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KOLOFATA, CAMEROON - Cameroon's military has taken back control of the border village of Ashigashia from the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, which had occupied it for close to three weeks. As many as 10,000 Cameroonians and Nigerians have fled the fighting this week, taking refuge in schools in Kolofata and Mora in North Cameroon. Local authorities say the area is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis.
Thousands of Cameroonians and Nigerians, some with their cattle, have taken shelter at a government school in Kolofata. It is one of three schools the Cameroon government has designated as temporary refuges.
Cameroonian-born veterinarian Nana Jules said her neighbors fled the violence.
"We heard lots of gun firing. Blood everywhere and some of the people ran to Nigeria. It was a difficult situation," said Jules.
Nigerian cattle rancher Abdouraman Sanusi told VOA the violence began weeks ago, when Boko Haram militants crossed the border.
"They have occupied our place. Those who remain there are killed. Many people were killed," said Sanusi.
Despite the relative safety at the moment in Kolofata, Sanusi said conditions for his family are desperate and one of the children has died.
"We don't have water since we trekked to this place. We have many children here and one of them died because of the suffering," said Sanusi.
Babila Akao, a senior Cameroon government official here, said many more displaced people are arriving and the situation is getting dire.
"People are suffering. The people are in a bad situation. What we shall do is to look at where we can keep these people. To know their numbers and to make sure that the council helps and give them something to eat and drink," said Akao.
This is not the first time Ashigashia has been targeted by Boko Haram. Deadly attacks began as early as 2009, and last year militants set fire to churches, looted buildings and killed a missionary.
Cameroon Defense Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo'o told VOA the situation in Ashigashia is stabilizing after a successful military offensive.
He said he is delighted that the locality of Ashigashia, which was occupied for some time by the militant group Boko Haram, has been taken over by Cameroon military. He added that his forces remain on high alert along the porous border, ready to repel any future incursions and attacks.
Kolofata has not been spared Boko Haram violence. Just last month, traditional ruler and Muslim spiritual leader Seini Boukar Lamine and his family were kidnapped.
Border incursions and fighting between Cameroon's military and suspected Boko Haram fighters is on the rise despite Cameroon closing its border with Nigeria.
Earlier this week, Cameroonian soldiers killed some 30 suspected Boko Haram militants and seized heavy weapons and vehicles on the boundary with Nigeria's Borno State. The operation saw hundreds of Nigerian troops cross into Cameroon in hot pursuit.
Three states in northern Nigeria have been under emergency rule for more than a year, but attacks by Boko Haram in both Nigeria and Cameroon are on the rise.


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Canon EOS 77D Digital SLR Camera + 18-55mm STM Lens Black
This product has been discontinued, the information below is for reference purposes only.
Key features:
- Touchscreen: Yes
- Model: EOS 77D
- Vari-angle monitor : Yes
Please also consider:
- Canon EOS 80D DSLR Camera + EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Lens
- Canon EOS 4000D Body + EF-S 18-55mm III Lens
- Canon EOS M200 kit + EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM Lens Kit
- Black
- Sony Alpha A7R IV Mirrorless Digital Camera
- Body only
- Sony Alpha a6400 Mirrorless Digital Camera + E PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens Kit
- Black
- Fujifilm X-T3 Mirrorless Digital Camera
- Body only, Black
Email Alerts:
Please note that many of our devices are import versions and may not come with a local charger. In those cases, a plug adapter will be included in the box.
Canon EOS 77D Digital SLR Camera + 18-55mm STM Lens Description
The Canon EOS 77D gives you a blend of performance and control that puts creativity at your fingertips. Features include a next-generation 24.2-megapixel sensor for detailed images, 45-point autofocus, 6 fps shooting, Dual Pixel CMOS AF for super-fast Live View AF performance.
Super-fast AF
Have the confidence to explore new subjects and new ways of shooting. State-of-the-art 45-point autofocus delivers images that are packed with detail, and the EOS 77D can capture 24.2-megapixel images at a rate of 6 frames per second, helping you catch the briefest moments.
24.2-megapixel sensor
A next-generation 24.2-megapixel sensor produces images that are packed with rich details – ready for editing, cropping or display. Sophisticated exposure metering technology delivers great-looking images straight from the camera, even in complex lighting conditions. The world's fastest Live View AF performance focuses in as little as 0.03 sec, for pin-sharp results.
Creative movies
With the EOS 77D you can be every bit as creative with movies as you can with still photos. Its acclaimed Dual Pixel CMOS AF tracks moving objects without hesitation or distraction, and can smoothly refocus with a single tap of the touch screen, for professional pull-focus like effects.
Ergonomic design
When you pick up the EOS 77D you'll notice how its controls fall naturally under your fingers, letting you change settings without taking the camera away from your eye. A Vari-angle touch screen provides smartphone-like navigation, as well as alternative shooting angles.
Wireless Connectivity
A combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® and NFC technologies lets you form wireless connections with compatible iOS and Android smart devices more easily than ever, for remote camera control. Using the Canon Camera Connect app, your device can upload images to the cloud for sharing on social networking sites.
At a glance:
- 24.2 megapixels
- DIGIC 7 processor
- 45 AF points
- Dual Pixel CMOS AF
- Full HD video
- 5-axis IS
- Wi-Fi and NFC
- Bluetooth®
Shipping Weight: 1.54kg
Technical Details
- Touchscreen: Yes
- Model: EOS 77D
- Vari-angle monitor : Yes
- Monitor Size: 3.0"
- Megapixel Banding: 24 to 24.9 Megapixels
- Filter - Size: 58mm
- MegaPixel (Effective Resolution): 24.20 megapixels
- Max Image Resolution: 6000 x 4000
- Sensor Size (WxH mm): 22.3 x 14.9 mm
- Lens Fitting : Canon EF, Canon EF-S
- Compatible storage media (card not supplied): SDXC, SD Card, SDHC Card
- Continuous Shooting Speed (fps): 6 fps
- Exposure Modes: Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Picture Modes, Manual
- Metering Modes: Evaluative, Partial Metering, Centre Weighted, Spot
- ISO Speed Range: 100-25600
- Built in Flash: Yes
- Flash Modes: E-TTL
- White Balance Modes: Auto, Preset, White Balance Bracketing, Custom
- Connection Type: HDMI, USB 2.0
- Focusing Modes: One-shot AF, Continuous AF, Manual
- Audio Recording: Yes
- Movie Mode: Yes (with Sound)
- Body Dimensions (WxHxD) mm: 131.0 x 99.9 x 76.2 mm
- Weight (g): 540g

subset: commoncrawl


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Women and men share many of the same health problems, but with more focus on women in medical research, we now know that some problems, such as heart disease, may affect women differently from men. While often taking care of families and spouses, women need to make sure they are addressing their own health and prevention measures.
Instead of contractions, they're called surges. And don't call it labor, it's birthing. When the discomfort of childbirth kicks in, it's pressure -- not pain.
It was the worst possible news at the worst possible time.
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad struggled through ocean swells, shoulder pain and asthma Monday as she attempted to become the first person to swim between Cuba and Florida without a shark cage, according to her team and a CNN staffer on a chase boat.
Middle-aged women searching for a safe alternative to hormone therapy to prevent bone loss and ease the symptoms of menopause are in for another letdown.
Diana Nyad's personal test has begun. At 7:45 p.m. ET Sunday she jumped into the water and began her 103-mile swim between Cuba and Florida.
As Dorrie Aber-Noyek enters the cafeteria at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, the staff bursts into a round of "Happy Birthday."
Christie Hall began putting off mammograms long before debate about appropriate screening became a hot-button issue.
Women are drastically more likely to develop a mental disorder at some point in their lives if they have been the victim of rape, sexual assault, stalking, or intimate-partner violence, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new guidelines in Washington Monday requiring health insurance plans beginning on or after August 1, 2012 to cover several women's preventive services, including birth control and voluntary sterilization.
There I was at a long-awaited dinner with friends Saturday night, when in the midst of our chatting, I watched my right hand sneaking away from my side to grab my phone sitting on the table to check my e-mail.
Many radiologists rely on specialized computer software to pinpoint suspicious areas in routine mammograms.
Anyone who's sought solace in pizza or a pint of ice cream knows that food can be comforting. But experts still don't know exactly why we gravitate toward fatty or sugary foods when we're feeling down, or how those foods affect our emotions.
You've heard (and tried) it all before: down a dozen oysters, watch a marathon of sultry movies, get a couples massage.
Women have long relied on cranberry juice or supplements to prevent painful urinary tract infections.
When Dr. Carolyn LaFleur was in a car accident six years ago, she couldn't move her neck for a year and a half, she had terrible pain in her hip, and she would get headaches at her temples.
The scorching temperatures affecting almost half of the U.S. population isn't just causing heatstrokes -- it's also causing people to feel drained and more susceptible to other health problems. The humidity can wreak havoc and feel suffocating to people who have breathing or heart-related problems.
Contraceptives, sterilization and reproductive education should be covered by health insurance plans with no cost to patients under the health care reform law, a new report recommends.
You have no interest in being 21 again. (Neither do we.) But, oh, wouldn't it be nice to feel 21 again: The energy! The metabolism! The sense of I-can-accomplish-anything-I-set-my-mind-to!
For two years after a hip surgery that didn't work out as well as he'd hoped, pain shot down Jim Heckler's leg like electrical shocks. Several doctors, eager to help Heckler feel better, prescribed various narcotic painkillers.
Michael Musick is all too familiar with the toll heat can take on the human body.
You might not realize it, but your doctor could be complaining about you online.
Children whose mothers take Zoloft, Prozac, or similar antidepressants during pregnancy are twice as likely as other children to have a diagnosis of autism or a related disorder, according to a small new study, the first to examine the relationship between antidepressants and autism risk.
At a photo studio in downtown New York City, Julianne Moore is heard before she is seen -- her ringing laugh fills the room.
Elaine Farstad got antsy as she waited for her doctor, who was late for her scheduled appointment. Then she got downright impatient. Then, as nearly two hours passed, she got mad. Then she came up with an idea.
Over the past several decades Americans have steadily gotten fatter. Although our increasingly sedentary lifestyles are partly to blame, a big reason for our national weight gain is that we're simply eating more.
The first thing I did after receiving what is surely one of the top two or three most terrifying medical diagnoses was pick up the telephone to call my husband to tell him to come home, and my brother to ask him to call my parents, because I couldn't bear their grief as well as my own.
Sitting too much will probably shorten your life.
When Hilarie Cash arrives home from work in the evening, she has a choice: She can go outside and tend to her garden or she can hop on her laptop.
Drugs that treat psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, by suppressing the immune system may also reduce the risk of developing diabetes, at least in people who already have one of these conditions, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Nine new graphic cigarette warning labels showing cancerous lesions and other impacts of smoking were unveiled Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration, part of the agency's sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco and tobacco products.
The level of support that people perceive in their surroundings when they come out as lesbian, gay, or bisexual is closely related to their mental health and overall well-being, and this may mean that coming out to some people (but not others) is less psychologically damaging than has been believed, a new study suggests.
The first time Wilson Alvarado got lost on the way to a neighborhood park, he told his wife, Patricia, not to worry about it -- he was 62, he told her, and just getting a little forgetful.
Life expectancy in most U.S. counties lags behind that of the world's healthiest nations, in some cases by 50 years or more, according to a new analysis of government data.
In 1985, Edmund White had five or six published books behind him, a Swiss lover with him and the outcome of an HIV test ahead of him. When the results came in, White told his partner:
As much as she would like to, Dr. Lissa Rankin, a gynecologist, will never forget the woman who planned her wedding while lying naked on her examining table.
Mary Kole loves her job, but she's been feeling like she's lost the line between "work" and "not work."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a big, serious government agency with a big, serious job: protecting public health from threats ranging from hurricanes to bird flu.
Dylan Ryan and Danny Wylde knew each other online -- she's read his blog, he's seen her tweets -- before they met in person in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. A bit awkward, they made small talk, spending an hour or so getting to know each other.
When she found the lump in her breast, Jessica Denton had known she was pregnant with her first child for just a few days.
Dallas Wiens wanted to feel his 4-year-old daughter's kisses again, something he couldn't do after a horrific electrical accident disfigured his face.
The use of mammograms has dipped since a medical task force made controversial recommendations that women in their 40s may not need to get breast cancer screenings every year, according to one of three small studies to be presented Monday.
If you're going under the knife, you might want to ask your surgeon what she had to drink the night before.
Weaves and braids may contribute to a type of permanent hair loss that appears to be common among black women, a new study has found.
Has Neve Campbell taken a dip in the fountain of youth? At 37, she looks exactly the same as she did in the '90s when she played the ultrasensitive teenager Julia Salinger on "Party of Five," the hit show that launched her career.
There is no health risk from consuming milk with extremely low levels of radiation, like those found in Washington state and California, experts said Thursday, echoing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
I was in the security line at an airport a few months ago when I watched a fellow passenger do something I'd never seen done before: He dissed the scan.
Say it aloud: NUCLEAR. How does it make you feel? Many people have negative associations with the word, feelings that have been magnified since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled a power plant called Fukushima Daiichi in Japan on March 11.
Ryan Jeffers finds it hard to believe his daughter, Malyia, went from being a perfectly healthy 2-year-old who loved to dance, sing and entertain to an amputee facing a lifetime of medical care.
Congress might cut most of the federal funding for your local poison control center, which could mean a longer wait during your next poison-related emergency.
Incontinence can happen to anyone, although it's more common in women than in men.
Nuclear power has generally proved safe and nondetrimental to human health.
Thanks to our BlackBerries, iPhones, and iPads, the line between work and family time is getting blurrier. But a new study suggests that women feel 40% more distress than men when family life is frequently interrupted by these electronic devices or other types of contact, despite being under the same amount of work pressure.
Maybe you're the one whose feet can't touch the floor without thick socks. Or you're the one who starts to sweat when your partner cranks up the heat.
In the movie "The King's Speech," there is a pivotal scene where Elizabeth, the future queen, frustrated by the failures of doctors who were trying to treat her husband's stutter, ventures into the streets of London to the office of controversial speech therapist Lionel Logue. So unaccustomed to the outside world, Elizabeth doesn't even know how to properly work the elevator in Logue's building.
Sitting in her trailer between filming scenes for "Parenthood," Lauren Graham is still in hair and makeup, but dressed in what could be considered her casual uniform: a pair of stretchy jeans tucked into boots, a tank top, and a Current/Elliott denim shirt.
When Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited her friend Gabrielle Giffords in the hospital last week, she talked to her about the demonstrations in Egypt and the Republicans' proposed budget cuts -- not exactly topics you might expect during a hospital visit.
When the weather turns frigid, your survival instincts kick in. You jump into a scalding shower, slather on medicated lip balm and blow-dry your hair into submission. Little did you know these common beauty blunders only perpetuate a vicious cycle.
This may rock your winter world: You can't get a cold just from cold weather.
Drinking alcohol may help put you to sleep, but as the night wears on -- and the booze wears off -- you may find yourself tossing and turning. This may be especially true if you're a woman, according to a new study.
Robyn Nichols always knows when it's going to rain. She can feel it in her bones -- literally.
Gradual hearing loss is a common symptom of aging, but in some people it may also be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, a new study suggests.
Eating a diet rich in fiber - especially the kind of fiber found in whole grains - reduces the risk of dying at an early age from a range of causes, a new government study suggests.
Ida Alvarez avoided close conversations. She was afraid of what someone might tell her. She was pretty sure she had really bad breath.
In her early 20s, the very thing most fundamental to Jessi Teich's career started to turn against her: Her voice.
When 2-year-old Malyia Jeffers developed a fever one Sunday afternoon in November, her parents gave her a children's Motrin and kept a cautious eye on her throughout the night.
Women with early stage breast cancer that has spread to their lymph nodes may require less extensive surgery than previously thought, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Day after demoralizing day, Dr. Doug Lefton watched uninsured patients leave his office needing laboratory tests but unlikely to have them done because of the cost.
Shelley Brown spent much of her life feeling ashamed and embarrassed that she didn't know the identity of her father.
The Environmental Protection Agency will set a limit on the amount of the chemical perchlorate, as well as other "toxic contaminants," in drinking water, it announced Wednesday.
Three weeks ago, while recovering in the hospital after giving birth to a baby girl, Rena Jones was amped up and on guard.
As if deciding how to handle an unplanned pregnancy wasn't stressful enough, several studies in recent years have suggested that young women who have an abortion may be at increased risk of mental health problems afterward.
Women who smoke have an increased risk of developing breast cancer, especially if they become smokers early in life, a new study suggests.
Robin Gray's knee had been bothering her for almost two years, but when it finally got to the point where it interfered with her duties as a custodian at Emory University, she knew it was time to take action.
A thumbs up. Two opened eyes. A smile. These simple signs of recognition from U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords kept hope alive for her recovery from a bullet to the head January 8. And later this week, her parents have told family members and friends in an e-mail, she'll be moved to Houston, Texas, to begin aggressive rehab with a team of medical specialists.
The antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) may reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes, the bouts of sweating and overheating that are an uncomfortable fact of life for many menopausal women, a new government-funded study suggests.
During a major storm, the emergency room is eerily quiet. But in the hours afterward, the injured pour in.
The controversial drug Avastin should be phased out as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday, citing recent studies that show its benefits may be outweighed by dangerous side effects.
When Ryan Arnold died after donating a piece of his liver to his brother, Chad, his friends and family mourned the loss of a hero who risked his life to save his brother.
On Thursday, December 2, as Aneka sat at home nine months pregnant, the phone rang.
If you want to stave off the middle-age spread, get active in your 20s and stay that way through your 30s and 40s, especially if you're a woman, a new study suggests.
When it's holiday and flu season, you need your energy more than ever -- Santa can't get sick! We come bearing good news: "New moms have an increased ability to withstand and fight infections through their powerful immune system during this time of life," says Maureen Groer, Ph.D., professor of nursing at the University of South Florida College of Nursing in Tampa. The following tips can help you maintain your immunity edge throughout the season.
If you're a woman in your 40s, you probably remember how checking the health of your breasts became a point of national contention last year.
Vitamin D and calcium have long been touted as the best nutrients for strong bones, muscles and teeth. Recent studies have shown that vitamin D could be used to fight cancer, heart ailments, autoimmune diseases, even diabetes.
Kelly, 22, has suffered from depression since age 8. But it's only recently that she realized how much worse she feels when her acne flares up. During the two years in college when her depression waned, so did her skin problems.
Curled up on a couch in New York City, clad in a white tank top and black track pants, Janet Jackson is ready to get personal.
Barack Levin recently showed his children where the kidneys are in a human anatomy book, trying to explain why their daddy has been taking so many pills and feeling so tired.
Elizabeth Anderson had to act fast when she learned she had advanced breast cancer in April 2009.
Drinking too much soda, orange juice, or other sugary drinks appears to increase the risk of developing gout, an especially painful form of arthritis, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Just after she'd gotten a divorce and gone back to work, Alice Thornton would feel cold one minute and hot the next, and her temper was shorter than usual.
Dating someone new means learning about each other's quirky behaviors, emotional baggage, and the experiences that have shaped both of your lives. But what if this involves a health or medical secret you're hesitant to talk about?
Year after year, doctor's visit after doctor's visit, Myke Triebold kept a secret from her gynecologist.
As a wife and mother to five children, Sally Massagee had always led an active lifestyle. She ran her own successful CPA firm in her hometown of Hendersonville, North Carolina, and loved to cook and play tennis with friends.
The bounce in your step has become a plod. Climbing stairs feels like summiting Mount Everest. Your brain's mired in fog. Whatever your personal energy crisis might be, it's time to act.
A medical school professor once said to me, "Mysteries are not hidden from us, they are hidden for us."
After completing his second year of business classes at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama, in 2007, Joshua Armstrong decided to take a break from full-time studies.
Having three daughters of my own, I was a little nervous to meet 6-year-old Kylie McPeak. She was born just about a year before my oldest daughter and was the picture of health up until a couple of years ago.
Tucked away on the sprawling campus of the National Institutes of Health, an elite team of doctors and researchers search for clues to solve medical mysteries that have eluded a diagnosis.
Women who have gene mutations that increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer can substantially reduce their chances of developing -- and dying from -- those cancers if they have their breasts or ovaries removed preemptively, according to a new study.
In the wake of an outbreak that has left an estimated 1,300 people sick with salmonella infections, and the recall of more than half a billion eggs, a debate is brewing over whether modern farming methods pose a health risk.
Forget diet pills and cleanses. A new study suggests that an effective weight-loss aid is available straight from your kitchen sink.
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For years now I've kept tabs on what's been happening overseas in terms of social media and content marketing, collecting examples and case studies of individuals and companies that are leading the way in the space.
Now it's Australia's turn!
Content marketing in Australia has been picking up pace for a couple of years now. Google tells us the search trend for the term 'content marketing' is on the up, while according to one research report, spending on content marketing in Australia is set to increase by 61 per cent, with 12 per cent of respondents saying they will be 'significantly increasing' their budget this year.
Obviously this augurs well for the nascent content marketing 'industry' in Australia.
In the spirit of highlighting the positives locally, here are 11 excellent examples of content marketing from Australian brands (with a bonus three extra brand mentions at the end!).
What do you think? Have you got any others you'd like to add to the list?
1. TrinityP3
I first wrote about TrinityP3 back in March last year when I interviewed Darren Woolley, the founder of TrinityP3 and key driver behind the brand's stellar content marketing efforts.
TrinityP3 is an independent strategic marketing management consultancy that assists marketers, advertisers and procurement with agency search and selection, agency engagement and alignment.
In the early days of Trinity P3, Darren's focus was mainly on trade media relations and B2B database marketing; today, while the company still maintains a growing database, most of Darren's focus is on the creation and distribution of content relevant to the marketing and advertising industry.
A well-maintained high quality blog sits at the heart of TrinityP3's content efforts, however the company also has a solid presence on SlideShare and YouTube, and is active across the likes of Twitter and LinkedIn.
If you're in the business of marketing professional services, you could do worse than keep an eye on what Mr D. Woolley is doing when it comes to content creation and social media.
2. Intrepid Travel
Eco-friendly adventure travel company Intrepid Travel uses content and social media to connect and inspire its customers.
YouTube videos and an active blog form the core of the brand's content marketing efforts.
Its Intrepid Express Blog is all about "real travel, real traveller tales", and is jam-packed with photos and stories, travel ideas, tips and advice.
However, Intrepid has taken things a step further by entering into a partnership with The Perennial Plate – the filmmaking, travelling, sustainably-eating, chef and documentary-maker duo, Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine.
According to Intrepid's website:
Over 18 months, Daniel and Mirra will travel around the world with Intrepid, showcasing some of the most inspiring, intriguing and sustainable eating stories from around the world. Their culinary expeditions will take them to some of our most popular destinations, with tantalising taste treks through Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, South Africa and Argentina.
Brilliant stuff, and I think this whole area of content partnerships is something we're going to see a lot more of in coming years, so at this stage, Intrepid are well ahead of the game.
The Perennial videos are notching up solid view counts, with the one below ('A Day in India') having been watched over a million times.
As you'd expect from a company that's focused on building a community of fans, followers and advocates of its brand and what it stands for, its efforts on social networks are also first class - it has over 147,000 likes (and lots of engagement) on its Facebook page, a solid following (35,000) on Twitter and, interestingly, some 760,00 people have them circled on Google+ (indicating that Google's social network is not the 'ghost town' some critics would have you believe!).
All of this makes Intrepid Travel a brand worth keeping an eye on when it comes to content marketing!
3. Lorna Jane
Women's activewear brand Lorna Jane continues to go from strength to strength in the content marketing stakes, both here in Australia and overseas where the brand is actively expanding.
What Lorna Jane does better than most brands is live (and effectively communicate) its philosophy, or reason for being - 'Move Nourish Believe'; so much so it has become a key content driver for the company.
Its standalone Move Nourish Believe website essentially acts as the brand's content hub - it features heaps of articles of interest and relevance to its target audience (i.e. it doesn't just bang on about Lorna Jane products but covers topics such as healthy eating, skincare, lifestyle and motivation, plus profiles of Lorna Jane 'active living advocates'); plus forums, videos, healthy recipes and details regarding Lorna Jane events.
On the social media front, Lorna Jane shows what it takes to build a community across platforms such as Facebook (close to 800,000 likes), Twitter (19,000 followers), YouTube (where its videos continue to rack up multiple of thousands of views), Tumblr (for daily doses of inspiration and motivation), Instagram (180,000+ followers) and Pinterest (17,000 followers).
The brand also has a free iPhone app that "Track your runs, walks and cycles via your iPhone GPS while you move to live an active life".
All in all a really classy marketing effort that, with a strong focus on social and content, genuinely adds value to the lives of its customers - a strategy that by all reports seems to be paying off for the brand.
4. Anecdote
In a video interview I recorded last year with Shawn Callahan from Melbourne-based 'corporate storytelling' consultancy Anecdote, he mentioned how blogging was critical in building awareness of the firm's expertise and developing relationships with prospective clients.
Indeed, today - coming up to nine years since it was first established - the Anecdote blog still acts as the 'engine room' of the company's overall marketing effort and provides the business not only with excellent Google 'juice' but also helps its partners to develop relationships with professional executives (read: potential customers) all around the world.
However, Anecdote doesn't just blog.
A monthly e-newsletter ('Anecdotally'), speaking engagements and whitepapers - along with the blog - form the core of the company's content strategy, while Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook all contribute along the way.
And then there is SlideShare. While Shawn has only uploaded six presentations on the slide sharing platform (with no uploads in recent years), most have thousands of views, with one ('The Essentials of Business Storytelling') attracting over 20,000 views. The content gift that keeps on giving, you could say!
The fact Shawn and the good folk from Anecdote have been maintaing a content-rich blog since 2004, potentially making it one of Australia's longest-running corporate blogs, gets a big tick from the PR Warrior!
Australian accounting software company MYOB made the decision last year to dig in and build a 'must-read' multi-author blog aimed fairly and squarely at the company's core target market - Australian small business.
Called 'The Pulse', the blog provides "news, views and ideas for your business" written by in-house staffers plus a solid roll-call of subject matter experts such as financial planner Liam Shorte, business coach Des Walsh, Natalie Giddings (marketing), Adam Turner (technology), social entrepreneur Melina Schamroth and leading blogger and digital strategist, Gavin Heaton.
The fact MYOB produces and commissions a regular stream of useful and informative articles shows great commitment to the cause.
However, more impressive is the company's decision to blog across a multitude of topics that are of interest and relevance to its audience, not just the obvious subjects such as accounting, tax and finance. The latter subjects are covered, of course, but the foresight to go beyond this and establish the blog as an information-rich small business resource is to be applauded.
(DISCLOSURE: I'm a regular contributor to the MYOB blog; this article, in which I list thought leaders on social media you should follow, had at time of writing racked up close to one thousand shares across social channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - testament to the growing audience MYOB is attracting to its blog).
6. kikki.K
kikki.K, the Swedish-inspired retail chain that's home to all things stationery and home/office organisation, was established in 2001 by creative entrepreneur, Kristina Karlsson.
Today, the brand has over 70 boutique stores across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, plus an online boutique that services the rest of the world.
A stylish 'Inspiration' blog that reflects perfectly the style and substance of the kikki.K brand is the jewel in the brand's content crown; it's actively maintained and well structured in terms of specific categories (e.g. An Organised Life, Food Inspiration & Recipes, Styling & DIY Projects plus quick Q&A conversations with artistic individuals), while the Happiness Collaborative Project is a nice touch and comes from the heart of the brand's founder.
Extending the love of stylish stationery into the realm of social media, kikki.K also has a solid and, importantly, consistent presence across Facebook (52,000 likes), Twitter (8000 followers) and - naturally, given the visual appeal of the subject matter - Pinterest (8000 followers, well curated enhanced with copy, which is something you don't see often) and Instagram (15,000+ followers).
The brand has also tapped in to online publication platform ISSUU (although the content here skews promotional i.e. gift guides and look-books).
7. Open Wealth Creation
I just love what these guys have been able to achieve, especially as they operate in an industry - wealth creation through property investment - that's more opaque than most!
In essence, the Open Wealth Creation team of property specialists guide people step-by-step to build successful investment portfolios in the Australian market. Transparency via the relentless provision of relevant information - content that educates and empowers - has been the cornerstone of the company's content marketing strategy.
One of the reasons Open Wealth Creation's content efforts are having such a positive impact on the business is because the concept has been wholly embraced by founder and CEO, Cam McLellan (pictured).
Over the years Cam has amassed a substantial portfolio of commercial and residential property, and built a group of companies that employs over 100 team members and have been listed in five BRW fast growth lists. However, rather than 'hit the hippy trail' as Cam likes to say, he has committed himself to 'opening the kimono' and creating content that helps people better understand residential property investment in Australia.
Cam has written and self-published a book (from which he has also produced a free PDF mini-ebook), writes (with the help of his team) a regular blog (which includes articles and information-based videos), plus provides visitors to the Open Wealth Creation website with free access to a 13-part video education series (email required for the latter).
Does all this work? Cam says it does! Open's sales output has doubled and his office receives daily enquiries "that are all warm leads".
(DISCLOSURE: I worked with Cam and the team to help them develop and implement their content marketing strategy).
Let's not forget some of the big boys of Australia business who are also starting to flex their content marketing 'chops':
8. Telstra
Give credit where credit's due, Telstra has been one of the leading lights when it comes to adopting social media for the enterprise (remember this Mashable article from 2009?).
In terms of social media alone, Telstra has 52,000 followers on Twitter, 426,000 likes on Facebook, while 50,000+ people have them in their circles on Google+.
Importantly, Telstra has maintained a corporate blog for many years, with posts written by a sweep of experts from within the organisation. The blog, called 'Telstra Exchange', covers technology, community issues and initiatives, as well as Telstra news.
The company has also produced
- case studies,
- audio podcasts,
- whitepapers,
- NEXT (newsletter for the enterprise)
- Vodcasts
- Reports (e.g. Towards a Clever Australia 2013)
- Ask an industry expert
Meanwhile, the brand's free magazine for small business - Smarter Business Ideas (sent regularly to 300,000 SMEs) - is a top notch content marketing initiative.
9. Commonwealth Bank
Commonwealth Bank seems to have made a genuine commitment to content marketing, versus merely dipping their big toe in the water like so many other blue-chip brands in Australia.
Whereas much of Telstra's content seems a little ad hoc in nature (but very extensive), Comm Bank's efforts appear more structured and focused.
The bank's blog, like Telstra's, has multiple authors and covers various categories, including Your Money, Your Business, Your Bank.
It is also active in terms of its customer forum, Twitter account (24,500 followers), Facebook page (496,000 likes), Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn.
The jewel of Comm Bank's content marketing is its Women in Focus initiative - "a community of women who are doing extraordinary things".
Women in Focus is brilliant, well thought out and executed, and is a genuine, active community, complete with forum ('Community Noticeboard'), events/event listing, publications and blogs, videos, Comm Bank Insights and social media channels. I also like the CommBank Entrepreneurs Hub, which contains a 'What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?' video series.
Also of note, Comm Bank provides huge utility with its mobile apps, notably its Property Guide App, while its CAN portfolio of advice and tips is a valuable resource for the various stages of our lives.
Other initiatives include a thing called Signals ("Where you can learn about the spending patterns of other Australians just like you"). I'm not sure where this fits exactly in the overall scheme of things though :)
10. netregistry
Netregistry provides online services such as web hosting, domain name registration and web design.
At the heart of Netregistry's content efforts is its well-maintained blog, which covers all things online marketing in a simple and sharp manner.
But wait, there's more (resources).
The company's stockpile of online videos is solid; I particularly like the way they've segmented them into relevant categories, along with transcripts.
Ditto with an e-book series, all nicely categorised for easy access.
Then there is a beginner's guide, archived webinars, and the company's long-running business magazine, Nett (and accompanying website).
Netregistry is also pretty active on Twitter and Facebook.
Just in case you thought you had to be a big company or growing SME to do content marketing well, think again!
11. Charles Badenach
If you want to know how a professional services operator can build their personal brand via publishing platforms and social media, then look no further than Charles Badenach, a principal and private client adviser with the Shadforth Financial Group in Tasmania.
Where to start? Charles has cleverly built upon his social media and content marketing efforts, so much so that he has well and truly stamped himself as an authority in the financial planning space, not just in Tasmania but Australia generally.
For starters, there's Charles's blog which, along with a steady stream of news, is informative and written in a lively manner (very important with a somewhat dry topic such as personal finance).
Charles has written a book - Old Head on Young Shoulders - and provides access to a free e-book as well (How to Choose a Financial Planner).
His video efforts work well - a good mix of interviews with experts, clients with good stories to tell, plus Charles 'to camera' riffing on a particular topic of personal finance.
Have you got any other Aussie content marketing examples you'd like to add to this list?
Here are three other excellent examples of small business content marketing in Australia that should definitely make this 'awesome' list, but I've covered them before on this blog and in other forums - click on the links to be taken to in-depth VIDEO INTERVIEWS with representatives of each company:
- AUSTRALIAN WRITERS CENTRE - Why Valerie Khoo Rates Among the Best Content Marketers in Australia (and What You Can Learn From Her)
- FIREBRAND TALENT (awesome case study) - How to Use Blogging and Social Media to Grow Your Brand From Scratch
Read more on the MYOB Pulse Blog: 4 Companies Doing Content Marketing Right
UPDATE: I produce a podcast series called The PR Warrior Presents 'The Connected Brand' - episode 15 was dedicated to this article.
Check out the podcast series here.


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Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in a 2010 photo from The Sun of Lowell provided by AP, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in an FBI photo.
One became an American citizen last year on Sept. 11. The other was a boxer who once said: "I like the USA."
The two suspects in the attack on the Boston Marathon — one killed, one captured alive after a daylong manhunt — are brothers of Chechen origin had come to the United States a decade ago, law enforcement officials told NBC News.
A complicated portrait of the two Tsarnaev brothers is coming into view. Again and again, people who knew them use words like "normal" and even "outgoing" -- and say they never hinted at extremism. NBC's Ann Curry reports on two young men who seemed to disappear in the crowd--until this week.
The suspect at large for most of Friday was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was born in Kyrgyzstan and became a naturalized American citizen on Sept. 11, 2012, according to documents obtained by NBC News.
Authorities hunted him door-to-door in the Boston suburbs, ordered a lockdown that paralyzed a region of more than 1 million people for most of the day, and took him after darkness fell and he holed up inside a boat outside a home.
His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, was killed overnight after an extraordinary crime spree: The brothers shot and killed a college security officer, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives at police in Watertown, Mass., authorities said.
As the anxious manhunt dragged on, profiles of the brothers began to emerge. People who know the younger Tsarnaev described him as bright, studious and quiet, with ambitions in medicine. The older was a boxer who said he dreamed of joining the U.S. Olympic team but had no American friends, and who was married with a young daughter.
An official also suggested that a foreign government had expressed terrorism concerns about the elder Tsarnaev to the FBI two years ago, and a cousin told The Boston Globe that the older brother was a bad influence on the younger.
Both men were active on social media. Dzhokhar cracked jokes and made pop-culture references. Tamerlan had a YouTube page that featured videos about Islamic radicalism.
Authorities were not sure of a motive in the marathon attack, which killed three people and injured 176 on Monday. NBC News learned that counterterrorism officials were examining possible links between the brothers and the Islamic Jihad Union of central Asia, a terrorist group.
Chechnya, a separatist region that has warred with Russia for independence and launched devastating terror strikes, is predominantly Muslim.
"Somebody radicalized them, but it wasn't my brother," the men's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, told reporters Friday from Montgomery Village, Md. He said the two brothers had brought shame on Chechens. He said that he had encouraged his own family to stay away from that part of the family.
"What I think was behind it: Being losers," he said. "Of course we're ashamed."
In Russia, the brothers' father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told the newspaper Izvestia that his children had been set up.
Ruslan Tsarni speaks out about his relationship with his nephews, who he says he hasn't seen in years, saying "somebody radicalized them" and "I just wanted my family to be away from them."
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had a Massachusetts driver's license, was enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and was living in the Boston suburb of Cambridge. He was the suspect in the white hat in surveillance photos from the marathon released Thursday by the FBI, authorities said.
Speaking from Russia, the father said that Dzhokhar was a diligent student who dreamed of becoming a great doctor.
Sierra Schwartz, who identified herself as a high school friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told NBC News that he had lots of friends and did not seem to brood. A lifeguard described him as hilarious.
"He was a nice guy. He was shy," Schwartz said. "It was almost physically painful to even call him nice now after this absolute tragedy that happened, but at the time, as we knew him, he was funny."
Robin Young, who said her nephew was on the wrestling team with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told NBC News that he was "just a light, airy, curly-haired kid."
A tense night of police activity that left a university officer dead on campus just days after the Boston Marathon bombings and amid a hunt for two suspects caused officers to converge on a neighborhood outside Boston, where residents heard gunfire and explosions.
"I can't tell you enough what a beautiful young man this was," she said.
He was also active on Twitter. In a post two days after the bombing, he wrote, "Ain't no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people," a reference to a Jay-Z lyric. One day later, he wrote, "I'm a stress free kind of guy."
His account has been dormant since Wednesday, when he retweeted a post from a Muslim scholar: "Attitude can take away your beauty no matter how good looking you are or it could enhance your beauty, making you adorable."
The city of Cambridge awarded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a $2,500 scholarship toward college in 2011. The scholarships were for students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, part of the public school system in Cambridge, a melting-pot city of about 100,000, fairly well-off and home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On a Russian social media site, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev identified his religion as Islam and his priorities as career and money. He posted links to stories about the brutality of the ruling regime in Syria and to a YouTube video of himself doing impressions, to the amusement of his brother, of dialects from regions around Chechnya.
Dominic Chavez / EPA
A tense night of police activity that left a university officer dead on campus just days after the Boston Marathon bombings and amid a hunt for two suspects caused officers to converge on a neighborhood outside Boston, where residents heard gunfire and explosions.
The other brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in the firefight with law enforcement, was born in Russia. He became a legal permanent resident in 2007, the officials said. He was the suspect in the black hat in the FBI photos.
In 2011, a foreign government expressed concern to the FBI that Tamerlan Tsarnaev could have ties to terrorism, but the FBI, after taking investigative steps, found no such links and reported the findings back to the foreign government, according to an official familiar with the matter.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev studied at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and wanted to become an engineer, according to a profile that appeared in a Boston University magazine in 2010. He said that he hoped to become an American citizen and one day join the U.S. Olympic boxing team.
He told the magazine that his family fled Chechnya in the 1990s because of the conflict there, and that he had lived in Kazakhstan. While he had been in the United States for several years by that point, he said in the profile: "I don't have a single American friend. I don't understand them."
He also said that he was a Muslim who did not smoke or drink.
Travel records obtained by NBC New York showed that Tamerlan Tsarnaev left the country for six months, from Jan. 12 to July 17, 2012, for Russia. The records show that it was not until 6 a.m. Friday that he was labeled by American officials to be "a person or instrument that may pose a threat to the security of the United States."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev boxed in a 2004 tournament as part of a program called Golden Gloves, according to The Lowell Sun newspaper. He said then that his first love was music, and that he played the piano and violin. That was also when he told the newspaper: "I like the USA."
"America has a lot of jobs," he said. "That's something Russia doesn't have. You have a chance to make money here if you are willing to work."
His former boxing coach, John Curran, described him to NBC News as quiet and courteous and said that he was "flabbergasted" by the news.
His family appeared to be as well: In a statement handed to reporters through the door of a home in Rhode Island, the family of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife, Katherine Russell, said it was clear that they never really knew him.
"Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted," the statement said.
Neighbors said that Russell graduated high school in 2007, went to college in Boston and has been living in North Kingston, R.I., with her daughter, who is about 3. Paula Gillette, a neighbor, told NBC News that Russell began wearing Islamic dress a few years ago and rarely left the house, and that her husband often came home for weekends in a car with Massachusetts plates.
Both men were believed to have entered the country with their family in 2002 or 2003, when the Tsarnaev family sought asylum. Law enforcement officials initially told NBC News that they may have had military experience, but the nature was not clear. Later in the morning, U.S. Army officials told NBC News that no one matching either name had served in the active-duty Army, or the reserves.
The men have a sister who lives in West New York, N.J. Police swarmed her home Friday morning and were seeing removing a computer, NBC New York reported. Earlier in the day, she told reporters: "I'm not OK, just like everybody else is not OK. No one is OK. It's very shocking."
Reuters reported that the Tsarnaev brothers were schooled in Dagestan, a region drawn into Chechen violence during the 1990s. Their mother has traveled back and forth to the United States over the past decade. The father told Izvestia that he has a tumor and returned to Russia to die.
Chechnya declared independence in 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Chechnya fought wars with Russia for much of the 1990s, and Chechens have been involved in terrorist attacks in Russia in the years since.
In 2002, Chechen militants seized a Moscow theater and held 800 people hostage for two days. Special forces raided the building and killed 41 hostage-takers; 129 hostages were killed, mostly from gas used by Russian forces.
In 2004, Chechen insurgents took hundreds of hostages in the Russian town of Beslan. The siege came to a bloody end two days later, and 330 people, about half children, were killed.
Pete Williams, Michael Isikoff, Richard Engel, Bill Dedman, Tracy Connor, Konrad Jankowski and Eun Kyung Kim of NBC News contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed.
Who are the brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing?
Chechen insurgents deny any link to marathon bombing
What we know: Timeline of terror hunt
'Dedicated officer' gunned down at MIT
Boston bombing spurs Senate debate on tighter immigration screening
This story was originally published on Fri Apr 19, 2013 8:00 AM EDT


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Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, Digital Natives (2012)
"The internet changed the world in the 1990s, the world is about to change again," read much of the promotional literature for the recent 3D Printshow in London. The commercial exhibitors might have benefited from a far more modest tag line, but the art work exhibited, separate from the main trade section of the show, gave much new to think about regarding the the relationship between technology and craft.
Frederik de Wilde, M1ne IIII (2012)
I was immediately intrigued by the two sculptural objects on display by Frederik de Wilde. The cobalt chrome models had been printed from data gathered from Belgian coal mines. They presented themselves as futuristic objects with a link to Europe's industrial heritage. The representations of the coal mines came to the 3D Printshow as seemingly abstract objects but, were actually formed by a much more political process. It had been a laborious process for de Wilde to get access to the data. He remarked that being granted permission to use a data source as an artist is almost an art form in itself. The Belgian government are protective over the information as the mines contain elements of interest to multinationals and other nations. De Wilde was not permitted in the work to reveal the location of the mines and had to abstract the forms so that interested parties could not gain commercial advantage. The custodians of the data had a large say in what the outcome of the piece would be. This is an intriguing collaborative process if it can be considered as such. The models of the coal mines had been stacked inside each other to create fragile vessels, that also further abstracted the context of the data. The production values of both objects were also noteworthy. I ...


text: As you gaze into an aquarium that curves overhead, a stingray makes its grand swooping entrance above you. Later, take the plunge down a 60-foot, nearly vertical slide that emerges from a Mayan pyramid and shoots into a glass tube running through a live shark tank. This is only the beginning of your experience exploring marine life and adventurous thrills within Atlantis, Paradise Island. Whether you're setting out with a loved one or vacationing with the whole family, the sugar-white beaches of the Bahamas are where you'll find your paradise. Plus, with amenities such as a dining credit, room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out when available, you may never want to depart from these tropical shores.


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Sé el primero en recomendar esto
Publicado el
For many businesses, connecting voice and Unified Communications (UC) across multiple offices has become expensive and time-consuming, especially when service needs frequently change from location to location. It doesn't have to be so difficult.
Your enterprise can reap huge savings, simplify the management of company-wide voice and UC capabilities, easily make changes, eliminate the headaches of mobile device management, and allow your workers to securely collaborate on work from anywhere using their preferred, personal mobile devices. Learn how by reading How SIP for the Enterprise Powers Unified Communications.


text:
You've worked hard and planned for retirement. Now, with a little creativity, you can leverage your retirement assets to benefit you and your family, reduce federal taxes, and support SVdPUSA far into the future.
The material presented on this Planned Giving website is not offered as legal or tax advice.
Read full disclaimer|Sitemap|Planned Giving Content © 2020 PlannedGiving.com


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| 12.2°C Belfast
Avril Lavigne has hit back at accusations of racism regarding her new music video Hello Kitty.
The Canadian singer's video for her latest single features her singing in both English and Japanese as she performs with four Japanese backing dancers.
Avril is seen with blonde hair with rainbow stripes and an shaved undercut on one side, wearing a PVC bustier, pearls and a colourful, kitsch tutu covered in cup cakes. She dances in a range of kitsch shops, watches a chef make sushi while she drinks sake, and takes pictures of her backing dancers with a retro camera.
Since being posted on Youtube the video has received over 2,700 "Dislikes" with comments claiming the portrayal of Japanese culture in that way is racist.
But it has also received over 15,500 "Likes" with many fans jumping to her defence.
Avril tweeted: "RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video...
"...specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan."


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Bomb Da Base Act II
|Bomb Da Base Act II
8-Ball telling Claude that he needs $100,000 to purchase the explosives necessary to destroy the freighter being used by the Colombian Cartel to manufacture SPANK in Portland Harbor.
|Colombian Cartel's SPANK freighter
|Saint Mark's, Portland, Liberty City
Death of Claude
Arrest of Claude
Death of 8-Ball
|Last Requests
|Unlocked by
|Bomb Da Base Act I
For other missions in the Grand Theft Auto series called "Bomb Da Base", see Bomb Da Base.
Bomb Da Base Act II is a mission in Grand Theft Auto III given to protagonist Claude by explosives expert 8-Ball from his shop in Saint Mark's, Portland, Liberty City.
8-Ball, knowing about the meeting after a phone call from Salvatore Leone, tells Claude that he needs $100,000 for the explosives and tells Claude to return when he has the money. After obtaining the necessary money, Claude returns to 8-Ball's and the two head to Portland Harbor, with 8-Ball giving Claude a Sniper Rifle. After arriving at Portland Harbor, Claude gets a good vantage point and begins to kill the Colombian Cartel gang members guarding the Les Cargo container ship, with 8-Ball planting the explosives. He detonates the explosives, just getting off the ship's bridge before it sinks.
8-Ball: Yo my man! Salvatore phoned ahead, but a job like this is gonna need a lot of fireworks. I'll need $100,000 to cover expenses, but you know with me you get a lot of bang for your buck. Come back brother when you have the money.
(Claude collects the $100,000 necessary)
8-Ball: Okay, let's do this thing! I can set this baby to detonate, but I still can't use a piece with these hands. Here, this rifle should help you pop some heads!
(Claude and 8-Ball travel to Portland Harbor)
8-Ball: Get a good vantage point then I'll head in when you fire the first shot.
The reward for completing the mission is $150,000. Completing the mission unlocks the Last Requests mission.
- The container ship used by the Colombian Cartel also appears in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, docked in Viceport.
- If the player is on the ship when it explodes then the player will not die, but will reappear back on land, but the Cartel Cruisers are gone.
- The name of the mission is reused for the "Bomb Da Base II" multiplayer mode in Grand Theft Auto IV, where players are similarly tasked to collect explosives and place them within a ship (Platypus) to destroy it.
- The player will still get the cutscene that shows 8-Ball telling Claude that he needs $100,000 even if they already have the money.
Claude and 8-Ball about to drive to Portland Harbor.
Colombian Cartel gangsters guarding the freighter.
8-Ball about to plant the explosives inside the freighter.
8-Ball running away from the explosion on the freighter.
Video walkthrough
|PC Version - GTASeriesVideos
|iPad 2 Version - GTASeriesVideos


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- Yield
- Makes 6 servings
- 1 bunch kale, stems and ribs cut away and discarded, leaves finely chopped (about 4 cups)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 7 ounces firm tofu (half of one 14-ounce package), drained, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 4 ounces grated reduced-fat provolone cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- 1 1/2 teaspoons all purpose flour
- 6 oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves, patted dry, chopped
- Nonstick olive oil spray
- 6 frozen phyllo pastry sheets, thawed
- Cook kale in large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain. Cool; squeeze dry. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 7 minutes. Cool.
- Finely chop tofu, cheeses, dill and flour in processor. Transfer to bowl. Stir in onion mixture, kale and sun-dried tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray large baking sheet with oil spray. Stack 2 phyllo sheets, one atop the other, on work surface; spray phyllo with oil spray. Top with 2 more phyllo sheets. Spray with oil spray. Repeat with remaining 2 phyllo sheets. Spread tofu mixture lengthwise down center of phyllo in 3-inch-wide strip, leaving about 1 1/2-inch border on each short side. Fold short sides of phyllo in over filling, then roll up into log, enclosing filling completely. Spray phyllo log with oil spray. Transfer strudel to prepared baking sheet.
- Bake strudel until golden brown, about 40 minutes. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm in 350°F oven until heated through, about 15 minutes.) Cool 10 minutes. Cut strudel crosswise into 6 pieces. Place on plates. Spoon Red Pepper Sauce alongside.
Per serving (with 1/6 of sauce): calories, 225; total fat, 7 g; saturated fat, 2 g; cholesterol, 8 mg


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"We have started an adult conversation that will dominate the debate until the elected leadership here in Washington does something real."
So claimed Erskine Bowles, co-chairman (along with former Sen. Alan Simpson) of President Barack Obama's commission on federal deficits and debt, last week.
The feeling that Americans and their representatives in Congress were ready for serious "adult" work on reducing deficits and debt lasted about three days, from last Friday's final fiscal commission meeting to Monday's announcement by Obama of a $900 billion accord with congressional Republicans to extend tax cuts and embark on a round of new spending.
"I'm deeply disappointed that we have this short-term deal and it's not linked to long-term fiscal restraint," Bowles said Wednesday.
On Thursday morning after he and Simpson met at the White House with Budget Director Jack Lew and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, they issued a statement calling on Obama to launch negotiations with congressional leaders from both parties "on the critical next step of establishing a serious fiscal responsibility plan" and to unveil his own deficit cutting proposals in his State of the Union address, building on the ones in last week's Bowles-Simpson report.
Long-term debt problem
The long-term budget prospects remain as stark as they were before Obama announced his deal with the GOP leaders.
Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
House Speaker John Boehner became animated Tuesday over the proposed Keystone Pipeline, castigating the Obama administration for not having approved the project yet.
- Budget deficits shrinking but set to grow after 2015
- Senate readies another volley on unemployment aid
- Obama faces Syria standstill
- Fluke files to run in California
- Christie acknowledges federal subpoena
- Obama says Fox News's O'Reilly 'absolutely' unfair in extended interview
- Christie security officer hit with shoplifting charges
- Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
More politics
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the ten-year budget forecast is for continued budget shortfalls, extraordinarily high national debt (compared to previous decades), and higher interest payments to service that debt — to the point that CBO predicts that by 2016 interest payments will be larger than military spending.
Video: Honeywell CEO on Deficit Commission Report When debt service exceeds military spending, says Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, it has historically been the tipping point where a great empire or nation ceases being great.
Why did the feeling that America was ready for serious debt reduction evaporate so quickly?
One reason may be that members of Congress don't believe that the United States could suffer a sovereign debt crisis as Greece and Ireland are undergoing.
"I think it's true that a number of people just don't buy it, because we still are different than Greece and Ireland," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Other political news of note
Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
House Speaker John Boehner became animated Tuesday over the proposed Keystone Pipeline, castigating the Obama administration for not having approved the project yet.
- Budget deficits shrinking but set to grow after 2015
- Senate readies another volley on unemployment aid
- Obama faces Syria standstill
- Fluke files to run in California
- Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
"They can't believe that the debt problems could actually come here," she said. "I think a number of other people think, 'maybe I do buy it but it isn't worth the sacrifice of actually changing things.' But I think most people don't quite buy it — and the worrying thing is that people who buy it the most are the financial people, the people who are managing money."
Stopping momentum for debt reduction
MacGuineas said the tax and spending deal that Obama announced Monday night did seem "surreal" coming as it did on the heels of the Bowles-Simpson plan. "It stops the momentum that we should have started last week with the Bowles-Simpson plan."
Video: Obama: Tax deal best for the nation But she remains optimistic. She compared the accord with a smoker who is on the verge of quitting smoking. "You smoke an extra cigarette just before you have to give it up. I really do think this is the last major deficit-financed bonanza that we're going to see."
She pointed to fact that a conservative member of the Bowles-Simpson panel, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and a liberal Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, both voted for the plan. (It got 11 votes, three shy of what was needed to officially forward its recommendations to Congress.)
Coburn took a jab at his own party Wednesday when he denounced as "political cynicism" a statement by Dan Bartlett, a former staffer for President George W. Bush, who said the 2001 tax cut was designed as a "trap" so that it "becomes almost impossible to remove it."
Coburn has hinted he might vote against the deal Obama negotiated with GOP leaders and urged his colleagues to debate a plan to cut the deficit.
"We are going to have a major liquidity crisis, and we are also going to have a major interest rate crisis," he said Wednesday. "Nobody knows when it comes."
Economic historians and members of the president's fiscal commission do believe a sovereign debt crisis is feasible, or at least that the United States will suffer many years of anemic growth and high unemployment.
"High debt-to-GDP levels, gross debt above 90 percent (of gross domestic product) are associated with notably lower growth outcomes," University of Maryland economist Carmen Reinhart told the Senate Budget Committee earlier this year.
Federal government debt is approaching that level. Using a different measure — total debt for all levels of government — U.S. gross debt is at 93 percent of GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund. (Compare that with Greece at 130 percent of GDP and Ireland at 99 percent of GDP.)
Wolf at our door?
Making the analogy between hostile bond markets and a wolf, Reinhart also warned that "We never know when the wolf will be down (at) our door. The wolf is very fickle and markets can turn very quickly. And a high debt level makes us very vulnerable to shifts in sentiments that we cannot predict."
In a debt crisis, in order to persuade bond buyers to keep buying Treasury bonds, Congress would be forced to cut spending and raise taxes.
The commission member who put that scenario most clearly was a non-politician, Honeywell chief executive David Cote: "These difficult political decisions will get made one of two ways. The first is we can do it thoughtfully and proactively. The second is we can wait for the bond market to force it upon us, and that will be decidedly harder, more abrupt and unpleasant. We can ask Greece and Ireland what that's like, and soon Italy, Spain and Portugal."
He added that Americans ought to wonder, "What happens when the bank — in this case foreign countries like China — doesn't want to loan you any more money?"
Of course, the alternative to raising revenues through borrowing is raising them through higher taxes. But one reason Obama is not likely to get Republicans to agree to that is their memories of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush agreeing to tax increases in 1982 and 1990.
"If I believed that the increased revenue would actually be used for deficit reduction, you know, I might reluctantly come to the table, in a global agreement," said panel member Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas last week, before voting against the debt commission's recommendations.
Hensarling said when he recalls Reagan's agreement to raise taxes in 1982 and Bush's reversal on taxes in 1990, "It just seems to me that somehow the spending restraint never quite materializes, and yet the increased revenues do, and it seems like the increased revenues simply chase the spending."
It's Obama in the Oval Office now, not Bush or Reagan, but it is the familiar tug of war between Republicans and Democrats over cutting taxes versus cutting spending.
Obama's statement at Tuesday's press conference implied that in some areas federal spending may not be big enough.
"What are we doing to revamp our schools to make sure our kids can compete?" he asked. "What are we doing in terms of research and development to make sure that innovation is still taking place here in the United States of America? What are we doing about our infrastructure so that we have the best airports and the best roads and the best bridges?"
He sounded confident he will win the debate with Republicans — forcing them to agree to tax increases because they'll find out once they start running the House of Representatives that spending cuts would be, as he said Tuesday, "very painful."
Putting on his hat as campaign strategist, Obama said, "Either they rethink their position, or I don't think they're going to do very well in 2012."
He said, "The fact of the matter is the American people already agree with me."
© 2013 msnbc.com Reprints


text:
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Least surprising conclusion: Two-hour parking spaces downtown are in high demand, a survey by the Raleigh, North Carolina, firm Martin Alexiou Bryson determines, and 20 percent of the parkers overstay the two-hour limit, Rachana Dixit reports in the Daily Progress.
Most suspicious envelope: Suspicious writing and an "unidentified density" prompt the shut down of UVA's Special Materials and Handling facility on Edgemont Road October 28 from noon to 7:30pm. UVA police, HAZMAT, and bomb techs determine the package contained "political writing," the Progress reports, but does not elaborate further.
Deadliest wildlife: Bambis, which are out in force: rutting, fleeing hunters, and causing a spike in automobile collisions as they do every November. According to the Highway Loss Data Institute, 41 Virginians have died over the past 15 years in crashes with animals, with deer most frequently the culprits.
Worst impediment to Wal-Mart shoppers: A phoned in bomb threat evacuates the store on U.S. 29 north October 29
Latest school employee charged with having sex with a student: Staunton bus driver Paula Tomlin, 36, is indicted on four counts of taking indecent liberties with a 16-year-old boy, NBC29 reports.
Latest UVA football player arrest: Fullback RaShawn Jackson is charged with breaking and entering and grand larceny for a November 22, 2007, break-in and theft of a video game console at Cauthen Dorm. He's free on bond, still on the team, and the fifth player to be arrested this year, according to NBC29.
Latest in the Greene County sex-with-football-players scandal:Two William Monroe High players are charged in a September hazing incident– one with two counts of sexual assault and the other with two counts of assault and battery– although it's not clear how that's connected with the arrest of 39-year-old Tammy Harlow, who's charged with having sex with three students on the team.
Latest Charlottesville dis: The News & Advance in Lynchburg complains "Nothing But Excuses from Charlottesville" in an October 30 editorial, joining its Chamber of Commerce in castigating its neighbor to the north for not building a U.S. 29 bypass.
Best way to curb binge drinking: With drugs. UVA researchers under Bankole Johnson plan to try the drug Zofran on 300 college-age adults to slow their penchant for shots, according to Aaron Lee in the Progress.
Best news for authors: Google settles a class-action copyright infringement suit with the Association of American Publishers and Authors Guild for its Google Book Search, which scans university library collections. UVA, one of Google's academic partners, has not opined on the $125 million decision, the Cavalier Daily reports.
Best project for law students: The Innocence Project Clinic, in which 12 UVA students will review death penalty cases with an eye to overturn wrongful convictions. Tasha Kates has the story in the DP.
Most adrenal: Winners of the fifth Adrenaline Film Project are announced November 1 at Culbreth, 72 hours after the movie making began. They Will Come for You (Brendon Marotta, David Webster, Una Webster) wins the jury award, Girl-Powered (Ashley Chipman, Alex Campbell, Jocelyn Spaar) is the audience award winner, and Paper or Plastic (Bernard Hankins, Conor Clark, Jonathan Sharp) takes the mentors award.
Best rumor dispelled: Political pundit Larry Sabato jokes that Republicans should stock up on liquor because the liquor stores are closed on Election Day. DP reporter Brian McNeill reassures readers that ABC store are open November 4.
Biggest Obama block: Sixty percent of the 3 million grade schoolers who vote in the 2008 Mock Election October 30 pick Barack Obama, while 36 percent go for John McCain.


text:
Brixton Beach is a difficult book to rate. It has a fantastic opening chapter and a powerful, poignant ending, but unfortunately the rest of the book is a bit forgettable.
The book opens with an emotionally charged glimpse at the London tube bombings of 2005 in which 56 people were killed. I wasn't surprised to see a quote from Chris Cleave on the back of the book ('Heartfelt and timely') as the opening chapter was reminiscent of his wonderful book, The Other Hand.
Unfortunately, the plot went downhill very quickly. The second chapter was so quiet in comparison that I was left feeling a bit let down and lost. The setting changed to a quiet Sri Lankan village and followed a young girl as she grew up. The fact that her father was of Tamil descent meant that her family was threatened by violence and so they decided to emigrate to the safety of London. This whole section was OK, but I have read about the difficulties of immigration so many times that I have lost interest.Well someone found in a situation like wise they should contact with Las Vegas immigration lawyer cause they can handle the things wisely. This book didn't offer any new insights on the situation, despite the fact that Sri Lanka isn't a country I've read about before. By Going Here you will get the best immigration attorney.
The plot picks up towards the end and you can guess that the story goes full circle, returning to the terrible events on the London tubes. The ending was emotional, but I was disappointed that I'd had to wade through 350 pages of slow moving plot to get there.
On a positive note, the writing was of good quality, so I would be tempted to read another one of her books – I just hope they are more like the first chapter of this one than the middle 12!
Recommended to anyone who loves tales of immigration.
Did you enjoy this book?
Have you read any of her others?
Are you looking forward to the release of her new book, The Swimmer, at the end of April?


text:
Found 323 results
Filters: Keyword is paper [Clear All Filters]
"Direct observation of the band structure in bulk hexagonal boron nitride", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 95. American Physical Society, p. 085410, 2017.,
"Low-energy electronic excitations and band-gap renormalization in CuO", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 95. American Physical Society, p. 195142, 2017.,
"Exciton Band Structure in Two-Dimensional Materials", Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 116. American Physical Society, p. 066803, 2016.,
"Interpretation of monoclinic hafnia valence electron energy-loss spectra by time-dependent density functional theory", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 93. American Physical Society, p. 165105, 2016.,
"Rigamonti et al. Reply:", Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 117. American Physical Society, p. 159702, 2016.,
"Dynamical effects in electron spectroscopy", The Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 143. p. 184109, 2015.,
"Electron-hole interactions in correlated electron materials: Optical properties of vanadium dioxide from first principles", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 91. American Physical Society, p. 195137, 2015.,
"Estimating Excitonic Effects in the Absorption Spectra of Solids: Problems and Insight from a Guided Iteration Scheme", Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 114. American Physical Society, p. 146402, 2015.,
"Exciton dispersion in molecular solids", Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, vol. 27. p. 113204, 2015.,
"Exciton energy-momentum map of hexagonal boron nitride", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 92. American Physical Society, p. 165122, 2015.,
"Quasiparticle excitations in the photoemission spectrum of CuO from first principles: A $GW$ study", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 91. American Physical Society, p. 045102, 2015.,
"Simple screened exact-exchange approach for excitonic properties in solids", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 92. American Physical Society, p. 035202, 2015.,
"Unphysical and physical solutions in many-body theories: from weak to strong correlation", New Journal of Physics, vol. 17. p. 093045, 2015.,
"Cumulant expansion of the retarded one-electron Green function", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 90. American Physical Society, p. 085112, 2014.,
"Defects and strain enhancements of second-harmonic generation in Si/Ge superlattices", The Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 140. p. -, 2014.,
"Erratum: Solution to the many-body problem in one point", New Journal of Physics, vol. 16. p. 119601, 2014.,
"Evidence for anisotropic dielectric properties of monoclinic hafnia using valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and ab initio time-dependent density-functional theory", Applied Physics Letters, vol. 105. p. 222904, 2014.,
"Multiphoton k-resolved photoemission from gold surface states with 800-nm femtosecond laser pulses", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 90. American Physical Society, p. 035401, 2014.,
"Multiple satellites in materials with complex plasmon spectra: From graphite to graphene", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 89. p. 085425, 2014.,
"Photoemission spectra and effective masses of n- and p-type oxide semiconductors from first principles: ZnO, CdO, SnO2, MnO, and NiO", physica status solidi (a), vol. 211. pp. 74–81, 2014.,
"Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties of Co mplex Materials", Topics in Current Chemistry, vol. 347. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 99-135, 2014.,
"Solution to the many-body problem in one point", New Journal of Physics, vol. 16. p. 113025, 2014.,
"Dynamical screening in correlated metals: Spectral properties of SrVO3 in the GW approximation and beyond", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 87. American Physical Society, p. 155147, 2013.,
"Exciton dispersion from first principles", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 88. American Physical Society, p. 155113, 2013.,
"Frenkel versus charge-transfer exciton dispersion in molecular crystals", Phys. Rev. B, vol. 88. American Physical Society, p. 195152, 2013.,


text:
Monday, December 03, 2012
Sports News
Brutal 1st half leads to Lady Lynx loss to Carl Sandburg
By Justin Tierney
Send a link to a friend
[December 03, 2012]
One of the most commonly used
clichés in sports is the one about "peaks and valleys" that occur
over the course of a season.
The Lady Lynx scored just eight points in the first 20 minutes,
victimized by poor shooting and a rash of turnovers. LC shot just 2
of 26 from the field in the first half, including a 1-of-15 mark
from beyond the 3-point arc.
The lack of offensive production was the result of a combination
of a lack of energy and a lack of teamwork, according to Lady Lynx
coach Carol Wilson.
"We didn't bring any energy to begin the game," said Wilson.
"Then I felt like we were very selfish on the offensive end of the
floor, didn't move the ball very well. Everyone was just jacking up
quick shots."
The lack of energy was also evident in other areas, such as
rebounding and turnover margin. LC lost the rebounding edge 47-42,
while surrendering 21 turnovers to the Chargers' 15 turnovers. The
Lady Lynx finished the game with just five assists.
Carl Sandburg controlled the game's tempo throughout the contest,
forcing LC into a slower, more methodical game that neutralized the
Lady Lynx advantages in team speed.
[to top of second column]
That shouldn't have been a surprise, said Wilson, as her team
had faced the Chargers earlier this season.
"That's what they did the first time against us," said Wilson.
"We knew that's what they were going to do. We knew they would try
some flex cuts and try to be slow. But, defensively, we never made
No Lady Lynx player made it into double figures, with Denitra
Mack's eight points leading the way for LC. Jessica Miller, Edraniel
Tookes and Ariel Williams each added six points for the Lady Lynx,
with Tookes also corralling a team-high 10 rebounds.
Wilson is hoping her squad can right the ship quickly, with three
games in the next week before the monthlong semester break.
"The biggest thing we need to do is just come together as a team
and play with more energy," said Wilson. "That was the biggest
problem in the first half, just a lack of energy and a lack of
[By JUSTIN TIERNEY]
College women's basketball
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First off…I'M A SALESMAN! I specialize in training financial wholesalers, financial advisors and sales professionals.
I became a salesman because I wanted to make money!
My first real sales job was selling air tools on the south side of Chicago out of the back of my Nissan Sentra. My training was to read Think and Grow Rich and the Richest Man in…


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Higher Education Close Up 10, call for submissionsDeadline 28.02.20
Key Dates
Submission of proposals: 28th February, 2020
You are invited to submitt proposals for contributions that critically explore questions relating to locating social justice in close-up higher education research ar. All proposals will be subject to blind peer review and authors will be notified of the outcome of the process by 23rd March, 2020.
About the Conference
Higher Education Close-Up is a peer reviewed biennial international conference, focused on issues relating to in-depth research into higher education. HECU10 takes place at Lancaster University on 6th – 8th July, 2020 and follows on from the very successful HECU9 in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2018. Higher Education Close Up is a virtual network of the Society For Research into Higher Education. The conference venue will be the luxurious Lancaster House Hotel, with accommodation for delegates in the hotel's ensuite rooms.
The conference runs from lunchtime on the first day to lunchtime on the third day to enable colleagues to travel to and from Lancaster.
For more information please visit


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Julie Leto eBooks
Julie Leto was born and raised in Florida to a family of Italian and Cuban descent. After picking up her first romance when she was only sixteen, Leto knew that she wanted to write one of her own. She earned degrees in Creative Writing and Speech Communications from the University of South Florida. She began writing in 1988, while she was in graduate school. After graduation she became an English teacher at Tampa Catholic High School and continued to write on weekends and at night. In 1996, in order to give herself more time to write, Leto quit her teaching job and joined her family's manufacturing business. The following year she sold her fourth completed novel, Seducing Sullivanto Harlequin Temptation. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to a daughter and chose to be a full-time writer and mother. Leto was a launch author for the new Harlequin Blaze line, and is the longest continuous member of the Tampa Area Romance Authors organization. She's written for Harlequin, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Books. She lives in Tampa, Florida.


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text:
A central argument for privatizing British Columbia's ferry system was that a strict business model would prove far more efficient than continuing the system under provincial control.
Instead, the privatized model has yielded bloated management, lack of transparency, increasingly inefficient service and rapidly rising costs that now threaten perhaps $500 million in annual provincial tax revenue and place a recessionary drag on perhaps $50 billion in provincial economic productivity.
Thirty years ago, when Premier Bill Bennett's Social Credit government ran the operation, BC Ferries serviced 23 routes with 3,800 employees and a management/administration unit of 120.
Today, it services two additional routes, but has added about 1,000 employees and has a management/administration unit of more than 600, including — based on 2011 reports — 12 vice-presidents.
This works out to one manager for every 7.6 employees. Even if you remove several hundred excluded ship's officers from the equation, it still works out to about one manager for every 10 employees.
By comparison, Washington State Ferries, which operates under the state highways and transportation system and carries more passengers and vehicles (although with fewer vessels on generally shorter routes than in B.C.), runs efficiently with 43 managers — about one manager for every 40 workers.
BC Ferries spends about $12 on management and administrative overhead for every $1 spent on those costs by Washington State Ferries.
Compensation for just the chief executive officer and vice-presidents at BC Ferries in 2011 was $200,000 more than the spending by the Washington State Ferries system on management and administration.
In rationalizing bonuses and other perks for top BC Ferries executives, the ferry corporation's board of directors announced last year that the incoming CEO's annual compensation would be set at $500,730 for 2014, down markedly from the $915,000 paid in 2012.
Compare that reduced salary to the compensation Washington State Ferries pays its top executive — $152,000 a year with no bonuses because running the system efficiently, providing adequate service and achieving results is deemed the job description. BC Ferries pays its recently retired CEO a pension equal to twice the salary of the top Washington ferries executive.
At the Alaska Marine Highways System, which operates ferries serving far flung island and remote coastal communities in the Alaska Panhandle and the Aleutian archipelago — its southernmost terminal is in Bellingham, Wash. — the top executive earns earned $131,000 last year.
BC Ferries' comptroller earns $189,000 a year, about $50,000 a year more than the comptroller-general of the entire B.C. government, who is responsible for an annual budget of about $45 billion. BC Ferries' vice-president of information technology takes home double that paid the head of IT at the Health Ministry, which, as the Victoria Times Colonist noted in an editorial last year, has a budget 25 times bigger than the ferry corporation.
It's easy, looking at these numbers, to see why so many Vancouver Sun readers perceive that the government appears to have lost sight of the mission — creating and sustaining infrastructure that's installed to grow B.C.'s economic prosperity, not restrict it.
And remember, if government policy creates recessionary drag upon 20 per cent of the province's economy, it's not just a regional issue. It must inevitably hurt every household and business in British Columbia, including the Lower Mainland, for which ferry terminals at Tsawwassen and Horseshoe Bay are portals to a market equivalent to almost half the population of Metro Vancouver.
Among the most trenchant observations from readers is this one: If Transportation Minister Todd Stone were to order his government to apply BC Ferries' pricing and cost-recovery strategy to the new Port Mann Bridge, it would respond to falling commuter use by jacking up the toll for cars from $3 to $6.50, shutting one lane, and closing the bridge entirely during the morning and evening commutes.
This proposition seems absurd, but it's precisely the model being applied to the ferry system.


text:
|This is the article on the clone created by Kabuto Yakushi. For the original serpent in Orochimaru's services, head to Manda.
|editManda II [1]
|二代目マンダ Nidaime Manda
|Volume #54, Naruto Chapter #513
|Naruto Shippūden Episode #255
|Appears in
|Anime, Manga
Manda II (二代目マンダ, Nidaime Manda) is an enhanced clone that was created from the original Manda's cells using various drugs by Kabuto Yakushi.
Manda II was created by Kabuto, who used cells from the original Manda to create the former.
Unlike the original Manda, Manda II is very loyal to Kabuto, his creator.
Manda II is even larger than the original, almost the same length as the Island Turtle, making it one of the largest summons in the series. It also has four sets of claws along its length, a cobra-like hood and a rattlesnake's tail. Manda II's teeth also take on the form of a venomous snake's fangs, resembling those of a cobra while Manda's teeth took on the form of constrictor snake's teeth. Like the previous Manda, he is purple, has green eyes and has the same dark markings over his eyes.
In contrast to the original Manda, Manda II lacks the four horn-like appendages on his head, and black rings running down his body. Also, unlike Manda, who was based more on an anaconda-like constrictor, Manda II has a mixture of features from many types of snakes and even oriental dragons.
According to Kabuto, Manda II is bigger, stronger, and has far more acute senses than the original.[2] Its massive strength was shown that, even in the water, it slowed down the Giant Island Turtle with ease, yanking it back. It was able to quickly kill the Giant Squid, leaving a giant bite mark on its head. Being a direct clone of the "strongest colossal serpent", it presumably possesses all of the original Manda's abilities, such as extreme speed and shedding its skin. It is not yet known whether this Manda is able to speak like the previous Manda.
Part II
Fourth Shinobi World War: Countdown
Summoned to seek out and restrain the Giant Island Turtle by Kabuto, it swam past and killed the Giant Squid which guards the island and latched onto the Giant Island Turtle's tail, immobilising it for one of Deidara's bombs. It pulled the Giant Island Turtle as Deidara's bomb exploded which flipped it on its back rendering it incapacitated. It was later seen wrapping itself around the turtle's neck, constricting it. Eventually, with Yamato captured, Kabuto climbed into its nostril and the snake was dispelled.[3]
- While the original Manda shares his name with a Japanese fictional monster, Manda II more closely resembles this monster; with its Japanese dragon-like features and legs.