text:
Emptying E-mail Bin
From Bob:
I'm very happy that Pat (Burrell) is leaving as a Phillie. I just don't understand what it means. Could you please explain to me what the difference is between retiring as a Phillie and just retiring from baseball. I've seen this done before and never totally understood it. I could see the importance if the Hall of Fame was involved.
"Retiring as a Phillies is more ceremonial than an official transaction. Pat was no longer under contract with the Giants and decided he no longer could play so we invited him to retire as a Phillie as we had done with Doug Glanville and Mike Lieberthal, previously. Texas did the same thing with Ivan Rodriguez this season. If a player is under contract and decides to retire, as Mike Schmidt did in 1989, that player forfeits his salary. If a player is released while under contract, he still gets paid."
From William:
When attending a double header game against the NY Giants, Richie (Ashburn) caught a fly ball in short center field and the umpire ruled it a non catch. All the fans knew it was a catch and began throwing all kinds of bottles, etc., onto the field. The game had to be forfeited. Did Richie ever talk about it and whether he had a conversation with the umpire? Would like to know.
"I was in Richie's company for many, many years and heard stories after stories but never anything about the game you mentioned. Perhaps newspaper archives would have something but I would think that is a long shot."
From Dennis:
I'm guessing the annual Phillies Wall Of Fame announcement will come sometime during the Phils' next homestand – June 1- June 7. Does that sound about right?
"Still in a holding pattern. Hopefully by the end of the month."
From Charlie:
We have been trying to find an answer to a question. Why when a pitch hits the ground on its way to the plate, the ball is taken out of play. However, if a ground ball is hit, say down the 3rd base path, bouncing 3 times, fielded cleanly and the runner is thrown out at first, the ball is thrown around the horn and returned to the pitcher,,, still in play?
"There is no hard rule. I don't believe the ball is tossed from the game after every wild pitch. And, there are times when a ball is taken out of play after it had been hit. Balls taken out of play sometimes will reappear later in the game. Just depends how badly the ball has been scarred. That's the bottom line."
From Norm:
I am an 82 year old long time Phillies fan. As I recall on Bowa's first day at Shibe Park he was refused entrance to the park because the guard did not believe that he was old enough to be major league player. On that same day the new manager of the Phillies, whose name escapes me, got lost trying to find 21st and Lehigh.
"I believe you are correct about Bowa at Connie Mack Stadium. The manager was Frank Lucchesi."
Down On The Farm
**Lehigh Valley scored 8 runs in the top of the ninth inning to cement a 14-4 win at Gwinnett. 1B John Suomi, 2nd homer this week, 4 RBI. C Tuffy Gosewisch, double, homer, 3 RBI. 16-13 in May.
**Reading lost, 8-1, to Binghamton. 13-14 in May.
**Clearwater won, 10-9, in 13 innings at Tampa on a bases-loaded walk. 16-12 in May.
**Lakewood lost, 9-8, allowing 6 runs in the bottom of the ninth at Kannapolis. 1B Kelly Dugan and 2B Alejandro Villalobos, 3 hits each. 10-19 in May.
June 1, 1969: 1B Dick Allen slams five home runs in five consecutive games to set a club record. The fifth homer comes in a 12-4 loss to Los Angeles at Connie Mack Stadium. The five homers were part of a streak in which he hit nine in 14 games.
June 2, 1949
Phillies hit five home runs in the eighth inning of a 12-3 win over Cincinnati at Shibe Park. C Andy Seminick hits two (three for the game), while LF Del Ennis, 3B Willie Jones and RHP Schoolboy Rowe each add one.
June 2, 1998
Choosing first for the first time in club history, the Phillies select 3B Pat Burrell in the amateur free agent draft. The University of Miami slugger was later signed to a five-year, $8 million contract, highest amount ever given to an amateur player.
June 3, 1972
Paul Owens, a member of the Phillies organization since 1956 and the club's farm director since 1965, is promoted to General Manager, replacing John Quinn. Owens becomes the architect of the Phillies greatest era, which produces one world championship, two NL pennant-winners and five division titles.
2 Comments
When I was a kid, my friend's mom took us to a game at Connie Mack Stadium between the Phils and the SF Giants. I remember being thrilled to see Willie Mays. On that day, Tony Taylor hit a grand slam. The game would have been in the mid to late 60's
From this limited info., is there any way I can discover the date of the game?
Thank you.
John: I'll work on it. May take a little time but will get on it. Can you kindly e-mail me at firstname.lastname@example.com so I can get back to you? Cheers.


text:
NovaSure ® endometrial ablation is for premenopausal women with heavy periods due to benign causes who are finished childbearing. Pregnancy following the NovaSure procedure can be dangerous. The NovaSure procedure is not for those who have or suspect uterine cancer; have an active genital, urinary or pelvic infection; or an IUD. NovaSure endometrial ablation is not a sterilization procedure. Rare but serious risks include, but are not limited to, thermal injury, perforation and infection. Temporary side effects may include cramping, nausea, vomiting, discharge and spotting. Inform patients to contact you if they experience a possible side effect related to use of this product. For detailed benefit and risk information, please consult the IFU.
© 2018 Hologic, Inc. All Rights Reserved

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Let me guess, you have been playing New York Times crossword and got stuck on the clue Fortuneteller's opening. Well, you have come to the right place to find the answer to this clue.
While some crosswords are much simpler than others, most require that players have a vast knowledge of the language and possibly even various topics. So while crossword puzzles are seen as a more intelligent game, they can be very frustrating for players to complete and even experienced crossword players need some help occasionally.
When finding the answers to the clues becomes too difficult, there's no shame in looking for them online.
Now you have the answer to your clue. Its time to move on to the next clue. You can browse through the list with all the answers to the New York Times crossword of December 24th, 2006. Or you can use the search form below to find the answer (no matter if its New York Times Crossword or any other crossword).
|New York Times crossword of December 24th, 2006 other clues
|Star wearer: Abbr.
|Stephen Hawking's alma mater
|Stephen of 'V for Vendetta'
|Stern parent's reply
|Stretch (out)
|Suffix with form
|Sunburnt Santa?
|Texas city
|Three in one
|Thrice, in Rx's
|Throws a Christmas tree?
|Tokyo-based carrier
|Two qtrs.
|U.S.N. officer
|Venusians, e.g.
|Woman in Sartre's 'No Exit'
|___ speak
|'Don't get any ___'
|'Mazel ___!'
|'Law & Order' figs.
|'Get ___ get out'
|'March of the Penguins' director ___ Jacquet
|'Peter Pan' writer
|'___ Rollo' (popular Mexican variety show)
|'___ the season to be jolly'
|1957 hit for the Bobbettes
|1962 Paul Anka hit
|1994 sci-fi writer's memoir
|8-Down, with 'the'
|A long, long time
|Adjusts, as laces
|Amazon's home
|Away's partner
|Baseball's Moises
|Big test
|Big top?
|Bog down
|Brooks Robinson, e.g.
|Call at sea
|Chemical ending
|Chinese symbols on Santa's vehicle?
|Christmas gift easily identifiable by shaking?
|Christmas laughs
|Christmas quaffs set atop a board?
|Co. that makes Band-Aids
|Comedian ___ Mac
|Common green house gift
|Corner piece
|Court minutes
|Dish ladled out hot or cold
|Dispatch boats
|Do some tailoring
|Dominant dogs
|Dorm overseers, for short
|Dot follower
|Draw out
|Early seventh-century year
|Everything, on the Ems
|Father Time prop
|Film buff's cable channel
|Paleontological wonder at a natural history museum
|Part of old French Indochina
|Per se
|Place to get a reaction in school?
|Played some songs, say
|Pogo, e.g.
|Popular record label
|Punching devices
|QB Hasselbeck
|Relief provider
|River of Devon
|Rolling rock
|Samuel's teacher, in the Bible
|Santa reindeer-turned-zombie?
|Second string
|Sell to a new audience, say
|Serengeti grazer
|Sight from Messina
|Snooker need
|Sold out, in a way
|Some 1960's coupes
|Spigot site
|Spiny cactus
|Spoke at great length
|Squinted (at)
|G8 member
|Genesis man
|Gifts you only think about giving?
|Greek height
|Grp. with the 1977 hit 'Do Ya'
|Handler of gifts for the kids on the 'naughty' list?
|Hearst's San ___ castle
|Hedingham Castle locale
|Home's counterpart
|Hot dog
|Hunter's meat
|In myth, killer of his own mother, Clytemnestra
|In use
|It might leave tracks
|Italian tragic poet Vittorio
|Itsy-bitsy door decoration?
|Kansas City suburb
|Kind of terrier
|Kraft Nabisco Championship org.
|Like dishwater
|Like some chiefs
|Makings of a coup
|Manger figure
|Melodic pieces
|Military trial, briefly
|Mincemeat ___
|N.J. summer setting
|Never, in Nürnberg
|One who might grab the bull by the horns
|Opposite of should
We offer support and help with a wide range of crosswords and are guaranteed to make sure you complete everything; the site is also updated regularly to make sure that all of our answers are correct and to add more crosswords to the ever growing list.__IMAGE__
If there is any problem with the answer, please contact us! We will fix the problem.


text:
Sweat through an ab workout and you want nothing short of rock-hard results. But did you know that by engaging these muscles, you do more than sculpt a bikini-ready bod? Considered your "vital center" in yoga, your core is critical to overall health. "It's not only the seat of the digestive system, but also where we hold tension and experience deep emotions," says personal trainer and yoga instructor Roman Szpond, owner of Inner Strength studios in Watertown, Massachusetts. "By focusing on this area, you improve the quality of your digestion and stimulate diaphragmatic breathing, which can relieve the proverbial 'knot' in your stomach." Use the following workout, a combination of complementary core strengtheners and stretches, to tone your belly -- and build a stronger, more centered you.
1 Core Balancer (pictured above)
What it does: This stabilizing isometric strengthener works the upper and lower ab muscles. To stay balanced here, you'll use several muscles in concert, which makes more effective use of them.
How to do it: Start by lying on your back, arms over your head and feet hips-width apart. Take a deep inhale and, as you exhale, pull your upper body and lower body upward so that you form a V. Reach your fingers toward your toes and keep your gaze upward, compressing your abs and drawing the navel toward the spine. Hold for 3 to 5 seconds, then gently lower down. Repeat 3 to 5 times. (To modify, leave your legs up and just lower your upper body, lifting up again to reach your raised legs.)
2 Winding Crunch
What it does: Simultaneously strengthens and lengthens the upper and lower body; stretches shoulders and hips.
How to do it: Lying on your back, cross your left arm under your right, winding your arms around each other so that your palms touch. Wrap your right leg over your left leg (if you can, tuck your right foot behind your left calf) with knees bent. Take a deep breath, reaching arms and legs away from each other, and then crunch, reaching elbows toward the knees. Lift your upper and lower back slightly off the floor to work the entire abdominal area. Then release your back down to the ground. Exhale and repeat. Do 3 sets of 10.
3 Modified Fish
What it does: Opens up the abs and chest to help calm the body and facilitate breathing.
How to do it: Start flat on your back, then lift up onto your forearms, tucking your hands under your buttocks for stability. Begin to arch the chest, releasing the muscles, widening your collarbone.Rather than drop your head back as in traditional Fish pose, which can strain the neck if done improperly, Szpond suggests keeping your chin tucked. Hold for 3 to 5 breaths, letting your breath rise and fall naturally, your chest open up, and your abs relax. To come out of it, remove your hands and lie down flat, relaxing into the ground.
4 Yoga Bicycle with Oblique Hold
What it does: Works the oblique muscles (which run along the sides of your core.
How to do it: Pull your knees toward your chest and put your hands behind your head, elbows bent in toward your knees. Reach your right elbow toward the left knee, extending the right leg, then switch, alternating 10 times. On the last rep, freeze, reaching your arm past the outside of the knee for a count of 3. Do 5 sets.
5 Twisted Stretch
What it does: Releases the abs.
How to do it: Lie flat on your back with knees bent and arms overhead; take a deep breath and exhale releasing both legs to your left side. Reset for a few second, then reverse. Extend your energy up the arms and out through the fingers. Feel the tension in your ab muscles release. Take a few slow deep breaths. Rest and repeat 1 to 3 times.
Text by Terri Trespicio


text:
|Talespin - Volume 2
|Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Some of the funniest and most exciting episodes from Disney's long-running animated series come to DVD in TaleSpin: Volume 2, available on November 13, 2007 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The three-disc boxed set contains a cargo hold full of South Pacific adventures featuring Baloo, the beloved bumbling bear, in a collection that's perfect for family viewing!
Baloo and a cast of unforgettable characters embark on more full-throttle escapades in Disney Talespin: Volume 2. Along with his feisty sidekick, navigator Kit Cloudkicker, Baloo pilots precious cargo in and out of the island nation of Cape Suzette while fending off familiar foes like the evil Colonel Spigot and the insatiable industrialist Shere Khan—as well as a contingent of nefarious newcomers! The always resourceful Rebecca Cunningham is on hand to run the business end of Higher and Hire courier services, along with her adventurous daughter Molly and madcap mechanic Ace. Disney TaleSpin: Volume 2 includes plenty of high altitude hilarity as Baloo and Kit battle air pirates, ancient curses, mummies and their most hair-raising challenge ever... finishing high school!
Characters from Disney's perennially popular animated feature The Jungle Book, including Baloo, Shere Khan and Louie, the jazz singing ape, team up with new favorites for tons of action and laughter. In stores just in time for holiday gift giving, the 3-disc Disney Talespin: Volume 2 is priced at $34.99 SRP in the U.S. and: $37.99 SRP in Canada.


text:
- Find tickets from 4 dollars to Miami Marlins at New York Mets on Monday September 23 at 7:10 pm at Citi Field in Flushing, NY
- Find tickets from 4 dollars to Miami Marlins at New York Mets on Tuesday September 24 at 7:10 pm at Citi Field in Flushing, NY
- Find tickets from 4 dollars to Miami Marlins at New York Mets on Wednesday September 25 at 7:10 pm at Citi Field in Flushing, NY
- Find tickets from 4 dollars to Miami Marlins at New York Mets on Thursday September 26 at 7:10 pm at Citi Field in Flushing, NY
- Find tickets from 3 dollars to Miami Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies on Friday September 27 at 7:05 pm at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA
- Find tickets from 8 dollars to Miami Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday September 28 at 6:05 pm at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA
- Find tickets from 8 dollars to Miami Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday September 29 at 3:05 pm at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA
The fans have spoken
Andy P.
"The value and quality compared to competitors is far more superior."
Kelsey R.
"I love how easy and fast the website works. They have some of the lowest prices around."
Evan M.
"Very easy to use. There's no hidden fees so you know exactly how much each ticket is."
Miami Marlins Details
Miami Marlins
The Marlins joined the National League as an expansion team in 1993. They were called the Florida Marlins until the 2012 season. When they moved to their current home at Marlins Park, the team updated its look and changed its name to the Miami Marlins.
The Marlins have qualified for the playoffs twice — in 1997 and 2003 — both times as a wild card team. But the Marlins made the most of their two trips to the postseason. They won the World Series both times. In 2003, the Marlins were able to rebound from a poor start after replacing manager Jeff Torborg with Jack McKeon. The Marlins faced the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Yankees' payroll was over $100 million larger than the young Marlins team. But the Marlins, with players like World Series MVP Josh Beckett and future hall of fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, were able to upset the Yankees in six games.
In 2017, the Marlins hosted the MLB All Star Game and placed second in the National League East. Although the Marlins did not make the playoffs, the team still had an exciting season. Edinson Volquez threw a no-hitter at home against the Diamondbacks, and Giancarlo Stanton kept hitting home runs. He became the first player since 2013 to hit over 50 HRs and finished the season with 59. Stanton was named the National League MVP after the end of the season.
An ownership group led by Yankees legend Derek Jeter purchased the Marlins in the offseason for $1.2 billion. Since the new group took over, the Marlins have made some roster changes – most notably trading Stanton to the Yankees.
How to buy Miami Marlins tickets
SeatGeek is the best way to browse, find, and buy Miami Marlins tickets.
- Browse the above listings of Marlins games to find a game you would like to attend. Once you find the perfect date and matchup, click on the green button on the right hand side of the screen to see all available tickets for that game.
- Next, explore all available tickets on the left hand side of the screen. Filters at the bottom of the page allow tickets to be sorted by price, or by SeatGeek's Deal Score feature, which ranks tickets by value and tells you exactly how good of a deal you're looking at. On the right hand side, you can explore SeatGeek's interactive stadium and arena maps to find the perfect seating section, and to get a preview of what a view from a seat in that section will look like.
- To buy a ticket, click the ticket listing and you will be directed to SeatGeek's checkout process to complete the information fields.
- SeatGeek will process your order and deliver your Miami Marlins tickets.
When do Marlins playoff tickets go on sale?
If the Marlins make the MLB Playoffs, playoff tickets should go on sale shortly after, typically in September or October. Be sure to sign up for an account so you can get alerts about Marlins playoff tickets!
Miami Marlins schedule
For a list of upcoming Marlins games, feel free to browse the game listings above.
How much do Marlins tickets cost?
SeatGeek has the widest selection of tickets on the web, offering Marlins tickets for every fan at every price point. Typically, Marlins tickets start at about $15. Visit our Marlins Ticket Prices page for more information.
Marlins Game Experience
SeatGeek asked thousands of MLB fans to weigh in on their baseball stadium experiences, rating atmosphere, in-stadium food, and bathrooms. Marlins Park was ranked #23 for atmosphere, #22 for food, and #10 for bathrooms.
Marlins fans can browse the full Marlins Park Stadium Guide or check out how other MLB stadiums measured up on our MLB Stadium Guide page.
Miami Marlins Top Matchups
Miami Marlins Ticket Prices
|Average Ticket Price
TBA News
August 1, 2018
5 Ways To Get Cheap Miami Marlins Tickets
*Use code TBA10MLB for $10 off your purchase of $50 or more* Tickets for Miami Marlins games can get pricey. That doesn't mean fans have to blow their summer savings trying to catch a game. Instead, use these top 5 suggestions to save money on Marlins tickets this summer. #1. Head to a Weekday Game When searching…
October 26, 2017
The 4 Most Memorable Stand-In Performances in Sports
In an ideal situation, most professional sports teams have a deep enough bench to cover when a player gets injured or is otherwise unable to play. Backup quarterbacks, point guards, pitchers--you name it, teams have it. But occasionally a team simply runs out of players who are normally able to fill in for a position,…
Related Teams
This image is available through Creative Commons and has been modified from the original. Email firstname.lastname@example.com with any questions.


text:
When Nora Dunn sold her financial planning practice, along with everything else she owned in 2007 to follow her dream of full-time travel, she knew she wanted to share her adventure. Theprofessionalhobo.com, Dunn's web site, chronicles how she's managed to travel full time in a financially-sustainable manner for over four years. In addition to freelance [...]
You are here: Home / Archives for long term travel
How to Be a Professional Hobo
January 5, 2012 By Myscha Theriault


text:
A group of Republican senators is asking Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to get tough with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez over what they say are the South American leftist's accelerating human rights abuses.
Citing a "deepening deterioration of human rights and democracy in Venezuela" that they claim could destabilize the country and have "serious consequences" for US interests, the senators want Secretary Clinton to test the regional appetite for invoking the Organization of American States' Democratic Charter against Venezuela, an OAS member.
The senators may also be seeking to test the Obama administration's own appetite for initiating a confrontation with Venezuela. The administration has generally applied a pragmatic approach to Mr. Chávez and sought to tone down the rhetorical war that periodically flares between the two countries.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Clinton, the senators list several examples of "worsening conditions" for Venezuela's civil society and political opposition, including the December arrest and ongoing detention of a judge whose parole of a jailed business leader infuriated Chávez. The letter also cites the "judicial harassment" of Globovision, considered Venezuela's sole remaining independent TV station, and a February report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights detailing numerous examples of rights violations in Venezuela.
Signing the two-page letter were Republican lawmakers George LeMieux of Florida, Tom Coburn and James Inhofe of Oaklahoma, John Ensign of Nevada, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, and James Risch of Idaho. Joining the Republican senators was Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
While many human rights organizations have reported on a deterioration of certain rights in Venezuela under Chávez, some experts say the situation reflects a trend existing in other countries in the region. And they see little regional desire or unity for addressing the attacks on rights.
The letter is a "cry of frustration" about Venezuela, but one with little chance of finding an enthusiastic reception in the region, says Eric Farnsworth, vice-president of the Council of the Americas in Washington.
"Unless and until the hemispheric community develops a more effective response to the slow erosion of democracy in the region," he says, "we're going to see these signs of frustration continue."
Mr. Farnsworth sees little prospect of the OAS invoking its Democratic Charter, created in 2001, against Venezuela. That's especially true, he adds, in light of the hemispheric organization's inability to resolve its differences over the status of Honduras.
The US has sought the reinstatement of Honduras to the OAS, after the Central American country was ousted in 2009 over a military coup. The US argues that elections resulting in a new president mean Honduras deserves readmission, but other countries – including Venezuela – insist full "democracy" must first be restored.
The senators' letter will draw fresh attention to the region's unequal response to threats to democracy – and perhaps a fiery reaction from Chávez – but probably little else, Farnsworth says.
"There's been an open question for about a year over why the hemispheric community would come down like a ton of bricks on Honduras, but pay no attention to other signs of the deterioration of democracy, whether in Venezuela or in Honduras's next-door neighbor, Nicaragua," he says.
Another factor is that the Obama administration is unlikely to relish disturbing the pragmatic approach it's developed toward Venezuela, particularly in matters involving the energy sector, Farnsworth says.
"They've made an effort not to antagonize the Venezuelan regime," he says, "so it seems doubtful that seeking action from an unresponsive hemispheric community is the first thing Secretary Clinton is going to want to do."


text:
Captain's Report
By Capt. Steve--
Mission Statement
With a standard 40-hp engine, the mission of the Sun Tracker Fishin' Barge 20 DLX is all about relaxing on the water. Think calm rides across Golden Pond, except without Jane Fonda. Since most of us find a day in the shade with a fishing pole to be as relaxing as lunch on the water, the fishing features are icing on the cake.
Major Features
• 24" (60.96 cm) high-buoyancy, multi-chambered pontoon logs• Bow and aft fishing positions with 3 fold-down fishing chairs• Fore and aft rod holders• Molded fiberglass console with removable windscreen• AM/FM/CD with MP3 jack and 2 speakers (accepts optional Sirius Satellite Radio package)• Aft molded compartment with livewell with shutoff valve, drink holder, rod holder, composite lid with ruler and battery storage• Aft boarding platform with non-skid surface and oversized boarding ladder with large handrails• Color-keyed 7' (2.13 m) polyester Bimini top with LED courtesy light and changing curtain• Marine-grade carpet throughout and dual-latching gates that open inward• Optional Fish Package: Lowrance fishfinder, MotorGuide trolling motor with remote and trolling motor harness
Features Walkthrough
Time to Relax
The more sedate times on the Sun Tracker Fishin' Barge 20 DLX start with the standard 7' (2.13 m) Bimini top. This will surely make the difference between enjoying a day on the water and enduring one. Once on the hook, fire up the optional rail mounted gas grill and get ready for snack at the standard pedestal table. Play some "Moon River" on the standard stereo with MP3 connectivity.
Time to Fish
Two livewells, one under the starboard couch, and another at the aft deck, will keep bait fresh. There are 3 fishing chairs constructed from composite materials. They feature pinchless hinges and secure to the base with screw-in pedestals. Rail mounted rod, drink and tool holders are a convenient standard item and they're additional vertical rod holders fore and aft. For those wanting to get a little more serious about fishing, an optional package includes a Lowrance X-4 fishfinder and a 55-lb. thrust trolling motor.
Time to get wet
Some may not be into relaxing as much, and in that case the Sun Tracker Fishin' Barge 20 DLX can turn up the heat on watersports. Go ahead and opt up to a 75-hp OptiMax outboard for more speed and then get ready to drop the boards or tubes into the water. An optional ski tower will raise the tow-point up. Maybe even swap out the 22-oz marine grade carpet with a vinyl floor and snap-in carpet for easier cleanups.
The 20 DLX is operated from a helm that has a padded storage shelf for smaller "stuff". The standard sport wheel has burlwood accents that match the accents on the dash. The windscreen is removable, but we'd consider it more of being replaceable.
The following items are part of the Sun Tracker Warranty --
Ten-Year Bow-to-Stern Warranty
-- that means factory-installed workmanship and materials are covered for ten years from the time of purchase, including electrical components, livewells and plumbing, carpet and vinyl, furniture, Bimini top and much more. Your engine is covered by the Mercury manufacturer's warranty.
Lifetime Limited Structural and Deck Warranty
-- provides coverage for pontoon logs, motor pod, other structural elements including deck supports, perimeter fence rails and gates, and more, for the life of the boat.
Transferability to Second Owner
-- the resale value of your boat can be enhanced by provisions to transfer warranty elements to a second owner. Your Sun Tracker dealer can help you put applicable elements into effect when you are ready.
One-stop Warranty Resolution
-- 10+LIFE coverage offers a one-stop solution, eliminating the need to pursue separate warranties with component manufacturers.
Full Coverage During Warranty Period
-- means there is no pro-rating, or reduction of your coverage over time. So the peace of mind you enjoy at the outset carries throughout your coverage period.
In addition, Sun Tracker even backs its optional trailers by warranting the Galvashield steel tubing against structural failure due to corrosion for three years!
While the Sun Tracker Fishin' Barge 20 DLX can be put into action, we like to think of this boat catering to the opposite end of the spectrum. The quiet times spent at slower speeds and enjoying the time spent on the water. With a starting price of $18,395, it's almost enjoyable to pay for too!
Standard and Optional Features
Marine Electronics
|CD Stereo
|Shore Power
Exterior Features
|Carpet: Cockpit
|Outlet: 12-Volt Acc
|Swim Ladder
|Tower: Watersports
|Bimini Top
Deck Warranty
|Limited Lifetime Yes http://www.suntrackerboats.com/about/warranty.cfm
(It's quick and FREE!)


text:
Liverpool face bianconeri battle over Brazilian midfielder
Brought to you by
Liverpool face competition from Juventus in the race to sign Brazilian defensive midfielder Fernando Reges, according to reports.
The Daily Mail reported last Saturday that Reds boss Kenny Dalglish had taken an interest in the 26-year-old, who plies his domestic trade with FC Porto in the Primeira Liga.
Reports in the same publication now claim that Juventus have joined the race for the player though, and 'jumped to the head of the queue' to sign Reges after tabling a £6 million plus player offer.
Despite the bid being rejected, the paper warns Liverpool that the Serie 'A' giants could return with an improved offer for the player in January.
Liverpool have been linked with a handful of players in the holding-midfield role following injury to Lucas Leiva, with the 24-year-old set to miss the rest of the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Whilst Jay Spearing is regarded as the natural replacement currently on the books at Anfield, manager Dalglish is being tipped to raid the transfer market when the window re-opens in the New Year.
The Scot has been coy over any moves the Merseyside outfit might make, but Lassana Diarra, Seydou Keita and Yann M'Vila have all been mentioned as possible Liverpool targets.News Now - Sport News


text:
Sunday Sweets: Threadcakes 2011 Final
Threadcakes 2011 is wrapping up this week, so let's take a final look at some more of the amazing entries, shall we?
As before, we'll start with the shirt design, followed by the cakey re-creation. Links go to the creator's page on Threadcakes.
I have a particular affinity for this design, since John just bought the shirt for himself last week:
"Doctor Hoo"
By Margaret Hoar Aaaamazing.
Now I'm not going to say anything else, because I picked WAY too many favorites to show you today, and I can't bear to cut any more. So, enjoy:
"Bountiful Catch"
"Together Again"
"The Fox Confessor"
By Ashlee Perkins of Minette Rushing Custom Cakes
"Recording Seal"
By Kelly Alexander of The Cake Studio
"M aw"
By Erin Toews
"Happy Accident"
By Saahna Bryan of Saahna Cakes
This one made me laugh:
"Work of the Genius"
By Megan Maller
If I were some kind of metal-working genius, I would totally make one of these for my desk. (Even though there's no way it could look as good as this cake. WANT.)
"Second Sun"
Check out that hand-painting!
"My Playtree"
By Tom Nutter of The BIG Time Cake Company
By Jamie Manos
So. Cute.
"Pistols at Dawn"
By Ann Bailey
"Nature Photography"
By Carly Geehr; click here for more of her work.
This is only a small sampling of the Threadcakes entries, by the way. Check the gallery here for lots more. And if you'd like to submit your own cake, hop to it! The deadline is tomorrow!
Have a Sweet to nominate? Then send it to Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wreck [dot] com.


text:
Local health-care organizations will continue to battle with increased demand for services and decreased financial stability well into 2009.
Health-care organizations will continue to battle with increased demand for services and decreased financial stability well into 2009.
Health-care workers in Boone and Winnebago counties earned more than $1 billion in 2007, according to data released this week from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The local health-care payroll has increased 37 percent since 2001.
At the same time, health-care groups are faced with unique financial challenges magnified by the recent recession and increased cost of care.
Rockford Health System and Advocate Health Care, the state's largest health-care provider, entered merger talks during the first week of December. Both groups have committed to talk for 120 days, taking them through April.
Mergers and acquisitions have become attractive plans for nonprofit hospitals, according to Moody's Investors Service, to offer better access to capital.
Crusader Clinic changed its name to Crusader Community Health this year to reflect its broader reach of service, including the increased load of patients who have lost employer-based health insurance.
Crusader's patients in 2009 will see a new electronic health record system, new providers and a new prescription drug program for its sliding-scale patients.
SwedishAmerican Health System is tightening its spending heading into 2009 by trimming overtime and capital spending, and the leadership team, which includes CEOs and vice presidents, is taking a 5 percent salary reduction from January to May.
"Health care in the past has been somewhat immune to economic downturn, but with the current recession, nobody has been unaffected," said Don Haring, vice president of finance for SwedishAmerican Health System.
Several expansion projects approved and financed before the economy turned sour will see progress in early 2009. SwedishAmerican is completing a $20 million renovation of the old Highland Hospital in Belvidere, and OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center will open its Center for Health-Rock Cut during the first week of January.
Rockford Health Physicians, part of Rockford Health System, is expanding its clinic in Winnebago to meet the increased need of the village's growing population. The expansion is expected to be finished by May 1 or sooner.
The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford enters its second phase of construction on a new pharmacy school next year and will begin accepting applications for the inaugural 2010 class by summer.
College Dean Martin Lipsky said it's a challenging time for the organization, which is expected to face a mid-year budget rescission of 8 percent, which means a loss of about $600,000 in state funding. Lipsky said leaders are aggressively pursuing grants and new contracts.
"We're not going to sit still, though," Lipsky said. "We still plan to look at ways of meeting and enhancing ways of meeting our mission."
The college is looking to bring in new researchers in the areas of infectious disease and cancer, regionalize the cancer center in Rockford with an emphasis on cancer prevention strategies and unveil an electronic records system.
Health-care organizations will be tested financially for the next several years, said John Frana, president of theFranaGroup, a Rockford-based health-care consulting firm.
Moody's Investors Service said this month that each of the main health-care sectors — including nonprofit and for-profit hospitals — has a negative outlook for the coming year, driven by the economic downturn.
"Most of them, if they can stay financially flat, they'll probably be very happy," Frana said of the local health-care systems.
Melissa Westphal can be reached at (815) 987-1341 or email@example.com.


text:
With one of the most successful careers in pop music history on her resume, is Mariah Carey thinking about expanding her personal life?
"I'd want to be in a position to handle that as well as possible," the star told USA Today of the possibility of having children, or adopting, with husband Nick Cannon.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Daring! Dramatic! Fabulous! Hot Shots Of Hollywood's Divas
It was marrying Nick in 2008 after a whirlwind romance that helped change her priorities.
"I wasted my time with stuff that wasn't really real, in my personal life," Mariah said. "I was always more focused on my career. But now I have this support system."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood's Hottest Couples!
Still, the singer's still looking forward to her next professional projects – a role in Oscar hopeful "Precious" and a new album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel."
"There's a little bit of almost every album I've done on this new one," Mariah said of the new album, due September 29. "It's like I put everything in a blender and made drinks for my friends. They're festive drinks, though some are bittersweet. I'm at such a good place in my life, and that allows me to be honest. And to enjoy things."
Her role in "Precious," the story of an obese teenager abused by her parents, was less festival — and far from her usual glamorous image.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Mariah Carey: From 'Dreamlover' To 'Heartbreaker'
"I was like, keep me away from every mirror!" she said. "But [director] Lee [Daniels] gave me several gifts. He gave me what I needed to get to the truth of this woman, and he gave me a certain lack of self-consciousness. Because you can't be self-conscious and look like that."
Mariah had less positive things to say about her 2001 musical film, "Glitter," which she said "burned" her on the genre. Still, the confident diva said she might be ready to try it again.
"It would have to be with an incredible director, someone who's really a genius," she said. "Because I've been burned by that."
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
PLAY IT NOW: 2009 Toronto Film Festival: Mariah Carey - 'I Can't Express How 'Precious' This Movie Is'
PLAY IT NOW: Nick Cannon Talks Mariah Carey's Performance At Michael Jackson Memorial
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Mariah Carey - Couples - Movies - Pop - Nick Cannon


text:
Our telescopic gym bleachers and platforms allow you to seat big crowds or extend just one bleacher, and everything in-between.
From stadiums to lecture halls, our fixed seating solutions are the perfect fit for your facility.
Clarin by Hussey Seating offers premium portable seating and folding chairs for every event.
Safety is our priority and yours. A certified Hussey Seating service provider makes the difference.
Design: Pringle Brandon Architects. Hussey Seatway Winged Platform with integral fold down Gallery Chairs.


text:
Skip to Main Content »
You have no items to compare.
Animax Ointment 7.5 ml
Chlorpheniramine 4 mg 100 tablets
Diphenhydramine (Benadryl)
Equishield IR Shampoo 12oz
Gentocin Topical Spray, 72 ml
Hydroxyzine HCl Tab Bottle of 100
Hydroxyzine Hydrochloride Tab 10mg, Bottle of 100
Hydroxyzine Pamoate Capsules 50mg
Methylprednisolone Tab 4mg, Box of 21
Mitaban, 10.6 ml
Resicort Leave-On Lotion 8oz
ResiSOOTHE Leave-On Lotion 8oz
13 Item(s)
You have no items in your shopping cart.
Questions: Please call ThrivingPets.com at (303) 333-1899. The content on ThrivingPets.com is for information purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary care. Please consult your licensed veterinary professional for medical advice before starting, stopping, or changing treatments. ThrivingPets.com medications, supplements, and supplies are not intended for use in food and food-producing animals. Returns are only accepted on over-the-counter medications that are pre-authorized by ThrivingPets.com and are subject to a 10% restocking fee and are net of all shipping and handling costs. State pharmacy law prohibits accepting returns of all prescription items and opened over-the-counter medications, as a result ThrivingPets will not accept returns on these items. All orders canceled by the purchaser prior to shipping will be charged a 10% cancellation fee. By placing an order with ThrivingPets.com you agree to be bound by the terms of the ThrivingPets.com Return and Order Cancellation Policies..
Please wait...


text:
Dems caught in Obamacare uproar
It's not the GOP that President Barack Obama has to worry about in defending his botched health care rollout, it's fellow Democrats.
They voted for the law, sang its praises for three-plus years and still believe in the promise of health care reform. But now they face a conundrum: stay in lock step with Obama and risk their credibility as advocates for the law's benefits or publicly criticize the administration for its recent problems — especially a failure to more quickly acknowledge, and rectify, the major malfunction of its Internet marketplace.
Story Continued Below
It's a particularly vexing question for Democrats worried about their party's chances in the 2014 midterm elections, and, increasingly, they're opting for the latter strategy.
( Obamacare guide: POLITICO's guide to the ACA)
"What has happened is unacceptable in terms of the glitches," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on ABC's "This Week." "They were overwhelmed to begin with. There is much that needs to be done to correct the situation." It was the second time in a week that Pelosi had gone public with her dismay over the implementation of a law that she carried to enactment by winning tough votes on the House floor in 2009 and '10.
With the shutdown and debt limit fight over, there is already more attention on the failure to get the website running smoothly. This week will offer a critical test for the Democratic unity seen this month on the fiscal issues. Republicans have already pivoted from their failure to defund Obamacare to calling for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to resign. They are also criticizing her for refusing to appear at a House Energy and Commerce
Committee hearing Thursday.
( Also on POLITICO: Tech 'surge' to tackle Obamacare websites)
The White House is scrambling to show that it is addressing the concerns. Obama will discuss the rollout Monday morning in the Rose Garden, and "directly address the technical problems with HealthCare.gov," a White House official said. And HHS announced Sunday that it is calling on the "best and brightest" tech experts it can find to help repair the flawed website.
The site has received nearly 20 million visits since it opened Oct. 1, and nearly 500,000 people have created applications in the federal and state exchanges, the administration says — although officials won't say how many people have actually completed the process of buying a plan, or break down how many people tried to enroll through state-run exchanges versus the federal website.
"I can guarantee you that the efforts around the clock that have been under way since the launch of HealthCare.gov will continue, at the president's insistence and direction," White House press secretary Jay Carney said last week, later adding that there's more to Obamacare than one Internet portal. "It's important to remember the website alone is not the Affordable Care Act."
White House officials declined requests for interviews and did not reply to emailed questions for this story.
While the administration is urging patience, Democrats who will face voters in a little over a year don't have the luxury of time. They're having to make decisions now about how to position themselves if the administration continues to struggle with implementing the central piece of a law they supported.
Democratic political strategists are racing to find the safest ground for 2014 House and Senate candidates who support the law but don't want to be dragged down if things don't get better — and fast. "Democrats running in 2014 need to be for fixing health care and need to run hard against those that want to repeal and defund it. They shouldn't own responsibility for problems with the law or its implementation," said one Democratic Party operative.
In another potentially troubling sign for the White House, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Sebelius will, at some point, have to testify on the Hill.
Several Democrats told POLITICO they aren't getting good answers either, even in private.
The early signs suggest a rocky path for the White House in holding off Democratic criticism.


text:
The author of Where the Wild Things Are picked Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) to direct the long-planned film of the much-loved children's book. But whatever Maurice Sendak thought the quixotic Jonze would bring to the movie -- a penetrating understanding of the thin, allegorical picture book, perhaps -- what Jonze delivers, with a script by Dave Eggers, is not a children's movie at all. This dull, downbeat, yet faithful adaptation has become a Sesame Street of the Spotless Mind.
Max Records plays Max, a kid who should be beyond donning his old whiskered wolf suit and terrorizing his mom (Catherine Keener). In a wintry opening built around an ends-in-tears snowball fight with his sister's teenage friends, Max comes off as an impulsive, hyper and self-centered brat. But he's sensitive enough to escape to his plush-toy filled room, and to oblige with a fanciful tale when his hard-pressed single mom sighs, "I could use a story."
But a tantrum in the middle of mom's date (Mark Ruffalo, in a cameo) reveals Max for the Beastly Boy he is.
"FEED me, woman! Roaaar!"
He bolts from the house, and in his funny costume, stumbles across a sailboat that takes him far away, to the island Where the Wild Things Are.
Jonze creates a vivid organic trees-and-stones setting for this Island of Lost Muppets. They're a sensitive tribe with bad tempers, fragile egos and easily hurt feelings. Max has only to exaggerate his status in the world, and his roar, to convince the plush beasts -- voiced by James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O'Hara, Paul Dano and Oscar winners Forest Whitaker and Chris Cooper -- that he's their king. Since he promises to end loneliness and create warm, welcoming sleeping piles of wild things, they go along with him.
"Let the wild rumpus begin!"
If only.
The movie lets Max and the Wild Things allegorically work out worries about relationships, family and mortality. They also build this cool stick fort of Max's design, but even it gets in the way of their togetherness. Jonze and Eggers fret so much over the group dynamic (Carol, the natural leader, can't win over K.W., a cute beast with an aversion to selfish bullying) that they leave out the warmth, the magic of discovery and the whimsy. No wonder Warners made them re-shoot this movie, which was supposed to come out in March of 2008. Jonze plainly didn't re-shoot enough. Only the romping, wistful childhood-remembered songs by Karen Orzolek (Karen O.) come close to capturing the right tone.
As a children's film, it's a bore. And as a grand film enterprise, Where the Wild Things Are skirts the line between folly and fiasco. It's far too striking and thoughtful to dismiss outright. But it is literal and dour enough to make you wonder just why this book has the reputation it does, and what on Earth the author was thinking in pitching it to Jonze. He got so lost in the "things" that he's left the "wild" and the fun out.


text:
Icy roads are causing massive gridlock and traffic delays across Tuscaloosa County.
Many Tuscaloosa businesses, schools and government offices closed within hours of one another, causing a midday rush hour that created some of the most hazardous driving conditions Tuscaloosa has seen in years.
A freak winter storm forced some students to spend the night at their schools and disrupted commutes for thousands of others as icy roads caused massive gridlock, wrecks and traffic delays across Tuscaloosa County on Tuesday.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox announced via Twitter Tuesday that he would declare all roads and streets in the city limits impassable because of worsening conditions that were expected to continue into today.
A two-vehicle wreck late Tuesday morning near mile marker 75 on Alabama Highway 5 near Marion in Perry County claimed the life of Emma Evans, 64, of Birmingham. Preliminary investigation by the Alabama State Troopers indicates the weather may have been a factor.
Two people were killed in an accident involving a vehicle and a train, although it hadn't been determined late Tuesday whether the accident was weather-related.
The amount of snow took many by surprise after meteorologists predicted a light dusting for the area. Overnight Monday, however, the model shifted northward. Between an inch and three inches ended up falling in Tuscaloosa and surrounding counties Tuesday.
Many Tuscaloosa businesses, schools and government offices closed within hours of one another Tuesday, causing a midday rush hour that created some of the most hazardous driving conditions Tuscaloosa has seen in years. As of 5 p.m., 120 accidents had been reported in the area, according to the city of Tuscaloosa's recovery operations department.
"We're dealing with a situation where everything closed almost simultaneously," Maddox said around noon.
It took hours for children to be transported from schools due to poor road conditions. Some didn't make it home.
County school officials said 25-30 children remained at Lake View Elementary overnight, 6-8 at Brookwood Middle School and fewer than 10 at Brookwood High School.
School officials said the students were safe and were being supervised. They said school buses could not get the students home or parents were unable to pick children up because of icy roads.
Temperatures aren't expected to rise above freezing today, meaning roads will remain icy and dangerous until late Thursday morning. The University of Alabama, University of West Alabama, Shelton State College and Tuscaloosa city and county schools canceled classes Wednesday. The city of Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County District and Circuit courts and many retail business will also be closed.
"Whatever is on the ground right now is likely to be there until we get above freezing late Thursday morning," Kristina Sumrall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham, said Tuesday afternoon. "People absolutely need to stay home if they can."
In addition to the two fatalities, three people were critically injured after their vehicle was struck by a train in Coaling. Alabama State Troopers are investigating the accident, but had no further information Tuesday afternoon.
DCH Regional Medical Center spokesman Brad Fisher said the hospital's emergency room was full of people seeking treatment after the series of ice-related fender-benders
Maddox said a planning meeting of the city's Incident Command on Monday prepared the city staff for the threat of inclement weather but not for the scale of what actually arrived.
Overwhelmed with calls, law enforcement officers began responding only to accidents that involved injuries. Officers were marking vehicles with flagging tape and moving on if no one was hurt.
The Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office reported that its 911 call takers received 363 calls between 9 a.m. and noon. The department reported that officers were working at least 90 traffic accidents in Tuscaloosa County around mid-morning.
Motorists reported travel times of hours just to get across town. It took schools hours to transport students from their campuses and residents to make it home. Some residents of neighborhoods north of the Lake Tuscaloosa dam were stuck because New Watermelon Road was closed. The Alabama Department of Transportation closed several roads, including Alabama Highway 171 and Highway 216 and portions of Interstate 20/59. The Tuscaloosa Bypass closed early Tuesday morning after snow began to accumulate.
"We have had several situations today where the traffic was stopped due to a crash," Dee Rowe, 5th Division engineer for ALDOT, said. "The crash that occurred on the Northbound I-59 bridge over the Black Warrior River damaged the bridge.
"First the bridge had to be cleared of the wreck, but then traffic was not allowed back on the bridge until our bridge inspectors could inspect it and deem it safe for the traffic."
Eastbound U.S. Highway 82 east of town was closed for a period of time due to a truck not being able to make it up a hill, Rowe said.
"Because I-359 is all bridge, it became impassable fairly early (Tuesday afternoon)," Rowe said.
Interstate traffic was at a standstill in many locations. More than 100 vehicles were stranded on Alabama Highway 69 North between Carroll's Creek Church and the Four Winds Drive Tuesday afternoon, said Lt. Andy Norris of the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office.
The city's 311 information line had answered 1,183 calls as of 3:45 p.m.
For now, the Tuscaloosa Department of Transportation is sanding streets on a priority basis, Maddox said. TDOT had used more than 200 cubic yards of sand as of 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Residents can assist City Hall in further prioritizing street clearing needs by calling 311 or, once it closes, the Tuscaloosa Police Department's non-emergency line at 205-349-2121.
"We encourage anyone who has an issue to call us. Don't assume we know," Maddox said. "It's still a challenge considering we have tens of thousands vehicles on the roadways.
Staff Writers Jason Morton, Jamon Smith and Patrick Rupinski contributed to this report.


text:
10 Unanswered Questions of 9/11
OK, so you got this one conspiracy theorist in a tin-foil hat who came out the other day with a wild claim that the CIA engaged in a massive cover-up concerning what it knew about al-Qaeda hijackers in America before 9/11.
Then you got this other conspiracy "whack job" who wrote a book claiming that top officials with the North American Air Defemse, or NORAD, lied to investigators about what really happened that morning.
Sigh. Those darn "9/11 truthers."
Actually, no.
The first tin-foil hat guy is actually Richard Clarke, who was chief of America's anti-terrorism efforts under both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The second is John Farmer, who was counsel to the 9/11 Commission and is currently dean of the law school at Rutgers.
The point being this: If you think that on the 10th anniversary you know the whole story of 9/11 — and here I'm talking to conspiracy-minded "truthers" AND the 13 percent who approved of the job Dick Cheney did as vice president — well…you don't.
Time has upheld the broad story line of how hijackers loyal to Osama bin Laden hijacked four planes and killed nearly 3,000 people ten years ago this week — claims about holograms attacking buildings instead of jetliners notwithstanding. At the same time, the dictum of famed investigative reporter I.F. Stone about all governments — i.e., they lie — is no less true about 9/11 than any other event.
With that in mind, here are 10 questions about 9/11 that remain unanswered.
1. Did the CIA cover up its advance knowledge of at least two of the 9/11 hijackers?
Clarke, the national counter-terrorism czar on Sept. 11, 2001, thinks there was. In an interview for an upcoming 9/11 radio documentary, Clarke leveled the explosive charge that top-level CIA officials deliberately withheld from the White House and the FBI its knowledge that as early as 2000 that two al-Qaeda members — Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar — were living in San Diego under their own names.
The former anti-terror chief said he believes that the CIA kept the info under wraps because it believes it could recruit the two Saudis to serve as double agents within Bin Laden's organization; instead, the two terrorists ended up hijackers on American Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, killing 59 on the plane and 125 on the ground.
Clarke told the documentary filmmakers he would have arrested the two immediately — "We would have found those assholes." he said, adding "There's no doubt in my mind, even with only a week left — and that might have thwarted the attacks. George Tenet, who was CIA director, claims that Clarke is "reckless and profoundly wrong."
Meanwhile, the truth is out there.
2. How strong is the connection between the 9/11 site clean-up and cancer, other diseases?
While the precise answer will never be known, the evidence continues to mount that exposure to toxic dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center is making some New York firefighters, cops, and other first responders very, very sick.
Last week, Dr. David Prezant of the Fire Department of the City of New York published research in the prestigious medical journal Lancet showing that male firefighters who responded to 9/11 now have a cancer rate that's 19 percent higher than co-workers who were not exposed. That comes on top of earlier reports of higher rates of asthma and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, among the responders at Ground Zero.
Indeed, the real questions about 9/11 responders in health is a) why was the Bush administration so lax in issuing warnings about the toxicity of the site in the days immediately after the attack and b) why did it take a comedian, Jon Stewart, to shame Congress into finally funding a health care bill for the ailing heroes of Ground Zero?
3. Who was really in charge on the morning of 9/11 – Bush or Cheney?
There was always something weird about how George W. Bush and Dick Cheney dealt with the bipartisan 9/11 Commission that probed the attacks. Although the then-president and vice president agreed to be interviewed by investigators, it was with the odd condition that they be interviewed together and there would be no transcript.
The issue may have been this: The administration's claim that at some point shortly after the initial 9/11 attacks, Bush — who had been speaking at a school in Sarasota, Fla. — gave Cheney the verbal OK for an order to shoot down hijacked planes if necessary, which Cheney then passed down the chain of command from the White House command center.
But while there are detailed records of other 9/11 calls, there's no record of the critical Bush-Cheney conversation. In 2006, Newsweek reported that "none of the [9/11 Commission] staffers who worked on this aspect of the investigation believed Cheney's version of events" about the call — but bureaucratic wrangling kept that out of the final report.
In his new autobiography In My Time, Cheney insists the call took place but added more mystery when he admits he urged Bush not to rush back to the White House. Was that for the president's safety, or did the man that some aides called "Edgar" — after famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen — have other motives?
4. Why did NORAD mislead investigators on why its planes didn't intercept the 9/11 hijackers?
In the days following the 2001 attacks, military officials assured the public that while none of the four hijacked planes were ultimately intercepted, it did get planes in the air quickly and was ready to shoot down the final plane, United Flight 93, if it had approached the Pentagon instead of crashing into a field near Shanksville, Pa.
Investigators for the 9/11 Commission concluded that none of that was true and that even provided false information — claiming for example that it responded to the Flight 93 hijacking at 9:16 a.m., for example, when tapes proved the jet wasn't even hijacked until 12 minutes later. The Washington Post reported in 2006 that commission staffers debated referring their suspicions to the Justice Department for a possible criminal probe of a cover-up.
"I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described," Farmer, the top lawyer for the commission, told the newspaper, and he later wrote a book called Higher Ground that detailed some of the deceptions. But why did they lie?
Most likely it was to cover up incompetence and nothing more, but without a further investigation — unlikely at this point — we may never know the answer.
5.Did top Saudi officials provide financial support for the hijackers?
The final 9/11 Commission report in 2004 delved deeply into some areas, but an entire 28-page section was blacked out — the section that dealt with the sensitive area of 9/11 and Saudi Arabia, the nation that was birthplace to 15 out of the 19 hijackers.
In a new book called The Eleventh Day, the investigative reporters Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan make a compelling argument that the Saudi royal family was paying what amounted to "protection money" to bin Laden as early as 1995 and that there may have been contacts between Saudi representatives in the United States and some of the hijackers in the months leading up to 9/11.
In July 2002, three Saudi royals met bizarre deaths with a week of each other — allegedly after they had been named in the interrogation of a captured al-Qaeda member, Abu Zubaydah. Coincidence? History may be the final judge.
6. Who killed five Americans with anthrax in the fall of 2001?
Adding to the national sense of dread right after 9/11 was news that a highly lethal strain of anthrax had been mailed to Democratic senators and members of the news media, killing five people who somehow came into contact with the deadly letters.
The initial belief was that the attacks were linked either to al-Qaeda or Iraq's Saddam Hussein, but forensics showed the biological weapon came from American stockpiles. One U.S. researcher was publicly named, then exonerated, and is now suing. In 2008, the government announced that its prime suspect — a scientist at Maryland's Fort Detrick named Bruce Ivins — had committed suicide and that the case is considered closed.
But is it? Remarkably, a disputed U.S. Justice Department filing just this August claimed Ivins didn't have access to the equipment that would be needed to execute the attacks, causing some members of Congress to call for a new probe.
7. Did Pakistan's notorious spy agency, the ISI, support the 9/11 hijackers?
In the days after 9/11, there were numerous reports of links between the ISI — longtime supporters of Afghanistan's Taliban which had sheltered bin Laden before 9/11 — and the hijackers. For example, al-Qaeda suspect Zybaydah — who fingered top Saudis — also named a high-ranking Pakistani air force officer Mushaf Ali Mir — who died in a plane crash in 2003 (sound familiar?)
Most of these questions are still unanswered and probably won't be, given the sensitive relationship between America and nuclear-armed Pakistan. But it didn't clear things up when bin Laden was found hiding in Pakistan, where he was killed this year.
8. Why did so many Bush officials fixate on Iraq in the hours after the attacks?
Despite a lack of concrete evidence tying Saddam Hussein's Iraq to 9/11. Bush administration officials looked immediately toward Baghdad. Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld questioned whether to "hit S.H." — Saddam — "at the same time" while the Pentagon was still on fire, and Bush pressed Clarke on whether there was an Iraqi connection.
Ten years later, U.S. troops are still in Iraq…but why? Was the motivation purely oil, or revenge for Saddam's assassination plot toward Bush's dad, or an excuse to get American troops out of Saudi Arabia but keep them in the Persian Gulf? The final chapter has yet to be written.
9. What really happened aboard Flight 93?
In the immediate period after 9/11, based on accounts of phone calls from the hijacked passengers aboard the doomed flight, it was widely speculated that they'd succeeded in crashing the cockpit, wrested control of the United jet and caused it to crash well before its intended target, reportedly the U.S. Capitol.
But the release of transcripts from the recovered cockpit voice recorder offered evidence that the passengers were indeed trying to enter the cockpit but there's nothing to suggest they got there. Instead, comments from the hijackers led investigators to believe they crashed the plane on purpose, but the real story of the doomed jet will never be known.
10. Has the 9/11-fueled "war on terror" really made America safer?
The "pro" argument: Improved intelligence and domestic security measures at airports and elsewhere and regime change in Afghanistan have led to no new major attacks inside the U.S., and bin Laden and many of his former lieutenants from a decimated al-Qaeda are dead or behind bars.
The "con" argument: The $1 trillion-plus cost of the post 9/11 wars, including the completely unnecessary one in Iraq, the morally unconscionable torture program OK'ed by Bush and Cheney, and the gulag-like prison at Guantanamo have depleted not just America's coffers but its moral standing in the world, while inspiring a new generation of terrorists.
The answer? Get back to us on the 20th anniversary.
Recent Stories
Recent Comments
- Gawker: Chief of CIA's Global Jihad Unit Revealed Online
- "9/11 Conspiracy Roadtrip" - A Participant's Perspective
- Identity of CIA Officer Behind 9/11 & Torture Cases Revealed
- "9/11 Conspiracy Roadtrip" - A Participant's Perspective
- "9/11 Conspiracy Roadtrip" - A Participant's Perspective
- Who Funded 9/11? Families & Insurers Still Want Answers
- Sibel Edmonds Interviews Paul Thompson


text: What's the best text book to learn from for a total novice? Digital Marketing Posted January 6th, 2018 Submitted by Thomas & filed under General. I of course, feel the former "wouldve been" more likely selection, but I feel it'd be good to hear some opinions from more knowledgeable folk. No doubt I've bypassed something! I look forward to your opinions! Thanks 🙂 Source: Share this:TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestRedditTumblrLike this:Like Loading... Related


text:
March 4, 2013
I'm a storyteller...
I'm so happy I can finally share this news with you, I am a contributor to Everyday Storyteller 2!
If you are not familiar with them, the Everyday Storyteller idea books help scrapbookers bring their stories to life with simple ideas for memory keeping. The first volume had 33 ideas for real-life scrapbooking, and this May the second volume will be released with 33 more practical ideas from 33 new contributors.
To find out more about the upcoming release, click on the image above to sign up to be on the VIP list. By signing up you'll:
* Receive an exclusive invitation to the launch party on Friday, May 3rd
* Gain exclusive entry in special VIP-only giveaways
* Get first notice that the book has been released AND a special VIP discount
And, P.S. There will be prizes!! I need to mention the prizes. =)
I'm pretty excited to be among the list of scrapbookers chosen to contribute to this second volume. I just know that the new book is going to be amazing! The concept of the book is to help you tell your story in a way that is practical and easy and fun. There are some amazing women on the contributors list; women who inspire me with their creativity and I know they will inspire you too. I can hardly wait for the full release of the book! =)
Thanks so much for stopping by today and letting me share my news with you!
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
This month, Japanese snack maker Koikeya is releasing potato chips that have been designed with couples in mind. The chips are heart shaped and come in two flavors: Lemon Pepper and Sugar Butter. How romantic.
The Lemon Pepper chips have a "top hat" on them, so the presumption is that they are aimed at either men or individuals who own fancy headwear. The Sugar Butter chips are in pink packaging and have a ribbon on them, so they seem to be aimed at females—because all females have bows in their hair and like pink, right?
This is all pretty old fashioned: Lots of ladies like spicy food, and lots of dudes like sweets—and not all dudes date ladies and vice versa. But whatever!
According to MyNavi, the chips are launching in December, because Christmas is somewhat of a romantic holiday in Japan (thanks Wham!). New Year's, however, is a family and spiritual holiday. The chips for lovers also hope to cash in on Valentine's Day, a holiday in which women give men chocolate, and White Day, a holiday in which men give women chocolate.
Chocolate? Why not potato chips?
恋の味がするハート型チップス! カップル向けポテトチップス発売 [MyNavi]
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


text:
By using this Site, you consent to the use of cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.
At Nielsen, we believe that our panels make our company stand out. We devote a great deal of time and resources to ensuring that our panels produce high-quality data. By combining big data with smaller data sets from carefully chosen and measured households, we believe that we provide a higher quality of insights than anyone else in the marketplace.
A whopping 46% of consumers tell us they are more likely to try new brands than they were five years ago; a clear signal to a trend we should expect to intensify. Yet we see few signs that adjustments have been made to marketing initiatives or innovation pipelines to match these numbers.
You don't have to look far to see rapidly growing or already mature 'disruptors' in retail and manufacturing, but the long tail of market disruption goes way beyond that in today's age of consumer disloyalty.
My experience with the orange pack of biscuits is typical of how shoppers interact with product packs. Packs catch the shopper's attention at the "Zeroth moment of truth"—when the shopper is in front of a screen. They then catch the shopper's attention in front of the shelf—that's the "first moment of truth"—where most purchase decisions are made.
While it's still too early to predict the future impact of legal cannabis on the mainstream U.S. retail market, we do know that demand and consumer interest is present and certainly growing.
AI is enabling companies to better understand how consumers are shopping, why they shop and most importantly, predict what consumers will buy in the future. This is fundamentally shifting how companies explore product development cycles, pricing models and understandings of how to change the minds of fickle consumers.
By placing the shopper at the center of decision making, manufacturers can better collaborate with their retailer partners to address the inefficiencies of trade spend—one of the largest costs of doing business.
There are many ways to create a community of beauty consumers that are loyal to retailers and brands. But don't be overwhelmed: It's not too late to join the conversation with your beauty consumers—they're listening, and they're more than happy to connect directly with you to provide their feedback.
Consumers today are more disloyal than ever before; the once steadfast consumer retail environment primed to grow brand-loyal hearts has shifted to a more capricious climate, where product infidelity is now the norm.
With so many DMP vendors fighting to stand out, it's no surprise that many marketers aren't able to truly differentiate the competing solutions. And to be fair, from an eagle's eye view, I don't know that there is a way to.
Digital adoption is sweeping the globe. The uptake of mobile devices and increasing access to the internet have huge ramifications for businesses in all industries. Retailers can't afford to ignore this new reality.
As we analyze key takeaways from Nielsen's past two years of sponsorship valuation data and research around fan behavior and preferences, it's evident that esports stakeholders have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.
There are many problems and challenges ahead of us. We also have many possibilities and options to wade through as we navigate the right way forward. It's up to us to leverage the opportunities by adopting better strategies for using data and technology.
Some companies take the world's long-term sustainability to heart and build their entire brands around it. But even if your company isn't ready to dive into the deep end of sustainability, it's important to take steps in the right direction.
It's rational that shoppers would be willing to pay more for a product that is of a higher demonstrated quality or value, but there is also a more subjective component that factors into many shoppers' ideas of what premium means.
Christmas is an important time of year for the alcohol industry in the U.K., as off-trade alcohol sales over the 12 weeks of Christmas account for around a sixth of all Christmas fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales and a third of total annual off-trade alcohol sales.
Seasonality has a huge impact on OTC sales performance, and although it varies by category, 60% of sales are subject to this. We, of course, associate summer with hay fever and allergies; however, lots of other categories also enjoy the seasonal uplifts that come with summer.
It's well known across the media landscape that consumers in the U.S. are connecting with more content across more devices than ever before. But as an industry, we have not tapped into the truly unique opportunities presented by this increased consumption at the same pace as consumers.
There's been a lot of buzz around small brands right now. Smaller brands want to be the next best thing and big brands want the growth of small brands.
The marketing and advertising landscape in Latin America is becoming more fast paced and complex. To grow in this environment, companies must meet consumer demand for convenience and personalization and leverage digital strategies and innovation.
As a business concept, agile has migrated well outside of the tech world, touting the benefits and buzz once grounded in the software space to an array of new industries and sectors. In the process, however, the meaning behind the term has frequently been misinterpreted.
Consumers have more snack choices than ever these days, and it's changing the way they think about snacking. Premium snacks are just one sub-category that's emerged in recent years.
If you think it's hard to develop a marketing budget, you're in good company. Most marketers today must do more with less. Faced with steep competition, B2C marketers need to spend every penny wisely.
Marketers often think about how important it is to communicate all of a product's key benefits to their consumers directly on the pack—using images, colors, logos, words, typography, etc. But very often, this overload of information makes the design extremely complex and difficult to understand.
How prepared would you be if inflation took hold again? In some ways, it has already started. Learn how to build price and promotion strategies for a fast-paced economy.
For many large, multinational global brands, other companies don't become competition until they're operating at the same scale and in similar markets. As a result, global companies often don't pay much attention to the small brands that operate well outside of their global peripheral vision.
For years, confectionery, crisps and soft drinks were the most popular go-to snack choices for the British consumer. But over the last five years, we've seen a dramatic shift in the world of snacking.
Aligning your organization toward common goals is challenging, especially when the goals change. That's because it's common for marketing teams to operate in silos. Most marketing organizations are split between marketing and media, and the split is compounded by multiple layers up and down the org chart.
The World Cup is not only becoming more popular among women but also increasingly effective in reaching female football fans.
With the growth of streaming apps available through the TV glass come new opportunities for advertisers to connect with consumers in the living room. In the past year alone, we've seen an almost 10% increase in the number of people who have access to a connected TV device.
There has never been a more dynamic and challenging time to be a marketer. Since the advent of the internet, fueled by available high-speed access and ignited by the proliferation of powerful new devices, marketers have more access to consumers than ever before.
The DMP serves as the nervous system for your organization's digital ecosystem helping you unify, make sense of and unlock the value of disparate streams of data, uncover and build valuable consumer audiences, and reach those high-value audiences with personalized messaging in real-time across the digital ad ecosystem.
Today, access to information is unprecedented, consumers are empowered to make smarter buying decisions and marketers have amassed immense quantities of data about consumers. Technology has transformed many industries permanently, but perhaps none as much as marketing.
We expect lifestyle, the "little and often" trend, technology and location to be four of the key influencers on shopper's behaviour in 2018, which, if executed well, will be true foot traffic drivers for c-store retailers.
With digital now a critical channel for brands, it's no surprise that they're actively looking to better understand and measure returns in the space. They're also actively looking to social media and sponsorships as a way to amplify their digital returns.
Now in place, the minimum pricing of alcohol regulation in Scotland means that a single unit of alcohol cannot be sold for less than 50p. And as a result, the stronger the drink, the more expensive it will be. So what effect might that have on consumption?
When it comes to growth, it's hard to ignore what we're seeing in emerging markets. In fact, they're currently generating two-to four-times the FMCG growth of developed markets. But just because the big picture boasts big opportunity doesn't mean capitalizing on the right opportunities is easy.
Marketers need to think more strategically beyond cheap tricks, making things pink, or adding female icons to labels to reach women.
The only metric that never changes is sales, which begs the question: Will we eventually see an industrywide guarantee on sales?
Given today's competitive landscape, brands that leverage proven go-to-market strategies will likely be more successful than those that simply move forward without careful thought and preparation.
More than any other consumer industry, beauty and personal care are driven by trends. New trending ingredients, formulations, colors and brands come around every season. Walk into your average retail store and you'll see this reflected on shelves.
Compared with the everyday consumer products we buy frequently, like paper towels and boxed cereal, durables have a much longer shelf life. Items like electric razors, coffee makers and irons fall into this category, and they play key roles in the everyday lives of consumers—yet in much different ways than fast-moving consumer goods do.
What do dental chews for pets, adult incontinence undergarments and sweetened light beer have in common? On the surface, absolutely nothing. A closer look, however, reveals that each solved a specific "job to be done."
The esports industry is growing quickly, with new leagues, teams and distribution channels. And this growth is attracting new high-profile esports investment from brands, media organizations and traditional sports rightsholders.
Bringing attention to the importance of assortment is easy. It's getting it right that is highly challenging. Here are the top six hurdles companies face in building an optimal assortment.
The "input button," an often misunderstood piece of remote control real estate, unlocks a wide range of content for consumers with an array of devices, and it's no longer invisible to audience measurement.
The world is changing. Fast. The way we work. The way we travel. The way we watch videos and shows. The way we simply interact with each other. And because the pace of change is happening so incredibly fast, it can be hard to understand what, and just how much, change has happened over a week, month or year.
As marketers seek greater accountability in today's increasingly omnichannel shopper landscape, demand for outcome-based ROI measurement has become more important than ever across the media, retail and FMCG industries.
When identifying how valuable sponsorships and brand activation can be in esports, it's worth exploring the issue from the perspectives of the many stakeholders involved: leagues, franchisees and teams.
Neuroscience shows us that, when used correctly, music can put viewers and listeners in a more positive mood, leading to a greater reliance on intuition and a reduction in both critical thought and focus on detail.
Saying that driverless cars will have a huge impact on the automotive industry in the next decade is a truism. Saying that driverless cars could also have an equal impact on retail, however, is not.
We've been talking about health and wellness for years. There are two critical forces at play that are shifting this topic from niche to mainstream: increasingly complex needs and massive digital engagement.
We've gotten used to emphasizing the divide between digital and physical, but it's quickly disappearing: when digital data about the physical world is comprehensive, real-time and freely available, the physical and digital augment each other.
When testing innovations, it's risky to ask consumers to compare a new concept against an actual product that they currently purchase. This unbalances the entire evaluation by setting up an unfair comparison.
Creative is the thing that drives what we engage with, share, talk about, debate, remember and buy. Creative has great power, regardless of where, when and how it runs.
Beyond in-store clinics and the traditional health care aisle of the store, a handful of departments should be top of mind for drug store retailers where more multicultural dollars are spent in comparison to non-Hispanic whites.
Africa's vast potential is the stuff of investors' dreams, but capitalizing on that opportunity is less about identifying or quantifying prospects and more about execution stemming from knowledge, insights and data to enable on-the-ground success.
For a long time, no one outside IT showed much interest in APIs, but MIT research shows that the most successful digital companies make above-average investments in APIs; these companies know that APIs are fundamental to their strategic success. Why do they think that?
With the advancements in big data, advertisers know more about consumers than ever before. And yet, they're still challenged with how to drive the greatest return for their marketing budgets. And we all know what happens when executives don't see the ROI they're expecting—they cut budgets.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last couple of years, you're seeing the FMCG industry transform right in front of our eyes. That's scary, but equally exciting. So here are three things big FMCG marketers need to do to win as the industry evolves.
Has the traditional planning process become obsolete? Many signs within the industry point to "yes." So in order to succeed today, companies need to move to a new form of adaptive planning that is responsive to continuous market change.
Your kid tore his favorite pair of jeans and you need to know if your local store will be open after work so you can pick up a replacement pair. If only you had a personal shopper who could find out what time the store closes.
FMCG success today is now dependent on quality product images, solid SEO and prominent placement on e-tailer websites—far more so than simply having an abundant quantity or variety on the shelf at the local store.
While unexpected by many, the Amazon-Whole Foods linkage highlights just how profoundly consumer expectations are changing with regard to food and beverage shopping—and will continue to do so moving forward.
Unbeknownst to most consumers, tremendous thought goes into developing even the most commonplace products. As a result, product development in the FMCG industry is anything but fast-moving. But what if algorithms could help streamline the process and the outcomes?
Global sports are thriving, but media consumption is changing before our eyes. And as the media world grapples with these issues, so too must the sports industry. But these challenges aren't the only obstacles facing the sports realm.
Measuring an ad's ability to communicate trust is a tricky business: perceptions of trust can be non-conscious, formed almost immediately and biased by subtle factors. Given these nuances, explicit research methods aren't sufficient.
As retailers ramp up their health and wellness offerings, and the lines between channels blurs, it's interesting to think about the role that drug stores will play in an increasingly crowded, wellness-oriented marketplace.
It's no surprise that more and more items are being outfitted with built-in connectivity. Consumers' adoption of internet-enabled devices isn't a given, however, and it's worth exploring why acceptance has been so fragmented across categories—as well as what the industry can do to accelerate usage.
How many things can you say for certain that you're paying attention to, or even seeing, at any given moment? Our brains just aren't good at recalling the kinds of details marketers need to evaluate their efforts in a complex world. That's where the right neuroscience tools can help.
Companies striving for "leaner, bigger, better" innovations require realistic marketing inputs and an accurate forecast to identify their most promising initiatives. Proving that "consumers love it" without a realistic volumetric assessment simply isn't enough.
Unconstrained by physical walls, e-commerce retailers offer a huge inventory of products in endless aisles. Unfortunately, our physical world product coding processes can't scale to e-commerce: they're too costly and too slow.
Without data integration, the only thing cool technology can do is stare helplessly at a pile of bricks it can't assemble into anything useful.
In the coming decades, machine learning will transform work as we know it. And unlike previous revolutions, which primarily affected blue-collar workers, the smart machine revolution has white-collar workers in its sights.
Most new product launches are "small" or "sustaining" innovations, which include the many, many brand extensions that large companies launch year after year. These launches are absolutely essential for growing existing brands and defending shelf space.
A social responsibility strategy isn't the only way to manage corporate reputation, but it is increasingly becoming a critical piece of the puzzle.
Most of the customer data companies gather about innovation is structured to show correlations rather than causations. Yet after decades of watching great companies do poorly at innovation, we've come to the conclusion that the focus on correlation is taking firms in the wrong direction.
We've become so accustomed to our fast-paced lifestyles that it's even crept its way into how we consume food. This is especially the case when you look at breakfast. So what does the future of the most important meal of the day look like?
Brands armed with new products have always rushed to be first to market, as first movers often establish a stronghold that can be difficult for later entrants to break into. But being "first mover" at the expense of being "best mover" can often lead brands to competitive disadvantage.
Growing a brand isn't easy, especially for those in in crowded categories. But even the most established categories change over time, and even categories that appear stable may be one critical innovation away from awarding one brand a significant long-term advantage.
For many companies, cost reduction efforts become an endless downward spiral. As soon as one cost reduction program is completed, it's followed by another. It's a dangerous cycle, but it's one we know how to break.
Today, the enterprise needs a big data warehouse that combines on-premise and in-the-cloud datasets into a comprehensive view of its business and the environment in which it operates.
Marketers often think of "earned" media as asymmetric marketing opportunities—they're cheap and fast, which make them quite easy for smaller brands to exploit. But the power of earned media as an asymmetric strategy is more appearance than reality.
Mature brands will find themselves in a broader range of situations than new ones. When it becomes clear that your established brand needs investment to grow your circle of buyers, how do you know which path will work best for you?
How did business intelligence break free of its centralized command-and-control heritage to meet the challenge of the agile, democratic, digital world?
Multinationals should not turn their backs on emerging market consumers. Some rebalancing toward developed markets makes sense in the near term as their relative strength improves, but it must not come entirely at the expense of investment in emerging markets.
In a recent survey, Nielsen asked corporate leaders and the general public to describe the current state of corporate social responsibility. The gap in perceptions between the two groups is striking. So what's driving the gap?
Unless you provide quality product information, you're not going to reap the benefit of the vast amounts of money you spend on physical and virtual purchase points.
The convenience offering in Asia is more relevant now than ever. But convenience stores of the future will be more than a place to pick up a beverage or quick meal. Convenience will become a way of life, and the convenience store will be a physical delivery point for an array of needs driven by the click of a mouse.
In 1990, 57% of Southeast Asia was in poverty and access to daily necessities one could afford was not to be taken for granted. Today, so much has changed that a new niche at the high end of the affordability spectrum has emerged to fan the aspirations of consumers – premiumization.
Many FMCG sales teams in emerging markets are lacking in knowledge about the traditional trade landscape. And if you don't know the where, what and how of your market, how likely is your strategy to be successful?
The slowing pace of Chinese economic growth underscores the country's need to transition from an investment- and export-led growth model to one powered by consumption. But how long will that transition take? The answer is crucial to companies looking to ride what will eventually be the next extraordinary surge in consumer spending in China.
Dr. Robert Heath is a professor at the University of Bath and a pioneer in establishing the value of emotion in advertising. We recently talked to him about emotional resonance, its importance and how it can be used in improving the effectiveness of advertising.
Any multinational looking for solid growth should be taking a hard look at India. In 2015, India's economy will grow faster than China's for the first time in 16 years. In fact, the IMF forecasts India's GDP growth to expand by 7.5% this year and next.
As China began its meteoric rise, multinational companies from Europe and America established beachheads in the country, and did very well bringing Western products to the East.
Advertising, although inherently a creative process, offers many opportunities for greater efficiency. Advertising Process Control highlights the many non-creative areas that advertisers, publishers and agencies could and should work to control better to consistently improve their performance across advertising campaigns.
Advertising Process Control is an advanced state to achieve. Before you can start managing your advertising production process, you need to accurately assess where your organization is on the Advertising Process Control continuum.
Reliable genius is what you really want from your advertising. Why aren't you getting it? Probably because you don't take your advertising production process as seriously as you take many of the other processes in your company.
We've just completed a year of transformation in the retail industry, and looking at 2015, it looks like change will remain constant. But change brings opportunity, even within the familiar. Where to begin? Look to the shelf.