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For the last decade or so, I've spent every Oscar season trying to affect a dismissive distance. "Irrelevant!" I would say. "A dog and pony show!" I cried. My argument was that the films receiving Oscar glory rarely reflected the best movies in any given year - it was all about brand positioning and politics.
There were usually one or two films nominated that I could get behind, but on the whole I've felt the Oscars are a shockingly out-of-touch indicator of cinematic quality. Not exactly an original complaint, but one I've felt strongly for a long time.
Growing up, there seemed to be a base level of quality for Oscar-recognised films. I would dread seeing worthy-looking films like Chariots of Fire; The Last Emperor or Rain Man, but when I did see them, they were always amazing. Could the same be said about the likes of Gladiator; A Beautiful Mind or Gangs of New York?
In the last decade, the majority of films featured in the Oscars have been less than stellar, and the best films of any year have often gone unrecognised.
But when this year's Oscar hopefuls began drip feeding out at the end of 2012, I realised I may have to amend this perception somewhat.
The Oscars (as they are now officially called, as opposed to the 85th Academy Awards) will no doubt once again be overstuffed with self-congratulatory pomp, and some of the films nominated are clearly there for reasons separate to their inherent quality. But for the first time in ages, I'm a dedicated fan of the majority of films in the running, and in my eyes they do a pretty good job of reflecting the best films of the last year.
Instead of the usual one or two Best Picture nominees that tickle my fancy, almost all of the films nominated for the top award are genuine classics in my eyes.
See all the Oscar contenders ranked by nominations, budget and box-office.
The surfeit of great films nominated this year has resulted in one of the tightest Oscar races in recent history. With most of the winners usually plainly obvious leading into any given year's ceremony, this can only be a good thing.
There are nine Best Picture nominees this year, and the only two I'm not a big fan of are Les Miserables and Lincoln.
Both films have experienced surges in popularity that pointed to Oscar glory, as has Life of Pi; Zero Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook. This broad playing field filled with competing favourites has allowed Argo's minor momentum to gather steam, and it now sits as the Best Picture favourite.
I'd be happy with an Argo win for Best Picture, but equally happy if Pi; Zero; Silver or Django Unchained won. It really is crazy that Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master didn't receive a nomination in this category though.
The Master confounded expectations and was a more difficult film than audiences seemed to be expecting - this only elevates the film in my eyes. The Master's omission in the Picture; Writing and Director categories counts as my biggest grievance with this year's Oscars. It did receive three well-warranted acting nominations though.
Argo's Best Picture front-runner status is unique because the film's director, Ben Affleck, isn't even nominated for Best Director. It has thrown that field wide open, and if it were up to me, Ang Lee should get the gong for making the herculean task of bringing "unfilmable" novel Life of Pi to the screen look so effortless. A win for David O. Russell would be fine too.
But with the Academy always endlessly refining the voting process, a Best Picture win for a film that doesn't even get a Best Director nomination is sure to cause further self-examination, leading to further rejiggery.
The minor anarchy of this situation reassuringly suggests however that the view of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a conservative body with a predominantly aged membership is ready to be challenged. Is the old guard finally dying off? Could the Oscars finally achieve some critical cultural relevance separate to its more gaudy aspects? Let's hope so.
I'm looking forward to seeing what Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane does as host - he's the most exciting choice in years. While I'm not a particularly big fan of his often mean-spirited TV shows, I do hope his trademark venom is present at the ceremony, which only benefits from any decent snark.
Here are the rest of my predictions for the major awards, and who I would choose to win if I was in charge. And I really should be.
Best Picture
Should win: Argo or Life or Pi or Silver Linings Playbook or Zero Dark Thirty. (So many great films!)
Will win: Argo.
Best Director
Should win: Ang Lee. (Life of Pi is an amazing achievement whichever way you look at it.)
Will win: Ang Lee. (Fingers crossed!)
Best Actor
Should win: Daniel Day Lewis. (I hated the movie, but his performance is undeniably amazing. Joaquin Phoenix deserves it too.)
Will win: Daniel Day Lewis.
Best Actress
Should win: Jessica Chastain. (Lawrence was great, but Chastain carried her film.)
Will win: Jennifer Lawrence. (She deserves it too.)
Best Supporting Actress
Should win: Amy Adams. (Every scene with her and Phillip Seymour Hoffman was electric.)
Will win: Anne Hathaway. (Denying her at this point would be like strangling a kitten.)
Best Supporting Actor
Should win: Phillip Seymour Hoffman. (See above)
Will win: Robert De Niro. (I loved him in Silver, so I'd be okay with this too.)
Best Original Screenplay
Should win: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained. (Is Tarantino a better writer than a director? Discuss.)
Will win: Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty. (This is a classic consolation prize for favourites that don't win Best Picture.)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Should win: David Magee for Life of Pi. (Totally deserves it plus I'm biased 'cause I interviewed him and he was nice.)
Will win: David O. Russell (Another "consolation" prediction, I would be happy with this outcome.)
Do you consider the Oscars relevant? Do they reflect your favourite movies of the year? Comment below!


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"Social Enterprise" Day 1: Meet the Speakers #SMWSF #SMWCisco
We want to dedicate today's blog post to all of our wonderful speakers at the "Social Enterprise" Hub, Day 1. Without further ado, check out the lineup below and make a note of our hash tag for the day (#SMWCisco) as well as the speakers' Twitter handles. Happy tweeting and we hope to see you on February 14!
9:00 – 9:50 Executive Dialogue: Social Media through an Executive Lens
Carlos Dominguez (@carlosdominguez)
SVP, Cisco
"The Tech Nowist"
Carlos Dominguez is a Senior Vice President at Cisco and a technology evangelist, speaking to and motivating audiences worldwide about how technology is changing how we communicate, collaborate, and especially how we work.
Dominguez gives humorous, highly animated presentations full of deep insight into how technology, and the right culture, can create winning companies. Drawing from his 20 years at Cisco, he talks about how technology is changing the rules of business and how to not get left behind.
Sheila B. Jordan (@CiscoSheila)
SVP, Communication and Collaboration IT, Cisco
Sheila Jordan is senior vice president of Communication and Collaboration IT at Cisco Systems, reporting to CIO Rebecca Jacoby. She is responsible for delivering and integrating key IT services that touch Cisco's global workforce and oversees a worldwide team of more than 500 IT professionals.
Within her purview are collaboration platforms; communications, collaboration and mobility services, including unified communication and video services; and end-to-end user and client experience, including global support and call center operations.
Sheila joined Cisco in 2005 from Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where she was senior vice president of Destination Disney. A key architect of the strategic planning process, she was responsible for delivering profitable growth. She was instrumental in integrating marketing, sales, and services across the organization as Disney transformed its business from a product-centric to a guest-centric organization.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from Central Florida State University and an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology.
Karen Snell (@kcsnell)
Social Media Communications Manager, Cisco
Karen Crocker Snell is the Managing Editor of The Network, Cisco's award winning technology news site, and leads efforts in visual storytelling and innovation as it relates to social media tools for sharing Cisco's many stories. In November 2009, Karen launched Talk2Cisco, a live, social broadcast, hosted on UStream, that puts viewers directly in touch with Cisco leaders. The show has gained recognition from PR News' Digital Awards.
Prior to joining Cisco, Karen worked as the Assistant Director of Media Relations at Santa Clara University where she was responsible for raising the national profile of the university and managing the award winning community news site.
Karen had a "first career" as a local television news reporter in the New England area where she covered everything from Presidential candidates to Super Bowl playoffs to high school graduation, and just about everything in between. She was on the front lines of some of the largest news events in recent US history.
Karen is a graduate of Mills College and received her Master of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University.
10:00 – 10:50 Cisco's Social Media Journey
Jeanette Gibson (@JeanetteG)
Sr. Director, Global Social Media and Digital Marketing
Jeanette Gibson leads the Social Media Marketing Group at Cisco. Her organization provides social strategy, services and consulting across the company in order to expand brand presence and increase customer connections through the power of social media. Jeanette and her team set Cisco's social marketing strategy, measure its success metrics, drive alignment, governance and the sharing of best practices globally across the company. This includes overseeing the creation of Cisco branded social sites, the corporate blogging platform (http://blogs.cisco.com) and anything else new that may pop up in the rapidly evolving world of social media.
Previously, Jeanette led the New Media group in Corporate Communications which included Cisco's online communications strategy (http://newsroom.cisco.com) and created new media programs to infuse innovation in the company's communications approach.
Jeanette has worked at Cisco for 12 years and before that worked for startup, PointCast. Her role here was to lead public and analyst relations. Prior to that, she worked for PR agencies specializing in high tech PR.
11:00 – 11:50 Panel: The Road to Becoming a Social Business
Michael Brito (@britopian)
SVP, Social Business Planning, Edelman Digital
Michael Senior Vice President of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital. He helps his clients transform their organizations to be more open, collaborative and socially proficient; with the end result of creating shared value with employees, partners and customers. Prior to Edelman, Michael worked for Intel and Hewlett Packard in various social media marketing roles.
Rebecca Brown (@beckyannbrown)
Director, Social Media, Marketing Strategy & Campaigns, Intel
Becky joined Intel in 1992 and brings over 18 years of experience in sales, marketing, and product development. As the Director of Social Media, Becky is responsible for the global strategy, framework, and tools to enable and measure world class social activations plans across all parts of the organization (business units, marketing team, geography teams).
For a short period of 18 months Becky worked at Adobe managing the campaign planning and strategy for the Adobe Flash Platform.
Becky began her career in sales as a technical marketing engineer and held a variety of customer facing roles such as Field Sales Engineer, Retail Marketing Manager, Market Development Management. Following sales, she spent over 5 years in product marketing and development for two strategically important and revolutionary products from Intel.
Maria Poveromo (@mariapoveromo)
Director, Social Media, Adobe
As Director, Social Media for Adobe Systems, Inc., Maria Poveromo is responsible for driving social media strategy at Adobe. Her team established the organizational framework and strategic direction for social media activities across the company. Maria's main areas of focus include corporate strategy, governance, measurement, brand channel engagement and the development of best social media practices company-wide. Prior to this role, Maria lead the Global Public Relations team at Adobe for nine years. Before Joining Adobe, Maria held numerous marketing and communications positions at high technology companies located in Silicon Valley and in Europe.
Gina Fung Ballenger (@FunGina)
VP, Social Media, Implementation, Wells Fargo
Gina Fung Ballenger manages Social Media, Implementation Strategy for Wells Fargo. Gina and her team are responsible for utilizing social media to connect with consumers in a constantly evolving media environment. Areas of focus include platform management, content strategy, marketing programs, listening/monitoring and analytics.
Gina spent the last decade and a half crafting her marketing skills in "start-up" environments within large organizations. Gina is a Northern California native and spends most of her spare time chasing after her active toddler.
Todd Wilms (@toddmwilms)
Sr. Director, Social Media Audience Marketing, SAP
Todd Wilms is founding member of the SAP Social Media Audience Team, helping SAP's 47 solutions and 20 industries reach their appropriate audiences through social media marketing. The team is responsible for developing the strategy, helping to execute the program, and then developing repeatable processes to help other teams be more successful. A 20 year marketer, he has held executive product and marketing leadership roles with some of the world's best known brands like eBay/PayPal, Citrix, PeopleSoft, and agency George P. Johnson. He is an avid writer and blogs on Forbes, his team blog socialb2p.com, and The Social Media Examiner. He is married with two little boys and lives in the Bay Area.
11:50 – 12:10 Grab Your Lunch
12:10 – 12:55 Panel: #SMLuvsSocialGood – Why Enterprise Social Media Loves Social Good
Karla Ballard (@oeinnovation)
Chief of Strategic Development, Media and National Partnerships, One Economy Corporation
Karla Ballard is the Chief of Strategic Development – Media and National Partnerships, managing partnership relationships on behalf of One Economy's corporate partners like Comcast/NBC, Teach for America, City Year and others. Karla is also responsible for the strategic fund development of One Economy's public purpose media initiatives. Before her current role, Karla led and standardized One Economy's digital literacy program called Digital Connectors where she worked with her team to scale a youth digital literacy program that served nearly 6000 youth in over 200 community based affiliates nationwide. In addition, she serves as the managing director of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition (BBOC), a coalition of leading civil rights groups. In 2011, Karla was appointed to the FCC's Committee on Diversity in a Digital Age, whose mission is to advise the FCC about policies and practices that will contribute to the diversity of the telecom industries. Prior to One Economy, Karla began her career as a bank officer at MBNA America. During that period she founded a financial literacy program in Wilmington, Delaware. As a result of the impact of her program, she was asked to serve as a witness for the US Congress Education and Workforce sub-committee hearings on the the Juvenile Justice Prevention Act in 1999. She is co-founder of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League and serves as the First Vice President of the Northern Virginia Community College Foundation. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and a native of Philadelphia, PA.
Jason Falls (@JasonFalls)
Author and Founder of Social Media Explorer
Jason Falls is an author, speaker and CEO, the latter of Social Media Explorer, an education and information products company focused on digital and social media marketing. From online learning to industry research reports to SME's signature Explore events, Falls spearheads efforts to bridge the gap between professional communicators and business owners and the strategic use of digital marketing and technology. An award-winning social media strategist and widely read industry pundit, Falls has been noted as a top influencer in the social technology and marketing space by Forbes, Entrepreneur, Advertising Age and others. His first book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide To Social Media Marketing, co-authored with Erik Deckers, was published in September 2011. An advocate for literacy and education, Falls also serves on the board of directors of both the National Center for Family Literacy and the Louisville Free Public Library's Foundation.
Falls also coordinates workshops on social media marketing for groups like American Marketing Association, Public Relations Society of America and International Association of Business Communicators chapters.
Mary Anne Petrillo (@GetIdeas)
Executive Producer – GETideas.org , a Cisco Community
Mary Anne is a seasoned professional in strategic social good marketing. She has been at the forefront of innovative online marketing programs within the Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility group and as a consultant in the larger digital space. Having led teams working on such projects as http://www.atc21s.org/, http://www.ccsso.org/, and most recently as executive producer of http://www.getideas.org/, she has a unique angle on leveraging social media for social good within a large enterprise. Her focus has been on providing social value for community enrichment and building a better brand.
Mary Anne is very familiar with the convergence of technology, education, and social good marketing. In addition to Cisco, she has spearheaded these efforts for Scientific Learning, Kaplan, and Achieva among others. She will impress the point that social good marketing isn't just good for people, it is good for business.
Evan Steiner (@hubventures or @hubbayarea)
Program Manager, HUB Ventures
Evan Steiner manages a myriad of projects for the Hub Bay Area, a purpose-driven collaborative workspace with over 1,000 members in San Francisco and Berkeley that is connected to 30 other locations through the global Hub network. Evan's primary role is managing the Hub Ventures program, an accelerator program that helps high caliber entrepreneurs build their world-changing startups better and faster. The 12-week program provides startups with seed funding, mentorship, collaborative sessions with program peers, workshops on topics relevant to impact-oriented startups, and investor connections. Evan also works for the Hub in business development, media, community engagement, and operations. He previously has worked for several environmental start-ups and has a Bachelors in Music and a Masters in Environmental Management.
1:00 – 1:50 Keynote: Social Business: Incorporating Executives and Growing Your Program
Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang)
Partner, Altimeter Group
Jeremiah Owyang is a Industry Analyst on Customer Strategy and Partner at Altimeter Group. As author of the blog "Web Strategy," (rated by Edelman as top Analyst Blog since 2008) he focuses on how corporations connect with their customers using web technologies. Jeremiah hails previously from Forrester Research as a Senior Analyst focused on Social Computing for the Interactive Marketer and takes pride in launching and managing Hitachi Data Systems' Social Media program in 2005-2007. Jeremiah, along with the Customer Strategy team, has published numerous research reports focused on social business, and has been frequently quoted in Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today and is a frequent keynote speaker at business and technology conferences around the world.He also served as the Intranet Architect at World Savings (now Wells Fargo) and was a user experience professional at Exodus Communications after received his Marketing Bachelors Degree at SFSU. After work, he spends time with family, gets in some exercise, and travels to tropical beaches. Jeremiah was pleasantly surprised to find that his small, white, furry dog Rumba is active on Twitter.
Contact information
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Jeremiah's assistant, Julie Viola: firstname.lastname@example.com
2:00 – 2:50 Presentation: The Power of Listening
LaSandra Brill (@LaSandraBrill)
Sr. Manager, Global Social Media, Cisco Systems
LaSandra Brill is a social media enthusiast and marketing innovator. As Senior Manager of Global Social Media, LaSandra Brill shapes Cisco's marketing strategy to include a mix of social media marketing techniques leveraging web 2.0 technologies. At Cisco she is known for building and executing the social media strategy of one of the top five product launches in company history and driving social innovation across Cisco.com.
3:00 – 3:50 Presentation: The Ins and Outs of Social CRM
Rob Begg (@rbegg)
VP, Marketing, Radian6/Salesforce.com
Rob is VP of marketing at Radian6, a social media monitoring and engagement platform for marketing and customer support professionals. In this role Rob leads Community, Marketing, Social Strategy and PR at Radian6. Rob has been a marketing executive for online media and software start-ups for 15 years. With experience in the media, interactive and technology industries, Rob loves to learn and share stories how brands can leverage social media to learn more about and build better relationships with their customers.
4:00 – 4:50 Panel: If I Had a Crystal Ball…The Future of Social Business
Todd Shimizu (@shimmage)
SVP & Managing Director, Ant's Eye View
Todd joins Ant's Eye View after ten years in product, solution, and executive roles with Juniper Networks. Most recently, as Director of Developer Relations & Engineering, he created the first Junos Space developer program and guided early adopters through their development experiences. Todd also led for strategy for Juniper's J-Net and social media properties as Director of Online Communities, launching the successful Junos Central and Junos Connect programs, growing the Junos-certified engineer population by 3x in 2009, and earning a Forrester Groundswell Award finalist nomination.
As Chairman and President of the IPsphere Forum, Todd brought together an international industry consortium of networking vendors, systems integrators, and Tier-1 service providers to deliver the first global field trial of the IPsphere software framework — and led the organization through a successful merger with TM Forum. He's traveled extensively around the world, including a two-year stay in Japan as part of the JET Program.
A Bay Area native, Todd attended UC Davis, where he also played varsity baseball. He now lives in the East Bay with his family.
Robert J. Pietsch (@rjpietsch)
Director of Sales, West, Twitter
Robert is the first Director of Sales, West at Twitter. In this role he is responsible for all revenue efforts on the west coast. Robert has over 14 years of online advertising experience, serving as Chief Digital Advertising Officer at Forbes.com, VP Sales at MySpace, VP of sales of social video start up Sharethrough, and now at Twitter. He serves on the Board of Directors at a Bay Area non profit, My New Red Shoes and lives in San Carlos with his wife and two young daughters.
Ross Mayfield (@ross)
VP, Business Development, SlideShare
Ross Mayfield is the Vice President of Business Development at SlideShare, developing strategic partnerships and helping organizations engage with the world's largest professional sharing community. He has been an advisor to SlideShare since its founding. He is also currently Chairman & Co-founder of Socialtext, the Enterprise Social Software pioneer, and was the founding CEO. Previously, Mayfield Co-founded and served as President of RateXchange, a publicly traded B2B bandwidth exchange. Mayfield is a former advisor to the Office of the President of Estonia, and began his career in the non-profit sector. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles and completed the Management Development for Entrepreneurs (MDE) program of the Anderson School of Business.
David Gutelius (@gutelius)
Chief Social Scientist, JIVE
As Chief Social Scientist, David Gutelius is responsible for driving the enterprise social graph strategy and technology innovation at Jive. He joined Jive after his company, Proximal Labs, a startup focused on leveraging 'big data' for enterprise social networks was acquired earlier this year. He was the founding CEO and led an elite team with expertise in semantic analysis, social analytics and machine learning at web-scale to make content more relevant — matching the right data to the right person at the right time.
Prior to Proximal Labs, David was the co-founder and CTO at Social Kinetics, a machine learning spin-out from SRI International. He additionally co-founded the Social Computing Group at SRI International's Artificial Intelligence Center, and he served as the Product Manager on the DARPA CALO project — the largest machine learning project ever funded. David's background is in behavioral economics with a focus on social network theory. He was previously a visting professor at Stanford University, and holds a Masters and PhD in economic history from Johns Hopkins.
Mario Sundar (@mariosundar)
Sr. Social Media Manager, LinkedIn
Mario Sundar is currently LinkedIn's Senior Social Media Manager (Global), a role he's been in since 2007. His responsibilities at LinkedIn encompass educating companies and small businesses on how to use social media to increase the effectiveness of practically every single team within the organization in addition to his role within their PR team.
He's also implementing LinkedIn's social media strategy globally. Besides, LinkedIn, he's had over five years of experience in leadership roles, both in marketing and corporate communications with a technology background in software development.
In his spare time, he continues writing for his marketing blog at http://mariosundar.com/, where he shares social media how-to's aimed at marketing and PR teams from both large companies and small businesses on how to be effective with social media. Learn more about Mario here.
4:50 – 5:00 Adjournment…and Happy Valentine's Day!
How to register?
- To register for any of the sessions mentioned in this blog post, click on the session(s) you want to register for and sign up. You must register for each session SEPARATELY.
- If you want to browse other sessions on the same or different days, visit the SMW home page, hover over "Attend" (towards the top of the page), and then click on "How Do I Attend?"
- Login or create an account as the page instructs
- Visit the SMW Schedule page
- Towards the top left under "Select a City," filter the results by events in "San Francisco"
- Click on the web pages for any of the events that you're interested in, and click on "Attend." You will receive an email confirmation shortly. (Note: You must register for EACH INDIVIDUAL SESSION SEPARATELY).
Can't join us live? Watch this event on our UStream channel. Just log in on the day of the event.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.

subset: commoncrawl


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Famed trend forecaster Gerald Celente is predicting that a third party candidate will be elected President in 2012. (If you don't know who Celente is, read the postscript below.)
Is he right?
Well, some of the most widely-read liberal writers are saying that progressives are fed up with the Democratic party, and feel that they have been tricked and ripped off by the Democratic leaders.
As Glenn Greenwald writes:
In a superb post the other day, Digby recounted what fueled the Naderite movement in 2000 and warns, presciently I think, that the willingness of Obama/Emanuel so blatantly to disappoint those to whom they promised so much (especially young and first-time voters who were most vulnerable to Obama's transformative fairy dust) will lead them either to support a third party or turn off from politics altogether:
Rahm Emanuel believes that the key to Democratic success is a coalition in which Blue Dogs and corporate lackeys mitigate progressive change on behalf of the moneyed interests which he believes the political system must serve. Regardless of his malevolent view of how the political system should work, on a political level, I think he's living in the past. . . .
But on a political level, the left has been betrayed over and over again on the things that matter to us the most. The village is pleased, I'm sure. But the Democratic party only needs to look back eight short years to see just how destructive it is to constantly tell their left flank to go fuck themselves. . . .
At the time [in 2000] nobody believed that an incumbent Vice President in a roaring economy would have a race so close that the Republicans could steal it. But we know differently now don't we? And you would think that the Democratic establishment would also know that because of that, it may not be a good idea to alienate the left to the point where they become apathetic or even well… you know. It can happen. It did happen. Why the Democrats persist in believing that it can't happen again is beyond me. . . .
Obama mobilized a whole lot of young people who have great expectations and disappointing them could lead to all sorts of unpleasant results. Success is about more than simply buying off some congressional liberals or pleasing the village. It's worth remembering that a third party run from the left is what created the conditions for eight long years of Republican governance …
After 2000, what is it going to take for the Democrats to realize that constantly using their base as a doormat is not a good idea? It only takes a few defections or enough people staying home to make a difference. And there are people on the left who have proven they're willing to do it. The Democrats are playing with fire if they think they don't have to deliver anything at all to their liberal base — and abandoning the public option, particularly in light of what we already know about the bailouts and the side deals, may be what breaks the bond.
It's really not too much to ask that they deliver at least one thing the left demands, it really isn't. And it's not going to take much more of this before their young base starts looking around for someone to deliver the hope and change they were promised.
On most fronts that matter — civil liberties, national security, economic policy, servitude to corporate interests, even rising opposition to Obama's long-promised escalation of the war in Afghanistan — that defines rather clearly what the Obama/Emanuel approach has been thus far.
What About the Right?
The Washington Examiner writes:
The fact that just doesn't register with Washington GOP establishmentarians is that the Tea Party Protests seen around the country in April were aimed as much against them as they were against the tax and spending policies of Obama and the Democratic Congress.
There are millions of libertarians and traditional conservatives (or "paleo-conservatives", in contrast to Neo-conservatives) in the U.S. who are very unhappy with the direction the Republican party has taken in recent years.
Post-Partisan Coalitions
There are many millions of liberals and conservatives who have become disgusted by their parties and have started judging candidates based upon what they are actually doing.
As just one example, there are millions of Americans who would support either Ron Paul as president and Dennis Kucinich as vice president or the other away around. Why? Both challenge the status quo, and have proposed legislation which will actually help the American people.
Based on the above trends, I believe that Celente could be right. A third-party candidate could win in 2012.
Postscript: Here's what people have said about Celente over the years:
"When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente."
— CNN Headline News
"[Celente is supported by] a network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties."
— The Economist
"Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right."
— USA Today
"There's not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he's talking about."
"Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute."
— The Wall Street Journal
"Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark … he's one of the most accurate forecasters around."
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Mr. Celente tracks the world's social, economic and business trends for corporate clients."
— The New York Times
"Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority."
— 48 Hours, CBS News
"Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing."
— The Detroit News
"Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, 'green marketing,' and the boom in gourmet coffees."
— Chicago Tribune
"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture."
— The Los Angeles Times
"If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."
— New York Post


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Hayfever sufferers are being warned that pollen levels are expected to reach 'High' and 'Very High' levels in the east of the country today and tomorrow.
The Met Office has warned that there will be warm, sunny weather on Wednesday and Thursday, but this will lead to 'Very High' pollen levels.
See the latest Met Office weather warnings at metoffice.gov.uk.


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Spring 3, Hibernate 4, Extjs 4.2.x, mysql sample project
Get help with Spket IDE.
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Spring 3, Hibernate 4, Extjs 4.2.x, mysql sample project
Guys, thanks for your support. I appreciate. It took me a while before getting my hands around the installation of Spket-Extjs plugin for Eclipse. It's working perfectly now! My next agenda is this: Does anyone have a reference to Spring3-Hibernate4-Extjs4.2.x-mysql tutorial. I am just getting my hands around working with Extjs. Many of the project I have seen on this are really old, which do not even drill down to the basics of how to start with Extjs in Eclipse. I'll really appreciate if you can point me to a very good one. Thanks
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Enhanced Results-Focused HPC Expertise and Experience Available to Organizations Using HPC as The Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) and Red Oak Consulting Announce Strategic Partnership
5 June 2014 - The Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) Ltd and Red Oak Consulting LLP have announced a strategic partnership to deliver comprehensive results-focused HPC consulting and professional services to commercial and public sector clients across a range of global markets.
Today's announcement formalizes and substantially extends the longstanding collaborations between NAG and Red Oak Consulting, enabling clients of each company to access greater breadth and depth of HPC expertise and experience, and to access an enhanced range of consulting and services.
The collaboration provides particular benefits for the Engineering & Manufacturing, Financial Services, Oil & Gas, and Government sectors.
NAG is a proven international provider of expertise and experience in HPC, numerical software engineering and algorithms, with customers on every inhabited continent. NAG provides support services, consulting and training in four main categories: Parallel Application Development and Support; Algorithmic Expertise and Software Engineering; HPC Technology Evaluation and Adoption; HPC Strategy, Planning and Procurement. NAG has built up substantial experience in a wide range of numerical algorithms, robust numerical software engineering practices (including testing and validation), and the impacts of technology changes on long-life codes for a large number of diverse users. NAG is also well known for its numerical libraries products, with hundreds of constantly updated routines across a range of mathematics, numerical analysis and statistics.
Red Oak Consulting is a UK specialist consultancy providing expert advice in HPC, cloud and related technologies. Red Oak Consulting has particular strengths in understanding the constraints and opportunities inherent in HPC and cloud technologies and how these impact on client business models and practical deployments. Red Oak Consulting services include analysis of business opportunity and investment cases, technology evaluations, commissioning and decommissioning services, and providing systems analysis and technical assurance.
Both NAG and Red Oak Consulting are independent from technology suppliers and thus are trusted to provide impartial advice to some of the largest users of computing power around the world.
Andrew Jones, Vice-President for HPC Consulting and Services at NAG, said "Red Oak Consulting enjoys a well-deserved high reputation within the UK HPC community. It is an exceptionally gifted organisation offering a broad range of HPC services backed by experience and skills tested and proven in diverse client environments at the highest levels. We know that our joint clients will derive great benefit from their knowledge and experience."
Owen Thomas, partner with Red Oak consulting, said "We have known and respected NAG's HPC expertise, especially in HPC software engineering, benchmarking and HPC procurement processes for many years. Our combined skills, experience and capacity will enable each of us to provide a better service to our existing and new customers. The ethos of this strategic partnership is simply to provide un-biased advice, proven expertise and ongoing support to enable our clients to get the best business impact from the rapidly evolving technical environment of HPC."
Red Oak Consulting will have a presence on the NAG Booth (Booth 850) at ISC14 in Leipzig this June - come and find us both to discover how we can help your company with your biggest and smallest HPC challenges.
For more information contact NAG or Red Oak Consulting. Or visit us on booth 850 at ISC14.


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Golf Tidbits: Park-ed in history books
Philadelphia, PA – Slow. Methodical. Precise.
Those are just three adjectives one could use when describing Inbee Park's golf swing. They are also three ways to explain how Park went about winning the first three majors on the LPGA Tour.
Park won the Kraft Nabisco by four strokes over 2011 U.S. Women's Open champion So Yeon Ryu. In her closest win in a major this year, Park defeated 2009 Women's British Open champ Catriona Matthew on the third playoff hole.
On Sunday, Park wrapped up a 4-stroke victory over I.K. Kim at the U.S. Women's Open.
The title put Park alongside Babe Didrikson Zaharias as the second female golfer to win the first three majors of the year. Mickey Wright and Pat Bradley won three majors in a single year, but not consecutive.
Zaharias won all three majors contested in 1950, while Wright and Bradley won three of the four majors played 1961 and 1986, respectively.
Among those who never accomplished such a feat were LPGA all-time wins leader Kathy Whitworth, Patty Berg (who has the most LPGA major championship titles), Annika Sorenstam, Nancy Lopez, JoAnne Carner, Karrie Webb, Lorena Ochoa or Laura Davies.
The last golfer to win three consecutive majors was Tiger Woods in 2000, when he won the final three majors of the year before completing the Tiger-slam at the '01 Masters.
Park can't win the Grand Slam, per say, this year because there are five major championships this season.
Maybe we can call it the Grande Slam, or maybe the Venti Slam?
Whatever it could be called, Park's chance at history with a fourth consecutive major couldn't come at a more appropriate location - the Old Course at St. Andrews, better known as the home of golf.
If she wins there or at the Evian Championship in September, she'd be the first golfer, male or female, to win four majors in one season.
We can cross that bridge in a few weeks, so let's look at what she accomplished on Sunday.
Park won her third straight event and for the eighth time in her last 24 starts. She also has five runner-up finishes in that span, meaning she has finished first or second in 54 percent of her starts dating to the Evian Masters last July.
Her only other major win before this incredible run was at the 2008 U.S. Women's Open. With the four major championships, Park is tied for 16th with the likes of Davies and Meg Mallon in the most major wins in an LPGA career.
In her eight appearances at the U.S. Women's Open, Park now has a remarkable six top-10 finishes.
Park said in several post-round interviews, "I just don't know what I did."
In a few days, or a few weeks, she'll be able to wrap her arms around the fact that she did something many of the game's greats were unable to accomplish.
Park will be announced on the first tee the rest of the year as winner of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, LPGA Championship and U.S. Women's Open Championship.
That will bring a smile to her face, then she'll go right back to the task at hand. Dismantling another course, and leaving the field in her dust.
As the reigning FedExCup champion, Bill Haas thought he would cruise into the Tour Championship last year with a chance to repeat as winner of both the tournament and the season-long playoff race.
But a funny thing happened along the way. Haas failed to qualify for the Tour Championship. He missed the cut at The Barclays, the first FedExCup Playoff event, then finished tied for 35th and 45th in the following two tournaments.
That left Haas 32nd on the points list, with just the top 30 qualifying for the Tour Championship. He was the fifth straight Tour Championship winner who failed to qualify the following year to defend his title.
Haas is well on his way back to making the season finale, as is reigning FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker, who would be the first in FedExCup history to do so. They are seventh and third, respectively, on the points list.
The victory on Sunday put Haas in the same company as Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose as the only players with at least one win in each of the last four seasons.
Earlier this year, Haas had three straight top-10 finishes, and five in a seven-event span. But in his last five starts, he had three missed cuts. In his other two events, Haas shared fourth at Memorial, then won this weekend at Congressional.
The 31-year-old Haas is now battling for best in the family honors with five PGA Tour titles. He trails his father, Jay, who has nine PGA Tour victories as well as 16 Champions Tour titles, and great-uncle Bob Goalby, who has 11 PGA Tour wins and two Champions Tour victories.
Surely, the younger Haas will settle for being the best on tour this season.
* One of the rules at most golf courses is to observe proper etiquette while on the course. That was tossed out the window twice on Saturday. First D.H. Lee gave the 12th hole at Congressional a one-finger salute - I'll let you guess which one - after making bogey. Then at the U.S. Women's Open, Jessica Korda fired her caddie in the middle of the round. Thankfully, her boyfriend and aspiring tour player Johnny DelPrete was there to carry the bag the final nine holes. Manners, people.
* Local club pro Michael Bembenick posted a 31-over-par 103 in the second round of the Web.com Tour event in Indiana on Friday. I've been on this job for over a decade and don't recall anyone ever shooting over 100 in a professional event before that. He told Golf Channel afterward, "It was important to lead by example and show kids that no matter how bad it gets, it's important to finish." Kudos to him, but I guess Michelle Wie didn't get his message. Wie withdrew with one hole remaining in her second round at the U.S. Women's Open. The round was finished on Saturday morning after fog rolled in late Friday, but Wie bailed since she was four strokes over the cut line. Wie needs to be better than that.


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South of Freesoil, East of Taylor
The approximate monthly Principal & Interest payment for this property would be $1,404. This payment is based on a 30-year loan at a fixed rate of 3.49 % with a down payment of $29,100. Actual lender interest rates and loan programs may vary.
Use our Mortgage Payment Calculator to determine a more exact payment estimate.


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Dom, Today, during the Widgets voice conf, we briefly discussed the location you proposed and we agreed with your proposal. Regarding looking at the detailed test cases, Marcos reported he's done a first pass and didn't see any issues. Realistically, I don't believe we will do an in-depth analysis until the beginning of next year. -Thanks, Art Barstow On Nov 25, 2008, at 6:29 PM, ext Charles McCathieNevile wrote: > On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:05:23 +0100, Dominique Hazael-Massieux > <firstname.lastname@example.com> wrote: > >> >> Hi Art, Charles, >> >> As was discussed during the WebApps WG F2F in Cannes, the Mobile Web >> Test Suites Working Group (and in particular, Kai Hendry) has >> started to >> work on developing test cases for the Widgets Packaging and >> Configuration specification: >> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapps/2008OctDec/ >> 0235.html >> >> There are already quite a number of test cases available there (~50), >> that target well-defined part of the specifications. >> >> Could you let our group know whether you think this is going in the >> right direction, and what the next steps should be on our side? > > Luckily, the co-chair of the group is at Opera, so can watch both > the test development and can look inside Opera for anything we > should be contributing :) > >> Also, would it be helpful if the tests were moved to the public CVS >> server? should they sit in 2006/waf/widgets/tests/ if so? > > I think it's better to have tests in CVS than to have them listed > in an attachment in a mail archive. I am not fussed about where > they go, but your suggestion seems as good as any. I presume that > the groups will at some point go through the tests and decide > whether they are happy with them all... > > cheers > > Chaals > > -- > Charles McCathieNevile Opera Software, Standards Group > je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg lærer norsk > http://my.opera.com/chaals Try Opera: http://www.opera.comReceived on Thursday, 4 December 2008 20:18:29 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 20:08:02 UTC


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French President Francois Hollande and US President Barack Obama are pressing for a meeting "as quickly as possible" to negotiate a bilateral ceasefire in Ukraine, Hollande's office said Monday.
Hollande's office said in a statement that the two leaders spoke by phone on Monday and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to press separatists to accept dialogue with Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko promised to start talks on a new ceasefire last week. A contact group for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe met in Kiev on Sunday to discuss the situation in Donetsk, but no representatives from the rebels attended and no breakthroughs were announced.
Hollande and Obama agreed that a "durable solution ... can only be political," the statement said.
The White House said Obama told Hollande that in the absence of meaningful efforts by pro-Russian separatists to pursue peace talks or stick to a ceasefire, the US respects Ukraine's responsibility to maintain order and protect the country's population.
Edited by Steve Wilson


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The 14th Annual Capri Hollywood International Film Festival kicked off last night, with cleavage, porn 'staches, and… Jesse Eisenberg? Yes, Jesse Eisenberg.
Actress Eugenia Chernyshova's bra is showing. Good thing she's the one who bought the Victoria's Secret Harlequin Fantasy Bra!
Pascal Vicedomini doesn't seem to mind - and he has a perfect view.
This interview kind of made me intrigued by Jesse Eisenberg. So does his charming awkwardness in pinstripes.
Imogen Poots, meanwhile, is making flats work, look sweet - in Italy, no less! Dig a dame with backbone.
Speaking of being Italian...actor Francesco Scianna is rocking quite the 70s porn aesthetic, no? Sì.
Spanish actress Angela Molina is trying to draw us into her web. I am being drawn, as surely as a child by the Grand High Witch. A child not warned by a Norwegian grandmother.
[Images via Getty]


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O&O Defrag Professional Edition 20.0.427 (x86x64).Portable
Do not wait too long! If you work on computers a lot, then slow system and program starts, endless rendering and memory processes, or even system crashes when playing can quickly ruin your enjoyment. Defragmenting your PC can hugely accelerate the speed you can work on your PC. When you defragment, those files fragmented across the hard disk are logically rearranged so that files can be quickly recognized and processed by the hardware. Performance gains of up to 100% are not uncommon!
O&O Defrag Professional Edition 20.0.427 (x86/x64) Portable | 46.9 MB
In the new version of O&O Defrag, you can now see what the program does for your system thanks to graphics and statistics, which give you a before-and-after Defrag contrast!
Basic functions
Performance increases of up to 100%
Prevents new fragmentation efficiently in advance
Organizes related file fragments on your hard drive
Faster system and program starts
Extends the life of your hardware
Speeds up your Internet browser
Increases the chances of recovering lost data
Automatic defragmentation in the background
Speeds up your backup and restoration processes
Defragmentation of your PC at the push of a button
Advanced Settings
Defrag multiple drives simultaneously
Adapts itself to system load (O&O Activity Guard)
Vendor-independent optimization of solid state drives (SSDs)
Classification of drives into zones (Optional)
Execution of Windows commands (Batches)
Defragments individual files and directories
A total of eight defragmentation methods
Defragmentation during startup and at runtime
Automatic check for new versions
Power Management for Notebooks
Assistant to schedule regular defragmentation
Screensaver mode defragments in your absence
Support for USB sticks and memory cards
Download link:
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MANCHESTER -- 55 students working in the New Hampshire Food Industry have received scholarships from the New Hampshire Food Industries Education Foundation (NHFIEF). Each scholarship is valued at $1,000 for the school year.
"This is the largest number of scholarships ever given by the Foundation in its 27 year history" stated NHFIEF Secretary/Treasurer, John M. Dumais. "We are very proud that we have been able to assist so many worthy students." Since its inception, the Foundation has provided over $500,000 in scholarships to eligible students.
In order to raise funds for future scholarships, the NH Grocers Association presents Scholarship Snow Day on February 26 at Bretton Woods. Proceeds from a full day of fun on the mountain will go toward the scholarship fund. Ski packages for adults and children will include 3 meals, lift ticket, and more. For adults just $99, and for children ages 17 and under, the cost is $50.
Philbrick's Fresh Market of Portsmouth and North Hampton is a proud supporter of the New Hampshire Food Industries Education Foundation and the NH Grocers Association.
For more information on Scholarship Snow Day and the Foundation, stop in at either Philbrick's Fresh Market location or call 877-669-9333. Email scholarship @ grocers.org or log on to www.grocers.org.


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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Town Official Fired Because of His Age, Federal Agency Charged
BALTIMORE - The town of Elkton, Md., will pay $235,000 and furnish other relief to settle an age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.
The EEOC alleged in its lawsuit that Elkton fired Andrew Johnson from his position as assistant town administrator/finance director because of his age, 70. Johnson's age was openly discussed as the reason for replacing him during meetings of town officials. One town commissioner said that Johnson was "in his 60s" and "no young chick" and suggested replacing him with a "young person out of college," the EEOC charged in its lawsuit. The town replaced him with two substantially younger employees, one as the assistant town administrator and the other as the finance director.
Such alleged conduct violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA). The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, Civil Action No. ELH 10CV2541, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
In addition to the $235,000 in monetary relief to Johnson, the three-and-one-half-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit enjoins the town of Elkton from further discriminating against employees and applicants based on age. The town must implement and distribute to all employees a policy prohibiting age discrimination and provide annual training for managers and employees on the ADEA and other federal equal employment opportunity laws. The town is also required to post a notice regarding the resolution of the lawsuit and report to the EEOC on its compliance with the consent decree.
"The record shows that this loyal and successful administrator was discarded simply because of his age," said Philadelphia District Director Spencer H. Lewis, Jr. "The EEOC will always fight this kind of outrageous and harmful bias by employers."
EEOC Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence added, "We are confident that this settlement, including the mandatory training, will protect Elkton's employees and applicants from age discrimination in the future."
The Philadelphia District Office of the EEOC oversees Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and parts of New Jersey and Ohio.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the Commission is available at its website, www.eeoc.gov.


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First of all, we have to define what small really means and what statistics apart from any personal impressions and taste actually say: The flaccid size is irrelevant, some men have a rather small penis growing to enormous size when erect, on the other hand there are men with a rather impressive flaccid penis that just erects itself when aroused and doesn't grow much in girth or length. Flaccid and erect size don't correlate.
Even in reputable studies, the statistical average varies, US median is about 5.5 inch according to the biggest study (1661 sexually active men) we could find by the well known Journal of Sexual Medicine. Most men have an erect size between 5 and 6 inch, so below 5 inch can be considered small. Don't be fooled by the penis sizes you often see in adult movies, all actors are selected individuals far above the average size. These movies certainly don't depict any statistical average and also use visual tricks to make the manhood of the male actors appear even larger.
Does penis size matter for women?
The question most men probably care for most. While many woman claim that penis size isn't important for them and it's all about the right technique and a loving partner treating them well, that's only half the truth. In totally anonymous surveys, the number of women claiming that penis size is important for them, at least from a aesthetic viewpoint, is significantly higher than in face to face surveys. This fact doesn't mean a smaller penis can't satisfy a women, it doesn't mean you can't have a perfect sex life with a small penis, but the the harsh truth is: Size matters, at least for some women. No need to panic if you have a small penis, according to a combined study of several reasearch institutes since 1942, 85% of all women are happy with the penis size of their partner, while only 55% of all men are happy with their own penis. So, the percieved problem is bigger than the real one.
Good news: Too big isn't good, if you are hung like a horse chances are high that intercourse isn't possible in some positions since it hurts. While being very stretchable, the average vagina is only about 4.5 inch deep. So, average or a little below average can have it's advantages as well, especially if you perfer practices like anal sex.
Is penis size determined by genetics?
Definitely yes, if you have a big or small penis is mostly defined by your genes. Sons of men with a large penis often have a large penis. Sons of men with a small penis often have a smaller penis. There are certainly exceptions, but in general genes are very dominant when it comes to erect penis size.
Can food or supplements help my penis grow?
Neither food nor any supplements influence penis growth or size. That's the reason why all the so called penis pills offered on the internet simply don't work at all, don't believe all the fake promises. All those pills increase the blood flow only, which may cause a little harder erections, but the effect instantly stops once you stop taking those pills. So, a lot of wasted money for a minimal and non-permanent effect. It's tempting, the sellers of those pills will show you doctors smiling from their websites, pseudo scientific studies from India they paid for, raving testimonials from famous pornstars but it's just a huge scam scheme. It's an extremely profitable business, selling cheap herbs for astronomical prices, combined with often shady long term recurring billing that's hard to cancel. Bottom line: Penis pills are pure "snake oil" often made of cheap ingredients importet from China, overpriced and even potentially harmful for you health. Especially the contamination with heavy metals and carcinogenic colorings is a possible problem. Some sellers claim their products are manufactured in FDA approved laboratories, but this doesn't mean the product itself is controlled by the FDA, like prescription drugs.
Even worse, many of these pills contain undeclared substances to make buyer believe the product works. There are hundreds of different so called penis enalrgement pills on the FDAs official "Tainted Sexual Health Products" warning list, including some very well known and popular pill brands. The hidden drug ingredients are often Sildenafil, Tadalafil or Vardenafil, subtances used to treat erection problems, short ED (erectile dysfunction). While these prescription only drugs can help patients suffering from ED, they can also have dangerous side effects and interactions, especially for people taking certain cardiac drugs. In the worst case, they can cause heart attacks, there are several verified actual deaths related to dubious penis pills. Don't risk your life and stay away from enhancement pills, no matter how tempting the advertsing or fake reviews sound. Go for effective natural training instead.
Can surgery increase penis size?
Yes, it can, but surgery is always associated with risks, including anesthesia, wound healing deficits, pain from scars, worst case even adeformed penis or permanent erectile problems. It's effective without a doubt, but the last resort in our opinion. For men with a real micropenis (smaller than 2.75 inch) it's often the only solution, but only about 0.5% of all men worldwide suffer from this condition. If you are just a bit below average, the risk versus reward calculation is negative for surgical penis enlargement.
Apart from the risks, it's the most expensive way for penile enhancement. According to About Health it ranges from $4000 up to $17000. If you are interested in surgical enhancement, we recommend reading the in-depth article on Medscape about possible surgical techniques and results.
This doesn't mean penis surgery isn't a viable solution for various medical indications like complete impotence (erectile dysfunction), but for enlagement only, there are less risky ways with good rewards as well. Responsible plastic surgeons only offer surgical penis enlargement for patients suffering from a very small penis or micro penis. In addition, there are only very few surgeons who have the skills and knowledge to safely perform this very special type of medical intervention.
Can extender or pumps make a small penis grow?
Streching devices and penis pumps are increasingly popular, often selling for hundreds of dollars. We recommend staying away from these devices, because using them can lead to permanent damage of the cavernous body and blood vessels of your penis. In worst case, the usage of penis extenders can result in erectile dysfunction, the inability to get and maintain an erection. Although many surgeons keep warning about them, these warnings are unheard and ignored by many men. Reconstructive surgery for a penis damaged by excessive and wrong use of streching devices is very expensive and rarely results in full recovery. Some of the world's top penis enlargement surgeons from the well-known German Urology Center even say that they are not interested in patients suffering from these kinds of injuries, because fixing these damages is extremely difficult. So, quickly forget about all this "Stud Quick Extender Mark III Pro Power Solution Super Size" crap! Don't let the companies offering them fool you with claims like certifications as a medical device, doctor approvals, paid testimonials, photoshopped before and after pictures or similar.
Especially strechers are aggressively marketed because manufacturing costs are only about $20 in China and they sell to consumers from $150 up to almost $500. Don't believe it? Check chinese websites/marketplaces like Alibaba for wholesale prices. A profit margin of up to 2500% is something even many drug lords are envious of, so the companies selling extenders build shiny websites, pay medical personnel for fake testimonials or raving reviews of these useless and dangerous devices.
Can training make my small penis bigger?
Penis exercises, often referred to as jelqing, were already used in ancient Egypt as a method for penis enlargement. While the multi billion dollar pills and expander industry that's trying to sell you their overpriced herbs or pulling devices claims these methods don't work well, they actually do. Reputable training programs like the "Penis Enlargement Remedy" helped thousands of men to increase their penis size.
Do not expect miracles, but adding about 2 inches to your erect size after a few weeks of training isn't an exception. Many men report this kind of result, some even up to 4 inches. Like all workouts, results won't magically show after a few days, but with the right exercise plan, you'll recognize a slow but steady growth.
The advantages: It's safe, you won't harm your health by trying. It's inexpensive, most penis enlargement programs for a small penis cost about $50, one time investment, no hidden recurring charges. That's less than half the money a one month supply of ineffective penis pills would cost you.
Important: Especially young men often feel insecure about their penis, while it is still growing. Penis exercises are only suitable for adults, when natural penis growth is finished, that's in the early twenties. Starting before this age is not recommended.
How long does penis enlargement take?
For the best results, calculate three to six months for significant results. The success of penis exercises varies, some guys are really lucky and see a measurable growth in just a few weeks, for some guys it takes a little longer. Don't give up if you don't get fast results, every penis is a little different, but jelqing already worked in ancient egypt, so it will work for you, too. Todays techniques and exercises are a lot more sophisticated than in the beginning, tested by thousands of men who successfully enlarged their penis this way, so it's really only a matter of time. It works for everybody, without exceptions. It's no easy way, like training in the gym: Cheating yourself, skipping exercises or being lazy and neglecting your training means it will take longer till you notice results. Do it!
Are there any ways to make my penis look bigger?
Great news, even without a real increase in size, you can make your penis look bigger, in erect and flaccid state. The easiest one is to shave your public hair, if this extra inch hidden in the jungle is suddenly visible, it already makes you manhood look a bit more impressive. In case you have a few extra pounds, losing lower belly fat can optically enhance your penis, too. Unfortunately, this is a purely optical enlargement, but an easy and instant way to present your penis in a particularly advantageous possible way.
What is the small penis syndrome (SPS)?
In contrast to common believe, the small penis syndrome is a mental disorder, subsumed under body dismorphic disorders (BDDs). Basically, it's a wrong perception of the own body, Men affected by it believe their penis is way too small, are almost obsessed by this thought, although their manhood has a normal length and girth. While the symtoms are very severe, including depression, anxiety and isolation, it's a very rare psycological disorder. It's often triggered by very negative personal experiences, e.g. rejection by a woman and other sexual problems. In case you think your penis is tiny, but has normal measurements, seeking professional help is recommended.
Is there a correlation between penis size and premature ejaculation?
A small penis isn't more sensitive than a larger one, but surprisingly there is some correlation, many men with a relatively small penis report that they ejaculate prematurely. From the purely medical point of view, this could be conincidence, but not from the psychological. No matter how important or unimportant penis size is for the female partner, men with a smaller penis often feel unsecure, at least subconsciously. Insecurity leads to stress and bodily tension, which encourages coming too fast. This subjective failure causes even more stress the next time, a cycle that's hard to break. That's the main reason why penis enlargement often assists in lasting longer in bed, too.
Last but not least, the biggest problem of a small penis isn't the penis itself, but guy attached to it. Every penis is different and unique, you can have a wonderful and sexually fulfilled life even if your size is below average. Always keep in mind that the majority of sexual stimulation a women feels during intercourse comes from her clit, not her vagina. Additionally, there is much more about being a man than the size of what you are carrying around between your legs. That's probably the most important and valuable advice we can give: Try to relax, a large penis doesn't automatically or magically make you happier or more adorable for women. Don't let your penis size control your self-esteem.


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Clearwater Paper Corporation (NYSE:CLW) today announced that it upsized and priced 275 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2023 (the "Notes"). The Notes will have an interest rate of 4.5% per annum and are being issued at a price equal to 100% of their face value. The company estimates that the net proceeds from the offering will be approximately $270.7 million after deducting discounts and estimated offering expenses. Clearwater Paper intends to use approximately $163.9 million of the net proceeds to redeem all of its outstanding 10.625% Senior Notes due 2016, and to use $100 million of the net proceeds to purchase shares of the company's common stock pursuant to the company's previously announced $100 million stock repurchase program. The company intends to use the remaining net proceeds for general corporate purposes. As the offering was a private placement, the notes were offered and sold only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") and to certain non-U.S. persons in transactions outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act. The notes that were offered have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the notes nor shall there be any sale of the notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. This news release is being issued pursuant to and in accordance with Rule 135c under the Securities Act. This press release contains information about pending transactions, and there can be no assurance that these transactions will be completed.
ABOUT CLEARWATER PAPERClearwater Paper manufactures quality consumer tissue, away-from-home tissue, parent roll tissue, machine glazed tissue, bleached paperboard and pulp at 15 manufacturing locations in the U.S. and Canada. The company is a premier supplier of private label tissue to major retailers and wholesale distributors. This includes grocery, drug, mass merchants and discount stores. The company also produces bleached paperboard used by quality-conscious printers and packaging converters. Clearwater Paper's employees build shareholder value by developing strong customer relationships through quality and service. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the offering of the notes and the anticipated use of proceeds therefrom. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and assumptions that are subject to change, and actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, the impact of conditions in the credit markets generally and, in particular, for companies in the markets in which the company operates; changes and uncertainty in the United States and international economies in which the company operates; and other risks and uncertainties described from time to time in the company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.


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|Personal Information Management as a Study and a Practice
Full Day Seminar, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008, 9:00am-5:00pm (separate fee)
Note: The course has been substantially updated to address the impact on personal information management (PIM) of recent developments on the Web and in PDAs, smart phones and other handheld devices. Developments are pulling the traditional digital desktop apart. As this happens, we face new challenges and opportunities in personal information management.
Audience, expertise level and maximum size: The course is designed for a general audience of up to 30 in size. Researchers will have an opportunity to learn more about the current state of PIM as a field of inquiry. But PIM is something we all must do. Everyone who attends will have an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of PIM, its fundamental problems, the roles it plays in daily life and the ways in which selected strategies and supporting tools can help. Participants will each receive a course booklet that includes slides for the presentation and an extensive bibliography of PIM-related articles and books.
Personal Information Management (PIM) refers to both the practice and the study of the activities a person performs in order to acquire or create, organize, maintain, retrieve, use and distribute the information needed to complete tasks (work-related and not) and to fulfill various roles and responsibilities (as parent, employee, friend, member of community, etc.). PIM places special emphasis on the manipulation of information as packaged into information items such as paper documents, electronic documents, email messages, web references, handwritten notes, appointments entered in a calendar and so on. How are information items organized into a persons life for effective use and re-use?
The payoffs for advances in PIM are large and varied. 1) For each of us as individuals, better PIM means a better use of our precious resources (time, money, energy, attention) and, ultimately, a better quality to our lives. 2) Within organizations, better PIM means better employee productivity and better team work in the near-term. Longer-term, PIM is key to the management and leverage of employee expertise. Advances in PIM also translate into 3) improvements in education programs of information literacy and 4) Better support for our aging workforce and population.
This tutorial provides an overview of PIM both as a field of inquiry and as an activity that all of us of necessity perform every day. The tutorial includes the following: 1.) A historical overview of PIM with special emphasis on developments over the past 20 years. 2.) An analytical breakdown of PIM with respect to key problems, activities of information management (assessment of need, finding, keeping, organization & maintenance, re-finding ) and domains of information management (email, web, e-documents, paper ). 3.) An assessment of current PIM research and development including promising lines of empirical inquiry, theoretical development and tool development. 4.) A practical review of enduring dos and donts of personal information management. 5.) A overview of the many tools that promise to help with PIM. The tutorial will provide a way of evaluating these tools with respect to key activities of PIM. Special attention is given to new tool developments of the past year or so.
Leaning objectives of course
At the completion of the course, attendees will have:
An understanding of the several senses in which information can be personal and how to bring personal information, in each of its senses, together to form a coherent personal space of information (PSI).
A ability to map from key activities and fundamental problems of PIM to an evaluation of tools and strategies.
An understanding for directions in research & development and their likely impact on our practice of PIM.
The course includes the following four units of 1.5 hours each:
Unit 1: Introduction to Personal Information Management (PIM)
Objectives: Understand what PIM is (and is not), its historical influences, and its importance.
Exercise: Piles, Files, and Styles
Facilitated Discussion: Participant goals for the class.
Unit 2: Understanding PIM and Its Key Activities
Objectives: Understand the key activities of PIM and the challenges with each. Review relevant research from the study of information science, cognitive science and human-computer interaction.
Exercise: Finding and Keeping: Participants organize information to attend an out-of-town conference, discuss techniques and strategies with the class.
Unit 3: Tools and techniques in support of PIM
Objectives: Understand better the large space of PIM-relevant tools and techniques and learn ways to assess their potential usefulness in your life. Review prototyping efforts from the fields of information science, information retrieval, database management and artificial intelligence.
Exercise: Analyze Google Docs with respect to PIM activities
Unit 4: Practical tips for doing PIM and a look to the future
Objectives: Complete self-assessment of PIM strategy. What is working? What isnt? How to mind your personal space of information (PSI).
Review techniques to maintain and sustain your own Personal Unifying Taxonomy (PUT) over time.
Determine whether your tools and their use is helping or hurting your practice of PIM.
William Jones is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Washington where he manages the Keeping Found Things Found project
(http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/publications.asp)..Dr. Jones has written the book Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management (2007). He also co-edited the book Personal Information Management and a special issue on PIM for the Communications of the ACM (2006). Dr. Jones has written invited chapters on PIM for
ARIST and for the Handbook of Applied Cognition. He has given numerous invited tutorials and organized two workshops on PIM including an invitational workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation and a follow-on workshop in connection with SIGIR 2006
(http://pim.ischool.washington.edu/). Dr. Jones holds 5 patents relating to search and PIM. Dr. Jones received his doctorate in cognitive psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Members $255, non-members $285, before Sept. 12, 2008
Members $285, non-members $315, after Sept. 12, 2008


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Phone-Charging Purses and Wallets: Stylish Ways to Charge a Battery
Charging Alternatives That Combine Function and Style
Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, making it easy to quickly check Google Maps when you're lost or search for an important email. The only problem: Finding your low-battery light on.
Dozens of companies have come to the rescue offering external chargers, but the bulky devices are just one more thing to carry.
If you often...


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(Please scroll down to see locations listed alphabetically)
Sephardic Studies [September 2002]:
Before WWII, 20,000 Jewish families lived in all of Romania. The survivors were "bought" by Israel from the Communists based onto their intellectuality and university degrees. Today's Romanian Jewish popuation of about 9,000 persons in the entire country is very elderly. The political and socio-economical situation in Romania continues to erode Jewish contribution to Romanian culture and commerce. [February 2002]
Sephardic Cemetery: The few remaining Sephardim in Romania were assimilated by Askenazim. Only the Sephardic cemetery in Bucharest remains as proof of their former presence. [February 2002]
The US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad began to survey Jewish monuments in Romania. Contact: Samuel Gruber, 123 Clarke St., Syracuse, NY 13210. All cemetery descriptions that follow with a "RO-CE" and a number are from the Survey of Historic Jewish Sites and Monuments in Romania sponsored by the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.
Photo appendix to article by Samuel Gruber [September 2016]
Bukovina: [October 2000]


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What makes for a more epic game in the Stanley Cup Finals - four overtimes, or four fights? How about both, and a shorthanded goal to win it?
Reader jayc4life's masterpiece on NHL 10 is the timely choice for Box Scores' game of the week - leading the Chicago Blackhawks to a 2-1, 4OT victory over Philadelphia in Game Two of his Stanley Cup Finals. Chicago, of course, defeated Philadelphia on Wednesday night in one overtime to claim the 'Hawks' first Cup since 1961.
"I honestly can't for the life of me think of a more tense game of hockey I've played on a console in my life," jayc4life said. "Not in NHL 2001, 2004 or even 2007. This one takes the biscuit."
Playing in Battle for the Cup mode, he found the Blackhawks and Flyers tied at 1 at the end of regulation, having already seen two fights between Chicago's Dave Bolland and Philly's Braydon Coburn, Bolland winning both. Three overtimes pass without a score, Chicago spending much of that shorthanded thanks to some questionable penalties. But goalie Antti Niemi stands on his head throughout.
The fourth overtime opens with the Flyers' Mike Richards hammering John Madden in the third fight of the game. Jayc4life, hellbent on getting revenge, even sent superstar Patrick Kane after Coburn to try and get the Flyers' goon ejected. Instead, Kane got the misconduct, putting Philadelphia on the power play. Here's jayc4life with the call:
Out of nowhere, Bolland wins the faceoff and, shorthanded from Kane's misconduct minor, John Madden just drives up the slot and absolutely powers one past Emery, who never had a hope in hell of stopping it high on the stick side. I've never been so relieved to win a sports game in my life. It was the Energizer of matches, it just dragged on and on and on.
And here's a video of the game summary. Check out all those penalties!
Get your shutout, throwdown, upset, blowout or Alcoa Fantastic Finish featured in Kotaku Box Scores. Any sports game, any console, any year is eligible. Just get some image of the screen (crappy cell camera pic will do, YouTube video is optional but also accepted) and write a couple compelling paragraphs about why the game was so awesome. Send it all to owenATkotakuDOTcom with the subject header: Game of the Week, so that I see it.
And now begins Box Scores' open-thread sports discussion. The World Cup is the biggest sports news of the day, or for the next month, really, with the U.S. and England kicking off in 30 minutes for a match of extreme interest, to say the least. The Lakers and the Celtics play tomorrow in the NBA Finals, but it won't be an elimination game - meaning we will see an NBA title won at the Staples Center, right in the heart of E3, next week.
(All times are U.S. Eastern:)
- Soccer
The U.S., no doubt motivated by revenge for British Petroleum's gargantuan oil slick coating the Gulf Coast, meets England in the biggest game in American soccer since Pele and Rambo kicked the shit out of the Nazis in 1981. Last time these two sides met, the Americans embarrassed the Brits 1-0 in the 1950 World Cup. I guarantee U.S. victory. I've never been more certain of anything in my whole life. 2:30 p.m., ABC.
Tomorrow's nationally broadcast match is Germany and Australia, 2:30 p.m., ABC.
Game Five of the NBA Finals is Sunday at 8 p.m., from Boston. The series is square at 2-2, but does anyone honestly believe this isn't going seven games?
Fox's game of the week on Saturday is either the Phillies at the Red Sox, or the White Sox at the Cubs, 4 p.m.
On Sunday, why would TBS bother with the Nationals at the Indians? Stephen Strasburg, that's why. The rookie flamethrower makes his second start, and first on the road, at 1 p.m. Cubs and Sox are the game of the week on ESPN, 8 p.m.
- Mixed Martial Arts
UFC 115's undercard bouts are on Spike TV at 9 p.m. The features, including Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin, and Mirko Crop Cop vs. Pat Barry, are on pay-per-view.
- College Baseball
Ah, June, longer days, warmer nights, and the ping of metal bats. The NCAA's super regionals will determine who plays the last College World Series to be held at Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium. Coverage today and tomorrow on ESPN and ESPN2, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. today, 1, 4, 7 and 10 p.m. tomorrow.
- Track and Field
The NCAA Division I championships run at 1 p.m. on CBS, live from the University of Oregon's historic Hayward Field.
- Motorsports
In NASCAR. Saturday's Nationwide Series race is the Meijer 300, 8 p.m. on ESPN; Sunday's Sprint Cup event is the [adjusts glasses, clears throat] "Helluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400," 1 p.m. on TNT.
Formula One runs the Canadian Grand Prix at noon Sunday, on Fox.
Remember, send all Game of the Week nominations to owenATkotakuDOTcom, and flag it "Game of the Week" in the subject header. Please include your commenter handle for proper credit.


text: For all those out there that use GSAK. The last column over on the right hand side says found by me. How do you get the info into that column anyway? If would be nice to be able to see when the date was that I actually found the cache but can't figure out how to get the info into it. I have tons of other questions about this software but I'll settle for an answer to this one first. Thanks John :)


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What if John Harbaugh worked for you? Well, unless you work in the front office of the Baltimore Ravens and are currently reading this post — he doesn't. But let's just say, for argument's sake, that you are Ozzie Newsome.
While the Baltimore Ravens are an escape for most residents in Baltimore, they're also a billion dollar business. Besides smoking cigars at his office while counting his billions, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti looks at this franchise as a business and has done a marvelous job appointing people to run his company.
While still in shock of what may very well have been the worst week of Ravens history, I removed myself from the knee jerk reactions for a few moments and went back to my normal sales job. As I dealt with my own management team barking orders at me, it got me thinking.
Are the Ravens and John Harbaugh exempt from the same business decisions as those in corporate America?
What if John Harbaugh and the Ravens coaching staff worked for you? For this analogy, let's look at it from the viewpoint of corporate America. Even if you're not in sales, this analogy could probably relate to most any job.
For any corporation to turn a profit, they must increase revenue over that of their expenses. So for this corporation (Baltimore Ravens), turning a profit will depend on the strength of the Director of Sales (Head Coach),from whom the company's message is then passed down to the management team (Coordinators) and then communicated to the sales team (Ravens Players).
The Director of Sales is hired by upper management (Ozzie Newsome) based on the confidence that they put your organization in the best hands to achieve their goal (Super Bowl). It is up to that Director of Sales to hire staff that he/she sees best qualified to make them successful. Ultimately, the Director of Sales' (John Harbaugh) name is attached to the success or failure of the organization.
As in any company, if you don't perform to your expectations, you are warned and reprimanded. For the Ravens, if their players aren't performing to expectations, it's up to their managers (Coordinators) to bench them or eventually make a decision to fire (release) them.
From a management perspective, it's up to the manager (coordinator) to determine the group of salesmen (players) who will impact revenue (wins/success) as much as possible. It's also the management's (Coordinators) duty to train sales staff (players) on the marketplace (NFL Opponents) and what advantages you have (game plan) on the competition.
If specific managers (Cam Cameron or Jerry Rosberg) don't create enough of an impact on their employees (Offense or Special Teams), they are to be held accountable for their misfortunes by their manager, the Director of Sales (John Harbaugh).
In any organization there is turnover. Some of it happens to be voluntary to leave for better opportunities. The Ravens got a taste of that when Chuck Pagano was hired as the new Director of Sales (Head Coach) of the Indianapolis Colts. If someone on your staff has performed above expectations, they are able to be promoted from within the company, which is what the Ravens did when they appointed Dean Pees as the new Defensive Coordinator.
The Baltimore Ravens are a contracted sales force. The main issue I have is that a thorough evaluation needs to take place to on the progress and development of their staff before a coordinator has their contract renewed.
For John Harbaugh to say that Cam Cameron would be retained is a foregone conclusion when Cam himself wasn't even sure if he'd be retained is ludicrous.
This delusional Director of Sales said that his manager helped his sales team "flourish" in 2011. The four years Cam has been at the helm of the Ravens offense, the team has finished 18th, 13th, 22nd and 15th overall respectively. I don't know what type of person gets to the position of Director of Sales accepting mediocrity. Last time I checked, 15th is middle of the road as far as total NFL rankings go.
With all this being said, for Harbaugh to say, "I don't know that an announcement is necessary" after all the criticism from the media, fans, and his own players is just asinine and, to be honest, condescending and insulting.
If Billy Cundiff gets invited back to training camp after his atrocious season and has to kick for his job then Cam Cameron should be held to the same standards with his.
Anyone who's ever been a part of a large company knows the "Crap Flows Downstream" motif. Sadly for the Ravens, it looks like horrific staff decisions are flowing downstream and it's affecting on field production.
The team has already said that in retaining Cameron, a quarterbacks coach must be hired as well. Today, the Ravens announced that former Colts head coach Jim Caldwell will the team's new Quarterbacks coach. Caldwell will report to Cameron.
Hiring Caldwell into the Ravens organization is equivalent to a motivational speaker in the corporate world. It may temporarily have an impact on the employees but for the most part it's a temporary fix. All that Caldwell will do is keep some people off of Cameron's back this offseason as the team prepares for anther mediocre performance on offense.
Cameron has shown he doesn't respect the thoughts of anyone else on the offense (see: Jim Zorn) and Caldwell won't come in and change around Cameron's play book of Pop Warner passing routes.
In real life, some horrible managers may still win awards because they're bailed out by great performances from talented employees; this could be said about Cameron 's tenure in Baltimore.
For the Director of Sales (Harbaugh) to retain a manager (Cameron) who's never had a top 10 sales team (Offense) shows a problem with accountability at one of the highest levels of the organization. The fact that Harbaugh has turned a blind eye to those areas that have really struggled (Offensive Line, Special Teams and Offensive Coordinator) he may have created a hot seat for himself.
Ultimately, any business owner or upper management figure lives and dies by the performance of those he employs. If Harbaugh stays status quo or worse, there is a good chance that the customers of this corporation will react with their wallets, thus forcing 1 Winning Drive to have a makeover. If that happens, there could very well be a banner that says "Under New Management" within the next two seasons.


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With the first service pack for SQL 2005 Server due in the next two weeks, Microsoft has been laying down the law on future development plans for the database.
In short, that means no return to beta editions for new versions of its database and regular product updates every two- to two-and-a-half years, according to the vice president of Microsoft's server applications group. Paul Flessner was speaking after Microsoft last week outlined four key themes for investment in the SQL Server roadmap, that included a re-branded edition of SQL Server Mobile Edition called SQL Server Everywhere Edition due later this year.
According to Flessner, investments in SQL Server will now focus on availability and automation, going beyond storage of purely relational data, synchronization, and end-to-end insight. As such, SQL Server Everywhere Edition is promised as a small footprint, client - not merely mobile device - database that can store data locally and replicate with server-side editions of SQL Server when an online connection is resumed. The first community technology preview (CTP) is due this summer.
In many ways, Microsoft is late to the game with SQL Server Everywhere Edition. IBM helped feed today's growing demand for light-weight, client-side databases when it open sourced its Cloudscape database to the Apache community as Project Derby in 2004. Oracle, meanwhile, this year bought Sleepycat to add a popular, small footprint, embedded alternative to its existing enterprise database line.
IBM has also been setting the trend in others areas. The up-coming edition of DB2 codenamed Viper is slated to become the industry's first database with native support for XML. Viper will allow users to store, search and retrieve unstructured data - in addition to structured data - for use in business analytics, without breaking the XML data down into rows or columns, a move that slows performance and causes a loss in the fidelity of data. IBM believes 35 per cent of business data is currently stored in an unstructured XML format.
IBM has been releasing full versions of DB2 roughly every two years. Flessner, though, last week dismissed IBM's track record saying the company had issued what he considered to be "feature updates."
Flessner appears to be placing his faith in plans to deliver updates of SQL Server every two- to two-and-a-half years. A key part of that is to streamline delivery of SQL Server using small, feature-specific CTPs instead of bigger code drops epitomised by the beta process. SQL Server was one of the first Microsoft products to adopt the CTP approach, an approach now spreading across other Microsoft groups, even though the CTP approach didn't avert delays to SQL Server 2005. The database finally shipped last November, more than four years after its predecessor.
"I'm convinced we can do it," Flessner said of the new delivery cycle. "The key is keeping the main product build stable. The CTP is the key. The beta process was very large, but the CTP is much smaller. As long as I'm in charge of SQL Server, we will never go back to betas."
Return to internet news headlines
View Internet News Archive


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Washington attorneys, Steve Eugster, Robert Caruso and Sara Ferguson join our fight against the Washington State Bar, exposed again for corruption, violating constitutional laws of Washingtonians. But this time, on behalf of all Washingtonians, as the Washington State Bar trying to rewrite the Washington State Bar Act.
A close ally inside the Washington State Legislature was contacted and he would say is "the Washington State Bar does not have the legal authority to regulate and dominate free market participants."


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John Daly's scorecard was the only thing getting more attention than his pants.
Golf's most entertaining sideshow was at it again Thursday, tying his best round at the British Open with a 6-under 66 on the Old Course. It put him atop the leaderboard, a spot that, regardless how brief the stay, would have been unimaginable during the latest chapter in his pulp fiction life.
"I've never ran from my mistakes. I've always kind of been the man that you're supposed to be when you screw up — and I've screwed up an awful lot, not just on tour, but in other aspects of life," Daly said. "I think it's how you come back and deal with it. I don't know if it's motivation for fans or if it's helping them. Whatever it is, as long as it's a positive, to me that's all that matters.
"When you have so many ups and downs in life, like everybody does, some smaller and bigger, it makes it so much more gratifying when you do something special."
Daly birdied seven of the first 11 holes, and he might have challenged early leader Rory McIlroy if not for four putts that lipped out. One, on 17, led to his only bogey of the day.
That Daly is a spectacular talent has never been in doubt. You don't go from last alternate to major champion, as he did at the 1991 PGA Championship, without considerable game. And you sure don't win a second major — the British Open here at St. Andrews, no less — by being lucky.
Daly is Everyman. Fans can't help but be charmed, seeing a little bit of themselves in him. Or maybe a little bit of who they would like to be. He hits driver when he should hit irons. He goes for shots that inevitably end badly. He believes "grip it and rip it" is more than just a cute slogan.
Daly's nickname was "Wild Thing," and he more than lived up to it.
Among other things, he trashed a hotel room in 1997 during The Players Championship and once did a TV interview to promote a golf course wearing only blue jeans. No shirt, no shoes. The PGA Tour has put him in timeout-mode five times (his disciplinary file was a hefty 456 pages as of the fall of 2008), fined him $100,000 and ordered him to attend counseling or alcohol rehab seven times. He's also lost part of a considerable fortune to four ex-wives, gambling and bad loans to friends.
But at 44, even Daly has had enough of his high-wire act.
He's lost almost 100 pounds since having Lap-Band surgery in February 2009, and said he quit drinking and eating as much junk. The rib and back injuries that made it painful to get his game back in shape have healed.
"I feel like I'm getting healthier," Daly said. "Being able to work on my game and get some confidence built up, (winning) would be just the most gratifying victory I could ever have."
There's still a long way to go. Daly has three victories worldwide since winning the British Open 15 years ago, and has dropped to 455th in the world rankings. He has just one top-50 finish this year, a tie for 24th at the Puerto Rico Open, and sounded as if he was ready to quit after missing the cut at Torrey Pines earlier this year.
After turning back the clock with a first-round 67 at the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills that left him two strokes off the lead, he followed it up with a 73 and ultimately wound up tied for 32nd.
"I'm not out of it. I'm in it, even if somebody goes out and shoots 7- or 8-under," Daly said. "I feel the game is coming around, and when I'm hitting my driver the way I am right now, it brings confidence."
Gives the fans a thrill, too.
There were appreciative whoops and hollers with every thwack of his driver, and encouraging shouts of "Go get 'em, JD!" As Daly strolled up the 18th fairway — smoking a cigarette — one fan in the crowd held up a sign reading, "John Daly the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment." Another carried a poster that said, "John Daly Living Legend."
"He's a role model," one of the men said.
Even with the wacky wardrobe.
Daly may have ditched that shaggy mullet he sported back in 1995, but now he's wearing pants that can only be described as garish. Thursday's choice was lavender paisley (his girlfriend wore a matching miniskirt).
"All of these pants, the good thing about them is you get dressed in the dark, any shirt is going to match," Daly said.
Not really. Daly's sky-blue sweater, peach shirt and turquoise hat were cringe-worthy, more acceptable for a 3-year-old dressing himself.
But as Daly is trying to prove, it's his game that matters.
"It's just a great course and I just love it. I don't know why, it just suits my game," he said. "It's, to me, my favorite course all over the world that I've ever played. When you've got that going for you, you don't feel disappointed when you don't play so well.
"But you feel even better when you do."