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The Way I See It!
I am an Ultra-Conservative, Alpha-Male, True Authentic Leader, Type "C" Personality, who is very active in my community; whether it is donating time, clothes or money for Project Concern or going to Common Council meetings and voicing my opinions. As a blogger, I intend to provide a different viewpoint "The way I see it!" on various world, national and local issues with a few helpful tips & tidbits sprinkled in.
TIF's & TID's
It has come to my attention some people want to know how development happens in a City, so I figured I would write about it. For some of the avid readers of mine, some of this will be taken out of old posts as we need to have some common understandings first to all be on the same page.
This is the information from the city's website:
TAX INCREMENTAL DISTRICT (TID): A contiguous geographic area within a city defined and created by resolution of the local legislative body. Procedures described in s. 66.46, Stats., must be followed in creating a tax incremental district. The procedures include holding public hearings, adopting a project plan, getting approval, and gathering any information necessary to establish the TID. TAX INCREMENTAL FINANCING: A method of splitting the cost of public works in certain areas (tax increment districts) with the other taxing bodies that will benefit from an increase in the tax base. Basically, it works as follows: Any increase in value in the TID above the base value (the value at the time the TID is formed) is not included in determining the tax rate; however, the tax rate is applied to all taxable property in the TID. The additional revenue generated (the tax increment) is used by the municipality to help pay for the public works that stimulated the increase in the value in the TID. This process continues until either the public works are paid for, the legislative body terminates the TID, or 23 years has elapsed.
Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, is a tool that has been used for redevelopment and community improvement projects throughout the United States for more than half a century. With federal and state sources for redevelopment generally less available, TIF has become an often-used financing mechanism for municipalities.
TIF is a tool to use future gains in taxes to finance the current improvements that will create those gains. When a public project such as a road, school, or hazardous waste cleanup is carried out, there is an increase in the value of surrounding real estate, and often new investment (new or rehabilitated buildings, for example). This increased site value and investment creates more taxable property, which increases tax revenues. The increased tax revenues are the "tax increment." Tax Increment Financing dedicates that increased revenue to finance debt issued to pay for the project. TIF is designed to channel funding toward improvements in distressed or underdeveloped areas where development would not otherwise occur. TIF creates funding for public projects that may otherwise be unaffordable to localities.
Tax increment financing can be a complex thing, and even some public officials seem to be confused about where the money in a TIF district comes from.
While TIF is not a magic wand, it is a valuable tool that a city can use to bootstrap a strategic new development, overcoming the obstacles that might prevent it from going forward.
Does a TIF district reduce the amount of property tax paid by property owners or the amount of sales tax paid by consumers in the district?
No. The county/city assessor appraises the property and the county/city treasurer collects taxes using the same rates as if the TIF district didn't exist. The usual sales tax rate applies as well. The difference in a TIF district is in what happens to the money once it's collected.
Does a TIF district reduce the amount of property taxes and sales taxes that go to the schools, the city, the libraries, and other government entities dependent on those funds?
No. The taxes generated by the property value and retail activity already present in the district when the district is established will continue to go the same government entities. It's only the new, incremental revenues generated by increased retail activity and property values that can be captured for use within a TIF district.
What generates the money in a TIF district?
The key is the "I" in TIF, which stands for "increment." TIF districts can capture incremental revenues from property tax, local sales tax, and other local government fees.
When a TIF district is established, the county/city assessor determines the base assessed value for taxable property in the district, and city government determines the base level of taxable sales already occurring in the district. The sales taxes and property taxes generated by this baseline will continue to go to the government entities that are receiving them now.
But some or all of the tax revenues over and above the baseline--the incremental revenue--can be "captured" for use within the TIF district.
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Marlies Lose A Heart-Stomper
JP Nikota
June 07 2012 11:27PM
Last night, the Toronto Marlies lost game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals in a way that could make just about anyone's heart break. Heck, even Habs or Sens fans would be upset with this, if they actually had hearts or souls to break. Jon Cooper, the head coach of the Norfolk Admirals, had this to say in his post-game press conference:
"I'm sick to my stomach for Scrivens. That was a tough break for the kid. But I'd obviously rather go in our favour instead of theirs."
In ovetime, on a shoot-in that was clearly offside, the puck took an odd bounce off a stanchion, and careened into an empty net, while playoff hero Ben Scrivens was out of his cage, waiting to corral the puck for his defenders. Check out the Game In Six here.
Jump for more.
"I would rather someone take a pair of steel-toed boots and hit me in a delicate region than lose like that" Dallas Eakins said after the game.
Although no one from the Marlies contested the goal at the time, it was unclear whether or not the goal should have stood under league rules.
Later, our dear friend James Mirtle confirmed via the league's head office that the goal should not have counted. Unfortunate that such a call cannot be overturned.
To be honest, the Marlies were not the better team last night. Norfolk out-shot Toronto 31-21, and were dominant through the third and overtime periods. Of course, that doesn't take much of the sting off of such a loss, but Leafs fans can still take heart in the good performances of players like Scrivens.
If there is something to be learned from this unfortunate situation, it's that goalies should never play the puck if it's being dumped in off the glass. If Scrivens waits this one out, he's in his crease for an easy stop, and the play keeps on rolling. That said, I'm not exactly convinced that there is a whole lot more that Scivens can learn from playing in the AHL. He's probably about as ready for the big league as he's going to be.
As an aside, the goaltending situation in Toronto is becoming increasingly difficult to judge. Personally, I'd love to see both James Reimer and Ben Scrivens handed a decent amount of starts next season, but watching a team be torpedoed by terrible netminding is getting awfully old as well. Ultimately, I want competent goaltending, and I'm less keen on seeing a youngster shine than I am seeing a playoff game.
I will be attending the Marlies' next game in Toronto on Saturday. Here's hoping they can stave off elimination for at least another game.
June 08 2012, 06:46AM
I'm not sure I'm prepared to say live and let live when it comes to referees allowing a goal that should not have counted. I understand it's a rare rule but it IS a rule, shouldn't they be required to know it if they're working the finals?

subset: commoncrawl


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Cleaning out several springs which supply water to the North Emery Water Users Special Service District was a much discussed topic at their monthly meeting April 3. Several springs have become innundated with roots and this overgrowth is causing a loss of water.
Surrounding vegetation in the form of roots has hampered the flow of Rilda and Big Ben Springs. The board discussed different ways to remove the roots in and around the springs. The forest service will not allow any new installation of collection pipes so it is imperative that the old ones be maintained and cleaned out. Necessary replacement of existing pipes will be allowed.
The board approved the proposal to move ahead with the cleaning and investigate with the forest service other ways to prohibit the vegetation surrounding the springs to continue to hamper their flow. It is critical at this time to conserve and utilize all the water that is available for the districts use.
Craig Johansen reported to the board that he has been doing computer runs on the new tie-in system. The computer can pinpoint pressure problems before the problem comes about. The reports also give recommendations on where to work the system and how to alleviate the inconsistencies and keep the system running smoothly. These computer runs also give an estimate of the maximum number of hookups that a particular leg of the system will handle efficiently.
Jack Stoyanoff reported on the Goverment Accounting Standards Board workshop he had attended. He said there will be five more meetings to be held around the state and suggests that everyone on the board attend one if possible. The workshops detail the responsibilities of the members of the board for the internal control and handling of the money for the district. They also teach board member ethics.
The board acted on many other items during the meeting. The first was a public hearing concerning the CIB application. No representative from the public was present with questions or comments, so the public hearing was closed.
The board also approved a connection application on South Flat. Laura Fillmore presented the board a sample of a newletter and suggested that this be the model adopted for NEWUSSDs proposal to send newsletters. Randy Bell questioned the board about the possibility of selling the Ditch Witch. Since the district does not utilize the machine anymore, it was suggested to have it appraised and ready it for sale.
Several items of incorrect billing or inquiry came before the board. These items are not in their juridisdiction and Fillmore was instructed where to direct the questions. The board also approved and accepted the minutes from the March 6 meeting and paid the bills.
The next meeting for the NEWUSSD is May 1 at 7 p.m.


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By Brendan Conway
D.A. Davidson & Co. analyst Timothy S. Ramey just published his analysis of hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman's short attack on Herbalife (HLF). Guns a-blazin' — raising the prospect of a Dutch auction for the stock and a huge short squeeze.
Ramey not only keeps his $72 price target on the stock — it currently trades at $36 — but calls today's price "unstable." "Either the stock should go to zero as Ackman suggests, or it should rebound dramatically for a multitude of reasons," and the chance of going to zero is "probably zero," he writes.
"[The stock market does not allow a growth company to have a 12.5% free cash flow yield for long," he continues. "This explains why the stock has soared roughly 44% since its Christmas Eve low of $24.96. Ackman's 20 million share short, if it still exists, is itself highly unstable. What if Herbalife should do a Dutch Auction for its shares? Virtually all long holders would pull their shares out of 'Street' name to have them in a form that can be tendered. That alone would likely cause the mother of all short squeezes."
Ackman, by the way, told CNBC's Herb Greenberg last night that he and his Pershing Square Capital Management colleagues "haven't covered a share" of the Herbalife short.
Ramey predicts that Herbalife won't offer a blow-by-blow response to Ackman during its Jan. 10 analyst day — but it will instead likely offer that as a web presentation.
The analyst, though, offers his own blow-by-blow. Here's a key excerpt — and go here for the slides to which Ramey refers. The below are quotes from the note:
- Slide 11. "Has anyone ever purchased an Herbalife Product?" the slide shouts. It is (slide 12) "the only $2 billion brand nobody's ever heard of." To this we added in a previous note the words "in Chappaqua." Perhaps where Mr. Ackman lives he never sees a car with the "Lose weight, ask me how" message across the rear window. I can tell Mr. Ackman that in my hometown, which is not quite Chappaqua, Herbalife is an iconic and widely recognized brand. If you watch soccer or live outside of Chappaqua, you likely know Herbalife.


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Wanted Gramercy Wedge Sneaker
Sorry, this item is sold out!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Item # 282850
The Wanted Gramercy is seriously studded! For a wedge sneaker that packs a punch, these fun-loving high-tops are sure to shake things up.
Check out the Wanted Gramercy, featured on our blog!
- Faux leather upper
- Studded embellishments
- Belted buckle details
- 3" hidden wedge heel
- Rubber sole
- Imported
- View more Women's Wanted Shoes
By: KRen
Location: Connecticut
August 06, 2014
Not Very Comfortable
"I got this shoe in white. I wish the pattern was all over the shoe (instead of just the outside and back of the shoe) and it's not a very comfortable shoe. I blame the height of the wedge."
By: Cassykins
Location: CT
May 01, 2014
Good but not great
"Looks just like pictured. Wish they had a cushier inner (they are very hard and uncomfortable on my soles after a bit of walking) and really wish the buckles were easier to deal with (or maybe they were fashion-only and these had zippers) As it stands you have to use the buckles and they are hard to pull through and the little studs end up popping off from friction."
By: keek
August 07, 2013
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Saucony Grid Excursion TR 7 Trail Running Shoe - Womens
Sorry, this item is sold out!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Item # 277416
Liven up your workouts and hit the trails in the women's Grid Excursion 7 from Saucony! With aggressive, multi-directional lugs and Heel Grid technology, this trail shoe will take your running to the next level.
This women's running shoe is best for the neutral runner.
- Durable mesh and synthetic upper for lightweight support
- Lace-up closure
- Pull loop at heel for easy on/off
- Padded collar and tongue for comfort
- Soft fabric lining
- Removable cushioned insole
- Heel Grid technology provides impact protection
- Molded EVA foam midsole provides lightweight cushioning and shock absorption
- XT-600™ rubber outsole with aggressive lug pattern for traction and durability over all terrain
- Weight: 9.4 oz
- More colors available
- Imported
- View more Saucony
By: arkk
Location: MD
June 04, 2014
Great running shoes
"I bought these shoes from the DSW store, after trying on practically every running shoe that came in my size. They're great - solid enough to feel substantial (I don't like flimsy mesh "breathable" running shoes), and very well cushioned on the inside. So, so comfy when I run."
By: ahhhKIKI
Location: Canal Fulton, Ohio
June 03, 2014
"I had to return these because they were to narrow and I opted for the wide 8W. The bigger size was better for me for crosstraining."
By: tdm260
Location: NYC
May 20, 2014
Great Running shoe
"I bought these shoes because the last running sneakers I purchased were also Saucony and I loved them. These sneakers are great. I got them a full size up to allow room for swelling so they're roomy, but my foot's not sliding out which makes me think the sneakers run short. Width wise they're perfect. They're not too narrow and they're not too wide. I have an arch in my foot, but nothing major. The arch in Nike's tend to be too high for me and cause pain, but the arch in this sneaker is the perfect height. I like to run outside, but I've always been prone to shin splints which prevented me from doing it often, but since I switched to the Saucony brand, I haven't had much of an issue."
By: ALC14
Location: Houston, TX
May 11, 2014
"Such a great pair of shoes! Love them so much, so much better than any of my Nike's or Adida's!"
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The Audi Yankees Club provides more than 4,500 square feet of elegant indoor space perfect for any social or corporate event of up to 500 guests on a non-game day. Located in left field on the SAP Suite Level, the Audi Yankees Club offers beautiful views of the playing field through floor-to-ceiling windows. High-definition televisions throughout the space can be programmed to display a variety of custom messages for your event.
Adjacent to the Audi Yankees Club is the Budweiser Hall of Fame Lounge, an outdoor terrace with patio tables and tiered seating for up to 68 of your guests to enjoy.


text: Big Changes for Bears, Jerry Angelo Fired and Mike Martz Resigns SportsBlog.com , Chitown Bear Report on January 03 0 Chuck Rydlewski/IconSMI It was a huge day for the Chicago Bears organization. General Manager Jerry Angelo was relieved of his duties, aka fired, and Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz resigned. The news broke early this morning by the Chicago Tribune. Many Bear fans flocked to facebook and twitter ecstatic over the news. Such sites as FireJerryAngelo.Org have been in operation for years. The general manager has been the opposite of a fan favorite over the years for such blunders as sending Thomas Jones out of Chicago, signing Hurd/Barber/Williams from Dallas recently, drafting horribly, and the checked box fiasco at the NFL draft. A clear cut replacement hasn't been made clear but the organization has stated they intend to hire from outside. This means Tim Ruskell will not be replacing Jerry Angelo, thank god. Mike Martz also resigned today stating it was over "philosophical differences". This essentially means he couldn't do things how he wanted, after they were proven to not be successful, and got upset over that. Remember when the Bears were 7-3 with a healthy Jay Cutler and Cutler told Martz to "F off" in the middle of a game? The video went viral and was passed around all over the internet. This was the turning point in the season when Martz knew that his tenure in Chicago wouldn't prove to be successful. After a couple abysmal showings and Forte receiving less than 10 carries, the Bears went back to Bears football and had a balanced attack. This is the reason we were successful and 7-3, not his system. Martz also wasn't a fan favorite after we traded away Greg Olsen because of "his system" because Olsen wasn't a blocking Tight End. Well, that left us with Kellen Davis. Thanks Mike! There is a lot of change in the Bears organization right now and that is a great thing! Expect the Bears to move in the right direction. With staples like Cutler and Forte in the franchise, we can only go up from here on out with Angelo out of town. Show Comments Comments (3) Likes & Reblogs


text: Kaskaskia College invites new students to attend New Student Orientation at the Greenville Education Center. The free program is designed to introduce students to information and contacts important for a successful start of their college experience. Information about services, activities and classroom success strategies will be included. Students will be given resources they will be able to use throughout their time at KC. Students are encouraged to bring a family member with them.


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- Availablity:
- World
- Genre:
- Rhythm & Blues
- Label:
- Ace Records
- Format:
- Catalogue Id:
This product is also available in these versions:
Rockin' At The Drive In, CD (£11.50)
AS I'VE MENTIONED elsewhere in this issue of RT, we have a whole lot of Combo and Modern compilations goin' on at Ace Towers this year. As the compiler and overseer of many of these CDs (plus compilations drawing upon other labels that Ace owns outright, such as Sensation and Flip) I can say with considerable confidence that it's going to be a bumper year for all lovers of vintage West Coast black music. And what better way to get the 2004 programme under way than with a first ever CD reissue of one of the greatest instrumental rock'n'roll albums of 'em all!
What else could I be talking about but Joe Houston's immortal Rockin' At the Drive In set? Cut for Jake Porter's Combo label across several sessions in 1956 and 1957, and featuring the Wild Man Of The Tenor Sax" at his considerable wildest, the CD release of this classic album comes almost 20 years to the day after Ace's original, slightly amended vinyl issue. Down the years we have often been asked when a CDfication of CH 120 is coming out, and now it's here we hope no one will be disappointed with this even-further-expanded version.
Besides the additional 11 tracks that this CD adds to CH 120, there are several other subtle differences that will add to its overall appeal. The original vinyl featured several tracks that have already been reissued on Ace CD's - notably on our compilation Honk! Honk! Honk! (CDCHD 781) and our previous volume of Joe Houston, JH Blows Crazy! (CDCHD 772). Rather than repeat them again here, we've used good alternate takes of the same song where such things exist and other repertoire where they don't. Thus nothing you hear here has ever appeared on a Joe Houston CD before - at least, not legally - and many things have simply never appeared on anything before! As is documented in the sleevenotes (written by one T Rounce) Joe Houston cut most of his recordings on the fly, working for whoever was prepared to give him some session time without heeding such contracts as he might have signed elsewhere. He recorded as both a leader and sideman for Jake Porter pretty much throughout the 1950s, and the sides that came out under his own name were often booze-fuelled, one-or-two take masterpieces that were released as recorded, with little regard for bum notes and occasional volume surges. Jake had a bar in his home studio, and thus it was that the longer the sessions ran, the looser the participants became. This - as far as I'm concerned, anyway - is all part of their charm.
The surviving Combo tapes are not always in the greatest of shape, and some painstaking repair work has had to be undertaken in places by our friends downstairs at Sound Mastering. You will hear how spectacular the results have been when you listen to Joe's Blues especially. This was assembled from three incomplete performances of the same jam - not that you'd ever know that otherwise when you hear the six minutes of sheer L-O-U-D excitement that SML have created from what were essentially little more than surviving scraps of tape. They have also worked their magic wonderfully on the title track and the one-off rehearsal performance of Joe's Hot House that's being used in place of the master. Hats and whole heads should be doffed to the guys wherever rock'n'roll is heard and appreciated!
Rockin' At The Drive-In boasts one of the great album covers of all time, and inside that cover there's one heck of a session of instrumental west coast rock'n'roll at its greasiest. Those who can't get enough of this honkin' stuff will thrill to the knowledge that a further volume, containing the balance of Houston's Combo recordings, is already being A&R'd. In the meantime it's time to put on your dancin' shoes and lose the blues as we go Rockin' At The Drive-In with the one-and only wild man of the tenor sax blowing 'All Night Long' as only he can!
by TONY ROUNCE


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I have
Selina, Elly Mae, Noemi, Wanda
Jautya, Murray, Aleister, WoodXsxt
and 7000 clintz with some more cards I could sell for another few thousand.
I'm more of looking to see which characters I should remove or add. Any help would be appreciated
Elly Mae to Cherry
Aleister to Anakrohm/Corrina
And as a personal preference I would use Nimenistic over WoodXsxt but that's up to you.
Clover > every other Pussycats card so survivor elo
Diana n Clover if you can afford them.......
Ummm... definitely use... Lucy??!?!?
Cool Kates now posting decks.
Leela Clover Diana Lucy in PC
Aleister, Uranus, Murray, nagroth
Elly Mae to Clover
Aleister to Uranus


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People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Originally posted by Banquetto
Approximately 35 of the 80-odd characters I play across a dozen different games are female; most of the rest are male. A few are indeterminate.
I'm male.
In other news, what a fresh and interesting topic this is, I can't believe nobody has ever thought to discuss it before...
Hm data hm data hm data hm data I got you babe... I got you babe
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Originally posted by Miner-2049er
Originally posted by Valkaern
This subject has come up countless times on these forums over the last decade and has only proven that that, as always, there's a lot of different people on the internet.
This is true. However, I reckon that the number of cross-gender players has steadily increased over the years.
In some of the first games I played (SWG, FFXI) players truly seemed a little shocked if the girl was a guy in real life. Nowadays, in a game like Tera there are probably more female avatars than male. Just my opinion but I feel the gross-gender playing has become more expected and therefore accepted.
There's some truth in that: men are more tolerant of gender bending now and women have learned that if they play male characters they won't get digitally stalked nearly as much.
My recent favorite was a huge Norn male warrior I saw in Lion's Arch last night dressed in what appeared to be a pink and purple tutu...nice look
It's fantasy so have fun with it.
Only a male character. I don't have any problems with guys that play female characters, as it's really meaningless anyway, but I like to be able to identify with my character, and can't do that as a female.
Btw, although I don't have any issues with guys that play girl characters, I have to say that the excuse of "Well, if I'm going to look at a character all day, it might as well be a hot female" is about the most dumbass reason anyone can come up with. Whenever I hear an idiot say that, I just roll my eyes. If you honestly find a pixelated female preferable to look at, you need to get out of the house more.
I always play male characters.
Well, once I rolled a male elf and for all intents and purposes, it might as well have been a female character.
This female player mostly rolls female toons. But every once in a while, I roll a male.
Life is Short, Read a Book.
I play more female than male characters, but it really isn't dramatically skewed by gender.
Then again, I write professionally; I'm a professional storyteller; I do community theater, and when I was a kid, my contralto voice got me a lot of "boy" parts (I could sing tenor if it didn't go all the way down to C or people weren't fussy about tone) in youth musical theater and choir/glee/whatever.
I'm not un-feminine, but I am a good actress, and I enjoy the stretch of "playing" a male as much as I enjoy imagining playing an elf or an alien. Frankly, it is sometimes more easy for me to imagine an elvish female of a certain age (I'm 53 -- I have a son who's 19 and sometimes seems more alien than...aliens...) than a human teenage male -- but lets not go there... oh wait, I did...:)
I am proud that my males "pass." And I sometimes have fun passing as different cultures. I play SWTOR on the EU RP server, and people are invariably shocked I'm American, usually qualifying that as a compliment) -- and if they are playing with my dark-side main, a decidedly male Sith lord tank, they are often boggled that it's a 53 year old woman behind the keyboard if I bother to reveal that.
My most common reason for revealing my age and gender is, actually, to express my requirement for people to be respectful regarding women, gays, minorities, etc. in chat when I am playing with them. I will not play with jerks who can't be civil about other people, and I'm not talking about strict PC crap (although I will do some consciousness raising) but I'm talking about the really foul stuff -- what I think of as XBox Live culture, if you're familiar. It just spoils my time online. I don't need to hear parts of my anatomy being used as terms of disparagement for other people's bad habits. It grosses me out and makes me feel like trash.
You can spin it out from there. I have totally lost groups from them freaking because the tanky evil sith turns out to be their gramma. *sigh*
Proto grrl gamer geeks just wanna have fun? But not with the overly sincere dickwolf contingent, sorry...
If I make a male character then I identify with it. If I create a female character it then becomes a "character". As if I was leading it through a book/adventure.
I usually try all the male options first then if I'm dissapointed the female options usually don't dissapoint.
I am a male and play both. It just depends. I like to make characters and personas and immerse myself. Sometimes I like to identify with a male character, as if a transformed "me" is in the game world. It adds to the illusion and immersion of a virtual environment. Guild Wars 2 is like this for me. Most of my other male and female characters have personas that fit the race, class, and role they like to take.
In pvp games (it's been a long while) like Lineage, I always had at least one female character because I found that young boys are gullible and easily fooled. Not only would they try and give you items and stuff, it would seem they often assumed I was trustworthy, much to their chagrin. Thus my female characters were my PKs and took care of nasty gankers and mouthy harrassers.
I'm a munchkin.
I play whatever gives the best stats.
Originally posted by bcbully
funny for years I played all males, until I made my first chick toon. At that point I understood. It's much more ummm pleasing watching the backside of a chick toon for X levels. Especially in GW2
Do you also wear silk womens panties in RL because they are more comfy?
I play both. Male for more manly proffessions like warrior and a girl when playing mage etc.
I asked a friend once, why he is always playing with female characters. He told me: "If i have to play MMO's for 4-6 hours daily, i rather watch girls ass than dudes. I think he was quite right .
Originally posted by Mawnee
Originally posted by bcbully
funny for years I played all males, until I made my first chick toon. At that point I understood. It's much more ummm pleasing watching the backside of a chick toon for X levels. Especially in GW2
Do you also wear silk womens panties in RL because they are more comfy?
I don't know which is the saddest part of this post. The homophobic approach in life "touch a barbie doll and you turn gay" attitude or the fear that a potential cyboring target may not be of the perceived sexual orientation.
Get over it, mmorpgs are not women picking clubs, but an escape from reality. If your best bud picked an opposite sex actor as his favorite, would you slap him the sexual orientation card or would you (as a normal person would) attribute it to different taste than yours?
Bottom line, he may have a fetish for dressing or undressing his female avatar. What's your excuse for picking a male one?
I always play male characters.
But I don't judge, I pretty much assume that 80-90% of all girl toons are played by guys. Whatever floats your boat.
I'm a male and in mmo's I have never rolled a female. Ever. I prefer not to be asked if I'm a man or woman every 15 minutes. Also you gamers are more than free to do as you like but cross gender avatars annoy the heck out of me. Sorry. They just do. A lot. I won't give you any grief about it though. I never have given any male player playing another gender any kind of hard time. If I find out they're a guy in real life I'm not usually even the one that brought it up.
In other words yea, I'm highly freaking annoyed but I keep it entirely to myself. That's good enough right?
Anyways sometimes in single player RPGs I might play as a woman after beating the game two or three times playing male just to get a different experience. I admit I've enjoyed it every time I've done it. But even that is a little rare.
I'm a male and my main toons are male only. However, my "clone toons" (one who does grind for me) are all females and have names with little meaning (once got some "lover" asking if I was really female and that "lover" needed girl-friend in that MMORPG...).
Why did I create them? I need to have lots of toons to grind Turbine points in Lotro (it's pretty legal there) and I don't care how that character would look like or how his/her name would sound. it could be "Abc" or "Noname1".
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.


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Kaskaskia College Jump Start Program Expands
Kaskaskia College is currently accepting applications for the Jump Start Program for high school students for the summer and fall 2013 semesters. The Jump Start program allows high school students to receive a 50% reduction in tuition for up to 4 credit hours. This is a terrific opportunity for high school students to get a "jump start" on their college education while still in high school, and to benefit from tremendous cost savings!
Registration for the summer and fall 2013 semesters is currently taking place. High School students can obtain the Jump Start application through their high school guidance office or by contacting Amy Troutt at 618-545-3048 or
All high school students attending a high school within the Kaskaskia College district are eligible to participate in the program. Spring class offerings can be viewed by visiting the website at:
. A variety of evening, weekend, and on-line sections are available.
Students are responsible for the remaining half of the tuition costs, fees, and text books. For more information, please call Amy Troutt at 545-3048.
© 2017 Kaskaskia College - 27210 College Road - Centralia, Illinois 62801 - (618)545-3000 (800)642-0859


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Development FAQ
Merging a release back to the trunk
Example of merging the 1.5 release back to the trunk:
svn merge http://joomlacode.org/svn/joomla/development/trunk@HEAD http://joomlacode.org/svn/joomla/development/releases/1.5@HEAD /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/joomla/trunk
The arguments are svn merge A B C where you want to change A in B and put it in C.
You may like to use the --dry-run option first just to test the command. Merging may take some time. It is a good idea to use the command line to perform this. If you are using Eclipse you will not be able to run this in the background.
See http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/ch04.html for an explanation of the concepts behind branching and merging.
Breaking a Lock on a File
On occasion you may get an error message like:
svn: Commit failed (details follow): svn: PUT of '/svn/joomla/.../development/trunk/libraries/joomla/application/helper.php': 423 Locked (http://joomlacode.org)
To force unlock it remotely, navigate to the correct folder and run the following command:
svn unlock --force helper.php
See http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.2/svn.advanced.locking.html for more information on locking.


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|Posted by Harvey Berger on December 15, 2003 at 11:48:06:
I have a single story home with dual sinks in the master bath. An odor of "sewer gas" comes from one of the sinks -- only first thing in the morning and only in winter. This phenomenon has been going on for several years but because we have a short winter in Arizona I have ignored it until now. The odor is definitely not hydrogen sulfide. After running water in the sink for about a minute the odor disappears and does not reoccur until the next morning. The sink is used frquently during the day and there is always water in the trap.
I would appreciate your advice.
|Replies to this post


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By COREY BLUEMELStaff Writer
On Sunday a Huntington man, Mark Stoddard, 24, was hiking in a canyon across from the Bear Creek Campground in Huntington Canyon. His companion became alarmed when he did not return to the car well after dark, after he had been waiting four hours for Stoddard. He returned to town to seek assistance and returned to the canyon with flashlights, still unable to locate Stoddard they returned again to town. At this time, Sheriff Lamar Guymon was alerted of the missing man and he called search and rescue to come to the scene. Search and rescue teams searched the lower recesses of the canyon during the night, but could not locate the man.
A Utah Highway Patrol helicopter arrived on the scene at daylight and began scouring the canyon looking for signs of the man. After two initial sweeps, the man was not located. The man was then spotted coming down the canyon. The helicopter approached Stoddard and he gave the thumbs up signal indicating he was OK. Stoddard said he became cold and wet and it was after dark so he decided not to climb off the ledges in the dark. He waited out the night in an area protected by rocks and he built a fire and ate the food he had taken with him. He was also accompanied by his dog who aided in keeping him warm. Stoddard began walking at daylight at which time he was spotted by the helicopter. He was in good condition and had dried his clothes by the fire and slept off and on throughout the cold night. He said he never really became too cold, but he was very tired and he appeared to be in good condition.
Initially Stoddard had planned to exit the canyon on the Bear Canyon side, but deep crackling snow forced him to change his plans to avert any chance for setting off an avalanche. He then backtracked three miles at which time it became dark and he decided to hole up for the night.
Stoddard commented that he didn't really think anyone would begin searching until after daylight.
He is an experienced hiker and backcountry enthusiast.


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Kelly & Katie Ladylike Hard Form Satchel
Sorry, this item is sold out!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Item # 274373
Add a bit of elegance and grace to your wardrobe with the Kelly & Katie Ladylike Hard Form Satchel. This adorable bag has enough room for everything you need, and is a great handbag for the season.
- Woven hard form satchel with faux leather trim
- Top flap with turn lock closure
- Rolled handles with 5" drop
- Fabric lining with zip pocket
- Dimensions 11" x 6" x 7"
- Imported
By: ShoeGoddess3K
Location: Dallas
March 25, 2014
Love at first sight!
"This bag reminded me of little baskets I had when I was young, and apparently it does the same for others. I've been approached by women of all ages asking where to buy it!"
Click anywhere to close this.


text: Shoe of choice for touring pros David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro, the Raptor Ultra IV Speed takes the Lotto Raptor line to new levels of comfort and performance. This update features a slightly concave-shaped outsole called ReactiveArch that moves in unison with the foot as it strikes the ground. This results in maximum cushioning, increased stability and more energy return on impact with the ground. The shoe also possesses the Syn-Pulse cushioning system in the midsole that acts as a spring, giving you an explosive first step on aggressive movements. The outsole is made of a special durable rubber compound and is backed by a 6 month outsole durability guarantee. It also comes with two sets of laces so that you can find the look that works best for you. This comfortable and stable shoe is a great choice for elite players and weekend warriors alike.


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Plate bevellers operate at up to 10 FPM
Gullco's KBM® self-propelled plate bevelers can operate at up to 10 FPM. The bevelers use a cutter to shear the metal, helping to eliminate the HAZ and material warpage. The shearing process also eliminates the noise and sparks of grinding or flame cutting.
The bevelers produce clean machined bevels at angles of 22.5 degrees to 55 degrees on steel, stainless steel, and aluminum. They can be supplied with a hydraulic undercarriage to help give the plate a consistent root face.


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Betty Leverett, 75, Omaha, formerly of Tennessee, peacefully passed away at her daughter's home after a brief illness Feb. 7, 2013.
Betty was born on Jan. 24, 1938, the daughter of the late Billy and Leona Gately. She was loved by all who knew her and will be deeply missed.
She is survived by two sons, Chuck (Pam) Jones of Eldorado and Rod (Stacey) Jones of Norris City; daughters, Sharon Jones Smith of Norris City and Sandy Jones and family friend Pat Hipp of Omaha and Von Williams of Las Vegas, Nev.; eight grandchildren, Jessica Jones, Jill Vaughn, Josh (Jessica) Jones, all of Eldorado, Miranda Sanders, Terri Lynn Williams of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., Erin Inboden of Norris City, Danny Mc Elroy of Cincinnati, Ohio, Justin (Courtney) Jones of Norris City; nine great-grandchildren, Davin Lester, Brianna Jeffers, Jordon Jones, Jacob Vaughn, all of Eldorado; Jaydon Wells, Jacoby Jones, both of Norris City, Kiley Sanders, Gage Case, Dayton Sageser of Lake Havasu City, Ariz.; one brother; three sisters; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband Lonnie Leverett, three sisters and one brother.
Memorial service will be held at a later date.
Location, ST | website.com


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Lorin and Alice Israelsen announce the marriage of their daughter Nora Jean Israelsen to William Valdez, son of Victoria Herrera of Upland, Calif. on June 10 in Ontario, Calif.
Nora is 27 and graduated from Emery High School in 1998 and College of Eastern Utah in 2000. She is majoring in English and secondary education. She manages a home for mentally handicapped men, while finishing her requirements for a bachelors degree.
Will is 29 and grew up in Pico Rivera, Calif. He joined the Army after graduating from high school. He was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. in the 82nd Airborne. He spent eight years serving his country before leaving the Army in 2003. Will is now majoring in geology with hopes of a career in global imaging systems.
Friends and neighbors are welcome to join in celebration of their marriage at a reception on July 8 at the LDS Castle Dale Stake House on Main Street from 5-7 p.m.
Nora and William will be residing in Las Vegas, Nev. while they finish their schooling.
Curtis and Catherine Steele of Price announce the marriage of their son Jacob Steele to Amanda Alder, daughter of Janet Alder of Millville and P. L. Alder of Logan. They were married June 29 in the Logan LDS Temple. They will be honored at a garden open house on July 8 at the Steele residence.
Jacob is the grandson of George and Margaret Conover of Ferron and the late Duane and LaVern Steele of Price.
Jacob and Amanda graduated from Utah State University where they majored in exercise science pre-physical therapy.
They plan to make their home in Price later this year.
Paul and Joleen Huntington of Orangeville announce the marriage of their daughter, Ashley Ann to Chad Ross Phillips, son of Kevin and Janneke Phillips of Huntington. The couple will be married on July 8.
A reception will be held in their honor that evening from 6-8 p.m. at the Museum of the San Rafael.
Chad is a 2004 graduate of Emery High and is currently employed at Bridger Coal Mine in Wyoming. Ashley is a 2005 graduate of Emery High and a 2006 graduate of the Utah College of Massage Therapy.
The couple will make their home in Superior, Wyo.
Tony and Helen Stoiber announce the marriage of their daughter, Jody Lindstrom to Trenton LeRoy, son of Fred and Annette LeRoy on July 8.
A reception will be held in their honor for family and friends that evening from 6-8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Price.


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Today is February 27, 2017
Front Page
February 19, 2013
February 19, 2013
Garn Anderson
Garn Andrew Anderson, 87, passed away Feb. 15, 2013 in Las Vegas. He was born Oct. 29, 1925 in Richfield, to Earl Andrew and Happy June Nielson Anderson. He married Faro Simonsen, Feb. 20, 1945 in Richfield. Garn served in WWII and Korea, in the US N...
Esther E. Tombaugh Wheeler
PRICE-Esther E. Wheeler, age 92, passed away Monday, Feb. 11, 2013. Esther was born in Gridley, Kansas. on Nov. 8, 1920 to Martin and Laura Morehead Tombaugh. Married Marion W. Wheeler Jr. Jan. 17, 1946, in Tucson, Ariz. Funeral service, Friday, Feb....
Reed Bernell Halliday
HUNTINGTON - Reed B. Halliday, age 72, passed away Feb. 18, 2013 at his home. Reed was born April 17, 1940 to Willard Reed and Ida Chloe Cobbley Halliday in American Fork, Utah. He married Cleone Tree on Feb. 28, 1964 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. A...
Francisco Antonio Rendon
EAST CARBON- Francisco Antonio Rendon, age 73, passed away peacefully in Ogden, Utah on Feb. 11, 2013, after battling Alzheimer's Disease. Tony was born in Los Sauces, Colo. on Feb. 23, 1939, to Jose H. and Rosa Rendon. Tony met his wife Sylvia for t...
Dodd Nordell Wilstead
CASTLE DALE - Dodd N. Wilstead, age 71, passed away Feb. 17, 2013 at his home in Castle Dale. Dodd was born July 15, 1941 in Castle Gate, Utah to Samuel Dodd and Mary Clarissa Allred Wilstead. He married Connie Adams in Cleveland, Utah on May 26, 196...
Laurence Cha
HELPER-Laurence Cha passed away Feb. 15, 2013 at the age of 88. He was born on Jan. 19, 1925 to Michael Angelo and Mary Pavignano Cha in the coal camp of Mutual, Utah. On June 21, 1950, Laurence married his sweetheart Vera Matthews, in Price, Utah. F...
Tony Conder
MOLEN-Our loving father and longtime friend, Tony Carlisle Conder, age 69, passed away Feb. 14, 2013 at Beehive Homes in Elmo where he resided the past four years. He was born March 9, 1943 in Provo, Utah to John "Jack" Carlisle Conder and Mana Hayes...
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Astounding Biblical Breakthroughs Corroborate Cayce's Work
By Rod Martin, Jr.
I first learned of Edgar Cayce over 50 years ago. I've been hooked ever since. My late father had started reading out loud from There Is a River. This was better than television.
Half a century later, and after two successful careers, I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I "grow up." Edgar Cayce had given me a fascination for Atlantis. His readings had stirred lost memories. When finally I had started my third career as a writer, I chose to write about those memories.
Researching everything I could about human prehistory, I attempted to build the best possible back story for my novel. I reread Genesis and Edgar Cayce's readings and studied anthropology and geology. And I made several startling discoveries.
Not only did I find scientific evidence that proved an Atlantis-like destruction event had occurred right when Plato said the island empire had subsided, I also uncovered geological evidence that tells us how Atlantis was likely created and inevitably destroyed.
Athanasius Kircher's map of Atlantis, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. From Mundus Subterraneus 1669, published in Amsterdam. Source: wikipedia.org
In my thousands of pages of notes, I found dates given in Cayce's readings for two biblical events. Earlier, I had dismissed the dates as unimportant to my story. Both stood far beyond the era of my novel. One date—28,000 BC—told of Noah's Flood and the Second Upheaval of Atlantis.
The prior date—10.5 million BC—talked of an early meeting of man. Was it humanity's arrival on earth? Was this the time of Adam?
I should have known better not to be so dismissive, but everything I had learned in anthropology screamed "impossible." This date placed humanity in the middle of the Miocene Epoch, when giants roamed the earth that would've made full-grown elephants look like miniature puppies!
Later, curiosity got the best of me, and I dedicated several days to the puzzle. If these dates were true, then the Bible might have some way of confirming them. I started by reading the Bible's first few books. I had already found a knack for discerning patterns in data that had helped me confirm the possibility of Atlantis. Now, those same skills came alive as the details of the early Bible bristled with new energy. Something was here. I could feel it.
James Ussher was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He published a chronology that set the time for creation as the night before Sunday, 23 October 4004 B.C. Source: wikipedia.org
Numbers 14:34 suggested a multiplication factor. But what should I use? The early patriarchs already seemed impossibly old. How could their ages be far longer? And yet, science had already shown humanity to have been around at least 200,000 years. The old Archbishop Ussher timeline only went back to 4004 BC. Something wasn't right.
Then, I spotted Genesis 5:2. Alarms went off. It talked of Adam as "them," "male" and "female." Could the names of Genesis 5 (from Adam and Seth all the way up to Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah) be both individuals and eponymous tribes? Suddenly, any shyness about giving them far longer ages vanished.
I found my factors, and they worked far better than I had anticipated. Any student of the Bible should immediately recognize the numbers "40," "7" and "77." Why these are the right numbers and how they are used take up several chapters of my current book. The calculated date for the Flood turned out to be 27,970 BC, while the creation of Adam came in at 10,434,130 BC. Both dates were a veritable bulls-eye—each within 1% of Cayce's rounded approximations.
Rod Martin, Jr. has been a divinity student, a Hollywood artist with screen credit, and a software engineer with a bachelors degree, summa cum laude. He has co-authored, as Carl Martin, one novel with John Dalmas, Touch the Stars: Emergence (Tor Books), and has won first-place honors for his essay, "Outsiderness in the Scientific Community" (Krupnick Award) and his short story, "Toady" (Dutton Books Award). His Edge of Remembrance, a novel inspired by Cayce's work, was self-published (Tharsis Highlands). Mr. Martin now lives in the Philippines as a writer and is currently working on a non-fiction book, also inspired by Cayce's readings, The Bible's Hidden Wisdom, God's Reason for Noah's Flood, which is the subject of a crowd funding campaign at IndieGoGo.Com. You can find out more about his art, software, websites and writing at TharsisHighlands.com.


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|Yes, by implementing innovation as an end-to-end idea-to-cash process and systematizing support for problem solving.
By Vinod Baya, Bo Parker, and Christopher Wasden
"While innovation can be groundbreaking, it is more often the incremental improvements of existing technologies and methods—the sum of many small but constant changes that over time can transform the way a company or an industry does business." —Jon Bidwell, Chubb
There are lessons here that all leadership teams need to take to heart.
"While innovation can be groundbreaking, it is more often the incremental improvements of existing technologies and methods—the sum of many small but constant changes that over time can transform the way a company or an industry does business," says Jon Bidwell, chief innovation officer of Chubb, for whom the end-to-end innovation process goes from idea to marketable products.
Innovation is high on the agendas of CEOs in virtually any industry. In the past, they might have focused on growing market share to drive growth. Now, they increasingly are focusing on innovation in new products and services. (See Figure 1.)
And they're confident their innovations will succeed: 78 percent expect their development efforts to generate "significant" new revenue opportunities over the next three years. It won't be easy. But they are making changes at all levels of their organizations to make sure they can take advantage of incremental innovations, as well as breakthroughs.
As Bidwell understands, it is time to discard the stereotypes of innovation, radical or otherwise, and treat it for what it is: an enterprise business process that can and should be better understood, redesigned, improved, and measured to improve performance. The rest of this article examines how.
The combination of these two themes reveals how enterprises can recast invention4 challenges into problem-solving tasks. Thinking about the invention challenge as problem solving—and using patterns and principles that already exist—greatly simplifies the invention task and transforms it into a process of knowledge search and pattern recognition. In the transformed invention task, process orientation and information technology will play a bigger role.
This problem-solving approach typically involves four steps, listed here and illustrated in Figure 2.
Without a system or discipline, such problem solving is experienced as serendipitous or ad hoc. If an organization can discipline serendipity to make it happen more often, with more people, to yield more productive outcomes, then the organization would have higher innovation performance.
Enterprises often hire a consulting organization to tap disciplined processes and problem-solving methodologies. Some consulting organizations, such as IDEO and Jump Associates, accept the challenge of delivering the innovation for enterprises largely on an outsourcing basis. They combine techniques such as brainstorming, design thinking, and prototyping to bring discipline in their processes. Other consulting organizations, such as PwC, Doblin (a member of Monitor Group), and others, deliver services designed to change internal processes so that future innovations can be generated by the enterprise itself.
TRIZ5 is another example of a methodology that uses the principle shown in Figure 2 to systematize innovation. "What the intuitive innovator does subconsciously, TRIZ brings to the conscious level," says Peter Hanik, president of Pretium Innovation.
Hanik offers an example of how powerful this principle's search and application process can be. Ice storms have been capsizing fishing boats for centuries, despite many efforts to design boats less susceptible to flipping over after heavy ice collects on the decks. Not until a principle of energy transfer was applied to the problem did it occur to anyone that the temperature of the sea was high enough to melt the ice. It is now standard practice to pump seawater onto the decks of fishing boats to avoid capsizing in icy conditions. For a brief look at TRIZ, see the conversation with Peter Hanik in the sidebar on page 11.
PwC: Peter, what is TRIZ and how did you get interested in it?
PH: I first became involved with TRIZ in 2004. TRIZ is a systematic way of inventive problem solving based on methods that Genrich Altshuller developed in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. The basis for TRIZ is the hypothesis that there are universal principles of invention that are the basis for creative innovations. Invention is a result of applying TRIZ principles to selected problems to spark potential solutions.
My colleagues and I looked at how natural or intuitive innovators do things, and the first thing they'll do is define the problem. If you don't define the problem correctly, you obviously won't get the right answer.
Next the intuitive innovator will study the system that contains the problem to understand cause-and-effect and select areas of opportunity within the system. Then the intuitive innovator will subconsciously abstract a principle from a previous problem that they've solved or read about, and apply it to the opportunity in the system they're working on. If that triggers an idea, then it is tested as a hypothesis. And if that works, it becomes a solution, or really, an invention.
The part where TRIZ comes in is the abstraction of a principle from a previous problem. What the intuitive innovator does subconsciously, TRIZ brings to the conscious level.
PwC: What are the practical steps that TRIZ brings to consciousness?
PH: In TRIZ, you are essentially doing one of three things and all are in a sense problem solving. Either you make a useful activity better, counteract a harmful activity, or resolve a contradiction. Resolving contradictions is at the heart of TRIZ. Most problem solving is about making a compromise or tradeoff between contradicting activities. For example, if you make a mechanical part thicker you increase its strength but you also increase the weight. If we can find a way to get more strength without the extra weight penalty, we have resolved the contradiction between strength (useful) and weight (harmful).
TRIZ researchers looked across an enormous number of past inventions—in particular those described in patents—and established a core set of principles that capture the essence of most all problems facing inventors or innovators, together with a set of principles that capture the essence of solutions to those problems.
Because TRIZ abstracts problem solutions to a set of common principles, the solutions can surface from any domain. Serendipity and creativity come in through a systematic process of mapping abstract principles from TRIZ to the resources available in the system at hand.
PwC: Can software support the deployment and use of TRIZ? What can a CIO do?
PH: The real power of TRIZ is in its inventive principles. Originally there were 40 principles, and many people have worked to refine and structure these TRIZ principles. Today, TRIZ inventive principles can be applied to any area of innovation—product, services, process, or business model.
From a CIO standpoint, the TRIZ inventive principles embedded in creative problem solutions are valuable information resources that can be captured and made available throughout the organization. For example, if I've solved a manufacturing problem or developed a new product, and I have identified the principles through TRIZ that are embedded in that innovation, I can capture those principles as keywords and make them searchable in a knowledge management system. This will make it possible to reuse or combine this solution in a different problem that needs to use the same principles. The organization is thus cataloging solutions and ideas for future use in a searchable and usable way.
In addition, the most valuable innovations are often business model innovations. Business models are driven by information systems, so the CIO has a key role to play in applying TRIZ in this particular kind of innovation.
PwC: Does TRIZ apply to techniques outside of engineering and manufacturing?
PH: A lot of people are working to use TRIZ beyond just the traditional manufacturing technology applications. To give you an example, years ago our chemical company sales force consisted of regionally distributed salesmen who sold all our polymer products in their region. We had a wide variety of products, and salesmen were not being effective across our entire product portfolio.
We applied the TRIZ principle "specialization" to our sales organization. We then reorganized the sales force so that sales reps sold only certain logically related segments of our products; that is, each sales representative's work was now "specialized." Some salesmen sold only to customers who were making films, say for garbage bags or related products. That was different from salesmen selling our products to customers that made molded parts. By specializing the sales force, and therefore the salesmen, it was easier for them to develop market and technical expertise, and sales performance improved.
The TRIZ principles can be effectively used to address these kinds of problems. I've done a good bit of work applying TRIZ principles to business processes, so I think the answer is, yes, TRIZ can be used in domains other than manufacturing, and more and more people are doing it.
PwC: Can TRIZ be compared to some other management trend from the past?
PH: Six Sigma is a comparable trend that can yield insight into how TRIZ can be applied in an organization. I've used elements of what companies have done with Six Sigma as a template. In Six Sigma, we teach people at the Green Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt levels. We want everyone in the organization to have this Green Belt level of understanding, few to have Black Belt, and very few to have Master Black Belt.
A similar concept can apply to structured problem solving using TRIZ. If companies want to be more innovative as an enterprise, they need to make a similar scale of investment as they did in Six Sigma for quality.
Hessler, who has used TRIZ, says, "It frames all innovation as a search for existing solutions in different industries or contexts. In other words, your problem has already been solved and you just don't know it."
If this approach to problem solving, invention, and innovation is so powerful, so well specified, and so developed, where has it been all this time? One challenge is that most enterprises view innovative problem solving as a siloed activity, limited to the R&D and product development departments. A recent survey by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services found less than a quarter of senior management has high satisfaction with R&D outcomes and processes. (See Figure 3.) Clearly, if enterprises start to look at innovation as an end-to-end process, they could improve their innovation performance. This means marketing, product management, sales, customer support, strategy, IT, and even human resources need to incorporate creative problem solving in their daily jobs—supported by a disciplined and technologically advanced infrastructure.
Innovation is value-creating novelty. It must be new, but it must also create value for the business. "The key is to leverage our capability at all levels within the organization and to increase the speed and scope of idea generation and transformation into marketable products that result in new business value," Bidwell says. Unless an innovative idea for a product, service, or business model is carried through to the customer, it will fail to generate cash or other value for the enterprise. It is therefore a process, rather than an activity.
The rise of open collaboration at companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cisco, and General Electric Company6 has begun to create awareness of innovation as a process that starts with ideas. Many companies are making good use of their customers, suppliers, and Web-based "suggestion boxes" to broaden the source of ideas for enhancements to existing products or entirely new products.
About 40 percent of global CEOs expect the majority of innovation in the future to be co-developed with partners outside the organization, according to PwC's 14th Annual Global CEO Survey. (See Figure 4.)
In the journey of innovation, ideas—whether incremental or radical—are just the beginning and they need to move from discovery to impact on the business. Figure 5 shows this idea-to-cash life cycle as PwC constructs it. Managing a set of ideas beyond discovery through logical stage gates of incubation, acceleration, and scaling are the execution steps upon which most companies stumble.
The following summarizes the key activities in each phase:
Challenges and risks facing an innovation don't stop if their nature changes during different phases of the life cycle. All great ideas sourced in the discovery phase will encounter numerous execution challenges in all phases, or problems that need solutions, for which structured problem solving can deliver dramatically better results.
It is also important to note that only a fraction of ideas move through the full life cycle—not all ideas can overcome all challenges and risks encountered during their development. As few as one in a hundred seemingly great ideas may eventually succeed and become a commercial offering. Built into disciplined problem solving are mechanisms to drop ideas when core problems have been exhaustively examined for solutions, which should be done as early as possible in the life cycle. This approach is often referred to as a fail fast strategy, so that only the most promising ideas move forward. Organizations also learn from failure. Fast, frequent, frugal failure decreases the learning cycle time and allows organizations to come up with better ideas faster in the future.
"If you want to come up with 10 or 20 ideas or directions for your company, you need a structured approach that thoroughly scans the range of possible solutions from many different domains," Hessler observes.
An end-to-end innovation process "is important, because ultimately innovation's success is not idea generation; it's a lot of pick-and-spade work," says Patrick Sullivan, chief architect of Chubb. "I liken it to building a road. It is one thing to draw a line and say that's where we want the road to be. It's another thing to get all the equipment and people, blast the passes through the mountains, level all the stuff out, grade it, surface it, and everything else. Organizations fall down in this, because the execution is really hard."
Enterprises should treat innovation as an end-to-end process from idea to cash, and each problem faced in this process as an opportunity to invent a solution that moves the process forward. In many cases, the problem/invention challenge identifies and clarifies the real opportunities for sustainable competitive advantage.
If innovation has been so important, why hasn't it been addressed as an end-to-end process to be optimized before now?
The history of process improvements, particularly those associated with the use of IT to implement best practices and to establish managed, end-to-end processes, starts with activities focused on managing behavior to common standards. Behavior-dominated business processes are primarily activities that require limited thinking, problem solving, or creativity. Some examples include accounting for a purchase, keeping track of how employees spend their time, and noting the details of an item being put into inventory. These are detailed, data-capture-oriented activities.
Over time, the focus of enterprise performance improvements grew to include activities that require more thinking, more knowledge, and direct support to enable staff to reach more informed conclusions. One example is the establishment of enterprise-wide standards and processes for measuring employee performance, providing coaching, and deciding compensation and promotions. Many IT vendors now offer applications that introduce end-to-end management of the performance appraisal process while those who know and work with the staff retain the role of evaluation and assessment.
The trend is clear. As Figure 6 shows, the target of enterprise performance improvements to end-to-end processes is steadily moving in the direction of more thinking. Innovation has been a challenge for the enterprise, in part, because it requires far more thinking, analyzing, knowledge leverage, and creativity, with much less scripted behavior. Now, enterprise applications are beginning to deliver more subtle support for semantically rich business activities such as idea management, problem solving, and invention—all keys to successful innovation. "Innovation is a social activity, and until software became social, it was impossible to really try and automate the innovation process," says Matthew Greeley, CEO of Brightidea.
In part because of its high requirement for analysis, creativity, and social interaction, innovation has not been seen as a broadly connected collection of enterprise activities subject to process discipline or re-invention. Just as beliefs about performance management evolved and are now included in human capital management (HCM) applications, innovation increasingly is understood as being more than creative insight occurring at unpredictable times from inspired individuals.
The changes companies need to make to their siloed approaches to innovation may be jarring to some. But enterprise-wide transformation always ruffles feathers and faces initial resistance. That's why the best organizations plot a collaborative, strategic program of change to maximize their chances of success.
Because enterprise transformations have occurred in the past, pattern matching suggests ways to succeed in the innovation domain. For example, when organizations transform siloed, disconnected, suboptimal processes into seamless, responsive, and efficient end-to-end enterprise processes, they focus on four deliverables: common nomenclatures, digitization of interfaces, a technology-enabled new process, and continuous monitoring and improvement. The article, "The strategic CIO's new role in innovation," on page 44 explores these in more depth.
What keeps good ideas from moving to cash and bad ideas from dying a quick death? It depends on how the enterprise executes on the idea.
Developing a good understanding of the end-to-end process shown in Figure 5 is a key first step. To jump from discovery to scaling without going through incubation and acceleration results in suboptimal outcomes. It is like trying to go from infancy to adulthood while bypassing childhood and adolescence. You're not ready for it. Managing ideas to cash is also fraught with other challenges. The biggest factors in poor innovation execution within the life cycle include the following:
"Innovation is a social activity, and until software became social, it was impossible to really try and automate the innovation process." —Matthew Greeley of Brightidea
Any serious effort to transform enterprise innovation must address all of these challenges. The effort must introduce meaningful metrics and adopt a continuous improvement ethic. The good news is that idea management systems are now mature enterprise applications capable of addressing the key life-cycle challenges of idea selection, idea management and handoff, and innovation metrics. (See the article, "Powering the innovation life cycle," on page 26.)
Applications are becoming available that help manage the complexity and learning issues associated with structured problem solving. They do this by addressing the two biggest mental challenges facing anyone trying to adopt structured problem solving:
Applications that support structured problem solving can also be understood as digital interfaces in a business process that today is mostly analog or human based. As problems are encountered and solved, by your enterprise or others, the flow of knowledge is added to the palette of potential solutions available to the enterprise digitally. No people need to assess, classify, or otherwise intervene.
Today, structured innovation methods and the software that supports them typically remain isolated in R&D. Yet enterprises have awakened to the need to seek ideas not just from staff in product design and engineering but also those in customer-facing, manufacturing process, business strategy, and partner management functions. The challenge has been that staff outside R&D aren't engaged with problem solving and innovation frequently enough to become adept at the methods or software. And they typically don't have the time to work on these problems, which require close attention.
Innovation is not just an R&D issue. Innovation should be in everyone's DNA in the enterprise. "What you do is simply create the knowledge base. You have the tools in place so that this [innovation] simply becomes the set of ethics, practices, and beliefs that are fundamental to as many people in the organization as possible, and they simply think and act that way," suggests Bidwell.
The current generation of enterprise applications designed to enhance innovation through the support of structured problem solving is just beginning to capture the attention of business units outside R&D. (See Figure 7.) PwC believes these products are already being enhanced with thoughtful redesigns that bring most of their value to a broader range of enterprise problem solvers and idea generators in a more compelling, accessible interface.
Extending these methods and capabilities throughout the organization is imperative. Even after a brilliant idea is identified, it often faces many conceptual, engineering, market development, distribution, and customer acceptance challenges that demand creative problem solving. In short, the structured innovation approach can contribute beyond the discovery phase. Indeed, it is crucial that innovation also be applied to the incubation, acceleration, and scaling phases of new product development.
In other enterprise contexts, such as human capital management, thoughtful activities can be enhanced by the right software design and underlying technologies. As this happens, the highest performing, most innovative enterprises will be those that have brought their innovation and problem-solving worlds together as part of a full life-cycle, end-to-end, managed process.


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|Posted by e-plumber on December 26, 2003 at 14:12:39:
|In response to Re: Plumming Noise
: Recently, over several weeks we have been hearing the water run through the pipes in the house. We have a high ranch with baseboard heating. The noise is not the poping that I read some people are having trouble with but rather the water running through the pipes throughtout the house. We have been here over 10 years and have never heard this before now. Any idea what could be causing this to suddenly happen and what would you recommend as a solution?
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|There are none.


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Jessica Simpson Carri Platform Pump
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Basic black
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By By PATSY STODDARDEditor
The Utah Army National Guard is in Emery County for training purposes this week. They are stationed at the Millsite State Park. They began convoying into the area on June 6 and 7 to set up their headquarters at Millsite.
Capt. Jeremy Tannahill, a former Ferron resident and graduate of Emery High, was instrumental in suggesting Emery County as a great place for training.
Training will take on many facets in the week the guard is in the county. There will be 200 soldiers attending the training. Tannahill said, "We will have survival training and escape training. As air crews in enemy territory, there are situations where you might be shot down in enemy territory or even experience mechanical trouble with your helicopter. We will be training our people to know how to react in these situations and how to stay alive. We will teach them to evade capture and how to resist interrogation. We will be working closely with the local law enforcement agencies in Emery and Carbon counties. We will be doing dual training where we act as the bad guys and try to capture their personnel and they will act as the bad guys and try to capture our people.
"We will also be doing search and rescue training out on the San Rafael Swell, we will use the Medivac to transport mock injured people. We will be doing simulated life flight training. This is going to be one of our best annual trainings. This kind of training is great for us. Things have really worked out well in being able to come to Ferron. We have had so much cooperation. We are a self-sustaining company made up of 200 people.
"Our company is broken down by letters and each division serves its own purpose for instance the D company, the Delta company takes care of the maintenance of the aircraft. They have the ability to fix any problem out in the field. The E company is the support company, they perform general maintenance and include the cooks, carpenters and they do water purification. We have a set-up staff and medics. The company is meant to be self-supporting.
"Our accommodations will be pretty basic, there are showers at the Millsite state park, that can be used. But we want our people to learn to be rough. We have to try to be tough, when we actually go into war, things are not easy. This training will not be easy. There will be survivor training. We expect they will spend one day in fox holes to evade capture. We will be pushing ourselves harder. I am in charge of this training and I want it to be challenging," said Capt. Tannahill.
Other aspects of the soldiers visit will include military helicopter orientation for the local law enforcement, emergency medical services and search and rescue training. A community day in Ferron. A search for lost hunters in the upper Joe's Valley area. Mock traffic accident near Emery High, mock 4-wheeler accident and lost hikers and a search for a lost child.


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Bills pick up fifth-year option on Dareus
by Joe Buscaglia
posted Apr 25 2014 6:48PM
When it comes to getting an extended look with Pro Bowl talent for a manageable cost, the decision for the Buffalo Bills was easy with defensive tackle and former third overall pick Marcell Dareus. The team had until May 3 to decide to use their fifth-year option on Dareus, and they announced on Friday that they will be exercising that option.
Dareus is heading into his fourth season in the league, and as a top 10 selection in the 2011 draft, will be due the same amount in 2015 as the transition tag for defensive tackles in the 2014 season. If on the roster in the new league year, Dareus will be owed $8.060 million in 2015.
Although he was reprimanded twice for tardiness by head coach Doug Marrone, Dareus had his most productive and consistent season by leaps and bounds. The 24-year old had a career high 71 tackles, 7.5 sacks and forced the first fumble of his career in 14 starts.
Dareus pairs with veteran Kyle Williams as one of the most talented and productive defensive tackle duos in the league. With the option year picked up, he is now set to become an unrestricted free agent in March of 2016 barring any unforseen circumstances.
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By MIKE BARDON, VernalPAUL JENSEN, FerronBILL DELLOS, OrangevilleKAREN DELLOS, OrangevilleEVELYN HUNTSMAN, Ferron
Dear Editor,
Jim Matheson is a likeable person with a winning personality. He has a website, www.mathesonforcongress.com which states he takes a common sense, bipartisan approach to representing Utah's interests in Congress. His voting record indicates the interests he represents in Congress are not bipartisan but very liberal. In our opinion he represents many of the extreme interest groups in Utah and in the rest of the country that do not hold to the family values and multi-use of the land we are caretakers of here.
An example of this is recorded in the Deseret News on Feb. 27 and on Feb. 29. In the first article, Matheson came down first on the side of liberal democrats by proposing a bill that would not give rights to the unborn. After it failed, he then voted with the majority on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The point is that his first inclination as in similar bills in 2001 is to side with the pro-abortion crowd against the rights of the unborn. It is still not clear whether he really believes one or two victims are hurt when a pregnant woman is attacked.
In the second article, for perhaps a legitimate reason, he failed to vote in the Utah Democratic Primary. At this point he still has not endorsed any of the remaining candidates. It will be interesting as a super delegate from Utah to the Democratic National Convention this summer if he supports John Kerry, the leading candidate. It will even be more interesting to see if Matheson supports Kerry if he then becomes the official candidate for the Democratic Party. Why will it be interesting? Because John Kerry represents the extremist liberal wing of the Democrat Party. Kerry also has the most liberal voting record in Congress.
Finally, in representing Utah's interests in Congress it is clear that Matheson isn't including rural Utah where we live. Though he says he is for wise use of our natural resources, he sides in Congress with the environmental extremist crowd on many issues.
A great example of this is the way Matheson handled the appropriation bill for RS-2477, which involves the roads in the desert. Congressman Udall stated he wanted to stop funding for these roads. The desert roads are very important to rural areas. The Emery County Commissioners and commissioners from nine counties wrote letters to Matheson urging him to support the commissioners. Matheson would not talk with or acknowledge them. The commissioners were only able to talk with his staff. Instead, Matheson made an amendment for the B roads. B roads are what we already have which are mostly oiled and improved roads. He didn't do anything for the rural counties but to make the appearance that he had.
It is time for a change. Someone with integrity that will truly represent Utah's interests in Congress is needed. Someone who really cares about the concerns of rural Utah and wise multi-use of our land and environment is needed. Someone who really represents the pro-family values of most Utahns is needed.


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When I saw the updated opening,i`m going crazy all over.
I thought it was great before, but now it's PERFECT.
Anyway, pretty good episode.
Franky's entrance was funny, although the awkward silence went on a little bit too long.
Chopper's stupidity is now more cuter in the anime.
Plus, Sanji and Zoro's manly flames of epic rivalry was awesome!