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By Special Correspondent Jehanzeb and originally published on Broken Mystic.
When Frank Miller's "300″ film was released, I was absolutely outraged by the racist content of the film and more so at the insensitivity of movie-goers who simply argued "it's just a movie." Later on, I would hear these same individuals say, "The movie makes you want to slice up some Persians." I wrote an article about the film almost immediately after it was released, and now that I'm still noticing people quoting the movie or listing it as their "favorite movies," I've decided to update my original post and discuss some points that will hopefully shed some new light.
"300" not only represents the ever-growing trend of accepted racism towards Middle-Easterners in mainstream media and society, but also the reinforcement of Samuel P. Huntington's overly clichéd, yet persisting, theory of "The Clash of Civilizations," which proposes that cultural and religious differences are the primary sources for war and conflict rather than political, ideological, and/or economic differences. The fact that "300" grossed nearly $500 million worldwide in the box office may not be enough to suggest that movie-goers share the film's racist and jingoistic views, but it is enough to indicate how successful such a film can be without many people noticing its relentless racist content. As Osagie K. Obasogie wrote in a brilliant critique of the film, "300" is "arguably the most racially charged film since D. W. Griffith's 'The Birth of a Nation'" – the latter being a 1915 silent film that celebrated the Ku Klux Klan's rise to defend the South against liberated African-Americans. Oddly enough, both films were immensely successful despite protests and charges of racism.
Media imagery is very important to study. Without analyzing and critiquing images in pop culture, especially controversial and reoccurring images, we are ignoring the most powerful medium in which people receive their information from. A novel, for example, may appeal to a large demographic, but a film appeals to a much wider audience not only because of recent video-sharing websites and other internet advancements, but also because the information is so much easier to process and absorb.
According to the Cultivation Theory, a social theory developed by George Gerbner and Larry Gross, television is the most powerful storyteller in culture – it repeats the myths, ideologies, and facts and patterns of standardized roles and behaviors that define social order. Music videos, for example, cultivate a pattern of images that establish socialized norms about gender. In a typical western music video, you may see female singers like Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Beyonce wearing the scantiest of clothing and dancing in erotic and provocative ways that merely cater to their heterosexual male audiences. These images of women appear so frequently and repetitively that they develop an expectation for women in the music industry, i.e. in order to be successful, a woman needs to have a certain body type, fit society's ideal for beauty, and dance half-nakedly. Stereotypical images of men in music videos, on the other hand, include violent-related imagery, "pimping" with multiple women, and showing off luxury. Such images make violence and promiscuous sexual behavior "cool" and more acceptable for males. As we can see from two studies by Greeson & Williams (1986) and Kalof (1999), exposure to stereotypical images of gender and sexual content in music videos increase older adolescents' acceptance of non-marital sexual behavior and interpersonal violence.
Cognitive Social Learning Theory is another social theory which posits, in respect to media, that television presents us with attractive and relatable models for us to shape our experiences from. In other words, a person may learn particular behaviors and knowledge through observing the images displayed on television. A person may also emulate the behavior of a particular character in a film or television show, especially if a close-identification is established between the viewer and the character. Both theories – Cultivation Theory and Cognitive Social Learning Theory – apply in my following analysis of "300."
In order to deconstruct "300," I will start by (1) discussing its distortion of history, then (2) contrast the film's representation of Persians and Spartans, (3) correlate Frank Miller's Islamophobic remarks on NPR with the messages conveyed in "300," and (4) conclude with the importance of confronting stereotypical images in mainstream media and acknowledging the contributions of all societies and civilizations.
Distortion of History
Initially a graphic novel written and drawn by Frank Miller, who is best known in the comic book industry for reinventing Batman in his critically acclaimed "The Dark Knight Returns," the inspiration for "300" stems from true historic events, although Mr. Miller states that it was never intended to be a historically accurate account of the Battle for Thermopylae. In any case, the information we have about the Battle for Thermopylae comes from the classical Greek author, Herodotus, who lived in the Persian city of Halicarnassus. His book, "The Histories," became part of Western folklore in 1850, when America embraced it as the leading authority on Persian history. Interesting enough, and many people may not know this, is that prior to 1850, the West had a very favorable impression of the Persian Empire, particularly because its main source for Persian history was rooted in the Bible and the "Cyropaedia," which was written by another Greek author named Xenophon. The "Cyropaedia" glorifies the rule of Cyrus the Great, a benevolent Persian king who will be discussed later. In respect to the Battle of Thermopylae, the events may have occurred, but it was far different than the famous myth explains: 300 Spartans held Thermopylae for three days against over a million Persian soldiers.
This version of history is portrayed in the Hollywood adaptation of "300" in heavily stylized fashion that remains faithful to the comic book. The film's director, Zack Snyder, said during an MTV interview, "[t]he events are 90 percent accurate. It's just in the visualization that it's crazy." And yet, the film hardly mentions that the 300 Spartans were allied with over 4,000 Greeks on the first two days of the battle, and over 1,500 on the final day (other sources mention that there were 7,000 to 10,000 Greek allies). The battle was fought in a narrow mountain pass of Thermopylae where not even two chariots could pass through side by side; the choice of using this terrain benefited the Spartans and their Greek allies immensely against the Persians. Many historians agree that the massive Persian army would have obliterated the Spartan/Greek forces without much difficulty if the battle were fought on an open battlefield. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the Spartans were heavily armored and wore armor that weighed 30-40 kg, while the Persians were lightly armored.
Ephraim Lytle, assistant professor of Hellenistic History at the University of Toronto, states that "300" selectively idealizes Spartan society in a "problematic and disturbing" fashion, which would have seemed "as bizarre to ancient Greeks as it does to modern historians." Touraj Daryaee, Baskerville Professor of Iranian History at the University of California, Irvine, criticizes the film's use of classic sources:
Some passages from the Classical authors Aeschylus, Diodorus, Herodotus and Plutarch are spilt over the movie to give it an authentic flavor. Aeschylus becomes a major source when the battle with the "monstrous human herd" of the Persians is narrated in the film. Diodorus' statement about Greek valor to preserve their liberty is inserted in the film, but his mention of Persian valor is omitted. Herodotus' fanciful numbers are used to populate the Persian army, and Plutarch's discussion of Greek women, specifically Spartan women, is inserted wrongly in the dialogue between the "misogynist" Persian ambassador and the Spartan king. Classical sources are certainly used, but exactly in all the wrong places, or quite naively.
As I wrote in my post on "The Truth About Thanksgiving: Brainwashing of the American History Textbook," omitting and ignoring an entire race of people in historical accounts is a form of racism because it negates the achievements and stories of the "Other." In the film, Persians constantly threaten Spartans with slavery, and yet, any honest historian knows that the Persian Empire, particularly the Achaemenid Empire, was built on a model of tolerance and respect for other cultures and religions. According to the documentary, "Persepolis Recreated," the Persian Empire is the first known civilization in the history of humankind to practice international religious freedom. Images carved on the walls of Persepolis testify how Persians interacted and conversed with nobleman of other nations respectfully and without enmity. Denying another civilization its own accomplishments and contributions to the world is like blotting them out from history altogether and rewriting one's own prejudice version. As we will learn later, any mentioning of Persian valor, compassion, and sophistication, would have resulted in a potential backfiring to the film's agenda.
At one point in the film, the Spartan protagonist, King Leonidas, describes the Athenians as "boy lovers," which, according to Paul Cartledge, professor of Greek History at Cambridge University, is ironic, since "the Spartans themselves incorporated institutional pederasty [erotic relationships between adolescents and adult men] into their educational system."
The fact that Frank Miller and Zack Snyder stripped the Spartans of homosexual relations and, instead, made them accuse the Athenians of being "boy lovers" in order to reinforce their masculinity, shows us a distortion of history that favors a heavily masculinized and homophobic take on the Spartans. In modern society, homosexual males are frowned upon the most because society discourages men to behave in ways that are contrary to their expected gender traits, i.e. a man must be strong, emotionless, and courageous – and of course, these play into stereotypes about homosexuals since it suggests they cannot possess any of those traits. Therefore, if a man is a "boy lover," he can never be as great of a fighter as a heterosexual Spartan. It's obvious that mentioning the facts about Sparta's institutional pederasty would not have made a connection with the film's directed heterosexual male audience. This is evident from Oliver Stone's "Alexander" film, where many expressed their outrage of Alexander engaging in homosexual relations, therefore never developing a close-identification with the character.
Distorting the history in "300" merely fulfills one component in glorifying the Spartans and vilifying the Persians. In the next section, we will see how the film's visual representation of Spartans and Persians accompany its biased history for the sake of reinforcing the divide between West and East.
Spartans and Persians: Glorification, Demonization, and Tokenism
Perhaps the most noticeable offense in the film is how the Persians are horrifically depicted as monsters. It is not hard to notice the punctuated differences in skin color: the white-skinned Spartans versus the dark-skinned Persians. The Persian King, Xerxes, is shown as an abnormally tall, dark-skinned, and half-naked madman with facial piercings, kohl-enhanced eyes and, as Dana Stevens from "Slate" writes, "[has] a disturbing predilection for making people kneel before him." The rest of the Persians are faceless savages and demonically deformed. This demonization of the Persian race extends to malformed characters, including Persian women, who are depicted as Lesbians and concubines. Even the elephants and rhinoceroses look like hell spawns. Stevens also adds:
Here are just a few of the categories that are not-so-vaguely conflated with the "bad" (i.e., Persian) side in the movie: black people. Brown people. Disfigured people. Gay men… Lesbians. Disfigured lesbians. Ten-foot-tall giants with filed teeth and lobster claws…
Also noticeable is how the Spartans wear no body armor; instead they are bare-chested and wear only a helmet, cape, and underwear. This is common in comic books where physical attributes of male characters such as muscles are magnified and exaggerated to symbolize strength, power, and heroism. In sheer contrast, the Persians are dressed in typical Middle-Eastern attire in pure Orientalist fashion, which only degrade them into invisible and insignificant characters without stories. We have seen these contrasting images of West and East cultivated before, and we still see them today. Whenever a crisis in the Middle-East is covered by the mainstream Western media, we tend to see the images of garbed Middle-Eastern men burning flags and shouting like barbarians, but rarely ever see scholarly and intellectual Middle-Easterners who are treated with respect and credibility. As Jack G. Shaheen discusses in his book, "Reel Bad Arabs," Hollywood is guilty of vilifying Arabs and Muslims; repeating images of light-skinned and attractive Western (mostly American) counter-terrorist heroes blowing away dark-skinned, unattractive, and "rag-headed" Middle-Easterners. These images have been repeated so much in the mainstream media that they become the socialized norm: Arab/Muslim = Evil, oppressive, terrorist, and uncivilized, etc. Although the ancient Persians in "300" are neither Arab nor Muslim, they are confined into the same group through modern-day Orientalism.
Throughout the film, for instance, the constant emphasis on "The Clash of Civilizations" is not just limited to the manner of visual representations, but rather extends to what the Spartans and Persians stand for. Early in the film, we see the Spartan King, Leonidas, resist against the Persian call for "submission" by bellowing about freedom and liberty. Just like the visual depictions of Persians in "300" are no different than Hollywood's stereotypical and insulting representation of Arabs and Muslims, neither are the themes. As adolescents and fans alike eccentrically shout the film's most memorable quote, "This is Sparta!" – a line that Leonidas says right before kicking an African man down a well – they knowingly or unknowingly establish a close-identification with the Spartan characters and, subsequently, the heroism they are meant to epitomize. As a result, Persians get perceived, in modern terms, as "terrorists" – monstrous beings that are mysteriously driven by an innate desire to conquer, slaughter, and oppress.
These differences between Spartans and Persians ring eerily similar to modern-day tensions between the West and the Middle-East. As Obasagie writes, "this racialized depiction of freedom, nation, and democracy becomes central to "300's" take home message," but what remains even more unnoticed is the film's "unapologetic glorification of eugenics." In the very beginning of the film, for example, we see the newborn Spartans being inspected for "health, strength, and vigor," while the weak and disabled are hurled off a cliff onto a large pile of dead babies. Obasogie further elaborates:
The film suggests that this rather crude form of eugenics is put in place for military reasons: every Spartan child should either be able to become a soldier or give birth to one… Initially shocked, audiences are quickly reassured that this is all for the greater good: nation, freedom, and the Spartan family. How else can Sparta defend itself – and inspire modern democracies – unless it reserves scarce resources for the strongest?
Strongest men, that is, which brings me to my next point: the exploitation of female characters. A blog posting written at "FirstShowing.net" explains "Why Women Should Go See '300.'" The list, which is not even written by a woman, reads: 1. Gerard Butler, 2. Gerard Butler Naked, 3. Empowered Women, 4. Strong Relationships, and 5. 300 Nearly Naked Men with 8-Pack Abs. The author apparently thinks that male eye-candy, romantic relationships, and a dash of "feminism" constitute a "good film" for all women.
At first glance, the Spartan Queen Gorgo may look like an empowered woman, but she is a token character, at best. In a predominately White male film, she serves as the only central female character and assumes a pseudo-feminist role of flaunting her femininity for the sake of reinforcing the film's racism and singular image of masculinity. For instance, early in the film, the Persian messenger angrily responds to her, "What makes this woman think she can speak among men?" She responds proudly, "Because only Spartan women give birth to real men." Yes, real men, i.e. the one-sided view of masculinity: aggressive, violent, dominating, muscular, etc. It seems that any man who doesn't meet these characteristics is not a "real man." It also seems that Spartan women are treated as merely "manufacturers" of these "real men."
The mentioning of women occurs enough times in the film to establish that Spartans treat their women "better" than the Persians. The only Persian women we see are sex slaves and disfigured lesbians. In actuality, there were Persian Empresses such as Azarmidokht, who ruled Persia under the Sassanid Empire. Ancient Persian women not only engaged in political matters, but also served as military commanders and warriors. One of the great commanders of The Immortals was a Persian woman named Pantea (pictured left), and during the Achaemenid dynasty, the grand admiral and commander-in-chief for the Persian navy was a woman named Artemisia. Persian women also owned property and ran businesses. Unfortunately, we do not see any such representation in "300."
A counter-argument may state that Queen Gorgo actually plays a pivotal role in the film since she convinces the council to send more soldiers to aid the Spartans. But her success could never have been accomplished if she did not do what stereotypical female characters usually do: use her body to get what she wants. Queen Gorgo realizes she has very little choice when the corrupt Spartan politician, Theron, says he wants sex in exchange for helping her. After she drops her top, Theron forces her against the wall and rapes her. Later on, Theron stands before the council and accuses Queen Gorgo of being an adultress and a "whore Queen." Although Queen Gorgo stabs him in this scene, it's nowhere near as disturbing as the rape scene.
As we have seen in this section, the glorified violence, racism, and erotic imagery of the Spartans, as well as the use of women, accentuates their superiority over the Persians, but perhaps nothing can drive the point home more than Frank Miller in his own words.
Frank Miller and Islamophobia
It should be in the interest of those who may disagree with my analysis of "300" to listen to Frank Miller's interview on National Public Radio (NPR) on January 24th, 2007 (or read the transcript). The interview followed former President Bush's State of the Union address and is pasted below (emphases added):
NPR: […] Frank, what's the state of the union?
Frank Miller: Well, I don't really find myself worrying about the state of the union as I do the state of the home-front. It seems to me quite obvious that our country and the entire Western World is up against an existential foe that knows exactly what it wants … and we're behaving like a collapsing empire. Mighty cultures are almost never conquered, they crumble from within. And frankly, I think that a lot of Americans are acting like spoiled brats because of everything that isn't working out perfectly every time.
NPR: Um, and when you say we don't know what we want, what's the cause of that do you think?
FM: Well, I think part of that is how we're educated. We're constantly told all cultures are equal, and every belief system is as good as the next. And generally that America was to be known for its flaws rather than its virtues. When you think about what Americans accomplished, building these amazing cities, and all the good its done in the world, it's kind of disheartening to hear so much hatred of America, not just from abroad, but internally.
NPR: A lot of people would say what America has done abroad has led to the doubts and even the hatred of its own citizens.
FM: Well, okay, then let's finally talk about the enemy. For some reason, nobody seems to be talking about who we're up against, and the sixth century barbarism that they actually represent. These people saw people's heads off. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to us. I'm speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture, and I'm living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built.
NPR: As you look at people around you, though, why do you think they're so, as you would put it, self-absorbed, even whiny?
FM: Well, I'd say it's for the same reason the Athenians and Romans were. We've got it a little good right now. Where I would fault President Bush the most, was that in the wake of 9/11, he motivated our military, but he didn't call the nation into a state of war. He didn't explain that this would take a communal effort against a common foe. So we've been kind of fighting a war on the side, and sitting off like a bunch of Romans complaining about it. Also, I think that George Bush has an uncanny knack of being someone people hate. I thought Clinton inspired more hatred than any President I had ever seen, but I've never seen anything like Bush-hatred. It's completely mad.
NPR: And as you talk to people in the streets, the people you meet at work, socially, how do you explain this to them?
FM: Mainly in historical terms, mainly saying that the country that fought Okinawa and Iwo Jima is now spilling precious blood, but so little by comparison, it's almost ridiculous. And the stakes are as high as they were then. Mostly I hear people say, 'Why did we attack Iraq?' for instance. Well, we're taking on an idea. Nobody questions why after Pearl Harbor we attacked Nazi Germany. It was because we were taking on a form of global fascism, we're doing the same thing now.
NPR: Well, they did declare war on us, but…
FM: Well, so did Iraq.
Iraq declared war on the United States? Not only are Frank Miller's words filled with incredible absurdity and ignorance, they're also plagued by disgusting prejudice that should raise questions about his underlying messages in "300" and other recent works of his. One of the things I found really disturbing in Miller's interview was how he suggested that "teaching all cultures are equal" and "every belief system is as good as the next" is a bad thing! What is he implicating here? Are we to teach that certain cultures and belief systems are better than others?
In his next response, he essentially calls Islam "sixth century barbarism," and then lumps the entire Muslim world into one stereotype. Then he says "I'm speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture, and I'm living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built." Perhaps someone should educate Mr. Miller that the Islamic empires preserved the beloved Greek philosophical texts by Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Aristotle, and many others. He should also be informed that algebra was invented by a Persian Muslim, Mohammad Al-Khwarizmi. The word English word for "algorithm" actually comes from "Al-Khwarizmi" and the significance of algorithms in computers, programming, engineering, and software design is immensely critical. As stated by Michael H. Morgan, author of "Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists," Al-Khwarizmi's new ways of calculating "enable the building of a 100 story towers and mile-long buildings, calculating the point at which a space probe will intersect with the orbits of one of Jupiter's moons, the reactions of nuclear physics… intelligence of software, and the confidentiality of a mobile phone conversation." Ironically, the Western achievements that Frank Miller boasts about could not have been possible without the collaboration of civilizations.
As I have written many times in my previous essays, racism is most dangerous when it has been made more acceptable in society. When the Nazis dehumanized the Jews, they did so in cartoons and propaganda films so that the rest of the country didn't feel sorry about killing them. When early American cartoons and cinema depicted African-Americans, they drew them with ugly features and had White actors wear blackface makeup, respectively. At the time, these obviously racist acts were acceptable. In modern times, when the insulting Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, were released, many non-Muslims were too shocked at the Muslim world's reaction than actually taking the time to realize that the cartoons were drawn out of hate and sheer Islamophobia. Rather than seeing the cartoons as racist or prejudice, many defended it as "freedom of expression." The manner in which certain people in the Muslim world reacted to the Danish cartoons is another subject altogether, but it's worth mentioning that their response represents a sensitivity that the West has made very little efforts to understand. For Islamophobes, demonizing the Prophet of Islam wouldn't be such a bad idea since dehumanizing the enemy is an essential process of war. Vilifying the "Other" makes racial slurs acceptable – slurs like "rag heads," "camel jockeys," "towel heads," "dune coons" among much worse things.
Although the Persians in "300" are not Muslim (the movie takes place in the Pre-Islamic and Pre-Christian era), the visualization of Persians are identical to the stereotypical images we see of Muslims in other media representations. Demonizing the Persians during a time when Middle-Easterners and Muslims are already being vilified simply makes dehumanization of the "Other" acceptable and more recognizable. I remember having one odd conversation with a young man who started his argument by saying, "Xerxes and his Muslim army were a bunch of tyrants." I stopped him immediately and told him that his ignorant comments are precisely the reason why I raise awareness and accuse "300" of being a propaganda film. Xerxes and his Persian army were not Muslim, yet I saw many people correlating the film with present-day tensions between the United States and Iran. Joseph Shahadi recently informed me, the right-wing party of Italy even uses images of "300" in their campaign posters! It's sad how many don't seem to realize that dehumanization of certain groups has dangerous consequences; after all, before the Holocaust, Jews were dehumanized.
"300" may look like a visual breakthrough in cinema "art", but that doesn't make up for its blood-spattering jingoism or its racist content. Counter-arguments in the film's defense are often weak with excuses like, "it's just a movie," or "it's based on a comic book" or "it's simply meant to entertain." The counter-arguments are short and weak because the film is unapologetic and doesn't contain anything sympathetic or appreciative about Persians, their culture, and their history. It would benefit Frank Miller and Zack Snyder if they saw Ridley Scott's brilliant film, "Kingdom of Heaven," which explores the complexity of war and celebrates dialogue between great civilizations. Such films are beneficiary to society because they convey much-needed messages of coexistence, respect, and understanding that reach wide audiences.
On a personal note, it is discouraging that so many people, including academics, doctors, and scholars, are either not bothered or don't see the racism in "300." And every once in a while, another one of my friends will do the Spartan "Ha-oooh!" chant around me and not realize how offensive it is. The fact that so many people cite the movie and enjoy watching it provides enough support for the cognitive social learning theory, where people find the Spartan characters likable and admirable. It is likely that this may be the reason why so many are defensive of the film – simply because they like the movie so much. But we, as a progressive society, need to be bold enough to stamp our foot down and say we will not tolerate racism, just like we would never tolerate watching or promoting films that glorify the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis. As Dana Stevens writes, "If "300" had been made in Germany in the mid-1930s, it would be studied today alongside "The Eternal Jew" as a textbook example of how race-baiting fantasy and nationalist myth can serve as an incitement to total war."
My personal hope is that people will appreciate this analysis and realize the immense impact media has on shaping our thoughts, perspectives, and views of each other. I would also hope that people are inspired to study ancient Persian history and learn about the countless contributions of the Persians, who were among the greatest philosophers, thinkers, poets, artists, physicians, mathematicians, astronomers, and innovators in the history of the world – before and after the Islamic era. I must point out that almost 90% of the paintings I post on my blog are Persian paintings (compare them with Frank Miller's horrific depiction of Persians in "300″ and you will understand how upset and offended one can be).
The Arab, Iranian, and/or Muslim communities need to make their mark in the film industry and I cannot stress that enough. The release of "300" angered, but also frustrated me because I felt like I could not respond with a film about Persians due to my low-budget. It is a personal dream of mine to make a "Cyrus the Great" film someday, and I'm sure many of us have dreams of certain films we'd like to see about our communities, but they cannot remain dreams. They must be manifested and brought to life, and only through perseverance, sheer dedication, and passion can we achieve our dreams. As evident in "300," there are people making a living out of vilifying our cultures, histories, and religions while many of us stand by and watch the propaganda machine do its dirty work. I understand that not all of us are aspiring filmmakers, but to those of you who are: the longer we remain the silent, the less people will know about our beautiful stories.
I believe very firmly that Truth prevails in the end and I have faith that the new generation of progressive-thinkers, Middle-Easterners, South Asians, and Muslims alike are on their way in making a profound difference in our world. Someday, the Middle-East and Muslim world will no longer be demonized and feared, but appreciated and respected. The media has the power to turn tables around in such a way.


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Please welcome back our good friend Shane Keating (Oscarfan) for his next installment of reviews from Sesame Street's landmark 40th Season!
Alighty! Another week of Sesame Street shows down, although only two shows aired this week. Episode 4195 from last week is included in this review, if you read my last article you'll know why. So, let's begin!
As Rosita and Elmo think of rhymes, they hear peeping from a baby bird. With Chris' help, they leave the bird by his nest, thinking that's what it wants, but it returns to them like a lost puppy. Big Bird arrives with birdseed and communicates with the bird, discovering he's hungry. Big Bird gives him some birdseed, but the bird ends up devouring his whole bag. He then runs off, eating Leela's sandwich, a girl's apple and Cookie Monster's granola cookie. After eating, the bird now wants to fly, but can't. Abby appears, who has wings like the bird, so sings a song to help teach the baby. The mama bird arrives, think Chris is her baby, until the baby bird flies to her and they head off. Elmo concludes he loves nature.
Hidden Gem: Leela is seen reading a book about Placido Flamingo, with Richard Hunt's name on the book.
· Paul Rudd and Grover explain the word "brilliant".
· An animation about W words in the woods.
· Abby's Flying Fairy School: Blogg's Stolen Wand (repeat from the season premiere)
· A Chris Bermen Muppet interviews Telly, Zoe, Elmo and Baby Bear about the "Cashing the Cheese" event.
· Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures: Secret Agents 00-Bert and 00-Ernie attempt to stop the evil Dr. Bird Whistle from capturing birds.
· Sesame Street's Theater in the Park presents Telly, starring in "Romeo and Alphabet"
There wasn't much I cared for in the street scene today. Though, Cookie Monster's cameo was funny as usual. Grover and Paul Rudd were great and Telly's sketch was great to see again (especially with the Abbot and Costello reference thrown in).
As Leela shows Elmo a recycled bottle-pig, Oscar arrives to pick up his weekly lint ball. One of her washing machines then beings to make noise and throw clothes out. She intends on throwing it out, until Elmo mentions Luis can fix it. They call him and he tries various methods to fix it (such as fixing a bolt on the back and cleaning out the interior) as Oscar watches in delight as each attempt fails. When all hope seems lost for the machine, Elmo gets an idea to reuse it as a Grouch messing machine. All the grouches rush to the Laundromat and watch as their clothes are dirtied and flung from the machine.
Hidden Gem: Luis finds various things inside the broken washing machine, including the Teeny Little Super Guy (complete a with a music cue from the segment's theme song).
· Greg Kinnear and a robot explain what a "machine" is, using examples like a clock and an electric nose-hair trimmer.
· A cartoon featuring army ants looking for foods that start with C at a picnic.
· Worms in Space form the letter C.
· Ernie sings "Somebody Come and Play".
Today's street scene was nice. Elmo was more downplayed than usual. And it's nice to see Luis and Maria are still in the fixing game since it's no longer visible on the set. The explanation of "machine" was great, especially the ending (You will laugh yourself silly when you see it!). The rest of the segments were average, but it was nice to see Worms in Space again.
Elmo, Luis and Maria are picking apples from a tree. Cookie Monster hears their crunching sounds and thinks they are eating cookies. He rushes to the garden to find them eating apples. Maria and Luis explain they grew the apple tree shortly after they were married. Cookie Monster learns that food grows on trees and thinks he can grow a Cookie Tree. He and Elmo plant a chocolate chip in a flowerpot, give it sun and water, but get no results. Luis explains that cookies don't grow on trees. Cookie wishes he had a cookie tree. Abby overhears and grants the wish, making cookie trees appear all over the street. As Elmo and Cookie cooperate to reach one, Alan convinces Abby to make them disappear, since they're blocking the entrance to Hooper's. Cookie sulks that the trees are gone, until Maria and Luis bring him some homemade, apple cookies they made from the apples they picked.
Hidden Gem: Forgetful Jones makes a silent cameo during Maria and Luis' flashback.
· Adam Sandler and Cookie explain the word "crunchy".
· Another Sesame Street English cartoon about the letter A, with Cookie Monster.
· Abby's Flying Fairy School: Blogg accidentally releases Fairy Dust Bunnies from under the carpet, which causes Mrs. Sparklenose to get an allergic reaction. And her magic sneezes cause trouble for the students.
· Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures: Ernie, Bert and Rubber Duckie enter a treacherous cave to find the Wise Old Duck and ask him a question. (Lots of Indiana Jones references)
· Professor Grover and Cameron Diaz explain the importance of trees.
Man, Cookie was all over this episode! It's nice to get a street story starring Cookie Monster. Forgetful's cameo was so unexpected and I loved seeing him! I was hoping the song, "We'll Do It Together" was going to show up, since it's about Cookie Monster finding a cookie tree in the park. It was also nice to see a new Flying Fairy School segment, since we got repeats of the same 5 so far. The Professor Grover segment was hilarious too!
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier.

subset: commoncrawl


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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Coastal Georgia Seafood Restaurant Fired Employee Because of His Prosthetic Leg, Federal Agency Charged
BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A St. Mary's, Ga. seafood restaurant violated federal law by firing an employee because of his disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia (2:11-cv-00157-LGW-JEG).
According to the EEOC, Lang's Marina Restaurant hired James Wilson as a kitchen helper in February 2009. After working one shift without incident, the restaurant's manager told Wilson that he was being terminated because his prosthetic leg posed a safety hazard for the company. Wilson spoke with the restaurant's owner seeking to get his job back. However, the owner told Wilson that the restaurant's decision to terminate him was final.
Discrimination based on a disability is prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended (ADA). The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement. As part of the suit, the EEOC is seeking back pay and compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief prohibiting the company from engaging in any employment practices that discriminate on the basis of disability.
"The employer apparently concluded that Mr. Wilson's condition posed a direct threat to himself or others in the workplace; however, that determination must be based on actual evidence and not mere speculation," said Bernice Williams Kimbrough, district director for the EEOC's Atlanta District Office. "The ADA ensures that people with disabilities are not denied employment due to myths, fears and stereotypes, and the EEOC stands ready to enforce those rights."
The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.


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Export excel data online form işler
...Basically, it searches the transcripts of youtube videos for you. I wanted to modify it in 2 ways 1.) limit its search to certain youtube channels and playlists 2.) export the data in xml format (I have a movie review site that uses RSS feeds to display the movie reviews.) You can see some examples of when I embed movie reviews here: https://just
Export TecDoc 2018q3 ton Mysql in frensh
Hello, I have a project ready for a webview for IOS, but I do not have mac computers at home and I need someone to just export the app to me and send me the final file for installation.
We are a training business who currently uses google calendars to schedule our trainers. We're looking at moving to [login to view URL] to do this, however, we don't want to have a subscription for each of our trainers to Salesforce. Instead we'd like to sync out each of their calendars from [login to view URL] (that are provided by Calendar anything) by downloading the ICS file a...
5 page design Want flat design, illustration system design. Reference site: [login to view URL] [login to view URL] Top page ├Price simulation page([login to view URL]) └Owned Media └Category page └Article Page I have wireframe.
...that uses a form created with VBA that captures data in the form and exports to excel. We have three other documents that need to be duplicated using the same VBA code structure to create a form that is the same as the Word document, allow input to the form, the input to the form is saved back to the Word document and then exports to Excel...
I need a new website. I need you to design and build my personal website.
Export Theme from an older prestashop to a new one that's already running.
We are an established retailer company in the Baby & Kids industry selling under the FBA Amazon business model and we are looking for an specialist in product compliance. Someone who can provide us with a list of wich TEST REPORTS are needed in order to import this products to the United states and get cleared through customs.
I have eyeglasses that a 3D models in .blend files. I need them rendered flat and then exported as vector files. I am looking for a cost per file. I have attached a PDF that shows what the vector would look like (just one frame per file though). I have also included a sample .blend file.
Here is my website [login to view URL] As you can see , the website is very bad. I need to upgrade google rank. For this I need detailed SEO upgrading plan including all kinds of options. I need at least 2~3 month SEO upgrading plan It should include the all kinds of website fix , social blog marketing , SEO related job for wordpress. It must contains all kinds of SEO option and should be professi...
Scrape data from a website and export to excel
Hello there, Looking to export data using API. please refer below link for more info [login to view URL] [login to view URL] and we looking to import into freshdesk. Thanks
i have 2 wordpress installations on the same server, i created a new one bc the other one had so many issues it was bad.. so the new one has the same domain name but it ends with /something for example [login to view URL] , so since im done working on it. i would like to make it my main site.
install and configure SSIS (and anything else required) to automatically export from sql server to excel, and email results (in excel format), on a daily schedule. also needs to be be able to run on demand. needs to be documented, capturing locations of files, packages, etc, usernames & passwords, and steps/process flow. you will log into my test server
Hi, My company needs to export calendars from [login to view URL] Calendar Anything and into Office 365. There's no supported method for doing this, so I'm looking at automating the download and upload of the calendar using a script. As long as it's reliable. I figure it could be in two parts - one that logs into [login to view URL] and downloads the calendar
We are hoping to create a Google Local Inventory feed for our Google ads. In order to do this, we require a specific inventory report exporting specific product data from Quickbooks each day, to be uploaded onto our website server. It is a simple task of just exporting 4 specific fields into the delimited txt format. The fields that need to be exported
I am looking to have a way I can "read" the backup file from 123 P...create a trial account at [login to view URL] to get to the backup file. if I try and import the file in Excel or sheets it won't open. Their customer support mentioned needed SQL server but weren't very helpful other than that. I need a way to export this file into a readable format.
I would like the function adding whereby I can export/import via csv a category , the products within that category and the position of that product (listing position) . This function could be added to the existing import export functions .
I need some help with finding some leads.
Hi, I have a design that built with Zeplin and I want to export it into wordpress theme.
*please apply only if you have direct experience with mediabin and have performed similar job in the past* We have HP Mediabin 8.2 on a local server. I need an export script to migrate it's content to a new DAM.
need to have a pivot table and chart creates ASAP
Need a person, who could train a team of 6 in export business. Individual needs to visit our company which is located in sahibabad & provide training on the aspects of Export. Person should be skilled & should have a prior experience in the same forte.
export a site from wordpess and load onto a new server some minor changes will be needed ill provide all access needed need asap so only bid if can do right away
I need some help with my business.
Attached is the current script which needs to be updated. Requirement: Lambda function will run in test account which is for enabling vpc flow logs from all the regions and and export function also should be run in test account. But s3 create bucket lambda function should be run in the another account i.e the prod/audit account.
I need an expert of Dynamic for training. It may take less than 10 hours. Thanks
Excel file has 2345 lines. You need to sum the appropriate categories on excel so that it matches the same as the PayPal pdf export Both the excel and pdf are from PayPal so if you know what you are doing it should match.
attach is the full description of the project. Short desc: We will use powerapps to search articles and to add articles from main articles-list to the project articles list. First we will add articles from main article list to articles in specific project. Should be Possible to add new "articles" on the fly, and update price manually while adding articles to project. After we have se...
...desktop software that can search for and export a list of (1) social security numbers and (2) payment/credit card numbers within files located on local and networked drives. The software will have to be low resource, quick, and export results in Microsoft Excel format. Must haves: 1. End-to-End Encryption - the data found would be in clear-text, but the
attach is the full description of the project. Short desc: We will use powerapps to search articles and to add articles from main articles-list to the project articles list. First we will add articles from main article list to articles in specific project. Should be Possible to add new "articles" on the fly, and update price manually while adding articles to project. After we have se...
Get all URLs of Custom sizes images in WordPress using WP all Export.
I have a running Ionic project with the app running fine in the simulator as well. When running on a physical device it says - The executable was signed with invalid entitlements. Even build is successful, but can't run on the physical device. Need the app to run on the physical device.
I need to do an search of the EMBASE database as follows- 1. 'athlete':ab,ti OR 'sport':ab,ti ...
Hi, I actually have a program developed in R which calculate and predict results. I need a formula that can copy/export this datas into Excel rows. For an R Studio Developer, it's a work that takes 10 minutes
Help me find a supplier of corals that can export corals to USA. I would like someone who is overseas to find and visit local exporters of corals and get me their information to place an order. I would like to pay for shipment and coral through freelancer. I can create the milestone prior to shipment and release the payments once products have been
Need to create a function to import and export excel file for old products and create new products,function of adding and managing image data for [login to view URL] using PHP Lavarel.
fix export to excel function in my php, display and error that the file is corrupted when i export
i wrote an ebook and purposely didnt use capitals for sentence starts. i decided i w...my ebook indesign file and add to word and capitalise the sentences as needed. (i think word will do it quickly) but you must check it and ensure correct grammar. And then export the file in high quality but keep the file at low size and readable on all platforms.
Hello, I am looking to hire someone as a sales person for my company. We're into export of Pharmaceutical Medicines. Looking to get clients from anywhere around the globe, so that we can help them with medicine supply and ourselves with some business. Thank you.
Hi, I have Gamobjects (see Picture below) I want to export into a OBJ on runtime. The Colours/Textures should be preserved. The big part is an OBJ Import and the small spheres are regular gamobjects. User should be able to press a button, the native file browser (OSX/Win) should appear and the user picks a path and filename. Then save the gameobjects
Need to extract the import export of a product for three countries.
We have a data entity in Dynamics 365 for operations which is used to export 700,000 lines of data. The report is very slow, we would like to know the root cause. We are looking for someone who can sit down with our developer and troubleshoot the data entity.
I simply need someone to export the product quantities (only) from one prestashop cart and import them to another prestashop in order to update the second carts product quantities. Prestashop version 220.127.116.11
Specialized in Order to Cash operations, I'm starting a freelancer service offering my competences in credit and competitive analysis. The main clients of my services are companies around the world that wants to know more about the 'importation risk', 'exportation risk' and solvability of new commercial partners to assure their engagements in low and long terms. The...
I need some changes to an existing website. I already have a design, I just need you to build my online store function for bulk insert and upload products. Website build on laravel and vue.js
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TecDoc database data exports / migration - from TecDoc to SQL or CSV (Excel) format. Perhaps webshop integration (KBA Search).
I am looking for someone to help me in marketing. We look forward to helping everyone who is experienced in social media and marketing. Best Regards.


text:
Safeguard Destruction Services, Inc. - based out of Ft. Myers, Florida
Safeguard Destruction Services, Inc.
2212 Andrea Lane
Ft. Myers
- Phone: (239) 437-7441 Send Message Visit Website
More than 100,000 customers across the globe
The largest directory of shredding services in the USA
24/7 Support in secure information destruction
Please enter your phone number and click "Send" to receive the listing details by SMS. For numbers outside the US, please enter the country code, for e.g. +91. If you do not receive a message, your phone number might be registered in the Do Not Disturb Registry.
For numbers outside the US please enter the country code.
Please enter your phone number and click "Call" to call the listing owner.
For numbers outside the US please enter the country code.


text:
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks opened mixed Wednesday as encouraging earnings reports helped to offset disappointing news that showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 4 points to 13,949 as of 9:58 a.m. EST. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1 point to 1,509. The Nasdaq composite gained 9 points to 3,162.
The U.S. economy shrank from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. That's a sharp slowdown from the 3.1 percent growth rate in the July-September quarter.
Amazon jumped $14.25 to $274.40 after the world's biggest online retailer showed improving profit margins when it posted fourth-quarter earnings late Tuesday. Boeing gained 30 cents to $73.95 after it reported earnings that beat analysts' expectations, as rising profits from commercial jets offset a smaller profit from defense work.
The Dow Jones average has surged since the start of the year climbing close to 14,000 and to within touching distance of its record level. Investors bought stocks after lawmakers reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" and on optimism the U.S. housing market is recovering and the jobs market is slowly healing.
Investors will parse the Federal Reserve's statement later Wednesday following the conclusion of the central bank's first two-day meeting this year.
Economists are expecting the Fed to affirm that it intends to keep short-term rates near zero until joblessness dips below 6.5 percent from the current 7.8 percent. The statement is scheduled to be released at 2:15 p.m. EST.
Among other stocks making big moves Wednesday;
— Chesapeake surged $1.33 to $20.35 after the company said late Tuesday that its embattled CEO Aubrey McClendon will leave the company this spring.


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The hive is buzzing today with the performance comedian Sarah Silverman gave last night on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and so I thought it might be a good time to confess:
I find Silverman's comedy act to be hysterical!
If anyone asks how Archie Bunker's comedy from the 1970's would look in our time, you only need to point them to Silverman's Jesus is Magic act or to Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat.
While this sort of comedy is often confused with actual bigotry by people who are probably just not smart enough to get it, comedians who venture upon it get both my laughs and my respect.
Here is a little taste from Silverman's Jesus is Magic DVD – lyrics follow:
Sarah Silverman – German Cars (I Love You More) – Lyrics
I love you more than bears love honey
I love you more than Jews love money
I love you more than Asians are good at math
I love you even if it's not hip
I love you more than black people don't tip
I love you more than Puerto Ricans need baths
I love you more than girls love dolls
I love you more than dogs love balls
I love you more than the white stuff in a zit
I love you like Gary Busey
I love you more than dikes love pussy
I love you more than my after-show monster-bong hit
Jewish people driving German cars
Jewish people driving German cars
Jewie people buying German cars, what the cock is that shit?
But maybe it's like "take back the night"
Maybe it's like how bleeding hearts grow old and swing to the right
Maybe it's like when a faggot calls himself a faggot
Jewish people driving German cars
It's the opposite of FUBU
But maybe it's Patty Hearst siding with her kidnappers
Maybe it's South African miner killing diamond-wearing gangsta rappers
Maybe it's like when black guys call each other niggers


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Metallica Unleash Live 'Master of Puppets' From 'Through the Never' Soundtrack
From the moment the first beats kick in, Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' continually reaffirms its status of one of the greatest metal tracks ever. So it should come as no surprise that Metallica are using their live performance of the song from the 'Metallica Through the Never' film to hype up the movie's soundtrack.
The concert rendition of the track hits as hard as ever, with the guitars and drums working in perfect synchronicity to drive home the opening beats and from there the group is off to the races. The song is also featured in the trailer for the film and shown in a scene where very fittingly riots break out en masse. Take a listen to the concert version of 'Master of Puppets' currently streaming at Rolling Stone.
As for the 'Metallica Through the Never' soundtrack, it's currently on schedule for a Sept. 24 release. The two-disc collection features 16 Metallica favorites in all their live ferocity. The set is currently available for pre-order via iTunes and will also be issued on vinyl later this fall.
The film will open in IMAX theaters on Sept. 27, with additional non-IMAX theaters picking up the movie on Oct. 4.


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Cover for MELLBY Armchair
Rimini Pine Green Microfiber designed by CoverCouch
About the product
Cover for IKEA MELLBY armchair - Rimini Pine Green. Green is considered the most restful color for the eye. Combining the refreshing quality of blue and the cheerfulness of yellow, green is suited for almost any room on the house. In the kitchen, green cools things down; in a family room or living room, it encourages unwinding but has enough warmth to promote comfort and togetherness. It is believed to relieve stress by helping people relax. Also believed to help with fertility, making it a great choice for the bedroom. Green is the Feng Shui color of Movement. Green is the ancient symbol of a man's heart state, the symbol of nature.
Please note this custom cover is tailored by CoverCouch to fit the IKEA MELLBY armchair model. Armchair is not included and is available at IKEA.
Please note this custom cover is tailored by CoverCouch to fit the IKEA MELLBY armchair model. Armchair is not included and is available at IKEA.
Fabric key facts
- 40% Polyester, 31% Acrylic, 29% Polyamide
- Microfiber
- Stain resistant
- Attractively priced
- Cleaning friendly
- Repellency
- Oeko-Tex 100 certified
- CoverCouch
About the fabric
Rimini is a 40% Polyester, 31% Acrylic, 29% Polyamide fabric. Rimini is microfiber. Microfiber fabric is lightweight, durable, and somewhat water repellent. Rimini is soft to the touch and is easy to clean. Designed to resist stains and soiling. Amazingly easy to care for. In most cases, a little soap and water are all that's required to restore the fabric to its original state. They are machine washable and dryable. Rimini fabric keep up with the thrills and spills of youreveryday life. Its initial repellency causes liquids to bead up on the surface of the fabric, making cleaning easy – blotting with a cloth is usually all that is needed, even with difficult stains like coffee and wine. Rimini fabric proof that environmentally-responsible products can stand at the forefront of performance fabric design. Rimini fabric is completely free of PCPs and CFCs, and are Oeko-Tex certified, making them some of the most enviromentally-friendly fabrics on the market.
A sample of this fabric was added to your shopping cart
Fabric details
|40% Polyester, 31% Acrylic, 29% Polyamide
|Width, cm
|Weight, g/m2
|295 +- 10
|Colour fastness to light
|Colour fastness to rubbing
|Wet min.3/4 - Dry min.4 (ISO105-X12)
|Abrasion resistance
|>25000 cycles (Martindale EN ISO 12947)
|Tear Strength
|Tensile Strength
|Production / Supplier
Care instructions
Liquid Stains: Blot the liquid stain gently with a high-absorbent material. Pat dry the area gently with a dry material to remove the remaining humidity (cotton cloth, paper towel, etc.). If the stain from the spill remains, remove the stain with a soapy cloth without diffusing the stain. After each rubbing motion, refresh the clean soapy cloth in order to prevent soiling. Solid Particles: Remove the excess soiling with ultimate care without diffusing. Remove the solid particle from the fabric surface with the help of a soft spatula. To remove dust, use a vacuum cleaner or a soft brush. The remaining stains should be removed by rubbing with a soapy cloth in circular motion. Ball-point pen and similar difficult stains: Dampen a clean cotton cloth in a white soap solution. Rub the stain off gently. Clean the surface with the damp cloth and leave the fabric for drying. Alcohol derives, Petroleum and alkali based solvents should not be used for cleaning. After all cleaning processes, the drying should be done with a low temperature blow dryer in large circular motion or the fabric should be left for natural drying. After drying, mis-oriented and damaged piles should be fixed with a soft brush.
Machine wash at 40°C. Don't use chlorine bleach. Tumble dry at low temperature. Cool iron. Keep away from direct sun.
Machine wash at 40°C. Don't use chlorine bleach. Tumble dry at low temperature. Cool iron. Keep away from direct sun.
Facebook comments:
Event Turquoise Blue
Verified Buyer
Colour great. Quick arrival - would have ordered samples if knew would be so quick. Fabric OK. Has a synthetic feel to it. Fit is perfect.
Ektorp Two Seater sofa cover
Verified Buyer
Ivone C.
Took 16 days from order to delivery, excellent. Lido Real Red Fabric looks lovely and the felt-type backing of the fabric gives, covers body and is very pleasant to sit on, Covers well made and generous fitting. Can't recommend enough.
Perfect pop of colour
Verified Buyer
I got the Stocksund two seater cover in velvet Petrol, and I genuinely think it fits the sofa better than the IKEA zone. It looks so nice against white walls.
New covers in red
Verified Buyer
genesta l.
Excellent colour as expected and quick delivery.
Verified Buyer
Lynn M.
Couldn't be happier with our new cover for the Ektorp sofa bed. Fits amazing and looks like brand new. I had to change the delivery address and customer service was super helpful. Can't recommend enough!
SAHARA granite Grey MIA
Verified Buyer
Amaya M.
Unfortunately, the Sahara granite grey sample that we ordered never arrived. We DID however, receive the Sahara in Onyx. The fabric, texture and appearance, is coarser than I would have imagined it to be, sort of like a tough tweed. This is NOT a style we'll choose for the look we're hoping to achieve, but the Lido in granite grey, grey, and light grey, are all good possibilities. We also like the step melange and the boss style fabrics.
Verified Buyer
Doloreza D.
Karlstad couch covers
Verified Buyer
gabriele p.
Arrived on time very good product quality
Love it!
Verified Buyer
Angela H.
Good quality, true to sample fabric.
Worth the Wait
Verified Buyer
Brianna S.
I ordered the wrong size cover the first time. Shipping to return it was going to be more than the cover cost so I kept it, and ordered another in the correct size. The cover is very well made. Dog hair brushes off easily. I have not tried to wash it yet, but very pleased with the the quality so far. Pay close attention to the sofa model when ordering!


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Three goals in three minutes spark DII Flames past Captains
January 20, 2013 | Lynchburg, Va.
A three-goal scoring spurt in a span of two and a half minutes late in the second period lifted Liberty University's Division II men's hockey team to a 4-2 victory over Christopher Newport University in the last game of the weekend DII Showcase, Sunday afternoon at the LaHaye Ice Center.
The Flames (17-6-1) extended their winning streak to four games with a weekend sweep of Kennesaw State, Delaware, and CNU (14-10-1), which finished 0-3 in the showcase.
John Cotton, who scored a power play goal to start Friday's comeback from a 2-0 second-period deficit in a 4-3 shootout win over KSU, assisted Seth Reed on a 3-on-2 break to cut the Captains' lead to 2-1 just after a second-period power play expired with 4:05 to go.
"Their guy actually came out of the (penalty) box as I passed it up to (Reed)," Cotton said. "He redirected it off the cross and just tipped it in. That first one really got us going. We know once we scored, we'd be OK. We just needed to get on the board."
"It was good for our captain Seth Reed to get a goal," Liberty assistant coach Josh Tucker added. "He hasn't had a goal for a long time so it was good for him to get one."
Just over a minute later, Peter Kazmierczak, who netted the winning goal in the eighth round of Friday's shootout, finished a rebound of a shot from beyond the right circle by Brad Docksteader in the left crease, knotting it up at 2-2.
Then, with less than two minutes left in the second, Aaron Semiao's slap shot from about the same spot as Docksteader's found the five-hole, beating CNU goalie Eric Dumas for a 3-1 advantage.
Cotton capped the scoring and gave the Flames a two-goal cushion with just under seven minutes left in regulation with a nifty move and forehand finish off the skate of Dumas and an assist from DJ Dinnison.
"I sort of walked around from the right corner and shot it right off the goalie's skate and it went right in," Cotton said.
Dumas made 34 saves compared to 25 for Flames goalie Trenton MacDonald as Liberty outshot CNU 38-27 following a slow start.
"Really, they just outworked us at the start of the first period and got a couple quick goals on us," Tucker said. "Late in the second period and in the third, we started playing Liberty hockey and that got us going."
Tucker served as an assistant coach for the Captains last year before returning to Liberty, where he played on the DI team all four seasons.
"It was pretty interesting," Tucker said of facing CNU. "I still know a lot of the guys and I still talk to a couple of them so it was fun to coach against them and to see them do well against us and it was obviously good to see us battle back."
Cotton hopes the Flames can continue their current run of success into February's playoffs.
"We're rolling now," he said. "We've got four wins in a row to start the second semester and we've got six games left in the regular season so we're looking to get on a nice win streak and get going to get better seeding for the playoffs."


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Expect more SodaStream machines at a retailer near you.
As investors questioned SodaStream\'s fourth-quarter growth Wednesday, management at the carbonated drink-machine maker is sticking to an ambitious expansion plan .
SodaStream, whose revenue grew 39% in 2011, plans to extends it huge push into the United States, where it has sold 1.3 million machines. Here are five goals the Israeli-based company outlined Wednesday.
— Get in the door at more U.S. retailers as well as expand shelf space at existing locations. This includes expanding locations where consumers can exchange their CO2 cartridges. SodaStream boosted its presence to 9,500 U.S. retail locations in 2011, up from 4,000 in 2010. New accounts last year included Costco, Target and J.C. Penney.
(oh, and along the way, make the business profitable in the U.S. this year!)
— Keep spending on consumer marketing, especially national TV spots, building on advertising spots aired during last year\'s holiday season on CNN, FOX, CNBC and others.
— New products: An electric soda maker will hit the shelves in Q3 and Q4 (the current versions don\'t need an outlet). Stainless steel bottles and new organic flavors are also in the works.
— Expansion into Brazil and other South American countries. India is on the map, too.
— Sell its machines to restaurants, offices, and hotels.
SodaStream began trading on Nasdaq in November 2010, going public at $20 a share. The stock was a high-flier throughout most of 2011, surging to a high of $72.92 last August. The stock fell quickly back down to earth, sinking to a low of $27.60 in November.
The stock climbed sharply over the last week. Then Wednesday shares lost their fizzle, dropping as much as 16%. The stock recently traded at $41.32.
One issue was unit sales of soda makers. They grew 8% in the fourth quarter, which appears to be less than what analysts were expecting. In a conference call, management explained a large portion of orders sold to distributors occurred in the third quarter and many U.S. retailers sold out of the product as the year came to a close.
Read about SodaStream\'s European plans.
— Matt Andrejczak
Follow me on Twitter @MarketwatchMatt
Follow The Tell blog on Twitter @thetellblog


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First-Ever Taste of Country Bowl Kicks Off
Country music has been left out of the 2013 Super Bowl halftime festivities, but that doesn't mean the artists won't be working hard to prepare for February 3. The inaugural Taste of Country Bowl has just begun, pitting the top 16 "teams" in country music against each other to find the ultimate combination of artist and fans.
Round 1 begins Jan. 7 and lasts through Jan. 13 at 11:59PM ET. You can vote for all of the active matchups by clicking the button below. Root for your favorite as much as once per hour to make sure he, she or they advance to the next round. Each round will last one week, with the winner to be announced on Monday, Feb. 4.
Compelling first round matchups include Taylor Swift vs. Hunter Hayes, Scotty McCreery vs. Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean vs. Eric Church. Four matchups will begin on Jan. 6, and four on Jan. 7. Winning the Taste of Country Bowl is a testament to not only any artist's talent and popularity, but their fans willingness to stand up and be counted. Good luck to all artists and fanclubs. Keep voting, but try not to sprain your clicking finger!


text: Both franchises partying like it's 1999: Bills in playoffs for first time since then, and Jaguars hosting first postseason game since same season. ... Bills won three of last four in regular season, eked into playoffs when Bengals stunned Ravens by scoring on fourth-down pass in final minute. ... Bills snapped longest playoff drought in North America's four major professional sports. Buffalo's 17-year playoff drought is tied for fifth longest in NFL history and longest since NFL-AFL merger in 1970. ... Bills' last playoff game was Music City Miracle, in which Tennessee scored go-ahead touchdown on kickoff return lateral in final seconds to win 22-16. ... Bills haven't won postseason game since beating Miami in 1995. Buffalo is 0-3 since. ... Bills RB LeSean McCoy uncertain to play because of sprained right ankle. He accounts for 32.7 percent of team's yards and scored eight of offense's 28 touchdowns. ... Jaguars have lost two straight. ... Jaguars' Doug Marrone facing former team in first playoff game as head coach. Marrone opted out of contract with Buffalo in December 2014 and walked away with $4 million. Departure angered Bills fans and befuddled players and executives. ... Jaguars DT Marcell Dareus also faces former team. Bills traded 340-pound run stopper to Jacksonville in late October for sixth-round draft pick that improved to fifth when Jags made playoffs. ... TE Marcedes Lewis is only holdover from Jacksonville's last playoff game in 2008. ... LT Cam Robinson (abdomen) and DT Abry Jones (back) expected to return after missing regular-season finale. Leading WR Marqise Lee has high-ankle sprain that forced him to miss last week's game, but is preparing to play. "In my head I'm going, so I'm just going to put it like that," Lee said. "I'm getting it right." ... Jaguars have 11 players with postseason experience, seven fewer than Bills.


text:
Bill Zumwalt needed a new print or packaging design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 46 designs submitted by 16 freelance designers.
William T Zumwalt CPA, PLLC
We are a proactive CPA firm that specializes in working with Realtors in Tulsa, Okla and Northeastern Oklahoma. Our forte, if you will, is to be a tax coach. We show real estate agents the mistakes they have been making and strategies to reduce their taxes. We often save thousands of dollars a year for not only realtors but other self-employed individuals as well. For a better idea of what we are about please visit our web site TeamZumwalt.com. This book has been written to be used as a super sized "business card" to be handed out at seminars and will be available through Barnes & Noble etc.. The book is written in a conversational light hearted manner. Can provide testimonials for this design. Looking for something "cool". An example would be one of our logo's that uses a baseball cap on top of the C in Tax Coach.com. A saying I often use when speaking to Real Estate Agents that I believe came from a Morgan Stanley advertisement is that "everybody knows you have to pay taxes ... But nobody said you need to leave a tip"
The book is titled " The Ten Most Expensive Tax Mistakes... that cost Real Estate Agents Thousands"
Real Estate Agents
I am looking for something that will have humor and bring a grin to the readers face. Book will be 6 X 9 and I have testimonials avaiable should you find that helpful


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Drop-Off and Pick-Up
After registering as a consignor, you will be able to select a "Check In" time to drop off your items. It is best to select a time as soon as possible, as these times fill up quickly.
When you arrive, here is what to expect:
- You will sign a Consignor Agreement and verify your contact information and email address. If you are bringing a car seat or crib, you will also need to complete a Car Seat Waiver and/or a Crib Checklist. Please print and complete these documents prior to arriving at Drop Off.
- A volunteer will check over your items for quality standards…stains, excessive wear, holes, cleanliness, in working order, etc. Please don't be offended if we refuse an item–it happens to all of us! Once your items have been inspected, you will assist us in placing them out on the sales floor.
- Please allow 30-45 minutes for drop-off.
Before you drop off, please double-check the following:
- All clothing items are on wire hangers.
- All items are hung with hook facing left.
- All tags are printed on white cardstock paper.
- All items have tags with barcodes.
- Sort clothing items by gender and size for faster drop off.
- Small pieces of games, toys or puzzles are securely packaged in a plastic bag (sandwich bags work great) and tag is securely taped to the item. Do not tape over barcodes.
- Toys should be in working order with batteries in them.
- Bringing a car seat? Make sure to print and bring your Car Seat Waiver.
- Remember, clean, fresh-smelling and pressed clothing items always sell better!
Check In Times
Consignors must select a Check In/Drop Off appointment during a one of the designated drop-off time periods. Log into your HWGA account and select "Check In" from the bar at the top of the page.
Note to consignors–our sale will "lock" prior to opening to the public. Items can NOT be entered or edited after that time. Consignors, please pay attention to emails and Facebook updates as we approach the sale as you will be given information on when the sale will "lock."
Pick Up Tips to Remember:
- When you arrive at Pick Up, your items will be sorted and ready for quick pick up. No need to sort unsold items, we have already done it for you!
- Check the lost and found as some items may have lost tags.
- Plan on 20-30 minutes for Pick Up as you will need to sign and check out.
- Items not claimed by the end of Pick Up time will be donated.
Pick Up Times
No appointment is necessary to Pick Up items.


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In several upcoming posts in November, I'll talk about the Oblate Sisters of Providence and how they play a role in my family tree. In St Louis, I found this photograph of Sister Mary Philomena (nee Emma Micheau) and Sister Mary Celestine (nee Adelaide "Addie" Francis Micheau). That's Sister Philomena on the left and Sister Celestine is on the right. The woman in the middle is Mary Angelique Micheau (1873-1959), also known as "Nin."
Addie and Nin were the daughters of George Micheau (1852-1942). Emma, the daughter of Marshall Emmanuel Micheau (1878-1954), was their niece.
Nin was not a Nun.
Photograph courtesy of Edna Mary Micheau Penny, Carmichael, California, who holds the original. Photographer unknown. Date c. 1930s


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Pima and Papago Indian agriculture
The University of New Mexico press, 1942 - Indians of North America - 245 pages
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aboriginal acres agriculture ancient Anza Arizona arrowweed Baboquivari Mountains barley baskets black-eyed beans Bolton canals Casa ceremony chick peas Clotts color cotton cowpeas creosote bush crops cultivated cushaw deer desert Papago ditches dried early ears farming feet fields flood water frost fruit gathered Gila River gourds grains ground growing grown Haury hills Hohokam Hopi husks inches Indians irrigation kidney beans Kino Kino's land late lima beans maize Maricopa mesquite Mexico mountains muskmelons native Papago and Pima Papago informant piles Pima and Papago Pima informants Pima-Papago Pimans Pimeria Alta pink beans pods Pueblo pumpkins rains reported Reservation Russell Sacaton sahuaro harvest San Pedro San Xavier Santa Cruz season secured seed smoke Snaketown Sobaipuri soil Sonoita River Sonora sowing species specimens stored teparies tepary bean tion tobacco tribes Underhill usually utilized Valley variety village vines watermelons weeds wheat wild winter


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The delicate flip side to an emotional victory is the possibility of a let down. The Mets will attempt to guard against that this afternoon against the Washington Nationals at wet Citi Field after last night's dramatic eighth-inning, six-run rally.
The Mets' offense finally awoke and rallied from five runs down in their largest comeback of the season.
The Mets will go with Mike Pelfrey (4-1, 2.65), who gave up three runs in 7 1/3 innings in his last start, Friday against San Francisco. Pelfrey didn't get a decision, but complained of tightness in his right shoulder for the second time in two starts.
With the weather wet and cool, it will be interesting to see how Pelfrey responds.
The Mets will sit second Luis Castillo, who has a bruised left foot.
Here's today's line-up for the 18-15 Mets behind Pelfrey:
Angel Pagan, CF
Alex Cora, 2B
Jose Reyes, SS
Jason Bay, LF
David Wright, 3B
Ike Davis, 1B
Jeff Francoeur, RF
Rod Barajas, C
Mike Pelfrey, RP


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Apple Snaps Growth Streak, and More
What's News: Apple posts 18% drop in earnings, its first decline in a decade, despite strong demand for iPhones and iPads. Ford gets profit boost from North America. Durable goods orders sink 5.7% in March. Joanne Po reports. Photo: Getty Images
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... Apple snaps its growth St this is what's news at this hour I'm WS J live unto Lanco ... Apple the stock to watch today after the company post its first profit drop in and that gave ... Apple a plane eighteen percent decline in quarterly earnings actually coming in slightly above Wall Street's already lowered expectations the company however is still seeing strong demand for I Phones and eye pads Apple is also raising its dividend by fifteen percent and fifty billion dollars to share buyback program ... CEO Tim Cook telling analysts on the call that the teams are working hard on new hardware software and services ... that will be introduced in the fall ... in time for reporting a fifty percent increase in first-quarter profit ... record growth in the company's North American division of sitting softness in other regions around the world ... the Ana maker taking another hit in Europe due to the continued economic slowdown ... is keeping its outlook for the weekend on change ... orders for big ticket U S items slumping in March durable goods orders falling five point seven percent given by being propped in Balto commercial aircraft ... economists were expecting a much smaller drop of two point nine percent ... clever orders for core capital goods which is that with the matter of private sector business investment ... it adds higher by two tenths of two percent ... bookie keep us anomaly this is about instructed and what's his aunt WS J last ...


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A World Trade Organization compliance panel ruling in the U.S.-Brazil cotton case appears to ignore the current world cotton market situation and the U.S. cotton program's current operation, the National Cotton Council said.
The ruling, which was made public Tuesday (Dec. 18), said the United States government had failed to comply with another WTO panel's finding the U.S. cotton program had caused "serious prejudice" to Brazil's cotton sector. Brazil has reserved the right to seek $3 billion in damages from the case.
A spokesman for the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it was disappointed with the compliance panel's findings and was considering a final appeal of the decision, which was released to the two governments last July.
"We continue to believe that support payments and export credit guarantees under our programs are fully consistent with our WTO obligations," said the USTR's Gretchen Hamel.
National Cotton Council leaders said they had not had an opportunity to review the opinion in detail — such rulings are "confidential" until translated into the language of the countries. But the Council's legal expert said he wasn't sure the WTO compliance panel is seeing the same world market.
"The only way for the panel to have reached the conclusion that the U.S. cotton program is presently causing serious prejudice to Brazil is for the panel to have ignored the facts in the world cotton market and based its decision on a subjective opinion that the United States simply did not change its programs enough," said attorney Bill Gillon.
Council leaders said they believed the United States has already taken significant actions to comply with the first WTO panel ruling, including the elimination of a major component of the U.S. cotton program and a significant revision to the export credit guarantee program.
Furthermore, the panel failed to appropriately evaluate the full impact of the elimination of Step 2 of the U.S. three-step competitiveness program or recent world cotton market trends that demonstrate that the U.S. is not adversely affecting world prices, said Council Chairman John Pucheu.
"U.S. cotton acreage fell by 29 percent in 2007 and is expected to continue to decline in 2008," said Pucheu, a producer from Tranquillity, Calif. "U.S. exports fell significantly in 2006 and have declined overall as a percent of world exports. It is not credible to assert that U.S. cotton is currently causing serious prejudice to anyone in the world cotton market."
While U.S. cotton acreage is the lowest since 1989, acreage is up in many major-producing countries around the world, the NCC chairman said. Payments under the U.S. cotton marketing loan for 2006 are down more than 40 percent from 2004 and are expected to be zero in 2007.
"The international cotton market is strong, demand is exceeding production, world prices are up, and exports in countries such as India and Brazil are dramatically rising. Cotton production outside the U.S. mushroomed to 100 million bales in 2006 and is hovering near record levels for 2007," said Pucheu.
"India is harvesting an all-time record crop and has dramatically increased their exports. In addition to the changes already undertaken by the United States, the farm bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate both contain reductions in the U.S. cotton program."
The NCC singled out several areas where the compliance panel seemed to be looking at a different cotton market than most:
• While almost 85 percent of world cotton production and more than 95 percent of the world's textile mill use is outside the United States, the WTO panel concludes U.S. cotton exports are having significant price impacts. That's despite declining acreage, declining levels of support, declining U.S. mill use, declining U.S. exports, and increasing production and exports from other major cotton producers.
• Although the original panel insisted on the elimination of the Step 2 program because, among other reasons, that program contributed to price suppression in the world cotton market, the compliance panel held that the elimination of this subsidy does not affect the price suppressing effects of the remaining parts of the U.S. cotton program. Thus, it contradicted the first panel's findings on the impact of this program, in the face of evidence showing declining U.S. cotton exports.
• Brazil and several non-governmental organizations repeatedly cite economic analysis prepared by Brazil's paid economist as independent confirmation that the U.S. cotton program has had international price impacts. The NCC notes this panel, like previous panels, has questioned Brazil's biased economic work, agreeing with the United States that the Brazil model had no foundation in economic circles and still needed "to earn the confidence of the panel."
• Despite the fact the panel was supposed to determine whether the U.S. cotton program had a "significant" price suppressing effect on the world market, this panel, like all previous panels, declined to make any finding as to the magnitude of the alleged U.S. program impacts, even stating that it "was not in a position to judge the exact magnitude by which world prices would rise" should the U.S. cotton program be eliminated.
The credible economic analysis that was before the panel generally found international price impacts between 2 and 3 percent. This hardly rises to the level of "significant price suppression," said Gillon. "It is not a responsible conclusion to find that any possible impact of U.S. agricultural programs must be a 'significant' impact."
Brazil just recently completed harvesting a cotton crop that is 49 percent above last year's production and actually sold government cotton stocks during 2007 in an attempt to depress cotton prices, the NCC said.
Meanwhile, it said, U.S. expenditures in respect of cotton or cotton base acres, without any further changes in any future farm bill, are expected to decline significantly for 2007, 2008 and 2009.
"We hope the U.S. Trade Representative will promptly appeal this ruling as it seems unsupportable to the U.S. cotton industry," Pucheu stated. "Current U.S. production and export levels, as well as U.S. spending levels, all seem directly contrary to a finding of current serious prejudice against the U.S. cotton program."
Gillon said he had "no idea" how Brazil or any panel could justify $3 billion in injury to its cotton sector in this case. "But I also find it difficult to understand how this last panel could have found in favor of Brazil."
The U.S. Trade Representative could file an appeal as early as January or February, said Gillon. "It will be an expedited appeal and should be final within 90 days. We expect that after the appeal decision, Brazil would announce retaliation and the United States would invoke its right to an arbitration panel, starting early May.
"The arbitration panel would calculate the amount of injury to Brazil and is to be completed within 60 days. It's likely, therefore, that the final, final part of this case will be completed in mid-summer 2008."
e-mail: email@example.com


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2013 kia sorento Model Overview
The 2013 Kia Sorento is Kia's midsize crossover that slots above the smaller Sportage. While the Sorento has the capacity to seat seven passengers, the third row is best reserved for kids and shorter trips. During our year-long evaluation of a 2011 Kia Sorento SX, our tester "spent most of its time with the third row folded." The Sorento's front-seat comfort also received mixed reviews from staffers.
On paper, it appears that the Sorento would provide a comfortable ride, thanks to its unibody construction and Dual Flow Damper strut and shocks that vary the damping rate. Again, staffers were mixed on the Sorento's suspension feel, with some noting a "coarse" ride quality that "seems to let in every bump, every road divot, every flaw in the pavement."
The Kia Sorento is offered with two powertrains, both of which are mated to a six-speed automatic sending power to the front wheels. Full-time all-wheel drive is optional. A 2.4-liter, inline-four cylinder producing 175-hp and 169 lb-ft of torque (direct injection is optional) serves as the base engine and a 3.5-liter V-6 (276-hp and 248 lb-ft) is available. The front-drive, four-cylinder Sorento is fairly fuel-efficient, with an EPA rated 30 mpg on the highway and the all-wheel drive V-6 will return 24 mpg on the highway.
New for 2013
Leather seats are now standard on 2013 Kia Sorento EX models. Third row seats are standard on the LX V6 and are now optional on EX V6 and SX models. A new LX Convenience Plus Package adds a power-adjustable driver's seat, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, floor mats, and a first-aid kit.
You'll Like
- Four cylinder fuel economy
- LED taillights on SX model
- Optional panorama sunroof
You Won't Like
- Harsh ride
- Cramped third row
- Poor sound system


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A cost-effective way to gather market research, online surveys and questionnaires can help nonprofits gauge interest in events and fundraisers, gain a better understanding of donors' reasons for contributing, and reach earned revenue goals. Surveys can help you identify areas of interest to constituents, get to know your users' opinions, and keep your funders happy. Nonprofit survey results can help you uncover the metrics you need to track in order to drive improvements so that you can spend more time transforming your vision into a reality.
Getting the word out on your mission and vision is vital to advancing your cause. Take this valuable opportunity to tell your story, and get your prospects excited about helping you. Test messaging concepts, including potential taglines and logos. Does your brand identity effectively communicate your services and expertise? Through which marketing channels will you most effectively reach your audience? You can also gather ideas on fresh content that your prospects will find compelling and useful—all by sending out a marketing survey.
Nonprofits use surveys for pre- and post-event feedback. Gauge interest on activities that donors, partners, volunteers, and staff members would likely attend or be willing to participate in. What venues are most accessible or convenient for attendees? Use an event planning survey to manage contact information and get insights from your key audience on an array of events, including trainings, strategy sessions, and campaigns to gain a better understanding of funding sources, demographics, staffing, and more.
Send out an online questionnaire to understand the opinions, motivations, attitudes, and giving patterns of your current and prospective donors. Poll your supporters to discover who makes up your base. Why do they support your cause or organization? What issues would they like your organization to focus on? Start a conversation with these influential groups, identify growth opportunities, and leverage these insights to increase donor support and fundraising efficiency. Use a donor feedback survey template to get started.
With the advent of social web and the rise of ecommerce, it's hardly a surprise that charitable online giving is also growing in popularity. Trying to gauge the viability of collecting donations online for your organization? Wonder how other charities, NGOs or nonprofit foundations have fared in their foray into digital donations? Get started by taking a look at our online fundraising survey template.
Are there ways to lower fundraising costs? Should you retool your current fundraising strategy? How can you best guide membership and development efforts? What's the best way to manage the vital relationships with donors, patrons, and members to drive results? What types of loyalty programs would benefit your organization? Use a questionnaire to find the answers to these types of questions that are critical to the success of your organization.
How can you improve retention and recruiting processes? What feedback can you gather from volunteer coordinators, managers, and organizers? Is your organization following volunteer management best practices; and what opportunities of improvement exist within? How can policymakers spearhead support for volunteer resources or connect volunteers to associations? Using a volunteer recruitment and placement team survey can help you get the answers you need.
Get actionable volunteer feedback to keep them coming back to support your cause. Do volunteers feel they have access to adequate training and mentoring resources? Can they easily access information they need? Use surveys to evaluate why and when volunteers are leaving, and facilitate regular communication to ensure you're giving them the support they need. Also, make sure that if you are asking volunteers to rate something, they will need at least five data points to choose from (called a "Likert scale)."
Know what it takes to get on the same page. Achieve organizational alignment and increase the effectiveness of your employees. Nonprofits can use a 360-degree employee evaluation template to evaluate employee performance based on feedback from supervisors, peers, and subordinates. This type of feedback is focused on employee assessment from multiple perspectives. You might also consider asking your own staff to rate their own job performance with self-assessment surveys. Have they met the goals set at the beginning of the quarter or year? Were the goals set for them reasonable and attainable?
In the face of a delicate economy, many nonprofits are met with increasing demands and shrinking revenues. Management and governance are critical to the success and sustainability of your organization. Identify roadblocks and challenges; explore potential solutions to enhance governance practices; figure out how exactly you must retool your strategic plans. Are there any new revenue streams you might be able to tap into? Answer all of these questions by sending out an online survey.
Are current members engaged and satisfied? Do they have ample networking opportunities? Are they satisfied with current benefits of membership? Are member events valuable/useful? Would current members recommend membership to their own colleagues? Send out an online survey to find out.
Similar to the use cases noted above, think about what questions you are seeking the answers to, and hone in on specific objectives. Are you trying to determine the quality and effectiveness of a strategic planning session? Or aiming to align staff members' goals to the broader vision of the organization?
Introduce your objective with a brief sentence that provides context. Tell survey takers why you're asking these questions and how their feedback will help, e.g. "Your suggestions will help us to better understand how we can retain and recruit more volunteers."
Test drive your survey with a handful of people who are a representative sample of your intended audience. Consider running your survey by peers or colleagues. This is a good way to figure out if the questions you're asking are the ones that will help you achieve the objectives you've defined.
Maximize your time and operational efficiencies by leveraging SurveyMonkey's methodologist-certified nonprofit survey templates. You'll be able to create your online survey in a matter of minutes. SurveyMonkey also gives you access to the survey tools you need to easily deploy and analyze your nonprofit survey—empowering your entire organization to make smarter decisions. And we take survey security seriously, so rest assured knowing your data and insights are safe with us.
Here at SurveyMonkey, we understand that nonprofits need fewer tasks and expenses, not more. That's why our professional survey methodologists have created lots of nonprofit survey templates that make it easy to gain insights about your donors, volunteers, partners and recipients.
Getting started with your nonprofit survey shouldn't take a lot of time, energy, or money. Just take one of our existing nonprofit survey templates and customize it with your colors, logos, and more—or create your own template just as easily. Creating nonprofit surveys has never been easier, faster, or more fun.
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Surveys give you more than just answers. Get feedback and new perspectives.
Extract and share insights from your data with your team.


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Abstract: Reflections from a Middle Eastern Archaeological Diary
This talk will present personal observations drawn from forty years of archaeological experience in Syria, Iran and especially Turkey, where I worked as student, team member and project director. Dramatic changes in lifestyles, technology and communication during these decades have transformed the way field research is practiced and disseminated. Some intangible aspects of the archaeological experience remain constant, however, and provide a backdrop whose impact -- both light-hearted and serious --must also be acknowledged.
To illustrate the outside forces that affect fieldwork, I will show how personal experience may inspire interpretation in preference to "scientific" determinations. I will consider the frequent disconnect between a project's technological ambitions and their realization; and the role of chance and forces of nature in modifying a field project's results. Finally, I will discuss the manipulation of archaeological research by the public sector, and its impact on excavations, such as occurs in Turkey today.
Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic (for lay reader):
A. Christie, Come Tell Me How You Live (1946)
M.-H. Gates, "Archaeology and the Ancient Near East: Methods and Limits" pp. 65-78 in A Companion to the Ancient Near East [Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World], ed. by D.C. Snell. Oxford: Blackwell (2005)
AIA Tours