text:
Here are aerial shots of all the roundabouts in Assen. The images are taken from Google Maps. If you're interested, you can look for them, with their context, yourself.
Roundabout on ring road. The underpass from South West to North East, nearly as wide as a road, provides direct cycle access to the city centre without having to stop (previously seen here). The cycle path is four metres wide, and next to it (barely visible in the picture) is a two metre pedestrian path. The North-South road is the ring road around Assen. Cyclists are not permitted to use any of the roads in the picture, so not having access to them is not a problem. Going through the underpass is in any case quicker than going around the roundabout. See what the experience is like for cyclists at this roundabout in this video. No crashes of any kind in five years, no injuries. |
North of the city, this roundabout connects the motorway junction with the direct road North. High quality cycle paths go in all directions except onto the motorway. The paths heading North are unbroken for 5.5 km to and through the next village. They have an especially smooth concrete surface which has priority over all side roads and are well separated from the road to and through the next village. At this point there is no pedestrian path as there is little pedestrian traffic. The few people who make this longer walk use the cycle-path. Over five years, there was one incident here where a driver left the road and hit a piece of street furniture. No injuries. |
In a new and as yet undeveloped industrial area, the cycle (red) and pedestrian (grey) paths don't provide access to the road to the North East - towards the motorway junction. Zero incidents. |
The ring road is intersected by direct cycle route to the centre of the city from outlying villages. No recorded incidents here in five years. |
Industrial area. Cycle path approaches from the North, access road continues safe access to the South. To the East is a motorway junction. No cycle access there. No incidents here of any type. |
A junction on the ring road by which cars bypass the older direct route to Assen. No need for bikes to use the road West to East here as this is merely a bypass of the older and more direct route a little further North which remains open to bikes but is no longer usable by car. This roundabout has an extra lane which allows drivers to go from west to east without giving them the option to turn left. This combined with the requirement that cyclists cross two lanes at once makes it more difficult for cyclists to use safely. Happily it is not quite so bad as a turbo roundabout, and it is in any case not a heavily used junction by bike. Three crashes here in five years, none involving injury to drivers, none involving a cyclist. |
An asymmetrical arrangement. The main route is North to East, so the cycle paths are not the same on the west wide. One crash between cars here in five years. No injuries. No cyclists involved. |
In a new residential area, the road to the south west has a 30 km/h speed limit and is relatively lightly used. No crashes here in five years. |
Residential area, cyclists can more easily access homes than motorists can. No crashes here in five years. |
This area to the West is as yet mostly undeveloped. However, the roundabout has been built in preparation for cycle traffic which may appear in the future. No crashes here in five years. |
Between residential areas on the West and the centre of the city, this roundabout is one of the busiest in Assen for cyclists, provides good access by bicycle and has proven to be very safe. Four "fender benders" here where motorists have shunted each other. No injuries, no cyclists involved. Another blog post expands on this this very safe roundabout design detailing all the design features which make it work so well. |
Update 2014: I forgot this one too. Near a large bus-stop with much cycle-parking, it serves many buses as well as many bikes. It's on the main route North from Assen, but as the majority of the traffic travels in a tunnel this doesn't affect the roundabout. This is the site of three collisions in five years, none causing injury and none involving a cyclist. |
Finally, just because someone will probably spot it on a map, there's also this "roundabout" with no obvious cycle facilities. However, actually it's not really a roundabout in the same sense. This is a residential area without through routes for motor vehicles:
This is a small "roundabout" in a residential area. All streets have a 30 km/h speed limit, and are arranged so as not to be through roads for drivers. However, it's not equivalent to the others. These roads are not for through-traffic. This is an example of segregation of modes without cyclepaths. The same rules do not apply. Take a look on streetview. This roundabout had no incidents of any kind in five years. |
To design a Dutch inspired roundabout adopting only the geometry but without cycle paths, as I've seen proposed in the UK, is to very fundamentally miss the point. This is just one of many ways in which what has been achieved in the Netherlands has been misinterpreted elsewhere.
For cycling provision to be able to influence peoples journey choices and encourage a high modal share for cycling, it must be universal and consistent. This way you get adequate subjective safety so that people will cycle. It is never too late to start building such a network, and it won't take as long you think.
Think these designs won't fit your town ?
Roundabouts are only safe for cyclists with relatively low traffic flows and relatively good sight lines.
If you have roundabouts in locations where these roundabout designs wouldn't fit, it's quite likely that those junctions wouldn't be roundabouts at all in the Netherlands. Please read a companion blog post which shows every traffic light junction in Assen, many of which are of the the simultaneous green design - the safest traffic light design for cyclists. This may be a more appropriate design for your location, as could be an attempt to unravel routes.
Safety ?
In Assen, cyclists do not have priority where cycle-paths cross roads approaching roundabouts. This has been shown to be safer than the design used in some other parts of the Netherlands where cycle-paths have priority over the road crossing. Whether or not to give cyclists priority has long been a contentious subject because of this balance between safety and convenience. There is a big contrast between the safest designs and the least safe.
2014 update
Since this blog post was written, Assen has built one new roundabout in a residential area which is very similar to the tenth example above complete with similar cycling infrastructure and begun construction of a turbo-roundabout. Turbo roundabouts are a special kind of roundabout designed to deal with high volume of motor vehicles. They are not intended to be used by cyclists. Assen's new turbo roundabout is being built to cater for a new motorway junction well away from any cycle routes. It is not easy even to approach by bike.
2015 update
One roundabout in the city has been removed and two more constructed. One of the two new roundabouts is of a poor design, with no proper place for cyclists to wait between the two streams of traffic:
cycle-priority junction here which had effective devices to prevent motor vehicles from cutting the corner and it had a perfect safety record so far as cyclists were concerned. This roundabout is too new to yet have any statistics associated with it.
Outside the city, another turbo roundabout has been constructed south of Assen, again this is not intended for the use of cyclists, and other roundabouts of the safe design for use of cyclists have also been constructed near the TT track.
Update 2018 - a new roundabout
While other works have been ongoing, a temporary roundabout was constructed in Assen with cycle priority. i.e. the dangerous design. Unsurprisingly, there were injuries at the temporary roundabout. The new design which will permanently take its place has now been made public and this is a return to a variant of the safe roundabout designs which Assen has elsewhere in the city. No two locations are identical and therefore no two roundabouts are identical either (all the designs above differ). This new roundabout will be unlike all the others, and it does involve a bit of a compromise due to having to fit into a 1960s road design including a tunnel which will not be rebuilt. However this design keeps all the important features which ensure safety:
Cycle-paths for single direction travel in red, bidirectional in green and bidirectional crossings in blue. Note that this design never requires any cyclist to cross the road more than once. The most awkward part of the design is a consequence of the layout of these roads: Cyclists coming into the city (right to left) who have passed through the tunnel will have to make a sharp right turn before turning left to cross the road to continue into the city centre. This is slightly awkward but should be safe. Cyclists heading out of the city left to right will be able to cycle straight through without stopping at all. Note that cyclists do have priority over the road to the south, but this will not be busy: It is to become an exit only for cars from a few residential streets. |
Overall I think this is a very good redesign of this junction. It's slightly inconvenient for cyclists heading from east to west, but safer than the existing situation. For cyclists heading west to east it's both more convenient and safer. Use of bidirectional cycle-paths helps to reduce the frequency with which cyclists have to cross the road, which is when they are exposed to danger. Overall this is a plus for Assen cyclists.


text:
Scientists have discovered possibly the earliest signs of life on Earth—remains of bacteria that are almost 3.5 billion years old—in a remote region of north-west Australia.
Evidence of the complex microbial ecosystem was found in sedimentary rocks in the remote Pilbara region in Western Australia, an area which contains some of the world's oldest rock formations.
One of the researchers, David Wacey, from the University of Western Australia, said the newly discovered evidence of bacteria "was possibly the oldest signs of life on Earth.
"There was plenty of life from the 3.4 and 3.43 billion-year-old mark – this is pushing it further back," he told The Telegraph.
"There are slightly older claims of life in rocks in Greenland—but the rocks there have been so deformed that it is very difficult to tell if what you are seeing was actually there in the first place. With these microbial systems in the Pilbara, you can see these things in the field and under the microscope. You can see how the bacteria were interacting with the sediment they were living on."
Professor Wacey said it was no longer possible to see the actual cells, but the scientists had discovered the marks left behind by large clusters, or mats, of microbes. The traces were discovered in a body of rock called the Dresser Foundation, near the town of Port Hedland.
"We don't see the microbe themselves but we large scale structures that the microbes constructed before they died," he said.
"We see tufts and wrinkles and – when we look down the microscope – we see filaments tangled in sand grains. We are also seeing organic material which are the actual microbes but they are decomposed to the point that we cannot see an actual cell. You just see a mass of carbon-rich material." The team of scientists from Australia and the United States believes the findings may help with the search for life on other planets.
"There are applications for searching for life elsewhere and knowing what to look for," Professor Wacey said.
"These microbial mats could be seen by a Mars rover... It also helps with our understanding of when life first evolved and what sort of environment it evolved in and putting firm dates on when some pretty important things happened. Ultimately, we are looking for when that soup of chemicals became something that could be called life." The findings have been published in the journal Astrobiology.
More From The Telegraph:
- 'Strongest evidence yet of life on Mars'
- 'Oldest living thing on earth' found
- World's oldest and biggest trees 'dying out'
This article by Jonathan Pearlman was first published by The Telegraph.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Serviços Personalizados
Links relacionados
- Citado por Google
- Similares em Google
SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
versão On-line ISSN 2078-5135
versão impressa ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.100 no.2 Pretoria Fev. 2010
Bridging the divide anthropologist/sangoma challenges delegates
With nearly 80% of South Africans first seeking help from Amagqirha (isiXhosa for traditional diviner-healers) before seeing Western medicine practitioners, collaboration across the healing divide holds huge promise for stemming the AIDS tide.
Dr Jo Wreford, an anthropologist, architect and qualified sangoma, told delegates at the 5th Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA) conference at Gallagher Estate on 2 December last year that accredited traditional healers who were qualified in HIV counselling were already making a difference.
The petite University of Cape Town lecturer has been working with 2nd- and 4th-year medical students in the hope of helping them bridge the cultural divide to create more effective outcomes, especially around HIV/AIDS. She cited the HOPE Cape Town Isangoma Pilot Project, based at Tygerberg Hospital, in which community health workers worked alongside Amagqirha over 6 weeks, giving the latter a solid biomedical understanding of HIV/AIDS, and HIV counselling training, before returning to work in 3 local township communities. The aim was to encourage crossreferrals, incorporate voluntary counselling, promote testing and reinforce HAART adherence via the traditional healers' practices.
So far just 3 of the traditional healers had referred a total of 255 clients, half of them men, to local clinics and hospitals for HIV testing and treatment, providing a small but powerful illustration of what was possible on a wider scale.
Wreford said the scales were strongly tipped in favour of Western medicine in South Africa, with the differing bodies of knowledge and understanding highly contested and traditional healing viewed in a negative light by most doctors.
Mutual respect and understanding will reap benefits
The amount of blaming that went on around some traditional medicine practices had given the Amagqirha a very poor reputation, whereas an approach seeking mutual respect and understanding could reap potent health care benefits.
The traditional healers she had worked with had shown great creativity in adapting a consulting session or Ukhuvumisa (to allow or channel), known for its more dogmatic directive approach, into effective HIV/AIDS counselling.
She cited the case of an anxious woman who had recently tested HIV positive and approached a healer for advice on getting her boyfriend, still ignorant of her status, to go for a test.
The igQirha persuaded the woman to bring her boyfriend for a session at which she explained that 'sometimes diseases were hidden' and that by testing his blood he could begin to know what was going on in his body. She suggested that after the test they return to her to ask the ancestors what they wanted them to do about it.
Wreford said this traditional healer had exhibited an uncanny ability to use the 'technology of hiding and finding' in an Ukhuvumisa session so that, once science had revealed what was hidden, the ancestors could help.
'She then told them that if they both used condoms and took their pills they could both die of old age, exercising the authority invested in her status to persuade the pair of the biomedical message.'
Wreford told her highly attentive audience that both systems could work together in an inclusive and pragmatic approach. The couple she cited had promised the traditional healer that they would return for further counselling because she had given them the 'spirit and courage' to have an HIV test.
'We know that clients will go to a clinic for tests via the diviners' advice and that they will return to the diviners who have, as they so movingly say, given them spirit. The loss of spirit is to make oneself vulnerable to illness and death,' she explained. Therefore, from both the healer and the clients' perspective, divination had the power to reconnect the couple to the 'agency of their predecessors'.
She was brought in by UCT to provide a different perspective and saw her role as helping students to understand as much as they could about 'what else is going on' when a client came to see them.
Patients seek 'deeper answers'
She explained that the majority of South Africans consulted traditional healers because they were seeking deeper answers as to why they were sick.
'Their thinking goes, "why me, why now", and that's important to appreciate (as a Western doctor).'
In the Western Cape many HIV-positive patients with CD4 cell counts well below 200 presented to a clinic or hospital and are offered ARVs.
The doctor or nurse would then explain about ARVs, nutrition and adherence and send them away with follow-up visits scheduled.
'What concerns me is what then may be going on in the patient's mind. For example, if a small infection returns they might think they didn't consult sufficiently with their ancestors and return to an Igqirha to find out what's really happening. Now if that traditional healer understands the science of HIV medicine they won't undermine the HIV regimen,' she added.
Wreford said her primary purpose was to create collaboration between the two paradigms to obtain 'mutually respectful dialogue'.
'My experience to date suggests that although traditional healers are quite open to collaboration with Western medicine in terms of HIV, Western medicine tends to close the door on their understandings. We have a one-way revolving door which cancels out the knowledge that is in the minds of 80% of our population.'
Chris Bateman


text:
Fashion's Night Out: A Minor Ordeal
LatestYou know how Hieronymus Bosch portrayed hell? Okay, picture that, add the Olsen Twins and three dudes in a box dressed as Ken dolls, and you have a good idea of last night's Fashion's Night Out karaoke at Barneys.
Let me first say that I was totally psyched for this. When I heard that FNO was going to involve karaoke, and was going to be judged by none other than Simon Doonan, Tavi, Mary Kate and Ashley and Liya Kedebe, I started practicing my "Wuthering Heights" karaoke in front of the mirror. I didn't care so much about the prizes, from the Row or Proenza Schouler, but I love karaoke and liked the idea of communing with my fellow fashionistas over a little Kate Bush.
I'd somehow forgotton that Fashion's Night Out combines all the worst things in the world, taunts you with the promise of free booze, and is instead a fangs-bared feeding frenzy of long lines, short lists and limited quantities. It makes you feel bad in about ten different ways: mad at yourself for buying into the hype, at everyone else for buying into the hype, at officious bouncers for making you feel bad, at society, at false inclusivity and real exclusivity, and several others relating to uncomfortable shoes and bad music, all of which again come back to you, who could have been sitting at home watching old White Collar episodes. I'd recruited my boyfriend for the evening and donned a felt hat. We pre-gamed at Banana Republic, where he downed a tray of proseccos and, in addition to discounts, they proferred chocolates on sticks. Next we drank Asahi and ginger ale at the Gap; accidentally heard Train performing on 5th Avenue; ate a mini croque monsieur at Henri Bendel, danced a little at Swarovski, saw a dog show at Bergdorf's, skipped their karaoke competition and, oh yeah, saw this:
Spirits were running high: the streets swarmed with fashionistas, aspiring fashionistas, and large parties of teens in from Long Island and New Jersey. ("I MET MICHAEL KORS!" screamed one, elated.) Everyone was in at least 4″ heels, although the skill-level varied greatly. One girl may or may not have been wearing a party hat. There was a party atmosphere, as if a team had won, except we were just celebrating shopping and ourselves. After stopping for a quick crepe at La Bonne Soupe, hied our way over to Barneys. I'd known it would be a shit show, but jeez louise. The karaoke, we were told, was on Floor 5. But when we got there (having passed the fashion dollmaker, the celebrity appearances and the ping-pong competition) not only were half the escalators down, but Floor 5 was full and they wouldn't let anyone in. I'm a bad wheedler, but Kate Bush was on the line. I tried 5 security guards and three alternate routes that I thought were crafty but obviously weren't since guards were stationed near all of them. I felt somewhat better, also worse, when i saw one of my favorite fashion personalities being subjected to the same indignity. I collapsed in despair somewhere outside the men's room. Finally, after about 45 minutes of this, we managed to get in, I am not proud to tell you, by sprinting through an employees-only passage while the manager's back was turned. Then we were in the midst of it, and if I believed in hell, this glimpse of it would be enough to out me on the straight and narrow.
It was mobbed. And oddly full of children. Everyone was near-hysterical and the press of bodies was overwhelming and periodically, guards would shout at people and push us back like we were May Day protestors or something. Seeing anything was out of the question, let alone getting close to the mic. I hated humanity.
At some point, I guess the Olsens materialized, because everyone flipped out and started screaming and waving phones. Then the karaoke began, although this only added to the chaos. It soon developed that, Idol-style, people would only get a chance to sing a couple of minutes — which was, I thought, particularly unfair to the woman singing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." (In the case of "Like A Prayer," this was actually a blessing in disguise, as those of us who've sung it, and lost the audience arounf minute 4, know all too well.) In my opinion, "Crazy" (Patsy Cline, not Gnarls Barkley) deserved the swag, but it was so chaotic, and the performances so brief, that it was hard to say. I decided I would not have won, but was still upset. So I went to the hat department and performed "Wuthering Heights." No one was that into it.
Then after leaving, bruised and exhausted, and dragging ourselves to the E, we heard this woman singing "God Bless the Child" on the platform.
Definitely the evening's hilight.


text:
RCD2136 - Colin Stetson & Mats Gustafsson: Stones (CD)
In the history of jazz and improvisation the saxophone duet is remarkably rare. Sax players tend to lock horns with drummers, bassists, trumpeters, even cellists and violinists, but rarely with each other. But here to blow that convention out of the water come two of the planet's most uncompromising and inventive young hornithologists, Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Mats Gustafsson has perfected the art of the vein-popping, no-compromise blowout, and has appeared with Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke, improvising legends Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark. His own free jazz power trio The Thing recently released the acclaimed Cherry Thing album with Neneh Cherry; while his Fire! trio with Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin have released three albums on Rune Grammofon. The four tracks on Stones were recorded live on stage at the 2011 Vancouver Jazz Festival. Miraculously, this explosive encounter was also their first meeting. "It was completely magic", remembers Mats. "All was there, the communication, the interaction, the music, the mystery..." This is fire music that smoulders in the dark. Perhaps this will give the sax duo a new lease of life. After all, as Mats says, there's "No escape... nothing to hide... you just need to go out there and interact!"
Also available as a limited vinyl edition of 500 with a CD of the whole album.
Released 09.11.12


text:
Skaff Furniture Carpet One Floor & Home has decided to thank their community for its long-time support by launching a new on-line program that will be in place through the holidays to aid selected area charities.
The new initiative is called Save & Share. Through this program, customers can purchase a $150 gift certificate for $50. For each gift certificate sold, Skaff Carpet One will donate $25 to a local charity.
Participating customers can choose from three local charities - Carriage Town Ministries, The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, and Whaley's Children Center.
To learn more about this initiative, please visit Skaff Carpet One's website.
Thank you for contacting Carpet One Floor & Home. Your local flooring expert will reach out to you regarding your inquiry.


text:
It appears that you have Cookies and/or Scripting Disabled in your browser settings. Please enable Cookies and Active Scripting and try again.
Free you mind and forget your troubles when this array of garden plants with a touch of colorful blooms enters your life on pure surprise! Its time to shine because inside every adult is child caught Playing in the Garden.


text:
We offer a large selection of 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles online from dozens of manufacturers in dozens of themes. Jigsaw Puzzles around 1000 puzzle pieces are great to put together with a little help from friends and family, or test your skills all on your own! Some of our most popular puzzles in this size come from popular brands such as Ravensburger, Sunsout, and White Mountain, and 1000 piece puzzles are available in a wide variety of themes, including wildlife, Christmas, Large Piece and many more! 1000 piece puzzles for adults and kids that are ideal for framing and gluing to display upon completion! To find out more about how to do so, visit our handy tutorial page! We also offer a wide variety of glue products and frames to help you!
With hundreds of puzzles in our inventory, we have piece counts from 25 to over 3,000 pieces. Need something more specific than piece count? We also carry different types of puzzles, from 3D puzzles to large piece puzzles that are easy-to-grasp for those puzzlers that may need those larger pieces. You can check out more of the different type puzzles we carry by going to our all puzzles page or, if you want a puzzle for a specific interest, we have you covered! We've broken everything into categories, from Animals to Hobbies, to help you find what you want. Start shopping now by searching for puzzles by theme!
Puzzle Warehouse is here to give you the best experience and to help create memories that will last a lifetime! Whether you're shopping for 1000 piece puzzles or want a special theme, we have a puzzle for everyone.
Copyright © 2008-2024, Puzzle Warehouse, All rights reserved.
Puzzle Warehouse recycles everything it can to save the environment and to keep costs and prices low.
We are hiring! Please fill out the employment form or send your resume to email@example.com.


text:
Chemo Bamboo Turban
Available in various colours Stylish l head wraps for women made out with 95% Breathable Bamboo, 5% viscose. Easy to fit on head size. Embroidery with stones and Jewels is…
Available in various colours Stylish l head wraps for women made out with 95% Breathable Bamboo, 5% viscose. Easy to fit on head size. Embroidery with stones and Jewels is…
69 Halsey St, Ny 10002, New York, United States
(0091) 8547 632521
Seth Sons (India) a vertically integrated manufacture of yarn – Textile – Fashion.
We are a make to order company providing customised bespoke before Manufacturing of
Being a ISO 9001-2008 Certified Company, we provide quality products & Assist our customers with conceputization of the products to final sellable products!
Your "U" & "S", Make us a preferred make to order Supplier
MOO : We are more than happy to provide a minimum trial runs to provide a cost effective – experiment friendly product development !
Such that the customer can implement his product idea / requirement with the lowest sampling cost before proceeding for bulk production!
Catalogs: Our Friendly sales staff , always cater to the customer queries with a smile & Building confidence of the customers by sending counter samples , catalogs etc to make sure that the customer is satisfied by his selection of "us" as there preferred production partners !
Production: We believe in "long term ", legal & Strategic partnership or contracts "with numerous certified & quality spinning – weaving – processing.
Few of the projects handled for our client
Please Drop us a email on "email@example.com" to help us revolve/ develop along with you as a team / US & to know the projects we have handled in your country / Region!


text:
BYOD in the Workplace: Pros vs. Cons
Many modern companies are now implementing BYOD policies that permit employees to work with their personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Bring your own device (BYOD) to work. Who would have thought, even twenty short years ago, that you could use a little phone to do business instead of a big clunky computer? That's today's reality and tomorrow's norm. However, with this new wave of change in the workplace, there comes many risks and rewards to both employers and employees.
Bring your own device programs can be broken down into three important areas of review.
- Determining which software applications are required to manage devices connecting to the network.
- Preparing a written policy outlining the responsibilities of both the employer and users.
- Ensuring users sign an agreement acknowledging that they read and understand the policy.
This is where things get tricky. You can create all the policies you want. Write them up and discuss them until you're blue in the face, but how do you truly enforce them? The answer is that you can't. You can't control what employees do even if they sign an agreement on usage. So, it stands to reason that you must be very careful when hiring employees. Trust is crucial. You must be able to count on your staff to do the right thing all the time.
Asking people to use their own devices certainly offers several advantages. It can lower company costs and improve efficiency and effectiveness. Mark Coates, a VP at Good Technology notes that "By enabling employees to securely and easily access corporate data on their own device, productivity levels will naturally increase. In terms of cost savings, there are huge benefits, since SMBs will not have to manage and fund a second device for employees".
Tony Bradley of PC World states that "when companies embrace BYOD policies, they have advantages over competitors. Some of these advantages being lower costs to the company since employees already own these devices and employee satisfaction and familiarity with the devices. Obviously, they'd rather use the devices they love rather than being stuck with laptops and mobile devices that are selected and issued by the IT department".
On the other hand, the obvious cons are trying to control private and sensitive information. Data breaches can and have occurred. Software and hardware are replaceable, but company data is not. In a BYOD workplace, organizations lose much of the control over the equipment and how it's used. After all, how do you tell an employee what they can and can't do with their own laptop or smartphone? Company-issued devices, on the other hand, are protected by company-issued security that is controlled by the IT department.
Advice is being offered to companies considering a BYOD policy via government guidelines. The US Department of Commerce's NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology, has the following to say.
Teleworkers who use a BYOD desktop or laptop (PC) for telework should secure their operating system and primary applications.
Securing a BYOD PC includes the following actions:
- Using a combination of security software, such as antivirus software, personal firewalls, spam and web-content filtering, and popup blocking, to stop most attacks, particularly malware.
- Restricting who can use the PC by having a separate standard user account for each person, assigning a password to each user account, using the standard user accounts for daily use, and protecting user sessions from unauthorized physical access.
- Ensuring that updates are regularly applied to the operating system and primary applications, such as web browsers, email clients, instant-messaging clients, and security software.
- Disabling unneeded networking features on the PC and configuring wireless networking securely.
- Configuring primary applications to filter content and stop other activity that is likely to be malicious.
- Installing and using only known and trusted software.
- Configuring remote access software based on the organization's requirements and recommendations.
- Maintaining the PC's security on an ongoing basis, such as changing passwords regularly and checking the status of security software periodically.
Teleworkers who use a BYOD mobile device for telework should secure it based on the security recommendations from the device's manufacturer.
- Limit access to the device, such as setting a unique personal identification number (PIN) or password not used elsewhere, and automatically lock a device after an idle period.
- Disable networking capabilities, such as Bluetooth and Near Field Communication (NFC), except when they are needed.
- Ensure that security updates, if available, are acquired and installed at least weekly, preferably daily.
- Configure applications to support security (e.g., blocking activity that is likely to be malicious).
- Download and run apps only from authorized apps stores.
- Do not jailbreak or root the device.
- Do not connect the device to an unknown charging station.
- Use an isolated, protected, and encrypted environment that is supported and managed by the organization to access data and services.
They go on to say, "Sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information (PII) (e.g., personnel records, medical records, financial records), that is stored on or sent to or from telework devices needs to be protected so that malicious parties cannot access or alter it. An unauthorized release of sensitive information could damage the public's trust in an organization, jeopardize the organization's mission, or harm individuals if their personal information has been released".
As you can see, a lot of thought needs to go into deciding whether this practice is right for your workplace. If you're still not sure, check out the link below for a detailed graphic checklist.
Client Success
"I have an offsite assistant, and all of my files (drawer-upon-drawer of them) are now available. The ability to load documents from the offsite location, and have them [available] for me exactly when I need them is the great benefit of the SaveYourData software,"
The Michaud Group


text:
The idea for a tool to probe the basis of consciousness came to Gordon G. Gallup, Jr. while shaving. "It just occurred to me," he says, "wouldn't it be interesting to see if other creatures could recognize themselves in mirrors?"
Showing chimpanzees their reflections seemed like a fascinating little experiment when he first tried it in the summer of 1969. He didn't imagine that this would become one of the most influential—and most controversial—tests in comparative psychology, ushering the mind into the realm of experimental science and foreshadowing questions on the depth of animal suffering. "It's not the ability to recognize yourself in a mirror that is important," he would come to believe. "It's what that says about your ability to conceive of yourself in the first place."
Gallup was a new professor at Tulane University in Louisiana, where he had access to the chimps and gorillas at what would later be known as the Tulane National Primate Research Center. The chimpanzees there had been caught as youngsters in Africa and shipped to America, where they were used mainly in biomedical research. By comparison, his experiment was far less invasive. He isolated two chimps in cages, and placed a mirror in each cage for eight hours at a time over 10 days. Through a hole in the wall, Gallup witnessed a shift in the chimps' behavior. First they treated the reflection like it was another chimp, with a combination of social, sexual, and aggressive gestures. But over time, they started using it to explore their own bodies. "They'd use the mirror to look at the inside of their mouths, to make faces at the mirror, to inspect their genitals, to remove mucous from the corner of their eyes," Gallup says.
Gallup was sure that the chimps had learned to recognize themselves in the mirror, but he didn't trust that other researchers would be convinced by his descriptions. So he moved on to phase two of the experiment. He anesthetized the chimps, then painted one eyebrow ridge and the opposite ear tip with a red dye that the chimps wouldn't be able to feel or smell. If they truly recognized themselves, he thought he knew what would happen: "It seemed pretty obvious that if I saw myself in a mirror with marks on my face, that I'd reach up and inspect those marks."
That's exactly what the chimps did. As far as Gallup was concerned, that was proof: "the first experimental demonstration of a self-concept in a subhuman form," he wrote in the resulting 1970 report in Science. "It was just clear as day," he remembers. "It didn't require any statistics. There it was. Bingo."
But the result that really blew Gallup's mind came when he tested monkeys, and discovered that they did not do the same. The ability to recognize one's reflection seemed not to be a matter of learning abilities, with some species being slower than others. It was an issue of higher intellectual capacity. Gallup had obtained the first good evidence that our closest relatives share with us a kind of self-awareness or even consciousness, to the exclusion of other animals. Here, finally, was an experimental handle on a topic that had been the subject of speculation for millennia: What is the nature of human consciousness?
Gallup wasn't the first to come up with the notion that it might be significant if a person or animal recognizes itself in the mirror. He would only later learn that Charles Darwin had shown mirrors to orangutans, but they didn't figure the mirror out, at least while he was watching. Darwin had also noted that, for their first few years, his children couldn't recognize themselves in their reflections. In 1889, German researcher Wilhelm Preyer became the first to posit a connection between mirror self-recognition and an inner sense of self in people.
More than 50 years later, French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan conceived of a childhood "mirror stage," in which mirrors contribute to the formation of the ego. By 1972, developmental psychologists started using mark tests similar to Gallup's to pin down the age at which children begin to recognize themselves in the mirror: 18 to 24 months.
Meanwhile Gallup, who moved to the University at Albany-SUNY, became interested in whether any non-primates could pass. In the early 1990s, he encouraged one of his Ph.D. students, Lori Marino, to explore the question. Working with Diana Reiss at Marine World Africa USA in California, Marino exposed two bottlenose dolphins at an aquarium to a mirror. Like the chimpanzees, the dolphins learned to use the mirror in a variety of ways, even "having sex in front of the mirror with each other, which we call our dolphin porno tapes," Marino says. The three researchers published the results, saying they were "suggestive" of mirror self-recognition.
Still, they were missing the crucial mark test for another decade. The biggest hurdle was anatomical: The dolphins didn't have hands to touch a mark. But Reiss and Marino, by then at the New York Aquarium, designed a modified test. When marked with black ink on various parts of their bodies, the dolphins flipped and wriggled in an attempt to see it, convincing the researchers and many others that they recognized themselves.
For Reiss and Marino, the dolphin study was not only convincing, it was a call to action. They and others argue that passing the mirror test indicates a level of self-awareness that makes it unethical to keep a species in captivity. "These animals have at least some level of self-awareness, and if they do, they know where they are, they can be aware of the limitations of their physical environment," Marino says. She is now the science director for the Nonhuman Rights Project, which is attempting to gain legal rights for animals with higher-order cognitive abilities by getting courts to recognize them as "legal persons," and Reiss advocates for dolphin protection. Key to their arguments is the scientific evidence that chimps, elephants, cetaceans, and other animals are self-aware like humans. Not only can they suffer, but they can think to themselves, I am suffering.
Gallup, now in his 70s, mainly stays away from advocacy work but he likes to philosophize about what exactly mirror self-recognition shows, and why that capability might have evolved. Clearly, it has little to do with mirrors since aside from the occasional still pond, our distant ancestors would never have encountered their reflections. He's come to the conclusion that a pass of the mirror test indicates a profound level of consciousness that includes animals' ability to contemplate their own thoughts and experiences as well as to imagine what others could be thinking and experiencing. This ability is called "theory of mind."
For support, he points to the fact that children start to demonstrate theory of mind at roughly around the same time that they start to recognize themselves in the mirror. "You have to be aware of yourself in the first place in order to begin to take into account what other people may know, want, or intend to do," he says. He notes that people with schizophrenia often cannot recognize themselves in the mirror, and they struggle with theory of mind as well. For example, compared to controls, schizophrenic individuals were less likely to understand a request hidden in a husband's statement to his wife, "I want to wear that blue shirt, but it's very creased."
Povinelli calls this reasoning "folk psychology"—unscientific inferences made based on our own human experiences.
Gallup suggests that a powerful sense of self may have evolved because it helped great apes deal with complex social situations. "Intellectual prowess supplanted physical prowess as a means of achieving dominance," he says. And, he suggests that strong self-awareness may also entail death-awareness. "The next step, it seems to me logically, is to confront and eventually grapple with the inevitability of your own individual demise," he says.
As for why dolphins and other non-primates recognize themselves in mirrors, Gallup isn't yet convinced they do. He suggests an alternative explanation for why his former student's dolphins wriggled in the mirror: to see marks on what they perceived as another dolphin peering back at them. And he requires replication of recent studies finding that elephants use their trunks to touch white crosses on their foreheads, and magpies dislodge stickers on their chests with their beaks.
Then there are researchers who discount whether the mirror test says anything about theory of mind in any animal, including humans. Most notably, Gallup's mentee, Daniel Povinelli. Like a son who witnesses his father's foibles and decides to become his opposite, Povinelli, now at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, has become one Gallup's most outspoken critics, even as they remain close on a personal level. He's come to believe that a chimp doesn't need to have an integrated sense of self in order to pass the mirror test. Instead, it needs only to notice that the body in the mirror looks and moves the same as its own body, and then make the connection that if there's a spot on the body in the mirror, there could also be a spot on its own body. That ability would still be pretty sophisticated, Povinelli adds, and it might reflect a keen awareness of the position of body parts that would likely be very helpful for swinging through trees. Indeed, he speculates that this high-level physical self-awareness may have developed when our tree-dwelling ancestors increased in size and faced more challenges while navigating their branchy, leafy world.
Povinelli's concerns stretch to other landmark studies on theory of mind in chimps, such as those that document how a subordinate chimp refrained from hidden food when she watched a dominant chimp see researchers hide the food. The authors of this study argued that this was because the subordinate chimp reasoned about what the dominant chimp had seen and what it would do. Combined with results from other experiments, they concluded that chimps can "understand both the goals and intentions of others as well as the perception and knowledge of others," and they can predict the action that will result.
But Povinelli calls this reasoning "folk psychology"—unscientific inferences made based on our own human experiences. The subordinate chimp doesn't have to know the dominant's mind, he says, all she has to know is to avoid interfering with the dominant chimp.
To apply Povinelli's logic to humans, we may think deep, reflective thoughts when using a mirror to brush our teeth, but that doesn't mean that the part of the brain that's using the mirror to direct our toothbrush is the same part of the brain that's contemplating the self. Those two abilities may develop at the same time in children, but that does not mean that they're related, much less one and the same.
Povinelli's critiques aside, most comparative psychologists say there's something to mirror recognition, not least because it's only been observed in intellectually superior animals. Neuroscientists are now trying to shed light on the matter by searching for a physical basis for the ability in the brain. Although they haven't found a clear signal yet, Gallup remains undeterred. After nearly 45 years of fending off challengers, he is not likely to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and change his mind.
Chelsea Wald is a freelance science writer who contributes to Science and Nature. She lives with her reflection in Vienna, Austria.
Dolphin clip courtesy of Diana Reiss
Kitten clip originally from Kayley D.
Puppy clip originally from John E. Lester
Baboon clip originally from Srinivas Kumar
Magpie clip originally from Helmut Prior, Ariane Schwarz, & Onur Güntürkün
Chimpanzee and gibbon clips originally from Thomas Suddendorf


text:
Netbook to die off 2015, says iSuppli
The netbook is on life support and the industry is just about to pull the plug, according to a forecast by IHS iSuppli.
For 2013, netbook shipments are expected to fall to 3.97 million units, down 72 percent from 14.13 million in 2012. In 2010, netbook shipments hit a high of 32.14 million.
IHS iSuppli's bet is that the netbook will be extinct by 2015 as units drop to 264,000 in 2014 before going to zero.
It's obvious what happened---Apple's iPad. The netbook wasn't powerful enough to be a real laptop, but did have a run for budget conscious tech buyers looking for good enough computing. These devices also weren't portable enough to compete with tablets. In other words, the netbook was just a transition device to the post-PC era.
IHS iSuppli noted:
From the supply end of production, the major original equipment manufacturers of notebooks will have already terminated netbook production at this point. Whatever production is left is expected to be limited, or manufacturers will simply be shipping last-time builds to satisfy contractual obligations to customers.
So long netbook.


text:
Murray Monster is a Sesame Street monster who hosts two regular segments, "The Word of the Day" and "Murray Has a Little Lamb".
An energetic monster, his early talk spots with kids in Season 36, often discussed the importance of exercise and healthy habits with young visitors.
Although unnamed, the character was referred to on the set as "FilFil," as his design is based on that of Filfil from Alam Simsim. Beginning in Season 38, he gained an identity as Murray, hosting the "What's the Word on the Street?" segments that precede each episode of Sesame Street. In season 39, he began appearing in his own segment, Murray Has a Little Lamb, where he goes to a certain school with his pet lamb, Ovejita. In season 40, he started serving as a host of the new "block format", presenting the letter and number of the day, introducing upcoming sketches within the episodes, and announcing the sponsors. Murray was given a new segment in Season 42, Murray's Science Experiments, which are spread through the tune-ins. He is again with Ovejita.
He hosts the Sesame Street Podcast and appeared as one of the reporters for ESSN (Ernie's Sports Show News) on Count on Sports.
In a Tough Pigs interview, performer Joey Mazzarino said of Murray: "I kinda keep Murray like, who's the guy on Fraggle Rock? Uncle Traveling Matt. Because I feel like he goes out into the real world, and when we put him onto the street, there's just a million characters who can service this.[1]"
- Murray Monster
Book appearances[]
- What's the Word on the Street? (2008)
- Love, Elmo (2009)
- Healthy Monster Triathlon (2010)
- Murray's First Book of Words (2010)
- Abby's Pink Party (2011)
- Elmo Doodle Dandy (2011)
- Elmo's Merry Christmas (2011)
- Grouches Are Green (2011)
- I Can Make Words (2011)
- Imagine with Elmo (2011)
- Opposite Day (2011)
- Elmo and Ernie's Joke Book (2012)
- In a deleted interview scene for What's the Word on the Street?, used in a Behind the Scenes spot on the Sesame Street website, Murray alludes to an as-of-yet-unseen superhero alter ego.
- In the resource video Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration, Murray reveals that his uncle was incarcerated when he was little.
- The first variant of Murray is extremely rare on the show, but has appeared on the "What's the Word on the Street" sketch "Impostor".
External links[]
- ↑ Mazzarino, Joey Tough Pigs interview
This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Muppet Wiki. The list of authors can be seen in the page revision history (view authors). As with Fictional Characters Wiki, the text of Muppet Wiki is available under the CC-by-SA Free Documentation License. |


text:
Starting with collections from Love and Rockets and Gary Numan, the archival arm of Beggars Banquet this spring will launch a new series of five-album catalog box sets designed to help keep "slower selling titles" in print, an effort the label acknowledges "may be the last chance to present the albums as physical releases in the foreseeable future."
The 5 Albums box sets from Love and Rockets and Gary Numan are each due out May 13, along with a collection from former Transglobal Underground singer Natacha Atlas, are due out May 13. Collections from Bauhaus, The Fall, The Charlatans, The Icicle Works, Gene Loves Jezebel, Fields of the Nephilim and Buffalo Tom are expected to follow in spring and summer.
On its blog, Beggars Archive explains the series:
"With limited rack space available, few stores can stock artist's catalogues in depth. Equally it's increasingly difficult for labels to justify manufacturing the slower selling titles. Most acts have one or two titles in their catalogue that sell regularly but it's invertible that other titles have a more limited demand. To combat this, and keep albums available digitally in a higher sound quality format, Beggars Archive is introducing a series of 5 Album CD box sets. We're aware this may be the last chance to present the albums as physical releases in the foreseeable future, so the sets are targeted at both fans and casual buyers who are interested in the artists but may not know their work in depth."
The label notes that, depending on the status of digital masters, some of the sets — packaged in clamshell boxes, with CDs in vinyl replica wallets — will include remastered CDs with additional bonus material, including unreleased tracks where available. And in some cases, such as the Love and Rockets box set, entirely new compilations will be put together.
The new Love and Rockets set collects the band's '80s albums — Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven, Express, Earth.Sun.Moon and Love and Rockets, each with bonus tracks from previous reissues — plus a new compilation called Assorted! that features the Swing! and Bubblemen EPs, six live tracks, a stray B-side and the previously unreleased song "Sorted."
As for the Numan box, that set collects three early '80s albums — Dance, I, Assassin and Warriors, all with previous bonus material — and the 2CD live album Living Ornaments '81.
Full tracklists below.
Tracklist: Love and Rockets, 5 Albums
CD 1: Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
1. "If There's A Heaven Above"
2. "A Private Future"
3. "The Dog-End Of A Day Gone By"
4. "The Game"
5. "Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven"
6. "Haunted When The Minutes Drag"
7. "Saudade"
Bonus tracks:
8. "Ball Of Confusion" (UK Mix)
9. "Inside The Outside"
10. "If THere's A Heaven Above" (12" Mix)
11. "God And Mr. Smith"
12. "Haunted When The Minutes Drag" (USA Edit)
13. "If There's A Heaven Above" (Canada Mix)
CD 2: Express
1. "It Could Be Sunshine"
2. "Kundalini Express"
3. "All In My Mind"
4. "Life In Laralay"
5. "Yin And Yang (The Flowerpot Man)"
6. "Love Me"
7. "All In My Mind" (Acoustic Version)
8. "An American Dream"
Bonus tracks:
9. "Angels And Devils"
10. "Holiday On The Moon"
11. "Lucifer Sam"
12. "B-Side No. 1"
13. "B-Side No. 2"
14. "Yin And Yang (The Flowerpot Man)" (Remix)
15. "Ball Of Confusion" (USA Mix)
CD 3: Earth.Sun.Moon
1. "Mirror People"
2. "The Light"
3. "Welcome Tomorrow"
4. "No New Tale To Tell"
5. "Here On Earth"
6. "Lazy"
7. "Waiting For The Flood"
8. "Rain Bird"
9. "The Telephone Is Empty"
10. "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven"
11. "Earth, Sun, Moon"
12. "Youth"
Bonus track:
13. "Mirror People" (Slow Version)
CD 4: Love and Rockets
1. "**** (Jungle Law)"
2. "No Big Deal"
3. "The Purest Blue"
4. "Motorcycle"
5. "I Feel Speed"
6. "Bound For Hell"
7. "The Teardrop Collector"
8. "So Alive"
9. "Rock And Roll Babylon"
10. "No Words No More"
Bonus tracks:
11. "Bike"
12. "Bikedance"
13. "No Big Deal" (12" Remix)
14. "Dreamtime"
CD 5: Assorted!
1. "Mirror People '88" (Full Length Version)
Swing! EP
2. "Wake Up"
3. "Cuckoo Land"
4. "The Early Worm"
5. "1000 Watts Of Your Love"
6. "Bad Monkey"
Misc. tracks:
7. "David Lanfair"
8. "Sorted" (Previously Unreleased)
9. "Mirror People" (Live)
10. "No New Tale To Tell" (Live)
11. "Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven" (Live)
12. "Love Me" (Live)
13. "Kundalini Express" (Live)
14. "Lazy" (Live)
The Bubblemen EP
15. "The Bubblemen Are Coming"
16. "The Bubblemen Rap" (Full Length Version)
17. "Dub Rap"
18. "B Side" (Edit)
Tracklist: Gary Numan, 5 Albums
CD 1: Living Ornaments '81 Part One
1. "Intro / This Wreckage"
2. "Remind Me To Smile"
3. "Metal"
4. "Me, I Disconnect From You"
5. "Complex"
6. "The Aircrash Bureau"
7. "Airlane"
9. "Everyday I Die"
10. "Films"
11. "Remember I Was Vapour"
12. "Trois Gymnopedies (First Movement)"
13. "Conversation"
CD 2: Living Ornaments '81 Part Two
1. "She's Got Claws"
2. "Cars"
3. "I Dream Of Wires"
4. "I'm An Agent"
5. "The Joy Circuit"
6. "I Die: You Die"
7. "Cry The Clock Said"
8. "Tracks"
9. "Down In The Park"
10. "My Shadow In Vain"
11. "Please Push No More"
12. "Are 'Friends' Electric?"
13. "We Are Glass / Outro"
CD 3: Dance
1. "Slowcar To China"
2. "Night Talk"
3. "A Subway Called 'You'"
4. "Cry The Clock Said"
5. "She's Got Claws"
6. "Crash"
7. "Boys Like Me"
8. "Stories"
9. "My Brother's Time"
10. "You Are, You Are"
11. "Moral"
Bonus tracks:
12. "Stormtrooper In Drag"
13. "Face To Face"
14. "Dance"
15. "Exhibition"
16. "I Sing Rain"
CD 4: I, Assassin
1. "White Boys And Heroes"
2. "War Songs"
3. "A Dream Of Siam"
4. "Music For Chameleons"
5. "This Is My House"
6. "I, Assassin"
7. "The 1930's Rust"
8. "We Take Mystery (To Bed)"
Bonus tracks:
9. "War Games"
10. "Glitter And Ash"
11. "The Image Is"
12. "This House Is Cold"
13. "Noise Noise"
14. "We Take Mystery (To Bed)" (Early Version)
15. "Bridge? What Bridge?"
CD 5: Warriors
1. "Warriors"
2. "I Am Render"
3. "The Iceman Comes"
4. "This Prison Moon"
5. "My Centurion"
6. "Sister Surprise"
7. "The Tick Tock Man"
8. "Love Is Like Clock Law"
9. "The Rhythm Of The Evening"
Bonus tracks:
10. "Poetry And Power"
11. "My Car Slides (1)"
12. "My Car Slides (2)"
13. "Nameless And Forgotten (Gangster Strut)"
14. "Sister Surprise" (Single Mix)
15. "Warriors" (Full Length Version)


text:
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are expected to announce on Tuesday that they have agreed to a common set of principles on how to do business in nations that restrict free speech and expression, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The move by the Internet media and technology giants comes in the wake of criticism that they have helped enable censorship in those countries, the paper said.
Under the new principles, which were crafted over two years, the companies will promise to protect the personal information of their users wherever they do business and to "narrowly interpret and implement government demands that compromise privacy," the Journal reported.
They will also commit to scrutinizing a country's track record of jeopardizing personal information and freedom of expression before launching new businesses in a country and to discuss the risks widely with their executives and board members, the paper said.
The document was crafted by a group of participants including human rights groups like Human Rights First and Committee to Protect Journalists, the Journal said.
Nonprofit groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and Business for Social Responsibility also participated. The companies have agreed to have their compliance with the new principles monitored by independent experts, the paper said.
The plan has yet to receive the support of Internet companies in China and other countries whose policies it implicitly attacks, the Journal said.
Microsoft, Yahoo and Google did not immediately return calls seeking comment.


text: Welcome to the official website of Janet Lanier. Please take your time browsing. There is a lot to see here. Check out the CATALOG and the new sort feature with over 100 harp pieces, over 40 wind trios with piano from my Shepherd's Trio (with alternate instrumentation), choral works, and more. All sheet music is digital download so if you're looking for something fast, this is the place to look. Enjoy my videos and help yourself to the many free music downloads and free desktop wallpapers. Oh, and don't forget to sign up for my monthly newsletter, Muse News to keep up with the latest additions, coupons, and more. Thanks so much for visiting!


text:
Entertainer and Aussie drag diva Courtney Act may be serving up down-under realness as one of the new contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race season 6, but that's not the only talent she has tucked away. The former Australian Idol contestant and pop-singer released the video for her new single, "To Russia With Love" in support of her LGBTI brothers and sisters currently in Russia, encouraging them and activists alike to rally against hate in Russia and help shift perspective to love.
Pop the video of Courtney, both singing and serving as one of the male leads, below:
For more on Courney visit: www.courtneyact.com & www.facebook.com/CourtneyAct
And tell us Instinters, heart it or hate it?


text:
Oh man, I always wanted a metal detector growing up. (Likewise, I was a wannabe archeologist.) My house was on old farmland, and I found the area where the previous residents had tossed their trash -- a pit of Ponds cold cream jars, tiny green asprin bottles, and so on. Most of the finds were shattered, but we did pull out a few gorgeous, in-tact bottles.
Does anybody else have metal detecting stories, or similar stories about finding treasures? Have you wanted to try it?


text:
"Hey Eric, do you think anyone in your entire company is doing anything as cool as this right now?" Peter Karpinski asks me from the back row of Farmer Lee Jones' white Ford Excursion. I'm in the middle row, along for the ride, literally, with five members of Sage Restaurant Group. They're in Ohio sourcing and sampling products for their Urban Farmer restaurant scheduled to open next April in Cleveland.
It's a warm day in late August and Jones is taking us on a tour of his Chef's Garden farm-to-kitchen business, which has worked with some of the industry's biggest names (Keller, Trotter, Boulud, to name just a few). We've already gotten a look at the indoor facilities, tasting micro greens and herbs, heirloom vegetables, specialty lettuces and more. Now Jones has the six of us crammed into his truck and is driving through his 300-acre farm, pointing out different crops and growing methods.
The bow-tied farmer, now a regular on the Food Network, is pitching his company to Karpinski, who should be running on fumes. The cofounder and head of Sage Restaurant Group missed his direct flight out of Denver the night before, where Sage is based, and instead flew into Detroit. He landed after midnight and drove a rental car through the early hours of the morning to catch up with his team, which is in town for research and development.
They're getting a feel for the area, from competitors to potential customers to the kinds of products they might use for inspiration, decoration or the food that ultimately ends up on the table. I'm tagging along because Sage is one of The Coolest Multiconcept Companies in the Land, and the company just happens to be opening a restaurant in the building connected to our offices. (So it's a pretty easy commute.) I plan to follow the project from now until Urban Farmer opens, providing an inside look at how a restaurant is created, from design and construction to hiring and training to marketing and promotion to sourcing and menu development.
Back to the beginning
(Continued from page 1)
The project began two years ago when Sage Hospitality, the hotel development and management parent company of Sage Restaurant Group, partnered with Optima Ventures to buy the dated and decrepit 472-room Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre for $9 million cash.
Work really got underway last December, when the $64.5 million renovation—"almost a complete gut job," Karpinski says—began. The all-in cost for the whole project now totals closer to $80 million, he says, adding a good estimate for the price tag of the restaurant is $300 per square foot.
At 7,000 square feet, that adds up to $2.1 million, which sounds like a modest number for everything the restaurant will entail. But that's the beauty of Sage's approach. The restaurant division is afforded luxuries and efficiencies most competitors are not, with obvious examples being this early access and start on a project within a hotel, and the shared resources available in the Denver office, from personnel to procedures to products.
If history is any indication, Urban Farmer Cleveland will become one of the top dining spots in a city with an already strong culinary scene. The outpost in Portland is critically acclaimed (named one of the best steakhouses in the U.S. by Travel + Leisure), as are Sage Restaurant Group's eight other concepts. This will be the company's first sequel, after what Karpinski describes as a phase of creating a "library of great concepts" that could be replicated. The dynamic young leader brought the restaurant division to Sage in 2005 and he's now ready to start building out individual brands.
What's ahead
(Continued from page 2)
This transformation will be completed in April when the 481-room Westin hotel and the 220-seat Urban Farmer are scheduled to open. The restaurant, described as a modern steakhouse, will have another 45 seats available outside on a new patio being built and will feature several other touch points intended to distinguish it from the competition.
There will be a charcuterie station and dry aging room visible to the guest, a butchery program, a cheese cart delivering local and artisanal products through the restaurant and a canning room, or what Karpinski calls a working pantry. It will feature several tables surrounded by walls lined with house-canned fruits, vegetables and preserves—"anything and everything," he says—that the chefs may wander in from the kitchen to grab during service.
Karpinski says it's a steakhouse first, but the farm-to-table description certainly fits, too. The menu in Portland offers a glimpse of what Cleveland can expect: Most beef dishes are named after the farms they come from, like the 24-ounce Painted Hills porterhouse ($55), or the 14-ounce Highland Oak ribeye ($44). Some, like the 12-ounce Wagyu from Imperial Ranch in Nebraska, come with an $80 price tag, but Karpinski says there's also one of the best burgers you'll ever have for $14, served on a house-made English muffin with tomato jam. There's plenty of pork, chicken and seafood to choose from, as well as sides like roasted foraged mushrooms and other vegetable and potato options.
The Urban Farmer in Portland also serves as the financial model for Cleveland, and the Sage team expects similar success here. In Portland, check averages are $77 for dinner, $21 for lunch and $17 for breakfast.
The restaurant will be part of the hotel, serving those three meals a day and providing room service, but its main entrance will be from the street. And the bulk of its business will come through those doors. Karpinski says roughly 80 percent of Sage Restaurant Group's revenue comes not from hotel guests, but from the people living and working in the communities it serves. The separate, yet symbiotic relationship between divisions is what allows Sage to create independent, creative and profitable restaurants within its hotels. The secret corporate sauce pushes average yearly revenues at each concept to approximately $4 million, compared to a more typical hotel restaurant at less than a quarter of that, he says. Locals make up the difference.
Karpinski has been coming to Cleveland since before the deal was even consummated, a dozen or so times, he estimates. He's gotten to know—and like—the gritty Rust-Belt city, and he's bullish on its ongoing renaissance that already includes new additions like a casino and convention center. He believes this modern steakhouse is a perfect fit, not far from Browns Stadium, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the new convention center.
He's been overseeing this project from the start and estimates 75 percent of the work is already done, but there's still a lot left. Most pressing is finding an executive chef, and then will come menu development, more hiring, training and marketing the restaurant. The heavy lifting is done on the actual building, as plans, permits and demolition are in the books, but the construction team now races to finish the exterior before the weather turns.
Come along for the ride as Karpinksi and Sage allow us an inside look at what goes into creating one of their restaurants. Follow the series online at www.restaurant-hospitality.com/urban-farmer-undercover. Next up: On the ground in Cleveland/Sage Restaurant Group reveals what farm to table means as a team of execs spends two days in Cleveland on research and development.


text:
We recognize that your privacy is important. This document outlines the types of personal information we receive and collect when you use Odyssey Sea Glass.com, as well as some of the steps we take to safeguard information. We hope this will help you make an informed decision about sharing personal information with us.
Odyssey Sea Glass.com strives to maintain the highest standards of decency, fairness and integrity in all our operations. Likewise, we are dedicated to protecting our customers', consumers' and online visitors' privacy on our website.
Odyssey Sea Glass.com collects personally identifiable information from the visitors to our website only on a voluntary basis. Personal information collected on a voluntary basis may include name, postal address, email address, company name and telephone number.
This information is collected if you request information from us, participate in a contest or sweepstakes, and sign up to join our email list or request some other service or information from us. The information collected is internally reviewed, used to improve the content of our website, notify our visitors of updates, and respond to visitor inquiries.
Once information is reviewed, it is discarded or stored in our files. If we make material changes in the collection of personally identifiable information we will inform you by placing a notice on our site. Personal information received from any visitor will be used only for internal purposes and will not be sold or provided to third parties.
Some third-party advertisements may be provided by Google, which uses the DoubleClick cookie to serve ads. This cookie enables Google to serve ads to users based on their visits to sites on the Web. You may opt out of the use of the DoubleClick cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
Browsers can be set to accept or reject cookies or notify you when a cookie is being sent. Privacy software can be used to override web beacons. Taking either of these actions shouldn't cause a problem with our site, should you so choose.
This website is directed to adults; it is not directed to children under the age of 13. We operate our site in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and will not knowingly collect or use personal information from anyone under 13 years of age.
Non-Personal Information
In some cases, we may collect information about you that is not personally identifiable. We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. The information collected is used solely for internal review and not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes.
If Odyssey Sea Glass.com is sold, the information we have obtained from you through your voluntary participation in our site may transfer to the new owner as a part of the sale in order that the service being provided to you may continue. In that event, you will receive notice through our website of that change in control and practices, and we will make reasonable efforts to ensure that the purchaser honors any opt-out requests you might make of us.
We provide this privacy policy as a statement to you of our commitment to protect your personal information. If you have submitted personal information through our website and would like that information deleted from our records or would like to update or correct that information, please use our Contact Us page.
Odyssey Sea Glass.com reserves the right to make changes in this policy. If there is a material change in our privacy practices, we will indicate on our site that our privacy practices have changed and provide a link to the new privacy policy. We encourage you to periodically review this policy so that you will know what information we collect and how we use it.
Your use of this site indicates acceptance of this privacy policy.
Odyssey Sea Glass.com provides this website as a service.
While the information contained within the site is periodically updated, no guarantee is given that the information provided in this website is correct, complete, and/or up-to-date.
The materials contained on this website are provided for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal or other professional advice on any subject matter. Odyssey Sea Glass.com does not accept any responsibility for any loss which may arise from reliance on information contained on this site.
Permission is given for the downloading and temporary storage of one or more of these pages for the purpose of viewing on a personal computer. The contents of this site are protected by copyright under international conventions and, apart from the permission stated, the reproduction, permanent storage, or retransmission of the contents of this site is prohibited without the prior written consent of Odyssey Sea Glass.com.
Some links within this website may lead to other websites, including those operated and maintained by third parties. Odyssey Sea Glass.com includes these links solely as a convenience to you, and the presence of such a link does not imply a responsibility for the linked site or an endorsement of the linked site, its operator, or its contents (exceptions may apply).
This website and its contents are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.
Reproduction, distribution, republication, and/or retransmission of material contained within this website are prohibited unless the prior written permission of Odyssey Sea Glass.com has been obtained.


text:
Goddess Durga is highly revered in her different forms during these nine days. It is divided into three days each for Durga, Goddess of valor; Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth; and Saraswati, Goddess of knowledge and art. Out of the nine days, Durga, Bhadrakali, Amba or Jagdamba, Annapurna, Sarvamangala, Bhairavi, Chandika or handi and Lalita, different incarnations of the goddess is worshiped on each day. On Laitha Panchami (fifth day) Saraswati is invoked by traditional rituals of gathering books and lighting lamps. Eighth and ninth day is used to conjure Divine Mother by performing Yagna (sacrifice offered to the fire).
The idols of Goddess Durga intricately decorated and worshipped for nine days in �pandals� is immersed into ponds or rivers, on the tenth day. The tenth day is also celebrated as Vijayadashami, day of Victory over evils. Dussehra is another festival celebrated on the tenth day signifying the victory of Lord Ram over the demon Ravana.
Copyright 2014 by Online Highways LLC. Enjoy some India trivia. Send Us Your Comments


text:
Question: "Is Satan the master of hell? Do Satan and his demons punish people in hell?"
There is a common misconception that Satan is in charge of hell and that he and his demons live there and use their pitchforks to torment souls for eternity. This concept has no basis in Scripture whatsoever. In fact, Satan will be one of the tormented in the lake of fire, not the tormentor (Revelation 20:10).
Where does the idea that Satan is the master of hell come from, if not from the Bible? Much of the false thinking may come from Dante Alighiere's
The Divine Comedy
and John Milton's
Paradise Lost
. Many other works of art, and literary pieces such as Dan Brown's novel
, follow Dante's lead and picture Satan as the one in charge of hell.
Dante's poem describes the brutal descent of sinners into the underworld. Dante journeys through different levels of hell and purgatory and eventually arrives in paradise. The poem itself was an amalgamation of myths, Catholic ideas (like purgatory), and Islamic traditions about Muhammad's "night of ascension" (
lailat al-miraj
). Dante's medieval view of hell is influenced more by the Qur'an than the Bible.
Dante's literary vision of hell is depicted by Botticelli in his painting
Map of Hell
as a subterranean funnel of suffering—a wretched underground landscape of fire, brimstone, sewage, and monsters, with Satan himself waiting at its core. It's all very disturbing, and effective as a work of art, but it is based on the imaginations of men, not the Word of God.
Satan is not the ruler of hell. It is God who is in charge. Jesus says, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that can do no more. . . . Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell" (Luke 12:4–5). Jesus is referring to God here. He alone has the power to throw someone into hell. Who holds the keys of death and hades? Jesus has absolute control over that domain (Revelation 1:18). Jesus assures all believers that not even the gates of hades can overcome His church (Matthew 16:18).
The lake of fire, mentioned only in Revelation 19:20 and 20:10, 14–15, is the final place of punishment for all unrepentant rebels, both angelic and human (Matthew 25:41). The universal punishment for all who reject Jesus Christ as Savior is to be "cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). The Bible speaks of hell as a place of "outer darkness" where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12; 22:13). Those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life should have no fear of this terrible fate. By faith in Christ and His shed blood, we are destined to live eternally in the presence of God.
Satan does not rule hell or lead his demons in tormenting those who are banished there. In fact, the Bible does not say that Satan has been to hell yet. Rather, "eternal fire" is awaiting Satan; the place was originally created to punish Satan and the demons (Matthew 25:41), not to give them a kingdom to rule.
Until Satan is condemned and thrown into the pit forever, he spends his time between heaven (Job 1:6–12) and earth (1 Peter 5:8). He will not always have freedom of movement, and he knows it. "Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short" (Revelation 12:12).