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Are high profile public officials using Twitter as a noble tool to bypass the proverbial "mainstream media filter" and communicate directly with constituencies? Or do they just see it as yet one more wall in the online echo chamber, something merely to influence and/or amplify mainstream media stories? The answer probably lies somewhere in between as I found from examining the Twitter feeds of several prominent current and former U.S. government officials.
Public Officials who 'get it'
Some major official figures have genuinely embraced the medium. Karl Rove tweets prolifically, sparring with the Center for American Progress, and publicizing op-eds that he enjoys and with which, of course, he agrees. His Twitter behavior shows someone committed to the kind of conversation and community that typify the medium — remarkably, he follows nearly as many people as follow him. As a progressive who enjoys intelligent debate, I regularly read Rove's op-eds in the Thursday Wall Street Journal. But until Twitter, the only public rebuttal I could make was muttering under my breath and shaking my head while riding the subway.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is another public official that has, I think, used Twitter very effectively. In some ways, Mullen hasn't really embraced the communitarian nature of the Twitter community; for example, his account only follows the high profile tweeters being indexed by WeFollow.com. It is also quite possible that a staffer rather than Mullen himself is uploading the posts. That said, the posts do seem to come directly from Mullen and expose an otherwise unseen side of the country's highest ranking military officer. His posts are chock full of empathy, enthusiasm and gratitude, doling out praise and offering candid status updates.
Here are some representative tweets from Mullen:
Recorded a video greeting to Gold Stars Wives of America. The network of support they offer each other and others in grief inspires me.
Arrived home last night, terrific trip! Rich in experience and feedback. Troops proud of difference they are making, and I am proud of them.
Neither of these men use Twitter to simply advance an agenda, show off their savvy understanding of digital media, or generate publicity for themselves. They use it for different purposes — Rove for discussion and Mullen for dispatches — but in ways that are appropriate both for their stations and for the medium.
Officials who don't 'get it'
There's a counter-narrative here, however. In March, political columnist Charlie Cook railed against public officials' use of Twitter:
I have yet to hear a single intelligent remark Twittered by an elected official… The vacuous utterances Twittered daily from members of Congress make me wonder how they have the time to spend keying in on such banalities and marveling over the narcissism implicit in their belief that anyone cares about their every single thought and reaction to contemporaneous events.
To be fair, the eloquence and insight of elected officials is pretty constrained by Twitter's 140 character limit. And there's a learning curve that representatives (and their staffs) have to grapple with when dealing with this new platform.
But if the way we communicate influences the way we think, how might a medium that encourages instantaneous, ineloquent and unsophisticated communication affect our legislators' deliberative processes?
I got a possible answer when I went to TweetCongress.org, which aggregates all of the Twitter feeds of House and Senate members. As I pored through the tweets, I found myself agreeing with Cook's worrying observation. Are our elected officials using Twitter to get around the traditional media filter and communicate directly with their constituents, something, as I've previously observed, the Obama campaign did well? I'll let them speak for themselves:
Paul Ryan (R-WI): Will talk with Brian and the Judge at 10:35 am ET. To listen live: http://www.foxnews.com/radio/brianandthejudge/
Barbara Boxer (D-CA): Gearing up to talk health care w/ Carlos Watson on MSNBC– 11:05am EST, 8:05am PST. Tune in!
Mike Pence (R-IN): I'm on my way to appear on
foxnews withgretawire at 10 PM EDT to talk about the Democrat #healthbill, the gov't takeover of #healthcare
John McCain (R-AZ): Watch Hannity tonight — on @ 9:00 pm discussing health care and the need for the right reform!
Christopher Dodd (D-CT): Headed to the Senate floor to speak about Health Care reform. You can watch live on C-Span2
There certainly are some good examples of public officials using Twitter to communicate candidly with new audiences. In addition to Mullen and Rove, the British Prime Minister's office maintains a fine Twitter account, as does Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih.
But watching our elected officials turn their Twitter accounts into publicity outlets for their cable news appearances strikes me as a sort of redundancy ad absurdum. If our representatives continue to fail to use Twitter for its nobler purposes (like thoughtful, if concise, constituent communications), I'll continue to be reminded of this ominous quote from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead":
People want nothing but mirrors around them to reflect them while they're reflecting too. You know, like the senseless infinity you get from two mirrors facing each other across a narrow passage. Usually in the more vulgar kind of hotels. Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.
What government officials do you follow on Twitter? Which are your favorites and least favorites? Let us know in the comments below.
Mark Hannah has spent the past several years conducting sensitive public affairs campaigns for well-known multinational corporations, major industry organizations and influential non-profits. He specializes in issues and reputation management online. Before joining the PR agency world (v-Fluence Interactive and Edelman), Mark worked for the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign as a member of the national advance staff. He's more recently conducted advance work for the Obama-Biden campaign. He is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and a fellow at the Society for New Communications Research, and he serves as an awards judge for both organizations. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he's currently pursuing a master's in strategic communications at Columbia University. He is an independent communications consultant based in New York City and the public relations correspondent for MediaShift. You can reach him at markphannah[at]gmail[dot]com.


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Mini turkey & cranberry pies
Nutrition and extra info
- Freezable
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal430
- fat28g
- saturates12g
- carbs33g
- sugars3g
- fibre1g
- protein15g
- salt0.74g
- 500g pack shortcrust pastry
- plain flour, for dusting
- 250g/9oz shredded leftover turkey
While it's the traditional Christmas bird, turkey is good to eat all year round, though…
- 8 tbsp double cream or crème fraîche
- 8 tsp cranberry sauce
A tart, ruby-red coloured berry which grows wild on shrubs throughout northern Europe and North…
- 1 egg, beaten
The ultimate convenience food, eggs are powerhouses of nutrition packed with protein and a…
Roll out the pastry on a floured surface so that it's just thinner than a £1 coin. Cut out 8 x 10cm circles using a pastry cutter or small saucer, then cut 8 x 9cm circles for the lids – you may need to re-roll the trimmings. Push the larger circles into 8 holes of a muffin tin, then divide the turkey, cream and cranberry sauce between them. Season well and brush the edges with a little egg. Place a lid on top of each and pinch the sides together to seal. Chill for 15-20 mins.
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Brush the tops with more egg, then bake for 25 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden. Serve warm, or leave to cool and enjoy cold.

subset: commoncrawl


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Devicescape 1.1.32
Devicescape enables your Windows laptop to automatically connect to Wi-Fi hotspots and home networks without having to enter usernames, passwords and security keys.
Just open your notebook PC and you'll be surfing the Internet or downloading e-mail in mere seconds. There's no need to hassle with wireless settings, or figure out how to login to a hotspot. Support for over 160,000 paid and free hotspots around the world. Plus you can easily and securely give friends access to your home Wi-Fi network, as well as gain access to their networks. Have more Wi-Fi devices? Check out Devicescape for Windows Mobile smartphones, Nokia handsets and Internet Tablets, and Mac OSX notebook PCs.


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Iranian Thugs Take Crackdown Worldwide
Political repression is old news. Thuggish regimes have been holding their citizens prisoner for centuries. But Iran's government now is borrowing an innovative Soviet and Nazi tactic: targeting family members of dissenters, even those living in the U.S.
Reports the Wall Street Journal:
His first impulse was to dismiss the ominous email as a prank, says a young Iranian-American named Koosha. It warned the 29-year-old engineering student that his relatives in Tehran would be harmed if he didn't stop criticizing Iran on Facebook.Two days later, his mom called. Security agents had arrested his father in his home in Tehran and threatened him by saying his son could no longer safely return to Iran.
"When they arrested my father, I realized the email was no joke," said Koosha, who asked that his full name not be used.
Tehran's leadership faces its biggest crisis since it first came to power in 1979, as Iranians at home and abroad attack its legitimacy in the wake of June's allegedly rigged presidential vote. An opposition effort, the "Green Movement," is gaining a global following of regular Iranians who say they never previously considered themselves activists.
The regime has been cracking down hard at home. And now, a Wall Street Journal investigation shows, it is extending that crackdown to Iranians abroad as well.
In recent months, Iran has been conducting a campaign of harassing and intimidating members of its diaspora world-wide -- not just prominent dissidents -- who criticize the regime, according to former Iranian lawmakers and former members of Iran's elite security force, the Revolutionary Guard, with knowledge of the program.
Unfortunately, there is little the West can do. Despite the seemingly common belief in hawkish circles that Washington merely need speak the word and other nations will obey, there is no magic wand that President Obama can wave to democratize Iran. And refusing to engage Iran over its nuclear program would do nothing to aid human rights activists while losing the admittedly faint hope of resolving the issue diplomatically.
However, there is reason for hope. The crackdown bespeaks desperation. The militarized regime continues to lose credibility, including religious backing. Reports the New York Times:
Iran's most senior cleric denounced the role of the volunteer militia force known as the Basij in the crackdown against protesters, saying the force's actions were against religion and "in the path of Satan."
The cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, condemned the force in a statement posted on an opposition Web site, mowjcamp.com, decreeing that "the assailants have acted against religion and must pay blood money" to those who were wounded or to their families.
Ultimately, the Iranian people can count only on themselves to achieve freedom. But people of good will around the world should offer their support in the continuing battle against tyranny.


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Additional Information
Free Shipping on all products over $99
The Caroline Leather is made from luxurious, soft leather and elegantly finished with brushed silver hardware. Spacious enough to use every day or as a weekend bag when off-duty, it features six internal storage compartments, one magnetic and two zipped outer pockets, vanity case and additional shoulder strap with built in Strollerstraps. This style also comes equipped with a luxury padded changing mat, insulated bottle holder and practical, wipe clean signature linings throughout. Sophisticated and hard working, this style is the epitome of the fashionable changing bag.
Made from soft, beautifully pebbled leather with silver hardware
- Removable, adjustable cross-body strap with built in Strollerstraps
- Padded shoulder straps
- Wide opening zipped top
- Five internal organiser compartments
- Large internal zipped pocket for valuables
- Two zipped, and one magnetic outer pocket
- Insulated bottle holder
- Vanity case - Luxury padded changing mat
- Signature Storksak wipe clean lining throughout
- Weight: 1.75 kg
- Dimensions: H 33cm, L 43cm, D at base 15 cm


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I'm on the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show. The annual glitzy kickoff event of the tech year takes place in Las Vegas -- and it shows.
Hundreds of tech companies, large and small, come from all over the world to show off their gadgets here. So far, so good, when it comes to what we're seeing: lots of flash, lots of announcements being made, lots of new products, and it's not even officially started yet.
After a couple of years where even the biggest companies seemed too nervous about seeming too braggy to let it hang out, the glamour is clearly coming back to the gadget world. Turntables to host the likes of Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga on the show floor, huge pyramids of TVs higher than what should be allowed, and a feeling of swagger the tech industry hasn't seen since Bear Stearns suddenly stopped ordering flat-screen monitors.
A sampling of the goods to be unveiled:
- Silicon Valley giant Hewlett-Packard, out with a new touch notebook, and a tablet computer of its own imminent;
- Sony predicting the biggest growth that company has seen in a while;
- Phones of every kind, everywhere you look, trying to make you forget Google's Nexus One and Apple's iPhone 3GS
- E-readers of every stripe on display, along with several tablet computers (hmmm, turns out we've now seen a lot of these. Apple?)
- And did I mention the blinding towers of televisions?
In the Marvell booth, the Silicon Valley chipmaker showed off its versatility, powered by bits of silicon that get ever more powerful even as they grow smaller.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
"Moore's Law has finally come into your home," said Marvell's Tom Hayes.
All in all, it's good to see the tech industry ready to strut its stuff again. Like the welcome return of, say, Vinnie Barbarino: Sure, he can be obnoxious at times, but having him around means the earth is once again rotating on a positive axis.
So, welcome back.
You can follow Scott's CES updates here, and on Twitter: @scottbudman


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On Thursday's episode of "The Tonight Show," Julia Roberts and Jimmy Fallon played a game where they threw large, clear balls at each other's face, then watched it back in super HD slow motion.
But first, Fallon showed Roberts a video that trended on Reddit of a dog that is apparently afraid of the "The Normal Heart" star's face.
"If that dog is watching, you could say something nice to him and he'll be your friend," Fallon suggested.
U.S. & World
Then, Roberts looked into the camera and growled. Fallon began laughing hysterically.
Finally, the two played a game called "Face Balls." The pair threw giant balls forcefully at each other's faces.
"This is like the comedy version of 'Fifty Shades of Grey,'" Roberts said.
Watch the intense action in the video above.


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Planning a week to the Carib from Feb 10 - 17. It seems like the trades are a little fluky this year, and because I'm flying on buddy passes, am going to book last minute based on forecast. If it were just me, I'd go to Barbados, most of my buds are going that week, I'm a surfboard guy AND I'm goofy, but wifey isn't crazy about BBDS and I don't want to leave her at home.
So our choices are: St. Martin, Grand Cayman, St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos, pretty much in order. It'll be interesting how that forecast looks by about Wed. I think I can score waves in St. Martin and Grand Cayman the easiest, but am interested to hear what you peeps have to say. Thanks!


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A series of programs at the CUNY Graduate Center will explore the real-life scientific drama behind the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Doctor Atomic, an opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams about the making of the atomic bomb. Historians, philosophers, authors, artists, and scientists -- including 10 veterans of the original bomb project as well as creators of the opera -- will participate in five separate seminar sessions to be held at the Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, on October 11, 14, and 17, followed by a series of readings on October 20, 21, and November 10. Presented by Science & the Arts at the Graduate Center in collaboration with the Met, the symposia are funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation. The programs are free and open to the general public on a first-come, first-seated basis, beginning one hour before each event. For further information, visit http://web.gc.cuny.edu/sciart.
Doctor Atomic, which opens at the Met on October 13, explores the psychological and intellectual pressures on the leading players at the Los Alamos, New Mexico, laboratory where the bomb is about to be tested as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. Among the dozens of participants in the Graduate Center programs will be John Adams; Nobel Prize-winning physicist Norman Ramsey; Harold Agnew, the former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who was an assistant to Enrico Fermi, the physicist who created the first nuclear reactor for the Manhattan Project; Fermi's granddaughter, the photographer Rachel Fermi; Peter Gelb, the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera; Penny Woolcock, who is directing the opera; the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes, whose book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, served with other source materials as the basis for the libretto of Doctor Atomic; and the baritone Gerald Finley, who stars in the opera as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project who became known as "the father of the atomic bomb."
Panels, presentations, and other events are scheduled as follows:
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008Session I: Proshansky Auditorium, 1:00 to 3:00 PM The History, Science and Scientists of the Bomb Moderated by Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, The City University of New York
Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Norman Ramsey, Nobel Laureate Professor Emeritus, Physics, Harvard University,
Eyewitness to the Manhattan Project
Edward Gerjuoy Professor Emeritus, Physics, University of Pittsburgh
Recollections of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Robert S. Norris, Senior Research Associate, Natural Resources Defense Council,
The 1,000 Days to Trinity
Session II: Proshansky Auditorium 4:30 to 6:30 PM The Making of Doctor Atomic Moderated by Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera
John Adams, Composer
Penny Woolcock, Director
Julian Crouch, Set Designer
Gerald Finley, Baritone
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008
Elebash Recital Hall, 6:30 PM J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Man, the Manager, the Physicist Moderated by Benjamin Bederson, Emeritus Professor of Physics, New York University
David Cassidy, historian and author, Professor, Hofstra University
Oppenheimer and his Physics
Robert Crease, philosopher and author, Professor, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Oppenheimer: A Tragic Hero?
Jeremy Bernstein, physicist and author, New Yorker contributor and Professor Emeritus, Stevens Institute of Technology
Personal Reflections on Oppenheimer
Friday, Oct. 17, 2008
Session I: Proshansky Auditorium, 3:00 to 5:00 PM The Manhattan Project: Places, People and Power Moderated by Brian Schwartz, Professor of Physics and Vice President, Research & Sponsored Programs, The Graduate Center of CUNY
Rachel Fermi and Esther Samra, Photographers
Photographs from the Secret World of the Manhattan Project
Harold Agnew, Former Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Chicago, Los Alamos, Tinian Island and the Atomic Bomb
Manhattan Project Veterans: Harold Agnew, Albert Bartlett, Benjamin Bederson, Robert J. Brown, Morton Camac, Hans Courant, Roy Glauber, E. Leonard Jossem, Nathan T. Melamed, Murray Peshkin.
Session II: Proshansky Auditorium, 6:30 to 8:30 PM Wartime Decisions and the Atomic Age Moderated by Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University
Martin J. Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Professor of History, George Mason University
Talk: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb
Harry Lustig, Provost Emeritus, Professor of Physics, CCNY
Talk: Did the Allies Know That The Germans Were Not Building an Atomic Bomb?
Gar Alperovitz, Bauman Professor of Political Economy, University of Maryland
Talk: The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
Readings and Talks
Monday, Oct. 20, 2008
6:30 p.m., Room C201
Ruth Howes, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Marquette University
Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project
Ruth Howes discusses the various scientific problems that the women of the Manhattan Project helped to solve, as well as the discrimination they faced in their work; their abrupt recruitment for the war effort and anecdotes of everyday life in the clandestine, improvised communities; what happened to the women after the war; and their present attitudes towards the work they did on the bomb.
Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008
6:30 p.m., Skylight Room (Room 9102)
Joseph Kanon, Novelist, New York
Los Alamos
In a dusty, remote community of secretly constructed buildings and awesome possibility, the world's most brilliant minds have come together. Their mission: to split the atom and end a war. But among those who have come to Robert Oppenheimer's "enchanted campus" of foreign born scientists, baffled guards, and restless wives is a simple man, an unraveler of human secrets – a man in search of a killer.
Monday, Nov. 10, 2008
6:30 p.m., Elebash Recital Hall
Uranium + Peaches
A Play in One Act by Peter Cook & William Lanouette
A staged reading by Break A Leg Productions. The scientist behind the bomb wants to stop it. The politician behind the president wants to drop it. In the dramatic and fateful confrontation between Einstein's protégé, Leo Szilard, and Truman's mentor, Jimmy Byrnes, science battles politics in the timeless struggle against the corruption of human ingenuity.
Science & the Arts at the Graduate Center presents programs in theatre, art, music, dance and film that bridge the worlds of art and science. Since 2001 it has presented 100 public events, ranging from conferences and concerts to science demonstrations on the streets of New York.
The Graduate Center is devoted primarily to doctoral studies and awards most of the City University of New York's Ph.D.s. An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs as well as a number of master's programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world's leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to more than thirty interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, the Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City's intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. Further information on the Graduate Center and its programs can be found at www.gc.cuny.edu.
Submitted on: SEP 1, 2008
Category: Press Room


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Choosing a healthcare provider is one of the most important decisions you can make. You want someone who is caring, knowledgeable, and compassionate. Someone willing to take the time to go over all of your options and treat you as a person, not just a patient. We've created this website for both new and current patients. It includes specific information on our practice and
Dr. Keaton is a specialist in treating cancer. She teaches Oncology (the study of cancer) at the Naturopathic Medical School here in Tempe, so she stays up to date on the subject. She has treatment plans for prevention or to help persons with cancer get the most out of their treatments without all the side effects.
If you have questions about Parkinsons please visit our partner www.ParkinsonsClinics.com
What is Naturopathic Medicine?
Founded upon a holistic philosophy, naturopathic medicine combines safe and effective traditional therapies with the most current advances in modern medicine. Naturopathic medicine is appropriate for the management of a broad range of health conditions affecting all people of all ages.
Naturopathic physicians (N.D.s) are the highest trained practitioners in the broadest scope of naturopathic medical modalities. In addition to the basic medical sciences and conventional diagnostics, naturopathic education includes therapeutic nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, natural childbirth, classical Chinese medicine, hydrotherapy, naturopathic manipulative therapy, pharmacology and minor surgery.


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Atlantis' astronauts continued a smooth pace of work aboard the International Space Station today, breezing through tasks ranging from standard home maintenance such as replacing smoke detectors to successfully conducting the first in a series of orbital boosts for the outpost.
Commander Jim Halsell and pilot Scott Horowitz fired Atlantis' steering jets 27 times during almost an hour Tuesday evening to gently lift the 35-ton outpost about 10 miles higher. The same process will be repeated again tonight and on Thursday to boost the station by about 27 miles in total and leave it in an orbit with an average height of about 233 miles when Atlantis departs on Friday.
As has been the case through much of the mission, the crew completed most jobs ahead of schedule. Inside the Zarya module, Astronaut Susan Helms and Cosmonaut Yury Usachev completed the installation of a third fresh battery for the station. A fourth battery will be installed tonight. Meanwhile, station controllers in Moscow completed charging the first of two batteries installed in Zarya yesterday, and it is now operating perfectly. Controllers are charging the second new battery installed in the station, although the charging of that battery was interrupted briefly early this morning by an unforeseen conflict that prevents conducting charging and battery installation work simultaneously. The interruption halted the battery charging for about an hour and a half, but the process is now again under way with no problems. Controllers are confident the new battery is in good condition and are revising plans to ensure no similar conflict occurs as the crew is installing the final new battery tonight.
The crew also installed 10 new smoke detectors in Zarya, replacing detectors that had reached the end of the lifetime for which they were designed to operate. The astronauts replaced four cooling fans in Zarya for the same reason. In addition, they completed the installation of new cabling for the module's central computer that will allow that computer to be turned on and off via a United States-built backup station communications system. As the installation work progressed, the crew continued transferring items ranging from exercise equipment to computer printers to the station for use by future crews. Well over 1,200 pounds of gear have been moved from Atlantis to the station thus far.
Tonight, Helms and Usachev will install the final new battery in the station. Later, Halsell and Horowitz will fire Atlantis' jets to perform the second part of the three-part station reboost. Then the crew's attention will turn to unloading various supplies from Atlantis and stowing them aboard the station. The crew will take a short break from their work at 10:21 p.m. CDT for an interview with ABC radio news; KOIN-TV of Portland, OR; and a Department of Housing and Urban Development educational group.
Atlantis and the International Space Station are in an orbit with a high point of 219 miles and a low point of 212 miles, circling Earth every 91 minutes. The next mission status report will be issued at 7 p.m. CDT.
NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to email@example.com. In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes). This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list. The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription. Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail.


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Flextime is great for working parents with young children, employees who are at the age of retirement but not ready to retire, and full-time employees who are going to school.
However, a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that only about 28 percent of full-time and salaried employees in the USA had flexible work schedules.
If your employer does not currently offer an alternative work schedule, here are five tips on the best ways to go about asking.
1. Be the best employee you can be. Companies are going to offer flextime to good employees and not to slackers
2. Outline your job responsibilities and ways to measure productivity with your boss. Your boss will be impressed if you have established goals for yourself and let him know what to expect from you.
3. Address possible concerns and objections your boss may have right away. One of the biggest concerns is that companies cannot afford to offer flextime to all employees. What your employer should know is that, for financial or personal reasons, not all employees are interested in or would utilize flextime.
4. Make the proposal about the company and highlight ways flextime will benefit them. Increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and reduced stress are great examples. Focus on how flextime is great for your employer.
5. Start out small and on a trail basis. Suggest to your boss that you could use some flexibility during your daughter's track season or while you are taking an extra class at school. If things work out during the trial period your boss may be more open to a flexible schedule in the future.


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The new Oracle database appliance is a finely tuned Intel x86-based offering that for the first time brings Oracle's crown jewel 11g Release 2 database and Oracle Real Application Clusters to the mainstream SMB market. The product, in fact, represents a watershed moment for Oracle and its partners. Calling it a channel game changer is not overstating it.
The database appliance is the big payoff of the two-year-old blockbuster Sun deal. It is only with this x86 hardware appliance that the method to the madness behind the Sun acquisition is being brought to bear with a product that could reshape the competitive landscape. Oracle has, in effect, taken its revolutionary Exadata Database Machine which has won raves from enterprise customers and put it into a powerful SMB package that is aimed at setting a dramatic new price performance mark for SMB customers that up until now may have been put off by the high Oracle database price tag. It is Oracle going farther and deeper into the SMB market than it ever has before.
Oracle, for its part, is making no bones about its big ambitions for the Appliance. Judson Althoff, senior vice president of worldwide alliances and channel sales for Oracle, says the product takes aim at HP blades and other Intel commodity servers running VMware, EMC and NetApp. Althoff says he expect server makers building infrastructure on those software sets to take a "fairly big hit in the market." Not only that, Althoff says that Oracle expects to take a bite out of Microsoft's SQL Server share in the SMB market.
The exciting thing for Oracle partners particularly the Sun partners is this is the red hot SMB product that they have been waiting to come to market since the Sun deal was announced some two years ago. The wait is over. Those Sun hardware partners that recognize the opportunity and seize it are going to find big sales growth and robust double digit margins. In fact, Althoff says that OraclePartnerNetwork (OPN) incentives backend rebates aimed at getting Oracle solution providers to sell both hardware and software together will bring an additional 11 points in rebates and incentives. That means the margins around the Oracle database appliance should be in the mid to high teens. That's a windfall for solution providers used to single digit margins in the mainstream server market. Look for the massive Oracle marketing machine to move aggressively with the same kind of no holds barred air cover that has marked the Exadata sales effort.
Next: Hurd Is Driving The New Oracle Database Appliance Sales EffortIt is no small matter that the database appliance product line is being driven by former HP CEO and now Oracle Co-President Mark Hurd. Just how big a bite Oracle can take out of HP's server business rests with whether Hurd can take the channel centric culture he created at HP and drive it into every nook and cranny of the Oracle culture.
Hurd gets the channel and he knows how to close a sale. If partners know that Hurd is putting his sales stamp on the database appliance they will sit up and take notice. All signs are that is the case. Hurd, in fact, kicked off the big database appliance announcement calling out the product as "one of the most exciting announcements for channel partners and the SMB." Just getting Hurd talking channel helps the database appliance sales effort.
There is more than a little irony that the database appliance launch is coming on the heels of Oracle's first quarter results on Monday in which hardware sales dropped five percent, that has the Wall Street power players looking closely at the method behind the Sun madness.
At the same time hardware sales were declining hardware gross margins were on the rise from 48 percent to 54 percent. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison says he expects revenue growth in the hardware business in the next fiscal year.
If Oracle gets its channel locked, loaded and firing on all cyclinders that hardware revenue growth may come sooner.
related stories


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OneBeat Berlin start their own podcast series. Be sure to listen!
The OneBeat podcast #1 mixed by Ma Tias is a journey into the best deephouse has to offer these days. Ma Tias has been DJing at our events for over 2 years now, being one of the best track selectors we know, from house to old school hip hop. When he's playing you get the feeling that he really knows every track he's playing and we're looking forward to more events and dance floors together. Listen below, be sure to follow Ma Tias on soundcloud. Enjoy the music!
OneBeat Berlin is a non-profit music project showcasing upcoming musicians. More information on www.onebe.at.


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MoJoe by John Kennedy
MOJOE! "Watch," you say as you hold the coffee cup between your hands. Suddenly you turn it upside down and then crush it!
Total shock and fear ensue as everyone tries to escape the eruption of hot liquid. Moments later, in a stunned condition, they realize that the coffee has completely disappeared and that they have been very, very badly fooled!
With MOJOE you can make coffee vanish or even change into something else, like coffee beans! It works with paper cups (like Starbucks® coffee cups) and also ceramic cups. MOJOE also works with different drinks like Coke®, milk, etc.
MOJOE sets up in seconds and the durable gimmick lasts for years! You will receive the revolutionary MOJOE gimmick along with a DVD video teaching John Kennedy's favorite vanishes and changes.
BONUS: You'll also be able to sample a fine roast of Gregory Wilson's brilliant presentation for MOJOE - it's included!
Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't get any better than this!
CYRIL TAKAYAMA - "Mojoe is easy to do, packs small, and plays BIG!"
GREGORY WILSON - "The effect speaks for itself: A full cup of hot coffee vanishes without a trace. And the method is just as exciting!"


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With new Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) coming into law in March 2014, Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim says now is the time for organisations to start preparing by conducting a review of privacy policies.
The lt;igt;Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill 2012lt;/igt; was passed in Parliament on 29 November 2012. It updates the lt;igt;Privacy Act 1988lt;/igt; and includes a number of reforms including the introduction of the APPs and changes to how personal information is handled, including when it can be used for direct marketing and sent overseas.
Mixed reaction to improved privacy protection
Privacy Act reforms - the implications for the digital environment
Privacy bill given the go-ahead
Pilgrim has recommended that businesses and government agencies should review information collection notices, outsourcing arrangements and direct marketing practices including the availability of `opt out' options.
"Over the coming months, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner [OAIC] will produce detailed guidance to assist businesses and agencies understand the impact of the reforms and make the necessary changes to their personal information handling practices," he said in a statement.
Pilgrim added that the OAIC will conduct talks with industry bodies and consumer groups about some of the guidance documents.
Data privacy day
In addition, the OAIC will be celebrating Data Privacy Day on 28 January 2013. The internationally observed day is an effort to empower people to protect their privacy, control their digital footprint and escalate the protection of privacy/ data as everyone's priority.
"In the age of big data, social media and cloud computing it is increasingly important that people think about the concept of privacy and what it means to them," Pilgrim said.
"I am concerned that people aren't considering the potential risks of disclosing too much personal information, particularly when engaging online."
He added that organisations should also be vigilant about privacy, in particular, the protection of personal information entrusted to them by customers.
Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick
Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia


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Andrea Mitchell, gun advocate square off over kids at Obama presser
Andrea Mitchell and Gun Owners of America spokesperson Erich Pratt engaged in a heated debate on Wednesday over the controversial NRA ad featuring the president's daughters, with the MSNBC host saying after the show that his take on the media's coverage favoring the children of Democratic presidents was not accurate.
The dispute took off when Pratt said the NRA video used the president's daughters in the same way the president used the four children "he had there on display" at his press conference. Mitchell countered that those children were "voluntarily becoming part of this political debate" while the children of presidents have been off limits for decades.
Except, Pratt said, when the president in question is a Republican.
"Unless they are, I suppose, Republican children of presidents. There's a big double standard," Pratt said.
Mitchell began to respond that "Jenna and Barbara Bush and other children have not been –" but Pratt cut her off by saying the Bush daughters were representative of the "double standard" in question.
After the show aired, Mitchell told POLITICO that she doesn't think Pratt's statement on the press's coverage of presidential children was accurate.
"I thought it was, on the face of it, I don't think that's true," Mitchell told POLITICO in an interview after the show aired. "I've covered every presidential family since the Carter White House, and there's a difference in age and a difference in degree of children, but the bottom line is I've never seen the children of a president used in what is essentially a political advertisement targeting kids."
And Mitchell added that her experience covering the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan strongly impacted her take on this matter.
"This is an issue of presidential security," she said. "Look, I covered the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan. And that was a searing experience for me as a reporter here in Washington. I don't think I'll ever get over that. And I take this stuff very, very seriously. So when we talk about presidential families, the understanding is they're off limits."
During the sit-down, Mitchell challenged Pratt on the NRA web video, questioning him on whether he thinks it is appropriate to feature the president's children in a political advertisement. "Over the line?" she asked.
"Based on this poll, he should have been apologizing for those children to breaking their piggy banks to steal – to pay off the national debt. That's what Americans are concerned about," Pratt replied.
Mitchell asked him to clarify which children the president should be apologizing to and Pratt said "the children he had there on display" at the news conference.
"Because his children, his own children, are well protected. Joe Biden opened up by saying that schools should be a sanctuary," Pratt said. "Well, he must have this confused, because the president's girls do go to a sanctuary, well-armed there, but most American kids are not protected at all."
When Mitchell again pressed Pratt to address whether it was over the line to feature Obama's two daughters in the video, Pratt said, "Why is it over the line for the NRA to talk about children but it's not over the line for the president to bring in children? That's the disconnect."
Overall, Mitchell characterized the sit-down interview with Pratt as "polite" and as just one aspect of her Wednesday program featuring discussions with people from all sides of the gun control debate.
"I didn't know how he was going to react to the president's proposals because some of the president's proposals have been acceptable to other gun advocates," Mitchell told POLITICO after her show aired. "And so I was interested that he was as categorical as he was. And I was, frankly, interested to find out what he had to say regarding the NRA web video, which a number of people have commented on as being unusual, to say the least."
During the interview with Pratt, Mitchell asked him, "Is there nothing in this conversation that the president has engaged in that you think is a valuable step?" and he replied that the one thing that would help — armed teachers or principals — was "missing."
"He was saying categorically that the president's proposals — none of the proposals — would have stopped Sandy Hook," Mitchell added. "And I let him say his piece, I didn't challenge him, although many people say that an assault weapons ban would have stopped the Bushmaster weapon that was used in Sandy Hook."


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Well for my top of the table match i've decided on the following tactics:
Quintin*(proficient/mediorce): attacking @ normal
Nurse (respectable/woeful): destructive@attacking
Clayton+(strong/mediorce): steady@defensive
Ellis (strong/competent): defensive@defensive
Ferrier (strong/feeble): destructive@normal
Muralitharan (proficient/feeble): defensive@defensive | (proficient/feeble) def@attacking (3)
Obeysekera (respectable/fee): defensive@defensive | (competent/fee) def@def (5)
Allison (respectable/fee): steady@normal
Dowdall (worthless bat) | (proficient/feeble) defensive@normal (1)
Kinsella (abysmal bat) | (respectable/mediorce) cautious@normal (4)
Jeithoon (abysmal bat) | (proficient/feeble) defensive@normal (2)
I probably going to bat first and try an build a decent total. Hopefully Nurse and Quintin will get off to a decent start and then Clayton and Ellis can block out their gun spinner. If that fails then hopefully all my batsmen get some starts and build a decent total.
When i comes to the bowling im hoping that Dowdall or Jeithoon can knock over a couple of their Top 4, after that they got no batsmen. But if they don't by keeping them at normall they don't go for too many runs. I decided to put Murali on attacking as he is my best bowler now, especially on a dusty pitch, so im going to back him to try and run through the middle/lower order if we get past their top order.
What do you guys think?


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LOCATION: Monty's Deli, Maltby Street Market, Bermondsey [map].
BREAD: Light rye.
FILLING: Pastrami, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing, yellow mustard, sauerkraut.
PROS: As my sandwich is built I stand, semi-catatonic, mesmerised; pastrami is sliced from wobbly hunks and piled into an ever-growing tower of protein. The Shard, overlooking the market, begins to look small in comparison. I'm offered a piece of the meat to taste as I wait, and….oh – it's a little dry and chewy. Once pressed in the toaster however, which struggles to clamp its jaws around the beast, the fat melts and everything softens. Some pockets of fat remain intact (though I wish for more), begging to dissolve on the tongue and settle on the hips. The crust of predominantly black pepper and coriander seeds is really pokey; a revelation compared to the crap we usually get served in the UK. Russian dressing and sauerkraut are carefully applied in just the right amounts, too; their flavour and moisture is welcome and yet they do nothing more than big up the meat.
CONS: The pastrami could learn a few tricks from the salt beef, which is gloriously moist and fatty. As I wait for my reuben to toast I am distracted by the request of another customer, 'one special, please'. One WHAT, sorry? What is this special of which you speak and why am I not having it? I am drawn to a frankly miniscule sign on the counter top. Turns out I could have been eating this reuben with an extra topping of salt beef. I try a piece. It is INCREDIBLE. This is lauded as the best salt beef in London by a man who really knows his salt beef. So, when I think about this sandwich compared to other reubens available in London it could easily have scored 9/10, but I'm knocking a point off for their failure to properly advertise their special.


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Glengarry Challenge Bonspiel (women)Thursday & Saturday, February 27, 29, 2020
Chairpersons: Brenda Citriniti, M.J. Walsh, Julie Carter
A competitive, in-house bonspiel, open to all Glengarries, to determine the women's club championship. Dress code is casual.
2020 Results
Previous winners
Current champions
2020 Glenggary Challenge Champions
Karen Barnes (L), Michelle MacEnroe (2), Donna Caleo (V), Erlene Puleo (S)
Teams and Live Drawboard
- 6:30 pm Draw one
- 10:30 am Draw two
- 12:30 pm Lunch
- 2:30 pm Draw three
- 5:30 pm Dinner
- Awards
RulesWomen's General Rules and Glengarry Challenge rules
Beginning February 2003 a women's club championship will be held annually, to play for the Glengarry Trophy and pin. The winner of this competition will be the Glengarries Club Champion. This is a club championship and all eligible Glengarries are encouraged to compete.
- The event is run by the Glengarry Challenge Committee whose members are the previous year's winning team.
- Event format will be at the discretion of the Committee after consulting with the Rules Committee.
- Entry fees will be determined by the Committee.
- All games will be 8 ends
- Teams will be self-selected, and members of the committee may compete in the event. Four or five person teams may sign up. Five person teams must use the fifth person before other substitutes.
- A team may play with three members after starting the first end of the first game of the competition.
- Substitutes must not be a member of a competing team. Subs may be players from a team that has been knocked out of the competition. In extenuating circumstances and after consulting with the Rules Committee, the event chair will make rulings about eligibility of players and subs.
HistoryIn 1950, Marjorie Foster, the first Glengarry President, donated a silver vase to the Glengarries (the second trophy donated to the women). The trophy went to the winning team and each member of the team received a pin in the shape of a Glengarry hat. For many years, the format was a challenge: a team would sign up to play the previous winner. The challenge went on all during the season, and the winner of the trophy was the team with the most wins during the season. The challenge was active until the 1980s when it became more difficult to find the time to compete for the trophy.
The trophy became a daytime competition for a number of years and for a short time it was a mixed event.
In 2003, the competition was reactivated. A teapot was donated by Peggy Rotton, and a base was crafted by Mr. Burnett, Mary Ellen Sofinski's father-in-law. The winning team was declared the women's Club Champion, and the names of the team members were engraved on the base of the trophy. In 2007, a silver bud vase and pins replicating the original trophy were donated by Enid Savett for the runners-up. The base for the trophy was crafted by Marge VanSlyke.


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Welcome to Irony Central! Here, you will find a variety of humor for the sophisticated and adult Internet konnisewer.
If you are below 18 years of age, go away immediately! The contents of these pages will give an underage reader unsightly scabs and even worse acne than you already have.
And Now It Is a Book!
For years, this web site has served fresh, bitter baby humor up to many, many thousands of visitors. And now The Story About the Baby is available is actual, physical form. "The Poo Bomb - True Tales Of Parental Terror" is now available!
This book, guaranteed to have been printed on the genuine corpse-material of slaughtered trees, contains piles of genuine laughs for anyone who has experienced parenthood. Or anyone who wants good reasons why they shouldn't. To learn more, go here. To buy a copy and have it dropped on your doorstep by a sweaty UPS guy, use the link to the right.
Jeff Vogel, the author of all of this fine humor, has a blog. If you are interested in what he has to say about game design, whatever he's happening to play this week, or what he currently thinks is funny, you can find it here.
Yes, I am still writing! But most of the new articles go here. Here is something with more general humor, so I'm having it over here too. And, if you only just arrived, the links to the baby journals are to the left. They're the foie gras of this web site.
In the penultimate chapter of my definitive guide to New York, I discuss Broadway. And live theatre. And how expensive and pointless it is.
The next chapter of our New York Odyssey. In it, you will learn of the best steakhouse anywhere. Or, at least, the most insane.
Here is the fifth part of the New York journal. More restaurant recommendations! More mockery!
Part four of our New York City journal. We give a review of the Museum of Sex. Sex!
Part three of the New York city journal, for the pleasure of the few people who still straggle into this mostly abandoned journal.
Here is part two of eight of my New York journal. It is provided for the use of those who want to visit the big city and the amusement of those who like to laugh at other people.
This web site lives! After a long period of laziness and despair, we return with the first of an eight part journal about our visit to New York City. It includes all of the humor and mockery the handful of people who still visit this site have come to expect.
IBM, in its infinite wisdom, asked Jeff Vogel to write an article about programming practices. The result is here. You might think his ideas are stupid, but that is all right. It doesn't matter that he was stupid. What does matter is that he was paid.
Jeff has another funny rant about role-playing games up at RPG Vault. It's here.
Jeff Vogel has yet another new article at RPG Vault. It's about his increasing dislike of playing the sort of game he spends so much time writing.
View From the Bottom #7
Home | Archives | The
Story About the Toddler | The
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Contents of these pages are Copyright Jeff Vogel, 1994-2004,
All Rights Reserved. Ironycentral.com is sponsored by Spiderweb Software,
makers of fine fantasy games for Windows and Macintosh.


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I found a bottle of gorgeously dark pumpkin seed oil at the green grocer the other day and just had to have it. This is one of my favourite oils - I fell in love with it whilst travelling in Hungary a few years ago. All the farm houses there were making their own pumpkin seed oil and we dipped freshly baked bread in the oil that was seasoned with coarse sea salt - it was the most deliciously simple dish I could've imagined.
The mix of different oils and nuts gives this bread the most wonderful texture and flavour. I love gluten-free baking and for a nut-a-holic like myself it is ideal because I get to incorporate nuts in both sweet and savoury dishes. You can enjoy this bread with either sweet or savoury toppings, try ricotta and honey, for example!


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Did you know that the Brotherton Library will be 75 years old this year? To mark such a wonderful anniversary, a series of events have been planned celebrating the past, present and future of the Library. All the events are free to attend and are being held in the Brotherton Room in the Brotherton Library on campus. There is no need to book – simply just turn up. And after each talk there will be an optional 'mystery tour'
Revealing the behind-the-scenes secrets of the Brotherton Library and Special Collections. Date: Tuesday 17 May Time: 17:15 a fascinating journey through the Brotherton Library's 75 years, charting the creation of the most impressive building on campus, its early years, the people and events that moulded its development and revealing some of the treasures it holds. Your guide is Head of Special Collections, Chris Sheppard.
The Lessons of the Past Date: Friday 27 May Time: 13:00-14:00 Andrew Cooper reveals the quirks and the characters of the Brotherton Library's past and John Smurthwaite presents an intriguing 'History of the World in Two Objects' – two museum objects in the Brotherton Library form the starting-point for a visit to the West Yorkshire of eighty years ago.
Present Excellence Date: Thursday 7 July Time: 17:15 A showcase of short talks demonstrating how the Brotherton's collections have inspired research at the University, delivered by the researchers themselves. Professor Russell Goulbourne will speak on the potential of the French collections in the Brotherton, Dr Chris Hammond will discuss how a Physics Department exercise book reveals the origins of the Braggs' 1915 Nobel Prize, and Dr Michael Brennan will talk about his own experience of using one of the Library's most recent major benefactions, the Fay and Geoffrey Elliot Collection.
The Brotherton Library of the Future Date: Wednesday 7 September Time: 13:00-14:00 University Librarian Dr Stella Butler will present her vision for the Library, Cultivating knowledge – Library services for the University of Leeds in the 21st century, supported by Jodie Double, head of the Library's Digital Services speaking on the Digital Shift.


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I took some screenies from the last BWE. I made Belzan pre-asura and post-asura. The latter is the character I'll play, but I wanted to also make him in GW2 as a necro. Both pics are below. The asura version is of course subject to change, but the human version is simply a representation of him before he took Arrakk's body.
I had less time to play this last BWE than I thought, so I spent much of that time with the character creation process. I decided to go ahead and make all my characters. I liked playing with the bioluminescence of the sylvari. Also, I made some changes to some of my characters as a result of playing with the character creator.
I will stick with 8 characters after all (instead of 10). I don't need a second engineer (my norn female) and I wasn't terribly excited with the female charr. Also, I was very excited about female asura, so I decided to mix and match. Rather than have either my charr thief or my asura ranger (second ranger), I am opting for a female asura thief. Her name is Nicha and I'll write a story for her later when I have some free time.
I also really enjoyed playing a warrior over the weekend. I was surprised by this, to be honest. I was never impressed by the tank role and every time I played a warrior, this is what people expected of me. I had so much fun playing Belzan as a N/W Meleemancer. I like the up close and personal nature of the warrior in GW2 and there are so many options as far as the weapons. It was a lot of fun and I didn't even get to unlock all the weapons.
I hope everyone else had fun with the BWE. I unfortunately have a laptop with a subpar graphics chipset, so it was kind of shaky, even running on the lowest setting (still a great improvement over crash-mageddon from BWE1). Jumping puzzles were fun, but also maddening.
I'm looking forward to playing for reals very soon. There might be a delay for personal reasons (I'm months from graduating with my PsyD and I must finish my dissertation and find a job ASAP), but I will make all my characters and play a bit before launch (headstart FTW!)


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The Alibi's 14th Annual Haiku Contest
As summer heads for the highway with its slimy pink tail tucked between its trembling legs, Albuquerqueans have several causes for consolation. The soul-crushing heat is finally over. The brats are finally back in school. The giant watery brown serpent that winds through the center of our city will soon be rimmed with bright golden cottonwoods. Best of all, though, you're holding the Alibi's annual haiku contest in your hands, and that's reason enough to celebrate.
The talent on display this year is almost as mind-boggling as the vast quantity of entries we received from all over the country, with a few coming in from foreign lands. I hope you enjoy reading the winners and honorable mentions half as much as we enjoyed judging the contest. Special Alibi Haiku Command Unit 56-1A—made up of Christie Chisholm, Jessica Cassyle Carr, Laura Marrich and myself—labored for several agonizing days over the submissions. I think you'll be pleased with the results, and if you aren't, then whining, as usual, will get you nowhere.
Finally, special thanks to Bookworks (4022 Rio Grande NW, 344-8139), the District (Fourth Street and Copper, 243-0003), Ralli's (Fourth Street and Central, 243-1093) and the Guild Cinema (3405 Central NE, 255-1848) for sponsoring this year's contest.
Best Traditional Haiku
A couple more Republican presidential administrations, and there won't be any more nature worth haikuing about. So enjoy it while it lasts! Grand Imperial Mistress of Haiku Gail Miller gets a $25 gift certificate to Bookworks, a $20 certificate to the District and two passes to the Guild Cinema for a haiku that I suppose could best be labeled neotraditional. Whatever you call it, it's a beauty.
The rain falls in code—
Wet spidery penmanship
That demands cracking.
—Gail Miller
Honorable Mentions
An empty can glides
Across shattered asphalt lots
Eight pigeons take flight
—Susan Cummings
Over bleached salt flats
Ten blackbirds flapping north change
To a tar-smoke cloud
—Carol Moscrip
Strands of green kelp, locked
In late tide's rock pool, bracelet
Arms of a red star
—Carol Moscrip
A leaf falls, twig snaps
I think about winter air
Frogs freezing in mud
—Shelby Anderson
Oranges tossed upon
A river after New Year:
Souls or good fortune?
—Leslie McMurtry
Late frost fingers pinch
Buds, plump like ladies' bottoms,
Blue where pink belongs.
—Janet S. Harris
Best Albuquerque Haiku
Albuquerque has a reputation for being a gritty, down and dirty sort of town—just the sort of town, in other words, to inspire delectable haiku. Rhoda Kunin tells us that, to be fully appreciated, her winning haiku must be recited in the accent of a Transylvanian vampire. She wins a $40 certificate to Ralli's and two passes to the Guild Cinema.
Best Haiku About Why You Hate Your Job
I suppose it's to be expected that the only cheerful haiku we received in this category came from unemployed poets. Working can suck. No doubt about it. Hell, even I know that, and I work at the Alibi, which is a crazy, fun-park, merry-go-round of unadulterated orgiastic bliss compared to most jobs out there. (I once got a foot rub and wrote an article about it. You call that work? Please.) John L. Orman's grotesque haiku wins hands down (yeah, pun intended). He gets a $40 certificate to the District and two passes to the Guild Cinema.
Crank up wood chipper—
Full day of hacking up bark.
Blood! Look ma, no hands!
—John L. Orman
Honorable Mention
Telephones scream like
Wailing children with flashing
fluorescent light bones
—Amanda Rich
Smells bad I'm greasy
My boss is a fat weenie
I hate Schnitzelhut
—Diego Murray
When you work down in
the bowels of the brown earth—
dark, deep shit happens.
—John L. Orman
For me to hate my
Job would require me to seek
Gainful employment.
—MF Ward
Best Haiku About Fish Sticks
What is it about the humble fish stick that's capable of inspiring such a lyrical outpouring of insight into the human experience? Honestly, I'm not quite sure. All you've got to do is wave a thawed finger of breaded substandard fish in front of mediocre poets and suddenly they're spouting rapid-fire liquid verse like Shakespeare on amphetamines. Go figure. Gail Miller wins a $40 certificate to Ralli's and two passes to the Guild Cinema. We don't know what the heck her haiku means, but we love it anyway. Sue us.
In his wax canoe
Fish Stick glides through polar ice
While Eskimos weep.
—Gail Miller
Honorable Mention
A fish stick is like
A British man: pasty white
With a crusty shell.
—Erin Barringer
Nomenclature is
Not my specialty, but they're
Neither fish nor sticks
—Malcolm Murray
I hate the sweet ooze
that comes out of burnt fish sticks.
What the hell is it?
—Steve Murray
Went to the river
Dropped my line in the water
No fish sticks in there
—Alan Petitt
I wonder if fish
Ever thought of human sticks?
Or is that just gross?
—Leslie McMurtry
From sea to the mold
Ocean-going lollipops
More stick than a fish
—Stephen Davis
A lot of fish sticks
Going to eat all of them
Not going to share
—Ashley Encinias
Best Haiku Using the Most Letters of the Alphabet
We got a lot of variations on the old "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs" chestnut from high school typing class. Good golly, you people are lazy. Come on—this is a literary contest. We're looking for some freakin' originality, people. Leslie Rottach's haiku packed the most punch. (I think I'm going to rename my band Expunge the Jackal.) She wins a $40 certificate to the District and two passes to the Guild Cinema.
Vote counts fade from view
Zoos require mob rule they say
Expunge the jackal!
—Leslie Rottach
Honorable Mentions
Tchaikovsky zeppelin
Black xylophone quail jumper
A raw Dresden fugue
—Randy Stogsdill and Abby Dozier
Jacques' xylophone shack.
Crazy markdowns! Free french fries.
Save big at "Le Shack."
—Sue McGilpin
Best Haiku About the War in Iraq
I sure hope I'm wrong about this, but it looks like we're in for a long bloody haul that will only result in a lot more hatred toward our nation and make our country a lot less safe from terrorists. Nice work, George. Sue McGilpin encapsulated the situation best. For that, she gets a $40 certificate to Ralli's and two passes to the Guild Cinema.
Perennial lies
Spiral from the highest branch.
Deciduous Bush.
—Sue McGilpin
Honorable Mention
To fight about what
Half wants to happen and half
Do not; it's called war
—Lauren Henn (sixth grader, Sandia Prep)
Children's corpses rot
In calculated rubble.
No child left behind?
—Sue McGilpin
Waging war for oil:
Making the rich get richer
While the poor get killed.
—Tommi Lin Tejeda
We lied to invade,
Now we are stuck in Iraq!
Will we lie to leave?
—Erica Kretzmann
Bombed cemetery
Near Mosul: churning the bones
Of murdered infants
—Ron Reed
Wreck Iraq for fun.
Like the father, like the son
Buy oil and sell guns.
—Steve Bishop
Best Haiku About Your First Sexual Experience
This category seemed harmless enough when we first thought of it. Somehow, though, it ended up being enormously disturbing. Perhaps the most disturbing haiku of all was Liz' winning entry. For her creeped-out honesty, she'll receive a $40 certificate to the District and two passes to the Guild Cinema.
He bought me ice cream
Like a dentist treating me
For being so still
Honorable Mentions
We discovered each
Other like strange lands—we saw,
We conquered; he came.
—Erin M. Daughtrey
Dumb and sweet, we were
amateurs softly cruising
Past virginity.
—MF Ward
VW Bus
Passion on high, brain on low
Baby on the way
—Stephen Davis
Fear—not of the dark—
But of the Virgin Mary
Being real pissed off.
—Linda Olen
Best Alibi Haiku
Tell us what you think of us in 17 syllables. No, really, we want to know. Don't hold back. Don't kiss our butts. We're much less insecure than we might seem. We got heaping hymns of praise along with plenty of haiku scorn. Steve Bishop seemed to best capture the essence of the Alibi, so he gets the prize, a $40 certificate to Ralli's and two passes to the Guild Cinema. (By the way, who's Dennis D. O'Leary? That name sure sounds familiar.)
So very much time,
And so many typewriters.
The monkeys did it.
—Steve Bishop
Honorably Mentions
I do not believe
The semi-nude wrestler is
Not bi-curious.
—Nora Heineman-Fleck
Officer, I swear
I wrote haiku that whole night.
Check the Alibi.
—Malcolm Murray
Eating newspaper?
Want the juiciest stories?
Try the Alibi.
—Devin Hight (Albuquerque High student)
I dream of sleeping
With Dennis D. O'Leary
And wake up screaming
—Kelsey Atherton (Albuquerque High student)
Oh, dear Alibi
Where would I be without you?
Most likely prison.
—Kelsey Atherton (Albuquerque High student)
I missed the last Crawl.
Please, put advertisement near
This Modern World.
—Robert McGoey
Weekly Alibi:
Ignoring my poems since
—Robert McGoey
Best Haiku About Why You Fear a Specific Species of Farm Animal
My vote for scariest farm animal is certainly the goat, yet for whatever reason I'm also oddly attracted to our voracious, horned friends in much the same way churchgoing good girls are attracted to big smelly bikers. Oh, goat, you're soooooo bad. My daddy wouldn't like you at all. Elaine Almquist's goat poem was the best entry in a very competitive category. She wins a $40 certificate to Ralli's and two passes to the Guild Cinema.
When I was a kid
A billy goat ate my belt
And my pants fell down.
—Elaine Almquist
Honorably Mentions
The old horse took my
Fingers between his teeth, held
Tight, licked off the cheese.
—Billy Crews
Oh God! That donkey
Is humping his mom again.
Please, spare the children.
—Suzanne Barteau
Psycho tom turkey
Testosterone poisoning
Has messed up your mind
—Suzanne Barteau
Two-ton hog cornered
A full grown man and ate him
Least that's what I heard
—Amanda Kooser
Bad-ass male turkey,
Running full speed at my junk!
Who wouldn't be scared?
—Roald Dali
Goats I fear the most
They work with the government
To keep taaabs on me
—R. Singleton
What doesn't he know?
Black eyed, sentient sausage.
He judges and shames.
—Gail Miller
A methane build-up,
A lit match. Moo, moo, KABOOM!
Hey, it could happen.
—Bob Sabatini
A goat chewed off my
Pants, I walked home in a great
deal of discomfort
—Chadwick Reinicke (sixth grader, Sandia Prep)
Best Miscellaneous Haiku
Ah, miscellaneous. You win us over with your worldliness. You seduce us with your sophistication. You charm us with your wit. Gail Miller won this category, too. (That's got to be some kind of Alibi Haiku Contest record.) For that, she gets a $40 certificate to Ralli's and two passes to the Guild Cinema.
Oscar Wilde's gravestone
Is frescoed in red lip prints,
Not flowers, but breath.
—Gail Miller
Honorable Mentions
Damn thee, vile haiku:
Syllabic ineptitude,
Poetry's cheap whore.
—Jamie Larkin
This haiku knows it's
A haiku. It wants schnitzel.
It hates being so short.
—Malcolm Murray
If a cat laughed jazz
In a 3 a.m. gin joint,
Would anyone hear?
—Todd Eddy
Butter flies downward
Off the knife towards the floor
Avoiding the toast
—Doug McKinnon
Bum steps in my path
He tries to sell me a watch
Given up on time
—Shelby Anderson
10 sunflower seeds.
100 hungry sparrows.
I don't want to watch.
—Wanda Jerome
Drunken vagabond
Way overdue for a bath
Pays fare in pennies.
—Brian K. Hansen
I know two poems,
One is "the road not taken,"
The other isn't.
—Tony Santiago
The first insect bike
Race, my kitchen's Tour de Ants
Leading ... Ants Armstrong
—Jarrett Stotts (sixth grader, Sandia Prep)
Introducing spoons!
No more messes or ouchies,
Old guys can use them!
—Travis Shepherd (sixth grader, Sandia Prep)


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A Michigan man the feds say tried to blackmail actor John Stamos claimed in court that there was nothing illegal about his plan to sell embarrassing photos of the former "ER" and "Full House" star.
Scott Sippola is charged with conspiring to extort $680,000 from Stamos using the pictures, which the government says never existed, according to The Associated Press. But Sippola insisted in a Michigan court filing that the FBI lost or destroyed the photos, which he and co-defendant Allison Coss planned to peddle to magazines if Stamos didn't buy them.
Sippola's attorney offered the defense as a deadline for a plea bargain elapsed and the case headed for a July 12 trial.
U.S. & World
Coss and Stamos have known each other since meeting in Florida in 2004.
Sippola said he had a legitimate deal on the table when the FBI lost or destroyed the valuable photos after nine agents searched his home last year. His attorney said without the photos, the case should be dismissed.
"Without the photographs, the government's case becomes much easier to prove and the defendant's defense much more difficult," Henderson wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maarten Vermaat said Sippola was raising a "standard defense in blackmail cases."


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Yule, Henry, Sir. Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. New ed. edited by William Crooke, B.A. London: J. Murray, 1903.
The Hobson-Jobson Anglo-Indian dictionary includes many uncommon diacritics. In order to display the full range of diacritics a Unicode font must be installed. Information and instructions are available on the Font help page.
The Hobson-Jobson Anglo-Indian dictionary is also available as a "full view" book under Google Book Search.
Data for this dictionary was most recently updated in January 2006.
This dictionary is funded in part by the U. S. Department of Education.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.


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Lincoln College of Technology closing 5 Tri-State campuses
Those graduating this year should have time to do so, school says
A national vocational education chain is closing five campuses in the Tri-State.
Lincoln Educational Services Corporation announced Friday that it plans to close four campuses in southwest Ohio and one campus in northern Kentucky.
"Federal legislation implemented on July 1, 2012 that prohibits Ability-to-Benefit (ATB) students from participating in federal student financial aid programs has led to a dramatic decrease in the number of students attending these five campuses," stated Shaun McAlmont, Lincoln's Chief Executive Officer, in a news release. "We assessed the productivity and potential for each of these campuses during this challenging economic period and made the difficult decision that they were no longer sustainable."
Officials said students who are scheduled to graduate before Dec. 31 can complete their studies at Lincoln. Other students will work with the school to transfer, the company said.


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200 N.E. 21st Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73105-3204
OKTRAFFIC.ORG Website Policy
This website contains real-time information on Oklahoma Department of Transportation's (ODOT) highways and interstates systems. By clicking "I Agree", the user agrees that they have read, and agrees to accept the limits and conditions of accessing this website. All material and information on this website is designed to assist the traveling motorist of traffic conditions. No images are recorded, or used for any type of enforcement of speeds. In using this website, you agree not to capture or record images for litigation purposes, and you agree not to hot link to images on this website.
Data Disclaimer
Schedule for Posting Information
User Privacy
Links Disclaimer
1. Disclaimer
DO NOT rely on any of this information as the sole basis for travel decisions. Before you travel, check several resources to gather as much information as possible about the road conditions. You and you alone are responsible for making the final decision to and where to travel and for determining the route you choose to take.
ODOT is not responsible for the travel decisions YOU make, or for situations that occur as a result of your travel decisions.
2. Data Disclaimer
The camera images being presented on this website are for transportation purposes only, unless otherwise approved. Cameras will not be used intrusively to violate personal privacy.
3. Schedule for Posting Information
Information is posted to this website on an intermittent basis as it is made available from a wide variety of different sources. ODOT strives to maintain the most current information available on the website, but cannot guarantee that all information will be posted at regular intervals due to power outages, equipment malfunctions, telecommunication outages, or other such reasons which may be beyond the control of ODOT.
WARNING: Website information is subject to periodic change and/or updating. Anyone relying on such information must bear the risk that the information provided may be changed and/or updated without notice. Care should be taken by the user to check for changes/updates regularly.
4. User Privacy
ODOT respects the privacy rights of website users and the traveling public whose vehicle and/or person may be viewed by a system camera and thus, this site does not collect or store personal information in identifiable form about website users or the traveling public. ODOT will not sell information collected on this site to a third party. Certain non-personally identifiable information is collected and stored automatically, including but not limited to:
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ODOT makes every practical attempt to make this website as accessible to people with disabilities as possible. However, some items like photos, maps and plans are primarily visual presentations of information and there is no current means to convey the full information contained in those items using today's assistive technologies.
If you have difficulty accessing information on a particular page, please contact our Web Master by e-mail at
For further information and to learn more about the regulations governing the accessibility of electronic information products visit the pages listed below:
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Links are maintained with the website and databases whose administration and operation are outside the purview of this website. We disclaim any liability for the accuracy of content; validity of systems; effectiveness of tools or technologies; or adherence to privacy, security, accessibility, or other policies. When you follow a link to another site, you are subject to the policies of the outside Website. Linking to an outside website does not constitute any explicit or implicit endorsement of the product, organization, information or services by ODOT.
You may need to change your browser settings to enable cookies to view this website.
© 2008 The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education


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1986-92 Mazda RX-7 Performance Parts : Intake Dellorto
Intake Gasket - Upper/lower :: 86-88 6-Port
The Mazda Factory Upper/Lower intake gasket sandwiches between the upper and lower stock intake manifold sections on a 1986-88 13B 6 Port engine and is also compatible with the Racing Beat Top Side draft Manifold section.
Sidedraft Carburetor Upper Manifold Section :: 86-92 13B 6-Port
This Racing Beat-designed upper manifold mates a sidedraft carburetor to a stock 1986-92 13B 6-Port lower manifold. Although this 13B upper manifold section was originally designed by Racing Beat for use with a Dellorto 48 DHLA carburetor ...


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Burnett back to the DL
The Blue Jays have placed right-hander A.J. Burnett back on the 15-day disabled list due to his right shoulder strain today. Toronto recalled Jesse Litsch from Triple-A and he's penciled in to start against the A's on Tuesday. Toronto manager John Gibbons said Burnett is flying to Birmingham, Ala., to see arm specialist Dr. James Andrews. Not good.
Also before Sunday's game, Mariners manager Mike Hargrove announced he would be resigning following the game against Toronto. That caught just about everyone off guard, especially with how well the M's have been playing. Hargrove cited a lack of passion, and felt if he stayed on it'd be detrimental to the club. You've got to wonder if there's more to it than that.
More info on Toronto's All-Stars to come later.


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Google Developers posted pictures today of its super-secret, ultra-confidential, if-you-tell-anyone-about-it-we'll-kill-you Google Glass Foundry event, where developers got to touch, wear, develop for, and maybe even fondle the hottest Google hardware product ever not yet released.
Two groups met, one in New York, and one in San Francisco, and built "over 80 new ways to use Glass" over the course of the two-day session. They worked next to Google engineers, provided feedback on the platform, and saw the still-confidential Google Glass API, which developers and hardware manufacturers will use to build technologies and software that integrate with Google Glass.
Participants were basically sworn to secrecy about the API and any other details of the events, but Ryan Warner, an Android developer who was there, did give some feedback on the Google Developers post:
"Glass foundry was awesome!!" he commented.
Typically, the comments then devolved into an ad hominem discussion on the relative merits of MacBooks for development (small selection: "over-price pieces of trash," and "the best laptop hardware you can get"). Kids will be kids.
Some photos:
The next chance for non-Google engineers and augmented reality enthusiasts to learn a bit more about Google Glass? The South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas:
If you'd like to know more about developing for Glass and you'll be at SXSW this year, we recommend you attend Building New Experiences with Glass (http://goo.gl/pLoUu) with +Timothy Jordan on Monday, March 11th at 5pm in Ballroom A of the Austin Convention Center.


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The Outcasts of Poker Flat Summary
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte is an 1869 story about four troublemakers who are banished from the California gold-mining town of Poker Flat.
- John Oakhurst, a gambler, lives in Poker Flat. In 1850, he and three others are banished from the town.
The others are Uncle Billy, a thief, and the Duchess and Mother Shipton, two prostitutes. The group later meets two newlyweds, who help them take shelter in a storm.
- In the morning, they find that Uncle Billy has stolen the horses and left them trapped due to a snowstorm. At the end, the group is found dead.
Download The Outcasts of Poker Flat Study Guide
(Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories, Critical Edition)
Mr. John Oakhurst notices on November 23, 1850, that there is a change in the moral atmosphere of Poker Flat, a California gold-mining settlement. His premonition is correct, as a secret committee has determined, in its local prejudice, to rid the community of certain undesirable people. Two men are executed, and four alleged reprobates are banished, including Oakhurst. The other exiles are two prostitutes, known as the Duchess and Mother Shipton, and a thief called Uncle Billy.
After an armed escort abandons them on the outskirts of the settlement, with a warning never to return, they decide to head for Sandy Bar, a camp that has not yet experienced the regenerating influences of Poker Flat. It is a long day's journey through the mountains, and by noon the Duchess declares that she will go no farther without a rest. Although Oakhurst advises against stopping, the others, under the influence of liquor, refuse to move. The gambler does not drink, because he believes that it would interfere with his profession. For the first time since he became a gambler, he is lonely and depressed. He studies his pathetic companions, now sleeping, but he does not abandon them.
Oakhurst's reverie is broken by the sound of his name. Tom Simson, a youth known as The Innocent of Sandy Bar, ascends the trail, followed by Piney Woods. They are on their way to Poker Flat to get married and to seek their fortune. Simson knows the gambler because he was once in a poker game with him. Oakhurst won the youth's entire fortune, but he returned it with the advice that Simson should never gamble again. The kind act won for the gambler a devoted friend.
The Innocent reports that he has an extra mule with provisions, and that he has located a roofless cabin. Despite Oakhurst's protest, the others decide to accept Simson's offer, and they make camp in the cabin. It snows during the night, and in the morning Oakhurst discovers that Uncle Billy has absconded with the mules and most of the supplies. The snow forces the group to take refuge in the camp. A roof is made of pine boughs, and the wait for the end of the storm begins. Simson provides an accordion and a copy of Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad (750 b.c.e.; English translation, 1611) for entertainment.
The snow, however, does not abate, and the food supply dwindles. On the tenth day of being snowbound, Mother Shipton, thought to be the strongest of the party, weakens. She reveals to Oakhurst that she has saved her share of the rations from the last week so that the girl, Piney Woods, will have a better chance to survive, and then she dies. The gambler assumes that they will all die soon unless something is done. He sends Simson on the difficult journey to Poker Flat in an attempt to get help. Oakhurst accompanies him for part of the way, and the Duchess and Piney Woods are left alone in the cabin. They fall asleep in each other's arms. That is the way they are discovered by a tardy rescue party several days later. The third body is found under a tree at the head of the gulch. A note, printed on the deuce of clubs, is pinned to the tree with a bowie knife. It states that John Oakhurst had a streak of bad luck and handed in his checks on December 7, 1850. He had been shot by his own gun.
(Masterpieces of American Literature)
(The entire section is 1,877 words.)


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Indiana High School Equivalency TASC Test Information
EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2014, the State of Indiana no longer administers the G.E.D. test
The new HIGH SCHOOL EQUIVALENCY Examination is TASC (Test Assessing Secondary Skills)
By now you should have been studying for the test. If you haven't, you should! The test is not easy, and if you're not properly prepared, the State of Indiana will limit the number of retest attempts per year, in the event you don't pass on your first attempt.
To help you properly prepare for the exam, you should contact the Adult Basic Education office in your area so that you can take some of the classes to help you get ready. The ABE offices also have a practice test available to you. It's only about half as long as the official exam, and it doesn't cost anything to take. It's a great way to make sure you're ready!
The services that your ABE office provides don't cost anything, however, you must enroll in their program to take advantage of those services. But that's a simple process of calling the appropriate office and talking to one of the ABE counselors. They'll be glad to help you start studying and preparing to take the TASC test.
How to Obtain G.E.D. or Indiana TASC Score Transcripts:
If you need a copy of your TASC or G.E.D. test score results, or need to send your transcript to a college, university, employer, military, or other entity, you must order your transcript through the Diplomasender website. You will create an account with Diplomasender (username, password, etc) and then order your transcripts and designate the recipient.
Please note we cannot acknowledge candidates, give transcript information or any kind of result information over the telephone.
Test score results may take 3 - 4 weeks to process. Your official results are sent directly to you by diplomasender.com. VU offices will not be able to give official score reports. All official score reports must be ordered from diplomasender.com. Transcripts are $15.00 each and verification letters are $5.00 each.
All public inquiry needs to be directed either to Diploma Sender or to the Department of Workforce Development's Adult Education hotline or website. The phone number is 1-866-220-6675. The website is http://www.in.gov/dwd/adulted.htm


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My Goal
Im using Axure for prototyping and I've created widgets which reflect my application UI.
One thing I would like to achieve is the ability to add text-shadow onto certain elements, without having to type the same text twice and layer them over each other.
What I've tried so far
I've tried several methods and hacks to get this to work with no luck. The closest I have got is creating 2 dynamic panels, one which I type the desired text into and then when previewing the protoype, I can click on the element to trigger the onclick event to update the shadow element. Which is far from ideal.
Existing Examples
Im pretty sure this can be achieved as I have seen it done in other peoples Axure libraries.
For Example: http://axutopia.com/axure-widgets-libraries/axure-iphone-widgets-library/


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The eponymous Nobu London was the first European venture for the celebrated Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Opened in conjunction with partners Robert De Niro, restaurateur Drew Nieporent, managing partner Richard Notar, and hotel owner Christina Ong, the restaurant occupies the first floor of The Metropolitan Hotel on Park Lane.
The menu at Nobu London, draws heavily on Matsuhisa's classic Japanese training as a sushi chef in Tokyo, as well as on South American influences gained during his extensive travels. This innovative "new style" Japanese cuisine has become both his trademark and the foundation of his success.
With its own street entrance on Old Park Lane, the 150 cover restaurant includes a separate sushi bar and enjoys commanding views across Hyde Park through full-height windows. Designed with simple elegance by United Designers, the interiors make subtle use of light woods and natural stone to reflect the diverse influences of Nobu's cuisine, incorporating the purity and quality materials inherent of traditional Japanese design.
Nobu London opened in London on February 17th 1997 and was awarded one Michelin star, which it still retains today.
Book your table at
Tel: 0207 447 4747


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Orange Book: Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations
Current through December 2012
To provide timely consumer information on generic drugs, the Electronic Orange Book is updated daily as new generic approvals occur.
The products in this list have been approved under section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Drug questions email: firstname.lastname@example.com
U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services
Food and Drug Administration
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
Office of Pharmaceutical Science
Office of Generic Drugs


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Your request will be answered as soon as possible. Most of the times within 2 working days.
Tile size:
13 x 13 cm. square. The Original size.
60 tiles / m2. Border tiles 13 x 6.5 cm. sq.
Tile colour:
Our standard glaze is a very nice off-white colour. In general this will be a good classic shade of white to match an interior. On request we can provide plain and decorated tiles with a touch of: blue, grey, green, pink or ivory or cream.
Decoration colours: Blue, manganese (sepia), black or multi-coloured.
We recommend narrow joints (1 - 2 mm) .
Packaging: All tiles will be packed in heavy duty carton boxes. All tiles will be separated with a square piece of fleece to prevent the tiles from getting in contact with each other and break.
Transport: Europe : Royal post, Fed-ex, UPS or forwarder.
Outside Europe : Royal post, Fed-ex and UPS.
To give an estimate of transport, the total amount of tiles and level of transport is essential.
Lead time:
If the tiles can be sent from stock: 1 or 2 weeks from moment of confirmation depending on destination and chosen way of transport. Most tiles are crafted upon specified request, which will take 3 or 4 weeks to craft and 1 week for packaging and transport.
Credit card : (Visa, MasterCard & American Express). Secure page on the website or
details can be faxed: 0031 314 381199 (from USA 011 31 314 381199)
or given by phone 0031 6 1600 5000 (from USA 011 31 6 1600 5000).
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Int. Bank Acc. No. : NL61RABO0321646495 , Swift Code/BIC: RABONL2U.
Check at your local customs if import taxes or (local) taxes are applicable.