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HDRO's third conference on measuring human progress brought together some fifty participants from a range of sectors, including both the users and producers of statistical indicators, to discuss three broad questions:
- How can experience in measuring human development help inform the selection of indicators for the Post-2015 development framework?
- Can measures of subjective wellbeing inform future human development reports and measures?
- What new and emerging data sources might be considered to help strengthen the way in which the family of human development indices assesses key capabilities around the world?
Germany's Ambassador to the UN, Heiko Thoms, and Khalid Malik, HDRO's director, opened the conference and introduced Olav Kjorven, Special Adviser to the UNDP Administrator on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Olaf's keynote set the stage for the next 2 days, noting how timely the conference was given the growing importance of data and measurement in the global conversation around the post-2015 goals
- Facilitator: Enrico Giovannini, Former Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, Italy and Co-chair of the HDR Statistical Advisory Panel
- Janet Gornick, Professor, City University of New York
- Anuradha Seth, Team Leader, Inclusive Green Growth, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP
- Miles Corak, Professor, University of Ottawa
The first session brought together two professors – Janet Gornick and Miles Corak – together with Anuradha Seth from UNDP. Janet's presentation, on the Luxembourg Income Study, showed both the benefits and challenges that can arise from creating a harmonized international data set. Anuradha noted the importance of recognizing inequality and in the post-2015 development goals and described ways in which it might feature in the goals. And Miles talked about different types of inequality and how each might – or might not – relate to public policy. Equality of opportunity was, he argued, a more legitimate goal in many societies than equality of outcomes.
A lively Q&A session, chaired by Enrico Giovannini, discussed the measurement agenda and looked at a number of ideas including the importance of understanding risk and resilience, and trying to ensure that human capital is valued appropriately in the System of National Accounts. The notion of social "tipping points" (extreme inequalities that could lead to societal collapse) and how to calculate them was also mentioned.
- Facilitator: John Hammock, Co-founder and research associate, Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, Oxford University
- Saadia Zahidi, Senior Director, Head of Gender Parity and Human Capital, World Economic Forum
- Francesca Grum, Chief, Social and Housing Statistics Section, United Nations Statistics Division
- Christina Boll, Research Director, Hamburg Institute of International Economics
The panelists discussed the importance of understanding the many gender gaps around the world, and the lack of data for doing so. Panelists looked at many areas including the unequal distribution of child care (a major constraint to women's participation in the labour market) and patterns of female participation in the labour market.
Discussion, chaired by John Hammock touched on the Post-2015 agenda. Speakers felt it was important to include a stand-alone goal on gender equality and also mainstream gender equality in all goals. It was also important capture both levels and gaps, lest 'equalizing downward' was interpreted as progress in bridging gender gaps. A number of other suggestions were made including providing a platform for gender data at community level and developing guidelines for data collection in non-traditional areas such as violence against women.
- Facilitator: Joern Geisselmann, Programme Millennium Goals and Poverty Reduction, Good Governance and Human Rights Sectoral Department, GIZ, Germany
- Gonzalo Hernandez Licona, Executive Secretary, CONEVAL, Mexico
- Sabina Alkire, Director, Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative
- Koen Decancq, Professor, University of Antwerp, Belgium
This session's panel comprised researchers and practitioners interested in measuring multidimensional poverty. Gonzalo pointed out that in Mexico the MPI had become an important data series for policy making and had been embraced by the Congress. Indeed, as Sabina explained, there was a growing demand worldwide from governments to collect MPI data, especial in middle income countries, and growing interest too in using the indicator in the Sustainable Development Goals as well. One reason was that there was often surprisingly little overlap between those in income based poverty and those multidimensionally poor. Koen presented Russian multidimensional data on poverty using 4 dimensions - expenditures, health, housing and unemployment – weighted using life satisfaction data which he argued was more acceptable than estimating weights in other ways.
Discussion, chaired by GIZ's Joern Geisselmann, considered how best to ensure that internationally comparable data on deprivations are frequently collected and how those measures could be communicated to and understood by policy makers.
- Facilitator: Conal Smith, Administrator, Statistics Division, OECD
- Jon Hall, Policy Specialist, Human Development Report Office, UNDP
- John Helliwell, Professor, University of British Columbia [Slides]
- Enrique Ordaz López, Director-General of Research and Analysis, INEGI, Mexico
- Glenn Everett, Director of the Measuring National Well-being Programme, Office for National Statistics, UK
The second day opened with a panel looking at happiness and human development.
Jon Hall argued that measures of life satisfaction provided a useful conceptual and statistical complement to more direct measures of human development like the HDI. Two official statisticians - Enrique Ordaz Lopez and Glenn Everett – described the work underway in their offices to measure subjective wellbeing. The new data was being used in many ways, some unexpected. For instance, domestic violence was now higher on the Mexican policy agenda after INEGI had demonstrated the toll it takes on people's happiness. While in the UK, a leading property firm was using ONS data to consider wellbeing when designing major housing projects. John Helliwell introduced the different types of happiness (positive and negative affect and life satisfaction). He went on to discuss the importance of happiness for many areas of public policy from dealing with the aftermath of the global financial crisis to ways in which pro-happiness policies might help tackle global environmental challenges.
During the Q&A, chaired by Conal Smith panelists discussed whether happiness might have a place in the post 2015 goals: while a particular target for happiness might be unlikely, one could imagine a goal where governments commit to report annually on each nation's subjective wellbeing. The important influence of social relationships on happiness was also discussed during a conversation on why inhabitants of poor villages might seem happier than wealthier city dwellers. Panelists stressed that relying on any single number alone for policy making (HDI, GDP or life satisfaction) would be shortsighted. But it is important to factor happiness into the set of measures used and social relationships are an important issue for urban policy making, as city dwellers frequently have a weaker social network than those in rural areas.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, joined the conference by video to lay out his vision for the sustainable development goals, which he argued should aim to provide a compelling narrative to motivate public action, to hold governments and business accountable, and to serve as a basis for the organization of knowledge and activism.
Prof. Sachs discussed what might be included in post-2015 goals. He recommended that: the economic goals include ending extreme poverty, providing decent jobs, and sustaining economic growth; the social goals include gender equality, human rights, reducing relative poverty, increasing education access and attainment, and health for all; and the environmental goals address agriculture and food, the urban environment, biodiversity conservation, climate change, and sustainable energy (although climate change and biodiversity are tackled in other international fora they should, he argued, be included in the SDGs to ensure the goals include all of the highest global priorities for sustainable development for the next 15 years). Global governance (including businesses and institutions) is another overarching issue that also needs to be addressed. He also argued that well-being should be measured directly by integrating subjective measures into SDGs and policy structures given the overwhelming evidence that much is gained from these indicators. He made a strong case for the SDGs to generally include much more timely, rigorous, and coordination data collection for management and feedback.
In response to a query about including risk indicators, Prof. Sachs commented that while a good idea, constructing the measures would require statistical models might be politically less acceptable than observable data. He also reminded the meeting that the Sustainable Development Solutions Network is holding a public consultation on its report on Indicators for Sustainable Development Goals.
- Facilitator: Hendrik van der Pol, Director, UNESCO Institute for Statistics
- Enrico Giovannini, Former Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, Italy and Co-chair of the HDR Statistical Advisory Panel
- Rashid Benmokthar, Minister for Education, Morocco
- Claes Johansson, Senior Adviser, DevInfo, UNICEF
- Stefan Schweinfest, Acting Director, United Nations Statistical Division
- Nathan Wendt, Consultant, Gallup World Poll
The last session of the conference featured a panel of senior data users and producers.
Enrico Giovannini and Rashid Benmoktar, represented the user community. Claes Johansson Stefan Schweinfest and Nathan Wendt represented data producers. A rich set of discussions highlighted the growing demand for data and the expense of collecting it, the potential of new data sources (such as Big Data) to fill the gaps, and the role international agencies could play. Panelists were careful to stress the limitations of many new data sources: there were no silver bullets. The discussion, chaired by Hendrik van der Polwas wide ranging and noted that while a data revolution might be required, a data liberation – to make available a wealth of data currently locked up – would also be valuable. The Gallup World Poll survey was widely praised for its quality, but several people noted that it was prohibitively expensive for most users and urged more innovative approaches to ensuring that the data was affordable to users while recognizing the costs to Gallup in collecting it.
There was much food for thought. The first day of the conference highlighted the importance of aspects of development that ought to feature more prominently in the development narrative. The resilience of societies and their institutions for example, and the measurement of risk, are both important to the ways in which we measure and foster progress. But there were, as yet, no agreed measures to assess these vital facets of human development. The discussions had also reminded everyone of the perennial tension between simplicity and over-simplification. Policy makers and citizens require summary measures that communicate complex issues clearly. And yet summary measures run a risk of sending misleading signals. How best can we ensure the human development indices are used appropriately?
The second day's discussion highlighted other important areas worthy of greater consideration in human development reports, particular social relationships (social networks, trust and support) and subjective wellbeing. Indeed, the two areas are closely related: the quality of people's relationships with others has a major effect on their happiness and life satisfaction. Both areas are emerging as important domains for policy making and the growing number of countries running official surveys on subjective wellbeing data was likely to fuel both the use, and demand, for this data. Other data on perceptions is becoming increasingly important to policy makers as people ultimately behave according to how they perceive the world. How best can these notions be integrated into the set of measures used to understand human development?
These, and many other questions raised during the meeting, would be considered by HDRO over the coming weeks as we consider a future research agenda and the subject for the next human development report.
The Human Development Report Office acknowledges the support of the German Federal Government through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.


text:
Sweert is what you say when you've found a situation really sweet, but it's not a common situation, it's something, well magical. It can't be something like, "oh shit man you got a new car, " or "dude, you hit that blond last night?" It's something more than that, just look at the example.
James was walking in a park when he saw a giraffe with an unusually small neck, so he asked the giraffe, "why is your neck so small?" the giraffe replied "come here son" and so James went up to the giraffe and the giraffe spread its legs and dropped its head clunking James on the head. "ouch" James later told his friends the story and they said it was Sweert.
by Denis Bejtic November 25, 2007
buy the domain for your art blog

subset: commoncrawl


text:
In September, I asked TechRepublic members to submit their photos of messy, chaotic, or just plain scary server rooms for the first TR Dojo Server Room Nightmare Challenge.
The response was amazing! Over 30 members sent in shots of wild wiring, hanging hardware, and server rooms filled to the rafters with everything BUT networking equipment. Our editors had a tough time picking the top three, but we did our best.
So without further ado, here are the winners of our Server Room Nightmare Challenge 2010. As promised, these three members have earned a little TR swag for their effort. And for having to support these IT catastrophes, they deserve it.
Be sure to check out the other entries in our gallery of Real-world server room nightmares.
1st PlaceTR member Luca claims the glory with this lovely scene.
2nd PlaceIt was a photo-finish with this horrendous hanging garden of cables and equipment from TR member Handyman.
3rd PlaceThis landscape from TR member Tony B. won third for sheer weight and amount of spaghetti cabling!
2011 Server room nightmare challenge
Thanks to everyone who sent in a photo. Be sure to check out our gallery of We'll definitely run this challenge again next year, so save those pics!
Bill Detwiler has nothing to disclose. He doesn't hold investments in the technology companies he covers.
Full Bio
Bill Detwiler is Managing Editor of TechRepublic and Tech Pro Research and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop support specialist in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.


text:
- Startseite
- Hersteller
- Coalesse
They can sharpen our focus and shift our perspective, provide moments
of clarity or provoke new ideas. The right space can enrich our entire
experience. And when we harness its power, we can channel it into
everything we do.
For too long, our workspaces were unfulfilling. Offices were
optimized for efficiency – often at the expense of our own wellbeing and
potential, leaving us with spaces that were functional yet uninspiring,
practical yet impersonal.
And so people left.
For homes, cafes, and the outdoors, in search of destinations that
felt more inviting; spaces that empowered social connection, creative
collaboration, personal focus & rejuvenation – to enrich our lives
as much as our work.
At Coalesse, we are welcoming people back to the office by making
thoughtfully crafted furnishings to create great spaces and inspire
great work. Led by insight and driven by design, we cultivate a balance
between intent and intuition, beauty and utility, comfort and choice –
to create destinations that bring new life to work.


text:
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Video : Talli - MeAndMyPunjabiFriend feat. Mr Dan
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text:
Ok boys its time to discuss the sweet spot of kites.
We quote wind ranges of our kites... this kite does 15-30 knots that one does 20-40 knots.
And yes we can fly them across that range. But there is a sweet spot for each kite. Find that spot and you have a magic session.
The sweet spot will be dependant on a number of variables. Your chosen style of riding. Your board, your water conditions, how many pies you have eaten,,,,
For me the sweet spot of my kites is that that point when you can park and ride. can boost and do loops. you have ample power but yet you can still send the kite through any part of the window without getting slammed.
Typically I find each kite has a sweet spot of 5 knots or so for any given style.
When I have a session thats within that sweet spot on any of my kites its allways a good session.


text:
Today we're thrilled to announce the five winners of our Build-A-Business competition.
During the 8 months of the competition period, over 10,000 entrepreneurs created new online businesses that sold more than $55 million in products. The five new businesses that sold the most over any two months of the competition each win a $50,000 US investment.
We sent each of the winners on a VIP trip to New York City to meet with the industry experts who served as mentors to the participants throughout the competition (Timothy Ferriss, Daymond John, Tina Roth Eisenberg and Eric Ries). Here's a glimpse of their trip to NYC:
In addition to the grand prize investment and NYC trip, each winner gets a special one-hour media strategy training session with editors at Fast Company Magazine, and $20,000 toward digital advertising for their business.
Here's a visual overview of the competition, including our five amazing winners. You can click on the image to view in full-screen.
We're excited to see so many great ideas grow into successful businesses through this competition. Our winners really took it to the next level, combining brilliant products with savvy marketing to sell an amazing amount of products.
Here's a look at our five winning stores, their cool products, and the entrepreneurs behind it all:
GameKlip (Electronics & Gadgets)
GameKlip is the brainchild of gamer-turned-inventor Ryan French, an Applied Computational Math Science student at the University of Washington. Frustrated by the inefficient game controllers on his phone, Ryan crafted a precision-moulded clip to connect a PlayStation controller to his smart phone, allowing for mobile game play with a full-sized controller.
Ryan's product was originally created from simple resources. He bought a few sheets of plastic and used an industrial-strength hairdryer to shape the clip that attached the game controller to his phone. He was amazed at how well his creation turned out. "The simple piece of plastic transformed my phone into a real gaming machine," said Ryan. "It worked so well, I had to share my creation with the world."
Ryan decided to share his invention the way any true gamer would - he created a short video with his phone camera. When other gamers saw the video, they wanted clips of their own. Ryan started taking pre-orders and was blown away by the response.
"The first wave of orders was very exciting, but overwhelming. In the beginning, GameKlip was all handmade and built to order, which meant I had to spend most of my time bending plastic into the correct shape and processing orders. I had no ecommerce or order processing software at that time, so everything was done with a spreadsheet. I was working 18-20 hours a day, seven days a week, to build, process, pack, and ship my orders. Something had to change!"
"Discovering Shopify was one of the big turning points for my business. It was easy to set up and drastically cut down my workload. To further my productivity I setup ShipStation to automate the process of taking an order, generating a shipping label, and keeping records. The massive increase in workflow productivity allowed me to focus more on my product, and less on the busy-work."
Ryan used his newfound "free" time to take his business to the next level. He purchased an injection mold so he could contract out the manufacturing of his product, and ensure the quality of each GameKlip was exactly the same.
Ryan French is still developing new iterations of GameKlip, and continues to grow his business online. He has shipped his product to over 80 countries, and has big plans for the future.
GoldieBlox (Design, Art & Home)
Debbie Sterling raised $285,881 on Kickstarter to fund her groundbreaking product: a construction toy that encourages young girls to get into engineering, develop spatial skills and hone problem-solving abilities.
From Bob the Builder to Star Wars Lego sets, engineering toys have traditionally been marketed to little boys. Debbie, a University of Stanford Engineering graduate, came up with the idea for GoldieBlox while discussing her career choice with a fellow female engineer.
"We were discussing why we became engineers. My colleague grew up with three older brothers and played with their hand-me-down Lego and Lincoln Logs. When it came time to pick a major, engineering seemed like a great choice, and it never occured to her that it was a weird career for girls. I started to think that I had missed out. My parents didn't buy me construction toys because they didn't think I would like them. They thought of them as boy's toys. If I had played with construction toys as a kid, I probably would have developed my passion for engineering much earlier."
Debbie set out to find examples of construction toys in the "girls" sections of toy stores, and was disappointed to discover very few options. "I started thinking about all the little girls out there who could be great engineers but would never even consider it. When I walked down the pink isle in the toy store, I felt like I was back in the 1950s," said Debbie. "This was an amazing opportunity to open little girls' eyes to the possibilities of engineering. I became obsessed and it was all I could think about, all I wanted to do."
Debbie created the character of Goldie, a spirited female engineer, to be her toy line's mascot. The line's debut toy, "GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine," turns construction into a game, where little girls must build a belt drive to help Goldie's dog chase his tail.
Fresh-Tops (Fashion & Apparel)
Fresh-Tops is a "bubble-gum, hipster-chic" fashion brand spawned by an orgy of glitter, ice cream and electro-pop. Creator Nella Chunky produces limited edition women's clothing and accessories.
Nella's success wasn't an accident – she experimented with several different brands and clothing lines before she decided on the Fresh-Tops line. "We started up with a couple of designs and just went from there. We really listened to what our fans wanted. We listened to their suggestions and just kept experimenting," said Nella.
Nella chooses new pieces for the Fresh-Tops clothing line based on suggestions and requests made by her fans on Facebook and Twitter. This novel and progressive use of social media meant that Nella was able to produce the exact product her fans wanted. She attributes her success to the relationship between her fans and her business: "You really have to listen to what people want, and then give it to them. You have to be flexible and keep adapting to their needs."
SkinnyMe Tea ("Everything Else")
Gretta van Riel created this successful brand of tea in order to help people detoxify and lose weight. The teas, made from natural ingredients, are said to increase metabolism and even improve digestion, complexion, and sleep.
Gretta was working as the digital marketing manager at a large media agency in Melbourne, Australia, when she came up with her great idea. "I actually had a dream about the teatox," said Gretta. "I woke up with a name, an idea and a vision, and made the website using Shopify the very next day. It was so great to be able to have an idea and go from conception to inception so quickly with the help of Shopify."
Gretta developed her line of teas using all natural ingredients that help people shed unwanted weight by increasing metabolism and removing harmful toxins from the body.
It wasn't long before the sales started flooding in, and Gretta had a difficult decision to make. "I had to choose between a steady job that I liked, or following SkinnyMe, which was really my passion. Luckily the sales started coming in quickly, and that helped me make up my mind."
"There aren't many other detox products on the market that utilise only tea and that are completely natural. So the concept has caught on quite nicely. It helps that the product works really well, with many of our customers experiencing some truly incredible results. This has meant that our vision was able to spread very quickly via social media and word of mouth."
Now SkinnyMe Teas are popular all over the world, with their most popular product being the Teatox pack, an all-natural detox program.
Canadian Icons (Canadian Winner)
When Aron Slipacoff decided to create a store that sold Canadiana, he didn't want it to be just another consumer website. Instead, he created a unique shopping experience where visitors can buy iconic Canadian items, and also get a taste of Canadian history and culture. The shop sells everything from mukluks to unique paintings by Group of Seven artist, Emily Carr. Even the service, which is prompt, friendly and trustworthy, is a truly Canadian experience.
The idea for the shop came out of Aron's deep love of Canadiana and his desire to share iconic Canadian products with the world. "I wanted to present Canada's past in a new, contemporary way," said Aron. "As someone who lived in the Canadian Arctic, I am really passionate about what Canada's north offers the world geographically and culturally. I wanted people to experience the stories and products that are inspired by the north."
Aron wanted his customers to understand why the Canadian products he sells are so special. "To fully appreciate a Canada Goose parka for example, you need to see its connection to Canada's Arctic peoples, how Canada Goose works with Inuit elders on design, how the company gives back to these communities. You need a more complete picture of the uniquely Canadian connection to the product to really get the feel for what makes it iconic."
So instead of launching a store that simply sold products, Aron built his shop to be a bit like a Canadian museum, with the history and stories of the product built into the shopping experience.
"Items like Canada Goose coats and Manitobah Mukluks are being sold and admired all over the world, but the Canadian stories behind the brands were left untold. There is a trend now where people want to become more knowledgeable about what they consume and spend money on. The marriage of these ideas was how CanadianIcons.ca was born."
Aron also wanted his customers to experience what Canadian culture is so well-known for: its friendliness and warmth. So he decided to ship orders for free. "We thought about it and decided to offer 90-minute delivery in the nation's capital, and we offered next-day delivery everywhere else in the country. Living up to that promise was a challenge. Through all of the Canadian weather and the holiday rush, we realized pretty fast that fulfillment required daily attention and diligence." Aron's focus on service is what sets Canadian Icons apart, and has helped contribute to the business' quick success.
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28 comments
April 24 2013, 10:23AM
Glad to finally see the results. Can't wait to enter this year if you plan on doing it again.
April 24 2013, 10:28AM
Congratulations everyone! Some really neat businesses there.
April 24 2013, 11:51AM
Congrats to all of the winners!!!!
Wish we had heard about the competition in time, but we were too busy with our store launch.
This is really inspiring.
Thank you to Shopify for organizing this contest to show aspiring entrepreneurs the way.
April 24 2013, 11:52AM
Just out of curiosity, who designed the infograph? What company?
April 24 2013, 11:56AM
Robert: We design all our infographics in-house. One of our talented designers (@Warren on Twitter) designed this one.
April 24 2013, 01:16PM
This competition is truly brilliant.
10,000 stores. That's a big city's worth of stores. Incredible :-)
Congratulations to the winners and all those who took part!
April 24 2013, 01:19PM
55 million is damn impressive all things considered. Congratulations to the winning team, mentors and all involved.
April 24 2013, 01:21PM
Congratulations guys!
Thanks to Shopify for being such a big driving force behind innovation and enterprise. You guys are awesome!
April 24 2013, 01:36PM
Congrats to everyone – especially GameKlip. I know this product went from conception to completion very quickly and it is amazing it achieved huge sales so quickly!
April 24 2013, 01:59PM
What Debbie from GoldieBlox is doing is, in a word, epic. All I can say is wow.
April 24 2013, 05:34PM
Congrats to all the winners, some great ideas and unique products! www.theonestore.com
April 24 2013, 05:40PM
Will there be a scoreboard published showing how well each of our stores did in the competition?
April 24 2013, 05:55PM
Thanks for all the support everyone. All the stores deserve a HUGE congratulations!
Leon: Out terms of use don't allow us to publish individual store sales and its important that we respect our stores privacy. So, no.. we won't be publishing anything that shows how individual stores did.
April 24 2013, 10:53PM
Congratulations to the winners! I love SkinnyMeTea…what a fun idea. As a new Shopify shop owner, it's encouraging to see other shops that are making it. Way to go!
April 25 2013, 12:18AM
A HUGE thank you to the ever helpful team at Shopify… You have been a pleasure to work with and we're all super excited at the SkinnyMe office today! You've made our year :)
Gretta van Riel
SkinnyMe tea
April 25 2013, 12:38PM
This is an awesome competition! Where can I find info about joining in this year? Just started my store and would love some feedback… www.socksub.com
April 25 2013, 03:33PM
Amazing competition guys and congratulations to all the winners :) Nice infographic too, very pretty.
I Would really appreciate it if you guys could check out our shopify store www.icollectionshop.com
April 26 2013, 01:42PM
Shopify continue to blow me away with their innovation, quality of service and amazing level of customer support.
As a new Shopify customer I am sooo happy with my decision to go with Shopify – you guys rock!
April 27 2013, 05:47AM
Thank you team Shopify! Being apart of something so amazing as yourself and this competition has been a pleasure. Here at fresh-tops our whole staff is excited for our future and shopify.
April 30 2013, 11:54AM
This is really great to see. Thanks to Shopify for the great ideas and encouraging people to get motivated during tough economic times.
I am super excited about the next Build-A-Business. Will Shopify do it again? When?
May 02 2013, 09:24AM
Congrats to everyone who participated.
Shopify Guys,
Are you planning to hold this competition this year too? Any estimated dates?
May 06 2013, 05:43AM
Appreciate sharing your experiences and thoughts. This is very helpful.
May 06 2013, 05:55AM
I am very happy to helpfull team at shopify thank you.
May 06 2013, 05:57AM
Appreciate sharing your experiences and thoughts. This is very helpful.
May 08 2013, 05:00PM
First, congrats to all the winners! This is a HUGE accomplishment and you should be very proud of yourselves. The Infographic is also very impressive. As I'm sure all of these businesses can agree, social media is a key component in the success of ecommerce stores. I thought this blog post may be beneficial http://content.infotrustllc.com/infotrust-blog/bid/275051/The-Importance-of-Social-Media-in-e-Commerce. Very interesting content and helpful to those up and coming ecommerce sites!
May 15 2013, 03:02AM
Congratulations to everyone!!! Social media plays a major role for e-commerce stores. Check out this website http://bit.ly/16dM8rs which provides all the E-commerce software solutions under one roof.
August 12 2013, 12:50PM
Shopify Team, will there be a 4th Annual Build-A-Business Competition? Please don't leave us hanging and waiting in vain! Any info is appreciated :o)
December 11 2014, 08:52PM
Big congrats to the winners :)
Weight Loss Tea


text:
Spanish Rice
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ cup white rice
½ cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup tomato sauce
1 cup chicken broth
½ teaspoon oregano
In a small saucepan, cook rice in oil over moderate heat for about 3 minutes. Add onion and garlic, stirring constantly for another minute or two.
Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low. Cover tightly and simmer for 15 minutes.
Flavors of Fiesta
by University of Illinois Extension
<- fold here


text:
Last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made reducing the number of homeless people in the city a top priority, launching an action plan long in the making.
Looking at three relevant programs, we can see some progress and some significant challenges.
Two of the programs are initiatives of the city. New Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Robert Hess, who arrives from Philadelphia, has reasons to be both excited and apprehensive because of these programs. The promising one is the HomeBase program, a group of centers run by community-based organizations in areas of the city that send the most people to city shelters. But the city's rent subsidy program, Housing Stability Plus, is widely viewed as a mess.
It also has been about 15 months since a third initiative, led by Administrative Judge Fern Fisher of the Civil Court of New York City, the Housing Help Program, was launched in the Bronx. That program shows some promise, too.
Programs to prevent homelessness are viewed as both cost-effective and compassionate. But some question whether their cost-effectiveness also translates into any kind of real effectiveness.
"There are some major over-arching problems in the housing market and government policy that prevention programs do not address," said Andy Scherer, executive director of Legal Services for New York City. "The most important thing to do would be to have in place an adequate supply of affordable housing that low-income people can have access to.
"I use the analogy of musical chairs," Scherer continued. "When you have 10 chairs and 11 people, someone can't be seated. We can spend a lot of time dealing with how to help the 11th person cope with that, but the truth of the matter is [it would be better to have] 11 chairs."
In the fall of 2004, the city set up six HomeBase programs in partnership with community-based organizations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. ( See my article from October, 2004 New Programs Aim To Prevent Homelessness)
In the neighborhoods where HomeBase programs are working, their preventative services appear to be having a positive impact: Homelessness has declined more in those areas than in other neighborhoods in the city.
The program has not gone unnoticed: At the end of March, Harvard University cited it as one of the top 50 innovations in government in 2006 (in pdf format).
In a January conference call organized by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (listen here), officials from the city's Department of Homeless Services said a variety of factors explained the success of the program. They lauded the community-based organizations for their grassroots links and local knowledge while also pointing to sophisticated information management technology that allows them to understand better where homeless people are coming from and why they end up at shelters.
"It's not an exaggeration to say that we collect everything – everything – and it's in that database," one of the officials said.
The community-based organizations can then use that information to reach out to people most in need of help. They can even target specific buildings if a significant number of people have become homeless from those buildings and then visit the building to offer information and assistance, one official said.
One lesson from HomeBase is that people facing homelessness can avoid it by receiving services before they end up at homeless shelters. It's an important lesson because using homeless shelters to deal with homelessness has been so expensive.
Another important lesson is that people facing housing problems often do not seek help. HomeBase centers' caseworkers, who expected a line out of their doors when their programs opened in September 2004, have taken to handing out flyers on the streets to find clients.
The HomeBase program has only served about 3,000 families, according to the city. They receive services specific to their situations – caseworkers help them with everything from getting job training to resolving family problems to navigating the public benefits maze that so often ends up in an eviction because of bureaucratic errors.
The service providers know, too, that financial issues are a common denominator for many of the people facing homelessness. Rents have increased significantly in the city and that trend shows no signs of diminishing. The city tried to address that problem by launching its own rent subsidy program – Housing Stability Plus – a little over a year ago, but it has not turned out nearly as well.
Housing Stability Plus
At a national conference on homelessness last year, then Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Linda Gibbs told housing advocates that the city's rent subsidy program, Housing Stability Plus, would succeed with the help of friendly landlords.
"Maybe landlords won't act on evictions – when the rents go down, they'll let it go," Gibbs said at the time. The comment was met with some incredulity by advocates in New York City.
A year later, according to a spokesman for the Department of Homeless Services, some 6,000 families have been moved to permanent housing thanks to Housing Stability Plus, and only one percent have ended up back in shelters.
Critics are skeptical. Yes, the subsidy helped the city move people out of city shelters; reducing the number of shelter residents looks good -- from a distance. Up close, though, critics see this as bottom line thinking, and consider Housing Stability Plus to be a mess.
"What we're hearing is that people in shelters … are very afraid of" Housing Stability Plus, said Councilmember Gail Brewer who has helped develop some of the more innovative housing policies in the city in recent years. "It just doesn't seem to be working." The City Council has scheduled a hearing on the program for April 27.
A person at one agency that has dealt with the subsidy program told me that people who look at just the number of homeless people reported in city shelters might consider the city's rent subsidy successful. The recent street homeless census numbers are not yet available as of this writing, but last year the city said the number of people seeking help at homeless shelters had declined by almost 10 percent.
But what, critics ask, does that really mean? Consider the case of Cynthia Green. She is living with her two children, a one-year-old and a five-year-old, in a South Bronx building that has almost 800 violations of the Housing Maintenance Code. She could not move into her apartment for two months after signing her lease because the apartment was being repaired.
"They haven't done anything but they still want their rent money," Green said. Green described a nightmarish apartment, with leaks, cracks, mice and lead paint.
And that's an apartment by a cooperating landlord. Some landlords are already turned off by the program, and have no interest in continuing it -- even before the subsidies go down by 20 percent.
"It's the worst subsidy program yet," said Anne Peek, a long-time broker who works across the city. "You can't really get an answer from anyone, you're just passed around...Most of the tenants are not really able to pay the 20 percent that's required of them. And nobody seems to know what's going to happen at the end of the fifth year."
Advocates said they would not give up on the city's subsidy even if some landlords have. But they urged the city to fess up to the problems, and fix them.
Led by the Coalition for the Homeless, housing advocates have asked the city to address four fundamental flaws:
- The 20 percent decrease in rent payments
- Rules requiring families to stay on welfare in order to receive the subsidy
- A lax approach to housing quality that has placed families in apartments with serious housing code violations
- No mechanism to address illegal payments that some tenants are making to landlords in order to convince the landlords to accept the subsidy
"If these flaws were addressed, it would be a very effective program," said Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless.
Housing Help Program
When Judge Fern Fisher, who oversees the city's housing courts as the administrative judge of the Civil Court of New York City , launched the Housing Help Program in collaboration with the United Way of New York City just over a year ago, advocates were hopeful. The program offers legal representation and social services at an infinitely logical place: housing court. Granted, it only covers one zip code, 10451, in the Bronx, but it was seen as an opportunity to make the point that homelessness, which often starts with a formal order of eviction from a housing court judge, can be prevented by providing tenants with legal representation, long a fundamental argument of housing advocates, including the organization I work for.
Simply put, housing court is too confusing and intimidating for tenants who do not obtain legal representation. And it's made much worse because it is so unfair: Landlords almost always have attorneys representing their interests. Landlords' attorneys frequently negotiate deals with tenants that are so favorable to landlords that tenants find themselves facing eviction very quickly.
But Judge Fisher downplayed the legal services aspect of the program she initiated.
"It's not a right-to-counsel project," she said. "You can't prevent homelessness without social services. Social workers are needed for these families."
Of 114 formal evictions that did occur in the 10451 zip code last year, Fisher noted that 42 occurred without any tenant ever responding to the landlord's petition for eviction at housing court. This high rate of defaults reinforces what the HomeBase programs appear to have learned, too: Many people who end up homeless never get any help of any kind.
"Our approach is to catch them at court, which is the natural place to find them," Fisher said. "But what can we do about people who don't come to court? Clearly they got evicted so that's serious.
"Those are people who either move out or they just sit around and they get evicted," she continued. "How do you reach them? How do you contact them? How do you get them to come to court?"
While Fisher insists her program is a social services one, it still demonstrated that legal representation is critical to avoiding eviction. None of the 330 families that received help were ultimately evicted and the fact is when tenants are represented they are much less likely to be evicted.
"Clients do in fact come in with not just a housing problem but a large number of associated problems based on the fact that they are poor," said Steven Telzak of Legal Services for New York-Bronx, which worked on the project at the court. The three-year project will continue without LSNY-Bronx for reasons that were unclear, but all involved said the parting of the ways was amicable.
"We're helping families – it works," said Jo Gonsalves, director of affordable housing and homelessness prevention at United Way of New York City. "Families are getting services. They don't have to advocate for themselves. There are social workers and paralegals advocating for them, in addition to the attorneys."
Gonsalves said, unsurprisingly, that poverty was the predominant cause of housing crises. But that did not mean other social services were not needed.
"There are also issues of trauma, mental health – social service issues – that are compounded by lack of financial resources," she said, adding that the United Way hopes to expand the project.
But with economic issues obviously a fundamental factor in homelessness, Andy Scherer's musical chairs analogy of the New York City housing market in 2006 seems even more potent. A report now 20 years old, "Stemming the tide of displacement: Housing policies for preventing homelessness" might very well have been written last week. It said that to end homelessness efforts were needed to address affordability, gentrification, dispute resolution, abandonment and emergency social services.
"The emphasis of the policy has been too narrowly focused," Scherer said. "It's not like they're doing bad things – they're doing helpful things. But the problem will continue to persist until there's some real tackling of the broader reasons that lead to the lack of adequate housing."Joe Lamport is the assistant director of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, a coalition of community housing organizations. Â


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Amazon has the kindle edition of the children's book The Extraordinary Journey of J.J. Pips available to download for free right now. The digital list price of this book is $2.99. Prices on Amazon can fluctuate, so be sure to verify the price before buying.
Kindle books can be read on Kindles and on your device with a free Kindle reading app.


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Celebrating illustration, design, cartoon and comic art of the mid-20th century.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tom Hall Carves a Pumpkin
Tom Hall was one the first artists I took notice of when I became interested in 50's illustration - but I was always frustrated that I couldn't find any information on him. Though he was no Robert Fawcett or Austin Briggs, Hall typifies for me the journeyman illustrator who produces reliable, solid commercial art. I've always had a lot of respect for this kind of worthy craftsman, and have always been a little miffed that artists like Hall have gone unrecognized.
Then this ad for Kling Studios of Chicago in a 1952 issue of Art Director and Studio News provided at least a piece of the puzzle.
So now we know what Tom Hall looked like, that he was a Chicago illustrator at the massive Kling Studios, and though I was well aware of his advertising work (plenty of which you can find in my Tom Hall Flickr set) its news to me that he did editorial illustration because I've never come across even a single piece.
I wish the folks at Kling had included a little more biographical info in their write-up on Hall, but for now, that information remains a mystery.
10 comments:
Glamor & beer---gotta be the last time they put THAT forth. Visited his Flickr set. Wish folks still dressed half as well now as they did then tho'....ReplyDelete
Thanks for posting these Leif!
Thanks for your comment, Zach! Yes, I also sometimes imagine what it must have been like to show up each morning at my drawing board or easel in a crisp shirt and a tie. Those were the days! ;-)ReplyDelete
Hi Leif,ReplyDelete
You are so correct; Ya' gotta' have respect for, as you say, the "journeyman" illustrator. Nothing wrong with being a reliable, successful artist.
I would still like to be that!
hi leif!ReplyDelete
do you know if this is the same tom hall that illustrated these four covers for some judge dee stories?
i've always wanted to find more of his work. i hope it's the same artist!
Eric; so would I! ;-)ReplyDelete
Those are some lovely illustrations - quite different from the work of this Tom Hall from the 50's, but who knows, it could be the same guy as a more mature, accomplished artist at a later date...
Tomorrow I will confuse the issue further by showing you a couple of other pieces by another Tom Hall (or maybe the same Tom Hall)! ;-)
The style reminds me a lot of the Jane and Peter reading books we started off with when we were very young... don't know if you're familiar with that? :-)ReplyDelete
I googled them and I see what you mean, pickleshane - its that very standard sort of generic illustration look, isn't it? That's exactly what I'm talking about: not terribly spectacular, but nice solid, well done commercial art that's worth recognizing for the quality of the craftsmanship.ReplyDelete
Thanks for commenting! :-)
Exactly! :-) You put it into words a lot better than I could ever hope to :-)ReplyDelete
- Anonymous5:00 PM
I work for Hart Schaffner & Marx in Chicago. Tom Hall's original artwork is framed around the office. I wish the company could do a collection of his prints because I think the style and humor of his illustrations are really appealing. Thanks for taking note of his talent!ReplyDelete
Wow! how lucky you are to get to see Tom Hall's originals every day at work, anonymous! If I ever get to Chicago I'm going to drop in for a look! Thanks for commenting :-)ReplyDelete


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When I joined the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild one and a half years ago I thought to myself... "Why am I joining a modern quilt guild? My style is far from modern!" After the first meeting, I realized that anything can be modern. My favourite explanations of modern were the following: Modern can encompass the self-taught/just wing-it approach to quilting. It can also describe technology used in this modern age such as blog, flickr & facebook. OH! That's totally me! I guess I'm a modern quilter!
It was definitely a challenge to work with the Habitat fabric line by Jay McCarroll. The Vancouver branch of the Modern Quilt Guild decided that any quilt or quilted object could be made as long as only more Habitat fabric or solids were added to the fat eighth packs donated by Free Sprirt. Read more about the Habitat Challenge here. These were definitely not colours or patterns that I would choose... ever! However, I did like the light blue polkadot since my usual style is Country Chic and how can you not love polkadots!
I managed to scrounge a few extra fat eighths from unclaimed packs for my quilt as I needed more of the polkadot fabric for my border. I also can't make anything lately without throwing in some natural linen! I liked how the neutral linen toned down the busy patterns and added a warm feel to the otherwise cool colours.
I decided to continue the leaf silhouettes from the fabric by free-motion quilting them into the linen background. It was a daunting task but once I got going it was pretty easy! My stitches are by no means consistent but no one will be looking at it that closely... This is definitely not something I would have tried before meeting Janet!
I hand-appliqued the tree, apples, and circles on the back of the quilt. I also stuffed the trapunto apples to give the quilt some dimension.
I used my extra fabric to make an interesting backing totally inspired by Paul's many fabulous quilt and equally fabulous backings.
I am very pleased with how this quilt turned out. It's probably the most modern quilt I will ever make!


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Bulova CURV Chronograph Watch
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Bulova Men's Classic Ambassador Leather Watch, Serial #96B290.*Prices are subject to change based on fluctuations in metal prices and currencies
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The V100-2.0MW turbines, which have a large rotor diameter and are designed for low wind sites, will be installed in the Yanchi wind farm in the autonomous region of Ningxia in north western China.
In August, Hanas ordered 50MW from Vestas, and, with the latest orders, Hanas' total number of Vestas turbines now amounts to 350MW.
The orders comprise turbine supply and deliver and a standard two-year service agreement, but do not include towers. Delivery is expected to start in the second quarter of 2014.
By 2015, Hanas New Energy intends to build up the total wind capacity in Ningxia to 1GW.


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As you are probably aware, the PL/SQL Challenge website is very new; we are still building out the functionality of the website and, in fact, the playoff functionality is not yet on the website.
So this weekend (and we have to upgrade over the weekend, when you are not playing - a very powerful reason, by the way, to not extend the daily quiz seven days a week), we will be upgrading the PL/SQL Challenge to version 1.4. The main focus of this release is to implement the new logic and pages needed for the championship playoff. There will also be other significant new features, such as automated reminders (with the expected opt-out checkboxes on the profile page).
Once we complete the upgrade this weekend and are confident that we can hold the playoff next week, we will do the following:
- Identify all players who are elgible to participate in the playoff.
- Decide on the date and time for the playoff.
- Publish all of this information on Monday, 10 July, along with an explanation of the playoff process.
Finally, I would like to set expectations appropriately. We are moving very quickly with the PL/SQL Challenge initiative and, contrary to what you might believe, we do not have a big team of full-time developers on this project (yet :-) ). So it is possible that even though we test thoroughly this weekend, when the playoff starts next week we run into a problem and all players are not able to complete the playoff.
That would be very unfortunate, but it will not be the end of the world. If we do encounter such problems, we will simply re-schedule the playoff. Have no fear, your answers and your ranking from Q2 will not change.
So....wish us the best for this weekend and look forward to some big announcements on Monday!


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Riley Raw Edge Denim Mini Skirt* [15.00]
Alicia Contrast Neck and Cuff T Shirt* [8.00]
Melika Plain Velvet Choker* [No longer available, similar here]
Alexus Lace Frill Ankle Socks* [
Stan Smith Shoes - ADIDAS [62.00]
In celebration of the recent launch of CharliXCX's new collection, Boohoo.com kindly invited me to create an outfit inspired by the decade of double denim, chokers and that all important accessory: the stick on earring. I am a massive fan of Charli (see my
They sent me a super-cute 90s package including some sweets and accessories that were a serious throwback. Does anyone else remember Rainbow Drops and Walker's Crisps Tazos?! Take me back to primary school now please.
I decided to go for a monochrome look inspired by that gym scene in Clueless. Although totally impractical for sports, I love this raw edge white denim skirt. Paired with my Stan Smiths, a ringer tee and some cute lil socks it makes for a perfect casual, sporty inspired look. I decided to accessorise with a choker, too, just to pay homage to Queen Charli herself.
You can shop the #charlixcx4boohoo collection now here. It's super sassy and I love it.


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The new farm bill's conference committee met twice Wednesday afternoon and nearly completed a new forestry title. The farm bill is slowly taking shape, but slowly won't get the job done in time to beat Friday's deadline.
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee continued to meet separately in order to get funding issues resolved.
Realizing the conference wouldn't meet deadline, on Wednesday the House passed a short-term extension of current law. The Senate is also prepared to ask for another week to complete the bill.
However, that guarantees nothing because, for weeks, the White House has repeatedly stated reluctance for any further short extensions.
"The idea is to get these offsets resolved soon – in the next day or two," explained Sen. Tom Harkin, Senate Agriculture Committee chairman, about the extension. "Then there'd be time to finalize other member issues."
"We've indicated very, very strongly that we'd not sign another short-term extension unless very substantial progress had been made and we were in a wrap-up phase," said Chuck Connor, USDA deputy secretary. "We didn't do that to put a gun to anyone's head."
The repeated use of the word "hope" by conference members in regard to getting out a timely bill was picked up on by Connor. "We're all hopeful," he chided. "But what does that mean at this point in terms of getting substantial progress towards a good farm bill that President Bush can sign so we can get program details out?"
Willing to jab back, Harkin asked, "Who should define progress? We're making more progress today and we'll make some more tomorrow. As soon as the funding issue is settled – hopefully soon – we'll make progress then."
Harkin further criticized the White House because "we can't get reasonable cooperation on the offsets."
The conference is expected to resume on Thursday afternoon.
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As a state agency, we are subject to the provisions of the Washington state public disclosure laws (RCW 42.56) governing access to public records and will respond accordingly. There may be exemptions to disclosure that may prohibit the college from releasing certain documents. The College will provide a brief explanation for any exemption to disclosure.
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What happens after you receive my request?
Generally, within 5 business days of receiving a request the college will:
- provide copies or provide an estimate of when the records will be available; or
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- acknowledge the request and ask for additional clarification(s); or
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Records not exempt may contain personal or other information which may require us to notify affected individual(s) of the request. We may provide affected individual(s) a reasonable opportunity to seek court protection from disclosure.
Are there costs?
There generally is little cost for electronic copies. However, not all documents are available electronically. Current costs for documents include:
- Hard copies: $.15 per page
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What are my options if a request is denied?
- Provide a written request for review to the Records Officer.
- The request will be reviewed by the college president or his/her designee.
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Some records are exempt from public disclosure law. Following are some examples:
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John Blu - Take It There [Unsigned Hype]
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Guest post by Brian Abbott, PhD*
NEWS FLASH: Results from the first peer-reviewed study about the Structured Risk Assessment: Forensic Version ("SRA-FV"), published in Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research and Treatment ("SAJRT"), demonstrate the instrument is not all that it's cracked up to be.
|Promotional material for an SRA-FV training
Illustrating this rush to acceptance most starkly, within just three months of its informal release (February 2011) and with an absence of any peer-reviewed research, the state of California incredibly decided to adopt the SRA-FV as its statewide mandated dynamic risk measure for assessing sexual offenders in the criminal justice system. This decision was rescinded in September 2013, with the SRA-FV replaced with a similar instrument, the Stable-2007.
A primary focus of the trainings is a novel system in which the total score on the SRA-FV is used to select one Static-99R "reference group" among three available options. The developer describes the statistical modeling underlying this procedure, which he claims increases predictive validity and power over using the Static-99R alone. However, reliability data is not offered to support this claim. In the December 2010 training, several colleagues and I asked for the inter-rater agreement rate but Dr. Thornton refused to provide it.
David Thornton and Raymond Knight penned an article that documents the construction and validation of the SRA-FV. The publication is a step in the right direction, but by no means do the results justify widespread application of the SRA-FV in sexual offender risk assessment in general or sexually violent predator proceedings in particular. Rather, the results of the study only apply to the group upon which the research was conducted and do not generalize to other groups of sexual offenders. Before discussing the limitations of the research, I would like to point out some encouraging results.
The SRA-FV did, as its developer claimed, account for more sources of sexual recidivism risk than the Static-99R alone. However, it remains unknown which of the SRA-FV's ten items contribute to risk prediction. The study also found that the combination of the Static-99R and SRA-FV increased predictive power. This improved predictive accuracy, however, must be replicated to determine whether the combination of the two instruments will perform similarly in other groups of sexual offenders. This is especially important when considering that the SRA-FV was constructed and validated on individuals from the Bridgewater sample from Massachusetts who are not representative of contemporary groups of sexual offenders. Thornton and Knight concede this point when discussing how the management of sexual offenders through all levels of the criminal justice system in Massachusetts between 1959 and 1984 was remarkably lenient compared to contemporary times. Such historical artifacts likely compromise any reliable generalization from patients at Bridgewater to present-day sexual offenders.
|Training materials presented four months before
State of California rescinded use of the SRA-FV
It is also important to note that, although Thornton and Knight confuse the terms validation and cross validation in their article, this study represents a validation methodology. Cross-validation is a process by which the statistical properties found in a validation sample (such as reliability, validity, and item correlations) are tested in a separate group to see whether they hold up. In contrast, Thornton and Knight first considered the available research data from a small number of individuals from the Bridgewater group to determine what items would be included in the SRA-FV. This group is referred to as the construction sample. The statistical properties of the newly conceived measure were studied on 418 Bridgewater patients who constitute the validation sample. The psychometric properties of the validation group have not been tested on other contemporary sexual offender groups. Absent such cross-validation studies, we simply have no confidence that the SRA-FV works at it has been designed for groups other than the sample upon which it was validated. To their credit, Thornton and Knight acknowledge this limitation and warn readers not to generalize the validation research to contemporary groups of sexual offenders.
The data on incremental predictive validity, while interesting, have little practical value at this point for two reasons. One, it is unknown whether the results will replicate in contemporary groups of sexual offenders. Two, no data are provided to quantify the increased predictive power. The study does not provide an experience table of probability estimates at each score on the Static-99R after taking into account the effect of the SRA-FV scores. It seems disingenuous, if not misleading, to inform the trier of fact that the combined measures increase predictive power but to fail to quantify the result and the associated error rate.
In my practice, I have seen the SRA-FV used most often to select among three Static-99R reference groups. Invariably, government evaluators in sexually violent predator risk assessments assign SRA-FV total scores consistent with the selection of the Static-99R High Risk High Needs reference group. Only the risk estimates associated with the highest Static-99R scores in this reference group are sufficient to support an opinion that an individual meets the statutory level of sexual dangerousness necessary to justify civil confinement. Government evaluators who have used the SRA-FV for this purpose cannot cite research demonstrating that the procedure works as intended or that it produces a reliable match to the group representing the individual being assessed. Unfortunately, Thornton and Knight are silent on this application of the SRA-FV.
In a recently published article, I tested the use of the SRA-FV for selecting Static-99R reference groups. In brief, Dr. Thornton used statistical modeling based solely on data from the Bridgewater sample to devise this model. The reference group selection method was not based on the actual scores of members from each of the three reference groups. Rather, it was hypothetical, presuming that members of a Static-99R reference group will exhibit a certain range of SRA-FV score that do not overlap with any of the other two reference groups. To the contrary, I found that the hypothetical SRA-FV reference group system did not work as designed, as the SRA-FV scores between reference groups overlapped by wide margins. In other words, the SRA-FV total score would likely be consistent with selecting two if not all three Static-99R reference groups. In light of these findings, it is incumbent upon the developer to provide research using actual subjects to prove that the SRA-FV total score is a valid method by which to select a single Static-99R reference group and that the procedure can be applied reliably. At this point, credible support does not exist for using the SRA-FV to select Static-99R reference groups.
The design, development, validation, and replication of psychological instruments is guided by the Standard for Educational and Psychological Testing ("SEPT" -- American Educational Research Association et al., 1999). When comparing the Thornton and Knight study to the framework provided by SEPT, it is apparent the SRA-FV is in the infancy stage of development. At best, the SRA-FV is a work in progress that needs substantially more research to improve its psychometric properties. Aside from its low reliability and inability to generalize the validation research to other groups of sexual offenders, other important statistical properties await examination, including but not limited to:
- standard error of measurement
- factor analysis of whether items within each of the three risk domains significantly load in their respective domains
- the extent of the correlation between each SRA-FV item and sexual recidivism
- which SRA-FV items add incremental validity beyond the Static-99R or may be redundant with it; and proving each item has construct validity.
It is reasonable to conclude that at its current stage of development the use of the SRA-FV in forensic proceedings is premature and scientifically indefensible. In closing , in their eagerness to improve the accuracy of their risk assessments, clinicians relied upon Dr. Thornton's claim in the absence of peer-reviewed research demonstrating that the SRA-FV achieved generally accepted levels of reliability and validity. The history of forensic evaluators deploying the SRA-FV before the publication of the construction and validation study raises significant ethical and legal questions:
- Should clinicians be accountable to vet the research presented in trainings by an instrument's developer before applying a tool in forensic practice?
- What responsibility do clinicians have to rectify testimony where they presented the SRA-FV as if the results were reliable and valid?
- How many individuals have been civilly committed as sexually violent predators based on testimony that the findings from the SRA-FV were consistent with individuals meeting the legal threshold for sexual dangerousness, when the published data does not support this conclusion?
Answers to these questions and others go beyond the scope of this blog. However, in a recent appellate decision, a Washington Appeals Court questions the admissibility of the SRA-FV in the civil confinement trial of Steven Ritter. The appellate court determined that the application of the SRA-FV was critical to the government evaluator's opinion that Mr. Ritter met the statutory threshold for sexual dangerousness. Since the SRA-FV is considered a novel scientific procedure, the appeals court reasoned that the trial court erred by not holding a defense-requested evidentiary hearing to decide whether the SRA-FV was admissible evidence for the jury to hear. The appeals court remanded the issue to the trial court to hold a Kelly-Frye hearing on the SRA-FV. Stay tuned!
Abbott, B.R. (2013). The Utility of Assessing "External Risk Factors" When Selecting Static-99R Reference Groups. Open Access Journal of Forensic Psychology, 5, 89-118.
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Heilbrun, K. (1992). The role of psychological testing in forensic assessment. Law and Human Behavior, 16, 257-272. doi: 10.1007/BF01044769.
In Re the Detention of Steven Ritter. (2013, November). In the Appeals Court of the State of Washington, Division III.
Sachsenmaier, S., Thornton, D., & Olson, G. (2011, November). Structured risk assessment forensic version (SRA-FV): Score distribution, inter-rater reliability, and margin of error in an SVP population. Presentation at the 30th Annual Research and Treatment Conference of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, Toronto, Canada.
Thornton, D. & Knight, R.A. (2013). Construction and validation of the SRA-FV Need Assessment. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. Published online December 30, 2013. doi: 10.1177/ 1079063213511120.
*Brian R. Abbott is licensed psychologist in California and Washington who has evaluated and treated sexual offenders for more than 35 years. Among his areas of forensic expertise, Dr. Abbott has worked with sexually violent predators in various jurisdictions within the United States, where he performs psychological examinations, trains professionals, consults on psychological and legal issues, offers expert testimony, and publishes papers and peer-reviewed articles.


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Degree Program Announcement:
Alabama A&M University Launches New Communications Specialist Graduate Degree Program (MS). Click here for more information
Alabama A&M University offers advanced degrees at the master's, educational specialist and doctoral levels in the following:
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Dear Alex,
If I could just crawl into your brain to get glimpse of how those wheels are churning through your head, I'd have an idea of the incredible joy with which you embrace the world. Everyday brings new discovery and experiences that inspire 'ooohs' and 'wows'. Something as mundane as opening up my purse, emptying all of the cabinets, watching birds swoop or trees bend to the call of the wind is as magical as when I mysteriously produce a cookie from behind your ear.
This month it has been astonishing to see how quickly your verbal skills have accelerated. From simple mama, baba, and dada you've branched off to more, hot, bubble, flower but still your favorite word is 'wow' because that is impression of the world around you. The biggest kick that we get is when you show that you understand what we are saying. Like when I tell you that there is a truck outside and you immediately sputter, 'Vrooooom, vrooom'. Or when I say we have to put on our jackets because it is cold and you respond, 'brrrrrrr'. The best was when daddy looked into your eyes tenderly and told you, "I love you Alex," and you responded by grabbing his face for a kiss. Now if that is not love, I don't know what is.
There's also the numerous hazards in our house that we have told you are off limits such as electric outlets, cords and shelves. After weeks of telling you 'no' you are approaching these items gingerly and without any prompting you shake your head 'no' - a note to yourself - before you back out towards the other direction. It's quite cute to see a nascent form of responsibility and decision-making.
You are also showing more of your personality with strong likes and dislikes.


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Guest column: A college education shouldn't drive students toward bankruptcy
Al Franken, Amanda Bardonner and Geoff Dittberner, Rochester Post-Bulletin, May 2, 2012 –
One of us is a U.S. Senator who will soon face a crucial decision on keeping college affordable for students in Minnesota and across the country. The other two are college students who are accumulating college loans to pay for our education, and who know there's a lot riding on upcoming decisions in Congress.
Although we come from different generations, the three of us share the same belief that investing in a college education is not only an investment in the hopes and dreams of students in Minnesota and across the country, but it's also an investment in our nation's economic future.
With the recent news that college loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion and has surpassed even what Americans owe on their credit cards, we know that we are sending many of our newly-minted graduates out into the work force awash in crippling debt. But just as disturbing is the fact that the fast-rising cost of college is making college difficult — if not impossible — to afford for millions of students. This undoubtedly has deep implications for future job growth and for our nation's ability to compete.
In Minnesota, where we pride ourselves on our education system and on providing students with top-notch post-high-school options, our student debt is staggering. We have the nation's fourth highest debt load, with the average graduate leaving college with almost $30,000 in college bills.
Is it worth it? Well, students are gambling that it is. And for good reason. In the very near future about 70 percent of all Minnesota jobs will require some kind of post-secondary degree. And the jobs that don't require additional education will pay less — a lot less.
Students aren't accumulating such large debt loads because they're lazy — far from it. Last year, when Sen. Franken met with a group of MnSCU students, every hand went up when he asked how many of them work at least 10 hours per week to help afford college. Some even put in a full 40-hour workweek while attending school.
As more and more students take on debt to get through school, Congress must decide by July 1 whether it will allow the interest rate on subsidized Stafford Loans to double. This year, it is estimated that more than 7 million students will take out these loans, and more than 200,000 Minnesota students will have them.
Without Congressional action, interest rates on future subsidized Stafford Loans will go from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, and the average subsidized Stafford loan borrower will face $1,000 in increased loan costs for each year they attend school. And we know that every dollar spent paying down debt is money that can't be saved or that is unavailable to buy a home, a car or other purchases that ripple through our economy. And many graduates report delaying major life decisions in order to make monthly student loans payments.
We all know that our nation's economic future is tied to making college more affordable, and we know some of the steps we need to take to get there. First, we are all strong supporters of a measure to freeze future subsidized Stafford loan interest rates at current levels and prevent them from doubling in July. There will be debate on how best to pay for this, but our presidential candidates as well as our Congressional leaders have all said they want to get it done.
Second, we need a universal financial aid form that would allow students to easily compare financial aid packages from different schools. Currently, students must decipher a complicated system of grants, loans, and work study funds, and often don't understand what they're eligible for. A universal form would give families the ability to compare financial aid packages and to know exactly what college will cost.
Third, we need to take steps to actually reduce the cost of college so that students don't have to take on such massive debt loads. There are no easy answers, but it is the responsibility of universities, state legislators, Congress and other federal officials, as well as community stakeholders to come together and develop solutions to address this pressing problem.
At a recent University of Minnesota event on college affordability, one student remarked: "The question is always: 'How are we going to make it?'" Getting your degree shouldn't make you go bankrupt. And we all hope that in the months to come, we see some serious action to fix what has become a major problem for American families and for our nation's future.


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I do attest to the quality of the truffles and you have to try one for yourself to know. Unfortunately, they are only available in Singapore at the moment though I've been trying to persuade him to open Truffs London hah! The chocolate cake is also amazingly moist, dense and chocolatey. Don't take my word for it, since I'm a friend (though I have no shares in the business!) but there have been several reviews posted in the Singaporean blogsphere and magazines, latest being a hilarious one from Mr Brown (you may not fully appreciate it if you don't understand Singlish, the colloquial English spoken in Singapore). TimeOut Singapore has also voted Truffs' Chocolate Cake as Top 5 in Singapore. If you're in Singapore, do check Truffs out. They're located on the 2nd floor of a shophouse at 79a Telok Ayer Street, Singapore 068627.
So while EL and JL were here, we went along to William Curley, apparently Britain's Best Chocolatier 2007-2009, for a class in chocolates and ice cream. We made sea salt caramel pralines, vanilla and chocolate ice-creams (using a pacojet!!). As it was just the 3 of us, it was really personalised with Suzy the pastry chef entertaining our many questions about ice-creams and chocs. I would highly recommend their classes, although I'm not too sure if they regularly conduct classes at the Belgravia branch (which is where we went to) instead of the Richmond branch. Check their website for more details.
We also dined at Viajante, a new restaurant located in the newly converted Bethnal Green Townhall Hotel. I will put up a separate review with pictures another time, unless C beats me to it :) but suffice to say that the four foodies weren't wowed by the food nor service, and the second half of the meal dragged on needlessly, especially after the chef owner Nuno Mendes left. Hopefully it's because they're still in soft opening stage, and they get their act together as it is quite different expectations hosting supper clubs (as Chef Mendes was doing prior to this venture) and serving paying guests in a high-end restaurant environment.
To send them off in style, as well as to mark a special appearance by Wan on his quick stopover en route to South Africa, we had a massive dinner of roast pork from Tang Freres (siu yoke), specially hand carried back from Paris by EL, roast duck from Four Seasons here in London and sambal kangkong, all washed down with Pimms!
The roast pork from Tang Freres/Tang Gourmet is my absolute favourite and possibly best roast pork in the world! I was in Paris the week before and was completely devastated when Tang Gourmet ran out of roast pork when we went in the evening. They sell it both at their main supermarket takeout counter at 48 Avenue d'Ivry and Tang Gourmet deli along Avenue de Choisy, right outside of Place d'Italie metro stop. Try to get there in the afternoon, or it'll be sold out!
It was a decadent couple of weeks of eating as we had cakes after cakes, ice-creams after ice-creams, chocolates after chocolates. I guess that's what happens if you hang out with chefy foodie types :) At one point, we had 8 different cakes in a day and on another, 8 different ice-creams sitting in my fridge. Now that they're gone, who's going to help me finish all the leftovers??


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Rizzy Home Technique Collection 100% Wool 5'x8' Burgundy (TECTC826800700508)
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"Recreation Pavilion. Mirman Residence, Arcadia, California, 1959. Architects: Buff, Straub & Hensman." Color transparency by Julius Shulman.
I see the potential here for limitless, free-spirited fun. (Please do not move cushions more than one-quarter inch from designated positions on the Recreation Pavilion Fun Grid. The Herman Miller benches will not be moved more than 21 bricks away from decking. Tennis racquets allowed on pillows only if propped at an appropriately informal angle, 35 degrees to the horizontal. Thank you.) |
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Man arrested for online solicitation
Casey Campbell, 34, was arrested on Sunday, May 1, 2011, for online solicitation of a minor/sexual contact, a second degree felony."We received a tip back in November from a concerned citizen that Campbell was prowling on Facebook, trying to become friendly with teenage girls," said Sweetwater Chief of Police Jim Kelley. "So we created a Facebook page for a 15-year-old girl," Kelley added.Kelley stated that last Thursday and Friday, Campbell was "very explicit in what he wanted to do to this underage girl." Kelley also stated that officers on the page would repeatedly state, "I'm only 15 years old," so that Campbell clearly knew that the girl was underage.Officers set up a meeting for Campbell and the fictional 15-year-old girl and Campbell showed up to the meeting where he was arrested. With Campbell's permission, Sweetwater police officers also seized his computer and it has been turned over to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) for search of any illegal images."There are some scary people out there and parents really need to be aware of where their children are going online and who they are talking to online," stated Kelley. "Parents need to talk to their kids and more importantly, parents need to listen to their kids."Kelley states that the second degree felony, punishable by 2-20 years in prison, could be enhanced due to a prior felony conviction. In 2002, Campbell was convicted of injury to an elderly person, a third degree felony. He was sentenced to eight years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Sept. 6, 2002.Campbell pled guilty to the charge and had three other charges dropped from an indictment handed down on Feb. 1, 2002. The charges included two counts of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of injury to an elderly person. The indictment stated that Campbell sexually penetrated a 65-year-old woman. The incidents occurred at Sweetwater Healthcare Center in January of 2002."Campbell is a sexual predator and I hope he goes away for a long time," said Kelley.


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Genesis Rodriguez — Crush of the Day
When your father's nickname is 'El Puma,' and your mother is a Cuban model, it's pretty much a guarantee you're going to grow up to be either: A.) The Most Interesting Man in the World or B.) The Hottest Woman Alive. Lucky for us, in Genesis Rodriguez's case, it's the latter.
The Miami-native, first starred in telenovela's on Telemundo before appearing on a few episodes of 'Entourage.' Rodriguez then starred in her first film, the mega-flop, 'Man on a Ledge' with Sam Worthington. She'll be returning to her comfort zone as she stars in 'Casa de Mi Padre,' with Will Ferrell and Nick Offerman (aka Ron Swanson aka The Other Most Interesting Man in the World), which is being described as an overly-dramatic telenovela comedy.
For all our lady readers out there (Hi Mom!), Rodriguez is also starring in the upcoming movie based on the pregnancy bible, 'What to Expect When You're Expecting,' starring pretty much everyone in Hollywood with a pulse. So when your girlfriend or wife or date drags you to see 'What to Expect,' at least you'll know with Genesis Rodriguez, you'll have something to ogle at.


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What: Renowned artist Christo will speak about his "Over The River" and "The Mastaba" projects
When: 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17
Where: Glenn Miller Ballroom, University Memorial Center, University of Colorado campus
Tickets: Admission is free, but seating is limited
Etc.: A special exhibition of Christo and Jeanne-Claude prints from the CU Art Museum's permanent collection will accompany the lecture
Think of everything that's gone into "Over The River" so far.
The art project -- in which internationally known artists Christo and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude, proposed to suspend 5.9 miles of fabric along a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas River in the Colorado mountains for two weeks -- was born way back in 1992. It has since involved countless public hearings, government studies, reams of documents and legal challenges at the state and federal level, not to mention newspaper editorials and reports, field trials, and at least two educational exhibitions in museums.
It could be the most well-known single-art project in Colorado, and it might never exist.
But that's the wrong way to think about it. The more than 20 years of preparatory work and discussion about "Over The River" constitutes part of the work, according to Christo.
"I always feel that all these projects are a journey," Christo said Thursday during a phone interview from his New York office. He added that his and his late wife's projects, which often involved massive-scale fabric installations, have two distinct periods -- the effort to realize the work and its realization. But the effort is as much a part of the work as the realization.
"That's one of the principle reasons we don't do commissions," Christo said. "Commissions typically are straightforward as far as preparation is concerned. Where's the fun in that? You're probably going to miss out on all those people discussing the proposed work at public hearings, where the attendees in effect become creative participants.
"They're part of the work of art, willingly or unwillingly."
Everyone who's sitting in the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the University of Colorado at 6 p.m. Thursday, therefore, will become part of "Over The River."
Christo plans to discuss the project during a presentation that evening. The program also includes a discussion of another work he's planning, "The Mastaba," in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates. "The Mastaba" would be a pyramid-like structure with a footprint the size of The Vatican's, and it would be the largest sculpture in the world.
Christo's presentation Thursday will include 80 color slides related to the projects, and he will answer questions -- unless they're about politics, religion or other artists, he said.
"Over the River" has overcome almost all legal challenges. Just one major one remains -- a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Bureau of Land Management's approval of the project.
Assuming the project is ultimately approved, it will take 28 months to realize, and weather and other circumstances mean the only feasible month to open its two-week life is in August. So, based on the status of the federal case, the earliest Christo expects "Over The River" to come to life is August 2017.
Christo's presentation at CU is supported by the ATLAS Institute's Speaker Series, the Department of Art & Art History Visiting Artist Program, the Center of the American West and the CU Art Museum.
Contact Quentin Young at 303-684-5319 or email@example.com.