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Alert readers (as Dave Barry likes to say) will have noted that I haven't blogged in a while. The reasons are multiple: heavy travel schedule, writing for the newest book, and full days of work on two large projects. But the key reason is anger. I have been so angry about the head-long rush into untested and poorly-thought-out value-added accountability models of schools and teachers in various states all around the country that I haven't found a calm mental space in which to get words on paper. Let me now try. Forgive me if I sputter.
Here's the problem in a nutshell. Value-added Models (VAM) of accountability are now the rage. And it is understandable why this is so. They involve predictions about "appropriate" student gains of performance. If results – almost always measured via state standardized test scores – fall within or above the "expected" gains, then you are a "good" school or teacher. If the gains fall below the expected gains that you are a "bad" school or teacher. Such a system has been in place in Tennessee for over a decade. You may be aware that from that test interesting claims have been made about effective vs. ineffective teachers adding a whole extra year of gain. So, in the last few years, as accountability pressures have been ratcheted up in all states, more and more of such systems have been put in place, most recently in New York State where a truly byzantine formula is being used starting next year to hold principals and teachers accountable.
It will surely fail (and be litigated). Let me try to explain why.
VAM: fair in theory. Let me make a critical distinction. I am in favor of theidea of VAM – and you should be, too. Because in theory looking at gains is the only fair way to deal with the extraordinary diversity in what families, students, teachers and schools bring to the table; thus, a fairer way to judge schools and teachers. In theory, VAM overturns the current invidious comparisons based on SES where if you happen to have a demographic of upper-middle-class families in your school or district then you look really good compared to an inner-city school.
I have seen this sham first-hand over many years: lots of so-called good NJ and NY suburban districts are truly awful when you look firsthand (as I have for 3 decades) at the pedagogy, assignments, and local assessments; but those kids outscore the kids from Trenton and New York City, even though both city systems have a number of outstanding schools and teachers. And as I and others have reported many times, by the College Board's own data, the wealth of the family is by far the greatest of all predictors of SAT scores – far better than the grade point average. For every $10,000 increase in family income SAT scores rise approximately 15 points.
So, point #1: value-added accountability is needed to sort this out in a more fair and helpful way. We need to know the answer to the question: given what you started with, what progress was made? Fairness and better insight into what works and what doesn't pedagogically demands the inquiry.
2nd point: the truth hurts, and methinks that some teachers, schools, and districts doth protest too much. Numerous value-added studies reveal some vital hidden truths. It IS true that the models accurately predict over a 3-year period, performance at the extremes. Thus, the really effective teachers stay so and the really ineffective ones are really ineffective. But, as all the impartial studies say, no precision exists for rating and rankings year by year.
Yet, when you start to do pre- and post- analysis in "good" schools and colleges, the results are sometimes shockingly bad. I know of one outstanding prep school that commissioned ETS to develop a test of critical thinking, they gave it to 9th and 12th graders – and there was zero gain. Nada. Similarly, recent findings were just reported for a number of colleges that take the CLA (Collegiate Learning Assessment). The reaction at many of these schools? Kill the messenger! The results can't be right since we know we are good! Hmmph. So, again, I am not inherently sympathetic to these kinds of laments. I am in favor of this kind of longitudinal accountability for progress. We know that it works in video games, sports, business, the arts: we judge you on the rate of growth, and you keep striving for your personal best.
VAM in practice: harmful. But the devil is in the details. And the details are damning for what state ed. now plans to do in many states. So, Point #3 has to be squarely and honestly faced – especially by those of us who favor accountability: the ugly truth is that current and proposed uses for the approach are not ready for prime time on psychometric grounds. Worse, policy-makers (and, yes, some enemies of public education) are foisting these flawed approaches on us with seeming disregard for margin of error and the invalidity of shifting the purpose of the test – an old story in education.
It becomes like a sick game of Telephone: what starts out as a reasonable idea, when whispered down the line to people who don't really get the details – or don't want to get them – becomes an abomination. The same thing happened when the SATs started to be used as accountability measures instead of predictors of student freshman college grades 30 years ago, thanks to Bill Bennett and others in the Reagan administration with axes to grind. (Did you know, by the way, that the margin of error on an individual SAT score is 33 points plus or minus? Yep: Suzy's 580 is really the midpoint of a 550 – 610 confidence interval. As true today as it was in 1982.)
By looking at individual teachers, over only 1 year (instead of the minimum of three years, as the psychometricians and VAM designers stress), we now demand more from the tests than can be obtained with sufficient precision. The margin of error from year to year can now be as large as the gain predicted, in small samples. Thus, by posting yearly scores, by failing to publish and acknowledge the margin of error, by failing to note that "good" teachers in Year One are often "bad" in Year Two (what measurement people call 'score instability'), we are again living through the same hell as when SAT scores were wrongly used and abused 30 years ago to rate schools.
The VAM systems out there now (and the further absurdity of publishing yearly results in the paper) also violate two principles at the heart of quality control as formulated by Edward Deming: Drive out fear and end quotas – because both undermine the right motivation needed to do a quality job and take pride in it. Since when did public shaming ever work as a motivator? What the thoughtless policy-makers in Albany and other places where VAM is underway or about to be rolled out have really done is re-invent the Russian wheat quotas of the 1950s. It didn't work then and it won't work now.
I am not going to bore you with the arcane psychometrics of the model. In fact, another reason the actual VAM system is so harmful is that it has zero transparency: no person held accountable can understand or challenge their score because the math is so complex. So, I will just quote from numerous recent papers, by reputable researchers, on their doubts about the current VAM systems and claims for their soundness; you can follow up, if interested and strong in measurement:
From "Mathematical Intimidation: driven by data" by the President of Math for America, John Ewing: When value-added models were first conceived, even their most ardent supporters cautioned about their use… Over the past decade, such cautions about VAM slowly evaporated, especially in the popular press… Even people who point out the limitations of VAM appear to be willing to use "student achievement" in the form of value-added scores to make such judgments. People recognize that tests are an imperfect measure of educational success, but when sophisticated mathematics is applied, they believe the imperfections go away by some mathematical magic. But this is not magic. What really happens is that the mathematics is used to disguise the problems and intimidate people into ignoring them—a modern, mathematical version of the Emperor's New Clothes.
As the popular press promoted value-added models with ever-increasing zeal, there was a parallel, much less visible scholarly conversation about the limitations of value-added models. In 2003 a book with the title Evaluating Value-Added Models for Teacher Accountability laid out some of the problems and concluded: The research base is currently insufficient to support the use of VAM for high-stakes decisions. We have identified numerous possible sources of error in teacher effects and any attempt to use VAM estimates for high-stakes decisions must be informed by an understanding of these potential errors.
From a technical study of VAM models: In general, obtaining sufficiently precise estimates of teacher effects to support ranking is likely to be a challenge. Student test score data tend to be far from ideal, with relatively small classes and substantial numbers of missing values. In addition, models require numerous assumptions that contribute to model uncertainty. Methods to improve precision might include pooling data across years to estimate multi-year average teacher effects.
From a RAND report on "the promise and perils of VAM":
Variations in Teachers Affect Student Performance, but Size of Effect Is Uncertain. The recent literature on VAM suggests that teacher effects on student learning are large, accounting for a significant portion of the variability in growth, and that they persist for at least three to four years into the future. RAND researchers critically evaluated the methods used in these studies and the validity of the resulting claims. They concluded that teachers do, indeed, have discernible effects on student achievement and that these teacher effects appear to persist across years. The shortcomings of existing studies, however, make it difficult to determine the size of teacher effects. Nonetheless, it appears that the magnitude of some of the effects reported in these studies is overstated….
Sampling error is another potential source of error in VAM estimates. Estimates of teacher effects have larger sampling errors than estimates of school effects because of the smaller numbers of students used in the estimation of individual teacher effects. Thus, some estimates of interest will be too unreliable to use. Even so, for some purposes, such as identifying teachers who are extremely effective or ineffective, the estimates might be sufficiently precise. However, for other purposes, such as ranking teachers, the uncertainty in the estimates is likely to be too large to allow anything to be said with any degree of confidence….The Bottom Line: The current research base is insufficient to support the use of VAM for high-stakes decisions, and applications of VAM must be informed by an understanding of the potential sources of errors in teacher effects.
From a policy paper from the Educational Testing Service: VAM results should not serve as the sole or principal basis for makingconsequential decisions about teachers. There are many pitfalls to making causal attributions of teacher effectiveness on the basis of the kinds of data available from typical school districts. We still lack sufficient understanding of how seriously the different technicalproblems threaten the validity of such interpretations.
From an EPI briefing paper: VAM's instability can result from differences in the characteristics of students assigned to particular teachers in a particular year, from small samples of students (made even less representative in schools serving disadvantaged students by high rates of student mobility), from other influences on student learning both inside and outside school, and from tests that are poorly lined up with the curriculum teachers are expected to cover, or that do not measure the full range of achievement of students in the class. For these and other reasons, the research community has cautioned against the heavy reliance on test scores, even when sophisticated VAM methods are used, for high stakes decisions such as pay, evaluation, or tenure. For instance, the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences stated, …VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness should not be used to make operational decisions because such estimates are far too unstable to be considered fair or reliable.
Back to the early 1900s and the cult of efficiency. All of this is painfully familiar. It all sounds EXACTLY what Ray Callahan wrote about the cult of efficiency in his book of that title – in 1962!! – on how schools were held accountable in the early 1900's in response to the great waves of urban migration and the newly-developed Taylor system of accountability in manufacturing. Callahan's book is a brilliant and detailed account of how policy people put similarly heavy-handed invalid and unreliable accountability on public schools, under the guise of modernity, and nearly destroyed it. I implore you to read it, if you care about the gap between the vision and reality of school accountability. And if chills don't go up your spine when reading it I will be very surprised.
Here are a few quotes from the book:
"In the years between 1911 and 1925 educational administrators responded in a variety of ways to the demands for more efficient operation of the schools. Most of these actions were connected in some way by educators to the magic words 'scientific management.'
"Almost immediately after the country became acquainted with scientific management principles, pressure began to apply them to the classroom…a school board member from Allegheny PA told the NEA that 'if teachers did not voluntarily take steps to increase their efficiency the business world would force them to do so….most attention became directed to the development of 'objective' achievement tests [as a result].
"Although some educators undoubtedly believed that the education of children would be improved through the introduction of various efficiency measures, the primary motivation for their adoption by administrators was self-defense…efficiency measures 'had to be reported simply and in a language businessmen could understand.'
"Some 8th graders [Bobbit] said did addition 'at the rate of 35 combinations per minute' while another 'will add at an average rate of 105 combinations per minute' So, Bobbitte claimed educators 'had come to see that it is possible to set up definite standards for the various educational products. The ability to add at a speed of 65 combinations per minute, with an accuracy of 94% is as definite a specification as can be set up for any aspect of the work of the steel plant.' But in most schools, he said the teacher 'if asked whether his 8thgrade pupils could add at the rate of 65 per minute with an accuracy of 94%, could not answer the question; nor would he know how to go about finding out. He needs a measuring scale…a teacher who fell short of the standard can now know herself to be a poor teacher.'
"[Supt Taylor of NYC] worked out charts on which teachers would be rated, and in his attention to detail ( e.g. teachers were rated on the time spent passing out and collecting papers) would have done justice to any efficiency engineer. And despite his words of 'teacher as artist', he stated that if her work was 'inefficient' the supervisor had the right to say 'take my way or find a better one.'
"There were other unfortunate effects of the [school] surveys. In many instances, the [outside] experts tended to be extremely critical and when these criticisms were exploited by the newspapers some poor schoolman was in for trouble.
"It is impossible to determine how many huge schools were built for reasons of economy in American cities, but the numbers was and continues to be considerable. And the same logic was used to justify in deciding which subjects were of most value: since they could not agree on the value e.g. of Greek or since there apparently was no difference in educational achievement in large and small classes, then the economic factor was the decisive one.
"It seems in retrospect that, regardless of the motivation, the consequences for American education [of applying business and industrial values and practices to education] were tragic…it is clear that the essence of the tragedy was in adopting values and practices indiscriminately and applying them with little or no consideration of educational values or purposes…. It is possible that if educators had sought 'the finest product at the lowest cost' the results would have been less unfortunate. But the record shows that the emphasis was not on 'the finest product' but 'the lowest cost.'
"The tragedy itself was fourfold: that educational questions were subordinated to business considerations; that administrators were produced who were not in any true sense educators; that a scientific label was put on some very unscientific and dubious methods and practices; and that an anti-intellectual climate, already prevent, was strengthened."
What Callahan reveals over and over again is that we tend to measure what is easy to measure, we tend to run completely roughshod over nuance of margin of error in the measuring, and lurking behind most of the schemes is a mindless commitment to buzzwords rather than attempts to genuinely improve learning and achievement. Plus ça change?
In a later post I will propose the outline of a modest solution to this mess. The solution requires us to learn from athletics: utterly transparent and valid measures, timely and frequent results, the ability to challenge judgments made, many diverse measurements over time, teacher-coach 'ownership' of the rules and systems, and tiered leagues (e.g. Division I, II, III) in which we have reasonable expectations and good incentives to make genuine improvement over time. A central feature would be having teachers involved for 6 days a year scoring student work in regional gatherings, much as they do in 'moderation' meetings in the UK and in AP and IB scoring.
Why it makes me mad. All this makes me deeply angry. These policies will drive good people out of education and undercut the accountability movement. But this kind of policy-making is more than stupid and Kafkaesque; it is immoral. It is immoral to demand of others what we are unwilling to do to ourselves, whether we cite Kant's Categorical Imperative or the Golden Rule. And no one, absolutely no one, promulgating this policy is willing to have themselves be held similarly accountable. Who would? Who would willingly hold themselves accountable for measures that involve arcane math, no formative feedback en route, unreliable data, and admit no counter-evidence? Shame on the hypocrites proposing this; shame on the policy wonks who cheerfully overlook the flaws in order to grind their political axes; shame on all of us for not rising up in protest.
PS: the references for the above quotes -
Ewing, John, "Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, May 2011, Vol. 58 #5. http://www.ams.org/notices/201105/rtx110500667p.pdf
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Methodological concerns about the education value-added assessment system, Educational Researcher 37 (2008), 65–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X08316420
Eva L. Baker, Paul E. Barton, Linda Darling-Hammond, Edward Haertel, Hellen F. Ladd, Robert L. Linn, Diane Ravitch, Richard Rothstein, Richard J. Shavelson, and Lorrie A. Shepard, Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers, Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Briefing Paper #278, August 29, 2010, Washington, DC. http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp278
Henry Braun, Using Student Progress to Evaluate Teachers: A Primer on Value-Added Models, Educational Testing Service Policy Perspective, Princeton, NJ, 2005. http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/
Henry Braun, Naomi Chudowsky, and Judith Koenig, eds., Getting Value Out of Value-Added: Report of a Workshop, Committee on Value-Added Methodology for Instructional Improvement, Program Evaluation, and Accountability; National Research Council, Washington, DC, 2010. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12820.html
Daniel F. McCaffrey, Daniel Koretz, J. R. Lockwood, and Laura S. Hamilton,Evaluating Value-Added Models for Teacher Accountability, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 2003. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2004/RAND_MG158.pdf
Daniel F. McCaffrey, J. R. Lockwood, Daniel Koretz, Thomas A. Louis, and Laura Hamilton, Models for value-added modeling of teacher effects,Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics 29(1), Spring 2004, 67-101. http://www.rand.org/pubs/reprints/2005/RAND_RP1165.pdf
RAND Research Brief, The Promise and Peril of Using Value-Added Modeling to Measure Teacher Effectiveness, Santa Monica, CA, 2004. http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9050/RAND_RB9050.pdf
The original research on value-added by its founders in Tennessee:
W. Sanders, A. Saxton, and B. Horn, The Tennessee value-added assessment system: A quantitative outcomes-based approach to educational assessment, in Grading Teachers, Grading Schools: Is StudentAchievement a Valid Evaluational Measure? (J. Millman, ed.), Corwin Press, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, 1997, pp 137–162.
PPS: Just picked up May 2012 issue (V93 no. 8) of Phi Delta Kappan. Good summary of cautions of VAM by Jimmy Scherer of U of Pittsburgh in an article entitled What's the value of VAM?: "VAM has the potential to improve such an accountability system by isolating teacher effects. However, it fails to eliminate some common concerns associated with high-stakes testing and cannot be used to rank teachers."


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Check out the latest RPG news | Podcasts | Twitch Streams
For the second year in a row, Bank of America has slaughtered its way through the WCIA brackets, only to end up in the Final Death Match against a rookie with such street cred it only needs to go by two letters: EA.
Well if we're being completely staid in our judgement then Bank Of America would hardly rank as the worst either.
Sure the data is skewed and this isn't a clear case of being the actual possible worst company...Although I think we can agree that if you win something like this, your business practice are pretty terrible. Perhaps not the worst... but very far from the best.http://consumerist.com/2012/04/congratulations-ea-you-are-the-worst-company-in-america-for-2012.html

subset: commoncrawl


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Put our know-how and experience to work for you
At LINDE PLANTSERV®, we know your plant inside out and from top to bottom – because we built hundreds like it. To date, we have constructed more than 4,000 plants worldwide to the highest quality and safety standards.
We bundle this proven engineering experience with the operational expertise of our Gases Division and multiply these insights with the latest intelligent, networked technologies. So you can look forward to analytical operational support, smart training and expert safety consulting. With a trusted, experienced partner at your side, you are free to concentrate on running your business.


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Monday, November 7, 2011
Necrobones Halloween 2011
Posted by Rot at 12:21 PM
6 comments:
- Countess VonRauber (Heidi) said...
The skelly with the glowing green eyes is great.
- November 7, 2011 at 12:25 PM
- wicKED said...
I remember you posting this a couple of years back. I actually wrote the guy about the glowing skele eyes and he was kind enough to reveal his secret. Thanks for reminding me about his great props.
- November 7, 2011 at 4:58 PM
- Marianne said...
Really like the shot of the two skellies from above!
- November 7, 2011 at 6:08 PM
- NecroBones said...
Thanks for featuring me again! :)
- November 7, 2011 at 6:38 PM
- Jay's Shadow said...
Always a great set up. I hope to have that many skeletons some day.:)
- November 7, 2011 at 7:13 PM
- NecroBones said...
Yep, I'm up to five buckies now. I'll probably make more of the cobwebbed ones eventually. I think they fit my theme the best, especially with the floppy heads/jaws I'm putting on them.
- November 8, 2011 at 12:55 PM
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Source : http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/14-witnesses-accounts-differ-at-dr-aafia-trial-zj-01
KARACHI: The trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has taken a bizarre turn when a witness's testimony came out to be different from the one given by American official Captain Schnieder, reports DawnNews.
Furthermore, an FBI agent testified that they did not find Dr. Aafia's finger-prints on the rifle.
The US federal court in Manhattan heard Aafia Siddiqui and 5 other witnesses. Dr. Aafia told the court that she is being misrepresented by the prosecutor's statement regarding the things she has said about America, that only negative thoughts are being portrayed.
According to DawnNews' correspondent in New York, Masood Haider, the court heard witnesses who saw the incident including an Afghan interpreter, Ahmed Gul who became a green card holder in 2009 and was processed by the American government and now lives in New York. Abdul previously claimed that he saw Dr. Aafia shoot at the US soldiers.
There was also a cross examination of witnesses and forensic experts and FBI. On the second day of the trial, four witnesses came under cross-questioning.
In the previous hearing, Captain Schnieder told the court that Dr. Aafia shot at him while she was on her knees.
But on the second day of the trial, Ahmed Gul told the court that Dr. Aafia was standing when she fired the gun and the gun was pointing at some other official.
The Afghan interpreter also told the court that he has been granted a green card and has been settled in America by the officials who brought him to testify in the trial.
During the hearing, one FBI official told the court that they found Dr. Aafia's fingerprints on the documents but not on the gun, Masood Haider said.


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By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com The 2017 San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) is officially in the history books! Hundreds of thousands of pop culture aficionados are traveling home from the San Diego Convention Center after spending four days taking in the sights, sounds, stars, and content that Hall H, Ballroom 20, and the SDCC had to offer. […]
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Jake's Take: The 2017 San Diego Comic-Con Wrap-Up
July 23, 2017 By Jacob Elyachar Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Pop Culture Tagged With: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill reunion, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's last tale, Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Batman: Arkham Asylum 2, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight animated film, Black Panther at SDCC, celebrities who appeared at San Diego Comic-Con, DC Entertainment announcements, Dr. Manhattan vs. the DC Universe, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank the Doomsday Clock, Geoff Johns DC Comics, Geoff Johns panel at SDCC, Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham on Batman, Grant Morrison returns to DC Comics, Grant Morrison Wonder Woman, Grant Morrison Wonder Woman Earth One sequel, Jake's Take: The 2017 San Diego Comic-Con Wrap Up, Jeff Lemire and Ivan Reis The Terrifics, Jeff Lemire returns to DC Comics, Marvel Studios San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel's Inhumans at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel's Inhumans preview, Maximus is a human, San Diego Comic Con 2017, San Diego Comic-Con announcements, SDCC 2017, The Death of Superman gets animated treatment, The Reign of Superman DC Entertainment, The Terrifics DC Comics, Thor: Ragnarok at SDCC, Watchmen in the DC Universe


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Latest Immigration Reform Bulletin Examines Immigrant Crime Myth
The June issue of Cato's monthly newsletter on immigration reform, just released, tackles the timely topic of "Immigrants and Crime: Perceptions vs. Reality." The bulletin finds that, contrary to public perception, immigration has not caused higher crime rates, in Arizona or in the nation as a whole. In fact, one new study even suggests that a rising level of immigration in a city actually leads to lower crime rates.
According to bulletin editor and author Stuart Anderson, a Cato adjunct scholar, "National studies have reached the conclusion that foreign‐born (both legal and illegal immigrants) are less likely to commit crimes than the native‐born." It's an important fact to consider as other states look to copy Arizona's tough new law against illegal immigration, which was in large part motivated by fears of crime.
The latest bulletin is the third in a series Cato plans to publish through 2010 and into 2011. The May issue analyzed the pluses and minuses of a Senate Democratic proposal to reform U.S. immigration law, and the April issue critiqued efforts to impose a national ID card and the E‐Verify system.
You can sign up here to receive the bulletin each month by email.


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8 x 4 x 4 inches (20.32 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm) Kraft Cupcake or Gift Boxes set of 100
These boxes are designed to hold cupcakes and other baked goods, but I love to use them for other non-food gifts as well!
These boxes are not recommended for shipping.
They will ship flat and can easily be folded for assembly.
Bulk orders always welcome!
Le Box Boutique- Love The Moment of Giving - wedding favors - custom packaging - Soap favors for weddings, showers and events - Christmas and Holiday Gifts and Packaging
1-5 business days
I'll do my best to meet these shipping estimates, but can't guarantee them. Actual delivery time will depend on the shipping method you choose.
Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I'm not responsible for delays due to customs.
Just contact me within: 14 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 30 days of delivery
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for:
Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value.


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Key meeting on long-term space exploration
Fourteen space organisations from all over the world will gather in Italy this month to discuss further coordination for long-term space exploration efforts.
From 30 May until 1 June, the 3rd Joint ESA/ASI Workshop on International Cooperation for Sustainable Space Exploration will bring together representatives from 14 space organisations worldwide.
The workshop, the third of a series started in 2005, will take place at the XI century Abbey of Spineto in the vicinity of Sarteano (Siena).
Space exploration is a top priority for many space agencies around the world and many other space organisations are interested by the growing number of cooperation opportunities.
ESA and ASI have therefore decided to jointly organise a series of regular meetings with the aim of contributing to the discussion on cooperation, and providing an opportunity for exchange of information and coordination.
One first tangible outcome of this collective effort by the many space organisations from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, is a document laying down the common vision of the space exploration leaders.
'The Global Exploration Strategy: the Framework for Coordination', which is the title of this collective paper, will be extensively addressed at the Workshop's opening session, and will form the basis for the ensuing discussions that will focus on the implementation of a coordination mechanism.
Europe's Aurora Exploration Programme, the US Vision for Space Exploration, Japan's plans for future exploration activities, as well as ambitious automatic missions being prepared by nations like Russia, India and China, offer numerous opportunities for scientific and technological cooperation.
The very nature of space exploration with its long-term goals and political and technological challenges call for a more structured international cooperation approach.
In this very dynamic context, the workshop convenors, Mrs Simona Di Pippo, ASI Director of the Universe Observation Programme, and Mr Daniel Sacotte, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration Programmes, will welcome a number of space Agency leaders, including Mr Sun Laiyan, Head of the China National Space Administration, and ASI's President, Prof. Giovanni F. Bignami.
Today's opening session, between 09:00 and 13:00, will feature space leaders' keynote address, a presentation of the Global Exploration Strategy document, as well as interventions from space exploration programmes leaders from several space agencies.
The Global Exploration Strategy framework document identifies a common set of exploration themes and values that are common to several possible exploration targets and destinations in our Solar System, including the Moon and Mars.
These themes include increasing our scientific and technical knowledge; expanding human presence in space; exploring global partnership and economic benefits; and finally promoting the inspirational and educational value of space exploration activities.
The space agencies' representatives who produced the document share the view that it is only through sustainable international cooperation that the enormous challenges of human exploration of the Moon and Mars can be overcome.
The complete document will be available upon request as of 31 May. It will also be published at http://www.globalspaceexploration.org
For more information, please contact:
Piero Messina
Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity & Exploration
Tel.: +33 1 5369 7410
Fax: +33 1 5369 7188


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FORCE members wear PEACE LOVE WINE t-shirts
An evening of wine tasting was the perfect way to celebrate National HBOC Week. Guests learned about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer while they tasted wine and enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and dessert donated by local restaurants. Gift bags and 30 enticing raffle prizes added extra fun to the evening.


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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
The New YA
YA is not MG.
This is the most important thing that people need to realise when buying books for kids/teenagers.
YA is not MG.
MG is middle grade. Middle Grade is typically 8 -12. My books are Middle Grade. The first three Harry Potters are MG. Again, it encompasses many different genres, and while the age range is more specific, there are divisions within it as well. Within Middle Grade you can also have Upper Middle Grade which can be read too by 13 and 14 year olds (that awkward tween stage of literature).
So what is YA then? YA I suppose is anything above that in theory. And yet a YA will rarely have a protagonist younger than 14. Kids like to read up you see.
So what is YA then?
YA is a very new genre. People might argue that, they point to fiction for kids that has been around for forever. They point even to Judy Blume, who remains quite popular. But the new YA isn't that. I'd argue that these days those books you think of when you think of your childhood as being YA are actually Middle Grade. Even if they involved teenagers, these books were primarily read by kids in the tween age range. Once a kid got to high school, if they indeed even kept up with reading, they moved on to adult books. Teenagers don't much want to feel like kids.
I know. I remember that feeling.
I'd argue that the new YA, the YA of the last decade, is the first time YA is being written for YAs.
So what is YA then?
If we suppose that in the past teenagers moved on from what was at the time considered YA to adult books, and that now teenagers are reading actual YA books as actual teenagers, then how can we assume YA ought to remain in some category belonging primarily to middle grade fiction? If they can handle the adult stuff, why then can't YA have adult themes?
The question is asked all the time, "What is acceptable for YA?", "Am I allowed to do this in YA?"
The answer is very straightforward. Anything. Yes.
But remember these two important details. Your main character has to be a teenager. And the plot must have something to do with coming of age.
I'll also add that a faster pace than some adult literature is quite desirable. But then again in adult literature, there are times, dude, when it could also be quite desirable.
Other than that: Anything. Yes.
The new YA respects that teenagers get that the world isn't perfect. That there is sex, drugs, violence and bad language. That bad things happen. But the new YA still for the most part remains a genre of hope. It is rare you will find a YA book ending on a desperate note.
Granted I think this might frighten some adults/parents. Because we look back to our YA reading experiences, back when YA wasn't really YA but MG. We forget the texts we studied in highschool, the adult books we had to analyse, the adult content we were faced with. In our minds, YA still is innocent, because our YA was much more innocent.
There were authors pushing the boundaries, Ms. Blume of course, and the odd YA actually meant for YAs, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (you could consider both of them the inspiration and forebears of the new YA), but for the most part the books were much safer than they are now. However. They also weren't truly meant for teenagers. Because teenagers, again may I repeat, were reading adult books.
Because YA is also a very new genre we have to understand that books that in the past were categorised as adult, could quite conceivably have been categorised as YA had the genre existed at the time.
All very complicated, I know.
Why am I saying all this? I guess because I see articles like these and I just shake my head. The article is about a "children's book" called Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, and asks whether publishers should not take more responsibility for content. Aside from the absurd notion that it is up to publishers to censor what comes out onto the market to preserve one group's idea of morality, what the author of this article neglects to mention is that the book is not MG, is not a "children's book", but is YA. And the author of this article clearly has no concept as to what YA is. Nor do many of those interviewed. This false premise alone is the greatest frustration I have with this article. It means every argument postulated for or against, is discussing the wrong subject. It's like saying, "I read this slice of life book and was shocked to find dragons in it!" when the book you are talking about is clearly a fantasy.
Look, I write MG, I understand that there are certain topics I can't write about, or at least must handle very delicately. This is simply not the same with YA.
I will not pretend that YA with very mature themes are not a harder sell, and much harder for a publisher to market. I also will not pretend that even adult works dealing with certain themes do not get the public's ire raised as well. It is much easier to sell a work about chaste vampires, than one that deals in gritty real world issues. It is naive to say what I have said: Anything. Yes. I really should have added, "But you'd better do it darn well."
But we also have to stop pretending that the literary market is anything like it was when we were kids (and I wasn't a kid that long ago compared to some, and even since then, it has changed considerably).
JK Rowling made kids' books profitable. The MG market exploded with the advent of Harry Potter. She actually changed the face of publishing. This seeped into the YA market, which was already experimenting, and now with Twilight, it is not just a force to be reckoned with, but one of the few genres where sales have gone up in this economic climate.
Go into a bookstore and look at the YA section. It is an incredible thing. So many different styles and genres all shelved side by side. The opportunity to try new things is right there at your fingertips, not isolated from each other like over in the adult section. There is lovely PG rated work to be found, it isn't like it has disappeared, but there is the tougher stuff out there too.
And it's okay. It's good to have choice. I know parents are complaining that they need age banding on books so they understand what it is their kids are reading. But I just don't think that's the answer. A child is not universally ready for something at 12, and then ready for something else at 14. It depends on their upbringing, their reading level, their likes and dislikes. Gasp! On being an individual human being. I could not, and still can't, read/watch horror. Doesn't mean there weren't kids back when I was little reading the Goosebumps series. If we age banded based on my example, no one would be allowed to read horror ever at any age.
The answer, in my mind, is understanding the new YA. And the answer to understanding what it is kids are reading is to read what the kids are reading. To understand that YA for YAs is meant to be read by intelligent discerning minds, by teenagers who are far smarter than a lot of adults give them credit for. Let's not forget that many teenagers are heading off to university by the time they are 17.
You don't want your 12 year old reading YA? There is still MG. There is some amazing MG out there (if I do say so myself). But you need to understand that difference between MG and YA. Because it didn't exist before recently. It's new. YA used to be MG. It isn't anymore.
And again, that's okay.
One final thought: Shakespeare is taught in, I'd venture to guess, almost every highschool in the English speaking world. Shakespeare was a genius. He can express thoughts and feelings in a way that is beyond perfect, you just want to roll his words around in your mouth they are so glorious. However. Shakespeare was also a naughty boy, and his plays are rife with blatant sexual jokes and innuendo. He was also a violent boy, writing about eye gouging, suicide, fights to the death. . .
Your teenagers are reading Shakespeare.
Is all I'm saying . . .


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Vans doesn't even need an introduction, right? Well, I'll introduce anyway. Skateboarders wear Vans. Skateboarders have always worn Vans, even far before Spicoli. The Waffle Grip and classic style have always been the perfect balance between form and function. We not only skate in Vans here at The Boardr, we work with them helping to execute some of their biggest events like the worldwide Vans Park Series every year. We're hyped to be carrying a brand that has been such a big part of skateboarding history. No matter how young or old you are, Vans is also part of your personal skateboard history, too. Thanks for picking them up from us.Shop Vans
Real, Volcom, Vans, Thunder, Spitfire
From: Villawood Australia.
Stance: Regular.
31 years old.


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An article in today's FT (August 28, 2013) contains the following gloomy assessment of the tone at the Jackson Hole summit of central bankers.
The world is doomed to an endless cycle of bubble, financial crisis and currency collapse. Get used to it. At least, that is what the world's central bankers – who gathered in all their wonky majesty last week for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming – seem to expect.
Why would such an erudite gathering have reached such a conclusion and why are they right? It is a reflection of the fundamentally misguided view of financial economics which still largely prevails in academia and among policy makers and the financial elite.
Mainstream (neoclassical) economists see economic and financial behavior as manifesting, at the macro level, economically stable equilibria which are the outcome of a utility optimizing function by a collection of rational economic agents. Under this framework, financial crashes are due to exogenous factors. That is, within the modeling tools that they use to explain system wide economic circumstances, there is no explanation, other than abnormal shocks, which are "outside" the scope of their models, to explain why bubbles become unsustainable and eventually burst resulting in very damaging financial crashes. Mainly because they lack a proper framework for explaining the role of money and credit within financial capitalism they can only resort to something extraneous to account for the disequilibrium crash events which have punctuated economic history.
In more general terms, the neoclassical school is unable to explain the nature of credit and its role in the development of asset bubbles precisely because it fails to offer a satisfactory account for endogenous credit creation and the role of credit/debt in financing investments which can and will lead to unsustainable bubbles. Hyman Minsky outlined his intention to remedy this critical defect in the neoclassical tradition right at the beginning of his book Stabilizing an Unstable Economy .
"We will develop a theory explaining why our economy fluctuates, showing that the instability and incoherence exhibited from time to time is related to the development of fragile financial structures that occur normally within capitalist economies in the course of financing capital asset ownership and investment."
A pithy statement of the opposition to the neoclassical tradition and its marginalization of the insights which Hyman Minsky had with respect to the role of financing in a modern economy – and its associated instability - is also revealed in this quote from Steve Keen during a US television interview. It also alludes to the dispute between himself, Randall Wray and several other economists not within the mainstream (yet), and Paul Krugman which has been ongoing:
You can't model the economy without including the role of banks, debt, and money. And Krugman's part of the economic establishment, which for thirty or forty years has got away with arguing that you can model a capitalist economy as if it had no banks in it, no money, and no debt… You just don't have a model of capitalism if you don't include those components.
While this cursory discussion may seem abstruse and theoretical a lot hinges on the endogenous/exogenous dichotomy. By situating the "causes" of financial bubbles and their ensuing crashes as due to exogenous factors, the central bankers and policy makers can absolve themselves of the ultimate accountability for creating such bubbles. If the assumptions of the endogenous money creation view were to be fully integrated into mainstream financial economics we might eventually be on a path to ridding ourselves of the recurring nasty shocks that, it is usually claimed from a self-serving perspective, no-one could possibly have foreseen, and which are largely the "unintended consequences" of wilful ignorance.


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Headmagnet | Get stuff in your head and keep it there! - 27 views
shared by Fred Delventhal on 12 Mar 10 - Cached
Fred Delventhal on 12 Mar 10Headmagnet creates a model of what's going on in your head. It predicts what memories have faded away, and what memories are still inside, allowing you to quickly get things in your head and keep them there. The more you use headmagnet, the better it gets at modeling what goes on in your head.


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Miller Electric Inverter TIG
John McGannwriterJohn McCannphotographerMiller Electricphotographer
We have a long-running relationship with Miller Electric, which, among other things, has provided us the opportunity to use several of its welders and plasma cutters over the last decade. This relationship also means we are privy to new products before they are released to the public, so a few months ago we were invited to test Miller's new Syncrowave 210 at its West Coast training center, located about 60 miles west of our office. Two things are immediately apparent: Miller's new Syncrowave 210 is a more powerful, refined, and sophisticated welding machine, and it's enclosed in a housing nearly half the size of its Syncrowave 200 predecessor. How does such a small machine pack such a big punch? It's all in the inverters, man.


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City Events
Below is a list of all events that have been added to the city calendar. You can sort by category or city department, as well as filter by specific time frames.
Toddler Story Time (18 Months-3 Years)
- Date: 11/03/2020 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
- Location: Soldotna Public Library
235 N Binkley St
Soldotna, Alaska 99669
Get up and get moving at the library with stories, songs, and silly fun that encourages your toddler's language skills!Return to full list >>


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NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF BROOKFIELD PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION JULY 23rd, 2020 at 7:00 PM
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Extra Space Storage at the corner of Pleasant Street and Rt. 53 is seeking permission to expand from 30K square feet to 50K square feet. The proposal includes adding three stories of additional storage units to either side of the building. On the Pleasant Street side, some of the units would be garage-style. Those units and parking spaces would be surrounded by a fence built at the edges of the asphalt.
The area is busy on weekends because many Weymouth residents pass through on their way to Prevites, Linden Ponds, Easter's, The Range and Derby Street. It can be tricky when traffic is heavy. In part, that's because of the way egresses are situated on the corner lot where Mary Lou's News is located, but it is also due to the light cycle. An expanded Extra Space Storage will have three separate egresses each serving as entrances/exits to storage units. Movers using these egresses will surely compound the congestion.
The proposal will be discussed at the Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the McElroy Room in the McCulloch Building at 182 Green Street. Please attend if you share these concerns.
Linda Dougherty
Here's one opinion. What's yours? Click here to write a letter to the editor of up to 200 words or leave a comment on the story. To give everyone a chance to be heard, we allow one letter per writer every 30 days. Read more columns, editorials and letters.


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Easily manage your business on a Mac.
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Now that we have our feet wet, let's get started with the next puzzle. In this puzzle we will be writing a query that returns Percentage Growth Year over Year. For example, if sales were $258,056 in 2006 and $389,456 in 2007, then the percentage growth would be (2007 sales – 2006 sales)/2006 sales. Here are the requirements:
Columns: Internet Sales Amount and Percentage Growth (calculated measure)
Rows: Calendar Years
Filter: Only Show United States Bike Sales
Hint: You can use the CREATE MEMBER statement to perform the calculation and use it in your query. You may also need to use a CASE Statement to address a Divide By Zero error.
Remember, don't post you solutions here. Save them for my solution post. I will post it along with the steps that was taken to solve the puzzle in a couple of days. Here is a screen shot of what the results should look like:
Don't forget to check back in a couple days for the solution.
Talk to you soon,
Patrick LeBlanc
Founder www.TSQLScripts.com and www.SQLLunch.com.
Visit www.BIDN.com, Bring Business Intelligence to your company.


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Rita Maas
Sorbete de Gazpacho Sobre
Gelée de Manzana
Many of Spain's celebrated chefs have tinkered with traditional gazpachos, transforming them into dishes worthy of the most creative kitchens. A favorite variation is gazpachos (both red and white) made into sorbets and included as part of a tasting menu.
This luscious coral-colored sorbet, adapted from a recipe by chef Sergio López Domínguez, of Tragabuches restaurant, in Ronda, looks stunning served over a bed of diced apple aspic and drizzled with caramelized balsamic vinegar. López likes to sprinkle the sorbet with a garnish of finely chopped mojama, a salt-cured tuna. The blend of flavors in the dish works sensationally well, with or without the extra garnish.
- Yield
- Makes 4 first-course servings
- Active Time
- 25 minutes
- Total Time
- 3 hours
- For apple aspic
- 1 cup clear (filtered) apple juice
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from one 1/4-oz envelope)
- For gazpacho sorbet
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from one 1/4-oz envelope)
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 lb ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered
- 1/2 large red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped sweet onion such as Vidalia
- 1 (1 1/2-inch) piece Kirby cucumber, peeled and quartered
- 2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar (preferably "reserva")
- 1 tablespoon orujo (Spanish clear brandy), grappa, or aquavit
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons mild extra-virgin olive oil (preferably Andalusian hojiblanca)
- For drizzling
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- Garnish: fresh mint leaves
- Special equipment: an ice cream maker
- Make aspic:
- Bring apple juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin until dissolved. Pour into an 8-inch square baking dish and chill, uncovered, until firm, about 2 hours.
- Make gazpacho sorbet:
- Soften gelatin in hot water 1 minute.
- Mash garlic to a paste with salt using a mortar and pestle (or mince and mash with a large knife). Blend garlic paste, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, cucumber, vinegar, orujo, and sugar in a food processor until as smooth as possible. Add oil and gelatin mixture with motor running, then force purée through a sieve into a bowl, pressing firmly on solids. Discard solids.
- Chill until cold, about 1 hour, then freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer sorbet to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.
- Reduce balsamic vinegar:
- Boil vinegar in a small nonreactive saucepan until syrupy, 1 to 2 minutes, then cool completely.
- Assemble dish:
- Cut aspic into small cubes and divide among 4 plates. Drizzle aspic with balsamic vinegar, then top with a scoop (about 1/4 cup) of sorbet.
Cooks' notes:
·Aspic can be chilled up to 2 days. Cover once firm.
·Sorbet can be made 3 days ahead.
·Sorbet can be made 3 days ahead.


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Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn't. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.Sound reasonable? I don't know if any of you have been reading the Elliott Wave articles to the right of my Blogs, but in case you missed this one table that turns WB on his behind faster then a Gordie Howe elbow, here it is:
Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky's advice: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been."
Cash is what Buffett calls, "a terrible long term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value."
Except for the past eight years? Except in Bear Markets? Except in Grand Supercycle Bear Markets? Then he insults The Great One by suggesting that buying falling stocks blindly is akin to prescience on the ice.
Prices are coming down across all markets. A comment in the previous blog asked me, "if I was nibbling on anything long here." I don't nibble. Nor do I buy stocks, gold, oil, corn, or anything in free fall. Triangle Trading from Market Club is holding Short here. Elliott Wave structure requires a new low in the DJI (for this move) before any tradable rally can be identified.
As for the slandered Gretsky, I shall apologize to Wayne personally, or at least through his actress wife, Janet Jones:That is as soon as I spot where she sits at the games. These are some clues, if anyone catches a Phoenix game locally.


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Let's Build It Right!
Let's Build It Right!
Bricky® is the brainchild of Noel Marshall who has been inventing wall building tools since 2000. Noel's other popular inventions include Marshall Profiles®, Masons Mate & Pro-Pointer. Noel believes due to the permanency of walls, their construction should be to an exact standard in line with building regulations and display the aesthetic beauty for which they're intended. The Bricky's ease of use ensures the DIY person can now build to a professional standard.
Noel testing the New Adjustable Bricky® Prototype
"I've seen too many poorly constructed walls, use our tools and you're building with absolute efficiency & to the exact standard. The result is quality workmanship which displays the beauty of the intended wall"
Noel Marshall – Inventor
Noel Marshall – Inventor
Quality WorkmanshipBrickwork typically spans generations, they don't rust, rot, erode or decay.
Let's Build It 100% RightBrick is a solid, permanent and low maintenance material that provides lasting beauty and appreciating value – brick offers true longevity. Brick have been around for thousands of years, it's one of the only truly tried and tested materials known to man.
"I've seen lots of brick laying aids but this is the one that actually works, it empowers people" – Tommy Walsh
People Are TalkingFeedback is consistent, people are beyond pleased with the results they're achieving.
Want you're saying"The Bricky will become as common as the garden spade. Everyone can use it to good effect".
For accuracy & efficiency, Nothing compares.
"Using the Bricky and this DVD, my dad and I built this extension.It's added $60,000 to the value of our home and only cost us $8,000 to build"
"I've built my own garage and even my mate who's a builder could not believe the standard of workmanship, now I can't get the tool back off him."
"A quick note to say I managed to build this conservatory with the bricky tool, it worked great!"


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Last week, Lana Del Rey covered the song "Heart-Shaped Box" originally by Nirvana, spurring an interesting response by Courtney Love over Twitter. Courtney Love composed a now infamous Tweet about how the song is about her vagina:
Hey. Wait. I've got a new complaint:
What I'd like to say is Huffington Post got it right when they called Courtney Love "outspoken." I don't care if you talk about your vagina online. That doesn't bother me in the least. What bothers me is how Courtney Love managed to demean this song for me and possibly plenty of people around me. I am a big Nirvana fan. I place Nevermind on the list of my favorite albums, up there with The Beatles' White Album and Hail to the Thief by Radiohead.
"Heart-Shaped Box," off of In Utero is not about your vagina, Courtney Love.
Who am I to say this? Courtney Love was married to Kurt Cobain, for crying out loud. She would know if the song was about her lady business.
Let's go back: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. "Oh, that song is about LSD," said every moron ever. These songs are not about drugs, they are not about Courtney Love's vagina. Sure, Heart-Shaped Box has a very sexual connotation. Sure, Courtney Love might have written some of the lyrics. What I don't appreciate is limiting the ideas of what a song is.
Heart-Shaped Box, to me, is about the claustrophobia of love. It's about the addiction of being lost in someone. Once again, this quickly leads to a sexual connotation, but there's an intention to that too. I think Courtney Love would acknowledge this as well, but God, is she so desperate for press that she makes these outlandish statements?
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, to me, is about childhood innocence. It's about vibrant life, it's about imagination, and yes, John Lennon being the cryptic genius he was, I guarantee it's no accident that the name also spells out LSD.
Note that I put "to me", because this is all subjective. The fight I'm trying to fight is people who limit their perspective on what music is about, or limit what anything is about to something as simple as "Courtney Love's vagina," or "drugs." This idea strikes me hard as a writer, specifically as a poet, because when I write, and when most of the people around me make art of any kind, it's never as shallow as writing about one controversial topic. They have something to say. That's why it angers me when a complex and timeless song like Heart-Shaped Box gets put inside of another box, gets limited. I just want to challenge people here to not let that song become a one-note song. Don't let it become an allusion to that one time Courtney Love opened her mouth on Twitter. The same way I challenge you not to define yourself as a hippie, or a hipster, or a rockabilly performance artist, or a mom, or a senator. These things are important to who you are, and may help you find yourself, but you cannot be describe in 140 characters or less, and neither can Heart-Shaped Box.
More on Courtney Love's vagina:


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New User|My Account| Login
Jewelry >> Earrings >> Fashion Gems Earrings >> Tanzanite Earrings
A pair of perfectly matched square tanzanites is set in a rich 14K white gold prong mounting. These gemstone stud earrings have a total weight (TGW) of 2.00 ct and are available in either screw-back or push-back. Available in yellow gold also.
Our Price :$8003.00
On Site Off 60%


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Staff with the National Aquarium's Marine Animal Rescue Program (MARP) recently returned from a several-day road trip adventure named 'Sea Turtle Trek' to transport and release 52 endangered sea turtles off the Florida coast. National Aquarium joined staff from the New England Aquarium to transport the precious cargo from both of our facilities and several of our regional stranding partners, including University of New England Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center, National Marine Life Center, Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, Virginia Aquarium, South Carolina Aquarium.
The turtles that were transported for release had stranded during the record-breaking 2012 cold-stun season and were treated at the rehabilitation facilities mentioned above.
The overall transport began around 5 am on Saturday, April 6th in Biddeford, Maine and finally arrived to the release beach just north of Jacksonville, Florida around 9:30 am on Sunday, April 7. During the transport, we stopped several times to meet our partners and pick up additional turtles.
The turtles rode in a climate controlled environment, and were monitored by biologists from both transporting facilities. Since turtles have all the same bodily functions as every other animal, the staff were relieved to stop for short breaks every few hours and catch some fresh air.
After arriving to the release location, the turtles were unloaded from the vehicles to adjust to the sunlight and warm Florida weather. Staff massaged the turtles' muscles to combat possible muscle fatigue, and many of the turtles became quite active in their transport crates. Finally, the turtles were lined up on the beach by facility and released in groups.
It's always interesting to see all the individual personalities of the turtles – some turtles take off for the water as quickly as possible and don't look back, while others need a little more coaxing.
Staff then celebrated with a much needed lunch on the water near the release location, where there were lots of smiles and sharing of photos from the release. By 4pm we were back on the road again and headed north to our overnight location of Jekyll Island, GA. Our friends at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center were gracious enough to let us use their facility to accomplish our final task of the day –cleaning transport crates. The team came together to wash, disinfect, and dry 52 transport crates in just under 40 minutes. By the time the vehicles were packed up with clean crates, we were ready for showers, some dinner, and lots of sleep!
After breakfast the following morning, we took a short walk on Driftwood Beach at Jekyll Island – the beach there is amazing, and a photographers dream. After the walk, we returned to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center to meet with our colleagues, tour the facility, and listen to a lecture from Dr. Terry Norton. After visiting the gift shop and saying good-bye to the wonderful staff at Georgia Sea Turtle Center, it was time to travel north once again and head home.
This collaborative transport and release event is a true testament as to how stranding and conservation organizations work together to accomplish a common goal. We collectively responded to a record cold-stun season by bringing staff, resources, and facilities together to save as many endangered sea turtles as possible. The staff commitment from all these facilities is never in question – whether it's providing animal care on holidays, responding to stranding events at moment's notice, or traveling the entire East coast to transport and release turtles – we're in it together!


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Nvidia announced some new CUDA stuff last week, a new developer kit (3.1) and the Parallel Nsight Visual Studio plug-in, both designed to make it easier for ISVs and other coding types to support Nvidia GPUs in their apps. Our pal TPM has a typically detailed story here.
One thing that jumped out from the introductory materials is the penetration that CUDA is achieving. According to Nvidia, there are 100,000 active CUDA developers, and there have been more than 600,000 CUDA development kit downloads.
But high download numbers don't necessarily mean anything. However, we did see quite a bit of pudding-eating-proofing activity at Supercomputing '09 last fall. Walking the show floor, you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a vendor talking about GPUs (almost always Nvidia-branded) and showcasing them in their booths.
Moreover, we also heard a lot of happy GPU chatter from real users. Pushing forward CUDA and the GPU ecosystem is vital for Nvidia's present and future in HPC and, going forward, the enterprise computing market.
The key to big success in accelerators isn't so much the bang for the buck with the accelerator itself but in how much pain, time, and money an organization needs to spend to get that bang on its workload. The more robust the ecosystem, the easier it is for customers to get to the accelerated Promised Land.


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Relocation Services - Rockport, Texas
At Coldwell Banker The Ron Brown Co, we cover a large portion of South Texas from Rockport and Port Aransas to Victoria and the surrounding areas, El Campo and Wharton County, and to Columbus Texas and surrounding counties. Whether you are being transferred to or from our area, we have experienced Realtors who can walk you through the whole process.
When looking to move out of the area, we have Home Marketing Specialists that can build a custom marketing plan to fit your needs. Our goal is to focus on the Transferee's and Client's needs and get the property sold quickly at a great price. Not only can we take care of selling your home, we can put you in touch with a Real Estate Specialist through the world's largest and best broker network. We make it our business to know the experts in every market!
When you are planning a move to our area, we offer home finding assistance with a professionally trained and certified Relocation Specialist, a welcome package, a custom plan to fit your needs, and an area orientation. We are here to provide you with all of the resources you need related to your move!
At Coldwell Banker The Ron Brown Company, we consider it a privilege to serve those who so graciously serve or have served our country. We are sensitive to the needs of relocating military families. Our certified Relocation Specialists have had extensive training on how to better serve you. Our goal is to be your real estate company of choice.
These are some of the many areas that we cover:
Victoria Texas and Surrounding Areas:
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The battle between Nigeria's haves and have-nots comes to a head amidst the post-apocalyptic, shattered landscape of Lagos some 50 years from now, in the new movie Kajola. Check out two trailers, full of explosions and crazy fight scenes.
I love this "teaser trailer" for Kajola, in which a lone man makes a strike for justice in the super high-tech, luxurious island where the wealthy residents of Lagos are sheltering from the results of a civil war:
And here's the full trailer, featuring more action sequences:
Here's the film's official synopsis:
Kajola is the Yoruba word for commonwealth. In the year 2059, Nigeria becomes a totalitarian state. After a second civil war, the rich relocate to the Island areas of Lagos state and turn it into an ultra modern city. The war torn mainland of lagos state is disconnected and abandoned.
A rebel leader, Allen learns of a plot codenamed Kajola to build cities on the mainland and eliminate the remaining survivors. He leads a rebellion against the govt. And must be stopped by Yetunde, the police chief. Though mortal enemies, both discover that everything they thought they knew were nothing but lies.Its a story of love and lust and it heightens the fact that if we don't deal with the segregation and negligence issues facing the country today, then our future is quite predictable because TOMORROW IS TODAY.
Kajola makes its debut in Lagos on July 30, and let's hope it reaches U.S. cinemas at some point. Plus let's hope this is just the beginning of a new wave of Nollywood science fiction. [Kajola The Movie via Bella Naija]


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- DavidFoxfire
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As you noticed by now, Justin.tv has shut down, which was my primary source for GnT material. Is there any other streaming site that offers the show? I could use my fix.


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Who doesn't LOVE pinterest. I just love that I can sit in the comfort of my home and just browse through hundreds of ideas from Home Decor, Recipes, Crafts and Fashion to name a few. I also love seeing what others "pin". I think you can get a feel of others taste by what they pin. I thought I would put together a list of some of my favorite pinners. I hope that you will take the time to visit each of their boards and their blogs (if they are bloggers)!
Here is my board. I pin everything from crafts, home decor, recipes and anything else that catches my eye. I don't just pin to pin, I want to make sure that what I pin is interesting to me and will be there in the future when I want to look at it again.
|Follow Me Here
Guia was one of the first people I discovered on pinterest. Her board is full of color and beauty! She has some great categories ranging from Aprons, IKEA, Junk Gypsies to Girlie Bedrooms. I love everything she pins!!
|Follow Guia Here
Some of you might of heard of Holly..she blogs over at Sunshine in My Soul. Holly is an amazing photographer and a great home decorator as well. I know when she pins something it's going to be to her style of decor.
|Follow Holly Here
All I can say about this next "Texas" Gal is she knows her style. Linsey recently moved from Texas to Tennessee to follow her families dream of living on a farm. I LOVE her blog, her point of view, her stationary...I could go on. She blogs at LLH Designs! She is a custom Christmas card designer but her blog is full beauty. If you don't believe me take a "lookie" at her former Houston home. It was GORGEOUS!!!
|Follow Linsey Here
Layla Grace is an upscale website but boy do I love some eye candy and inspiration. I love browsing through their online catalog to see what I can DIY but I also love everything they pin.
|Follow Layla Grace Here
Have you ever heard of Liz Marie....she is an awesome furniture DIYer and a great blogger. She blogs over at LizMarieBlog.com. She recently just posted her new and updated Laundry Room and it's so cute. You will love the Burlap DIY Subway Art.
|Follow Liz Marie here
I Love that you don't have to be a "blogger" to pin and I think that's true for the next couple of pinners. I don't know how I stumbled onto Megan but I'm so glad I did. I think her and I have the same style and like the same things and that is probably what caught my eye with her pins.
|Follow Megan Here
Same thing with Michelle as Megan. She has over 7,000 pins and I love that she has broken up all of the food into categories. I just dump everything into Recipes and she has broken it out into sub categories. So smart....She even has a category called "Tags and Packaging Ideas"...Love it
|Follow Michelle Here
I found Mona through a magazine from back home, At Home Arkansas. Her and her sister are interior designers and blog at Providence Ltd. - Sister's Point of View. I wish I could build a new house and have them decorate it from everything they have pinned because I LOVE EVERYTHING they pin.
|Follow Mona Here
What can I say about Becky from Organizing Made Fun other than amazing. She has been such a great supporter of mine and I love that she LOVES to organize and shares her passion on her blog. If you are looking for a great Organization pinner, than she is your person!
|Follow Becky Here
Shaunna blogs over at Perfectly Imperfect. She is an ace when it comes to painting furniture. When I painted my first piece of furniture with chalk paint, I found a video of her doing a step by step video and immediately fell in love with her southern accent. I love her style and all of the furniture she has re purposed.
|Follow Shaunna Here
I hope that you have enjoyed getting to know some of my favorite pinners. Some are bloggers and some aren't. That's why I love pinterest. Everyone and Anyone can participate!
I would love to follow you too.....share with me your pinterest account!!!!
I would love to follow you too.....share with me your pinterest account!!!!


text: Locking threads about the Trib board? Allowing people to be threatened and called names? I know being in a position of power on an internet chatboard and getting to tell people what they can and cannot do is a pretty baller position and all but come on. You can just move the thread somewhere else.


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J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Paul Ryan's got a friend in Bobby Jindal.
Jindal, governor of Louisiana, told an audience of conservative activists on Saturday that presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney would send a "powerful message" on budgetary issues were he to choose Ryan, Wisconsin's U.S. House representative, as his running mate.
The remarks came as Jindal – a buzzed-about veep prospect himself – wrapped up a keynote address to the Red State Gathering in Jacksonville, an annual conference of Tea Party and other conservative activist groups.
"I think picking somebody like a Paul Ryan would send a very powerful message that this administration was serious about Medicare reform, entitlement reform, shrinking the size of government, and doing so in a courageous way," Jindal said of a Romney presidency.
Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee and the author of a controversial plan that Democrats have attacked over its cuts to federal entitlement programs.
Romney, who won Ryan's endorsement in March, has spoken favorably of the plan, pleasing conservatives who have helped to make Ryan's name a nationwide brand.
Still, some at the conference here clearly had another veepstaker in mind.
"I was going to God bless you and pray that our nominee has you and your first lady on the list to be vice president," an audience member said as Jindal took questions.
Jindal, brushing aside the compliment, responded that he has a "bias" toward the executive experience earned by governors, before adding that Ryan is an exception to that rule.
Asked later if he was making an endorsement of a Romney-Ryan ticket, Jindal said no.
"It's certainly not my place to be making endorsements. I mean, it's really up to Governor Romney to pick who he wants," Jindal told NBC News. "I just think Paul Ryan brings a lot to the table."
"Paul's a friend. Paul's been a great leader. I think he's an example of a great choice," Jindal added later. "I think there are several other examples of great candidates out there as well."
Jindal earlier told the crowd that he also admired Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Texas Gov. Rick Perry– whom Jindal backed for president during the Republican primaries.
Perry, who dropped out of the race in January, announced for president at last year's Red State Gathering, held in Charleston, S.C.


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Missed Connections
Sometimes, vacations don't go according to plan. Get reimbursed the value of the train tickets or rail pass travel days interrupted due to a delay on a connecting flight or train.
If while traveling in Europe, you miss your connecting train trip due to a flight or train delay caused by a mechanical failure or weather, you will be reimbursed the value of the unused connecting train ticket/reservation/travel day.
In the case of a rail pass, this provision only applies in the event the entire travel day could not be used due to the missed connection and does not apply if the missed connection only partially interrupts the use of a travel day.
Missed Connection Caused due to a Flight Delay
- Travellers must provide proof of the delay from the airline documenting the delayed flight or cancellation.
- Train connections departing directly from a train station located at the arrival airport must have a minimum connecting time of 3 hours.
- Trains connections departing from any train station not located at the arrival airport, must have a minimum connecting time of 4 hours.
Missed Connection Caused due to a Train Delay
- Travellers must request a statement from the railway conductor documenting the delayed train or cancellation. Note – in the event the railway conductor is unable to provide a statement of the delay / cancellation, visit the station ticket window where a railway / carrier agent can assist.
- Train connections departing in and out from the same train station must have a minimum connecting time of 20 minutes.
- Trains connections departing in and out from different train stations must have a minimum connecting time of 1 hour.
Travellers without the minimum connecting time noted above for Flight or Train, will not qualify for reimbursement.
Coverage does not apply for missed connections caused due to the traveller arriving late for his or her flight / train or any other reasons other than mechanical / weather delay of the flight / train.
Travellers will either be refunded the value of the unused ticket, travel day, reservation due to the missed connection or the cost of a replacement product(s), whichever is less.
Travellers must purchase a replacement product(s) in order to continue with his/her travel plans.
Request for reimbursement due to missed connection, must be requested within thirty (30) days upon return from Europe. Travellers must submit a statement to RE including the proof from the airline / train conductor of the missed connection, original product(s) purchased, replacement product(s) purchased due to the missed connection, and a brief explanation of the situation.
Paper Products Rail Pass / Train ticket / reservations, not used due to a missed connection must be emailed to Rail Europe including scanned copies of the original ticket, rail pass and or reservation not used, receipt of the replacement product purchased to continue travel, statement from the airline / railroad documenting the weather / mechanical delay. Requests for reimbursement due to a missed connection must be started by filling out this form.
Once the missed connection request has been reviewed, travellers will be notified by email where the original paper passes, tickets, & supporting documents need to be sent to complete the missed connection request. NOTE – the refund in the case of missed connections is only released for accepted claims once the original paper documents have been received by Rail Europe.
E-tickets / E-Passes (Print at Station/Print at Home/Mobile)
To request a refund for an E-ticket / E-Passes due to missed connection, travellers must email the receipt of the replacement product purchased to continue travel, statement from the airline / railroad documenting the weather / mechanical delay.
Start a Missed Connection request for a refund
Requests for reimbursement due a missed connection must begin by filling out the contact us form below.


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Art Fowler passes away
For those of you who were around in 1959 when the Dodgers won their first championship in Los Angeles, you'll probably remember Art Fowler, who passed away yesterday. He was also a Major League pitching coach for 14 years and the Dodger organization would like to offer our condolences to his entire family and those who knew him.
3 Comments
R.I.P. MR. Fowler.
My prayers will be with the Fowler family.
In case no one noticed, fansince53 got a nice little mention in today's article about the select-a-seat event.
Thanks for noticing dualtone.
Although my memory of Art Fowler as a Dodger is rather vague, I remember him well as Billy Martin's favorite pitching coach and best friend. Art was the pitching coach for the Yankees in 1978 when Ron Guidry went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA and won the AL Cy Young Award. The hated Yankees went on to defeat the Dodgers in the 1978 World Series.
I think it was Art Fowler who once said that he didn't like to run because it made him tired.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Art's family and friends. God Bless.


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WELCOME TO the Tuesday blog. Tuesdays mean Steve Collett, focussing mainly on match fishing but also delving into his styles of pleasure fishing and specialist angling.
We hope you enjoy the blog, and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the icons above, or by the "old skool" method of telling fellow anglers! Feel free also to comment by using the special space at the bottom on this page.
IT'S time of year again, the mornings are a bit nippy, the Windstopper is getting used more frequently, and for a few of us less fish are gracing the net. But for some reason I love this time of year, for me it sorts the men out from the boys, and the "scratchers" start framing on stillwaters as the carp seem to get tighter together, and the wind becomes a real factor.
But what's happening down there, underwater, do they really shut up shop or do we feed too much ?
I have done a fair few experiments on my own fishery over the last couple of years and I have learned a few invaluable lessons. I'm not saying I have learned it all, but I have seen certain things that have made me stop and think about my fishing during these colder months, and I think it's paid off. I'll share a few with you to see what you think.
I don't think we can take enough bait, we can take the wrong sort, but on most club or Open matches I don't think we can take enough!
As a little experiment this weekend measure your bait, that you are going to take and FEED not throw away afterwards, what you would feed, then throw it on a similar size piece of grass, say 2 acres or so. It's not a lot I can tell you, then weigh it. Last year I took my bait and weighed it, usually taking in the September, October months 1lb 8oz of bait.
Why is he asking this? Well after watching what my fish eat, I am basically farming them, so I need to know what weight of food they are eating, and a 1-2lb carp was eating during these months twice a day and around 2oz of bait before swimming off and going on the piscatorial sofa for a lie down!
Now the average fishery of 2 acres in size can have anything upwards of 1,000 carp from 1-2lb and another 1,000 2-5lb so that 1lb 8oz of bait I have put in has fed around 10 small carp! So why aren't we catching them ?
The time of day was very important on my pool even when we had the very bad ice a few years ago there was still a feeding time, and unfortunately for match anglers like me it wasn't between 10am and 3pm !
It was first light and last light, with the odd runt moving around the lake looking for food, how many times have you seen this last hour become productive !
We think we have fed the swim up, and built up our swim, I think they simply move in, they were in the vicinity, they just didn't want to feed.
Have you also noticed the "lumps" start to show in matches this time of year?
I see fish during the winter months that you never see in matches or very rarely, one in particular "Arnie", a 23lb ghost carp that I have caught once in the summer, foulhooked !
Yet every winter I see him feeding along with the rest of the "lumps"… this is simply down to the fact that they are fatties, they have to eat to maintain their bulk, so inevitably they really go on the feed this time of year.
This was a huge eye opener for me, I have an area of my pool that is on a point, and I use it to experiment with certain baits and record the findings along with, air pressure, temp etc. During the winter months there is one bait that stands out more than any other in winter… sweetcorn. And it has to be down to colour, it cannot be the food content or protein, it must be pure and simply down to it being a bright colour.
I have fed it with pellets, meat, worms, casters so on, and… the corn gets eaten. Next most popular is white, white boilies, bread all again proving to be a lot more popular than conventional baits.
So with all this knowledge gained will it help, I'm not sure but it has made me think during matches, no longer will I panic if someone is taking the place apart in the first few hours, knowing well that they might have a munch later on, and having confidence in my feeding also is a huge help.
I recall a very big Winter League match at Woodlands view a few years ago, and during practice and on the match I "filled it in" and I mean filled it in, putting nearly all my six pint allocation in at the start and fishing over it!
And come the match day the big guns were out, I drew next to the superb Jon Arthur and young Dan Brydon from Norwich. I am sure Jon wrote about it at the time, as he looked in astonishment to what I was doing. But there was method in my madness, my thinking was that this place is full of fish, if they do go on the feed I want them to stay there until the match finished, not have a wafer thin maggot and bugger off!!
During the first few hours all around me had caught, I held my nerve, come feeding time they arrived, and didn't stop coming, loads of moans and groans about me being on a shed full, was I, or did they arrive and not move as there was plenty to eat ? I'm not sure but a match win gave me the confidence to do it again, and I think that has a massive part to play, confidence.
Should I stay or should I go!
This time of year also means decision time, do I book every boat I can on trout reservoirs and make the long trips in pursuit of big pike, or do I sign up for a team and fish the winter league?
The current economic climate means I have to decide, I can't afford to fish twice on a reservoir at 50-60 quid a pop and a winter league at 30-40 quid excluding any fuel!
So it's a lot of thinking for me, and I will sneak a trip out at the start of the "pike season" to get my fix, but I will have to decide what to do this year; one or the other…
My performance of the week goes to one of my childhood heroes, a superb angler that has been at the top of his game for more than a few years, a certain Mr Joe Brennan.
Although not a massive match, just seeing his name on the result sheet, you know he has fished a good match. A quality net of 45lb of bream from Patshull Park shows he has still got it, and a danger on any venue, still or moving, natural or commercial.
Take a bow Joe.
Related posts
Enjoyment can come without winning, by Steve Collett
How Les Thompson won £50K at Match This final, by Steve Collett
How to become a sponsored angler, by Steve Collett
What really happened at the World Angling Championships, by Steve Collett


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Both saddened and mourning, Yohana Aldama and Lilianna Martinez on Friday recalled their friend Adrian Castro as an El Monte High School senior who never stopped smiling.
Others took to social media such as Twitter to remember Castro, 18, as a teammate on the Lions football squad and a typical teen who sought to better himself by attending college.
"He just brought so much energy to people," Aldama said. "He was always there for you. Even if he didn't know a person, he would talk to them."
Castro, 18, was among 10 people who died Thursday when a charter bus taking him and several others to visit Humboldt State University collided with a FedEx truck on the northbound 5 Freeway in Orland and burst into flames.
Elsewhere Friday, Castro's still-grieving parents had the horrific task of seeking dental records and driving several hours north in hopes of identifying their deceased son and bringing him home one last time.
"It's really hard for me to accept this," his father Raul said by telephone as he drove north to Orland — a wooded stop seven hours and 500 miles north of El Monte on the 5 Freeway halfway between Sacramento and Red Bluff.
Back at home, Castro's classmates scribbled memories across a banner that read: "RIP Fellow Lion Adrian Castro." They covered campus walkways with chalk eulogies and turned to Twitter to remember the friend they nicknamed "Beast." The cornerback's teammates rallied in a huddle in the courtyard and let out a unison growl, only hours after the initial announcement notifying them of the death.
"Adrian Castro will be missed as a student and football player," said El Monte football coach Joel Sanchez. "He was a good young man with a bright future. He will always be remembered by the El Monte family."
Though Castro was not the best football player, Raul Castro said his son never gave up and he always pushed himself.
"He was stubborn," the proud father recalled. "When he wanted to do something, he applied himself until he finished it."
The teen nearly skipped the Humboldt tour after getting cold feet days earlier. He told his father that he thought he should stay close to their home in El Monte. The father and son discussed Castro attending Cal State Los Angeles instead, but decided the 18-year-old should explore both campuses before making his decision, Raul Castro said Friday.
"He told me two days ago, 'Should I go up and check it out anyway?' " the father recalled.
Adrian asked again Thursday morning if he should still go as his father dropped him off at a bus stop. It was the last conversation the father and son had.
Raul and Adrian grew close after Adrian moved in to his dad's house in freshman year. The son relocated after getting in trouble at East Valley High School in North Hollywood, where his mother and two younger brothers live.
Raul, who works most hours of the day, said Adrian became a different person after the move. He became more responsible and took care of himself. He made his own meals, washed his own clothes and rode the bus when he needed to go anywhere. If Raul needed help with a job, his son always volunteered.
"He wasn't afraid to do things on his own," Raul Castro said. "I was very proud of him. He turned his life around."
Adrian, who wore gauge earrings, started caring more about his schooling and joined the football team. He became obsessed with working out and kinesiology.
He planned to major in kinesiology — the science of movement — in college, with the hope of working in sports rehabilitation or as a personal trainer, his father said.
Thursday night, Castro's mother told Raul their son was involved the crash. He waited all night for news and learned in the morning that his firstborn had died. Adrian's mother drove to the scene overnight after neither parent could get information by phone.
"He died immediately," the father said.
Students were told about Castro's death at the start of school Friday and observed a moment of silence filled with sobs.
Counselors went to the students who knew Castro and the school district allowed parents to pick up their children early if needed.
Martinez and Aldama said it felt like students stayed in shock for much of the day.
"We were going to graduate together," Martinez said, her voice trailing.
"It's hard to believe," Aldama said. "He wanted to see his school and now he is gone."
Two other El Monte High students were part of the Humboldt trip, but both went on a different bus. Neither sustained injuries.
Staff Writers Ruby Gonzalez, Fred Robledo and Samantha Bush contributed to this report.


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The kites look fine to me. I would prefer black because it is a little easier to keep clean, but white would be ok if that was the only colour they came in. I have had white and yellow kites in the past and they looked fine after 200 hours use.
Style is about what you do with the gear. The colour and the graphics just have to be not embarassing.
It's actually a plus looking a little odd at the beach. All the cool kids think you're a kook but then they try to ride past you or pull a move and you leave them in your spray.


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Not a whole lot of shocking info, just that scalping is widespread and the use of bots is extensive. Also a bit in there about paperless ticketing. The guy says it cuts down on scalping a little bit, but if the money is there, a scalper will gladly show up at the show to pick up the tickets and hand them to his customers.
Of course, for BM, the location is extreme so they'd be less willing to do that, most likely.It slows people down, definitely. But because these tickets are so valuable, a [broker] will say to his wife, "Let's go up to Jersey for Springsteen. I've got these idiot customers that paid $1,200 apiece. We'll walk in with them, then we'll leave. I'll take you to dinner." It's more trouble, it's more money, but to a certain extent it can't be stopped.


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