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As Growth Shifts Into Overdrive, NYU Faces a Rebellion From Within
On June 29 of last year, the members of the New York City Council's Land Use Committee gathered at City Hall to consider a local property holder's request for permission to undertake a substantial building project. Meetings of this sort generally produce, in onlookers and often in the participants themselves, a nearly narcotic boredom, but this one was different. The property owner was New York University, and the project at issue was a 20-year program of rolling construction that will radically increase NYU's footprint in Greenwich Village. The chamber was packed with an audience so raucous that the committee frequently had to halt the proceedings to restore order.
NYU President John Sexton acknowledged that the construction plan would have an unavoidable impact on the neighborhood, but told the council members that it was necessary to fulfill the mission of the university. "This is not a development project," Sexton insisted. "It's an academic project. We have half the space per capita of most of our peer schools." The need for the construction project was clear, Sexton told the committee. "The deans who spend their time doing this are unanimous," he said. "The trustees are unanimous on this, the university administration is unanimous, and we're the people that are asked to be the fiduciaries for the long term of the university."
There was bound to be some friction as NYU pursued its manifest destiny. There always is when the wrecking balls come out. Some neighbors are still bitter about NYU's previous fits of expansion in the 1960s and again in the '90s; in both periods, the university earned its reputation as an insatiable beast swallowing entire neighborhoods. But the current proposal goes much, much further. And it doesn't stop at the edges of New York City.
Dubbed "NYU 2031," the plan calls for 2.8 million gross square feet of new construction—slightly less than all the floor space in the Empire State Building—in the two blocks bound on the south and north by Houston and 3rd streets and on the east and west by Mercer Street and LaGuardia Place. The construction would dramatically increase local retail space, displace a dog run, and entail the demolition of the historically significant 1959 Washington Square Village Garden by Hideo Sasaki. Along the way, NYU would build—and then tear down—a temporary gym for its student athletes. It would also renege on promises it made 50 years ago, when it built the existing residential towers, to not further crowd the area.
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Sexton and his colleagues are adamant that the endeavor is a response to students' needs. At the hearing, Gabrielle Starr, a university dean, read aloud a plaintive e-mail from an anonymous pre-med who found himself closed out of a required class. "Registration for General Physics I is closed due to the capacity of lab seats already being met. I'm writing this e-mail to ask that you please allocate funding for the physics department at NYU to open more labs so that students who are in a similar position as myself can be accommodated to graduate on time."
Of course there was the requisite grumbling of a privileged movie star—in this case Matthew Broderick, who grew up on the north side of Washington Square. Broderick now lives with Sarah Jessica Parker in a nearby townhouse, and he stood up to air his nostalgia for the Greenwich Village of his youth, before the university swallowed up so much of it. But Broderick's appeal didn't find much purchase with the council. Mitchell Moss, an NYU faculty member who supports the 2031 plan, reminded the assembly that "this is not the pristine village of Sarah Jessica Parker, of Sex and the City, of Matthew Broderick." (The jab provoked such a hubbub that Moss demanded that an extra 30 seconds be tacked onto his speaking time.) "Higher education is one of New York's growth industries," he continued, brandishing a list of firms that have left New York in recent years. "Universities, in fact, are part of our intellectual capital—they bring people here, they stay here, and they add to the vitality and the future of New York."
Shortly after the hearing, the council voted to approve NYU's plan, and for many observers, it seemed that the issue was settled. Educational vision and economic dynamism had prevailed over celebrity preservationists who wanted their quaint neighborhood frozen in amber. But eight months after the City Council's vote, the debate over NYU's expansion has only escalated, becoming a fight over the soul of the university itself. A lawsuit is challenging the legitimacy of the city's review process, and faculty members are scheduled to hold a vote of no-confidence in their own administration at the end of March—a vote many expect President John Sexton will lose.
Observers inside and outside NYU are watching closely, because the outcome of the vote will likely determine which path the school takes over the coming decades. In affirming Sexton, NYU would be doubling down on a strategy of almost metastatic growth, both in New York and globally; a relentless assault on tenured professors in favor of cheaper and more docile contract and adjunct faculty; and ever-rising tuition that transfers the school's debt onto its students. If the vote goes the other way, it would reaffirm the idea of universities are primarily about learning, not earning, and might even change—or, rather, help preserve—the face of the city itself.
The idea that NYU's growth is good for the city is an argument accepted on its face by both Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council. And it seems to have become a kind of universal truth among American universities. "This is something that's happening across the country," says Davarian Baldwin, a historian and social theorist at Trinity College whose forthcoming book is entitled UniverCities: How Higher Education is Transforming the Urban Landscape. "NYU and Columbia are the second- and third-largest land-owners in the city. In Los Angeles, USC is growing. In Philadelphia, UPenn. In Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Harvard has huge expansion plans in Allston, having bought the land under a pseudonym. The University of Chicago has the third-largest police force in Illinois."
President Sexton laid out the argument most clearly in a landmark 2007 speech in which he noted the decline of New York's traditional industries: finance, insurance, and real estate—sometimes referred to as FIRE. As FIRE wanes, Sexton argued, New York must look to new sectors to carry the economy. "Our intellectual, cultural, and educational (ICE) strengths—already among the world's greatest—are becoming the essence of New York's global identity," he said, arguing that a university like NYU helps create the cultural environment that makes New York attractive to other industries. "ICE can keep FIRE from being extinguished," he said, paradoxically.
Sexton's "FIRE and ICE" speech, as it came to be known, implicitly cited a school of thought then in vogue in New Urbanism circles, one epitomized and evangelized by Richard Florida, a theorist based in Toronto. Florida famously celebrates the central role of the "creative class" in seeding a city's economy. Assemble a critical mass of artists, tech workers, and gay folks, he argues, and you'll soon have the kind of bourgeois bohemian infrastructure—restaurants, cafes, theater—that rich people and businesses want to be near. The invocation of Florida's position is explicit on NYU's 2031 website, where a quote of his dominates the "growth" page.
Mayor Bloomberg has made the diversification away from FIRE industries one of his core economic goals, in large part by encouraging the expansion of the educational and medical sectors—so-called "eds and meds." The mayor wooed Cornell University to build a new $2 billion technology campus and start-up incubator on Roosevelt Island. Last April, he announced that the city was contributing $15 million to a second new technology campus, in Brooklyn, to be run by NYU's Polytechnic Institute.
"Under Mayor Bloomberg's leadership, New York's medical and academic institutions are thriving and expanding, creating jobs and activating neighborhoods all throughout the city," Deputy Mayor Robert Steel said in a speech last September. "The 'eds and meds' sector is an economic engine that are [sic] driving the future of New York's economy."
While Sexton and his administration are convinced that rapid growth is good for NYU, not everyone in the university agrees. "What we're really talking about here is a fundamental clash between the values of a professoriat and the values of real-estate developers and other members of a financial elite who comprise the board of trustees," says Mark Crispin Miller, an author and tenured professor of Media Studies at NYU. "We see this place as a—this is going to sound corny—as a cathedral of teaching and research. They see it as a property whose value must be maximized whatever it takes."
NYU declined to make Sexton available for an interview, but administration spokesman John Beckman said the president "takes seriously his responsibility to continue to strive to improve faculty involvement in University decision-making."
Miller, a small man who wears wire-rimmed glasses and a beard, fits many of the physical stereotypes of the rumpled academic. But he has the sharp, pugnacious delivery of a MMA fighter, and since the 2031 plan was first unveiled, he's devoted much of his energy to combatting it as well as the suggestion that it enjoys much support beyond the top tiers of administration. "Who is NYU?" Miller asks, jabbing his finger. "It's an important question. The faculty and the students are NYU. If you have the university and it's just the administration and the trustees, nobody's going to come to school here, right?"
When Miller and other faculty members opposed to the expansion began to organize, they decided to make Sexton their rallying symbol and called their group "NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan." Out of a faculty that numbers roughly 2,600, the group now has about 150 public members, and Miller says it has more than twice that number of supporters who are scared to join publicly for fear of reprisals from the administration. "The climate in this workplace is in no way the ivory tower," he says. "It's more like the climate of Monsanto or the CIA. There's a tremendous amount of paranoia and terror among the faculty."
Virtually everything the NYU administration has said to justify its expansion is misleading, Miller insists, down to that e-mailed lament from the physics student that was read at the City Council hearing. "Even before the council hearing, they had already gone to the Community Board to get a waiver to build new physics labs on top of 726-730 Broadway—a completely separate project from the 2031 plan!" says Miller. "Then the dean gets up and has the balls to tell the council that the 2031 plan is going to solve this kid's physics problem. You can't make this shit up!"
The idea that the expansion was for the sake of the children was met with similar skepticism by Manhattan's Community Board 2, which savaged the plan after reviewing it. "In the first ten years of NYU's plan, only 18 percent is devoted to academic uses, and 82 percent is not looked at for ten years," David Gruber, the board chairman, testified to the City Council. "If the plan and this whole development that NYU wants was so important to get that academic balance that they've lost, why are they waiting for ten years?"
There's an even more fundamental critique of the expansion plan, leveled by the faculty of NYU's Stern Business School—not exactly known as wild-eyed radicals—when they voted to oppose the plan last year by a margin of 52 to 3: How on earth is NYU going to pay for this? Referring to the several billion dollars of debt that will presumably be needed to bankroll the project, the Stern faculty pointed out that "up-front financing costs imply that interest payments alone could be hundreds of millions of dollars a year. We are concerned about financial risks and the possibility of default. We are concerned that these large costs will be paid for by some combination of higher tuition rates, a larger student body, lower teacher-student ratios, fewer tenure-eligible faculty members, reductions in real faculty salaries over time, and smaller benefits."
Financial worries aren't just theoretical in the case of NYU. Compared to the older Ivies with which it now competes, the school has never had much of an endowment. Its $2.5 billion is about a third of Columbia's endowment, and roughly a twelfth of Harvard's. With only 4 percent of its revenue coming from the endowment, NYU must rely far more than many schools on the tuition and room-and-board fees paid by its students. In this year's budget, some 64 percent of NYU's revenues come from those two sources.
As a result, NYU has startlingly high tuition and extremely scarce financial aid. The Princeton Review recently ranked NYU's financial aid and administration as the worst in its survey. Newsweek called NYU the fourth least-affordable school in the country. The result, as the Voice noted in a cover story last year, is that NYU generates a staggering amount of student debt, some $659 million in 2010. The school's graduates owe 40 percent more than the national average.
Snowballing student debt nationwide surpassed $1 trillion last year, leading Moody's to downgrade its outlook for American higher education to "negative." And the widely expected bursting of this debt bubble is one of the main reasons that the "eds and meds" theory so beloved by Sexton and NYU is now falling out of favor. Richard Florida, the very theorist whose quotation is emblazoned on NYU's 2031 website, wrote in his 2012 revision of The Rise of the Creative Class that "Meds and eds jobs add little to regional income. In fact, we found that regional earnings and incomes fall as a region's share of meds and eds jobs rises." The whole premise of the 2031 plan is, in other words, wrong.
"It's important to understand that when you're talking about the growth of NYU, the New York piece of it is only half the picture," Miller says, over a bowl of chili in a café near Washington Square. In the last decade, NYU has also been expanding and franchising worldwide at an astonishing rate, under an initiative called the Global Network University.
Many schools make a gesture toward international education, but those efforts are usually limited to a handful of study-abroad programs. With the GNU, as it's called, Sexton has created something entirely new: a university with multiple nodes and campuses spread across the planet, a network through which students, educators, and administrators flow freely. "I've heard people refer to the GNU and 2031 as Sexton's international policy and domestic policy," says ChristineHarrington, a professor of politics.
The flagship of the GNU is NYU's partnership with the hereditary rulers of Abu Dhabi, which was announced in 2007 and soon followed by the unveiling of NYU Shanghai. Together with New York, these represent the three primary degree-granting "portal campuses" of the university. They are supplemented by smaller "node" programs in Accra, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Florence, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Washington, D.C.
As a result of this mission creep, the number of NYU students studying abroad has nearly tripled in the last decade. NYU sends more students abroad than any other American university. In 2011, 43 percent of the graduating class had studied at one of the "global sites." NYU's administration touts the GNU as a visionary 21st-century reimagining of the university itself, an evolution of higher education that's driven by the latest technology and geared to the new globalized reality.
That's just rhetoric, says Miller: "The GNU is a cash cow. That's all it is."
Cycling students through the global sites allows NYU to increase its enrollment without having to keep up the expensive New York infrastructure needed to house and support all those extra students. In Abu Dhabi, the entire project has been bankrolled by the emirate, while most of the other nodes are outposts run on the cheap, with faculties made up of relatively low-paid contract workers, not expensive and sometimes obstreperous tenured professors. The students, however, are still paying full freight. You pay NYU about the same for tuition, room, and board in Ghana as you would in Greenwich Village.
NYU's globalization of education looks a lot like the offshoring of labor and industry in the 1990s: A multinational corporation makes more widgets for less money and uses the savings to grow even more. But while the administration is enthusiastically milking the GNU, faculty members remain skeptical of programs run in partnership with authoritarian regimes and with little academic quality control from professors in New York. "Abu Dhabi, who would want to go there?" Miller asks. "Are you kidding? You're not even allowed to have a camera on the street there! Or be gay! Or be Jewish!"
In fact, with student and faculty participation in the GNU still lagging behind its hyper-aggressive targets, the administration has had to resort to informing departments that some of their funding will be conditioned on more enthusiastic cooperation.
If this dramatic growth threatens to burden students with more debt, reduce tenured-faculty-to-student ratios, and erode the quality of education itself, why is the administration pursuing it? Some faculty members blame Sexton's ego, accusing him of having an "edifice complex." Others, like Miller, note that NYU's board of trustees is stacked with financiers, real-estate moguls, and even the owner of a company that sells high-interest student loans—precisely the interests that stand to benefit from NYU's expansion.
Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU and a vocal critic of the administration, suggests that there's something more systemic going on: The American university may be assuming a strange new role. Ross argues that the "interlocking directorates" of power theorized by C. Wright Mills 50 years ago—corporate, governmental, and military interests—is being updated. Universities like NYU, he says, are becoming "players in their own right."
The NYU faculty itself is less of a united front than a sprawling United Nations, ranging from the Tisch School of the Arts to the Stern School of Business to the College of Arts and Sciences. An issue that irritates the more classically left-leaning faculty of arts and sciences may not trouble the faculty of the business school or the medical school at all. But the Sexton administration's actions over the last decade have ruffled enough feathers that a surprisingly diverse coalition is lining up against him.
For some, the ill will dates back more than a decade, when the administration fought tooth and nail to prevent graduate students from unionizing. That battle went all the way to the National Labor Relations Board, which issued a landmark ruling in 2000 affirming their right to organize. The administration waited for Bush appointments to change the composition of the NLRB, then promptly appealed the ruling, winning a victory that quashed the union in 2005.
Other faculty members say the reason for widespread hostility to Sexton is much simpler. "NYU is now a majority non-tenure-track faculty," says Rebecca Karl, an East Asian studies professor. "It's been trending that way for a while, but since Sexton it's taken a quantum leap."
The assault on tenure was only made worse by piecemeal, bean-counter-driven initiatives like one in 2007, after a botched merger with Mt. Sinai Hospital left the NYU Medical School with a budget deficit. To close the gap, the school brought in Price Waterhouse Cooper. One of the recommendations that came out of that process was that professors should raise their own salaries with outside grants, and that tenure no longer be a guarantee of a minimum salary—a policy that was then imposed not just on new faculty members, but also retroactively on tenured professors.
"They basically said, we can't fire you, but we don't have to guarantee what we pay you, either," says Marie Monaco, a professor in the department of physiology and neuroscience. "It undermined the whole function of tenure, which is intellectual independence." When faculty members pushed back against the Medical School dean's plan, Sexton sent out a letter. "Tenure at NYU does not guarantee a particular salary," he wrote, "nor does it prohibit the reduction of a faculty member's salary if he or she is not meeting the requirements of his or her faculty responsibilities."
The effect of these developments, says Miller, is a faculty that is fragmented, frightened, and angry. "The administration—these guys don't fuck around," he says. "If you don't have tenure, you're vulnerable. And if you do have tenure, they're still going to come at you." In this climate of fear, the broad resistance to the 2031 plan amounts to something like armed mutiny. And Stern was far from the only NYU faculty to vote against it: To date, 39 departments and divisions out of 170 have passed resolutions expressing concern or outright opposition.
When the administration put forward the expansion plan, it didn't even bother to ask the faculty for its blessing. But tenured professors in the College of Arts and Sciences—the university's traditional academic core—have long had at least a nominal voice in the decisions of the university through their Faculty Senate Council, a representative body of elected professors. And as these senators watched more and more administrative decisions being made without what they considered adequate consultation of the faculty, they became increasingly concerned that NYU was becoming more a business than a school, that the lofty ideals of education were being forgotten—or thrown under the bus.
"The whole thing about a collegial culture, where people debate, discuss, that way of operating that is done at major universities all the time, it's scoffed at here," says Christine Harrington, the political science professor. "At the same time, we're seeing these enormous salaries for administrators coming in at a school where we all have students with huge debt. It seemed like there was something out of whack."
As Sexton moved forward with the 2031 plan last school year, Harrington, psychology professor Jim Uleman, and other members of the Faculty Senate Council decided they didn't need the administration's permission to poll the faculty or voice their own position. They began to hold open meetings for tenured faculty. "At first they were sparsely attended," says Karl, the Asia scholar. "But that changed quickly."
In advance of a meeting scheduled last November, a rumor circulated that one of the topics of discussion would be whether to hold a no-confidence vote; more than 70 faculty members showed up, not all of them critical of the administration. The philosophy department, for example, supported Sexton, as did biology professors, eager for new labs promised by the 2031 plan. "It was a rumble," Karl says. "Let's say there was a 'vigorous and frank exchange of ideas.' " At the end of the meeting, the first of what would become three votes took place, with a majority choosing to authorize a faculty-wide referendum on whether to hold a no-confidence vote. "Governance at this university has been so weak for so long, we were making the procedure up as we went along," Karl says.
For the second vote, held in December, the rebel faculty members took pains to institute unimpeachable procedures. They tapped computer-science professors to help devise anonymous e-voting for tenured faculty. They brought in the president of the Roberts Rules of Order Society of New York to preside as an independent parliamentarian to rule on any questions of protocol. And they tried, at least, to get an actual list of tenured faculty members. "The administration wouldn't give us that list," Harrington says. "That's what this has come to."
After cobbling together a list department by department, the organizers went ahead with the meeting. More than 270 faculty members attended, debated, and voted—and, once again, the decision was clear: The faculty wanted to hold a vote of no confidence in Sexton and his administration. It will be held next month, just before spring break.
There's nothing formally binding about the no-confidence vote, of course. Even if he loses, Sexton could still charge ahead with his agenda. But votes like this tend to have serious implications. Larry Summers stepped down as president of Harvard after losing one in 2005, and just last summer, when the faculty of the University of Virginia voted no confidence in their school's Board of Visitors after it ousted President Teresa Sullivan, the board reversed itself and reinstated her.
The coming vote is framed as a referendum on John Sexton specifically, but its supporters say it's actually about the definition of the university. "Are the faculty just worker drones here who follow the direction of the administration, with their big visions and big salaries?" Miller asks. "That's not what the university is supposed to be. Who's really the university? It's the students, and it's the teachers."
Miller and his allies say they're confident that most faculty members agree with them. They'll find out on March 15.
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by Joe Buscaglia
posted Jul 19 2014 10:11AM
On Friday afternoon Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley said they were in the process of bringing in two young players and that an announcement could be coming on Saturday. Whaley was a man of his word.
The team announced Saturday morning that they've signed wide receiver Tori Gurley and cornerback Kamaal McIlwan. Both players participated in the team's mandatory minicamp on a tryout basis in June.
Gurley is a 6-foot-4, 230-pound wideout that spent the 2013 season with the Cleveland Browns. He first came to the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina, and has had stops with five other teams besides the Browns and Bills (Vikings, Raiders, Buccaneers, Chargers, Ravens) already in his short career.
Like Gurley, McIlwan also entered the league in 2011 as an undrafted free agent out of Newberry College. His only previous stop was with the Kansas City Chiefs, who released him ahead of the 2013 season. The cornerback stands at 5-foot-10 and 175-pounds.
The tall wide receiver and undersized cornerback replaces the tall wide receiver and undersized cornerback that was just released from the roster on Friday. Gurley and McIlwan replace wideout Cordell Roberson and cornerback Darius Robinson.
With the move on Saturday, the team's roster is back up to it's full capacity of 90 players.
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Kingdoms and Monarchs of the World
Here is a list of all the monarchies in the world, listed by country with type of monarchy. See also: Current World Leaders
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"For over 15 years Visa has provided a suite of financial literacy programs and education materials to Canadians, including practicalmoneyskills.ca and Choices and Decisions. Also, as a supporter of Credit Canada and Credit Education Week, Visa continues to reinforce the importance of budgeting, savings and money management in local communities. We appreciate Visa's contribution to this sector of education."
Laurie Campbell
"Plan Canada is proud to have Visa on board as a sponsor with 'Because I am A Girl', as we promote education, self esteem and global change. As a children's organization committed to breaking the cycle of global poverty, we are delighted to educate Canadian youth on financial literacy and start them on their way to healthy economic futures."
Leanne Nicolle
"Visa's financial education initiatives are characterized by their innovation, which has helped turn a significant number of people onto this topic. Examples like the financial literacy theater play: "Professor Q: Discover the magic of your financial power" and Financial Soccer, are strategic programs that have helped engage sectors of the population that traditionally have considered personal financial matters something for experts. To this end, Visa joins efforts at a broad national level to promote responsible financial inclusion."
National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Users
"The activities offered by Visa in their website 'Practical Money Skills are highly educational and well regarded by both teachers and students. Children love to play games, and these colourful, creative games teach financial skills in a motivational and meaningful way. There are activities for children of all ages and CFEE is incorporating the Visa resources into those that we are recommending for teachers to use as they integrate financial education into the curriculum. "
Gary Rabbior
"I teach Consumer Education at Romeoville High School and just wanted to thank you for developing such a wonderful web site. You certainly have developed a lot of useful materials for everyone involved! Kudos to you!!"
Linda Medema
"A great learning tool! Students are made aware of the financial responsibilities they will have after high school."
Pamela Gauthier
"This curriculum has helped me reach and enlighten many young minds stuck in the darkness of the poverty cycle."
Trent Kaufman
"Excellent materials, Web sites, ideas, overheads, top drawer teaching aids and I will use it again next year!"
Kathryn Goerig
"The Practical Money Skills Challenge has enhanced my Academy curriculum and allowed my students to measure their understanding in a fun and innovative format."
William J. Daniel III
"The Practical Money Skills for Life site is a perfect resource for enhancing and supporting the Personal Financial curriculum at our school."
Cindy Talley
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Las Vegas Weekly
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Is J.Lo the hardest working woman in show business?
Peter Kim digs down to the roots of Hudson Jeans
Cuisine constantly evolves at San Francisco's Mina Test Kitchen
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Subtle change makes Japanese restaurant Chabuya even better
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Halfway to EDC at Marquee, February 18-19
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November 1st, 2016


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By JASON BAILEYSun Advocate/Progress Webmaster
The first successful digital computer system, ENIAC, was built in 1945 by members of University of Pennsylvania to compute World War II ballistic firing tables. The monstrosity filled an entire room the size of a small gymnasium, weighed thirty tons, and consumed two hundred kilowatts of power. Containing more than 19,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of capacitors, resistors and inductors, the ENIAC generated so much heat that it had to be placed in one of the few rooms at the university with a forced air cooling system. Only very wealthy organizations and government entities had access to such enormous super-computers.
Nearly ten years after its debut, the ENIAC was deemed obsolete by engineers when compared to cheaper and faster descendants. It was permanently shut down in October of 1955.
Today, desktop computers (otherwise known as Personal Computers, or PCs) have many times the computing power of super-computers built only ten or twenty years ago and are manufactured at a fraction of the size and cost. As the PC has become reasonably affordable and available to the masses, millions of businesses and individuals around the world have adopted it as a useful appliance and worthy tool.
With technology evolving at an unbelievable rate, people often wonder when it is appropriate to upgrade or replace their PC. Although opinions vary among the computer-savvy, the reality is that there is no absolute answer to the question - it depends entirely on the situation. A common-sense rule of thumb, however, is to replace (or upgrade) the computer only when it fails to meet operating expectations. In other words, if it can still perform the job it is meant to do, then there's really no reason to replace it.
Most people usually don't have difficulties determining when an upgrade (or replacement) is necessary. Determining exactly what is adequate can be very difficult, especially with new PC purchases. Buyers are often convinced by sales people that they need the most expensive model when a cheaper alternative is more than adequate.
However, if you find yourself shopping for a new PC, you might find these basic suggestions helpful:
Flat panel screens are superior to typical computer monitors (CRTs) in nearly every way, but most people will find that they are far too expensive (the cost of a good 19" flat panel alone can easily exceed $600.00). They are, however, more energy efficient, radiation-free, and much easier on the eyes. If you spend a lot of time at the computer, it may be well worth the purchase.
Another suggestion is to purchase an optical mouse instead of the traditional ball mouse. Because optical mice use light to track movement, they don't suffer from dirt, grease or grime that a ball mouse can pick up over time, and won't stick, bind or jam as a result.
One last suggestion is to select a computer with USB ports located on the front of the case, which will make plugging in digital cameras, USB drives and other peripherals much more convenient.
Have comments or suggestions for a weekly Tech Tips article? Send an email to email@example.com.


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Urban Expressions Bridget Woven Satchel
Sorry, this item is sold out!
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Carry the roomy Bridget woven satchel from Urban Expressions everywhere you go! This bag is chic and animal friendly.
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- Dimensions 17" x 6" x 14"
- Imported
- View more Urban Expressions Handbags
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Location: Richmond, VA
November 22, 2013
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Location: Texas
October 23, 2013
Love it
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August 18, 2013
Perfect for Travel
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By: TielaKeagy
Location: Plymouth Meeting, PA
August 02, 2013
Amazing, but...
"Love this bag! Inside pockets tear easy though."
Click anywhere to close this.


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The Emery County commissioners hosted a Community Covenant signing program at the Nov. 13 commission meeting. Sgt. Ryan Palmer from the National Guard works with the Community Covenant program and he has been to Emery County several times, as programs have been held in Green River, Emery, Ferron, Orangeville, Huntington, Cleveland and Castle Dale. He said he has developed a love for Emery County during his time spent here. Emery County is one of the first of the 29 counties to sign a Community Covenant.
Each of the commissioners expressed their love and appreciation for veterans and military families and for what they do on our behalf.
Commissioner Jeff Horrocks thanked Commissioner Laurie Pitchforth who led the National Anthem. He said he participated in the veteran's program at the veteran's monument in Castle Dale for Veteran's Day. The American Legion from Huntington and Ferron gathered to participate. He said the ceremony was quite touching and the veterans are true heroes in our country. "We owe a deep amount of gratitude to those who willingly serve in the military. Thank you for the service you render. We pray for the military and for their families," said Commissioner Horrocks.
Commissioner Pitchforth said the Community Covenant program is a very honorable program. Her family members have served in the military. "It's hard on families to have someone serve in the military. We thank you for this. The American Legion needs more young people to step up," said Commissioner Pitchforth.
Commissioner Nelson said he has many family members who have served and as a teacher he had many students who joined the armed forces and have come back to visit. "I remember in school, Mr. Eugene Johansen had every student in his history classes memorize all four verses of the National Anthem. Singing that song always brings a tear to my eye. I appreciate all who serve."
The three commissioners as well as mayors, Sheriff Greg Funk and others present came forward and signed the covenant. There will be three copies of the covenant and one will stay at the county building. Another will be in the armory in Price and the other copy will be at the headquarters of the National Guard in Draper.
In other commission business they appointed David Blackwell and Mary Huntington to go to the UCIP meetings.
The commission approved a revised purchasing policy that increases the dollar amount on purchases that can be made and projects completed without commission approval. The $300 limit went to $500. The $3,000 limit went to $5,000. Attorney David Blackwell said the new code doesn't give parameters for limits. They could either establish some parameters or adopt the state code. The committee opted to update the county code which hadn't been revised since 1993. The county policy will remain the same with the upgrades in amounts.
The bat contract was updated for the clean-up of the damages left behind when bats infested the courthouse. Commissioner Nelson said, "It's a serious thing, we have joked about it, but we have to deal with it." The amount of $2,000 was added to the bat cleanup contract.
Jacob Sharp from the Castle Valley Special Service District announced plans are underway to annex the property into the CVSSD boundaries that the cities have annexed into their cities the past few years. This usually happens every five years, but the district is behind on doing this and it hasn't been done the past eight or nine years. A public hearing will need to be held as part of the process.
The county signed the agreement with the Manti-LaSal National Forest for law enforcement. Green River City asked for a tax abatement for property they recently purchased to build a new public safety complex. The commission signed the abatement.
Repairs need to be made at the Emery County Aquatics Center including the fire alarm system, handicap door controls and the crash gate alarm. Commissioner Nelson said these repairs are being done as inexpensively as possible and pool manager Shannon Hiatt is able to do most of the work.
The Emery County Travel Bureau asked for the approval of Bar Z Adventure to design the San Rafael Country app. This app is being developed with a grant from the Utah Office of Tourism and funds from the travel bureau. This app once downloaded can give information on lodging, restaurants, attractions, trails for biking and OHV use in the area. Tina Carter from the travel bureau said our county will be among the only county with an app. People with smart phones will be able to access information about Emery County immediately and from anywhere. The app development will cost approximately $10,000.
Commissioner Nelson reported more meetings will be held on the Emery County public land management bill.
Commissioner Pitchforth reported she had a new granddaughter born. She said all three commissioners attended the Southeastern Utah Energy Producers Banquet and Emery County supports energy production and the county must continue to battle and fight for coal. The power plants and coal mines are the lifeblood of our communities. Commissioner Pitchforth said she contacted Ethan Migliori, the new commissioner and congratulated him on his election to the commission. The next commission meeting will be on Nov. 27 at 9 a.m.


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tel: 020 8834 9200
We pride ourselves in creating exceptional care for the individual in convivial surroundings and in the company of like-minded people.
Our award winning Care Homes provide outstanding nursing and personal care to almost 480 residents at a variety of locations around England.
Elizabeth Finn employs around 750 highly trained staff, all of whom are involved with the care and support of residents both at the homes and at our head office in London.
Please feel free to find out more about our philosophy of care, and the range of services we offer by browsing this website. Full contact details are provided should you wish to obtain more information or have an informal discussion about care requirements.
Elizabeth Finn Homes Limited is regulated by CQC.
You can view the inspection ratings on the individual Homes page.


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This specially formulated water-based, rust-inhibitive primer is ideal for preparing surfaces for mosaic adhesive, tile, and grout.
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Real Estate in Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati is located in Ohio. Cincinnati, Ohio has a population of 297,314. Cincinnati is less family-centric than the surrounding county with 24.55% of the households containing married families with children. The county average for households married with children is 28.14%.
The median household income in Cincinnati, Ohio is $33,708. The median household income for the surrounding county is $49,104 compared to the national median of $53,046. The median age of people living in Cincinnati is 32.4 years.
Cincinnati Environment
The average high temperature in July is 88 degrees, with an average low temperature in January of 22.4 degrees. The average rainfall is approximately 44.2 inches per year, with 19.8 inches of snow per year.
Cincinnati Map
Cincinnati Real Estate offices
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|Posted by Dan on May 22, 2004 at 18:44:42:
We have a well pump system at our house and a county water supply as well. It is easy to switch between them. When we are watering the lawn or doing clothes, I switch to well water. Recently, I changed the water filter on the well system. Since that time, the pressure output has been low. When I run sprinklers, there is not enough pressure to drive the sprinkler head. Initially, there may be a little, but it dwindles to a drip in no time. Any suggestions?
|Replies to this post
|There are none.


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Mongkok Apartment by Ladies Market
Size500 ft²
Floor No.(with elevator)
- Family/child friendly
- Internet/WiFi
- Kitchen
- Air conditioning
- Washer/dryer
- Elevator in building
- Lockable room
Accommodation summary
|Tung Choi St, 00000 Kowloon, Hong Kong
|Property type
|Property ID
|Acceptance rate
|Response time
|A few hours
|Calendar updated
|A week ago
There is one bright bedroom, and another room containing bunk beds. A sofa bed in the living area can accommodate 2 more guests. The open-plan living space includes a kitchenette with a gas stove, and a small table where guests can sit and enjoy a snack. There is a comfortable seating area with a sofa and a TV.
Mongkok boasts a huge variety of restaurants offering both traditional Chinese and international food. Temple Street Night Market is a 20-minute walk away. The harbour and shops of the Tsim Sha Tsui district are 15 minutes away by public transport.
The nearest MTR Station (underground) is just 400 metres from the apartment. For fantastic views of Hong Kong, it is one hour by public transport to Victoria Peak. The giant Tian Tan Buddha and the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car can be reached in 2 hours by public transport.
House rulesFor more than 5 guests, there is a surcharge of €12 per extra guests per night.
No smoking allowed.
Please respect the neighbours and keep noise to a minimum.
Please keep the apartment clean and tidy.
|Price for > 4 guests
|R 176 ZAR per guest/night extra
|Check-in after
|Check-in before
|On arrangement
|Check-out before
|Cancellation Policy
Reviews for this host's other properties
Great location in Kowloon which is the real Hong Kong, place was small but that was ok, a lot of junk left in room as it had beds for many more people - washing machine was leaking when we arrived, host cleaned it up but let and it was still leaking , probably much better places to stay
The host cancelled the booking, this review is automated.
Kitty was being very helpful by finding us the apartment where we stayed .The apartment, for a family of 5 which we stayed in, was brilliantly located in the heart of yau ma tei, by being right outside across the underground station and close to alot of shops and restaurants. The apartment itself was fully equipped with household facilities and a strong free wifi. I would definitely stay here again next time as my stay was very pleasant.
You can't beat the location of this apartment - just minutes away from Mongkok station. In the evening you can wander in almost any direction and find good food and good shopping.
Will and Kitty were great hosts - very accommodating and welcoming. We would definitely stay here again in the future!
We book this unit as early as July of this year for October 27 on the morning of October 27 waiting for my flight to hongkong I checked my cell phone and to my surprise will messages me on October 26 around 11 pm and informed me that i will be transferred to a different location I felt i was cheated intentionally, he told me the occupants had an emergency and had to stay for couple of days well my point is that the occupants should be the one's to be transfered I paid for this unit precisely because of the location when we arrived at manming lane hk I preasured them to give us the unit and we were able to stay in the apartment but imagine the stress i have to go through I will never deal with them again very unprofessional.
Good stuff: 1). Host was friendly, responsive & helpful to some extent.
Location was great as it was 10-12 min walk to the MTR and next to the airport bus stand.
Some facts (I have most of the pic as proof)
a) The door mat was old, dusty and torn out in the middle.
b) one of the 2 sofa was so bad that they had to be covered with a cloth
c) The broken shower handle was never changed. You will have to take shower standing in 1 Sq Ft of area touching the toilet stuff. This is also because the shower was small. We have to move around rather than move the shower handle.
d) the biggest problem is the hot n cold water mix system. You have to balance your shower time between maneuvering your posting with the shower and mixing hot n cold water. There are two hot/cold water mix knobs which are to be constantly mixed to get warm water.
e) There were no towels given to us. I am 100% sure that the bed sheets were never washed.they are reused. I will request the owner to buy new bed and pillow sheets.
f) No one time cleaning shops or tolietteries are given
g) The Kitchen is disappointing: -> It seems they never changed the cooking utensils since the apartment started. They are all black and burnt. -> There are no serving spoon. -> One of the gas burner is bit of a struggle and i had complained about that. -> You will get one Sq ft if area to cook, wash dishes, Clean cloths in WM and the fridge. -> The kitchen water tap was never changed. You will get another round of shower because of the sudden water pressure from low to instant high. -> You will find used plastic spoons -> You will no dish washing liquid. They have put toilet left over soaps to be used for cleaning kitchen utensils. They will tell you to buy. -> The cleaning sponges are horribly used and reused. It is a reservoir of bacteria and germs.
g). The passage from the lift to the room will small leftover of dogs as there is one in the next door.
h) Beds: I am 5.9" and I had to sleep diagonally because of the bed length.
i) No Iron for your cloths.
j) They will not give you any thing as complementary. Not even one time drinking water.
I will not recommend anything but go by facts.
Overall satisfied with this, location, availability of loueur.Mais it was not the slot, much smaller and in worse condition than did glimpse the pictures.
Relatively quiet given its location (right ladies market).
For Westerners that we are the spaces are really small: we were a family of five, but behind us arrived from Asian to 7, it did not seem to bother them.
It is a question of organization and better we understand why they do not eat at home ...
Globalement satisfait de cette location,emplacement,disponibilité du loueur.Mais ce n'était pas le logement prévu,un peu plus petit et en moins bon état que le faisait entrevoir les photos.
Relativement calme au vu de son emplacement (en plein ladies market).
Pour les occidentaux que nous sommes les espaces sont vraiment restreints:nous étions une famille de cinq,mais derrière nous sont arrivés des asiatiques à 7,ça n'avait pas l'air de les gêner.
C'est une question d'organisation et on comprend mieux pourquoi ils ne mangent pas chez eux...
Very accomodating.thanks
It was a pleasure to stay at your accommodation! It is directly in the center of Mongkok. If you want to go to the Ladies Market you have just to leave the accommodation and you will be there! It was lovely time we spend at your flat and if we come again (of course we will) we will be at your flat!
We rent this flat because, we would like to have 3 sleeping rooms, but there will be enough space for more people. The kitchen is big enough for cooking but we did not spend our time for cooking as you have a lot of restaurants around you. As this accommodation is in the central of HK, you could reach every place in a short time. The MTR Mongkok station is just 5 minutes walk away. You should visit the Victorias Peak and the Dragons Back (if you love hiking).
We spend awesome two weeks in HK and could highly recommend this accommodation! You will not find a better one for this really good price. The communication is good and Will and Kitty are so helpful, they can solve any problems you will have!
Thanks for the great time!
The location is covenience and the house condition is acceptable. However, since the night market is right under the apartment, the hawkers will begin to dissemble their stalls from 12am to 2am daily, making noise which is very irritated when one is going to rest.
- Quality assured accommodation
- Every host is verified by telephone
- Secure payment via SSL encryption


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A snapshot of each team's roster and considerations heading into free agency, which officially begins March 12 at 4 p.m. ET:
Prominent free agents: QB Jason Campbell, CB Kelvin Hayden, OLB Geno Hayes, DE Israel Idonije, G Lance Louis, K Olindo Mare, QB Josh McCown, DT Henry Melton (franchise tag), CB D.J. Moore, DT Amobi Okoye, G Chilo Rachal, LB Nick Roach, T Jonathan Scott, G/C Chris Spencer, MLB Brian Urlacher.
Issues: Quarterback Jay Cutler has been sacked 148 times in 56 starts since coming to Chicago in 2009. That's nearly three per game and will certainly be an unacceptable figure to new coach Marc Trestman. But after slapping an $8.45 million tag on Melton, the Bears don't presently have the funds to import left tackle Jake Long or a pass protector of his caliber. There's little doubt the offensively innovative Trestman will get more out of the passing attack, and maybe sophomore wideout Alshon Jeffery will blossom in 2013. But somebody on the roster or from the outside needs to give Brandon Marshall a hand downfield. The defense was again among the league's best in 2012, but age could catch up to it at any point.
Our advice: Until he unlocks more cash, GM Phil Emery is in a bind. Signs point to declining Urlacher coming back at a discount, probably a logical move for both parties. As valuable as Idonije has been, it's time for second-year defensive end Shea McClellin to settle in opposite Julius Peppers. And Emery needs to throw whatever resources he has at improving the explosiveness of the offense. Beyond the need for enhanced receiver production and blocking, an upgrade at tight end and a backup quarterback are among issues that need to be addressed.
Prominent free agents: DE Cliff Avril, RT Gosder Cherilus, FS Louis Delmas, LB Justin Durant, CB Drayton Florence, G Dylan Gandy, K Jason Hanson, P Nick Harris, TE Will Heller, DT Sammie Lee Hill, CB Chris Houston, DE Lawrence Jackson, CB Jacob Lacey, LB DeAndre Levy, KR Stefan Logan, ST/WR Kassim Osgood, G Stephen Peterman (released), RB Kevin Smith, DE Kyle Vanden Bosch (released), DT Corey Williams.
Issues: As the above list indicates, GM Martin Mayhew is going to lose a significant chunk of his roster. Given how little money he has to replenish it, he's probably going to be forced to rely on fringe free agents and rookies to fill out his depth chart. That's not a great formula for fixing an out-of-whack offense or soon-to-be-depleted defense. It will help if Hanson decides not to retire, but special teams will be a project regardless.
Our advice: Cherilus is an underrated commodity, but 2012 first-rounder Riley Reiff can take over for him. The bigger problem offensively is the absence of a playmaker in the backfield ever since Jahvid Best was waylaid by scary concussion woes which seem likely to end his career far too early. A slasher of Reggie Bush's caliber seems like the perfect solution, but Mayhew would have to massage a lot of numbers, probably including Matthew Stafford's hefty contract, to fit Bush into the salary structure. It's worth serious consideration. Avril is a good pass rusher but also a bit one-dimensional. His departure will create some angst in Motown, but Mayhew is better off focusing on Houston, Hill and Delmas, whose injury history might scare off a lot of other teams. Even if Jackson comes back, Mayhew should probably look for quality defensive ends in the draft.
NO TAG, YOU'RE NOT IT: Players who escaped being franchised
FREE AGENCY PREVIEW: NFC East (March 6)
FREE AGENCY PREVIEW: AFC West (March 5)
FREE AGENCY PREVIEW: AFC South (March 4)
FREE AGENCY PREVIEW: AFC North (March 1)
FREE AGENCY PREVIEW: AFC East (Feb. 28)
Prominent free agents: RB Cedric Benson, C/G Evan Dietrich-Smith (restricted), RB Ryan Grant, WR Greg Jennings, ILB Brad Jones, CB Sam Shields (restricted), OLB Erik Walden, DB Charles Woodson (released).
Issues: Woodson's leadership will be missed, but his release did provide funds GM Ted Thompson will need. It will be tough to part with Jennings, too, but Green Bay's wideout depth softens the blow. Rest and recuperation alone should help this club with tackles Bryan Bulaga and Derek Sherrod expected back on offense and linebackers Desmond Bishop and Nick Perry among the defensive reinforcements. Thompson is typically extremely selective in free agency, and that's unlikely to change now.
Our advice: It's fun to ponder Steven Jackson or even Shonn Greene elevating an ineffective ground game, but it's hard to envision Thompson pulling the trigger on any player who puts even a modest dent into the pay scale. The Pack has close to $10 million worth of space, but pass rusher extraordinaire Clay Matthews, nose tackle B.J. Raji and wideout James Jones head a list of players who can hit the market in 2014. And quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn't chirping about a below-market contract, but it could become the elephant in the room at some point. Translation: Thompson should keep rewarding his guys and target a tailback and fresh depth at draft time.
Prominent free agents: WR Devin Aromashodu, OL Joe Berger, LB Jasper Brinkley, FB Jerome Felton, LB Erin Henderson, CB A.J. Jefferson (restricted), WR Michael Jenkins (released), RT Phil Loadholt, SS Jamarca Sanford, OL Geoff Schwartz, WR Jerome Simpson.
Issues: The defense should be able to effectively compensate despite the prospect of losing a handful of starters. However Felton, a Pro Bowler in 2012, and Loadholt were major reasons Adrian Peterson rushed for 2,097 yards last season. Infusing talent to the passing game might just help Peterson run further in 2013 while hastening the development of quarterback Christian Ponder.
Our advice: GM Rick Spielman believes in taking care of his own and should start with Loadholt, who's missed one game in four years and destroys defenders while run blocking. Given the going rate for fullbacks, Felton should be back at a semi-reasonable price. And Spielman really ought to find a capable receiver to line up with Percy Harvin, who may not be long for this roster anyway. Getting Greg Jennings would be a master stroke that would drastically improve the Vikes while serving a blow to the Packers. Brandon Gibson could be among the reasonable alternatives. Among the defenders, Sanford should get top priority. The Vikes can do better than Brinkley.
Follow Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis


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On Second Thought is a one-hour, daily news talk show that airs at 9 a.m. ET weekdays.
With a child on the way, Victoria must choose a regent in case she dies during childbirth. Friday, February 24 at 9:30 PM
The GHSA state championships for football are right around the corner. There are 16 teams left on the road to the Georgia Dome and by late Saturday night all eight champions for 2016 will be... MORE
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Mon., May 10, 2010 3:37am
Special Elections in Georgia
There are some special elections this week in Georgia to replace candidates who left office before their term expired.
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text: The IRS recently released guidance addressing some of the very technical issues facing employers as they implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Notice 2012-58 describes optional measurement and stability periods that may be used to determine which employees are treated as full-time employees for purposes of the employer shared responsibility penalties in the ACA. The Notice formalizes safe harbors for ongoing employees and includes additional safe harbor methods employers may apply to newly hired variable-hour and seasonal employees. The Notice includes numerous helpful examples.


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Skip to comments.Activision Blizzard Investors on Alert as Violent Video Games Being Partly Blamed for CT Shooting
Posted on 12/17/2012 9:12:44 PM PST by WilliamIII
Shareholders of Call of Duty video game maker Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and other video game makers are nervous Monday related to fears about a potential backlash from Friday's horrible Sandy Hook school shootings, which left 26 dead, including 20 children.
There have been reports from the Hartford Courant that alleged gunman Adam Lanza played "violent video game in which life-like characters engage in graphic battle scenes."
(Excerpt) Read more at streetinsider.com ...
I'm buying a couple versions of "Call of Duty" for myself and Halo IV for my nephew.
Oh boy! Maybe we will have another nationally broadcast Senate hearing with Tipper Gore!
BFD. As I've stated previously, tens of millions of young men play these video games yet do not go out and murder people.
Really, we need to get our priorities straight, and worrying about video games is something that shouldn't even register on our radar.
Americans, always looking for the simple answer and a quick fix.
Blaming video games is as f'ing stupid as blaming guns.
Blame PEOPLE.
Well, the anger has to go somehwere.
Since the killer killed himself and the woman who bore him, might as well direct it at everyone who had nothing to do with it at all.
Good thing the media misreported that his father was killed too, otherwise he might have to answer why he didn't raise, discipline and control his murderous son better than he did.
The stupidity of Americans has reached cosmic proportions now.
As Ive stated previously, tens of millions of young men play these video games yet do not go out and murder people.
Tens of millions who aren't psychotic. You can say these games, when consumed by kids with psychotic disorders, don't have any influence. But you'd be arguing from a position of ideology, not common sense.
And why do growing throngs find playing such drek to be charming?
The news coverage will disappear in one day.
By Day Two, Hollywood stars will be shrieking for more gun control.
But this time there's no Frank Zappa to ask, "So who pluked the monkey?"
I surely wouldn't and I don't state my opinion from an ideological viewpoint.
Your "logic" would be no different than those who call for banning guns since a few demented individuals use them to commit atrocities regardless of the fact that tens of millions of gun owners are law abiding citizens who don't run around murdering people.
So, do you advocate banning video games
No, but I'd favor a law establishing tort liability for their producers. The makers of other potentially dangerous products are subject to being sued for damages if their products result in harm. The rich conscience-free folks who produce these blood-spattered games shouldn't be exempt from product liability litigation.
"BFD. As Ive stated previously, tens of millions of young men play these video games yet do not go out and murder people."
That's correct. And tens of millions of Americans can drink alcohol and not become addicted. Your point is?
I'm just waiting for them to report on what movies and TV-shows he watched...
...Any minute now...
I've got every Call of Duty version. Gee, where's my interview from the libtard media?
You may not prefer to play such games, but I enjoy them immensely and I don't personally see any harm in them. I certainly don't get the urge to run around and murder people, nor do I feel that any of the games that are on the market have any useful value in either desensitizing a person to violence nor do I believe any of it would be a useful "training" tool for murdering psychopaths.
Really, it's a stupid belief, IMO, and we have got to get back to common sense. There are insane bad people in the world and from time to time they will commit outrageous acts of violence. In the end, it is the person that is the problem.
I'm much more concerned about brain dead leftist ideologues who have much more sinister intentions than the random psychotic who snaps and brings misery to our society.
Just as absurd as holding car manufacturers liable for the results of drunk drivers.
Do you play any of these games? I'm asking because I do and I cannot make the connection that you do between these games and the actions of demented individuals who just so happen to play them and then go out and commit an atrocity. I see no cause and effect.
Following your line of reasoning, why not hold motion picture makers liable as well? In fact, I would emphasize that the fictional entertainment coming out of Hollywood is much more influential on the psyche of murderers than a video game.
That is as absurd as blaming the manufacturers of firearms, IMO.
Just as absurd as holding car manufacturers liable for the results of drunk drivers.
On the contrary, neither the gun nor the car contributes to the mental derangement of the user. A video game pumping "kill kill kill" into a disturbed mind, is something else again.
I have every Call Of Duty series and Halo 4..never wanted to kill anyone. Liberals just can't help themselves..I haven't heard ONE lib blame the KILLER..nah can't blame him, have to blame video games, guns, anything else except the KILLER..the video game didn't shoot anyone and the gun didn't go off by itself
I have every Call Of Duty series and Halo 4..never wanted to kill anyone.
Right, because you're not psychotic. But to say categorically that these games can't trigger aggression in psychotics doesn't jibe with common sense.
"My point is pretty simple and straightforward, and that is blaming video games as a root cause for the actions of individuals is an unrealistic exercise. "
I'm not suggesting they be banned. However an effort needs to be made to shield susceptible people from them.
Anything might trigger violence in psychotic people.
Blaming games is foolish.
I did the exact thing last night. ToysRUs had buy two 59.00 games, get 50.00 off. I got the new Black Ops game for 9.99 :)
You cannot blame video games entirely, but I can tell you, they do have a stimulating effect on those who have mental illnesses.
I for one, can attest to this. I have 2 adopted boys who came from a very bad background prior to adoption (abuse, neglect, violence) The birth family has a history of bi-polar, schizophrenia, etc. One of my sons has also been diagnosed with post traumatic stress from his abusive background and manic depression.schizophrenia.
30 days ago, he went crazy in the home and attacked the whole family. He currently is in a mental health hospital.
What drove him to go crazy in the house was that he was told he could not play video games. I took them away from him because I saw how aggressive he becomes after paying video games, even sports type games.
When you have a child on anti-depressant drugs, there is an effect with the additional stimuli of video games.
Video games have been around a long time, and although the quality of the graphics has improved significantly over the years, we're still talking about "fake" reality that is easily understood by even children, and I don't buy any argument that a "disturbed mind" may simply be driven by said games into a murderous rage, or even become detached to the point that it makes such urges more likely. At this point in video game technology, the realism is still not there. That brings me back to my previous question:
Let's go back to my belief that Hollywood garbage is much more influential to a "disturbed mind", as you put it. Why not start at that level? Movies are many more levels above video games as far as realism is concerned. That would be a logical place to start, wouldn't you think?
Blaming games is foolish.
Really? The latest news outlet to report that this mentally disturbed guy watched a LOT of violent video games, is the LA Times, tonight: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-shooter-profile-20121218,0,7751800.story
Now, his killing spree at the elementary school was like a real-life violent video game. To rule out, categorically , any connection between the two — THAT'S foolish.
Efforts have been made to shield minors from violent video games, but with what criteria can you define a person as "susceptible"? Susceptible to what?
Again, I do not see a cause and effect connection between a person who snaps and video games.
Watched video games, or played video games? Kind of a loose statement there.
Establishing a connection without providing a factual basis to back that connection is idle speculation with nothing to stand on.
Again, violent movies coming out of Hollywood are much more likely to influence such an individual, IMO, due to the realism factor. Why has that not been pointed at as a possible "connection"?
You probably do not live with someone who has a mental illness, someone who already has a skewed perception of reality.
Violent video games DO have an effect on these people. Of course, it is our parental responsibility to intercede in these instances.
my other son, when told he would be limited in his xbox play time, got very aggressive and took the xbox system and ran out of the house with it.
It becomes their comfortability factor and gives them a sense of false reality and almost an addiction.
They become conditioned to violence with some games..
Given that, not all people are identical, of course, and neither do people all react the same way to the same stimuli.
Once again, the realistic depictions of violence in movies are much more of a likely culprit than video games, wouldn't you think?
Again, I do not see a cause and effect connection between a person who snaps and video games.
Let's see, he spent his time watching video games in which he was shooting up masses of people with high-powered weaponry. Then he goes out and does the same thing in real life. I think it's much more unrealistic to insist there's no connection, than to suggest there might be one.
And other killers (maybe him too?) no doubt watched a lot of movies, watched a lot of porn, watched a lot of sports, watched a lot of news/politics...
You can't make a case for cause and effect based on that.
But really the point is that a nutcase can start killing because of song lyrics, books, his neighbour's dog or any other insane reason. We can't put the blame on whatever hobby/interests the killers have and start trying to adjust society to fit crazy people.
If you want to blame anything medication seems a more likely culprit. Asperger's doesn't need medicine.
Take away a toy of any type from most young people, mentally ill or not, and you will get a negative reaction.
Becoming conditioned to violence due to the content of the games I say is unrealistic as even my mentally ill brother could understand the difference between a video game and reality.
But, again, different people can react to stimuli in different ways. Allowing my brother to watch a movie like Natural Born Killers would be a very bad thing, and we knew better.
I think both have an affect. However, movies are not as much of an addiction for kids as video games.
I am not blaming video games, just like I dont blame guns. It is definitely "the person"
I am just telling you that I have one son who currently is facing "assault" charges and is at this time in a mental health hospital.
The trigger for him was getting upset after being told he could not play his video games which he was becoming addicted to. Didnt want to do anything else. I had 7 police cars, ambulance, etc. at the house for the incident.
The average person may not react this way, but my 2 adopted kids both have mental health issues and they are affected in a much different way to video stimulus.
It feels like 1968 redux!
After the killing of Bobby Kennedy blame was placed on TV shows, comic books, pulp fiction, movies, toy guns.
Toy guns disappeared for a while.
Pulp fiction cleaned up their covers.
TV shows dumbed down their shows to kiddie shows.
Comic books got rid of their heavy dramas.
But Movies? They said they would police themselves with a rating system. G M R X!
Hot D*mn boys, the Hays Code is dead! Produce 'em if you got 'em! Mark them R and market them to preteens!
And the most vile sex and blood drenched films oozed out of Hollywood.
I think both have an affect. However, movies are not as much of an addiction for kids as video games.
I am not blaming video games, just like I dont blame guns. It is definitely "the person"
I am just telling you that I have one son who currently is facing "assault" charges and is at this time in a mental health hospital.
The trigger for him was getting upset after being told he could not play his video games which he was becoming addicted to. Didnt want to do anything else. I had 7 police cars, ambulance, etc. at the house for the incident.
The average person may not react this way, but my 2 adopted kids both have mental health issues and they are affected in a much different way to video stimulus.
And do you know what movies he watched? Violent TV shows? What other possible stimuli could have affected his perception of reality?
There are a lot of possible factors, yet to cherry pick video games as the "obvious" culprit is absurd, IMO.
Because they beat the hell out of playing Pong?
We cant put the blame on whatever hobby/interests the killers have and start trying to adjust society to fit crazy people.
We can allow tort liability, and let the facts of individual cases sort themselves out in court. If a product has a possibility of causing great harm, even in a small number of circumstances, the producers can be liable for the harm caused. That's not the same thing as banning it.
Obsessive and/or compulsive does not equal an altered perception of reality due to the content of such games, particularly considering the still unrealistic video quality presented in such games. That can certainly change as technology advances, so what I believe today I can possibly change my mind upon in the future.
That being said, I'm sorry to hear about your son. I lost my brother about 14 years ago due to a defective heart valve and not a day goes by that I don't miss him or think about him.
I don't agree. By holding the producers of God knows what responsible for the abuses of the users/customers we are in effect banning it. And I certainly don't see it as right to blame someone for something someone else does.
No matter if it's gun manufacturer's for murder, jerry can makers for people who stupidly burn themselves, authors for writing books where the hero throws himself off a bridge wearing a yellow raincoat only to have people reenact it in real life, soccer games for riots, caricatures for terrorism etc...
It's all one giant slippery slope. As I see it people are responsible for their own actions and not what it 'inspires' others to do.
I guess that is the beauty of this forum, we each get to express our own opinions.
I am convinced there is a direct corelation between anti-depressant meds and video game stimulation that the average person does not realize. I could be wrong.
All I can tell you is that I have a son who is not at home with his family and it all started over a video game.
Thanks for your comment about my son. I really appreciate it.
I'd like to know what level of involvement the so-called father had with his troubled son.
I've been playing these sorts of games since the early 90's beginning with Wolfenstein. I did not notice a desensitization effect in myself until the late 90's. I don't know if the earlier games were too cartoon-like to cause the change or if it was related to increases in the nature of the violence, or some combination of improved graphics and more extreme violence, but it has happened several times over the years. I'll start a game and be uneasy about the violence involved(sometimes even disturbed about it) and by the end of the game I'm not bothered by the violence at all. And over the years there's been a steady progression in the intensity of the violence that it takes to create that unease. I don't know if that has any carryover to violence desensitization outside of games or not—I haven't really thought about it enough to decide. I will say that even with the ingame desensitization, I am very confident that playing these types of games have not made me a more aggressive or hostile person. I'll keep playing and enjoying the games, but my experience has made me wonder if they could cause catastrophic problems for someone with underlying mental illness.
Are you friggin kidding me?
Are you referring to me?
I thought he was referring to the killer's father.
Are you Adam's father?
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Melissa Marie Brinkerhoff and Taylor Melvin Mellor are excited to announce their marriage in the Manti LDS Temple on April 27. A reception will be held the same evening from 6-8 p.m. At the Bicknell Community Center. If you were inadvertently missed, please consider this your personal invitation.
Melissa is a 2007 graduate of Emery High School. She has her phlebotomy papers and plans on working in the Health Care industry.
Melissa is the daughter of David James Brinkerhoff and Joan Stevens Brinkerhoff, granddaughter of the late Zola McGregor and Richard Nole Brinkerhoff and Vorris Neal and Marie Durfey Stevens.
Taylor graduated from Gunnison Valley High in 2005. Taylor served an honorable LDS mission to Utica N.Y. He has an AS degree in automotive mechanics and is currently working on his Masters degree in technical management. Taylor serves in the National Guard. Taylor is the son of Randy and Tracy Mellor, the grandson of the late Melvin Guy Mellor and Betty Bartholomew Mellor and the late Floyd David Taylor and Mary Betty Behring Taylor.
The couple will live in Orem as they continue their education .


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Topic: Any Rails Forums?
Has anyone started a project to build one? If so let me know. I am working on one.
This is an archive from Rails Forum. Check out the new community here!
A forum for Ruby on Rails users
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Has anyone started a project to build one? If so let me know. I am working on one.
And of course, there's the classic: rForum -- but I've never been a big fan.
Are any of these going to be integrated with Radiant CMS?
Anonther good one is http://www.sitepoint.com. But the focus is on the Ruby language rather than the Rails framework.
rorBB - doesn't exist yet and will it ever?
fRoRum - err, no!
Beast - very impressive; some real brains involved in that.
Opinion - I don't think so
fForum - I've yet to see a single elegant implementation.
Beast blows all the others away already and it only seems to have existed for three days. So when do we port onto it?
^^ maybe we'll port once it's not a SVN-only thing and is actually released. A punbb converter would also be killer, but I'd be able to whip up a migration script if I had to.
Anonther good one is http://www.sitepoint.com. But the focus is on the Ruby language rather than the Rails framework.
He was asking about forums written in Ruby on Rails, not forums that talk about RoR. Easy mistake to make though, I almost did it myself
Are any of these going to be integrated with Radiant CMS?
Not sure, but I don't see why "integration" is so important. It's not like Radiant offers member/community features like phpnuke and friends do, so I don't see why you'd really want more integration than using the same theme and throwing the forum on a subdomain/subfolder of the main site.
rorBB - doesn't exist yet and will it ever?
I believe so. I have high hopes that this one won't be vaporware. It's just in stealth-mode right now.
Beast blows all the others away already and it only seems to have existed for three days. So when do we port onto it?
I agree that Beast in impressive, but it's probably too bare bones for what we want here. I am sure someone will develop a nice fork, or mods/hacks/plugins for it that will add things we want here--or maybe we will. My biggest concern is proper moderation tools.
I also think fRoRum has a chance to become something nice. It has yet to see its first public release, and is just a part-time project of one developer (Josh Peek), afaik. I'm not ready to write it off.
Regardless, it seems that all of sudden in the past few months there are a bunch more options for RoR-based forum software out there or on their way. It's very nice to see.
Edit: No fair, Vinnie edited his reply while I was writing mine. To add, a PunBB converter would definitely rock. And something to automatically put in some 301 redirects for all the URLs here pointing to the new threads on whatever forum software we switch to--otherwise, I fear a big hit in Google, which would be bad for the growth of this community. We'll have to figure out how to cross that bridge when we come to it.
They are using the pastie theme which they based off of basecamp. I think the view side is easy enough to change though, and considering it is so early in production it looks really good.
I also think fRoRum has a chance to become something nice. It has yet to see its first public release, and is just a part-time project of one developer (Josh Peek), afaik. I'm not ready to write it off.
fRoRum by Josh Peek? Really? I'm not so sure.
Stealth mode is one way to describe where rorBB has gone. I'll try to retain my initial enthusiasm.
Beast has come a long way in three days. It's taking a fairly traditional approach to how the bulletin board should work instead instead of the blogish post-plus-comments approach of some others. I like that. It's also addressed the bloat issue by having a target of less than 500 lines. If they retain enthusiasm in it it should come a long way over the next few weeks and be a good candidate for this forum to move to. Now's the time to get involved and help direct their thinking.
I think frorum is by Brad Pauly, but Josh Peek did one for Rails Day IIRC.
I assure you rorBB is still under development. It is just staying under wraps for now until there's something worthwhile to show. Beast is definitely impressive, but may be too lightweight for some forums. We'll see how it turns out. It may very well end up being the ultimate Rails forum engine.
I think frorum is by Brad Pauly, but Josh Peek did one for Rails Day IIRC.
Ah, right you are. I got confused because I think fRoRum was also a Rails Day project.
It's also addressed the bloat issue by having a target of less than 500 lines. If they retain enthusiasm in it it should come a long way over the next few weeks and be a good candidate for this forum to move to.
But I wonder if their goal to keep it under 500 lines will prevent it from going "a long way". I tend to think Beast will be a nice, very well made/designed base for a larger forum project (the code is MIT licensed, afterall). Someone can take it and run with it. But what Josh and Rick are trying to accomplish specifically, probably won't be up to what we're looking for for this forum.
As for rorBB--I've seen it, I assure you it exists. Also a nice start--but like all of the other systems, still in its infancy.
I think Vinnie, Kelli, and I are content to see what materializes for now.
I think Rick and I feel you can focus and produce something better with a fixed scope. :-) Beast now has search, RSS feeds for most everything, moderation, stickies, and more (weighing in at 414 LOC). I'm still cleaning up the UI, but the features are there. You're right we can't get everything under the sun in 500 LOC, nor is that the goal.
I hate it when i download a Rails project and find it already has thousands of lines of code... too me that says too many assumptions have been made about what I want and the cost of change and fitting it to my fancy is likely too high.
It's also oppionated software. Rick doesn't believe in smilies, I don't believe in signatures, Rick doesn't believe in quoting, etc, etc. All assumptions people are free to change once they have the source, but that was our starting point. However just reading some of our threads on beast.caboo.se... wow, you can actually just read conversations without all the bloat getting in the way. It's a good feeling.
Glad people are liking the concept though, it'd been a fun little project. Patches and bug fixes (within scope) are certainly welcome as well as thoughts and feedback... I've used a lot of forums in the past, but never built one before now. :-)
If anyone wants to volunteer to write a punbb -> Beast converted, that would be awesome!
I really like the idea of a very modular forum system. I think this is the approach the rorBB team might be taking (don't quote me on that--heh, how's that for noncommittal).
I.e., you have a very stripped down, nothing-but-basics base, on top of which you can add modules to extend the functionality any way you want. You want smilies? Add the smiley mod. You wany signatures? Add the signature mods. You want image support, quoting, PMs, etc., etc. Add the mods.
The only problem I see with that is when you update the base you have 7000 mods to update as well, which could be problematic. But I am sure smart software developers could figure out how to cope with that potential problem.
(Oh, and I used to hate smilies, too--I still visit some forums where I have them mansually turned off... but I have been assimilated. At least I still mostly dislike the animated ones. )
They are using the pastie theme which they based off of basecamp
While I can't deny that Pastie and Beast themes are inspired by what I call "sheet of paper" design, which I think 37s has made popular... I would not say "based off of" myself... I just like dropping the white "sheet of paper" in a sea of grey (It makes for good contrast) and then doing whatever else comes natually... that's how Pastie was built, not from a desire to copy Basecamp tit for tat, but just starting with a white sheet of paper on grey and building the rest of the app around that.
I can see the POV if one irrevocably associates "sheet of paper" only with 37s, but I've been doing white/grey designs (because of the nice contrast) for a long time as part of two column layouts... losing the borders and focusing on the content is an iteration of that same concept.
See the topic at: http://beast.caboo.se/forums/1/topics/67
Yeah, I don't mind the smilies, but Rick doesn't care for them - and I can live without. I've gotten my way on a few other things. :-)
And maybe it's just the programmer in me that I don't like the idea of entirely boxed software... I see the convenience... but I guess it'd be nice to see people take the 500 LOC and build on it, make their own things, run with it.
Why would they ever need to upgrade? Sure, over time the base may incrementally get better... but that isn't a manditory upgrade. Also the small LOC makes security easier, but if there is a hole someone can simply add a test to their own install and either port the fix, or write there own.
I know all BB have "mods" and I guess that's to be expected... but yeah... upgrading and maintaing mods over time can be a pain.
Update: Plus, as a communications platform, forums don't really need 7000 mods... the only thing I can think preventing Beast from being used in some contexts right now is file uploads... but once you have forums, topics, and posts... you've provided the means for a community to develop and interaction to take place. The rest is just icing on the cake.
Last edited by yyyc514 (2006-08-21 11:21:56)
I'm investigating different rails forum solutions right now for a new project where we would have to integrate it with a huge existing data model and web site.
I think I like Beast most right now, but I'm kind of tempted by the concept of Opinion and the promises on their trac.
Anyone knows, whether there's still active development on Opinion?
Last edited by yeah (2006-08-21 12:01:24)
Beast is cool.
Is there any good Reddit clone?
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