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Express Dictate Dictation Recorder for Mac 4.03
by NCH Swift Sound Software
Computer based Mac dictation recorder and portable dock station
by NCH Swift Sound Software
Computer based Mac dictation recorder and portable dock station
Express Dictate is a computer based voice recorder that works like a dictaphone and a dock station for a portable recorder. You dictate using your computer or a portable dictaphone or notetaker and send your recordings to your typist or assistant by email, the internet or over your computer network. Express Dictate can dramatically improve the turn around time for work and, most importantly, lets you work from wherever you want. As long as you have access to a computer with email, you can dictate from where you are - even overseas.
Express Dictate uses state of the art digital audio processing and compression technology to record and transmit the audio. It also includes features such as automatic editing and voice activated recording. Express Dictate will also keep track of the progress of work and the expected completion time.
You can also use your existing portable dictaphone or notetaker while you are away from your computer. The Express Dictate Transfer from Portable Dictaphone/Notetaker (Dock) feature lets you transfer the dictation quickly and easily and send it to your typist or assistant via the internet or your computer network.
Express Dictate is designed to have the features that you need made as simple as possible and is reliable for day to day operation.
Download Free Trial


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We have multiple options available for meeting and event planners to submit a request for proposal (RFP) for rooms or meeting space online. Please use whichever option is most convenient for you!
Email Option: You may already have prepared a document that contains all of your meeting requirements and wish to bypass the Rapid RFP Form option. If you prefer to submit your RFP directly, click here to email your requirements or specs to our sales team.
SpeedRFP Option: We encourage you to utilize the SpeedRFP form to submit your proposal request. SpeedRFP features a user-friendly format that quickly walks you through all the information our sales team will need to respond to your request.
Select who you would like to receive a proposal from; the Irving Convention Center, the CVB or both; by checking the appropriate boxes below and clicking "request proposal."

subset: commoncrawl


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KABUL, Afghanistan - Ten members of an Afghan rural paramilitary force and seven others were drugged and killed at an outpost in a volatile eastern province, officials said yesterday, in the latest deadly poisoning attributed to Taliban insurgents.
KABUL, Afghanistan � Ten members of an Afghan rural paramilitary force and seven others were drugged and killed at an outpost in a volatile eastern province, officials said yesterday, in the latest deadly poisoning attributed to Taliban insurgents.
The killings occurred overnight in a remote district of Ghazni province where villagers last year took up arms against the Taliban. Members of the Afghan Local Police, a U.S.-backed rural guard force made up of village recruits, were poisoned during dinner by a fellow police officer, who officials said had ties to the Taliban, and then were fatally shot by insurgents who overran the outpost, officials said.
Ten of the dead were local police officers, while the seven other victims were friends and relatives who were spending the night at the outpost to help provide security, said provincial Gov. Musa Khan Akbarzada.
�It was a harrowing incident,� Akbarzada said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killings but denied the reports of poisoning. The incident was at least the fourth such poisoning of government security forces attributed to insurgents since October, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, which tracks security developments across the country.
The killings took place in the district of Andar, where villagers made headlines � and won fans among U.S. military commanders � last summer for an apparently spontaneous uprising against harsh Taliban rule. Many of the civilians who took up arms have been folded into the Afghan Local Police, which U.S. officials plan to expand nationwide from 20,000 troops to 45,000 troops in the coming years.
The Pentagon intends the local police to become the first line of defense against the Taliban in areas out of the reach of the regular Afghan army and police. But the force has been accused of human-rights abuses allegedly committed by the lightly trained recruits and their commanders. The Afghan Interior Ministry, which supervises the local police, says it has taken steps to improve accountability and has punished those who have committed abuses.
Some former members of the insurgency also have been recruited into the local police. Officials in Ghazni said the Taliban were trying to infiltrate the police force to carry out revenge attacks.
�The uprising really affected the Taliban. They lost 120 or 140 of their men in Andar,� Ali Akbar Qasimi, a member of parliament from Ghazni, said by phone. �They couldn�t fight the uprisers or the security forces face-to-face, so this is their new tactic.�
Earlier yesterday, a suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Afghan army soldiers in a western district of Kabul, wounding six of them and four civilians. It was the second security incident in the capital this week.
As snow fell over the region, the bomber struck while soldiers were boarding an Afghan Defense Ministry bus in the Pul-e-Sokhta area of Kabul shortly after 7 a.m. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in text messages to reporters.
The attack followed a shooting on Sunday in central Kabul, where officers with the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, killed a suicide attacker who was attempting to target the agency�s offices with a car bomb, security officials said.
The incidents signaled the Taliban�s apparent intent to continue attacks on security targets in the heart of Kabul. The U.S.-led coalition plans to withdraw its combat forces by the end of the next year.


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NEW YORK (August 28, 2009) — Producers who recognize foot rot and develop strategies to prevent and treat it can successfully protect their cattle herd's performance. Causing an estimated 75 percent of all lameness diagnosed in beef cattle, foot rot, or interdigital dermatitis, can be detrimental to the health of a herd and profits of an operation.
Lameness and swelling related to foot rot threatens performance by causing cattle to reduce feed consumption, ultimately resulting in reduced weight gain. In addition, cows affected by foot rot may not get the nutrition they need to produce sufficient milk for nursing calves, and affected bulls are less likely to breed cows during breeding season.
Conditions for foot rot
Foot rot is a bacterial infection in the skin and subcutaneous tissue between the toes of the foot that can extend into tendons, ligaments, joints and foot bones. The bacteria that cause foot rot—including Fusobacterium necrophorum and Porphyromonas levii—are common in the environment, but need the right conditions to grow and cause disease. A break in the skin or a laceration is required for the entry of the bacteria that can cause infection.
"Damp conditions predispose the feet of cattle to damage and infection, making it important to watch for foot rot during wet times of the year, or in areas where there is a buildup of mud and/or manure," explained Gordon Brumbaugh, DVM, PhD, DACVCP, DACVIM, anti-infectives specialist with Pfizer Animal Health. "It is difficult to totally eliminate rocks, gravel, forage, or ice from pastures or corrals but it is important to recognize that these, or other sharp surfaces, can cut the skin between the toes of the foot and allow bacteria to invade and cause an infection. Vigilance to remove those can help control foot rot."
Technically, foot rot is not contagious, but chances are good that if one animal develops foot rot, the conditions are right for more animals in the herd to become infected. Also, discharge from the wounds of infected animals may seed the ground with infection-causing bacteria.
Preventing and managing foot rot
Effective strategies for prevention and treatment are important in managing foot rot because of the potential for lameness—the primary and most obvious sign of foot rot. Swelling and lameness can come on suddenly, becoming so painful that cattle lie down and refuse to stand or eat. According to one study, steers with lameness related to foot rot gained 0.45 pounds less per day compared to non-infected animals.2
After a proper diagnosis is made with the help of your veterinarian, Brumbaugh recommended starting treatment. Although some very mild cases may respond to cleaning and topical therapy, most cases require the use of systemic anti-infective therapy.
"Extended therapy products can help reduce or limit disease-causing bacteria for a longer period of time and allow the animal's immune system more time to overcome the effects of the bacteria," Brumbaugh added. "And to help limit recovery time, affected animals should be kept in dry areas, if possible, until healed."
Managing this condition starts even before cattle are infected. "By taking the precautions to limit bacterial growth in the surrounding environment, you can save time and money and keep your herd as healthy as possible," Brumbaugh said.
Research shows up to 15 percent of a herd could become affected by foot rot in the right conditions; therefore, recognizing situations that are conducive to infection is the first step in prevention. Although not fatal, if the infection spreads to an animal's joints and causes severe lameness, the disease can result in an animal needing more extensive treatment or culling.3
Foot rot management not only includes treating affected cattle with trusted anti-infectives, but also taking steps towards prevention. According to the Beef Cattle Handbook, from the University of Wisconsin, follow these recommendations to help prevent foot rot.3
• Keep cattle yards clean and free of sharp objects like stones, glass or rough ground.
• Cover frozen ground with straw.
• Thoroughly clean pens and spread lime after cattle are removed.
• Ensure cattle yards have adequate drainage.
• Create a dry area for cattle to stand with mounds of soil, bedding or concrete slabs.
• Use concrete in areas where cattle congregate, like around water fountains and feed bunks.
• Spread lime with 5 to 10 percent added copper sulfate around watering units and feed bunks.
• Consider the use of walk-through foot baths.
• Provide good nutrition, including phosphorus, vitamins A and D, and zinc.
"Because the organisms that cause foot rot are found everywhere, the best way to prevent the disease is to promote hoof health," Brumbaugh encouraged. "Then watch for signs of the disease, recognize the condition early and treat according to your veterinarian's recommendations."
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company, is a world leader in discovering and developing innovative animal vaccines and prescription medicines. Pfizer Animal Health is dedicated to improving the safety, quality and productivity of the world's food supply by enhancing the health of livestock and poultry; and in helping companion animals live longer and healthier lives. For additional information on Pfizer Animal Health's portfolio of animal products, visit PfizerAH.com.


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The Forex world is constantly evolving and during its weekly trading hours there is a wealth of news a trader must keep on top of if they want to make the most money possible. Indeed, because the market can be affected by a number of dynamics, it is essential they know exactly what's happening at all times in order to avoid any unprofitable deals.
For example, let's assume the US Dollar is trading well against the Great British Pound during the first half of the week. This would be a good time to invest some money and reap the benefits of a positive market condition. However, by Wednesday a series of negative news stories emerge from the UK and affect the country's economic performance. These dynamics then adversely affects how well the two currencies are trading. At this point it's important to know what's just happened because it will influence whether or not someone should cease trading this currency pair for a while or continue.
Knowing the value of each currency based on various internal and external factors is crucial and the reason why FXBrokerSearch.com's Forex news centre is a vital resource. Drawing on a number of resources, our information section provides the latest information and data from which users can refine their trading activity.
Beyond shifts in the currency market itself, FXBrokerSearch.com's new section has been designed to give traders an insight into the best offers and promotions. By monitoring each of our 200+ Forex brokers we're able to quickly tell users about the latest updates and bonuses.
By compiling all this current data into one portal we believe investors will be able to make even more money in the Forex market. Indeed, thanks to our dedicated team of analysts and experts, users can find out the latest market developments as well as the best deals in the industry. Putting all this together should help everyone gain a better understanding of the market, which in turn should give them the ability to make even more money.
Bank lending in the euro zone fell slightly in January but at a slower pace than a month earlier, suggesting the economy may be turning a corner as consumer morale picks up in ..
Sears Holdings Corp, owner of Sears department stores and the Kmart discount chain, reported its 11th straight quarterly loss as sales continued to tumble. The net loss attrib ..
Samsung Electronics will freeze wages in 2015 for employees in South Korea for the first time in six years, after the world's biggest smartphone maker saw profits fall in ..
Weekly jobless claims and other data on Thursday will put the U.S. economy firmly at the center of investor focus. ..
A world leader in wind turbines, Iberdrola joins other European companies seeking to grow via acquisitions outside sluggish domestic markets. Last year, German engineer Siemen ..
Geely-owned carmaker Volvo Car Group said on Thursday its 2014 operating profit rose 17.5 percent in its best year of sales to date as rapid expansion in China and recovery in ..
In a bid to rival Singapore, Hong Kong is introducing sweeping tax measures aimed at making it a more attractive centre in Asia for global corporations to trade foreign exchan ..
General Motors (GM.N) is to stop making cars in Indonesia, a battleground for global automakers in emerging Southeast Asia, closing an assembly plant, axing some 500 jobs and ..
Bourses across Asia wobbled on Thursday as traders kept an eye on crude oil prices, and a round of corporate news. ..
Over two days of testimony to Congress, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was grilled on everything from the direction of interest rates to the health of the economy to " ..
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fxBrokerSearch.com does not support nor encourage the execution of any investments. Trading with a margin is high risk endeavour and not suitable for everyone, therefore, each investor should carefully consider all relevant trading conditions, such as experience, risk and cost, before taking part in any type of trading, including Forex.
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This means advertised prices may not be accurate and could differ from the actual market conditions. For this reason it is not appropriate to rely on any data presented by fxBrokerSearch.com for the purposes of trading.
Based on these conditions, fxBrokerSearch.com will not be held responsible for any losses incurred through trades conducted in light of data presented on this site.


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Is redistricting a political reform? Or a cult?
I'm beginning to wonder, given the incredible amount of energy, newspaper ink and money being devoted to two November ballot initiatives – Prop 20 and 27 – that have a lot to do with redistricting and almost nothing to do with the future of California.
Here's the shorthand on the debate. In 2008, after many failed attempts, voters finally endorsed a redistricting reform initiative, Prop 11, that stripped state legislators of the power to draw their own districts. This eliminated an obvious conflict of interest. The power to draw districts was instead placed in the hands of a commission of citizens who are chosen through a complex process.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
But Prop 11 only applied to state officeholders. Members of Congress could still have their districts drawn by state legislators. That situation prompted Prop 20, which in turn prompted Prop 27.
Prop 20 represents an attempt to close the Congressional loophole; it would put a citizens commission in charge of drawing those districts, as well as the state legislativeone. Prop 27 is the counterattack, a response to both Prop 20 and to Prop 11. Prop 27 asks voters to repeal Prop 11 and eliminate the commission that Prop 11 authorized – before that commission has even been formed, one should note (The selection process is ongoing).
So why is everyone excited about this? Reformers (the folks who are for Prop 20 and were previously for Prop 11) have painted redistricting as an elixir. If we have honest districts, the theory goes, we'll have honest legislators.
The trouble is: changing who draws the districts means very little in state politics.. Either way, California will continue to have single-member legislative districts. Since Californians tend to live near like-minded people (the state is really two states, with a blue/liberal coast lapping a red/conservative inland), it's next to impossible for anyone to draw competitive districts. Which means that legislative elections will remain a non-issue, because no one's voice counts. The results – in terms of the party winner – are already known.
So redistricting reform of this type is weak medicine. If the goal is to make every vote count and create legislative elections worth paying attention to, California needs to blow up its current election system and restructure the legislature.
In the place of the status quo, California should establish multi-membere districts (that is, districts with more than on seat) that would be based on the regions of the state.
If seats were divided up each region via proportional representation, each vote truly would count. In a proportional system, voters cast ballots for the party they want to represent them. Even in a Democratic area, each Republican vote is important because it takes the party one step closer to getting an extra representative -- and perhaps denying the Democrats another representative from that area.


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Soldier(redirected from soldier on)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Idioms, Encyclopedia.
SOLDIER. A military man; a private in the army.
2. The constitution of the United States, amend. art. 3, directs that no soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the 'consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.


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The Faber-Castell brand logo is known and recognized all over the world: two jousting knights in dark green.
But where did this emblem come from? Until 1898, the company was owned by the Faber family and was known as A.W. Faber. Then Ottilie von Faber, the heir to the business, married Count Alexander zu Castell-Rüdenhausen. But her grandfather Lothar von Faber had stipulated in his will that the name Faber should remain in the company for all time. And so, they changed their surname to Faber-Castell.
In 1905 Count Alexander brought out a new range of top-quality pencils, which he called Castell. To distinguish them from his competitors, Count Alexander chose his regimental colour for the paint coating: green.
Over the years, the Castell pencils became a classic. Count Alexander also commissioned a painting of two "knights of the pencil", an advertising motif that decorated the boxes and cases for decades.
Later it was considered rather old-fashioned and was dropped. But in the early 1990s, when the present Count was creating a new corporate image for the company, the knights were reinstated as a symbol of the Faber-Castell brand. In stylized form, they are now an essential part of the company logo.


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On 24th August 2011, I attended a Majlis Berbuka Puasa organised by Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel. This was part of the Grand Dorsett's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative where orphans from Kanak-Kanak Rumah Kasih Rawang were invited by the Dorsett Community Care Committee to join in for the berbuka puasa (breaking of fast) event.
Mr. Leo Kuscher (General Manager for Grand Dorsett Hotel) gave a welcoming speech followed by a heartwarming Nasyid performance by the talented orphans from Rumah Kasih Rawang. Mr. Leo also presented a mock cheque to one of the caretaker from the orphanage before adjourning to the grandballroom for the breaking of fast.
The Ramadhan Buffet was very enjoyable with over 100 type of home cooked food to choose from. The Soup Gearbox which was served from a huge pot was unmistakably the highlight among all the local dishes available that night. I was told that the soup was cooked with spinal fluid which made the soup thicker and creamier.
I also enjoyed eating the Roti Bom which goes well with the thick spicy sardine gravy. Other dishes such as grilled lamb, ikan bakar, Nasi Arab, Popiah Taiping, Tempura and the mouth watering Ais Krim Goreng were some of my personal favourites.
On this note, I would like to thank Ivy (Create Studio) and Zarmila (Grand Dorsett) for inviting me to this wonderful event.


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If the concept of "Development Hell" is anything like Dante's "Inferno," than the comic book "Preacher" rests somewhere between the Circle of Vague Possibility and the Circle of Never in a Million Years.
And yet, we can now add another name to the list of directors who have tried to bring the story of a Texas preacher on a quest to find God and kick his ass to the big screen. And it's "I Am Number Four" director D.J. Caruso.
From the intrepid guys at Collider comes word that Caruso will be attempting to wrangle the sprawling, bizarre, and often NC-17 comic, something that the likes of Mark Steven Johnson ("Daredevil," "Ghost Rider") and Sam Mendes ("American Beauty," "Jarhead") have attempted and failed.
U.S. & World
Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, "Preacher" follows a man of the cloth who has a crisis of faith right at the moment when a divine power (the spawn of a tryst between a male angel and a female demon) falls from the sky and imbues him with "The Word of God" - Basically, the power to command anyone to bend to his will. So he immediately sets off with his gun-toting girlfriend and his best friend (who happens to be an Irish vampire) on a quest to find God himself and give the man a piece of his mind. Their journey includes everything from inbred rapists to a supernatural Terminator called The Saint of Killers to an oddly touching tribute to late comedian Bill Hicks to a man who has sex with a statue made entirely of meat.
Any wonder studios are a little skittish?
Whether or not Caruso is the man for the job remains to be seen. So far, his movies - "Disturbia," "Eagle Eye" and even "Number Four" - have proven to be adequate but not all that memorable, either in style or content, which has us questioning whether he can really bring the kind of whacked-out go-for-brokeness "Preacher" needs. Not to mention that the "Preacher" tale spans 75 issues filled with flashbacks and tangents - not the easiest thing to boil down to a quick 2 hours.
Welcome to Hell, D.J.


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Unconventional cellular accommodation in 90 apartments
Residence in the ruins of an abandoned cement factory
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I have been running IFL 2.60 for years in my Linux box - both in the 32bit & 64 bit versions. I upgraded to IFL 3.10 when I got a new PC and2.60 would not recognize my main HDD anymore.
I downloaded the 3.10 trial version, burned a CD and checked - sure enough, 3.10 sees the hardware just fine & is faster than 2.60 so I bought it.
Installed it, it won't run. Apparently it needs some 32 bit libraries!?! It runs on a bootable CD, but not on a 64 bit HDD?
After install I get this message:
IMPORTANT: On 64-bit distributions, 32-bit shared libraries will need to be installed to run IFL (GUI). Please see the KB article at the link below:
Well, that link is no help at all since the download-install links/commands return a 'Couldn't find package' error. It's 2017, why can't TeraByte write a 64 bit program?


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Germany investigates second U.S. spy case
BERLIN — Germany is investigating a second case of a German allegedly spying for the United States. The country is already outraged over allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) carried out mass surveillance of both politicians and voters.
Federal prosecutors told the Associated Press on Wednesday that police raided properties in the Berlin area on "initial suspicion of activity for an intelligence agency." They did not make an arrest or add further detail, but the daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported the suspect is employed at the Defense Ministry.
"We are investigating two cases of suspected espionage," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, confirmed without adding further details at a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday.
The investigation follows the arrest of a German intelligence employee last week on charges of spying for the United States and other countries. Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported authorities caught onto him after he solicited the Russians via e-mail.
U.S.-German relations are already tense after NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden last year showed the U.S. spy agency monitored Merkel's cellphone.
Snowden, who is in Russia, reapplied for asylum there Wednesday as it expires at the end of the month, his lawyer told Russia Today.
Merkel, who has not often spoken about the NSA case, rebuked the United States after the first spying case came to light.
"If the allegations are true, it would clearly contradict what I consider to be trusting cooperation between agencies and partners," Merkel said.
The NSA spying allegations — which included the mass monitoring of ordinary Europeans' communication — have caused distrust of the United States in Germany, where data protection laws are among the strictest in the world in response to the legacy of state control by the Nazis and later the Stasi, the East German secret police.
"It's deeply shocking — the revelations keep coming," said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a lawmaker from Germany in the European Parliament. "It gives the impression that the (United States) sees you as their worst enemy. It has caused a deep loss of trust.
"People can't understand this mass surveillance — or that they are seen as potential terrorists and a threat to security," he said. "And that this is coming (from an ally), not where it usually does: a repressive state."
Some say that although they may not like it, the spying is to be expected.
"They should not be spying on anyone without any reason … but you know you are being spied on just from being on the Internet," said Marc Michael, 33, in Berlin. "But I think that the (United States) is like every other government who has their own (spy) organization: They should prove that they spy on people who they have an issue with, not just normal, regular people."


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Breaking Bad 4.1 – "Well…? Get back to work!"
NOTE: Henceforth, you'll be able to find the "Breaking Bad" blog over at the Bullz-Eye blog, or you can just visit Bullz-Eye's "Breaking Bad" fan hub, where the latest entry can always be found.
Hey, everybody, Gale's okay! Gee, I guess Jesse's bullet missed him after all, so…
Oh. Never mind. It's a flashback. But, hey, at least now we know how the superlab first came into being. And we also know the sad irony that Gale is directly responsible for Gus bringing Walt into the business in the first place. So obsessive was he with his concern about the quality of the meth he was making – more concerned, even, than Gus himself – that he simply couldn't comprehend that Gus wouldn't want to work with someone like that, even risking the possibility of talking himself out of a job by saying of Walt, "If he's not (a professional), I don't know what that makes me."
Well, as it turns out, Gale, what is makes you is dead. But, then, I think we all pretty much knew that when Season 3 faded to black. Some of us just didn't want to admit it.
You can follow us on Twitter @moviebuffs and on Facebook as well.
Posted in: Breaking Bad, TV, TV Dramas
Tags: Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Betsy Brandt, Bob Odenkirk, Breaking Bad blog, Breaking Bad fourth season, Breaking Bad Season 4, Breaking Bad season premiere, Bryan Cranston, Dean Norris, Giancarlo Esposito, Gus Fring, Hank Schrader, Jesse Pinkman, Jonathan Banks, Marie Schrader, RJ Mitte, Saul Goodman, Skyler White, Walter White


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Hello. This is my first week of learning Chinese. I am hoping to get a language buddy to practice with a couple of times a week. I am located in the US so Skype would be the best way to practice. A native speaker would be great so we could teach other the nuances of our home languages.
If interested please let me know!
Just Started Learning Chinese, Need Partner
Find friends for language exchange and practice.
3 posts • Page 1 of 1
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 8:42 pm
Re: Just Started Learning Chinese, Need Partner
Hi, I`m new to this website,but also a native Chinese speaker who would like to share all the fun or pain with you either in Chinese or in English.By the way,I`m not a good enough English speaker,though which I terribly desire to.Is that OK with you?
Be the change you want the world to be
Re: Just Started Learning Chinese, Need Partner
I am chinese .I want to lern English. I think we canhelp each other.my MSN:firstname.lastname@example.com
3 posts • Page 1 of 1


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Location: Burnside Gorge Community Centre, 471 Cecelia Road
Are you prepared for an emergency? Register for a free, 90-minute workshop to learn what it will take for you and your family to be prepared for a power outage, winter storm or a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami. Depending on the emergency, your family needs to be prepared with enough food, water, medication and supplies to cope up to seven days without outside assistance.
Learn about the hazards that can affect Victoria, what to include in your home emergency kit, what you can do to minimize injury and protect your home from an earthquake, and how to reunite with loved ones after a disaster.
To register for this free workshop, call 250.920.3373 or e-mail email@example.com.
To register for this free workshop, call 250.920.3373 or e-mail email@example.com.
For more tips on what to include in an emergency kit: www.VictoriaReady.ca.


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by Mark Rosch
Because many attorneys have been successful marketing their services via traditional means, including publications, brochures, business cards, and phone directory and perhaps even radio and television advertising, some lawyers might wonder whether establishing their own websites is necessary to grow a practice. Estimates are that at the end of 2004, nearly 70 million adults in the United States logged onto the Internet each day to find some sort of information. Lawyers who do not have a web presence will not reach them.
Law firms of all sizes have gotten this message, but solo attorneys have been the slowest to take advantage of the Internet's marketing capabilities. An ABA Legal Technology Survey for 2002-03 reported that 100 percent of responding law firms with 50 or more attorneys had a website. In the few intervening years, even small firms have begun to build a web presence. According to the soon-to-be-released 2004-2005 edition of the technology survey, nearly two-thirds (62.4 percent) of responding small firms (two to nine attorneys) have a website, which is up from 50 percent in 2003 and only 6 percent in 1997. Solo attorneys, however, have been slowest in adopting this form of marketing, with only 19.7 percent of responding solos reporting their own websites—up only slightly from 16.9 percent in the 2003 survey.
Although all law firms on the Internet are competing for the same business, the cost-effective nature of websites can level the playing field somewhat among large firms, small firms, and solos. Whether you're launching your first website or updating an existing one, it's important to assess the site from not only an aesthetic but also a strategic marketing perspective—whether and how potential clients can easily find and use the site.
Design Plus Purpose The purpose of a successful website is to attract and retain clients and address their legal concerns. To be most effective in doing so, the site must be usable, informative, aesthetically pleasing, and findable. To reach these goals, you must think carefully about the site's overall presentation, much of which will be affected by the programming language and graphics you choose. The number of options that go into creating a website are innumerable, but creating a site shouldn't require a large initial investment. Even free setups for law practices are still available: Justia.com offers lawyers free template-based websites in addition to its custom design services.
An essential initial consideration is to decide how showy the site will be. This determination will affect how the site is actually created: principally in standard HTML, which is rather plain and straightforward, or using a program such as Flash, an aptly named web design application. Should the site include an audio component—music or spoken words or both—especially in the introduction? Lastly, how creative—which often means how complicated—should the graphic elements be?
A labor law firm that represents management might want a simple HTML site that is straightforward in use and presentation. A showier site featuring multimedia programming might alienate a potential client looking for a more conservative image. However, an entertainment lawyer's potential clients likely would expect some online panache, even from their lawyers. Miami sole practitioner Barry Oliver Chase solved this problem by offering both styles at his site, www.entertainmentlawyermiami.com, including a splashy graphic element but making it an optional link from the site's more reserved home page.
Most attorneys will want to travel between the extremes of nondescript and overkill. One hint is to design the site to be as stylish as is your reception area, which is probably neither dowdy nor garish yet represents the overall tone of your practice. Another suggestion is to start simple and gradually add the bells and whistles as you gauge your clients' response.
Get on the Map "Find-ability" refers to the ease with which potential and existing clients who do not already know your URL (website address) can locate your site among the Internet's trillion or so pages. A consumer who needs legal help with a bankruptcy matter might type "lawyer" into a search engine—but will receive an unwieldy list of more than 11.8 million sites. Adding "bankruptcy" and " New York" still will result in more than half a million. Most searchers don't look past the first two or three pages of results before giving up, so attorneys with sites listed near the top are most likely to attract the business.
The address of your website—its domain name—is a big factor here. It should be descriptive enough to grab the attention of your intended audience but short enough for a client to easily remember. For example, a lawyer who represents dog bite victims would get more cases using the domain name dogbitelaw.com or dogbitelawyer.com than using the lawyer's own name. Adding geographical information to the domain name—newyorkdogbitelawyer.com, for example—might also help. Surprisingly, the survey found that only 14.4 percent of respondents use a generic domain name relating to a practice area (up from 5 percent in 2001).
But the survey also found that 94.4 percent of respondents use a firm name or a version of a firm name as the domain name (up from just over 50 percent in 2001). This is fine for a target audience of current and former clients only, but it may not attract new clients. If your firm name has several named partners, limit the domain name to the first one or two partners to make the URL easier to remember. And keep in mind that lawyers can have more than one domain name, each covering a different area of practice.
Some states have strict ethics rules governing web addresses that are something other than a firm's name. Be sure to consult your state's ethics rules regarding websites before launching yours. In the absence of rules dedicated to websites, attorneys might want to look to the rules governing advertising for guidance on what is permissible.
Encourage Repeat Visits Once your clients are in the habit of using your site for information, be sure to give them reasons to visit periodically. One common practice is for lawyers to generate newsletters and post them on the site, as well as offering visitors the option to have the newsletter e-mailed directly to them. Once the newsletters are posted, it's a simple task to archive the issues so that past topics as well as current ones are available; adding a searchable database helps visitors locate exactly what they need. To increase the marketing value, post all public documents as PDF files so that the formatting and graphics (especially the firm logo) are intact in printed copies; this increases the chance that clients will keep and use the printed documents. You can do this easily using Adobe Acrobat software (www.adobe.com).
Many firms host numerous discussion forums that potential or actual clients can join online to discuss injuries, locate others in similar legal straits, or seek emotional support. Topics may range from clergy abuse to inheritance problems to specific defective medical devices. While all attorneys with a website should prominently post a disclaimer indicating that information on their sites is meant for informational purposes only and that a user's reading, following, or otherwise relying on that information does not create an attorney-client relationship, firms that host such discussion forums should be even more diligent to ensure that the disclaimer is clear and posted conspicuously.
Be sure the site includes an area with reprints or the text of published articles you or other firm members have authored for newsletters, bar journals, or other legal media. Another option is posting links to or abstracts of current news articles related to your practice. While authors usually retain the copyright to reuse the text of articles they have written, if you are posting PDFs or images of articles as they actually appeared in a publication, be sure that you have reprint/copyright permission from the publication to do so. One essential caveat is that current events must be kept current or your practice will quickly look out-of-date instead of up-to-date. If you know up-front that maintaining the site will be sporadic at best, forgo the topical content.
Some attorneys list their prominent cases (or clients) on their websites, along with notable verdicts and settlements. Again, timeliness is essential; if it's been years since you've had a reported or memorable case, consider listing by the amount of the largest verdict or settlement or the case that features the most well-known parties first (without dates).
A website can be useful to you in terms of direct savings of staff time and effort. To facilitate initial consultations, some lawyers post online intake forms that potential clients can fill out and e-mail or download and print. Others add a downloadable collection of government forms, or lists of links ranging from general to specific practice topics.
You might want to consider starting a law-related web log ("blog" or "blawg") instead of or in addition to a regular website. A blog can give you a web presence and a forum to easily share your views on current issues with potential clients or other attorneys who might refer cases to you. Some people find setting up a web log easier than a regular website with display features. Then check out the free tools available at Blogger (www.blogger.com) or Live Journal (www.livejournal.com) to create and host an entry-level blog.
Not everyone thrills to the electronic beat, so keep in mind that many online visitors would rather communicate with a person than a search engine. Consider offering them the option of chatting live during regular business hours with a client services representative—either a member of the existing office staff or a representative from an outsourced (and off-site) service. At large firms, chat links generally are directed to in-house client development, marketing, or management personnel; solos probably could handle those queries themselves. Your website should include at least one prominent, general e-mail link for messages to the firm, if not direct links to each lawyer. Be sure your full mail address and phone number are also easy to find. If you include an e-mail link, be sure to respond to queries in a timely manner. Another helpful courtesy is a printable map to help clients and potential clients find your office.
Register Your Site and Monitor Traffic The Internet contains thousands of search engines, but only a relatively small number are used most often. Your goal is to increase your site's chances of being ranked as close as possible to the beginning of the returned list. The best way to accomplish this is to formally submit your website to the search engine for consideration. Obvious places to begin are Google, currently the most used search engine on the Internet, and Yahoo, which is a close second. Google's submission process is free for businesses. Go to www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl for details.
Yahoo, on the other hand, began charging to register sites at the end of 2001. All commercial websites (this includes law firms) must pay a $299 "Yahoo! Express" fee to be considered for addition to the Yahoo Index. The fee does not guarantee your site will be included—just considered. After you submit your information and fee, Yahoo will inform you within seven business days whether your site qualifies for addition; if it does not, a Yahoo representative will send you an explanation for the decision. Once a site is accepted, you pay an annual $299 fee to keep the site listed.
An as-yet little-known alternative does exist, however. Altavista (which is owned by Yahoo) offers a free submission option to Yahoo search (www.altavista.com/addurl/default). The "Basic Submit" option allows anyone with a free Yahoo account to submit a site to be crawled for inclusion in the Yahoo Search index.
If you do register your site, you may notice that its ranking for the same search term varies from engine to engine because each one indexes (catalogs) web pages differently. To keep site designers from manipulating this process, search engines do not list their indexing or ranking criteria. However, search optimization websites have done research to report which elements count for indexing and assigning rankings. See, for example, SearchEngineWatch (www.searchenginewatch.com) to learn more.
After your site is launched and you're comfortable with returning inquiries, updating content, and accessing new clients from your online forms, you may want to determine how visitors find your site (e.g., through a search engine or by linking from another site) and what content is most popular once they are there. You can even receive breakdowns of how often specific pages are clicked.
Some Internet service providers such as Earthlink (www.earthlink.net) include traffic statistics as part of their web hosting services. A number of others, including Hitslink (www.hitslink.com) and SiteMeter (www.sitemeter.com), offer tracking services, which start at $10 per month for basic service. (SiteMeter also offers some traffic information for free.)
No matter what form your site takes, why waste the effort you put into establishing it? Be sure to determine who your audience is, and then create a site that will meet its various needs. Creating a website does not automatically guarantee that clients who are looking online will find your site and hire you, but not having a website guarantees that they won't.
For more information about creating and maintaining an effective Web site for your practice, see:
Read the latest strategies, tips and new resources available for integrating the Internet into your law practice in our newsletter.


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At the 3rd Annual Critics' Choice Television Awards, actors celebrated last season's best series — and looked ahead to the shows they're planning to program on their DVRs.
Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory)
The Crazy Ones (CBS): "I'm a huge fan of Robin Williams. I recently met him and Sarah Michelle Gellar [who plays Williams's daughter], and they were so lovely."
Monica Potter (Parenthood)
The Michael J. Fox Show (NBC): "I love him and think it's incredibly brave the way he's celebrating what he's going through in a positive way."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC): "It stars my friend [and New Adventures of Old Christine costar] Clark Gregg. I hear it's fantastic, and I can't wait to see it."
Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation)
Mixology (ABC, midseason): "It has me psyched. The concept of a whole season taking place in one night is really cool."


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New London schools need to avoid state takeover at all costs
It was amusing, in a pathetic sort of way, the recent state audit that characterized the New London school board as "incoherent." But it was a line later in Day reporter Julianne Hanckel's story that was far more sobering:
"Powerful, transformational and systemic interventions have a chance of changing the achievement gap in New London," she wrote, quoting the audit. The next line, not in the audit but in reference to potential consequences, read, "that could mean anything up to and including a takeover by the state."
Perhaps some of you - even the few, the proud - who have ever taken the time to walk inside New London schools and get to know the teachers and kids, would view state takeover as necessary. Or maybe you shrug your shoulders and issue an absorbing, "could the state do any worse?"
The evidence provides a frightening answer.
Look north to Windham, for example, where state takeover has commenced.
The state appointed a man named Steven Adamowski, the former superintendent of schools in Hartford, to repair the school system. You'd need a 20-second timeout right there to process such a development: Someone from Hartford - Hartford! - summoned to fix someone else's school system.
Sort of like appointing Octomom as prime minister of Planned Parenthood, no?
Don't laugh. Adamowski's recent charge to rid the school system of its athletic director underscores the perils of state takeovers. In the name of change, good people become collateral damage at the behest of bureaucrats.
Example: Pat Risley.
He was the athletic director at Windham High School before Adamowski's edict. A rudimentary knowledge of the city wouldn't even be required to know that "Risley" is the name most and best associated with athletics in Windham, since somewhere around the time of Mazeroski's homer. Worse, Risley, who grew up in Willimantic, learned of his changing job description in the Willimantic Chronicle.
So far, Adamowski's own standardized test score suggests an achievement gap for his communication skills and general knowledge of his new fiefdom.
What if the potential state appointee in New London is as obtuse?
What's more troublesome is that some suit is allowed to make the unilateral decision that there's "no need for a separate athletic director" in the Windham school system any longer, as he told the Chronicle. Instead, he appointed a "special administrative manager," whose duties, according to the Chronicle, include scheduling, transportation, security, maintenance, extracurricular activities, common areas, food services and athletics."
Food services and athletics.
Where does one go to school to learn the vagaries of the pick-and-roll and the hamburger roll?
Poor Bill Strand and his boys' basketball team will be waiting for a bus one night and get ham sandwiches instead.
Remember, though: The state knows best.
According to the Chronicle, former Windham principal Gene Blain will be the special administrative manager.
Blain, once a teacher at Killingly, won a state championship there as its football coach. He's a good guy. But he'd have to be Jesus to succeed at this new job.
The athletic director role alone is full time.
Lori Riley of the Hartford Courant wrote a terrific column on the subject a few weeks ago. Among other salient points, Riley detailed the role of an athletic director:
"The scheduling of games, officials and transportation, rescheduling of games, officials and transportation when it rains/snows, hiring coaches, making sure coaches are certified and have first-aid training, professional development of coaches, dealing with parents', athletes' and coaches' complaints and issues, overseeing facility maintenance, site management and crowd control at home games, overseeing the sports medicine staff, dealing with new concussion regulations, the athletic budget, ticket sales and record-keeping of gate receipts, inventory and care of school athletic equipment and arranging practice schedules. Athletic directors deal with pay for play. Athletes who want to play sports in college come to the athletic director for help with NCAA eligibility and clearinghouse issues."
And so assigning one man all those duties, plus scheduling, transportation, security, maintenance, extracurricular activities, common areas and food services is somehow supposed to make Windham schools more efficient?
The lessons here for New London, other than being careful what you wish for, rest on the shoulders of the current board members. They can remain "incoherent" or accept the criticisms constructively. If they can, for once, channel their bluster into something useful, maybe they can keep the state home. Big Brother doesn't always know best.
This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.
Evina Westbrook, named captain, feels like UConn is where she's supposed to be
Republican Thomas Gilmer drops out of 2nd District race after arrest
Lawrence + Memorial Hospital accepts gift from Dominion Energy
Republican Thomas Gilmer drops out of 2nd District race after arrest
Arrest more evidence of a state GOP in decline, leadership lacking


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So I think I'm gonna take the opportunity to relate another anecdote from my checkered work history. This was not the Job from Hell. This was my time at electronics and appliance superstore Crazy Eddie, which I only imagined to be the Job From Hell at the time, and as I've said, there were any number of regular customers whose default position was abuse, as a way to get what they wanted.
I proceed directly to the case of a guy I'll call Mr. Shnodblatt, who figures in many of these stories. Mr. Shnodblatt took the chain's "We'll never be undersold" promise as a personal challenge. Now, we did have such a promise, and we did honor it, but there were reasonable common-sense limitations. To wit, you couldn't do what he did several times, come in with an ad reading COMPUTER PRINTER – $50 that didn't specify the make and model, and angrily demand that we give him the thousand dollar top of the line printer at the same price. But explain this to him, and he started yelling and threatening calls to his lawyer. Nor could you bring in an ad from an outlet that was selling used or refurbished or even display-model merchandise, an ad that said something like UNBOXED DISPLAY MODELS AS IS, and get the same equipment sealed in boxes with full warrantees. You couldn't. But he would come in yelling. Mr. Shnodblatt called us crooks and liars and pieces of shit so often that we scattered when we saw him coming, and only the slowest salespeople had to wait on him. Not that it even mattered if we were dealing with other customers. Mr. Shnodblatt would interpose himself between those other customers and ourselves, demanding immediate service.
Not to put too fine a point on it: I hated Mr. Shnodblatt. Hated him. Had I the power I would have afflicted him with hemmorhoids, scales, and that parasite that plants itself in a victim's mouth and replaces his tongue with itself. Mr. Shnodblatt was a nightmare. And one of the worst things he did was show up twenty minutes before closing and behave so obnoxiously in pursuit of the purchase he wanted, even if it was something we could not give him at the price he wanted, that we would still be there half an hour, an hour after the doors were locked, enduring his abuse and finally giving him something well below cost just to get rid of him. He was, in short, an extortionist.
Comes Sunday at 4:15. The store closes at five. It's a busy day. The nightmare of the day is an ad from some hole of a retail establishment in the city that offers a computer printer at $55.00. Unlike most such ads this one provides the make and model. It is printer from a company that went out of business five years before Crazy Eddie was founded. It doesn't use ink available in the United States. I repeat this. It doesn't use ink available in the United States. It doesn't use paper anybody would ever want to use in business, but thermal sheets available in rolls. We have spent all day telling customers that we have never carried any merchandise by this manufacturer and that the printer is a relic from the stone age and that the ad doesn't entitle them to take the eight hundred dollar top of the line printer — this being rather early in the age of home computing — from a top manufacturer that is the Ferrari among our merchandise. We have spent all day being yelled at by people who somehow thought this was us changing the rules on them. We have fended most off and actually made sales. But we have reckoned without Mr. Shnodblatt.
Mr. Shnodblatt has this ad and he shoves it in my face and he demands that I give him THAT printer, which we'll now call the XL-CRAP, or permit him to pick any printer he wants. I start to explain. He starts yelling that I'm a crook. He wants me to know that I'm a con artist, that I'm a piece of shit, that I clearly rape nuns, and that he is NOT LEAVING THE STORE UNTIL HE GETS WHAT HE WANTS. 4:30 passes. 4:35, 4:40. I am stuck with Shnodblatt, who is making a scene that can be heard throughout the store, while my co-worker Ray is driving himself to exhaustion trying to wait on all the customers who are being denied service because Shnodblatt is monopolizing my time.
Another word about Shnodblatt: like most problem customers, his immediate fallback position is "I Demand To See Your Manager!" He is forever demanding to see my manager, always when I cannot give him what he's asking for at the sale he wants. I have said to him, many times, "Sir, I do not have a manager in charge of just letting you loot the store." It never matters. He demands to see my manager. I have to abandon my post and get yelled at, later, for once again failing to resolve Mr. Shnodblatt's mental illness on my own, and bringing the manager into it.
Mr. Shnodblatt demands that I bring the manager. It is 4:45. There has already been an announcement that customers should select their purchases and go to the registers. Shnodblatt is still not budging. He is perfectly willing to do what he has done in the past, keep us at work and away from our own lives until 6 and beyond, in pursuit of impossibilities. The manager, who is irate that I bring him to Mr. Shnodblatt when he has a million and one things to do to wrap up the store, comes over.
The problem is explained. The manager tells Mr. Shnodblatt what I have told him, that Crazy Eddie does not carry the XL-Crap, and has never carried the XL-Crap, because the XL-Crap precedes us, and we are not obligated to sell him any top of the line printer at the same price as the XL-Crap.
After another bellowed characterization of us as crooks and liars and con men and child molesters, Mr. Shnodblatt yells, "I know the way you people work! You promise to beat all prices, but when you see an ad for a price you don't want to beat, you HIDE AWAY THE MERCHANDISE IN YOUR STOCKROOM AND PRETEND YOU DON'T CARRY IT!"
He says this. Like we clear out the floor space of all our saleable merchandise, every Sunday's ad.
He demands that we allow him into the stock room, to confirm for himself that there is no XL-Crap there.
He actually demands this.
Now, I don't know about you, but at this point I would tell him, "Sir, please go patronize another store and never bother us again." Our manager is a pro. He tells Mr. Shnodblatt that his demand to inspect the storeroom himself is unacceptable for insurance reasons, but that he will, if it'll solve the problem, order me to search the stockroom, just to confirm that there is no XL-CRAP anywhere on its shelves.
Mr. Shnodblatt actually says that he knows I will only pretend to look and that he will deal with my lying later on, but is willing to go through the motions.
If you handed me a knife at that moment, I would now be serving time.
(And silly as it may seem to you, I am twenty-five years later actually feeling my blood pressure rise as I relate this story. It's no joke. I take pleasure in the awareness that Shnodblatt is almost certainly dead now. If I knew the location, I'd pee on his grave. If he was alive and alzheimers-ridden and living in an old age home somewhere, I'd get the location and travel there just to slap him in the face. I'm almost serious.)
Anyway. It is 4:50. It has been a long day. I want to go home. I am being forced to undergo a total wild goose chase searching a vast back room for a piece of merchandise that is not there, that has never been there, and CANNOT be there. I am supposed to meet my family for dinner at 6 and I know that I will not make it. I enter the stockroom — whose denizens are all getting ready to leave — and I go to the computer shelves. Anger and frustration drives me to do what I have never done before, climb the shelves, physically climb the shelves, until I'm twenty feet off the ground and dangling over a concrete floor as I rearrange boxes on the top shelf to find what cannot be found.
And whoa! I miraculously ***find an XL-CRAP***.
It is in a crushed box held together with tape, it is covered with dust and has clearly been there for years. A giant hole in the box reveals the printer, with shattered fuselage, a dead roach in the platen, NO included documentation, no power cord, no packing materials, no nothing. It is not a printer anymore. It is industrial shrapnel.
Its presence only makes sense if you posit that some past customer, as loud and as unreasonable as Mr. Shnodblatt, has at some point in the dim past arrived at Crazy Eddie bearing an item that could not have been purchased there, and demanded a refund at such ear-screeching volume that the service department accepted the clearly damaged and badly treated item and presented the refund just to make him go away. (That happened too: irate people demanding refunds for items we could prove they couldn't have bought from us, and once or twice the people were so impossible the company gave them refunds just to get rid of them. Retail is THAT much a war zone.)
My mind worked furiously. I went to the manager and told him what I had found and what the only possible explanation for my discovery could be. I told him what I intended to do about it. My manager stuns me by giving his okay.
I return to Mr. Shnodblatt and tell him I have found an XL-CRAP. But —
"A-HA!" He yells "I KNEW IT! YOU PEOPLE —"
"Sir!" I say, speaking over him. "I have had more than enough of your garbage today. If you utter one more insult directed at me and your co-workers you will leave without the item. You will listen to me."
Crafty, like a pickpocket agreeing to watch your money while you use the restroom, he pipes down.
I explain that we have an XL-CRAP. I explain that it is clearly a return and that it is a damaged box. I explain that if we sell it to him at the demanded price, it will be AS IS, WITHOUT WARRANTY, NO RETURN, NO REFUND, SALE FINAL, and that he will be required to sign an agreement to that effect before he pays.
He agrees.
I write up an order with **all of that*** clearly and gleefully written on the invoice and send him to the register to pay. He has to make his payment and then return to the stockroom to pick up his XL-Crap. He takes the invoice, utters some angry imprecations about how you have to talk yourself blue in the face to get any service around here, and heads off to the register, where he will be the last customer before the store closes.
I go to my co-worker Ray, who is completing some necessary paperwork. "Ray. We have to leave now."
"In a minute."
"No. We have to leave NOW. We have to be in our cars and on our way home before Mr. Shnodblatt sees what he's just bought, or we'll never get out of here tonight."
Ray has spent too many hours having his soul sand-blasted by Mr. Shnodblatt. He gets it immediately, and puts his paperwork in a drawer. "I got you. Let's leave."
We grab our coats and move quickly toward the exit, knowing that it's going to be close, because Mr. Shnodblatt is already at the stockroom window, waiting to be handed his XL-CRAP. We punch our time-cards. We turn back at the door and see Mr. Shnodblatt handed his printer in its box. Even from a distance, we can see that he is aghast and dumbfounded.
Just as we exit, we see that it is in his hands for all of one second before the bottom of the box breaks and it plummets to the floor, where it shatters and scatters pieces in every direction.
You know that sound Curly Howard of the Three Stooges made whenever he ran for safety? Whoop-whoop-whoop?
We made it racing for our respective cars.


text: Physics and astronomy are basic natural sciences that attempt to describe and provide an understanding of our world. They serve as the underpinning of many different disciplines, including the other natural sciences and technological areas. Students may choose physics for their major subject as preparation for diverse areas such as engineering, medicine, law, business administration, etc., or simply as a challenging approach to personal development with an emphasis on rigorous scientific thinking. Other students choose physics as preparation towards a career as a professional physicist or a science educator. Whatever your goals, the Department of Physics and Astronomy offers coursework that will help you develop your understanding of the natural world.


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"By 2014 we are planning to close down our data center, which will significantly reduce our ongoing IT investment, and little by little move our existing customers into the Cloud."
Karlheinz Hirn CEO, Kornherr Associates GmbH
To offer Recruiting Chain Management® as Software as a Service (SaaS) in the Cloud is the obvious step for Kornherr Associates towards offering their powerful software and services suite, which has been browser-based for years, to an extended customer base. Particularly the high level of security at Fujitsu's data centers made a compelling case for the company, to select Fujitsu and its Fujitsu Cloud Store as a strong international partner. Security is an issue of tremendous importance especially with all personnel data. Their long-term goal is to close down their own data center and run and distribute their software exclusively via the Cloud.
Casestudy Kornherr (88 KB)
Dela med andra


text:
Now, at last, is the Jayhawks' chance to extract some measure of revenge against Huckleberry Roy Williams, he who doesn't comprehend the enmity, by denying him another title that he couldn't win them. In this likely shootout, a lot hinges on whether the three-man rotation of Sasha Kaun (Sasha Kaun!), Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur can help slow stupid-face Psycho T.
Since Ty Lawson's return, the Tar Heels have looked pretty unstoppable. And that might not change if Brandon Rush decides he doesn't need to play all that well at any point in the tournament. But, hey, it's a Final Four game in the Chalk Bracket with more than a modicum of emotion. That'll have to do.


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Did The Recording Industry Really Miss The Opportunity To 'Monetize' Online Music?
from the basic-economics-time... deptThere's been a lot of talk in the last year or so about the fact that the recording industry supposedly "missed an opportunity" to "monetize" online music a decade ago when it failed to come to an agreement on licensing with Napster. The idea was that Napster could have been iTunes, and people would be paying for music. That claim is made, yet again, in a CNN article about the decade since Napster, with a Forrester analyst claiming:
"That four-year lag [between Napster and iTunes] is where the music industry lost the battle," said Sonal Gandhi, music analyst with Forrester Research. "They lost an opportunity to take consumers' new behavior and really monetize it in a way that nipped the free music expectation in the bud."That implies that if the industry had simply licensed its music online in 1999, rather than 2003, the dollars spent on recorded music would have remained propped up. I don't buy it. This ignores the fundamental economics of what's happening in the industry -- but, thankfully, some folks are noticing this. Matt Yglesias points out how wrong the claim by Forrester is, by noting that the market for recorded music was due for a correction just based on fundamental economics:
Music industry executives can tell themselves that as long as they want. But under conditions of perfect competition, the price of a song ought to be equal to the marginal cost of distributing a new copy of a song. Which is to say that the marginal cost ought to be $0. That's not a question of habit, you can look it up in all the leading textbooks. Of course real businesses rarely operate in circumstances of perfect competition, and record companies have a variety of political and legal tools they can deploy to try to protect monopoly rents. But this is hard to do. I think the real story with the iTunes store is that over time competitive pressure has impelled it to largely drop DRM and over time I expect we'll see that the CPI-adjusted price of songs declines.Tim Lee, who pointed us to this piece in the first place, tacks on the point that "the economic argument for free music is unrelated to 'piracy.'" This is, indeed, a key point and one we've tried to make in the past, but one that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. The basic economics of music suggest that it was going to face downward pricing pressure all along. That has little to do with unauthorized access to music or whether or not the major record labels sucked it up and did licensing deals with Napster. It was just where the market was going to head one way or the other -- because, over time, more and more people would begin to realize that free music was an excellent promotional tool for other things, and that would drive more business to those other areas. That, in turn, would lead more and more musicians and their business partners to recognize the benefit as well. In fact, we're seeing that happen today. The fact that unauthorized access to files online may have helped push that realization forward doesn't change the fact that those pressures were going to come one way or the other.
The recording industry may have missed a chance to slow down the decline in recorded music sales, but it hardly could have kept the numbers as artificially inflated as they used to be.
Separately, the CNN article is incredibly weak in that it makes the mistake of implying that the recording industry is the entire music industry. It completely ignores the fact that the overall music industry has actually been growing as sales of recorded music have dropped. People have just shifted their spending habits, and that likely would have happened whether or not any licensing deal had been worked out in 1999.
Filed Under: business models, economics, monetization, music, napster


text:
Accommodation in Cavan, North West Ireland
Eonish Lodge
Bed & Breakfast : 4 bedroom, breakfast included
Eonish Lodge is a luxury farmhouse run by Geraldine and Sean O' Reilly and is situated in the hearth of the lake district of Ireland. Set in the midst of unspoiled countryside of outstanding beauty ...
Ireland » Cavan » Killeshandra
Clooneen House
Bed & Breakfast : 4 bedroom, breakfast included
Clooneen House is set in a beautiful rural area at the centre of the Erne System a major water system for fishing and Killykeen Forest Park a landscape of woods and water with views, walks and nature ...
Ireland » Cavan » Killeshandra
County Cavan
County Cavan offers a great selection of accommodation, ranging from contemporary hotels and lakeside chalets to homely B&Bs where a traditional Irish welcome is accompanied by a slice of sheer luxury and the very latest visitor amenities.
Internationally acclaimed hotels such as the luxurious Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell the ultra-chic Radisson Blu Farnham Estate Hotel, the contemporary Cavan Crystal Hotel in Cavan town and the distinguished Cabra Castle in Kingscourt are just some of the names proving that accommodation in Cavan can compete with Ireland's finest.
Cavan's three-star hotels are of an unusually high standard, with many offering four-star luxury at three-star prices and representing excellent value. The county also has many B&Bs and self catering properties, many located in scenic and picturesque parts of the county.
Cavan links
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Relaxed on the road to success with MAN
Sports celebrities drive MAN. As an official partner, MAN offers numerous first-class football clubs exceptional comfort and relaxation for travel to away matches and back.
Not only professional footballers in the 1st Division of the Bundesliga such as FC Bayern, but also clubs from other international leagues place their trust in MAN – and MAN coaches also offer tailored product solutions to athletes from other sports.
MAN in professional football
1st Division Bundesliga football clubs are happy to place their trust in MAN. Players and coaches know: with its customised high-tech equipment, MAN offers teams buses with ultimate comfort and safety - so that the pros can enjoy a relaxing journey to their destination.
Partner in basketball
The basketball players of FC Bayern Munich also travel in MAN coaches to their away games. The Lion's Coach brings the fully grown athletes safely and relaxed to their destination: an extended distance of 1.2 metres between rows of seats provides for optimum legroom; WiFi and personal USB ports and power connections guarantee internet availability at all times. The built-in video console and a spacious on-board kitchen ensure nobody gets bored or goes hungry.


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Komitas the Heretic?
There have been calls for Komitas to be canonized and sanctified.
I agree, as he can be as saintly as any.
Does anyone else sense that, given time, Komitas may have disavowed his vows of celibatic clerical life?
We can simplistically, easily, facilement ascribe his loss of sense to the horrible scenes of the murder of his soul mates. But, could there have been a deeper "spiritual"(clerical v secular artistic) reason for it?
Hints and clues will follow, mainly from Sevaks Anlreli Zangakatun.
See highlighted passages below. In addition to one biography where it is suggested that he had a falling out with the powers to be in Ejmiatsin, yet even in Bolis he was severely reprimanded by the Patriarch for airing sacred church music from secular stages and theaters. He was intimately associated with the day's intelligentsia in Bolis, his most intimate friends were the denizens of the "Ojakh", the likes of Halideh Edib (the so caled humanist, we have seen her in several posts here ) and the poet Mehmet Emin.
Details will follow, including his own autobiography, which is very dry and simply chronological in nature.
In the meantime, read .
Did you know this? I didn't. See asterisks below.
Յունարեն. Komitas անունից, որ նշանակում է գիսավոր, երկար մազեր ունեցող**: Հնում այս անունը կրել են մեծ մասամբ հոգևորականները: Վերջերս բավական տարածվել է ժողովրդի մեջ ՝ ի պատիվ հայ մեծ երաժիշտ Կոմիտասի:
From Greek name "having long hair". In old days it mainly was the name of clergymen. This name became popular in honor of Armenian great composer-musician Komitas.
**Consider the English "comet", gisavor astgh-գիսավոր աստղ in Armenian
About Komitas-Կոմիտաս
BIOGRAPHY OF KOMITAS Komitas, a.k.a. Soghomon Soghomonyan, was born on September 26, 1869 in Anatolia, Turkey, in the town of Koutina (Ketaia). His father, Gevorg Soghomonyan was a shoemaker but he also composed songs and had a beautiful voice. The composers mother Tagui - was also singled out for her vivid musical abilities; she was a carpet weaver. Komitass childhood was joyless and full of deprivations. He lost his mother when he was less than one year old, and because his father was too busy his grandmother took care of him. At age 7 Komitas entered the local elementary school. As soon as he finished school his father sent him to Broosa to continue his education. However, he failed and 4 months later he came home having ultimately become an orphan: his father passed away and Soghomon was only 11 years old He was a frail, weak, pale boy, always thoughtful and kind. He was dressed poorly, one of his classmates recalled about Komitas. Soghomon was often seen sleeping on the cold stones of the laundry room. He could sing perfectly, and no wonder in Koutina he was nicknamed a little vagrant singer. For his delightful voice Soghomonyan was also indebted to an event that fundamentally changed the entire course of his life. In 1881 the priest of Koutina, G. Dertsakyan, had to leave for Echmiadzin to be ordained a bishop. At the request of the Catholicos he brought the gifted orphan boy with him to study at the Echmiadzin Church Seminary. Twelve-year old Soghomon was selected out of the other 20 orphans to study at the Seminary. As it was forbidden to speak Armenian at that time the boy spoke Turkish and when being greeted by the Catholicos Gevorg IV, he replied, I dont speak Armenian, if you wish I will sing. Then with his fine soprano voice he sang an Armenian sharakan (a church hymn) without understanding the words. Due to his exclusive aptitude Soghomon overcame all the obstacles in a very short time and perfectly learned Armenian. In 1890 Soghomon was ordained a monk. In 1893 he finished studying at the seminary, then he was ordained a Vardapet (priest) and acquired his new name Komitas - the name of the outstanding poet of VII century, the author of sharakans. At the seminary Komitas was assigned to teach music. Along with teaching, Komitas organized a choir, an orchestra of folk instruments, and treated folk songs; he made the first researches in the field of Armenian Church music. In 1895 Komitas was ordained an archimandrite. In the autumn of the same year he left for Tiflis to study at the musical college. However, when he met the composer Makar Yekmalyan, who had received his education at the conservatory of Petersburg, he changed his mind and started studying a course on harmony by that composer. These studies became the original forerunner and the firm basis for gaining the European technique of composition. The further events of Komitass life had to do with the large music center in Europe Berlin, where he went to study under the protection of the Catholicos, being financed by the largest Armenian oil magnate Alexander Mantashyan. Komitas entered the private conservatory of Professor Richard Schmidt. Within the conservatory Komitas took private classes on singing, elaborating his beautiful voice, fine baritone. Simultaneously with these classes, he also attended the lectures on Philosophy, Esthetics, General History and History of Music. During these academic years he had an opportunity to communicate with European music, continually enriching the supply of knowledge, and engaging in musical criticism. Upon the invitation of the International Music Association he held lectures devoted to the Armenian church and contemporary music in comparison with Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish music. In September 1899 Komitas returned to Echmiadzin and started his musical activity right away. In a short period he radically changed the system of teaching music in the seminary, organized a small orchestra and perfected the performance level of the choir. He visited various regions of Armenia treating and putting down thousands of Armenian, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish songs. He started serious scientific research work, studied Armenian folk and church melodies and worked on the decipherment of Armenian khazzes and on the theory of voices. In various countries of the world Komitas appeared as a performer and propagandist of Armenian music. composer began thinking over big, monumental musical forms. He had in mind to create the musical epic Sasna tsrer and continued working on the opera Anush, which he started back in 1904. Komitas focused on the themes concerning folk music and revealed the content of folk songs. No doubt, such world outlook had to result in an inescapable conflict between Komitas and the Church. Gradually the indifference of new leaders, negative attitude of the backward group of the church figures, gossip and slander increased so much that it poisoned the life of the composer: the man who remained in the imagination of the contemporaries as an absolutely worldly man. The conflict turned so tense that Komitas sent a letter to the Catholicos begging him to release him and let him create and live quietly. This request remained unanswered, and the persecution of Komitas became more obvious. In 1910 Komitas left Etchmiadzin and went to Constantinopole. There he expected to find the environment that would understand him, protect him, and encourage his activity; and here he would be able to fulfill his dreams. Komitas wanted to establish a National Conservatory with which he connected the further destiny of his peoples music. But the composer failed to accomplish this plan (as well as many others). His inspired ideas were only faced with the cold indifference of the local authorities. In Constantinopole Komitas organized a mixed choir of 300 men and called it Gousan. It was very popular. Armenian folk songs constituted most of its concerto program. Komitas would often spend his time touring, giving presentations and lectures; he also acted as a soloist and conductor. He had the baritone, original for its richness and expressiveness. Due to the wide range of his voice Komitas could also sing part of the tenor. He also wonderfully mastered the flute and the piano. He was endowed with great power to influence his audience. The well-known musicians: Vincent DAndy, Gabriel Fore, Camille Sen-Sans fell in love with Komitas creative work. In 1906 after one of the concertos the outstanding French composer Claude Debussi exclaimed excitedly: Brilliant father Komitas! I bow before your musical genius! In Constantinople Komitas could not find any unconditional like-minded people who would help him implement his plans. Moreover, while in Echmiadzin he was together with his native people and close to its living style and art, in Constantinople he was deprived of it. Nevertheless, he continued to work hard. Komitas paid special attention to the composition of church music. His masterpiece Patarag (Liturgy) is written for the male chorus. Musicology was also an important field for him. In Paris at the Conference of the International Music Society he gave two presentations: Armenian Folk Music and On Old and New Notation of Armenian Spiritual Music. These provoked great interest among the participants of the conference. Komitas was also requested to give a spontaneous presentation on the topic: On Time, Place, Accentuation and Rhythm of Armenian Music. In the period of World War I the government of Young Turks initiated their monstrous program on violent and inhumane extermination of part of the Armenian people. In April 1915, Komitas was arrested together with the number of outstanding Armenian writers, publicists, physicians, and lawyers. After the arrest, accompanied by violence, he was deported far in Anatolia where he became a witness of the brutal extermination of the nations bright minds. And in spite of the fact that due to the intervention of influential figures Komitas was returned to Constantinople, the nightmare he had experienced left a deep ineradicable impression on his soul. Komitas remained in seclusion from the outer world, absorbed in his gloomy and heavy thoughts sad and broken. In 1916 Komitas health deteriorated and he was put in a psychiatric hospital. However, there was no hope that he would recover. The medicine was powerless against the destructive disease. The genius of Armenian music found his final shelter in Paris, in the suburban sanatorium Vil-Jouif where he spent almost 20 years of his life. On the 22nd of October the life of the Great Komitas came to an end. In the spring of 1936 his remains were transported to Armenia and buried in Yerevan in the Pantheon of prominent art figures. No less tragic was the destiny of Komitas creative legacy. The majority of his manuscripts were destroyed or lost all over the world The Armenian people found and recognized its soul, its spiritual nature in Komitas songs. Komitas Vardapet is a beginning having no end. He will live through the Armenian people, and they must live through him, now and forever. (Vazgen I, the Catholicos of all Armenians)
Edited by Arpa, 01 June 2008 - 09:28 PM.


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Space Situational Awareness (SSA)
Protection against space hazards, in orbit and on the ground, is of increasing relevance and importance for ESA – with 16 operational satellites and 12 missions in preparation. For this reason the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Preparatory Programme was launched at the Ministerial Council 2008 to prepare and raise awareness at European level on this issue.
The objective of the SSA programme is to support Europe's independent utilisation of, and access to, space through the provision of timely and accurate information, data and services regarding the space environment, and particularly regarding hazards to infrastructure in orbit and on the ground.
In general, these hazards stem from possible collisions between objects in orbit, harmful space weather and potential strikes by natural objects that cross Earth's orbit.
The SSA programme will, ultimately, enable Europe to autonomously detect, predict and assess the risk to life and property due to remnant man-made space objects, re-entries, in-orbit explosions and release events, in-orbit collisions, disruption of missions and satellite-based service capabilities, potential impacts of Near Earth Objects, and the effects of space weather phenomena on space- and ground-based infrastructure.
Proposal to the Ministerial Council
The programme's next phase, Period 2 covering 2013-16, will be proposed to continue supporting the long-term objective of building a European SSA capability in close cooperation with Member States and relevant European partners.
The objectives of this phase are to further develop, test and validate essential SSA capabilities and prepare pre-operational services in surveillance and tracking (SST), Near Earth Objects (NEO) and space weather (SWE) activities.
Activities performed as part of this programme will help to establish the capabilities on which an overall European SSA network will build upon. The operation, data exploitation and dissemination, and delivery of services will be allocated to operational entities still to be defined for each of the SSA segments, and are not part of this programme proposal.
Period 2 will be structured as follows:
- Component 1 covers all SST-related activities (SST Core and SST radar);
- Component 2 is dedicated to all SWE and NEO activities;
- A dedicated slice will be allocated for the development of a mission in cooperation with China, KuaFu. Within ESA, this mission will be a joint Space Science and SSA initiative.


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I am the type of person by nature that avoids confrontation. Don't get me wrong it is not due to fear, it is due to remorse. There is a line in the movie You've got mail that always sticks in my head. Tom Hanks says about telling someone what you think about them. The line goes… "I must warn you… when you eventually have the pleasure of saying the thing you want to say at the moment you're wanting to say it… remorse eventually follows."
I have been in the situation hundreds of times where I felt like saying something to someone, and yet I bite my tongue. Who am I to judge? I am the last person to think myself better than someone else. Yet why do other people find it so easy to pass judgment? In this case fellow parents.
I have 3 groups of parents I interact with. Work parents, Neighborhood parents and Online parents. All of us have different ways of raising our children. Do I agree with everything other parents do? Nope. Have I learned some good parenting ideas? Yes. Have I told other parents that I liked certain aspects about how they raise their children? Yes. Have I told other parents that I dislike certain aspects about how they raise their children. NO!
So when someone makes the comment that they think my wife and I spend too much money on our child it drives me crazy. What is "too much"? Is our house filled with toys? YES! Did we buy him all those toys? Alas, no. Here is a math problem. (The algebra mentioned in the title)
A = Allowance – $10 a week. He does VERY well in school, has chores at home he almost always remembers to do, always asks my wife and I if we need help with something, and takes really good care of our pets. For a seven year old I am amazed.
B = Only grandchild on wifes side.
C = Only grandchild on my side.
D = Only nephew on wifes side
E = Only nephew on my side
F = Ebay. I Ebay. I Ebay A LOT! My son knows what Ebay is and how it works. When he tires of a toy he has me sell it. He then takes the proceeds and buys something else.
G = Thrift stores. My Ebay travels take me to thrifts store. So if see a shoe box filled with Pokemon cards for $1 I buy it. For $1 the look on his face is incredible!
H= Cash Hoard. At any given point this kid seems to have more cash at hand then myself. This is a combination of math components A,B,C, and F.
I = Parents. Yup, me and my wife. If I actually figured out how much non-allowancegrandparentauntuncleebaythrift money we spent on my son I just might be called a cheapskate. Shhhhhhhhh.
So does my son "get" more than other kids. Some yes, some no. Do other kids have things, or get to do things he does not? Yes. Could I spend a few paragraphs talking about things I see or hear other parents do that I do not "approve" of? Yes.
Will I? No.
Because when you eventually have the pleasure of saying the thing you want to say at the moment you're wanting to say it… remorse eventually follows.
(although) Brian, I think a Playboy subscription for a preschooler is NOT good parenting.
Filed under: children, Ebay, Family, friendships, parenting, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: allowance, children, co-workers, Ebay, Family, kids, neighbors, parenting, parents, politics | 1 Comment »