text:
In which issues concerning the profession of philosophy are
bitched griped about
Friday, January 28, 2011
What's Going On at Kalamazoo College?
Comments on the Jobs Wiki make it seem that the search committee at Kalamazoo has been telling candidates they were doing one thing while they were actually doing something else. According to various comments, KC did some interviewing at the APA, and also some phone interviews. The search committee contacted candidates on or around January 7 and indicated that they would be meeting two or three weeks from then to decide who to invite to campus. (Around this time, several people from various IPs claim to have independently confirmed, via email, that this was the search committee's plan.) So, they would be meeting around now to make this decision.
But then yesterday, January 27th, the committee emailed candidates to let them know that the campus visits were over, and that they had offered someone the job, and that the offer had been accepted. (Again, several people with various IPs indicate that this email went out.) (It is also worth noting that there is a lot of conflicting information on the wiki about this search, going back to a December 20 report that on-campus interviews had been scheduled. Maybe that wasn't bullshit.)
So that's pretty weird. Somewhere in there the search committee seems to have distributed inaccurate information. Either they told some people that they would be meeting about campus visits in three weeks while simultaneously inviting some other people to visit campus within that same three-week period, or else they invited some people to campus now while telling some other people that the job had been filled. Or else someone is fucking with the wiki in a serious way.
What gives?
--Mr. Zero
69 comments:
"My Aunt came back
From Kalamazoo,
And brought with her,
Some clowns like YOU!"
- January 28, 2011 at 7:48 AM
I have no knowledge or information about this search. My guess would be that someone's fucking with the wiki, but that doesn't mean the other things aren't happening as well. I don't put much faith in the wiki, though I'm glad it's there.
I will note that when you google "Kalamazoo College philosophy," your blog post is the ninth entry that appears. A sign of the power of this blog, I suppose.
- January 28, 2011 at 8:51 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
Hi Xenophon,
Yeah, the "fucking" hypothesis is somewhat strong. The only reason I give any credence at all to competing hypotheses is the apparently independently confirmed reports of the conflicting emails sent on or around January 7th and January 27th.
- January 28, 2011 at 9:00 AM
For what it's worth, I had an interview with Kalamazoo at the APA, and I haven't heard anything one way or the other. I was told at the interview that they'd be deciding about campus visits "in the next few weeks".
- January 28, 2011 at 9:15 AM
I wouldn't be too harsh on the college, honestly. At least they're keeping their candidates apprised of the search, even if there are blips in the process. How much better is it that they do send out inaccurate letters than that they, like 95% of the other schools out there, don't say a damned thing until a year after the search has closed?
Blips in searches happen. Searches are complicated bureaucratic undertakings. If there was a miscommunication, I suppose that's a shame, but I wouldn't think that shaming the college for doing the right thing and keeping people informed (even if not totally accurately) is a good way to encourage other schools to send out information in the future.
Plus, what really hangs on the timeline? Anything at all? Hopes? Dreams? The three candidates would presumably be the same in either case.
- January 28, 2011 at 9:31 AM
Something like this happened in a faculty search I was a candidate for a few years ago at Ole Miss. The chair of the search committee e-mailed me and assured me that I would be invited for an on-campus interview. Two months later after multiple e-mails sent from me with no response from him, I eventually got a letter saying that another candidate had been chosen to fill the position. Based on an insider account (given through a friend of a friend of a member of the search committee), they were initially going to have 3 candidates come to campus, including me. Then, the well-known advisor of one of the candidates (not me) contacted the chair of the department and told him "Hire my boy!" The department decided to save money, bring only that special candidate to campus and if they liked him, hire him. That's exactly what happened. They hired the advisor's boy! So much for a fair competition. So much for the end of the old boys' network.
- January 28, 2011 at 10:29 AM
Oh, sorry. I thought I was picking up on your language. Must be a reflection of the day I'm having. Didn't mean anything by it, much less a hypothesis or theorem or postulate.
- January 28, 2011 at 12:14 PM
Speaking of questionable behavior by search committees, did you see this post on Quinnipiac?
"on jan 22nd i was contacted by email, told i was on the list of 13 about to be phone interviewed, and asked what times were good for me. i replied -- then never heard back. anyone else with a similar experience?"
- January 28, 2011 at 12:50 PM
I interviewed with Kalamazoo at the APA. The chair indicated at that time (29 December) that the SC wouldn't be meeting to discuss campus visits for "several weeks" and that I would hear from him one way or another once that process was complete. Long story short, I didn't hear from him again until yesterday when I received the form e-mail (mentioned on the wiki) about their having had on-campus visits, etc. It has been three weeks since the interview. As far as I'm concerned, the chair was not honest with me.
Now, according to the letter, conducted phone interviews (presumably for folks who couldn't make it to the APA) and on-campus interviews; extended an offer; and hired a candidate all in the space of three weeks. That's some FAST WORK!
Also, at least 2 or 3 candidates contacted the chair about a week after the APA and he told all of them that the SC hadn't met yet to discuss on-campus interviews. So what's up with that?
There's no evidence anyone is "messing with the wiki." The only people who are messing around with anything are at Kzoo.
- January 28, 2011 at 12:52 PM
If you look at the comments over at the wiki, you will notice that someone was claiming to have an on-campus interview scheduled about a week after the APA. This generated confusion precisely because other candidates had been told by the chair--at the APA and/or via e-mail--that the SC hadn't met and wouldn't be meeting until mid to late January. But now it seems likely that there actually WERE interviews scheduled a week after the APA, in which case it is incumbent upon Kzoo to explain why they lied about this fact repeatedly to other candidates. It just doesn't make any sense.
- January 28, 2011 at 1:19 PM
While I'm not going to deny that there are jerks out there, I don't think we should be too quick to judge. This whole process involves so many different factors, and is rarely just up to the chair, that I don't think it is fair to argue that the chair, or the department was not being honest. It is worth recognizing that both sides of this process are subject to many whims. Job candidates should never put too much faith in timelines offered up by chairs.
- January 28, 2011 at 1:48 PM
You seem to be missing the point. The chair explicitly told several candidates in the period between 29 December and 7 January that the committee wouldn't meet to discuss on-campus interviews for 2-3 weeks. The only way to make sense of the letter he sent yesterday, however, is to assume that the committee was meeting to discuss on-campus interviews within a week (possibly days!) after the APA. Ergo, the balance of evidence suggests that the chair straight-up lied to some of the candidates. Why he did that is anyone's guess, but this just isn't reducible to a "simple misunderstanding."
- January 28, 2011 at 2:14 PM
By the way, there is now speculation on the wiki that there was at least one inside candidacy involved. Maybe something akin to the 'Ole Miss story is happening here after all.
- January 28, 2011 at 2:16 PM
I posted about Quinnipiac on the wiki, the comment that Anon 12:50 quotes (Thank you, 12:50 -- someone heard me!). I really don't know what to think... It certainly doesn't sound good, and I don't feel comfortable writing to them; either they are slow and messy, or they changed their minds and decided to drop me from the list - either way I will just be a bother. But with the Kalamazoo story I am now starting to think there are various other possibilities one may consider!
- January 28, 2011 at 3:52 PM
The timelines that chairs provide are aspirational. Philosophy Departments are messy places filled with philosophers. It's also important to realize that EO offices at many places will not allow searches to be declared closed until after an offer has been accepted.
- January 28, 2011 at 3:53 PM
It may be better to keep candidates informed than not to contact them.
But that does not make it better to lie to candidates than not contact them.
It's better to leave candidates in the dark about the timeline than to lie to them!
- January 28, 2011 at 4:08 PM
Here's my story for what it's worth. I wasn't able to make it out to the APA due to the weather, so I had a phone interview with Kalamazoo instead. During my phone interview, the chair said that the search committee wouldn't meet until the end of Jan. However, on Jan. 6, I was invited for an on campus interview. All 3 on campus interviews, including mine, occurred between Jan. 13-Jan. 21. I was told that the search committee hoped to make a final decision by the end of this week and they have. Also, I can confirm that at least 1 of the candidates is currently teaching at Kalamazoo.
- January 28, 2011 at 4:13 PM
Thank you, @4:13.
According to the wiki, certain folks were in contact with the chair around the same time he was scheduling your on-campus interview. The problem is that he CONTINUED to tell those folks that that on-campus interviews WEREN'T yet scheduled and WOULDN'T be for another 2-3 weeks. Now, why the hell would he do that? It's almost as though he was trying to hide the fact from those who were not being invited to campus. It's shady as fuck.
- January 28, 2011 at 4:37 PM
- Mr. Zero said...
Hi anon 1:48,
I am open to the possibility that there is some misunderstanding here. But it's hard to say what the nature of this misunderstanding could be. There is compelling evidence that several people with different IPs were told, on January 7th, that the committee would meet to discuss campus visits three weeks from that time. And there seems to be compelling evidence that several people with different IPs were told on January 27th that rather than wait three weeks, the committee invited people to campus almost immediately, and successfully offered the job to someone.
I mean, maybe there's some piece of information that would clear this all up. But I can't imagine what that would be. Maybe it's an elaborate hoax. I don't know.
It is true that, technically, this hasn't literally harmed anyone. Nobody was screwed out of a job she would have otherwise gotten or anything like that. But I think we can both agree that job candidates should be shown a certain level of honesty and respect.
Hi anon 3:53,
This is true, of course. However, they are usually "aspirational" in the sense that they take longer than predicted. It is highly unusual for a philosopher to do something three weeks before s/he says s/he will.
- January 28, 2011 at 4:44 PM
Mr. Zero wrote:
"I am open to the possibility that there is some misunderstanding here. But it's hard to say what the nature of this misunderstanding could be."
Yeah, no shit. The chair wrote to @4:13 on 1/6 to invite him/her for an interview. Over the course of the next day or two he proceeded to tell at various inquiring job candidates that on-campus interviews wouldn't be scheduled for another 2 weeks!!! WTF??
word verification: "STFAR," as in, "This shit's gone too far."
- January 28, 2011 at 4:51 PM
Let's just agree to call it KooKoo College and pity the fool who has to work with these lying imbeciles. The fact that no one representing KK College has come forward to defend or apologize for the committee's Janus-faced actions makes me believe that they know they did wrong and just won't admit it.
- January 28, 2011 at 8:25 PM
The same thing happened at a search two years ago at UW - La Crosse. I was told by the department secretary that they had not invited anyone to campus yet after a post on the wiki said they had. A week or so later, they hired someone. They never contacted me to tell me this, even though I had done a phone interview with them. Total a-holes.
- January 28, 2011 at 9:07 PM
I interviewed with Kalamazoo in 2003 at the APA and I never heard from them again.
- January 28, 2011 at 9:12 PM
Someone on the Wiki is saying that they have inside information that the job went to an outsider. But, as a matter of fact, the department website has been changed. The person who was listed as, "Visiting Assistant Professor," as of yesterday has had his "Visiting" dropped.
- January 29, 2011 at 5:16 AM
Does anyone know if something similar to the Kalamazoo situation is going on at Le Moyne as well? A while back there was a change of status from First-round to On-campus on the wiki, which caused alot of confusion. And then the status was changed back to First-round. Given what happened at Kalamazoo, maybe the first change of status was not someone just fucking with the wiki (and our heads).
- January 29, 2011 at 7:42 AM
"The fact that no one representing KK College has come forward to defend or apologize for the committee's Janus-faced actions makes me believe that they know they did wrong and just won't admit it."
Perhaps you are overestimating the readership of niche blogs.
- January 29, 2011 at 9:15 AM
"The person who was listed as, 'Visiting Assistant Professor,; as of yesterday has had his 'Visiting' dropped."
Yep. Notice, too, that he earned his BA from Kalamazoo. This is nepotism all the way.
Re: Le Moyne
I think it's possible that something similar is going on. The same IP that was accused of changing Kzoo's status prematurely was also accused of changing Le Moyne's status prematurely -- in both cases because of conflicting reports from search committee chairs.
It's funny, because my instinct has always been to trust the word of SCs over anonymous job-seekers. Now I'm starting to think I'm better off putting my trust in fellow job-seekers. After all, we're all in the same boat and don't have much to gain by lying to each other, whereas we do have a lot to gain through solidarity and mutual aid. The same is not true of SCs, who are ONLY motivated by self-interest.
- January 29, 2011 at 9:26 AM
Yes, the Kalamazoo and Le Moyne situations seem to be similar. I, along with 2 other candidates, have on campus interviews over the next 2 weeks despite the fact that the chair said the committee wouldn't meet until the end of this month.
- January 29, 2011 at 9:29 AM
I believe the other philosophy faculty member at Kalamazoo College (i.e. not the chair, as it is a 2 person department) was always listed as Assistant Professor on the philosophy website. He is still listed as "Visiting Assistant Professor" on the college page with all the faculty: http://www.kzoo.edu/faculty/index.php?name=elambert.
- January 29, 2011 at 9:42 AM
Just a thought:
If the APA is within its rights to formulate anti-discrimination policies and to censure institutions which violate those policies, why can't it develop a uniform or set of standards for conducting job searches coupled with the power to censure institutions which violate those standards? Such standards might include the following:
1. Departments must acknowledge receipt of application, and within X amount of time.
2. Departments must acknowledge completion of a search, and within X amount of time.
3. If a candidate has been long-listed, departments must notify the candidate whether OR NOT s/he has been shortlisted, and within X amount of time.
4. If a candidate has been shortlisted, departments must notify the candidate whether OR NOT s/he is being invited for an on-campus interview, and within X amount of time.
And so forth...
- January 29, 2011 at 9:50 AM
9:26, I know, it's amazing how those fellow-feeling, altruistic, communally solidarity unity loving job-seekers of three years ago are now motivated ONLY by self interest now that they're on search committees. It's really true, there's no such thing as character.
(In writing this I am motivated entirely by the formal thought of duty as such.)
- January 29, 2011 at 10:07 AM
It is fairly common for departments to not let any of the applicants know know that they have been eliminated from consideration until after the search is complete. The department might be interpreting that commonly held position as requiring them to not on their shortlist know that they were not, in fact, on the shortlist. They might even be acting from the guidelines of the college.
And there are at least two reasons to speed up a time-line. The committee might have been really impressed by someone and wants to move before another school picks them up. Or, the department might be in a bit of a panic about their funding situation (the change in disposition of the House is not limited only to the federal elections - lots of state houses have changed their make-up so state college funding could be affect dramatically...soon). Finally, with a small search committee at a small college, they might have scheduled the meeting late in the month when they knew everyone would be in town but then could have found that everyone was in town. They might have thought "heck, let's knock this bad-boy out."
All that I am trying to suggest is that it is at least possible that the department isn't, in this case, involved in shenanigans. They might be but the evidence doesn't seem there yet.
- January 29, 2011 at 10:31 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
I don't think it's a big deal that they invited people to campus earlier than they said they would. I think it's a big deal that, when asked whether they had invited people to campus early, they appear to have lied about it. If you ask me, that's kind of a shenanigan.
Let's also keep in mind that speculation that the job went to an inside candidate is mere speculation. We don't know who was hired.
- January 29, 2011 at 10:38 AM
10:31, not sure what you mean about state funding -- Kzoo is private.
I don't understand why the SC would lie about when the interviews are/were happening. What's the motive?
- January 29, 2011 at 10:42 AM
"I don't think it's a big deal that they invited people to campus earlier than they said they would. I think it's a big deal that, when asked whether they had invited people to campus early, they appear to have lied about it."
Yes, that is PRECISELY the big deal. Why do people keep missing this?
Kingdom of Ends Legislator, I never suggested that job-seekers weren't motivated by self-interest. That would be absurd. My point was that job-seekers have nothing to gain from lying to each other and a lot to gain by sharing truthful information and engaging in other mutually beneficial, cooperative forms of activity. The same isn't true of people on SCs. Surely you can see why, under certain circumstances, it would benefit them to lie, or at least conceal the truth, from certain candidates -- viz., because it is in the interest of their search to do so. I am not claiming that this is a widespread phenomenon; I'm only saying that it's silly to give blind credence to SCs (while assuming that fellow job-seekers are all liars and backstabbers) when SCs, since SCs have more of a reason to lie to you than fellow job-seekers do.
- January 29, 2011 at 11:30 AM
10:31, you've totally missed the point. The problem isn't that they they expedited the search -- it's that they apparently misrepresented this fact to candidates who inquired after the status of the search. Perhaps the chair wasn't obligated to tell the candidates HIMSELF that the timeline had changed (unless he promised to do so), but since candidates wrote to HIM, wasn't he obligated to tell them the truth?
- January 29, 2011 at 11:45 AM
It seems really unlikely the position went to the current VAP, who is listed under some of the course descriptions but nowhere else on the philosophy page. He just doesn't fit the job description, and actually appears to be a VAP in the religion dept.
- January 29, 2011 at 11:49 AM
I know for a FACT the the 'VAP' was changed to 'AP' on their website MONTHS ago. It was NOT changed yesterday, as some here seem to speculate. Of course, if that VAP turns out to be the one who got the offer, then that is grounds for somewhat more responsible speculation. But, a reliable source tells me this was NOT the case; the position went to someone from outside.
- January 29, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Curious how often bad behavior among academics takes place among continental-oriented 'philosophers'! Has any X-phi person done a studen of this?
- January 29, 2011 at 1:50 PM
9:29, just to clarify--you have a campus interview at Le Moyne? I also interviewed with them at the APA, and got one of the personal emails indicating that they would meet at the end of the month. If they have actually already scheduled the despite this, it's definitely nice to know about it.
- January 29, 2011 at 2:20 PM
- BunnyHugger said...
This all seems pretty gossipy and speculative even by local standards. Maybe we should stop kicking this around until we find out what actually happened.
The amount of bitterness in threads like this really shows what the job market does to us. "Hey! That guy got a job!" "The bastard! Get him!!"
Yes, I know the issue here is really supposed to be search committee transparency, but the grumbling about possible nepotism and so on also seems to point to poisonous envy. I am no saint; I feel it myself at times. I'm not self-righteous in this matter, just sad.
Word verification: ellysis. Definition: the state or quality of being an inhabitant of the Elysian Fields; often metaphorically applied to recipients of tenure-track positions.
- January 29, 2011 at 4:10 PM
I realize this blog is forum for job seekers to vent concerns, complaints, and what-not. I do realize that, but this thread is driving me up the wall.
If the chair at Kzoo lied (as he seemed to have done), that is sleazy. On the scale of sleazy things SC's can do, it doesn't rate very high. Some have asked why he might have done that. Really? Classic case of weakness of will: It's hard to give people bad news so he postponed the unpleasantness. Don't mistake me, it was wrong. But as I said, it rates low.
There is a kernel of good sense in the remarks by Kingdom of Ends (though not perhaps what he intended): Job candidates do not suddenly become pricks upon landing a TT position and serving on a search committee. These people are you in five or ten or fifteen years. They are beholden to an entirely different (and for you, alien) set of obligations, concerns, and pressures. Being on the job market really really sucks, but being on a search committee sucks a little bit too.
- January 29, 2011 at 4:43 PM
- Mr. Zero said...
The institutional affiliation of the successful candidate is not the issue. The issue is the apparently false statement made by the search committee. There's nothing wrong with hiring from the inside. No further comments speculating about the identity or institutional affiliation of the person hired by Kalamazoo will be published.
- January 29, 2011 at 4:58 PM
- BunnyHugger said...
I think Anon 4:43 has the right of it. Furthermore, I think there is still some possibility that this was due to miscommunication rather than maliciousness.
I'd like to see SCs be more transparent. I doubt it's going to happen. I once had a finalist interview at a school that had me fly across the country, rent a car, and then drive on my own another two-plus hours and check myself into a hotel. Two days later I reversed the procedure, went home, and never heard from them again. Two months later I finally broke down and wrote the search committee to inquire about the search (only because I kept getting nagged by colleagues about it) and did not even get a return email.
That, unfortunately, is how things work in this biz, all too often. Would I like to see that change? Sure. But the negative reaction in this case seems well out of proportion to the presumed offense.
- January 29, 2011 at 5:21 PM
"Weakness of will"??! *facepalm* Only a philosopher, I swear to God...
- January 29, 2011 at 6:31 PM
Don't you think this is all a wee bit overkill, not to mention bordering on speculative and paranoid? I've gotta agree with Bunny Hugger here.
I do agree, of course, that it is absolutely vital for Search Committee Chairs and members to treat applicants with honesty and respect. I just don't get the sense that much more was going on here than a miscommunication. I don't know what the chair said, obviously, but I find it hard to believe that s/he lied. That borders on the unfathomable. What possible incentive would the chair have to tell people that they wouldn't even be making a decision until after the on-campuses were over? The Weakeness of the Will argument doesn't fly with me.
Moreover, I just hopped over to the wiki to see what all the fuss was about, and it appears that, indeed, the entire wiki is a mess. There is no straight storyline. It is seriously doubtful that they actually scheduled on-campus interviews before the APA, since it would then make going to the APA moot... They wouldn't do that.
So, seriously, stop speculating about this and just accept that there is considerable misinformation floating about. Whether this was a case of deliberate deception or simple miscommunication, in the end, I can hardly fathom what the breach might have been.
AND, you can be assured that kvetching in this manner does little more than to persuade search committee chairs that there are substantial downsides to communicating with applicants. Better to keep quiet until the search is over.
- January 29, 2011 at 6:53 PM
Maybe this one will make it past the censor:
All I can say is, it's really, really easy to make comments like @4:43, @5:21, and @6:53 when you're not on the receiving end of this kind of crap. I really hope it doesn't happen to you any time soon.
- January 29, 2011 at 7:21 PM
I have no inside information, or any other information, about Kzoo. But I do have inside info about another job where it was erroneously (maliciously or innocently) reported on the wiki that an offer was made, while they were still interviewing candidates. So, you gotta keep those grains of salt handy for wiki info. It's only as good as the source.
- January 29, 2011 at 8:46 PM
- BunnyHugger said...
Anon 7:21:
Assuming by 5:21 you mean me, I have indeed been the recipient of such crap, many times; I gave one example in my previous remark. I have been on the market often enough that I would be embarrassed to say how often, and have been an interviewee of both the APA and campus variety on numerous occasions. I know how it goes and I don't like it. I understand your frustration, but I don't think your ad hominem is called for.
- January 29, 2011 at 10:00 PM
Amen 6:53! This thread is just angry speculation by hurt and desperate people. What might be really useful and interesting is a discussion about how transparent the process should be and what information is owed to applicants.
- January 30, 2011 at 2:28 AM
7:21, the fact that they are really, really easily made doesn't mean they're wrong, though. The way you've put it presupposes that what's been happening to some applicants is "crap"; the comments you've targeted don't buy that supposition. (Nor do I; like some others my feeling is that the evidence so far is meager.)
wv: isbom
(I think wv is powerful evidence for intelligent design.)
- January 30, 2011 at 4:45 AM
I don't know what the chair said, obviously, but I find it hard to believe that s/he lied. That borders on the unfathomable.
Unfathomable? I hope lying is rare, but it certainly happens. I was lied to by a search committee. I was told this by someone on the search committee, well after the fact, because he was annoyed that his department had lied to me.
I had an on-campus. I was told I'd hear something within 4 weeks. 4 weeks went by, but no news. I waited two more weeks, then sent an email, asking for an update. I was told that nothing had happened yet -- they were being held up by administrative stuff. This was a lie.
What really happened? They offered the job to someone else - #1 - at week 4. They were waiting for his response. When I contacted them, they hastily called a department meeting, to decide what to tell me. They thought #1 might turn them down. This meant that I was still in the running. (I had done well enough while on-campus to be considered a viable candidate.) They were afraid that if they told me the truth, I'd tell them to stick it. So they decided to lie instead.
This was a bad thing for them to do, but I also understand why they did it. I agree with the anonymous who said that this sort of sleazy is not all that high on the sleazy scale.
- January 30, 2011 at 6:40 AM
By way of laying this to rest, can we, perhaps, all agree on the following?
1. KC did a bad thing. Was it an AWFUL, TERRIBLE thing? No. Was it senseless and arbtrary? No. But it was indeed bad.
2. Nobody likes to be lied to, even when the lie is minor, even when it's being told for non-malicious reasons, etc. If we were in the candidates' shoes, we wouldn't like it any more than they do, no matter how many rationalizations we are able to proffer on its behalf. We probably would still be just as hurt and angry, especially in such a desperate and precarious job market. Ergo, perhaps some empathy and compassion is warranted here.
3. Just because this is the way SCs roll and, perhaps, have always rolled obviously doesn't mean this is how they OUGHT to roll. And just because something like this has happened to YOU obviously doesn't mean it OUGHT to happen to everyone else. And with that, I think we're better off switching to the topic(s) broached by Zombie in the other thread...
- January 30, 2011 at 9:29 AM
Update: it seems the 7 January poster (I was wrong -- there was only one of them) misunderstood his communication with the SC chair. He has posted a retraction on the wiki.
I think those of us who accused the chair of lying should probably "man up" and admit we were totally wrong!
- February 5, 2011 at 4:05 PM
Just for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume that Anon 4:05 is not being sarcastic.
I was a bit agnostic about the Kzoo Chair's behavior up to this point. But the post on the wiki left me thinking that the Chair has behaved very very poorly. From what I can gather, he essentially bullied the posting job candidate into putting up the retraction. The candidate, to his or her credit, provides us with enough quoted passages from the Chair's emails to get a sense for how he's been conducting the search. And it doesn't look good. I say that not as a job candidate but as someone who's chaired my own department as well as search committees.
For shame.
- February 6, 2011 at 5:53 PM
Yeah, it sounds like the Chair threatened to sue. How else should one interpret his use of the term "unmediated"?
- February 7, 2011 at 4:05 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
anons 5:33 & 4:05,
I agree.
I would have read KC SC chair's email message (of January 7th) the same way the wiki posters did (assuming the communications have been faithfully reported). I would not have understood it to mean that they had already invited people to campus and would be contacting them at the end of january with a firm 'no.' I would have understood him to be denying that they had extended invitations for on-campus interviews. At the very least the chair answered the question in a profoundly unclear and highly misleading way.
I thought the threatening second email was extremely nasty. The poster's comments on the wiki were obviously not "libelous." And I don't know what in the hell 'unmediated' is supposed to mean. Is he pointing out that he hasn't gotten the lawyers involved yet?
And I want to extend my sincerest sympathies to this wiki poster for what must have been the worst phone call of his/her entire life. I can't imagine what it must have been like to get a call from the search committee chair, and then have him go, "technically, I didn't lie." It must have been pretty shitty.
- February 7, 2011 at 7:15 AM
Meh... I know plenty of continental philosophers who use 'unmediated' as a placeholder for 'I'm asking as a fellow X' or 'face to face' or some such meaning. I don't think I would really interpret that one odd word choice as a 'threat'. That sort of leap in thinking is what got the notion going that people had been 'lied to' (though, admittedly, in that case it was slightly more understandable). I'm also not at all sure how, after reading the email quotes at the wiki, there is enough info to comment about how the search as a whole was conducted. That seems similarly to be a leap in thinking.
- February 7, 2011 at 7:25 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
anon 7:25,
I thought the threatening part was where the chair accuses the poster of libel. I mean it when I say I don't know what 'unmediated' is supposed to mean. (I realize you may have been addressing 4:05 more than me.)
- February 7, 2011 at 7:31 AM
Meh... again, I'm not inclined to interpret it in terms that are quite that strong. For what it is worth, the adjective 'libelous' is used as part of a description of what was posted on the wiki, not a direct accusation. Implicit accusation? Perhaps. But, I am more inclined to chalk this up the the loose use of terms like 'slander', 'libel' and 'defamation' in the common vernacular. I once tried to get clear about these concepts for the purposes of a paper...and was rather overwhelmed by the gap between common understandings of what constitutes these things and actual legal meanings. Anyhow, that is my reading of the situation. Zero, your blog has a lot of valuable resources on it. For instance, I would like to see more actual debate on the 'Are we owed transparency?' thread. But, speculative threads like this drive me nuts.
- February 7, 2011 at 8:52 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
Hi 8:52,
I see what you're saying. But I don't agree with you about "loose" uses of terms such as 'slander,' 'defamation,' and 'libel.' Regardless of what the specific, legal meaning of the term is, you don't describe something as "libelous" when you think the person has made an honest mistake--which the wiki post in question clearly was. To describe something as libelous is to say that it was a deliberate, malicious dissemination of what the disseminator knew to be false information. But if I'm wrong, I hope you'll let me know.
- February 7, 2011 at 10:31 AM
- BunnyHugger said...
Mr. Zero:
I assume that "libelous" was being used to convey the sense of "our reputation is being harmed by this." Which I would say it was, given how much this has been kicked around here and on the wiki. I wouldn't have put it that strongly myself, but I understand the chair being somewhat frustrated in this situation.
I have heard that their whole timeline and interview procedure was rather messed up by the APA snow fiasco. I tend to think this whole thing was just a muddle rather than some sort of disinformation campaign.
- February 7, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Yeah, I don't think libel has to be deliberate. Maybe it has to be irresponsible in some way.
- February 7, 2011 at 6:25 PM
"Meh" doesn't carry much weight with me; nor do the considerations that follow. What Mr. Meh seems to be missing is the fact that the Chair sent an angry email to a job candidate. BAD form and a nasty abuse of the dramatically unequal power relation. Frustrated or not, this is a moment the chair should have shut his mouth and let it blow over.
I repeat: For shame.
- February 7, 2011 at 8:40 PM
"Meh", can you explain why you are saying that we only offering speculation or making leaps? We now know the conversations that took place between the formal retractor and the SC chair.
We all would have read the SC chair's initial email the same way the formal retractor read it- as confirmation that no on-campus interviews had been scheduled. The chair didn't have to mislead- he could have ignored the request for info, or he could have said "sorry, I can't give any information at this point". I don't know how transparent a search committee should be, but thankfully there are no rules constraining our ability to share information with fellow candidates. The wiki poster had a right to share his or her information. And it doesn't seem to matter that s/he interpreted the chair's email for us since we would have interpreted it in the same way.
And Anon 8:40 and Mr Zero seem right- the chair's demand a formal retraction was very bad form. On the kindest (and least plausible) reading of what went wrong, the chair wrote a hasty email to the wiki poster, not realizing how misleading it was. In that case, the chair should have realized that the miscommunication was his fault, even if he wasn't intending to mislead. But now he looks like a bully throwing the weight of a school and its lawyers at what is likely a jobless and resourceless candidate because he can't acknowledge his own role and missteps.
- February 7, 2011 at 11:21 PM
Hi 11.21,
To clarify: I was mainly referring to 4.05--who seemed to be saying that the word choice of 'unmediated' allowed us to infer that a lawsuit had been threatened. If that was the intended meaning of the comment, then that is a leap. I was also responding to 5.53's statement that, based on a few quoted emails (which seem to be written in a hurry and are perhaps not representative of all communications), we could get a sense of how the search itself was handled /conducted. I think that, at best, the quotes give us a sense of how some candidates in the search were communicated with. This is my last post for a while; I'm under a submission deadline, and this blog, while fun, is a total time killer. Perhaps when I return I'll set up a profile as 'Meh'. Cheers.
- February 8, 2011 at 9:01 AM
I think this is more a case of blood libel than libel simpliciter.
- February 9, 2011 at 6:48 AM
Seriously kids, this has entered the ridiculous phase. It's a miscommunication, plain and simple. And yes, the school has been tarred by this speculative back-and-forth.
Consider this: consider that you are trying to woo your top candidate into the position. Conceivably, the candidate may have other offers, but still be attracted to the school. Then along comes this thread. That makes the whole wooing job a lot more difficult, even if it's the case that the candidate has contrary information in his private correspondence with the chair. So I do think libel is relevant here. Such an explanation might also explain why the chair and other members of the SC have kept relatively mum on this issue. Sticking their nose in during the wooing phase could undermine their prospects.
It is plain from the wiki how the miscommunication might easily have happened; and it is plain also that this was not a campaign of deception. I don't want to parse this too tightly, but that the chair said that the committee would meet "within" two weeks suggests that the meeting would occur, oh, I dunno, within two weeks, or during those two weeks.
This is what folks have been complaining about; but the miscommunication clearly occurred over the nature of the phone call that the chair would make when contacting the candidates in three weeks. Was it with news of fly-outs? Or was it with news of the end of the search? Either is a plausible interpretation.
This suggestion that somehow the more responsible course of action would be to "ignore the e-mail" -- I'm looking at you 11:21 -- is counterproductive and flies in the face of the sort of thing that job candidates have routinely been screeching about. They want more information. The chair sought to provide that information. He was sloppy in replying to the candidate. There was a miscommunication. End of story.
Except not. The story continues on. The candidate whines to the entire community that he has been lied to. The community is up in arms. For what reason? Because they feel betrayed by, essentially, a simple miscommunication; by the audacity of a chair to reply to an e-mail in a way that left some questions unanswered.
It's ridiculous.
- February 9, 2011 at 10:57 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
Hi PigDog,
I agree with you that the SC chair was sloppy in responding to the wiki poster's question. But it seems to me that this is not exculpatory; it is exactly the problem.
I don't think that the chair was intentionally trying to communicate that the poster was still in the running, and that the committee would be meeting in the next two weeks to decide whom to fly out. But the fact that this is, as you say, a plausible interpretation of the chair's email is precisely what is so terrible about the email. When you are the chair of the search committee you have a responsibility to be more careful than this.
(And in fact, when I read what the chair wrote, the above interpretation is the only one I find natural. I see where the email is not technically inconsistent with the truth, but it definitely does not communicate the truth.)
I don't see how the wiki poster or anyone else has "whined" that "he had been lied to." I think that, for one thing, if a search committee chair lies (or merely carelessly miscommunicates) to you, it is not "whining" if you object. For another thing, there is a reason I didn't title this post, "Search Committee Chair is a Liar." I said, what is going on? Because it wasn't clear what was going on. I said a bunch of times upthread that I was open to there being a misunderstanding. I didn't know what the misunderstanding could be, but now I do.
For another thing, it really did seem like the SC chair was lying. This is because the chair sent a very poorly-written email that falsely suggested that they hadn't invited anyone to campus and wouldn't for another couple of weeks. This email did not convey the truth, nor did it simply decline to convey the truth. It is not, as you claim, that the email left some questions unanswered; it's that it seemed to answer the central question in a way that turned out not to be true.
Then the SC chair calls up and emails the poster, accuses him/her of doing something libelous, and makes a first, unmediated request that s/he retract the false claim--which implies that there will be further requests and that they will be mediated somehow. I'd like to go on record and say that this is not how you deal with a miscommunication. First, you accept responsibility for and apologize to the person for the miscommunication. Second, you correct the the miscommunication with the person. Third, if necessary, you politely ask the person to please correct the record on the wiki, or else to just do it yourself in the form of your own comment that would both correct and apologize for the miscommunication.
You do not call or email the person, accuse him/her of disseminating false and libelous information and demand that s/he retract it. You do not make high-handed accusations of libelous false statements when the person made an honest mistake caused by your carelessness. You start by saying you're sorry and you proceed from there.
So I would say that if the Kalamazoo people don't like the way that this is being discussed in the blogs and on the wiki, and if this is causing problems for them when it comes to wooing job candidates, they should look no further than their own search committee chair, whose misleading answer to a simple and honest question and whose imperious manner of dealing with the aftermath is what has caused all this. And anyways, they wrote to everyone on January 27th to say that they filled the position, so it seems that they wooed the person just fine.
- February 9, 2011 at 2:02 PM


text:
Cutie Pie
Just wanted to show off another cute picture of Shaylan. She is about 8 months older than Sylvie and I think they have the same eyes. Shaylan and Sylvie are cousins and soon they will be the best of friends. At this point Shaylan is very curious about Sylvie and doesn't like it when "her" grandma holds another baby. Good thing Sylvie is still to small to understand jealousy. It will be interesting when they are both a little older.
Saturday, November 29, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 5:47 PM 0 comments
Happy Birthday Shaylan!
Just a couple cute pictures of Shaylan enjoying her first cake. She started out like a little lady and then the sugar kicked in and she really got into it.
Posted by Brodd Family at 5:37 PM 0 comments
Puppy Dog Eyes
Friday, November 28, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 6:08 PM 0 comments
What are you thankful for?
I know that is a little cheesy, but I could get into a lot more cheesy stuff like being thankful for her little toes that wiggle out of her socks her her big eyes that are full of giggles and love, but I will stop there. This is the kinda stuff you think about in the middle of the night while nursing. Then I realized that my mom probably had these thoughts about me too.
So here are some other things I am thankful for:
ice cream--and lots of it
a good book
ice cream
Sylvia is thankful for:
her fingers-they provide hours of entertainment
super soft bamboo diapers
the blue frog on her exersaucer
Adam is thankful for (in no particular order):
2 good jobs
Sylvia's great daycare
our wonderful friends and family
Jameson Irish Whiskey
Please leave us comments letting us know what you are thankful for!
Thursday, November 27, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 8:08 AM 2 comments
Happy Birthday Grandma Charlie!
Hi Grandma, Just wanted to say Happy Birthday!
Posted by Brodd Family at 8:03 AM 0 comments
Five big ones
No pictures of Sylvie, she spent the party being crabby in the other room. I guess she doesn't like it when the attention isn't all on her:)
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 12:45 PM 1 comments
Gurgle Gurgle
Sylvia was 'talking' with Jamie this weekend. I found their conversation to be very exciting!
Not much is new with us, besides the obvious... Looking forward to seeing the families for Thanksgiving. Hopefully some new pictures will be posted soon as well.
Monday, November 24, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 8:42 AM 2 comments
4 Month Photo Shoot
Saturday, November 15, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 3:14 PM 2 comments
We got Video
With the addition of Sylvia to our family, we have had to make many new purchases... A crib, a swing, baby clothes, diapers... you know, the staples. One other item that seems to be a staple with parents these days is a camcorder.
Just last week, our new toy arrived. Here is a quick little video of Sylvia talking away this morning while Mom and Dad were trying to sleep in.
Hope you enjoyed, and we will have more soon.
Posted by Brodd Family at 8:11 AM 1 comments
Cute Pic
Sunday, November 9, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 6:27 AM 1 comments
Rain Forest Jungle
Thursday, November 6, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 6:10 PM 1 comments
Sunday with Great Grandpa
Do these two great grandpas get a 2 for 1 deal? I think Adam might have a new hair style soon.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 3:11 PM 0 comments
Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween!
For Sylvia's first Halloween, Jamie, Missy, and Sylvia spent the night in, while Dad was curling. For our decoration out front, neighbors Ben and Bonnie carved this pumpkin for us.
Also included with the treats was this strange creature, let's call her Sally. Do anyone know what kind of creature Sally is? No matter what she is, I have a pretty good idea that Lucy will love her very much!
Saturday, November 1, 2008 | Posted by Brodd Family at 6:37 AM 0 comments

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Fiscal cliff could lead to delays in tax refunds
Accountant says taxpayers have questions
The president and congress have 21 days to reach a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, but the affects are being felt already in Wisconsin.
There could be delays to tax refunds, tax filing and the tax projections that a lot of people are doing right now as they prepare for the new year.
Everything could be delayed if congress doesn't take some action before the end of the year and that has a lot of people worrying and waiting for answers.
Dental assistant Laura Tess and her husband have a middle-class lifestyle and a baby on the way.
She said they also have a lot of questions about what's happening in Washington and what it might mean for them come tax time.
"I don't like not knowing for how much I'm planning right now. With a child on the way, I don't want one more thing, especially something like this when it comes to money, to worry about," Tess said.
Typically, she said, they've gotten a tax refund. But this year, she's not sure.
"I'm not going to say I'm going to get my hopes up, but I would. It'd be nice," Tess said.
"This is an unusual year, and an unusual ending to the year with all the uncertainty in Washington," New Berlin accountant James Hintzke said.
Hintzke believes that without answers soon, the IRS may be forced into delays in filing, processing returns and maybe, issuing refunds.
"They have systems to program, computer systems to program. They have forms to print, IRS forms to print, and that affects everybody," Hintzke said.
WISN 12 News asked the IRS about a possible delay in tax forms.
A spokesman told WISN 12 News, "It would be inappropriate to speculate about events that have not yet occurred.'
But added that because 80 percent of all filers now file electronically, and an even higher percentage of returns are prepared using computer software that can more easily accommodate necessary revisions in credits and deductions, the IRS is less dependent upon printed products.
Still not knowing exactly what those revisions might be is making it tough for Hintzke and other tax preparers to provide answers.
"We're kind of planning for the worst and hoping for the best, but providing options," Hintzke said.
The IRS commissioner has written a couple of letters to Congress calling for action before the end of the year.
Whether that happens and how it all plays out in terms of the tax implications is still anybody's guess.
The accountant said the number of taxpayers calling with questions is on the rise.
Hintzke said they want to know the worst-case scenario, how much of a tax hit they might take and how to plan for it in their family budget if it happens.


text:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Libraries in Jacksonville continue to face cutbacks that may force Sunday closures.
With a limited revenue stream, the city asked the Library Board of Trustees to cut more than $4 million for 2013, which ultimately means a reduction in service.
The library board approved a plan Monday that will trim down operating costs. The proposal is to get rid of Sunday service, eliminate 71 full-time positions and reduce hours at all branches.
"The term some members of the library board had used is graceful degradation of the library system," said Harry Reagan, president of Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library. "I'm not sure it's so graceful, but it certainly is degradation."
Many are concerned about the possibility of library closures. Antoniette Depina, who's among them, considers free computer access critical.
"I think they need to find cuts somewhere else and they need to keep the libraries open, because a lot of people like myself can't afford a computer at home, and this is where I come to do my job search every day," Depina said.
In addition to cuts in hours and staff, libraries are considering cutting their collections, the very reason most people come to the library in the first place.
"There's only so much of our budget that we actually have control over, so that makes it difficult, too," said Erin Vance Skinner, chair of the library board.
The idea is to make the library more cost effective, focusing efforts toward children and the expansion of e-services, and ultimately trying to keep libraries alive.
"This is bad. Next year could be as bad or worse," Reagan said. "I guess ultimately we are waiting for the recession to be over, and it's not getting over very soon."
The proposed budget still must be approved by the city.


text:
Item: A day-long script clinic for a play or musical in development, in London or Sydney.
Brief Bio: Van Badham is the award-winning writer of more than 30 internationally produced plays for stage, music theatre and radio. Her theatre plays have had seasons at the Sydney Opera House, the Wharf studio, the Seymour Centre, the Victorian Arts Centre, Perth's Blue Room and the Adelaide Festival. She has had plays and musical theatre staged at seven Edinburgh Festivals, in London and on the UK touring circuit, in America, in Iceland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria and in Germany. MIT Press in the US published her 2003 Edinburgh hit Camarilla. Her scripts for radio have been broadcast by the BBC World Service, Radio 3 and Radio 4. In 2007, Van's play The Gabriels became the first Australian play selected for New York's Summer Play Festival.


text:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Two teams of Penn State architectural engineering students came away with seven awards at the 2014 Charles Pankow Foundation Annual Architectural Engineering Student Design Competition on March 29 in Philadelphia.
The competition, organized by the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers and hosted by Drexel University, challenged students to address the design, integration and construction for a new high-profile, 30-story office building in San Francisco. Teams were asked to integrate engineered systems for a high performance building with an eye towards sustainable design.
Students were judged in five primary categories including structural, mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as construction management and integration.
Penn State won first place in four of the five primary categories and was runner-up in three categories.
Team AVANT from Penn State won the electrical, mechanical and structural categories and was the runner-up in the construction category. The group included Robert Fazio, Tyler Dietz, Christopher Coakley, Katharine Gausseres, Rebecca Slocum, Nicholas Rekstad, Jordan Miller and Eric Ripkin.
Team AEVITAS from Penn State won the construction category and was the runner-up in the structural and integration categories. The group included Lara Kaiserian, Kristin Sliwinski, Alex van Eeden, Abigail Kreider, Kieran Carlisle, Drew Canfield, Jonathan Sharp and Robert Livorio.
M. Kevin Parfitt, associate professor of architectural engineering and one of the teams' lead faculty advisers, said the four first-place awards matched last year's tally and noted that it was only Penn State's second year of participation in the contest.
He added, "There were numerous comments and feedback from the jury attesting to the technical strength and depth of analysis demonstrated by the Penn State architectural engineering student teams."
In addition to Parfitt, Charles Cox, instructor of architectural engineering, and Ryan Solnosky, research associate in architectural engineering, served as lead faculty advisers.
The team's technical advisers were John Messner, professor of architectural engineering; Richard Mistrick, associate professor of architectural engineering; and Moses Ling, associate professor of architectural engineering; and Solnosky.
A total of ten teams from seven architectural engineering programs submitted projects for the competition.
"Our architectural engineering program and the student teams that participated once again set the bar very high for the national competition, not only for the other architectural engineering schools, but for the Penn State architectural engineering teams that will follow next year," Cox said.
The 2015 competition will be held during the AEI's 6th Biennial Professional Conference from March 24 to 27 in Milwaukee, Wisc., and hosted by the Milwaukee School of Engineering.


text:
Last November, frustrated with the quality of U.S. rice they were importing, leaders in the Central American rice industry wanted to test every variety and hybrid grown in the United States. Rice breeders from Mid-South universities provided over 20 varieties for those tests. The results only hardened the resolve of the members of the Central America Rice Federation, known as FECARROZ.
Chalk is the key concern of the Central Americans, who have a different standard for quantifying the problem than the United States, says Jonathan Hobbs. Hobbs, with Russell Marine Group -- "a single source for supervision, inspection, freight booking/forwarding, testing and logistical coordination," according to company literature -- has seen the quality issues developing from close up. The company, he says, "helped develop the standard with the Nicaraguans. We were basically fielding their complaints and trying to react to them and come up with exactly what they wanted as far as quality. They traveled here and we went to Nicaragua. After three or four sit-downs, we believe it was finally nailed down. It was kind of a moving target because they have never come back and said, 'Yes, that's exactly how we want it.'"
Hobbs explains that the USDA chalk standard "is if half, or more, of the kernel is chalky then it is considered to be 'chalk.' That's vague but the USDA interprets that to be a volume measurement. The kernel must actually be cut and a cross-section checked.
"The thing is, a lot of kernels appear chalky when you don't cut them. That's why the Central Americans have interpreted that to mean 'if any of the kernel is chalky' then it should be considered chalky. That means they're not concerned with the volume as much as the surface area and a visual check."
Queried on chalk and the milling process in Central America, Hobbs says that many times settings are changed "on the SORTEX machine. That distinguishes the chalky kernels from the acceptable ones to a degree -- just like it would normally find a kernel of corn and kick it out. The machine kicks out the chalky kernels in the same way but it slows down their production.
"At the same time, when you SORTEX something out of the rice it also takes some good kernels with it. It takes a picture of the kernels, finds one that doesn't belong and then hits it with a puff of air to move it out. But to get rid of that bad kernel you might have six good kernels that come out with it."
That can lead to waste. "They can take the bags of SORTEX material and run it back through," says Hobbs. "But that's a game of diminishing returns because it takes money and downtime to do that."
For many years, Central American mills have marketed U.S. rice alongside locally-grown rice and South American rice in the same grocery stores. "Until recently, they've always been able to charge a premium price for U.S. rice because the quality has been outstanding," says Hobbs.
"Now, though, when you look at U.S. rice alongside rice grown in Paraguay and Brazil, the U.S. rice is chalkier and dingier. And they still are trying to justify the higher price. They don't want to lose that brand recognition that they've built for decades. That's the dilemma the millers there face as far as the appearance of the rice."
Hobbs agrees that chalky hybrids are "where a lot of blame is going. Research has shown that hybrids are more susceptible to having chalky kernels just by their nature. If you have a hot summer with hot nights, they're hit with more chalk than conventional varieties."
At the same time, "a lot of this has to do with growing conditions," Hobbs says. "We've been in a really hot spell over the last few years and it's caused some quality concerns regardless of variety."
Incentives to change
All interviewed for this story agree that the U.S. government is unlikely to take action. "It would take too many levels of bureaucracy to go through," says Hobbs. "It would literally take an act of Congress to get the grading standards changed.
"There's nothing that says the (Central Americans) can't go straight to the exporters – and some of them already do this -- and say, 'look, we want a contract for U.S. Number Two, or better, and we also want a contract for a separate standard for chalk. That's what we want our shipment to meet.'"
Since government intervention isn't the answer, the situation will eventually be settled through private contracts. "The Central Americans just have to make their standards clearly known, clearly quantifiable – take out all the subjectivity and provide an objective standard – and then we'll all be able to get on the same page."
In late May, FECARROZ sent a letter (more here) to the US Rice Producers Association (USRPA). Among other things, the letter attempted to bring some clarity to those needed standards. Now, the U.S. rice industry is presented with a new set of questions. How to segregate by variety? Segregate by quality? How to aggregate enough rice of a certain variety and quality for an export sale?
"That's an infrastructure concern that we're going to have to face," says Hobbs. "We're not to that step yet but it is coming."
Ag news delivered daily to your inbox: Subscribe to Delta Farm Press Daily.
Will that process take years or can it be ratcheted up quickly?
"That's a good question but we don't have years to do it," says Hobbs. "We're losing markets as we speak.
"Usually, the rice industry as a whole is pretty quick to get together and react to things. Look at the (GM trait) issue that happened a few years ago. (The industry) can react fast."
To aid in that, Russell Marine is currently working with the GeneScan lab to develop analysis that can distinguish, within a rice sample, the percentage of hybrid versus non-hybrid kernels. "That would at least allow us to quantify and be scientific when segregating by variety or just hybrid versus non-hybrid," says Hobbs.
In order to make the needed changes across the board, there will have to be incentives for producers' chief focus to be on quality.
"Right now, the only incentive is quantity – there's no quality incentive," says Hobbs. "The more yield (farmers) can get out of a crop, the more they're paid. So, why plant a conventional variety that will yield less even if it produces higher quality rice?
"That incentive has to come from the end-user, the buyers, the Central Americans. Most of them want higher quality but they aren't willing to pay for it."
And as the letter states, FECARROZ has the option of looking for their rice needs farther south as less than two percent of South American-grown rice is hybrid.
Next up: Central Americans ramp up demands?


text:
Form 1040 (Schedule C)(redirected from Forms 1040 Schedule C)
Form 1040 (Schedule C)
A form that one attaches to Form 1040 to report the profit or loss from one's business. An individual files Schedule C if he/she is self-employed in a sole proprietorship or is the only member of a limited liability company. The filer lists all revenues and business expenses on Schedule C. He/she may only be taxed on the profit.


text:
Napa Valley Wine Tours
Our small group tours provide an intimate, fun, social and lighthearted way to see and taste Napa's best. A personable, informed guide will introduce you to the wines, the wineries and the local stories behind them. Discover our anti-wine snob wine tour and see for yourself why Trip Advisor consistently ranks us as one of their top rated activities for the Napa Valley.
Our Join-In Wine Tour visits three wineries and includes a tasty picnic lunch served at a winery. Only $119 per person ($129 Saturdays). Winery tasting fees are extra and typically run about $15 per person, per winery.
Each Tour Includes Visiting Three Charming Napa Valley Wineries and a Delicious Picnic Lunch!
With 400+ wineries in the North Bay, we've hand-picked the best wineries to visit to avoid crowds and experience the intimate charm of the Napa Valley. Here's the criteria:
- Smaller, non-touristy properties
- Warm and friendly guest service
- Unique, delicious, world-class wines
- Historic and/or family owned wineries
- Beautiful and scenic locations
Contact us for more information or book your Napa wine tour now and ensure availability.


text:
Bank of America Merrill Lynch's monthly Global Fund Manager Survey has once again tested the mood of the markets. The global survey and its regional versions, seen by The Wall Street Journal, this month captures the views of 234 investors managing a total of $653 billion.
Here are five of the most eye-catching results:
1) Emerging-market disconnect
"Emerging markets? Never heard of 'em," the bank says, in reference to the fact investor weightings in Brazil, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey are at, or close to, record lows. A net 15% of the 185 investors that responded to the global survey are underweight emerging markets. (The net figure here means that on balance investors are 15% more underweight than overweight.) At the same time, a net 75% expect a stronger global economy in the next 12 months, a three-year high. "Rarely have such bullish growth expectations mixed with such bleak emerging-market weightings," BAML said.
2) Dollar undervalued
A net 57% of investors still reckon the dollar is undervalued (the same proportion as last month). This is a sticky view. A majority of investors have been saying the same thing in varying proportions every month since about mid-2009, BAML survey data show.
3) Euro overvalued
A majority of investors still think the euro is overvalued (they've only said otherwise on a handful of occasions in 10 years), but more of them have arrived at that conclusion this month. A net 54% of investors say the euro is too expensive, the largest share since early 2012. "Positions could be vulnerable," BAML warns.
4) China bears roar
The survey shows a sharp drop in China growth optimism (continuing the trend from the end of last year). A net 28% of investors expect a weaker Chinese economy in the next 12 months. A China hard landing or a collapse in commodity prices remains the biggest perceived tail risk. Adjust your seatbelts.
5) Everybody loves the euro zone
Well, not quite everybody. But a net 41% of investors say they are overweight euro-zone equities. That's a touch less than in December, but the fifth consecutive month that the euro zone has been the preferred region for betting on stocks, the BAML survey says.
This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal's MoneyBeat blog


text:
From our leadership to our frontline employees, we're committed to working with Ohio's employers to help prevent workplace accidents from happening. From industry-specific safety training to on-site consulting services, we offer numerous programs and initiatives specifically designed to protect your company's most valuable resource - its employees.
Just released: The 2020 MCO Report Card
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Below are some of the most frequently asked questions that we receive. A list of all questions for worker and claims related topics can be found on the Employer FAQ page.
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text:
The weekend before Cameron's birthday celebration began with a trip to his school, we had a wonderful visit from Grandpa and Grandma 'Nette!
We had a very fun weekend full or soccer, presents, and laughter. I grabbed a couple of shots of the crew after church on Sunday:
Grandpa, Grandma and all the kiddos
Grandpa and the boys
Awww. Grandma 'Nette and Lolee girl. I just love this picture!
Grandma had Lola's hair so pretty!
After church, we came home and had some pre-birthday birthday cake!
Cameron loved the NFL logo ..... even if it did have a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness on it! LOL
Big breath--this kid had NO trouble getting all seven of those candles out!
Enjoying some yummy cake....
.....some enjoying more AT ONE TIME than others. :)
Then, it was on to some present-opening! That brought a big smile.
Grandma and Grandpa got Cameron his very own Nintendo DS and a couple of games.
He is the last boy to get one, and MAN was he excited!
Later that night, our friends joined us at a local Mexican restaurant for some MORE birthday fun.
I tell ya--this kid celebrated his birthday about a half a dozen times!
The kids got to play along with the "band"....
....and sing "Happy birthday" yet again!!
....he made sure that one sundae had five spoons.


text:
Adromischus marianiae 'Little Spheroid'
***Please be aware that unfortunately we are no longer able to add extra plants to your order or combine multiple orders to be posted together (Updated 26/06/20).
If you place multiple orders it does not mean they will arrive together, please check carefully cut-off day to find out approximately when you will be receiving your parcel.
*** Heavier orders may take a little longer to arrive.
***Cut Off day ordering is every wednesday 11h59pm and orders will be posted on Monday, any orders placed after wednesday will take an extra week "to be dispatched".
All plants are posted bare rooted without pots or potting mix.
"WE DO NOT POST PLANTS TO OVERSEAS at this current stage"
We are currently sending Via Australia Post and by "Express Post" only.
Au Express post
Au Express post
Au Express post
Includes permit & treatment
Tasmania - NT
Au Express post
Includes permit & treatment
Small box 0 - 0.5Kg $10.50
Medium box 0.5 - 3Kg $16.00
Large box 3 - 5Kg $19.00
X Large box 5 - 15Kg $25.00
Small box 0 - 0.5Kg $10.50
Medium box 0.5 - 1Kg $16.00
Large box 1 - 3Kg $26.00
X Large box 3 - 10Kg $40.00
Small box 0 - 0.5Kg $45.50
Medium box 0.5 - 1Kg $56.00
Large box 1 - 5Kg $65.00
Small box 0 - 0.5Kg $40.50
Medium box 0.5 - 3Kg $51.00
Large box 3 - 5Kg $60.00
Note : Small box fits around 8 small plants
Attention for cut-off day and shipping timing by state:
- VIC:Orders paid until Wednesdays 11:59pm will be dispatched on Friday as Au post is still processing and delivering parcels on the weekends.
- NSW: Orders paid until Wednesdays 11:59pm will be dispatched in the following Tuesday.
- Other states (QLD, SA, ACT, TAS and NT): Orders paid until Wednesdays 11:59pm will be dispatched in the following Monday.
- If you miss the cut-off day (wednesday) you have do add an extra week and it will be dispatched on "Monday / Tuesday" according to states.
- WA: Cut-off from monthly ordering is 11:59 on the last Wednesday before the first Monday of the Month. (Please see more details below)
- Orders are dispatched every Monday and may take 2 to 5 days to be shipped by Australia post.
Please check an illustration to find out how cut-off day works.
For example a dispatching day that will happen on 13rd has a yellow colour witch means only orders placed in the followed yellow colour dates will be dispatched on 13rd, the other colors follows the same rule. Please check our "Returns / Change of Mind Policy" before placing orders.
Please note: Unfortunately we are no longer able to combine orders as we are now finalizing your orders on a "daily basis" to ensure everyone receives their orders on time, reason why this changes had to be applied.
*There is no changes for our customers in WA who pay permit and treatment fees on top of postage fees for their orders: If multiple orders are made in a month before the cut off time of 12 am Midnight Wednesday, please notify us by email or by leaving a note with your order and we will refund extra permit/treatment fees paid.
Tasmanian customers:
A Notice of Intention to Import Form is necessary for the import of plants under Tasmanian Bio-Security Laws.
We now fill out this form out for each customer; and will email it to Bio-Security Tasmania on your behalf.
Western Australia Customers:
WA orders will now be posted once a Month, on the first Monday of each month. Cut-off from monthly ordering is (11:59 on the last Wednesday before the first Monday of the Month. All orders after this time will be dispatched the next consecutive Month according to the calendar below.
*** New Information for Western Australia Customers ***
All plants imported into WA are required to be inspected by quarantine. Every time quarantine makes an inspection a fee is charged and unfortunately this has fallen to the importer / customer.
We were previously unaware of this as we are certified to send plants to WA and also obtain the pre-approval required. Up until recently we have had no issues.
We have now made an agreement with WA Quarantine to incur the inspection fees on behalf of the customer. By doing this we have had to unfortunately raise the Permit and Treatment fee slightly to help us cover this cost.
We only post to WA 'ONCE A MONTH'.
Please click this link for more information
We do not give refunds after posting and cannot be held responsible for the plants once they are in your care.
All plants are posted bare rooted without pots or potting mix.
We select the best quality plants from our stock to fulfill your order. Each plant is removed from its pot and cleaned of soil as this is the safest, cleanest and cheapest method of posting succulents. Plants are posted neatly wrapped with padding to ensure a safe arrival. Size, colour, and shape may vary a little according to the season, or the cold and due to slight drying upon packing and may possibly look slightly different from the photo.
If you have been confused or had problems with how to proceed through our checkout system please follow this step by step guide.
- Select your desired plants, quantity and/or other products and click BUY NOW. Your selection will be added to the shopping cart.
- When you have finished shopping click on the Shopping Cart symbol located at the top of the page.
- You will now be shown the contents of your Shopping Cart. You are also able to make changes to your selected purchases if desired. Click Update to adjust any changes.
- If you wish to add more items and continue shopping, simply click Continue Shopping to return to the Shop.
- When you are happy with your order, click Checkout to proceed.
- Fill in the required Customer Information and click Continue to Shipping Method to proceed. Please check your information is correct to avoid any delays.
- Shipping is automatically calculated by the quantity ordered and weight. Review your total and click Continue to Payment Method.
- Select your Payment Method and details. * All transactions are secure and encrypted and we do not hold any credit card information.
- Select your Billing address and click Complete Order.
- You will be sent an order confirmation and invoice to your Email Address.
- It`s DONE!
Please read it carefully:
*If you have changed your mind after purchasing an item it`s ok, just be aware that you have 24 hours to contact us from the time you have placed the order.
*If you order wrong plants / item:
Unfortunately we cannot refund orders that has been placed after 24 hours.
If you order anything by mistake and want us to exchange, you have 24 hours to inform us after order have been placed.
*If you find any issue with your order:
Please contact us within 48 hours of receiving the product and follow the steps below: Send us a photo of the issue and the box as we can check it.
*If your product got damaged during transport: Please send us a photo of the product + the box, and in put a claim to AU post.
After plants arrive:
- Will my succulents be alright in the mail?
- I have got my parcel and my plants look very dry / withered / wrinkly, why is this? Will they survive?
- What do I do with my plants now they have arrived?
We post and send all our plants bare rooted. We allow the plants to dry for a few days before postage to remove any excess of moisture from around the plant, so they do not arrive with any fungal or rotting issues during postage from being moist and packed in a confined space.
- How and where do I plant my succulents?
- Pot up your new succulents into your desired pot using a - DRY succulent potting mix.
- Place your pots in an airy environment in either semi shade or a bright location, protect it from direct sunlight and frost.
- After a week or more - new pink roots will start to grow. Once the plants have new roots you can give them a watering in. After watering check the weight of the pot. Plants will need watering again when the pot becomes light or the leaves look a bit dehydrated.
- Exception care for winter season:
Due to the postage process they will often appear a little dehydrated, wrinkly, and/or soft. This is normal and they will recover fine. The best thing to do is to pot them up into a DRY potting mix and then let them sit for a week or so without being watered or until new roots have grown.
Dispatching / Posting Timing
You can find out more information in our "Shipping & Shopping guide" on the link : https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/pages/shopping-guide
- When will my order be posted? When my plants will arrive? Orders with payment received before (12am midnight) each "Wednesday" will be "dispatched" the following Monday and delivered via Australia Post within 2~5 business days.
All orders after this time will be "dispatched" on the consecutive Monday.
- VIC and NSW: Orders paid before Wednesdays 12am (midnight) will be dispatched in the following Tuesday.
- Other states: Orders paid before Wednesdays 12am (midnight) will be dispatched in the following Monday.
If you miss the cut off day (Wednesday) it will be dispatched next week "Monday / Tuesday" depending on the state.
- WA, TAS and NT: There is no changes for WA, TAS and NT customers.
Please check our Shipping & Shopping Guide in our web site to find out more how cut-off day works. https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/pages/shopping-guide
- How long does the express shipping take? within 2 to 5 business days.
- Regarding to the free shipping code redeemed from the reward system, is it even free for the shipping to WA? We may need to send you a separate invoice for the treatment fee.
- General requirements: For any requirement please leave a note at the check-out page when purchasing.
- How do I get free shipping? By joining our rewards program and following the guide steps. Please check the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=wj1nl9JfvKs&feature=emb_title
- Do you ship to restricted areas in Australia? Yes, we ship to all Australian territory. Permit and treatment fee apply.
- The plants I received is not what I ordered. Please check our REFUNDS / CHANGE OF MIND POLICY in our web site in the link : https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/pages/shopping-guide
- Watermarks / white dots in the plants. White spots are from a fungicide spray we use in our plants during winter to protect them from fungus diseases. It will easily come off with water. You can find in the box a pamphlet we have sent explaining about it.
- Do you post overseas? Unfortunately, our government cannot handle sending plants to overseas in small packages If it is the case. We can only do for a thousand plants sent out overseas through our shipping company. Hopefully, we can work it out sending small orders to overseas customers in future.
Combining postage
- Do you combine postage? We have made a few changes to the way we manage our online orders as we are now finalizing it on a daily basis to ensure everyone gets their order on time as a result and unfortunately for this reason we can no longer offer to combine orders for postage. Also, to avoid delays you must place multiple orders before cut-off day, heavier orders may take a little longer to arrive. Although these changes will not affect our customers in WA which it has to be done before cut-off time and adding your previous order number on the "order notes" at the check-out and we will refund the treatment fee and postage if it is necessary. For further information always check the FAQ page on our website.
Stock availability
- Do you have new types of succulents? You can find our latest products in the link https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/collections/all-products
- Do you have a type of plant that do not come up after searching on the website? If you cannot find the item on the website, unfortunately we do not have them yet, but we are always working to expand our collection. Keep an eye in our newsletter and social medias to get updated, we may have them very soon. https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/ or https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/collections
- Out of Stock / Back in Stock (In season) If the item you are searching is out of stock do not ask as we cant place orders by message, email or chat, we are adding more stock to our website every week and if you don't want to miss out, the best way to get notification of an out of stock product is "Adding the item in to your Wish list" by hitting the bottom illustrated by a little heart, and it's done! In this way you will be notified as soon as your plant becomes available. Please check our web site link to find out more https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/ and https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/collections
- Out of Stock / Back in Stock (Dormancy)
Winter: We have stopped selling plants that are sensitive as Melbourne gets very cold in winter and they do not like it. But you can add it into your wish list on the website and you will be notified by email when it is available. Hopefully, it will be back in stock as soon as possible in spring.
Unavailable plants by coronavirus outbreak
- There is not much stock left in your website, when you will have more stock coming back? Due to Coronavirus outbreak and unprecedented demand created by a million of new home gardeners, the Nursery Industry is running very short of plants and we are not exempt. We start growing the majority of our plants 12 to 18 months ago and unfortunately we could not predict this unprecedented demand that we have experienced in the last 4 months. We also want to let you know we are working hard and overtime to minimize this situation and we really believe that we can be back up to date shortly. Unfortunately succulents are slow growing plants in winter but we have made some improvements in our farms which includes installing heaters to keep the plants warmer and help them to grow happier and per consequence faster. We are adding more stock to our website every week, please keep yourself updated by adding your desired plant on our website wish list and you will be notified as soon as your plant become available https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/ We also would like to say THANK YOU for being so supportive during this difficult time.
Placing orders
- How to order plants from website?Please click on the link below and you will find a shopping guide that explains how to do an order. https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/pages/shopping-guide
- Can I add extra plants to my order? Sorry, but we are no longer able to add extra plants / combining orders as we have changed the way we process orders. Please see our shipping and shopping guide for more information at this link: https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/pages/shopping-guide
Rewards Program
- Unfortunately, the reward points program is a website program only.
- Is the rewarding program available for purchases on site?Unfortunately, the reward points program is a website program only.
- How to start using Loyalty and Rewards? How to use the rewards system? Please check the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=wj1nl9JfvKs&feature=emb_title To use your points and apply a discount: Click on the rewards tab at the bottom of the screen and log in. You can then choose how you want to spend your points. Click on the reward you wish to redeem, and you will see a code pop up. Copy this code and apply at checkout before payment is made to redeem your discount.
- I forgot to add my rewards points to my cart when I placed an order. What do I do? If you have not used your rewards points for this purchase, you should still have them available to use in for your next order. Unfortunately, we are not able to redeem your rewards at our end once an order has been placed.
- Regarding to the free shipping code redeemed from the reward system, is it even free for the shipping to WA? We may need to send you a separate invoice for the treatment fee.
Open days / Visitors
- Are you open for visitors during Covid-19 quarantine? We are currently closed. Please check our web site and social medias to get updated when we you open again.
- How often do you have open days? We have two open days a Month on the second and forth Saturday of each month from 9am to 4pm. Our address is 429, Monbulk Rd, Monbulk - Vic - 3793. For further details, please check our web page for open days under the events and open day tab on the shop or use the link https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/pages/events-and-open-days
Payment methods
- What type of payments do we except? We offer Credit/Debit card transactions, Internet banking Transfer (Poli) and After Pay as methods of payment. We do not accept Pay pal.
Returns / Change of Mind Policy
If you have changed your mind after purchasing an item it`s ok, just be aware that you have 24 hours to contact us from the time you have placed the order. The same policy applies if you find anything wrong with your order, please contact us within 24 hours.
Pre-paid orders and holds
Sorry but we do not pre-pay or hold orders. The best way to get notification of an out of stock product is "Adding the item in to your Wish list" by hitting the bottom illustrated by a little heart, and it's done! In this way you will be notified as soon as your plant becomes available. Please check our web site link to find out more https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/ and https://www.succulents-australia-sales.com/collections
Please read it carefully:
*If you have changed your mind after purchasing an item it`s ok, just be aware that you have 24 hours to contact us from the time you have placed the order.
*If you order wrong plants:
- Unfortunately we cannot refund orders that has been placed after 24 hours.
*If you find any issue with your order please contact us within 48 hours of receiving the product and follow the steps below:
- Send us a photo of the issue and the box as we can check it.
*If your product got damaged during transport:
- Please send us a photo of the product + the box, and in put a claim to AU post.


text:
announced the availability of its FireStore DR-HD100 Direct To Edit (DTE) recorder. Focus Enhancements and
designed the DR-HD100 to interface specifically with the popular JVC GY-HD100 series of ProHD camcorders.
The portable DR-HD100 can be directly mounted to the JVC GY-HD100 with a number of bracket options, or clipped to a belt. Focus Enhancements powerful DTE technology enables video professionals to record HDV or DV streams directly to the unit with or without a tape inserted. Footage is recorded as DTE files that can be imported and used immediately by most popular NLE systems, saving time, improving workflow and providing a digital backup.
The DR-HD100 features integration with the JVC GY-HD100 series of ProHD camcorders. It includes multiple control options as well as the ability to monitor DTE recorder status in the camcorder's viewfinder. When the camcorder is set to DV record mode, users can select between DR-HD100's ten different DTE Technology file formats including Avid OMF, QuickTime, Canopus AVI, AVI Type 2 and many more. When the camcorder is in HD mode, it can record 720p M2T files directly to disk, which can be directly imported into applications such as Canopus Edius Pro and Avid Xpress Pro HD. QuickTime HDV support for direct import to Apple Final Cut Pro will be available as an upgrade option soon.
The robust and lightweight DR-HD100 weighs 1 pound and is available in either 40GB (about 3 hours of DV or nearly 4.5 hours of HD 720p) or 80GB (about 6 hours of DV or nearly 9 hours of HD 720p) capacities. The DR-HD100 also features up to ten seconds of cache recording in its retro-record mode to help users from missing a shot, a removable Li-Ion battery pack which provides up to 90 minutes record run-time, a status LCD display, and 16-button front panel.
The Focus Enhancements DR-HD100 is available now through the worldwide JVC Professional dealer and distributor network for a US MSRP of $1,495 for the 40GB model and $1,895 for the 80GB model. Additional 90-minute record battery packs are available for $129 as well as a 3-hour battery pack for $199.


text:
The Houston Dynamo have acquired midfielder Lovel Palmer from Jamaican club Harbour View, it was announced today. Per team and league policy, terms of the transaction and of Palmer's contract were not disclosed. Upon receipt of his international transfer certificate and approval of a P-1 visa, Palmer will occupy an international roster slot.
Palmer, 25, comes to Houston from Jamaican power Harbour View, where he captained the team into a tie for first place with three games remaining in the 2009-10 season. Palmer has played with Harbour View since he was a teenager, including the National Premier League championship team of 2007, CONCACAF Champions' Cup series against D.C. United in 2005 and 2008, and the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round against Pumas. He has been the club's captain since August 2005, when he was just 21 years old.
For Jamaica, Palmer has made 12 career appearances since 2005, most recently appearing and setting up his country's only goal in a 2-1 road loss to world power Argentina on February 10.
He has already spent two separate one-week trial periods with the Dynamo, first in Orlando at the Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic Feb. 22-27, where he scored a long-range goal against rival FC Dallas. Palmer re-joined the Dynamo for preseason games March 7 against the Austin Aztex and March 11 against the Chicago Fire. He is expected to join the Dynamo prior to their March 27 MLS opener against FC Dallas.
The Dynamo's home opener at Robertson Stadium is scheduled for April 1 against defending MLS Cup champion Real Salt Lake. Tickets for Dynamo games and the 2010 MLS All-Star Game at Houston's Reliant Stadium are available via Dynamo season ticket packages and mini plans at HoustonDynamo.com or by calling (713) 276-7500.
The Houston Dynamo are a Major League Soccer franchise that has won two MLS Cup championships in its first four seasons and represented the United States in four consecutive regional championships. For more information, log on to www.HoustonDynamo.com or call (713) 276-7500.
Position: Midfielder
Height: 5'10" Weight: 160 lbs.
Date of Birth: August 30, 1984
Birthplace: Mandeville, Jamaica
Hometown: Mandeville, Jamaica
Citizenship: Jamaica
Last Club: Harbour View (Jamaica)
How Acquired: Transferred from Harbour View on March 19, 2010
Status: Senior Internationa


text:
NEW YORK — Brett Gardner hit a tiebreaking homer off All-Star ace Yu Darvish, and the Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 2-1 Wednesday night in a rain-shortened game called in the fifth inning under bizarre circumstances.
NEW YORK — Brett Gardner hit a tiebreaking homer off All-Star ace Yu Darvish, and the Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 2-1 Wednesday night in a rain-shortened game called in the fifth inning under bizarre circumstances.
David Phelps (5-4) pitched out of a jam just before the storm, and Francisco Cervelli doubled twice to help the Yankees win for the fifth time in six games on a 10-game homestand following the All-Star break.
New York has taken two of the first three in a four-game series that ends Thursday afternoon.
Chase Headley had a double in his first start for New York after he was acquired in Tuesday's trade with San Diego.
Phelps gave up five hits in his first career complete game. After a one-out triple by Leonys Martin in the fifth, the right-hander retired Chris Gimenez on a foul popup and struck out Rougned Odor.
Phelps and Cervelli pumped their fists as they headed toward the dugout — perhaps knowing how important that last out might be, making the game official with heavy rain in the forecast.
Play was halted with one out in the bottom of the fifth, and the game was called after a delay of 1 hour, 49 minutes. It appeared the teams were ready to resume at one point, but managers Joe Girardi and Ron Washington expressed concern about the dangers of a soft, wet field.
After much discussion, a light rain returned and the tarp was put back on the field. Less than 10 minutes later, the game was stopped for good — giving the Yankees the victory.
New York lost a rain-shortened game in Baltimore on July 13, the last day before the All-Star break.
Darvish (9-6) allowed four hits over 4.1 innings and threw 67 pitches in his second complete game of the year. He struck out five and walked none.
It took 13 minutes and three tries for the grounds crew to pull the soaked tarp over a drenched infield. Bat boys, clubhouse attendants and security guards in clear ponchos rushed out to help. One stumbled and briefly got trapped underneath the tarp. It took more than 30 men to finally finish the job, bringing a roar from the crowd.
Only 15 minutes later, the rain had stopped and workers removed the tarp. But the field was so wet, it took about 50 minutes to dry and prepare the field. Washington had a long discussion near home plate with umpires Dale Scott and Dan Iassogna, and they soon were joined by Girardi as the grounds crew toiled away.
A public-address announcement informed fans the game was scheduled to resume at approximately 10:05 p.m. But as Darvish headed back to the mound and other players warmed up, Girardi stalked around near first base testing the surface.
He motioned for an audience, and the huddle that ensued included both managers, Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux and Yankee Stadium head groundskeeper Dan Cunningham, who appeared to be doing much of the talking.
The umpires and grounds crew headed back underneath the stands, and Texas players milled around in front of their dugout for about 20 minutes waiting for word. Darvish flipped a ball, and even pawed at the dirt near third base.
When the rain started falling again around 10:25 p.m., the tarp was placed back over the infield.
Cervelli hit a leadoff double in the third and scored on Darvish's second career balk. Gardner followed with his 10th home run, the first time he's reached double digits in seven major league seasons.
Texas scored in the third on Odor's double-play grounder after consecutive singles by Martin and Chris Gimenez.


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Indonesia Identifies Strategic Learning Priorities to Address Climate Change
The National Council on Climate Change (DNPI) of the Government of Indonesia held a workshop on 14 February 2013 with over 62 participants representing 15 government ministries and agencies, 7 UN agencies (UNESCO, FAO, ILO, WHO, UNORCID, UNEP, UNITAR), the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) Office, 3 universities (University of Indonesia, University of Sriwijaya, Bandung Institute of Technology), NGOs and the private sector, to review progress on development of a National Learning Strategy to address climate change. Participants reached a common understanding of the objectives of the Strategy and its priorities. The Strategy development process is supported by UN CC:Learn, a One UN initiative in the area of climate change learning.
The meeting was opened by Mr. Agus Purnomo, the Head of the DNPI Secretariat and Special Adviser to the President of Indonesia on Climate Change. Mr. Purnomo pointed out that climate change awareness should be at the heart of the political debate to help the young generation prepare themselves better to face negative impacts of climate change. Other speakers included Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Chair of the UN Working Group on Climate Change, Mr. Angus Mackay, the Head of UNITAR's Climate Change Programme and Mr. Doddy Sukadri, the National Coordinator for UN CC:Learn in Indonesia.
Strategic learning priorities for climate change were agreed by participants as well as a list of follow up actions for immediate implementation. These range from the provision of basic training for community leaders on REDD+ to capacity building for managers within the energy industry, and public awareness campaigns on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Participants also discussed the importance of integrating climate change learning into the national curriculum, in view of the fact that Indonesia is launching a new curriculum for primary and secondary schools during 2013.
The National Council on Climate Change was confirmed in its role as the coordinating agency responsible for implementation of the Strategy, working closely with and through key ministries and academic institutions. UN agencies voiced their support for the learning Strategy, proposed a range of joint activities and held a follow-up meeting to discuss strengthened engagement.
The Strategy will be finalized in April 2013 and launched in May 2013, together with three immediate learning projects to be funded under the UN CC:Learn Initiative.
Workshop Report
The report of the workshop is available here.
About UN CC:Learn
UN CC:Learn is a partnership of 33 multilateral organizations which supports Member States in designing and implementing results-oriented and sustainable learning to address climate change. The Secretariat for UN CC:Learn is provided by UNITAR. An important aspect of UN CC:Learn is to support countries in developing a National Strategy to Strengthen Human Resources and Skills to Advance Green, Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development, through a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder process. During the course of 2012-2013, Benin, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Malawi, and Uganda are participating as UN CC:Learn pilot countries. Core funding for the 2011-2013 implementation phase of UN CC:Learn is provided by the Swiss Government.


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Five Reasons Why Catechisms Are Important
The English word "catechize" simply means to teach biblical truth in an orderly way. In his introduction to The Baptist Catechism, John Piper explains the biblical support for a pattern of doctrine: there is a "pattern of teaching" (Romans 6:17), a "pattern of sound words" (2 Timothy 1:13).
But not only is there a precedent, such authoritative instruction is absolutely vital. Pastor John gives five reasons why:
- We are required to "continue in the faith, stable and steadfast" (Colossians 1:23).
- We are urged to "attain to the unity of the... knowledge of the Son of God...so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:13-14).
- There are many deceivers (1 John 2:26).
- There are difficult doctrines "which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).
- Leaders must be raised up who can "give instruction in sound doctrine and also confute those who contradict it" (Titus 1:9).
Download "The Baptist Catechism" with Commentary from John Piper(PDF).