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Updated on 19 April 2013
Ms Faye Sumner, CEO, Medical Technology Industry Association of New Zealand (MTANZ), New Zealand
Medical Technology Industry Association of New Zealand (MTANZ) represents manufacturers and suppliers of medical technology in New Zealand, which are used in the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and management of disease and disability. MTANZ, which was first established in 1979, has continued to represent the medical technology industry at the highest level with government and the healthcare sector. MTANZ promotes policies for a legal, regulatory and economic environment to advance access to innovative medical technologies.
Ms Faye Sumner, CEO, Medical Technology Industry Association of New Zealand (MTANZ), New Zealand, speaks about the major developments and activities of the association over the past two years. Excerpts from the interview:
What are the major focus areas of MTANZ? What is the total number of members and what is the eligibility to become a member?
Advocacy for establishing a registration process for devices being placed on the NZ market and engaged with the development of public procurement policy is the main focus area of MTANZ. We have a total of 112 member companies in our association.
To become a member, the organization should consist of those persons which are engaged in the trade of importing, manufacturing and/or supplying surgical and/or diagnostic and/or medical and/or dental products in New Zealand and elsewhere in the world or should be involved in research into and/or development of such surgical and/or diagnostic and/or medical and/or dental products. Also organizations that have sufficient interest in such matters as aforesaid to warrant admission to membership of the MTANZ society and as may from time to time can be admitted to membership.
What is the number of MNCs and domestic companies in the industry? How many new domestic companies have been formed in the last two years?
The ratio of the number of MNC and importing / distributor NZ domestic companies is about 50/50. No new companies have been formed in last two years that are known about by MTANZ. Furthermore, NZ has a growing manufacturing/export medtech sector of 60 companies.
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Great Price on great set 1/3/2015Dave from Hancock, MA
Great set at a great price. Always loved Indiana Jones but never had on Bluray. Now we have all 4 and for less than 30 bucks. Good deal. Product arrived very quickly and was not damaged in transport. My kids love this series too so this is a win win for all of us.
The classic Indiana Jones 12/24/2014
Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade are among the best Indiana Jones out there.
great 12/12/2014
Awesome sauce
Indiana jones DVDs great gift idea 11/24/2014Howie from Defiance ohio
Great movies that the entire family can enjoy for years to come!
all the Indy you can handle 11/19/2014
what's not to love?
Fun Fun Fun 11/17/2014John from Rock Hill, SC
The first Indiana Jones was a milestone movie and this compilation only rides on the (included) original's coattails. Save some bucks and buy the first one: Temple of Doom.
Excellent Purchase for Collector 6/20/2014Mike from Tallahassee. Florida
Excellent price for the product. I always wanted the complete set on BluRay. This is a MUST for any collector. It's great to be able to watch this on a rainy day. I've seen better packaging (non-plastic, cardboard), but for me it will work fine.
I'm very happy 5/28/2014Stan from New York City
Blue ray is perfect I love the 5 discs
Great series 5/27/2014
The original 3 are great series.
Best presentation of the classic films yet 12/24/2013postulio from New York, New York
You know these films so you don't need me to come around telling you how awesome (or not) they are. I will however say that this is the best presentation of them yet. Each film looks amazing in 1080p HD with the soundtrack being positively skin tingling. Add in the massive list of extras and you have a must own bundle for every fan. Can't go wrong with this one. A+
Great Movies 12/17/2013
I love these movies and really enjoy the time spent on the Bluray package.
All Set for a cold winter night 12/16/2013Tim from Junction City, OR
Just got my copy of the Indiana Jones Blu-Ray version of the 4 movies. These will be enjoyed for many years by our family, especially the grandchildren.
Great movies 11/30/2013
The Complete Adventures" is what every fan of the archaeologist adventurer has been waiting for Blu ray release. It features every movie in beautiful high definition with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" getting the special restoration treatment. The movie looks beautiful both at home and on the big-screen.
Great movies 9/19/2013ED2009TX from San Antonio, Texas
I have the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in VHS. I wanted the four movies in Blu-ray. This is a great set for under $50. The only thing I noticed is that the first 3 movies look grainy compared to the 4th movie. It is to be expected since the first 3 movies are older. Anyway, I think this is still a great buy.
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Kevin Ross Talks About Lion Fight 9 With LiverKick
- Written by Dave Walsh
The ability to overcome adversity is what can make or break a fighter and take them from being just a fighter to a legend. In the case of American Muay Thai fighter Kevin Ross, the adversity has never been his skill, abilities or drive, but instead an ACL injury that he suffered last year. He spent months rehabbing it after surgery and everything was built up for his comeback fight this January at Lion Fight 8. We spoke with Kevin back then about his comeback trail as well as the details of what he goes through in his personal life, what actually makes Kevin Ross tick and we were all treated to seeing Kevin's successful comeback against Chris Kwiatowski.
It was the first step of many for Ross after coming back from an injury that would have stopped most fighters in the prime of their career and this Friday, live on AXS TV, Ross looks to once again enter the ring and take on a very game opponent in the UK's Bernie Mendietta. Part of his last fight was not knowing exactly what Chris would bring to the table, and in the case of Mendietta he expects the same.
"I think that I know less about him than I did Chris," he joked. "I've just really seen clips at this point, where with Chris I had at least seen a full fight or two. I know that he's a tough guy, though, I know that he likes to brawl, so I know what I'm in for."
Continue Reading...
Ross is one of the few modern Western fighters who has jumped right into the deep end in the past with some of Thailand's best. His "home" in Thailand is the Sitmonchai Gym, which served as a kicking off point for Ross's training camp for this fight, but it served to be a remnant of his painful injury from last year just as well.
"Yeah, I went back to Thailand and trained at Sitmonchai," he stated, before continuing. "But you know, it wasn't really planned or anything. I had this plane ticket to Thailand from last year that I didn't get to use because of my injury and all. So I had this plane ticket that was worth $1,300 and it was about to expire, so I had to use it now. I did my first two weeks of my training camp out there, which was a good way to start things out."
It is also no secret that Ross has been looking to fight in Kickboxing fights as well, with a contract signed with Glory. There was a false start involved with Glory with them announcing him as a participant in an upcoming May tournament, only for them to retract it right after. The story behind it is quite fascinating and shows how differently the fight game can work overseas for some fighters.
"Well, they never talked to me about it," he laughed, remembering back to the day that it was announced. "I had people congratulating me and telling me that they were going to book tickets to Japan to see me fight over there and I had no idea what was going on. I have a contract with Lion Fight and a fight scheduled in May for them, so my manager got on the phone with them to explain that they had to work around that contract, you know, work together. I think that they understand now, but we still don't have anything officially planned yet."
As for that fight in May with Lion Fight, Ross was blunt with who he wanted to fight and who they were working on getting for him; "Matt Embree," he said. Matt Embree, the Muay Thai standout from Canada, also known as one of the best in North America. It makes for a great matchup between the two, but don't look for it just yet. "Nothing is signed yet," he cautioned. "It's still in the works, but that is the plan for right now."
This would be his third fight in five months, which is a daunting task for any fighter, never mind one coming back from such a debilitating injury, but Ross seemed ready to go. "I've tried planning vacations before and I just get bored," he said. "This next fight gives me 10 weeks so I might take a week or two off from the gym," he joked. "But I took a month off once -- I forced myself to, actually -- and when I got back to the gym just everything hurt more, everything was a challenge."
There is something unique about fighting in Lion Fight for Kevin and that is that the promotion is also home to many of his friends and quasi-teammates from Can't Stop Crazy. This upcoming card features Tiffany Van Soest as well as his good friend Joe Schilling in fights and one has to wonder what kind of impact it has on a fighter to have friends competing on the same card.
"It's definitely not weird," he laughed. "It's really kind of cool as we can all pump each other up and it's easy to get excited because you have friends competing on the same card. It can be tough if one of them loses, though, or gets hurt. You know, it is a lot easier if you fight first and then the pressure is off and you can just watch them."
When we last talked with Kevin, we talked about how he has come to a role of prominence in American Muay Thai and how there are people that look up to him and look to him to be America's great muay thai hope and with him fighting on AXS TV now, it seems like it has only gotten bigger.
"Oh yeah, I've definitely noticed a change," he noted. "It's on a national network and, you know, one that people actually get. This isn't ESPN 8 or something like that, this is a network that most people get. It isn't global or anything, but people in the United States are seeing these fights and it is becoming a big deal."
His role as America's muay thai hero has also allowed him to help out and give back, as he has recently been the face of K-Hero's FIGHT CANCER campaign. Brent Magnussen of K-Hero lost his mother to cancer and decided to use the K-Hero brand to help give back to the community and to raise money, choosing his friend Kevin Ross to help out. "I've known Brent for a while, trained with him and everything. So he asked me and this was a good cause and he's a good friend. He said that he'd sponsor me, make my walkout shirts and everything, but I'd do it even if they weren't sponsoring me, either. I like to give back."
Ross fights on the same weekend that NIck Diaz gets his shot against GSP, with Nick Diaz known to do part of his training camps down at CSA Gym where Kevin calls his home. It was too hard to resist asking Kevin about Nick. "Nick?" He laughed, the inflection in his voice changing. "You want to know about Nick? Oh man. You know, he's a great guy, not at all what people make him out to be. He's a lot like Joe [Schilling] where people see what they want to see, they see this badboy and whatever, but Nick is a great guy. He's super respectful. He actually called me 'sir' for the longest time, which just blew my mind. Nick is just an easy-going guy, real easy to like and he likes most people. Well, unless he doesn't like you and then you'll know, he let's you know right away that he doesn't like you. He's a great guy and a great fighter."
Ross steps into the ring for the second time since his injury last year this Friday at Lion Fight 9 in Las Vegas. The fight will air live on AXS TV at 10pm Eastern Time and as Ross noted to us, the card is just absolutely stacked full of great fights. So much so that he couldn't pick which fight he wanted to watch the most. It is that good.
Header image by Galen Okazaki of West Coast Muay Thai.


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Web Stories
Map shows campus polling stations
Posted October 22, 2010; 05:42 p.m.
Residents of the Princeton University campus can find the location of their polling stations for Election Day through an online chart and map.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Made available by the Office of Community and Regional Affairs and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the documents show the three Princeton Borough districts and two Princeton Township districts that include the campus, as well as the location of the polling stations in each.
Those who live on campus and are registered to vote in Princeton must vote at the polling station that corresponds to the district in which they now live. Those who have not changed their voter registration address must go to the polling place that corresponds with their new address and vote by provisional (paper) ballot. All students should bring their Princeton University ID card for identification.


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OPERATOR: Excuse me everyone. We now have all of our speakers in conference. Please be aware that each of your lines are in listen-only mode. At the conclusion of today's presentation, we will open the floor for questions. At that time, instructions will be given as to the procedure to follow if you would like to ask a question.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gideon Rose. Mr. Rose, you may begin.
ROSE: Hi, everybody. And welcome to another Foreign Affairs conference call. We have the great pleasure today and privilege of hearing from Steve Simon and Barak Mendelsohn, who have done some excellent writing on this recently and who really know what they're talking about. I'm Gideon Rose, Editor of Foreign Affairs, and we're really delighted to have you guys with us.
So, let me start by introducing them very, very briefly. So I -- I first met Steve 20 years ago when we were both peons in the Clinton NSE (ph) staff, although he was a higher ranking peon.
And one of the things that was really notable was the fact that by the end of the 90's, he was running up and down the halls with his hair on fire, screaming about Al Qaeda. And so those of us who did regional topics were a little bit pooh-poohing this kind of transnational terrorist threat, thinking it was just the terrorist guys, or the counter terrorist guys pushing their brief.
And then, of course, 9/11 happened, and Steve's impressions turned out to be absolutely correct. And ever since then, I've taken what he's had to say on terrorism incredibly seriously.
And Barak has been doing some wonderful writing recently about ISIS and what's going on in the region and the Jihadist movement. So we're really pleased to have them.
So let me start by asking the two of them a very straightforward question. Earlier this week it seemed like we were approaching like -- we were replaying April 1975 with the Saigon falling and the U.S. about to be shipping out in helicopters out from the embassy roof. Now things seem to have stabilized a little bit. ISIS has advanced -- or Isil advance seems to be blocked or at least stalling. Are we in immediate crisis right now or has things stabilized a little bit from earlier in the week? And I'll throw it open to both of you.
SIMON: Look, I think the surge -- that is to say, the ISIS surge did surprise and it took, I think a relatively short while, you know, a measurable period of time of policy makers to really comprehend what was going on and so that ultimately conclude that, although there was an ongoing political crisis in Iraq, and a very dangerous, I think, advance by -- by Jihadists in Iraq, essentially capitalizing on the ongoing political crisis, that it was containable. And once they sort of reached that conclusion, they put together the package that the president -- President Obama announced yesterday, which, you know, under the circumstances, is a fairly reasonable and prudent response to what's happening.
MENDELSOHN: Well, I believe that we're still in crisis mode and if you live outside of Baghdad, crisis is definitely very significant. But there were always limitations to ISIS' power. And it stormed through the North and managed to surprise almost everybody. But it was the easy part of the plan.
I think that once you get close to Baghdad, theft (ph) becomes much more complicated. They took over such great amount of territory, it becomes harder to defend. Baghdad is a much more difficult target. They no longer have the same element of surprise as they did in -- in Mosul. And at this point, focusing on consolidating the victories. They're trying to take small towns in the area, trying to gain control over oil facility.
And of course, the other side is not sitting on it's hands now. And so it was bound to get to the point where things are starting to slow down. There was never going to be an immediate collapse of all the front in Baghdad.
ROSE: Is there any chance that the ISIS surge will fade away or there will be a sort of government surge back. Will -- is there any chance that they can be dislodged as quickly as they arrived?
SIMON: Well, dislodged from where is the question. I mean, they're deeply rooted in Western Iraq, first of all. Secondly, they do enjoy safe haven of sorts on the other side of the rather blurred border between Iraq and Syria. So, just on account of those two factors alone, I'd say, well, you know, kind of hard to root out entirely, which is why I -- I used the term a second ago, you know, to contain them really.
I think that's probably the immediate objective, that is, to push them back. Some of the locations (ph) that they have occupied and they try to contain them -- I, you know, it's been very difficult for the Iraqi army thus far to do this. And it's well to remember that counter insurgency operations have been going on there for several years at this point.
They haven't been prosecuted, I think, especially skillfully. But, the task was difficult precisely because, you know, this is not entirely some sort of, you know, foreign implant, you know, some alien presence from another planet. They are, you know, they are rooted in, you know, a deeply aggrieved and alienated population in that part of Iraq.
So anyway, difficult to -- to extirpate. But you know, the Iraqi army is quite large. They're about 900,000 men in the Iraqi armed forced. Not all of them, of course, not all of the formations equal in their -- in their capacities.
But there are (inaudible) units. They've got vastly superior firepower to what ISIS can generate, and you know, they've got some powerful friends who have a strong interest in what happens and those are the United States and Iran. So, you know, the government has some -- some assets with which to pull back that are not, you know, insignificant
ROSE: So, Barak. Are we looking to an ongoing defacto partition for the foreseeable future in which they won't go -- the ISIS types (ph) won't go forward to Baghdad, but they -- in the South, or to Kurdistan, but they also can't really be pushed out of the Sunistan areas that they currently control?
MENDELSOHN: It's going to be hard to push them back. To remember they've been in Fallujah and the Ramadi since the beginning of the year and Iraqi operations didn't succeed in -- in dislodging them. They have support from other Sunni groups and they have the support of Sunni population and now they have a lot more power than they had a few months ago.
At the same time, the Shiite side, or the Iraqi government, now has greater power as well. With the militias, some of them are trained, very capable fighters that are coming back from Syria and then you have the Iranian -- the Iranian revolutionary guard forces that support the Iraqi -- the Iraqi military.
So I think that both sides are now stronger than they were two weeks ago, but that seems like a recipe for some kind of stalemate I won't be surprised if there won't be a counter-attack and that the government will be able to take part of the -- to pull -- to capture some of the gains that -- that ISIS made. But it cannot take the whole area.
And even if it managed to take some area that is heavily dominated by Sunnis, it will find itself then having to deal with an insurgency again. And there is nothing to suggest that the Iraqi military, even with that support is so capable that they can handle that. So I do expect that we're going to have some kind of defacto partition for a while at least, and continue the hostility but not necessarily any major breakthrough for any side.
ROSE: Okay. So let's take a little bit of a step back and ask how we got here. You know, various things have been put forward as the causes and triggers, Maliki sectarianism, the crisis in Syria, the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the lack of a U.S. presence, the enduring sectarian hatreds of the region in Iraq in particular. Which of those thing, or any others, do you guys see as the real causes of what's happened this last week?
SIMON: Well, look. I think your list was fairly comprehensive and putting them in some kind of priority order would be a little tricky in part because, you know, they're inter-locking and they have reciprocal affects. So, I think they're, you know, those factors are difficult to disentangle.
The one, you know, perhaps one or two things I would add as, you know, exacerbating factors, or accelerants, are -- are -- are these. First, it is true to be sure that, you know, Maliki has taken a sectarian approach to governing and it's had an alienating effect on the Sunnis. The Sunnis have not had an equal share of the pie. And in fact, this sort of sectarian -- this sort of authoritarianism has played into his relationship with other Shiite parties within -- within Iraq itself. So, you know, he's -- he's pure as the driven slush, you know, as they say.
But you know, the thing is that the Sunnis are not entirely guilt free here. I think they bear, you know, some culpability as well for the way in which Iraqi politics have played out. I think, you know from the outset, looking back to the Sunni refusal to participate in those first parliamentary elections, you know, they've had their own agenda. And that agenda has been to show that these uppity Shiites are not capable of ruling Iraq. That they can't do it.
And, you know, that's led them to, you know, they're own tendency to make life complicated for Maliki. So, you know, I'm just I guess making the point here, you know, it takes two to tango and that's what's happened here.
The other factor really is that Iraq's gulf neighbors have taken the side of Sunnis, not surprisingly. In Iraq, they've supported them and they have, I think, for deliberate instrumental reasons, emphasized the sectarian dimension of this Iraqi political crisis. And in so doing had the perhaps the unintended effect of reinforcing Shia reluctance to incorporate Sunnis into the Iraqi politi and in fact reinforced Shia fears of Sunni irredentism.
So, you know, two factors to add to the very good list that you've already put forward.
ROSE: Let me just ask one direct question. Is there any substance to the charge that the Obama administration could have, if it tried harder, managed to leave some residual U.S. -- significant residual U.S. presence there? And if they had managed to do that, would that have helped contain this and so we wouldn't have gotten to this point?
SIMON: I think not.
ROSE: Wait, not for both?
SIMON: Well, I -- I -- think, look. You know, Obama could have taken a page out of Abraham Lincoln's book when he jailed the entire Maryland State Legislature when it was going to vote to -- to secede from the Union. In this case, the U.S. would have had to go in and arrest the entire Iraqi parliament, which as the key obstacle to the status of forces agreement that would have been indispensable to the continuing presence of a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
You know, my recollection is that that the administration tried very hard. They put a lot of pressure on Maliki and they worked parliamentarians pretty hard to make the case. But you know, the think is the United States' occupation of Iraq didn't necessarily make friends of the Iraqi people.
And, you know, if you wanted votes in those parliamentary elections, you couldn't seen to be acceding to American wishes and facilitating the continued presence of Americans in Iraq, particularly by giving them -- by giving the Americans a (inaudible) would have been seen to any excesses that they might commit.
ROSE: Okay. So, well let's get to the current situation and what if anything can or should be done about it. Barak, where do you see things going from here? And is there any constructive role that the United States should play, and if so, what?
MENDELSOHN: The main way to make progress from here is for there to be a change within the Sunni community. That's the prerequisite for any kind of success. And it's going to be hard to get that, unless you manage to convene the other actor -- the other Sunni actor, the non-ISIS actors, that they can win against ISIS and that they will be safe, and that they're going to be rewarded accordingly.
And I just don't see the conditions -- these conditions -- that these conditions are going to be met. They don't trust the Shiites, probably for good reasons And the U.S. can't offer them anything that is credible. The gulf countries are probably reluctant in their relationships with the Shiites is quite weak. And that's going to make it very -- with the shared government in Baghdad, and so that's going to make it harder for them to deliver.
The only way that something like that could work is if you had a good stronger relationship between -- or agreement between Iran and the gulf countries that will allow them to push each one -- push it's own -- the groups that are closer to them. Iran exerting their influence on the government and the Saudis exerting their influence on other Sunni actors.
There needs to be eventually, willingness from the sides on the ground -- the actors on the ground in Iraq to make a compromise. And I'm not sure that they reached that point that they see that the cost they're going to pay from continuing on this path of escalation is going to be much higher than if they would try to come up with some kind of solutions, when it's clear that that solution will require shedding blood. It's going to require going after ISIS, because ISIS is not just going to pull back.
ROSE: So, you know, when James Baker came to similar conclusions about the fate of the peace process back in, you know, two and a half decades ago between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and he sort of saw their -- what he saw as their unwillingness to make the compromises necessary to move forward, he famously got all fed up and said, "Look. Here's the White House switchboard phone number. Call me when you're ready to talk, because until then we're not going to be basically playing a very active role."
Is that essentially what I hear you saying the United States should do? Which is, if you guys -- we can't want it more than you, as we always say in the Middle East. So if you don't want it on the ground in Iraq, we can't really play a role here?
MENDELSOHN: I believe so. I'm just not sure that either of those sides actually believed the U.S. -- if they do call that switchboard, that the U.S. can actually be a very helpful actor, seeing as the U.S. lost lots of credibility and lots lots of good will in the region, that it may not be the best actor to mediate between the sides even when they are ready to move ahead.
ROSE: Who is the other -- what -- what other actor has more credibility than the U.S.?
MENDELSOHN: Probably almost any other actor at this point. I think the solution must be regional and there could be some incentive from the international community. But the U.S. involvement must come at a later stage and it's unlikely to -- it probably should be in a low profile.
ROSE: Wow. Steve, do you agree with that?
SIMON: Well, you know, I agree with some of the analysis. I think it's -- it's shrewd. I don't agree that the United States is completely without influence. I think the missing piece from Barak's assessment was the counter-terrorist imperative -- the counter-terrorist imperative that's at work for the U.S. in this situation, which will necessitate the continuing involvement of the United States on a broad front in Iraqi politics. Now -- sorry about that.
How effective it's going to be remains somewhat unclear. If the U.S. is going to be dealing with the counter terrorism issue by deploying advisers to Iraq and doing intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions, setting up drone operations, all that kind of stuff, it's not going to be inclined to do it in a political vacuum. It will be accompanied, I expect, by serious pressure on, you know, on the broad spectrum of Iraqi political parties to come up with some sort of strategy going forward that at least stands a chance of peeling off some of the Sunni support in the west from ISIS.
And this was, you know, a key theme, I think, in President Obama's remarks yesterday when he kind of laid out the U.S. strategy. Now there are going to be problems trying to implement this because some of the ways in which ISIS has acted and they way it's prosecuted its offensive has had the effect of uniting, I think, previously disputatious Shiite factions within the government So you're going to get, I think, something of a united front, determined to push back, you know, Sunni depredations as they're perceived to be, in a way that will make it harder for the U.S. really to situate it's counter terrorism agenda within a broader political program that aims to get to the root of the problem.
So I think, you know, it will be difficult. Now, the question, just to go back to what Barak was saying about U.S. influence, I think there is a great deal of skepticism in the region about America's commitment and it's staying power and all that. And indeed, you know, the United States is a global power. It's got a lot of other things it needs to worry about. So I think to that extent, well yeah. Skepticism might be warranted to some extent.
But right now, the Shiite -- the essentially Shiite government really needs the U.S. And we know this because Maliki has made requests for these reconnaissance flights that I've just referred to, and intelligence gathering, and all that. So, I think they'd be inclined to listen. I think the reliance on U.S. counter insurgency and counter terrorism capabilities give the U.S. a degree of leverage it might not have had even just a short while ago.
ROSE: Okay. Well that's a great sort of setting of the stage. Let's throw it open to our audience for conversation, for Q&A. So, Operator, why don't you give instructions on how to do that?
OPERATOR: Yes sir. At this time, we will open the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star key, followed by the 1 key on your touch tone phone now. Questions will be taken in the order in which they are received. If at any time you would like to remove yourself from the questioning queue, just press star 2. Please try to limit your questions to one at a time. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1.
And our first question comes from Margaret Caleb (ph) with Bloomberg News.
QUESTION: Hi gentlemen. Thank you for doing the call. I wanted to ask you, this is probably a horribly conventional question, about the state of Nouri al-Maliki and the timing of the sort of the decision point on that. Is anything likely to happen this weekend? Is he vulnerable that soon? If not, how soon are we talking about for a real decision on this? And does it matter? Let's say we get Maliki to step aside, and somebody comes in as Prime Minister. I mean, aren't they going to be Shia, and if they are, aren't we still in the same batch of problems?
MENDELSOHN: Well, I'll take that. Al-Maliki's not -- he has so many weaknesses. And I think that the timing, the fact that it came after the elections, indeed he has -- he got the greatest amounts of votes, but he has to rely on a coalition (ph). And he depends on other Shiite groups, and he depends on Shiite leaders, especially religious leaders of the Shiite community, and he's under the influence or pressure of Iran.
So I can definitely see a scenario where he's being viewed as a lightening rod, and therefore removed to make the way for somebody that might be more amenable to finding a compromise with the Sunni s, which is really required if we want to imagine any way to get out of this conflict. So we -- this is possible, but I'm not sure that we're already in a point where he can feel that kind of pressure or his supporters feel that they need to give him up. For them, that's going to be seen as a concession and to make a concession, they would like to see something significant in return, and at this point, it doesn't seem like they are getting anything that will meet that bow (ph) for them.
QUESTION: Steve?
SIMON: Thanks. I pretty much agree with -- with Barak on this. I see Maliki holding out and I think that there's going to be a bandwagon process at work that makes it more than likely that he pulls together the coalition that he needs to continue governing -- governing Iraq And as to, you know, the implication of your question, namely, well, suppose it weren't him. And it were someone else, and things were substantially different, it sort of depends on the who else, and then, you know, that in turn depends on well, you know, who among the who elses (ph) is really a plausible contender. And I think when you parse all that you still come back to Maliki.
QUESTION: Any timing, guys? On -- on how -- how long it takes to play out?
SIMON: I think it could take a long time. But, who knows?
MENDELSOHN: I agree. Not -- we're not there yet. And we're not going to be there -- definitely not in the next week, probably even longer.
SIMON: Oh yeah, longer. Longer, I would say.
QUESTION: Thank you.
OPERATOR: Okay, our next question comes from Warren Strobel with Reuters News Agency.
QUESTION: Thank you. Can y'all hear me okay?
ROSE: Yep.
MENDELSOHN: Yes.
QUESTION: This question's mostly for Steve. Steve, I've talked to a lot of former administration officials who know Iraq really well, who say the Obama administration should have spoken out more forcefully, or even taken action, as Maliki grew increasingly sectarian. And they cite specific examples, such as when he went after the Sunni politician Hashemi, when he after the Sunni finance minister Rafi al-Issawi, when he started to purge the military and put in his own cronies.
And I'm wondering if you can sort of respond to that critique. Would it have mattered? Are there things that should have been done?
SIMON: Yeah, I'm happy to take that on, although I'm not sure that I have any shattering, you know, insights, because I think at that point U.S. leverage was fairly limited. I think -- well not I think. I know that Washington was quite critical of these things. And -- but I think as a practical matter, I guess this really is my point.
What was Washington supposed to do? In other words, what sort of assistance could have been held ransom to a different course by Maliki? What sorts of, you know, things could have been withheld what kind of punitive measures was the United States in a position to take and how important would the effect of those punitive measures on a guy, you know, al-Maliki was quite determined to consolidate his position at the expense of political -- political rivals, especially on the Sunni side. But he was doing it on the Shia side as well.
You know, this -- this is why there are so many references out there to, you know, Iraq's new authoritarianism. It's not, you know, a term of art (ph) that's sort of emerged ex nihilo. This was a pattern of behavior on Maliki's part and I don't think, you know, his -- his commitment to that course of action left a lot of room for either persuasive action or, you know, measures of compellence.
MENDELSOHN: Let me just add that al-Maliki overreached. He made so many mistakes. He overestimated his ability to control -- he managed to concentrate lots of power in his hands, both with regard to the Shiite community and of course against the Sunni s. I doubt that he expected to see this kind of backlash.
And because he overreached and misperceived the situation, it would have been very difficult for the U.S., even if it had pushed stronger than it did to get the results that it wanted. Maliki was just not going to cooperate.
ROSE: So then is it fair to say -- this is Gideon chipping in. Is it fair to say that it took a kind of out of the blue crisis like this Isil surge to make him realize the consequences of his actions?
MENDELSOHN: I -- probably. I'm not sure to what extent. I don't have any access to him to tell you that he now is fully aware and he can make a full reverse. I'm not sure to what extent he actually understands how much he overreached. I'm sure that he now's got good signals that he indeed overreached.
SIMON: Yeah, if I could just add to that. I think, you know, his instinctive reason probably was, "Aha! You see, I was right all along."
ROSE: Got it. But you know, even if I had tried, these guys weren't interested in compromise because they were all a bunch of terrorists.
MENDELSOHN: Yeah.
ROSE: Great.
OPERATOR: Okay. Our next question comes from Lee Column (ph) with Public Media of North Texas.
QUESTION: Thank you very much for a most helpful and enlightening presentation. My question follows on from the one that just went before. Is it realistic to suppose in the near, or not-so-near future, that there's going to be an inclusive government in Iraq? We've been calling for it, and working for it for a very long time, and it doesn't seem to be implicit (ph) in the culture or the circumstances. What do you think?
SIMON: I think you -- look, I think it's -- it's quite unlikely at least in the near to medium term. I mean, despite the best efforts that people will make, because I think the underlying conditions are not, you know, are not going to go away. So if you look at the sort of subterranean factors, you know, the tectonic factors at work in Iraqi politics, and intercommunal relations in Iraq, and, you know, against a background of, you know, in insurgency that's just burgeoning, you know, at least for the moment, that conditions really aren't right for the kind of inclusive government that would, you know, would really help.
Now, you know, my pessimism may proved to be unwarranted if U.S. efforts to, you know, to convince Maliki that, you know, that counter terrorism measures the United States is prepared to take will only really work in a bigger contest. It will also matter if Maliki, I think, is hearing the same message from the Iranians. And, you know, there, you know, there's sort of a curious thing going on, where, you know, Rouhani and I think -- and I think one of his spokes persons, you know, said a couple of days ago that, you know, there's grounds for cooperation with the United States, you know, on this.
Those -- those statements were later withdrawn They were again said by the Iranian government. But it's clear, that you know, that there's some thinking on that side that there is a shared interest and there might be ways, you know, to exploit that shared interest to stabilize Iraqi politics. But Rouhani is not the only voice in the Iranian government. I think that there are a lot of views and indeed in the U.S. government, I suspect there is a division of views on whether and how to -- to deal with Iran on this.
President Obama said the other day in his public remarks that, you know, he didn't really see space for that right now. But what he did say was, well, you know, if the Iranians were to do something constructive, it would be to pass a message along the lines of the one that the U.S. was pressing on Maliki.
MENDELSOHN: There are some things that cannot be undone. Steve mentioned the tectonic shift and if you think tectonic plates, once they are moved, it's unlikely that they will fall back the way that they were before. You have three actors now.
You look at the Kurds and the Kurdish region and you see that since 1991, it's gradually drifted apart from the rest of Iraq to the point that it's almost a fully independent state in almost every aspect. And this crisis served that purpose even better. Why would the Kords willing to go back to the condition that was two weeks ago? It's going to be very hard to convince them, or to compel them to do that.
So it seems that when we're speaking about bringing back the sides together or recreating Iraq, we're speaking mostly about the Shiites and the Sunni s. And the bad blood is just becoming worse every time that you have this kind of crisis. The conditions that you need to meet in order to get both sides to trust each other, they keep shifting.
We are now at a stage where maybe a few years ago you could think about a federal moral, but still one where the central government has significant control. Now for any kind of compromise, there will need to be a much greater autonomy for the different provinces, which means you're going to have even greater separation between the different groups. So this is not going to be the same Iraq even in the best circumstances.
QUESTION: Thank you very much.
OPERATOR: Okay. Our next question comes from Deb Riechmann with the Associated Press.
QUESTION: Thank you. How likely is it that the U.S. and Iran are going to cooperate and have some discussions about Iraq?
SIMON: There was a statement from the Iranian side that initially there had been a conversation between the U.S. and Iran on this and then, you know, that too was denied. But I think really as a practical matter, there's not going to be the sort of operational or tactical discussion with Iran that, you know, that you might be thinking of in framing your question. And this was made pretty clear in the -- in the White House press conference yesterday, that, you know, the focus is on the nuclear talks, is on the five plus one talks.
They're not hugely well right now because, you know, the two sides are now beginning to put forward their conditions for a comprehensive agreement and I thin there's a little bit of sticker shock, certainly on the -- certainly on the Iranian side. So that for the United States is, you know, a strategic priority, you know, for a lot of reasons.
And there's going to be a disinclination, I think, to muddy the water and expand the agenda of bilateral or multilateralized comunications with the -- with the Iranians at this point. I think from the administrations perspective, we need to keep our eye on the ball with Iran and that ball, if I can put it that way, is the nuclear issue.
QUESTION: So did Secretary Kerry just kind of speak a little ahead of the game there or something?
SIMON: He (inaudible).
QUESTION: I'm sorry -- I'm sorry, what?
SIMON: Was he ahead of his skis?
QUESTION: Yeah.
SIMON: Yeah. Well, I think that there might have been, you know, an aspirational (inaudible) to his (inaudible)...
QUESTION: You broke up. An aspirational?
ROSE: Yeah, he was -- it -- it was wishful thinking.
QUESTION: Okay. This is Steve, right? Okay.
ROSE: That was Gideon translating Steve. Is that correct?
SIMON: Yeah, so, Gideon translating Steve saying it was aspirational.
QUESTION: Okay. Got it.
MENDELSOHN: The conversations between the U.S. and Iran, I have no doubt, but they converge in the interest and they definitely converge -- not converge, but diverge, in their interest and their attitudes toward solutions The Iranians naturally side with the Shiite community in Iraq and they will be less, or they will be more reluctant for solution that will require more compromise from the Shiite government.
Then there is the issue of what should be the balance between the use of force versus ISIS and the attempts to create an inclusive Iraq that brings Sunni s on board. And I think on that point as well they will be divergent views between the U.S. and Iran. So I don't see significant cooperation as coming anytime soon.
At the same time, it's interesting how this plays into the nuclear -- plays into the nuclear issue. Because you can say that to some extent because Iran is now facing both crisis, the nuclear crisis and the crisis in Iraq, and the crisis in Iraq is more of a problem for Iran than in it is for the U.S., it might be a point here that the U.S. could use Iraq as leverage in the nuclear -- in the nuclear negotiations.
QUESTION: Okay, thank you.
OPERATOR: Okay. Our next question comes from Matt Viser with the Boston Globe.
QUESTION: Hey guys, thanks for doing this. My question is Secretary State John Kerry is heading to the region in the coming days and I -- what should we expect out of his trip and his discussion, particularly if they end up somehow including Maliki and what can he reasonably accomplish over these next few days?
SIMON: Look, just briefly. I think what you can expect is for him to lay down markers. And explain what our -- what the U.S. approach to the crisis in Iraq is going to be. I don't think he's going to come away with any pledges of support, you know, from the Gulf states. I don't think he's going to produce any kind of conversion experience in Baghdad on Maliki's part.
But, you know, he's going out there to do what he should be doing right now, which is characterizing U.S. interests, the extent to which we'll pursue those interests and how we will do that, and some of the things we expect in return if our efforts are to be successful.
MENDELSOHN: When the Secretary of State will be in the region, he will probably collect the positions of the relevant actors, if within Iraq. I'm not sure if he's going to speak to any of the -- I doubt that he will speak with any of the Sunni actors within Iraq. But he will speak with the Iraqi government and he will probably tour the Gulf and speak with the governments there and have some kind of link also to the Iranian position, and will try to bring all of those positions together while at the same time articulating how the U.S.'s kind of approach.
And maybe that will serve him as a way then to come up with something more concrete to try to tailor some kind of more concrete plan with how to move forward. But the first step would try to get the positions of all sides, how they analyze the situation, what they think needs to happen, and what are they willing to do to contribute to that objective.
QUESTION: Thank you.
OPERATOR: Okay. Our next question comes from Jacqueline Albert Simon from Politique Internationale.
QUESTION: Yes. Hello, and thank you to both of you, who you both and our moderator clarified a number of points. There's one seem I can't seem to focus on myself. We talk about both sides. We have an Iraqi government. But who do we (inaudible) with among the ISIS people? My concern is what's going on in Syria with them.
They are, as has been stated many times, a state by themselves. Who will represent them in any kind of possible talks? Whom do we address? What telephone number do we call when we want to speak to the ISIS people?
SIMON: I'm checking my address book. Hang on. I'm just kidding.
ROSE: Don't try and be funny, Steve. You're not here for your humor.
QUESTION: I agree. I agree. I'm asking a difficult question, but...
SIMON: You know, (inaudible) good question. It's, look. It's a good question and -- and let me just say, I will say one or two things about it very quickly and then -- and then turn over to (inaudible) got something to add.
You see, the points of contact on the Sunni side would be the heads of the major Sunni political parties. And there are such people, and they are influential. They will also speak, presumably, to important community leaders in the parts of Iraq where ISIS has gotten a foothold. You know, I think your skepticism about any direct contacts with ISIS is justified.
I mean, you know, they're the enemy. They're engaged in a violent, you know, assault on, you know, that's both sectarian and political, you know, in nature and those two things are very closely intertwined in this case. So, there won't be contact with them.
I mean, the thing -- the contact with them will be kinetic. It won't be verbal. So, I think the point here is that there are Sunni s to talk to that don't have blood on their hands who may have, you know, in an ambiguous or an ambivalent relationship or even an adversarial one to the, you know, resurgence of -- of the Jihadists in that part of Iraq are now, you know, claiming to represent the interests of all Sunni s and they clearly can't -- can't be doing that. Anyway, over to Barak.
MENDELSOHN: I agree with Steve that ISIS doesn't have a relevant phone number for any kind of negotiations. ISIS doesn't believe in negotiations. For ISIS, they represent such an extreme understanding of Islam that for them, Shiites are apostates. And Shiites need to be fought. They're so extreme that they're too extreme for Al Qaeda.
For them, the only way that you resolve the conflict is by winning. And there won't be any compromises as they are concerned. So the way to engage them as Steve said, that's going to be kinetic. What you try to achieve is to create conditions under which the kinetic effort is going to be easier to accomplish and where you will have Sunni actors on your side when you move to that fight against ISIS and Sunni actors that then could credibly take a place in the Iraqi government and help out informing that new inclusive state.
But that's a point that I try to make earlier. You will need to offer so much to the Sunni s and build their confidence and trust in the Shiite government. And they don't have it at this point and they've got enough evidence or at least they could easily see events of the last few years as evidence that they cannot trust whatever they're being promised.
When Maliki took control, there were still the (inaudible), the awakening group -- groups operating. And they were supposed to be incorporated into the security services of Iraq. But Maliki ditched them. The promises that were made were abandoned. And they have no reason to think that it will be different this time. And without their support, or any kind of any kind of internal actors within the Sunni community, the battle against ISIS is going to be much harder to win.
QUESTION: And probably it does seem to me at this point almost impossible win. So that leaves only a quandary and chaos.
MENDELSOHN: Welcome to Iraq.
QUESTION: That's sad. Well, thank you very much. I'm not going to press it further because we'll go no place.
ROSE: Let's just take a couple more.
OPERATOR: Okay, our next question comes from Kathleen Hennessey with the L.A. Times.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks so much for doing the call. I was wondering if you both could comment a little on the president's holding up Yemen as sort of model, for particularly the counter terrorism aspect, of how he plans to handle this. What do you -- what do you think of that as a model or a road map for how the U.S. might operate in Iraq?
SIMON: Well, I think it was revealing. Because the U.S. doesn't have a big footprint in Yemen It uses drones as a way of disrupting Jihadist operations and decapitating or weakening Jihadist cells. And it's, you know, intelligence driven, dynamic targeting. And it's, you know, within limits it's successful and it makes sense, I think, to transplant that approach to Iraq, again provided that it's situated in a larger political process that gets into the root of the problem by peeling away the bulk of the population in western Iraq from ISIS.
So, to me, it was, I guess, sensible, you know, or logical.
MENDELSOHN: The use of Yemen as a model, the application of it, is -- has very limited value. For one we can doubt what extent this model actually works beyond containing the spread of terrorism as it projected outside of Yemen The situation within Yemen is far from being showing significant progress as there was hope. There is a sense that the balance is somewhat contained and the gains that Al Qaeda and the (inaudible) Peninsula made a couple of years ago, the Yemen government managed to roll back those advantages.
But there are still a significant number of attacks throughout Yemen. The Houthis in Northern Yemen have established a basically autonomous state in Yemen. It's just not such a serious problem that the president has to constantly involve himself with it and maybe this is enough for him at this point, giving all the constraints and so many crisis that are ongoing. This is one he can contain and keep it as a low-level conflict.
But it's bound to come back and be a much more significant issue in the future So I'm not sure that even that moral is that useful
Iraq is a different story. The gains ISIS made are much more significant ISIS itself is much more violent and difficult actor than Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula And they use different, more radical, tactics that on one hand you can say maybe will allow to turn the population against them. But it's also the kind of tactics that are helping ISIS to make those gains and that's going to make it harder to isolate ISIS and it's going to make it hard to find credible partners among the Sunni community.
The U.S. needs to decide what it seeks is really to contain this bed of terrorism so that it won't affect the greater Middle East and definitely not Europe and the U.S. or whether it wants to go even bigger and try to get a change in Iraq and resolve that conflict. My reading of the president's speech was an understanding that the bigger plan, or the bigger objectives, are not viable at this point and it's probably going to be a while before they will be viable. And he might be going for a smaller solution and if he can contain the spread of terrorism, then he will probably be pleased enough. Whether this is good news for the Iraqi people, probably not so much.
ROSE: Okay, you know, we try to do these things on time and we can all stay and talk about this a lot, but we're going to wrap it up short here now. I just want to say, listening to you guys, it's really interesting. Because if you think about the conventional discussion of this stuff in the U.S. media, our focus is all on Washington. The focus is on what U.S. policy has done or hasn't done, the ideas that the world is always on the brink of catastrophe or triumph and there's some kind of easy answer that's ready to be put in place but just people differ over what that is.
And if you listen to you guys and F.A. coverage more generally, the focus is on Iraq and the region. The focus is on the local history and determinance of the problems. The things are always incremental, whether they're progress or slippage. And things are always intractable and difficult to affect.
So it really is a kind of distinctively different view from the conventional U.S. media swarm. And, well, I don't know. I find it really interesting. Well, I just thought I'd offer that.
Thanks to all of you listening and for taking part. And we look forward to having you guys back, and having all of you back for future conference calls. Thanks a lot.
MENDELSOHN: Thank you.
OPERATOR: Thank you ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's teleconference and you may now disconnect.


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I wrote something for the free software ethics thread, just to recognize that I am not allowed to post here -- I am not apprentice level --, so I abuse the diary.
I am glad to see a discussion about ethics come up here. But its a nifty topic. For me, a typical experience whence it comes to ethics is: you hold a specific personal opinion about it for a while, say for testing purposes, and you come almost to the point, where you think you have found the solution with this opinion. But suddenly you are struck by an example that renders your whole personal "theory" obsolete -- and you wonder how you could ever have even seriously considered this point of view.
I wouldn't raise voice here unless I had read a book about a related question recently: Benjamin Davy: Essential injustice. The author suggests that there are three diffrent, but *incompatible* of theories of justice, which are mutualy exclusive. Each one of these has a distict maxim. They are
- Maximize liberty! -- this is elitist or libertarian justice and favors the strong, intelligent, gifted etc.,
- Maximize happieness! -- utilitarian justice, it favors the most, even at the cost of a minority, and
- Minimize pain! -- which is named social justice and favors the poor.
Each of the principles is very strong, I think. Lots of people would endorse that the human spirit is a divine instance, and no one has any right to narrow the liberty of a real genius. This is what the libertarian would think, perhaps. Proponents of this are, for example, inspiring figures like Friedrich August von Hayek, but also more naive and dangerous versions like Nietzsche's "Ubermensch. An associated idea is that of the minimal state -- which has few to offer to the elderly and the poor. It's the justice of the market place. (Another one is Adam Smith.)
Also, a lot of people would agree when you ask for the greatest happieness in sum (but what was the unit, stupid ...). This is closly related to the ideas of the social contract of the society. Maximizing happieness allows for cutting the liberties of the few -- wether strong and gifted or poor and weak -- and makes possible, i.e. the police state. This flavor of justice is championed by Jeremy Bantham, John Stuart Mill and partially Thomas Hobbes.
The third kind of justice wants to minimize pain, a legitimate goal one might come to think. It is the idea behind the european welfare state ("Wohlfahrtsstaat") and the American New Deal, the concept of social justice of the roman-catholic church, and some communist movements, recently also of social movements for gender, racial and environmental justice.
I think I am not the only one who would refuse to decide which one is first priority. A puzzle. Davy makes one suggestion to solve it. He calls these three maxims the "pure and simple" and states that every strict policy following one of these is "essential injustice" with regard to the other two. Therefore "pure and simple" justice is no good idea.
Now there comes his interesting twist: Davy proposes to concentrate on minimizing injustice and rejects maximizing justice at all. Think about it, I like it. He calls this "junk justice" and also suggest a thought experiment for how to accomplish this task of minimizing. A "ghost of social contracts" collects every ruling and put them in one box. Then he invites all different kinds of stakeholders (he specifies this, but I skip it for the sake of shortness) and asks for each ruling each stakeholder the question "Is this highly injust?" -- and in case *one* of them responds "yes," the ruling is put to a box with the lable "Highly injust." Round two again iterates through the whole bunch and asks for "moderate injustice" of each ruling. The moderate injust rulings are put into another box. Now there might be a remainder of rulings, and these are not even moderate injust to neither party.
All this is Davy's argument. I hope I didn't screw it up to much. The initial question was about free software ethics, culminating in the question "Who pays the bills, when closing source is not an option?" The favorite approach of governments worldwide seems to be the "police state" thinking option, which demands Maximize happiness of the most (and forget those hackers and cypherpunks)!.
I don't know how much this can help further the free software ethics topic, but it helped me to think clearer about justice and its pitfalls in general.


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Gov. Bobby Jindal. (American Press)
Last Modified: Monday, January 14, 2013 11:02 AM
BATON ROUGE (AP) — The number of teachers retiring jumped more than 25 percent as the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed an overhaul of public education that changes the rules on how teachers are evaluated, according to the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana.
"Superintendents are telling me they are seeing an increase ... even at midterm, people submitting resignations or indicating they are retiring at the end of the school year," said Michael Faulk, president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents.
The Advocate reported the number of retirements from public kindergarten through 12th-grade schools has hovered around 2,500 in recent years: 2,598 for the 2011 fiscal year; 2,512 during the previous fiscal year.
But for the 2012 fiscal year that ended June 30 — the most recent complete year — the number retiring from public systems jumped by 697 to 3,295, an increase of 26.8 percent in teacher retirements, according to TRSL statistics.
The pace is even higher for the current fiscal year, which began July 1 and is almost halfway through, with 1,671 retirements charted by TRSL.
"This was not anticipated," said Lisa Honore, TRSL communications director.
School superintendents say the retirements are putting a strain on school systems.
Livingston Parish School Superintendent John Watson said the parish has been able to find replacements so far. "If it continues like this, it is going to be quite a problem to fill positions," said Watson.
Lafayette Parish Superintendent Pat Cooper said the retirements are "absolutely" creating problems in having qualified, certified teachers in the classroom, "especially in the high-demand areas: math, science, special ed."
"It certainly has had a negative effect," said Cooper.
Posted By: alisha snell On: 1/20/2013
Title: this is crazy!!!
jindal is a idiot!!! louisiana is at the bottom of the food chain but yet he keep getting voted back in!!! hmmmm hows that?


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UTSA Safe Spring Break events: March 2-5
(Feb. 27, 2009)--UTSA will host Safe Spring Break events March 2-5 at the 1604 and Downtown campuses. The events will include the "Escape to Sombrilla Island" Health and Wellness Expo from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday, March 4 at Sombrilla Plaza on the 1604 Campus. The expo is open to the entire UTSA community. See the events schedule below.
Today's headlines
- La Prensa Foundation is newest member of UTSA Lone Star Society
- UTSA alumna Jordan Kaufmann wins $50K for new stent-graft start-up
- UTSA begins new way-finding sign installation this summer at Main Campus
- USA Today: UTSA long jumper Tyler Williamson rescues three-year-old boy
Article tools
"Every year thousands of college students participate in spring activities which often involve trips to the beach, skiing or road trips," said Kelsey Bratcher, UTSA assistant director of student activities and risk education, alcohol and drug programs. "Because some students engage in high-risk behaviors during spring break, it is important to provide information to help ensure everyone returns safely."
With a focus on preventing impaired driving, the events also include information on other health issues such as healthy sexual decision making, predatory drugs and sun protection.
The health and wellness expo will feature 50 exhibitors from community resources and UTSA departments, health screenings and information (diabetes, vision), mind and body demonstrations, fire safety, work place ergonomics and Safe Spring Break activities from the health education groups SHADES, BARR and CURE. For more information on "Escape to Sombrilla Island," visit the UTSA Student Health Services Web site or call (210) 458-6428.
The Health and Wellness Expo will feature UTSA's Health and Kinesiology Mobile Unit at the Convocation Center. The 38-foot mobile unit has state-of-the-art equipment to assess health status and provide wellness education. Check your blood glucose, heart rate, nutrition, body composition and cholesterol levels -- all in one stop.
Additionally, faculty and staff members are invited to the presentation, "The Importance of Nutrition, Exercise and Your Health," by Rolando Roman, UT System wellness coordinator. Roman will discuss dietary guidelines, food labels, smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol and skin cancer. Sponsored by the Office of Human Resources, you can register for the session at TX Class, course ID SD279. Healthy refreshments will be served at the class. The seminar will be conducted twice: 11 a.m.-noon and 12:30-1:30 p.m., March 4 in the University Center Denman Room (2.01.28), 1604 Camps. For more information, contact the Office of Human Resources at (210) 458-4648.
Event sponsors include the UTSA Office of Student Activities; UTSA Campus Recreation; UTSA Office of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management; and UTSA Student Health Services.
>> Resources and Tips to Stay Healthy on Your Trip (PDF document)
For more information, contact Kelsey Bratcher at (210) 458-4160.
Safe Spring Break events, March 2-5
(all events are free and open to all unless indicated otherwise)
Monday, March 2
Chaparral Village Conference Room, 1604 Campus
5:30-6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 3
Spring Break Celebration
Bill Miller Plaza, Downtown Campus
11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Wednesday, March 4
"Escape to Sombrilla Island" Health and Wellness Expo
Sombrilla Plaza, 1604 Campus
9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Faculty and Staff Seminar: "The Importance of Nutrition, Exercise and Your Health"
Rolando Roman, UT System Wellness Coordinator
University Center Denman Room (2.01.28), 1604 Campus
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Thirsty Thursday
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Retirement planning should not be placed on autopilot. It's not one of those things you can set and forget. From the moment you invest your first dollar until you take your first withdrawal, every financial decision will shape your comfort and confidence to and through retirement.
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When Kathie DeNosky was a little girl, her favorite stories were always the ones that ended with "
and they lived happily ever after." Then as a teenager, when she picked up her first Harlequin Romance and found that same happy ending, she instantly became a life-long series romance fan. But it wasn't until her youngest child started school that she sat down in front of her first computer to write. That was eighteen years and several computers ago and she never looked back. Now, when she's not writing, reading or exploring new settings, you can often find her painting, weaving baskets or playing with her Bernese Mountain dog, Nemo, as she plots her next story.
Since the release of her first book, Did You Say Married?!, in May of 2000, Kathie has written over twenty-five books for Silhouette. Finding inspiration everywhere she looks, she loves to travel and research new places to give her readers the feeling of being there and experiencing everything right along with the hero and heroine.
As an award-winning, bestselling author, Kathie's greatest joy comes from the e-mail and letter mail she receives from her readers. She can be contacted through her Web site or by snail mail at P.O. Box 2064, Herrin, Illinois 62948-5264.


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Midwifery Today Issue Number 82 (Summer 2007) Trends vs. TraditionsBack Issues
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Theme: Trends vs. Traditions
Both trends and traditions can be important in birth; yet they may conflict with each other. Some may even be harmful. This issue of Midwifery Today focuses on some of those trends and traditions, and sorting the good from the bad or unnecessary.
Articles in this issue include:
Midwifery Model of Care: Childbirth Education—Shifting the Paradigm, by Jodilyn Owen. The author encourages midwives, doulas and childbirth educators to reconsider how they are educating women and families about birth. She poses a model that encourages them to question and think, and become their own experts.
Marion's Message: Too Many/Not Enough Cesareans. The US cesarean rate is now at almost 1/3 of births and increasing. Other countries are showing the same trend. Marion discusses what to consider when determining what the rate should be.
Enduring Qualities of Midwifery, by Elizabeth Davis. "Respect for nature, for the physiology of birth, is the cornerstone of our midwifery tradition." Educator and midwife Elizabeth Davis discusses the differences between midwives and obstetricians, current trends and ages-old traditions, remarking on how much midwives have to contribute to the future of birth.
Bullying: The Target, by Marinah Valenzuela Farrell. Part III of a four part series, this article focuses on the target of the bully and the effects on her, including PTSD.
Management or Care? by Judy Slome Cohain. Midwives, with their focus on the caring rather than management, can help to prevent an overly-medicalized birth outcome. Frequent contributor Judy Slome Cohain contrasts the story of birth that was published in a popular magazine with how it might have been had the mother been cared for by a midwife.
Save Time and Effort and Make More Money—with Electronic Communication, by Sheri Menelli. In this continuing series, Sheri Menelli tells readers how to use electronic newsletters to build a clientele and inform current customers.
Trends vs. Traditions, by Jill Cohen. Associate Editor Jill Cohen talks about the need to balance trends and traditions.
Challenges and Rewards of Life as an Apprentice, by Christa Bartley. What can a midwifery apprentice expect from this experience? Christa Bartley captures the range of experiences and emotions that occur during this time.
Healing Honey, by Cheryl K. Smith. Did you know that honey was used for healing wounds before penicillin was discovered? Read about how and why this traditional medicine has become a trend in certain parts of the world.
Trends versus Tradition in Cesarean Surgery: Effects on Midwifery Practice and Cesarean Mothers' Future Pregnancies, by Ina May Gaskin. This well-known midwife revisits the data on single-layer suturing after c-section.
Story of a VBAC Rupture, Carey Collins. The author describes her attempt at a VBAC after single-layer suturing.
Chlorhexidine as an Alternative Treatment for Prevention of Group B Streptococcal Disease, by Shelie Ross. We know that giving neonates antibiotics can lead to later health problems, but on balance we may have to do so anyway. This article proposes an alternative to antibiotics for preventing GBS in these babies.
Go Tell It: Using Media to Educate about Birth, by Sharon Craig. Proponents of medicalized birth have made their case, in part, through use of the mainstream media. Freelance writer and midwife Sharon Craig discusses various ways that midwifery proponents can do the same, using a variety of examples.
Mobilizing Global Midwives: The Story of Baby Elisha, by Kristen Benoit. Midwifery skills are needed the world around. This birth story, which takes place in the Philippines, describes how midwives can help with high-risk births and obtain positive outcomes.
Insurance and British Midwifery: The End of Independent Midwifery in the UK? by Tricia Anderson. Midwifery in the UK is in a crisis. Tricia Anderson, and independent midwife, discusses the current situation and offers some solutions.
View complete Table of Contents here.
Theme: Trends vs. Traditions
Both trends and traditions can be important in birth; yet they may conflict with each other. Some may even be harmful. This issue of Midwifery Today focuses on some of those trends and traditions, and sorting the good from the bad or unnecessary.
Articles in this issue include:
View complete Table of Contents here.
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Dwayne Bowe was born here in Miami. He is a free agent and wants out of KC... he is younger than Jennings, and is a true #1 WR.
The Kansas City Star does not expect the Chiefs to offer impending free agent Dwayne Bowe a long-term deal.
Bowe played out the 2012 season on a one-year, $9.5 million franchise tender. He's expected to hit the open market as perhaps the best wideout available. Despite consistently horrible quarterback play, in six seasons Bowe has averaged 4.7 catches for 65.0 yards and scored 39 touchdowns -- putting him in the conversation for greatest Chiefs wideout of all time. Bowe will turn 29 in September.


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Sand from Pays de la Loire, Vendee, Bretignolles-sur-Mer, France. Featuring quartz, almandine, orthoclase, staurolite, clinozoisite, spinel, zircon, rutile, and magnetite. The petri dish is 9 cm in diameter. Sample provided by Siim Sepp of sandatlas.org. Image made as part of the MAGIC project (Mid-Atlantic Ge...


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I decited to get a little fancy with this one. I used the same old english style lettering that Gibson used on his, and I still have more work to do on it. This combo has a great sound to it, and if the sun ever comes back out and it quits raining, I'll post some finished pics of it when it's done.
Thanks for taking a peek Scott
Got it done today.


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"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48
Raven - Moneybird's Black Magic Marker***
(Esprit's Power Play x Trumarc's Lean Cuisine)
Mick - Moneybird's Jumpin' Jack Flash***
(Clubmead's Road Warrior x Oakdale Whitewater Devil Dog)
Peerless - Moneybird's Sole Survivor
(Two River's Lucky Willie x Moneybird's Black Magic Marker)
BonMallari we finally agree on something. The difference we have is that I don't want to go back to a nation of no regulation that lets bad things happen to good folks, where you do and you have been convienced that this is the best for all, when it's only good for the few.
All elections, i.e., politics have been a non-issue to me in the past 40 years. So much in fact I don't know nor do I care to learn where candidates stand on any given subject. If politics are on TV I change the channel, if they are in the newspaper I turn the page, if someone shows up at my front door talking politics I slam it shut. I've never voted and I never will. Too much negative drama from any side of the fence to get me to vote. You can't tell me our country's great elected officials want to take office to help the American people. They only want the spotlight and fringe benefits that come with being a politician. Unless you're a big player in business ($$$$) you are not getting any value out of a politician. For the common man/woman your life is not going to get better or worse based on a single vote and the world is going to continue going round. Besides, it's better to plan on taking care of one's self than thinking someones agenda is going to do it for you.
Donald Duck for President regards,
Last edited by Robert; 08-15-2012 at 04:33 PM. Reason: added a period
Don't think so... If you Libs want to stay home and refrain from voting, I'm all for it. But, the conservatives are going to be out on election day en masse. We can do something about the disaster of the last 4 years.
Last edited by huntinman; 08-15-2012 at 04:44 PM.
Bill Davis
The disaster of the previous four years....Bill I feel save betting that the republicans will have the lowest turn out in years.


text: If you have not already contacted your senators and representatives do so now! The current senate bill, although it addresses some of the border security issues, it does not put a requirement to secure the border prior to letting all the other things happen. Twice since 1986 the senate/house have passed immigration reform that promised to stop the inflow of illegals into the usa. Both times the enforcement was stopped (including the fence)....don't be duped again...call your senator and representative and till them no reform until after the borders are closed!


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I'll watch more proofs of concepts and whatnot tomorrow and leave reviews! Also for Code:
Also Code, I'm done my final exam by the 25th of April so could I request a slightly later due date for the final beta by any chance? ;A; Not much longer of course; maybe like May 1st or 2nd? ;-; (My clips are being really finicky too and shutting down Vegas constantly so I'm just workin' out the kinks there atm).
I'm just literally done on the 25th of April at about 10 pm, so I won't be home until the 26th in the afternoon anyways. ;3;


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Comment Your Metaverse Trademark (Score 1) 111
Do you have any plans to do anything with your Metaverse trademark?
Are you looking to sell it off, or to bless a public implementation of the Metaverse with the official title?
Do you have any plans to do anything with your Metaverse trademark?
Are you looking to sell it off, or to bless a public implementation of the Metaverse with the official title?
> They were also able to precisely track a virtual reality headset with the same precision.
One does not "precisely track" a VR headset with two centimeter resolution. I'll guess that they continued to use the IMU tracking that is built into the Samsung Gear VR, and they used it to display the tracking of external objects that were measured with two centimeter resolution.
> SunOS/Solaris started out lean; when it got bloated, people like me jumped ship. Linux started out lean and it is getting bloated; when it is getting too bloated, I will jump ship again.
FWIW, Linus said that Linux is bloated. That was at LinuxCon in 2009. I don't think that's much of a factor. I'll agree with you that Linux has plenty of life left in it.
> Wow. How impressive. Oh wait, Linux has had EDAC since 2006. But you keep paying your millions to Oracle. I'm sure its worth it.
Actually, this might be worth an illustration. It was a long time back, so I'm sure I've forgotten a few details, but I'll give you the big picture.
Around 2000, Sun Microsystems had a problem with the L2 cache on their 400mhz CPUs. It seems that IBM misrepresented the error rate on the chips, and they were having bit errors that were much higher than specified. Because of what was supposed to be an incredibly low error rate, they engineered the L2 cache with parity protection. That's enough to detect an error and cause a UE (uncorrectable error) event. So I know that your EDAC functionality in 2006 was in Solaris well before 2000.
After that problem, Sun Microsystems did two things. First, they mirrored the L2 cache. Second, they completely beefed up their handler for CE/UE (correctable errors and uncorrectable errors) along the memory/cache/bus/cpu to bring it up to Enterprise level error handling. You get an Uncorrectable Error in your CPU's L2 cache. Do you panic? I looked over the EDAC documentation and I could be wrong (please correct me, if so) but it looks like that would result in a panic. Or you could just have it log that the UE event happened but take no action.
What would Solaris do differently? It would find the page of virtual memory that had the corresponding error. Has it been modified? If not, just discard the page, log the event, and go on. There is a whole set of rules it goes through to determine the best way to keep the system running when it hits an uncorrectable error. Let's say that the page was modified and that there was an uncorrectable error in the L2 cache. We panic now, right? No. Solaris checks and sees who the page of memory belongs to. If it is a user process, then that process is simply killed (and the event logged) and the OS continues running. Only if it is a dirty page of active kernel memory do we have a panic.
That isn't just recovering from a soft error. That's recovering from a hard error. So, as this story illustrated, there are quite a number of things happening behind the scenes in an enterprise level OS. You picked a good example with Linux EDAC.
> Why bother? Just shut down that server, replace the memory, restart. If your application can't handle a brief downtime for one of your servers, there is something wrong with the application, and no OS magic can fix that for you.
You know, it is kind of funny. Person A will argue, "See? Linux has all of the cool features of an enterprise class operating system. What makes Solaris on SPARC so special?" When you point out just a fraction of the things that Linux doesn't do, person B will jump in and claim, "OMG that OS is so bloated that people are running away from it for that very reason!"
Hey, Solaris on SPARC certainly has its issues, but let's be real here. People are not running away from it in any significant numbers due to the inclusion of enterprise-class features. The irony to that argument is that you'll find that many of these "bloated" enterprise-class features in Solaris have been working their way into Linux for years. Linux has been making great strides over the past ten years.
Wow. It took them that long to put in a handler for CE and UE events? I see. What we're talking about goes beyond that first level of handling those events.
> Also, yes, various Linux virtualization technologies you can hot-migrate running systems between software VMs within the same chassis (and warm migrate with downtime between hardware chassis).
In this case, it was a live migration over two different chassis.
> But the price/perf/features just don't add up in the modern world versus commodity hardware and open source software, except...
In the existing case with a large corporate environment with a Linux/x86 cloud and a Solaris/SPARC cloud, Oracle wins the spot for lowest price point for a system, and wins at the higher end because Linux doesn't (reasonably) scale that big.
> You just have to install the "mcelog" package on e.g. Debian/Ubuntu. I'm sure the same software exists for the other distros.
Will it simply retire bad pages (at a page level) as they happen, or is it able to detect when enough errors have happened on a single DIMM and to retire all the pages on the DIMM (because it understands the hardware layout and can map those pages to specific hardware)? That's the advantage of controlling the OS and controlling the hardware. Here is an example of multiple errors being detected by Solaris on a DIMM and it identifying and retiring all pages on the entire DIMM:
Fault class : fault.memory.dimm_sb
Affects : mem:///motherboard=0/chip=1/memory-controller=0/dimm=3/rank=0 degraded but still in service
FRU : "CPU 1 DIMM 3" (hc://:product-id=Sun-Fire-X4200-Server:chassis-id=0000000000:server-id=oryx/motherboard=0/chip=1/memory-controller=0/dimm=3)
Description : The number of errors associated with this memory module has exceeded acceptable levels. Refer to http://sun.com/msg/AMD-8000-2F for more information.
Response : Pages of memory associated with this memory module are being removed from service as errors are reported.
Impact : Total system memory capacity will be reduced as pages are retired.
Solaris/SPARC is still going strong in large companies. One of the greatest advantages it has is that Oracle creates and supports the operating system, and Oracle creates and supports the hardware. (If you're running an Oracle database or some other piece of software, then that's an additional component that they create and support.) What this means is that if I'm having a problem, mundane or esoteric, I can go to one vendor and say, "Fix it." There isn't any bickering about what company's problem it is, and who manufactured my RAM, or any other the other silliness that crops up in vendor support. Large companies value this (as do us sysadmins). That also means they can do some very cool software tricks (which I'll mention a few here below).
The decreasing unit shipments is just as much a sign of virtualization as anything. Right now, I'm looking at an older T5240, with two eight-core CPUs which presents itself as having 128 virtual CPUs (execution engines or thread engines), and 64gb of RAM. This is by no means the biggest box on the floor. We carve these up into smaller systems using either Solaris Zones, or LDOMs. That's two different methods of virtualization with two different goals.
I did something great with an LDOM last week. I took a virtual server that was on the box and migrated the entire operating system and all the applications over to another LDOM... WHILE IT WAS STILL RUNNING. Aside from a quick (1 second) pause, the applications on the server had no idea that it just migrated to another piece of hardware while it continued to run. Slick! The original server had a failing DIMM. No worries, though even aside from ECC, the operating system automatically mapped out which parts of the DIMM were defective and retired the pages of memory so that they weren't constantly being exercised. Linux does all that... right? No?
Someone else, above, said, "I don't think you can have a zfs system fail and move it to different hardware like you can with vmware...". Nevermind that we can migrate a running operating system and application to another piece of hardware and keep it running. Yes, of course if you have a hardware fault, you can bring it back up on another machine. The virtualization with Solaris is quite capable.
In the environment of a large company where we're competing against Linux on the low-cost end of things, Solaris/SPARC is not only holding its own, but actually beating our Linux cloud counterparts in the costs of a virtualized OS/hardware. (I should ask my boss if we can publish a paper on this, because it is rather impressive.)
On the high end of things, we completely dominate. We generally use a T5-4 for our internal cloud (which really isn't the biggest Oracle server out there). It has 64 cores, presenting 512 execution threads to the scheduler. RAM goes up to 2TB. If someone starts out on a tiny box with only one CPU and 4gb of RAM, we can scale them all the way up to the top by increasing their virtualization settings. No migrating to different or unusual hardware. If an application team can't scale their code horizontally (hey, it happens), they can go way vertical in this configuration. We haven't had a need yet for an M6-32 (32tb of RAM, and 32 of the 12-core CPUs (3072 execution threads or "virtual cpus"). We have Linux surrounded (on the low-cost side and the high-performance side) in a large enterprise environment, and that's why Solaris is still there.
Now, I'm not an Oracle salesperson. But if Slashdot ever did an AMA with an Oracle sales engineer, I think my fellow Linux admins would be particular impressed on how far ahead Oracle/SPARC is in a number of key areas.
Amazon recently announced it was getting into the advertisement business, and it beat out Google to acquire Twitch.
Pure speculation on my part, but I have to wonder if this is just Google's CEO trying to steal some of the spotlight away from Amazon?
Suddenly, Google is saying, "Oh yeah... delivery drones. We've been doing this for some time now." It smells like petty CEO bickering. (As cool as delivery drones are.)
Based on published information, we know that the NSA gets customer information by compelling companies to produce the records, or it taps the connections between their datacenters and it gets the data in transit). Apple didn't deny either -- neither one of those involve installing a backdoor or giving SERVER access.
I think you're on the right track. There really is nothing that Apple can say to convince foreign users that their data is safe.
Some additional nostalgia from 1997...
Escape from MicroSun (aka "Friday Afternoon") is a text adventure (written by a Sun Microsystems employee) where you play the part of a programmer for "MicroSun" and have to escape the office by 6pm for a date.
I was an original backer for the Ouya. The interface is a bit awkward, but worse, the software titles just aren't compelling. There doesn't seem to be a great reason to make an exclusive Ouya game, and anything you can find there you can get on your phone or another platform. Playing smartphone games on your TV just doesn't deliver any kind of wow factor.
Why is it that people name their product the very opposite of what it is? Is it supposed to serve as some sort of rebuttal? Safe for who? The guy going 60mph? Anyone around him when he loses power steering and brakes?
Technically possible, but I'm sure, not practical. Even more so when you consider that the ads can be embedded in the applications. By contrast, consider how practical it would be to install a custom ROM on a iPhone and remove all the ads?
The kinds of wireless networks the article was talking about were not WiFi (or fiber) technologies.
Over the shoulder supervision is more a need of the manager than the programming task.


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NLM Information Resource Grants to Reduce Health DisparitiesFriday, March 16th, 2012
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) solicits resource grant applications for projects that will bring useful, usable health information to health disparity populations and the health care providers who care for those populations. Access to useful, usable, understandable health information is an important factor during health decisions. Proposed projects should exploit the capabilities of computer and information technology and health sciences libraries to bring health-related information to consumers and their health care providers. Preference will be given to applications that show strong involvement of health science libraries.
Because this FOA focuses on providing health information to health disparity populations, institutions with demonstrated commitment to the needs of health disparity communities (including Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) and other institutions in rural and socially disadvantaged areas) are encouraged to apply.