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Etched Mercury Glass Pillar Holders
- Overview
Styled like ornate banister columns, each of our pillar holders is artfully etched by hand with a unique swirling-leaf motif. Set on a wide hand-etched base, they're also finished with silvered-mercury glass to bring beautiful sparkle to the flicker of candlelight.
- Made of blown glass with an antique-mercury finish and hand-etched designs.
- Each holds a 4" diameter, 4.5" high pillar candle.
- Dimensions & Care
- Small: 7.75" diameter, 11" high
- Large: 8.5" diameter, 23" high
- Wipe with a soft, dry cloth.
- Shipping & Returns
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 3-5 business days.
Next Day Delivery and Processing
We can arrange for next day delivery to most destinations within the contiguous 48 states, for an extra charge of $17.50 per address. If we receive your order by 6pm PT Monday through Friday, you'll receive your order the next business day; orders placed on Friday after 6pm PT through Sunday will arrive on Tuesday. Note: Next Day Delivery service is not available for some oversized items, White Glove Delivery, out of stock items, personalized items or for items shipped directly from the manufacturer.
Select oversized items have an additional delivery and processing surcharge; this charge is listed below the item price.
View the complete Shipping and Delivery Information page.
You can return eligible item(s) within 30 days of receiving an order or 7 days for Quick Ship upholstery items for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required. Monogrammed items and Made to Order furniture or rugs are not eligible for returns. Review the full list of ineligible items and our refund policy below before starting the process.
Easy Ways to Return:
- Stores - You can return most non-furniture items to your local Pottery Barn store for free.
- Bring to UPS Location (under 70 lbs) – See our full Easy Returns Policy to start the process.
Ineligible Items
Items non-eligible for returns or exchanges:
- Monogrammed items
- Mattresses
- Gift cards
- Made to Order items, including custom rugs and furniture
- Final sale items (with prices ending in $.X7 or $.X9)
- Items damaged through normal wear and tear
Questions? See our full Easy Returns Policy.


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Hi All
A couple of things.
First, when I made my hammock I could only get about 6ft of webbing from a local camping store and found it too short to tie to the trees in my front yard so I bought a couple of cheap 1in wide ratchet tie downs and used the longer end as my new webbing.
Well I set it up this morning over the concrete floor at work here and once I got in one end broke
So for testing of the ridge line I doubled it over and all was ok.
I then attached the new thinner ridgeline and pulled tight on the webbing through the rings until the ridge line was tight and with about the sag that I liked, but when I got in I found that something must be stretching because the ridgeline sagged down to near my head.
Can anyone suggest what could be stretching and causing the ridgline to sag so much?
A bit long but thanks for any help.

subset: commoncrawl


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IT MAY be a modern reimagining of the 1978 cult horror film Patrick, but everything about the movie being shot at Docklands is delightfully old school - right down to the grand guignol finale being shot the day The Saturday Age visits.
Having spent the entire film comatose on a bed, the title character suddenly sits up and propels himself through a stained-glass window. It's the iconic moment from the original, a moment that has drawn rapturous praise from Quentin Tarantino, and a moment that director Mark Hartley has just two chances to capture, because that's as many sugar-water, stained-glass windows as the production can afford.
Amazingly, they get it in one. The stuntman sails through the air, hits the window head first, lands in a pile of sugary shards on a mattress, and gives the thumbs up to indicate he's alive. Hartley decrees it perfect. The second pane won't be needed.
If it were a Hollywood movie, the scene might have been created using digital effects, but Hartley is a fan of tradition. ''Old school is good school,'' he says.
His 2008 documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! lovingly detailed a strand of Australian cinema that had largely been ignored - genre filmmaking. The original Patrick was one of the films he featured, and its producer Antony I. Ginnane one of his interview subjects.
Does that make him the perfect director to breathe new life into this old dog, a creepy tale about telekinesis, mad doctors and a spooky former convent by the sea? ''I'm not sure I'm the perfect guy, but I was certainly very dedicated to making it as good as I could,'' Hartley says. ''There's enough nods and touches in there for people who love the original, and we're reverent to it, but we're certainly not making the same film. It's very much our own.''
Technically, it is very much Ginnane's. Long before the concept of the ''long tail'' had been formulated, he was working it furiously, selling and reselling the distribution rights to the 64 films he has made. (He says he's sold the rights to Patrick about a dozen times in all, including TV, video and DVD releases.)
He has big plans for the rest of the back catalogue. ''For every new title we do we're going to do one remake until we've remade them all,'' he says.
Ginnane has always been ahead of the game (or at least to its side). At a time when the rest of the Australian industry was working in what he likes to call ''that BBC/Merchant Ivory mode'' - code for costume dramas - he was making populist genre fare like Harlequin, Dead Kids and Turkey Shoot, largely for the overseas market (rumour has it that the I. in his name stands for ''international''). Now, Australian cinema has embraced genre like never before.
So, do you feel like you've won the argument? ''If the argument back then was that the film industry wasn't catholic enough in its taste, then yes,'' he says. ''I think I provoked the argument … I wasn't the only one doing it, but I guess I was the noisiest.''
Patrick will be released mid-2013.


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LA CROSSE, Wis (WEAU)- Monday afternoon in La Crosse, the judge sentenced Pao Choua Vue to 35 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision. Kong Vue was sentenced to 35 years in prison and 20 years of extended supervision.
Kong Vue and Pao Choua Vue of La Crosse are accused of murdering 20 year old Sara Hougom. The two were supposedly high on meth and looking for money when Kong Vue entered in Hougom's apartment trying to steal her purse, on March 26th of this year.
Kong told police he shot Sara twice with a .22 caliber pistol after being frightened by her and then fled the scene leaving her to die.
Before the sentencing more than 20 people gave statements about Sara, ranging from memories to details of the pain of living without her.
"She was a wonderful and beautiful person and she was my best friend," said Sara's roommate, Holly Germain.
"She was kind, sweet, carefree, stunning, and the definition of a best friend. She was supposed to be here to watch me get married and be here when I give birth to my little girl," said best friend, Paige Roth-Smith.
"Losing my girlfriend Sara has been the hardest part of my life" said Sara's boyfriend Scott Hogan. "Every day I wake up and think about Sara and feel the physical pain of emptiness."
Sara's mother and father also shared their memories and feelings in front of the courtroom.
"I can't imagine what an animal would shoot a defenseless women lying on her couch," said Sara's father Michael Hougom in a rage. "A parent should never have to go through this."
"At 6:45 pm they pronounced my baby dead. They let me then touch her and hold her. I just put my face down near hers and told her she is going to be okay, that she wasn't gone, that it wasn't true," said Sara's mother Sherry Hougom.
Even the police officer, who was first on the scene and had to give Sara CPR until the ambulance came spoke on behalf of the family.
"She turned towards me and looked me straight in my eyes. I just squeezed her hand and told her to hold on, to breathe and I promised her I wasn't going to leave her."
Both Kong Vue and Pao Choua Vue apologized to the family before they were sentenced. Pao Choua Vue added to his apology that he believed he had brought shame upon his family and people, and hoped to reflect on what he had done while in prison.


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2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T. Click image to enlarge
Long-Term Test Update 3: 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T
Manufacturer's web site
Review and photos by Chris Chase
Photo Gallery:
2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T
Our long-term Genesis Coupe recently went back to Hyundai Canada, but not before it got the chance to seriously impress me with its interior, which is a lot bigger than I gave it credit for in my last update.
In that article, I whined a lot about my concern that all the stuff I needed to fit into the car for a road trip to southern Ontario wouldn't fit. Turned out that four guitars, an amp, sundry other guitar-related items, suitcase, camera, laptop and an air mattress fit just fine, and left plenty of room for eight bottles of wine, a large backpack, and my wife, who made the return trip with me.
I wouldn't say it was an ideal situation; having to load bulky, heavy things like tube amplifiers and hard-side guitar cases into the back seat of a low-slung two-door is not fun, nor is it good for one's lower back. But, I persevered, and everything (and everyone) made it there and back without incident.
2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T. Click image to enlarge
Plus, even with all that extra weight on board, the Genesis Coupe beat its previous best fuel consumption average (by a whole 0.1 L/100 km), achieving 7.6 L/100 km between Ottawa and Niagara-on-the-Lake, at speeds between 80 and 120 km/h. I was easily able to complete the 550-km drive on about two-thirds of a tank of gas, giving this car a theoretical, but plausible, driving range of about 800 km and an average speed of about 100 km/h. Hyundai's fuel consumption estimates for this car are 10.0 L/100 km city, and 6.6 L/100 km highway.
That's a pretty solid result for a 274-horsepower car. This car's real-world fuel consumption impresses me more than what I've seen in a number of less-powerful Hyundais, such as the Accent and Elantra; the best I saw in a road trip in the latter was 6.6 L/100 km. I'd expected more from a car with a 4.9L/100 km highway rating, and apparently, so did Hyundai, who announced in early November that it had incorrectly estimated fuel consumption in a number of vehicles. (http://www.autos.ca/general-news/hyundai-and-kia-fuel-ratings-were-incorrect/) The Genesis Coupe appears to be the only model not affected.
2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T. Click image to enlarge
I love driving a manual transmission, but this car's stickshift fought me to the very end and had me wishing for the optional eight-speed automatic. The clunky shift mechanism feels like it belongs in a tractor, and the abrupt clutch engagement made the car a real handful in city driving, even after I'd been driving it on and off for more than three months.
The turbocharged, 2.0L engine was a treat, however, with little turbo lag and flexible power delivery, particularly at low engine speeds. There was always useful power available from as low as 2,000 rpm, rendering downshifts unnecessary at highway speeds, unless I wanted to make a quick pass on the two-lane Highway 7 route I took west from Ottawa.
Comfortable front seats made my five-and-a-half hour drive bearable, with the only negative the low seating position, which made this car annoying for running errands, or any situation where you have to get in and out of the car repeatedly.
Hyundai entered the Genesis Coupe 2.0T in AJAC's 2013 Canadian Car of the Year contest, in the Sports-Performance under $50,000 category. It finished a close third to the Ford Focus ST and Scion FR-S, but I'd be less inclined to call it an outright sports car, and more of a sport-y car that works best as a high-performance tourer.
Whatever you call it, the Genesis Coupe is entertaining. Just think hard about how much you really must have a manual transmission; this car would be better with the automatic, and if you really want a stick, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.


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River City Academy leader Dawn Edwards-Smith and faculty work closely with parents to achieve the best for students. I am impressed with this large space gather knowledge in perfect harmony, to be in tune with all their students, a perfect fit.
I wish to send a special congratulations to valedictorian Daniel J. McIntosh, and say how proud I am of you, the heights you have achieved and will continue to achieve. May you all be well. Parents, great job for all the support that is given to these fine minds.


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Waubeeka Golf May Have Buyer Waiting in the Wings
|Rumors are flying that a buyer has emerged for Waubeeka Golf Links.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — There may be good news for one of North County's public golf courses, and a bogie for another.
There are rumors that a deep-pocketed local connection to Williamstown is interested in acquiring Waubeeka Golf Links.
"There has been a lot of activity but nothing definite," said Alan Marden of Alton & Westall Agency, which is handling the listing for owners James and Jody Goff. "We're hopeful, but it's not a good time to be selling a golf course."
However, a source close to the negotiations says a formal offer has been made for the 18-hole course in an effort to save it as a recreational asset and open space.
The deal would reportedly maintain the course and spin off its operations — including the pro shop and restaurant — as independent businesses and lower the cost to play there. It would also means more than 20 jobs, some of which could be new.
The potential buyer is rumored to be an Internet entrepreneur but iBerkshires.com Publisher Osmin Alvarez of Williamstown, who purchased Greylock Bowl in North Adams last year, said it's not him.
"Contrary to rumors, I have no interest or involvement in this deal," Alvarez said.
Marden said the course is completely shut down at the moment with a groundskeeper maintaining it.
The asking price on the 200 acres along Routes 7 and 43 was reduced from $5 million to $3.5 million last fall to encourage interest in the facility.
"It is our hope to find a buyer at this reduced price who will continue to operate Waubeeka as a golf course," Goff said a statement back in August. The Goffs bought Waubeeka in 2008 for $4.2 million and invested $1 million into it.
The fear has been the property, actually three parcels, could be broken up for housing development. That possibility, however, could run into difficulty because of the lack of water and sewer line in South Williamstown. A proposal to run a municipal water line south along Route 7 was nixed a decade ago specifically over fears it would promote dense development in the rural area.
Meanwhile, in Clarksburg, dreams of an 18-hole course may be stuck in a sandtrap at the moment.
Golf course designer James Basiliere of Dalton purchased the note for the cash-strapped North Adams Country Club in 2011 for $305,000 and laid out ambitious plans to expand the nine-hole course over the next several years, including revamping the problematic entrance and building a new clubhouse.
However, the property is listed for foreclosure auction by MountainOne Bank on March 25. When contacted, Basiliere said, "there is no foreclosure" and that he would be able to speak on what's happening with the project when he's back in town next week.
Tags: golf course,
|iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue; please keep comments focused on the issues and not on personalities. Profanity, obscenity, racist language and harassment are not allowed. iBerkshires reserves the right to ban commenters or remove commenting on any article at any time. Concerns may be sent to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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"Zero Dark Thirty"
Annapurna Pictures
2 hours, 37 minutes
In "Zero Dark Thirty," the critically acclaimed new film chronicling the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, director Katherine Bigelow feels no need to ease us in to what is going to be a long, grim, tense ride. The film opens with recordings of 911 calls from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and proceeds directly to a waterboarding during a CIA black-site interrogation. "We're not playing games," she seems to be telling the audience, both through her directing, and through her heroine, the brilliant Jessica Chastain, playing Maya, the woman who spent the entire first part of her career entirely focused on nothing less than the destruction of the terrorist mastermind.
When Maya enters the tale, as a witness to the aforementioned interrogation, she'd already been working on Osama for a while. She is sent to Pakistan where she joins the Bin Laden working group, running snitches, gathering information, and analyzing what they can about one of the most elusive criminals in the world. The audience is never given a chance to know Maya as an individual in her own right, but only in conjunction to her work. This probably has something to do with the fact that the real Maya's identity is likely kept as a top-level secret.
What we do discover about her is that she is dogged, not easily cowed, and cold as ice, a fact belied by her fiery red hair. As the hunt veers off down a thousand rabbit holes, it is Maya who stubbornly maintains a theory about a mysterious courier who serves as Bin Laden's trusted right hand. Find Abu Ahmed, she maintains, and you'll find Osama. Insistently, over years, through set-backs, deaths of friends, and even the rumored death of Abu Ahmed himself, Maya chases this lead until, one day, she and her team wind up at the door to a fortress-like mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The rest is history.
Though very well produced, directed, written, and acted, "Zero Dark Thirty" does feel a bit like a chore at times. The movie is long, and with few light moments. I was glad when we finally got to the introduction of SEAL Team Six, a rough and tumble group of professional soldiers with just enough irreverence to take the edge off. Much of this has to do with the film's inclusion of funny-man Chris Pratt, best known as the lovable doofus Andy on the show "Parks and Recreation."
Pratt, who plays Navy SEAL Justin, doesn't turn the film into a laugh riot or anything, but he's the friendliest part of the film and a welcome addition. The acting is all very well done, with nice performances by lesser known actors Jason Clarke and Jennifer Ehle, as well as smaller, but no less arresting turns by Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, and James Gandolfini.
No one can hold a candle, however, to Jessica Chastain. This 36-year-old California native was virtually unheard of before appearing in an independent thriller about Israeli Nazi hunters called "The Debt" in 2010. After that she was everywhere at once, starring in six 2011 releases, including "Tree of Life," "The Help," and "Take Shelter." And with good reason, too. Chastain is beautiful in an ethereal way, and her performances are much the same, as if much is going on beneath the surface.
In that she has a lot in common with another actress who made a similar smash entrance a decade before, Cate Blanchett. Blanchett has been nominated for Oscar four times and has won once — let's hope Chastain's career follows a similar path, with this year seeing her second nomination for "Zero Dark Thirty."
Chastain is great in this film, but never particularly showy — kind of an opposite performance to the equally talented Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook." Much of Maya's strength is displayed in her deliberate stillness. Chastain creates a steely character that is able to slowly evolve so that, by the end of the film, even minor outbursts feel like cannon blasts.
I was hooked by her performance early in the film when, after the aforementioned waterboarding and humiliation, the prisoner is left alone with Maya who has displayed the same kind of disgust and barely concealed horror that you might imagine from anyone. The detainee begs for her help, assuming she, as a woman, can't help but be moved by his pitiful state. But instead of pity, Maya fixes him with a piercing stare and replies, "You can help yourself by being truthful." It's not a major scene, but it's telling and informs her character. She's in with the big kids, and though she may look like a pale, wispy little girl, looks can be deceiving.
I was impressed with "Zero Dark Thirty," but it is a little "by the numbers." The hunt for Bin Laden was long and arduous, certainly, but offers few surprises, especially since we all know how it's going to turn out. The one major shocker in the film is telegraphed from a mile away, so I doubt it'll take anyone by surprise. I agree with the nomination for Best Picture, but a nomination should be enough, in this case. To beat "Lincoln," or even the bewilderingly applauded "Silver Linings Playbook," a movie's got to have some heart, and "Zero Dark Thirty" is all nuts and bolts.
Grade: A-
"Zero Dark Thirty" is rated R for disturbing violence, including scenes of torture, as well as for language and mature themes.
Chris Jenness is a freelance graphic designer, artist and movie buff who lives in Nikiski.


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Get ready for a lot of action on the NHL dance card in the coming hours.
Yes, kids, the league's free agency party is about to commence!
There are quite a few big names out there, with Dan Briere and Chris Drury headlining the card. So who goes where? Was reading James Mirtle's CLICK HERE EH hockey blog out of Canada and he makes a great point: There are a lot of franchises out there who need to turn things around in a hurry and are going to get into a bidding war out of desperation. That's good news for Briere, Drury and the like.
Despite not making the playoffs since 2000, I don't think the Panthers are in desperation mode. JM is a pretty patient dude and thinks the splash (and quite a few dollars spent) was made when they traded for Tomas Vokoun. So don't expect any huge moves. The Panthers are going to try and improve themselves, yes, but they are not going to spend $6-plus million per season to do so. Some of these guys are going to demand that -- and get it.
Look for the Panthers to make some smaller moves, like Minnesota's Todd White and New York's Viktor Kozlov and the like. Hearing White really wants to come south, problem is years and overall dollars right now. If Florida doesn't come through, Carolina could. By having two SE rivals bidding it out, White may get a little more than he previous hoped. Neither wants to see a guy they want eight times a year on the other side of the ice.
According to my math, Florida has 15 guys under contract for 33.9 million, with six guys (including Stephen Weiss) offered qualifiers. So, figure Florida's cap around $38 million ($39-plus if Weiss signs a long-term deal) right now. If they are going up to or above $45 million, they have about $7 mil to spend.
That would buy Danny Briere for sure.
Only JM would rather spread the wealth around, fill some holes, "improve the depth.'' And that's OK too.
The free agency party officially starts at noon Sunday. Don't think being late will be all that fashionable at this party.
-- Not that the Panthers were all that interested, but the Blues resigned Keith Tkachuk today. Panthers do have to be happy he's out of Atlanta.
-- Adam Mair, one player Florida may have had interest in, is off the market too. Resigned with the Sabres on Saturday for three years.
-- Looks like that Boston/Minnesota trade finally went down. According to Bruce Brothers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Wild send disgruntled goalie Manny Fernandez east to the Bruins for Petr Kalus and a future fourth-round pick. Read the rest of the story RIGHT HERE, YA!
-- According to Craig Custance's blog at AJC.com, the Thrashers are still trying to sign Slava Kozlov before tomorrow. The Panthers would like to sign him, sure, but would be happy just to see him out of the ATL and the Southeast.
-- Don't know if anyone saw it, but JM told floridapanthers.com that the Panthers would like to have their own AHL affiliation in the near future. The Panthers currently share Rochester with Buffalo, which has seemed to work out OK for both sides. JM did say he wouldn't want the team to be in Florida because the travel and such wouldn't be beneficial for the players.


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Google has a new easter egg with some wintery fun. Head over to Google.com and search for "Let it Snow" and you'll start to see beautiful white flakes fall on your results. After a few moments it will look like your screen is fogging up and the search results will get pretty hard to see. You can use your mouse to wipe away the fog. Or draw pictures.. Enjoy!
December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment


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This reminds me of what I wrote (in a NYT op-ed) when Bush first nominated Alito. Describing 2 cases in which he "displayed a sensitivity to the needs of adherents of minority religions" that was missing from the Supreme Court decision that, as a lower court judge, he had to apply, I went on to say:
Yes, chances are that a Justice Alito will please conservatives more often than liberals.... Still, [liberals] should give serious study to his record; they may discover that there are varieties of judicial conservatives, just as there are varieties of political conservatives, and that Samuel Alito is not Antonin Scalia.Speaking of conservatives and empathy, Rush Limbaugh monologued about that last week:
By itself, what does sitting around caring about something accomplish? Now, if it motivates you to do something that's an entirely different thing. I find that most people, particularly people on the left, want plaudits, they want gold stars, they think of themselves as superior people just because they care....
I don't worry about things that I have no control over. I used to, big time. I can't tell you the shackles I had on myself worrying about all kinds of stuff. I was worrying about what might happen next year if I did this or did that. There was nothing more paralyzing in my life than to worry about stuff I had no control over. And in the process, I actually limited what I could control.


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Just Seen It at 7 pm
JUST SEEN IT is the review show where industry professionals present their takes on current movies and TV shows, and interview Hollywood insiders.
On Story at 7:30 pm
Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack (OUT OF AFRICA, TOOTSIE, THE WAY WE WERE) and NYPD Blue and Deadwood creator David Milch discuss the inspiration behind creating classic film and television characters. Followed by the suspenseful short film THE LAB by writer/director Ryan Scheer, about two young boys whose summer afternoon in the woods goes horribly awry.
Feature Film: The Sand Pebbles at 8 pm
Multiple Oscar nominations went to this tale of a cynical sailor's experiences on an American gunboat in 1926 China. Cast: Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Candice Bergen.


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|Congratulations to all the CENTURY 21 Fusion award winners for 2014! Winners were honoured at a gala held in Saskatoon on January 30th.
Well, it seems like we're back to a more "normal" Saskatchewan winter – temperature wise that is. The exceptionally mild weather in January had many people thinking about beating the spring rush and putting their homes on the market. We now see a little over 1400 properties listed for sale on the MLS® system in Saskatoon. With this much selection, it may be a good time to be looking for your next home!
A professional REALTOR® can help relieve the stress of buying a property by handling many of the details that are involved in this process.
Contact me at 306-221-0988 for all your real estate needs.
Sign In
Save and Track Your Favourite Properties


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Map by mibi
This map, inspired by a riot in a Supermax security level prison, is one of the larger maps Conquer Club has to offer with 143 total regions. Supermax has very different game play from most other maps due to Strategic Resources and Collections. As a result the bonus awarding regions are non-contiguous and scaleable. Strategic resources provide a bonus for holding a combination of regions providing a bonus (Warden and Guards, Gangs and Leaders) while Collections provide a bonus for having a specific number of designated regions (New Fish). It is important to note that the gangs are frequently classified as Collection bonuses but without holding the gang leader they are worthless; therefore they are a Strategic Resource.
Because of its size, Supermax works well for 4-8 player games. Any spoils or reinforcements work well on this map. This map also works well with or without fog of war; however playing it a few times without fog is recommended before adding to the complexity with fog. I would caution against assassin games on Supermax with fog of war because the amount of influence blind luck plays increases tremendously. This is due to the number of isolated regions in each of the cell blocks - even with snapshots and good deductive reasoning you will have to blindly blunder around the cell blocks to find that final troop your opponent has hidden away!
How to play Supermax: Prison Riot!
Other related strategy guides
- Berlin 1961 Guide - although the size of the map is completely different, in terms of features Berlin is somewhat similar to Supermax.
- Age of Merchants Guide - a much more open map than Supermax, it features Strategic Resources similar to the ones found on Supermax.


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'Eastwooding' Inspires National Empty Chair Day on Monday
In another sign that Clint Eastwood's RNC talk to an empty chair has tapped in to broadly held opinions that President Obama is not getting the job done, word spread rapidly over the weekend among conservative new media outlets that an impromptu "National Empty Chair Day" is being planned for Monday. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection noted the phenomenon first, and Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit quickly picked up on it. According to Jacobson:
Monday – Empty Chair Day
Prof – Seems that there is an effort to make Monday "empty chair day"
[Here's] an image of my front lawn, just mowed, to ensure the empty chair looks right. The sign next to the chair says:
"We own this country ... Politicians are employees of ours ... And when somebody does not do the job, we've got to let them go." – Clint Eastwood
>>> It now appears quite likely that the DNC will open on Monday with images of empty chairs dominating Facebook, Twitter, and the internet. Once again conservative new media outlets have framed the narrative that continues to get away from the Obama 2012 campaign team.
Just put an empty chair out in front of your house on Monday... that says "You're FIRED!"


text: I have this personal tool counting some statistics. It now crashes since it looks like some maps (e.g. 'Germany 2') are missing in the 'maps.xml'-file. What's the deal with the maps.xml-file? Is that correct or what happened? Isn't it nice to have in maps.xml also all maps that have disappeared in the history of CC? This makes it easier to still calculate all statistics from those maps as well.


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My own reflection:
You, and every loyal (R) on this site, was wrong.
Best of luck with your Pro-Entitlement, Pro-Illegal Immigration Brown-People-Winning Agenda in 2016.
Obviously it was a disappointing night for me. I wrote here yesterday that I believed that it would be close but losing Florida or barely winning it was not something I would have expected to see.
Where did it go wrong? There are a few things I would point to starting with Sandy. That was truly an October surprise. Obama got this sort of bipartisan bounce as the country came together in a time of crisis. Gallup and Rassmussen had a shift from Romney +4 to a tie. Exit polls showed that 42% of voters said Obama's response to the crisis was very important to their vote, an additional 15% said it was the most important factor.
That was just one thing. An even larger factor was the Aiken and Murdoch with their comments. It played right in to the hands of Obama's campaign and their war on women narrative. In general the need to pander to evangelicals on social issues is hurting the GOP brand. No one seriously believes that Romney is an anti-abortion warrior or a social values guy but the need to take some of those positions hurts the party with single women in particular. I think moderate candidates going forward should get leeway from the base to position themselves in more of a libertarian stance along the lines of "Personally I am against it for moral reasons but I don't believe that Government should ban it. I am against any government funding specifically for abortions". In general I think the GOP needs to move much closer to libertarian positions across the board. Become the party of smaller government and greater liberties and freedom. Lose some of the social values stuff and appeal to a larger audience. Why should social moderates and fiscal conservatives like me always have to compromise with the party. Let the social values folks compromise instead. They aren't going anywhere regardless.
Another big one was the stance on immigration that Romney took during the primaries. Clearly the GOP will need to revise their position there because the Latino voting bloc is growing and can't be overlooked.
Finally, Obama's ground game was as good as advertised. This was the most surprising for me personally. Obama played it like Bush did in 2004. It was a base turnout campaign and they effectively scared their base in to getting to the polls. Women via the war on women narrative, Blacks turned out in large numbers because Romney promised to cut spending on entitlements which they rely on, and Latinos due to the immigration stance. It helped that Obama had the incumbency advantage and had paid staff on the ground in the key swing states since the 2008 election.
On the plus side: The victory margin for obama was slim. It will end up somewhere in the 2 points range. Republicans held the house and didn't lose ground there. The takeaway was that while the electorate was not ready to fire Obama they also arent ready to embrace a progressive agenda. They left the House in GOP hands and basically said to Obama that its time to actually reach across the aisle and make a deal which can work for both sides.
To his credit Obama gave a fantastic acceptance speech. I advise people that missed it to check it out on you tube. He acknowledged that he needs to listen to and work with the other side. That he hadn't in the past. We have a debt ceiling about to be reached at the moment, a fiscal cliff via taxes and the sequester deal which needs to be changed in the next few months. Obama is a man that strives for greatness. He wants to be remembered as a great president. Another 4 years of staunch positions and battles with the GOP house wont get him there. He will need to take the lead on budget and spending issues as well as entitlement reform working with the GOP in a bipartisan way or we will end up with 4 more years of gridlock. I'm not sure he has it in him but maybe this close election will be a wake up call. If he was sincere it will be a positive thing though past history says that the message was not sincere. I have an inkling of hope that Bill Clinton has advised him of this reality and that there will be a closer relationship with Bubba and Obama that will lead to the type of bipartisan solutions we saw in Clinton's second term.
Last edited by chiefst2000; 11-07-2012 at 12:35 PM.
My own reflection:
You, and every loyal (R) on this site, was wrong.
Best of luck with your Pro-Entitlement, Pro-Illegal Immigration Brown-People-Winning Agenda in 2016.
A black vice presidential candidate would have been huge and fighting against the social issue of gay marriage would have been tremendous.
But the free gift of health care still would have been tough to overcome.
Bold for you 21st
Last edited by cedk; 11-07-2012 at 01:12 PM.
Sure it would have but i did fix my post in case you missed the major issue I reference.
Hate to disagree. Of course, you don't keep a tally of all of us. I am a loyal R.
I felt that this was an Obama win all along. The attitude of the American people has become one of a "give me" lazy society. Certainly enough to change an election. Too much with the anti abortion crowd nonsense also. An economic upheavel is necessary to change the pendulum. 8% unemployment is not enough. 12% might be a tipping point.
Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin's reflection on the campaign is fascinating.
That's it. No need to talk about hispanics or the auto industry. Polls showed nobody was excited about Wiilard for months or years - he was disliked. Ryan turned out to be a dud, but he was an unknown so you can't blame the Repubs for that. But Romney, even his own party didn't like him. He was unelectable. Period.
Very few, if any people in here (except Sackdance) liked him for reasons other than anti-obama sentiment.


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Health experts warn of stroke crisis in Europe
Health experts warned Wednesday of a stroke crisis in Europe which is already costing the region's economy an estimated 38 billion euros ($56 billion) a year, with numbers expected to rise as populations age.
In a report for the European Parliament, medical experts working with the campaign group Action for Stroke Prevention, said atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of abnormal heart rhythm, affects more than six million people in Europe and increases the risk of stroke by five times.
The economic and health impact of stroke is predicted to grow as the number of people with AF is expected to rise two and a half times by 2050 due to aging populations, the report said.
It the said economic burden created by patients suffering strokes accounts for 2 to 3 percent of total healthcare spending in the European Union and AF is responsible for 15 to 20 percent of all strokes caused by blood clots.
This burden will increase in years to come, due to both the improved survival of patients with conditions such as heart attacks and Europe's aging population, the report said.
Gregory Lip, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Birmingham, said the majority of such strokes were preventable, but under-diagnosis and poor care of AF patients, as well as under-use of medicines and the side-effects of drugs means stroke creates an unnecessary and heavy burden on patients, carers and health systems.
AF causes the two upper chambers of the heart to quiver instead of beating properly, resulting in blood pooling and potentially forming clots that can cause stroke. Patients can be given anticoagulants, or blood thinners, to help prevent clots.
Stroke is the most common cardiovascular problem after heart disease and kills an estimated 5.7 million people worldwide each year. Current trends suggest the number of strokes in the European Union will rise from 1.1 million a year in 2000 to 1.5 million a year by 2025, the report said.
Action for Stroke Prevention, an alliance of cardiologists, neurologists, family doctors and patient groups, urged EU policymakers to improve stroke risk assessment and diagnosis of atrial fibrillation before the increasing frequency of strokes becomes a major public health crisis.


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Big Rapids, Mich. - The new conference home of Ferris State Hockey, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), unveiled today its redesigned website at www.WCHA.com.
The new site, which is a work in progress, reflects the new league membership for the 2013-14 season and adds a number of new features and innovative content. Among the major highlights to the relaunched site are a twitter feed on the homepage, more vibrant photos and a prominent location for campus news.
In addition to reflecting the new membership, the site also features a new look with the change in conference logos and a new font style. A more streamlined homepage also provides a stronger visual top stories section.
Fans will be able to access information on their favorite teams thru rebuilt team pages that provide quick access to important data such as statistics, schedules and rosters. The league's statistics platform has also been upgraded with a new filtered stats feature and revised individual player pages.
The league expects the new site to continue to evolve over the summer with additional new features, including updates to the conference's history and traditions.
College hockey's most historic and successful league, the 62-year-old Western Collegiate Hockey Association, has been home to a record 37 men's national championship teams since its founding in 1951, a record 16 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winners, more than 430 National Hockey League players, 350 All-Americans, and 115 Olympians.
With the coming 2013-14 season, the men's WCHA is launching an exciting new era with a tremendously competitive group of 10 prominent university programs that combine the very best in both athletics and academics. The University of Alabama Huntsville, the University of Alaska Anchorage, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bemidji State University, Bowling Green State University, Ferris State University, Lake Superior State University, Michigan Technological University, Minnesota State University and Northern Michigan University are all tremendous ice hockey programs with great and long-standing traditions, and we are all geared up for what will be a truly memorable campaign.
Coinciding with the launch of the 2013-14 campaign, the all-new WCHA.com showcases the league, its member programs and its great history and tradition in a first-class manner. It includes a dynamic new WCHA logo and colors allowing for a more vibrant site.
The streamlined home page offers a stronger visual Top Stories section, the continuation of Campus News where visitors will get the latest from our member campuses, and the addition of the WCHA twitter feed. More exciting new features will come with the launch of the new season in the fall.
Fans can visit the new WCHA website at the link below:


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I think their focus is more on coverage than raw speed. Since these tests were all done in major cities, Verizon's major selling point is instantly made irrelevant.
Since these tests were all done in major cities, Verizon's major selling point is instantly made irrelevant.
I live and work in the largest city in the country, and I assure you that Verizon's major selling point is never irrelevant. Currently I have a Verizon phone and a T Mobile phone, up until 4 months ago I had a Verizon phone and an AT&T phone. Even in the city, T Mobile and AT&T coverage is crap. Their signal is often weak, it drops frequently, 3G is spotty at best, even 2G is spotty. My Verizon phone on the other hand always works, 100% of the time. I've had a Verizon phone the longest, about 1
I live and work in one of the more well-off areas of San Diego (Solana Beach)...and the AT&T coverage here is absolutely horrible. I quite often will get no signal at all, spend half my time not even on 3g, etc. Almost all of the people in the office here have an iphone too, and all but one of them have the same problem (meaning, it's not just my phone).
I have a Blackberry with AT&T, and I'm frequently in Encinitas taking advantage of my uncle's large collection of surfboards. Yup, AT&T service is crap there. It's also crap in San Gabriel where I live, Yorba Linda where my daughter's school is, and Grass Valley where most of my family lives. It's ok in Fullerton as long as I'm not in the middle of a large building (like, say, in the bathroom in the Math and Science building at CSUF). Next paycheck will likely see me switching to Verizon, for both t
Using my metro (Baltimore, and sometimes DC) as the judge, it has verified what I already knew about Verizon: a bit slower but more consistent (how often does the download meet the minimum requirements of the spec). We see 96.3% consistency for Verizon in Baltimore, compared to 92.6% for each of the next most reliable. This is about half the number of dropped/lost/slow data messages from the next best competitor, and far better than AT&T's 74%. In DC, Verizon was actually relatively fast, while still
I hear there's a map for that!
I'm surprised at not seeing Verizon mentioned in the summary, as I've heard pretty much everywhere that they have the best network. Perhaps Verizon focuses more on phone service than data?
I imagine Verizon will switch their focus to data once the 'can you hear me now' guy is done testing their network's voice coverage.
"Can I post my tweet? Good!"
Interestingly, http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/3g-speed-test/ has very different results and Verizon comes in first.
Verizon has always favored call quality over data service though, that's why they stuck with CDMA and even took so long to convert to digital. For a long time they even required every handset maker to include an extendable antenna for their network to ensure you could get the best signal possible for calls.
Even now, Verizon 3G is technically EV-DO which caps at 3MB much lower than the 1
Verizon has always favored call quality over data service though, that's why they stuck with CDMA and even took so long to convert to digital.
Cellco Partnership dba Verizon Wireless (result of a merger) didn't even come into existence until after almost all carriers switched to some digital technology. One of the companies (PrimeCo) was CDMA from its launch.
Actually, they have an excellent data network. It is slower than AT&T's HSPA, but in my experience it is much much more reliable. With Verizon, I average about 600 - 700 kbps down almost everywhere. With AT&T I might get 1mbps down or I might get 250 - 300 kbps down depending on which wall I'm standing next to. The reason for that is Verizon's EVDO A has been rolled out all over the place and is a little older than AT&T's HSPA. AT&T's rollout of their 3G network was (and continues to be) hor
I can clarify the verizon thing for you. They were only testing for speed, and only where everyone had coverage. Given those restrictions, the results aren't surprising. I have had data cards and smartphones from AT&T, Verizon, and T-mobile data through various jobs (oftentimes simultaneously). AT&T is generally the fastest when it works. Verizon is by far the most consistent (500kbps~1 mbit almost anywhere in the country in my experience) with the largest 3G network by a HUGE margin. T-mobil
I'm surprised at not seeing Verizon mentioned in the summary, as I've heard pretty much everywhere that they have the best network. Perhaps Verizon focuses more on phone service than data?
If by "pretty much everywhere" you mean "in all the Verizon commercials", I am forced to concur.
I'm surprised at not seeing Verizon mentioned in the summary, as I've heard pretty much everywhere that they have the best network. Perhaps Verizon focuses more on phone service than data?
You've heard they have the best network because their own commercials are everywhere. They do have (probably) the widest coverage area, but it's not the fastest in all areas, and as with every other radio-based technology, doesn't work everywhere. My personal opinion is they are solidly mediocre. They're the Honda Acc
last July, I was at otakon and in the inner harbor, I'm able to get somthing obscene like 7 megs.
I use Clear (formerly XOhm) as my ISP too and it's been great. No contract and $35/month. It's not bad, and worth checking out, although it's specific to where you are. I got 1Mbps in my old neighborhood and now reach 3Mbps and I'm only a mile down the road. A friend in Dundalk got 5Mbps.
Also, the ETF fee doesn't go up until you sign a new contract (old ETF is grandfathered in if you are still under contract), and by law the fee goes down every month. It's $5/month for AT&T so if it was $175 in December
Assholes are running around the country with laptops trying to see how much bandwidth they can eat up for testing purposes.
in NYC and i have an iphone 3GS and a sprint blackberry. speedtests on the iphone average around 600 - 3500kbps download. even in midtown manhattan. depends on the exact location and time of day. and response is pretty good. the Sprint BB is like watching trees grow. Google maps is slow. and there are tons of deadspots around NYC. only time it's better is in one of the old factory buildings on the west side. last year when AT&T had problems i would listen to pandora and slacker on my BB.
with iphone OS 4 coming out next week i would throw the blackberry in the trash if it didn't belong to my employer
which BB model? i had a sprint BB that was dooooog slooooow, but it wasn't sprint - it was the crappy phone that was slow.
Yay Raleigh! We have IBM! We have Redhat! We have Cisco! We also have slow-as-hell 3G / 4G!
At least our Roadrunner cable service is pretty solid. Would hate to be in an area with great wireless while simultaneously being stuck with Comcast.
The problem with AT&T isn't speed, it's latency. I often had to wait ten seconds or more for a data request to be met, and often the software would timeout before that happened (which meant I would get no data at all). Once a download actually started, it was very fast, but so what?
High latency will result when in areas with high packet loss. Basically your cell puts out the request but it doesn't go anywhere. It times out and eventually tries again - hence the perceived delay. When responding with a data stream, lost packets are quickly recognized by the receiving node. These lost packets can be retransmitted on request - no need to wait for a timeout.
The test would be to go to an area where you have both great reception and bandwidth. With a good signal and no bandwidth conte
I never had anything but five bars in Manhattan in my two years with AT&T, (I moved abroad a couple of weeks ago) and I had good bandwidth whenever I could get data, but I never latency anywhere under a second. They probably ARE doing something very wrong.
Naturally, when the phone goes on sale June 4, people who live in 3G-only cities (such as San Francisco) may wonder what they're missing from the experienc
That's very generous of you. My guess is that most of them will have bought their 4g phones, and be marveling at how much faster the 4g experience really is.
>I appreciate that ATT is going to sell 2 GB of data, with tethering, for $50.
Wait, what? Data on a Verizon phone is like 30 dollars. Not $60. Its $60 if you have a non-phone like a broadbard card. A lot of Verizon phones can do tethering for free. If anything AT&T is the ripoff here.
>Second, why is Sprint 4G so slow?
Are you kidding. People have been doing speed tests on Sprint/Clear for months and outside of people who are getting zero reception or have bad equipment, we're seeing speeds of 2+
For what it's worth...
I was in Chicago for a couple of months at the beginning of the year. While there, I subscribed to Clear Internet (http://www.clear.com) - a 4G provider with (I think) Sprint backing it.
My results were absolutely horrible - on average, I was getting 51k download speeds. This was as measured on the modem itself (no router/firewall/PC - right from the status screen on the modem). There was nothing I could do to improve this and the people at Clear were completely baffled by this. According to the Clear folk, I was about 1/10 mile from the nearest tower. I was getting excellent signal and PSNR.
In my mind, either Clear was totally messed up or 4G has a lot more hype than delivery.
Considering I could pull better than 51k with my 1x connection 5 years ago, I'm going to go with Clear was totally messed up. I'm on 3g now and while it's certainly not as fast as my wired connection at home, it is most definitely faster than a 56k modem.
Rather than re-iterate, I'll just link to a similar reply I had made from the other day. Summary: it's weird what you experienced in Chicago, and I had the exact opposite of what you experienced (plus a much larger set of data - 63 POPs to be exact). Did you try and move it anywhere else? Since it's WiMax, you can just go anywhere with power...
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1669832&cid=32403606 [slashdot.org]
Funny. It's all anecdotal though. I'm on Clear right now in North Chicago and I routinely see 500k+/sec downloads. I've seen the speed tests get as high as 11mbps down, and 1.5mbps up, which in my opinion is pretty damn good for a wireless connection.
There are definitely some areas where it sucks (Riverside has terrible coverage), but I've found it to be fantastic, hardly ever cutting out and even when it's running slower than usual it's still faster than what I had with an AT&T DSL line.
I have the Clear service, (the USB dongle and the Motorola Base station). My experience with it has been mixed. It works at 2+ to 4MB on the USB dongle at my work, which is in Carrollton TX 75007.
However it has been unreliable at home (where I need it). Some times it runs at 3 or 4 MB but 50% of the time it is sub 1MB or zilch.
Clear (part owned by Sprint) has promised that 2 more towers are due for activation in the area of my home. The date on this has slipped and I hope that it is not an empty promise.
"4G" is mostly a marketing now; what is supposed to designate next gen mobile phone networks, with "all is data" approach, is used by PR to describe things which are used only for data (not integrated with rest of services), speedwise on par with 3.5G or 3.75G, at best.
Why am I not suprised this isn't a black spot for AT&T coverage. I bet they have a transmitter aimed directly at Steve Jobs' head.
Don't be stupid.
The transmitter is aimed directly at Steve Jobs' office.
I bet they have a deal that there is a transmitter and direct fiber line to it IN Steve Jobs' office. More seriously, I would highly doubt that there aren't multiple att towers on apple's campus. When you are developing cell phones you can just cripple coverage with thousands of phones all doing automated testing on the same tower
From D8, looks like it's been aimed at his head in his office.
Interestingly, Apple campus is one of the only places in Cupertino with good AT&T 3G coverage. My friend lives about 2 blocks away from Apple HQ on Homestead road and I can't even make calls there let alone actually use the web.
That's the issue. Loosely, "3G" tends to indicate that service has serious provision for data but is still largely voice, while "4G" indicates a service is data-oriented. There's huge overlap between all the competing systems in bandwidth, coverage, latency and features (e.g shared voice+data). Hell, even "2G" (GSM) can be faster than "4G" when your 4G signal is very weak. The current AT&T vs Verizon spat is pretty much dictionary definition Strawman.
It's most obvious when you talk about Verizon and, w
Tech belonging to "CDMA" camp is certainly used also in few places close to Sweden...funny enough, practically exlusively as a stationary net access. Not much of a surpise, considering the quality and diversity of GSM mobile phones, at the least.
There's also the factor that "CDMA" had larger part of its technology ("intellectual property") based in the US, I believe. Lobbying & behind the scene deals could work well with that. Accidentally, not only Iraq, out of more-or-less-US-colonies, is heavily into
Assuming you had an app that could take advantage of AT&T's 5 Mb/s peak speed, you would hit your 2 GB cap in 53 minutes of streaming.
You won't be streaming too many movies to your 3G iPad anytime in the near future.
It might be worth noting that up here in Ontario I'm able to get 7.2 megabits/sec on a good night, with averages between 4.5-6.5, with latency between 75 and 95ms. And this is literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and trees. In fact, because of where we live, we use something called a Rocket Hub as our primary internet access device, and it uses the cell network. $60/month for 10 gigs, with $5/gig overage. We may not be the best in the world by any stretch, but it's not bad!
You are in a maze of little twisting passages, all different.


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Majority Leader Hoyer Statement on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
(202) 225 - 3130
WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer spoke on the House Floor today in support of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
"Mr. Speaker, when the Supreme Court wrongly decides a case - particularly when Congressional intent is at issue - the United States Congress can and should act to remedy it.
"That is precisely what this carefully crafted, measured legislation - the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 - is designed to do.
"Make no mistake: the Court's five-to-four decision on May 29 in Ledbetter versus Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was wrongly decided.
"The merits of Lilly Ledbetter's wage discrimination claim seem beyond doubt. A federal jury agreed that she was discriminated against.
"The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission agreed with Ms. Ledbetter's claims - although the Bush Administration switched its position once the case got to the Supreme Court.
"Most importantly, Lilly Ledbetter was paid less than all of her male counterparts, even those who had less seniority.
"And, this clearly was not a case where her performance was suspect. Goodyear gave her a 'top performance award' in 1996.
"The fact is, the Court majority took an extremely cramped view of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act - holding that Ms. Ledbetter and claimants like her must file their pay discrimination claims within 180 days of the original discriminatory act.
"But there are at least three serious problems with the Court's flawed analysis.
"First, the unlawful discrimination against Ms. Ledbetter did not begin and end with Goodyear's original decision to pay her less than her male co-workers.
"In fact, every paycheck that Lilly Ledebetter received after Goodyear's decision to pay her less was a continuing manifestation of Goodyear's illegal sex discrimination.
"As Justice Ginsberg said in dissent, each subsequent paycheck was 'infected' by the original decision to unlawfully discriminate.
"Second, the Court dismissed the realities of the workplace far too casually. Detecting pay discrimination is not easy, and sometimes it may take years to uncover.
"Why? Because people generally do not talk openly with their co-workers about their salaries, raises and bonuses. In fact, many employers strive to keep such information confidential.
"Just consider: Ms. Ledbetter apparently did not become aware that she had been discriminated against until she received an anonymous letter alerting her to the discrimination.
"And third, Mr. Speaker, the Court majority ignored its own holdings that Congress intended Title VII to have a broad remedial purpose - to make persons whole for injuries suffered on account of unlawful employment discrimination.
"Finally, let me say that those who claim that this bill somehow eliminates the statute of limitations are incorrect. Under this bill, an employee must still file a charge within the statutory filing period after receiving a discriminatory paycheck.
"Mr. Speaker, this bill is fair. It is just. And it comports with the intent of this Congress in passing the Civil Rights Act. I urge my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, to support it."


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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 8th May 2013 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Permalink for comment 561027
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RE: Heroes!
by BlueofRainbow on Thu 9th May 2013 13:56 UTC in reply to "Heroes!"
Haiku needs a few more heroes like them to kick-start the spiral of success.
Given the area of application - managing a music collection and streaming its contents over the internet - it likely made more sense to leap with Haiku than port/re-code the underlying media management code to another operating system. After-all, wasn't being media centric one of the strengths of BeOS?
If I remember correctly, they did the same when Zeta was around. If so, this indicates that the foundation defined in BeOS and being refined in Haiku is still relevant.


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Tuesday, March 26
Doldrums Emerging from Montreal's DIY art-pop scene, Airick Woodhead's work as Doldrums is busy, inscrutable electronic pop with a clear avant-garde bent. It's similar (conceptually at least) to that of Grimes, Woodhead's friend and contemporary, but there's nary an easy entry point like "Genesis" on Lesser Evil, his debut. It's frantic digital music for a frantic digital age. With Sean Nicholas Savage. Barboza. 8 p.m. $10 adv.
Major Lazer is widely considered vapid party music (reinforced by a wild Capitol Hill Block Party set last year), but Diplo's electro/dub/hip-hop hybrid is a lot smarter and more self-aware than it lets on. Plus, songs like "Get Free," featuring Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors, show that the Major can occasionally commit to songcraft as well. With Lunice. Showbox SoDo. 8 p.m. $25-$30. All ages.
Ducktails is the main side project of Real Estate guitarist Matthew Mondanile, and his latest, most expansive record (January's The Flower Lane) plays like a hybrid of his other band's easygoing guitar pop and Destroyer's lounge-rock act. With Mark McGuire, Monopoly Child Star Searchers. Barboza. 8 p.m. $10 adv.
Thursday, March 28
Christopher Owens Since Girls unexpectedly disbanded last summer, Christopher Owens has quietly moved into the next phase of his career: solo artist. Lysandre, his first post-breakup release, doesn't sound all that different from a Girls record, but now Owens has the freedom to take his classic rock-indebted songwriting experiments in whatever direction he chooses. With Melted Toys. Vera Project. 8 p.m. $20 adv./$22 DOS. All ages.
Friday, March 29
Vox Mod This is a release show for SYN-ÆSTHETIC, which looks to be producer Scot Walker's breakout release as Vox Mod, combining his trademark synth-drenched beats with contributions from Erik Blood and Ishmael Butler. With OC Notes, Olav, DJ Riz. Vermillion. 9 p.m. $5.
Saturday, March 30
Mudhoney Of the surviving acts from the formative years of Seattle alternative rock, Mudhoney has perhaps been the most consistent, gradually honing its sound and steadily releasing albums for the past two decades. This is a release show for Vanishing Point, the band's ninth full-length in 25 years. With Unnatural Helpers, Universe People. Neumos. 8 p.m. $15 adv.
Sunday, March 31
Charlie Parr A folk music lifer, gifted storyteller, and deft guitarist, Parr blends roots music, gospel, and bluegrass in his knotty acoustic songs. With Rory James and the Majestic. Tractor Tavern. 8 p.m. $10.


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MILFORD—Owners of the Virginia Sports Complex are asking Caroline County officials for more time to solve the facility's waste disposal problem.
The facility along U.S. Route 1 near Carmel Church has over 150,000 visitors annually. But the facility, which opened in 2004, is not connected to a municipal sewage treatment system and does not have its own treatment system either, said Michael A. Finchum, director of planning and community development for the county.
"Right now they operate under a county pump and haul permit," Finchum said. "They have a large septic tank on site, and septic flows to that tank. They pump septic waste into a truck and it's hauled to the county waste water treatment plant."
The pump-and-haul system at VSC was allowed by the county as a temporary system. But VSC owners are asking the county government for an additional seven years to either connect to the county's wastewater treatment system or to build a gigantic septic tank with a drain field so large that it could possibly shut down one of the baseball fields.
In 2009, VSC owners agreed to this written condition: "Applicant shall connect to the county sewer system with 24 months…If public sewer is not available, then the applicant shall install a permanent on-site treatment system and discontinue use of the temporary pump and haul."
Finchum said the 113-acre VSC is several miles away from the county system's nearest hookup, and hooking up to the system could cost VSC several hundred thousand dollars.
The county could build a "forced main system from the VSC site up to Carmel Church" and VSC would have to pay for it. "The preferred option would be a gravity system," Finchum said.
Gary Wilson, director of Caroline County Economic Development and Tourism, "has been looking for ways to help them finance a connection," Finchum said. VSC "has a prospect who wants to purchase the sports complex" but the prospective buyer wants the septic issue resolved before proceeding with the purchase, he added.
The request for more time on the septic issue came before the Caroline County Planning Commission on Sept.18. The six commissioners voted unanimously to defer the matter until the next meeting on Oct. 16. No one was at the planning commission meeting to represent VSC.
The planning staff, represented at the meeting by county planner Angela Pitts, had recommended that the planning commission defer the matter. Originally, it was on the agenda for the Sept. 24 Caroline County Board of Supervisors meeting but has been removed.
During the planning commission meeting, Commissioner Timothy Thompson asked if VSC had originally submitted drawings for a sewer system, and Pitts said no.
The county's existing sewer lines are south of VSC along Route 1 at Union First Market Bank and north along Route 1 at Pendleton.
Finchum noted that plenty of small businesses along U.S. 1 and U.S. 301 south of Bowling Green have their own septic tank and drain fields because they are out of reach of the county wastewater treatment system. Some of those systems are no bigger than that of a house.
The problem with VSC, however, is that it might produce several thousand gallons of wastewater during a peak day or weekend. "You can't just put a drain field anywhere," Finch said. "It depends on how good the soils are and how well they percolate."
Another condition VSC owners agreed to in 2009 is that they would pave the gravel road that leads to the complex. They are asking for another two years to do that.
The VSC website at http://www.vasportscomplex.com/ says the complex consists of "eight state of the art outdoor fields and an indoor facility that has eight batting cages, four volleyball courts, two basketball courts, full indoor turf field and other areas for private parties and meetings." Caroline High School baseball teams played games at VSC in 2012.
The complex closed temporarily in 2010. Estimates indicated then that the complex had a $12 million economic impact on Caroline County. VSC hosts several baseball and softball tournaments every weekend from March to November and these average 30 to 60 teams from all over the East Coast.
In addition, VSC holds baseball camps and training clinics throughout the year.
The complex has other events, such as regional battle of the bands contests and cornhole league competition.


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Hi All,
I enjoy anal stimulation but have avoided doing it with a partner because it always ends up being messy. I've read through the sticky,and followed all the instructions to no avail as well as searching other posts and haven't found any answers
I'm young, healthy, and eat a balanced diet with lots of fruit and veggies. My BM are fairly regular, (1-2) times a day, though the majority of the time it is not totally solid and I think that is the problem. It's not uncomfortable or diarrhea, more like thick mud for lack of a better description, and that is what seems to be left in there even after an hour or 2 and a nice shower. When I do have a more solid BM, I can play with no problems. The only culprit I can think of is the 2 or so cups of coffee I have in the am.
I'm really not interested in the enema route because of the health risks and it is just too much work.....
Am I the only one who has this problem? Any suggestions?


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No support system and Losing IT!!!!!
Jan 1, 2008
I have been HIV positive now for fifteen years. I have lived in big cities until moving back to Kentucky. Now I find myself "home" with no support. I have been here two years and it is not getting any better. I am retired, have no friends, and my family is limited to three or four "visits" or contacts a year. When I go out, there is a stigma with being older and an HIV patient (per gossip lines). I do not know what to do. When I go to the only HIV support group they do not seem to like me at all. I am LOOSING IT. I can affort to live here on my disability income but I am miserable. Yet, when I lived in California I made to much to receive any financial support and I could not afford it. What do you suggest????? Give up.... stay here.... move again.... or what??????
Response from Dr. Frascino
I imagine moving from California back to Kentucky, being HIV positive, is indeed quite a culture shock. Building a support network without close friends and family nearby can indeed be a challenge in locations where HIV/AIDS ignorance and stigma remain high. It's shameful that 26 years into the AIDS pandemic HIV/AIDS that HIV/AIDS stigma ignorance remain so prevalent. Dubya cutting funding for domestic HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness programs by 20% over recent years certainly hasn't helped the problem.
My advice would be for you to discuss your lack-of-support problem with your HIV specialist. He should be able to advise you of resources locally that may help. I would also suggest you check with local and regional AIDS service organizations. Just Google AIDS service organizations and the name of your closest city or town. A list should pop up. They may well be able to advise you of other services and support groups that might be available to you.
You are not alone in feeling unsupported while trying to cope with HIV/AIDS. (See below.) Hopefully 2008 will bring enlightenment and compassion to those who are misinformed about HIV/AIDS.
Good luck. I'm here if you need me.
Dr. Bob
Lacking Support Dec 21, 2007
I have been positive for 7 yrs. I know when I was infected and tested soon after. I have adult daughters and parents who live miles away. I am 55, a straight woman. My daughters literally yelled at me when I told them I was positive-I'm sure it was because they don't want to lose their mom. The rest of my family knows....my mom told me to get over myself because it is not a death sentence anymore. My friends are sympathetic if I bring it up. My family does want to hear anything about it. I live in a small town. I am also a recovering addict/alcoholic who attends a 12 step group. Those that know there seem to avoid any personal contact with me-not speaking of dating-which is nil but they seem to be uneducated and keep a distance. We have an Aids clinic in the next town over but for reasons that involves too much time and energy and too long a story (involving a predator and charges brought against him which resulted in his probation and distance parameters) I am unable to attend the support group there.
I have found little to no support online as far as emotional support.
I am disabled due to other reasons and I am Bi-polar as well...low income...you name it.
I would like very much to gain a support system. I am at a loss as to how to get that. Reminding you that I live in a small town in the deep south, with deep southern stigma etc. I have found nothing that could help me with the daily living with this disease as far as emotional support. I am not on any meds yet...which is amazing! But I need people.
Thank you for any ideas and support you can offer!
Sincerely, A lonely older woman.
Response from Dr. Frascino
Hello Lonely Older Woman,
HIV-positive, recovering addict/alcoholic, bipolar, "disabled due to other reasons," and you live in the Deep South with deep southern stigma??? Hmm . . . somehow I'm not surprised you are finding it difficult to find emotional support! Since I don't know where you are writing from, the best I can do is offer general advice. First check with your HIV/AIDS specialist physician. He or she should be aware of the various resources available in your area that might be of help. Second, try calling the AIDS service organizations in your area. Just Google "AIDS service organizations" and the name of your nearest cities or towns. A list should pop up. Try calling them and asking what services are available in your area. If all else fails, have you considered relocating to a more enlightened and compassionate environment?
Good luck.
Dr. Bob
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Crowdfunding is becoming a new viable option for young upstart businesses and developers, but some come to the Kickstarter table unprepared. Not the boys at Pixelscopic, though! They wanted to make sure every last lower-case 'i' was dotted before showing off Delver's Drop to the Kickstarter community.
During our interview last week, they shared with me the long hours of research and preparation that went into the Kickstarter campaign, their enormous crowdfunding success, and how they did not want to use Kickstarter to begin with.... read more


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Arthur causes power outages, flight delays in Maritimes
HALIFAX — Hurricane Arthur was downgraded to a post tropical storm Saturday as it hit the Maritimes, but the storm still caused widespread power outages for tens of thousands of people in parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre says the storm is moving more slowly and winds gusting up to 90 kilometres an hour were expected in parts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The storm caused flight cancellations and delays at the region's largest airport in Halifax.
Meteorologist Stephen Hatt of the hurricane centre said wind gusts of 90 to 100 km/h were reported in the Yarmouth area of Nova Scotia.
Heavy rain was falling in southern New Brunswick, which is expecting 100 to 150 millimetres of rain and local residents were reporting roads covered with flood waters in Fredericton and Saint John on Twitter.
As the storm continues to track in a northeast direction, Hatt said the blustery, wet conditions will last about 12 to 18 hours in any given location.
He said strong wave action is also expected, but no significant storm surge.
Late Saturday morning, Nova Scotia Power said 113,000 of its customers were without power while the utility in New Brunswick reported 56,000 outages.
Officials restricted traffic travel between New Brunswick and P.E.I. across the Confederation Bridge because of high winds, preventing certain classes of vehicles from making the crossing, including motorcycles, those pulling trailers and high-sided trucks and buses.


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Submission + - Federally funded research to be publicly available within 1 year of publication (whitehouse.gov)
Z80xxc! writes: The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a "policy memorandum" today requiring any federal agency with over $100 million in R&D expenditures each year to develop plans for making all research funded by that agency freely available to the public within one year of publication in any peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The full memorandum is available on the White House website. It appears that this policy would not only apply to federal agencies conducting research, but also to any university, private corporation, or other entity conducting research that arises from federal funding. For those in academia and the public at large, this is a huge step towards free open access to publicly funded research.


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Diversity's Many Faces
Diversity is an issue for operators, employees and customers. Here's a look at how each deals with cultural challenges and opportunities.
Diversity wears many faces. In a country that has always welcomed immigrants in search of a better life, it's no surprise that ethnic minorities make up close to one-third of the total population. Today, as operators are increasingly called upon to deal with both a workforce and a customer base that resemble a Benetton ad with peoples of many colors and cultures, the challenges facing them are more complex than ever before.
"Diversity is a learning curve for all of us," explains Mary Jaskowski, director of nutrition services at St. Mary's Health Care, a 325-bed facility in Grand Rapids, Mich., that serves 1,000 patient meals a day and 1,500 to 1,800 meals in its retail operations.
Last year, St. Mary's partnered with the Hunt County Literacy Council to offer a customized "English in the Workplace" program to help those employees who have limited reading skills.
"They came in and took pictures of our equipment, looked at the menus and conducted a 40-week class, three hours a week. They measured the participants' skills at the start and again at the end, and most employees improved significantly."
"Culturally, our employees have taught us a lot about their different religions. We have a fair number of Muslims, which has been a challenge as some of them prefer not to even handle pork products. We try to accommodate that."
The presence of employees from seven different countries, she adds, has "enhanced our management team and taught us to be creative in training. Some of them don't know American foods at all, not even what an omelet is. We do pot luck meals with them and they prepare their native foods."
At the St. Paul Public Schools, St. Paul, Minn., Nutrition Services Manager Linda Dieleman has seen "incredible stories of tragedy and triumph," she says. "We are committed to diversity. At one high school, a custodian helped a Spanish speaking foodservice employee. Now there are three Spanish speaking employees who help explain tasks or new recipes to newcomers, or how to write [information] down on the production record."
Success can mean loss of good workers, however, Dieleman adds. "Sometimes our biggest successes can mean that they will be hired away from our department. Friendly people who can communicate to others from their country and also do so in English are easily identified on our front lines."
Beth Yesford, director of food and nutrition, DME Services at Providence Hospital, a 408-bed hospital and 242-bed nursing home in Washington, D.C., has a motto for training: "Keep it simple."
Materials are printed in English and Spanish and training is done one on one, she says. "We have 110 people in Food and Nutrition in the two sites, and we've had to learn to respect each other's cultures. Everybody brings dishes to our holiday pot luck party."
At Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, Interim Director of Nutrition Services John Romano has partnered with a high school to train part-time workers in his kitchen to teach English language skills.
"They need to be able to read patients' names and to verify them with an armband check," he explains. "We offer classes in ESL. These kids are pretty bright. They're Somalis, Russians, Sudanese, all coming in to entry-level jobs—tray assembly and delivery. Some move up to nutrition reps to help patients make meal selections."
Mary Angela Miller, administrative director of Ohio State University Medical Center and president of the National Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management, calls diversity "a good thing because it allows us to become more skilled in managing a diverse workforce, which is a great career builder."
Ohio State is unique, she adds, because Columbus is home to the third largest Somali population in the world and the second largest in the U.S. "It's challenging because they speak several languages and the women wear burkhas."
Her department works to develop employees with cultural and educational barriers to help them become "more confident and they give better patient satisfaction. It's a win-win to help them be better because it helps us be better."
This fall, a new program called Advance One will teach such skills as basic reading and writing, and how to balance a checkbook. "It helps with teamwork and customer satisfaction," says Miller. "We developed a curriculum of what our employees need to be successful in our work environment."
At Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., every dining facility has a specific culinary focus as part of a program called Destination Dining, says Director Rafi Taherian, who points out that a diverse staff prepares various cuisines for an equally diverse student population. The diversity of employees makes duplicating various ethnic flavor profiles simple, and students are offered everything from Turkish to Mexican, Latin, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian and Mediterranean fare without leaving campus.
A "Succession Planning" program identifies workers who want to "expand their careers," Taherian says, "and we develop and train them. They 'shadow' a person in the position they want to learn. We offer extensive training and financial support."
For Compass Group North America's Director of Diversity Rahman Khan, helping develop a diverse workforce from entry-level personnel into managers is a plus that "brings creativity and innovation to the table."
Compass, he adds, has "started councils to help attract, develop and retain women leaders this year, and will have a multi-cultural emphasis in 2008. It makes good business sense," he observes, "and increasingly, our clients ask how we address diversity. It's the right thing to do."
Harvard University Dining Services has a program called Bridge to Learning and Literacy, which offers ESL, literacy, GED and computer classes to employees. Ted Mayer, executive director of HUDS, says classes are free and workers attend ESL and literacy classes as paid time. Since it began in 2000, his employees have taken 476 classes, of which 289 were ESL.
"We encourage our staff to 'keep us honest' and train peers in authentic flavors and preparations of their native cuisines," Mayer notes, "and to share with our students through chef choice menu blocks of the HUDS Recipes from Homes program, which asks them to share and prepare homestyle favorites. This enhances our dining program."
Developing ethnic minorities also is important at AVI Food Systems, a Warren, Ohio-based contractor, says Director of Diversity and Inclusion Phyllis Smith. Smith notes that the company has seen a number of workers from Eastern Europe, Russia and the Ukraine move up through its ranks, among them a sweeper and dishwasher from Poland who initially spoke no English, and later became a cook in one of AVI's "premier" dining rooms.
The "journey toward inclusion," Smith says, stems from the family-owned company's roots founded by the son of Greek immigrants.
We all like to see a familiar face, hear our native tongue or taste a familiar food when we're far from home. It connects us to our roots and comforts us and makes us feel less "strange." Many noncommercial operators strive to help customers make those connections.
Keeping customers happy is what every business is all about. At Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Colleen Wright-Riva sees an ever-growing number of students from "international" families, drawn to New York's Finger Lakes region to teach or work at either Cornell or nearby Ithaca College.
"Some of our Asian foodservice employees give us recipes that we incorporate into our menus," she says, "and we have an Asian couple that used to own a restaurant but sold it and came to work for us. They provide authentic Asian foods and that builds a little excitement and makes our Asian students feel great."
Wright-Riva incorporates the recipes into theme dinners to celebrate the diversity of the student population, she says, adding that at the same time, the dishes bring "comfort" to students far from their roots.
Ted Mayer, executive director of Harvard University Dining Services, also finds the diverse student body is "comforted by the ability to talk with a familiar face and/or in the language of home. Others even find a tutor for a new language they are studying in one of our native speakers of Portuguese, Spanish, Mandarin or French Creole."
Having foreign-born staffers delivering trays can be beneficial, Maine Medical Center's Interim Director of Nutrition Services John Romano, agrees, when they're serving patients from their own countries. "It helps us because it becomes very comforting," he says, adding that it's also useful in the cafeteria because 75% of meals prepared in the hospital are non-patient, and many visitors are foreign-born.
At Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Director of Food and Nutrition Lynne Ometer is planning a diversity fair called "Celebrating Our Differences" this fall, for which some of her employees from countries such as India and Nigeria will help to come up with recipes.
"We will be preparing some recipes that represent the most prevalent cultures among the total Emory Healthcare workforce," she explains. "One of the things I want to do as part of this initiative is to begin to raise awareness within our own department of the diversity that exists and to get persons from the different cultures we have on our staff to participate in perhaps a mini-fair of their own focused on food."
Foodservice workers at Emory are primarily African-American but also include employees from Jamaica, Guyana, Mexico, India, China, Vietnam, Nigeria and several other African nations.
In past years, dietetic interns in dining operations who hailed from different cultures "have often elected to feature food items from their cultures in our dining operations when they've been going through their foodservice rotation," adds Ometer. "This is always popular with our customers."
Beth Yesford, director of food and nutrition, DME Services at Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., counts 14 countries of origin among the employees in her department alone. "Our cafeteria is called World's Fair," she explains, "because of all the nationalities in the hospital. We do theme days based on their cultures and they do the prep."
Elsewhere in the metropolitan Washington market, Penny McConnell, R.D., director of food and nutrition services for Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax, Va., calls her system "very diverse."
"We do an international menu every month—this fall we're doing Mexico and then Germany. The big thing is to always be learning about others. This country is a mosaic of different cultures. It's very positive for the children as they go through the lunch line to see employees who look like them."
At St. Paul Public Schools, St. Paul, Minn., Nutrition Services Manager Linda Dieleman believes "diversity helps us communicate better to our customers, and we get great ideas for foods. For example, we serve jicama as one of the fresh veggie choices on the self-serve bar. Students asked us where the lime and chili powder were, so we tried that and will do so again this year."
A group of students from Somali, she continues, "shared how they enjoyed cinnamon on their rice, so this year we are piloting chili powder shakers and cinnamon shakers on the condiment bar. Due to our students' diverse taste buds, we already offer Louisiana hot sauce, Siracha hot sauce, soy sauce and three different salad dressings."
Two mothers helped her staff develop Hmong Beef Fried Rice. "In the beginning," Dieleman says, "an individual will provide advice on how to make a recipe as authentic as possible. We often choose one or two schools to roll out the new recipe and those students particularly enjoy providing feedback. Of course a child may say 'that's not how my mother makes it,' so it can be a great conversation piece at lunch."
Spanish speaking employees on the staff, she adds, "mprove our customer service for students who come from Spanish speaking families."
Allentown, Pa., doesn't have much of a cultural mix beyond its Hispanic population, says Andy Barsky, senior general manager of foodservice at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, but in the past year, the hospital has "definitely been reaching out to the community."
An Orthodox Jewish rabbi who was a patient met with Barsky to request that the hospital provide kosher meals. Today, Lehigh Valley offers kosher meals provided by a local vendor with name recognition in the community. To be more responsive to the small Muslim population in the area, Barsky also introduced frozen halal meals, purchased from another foodservice vendor.
Ethnic minorities comprise nearly one-third of the U.S. population today, a number estimated to grow to 50% by 2009. They come from around the globe, pursuing a dream of a better life for themselves and their families. For many, jobs in foodservice are a foothold, a means of financial support, but even more, an opportunity to learn, develop and advance. Following are four such success stories.
Douglas Vasquez came to this country from El Salvador in 1995 and worked in several restaurants before joining Unidine, a foodservice management firm in Newton, Mass., nearly two years ago as a dishwasher at one of the company's "marquee" business dining accounts. He quickly moved through the ranks to become executive chef, at one point working two jobs to support his family.
"They gave me a great opportunity," says Vasquez. "They asked me if I would like to grow and helped me move to sous chef, and then executive chef. The hardest part was learning English."
"Before, I'd worked in catering and at the pizza station of a restaurant in Boston, but I never had the opportunity to become a chef. Here, at the Café at Tufts Health Plan in Watertown, we serve 800 people at breakfast and 1,700 at lunch every day. It's a challenge, but it's fun." Unidine, he says, educated him in technical and computer skills for procurement, as well as menu development and production skills, and gave him additional culinary training.
"They know how to treat employees," he observes. Vasquez worked on a flexible schedule that allowed him to attend college in a business program for ESL (English as a Second Language).
For Austin Price, an Afro-American who took a part-time job as a dishwasher with Harvard University Dining Services straight out of high school, the school's foodservice department represented stability. "I had a lot of friends who went on to college," he says, "and after they graduated, they couldn't find jobs, and some asked me to help get them jobs at HUDS. Harvard was steady and stable and I stayed and started moving up."
From his beginnings as a union employee, he rose to become a storekeeper and today, to customer service manager. "I have 49 employees," he says. "It's a diverse place with people from many walks of life. That's been the biggest challenge for me—understanding how to work with all kinds of people. I learn something new every day."
The university "gives you the opportunities, but at times, you don't know where you're going to go," Price notes. "They offered me a way to grow but it was up to me to jump on it and take advantage of the educational opportunities. In the future, I hope to move to the next level and run my own unit."
Like Price, Anh Thu Truong is moving up the ladder one step at a time.
"I want to be able to help my parents when I'm done with school," says Truong, who has held a variety of jobs, most recently as a nutrition care representative, at the 606-bed Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine.
Her family moved to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1993, "hoping for a better future," she explains. "I want to earn a college degree to make them happy and fulfill their dreams and hopes, and to thank them for all the hard work and sacrifices they have made for us."
Truong began at the hospital as a high school senior, working on the assembly tray line and later, delivering trays to patients.
She later applied for a job in the café where she "got to do everything from the pizza station, the grill, the salad bar, and even the cashier's station."
Last year she became a nutrition care representative, seeing patients daily and reading menu choices to them. "I got to do room service for cancer patients and maternity patients, and liked the patient contact." At the same time she began learning about nutrition and signed up for classes at Southern Maine Community College where she became an Honor Society student and will earn an associate degree in dietetic technology this winter.
Truong is applying now to a four-year college to earn her degree as a registered dietitian. "I want to be successful," she declares.
That drive for self-improvement and success also motivates Andrew Osaghae, a cook who maintains large cook-chill facility at Emory Hospital in Atlanta.
Originally from Nigeria, Andrew studied hotel management in London for several years after leaving home, but did not have the resources to acquire his certification and came to the U.S. to further his education.
At first he worked in a restaurant as a cook and, later, supervisor while trying to take courses. "I had no benefits and decided to apply for a job at Emory because I found out about their tuition reimbursement program," he says. "I began taking evening classes and Emory covered part of my tuition and my books. It was a big help."
He recently received his B.A., "something I knew I had to do," he says. At the cook-chill facility, Osaghae maintains inventory levels in the food bank that serves three hospitals, checking product freshness dates, keeping track of what is needed and taking care of transporting the food to the facilities. He hopes to move up to a higher level job and will be talking with Human Resources to find a position where he can "make a big difference because of all I've learned." Down the road, his goal is to receive his M.A.


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Same thing we see here on eHell - don't be shy about asking things like "Why is her ethnic background important to the story?" It won't get him to stop telling stories, but hopefully it will make him think before he includes race/gender as shortcuts for racist/sexist stereotypes about the people in them.(Not saying that everyone who's been called out on including extra demographic information in eHell posts is racist/sexist/ableist/whatever!)
Bring a book or magazine to read and start reading it and ignoring him when the stories start? Bring knitting and suddenly have to run of and find the instructions?
When someone is hogging the conversation, i don't see anything wrong with grabbing it back and hogging it for a bit yourself.I think you can even say, "That's a cool story, FIL. My turn!"Or even, "Oh, I want to hear what Person to My Left has been up to--I think it's her /his turn now." (just be sure to support her/him with some questions to get them started--no fair tossing them the ball so suddenly unless you're willing to help)Or even, in a neutral observant way, "FIL, I think you've done all the talking! Joe, what's up at work for you?"
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In the latest version of pdf-FieldMerge, Excel and CSV files can be opened directly and used as a data source. Here is the table or the tables displayed in the user interface and the user specifies with one mouse click, which records should be used to fill the PDF form template.
Thus, even the use of large data sets is easily. Even the formation of the file name is defined graphically. One mouse click and in no time are self-created hundreds of personalized PDF forms.
Currently, Excel (xls), CSV and FDF files are processed directly. Further data connections, such as databases are planned. Similarly, the
What's New
- Load Excel and CSV files directly into the program interface and choice which data sets you want to use filling a pdf form.