text:
I was wondering that, so I asked the school nurse what percentage of the students at our local high school were unvaccinated, and how many had non-medical exemptions. Here's her response:
"We are unable to provide this information to you because it is in violation of the FERPA laws."
FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) prohibits the release of any information that identifies students. For example, schools cannot release the names of students who are unvaccinated due to philosophical objections of parents. But an aggregate statistic like % unvaccinated does not identify the unvaccinated students, so FERPA is not a concern. Indeed, dozens of states put their vaccination statistics in searchable databases to make it easy for parents to see. And these databases don't just show a % — the spreadsheet usually provides the numbers of students at each school with medical, religious, and personal exemptions. And for states that don't publish these data on behalf of schools, parents can just contact their kids' schools and ask for the information. Unfortunately, some schools use the FERPA card as a way to hide information that might generate criticism of the school's readiness for, say, a measles outbreak.
Here's the thing: parents need to know this percentage. If measles were to come to a school next week, can parents still send their children into school? What if a student has a medical exemption — is the herd immunity strong (perhaps 96% vaccinated), or is it dismal (50%)? Only when the parents know these data can they assess whether the school is safe.
By the way, the school principal is ultimately responsible for granting vaccination exemptions to the parents who request them. For example, a principal can (and should) refuse medical exemptions if the reasoning is ignorant ("I don't want my kid to get autism"). Similarly, religious and philosophical objections can be rejected if they are baseless or contrived. For example, a parent might write, "The Pope would be displeased if my kid was vaccinated", and the principal is allowed to reject that claim because it's demonstrably untrue. Low vaccination rates at a school, therefore, are not just a reflection of who lives in the area — they can reveal problems in how exemptions are granted.
To make it easier for parents, I have made a list, by state, on how to get school-based vaccination data. There are gaps, however. Some states have websites so poorly organized that I couldn't find it (if you know it, send me the link, please). And some states I contacted said they don't publish the data but said I could just contact schools directly. Finally, some states claim they cannot release the data due to privacy concerns. FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) clearly prevents a school from releasing the names of the kids who are non-vaccinated (for example), but it does not prevent schools from sharing the overall vaccination rate. States and schools citing FERPA just need to be educated about this, which is partly why I'm compiling this list (parents can share it with school officials who didn't get the memo).
If the links below don't work, try asking your school principal for the data. (Don't ask the school nurse, because s/he'll will instinctively cite FERPA.) When you get your data, please share it with other parents in your community via Facebook or Nextdoor. Only communities that know their vaccination coverage can determine whether they are prepared for disease outbreaks. If your school has rates below 96%, parents need to formally request to school board and principals that fewer exemptions be granted. Yes, the principal can deny requests if they are unwarranted.
Alabama (I could only find county data)
Alaska (I can't find anything; maybe too cold for viruses?)
Kentucky (county data)
Maine (have to ask your school nurse)
Montana (county data)
Nebraska (need to ask your school, Health Dept said HIPPA prevents schools from releasing data)
Nevada (they are working on this right now; until then, ask school)
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico (ask State Dept of Education)
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Pennsylvania (county data in PDF near bottom)
Rhode Island
South Carolina (see PDF at bottom of page)
South Dakota
Tennessee (partial county data)
Texas (district data)
Utah (district data; ask school, and if they balk, contact this person for help)
West Virginia (ask this person for PDF)
Wisconsin (district data; county)


text:
Mississippi is once again the state with the highest rate of obese people. Alabama follows closely behind at number 2. A person is considered obese when they have a body mass index higher than 30. BMI is based on your weight and height. The entire country is struggling with an obesity problem, but the South is where the problem is most prevalent. Unhealthy fried foods are a part of the culture in our part of the world and that is one reason our region has the worst obesity problems.
First lady Michelle Obama has taken to fighting childhood obesity. She is pushing for healthier lunches in schools and getting kids more active. Former Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee is also speaking out about the obesity problem in this country.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Don't see your question? Visit our help section.
Get access to great in-store deals and local pick-up
Sign up for our email deals newsletter!
Terrible creatures lurk in the dark, preying on those who wander into the hidden hour between one day and the next. As a member of a secret school club, you must wield your inner power - Persona - and protect humanity from impending doom. Will you live to see the light of day?
Hailed by critics and players alike for breathing new life into the RPG genre, Persona® 3 now finds a new home on your PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system. All of the compelling and seamless mixture of social simulation and dungeon crawling is faithfully recreated in portable form, and that's not all - for the first time ever, you can experience the story from a new female protagonist's point of view to make new friends and see events from a different perspective.
New gameplay additions and slick system enhancements make this version worth playing whether it's your first time experiencing the Dark Hour or whether you've already been to the top of Tartarus and back.
SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI, SMT, and Persona are registered trademarks of Atlus U.S.A., Inc.
Purchase or use of this item is subject to the PlayStation®Network Terms of Service and User Agreement. If you do not wish to accept all these terms, do not purchase or use this item. This item has been sublicensed to you by Sony Computer Entertainment America. One-time fee for downloads to up to 2 PSP® systems that are associated with the purchasing account.


text:
Importance of BrandFebruary 09, 2004
As has been reported everywhere this morning, Mozilla has renamed Firebird. The new Firefox trademark is the result of a naming conflict with another open source project, and the process has been written up by those involved: Ben Goodger, Steven Garrity, and Jon Hicks.
As might be presumed from my earlier work with the Mozilla Foundation, I was privvy to the conversations that took place during the brainstorming. When it became apparent that Firefox was the candidate of choice, I noted my personal opinion. I didn't like it. It just didn't sound right. It's not a browser, it's a fighter jet or an 80's hair band. It's too easy to mistake the second syllable for a vulgarity when pronounced. It's abrupt, and the alliteration doesn't work. All the way up until this morning I still thought it was a poor choice.
But that was before I saw Jon Hicks' brilliant logo, and the new pinstripe theme for OS X, and realized that as a brand, Firefox is actually going to work. This is one example where the sum is much greater than the individual parts. Though Hicks' logo stands alone as an excellent piece of illustration, the browser context is needed to give it meaning. Though the pinstripe theme is great, it needs the logo to give it character. Though the browser is top-notch, it needs the branding to give it a public face that so far it has been lacking.
Safari now has some real competition and thanks to the new installer, using Internet Explorer on Windows is no longer a justifiable decision. Hats off, way off, to all involved in this effort. I can't wait for the servers to unclog so I can grab my copy.
Reader Comments
I assumed that the logo was done that way to avoid having to try to replicate or replace the detail in a face when the logo is at smaller sizes for icons.
Nice fix Jeremy. With a little repositioning the change worked perfectly
Looks like theres a lot of reports on hover problems at bugzilla:
Still, I couldn't find anyone looking like this bug so I submited it:
Add aditional information you findout to that page and maybe you make it easier to solve the problem.
re Mike D and other comments on the Firefox logo.
You may like to read the comments by Jon Hicks who was involved in the logo project.
The link is…
re the rollover issue, yes its the same in Moz 1.6 on w2k as well
Another background bug: the body background color doesn't apply to the whole viewport when an XHTML document is sent with the right MIME type.
Maurice, that is in fact correct behavior: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/colors.html#q2
If you want the entire viewport to be covered, you should specify a background for the html root element, rather than for body.
The SimpleBits page works for me using a 24th January trunk build of Mozilla Firebird. Given that the Firefox 0.8 branch was cut in about December, this is probably a short term regression that has been fixed since then.
Oh and I think the new name sucks :-) IIt doesn't tell someone encountering the product for the first time what it does; they have no idea if Firefox is an ISP, a search bar, a piece of spyware or a new type of herbal viagra. It's also far too masculine and aggresive for my liking. I'm sure that I'll get used to it soon enough though.
The icons, however, are beautiful.
I read somewhere on MozillaZine or Mozilla.org somewhere recently that the "birds" will no longer be replacements for the Application Suite. Fire(bird|fox), Thunderbird, and Mozilla Suite will all continue development.
According to the Firefox roadmap, 1.0 should be here by springtime (well, spring in the northern hemisphere at least). According to the things I read from the Firefox pages, "Firebird" was the PROJECT CODENAME for a product that did not yet have a PRODUCT NAME. That product was to replace the application suite, and take it's name – being "Mozilla". "Firefox" is the PRODUCT NAME for the project formerly known by the PROJECT NAME of "Firebird".
"Firebird" was always intended to be a temporary codename. They had every intention of changing it sooner rather than later. I'm just curious if they're going to change the name of Thunderbird at all…
I think the problem with the tabs is related to this bug:
The overflow:hidden property in nested divs causes the right padding to double. This is true for Firefox and Mozilla 1.6. I think it's a problem with all 2004 Gecko builds. It almost drove me insane this morning when I got rendering problems in my site after upgrading the browser formerly known as Firebird.
We've taken to calling them FireSquirrel and ThunderBadger in our house.
And as yours truly first reported on the flashcoders list, the browser will incorrectly position flash movies that are set to scale 100% and align to the left top of the browser window if the salign attribute does not precede the scale attribute in the flash movie's embed tag.
The correct order should be:
salign="LT" scale="noscale"
However, if it appears as:
scale="noscale" salign="LT"
which is the default order when published from flashmx, it will not be rendered correctly in this browser or Mozilla 1.6
I love the new logo, the new branding effort, and I presume I'll love the new version (waiting for the server's to unclog myself). Long live Firefox.
If you check Dunstan's place, someone posted this link in the comments:
(maybe it was after everyone made the posts here, I'm too lazy to compare times)
Personally, I thought the logo was a lizard on fire at first. Nice colors, though.
The name is extremely cheesy. Why did they even use "fire" if firebird (another bad name) was only temporary?
It really is a shame that no one at Mozilla has a clue about branding and "selling" software, because the browser is excellent. They repeatedly insist on shooting themselves in the foot.
I was wondering aobut the name change…personally, I liked the Firebird name…it matched up well with the companion mail app Thunderbird….but stylo is definitely correct in that the Mozilla folks could definitely use some branding/marketing help.
The xbl errors people are experiencing…is this happening because they didn't follow the installation instructions? (disabling all extensions in Firebird prior to installing Firefox). Or are there extensions that are being added that are actually creating the errors?
Ray E, it's people not following instructions and disabling old extensions.
Just to clear up Dave's update, the errors that I am experiencing are occuring in Win2000 :)
I can also confirm that it is occuring it WinXP as well. Very strange.
I noticed that as well.
At first I thought it could be that for some reason Firefox was ignoring the background-position, but Pixy's Fast Rollovers ( http://www.pixy.cz/blogg/clanky/cssnopreloadrollovers/example.html )seem to be working just fine.
If you have the hover state set to -20px, then that would put the white text/grey tab at 0, and -40 for the active and selected states would put the white tab/grey text at 0.
could this be the problem?
It could also be that Firefox is not seeing the hover state because it is applied to #nav, and it is not able to see past the id applied to each .
By removing the overflow: hidden that is applied to "#nav a", the rollovers work again.
I am assuming that it is accepting the hidden value from the main #nav id, and sees the second overflow as redundant, possibly cancelling them out, or throwing the background-position settings off.
I have tested the following in: Firefox, Firebird 0.7/Win, IE6/5.5/5.0 Win
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox slated to become the Mozilla Browser when it hits 1.0? I recall hearing that somewhere and I also heard that Thunderbird will become Mozilla Mail when everything is said and done.
Can anyone back that up or shoot that down?
Hey, the rollovers don't work for me either and I'm not even on Firefox! :)
Mozilla 1.6 on Win2k here. Oh, and Jeremy's fix works perfectly.
The other Dave S, I also recall reading that. I don't think i have used Mozilla since Firebird 0.6. I also really like Thunderbird.
The illustration skills displayed in the logo are excellent and I like the style quite a bit, however, I find it a little weird that the main subject of the logo is looking directly away from the viewer. I know when people critique my logowork, I cringe frequently, but I think this is a valid criticism. I would expect more of a profile view of the fox or a 3/4 view peering forward from behind the globe.
Oh well… just my two cents.
> The xbl errors people are experiencing
Are a result of the fact that a directory name changed from 'widgets' to 'bindings' then back to 'widgets' again (or maybe the other way around. I /think/ they broke Seamonkey compatibility for no obvious reason and then realised they needed to be compatible again so that the DOM Inspector would work. But don't quote me on that). This means that extensions which use XBL and were designed for an older version of firebird are looking for a directory that doesn't exist anymore. One problem is that the error handling needs to be improved; if there is a problem loading an extension rather than part of the main browser, it should bail loading that extension, disable the extension, and report the problem, rather than refusing to load the browser.
Of course nobody bothered to mention this is the release notes.
>>I liked the Firebird name�it matched up well with the companion mail app Thunderbird
But who would figure out or recall from the names which did what? Fire surfing, thunder email?
What was possibly wrong with Mozilla Mail, Mozilla Browser, all from the Mozilla organization? One word/brand to learn: "Mozilla." (Then straighten out the whole apps vs. suite mess and you're done.) For good fun read this post:
Sad, isn't it? A case study in bad branding.
By the way, the old tab hover works fine again in new nightlies. Works in my 20040209 Firebird/0.8.0+. Also the new jeremyflint one works as well, so both new and old do.
Firefox is apparently a cute but endangered species of panda.
Will the Firefox browser proudly bear Cute but Endangered as its brand values?
>>Then straighten out the whole apps vs. suite mess and you�re done.
Oops, I forgot the need to use only ONE name on all OSs. Then redo the logo. -And then we're done!
I think…
It's probably due to poor CSS coding on my part, but Firefox renders a wonky-huge indent between text and container for my site (where there was none before – Firebird/Mozilla/IE).
I'll have more time to investigate tonight, but I think I'll be rolling back to Firebird. Firefox also breaks the turbo-handy spellchecker. :(
I like Firebird better. I don't know why. Maybe it's just because the Back/Next buttons are missing from Firefox. It also has problem with scrollbars on my Windows XP. They are totally absent. I don't know why. They show up just fine in Firebird. The icon's nice, and so is the name. But I'll switch back to Firebird. :(
> It also has problem with scrollbars on my Windows XP
Use the default theme. Most themes haven't been updated for the new version yet.
> Back/Next buttons are missing from Firefox
Which buttons? Back / Forward (from the default install) or Next/Previous (from the link toolbar extension). If the former, it's a theme issue, the latter is an extension issue; try reinstalling the extensions.
The new name was a shock at first. It will be hard to remove the 80's association - but after seeing the logo, it all looks like it's gonna work great, implicit cheesiness notwithstanding.
And your site, Dave, still looks great on it.
the lack of scrollbars and back buttons is probably firebird messing with FireFox. You have to re-install your skin from the mozilla site to get it working right
Funny, this post is EXACTLY what I was thinking while downloading Firefox yesterday. I'm still not crazy about the name, but the logo is really top-notch. Unlike previous logos, this one communicates 'web browser' to me immediately.
I do wish someone would put some serious marketing behind Mozilla, but there is sadly no profit potential. At this point I'm just thankful for a good browser existing at all…
Gabe said: "I do wish someone would put some serious marketing behind Mozilla, but there is sadly no profit potential. At this point I�m just thankful for a good browser existing at all�"
I agree. At this point, though, the best marketing we can do is word of mouth. One by one I'm getting co-workers to make the switch. Every time someone comes by my desk for something, I make sure they see me working away in my browser…opening links in a new tab, etc. I slowly chip away until finally getting them to *try* a new browser. I have yet to lose a convert…It's the first step that's the hardest.
A lot of people are saying it doesn't matter what the browser's called, they'll still use it.
I had only just downloaded Firebird 0.7 when a couple of days later, Firefox 0.8 got released! It downloaded slowly, but somehow I was able to get it straight away.
I had no problems installing it - my customised toolbar of icons was just like it was before, along with my bookmarks. Odd because it was installed into a different directory!
Has the DOM Inspector always been included? I noticed it was if you choose "Custom" when installing. See my website for my thoughts on this versus the Mozilla version.
The logo does indeed rock. Hopefully the name won't change again, so when version 1.0 comes out, we can start promoting this browser en masse. (It's not advised to do so yet, as it's still a "Technology Preview", with features half-working or not at all.) Shame - to me it seems already superior to IE6.
Chris, all of your settings are stored in your profile:
and not in the application directory.
One of the next big features for the next milestone will be migration from other apps (Safari, IE, Mozilla, Netscape, etc) including bookmarks and prefs (?).
I really don't understand what's the big deal about the branding of firebird/firefox.
As far as I know, when firefox is stable, it will become the replacement of the Mozilla browser anyways. Or will it always keep the name Mozilla Firefox instead of just Mozilla ?
I reply to scott blanchard (#19) :
The truth is far more funny : if you reverse the tags order, the salign value will be ignored by others browsers.
So the good syntax is (guess!) :
it's perfectly insane but it works.
Thank you MoziBird, my life was drab before…


text:
Comcast Testing 300GB, up to 600GB Data Caps in Two Cities
Subject: General Tech | September 21, 2012 - 04:24 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: isp, data cap, Comcast, bandwidth
Comcast's 250GB per month data cap was proved an unpopular but necessary evil (in the sense that it cannot be avoided). The company suspended its data capping earlier this year to reevaluate its data caps and how they affect users. That temporary freedom is not slated to last, however as Comcast will be re-instating caps in the future (as soon as next year, by many reports). Currently, Comcast is testing a single 300GB cap across all tiers in Nashville, Tennessee, and on October 1st it will begin another data cap strategy in Tucson, Arizona.
In Tuscon, Comcast will be mixing things up a bit by pairing the higher (faster) tiers of service with larger data caps. For example, the Blast tier (25/4 in many markets) will have an additional 50GB for a total cap of 350GB per month. The next highest tier – Extreme 50 – will get a 450GB cap, and so on. This is a good thing, because it allows the caps to scale with speed. Otherwise, the faster the speed tier, the worse value it becomes as it will just allow you to burn through your data cap faster. When the caps scale with speed, that problem is eliminated. Interestingly, this method seems to be the one that Comcast is leaning towards using, because a source –when talking to DSL Reports – has stated that when Comcast reinstates caps nationwide, customers will have a 500GB caps while lower tiers will Performance tier users will receive only a 300GB cap. Specifically, the source stated "faster speed tiers will see higher caps."
Personally, if I have to endure caps, I would much rather have this scalable cap system rathen than a one-size-fits-all number for every tier like the company is implementing in Nashville (and has in the past with its 250GB per month cap). It will be interesting to see exactly how it will scale the caps once they are official, and how often Comcast will consider raising its caps as more and more services move "to the cloud."
|Comcast Internet Tiers
|Data Cap (Nashville, TN)
|Data Cap (Tucson, AZ)
|Overage Charge (both cities) - $/50GB
|Economy Plus
|Internet Essentials
|Performance Starter
|Extreme 50
|Extreme 105
|Extreme 305
Another bit of (surprising) news is that Comcast is being rather reasonable in its overage policy for customers that exceed the cap in the test markets. Customers that go over the cap in a month will be notified by both an email and webpage notification. Should the customer wish to continue to use the Internet service, Comcast will provide additional 50GB blocks for $10 each, which works out to 20 cents per Gigabyte. That is not bad at all, especially compared to wireless data overages that customers have begrudgingly become accustomed to.
Even better, Comcast will give each customer up to three warnings before charging for additional data. If customers go over their caps for three months in one year, they will not be charged for additional data usage. After the three "courtesy notices," it's back to $10/50GB. The overage charge and three warning system applies to both test markets, which seems to suggest that it has a good chance of being implemented nationwide.
At least in the testing markets, Comcast is being much more generous than it has in the past. I'm interested to see what the cable providing-giant that is Comcast actually ends up doing once it puts caps in place around the nation. Specifically, how standardized the caps and overage charges are across all of the markets, and whether it will be more aggressive in areas where it has a monopoly where customers can not fall back to AT&T's U-Verse or Verizon's FIOS service (among other options, though I don't count satellite or dial up as those are not really competitive to wired broadband). Right now though, I think Comcast is moving towards a system that is an acceptable compromise between customer freedom and its business interests. [Please don't mess this up, Comcast.]
What are your thoughts, do you think the proposed caps are fair? I do concede that data caps suck, and it is definitely possible to exceed the caps with legitimate services, but it does look as though caps are here to stay. Here's hoping Comcast remains at least as reasonable with the entire US as it is with its test markets.
Read more about Comcast's data cap test markets.
Image courtesy Chauncey Davis via Flickr Creative Commons. Thank you.
this is what i used last month
Last month 744:0 9,080 290,866 299,947
I'm glad they are adjusting the cap policy's to scale with speed/tiers but as a whole this is just a bunch of crap.
Caps on over priced and under performing internet services...
Well I guess it's still better than what Canada has to suffer through.
I'd rather have no caps since people like myself can break it down and go on for days as to how they're just screwing you either way you look at it. But since the option is between taking it in the rear with vaseline or no vaseline, I suppose scaling would make more sense. In the end you're still getting raped violently.
I'd rather they be smart and logical and throttle connection speeds if "usage of bandwidth was excessive on the node" instead of this BS charge for Gig strat. But hey, Wireless companies are making billions of free non-bandwidth stealing Text Messages and plans, and billions more on Internet plans slower than dial up in most places. It only makes sense to go the route that brings you more profits and keeping the big lie going.
Yup, that's pretty much my line of thinking (lesser of two evils :( ). It sucks but at least Comcast is not being as evil as they usually are lol.
I'm so tire of defeatest thinking. It doesn't have to be data caps or tiered data caps. We could stand together and collectively speak out and demand this kind of shit be put to a stop, but we are all so used to it now that we don't even bother. I'm as guilty of this as anyone, but I'm getting to the point that I just want to fight like hell.
I happen to live in Nashville, and between myself, my girlfriend, my two daughters, and my roommate, 300Gb is an incredibly low bar to hit. We now have to throttle our own traffic and downgrade video quality on Netflix and Youtube, just to barely keep under the cap.
I find myself working harder and harder for the same stagnant wage as the value of my dollar erodes and the price for goods skyrockets while the overall quality plummets. I just want to work honestly, raise my family, and enjoy what little downtime I have, but I am constantly squeezed by the tentacles of greed.
I have huge worries about Google, but in this case, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I hope Google Fiber destroys them and then I hope we get some decent protections from corporate gouging.
I'd rather have no caps since people like myself can break it down and go on for days as to how they're just screwing you either way you look at it. But since the option is between taking it in the rear with vaseline or no vaseline, I suppose scaling would make more sense. In the end you're still getting raped violently.
I'd rather they be smart and logical and throttle connection speeds if "usage of bandwidth was excessive on the node" instead of this BS charge for Gig strat. But hey, Wireless companies are making billions of free non-bandwidth stealing Text Messages and plans, and billions more on Internet plans slower than dial up in most places. It only makes sense to go the route that brings you more profits and keeping the big lie going.
Just finished a chat session with a Comcast CSR (I'm assuming he/she was in another country as the grammar was horrible) and was told that they could not even give me a general ETA on when the new bandwidth caps would roll out.
If anyone is interested, I just had the following phone conversation with a Comcast CSR regarding the bandwidth caps:
Me: "Will the new bandwidth caps be rolled out before I die in 60 years?" (I have an odd sense of humor)
Comcast CSR: "Yes."
My data usage has more than tripled in the last two months and we live in Nashville. it is only my husband and I and my Internet usage on my computer is minimal. he does watch a lot of Netflix is that where the data is coming from, but even that is about the same as it has been for the last two years. How do I check the accuracy of this. This month they say I am exceeding
900 gig.


text:
Exploring apartments in Stockbridge within Georgia, some interesting facts about the history or the city were surfaced. It is said that Stockbridge was named after, Professor Stockbridge, a Yankee school teacher, no one knew Professor Stockbridge's first name.
However, in May of 1992, the mayor of Stockbridge received a letter from a young man claiming that his great-great grandfather Levi was believed to be the Yankee Professor that Stockbridge was named after. Although there is no set evidence that Levi Stockbridge was the mysterious Yankee Professor that the city was named after, the dates and information fit the timeline.
The Stockbridge was granted a United States Post Office in 1847, with evidence of settlement as early as 1829. Stockbridge, GA officially becomes incorporated as a town in 1895, and twenty-five years later, in 1920 Stockbridge officially was incorporated as a city.
The Stockbridge, GA was also home to Mr. Martin Luther King Sr. Mr. King was born and raised in Stockbridge. Once he met his wife, he was encouraged to better his education and later went on to become a Baptist Pastor, a Missionary, and involved as an early leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. Mr. King and his wife then started a family of their own. You may better know one of Mr. King's sons, Martin Luther King Jr or MLK. Although Martin Luther King Jr. is more widely recognized for his speech and involvement with the equality of races, Mr. King Sr. played an enormous role in the American Civil Rights Movement and the teaching and raising his son Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated and all but one daughter on Mr. King Sr.'s family has all passed away.
Joseph "Joey" Clanton; an American Stock Car Driver, Max Gresham; also an American Stock Car Driver, and Ricky Sanders; another American Stock Car Driver, all have roots in Stockbridge, GA. All three have raced in some NASCAR series race, with Max Gresham, and Ricky Sanders have run in the Nascar Truck Series.
And lastly for the NFL (National Football League) fans, in particular, the Seattle Seahawks, Number 51, outside linebacker, Bruce Irvin was born and raised in Stockbridge, GA. Stockbridge was home to many people who made history, or those famous for sports, movies or musicians. Stockton is a humble town, with a rich history and great communities. Stockbridge is located and known as "The Gate to Henry County," and is conveniently located 20 miles from Atlanta, the state's capital. Georgia is a great state to live in with the mild weather, tourist attractions, and close to sandy beaches. Stockbridge is full of rich history and knowledge for the entire family. There are several historical and beautiful apartments in Stockbridge Georgia. Whether you are looking for the deep rich history and community or you are looking for a quiet collective place to live, within miles of the state capital and the exciting nightlife. Stockbridge is ideal for raising a family.


text:
Glen Creason is used to waiting at the downtown Central Library. At the reference desk in a large space four floors below 5th Street, he knows the questions will come. They always do.
"There was a baseball field somewhere in L.A. in 1888 that only lasted one year. Where was it exactly?"
"How do I find the gravel pit where the Sleepy Lagoon murder took place?"
Creason has heard it all. "One I get constantly is, 'Do you have maps of the secret tunnels dug under L.A.?' .... They are secret tunnels and they do not appear on maps," he says.
Amid the stacks of history and genealogy volumes, and the drawers of microfilm, Creason, 65, leaves no doubt about where his heart lies: maps.
Tall and affable, he has helped preserve a street-by-street history of Los Angeles.
"I love to answer map questions," says Creason, who has worked at the Central Library for 32 years and became map librarian in 1989.


text:
I'm a bit bored after finishing school (weird) and wanted to talk about something.
I am not sure how Gary Wells can state something so obvious ("It's up to you," Letters/Jan. 22) and receive so much flak. He is, if anything, too lenient on the Bible bashers, seeing them as only being too into themselves and being lax in seeing the harm they do. Dino Wenino's Jan. 27 letter nit picks Gary's "Lord" to pretty well say the same thing as Gary.
Being more interested in how atheists in general think, I waded through Steve Ford's Jan. 26 letter, "All Christians think they're true." Steve Ford actually has two or three things correct: (1) no man is perfect, (2) mainstream religion is about a form of control and (3) Jesus dying for man's sins is symbolic. So far, he gets it but slides badly as he blames religion for only being a business. Sure, it's a business of sorts, in a business world, and it's disgusting how usurpers gain from the religiously unresolved.
Steve Ford's list of culprits, starting with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, are suspiciously on my list which also includes the illicit Rev. Jesse Jackson and Jimmy Swaggart who both have been caught with their pants down (literally). Ford totally skips the core point of believing or not believing in a power greater than himself. We do not owe lazy critics anything. We owe ourselves. We are responsible to ourselves and the power that created us. Some like Billy Graham help us to a mental commitment but truly, many don't. Man, including members of the clergy, are not perfect.
As Steve Ford regularly tries, it is difficult to understand why atheists fight so hard "not to believe" and to belong to a empty-purposed club. What an interesting concept, to believe in nothingness, to have no purpose, and no accountability. Is there nothing to be morally, ethically or spiritually accountable for?
The point I conclude so far is that atheists' lives are too convenient, too easy, too responsibility-free and the possibility of a power greater than themselves scares the hell (pardon the expression) out of them. It is spiritual cowardness at its best, but like Gary Wells says, "It's up to you!"
Nonbelievers gamble there is no God, but think about it. If they are right, they lose to nothingness. If they are wrong, they still lose. Bad bet, wouldn't you say?
Call God, your creator, by any name you chose but don't blame weakness in man to support your wimpy, lazy conclusions.
CURT WARTICK, Casper
Views: 32


text:
October 21, 1942 - December 26, 2012
Washingtonville, NY
Lucille M. O'Connor of Washingtonville, NY entered into rest on December 26, 2012 at Orange Regional Medical Center. She was 70.
Lucille was born in El Paso, TX on October 21, 1942 to Aurelio and Savina Valtierra. She was the widow of George P, O'Connor. Lucille was a loving mother, grandmother and aunt.
She is survived by her sons: Joseph and his wife, Nancy O'Connor of Elmira, NY, Leslie and his wife, Lisa O'Connor of San Francisco, CA and Patrick and his wife, Christine O'Connor, of Poughquag, NY; daughters: Francis O'Connor of Florida and Cathleen and her husband, Tim Garibaldi of Kansas; brothers: Aurelio Valtierra of Oakland, CA, Manuel and his wife, Marie Valtierra of Elko, NV, George Valtierra and Raul Valtierra, both of Elko, NV; sisters: Louisa and her husband, Manuel of Elko, NV and Judy and her husband, Brent Devitt, also of Elko, NV; grandchildren: Levi, Temma, Colin, Celine and one on the way; also survived by many nieces and nephews.
A gathering of family and friends will take place on Sunday, December 30, 2012 from 1 to 3 p.m., at the David T. Ferguson Funeral Home, Washingtonville, NY. A service will follow at 3 p.m. Cremation was private. Arrangements are under the care of Thomas A. Murray of David T. Ferguson Funeral Home, 20 North St., Washingtonville, NY 10992, 845-496-9106. For further info, or to leave condolences or a fond memory of Lucille for the family, please visit our website at www.davidtfergusonfh.com


text:
The Honda Insight is a five-seat hatchback gas hybrid that is meant to compete directly with the Toyota Prius. It's a less expensive alternative to the class originating from Prius and offers fuel economy that no non-hybrid can touch.
Introduced in 1999 for the 2000 model year, the first generation of Insights were a bit ahead of their time and were mostly passed over in favor of the SUVs that many American buyers so prized. The first generation stopped production in 2006. With increasing gas price volatility and shrinking oil supplies making hybrids more and more popular, Honda reintroduced the Insight in 2010. Cars like the Insight are not just futuristic looking and technologically advanced in terms of engine design, but it's the future in world with a finite oil supply.
The problem with the original Insight design was a lack of so-called practicality when compared to the four-door Prius and non-hybrids. When the Insight name was revived by Honda, these issues were addressed. The Insight became a four-door, five-seat hatchback hybrid that is as useful as any in-class competition.
The original incarnation boasted an impressive 60-mpg highway rating. But the lack of any other serviceable quality made it a subcompact that two people could put to use as a means of getting themselves around and not much else. The next version added more cargo space, a small but usable backseat and traded off some fuel economy coming in at a rating of over 40 mpg highway. Such a trade-off made the Insight much more competitive and practical as it now qualifies to do anything that any other in-class hybrid can do.
The design of the Insight is typical of a hybrid with an aerodynamic narrow front-end and a wedge back-end. Less resistance and thus less power used to move are part of the economical hybrid ethos.
Standard exterior features for all trim levels include: blue-tinted headlight -enclosures, LED brake lights, body-colored folding side mirrors, and a rear-window wiper.
The trim levels are Base, LX, and Ex. Standard equipment for the base model includes 15-inch steel wheels, anti-lock brakes, and stability control. All of the LX upgrades are interior based. The EX comes with 15-inch alloy wheels, heated mirrors, and a backup camera.
The 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine produces 88 horsepower and 88 lb-ft of torque. The electric motor then kicks in another 13 horsepower and 58 lb-ft of torque. A nickel-metal hydride battery pack keeps the electric motor running, it then adds back with regenerative braking. Honda calls this an Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid system. The engine hooks up to a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). Power is put to the ground though front-wheel drive.
The electric motor doesn't operate on its own; it just assists the gas motor, so they both operate all the time. The original model produced had a three-cylinder engine and electric assist putting out less horsepower and torque but offering more economy.
Because the electric motor is an assist and doesn't switch between gas mode and electric mode, the Insight drives like a typical gas automobile and requires no adaptation on the part of the driver. The acceleration is better than others in class. The steering is responsive, and the suspension is set-up to be rather sporty making for a fun drive. This exceeds the quality of the competition, but the Insight suffers in comparison when factoring in cabin noise and somewhat rough, unsophisticated ride.
The Insight is a bit cramped inside, even compared to other cars in its class. Other than that, the interior is laid out well and affords enough room in the front. The Original model had only one trim level that came with a CD player and full-power accessories. Automatic climate control with air-conditioning was optional. Later models of the four-door variety have more to offer in terms of options and standard equipment.
These later Insights come in three trim levels: base, LX, and EX. The base comes with automatic climate control, tilt/telescoping steering wheel, and a two-speaker sound system. An interesting standard feature that keeps with the hybrid/economical theme is an Eco Assist driver-feedback system. Upgrading to the LX adds cruise control, four speakers for the sound system, and an iPod/USB audio interface. The EX has steering-wheel audio controls and six speakers. The EX can also be equipped with a navigation system and Bluetooth. Synthetic leather or premium fabric upholstery is an option across models.
Front and side airbags combined with stability control and anti-lock brakes make this hybrid a good scoring vehicle in the safety department.
The exterior was restyled in both the front and rear with updated head lights. Inside, the backseat area has additional leg and headroom, and the gauge cluster's appearance has been updated. The center console cup holders are bigger, and there's a new seat fabric for LX models. A lower rear window offers better views, and there's more insulation for sound dampening.
2019 Honda Insight
Compact, Hybrid, Sedan
2014 Honda Insight
Compact, Hatchback, Hybrid
2013 Honda Insight
2012 Honda Insight
For 2012 the Insight gets a powertrain update and a minor facelift that don't just look new: a revised tail and larger glass help improve fuel economy and rear visibility. Up front, a chrome bar outlines the grille, and blue-tinted covers over the headlights give it a cooler effect. Inside, Honda targets one of the Insight's biggest complaints: its interior gets nicer materials and cushier seat fabric.
2011 Honda Insight
There has been much speculation that Honda will boost the Insight's battery range and electric motor output in an attempt to improve fuel economy. How that would be possible, while keeping the price down is unclear. Other areas that will likely be addressed include the suppression of wind noise and road vibration. Look out for more details in the fall of 2010.
2010 Honda Insight
2006 Honda Insight
Compact, Coupe, Hatchback, Hybrid
The Honda Insight debuted in 2000 as the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle available on the U.
2005 Honda Insight
The Honda Insight is a hybrid engine hatchback model designed with fuel efficiency in mind.
2004 Honda Insight
The 2004 Honda Insight marks the first gasoline/electric hybrid on the roads in the U.
2003 Honda Insight
The 2003 Honda Insight is perhaps one of the most technologically-advanced vehicles ever made by the company.
2002 Honda Insight
The 2002 Honda Insight made the environmentalists happy when it introduced itself as the first electric hybrid vehicle to the U.
2001 Honda Insight
The 2001 Honda Insight manages to offer exemplary fuel efficiency while still offering a fun ride.
2000 Honda Insight


text:
When you have a legal problem, you want solutions, not disclaimers and hedges. You want an attorney who treats you like the only client at the firm. You want personal attention, responsiveness, and your calls returned. Right now, if not sooner. If you are in the middle of a real estate transaction, you want the comfort of knowing that you have an attorney who knows the "in's and out's" of the law, and can get to the closing table, despite any problem that arises. If you need to fight for your rights or defend yourself in court, you want a litigator who's not afraid of a street fight. And above all, you want a law firm that delivers all this with value. At the Vetstein Law Group, P.C. we appreciate these values and provide the highest level of legal work at a reasonable cost with unique brand of personal attention and responsiveness. It doesn't seem like much to ask, but our clients tell us it can be hard to find.
The Vetstein Law Group, P.C. solves legal problems for individuals, small businesses, real estate owners and developers, condominiums, banks and financial institutions. Our practice areas include:
- Boundary Line Disputes & Adverse Possession
- Real Estate Litigation
- Landlord – Tenant Law / Evictions
- Real Estate Conveyancing
- Zoning, Permitting and Land Use
- Business Transactions
- Construction Law
- Condominium Law
- Short Sales
The Firm's founder, Richard D. Vetstein, Esq., is a nationally recognized real estate attorney and litigator. Major news publications such as the Boston Globe, Banker & Tradesman, Wall Street Journal's SmartMoney.com, Bloomberg News, and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly have sought Mr. Vetstein's commentary for real estate articles. Mr. Vetstein was recently selected as one of Inman News' 100 Most Influential in Real Estate, and is a Feature Contributor to AOL Real Estate. He is also the former Co-Chair of the Boston Bar Association's Title & Conveyancing Committee. Rich recently testified at the Mass. State House in support of the Rent Escrow Bill and lobbied for the Act Clearing Title to Foreclosed Properties.
Mr. Vetstein is also the creator and principal author of the highest trafficked real estate legal blog in the U.S., The Massachusetts Real Estate Law Blog. The Blog has won several awards including the American Bar Association Top Legal Blawg, Expert Institute, and Boston Magazine's Top 5 Real Estate Blogs.


text:
This is the Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parcel it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: Car Loans Now Being Paid Off Before Home Loans
Dow Jones reports this morning that historically, in times of financial distress, the typical consumer has first cut back paying his credit cards. If further belt-tightening was needed, skipping the car loan was next. And finally, and only in the most dire of cases, the home loan payments went delinquent. This loan payment hierarchy has been completely scrambled post-recession, TransUnion said it found in a recent study, as at least over the past year, the most protected payment has become the auto loan, followed by the credit card loan. In a complete reversal, the home loan now is the most vulnerable to missed payments, the financial information firm said. Becker predicted that the auto loan has become the preferred loan payment to make because post-recession U.S. consumers have a more immediate need to keep a car so they can get to work or find a job.
2nd Gear: Meet The New, More Touareg-Like Face Of Chevy Crossovers
The 2013 Chevrolet Traverse features a new exterior design, with a front end designed to introduce the new face of Chevrolet crossovers. That front features a power-dome hood, a three-bar upper and two-bar lower grille design that screams watered-down Cadillac, new lamps, chrome accents around the grille and fog lamps, and front corners similar to the Malibu sedan. And then there's the new rear end which has ditched the strong center-line poop-chute look for a more sculpted, higher-detailed look. It's not altogether unpleasing to the eye — I mean, if you're into crossovers — it's sort of looks like an American Touareg.
3rd Gear: Ford Loses Head Of Global Performance Vehicles To VW
Car and Driver reported last night that Ford's director of Global Performance Vehicles, Jost Capito will be leaving the automaker — and rather abruptly, at that. During his 11-year tenure with Ford, Capito oversaw the development of the SVT Raptor and the upcoming Focus ST and Fiesta ST. Working in Europe from 2001 to 2009, Capito ran Ford's RS division, which was responsible not just for hot road cars like the Focus RS, but also the company's motorsports efforts in series such as the World Rally Championship. We're told that he'll be headed over to Volkswagen. Good get by the Germans, Ja?
4th Gear: Chrysler Exported From Suburbs Of Detroit
Chrysler will soon move forward with plans to open an office and move 50 to 70 people into space in the Dime Building in downtown Detroit, people familiar with the deal told the Detroit Free Press. While it's nothing on the grand scale of a headquarters move, the downtown Detroit office represents a symbolic recommitment to the core city by Chrysler, which moved most of its white-collar staff from Highland Park to its huge Auburn Hills campus two decades ago. Either that or they really want to win those negotiations with Pure Detroit over the "Imported From Detroit" tagline on clothing.
5th Gear: Chevy Says The Camaro 1LE Drops Mad Gs
The Chevy Camaro 1LE performance package returns for 2013 with special gearing, suspension tuning, and tires that, according to Chevy's press release, makes the model capable of more than 1 g of lateral acceleration and a sub-three minute lap time at Virginia International Raceway's Grand Course. The special performance package is offered on Camaro SS coupes with manual transmissions and starts under $40,000.
6th Gear: 2013 Ford Transit Van Gets Diesel Engine Option
The 2013 Ford Transit commercial van — set to be launched next year in the U.S. — will have a diesel engine option. That is all.
⏎ 3 Reasons Why Toyota Is On A March In North America. [Forbes]
⏎ Pickup Truck Bigotry Is Alive and Well. [PickupTrucks.com]
⏎ New Study Proves Democrats Are from Volvo, Republicans Are from Truck. [Vanity Fair]
⏎ Prius c: Hybrid is among hottest-selling small cars in years. [LA Times]
⏎ Gas-Strike Fear Prompts Panic Buying in U.K. [Wall Street Journal]
⏎ MTA buying subway cars made upstate; protects jobs. [AP via Bloomberg]
⏎ Would You Buy It? 2013 Ford B-Max. [Kicking Tires]
⏎ Toyota to raise production, add 400 jobs in Canada. [AP via Bloomberg]
Today in Automotive History
On March 29, 2009, Rick Wagoner, the chairman and chief executive of troubled auto giant General Motors (GM), resigns at the request of the Obama administration. During Wagoner's more than 8 years in the top job at GM, the company lost billions of dollars and in 2008 was surpassed by Japan-based Toyota as the world's top-selling maker of cars and trucks, a title the American automaker had held since the early 1930s. [History]
Show us your tips!
Got tips for our editors? Want to anonymously dish some dirt on a competitor? Know something about a secret car? Email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Lost in our new layout?
Click here for the Opposite Lock or Tips forums. Want a more "blog-like" look? Click the button up top next to "Top Stories."
Get more Jalopnik!
Want even more Jalopnik? Want to know which of your friends read us? "Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.


text:
Fhotoroom is a fantastic Windows Phone photography app that had it's Windows Phone 7.x version updated to version 3.0. When that update when live, the developers mentioned that a Windows Phone 8 version was in the works and today, that version went live. Fhotoroom (version 8.0) hit the Windows Phone Store today which brings many of the features the Windows Phone 7.x version reccieved plus Windows Phone 8 support.
As with the 7.x version, Fhotoroom for Windows Phone 8 has recieved a significant makeover with user interface updates throughout the app.
Key highlights for the Windows Phone 8 version of Fhotoroom include:
- Large photo support
- Windows Phone 8 Live Tile support (small, medium and wide sizes)
- A new Photo Lockscreen editor
- New gestures that include swipe left/right for filters, drag up/down to control adjustment slider, and double tap for before/after views
- The in-house camera app now supporst full resolution and auto save and multi-shot support
- Tilt shift filter has been updated with an additional slider setting.
As with the update to the Windows Phone 7.x version, the Windows Phone 8 version helps an already nice photo app all the better. The Photo Lockscreen editor allows you to generate a lockscreen collage image from pictures submitted by the Fhotoroom community. You have options to randomly pull images from recent, popular, interesting categories as well as creating them from a keyword search. It's a nice feature if you're looking for another lockscreen source.
Fhotoroom is a free app that is available here from the Windows Phone Store.


text:
McGruff wrote:SalishHawkFan wrote:How fast is Abraham? Is he an edge rusher or does he use technique? Is he better hand on the ground or does he fit the LEO mold of standing up, lined up a little wide?
Just stop it. LEO does not stand up. Or does so rarely.
The whole point of the Leo is that he can do both. At USC we used 2 linebackers (Cushing and then Matthews the following year) in that role. Sometimes they'd put their hand in the dirt and sometimes not.


text:
Currently 2.86/512345 Rating: 2.9/5 (Total votes: 174)
Rating: 2.9/5 (Total votes: 174)
Spb Mobile Shell introduces the next generation user interface while keeping all advantages of a Windows Mobile device. Spb Mobile Shell is the first program a Windows Mobile user needs to install. It dramatically improves the standard user interface and adds features that most users expect from a modern PDA phone.
The first version of the product, released on February 6th, 2007, was very well received:
Now Screen
The most important information on one screen
Spb Menu
Easy-to-use menu
Smart contact search optimized for fingers
Smart Gestures
Fast access to all devices features
Customize your device with your preferences
» show more


text:
Will 2012 See the Last Big, Bold CES?
Jan 2, 2012 5:00 AM PT
This month begins the march to 2012 technology with the Consumer Electronics Show just around the corner. Vendors have already started prebriefings for what will likely be a cascade of announcements all happening in the same one-week time frame.
This will be the last year that Microsoft keynotes or has a major presence at this show. Like Apple, Microsoft is moving to an event-driven, rather than show-driven, schedule. The reason is showcased by the fact that Microsoft will be announcing Windows 8 about a month before it is really ready to be announced. This makes me wonder if we are having a Comdex moment and this could be the beginning of the end for CES and other massive shows of its type.
After exploring that issue, I'll close with my product of the week: a cool new superphone from Samsung.
Windows 8
CES will be the coming-out party for Windows 8, but the problem is that Microsoft isn't expected to begin the Beta process until more than a month later, making this show ill-timed for the announcement. Much like Apple did with MacWorld, Microsoft is calling this the last CES it will have a major part in, making this an historic event for the company.
Windows 8 heralds a new class of computer called either "hybrid" or "crossover," depending on your predilection for automotive terms. This class was pioneered by the Asus Transformer, a tablet/laptop combination product designed to address the desire of many early iPad users to have the capabilities of an iPad and MacBook Air without having to carry both products at once. The iPad was often left at home.
This new combination product promises to address this problem, but it will need to work through some interesting choices as it will come in both ARM and X86 platforms, and size is in flux. The size problem isn't trivial, because folks don't seem to like tablets over 11 inches or Laptops less than 12 inches, making a compromise on size difficult. Still, this is the form factor that will best highlight Windows 8 capabilities, and it is likely it will be the most interesting of the 2012 PC designs. I expect you'll see some early designs at CES as a result.
USB Monitors
One of the things that may make this new device class workable is the coming wave of USB portable monitors. I've been using one from Lenovo for much of this last month, and coupled with an Ultrabook -- doubling the available screen real estate -- it is well worth the typical sub-US$200 price.
It fully powers off the USB port and weighs in 2.4 lbs. with cover (1.8 without). I've generally been annoyed at working on the road because I use two 27-inch monitors in the office, and dropping down to a single sub-14-inch monitor is a huge pain. I think the option of doubling that on the road is well worth the $185 this monitor costs, and that this class of product could make the small screen on a hybrid/crossover-class product usable.
Granted, you'd fall back to using a mouse or touchpad for stuff on the USB monitor, but it would allow you to work off reference material, play a video, or just monitor Twitter or Facebook much more easily.
OLED TVs
Just when you had settled on that brand new LED/LCD TV with 3D and smart features, LG pre-announced a 55-inch OLED prototype, and it is drop-dead gorgeous. The company is hinting at an aggressive price point that still will likely be more than twice what a similar LED/LCD TV might cost, but it knows the pressure will be to get that price more competitive. If it does, we are so screwed, as we'll want one.
This TV is about as thin as a pencil (if you can remember what a pencil looked like) or 5-millimeters thick (an iPad is 8.8 mm thick as a comparison). Other than price, the bad news is that OLED TVs are infamous for their short lifespan, and most of the last generation appeared to lose 50 percent of its brightness within the first year. That makes even the original plasma technology look good by comparison.
So, I'll be watching to see if LG has addressed this chronic OLED problem. The good news is that not only are the TVs fabulous looking, they tend to use less power -- so you might be able to justify buying one to your spouse because it's green. Good luck with that.
Multi-Core Tablets
Expect to be up to your armpits in 4-plus core tablets running technology from Nvidia and Qualcomm. This will be the changeover year, when tablets stop being mostly about consumption and move solidly into creation.
Hovering over the show will be the rumored announcement of the iPad 3 brought to market early to fight off this emerging breed of high-performance iPad alternatives.
Most of the products will show up later in the year with the initial batch running Ice Cream Sandwich (which was recently pulled due to battery issues and a nasty tendency to brick devices). We'll see if tablets survive as a separate category this decade, but they'll likely still be hot in 2012.
Improved Security
IBM will be back at the show for the first time in years, and it is expected to showcase security and technology solutions (rumored to be the ones that helped Apple with the iPhone 4 antenna problems).
IBM has made some interesting predictions for next year, including mind control for computers (targeted mostly at paralyzed patients).
The most pertinent to CES is effective biometrics to eliminate the very vulnerable passwords we now have on our smart devices, and this couldn't be timed better given how vulnerable folks like McAfee say we now are.
Wrapping Up: Last Year for CES
I was on the advisory council for Comdex the year it failed, and the reasons were similar to what now plagues CES. The show was ill timed, it had become too broad, and the major players just didn't see the point anymore.
CES really comes too soon after Christmas now for the OEMs to be ready to showcase products for the following fall, and the show has become so broad that getting around it is a huge pain in pretty much every part of our bodies.
Buyers tend to meet with vendors on their own schedule, and while this does provide a great place to meet a lot of people, remembering any one of them becomes problematic, due to the number of meetings.
Apple hasn't been a CES supporter, and it even pulled out of MacWorld for similar reasons. While I doubt this will be the last year for CES, the Microsoft pullout indicates the show is trending down and will likely need to be rethought for this century if it is to survive and prosper -- likely as a set of smaller, better-timed and better-focused events.
Product of the Week: Samsung Captivate Glide
I'm one of those folks who can't give up a keyboard, which is why I looked forward with anticipation to the Samsung Captivate Glide. It uses a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, and while it is relatively thick due to the keyboard, it feels good in your hand due to the nice finish on the back and rounded corners.
Samsung did a nice job with expansion, in that you can get access to the SIM and Micro SD slots without the more normal battery removal process with most phones in this class (though you still have to unsnap the back of the phone. The phone's 8 megapixel camera is arguably the best I have yet seen on a phone for stills, though you can find better for HD video.
The only real downside is that this phone is HSPA+ and not LTE, but given AT&T (this is an AT&T phone) hasn't fully rolled out LTE and that LTE has a nasty battery life tradeoff at the moment, this may be OK for you.
Usability is good for an Android phone but this one doesn't yet use the latest version of that platform (which, given the breakage, may be a good thing). In the end, for a $150 phone, it makes few sacrifices.
If you are in the market for a new smartphone this year, and you can wait on LTE but want a keyboard, it might be worth checking out the Samsung Captivate Glide, my first product of the week for 2012.


text:
Welcome Guest!
Double click on above image to view full picture
Use spaces to separate tags. Use single quotes (') for phrases.
We take the utmost care in delivering your posters in pristine condition. We offer a variety of shipping methods and delivery speeds. View complete details on our shipping methods.


text:
Fat Joe Speaks On Why He Moved To Miami "When I Met Dj Khaled He Was A Boney Skinny Kid. Theres Alot Of Loyalty In Miami"
ICED Media sat down with FAT JOE discusses why he moved to Miami
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.


text:
90 systems found
Sort by:
Finding software can be overwhelming. Software Advice has helped thousands of facilities managers choose the right CAFM software so they can reduce operating costs and track assets.
Sort by:
With more than 200 vendors in the facilities management software landscape, this market can be difficult to navigate. Vendors use different terms to describe software functionality similar to computer-aided facility management (CAFM), including computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), enterprise asset management (EAM) and integrated workplace management systems (IWMS). We wrote this guide to help buyers through the selection process.
HippoFM offers CAD mapping tools to track assets and maintenance requests
Here's what we'll cover:
What Is Facility Management Software?
Common Features of Facility Management Software
Benefits of Facility Management Software
Recent Events You Should Know About
In general, facility management software is designed to perform the following functions:
The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) defines facility management as the "practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization." This encompasses a range of activities, from portfolio forecasting to equipment maintenance and space planning.
A well-implemented system will help companies reduce the costs of maintaining their facilities, improve the flow of information across departments and boost operational efficiencies. Common applications found in CAFM include:
|Maintenance management
|Allows organizations to create and track work orders for maintenance activities. All building maintenance software offers some type of maintenance application, which is sometimes called work order software. Some systems offer facility condition assessment, which helps organizations evaluate the physical condition of their buildings and preventive maintenance, which automates routine tasks. This is similar to CMMS, but CMMS providers offer more sophisticated maintenance applications than those found in facilities maintenance software.
|Asset management
|Tracks and manages an organization's assets—where they're located, which departments use them, their frequency of use and when they need to be repaired or replaced. This helps organizations understand how to optimize the use and placement of assets, which reduces capital expenditures.
|Space management
|Helps organizations optimize the physical space in their buildings. It provides holistic and real-time information outlining how a space is used, which assets and personnel are in that space, and how they're arranged. This helps avoid leasing or purchasing additional, unnecessary space. Many space tracking applications integrate with CAD or BIM files so users can view the information in a floor plan rather than a data sheet.
|Move management
|Supports organizations in keeping moving costs down by identifying the most efficient and least disruptive moving process. This plays a simple but important role—especially for organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees and assets. This software tracks the move schedule, costs and any related documents, like move requests and approvals. It integrates with space tracking, HR and asset tracking applications so that move liaisons can check availability of space, move the right employees and make sure their assets arrive on time.
|Capital project & program management
|Helps organizations manage capital construction projects. It allows them to track key business processes and project information throughout all stages of a building's life cycle, from pre-construction to operations and maintenance. Most systems offer a large set of applications which can include managing funds, bid and procurement, scheduling, document storage and resource management.
|Lease administration
|Provides a central repository for tracking important lease documents and information. This helps organizations reduce data errors, avoid costly penalties and accelerate data entry by automating lease tracking processes. It's especially helpful for organizations that manage a large lease portfolio and that track varying lease expiration dates and tenancy terms.
|Real estate portfolio management
|Tracks everything from square footage to building cost performance and leased versus owned space. Having a single place to track this information reduces administrative costs and helps companies maintain up-to-date information about their properties. In addition, portfolio forecasting tools help organizations predict their future space needs and occupancy costs. These tools assess historical data, and allow users to test "what-if" scenarios to make accurate predictions. Finally, companies can use reporting and analysis tools to analyze portfolio financial data and performance, then compare it with key performance indicators or industry benchmarks in order to find ways to reduce costs.
|Environmental sustainability & energy performance analysis
|Helps organizations monitor and reduce energy consumption and their carbon footprint. With more and more organizations seeking LEED certification, energy performance tools are the latest addition to facility management systems. Many solutions have monitoring, reporting and forecasting capabilities. Monitoring tools track how much energy and water is used in an area of a building, and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions or other types of waste the building produces. Reporting and analytics tools aggregate this information so that facility managers can identify consumption trends and make informed business decisions. Forecasting tools help organizations understand the financial impact of sustainability projects (e.g., "green" renovations). These features help save energy costs over time. Additionally, there are best-of-breed environmental, health and safety (EHS) management systems that specialize this type of functionality.
Infor is an example of a vendor that offers energy performance dashboards
Reduce "churn" rates and the expenses associated with managing space poorly. Moving is expensive, particularly if an organization lacks formal planning surrounding its moves. Churns—the process of moving employees and assets—require both downtime and investment, which can be significantly reduced by utilizing CAFM applications.
Extend asset lifespans. An attentive maintenance program extends the lifespan of assets while minimizing the total cost of ownership. Reactive maintenance is costly, results in unplanned downtime and can create an unsafe work environment. Developing a rigid asset upkeep schedule ensures that assets perform at their peak while maintaining a smooth operational schedule and employee safety—all without unexpected costs due to equipment failure.
Reduce energy-related expenses. Some organizations are taking a look at their energy performance for the first time. Reporting dashboards calculate total energy consumption while helping to identify operational inefficiencies. This kind of analysis demonstrates how an organization is performing and where there's room for improvement, while encouraging sustainable behavior among a building's occupants. Organizations can often see an immediate savings in energy-related costs by implementing environmental performance dashboards.
New standards force new lease reporting for facilities. The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board recently updated its accounting standards to require companies to report lease expenses on balance and income statements by 2019, instead of simply as footnotes in financial statements. Companies with large lease obligations (i.e. those with several facilities to manage) must now fully report these leases on balance sheets.
Computer energy use increased in educational facilities. Computers are now used in about 92 percent of educational buildings; an increase of 89 percent since 2003, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This creates a new challenge for facilities professionals to optimize energy usage and manage costs.
Strong commercial real estate demand continues. The CBRE Group reports that the U.S. commercial real estate market continues to show healthy demand for various property types, such as offices, industrial facilities, retail and multifamily housing. CBRE's chief economist notes that this slow, steady balance between supply and demand is an indicator of market health.


text:
May 26, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – Indonesian health officials have reported that H5N1 avian influenza caused the recent death an 18-year-old West Java man, brother of a 10-year-old girl whose death was previously attributed to the virus, according to news agencies.
And in the North Sumatra family cluster, officials broadened home quarantine to include 54 people—up from the 33 reported yesterday—as a World Health Organization (WHO) official identified chickens as the likely source of the outbreak, according to Reuters stories today.
The 10-year-old and 18-year-old siblings died in a Bandung, West Java, hospital May 23, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report today. Yesterday an Indonesian official said the girl had tested positive for H5N1 in a local lab but that results for her brother were still pending.
Today's AFP report quoted Ahmad Prihatna, an epidemiologist at the health ministry, as saying, "Tests carried out by the health ministry confirmed that they died of bird flu."
The two, according to an Associated Press article today, died within hours of each other less than a day after being admitted to Hasan Sidikin hospital in Bandung, capital of West Java. Samples have been sent to a WHO-accredited lab for confirmation, according to AFP.
If confirmed, the cases would raise Indonesia's avian flu death toll to 35, second only to Vietnam.
Voluntary quarantine expands
As the probe of the case cluster in North Sumatra continues, WHO officials have asked 54 people in the remote village of Kubu Sembelang to quarantine themselves at home, a Reuters story said today. None of these, the officials said, have exhibited avian flu symptoms.
Thirty-nine of the 54 are taking oseltamivir (Tamiflu) as a precaution, Reuters reported. "All who can take it are," WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl told Reuters. "The others are not taking it because they are either pregnant, lactating mothers, or children."
The source of the Sumatran outbreak remains unknown, but WHO epidemiologist Steven Bjorge said poultry is the likeliest candidate, according to a separate Reuters story today.
"What we're finding out the longer our team stays up in that area is that there are many, many outbreaks in chickens that always go unreported," Bjorge told Reuters. "Just in the past couple of weeks, they have found a couple of outbreaks of chickens dying in various villages in that area.
"The first case [a 37-year-old woman considered by WHO to be the index case] has to get it from somewhere. It has to be something environmental." Asked if sick chickens were responsible, he was quoted as saying, "We think that it has to be that way."
Also today, the WHO reiterated that it will not raise its global pandemic alert level from phase 3 (human infection, but no or only rare human-to-human spread) to phase 4 (small clusters with limited human-to-human transmission, but spread is highly localized). The agency said this week that human-to-human-to-human (two-generation) transmission might have occurred in the North Sumatra cluster. But officials have observed no further spread beyond the family cluster and no ominous mutations in H5N1 viruses that have been analyzed.
Paul Gully, senior adviser to WHO's top avian flu official, Margaret Chan, said in a third Reuters report, "Our feeling now is there is nothing new that has happened which would make us want to consider moving to level 4."
H5N1 outbreaks in poultry
Avian flu outbreaks in chickens in Romania have now reached 70 in the past 2 weeks, Reuters reported today, and 35 additional outbreaks are suspected.
The Romanian Agriculture Ministry said in a statement cited by Reuters, "The bird flu virus has been confirmed in 75 localities from 13 counties. There are also 35 suspect locations. The national institute for animal health is further testing suspect deaths in fowl."
This outbreak originated 13 days ago at a poultry farm in the county of Brasov, about 100 miles north of Bucharest. Live chickens from the farm were sold to peasants across the country without health certificates, according to Reuters.
Elsewhere, Nigeria's agriculture ministry reported a new H5N1 outbreak in its northern state of Kano, according to a Voice of America story today.
The Nigerian Veterinary Research Institute said yesterday that samples of dead chickens from a farm near Kano tested positive for avian flu. Avian flu control teams destroyed more than 16,000 chickens on the farm to try to prevent spread of the virus, the report said.
And in Russia, new cases of avian flu in domestic birds have been reported in eight villages in three Siberian regions, Russia's agriculture ministry said today, as reported by RIA Novosti.
"Fowl infected with avian influenza have been registered in three villages in Novosibirsk Region, four villages in Omsk Region, and one village in Altai Territory," the ministry said in a statement. The article added that about 1.1 million birds have died of the disease in Russia, and 300,000 have been culled to control H5N1 since February, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry.
No human cases of avian flu have been reported in Romania, Nigeria, or Russia.


text:
Ygor cowers in the grip of the immense, fur-clad Frankenstein Monster. Horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are reunited in this publicity still from Son of Frankenstein (1939).
It's barely a week now since I announced that I would be hosting a Boris Karloff Blogathon in November, and the response has been fantastic. It's going to be huge. We already have well over 40 bloggers signed up, with more to come, and there is much diversity. Not only do we have the expected horror and film blogs, we have actors and filmmakers, writers and artists participating. We have bloggers from all over the world who will be posting in several languages.
A Blogathon is a great way to discover new blogs, but you don't have to wait until November 23 to start exploring. Just click around the list of Scheduled Participants on the sidebar. I'll be updating the list as new blogs come aboard.
If you have a blog and you want to join the Karloff celebrations, check the Blogathon post for info and send me an email. Simple as that.


text:
Advanced Search |
Search Tips
If this is your first purchase from Closet Find please click the "Continue." button to get started.
Create an account with us and you'll be able to:
You need to sign in before you can access that page.
Forgot your password?
All prices are in USD. Copyright 2019 Closet Find.


text:
shmenguin wrote:RxBandit66 wrote:so when are people going to get off of Sid's back about him having an "off" year when it is so plainly obvious that Sid is the most dominant athlete in hockey?
ummm...is anyone still on sid's back? that ship sailed once he started playing well. and are you really taking offense that people were questioning the quality of sid's play early on, when in fact, he wasn't playing close to his potential?
it's becoming evident that both guys are slow starters. health issues have also become a problem for both. so it's pretty pointless to call either of them out when they just showed that they are champions and that they both have been battling nagging injuries throughout most of the season. the people who were jumping to conclusions a few weeks ago about malkin being better are just as bad as people now saying that sid is better and using malkin's short-term stats as support.
this season hasn't proven squat about either guy. all we know is that they are both phenomenal and capable of being the best.
Sid had an injury at the beginning of the season. So did Kunitz who was on his wing. His other winger is a 38 year old veteran who is a slow starter.
I'll defend Sid always to the end. He is the franchise player. In my lifetime, I saw Bonds, Lemieux, Jagr, Roethlisberger, Bettis, etc. and now Sid. Sometimes we take it for granted. Having said that, Sid did not play well for a strtech of games, 6 games with two points or whatever. He was very very bad during that stretch. But now he is playing well. Despite the ebb and flow, he'll lead the league in points once again this season.
And as long as he is a healthy player, I will stand by my statement that he is the game's overall best.


text:
Twins Sign Kubel To Minor League Contract
The Minnesota Twins are bringing a familiar face back to the organization. Former outfielder Jason Kubel signed a minor league contract Friday that includes an invitation to Major League Spring Training.
Kubel left the Twins following the 2011 season after expressing some frustration with Target Field, particularly the tall wall in the right field power alley.
He had a great season with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2012, slugging 30 home runs and knocking in 90 runs. However, he fell off badly in 2013 and was released by the Diamondbacks late in the season.


text:
Five couples from the Millersville Country Club have planned a European vacation this summer. Each couple plans to tour a different country and though each is visiting for a different length of time, they're all leaving on the same day. Determine the full name of each couple, what European country they're visiting, and how many days they were on vacation.
1. Ron, who wasn't married to Vivian, didn't vacation in Holland. Eddie's last name wasn't Summers. Steve spent 8 days on vacation.
2. Greg and his wife, Edith, didn't visit Germany. The couple who vacationed in France spent two more days on vacation than Sara and her husband.
3. Vivian Summers didn't vacation in Holland. Adam, who wasn't married to Joan, didn't go to Germany.
4. The couple who went to Germany spent 10 days on vacation. Mr. & Mrs. Plaid spent 5 days on their vacation, but they didn't go to Spain. Andrea, who wasn't married to Eddie, spent two days longer on vacation than the couple who went to Ireland.
5. The five couples, in no particular order, were the couple whose last name was Quick, Joan, the couple who went to Holland, Greg, and the couple who spent 6 days on their vacation.
6. Mr. & Mrs. Brown spent one day more on vacation than the couple who went to Spain but one day less than Joan Simple.
If you enjoyed
this puzzle and want to play another one online, go
here for another online logic problem.
Last Update
July 14,


text:
Finally enough snow in Jerusalem
My first blog for Times of Israel last year made fun of the hype and the lame amount of snow we had in Jerusalem, Israel. Today things have certainly changed and there is no excuse to use a 20-year-old photo any longer.
It has snowed,
and snowed,
enough to fill the streets
and cover everything with a blanket of white. But inches of snow on the compressor does little to warm the house
and certainly was not good for the lemon tree.
The whirling white stuff settled
on the walkways,
and the city was covered,
even the red roofs of Nachlaot were covered in white.
For a short time the sky over the Knesset building was a bright blue.
OK, now after all the talk and more than enough snow and we have enough photos to last for the next 20 years.
And who could imagine, I am almost ready to hear more talk about the elections. Now who could have imagined that?


text:
Sometimes when visiting I receive a MySQL connection failed. Me being the python lover that I am using the sql modules and urllib's of the language it's possible to programmaticly download titles of new posts So I could see what was posted and if interested download the page couldn't post thou Now Since, receiving the error I thought that AO wasn't just letting me download the for security reasons. Now since visiting the site I get this same error.
I email the tech staff guess there to busy right now. I been seeing this for 3 months nowWarning: in /data/httpdl/htdocs/admin/db.mysql.php on line 42
Warning: MySQL connection Failed in /data/httpdl/htdocs/admin/bd.mysql.php on line 42


text:
✓No Contracts ✓Nationwide Service ✓Free Tech Support
About Us?
Welcome DIYers to GEOARM Security headquartered in the United States. We are a division of the AlarmClub, which has been protecting homes and businesses since 1999. We were founded based on the principle that business and home security should be easier for everyday people. Our combined resources and dedication to research and development help ensure that our clients get the most cutting edge security systems available. With the advancements of wireless technologies, we have focused on delivering name brand products at everyday low prices. We offer both do-it-yourself and central station alarm monitoring services starting at only $8 a month. There are no contracts, no third party bills and no hidden fees!
Pay Less & Get More = GEOARM®
|Alarm Monitoring
Takeovers from $8 a Month!
|Security Systems
Why Pay an Installer?
|Home Automation
for Z-Wave Products!
|Video Surveillance
Watch HD and Record!
|Business Security
for Your Business!
|Home Security
for Your Home!
|Video Verification
Video-Verified Response!
|Cancel Anytime?
|No Hidden Fees?
|No Third-Party Bills?
|Free Move Program?
|Free Tech Support?


text:
Trying to Negotiate the Situation
Morgan (Shemar Moore), Det. William LaMontagne Jr. (Josh Stewart), JJ (A.J. Cook) and Prentiss (Paget Brewster) try to foil a gang of serial killing bank robbers in Washington, D.C., as the BAU team tries to negotiate the situation unfolding inside the bank, on the two-hour seventh season finale of CRIMINAL MINDS. Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS ©2012 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. #GoodbyePrentiss


text:
The U.S. Postal Service has been caught for years in a lose-lose situation. It's supposed to be an autonomous, self-sufficient agency, yet Congress limits its independence by demanding the impossible. The Postal Service is somehow supposed to cope with rising pension obligations, increased private competition and a reduced customer base — the Internet has largely replaced the written letter and printed invoice — but is not allowed to bring in new revenue or cut services.
The final financial straw was a 2006 law requiring the Postal Service to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future at a cost of more than $5 billion a year. The aggressive payment schedule was based not on any actuarial analysis of what the true costs would be but on a formula devised for the entire federal government. And no other agency, private or public, is saddled with such a mandate.
Congress should make up its mind: Either it wants the Postal Service to be a government agency under its thumb, which would require federal subsidies, or it wants a self-sustaining operation, in which case it has to loosen its micromanaging grip.
A bill in the U.S. Senate would cut a path in the latter direction, giving the Postal Service more autonomy, though not as much as postal officials would like. The Postal Reform Act of 2013, S 1486, by Sens. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), would allow agency managers to renegotiate pensions for new employees and to base funding of retiree health plans on the demographics of employees.
The legislation would give the agency authority to provide new services, such as selling fishing licenses or acting as an identification-verification service for people who want to do online business with the federal government. It would be allowed to sell a wider range of retail items and to ship alcoholic beverages.
Postal officials could suspend Saturday mail service if, after a year, they find that efforts to raise revenue have not worked. They would also have somewhat more freedom to set rates, but there would be a regulatory mechanism for appealing increases to a federal board.
The bill is identically named and very similar to a piece of legislation in the House, HR 2748, by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), and the two should be easily reconciled. Numerous postal reform acts have been defeated in recent years, but without congressional action, the Postal Service's financial doldrums might do more to threaten mail service than any rain or sleet.


text:
Nathan Cowan necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 81 diseños de 16 diseñadores freelance.
Freedom Debt Solutions
We help people get out of debt in 1-36 months. We work hard for the client to get them the best possible settlements.
People who need help getting out of debt.
The word freedom can be in black or dark, forest green. Debt Solutions can be under the word Freedom and be a lighter shade than the word Freedom but must still stand out clearly.
There should be some green elements in the design as our website has a green theme.
We do not want a logo that looks "too corporate" or "too futuristic" looking. The logo should convey honesty, trust, efficiency, integrity, and professionalism.
The words should stand out clearly but not be too bold and not look aggressive.
No spikes or sharp edges. Think soft and rounded edges.
Logo should evoke a positive emotion and be compatible with our website which has a picture of a windy road in the woods on the home page and forest green text as well as lighter green buttons.
You can also try the tag line: Lowest Settlement Fees Guaranteed and see how it looks.
Our best designs so far have incorporated some sort of road or path in the logo signifying "Path to Financial Freedom".
Other ideas can be a bird, tree, or river.
We do not want to look like a big corporate company. We offer personalized, high quality service to individuals struggling with debt. Please look at some other debt companies as well as non-profits to see what other they are doing.
Be as creative as possible.
We appreciate your efforts and are looking forward to awarding a winner shortly.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
GRANBURY, Texas, July 19 (UPI) -- Two middle school girls in Hood County, Texas, face felony charges for allegedly impersonating a classmate on Facebook, officials said.
The girls, who were unidentified, were arrested Monday on charges of felony online impersonation for allegedly creating a fake profile for a classmate and bullying other classmates with the fake profile, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Thursday.
"They put cuss words and made threats toward other students and basically cultivated a bad reputation for the victim," Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said.
The girls, 13 and 12, used the fake account for about a month before investigators took notice. The 12-year-old victim and her mother were not aware of the cyberbullying because the victim did not have a real Facebook account.
"It is definitely bullying and this is still fairly new with Facebook and the social media that is out there," Deeds said. "It's just like identity theft but instead of trying to get a financial gain out of it you're just flat trying to hurt someone socially. It's against the law."


text:
The Guide To Building Strong Cores For Optimization
What's a sexier topic today than researching and leveraging the social graph and social media marketing strategies or link building strategies? In a world with complex, sophisticated online marketing strategies, who would believe that mastery of foundational tradecraft can still make all the difference? A lot of online marketers. Traditional marketers, true to their nature, are more interested in harpooning the next big wave and riding it out to the next big wave. It's not that these big waves have to no effect or place, it is simply that they are tangential, or extensions, from a core foundation. To steal a phrase from Adam Audette, the idea behind Core online marketing strategy is to create it in a "sustainable" fashion. I feel like I write about this all the time, but I'm going to make it definitive by putting together, what I consider, all the core principles in one place.
Unsustainable Online Strategy?
"Sustainable" begs the point, what's unsustainable? In a nutshell, it's anything doesn't remain solid over a long period of time. In a way, think of unsustainable as unstable; it's an explosive mixture. In relation to online marketing, it's a "churn and burn" methodology and an algorithm-chasing methodology; using techniques and methods that provide initial lifts and acceleration, but doesn't necessarily stand the test of time. It is not intended to be ever-present and yield gains for the long run. In essence, unsustainable ignores the bottom-line user-experience in the equation of online marketing.
To bring back the "big wave marketing" metaphor, hitching a ride on the wave is what you do during the gold rush. It's what you're doing between the waves that amplifies what is sustainable foundation and structure, because this exists as a constant no matter the wave that's rushing by.
Core Online Marketing Strategy?
Core-focused, as you can probably guess, is strategic optimization methods that focus on creating a sustainable, solid foundation to websites. That's it. Like a house needs a rock-solid foundation to sustain development, like the body needs a strong core to harness its strength from, to be powerful and stable, so too does a website. Think of it in the following way:
A house without a strong foundation is simply a disaster waiting to happen. Everything you build on that foundation is susceptible to collapsing. Every addition you add on, every story you build, only further adds stress on a weak foundation. You're building a house of cards. And, certainly, there are ways to shore up a busted foundation, but the end result is a procedure that will cost you more in the long-term.
A Core mindset doesn't mean you have to shun online strategies that don't relate to it, far from it. The Core strategy makes those complex strategies more inviting and easier to optimize for once you engage them. That's the real secret to a Core focus. A strong core aids in creating tighter, more succinct content, better link building opportunities, and help to prevent the "Frankensteining" of your website.
The Elements of Core
The WHY Conversation(s)
We all conversations with our clients (at least I hope you do). But are you having the right kinds of conversation with your client? If you're going to build a solid core and a carefully orchestrated online marketing strategy, you need to have the "WHY" conversations.
It goes beyond just talking about where they are today and what you can fix to make today better. It goes beyond finding out the objectives and goals with an optimization and marketing strategy, and making sure expectations are set. The WHY conversations are intended to get to the vision of the company for three to five years from now. After all, how can you build a foundation for tomorrow based on today?
Site Audit(s)
In order to optimize and strategize for tomorrow, you need to know what it looks like today. I'm of the opinion that this is one of those lynch pin activities, peeling the site like an onion. Looking at the site from technical perspectives, looking at it from site optimization perspectives, and looking at the market place perspective (i.e. competition). You have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together in order to create a view of what tomorrow looks like.
Site Architecture
This is a topic I harp on often because I believe it's one of the single most important factors of strategy and optimization that plenty of people don't take seriously. You've got to take your time building this, ensuring that you're putting the focus-points of the site out front. That you use information for your conversations and audits to leverage how you're building thematic silos of information around products/services. You want the architecture set up so you don't cannibalize specific keywords and phrases. You want to visualize, possibly even map out, how you can cross-link throughout the site to flatten architecture and escape the block-level trap.
It goes without saying that this is the life-blood of any website. Content, while always having been an important factor, has had a reemergence in the past six to seven months as a cornerstone element. Many have Panda to thank for that. In the past, content has simply been another way to manipulate by "stuffing" business-centric keywords and phrases. If you subscribe that document level classifying is used (which I do, and seems to be at the heart of Panda), then stuffing is of a bygone era.
Therefore, writing content in a way that serves the user as well as engines is key. Content, in my opinion should be functional, informative, and actionable; it should tie in temporal and semantic relevance to targeted keywords. It should be structurally sound and should take advantage of internal body content linking. Moreover, your site content should be looking to build in the best usability and user-experience possible, up front (i.e. making clear calls to action through text and design).
Additionally, you need to think about how to keep content fresh and relevant. Whether that's through blogging, gamification, articles/infographics/user-stories, or simply working on cultivating UGC (user-generated content).
Push/Pull Marketing and Optimization
Clearly, having roots deep-seeded in SEO, I consider this a must-have for any website. Applying great keyword research and user search trends to HEAD fields, creating optimized site content that helps to reinforce the message while making it appetizing for engines, are not optional in my opinion. Working on link building tactics, building exact match anchors, building semantic and temporal variations on business-centric keyword anchors. The list goes on and on. Ultimately, if you want to stay competitive in any market place online, you have to do it to maintain a strong, solid core.
But, equally as important, is defining the overall online marketing strategy. Do you engage in PPC (paid search)? Does it make sense to utilize location-based marketing (i.e. Foursquare, Google Express, etc)? Do you make social media marketing tactics a central piece, and if so, are taking into account how SEO can help you leverage this? Are you thinking about how mobile plays a part in the strategy going forward?
The success of many of these endeavors relates directly back to how strong your overall site core is. Is your architecture built in a way that it can accommodate these things easily (i.e. is it flexible to incorporate)? Is the content targeted enough, optimized well-enough to lend a helping hand to your paid search efforts?
Where Do I Go From Here?
These are just the core elements. It's not indicative of the polished techniques you'll need to acquire to have your online marketing engine roaring. For that you'll unmistakably need practice. Then more practice and polish. At some point, you'll be able to see how all these core elements work combine together like Voltron. But until then, it's enough to keep your focus on these core elements; they are the keys to lasting success online. They are the key factors to having a website stand the test of time.
It's time to move forward, get focused, and start harvesting.
Comments are closed.