text:
3.1 Purpose. This chapter defines the policies and responsibilities which govern the processing of vouchers, billings, invoices, and claims that serve as the basis for making payments for goods and services furnished to Service organizations. Employee vouchers for travel and transportation expenses are covered in Part 265, Travel.
3.2 Scope. The provisions of this chapter apply to all persons who process payments for the Service.
3.3 Responsibilities of Field Offices.
A. Field office managers and their assistants involved in processing payments must know and carefully apply the procedures in this chapter. Additionally, they must be familiar with other information essential to the processing of payments; Principals of Federal Appropriations Law, Federal Acquisition Regulations, United States Codes and other rules and regulations pertaining to Government spending.
B. Field offices are not authorized to make final determinations with respect to any claim or to enter into any disputes, negotiations, or correspondence with claimants other than to secure additional information needed to process routine transactions. Doubtful claims of any sort will be promptly referred to the Regional Office, as appropriate, for handling with all pertinent information that may be available at the station. Such action is necessary to preserve claimants' rights especially if the statute of limitations is close to expiration (6 years, according to Title 31 U.S.C. 3702).
3.4 False or Fraudulent Actions. All employees who process payment documents should be aware of the significance of any false or fraudulent actions under the Criminal Code. Portions of the code include:
A. Title 18 U.S.C. 287, False, fictitious or fraudulent claims:
"Whoever makes or presents to any person or officer in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, or to any department or agency thereof, any claim upon or against the United States, or any department or agency thereof, knowing such claim to be false, fictitious, or fraudulent, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."
B. Title 31 U.S.C. 3729, False Claims, imposes a maximum fine of $2,000 in addition to twice the amount of damages the Government suffers, for knowingly aiding or abetting a false claim.
3.5 Obtaining Billings. Vendors submit requests for payment for goods and services furnished to the ordering/issuing office. Billings may be submitted on commercial letterhead or invoice form, SF-44 (Purchase Order - Invoice - Voucher), or
SF-1034 (Public Voucher for Purchases and Services other than Personal). Vendors who do not have formal invoices or
pre-printed letterhead may submit claims as described below:
A. Purchase Order. If a purchase order (Form 3-2103) was issued for procuring goods or services, the vendor may submit:
(1) A request for final payment, by completing the back of the original form; or,
(2) A request for partial payment, by completing the back of a copy of the original form.
(3) In either case, the vendor or vendor's representative must provide an original signature and return the form to the ordering/issuing office for processing.
B. Other Forms. The vendor may prepare a request for payment on a blank piece of paper, ensuring that all critical elements are addressed as identified in 3.6 below. Claims of this type must also contain the original signature of the vendor or a vendor's representative. Vouchers for freight and transportation services are sent directly to the Finance Center as instructed on bills of lading and transportation requests.
C. Non-receipt of Billings. The field office may request a billing when goods and services have been ordered and received and no billing has been submitted by the vendor. Billings should not be requested before receipt of the goods or services or expiration of the period for which a rental payment is to be made. Title 31 U.S.C. 3324, Advances, prohibits advance payments except for subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, other periodicals and publications, including books. The prohibition does not apply to payments to other Federal agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service for rental of post office boxes.
D. Form of Billings. Billings should be prepared in an original and one copy, preferably on the vendor's letterhead or invoice form. The original is to be forwarded to the Finance Center and the copy retained for the ordering offices' records. Some vendors use carbon or reproduced copies of invoices for billing purposes. This form is acceptable provided only one copy includes a notation marked as "Original" or "Customer Copy." Other copies should be clearly marked "Copy."
3.6 Checking Billings. Field offices should carefully review billings to ensure they are complete and accurate before they are forwarded to the Finance Center for payment. Office personnel may not alter, modify, or adjust (except as authorized below) any information on or omitted from a vendor's invoice. Any invoice not containing the minimum requirements must be returned to the vendor for correction. The minimum information that will be required on a billing consists of the following items, which are the vendor's responsibility to identify:
A. Name/Location on Billing.
(1) Billings should normally be accepted only in the name of the payee as it appears on the purchase order, contract agreement, etc. However, the billing may show a different name in the case of a decedent, or change in the name of a corporation or assignment of the claim. The Finance Center will determine whether the billing can be paid in the name of the claimant or if modification is necessary. Supplementary legal documents may be required to establish entitlement to the amount claimed to satisfy requirements of the Assignment of Claims Act (Title 41 U.S.C. 15).
(2) Claimants must provide a complete mailing address to ensure prompt delivery of payments, and to reduce the number of checks returned by the U.S. Postal Service due to insufficient delivery instructions.
(3) Claimants located in remote/rural areas should make an extra effort to provide as accurately as possible a descriptive physical location of their place of business, residence, or other origin of delivery.
(4) When claimant's invoices show various locations, but do not specify a desired remittance address, the issuing/ordering office must confirm/notate the proper delivery address prior to submission to the Finance Center for processing.
B. Itemization of Articles or Services. Itemization is required in sufficient detail to accurately describe the articles delivered or services rendered. Stock numbers, catalog numbers, etc., are not an acceptable form of itemization.
C. Unit Price, Quantity, Extensions of Amounts and Total. The billing should identify the unit price for each individual item, extensions for the quantity of each, and total amount claimed.
D. Billings Paid in Foreign Currency. Billings are paid in foreign currencies when required.
E. Computation Errors. In the event of obvious computation errors, the following guidelines will be followed when adjusting a vendor's claim:
(1) A vendor's claim may not be increased in excess of $10.00.
(2) If a vendor's claim is understated in excess of $10.00, the invoice will be paid as claimed.
(3) Computation errors that have been corrected according to the guidelines above should be neatly lined out and the correct figures notated. In the event that a claim is decreased, the vendor will be notified via a Notice of Action Taken, form DSC 6.
F. Prepaid freight, Express, and Parcel Post. Delivery terms should be accurately stated.
(1) "FOB-Destination" means shipped free of Government expense to a specified delivery point where a Government facility is located. The contractor is responsible for paying all shipping charges to the point of delivery specified in the order.
(2) "FOB-Origin" means that the Government will incur any expenses related to the shipment of the order to the point of delivery specified in the order. It is the contractor's responsibility to pre-pay the freight charges, and claim reimbursement by billing the Government. If freight charges are in excess of $100.00, the vendor must also provide a copy of the pre-paid freight bill or other proof of payment identifying the actual amount of charges.
G. Insurance Charges. Excess valuation insurance charges are not an allowable expense. It is the long-standing policy of the Government to assume its own risks. The established rule is that, unless provided by statute, appropriations made available for Government activities are not considered applicable for the purchase of insurance to cover loss or damage to Government property. For further guidance, refer to the Principles of Federal Appropriations Law.
H. Posted Price at Time of Delivery. Contracts for bulk petroleum purchases involving payments which use the "posted price at time of delivery" as the base must indicate the posted price and show taxes, if included.
I. Other Needed Information. The following information must be stated or added by the field offices either to the vendor's billing, the receiving report copy of the purchase order, or other supporting documents.
(1) Contract Number. If articles or services are procured under a contract, the contract number should be identified.
(2) Date of Acceptance. The date the articles or services were accepted.
(3) Invoice Received Date. The date the invoice was received at the field office.
(4) Tax Exemption Certificates. The Federal Government is generally exempt from State and local taxes as well as Federal excise taxes. Questions in regards to exceptions to this rule should be referred to the Regional Finance Offices. Exempt taxes included in a billing should be subtracted by the field station from the total billed. The Finance Center will provide written notification to the vendor informing him/her of the deduction. The serial numbers of any tax exemption certificates issued to the vendor should be stated on the billing or purchase order.
(5) Identification of Government Equipment. When expenses are incurred in connection with Government equipment, the particular vehicle or other equipment involved should be identified by annotating the serial number, license tag number, or property number of the equipment.
(6) Long-Distance Telephone Calls.
(a) Charges for long-distance telephone calls require the following certification: "Pursuant to Section 4 of the Act approved May 10, 1939 (53 Stat. 738) I certify that the use of the telephone for the official long-distance calls listed herein were necessary in the interest of the Government."
(b) When personal telephone calls are included, the details should be stated on the billing and total charges for the calls, including tax, is annotated on the billing. A collection transmittal must be prepared and forwarded to the Finance Center, with the payment from the employee.
(7) Receiving Employee Signature. All invoices must include the signature of an individual who has personal knowledge that the services/goods were received. This is accomplished by completing the agency approved "block stamp" or signing the back of the purchase order receiving form.
3.7 Special Statements and Explanations. Certain transactions will require detailed explanations to furnish information needed by the Finance Center to substantiate payment of the billing. These explanations or statements should normally be typed on separate sheets which should be attached to the billing.
A. Personal and Unusual Procurements. Ordinarily, the purpose of a procurement will be obvious to the paying office and it will not be necessary to explain it. However, when the transaction is unusual, or involves an item of a personal nature, a full explanation of the need for the articles or services should be prepared.
B. Exceptions to Amounts Billed. Unauthorized shipping charges, exempt taxes, discounts and over-stated claims will be subtracted by the field office from the total billed amount. When a manager is unable to approve the full amount of a vendor's billing for other reasons such as incomplete deliveries, delivery of articles of inferior quality to those ordered, damage, errors in unit prices, etc., a statement of exceptions should be prepared and attached. This statement should outline clearly why the station manager believes that the amount claimed is improper and state what portion is authorized.
C. Lost Documents. In the event receiving report copies of purchase orders are lost, a statement explaining the loss should be prepared and attached to the billing. Similarly, the loss or absence of other documents supporting the billing should be explained.
3.8 Discounts. Discounts are of two types: trade and time.
A. Trade Discounts. Trade discounts are reductions from the list price for a class of customer such as a retailer or Government agency. The discounts usually run higher than 2 or 3 percent and are usually deducted from the billed price by the vendor. If the billed price does not exclude a trade discount to which the Government is entitled, it will be subtracted by the field office from the total billed with a notation such as "Less trade discount 10%, $_____, Net $_____."
B. Time Discounts.
(1) Time discounts are reductions from the invoice price that may be made for payment within a specified period such as 10 or 20 days and offers are printed, typed, or stamped on billings as 3%-10 (3% if paid in 10 days) or, 2%-20 (a second option of 2% if paid after 10 but before 20 days).
(2) The beginning day of the discount period is the vendor's billing date. Refer to the OMB Circular A-125, Prompt Payment, for further guidance. If a billing is returned for correction, the discount period begins the day of receipt of the corrected billing. The closing day of the discount period is the day on which the check is mailed by the Department of the Treasury, not the day it is received by the vendor. If the last day of the discount period falls on a Sunday, or legal holiday, payment on the following day will be considered as within the discount period. A discount should be taken if one is offered on the billing even though the purchase order or contract may provide for net payment terms.
(3) Billings that contain time discounts should be mailed to the Finance Center clearly marked "Discount." Discounts under $1.00 will not be taken, as it would not be economically justified to give these documents special handling.
3.9 Billings from Other Agencies. Goods and services may be furnished to one Government agency by another on a reimbursable basis under Section 601 of the Economy Act ( Title 31 U.S.C. 1535 & 1536) or similar provisions of law. The agency that furnishes the goods or services normally will issue billings only after receipt by or actual shipment of the goods to the ordering agency. Each bill should readily identify the order for which it is issued. The law provides: "Bills rendered...pursuant to any such order, shall not be subject to audit or certification in advance of payment." Government agencies should be encouraged to bill via Treasury's Online Payment and Collection System (OPAC) to eliminate delays in processing billings.
3.10 Forwarding Billings to the Finance Center.
A. Assembly of Billings. Vendors' billings and supporting documents should be secured together in the following order: Original billing (as identified in 3.5), receiving report copy of purchase order, or copy of purchase order if billing is a request for partial payment, and completed Supplemental Input Form (Form 3-2127) if applicable.
B. Construction Contracts. Construction contract payments are due 14 days after receipt of the payment request by the designated billing office (FAR 52.232.27). In order to make payment in compliance with the prescribed timeframe, all construction contract billings will be sent under separate cover to the Finance Center for payment. The billings will be clearly marked "14 day construction contract," and sent to the attention of "Chief, Vendor Payments Section."
C. Partial Payments. In case of a billing for a partial delivery of an order, the invoice and a reproduced copy of the receiving report form of the purchase order, noted as to items delivered, must be sent to the Finance Center for payment. Billings for subsequent deliveries should be cross-referenced to the purchase order.
3.11 Finance Center Procedures. Billings are processed for payment at the Finance Center. This involves examination or audit of the proposed payment, input of the accounting information into the automated accounting system (FFS), and certification of payment by an Authorized Certifying Officer if required by the Statistical Sampling Plan. The payment information is electronically transmitted to The Department of Treasury for issuance.
A. Billings Returned to Field Stations. It may be necessary at times for the Finance Center to return billings to field offices for correction or additional information with a form or memorandum explaining what is needed. The office manager should be careful to see that the necessary corrections are made or the additional information is provided before the billing is resubmitted. A copy of the form or memorandum should be returned with the corrected submission. If the billing is restated or cancelled it should be marked "cancelled" and returned with the new billing or with an explanation of why another billing is not being submitted. Field offices should keep a record of billings returned for correction and the reason types to ensure that subsequent billings may be processed without making the same errors. The billing returns create unnecessary work for all concerned and should be minimized.
B. Disallowances. When it is necessary for the Finance Center to make a deduction from the amount claimed by the vendor other than for a time discount, a notice of disallowance or a letter will be forwarded to the vendor explaining the nature of the deduction, with a copy furnished to the field office. Vendors may reclaim the disallowed amount if the denied amount can be justified. A reclaim may be requested by submitting supporting documentation with the notice or letter and an explanation of the basis for the reclaim.
C. Information Furnished to Vendors. The following information will be furnished to the vendors.
(1) Check Identification Data. The check will include payment information such as the invoice number, account number, etc., and the date of the referenced billing document. If the vendor does not provide this information, the contract number, purchase order number, or issuing field office name will be used. In instances where payment is for numerous invoices, (BPAs, freight bills, etc.), an enclosure card containing the payment information will accompany the check.
(2) Notice of Interest Penalty. In the event of Prompt Payment Interest Payments, the payment will be accompanied by:
(a) Notice of the amount of interest penalty included;
(b) The rate used to compute the penalty; and,
(c) Number of days used to compute the penalty.
D. Information not Furnished to Vendors. When a discount is taken in accordance with the terms offered by the vendor, or agreed upon with the acceptance of a Government purchase order, contract, etc., a separate notice of the deduction will not be furnished as the taking of the discount will be obvious from the amount of the payment.
3.12 References and Forms. References and forms listed in this
chapter are available in Service finance offices.


text:
Bidens cernua
Aster family (Asteraceae)
Description: This annual plant is ½–3' tall, branching sparingly. The central stem is glabrous and occasionally angular. The opposite leaves are up to 5" long and 1" across, although usually smaller in size. They are linear-oblong to lanceolate-ovate, serrated along the margins, and hairless. These leaves are never lobed nor pinnately compound. At the base, the pairs of opposite leaves clasp the stem and nearly surround it (i.e., they're nearly connate), or they are sessile. The upper stems terminate in flowerheads about ½–1½" across. These flowerheads have a tendency to nod downward with age and the central head of disk florets becomes larger and more rounded. The corolla of each disk floret is yellow and narrowly tubular with 5 lobes. There are about 8 ray florets surrounding the disk florets, but sometimes they lack petaloid rays. When they are present, the petaloid rays are bright yellow and oblong-elliptic in shape; they are variable in length, depending on the local ecotype.
At the base of each flowerhead, there are both inner and outer bracts (phyllaries). The inner bracts are pale yellow, membranous along their margins, and rather broad, tapering to blunt tips. The outer bracts are green and oblong-linear. These latter bracts are about as long or longer than the petaloid rays, but they have a tendency to curl backward with age. There are about 6-10 outer bracts per flowerhead. The blooming period occurs from late summer to early fall and lasts about 1-2 months for a colony of plants. Each achene is oblongoid, although broader and somewhat truncated at its apex, where there are usually 4 barbed awns. The root system is shallow and branches frequently. This plant often forms colonies and spreads by reseeding itself; sometimes the lower portion of a stem will form rootlets at the leaf nodes when it lies against moist soil. Nodding Bur-Marigold is rather variable across its range. The leaves have a tendency to turn purple during the cool weather of autumn.
Cultivation: The preference is full or partial sun, wet conditions, and mucky soil. Occasional flooding is readily tolerated, although this species is not an emergent aquatic. Sometimes the leaves succumb to powdery mildew during the fall. This plant is less tolerant of dry conditions than other Bidens spp.
Range & Habitat: The native Nodding Bur-Marigold is common in central and northern Illinois, but occasional to absent in southern Illinois (see Distribution Map). Habitats include swamps, bogs, seeps, marshes, edges of rivers and ponds, soggy meadows in floodplain areas, and ditches along roads and railroads. Nodding Bur-Marigold is often found in degraded wetlands, although it also occurs in higher quality wetlands.
Faunal Associations: Plants with showier flowers attract an abundance of bees, wasps, butterflies, skippers, moths, and various kinds of flies. Bee visitors include honey bees, bumblebees, long-horned bees (Melissodes spp.), leaf-cutting bees (Megachile spp.), and plasterer bees (Colletes spp.). These insects suck nectar from the flowers; bees also collect pollen. The caterpillars of the butterfly Nathalis iole (Dainty Sulfur) feed on the foliage. The caterpillars of several species of moths also feed on Bidens spp., including Epiblema otiosana (Bidens Borer Moth), Cirrhophanus triangulifer (Goldenrod Stowaway), Condica mobilis (Mobile Groundling), and Condica confederata (The Confederate). Other insect feeders the leaf beetles Calligrapha bidenticola and Calligrapha californica, the fruit fly Icterica seriata, and several aphid species.
To a limited extent, the seeds of Bidens spp. are eaten by various kinds of birds, including the Mallard Duck, Swamp Sparrow, Purple Finch, and Common Redpoll (the latter during the winter). The foliage is occasionally eaten by the Cottontail Rabbit. The seeds of Bidens spp. are notorious for their ability to cling to the fur of animals, the feathers of birds, or the clothing of humans, by which means they are distributed far and wide.
Photographic Location: Along a drainage canal in Champaign, Illinois.
Comments: The attractiveness of the flowers is variable, depending upon the length of the petaloid rays, which are not always present. It is fairly easy to distinguish Nodding Bur-Marigold from other Bidens spp. because of its undivided leaves and achenes with 4 awns (rarely fewer). Plants with flowerheads that are large and showy can resemble Bidens laevis (Smooth Bur-Marigold), but this latter species doesn't occur in Illinois. The petaloid rays of Smooth Bur-Marigold are at least as long as the outer floral bracts (phyllaries) and it usually has showier flowers. When the flowerheads of Nodding Bur-Marigold lack petaloid rays, this species can be confused with Bidens connata (Purple-Stemmed Beggar's Tick) and Bidens comosa (Swamp Beggar's Tick). Nodding Bur-Marigold differs from these latter species by its leaves, which are sessile or they clasp and nearly surround the stem. Purple-Stemmed Beggar's Tick and Swamp Beggar's Tick have leaves with distinct petioles that are winged or unwinged. The flowerheads of Nodding Bur-Marigold nod downward with age, while the flowerheads of the latter two species usually remain more erect.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Frequently Asked Questions
AT LEAST ONE of the following – means that the search will take the words entered and return everything that has just one of the words in the list.
EXACT PHRASE – the search will only return the entire phrase you entered into the field, for example, 'Customer Service' will only return jobs that have that phrase in the text, and not jobs with either Customer or Service. This search is very specific.
WITHOUT – if you don't want to see jobs with a certain word in their text, enter that word in the fields. For example, you want to be a secretary but not in a Sales department or division. You could enter Sales into the WITHOUT field to exclude any secretarial positions involving sales.


text:
Seattle Mariners Near Deal With Starting Pitcher Jarrod WashburnJanuary 17, 2010
You can view this article on my personal blog
According to ESPN, the Seattle Mariners and former starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn are in active negotiations to bring the lefty back to the Emerald City.
The Boston Globe also reports the Mariners have re-engaged in negotiations with Washburn, which is why the two sides could be "near a deal".
Washburn already turned down a one-year, $5 million contract offer from the Minnesota Twins, who have now tried three times to acquire the veteran, and have for all intents and purposes struck out.
Turning down a team that Washburn himself expressed some interest in either means he is holding out for a better deal, or holding out for a deal with the Mariners.
He is coming off a rough injury plagued stint with the Detroit Tigers, going 1-3 with a 7.33 ERA.
The Mariners unloaded him at the trade deadline for prospects Luke French and Mauricio Robles. French, who at 24 he had already cracked the Tigers starting rotation, was the key to the deal, and figures to have the upside of a No. 3 pitcher in the near future. He posted a 3-3 record, but a very high 6.63 ERA, and not a very impressive SO total at 23 in 38 innings.
In hindsight, if the Mariners are able to re-obtain Washburn, it will be an ingenious trade by Jack Zdureincik.
A reunion makes perfect sense. The Mariners are shopping for middle of the rotation arms, and Washburn thrived with the club last season, going 8-6 and posting a 2.76 ERA, the fifth lowest in the league at the time.
The Mariners are probably not going to offer him anything north of $5 million despite being flush with cash because of his age. The more likely scenario is he gets a one year incentive laden deal, with potential options tacked on.
If they were to reacquire Washburn, this is how the rotation would round out:
Felix Hernandez
Cliff Lee
Jarrod Washburn
Ian Snell
Ryan Rowland Smith
That's a good rotation, especially the first two, but I still feel the Mariners should make a run at Ben Sheets and would be foolish not to.
With Zdureincik apparently getting high for a few days, he has downgraded this offense by deciding not to retain last year's leading power hitter Russell Branyan, and not go after an affordable Adam LaRoche or Vladimir Guerrero. If he chooses not to put some power in the lineup, especially with the options being so thin, so be it. But he then needs to load up on more pitching.
Adding Sheets would without a doubt give the Mariners the league's best pitching rotation and the league's best defense. I still think we need more power in order to officially claim the AL West throne from the Angels, or to compete with the Rangers.
If we were to haul in Sheets in addition to Washburn though, our No. 1 pitching and No. 1 defense might be enough to push this squad over the playoff hump for the first time since 2001.
As it stands, with our best HR and RBI producer being Jose Lopez (by a mile), I just can't make the claim this team is the best in the AL West.
I mean, I think we have surpassed the Angels, but look at the Texas lineup we are competing with:
Ian Kinsler
Chris Davis
Michael Young
Vladimir Guerrero
Josh Hamilton
Nelson Cruz
Jarrod Saltalamacchia
Hank Blalock (I expect he re-signs)
Elvis Andrus
Only two guys didn't knock in 20 HR's, Andrus, and Saltalamacchia, and Saltalamacchia was on pace to hit 20 if he played a full season.
Only one guy knocked in 20 HR's last year on the Mariners roster: Jose Lopez. That's it.
Their pitching staff isn't as good, but it isn't bad:
Scott Feldman
Derek Holland
Rich Harden
Brandon McCarthy
Tommy Hunter
That is a young growing rotation with ridiculously high potential. The Mariners have nothing locked down yet.
It will be very contrasting styles going head to head for the AL West crown this season.
- brute power
- good pitching
- OK defense
against the Mariners:
- great pitching
- great defense
- no offense
Hopefully, the Mariners wake up and actually add some pop to the lineup, or it's going to be a very interesting struggle against the potent lineups of the Angels and Rangers.


text:
- Latest available (Revised)
- Original (As made)
This is the original version (as it was originally made). This item of legislation is currently only available in its original format.
4. After regulation 5 (time limit for the review of the plan) insert—
5A.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), where an education authority receive a request in terms of section 10(4) of the Act, it must issue its proposal under section 11(2)(a) or its decision under section 28(2) within 4 weeks of the date of receipt of the request.
(2) Where the circumstances provided for in paragraph (1)(a) of regulation 7 apply, an education authority must on becoming aware that the period of 4 weeks cannot be complied with—
(a)establish a date by which it must issue its proposal or its decision to the person who made the request; and
(b)inform that person of that date.
(3) The date established under paragraph (2) above must not exceed the period of 4 weeks by longer than is reasonably necessary in the circumstances and in any event must not be more than 12 weeks from the date of receipt of the request.
(4) A failure by an education authority to meet either the timescale referred to in paragraph (1) or the date established under paragraph (2)(a) is to be treated for the purposes of section 18 of the Act as a decision of the authority to refuse a request referred to in section 10(4) of the Act.".
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text: Giles Lean said: > >... and what you wrote is not a portable tar archive, so you'll need >GNU tar to recover it, I expect. Breaking at backup time rather than >recovery time could be considered a feature: that way at least you >know what you're dealing with while you have the data on-disk and can >decide what to do about it. So, pax can't really replace GNU tar... Think of all the thousands of NetBSD backup tapes that were done with GNU tar. Think of the hundreds of thousands of systems worldwide that use GNU tar as the default version of tar. -- Rick Kelly firstname.lastname@example.com www.rmkhome.com


text:
Also Known As
- Dave Lamoreaux
Game Credits
|Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (Collector... (2000)
|(Graphic Designer)
Public Relations
|Command & Conquer: Renegade (2002)
|(Graphic Art (Marketing))
|Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat (2002)
|Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge (2001)
|(Graphic Designer)
|Emperor: Battle for Dune (2001)
|(Marketing (Graphic Art Support))
|Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (2000)
|(Graphic Designer)
Creative Services
|Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Firestorm (2000)
|Dune 2000 (1999)
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text:
Update on Disney's Polynesian Resort Pool Refurbishment
by Rikki Niblett on July 31, 2014 4 Comments
Filed under: Recent News, Resorts, Walt Disney World (FL)
For those of you who are unaware and will be staying at Disney's Polynesian Resort over the next few months, the Nanea Volcano Pool and Slide are now closed for an extremely lengthy refurbishment. As I previously mentioned, Disney is offering guests staying the resort access to Blizzard Beach Water Park, while work is being done on the pool area.
When the announcement was first made, guests would only be given a one day pass to Blizzard Beach; however, it now appears that has been amended. Now Polynesian guests cIn addition, guests will receive a complimentary beach towel, and if a Polynesian guests have purchased resort Rapid Fill refillable mugs, those mugs will have access to the beverage stations at the water park. (So make sure you bring your refillable mugs with you!)
Bus transportation will be provided to guests directly between Blizzard Beach and the Polynesian, and when guests arrive at the front gate of the water park, Polynesian guests must check-in using their MagicBands or RFID room keys.
When Blizzard Beach closes for its refurbishment in the winter (which right now is slated for January 4 through March 14, 2015), guests will instead have access to Typhoon Lagoon. Keep in mind that Polynesian guests will not have access to any other resort pool during this refurbishment work.
During the Volcano Pool refurb, work will be done to create a new aquatic playground with slides for children, a new hot tub, and a larger deck with more seating for guests. The pool is expected to reopen sometime in early 2015.
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4 Responses to "Update on Disney's Polynesian Resort Pool Refurbishment"
What a great trade! Instead of walking 50-100 yards to the hotel pool, you can shlep several miles on a bus!
I guess that's OK, since Polynesian guests are getting a discount during the refurb…oh, wait….
It is better than what the Wilderness Lodge has been offered for their pool closure. Guest must travel to the Contemporary to use pool.
Unfortunate but hopefully for the best in the long run. The lack of hot tub was a big issue for my husband last time we stayed – maybe now I can convince him to go back!
Now I won't have Jimmy Buffet stuck in my head when I visit if there's not Volcanao


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Dr. Who Meets Jayne Cobb
Unfortunately, the tragically short-lived TV series "Firefly" wasn't on the air long enough to do a crossover episode, but clever crafter came up with the idea to do a Firefly/Dr. Who mashup project: a knit Jayne Cobb hat done in Dr. Who scarf colors. She (HolyNarf?) calls it her "Doctor Jayne" hat.
The effect is so subtle that most would probably not recognize that it's Doctor Who colors, even if they might recognize the Jayne Cobb hat style. And the colors are definitely male-friendly, which I love – it can be hard to find manly hat patterns. At least for my men. Do you ever have the same problem? Would this hat make the "acceptable crafting" list for a man in your life? Or maybe yourself?
- Doctor Jayne hat on HolyNarfCrafts
- More Dr. Who crafts on GeekCrafts
- More Firefly crafts on Geek Crafts
- More knitting projects on GeekCrafts


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Why Has Twitter Been So Blue Lately?
As quite literally anyone who is anyone in the progressive twitter-verse knows, #UniteBlue is kind of a big deal. Whether you are a champion for #UniteBlue or one of the quickly shrinking "Blue Birthers" who question the motives of UB's diabolical actions, everyone on the Left (and quite a few trolls on the Right) are talking about this movement.
|There are literally pages and pages of this
All of this back and forth has gone on for almost a month now. I've mostly stayed out of it because lately I've been trying the whole "Don't feed the trolls" tactic. I tweeted a couple of support tweets aimed at Zach, but aside from that I haven't engaged his detractors at all. However, rather than slowly dissipating as less and less people care about what Politicol has to say, the people who are left over have turned into a small group of very angry, very aggressive "truthers" who are convinced that Zach Green is a GOP puppet. @Politicolnews and their ilk spend almost the entire day tweeting #Uniteblue members and either calling them Sheeple and drug-addicts or sending them links to various articles (all on Politicolnews, of course) about all the evils of #UniteBlue. They insult the people they talk to and block their targets if any facts are brought to play. You can see a few of the tweets to the left, or if you are feeling particularly daring or masochistic, you can go to their Twitter Account and read their hate in real time. You can also catch them in action claiming Zach sent Peacock Panache, a progressive website that I contribute to, after their "news" site for just "asking them questions."


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The government is the media and
the media is the government.
They are two ends of the same sausage.
More "No Opinion" answers. It seems most FReepers have no opinion on the question, or worse yet - they honestly believe they are the same thing!
(Did I miss the election for CBS anchor?)


text: Majority Leader Hoyer Announces Staff Changes For Immediate Release: August 9, 2010 Contact Info: Katie Grant (202) 225 - 3130 "I am pleased to announce the promotion of two valued members of my staff, Katie Grant and Maureen Beach, as well as welcome Dan Reilly and Mariel Saez to the Majority Leader's Office. All are tireless workers whose experience and skills will be an asset to my office, House Democrats, and the media." Katie Grant has worked for Hoyer since January 2006, when he was Democratic Whip. She moved to his campaign office for the 2006 election before joining the Majority Leader's Office in 2007. As Communications Director, Katie will serve as spokeswoman on the Floor schedule, economy, fiscal issues (tax, budget, appropriations), national security and foreign policy, education, politics, trade, and ethics. Originally from Atlanta, she earned a B.S. in International Affairs from Georgia Tech and an M.A. in Political Science from American University. Daniel Reilly joins Hoyer's staff from the Office of Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), where he served as Communications Director. Reilly will serve as spokesman on several issues, including health care, energy and the environment, housing, immigration, veterans, labor and election reform. Previously, Reilly worked as a journalist, covering Congress for Politico and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He also reported for the Trinidad Guardian in Trinidad and Tobago previously as a Fulbright Scholar. Reilly holds a B.A. from The University of Wisconsin and an M.A. from The George Washington University. Originally from Rochester, NY, Reilly lives in Washington, DC with his wife Meg. Hoyer promoted Maureen Beach to Deputy Press Secretary, where she will manage his Maryland press and serve as spokeswoman on several national issues, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, agriculture, technology, and transportation. For the past two years, Maureen has served as press assistant and researcher in the Majority Leader's office and previously worked for the House Committee on Appropriations. Maureen's political background also includes work on several campaigns and as an aide to the Majority Leader in the Colorado State Senate. A Chicago native, she holds a bachelor's degree from Regis University in Denver, CO. Mariel Saez joins Hoyer's staff as Press Assistant and Researcher. From Hoyer's district in Leonardtown, MD, she graduated magna cum laude from St. Mary's College of Maryland with a B.A. in Economics. Mariel previously served as an intern in Hoyer's office.


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Inmate says wounding was in self-defence
A maximum security inmate who dubbed himself 'Osama bin Laden' said a prisoner he was accused of attacking had beaten him previously and held a grudge against him.
Ho Yuk-wun, 51, was testifying about his alleged attack on fellow inmates Mak Siu-wing and Soong Kwok-fai on April 20, 2009, at Shek Pik Prison on Lantau Island.
Ho earlier pleaded not guilty in the District Court to one count of wounding and one of assault. Mak lost 10 per cent of the vision in his left eye after being stabbed with a sharpened toothbrush, and Soong had cuts to his face, waist and limbs.
Ho said several Correctional Services Department officers mistreated him. 'I had been asking the CSD officers to move me to another cell but they never responded,' said Ho, referring to requests made after he was allegedly beaten by Mak and Soong five times in the past few years.
Ho told the court Mak, a senior member of the Sun Yee On triad society, became angry because Ho refused to become Mak's subordinate and won bets against him. Mak's resentment deepened when Ho refused to withdraw a complaint against a prison officer who allegedly helped Mak obtain details of soccer matches and horse races. Their relationship worsened when he reported Mak's gambling to the ICAC.
Ho said that just before the attack, Mak asked him to fetch a newspaper, but he pretended he had not heard.
Mak then took out a sharpened toothbrush and tried to attack him. He said he grabbed the toothbrush and retaliated in self-defence.
Most Popular
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text:
OpenSSL issues surface as multiple vulnerabilities in HP-UX's BIND
Hewlett-Packard is warning HP-UX administrators to install fixes for multiple vulnerabilities in BIND version 920 that could lead to denial of service in affected systems.
Hewlett-Packard is warning HP-UX administrators to install fixes for multiple vulnerabilities in BIND version 920...
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that could allow remote attackers to cause denial of service in affected systems.
Problems with OpenSSL (reported last October) are manifesting themselves as security vulnerabilities in BIND version 920 of HP-UX
The vulnerabilities stem from parsing problems. For example, the parser automatically rejects some ASN.1 encodings as invalid, which causes errors in deallocating data structures and leads to stack corruption. The result can be denial of service, although execution of arbitrary code may also be possible.
Similarly, since the parser may incorrectly count input characters, a specially constructed SSL client certificate may cause OpenSSL to read past the end of a buffer and cause a denial of service.
A separate error in handling SSL and TLS protocols parses a client certificate even when not requested, leading to a denial of service.
The problem occurs in HP9000 servers running HP-UX versions B.11.00, B.11.11 and B.11.22, if BIND version 920 is installed. HP has provided separate fixes for each version of HP-UX.
Dig Deeper on Microsoft Patch Tuesday and patch management
Find more PRO+ content and other member only offers, here.


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Milan—Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A said Tuesday that its 2013 profit jumped 28% and that it was likely its 2014 results will be just as good—if not better.
"The business trend recorded in the first months of the current year justifies expectations for growth also throughout 2014, in the absence of severely unfavorable market conditions," the company said.
Focus on Accessories
For the year ended Dec. 31, the footwear and accessories company posted a net profit of 160 million euros (about $221.8 million) ahead of analysts' estimate for 145.9 million in profits. Net revenue was up 9% to 1.26 billion euros.
For 2014, Chief Financial Officer Ernesto Greco forecast 285 million euros in core earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was "realistic." The company's EBITDA margin was 20.7% last year and could reach 25% in 2013 in the next few years.
All the companies' geographical markets reported increases except for Japan. Asia-Pacific posted a 10% increase in sales, now accounting for 37% of 2013 sales. Europe had a 13% increase and North America was up 12%.
Japan sales, which were down 13%, was hit by currency changes. 13%. At constant exchange rates, revenue in Japan was up 0.7%.
By category, shoes accounted for 43% of the sales and 33% were from leathergoods including handbags.
According to CEO Michele Norsa said the company plans to focus on accessories other than footwear this year, and open around 15 shops, half of which will be in Asia.


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Step-by-step how to for changing default feature image on LinkedIn Groups and setting manager choice rotations
If you visited any groups after August 21, 2013 on Linked, you may notice that things look a bit different. Most notably the main image at the top of LinkedIn group pages.
LinkedIn recently made some nice design updates to their groups with the overall look and feel (nice improvements I think). In addition to a new look, there is a new feature image spot called a "Hero Image" (similar to the feature images found on company pages) that allows you to showcase what your group is about at the top of the group page.
Changing the Default LinkedIn Group Feature Image
There is a default Hero Image when you first go to your newly updated group page (gray with overlapping triangle folds)… and its not initially clear how you can change that image. You can't just click on it to change it or anything simple like that.
After a bit of poking around (group admins are used to that a bit on LinkedIn) I discovered that it is a fairly straightforward process to update that image.
To change the default image you need to go to: Manage, Group Information. Then half-way down the page you'll see the new Hero Image section to edit.
LinkedIn specifies the Hero Image size as 646×200 with a maximum file size of 2MG. Browse for your image, check the box that the image is OK to use and then upload. If your image is not sized you'll get an option to crop a larger image. DONE.
BUT WAIT… what do you put in this Hero Image? I suggest that you think about it a bit before simply uploading a larger version of your group logo. Use it as promotional space that supports the main goal(s) of your group.
Since my Marine Marketing Tools LinkedIn Group is a companion group to my website, I decided to use the header from my website with a brief description of what its all about under the header. I created the image in PhotoShop and saved it as a JPEG as the correct size.
Rotating Manager's Choice Features
Another change that came with this new Hero Image feature is the placement of discussions marked as "Manager's Choice".
(note: only admin can designate posts as "Manager's Choice" – click on the post and there is an option under the post to add it).
All of the posts you have designated as Manager's Choice will appear after your Hero Image in rotation. There is an auto rotation (a bit slow I think) and there are arrows that allows users to manually move through the rotations.
If you have a lot of posts designated as Manager's Choice you may want to reorder them. This is another edit that is not easy for LinkedIn Group Admins to find.
To edit the order of the Manager's Choice posts, go to: Search, Set Manager's Choice Order. You'll then have the option of reordering posts for the feature rotation.
Overall, the design changes to the LinkedIn Groups is a nice change. Posts or "discussions" are easier to read – you see both the title and detail before any link info.
There is also a design change with the group information and sharing. Hit the "i" for group information and stats. To share, hit the forward arrow for options to share the group on LinkedIn (via groups, status update or individuals).
Did I miss any of the LinkedIn Group updates? If so, let me know and please share in comments below!
Shameless Plug - Please join my Small Business Marketing Tools LinkedIn Group – we need more people like you to join and post discussions!
The post How to Update LinkedIn Hero Image Features on Groups appeared first on Small Business Marketing Tools.
Related posts:
- Small Business Connections with LinkedIn Marketing A LinkedIn marketing strategy will help grow your professional network…
- Using LinkedIn to Get More Facebook Page Likes Promoting Facebook pages on relevant LinkedIn groups can help to…
- LinkedIn or Leaked-in: How Much Should You Share with Business Connections? LinkedIn group discussions and status updates can be a great…


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text:
In continued follow-up to my guest blog post on WorldCat.org, Amy (We Tree) and I appear in today's e-newsletter from OCLC! Another hoo-rah to genealogy!
Some of you who participated in the meme the week for which Worldcat was the topic are also featured. Read the newsletter to see if you were one.
Very cool. The enewsletter is distribute to about 70,000 people!


text: I am trying to assay the C127I cells for mutation frequency using 6-TG and the multi-well plates. However, I am not sure how to do it. I appreciate any advise. _____________________________ A S H R A F D A L L O L School of Biomedical Sciences University of Ulster Coleraine BT52 1SA Tel: 01265 42569 Fax: 01265 324906 http://www.geocities.com/ TheTropics/1912/ _____________________________


text:
Article Side
Online Article Directory!
Drive and Earn - Acquire Rewards by Driving Around the City
Do you want to earn some rewards in an almost effortless way? If that's the case, then car marketing could be one of the most excellent choice it is possible to take. All that you need to do is let some advertising companies to place their sticker ads on your car. Envision acquiring rewards merely for driving your automobile. This is generally known as drive and earn plan which has benefited both the company along with the person driving the vehicle using the marketing message on it.
There are well-known companies which are prepared to give rewards to people in exchange for exposure. If you are residing in a enormous city and you drive your vehicle about a great deal, then it may be seen by a large number of people just about every day and all these people can grow to be potential clients of the company.
Your rewards can vary depending on the automobile you may have. But even with typical sized vehicle, it is possible to still earn great rewards for doing nothing. To ensure your application gets accepted, first you'll want to be 18 years old or above, a permanent resident of the country exactly where the drive and save plan is provided and possess a valid driver's license. You also get accepted if you are a resident of a populous or big city and if you are driving more than 500 miles a month and you've a clean driving record without any serious violations in the prior year.
If you have all these qualifications, then your chance of finding accepted by the company is really high. Aside from learning the specifications for the reward program, you will discover additional facts you need to know about it. Recall that these companies would make you sign a contract due to the fact they usually prefer long term commitments. You also ought to make certain the ad will not harm the exterior of the car.
You will discover a variety of alternatives even though to choose from like vinyl bumper, graphic panels, stickers, full automobile wrap and magnetic stamps. It's extremely essential that you just discover out if the company features a minimum distance you must drive every month. Usually, companies offering drive and save cars system would ask you to drive 400-500 miles but some would even demand you to drive at least a thousand miles every single month or could ask you to drive specific places often.
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text: On Tue, 2008-09-30 at 14:37 +0200, Matthias Apitz wrote: > El día Tuesday, September 30, 2008 a las 08:11:48PM +1000, Alex Osborne escribió: > > > Matthias Apitz wrote: > > > I'm trying to bring up the eth0 with > > > > > ># ifup eth0 > > > > > > ... > > matthias Hi Matthias, I am using these scripts with the unmodified Om 2008.9 system successfully to connect to a linksys wrt150 running wpa. The only caveat is that the FR has a good signal when connecting. Turn on wifi using the settings dialog first - dont select anything else. Same with mofi etc - if you have used them, reboot first. Then you should be able to connect/reconnect at will. It seems that some of the background apps are reluctant to let go of the connection. myth1 root # cat wap #!/bin/sh # Turn on wifi at the settings dialog first! ifdown eth0 iwconfig eth0 txpower auto channel 1 killall wpa_supplicant killall udhcp wpa_supplicant -ieth0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -B ; ifup eth0 _______________________________________________ myth1 root # cat nowap #!/bin/sh ifdown eth0 killall wpa_supplicant iwconfig eth0 txpower off -- William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au> Home in Perth!


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Between WordPress and a Hard Place
I'm sharing the text of the presentation I gave today at CCCC. The title is "Between WordPress and a Hard Place," and I was part of a panel offering critical perspectives on the Course Management System (CMS) in higher education. I wrote this to be spoken, so please forgive any coarse generalizing or informal prose! I'd love to know your thoughts.
The title of my talk implies a dilemma. A difficult situation. A tough call. In fact, my partial migration away from the university-owned Course Management System (CMS) has indeed been a tough call, and I've paid the price of many hours spent searching for and familiarizing myself with alternatives. My students have the paid the price of test-driving the Frankenstein-ish CMS set-ups I've decided on each semester. In the first-year writing and introductory literature courses I teach, both online and face-to-face, I've been willing to experiment with different technologies and juggle commitments to my employers, my students, and myself — yet I continue to feel caught "in between" these commitments.
These two tweets I composed while planning my courses last winter reflect one of the many quandaries I've encountered over the years: take a risk, or play it safe? More control, or less control? Pledge to open source, or pledge to making my life easier? I feel torn between WordPress (or WP) and the university CMS (usually proprietary), caught between these two value-laden technologies. The edupunk and "hacking the academy" movements have tried to rally educators to choose the values associated with WordPress and essentially abandon those associated with the university CMS. But are those choices really so clear-cut? And how do college instructors–especially those with contingent status–negotiate conundrums and conflicting commitments amidst calls to "edupunk your CMS," and more broadly, calls to be tech savvy trailblazers?
Educational technology guru Jim Groom, who coined the term "edupunk" has been notoriously slippery about pinning down a definition, but he does compare edupunk to the DIY movement and the home gardening/farming movement. [1] The New York Times defines edupunks as "high-tech do-it-yourself educators who skirt traditional structures," and Wired magazine recently defined edupunk as "avoiding mainstream teaching tools like Powerpoint and Blackboard." The edupunk movement has been celebrated as a form of activism, but I argue that it actually works on some level to reify the tensions I feel and oversimplify the issues.
If there's one thing I've learned, and if there's one thing I hope you'll take away from my talk, it's the perhaps less-than-profound realization that any CMS is both a gateway and a gatekeeper. A rock isn't desirable or fun, unless you find yourself in a heated match of paper-scissors-rock, during which your opponent opts for scissors. A hard place is equally un-fun, unless you've just completed a terrifying skydive from 14,000 feet. In other words, both rocks and hard places have problems. Of course there are more than just two alternatives. But for the purpose of narrowing down my discussion, I want to focus on what I'll call the WordPress vs. "hard place" debate, which is what I have the most experience with. I broadly divide out two types of course management systems: proprietary and open source, with the former rhetorically framed as promoting closed, cookie-cutter learning and the latter as promoting open, generative learning. On the side of WordPress, I locate systems like Moodle, Sakai, and Drupal, and on "the hard place" side I locate the "university CMS" which for many people might be Blackboard but for me it's Desire 2 Learn (or D2L), Blackboard's major competitor. Allow me to bracket Ning and PB Works here, since they are neither open source nor university-controlled–and, as I'll discuss in a minute, the two CMS types I've just delineated don't actually bifurcate so neatly anyway.
I want to stress that the redundancy or synonymy of the two options implied in my title (a rock and a hard place) says something more than simply "no CMS is perfect." Both WordPress and the university CMS are two breeds of the same species: technology that both creates and contains possibilities. In this way, then, they are comparable to any learning technology that has come before. They both mediate knowledge and shape the process through which individuals collect and construct and co-construct knowledge.
The claim I'm making here is more than theoretical flag waving; it's a critical realization that the relationship I have with my course's web space is a choice. I am not choosing a channel nor utility, like selecting a cell phone service provider, but rather I am declaring my pedagogical relationship to knowledge. When I began teaching college writing, I treated the CMS as a mere utility or information channel. To set the scene: it's 2004. The Blackboard precursor WebCT (web course tool) is en vogue. I jump right in, awkwardly manipulating and customizing navigation options, swooning over WebCT's cumbersome easiness, and feeling proud of my adventuresome spirit all the while. I am seriously amazed at the convenience of having an online space to assist me with administrative duties of teaching. But gradually I begin to realize through my own observations, but also through becoming attuned to a surge of discussion on Twitter and academic blogs around 2008, that my course site is not just a supplement to "real" classroom activities. I begin to intuit McLuhan's dictum that "The use of any kind of medium or extension of man alters the patterns of interdependence among people, as it alters the ratios among our senses" (McLuhan 90). Both WordPress and the university CMS are tools that foreshadow and forestall possibilities for writing online, whether we are conscious of it or not. And in this way, both WP and the university CMS are much more than tools.
Here are some of the characteristics or values that we could associate with wordpress in opposition to hard places.
1. Proprietary vs. open source (free), which leads to another "open"…
There is a lot to be said here about the legal and ethical tangles that hazily differentiate proprietary and open source software. One problem is the common pairing of "free" and "open source." These are actually different software movements with different histories, and neither one means that the software is free in the sense of no price. The free software movement is at root a code of ethics, whereas open source is a license and a development model. [2] Jim Groom and the founder of the free software movement, Richard Stallman, have both convincingly shown that to presuppose any affinity between "open source" and ethical software or effective pedagogy is a mistake. Stallman asserts that a given program or web platform "might be open source and use the open source development model, but it won't be free software [unless it] respects the freedom of the users that actually run it." Groom echoes Stallman's distinction by pointing out that although Sakai and Moodle adopt "an open source model," still "they smack of an outdated model of ownership, control, and management—which makes them administrative tools, not learning tools." Like a wolf in sheep's clothing, open source platforms like Moodle and Sakai can be deceptively good at embodying icky values.
Thus, it becomes important to know what brand of mediation we're sponsoring when we choose a supposedly open source CMS. I've talked to many people who assume that open source means zero cost, even though the labors of volunteers on the open source Debian project, for example, would total about 19 billion dollars by one recent (Feb. 2012) estimate. I've also talked to people who can't say for sure if Ning and PB Works are open source or not, even though they use these platforms for many of the reasons that lie behind the free and open source software movements.
2. closed (private) vs. open (public) learning, supported by…
One critique of the university CMS is that it locks up student writing in an artificial space. I think that's true, but I would add (and Jenn Marlow mentioned this too in her presentation) that it also locks up the instructor's writing: my discussion comments, prompts, assignment sheets, and resources. This aspect of choosing a CMS is particularly relevant to the transitional status of graduate students. As Dave Parry points out, "If you are hosting your own [CMS], i.e. not on the university's servers, you own your course material, making it easier to take with you when you go." Moreover, since I'll be looking for jobs with a digital-humanities-type focus, I want to demonstrate my competency with web sites other than D2L and Blackboard. If edupunk is "about a culture, a way of thinking, a philosophy" [3], then one reason to keep my materials public on my own website where anyone can access them, is to not only to create an archive of courses I've taught, but also to perform the values I express in my teaching statement.
3. commercial vs. community led development, resulting in projects that are…
The commercial vs. community led development binary problematically grafts onto other pairings from my list here. The open source CMS then becomes generalized to mean participatory and inclined toward student engagement and collaboration, while the proprietary platform becomes a silent, teacher-centric study hall. That value transfer is reductive and not universally true.
4. standardized vs. tailored / custom / DIY, often appealing to the…
Darin Payne captures the standardized vs. tailored binary in his 2005 College English article when he writes "Because Blackboard is a one-size-fits-all product for mass consumption, the assessment practices it enables are not tailored for writing classes" (499). But, more broadly than assessment practices, many feel that the ontology of the whole CMS package–its DNA–is contrary to the critical thinking and creativity that many humanities courses value. But, to some extent, writing classes have always had some one-size-fits-all elements. For example, the technology of a curriculum itself. The goals and outcomes we use to assess final portfolios at my institution are arguably "a one-size-fits-all product for mass consumption," as all instructors and students across hundreds of English 101 and 102 sections must shape their classes around these goals. What would it mean for a graduate teaching assistant to commit to a tailored / custom / DIY CMS approach within a rather standardized writing program like UWM's? Again, there is a tension here that often goes unacknowledged. In this respect, the edupunk and hacking the academy movements have been somewhat contradictory in attesting that "it's not the technology but what we do with it that matters," yet at the same time issuing a full-on assault against any proprietary CMS.
5. web novice vs. web expert
In this last binary of web novice vs. web expert, which we might align with student vs. teacher, I see myself caught in between, as a student/teacher hybrid. I am also not in the novice category of instructors, who "happily use the high–tech CMS as a glorified copy machine" as Lisa Lane puts it. But I am also not in a position (at least, without giving myself serious stress) to take big risks like debugging quirky wordpress plug-ins, as Joseph Ugoretz describes doing in Part 2 of a great series of blog posts on using WordPress (and only WordPress) for an online-only course he taught.
The ideological trope of the risk-taking hacker and tech-savvy academic gains a great deal of power when it's mapped onto other values and characteristics on my list here. In her 2011 article in Computers and Composition, Virginia Anderson clearly defines the problems with the ideological trope of the tech-savvy academic who "hacks through the wilderness toward grand vistas" — this trailblazer whose "primary duty [is to open] new territory with the goal of seeing what's there" — after all, the explorer's task is not to hold the hands of those who follow but to give them somewhere to follow to" (136). She argues that class-based benefits of time, experience, and (to some extent) financial resources determine who is in a position to be a web expert and "edupunk their CMS" in the first place.
Her critique of instructors on the "bright side of the [digital] divide" (125) adds another layer of complexity to my schema: class. The very predicament of being caught between WordPress and a hard place seems like a luxury. I think of Anderson's concept of taxation when I read Parry's promotion of WordPress as a CMS. While WordPress is not exactly difficult, it does take some level of expertise to install the plug-ins and make the structural changes that will adapt the platform to be a CMS. In his well-circulated ProfHacker post which I mentioned earlier, he concedes that while "WordPress has a learning curve, once you invest a little bit of time it is actually exponentially easier to use than Blackboard." Anderson might be wary of the implications behind this encouragement to "just invest a little time." She calls this a "tax" which is a toll, "however small, imposed by technological culture as it asks users to invest more and more time and effort to perform necessary tasks. Each change, with the commitment it demands, carries a message about the value of a user's time" (132).
The complex issues I've sketched here ought to reveal the troublesome shadow cast by any rationale that rules out one type of technology only because it does not seem to exhibit a certain set of values. In affiliating the university CMS (what I've been calling the "hard place") with values on the left side, it becomes easy–too easy–to associate WordPress (or similar platforms) with values on the right side. But both options manage learning, despite Matt Gold's overly broad claim that anything called a Learning Management System starts off on the wrong foot because "Learning is not something that can be 'managed' via a 'system.'" After all, even if the instructor has designed and customized a system–even if he/she built it from the ground up–it is still a system that is managing learning in some way,
|whether we're talking about this paper or that paper,
|this wordpress or that wordpress,
|this blackboard or that blackboard.
Even a non-alphabetic oral culture deploys learning technologies: story-lines, cliches, rhymes, and rhetorical devices are, in a sense, oral learning management systems. [4] They are not by default less intrusive or less interfering because they are non-digital. [5] One of the consequences of the backlash against the corporatized, mass-marketed CMS is a radical and, in many cases, knee-jerk response to anything affiliated with values on the left side of the binary schema I laid out in the previous slides
So, where does that leave me? Recently, I have settled on a hybrid system for both my online and face-to-face classes: I use a self-hosted WordPress installation or a PB Works wiki for weekly announcements, mini-lectures, assignment guidelines, a hyperlinked version of my syllabus, and miscellaneous tidbits, jokes, or photos. I use the proprietary university CMS for things that are not exactly my property: recording student grades, attendance, and uploading readings with a copyright. In my online classes, I have not yet found a suitable open-source "web two point oh-ey" alternative for discussions, so last semester those happened behind closed doors. This semester, I am using Ning for discussions. It's not true that a CMS divided against itself cannot stand. But it is harder to support. And it is harder for students to figure out.
Ultimately, I believe this sort of hybrid learning management system satisfies a number of my goals and puts me in a position of straddling some of these ideologies as I and my students work betwixt and between WordPress and the proprietary CMS.
[1] This is according to Groom's now-classic post, "The Glass Bees" and "Permapunk." It's important to note that more recently (Feb. 2011), the popular adoption of the term "edupunk" and its acitivist tone has driven Groom to announce his break-up with the word.
[2] This is certainly up for debate, and I know there is disagreement between members of each community regarding how to define the difference between free software and open source software (or if it's worth defining a difference). The statement here is my cursory summary of Stallman's somewhat vague definition in "Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software."
[3] I take this phrasing from D'Arcy Norman's post on edupunk.
[4] See Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Methuen, 1982. Print.
[5] This idea is an off-shoot of Carlo Scannella's comment on Gold's post. Scannella writes: "It seems to me, way back, before the days of computers, we always had a "learning managing system." It was a classroom, and the lesson planner, and the folders my teachers kept all our essays in, and all the other artifacts that made up the learning experience." Gold does address his comment, but I don't feel he gives it the attention it deserves. I think the issue Scannella raises is really key and deserves more attention.


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Originally Posted by bcw
Fairly new here so not familiar w DD traveler but don't you have to hook tree huggers to Whoopies and then to the hammock? Not directly to the hammock, unless it is like WB suspension.
I have no idea. I thought I could remove the suspension that comes with it put in some tree huggers and call it a day! I wish I could find a group hang around here so I could actually have someone help me. The more I read on here the more confused I get! "It's easy! Just pop on a whoopdeedoo tie yourself a slippery marlin diggley bob, run it through the washer toss on a self tensioning knot..." I think my head will explode the first time I actually put it up!
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NEW YORK — Investors brushed off early jitters about a potential slowdown in China and pushed the Dow on Monday to its highest close of the year.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 38.16 points, or 0.3 percent, to 14,127.82. The index is a fraction of a percentage point away from its record close of 14,164.53, reached Oct. 9, 2007.
Stocks dropped at the opening bell and stayed lower for most of the morning amid concern over new steps introduced by the Chinese government to cool the booming housing market in the world's second-largest economy.
Chinese markets were dragged down by housing stocks, which fell sharply after the country's Cabinet ordered new measures to rein in home prices. China will raise minimum down payments in areas where prices are deemed to be rising too fast and crack down on efforts to evade limits on how many properties each buyer can acquire.
"The U.S. market continues to digest the negative news and hang tough," said Ryan Detrick, a senior strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
The stock market has rallied this year on optimism that the U.S. housing market is recovering and signs that companies are hiring more. Strong corporate earnings and continuing economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve have also boosted stock prices.
Despite having already logged strong gains this year, stocks may still be able to maintain their momentum as investors move money out of bonds, said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management.
"It's all about where the money is going," Lutts said. "If the money that is sitting on the sideline, or in bonds, is moving into equities, that alone is enough to create that shift."


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Gideon Levy, Twilight Zone /The third blow 3 December 2009
This community is supported by the Villages Group two of whose activists, Erella Dunayavesky and Hamed Qawasme, were recently on an awareness and fund raising tour in the UK.
This week, representatives from the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem visited the site. A kitten lay on the rocky, arid ground, slowly dying. No one in the place gave a thought to rescuing it. Helpless, the kitten cast a desperate gaze at its surroundings. Not even the lean Shepherd dogs approached it. In another hour, maybe another day, the kitten will breathe its last anguished breath. The residents of the tiny village are helpless, too. With their last remaining strength they are clinging to the fence of the settlement of Carmel, part of which lies on their private land; clinging to the soil their father and grandfather bought after the family was forced to flee from the Negev in 1948; clinging in their tents and their tin huts and with their animals to the remainder of their land, from which Israel has for some time been threatening to evict them.
Who was here first? To whom has this private land belonged for many decades? Who was already expelled once by Israel? Whose structures are demolished if they are built without a permit? And who do you suppose can even get a permit? Questions that are as pointless as they are irrelevant here, in this obscure community in the south Hebron hills. On Monday of this week the diplomats from the U.S. consulate were struck by the injustice. They promised to help. Who knows? Maybe salvation for the residents of the hirbeh – the word means ruin – will come from them. Alongside the yellow homes of the "southern neighborhood" the settlers have laid the foundations for another group of homes. These of course will not be included in the "freeze," because they are "building starts." Parked next to them are an army Jeep and a settlers' security Jeep. According to Id Hadalin, a fine-looking young Bedouin of 24 who speaks fluent, up-to-date Hebrew and also English (which he says he learned "from life"), the residents of the new neighborhood are worse than their predecessors.
How so?
"Because they are young. Because they sabotage our property and steal our animals." Id tells of shepherds being attacked and sheep stolen, of people being struck and harassed. Complaints submitted to the Hebron police usually result in a visit by a team of police, but no one is brought to trial. And now have come the freeze orders, which Id calls "a big, big problem."
The bleached-out land is covered with cracks. Last week there were flash floods here and farming equipment donated by the International Red Cross to till the soil and plant wheat and olives in the wadi was destroyed. The seeds were washed away. One blow after another.
Id was born here. "My head fell forward from this tent. That is what my parents told me. Most of us were born naturally, without a hospital." Eighty-four souls live in this compound and another 70 in the expansion of the hirbeh a few hundred meters to the north. All of them are from the same family, the same tribe, the Jahalin, which lived in the Negev and was scattered to the four winds in 1948. Id's grandfather arrived here at the beginning of the 1950s with his family and bought this land, on the remnants of which we now sit, from people in the town of Yatta.
Id's father, Suleiman, who also speaks a good contemporary Hebrew, is far more distraught than his son. "Three times you did us bad," he says. "The first time, in 1948. Everything went. No refugee camps were established for the Bedouin, and every tribe went its own way. We started to wander in the hills, until we got here. The Bedouin wander with their camels and everyone chases them away. Get out, get out. Even the people of Yatta are bad. They will kill for a meter of land. My father bought the whole hill from them, and now Carmel is perched on it. The second time: the Six-Day War. We all became refugees. Both in the West Bank and in Gaza, and Musa, too [Musa Abu Hashhash, a fieldworker for the human rights organization B'Tselem, who accompanied us on the visit.] At first the Israeli army was good to us and didn't do anything to us. We stayed here and enjoyed life.
"Then, in November 1980, the first Jewish National Fund tractor entered along with a high army officer, who said: We have to cut a road to Be'er Sheva here. Everyone will benefit from the road, he said. Then they put an army base on the hill and the base stood there for five months and the first bachelor came. Actually, it was one couple and two bachelors. They started to settle and we did not say a word. The big military governor came to my father and told us: This is a military area. My father went to the mayor of Hebron, Samir Shamsh, of blessed memory, and brought the deeds that proved that this land belongs to us.
"We are stupid Bedouin. We thought the settlers would not harm us. They did groundwork here, groundwork there, Carmel grew and expanded onto our land and we said nothing. In 1992 it snowed and we saw our situation, we were totally finished, and then we started to build with cinderblocks. The settlers called in the Civil Administration and they wanted to demolish our cinderblock structures. We were served demolition orders. I went to the Civil Administration in Beit El and there they told me: Aren't you ashamed? They are sitting on my land and building two-story homes and I will not build. That is what they said to me. I went to Faisal Husseini, of blessed memory, and he hired a lawyer for us who helped see to it that the two homes were not demolished. Afterward they demolished the two homes, one time and another time, and now they want to do it again.
"Three weeks ago, on November 11, a Civil Administration officer came with an inspector. He came to this tent where we are now sitting – this tent also exists in the pictures taken by your plane – and told us that the tent has to be demolished. This tent has been here since the 1960s. I have a transistor radio and I hear that there is a tsunami in Asia or an earthquake in Russia. From Allah. And what happens? All the countries help. And how do they help? They bring tents to rescue the people. You are a wise nation. I ask you: What kind of law tears down a tent? What kind of law issues a demolition order for a tent? What happened to this world? This world has turned completely upside down here. Tents are brought to the refugees from all the wars, and here they come to demolish the tent. To Benjamin Netanyahu I say: I am not afraid. I told the officer: If you take down the tent we will sleep on the earth and the sky will be our blanket. We will not leave. How many times does a person have to flee in his life? Carmel is on my land. They were not ashamed, and we were silent.
"They started with these orders in 1995. This is our third blow. I have more than 60 orders and it's not finished yet. My father said: Even if this is my hill, the settlers will live here. I also am not against the army. But a civilian person like myself – will they throw me out? But the settlers are above the law. Their homes say that they are above the law. You see our distance from their fence, and now they want to throw us out completely. Is that what we deserve? A kick in the ass? But we will not budge from here. Only if there will be a massacre here like in Kafr Qasem or in Kibiya. If they take down our tent, we will put up a new one. We are Bedouin.
"We have no objection to Carmel. In the 1980s we were friends. They knew all our children. At that time they were good people. Now they want to move us. You are wiser than us. You know that everything is in the hands of the settlers. And who guards them? The army and the Civil Administration. They do the work for them. The whole nation of Israel works for the settlers.
"I heard that Netanyahu has stopped the construction now, but I don't think they listen to Netanyahu. But only God will help us. How far will you push the Bedouin? To what abyss? To the Dead Sea? To the Red Sea?"
Twice in the past two years a few structures and tents have been demolished by the authorities. Several months ago the villagers tried to build 11 gray-brick toilets; only two remain that were not demolished, one in this compound and one in the compound opposite. They are left with one toilet for 86 people. Using old plastic boxes and tin cans, they build dovecotes, whose denizens flutter whenever a donkey snorts, a dog barks or a car passes in Carmel. Of the friendships with the settlers there remains only one righteous man in Sodom, Ron Tsurel by name, who has come to their aid. His home abuts the fence that separates the Bedouin from Carmel and they have only good things to say about him. They remember him from when he was still a bachelor. They are not even on speaking terms with all the other uninvited neighbors.
Now they know what will happen: after the stop-work orders will come the second order and then the third and then the demolition. "We are already used to it," they say, laconically yet sadly.
A response by the Civil Administration was not available at the time of going to press.


text: Willi Geiger (August 17, 1878- February 11, 1971) was a German Painter and Illustrator. He attended the Munich Arts and Crafts School from 1898-99, and later the Technical University, where he passed the state examination to teach drawing. Geiger also studied from 1903 with Franz von Stuck at the Munich Academy. He was awarded the National prize and the Schack scholarship for some of his early work and he traveled to Spain, Italy, and North Africa. Willi Geiger was also awarded the 1910 Villa Romana prize for his success as a graphic designer. He is remembered for his unique typography which accompanied the majority if his illustrations. Geiger lived in Berlin until 1914 and then returned to Munich where he taught at the School of Decorative Arts and he was dismissed by the Nazi Party. In 1951 Willi Geiger received the Culture Prize of the City of Munich where he lived until his death in 1971.


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The first President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, co-author of the Constitution that most people of 2012 know too little about, George Washington is kind of a big deal.
He's such a big deal that some random Super-PAC decided to kidnap him, along with his Founding Father comrades, and bring him to 2012 to help with this upcoming election. George Washington is a man of principle though and he wouldn't allow himself to be manipulated into supporting a cause he didn't believe in. So he put his foot down and steadfastly refused to give his support.
So, Super-PAC refused to support him.
Now he's stuck in 2012. He spends his days working a job he's unqualified for and spends his nights drinking with his obnoxious coworkers or doing kegstands at red-cup house parties. Oh, and there's a girl…there's always a girl.
I Made of America tells the story of George Washington and his fellow Founding Fathers in 2012 Chicago. You could Facebook or Tweet George to see what he's up to right now. But, if I were you, I'd start at the very beginning….
George Washington Profiles:
George Washington's Twitter
George Washington's Facebook


text: > Guys: please, please, _please_ put together a distribution without > encryption. How do you suggest that the passwords be encrypted? If it's only an OS for you, we could probably just save it as plain text (or rot-13'ed). This may just be a simple hack of the crypt(3) routine and recompiling of "login" and "passwd". I don't know if there's any DES in the kernel, but that might cause problems. Question to Allen and others: could we distribute a seperate version of login, passwd, ftpd, and whatever else needs to read the password file? Overseas users could then download the distribution and overwrite their binaries with these. Is there any other work going on to replace DES? Lawrence ------------------------------------------------------------------------------