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Friday, February 16, 2007
A simple, yet festive, salmon sandwich cake
When I first wrote about a sandwich cake on this blog, it was an elaborate multi-layered affair with fancy toppings. This one is so much simpler, but no less prettier or festive. I made it few weeks ago for K's mother's birthday (yep, the same party where K. contributed a lovely cinnamon boston). I can still think of ways of developing this recipe, but it is also good enough as it is, so I'm sharing it with you now and here. It's loosely adapted from this Finnish recipe from Pirkka - the base is directly from them, whereas the topping is all mine:)
A great addition to a buffet table or coffee table - it can be eaten with a small dessert fork.
A simple salmon sandwich cake
Serves 16
Rye bread base:
400 grams full-grain rye bread
75 grams melted butter
350 grams cottage cheese/farmers cheese (with 4% fat)
200 grams sour cream/smetana (with 30% fat)
50 ml fresh dill, chopped
1-2 tsp wasabi paste
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Maldon sea salt flakes
freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp lemon juice
5 sheets of gelatine
200 grams cold smoked salmon or trout in thin slices
To garnish:
fresh dill sprigs
thin lemon slices
slightly crushed pink peppercorns
Crumble the bread into a bowl, add the melted butter and stir until combined. Press the bread mixture into a 24x24 cake tin that has been lined with baking paper. Put into the fridge to set a little.
Soak gelatine sheets in cold water for 5 minutes.
In another bowl, mix cottage cheese, sour cream, dill and cucumber cubes. Season with salt, sugar, mustard and/or wasabi paste, and pepper.
Heat the lemon juice, add the pressed gelatine leaves and let them melt in the hot juice. Pour into the cheese mixture and combine thoroughly.
Spoon the cheese mixture onto the rye bread base and put into the fridge to set for at least four hours.
Cut the smoked salmon or trout slices into 16 long strips, each about 2-2.5 cm wide. Roll them up, twisting edges slightly outside, so you've got 'roses'.
Cut the sandwich cake into 16 squares and top each with a rose. Garnish with thin lemon slices and dill sprigs, sprinkle with slightly crushed pink peppercorns.
5 comments:
- Gracianne said...
It looks so fresh and appetizing, I really love this. Perfecty for a party. I should try and learn to make rye bread.
- 10:53 am, February 16, 2007
- Rosa's Yummy Yums said...
A healthy and fresh looking appetizer! Your recipe sounds very interesting...
- 3:26 pm, February 16, 2007
- sandi @ the whistlestop cafe said...
That looks beautiful~ as do most things on your blog! I'll visit again
- 11:23 pm, February 16, 2007
- Michelle said...
This Looks FANTASTIC! mmmmmmmm! :)
- 2:47 am, February 17, 2007
- Pille said...
Gracianne - I used shop-bought rye bread. I guess if you can find German style rye bread (thin large slices, with lots of whole grains), then that would do just fine.
Rosa - it was high in fibre and milk proteins, so combined with smoked salmon it was pretty healthy indeed. But first and foremost, it was tasty:)
Sandi - thank you for your kind words!
Michelle - thanks!
- 4:04 pm, February 26, 2007
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While determining who made "the list" is very exciting and extremely beneficial to the ranked companies, the Best Companies Group Employee Feedback Report is where the real value lies. All participating companies will receive the results of the employee survey, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of their workplace according to what their employees had to say. The report is used to identify the opportunities that exist to build a better workplace.
This four-part report provides a detailed view of your employees' responses to the seventy-eight (78) survey questions. Part one consists of data spreadsheets showing the percent of positive and negative responses for each of the seventy-eight (78) survey questions, along with the percent of positive responses within seven demographic categories (gender, age, ethnicity, duration of employment, full- or part-time status, role, and department).
Part two is a listing of the employee comments transcribed exactly as submitted by employees. These comments are from the two open-ended questions asked on the employee survey.
Part three, which will follow the publication of the "Best Places to Work in Oklahoma" rankings, will be the benchmarking data. The benchmark report will represent the average responses for each of the seventy-eight (78) statements for both the list-making and non list-making organizations. Knowing where you stand relative to the "Best of the Best" should help you prioritize resources to maximize your return on investment.
Part four is the Employer Benchmark Summary. This report offers a sample of company averages on standard employee benefits and best practices -- for all participants as well as for those who make the list. This is a great tool to help benchmark some of the most common benefits offered compared to those of your organization.Best Companies Group will be packaging and distributing the Employee Feedback Reports soon after the companies are notified whether or not they made the list. The benchmarking reports will be delivered later, soon after the rankings are announced.
Want to get the most out of your collected employee response data? To learn more about why your organization should consider customizing the Job Role and Department demographics on the employee survey, click here.
Employee Comments Report
Employee Demographic Report
Employee Benchmark Report
Employer Benchmark Summary
NEW FOR 2018: Shortened Employer QuestionnaireNEW FOR 2018: Revised Employee Survey2017 "Best Places to Work in Oklahoma"

subset: commoncrawl


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San Jacinto Marijuana Charges Defense Attorney
Whether you have been arrested for the possession of marijuana, possession with intent to sell transport or distribute marijuana, it is important to have an experienced criminal law specialist counsel you. With a marijuana charge conviction you may be facing significant drug charges and a permanent mark on your criminal record.
At Dolan Law Offices we help our clients fight these types of drug charges and reduce their consequences. San Jacinto marijuana charges defense attorney John Patrick Dolan, has more than 30 years of criminal law experience in California.
Understanding California's Medical Marijuana Laws
It is important to understand what is and isn't a crime in our state. In the state of California marijuana can be used for medical purposes when recommended by a licensed physician.
Once a patient has received a permit, they would have the right to buy and possess small amounts of medical marijuana from a legitimate dispensary. Used for personal use only. Possession of a medical card does not give someone the right to sell, or share medical marijuana.
Each individual state maintains their own laws regarding marijuana use—which subsequently means that the use of medical marijuana is only legal in the state in which it has been obtained. If, for example, you possess a legitimate medical card in the state of California, but you are found to be in possession of this drug in another state, you could still be subjected to criminal charges. For this reason, it is important to understand your rights. If you have been charged with a drug crime involving marijuana, speak with an experienced lawyer as soon as possible.
San Jacinto Criminal Law Specialist
If you or someone you love has recently been charged with a marijuana-related crime in San Jacinto, you should not hesitate to get in touch with San Jacinto marijuana charges defense attorney Dolan, criminal law specialist immediately. We have experience in all criminal law, your case will be handled with the highest level of dedication and professionalism that you deserve.
Contact our office today at (760) 775-3739 for a free initial consultation. Or contact me directly, John Patrick Dolan on my cell (562) 824-4007. We available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to take your call, we can answer any questions that you might have about your charges.


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It's all about Wellington
Called the world's 'coolest little capital' Wellington is known for its vibrant arts scene, world class café and restaurant culture, and active outdoor lifestyle. Set around an attractive waterfront, you'll be hard pressed to find a city in the world that's easier to get around. Wellington enjoys more cafes, bars and restaurants than New York City, and its coffee and craft beer producers are internationally recognised.
A creative, cosmopolitan city, Wellington combines the sophistication of a capital with the warmth and personality of a village. For more information about Wellington and its many attractions, visit the city's official website www.wellingtonnz.com
Check out the iSite website for ideas and activities before you confirm your flights.
The Wellington i-SITE Visitor Information Centre team are your local experts in all things Wellington. This Qualmark endorsed centre is part of New Zealand's official Visitor Information Network (i-SITE) and operated by Wellington's Regional Development Agency (WREDA) for the benefit of visitors and locals. Come and have a chat to a friendly local who can provide you with tips and assistance so you can make the most of your stay in Wellington. For capital holiday information and bookings please contact the team by email or phone them on +64 4 802 4860.
Weta Workshop There and Back again tour - $65 per person includes return transfers and priority access. 2 ½ hours.
Hammonds City Sights & Coastlines tour - $55. 2 ½ hours.
Walk Wellington - $20 per person. 2 hours.


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NormSoft needed a new button or icon design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 57 designs submitted by 22 freelance designers.
Pocket Tunes - http://www.normsoft.com/products/ip…ckettunes/
We are the creators of Pocket Tunes, the premiere audio player for mobile phones and PDA's. Pocket Tunes Radio is one of the most popular music applications in the iTunes App Store. We will be releasing some specialty applications, Pocket Tunes Faith, Sports, Talk, Comedy and Holiday. We are creative, innovative and customer driven. Our software is highly regarded in the industry and we pride ourselves in creating a simple yet powerful interface for our mobile media players.
Our target audience are people looking for an Internet Radio application that fulfills a specific interest. In this case there are five applications that we will be releasing.
Pocket Tunes Faith
Pocket Tunes Sports
Pocket Tunes Talk
Pocket Tunes Holiday
Pocket Tunes Comedy
Customers interested in these areas will be iPhone and iPod touch users looking for these specific genres of radio stations. So the icon needs to convey to them what special interest the application is for.
What you are producing is an overlay to go over our basic icon(attached).
Icon size is 512 x 512 but needs to look good at 57x57 size as well
Format of the file can be either PSD or PNG (as long as the background is transparent. )
Background of overly MUST be transparent
Faith overlay must be non-denominational
Holiday must not be specific to any one holiday or time of year since it applies to more than just one holiday
See attached files for examples of two existing app's icons, Pocket Tunes Pride(ptpride-512.png) and Pocket Tunes Scanner(ptscan-512.png) as well as the blank icon (ptr-512.png) which would be overlaid with what you create.


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Incstlouis needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 24 designs submitted by 8 freelance designers.
Show Me Cables & Jets
I am the Sponsor of a youth soccer team. I am in charge of designing our new Soccer uniforms.
I am also the owner of Show Me Cables. We are an on-line business that sells voice, video & data cables over the internet.
The Jets are a 6th grade Boys Soccer Team. The ages are 11-12. We are the only sponsor besides the team name that will be on the Soccer uniforms.
The team is an above average boys team in a very competitive league. The kids are competitive, fun and like all the regular pre-teen stuff - music, pop culture, etc...
The audience will be parents of 11-12 yr. old boys, grandparents, other siblings & soccer officials.
We are open to all sorts of designs. Be creative. The design will appear on a reversible soccer shirt. The shirt colors are light gray (primary) and red (secondary - when shirt is reversed).
I would like a 2 color logo that includes our company blue & red. The existing logo and our company logo are attached. I would like to improve on this logo design.
Since boys will be wearing the uniform, I need to stay away from any feminine imagery. This is all about pre-teen boys. They will probably use this logo into their teen years, so lean toward a teenage boy design if you like.
Here is a link to the uniform:
The winning logo will be displayed on the front center portion of the shirt.
The ideal logo would incorporate the Jets team name along with our Show Me Cables Logo. We would even accept an innovative Jets logo design and then a "sponsored by" or "presented by Show Me Cables with our existing logo below.
Please feel free to ask questions
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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E Cork Foundation, a new not-for-profit funding organization established by a group of leading business and public figures to help drive social and economic growth throughout the Cork region, was launched last week at the Port of Cork, Custom House Street in Cork by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney and the chairman of the Cork Foundation Strategic Board, Sean O'Driscoll, the chairman and CEO of Glen Dimplex.
Acting as a catalyst to economic and social development, the Cork Foundation is the first of its kind in Ireland. With an initial target to raise €5 million, the foundation's aim is to connect contributors from home and abroad directly to Cork businesses and community enterprises.
It will complement existing enterprise support services by bridging gaps in current funding models, addressing many of the challenges facing Cork businesses and communities in accessing credit and bridge finance. All returns on investments will be recycled back into the foundation to fund further investment initiatives.
"We are calling on people both at home and abroad to rally together to lead the region into a new era of employment and prosperity. It's time to work collectively towards generating sustainable job creation and economic prosperity for the Cork region," said Coveney.
"The Cork Foundation will provide a new and flexible lifeline to Cork businesses and community enterprises to help them to develop to their full potential and ultimately, lead to the creation of jobs and increased economic activity."
A unique aspect of the Cork Foundation is that it will be self-funded after year one through contributions from the Cork diaspora, Cork-based businesses and philanthropists. With the global Irish diaspora estimated at 70 million people, three million of whom are Irish passport holders outside of Ireland, the Cork Foundation is confident that it will reach its target of €5 million.
Leading West Cork businessman O'Driscoll said, "The Cork region has immense potential due to its infrastructure, resources and the experience and spirit of the Cork people. The foundation will allow organizations to capitalize on opportunities immediately by providing swift access to funding which is not limited by sector, export capacity, size or funding caps."
Seed capital for the Foundation has been provided by Cork County and City Councils' Economic Development Fund.
For further information or to contribute visit www.corkfoundation.com.


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On September 7, 1847, the Court of Appeals judges first took the Bench of New York's highest court. The publications below will take an in-depth look at the Court's history...its constitutional underpinning, its judges, its leading decisions, and its courtrooms.
Making History Together: The New York State Court of Appeals in Albany's Tricentennial Year grew from the celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of Albany's Original Charter dated July 22, 1686. This publication is a transcript of the ceremony held in Court of Appeals Hall on November 15, 1986 celebrating the shared great history of the City and its Court, and the legacy left by the legal luminaries who populated that history.
There Shall Be a Court of Appeals... is a 1997 commemorative publication marking the 150th anniversary of New York's highest court. It is rich in history and imagery. As then Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye commented in the Foreword, the publication examines "...the process, the places and the people that have distinguished the Court of Appeals throughout its life."
The Historical Society of the New York Courts 140 Grand Street, Suite 701 White Plains, NY 10601 914.824.5863


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Hourglass Ambient Powders ($45) have hit the market of the past few weeks via Sephora.com and soon to be available in stores. Essentially, these powders are intended to brighten, conceal by capturing and diffusing the way that light hits the skin. The company makes the powders in six different shades intended to work on all skin tones, so that one can choose the effect they desire.
According to the company:
"I learned early on how different types of light can truly flatter the complexion," says Carisa Janes, Hourglass CEO & Founder. "Growing up, my mother had pink light bulbs in all of the lamps throughout the house. She loved pink light because it was the softest and most flattering, and she always wanted to look good." Janes was inspired to create a new generation of powders that can be customized according to the desired lighting effect.
Unlike traditional finishing powders, Ambient Lighting Powder alters the perceived appearance of the complexion by manipulating and filtering out harsh light. As we age, skin loses its natural luminosity, and Ambient addresses this deficiency with 'photoluminescent technology'. These transparent micron-size, color-correcting particles emulate the appearance of young, healthy-looking skin.
The packaging is a lightweight compound that feels a bit like plastic and touch-up mirror. The company has released a accompanying Ambient Powder brush ($35) that is sold separately.
We tried Houglass Ambient Powder in Luminous Light, a champagne pearl powder that looks magnificent in the pan:
We wanted to love Luminous, we tried to. We actually had a meltdown, of sorts, about the fact that the powder didn't work for us. Well, two meltdowns, really. (We get passionate about makeup in a way that's sort of not, well, normal maybe. What of it?).
It was our opinion that the Hourglass powder was too visible and shimmery to use as an all-over face powder for our personal taste. For comparison, here are heavy applications of the nearly-invisible Nars Light Reflecting Setting Powder (loose). As you can see, this very heavy application of the Nars Powder sets up as a demi-matte finish and adds no color, compared to the shimmery Hourglass Luminous. I also swatched the Guerlain Pressed Meteorites in Wulong. As you can see, this very heavy application Guerlain Wulong deposits a subtle soft color, compared to the more visible Houglass Luminous. Of course, you'd never wear any of these as heavily as they are applied here–I'm trying to show relative visibility (not actual).
I'm not sure how visible these will be to you, as setting powders are notoriously tough to swatch. One more, same powders:
We took a cue from The Beauty Look Book, who loved it as a highlighter. I tried, but found that the color blocked up a bit on me and left a touch of frost. Back of the compact:
Edit on Feb. 22, 2013: I was able to try Hourglass Ambient Dim by applying it over my Tom Ford foundation in a Sephora. Still not working–my husband said I looked better prior to application. I didn't buy, and I won't be pursuing more of the powders–this is just not the product for me.
Our advice: There are others who are giving these fabulous reviews. In our book, this is a "try before you buy."
Hourglass sent this Ambient Powder and Ambient Powder Brush to Cafe Makeup without charge for consideration for review. This post contains affiliate links (for more information, see About Cafe Makeup)


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Sahtyre vs Reverse Live Rap Battle Pt. 1 [Grind Time West Coast]
Drect reports "Main Battle from Battle of Los Angeles 2 "
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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Buxton residents ramped up the red on Friday in aid of British Heart Foundation day.
Staff at Edinburgh Woollen Mill, on the Colonnades, at the Quadrant, raised more than £100 by holding a bake sale, a raffle and a sponsored cycle on a gym bike.
While service users and support workers at Moore Care homes on Manchester Road and Lascelles Road raised more than £300 by dressing in red, hold a cake sale and a guess the name of the teddy game.
Sarah Wild even dyed her hair red for the heart disease charity.


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Hi everyone,
Me in a nutshell:
> Atheist since 9 years old and been kind of a deist since
> Lost faith in religion and the deist in me 3 years ago.
> I am going to start sentences with "but".
> But I try to not annoy anyone with a lot of 1337 speak or spelingh mistakes
> I like futurama, hence the nickname.
> I like gaming, right now LoL, Sims3, and just started Flyff. Soon coming Diablo3.
> I like writing all kinds of things: in forums, my blogs, pen&paper games, stories, etc
Any questions? Let me know :)
Looking forward to interesting discussions.
Views: 411
Greets and salutes, Leela. Glad you joined us!
Thank you for the welcome :)
Welcome to the site!
I love Futurama and I am a gamer myself.
Have lots of fun here!
Hello Leela and welcome.
Thanks for the wolcome everyone, Steph we're gonna be friends hah
Hi, I'm Leela, and welcome.
I like Futurama too, but we do not have television service where I live (so I am willing to sacrifice Futurama for the benefit of my brain).
Hulu has Futurama, I just checked and all you need is a computer. I gave up cable service years ago and do not miss it for a minute. Welcome Leela.
Welcome, Leela. I will join you with the "Buts" and add in some "Ands." If I didn't have spell check I would be annoying folks with my misspelled words. Sometimes I can't even spell well enough to find the word in spell check. Oh, well. At my age you can be forgiven for a lot. There is some compensation for getting older.
Welcome to the group. You didn't say whether you have other non-theists around you; some here do but many do not. Also, I don't know whether you are in an area where atheists are automatically considered the anti-christ, spawn of satan, and such. I hope you're not. I'm an avid reader; it seems many folks here are. I personally prefer "humanist" to atheist; it demands more of the individual. Feel free to chime in on any topic that catches your fancy.
but \/\/31<0/\/\3....
hahaha 7|-|4|\| |< $ Jonathan :D
@ Jerry: My husband is very anti religion and became an atheist around the same time I did. But as we are currently living in Romania (just moved) we can not be outspoken about it because it is just as bad as in US with this. We won't be trusted anymore and all we do or say is evil...
© 2019 Atheist Nexus. All rights reserved. Admin: The Nexus Group. Powered by


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This first section will address the hardware needed. Subsequent posts will address the software and communications, and eventually a couple of end use projects, including a Ham Radio Teletype.
The approach we are taking is somewhat unique. The sketch needed to decode the keyboard scan codes and convert them into readable characters is somewhat memory intensive, and would not leave a lot of room for a project sketch. Our solution is embedding a barebones Arduino on the shield, just to do that conversion, and present the host Arduino with character strings over serial.
Parts List:
PS/2 Keyboard
PS/2 Jack
PS/2 Breakout
Headers (to mount breakout to protoshield)
Proto Shield
Barebones Arduino Kit
You will program this shield from your Arduino, so no extra programming cable or headers will be needed at this time, nor will a power supply be needed, as it gets it's power from the host Arduino. Stay tuned for the next part in the series.


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McCombs Home ·
Departments ·
Finance ·
Ph.D. Program in Finance
The doctoral program in finance provides an opportunity for specialized study in one or more of the following finance areas: corporate finance, investments, financial intermediaries, international finance and real estate. The core of the program consists of a set of courses required of all students. This is supplemented with special courses and electives. In addition, students are required to become competent in two minor fields. Typically students choose economics, statistics, or mathematics, as these provide skills important to financial research.
Many of the Department of Finance faculty members have established national reputations in both research and teaching by winning nationally competitive research awards and grants as well as school-wide teaching awards. The department typically produces a number of papers and books in an academic year, and faculty present papers at national meetings of the American Finance Association, European Finance Association, Western Finance Association, the Financial Management Association and the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. Many faculty members serve on the editorial boards of academic journals. For additional information on the faculty members, please visit the Finance Department faculty website.
All applicants must hold a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, and have a high level of competency in the English language.
The PhD in Finance is a full-time degree program, which begins in the fall. Spring enrollment is not permitted. The admissions process is very competitive, with over 180 applicants annually, three to six spots in each entering class. The average GMAT or GRE percentile score for admitted students is typically in the 95th percentile or higher.
All applicants must take the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in time for the results to reach the Graduate and International Admissions Center by the January 15 application deadline. To be considered valid, the GRE or GMAT test must have been taken within the past five years. International students are also required to submit an official report of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). This requirement is waived for students who earned a bachelor's degree in the United States, or another English-speaking country. For additional information about test scores, please visit the Graduate and International Admissions Center's Test Scores webpage.
All applicants should refer to the Graduate Admissions page of the Graduate and International Admissions Center webpage for a list of minimum requirements and other important University admission information.
You must submit a complete application in order for your application file to be reviewed. Please follow the instructions carefully. All students are required to apply online through the Texas Common Application.
The following materials must be uploaded after you have completed your application and paid the application fee via UT's Status Check webpage by January 15. Please note that all uploaded documents will be considered unofficial copies and official copies must be mailed to GIAC only after you have been admitted into the program.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the PDF documents. Questions about the application procedure can be sent to email@example.com.
For additional information contact Jenny Kondo at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Ph.D. Program Staff:
Ph.D. Program Coordinator: Jenny Kondo
Ph.D. Program Faculty Advisor: Aydogan Alti
How competitive is the application process?
Each year we receive between 180 to 200 applications for 3 to 6 available spots.
What are the minimum requirements to be eligible for admissions?
Please review the Graduate School's admissions page for a list of minimum requirements to apply for graduate school at UT.
What is the minimum GMAT/GRE score?
There is no minimum GMAT/GRE score required to apply. Our application process is completely holistic and many factors are taken into consideration. The average GMAT/GRE percentile score for entering students is typically around the 95th percentile.
What is the required TOEFL or IELTS score?
A score of 550 (paper test), 213 (computer-based test), or 79 (internet-based test) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an overall band of 6.5 on the Academic Examination of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is considered the minimum acceptable for admission to The University of Texas at Austin.
As an international applicant, how can I waive the TOEFL?
If you hold a bachelor's degree from a U.S. institution or from an institution in another English-only speaking country, you will receive a waiver of the TOEFL or IELTS. We will not waive the requirement for the TOEFL or IELTS scores if you earned a master's degree from a U.S institution or from an institution in another English-only speaking country.
Can I apply for admissions for the spring semester?
No, spring enrollment is not permitted. We only enroll new students for the fall semesters.
What is the average cost of the program?
Because the tuition, fees and other program cost vary based on several factors, we cannot provide you with an exact number. For an estimate please review the Graduate School's Tuition, Fees and Other Costs webpage.
What is the ETS code for UT at Austin?
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) code for the University of Texas at Austin is 6882. Test scores sent to this code are made available to all graduate departments. The GMAT code is 396-44-45.
After I apply, where can I check my application status and upload application material?
Once you have completed your online application you can upload application material and monitor your application status using the University's
My Status webpage
Merit-based fellowships are available through the Finance Department. An accepted applicant is automatically considered for these fellowships. The Finance Department typically offers 20-hour teaching or research assistants to all incoming students and most continuing students. In addition, a student holding a 20-hour appointment will qualify for in-state tuition.
Information about loans, work-study or other financial assistance based on need can be obtained from the Office of Student Financial Services Web site or by writing to Office of Student Financial Services, Box 7758, University Station, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78713-7758. Their phone number is (512) 471-6282.
Page last updated: 12/2/2014
By phone: (512) 471-5921
2110 Speedway
Austin, TX 78705
Rowling Hall
300 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Austin, TX 78712
McCombs School of Business,
The University of Texas at Austin |
Contact Us


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Johnson County's Commissioners called a special meeting for Wednesday morning to rescind their earlier ban on fires in the county.
Based on the recommendations from both Fire Chief Wes Johnson with Johnson County Fire District #1 in Buffalo and Chief Steve Haines with the Powder River Fire District in Kaycee, the commissioners voted to rescind Resolution No. 459 and its amendment, 459A to allow fires and burning in the county.
The original Resolution, 459, was passed and signed June 27th and the amendment, 459A, was passed and signed July 3rd.
The amendment banned open fires and fireworks on county-owned and private lands in the county with exceptions for barbecues with lids, acetylene cutting torches or electric welders with precautions, and propane or open fire branding with precautions. Fireworks were still banned.
Wednesday's recension essentially set the county's fire policies back to "normal."
For questions concerning fire regulations, contact Johnson County Fire District #1 at 684-9058.


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Indicative Rate * AU$23 to AU$115
Located just off the main road of Killarney in Pine Street, situated near to the show, polocrosse, rodeo and recreation grounds, the Killarney Sundown Motel is the place to stop and relax. Owners Faye and Trevor are committed to providing guests with clean, comfortable and affordable accommodation.
The Sundown Motel offers fully self-contained accommodation, perfect for families as the family unit can sleep up to five people. The Sundown Motel offers you the opportunity to use the barbecue and open firepit, which is perfect for parties and the like. The Sundown Motel is even pet friendly. It is the perfect location to stop for the night after visiting the spectacular Queen Mary Falls and Condamine Gorge.
A fully self-contained cabin, motor home, caravan and camping sites are available. Also an easy to use dump site.
They are now a Kui Parks park, ask them about becoming a member.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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Return to Transcripts main page
To Cut Or Spend to Save Our Economy?; Creating Jobs; Venus Williams: A Business Woman
Aired July 10, 2010 - 13:00 ET
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Welcome to YOUR MONEY. I'm Christine Romans. My friend Ali Velshi is off today. The question to cut or spend to save our economy. So many of you out there feel we must get control of our deficits. But what are you willing to give up to get there? How about those Bush tax cuts? They expire in just six months. Chrystia Freeland is global editor at large, Reuters. CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley is host of "STATE OF THE UNION" here on CNN. She talks about the head of the State of the Union. But let's start with Stephen Moore, editorial writer for the "Wall Street Journal." Will President Obama turn the Bush tax cuts Stephen into the Obama tax cuts? STEPHEN MOORE, EDITORIAL WRITER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL:" Well I would like to see that. I'd like to see some tax cuts from this administration. But the big issue right now is what's going to happen on January 1st of 2011which is that all of the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire the middle class tax cuts and the investment tax cuts. And my own feeling is that it's really in this kind of environment where we have such a risk of a double dip recession, I think it's just economic poison to be talking about raising tax rates on investments and businesses at this time when we've got such high unemployment all over the country. ROMANS: Chrystia they're expensive. Those -- that tax structure is expensive, isn't it? CHRYSTIA FREELAND, GLOBAL EDITOR AT LARGE, REUTERS: The tax cuts for sure. I would actually like to come back to Stephen if I may with a question. Does your concern about a double dip recession mean you're in favor of stimulus now? MOORE: No, look, I think the lesson we've learned over the last ... FREELAND: So we don't tax, but we also don't stimulate, it's like that classic Bush philosophy of don't tax but don't do anything on the spending side and have big deficits going into a financial crisis which has positioned the U.S. so well? MOORE: I guess my view is we've just had this experiment in spending stimulus. The biggest experiment in American history with $800 billion spent. And it was that we all now know that it has been a failure. It didn't create jobs. FREELAND: That's completely untrue. We don't know that at all. It didn't create -- it wasn't big enough to -- it wasn't big enough to end the recession, but we don't know the -- imagine had we not had that stimulus, don't you think the economy would have been even worse? MOORE: No I think we'd be much better off today if we hadn't done the spending. All we've got in exchange ... FREELAND: Seriously? MOORE: Yes, the spending just created a much larger gap and it's basically I think made businesses in a hungered down environment. We know what works. If you look at the book that I wrote, the history of the last 40 years shows that when we cut tax rates that's when the economy grows. It grew in the 1960s when Kennedy cut taxes and ... FREELAND: It grew during the Clinton era, as well. MOORE: Don't forget that Bill Clinton cut the capital gains tax rate. Barack Obama is talking about raising it. ROMANS: Candy lets bring it back to you because we're having a very ideological discussion here. This is what you'll be hearing when we come back this fall. We should be spend, spend, spending to keep the economy going. This is not the time to be taking our foot off the gas, no, no. We need to be spending the Bush tax cuts and cutting taxes so we can keep this money flowing that way. Candy how is this going to play politically? CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Let me just make a prediction, I don't think you'll hear a lot of we need to spend some more money. That is sort of a no-go on Capitol Hill. It's not something they want to talk about. Perhaps they will prime the pump some more, but I don't see that as a selling point in terms of the election. What is more of a selling point really what Chrystia sort of got to, which is the way that the president is going about it is you'd have been so much worse off if we hadn't done that stimulus. So it's more going that way. I also don't expect you're going to hear a lot of talk about rolling back those tax cuts. I think in the end they'll come up with some formulation which will basically be don't worry, middle class American will be able to retain their tax cuts and I think that gets to Stephen's point which is they probably will roll back on the wealthy. ROMANS: And people who make $250,000 or maybe some have even lower that had number to maybe $200,000 and more will lose their tax cuts. I want to look at projected federal revenue spending by the year 2020. Because this is why we're talking about there is no appetite to spend more money because when you look at Medicare, Social Security, the interest on the money we've already borrowed and spent but haven't paid for, you're talking about 93 cents of every incoming federal dollar by the year 2020 will already be spoken for by those things. That leaves that little sliver on the right to do everything else with the entire United States government. By 2030, I think interest on your debt alone is something like 8 percent which is the largest single expenditure in the government. So Candy, just bringing it back to you again, this is the difficulty for the president. People -- he needs to spend money now, his supporters say, to keep things going, but with an eye to a number like that so that you're not burdening your grandchild. It's a very difficult line to walk. CROWLEY: Exactly and certainly that's pretty much what you're getting is you will hear him talk about we need more jobs bill so-to- spend more money, basically teachers, firemen getting laid off, and we need that money, but we've got to be careful, we have to watch the deficit. So he tries to do due diligence to both, but in the whole political scheme of things, Republicans are betting take that looming deficit is something that Americans totally get. It's like unemployment. The minute you say the unemployment figure people understand what that means. They also understand the word deficit. So you can talk about first quarters and second quarters and GDP and the trade balance, but if you say we're spending x amount of dollars over what we're taking in, people sort of intrinsically know that's a bad thing. And that's what Republicans are banking on. FREELAND: I would like to agree with Candy on the politics of deficit, but I just want to cast a little bit of doubt on those forward projections that Christine was talking about at the beginning. And I think Stephen is actually going agree with me on this one, that it's incredibly hard to know how debt and deficit looks 10, 20 years into the future because it all depends on the size of the economy. So really the central question, we're talking about sort of stimulus versus deficits, do you want to tax more, do you want to spend more. The real center issue is how do you get the economy to grow. And a half a percent or an extra percent a year of economic growth solves a heck of a lot of problems. And that really I think needs to be the central question of the debate. ROMANS: But not all of them. You can have the economy growing robustly, Stephen, and then suddenly you turn that whole situation upside down. No matter what, don't you have to have either cutting spending or raising taxes or some combination of both, can the economy on its own fix this problem? MOORE: Well first of all, I agree entirely that the first thing we have to do is get this economy growing. And that's why I just think it really is such economic insanity to be talking about raising tax rates on capital investment. What we need in this country is investment in the country from foreigners around the world. They're not going to invest here if our tax rates are going up when the rest of the worlds are going down. If you put an extra percentage point on growth over the next ten years, it's like adding a Germany to the U.S. economy. That's how big the economy grows. And you solve a lot of problems that way. ROMANS: It is the biggest most dynamic economy in the world. Something to remember and we have counted out economic growth being a help or a tail wind before and if the '90s, for example. And it did come running back. MOORE: That's right. ROMANS: Everyone sit tight. One Nobel Prize winning economist saying we're on a familiar road. One that leads to the dreaded d word, a harsh reality check, some of the scary language of the week next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: You can't blame Americans if they're filled with terror and dread judging by these recent headlines. Vice President Biden said there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the great recession. He told that to a fund-raiser in Wisconsin. Paul Krugman a Nobel Prize winning economist in his "New York Times" column, no one can stop talking about this column. He said we are now I fear in the early stages of a third depression. And House minority leader John Boehner on the stimulus and jobs creation, this isn't the picture of the recovery. It's the epitome of failure. Even President Obama is conceding the tremendous pressure this economy is under. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This has been a difficult time for America right now. Two years of brutal recession, a decade of economic insecurity. And there are going to be some hard days ahead. (END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Hard days ahead indeed especially for the 46 percent of unemployed who have been out of work six months or longer. Now the president succumbs a brighter future. But Candy how does this drive into the midterm elections, a brighter future, but the right now is really tough for a lot of voters. CROWLEY: It's a tough sell. I think you can just start with 9.5 percent unemployment. It's just tough to say, hey, things have gotten better, which is why the Democrats are going after the if you have to hold on you heard the president there, we are moving in the right direction. But if you ask the country right track/wrong track, most think wrong track. So he really is in a dilemma. And the question honestly this election year is not will the Democrats lose seats. They will. The question is it going to be catastrophic or pretty normal for a midterm. ROMANS: Candy you're going to talk to David Axelrod on your show this weekend. I'm fast needed to know what you want to ask him about the message from this White House, I mean look you had the Vice president office talking about this is recovery summer, stimulus is working, yet on the other hand you had the president issuing a letter a week before that to senior congressional leaders saying we cannot fail right now because we're at an important cross roads and the recovery is fragile. CROWLEY: Well you know first of all, I think the dual message is where I'd like to go and say you know at some point don't you have to fish or cut bait. You have to go one way or the other. The tax cuts certainly something I want to talk to them about. And when you're looking at the president's rhetoric as it sort of gets near November, what you're seeing on the one hand is a president who reaches out lets say on financial reform or on immigration reform saying we need Republicans and then goes out and just blows them up on the campaign trail, which doesn't exactly set the atmospheric. So I think there is that and I think the administration is struggling now because it has been in office for a year and a half, almost two years by the time November rolls around. And at some point, they understand that people look at Barack Obama and say he's the one responsible now and it doesn't feel good. ROMANS: And the inherited verbiage, every now and then it creeps back in there about what this administration has inherited. And I think a lot of people are looking at long term unemployment and looking at the lack of opportunity and saying this isn't why we elected Democrats or this president. You inherited something that we wanted you fix it. Chrystia it's not an easy fix though, it is not something that you can wave a magic wand, when we have structural issues, we have long term issues. And there are people like Paul Krugman who are saying you need to spend a heck of a lot more money now and fast. FREELAND: Well I think your point about the structural issues is incredibly well made. And I think a truism of the connection between politics and the economy is that presidents get both too much blame and too much credit for what's going on in the economy. I think that Barack Obama benefited from the economy in 2008 and I think we can make a strong argument that had you not had the financial meltdown, he might not be president today. So it cuts both ways. But I think right now it is a dreadful situation particularly because there is no obvious quick fix. And to me the structural point around jobs is the biggest long term dilemma for America today. Joe Biden clearly off message saying those 8 million jobs are not going come back, but as usual, he may be telling the truth. The inconvenient truth and what I think is particularly worrying is even as those jobs start coming back, I think there is a lot of economic evidence to suggest the great middle class jobs, the ones that we associate with sort of the golden era of the 50s, '60s, when you could support a family, those jobs seem not only to not be coming back, but to be vanishing. And not just in manufacturing, but also in white collar sectors, partly globalization. But it is also technology, all these great impairing technologies that make companies more productive, guess what they don't have to employ so many people. That is the long term problem. ROMANS: And Stephen Moore, you know the fastest growing groups of jobs are home health aids and nurse's aids and some of those jobs pay like $19,000 a year and many of them have no benefits and they are not on the books. So that's what we're replacing some of those lost manufacturing jobs with. Another quick point here is that many people have noted this week that even if you avoid a double dip recession for a lot of people, it still feels like the same way it felt back if 2008. The recession never ended for them Stephen. How do you square that? MOORE: I think the problem and one of the reasons why I think the Obama administration is in some political trouble now is there's no plan b. We had the big economic stimulus plan. I really do think it was a trillion dollar failure. And now you've got people like Paul Krugman saying let's spend another trillion and the Obama administration says let's spend another $100 billion to try to get us out of this. I do think by the way, I mean I have to say this; there is a silver bullet here. If we were to adopt a Steve Forbes style flat tax in this country with a 19 percent tax rate, we would see so many jobs in this country; we could cut the unemployment rate in half. But that's going require some political ... FREELAND: What government programs would you cut to afford that? MOORE: That's a good question. The single most important thing we have to do is we have to repeal the Obama Care Bill. You know, I'm in Nevada right now where there's 14 percent unemployment where Harry Reid is under a lot of -- in a lot of trouble right now and a lot of people are saying this gap in the overspending, that's what everybody is talking about here in Nevada. No jobs, too much debt, and too much spending. ROMANS: And we didn't even talk about unemployment benefits which can get everybody all fired up as well, still a very hot topic. Chrystia Freeland, Candy Crowley, Stephen Moore thanks, everybody. Have a great weekend everyone. MOORE: You too. ROMANS: Very smart conversation. Next, millions of American jobs are at stake. They could be lost overseas. So why is the Obama administrations message to just play fair? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: To create American jobs, President Obama has pledged to double U.S. exports. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: This isn't just about where jobs are today. This is where American jobs will be tomorrow. (END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Richard Quest, is host of CNNI "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS." Richard do you expect to see this translate into millions of new manufacturing jobs in the United States? RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": No, I don't. The best hope in the world is to export your way out of trouble, but there are so many various factors that allow that to take place. The one thing the president did say at the G-20 is that the rest of the world shouldn't look to export their way out of trouble by exporting goods to the United States. Now, that, of course, is a faint hope, too, because as the American economy does pick up and consumers start spending again, the idea is that eventually they will start sucking in imports from overseas, Germany, Japan, China, and the rest of the world. The truth of the matter is the U.S. does actually export an enormous amount of goods. But to increase that by anything like double fold is simply just wishful thinking. ROMANS: Let's bring in Scott Paul; execute director for the Alliance for American Manufacturing. You know Scott here's the interesting thing. You can double exports all you want. If you triple imports, you still have the same imbalance that leads you to the problem from lost American jobs in the first place. SCOTT PAUL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALLIANCE FOR AMERICAN MANUFACTURING: Exactly right, it would be one step forward and two steps back. The most important metric for me is if we balance our trade deficit because that means that we will be keeping jobs here, we will be keeping welfare; we will be exporting products overseas at the same time. ROMANS: Balancing the trade deficit, I mean that would be an incredibly difficult -- just getting it more sustainable I think is what some people would like do. If you look at the trade imbalance over all with China, for example, I mean this is a China story first and foremost. Last year in 2009, $227 billion trade imbalance. What does that mean? That means the United States bought that much more than it sold to China. You look this year, and you can see we are already on track to surpass the first four months of that this year. This, Scott, is a currency story; this is a fair trade story, what is this? PAUL: Well I will tell you what, saying that China doesn't manipulate its currency makes about as much sense as saying Libran James doesn't play basketball. Of course China manipulates its currency. We're never going to boost exports, we are never going to create jobs here unless we're honest about our trade relationship with China and hold them accountable and say you got to play by the rules or you'll lose access to our market that's how Reagan did it in the '80s and that is how Nixon did it in the '70s, that is what Obama needs to do right now. ROMANS: Do you think Obama is making progress? Timothy Geithner the Treasury secretary and Barack Obama the president has made some progress that we haven't seen in recent years? PAUL: I'll tell you what; I will be willing to eat a lot of krou if I'm wrong about this. But I think they got played right before the G-20. China said it would revalue its currency. It made a little head fake and I think the administration cut it a little slack. But I think overall China is going to look out for its own interests unless our market access is at stake and so far we haven't been willing to do that. ROMANS: You know Richard, one of the bottom lines here, and when we hear about global rebalancing and you've mentioned this, that this is an American consumer story. The American consumer has fed those export-led growth machines around the rest of the world and now the U.S. is trying to say we need to balance that, we need to be exporting more, need to be consuming less from other countries. How easy is that to say we are going to rebalance compared with reality? QUEST: It's very easy to say and exceptionally difficult to do. For as long as I can remember, and I suspect you as well, they have been talking about the rebalancing of the global economy. First it was against Japan as an export monster. Now it's against China. Germany's exports are increasing again. The reality is, and, Scott, what I want to know is where are you suddenly going to do all this increased exporting from? What is it that you will be exporting? Even allowing for China and perhaps manipulation of the currency. The truth is on the import side until Americans are prepared to pay a little bit more for domestically produced goods and a higher cost economy, then they are going to buy those cheaper imports. ROMANS: Hey Scott, China has become the manufacturing floor of the world. Can you take it over and provide American goods at the price that they apparently want to pay for them? PAUL: I'll tell you what, we can be competitive. In fact our manufacturers are super competitive in a lot of areas. But what you can't compete against are subsidies and this 40 percent price advantage that China gets through currency manipulation. I guarantee this. If you give American workers a level playing field, we'll make the best products in the world. We've always been number one in manufacturing and we can regain that title if we have a level playing field. ROMANS: Richard, ten seconds, my friend. QUEST: China is a red herring to some extent. Look at the rest of the world. The European Union, look at the other major trading partners. Start asking where will that's no currency manipulation how you compete them against those economies. ROMANS: Well they're also all ticked off against China, too. For China's currency too. That's another interesting way to bring it all together. Richard Quest thank you so much. Scott Paul from the Alliance for American Manufacturing, thanks gentleman. She's one of the biggest superstars in the world of sports. Definitely one of the most successful in business, I'll sit down with Venus Williams next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Venus Williams went pro at 14, won Wimbledon five times. At age 30 now, she still ranks as one of the top five players in the world. I was very delighted to sit down with Venus this week. We spoke about her new book "Come to Win" which details how some of the top people in their profession credits sports for their success. And I also learned that while tennis is top in her life right now, being a business woman is a very close second. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS (voice over): Some of the people in here are luminaries in their field clearly. Jack Welch, for example, he is somebody who is very competitive. You don't have to dig very deeply or scratch very deeply to find the competitive streak in sports in a lot of business leaders. VENUS WILLIAMS, AUTHOR, "COME TO WIN:" There is something very competitive about these people in the book like Jack Welch, who are on the top of what they're doing. And you kind of scratch and you just keep it to that little serving mate they were athletes. It was pretty interesting how sports really make a difference in your life outside of your field. ROMANS: You look at Bill Bradley, who is a Senator, but actually a lot like you in a way in that he was a professional athlete, a gold medalist in the Olympics. And then went on to this other really lucrative career afterwards as United States Senator. What did you learn from him? WILLIAMS: I thought his story was so touching. I just felt like it just shows athletes, you know, in the case of athletes, that there a lot of places you can go after the career is over. But at the same time, I think the things that he said about winning and losing was so important even from my own experiences. And I think what's so important is not to associate that the losing or the failing with who you are. It's just something that happened. You learn from it, you recover, and you make it better. So I think the worst part about failing is when you don't learn from it. So there are a lot of great things like that in the book. ROMANS: Let's me ask about how diversified your own outlook is. Here you are in the prime of your career, your 30 years old yet you have fashion design, interior design, you've gone to school for fashion design, you've written a book, you've stayed very diversified here. What are you trying to build for after tennis? WILLIAMS: Well there's going to be a long life hopefully after tennis. And I've loved tennis for so long and I still do. And I'll love it for a long time after, but I also want to do something that I love after tennis. In the book you'll read that it says how my parents brought us up to be entrepreneurs. So it's really my upbringing of really wanting to have my own businesses and to have something that has an impact. ROMANS: You know entrepreneurs think for themselves. Entrepreneurs are very fiercely independent and follow their own gut and I was so surprised during the French open when I was watching grown men debate the corset. And a year ago I interviewed your sister Serena and the whole world was talking about her outburst at the U.S. open. Are you surprised that so many people, in pop culture look at you and your sister and have this conversation about what you wear or what you do or how you behave? WILLIAMS: It is interesting. To be honest, the talk was so intense about the dress and the illusion, I almost retired the illusion. But it's going to make a comeback. Would I ever thought that this would be happening, no, it is, it's crazy? Just enjoy the moment. ROMANS: You know one of the things in the book that was interesting, Magic Johnson was saying that when he first started taking meetings with investors or with business people, they didn't take him seriously, but he thought maybe they just wanted his autograph. Did you ever have that kind of experience? WILLIAMS: I have had that experience before. I think people do want to take meetings with you, they do in a way are curious maybe to see what you're about. When you get there, you have to show them that you're serious and that you do know what you're doing and you know what you're talking about. ROMANS: Let me ask you about sister Serena and Wimbledon. Were you disappointed in your own performance? Where do you go from here? WILLIAMS: I've had so many great years at Wimbledon and this year was also a very good year but not what I'm used to. ROMANS: What do you mean? WILLIAMS: I didn't win the match, it is just that simple. And just like in my book, when you don't win, you reevaluate and you go back and you come back better. That's part sport. You always win. It doesn't always happen when you want it to, but I'll be ready for the next match. (END VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS: Ready for the next match. Make sure you check out the book and you'll read Venus' interview CNN's own Soledad O'Brien in there, as well. Ever wonder who exactly makes the final call to delay or cancel your flight? We'll show you next. Plus, why you could be standing up instead of sitting down on a future flight. Standing room only on an airplane. Imagine that. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Ever wonder what it takes to get your flight from ticketing to takeoff to landing? Before Ali took off to the World Cup, he got an inside look at America's third largest airline. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALI VELSHI, CNN HOST, YOUR MONEY (voice over): So for most of us, traveling by plane means buying a ticket, getting to the airport, getting on board, sitting down, relaxing, and enjoying the flight. But there are actually hundreds of people involved behind the scenes that make sure all of this goes smoothly. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning. Before we get into reviewing yesterday's operation, let's get into safety. VELSHI: 9:00 a.m. Central Time, senior operational managers in charge of planes, crews and schedules and other critical responsibilities meet in a room near United's own airport Chicago O'Hare. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will have one in Chicago later this afternoon. VELSHI: It's a quick meeting. Yesterday's performance. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yesterday we did make our shared goals. VELSHI: Today's potential problems. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And parts of western Illinois and into the afternoon that will be our next opportunity to seeing some thunderstorms into Chicago. VELSHI: Then it's off to work in the heart of United's worldwide operation. This is the other side of the curtain, the side that we mere mortal travelers never get to see. People in this room here at United Operations Control Center outside of Chicago are making decisions about everything to do with your travel, including the crew that's on your plane, making sure there are spare sports if anything goes wrong on that plane. In fact, in this room is where they give final approval for takeoff. JOE KOLSHAK, SR. VP OF OPERATIONS, UNITED AIRLINES: Dispatch a flight is two people who are legally responsible, the dispatcher and the captain on the flight. VELSHI: So they both have to sign off. KOLSHAK: They both have to sign off. VELSHI: Joe Kolshak is a 20 year veteran of the airlines. Like many here, a former pilot. United's Operations Control Center, or OCC, isn't customer service. It's not the room where your ticket price is set. Nor is it where they track your lost luggage. But it is pretty much everything else. From this room, senior staff in virtually every department oversee United's is operations at five U.S. hubs. Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington Dulles. And thousands of domestic and international flights. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the most part, it all comes through this area. VELSHI: Difficult decisions taken in this room, shifting a plane's root ever so slightly to make up for a late departure. Preparing a flight crew for a possible holding pattern or diversion to another airport because of weather. And things seemingly not so critical, scheduling crew shifts and hotels and making sure passengers aren't bordering sweltering hot planes in the summer. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we pull aircraft over from the hanger, you know with these hot temperatures, make sure that we're pre-cooling them. VELSHI: Every single flight is assigned a dispatch who determines and signs off on the flight plan and tracks its performance and problems until it lands. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is actually a straight line to go. KOLSHAK: You see with 1200 flights a day, you know actually a lot of people, a couple hundred dispatchers. VELSHI: The goal, keeping everyone safe and moving hopefully on schedule. The fun of traveling is actually traveling, actually going somewhere. There's nothing more frustrating than being stuck on the ground and there are new rules that say if an airplane keeps out tarmac in the plane for more than three hour, they get fined a lot of money. So you can be assured that you don't want to be sitting around and they don't want you sitting around. KOLSHAK: I understand the customer's frustration. To be out of control because somebody else is basically controlling wherever that airplane goes and when it goes. VELSHI: So far United hasn't faced the severe fines imposed by the Department of Transportation, but that's meant turning some delayed planes back to the gate and canceling the flight. KOLSHAK: We're making it work. Doesn't mean that it's not painful to the passengers who don't understand that we're operating under this law that will fine us $27,500 per passenger on a flight, small airplane that is $4 million, large airplanes doubles. VELSHI: When it comes to delays, there are the uncontrollable causes like weather and the controllable causes like an air traffic control system that needs a serious upgrade. KOLSHAK: And it does slow us down. It does impact us. VELSHI: Ali Velshi, CNN, Chicago. (END VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS: Summer is in full swing. For many people that means vacation time. But flying just about anywhere these days can cost a pretty penny. Rick Seaney is a CEO of Farecompare.com, Rick what are the best deals out there right now for this flying public? RICK SEANEY, CEO, FARECOMPARE.COM: Yes, you know we've had a really tough summer for deals. We had the cheapest ticket prices in the last decade last year. This year, summer prices are up pretty dramatically. Even yesterday, United announced that their June numbers were up 30 percent or so. So ticket prices are up. But there are some deals starting to roll out now as we get closer to that magic number which is August 22nd. So if you fly after August 22nd, lots of dealing out there. In between there, we've got a few deals. Things like Orlando from Philadelphia and some international deals that have been really expensive lately are now starting to come down a little bit. ROMANS: Philly to Orlando including taxes and fees $189 round trip. SEANEY: That ticket price was $300 a few weeks ago. ROMANS: Philly to Oslo, $384 each way. But additional taxes and fees not included. SEANEY: Absolutely. ROMANS: Let me switch gears quickly. U.P.S. they are saying this week that they have a solution to lost luggage. Ship it ahead of time with them, the shipping giant now has a luggage shaped boxes so you can avoid traveling with the bags and the fees that go along with those bags. Department of Transportation reports that the ten largest airlines in the U.S. as you know Rick collected $770 million in check bag fees in just the first three months of 2010, so does it make sense to avoid those fees by shipping it ahead of time? SEANEY: It certainly does. Especially on domestic, international, typically you get free checked bags. United for example has an all you can eat plan for the year for just over $200, can pay for all your check bag fees for a year. For you and all your family members so there's all kinds of ways to get around bag fees. Some airlines have credit cards that waive the fees. You can save up to $300 to $400 for a family just by getting those fees waived. ROMANS: They also have a thing where you can -- a lot of business travelers ship your bag ahead of time with FedEx. They had a spring special $79 is still pretty rich, but business travelers like that. SEANEY: It's something that everybody should be looking into because checked bag fees aren't going to go down. They're just going go up over time. ROMANS: All right. How about this, think your last flight was cramped? Think about this. Discounts Irish Airline Ryan Air wants passengers to stand on its flights so they can passenger more bodies on to a plane. Can this really happen? Wouldn't they have to design new kinds of plane, they'd have to have some kind of a bar stool type situation that would be safe so on takeoff and landing, but you could get a lot more bodies in there I guess if you took out leg room all together. SEANEY: Absolutely. Actually this is something that was done a Chinese airline actually was the first one to come out with this design where they actually had standing room only in the planes and then of course Ryan Air took that to the next level by making it more public. But there are designs out there. It can be done. I think it's a lot of it for short haul flights, less than two hours. But nothing surprises me. I get surprised every week now, nothing surprises me anymore. ROMANS: It would solve a big problem if my traveling family which is my 2-year-old kicking the seat of the person this front of us. We wouldn't have that problem anymore. SEANEY: Absolutely. ROMANS: You'd just have my toddlers running wild on an airplane. SEANEY: It makes the car seat a little more complicated, though. ROMANS: All right. Rick Seaney, Farecompare.com, thanks so much Rich. SEANEY: Thank you. ROMANS: Next, why one of the biggest companies on the Internet and the one you likely use everyday is running in to a little bit of trouble. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Time now for the ticker. My favorite part of the show where we break down some of the biggest headlines of the week. Back again Richard Quest of CNNI "Quest means Business" from London. And comedian Hal Spark in Dallas. OK gentlemen. Google still may be the king when it comes to online search, but the internet giant has certainly taken a hit this year. Persistent troubles over its relationship in China, criticism over privacy concerns on Google buzz, and also failures to revolutionize the cell phone industry lost the company tens of billions of dollars and stock down about 25 percent this year. But there's still hope China renewed its license with the Chinese government on Friday. A major coup for the internet company which could have actually gone dark in China without it. But will its searches be uncensored? Richard, what do you make of all this? It doesn't sound to me like they solved the censorship issue. They just backed away from the brink, the Chinese government and Google. QUEST: There's no question Google backed away from the brink. Its original fix, the patch which was disapproved by the Chinese authorities. And then the way Google came up with the landing page idea, all of which showed just how much was at stake for Google. The company has grown exceptionally fast and what we are witnessing are the pains of when basically growth overtakes the ability to keep up with this. Now, look, this sounds very pompous from me sitting here in London pontificating about Google, but the truth of the matter is, if you look at the variety of stuff that Google is involved with, from Google map to the search engine to the calendars to the phones, it is inevitable that you're going to end up with these hiccups. The question of course is how you handle something as mammoth as China when both parties seem to want to back down. ROMANS: And I think Hal that is an incredible point. To me, they were both standing on the great firewall of China each on a different edge. Now, they have taken a step back from the brink. These are two companies, well; I guess China Inc and Google Inc who decided they needed each other for now. Right? HAL SPARKS, COMEDIAN: The element you have here with Google I think and why they have actually seen that drop is not entirely based on their relationship with China. Google has a search engine. A software company is their primary point of access as a business. The problem really is coming from their shift in business model and public perception, I think. From this kind of jolly, friendly, creative company that they were three years ago. Where you heard stories of like employees standing in a room full of balloons just to think of a better way to do mapping. Now, they are behind the android ads. Is it the iphone killer? If you look at all the companies that have come out to attack Apple, for privacy at any particular market, look at Microsoft. Microsoft started doing that that was their primary business model. Now, they basically make excel and video games. ROMANS: Stick with me. Because I got that I want to talk to you about in ticker right after this break to pay the bills. The oil still flowing in the Gulf. What exactly does Bp have planned to win back shareholder trust? Is it going to work and can they plug the hole? That is right after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Back with us, Hal Sparks in Dallas and Richard Quest in London. Gentlemen, energy giant Bp set a new date now for fixing the oil leak in the Gulf. If all goes perfectly well with no glitches, good weather and everything, July 27th is what an executive of the company told the "Wall Street Journal" this week. That is well ahead of its original target of mid August. The new target date is also the day the company will report second quarter earnings and speak to investors. President Obama will meet with the British prime minister on U.S. soil. Is all of this enough to regain shareholders trust? I know Richard it's interesting because the British papers even two weeks ago were saying oh that deadline of the middle of August, forget it they are going to try to deliver something earlier, if they possibly can because they have to restore confidence in the company. QUEST: Oh I don't think that's what they are going to try to do. No. If you read what they said, it basically said worse case scenario we are still looking at the middle of August to late August. Best case scenario, they are terrified of damaging further the original core of the well, the well bore. That is what this is all about. As they intersect it and drill, they want to make sure they are going to do it right. So he's giving a best and a worst. And of course being journalist, we have chosen to focus on the extremities of the good. ROMANS: But Hal says curious timing. In this country, Richard and you were here last week, you know, there's not a lot. People don't give Bp a lot of slack around here. SPARKS: You understand that oil companies, Bp included run on a drug dealer business model and literally, they are based entirely on need and the mercenary nature of the market. Most of the people worked at Bp would work someplace else if there was some level of job equal to what they would do. You are not looking to this company 100 years from now. The issue is they drilled this down; they left gaps in the tube that they can find and that is what they are going to be looking for. They are hoping the 27th is the 25th or the 24th so they can pop champagne on the 27th. This is a pr move. QUEST: That is simply I just think cynical beyond belief because if they have learned ... SPARKS: Incredibly cynical, but it is cynical based on evidence. QUEST: No, then because it's more than cynical, it's stupid of the company. SPARKS: I meant me. QUEST: Of top hat and of top kill, if they have learned nothing from the inabilities to stop this leak so far, you take the worst possible prognosis, not the best. SPARKS: I was saying cynical based on me, not cynical on their move. ROMANS: Hal Sparks is cynical? News flash. One thing that's pretty interesting about it too is that Bp CEO is basically crisscrossing the globe, talking to investors, talking to Middle Eastern investors to Richard you know, I mean trying to convince them, we are a viable company that can pay our bills and we are going to be able to handle all this, right? SPARKS: Well they are. QUEST: What is looking -- go ahead. Sorry. SPARKS: I was just saying they are. The cost of this clean up to them, to some degree, so far even as nightmarish as the numbers sound, they gather up profits that this is a minor percentage of. If they are running on a margin where 20 billion dollars affect them after a $60 to $100 billion profit year, that's bad business beyond this crisis. ROMANS: Richard, you get to close it out for me. Bp. QUEST: It's simple. They are in a hole. They dug a lot of it themselves. It's going to get more messy before it gets better. They have to ensure the long term viability of the company. ROMANS: All right. Thanks. Richard Quest, Hal Sparks thanks guys. Have a great weekend. That wraps it up for this show. QUEST: Wait a second. No it doesn't. ROMANS: It doesn't? QUEST: There's some economic news that I need to bring to you. There has been, in the Christine Romans index, there's been serious growth of rate. In fact, expansion would do well to be cheered. If we look around, the inflation is quite extraordinary but we do know that at this current rate of growth, she and her partner, husband, will soon have their own soccer team with a third boy on the way. Good luck. God bless. ROMANS: Thank you, gentlemen. SPARKS: God bless. ROMANS: I used to have two cost centers. I will have three after this week. When they will start to provide revenue I have no idea. But I'm imagining they will be a drain on the bottom line in cash flow for the foreseeable future. Gentlemen, thank you. Thank you Richard for that. That wraps it up for this show. You can join our running conversation on facebook and twitter, I will be, yes, on maternity leave. Please, keep me up with part of the story about YOUR MONEY, at alivelshi and at christineromans. I'll be back before you know it. Make sure you join us every week for YOUR MONEY, Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00. You can log on 24/7 at CNNMONEY.com. Have a great weekend everybody.


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Rob Moore needed a new print or packaging design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 38 designs submitted by 14 freelance designers.
I need a banner designed for a tradeshow. I have to send the PSD file to the print company on Monday (in 2 days) so this is a rush job. The size is to be 36.5" wide by 79" high (vertical banner). Banner design guidelines: http://www.displays2go.com/BannerGu…Guide.html
Our logo should be at the top (probably). Have a look at our website (http://www.demowolf.com)... the logo is there, but I can also provide a PSD file of it. Our display will consist of a projector putting a display of our demos on a screen at the back of our exhibit space (10ft x 10ft), and then off to the side will be this banner that you will design. Our logo should be VERY visble and prominant. Anything else on the banner is up to you to design.
- Possible tag lines:
- "Video tutorials for your hosting business"
- "Cut support costs in half!"
not sure.


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2 Girls Go At It In Palm Bay, Florida! (Get Dirty Water Dumped On Them)
One of our viewers just sent this in. They say "Two Black sisters in Palm Bay, FL get left after prom by other girl then they go to her apartment complex and get their asses beat down and get dirty pond water dumped on them.after fight both sisters Shout Out to Alicia and Elizabeth @ Bayside Highschool.
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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
I recently joined a new client at which Team Foundation Server (TFS) is being used as the source control repository and Continuous Integration (CI) server (I think these things collectively gets referred to as Application Lifecycle Management or ALM for short). I'm fairly ambivalent as to which ALM tools gets used on my projects (in the past year I have used various combinations of TeamCity, Jenkins, Git, Github, Subversion and Jira and haven't had any particular problem with any of them) however returning to TFS did give me an opportunity to try out a utility that I have been intending to look at for a while - $log$ / Keyword Substitution / Expansion Check-In Policy (in the interests of brevity let's call it Log Substitution).
Log Substitution is a TFS Check-in policy that will look for and replace the string "$log$" with information about that check-in; what that means in practise for us T-SQL developers is that you can include the check-in history of a stored procedure within the stored procedure definition. Here's an example of what that looks like:
CREATE PROCEDURE [UKTax].[csp_EntityLoad] @pProcessDetailID SMALLINT , @pDomain VARCHAR(64), @pUserName VARCHAR(255), @pRowCount INTEGER = 0 OUTPUTAS/* <history> $log$ Previous Revision 3104 2011/09/09 14:42:36 Sup_ThomsonJ refactoring. Eliminated duplicate code - now adhering to DRY Previous Revision 2974 2011/09/08 17:13:43 Sup_ThomsonJ Transaction needs to be committed Previous Revision 2898 2011/09/01 09:58:31 Sup_ThomsonJ Adding $log$ directive for substitution policy </history>*/BEGIN SET NOCOUNT ON; SET ANSI_WARNINGS ON; SET ANSI_NULLS ON; SET DATEFORMAT DMY; --code goes here etc...END
As you can see we have a comments section that contains, for each check-in, the following information:
I asked the various communities within the company what they thought of this and was interested to discover that the .Net developers seemed dead against it - they didn't see the point in copying the check-in information to a different place - whereas the SQL developers were all for it; their reasoning was that it is useful to be able to look at a stored procedure in a production environment and see who to blame when it goes wrong. If you think about it there is no analogy to stored procedures for .Net developers because .Net source code does not get deployed, the compiled object code does, so perhaps its not surprising that there is a dichotomy of opinion here.
I should point out that there is a downside to TFS Check-in policies - they are enforced on the client rather than on the server (which is stupid) and moreover this means that a client install is required. This seems like a rather large limitation to me and although the problem can be alleviated somewhat by the use of TFS Powertools that, again, requires those Powertools to be installed everywhere beforehand (why the TFS Powertools don't just get delivered with Team Explorer is beyond me). Anyway, if you can get around those little nuances Log Substitution can be a useful little utility and given that it went down so well with my fellow SQL developers here I thought it might be worth sharing with all of you. Let me know if you have any opinion on Log Substitution, especially if you have installed it and used it yourself.
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Hi Jamie,
Though I'm now a T-SQL and SQL Server developer (started as a C developer for 11 years ago), I agree with the .NET ppl. The thing is, that when this information is injected by TFS in the SP code, it can after that be edited by someone manually, outside of the TFS context, breaking the week chain totally.
One should not allow the audit tracks to be offline, and edible, as it will degrade its authenticity.
So it's nice to have, sure thing it's cool for getting the answer fast etc., but if you will anyhow still need to verify the info with the TFS, than it's not really saving you the time and effort.
Single version of the truth, is still a very important element of every information system.
Hi Rafi,
I'm an avid proponent of DRY so you know what, on that principal alone I can't really disagree with you. Maybe I need to have a word with some of my colleagues... :)
I'd put good money on +80% of SQL developers using source control systems are (usually manually) also adding change comments to the sproc - I know all my TFS projects have, and the majority of the SQL developers have preferred keeping it that way.
I'm guessing & hoping this will change over time...
I always put change comments in the header of any stored procedure, and when they are in source control as well, I normally put the same comment in it on check-in. Having to do it just once is nice.
Yes, they can be edited outside of source control, but you can always define the check-in comments to be the "master" comments.


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Most Americans have a neutral to negative opinion of federal agencies, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday.
The poll, conducted during the summer, asked more than 40,000 Americans to rate their individual experience with federal agencies to understand the public's overall perception of government. Nearly half (46 percent) viewed agencies neutrally, while 34 percent reported negative opinions and 20 percent said they viewed government in a positive light. The military fared better than the civilian agencies. Seventy-eight percent of Americans have a favorable view of the services, while 20 percent of respondents expressed a similar view of other federal agencies.
The results raise questions about how agencies can measure performance and improve customer service. The poll found that the most important factor in the public's satisfaction is an agency's ability to resolve problems reasonably. Other categories included, "Willing to work with me," and "Delivers on promises."
"Participation and feedback of the public in their roles as customers, when there is interaction, and as the owners of government, is absolutely critical to health and success," said Patricia McGinnis, former president of the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government. "Public trust and confidence in leaders and institutions actually provides the political capital needed to make hard, tough decisions for long-term improvements in government performance."
The poll looked at agency brands, including impact, prestige and importance to the future. The Defense Department received high marks in several categories, including the agency most important to the future. The CIA was rated most prestigious, along with Defense, as well as the federal employer of choice. The Environmental Protection Agency, Internal Revenue Service, and Health and Human Services Department were among those ranked lowest in customer satisfaction, which could be attributed to various factors, including their public availability, accuracy of information, or ability to deliver on promises. Those surveyed ranked HHS, along with the Social Security Administration, as having the most impact on their personal lives.
"People do need to be reminded of the important role and accomplishments of government," said McGinnis. "The government needs to do a better job of marketing itself." She added that better branding also can improve agency recruiting.
Temporary federal leadership and the lack of real-time, useful information are challenges to improving customer service, said Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. Identifying the right measurements and understanding the information gathered are critical to institutionalizing change, he said.
Panelists at Monday's event highlighted the importance of engaging all levels of an agency, from top leadership to rank-and-file employees, in evaluating and improving interactions with the public.
Gallup announced that it will measure the public's perception of agency performance annually.


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PHR Debuts Its New Mustang
We're the first to admit that the Ford tech has been a little light around here. Ford Motor Company noticed, too! When Ford responded to our quick fix for a Mustang-light tech selection by hooking us up with a '02 Mustang GT, we couldn't refuse.
The goal here is to create an aftermarket-equipped car that's very repeatable by you, the readers. It's got to be really fast, an all-around car with a killer stance–It's the car we'd love to see in Hometown Hot Rodding! There's nothing too exotic to be bolted on here, stuff that you can buy, but it's not about stuff you'd buy at the local auto parts store, either. With this Mustang, we're dealing with the best that you can get within reason, a true dream car that can be built via mail order or through your local speed shop.
We selected a vehicle that you'd likely order, especially if you're a fan of bolting on parts. Sure, you'd love to have a new Mach 1 or even a Bullitt, but the majority of V-8 powered rides out there ship with a standard 4.6L SOHC V-8 that produces 260 hp at 5,250 rpm and 302 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. We love those specialty vehicles and the Cobra series, but this car needs to go further. We'll be chasing serious engine modifications as soon as we're done with sorting the chassis, brakes, and interior (which takes us through the March 2003 issue!). Starting with basic stuff like exhaust, a BBK throttle body, cams from COMP, a MAF meter from Granatelli, and many of the other popular computer mods available in the giant 4.6L industry, we'll be moving on to a Precision Turbo system, an ATI ProCharger P1-SC kit, and that new NOS system (not at the same time, however!). We're on the search for a couple more engines for this project, so that we can be working on one while testing with the other. It's obvious that our readers aren't in this position, but you people want the results quicker than we can normally turn them out!
Quantifying all of this stuff requires significant testing. In addition to our Primedia Tech Center's DynoJet chassis dyno, we'll be using exactly the same road course configuration and similar track temps on Central California's Buttonwillow Raceway and its #13 circuit (Sorry, but we can only do so much about the air!) to come up with percentages that put a whole new light on improvements. The dragstrip is still a fun place to test, but it doesn't show many of a car's attributes. Check out the newly improved site at www.buttonwillowraceway.com to run your car, too.
We ran up I-5 to wanted to get a real-world evaluation of the Mustang at Hotchkis Track Day, getting serious track time with the West Coast's best cars on the track. The results were as predicted in some ways and rough in others. In terms of road manners, our new GT is just right. Sure, it could always have more power (and boy will it get that!), but for a stock ride it's plenty fun. We ordered our car with the 17-inch wheel "Bullitt" wheel package and 255/45/17 Goodyear Eagles, so the ride was predictable and the handling offered a safe but significant understeer. The stock shifter, attached to a Tremec TR3650 manual transmission with a tall Fifth gear ratio for improved fuel economy, made for smooth selection except when pushing for a quick shift up or down from Third gear on the road course. Our car had leather seats with full power controls; they were more than comfortable, but offered little room for the bigger drivers. As for the back seat, it's for all but the very small. The Mach 1000 option for the sound system, complete with external amplifiers and a pair of bass boxes in the trunk, in nothing short of spectacular (even though it takes up a bunch of room and adds 70 pounds to the rear).
I was able to lap consistently in the 2:16-second range on the stock Goodyear tires, which was quicker than any other stock road car on the track (except those Z06s). That involved consistently shifting at 5,000 rpm (hey, it was a brand-new car), braking moderately (which still allowed the solid rear rotors to munch the pads). We were able to get very stable lap times that can be used as a baseline for the car throughout its modifications. Moreover, we're gonna stick to our driving style and use it as a benchmark, testing each time that we make major changes so that you can see how much of a difference the parts made in sequence. Sure, we'll try to put in a "flier," but that's more for ego than proven results. When you look at track time by a percentage of improvement, it's a cool way to see just what parts are worth in terms of performance, much like a dyno.
What kind of car are we trying to build? This Mustang will be a very balanced road car, not a full road racer or drag race ride. With a complete suspension system from Maximum Motorsports that will still offer a reasonable ride quality, the PHR Project Mustang should handle among the best Mustangs ever built–it's that serious! Though you'll find feature cars with a bigger brake system, we're running a Brembo setup that serious enthusiasts will deem achievable (also something that can fit inside a variety of wheels), and a set of Corbeau TRS seats and belts that should be worth a full second on the track just by keeping the driver in his place. B&M is supplying one of its famous "Ripper" shifters, and the Yokohama AVS ES 100 tires that you see evaluated on these pages will remain on the car well through its first stages to keep consistency. Discount Tire Direct is a great source of both aftermarket wheels and the solid standard of replica Cobra stuff, so we've got a few sets coming to make sure that we can swap tires quickly and keep out the variables.
For more details of the upcoming buildups, read the captions carefully, but in the meantime, get ready for one of the most finely tuned PHR cars in our 40-year history. Next month, it's the rear suspension. Stay tuned, as this stuff just represents round one–most of these parts will be switched out to keep on testing!