats have bitten or half-eaten, don't eat them."
Guinea first notified WHO about the emergence of Ebola in March and soon after cases were reported in neighboring Liberia. Two months later there were hopes that the outbreak was waning, but then people began falling ill in Sierra Leone.
Doctors Without Borders says it fears the number of patients now being treated in Sierra Leone could be "just the tip of the iceberg." Nearly 40 were reported in a single village in the country's east.
"We're under massive time pressure: The longer it takes to find and follow up with people who have come in contact with sick people, the more difficult it will be to control the outbreak," said Anja Wolz, emergency coordinator for the group, also referred to by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres.
This Ebola virus is a new strain and did not spread to West Africa from previous outbreaks in Uganda and Congo, researchers say. Many believe it is linked to the human consumption of bats carrying the virus. Many of those who have fallen ill in the current outbreak are family members of victims and the health workers who treated them.
There is no cure and no vaccine for Ebola, and those who have survived managed to do so only by receiving rehydration and other supportive treatment. Ebola's high fatality rate means many of those brought to health clinics have been merely kept as comfortable as possible in quarantine as they await death. As a result, some families have been afraid to take sick loved ones to the clinics.
"Let this warning go out: Anyone found or reported to be holding suspected Ebola cases in homes or prayer houses can be prosecuted under the law of Liberia," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated recently.
Her comments came just days after Sierra Leone issued a similar warning, saying some patients had discharged themselves from the hospital and had gone into hiding.
At the airport in Guinea's capital, departing passengers must undergo temperature screening, and those with a fever are pulled aside for further evaluation. Still, the stigma of Ebola follows Guineans well outside the region.
"The police treated us like we were aliens. They said they didn't want us in their country because of the disease affecting Guinea," says Tafsir Sow, a businessman who was briefly detained at the airport in Casablanca, Morocco before continuing on to Paris. "I had tears in my eyes."
Still, WHO health officials are hopeful they will be able to get the situation under control in the next several weeks. A recent conference in the capital of Ghana brought together health authorities from across the affected areas, and the countries agreed on a common approach to fight Ebola.
"When you have it spread, of course it's moving in the wrong direction," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general for health security and environment. "You want to see the number of infections going down. So we really have to redouble our efforts. But saying that it's out of control makes it sound like there are no solutions. This is a virus for which there are very clear solutions."
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- March 1, 2024
Our Founding Fathers were astonishingly capable of predicting man's weaknesses. Their understanding of man's imbuement with the seven deadly sins (lust, pride, envy, anger, greed, gluttony and laziness) ensured that a tough contract would have to be developed to control man's quest for power and wealth through government. They built into the Constitution safeguards to keep government from getting too big to prevent government from collecting enormous taxes and to keep man free from the shackles of government.
One of the most important safeguards involved was "honest money," which they felt would be provided by Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution "requiring all debts, public and private, to be settled in gold or silver specie." Because debt had to be settled with something of real (as in real estate) value, such as gold and silver, when government ran up debts during war, it had to pay them back, under the terms that they were borrowed, after the war. Under this "new system" of ours today, government borrows whatever it wants and never repays a dime.
Gold and silver standard
Let's see if we can cover 300 years of economic history briefly enough to understand how we got into this terrible economic predicament with a worthless currency and why we must return to a gold-and-silver standard before this country can be free again from the shackles of government.
At the Constitutional Convention, one of the big arguments was over whether there should be a central bank. It was decided to not provide for a central bank, because central banks had a history of destroying a country's currency. Sir Isaac Newton set the price of gold at what became $20 an ounce in 1717, a value that lasted 200 years. His action was the result of the currency speculation that was occurring in France, which created the "Mississippi bubble." France claimed the Mississippi Valley area in the early 1700s.
To raise money for crown misadventures, mostly wars and lavish spending by nobility, France sold parts of the Mississippi Valley area to speculators who, in turn, sold the first "stocks" on a street corner in Paris to the public so they could participate in the expected "large future returns."
Investors had wild dreams about rich resources from fur trading, minerals, farming and other endeavors. Stock prices became so unrealistic that they crashed, ruining the value of the French currency, because it was backed by so much debt. This impressed upon our Founding Fathers the importance of limiting government's economic powers by insisting that all government contracts be settled in gold or silver specie.
After the war between France and Great Britain over ownership of various parts of America in the 1750s and before The Revolutionary War with England, both France and Britain had gone broke fighting each other. George III, the English king, turned to the wealthiest people in his realm to tax — the colonists.
Hence, the tea tax and other taxes that led up to the Revolutionary War.
The signers of the Constitution were well aware of how government could destroy currency through war and debt unless government was mandated by law to pay back loans to the people from whom they borrowed money. Hence, "all debts will be settled in gold or silver specie."
Finally, the Constitutional Convention came about as a result of the currency mess in the 13 colonies that existed after the Revolutionary War. The Continental dollar was worthless — "not worth a Continental." With that in mind, the Currency Act of 1792 established the new nation's money and defined that currency, the dollar, in grains of gold. The dollar fluctuated in a narrow range, unchanged as valued in gold, until 1933.
Damaging events of 1913
We now come to a year in our history that changed this country forever, provided for endless war, created capacity for bigger government and provided the vehicle for the destruction of our individual liberties. That year was 1913. One of the most damaging events was the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which changed the language in the Constitution prohibiting a tax on income and, therefore, providing for the income tax. The second was the creation, on Dec. 23, 1913, of the Federal Reserve System.
The Federal Reserve Act provided for the issuing of currency, which, constitutionally, is the job of the House of Representatives. The Founding Fathers knew that if there were a tax on income, and if there were a central bank, we would end up like the countless European countries in history where the government controls everything and the people controlled little.
The income-tax amendment and Federal Reserve Act were sold to the people as "necessary."
Congressmen went home to their districts and said that they themselves were happy to pay 2% or 3% of their income to support the federal government, and they assured the public that nobody would be taxed more than 5% (and then only the wealthiest people).
Bankers and politicians sold the Federal Reserve System as something that would level out our recessions and be good for us, and they promised the centralization of power would be dispersed among 12 Federal Reserve Districts around the country. What they didn't tell everybody is that the government would control the process in concert with a handful of big private banks.
Remember that gold was $20 an ounce in 1913 and a dollar purchases 1/50 of the goods and services now than it could in 1913. Let's see what has happened.
1. In 1917, gold could no longer be part of a bank's legal reserves, but, rather, that gold had to be deposited with the Federal Reserve. This was the first big step in removing the public from the gold they had on deposit.
2. On March 12, 1933, Roosevelt, in his first fireside chat, assured the public that gold-and-silver coinage was not anymore important to own than a Federal Reserve note, because "the dollar was as good as gold."
3. Later on in 1933, the Roosevelt administration raised the price of gold to $20.67 an ounce, a 3.4% increase over $20 per ounce, by making it mandatory for citizens to turn in all of their gold in return for Federal Reserve Notes equaling $20.67 an ounce for every one ounce of gold redeemed. What that really represented was a confiscation of privately owned specie wealth and the largest transfer of wealth to government from the private sector in history.
4. In 1934, the Roosevelt administration increased the value of gold to $35 an ounce. That was a good deal: Buy something for $20.67 and revalue it to $35 a year later. One catch is that it did not benefit the U.S. citizens — it only benefited the government, because at that time, government owned all of the gold through the Federal Reserve.
5. The Bretton Woods System of 1944 essentially replaced gold as a standard of value in world markets with the dollar. The U.S. had the power and the gold in our vaults, and the rest of the world was in severe crisis. By way of the Truman and Marshall plans after World War II, huge U.S. dollar currency reserves were built up by foreign countries. Soon, all international contracts and all contracts for the purchase and sale of fossil fuels were made in dollars. When France tried to redeem its surplus of dollars for gold in 1971, Nixon closed the "gold window" and allowed gold to float freely from $35 an ounce. With Nixon shutting down the need for the U.S. to settle its debts in gold, the only thing then left to settle international debts was with dollars.
There you have it. Government finally refused to settle debts in specie and was allowed to settle debts with paper. From 1971 on, our national debt soared to where it is today, totally out of control, and on cruise control. The power to make money by man, instead of through hard work, is a power men have sought for thousands of years. Instead of gold that people tried to make chemically for centuries, our politicians did it with paper. They have medical-and-retirement programs that are better than the ones that the government mandated for us. Can we not understand that the government is only serving itself?
An economy built by debt will soon be destroyed by debt, unless serious, mandatory measures are taken to quit further borrowing and invoke a plan to amortize the debt. It's simple, and we do not have a lot of additional choices. We must get our act together, get our budget balanced, reduce the size of our government, get government out of our lives and take back our individual liberty, or this country will end up on a specie/barter system because the dollar will be totally worthless.
It is inconceivable that this could happen in the United States, but we are sitting right on top of the powder keg. If it doesn't blow soon, it will within a few years down the road. Money control is people control.
Governments control people through central banks, taxes on income and confiscation of real wealth, such as gold and silver. We must wake up and get rid of a graduated income tax and dissolve the Federal Reserve System, if we're serious about regaining our liberty and returning this country to greatness.
Caveat emptor!
George Rauch, Longboat Key, is chief executive officer of Bradenton-based General Propeller and a former Wall Street investment banker.


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XBMC (formerly Xbox Media Center) has always been a popular choice for retiring an original Xbox. Maybe people install it for lack of something better to do or maybe it's the pride in having better media support than the 360. The XBMC team has found another device that has a pretty weak television experience, the Mac. Lifehacker took the latest XBMC for OSX beta build for a run now that it supports remote controls. It seems like a much more functional than Apple's built in Front Row. There are a few things that don't quite work yet, which you can find in the FAQ. We're definitely going to try this on our old Mac mini… once we upgrade it to Leopard, which is an unfortunate caveat that might prevent people from running XBMC on legacy hardware. There is no Apple TV support planned because of limited horsepower and the hacking hurdles that might be required. If you're interested in repurposing your old Xbox with XBMC, check out Lifehacker's install guide.
7 thoughts on "XBMC For Your Mac"
Actually putting this on an AppleTV would make it even more awesome.
This is based on the Linux port work. I was gifted and AppleTV by a friend and run XBMC on a minimal Ubuntu install. Requires a little kernel hacking but its nice to have a machine thats not as loud as my Xbox next to the TV.
The Linux port came first, this is a port of that one. Runs quite well on Ubuntu. http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52
You can follow the progress of the Mac port on my blog: http://www.osxbmc.com
For people with older hardware this will only work on Intel hardware. no PPC
Gutted that it only runs on INTEL, thought my powerbook 1Ghz was gunna have a new lease of life for a second :-(
this it so stupid and i dislike it is relay stupid not to be mean but still
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This article is more than 1 year old
So what's the easiest box to hack - Vista, Ubuntu or OS X?
CanSecWest's Pwn2Own contest returns
This story was updated to correct the maximum prize amount available.
Tired of all the knee-jerk banter from fanboys about whose operating system is the most secure? So are the organizers of the CanSecWest security conference, which will be held in Vancouver later this month. And with a contest awarding as much as $20,000 worth of prizes, they're likely to breathe fresh life into a stale debate.
This year's Pwn2Own competition will place three brand-new, fully patched laptops side by side: a Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate, a Vaio VGN-TZ37Cn running Ubuntu 7.10 and a MacBook Air running Leopard. The first person to remotely run code on each one gets to take the machine home, and is can be entered into the running for an award potentially worth $20,000 from TippingPoint, whose Zero Day Initiative pays bounties to researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities.
At last year's Pwn2Own contest, conference organizers challenged attendees to hack into one of two fully patched MacBookPros to claim the machine and a $10,000 bounty from TippingPoint. Security guru Dino Dai Zovi, spent less than 12 hours doing just that, crafting a QuickTime exploit that allowed him to take complete control of the machine.
CanSecWest's Pwn2Own contests are useful because they allow us to isolate the technical strengths and weaknesses of a given platform from its popularity. Acrimonious debate has fomented for years about whether the high number of real-world Windows exploits - compared to those of OS X, Linux and other operating systems - is a natural consequence of having a 90-percent chunk of the market or the result of sloppy and insecure coding practices at Microsoft.
There's at least some merit to the argument that organized cyber crime gangs - just like makers of popular games Half-Life 2 and Crysis - don't write for the Mac and Linux because the smaller market shares make it impossible to get a return on the investment. The Pwn2Own contest, by offering a considerable incentive for exploits of these platforms, helps to neutralize the economic variable.
"These computers are REAL and FULLY patched," conference organizer Dragos Ruiu wrote in an email announcing the rules. "All third party software is widely used. There are no imitation vulnerabilities. Any exploit successfully used in this contest would also compromise a significant percentage of the internet connected hosts."
The rules for this year's contest include:
- Limit one laptop per contestant
- The same vulnerability can't be used against more than one box
- Attacks will be performed using a cross-over cable (with the attacker controlling the default route) or using radio-frequency by special arrangement.
- Winning exploits must target a previously unknown vulnerability; vulns that have already been reported to the affected software maker or a third party are not eligible.
Each of the machines will include widely deployed applications, including web browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Konqueror and Firefox), instant messengers (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Adium, Skype and Pigdin) and email clients (Outlook, Mail.app, Thunderbird, kmail, mutt).
El Reg will be attending CanSecWest, which runs from March 26-29. We are willing to trade beer for scoops or livers. ®


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Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford, has a remarkably diverse publishing program that reaches far beyond traditional university presses. OUP publishes in more than 40 languages under a variety of print and digital formats that cover an extremely broad academic and educational spectrum. OUP's list is aimed at all audiences, from pre-school to secondary level schoolchildren; students to academics; general readers to researchers; and individuals to institutions.
OUP is driven by the University of Oxford's objectives for excellence in scholarship, research, and education.
OUP currently publishes roughly 6,000 titles a year worldwide, selling more than 110 units per year, mostly outside of the UK.
Key Company Developments in 2012 & 2013
Sales from all publishing divisions in 2011/12 were 695 million GBP, a 10% rise in overall organic sales for the year ending March 31, 2012.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization:
At the beginning of 2013, The Bookseller reported that OUP acquired education publisher Nelson Thornes from Infinitas Learning for an undisclosed sum. Nelsen Thornes publishes primary, secondary and vocational teaching resources.
In March 2013, OUP told The Bookseller it would begin the consultation process with staff in the publishing division of its ELT arm this week, as a prelude to reorganising its publishing activities, what "may result in a number of redundancies", as an OUP spokesperson said. It is noted that "the process of reorganization [of the ELT Division] is expected to see a significant change in roles, reporting lines, and accountabilities for some employees in publishing roles, new roles will be created, others may change, and some current roles will no longer exist."
After making a number if investments in emerging markets to take advantage of rising demand, sales increased 16%. OUP focused on publishing boooks for schools in South America, the Middle East, and Asia. New series were launched for the Spanish and UK markets, resources for new curricula in Australia and South Africa were developed, and a complete management system for private language schools was developed for Brazil.
Digital publishing sales increased by 20% over the year, representing 17% of OUP's total and 45% of academic sales.
Oxford University Press put its scholarly editions online for the first time in a digital initiative launched in September 2012. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) will carry 171 OUP scholarly editions of works by authors active between 1485 and 1660, including around 7,000 poems, 200 plays and 5,000 letters.
OUP now publishes 14,000 e-books, of which more than 5,000 were added last year, and sales of these titles have increased more than threefold in the last 12 months. Last year, a new platform was launched, University Press Scholarship Online, which builds on the success of Oxford Scholarship Online by offering digital access to current and long out of print monographs from other university presses. More than 110 journals now use some kind of open access model, while a growing number of titles are available as apps and e-books, or from mobile devices.
Bestselling Authors & Titles:
Aside from selling strongly in print form, Jonathan Steinberg's Bismarck biography, a popular trade history title, was one of the Press's most popular e-books last year, selling thousands of copies in electronic format.
Key Points for Analysis & Conclusions:
OUP has expanded in emerging markets and focused on investing in digital services, accessibility and distribution, combining online access services as well as e-book offerings of its titles.
Challenges included, according to OUP, the retail sector, particularly in developed regions, as the market shifted from 'bricks and mortar' retail to online in 2011. The retail environment was also weak in Australia and Canada.
The pressure on institutional library budgets in developed markets has continued throughout 2010, with institutions across the UK and Europe seeing real budget cuts of 10–15 per cent on content acquisition. This picture is likely to worsen through 2011. "However, many markets, including the Middle East and Asia, are not facing comparative budget cuts."
Earlier Developments:
Sales for 2010/11 were 649 million GBP, representing organic growth of more than six per cent. All except one of OUP's publishing divisions achieved growth, driven by "creation of exceptional resources, rooted in the University's commitment to education and research for the benefit of people across the world" (Annual report 2011).
Emerging markets now account for 37 per cent of OUP's global sales
Against widespread expectations of a decline in institutional book sales, the UK Academic Division increased its revenues in 2009/10 based on a strong performance outside the UK and continued growth in online sales.
Oxford Scholarship Online, a platform for monographs, was launched in 2006 and has become one of the company's most successful academic online products, with 634 subscribing institutions worldwide.
More recently, OUP published Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO), an online-only resource designed to help researchers to find reliable sources by directing them to the best scholarship available.
2008/2009 had been anticipated to be a year under the impact of the economic downturn, which was particularly felt in the US retail market, according to the Annual Report 2009. However, as an academic publisher, OUP was less impacted than publishers in the trade market.
OUP saw growth in online journal usage, based on open access models and fair pricing.
Click here to return to the full listing of the world's largest publishers.


text: A walk-through video tour of my recent exhibition "Tortua" in the Eli Marsh Gallery at Amherst College in March 2013. Special thanks to Peter Marvin and Joshua Baum for their expertise in creating this documentation. I gratefully acknowledge Dean Gregory Call for his generous support of this exhibition, The Department of Art and the History of Art at Amherst College, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. My collaborators are: sound artist, Eric Leonardson, and robotics engineer, Michael Tolley.


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Los Angeles police are working to determine the identity of a man whose head, feet, and hands were found along a popular walking trail in the rugged hills near the Hollywood sign, with close to 50 investigators scouring the rough terrain for additional body parts.
The remains were discovered at about 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when two women walking nine dogs spotted a human head in Bronson Canyon Park after it flopped out of a plastic bag two of their dogs were playing with.
"One of the dogs took off into the brush and started shaking the bag," said Andy Smith, a commander with the Los Angeles Police Department.
The following morning, a coroner's cadaver dog named Indiana Bones found the first severed hand in a pile of brush by trees just off a dirt trail, about 50 feet away from where the head was discovered. A few hours later, the second hand and feet were found in a deep, rugged canyon nearby.
The body parts were discovered near a concrete ramp frequented by skateboarders.
Police suspect the remains belong to a man of European or Armenian descent in his 40s or 50s, with salt-and-pepper hair. Police also believe he was killed elsewhere and dumped within the last couple of days, as there is little sign of decomposition.
The killer most likely scattered the body parts to avoid detection, said Craig Harvey, chief of the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
"Clearly they didn't want the person to be identified," said Harvey. "You are trying to prevent identification or discovery. It is easy to get a handle on it if you dismember your victim. You can throw stuff away inconspicuously. But obviously he didn't throw it far enough away, or maybe a coyote dragged it up from the depth of the floor of the forest."
Meanwhile, police are scouring through missing persons reports, surveying nearby garbage containers, and knocking on doors along Canyon Drive in an effort to find a resident who may have noticed anything unusual in the last few days. Police also are hoping to pull fingerprints from one of the hands and determine the identity of the head.
As detectives continue with their investigation, the grisly finds are prompting speculation that the man could have been killed by one of Mexico's drug cartels, which are known to decapitate their victims.
"People have mentioned a drug cartel, but they try to make a splash," said Smith. "I don't think that is the case here. I think it is an isolated incident."
Bronson Canyon Park, which closes at sunset, is a popular spot for local dog walkers, joggers, horseback riders, and tourists. On the weekends, the park is filled with families who host birthday parties and yoga instructors who give free lessons. The nearby trails are several miles long and wind toward the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign. Park rangers are regular fixtures along the trails on the weekends, but the park is relatively empty during the week, which could have provided the killer with an opportunity to dispose of the remains without being detected.
The park is also home to the Bronson Bat Caves, which have been used over the years in a number of films and television shows, including the Batman television series.
The body parts were discovered just over two weeks after a series of arson fires put Hollywood residents on edge over the New Year's weekend. Harry Burkhart, a German national with travel papers from Chechnya, was arrested on Jan. 2 for allegedly setting more than 50 fires in Hollywood and nearby communities.
"A few weeks ago we were afraid of the arsonist, and now we have this," said Steve, a local man who declined to give his last name. "It is a little scary but I won't lose sleep over it."
According to TMZ, a photo of the human head is being shopped around to local tabloid newspapers. The website reported that photo was snapped by a man who came across the dog walkers and allowed them to use his phone to make a 911 call. He took the photo with the phone after the women hung up with the police.
Finding human remains is a relatively common occurrence in L.A. county's remote mountainous regions. Most of the time, the killings occur elsewhere and the bodies are discovered badly deteriorated several weeks later. Chief coroner Harvey said the cadaver dog, Indiana Bones, is called out at least 15 times a month to parks, forests, and Dumpsters. About 50 or 60 percent of the time the bones turn out to be human, he said.
In February 2010, a hiker discovered a skull in Griffith Park, a rugged 4,000-acre area that straddles the mountains separating Hollywood from the San Fernando Valley. The following year, the skull was matched through DNA evidence to body parts found in 2007 more than 50 miles away in San Bernardino County.
With its twisting trails and plunging canyons, the Angeles National Forest has long been considered a favorite dumping ground for killers. The body of Hillside Strangler victim Cindy Lee Hudspeth was discovered in 1978 in the trunk of her Datsun, which was pushed off a cliff on Angeles Crest Highway. Former Los Angeles Raiders cheerleader Linda Sobek was found strangled in the same area in 1995, as was model Kimberly Pandelios, whose skeletal remains were discovered by two hikers who stumbled across her skull in March 1993.
The corpse of con man Ron Levin, who allegedly was killed by members of the Billionaire Boys Club in the 1980s, is thought to be buried somewhere in the Angeles National Forest.
"People who commit murder are always looking of ways to avoid detection," said Glynn Martin, executive director of the Los Angeles Police Historical Society. "Over the course of Los Angeles history, people have tried to conceal their misdeeds, and that is just part of it."


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Address :
Shree Balaji Agora Mall, Sardar Patel Ring Road, Motera, North, Ahmedabad
Phone : Not Mentioned
Date : 14th July to 20th July
War For The Planet Of The Apes (U/A) 3D Hindi
Duration: 1 hr 41 mins
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War For The Planet Of The Apes (U/A) 2D Hindi
Duration: 1 hr 41 mins
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Jagga Jasoos (U/A) 2D Hindi
Duration: 3 hrs
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Guest Iin London (U/A) 2D Hindi
Duration: 2 hrs 12 mins
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Mom (U/A) 2D Hindi
Duration: 2 hrs 26 mins
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Cash On Delivery (U/A) 2D Gujarati
Duration: 2 hrs 11 mins
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Spider-Man: Homecoming (U/A) 3D Hindi
Duration: 2 hrs 13 mins
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Spider-Man: Homecoming (U/A) 2D Hindi
Duration: 2 hrs 13 mins
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Running Show Timings in Other Cinema Halls in Ahmedabad
Miraj Cinemas Cine Pride Navo Naroda
Mukta A2 Cinemas Gulmohar Park
Sunset Drive in Cinema Drive in Road
>> Shahrukh Khan Naked Video Leaked
>> Raj Kapoor Used Sex To Hit His Film
>> 100 Years of Indian Cinema
>> Vidya Balan Most Hot Photos
>> Sunny leone Unscene Photo Shoot
On this article we try to remember some milestone movies which is never be forgotten. We really should know about these films.
Shahrukh Khan went full frontal with his butt and this has to be the only film in the history of B town
We all know he was a great director, a super story teller. But from the very first film in his direction he used short dresses and intimate scenes in his films.
There was a mirrakle in the year of 1950 on 12th December in India. The living legend, The Super Human Being Rajnikanth was born.
Rajesh Khann the First Superstar of Hindi Film was said the most famous dialogs of Amitabh Bachchan. Just watch the images it will fresh your mood.
We all know about Raj, Rahul but who knows He is only Actor who play as himself in 10 films during his carrer. Here is the LIST
Being a Rockstar in Rock On to a Millitary Man in Wazir with Mr Amitabh Bachchan.
Salman Khan The Boss of Box Office is also Known as Sallu Bhai. He belongs from a Well Established Bollywood Family. His Father Salim Khan was a Writer Poet. His Two Brothers are Producer and Director.
Akshay Kumar - The Khiladi of Hindi Film Industry is belong from Army Family. His Father was an Army Man. He had no Connection with Film Industry.
In 1980 Mithun and Sridevi came closer during the set of Jaag Utha Insaan. Rumours said that Mithun married Sridevi secretly but Yogeeta refused to giving divorce and Sridevi did not want to stay with a Man who had another wife.
Anil Kapoor is not the First Member from his family in Film Industry. He is the second generation.
In Hindi cinema, we mostly watched Corrupt or Bad Police in our department. In reality, it is true most of the time but There are also Honest Capable and Smart Police in our Society.
Daily Thousand of People Search 'Top Ten Hot Actress' or 'Top Ten Sexy Actress' and They got their Result. But they didn't happy. They want to see their favorite Actress in the list.
It is very difficult to select the Most Talented and Most Popular Actors in Bollywood. But we did research and ask many people by social media and got a result.
Actresses are coming to break the rules of conventional concept of heroines.
Zindagi - The hindi word is very popular in poetry. Hindi films used the word several times on various songs. Here we bring most popular zindegi songs for you.
Here you find top ten pair in bollywood from black & white era to now.
Top Ten Rain Songs in Bollywood Ever. Pyar Hua Iqraar Hua to Tip Tip Barsha Pani.
From 1973 to 2016 he has done many films. Here we select the 5 must watch films of Amir Khan


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Leading Washington Post Columnist Predicts Redskins Name Will Change Soon
The Washington Post's Mike Wise made an intriguing prediction in his column on Monday: "Robert Griffin III is not going to retire an 'R' word."
Wise, who attended the Change the Mascot press conference in Washington, D.C., yesterday, said that changing the Washington football team's name is not a matter of if, but when.
RELATED Redskins Name-Change Symposium: Where Were Snyder and Goodell?
"The debate over whether a people are denigrated or honored by the name of the Washington NFL team, like the absurd debate over whether the name is a unifying force, is over," he wrote.
Wise predicted the team will change its name in "five years tops" arguing that Dan Snyder, the team's owner, has to eventually yield to public pressure.
"The question is how long before Roger Goodell or any of the NFL commissioner's brightest lawyers deem that a prolonged public assault against the name becomes financially hazardous to the league's future. Just when is the tipping point?"
Wise said that tipping point came yesterday, with reports that NFL officials had reached out to the Oneida Nation, which sponsored Monday's press conference, to schedule a meeting with the group.
"They know that we're not going away," said Ray Halbritter, CEO of the Oneida Indian Nation, who, according to The Post, called a meeting with the NFL "a move in the right direction."
Brian McCarthy, vice president of communications for the NFL confirmed to Time that a representative from the NFL is scheduled to meet with members of the Oneida Nation on November 22nd.
But Wise noted that the NFL, via Adolphus Birch, its senior vice president of labor policy, has asked that the November 22 meeting date be moved up, and he extended an invitation to come to the Oneida's reservation in Verona, New York.
"Think about that: The NFL, which has spent tens of thousands of dollars defending the team from American Indian plaintiffs seeking to strip its trademark in court for the better part of two decades, has offered to go to the res to talk," Wise wrote.
Next, Wise said that Commissioner Goodell and "others" may be tired of Snyder's "cold brazenness toward the offended" and that "they simply can't take his tone-deafness on the issue anymore" because its bad business.
"When a billionaire takes a position as a bully instead of at least acknowledging the people who are offended, then he starts to lose what middle ground remained."
It is, Wise said, a signal that the matter is being taken out of Snyder's hands, and "the first clear indication that the name is eventually going down."
There is no word if Snyder will attend the meeting, but Halbritter said that the Nation would welcome his participation.
Wise also noted that President Obama's stand on the issue tipped the scale further in favor of his five-year prediction. Obama said that if he were in Snyder's shoes, he would have to "think seriously" about changing the name if it was offensive to a sizeable group of people. It was the first time a sitting president had weighed in on the issue.
RELATED Obama Says Redskins Should Think Seriously About Changing Name
Wise's most significant point was his nod to the growing group of Americans who are speaking out on how offensive the team's name is. "It's not the Oneida Nation, the Cherokee Nation or any one of 450-plus federally recognized sovereign peoples. It's called the world's tribe, and it is bigger and infinitely more powerful than an 80-year-old fan base and its idea of 'tradition.'"