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Bring your customers closer to your business
Enghouse Interactive is a leading expert in customer communications. At the heart of our business is the contact centre, which provides opportunities to differentiate your company's service, as well as gain feedback and build customer loyalty. With increased demands from customers, companies require a communications platform that's agile enough to quickly and efficiently respond to customers from any channel, at any time; connecting them to your business rules, whilst providing actionable intelligence to drive ongoing improvement. Our unique multichannel contact centre solutions offer choice and flexibility. They are also scalable in deployment, size, complexity and integration to ensure successful and effortless customer interaction, whatever your budget.
- On Premises
- Ideal for helpdesks looking to reduce costs and leverage Unified Communications
- Highly cost-effective solution to extend UC with call centre functionality
- Cloud/On Premises
- Ideal for mid-size organisations looking for an out-of-the-box cost-effective all-in-one multimedia contact centre
- Wizard-driven solution which is easy to use and is rapidly deployed
- Cloud/Hybrid/On Premises
- For organisations requiring advanced capability and customisation, which is highly available and can be used within distributed environments
- Enterprise level solution with extensive integration and resilience
SEATS Unlimited
- Cloud
- For service providers and shared service centres, looking for a complete multi-tenant contact centre solution, which is highly scalable with shared architecture
- Create your own cloud contact centre offering from one platform
Dramatically reduce costs by empowering your customers to self-serve
Self-service is a key and increasingly important part of an integrated customer experience. A significant number of customer requests are for simple issues such as password resets, order status enquiries or directory assistance. Nearly all of these requests are 'self-service' interactions that can be handled without the need for live assistance. Our solutions empower customers to self-serve through a wide range of speech recognition, touch tone, web, forums and mobile options which are quick to implement, powerful, and extremely cost-effective.
Interactive Voice, Mobile Response
- Tools to create your own IVR Scripts
- Design or integrate with a mobile app to create easily changed navigation flows
- Development platform or pre-built IVR applications
Knowledge Management and Forums
- Allow customers & employees to find answers through FAQs or user/agent forums
- Reduce costs and improve self service capabilities
- Customisable cloud based platform
Proactive Outbound, Multimedia Call Back
- In-queue announcements and call back options
- Keep customers informed with confirmations across any media
- Cloud / Hybrid / On Premise as part of your contact centre suite
Offer VIP Service to your customers using Operator Consoles
With over 25 years' experience developing the world's most widely deployed console solutions, we understand the crucial role receptionists and operators play in providing callers with an exceptional first impression of your business. By combining superior call handling features with rich directory and presence information, our console solutions enable receptionists and operators to quickly, professionally, and efficiently manage and dispatch interactions to the correct person within an organisation. Whether you need a receptionist to provide professional caller service, or a multi-site, multi-tenant, multi-language interaction handling service in a highly complex environment, we have the solution, experience and expertise to meet your requirements.
- Ideal for helpdesks looking to leverage multimedia capability with Unified Communications
- On Premises
- Ideal for mid-size organisations looking for a cost effective out-of-the-box solution with desktop Client with ACD, CTI functions
- Cloud / Hybrid / On Premises
- For organisations requiring a consultative, sophisticated, multi-tenant scalable solution
- Multi-location / Cloud-Based
Phone Applications
- Emergency broadcasts
- Phone lock
- Assistant functionality
- Office administration
- Provisioning
Continuously view, monitor and improve performance
To help organisations provide consistent quality of service, while remaining profitable and efficient, Enghouse Interactive provides a range of quality, workforce and business optimisation tools. These tools enhance operations, ensure high quality customer service, resolve customer disputes, achieve regulatory compliance, accelerate employee training, and increase workplace productivity and security. All solutions are highly scalable and modular, enabling you to choose the level of complexity that meets your requirement for continuous performance improvement.
Call / screen recording
- Ideal for organisations looking to record or monitor agents or employees anywhere within the business from reception, the finance team, a help desk, right through to the contact centre.
- Improving customer service, resolving customer disputes, meeting legal requirements such as PCI compliance.
- Cloud / On Premise
Agent / Service Evaluation
- For organisations looking for simple tools for supervisors to provide actionable feedback, or for surveys to quickly capture customer feedback on overall customer experience.
- Coach and train staff to address performance and increase employee productivity.
- Cloud / On Premise
Real-time speech analytics
- Suited to any business selling services over the phone. Looking to analyse agent and customer speech to provide live feedback to agents to adjust whilst call is in progress.
- Drive regulatory compliance and sales effectiveness with real-time capabilities.
- Cloud / On Premise
Workforce management
- For organisations looking to manage staff with automated handling of admin tasks, forecast demand across multiple channels and create optimal schedules that meet demand.
- Develop accurate and insightful reports and improve your overall customer service operation.
- Cloud / On Premise
Connect your people, processes and systems for greater efficiency
Connecting your entire business together and having information at your fingertips accelerates the time-to-market and time-to-revenue of your customer activities. Effectively maintained contact data within the corporate environment underpins the success of an increasing number of strategies and initiatives, helping to realise and maximise benefit from the implementation of an integrated data strategy and management. Enghouse Interactive offers both the development platform and integration tools not only to third party CRM or directory systems, but to IP, PBX and TDM networks.
CTI Connect
- For application developers and systems integrators looking to create voice self-service, contact centre and unified communications solutions for IP and TDM networks.
- To dramatically lower cost by providing out-of-the-box integration with all major communications systems.
CRM Integration
- For organisations looking to integrate third party CRM information with contact centre technology, linking the call with customer data to personalise customer interaction.
- Giving agents a 360 degree view of the customers offers a more personalised service, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Directory Integration
- For organisations requiring a simple integration of disparate directories or a complex data integration project across multiple platforms, systems and locations.
- Share and maintain contact data within the corporate environment to enable your entire business to be connected.
Business Solutions
With more than 1 million agent seats handling over 1 billion interactions through our systems daily, Enghouse Interactive is one of the biggest providers of customer contact solutions in the world. Our unique approach delivers more than just products. Our philosophy is discovering what your business is trying to achieve. We understand that one size does not fit all. So whether you need to provide a connected enterprise, multi-channel access to your customers, compliance, or access across the globe, we take you on a customer journey together – for today, and into tomorrow… Learn more about our solutions


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The Infiniti M35 Hybrid
Nissan unveiled the Infiniti M35 Hybrid at the 2010 Geneva Motorshow and appear to be targeting the Lexus hybrid market square between the eyes. The lucrative luxury hybrid market is largely cornered by Lexus at the moment and somewhat surprisingly we are yet to see hybrids coming from more traditional luxury marques like Mercedes, Jaguar and BMW. Nissan are ahead of the curve at the moment with hybrid and electric cars, their Leaf model will be hitting showroom floors in North America and Europe later this year and with the recent PR nightmare-from-hell that Toyota have been enduring Nissan is poised to Lanjut →

subset: commoncrawl


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Highmark is now rolling out a new dermatology idea: instead of actually being seen by a doctor, you photograph the affected area and send it in digitally. Then the doctor decides whether or not you need to come in for a real appointment, or whether s/he will simply diagnose a picture.
The cost for this "service" will be $69, because it is NOT a covered benefit on any Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.
So let's get this straight: instead of paying my Highmark co-pay (usually around $25 but never higher than $50) and having the opportunity to be examined by a real live dermatologist, I am now going to be asked to pay $69 NOT to be seen at all.
Highmark is simply gushing over this new "service":
"This new process makes it convenient for patients to access care," said Eric Starr, director of business innovation and development at Highmark. "They will just simply take a photo with a smartphone device or digital camera and then go to the secure website and send the image. Based on the image, the physician can determine if the patient can be treated virtually. This really modifies the workflow of the dermatologist allowing office visits to be used for the most critical cases." A win for both the doctor and the consumer.Yeah. Aside from the fact that I cannot wait to see what happens when a doctor misdiagnoses something carcinogenic from a blurry digital image, this is a win for Highmark's accountants and nobody else.
You get stuck with a bill for more than your co-pay and don't see a doctor.
You also have absolutely no assurance that any particular doctor (or even any doctor) is the one providing your treatment advice.
Meanwhile, Highmark is spared having to pay out anything in claims.
Your doctor, by the way, will probably embrace this service for the following reasons:
1. S/he first charges you $69 that s/he gets to keep for spending fifteen seconds looking at a photo.
2. Then, in the well-grounded practice of defensive medicine, s/he tells you that you need to come in for an appointment, collecting another $25 from you, as well as the insurance company payment. (In other words, Highmark has found a way to increase the doctor's capitated pay without actually having the company pay it. Your effective co-pay to see a dermatologist just increased from $25 to $94.)
Thank you thank you thank you Karin Weldin Stewart, for allowing the unbridled philanthropy that is Highmark to set up shop in Delaware.


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Costly change threatening drive-in movie theaters
For people like Bill Shoemaker, the drive-in movie theater is full of more than memories of whatever was on the screen.
"I came as a kid with my parents," Shoemaker said. "They'd take us and then as a teenager this was a place to come with your girlfriend."
In the 50s, Keno Drive-In in Kenosha was the hot spot where pony rides entertained children and John Wayne was the headline. But the plot is thickening in the real-life movie of survival for drive-ins as modern technology pushes many to draw the final curtain.
Until recently, the movie industry sent films to theaters. Now those movies are on hard drives, pushing theaters to spend upwards of $50,000 or more on digital projectors.
Wisconsin once had more than 70 drive-ins. For different reasons, the number statewide dwindled to 11, with two remaining in Southeastern Wisconsin and one in the Dells.
While the drive-in in Franklin, Wis. upgraded to digital, things are still up in the air in Kenosha. Shoemaker said he would hate to see Keno go by the wayside.
The drive-in in the Wisconsin Dells upgraded to digital. As for the future of Keno, the owners haven't made a decision on whether to upgrade.


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420 rally to celebrate drug-free youth
Daily staff report
EAGLE COUNTY – The Eagle County Sheriff's Office in collaboration with the Eagle Valley High School's DADD (Devils Against Drinking and Drugs) Club is hosting its inaugural 420 Drug Free Rally on Friday at the Field House in Edwards.
This event will be celebrated on a local level with a free community barbecue and open pick-up games such as soccer, basketball, volleyball and rock climbing, along with a giant bonfire with s'mores and an outdoor movie. This event will begin at 4:20 p.m. with a National Guard helicopter landing.
April 20, also referred to as 420, has become a day to celebrate and smoke marijuana in defiance of the law and authorities. The code word "420" is used by the pot-smoking subculture for "let's go get high."
For many in the counterculture, 420 represents April 20, or the "National Pot Smoking Day." Most Coloradans believe 420 sends out the wrong message to our youth by glorifying drug abuse. Others view this as insensitive and a dishonor of the Columbine High School tragedy, which also occurred on April 20.
In order to take a stand against "National Pot Smoking Day" and to promote healthy and safe teen choices, different counties throughout Colorado are holding rallies or events on or about April 20, with the emphasis on a drug-free message.
These events are intended to counter the perception that the majority of our teenagers use drugs and send a message that drug free is the social norm.
The purpose is to celebrate our teenagers and the fact that the majority of them make good decisions and do not use or intend to use drugs.
• 91.6 percent of local middle school students have never tried marijuana.
• 60.9 percent of local high school students have never tried marijuana.
• 39.1 percent of local high school students have tried marijuana.
Perception of risk and/or harm:
• 71 percent of local 12th-grade students saw no risk or a slight risk in harming themselves by trying marijuana.
• 69 percent of middle school students saw a moderate or great risk in harming themselves by trying marijuana.-
Eagle County is committed to spreading healthy, safe and drug-free messages to local youth. Organizations including the Eagle County Sheriff's Office, Avon Police Department, Eagle County Schools, Eagle River Youth Collation and the Western Eagle County Metropolitan Recreation District (WECMRD), along with a number of adults and youth, have organized events as positive alternatives to drug and alcohol use by discussing the harmful effects of drug use, providing events that are positive, safe and healthy, countering the message that a majority of our teenagers use drugs and celebrating that the social norm for our youth is being drug free.
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California's initiative process can be messy. And there's no better example than Proposition 8.
It's been three years since California voters approved the measure, which defines marriage as only that between a man and a woman. And the legal battle rages on.
In a significant ruling Thursday, the California Supreme Court said "it is essential to the integrity of the initiative process" to allow the backers of Prop 8 to defend the measure against legal challenges.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Prop 8 Court Victory May Be Fleeting
The issue arose because both Jerry Brown, when he was attorney-general, and current Attorney-General Kamala Harris, have declined to defend the measure.
In essence, critics said, they refused to do their job.
Although voters approved the ban on same-sex marriage, a federal district judge later ruled that the measure was unconstitutional. That ruling was put on hold by the Ninth Circuit federal court, and that's where it sits today.
The Supreme Court's decision Thursday didn't deal with the substance of whether the same-sex marriage ban is valid.
It did address situations where public officials decline, as Brown and Harris have, to participate in defending a voter-approved measure.
"It would clearly constitute an abuse of discretion for a court to deny the official proponents of an initiative the opportunity to participate as formal parties in the proceedings," said the ruling in a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.
In other words, the court said, under California's initiative process, voters have the ability to enact a law, even if elected leaders disagree with that law.
That means that lawyers for Protect Marriage, which backed the Prop 8 campaign, can now be participants, and not merely bystanders. It's now up to the Ninth Circuit to decide, as this legal battle moves forward in federal court.
And for voters, whether they support or oppose same-sex marriage, it's a reminder that what happens at the ballot box is often just one step in a long and messy process.
Let us know what you think. Comment below, send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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Living in California, we're lucky enough to be able to grill pretty much any day of the year, and whenever the mood strikes we can throw a few chicken breasts or steaks on the grill and have a delicious dinner in minutes. Without a doubt, this sandwich is one of our favorite ways to dress up juicy, tender pieces of grilled chicken. The avocado relish is a fresh and tangy addition, too!
Before living on the West Coast, where avocados are always in season, we never thought to use them, but they have since made at least once-weekly debuts in a lot of our dishes at home. Not only is the relish good for meaty sandwiches, but it can also be used in place of mayonnaise or other condiments in vegan or vegetarian sandwiches, or as a topping for white fish dishes. It's one yummy way to give your grub an extra kick!
Not only would this sandwich be a tasty and quick option for an everyday weeknight meal, but it's also a unique idea for a casual BBQ with friends! Even though some of you may still be buried under a few feet of snow (I lived in Boston for four years – I can feel for you!), spring and summer are just around the corner and your grill will be begging to be fired up again before you know it!
Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Avocado Relish
For the chicken marinade:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- ½ tsp. cumin
- ½ tsp. garlic powder
For the relish:
- 1 avocado pitted and diced
- 1 cucumber diced
- 1 tsp. lime juice
- 1 tsp. freshly chopped cilantro I used dried
- 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the sandwich:
- 4 white or whole-wheat hamburger buns
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts marinated (see recipe for marinade)
- 4 slices pepperjack or cheddar cheese
- 2 tomatoes sliced
- A few handfuls of spinach
- Combine all ingredients for marinade in a large bowl and whisk. Place chicken breasts into a plastic bag and pound flat. Add chicken to the bowl and marinade for at least 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
- For relish, toss avocado and cucumber with lime juice, chopped cilantro, and crushed red pepper. Mash together. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Refigerate up to 1 hour before use.
- Preheat grill to full heat. Grill chicken for 2-3 minutes per side in direct heat. Lower heat to medium and grill for 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, top with pepperjack cheese slices and cover with aluminum foil.
- Slice tomato and arrange tomato and spinach on a plate. Spray the inside of hamburger buns with cooking spray and toast for 3 minutes, or until lightly brown.
- Serve chicken on buns. Top with tomato, spinach, and relish.
- Enjoy!


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UNO is a card game using a specially printed deck. The game was invented by Merle Robbins in 1971, and is now owned by Mattel.
The custom deck consists of 108 cards, mostly split into 4 colors: red, green, blue and yellow. The remaining cards have special roles in the game: "skip", "draw two", "reverse" and "wild" cards. To start the game, seven cards are dealt to each player, and the top card of the stock is exposed to start the discard pile. At each turn, a player may play a card from their hand that matches the suit or rank of the top exposed card, or play a wild or wild draw four. If a player has no legal card to play, that player draws the top card of the stock, and may either play it or place it in their hand. The hand ends when a player plays all their cards. When a player plays down to only one card, that player is required to say "uno". After a player plays all of their cards, the other players count the number of points pertaining to the number of cards in their hands. When the number for one of the players reaches or exceeds a certain value (500 is customary), the player with the fewest points wins.
Sababa Toys has produced several Muppet-related versions of the game.


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Beck Sings David Bowie, Brought to You by Lincoln, on YouTube
There is a lot of straining these days to come up with ads that pretend they're not ads, and very often they are lousy or worse.
But here's a really good one: Lincoln spent a ton of money so that Beck could re-record "Sound + Vision," a pretty obscure David Bowie track, with a cast of dozens.
If you're a certain kind of person of a certain age, you'll still have some cognitive dissonance about the "Loser" dude shilling for a luxury automaker. But you'll get over it, and you'll enjoy it (also note: Zero mention of Lincoln and zero branding, period, during the video's 9 minutes and 22 seconds):
Lots of backstory here, which is where Lincoln would really prefer that you watch the ad (they don't make it easy to find the YouTube video itself).
Bear in mind that since this isn't a dude parachuting out of a spaceship, Lincoln is spending piles of money promoting the promotion: I've seen ads in the New Yorker and on the Web and on the home page of YouTube. And you'll see them on TV if you watch the Grammys tonight.


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By Gary Rubinstein, Special to CNN
Editor's Note: Gary Rubinstein is a high school math teacher and the author of two guidebooks for new teachers, "Reluctant Disciplinarian" and "Beyond Survival." He is also a two-time recipient of the Math for America Master Teacher Fellowship. He blogs at http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org
In a recent investigation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed data from nearly 70,000 schools and found indications of standardized test cheating in as many as 200 districts. When a school tampers with standardized tests, certain people benefit while others suffer. The principal of the cheating school might get a bonus, while the honest school might get shut down.
Though test tampering is bad, I have examined eight other common types of cheating for my blog that I believe are even worse.
No. 1
In my opinion, a huge cheat that would cost nearly nothing to fix is the way some charter schools claim they get miraculous results with the "same kids" as the "failing" public schools down the road. Studying the newly released New York City teacher data reports, I found strong evidence that some charters in New York have incoming students who are a bit above average. Not only that, but the improvements achieved with those students were also merely average. This cheat helps some charter school CEOs get rich, but that money comes at the expense of the public school that unnecessarily loses its funding. All schools should have to accurately publish information on their incoming students, including prior academic achievement.
No. 2
Another big cheat is the amount of money and power certain self-dubbed "education reformers" have obtained by claiming, quite confidently, though with no actual proof, they "know" what will improve education in this country. When their solutions of shutting down schools and firing teachers ("choice and accountability") only make things worse, they claim that they haven't gotten a chance to finish their experiment yet. Since they love accountability so much, they should define clearly what their success will look like, and if they don't achieve it quickly, they should fire themselves. A good example is the leadership in New Orleans, where they changed the definition of "failing school" so they can claim that before Hurricane Katrina, 62% of students attended "failing schools" and now only 13% do. According to the Louisiana Department of Education, even with all the spin on New Orleans numbers, the schools in the New Orleans Recovery District are still 69th out of 70 districts.
Washington is another place where reformers claim success, yet it continues to have the largest achievement gap between black and white students in the country. According to the most recent Nation's Report Card Trial Urban District Assessment, D.C.'s 64 point gap for fourth grade reading is more than double the national average for other big cities.
No. 3
It is a cheat when these same reformers trivialize the need to reduce poverty by decrying "poverty is not an excuse" and that, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently said in a speech at Harvard, "I want to underline that great schools and great teachers are the most effective anti-poverty tool of all." This is a claim that Duncan has yet to prove.
In an interview with the National Education Association in 2009 he said, "I see extraordinary high-performance schools where 95% of children live below the poverty line, where 95% are graduating, and 90% of those who graduate are going on to college." After it was revealed that there were no such schools, Duncan has changed his metric for success to the more modest, but equally deceptive, "double-digit increases" in state test scores.
No. 4
It is a cheat when a program like my own alma mater, Teach For America, promises to provide struggling schools with "properly trained" teachers and, instead, only enables some trainees to student teach classes with under 10 students for a total of 12 hours.
No. 5
It is a cheat when states, in order to receive federal money, agree to make 50% of a teacher's evaluation based on whether that teacher's students meet what a computer predicts those students should get on the end of the year test. In analyzing recent New York City data that was released to the media I found that many middle school teachers, by these metrics, were evaluated as "highly effective" while teaching one grade and "highly ineffective" while teaching another grade in the same school year.
No. 6
It is a cheat when teachers lose their jobs because reformers declare, without any proof, that the biggest problem in education is the significant percentage of teachers who are unable or simply unwilling to do a good job. In December, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed how much he believes this when he said in a speech at MIT that if he could he would "cut the number of teachers in half, but you would double the compensation of them, and you would weed out all the bad ones and just have good teachers. And double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for the students."
Having taught at three "failing" schools, I know that the average teacher at these schools was doing a good job under difficult conditions.
No. 7
A huge cheat is charter school networks that "lose" 50% of their students and then boast score increases and college acceptance rates. One example is the Chicago charter school called Urban Prep. For three consecutive years it has boasted that 100% of its seniors were accepted to college. What it fails to honestly acknowledge is though there were 85 seniors accepted to college in the newest class of 2012, three years earlier there were 179 freshmen, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. Even considering that some of those 179 freshmen were repeaters and the possibility that some of them will take five or six years to graduate, this is still a stunning rate of attrition. Though these attrition rates are easily found, nobody seems to care and these organizations continue to be showered with private and federal money.
No. 8
The biggest cheat of all is the most common: teaching to the math and reading tests at the expense of science, history, music, art and even recess. When the existence of a school depends on these narrow measures, teachers are compelled to "play the game" to keep their jobs and to keep their schools open. As a result, we get a generation of students who lack the ability to think critically and creatively.
Ironically, these other types of cheating, while more destructive than test tampering, are actually much easier to detect and easier to prevent. My hope is that this recent report will lead journalists to more aggressively investigate these other forms of cheating.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gary Rubinstein.
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I teach troubled kids and the amount of pure BS that is shoveled these days is astounding. This guy nailed it. As long as public education is a political issue, and it will always be such, the BS will prevail. Every 4 or 5 years, when the political winds change, the "purpose" and "effectiveness" of public education will be challenged and a new wave of fresh BS will drown what sanity is left in the system
I don't know any performance-based businesses that require their employees to be teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, babysitters, career counselors, and everything else teachers are required to be for their students and their families while only being paid $35,000 a year if they are lucky.
My heartfelt thanks to every parent who home schools their own children. Thus not burdening the public and stripping whiney, Democrat shill teachers of their power to poison the next generation.
wow you must have been one of the generations that had their mind poisoned.
i dont know about where you live but here in ny the majority of our taxes goes to our school system. and they are very high. the teachers salaries are insane. why should my kids not get the education from the very people who are sucking me dry?
As a man in my 70's, I remember the old schooling. Some of you know, if you misbehaved, you went to the principals office , sometimes to meet the " board of education", how often determined by the severity of the offense. If a kid got out of line in class, the teacher had the RIGHT to discipline that kid. At the end of the year, if the kid couldn"t pass the grade level work, they were held back, this "no one can fail" mentality is causing the national IQ to drop like a brick! Let the teachers teach, maintain the needed discipline, and make the parents back them. Society wants the schools to raise their kids, but they don't want to hear about any problems either their kid has or is causing. "My kid is perfect, you just don't understand their needs." But don't try to fix any of this, that is going against their rights!! It's time for some "RIGHTS" to be rethought and fixed themselves. God, I miss the "good old days>"
Normally I do not read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very compelled me to try and do so! Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thanks, quite great post.
Charter Schools take on a LOT of students who have been alienated by the System. This includes some special needs kids (autistic, attention issues, etc) and also includes some very very bright kids who are also completely shafted in the school system as it stands. It goes both ways. You cannot brush off the scores obtained by charters on the basis that they have smarter kids. You have to analyze the data a little more closely. In my state, "cyber-charters" do a booming business and every time the scores come in, the local school district picks on them with this 'evidence' that they are not doing as well, oblivious to the fact that so many of these children have social issues and learning disabilities. You can't have it both ways. You can't dismiss good scores because they cater to smarter kids and then highlight average scores if they come about as proof that they don't do well.
and how do you know the children are the ones doing the work at these cyber schools?
Excellent–and bold–post! Time to stop vilifying our hard-working teachers; this is a distraction from those CEOS who earn millions of dollars a year for what is in comparison, easy work! Greedy corporate heads see the money in education, and are attempting to shift that money into the private realm (and thus, their pockets) by first cutting funding, and then blaming teachers for what is in fact, a grossly underfunded system. The vast majority of Americans were educated in public schools, and have had a good education; the only thing that has changed has been two decades of consistent education cuts. You want a good educational system in America? Demand that your taxes go back into funding schools, and ignore arrogant, know-it-all CEOs who have never worked a day in a classroom.
This article is so lame – Stop looking for excuses and do your job!
If you were in a performance–based business you would have been canned by now for poor performance.
What JOB do you do? Please annouce what you do or provide.
School is not a business, it is a place of teaching and learning. BIG difference!
if it was a performance-based business, many students would have been escorted out of the classroom for believing the teacher is a socialist just because they want paid for their labor.
A cheater is a cheater is a cheater. No matter how many holes are plugged, a cheater will find ways to cheat. But there is a way out! With use of that brave and great popular sentence, "I accept full resposibilty for my conduct." With that said all is forgiven and forgotten. The accused bad conduct doer is then respected for making the acceptance. How silly we are!
Excellent article!
As Educators, we have to re-think the manner in which education is provided and taught. My background, 10 yrs primary, (8-12) and 30 yrs post primary education (Community college/above). I've also worked in Business to provide students with 'real world stuff' (25 yrs) but found consistently they were not prepared to handle basic critical thinking skills that relied on comprehension of materials; math, science, literature or spoken language and how to frame a question they may have. It is like a person struggling with English (or any other language) trying to express what they want to know but can not and hoping for the best.... using body movements.
Here's my thoughts – for what they're worth
– Best 9-12 Instructors are those 6-10 yrs older. They are more aligned with their students and can relate as to what they went through to become an Educator and achieve a degree.
– Best 5-8 Instructors are those 15-25 yrs older. They have kids near a similiar age and can relate better to the parents for the need to education.
– Best K-4 Instructors are those 25-45 yrs older. This is not a tough one to explain. The Art and Science of Education, as Educators we must go to the student. At that level, we can encourage the child but more importantly their parents to get involved since interacting with someone the same age or above.
Circular Education for Educators
Don't get complacent. That is, if your Instructing at a Community College or above try teaching a 5-8 Grade or below, at least watch what is going on and not as an Advisor/Mentor but as an assistant for those grades that need help.
I know I'll get flamed – so be it. I do believe that to be an Educator you must have passion and a belief you'll make a difference, no matter how small. Sure can't be the $$ we're in this for.
A few years my kid got in trouble at school – at that time he was in middle-school. Actually, he defended himself against a bully. But we were offered this deal, each of us parents would spend one day in class with our son OR he could take a 3-day suspension. Off to school we went. The purpose, we were told, wasn't to involve us in his education, it was to humiliate him in front of his friends, so he wouldn't do whatever it was he did to get in trouble again. It turns out he wasn't so much concerned with that.
It was horrible. Teachers had no control and half of what was taught in the science class was dead wrong. I bit my tongue, because I was just trying to get my kid through this ordeal. The teachers were 90% lousy, just lousy. Maybe they weren't paid well enough; maybe they weren't empowered to make the kids behave; maybe they just didn't care. I don't know. But the kids did whatever they wanted in the main – had conversations, threw wads of paper at home another, etc. But few paid attention to the teacher. And we're not talking about an rough urban school here. This is a regular school in a regular community. My heart sank as I realized I could not leave work to home school him.
There ARE bad teachers out there – a lot of them.
The biggest cheats in school are teacher unions. They cheat the kids out of a good education, and they cheat the taxpayers. Sounds like this author is a union shill....
Like other professions, teachers need to be judged by results ! No lifetime guarantees of employment.
How many kids were there in that class? Have you ever taught in front of that many kids, 5 days in a row? Or are you just a snarky, know nothing, who repeats the Fox/TeaParty lies?
How are unions that get their teachers 3% standard of living raises yearly instead of no raise at all a cheat?
stupid fox news watchers should be sent back to school to learn how to think for themselves.
These so-called reforms in education are nothing more than corporations making money on the latest 'fix'. The education companies come out with a new curriculum and schools spend $$$ for it. Everyone thinks there is a magic fix – computers, SmartBoards, X curriculum, y curriculum, other technology...etc.. Do you have any idea how much this costs?
The only thing that has been proven to help kids is a good teacher, which most of them are. Read the research and you will see that is the case.
What is wrong with our schools? Poor parenting. Teachers have to discipline the kids and get them interested, while the parents don't care and don't discipline them. So many parents are not involved with their kids and you wonder why in the world they had them.
sadly, if we look into the lack of parental control, influence, involvement, we unfold yet another, deeper layer of our nation's issue. not too long after the revolution, as ben franklin feared, we let go of democracy. we turned it over to those willing to work hard, without rules, to gain the influence and control over the system necessary to promote what would become the modern "take" on adam smith's work. we are currently feeling the sting of two hundred years of being manipulated by the powers that be in order to maintain a large enough lower class to provide the cheapest possible labor as well as a gullible pool of consumers. should poor families be more involved? read what frederick douglass wrote about family structure on the plantation. we've done nothing to heal those familial wounds, repair the damage done. our loss.
Figures lie and liars figure.
The more a particular 'metric' is identified as a yardstick of success – the more a organization will specialize it's methods to increase that particular metric.
While I can't give teachers a pass in the state of eductation today – the biggest culprit in the lack of educational results lays with the parents. Just because a child reaches school age and goes to school – the parent still has the responsiblity to educate the child and follow up and support the eductation the occurrs at school. Far too many parents have the idea 'I managed to keep the child alive for 6 years – now it is up to the school system to raise them'.
After 28 years of teaching in public school, this is what stands out. The biggest change in schools and students over that span of years is an erosion of personal responsibility. I wish I had a $ for every time I heard from parents, " My child said he didn't do it, and my child never lies!" Pshhhhhhhhh! Every child lies to stay out of trouble, but, when principals feel that they might be sued by parents who think their child should not have to take responsibility for his/her actions, they cave in, and the student learns that they just lie to get out of trouble. Parents are either "helicopters", hovering over their student to protect him from those nasty teachers, who hold him accountable; or totally uninterested in what the student learns at school....just get through it, as the law says. That has changed so much over 28 years...parents used to back the teacher, and make students responsible for their own actions. How many of you can say this, "When I was a kid, if I got in trouble at school, I was in triple trouble at HOME"?
First, your article is unfocused and covers such a large variety of disparate topics (and yes, I see that you attempted to group them all as "cheating" but that seems to be more due to laziness rather then accuracy). The "shotgun" approach doesn't seem to work here.
Some of what you state appears to be spot on -especially regarding "reformers" changing the definitions in order to appear that they have made "progress"- however, other in other sections of this article you appear to blindly defend teachers regardless of their actual performance- thus losing sight of the fact that school is not about the teachers- it is about the kids. It doesn't matter if "the average teacher at these schools was doing a good job under difficult conditions", all that matters is "Are the children learning what they need to know"? If the answer is "no" then the school is a failure- period.
Here are the problems as I see them:
1) peer promotion. – I could go on for days on why this is and always had been a terrible idea doomed to fail.
2) Teachers who do not actually know the subject they teach- If you need the "answer key" to find the answer to the homework you just asigned your class, you have no business teaching that class.- end of discussion. We need math teachers who know math, english teachers who know english, science teachers who know science... not some generic "I have a degree in education" drones who are clueless as to the actual subjects they teach.
3) discipline- personally, I attended private schools that still allowed corporal punishment in the younger grades... and in the older grades assigning "extra PT" as a punishment- everything from running a couple of miles to (in extreme cases) strapping on some boxing gloves and sparring with a instructor. believe me, you learned quickly to respect your teachers.
4) Schools that are entirely too top heavy with administrators. Simply put: if your school is spending more then 15% of it's budget on administration, there is a severe problem.
My private school was better THAN yours you pompous ass.
He left out the biggest cheat of all.
Lack of parental involvement. My father never asked me if my homework was done. He WATCHED as I did it. My father never disconnected from his role in my education. Never once did he say to a teacher "your job is to teach my kid".
Excellent. On point and accurate. I wish all my fellow principals could read this!
True in every aspect
Great article. It bothers me that administrators at all levels are quick to blame the teachers. If they, the parents and the law would take the handcuffs off, they will do a great job.
However, it may be too late. I came from a generation of teachers (from the 80's and 90's) who were not under such a repressive system. They are long gone and the newer generation unfortunately have to do a political dance to keep their jobs rather than teaching to their student's needs.
Excellent piece, Gary. My response was to give you a standing ovation-seriously. It's brilliant. And right on the mark.
Finally, after years of one-sided, biased coverage, we parents and citizens are beginning to get the truth about "education reform". And we have people like you to thank.
I think American historians will look back at 2012 as the "Year Of The Pushback" on public education. The terms and framing of this debate are no longer confined to those that are dictated by special interests with their own ax to grind.
We The People do not want to see cronyism corrupt our public schools under the guise of "reform". We can't allow a small group of well-funded interests to do to education what they did to the economy as a whole in 2008.
Thanks again for this very good piece. I'm not a teacher, not is any member of my family. But I'm a parent and citizen and I know what a vital role our schools have played throughout our history.
We're the last line of defense for our public schools. And I'm proud to stand with the people who make them work every day.
I also recommend the educator and historian, Diane Ravitch, to anyone who wants to understand what is really happening in our schools-and how we can fight back against it.
We all have to stand up and push back or we will lose our schools.
I recently read that we who educate 100% of our students are having our scores compared to countries that only education 10% of their children.
We are compared to countries who have a totally different cultural life style.
We are compared to countries whose parents are paying attention and not caught up in trying to keep food on the table, in jail, on drugs, or afraid to discipline their kids. God forbid someone makes a kid behave in our country we are violating their rights to be stupid and socially unacceptable their whole life. When the statement was made build schools or build prisons it was right and guess what it is cheaper to build a prison than a good safe well equipted school.
Stop testing....... for the love of....whatever happened to the 3Rs........people.......got all of use thru with flying colors.......
I agree with a whole LOT of what you said...
I'm a TFA alumni myself and all I can say is: I've seen trained teachers both newly-graduate from teaching credential programs that didn't do TFA as well as veteran teachers who had taught for years-and to THIS day (after 8 years in teaching still to this day) I'd take a TFA teacher anyday of the week at my school site. What you may not get in your post is that there are some REALLY horrible schools where TFA's preparation, while in some cases may not be the best in the world, really is better than what is out there and so-as far as your claim that TFA is not preparing people accurately-if corps members filled out surveys and told TFA that they wanted more preparation-they'd get it. I have close friends who work for TFA corporate/regional and that's the whole point: if somebody wasn't prepared they work adamantly to get them there or figure something else out...
So my point is: don't blame TFA for education's ills.
In somebody's response, they blame parents. Nope, it's not parents' faults either because all of my students parents care-some of them may not always do what WE think is the best but you know what-I don't live in South Central Los Angeles, nor know what it's like to grow up in certain extremely rough neighborhoods. I'm privileged in terms of college education and look like the dominant class in society, and my English skills are decent. Thus, don't knock people who have different surroundings, backgrounds, and experiences. We're all people-and we should be treated with dignity. So...instead of blaming TFA or parents...
Let's start with the other things you mentioned ESPECIALLY the money trail. Something is NOT right in education when people are being awarded for false data, test scores which make a mockery of student learning and teachers for absurd reasons, and something is really wrong when the rich keep getting richer (in terms of education) and the poor-poorer.
Something has got to be fixed with the notion of NCLB, Race to the top, and increasing standardized testing first and foremost!
Very astute analysis, but this is what happens when you treat education like groceries. You get uneducated idiots telling other uneducated idiots what the educated people are doing wrong.
well said.
The secrets to high performance in students are not teachers or schools, but responsible parents.
Check out http://zhaolearning.com for an educators look at the huge problems with the current reform mentality
The chinese are causing our children to cheat
Outstanding piece!
Who cares about anything anymore? EVERyONE in govt. cheats and lies! Most people do! It does no good to try to regute them or punish them...I quit! This is definitely the devils'
report abuse, repoort abuse. You should shout your mouth.
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Anybody that disagrees with theese comment should take a walk around and observer your surroundings. Cant u see how kid now a days are learining less and less every day. Teachers are surely not to blame. Yet we give extra money to schools that dont need it anyway. And turn our backs on the ones that do. Status quo is why our country is in the mess its in right now.
I have a novel idea...how about having educators in charge of education? Try telling the AMA or ABA that their governing body will be people who have no idea what it is to be a doctor or lawyer. That wouldn't last long. So why do we do it with education? Seriously, if you gave us the resources and time to solve these problems, we gratefully and efficiently would.
As a veteran teacher with 40 years experience in a high school and college setting, I completely agree with you.
Worst type of cheating:
Top graduates from private schools going into the finance industry and cheating... bringing the world economy down.
Under No Child Left Behind nearly every school in America will be labeled as failing in the next two years. What is never shared with the general populous is that every year it takes a higher score to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. This means you could have the same exact score two years in a row and be labeled adequate the first year and failing the second year. Even students with learning disabilities are held to this standard. By 2014 every child in every school in America is expected to be at mastery level. One hundred percent mastery defies the laws of natural distribution of intelligence.
LA's recovery school district takes over school's that are failing, therefore, its rank should ALWAYS be at the bottom of the list of achievement. Once schools are removed from failing status they can be removed from the Recovery School District.
Is there any other professional that whines as much as teachers do?
I don't know about professions that whine, but I'm sure the profession of teaching is certainly the most vilified today!
"Is there any other professional that whines as much as teachers do?" Answer: Yeah, bankers and Wall Street fat cats.
Don't you mean "Are there any professionals who ..." Professionals is plural so you need to use "are" not is.
Treat us as professionals, fund education, put educators in charge of it, and stop bashing the profession and we'll stop griping.
Nobody else gets dumped on as much as teachers do.
Yes Oliviaheart – "school reformers" politicians (especially Republicans) and all those who support them.
Dearest Oliviaheart,
They say don't bite the hand that feeds you. No one ever thinks about what it's like to be the feeding hand, being bitten every single day, by the hungry and malnourished . . . . and their parents. This is why teachers can't win this debate. And they know it. Every act of self-defense and justification just strike the cynical as whining. Can't wait to meet and teach your kids.
I feel like I got cheated out of the 2 minutes I took to read this tripe.
And this comment is about as worthless as any comment on here. IF you have something to criticize, then do so with a bit of honesty. Tell us WHAT you are upset about. Have a great day!
What specifically do you disagree with and why?
Cheat Number 2:
In the 2004-2005 school year, 62.1 percent of students attended a school with a perfomance score below 60. In the 2009-2010 school year, 17.9 percent of students were enrolled schools with performance score below a 60. Likwise, the percentage of students attending a school with a performance score below 65 - the minimum performance score to avoid Louisiana's Academically Unacceptable label - has decreased from 69.3 percent in 2004-2005 to 23.6 percent in 2010-2011.
I'm on the other side of that glass window, as a student, but I see it too. Every day. I've had some pretty bad teachers, admittedly. They even told me to my face they didn't care about students, just 'figure it out'. But teachers like that are the ones who should deal with 'reform', not the teachers who try their best. You and all the good teachers better help me get my generation ready to fix all this mess up, alright?
This blog should be read by parents everywhere because most teachers know this, have talked about it, yet remain unheard. Those in power know this but shield themselves because they have their agenda. The only hope is to have huge numbers of parents rise up and join those of us who have been crying out all these years.
Teacher Alert! Do you really think the nightmare of high-stakes testing, teacher evaluation based on value-added measures, scripted curriculum, narrowed offerings, larger class sizes and lack of resources is going to go away on its own? Have you even heard of ALEC, Broad, DeVos, or Whitney Tilson? Are you aware that the rich and powerful want to privatize public education, end collective bargaining for teachers, cut back your pension, close schools and replace them with corporate owned charter schools and that they are doing it with the help of the US Department of Education?
There is something you can do to take a stand. It is a small action, but it is significant, Thousands of teachers and parents have signed a letter to President Obama calling for an end to high-stakes testing and the punitive actions associated with them. The letter proposes the involvement of teachers and parents in policy decisions of the USDOE. Finally, the letter calls for the dismissal of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the man who should be defending you, but instead is complicit in the dismantling of our public education system. To read the letter, go to http://dumpduncan.org/. If you agree with the premise, sign the letter and speak out for public schools.
Mr. Rubinstein, thank you for putting the "real" issues and failures facing education in a plain and direct manner. It is time that the "public" realizes the truth about our nations public eduction system before we are further duped by Politicians, Ed. Reformers and Privateers. This triumvirate is after one thing, and one thing only: PROFIT. Public Educators have always had student well being as the measuring stick for success; and quite often this is NOT attainable from test scores. The vast majority of students in the U.S. need an educator that they know will be there for them in the long haul, not a transient teacher; they need someone to instruct them on social and moral issues, not best multiple choice test options; they need someone to care about them, they need to feel part of a community. Public Schools are the pillars of a successful community and our support as a nation needs to be behind this concept.


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Kompany hurt his knee in City's Champions League draw with Real Madrid last week but played the full match against Chelsea on Sunday, despite being on crutches 48 hours before kickoff.
Platt told a news conference on Tuesday that two games in a week was not too much for the Belgium defender.
"Vinnie would have still been feeling the effects of the injury that he picked up last Wednesday in the [Chelsea] game but he got through the game and got through it very well," he said.
"There were no after effects, he iced it straight afterwards as a precaution. We don't really have any concerns for him for Wednesday night."
Gael Clichy [ankle] and Jack Rodwell [hamstring] remain sidelined for the champions, while Joleon Lescott is available. – Reuters


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The Cougars are rolling, it took a little while to get going today, but once they did they couldn't be stopped. Trailing 2-0 in the 4th, the Cougars scored ten runs over the next four innings en route to a 10-4 victory.
At the Plate:
- Carlos Penalver continues to rack up extra base hits, he was 1-for-4 with his fourth double of the season, a walk, an RBI, and a run scored.
- Daniel Canela had a solid day, he went 2-for-5 with two runs scored.
- Will Remillard was the star today, he went 4-for-4 with a double, a walk, three RBI's, and a run scored.
- Jordan Hankins chipped in as well, he went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI's, and a run scored.
- Shawon Dunston made some noise from the nine spot, he was 2-for-4 with his first home run of the season, three RBI's, and two runs scored.
On the Mound:
- Tyler Skulina got the start, and struggled a bit with his command. Skulina worked 4.1 innings, giving up three runs on six hits, while walking four, and striking out two.
- Justin Amlung was stellar out of the pen, and was rewarded with his third win of the season. Amlung worked 3.2 scoreless innings, giving up four hits, while walking one, and striking out two.
- Gerardo Concepcion closed things out, as he worked one inning, giving up one run on three hits, while striking out two.
This one was over almost immediately as the Smokies exploded for eight runs in the first en route to a 9-1 win. Corey Black enjoyed the support, but he didn't need it as he flirted with a no hitter in picking up the win. He actually had a no hitter, but was lifted after six because of pitch count.
At the Plate:
- John Andreoli is on some kind of roll, he went 3-for-6 with a run scored, he's now hitting .286 on the season.
- Kris Bryant continues to get on base at an impressive clip, he went 1-for-5 with a walk, and a run scored in the win.
- Rafael Lopez was super patient at the plate today, he went 1-for-2 with three walks, an RBI, and a run scored.
- Dustin Geiger got back in the swing of things, he went 2-for-5 with a double, two RBI's, and a run scored.
- Rubi Silva muscled up today, he was 1-for-4 with his second home run of the season, a walk, an RBI, and a run scored.
- Wes Darvill was productive out of the nine spot, he went 2-for-5 with two doubles, three RBI's, and a run scored.
On the Mound:
- Corey Black was brilliant today, and was rewarded with his first win of the season. Black was un-hittable, he worked six scoreless, hit-less innings, while walking three, and striking out eight.
- P.J. Francescon came on and did a great job out of the pen to pick up his first save. He worked three innings, giving up one run on two hits, while walking two, and striking out two.
A night after scoring eighteen runs, the D-Cubs had some trouble crossing the plate. Not too surprising, that's usually how it goes, and Clearwater took advantage scoring four times in the 5th en route to a 6-3 win.
At the Plate:
- Gioskar Amaya stayed hot today, he went 3-for-5 with a double, a stolen base, an RBI, and two runs scored.
- Bijan Rademacher (1-for-2), and Dan Vogelbach (1-for-4) each had one hit, and one RBI in the loss.
- Marco Hernandez was good today, he went 2-for-4 with two singles, he is now hitting .321 on the season.
On the Mound:
- Rob Zastryzny got the start and was done in by one bad inning as he took his first loss of the season. Zastryzny worked 4.2 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits, while walking one, and striking out five.
- Michael Jensen was pretty good out of the pen, he worked 2.1 innings, giving up one run on one hit, while striking out three.
- Zach Cates found some trouble out of the pen, he worked one inning, giving up one run on two hits, while striking out one.


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Maura Kennedy - Words and Music - 2010
5.03.10 11:35am
Maura Kennedy one half of the folk rock duo/couple The Kennedys has been releasing albums for years, but her latest 'Parade of Echoes' is her first as a solo artist. She spoke to FUV's Claudia Marshall about the transition, and performed some her new work in studio-A. (4/6/10)


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Item #1 of 2 THEBLAZE.COM – A Texas man's pregnant wife made it clear she was against having a firearm in their house. However, the husband insisted she learn how to use a gun to protect herself just in case. In fact, it was just a few months ago that he took her out to […]
The New American
It's a fact that Americans have serious health problems caused by their diets. Excessive consumption of fat, sugar, and processed foods is a leading cause of obesity, diabetes, and related illnesses. The question is what to do about it.
The answer, for New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, is obvious: Put the government in charge of what people eat. And not just any government: Our diet dictator, he writes, "should be the federal government, fulfilling its role as an agent of the public good and establishing a bold national fix." Constitutionalists point out man's unalienable rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and the powers delegated to the federal government under the Constitution, which do not include acting as food führer. Something must be done, and to progressives such as Bittman, only Washington can do it.
Bittman's proposal:
Rather than subsidizing the production of unhealthful foods, we should turn the tables and tax things like soda, French fries, doughnuts and hyperprocessed snacks. The resulting income should be earmarked for a program that encourages a sound diet for Americans by making healthy food more affordable and widely available.
How would the government decide which foods should be taxed, and at what rates? "We have experts who can figure out how 'bad' a food should be to qualify, and what the rate should be," says Bittman. But he seems to recognize that experts aren't the solution to the problem. He notes that the experts he wants to employ to calculate junk food taxes are currently used to compute ethanol subsidies — subsidies which, he points out, lead to overproduction of corn (and, hence, high-fructose corn syrup) that helps "keep the price of many unhealthful foods and beverages low." What's more, Bittman says that "the food industry appears incapable of marketing healthier foods," yet critics note that it is one of his aggregations of experts, the Food and Drug Administration, that permits junk food producers to advertise that their foods are good for people while preventing producers of genuinely nutritious foods such as walnuts and pomegranates from doing the same.
Nevertheless, Bittman's proposal, in general, sounds simple enough: "Taxes would reduce consumption of unhealthful foods and generate billions of dollars annually. That money could be used to subsidize the purchase of staple foods like seasonal greens, vegetables, whole grains, dried legumes and fruit."
But critics note that most government programs have sounded simple at the outset. To end poverty, give poor people money. To stop marijuana use, make it illegal. To encourage home ownership, hand out loans to people who can't possibly pay them back. These programs, however, have been far from successful in achieving their stated aims; but they have managed to create a slew of other ills, including the current economic crisis.
Analysts say it is virtually certain that Bittman's program would have its own set of unintended consequences. Would a black market for Twinkies or Pepsi come into existence to circumvent the new taxes? How many more billions of dollars would be poured into (nonproductive) lobbying to protect products from the taxes or to obtain subsidies for certain crops? Would the subsidies cause overproduction of some crops and underproduction of others?
Bittman dismisses all concerns about his plan as those of reactionaries, noting that in trying to get his program passed, "we'll have to listen to nanny-state arguments." He also believes that people will come to accept the government dictating what they may or may not consume when they see it gets results, as many have accepted "the anti-tobacco movement" and its "historic 1998 tobacco settlement." After all, he says, "both consumers and government will be more than reimbursed in the form of cheaper healthy staples, lowered health care costs and better health." He states that the program would end up "paying for itself," though critics point out that if government programs paid for themselves, Congress and the President would not now be haggling over raising the already $14.3-trillion debt ceiling.
While it is true that Americans need to improve their diets, constitutionalists note that Bittman's solution is just another step down the road to total slavery to the state. A better solution, they say, would be to end agricultural subsidies and abolish the FDA, the Department of Agriculture, and countless other federal agencies that serve the interests of the junk food manufacturers and big pharmaceutical companies who profit from Americans' bad eating habits. The prices of processed food would then be set completely by the market, which just might make nutritious foods more competitive.
Then, they say, repeal ObamaCare and all other government intrusions into the healthcare system. With their health in their own hands, Americans would have a strong incentive to watch what they eat, along with an even more valuable commodity: freedom.
Read more: http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/8334-uncle-sam-diet-dictator


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Atlantic Ocean, Dead Zone, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Marine biology, Mississippi, Mississippi River, Oil spill
From this
To this
Coral bleaching is on the rise thanks to warming waters throughout the world due to global warming and man-made chemicals dumped into our waters. As the world heats up, our fresh water ice caps melt. Devastating consequences due to global warming include fresh water entering our oceans' natural currents from the Arctic, Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. This fresh water slows down the oceans' natural salt water flow, and will eventually halt our oceans' currents causing even bigger problems for humanity!
That is a whole different story, however it relates to increasing dead zones in saltwater and freshwater bodies thanks to man-made global warming due to the burning of finite fossil fuels. Global warming and the dumping and runoff of man-made chemicals are destroying the Gulf of Mexico, oceans, seas and large freshwater sources like the Great Lakes. Our world relies on these waters to help sustain our seafood supplies and shrinking sources of freshwater which are vital to help sustain a overpopulated earth.
Let's take a look at one specific area, the Gulf of Mexico, which explains why we are experiencing massive coral reef bleaching, and the deaths and disappearances of fish and other sea creatures.
The most current map of dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico may not reflect BP's massive oil spill on April 20, 2010. It does not take into consideration that BP's oil spill killed off a large, untold number of species of ocean dwellers like the 29 marine mammals that live in the gulf including dolphins and whales. Why does the Gulf of Mexico have huge areas where the waters are devoid of most or all living organisms? There are two main reasons.
One factor is the shallow water depths in the Gulf of Mexico which is the world's ninth largest body of water if technically separated from the Atlantic Ocean. The average water temperature of the gulf during the summer months ranges from the upper 70's to upper 80's. 90 degree waters are not uncommon, and marine life cannot live in what is close to bath water temperatures for humans! Why do you think hurricanes that enter the gulf during the warm months gain so much energy? The weather systems have two forces that they need which are extremely warm water and hot temperatures to help them morph from a tropical storm into a enormously destructive hurricane. Global warming has caused not just air temperatures to rise but water temperatures to increase as well. Coral reefs are fragile, and they cannot live in such a warm, polluted environment.
The other synthetic reason why our oceans and the Gulf of Mexico are experiencing slow to rapid die-offs of coral reefs and the various forms of marine life that rely on them as a inter-connected life support system is man-made chemical waste. Is it just coincidence that the 'Dead Zone' in the gulf is near where the Mississippi River flows into it? Fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide run-off from farms flow into tributaries of the Mississippi River and directly into the river itself. Industrial farms and factories have uncontrolled flows of pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorous that ultimately end up in the Gulf of Mexico where they create algae blooms and oxygen depletion. No oxygen = no life. Other major toxins enter our waters via illegal dumping of chemical waste that companies purposely do, because they do not want to deal with the expense of properly disposing of their garbage or toxic waste. Any trash that enters the Mississippi River will end up in the Gulf of Mexico, and it will kill or scare off all marine life, thus creating 'Dead Zones.'
What about what is already in the Gulf of Mexico? That limited source of energy that we spend more energy to get at than what it actually produces: Oil! Take a look at the number of oil platforms in the gulf along with their locations, and think about the tainting of water and the life in it due to drilling for oil!
Then acknowledge that drilling for oil results in oil spills which have a profound and lasting effect on the environment in general including the Gulf of Mexico:
This is a U.S. problem, but it is not limited to just America! Take a look at the dead zones throughout the world as we heat up, melt away, and pollute like there is no tomorrow!
Notice that even the Great Lakes, the world's largest source of freshwater, is in trouble directly due to pollution including plastics! There are vast areas in the oceans too that are nothing more than giant, floating garbage dump sites! This is the way we treat our planet, and the dying of our oceans' and other waterways' is akin to the 'Canary in the Coalmine' scenario. Unless we drastically alter the course of society's sails, then we are in for some rough waters ahead!
by John E Loeffler – Fountain City, Wisconsin
Sources: http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/index.html


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Re: The Sensitivity of Mr. Fett
Fett was repressing his emotions, he didn't want to be reminded of what happened in his past, but as years wore on, he opened up. A person in the end realizes they can't escape their past, what's done is done, and Fett obviously had enough of repressing his feelings. It's a psychological situation.
Well that makes two of you-Sev


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Don Ross takes a final look at DADGAD tuning in this lesson. This time, he explores some great chord voicings that are sure to spice up your playing.
Taught by Don Ross in Fingerstyle with Don Ross seriesLength: 10:41Difficulty: 2.5 of 5
LOVED this video. I play quite exclusively in DADGAD and familiar with the previous lesson's chords, but loved to see these variations which I have never explored! Beautiful! I agreed with the one on the 9th fret by the way, Don. Stunning! :)
Thank you DON ROSS!!! You are an inspiration and a great teacher.Are there any lessons on playing any of YOUR pieces in DADGAD?
Truly the best. My head is swiming from the theory, never the less I understand it better and from reviewing the lessons I'll get it. Thank you.
Thank again Don . Love your lessons.
Don Ross, an award-winning, Billboard-topping fingerstyle artist, will teach you everything you need to know to get started in fingerstyle guitar.
Lesson 1
New fingerstyle instructor Don Ross introduces himself, his background, and what you should expect in this series.Length: 3:54 Difficulty: 0.0 FREE
Lesson 2
Don Ross talks about the way he plays and how he got started in his particular style. He also brushes on right hand technique and thumb pick style.Length: 14:09 Difficulty: 0.5 Members Only
Lesson 3
Don Ross takes some time to talk about where he places each right hand finger while playing fingerstyle. This is a great lesson for those who wish to fix old habits, or are just starting out in this wonderful...Length: 9:10 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 4
Don Ross talks about fingerpicking patterns with a focus on Travis Picking. He explains the pattern thoroughly and at a step-by-step pace so that it can be picked up by fingerstyle players of any level.Length: 22:55 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 5
Don Ross dives into Travis Picking once more. This time, he specifically focuses on patterns for chords that have a root note on the fifth string.Length: 14:10 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 6
This time, Don Ross demonstrates Travis patterns with chords that have a root note on the fourth string.Length: 9:21 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 7
Having thoroughly explored Travis picking, Don Ross now takes some time to talk about the "thumb and brush" technique.Length: 12:27 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 8
Don Ross takes a couple lessons to talk about altered tunings and open tunings. In this lesson, he takes a closer look at altered tunings.Length: 8:05 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 9
Don Ross now discusses open tunings. Open tunings get their name because the open strings are tuned to a specific chord.Length: 18:40 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 10
Don Ross talks more about open G tuning and how to make it more applicable to your playing by applying the Travis pattern you have already learned.Length: 13:46 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 11
Don Ross talks about open D tuning, how it's similar to open C tuning, and how you can incorporate it into your playing.Length: 17:44 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 12
In this lesson, Don Ross explains open C tuning. As with the G and D tuning lessons, he explains how open C compares to other open tunings, how to tune, and what it can add to your playing.Length: 26:48 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 13
Don Ross looks at DADGAD tuning in this lesson. He explores different ways to play, how to tune, and discusses why it has become so popular.Length: 17:56 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 14
Don Ross takes another look at DADGAD and how you can play harmonically in this tuning.Length: 11:19 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 15
Don Ross continues his discussion on DADGAD tuning and brings it all together with Travis picking.Length: 10:58 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 16
Don Ross takes a final look at DADGAD tuning in this lesson. This time, he explores some great chord voicings that are sure to spice up your playing.Length: 10:41 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 17
Don Ross takes a look at a unique and beautiful tuning, CDCGAD, or in Don's words, the "Fred" tuning, and explores what can be done with it.Length: 14:35 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 18
Don Ross takes a look at the first part of his original song "Brooke's Waltz". This song is in the CGCGAD tuning you learned about in the previous lesson.Length: 17:44 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 19
Don Ross moves on and covers the second portion of his original song "Brooke's Waltz".Length: 12:05 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 20
Don Ross finishes up the trio of lesson on his song "Brooke's Waltz". This time around he talks about the song structure, as well as the funky behind-the-nut vibrato he ends the song with.Length: 15:43 Difficulty: 3.5 Members Only
Lesson 21
In this lesson, Don talks about how you can use simple music theory to add colorful extensions to your chords and also create new open tunings. This is a very useful lesson for all guitarists.Length: 18:41 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 23
Don Ross delves into one of his sweeter melodies - "Upright & Locked Position". In this lesson, he offers a short review on the tuning he uses and teaches the first portion of the tune.Length: 18:22 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 24
Don Ross teaches the B section of his song "Upright & Locked Position".Length: 8:49 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 25
Don Ross returns to his song "Upright & Locked Position" and teaches the C part. He then talks about combining the three major sections of this song, as well as how to end it.Length: 18:39 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 26
Harmonics sound awesome, and no player's arsenal is complete without this versatile technique. Don introduces harmonics and talks about playing both natural and artificial variations.Length: 13:19 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 27
Don Ross talks about "slap" harmonics and "brush" harmonics and how they can be used.Length: 8:36 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 28
Don Ross teaches a harmonic technique he calls the "ripple effect". This technique was originally made popular by guitar legend Lenny Breau.Length: 11:43 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 29
Don Ross builds on lesson 28 by discussing more ways in which the "ripple effect" can be used.Length: 9:04 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
About Don Ross
View Full Biography
Don has toured regularly since 1989, across Canada, the USA, a dozen European countries, Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia, Russia and India. He has played with symphony orchestras in Canada and Germany, and collaborated live and on recording with Andy McKee, Canadian singer/guitarist Brooke Miller, & Toronto bassist Jordan O'Connor. He also composes scores for television, radio and film, and does production and recording engineering for a variety of other musicians. In addition to acoustic guitar, Don also plays electric guitar, slide dobro and lapsteel guitar, voice, piano, keyboards, bass guitar and drums.
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
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Randy and Evi Quaid plan to seek refuge in Canada after they were arrested in Vancouver on U.S. warrants related to vandalism charges, The Associated Press reports.
The couple was arrested Thursday in a shopping area in a Vancouver neighborhood and jailed on outstanding warrants. A Santa Barbara, Calif., judge issued the warrants Monday after the Quaids failed to show for a hearing stemming from their arrests last month on suspicion of illegally squatting at a home they previously owned. They are accused of causing more than $5,000 in damage to the Montecito, Calif., property.
Randy and Evi Quaid face arrest warrants — again
Randy told Canada's immigration board that he and his wife are seeking asylum from "the murderers of Hollywood" and will therefore apply for refugee status in Canada, according to the AP.
The couple was released from custody Friday, but each must post $9,750 bail and appear for their next hearing on Thursday.
An e-mail to the Quaids' lawyer was not immediately returned.
The couple was also arrested in Santa Barbara in April on outstanding warrants after showing up to court two weeks late stemming from an arrest in September 2009 for allegedly ducking out on a $10,000-plus hotel tab in Santa Barbara County. After not showing up for a previous court hearing, they pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. The felony charges were later dropped against Randy, and Evi was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to perform 240 hours of community service.


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Sayantam Dey is the Senior Director of Engineering at 3Pillar Global, working out of our office in Noida, India. He has been with 3Pillar for ten years, delivering enterprise products and building frameworks for accelerated software development and testing in various technologies. His current areas of interest are data analytics, messaging systems and cloud services. He has authored the 'Spring Integration AWS' open source project and contributes to other open source projects such as SocialAuth and SocialAuth Android.
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Music Video for "Flightless Bird, American Mouth (Wedding Version)"Oct 29th, 2011 | By Stefanie | Category: Featured Articles, Movie News, Music, Videos
The official Twilight twitter account posted this new Iron and Wine music video featuring the wedding version of "Flightless Bird, American Mouth". Iron & Wine – Flightless Bird, American Mouth (Wedding Version) – Free Music Videos Aren't y'all so excited that this song is making an appearance in Breaking Dawn Part 1?!?! Love it!


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Public Works, Department of[Record group 85]
Agency Function
- The Department of Public Works, the second largest department of the City in 1949, was charged with a broad range of functions including direct or contract operation of various utilities; engineering and survey work; construction and maintenance of the city's streets, public buildings, and other public structures; street lighting; operation of the city's airports; and custody of much of the city's real estate. It did not have jurisdiction over the parks, parkways and public buildings under the control of the Fairmount Park Commission.
The functions assigned to the Department included the care, management, administration, and supervision of the city-owned waterworks, and the supply and distribution of water and gas. The Department also constructed, operated, and maintained the sewer system and sewage disposal facilities. Grading, paving, repairing, cleaning, and the lighting of streets, alleys and highways were its responsibilities, as well as the construction, protection, maintenance, operations and repair of public buildings, bridges, and other structures. Public squares and real estate, except as otherwise provided by law or ordinance, were under the care of the Department. Its work also included the surveying, engineering, sewerage, drainage, and other operations affecting the city's highways. It also administered the city's airports.
- Administrative Subunits
- Director of Public Safety
Bureau of Aeronautics
Committee on Comprehensive Plans
Bureau of Filtration
Bureau of Gas
Bureau of Highways
Board of Highway Supervisors
Bureau of Lighting (and Gas)
Bureau of Ice Boats
Bureau of (Markets &) City Property
Bureau of Mechanical Equipment
Bureau of Surveys
Bureau of Street Cleaning
Bureau of Water
- Agency History
- Established in 1887 in pursuance of the Bullitt Bill and given charge of the Bureaus (formerly Departments) of Water, Gas, Lighting, Ice Boats, Markets and City Property, Surveys, Highways, the Board of Highway Supervisors, and the then-formed Bureau of Street Cleaning. In 1889 the Bureau of Markets and City Property was transferred to the Department of Public Safety as the Bureau of City Property. The Bureau of Gas assumed operation of the City Gas Works on the termination of the Gas Trustees' lease in 1887 but in 1897 the Works were again leased by the City, to the United Gas Improvement Company, and the Bureau retained only duties of inspection over UGl's operations. The Bureau of Filtration, established in 1902 to engineer extensive improvements in the water supply system, was merged with the Bureau of Water in 1907, the same year in which the Bureau of Ice Boats was transferred to the Department of Wharves, Docks and Ferries, and the Bureau of Street Cleaning abolished and its functions returned to the Bureau of Highways. (That Bureau was re-established in 1917, abolished again in 1920, and resurrected once more in 1924.) In 1913 the Bureau of City Property was returned to Public Works from the Department of Public Safety. A Committee on Comprehensive Plans, composed of the Mayor and other City officials ex officio and ten appointed unpaid citizens, was formed within the Department in 1912, but does not seem to have functioned after 1918. In 1925 a Bureau of Engineering was established in the Department also given charge of the design and construction of bridges, sewers, storm drains, sewage treatment works, and the abolishment of railroad grade crossings (formerly duties of the Bureau of Surveys); in 1928 it was merged with Surveys into a Bureau of Engineering and Surveys which in turn became the Bureau of Engineering, Surveys and Zoning in 1933, its additional functions being the enforcement of the comprehensive zoning ordinance of that year. A Bureau of Convention Hall and Stadium existed within the Department from 1931 to 1932 when the Municipal Stadium was returned to the Bureau of City Property and the management of Convention Hall given to the Trustees of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum (which see). The Bureaus of Gas and Lighting were merged in the latter year also, the Bureau of Gas' inspectorial duties in regard to the Gas Works lease having been transferred in 1928 to an independent Gas Commission organized when the lease was renewed at that time. In 1937 a Bureau of Mechanical Equipment was formed to provide a unified maintenance service for all Departments' motor vehicles, fire boats and apparatus, and street cleaning vehicles. In 1946 the Bureau of Aeronautics was established to supervise the activities of City-owned airports. With the adoption of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter in 1951 the Department of Public Works was abolished and its functions distributed among the newly-formed Departments of Water, Public Property, Streets, and Commerce.
- Archival Records
- 85.1 Annual Reports (1890, 1913-1923)
85.2 Improvement Program. Annual Reports (1947, 1949-1951)
85.3 Correspondence (1887-1923; missing 1908-1912, 1914-1919)
85.4 Information Reports (1913-1916)
85.5 Report on Flood Control, Frankford Creek (October 1947)
85.6 South Philadelphia Railroad Track Elevation. Papers (1917-1929)
85.7 Agreements (1920-1921, 1925, 1929)
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Current Agency Information Sheet. (Text-only version of this page)
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Last updated on November 8, 2000


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EWG News and Analysis
The latest from EWG's staff of experts >>
This Summer Bites for Massachusetts Residents
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Officials in Massachusetts have begun aerial fumigation of the Southestern part of the state with the pesticide Anvil. The enemy: mosquitos capable of carrying Eastern equine encephalitis, of which two cases have been reported in Massachusetts this year. [Boston Globe]
In Boston, many residents are dealing with rising bedbug (Cimex lectularius) infestations. [Boston Globe]
Key Issues:


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Anyway you put it, Santos is a slam
We mentioned this on the broadcast last night but I thought I'd do a quick post before hitting the I90 to Rochester.
Omir Santos became the first Bisons player in the Modern Era to be promoted to the New York Mets. Since getting the call, he's made quite an impact.
On the day he was activated, the backstop scored the only run in the Mets' win and in the 9-inning, framed a pitch to get a 'called strike three' and promptly gunned down a runner at second for the strike 'em out – throw 'em out double play to finish off the win.
The magic continued Monday night as the Mets opened their series against the Marlins and Santos made his third start. A six run burst in the first by the Mets was capped by his first MLB homerun – a grand slam – and curtain call from the Citi Field faithful.
Since Brian Schneider could be activated off the disabled list as early as this weekend, it will be interesting to see how much of an impact Santos has had on the office brass and clubhouse. We know what he's done on the field.
Manager Jerry Manuel told the NY Times, "I like what he gives us."
And we like it too.
READ: More on Omir Santos – his impact
READ: Mets game recap (picture of curtain call)


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Ride far enough and you'll go back in time. The Chief Vintage combines the timeless sense of yesteryear with the modern capabilities today's riders demand.
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Rear - 60 Spoke 16" x 5" Rear
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