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There's a lot of things I love in life. Good food, good friends, travel, a fine kungfu film, a crappy kungfu film — the list goes on, but few things can make me all warm inside quite like a ghost story. Growing up in the rural South, ghost stories and folklore about haints, beasts, and certain death lurking in the woods were a given, and like many Southerners, I developed a healthy dark streak and affinity for the more macabre side of life — or death. Whichever. I think it probably comes from the fact that the South is a very bloody, death-filled part of America. From the Revolutionary War to the War Between the States, on to the struggle for civil rights, the soil of The South is as rich with the blood of countless Americans as it is with the history of America itself. You have to learn to deal with the dark stuff, and it's a lot better to deal with it as "a spooky but familiar friend" than some sort of antagonist.
I can recount endless nights spent camped out in the back yard or propped up on the front porch swing swapping yarns with friends about local hook-hand killers, cave dwelling goatmen, and chanting devil worshipers. The spectre of evil was all around us, threatening our every moment of life, and it certainly made things a lot more interesting during slumber parties, though things went too far when our friend Roman's mom decided to give us a good one by dressing up as an ax murderer and scraping on the basement window while we were all downstairs holding a seance to try to summon the spirit of the recently departed John Belushi.
A ghost story is a universal. The appearance may change, the clothing may be different, but the spirit, if you will, remains a constant. They reflect fears and fascinations that transcend race and geography. You won't find a single culture on the planet that doesn't have it's fair share of spooky stories and tales of the dead come back to haunt the living. Whether you are squatting down by the fire conversing with some remote Amazonian tribe or sprawled on the front porch in the rural south, whether you are sitting cross-legged on the tatami mat of a Japanese living room or sitting at a table on the sidewalk of some narrow, winding Italian street, if talk turns to ghosts, we're all speaking the same language.
For those not well-versed in the ways of Japan and Japanese films, the trappings of Nobuo Nakagawa's classic Tokaido Yatsuya Kaidan may seem strange and exotic. Set in medieval Japan, the film is full of samurai and demure kimono-clad ladies, gruff fishermen and haughty nobles. Even in today's supposedly well-connected global community, it's a history about which very few Americans know much beyond the most basic and stereotypical of facts. However, even those with a complete and total lack of knowledge regarding the formative years of Japan (you really should brush up on your history though), will instantly recognize the language underlying the Japanese being spoken — and I'm not talking about the English language subtitles.
Tokaido Yatsuya Kaidan is one of the most famous of all horrific Japanese legends. It's been told and retold countless times via literature, word of mouth, kabuki theater, and of course film. The 1959 version directed by acclaimed master of Japanese horror Nakagawa Nobuo is generally regarded as the best of the movie versions, and with plenty of good reasons. The story itself is simple enough, something that any fan of ghost stories will recognize regardless of the number of samurai with which one may be acquainted. The story opens with a group of jovial nobles out for a late night stroll around town. They are accosted by a young wannabe samurai named Iyemon. Iyemon wants to marry one of the samurai's daughter, but since our man Iyemon is known as something of a screw-up and all-around crummy bastard, the samurai is less than enthusiastic about welcoming the ne'r-do-well into the family. In a fit of rage, Iyemon attacks the samurai from behind, killing him and his friends.
Aware of the fact that multiple homicides will not do too much to improve the town's opinion of him, not to mention the fact that it won't really help him get in good with the woman whose father he just sliced down, Iyemon and his partner in crime, Naosuke, make up a story about being attacked by a well-known local ruffian. Naturally, they valiantly defended everyone, but the gang that set upon them was just too many. His "bravery" ingratiates Iyemon to the slain samurai's daughter, Oiwa. Iyemon vows to avenge the murder, which wins him even more bonus points and eventually Oiwa's hand in marriage, which also gives him the social status he so desperately desired.
You can't keep a slimy samurai clean, of course, and it isn't long before Iyemon and Naosuke are up to their old treachery again. On a pilgrimage to visit a famous waterfall and pray for justice, Naosuke is endlessly annoyed by the brother of Oiwa and her sister, Osode, to whom Naosuke has taken a shine. Using not-so-subtle threats about exposing Iyemon's guilt, Naosuke pressures his old "friend" into helping him kill off the brother. Being a despicable couple of guys, they stab him in the back and push him off a cliff while he is kneeling in meditation. Then, of course, they go running back with yet another story about how they were jumped by the same bandits, who were looking to kill them before they could seek out their righteous revenge. The two couples then split up to search for the non-existent bandits, and they wind up not seeing each other for a long time.
Time passes and Oiwa gives birth to Iyemon's child. Contrary to what you might expect from a murderous, lying samurai, Iyemon proves to be a less than stellar husband, though he remains with Oiwa despite her failing health in order to continue sponging off her status in society, or what little of it remains after she loses most of what her father once possessed. Naosuke, meanwhile, lives life as a hustler, constantly promising Osode that he is spending his days seeking the villains who murdered her father. Until he has avenged that death, she refuses to marry or sleep with him, even when he does that thing where he grabs her and makes ugly kisses faces as she fights him off.
When Iyemon goes out for a stroll one night after gambling much of his wife's money away, his presence foils some attempted thuggery. Even though Iyemon really didn't do anything but take his hat off, the criminals bolt and the victims, who turn out to be some local nobles, lavish him with thanks. When he catches sight of the noble's lovely daughter, he instantly falls for her in the most base and shallow ways. When the noble offers him a reward, Iyemon magnanimously refuses, reciting a speech about honor that Oiwa's own father lectured him with seconds before getting stabbed in the back. Duly impressed by Iyemon's spirit, he becomes a welcome guest in the home, while at the same time plotting a way to get out of his life with Oiwa.
A chance meeting with his ol' murderin' pal Naosuke results in Iyemon getting the bright idea to murder his wife. He immediately chickens out though, realizing that the ol' "some bandits jumped us" shtick probably wouldn't work for him a third time. Naosuke is just bored, however, and if that means he has to come up with something new in order to relieve the monotony of not murdering people all the time then blaming it on bandits who never materialize, well then he's man enough to devise new schemes for bloodletting.
Naosuke drums up a plan in which he will hook Iyemon up with a special poison that will cause Oiwa to die a horrible death. Since the rumor around town is that Oiwa and her doctor, a portly gent named Takuestu, have been seeing one another on the sly (an untrue rumor, even though Takuetsu is fond of Oiwa), Iyemon can either claim he caught them in the affair and thus exercised his right as a wronged husband to kill his wife, or even better, he can just pin the crime on a jealous Takuetsu and be completely free from involvement. At first, he's hesitant, but then he thinks about things for a while and realize that yep, murder is the way to go.
Iyemon plays nice for his suffering wife, talking to her like a decent gentleman for once and vowing to her that he will make amends for his less that spotless treatment of her in the past. In a touching display to cap off his tenderness, he then replaces her medicine with the poison that will cause her face to melt and result in an excruciatingly agonizing death. Being the sporting sort of man that he is, he then even arranges for a special visit from Takuetsu so he can be blamed for everything.
After Takuetsu unsuccessfully puts the moves on Oiwa — something Iyemon himself said she would like — Oiwa's death begins. Her face begins to burn from the inside, as does much of the rest her body. Freaked out by the whole melting face thing, Takuetsu confesses to Oiwa that her husband enlisted him to seduce her, though now he's not so into it. She surmises that she has been the victim of a horrible plot concocted by her rotten husband, but before she can extract any revenge, the poison runs its course and she dies. Iyemon reappears just in time to accuse Takuetsu, who he then kills. Just as the plan seems to be going perfectly, however, something in Iyemon's already warped brain seems to snap. He nails the corpses to two wood panels and sets them adrift in a nearby river, expecting the current to carry them far away.
While all this is going on, ol' Naosuke doesn't want to not be performing some heinous deed as well, so he finally tracks down the villain he and Iyemon blamed for the murders that started this whole sordid chain of events, and in classic form, stabs him in the back. Her father's murder now avenged, Osode will consent to marry Naosuke.
So things seem to be going pretty well. Naosuke has Osode, even though she is not wild about the marriage, and Iyemon is now free to chase his latest skirt. Nothing could be finer, at least until the ghost starts showing up. Seems like every time Iyemon tries to lie and relax after a long, hard day of being a jerkwad, there's the gory disfigured apparition of his slain wife floating around and taunting him.
Naosuke, on the other hand, is out fishing for eels one day when he hooks the hair comb and kimono that had once been worn by Oiwa. Not realizing their nature, he decides to take them home, clean them up, and give them to his wife since nothing will impress a lady quite like giving her a wad of stinky stuff you fished out of the local swamp. Osode immediately recognizes the two items, however, both of which were family heirlooms. Just has her suspicions are being piqued, Oiwa shows up. It's funny how people never seem to notice the deceased state of a loved one and just go about their business as if their friend isn't all pale with a green supernatural light shining on them. Oiwa's arrival is a little much for Naosuke to handle, what with him knowing she's been murdered and all. He breaks down and confesses everything to Osode, right down to the fateful night Iyemon and he murdered her father. Needless to say, this is even less healthy for their relationship than trying to give her the swamp water-soaked rags of her murdered sister.
Iyemon isn't faring much better. Now both Oiwa and Takuetsu's bloody corpses are harassing him. In a fit of hysteria, he slashes out at the ghosts with his sword, which only results in him accidentally killing two innocent people. As if having the horrible decaying remains of your murder victims plaguing you wasn't enough, Osode soon finds that her brother, previously left for dead, actually survived the attempt on his life. He confirms Naosuke's confession by saying, "Yeah, they tried to kill me too." Brother and sister then set off to seek revenge against Iyemon. By this time, of course, Iyemon's madness is complete. The ghosts refuse to leave him alone. It could be that they are all in his head, and that his latest round of murders just pushed his already fragile mental state over the cliff, but that doesn't really matter when you're trying to deal with ghosts causing rooms to fill with bloody water and things like that.
As he stumbles insanely about the courtyard of the temple where he was seeking refuge, he comes face to face with Osode and her brother, both wielding swords and looking to get some justice for their father, Oiwa, and everyone else Iyemon stuck a sword into. Aiding them in their battle are the ghosts, of course, and Iyemon's treachery is ultimately no match for them.
There is nothing that isn't predictable about the story. After all, it's a timeless classic with which everyone is familiar. We know Iyemon is going to murder his wife, and we know her ghost is going to come back for revenge. What makes a film a timeless classic, however, is that you can know every single plot point and still find yourself riveted to the screen. Tokaido Yatsuya Kaidan manages to do just that. It doesn't matter that you know what's going to happen, just like it doesn't matter if you already know some local legend about ghosts. It still sends a chill up your spine every time you hear it. Tokaido Yatsuya Kaidan draws its power from its highly stylish look, deliberate and increasingly frantic pacing, and overwhelmingly eerie atmosphere.
The film is, for starters, stunning to look at. The art direction, use of sets, eerie lighting, and surreal atmosphere were obviously heavy influences on the better known but not necessarily better Kaidan from 1964. Director Nobuo Nakagawa was a big fan of European horror films, and you can sense a lot of what would become the Hammer Studios aesthetic in his film despite the decidedly Japanese trappings. Much like the later Kaidan, you could turn the sound off and simply look at this film, and it would be a wonder to behold.
The seemingly "normal" first half of the film is deceptive. You have your murderous samurai, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. Well, unless you're talking modern-day South Bend, Indiana. The minute Oiwa ingests the poison, however, the film spirals off into completely bizarre and chilling territory. Nobuo Nakagawa made a name for himself directing horror films that were, even by today's standards, shockingly gory. Though this movie is not nearly as bloody and violent as his 1960 masterpiece Jigoku (which featured folks in hell getting sawed in half, nailed in the face with spikes, and other fun hellish past times), it's definitely an eye-opener for the time. The disfigurement of Oiwa is wonderfully pulled off and genuinely nasty to look at. Likewise, a number of the surreal appearances of her ghost will drop the jaw of even a jaded movie-goer. Nakagawa's imagination is as genius as it is warped, and I'd put many of the ghost scenes from this movie on par with my favorite ghost story of all time, The Haunting (not the remake, of course).
Everything else about the film is top-notch. The music is effective. The acting is accomplished. There's a reason this is considered a hallmark in the history of Japanese horror films and why Nobuo Nakagawa is considered one of the great masters, if not the greatest master, of the genre.
Of course, this sort of film isn't for everyone. Those who get kicks out of visceral gut-punch gore films and have no appreciation for the building of characters and suspense will no doubt be lost during the films lengthy build-up to the frenzy of the final half-hour. Myself, I happen to be a fan of horror films that take time to build suspense, and this one does so wonderfully. You know horrible things are going to happen. It's just a question of when, and the waiting keeps you on the edge of your seat and, at least if you're like me, far more enchanted and entertained than a rapid series of fifteen second gore effects.
I'm reminded of a story once told by Alfred Hitchcock when describing his philosophy on telling a good story. Imagine, he said, you have a scene where two men are sitting in a cafe discussing trivial matters. The scene goes on like this for a few minutes, and then suddenly, BOOM! A bomb goes off. The audience is startled, and you get that ten seconds of fright and giddy recovery time. Then it's over. Now imagine the same scene, only this time the first thing you establish is that there is a bomb underneath one of the men's seats, and that it will go off in three minutes. Then you continue with the scene same as before, with the men sitting there talking about pointless things. Now, the audience spends the entire three minutes on the edge of their seats, screaming at the screen that there is a bomb under one of the seats! What was a ten-second long shock suddenly becomes three minutes of nail-biting suspense and tension that will drive people crazy.
Tokaido Yatsuya Kaidan, like the classic horror films that inspired it, operates on this level of tension and anticipation of grisly acts to come, and it pays off for your investment of time. It also helps that the minutes leading up to the final acts of retribution are well paced and often exciting. As Iyemon's nasty deeds pile up, we keep waiting and waiting for the big payoff when the ghosts of the murder victims get their revenge, and when it finally comes, the revenge is sweet. So if you like build-up and tension, if you like horror tales that handle themselves as well-crafted stories rather than a succession of effects and cheap scares, then this is your kind of movie. If you dig the classic horror of the 1930s or the bloodier yet still artfully constructed horror of Hammer Films, then this is your type of movie.
It was definitely my type of movie. I was enraptured through the whole thing, marveling at the surrealistic and highly stylized set pieces, gleefully allowing the anticipation of horror mount until the final big pay-off, which was both eerie, shocking, and worth the wait. Tokaido Yatsuya Kaidan is undeniably a classic of horror, regardless of which side of the ocean it comes from. It's an ageless, multi-cultural tale of revenge from beyond the grave that can speak to and chill the bones of everyone, regardless of your standing within the ranks of the samurai.


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Johnny Depp confirmed for Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'
08.7.2008 | By Mack Chico | No Comments">No Comments
After it was announced that Tim Burton would direct "Alice in Wonderland 3-D," a take on the classic Lewis Carroll fairy tale, fans assumed that Johnny Depp would somehow have to be involved. Burton and Depp have previously collaborated on six previous films, including "Sweeney Todd," "Sleepy Hollow," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
Now, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that fans' suspicions are absolutely true. But whether he will play the rumored Mad Hatter is still unknown.
A source revealed that the film will be live-action until Alice (Mia Wasikowska) jumps down the rabbit hole and meets the loopy tea party host. Even if Depp does take on the Mad Hatter, there is still the question of whether he will have to do any acting or simply lend his voice for the computer-generated part of the film.
At this point, the new movie is set to begin filming early next year for a 2010 release. Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) penned the script.

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Guest photo post by John Cowgill
Plimoth Village is a "living" 17th-century English village on Plymouth Bay in Massachusetts.
The "pilgrims" portray documented residents who lived in the colony in 1627.
Farm animals
The fort
Thanks to John Cowgill for photos from his travels. He writes about trains, travel and railroad history for the DC Examiner.


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NWSB Insider Matt Church brings us his draft analysis from around the NFC West. Sure, we all know what the Seattle Seahawks did in the draft, but do we know how our competition is going to look next year? We do now after Matt broke it down for us here! He reviews the 49ers, Cardinals, and Rams 2012 NFL draft picks, Michael Floyd, Michael Brockers, and A.J. Jenkins the top picks.
Know your enemy: 2012 NFC West draft report
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In a recent editorial in OSV Newsweekly, Our Sunday Visitor called for an end to Christian persecution in Iraq and invited Catholics to join in a national campaign to help our suffering brothers and sisters in the Middle East.
We invited you to:
Stay informed.
Read the paper; watch the news. Listen to what Church leaders in Rome and in the Middle East are saying, as well as your local bishop. Talk about the situation with friends and family. Don't just rely on social media or hearsay. Find out what's going on and how you can do something about it.
Speak out.
Contact your congressional representative and encourage the United States government to continue its humanitarian assistance to those suffering abroad. Urge that the United States find the source of ISIS funding and put pressure on responsible parties. Encourage your parish to include prayers for Iraqi refugees, for refugees around the world and for peace in the world. Write your pastor or bishop and ask that they call attention to the religious liberty needs of those around the world in their homilies and public appearances.
Pledge one dollar a day to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a Vatican aid organization, to care for a child refugee. Donate funds to Catholic Relief Services, who, along with its partner Caritas Iraq, is providing food, bedding and hygiene supplies to displaced Iraqi families. These funds also will be used to help with long-term resettlement efforts.
Incorporate prayers for peace in the Middle East and safety for Christians into your daily routine. Be specific and be consistent. Ask the saints, especially the Christian martyrs, to intercede to our Lord for the suffering of those on earth. Pray for the conversion of hearts and for the reign of peace. Fast from a food or beverage or from a form of entertainment to maintain solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters. Heed the request of Des Moines Bishop Richard E. Pates, chairman of the Committee of International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and pray for peace as a nation together on Aug. 17.
Welcome the stranger.
The United States has a history of welcoming into its borders those who are escaping religious persecution. Those on the brink of death in Iraq should be no exception. Let us find room in our hearts and in our homeland for the men, women and children who are being forced to leave their own homes, communities and parishes.
Listen to Pope Francis.
"Hatred is not to be carried in the name of God! War is not to be waged in the name of God!" the pope said Aug. 10. "Let us pray together to the God of peace through the intercession of the Virgin Mary: Give us peace, O Lord, in our days, and make us builders of justice and peace."
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Robert and Etta Jean Conen celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010, with a celebration held at the Patio Steakhouse and hosted by their children.
Mr. Conen married the former Etta Jean Kieser Nov. 24, 1960, at St. Paul Catholic Church in Tell City.
The couple have two children, Cathy Franey of Owensboro, Ky., and Bruce Conen of Newburgh. They also have four grandchildren, Patrick, Jennifer and Matthew Franey and Nash Conen.
Mr. Conen retired from NSA 1989 and retired from farming in 1992.
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Family Time Slippers Crochet Pattern Pack
Crochet Quick and Easy Slippers is for your whole family, from youngest to oldest!
Flat pieces are constructed like a moccasin with gathered ties for a comfortable and custom fit. Girls/Ladies style includes a ruffled top edge.Crocheted with Bulky yarns, they are sturdy, warm and work up quickly for the perfect last minute gift! Models shown in Premier Serenity Chunky yarns sold at AnniesCatalog.com and only 1 skein needed for child sizes and 2 skeins for adults. Instructions are included for 7 sole dimensions ranging from child small to adult extra-large.
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Single Story says "Welcome Home!" Great home in The Legends for family and entertaining with open floor plan on an interior lot. Well maintained front elevation with charming curb appeal. Original owner gently lived in. Pride in ownership is evident throughout this home. Eat in kitchen with plenty of cabinetry and a large island with storage space all open to Family Room with fireplace. Family room offers pretty backyard views. Master suite boasts room and his and her closets. Master bath features dual sinks, garden tub, and separate shower. Formal dining and living greet you as you enter home. Large secondary bedrooms, walk-in closet.
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You probably missed the ShopRite LPGA Classic last weekend, which is understandable given Tiger's dramatic comeback win at The Memorial. But the women put on a great show, with Stacy Lewis solidifying her spot as the top American female golfer in the world.
The golf couldn't have been much better. Lewis finished the week 12-under, four ahead of Australian Katherine Hull, and 23 players finishing the week under par, 16 shooting in the 60s on Sunday. Compelling stuff, especially since fan favorites Lexi Thompson, Paula Creamer and Azahara Munoz were also in the mix.
Steve Eubanks is a former PGA professional, author, columnist and contributing editor at PGA.com. He shares his thoughts here each week.
Do you wish your approach shot to the green was just a bit easier? Would you rather hit an iron into the green vs. a fairway wood or hybrid? If you want to play faster and have more fun, move up a set of tees and TEE IT FORWARD!
But there was also an object lesson to be learned from the LPGA this week. The venue for the ShopRite – the Bay Course at the Seaview Resort in Atlantic City, designed by Donald Ross in 1914 – is only 6,200 yards long from the tips, the shortest course on the women's circuit, and, unquestionably, one of the most dramatic.
No one would ever call Seaview a "pitch and putt" or "Mickey Mouse" or any of the usual invectives thrown out by far too many amateurs to describe anything less than a 7,400-yard torture chamber. When the wind blows it's as tough a test as you will ever find.
Sure, the best women golfers in the world made a ton of birdies, but they are the best in the world. Lewis shot a final-round 71, even par, to win, and the lowest round of the week was eight-under 63, shot by American Jennifer Johnson who opened the week with a 77 and needed a go-for-broke follow-up to make the cut.
Compare that scoring with The Memorial Tournament where Tiger shot 9-under and the field averaged 73.68 for the week. Half as many men finished under par as did the women, which, given the fact that 14 PGA Tour players average over 300 yards in driving distance, might lead the casual observer to assume that Muirfield Village is 8,000 yards long.
It's not. With every hole tipped to its max – a setup that almost never occurs, even in tournament conditions – Jack Nicklaus's masterpiece plays 7,200. And yet, nobody brought it to its knees.
The lesson is simple: playing a shorter course is not a crime against the game, or an insult to your ego. Man or woman, amateur of professional, short does not mean easy. You still have to get the ball in the hole, which is a challenge on any golf course of any length.
Brandel Chamblee, arguably the most insightful television analyst in the game today, made this point in a recent column for Golf.com. Brandel believes that the LPGA would attract more fans and a wider viewing audience if they played shorter golf courses.
"The biggest hitter on the LPGA last year was (Yani) Tseng, who averaged 269.2 yards, almost 50 yards behind the men's top bomber, J.B. Holmes, (indeed, Tseng's average distance would finish dead last on the PGA Tour)," Brandel wrote. "If you take the 50-yard differential between Tseng and Holmes multiplied by the 36 full shots generally struck during the course of play, you get a better idea of the yardage that's appropriate for the LPGA – somewhere in the 6,000-yard range.
"Shorter setups would lead to lower scores, and as far as I'm concerned, the lower the better. If the ladies outgunned the men, fans would have no choice but to marvel at the talents of women shooting in the low 60s."
There was no shortage of comments disagreeing with Brandel. One knucklehead wrote: "You either want to be treated like equals or you want us to buy you drinks. Which is it? None of you decline the free yardage or the free drinks."
But most rational people with IQs higher than a chimpanzee realize that Brandel has a valid point. The ShopRite LPGA Classic proved it. Lewis shot a pair of 65s and a 71 and Hull fired 66-68 on the weekend. It was dramatic, compelling, and fun to watch.
It also came at a perfect time.
June is "Tee it Forward" month, a time in which the PGA of America and the USGA encourage all golfers to move up at least one tee and try the game from a shorter distance. "We believe that by moving up to another set of tees, golfers will experience an exciting new approach to the game that will produce more enjoyment and elevate their desire to come back and play more golf," said PGA of America president Allen Wronowski.
If you don't believe him, just run the numbers. The Longest hitter on the LPGA Tour this year is Brittany Lincicome, who bombs it an average of 283 yards, almost 20 yards longer than the average single-digit handicap amateur, male or female. Lincicome won the ShopRite a year ago, but shot one-over-par last week and finished tied for 29th. She failed to break 70 any day on a course that was set up between 6,000 and 6,100 yards long.
I dare the average golfer to do better.
Give it a month. Tee it Forward during June and see how you play. If you bring the game to its knees, write and tell me how wrong I am. But if you find golf to be just as challenging from 6,500 or even 6,100 yards as it is from 7,100, then you should put your ego aside and tell your friends to move up a tee or two.
You will probably play a little better. And you will no doubt have a much better time.


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Online car racing games are great for individuals wanting to enjoy rush, or are speed lovers. Furthermore, you now also need not worry about lousy graphics anymore, as there are many high quality games with advanced digital features with high clarity and sharpness, make the gaming experience much more amazing. In addition, there are games, which provide multiple language options apart from other features such as color selection, and make of the car and you can select racecourse as per your choice.
These online racing games come with amazing support features, high-end technical functions and eye-catching graphics, which have become much popular and favorite among kids as well as adults and provide a great way to enjoy your free time. These games can be great stress reliever, as just starting playing these racing games would draw player into a completely new world offering a rich experience, and making him/ her leave all of their worries.
You can also play cop-based Car Games where you can play the part of the cop and have to catch the criminals while racing and chasing them down on the roads and streets. Rally car racing is also quite popular car racing game genre liked by lot of people. As there are large numbers of websites offering free online games you can enjoy playing these games anytime you want as you only need a internet connected systems and can choose from a large number of games available to you.
You can play these car games along or can also play these games with your friends, as there are many multiplayer-racing games also available online. In all of the car games, there is one thing common, which is, you have to compete with others to emerge as the winner of racing competition.
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Stock Illustration: female, lady, woman
This Stock Illustration, whose title is "female, lady, woman"[28697033], includes tags of female, lady, woman. The author of this item is Suzuki Leona (No.746224). Sizes from S to XL are available and the price starts from US$5.00. You can download watermarked sample data (comp images), check the quality of images, and use Lightbox after signing up for free. See all
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Entries in lijit (1)
They call me the workin' man...
Rush. That's right. Canada's finest export. And whenever you envision me riding my little commuter to work, coffee in hand, you just put this little ditty in your head. Working man. That's what they call me. OK, 'they' is me. And maybe my kids. But I digress...
So on that subject I've had a zillion emails saying 'Keller! Whatup!? How's the new gig? What are you doing? What is Lijit? First, MAD props and thanks for all the well wishes and questions. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks, but I am finally starting to get those feelings back again...feelings that I had AGES ago when I controlled the destiny of software and turned nothing...or at a minimum, opaque ideas...into real tangible stuff that made real people happy and productive. All with kick ass engineers and coffee.
It's happening again. I can feels it!
OK, exhale.
So what's all this Lijit hubub? Let me kinda break it down this way:
We do search. But search with people and their trusted relationships at the core of the technology. So, taking a step back, and super generally speaking, the interwebs are are basically a 'web' of pipes (TCP/IP) with 'walls' at the end of each pipe (web pages/html/data, etc). Large search engines essentially crawl the web, day and night, cataloguing all those pages...all that content...all the finite changes...and lastly the frequency that those pages are 'hit'. So, when you search for a term, the results you see first are basically there because lots of people (you do not know) may have looked at the page or site for various reasons.
But, are the results contextually relevant to you? Possibly, yes....but very often no. Think about it: so often you need to dig 3, 4, 5 or more pages in of results until 'voila', a relevant answer/result. An example is something like searching for 'Grocery Stores + Boulder'. We're a bunch of hippies here in the Bubble so keep that 'in context' for the moment. The first thing that comes back is some giant food store chain. Not relevant to me. Would never go there. Why? They're not green enough, not organic enough, not....hippy...enough (remember?). But, if I search my graph of friends for the same data, suddenly I can see a trusted array of answers leading me to places relevant to me...like Sunflower Market or Whole Foods, etc. Twitter streams, Flickr photos, FaceBook posts etc...all from my 'trusted graph' of contacts led me to the answer. Not a machine's 'caching' of the page ranks so to speak.
Now, take a look to the right of my blog. That's it...right, THERE! Upper right corner in the sidebar. That is essentially the 'portal' you as my reader need in order to tap into me and my 'trusted network'. That is the most well known 'face' of Lijit at the moment. Likely, if you're reading this here blog, we've got stuff in common and you can trust me (hopefully). You can search anonymously, see what my network and I say about your desired topic, etc etc. Sort of like this:
That's you in the suit. Ha! That's me (I'm Elvis...and I'm back in the building) and one of my network connections Micah (among many many others). You've input a search term and poof, you get results back in various forms...all to give you a contextually relevant 'edge' on what my network has to say (or visualize in pictures, etc) about your query. You may search me for bikes and get the typical data back you'd expect from me, but say you searched me for 'pets' or 'dogs'. Then you'd see data from me and Micah and others in my graph on the furry four legged friends. Anything we'd written, taken photos of, tweeted about, etc etc. Again, trusted network and hopefully relevant to you as well. Maybe you'd then be inspired to 'connect' to us, through Lijit or maybe FaceBook or other social means. Works great when geography separates us yet we truly share so much in common.
So the technology is maddeningly interesting to work on. 10's of 1000's now use our technology and we've graphed/cached 100's of millions of page views of info. And I get to work on pushing the platform and products into new places. Exciting frontiers that can help real people relate to other real people. Real brands do a better job of finding their right audience. Always evangelizing the publisher to help readers interact with more...and with more relevance and context to them (you in this case!).
So there it is, mostly. I wake up with the (good) nervous pit in the stomach to push and create and inspire. It's early, but I feel the same way I did in the mid 90's when everything was possible. SO, rhetoric aside, I'm stoked and have LOTS of work to do...thus the blogging absence.
But I'm STILL riding! Ha!
1.5 months until the sport of the changing leaves engulfs us all. I haven't lost focus on that either...


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As most people know, CRM software is used for customer relationship management. That sounds simple enough ... and it even has an easy acronym to remember it by! It sounds simple right up until you ask the question—the question all buyers of CRM software really should ask—What kind of customers?
That's a very important question. Not all customers are the same. Of course they vary from individual to individual, but that's less important than the fact customers in different industries need and expect different relationships with the businesses they patronize. Purchasing CRM software that's tailored to one specific industry will not work very well, unless you're in that specific industry.
Similarly, if you're in an industry that has unique relationships with customers, or requires lots of specialized outreach or management processes, then a generic CRM platform wouldn't be the best choice. In this Buyer's Guide, we look at CRM software designed very specifically for the mortgage industry.
Here's what we'll cover:
What Is Mortgage CRM Software?
Common Features of Mortgage CRM Software
Evaluating Mortgage CRM Software
Mortgage CRM Software In the News
Mortgage customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to help mortgage professionals run their front-end operations. And given all the ups and downs the mortgage industry has faced over the past ten years, it's an industry that can use all the help it can get. The subprime mortgage crisis is anything but a distant memory. Delinquencies and foreclosures are still common occurrences, and mortgage lenders have realized the importance of focusing on the customer acquisition and management lifecycle as a means of recovery.
In particular, lenders and loan officers must overcome the hurdles of keeping detailed client notes and maintaining timely client follow-up. They require proper contact management coupled with loan pipeline management in order to stay in control of their business. On top of client retention, mortgage lenders also need to grow and expand their operation in a highly competitive market.
Customer management screen in TeamSupport
Mortgage CRM software often includes applications for contact management, so that lenders can organize client data into one, easily accessible location. However, if the tool is specific to the mortgage industry, it will also include additional key features:
|Loan pipeline Management
|Mortgage CRM software should tie in with existing loan-originating software (LOS) systems to improve loan pipeline management. This integration allows lenders to view loan reports on-demand, track loans as they go through the LOS and synchronize important data such as loan status values and 1003 application data. With a few clicks, the lender can access contact information, loan information, email and phone call history.
|Referral partner marketing
|In a highly competitive market, mortgage companies can benefit greatly from a program that facilitates drip marketing campaigns and campaign tracking to send targeted messages to clients and referral partners. Tracking these campaigns helps lenders know how to cultivate and reward client and partner loyalty.
|Mortgage event alerts
|There should also be tools for notes and alerts that remind the lender of important upcoming events, such as which clients want to refinance several weeks or months in the future. Some systems also have a news update application that provides the most up-to-date information, such as increased annual premiums or changes in upfront mortgage insurance rates (UFMIP).
|Regulation compliance
|With the current instability in the market, it is even more important for lenders to stay abreast of new regulations and compliance issues in their industry. Integrated compliance modules are available in some products to help ensure that business operations are in line with regulations enforced by organizations such as the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
Mortgage accounting software can automate many of the day-to-day marketing and loan processing, facilitating marketing efforts and increasing accuracy and customer service. When selecting mortgage CRM software, ask the following questions:
Lenders make strides in personalizing borrower relationships. June, 2016. A report in Credit Union Times describes how many mortgage lenders are investing in tools to help them offer more personalized service to their customers. It suggests that consumers are expecting this personalized service and are less responsive to more outdated methods of non-personalized marketing, like generic mass emails.
Email marketing not dead in mortgage industry. July, 2016. NationalMortgageProfessional.com Writer Brent Emler makes the case for a renewed look at the efficacy of email marketing in the mortgage lending industry. Far from dead, Emler says, "E-mail marketing is evolving from the carnival barker pitching a new act to an engaging personalized conversation built on collaboration and timely delivery of appropriate opportunities to help consumers become happily involved with products and services."
Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Corp. focuses on borrower experience. July 2016. "Borrowers can get lost in the huge amount of paperwork involved in the loan process," writes Jason Frazier, chief information officer at Mason-McDuffie, in the latest issue of HousingWire magazine. With the company's newly developed software solution, they'll reduce paperwork redundancies, shorten wait times for customers and add several other customer experience improvement measures.
Our service is simple and 100% free to customers like you because software vendors pay us when we connect them with quality leads. You save time and get great advice. Vendors get great referrals. It's a win for everyone!


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JDB Pocketware, the Windows Phone developers of HandyScan and SkyManager, have released a Facebook app. Facebook JDB is billed as being optimized for touch input and includes a set of enhancements to make your Facebook browsing experience the best possible.
Key features with Facebook JDB includes:
- Full screen mode (show/hide bar buttons)
- Live tile shows Facebook notifications
- Lockscreen Facebook notifications (Windows Phone 8 only)
- Supports themes (Windows Phone accent color)
- Menu button and home button
- Post status updates with photos
- Browse photos in full screen with pinch to zoom
- Swipe left/right to navigate through photos
- Enhanced posting screen
- Integrated back navigation
- Support for watching videos
- Launches external links on IE
- Horizontally aligned Like/Comment/Share buttons, ideal for larger space on screen (Windows Phone 8 only)
- Customizable tiles for pin to start
You can't check-in to places from Facebook JDB but overall, the Windows Phone app makes a nice first impression. However if you have Social Scout from JDB, the two apps can be integrated to allow for check-ins.
Facebook JDB is a free app that you can find here in the Windows Phone Store. Facebook JDB is available for both Windows Phone 8 and 7.x devices.


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Welcome to the Sound Affects Premier Website. This new site is home to our great range of premier guitars, amplifiers and pedals both new and pre-owned.
Here are some quick links:
PRS Accessories, Spares & Clothing
If you've just arrived here from our old website "The PRS Shop" rest assured you will still find a great range of PRS Guitars here as well as spares, accessories and clothing.
And of course you will still get the great service that you have come to expect from us.


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rockinthesixstring needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 21 designs submitted by 12 freelance designers.
DR Mower
DR Mower is a small engine repair shop in the small town of Cochrane Alberta. From the beginning they have been using good branding and marketing to get the word out that they exist. In the 2 months that they have been open, their business has aready grown more than expected. A website is the next step in establishing their identity.
With a solid image, potential customers will be more likely to choose them over the competition.
Basically anyone with a small engine that needs repair. Home "Do-IT-Yourself" guys, or even small businesses (landscaping, etc).
Website needs to knock the socks off the competition. Smooth flowing lines, great layout, easy to read and navigate, and nice swooping lines in the header would look nice too.
Website design must be in Photoshop .psd format with all layers intact
Logo is supplied (http://bit.ly/HSb29)
Color Scheme is White, Grey and Green
Entire website will be built upon your design, so even though you are making a home page, the content area will be reused for inner content as well.
Competition Sites:
http://www.lawnmowerhosp.com/ (we like the lines in the header here)


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September typically marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season for the videogame industry. From this point through late November, publishers will release at least one potential blockbuster each week.
Holiday sales make up roughly 40 percent of the overall industry revenue—and the year's biggest hits are born then. But as publishers prepare for the fourth-quarter battle, what better time to see what has been driving sales this year?
So far, things aren't shaping up well. Software sales are down 11 percent year to date, and are on track to be lower for the third consecutive year, according to the NPD Group, which tracks game sales. That's a shortfall of more than $450 million.
Here's a look at the top 10 videogames through the end of August, based on U.S. sales (though when the year's over, expect several to be displaced).
By Chris Morris, Special to CNBC.com
Posted 21 September 2011


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Same Old Story: Offense Fails, Pena Spits the Bit
Once again the White Sox's inability to get a clutch hit led to their downfall as the Sox dropped a 4-2 decision tonight to the Blue Jays in the second game of four north of the border. The South Siders managed just two runs on five hits with Juan Pierre collecting three of them.
Another familiar story was the ineffectiveness of reliever Tony Pena, who gave up three hits and an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. The fact that he's counted on more than ever because of the newly-installed six-man rotation is a huge problem. If the truth be told, he's been lousy since the beginning of the season and should be called upon only in mop-up situations. It's as if we fans know something bad is going to happen when we see No. 57 enter the game.
Kenny Williams has said some changes may be made when the club returns from the 10-game road swing. With the Sox record now at 2-3 on the trip with five tough games ahead against the Jays (2) and Red Sox (3), something very well could happen.
KW had the opportunity a few weeks ago to keep Jeff Gray and dispose of Pena. Let's hope he finds a way to do the right thing this time around via trade or designating him for assignment. In my view, it would be addition by subtraction. I'll take my chances that his replacement won't be much worse.
Pena: He Gone? We can only hope.


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In the past week Haven has shed enough of his hair to make another dog! It's ridiculous! I thought it was because of his food change, but he has been on Innove for, what, at least 2 months now. Then, I thought, maybe it's him loosing his winter coat. But, it isn't spring yet. This is too early, isn't it for Mass?
I have been brushing him. I vacuum him. I brush him some more. I even lint roll him! I use the brush attachment on the vac. I have given him a bath. I didn't shampoo him the second time just so that I wouldn't irritate his skin. I bought a whatchamacallit shedding thing and have been using that a couple times a day for about three days now. It is a metal loop with handle that you "rake" his fur with to get the dead hair out.
Should I be worried that this hair loss might mean something else? He still has soft stools. He always has. He has been dewormed and I had another fecal done when he was finished just so I could completely rule those little buggers out. His ass stinks to high heaven! I was feeding him the puppy Innova at first and when I asked my pet food guy what to feed him because of the soft stool he just gave me a bag of the adult Innova. It hasn't changed anything. I don't know what to do with this stinky, shedding, soft stooled puppy!


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As requested...
Several people have told me in comments and by email that they wanted to see photos of my freshly henna-ed hair.
Here's my problem with posting photos of my hair. To show off the red highlights, I would need sunshine. Sunshine is not allowed into my home at present. I would have to go outside and stand in the hot sunshine. And I'm not good at photographing myself, so I might have a sunstroke before I finally got a picture that wasn't ridiculous. It makes me cranky even to think about all that, so I'm not going to do it.
But take heart. I was sitting in my car today, enjoying the AC and waiting for my daughter, when I noticed that the sun was shining through the car window on my hair. I immediately thought of my photo-hungry readers, and I got my camera out of my purse and took a few pictures of my image in the visor mirror.
The visor mirror isn't very big, so when I held my camera to the right of my head and out of the picture, the camera saw only half of my face. But I made sure that the photos included the important part -- my glowing red hair. In fact, my hair glows several degrees redder in these photos than it does in real life. You can judge the brilliance of the sunshine and the amount of overexposure in the photos by the lack of color and features in my face.
So, without further ado, dear readers, here are the photos I took. I've decided to post them uncensored and in chronological order. I hope you enjoy them. I would have taken more for you, but mercifully, my daughter returned after #7.


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It's March, and I am grilling. That never happens! This has been the weirdest winter, and being somebody who is always cold and hates being cold, I am not complaining. It would have been nice to have one good snowstorm, so that I could get a chance to play in the snow with The Bug, since he was not even walking last winter. And since I spent good money on snow pants and boots, because if you don't buy them in October, there will inevitably be a blizzard in December, at which time all of the snow pants and boots are gone, and you are left deciding on what swimsuit you want for the summer. But that is neither here nor there.
Back to grilling. The Hubby loves meat, especially grilled meat. So sometimes, even in the coldest winters, he will go outside and grill a steak on a Saturday night. He has even been known to dig a path through the snow to get to the grill. Not me. I wait until I can go outside in a tee shirt and flip flops before I am going to go outside of my nice, cozy kitchen to cook dinner. Seventy degrees in March calls for cooking dinner on the grill. So I threw together these tasty little packets, tossed them on the grill went inside to set the table, play with The Bug and say Hi to The Hubby. Then 20 minutes later, dinner was on the table.
If you don't have a grill, don't know how to use your grill, or, you know, live in North Dakota where it is too cold to grill, especially in March, you can always throw the packets in the oven.The Greek yogurt and lemon juice marinade give the chicken so much flavor, and help to create a little lemony sauce and some steam to cook the poatoes nice and soft, and the green beans still slightly crisp.
I didn't get a picture, but The Bug was a fan! Well, truthfully, he did not eat the beans. Even when I put ketchup on them (yes, he is one of those kids who will eat anything with ketchup – but I do make my own. I'll get to that in another post). For some reason, he will eat green beans at school, but at home, he won't go near them. Whatever. Potatoes are always a hit, but he can be picky about meats. And this chicken was so tender and flavorful that he devoured almost as much as I ate! The Hubby isn't the biggest fan of green beans, but he indulged me when I want them sometimes, and he thought they were pretty good.
Don't miss today's Friday Fun!
Do you ever grill in cold weather? What is your favorite thing to make on the grill?
Lemony Chicken Foil Packets with Parmesan Green Beans and Potatoes(serves 4)
4 chicken breasts
1/4 c Greek yogurt (I use Chobani)
1 lemon
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme (or some dried thyme, I'd say about 1/4 t)
1 clove of garlic
2 t kosher salt, divided
freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. red potatoes, slice about 1/4 in. thick
1 lb green beans
1 T olive oil
1/4 c parmesan cheese
4T water
1. Before making the marinade, zest the lemon before you cut it and squeeze it for the juice.
2. Make the marinade by combining the Greek yogurt, the juice of one lemon, thyme, garlic, 1 t salt , and a few grinds of pepper in a bowl or plastic bag.
3. Add the chicken breasts and let marinate for at least 20-30 minutes, but the longer the better.
4. Toss the potatoes, green beans, olive oil, parmesan cheese, 1 t salt, a few grinds of pepper, and the reserved lemon zest.
5. Take four squares of heavy-duty aluminum foil, or a double layer of regular aluminum foil, and spray the dull side with olive oil or coking spray.
6. Divide the potatoes and beans evenly between the packets. Or you could be as meticulous as me, and start with a layer of potato slices, then put the green beans on top.
7. Lay one chicken breast on top of the potatoes and beans in each packet.
8. Fold up the foil into pouch, and before sealing, at 1 T water to each packet.
9. Put on a medium to medium-high grill for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are soft and chicken is cooked through. (Or you could put it in a 350F oven, probably for about 25-30 minutes).
10. Open up your packets and serve.
This recipe was shared with:
Amee's Savory Dish Fit and Fabulous Friday 3/23/12
Addicted to Recipes' Scrumptious Sunday Link Party #4


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Videogames feed your inner cavemen, says report
Primal Instinct, the videogame?
Men now have a proper excuse for spending hours glued to a games console, thanks to new research which has concluded that videogames force blokes to revert to their caveman roots.
Allan Reiss, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science at Stanford University, US recently hooked a group of men and women up to an MRI scanner whilst playing a videogame where the aim was to win virtual territory.
Although the study found that the mesocorticolimbic area of the brain – which is associated with reward and addiction – became stimulated in both sexes during gameplay, the effect on men was more intense.
For example, male brains displayed higher levels of activity as they progressed through the videogame and won more territory. The study concluded that male brains are simply hardwired to conquer and dominate, which could be the result of our caveman days spent fending off sabre-toothed tigers and rival cave-dwellers.
Professor Reiss said that men are more likely to feel some sense of reward by 'succeeding' in videogames. "These gender differences might help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become "hooked" on, videogames than females," he added.
But, the report doesn't mean you now have an excuse to throw spears at your neighbour's
panther pussycat in the real world. Another recent study found that although videogames are becoming visually more realistic, there's no hard link between videogame violence and physical aggression.


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MrBenn wrote:The point of the stickies is to focus maps which are on the brink of stamping, whether that be for gameplay or graphics. There's no reason to really complain about the graphics of a map with only a red stamp
no offence but if that's the purpose then i can clearly say it's not working as it should.
let's look at some of the maps.
portland is sticky so apparently it's on the brink of stamping for graphics.
but, 6 weeks ago it was last updated. then for 2 weeks nobody bothered to give feedback and all of a sudden it was stickied despite a severe lack of interest. then 1 month later. it got only 7 more posts and it was recycled. now it's sticky again as if it's just a matter of minutes before it's final forged.
clearly the map is not so close to final forge as the sticky would indicate. it's more likely that the map belongs to the main area with other non-sticky threads.
divine meteorological map is another weird sticky.
it started in nov 2009 and didn't even get a full page of feedback before it was abandoned. resurrected in march 2010 it got a few more posts and went to sleep again waiting for xml changes. resurrected 1 year later in march 2011 the map is barely in the gameplay discussion and it's stickied. in the last 3 months it had just 1 update and less than 15 post. so again clearly not a map with huge interest and an imminent stamp on it's way.
i mean no disrespect to lostatlimbo and evil dimwit and i have nothing against their maps. i just used them as examples to portray my concern about the current sticky system.


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Before the dust settled from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti in January, the search was on for accurate information. Which buildings were still standing? Where should responders look for trapped victims? How could displaced family members hope to find each other in all the chaos?
While humanitarian agencies airlifted crews and supplies to the devastated island, engineers launched programming marathons. Within days, Google released a new online gadget to assist on-the-ground efforts. Embedded on high-traffic Web sites, including the U.S. Department of State home page, Google's Person Finder allowed anyone to submit information or search an online database for details about the missing. Other Google tools were harnessed to help. Google Map Maker helped aid workers in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, navigate ruined streets. The company created a new Google Crisis Response Web page for Haiti to steer the public toward charitable giving opportunities, seeding the pot with a more than $1 million donation of its own.
Google was not the only technology company that rallied to help Haiti. But by marshaling the brains, tools, and cash at its disposal, the Internet giant was demonstrating its special brand of corporate philanthropy. Google isn't just interested in helping out the world; it aims to "engineer" for social benefit. "We want people to look at what we're doing and say, 'Wow, only Google could have done something like that,'" says Jacquelline Fuller, advocacy director for Google.org (or DotOrg), the company's philanthropic initiative.
When Google went public in 2004, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin promised to unleash a Google-sized approach to doing good. In their letter to potential investors, they pledged "to contribute significant resources to the [Google] foundation, including employee time and approximately 1 percent of Google's equity and profits in some form."
Giving away 1 percent of profits put the company "in line with the national average for corporate charitable donations," says Lewis Solomon, a professor at George Washington University Law School and author of Tech Billionaires: Reshaping Philanthropy in a Quest for a Better World. Another 1 percent from equity brought the size of DotOrg to about $1 billion in 2005, with the potential to grow with the stock price—healthy seed funding for a philanthropy. As a final component of the strategy, the company committed an undefined amount of employee time to help solve global challenges.
Google's three-part approach is similar to the integrated philanthropy model developed a decade ago by Internet software company Salesforce.com Inc. Salesforce.com Foundation applies a 1/1/1 formula to social change, with 1 percent of staff time, 1 percent of equity, and 1 percent of profits going to advance the mission of qualified nonprofits.
Page predicted that Google's philanthropy could someday "eclipse Google itself in terms of overall world impact." This tantalizing forecast has yet to materialize. The corporation, which now has a market value of $160 billion and annual profits of $6.5 billion, has made only $100 million in philanthropic grants and investments through Google.org since 2005, according to the Google.org blog. Other metrics are harder to come by. Google can't put a number on staff time devoted to DotOrg projects, but it's likely less than 1 percent. Complicating the picture, Google and its employees engage in charitable giving and volunteerism outside the DotOrg initiative. In 2009, charitable giving, in-kind donations, and Google Grants (in-kind advertising to charities) totaled $170 million, according to Fuller, "which meets our 1 percent, 1 percent goal."
DotOrg is still an upstart compared to foundations that have been working for decades on "some of the hardest-to-move-theneedle- on social problems," points out Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. But hopes for DotOrg were unreasonable from the start.
Company founders, newcomers to philanthropy, hyped expectations by overpromising how much Google.org could do and how quickly it could achieve its goals. The corporate culture built by engineers proved challenging for development experts brought in to ramp up DotOrg. As non-engineers and Google outsiders, they were ill prepared for the impatience of a "fail fast" culture. The initial version of DotOrg failed to play to the company's strengths and identity as an engineering powerhouse.
Five years after launching DotOrg, Google overhauled the philanthropy's leadership and announced a major strategic shift. What happened is a cautionary tale about the challenge of realizing good intentions, even at one of the world's most successful companies.
In late 2004, a handful of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs convened at the home of venture capitalist John Doerr for a private tutorial on global poverty. While Muhammad Yunus explained microfinance—an antidote to extreme poverty that he'd spent years developing—Alex Counts, president of the Grameen Foundation, noticed that two rather young men "were in attentive listening mode."
Page and Brin had good reason to listen. Both became billionaires after Google went public in August of that year. Instead of seeking to improve the world with their personal wealth, like Bill Gates or Andrew Carnegie, they envisioned greater results by using corporate resources and engineering smarts to solve world problems. "They were exposing themselves to a lot of ideas," Counts says, "hoping to have the same sort of breakthrough impact on big, global social problems as they'd had in the business world through Google."
Given the founders' early and outsized business success, "it would have been surprising if their vision had been something other than bold, bordering on grandiose," says Counts. "People applauded it, but also realized that they were taking on some of the most intractable problems that others have been banging their heads up against for decades."
The company's first philanthropic innovation was its structure. Google established Google.org as a unit within the corporation, allowing it to invest in for-profit as well as nonprofit ventures. Under the DotOrg umbrella sat the smaller Google Foundation, a more traditional 501(c)(3) organization. This hybrid structure, unusual for corporate philanthropy, has a parallel in private giving. Omidyar Network, established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam, invests in both nonprofits and for-profit enterprises that offer social benefits.
To fund its good work, Google pledged 3 million shares, equal to 1 percent of the outstanding shares from the initial public offering, and established a 20-year timeline for committing these resources to social benefit. "The dollar value of this commitment will rise and fall with our stock price," explained Sheryl Sandberg, then-vice president for global online sales and operations, in a 2005 Google.org post. Another 1 percent of profit was to be allocated to the DotOrg budget each year. From these funds, the corporation made a one-time gift of $90 million to endow the Google Foundation in 2005, and it funded broader DotOrg activities with a three-year budget of $175 million.
The hybrid structure and pipeline of cash gave DotOrg enormous latitude. It could make grants to nonprofits through the foundation, subject to the rules and public reporting requirements that govern tax-exempt organizations. From the corporate side, DotOrg could invest in for-profit companies and funnel any profits back into the initiative. DotOrg could also develop new products in-house, lobby, work with venture capitalists, and hire consultants. The corporate unit would face the same internal budgeting process as any other cost center but would not have to track its spending publicly. The design maximized flexibility, but left DotOrg susceptible to change if company priorities shifted.
When Larry Brilliant was hired as the first executive director of Google.org in early 2006, opportunities seemed endless. A physician and epidemiologist, Brilliant was best known for his leadership on the World Health Organization campaign to eradicate smallpox. He brought nonprofit experience as cofounder of the Seva Foundation, which provides eye care to combat blindness in the developing world. He was also an evangelist for just the sort of big ideas Google was seeking, such as developing an early warning system for pandemics.
Greg Miller, a lawyer and Silicon Valley entrepreneur, recalls getting a phone call from Brilliant that began, "How would you like to help me change the world?" When Miller settled into his role as managing director of DotOrg, the vibe was "nothing but optimism."
Within Google's top leadership, Sandberg was DotOrg's champion. She brought experience in global development from her previous work with the World Bank and U.S. Department of the Treasury. Sandberg helped set up the hybrid structure for the philanthropy, led the search that resulted in the hiring of Brilliant, and sat on the board of the Google Foundation. She also had the ear of Brin, Page, and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Initially, DotOrg focused on three broad issues, reflecting the passions of top executives. Not surprisingly, Brilliant was most interested in public health. Sandberg advocated for global development, such as support for emerging-market entrepreneurs. Page and Brin were eager to bring technical solutions to the challenge of climate change, which could improve the health of the planet and also ensure a clean energy supply for Google's data centers. They were especially interested in solutions at the intersection of those three issues. As Sandberg told Fortune, "We wanted ideas where we could say, 'If we get this right, it will change the world.'"
Almost immediately, world-changing ideas began to pour into the Mountain View, Calif., campus. Nonprofit leaders, academic experts, and clean technology entrepreneurs were summoned. Al Gore paid a visit to give his famous slideshow on climate change.
The money started to flow. Early grants included $5 million to Acumen Fund to support entrepreneurs in the developing world; $5 million to help establish InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies Diseases and Disasters), a nonprofit focused on developing information systems to improve early disease detection and disaster response; and $1.45 million to the Carter Center to support guinea worm eradication.
In addition to funding, some recipients also received hands-on assistance. Google engineers worked alongside Acumen staff, for instance, to develop systems for tracking investments. Miller predicted this combination of "grants, philanthropic investments, plus Google technical expertise would speed innovation," helping partners to "accelerate their excellence."
Meanwhile, the hunt continued for a more "Googley" project—something that would go beyond grantmaking and harness the corporation's smarts directly to achieve massive impact. An opportunity came along when clean-tech entrepreneur Felix Kramer visited the Google campus to demonstrate his plug-in hybrid CalCars. Plug-in hybrids grabbed Google's imagination because of their potential to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid. It didn't hurt that Google cofounders are electric car enthusiasts. (Both Brin and Page were early investors in Tesla Motors.)
What plug-ins needed to gain a foothold in the marketplace "was exactly what Google could bring," says Aimée Christensen, a lawyer with extensive background in climate change who was one of DotOrg's first team members. That included "attention for what was still viewed by many as a garage technology, new investment dollars to spur competition, and credibility—data as well as media attention."
In a project that became known as RechargeIT, DotOrg set out to demonstrate the potential of plug-in cars and accelerate their adoption. Jason Shellen, who had led the development of products like Google Reader for the commercial side of the company, now lent his expertise to DotOrg's RechargeIT. The project team interviewed major automobile manufacturers, oil companies, battery manufacturers, and other players to understand which metrics needed to be tracked to make the case for plug-ins.
To gather the data, Google bought a small fleet of Toyota Prius cars and retrofitted them to operate as plug-ins. Google employees ("Googlers") were free to drive the cars as part of the company's car-share program—and thus to generate data on battery use and mileage (averaging better than 93 mpg in a controlled experiment). DotOrg made investments to support the development of plug-in technologies, including $2.75 million to Aptera Motors and ActaCell. The foundation made grants to underwrite conferences, fund university research, and raise public awareness of plug-in options.
Since RechargeIT launched in 2007, the market for plug-ins has indeed expanded, with nearly every major car manufacturer getting in the game. Google doesn't take credit, Fuller said, acknowledging that "we're just one of many voices. But we're pleased to see that mainstream manufacturers have picked up the challenge."
Many of DotOrg's early efforts failed to attract the same engagement across the company as did RechargeIT. Strategic investments in companies like eSolar ($10 million for solar thermal power research) and Makani Power ($15 million for research and development of high-altitude wind energy) were intended to spark innovation in alternative energy and, eventually, return profits to DotOrg. These were "data-driven, outcome-based investments," Miller says, reflecting the parent company's insistence on metrics. But the creative thinking was largely outsourced, leaving little room for Google employees to get directly involved.
Beyond the Googleplex, organizations eager for DotOrg funding were growing frustrated with the program's slow pace and shifting objectives. One nonprofit executive, who asked to remain anonymous, flew cross-country to make what she thought was going to be a pitch. "Instead, it was like we were giving them a seminar," she says. "We invested time and shared our intellectual property, and got nothing out of it."
Even Counts, who had previously enjoyed access to Brin and Page, found himself "unable to get a meeting with the head of the DotOrg team. We were never able to make the case for microfinance," he says. Grameen Foundation would eventually "find our sweet spot with Google," Counts adds, with a $200,000 grant and technical support for a mobile phone project called AppLab that launched in Uganda in 2009. But he adds, "microfinance was a little bit ancillary to it."
Employees inside DotOrg were also discomfited. One former DotOrg member describes "an inability to say yes, for fear of saying yes to the wrong thing." Another recalls "ideas failing to get greenlighted for not being Googley enough."
Still others remember that Google.org turned down promising proposals for not being sufficiently ambitious. "The words that I heard being used were 'game-changing strategies,'" says Laurence Simon, professor at Brandeis University and a 2007 Google Fellow who brought deep experience in international development. Yet when it comes to tackling issues like global poverty, he adds, "I'm not sure we have game-changing strategies." Social change "needs patience," he adds. "The brilliance of the founders in having created a game-changing strategy for [Internet] search was both an inspiration to DotOrg and also a burden."
It took until January 2008—and rounds of brainstorming, reassessing, and second-guessing—for DotOrg to announce its five core initiatives. Some were clearly intended to be game changers, such as fostering renewable energy generation at a price cheaper than coal (an initiative nicknamed RE<C). Others called for more traditional development work, such as enhancing access to information in the developing world. When Brilliant announced the initiatives, he said they would provide the playbook for making grants and strategic investments "for the next five to 10 years."
Like the founders' initial promise, DotOrg's initiatives were too ambitious. Taking on one or two global challenges, with projects that had the potential to achieve incremental change, would have taxed any young philanthropy. Instead, DotOrg aimed for highimpact results in five different directions, and on multiple continents. The quest for game-changing projects was at odds with the patience required to stick with a five- to 10-year plan.
Asking critical questions is part of the Google culture. Any employee who's curious about another team's project can track progress on an internal site. The Q&A with Brin and Page is a tradition at companywide Friday forums. Shellen recalls hearing questions about DotOrg circulating among Google colleagues. "This company is engineering-driven. When people heard hesitation from DotOrg, or if it felt like things were sort of teetering, it didn't feel very much like Google," he says.
It didn't help that, as DotOrg staffed up, it was growing more isolated from the rest of the corporation. The 40-plus DotOrgers on board by mid-2008 were siloed in three teams focusing on health, economic development, and climate change. "Sometimes it felt like it was just us around a table," one team member says.
The DotOrg team also kept its distance from the company's more traditional charitable work. Google makes available certain products, like Google Apps productivity tools, free to schools and nonprofits. Google Grants is an in-kind donation program that awards millions in free advertising on Google's search results to select charities. Both these efforts leverage Google products for social benefit; they also build brand loyalty. DotOrg was careful to avoid anything that hinted at marketing. "We have been told clearly by leadership that they don't want sham philanthropy," says Fuller.
This separation left some Googlers perplexed. An engineer who's still at Google was frustrated that powerful tools like Google Earth were not being used for DotOrg projects. Christensen, who left in 2007, recognizes "a hunger [among Googlers] to engage with DotOrg and bring their enthusiasm, knowledge, and even products forward to help make a difference in the world." But this enthusiasm couldn't be harnessed unless DotOrg gave the green light—and funding—to proceed.
Brad Presner was another who saw the tension between the work of DotOrg and "the Google way of doing things," he says. A veteran Googler, Presner moved from the business side of the corporation in 2006 to help DotOrg figure out how to measure the impact of its grants and investments. Google is famous for giving its employees latitude—20 percent of their work time—to pursue new ideas. This practice means Googlers can tinker with an interesting idea or prototype a product, "as long as you can defend your progress at regular reviews," Presner says. "You kind of throw a product out there and see what happens. If it has bugs, you know you can fix it eventually." But "that's not quite how it works in the [economic] development space," he adds, "where people's lives are at stake." Presner left Google in 2008 to work for Acumen, managing a social metrics tool that he had worked on while at DotOrg but couldn't get green-lighted to finish.
In fall 2008, DotOrg came up for strategic review, with leaders from several disciplines across Google weighing in on the initiative. After the review, and with little warning to nonprofits that saw Google as a promising source of future support, DotOrg began shifting gears. Support for entrepreneurs in the developing world, one of the five core initiatives, was now off the table (except for existing grant commitments).
Why was the plan that was supposed to guide DotOrg for a decade unraveling within the first year? Politics played some role. Sandberg had decamped to become chief operating officer (COO) of Facebook earlier that year, leaving DotOrg without an executive cheerleader. More critically, DotOrg wasn't tapping into the company's expertise. Opportunities for Googlers to engage on DotOrg projects were limited. Processes that drive in-house innovation—from how products are developed to how teams collaborate—weren't translating to the social benefit work.
DOT ORG 2.0 In February 2009, only months after the strategic review, Brilliant announced he was stepping aside to make way for a new leader and change in direction for DotOrg. As he explained on the Google.org blog, "While we have been able to support some remarkable nonprofit organizations over the past three years, our greatest impact has come when we've attacked problems in ways that make the most of Google's strengths in technology and information." One example he cited: Google Flu Trends. By aggregating data generated by people searching the Internet for information about common flu symptoms, the tool promises to reduce the time required to identify flu outbreaks and identify hot spots.
Megan Smith, a longtime Googler, engineer by training, and vice president of new business development, took the helm of DotOrg without giving up her other responsibilities. She gained a wellplaced sounding board in Urs Hölzle, senior vice president for Google operations, to whom she reports on DotOrg matters. Smith brings a different style and skill set to the job. "She's analytical, tending to underpromise and overdeliver," said a colleague. Although Smith knows Google inside and out, she is less visible to the outside world than her charismatic predecessor.
Brilliant briefly shifted to a new role as chief philanthropy evangelist for Google, but soon left to lead a global threats initiative for the Skoll Foundation. Brilliant declined an interview request, and Google executives would not comment on his departure.
DotOrg's new marching orders: Put more energy and resources into developing products and less into grants. "It's a remix," Smith said. "We will look for things that could have global scale, are philanthropic in nature, and leverage what we're particularly good at. We have almost 10,000 engineers now," she adds. "If we give grants that don't leverage any of their talents, they can't play."
Some DotOrg personnel had drifted away before the shake-up, but 2009 brought a sea change. Most of the original leadership and many mid-level staffers headed out the door. Sonal Shah left DotOrg's global development team in early 2009 to lead the new White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. Linda Segre, COO for DotOrg, left to become senior vice president for corporate strategy and communications for Diamond Foods. Miller departed in August 2009, to serve as acting dean of the Presidio Graduate School MBA program.
Except for a handful of people focusing on issues like advocacy and communications, DotOrgers are now embedded across the company in functional units. "Engineers report to engineering; product managers report to product; partnership people report to the partnership team," Smith says. A DotOrg project team might draw expertise from each of those units. This reflects how Google is organized and how Smith incubates commercial products. She sees other benefits to embedding the DotOrg staff of 80. "Just sitting next to somebody, you can grab their thinking," says Smith. "That's a big change."
Smith is confident she can manage DotOrg and its $50 million 2010 budget along with her other VP responsibilities. For starters, she does not personally oversee each project. That falls to the appropriate team leader. Bill Weihl, for instance, Google's "green energy czar," oversees initiatives aimed at reducing the company's carbon footprint and fostering development of clean energy. Within his portfolio are several DotOrg projects. Nor is Smith devoting as much time as her predecessor to searching for worthy partners. New investments in for-profit social ventures are on hold. On the charitable giving side, Smith serves on the board of the Google Foundation—which awarded just $1.3 million in 2009—and takes part in Google's charitable giving council.
In addition to staffing changes, Smith has introduced a rigorous process for proposing DotOrg projects. With questions that drill down into technical details and head count requirements, it will feel familiar to anyone who works at the company, with one key difference: "They have to be able to justify it—not commercially, but in terms of [social benefit] impact it would have," Smith says.
Geo team engineer Rebecca Moore was the first to propose a project under DotOrg 2.0. The idea for Earth Engine came about through collaboration with leading forestry scientists working in the tropics. They needed a better way to monitor rain forest destruction quantitatively. Using Google's computational power, Moore reasoned, they could analyze enormous quantities of data from existing satellite imagery. During the review process, Moore was asked: "Why is this something only Google could do? Why is it important? How will you measure success?" Smith saw a lot to like. "It's very Google-like, very scaled," she says. Moore got the go-ahead to start prototyping with a small team and unveiled Earth Engine at the COP15 International Climate Change Conference in December 2009.
It remains to be seen whether Smith can give DotOrg enough attention to rebuild momentum lost during the reorganization. Although she insists DotOrg remains as important as ever to Google, her part-time leadership raises questions about the company's commitment. One sign to watch for will be whether Googlers increase their engagement with DotOrg projects through their 20 percent time.
The bigger unknown is whether DotOrg's new approach will generate unique contributions. Smith and team are tight-lipped about what's on the horizon. But one recently released product, Google PowerMeter, is drawing comparisons to Microsoft Hohm. Although different in the details, both products encourage conservation by providing consumers with detailed, real-time information about their energy consumption.
A company of Google's size was bound to make waves when it stepped into the social change sector. Starting with the founders' bold promise, there was nothing modest about DotOrg's goals. Nor was there a guidebook for how to operate a hybrid for-profit, nonprofit philanthropy.
Is Google living up to its original pledge? Google says yes, pointing to $170 million in grants and in-kind donations made last year. But only a fraction of that came through DotOrg (and only $1.3 million from the Google Foundation), which was initially portrayed as the centerpiece of Google's philanthropy. The rest came through more traditional channels, such as academic scholarships and grants, holiday giving ($22 million to charities), and employee charitable gift matching fund (up to $6,000 per Googler, plus $50 for every five hours of employee volunteer time). Surprisingly for a company whose mission is to organize the world's information, Google claims not to have a tally of its charitable giving from previous years. This lack of transparency makes it hard to know whether Google is achieving its ambitious goals for giving.
"There's a saying at Google—that you should fail early," says Shellen, who left the company in 2007 to cofound a social media start-up called Thing Labs. This "fail fast" thinking drives the company's product innovation cycle: Start with a promising idea, test, build on what works, and toss the rest. Now, Google has applied the same approach to improving its philanthropic efforts.
If developing new tools is indeed the best way for Google to make a difference, then DotOrg 2.0 addresses many of the structural issues that impeded progress the first time around. Embedding DotOrg personnel in cross-functional teams should yield more collaboration. The new plan also subjects DotOrg projects to the same rigorous review that helps Googlers develop and refine commercial products.
The current focus on tools introduces a new challenge. Not every global problem can be solved with a technical solution. By favoring high-tech, high-impact projects, DotOrg will likely overlook low-tech, high-impact solutions. The focus on projects "only Google could do" gives the initiative a sharper focus, but may smack of hubris or narrow vision to those who have been working on solutions for decades and depend on funders to reach scale.
DotOrg has lost many of the development experts from the original team who provided context to frame problems. To fill this gap, DotOrg will need input from partners who understand the issues. Potential partners will likely want assurance that Google will be with them for the long haul and not just for a rapid development cycle. The challenge ahead isn't whether Googlers can come up with interesting new products. It's whether these clever gadgets will make a world of difference.
Suzie Boss is a journalist from Portland, Ore., who writes about social change and education. She contributes to Edutopia and Worldchanging and is coauthor of Reinventing Project-Based Learning.


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If he falls to is in the second round I think Jared Cunningham from oregon state would be a hell of an addition to our roster!
Possible local kid assecond round choice?!
Discuss anything related to Golden State Warriors basketball here
Moderators: Mr. Crackerz, JREED, Guybrush, 32
I only posted the highlights as an example, he was actually very underrated in HS but has really developed at Oregon state. I say second round because he isn't necessarily first round worthy, but he is a hard working kid with tons of athleticism. He averaged 17 pts a game and was a damn good defender at the point which is something we could use with guys like curry ahead of him....just a thought....and ya I used to post in here quite a bit, but as of late I mostly just observe....
I'm not saying he will be dunking over everyone in the nba, I'm just saying he is an under the radar type of player who could add a lot to an nba team IMO...i saw a mock draft that actually predicted what I am hoping for and that is us taking him in the second round....then again I have a tendency to want for local kids to succeed in the nba for the warriors, but that rarely pans out...
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All Star
I like Tony Worten as possible backup PG.
I think we need a better defender and better distributor then Jenkins, although I like Jenkins strength.
I think we need a better defender and better distributor then Jenkins, although I like Jenkins strength.


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Asked by Bruce, Coral Springs, Florida
Can an 87-year-old woman with aortic stenosis travel on a jet without complications?
Conditions Expert
Dr. Otis Brawley
Chief Medical Officer,
American Cancer Society
The heart is really two muscular pumps with valves to make sure blood flows in the correct direction. The right side of the heart receives blood from throughout the body and pumps blood to the lungs and the left side receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps it to the entire body. The left side is a bigger and stronger muscle as it must pump to a larger area.
The ventricle, or big pumping chamber on left side, has two valves. Blood enters the left ventricle through the mitral valve and leaves through the aortic valve. A stenotic valve is a valve opening that has gotten smaller and is partially obstructing blood flow. In the case of this question, the aortic valve.
A patient can be born with stenosis of the aortic valve (AS). One can also develop it because of rheumatic heart disease resulting from a strep infection. Most commonly, especially in older people, one can develop AS over time because of high cholesterol. Cholesterol buildup and the thickening of the valve decrease the valve opening's size, and it becomes calcified.
The size of the valve opening is critical to its function. Size is measured with an echogram (an ultrasound imaging the heart). The normal aortic valve opening is about 3.0 to 4.0 square cm in adults. When the valve opening slowly narrows over time, the heart adapts or accommodates. The heart wall strengthens and thickens to keep blood flow normal. Pressures within the heart go up but blood flow out of the heart remains normal until the opening is about half of normal size.
The patient with AS can be asymptomatic for a long time despite severe obstruction. The classic first symptoms associated with AS typically occur with exertion. They are decreased exercise tolerance, shortness of breath and fatigue -- all symptoms of chronic heart failure -- as well as dizziness, fainting, and chest pain.
Once symptoms develop, even if they are mild, the AS is considered severe. Prompt surgical intervention and replacement of the valve is the preferred therapy. The average survival of someone with symptomatic AS without valve replacement is only two to three years, with a high risk of sudden death from cardiac rhythm disturbances. Up to a third of patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis suffer sudden cardiac death.
Some patients with asymptomatic but fast-progressing AS should also get valve replacement. Surgery in such patients generally helps keep the symptoms from progressing and reduces the risk of death. Patients with AS who are not candidates for surgery require careful monitoring and treatment by a cardiologist.
Your concerns about air travel are well founded. Airplanes are generally pressurized to an altitude of 8,000 to 10,000 feet. This means air is thinner, and some patients might benefit from supplemental oxygen.
In general, a patient with diagnosed aortic stenosis that is asymptomatic with exercise can safely fly on an airplane. A physician should see such a patient and give medical clearance.
In some circumstances, patients with mild symptoms who are awaiting surgery or who are not candidates for surgery may still be able to travel. All airlines have physician consultants and this might require the patient's physician talking directly with the airline's physician.
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New Play on Cottage Cheese Featured
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Authors: Food Network
Everyone's familiar with the classic diner combo of cottage cheese and pineapple (or peaches). Whether you're a fan of cottage cheese on its own (or with fruit) or not, here's a new way to use this with this lighter creamy white dip recipe. We pureed reduced-fat cottage cheese with white beans to make a satisfying, low-calorie dip. Enjoy it as a healthy snack or serve it for game day. Enjoy!
Lighter Creamy White Bean Dip
2/3 cup reduced-fat 2-percent cottage cheese
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
One 15.5-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons good quality olive oil
Pinch smoked or sweet paprika
Chopped chives, for garnish
Combine the cottage cheese, vinegar, thyme, beans, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a food processor. Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Chill 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with the paprika and garnish with chives.
SERVES: 7 (0.25 cup per serving); Calories: 83; Total Fat: 2 grams; Saturated Fat: 0 grams; Protein: 6 grams; Total carbohydrates: 11 grams; Sugar: 2 grams Fiber: 3 grams; Cholesterol: 2 milligrams; Sodium: 360 milligrams
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