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There are cockroaches and bedbugs, crack dealers and addicts, but for some at least, a rooming house provides a roof over their heads.
This article was published 12/7/2013 (2556 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Michael, a childlike pensioner who favours oversized 1970s glasses, has something you don't expect to see in one of the filthiest, most menacing rooming houses in Winnipeg.
Lined up meticulously on his TV table sit a dozen tiny plastic toys and cars — the kind children get inside the chocolate egg of a Kinder Surprise.
"I've got 20 to 30 stuffed animals in my room," says Michael, a veteran resident of a behemoth rooming house on Spence Street. And, he loves Elvis. A nicely-curated cluster of photos of the King are tacked up on his wall.
Michael is fastidious, almost militarily so. He lines his shoes up neatly on newspaper and even puts a placemat under the old ghetto blaster that sits on the floor.
But the years of grime and decay — the walls a cigarette-smoke jaundice, a sink with no taps, pockmarked flooring, the hazy third-floor heat — make his efforts almost pyrrhic.
Michael's rooming house just south of Sargent Avenue in the Spence neighbourhood is ground zero for one of the city's most intractable and often tragic social policy problems, one that's shifting into a full-blown crisis thanks to Winnipeg's real estate boom.
Michael lives on a block with 19 other rooming houses, the biggest concentration in the neighbourhood. Even the longtime home of legendary Free Press editor John Dafoe is among them.
And, Michael's neighbourhood has the most rooming houses in Winnipeg at nearly 120.
His is one of the more troublesome ones, bedevilled by crack dealers and addicts, young prostitutes and the kind of dreary dilapidation that breeds conflict among residents. Cockroaches and bedbugs compete for insect domination. There is no real caretaker, and the landlords are so absentee that residents joke they must be in the Cayman Islands. The only way to contact them is to leave a note in the safe where rent cheques are dropped.
But, shuttering the Spence Street mansion would make at least 18 people homeless.
As bad as it is, the three-storey warren of rooms represent a proper roof for some of the city's most vulnerable, hardest-to-house people — not lazy welfare bums, mostly, but folks who have obvious mental or cognitive problems, chronic addictions like the young Red Seal welder who works just enough to support his crack habit, or who have weathered hardships and violence that most suburbanites cannot fathom.
"Rooming houses are a last resort for a lot of people, the only option," said Mary Burton, the rental housing worker at the Spence Neighbourhood Association. "You can't judge a person by where they live. You don't know what their story is."
The Spence Street rooming house is an endangered species in the inner city.
That sounds like a good thing — who wants to live in a rooming house, or next to one? But in fact, it's the start of a catastrophe.
As parts of the core gentrify, rooming houses -- especially the big ones -- are being flipped into fancier duplexes or single family homes.
In the last decade, Spence has lost about 20 per cent of its rooming houses, according to new research done by the University of Winnipeg's Institute of Urban Studies and the Spence Neighbourhood Association. That research involved going house-by-house in Spence, counting the number of rooming houses. It's the best snapshot we have of the prevalence of rooming houses and suggests the number has dropped from 145 in 2004 to 117 now.
Burton, who walked the streets with IUS researchers, can think of two rooming houses she's seen flipped since she hit the streets a year ago.
Despite the drop, there are still nearly 1,100 rooming house residents in Spence alone. For most, their small room is a last resort, the only thing standing between them and Siloam Mission.
And Spence is slow to gentrify. West Broadway is in a full blown crisis as it hipsterizes, and staff at the neighbourhood community organization there are now trying desperately to improve life in the area's remaining rooming houses and keep them from closing, while also raising the alarm about what they say is the inner city's most pressing housing issue.
Michael's Spence Street rooming house is part seniors home, part flophouse for young prostitutes, part crack den and part dorm.
It's home to characters such as Big Ted, who lives quite happily in the spacious back porch, a young Filipino kid who keeps to himself and Darlene, who occasionally cleans the bathrooms.
Inside, its hallways are dim and narrow and smell like filthy carpet that won't dry and stale cigarette smoke. The rooms are sweltering on a breeze-less day, especially on the top floor. The kitchen is spartan, with a dirty stove that residents barely use. One of the three bathrooms has a toilet seat and bowl crusty with watery poop and encircled by mould. The rest of the fixtures aren't much better.
There are three bathrooms for 18 people, and no real system for cleaning them.
"Sometimes it gets to be a hell of a mess, and I do it myself," said Michael of his third-floor bathroom.
On cheque day recently, a hot one, many doors are open on each floor as tenants mill about visiting from room to room with cigarettes burning and beers cans sloshing. The blasts of hollering are generally friendly, but with an undercurrent of menace thanks to the slightly surly young men sitting on the small stoop.
"There are cockroaches all over the f**king place," said one young man, who wouldn't give his name. "That's why we're sitting outside."
A short, colourful discussion ensues over which is worse — cockroaches or bedbugs. There is agreement that you either get one or the other because cockroaches eat bedbugs.
"You know in the cartoons when a bunch of ants at a picnic carry away the pie?" said Jerry, a handsome 20-something crack addict during a brief chat earlier in the day. "That's what it's like."
Dave, the intellectual of the house, lost his mattress because it was covered with bed bug feces. For a while, he was sleeping on the floor next to his small window, his bed made out of a sleeping bag and some pillows while his speckled black mattress lay tossed out the back door.
The house was just sprayed for bugs, and all of Dave's possessions are still piled up in the middle of his room, leaving little space to manoeuvre around the slopping dormer ceiling.
"It's absolutely Third World," said Dave. "This is what $350 will get you."
The combination of events that conspired to manoeuvre Dave into his cramped room on Spence are a "there but for the grace of God" kind of thing.
Fastidious in dress and handsome in a cool, nonchalant kind of way, Dave comes from a decent middle-class family, and has enjoyed a decent middle-class life.
As a young man, Dave worked as a taxi driver in the winter and on mowing crews in rural Manitoba in the summer.
"I loved both jobs immensely," he said.
When he neared his 40s, he started looking to settle down. He had a nice girlfriend, a house in Elmwood and, by then, his certificate in aerospace manufacturing at Red River College.
Then, in 2001, he lost his drivers licence for drunk driving and got laid off from Bristol Aerospace all in the same month, the start of his slow-burning slump. Then, he started gambling away his employment insurance. Though he got recalled at Bristol after a couple of years, he got fired in what he said was a cock-up of a misunderstanding. If you get fired, you can't claim EI, and things went from bad to worse.
"I lost my house, my car was gone, my girlfriend was gone," said Dave. "I don't blame her. I wasn't a good catch at the time."
Dave bounced between jobs at Westeel, making grain bins, and at New Flyer, the bus manufacturer. He also got his license back and drove a cab again, though a tussle with a customer who refused to pay netted Dave an assault charge. At his lowest, he ended up at the Salvation Army.
"I heard that rooming houses were so hard to get, I just took the first one," said Dave, now on disability due to anxiety and depression. "I didn't expect to be here two years."
Things might be looking up, though.
Dave has given his one-month notice — a salute to tenancy rules that few rooming house residents bother with — and plans to move in to a new, more stable and supportive rooming house down the street run by a neighbourhood activist and minister.
Until then, he'll keep grappling with the kinds of small, irritating problems that can balloon into big fights among residents. Most of the doorbells don't work, meaning visitors often scream up at the house to get a tenant's attention.
There's a large hole in the bottom of the mailbox, so mail gets scattered around the stoop. Dave once found his disability cheque lying in a puddle of water at the bottom of the steps, so he microwaved it for seven minutes and it was good enough for the bank.
Dave has lived in the house for two years and has not met the landlords once. He does the math and figures the owners make an easy $75,000 from the Spence Street house. Dave is the one who jokes the owners must be relaxing in the Cayman Islands.
They might as well be. The rooming house is registered to Esperanza and Ruby Pelland, and is one of three they own in the neighbourhood.
But residents say the real owners are two ex-cops, including James Pelland. Six years ago, the CBC ran a series of stories about brazen drug-dealing in the house and a crackdown by the province under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. Neighbours, local activists and city councillors were appalled the owner, a patrol sergeant at the time, was ignoring rampant criminal activity on his property and the pleas of neighbours to stop it.
This is a fairly stable time in the Spence house, even though there is no caretaker — a vital part of the alchemy that makes a rooming house function. The last caretaker, a tough, handy guy, was willing to drop the hammer on unruly residents, but he was fired about six months ago. After that, a violent, mentally-ill crack dealer lived in one of the second floor rooms, causing havoc before being evicted -- the kind of bad apple that can upset the delicate compatibility of 18 troubled people living in close quarters.
The dealer was a volatile, intimidating presence, and a relentless mooch. He even made gentle Michael mad.
"Every day it was 'you got a smoke? You got 20 bucks?'," said Michael, who worked for years at Perth's Drycleaners until he was laid off in 1983. "I got so mad I almost put my first through the door."
Albert Carty ain't a guy you want to mess with. His greying hair and Barry White baritone gives him a faded elegance, but his shear bulk and gift for profanity makes him menacing.
He's a caretaker for several West Broadway rooming houses, including a mammoth one with 27 units. There may be no job in Winnipeg less coveted.
He's been bear-maced, hit in the head with a brick, and set upon by seven gang members. He even has to deal, he says, with a pedophile tenant who hoards and has lost control of his bowels.
While cruising by on his bike, he stopped to speak to the Free Press, while occasionally taking calls on his flip-phone from people wondering whether he has a room for rent. He does, because he just evicted a young woman drug addict from a house on Furby Street.
Here is an except from a brief but colourful conversation.
Q: If you had to say, of all your tenants, what percentage are decent, quiet, no problems with them, straight-up people?
A: What percentage? Ninety per cent — the ten per cent makes them all bad. And I find that women are the worst problem.
Q: Really! Why?
A: Ah, man. You figure you've got a 20 year-old girl who moves into a building with 90-per-cent men, and she likes to drink or do drugs. Well. Of course every man in the building is going to want to have a piece of her. So they go and buy her whatever she wants, and she'll take what they have and then go out and find some guy off the street and then everyone's pissed off and fighting over her.
I won't rent to women anymore. Once I get rid of these three women out of here. They are just a pain in the behind. Most of the women end up being prostitutes or drug addicts. So they bring guys in and do what they have to do.
Q: What would make rooming houses better in your mind? What policy idea or program might help?
A: Take care of the people that are sick. Find out what the problem is and try to fix it. Don't just prescribe drugs to them. You pill them out so they can't do anything, and then the drug trade starts. Then the B-Boys or the Warriors move in and then the whole building is shot.
Q: How come a lot of the tenants don't get into Manitoba Housing?
A: You know what it is? They can get into it, but then they get thrown out... Or CFS is letting these people go at 17, 18 years old and they're too young. All they want to do is party when they're 17 years old. And they ruin it for everybody. At the other house I have, I only have people over 30. That's not fair to the younger people.
Q: How many people in your rooms would have either addictions or mental health issues?
A: How many? Jeez. F---. Eighty per cent at least. That I know of. Maybe closer to 90 per cent. But they go to housing. I've had people go to housing and come back two years later because nobody will put up with the nonsense.
(Interview has been edited for space and clarity).
How many are there?
It is impossible to know for sure. No one counts — not the city or the province. The official tallies that do exist are not reliable. For instance, rooming houses must register their rents with the Residential Tenancies Branch, but many rooming houses don't, so any count the RTB has will be too conservative.
On the flip-side, the city licences rooming houses but there are only 184 on their list. That includes some duplexes and triplexes, and the very low number bolsters the suspicion that many have that most rooming houses don't bother to get proper licenses, ducking city inspections.
About a decade ago, a study by the University of Winnipeg's Institute of Urban Studies pegged the total number of rooming houses in Winnipeg at about 1,000, and Winnipeg fire inspectors figure that is about right, perhaps even closer to 1,200.
More recently, the IUS did a door-to-door tally in the Spence neighbourhood alone and pegged the number there at 117. Similarly, staff at the West Broadway Community Organization say they have an estimated 75 in their small neighbourhood.
What's the rent?
Between $350 and $425 a month, depending on the size of the room and whether it has a basic kitchen. Sometimes, some utilities are included.
Keep in mind the basic welfare shelter rate is $285 with utilities. That might get you a closet in the crappiest rooming house in Winnipeg.
How big are the rooms?
Imagine the average bedroom in an old Wolseley house and you'll have it. The average in the Spence neighbourhood is just under 170 square feet. That's according to an analysis of more than 100 rooming houses in the Spence neighbourhood done by the IUS.
Where are the hotspots?
West Broadway, Spence, Point Douglas, Centennial and other neighbourhoods in the inner core. There are fewer rooming houses in the North End because the houses tend to be smaller.
How are they regulated?
Lots of ways, but many of those ways don't work.
Rooming houses must be licensed by the city, but many are not. Licensed rooming houses must follow fire codes and Winnipeg's neighbourhood livability bylaw, which regulates basic maintenance.
Health inspections, for things like mould and bedbugs, are now done by the province.
There's also the Residential Tenancies Branch, which regulates rent increases and other rules, but only if the landlord registers with the RTB. Some rooming houses are on the down-low.
Why can't we just shut them down?
It's too harsh to call rooming houses a necessary evil, but given Winnipeg's chronic and widespread poverty problem and its almost total lack of affordable housing, they are absolutely necessary.
The trick is to make them less evil. Rooming houses are bottom-of-the-barrel housing for the poorest Winnipeggers, but if we shut them down or allow them to be renovated and flipped, thousands of people -- perhaps as many as 6,000 -- will be homeless.
Housing advocates and inner city activists say unequivocally: Instead of bulldozing rooming houses, we need to make them better.
Icons indicate approximate locations of rooming houses in Winnipeg's Spence neighbourhood. Click for more information on each one.
Source: Institute of urban Studies (UofW) and Spence Neighbourhood Association. Map by Wendy Sawatzky.
More in this series:
FRIDAY: Data on Spence neighbourhood rooming houses.
SATURDAY: A look inside.
MONDAY: One that works and why.
TUESDAY: Hear more from Furby Street landlord Steve Tait and other rooming-house owners.
WEDNESDAY: Besides gentrification, the biggest threat to rooming houses is fire.
SLIDESHOW: A house of last resort
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text: Farin 2 Report post Posted February 8, 2007 1) "We Shall Overcome" - Traditional/Adapted by Pete Seeger This tune was originally a slave spiritual. It was picked up during labor strikes in the 1940s, when people changed the original lyric from "I ..." to "We shall overcome." The song was re-popularized in the 1960s by Pete Seeger. Pete learned the song from a woman named Zilphia Horton, who was a labor striker at the time. By the time Pete adapted it and taught it to others, it took on its own life as an anthem in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. 2) "This Land is Your Land" - Woody Guthrie Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940, and it was originally called "God Blessed America For Me." But while recording it in 1944, he decided to change the last line of each verse to "This land was made for you and me." The song is a great tribute to the working class, and an editorial on the distribution of wealth and power in the America. It's a great call to protest, claiming this land belongs to us, and noone can take that away. 3) "Blowing in the Wind" - Bob Dylan When Bob Dylan debuted this song at Gerdes Folk City, he announced to the crowd, "This here ain't no protest song or anything like that, 'cause I don't write no protest songs." But whether Bob likes it or not, this song became an anthem in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The song asks a series of daring questions about the worth of a person. It has since been covered by folks from Stevie Wonder to Judy Collins. 4) "Give Peace a Chance" - John Lennon At the end of his week-long "bed-in" in 1969 with his new wife Yoko Ono, John Lennon had recording equipment brought into the hotel room. There, along with Timothy Leary, members of the Canadian Radha Krishna Temple, and a roomful of others, John recorded this song. It was the height of the Vietnam war, and this song became an anthem of the peace movement that summer. It has lived on in its anthemic quality since then during peace movements all over the world. 5) "People Have the Power" - Patti Smith Calling Patti Smith a folksinger would surely upset fans in both Folk music and Rock circles. But her anthem, "People Have the Power," is one of the most potent, lyrical, lovely protest songs I've ever heard. And it's certainly a big part of what has taken her work to legendary status. Recorded in 1988, "People Have the Power" serves as a reminder that, as she sings at the end of the song, "everything we dream can come to pass through our union." 6) "Get up, Stand up" - Bob Marley With its catchy, repetitive chorus, this song is a shoe-in to be counted among the most timeless protest songs. It's the first track on Bob's "Burnin'" CD. Although it communicates a decisive rasta philosophy, the tune defies religious and political barriers, and communicates a universal message about the importance of standing up for your rights. 7) "If I Had a Hammer" - Pete Seeger This is one of those songs that has seeped so far into the public consciousness that it's included in children's songbooks. It's a simple, easy song to remember. It so idealistic that people can't help but sing along. 8) "War" - Edwinn Starr Originally recorded by the Temptations, this song was popularized in 1970 by Edwin Starr. The Vietnam war was at the height of its conflict, and the peace movement was gaining speed. The song talks about war in general, not specifically the one in Vietnam. The lyrics raise the question of whether there must be a better way to resolve conflict. 9) "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore" - Phil Ochs Phil Ochs was one of the most prolific "protest song" writers on the scene in the 60s and 70s. This song takes the voice of a young soldier who is refusing to fight in any more wars, after having seen and participated in so many killings at war. It's a poetic look into the inside of the ugliness of war, and a staunch claim for Och's "War is Over" stance. 10) "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" - Pete Seeger That Pete Seeger really knows how to write those protest songs. This is yet another classic by Woody's protege. The simple recurring lyrics make it completely sing-along-able. The story is of the cycle of war, beginning with young girls picking flowers that eventually end up on the graves of their dead soldier husbands. The recanting of "When will they ever learn" is so pretty and catchy that it gets sung at peace demonstrations even still. Link Share this post Link to post Share on other sites

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On Saturday and Sunday, September 15th and 16th, I attended the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa's Conference, and heard Ottawa native, Dr. Lucille Campey, give three talks about emigration from the British Isles to Canada.
Since I am deeply interested in emigration, I had waited impatiently since first hearing that she was coming to speak at the conference, so I had to make sure that I did not miss any of her talks.
The first talk was "Lord Selkirk and the Settlement of Scottish Highlanders in Canada", and Lucille says that he is a favorite of hers to write about because he had such a strong personality, and such a commitment to bring Scottish Highlanders to Canada to settle in Red River, Manitoba; Baldoon (Wallaceburg), Ontario; and Belfast in Prince Edward Island.
Her next talk on Sunday was "Seeking a Better Future: The English Pioneers of Ontario and Quebec" in which she challenged the commonly-held idea that people were running from poverty in the homeland. She found out in her research that the English came to Canada seeking greater freedoms and a more attractive style of life than they could find at home.
Her third talk, "The Scots in Ontario – a New Look at the Data", looked at Ontario census data to explain why Scottish people settled in the area where they settled. She showed genealogists why people such as weavers and kelp farmers settled in particular areas in Ontario. It was an interesting talk for me because it showed the patterns of settlement, and the reasons why people settled in one area, and not in another.
You should check out her books on emigration at Dundurn Press http://www.dundurn.com/authors/lucille_h_campey, and the interviews that were done with her by BIFHSGO at www.bifhsgo.ca/upload/files/Conference%202012/Campey.mp3 In addition, there is an interview with Lucille Campey, Chris Paton, and Patricia Whatley by Ottawa's Austin Comerton on his radio show, The Gaelic Hour (CJLL 97.9 FM) www.thegaelichour.ca. To listen to the interview, click here - www.thegaelichour.ca/20120916.m3u
You can visit her Scottish website at www.scotstocanada.com, and her English website at www.englishtocanada.com
You can visit her Scottish website at www.scotstocanada.com, and her English website at www.englishtocanada.com


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Bots are complicated. They're made to process repetitive actions autonomously and can be fairly easy to build, but they aren't always working on the side of good. Here's what you need to know.
Each year, EContent magazine compiles a list of the 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry.
Voting is now closed. We'll announce the results of the first-ever EContent 100 list chosen by the people!
Marji McClure
May 21, 2012
The digital media industry continues to evolve, in part because of the people who have devoted their time and expertise to advancing the technology and the content that it powers. When we asked industry experts who they felt were the 15 most influential people in digital media, we expected to receive a range of responses. And that's what we got.
These influencers have created opportunity for themselves and others within the digital media industry. Barry Graubart, author of the Content Matters blog, says that when he made his nominations, he "tried to identify people who are influencing behavior and changing the roles of digital media companies."
The top 15 digital media influencers we feature here represent all aspects of the space, from the technology that enables the media to the content providers who use the technology as a platform. We also recognize the educators, the researchers, and the innovators who continue to advance digital media through their knowledge and know-how.
Society's use of digital content was undoubtedly boosted by the invention of devices such as the iPhone and the iPad, both of which enable users to access content wherever and whenever they need it. While Jobs died in 2011, his impact on the digital media space will have long-lasting effects. When people think of digital content, especially mobile digital content, they likely think of Jobs. "The iPhone remains the seminal product that defined how we view mobile content today," says John Blossom, president and senior analyst at Shore Communications, Inc. "Jobs made premium content attractive to consumers in the digital world on a widespread basis when others were still in the planning stages for better premium offerings. Media models may move on from online storefronts eventually, but for now Jobs' vision has enabled digital media to thrive in ways unimaginable a few years ago."
Ebooks have been a part of the digital media space for years. But it took a long time for them to truly become part of the cultural landscape. Blossom credits Bezos and the Kindle for making ebooks part of mainstream media and advancing digital media to previously unknown levels.
"Ebooks were nothing new when the Amazon Kindle digital reader came along, but with more than a decade of online marketing genius already in place behind its selling of print books and other digital media, Bezos laid the cornerstone of the online digital revolution for book publishers," says Blossom. "The Kindle made it easy to discover, evaluate and purchase ebooks from a wide variety of publishers, including self-publishing authors who could upload their own content into Amazon's online storefront."
Blossom credits Bezos with increasing sales of ebooks to Kindle. The Kindle quickly evolved into more than a simple ebook reader. The Kindle Fire, which launched in late 2011, was immediately identified as a competitor to Apple's iPad. "Bezos' innovative approaches have enabled Amazon to keep its digital muscle and to have leverage over print publishers as no other online outlet can command," says Blossom. Amazon has become a multimedia content distributor, using its Kindle devices to stream content from major network and cable television companies.
Zuckerberg needs no introduction. In a short period of time, Facebook has helped shape what digital and social media are today. "With $1 billion in net income, a million comments posted every two minutes, and more than 3 billion photos uploaded per month, it's safe to say that Facebook has changed the internet," says Graubart.
"He's a prodigy and a visionary in the social media space, and he literally built the mold for social media communities as we know them today," says Lynn Russo Whylly, an editorial consultant who has reported on the digital media industry for 20 years.
Facebook is used as a communication tool for both business and pleasure. Graubart sees the social media platform as a strong channel for publishers in the future. "With the Open Graph and the promise of paying with Facebook credits, publishers will soon see Facebook as a critical platform for their content," says Graubart.
Blossom notes how Zuckerberg "fashioned the world's largest social media empire out of content that no media company cared about-and then managed to figure out how to monetize it effectively before anyone else did. Facebook grew one tweak at a time, learning by listening as it went along-and managing to keep its social signals to itself in the process. Where AOL failed, Facebook succeeded in creating a walled garden for everyday people on the Web."
Page can be credited with helping to make digital content more organized and easier to find. "The PageRank algorithms named after [Page] point to his seminal role in transforming the World Wide Web from a loose hodge-podge of digital content sources into an integrated information resource that billions of people reference every day for answers to their problems and for entertainment and personal communications," says Blossom. "PageRank was the first online content organization tool which recognized that hyperlinks in web content pointing to other information resources were also a map of how the web was relevant to the people publishing on it."
Blossom notes how Page is now leading Google's social media endeavor, Google+. "Be it via the web or via its Android or Chrome OS mobile computing platforms and Google's autonomous vehicle experiments, Page is setting the pace for a wider and more pervasive presence of the web in our lives," adds Blossom.
Graubart views Carvin as a digital media influencer for his innovative use of Twitter. Carvin is in charge of NPR's social media initiatives, using both Twitter and Facebook to communicate on the news organization's behalf.
"Andy Carvin's @acarvin twitter stream was probably the information service more journalists and media professionals relied upon for information about the Arab Spring than any other," says Graubart. "He leveraged Twitter in new ways, retweeting local Egyptian and Tunisian sources, helping make the world aware of these events."
Paton has accomplished a lot to ensure that newspapers-traditional media-can thrive in an increasingly digitally based world, implementing a "digital first" mantra toward newspaper publishing. Digital content is a top priority before words ever appear in print.
Digital First Media consists of Digital First Ventures, MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company. In all, the companies have more than 800 digital and online offerings. "While newspapers continue to search for a model that can work, Paton's Digital First approach, focusing on the web and mobile while using inexpensive, off-the-shelf publishing tools, has returned the Journal Register to profitability," says Graubart. Paton talks about the connection between newspapers and digital media in his blog, Digital First.
O'Reilly's company has changed with the times and has become a solid online publisher. O'Reilly helped guide the company from its beginnings as a technology book publisher into a multimedia publishing channel. "O'Reilly has experimented and succeeded with pre-release content access, cross-platform content accessibility, subscription book access and by-the-chapter content purchases," says Blossom. "He saw book publishing as a process, not an end product, and learned how to engage audiences as an active component in the creation of high-quality online media. His ability to attract the digital media industry's leading and emerging thinkers to his many events ensures that O'Reilly is always on the cutting edge of the next great thing that will drive content forward."
"Tim [O'Reilly] has been an early adopter and a vocal advocate for constant innovation in the book publishing space," adds Graubart. "Most importantly, O'Reilly Media has always eaten its own dog food, embracing openness and innovation."
News Corp. is a strong media property with assets in television, film, and publishing. Among those properties are Fox News Channel, Fox Television Studios, Dow Jones & Co., and The Wall Street Journal. Murdoch has led the company's evolution as a multimedia digital content provider.
"Love him or hate him, Murdoch has been a relentless seeker of ways to make digital media work for news organizations in ways that preserve some of the best ideas of print media," says Blossom, noting the success of The Daily app on iPads and iPhones. "His takeover of Dow Jones has challenged that organization to develop more innovative approaches to business news media, whilst maintaining a freemium approach to building web traffic that was pioneering in its own time and still proving valuable today," adds Blossom.
VivaKi, which is part of Publicis Groupe, comprises digital specialist agencies Digitas and Razorfish, as well as media communications companies Starcom Mediavest Group and ZenithOptimedia. Tobaccowala helps his clients become successful in their endeavors in the digital media space. "Rishad was an early leader in figuring out digital media and helping clients and conference attendees understand how to use it and measure it," says Russo Whylly.
Joseph Jaffe, founder and partner of Evol8tion, LLC, classifies Tobaccowala as a "disruptor, visionary, provocateur" with a "corporate platform and podium, on a global level."
Jarvis is the author of Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live and What Would Google Do? He is also a media blogger at BuzzMachine. Jarvis serves the academic world as an associate professor and director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. He also does consulting work for a variety of media companies. Through all of these endeavors, Jarvis helps provide education and insight into the digital media world. Jaffe refers to Jarvis as "a media scholar and bridge between the old mainstream/established publisher incumbency and the new world of journalism, content creation, and influence."
Weinberger has helped educate the business world on the value of digital media through a series of books: The Cluetrain Manifesto, Everything Is Miscellaneous, and Too Big to Know. Weinberger spent 20 years as a marketing consultant, and he currently writes Joho the Blog. "As one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, Weinberger helped to coin many of the fundamental concepts of what makes digital media and ecommerce work on the web," says Blossom. In Everything Is Miscellaneous, Weinberger addresses digital search as an effective way in which to organize content, adds Blossom, noting that Too Big to Know "helps us to understand the value of learning how to have assurance in an era in which an abundance of conflicting sources of information challenge us to understand what the truth is in a multi-dimensional world of digital media."
Before joining forces with AOL, Huffington made her name in digital media as the founder of The Huffington Post, a news and blog website. AOL acquired The Huffington Post in early 2011. "A year after its acquisition by AOL, The Huffington Post has more than 36 million unique monthly visitors, and receives more than 6 million comments each month. HuffPost has completely revolutionized the content aggregation model," says Graubart. Site visitors are drawn to HuffPost by a variety of content topics authored by a range of subject matter experts. It is an aggregation model that is followed and emulated by many, providing a one-stop shop for content that most online users demand today.
Malik is a veteran writer covering technology, with bylines at Forbes.com, Red Herring, and Business 2.0. In February 2012, GigaOM extended its reach with the acquisition of paidContent, which covers the digital media space. The deal gave GigaOM ownership of ContentNext Media, Inc., thus broadening the scope of GigaOM's content.
"One of the early digital media bloggers and among the few remaining independent, GigaOM has remained relevant, and now is poised to become an even bigger player, acquiring paidContent," says Graubart.
Ramsey, along with Terry Chabrowe and Sam Alfstad, founded eMarketer, which has evolved into an organization that tracks trends in the digital marketing space. eMarketer's guidance helps companies be more successful with their digital marketing initiatives. "Geoff, along with his two co-founders, created order out of the chaos that was digital media research with the launch of eMarketer," says Russo Whylly. "By pulling all industry results together at a time when the top researchers disagreed on everything from definitions to predictions, eMarketer built its brand first by noting the variances and explaining them, then by giving its own estimates, thereby competing with its research partners."
DeMillo deserves the honor as a top digital media influencer, according to Jan Ozer, editor of Streaming Learning Center and a streaming consultant. Revision3, an internet television network, launched the first video-oriented website to operate on an HTML5 platform, transitioning from Flash. The company also offers a video app that operates on Android phones and tablets, as well as GoogleTV. In an article for Streaming Media magazine, Ozer notes how Revision3 has been able to connect with users across a range of channels, "not only on their PCs but on mobiles, in in-flight entertainment systems, and on TVs via devices like Roku, Xbox 360, and Sony PS3."
There's no question that these influencers, and countless others, have transformed the digital media industry into what it is today. Industry watchers and digital media users alike will await their next innovations and contributions to the field as they shape the future of digital media.


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Ektio Breakaway 2.0 Puts Ankle Support First
If you keep busting up your ankles the Ektio Breakaway 2.0 is the basketball shoe you need.
HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: It's about time someone thought less about how to get me to dunk (it will never happen) and more about how to keep my ankles from getting broken.
Read More


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Everything from cheese plates to canapés can have more zing with flavored cheese. Here, Jalapeno Co-Jack from Loleta Cheese Factory and Emmenthaler are combined with red-leaf lettuce, a pitted olive and a grape tomato on a toasted bread round (first toast, then use a cookie cutter). Photo by Eugene Bochkarev | IST.
Category Main Page
Articles & Reviews
Main Nibbles
Main Page
Articles & Reviews Of Foods From A To Z
Product Reviews
Main Page
Food, Beverages, Books,
News & More
STEPHANIE ZONIS focuses on good foods and the people who produce them.
April 2008
Last Updated July 2012
This is Page 6 of a six-part article on flavored cheeses. You can click to the different pages via the black links below.
Why buy sausage or salami to go with your cheese, when Sugarbush Farm in Vermont has a Smoked Cheese With Salami? It's the company's regular hickory- and maple- smoked Cheddar with bits of salami and spices. Why didn't I think of this first? All you'll need is bread and fruit, or perhaps just a good beer.
If you're looking for something a lot more unconventional, how about oats? Zingerman's Creamery makes Argyle, a seasonal, fresh, cows' milk cheese, blended with cream and shaped into half logs that are rolled in toasted pinhead oatmeal (steel-cut oats). Before receiving the cheese, I wondered if the uncooked oats would retain too much of their hard texture. But they absorb liquid from the cheese and soften nicely. Zingerman's recommends this as a breakfast cheese, and I agree; it's lovely spread on bread, with a little drizzle of honey on top.
Continuing with breakfast items on the outside of the cheese, how about your morning Joe? Barely Buzzed, made by Beehive Cheese Company, separately roasts South American, Central American, and Indonesian coffee beans to varying degrees, then grinds them with French lavender buds. The blend is diluted with a little oil and rubbed onto the rind of the cheese. Wild stuff! The rind becomes an attractive, powdery brown (see the photo at right), and delivers a nose of coffee aroma. The rind isn't meant to be eaten, although the rub imparts coffee notes to the cheese. Coffee drinkers should enjoy this unique product.
If you love truffles as much as many of the folks at THE NIBBLE, one of the most inexpensive ways to enjoy them is via truffle cheese. The cheese makers use bits and pieces that have fallen off the precious truffles during handling.
There are fine truffle cheeses made; most are with pieces of black truffle. Truffle Tremor from California's Cypress Grove Chevre, with dots of black truffles throughout, is one of the best we've had, imbued with truffle aroma and flavor (see photo below). A bloomy-rind cheese, it has a moist paste and while a luxurious table cheese, is not right to make macaroni and cheese. But if you find a semi-hard truffle cheese, substitute it in your recipe for the best celestial mac and cheese you've ever had.
It's my hope that one or more of the delicacies in this article will start you on a flavored-cheese exploration. There are even more categories to explore. Leaves, such as chestnut leaves, can be used to flavor cheeses; ash is an ancient cheese flavoring. I wouldn't try an ashed cheese for years, because I couldn't get past the idea that I'd be consuming ashes. When I finally tried one, I realized what I'd been missing.
So treat yourself to some flavored cheeses—the change will do you (and your taste buds) good!
Go To The Article Index At The Top Of The Page
Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights reserved. Images are the copyright of their respective owners.


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Do you believe fantasy does not infringe on your reality? Do you believe in the need for humanity as you know it from fiction?
For you, who may believe such things, how do you react when a work lacks the intention of appealing to you in this way? Would it be in outrage, in disgust, in resentment, scorn and derogation for failing to be well-written?
If you were, what would you think if those very characters who face turmoil so that they may cater to what you need out of them, appeared before you with defiance and indignation?
Do you believe you would reflect on your own perceptions and hold remorse for your demands of them?
Or would you think that it is their wrongdoing to hold you accountable for how you judged people who you would have never expected to be real?
I consider this to be a very important factor to consider if you will be watching Re:Creators, where fictional characters do in fact manifest in reality.
If you will not even be willing to ask yourself about how a show which offers a situation where reality and fiction intertwine becomes relevant to your perception of stories and their characters, then there is nothing of meaningful value for you to find here. However for me, who wishes from fictional characters the same I would of real individuals, and desires for the same on real individuals as I would for fictional characters, there was no setting more fitting for me to witness in action, no scenario with more potential for a compelling portrayal to witness.
That is because I knew all too well of what the popular understanding of what it meant to be written properly was. I knew that stories are supposed to be made in accordance to criteria decided upon by humans as being objective quality. I knew all the hatred in justice human beings could have for others once they had an excuse to license themselves to all manner of vilification and all manner of arrogation with no risk of disgrace they could consider valid of their own character for their scorn to all works which were not consistent to what fiction should be in their minds, how valid they thought that to be for how consistent it was with what others had to say of fiction as well.
The very same kinds of people who would serve the people that qualify for that were now depicted alongside the very fictional characters they would be so likely to undermine from their hearts for not belonging to the reality they did.
I wanted to see what Re:Creators could have to tell me once this was established. However, I was also very alert throughout nearly the entire run, anticipating something that may have crushed my hopes for what there was to see.
As a show with a premise of fictional characters becoming real, the outcome of it to turn into yet another formulaic construction made to appeal to criteria had me fraught with fear. Even if it is fiction about fiction, it was still fiction itself and thus vulnerable to coming back around to appealing to the demands of the systematic thinkers. No matter how many times it seemed contrary to following such conventional matters, I remained afraid until the very end. I am writing this now of course because it did not turn out to disappoint and followed through.
Everything felt so much more authentic, free of considering what it should be doing as a story. The creations, naturally as a result of being from varied creators, all thought differently and also lived life outside of the plot, even making a point of how true this was with what they were indulging in that was present in reality which wasn't in their fictional worlds.
They weren't made to come to a conclusion with a unified message or a moral to the story, they were just people that learned new things and thought with their hearts according to what they ended up in. Characters only changed their beliefs for circumstances they recognized as warranting a different outlook from their personal observations rather than through their victimization or a calling out of how they weren't in the right. Where there was conflict I had seen it to be opportunities to further express an individual rather than a mere means for suspense.
This was not a story made for you to exercise your appreciation for humanity's weaknesses or their complexities. Every last one of the characters are rather simple and fairly straightforward. The plot was written organically without much thought for twists, branching, or even having to make sense, and it sets landfills of exposition your way. There is barely any sense of power balance. For some, that would bring into question how it could be interesting at all.
However no matter how mediocre it could be considered on such values there is no doubt that it provoked me into reflecting on the world with a new perspective.
Why could it do this? Because Re:Creators set a precedence for trust.
From the very first episode, with no character background even provided, I saw a vindictive girl dressed in exaggerated military-inspired vesture, sporting giant anime hair with locks snow white and a gaze of piercing red with a dozen swords flying and spinning to her will.
She did not appear in a high school uniform, a commoner's dress, an armor of humble design, she wasn't someone made to be a character that the viewers would believe to not be beyond themselves. From her exterior features alone I recognized her as the enemy of the system that decided the purpose and procedure of how people like her should exist.
Consequently, because of the very nature of this show involving both creators and creations, her very first appearance was also recognized by me as someone who was born from a sincere heart. She wasn't designed to be marketed, she was designed from the soul of the artist. This meant that the one who designed her actually, really cared about her. She was more promising than any other creation in the show as someone worth trusting in because of how clearly genuine she was made to seem, a true expression untainted with the chains of so-called good sense.
The question my mind constantly had to ask the show for answers was, what did it intend to show me by including this kind of character, who was practically a magnet for the hatred of the literary? What was her fate to be and why? What does she represent and how will they incorporate that into the story? What even led them to take such a risk as to include her at all?
The answer to that was that her existence provided the foundation for connecting the story to the world.
Of any character that could have been used instead, that she was chosen gave the show the freedom to go beyond the system by design.
Even fanart of her made by amateur artists on our side of the world was featured in the actual anime.
This all came down to who Re:Creators was for, and the answer was right there in the title. If you are an artist or an author or perhaps even a musician or even if you ever sincerely wanted to be one, then this anime could either be your sanctuary for peace of mind, or it could do nothing for you at all other than send you into a furious rejection of everything that it stands for.


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Become attractive utilizing Ashley Tisdale's Boots
Each person ought to have some of beneficial footwear that much better to supply you with to every single nook in the world. Feminine must be since amazing as they possibly can to be in the globe and also the just issue they will be determined by has to be your palm and a core. Make Boots associated with Ashley Tisdale property.


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Jay Leno (probably) tapes his last "Tonight Show" on Thursday.
It's the end of an era and all that. The tireless Leno has hosted NBC's late night perennial for the better part of 22 seasons and logged more episodes than any of its four other hosts, including his direct predecessor, Johnny Carson, who sat behind the desk for 30 years.
This epochal run as less defined by great, sustained comedy or ground-breaking entertainment than by the tensions and conflicts that have periodically punctuated Leno's reign.
Headlines and Jaywalking were fine as far as they went, but have they ever consistently matched the hilarity of longtime rival David Letterman's Top 10 Lists and Stupid Pet Tricks? Were any "Tonight Show" segments, for that matter, as compelling as the Byzantine maneuverings that went on around Leno's previous "retirement" from the program in 2009, its ratings-slashing results and Jay's controversial return at Conan O'Brien's expense?
Maybe the gags that Jay made about that situation came close, but they were about it.
Leno's nightly monologues are distinguished by being longer than other talk show openers, an example of the performer's emphasis on quantity (along with eschewing vacation breaks from the TV grind, he crammed some 150 live stand-up shows a year into his schedule). The monologue jokes were by nature hit-and-miss, as they are for most comedians working such a schedule. O'Brien's, Letterman's and Jimmy Kimmel's material could be edgier than Leno's, but behind the scenes Jay excelled at drama. The Carson succession war with Letterman was so good, HBO even made a movie about it.
Trauma also foreshadowed Leno's ascent to the Burbank throne. Carson's bitter falling out with heir apparent Joan Rivers in 1986 led the way for Leno to become "Tonight's" "permanent guest host" a year later.
Also in 1987, Jay had his first and only starring role in a movie, the buddy cop comedy "Collision Course" with Pat Morita. It was an infamously troubled production. I visited the set in Wilmington, N.C., and spent the night I was supposed to watch an action scene get filmed shuffling between Leno and Morita's trailers for hours into the early morning. Jay was understandably concerned and grumbled about the filmmaking process.
When the sun came up, it was announced that the director had been replaced (not the first time that happened). The movie's production company soon went out of business, and "Collision Course" was released straight to video in 1992.
Such an experience would sour anyone on that part of the business. But even if that made him more desperate to land the "Tonight Show" gig, Leno has always been exemplary at keeping the persona he presents under control.
Perhaps the things that make Leno interesting to me — his competitive obsessiveness in obtaining his goals, along with his general (admirable? strategic?) refusal to engage in public fights with anyone outside of the NBC executive ranks — influence why I've always found his shows lack comedic tension. Letterman, O'Brien, even Kimmel, you can tell these guys have dark issues that bubble up intriguingly on any given night.
Jay? He's a little self-conscious about his chin.
But the relative blandness of his "Tonight Show" is what's kept it on top, albeit to more-or-less diminishing returns, all these years. Remember what they said about why Letterman didn't get the job? Too smart, too mean-spirited (translation: too funny). The blame that was dropped on the Conan interregnum's ratings nose dive? O'Brien was a little too out there (translation: clever). High hopes, whether they get proven in the pudding or not, that Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight" will do better than Conan's did have been supported by, among other things, the perception that Fallon is the more relatable of the two.
It's often been said that "Tonight's" fan base is conservative Middle Americans who don't want anything too challenging. I'd say that it's more likely sleepy Americans who have to go to work the next morning and don't want to have to do much to enjoy their last bit of evening's entertainment. Save the stronger stuff for past midnight, cable, ABC or CBS; giving just enough to keep folks awake but not overly stimulated is a rare art. In fact, only Carson and Leno have proven to be the masters at it for more than a half-century now.
Will Fallon be able to do it too? I don't know; his main talent seems to be in musical mimicry, but the way he imitates rock stars and such tends to impress far more than the one-note skits he builds around it. His comedy and interview styles seem as nonthreatening as Leno's, which is a big plus for this job. I won't be staying up late to find out, but I hope the show performs well enough to save Fallon the embarrassment of having to fend off another Leno return campaign.
Then again, maybe that would be quite entertaining. Imagine Leno going up against NBC's other institutional late night gorilla, new "Tonight" producer Lorne Michaels? What a bloodbath that would be! And I'd even have a rooting interest: The 164 local jobs lost with the program's move to New York might return to Burbank.


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For more than 30 years already, judel/vrolijk & co has been a name in the design and engineering of successful yachts, boats that are among the winners in almost all the world's major regattas.
Doubling of effort and confusing data management caused by working with multiple insular solutions in development are to be avoided in future by the use of a uniform solution.
Introduction of the CATIA yacht construction solution for an end-to-end development and design process.
The large quantities of data involved in complex projects can be clearly organized. CATIA puts boat construction at judel/vrolijk on an industrial footing, and helps to comply with new EU directives for yacht construction in all aspects and more simply to gain more time for designing new yachts.


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City of Glendale, CAHome Sitemap Contact
Here you will find links to many city events. See events offered by the Library, Arts & Culture Department, including arts event for all ages and educational events.
Housing Authority Meeting
- Date: 01/14/2020 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
- Location: City Hall
613 E. Broadway
Glendale, California 91206
For agendas and minutes, please click here. To watch City meetings live, please click: Live Video Stream.


text: Home Products Valet Tray Description All of us have a unique assortment of things we carry on the regular, but let's be honest -- doesn't it feel great to purge the pockets once home? For those with their hands raised, we've created a desktop catch-all for those small essential items. Remembering where you put the keys just got a whole lot easier. Details Two pieces of 3 oz. Meridian English bridle Leather sewn together with brass press fit rivets made in Portland. Each Valet Tray is cut, sewn and stamped with our signature maker's mark by hand in our Portland workshop. Dimensions: 5"x 5" Shipping Details This item is available and will ship within 48 hours of date of purchase. Please refer to shipping details on other individual products if you are purchasing multiple items -- lead times may vary for each. Tanner Goods Valet Tray Cognac $85.00 Call one of our flagship stores to check in-store availability. Have A Question? EMAIL email@example.com Product Details Shipping Details Size Chart Related Products You May Like You've Looked At No previously viewed products. SoldOut Tanner Goods Valet Tray Cognac $85.00


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Created for: The Sims 3
This is a Set with 6 Creations - Click here to show all
Six Easter patterns for Good Friday. All are found in Themed.
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Filesize: 800 KB kB
These patterns are marcorse originals. Five were created in the TSR Workshop - one with CAP - for exclusive use on TSR. Do not re-upload outside of TSR, nor
claim as your own work - either singly or as the set.
Credits: EA/TSRW. Column:jomsims. Model:Kardofe
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Jacques Herbrand's accident
The following two extracts concerning Jacques Herbrand's mountaineering accident are taken from the paper Le Temps. The first appeared on 29 July 1931, and the second on the following day:-
1. We have just learned from Le Bérarde that a new accident has occurred on the Pelvoux plateau: a young man, part of a three-man company from Lyons, has fallen to his death.
2. Mountaineering accidents: We mentioned yesterday that a young man, part of a company of Alpinists climbing in the area of Le Bérarde, fell to his death. he was M Jacques Herbrand, residing at 10 rue Viollet-le-duc, Paris. M Herbrand departed Sunday with three comrades, MM Jean Brille, Pierre Delair, and Henri Guigner, to ascend the Baus. During the descent, the piton to which the line was attached gave way, carrying with it a small platform on which M Herbrand was situated, and fell into a chasm. A rescue party has left to seek the body, which it hopes to reach today.
Last Updated August 2006


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Recent News
March 05, 2014
HC Schau and Sons Recalls 'Fresh To Go' Tuscan Style Combo on Tomato Basil Bread
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services received information regarding a recall of individual 8oz units of 'Fresh To Go Tuscan Style Combo on Tomato Basil Bread' because it may contain undeclared Pine Nuts (tree nuts).
Product was distributed in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin through 7-Eleven retail stores. The product is sold individually in an 8oz pack and is identified as 'Fresh To Go Tuscan Style Combo on Tomato Basil Bread' with the UPC number: 52548548322. Only packs marked with the following 'Best-by' dates are affected: 2/28/14, 3/1/14, 3/2/14, 3/3/14, 3/4/14.
The full recall can be found at www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm388005.htm?source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery.


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by Reginald Hall Jr.
"Is this picture going to Hollywood or model casting," jokes an elderly woman preparing to photograph Amber-Joi Watkins.
Crowned Miss Pennsylvania USA 2011 in November, Watkins — a Mt. Airy native and Springside School alumna — easily handles attention. Watkins' new title offers opportunities to engage with many new people. For example, the 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate recently connected with people at an autism walk-a-thon in Pittsburgh, made a speech at a New Year's event for the Organization of Chinese-Americans, and spoke on-air at Philadelphia radio station Power 99. Watkins embraces the responsibilities, perks and challenges associated with the title of Miss Pennsylvania, possibly because her remarkable journey to pageant queen almost didn't occur.
As a University of Pennsylvania freshman in 2003, pageantry wasn't on Watkins' radar. Communication studies and pursuing a lifelong passion for dance occupied a significant portion of Watkins' time. That year, upperclassman and fellow Penn student Camille Young captured the Miss Pennsylvania USA crown. Her win inspired Watkins to compete.
"I never thought about doing Miss Pennsylvania until I heard about her," Watkins said. "When I saw she did it, I knew I wanted it. I didn't have a lot of money, but there was a girl who was in one of my dance groups. So I just picked her brain and found out everything I could, and she explained the process to me."
Miss Pennsylvania USA applicants must be at least 18 years old and less than 27 years old, never married and able to submit a $995 sponsorship fee. The money covers meal and room costs during the weekend of the pageant, marketing and production of the Miss Pennsylvania USA competition, and also a year-round staff for the pageant winner. A review committee determines which Miss Pennsylvania USA hopefuls will be selected to compete based on an applicant-submitted snapshot and information form.
The review committee selected Watkins as a Miss Pennsylvania USA candidate in 2007; however, her initial elation was short-lived. In heart-breaking fashion, Watkins finished as the first runner-up to Samantha Johnson, a Temple University graduate. Coming so close to victory after months of difficult preparation left Watkins emotionally drained.
"It was my senior year of college, and I was little upset and felt a little defeated afterwards, so I stepped away [from pageant competition] for a long time," Watkins recalled.
In 2009, the Springside grad competed again in the Miss Pennsylvania USA competition. This time, she finished as a third runner up, two places lower than her initial attempt in 2007. The second defeat left Watkins extremely disappointed, and she decided to quit her dream to win the Miss Pennsylvania USA pageant. However, once again outside support helped sustain her dream.
"I thought that was going to be my last time, and I had no intention of doing it this year," Watkins said. "Then I was encouraged to try for Miss Pennsylvania USA 2011 by Gina Cerelli, who was Miss Pennsylvania 2010. Gina told me, 'It's your last chance to do it and your last year of eligibility.'" At the time, Watkins was 26 years old, giving her one final opportunity to compete for Miss Pennsylvania USA before she would no longer be able to meet the under-27 requirement.
The decision to stick with pageantry turned out to be the right choice for Watkins. In November, 2010, she was crowned Miss Pennsylvania USA 2011 at a weekend-long competition in Pittsburgh. Tears fell from Watkins' eyes as photographers took pictures of her wearing a sparkling tiara. Winning was personally satisfying to Watkins after so many prior struggles but also because she became the third African-American woman to win the Miss Pennsylvania USA title behind Camille Young and Samantha Johnson. The achievement remains special for Watkins, but she hopes she's celebrated for more than her ethnicity.
"There are so many examples of some great role models in the media today, so it feels good to be on the cleaner side of things," Watkins said. "And you know, I hope that girls, no matter what race they are, look at me as a role model. And that they know I'm also an Ivy League-educated-woman, an entrepreneur and a serious business woman."
Winning Miss Pennsylvania USA 2011 has helped open new doors for Watkins professionally. She recently shot a commercial with the Pennsylvania lottery and also booked a modeling gig with QVC.
One of Watkins' most significant projects involves adding content and marketing for her Philadelphia entertainment Website Phillyin.com. The Website focuses on the latest styles, trends and buzz around the Philadelphia region.
"I believe people think, 'Oh, you won Miss Pennsylvania; you are a celebrity now,'" Watkins said. "It doesn't work like that. I did a ton of work to get here, and now that I'm here, there is ton of more work to do. I don't think people understand how much work goes into it."
For instance, maintaining a strict diet and workout regimen helped to sculpt her 5'7" frame. Watkins exercised six days per week without eating any red meat, beef or pork. As a former Philadelphia 76ers dancer, Watkins enjoyed the heavy exercise, but she discovered that choosing the right wardrobe also takes effort and a strong attention to detail.
"You have to partner with these exclusive designers, and you have to meet with them. I have to make sure every item of clothing looks great because I only get to say one or two words to Donald Trump."
Currently, Watkins is preparing for the Miss USA pageant held in Las Vegas on June 19 of this year. Donald Trump owns the competition, which provides a prestigious platform for the contestants.
"I'd love to continue to encourage girls to be independent and get an education — just empowering women in general. We are as able as men, and there is no reason you can't be anything you want to be."
Watkins' can-do spirit is an attribute she shares with both siblings. Her 30-year-old sister, Mirenda Watkins, a University of Pennsylvania graduate and Friends' Select alumna, works as a public defender. Not to be outdone, 21-year-old Henry Watkins travels internationally a high-profile model.
For more information, visit Watkins' own entertainment company's site at www.phillyin.com/about-phillyin/amber.


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Before the tabloids can post "shocking" pictures of Prince William sans wedding ring, he and wife-to-be Kate Middleton are nipping it in the bud and making it clear that he is going without the traditional band by choice.
A spokesperson for the royal couple told People that William has chosen not to go the traditional wedding band route, although the did confirm that Kate will be wearing one.
"There is only going to be one ring, in accordance with the couple's wishes," the spokesperson said.
U.S. & World
Kate's ring will be fashioned out of a piece of gold mined from Welsh mountains and first presented to William's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. The gold had been kept in a vault and the nugget - soon to be molded into a wedding band by Harry Collins, the Crown Jeweler - was given to Kate and William as a gift.
Selected Reading: People, Los Angeles Times, The Telegraph


text: MONTAFON, Austria - Italian snowboarder Roland Fischnaller won the season-opening World Cup parallel slalom Thursday for his 10th career victory, and Sabine Schoeffmann of Austria upset the favourites in the womens competition for her maiden win.Fischnaller, who won a parallel GS in Carezza, Italy, two days ago, edged Zan Kosir of Slovenia in the final by 0.06 seconds, while Mirko Felicetti made it an Italian sweep by defeating Benjamin Karl of Austria.Schoeffmann, whose previous best finish was seventh, defeated Olympic bronze medallist Amelie Koeber of Germany in the final of the womens event, and Alena Zavarzina of Russia beat Hilde-Katrine Engeli of Norway for third place.Olympic champion Julia Dujmovits posted the fastest time in qualifying but was beaten in the quarterfinals.A parallel slalom team event is scheduled for Friday. Cheap Nike React China . - A pitch clock will be used this season during minor league games at Triple-A and Double-A, but it has been ruled out for the major leagues this year. Cheap Nike React Shoes Online . Mission accomplished. Now the Royals will take the field on Saturday with a World Series lead for the first time in team history when they play Game 4 of the Fall Classic against the Giants at AT&T Park. http://www.cheapnikereact.com/ . Last year, Matt Kuchar closed with a 4-under 68 to beat Kevin Chappell by two strokes for his second win of the 2013 season and sixth of his career. Cheap Nike React Shoes From China . -- Conner Bleackley got it done in regulation time and in the shootout. Wholesale Nike React China . -- Detroit shortstop Jose Iglesias says he has stress fractures in both legs and isnt sure when hell be able to play again, leaving the Tigers two weeks to fill his spot for opening day and perhaps a lot longer.VANCOUVER -- Roberto Luongo wont have any family joining him next month when he suits up for Canada at the Winter Olympics. The same goes for Swedens Daniel Sedin. The Vancouver Canucks teammates are both concerned over security at the Games in Sochi, Russia, after a series of threats and terrorist attacks in the region. Two suicide bombers killed 34 people in the southern Russian city of Volgograd in December, and officials say they are hunting three more potential attackers -- including one believed to be in Sochi. "Its definitely on my mind, Im not going to lie," Luongo said after practice on Wednesday. "I think were all a little bit concerned. Were definitely going to keep an eye on it over the next few weeks." Sedin, who is set to compete for Sweden along with his twin brother Henrik, said he was "absolutely" concerned about the news coming out of Russia, including email threats on Wednesday against a handful of European countries set to participate at the Olympics. The threats were largely dismissed as a hoax, but the concern over security in Sochi is serious. "We talk about it quite a bit. Its nothing you can really joke about," said Sedin. "Its in the back of your head for sure." Luongo, the odds on favourite to start for Canada in its first game Feb. 13 against Norway, and Sedin both said safety is the main reason their families wont be travelling to Russia. Sedin added that if family members wanted to join him and his brother, he would discourage them from making the trip. An Islamic militant group in Dagestan -- which is located about 500 kilometres from Sochi -- claimed responsibility for the bombings in Volgograd in a video posted on Sunday. The video also contained a threat to strike the Olympics. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby voiced similar concerns to those of Luongo and Sedin to reporters in Pittsburgh on Sunday. "Obviously everybody watches the news and knows that theres been things happening fairly close to there," said Crosby, who will captain the Canadian team. "From what weve been told, I think theyre going to do everything they can to make sure its safe and secure. Were going over to play and focus on that. "Its not something everyones totally worried about, but I think its hard not to think about it when things are happening kind of close to there." Luongo is not the only Canadian Olympian advising his family to stay at home. Fellow goaltender Mike Smith doesnt want concern over his young family to affect his play while in Sochi. "Me having two young kids, my wifes also expecting numbeer three, theyre not going to go.dddddddddddd. Its not worth it," said Smith on Wednesday before his Phoenix Coyotes played the Calgary Flames. "Its not worth it for myself, thinking about is she okay whenever Im not with her. Its something thats unfortunate but thats just how it is." Toronto Maple Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk, who will suit up for the United States in Sochi, said back in December that American hockey officials told him that security will be "very tight." "I know they mentioned things about different actions they were going to take as far as making sure everythings secure," he said. "It seemed like they were on top of all that." Minnesota Wild defenceman Ryan Suter, who will also play for the Americans, said after practice Wednesday that his wife and two young children wont be travelling to Russia. The long trip is part of the reason, but Suter said recent news about terrorist threats made the decision "a little bit easier." Another American Olympian, Suters friend and Wild teammate Zach Parise, also advised his parents and relatives not to come. He said the situation is "nerve wracking, thats for sure." Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kanes parents travelled to Vancouver in 2010 to cheer for him and Team USA. He said Wednesday his mother, a sister and his girlfriend are planning to come to Russia, despite the safety concerns. "They understand whats going on," Kane said. "Its their choice to go over there, and they wanted to. Ill take the support for sure." Kane said hes not worried about security in Sochi. "You hear different things about it, so obviously youre going to think about it," he said. "But at the end of the day, what can we really do about it? Its not our job to worry about that stuff. If something happens, its completely out of our control. If youre worrying about that, then your heads in the wrong place. I think we have to be worried about going over going there and playing well as a country and a team and enjoying your time over there, too." The same goes for Kanes teammate, Jonathan Toews, a member of Team Canada. Toews said his parents and girlfriend will be in Sochi, despite "that thought in their head" about the danger. "Everyone is doing everything they can to make sure there are no dangerous situations. I think our families will be pretty close to where we are in the village so thatll be a little comfort," Toews said. "We just have to enjoy it and be confident everything will be all right." ' ' '


text:
Google launches Buzz educational video
by Larry Magid
This article originally appeared on CNET News.com
There was quite a privacy backlash after Google announced Buzz in February. The day it was announced, I was one of many who raised questions about both the privacy and safety implications of the service, including the fact that it is possible to use Buzz to disclose your location from a GPS-enabled mobile device. CNET's Molly Wood was less charitable, calling Buzz a "privacy nightmare."
The collective groan caused Google to almost immediately apologize for it missteps and quickly tweak its privacy settings.
On Monday, the company announced plans to start reminding users to reconfirm their privacy settings.
Now the company is turning its attention to teenagers, with a new YouTube video (scroll down to watch it) to help young users better understand how to protect their privacy and use Buzz safely. Scott Rubin, Google's head of planning, public policy and communications, said in an e-mail that the company "has been hard at work making improvements to the product and thinking about how to give users even more control over their experience on Buzz, including teenagers who may not share adult concepts of public versus nonpublic sharing."
The video explains that, like all Google products, "you have to be at least 13 to use Buzz" and tells teens to keep five tips in mind "to help you control your experience."
1. Keep your private information private. Posting publicly on the Web means that whatever you post is visible to all of your followers. It shows up on your public Google profile and may appear in Google search results.
2. Know who's following you. Buzz sends a notification after someone starts following you and you can chose to block them. If you block someone Buzz doesn't send them a message so they won't necessarily know they've been blocked.
3. Control your Google profile. Before you can post on Buzz, you have to set up a public profile, but you don't have to share anything more than your first and last name on the profile. The video reminds you that if you have a photo associated with your Gmail account, "you can chose to use this use this as your profile photo as well" but you can change or remove the photo if you don't want it to be public. You can also elect whether you want your list of followers to show up publicly on your profile.
4. Manage posts and comments. Teens are reminded that they can edit and delete their own posts and delete any comments on your posts and you can remove comments you've made on other people's posts.
5. Know how to turn it off. If you no longer want to use Buzz, you can disable it from Gmail settings. You can also hide Buzz in Gmail but still get it on your phone.
Disclosure: Google is one of several companies that provides support to ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit Internet safety organization that I help run.
Here's the 2 minute, 12 second video:


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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo added their voices Tuesday to those seeking to reform the beleaguered Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, telling the bistate agency that they are forming a panel to take a hard look at its mission, structure, operations and governance.
The two governors sent a letter notifying the Port Authority that the panel will be composed of two sitting or nominated Port Authority commissioners from each state, plus one representative from each governor's office.
New Jersey's representatives will be John Degnan, recently nominated by Christie to be Port Authority chairman; current commissioner Richard Bagger and Christopher Porrino, the governor's counsel.
Representing New York will be current Port Authority vice chairman Scott Rechler; Cuomo counsel Mylan Denerstein and a Port Authority commissioner to be named.
The Port Authority has been buffeted recently over the lane-closing scandal at the George Washington Bridge, allegations of conflicts of interest and the resignations of several top officials. It also has come under criticism for considering plans to commit more than $1 billion as a loan guarantee to back developer Larry Silverstein's plan to rebuild 3 World Trade Center.
The trade center issue has revealed a split between Port Authority board members over whether the agency's mission should include real estate development, in addition to its core mission of operating the New York area's major transportation facilities.
Christie and Cuomo said in the letter that the panel would meet "as soon as reasonably possible" and would submit a report with recommendations within two months.


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IMOLA, Italy — Sam Bennett of Ireland pulled off a superb final attack to win the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Thursday while Simon Yates remained in the overall lead.
Bennett began his sprint a long way out to storm past Matej Mohoric and Carlos Betancur, and claim his second victory of the race at a wet finish to the 214-kilometre route from Osimo to the motorsport circuit of Imola.
"I saw two guys ahead, my team had done so much work for me and I couldn't let them down. I just went for it," said Bennett, who rides for Bora-Hansgrohe.
"I looked back when I saw how far away the line was. I didn't know if I would make it but I kept going and I pulled it off."
Danny van Poppel was second, just ahead of Niccolo Bonifazio.
The general classification was unchanged as Yates retained his 47-second advantage over defending champion Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands.
Thibaut Pinot is third, 1:04 behind the British cyclist.
"I guess these were favourable weather conditions for an Englishman. And also for an Irishman!" Yates said.
The stage was meant to be a relatively easy one before the race hits the mountains this weekend, but rain and hail in the final 30 kilometres and the one classified climb of the day added to the drama.
Tim Wellens attacked with just over 20 kilometres remaining and built a lead of 23 seconds before being caught.
There were more attacks before Diego Ulissi made a move and took Betancur with him.
Mohoric then bridged the gap to the leaders before they dropped Ulissi and had an advantage of four seconds heading into the race circuit for the second and final time.
Bennett caught everyone by surprise by making his early move, surging into the lead with 400 metres remaining and holding on to become the first Irish cyclist to win two road stages of the Giro.
Another mainly flat stage is scheduled for Friday, a 180-kilometre leg from Ferrara to Nervesa della Battaglia, before the race heats up again with a climb up Monte Zoncolan on Saturday and a grueling leg through the Dolomite Range on Sunday.
The race ends in Rome on May 27.


text:
Toni Axelrod
With a name like Duke and parents who love the Colorado Rockies, the 10-month-old son of Bill and Giuliana Rancic is clearly a mountain man in the making.
The reality television stars made sure Duke spent his first Fourth of July at 8,000 feet at the base of the famed ski slopes of Vail, Colo., but he wasn't exactly roughing it. The couple checked into a posh apartment in the Ritz-Carlton Residences, using it as a base camp for a number of high-alpine adventures.
"We're a very active couple, Bill and I; we love to be outside," Giuliana tells PEOPLE. "We love the sun and being out in nature, so we want Duke to grow up hopefully with that love of nature and being outdoors as well."
Plopping 25-pound Duke in a baby backpack, the Rancics hiked Berry Picker Trail to the top of Vail Mountain (at more than 11,000 feet), lunched on pulled pork sandwiches (Duke had a bottle) and rode the Eagle Bahn Gondola back down to the Bavarian-style ski village.
The Rancics also planned a Jeep ride 15 miles up to Piney Ranch, where Bill used to vacation in the summers when he was young, riding horses, hiking and exploring Piney Lake.
"I started skiing when I was four, so [Duke's] going to be skiing at a really early age," Bill says. "I'm all about exposing him [to outdoor sports] at an early age. You've got to teach him at an early age and then they don't have any fear. That was the best thing my parents did for me. I was river rafting in Colorado, skiing – we did it all."
In Vail, the family did some more sedate things, like taking in the ski town's annual Fourth of July Parade and strolling and biking the area's numerous trails. They didn't, however, break any news about a sibling for Duke.
"We've always said that we'd love to have another [child] and we'd love them to be close in age, but it's a major commitment and we want to make sure that our lives, our schedule will allow us to be able to give our kids 110 percent," Giuliana explains.
That said, the couple do maintain a relationship with the local woman who carried their first child for them after infertility, a miscarriage and cancer diagnosis left them at a loss.
"We do try to see her whenever we come into town," Bill says of the gestational carrier, who was traveling out of town herself this trip. "We come [here] quite often because Giuliana's cancer doctor is in Denver and so we have to go for checkups on a regular basis."
Giuliana and Bill premieres July 16 at 8 p.m. on Style.
– David O. Williams