text:
Let's face it, the steelers don't have it this year. They beat the hapless Jets. Lost to the so so broncos and the terrible Raiders. The Steelers just are not good. It's not entirely the Steelers fault. A bunch of injuries and bad luck plays have them at 1-2.
The Steelers offense looks good enough on paper to carry the defense, but the running game is practically nonexistent. Redman and Dwyer are disappointments. Rainey needs a good line to spring him loose. The return of Mendenhall will help, but his hands aren't as good as Redman's or Dwyer's, so how is he really going to fit into the new offense?
The Oline is worse than last year. Colon, Legursky and Foster are not up to the task. The Steelers need Adams to step up and DeCastro needs to recover quickly. If the Steelers had these two playing and a decent run game, I think the Steelers could finish 11-5 or 10-6. But that's not going to happen.
The Steelers D is well, anemic at best. The pass rush is practically non existent. Harrison can't get on the field. Polamalu is nursing his calf. The Secondary is horrible save Clark. Mundy should not be allowed to play in the CFL much less the NFL. I'd rather see Golden then Mundy. The corners stink. Where did these guys learn to play ball? They have the bravado of an Anthony Smith and as much ability too.
Prediction: Steelers 9-7


text:
5:00 pm
Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman "Mr. Ruffman Goes to Washington" Ruff sends Sam to a high-level meeting with Senator Ted Kennedy. Meanwhile Noel, Sammy and DJ are challenged to design a float for Ruff's political campaign!. D
5:30 pm
Nightly Business Report Stocks soar as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke launches a new round of stimulus to boost the economy. NBR's Susie Gharib speaks with Former Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke described today's move as quote "a main street policy. D
5:56 pm
NewsHour Promo NULL
6:00 pm
PBS NewsHour NULL
7:00 pm
Doc Martin "Aromatherapy" Martin has an odorous problem with one of his patients, who stinks so much people cannot bear to be in the same room with him. Now Martin must get close enough to discover the cause.G
8:00 pm
Great Performances at the Met "Wagner's Ring Cycle - Siegfried" Young hero Siegfried (Jay Hunter Morris), son of Siegmund and Sieglinde, grows up in the wilderness, raised by Alberich's conniving brother Mime. Siegfried puts together the broken pieces of his father's sword, Nothung, and uses it to slay the fearsome dragon Fafner, taking the ring for himself. To fulfill his destiny, he must overcome Wotan, now disguised as the Wanderer, and cross through the magic fire to awaken his true love, Br?nnhilde. Fabio Luisi conducts.G

subset: commoncrawl


text:
If you have ever tried a recipe for sweet potato fries, you know just how tasty they can be. This particular recipe, however, bumps things up to the next level by adding curry.
I made up a new recipe last night! This is a pretty common occurrence, but it's always exciting because of the suspense when you take the first bite. I knew I'd hit on a good one when I wanted to go back and make more as soon as we were done eating. Unfortunately neither John nor I was up to cutting up another monster sweet potato, so we had to wait till lunch today to have it again.
So what did I make? Sweet Potato Fries! This is what Natalie at Gluten Free Mommy picked for me to post about after she won the Gluten Free Mystery Photo Contest. There are only three ingredients. Sweet potatoes. Madras curry. And a little canola oil. That's it! How something so simple can be so good, I don't know. But it is. And you should really try it. Right now. You don't want to deprive yourself of this gustatory delight one moment more than necessary =)
Yield: 2 side servings
Preheat the oven to 400. Peel the potatoes and slice them into strips the size of steak fries. Place the fries on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Scatter the madras curry over the fries and then toss with your hands. Pop the fries into the oven for 25 minutes. Don't take them out until the tips of the fries start to turn dark brown.


text:
General News
: Local News
Library Aquarium Boosts Marine-Life Interest
Submitted: 02/18/2013
- You can check out more than just books at the Marathon County Public Library. Phyllis Donner donated an aquarium to the library for some extra scenery.The aquarium is perfect for teaching students of all ages about marine life. Library Assistant Abby Beyerl says the new addition has been an educational experience."We've definitely seen an increase in people checking out marine life books. Even audio, magazines, everything related to that. Because they come in and are like 'I want books about this' and they're all over it." The aquarium costs about 4-thousand dollars a year to run.
Written By: Ryan Abney
Text Size:
+ Increase
Decrease -


text:
You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page.
Our Sites
HRWatchdog Blog
Capitol Insider Blog
Online Training
Employee Handbook Creator
Sign In
Toggle navigation
HR Library Home
Recruiting & Hiring
Recruiting & Hiring Home
Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions Home
Why You Need Job Descriptions
Job Title
Job Summary
Essential Job Functions
Preparing the Job Specification
Exempt/Nonexempt Home
Determining Exempt or Nonexempt Employee Status
Executive Exemption
Administrative Exemption
Professional Exemption
Computer Professional Exemption
Outside Salesperson Exemption
Commissioned Inside Sales Employee Exemption
National Service Program Participant Exemption
Deductions From an Exempt Employee's Salary
Recruiting Home
Finding Candidates
Advertising the Job
Applications for Employment
Interviewing Candidates
Testing Candidates
Good Selection Practices
Background Checks and Testing
Background Checks and Testing Home
Checking Applicant References
Physical Examinations Prior to Employment
Drug and Alcohol Tests For Applicants and Employees
Polygraphs and Lie Detector Tests
Written Honesty Tests
Psychological Tests
Obtaining Applicant and Employee Credit Reports
Obtaining Investigative Consumer Reports
Obtaining Background Checks and Investigations by Employers
Restrictions on Obtaining Criminal History
Investigating Employee Wrongdoing or Harassment
Private Investigator Act
I-9: Verifying Eligibility
I-9: Verifying Eligibility Home
Verifying Eligibility for Employment and Establishing Identity
Completing the Form I-9
Discovering an Unauthorized Worker
Reverifying Employment Eligibility
Worksite Immigration Enforcement and Protections
Avoiding Discrimination and Retaliation
Child Labor Laws
Child Labor Laws Home
Child Labor Law Coverage
Employment Restrictions for Minors
Work Permits for Minors
Working Hours for Minors
Wages for Minors
Penalties for Incorrectly Employing Minors
Types of Workers
Types of Workers Home
Direct Hires
Non-Direct Hires
Independent Contractors
Industrial Homeworkers
Remote Workers/Telecommuters
Recordkeeping Home
Retaining Applications
Getting New Employees Started
Getting New Employees Started Home
Determining Starting Pay
Offering Employment
New Employee Orientation
Employee Identification
Training New Hires
Benefits Home
Health and Retirement Benefits
Health and Retirement Benefits Home
Health Savings Accounts
Same-Sex Spouses and Domestic Partner Benefits
Health Insurance Premium Payment Program
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
Wellness Programs
Private Retirement Savings Plans
Federal Health Care Reform
Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment Insurance Home
Wages Subject to Unemployment Insurance Taxes
Employers Subject to the Unemployment Insurance Tax
Employer's Tax Obligations
Making an Unemployment Insurance Claim
Responding to Unemployment Insurance Claims
Combining Unemployment Insurance With Other Benefits
State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave
State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave Home
State Disability Leave/Paid Family Leave Comparison
State Disability Insurance Defined
Coordinating State Disability Insurance With Other Benefits
Employment Covered by State Disability Insurance
Filing a State Disability Insurance Claim
State Disability Insurance Benefit Payments
Paid Family Leave Defined
Paid Family Leave Benefit Payments
State Disability Insurance, Paid Family Leave, Transfers and Reinstatement
Complying with State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave Laws
Required and Optional Benefits
Required and Optional Benefits Home
Required Benefits
Optional Benefits
Pay & Scheduling
Pay & Scheduling Home
California Wage and Hour Laws
California Wage and Hour Laws Home
State Versus Federal Law: Which Prevails?
California Wage Orders
Employee Classification
Wage Order Listings
Wage and Hour Enforcement and Penalties
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Wages and Salaries
Wages and Salaries Home
Wage and Hour Law: Definitions of Terms
Minimum Wage
Piece Rate Pay
Split Shift Pay
Shift Differential Pay
Reporting Time Pay
On-Call and Standby Pay
Power Outage Pay
Timely Payment
Expense Reimbursements
Form of Wage Payment
Wage and Hour Requirements for Specific Industries
Deductions from Wages
Deductions from Wages Home
Deductions Overview
Standard Deductions: Taxes
Automatic 401(k) Payroll Deductions
Employee Tardiness
Employee Debts, Loans and Deductions
Deductions for Overpayment of Wages
Unreturned Tools and Uniforms
Cash Bonds and Deposits
Meals and Lodging
Garnishment Against Wages
Incentive Pay
Incentive Pay Home
Tips and Gratuities
Uniforms, Tools and Equipment
Uniforms, Tools and Equipment Home
Tools, Uniforms and Equipment Explained
Hours of Work and Recording Time Worked
Hours of Work and Recording Time Worked Home
Maximum Hours of Work
Minimum Hours of Work
Mandatory Days Off
Minimum Time Between Shifts
Travel Time
Preparation Time
Security Screenings
Education and Training Time
Timekeeping and Recording Guidelines
Exceptions for Specific Industries
Overtime Pay
Overtime Pay Home
Understanding Basic Overtime Requirements
Defining Workdays and Workweeks
Calculating Overtime
Overtime Examples
Requiring Mandatory Overtime
Using Makeup Time
Compensatory Time Off
Overtime Exceptions for Specific Industries
Meal and Rest Breaks
Meal and Rest Breaks Home
Premium Pay for Meal and/or Rest Break Violations
Meal Breaks
Rest Breaks
Meal and Rest Break Exceptions
Meal and Rest Break Best Practices
Alternative Workweek Scheduling
Alternative Workweek Scheduling Home
Alternative Workweeks Overview
Alternative Workweek Defined
Creating an Alternative Workweek Schedule
Maintaining the Alternative Workweek Schedule
Paying Overtime in an Alternative Workweek
Repealing the Alternative Workweek Schedule
Invalidating Alternative Workweeks
Exceptions to the Alternative Workweek
Leaves of Absence
Leaves of Absence Home
Family, Medical and Parental Leave
Family, Medical and Parental Leave Home
Family and Medical Leave Overview
Family and Medical Leave Eligibility Requirements
FMLA and CFRA Qualifying Reasons
Definitions of Terms Used in Family and Medical Leave
Calculating Weeks for Leave
Certification for Family and Medical Leave
Notice Requirements for Employer and Employee
Family and Medical Leave Designation
Duration and Timing of Family and Medical Leave
Pay and Benefits During Family and Medical Leave
Return to Work After Family and Medical Leave
California Parental Leave
Leave Interactions
Penalties for Violating Family, Medical and Parental Leave Laws
Pregnancy Disability Leave
Pregnancy Disability Leave Home
Pregnancy Disability Leave Overview
Pregnancy Disability Leave Notice Requirements
Pregnancy Disability Leave Requirements
Providing Reasonable Accommodation and Transfers
Pay and Benefits During Pregnancy Disability Leave
Returning to Work After PDL
Pregnancy Discrimination
Penalties for Failing to Comply with Pregnancy Disability Leave Laws
Employees Expressing Breast Milk at Work
Paid Family Leave
Paid Sick Leave
Paid Sick Leave Home
California's Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Law Overview
Employers Covered Under the Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Law
Employees Entitled to the Benefit
Calculating Leave - Employer Options
Permissible Usage
Parameters of Paid Sick Leave Use
Paying the Employee for the Sick Day
Employee Leaves Employment and Reinstatement
Posting, Notices and Recordkeeping
Protections and Attendance
Penalties for Non-Compliance
Optional Additional Paid Sick Leave
Coordinating Paid Leave
Kin Care
Vacation, Paid Time Off and Holidays
Vacation, Paid Time Off and Holidays Home
Paid Time Off (PTO)
Organ and Bone Marrow Donor Leave
Organ and Bone Marrow Donor Leave Home
Organ and Bone Marrow Donor Leave Explained
Crime Victim's Leave
Crime Victim's Leave Home
Victims' Leave for Judicial Proceedings Related to the Crime
Leave for Any Proceeding Involving Victims' Rights
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and Stalking Victims' Leave
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and Stalking Victims' Leave Home
Mandatory Paid Sick Leave for Victims
Time Off for Legal Proceedings
Time Off for Medical Treatment: Employers With 25 or More Employees
Discrimination Protections
Accommodating Victims
Required Notice
Jury or Witness Duty Leave
Jury or Witness Duty Leave Home
Jury or Witness Duty Leave Explained
Military Service Leave
Military Service Leave Home
Military Service Leave (USERRA)
Military Service Leave (California)
Military Spouse Leave
School Appearance and Activities Leave
School Appearance and Activities Leave Home
School Appearance Leave
School and Child Care Activities Leave
Volunteer Civil Service Leave
Volunteer Civil Service Leave Home
Eligibility for Volunteer Civil Service Leave
Civil Air Patrol Leave
Voting Leave
Voting Leave Home
Voting Leave Explained
Other Leaves
Other Leaves Home
Extended Disability Leave
Personal Leaves of Absence
Bereavement Leave
Unpaid Personal Leave
Education Leave
Discrimination Home
Discrimination Defined
Discrimination Defined Home
Protected Classes
Unequal (Disparate) Treatment
Unequal (Disparate) Impact
Discrimination Law Posting Requirements
Retaliation Home
California Law Defines Retaliation Protections
Federal Laws Define Retaliation Protections
Whistleblower Protections
Proving Retaliation
Preventing Retaliation
Types of Discrimination
Types of Discrimination Home
AIDS or HIV-Positive Status
Gender, Sex, Gender Identity and Expression
Wage Equality - Fair Pay Act
Marital Status
Medical Condition and Genetic Information
Military and Veteran Status
National Origin Discrimination
Sexual Orientation
Laws Prohibiting Discrimination
Laws Prohibiting Discrimination Home
California Constitution
California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)
California Unfair Competition Law (UCL)
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)
The Civil Rights Act of 1991
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
California's Fair Pay Act
California Laws Prohibiting Human Trafficking
Other Federal and State Protections
Other Federal and State Protections Home
Immigrant Workers and Discrimination/Retaliation Protections
Health Care Employees and Discrimination Protection
Workers' Compensation and Discrimination Protections
Lawful Conduct Outside of Work and Discrimination Protections
Political Activity and Discrimination Protections
California Codes and Discrimination Protections
Protection for Discussing Working Conditions
Public Assistance and Discrimination Protections
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
Other Discrimination Related to the Workplace
Other Discrimination Related to the Workplace Home
Discrimination Versus Free Speech
Dress Standards
Height and Weight Standards
Claims and Lawsuits
Claims and Lawsuits Home
Filing a Discrimination Claim Under Federal Law
Filing a Discrimination Charge Under State Law
Supervisors not Personally Liable for Discrimination or Retaliation
Claims Filed Under the California Civil Code
Investigations Home
Guidelines for Responding to Discrimination Investigations
Scope of a Discrimination Investigation
Managing Company Response to a Discrimination Investigation
Penalties Home
Remedies Under FEHA
Compensatory and Punitive Damages Under Title VII
Front Pay Unlimited Under Title VII
Punitive Damages Under Title VII
Limits on Punitive Damages in Discrimination Lawsuits
Defense Against Claims
Defense Against Claims Home
Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) as a Discrimination Defense
Business Necessity as a Discrimination Defense
Job-Relatedness as a Discrimination Defense
"Reasonable Factor Other than Age" as an Age Discrimination Defense
Security Regulations as a Discrimination Defense
Nondiscrimination or Affirmative Action Plans as a Discrimination Defense
The "Same-Actor Inference" Defense
Otherwise Required by Law as a Discrimination Defense
Discrimination Prevention
Discrimination Prevention Home
Required Policy
Avoiding Discrimination
Required Postings
Discrimination Reporting Requirements
Discrimination Reporting Requirements Home
EEO Reporting Requirements
Affirmative Action Reporting
Individuals With Disabilities
Veterans Reporting
Required State Contractor Reporting Forms
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action Home
Affirmative Action and Federal Contractors and Subcontractors
State Contractors and Subcontractor Nondiscrimination Programs
Voluntary Affirmative Action Plans
Preparing an Affirmative Action Program
Harassment Home
Sexual Harassment Defined
Harassment Coverage
Hostile Environment Harassment
Harassment Retaliation
Liability for Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment Claims and Lawsuits
Effective Harassment Prevention
Investigations Home
Investigations Overview
Example of a Proper Investigation
Example of Improper Investigations
Select the Sexual Harassment Investigator
Take Interim Action Pending the Investigation's Outcome
Take Accurate Notes
Interview the Complainant
Interview the Alleged Harasser
Interview Other Witnesses
Conduct Follow-Up Interviews
Prepare an Investigation Summary and Retain Files
Resolving Sexual Harassment Complaints
Defamation Protection After Harassment Complaint
Mandatory Harassment Prevention Training
Harassment Prevention Training Requirements for Specific Industries or Individuals
Disabilities and Accessibility
Disabilities and Accessibility Home
Laws Protecting Employees with Disabilities
Laws Protecting Employees with Disabilities Home
ADA and FEHA
Proving Discrimination
Discrimination on the Basis of Genetic Characteristics and Genetic Information
Drugs and Alcohol
Workplace Injuries and Disability Discrimination
Disabilities and Employee Benefits
Temporary Workers and Disability Discrimination
Required ADA/FEHA Posters
Definitions Home
Examples of Disabilities
Exclusions From Disability
"Record Of," "Regarded As" and "Perceived As" Defined
Correctable Impairments May Be Disabilities
"Limits" and "Substantially Limits" Defined
"Major Life Activities" Defined
"Qualified Individual With a Disability" Defined
"Essential Job Functions" Defined
Types of Covered Disabilities
Reasonable Accommodation
Reasonable Accommodation Home
Examples of Accommodations
Accommodating Residual Effects of a Disability
Interactive Process for Reasonable Accommodations
Obligations of the Employer in the Interactive Process
Obligations of the Employee in the Interactive Process
Employer Must Go Beyond Initial Accommodation
Reasonable Accommodation Obligation Is Ongoing
Reassignment as a Reasonable Accommodation
Telecommuting as a Reasonable Accommodation
Extended Disability Leave as a Reasonable Accommodation
Attendance and Accommodations
Seniority System and Accommodation
Assistive Animals as an Accommodation
Failure to Accommodate
Undue Hardship
Direct Threat to Health or Safety of Others
Direct Threat to Health or Safety of Self
Food Handling Risk
Health Care Employees Threat to Others
Reasonable Accommodation and Hostile Conduct
Documentation of Disability
Documentation of Disability Home
Sufficient Documentation
Confidentiality of Medical Records
Physician's Examination
Medical Exams and Inquiries
Medical Exams and Inquiries Home
Medical Examinations and Inquiries Defined
Nonmedical Examinations
Disability-Related Inquiries
Recruiting and Advertising and Disability-Related Inquiries
Employee Health and Wellness Programs and Disability-Related Inquiries and Examinations
Applications and Job Tests for People With Disabilities
Medical Examinations and Inquiries Prior to Offer of Employment
Medical Examinations and Inquiries Post-Offer/Pre-Employment
Medical Examinations and Inquiries During Employment
Medical Examinations and Inquiries When the Employee Is an Applicant
Medical Information From Third Parties
Disability Claims, Enforcement and Penalties
Disability Claims, Enforcement and Penalties Home
Disability Harassment Claims
Disability Retaliation and Interference Claims
Disability Association Claims
ADA and FEHA Remedies and Enforcement
Failure to Accommodate Claims
Disability Leave
Accessibility Resources
Discipline & Termination
Discipline & Termination Home
Categories of Disciplinary Issues
Categories of Disciplinary Issues Home
Performance and Conduct
Absenteeism and Tardiness
Making Disciplinary Decisions
Making Disciplinary Decisions Home
Progressive Discipline
Issuing Warnings
Consistency and Reasonableness in Disciplinary Decisions
Documenting the Discipline Process
Holding Investigatory Meetings
Taking Disciplinary Action
Demoting Employees
At-Will Employment
At-Will Employment Home
Preserving At-Will Employment
Promise to Terminate for Just Cause
Employment Contracts Modify At-Will Employment
When You Cannot Terminate
When You Cannot Terminate Home
Anti-Discrimination Statutes
Anti-Retaliation Statutes
Protected Activities
Avoiding Wrongful Termination Lawsuits
Avoiding Wrongful Termination Lawsuits Home
Avoiding Wrongful Termination Lawsuits Overview
Limiting Exposure to Lawsuits
Investigating Employees
Understanding Constructive Discharge Claims
Avoiding Public Policy Violations
Avoiding Public Policy Violations Home
Avoiding Public Policy Violations Overview
Misleading Potential Employees
Holding Corporations Liable for Wrongful Termination
Final Pay
Final Pay Home
Final Pay Explained
Exit Interviews
Exit Interviews Home
Exit Interviews Explained
Employee Notices
Employee Notices Home
Providing the For Your Benefit Pamphlet (Form DE 2320)
Providing the Notice of COBRA Rights
Termination Notice and Unemployment Insurance
Provide a Statement of Reasons for Termination
Providing References for Former Employees
Discipline and Termination Policies
Layoffs Home
Making and Documenting Layoff Decisions
Displaced Workers
Mass Layoffs and Plant Closings
Mass Layoffs and Plant Closings Home
Covered Employers
Events That Trigger the WARN Act
WARN Act Notice Content and Recipients
Exceptions to the 60-Day WARN Notice Requirement
Penalties for Violating the WARN Act
COBRA and Cal-COBRA
COBRA and Cal-COBRA Home
COBRA Home
Covered Employers
Covered Employees
Qualifying Events and Extending COBRA Coverage
Denying and Terminating COBRA Coverage
COBRA Coverage Must Equal Active Employees Coverage
Converting a Group Policy to an Individual Policy
COBRA Notice Requirements
Electing COBRA Coverage
Paying for COBRA Coverage
COBRA Interaction With Other Laws
Prohibited Acts and Penalties
Cal-COBRA Home
Cal-COBRA Interaction with COBRA
Cal-COBRA Qualified Beneficiary
Individuals Excluded From Cal-COBRA
Cal-COBRA and Domestic Partners
Cal-COBRA Qualifying Events
Cal-COBRA Notice Requirements
Cal-COBRA Cost
Cal-COBRA Length of Coverage
Workplace Safety
Workplace Safety Home
Creating a Health and Safety Plan
Creating a Health and Safety Plan Home
Minimum Workplace Safety Requirements
Heat Illness Prevention Plans
Providing Personal Protective Equipment
Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP)
Emergency Action Plan
Fire Prevention Plan
Work Surfaces, Control Devices and Emergency Equipment
Hazard Communication Program (HAZCOM)
Repetitive Motion Injuries (Ergonomics)
Health Care Workers
Hotel Housekeepers
Amusement Ride Safety
Other Standards to Consider
Why You Must Maintain These Plans
Creating a Written Program
Cal/OSHA Requirements and Inspections
Cal/OSHA Requirements and Inspections Home
Reporting Serious Injury or Death
Recording Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses
Providing Safety Training
When Does Cal/OSHA Perform Inspections?
What Should You Do to Prepare for a Cal/OSHA Inspection?
What Is the Cal/OSHA Inspection Process?
What Happens if the Inspector Finds a Violation?
What Happens If You Disagree With the Results of an Inspection?
Drugs and Alcohol
Drugs and Alcohol Home
Federal Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988
California's Drug-Free Workplace Act
Adult Use of Marijuana Act
Transportation Industry Drug and Alcohol Testing
When Drug Testing May Be Permitted
Drug or Alcohol Rehabilitation
Drug- and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policies
Smoking in the Workplace
Heat Illness
Heat Illness Home
Heat Illness Overview
Providing Water
Providing Shade
Training Employees on Heat Illness
Implementing High-Heat Procedures
Emergency Response Procedures
Documenting Heat Illness Prevention Procedures
Recognizing Conditions That Create Heat Illness
Recognizing Symptoms of Heat Illness
Outdoor Workplaces vs. Indoor Workplaces
Violence in the Workplace
Violence in the Workplace Home
Reducing the Risk of Workplace Violence
Assessing Vulnerability
Preventing Workplace Violence
Responding to Workplace Violence
Recording and Reporting Incidents of Workplace Violence
California Laws About Workplace Violence
Understand the Warning Signs and Risk Factors for Workplace Violence
Creating Violence Prevention Policies
Industry-Specific Workplace Violence Requirements
Factors That Increase The Risk Of Workplace Violence
Workers' Compensation
Workers' Compensation Home
What is Workers' Compensation?
What is Workers' Compensation? Home
Workers' Compensation Benefits and Administration
Covered Employers and Employees
Covered Employers and Employees Home
Employers Covered by Workers' Compensation
Workers' Compensation Coverage Agreements Between Employers
Employees Covered By Workers' Compensation
Who Isn't Covered by Workers' Compensation?
Independent Contractors and Workers' Compensation
Subcontractor Employees
Covered Injuries
Covered Injuries Home
Covered Injuries Overview
Injuries Outside the Workplace
Workers' Compensation Exceptions for Emergency Personnel
Types of Injuries Covered
Exclusive Remedy for Workplace Injuries
Exclusions From Workers' Compensation Coverage
Employee Injuries While Commuting
Aggravation of a Previous Injury or Illness
Injuries to Telecommuters
Injuries Caused by Employee Misconduct
Multiple Injuries and Apportionment
Death Benefits
Stress-Related Injuries
Stress-Related Injuries Home
Stress-Related Injuries Overview
Defending Against Claims of Stress-Related Injuries
"Good Faith Personnel Action" Defense
Posters and Notices
Posters and Notices Home
Workers' Compensation Poster and MPN Posting
Workers' Compensation Pamphlet
Written Notice for Crime Victims
Written Notice for Victims of Terrorist Act
Medical Treatment Rights and Obligations
Medical Treatment Rights and Obligations Home
Predesignating a Personal Physician, Chiropractor or Acupuncturist
Mandatory Utilization Review, Independent Medical Review, and the Appeal Process
What to do When an Injury Occurs
What to do When an Injury Occurs Home
What to do When an Injury Occurs Overview
Provide Medical Care
Give the Employee a Workers' Compensation Claim Form
Report the Incident to the Insurance Company
Cal/OSHA Record Keeping Obligations
Report Serious Incidents or Death
Investigate and Take Preventative Measures
Communicate With the Employee
Privacy of Workers' Compensation Medical Records
Promote Prompt Claim Closure
Returning Permanent and Stationary Employees to Work
Offering a Modified or Alternate Position
Return to Work Incentives
Supplemental Job Displacement Benefits
Benefits During Workers' Compensation
Penalties Home
Penalties Explained
Penalties for Workers' Compensation Fraud
Employee Protection from Discrimination
Employee Protection from Discrimination Home
Employee Protection from Discrimination Overview
Disability Discrimination Laws and Workers' Compensation
Employees Can Sue for Discrimination
Privacy Home
Balancing Privacy Against Business Needs
Balancing Privacy Against Business Needs Home
Provide Advance Notice of Workplace Privacy
Obtain Consent to Access Private Information
Have a Legitimate Business Purpose to Search
Seek Advice of Counsel When Privacy Is an Issue
Federal and State Privacy Protections
Federal and State Privacy Protections Home
Constitutional Privacy Protections
Common Law Privacy Claims
Monitoring Employees
Monitoring Employees Home
Establishing Company Property and Privacy Policies
Shopping Investigations
Electronic Surveillance
Property Searches
Telephone, Voice Mail and Email Monitoring
Computers and Privacy
Protecting Employer Information
Protecting Employer Information Home
Noncompetition Agreements Generally Prohibited
Trade Secrets
Confidentiality Policies
Soliciting Customers
Unfair Competition
Employee Inventions
Social Media
Social Media Home
Restricted Access to Personal Social Media Accounts
Using Social Media as a Hiring Tool
Social Media and Employee Discipline
Social Media and Employer Policies
Company Social Media Accounts
Personnel Records
Personnel Records Home
Keeping Employee Information Private
Keeping Employee Information Private Home
Keeping Personnel Records Private
Keeping Medical Information Private
Keeping Credit Information Private
Considering Personal Relationships and Off-Duty Conduct
Considering Political Affiliation
Employee Illiteracy
Keeping Fingerprints and Photographs Private
Keeping Electronic Information Private
Keeping Social Security Numbers Private
Keeping Driver's Licenses Private
Recordkeeping Home
How Long to Retain Records
Where to Retain Records
Disposing of Records
Accessing Employee Information
Accessing Employee Information Home
Access to Personnel Files
Access to Payroll Files
Government Agencies and Access to Records
Civil Action Subpoena of Records
Service of Subpoenas on Employers
Child Support Laws and Employee Records
Responding to Reference Checks
Responding to Reference Checks Home
General Guidelines for Responding to Reference Checks
Defamation Protection - Harassment Complaints
Compelled Self-Publication
Statements to a Police Department
Unions Home
National Labor Relations Act
National Labor Relations Act Home
National Labor Relations Act Overview
Covered Employers
Jurisdictional Standards
Excluded Employees
The Department of Labor's Persuader Rule
Rights of Employees
National Labor Relations Board Powers
Unfair Labor Practice Charges
Unfair Labor Practice Charges Home
Unfair Labor Practices Overview
Unfair Labor Practices of Employers
Unfair Labor Practices of Unions
Other Unfair Labor Practices of Unions and Employers
Protected Concerted Activity in Union and Non-Union Workplaces
Protected Concerted Activity in Union and Non-Union Workplaces Home
Protected Concerted Activity in Union and Non-Union Workplaces Overview
Employer Investigations
Arbitration Agreements
Balancing of Protected Rights and Employer Justifications
Employee Handbooks and Employment Policies
Guidance from the NLRB General Counsel
Overly Broad Confidentiality Provisions
Policies Against Union Insignia
Social Media Use and Unfair Labor Practice Charges
Use of Employer's Email System for Protected Activities
Practical Considerations For Employers
Employee Rights to Strike and Picket
Employee Rights to Strike and Picket Home
Economic Strike Defined
Unfair Labor Practice Strike Defined
Strikes Unlawful Because of Purpose
Unlawful Strike in Violation of No-Strike Provision
Misconduct of Strikers
The Right to Picket
Union Picketing on Private Property
Legality of Intermittent or Partial Strikes
Representation and Election Process
Representation and Election Process Home
Representation and Election Process Overview
Union Organizing Tactics
Practical Considerations For Employers
Exclusive Bargaining Representative
Other Petitions and Elections
Collective Bargaining
Collective Bargaining Home
Duty to Bargain in Good Faith
Ending or Changing a Contract
Subjects of Bargaining
Violating an Employer's Duty to Bargain
Adjustment of Grievances
Union Security Agreements
Union Security Agreements Home
Union Security Agreements Overview
Building and Construction Industry Exception
Religious Objections to Union-Security Agreements
Construction Industry Pre-Hire Union-Security Agreements
Required Posters & Pamphlets
Employee Policies & Handbook
Local Ordinances Home
Northern California
Northern California Home
Belmont Home
Belmont Minimum Wage Ordinance
Berkeley Home
Berkeley Minimum Wage Ordinance
Berkeley Paid Sick Leave Ordinance
Berkeley Family Friendly and Environment Friendly Workplace Ordinance
Cupertino Home
Cupertino Minimum Wage Ordinance
Daly City
Daly City Home
Daly City Minimum Wage
El Cerrito
El Cerrito Home
El Cerrito Minimum Wage Ordinance
Emeryville Home
Emeryville Minimum Wage Ordinance
Emeryville Paid Sick Leave Ordinance
Emeryville Fair Workweek Ordinance
Los Altos
Los Altos Home
Los Altos Minimum Wage Ordinance
Milpitas Home
Milpitas Minimum Wage Ordinance
Mountain View
Mountain View Home
Mountain View Minimum Wage Ordinance
Oakland Home
Oakland Minimum Wage Ordinance
Oakland Paid Sick Leave Ordinance
Palo Alto
Palo Alto Home
Palo Alto Minimum Wage Ordinance
Redwood City
Redwood City Home
Redwood City Minimum Wage
Richmond Home
Richmond Minimum Wage Ordinance
San Francisco
San Francisco Home
San Francisco Minimum Wage Ordinance
San Francisco Paid Sick Leave Ordinance
San Francisco Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance
San Francisco Paid Parental Leave Ordinance
San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
San Francisco Discrimination Prohibition Ordinance
San Francisco Drug-Free Workplace Ordinance
San Francisco Drug Testing Regulations Ordinance
San Francisco Non-Interference in Personal Relationships Ordinance
San Francisco Retail Workers Bill of Rights
San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance
San Francisco Lactation in the Workplace Ordinance
San Francisco Consideration of Salary History Ordinance
San Jose
San Jose Home
San Jose Minimum Wage Ordinance
San Jose Opportunity to Work Ordinance
San Leandro
San Leandro Home
San Leandro Minimum Wage Ordinance
San Mateo
San Mateo Home
San Mateo Minimum Wage Ordinance
Santa Clara
Santa Clara Home
Santa Clara Minimum Wage Ordinance
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Home
Santa Cruz Anti-Discrimination Ordinance
Sunnyvale Home
Sunnyvale Minimum Wage Ordinance
Southern California
Southern California Home
Los Angeles City
Los Angeles City Home
Los Angeles City Minimum Wage Ordinance
Los Angeles City Paid Sick Leave
Los Angeles City Fair Chance Initiative
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County Home
Los Angeles County Minimum Wage Ordinance
Malibu Home
Malibu Minimum Wage Ordinance
Pasadena Home
Pasadena Minimum Wage Ordinance
San Diego
San Diego Home
San Diego Minimum Wage Ordinance
San Diego Paid Sick Leave
Santa Monica
Santa Monica Home
Santa Monica Minimum Wage Ordinance
Santa Monica Paid Sick Leave
Local Ordinances Map
Local Ordinances Wizard
Local Ordinances Forms
Local Ordinances Q&A
Local Ordinances Video Tour
Sample Local Ordinance - San Francisco Minimum Wage
Forms & Tools Home
New Hire Guide
Wizards Home
Leave Interaction Wizard
Exempt/Nonexempt Wizard
Wage Order Wizard
Safety Compliance Wizard
HR Risk Wizard
Local Ordinances Wizard
Which Laws Apply
How To's
How To's Home
How To: Conduct the Hiring Process
How To: Conduct a Criminal Background Check
How To: Oversee Pre-Employment Drug Testing
How To: Create an Employee Handbook
How To: Develop a Harassment Prevention Policy
How To: Implement Paid Sick Leave
How To: Manage Family and Medical Leave
How To: Administer Pregnancy Disability Leave
How To: Administer Paid Family Leave
How To: Pay Employees
How To: Terminate an Employee
How To: Prepare a Final Paycheck
Quizzes Home
Child Labor Law Quiz
Form I-9 Quiz
Independent Contractor Quiz
Holiday Pay Quiz
Meal and Rest Breaks Quiz
Overtime Quiz
California Parental Leave Quiz
FMLA/CFRA Quiz
Paid Sick Leave Quiz
Pregnancy Disability Leave Quiz
Sexual Harassment Quiz
Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Quiz
Final Pay Quiz
COBRA Quiz
Records Retention Quiz
Webinars Home
Cyber and Data Breaches in California and the Impact on CalChamber Members
Hiring Checklist for California Employers
New Parental Leave For Small Business
Put It In Writing: Policies For Employee Handbooks
Top 5 Labor And Employment Laws Perplexing Small Businesses
Understanding the ACA in 2016 and Beyond
Quick Looks at HRCalifornia
HRCI Study Tool
Salary Calculator
Sample Job Descriptions
Cases & News Home
Take Legislative Action
White Papers
HRCalifornia Extra Articles
Alert E-Newsletter
Free Newsletters Signup
HR Training & Events
HRWatchdog Blog
Labor Law Helpline Home
Submit a Question Online
Labor Law Corner
HR Library
Workers' Compensation
What to do When an Injury Occurs
Reuse Request
What to do When an Injury Occurs Related Resources
Summary Content
Content 1
All What to do When an Injury Occurs Forms (.zip)
Accident Injury and Illness Investigation
CalOSHA Forms 300 300A and 301
Doctors First Report of Occupational Injury or Illness
Employers Report of Occupational Injury or Illness
Injury and Illness Incident Report - Form 301
Medical Treatment Referral for Employees
Notice of Employee Death
Notice of Offer of Modified or Alternative Work for Injuries Occurring Between 1-1-04 and 12-31-12 (DWC-AD 10133.53)
Notice of Offer of Regular Modified or Alternative Work For Injuries Occurring on or after 1-1-13 (DWC-AD 10133.35)
Optional Worksheet to Help You Fill Out the Annual Summary - Form 300A
OSHA Log 300 - Guidelines for Determining Recordability
Periodic Self-Inspection Requirements
Personal Chiropractor or Acupuncturist Designation Form
Personal Chiropractor or Acupuncturist Designation Form - Spanish
Personal Physician Designation Form
Personal Physician Designation Form - Spanish
Serious Incident Report
Workers' Compensation Benefits for Victims of Workplace Violence
Workers' Compensation Claim Form - DWC 1
Workers' Compensation Claim Form - DWC 1 - Chinese
Workers' Compensation Claim Form - DWC 1 - Korean
Workers' Compensation Claim Form - DWC 1 - Spanish
Workers' Compensation Claim Form - DWC 1 - Tagalog
Workers' Compensation Claim Form - DWC 1 - Vietnamese
Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses Log - Form 300
Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses Summary- Form 300A
How long do I have to hold a job for an employee who is out with a workers' comp injury?
What are my responsibilities when an employee has a workplace injury?
What obligation does an employer have to pay wages for the time spent by an employee traveling to and being seen by a medical professional as a result of a work-related injury/illness?
When do I report serious work-related accidents?


text:
Entitled "Deacons Are Configured to Christ the Servant," the whole address is excellent, but one paragraph is particularly rich in significance. Here's the first part of what the pope had to say:
"The exercise of the diaconal ministry—like that of other ministries in the Church—requires per se of all deacons, celibate or married, a spiritual attitude of total dedication. Although in certain cases it is necessary to make the ministry of the diaconate compatible with other obligations, to think of oneself and to act in practice as a 'part-time deacon' would make no sense. The deacon is not a part-time employee or ecclesiastical official, but a minister of the Church. His is not a profession, but a mission!"
Deacons often find themselves dealing with a common misperception on the part of some presbyters and laity that they are, in fact, "part-time" ministers. Such a misperception places the locus of ministry on formal ecclesial structures themselves; the deacon, however, as a full-time minister, exercises diaconal ministry across the full range of human activity: whether he is at home with his family, at work in a secular profession, or functioning at church. At all times and in every venue he is, in fact, acting as a sacred minister of the Church, and the pope makes this point perfectly clear.
However, the pope wasn't just talking to other people about deacons; his words are important for deacons themselves. Immediately after the quote above, he continued:
"It is the circumstances of his life -- prudently evaluated by the candidate himself and by the bishop, before ordination -- which should, if necessary, be adapted to the exercise of his ministry by facilitating it in every way. The many problems which are still to be resolved and are of concern to pastors should be examined in this light. The deacon is called to be a person open to all, ready to serve people, generous in promoting just social causes, avoiding attitudes or positions which could make him appear to show favoritism. In fact, a minister of Jesus Christ, even as a citizen, must always promote unity and avoid, as far as possible, being a source of disunity or conflict."


text:
Spc. Thomas P. Curtis
Sponsored By
Pvt. Danny Chen's Family Speaks Out Against Military Hazing As Final Soldier Faces PunishmentDanny Chen's former platoon leader was removed from the Army on Tuesday but will avoid a trial as part of an agreement with prosecutors, the Army announced.
Trial For 1st Of 8 Soldiers In Hazing Death Of Pvt. Danny Chen Begins In N.C.The mother of a Chinese-American soldier testified Tuesday at the court martial of an army sergeant accused of hazing her son, who killed himself in Afghanistan.
Community Leaders Call For Justice Ahead Of First Court Martial In Pvt. Danny Chen's DeathPvt. Danny Chen, of Chinatown, shot himself on Oct. 3, 2011 in Afghanistan after weeks of racial slurs, humiliation and physical abuse by his colleagues, military officials said.
Military Investigators Recommended Courts-Martial For 2 Charged In Pvt. Danny Chen's DeathFirst Lt. Daniel J. Schwartz from Maryland and Sgt. Travis F. Carden from Indiana are among eight soldiers charged in the death of 19-year-old Danny Chen.
City Council Discussing Resolution Honoring Pvt. Danny Chen Of Chinatown Pvt. Danny Chen of Chinatown committed suicide in Afghanistan in October. The resolution calls on the U.S Department of Defense to closely examine its policies around cultural diversity and sensitivity.
Pentagon On Chen's Death: Hazing In The Military 'Not Tolerated' Speaking a news conference on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby offered his condolences to the family of Pvt. Danny Chen.
U.S. Military Charges 8 Soldiers In Afghanistan With The Death Of Pvt. Danny ChenChen, who was from Chinatown, was found dead in his barracks back in October with what was described as "non-combat injuries." He was just 19.


text:
The claim
Northern Nevadans should be especially fearful of pit bulls.
The background
Nevada Humane Society and the Reno Gazette-Journal held a contest where readers shared stories of adopted pit bull type dogs whom they've loved. A few readers complained, saying pit bulls are vicious and should be banned.
A typical letter came from S.C. Freed of Reno:
"The risks posed by pit bulls are a matter of common knowledge and frequent discussion. Pit bulls are a particular danger. … At a minimum, every person adopting a pit bull should be furnished with the following: 'WARNING: This dog is one of a breed known to the state of Nevada to pose a danger to small children, the elderly and other dogs.'"
In a second letter, Freed tells of a pit bull mauling a service dog in Arizona and states "The preponderance of the anecdotal evidence is against you and you need to modify your position to better serve the community."
One prominent source used to criticize pit bulls is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study on dog bites from 2000 that looked at 238 dog-related fatalities over 24 years. It found that 32 percent involved pit bulls or pit mixes.
But the CDC adds a disclaimer warning the study does not — and there currently is no accurate way to — identify which breeds are more likely to bite or kill.
Another common source about pit bull dangers is Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People newspaper.
His latest report claims that there have been 173 fatalities from dog attacks over the past 28 years and 47 percent involved pit bulls or pit mixes.
But Clifton's research covers less than 2 percent of dog bites requiring hospitalization and relies only on reports in the media, which have been shown to emphasize pit bull attacks over those by other breeds.
There are bite sources in Nevada that may shed light.
In 2005, the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Health Planning and Statistics released "A special report on dog and cat bite injuries and costs in Nevada, 1999-2003."
The report says breed is not important when analyzing bite statistics and "singling out one or two specific breeds for control may result in a false sense of security, and often ignores the true scope of the problem."
It reported that a far better bite predictor was whether a dog is male and unneutered; these accounted for 3 out of every 4 bite incidents.
Bobby Smith, field supervisor for Washoe County Regional Animal Services, agrees that breed is not helpful in evaluating the danger posed by a dog.
However, by state statute, his agency is required to investigate every dog bite report and list a breed.
The purpose is to help track rabies cases. Bite reports come from animal control, hospitals and the Washoe health department. A bite is defined as the skin being broken, which includes full-on maulings down to a dog turning his or her head and accidentally scraping your skin lightly with a tooth.
Smith said he and his staff did not have time to hand-tally bites by breed. But, he said, Fact Checker was welcome to do so.
After a couple of hours of tedious counting, an analysis was made from just over 1,000 Washoe County animal bite reports for the last fiscal year.
And the No. 1 biter of humans in Washoe County? Cats. They accounted for 13.6 percent of reports.
Here are the numbers by dog breed:
» Pit bull type dogs such as Staffordshire terriers and American pit bull terriers accounted for 13.4 percent of bite reports
» Retrievers such as golden and Labrador: 9.7 percent
» Chihuahuas: 7.8 percent
» Medium herding dogs such as Australian shepherds and border collies: 6.9 percent
» German shepherds: 5.2 percent
Small terriers including Jack Russell, rat, Boston, Yorkshire: 4.5 percent
Does this prove pit bulls are the most frequent biters? To declare so, it must be shown that they make up a larger percentage of dogs in Washoe County than their percentage of bites.
Before trying this, we've got to switch percentages. The ones above represent the percentage among all animal bites including those for cats, ferrets and even pigs (there was one pig bite reported last year).
Looking at just dog bites, pit bull types accounted for 18.6 percent of reports.
Next, it needs to be determined how many pit bulls live here. If they're the most popular breed, then having the most bite reports is to be expected. Unfortunately, there is no dog breed census.
Washoe animal control manager Mitch Schneider said regarding dogs taken in by his agency, "If our impounds are reflective of our community — and there's some evidence to support that — then those numbers may be as good a gauge as we can get."
Impound stats by primary breed show that pit bulls make up about 17.3 percent of dogs, retrievers 15.8, Chihuahuas 9.5, medium herding dogs 6.5, German shepherds 5.8 and small terriers 4.5.
So pits are 17.3 percent of the impounds and 18.6 percent of bites, or the bite rate is 9.3 percent higher than their impound rate.
If impound data is reflective of general population (a big if), this seems to show pits are a bit more dangerous than their population would predict.
Schneider disagrees. He said irresponsible people gravitate toward pit bulls and that dogs with poor socialization skills, little training, and running at large or chained get in more trouble so he would expect pit bulls' bite rate to be higher than it is if they were more dangerous.
Chow chows, by comparison, have a bite rate more than twice their impound rate.
"As an officer or a private citizen, give me a pit bull any day over a chow chow, a German shepherd or a Rottweiler," said Schneider, who trained dogs for years, specializing in aggressive ones.
He added, "If you want to look at anecdotal evidence, talk to people who deal with pit bulls daily. We see 5,000 dogs every few years, and you won't find anybody on my staff who thinks pit bulls are aggressive."
Hundreds of pit bull type dogs are adopted out each year by Nevada Humane Society yet Smith couldn't think of a fatality involving a dog attack, let alone a pit bull, in the 4½ years since he's been here.
The last prominent Washoe County attack was last year in Spanish Springs when a dog went after a woman's two little dogs — one was killed, the other injured — and her arm was ripped open. The attacking dog? A boxer.
Twenty-seven dogs are registered as dangerous in Washoe County; three are pit bulls.
It's also worth noting that the Netherlands had a ban on pit bulls for 15 years before repealing it in 2008 after concluding the ban did not decrease dog bites.
The verdict
No good evidence has been presented by critics of pit bulls about their excessive danger to Northern Nevadans.
If one uses media reports to determine rates of danger — as pit bull critics do — then over the past decade in Washoe County, you're more likely to be killed by your own mother than a pit bull.
Truth Meter: 3
Dog photos: The images, clockwise from upper left, show a bulldog, a boxer, a Presa Canario and an American pit bull terrier.


text:
Okay Halloween is just 12 days away but why does it seem like Christmas is not far behind.
Why is that?
The big stores has started selling Christmas trees and decoration.
What have you seen?
Views: 8
Pretty much all things Christmas......christmas ads on the tv have started here too.....
I wouldn't mind but I have Jamie's 4th birthday in November - I've got to think about that before Christmas lol!
STRESS is what I see LOL! I barely get done planning for one holiday and another is on its heels! I can't keep up. I wish I was one of those plan a season ahead gals!


text:
For cancellation & refund requests, use this form.
For invoice requests, use this form. Note that your e-ticket receipt can also be used as proof of payment, for fiscal and legal purposes. VAT Exemption following Art 41 §1 1°
Do you have a group booking? Log in with your "My Profile" or "Loop" account" profile to see your booking.
For special assistance or in case you experience an issue retrieving your booking, please contact our Service Centre
Earn and redeem miles with our many partners and enter a world of exclusive advantages.
Earn points, on your own or with your family, and travel sooner than expected throughout Europe.
You can conveniently check the status of any Brussels Airlines-operated flight to/from Brussels.
All departure and arrival times are in local times.
You can search by:
Visit as well our dedicated B2B platform for companies and travel agencies and discover our special conditions for schools.
A group booking is limited to maximum 40 passengers, please adapt the number of passengers and try again.
See schedule
Check all airport details, including lounge, ticketing office & transport info.
Toulouse is almost entirely built with red brick, hence its nickname, "the pink city". The city has some magnificent sights, and is characterized by a scent of violets.
Toulouse is a city in the South of France with a population of about 600,000. It is an industrial centre with a number of important companies, such as Concorde and Airbus. The Saint-Sernin Basilica, which is the biggest Romanesque church in western Europe, is certainly worth a visit. Other sights include the St. Etienne Cathedral and the Place du Capitole, with its beautiful town hall and theatre.
While you are in Toulouse, you must certainly go for a stroll around one of the many open-air markets, which are ideal if you are looking for an unforgettable souvenir. The Hôtel de Bemuy, the Musée des Augustins and the large number of private houses built in the Renaissance style are also worth a visit. Not far from Toulouse, there is the city of Carcassonne, a magnificent medieval walled city.


text:
"This is hysterical. They've certainly given it a loose back end, as they say in reviewing circles. Often, with an engine of that smallness, you don't have the power to hold a slide, but you can in this. Normally you run out of ability before you run out of power, but this slides forever… It's brilliantly good fun."
These are just some of Jeremy Clarkson's thoughts following his first spirited meeting with Toyota's new GT86 at the Top Gear track. And if you've been following reactions to the car since its launch, you'll recognize the sentiment.


text:
As we get to know each other many of you will find that I love farm shows and I get paid to go to a few...really. Of course there's work to be done there as well. And I get to keep up on the latest in agriculture technology from companies by attending their media events - another perk of the job I guess, but I have a responsibility to you as well. To relay what I learned about the new ag technology in ways that help you make smart decisions.
As I write this on the plane headed home from the big Case IH launch I am pondering what I learned beyond what equipment I saw. They're calling it the largest launch of new equipment in the company's history - and with all those new machines with final tier 4b engines there was plenty to see.
Yet there was word from Jim Walker, Vice President, North America, about the market. You see the company has seen tremendous growth in the past six years jumping from $1 billion to $4 billion in sales over that time. Walker tells us they have been pushing hard to keep up, and given long term demand the recent slide in crop prices is almost welcome news for the company.
That's right he sees a positive in a little slow down, a chance to catch up. I understand how he feels, but the underlying messages were interesting.
First he tells us that a slowdown won't be on the scale of the mid-1980s slump where equipment sales fell off a cliff. There's too much farm income out there - third highest and a multi-year record for farm profits.
Also, global demand may slacken a bit but that long term challenge that Case IH touts with its Be Ready campaign for feeding the 9 billion is a sign of how the company sees things.
In the farm equipment business, traditionally, it's about volume and moving machines. It's a challenge when the dealers who sell and the companies they sell for are at odds over that. But Walker explained why building market share is about more than adding profit to the bottom line.
The more machines a dealer sells in a territory increases the 'machine footprint,' which is actually important to the long term life of the local dealer. The more machines with the company colors in the field the better off the dealer is even if whole goods sales slump.
A dealer with a solid sold inventory can count on parts and service business to keep the doors open even if new equipment sales slide. That's actually a win win for the company and the dealer. Companies can usually survive short term slumps. Dealers with weak market shares in their territories can have a harder time.
For farmer readers, this is important because you have a business to run. You have to count on having the support you need to keep machinery rolling. If your local dealer is weak, long term that's not good for your business.
Case IH has been building market share, which means more machines in the field, and company management wants to go farther (they always do). But the long term health of a company does depend on it, and healthy suppliers also support your business.
You can check out my gallery of the new stuff Case IH is launching, there's really something there for everyone.
I'm off to another rollout next week, it'll be interesting to see what else I learn.


text:
Performance MKTG needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 87 designs submitted by 13 freelance designers.
Performance Marketing Inc. is an internet marketing company. We do not have any preferences on colors or design, just something perhaps web 2.0 style.
Performance Marketing Inc.
Our website is not yet up, so we have no restrictions on colors or styles. The logo should have our company name in it. Other then that, feel free to add other objects that seem to fit and we'll give feedback. We'd prefer something web 2.0, but will not be against something a bit different.
Company name in logo
no .com or internet address in logo
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
Have you heard of Twilight? Are you acquainted with the undead? How about werewolves? Vampires? Angsty adolescent superheroes? This is our culture right now, and it's no exaggeration to say that it all began with one man: Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and arguably the most inventive pop storyteller of his generation. So how come Whedon never became as famous as so much of the derivative trash he inspired? Better question: Now that his summer blockbuster, The Avengers, is about to arrive, isn't this the part of the story where the overlooked hero rises to meet his big moment?
Last September, the writer/director/occasional-novelty-T-shirt-subject Joss Whedon wrapped principal photography on the biggest film of his career. Chances are if you know who Whedon is, you know that movie is called The Avengers, and that it's a kind of hypersequel to five years' worth of other, almost-as-ginormous superhero movies also based on Marvel comic books, and that it's a movie where Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America—played, respectively, by Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Evans—along with Mark Ruffalo as the Incredible Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, meet, bicker, and join forces to save the world, in Imax 3D.
Or maybe you've just seen the trailer that ran during the Super Bowl, the one with the Hulk slapping spaceships out of the sky. In terms of the decade-long fanboyization of American popcorn cinema, The Avengers (rumored budget: $220 million) kind of is the Super Bowl. It's a crossover event years in the making and years in the Easter-egging, the payoff at the end of a long breadcrumb trail of eye-patched Samuel L. Jackson cameos.
If you don't know who Whedon is, perhaps you're wondering right now why he's the guy Marvel Studios trusted to steer this battleship into port. Which to some extent is a good question: Whedon's directed exactly one feature film before this one, 2005's Serenity, a big-screen coda to his canceled-too-soon Fox TV series Firefly. It did okay. But that's not the part of the résumé that matters. What matters is that the geeks love Whedon, because Whedon comes across as someone who, if he hadn't become an acclaimed and occasionally successful TV show-runner, would just be one of them, another fan-man standing around the comic shop insisting that disreputable genres like sci-fi and horror and cape-and-tights comics have value, that they could occasionally reflect the condition of humans other than the neurotic-boy-outsider and grim-Wolverinian-vigilante types that tend to populate this kind of fiction—women, for example.
Nearly every Whedon work has embodied those ideas, and each one has accrued its own grateful cult, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the high school horror-comedy-drama series he created in 1997, to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the Internet musical he and some friends conceived during the Writers Guild of America strike in 2008 and made on the ber-cheap. He commands the same respect from his fanatics as George Lucas once did; hence the popular T-shirt that reads joss whedon is my master now, in swoopy Star Wars font.
The irony, of course, is that over the past ten years, as countless post-Buffy TV shows have adopted Whedon's character-driven, post-camp approach to fantasy-genre subject matter and taken it to the bank—and as the comic books Whedon grew up on became Hollywood's go-to summer-blockbuster source material—Whedon has been struggling. He can't, for whatever reason, keep a network TV show on the air. He spent a few years mostly writing comic books, directing the occasional episode of other people's shows (Glee, The Office), and pitching movies that either died in development (Wonder Woman) or languished on the shelf (the slasher-movie-as-slasher-movie-meta-critique The Cabin in the Woods, which he wrote with his old TV-writing pal Drew Goddard, just now arriving in theaters after a three-year delay).
He's doing okay, though. Lives with his wife of almost twenty years, Kai Cole, and their two kids in a really nice house in Santa Monica, a circa 1924 Spanish Colonial Revival house, the color of blood. Today there are kids' bikes on the grass out back by the infinity pool, and the fog is rolling in Tolkienishly over the hills in the distance. Whedon's nearing the end of the Avengers process. The release date is only three months away. Early reports that he stuck the landing better than anyone could have imagined are accurate. It will be huge; it's also good. It's the rare superhero movie that doesn't flatline when its characters are just standing around talking, because in Whedon's work that stuff is the meat, not the bread.
Whedon doesn't look as exhausted as you'd expect him to, but he does seem sort of battle-hardened. He's lost weight, either in advance of making The Avengers or because of it. The red hair that used to flop whimsically over his forehead is cropped as short as his beard. He's explaining why it took this long for somebody to wise up and let him make the big superhero movie. "It's an interesting question," he says, "because I always think of myself as, like, the most commercial guy. You look into my heart of darkness and, wow, it's_ Star Wars_ peeking back at you. Yet everything I've done has been a hard sell for somebody running a studio."
I ask him if there's some validation to getting The Avengers, at long last—if he felt like his early work had opened up a door that, until now, he himself never got to walk through.
"That's a really beautiful thing to say," he says, and pauses for a second, stares at his lap, processing. "I'm kind of a little bit—I, a little bit, feel that way. I didn't, really, until you said it, but now I totally do."
The superhero origin story of Joss Whedon goes like this:
Whedon, b. 1964, grows up surrounded by teachers and writers. His grandfather wrote for _The Donna Reed Show _in the '50s; his father, Tom Whedon, wrote for The Electric Company, Benson, The Golden Girls. His mother, Lee Stearns, who died in 1992, was an English teacher, a political activist, and a novelist.
After his parents' divorce, Joss goes to boarding school in England, studies film at Wesleyan, then moves out to California to try to write movies. Eventually he does. But first he works in a video store and bangs out TV spec scripts, one of which gets him hired as a staff writer on Roseanne, a job he'll later describe, on different occasions, as a valuable learning experience and "baptism by radioactive waste."
He's writing a screenplay. He's thinking about horror movies and the archetypal moment where the girl meets the monster or the vampire or the serial killer or the guy with the hook hands in a dark alley, except in Whedon's story the girl doesn't die and doesn't have to be saved, because she saves herself. Somewhere in the stew, too, is this 1988 movie Whedon remembered from his video-store days, Assault of the Killer Bimbos, which as you might expect goes downhill after the title—but the title sticks in his head, and he calls his dark-alley movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Buffy gets made in 1992 by director Fran Rubel Kuzui, with Kristy Swanson as Buffy. It isn't terrible, but it plays way campier than Whedon wanted it to be. He'd imagined it as a pop feminist allegory about a young woman discovering her own strength; it ends up just being about a cheerleader fighting vampires. After that, he does a lot of script-doctoring work, hired-gun stuff, lucrative and frustrating; writes most of the dialogue for Speed but gets arbitrated off the credits; rewrites the original Toy Story, which becomes the first animated movie ever nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar; punches up Twister and the Kevin Costner maritime disaster Waterworld.
(On Waterworld, they wanted him to polish up the third act, which in the draft that Whedon inherited, took place on land, which suggested to Whedon that maybe the issues with Waterworld were not entirely endemic to Act 3. This would happen, again and again, when people would ask Whedon to do these things. "I'm always like, 'Your problem's not the third act, your problem is everything that comes before it,'" Whedon says, "and they never listen.")
You can dig around on the Internet, find good Joss Whedon scripts that became not-so-good movies. You can, for example, read the Whedon draft of Alien Resurrection, bungled in 1997 by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet:
_ Gediman finishes cutting. Another man steps in with a clamp. Sets it. Pulls apart the chest._
There she is...
_ He says it like he's found a lost kitten. He reaches in and pulls out a sleeping, fetal but nearly ready to burst ALIEN._
That "lost kitten" line? That ironic-tender image parked there in the middle of a gross future-surgery scene? The way it humanizes the creepy surgeon while amplifying the moment's creepiness? Pure Whedon. (The alien-human hybrid that runs around at the end of the film, looking like a -yogurt-covered raisin with teeth? Pure somebody else.)
Around 1996 the production company that owns the rights to the Buffy property decides to develop it as a TV show. As a contractual courtesy they offer the project to Whedon, expecting him to pass. He takes the job. Initially it's supposed to be a half-hour action-comedy in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers vein, but as Whedon starts writing it becomes more of a drama (but with jokes), and then over the course of seven seasons it becomes a lot of other things. It's long-arc nerd candy, yes, with latex-forehead monsters scheming sinisterly in the spookiest sub-basements the fledgling WB network's budget can buy. But it's also the most deliberately progressive show on television—the monsters are just the pretext for a conversation about power, sexuality, community and alienation, adulthood and sacrifice that gets deeper every season. A rich text, as they say in academia, where Buffy quickly becomes its own cultural-studies subdiscipline—the fifth biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses takes place this July in Vancouver.
It's a quintessentially '90s work, too, like Pulp Fiction was, like Scream was—a genre piece that acknowledges the degree to which it's recombinant and built from samples, where the characters have seen all the same movies as the audience. Seeing a TV show acknowledge the pop culture it was so clearly steeped in—even the simple fact that Buffy and her vampire-slaying cohorts referred to themselves as the "Scooby Gang"—felt revolutionary, says Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof.
As a counterexample, Lindelof points out that no one on The Walking Dead ever says the word "zombie" or brings up George Romero's movies. "I almost feel that's more of a stretch from reality than what Joss was doing. The idea of saying 'Let's have that conversation [in the work itself], let's acknowledge and celebrate the fact that we're creating something new out of old stuff,' was incredibly liberating, I think, for filmmakers of our generation."
Critics dig Buffy, but there's no TV-recap blogosphere in place to spread the gospel. So its fans get to feel like they've stumbled on something, televisual termite art that's managed to burrow past the basic-cable gatekeepers, adventurous cuisine served in a strip-mall storefront. The episodes that Whedon writes and directs himself help that process along, because they tend to be a) brilliant and b) formally inventive in an attention-grabbing, look-at-me-pushing-the-TV-boundaries-over-here kind of way—a forty-four-minute episode where almost nobody talks for twenty-seven minutes; an all-singing all-dancing episode with music and lyrics by Whedon.
Whedon says Buffy wasn't a deliberate experiment in how much genre-bending the market would bear. "It just made sense to me," he says. "I like horror; I like comedy; I like drama; I like action; I like female heroes. Why wouldn't I want all of them?" But TV tends to reward shows that commit to a category; in seven seasons it garners exactly one nontechnical Emmy nomination, a writing nod for "Hush," the one with no talking.
"As much as it was appreciated, it always felt underappreciated," Drew Goddard says. "It did break, to some extent, but a huge show on the WB isn't the same as a huge show elsewhere. It always had that sort of underground cult-ness to it that made people love it even more, in a way. It's like that thing where you like a band, and you want them to become the next big thing, but you're also happy when they stay in the garage."
"If you call a show Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Lindelof says, "you're immediately saying, 'I want this to be a cult show. It's never going to be the show that you're talking about with your mom. Maybe you have a cool mom, and I would love it if you and your mom both watched my show together, but this show is just for you."
And yet you can trace the whole geek-TV boom of the '00s back to Buffy, which pioneered a character-driven, post-camp approach to fantasy-genre subject matter that countless other shows eventually took to the bank. Bigger, glossier network shows like Alias and Lost, and also Syfy's acclaimed Battlestar Galactica reboot, and the superhero soap Heroes, and MTV's sed-up Teen Wolf, on down to present-day shows like Grimm, which modernizes fairy tales the way Buffy tweaked the tropes of classic horror. If that litany sounds a little bit like a story of diminishing returns, okay—but his influence trickled up, too. The hyperarticulate-teen dialogue in Diablo Cody's Oscar-winning screenplay for Juno owed way more to Whedon's stammering neo-screwball voice than anything you'd actually overhear down at the Hot Topic. And then there's Twilight, a multibillion-dollar book-and-film-and-fragrance franchise whose central story line seemed (to put it charitably) somewhat post-Buffy.
"Joss can never say it," Goddard says. "He's very magnanimous about this stuff. But I look at Twilight and I'm like, 'Really? A teenage girl falls in love with a vampire that she can't be with? Is no one going to point out that this has been done before? We're really going to pretend this is original?' "
Joss with Thor's hammer, Captain America's shield, and
Iron Man's head.
By the early 2000s, Buffy and Angel (which spun off Buffy's reformed-bloodsucker love interest, played by David Boreanaz, as a supernatural gumshoe in L.A.) had made Whedon a geek-nation demigod. We're accustomed, these days, to TV show-runners (from Mad Men's Matthew Weiner to Community's Dan Harmon) serving as charismatic frontmen; Whedon was one of the first TV auteurs to enter into that kind of open, active dialogue with his audience, articulating the beliefs and concerns that shaped his shows. Whereas Star Trek fans revered Gene Roddenberry mostly for giving them the gift of Star Trek, Whedon fandom was, to an unprecedented degree, about a personal identification with Joss, or at least with the mordantly self-deprecating, bookish, fanboy-made-good version of himself he played on the Web and in interviews.
In 2002, Fox picked up Whedon's next project, Firefly, a sci-fi Western set on the outer rim of a galaxy in a future modeled on post–Civil War America and post-globalization Earth. Nathan Fillion starred as Malcolm Reynolds, a cynical space-war vet turned intergalactic outlaw. He was Han Solo in a world without Jedi; the show delivered plenty of hover-train robberies and shootouts, but it was also Whedon, an unapologetic atheist, examining the things people adrift in the universe cling to once they've ruled out God. But when he delivered the pilot episode, the network told him it wasn't exciting enough to introduce the series and gave him and ecutive producer Tim Minear a weekend to write a new one.
"One of the best pilots ever, and they totally made him bury it halfway through the season," groans comedian Patton Oswalt, a Whedon fan who'd later do a memorable guest spot on Dollhouse. "Like, do you not want Emmys? Do you not have the shelves built yet for the Emmys?"
Things got worse from there; Fox ended up airing eleven of the fourteen produced episodes, mostly out of order, before putting a bullet in the show. Lindelof: "If Firefly had come along now and done comparable ratings, I actually feel like it would've been picked up for a second season. The fans would've been able to marshal and catalyze enough to save it; now they know how to do that. If you can save Chuck with Subway sandwiches, I'm convinced that there would've been a Firefly season 2. It just came along a couple years too early." It's still the shortest-lived Joss Whedon show of all time and—with all due respect to the cultural import of Buffy—maybe the best one.
At the time Firefly ended, he still had a year left on his production deal at Fox—"one of the old-school deals, a really nice deal"—but he chose to walk away. (He walked back, in 2008, when Fox bought his series Dollhouse, with Buffy's Eliza Dushku as a mind-wiped "Active" with a programmable personality, and quickly found himself wrestling with familiar problems. The network rejected his initial pilot; fans launched "Save Dollhouse" campaigns before the show even aired. Ultimately it limped through two seasons—during which Whedon says Fox hobbled the show by forcing them to dial back the sex—before the network pulled the plug.)
It was a weird time. He definitely considered the possibility that he might in some way be "over."
"It was a genuine question," he says, "but it was kind of an academic question—I wasn't going to stop writing. And I saved my first pennies so that I could be in a position where I could write stuff that was not as lucrative and still be okay. I was ready to do things on a smaller scale."
During the 2008 writers' strike, Whedon and his brothers and some pals took time off from the picket lines to conceive a web series that they would then score, shoot, and eventually self-distribute—Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a goofy forty-two-minute mini-musical starring Neil Patrick Harris as a lovelorn supervillain. It eventually became a blockbuster hit by DIY-online-content standards, destined to be cited for years as proof that creators with a vision can circumvent big malevolent media corporations—the ones Whedon has called the Frost Giants—and still monetize their weird little dreams. After Dollhouse, it seemed like this might be Whedon's future—he talked in interviews about wanting to become the Roger Corman of the web. He'd started working with the comics writer Warren Ellis on a Web series called Wastelanders, which he says is still the next thing he wants to direct.
"The idea was, I'm going to do my own thing," he explains to me, "and the only thing that would tempt me away from that would be a big project that I would love to do that has a [guaranteed] release date. But we didn't really think that would just come along. And then it did."
Post-Firefly, a narrative began to develop. Joss as victim. Joss as Charlie Brown, forever kicking at a football the networks and the studios kept yanking away. Joss as a special unicorn, stomped on by the Frost Giants at every turn. If they would just let Joss be Joss, went the refrain. "What does he have to do," Oswalt asks, effectively paraphrasing a hundred thousand Whedonesque.com message-board postings, "before people leave him alone and let him deliver his vision, for God's sake?"
And yes, sure, it's Hollywood, it's Chinatown, and every day before Joss Whedon's even had time to brew a pot of tea in the spacious open-plan kitchen of his fancy Santa Monica house, the industry bones fifty other equally passionate artistes harder and more heartlessly than it has ever boned him. And of course Whedon knows this. It just doesn't make him feel better.
Here is Whedon, talking to the fanboy glossy Wizard Universe in 2007, about films he never got to make: "That's the problem when you throw your heart into those things; it just stays there."
And here's his wife Kai, talking to me on the phone about Cabin in the Woods, which sat on the shelf for three years after MGM went bankrupt: "That was breaking his heart. Real pain. Not that he talked about it every day—but I know he carries it around. He probably carries around stories that he wrote in third grade that he never got to finish."
He can't let this stuff go. He can't not talk about it, when the Internet asks. Whedon's unmade work—the second or third or sixth TV seasons that never happened, the scripts from which his voice was systematically expunged, the movies that died in development—has become as crucial to his fans' overall understanding and appreciation of him as his actual output. And that is one weird postmodern way to be loved.
Regardless: It is a true there-is-no-God injustice that it's taken this long for somebody to give Whedon, whose entire oeuvre is a study in how to make comic-bookish subject matter live and breathe realistically and emotionally on-screen, a big-ticket superhero movie to direct. He's come close, a few times. Most recently there was Wonder Woman. He was going to write and direct it for Joel Silver. The archetypal female-hero-worshipping auteur and the ultimate female superhero—perfect, right? Didn't happen. There were others, before that. A pre-Robert Downey Iron Man. And there was Batman. Don't even ask him about Batman.
Okay, fine: It was a while ago, between the day-glo Joel Schumacher sequels and the Chris Nolan reboot (which Whedon loves, don't get him wrong.) There was a lot more, in Whedon's take, about the orphaned Bruce Wayne as a morbid, death-obsessed kid. There was a scene—Whedon used to well up, just thinking about it—where young Bruce tries to protect this girl from being bullied in an alley, an alley like the one his parents were murdered in.
"And he's like this tiny 12-year-old who's about to get the shit kicked out of him. And then it cuts to Wayne Manor, and Alfred is running like something terrible has happened, and he finds Bruce, and he's back from the fight, and he's completely fine. And Bruce is like, 'I stopped them. I can stop them.' That was the moment for me. When he goes 'Oh, wait a minute; I can actually do something about this.' The moment he gets that purpose, instead of just sort of being overwhelmed by the grief of his parents' death."
So he goes in and pitches this. He's on fire, practically shaking. "And the ecutive was looking at me like I was Agent Smith made of numbers. He wasn't seeing me at all. And I was driving back to work, and I was like, 'Why did I do that? Why did I get so invested in that Batman story? How much more evidence do I need that the machine doesn't care about my vision? And I got back to work and got a phone call that Firefly was cancelled. And I was like, 'It was a rhetorical question! It was not actually a request! Come on!'"
When The Avengers came around, Whedon was coming off two canceled TV shows and a direct-to-the-Internet musical. I ask him if, given recent history, he would have hired himself to do the job. "Hell yeah," he says. "I'm a writer-director, and I adore comic books, and I tend to work fast—which, given their schedule and the fact that they didn't have a script, is useful."
In fact, there was a script, by veteran superhero-movie scribe Zak Penn, whose association with Marvel's movie-verse goes back to 2006; he'll share a "story by" credit with Whedon on The Avengers. I gently bring this up.
"There was a script," Whedon acknowledges. "There just wasn't a script I was going to film a word of." (Reached for comment, Penn says he was a little disappointed by Whedon's decision to take over. "We could have collaborated more, but that was not his choice. He wanted to do it his way, and I respect that. I mean, it's not like on the Hulk, where I got replaced by the lead actor," he says, referring to Edward Norton's infamous decision to install himself as lead screenwriter on that film. "That was an unusual one. This was more normal.")
Whedon says he realized pretty quickly that if he was going to direct this thing, and the movie-star-heavy cast that came with it, he'd have to write it himself, too. "I needed that bedrock of certainty, so that when they asked me why something was [in the script], I could tell them exactly."
The thing about the Avengers: They don't have a compelling, mythic, archetypal origin story. There's no radioactive spider, no dead parents, and nothing in particular to avenge. In their first comics appearance—September 1963's Avengers #1—a group of preexisting Marvel characters (Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, and the Wasp) join forces to fight the Hulk. Then they realize they've been manipulated to do so by Thor's nemesis, Loki, so they fight Loki. Then, in the space of four panels on the last page, they decide to be a team, even though they don't seem to have much in common.
"They're a mash-up; they're insane," Whedon says. "But the beauty of that is as exciting as the problem of that is daunting."
The movie plays up that unlikely-supergroup angle instead of trying to work around it. Whedon's Avengers bring divergent and sometimes conflicting worldviews and agendas to the table. Occasionally they throw giant hammers at one another, or at bad guys, and those scenes work—when Whedon pitched his take to Marvel, his touchstones included The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, and Black Hawk Down, and the big battle sequences in The Avengers capture that sense of escalating, worst-day-ever mayhem. CGI-driven superhero movies, Whedon says, "are always a little clean. When it comes down to it, they're about 'All I gotta do is beat up that guy who's a little bit stronger than me but looks a lot like me, and then case closed.' I was just like, 'You don't get these people together and then have a little duke-'em-out. You get these people together and then you put them through hell.' "
The most obvious reference point for the movie in Whedon's previous work is probably his two-year run on Marvel's Astonishing X-Men comic book, which reestablished Marvel's merry mutants (a group of characters rendered inaccessible by decades of metastasizing backstory) as a squabbling surrogate family. But really, he's been writing this story forever. Buffy, despite its horror-genre roots, was really about a superheroine and the high school weirdos who made up her support system; Angel and Firefly and even Dollhouse were team-of-misfits stories, too. "Everything I write," he says, "tends to turn into a superhero team, even if I didn't mean for it to. I always start off wanting to be solitary, because a) it's simpler, and b) that isolation is something that I relate to as a storyteller. And then no matter what, I always end up with a team."
He's drawn back to that dynamic, he says, because every character gets a moment where they say I matter to this story.
"That moment," Whedon says, "where you stand up and say, 'I have the right to exist.' I've written it a lot of times, and I never get tired of writing it. And if I could just believe it about myself, I think I could stop writing it."
Alex Pappademas is a staff writer at Grantland.


text:
City of Lincoln
Mayor's Office
2009 Media Releases
Mayor Chris Beutler and representatives of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 644 today signed an agreement for a program of drug and alcohol testing for Lincoln firefighters. The Mayor said the drug testing agreement is a win for City government, firefighters and the people of Lincoln.
"Testing for alcohol and drugs builds even greater confidence in an already strong system," Beutler said. "In an environment where firefighters put their safety at risk, it is imperative that they can depend on each other. With the new drug testing policy, every person who puts on the LFR uniform will have no doubt about the reliability and judgment of the colleagues upon whom they depend for their very lives. And every person who has an LFR paramedic by their side in a crisis will know that they will be receiving quality medical care that is not compromised by the scourge of drug or alcohol addiction."
The City and the IAFF began working on the policy in the summer of 2008, when two Lincoln firefighters were arrested on drug charges. Beutler thanked IAFF President Dave Engler and union members for working with the City on the agreement. "While drug testing was part of contract negotiations, it was an easy part of negotiations," Beutler said. "The union was 100 percent committed to a drug testing program. The union takes very seriously its obligation as safety providers to the community Union members were anxious to reaffirm to the community that they demand a commitment that is without compromise by alcohol or drugs."
Pre-employment testing has already begun. Active employee testing will begin in 60 days. The testing pool will include 296 current employees who work as firefighters, fire apparatus operators, captains, mechanics and fire inspectors. Half of the pool will be tested each year for drugs, and ten percent will be tested for alcohol. In addition to pre-employment and random testing, pool members also are subject to testing for follow-up purposes, in cases of reasonable suspicion or cause or when they return to duty after a positive test. City Personnel Director Mark Koller said the program will cost about $14,000 a year at current staffing levels.


text:
Inquiry Question
Supplementary Resources
By studying At a Crossroads: The King of Prussia Inn students learn about the history of an inn in southeastern Pennsylvania and how it survived suburban sprawl. Those interested in learning more will find that the Internet offers a variety of interesting materials.
King of Prussia Chamber of Commerce
PENNDOT Cultural Resources Management Program
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC)
National Park Service Archeology and Ethnography Program
Society for American Archeology
Society for Historical Archeology
Valley Forge National Historical Park
International Association of Structural Movers (IASM)
Library of Congress: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS)/ Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) Collection


text:
Adel, Iowa, farmer Lowell Garrett saved an estimated $7,000 on his seed costs this spring (2 to 3% seed savings over 5,000 acres) by investing $4,000 in John Deere's new Swath Control Pro technology. And that savings occurred on basic rectangular fields with no point rows and only headlands — where the least amount of benefit is usually seen.
"For growers who are still new to precision farming technology, our new Swath Control Pro for planters may be the initial piece that entices them to get into precision farming due to quick payback on valuable technology," says Kayla Reynolds, product marketing manager, John Deere Ag Management Solutions (AMS).
When teamed with Deere's integrated system of GreenStar 2 (GS2) rate controller and GS2 display, along with a StarFire iTC receiver, Swath Control Pro turns sections of a planter on and off so previously planted headlands and point rows are not over-seeded. "Growers truly appreciate the ability to minimize the double planting in headland areas," says Mike Park, Deere's AMS marketing manager.
"Early tests show seed reduction of at least 3%," he says. "We're also excited about the optimized yields that growers will experience in the headlands and around terraces due to the reduction of over-planting."
Swath Control Pro is compatible with the existing one-half or one-third width disconnects found on most John Deere planters. Growers who want to divide their planter into small control sections for even greater accuracy and less over-planting can add air-clutch units, available from Tru Count.
Listen to Iowa farmer and John Deere employee Brent Madden as he talks about the benefits of Swath Control Pro and other new precision products.
Swath Control Pro is available for the 2008 planting season. Contact your John Deere dealer today for more information.


text:
Illuminated Art 14 x 11
Marley Ungaro From Virginia
Art Image:
was $149.00 Special Price $74.50
*All Sizes in Inches *Production Time is 4-7 days to ship
* ALL SALES FINAL *All Sizes in Inches. *Ships in 1-2 Days.
Custom built to order in Denver, Co. Built with LED's lasting 50,000 hours. Embedded On/Off switch. Removable UL Listed 12v DC cord included. Weight between 4-12 LBs and frame depth is 3.25 inches. DiaNoche donates a portion from each light sale to charity.
Join Our VIP Club
Join and Receive Special Promotions, Decor Tips, & Chance to Win Free Products.


text:
William Hutt, 94
William H. "Bill" Hutt, 94, of Wapakoneta, died at 1:50 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23, 2013, at his residence.
He was born Aug. 11, 1919, in Wapakoneta, to Hazel C. (Vorhees) and John J. Hutt, who preceded him in death. On March 3, 1939, he married Agnes R. Kuck, who survives in Wapakoneta.
Also surviving are a daughter, Sharon A. (Lewis) Knoch, of Wapakoneta; four grandchildren, Kristine (John Chesbrough) Kah, of North Port, Fla., Lori (Rick) Koenig, of Wapakoneta, Joshua (Karen) Hutt, of Wapakoneta, and Shana (Travis) Samons, of Murrieta, Calif.; eight great-grandchildren Darcy (Mike Gee) West, Holly Koening, Kyle Koenig, Riley Hutt, Avery Hutt, Lincoln Hutt, Sadie Samons, and Sway Samons; and a daughter-in-law, Shelia Hutt, of Wapakoneta.
He was preceded in death by a son, Steve Hutt.
Bill retired from Westinghouse in Lima after 37 years of service as a foreman. In the 1950s he created and developed the William H. Hutt Subdivision which is on Washington St. between Ohio and Buchanan Streets. He was known as a great carpenter who enjoyed remodeling homes. He was a veteran of World War II, where he served in the Navy as a mechanic. He was a member of the V.F.W. Post 8445 and a 60 year member of St. Paul United Church of Christ in Wapakoneta.
Funeral services are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Schlosser Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Wapakoneta, with the Rev. Becky Sunday officiating. Burial will follow at Greenlawn Cemetery in Wapakoneta with military rites being performed by V.F.W. Post 8445.
Friends may call from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be directed to St. Paul U.C.C. in Wapakoneta.
Condolences may be expressed at schlosserfuneralhome.com.


text:
|The Score Artists @ Work Member Directory Premier Partners Seminar Downloads SCL Videos NY Home Forum Ambassador Program Mentor Program Hall of Fame In Memoriam Lifetime Achievement Emerging Composer
Spring 2013
In the cover story, Richard Kraft discusses whether recording in LA is competitive in today's global marketplace. Jon Burlingame talks about putting together his book on the Music of James Bond. Lori Barth interviews music industry attorney Jay Cooper.


text:
It is possible that the main title of the report Castleman's Disease is not the name you expected. Please check the synonyms listing to find the alternate name(s) and disorder subdivision(s) covered by this report.
Castleman's disease is a rare disorder characterized by non-cancerous (benign) growths (tumors) that may develop in the lymph node tissue throughout the body (i.e., systemic disease). Most often, they occur in the chest, abdomen, and/or neck, but may also be found in the armpit (axilla), pelvis, and pancreas. Usually the growths represent abnormal enlargement of the lymph nodes normally found in these areas.
Castleman's disease may be divided into four types. There are two main types of Castleman's disease that are determined by the microscopic appearance of the lymph node: hyaline-vascular type and plasma cell type. The hyaline vascular type accounts for approximately 90 percent of the cases. Most individuals exhibit no symptoms of this form of the disorder (asymptomatic) or they may develop non-cancerous growths in the lymph nodes. The plasma cell type of Castleman's disease may be associated with fever, weight loss, skin rash, early destruction of red blood cells, leading to unusually low levels of circulating red blood cells (hemolytic anemia), and/or abnormally increased amounts of certain immune factors in the blood (hypergammaglobulinemia). Additionally, Castleman's disease can be divided into categories which are defined by number of anatomic body regions affected by the disease. Unicentric Castleman's disease affects lymph nodes in only one part of the body, while multicentric Castleman's disease affects multiple parts of the body. A person can have any combination of the microscopic and anatomic variants, thus there are four possibilities: unicentric hyaline vascular, unicentric plasma cell variant, multicentric hyaline vascular variant, and multicentric plasma cell variant. Many individuals with multicentric Castleman's disease may exhibit an abnormally large liver and spleen (hepatosplenomegaly).
American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc.
22100 Gratiot Ave.
East Detroit, MI 48021
Tel: (586)776-3900
Fax: (586)776-3903
Tel: (800)598-4668
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Internet: http://www.aarda.org/
American Cancer Society, Inc.
1599 Clifton Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30329
Tel: (404)320-3333
Tel: (800)227-2345
Internet: http://www.cancer.org
NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
P.O. Box 30105
Bethesda, MD 20892-0105
Tel: (301)592-8573
Fax: (301)251-1223
Email: email@example.com
Internet: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/
Rare Cancer Alliance
1649 North Pacana Way
Green Valley, AZ 85614
Tel: (520)625-5495
Fax: (615)526-4921
Internet: http://www.rare-cancer.org
Genetic and Rare Diseases (GARD) Information Center
PO Box 8126
Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8126
Tel: (301)251-4925
Fax: (301)251-4911
Tel: (888)205-2311
Email: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/GARD/EmailForm.aspx
Internet: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/GARD
Madisons Foundation
PO Box 241956
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Tel: (310)264-0826
Fax: (310)264-4766
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Internet: http://www.madisonsfoundation.org
UCSF Hemophilia Treatment Center
400 Parnassus Ave.
First Floor
San Francisco, CA 94143
Tel: (415)476-1280
Fax: (415)353-2600
Tel: (888)689-8273
Email: email@example.com
Internet: http://www.ucsfhealth.org/adult/medical_services/blood/hemophilia/index.html
International Castleman's Disease Organization
4 Brazos Court
Santa Fe, NM 87508
Tel: (505)424-7947
Fax: (505)424-7948
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Internet: http://www.castlemans.org
AutoImmunity Community
Tel: (919) 552-9057
Email: email@example.com
Internet: http://www.autoimmunitycommunity.org
This is an abstract of a report from the National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc. ® (NORD). A copy of the complete report can be obtained for a small fee by visiting the NORD website. The complete report contains additional information including symptoms, causes, affected population, related disorders, standard and investigational treatments (if available), and references from medical literature. For a full-text version of this topic, see http://www.rarediseases.org/search/rdblist.html
The information provided in this report is not intended for diagnostic purposes. It is provided for informational purposes only. NORD recommends that affected individuals seek the advice or counsel of their own personal physicians.
It is possible that the title of this topic is not the name you selected. Please check the Synonyms listing to find the alternate name(s) and Disorder Subdivision(s) covered by this report
This disease entry is based upon medical information available through the date at the end of the topic. Since NORD's resources are limited, it is not possible to keep every entry in the Rare Disease Database completely current and accurate. Please check with the agencies listed in the Resources section for the most current information about this disorder.
For additional information and assistance about rare disorders, please contact the National Organization for Rare Disorders at P.O. Box 1968, Danbury, CT 06813-1968; phone (203) 744-0100; web site www.rarediseases.org or email email@example.com
Last Updated: 12/8/2010
Copyright 1988, 1989, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2010 National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc.
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information.