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Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Faced with decreasing budgets and shocks such as sequestration, agencies can no longer afford to carry out business-as-usual with respect to common support serv...
wfedstaff | April 17, 2015 6:39 pm
Commentary by Jeff Neal
Founder of ChiefHRO.com
& Senior Vice President, ICF International
This column was originally published on Jeff Neal's blog, ChiefHRO.com, and was republished here with permission from the author.
The federal government, much like any other organization, either provides for itself or buys a wide range of overhead services to support its operations. Overhead is not a derogatory term — it is just the term that is applied to services that are necessary to support the mission of an agency. Missions do not get accomplished without overhead services. While overhead services such as Human Resources, Financial Management or Contracting support follow laws and regulations that are remarkably consistent across agencies, most agencies have dedicated internal service providers. The result is a level of redundancy and cost that diverts scarce resources to overhead functions rather than agency missions. Faced with decreasing budgets and shocks such as sequestration, agencies can no longer afford to carry out business-as-usual with respect to common support services. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel challenged his department and its stakeholders to "challenge all past assumptions" and "put everything on the table."
"We need to challenge all past assumptions, and we need to put everything on the table. For example, it is already clear to me that any serious effort to reform and reshape our defense enterprise must confront the principal drivers of growth in the department's base budget — namely acquisitions, personnel costs and overhead."
— Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel – April 3, 2013
One good example of overhead services that would be "on the table" is Human Resources/EEO. Looking only at the number of federal employees in those occupations, we see 2 percent of the federal workforce in the HR/EEO (41,929 employees) job series. Because both HR and EEO offices also employ people in other job series, such as IT, budget and administration, my experience is that as many as a quarter of the people in HR offices are not in HR series. That means another half percent of the federal workforce are HR in non-HR job series. The number may be higher. Assuming that conservative number, 2.5 percent of the federal workforce exists to provide HR services to the government.
Federal Employees in HR/EEO Job Series | |||
Job Series | # of Employees | Average Salary | Total Cost |
201 | 27,698 | $84,957 | $2,353,138,986 |
203 | 11,480 | $43,199 | $495,924,520 |
260 | 2,751 | $93,971 | $258,514,221 |
$3,107,577,727 | |||
+30% Fringe | $932,273,318 | ||
Total Cost | $4,039,851,045 |
If we look only at the costs of the Human Resources/EEO workforce (in salary and fringe benefits cost of employees in the 201 (HR Specialist), 203 (HR Clerk and Assistant) and 260 (Equal Employment Opportunity) job series is more than $4 billion. HR/EEO organizations also employee people in other job series, such as budget, clerical and information technology, and the common "catch-all" 301 job series. Use of the 301 series for HR has increased in recent years as a way of reducing the apparent number of HR professionals, and to support grades that are often not as easily obtained in the more prescriptive 201, 203 and 260 job series. In addition to the non-HR/EEO job series, HR/EEO service organizations also purchase contract support. The number of dollars devoted to such services is difficult to identify, governmentwide it is certainly in the hundreds of millions and perhaps more. Because the costs of common services are buried in agency budgets, the number is rarely examined as a single cost. The time has come to begin that examination and find ways to reduce the cost to a more manageable level.
There are many side effects of failure to consolidate overhead services. Chief among them is the lack of money for training staff and modernizing systems and processes. An agency with redundant overhead organizations will cut costs by taking away everything but salary dollars and leaving the overhead functions with few resources to do anything other than pay their employees. It is rare to find an HR office that is adequately resourced, even when the agency is spending more on such services than would seem necessary. The agency wonders why it is not getting great support, the employees in the support organizations wonder why they cannot get training or adequate tools to do their work, and everyone wonders why it does not get better. An agency, its employees and its HR staff are far better off with one or two well-staffed, trained and resourced HR offices than they are with 10 marginally staffed and resourced organizations that struggle to provide good service.
I have heard people saying for years that services cannot be consolidated because their agency is unique. While it may make us feel better to say we are unique, the truth is most agencies are not. The plethora of different rules, processes and systems is the result of choice rather than absolute necessity. Although agencies tend to create their own operating policies and directives for HR services, those rules are usually created because they can be, not because of a compelling business argument. Not only that, attempts to consolidate HR/EEO services are typically met with fierce resistance. When the Department of Defense proposed consolidating HR services in the 1980s, one of the services responded with the objection that their civilian HR services were at the heart of their warfighting capabilities. When faced with that type of opposition, the proposal was dropped. Eventually, the DoD elected to "regionalize" its HR services in a way that protected most of the parochial interests that objected to the previous consolidation proposal. The result was a model that few DoD leaders and virtually no one in HR would consider to be effective or efficient.
When the Defense Logistics Agency proposed a real consolidation of HR services, Pentagon officials supported it as a means of seeing if consolidation could actually work. Studies of the DLA HR transformation have shown it was completely successful, reduced costs and dramatically improved the quality of services. The proposed transformation was not universally accepted in DLA. In fact, many affected managers, field Commanders and Senior Executives were vehemently opposed. One SES referred to it as "the most brutal proposal I've ever seen." Another said he would rather have bad service he controled than good service someone else controled. One General said it was doomed to failure and would generate no savings, even if it could be implemented, which he doubted. They were wrong. Not only did the consolidation work, it saved money and provided more resources for the consolidated offices to get their work done. Many of the savings came from elimination of redundant management structures. Rather than having seven HR offices, each with an HR director, staff directors and support teams for each, there were two HR offices. Rather than having seven sets of HR tools, we had one. Rather than having seven sets of operating procedures, we had one. DLA is not the only example of effective HR consolidation. Agencies as diverse as NASA and the departments of Commerce, Treasury and Interior have had similar successes. That kind of consolidation and cost reduction is not radical. It is not risky, and it is not new and different. It is a tried and proved approach to delivering services.
What was driving those objections, and what bold leaders in government will face today, is fear. Fear of loss of control. Fear of loss of influence. Fear of failure. Fear of services that are worse than before. Overcoming those fears is critical if government is going to transform itself today. If those fears drive debates about overhead services, imagine how people will respond when asked to do the same thing for mission services. How will any real consolidation of services, elimination of redundant missions and consolidation of agencies take place? We have proved in multiple agencies that support services can be effectively and efficiently consolidated, yet that knowledge has not been translated into governmentwide measures to dramatically transform support services. It is time to take that step.
Leader development is no longer a luxury
Replacing the General Schedule: Meeting the needs of the 21st century federal workforce
Reforming the General Schedule doesn't have to mean pay for performance
Copyright 2014 by Jeff Neal. All rights reserved.
Jeff Neal is founder of the blog, ChiefHRO.com, and a senior vice president for ICF International, where he leads the Organizational Research, Learning and Performance practice. Before coming to ICF, Neal was the chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security and the chief human resources officer at the Defense Logistics Agency.
Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.


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Only truth will set you free of this Global Psycho Babble Religious Hegemony.
All Empires end - mainly badly! Usually, the citizens cocooned within are the last to see it coming.
One World of Nations
12 December 2014
Focusing in on the case of America where, all Media, the only voice of the people, is Zionist owned, truth is denied as the economy dies. No one knows, or understands, why America is dying needlessly under a continuous pack of Propaganda lies. Why loose a nation with so much vibrant potential, just to save a Zionist and Military Rat pack, as it drowns also under an onslaught of uncontrolled Hispanic and Islamic mass immigration? America is a case of unfulfilled potential of its great nation, versus Chicanery of Cabal betrayal of their nations trust. As the Media Lies to order, we need to expose the sad truth from beyond the border. If truth can set America free, then let it truly fulfill its destiny.
Let's start by questioning and exposing the gruesome lies and history of Religions, and compare even the current day's murderous inhumanity with the Islamists. But who is funding and arming them and why? What is the real agenda, because these lies are American lives? A few paragraphs lower expose it all for you. Why it was not possible. Another Vatican lie. Now a billion gullible people follow a false path.
This unelected Shadow Government Cabal, leading and directing this seriously dysfunctional and unstable psychotic Usurper of very dubious agenda, could unleash a Global catastrophe the world will just not be prepared for if not stopped. With a history of so many poor judgment calls, ever increasing escalation with Russia could be terminal. Russia has nothing to lose. America's people have everything to lose! But they - have no say. Because an illegal Nero, elected by Fraud, is out of control. Worse, a truly mediocre Puppet meddling in complex Geo Political equations far beyond his clear pay grade. He may not have Political largesse much longer. Time for the Provost Martial to MAN UP! Arrest this Illegal and remove him. Trace and seize his worldwide alleged Kickbacks from Bush and Ackermann. Extradite Michael Herzog from Germany and trace the Bush / Clinton / Obama pay offs. But who can allow Biden to step up? A man Falcone alleges, was bribed by Clinton, acting for Bush. Once stepping up, stop the rot, and take all of them down.
Coming up in 2 years, is an election contest of 2 scurrilous Raptors. A devious lying psychopath versus a Raptor Crime family. What a tragedy for America. Who wishes this?
The Military Industrial Cabal, combined with the mendacious and predatory Zionist Bankers, have ruthlessly asset stripped the nation over the last century, as well as plundering and looting the planet. From Marcos, To the Chinese Elders, Taiwanese funds, and Indonesian, nations have been subjected to appalling acts of betrayal or trust, and in some cases the most ruthless acts of Piracy and War Looting such as the murderous tortures in the Philippines as the CIA and Cabal members sought to steal all as well recorded in history of the sordid CIA, Pentagon and criminal Fed.
Bottom line, if the economy collapses, as seems almost inevitable if not rerouted fast, the entire Western world will need to restructure and wait for a new central command of Leadership to emerge. But from where, as the EU is totally riddled with corruption and incompetence? England has the best economy and far away the best cultural infrastructure as well as the common Global language, but is too small any longer to assume the mantle of Global Peacekeepers. Albeit they also too are saddled with some limp wrist Politicians. But none of these assembled Jackasses are the real issues, as they are all transient. Just passing flotsam.
Shedding the dogmas
This is now the 21st century, and if we are to ascend to fulfill our potential, truth needs to lead with reality. Time to Grow Up and come of age to go forward. Time to reshape Leadership. Humans are still locked in perpetual conflict, blindly following doctrinaire religious fables founded on Myths and fabricated Male Power grabs. God needs none of these nonentities to rule and subordinate by fear and threat. Stop building lives on lies! God is an assembled REAL Spirit of eternal love and Kinetic energy entity. Looking on, looking in, our Male created conceptual Human religions are banal abominations of truth, based on no factual historical foundation, or even purpose of communal enrichment. The report will not side track into pseudo religious dogma and their Cant of medieval delusional myths, but will reflect brief TRUE comparisons of the events from which so much false power has been sequestrated by a cunning and vengeful collective of deluded Hustlers and mass perversions. Most religions have been wrong and rotten. Almost all, are fabricated. UNTRUE! Most, are nonsense. Gullible people Like the Mormon's vanishing Golden plates, are deceived, tithed and used. And as for your daughters, Smith and his grasping rabble will have 4.
Even religions cross fight each other between Muslim, Christian and Jewish factions. Man's greatest enemy is, and always has been, duplicitous religions with genocidal programs hiding as religious ideologies. No one has killed more than Religions. Some God's cause.
Religions, as perceived, even still today, are founded upon:
- Power grabs,
- Asset sequestration,
- Domination of the Female species,
- Cynical exploitation of impressionable children.
Children are targeted to falsely indoctrinate, to follow contrived agendas and duplicitous or naive Spiritual Guide Leaders. The vicious circle to invoke servitude. From Bar Mitzvahs to Christian confirmations, all seek the cynical mind indoctrination of the child. Their perception of God, simply does not exist in such a ridiculous and naïve form. Nor are they following worthy Spiritual Mentor Guides to anything of fundamental value. The Vatican is itself, as with Islam, are abominations and cesspits of corruption and intrigue, coupled with perverse sexual deviancy. When will the Vatican hand over the vast files of Child Molesting Priests? Or declare its true wealth, all sequestrated from the people, as with their vast land holdings. It needs freezing and seizing. Who will stop these despotic Muslim child marriages within this Pedophile cult?
Look aghast at the current plague of Mad Dog Islamic fundamentalists, a Blood Cult, promoted by an aging, rotting Pedophile with his 6 year old wife. For God's sake??????? Then look also at the truth tracing back to the historical emergence of the war faring Tribes of Israel, as another collective pack of itinerant marauding Gypsies Dogs of odd job construction contractors, Tinker type laborers and partial Masons craftsmen, who migrated between the Middle Eastern nations, sequestrating, plundering and committing acts of vast genocide as they moved relentlessly between land masses, despoiling all in their sight like predatory Locust swarms. Read the Bible and its ceaseless history of wars and regional conflicts. Never mind Genesis, how about mass Genocide? Israel was based on just nomadic Gypsy type tribes who conceived of a single God figure, and used it no less to unite their 12 key tribes always in conflict, than Emperor Constantine did to unite a confused Rome's citizens whose multiple Gods were also failing them. Ignorant people need hope, even as blind as current concepts of religions. Poorly educated people are so gullible. These were just a different species of Spin Doctors and Snake Oil Salesmen of their time.
From the Con Man come part Egyptian Mystic trained Hustler called Moses, who delivered unto the people 10 Commandments of which 7 just happened to be directly plagiarized from Egypt's own code of idealistic Citizenship Standards, to moralize his ruthless, cruel and Godless slaughter of the innocent people of indigenous nationals in any areas he and his lawless itinerant hoards came across, this cruel Despot ordered mass destruction of harmless communities, all in his "God's" name? BS! They were just ruthless scavenger packs devastating all in their path.
This was just a time of ignorance when sunlight in autumn light reflected on dying leaves was misconstrued as a burning bush. Anyone can see this reflection at the right time. Don't sup from crocks! At least with MLK he gave you "I have a dream", while he banged everything in a skirt in sight. As did JFK, from his staged Camelot set as the public swallowed it all. How easy to fool almost all of the people, all of the time.
Unlike one of the few true and evolved Leaders in Nelson Mandela who raised the real Palestinian agenda, most Religions and their Leaders are so bogus. Worse, dangerously delusional. Where is truth? Seek it. Be the Keeper of your own Soul. Be informed. Seek God within your own heart and be at one with creation and the spirit of the Universe. You need no false Religions, seek your own truth.
Reviewing historical legends
Can anyone conceive how this delusional Abraham, mentally unbalanced and readying himself to murder his own son, befits such a Matriarchal role? For both Jews and Muslims? A paranoid, delusional Schizophrenic, wired to the moon, and in serious need of being sectioned. Yet thousands of years ago, this psychotic Crock, a complete Head Case, became an entity of Legend against which one son went off to form Judaism, the other Islam. From which vast millions of unstable and delusional lunatics now roam our world with vengeance and hatred in their hearts, with their illusory God force manipulated in the twisted minds of Mullahs, Rabbis and Ayatollahs of one sort or another. Genocidal maniacs wreak havoc across the Middle East with murderous vengeance. What malfunctioning mind sets manipulate suggestible and gullible followers to become suicide bombers? To Martyr Children? To mutilate the sexual organs of girls, their daughters?
God says? Rubbish!
Even during the cosmetic creation of so called Christianity as ordered by Emperor Constantine, the coins then printed indicated the Jesus figure as being Apollyon, their Sun God, and significant splits in the Gospels indicated the Jesus Rabbi (Teacher) entity to be just a contrived multiparty Prophet, with the real Son of God indicated as yet to come. But, Rome needed one - NOW! A central uniting figurehead to unite the Roman citizens and adopt as an iconic Deity they alone had the patronage of as ordained to act of the Gatekeepers to Elysium, the golden fields of their heaven. Unitary control of access. So, Jesus, over decades was a contrived myth and spun to order.
The old mind game. The entire Roman concept of the Jesus entity, of which there were many examples entangled together as concept models, but NONE of substance, was entirely fabricated to suit a legend, like King Arthur or Robin Hood, and to serve a purpose of control and mind domination. Unlike Caesar who is well documented, the Jesus Myth when examined under evidential scrutiny, just totally fails credibility with so many cross conflicts. No less than Judaism does to its own. Jews, Gentiles and Goyim. Muslims or Infidels. Divide and rule.
Now this is the real impasse of the Jesus crock. Sorry but true. Just be aware that Bethlehem did not even exist as a functioning center during the period alleged as fully Roman recorded. Truth is there, on record. Nor was a Roman census involved at that time. Nor could any heavily pregnant women make such a 7 day journey sitting on a Donkey without losing the baby. Even worse, such a couple would not have had a Donkey. Let alone a Virgin Birth. Hello???? Nothing stands up to a factual Diligence check. All this gave birth to have been just fantasy stories which fail all diligence checks. Sad, but the truth is, it's just a series of poorly fabricated lies! Time to come of age. A wake up call. Why not chose Self Intelligence, not blind pursuit of fabricated Myths?
It's on a par with the Great Mythical King David using the Arc to collapse the walls of Jericho in battle. Such heavy walls, as alleged, would have left a huge architectural footprint base of ruined building block remnants. Archaeologists have heavily explored the region to excavate the site. No stones have ever been found and clearly no such city ever existed. Therefore no such battles, and the Arc??? This whole crock is just another King Arthur or Robin Hood legend. Sorry folks, but once you ask the right questions, nothing stands up. Do not build your lives on lies. Nor false priests. Judaism and Christianity, sorry but it's all built on a crock! Order another Wailing Wall fast. Truth hurts. Not as much as it does for the poor baby's circumcised for a lie. To think a paranoid delusional Schizophrenic like Abraham could have unleashed such a following. Or so many flawed legends. Ignorance is bliss. Until you expose them, and close them. Truth does not stay buried. No Bethlehem, got that? No Census as Roman records show. A heavily pregnant women riding 7 days on a Donkey? Hello???? Once you expose their disingenuous lies it all implodes. Don't be gullible.
Be informed before making decisions of Iconic figures or leaders to follow. Which, if any, merit it?
But do not lose faith in the higher power, which is not our case. Give loyalty to God by awakening your own consciousness. Not false posing Intermediaries seeking to rule you. You can do it.
Take the development of Christianity from its more recorded and trustworthy records. The Vatican, on the take for a Tithe, wantonly unleashed vast hordes of armed Brigands as Crusaders to mass invade the Arab and Middle East lands purportedly to seek access to and control of a mythical Temple Mount. But also to plunder all at will, sharing the spoils of war with an ever so corrupt Vatican Papacy. Genocide from perverse Popes. As ever. Religions produce such rotten men, from Moses to the Papacies and today's Islamic fundamentalists. Rotten men deluded by lies.
In 1095 the then Pope Urban II, issued a decree to the French and European Nobility stating that all who participated in a great Crusade to the Holy Land to free Jerusalem from Muslim rule, would be forgiven all their sins. And not have to burn in the hell the Vatican had conceived for them. In addition to being given a special dispensation of forgiveness for all sins actioned along the roads of the great Crusade. An army of over 60,000 was collated as they walked or rode from all over Europe, sweeping down through Constantinople sacking, looting, burning and mass murdering all in their path for provisions and the spoils of war from defenseless communities. 60,000 armed Vandals with no money, no provisions, just taking from all communities in their path ahead. A blood orgy. All believing in preordained forgiveness. Papal Immunity from Sin. Vast criminal hoards destroying all in their path. Most with the vision of enriching themselves from the looting of the spoils of war at the end. Cities were put under siege and ransacked. Tens of thousands were put to the sword and mass executed as cities were conquered on their approach to Jerusalem. People impaled, burned alive and children roasted on spits. People thrown from castle walls. Cities looted for wealth. These were your Godless Crusader armies. All unleashed by Vatican Despots in God's name. Abominations to God.
When even Jerusalem fell on 14th July 1099, over 70,000 of its citizens, mainly Jews, were massacred. It was recorded that in the Temples where they sought protection, blood ran so deep it was up to the horse's bridles. No God ordered, or wished this, nor forgave. This is your Papacy. A bloodthirsty, cruel, genocidal despotic conclave of Evil. They dare to speak in God's name? This is the same Vatican who, in conjunction with King Philippe of Spain, later also agreed a financial arrangement to mass execute the Templers and share the proceeds with Philippe, and the Templers Gold and lands. Conspiracy and treachery is deeply embodied in the Vatican, as the Pedophiles and sexual deviants they are. A truly godless abomination who have thrived on lies for over 1,700 years. Home of the Inquisition who murdered millions over 4 centuries. A ruthless, predatory killing machine.
History is littered with false Gods and failed Heroes. So many false legends. The Templers were not just the legendary mythical Knights, but a ruthless mercenary regime who enriched themselves not only by plundering cities, by also developing the world's first Banking Documentary Credits system, and provided funded protection to travelers on a Pilgrimage to the Holy land, until Saladin took it back in 1187 and restored Muslim power. Mercenary Monks with a taste for wealth and deep pockets, but the ones who excavated the Temple Mount and Catacombs, seizing also hordes of artifacts and hidden treasures. History, in fact, truth is ugly.
It's your 'Book of Life'
One thing modern man needs to learn, is do not let False Religions do your thinking for you. Take responsibility for your own Soul. You alone are its keeper. This is your personal journey so make each day count. Seek the true God by quiet meditation, think of the good citizenship standards God would wish, and be free to pursue higher ideals of truth, good ideals, humanitarian values, kindness to animals, and compassion for the old, poor and afflicted. Be a humble servant of a higher power. Your own Soul is your Book of Life and all that leaves with you. Make your time here matter. It will be over before you know it. Then, it is too late to put back. Don't live a lie or pursue pointless ideals. Be true to what matters. Be your own Emissary of God and goodness of Soul. All you need is within you, you were born with it. Enlightenment is the real reward and richness to seek. Values are not what is in your Bank account, but in your heart. Touch souls, then you will find what life means and your way back.
Whether our neighbors were raised as Christians, Jews, Muslims or even Mormons, these are just labels and false indoctrinations. It's what's in each person's heart that counts. Moral values, good citizenship. Respect and compassion for all. What better way to live than to act only as Stewards in God's name and help restore values which do matter? We are all only one people. Life is real, the labels are false. When you study and understand the history of religions, you realize what false doctrinaire games they play to entrap you and enrich themselves. Such evil histories. As is today. Be true to yourself and the real God. Enrich humanity and your own Soul, not Despots posing.
For the oncoming propaganda hype of a false Christmas, instead of endorsing these deluded Shape shifters passing as Ordained Ministers, why not for once take the values of what it should represent and be your own Apostle of Mercy. Go out armed with food, drinks or cash. Find the homeless, elderly or visibly so poor. Reach out and touch the homeless on the streets. Giving cash, clothing, blankets or food is a welcome gift for them, but the touch of your hand is priceless to them. The surprise of a stranger right out of the blue, coming into their lives when they are so, so down, feeling desolate, alone and worthless, then you arrive. Look into their eyes with kindness and caring. If they are sitting, kneel and be with them as one on the same level. Make the effort. The touch of your hand and what's in your heart matters. But what's in your eyes matters more. They may be broke, but they can see, and feel. They don't want to feel humiliated, ashamed or as Bums. I ask their permission to help give a little along the path of life and let them decided if to let me help them or not. It re-empowers them and gives them value and worth. Free will. But if all they see is just humble, simple kindness and not arrogance, they will know. They do.
For them, just to know they are loved and valued by a fellow man, is all. That gives them priceless strength and hope. It gives a reason to live again. Of real value to someone. Standing or sitting in the closed confines of false Churches does nothing. Enriching the vile Vatican even less. That is not touching lives. You achieve nothing but delusion. Get on the streets or each out to the needing causes. Hands on. Volunteer for an hour or two helping Community Groups. Take the real Gods work out to make it happen. Do something. Real people need real help out here. You CAN make a difference and NO, doing nothing is not an answer. We are all the life forces of one God, one not needing or seeking false Religions, but seeking us all to act with compassion and humility for the less well off. Loneliness is dreadful. As is feeling lost and worthless. Hope is priceless. Give it to others by giving a few minutes of yourself. Give the value of your own life real meaning. Give back. Be the Master of your own Destiny. Honor your Soul, it is the Vessel of all you are, and seek truth for all existence. Fulfill your real destiny with knowledge gained along this path of your life and the wealth of good Karma you will earn as a Samaritan to others truly in need. Any small act of kindness to others all matters. You can see the real parties deserving support and those not. Kindness need not cost. But to some, it's everything. Touch and save real lives. YOU have that power. YOU. That is enrichment which has real value. Anything which takes you closer to the real God. That simple touch of your hand, a human touch to those so down is priceless. We don't need Religions to be human. But we do need understanding and compassion. A reason to be, and to be so much more. That is our real path of life. To take our place on the journey to the Stars. Star matter to make life matter. We are all creations of one great Creator. Create now a reason to be alive for others. Act.
All you see now of Western ways is failing. The Cabal and their Zionist Mafia cohorts, from the Rothschild's, Rockefellers, and their domination of Banking is derailing as Derivatives are being called to prop up free falling oil prices. Greed drove them to take reckless gambles with Derivatives to guarantee prices banks do not have assets to meet. Oil Barons made wanton gambles backed up by worthless cross insured Derivatives. There is no Insurer of last resort. Like their whole lives, fabrications built on quicksand the winds of change will sweep away. Empires all end. But desperate men, are dangerous men. There is no bottom to the depth of treachery they are capable of. As the very planet itself is now dividing into new power Collectives, the risk of nuclear conflict grows ever greater. As does the Tri Laterals / CFR ethos of Global Population Reduction. They, interlinked with the Zionist Criminal Organizations, believe they alone as a self-appointed Elite group, deserve to inherit the earth, and to rid the planet of perceived surplus population numbers. Laboratory Genetic diseases become an ever greater threat if released.
Our world is not in a good place right now, and ignorance will not dispel it. Leaving power to others is where it all started as they took it - and abused it. You will either have to stand up, or you are at ever greater risk of becoming a disposable species. Nothing is uglier than the Zionist manic belief of the worthless Goyims, or the Muslim concepts of the Infidels. Technology empowered Zionists now have the capability to exterminate humanity on a scale Hitler could never have conceived of as he perpetrated his own great crimes against them. Now they have become a growing Godless Crime Conglomerate. A pestilence upon the earth.
At what stage will mankind develop its own Soul, reaching out to become so much more, and start to teach true Citizenship and Humanitarian values to all? Every life comes into this world alone, needing love and nurturing. Where does it all go so wrong? So many views, but only one God. When will they all get it? Look within! It can all be so much better. The true look of gratitude you will get from the eyes of those you help with quiet dignity is real wealth and is priceless. The key always is to protect their dignity and self-worth. Take that extra step with care to give hope with compassion, as one human being to another. Are we not all of one creation? Not labels, just Souls? What is beyond, unless you have experienced it, is way beyond anything you can contemplate in its ethereal majesty and beauty. But so is the down side. Be careful what you wish for or seek. Wealth is not what you take with you, but that record of your journey, it reads how? The trust and love in the eyes of a child, or devoted animal says it all. We earn it. That is what we take with us. A long hard winter is coming for many. Try putting something back, that feeling if done humbly, is priceless. As is $50 in the hands of a homeless man or women to go get a meal. You come out of the blue, a real Godsend. Food, clothes, but a welcome hand above all touching and sharing, and we are at one with our world, we all matter. Just giving hope, it starts there. Our road through life and those we help along the way. That is all we take with us, make it count. Just to be part of something beyond the concepts of language to understand, costs nothing, but counts for everything. Be your own Christian soldiers of all that truly matters. Be compassionate and care. Become the best you can be. That does matter. So, no Bethlehem, No Donkey, No Census, No 7 day ride, but your Soul is real. Use it well. Make reality worth living for all. That IS you're calling.
God gave us all the power to make a difference. Use it well.

subset: commoncrawl


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Spring marks baseball season for more than 19 million children and adolescents who play each year as part of a team or in backyards throughout the United States. The good news for these players is that the number of injuries from the sport is on the decline. A new study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital found that the number of children and adolescents treated for baseball-related injuries in hospital emergency departments decreased 25 percent from 1994 through 2006 ? going from an estimated 147,000 injuries in 1994 to approximately 111,000 injuries in 2006. This is the first national study of youth baseball injuries requiring emergency treatment, and is now available online in the June electronic issue of Pediatrics.
"Although baseball injuries have declined, the consistently high numbers of injuries requiring emergency treatment highlight the importance of increasing our prevention efforts," said study co-author Gary Smith, MD, DrPH, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and an associate professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
According to the study, being hit by the baseball was the most common mechanism of injury (46 percent of injuries), followed by being hit with the bat (25 percent). The most common types of injuries were soft tissue injuries (34 percent) followed by fractures and dislocations (20 percent). The face (34 percent) and the upper extremities (32 percent) were the most commonly injured body regions.
One possible reason for the decrease in injuries may be the greater use of protective equipment. "Safety equipment such as age-appropriate breakaway bases, helmets with properly-fitted face shields, mouth guards and reduced-impact safety baseballs have all been shown to reduce injuries," said Dr. Smith. "As more youth leagues, coaches and parents ensure the use of these types of safety equipment in both practices and games, the number of baseball-related injuries should continue to decrease. Mouth guards, in particular, should be more widely used in youth baseball."
Data for this study were collected from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), which is operated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The NEISS dataset provides information on consumer product-related and sports and recreation-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments across the country.
The Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) works globally to reduce injury-related pediatric death and disabilities. With innovative research at its core, CIRP works to continually improve the scientific understanding of the epidemiology, biomechanics, prevention, acute treatment and rehabilitation of injuries. CIRP serves as a pioneer by translating cutting edge injury research into education, advocacy and advances in clinical care. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designated the Center for Injury Research and Policy as one of the 13 Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs) in the United States. It is the only ICRC to focus primarily on pediatric and adolescent injuries. Learn more about the Center for Injury Research and Policy at http://www.injurycenter.org.


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CHRISTGAU: Right, it's been a quarter of a century, but how they've changed since Fakebook. There's the bassist around whom Georgia and Ira cohered. There's Georgia's increasingly confident calm meshing with Ira's increasingly thoughtful quiet. There's the fragile, enduring lyricism that's been their musical heart since "Autumn Sweater," and the uneasy, enduring domesticity that goes with it. Ira took the lead on Fakebook's covers, which tended toward a perky cheek now gone. But amazing as ever on this second covers album is his ear for the obscure ditty. MORE
RELATED: Kurt Wagner's YLT Bio After The Jump
"There is power in knowledge learned and perceived jointly then presented as an original sin" (1)
Dear [Matador Records VP of Publicity] Miss Knishkowy,
It seems like almost every other spring one of the robins in our front yard builds a nest on our front porch. It's always in the same spot above a column in a corner. This is one of those years. A nest appeared as it always has and in time three baby robins poked their heads above the lip of the nest with their beaks pointed to the sky, open wide and requiring. I took to calling those chicks Georgia, Ira, and James. They are in my eyes.
Like the nest, the arrival of a new Yo La Tengo record is a wonder of nature indeed. Constructing in their own fashion a nest for the making of recordings in a comfortable, familiar setting. Assembled from a variety of materials both natural and synthetic, their nest is a strong one. Yet unlike the bird's nest held together by poop, theirs is a nest that rarely needs such an adhesive to some relief. With occasion, the splendid nature of both endeavors requires the new and its relations.
Between us I honestly wondered if either would in fact return at all following Fade and a tough winter. But I'm a dumbass. The robins showed up again this year and the trio has returned to a concept from which in nineteen ninety they made another F-word-titled record: Fakebook. It was the first record by them I ever heard.
That was nineteen ninety three or four.
It's now twenty fifteen and I'll be damned.
Stuff Like That There.
Time has an unfunny way of moving pretty fast as we move with it. As artists we benefit from the accumulation of experience. A professor once told me "most artists only have maybe two or three ideas through the course of their lives. Try as they might they are doomed to repeat and refine those ideas. Sometimes they turn out to be good ideas." That guy was full of beans but the notion of it gives me pause from time to time. What if he's right?
Stuff Like That There may well be a 25th anniversary sequel to the idea of Fakebook but to my ears it makes a case for simply returning to what moved Yo La Tengo to make things in the first place: embracing the people who they still hold close and making a spirited noise about it.
Does it not sound like fun to work with old friends like guitarist Dave Schramm and engineer Gene Holder? It also seems like a good way to try something "McNew," like James McNew on upright bass, an elemental contribution whose significance cannot be overstated. With Fakebook as template, Stuff Like That There is a record with ties to the past which contribute to the sound they make furthered by an affinity for the sounds they love. Somehow they compose the already composed by return. It's clear-eyed. It's clever and concealed.
Rare is the band that can cover themselves. Rarer is the band that would even think of it and rarer still is a band that would return to the conception and re-imagine its first breakthrough record. Someone may have read recently that old quote about how "in not knowing history one is doomed to repeat it." There's not another band that I know that is less doomed than Yo La Tengo.
I thought it would be a good idea to listen to this record while writing the bio for it. It's not. It is distracting. I drift away from the virtual page and fall deep into the virtual sound. Suddenly all sounds are amplified all around me, my dogs are barking and I'm in love all over again. "All Your Secrets" is playing and I hallucinate that the intro is from one of my old songs. I searched "Automatic Doom" to see what "cover" it was and it appears to be a song by either @mistersparrow or Special Pillow. My money is on the pillow though both are in the same key.
"Awhileaway" has got to be an original, I wrote one recently with the same title. Lucky for me I abandoned it. "I Can Feel The Ice Melting" turns out to be a Parliaments song. And "Naples" seems pretty dang original to me and it was originally by Antietam. "Somebody's in Love" is a Sun Ra song. Darlene McCrea's "My Heart's Not In It" kicks things off and The Lovin' Spoonful gets a nod with "Butchie's Tune" (I still wonder who Butchie was). For me, my favorite track on the record is "Before We Stop To Think," a cover of the great Great Plains. In a way it is the one that sums up their approach at its best.
One thing I've noticed is that once you learn who these songs are by originally it some how makes you seem much smarter when you can reveal its origin to another listener. Imagine yourself saying, "yes, it's a great song and it's by Great Plains!"?It makes you the wiser. Yo La Tengo choose sources that make you enriched if not empowered. There's a word I swore I'd never use.
Power up, people, this is stuff like that there.
(1)?Kurt Wagner


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Tag Archives: environmental stewardship
Patagonia is a hugely succesful company that grew out of humble beginnings. It all started when 14 year old Yvon Chouinard developed a love for the sport of climbing, as a member of the Southern California Falconry Club. As Chouinard became more involved in the sport, he soon realized that the only pitons available for climbing were made of soft iron and were placed in the rock once and left there. He found that this was not ideal. Chouinard then met John Salathé, a Swiss climber who made his own hard iron pitons. Chouinard thought that if John Salathé could do it, so could he! In 1957 Chouinard bought a coal-fired forge, an anvil, tongs and hammers and taught himself how to blacksmith. Chouinard made chrome-molybdenum steel pitons and before he knew it, he was in business. He could forge two pitons an hour, and sold them for $1.50 each. Over the years, this company grew to officially become Patagonia in 1973; a company that's roots remain in alpinism but have expanded to include clothes for climbing, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running. Patagonia focuses on these silent sports, where "the reward comes in the form of hard-won grace and moments of connection between us and nature."


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A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France
- Price:
- $51.00/£42.00
- Published:
- Jul 30, 2006
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Pages:
- 400
- Size:
- 6 x 9.25 in.
A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in A Turn to Empire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European peoples. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe.
Pitts shows that liberal thinkers usually celebrated for respecting not only human equality and liberty but also pluralism supported an inegalitarian and decidedly nonhumanitarian international politics. Yet such moments represent not a necessary feature of liberal thought but a striking departure from views shared by precisely those late-eighteenth-century thinkers whom Mill and Tocqueville saw as their forebears.
Fluently written, A Turn to Empire offers a novel assessment of modern political thought and international justice, and an illuminating perspective on continuing debates over empire, intervention, and liberal political commitments.
Awards and Recognition
- Winner of the 2006 First Book Award, Foundations of Political Theory Section of the American Political Science Association
- One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2005


text: Hello and happy holidays to all, I am looking around at high-performance i/o environments as my latest obsessions. I am hoping to have a couple of systems available to play with various options, and am looking to see if anyone has implemented a clustered file system that can take span multiple I/O servers with multiple network interfaces and cache to local systems based on locality of data (something akin to the way SGI did CC-Numa for memory in the big Origin 2000/3000 Systems). Coda seems to have some of this functionality, but I really don't want to make users have to explicitly send and release data, and I do need standard posix semantics. I can sketch this out in a png and send it to anyone who wants to talk further, but for the moment, I hope this sets out what I am thinking of. Thanks to anyone who has any ideas. Andy


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The registered owner of the illegally parked vehicle, or the owner of the real property where the parking violation occurred, will receive the citation either by receiving a copy of the citation placed on the vehicle or by mail. If you receive a parking ticket, you have several options. If you do not dispute the ticket, you may pay the ticket online following the instructions on the ticket or the letter you received notifying you of the parking violation. You may also pay the ticket at the Charles E. Duckworth Utilities Building, 217 N. Fifth St., between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket has a due date and if not paid by the due date you may be charged an additional $25.
If you dispute the ticket, you must attend a hearing on or before the hearing date. Hearings take place at the Parking Hearings Office at the Garland Municipal Court. If you do not want to attend the hearing on the hearing date, you may appear at the Parking Hearings Office on the first or third Monday or Wednesday of each month. You will be given a hearing even if it is not your hearing date, although people with a scheduled hearing that date will receive first priority. If you do not attend a hearing on or before your hearing date, you will be presumed not to contest liability for the citation.
When you arrive at the Parking Hearings Office, you will sign in and indicate whether it is your scheduled hearing date. When you are called for hearing, you will meet with a Hearing Officer appointed by the Court. The Hearing Officer will have a copy of your ticket available and will have photographs of the alleged parking violation taken by the officer. You can look at the pictures of the violation along with the Hearing Officer and tell the Hearing Officer any information you believe will be helpful for the Hearing Officer to decide whether you are liable for the parking ticket. You may bring witnesses to testify on your behalf. After the Hearing Officer hears the case, he or she will make a decision and you will be informed of the decision. If you are found not liable, the ticket will be dismissed. If you are found liable, you must pay the ticket on or before the due date to avoid a late fee of $25. Information about your right to appeal is available at the Parking Hearings Office.


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Casting Crowns - 'Only Jesus' (Official Music Video)
GRAMMY-Award winning and multi-Platinum selling band Casting Crowns releases another thoughtful single that sets our priorities straight!
Here's the official music video for "Only Jesus"...
This song is the title track of the group's studio project released fall 2018.
"There's much talk these days about legacy," shares Casting Crowns' frontman Mark Hall about the new song. "How do we want to be remembered? The more I think about it the more I'm reminded that anything in me that's worth remembering are the things that Jesus has worked on, and is still working on in me. On my own I have nothing to offer the world, but Jesus does – so don't mind me. Jesus is the only name to remember."


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"The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness."
- Albert Einstein


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What happens after the honeymoon period wears off?
The Ottawa Senators may be a great test run for such theories in 2015-16. After all, there was a stark difference between the team that left MacLean making sardonic jokes on his way out the door to the one that stormed its way into the postseason under Dave Cameron.
So, what happens when Cameron gets to hold a training camp with this roster? Also, what happens if their goaltending is merely average after Andrew Hammond's stupendous, burger-earning run?
One interesting thing to consider: some credit Ottawa's turnaround with Cameron as much as they did with "The Hamburglar." The possession improvements from MacLean to Cameron were occasionally drastic, but the common theme is that younger players like Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone emerged while veterans faded into the background.
Perceptions change, but the personnel's largely the same
There are exceptions (see: Robin Lehner's exodus), yet the Senators are more or less the same team after a quiet summer. It's interesting, then, that it's still difficult to forecast this team's future.
Hoffman, Stone and Mika Zibanejad saw big gains under Cameron. Kyle Turris proved that he can be a top center in the NHL. More will be expected from Bobby Ryan while Erik Karlsson is, well, Erik Karlsson.
The offense looks like a solid strength, but Ottawa's roster faces plenty of questions. The defense sees a huge drop-off beyond their top pairing of Karlsson and Marc Methot while Hammond could easily generate a goalie controversy with probable starter Craig Anderson.
In other words, by defying expectations in 2014-15, Cameron and the Senators raised the bar awfully high for next season. Will they fall short of that mark?


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List of awardees for HiPC 2009 travel scholarship �
Hotel Information for Scholarship Awardees Name and address of the Hotel: RIVIERA SUITES APARTMENT HOTEL, Thevara Waterfront, Cochin, Kerala, India.Telephone No: 91-484-2665533 Fax: 91-484-2665906 E-Mail: [email protected] Hotel website: www.rivierasuites.org Contact Persons: Mrs RENJI NAIR, Manager - Sales and Marketing, Mobile: 09349117618Mrs Byola D'Rosario, Reservation Executive, Mobile: 9387903462 Type of Rooms: Standard Rooms SPECIAL FINAL RATES OFFERED: · Rs.750/- net per person per day on triple sharing basis inclusive of taxes · Rs.895/- net per person per day on twin sharing basis inclusive of taxes This special rates will be given upto 30th Nov 09. Students wishing to book accommodation should book their rooms by 30th Nov 09 to avail the special offer. Check in/Check out time: 12:00 noon Mode of Payment: Either by Cheque/DD in favour of Synthite Industries Limited, Payable at Cochin or through bank transfer.If students wants book in advance, the Bank details of the Hotel is given under: Account name: SYNTHITE INDUSTRIES LTD Account No.: 012511100000007 Name of the Bank: Andhara Bank IFSC CODE: ANDB0000125
HiPC 2009 Announces Travel Scholarships for Students and India-Based Scholars The International Conference on High-Performance Computing (HiPC) is the premier computer systems conference in India, emphasizing the areas of Architecture, Systems Software, Applications, Algorithms, and Communication Networks. This year's conference is being held in Kochi from December 16 - 19, 2009. It serves as a forum to present current work by researchers from around the world as well as highlight activities in Asia in the high performance computing area. The meeting emphasizes both design and analysis of high performance computing systems and their scientific, engineering, and commercial applications. For more information about the conference, please visit its website at http://www.hipc.org.
We are pleased to announce Travel Scholarships for HiPC 2009 to promote research in HiPC areas in India. We would like to encourage the best students studying at engineering colleges in India to attend the conference through travel scholarships provided on a merit basis. The conference will expose students to current worldwide research and enable them to meet leading researchers in the computing area. This year's offer has several details and prospective applicants are requested to read them carefully. Please note that the number of scholarships is limited and the award of the scholarship is subject to compliance of the policies as described below.
Who May Apply Students studying at engineering colleges and other educational institutions of repute in India are encouraged to attend the conference through travel scholarships provided on a merit basis. Although the scholarship is primarily meant for full time students, a limited number of scholarships will be made available under special circumstances for faculty members from Indian educational institutions. Those faculty members who do not have any financial support from their institution may also apply. Those applicants who are very serious in pursuing HiPC research shall be preferred.
Scholarship Details Scholarship will be offered to a limited number of participants. Travel and accommodation expenses for the selected scholarship receipients will be subsidized by the conference. Note that all selected scholars will still have to register for the conference. Please visit the "Information for India-based Participants" page on http://www.hipc.org for the conference registration form. The reduced registration rates for India-based faculty and students have been made possible by generous sponsorship from India-based IT companies. Registration fees are the same for Scholarship recipients. When registering, they should specify "scholarship recipient". The scholarship form is also available here.
In particular, the scholarship will include:
Registration and What It Provides As stated before, selected students/scholars will need to pay their registration fee for the conference. See the Advance Registration deadline of 16 November 2009 and note that higher fees apply after that date. The reduced fees for India-based students include participation in all workshops and technical sessions, as well as conference meals, refreshments, banquet and cultural event.
Selection Criteria
Authorship of a paper/poster at HiPC 2009 Participation in Student Research Symposium
Please look at the application form for more details, which is available here.
Scholarship Application We will continue accepting applications until October 16th and announce the first batch of awardees by October 30th. However, depending on the acceptance/rejection of the offer by this first batch, more scholarships may be awarded until November 16th. In case you are selected, you will be required to register for the conference within one week of your selection. Please note that the scholarships are very competitive, and will be awarded on the basis of merit. However, your grades/marks will not be the only criterion used for making the decisions.


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A judge has ruled that Hewlett-Packard and its CEO, Meg Whitman, must mount a defense against a shareholder class action lawsuit claiming that Whitman and HP made misleading statements about the acquisition of Autonomy.
HP spent more than $US10 billion to acquire Autonomy in October 2011, but subsequently wrote off $8.8 billion of the purchase as the result of what it termed to be serious accounting irregularities by Autonomy prior to the deal.
The class action, filed in November 2012 by lead plaintiff PGGM Vermogensbeheer B.V., alleged that HP and other named defendants "knew or should have known" that "corporate governance firms, auditors, media and analysts had questioned Autonomy's market value due to concerns about its accounting practices, and whether its reported growth rates and margins had been artificially inflated."
US. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ordered the case to proceed in a ruling filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
But the judge's ruling wasn't entirely in favor of the plaintiffs.
"First, the complaint fails to establish any coherent motive as to why Defendants would knowingly purchase a company for several times its actual value or that they knew Autonomy's accounting was problematic," Breyer wrote. "It is implausible that had Defendants known about the fraud being perpetrated on them before the deal closed that they would have gone ahead with the deal."
Breyer also ruled that the case could only center on statements made by the defendants about Autonomy following May 23, 2012. A member of Autonomy's senior staff came forward as a whistleblower following the dismissal of Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch on that date, according to the complaint.
"This suggests that the earliest possible date Whitman could have learned of Whistleblower No. 4's allegations would have been May 23," he wrote.
But in talking about Autonomy's financial performance during a subsequent conference call, Whitman "omitted material information which the complaint alleges she possessed at the time, namely that she was considering accounting fraud at Autonomy as the explanation for its weak performance," Breyer wrote.
"Whitman knew that if Whistleblower No. 4's allegations were true, the fraud would explain Autonomy's under performance rather than 'classic entrepreneurial [c]ompany scaling challenges,'" he added. "Whitman's decision to put forward entrepreneurial challenges as an explanation while choosing not even to mention the alternative possibility of accounting fraud, which she knew to be plausible, constitutes a material omission."
Breyer also dismissed claims made against former HP CEO Leo Apotheker, Lynch and three others named in the suit.
An HP spokesman declined to comment on the ruling Wednesday.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is email@example.com


text: The Danger of OverpricingWhen setting a price, why not ask for the moon? Make no mistake, we want you to get the best possible price for your property. However, when a home is priced too high for the market: — It attracts lookers, not legitimate buyers. — It implies that you aren't motivated to sell. — It reduces the number of showings. — It helps the competition. — If it doesn't appraise at the higher price, a buyer may not be able to secure a loan. — You may ultimately have to drop your price below market value in order to sell. |


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So it's been explained to me that it's basically just a matter of burning more energy than you consume.
So say, in theory, if I were to do heaps and heaps and heaps of exercise every day. But then I was to also eat takeaway for every meal, but the exercise I was doing burnt more calories than the food I was consuming.
Would that be okay? Would that constitute a healthy lifestyle? Are there any negative consequences of eating improperly that can't be negated with exercise?


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By MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) _ U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah says changes to the way the United States distributes food aid could help feed 800,000 more people abroad, many of them Syrian refugees.
The changes come in a wide-ranging farm law signed by President Barack Obama last week and a bipartisan budget agreement that also became law earlier this year. The bills together would allow the United States to make a small increase in the amount of international food aid that is given out as cash or vouchers.
Currently, most food aid is grown in the United States and shipped to developing countries, an approach the Obama administration says is inefficient.
Shah said the need for emergency food aid is high right now, especially with a humanitarian crisis in Syria that has caused millions to flee their homes.
"We feel it's a critically urgent time to be as efficient and effective as possible," Shah said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The new laws would make it easier for the government to buy food closer to where it's needed and also would allocate more money toward that local procurement. One way that works is to give recipients cash vouchers for food.
Shah says this gets food to people much quicker than shipping raw commodities, which has been the traditional model for food aid. For example, he says USAID will use some of the extra funds to give vouchers to Syrian refugees _ including tens of thousands of children _ who are now living in cities in Lebanon and Jordan.
"We can't truck them a bag of wheat," Shah says. "Most of them shop in stores."
He says the resources may also be directed to help with crises in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. USAID has also been working to help people affected by the massive Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November.
"All around the world we are trying to stretch already limited resources," Shah said.
Many food aid groups have long argued that buying food abroad would be quicker, less expensive and more beneficial to local farmers than the current method that benefits U.S. farmers and shippers. The Obama administration in April proposed shifting almost half of the international food aid money to more flexible accounts that allow for cash purchases abroad, saying such a move would be more efficient.
Congress rejected that proposal, but made some modest changes toward the administration's goals: The farm bill would allow the government to use up to 20 percent of food aid funds for cash purchases abroad, including food aid and administrative costs.
Allowing more of those local purchases with cash would also help reduce the process of what is called "monetization," or selling the shipped commodities once they arrive overseas to finance development projects. A 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office found monetization cost the U.S. an extra $219 million over a three year period, money that could have been used for other development projects.
The full Obama administration proposal was a tough sell to farm-state lawmakers who oversee agriculture spending and the farm bill and have been reluctant to shift money away from American farmers who ship their commodities abroad. Farm and shipping groups launched strong campaigns against the proposal, lining up opposition in both the House and Senate.
Supporters of the program say it is a public relations tool for the United States.
"Bags of U.S.-grown food bearing the U.S. flag and stamped as "From the American People" serve as ambassadors of our nation's goodwill, which can help to address the root causes of instability," several farm and shipping groups wrote in a letter last year to Obama.
But the administration has argued that buying food locally is often the only practical option in war-torn countries where trucking in large amounts of food is not safe and shipping U.S. food can often take several weeks.
Former President Bill Clinton said after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that U.S. policies to flood developing countries with agricultural imports _ good for rice farmers in his native Arkansas _ had been a mistake after many of Haiti's own rice farmers were put out of business.
Aid groups that have championed the changes said they were pleased that the farm bill made a modest shift in how resources are disbursed, even if it wasn't everything they wanted.
"In the face of emergencies like Typhoon Haiyan, the humanitarian crisis in Syria and rising costs for food and transport, international food aid programs need much greater flexibility in order to be effective and save lives," said Eric Munoz, senior policy adviser for Oxfam America.
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick


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[Scott] was recently given a frequency counter, and once he brought it home, he started contemplating how he could possibly make it better. While the counter worked well as-is, he wanted to find a way to record data readings over a reasonably long period of time. He figured that interfacing it with his computer would be the best way to do this, but he had to find a way to connect the devices first.
He started poking around inside the frequency counter and stumbled upon a possible data source when taking a closer look at the display board. He found that he could read the frequency data as it was being written to the display, and send that data to his computer. He used an ATMega48 to intercept the data and code from the V-USB project to bit-bang the data to his PC over USB.
Now, anything he sees on the frequency counter can be easily collected and graphed on his computer with little fuss.
Stick around to see a quick video demonstration of his hack in action.


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Coalition statement against "stealth blocking"May 17, 2001 The undersigned members of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) and the Internet Free Expression Alliance (IFEA), in keeping with the principle that end users should decide what to view and with whom to communicate, object to the practice of Internet Service Provider "stealth blocking." This concerns ISPs that do not bill themselves as filtered service providers but intentionally block their customers from accessing certain Web sites or sending mail to users at certain other ISPs. "Stealth" blocking is done undetectably, so users only see a browser error saying that a Web site is down or an email error saying that the destination mail server could not be reached. Over 99% of end users never discover that any intentional blocking is being done. IFEA.net and GILC.org have both fallen victim to "stealth blocking" by their upstream provider, AboveNet, which blocked IFEA and GILC from sending mail to one of their member organizations between August and December 2000. During that period, AboveNet's downstream users were also blocked from viewing that member organization's Web site. The member group's hosting provider was blocked after becoming the target of a boycott by AboveNet and several other providers, due to the content and ownership of other, unrelated sites hosted by the same provider. After this practice was discovered and publicized in December, and users confirmed it was not a hoax, AboveNet abruptly halted almost all "stealth blocking" being done on its systems but did not issue any statement on the issue or say whether the practice would be reinstated. The undersigned IFEA and GILC members are requesting a written clarification from AboveNet as to their policy of blocking customers from accessing Web sites based on their content. The members urge AboveNet to commit to not reinstate their "stealth blocking" policy in the future. "Stealth blocking" is defined by several characteristics:
This would not include, for example, ISPs that cater to conservative families by advertising a filtered service, or any type of opt-in filtering system that is selected or installed by the end user. An ISP blocking an incoming flood of actual spam or any other type of denial-of-service attack as necessary to protect its network would also, of course, not be included under "stealth blocking." The most common reason for true stealth blocking is to boycott certain hosting providers that host content that the boycott organizers believe is contributing to the problem of unsolicited bulk email (UBE), or "spam." This can even include hosting providers that refuse to host "spammers" if the provider provides hosting to companies that offer software or consulting services that are legal but can be used by "spammers." An ISP can use stealth blocking to strengthen the boycott against one of these providers, by blocking its own users from viewing all sites hosted by that provider while avoiding outrage from its own users by hiding the fact that any blocking is taking place. The situation provides a valuable test of principle, since many GILC and IFEA members and other groups are committed to the cause of fighting unsolicited commercial email. However, we defend the right of end users to decide what content to view, whether the content is offensive to others, whether the content is published by companies that have sold products to third-party unethical marketers (spammers), or whether that content is controversial for any other reason. It is not the function of ISPs to act in loco parentis for users. Boycotts by individual, informed consumers are an admirable means of achieving a goal, but "stealth blocking" by ISPs is never justified, regardless of any noble purpose, since by its "stealth" nature it violates the principle of end user informed choice. Constitutional guarantees of free speech in various countries are not the only safeguards against involuntary censorship. Truth-in-advertising also serves to protect users, and individuals who do not sign up for "filtered Internet service" expect that their ISP will not block their Web access or outgoing mail. If the ISP has not ensured that end users are aware of any blocking that is taking place, then the users' participation in the blocking cannot be called "voluntary." We believe that ISPs that practice "stealth blocking" are violating consumer protection principles and restricting user choice and freedom in cyberspace. Signed: ALCEI American Civil Liberties Union Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression The Censorware Project Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Digital Freedom Network Digital Rights Electronic Frontier Foundation Electronic Frontiers Australia Electronic Privacy Information Center The Ethical Spectacle FITUG e.V. Human Rights Network Internet Freedom IRIS Journalism Education Association Kriptopolis National Coalition Against Censorship NetAction Online Policy Group OpenNet Peacefire Privacy Ukraine Quintessenz VIBE!AT


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The film is one of the simplest and most beautiful by Jean Renoir (1894-1979), among the greatest of directors. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, who was born in India and lived there many years, it remembers her childhood seen through the eyes of a young girl named Harriet (Patricia Walters), who falls in love with the new neighbor. He is Capt. John (Thomas E. Breen), an American who lost a leg in the war and now has come to live with his cousin, Mr. John (Arthur Shields).
We meet Harriet's family: Her parents, her three sisters, her brother Bogey. We also meet Mr. John's daughter Melanie (Radha), whose Hindu mother has died, and Valerie (Adrienne Corri), whose father owns the jute factory that Harriett's father manages. There are others: The family's nanny, the young Indian man who courts Melanie, the Sikh gatekeeper, the young Indian boy who is Bogey's playmate.
Although the film covers one year, the impression is of an endless summer day during which the girls play and write in their journals, observe the flow of life outside their gates, and are fascinated by Capt. John. At the time of the Hindu festival of light, there is a little party at the family home with music from a wind-up phonograph, and each of the older girls asks Capt. John to dance before he finally settles in a corner with Valerie. It becomes clear to young Harriet, despite her crush on the captain, that he has eyes for the red-haired Valerie. What she does not notice is that he is also attracted to his half-Indian cousin Melanie, and she to him. One day both Melanie and Harriet follow Valerie and Capt. John out into a grove, where they kiss. "It was my first kiss," Harriet remembers, "but received by another." Melanie must have felt the same.
To some degree, the girls are in love with Capt. John because he is the only eligible man in their lives. No other characters appear or are discussed; that he is sad and detached they can overlook. Harriet impatiently wants to be old enough to be visible to Capt. John. "I want to be outstandingly beautiful," she tells her pregnant mother. Harriet's narration is spoken by an adult voice; we understand these events take place around 1946.
Capt. John has come to live in India, he tells the Anglo-Indian Melanie, because with one leg he feels like an outsider. "I'm a stranger wherever I go," he says, and she replies quietly, "Where will you find a country of one-legged men?" She is a stranger, too, because of her mixed race. "I don't know where you belong," her father tells her.
Certainly all of their lives stand apart from India; we never hear a conversation between Melanie and her Indian suitor, or between Bogey and his Indian playmate, and the nanny is limited to nannyisms; she is not even given the Indian titleayahby which all nannies were known. Scenes of the real India outside the compound are mostly in long-shot.
The film is not constructed around high melodrama, but its deepest feelings are expressed when the two outsiders, Melanie and Capt. John, speak with each other, almost in code. Melanie has an enchanted scene in which she tells a story about the meeting of Prince Krishna and his bride, named Radha. The actress Radha was a dancer, and her character's story leads into a dance scene that allows some of the color and mystery of Indian religion to enter the isolation of the British family's compound.
"The River" and Michael Powell's "The Red Shoes" are "the two most beautiful color films ever made," Martin Scorsese says in an interview on the new Criterion DVD of the restored print. I saw the movie for the first time when Scorsese's personal 35mm copy played at the Virginia Film Festival some years ago; when I mentioned it to him, he said, "I watch that film three times a year. Sometimes four."
On the DVD, he says it reaches him more powerfully than "Rules of the Game," considered Renoir's masterpiece. Some will agree, some will not. "The River" is like an Ozu film in the way it regards life without trying to wrest it into a plot. During the course of the year, the girls fall in love with the same unavailable man, there is a death and a birth, and the river continues to flow.
Renoir, son of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, directed his first film in 1924 and was considered a grand master when he fled the Nazis and moved to Hollywood in 1941. There he worked with mixed success until, by the time he made "The River," he was almost unemployable. The film was financed by an outsider, Kenneth McEldowney, a Hollywood florist who loved Godden's novel.
Renoir insisted on filming it on location in India, which he did with his nephew Claude Renoir as cameraman (and young Satyajit Ray as an assistant director). It was the first Technicolor film made in India. The budget was small. There were no stars, and some of the players had never acted before. Much of the atmosphere flows from Renoir's documentary footage, showing a bazaar, life along the river, annual festivals, boatmen at their work, and Hindus descending flights of stairs both grand and humble to bathe and pray in the water.
The British family lives apart from this India, and knows it. Behind the walls of their garden is a separate world, protected by the stern Sikh gatekeeper; only Bogey's young playmate climbs the walls. Together, the boys sneak out to the bazaar and watch a snake-charmer, and Bogey finds another snake in the roots of the giant banyan tree right outside the garden -- a tree whose roots fall down from the branches to reach for the ground, and among which gods and spirits are said to live.
There are subdued issues here involving colonialism and racism. Does Capt. John shy away from romance with Melanie because she is not white? Is Harriet's father being paternalistic when he "loves" the sight of the laborers bearing their vast bundles of jute into the factory? The issues are there, but they are not called into focus, and the life Harriet shows us is the only one she knows.
The center of her world is a cubbyhole under the stairs, where she keeps her poetry and journals, and it is a betrayal when Valerie snatches away a notebook and reads Capt. John some of the younger girl's love poems. India itself is on the brink of independence and partition, but Harriet is on the brink of adolescence, and that is much more important to her, as perhaps is natural.
Films have grown so aggressive and jittery that it takes patience to calm down into one like "The River." Its most dramatic moment takes place offscreen. Renoir is not interested in emotional manipulation but in regarding lives as they are lived. Not everyone we like need be successful, and not everyone we dislike need fail. All will be sorted out in the end -- or perhaps not, which is also the way time passes and lives resolve themselves.
Nothing is really finished at the end of "The River." Despite Jane Austen's insistence that a man like Capt. John "must be in want of a wife," he is still in want as the film ends. Harriet has not yet grown up. Melanie has still not found a place for herself. Renoir's way of bringing his story to a conclusion is a form of understated poetry. All three girls receive letters from Capt. John. All three open them and begin to read them while sitting on the steps, and then from within the house comes a baby's cry. The nanny emerges to announce: "It's a girl!" And the three girls jump up and rush into the house, the letters fluttering forgotten to the ground behind them.
A new print of "The River" plays Feb. 24-March 3 at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport. "The River" is available on DVD, as are these other titles in the Great Movies series: Renoir's "Rules of the Game" and "Grand Illusion," Powell's "The Red Shoes" and Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy" and "The Music Room."
99 minutes
Patricia Walters as Harriet
Thomas E. Breen as Capt. John
Radha as Melanie
Suprova Mukerjee as Nan
Adrienne Corri as Valerie
Arthur Shields as Mr. John
June Hillman as Narrator


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Butterfly Tourmaline Pendant 14k Gold + Diamonds Body
- Metal: 14K Yellow Gold.
- Finish: High polish.
- Gemstone: Tourmaline
- Gemstone weight: 2.25ct
- Diamonds weight: 0.02ct
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For custom works, modifications, or any other question please contact at email@example.com
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Items in stock, without resizing could be returned without any extra cost for you. We would send you a return label on your email and we would assume the cost to ship back.
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returns must be on perfect condition and original jewelry boxes within 14 days of receiving the items.
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September 17, 1952 -
Nancy Reid received her B.Math degree from the University of Waterloo in 1974 with a major in statistics, her M.Sc. in statistics from the University of British Columbia in 1976, and her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1979. Her dissertation at Stanford was on "Influence Functions for Censored Data" [Abstract] under the supervision of R. G. Miller, Jr. Reid is currently the University Professor of Statistics at the University of Toronto where she has taught since 1986. In announcing her appointment as University Professor in 2003, the Provost's office at the University of Toronto reported that:
Two of her works have been particularly influential. In 1987, her paper with Sir David Cox on orthogonal parameters and approximate conditional inference was read to the Royal Statistical Society. This very important contribution to the fabric of statistical theory introduced notions of parameter orthogonality to develop and extend conditional inference, and derived the "Cox-Reid likelihood", still a standard method for correcting the likelihood in complex problems. This paper has been and continues to be widely cited, and has led to considerable further research by Reid and others. She has also developed new methods for obtaining highly accurate inference from the likelihood function, in a joint research program with Professor Emeritus D.A.S. Fraser. This extends and develops ideas first promoted by Fisher in the 1930s and has led to deeper understanding of the foundations of statistical inference.
In 1992 Reid became the first woman to receive the Presidents' Award of the Committee of Statistical Societies, awarded annually to a young statistician in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics. In 1995 she presented the first Canadian Mathematics Society Prize-Lectureship for distinguished research by women in mathematics, now known as the Krieger-Nelson Prize Lectureship. In 2000 she was invited to give the Wald lectures at the annual meeting of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the most important invited lecture series in theoretical statistics. She received a 2003 Faculty of Mathematics Alumni Achievement Medal from the University of Waterloo "for her internationally recognized research accomplishments in the field of statistics, and for her outstanding contributions to university education and professional societies."
During 1996-1997 Reid served as the President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and in 2004-2005 as President of the Statistical Society of Canada. She served as chair of the statistics department at the University of Toronto from 1997 to 2002. She has also served as Editor of the Canadian Journal of Statistics and Vice-President of the International Statistical Institute. In 2001 she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has authored over 70 journal publications in statistics as well as four books, including The Theory of Design of Experiments with Sir David R. Cox.
In 2008 Reid received the Emanuel and Carol Parzen Prize for Statistical Innovation from the Department of Statistics at Texas A&M University in recognition "for leadership in statistical science, for outstanding research in theoretical statistics and highly accurate inference from the likelihood function, and for influential contributions to statistical methods in biology, environmental science, high energy physics, and complex social surveys." In 2009 she received the Florence Nightingale David Award and was also awarded the Statistical Society of Canada Gold Medal Award.
Photo Source: Portraits of Statisticians, The University of York


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For the casual fisherman, fishing the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby is like going from sandlot baseball to the major leagues.
He realizes that a welter of customs, laws of natures, tips and superstitions have developed over centuries of Island fishing and more than six decades of derby competition to create a mind-boggling fishing culture.
This casual fisherman felt that it would take an act of God to prepare him to compete with the best.
Fortunately, a sort of godlike figure emerged from the darkness on the beach several nights ago in the form of a veteran angler whom we shall call the grumpy old derbyman. He agreed to participate in the sorting out of customs and superstitions on promise of anonymity, threatening a flogging with squid jigs if he was identified.
Miraculously, a host of other anglers agreed to weigh in with tips and superstitions soon after his appearance.
"Memorize this poem," the derbyman intoned: 'Wind from the east, catching is least. Wind from the west, catching is best.'"
He also suggested that an east wind blowing is the perfect time to take the derby widow or widower out to dinner, thereby buying more time on the beach when the wind is right,
The derbyman also recounted a list of customs and superstitions, some now out of favor, practiced by oldtime and current derby fishers. His list contains some common sense, some wisdom and maybe a scup-ful of nonsense:
• Never fish the day before the derby. You could waste a winning fish.
• Wear your derby pin upside down until you weigh in, a custom that's a cross between wearing a dunce cap and a method for avoiding embarrassing questions about your weigh-in status.
• Always change your line two weeks before the derby begins and practice casting with it to get the kinks and incipient bird nests out of your reel.
• Scout the fishing prior to the derby, on the beach and offshore. The derbyman estimated that "at least 50 per cent of serious fishermen" scout for hot spots.
• Avoid your hot spot for the first week. Everyone knows you've been scouting and they'll just follow you.
• Never, ever, take bananas on a fishing boat. The origins of this superstition are unknown but stories abound of anglers planting bananas aboard skilled competitors' crafts.
• If it worked once, keep on doing it until it doesn't work anymore. "It" covers a wide range of superstitions from wearing the same clothes, to taking off some clothes, to taking favorite routes to fishing spots, and, of course, to keep using lucky lures and bait shops.
• Do not wear your derby cap after the derby. Constant wear erodes the good luck from your hat and makes you look like an amateur in February, the time of year you see everyone on the Island every day.
• Avoid black cats crossing your path, a favorite among oldtimers, the derbyman said, lamenting the proliferation of skunks on the beaches that has nearly made this superstition extinct in recent years.
• Get the same pin number every year if you can. If you can't, make sure your favorite number is represented somehow.
Pin numbers are important to derby contestants. Maryanne Jerome of Edgartown, keeper of derby pin data, estimated that "at least 250 to 300 pin numbers are reserved each year," almost 10 per cent of the 3,200 pins issued. Unofficial reservations are an even larger part of derby culture, perhaps an additional 20 per cent of pins.
The feel-good pin story this year is Ryan Evans of Vineyard Haven surrendering pin 204 after he learned from Larry's Tackle Shop in Edgartown that the number has been issued for several years to the brother of a deceased derbyman who also had the number for years. Julian Pepper at Larry's said the number was inadvertently assigned.
"When the guy came in for his brother's number, we called Ryan and explained the situation. He came right in, turned in pin 204 and got a new number," Mr. Pepper said.
Larry's Tackle is assigned pin numbers 1 to 500 and the first 100 are all but reserved, Mr. Pepper said.
Derby volunteer Ann Howes recounted her husband Ted Howes's annual ritual that did not involve reserving his number in advance.
"He wanted the same number every year and he tried to be first in line. As soon as registration opened, he was there," Mrs. Howes said. "And he got the same number for 39 of the 40 years he fished the derby."
Mr. Howes recorded a second place in the derby in the early 1960s.
And derby volunteer Shirley Craig has been pining for number 13 for years. "So I just try to get a combination of numbers that add up to 13," she said.
For backup luck, Ms. Craig carries lucky rocks found on the beach. Lucky rocks, she explained, are defined by a white band completely encircling a rock of any color.
Clothing is a major derby superstition. This past Saturday night, Paul Schultz was encountered on Norton Point Beach after weighing in a likely Super Saturday bluefish winner.
"I'll be wearing these socks again tomorrow if it wins and I'll wear them until the fishing gets bad," he said.
His fish won. Anglers are advised to stay upwind of Mr. Schultz for awhile.
Removing a sock was a strategy Janet Messineo of Vineyard Haven used. "I forgot to put my left sock on one night under my waders and caught a beauty. The next morning I was dressing to fish and thought, 'Hmm, maybe I'll leave my left sock off.'"
The strategy ended, she said, when "my foot was getting cold and wet."
Anglers fall into purists or pragmatists when it comes to using bait or lures.
"We fish lures," Menemsha 2007 grand-slammer Tom Langman said flatly.
"I've seen Dick Hathaway (holder of the record bass for almost 30 years) casting lure alongside his bait pole," the derbyman recounted.
Mike Harrold of Oak Bluffs paused from filleting duty on Wednesday to ask rhetorically: "Am I superstitous? I'm a fisherman. Any more questions?"
Mr. Harrold suggested the benefit of superstition is that "the superstition allows me to believe that I can have control over something when I'm fishing, even though I don't."
Stan Rome, of Edgartown and Belmont, Mr. Schultz's laconic fishing partner, has a pragmatic approach to superstition. "My superstition is to put my time in when the fish are running," he said.
Superstition aside, the derby has its own fishing culture.
Ally Moore of Oak Bluffs provided a thoughtful summary: "I think there is a culture, kind of a code. For example, I won't intrude on a small school a fisherman has discovered. If it's big enough so that I don't intrude, I'll fish it. People have extended the same courtesy to me as well."
Mr. Moore believes he and his fellow anglers feel there's a karmic relationship with good fishing etiquette. "I will throw back a good fish and others say the same thing," he said, noting the similarity with Native American hunting customs which honor animals killed for food.
Indeed, Ms. Messineo returned a 35-inch bass on opening day of the derby. "I knew it would be okay, maybe a winner but it just didn't feel right. It wasn't superstition," she said.


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B.C.'s natural resource revenue is forecast to decline 6.9 per cent in the coming year, mostly due to lower prices for natural gas, oil and electricity.
After gas drilling boom years, the province's revenue from Crown land tenures is expected to continue to decline slightly for two years. Excluding land tenures, natural resource revenue is expected to increase 7.6 per cent over the next two years due to increased forest stumpage rates and prices for coal and other commodities.
The province is forecasting no revenue from liquefied natural gas exports over the next three years, as investors continue to consider the multi-billion-dollar decisions that would get that industry off the ground in B.C.
Revenue from fees will continue to rise, with Medical Services Plan rates increasing again after a 30 per cent jump in the past five years.
De Jong said a scheduled four per cent increase in BC Ferries fares will also go ahead as scheduled April 1.