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S. 45 of the Competition Act (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34).In Canadian competition law, a conspiracy is a criminal arrangement between competitors to control the supply or price of a product.
, according to a U.S. securities law expert commissioned to advise the federal government.The lack of a single securities regulator in Canada costs the economy as much as $10 billion and 65,000 jobs a year
they feel the Canadian system, which has 13 provincial and territorial agencies that monitor the industry, leads to less reliable enforcement of public companies and can lead to poorer corporate governance.
Industry Minister and Competition Bureau prefer "Rigged" investment services??
They do this to prevent having to tell customers what their true license and registration category says. (This can be searched at CSA http://www.securities-administrators.ca) They also do this in order to exempt themselves from any fiduciary responsibility to their clients – because for what it's worth, Canada's law applies only to "advisers." (spelled "er") (source CSA head counsel Chris Besko)Most investment sellers in Canada call themselves "advisors," (spelled with an "o").
All "advisors" (spelled "or") are required to do, (under self regulatory rules of IIROC Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada), is offer clients a product they consider "suitable," no matter whether the seller reaps more benefits than the buyer.
industry uses it as an "escape clause" allowing dealers to sell anything which they deem fits the description.
Financial Advisor, as you noted, is a common title which many persons use, whether they are registered under securities legislation or not. The use of this title is not generally prohibited, and may be used by anyone, including persons who are only licensed to deal in insurance products, mortgage brokers, deposit agents, or employees of financial institutions. Some jurisdictions regulate the use of some titles. For example, in Québec, no person may use the title Financial Planner without holding the appropriate certificate issued by the Autorité des marchés financiers. The title Financial Advisor may not be used by anyone as it is considered similar to the title Financial Planner. Having said that, most jurisdictions do not regulate the use of Financial Advisor, and as such it is widely used
During a recent presentation, Lethbridge investment industry critic Larry Elford emphasized the legal difference between an investment "adviser" and an "advisor."
In Canada, registered "advisers" have a fiduciary interest – like a lawyer – to act in the best interests of their clients. But he told an University of Lethbridge audience "advisors" – with an O, not an E – may act in their own interest by selling anything they consider "suitable" for their client and more profitable for themselves.
During an edit before publication of the story, the spelling distinction was lost. The Herald regrets the error.
The Bureau is an independent enforcement agency
carrying out the mandate of the Commissioner of Competition under the Competition Act. It retains independence and discretion over which matters to pursue. As it receives thousands of complaints per year, it is necessary for the Competition Bureau to select its cases carefully on the basis of established criteria, such as the number of complaints and the volume of commerce affected. Moreover, the Competition Act stipulates that the Bureau's investigations be conducted in private. As such, it cannot follow up or provide details on all complaints received.The Bureau is an independent enforcement agency
However, as a law enforcement agency with a statutory mandate, it is independent in its enforcement of the Competition Act so as to protect the integrity of investigations. Under the law, inquiries are carried out in private and information that the Bureau acquires is kept confidential, subject to listed exceptions.The Competition Bureau, headed by the Commissioner of Competition, is a federal government agency.
¶ 227 Migirdic obtained the Markarians' signatures on both P-6 and P-7 by means of lies, deceit and false representations, and on false pretexts.
231 The Bank did not properly fulfil its obligations toward Mr. Markarian
¶ 236 The Markarians were the victims of a veritable system of organized fraud from which it was very difficult to protect oneself because of the skill and knowledge of Migirdic, who was the Bank's only representative
246 Migirdic was presented to him from the start as someone "honest" and "knowledgeable", and, what is more, as a vice-president of CIBC Wood Gundy. That greatly impressed Mr. Markarian and reinforced his idea that his advisor was eminently worthy of his trust, particularly since that same Migirdic a few years later became a [TRANSLATION] "vice-president and director" of the firm, a "promotion" that could but confirm his merits. Later, we will see that those titles were actually only marketing tools and recognition for a large sales volume.
251 The Markarians were actually justified in trusting Migirdic and CIBC, because of the very context of confidence that prevails and must prevail in an investor-broker relationship and because of the broker's obligations toward clients (see paras. 481 to 506 below). The Court is of the opinion that the climate of trust is even greater in regard to a bank (see paras. 498 and 499 below)
¶ 253 Furthermore, the Bank failed to properly fulfil its obligations toward the Markarians, which contributed to their being fooled (that matter is examined beginning at para. 262 below).
¶ 254 Hence, it was in that climate of trust, in which the defendant and its representative had real duties and obligations and in which the plaintiffs knew them and could rely on them, that the fraud was committed and vitiated the plaintiffs' consent.
¶ 262 But there is more here. This is a case where the defendant can be held liable because of its own faults. It itself committed faults in the performance of its duties and the fulfilment of its responsibilities, including false representations about the quality of its representative
¶ 263 The defendant attributed to Migirdic fake titles, i.e. "vice-president" and "vice-president and director", in addition to letting him use the title "specialist in retirement investments". Those titles were false representations that misled the plaintiffs, hid reality from them, disinformed them, comforted them in their confidence in Migirdic, reduced their distrust, and contributed to Migirdic's fraud. The defendant committed a fault in terms of its obligation to inform and advise, in addition to misleading the plaintiffs.
¶ 265 In the defendant's operations, these titles also have that meaning, but not that meaning alone! They are given as well to any representative (also called an "investment advisor" or previously a "financial consultant") who reaches a certain level of commissions in a given year, in short, who "sells" a lot and brings in a lot of commissions. A person is awarded the title essentially in "recognition" of work and as a marketing tool, as the president of CIBC Wood Gundy, Tom Monahan, acknowledged. However, to have the title of "vice-president" or "vice-president and director" adds no new responsibility or any management role. What is more, it testifies to neither greater competence nor more reliability.
¶ 266 In the defendant's operations, the titles are, in fact attributed to many people. In 1995, there were 206 vice-presidents and 44 vice-presidents and directors out of 556 representatives. In 1997, there were 217 vice-presidents and 109 vice-presidents and directors out of 612 representatives. In 1999, there were 197 vice-presidents and 101 vice-presidents and directors out of 725 representatives, the proportions were about the same in 2000. That year, about 300 of the 700 representatives had a title!
¶ 267 The problem is that clients do not know that these titles are simply marketing tools, i.e. a means to convince them that they have an excellent representative, and recognition for the volume of commissions. Clients therefore believe they have a "very special" and "eminently acknowledged" representative when the representative has the title of "vice-president" or "vice-president and director". That was what Mr. Markarian in fact believed, as he testified. Richard Papazian, another witness (and also a victim) thought the same thing. So the titles create a false feeling of trust, comfort and prestige, the role of which is not trivial in the commission of fraud.
¶ 268 The plaintiffs were the victims of these false representations by the defendant in their regard.
¶ 269 Migirdic received the title of vice-president in 1986, then vice-president and director in the early 1990s. He retained the titles until he left, because of the enormous volume of commissions he generated. In fact, the titles increased Mr. Markarian's trust in Migirdic and prompted him to guard against him and his actions even less. The defendant committed a fault in acting to ensure that.
¶ 270 The Court wholly subscribes to the comments of Mr. Justice Donald Gordon in Blackburn v. Midland Walwyn Capital inc. [See Note 19 below], a decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice:
Note 19: [2003] O.J. 621 (O.S.C.J.).
[121] Promoting George Georgiou to the position of vice-president was purely a marketing gimmick, an intentional misrepresentation to the public by Midland. The public would consider a vice-president to have special status, be more knowledgeable and influential.
[123] What is more problematic is the process. The promotion resulted from the influence of the National Sales Manager. This clearly demonstrates the high position sales had in the corporate structure and, conversely, the lack of importance allocated to compliance.
¶ 272 In the Court's opinion, the titles "vice-president" and "vice-president and director" have no place in the brokerage field when they apply to simple representatives. They then constitute a mere "marketing gimmick", to use Gordon J.'s words, just a misrepresentation contrary to the duty of a brokerage firm to seek to protect its clients and to inform them well. By continuing to use those titles, brokerage firms expose themselves to criticism, as in this case.
¶ 273 As for the title "specialist in retirement investments" or "retirement specialist", it was not a title given Migirdic by the defendant, but the defendant authorized him to use it (among others on his business cards). Once again, it was a way to instill trust in retirees and prompt them to rely on their representative in all confidence. In actuality, the title meant nothing more than that Migirdic had many retired clients, which did not make him more competent in that area and also did not make him a better representative for those people (much to the contrary, Migirdic exploited their greater vulnerability).
"former stockbroker, reveals a dozen "tricks of the trade" used to harm 30o million Canadians and Americans. Tricks by brokers, regulators, and others who claim to serve the public interest."
http://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/ib_making_sense.pdf"Financial professional titles and licenses are not the same."
""Financial advisers: don't take their credentials at face value."
"We do not prescribe specific titles to be used by those persons who are either dealing or advising in securities. Most securities legislation requires that an individual who holds themselves out as being registered to in fact be registered and to indicate the actual category of registration."
"Much like garbagemen rechristening themselves "sanitation engineers," the folks who flog investments are tweaking their titles to make what they do seem fancier and more impressive than it is."
"even though these people often refer to themselves as "financial advisors" or by some other comfort-inducing title, they're really glorified salesmen. "
"Trust me, I am a financial advisor" is not good enough...
""The S.E.C. has been studying issues related to investment-adviser and broker-dealer regulation and overall market conditions for over 10 years,"
"It's puzzling to me why you would ask an agency to conduct a study when it is already an expert in the regulatory issues being discussed."
"...the SEC enforces the standards for fiduciaries — but brokers, aiming to head off more regulations, created the suitability rules themselves."
"...Most people do not realize that financial advisers (also known as financial planners, financial consultants, investment counselors, money managers, portfolio managers, wealth managers and other names) come in two flavours."
"As long as American consumers cannot discern between ethical actors (who adhere to a bona fide fiduciary standard at all times,…. and actors bound only by the weak suitability standard, the demand for financial planning and investment advice will stagnate. "
"The professional who is willing to violate his own duty of loyalty and care to his clients is "placing an obstacle before the blind".
"I believe that holding yourself out as a trusted advisor, and not accepting fiduciary status and its burdens and restraints upon conduct, is tantamount to fraud."
"Anything else is fraud, because the seller is delivering a service different from what the consumer thinks he or she is buying. "
"...allows a financial advisor to say, with a straight face, that financial advisers are obligated by law to have their clients' best interest at heart, and at the same time sell products that line their own pockets at the expense of the client."
"It is troubling to hear of the deceptions being perpetrated by advisors".
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Friday, February 12, 2010
A Metro Valentine
ImageChef.com Photo Frames
From JB.:
Dear WMATA,
I've been offloaded, delayed, jerked around and abused by your employees. I've been late to work, dates, interviews, appointments, brunches, lunches, dinners, movies, concerts, meetings and even a funeral thanks to you. For as long as I've been a regular user, I've pretty much hated you.
Yet despite our rocky history, over the past few days, I've felt butterflies, almost giddiness, whenever I hear your name in the news.
Why? Because you're not operating, well barely anyway, and that means no work for me!
Your epic ability to fail, has bequeathed me five and a half bonus days off and counting!
Your incompetence, to this point, has been infuriating, but over this past week, I've felt a wave of forgiveness wash over me. I am completely confident in my lack of confidence in you.
I don't know how to start thanking you. I temporarily take back every bad thing I ever said about you. All your bumbling, all of that pain in the bank, is finally paying off, and in a big way!
In any other city, I'd have been at work, stuck behind my desk. But thanks to your ineptitude, I've been at home, smiling, feet up, in my PJs, sipping wine, catching up on old movies, and working on that novel I promised myself I'd one day write.
Consider us even--for now.
And as a small measure of my gratitude, I ask simply for you to be my Valentine.
Keep on suckin'! K?
Let's see if we can work some closures out for April showers!
Your newest, biggest fan (for this week anyway)
2 comments:
- Anonymous said...
How many of us simply don't trust Metro? It's like an abusive relationship...we're stuck with you no matter how badly you abuse us.
Last Friday Metrobus drove me to the doctor in Bethesda on the J2 line, but never came back to drive me to Silver Spring. It took me 4 hours to get home. But come Tuesday, I'll be back on the platform waiting for Metro to let me down again.
Why won't Obama invest in Metro as part of the Jobs Bill? Why Harry Reid, why?
- February 12, 2010 at 9:45 AM
- Anonymous said...
I definitely don't trust Metro at this point. Fire on the tracks on Tuesday, now a wheel coming off the tracks on Friday, both during morning rush hour!??? HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN??
Metro being delayed because tracks in the 'burbs are covered in ice is one thing. Fires and derailments is something totally different. How unsafe does it have to be before we stop riding?
- February 12, 2010 at 11:10 AM

subset: commoncrawl


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I purposely did not write before we left about the retreat my husband and I recently attended, not because it was any big secret, but because I wasn't sure what to write. The few weeks before we left had been especially hard for me for a myriad of reasons. Preparing to be away from home for several days and making arrangements for my older daughters brought back memories of doing the same as we prepared for Kristen's birth, then doing it again just 14 weeks later as we prepared for her surgery. My heart was just heavy as I missed my baby girl. And, of course, there was some anxiety about the long trip and uncertainties of what to expect at the retreat.
When February 16th rolled around and we prepared to leave, I was so ready for a change of scenery. I looked forward to some time away with my husband. Even so, I cried as we left the girls at my sister-in-law's house. I knew they would have fun and would be well cared for, but the tears came anyway. On our way through Kansas City, we drove near the same route we had taken to Children's Mercy a year and a half ago, and the tears came again. I hadn't thought through the fact that we would be driving that near to CMH. It caught me completely off-guard and melted me into a puddle.
Being able to meet Wendy, one of my "Kristen friends" (people I would never have met had it not been for Kristen), the next night was such a sweet blessing. This dear lady was my phone nurse during my pregnancy. We spoke every month, and despite the fact that she could have been fired for telling me so, she prayed for me and for my baby during those uncertain months before Kristen arrived. She grieved the loss of my daughter with me when she learned of Kristen's death. We've stayed in touch via e-mail since, and it was such a wonderful joy to get to meet this sweet lady in person.
We drove the next afternoon to "The Hiding Place," a very aptly named lodge located northwest of Nashville. This beautiful facility would be "home" for the next couple of days for us and 11 other couples. The common thread? We each have experienced the death of a child.
We shared our stories and our hearts, lots of tears, gentle hugs, even laughter. Our stories are all different. Our children range in age from infant to young adult. We come from different parts of the country. Some had watched their children battle illnesses, others had been struck by sudden tragedy. For some, it had been years; for others, only months. Some had packed a lifetime into a few short weeks, others were caught completely unaware. All were left with shattered hopes and dreams. None of us ever pictured ourselves on this road. It's a road certainly no one wants to be traveling. We found a strange comfort in sharing the burdens of our hearts with people who understand. After feeling like a stranger in a strange land for so long, I felt safe and secure in this place where everyone there "gets" what I'm going through. We left with renewed spirits, with hope, with e-mail addresses for our 22 new friends and one last bite of some amazing chicken enchiladas. :)
Our new friend, Jon, summed it up so wonderfully:
"It's the best retreat you never want to go to."
David & Nancy Guthrie were our hosts for this Respite Retreat, the fifth one they've organized. They've been on this road longer than the rest of us and have used their own sorrow to reach out and minister to others. The Guthries are amazing...a beautiful couple we are so blessed to have met.
The weekend was truly a respite for me. I am grateful for the opportunity to attend, for a husband who drove all 1700+ miles himself, for the fellowship with new friends, and for the many ways God met me in Tennessee.


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Why Clinton spoke out on Obama
Hillary Clinton has taken her furthest, most public step away yet from President Barack Obama, rejecting the core of his self-described foreign policy doctrine and describing his decision against backing Syrian rebels early on as a "failure."
She also stood unequivocally with Israel in its current battle with Hamas in a lengthy, detailed interview on foreign policy with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, which was conducted last week prior to the president's authorization of airstrikes against Islamist militants in Iraq. The interview was published late Saturday.
Story Continued Below
Obama's foreign policy doctrine as a whole has been slammed as too slow to respond, too passive instead of proactive, especially as crises have unfolded everywhere from Ukraine to the Gaza Strip. In the interview, Clinton, who served as secretary of state during Obama's first term, argues there's a balance that can be struck between muscularity and isolationism — bolstering the concept of American exceptionalism, which she promotes in her new book, "Hard Choices."
A source familiar with the interview said Clinton's team gave the White House a warning that it had taken place. Clinton aides described the interview as one intended to promote her memoir, and Goldberg as a long-planned-for target on a list of interviews around the book — and not part of an overarching political strategy related to 2016.
( Also on POLITICO: Pollsters: 'Everything is terrible')
Political watchers will be tempted to characterize Clinton's comments as calibrating away from an unpopular president as she looks toward a second presidential campaign. But Clinton has always been more of a hawk than Obama, and she has reached a point where she seems comfortable explaining their differences. Still, while her comments may not have been a specific effort to escape the creeping shadow of global chaos stretching over the White House, they will be viewed that way.
"I guess she is ready to begin to rip the Clinton franchise away from the Obama franchise," said Steve Clemons, an Atlantic foreign policy blogger. "This is a staggeringly important interview and, in many ways, is going to reawaken the substantial resistance to her as a reckless interventionist by some quarters. … Her comments on Syria are very provocative."
One Democratic operative who asked not to be identified said the clear takeaway from the interview was simply that Clinton advisers are "good poll readers," a reference to Obama's sinking public approval ratings. A Clinton adviser replied, "That's ridiculous," stressing she has no polling operation.
Syria, where the civil war has contributed to the current conflict in Iraq, was on track to become a clear flash point between Clinton and Obama before she even left the administration, and it remains one area where the two are obviously still divided.
( Also on POLITICO: Partisan divide on Iraq actions)
In his own interview with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, published this weekend, Obama reiterated his belief — which he also stated in a separate interview with Goldberg two months ago — that early arming of Syrian rebels in that conflict was a "fantasy" because it would mean arming an opposition made up of "former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth" who had little chance against Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
But Clinton never agreed with this view, and still doesn't.
"The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad — there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle — the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled," Clinton said.
Obama's approval ratings have sunk, and the string of second-term foreign crises appears endless, from Russian-backed rebels' alleged downing of a civilian plane in Ukraine to the rise of the militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who are threatening America's Kurdish allies in Iraq. Clinton's approval ratings are higher than Obama's, but a recent POLITICO poll showed they, too, have suffered as Republican critics continue to go after her over the 2012 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, and amid the myriad crises abroad.
Obama, who ran for president promising to get the U.S. out of Iraq and now finds himself engaged there again, has been slammed by his critics as too slow to embrace the display of American power abroad. Clinton's aides, meanwhile, insist that she is simply being more candid about her views now than the canned version of herself in her 2008 presidential campaign. In any case, a more visible separation from Obama was, as Goldberg himself notes, only a matter of time.
( Also on POLITICO: Hawaii: Abercrombie ousted, Schatz slightly ahead)
On the West Wing's self-described foreign policy doctrine — "Don't do stupid s—t," or "Don't do stupid stuff" — Clinton was blunt.
"Great nations need organizing principles, and 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle," she said. "… I think [Obama] was trying to communicate to the American people that he's not going to do something crazy. I've sat in too many rooms with the president. He's thoughtful, he's incredibly smart, and able to analyze a lot of different factors that are all moving at the same time. I think he is cautious because he knows what he inherited, both the two wars and the economic front, and he has expended a lot of capital and energy trying to pull us out of the hole we're in."
She added, "I think that that's a political message. It's not his worldview, if that makes sense to you."
The interview was with a columnist who is widely seen as the preeminent voice of the moderate-right foreign policy establishment, and one who has focused extensively on the Middle East and Israel. It was slotted two weeks ago for early the following week, meaning two weeks before Obama made an announcement authorizing airstrikes in Iraq.
Clinton did not denounce the president and took pains to praise him at times, noting the difficulty and complexity of the crises he faces.
She made it clear, for instance, that she "advocated" for arming the Syrian rebels but acknowledged there was no way to know with absolute certainty whether it would have made a difference.
( Also on POLITICO: Obama rebukes Syrian 'fantasy')
"I did believe, which is why I advocated this, that if we were to carefully vet, train, and equip early on a core group of the developing Free Syrian Army, we would, number one, have some better insight into what was going on on the ground," she said.
"Two, we would have been helped in standing up a credible political opposition, which would prove to be very difficult, because there was this constant struggle between what was largely an exile group outside of Syria trying to claim to be the political opposition, and the people on the ground, primarily those doing the fighting and dying, who rejected that, and we were never able to bridge that. … So I did think that eventually, and I said this at the time, in a conflict like this, the hard men with the guns are going to be the more likely actors in any political transition than those on the outside just talking. And therefore we needed to figure out how we could support them on the ground, better equip them, and we didn't have to go all the way, and I totally understand the cautions that we had to contend with, but we'll never know. And I don't think we can claim to know."
The topic of Syria has been fraught between the Clintons and Obama for much of the last 18 months. At a closed-press event for Sen. John McCain's institute last year, as POLITICO first reported, Bill Clinton, in a question-and-answer session with the senator, said that Obama should act more forcefully to help the Syrian rebels and that any president risked looking like a "total fool" if they learned the wrong lessons from public opinion polls.
With Goldberg, Hillary Clinton pushed back when asked whether Obama could be accused of "underreaching" in his foreign policy approach.
"You know, I don't think you can draw that conclusion," she said. "It's a very key question. How do you calibrate, that's the key issue. I think we have learned a lot during this period, but then how to apply it going forward will still take a lot of calibration and balancing."


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The global body for professional accountants
At ACCA we believe accountants who are good - who are professional and ethical - make good accountants. As a professional accountancy body, it is important to ACCA to ensure all our students - irrespective of which qualification they are studying for, and to which level they wish to take their career - understand what it means to work and act professionally and ethically in the workplace.
So if you study for any of our Foundation-level qualifications and want a certificate as proof of the exams you have completed, you are required to complete Foundations in Professionalism. This is an online, interactive module, designed to help you develop your understanding of what it means to act professionally and ethically in the work you carry out.
You can complete Foundations in Professionalism before or after completing the exam component of the qualification you are aiming to achieve and you only need to successfully complete the module once, even if you decide to complete one or more of our qualifications.
There is no set time allocated to completing Foundations in Professionalism. We encourage you to complete the module at your own pace to allow you to reflect on what you have learnt.
You can access Foundations in Professionalism via myACCA.
If you are eligible and wish to complete the ACCA Diploma in Accounting and Business (RQF Level 4), you will need to complete the Foundations in Professionalism module as part of the requirements.


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Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer-songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a winner of several Grammy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award nominee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and a two-time ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first-ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
Her debut album, Some Hearts, was certified seven times platinum, and as of February 2006, is the fastest selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. It is also the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, as of February 2008. Some Hearts yielded three number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs. Her second album, Carnival Ride, was released on October 23, 2007. It has sold over 3 million copies as of January 2010, being certified 3 times Platinum, and produced four consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. Underwood released her third album, Play On, on November 3, 2009. It has been certified 2 times Platinum by the RIAA and has produced three consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. As of June 2011, Underwood has sold 22 million singles and over 16 million albums worldwide. As of May 16, 2011, Carrie became the "American Idol" US Top Earner, selling so far 12.3 million album copies and 18.5 million digital tracks, along with amassing $66 million in tour revenues, since winning Season 4.
Having ten number one hits on Billboard Hot Country Songs, Underwood is tied with Reba McEntire as the Female Country Artist with Most number one Hits on such chart from 1990 to present. She's also the only solo Country Artist to have a number one hit on Billboard Hot 100 Songs in the 2000 decade, as "Inside Your Heaven" reached the top of the chart on July 2005. Some Hearts, Underwood's debut album, was named the Best Country Album of the 2000 Decade by Billboard, and she's the only Female Artist to appear on the Top 10 of Billboard's Best Country Artists of the 2000 Decade list, ranked at #10. She was also ranked number 50 on the Artists of the Decade list by Billboard. In June 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Carrie as the #11 Queen of Pop, based on a lot of criteria from 2009 until 2011. In July 2011, Forbes reported that Underwood earned over $20 million between May 2010 and May 2011.


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The IEC 60320 C15 is a grounded 3 Wire connector rated up to 250V & 10 Amps Internationally and 125V/250V & 15 Amps in North America. The C15 mates with a C16 inlet as well as a C14 Inlet and is commonly used in a jumper cable scenario in IT Installations providing power from a PDU to a server, router, switch or other computing device. The C15 is a HIGH TEMPERATURE connector rated up to 120C, unlike the 70C rating of the C13. The C15 is commonly used in in electric kettles and other household appliances that involve higher temperatures than a normal C13 is made to withstand.
The IEC 60320 C20 is a grounded 3 Wire Plug rated up to 250V and 20 Amps. The C20 mates with a C19 outlet, typically found on Data Center/IT specific PDUs (Power Distribution Unit). The most common configuration for a C20 is in a jumper cable scenario, providing power from a PDU to a blade server chassis, high powered server, large network router, or similar device.
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US money bail system blocking real justice reform
The money bail system disproportionately impacts the poor, and one arrest can mean a lifetime of debt, even if the charges are dismissed. CNN found the bail industry is blocking reform across the country. CNN's Drew Griffin reports.
CNN - CNN operates as a division of Turner Broadcasting System, which is a subsidiary of Time Warner. The CNN umbrella includes nine cable and satellite television networks, two radio networks, the CNN Digital Network, which is the top network of news Websites in the United States, and CNN Newsource, the world's most extensively syndicated news service. CNN is proud of our ability to bring you up-to-the-minute news from around the world, as a result of our many extensions.
*Disclaimer: This video is sourced directly from the news agency's public YouTube page. At the end of the video, unrelated video content may be suggested by YouTube. Video playback may be restricted in some parts of the world. South-South News does not own the rights to this video, nor do we necessarily share the views or perspectives within it. South-South News is not affiliated in any way with the agency above. Video source is intended to provide world news from one of the largest broadcasters with the greatest geographic reach. For more information from this agency, visit their website directly. https://www.cnn.com


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Privacy Policy
Protection of your personal data is of the utmost importance to Pioneer & Onkyo Europe GmbH. In what follows we tell you what personal data we collect, what we do to ensure the privacy of your data and what use we make of your data. It goes without saying that we shall collect and process your data solely within the limits defined by law and in particular compliance with the Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the Telemedia Act of the Federal Republic of Germany. This statement applies only to this website. Please note that it does not necessarily apply to websites referred to by links on our website.
1. Data collection
You can always browse the Pioneer & Onkyo Europe GmbH website without submitting any personal data. There is no need to tell us who you are. We save your personal data only when you expressly communicate it to us. This is the case, for example, when you contact us via a support application, when you request product information or when you address other inquiries to us via a contact form.
Our websites may contain plug-ins from different companies, e.g. facebook or twitter. When you are visiting a website with such plug-ins, your browser sets up a connection to the website of the corresponding company and the contents are loaded by this company. This means that your visit on our websites might be tracked, particularly if you have created an account with such a company or if you have already visited a page that uses such a plug-in.
Please check the privacy regulations of the respective company for more information regarding their processing of data. Also, see no. 4 with regard to the use of cookies as well as how to avoid cookies being stored.
2. Use of your personal data
The personal data you provide us within the framework of our website pages is used solely to process your inquiries. Only if you give us your express prior consent shall we use your data above and beyond this for Pioneer & Onkyo Europe GmbH's advertising and market research purposes.
Needless to say, you are free at any time to revoke your consent to further use of your data from that point in time on for advertising and market research purposes.
We shall not pass your personal data on to third parties, with the sole exception of service providers processing your inquiries on behalf of Pioneer & Onkyo Europe GmbH.
The service providers acting on our behalf are contractually obliged to comply with data privacy regulations to the same extent as we are.
3. Information/correction/deletion
At any time you can, of course, demand that we inform you as to the personal data we have saved on your person. We shall then provide you such information in writing as soon as possible. You also have the possibility of correcting any inaccurate data at any time and of demanding that the data be deleted, to the extent that this does not violate any statutory requirements.
4. Cookies
Cookies are small data records that are stored on the hard disk of your computer. These cookies are required to enable the use of our website pages. Our cookies do not contain any personal data of you.
Via the appropriate Internet browser settings, you can, of course, prevent cookies from being stored. Kindly refer to your operating system's help function for information on how to do this.
5. Security
We store the personal data we gather on a separate secure server. The data is protected from unauthorised access, manipulation and loss. Our security measures are updated on a regular basis.
The persons employed at our company are obliged to treat the personal data as confidential in compliance with § 5 BDSG. Access to the data you have provided is controlled by an authorisation concept to ensure that only authorised employees are allowed to view this data.
The personal data you communicate to us via online forms available on this website are transmitted by your PC via a non-secure Internet connection. We ask, therefore, that you do not include any data on these forms that could be intercepted on the Internet by third parties and subsequently misused.
6. Contact partners
We stand ready to serve you at all times to answer questions, receive suggestions or deal with complaints in conjunction with the processing of your personal data:
Pioneer & Onkyo Europe GmbH
Gutenbergstr. 3
D-82178 Puchheim / Germany
Phone: +49 (8142) 4208-10


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Foundstone DIRE (Detect Insecurely Registered Executables) 1.0Free
The ability to register applications that can then be automatically initiated by Windows is a powerful feature today that enhances the end user's experience and furthermore enables system administrators to exert complete control over the machines in their environment. However, attackers can target these same systems by exploiting 'insecurely registered applications' on target systems. Foundstone has released a free tool called Foundstone DIRE, which allows users/system administrators to identify "insecurely registered applications" on their systems.
Info updated on:


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Nuggets 209 – On My Way To Heaven
Here is some uplifting music to help you enjoy your Easter break.
Find out more about Brother Claude Ely aka The Gospel Ranger, a great holy roller.
Music is important to me. I don't play an instrument, but I like to listen.
At varsity in Dunedin the gigs kept me warm.
Over the years I built up my record collection, boxes and boxes of LP's, EP's and 7 inch singles, only to lose everything in a burglary.
Travel and family commitments intervened. Time passed. CD's replaced records, and records gave way to MP3's.
I miss records.
A disk crash deleted the MP3 collection, and I started again from scratch.
Starting again was difficult. I found myself buying the same music. Boring. I read music magazines to find out what I might like, but I didn't learn much. The radio wasn't much better. I visited record stores but just got lost, rows of bands I had never heard of.
I resolved to spend 12 months listening to as much music as I could; where possible avoiding bands that I knew, trying to find out what was out there, and what I liked.
By 2007 there was no shortage of music to listen to. Music blogs share the tastes of 1000's of music lovers. I joined Emusic.
To keep track I burn MixCd's, 21st Century mixtapes. The CD's catalogue my exploring. I give them to friends. Sometimes they email me back with comments and suggest other bands to listen to.
Eleven years on (good grief) here is a website to share my love of music.
Here is some uplifting music to help you enjoy your Easter break.
Find out more about Brother Claude Ely aka The Gospel Ranger, a great holy roller.
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After a disappointing third quarter, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is preparing to report fourth-quarter results on Thursday morning. Here's what to watch for.
FICC: Banks in the third quarter suffered sharp declines in trading fixed-income, currencies and commodities. But such pain was especially acute at Goldman Sachs , which until a few years ago derived nearly half its revenue from so-called FICC trading. CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in November that the bank remains committed to its FICC business, even as rivals like Morgan Stanley scale back. Analysts will also want to know how the bank is dealing with the Volcker rule, which affects Goldman more than the other big banks since it derives such a large portion of its revenue from FICC.
Commodities: During the October earnings call, Goldman CFO Harvey Schwartz said Goldman planned to hold onto its investments in physical commodities "for years." But the Federal Reserve continues to scrutinize such holdings. Since the last earnings call, reports have emerged that Goldman plans to sell its metals warehousing business, Metro International Trade Services.
Pay: Goldman in the third quarter cut a key measure of banker pay: compensation as a percentage of revenue. Analysts will want to know if that trend will continue, and what it says about the bank's future earnings potential. Remember that the third quarter was grim overall, with total revenue falling nearly 20%.
Litigation: Analysts will be watching to see how much the bank sets aside for litigation and regulatory proceedings. It still has some notable legal issues hanging over its head, including a mortgage-backed securities lawsuit from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
By the numbers: Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting adjusted earnings of $3.99 per share, which would be down 29% from a year ago. They are expecting revenue of $7.72 billion, which would be down 16%.
--Christina Rexrode
Christina Rexrode covers banking for MarketWatch. Follow her on Twitter @chris_rexrode. Follow The Tell @thetellblog.
Read more banking coverage on MarketWatch:
It's the 'worst of all worlds' for mortgage lending at big banks
Like a python swallowing a pig, Bank of America chews through old problems
Moynihan says Bank of America has not reached 'true earnings potential'


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Take last night for example - we could have elected to allow our Uld10 to go another week for more chances at downing Yogg. Very nice.A new feature has been introduced in this build, you can now extend your raid lockout to make them last one more week. This is probably very useful if your guild is trying to get a specific boss down and doesn't really need any other loot in the instance, you can just get one more weeks of tries without having to clean everything in the way.
Patch 3.2: Raid Lockout Extension
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Tour Treats
I really dropped the ball on keeping you guys updated on all our adventures on the book tour. Sorry about that! So, just to catch you up: nobody died, and we're really happy about that.
Now, on to the part you all want to see: THE CAKES!
I've posted the first five show cakes already, so let's pick up in Philadelphia, where Stacey of Truly Custom Cakery made us this beauty:
I can't get over those tiny little wrecks ringing the top tier. (And we got to keep them! Woot!)
Plus, John and I have never looked so tasty:
We also got to keep this topper. It's in my office now. :)
In Hartford, Hope of A Little Imagination Cakes made sure our little carrot jockey got into the spirit of the season:
Each of the tombstones had a famous wreck homage on it. Fun!
In Boston, Jeanne of The Well Dressed Cake made a jaw-dropping homage to all our "Missed Marks" wedding wrecks. You know, the what-they-wanted versus what-they-got ones? So, here's one side of her cake:
Ooooh. Aaaaah.
And here's the other side of her cake:
Notice how there are gorgeous gumpaste flowers on the good side, and silk flowers just jammed into the icing on the wrecked side. [snicker] And I know I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but this chocolate cake with cookes & cream filling was one the best tasting cakes I've ever had, ever. I literally took a slice over the border into Canada just so I could have it for breakfast the next day.
(Oh, and have I mentioned that John and I both gained like five pounds on the tour? Apparently sitting in a car all day and eating cake almost every night is bad for you. Or something.)
Moving on, in Ottawa Jenny of Geek Sweets managed to make the most adorable poop cupcakes I have ever seen:
The little flies! Ack!
She also made these great tour logo cupcakes:
In Toronto we had a tag-team of bakers. Melissa of Wild Cakes made the Jockey:
And Michelle of Tierful Designs made the...uh...carrot?
Let's stick with carrot.
The Jockey cake got progressively more disturbing as it was cut and served throughout the night, culminating in this hilariously morbid tableau:
So wrong. And so funny.
In Pittsburgh, Tamara of Faithfully Cakes made us not one, not two, but FOUR separate cakes! Here's the main showpiece:
Note the real lightbulbs stuck into the topper - an homage to the lightbulb wreck in the book. All the figures are wreck homages, too!
Tamara also recreated the "alien ribcage" menorah:
The "goosed" turkey cake:
PLUS a cupcake cake (ptooie!) for the Pittsburgh Steelers:
Go, Go, Super Bowel!
In Chicago, Gena of I Heart Cakes gave us the world:
Not only that, the globe (which was all cake) was motorized!
Our flying carrot jockey actually flew in circles!
Here's a quick cellphone video of it in action:
(Yes, I'm the one giggling like a crazy person.)
Linet Navarro of Linet's Cakes made us a couple of real turkeys in Oklahoma City:
For some reason John insisted we take the turkey's head home with us, which was on a convenient plastic pike. It made for a rather startling discovery in our box of tour goodies once we got home again. (Not to mention a great photo prop.)
We got even more seasonally appropriate goodies in Dallas:
We were there on Veteran's Day - can you tell? :)
And once again, we had a full spread of cakey goodness:
Gretchen of Savor the Moment bakery made us *three* amazing cakes, PLUS banana caramel cupcakes, PLUS pumpkin pie cake pops. Here's her third cake:
Gretchen told me it was physically painful to write "Wreck them halls" - and that was the full extent of the wrecking she could bring herself to do. Ha!
In Houston, John got his very own self-portrait courtesy of It's A Piece of Cake:
{evil grin}
In Austin, Blue Note Bakery brought in these fun "cake bars:"
I've never seen anything like these, but I like 'em! The little slices are MUCH better than cupcake cakes (pthooie!) and even cleaner besides - a true finger-food cake! (They also had rainbow swirled batter. Preeetty.)
For our final show in our hometown of Orlando, Cut the Cake rocked the house with this awesome book & jockey combo:
Check out the book's spine! In fact, I think their cover looks better than the real thing:
That's not an edible photo; it was completely recreated by hand! And note the lack of any "prefessional" spelling errors.
Well, there you have it: all the treats John and I had the honor of stuffing our faces with for the entire book tour! Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the shows and made us laugh and cry and squeal with delight with your fabulous geeky t-shirts and costumes and gifts. It was a surreal, humbling, and breath-takingly fun experience, and I owe you all one big time. Thanks.
Check back tomorrow to see Sweets from *all* of our fabulous tour bakers, and have a wreck-less weekend, everyone!


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How to Use the Images Drawing 1
Drawing 1
Photo 1: Stone sleepers.
Photo 1 shows a section of stone sleepers from the railroad, still intact and in place at the park.
Questions for Photo 1
1. What was the purpose of the items shown? (Refer back to Reading 2 if necessary.)
2. How do you think the rails were attached to the stone blocks? Are there any clues on the blocks themselves to indicate this?
2. Why do you think stone blocks may have been used on the railroad in the first place? List some possible advantages and disadvantages for using stone versus wood ties. Look at the photo for clues to problems in using stone sleepers.
*The photo on the screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Photo 1, but be aware that the file will take as much as 35 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.


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HIDeXtra™ - Where Extra means everything
HIDeXtra D4S Factory White 5000k HID Kit is the classic choice for those looking for incremental increase over the stock halogen bulbs. Our 5000k white HID bulbs provide a slight performance increase in visibility and coverage over OEM factory.
Our HIDeXtra HID kits uses a C-Ring® light center technology and the Neptune-Core® ballast chipset in every one of our HID kits to ensure that we deliver THE highest lumens output per wattage than any other comparable kit on the market. Not only do we ensure we have the most durable, brightest, and highest quality hid kit available our light center C-Ring technology ensures that the light is pointed in the right angle and right direction for the optimal beam pattern. We are the only manufacturer to ensure our HID ballast, HID bulbs, and HID accessories have been designed from the ground up to be tailored specific to automotive applications in order to ensure that we achieve the highest performance and the highest level of plug and play compatibility for all year, make, and models. Nothing is compromised when we deliver eXtra in our HID product and our customer experience.
HID Bulb x 2
Order include two bulbs.
1 Year WarrantyWe stand behind the quality of our products. All our HIDeXtra products are all covered by a one year limited warranty.
Return Policy
All our HIDeXtra HID products are covered under a 60 day full refund/exchange policy. So if you are not satisfied with your HIDs, simply return the kit to us within 60 days for a full refund or exchange. Our aim is to help provide our customers with the most reliable HID products on the market, in addition to providing fantastic customer service.
Free US Ground ShippingWe offer standard FREE SHIPPING on all orders shipped within the continental United States. Simply add products to your shopping cart and we'll automatically apply it to your order. Orders placed before 1PM PST will ship out same day. Delivers within 3-5 business days with USPS Free Shipping.


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Brad Paisley Receiving Video Visionary Award at 2013 American Country Awards
When you pair the words "video" and "visionary" together, many country music fans probably think of Brad Paisley, who is known for his long list of immensely creative music videos. Now, he's being recognized for exactly that, with the prestigious Video Visionary Award.
The honor will be presented to the 'Southern Comfort Zone' hitmaker at the 2013 American Country Awards in December. He is specifically being given this prize in recognition of his nearly 15 years pairing amazing songs with creative, immensely entertaining music videos. Those have ranged drastically, from heartbreaking to hilarious -- including one in which Paisley got up close and personal with a giraffe.
The Video Visionary Award has only been given out once before, with Toby Keith scoring it in 2010. It is a rare achievement that not many have attained.
Paisley will be onstage at least twice at the 2013 ACAs, once to receive the coveted award and once to perform his song 'The Mona Lisa.' He's also up for Touring Artist of the Year.
Although the camera won't be on Paisley as much as it was at the 2013 CMAs, during which he co-hosted with Carrie Underwood, the singer is probably ready for a bit of a break where he'll be able to sit back, relax and enjoy most of the show. The 2013 American Country Awards will air live on Dec. 10 at 8PM ET on FOX.


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Insurers have long been leading proponents of using data for pricing and risk management, and have invested significantly in technologies and people to support these functions.
However, the prolonged focus on these traditional capabilities has resulted in a partial failure to exploit the maturity of advanced analytics. Other industries far outpace insurance in terms of their analytics capabilities, and are re-engineering their end-to-end value chains around machine learning.
Insurers gather enormous quantities of data. Some of this data feeds existing management information (MI) and business intelligence (BI) applications, but most data is unused and unexplored as it may be unstructured, excluded from the traditional MI infrastructure, or its value simply not recognized.
Maturing technologies such as cloud-based NoSQL databases, open-source R language, data ingestion and visualization layers are transforming the pace at which data can deliver tangible and actionable value using analytics.
It is becoming indisputable, based on events in other industries, that companies which do not use advanced analytics to power their businesses will be outcompeted. Insurers are too early in the advanced analytics adoption curve to observe significant differences in business performance between insurance analytics leaders and laggards, but there is no doubt that this is coming.
Given this imperative for making advanced analytics a core business competency, insurers should seek to maximize the benefits of this technology by ensuring they have built the requisite data, technology and teams.
Data built for analytics
Insurers' data is typically organized, managed and governed for MI before being adapted for analytics. This is the cause of increasing frustration for data scientists within organizations, who spend most of their time re-engineering data for analytics purposes and then trying to retrofit the outputs into existing systems.
Insurers need to rethink how they structure their data pipeline for MI and analytics, taking the following into account:
Machines learn from data in a different way to humans: Gather all the data, keep it as raw as possible, and use algorithms to mine data produced from controlled experiments.
Grow the organization's insight account: Rather than centralizing these data sets from end-user devices and data centers into monolithic analytical records, maintain virtual analytical records that allow data scientists to recreate data sets across any time period and for any customer cohort.
Reduce the friction from insight to action: A centralized virtual analytical record of the initial predictive analytical model can be used in near-real time by any decision system through an API call. This removes the need to translate model outputs, reduces errors at run-time, gets benefits flowing quicker and makes everyone's lives simpler.
Technology built for analytics
Advanced analytics requires different technology stacks from those used to deliver MI and BI. Points to consider when working out how to build and deploy technology for analytics include the following:
Every analytics business is a cloud business: Advanced analytics thrives on variable bursts of storage and compute—only the cloud can provide this.
Analytics needs the right tools: Data scientists need to experiment, using toolsets that enable rapid data manipulation, feature engineering and analysis. Data engineers need robust ETL toolsets that will not fall over every night. It is important to consider a balance of both these toolsets, and to build processes that deploy insights and models from one environment to the other.
Design analytics to enable rapid insight to action: Deliver packaged insights to teams across the organization by giving them restricted access to the virtual analytical records through a modern visualization tool. Also ensure data models deliver near-real time responses.
Teams built for analytics
Analytics teams need to be structured to deliver value at pace. The best-performing analytics delivery teams adopt and adapt many of the key principles of agile-lean delivery. This means focusing on value, championing speed, and taking an organizational approach that ensures a transparent product is created within weeks of starting projects.REGISTER TO DOWNLOAD THE ADVANCED ANALYTICS FOR INSURERS REPORT


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How to Remove Hard-to-Reach Spark Plugs
When changing your spark plugs, you may have some difficulty loosening a spark plug for the first time. Grease, sludge, and other junk may have caused the plug to stick in place, especially if it's been a long time since it was changed. If it feels stuck, try a little spray lubricant. You'll feel better knowing that after you've installed your new plugs by hand, it will be a lot easier to get them loose the next time.
Almost every vehicle has at least one spark plug that's a miserable thing to reach. If you have one, and it's safe for you to deal with, save it for last. Then you can work on it with the satisfaction of knowing that, when you get the darn thing finished, you'll have finished the job.
If you find that one or more plugs are blocked by an air conditioner or some other part, try using various ratchet handle extensions to get around the problem. There are universal extensions that allow the ratchet handle to be held at odd angles; T-bar handles for better leverage; and offset handles for hard-to-reach places. Just remember that you must keep the ratchet handle right in line with the angle of the plug it's contacting to avoid stripping the threads.
If you absolutely can't reach the offending plug, you can always drive to your service station and humbly ask them to change just that one plug. They won't like it, but it is a last resort. If you get to that point, you'll probably be glad to pay to have it done.
How often you replace spark plugs depends on the type of plugs you have. You may have 30,000-mile plugs, or if the plugs have platinum tips, they may be good for up to 100,000 miles, although some professionals recommend replacement every 60,000 miles to avoid damage to the engine.


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Environmentalists have long bemoaned appropriations riders — where Congress inserts a matter of substantive law into a budget appropriations bill. For instance, EPA gets a budget, but may not use any funds to enforce or promulgate a controversial regulation. Sometimes Congress just changes the underlying law, permanently or temporarily. Appropriations bills are enormous, so it's often hard for even members of Congress to know what is in the entire bill, let alone the public. And they are must pass (or close to must pass) since no one (usually) wants to shut down the government. That means all sorts of measures that might not otherwise pass on their own can be stuffed into an appropriations bill and end up passing.
The reason environmentalists tend to dislike riders is that they have frequently been on the losing end of them. For instance, in the 1990s Congress prohibited the listing of any new species under the Endangered Species Act for over a year through a rider. In that same time frame it also mandated that the Forest Service proceed with a bunch of logging projects in the Pacific Northwest, overriding all environmental laws (this was during the big fights over the spotted owl). And I think environmentalists usually have a good reason to dislike them. The politics usually means that riders will tend to weaken, rather than strengthen, environmental laws. (There are exceptions, of course. The Organic Act that authorized the first reservations of federal lands for national forests in the 19th century was passed as an appropriations rider.)
So it was interesting for me to see this article in the New York Times. As usual, a couple of members of Congress are seeking to get a special exemption from EPA regulation for a local project. In this case, protecting the last coal-fired ferry on Lake Michigan from EPA air and water regulations (apparently the ferry dumps its coal ash into the lake). What is interesting is that opponents of the special exemption argue that the exemption is in fact an earmark. Earmarks (special designation of federal expenditures for particular projects) are in bad odor in Congress now, partly because of opposition from conservative Congressmen elected in 2010. No member of either party wants to be seen as supporting an earmark.
If this argument succeeds, it might have some important implications: If riders become politically toxic, then it will be harder to get special exemptions from generally applicable regulations. That should, in general, be of benefit to environmental activists, since (as I've noted before) special exemptions to general environmental laws will often benefit those who seek to weaken those laws.


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The Mitochondrial Research Affinity Group has been created to address the needs of the diverse community of researcher engaged in mitochondria-focused research. Due to the importance of mitochondrial biology in many forms of disease, the clinical backgrounds of these investigators are wide-ranging and include clinical genetics, metabolism, endocrinology, anesthesiology, hematology, oncology, gastroenterology, neonatology, immunology, neurology, pathology, and ophthalmology. The basic science affiliations of these investigators are equally wide-ranging and include pathology, biochemistry and biophysics, biology, genetics, metabolism, animal biology and anthropology.
The goals of the Mitochondrial Research Affinity Group include improved collaborations in mitochondrial research, enhanced interaction between graduate students and faculty, and increased familiarity with research programs involving mitochondria at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond. Our activities will include a regular schedule of talks by group members, special events with invited experts, and a grant program for the purpose of furthering mitochondrial investigations.


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The Medical Interpreter training program prepares you to work in hospitals, medical offices and in any healthcare environment where a Spanish interpreter is needed. In addition, the Medical Interpreter training program prepares you to sit in any of the Medical Interpreting examinations available in the country. This program is language specific – Spanish/English.
You will acquire the three interpreting skills – simultaneous, consecutive and sight translation. You will learn the proper transfer of medical terminology into Spanish, divided into the different areas in a hospital and medical specialties. Intensive online interpreting laboratory practices are included in this training program.
Prepares You For...
Certified and Non-Certified Medical Interpreter
Medical Interpreter Certification
What You'll Learn...
In this program you will master the three interpreting techniques – simultaneous, consecutive and sight translation. Furthermore, you will learn the transfer of high, regular and low register medical terminology into both languages – Spanish and English.
Intensive online laboratory practice gives you the opportunity to practice what is learned in each lecture.
Upon completion of this program, students will know the following:
The Spanish Medical Interpreter certification examination is a rigorous exam that requires intensive training and access to practices. The Medical Interpreter program includes the finest online interpreting laboratory in the market. You will be able to practice numerous court cases as if they were in an actual medical appointment.
The material presented in each lecture is immediately practiced in the online laboratory to make sure that you are able not only to memorize the transfer of a word or phrase, but also are able to interpret as it is required in the healthcare setting.
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Students should be familiar with using a personal computer, mouse, and keyboard. They should be comfortable in a Windows or Mac environment, and have the ability to launch and close activities.
Students must speak English and Spanish fluently. There is no requirement regarding formal education in either Spanish or English. However, students must be able to speak English and Spanish without any hesitations.
Nestor Wagner is a certified Court and Medical Interpreter who has been teaching interpreting courses since 1990. He has the highest pass rate of certified court interpreters in the nation. He has published several books in the interpreting community.
Mr. Wagner is involved in the examination process for Immigration Interpreters and Analytical Linguists. He participates as speakers in national and international conferences on Criminal, Civil and Immigration Court terminology, advanced interpreting skills, and localization in the transfer of legal and non-legal terminology.
Mr. Wagner holds a Master degree from the University of Washington.
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Chef Katherine needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 285 designs submitted by 48 freelance designers.
Chef Katherine
I am a chef who specializes in organic, seasonal food. I am a personal chef and caterer. I also sell a high end baked good that I'm in the process of selling to a large chain of stores.
I am very creative and love the art that is associated with being a chef.
I want to target people who love upscale, quality, wonderful food. I am marketing my catering business and product with this logo.
I aim to become a large brand, selling baked goods to retail chains and also to continue my high end catering company.
I am pretty eclectic. The current packaging for my baked goods is black and bright pink but I am open to any combination of colors.
-Nothing too fancy
-I am a "less is more" type of person. Simple, clean, catchy.
-I would like something original as opposed to stock art of any kind
-I would like to see a chefs hat with maybe some eyelashes and lips...no other facial features...just so that people know I'm a girly, whimsical chef.
Other ideas welcome, too!
Thank you!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Chakana is a family owned winery located at 960 meters (3,149 feet) above sea level at the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Agrelo, Mendoza. It is one of the leading projects among the new generation of winemakers dedicated to the discovery and expression of the Andean diversity of climate and soils.
Founded in 2002 by Juan Pelizzatti, a son of Italian immigrants with historic roots in northern Italy's viticulture, and under the guidance of Gabriel Bloise, a young and adventurous winemaker, Chakana has developed a wine style that has become known for its purity and authenticity.
"An incredible discovery for me, this winery was founded a decade ago and named after the Southern Cross ("Chakana" is the local Indian dialect for that constellation). It is located approximately 20 miles south of Mendoza in Agrelo. All three of these wines are highly recommended, and all are fabulous bargains in Malbec." - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (June 2012)
Date Founded: May 2, 2002
Managing Partner: Juan Pelizzatti
Winery Mission Statement: To create true wines which can honor the wisdom of the ancient ancestors of their land.
When Chakana was founded on May 2, 2002, the Southern Cross (a constellation named Chakana by the indigenous people of the Andes highlands) reached a perfectly vertical position in the sky, marking the beginning of a new farming cycle. The Southern Cross holds the key to finding the perfect timing for the cultivation and harvesting of crops. It is a calendar, a compass, and a symbol of the link between earth and spirit. The choice of this name is an homage to the Inca understanding and respect for nature's forces.
Chakana wines are designed under the renowned international wine consultant Alberto Antonini. Alberto first came to Argentina in 1995, after key contributions to the Super-Tuscan movement in the italian winemaking landscape at Antinori and Frescobaldi. He immediately sensed the potential of Malbec and devoted most of his work in the following 15 years to the re-discovery and perfection of this now argentine gem.
He now consults for over 10 projects in Argentina, as well as renowned properties in the US, South Africa, Australia, Romania, Armenia, Chile and Italy.
Alberto's winemaking philosophy is focused on using modern technology to express the terroir potential in making high end wines, while respecting the true nature of the grape flavors.
Winery Acreage: 452 acres
Winery Production (9L cases): 150,000
Varietals Produced: Malbec, Bonarda, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
Winemaking Manager: Gabriel Bioise
Starting from its 150 ha (371 acre) home vineyard in Agrelo, in 2011, Chakana expanded by acquiring two vineyards in Altamira, Valle de Uco and a 100 year-old Malbec vineyard in historic Mayor Drummond, Lujan de Cuyo. This has created a rich palette of soils and climates, which range from the calcareous soils and high altitude Altamira, through the loamy colluvial soils of Agrelo, to the warmer gravelly character of Mayor Drummond. The aim was to create wines that could naturally suit every preference while featuring the distinctive character of sunbathed Mendoza. In order to ensure the purest vineyard expression, and as a consequence of their reverence for nature's wisdom, Chakana has adopted organic and biodynamic viticulture practices since 2012. Vintage 2014 has been certified organic by IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement).
The Vineyards
LOCATION: Lujan de Cuyo.
DESCRIPTION: 120 ha. (296 acres) planted with different varieties, mainly Malbec, Bonarda, Cabernet Franc, Viognier and Syrah. Beginning with the 2014 vintage, this vineyard has been certified organic according to European Regulations. Within the next year or so, Chakana should also be certified organic within the US and Canada as they will be complying with their respective regulations.
TERROIR: Loam and clay with gravel 70 cm (27.5 in) deep, some limestone. Urban influenced climate, relatively warm.
WINE PROFILE: Complex, ripe fruit, medium-bodied, elegant.
LOCATION: Valle de Uco.
Altamira I |16 ha. (39.5 acres) Malbec. Altitude: 1,068 meters (3,504 ft) above sea level.
Altamira II |26 ha. (64.2 acres) Malbec, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay. Altitude: 1,097 meters (3,599 ft) above sea level.
This vineyard will be certified organic very soon as the process has been initiated in the US and Canada as they will be complying with their respective regulations.
TERROIR: Sandy-loam with gravel 50 cm (20 in) deep. Dominated by limestone. Temperate climate.
WINE PROFILE: Full-bodied, ripe, impressive tannic structure and roundness, spicy and complex. Good minerality.
LOCATION: Mayor Drummond, Lujan de Cuyo.
DESCRIPTION: 21 ha. (52 acres) of Malbec over 100 years old. Altitude: 919 meters (3,015 ft) above sea level.
TERROIR PROFILE: Alluvial clay loam with stones to 70 cm (27.5 in).
WINE PROFILE: Complex, with aromas of ripe fruit, medium body, elegant.
Chakana produces 150,000 9-liter cases a year and exports to 33 countries. Chakana wines are distributed in the 25 most demanding wine markets across the world. With more than 50,000 cases sold in the USA every year, Chakana is one of the top 25 premium exporters of Argentine wine to the USA. Chakana's portfolio is built around the US market's key pricepoints, consistently offering outstanding value for the money at every level, which has been recognized by leading U.S. journalists.
"Chakana's wines are getting better with every vintage under winemaker Gabriel Bloise."
- Tim Atkin, Argentina Special Report 2016
For detailed producer information visit Tiza Wines.


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Discussion (30) ¬
Zo-M-G! oh and # 1
Well this seems interesting. Is he going to be running around with a pocket universe can saying "Open it", and bam Quetzalcoatl jumps out! No. Okay 🙂
I don't think Laz would quite as much of a little smartass if he was standing in front of the Devil having this conversation…….
Well… smart ass or not you could pretty much guarantee he would be an ass.
In my experience there's really not much difference between a smart-ass and a dumbass — other than the lack of a hyphen…
Very true! His immaturity can also be excused somewhat, but his supposedly genius level IQ should have n made up for it, he should put it to better use than setting lockers on fire and melting limestone temple pillars with acid. He's capable of reasoning things out for himself, but as his bio says, he is often horribly immature.
Ain't that right….
Anyone else thing this 'll end up involving 2012?
Jeez…….. You'd think more people would vouch for September being that date…..
to laz the guy that will end it all
HAH! didnt see that one coming, and the plot thickens!
Laz: "Good, cause I don't know."
Lawl. Poor Laz. I forgot that Quetzalcoatl often speaks in riddles.
Love that first panel. And the second…..well I'd guess this is my all time fave page, let's just say that. And Quetzy, obviously he has no idea just tell him already. *snickers* …… Mister Kittycattle…
Quetzalcoatal(damn that's hard to spell off the top of my head… *looks up at webcomic*) seems to be the smartass that can outsmartass me irl. I like his facial expression in most of the panels, makes the god look almost cute/innocent like and kinda expecting something exciting to happen.
I also likes how he slowly pronounces his name for laz, something that any smartass would do to a interdimensional rulebreaker who is forced to do things that he obviously wants no part of but has no choice… oh and gets attacked by wild animals a lot.
I have trouble spelling it too. I just call him Mr. Q, who is likely saying that his own existence is threatened by Laz's destiny as the destroyer/ender of days. Mr. Q is evidently going to keep Laz out of the Devil's reach until Lilith completes her plot against the Devil. Remember when she said "you'll get your's, prince"?
Things seldom turn out that way, or as well as anyone would like.
That's always a given in any plans or plots concocted, but so far in the story, Lilith has been sucessful in keeping the Devil's plans to bring about the end of days at bay by hiding Laz, The end of days would be a total apocolyptic destruction of the status quo among the various worlds of existance and everyone/everything in them, which would threaten Quetzacoatyl's world and existance as well. Lilith's aim may be to thwart the Devil's plans for total domination rather than destroying him, and maintain the status quo, and thus everyone's existance, as well.
i want to like this comic, i really do, and i dont get why i dont. it got demonology and gods in general, which is allways good, a very nice sense of humor, hell, even the animation isnt as bad as other comics! but i dunno, maybe its cause of the non jokey randomness that comes every 2 strips or so, but i just dont like it. srry
Why so hard say somebady right the name: "Quetzalcoatl"? The winged snake dont have this hard name…
When I saw that first panel only one phrase could describe it, "Quetzal and me." Wouldn't that be the most interesting tv show…
Is it just me, or is Laz undergoing some subtle physical (and maybe metaphysical) changes? Because I don't remember his nose being brown, unless that's just a trick of shading…. IS he changing, David?
Oh god, why does every supernatural being in the cosmos have plans for this poor boy? FIND ANOTHER CHOSEN ONE DAMN IT! XD
OMG He was the Aztec god i think….
huh..always wondered how exactly to pronounce that..
Kittycattle… HA


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The public schools in Terrebonne and Lafourche are part of a positive tale. The story has not always been good, but the long trend is one that is getting better.
The public schools in Terrebonne and Lafourche are part of a positive tale.
The story has not always been good, but the long trend is one that is getting better.
A decade ago, the state didn't have any accountability in place in its public schools. The effort to get accurate readings of where we stood and to slowly begin improving the schools has been a long, slow process.
But it has already paid dividends in local parents, taxpayers, administrators, teachers and students having more information about how well the schools are doing their jobs and which ones are better at it than their counterparts.
Getting an accurate picture of where we stand isn't always a positive in itself. Sometimes it sets up a challenge by showing how much farther we have to go.
Sometimes, though, the momentary snapshots give a good, reassuring view that we are on the right road to improvement.
That was the case this week as the state released its latest district performance scores.
The snapshots told us a good story. In both Terrebonne and Lafourche, the systems made great strides compared to the state average.
In Lafourche, the schools earned a score of 107.3, good enough for a B grade. In Terrebonne, they earned a 104.6, just 0.4 points short of a B.
In both cases, the local schools showed great improvements. Lafourche's 107.3 represented an increase of more than 11 points, and Terrebonne's showed a 7-point increase from last year's score.
Both outpaced the state average of 100.5.
Of course, no one is happy or satisfied with a low-B or high-C score. The more important point here, though, is to focus on the improvements our schools have made, underscored by the fact that both passed up the state average.
"Anytime you see your scores increase by that much, it's a good thing," said Lafourche Secondary Schools Supervisor Bubba Orgeron. "The goal is to be an A district. But we're very proud of the work we've done to bring this score up. We're very proud of our teachers and their hard work."
Orgeron has a great point. Any rises in these scores can be traced back to the work of the system's teachers and students. They have to be on the same page and working well together to effect the kinds of changes we saw in this year's scores.
Those teachers and students don't want to rest on their laurels. Instead, they are all surely eager to show even greater improvements next year and in years to come.
Their grades and scores are on the way up, and they have already painted a picture of vast improvement.
Congratulations to all the people whose work was vital to the system's great story of doing well and getting even better.
Editorials represent the opinions of the newspaper, not of any individual.


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Nat'l Cable & Telecom Assn - 1/11/2007
MEETING WITH NATIONAL CABLE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION Rick Cimerman, Roy Lathrop, and Doug Levin 1/11/07
Rick Weingarten, Carrie Lowe, Mark Bard and John Windhausen attended for ALA.
Rick C. began by setting out the NCTA perspective that cable already has deployed BBd to 95% of the nation's homes, so no broad subsidy program to promote broadband is necessary. He believes the first option on BBd is to remove the roadblocks to private investment, rather than create new government programs to fund additional BBd investment.
Any subsidy program, NCTA thinks, should be narrowly targeted to meet specific needs. He cited the e-rate program as a good example. Many cable companies have participated actively in the e-rate program to serve schools and libraries and he believes that program is working well.
He said the recent Stevens bill on universal service is not bad – it focuses on unserved areas, instead of "underserved" areas.
He said most cable systems offer Internet access at 1.5 mbps, and many provide 3 to 5 mbps speeds per household (40 Mbps per channel). He said the industry is working on a new DOCSIS 3.0 standard which may allow cable companies to offer 100 mbps speeds per channel, with the channel shared amongst many people.
He also said that, once the digital transition of broadcast stations is complete in Feb. 2009, cable companies can eliminate the 6 mhz channels allocated to carry analog b'cast, which will free up lots more capacity on cable systems to provide higher speed data traffic.
He cited 4 states with good stories to tell about cable broadband deployment:
Maine: Time Warner has excellent penetration rate for its broadband service in Portland, was one of the first to deploy cable BBd
Kansas: Eagle cable has a tremendous telemedicine project
Iowa: Media cable (?) has upgraded its cable offerings substantially to compete with the muni broadband project
S. Dakota: Mid-Continent has connected all its head-ends with fiber and has had greater connectivity than Minnesota
He said most of these investments did not require government intervention; they were often done to compete with satellite.
He said video franchise reform is not necessary to promote broadband. Verizon, for instance, is laying its FIOS network in regions even before it has been granted authority to provide video service. He said the cable companies' view is that franchise reform is not necessary, but if it is going to proceed, that cable companies should have the same streamlined process afforded to the RBOCs for competitive parity.
He noted that franchise reform can be harmful to build-out requirements for libraries. Many cities, for instance, have required the cable company to build institutional networks to government offices (and maybe libraries). But most state legislation does not permit the state to impose build-out requirements on the telephone companies.
He predicts franchise reform will be a big issue in 2007 in about 20 or so states. In particular, he mentioned Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin and virtually all of the BellSouth states (except N. and S. Carolina, that already have passed bills). He did not expect much action in the Qwest states.


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Huntsman Business Intelligence Group Gains Valuable Experience Mining Big Data
July 2013
By Steve Eaton
With the news that the National Security Agency has been sifting through massive amounts of phone data to try to thwart potential terrorist plots, more people are becoming aware of a term frequently being used in the IT industry – "big data."
The idea of mining massive amounts of data to unearth new insights for businesses and organizations is nothing new to the Business Intelligence Group at the Huntsman School. For months the student-led group has been helping professors and businesses tap into the secrets to be found analyzing big data.
While the group is not paid for its work and no course credit is offered, the students gain a competitive edge when they go into the workforce, according to the group's student leader Mike Tolman, who is earning his master's degree in management information systems and business administration.
Graduates who have been a part of the Business Intelligence Group are now averaging starting salaries of $10,000 more than the average MIS graduate from the Huntsman School, according to David Olsen, head of the Management Information Systems Department, who is also the faculty advisor to the group.
In addition to the chance to be a part of the Business Intelligence Group, MIS students are offered some opportunities at the Huntsman School of Business not available at other business schools, Dr. Olsen said. For example, they often work with professors to submit research papers, a practice that is extremely rare in business schools across the country. Professors have sought out the expertise of the Business Intelligence Group, and the diverse experience students are gaining is paying off for them. Tolman said his work with the Business Intelligence Group has led to an internship with Oracle and has earned him two scholarships.
Dr. Olsen says those who know how to tap big data can often offer up insight that might never have been gleaned when people relied on traditional ways of analyzing information and instinctive assumptions about how things interrelate. While many leaders with an accounting background end up becoming CEOs, several students in the Huntsman Business Intelligence Group believe that tomorrow's business leaders will have a deep understanding of how to tap the benefits of big data.
Chad Williams, a senior majoring in accounting, said he became involved in big data analytics, in part, because he thinks it will help him qualify for upper management positions.
"Accountants are exposed to a lot of information," he said. "My experience in the Business Intelligence Group has taught me how to analyze large amounts of this data. With the expanded role of technology in business, there is a need for people with these skills like never before, especially in upper-management."
Dr. Olsen said that those who know how to analyze big data often discover "non-obvious" correlations in the information they analyze. Harrah's Casino, for example, introduced loyalty cards and discovered it wasn't the high-roller millionaires, often called "whales" in the gambling world, who were contributing most to the casino's bottom line but it was the "average Joes" who came in on a regular basis hoping to turn a couple hundred dollars into a big pay day.
"Business intelligence isn't just being able to run analytics on a massive data set," Tolman said. "It's about being able to take those numbers and find how they impact a business. I would say, business intelligence is getting the right information to the right people at the right time. This is what makes what we do valuable because it helps a business become more profitable."
Paul Fowler, who is working on his master's degree in MIS, said that anyone who can offer this kind of expertise to a company is likely to be valued.
"A popular misconception of information technology professionals is that they stay in dark rooms coding and reconfiguring servers," he said. "There is some of that, but with business intelligence, you don't stay in the background very long. Analyzing an organization's data gives you the ability to see the business from a lot of different perspectives, and that is very valuable to any organization."


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Helps partners create optimum conditions for learning through their resources and training on how to create Communication Friendly Spaces
Price: £0.00
How to get this: http://www.elizabethjarmanltd.co.uk
This excellent resource makes this complex area of language development accessible to non-specialist staff. fAll those working in the field will appreciate the clear explanations and practical support and advice for those working and living with children at the pre-intentional and intentional stages of communication as far as beginning to use first words. The book explores a wide range of issues concerning children who have little or no means of expressing themselves verbally. Language Builders for Complex Needs provides ideas for assessment and recording progress as well as detailed advice and practical activities. It is written for speech and language therapists, teachers, teaching assistants, pre-school practitioners and parents. The book examines the characteristic communication skills, the interaction required and the thinking and play skills that need nurturing at each of the following stages: Pre-Intentional Communication. Being able to anticipate events. Intentional Communication. It also considers: The link between play and language. Total Communication – signs, symbols, Communication Passports, and briefly, Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Using first words, ideas and phrases.