text:
Participants in the development of standards, as well as the users of standards, may have an interest in knowing whether there are provisions in a standard incorporating someone's intellectual property, which may require permission to use someone's
proprietary technology and possibly pay compensation for that privilege. The policies of NEMA and ANSI, as well as international standards organizations, recognize that it is permissible to draft a standard that includes the use of someone's
patent claims if technical reasons justify it, but standards development committees may prefer to avoid incorporating proprietary technology once they know of it.
The primary concern of these policies is the identification of essential patent claims. NEMA has defined an essential patent as claim contained in a patent or published patent application, the use of which is necessary to create a compliant implementation of a mandatory provision in the normative clauses of a NEMA Standard or proposed NEMA Standard when there is no commercially and technically feasible non-infringing alternative. Participants in the NEMA Standards development process are obligated to disclose essential patent claims of which they have knowledge. A participant may self-disclose any essential patent claims they or their employer own or control, or a participant may ask NEMA to query whether another participant or third-party owns or controls any essential patent claims. The obligation to disclose is a continuing one, both before and after a Standard is published.
Disclosure must identify the patent or patent application, the part of the NEMA Standard incorporating an essential patent claim, and an assurance that a license to use the essential patent claims will be made available either on reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination or without compensation but with other reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of unfair discrimination.
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NEMA is making the following patent holder statements related to American
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text:
Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences
Lower Atmosphere Observing Facilities (LAOF)
|Subhashree Mishra
|(703) 292-8521
Apply to PD 04-1529 as follows:
For full proposals submitted via FastLane: standard NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide proposal preparation guidelines apply.
For full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov Guidelines applies. (Note: The NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=grantsgovguide)
Important Information for Proposers
A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after June 1, 2020. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 20-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.
Full Proposal Accepted Anytime
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) Lower Atmosphere Observing Facilities (LAOF) Program oversees a portfolio of multi-user national facilities that are sponsored by NSF for use by the geosciences research community. Program management resides within AGS in the NCAR and Facilities Section (NFS) which provides a single point for coordination of planning and resources.
The LAOF program enables geoscience research through the provision of specialized facilities, instrumentation, and field support services necessary to carry out the scientific field work associated with investigations of a wide range of geophysical phenomena. The program is actively involved in decisions about the acquisition, operation, maintenance, upgrading and replacement of these facilities based on input from the scientific community. LAOF funding supports both the planning for scientific field programs (e.g., experimental design, operational plans, logistical support) and the actual deployment of NSF-sponsored facilities.
What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
I don't quite know what to make of Booth Jonathan's come-on: "I want you to know, the first time I fuck you, I might scare you a little, because I'm a man, and I know how to do things." Marnie was touched by it, obviously...Marnie is the character whose actual boyfriend is so sensitive to her needs she finds him boring and hopeless. "Girls" is like the new "Sex and the City," and Marnie's the closest thing to Miranda — the main character's best friend, the confidante.
The ladies over at Slate go on and on about this line, e.g.:
[L.V.] Anderson: As that scene and others showed, this was the episode I thought Allison Williams' acting chops proved really not up to the task of playing Marnie. She can do annoyed and bitchy just fine, and we've seen that (and almost only that) in the first and second episode. But between the crying scene (when Hannah tells her she has HPV) and the masturbation scene, Williams in this episode was in over her head. I have never seen such bad fake crying in my life, and the bathroom masturbation is the least realistic scene in this show so far. Could I imagine Marnie going home and masturbating later that night? Sure. Can I imagine her SO INFLAMED with lust that she had to alleviate her sexual urges as soon as possible? Not for a second. What did you guys make of that scene?...Allison Williams is the daughter of TV newsman Brian Williams, and what he feels is:
Dana Stevens: Not to get too personal, but do any of you know any woman, however hot and bothered by the manly charms of Jorma Taccone, who would masturbate standing up in an art-gallery bathroom while wearing pantyhose?
It's kvelling, pride. It's incredibly great. Her co-creator and I have known always that she was going to be an actress. So it's fantastic.We've been watching this show, by the way. It's actually quite different from "Sex and the City" in that the sex lives of these girls — called "girls," obviously, to highlight their immaturity — is not glamorized. It's actually so sad it conflicts with the humor. One of the 4 girls is a virgin. (She's the Charlotte analogue.) She's our favorite character, played by Zosia Mamet, who is David Mamet's daughter. (I don't know what's with the famous dads angle, but Mamet is a fine comedienne and Williams is... as noted above.)
Unmitigated joy.


text:
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text:
Protest Songs
Blowing in the wind (1) by Bon Dylan
From " A Song-book of Folk and Pop Music"
by Mario Papa & Giuliano Iantorno, Zanichelli Editore, Bologna, 1977
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you can call him a man?
Yes, `n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind.
Yes, `n' how many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, `n' how many times can a man turn bis head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind.
Yes, `n' how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, `n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind.
(1) Blowing in the wind ' rep resents a forceful demand for social justice and probably is the best known of all Dylan's songs. In 1964 it became an enormous hit all over the world.
Bob Dylan
Before Dylan it was not so usual that musicians made comments on politics in their songs. Bob Dylan changed this singing about Vietnam and racial prejudice, and young people came to express their feelings through Dylan's songs. For Dylan words were impor¬tant, and he wrote songs at¬tacking war, discrimination, exploitation, violence between negroes and white people, and even an angry song, `A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall ', about the dangerous quarrel between America and Russia about Cu¬ba in 1962. 'Blowing in the wind ', like most of Dylan's songs, contains political and social ideas, and these ideas are expressed in a simple and direct way, so that they ap¬peal strongly to young people everywhere. And in all the 1960s this was especially true in America where many people, especially the young, were beginning to disagree with the American part in the Vietnam war and wanted to make the world a better place to live in, so Dylan became the symbol of protest by young people against what they considered the wrongs of the establishment.


text:
bounce off (of) (someone or something)(redirected from bounced off us)
bounce off (of) (someone or something)
1. Of a thing, to deflect or reflect off of a surface. I caught the rubber ball when it bounced off the wall. The light bouncing off of that mirror is blinding me—can we close the curtains?
2. Of a person, to tell something to someone in order to solicit feedback about it. In this usage, a noun is used between "bounce" and "off." I bounced the idea of becoming an actress off of my friends before discussing it with my parents. Hey, can I bounce something off of you guys?
bounce something off (of) someone or something
1. Lit. to make something rebound off someone or something. (Of is usually retained before pronouns.) She bounced the ball off the wall, turned, and tossed it to Wally. She bounced the ball off of Harry, into the wastebasket.
2. and bounce something off Fig. to try an idea or concept out on someone or a group. (Of is usually retained before pronouns.) Let me bounce off this idea, if I may. Can I bounce something off of you people, while you're here?
bounce off (of something)
to rebound from something. (Of is usually retained before pronouns.) The ball bounced off the wall and struck a lamp. It hit the wall and bounced off.
bounce off
1. To cause something to rebound from something: She bounced the tennis ball off the wall.
2. To rebound from something or someone: The basketball hit the rim and bounced off.
3. To present some idea or thought to someone for comment or approval: I have been thinking about what we should do next, so let me bounce a few ideas off you.
bounce something off (of) someone
tv. to try out an idea on someone; to get someone's opinion of an idea. Let me bounce this off of you.


text:
We hand-set a diamond into every single one of the rings we sell, which means that an actual person spent time getting it meticulously perfect, just for you.
So when we see happy people sharing their Blue Nile ring with the world via social media, it really makes our day.
Here's a mere sampling of satisfied customers showing off their Blue Nile engagement rings.


text:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) isn't budging on his vow to scale back collective bargaining to reduce the power of public employee unions and enable him to trim state spending. Thousands of pro-union protesters swarming the state Capitol in Madison are dug in just as hard.
With the Wisconsin labor unrest now into its eighth day, compromise seems to be only a distant possibility.
The Democratic contingent of 14 state senators remains in hiding outside the state, thus preventing Senate action on the governor's bill, which Republicans have the votes to pass. Governor Walker, for his part, warned Tuesday that layoffs of state workers may begin next week if the Democrats don't return to the capital. He also sought to shore up public support for his "do not yield" position, announcing he would hold an F.D.R.-style "fireside chat" Tuesday evening – in front of an unlit fireplace at the Capitol.
IN PICTURES: Wisconsin capitol protests
"The question right now is how deeply the two parties are embedded in their positions," says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, N.J.
That's not to say compromise has not been attempted. On Monday, GOP moderates offered a plan that would limit a collective bargaining ban to two years, to give the state time to climb out of its three-year, $3.74 billion budget deficit. Walker nixed that idea.
Unions have also conceded that, to help the state out of a financial predicament, they will have to take cuts in benefits – shouldering a greater share of their health and pension costs, as the governor has proposed. They stop short, though, of giving up their ability to bargain behind closed doors for health and pension benefits. Walker's plan would allow most public employee unions to negotiate only their pay via collective bargaining, and even there it would cap wage increases at the consumer price index.
Walker is one of a new crop of Republican governors in upper Midwestern states, including Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana, who see in their election victories a mandate to slash government spending and end generous benefits to civil service employees. Walker has the votes in state Senate and Assembly to do it, so why should he compromise? his backers ask. In some quarters, even the term "compromise" is insidious amid voter demands to get government spending at both the state and national level under control.
"When you say the word 'compromise' … a lot of Americans look up and go, 'Uh-oh, they're gonna sell me out,' " US House Speaker John Boehner, who has backed Walker in Wisconsin, said recently about the national budget debate. "And so finding common ground, I think, makes more sense."
Fifty-six percent of Wisconsin residents say the 14 Democrats should return to Madison for the vote, but fewer, 43 percent, approve of Walker's collective bargaining plan, according to a recent nonpartisan poll by the group WeAskAmerica. (A nationwide USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday found that 61 percent of Americans would oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, versus 33 percent who would favor such a law.)
The two sides' stark ideological differences are making it hard to find middle ground, some observers say. The unions see themselves as standing up for the little guy against the influence of faceless corporations. The GOP lawmakers see themselves as defending small-government ideals and the principle that debt-reduction will drive job creation and raise wages and living standards for everybody.
On Tuesday, Senate Republicans moved ahead on a number of nonfiscal bills, as they still lacked a quorum for a vote on the collective bargaining change. Meanwhile, in the Assembly, a Republican super-majority faces Democrats who vow to introduce as many as 200 amendments to the bill, in a bid to stymie a final vote scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
More not-so-subtle gamesmanship is under way in an effort to get an up-or-down vote on Walker's bill. Republicans are trying to entice at least one Democratic senator into returning to Madison by bringing up nonfiscal bills, which require a simple majority vote instead of a two-thirds supermajority vote needed for finance legislation. Among them: a bill honoring Super Bowl champs the Green Bay Packers, a declaration submitted by one of the absent Democrats.
"There's a lot of pent-up energy here on the Republican side, and I don't see them compromising on anything, but rather looking for ways to use rules to work around Democrats rather than bring them in," says Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison. "It's hard to see where this is going."
While Walker made it clear during his campaign that he would take on union power in Madison, many Wisconsinites have been taken aback by the scope and speed of the Republicans' proposal, says Mr. Burden. People "understand this is a major change, but to foist it on public employees so quickly seems not to respect the process," he says.
Despite that concern, Republicans enjoy a distinct advantage, says Mr. Baker at Rutgers, though that could change if the budget impasse stretches out and union supporters win more backing from the public.
"Unions come into these battles with built-in disadvantages where Republican governors can invoke the job-creating power of business and all the unions can come back with is, 'Well, we protect our members,' " he says. "It's a much weaker argument."
Compromise may be aided, however, by the fact that two deadlines are looming, perhaps enough to bring home the runaway Democrats: Friday is the deadline to restructure the state's debt, and next Tuesday the state's next biennial budget is rolled out. Staying away from that debate could cede too much power to Republicans and could become a major political liability for Democrats, analysts say.
What both sides may need to reach a resolution is to build trust by making their intentions more explicit, writes Chris Rickert, a columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal, in Madison.
"Public workers should be able to bargain collectively, and Walker would be wise to drop his attack on the practice and compromise" after the union offered benefits concessions, writes Mr. Rickert. "Similarly, public sector unions would be wise to admit that the current dispute is mostly, if not entirely, about money."


text:
Equinox(redirected from Equinoctial point/History1)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia.
Related to Equinoctial point/History1: ecliptic, celestial equator, autumnal equinox
EQUINOX. The name given to two periods of the year when the days and nights are equal; that is, when the space of time between the rising and setting of the sun is one half of a natural day. Dig. 43, 13, 1, 8. Vide Day.


text: Pat Pattison is a professor at Berklee College of Music and the author of several online courses in songwriting and creative writing offered through the college's continuing education division, Berklee Online. The courses—Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies, Lyric Writing: Writing from the Title, Lyric Writing: Writing Lyrics to Music, Creative Writing: Poetry, and Creative Writing: Finding Your Voice—are instructor-led and offered four times each year to anyone, anywhere in the world. Pat's former students include Grammy-award-winning artists John Mayer, Gillian Welch, and Tom Hambridge. In addition to teaching, Pat is the author of four books on songwriting, including Songwriting without Boundaries, Writing Better Lyrics, The Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure, and The Essential Guide to Rhyming. He has written over 50 articles on songwriting for various magazines and blogs and presents clinics for songwriters around the world.


text:
Over the last couple of decades the real estate business has emerged as the most promising and paying business for many. And this is the reason more and more people are getting inclined towards this business. Most of the property related issues come under the domain of real estate developers and even home renovations too are sometimes dealt by the real estate experts as a sub branch of their business. There is no rule of thumb for any business to ensure success. There are just some universal practices that could be applied to all businesses randomly. But here we have come up with a kind of real estate guide that is going to benefit all the real estate business aspirants. Here are just some of the basics that you need to stick to very tightly to prevent any bad things from happening. Apart from the luck factor, there are a few things that you can do to ensure your success as flourishing business man.
First of all, never use all of your money while making the very first deal in the real estate as you rarely would have heard someone uttering with sheer joy that yes, my first ever real estate deal has been a landmark in my career and my best deal.
Then you must be very good in reading the contracts which are termed in the legal and technical terminologies that are needed to be understood thoroughly. For this you need to develop a team of highly skilled professionals to develop a good eye for it as a pro.
Initially just go after the smaller properties as they carry lesser amount of risk attached to it. The more you invest in terms of money, the more your business gets on stake. So initiate with going for the single family homes and studio apartments that are easy to buy for the aspirants. Also deal like a professional businessman. Commit as little as possible. More commitments would tie up more expectations of your client and he would be asking for more and more from your side.
Also learn that the deals that look prettiest and seem easy to find always come with the lowest yield. Do a lot of research and then go for some properties that could be a bit more risky if you want and expect more yield from your business.
Above all, first you need to learn and only then you will be in a position to earn. For a detailed house cleaning guide you have to further explore our blog site.
The city of Bunbury is termed as the second capital of the state of Western Australia after Perth. This beautiful city is home to over 31000 residents and is governed by the Bunbury council. Just…


text:
With director David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo set to open in a few days, earlier today I attended a press conference in New York City with Fincher, Rooney Mara, and Daniel Craig. In the coming days I'll have a transcript (with audio), but I wanted to post a bit of news from the interview today.
Even though the first film has yet to open, with the popularity of Stieg Larson's Millennium trilogy, it's almost certain Dragon Tattoo will be a big hit for Sony and they'll likely move ahead with the sequels as fast as they can. Since the second and third books (The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) are one story, Fincher was asked if he might shoot the sequels back to back. Continued after the jump.
Here's what Fincher was asked:
Given the compression of the last two books, if you direct the whole series would you consider shooting them at the same time?
David Fincher: Yes, the second two books are very much one story and it doesn't seem prudent to me to go to Sweden for a year. Come back for a year. Put out the second one. Go to Sweden for a year. Come back for a year. I don't think Rooney wants to be doing this four years from now. So I think that would be crazy especially given the sense that it's really one story that's kind of bifurcated in the middle.
While I often think shooting two movies at the same time is a bit too much for most filmmakers, if anyone can make it work it's David Fincher.
However, before anyone thinks they'll be making the sequels early next year, I also got to speak with screenwriter Steve Zaillian this morning and he told me that he hasn't yet started writing the second screenplay. But he did say he's heard rumblings the sequels might shoot back to back and he's confident he could get both screenplays ready in time.
Zaillian told me that it takes him around six months to get a first draft ready so I'd imagine the sequels to Dragon Tattoo wouldn't be in front of cameras until late 2012. That would mean the earliest Sony could release The Girl Who Played With Fire would be this time in 2013. But this is just an educated guess.
With The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opening in three days, I'm sure in the next few weeks we'll hear an official announcement about the sequels.
Look for the full interviews very soon.


text:
Kettering Health Network is a not-for-profit network of eight hospitals and over 120 outpatient facilities serving southwest Ohio. Patients have access to high quality maternity care, state-of-the-art cancer fighting technology, Ohio's leading heart hospital, as well as revolutionary brain and spine surgery. With nearly 12,000 employees and 2,100 physicians, Kettering Health Network is committed to transforming the healthcare experience with world class health services for every stage of life.
Applicants Must Have:
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text:
Dinner Tonight: Mussels for One (or Two) (via Food52)
Your source for quick recipe every single week day.
Editor's Note: We're teaming up with our friends over at Food52 to bring you even more easy weeknight recipes. Food52 recipes will appear on this site every Tuesday and Thursday, and are carefully curated by the Serious Eats team. Check back on Serious Eats every weekday afternoon for a new quick and easy weeknight dinner idea from our own test kitchens, or from the good folks at Food52.
Mussels are perfect at any time of the year since they can be as heavy or as light as you want. This version of steamed mussels from Food52 uses leeks and fennel to provide the aromatics for the dish. Toasted saffron adds its unique flavor for a bouillabaisse-esque taste. A hunk of crusty bread is a necessity to sop up all the delicious leftover broth, but if you don't have bread, the mussel shells work perfectly as tiny soup spoons.


text:
|Message view
|« Date » · « Thread »
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|"Michael Busch (JIRA)" <j...@apache.org>
|[jira] Commented: (LUCENE-2293) IndexWriter has hard limit on max concurrency
|Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:20:27 GMT
[ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LUCENE-2293?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=12841120#action_12841120 ] Michael Busch commented on LUCENE-2293: --------------------------------------- {quote} Also, in the pull approach, Lucene would introduce another place where it allocates threads. {quote} What I described is not much different from what's happening today. DocumentsWriter has already a WaitQueue, that ensures that the docs are written in the right order. I simply tried to suggest a way to refactor our classes... functionally the same as what Mike suggested. I shouldn't have said "pulled from" (the queue). > IndexWriter has hard limit on max concurrency > --------------------------------------------- > > Key: LUCENE-2293 > URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LUCENE-2293 > Project: Lucene - Java > Issue Type: Bug > Components: Index > Reporter: Michael McCandless > Assignee: Michael McCandless > Fix For: 3.1 > > > DocumentsWriter has this nasty hardwired constant: > {code} > private final static int MAX_THREAD_STATE = 5; > {code} > which probably I should have attached a //nocommit to the moment I > wrote it ;) > That constant sets the max number of thread states to 5. This means, > if more than 5 threads enter IndexWriter at once, they will "share" > only 5 thread states, meaning we gate CPU concurrency to 5 running > threads inside IW (each thread must first wait for the last thread to > finish using the thread state before grabbing it). > This is bad because modern hardware can make use of more than 5 > threads. So I think an immediate fix is to make this settable > (expert), and increase the default (8?). > It's tricky, though, because the more thread states, the less RAM > efficiency you have, meaning the worse indexing throughput. So you > shouldn't up and set this to 50: you'll be flushing too often. > But... I think a better fix is to re-think how threads write state > into DocumentsWriter. Today, a single docID stream is assigned across > threads (eg one thread gets docID=0, next one docID=1, etc.), and each > thread writes to a private RAM buffer (living in the thread state), > and then on flush we do a merge sort. The merge sort is inefficient > (does not currently use a PQ)... and, wasteful because we must > re-decode every posting byte. > I think we could change this, so that threads write to private RAM > buffers, with a private docID stream, but then instead of merging on > flush, we directly flush each thread as its own segment (and, allocate > private docIDs to each thread). We can then leave merging to CMS > which can already run merges in the BG without blocking ongoing > indexing (unlike the merge we do in flush, today). > This would also allow us to separately flush thread states. Ie, we > need not flush all thread states at once -- we can flush one when it > gets too big, and then let the others keep running. This should be a > good concurrency gain since is uses IO & CPU resources "throughout" > indexing instead of "big burst of CPU only" then "big burst of IO > only" that we have today (flush today "stops the world"). > One downside I can think of is... docIDs would now be "less > monotonic", meaning if N threads are indexing, you'll roughly get > in-time-order assignment of docIDs. But with this change, all of one > thread state would get 0..N docIDs, the next thread state'd get > N+1...M docIDs, etc. However, a single thread would still get > monotonic assignment of docIDs. -- This message is automatically generated by JIRA. - You can reply to this email to add a comment to the issue online. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com For additional commands, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
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text:
Being from Ohio, I just had to take a look at this beautiful, cozy farmhouse in my home state. Its lovely mix of antiques, comfortable fabrics and furnishings, and eccentric collections drew me in, when I saw it. Blessed with a peaceful rural setting, this home is jam-packed with charm. The garden is delightful, too. Owners Greg and Page Price have filled their home with such personality. I love the attention to detail everywhere you look. The couple makes sure their home is a pleasure for their guests--of both the two-legged and four-legged variety. They have even created a "dormitory" bedroom in the attic, for those late-night get-togethers, when friends just don't want to leave the party.
{all images via Country Living}


text:
Abbey Lee Kershaw and Our Mountain for Pierre Balmain Diffusion Line
Apparently, I spoke too soon when I praised designers earlier this week for the lovely, playful videos they've been churning out this season. The latest high profile fashion video stars Abbey Lee Kershaw and her boyfriend's band, Our Mountain, for Balmain's diffusion line, Pierre Balmain. Shot by Inez von Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (do they ever […]Read more


text:
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text:
Tagged: MILABS
A Short Discourse On Self-Termination Programming
Khris Speaks
Volume LXXVI
I'm going to discuss, briefly, a little about self-termination programming a programmed MK-Ultra military unit, often times referred to as a Super Soldier, will have surface from time-to-time. Self-termination programing is not like an ordinary urge to kill yourself; it's an order. Did you get that beloved readers of this blog, IT'S AN ORDER! Remember what I've instructed people in the past; as an MK-Ultra programmee, you DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, YOU JUST FOLLOW ORDERS- Period! Self-termination orders, which surfaced for me a year ago, in November of 2011, were the most profound set of circumstances relating to my own health and mortality I've ever experienced. I was pacing, pacing, pacing; I was pacing up and down my hallway with a .45 ACP pressed against the temple of my skull. Orders had surfaced and as my personality fractured, I was in for the fight of my life. It was time to end my life. I had no desire to terminate my life, I had to honor my programmers. Orders had surfaced and there was no way out; I had to discharge a round into my skull. If you've ever experienced this, you know how miserable and scary this experience can be. I don't know what kept me alive, I was in a predicament. I literally needed to end my life because I was supposed to. Please know, programming is not merely suggestion; programming runs very, very deep into the psychology of a specifically-programmed person. My brain hemispheres seemed to split. I cannot state my perception is correct on this matter, but that is what I felt happened. One hemisphere was hell-bent to carry out the orders and was ready to discharge a bullet; the other side of my brain was certain it didn't have to happen. After a struggle which lasted an hour, I was thrilled I was able to side-step the programming and put my gun down. The battle was over; the will to survive was able to override the programmed orders. I was one of the fortunate people who've had this kind of programming. Many people leave a gruesome mess for somebody else to clean up. As I stated in a previous post, many MK-Ultra survivors say self-termination programming, often referred to as "omega" programming under the Monarch system, is the most fallible programming an individual can receive. I can tell you the overwhelming need to honor my orders was so strong, I cannot relate to the reader how powerful and effective other levels of programming are and how deep the programming runs.
Happy New Year!
I Remember Corey Haim – Corey Was A Monarch
Khris Speaks
Volume LXXVII
I have been torn for a few months as a series of new memories have been surfacing. Not all memories have been MK-Ultra related, but a portion have. I've been learning just how far I went into the ranks of the Illuminati and it's been a little scary for me. I know I was used in military applications, ceremonies and rituals and for reproductive purposes, but I'm learning more each week, just how far-and-wide my experiences have gone. I'm currently in the process of revamping how I mention names on my blog. In the early days, I was not thinking clearly and threw names around with little care or concern about who read what I authored. Now, I'm definitely re-thinking my position on "outing" other MK-Ultra survivors and Monarchs. I am not done with my new policy, but It's going to take shape in the days ahead. I'm not going to discuss people I remember unless they have passed-on on or are perpetrators of the heinous exploitation of children. Those who are survivors, known to the public or unknown, will not likely be mentioned on this blog to keep their privacy. This is a courtesy I feel I need to extend. I'm concerned If I mention names too often, people will visit this blog for the wrong reasons; I don't want a tabloid type situation to arise, which has happened on other blogs of this nature. Everything mentioned on this blog is the truth as I best understand it. I will always put my best foot forward to disclose my life's experiences as honorably as I can.
I am not going to mention the specific details of my memories of Corey Haim; I'm standing firm on this decision for personal reasons. I've struggled with this decision for weeks now. Once again, this testimony is being offered on a take-it or leave-it basis. I am taking this opportunity to give him the credit and recognition Corey deserves. I am going to draw some flack over this, no doubt, but I feel compelled to follow my heart's guidance.
The short post I started three days ago.
Once again, I'm so flustered, I don't know which route to pursue in delivering this blog-post to my subscribers and to people in general. The subject matter, as always is painful and invokes extreme anger and anguish. As most people familiar with my blog know, I am a survivor of over 30 years of MK-Ultra. As a toddler, I endured torture, sexual abuse, programming and many other heinous acts levied against my small body and spirit. This didn't end as a toddler. I'm not the only one, there are many, many others who were with me, before me and after me. Tonight, I will part the ether and speak on behalf of another individual who was conscripted into MK-Ultra. This young man passed-on in 2010. I want to tell the world tonight, as some already have, as an added emphasis to the testimony and research of others, Corey Haim was a Monarch and MK-Ultra survivor until his passing, two years ago. I have had more than one memory surface of this unique young man. Corey Haim was abused, programmed, chewed-up and spit-out by the Illuminati and their Hollywood cohorts and stooges. The Illuminati and their evil programmers will not get away with what they did to Corey Haim and many others if I have a say in it. Guess what? I do have a say in it. It's a full moon tonight and I'm full of piss-and-vinegar. This full moon is giving me the forward impetus I need to draft this blog-post. After a few memories of Corey Haim surfaced – and trust me when I tell you it was no accident as to the timing of the memories; I am not going to let this opportunity go. I am a self-appointed advocate for the children of MK-Ultra, MK-Ultra survivors too afraid to speak and MK-Ultra inductees who've passed-on. You have my testimony for what it's worth. You have scores of evidence in photos, movies and interviews to do your own study and draw your own conclusions about Corey Haim and his programming. Corey Haim and Corey Feldman did speak about some of the abuse they endured. To my knowledge, neither of the two have mentioned names for their own reasons. I respect their decision to remain silent.
There is a lot of evidence available, please open your eyes. This programming of children can be prevented. You first have to care, then find your own way to help.
These two videos are the work of another person. They have a lot of good knowledge. Please take a few minutes and watch.
I remember Corey Haim. He can have a voice, an outlet for his experiences through my own. I remember Corey Haim. I will fight-the-fight.
J. Schumacher, please learn my name.
Obama With Young Spider-Man ♦ Why Do I Feel I Was Meant To See This?
Khris Speaks
Volume LXXIV
I accidentally came across this photo last week. It was such a traumatic photo for me to see for reasons not obvious to most. I watched 20 beautiful young boys die wearing pajamas/costumes very similar to the one you will see in this photo. The only difference was, the twenty boys I watched die, did not have the face masks on. Everything else about the young Spider-Man was very similar.
Here is the blog-post I wrote about the 20 little boys being massacred. Many of the readers of this blog are likely familiar with my blog-post about the boys.
MSNBC Short Documentary On Johnny Gosch
Khris Speaks
Volume LXXVIII
MSNBC did a short documentary about Johnny Gosch. Johnny was kidnapped and stolen by a pedophile ring as a child. After watching the documentary, please read the blog-post below. This blog-post goes into much better detail on what happened to Johnny. The MSNMBC documentary only scratches the surface, in my opinion, on what really happened to Johnny Gosch.
A Serious Message From Duncan O'Finioan
Posted with permission. No comments or words of my own are included.
The world didn't blow up and no body ascended. Big surprise, right? Yeah, I know …
OK, I haven't written anything for quite a while. Been kind of busy. Things to do, problems to take care of.
A lot of time (well ok, a little time) over the past few weeks has been spent putting an end to the
whole FWH/Idylwild group. Yep, all done. All information and evidence has been turned over to the Feds.
Now, what they do, if anything, is up to them. I really don't care. Want to know why?
That's right. No time left. It's here.
You think 2012 was bad? Well, just like the song says, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
Are you ready? Good! 'Cause here goes:
OH, wait. During the past several months "some people" have tried very hard to "find out things about me."
Yeah, I know, it's funny.
But here you go.
Hi! My name is Duncan. A lot of people call me Bobby — I answer to that, too.
I'm barely 5ft 7in tall, I weigh 234 lbs, I have 18 inch arms and a 33 inch waist and I can run a mile flat out (sorry, no bum knee).
I like to listen to AC/DC while I drive. Fast. Really, really fast.
AND I have a couple of famous cousins. One being Dakota Fanning.
Now I hope this helps all you brown nosers out there.
We done with this?
Good! Let's move on …
few years. Mostly with Randy Maugans and Dave Corso. I would suggest you go back and give them a listen.
We are going to say much the same here as we have talked about in those interviews. You see, we don't change.
Never have, never will. We don't put out dates for things to happen and then, when it doesn't, just push the date ahead,
then try and blame the "space brothers being late" for the change of date. BS.
Neither is ascension, or the rapture, or Nesara or TPTB all being arrested and a new heaven on earth … debt free!
Get this straight … A WAR IS COMING! Hell, it has been building with people and events being put into place for hundreds
of years!You think TPTB/NWO has lost? That they're going to go away? Then you're a fool.
If I hurt your feelings with that statement … GOOD! It's time you ALL started thinking for yourselves!
Things are only going to get worse. MUCH worse, and damn soon. This is it, boys and girls. The war for your souls.
Ha,ha,ha…no, I'm not a bible-thumper. Although, a lot of what is in the bible is valid. Remember, much of the bible was taken
from much older writings.
This war is about the human soul. Not the only thing … but a very big part of it. And … I know this is something most of you do not want to hear.
Well, it's about damn time you heard the truth and I hope it slaps you in the face and rattles your teeth!
Now hear this, None of you are going to ascend! There will be no space brothers to beam your ass away and God don't want you for a neither a sun nor a moonbeam!
It doesn't matter how many times you go to Egypt with "meditation groups" or believe what a wrapped up mummy ET tells you … THE ONLY PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET
GOOD! I'm just getting started.
This planet, Earth, isn't the only location this war is affecting. That's right, humans aren't at the top of the food chain like most of you
want to believe.
But … BUT. Humans have something the bad guys want. Your soul. And boys and girls, they want it bad!
You see, the human soul is pure energy. Doesn't matter if it's dark or bright, it's still pure energy.
That is want "they" want. They want you as an energy source. Some of you have given your soul over to them freely already. Most
of you for a cheap asking price, too, by the way.
Hate to break the news to ya but, you're lost, gone. Once you give your soul to another via your own free will, that contract is binding!
You might want to read that several more times, all of you who are sitting on the fence with your soul.
WE have been fighting this war for a very, very long time and our time is almost here.
You see, there are a few of us whose job is to TRY and let the human race have a fighting chance. Some of us do care.
We received an email some time ago that said, "It seems like you don't care much for the human race."
The human race (as a whole) has spit in our faces and kicked us when we were down. Has laughed at us, shunned us, and mostly treated us
like crap (note" US refers to ALL who are fighting for the the human race. NOT just Miranda and myself and MK ULTRA people).
So, let me respond to that person's email here.
This is what I said to a large council where the debate was whether or not the human race should be allowed to continue.
I said, "The human race deserves a right to learn and grow without outside influence. To stand and walk on their own!"
(Yes, I made my Godmother proud! He,he, sorry couldn't resist).
Yes, boys and girls, there are those out there willing to die for the human race to have a fighting chance. Are you?
Here's a little something for all you to think about…
Remember all those reports of foreign troops being brought in to have "joint training excerises with American troops?" Remember those times?
Anyone remember them … uh … leaving?
Didn't think so. They have a job to do and all of you will be seeing them on the streets very soon.
All the mass killings over the past several years have been but a part of "their" plan, and over half of the population of this country
have fallen for their BS! Much like you have fallen for the New Age crap and a good deal of the co-opted and impotent "alternative media."
OK. All the gun grabbing with martial law, the collapse of the dollar and the U.S economy is nothing but a cover for what will really happen!
Just keeps getting deeper and darker, doesn't it? Well, it is about that time.
If I took the time to write everything that is going to happen here my fingers would fall off! Hey, I kinda need them, I have several archery
tournaments to compete in soon.
Enough to say, DEPENDING ON HOW MANY OF YOU GIVE OVER YOUR SOULS WILL DETERMINE HOW BAD AND HOW LONG THINGS ARE!
If you must die, then die with your soul intact!
After all, there really is no such thing as death.
Start looking for more dates to lock onto? Go for it.
Find another guru to follow? Done a lot of good in the past, hasn't it?
Find yourself another new age radio host to follow. OK, even I think that one is funny.
Want my advice?
Well then stop reading!
Here it is anyway …
Start acting like humans! Not slaves!
Get off your damn knees and start fighting!
Won't work until you get off your ass, first.
We need all the help we can get.
Lo there do I see my mother and my sisters and my brothers
Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the begining
LO they do call to me, they bid me take my place among them
In the halls of VALHALLA
Where the brave may live
About This Blog ♦ If You Don't Like My Message, Then F**K Off!
Khris Speaks
Volume LXXVI
After a year, it's time I establish a few points-in-general about the purpose of this web-blog. From word-one, I want to make it understood to all readers of this blog, past, present and future, I am not part of any 'movement'. I'm not part of any truth, disclosure nor any other movement, organized, unorganized or implied. I operate this blog as an independent voice from all movements and organizations. I offer my testimony for self-healing as a service to any persons seeking answers and confirmations to their own experiences. I dedicate this blog to the children of all black-projects, who've been kidnapped, abused, programmed and killed by forces so sinister, it would stagger the minds of an unsuspecting humanity if they were aware. I publish this blog because my heart tells me so.
Some questioning of my motives and intentions have recently surfaced on other blogs and venues. I offer the testimony of my black-projects experiences on a take-it or leave-it basis. I owe nobody an explanation; I answer to nobody on the subject of dis-closing my life in the ultra-black programs like MK-Ultra. I've earned the right to say my peace. For over thirty years, I didn't ask questions, I just followed orders. That is general order number one for MK-Ultra assassins. The time to "follow orders" has ended; now it's time for me and all of YOU to be asking questions. Enough is enough. If you don't like the message relayed by this blog to you, then don't read it. If you do appreciate what I'm attempting to do with this blog, then for the love of God or whatever you wish to call your source, please help in any manner constructive.
Duncan O'Finioan – Closing Remarks to Michael Hemmingson
To: @yahoo.com" @yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2012 3:11 PM
Subject: Fraud
Now finishing this paragraph with Anthony Forwood. You mean he's still pissed because I refused to do an interview with him? But just like Aaron McCollum, I'm so glad you put his name in this email. It's tying up loose ends, and I must say, after re-reading this paragraph from you, I have to say Michael, it's bleeding green. It would seem that, after spending so long on your last radio show accusing others of envy and jealousy, it is you who are envious and jealous. But then again, that's just my opinion, isn't it?
http://www.dataasylum.com/ – Check This Out!
Khris Speaks
Volume LXXV
There is an absolutely phenomenal website called dataasylum.com. I'm requesting all my subscribers and blog followers to go to this site. I promise you will be fascinated as well as get many new insights into chem-trails and mind/body control. You'll even get a glance at a person who has cameras placed into their eyes. I have these cameras as well as many, many other people. It's normal for MK-Ultra survivors to have these cameras. This is the most enlightening and fascinating web site I've seen in years.
The capture below is from the dataasylum.com website. All credits belong to the owner of this site.
Stew Webb – An Inside Look
Khris Speaks
Volume LXXIV
I want to introduce you to a man named Stew Webb. He is fighting the Illuminati in court as well as on the internet. I have not spoken to Mr. Webb, so I cannot give a blanket endorsement. I do believe this man is sincere and fighting the 'good fight' and taking some hard hits from the dark forces. There are many important links I wish to share with you. Please take a look at his site and if you want to support him, please do. There will be human sacrifice ceremonies for the solstice on December 21st, 2012. If you can get to the location safely to record or prevent the satanic activities, any assistance would be appreciated. Please be prepared for anything if you attempt to do recon or directly interfere. Please take some time to go to his site and review his material. I do believe you will prosper and benefit by this man's efforts.
The main page to his site. http://www.stewwebb.com/
The link for the rituals: http://www.stewwebb.com/bush_satanic_rituals_and_human_sacrifices_01172010.htm
Stew has written about the mother of Adan Lanza, the Connecticut school shooter.
Johnny Gosch –
Volume II
I found this article on FaceBook earlier this month. It pissed me off to no end. There are many people lecturing, writing and appearing in person to disclose MK-Ultra. Only a few of the writers etc. will discuss what is happening to the children. This person at blogspot did an incredible job putting this phenomenal article together about Johnny Gosch.
The link to the article is here: http://pedophileringilluminati.blogspot.com/2009/10/johnny-gosch-rare-survivor.html
If the author objects, I will remove this post immediately. I hope they will approve as this is very important information.
Johnny Gosch, A Rare Survivor
Author: Kiya |
Given what you've learned thus far in this blog, what characteristics common to Illuminati abductions appear in the Gosch abduction?* Johnny can fit either of the 2 types of abductees, given the uncertainty of the clothes he was wearing at the time. A possible white tee shirt and blue jeans would fit Type 1 but given the fact Johnny had a slight disability (a stutter) he could also fit the Type 2 abductee.
* When Noreen Gosch tells local law enforcement she's received a tip another paperboy will be abducted, police call her "crazy" and ignore the tip. This is the typical Illuminati tactic of portraying credible witnesses as "mentally ill" in order to discredit them. And the fact police refused to act on her tip speaks for itself.


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House Democrats criticize GOP for Congress' short session next year
WASHINGTON -- The House will be in session less than one out of every three days next year, a slight decline from past years. House Republicans say they are running the place more efficiently, and lawmakers need the time to be with constituents in an election year. Democrats say that's too few days on the job during an economic crisis.
The announcement of the 2012 schedule even led to a Twitter battle between the press offices of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and the No. 2 Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, over how Congress is being run.
"As with this year, the goal of next year's calendar is to create certainty and productivity in the legislative process, protect committee time and afford members the opportunity to gain valuable input from their constituents at home," Cantor said in a letter to colleagues as he released the calendar scheduling 109 legislative days in 2012.
Under the tentative calendar, the House would have only six voting days in January. There would be three working days in August, when Congress usually takes off, and the House would be off from Oct. 5 until a week after Election Day on Nov. 6. The last scheduled session of the year would be Dec. 14.
In 2008, the last presidential election year when Democrats controlled the House, the House met for 119 days.
"The American people deserve better," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said at a news conference, referring to congressional inaction on creating jobs and the House's six-day schedule in January. "We have work to do."
Hoyer said the House has had only 111 days of legislative business this year, and the floor schedule "has prevented the House from getting anything done to create jobs."
Republicans responded at a news conference where they highlighted what they called the "forgotten 15," bills that the House has passed and Republicans say will lead to job growth, but which the Democratic-controlled Senate has ignored.
The 15 bills focus on promoting development of domestic energy and reducing or eliminating regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies.
Differences over the schedule and who's to blame for lack of productivity played out on Twitter. Cantor's office derided the "fake outrage" of Hoyer and Pelosi and claimed that the House will be in session more days than it was under Democratic control.
Hoyer's office shot back, "You mean days like today when last votes started before 11 a.m. and we jetted out of town for the week?"
House Republicans, when they gained the majority in January, put into effect several changes to make the chamber operate more smoothly. They reduced the number of votes on minor legislation, such as naming post offices, cut back on morning votes so committee hearings would not be interrupted, and reduced late-night sessions. Cantor said the House has taken 800 roll call votes through Oct. 14 this year, compared to 565 last year.
The Library of Congress says the House has met 139 times through Wednesday. That includes several dozen "pro forma" sessions that last a few minutes and where no business is conducted. This year, such sessions have been convened to prevent President Barack Obama from making federal appointments when Congress is away.
The number hasn't varied much in recent years, with legislative sessions generally going down in election years. According to the Library of Congress, the House met 127 times in 2010, 159 times in 2009, 119 times in 2008 and 164 times in 2007.
The Senate has met 136 times so far this year and convened 157 times last year, including pro forma sessions.


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This is the third installment of Black (Metal) Mixmas. The "Metal" is in parentheses because I hoped to make the Black Mixmas/Black Christmas pun a tad more obvious and because this isn't entirely black metal. There's some black doom, black noise, black ambient, etc. But it's primarily black metal so don't lose your shit if you're a purist.
Speaking of which, this here's a three parter, and each part has its own aesthetic. Part I starts off with your more straightforward black metal. It's still raw and brootal and super awesome, just not too many bells & whistles. Part II gets a bit more melodic and moves towards some of that shoegazey post-etc stuff. Part III (my personal favorite) gets totally fucked up and brings in the twisted shit, extra raw, extra noisy, extra extraordinary. Each part stands on its own as a killer mix but back to back to back they make the biggest most badass black metal adventure you've ever been on.
As with everything else on this site, I tend to give priority to the under-represented and pass over the more high profile bands. That means as amazing as Ash Borer and Panopticon are, they don't need to be here. But tons of awesome blackened shit came out this year that wasn't on Profound Lore and in fact is available for free/name your price downloads on Bandcamp. I linked to all the ones I knew about but dig around and you might find some more. Also, everything on this mix (except Esequiem's track) came out in 2012, so consider this the unofficial AGB Best Of Black Metal list.
I'm taking an AGB vacation for the holidays starting now. If I'm not back before the new year, I'll be back after the new year. These 3+ hours of depravity should keep you sane until then.
Download Black (Metal) Mixmas III
Part I
1. Aven – The Last Thought Of Judas
2. Kaevum – La Mitt Rike Komme
3. WORT – plumplestiltskib (download)
4. Mgła – With Hearts Toward None V
5. Pendulum – Le Verre
6. Klor – Helmet Overgrown With Weeds
7. Alkerdeel – Horsesaw
8. Larvae – Cold Dead Face (download)
9. Jute Gyte – The Cry Essaying The Waters (download)
10. Lucifugum – Щелочь антинатализма
11. Obolus – Desolation (download)
12. Permafrost – Ende
13. Esequiem – An Old Castle In The Fog
Part II
1. Vattnet Viskar – Weakness
2. Aegrotum – Thy Perdition Manifest
3. El-Ahrairah – Drown Alone
4. Loss Of Self – The Mind; It's Form And Function (download)
5. FIN – Insignia (download)
6. Aisuragua – A Mirror Reflecting The Silence
7. Ragana – Burning Structures (download)
8. Rhinocervs – Untitled (track 1 from RH-12)
9. Hordes – The Darkest Conjuration (download)
10. Infinitas – Immerwährende Nächte
11. Daughters Of Sophia – III: Black Sun Enlightment
12. Seirom – Strands Of Golden Light
Part III
1. Sutekh Hexen – Lead Us In Warfare
2. Mhönos – Ex Nihilo… Ad Nihilum…
3. Funeral Depression – Visions Of Broken Life
4. Misery – Sous L'égide Des Martyrs (download)
5. Gates – Forest Passageway, Hallway to the Void
6. OEDE – 8063 (download)
7. Затухание – зора утихает (download)
8. Dead Times & TRTRKMMR – An Appendectomy
9. Trepaneringsritualen – All Hail The Black Flame
10. Cloak Of Altering – Ancient Paths Through Timeless Voids
11. Immaculate Paragon Of Insanity – Invaders From Darkness
12. Venowl – Hung Alive By The Ribs To A Gallows
Technical Note: Затухание's whole album is way loud, like, louder than anything else on this mix. I tried to tone it down in Audacity but I'm not totally sure how that worked out. So just beware. When that track comes on, you might shit yourself.


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Summit County: Boarding to take a break from cancer
summit daily news
Life changed quickly for Breckenridge resident Todd Franzen in November of 2009. Diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, he began treatment, which included multiple rounds of chemotherapy and, eventually, a stem cell transplant.
During that time, Franzen was able to use snowboarding as an escape from the difficulties of his cancer treatment. Two years later, his good friend and snowboarding buddy David Tuck received a sobering diagnosis of his own – pancreatic cancer.
It wasn't long before the spark of an idea took hold. Was there a way to use the passion and energy of snowboarding to help other cancer patients like themselves? They decided there was and with the help of friend Mike Daniel, Strap in for Life was born.
Tuck had worked before with a Florida-based organization called Grind for Life, which pairs cancer patients with skateboarding. Now he wanted to do the same, but with snow. Initially, the three considered a partnership with Grind for Life, but due to various legal and geographical reasons, it didn't work out.
"It became pretty evident that we needed to do our own thing," Franzen said.
After more than a year of talking about it, they finally took the first step with Strap in for Life, setting up a website and Facebook page in November of 2012 and starting the process for becoming a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
"Our mission is to help cancer patients enjoy the spirit of snowboarding and beyond," Franzen said.
He, Tuck and Daniel have a lot of ideas about how to do this. One thing they want to do is to bring cancer patients and their families out to see snowboarding and snowsports events, like the
X Games and Dew Tour, and eventually events that Strap in for Life would put on. They're also very interested in working to get the cancer patients out on the slopes themselves, depending, of course, on the physical strength and feasibility of each individual.
"The goal is to get them into seeing what the spirit of snowboarding is about," Franzen said. "If we can get them on the hill, even better."
"Our goal is to provide an outlet," Daniel added in an email. "We want to create an opportunity for these patients to escape their reality and experience what we all know and love, snowboarding and the mountains."
Although he is currently undergoing a challenging treatment regimen, Tuck still finds time to go ride the slopes now and again. Franzen, now two-and-a-half years in remission, still remembers how important those runs were when he was undergoing chemo.
"It wasn't a lot, but it was like the one spot where I was able to not think about my treatment. It was my own spot," Franzen said. "It was a break from the daily work, the daily grind of going through treatment."
Though he has not personally experienced cancer, Daniel said that he believes snowboarding is a way to uplift and inspire those who are going through it.
"The mountains and snowboarding have always been a place for myself, as well as Todd and Dave, to lose ourselves," Daniel said. "There are so many great aspects of snowboarding, from the vast mountains and landscapes, to the people you meet. Everyone is connected by a similar passion. We hope to share that passion with people struggling and fighting cancer and allow them to be inspired as we all are through snowboarding and its culture."
As they wait for their 501(c)3 application and paperwork to go through, Tuck, Franzen and Daniel are working to spread the word about what they want to do and get people involved.
Community was what got the three of them together in the first place. Franzen and his brother had always been involved in the skateboarding community in Breckenridge, even building ramps in front of their house and creating a place for enthusiasts to gather. When Tuck moved to Breckenridge from Michigan, he met Franzen through skateboarding. Daniel met the two of them through friends when he moved to Breckenridge in 1977. Though both Tuck and Daniel eventually moved away, all three have kept in close contact.
Franzen also felt the support of the Breckenridge community when he was diagnosed in 2009. A benefit for him yielded more than 400 people.
"The community came together for me. It was awesome," Franzen said. He hopes to keep the community involved in Strap in for Life's efforts. "I want to keep the community up to date about it. We want people to be involved with it from the beginning."
The three unveiled Strap in for Life during the most recent Dew Tour, where they said they did well. 365 Boarding, an apparel company based in Denver, is sponsoring a party Friday at Liquid Lounge, with Strap in for Life as the beneficiary. The event will feature snowboarding movies, drinks, raffles and giveaways, asking for a donation at the door.
"We have two goals – to raise as much money as possible for Strap in for Life, as well as promoting 365 Boarding," said 365 Boarding founder and owner Heather Hakes. "We want to have a positive impact on the community."
There's still a lot changing in Franzen's life these days, but this time it's all positive.
"Change is good," he said. "Change is real good now."
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Sarah Milkovich, a member of the science team for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, guides you through an orbital view of the Curiosity rover as well as its heat shield, parachute, backshell and sky crane wreckage.
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is in fine shape, but the sky crane that lowered the car-sized, 1-ton craft to the Red Planet's surface is not looking so good. That's plain to see from the "crime scene photo" provided by Curiosity's high-flying sister probe, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The orbital image, released today, not only shows Curiosity and the sky crane, but the rover's parachute, backshell and heat shield as well. The picture was snapped on Monday night (Pacific Time), about 24 hours after the sky crane executed a perfect maneuver to lower Curiosity to its landing spot in Gale Crater, then flew away for a planned crash landing.
Sarah Milkovich, a member of the orbiter's science team, unveiled the latest jaw-dropping image during today's news briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The debris scattered around the rover documents each step of the Mars Science Laboratory's nail-biter of a landing sequence.
"It's like a crime scene photo here," she said.
The heat shield is visible toward the lower right corner of the scene, which is part of a larger strip of imagery acquired by the orbiter. NASA's schedule for Curiosity's landing called for that disk-shaped part of the spacecraft to be thrown off two and a half minutes before landing — and in fact you can see the shield falling away in a video released Monday. Milkovich said it landed about three-quarters of a mile (1,200 meters) from the rover's landing site.
Curiosity's backshell and its attached parachute are spread out southwest of the rover, about four-tenths of a mile (615 meters) away. Those pieces were jettisoned from the spacecraft about a minute before landing. You can see them still attached to the rover in a different picture taken by the orbiter during Curiosity's descent.
The sky crane was the last piece of the landing puzzle: It was a rocket-powered platform designed to reduce the descent velocity to a near-standstill, and then drop the rover to the ground on the end of three strong cables. When the rover hit the surface, the cables were cut with explosive charges, and the sky crane flew itself away to avoid crashing on top of the rover. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's picture shows the dark streaks left behind by the crane's crash, about a half-mile (650 meters) to the northwest. The blast pattern suggests that the crane hit the dirt obliquely, Milkovich said.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Arizona
This view shows the whole scene around the Curiosity rover, as captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Click on the image for a larger view, or check out NASA's close-ups for the rover, the parachute, the sky crane and the heat shield.
Analyzing the crime scene
At each site where something landed, the relatively bright material on the surface has been disrupted, exposing darker material beneath, Milkovich said. The pattern of dark and light material around the rover supports the view that Curiosity is oriented along a northwest-to-southeast axis, with the rover's front facing the 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp.
"You're getting the same information from orbit as you're getting from the ground, and that really makes you feel very good," Milkovich said.
Some observers noted that images taken just after the landing, by a rear-facing camera on Curiosity, seemed to show a puff of dust rising from a spot northwest of the rover — and they hypothesized that the disturbance was caused by the sky crane's crash. Now the orbital imagery shows that the spot really is roughly where the wreckage is located. A reporter asked Mike Watkins, one of the mission managers for Curiosity's $2.5 billion mission, whether the hypothesis could actually be right.
"I don't think you can rule it out, based on this image," Watkins replied.
In order to get the shot, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had to be rolled to an unusually high 41-degree angle, producing a sidelong view similar to what you'd see from an airplane window. The picture was taken from a height of roughly 186 miles (300 kilometers), yielding a resolution of 15 inches (39 centimeters) per pixel. Future pictures are expected to show the hardware in greater detail.
Kenneth Edgett, a member of the Curiosity team from Malin Space Science Systems, said the picture showed three different types of geological formations converging on a point near Curiosity's landing site. "If it were up to me, I would go where those three come together," Edgett said. Nature's Eric Hand provides more detail on Curiosity's potential future route. However, mission managers say it's too early to tell exactly which places the rover will visit.
There's one place the rover will definitely not visit: the sky crane crash scene. Engineers estimate that there were still about 300 pounds (140 kilograms) of hydrazine rocket fuel left over from the sky-crane platform's 880-pound (400-kilogram) supply when the crash occurred. Mission managers want to make sure the rover avoids having its scientific instruments contaminated by the fuel that was splashed around the impact zone.
Steven Lee via Twitter
The Curiosity mission's team for entry, descent and landing evaluates an orbital image that shows the impact location for the sky-crane descent stage on Mars.
Curiosity is getting busy
Watkins said the rover is in good shape. It's already taking lots of pictures and acquiring scientific data with its RAD experiment (which reads radiation levels) and its REMS weather station. Over the next day, mission managers will tweak the REMS settings to get it in better working order, and fine-tune the orientation of Curiosity's high-gain antenna to get it pointing more directly at Earth.
By Wednesday, Curiosity's mast should be raised to its full height of 7 feet (2.1 meters) above the ground, which will clear the way for the checkout of the mast's science and navigation cameras. The first high-resolution, 360-degree views of Curiosity's surroundings could become available in the next day or two.
Curiosity will be gathering data for at least the next two years, with the prime objectives of unraveling billions of years' worth of the geological record at Mount Sharp and looking for chemical evidence that could show whether or not Mars was ever potentially habitable. There'll be lots of cool pictures ahead, but Watkins said the early pictures are particularly treasured because they show places that have never been seen up close before.
"These are the days that people have worked five or 10 years for, going on right now," he said.
Update for 5:45 p.m. ET: Thanks to JPL's Steven Lee for sharing his picture of the entry, descent and landing team poring over the picture of the sky crane crash site. Lee also reports on the winner of the team's office pool to predict the landing location: Congratulations to entry controller designer Paul Brugarolas.
More about the Curiosity mission:
- Curiosity sends color snapshot from Mars
- Rover video looks down on Mars during landing
- Mars orbiter spots rover in midair
- NASA's Mohawk Guy marvels at his fame
- Curiosity rover scores touchdown on Mars
- Mars probe provides radiation revelations
- Video: Highlights from rover's first two days on Mars
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.


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Last Updated: Aug 03, 2016
These steps help identify and resolve the underlying cause. After completing each step, test to see if the issue is fixed. If not, continue to the next step.
A soft reset deletes any temporary files that may be causing the issue.
A complete application uninstall removes all related files, settings, and data from your Apple iPhone 4. After the uninstall, reinstall it to try to fix any download errors and to be sure you have the latest software version of the application.
Note: To optimize device performance, be sure your Apple iPhone 4 is running the most recent device software. Check for software updates.
If you're still having issues, try the Sprint Community pages or contact the application developer listed in the application description for more help.


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New costume! Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy!20 September, 2017 Cosplay Photos Comments 0
Gamora - Daughter of Thanos, Guardian of the Galaxy
As promised, here is a shot of the finished costume! I was just gonna post a preview pic, but @jason_latorre magicked this badass portrait on his phone!!
Also a HUGE shout out to Miya Tamlyn Makeup for doing my alien makeup!! She managed to make me green pretty!!
Wig provided by Arda Wigs
Contacts custom made by Samhain Contact Lenses
I made the full costume, from armor to the undersuit, and even the gloves.
Fabrics from my CosplayFabrics.com line, available at JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores.
Armor made fromCosplay Shop 'Select Style's EVA foam.
More pics, info, and how to video coming soon. Right now, I just need a stiff drink, lol.


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The version 1.9.1 release of the Jelastic cloud application hosting platform arrives this week with its promise of "ultra-scalable" functionality and a "fundamentally new approach" to Java and PHP hosting. So are these terms showboating marketing superlatives, or is there substance within?
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This new release features a CRON scheduler, the ability to schedule database backups, and the latest versions of software stacks including PostgreSQL 9.2.4 as part of the package.
NOTE: CRON (or more accurately just Cron as in "chronos" from the Greek for time) is technology that works as a time-based job scheduling function in UNIX-like operating systems. Cron exists to enable software application developers to schedule jobs (such as systems maintenance or admin), commands, or shell scripts so that they run periodically at certain specified times or dates.
Jelastic's so-called fundamentally new approach to Java and PHP hosting hinges around a promise that users will have no need to learn custom systems or recode applications in order to deploy. Its makers further claim that Jelastic is the first cloud platform that can run and scale any Java or PHP application without any code changes.
The newly launched Jelastic 1.9.1 has a number of new features and improvements: regulating the sequence of balance charging, config manager improvement, PostgreSQL 9.2.4 support, the aforementioned CRON Scheduler, the power to schedule backups for end user DBs, and aNetBeans IDE Plugin.
Users of Jelastic 1.9.1 get access for each node configuration files and can choose to configure all the servers together or just a specific one.
Dmitry Sotnikov, Jelastic COO said, "Jelastic 1.9.1 users can run programs at a specified time with a help of scheduler, which receives instructions and performs any tasks following derived scenarios. Users can also backup databases or specific tables right from the configuration files. Jelastic assures that all data is being saved periodically and can be restored or reused."
Another new feature of Jelastic 1.9.1 is a notification about running out of resources. When the traffic grows an application requests more resources for normal work. If the limits selected are too low, this can lead to the failure in the app performance. For such cases the notification about running out of resources is implemented.


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"The LORD our God, the LORD is one." For some, this can be a difficult truth to understand. At times, God is spoken of almost as if He's two different beings — a harsh and angry God in the Old Testament, a merciful and loving God in the New. Pastor Andy Stanley explores the Bible as one continuous narrative, telling the story of just one God: a god of Grace.
Stanley tackles a very large subject in this book, and handles it in a way that focuses on making it accessible. "The Grace of God" selects a handful of Biblical high-points from both the Old and New Testaments, and delves into them in a way that shows how, even when it's not obvious, these stories are ultimately stories of God's grace, and how they are all part of one ongoing story.
If the book has a shortcoming, it's that, in making "The Grace of God" easily accessible and understood, it avoids some of the more challenging events of the Old Testament. This doesn't mean that the book is superficial, however, only selective — even for mature Christians, the book will challenge readers to view what they think they know from a new perspective. (Note: I received a review copy of this book through Booksneeze.)
• "The Grace of God" on Booksneeze
Filed under: God, Media, Reviews | Tagged: Andy Stanley, BookSneeze, postaday2011, reviews, The Grace of God | Leave a comment »


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The Supreme Court is back in session, with several big cases and decisions yet to come on issues of civil rights including the voting rights act, same sex marriage and affirmative action in school admissions. NBC's Pete Williams reports from Washington.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a landmark Fourth Amendment case that could clear up almost 50 years of uncertainty over the constitutionality of blood tests that are taken without a suspect's consent.
The case involves a traffic stop in Missouri, but its ramifications could range far wider, potentially rewriting drunk-driving laws in all 50 states.
"It comes down, basically, to are you going to see blood draws every single time someone gets pulled over for a DUI," said Michael A. Correll, a litigator with the international law firm Alston & Bird, who examined the legality of blood draws in the West Virginia Law Review last year.
Because drunk-driving stops are such an everyday occurrence, "it's going to affect a broad area of society," he told NBC News, adding: "This may be the most widespread Fourth Amendment situation that you and I are going to face" for the foreseeable future.
Writing last month in the journal of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, Lauren Owens, a research attorney for the organization, said, "The outcome of the case could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of DWI cases supported by blood evidence."
The case began in October 2010, when Tyler McNeely of Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis, was pulled over for speeding. According to court documents, McNeely was unsteady and failed field sobriety tests, so state Highway Patrol Cpl. Mark Winder asked him to take a breath test.
Even before Supreme Court rules, gay marriage battles rage in the states
When McNeely refused, Winder took him to a hospital, where McNeely refused to take a blood test. Winder told the lab technician to take a sample anyway. The record shows that at no time did Winder seek a warrant compelling the test, which indicated that McNeely's blood-alcohol level was almost double the legal limit.
But McNeely's lawyers persuaded the trial judge to exclude the evidence as a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Here's where it gets complicated. Earlier in 2010, the Missouri Legislature changed the state's "implied consent" law, which says that if you drive on Missouri's roads, you've automatically consented to take a sobriety test.
The previous language said explicitly that if you refused to take a test, then "none shall be given" and the refusal itself could be used as evidence against you.
The new language left out the four words "none shall be given," re-emphasizing that the driver had consented simply by having gotten behind the wheel in the first place. Winder testified that he had read a journal article about the change and said he made a "conscious decision" not to seek a warrant "due to the law changes."
On appeal, the state argued that no warrant was needed because of a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a California DUI case that laid out circumstances under which law enforcement could order a blood test without a warrant.
Supreme Court lets embryonic stem cell research go forward
In general, a person's blood is protected under the Fourth Amendment, Justice William Brennan wrote in Schmerber v. California (.pdf): "Search warrants are ordinarily required for searches of dwellings, and, absent an emergency, no less could be required where intrusions into the human body are concerned."
But Brennan noted that Armando Schmerber, the driver in the California case, had been in an accident. Because the officer had to investigate the scene and make sure Schmerber was taken to a hospital for treatment, "there was no time to seek out a magistrate and secure a warrant" before the driver's body metabolized the alcohol in his system, Brennan wrote.
So Brennan carved out what he called a "stringently limited" exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement because of the likelihood that evidence — the alcohol in the driver's blood — would be destroyed during the delay. That clause has come to be known as the "exigent circumstances" or "special facts" exception.
Missouri argued that delaying McNeely's blood test while the officer sought a warrant amounted to an exigent circumstance because the alcohol in his blood would be destroyed. McNeely argued that because his case involved a straightforward DUI stop — he wasn't in an accident, unlike Schmerber in 1966 — Winder had plenty of time to seek a warrant.
Missouri's Supreme Court agreed with McNeely in January 2012, writing (.pdf):
The patrolman here, however, was not faced with the "special facts" of Schmerber. Because there was no accident to investigate and there was no need to arrange for the medical treatment of any occupants, there was no delay that would threaten the destruction of evidence before a warrant could be obtained. ... The sole special fact present in this case, that blood-alcohol levels dissipate after drinking ceases, is not a per se exigency pursuant to Schmerber justifying an officer to order a blood test without obtaining a warrant from a neutral judge.
As the court itself noted, Brennan stressed 47 years ago that his analysis was expressly limited to the facts of the Schmerber case, but that hasn't stopped various state and federal courts from referring to it over the years, not all of them reading it the same way.
So in May, the state of Missouri asked the U.S. Supreme Court (.pdf) to step in because "this emerging conflict on a fundamental Fourth Amendment issue will likely continue to divide courts throughout the United States."
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The federal government has sided with Missouri, writing in a friend-of-the-court brief (.pdf) that "the fact that the evidence of intoxication is necessarily leaving the suspect's system provides the required exigency." Prosecutors from across the country joined to file a similar brief (.pdf).
But the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing McNeely, argued that there were no special circumstances trumping the Fourth Amendment.
In any event, it told the Supreme Court (.pdf), the issue is groundless, because — as he testified himself — the arresting officer ordered the blood test because he thought he could, not because of any "special facts." That means it's "a strange case in which to construe the exigency exception to the Fourth Amendment," the ACLU argued.
The court's decision is likely to come down to one simple question, Correll said: "Did Schmerber create a blanket exception to the Fourth Amendment or didn't it?"
"What does the court indicate the emergency is?" he asked. "Is the emergency the inability to get a warrant in a set period of time, or is the emergency that the blood alcohol is dissipating?"
As for McNeely, he's not off the hook even if he wins. Under a separate law that isn't at issue, his driver's license was revoked because he refused to take the breath and blood tests. And both sides agree that the blood test wasn't the only evidence against him, meaning he could still be convicted of felony drunk driving.
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Mei-Lyn Bautista, Jordan Augustus, McKayla Hernandez lead St. Mary's to undefeated CHSAA regular season
Wow, did St. Mary's take the league by storm.
The infusion of transfers Mei-Lyn Bautista, Jordan Augustus and McKayla Hernandez immediately elevated the girls basketball program, but few could have expected this cyclone-like turnaround.
All season, they showed their might, sweeping through the CHSAA. And Thursday night brought another Gael-force win as St. Mary's defeated Holy Trinity, 68-42, before its home crowd on Senior Night.
"I first wanted to transfer here and my friends said, 'Why don't we come, too?' " Bautista said of the sophomore trio's decision to leave Mary Louis Academy in Queens. "We decided to stick together."
So the Big Three took their talents to Manhasset. The Gaels went 12-14 last season but now are in serious title contention for the first time in three years.
"It's awesome seeing them back at the top and having a chance to do things like we did," said Shannon Flynn, the daughter of coach Tom Flynn. She led St. Mary's to the state Class A final as a senior in 2010. "This team looks dominant again," she said, "so I have all the confidence in them."
And why not?
Bautista, the slick-dribbling point guard, had 13 points and four assists before sitting out the second half to rest a sore wrist. Hernandez, the sharpshooter, scored 10 points, including two three-pointers. Augustus, the 6-foot power forward with guard-like handle, added six points, six rebounds and five blocks for St. Mary's (20-2 overall, 14-0 CHSAA).
"When kids like these come here," Tom Flynn said, "as a coach, your job is to just not mess it up."
This, obviously, was another tidy performance. Bautista's running floater from 10 feet gave St. Mary's an early 4-2 lead that wasn't relinquished. Danielle Waithe (12 points) hit three three-pointers in the second quarter and the Gaels led 43-16 at halftime.
Elizabeth Limonta added six points and six rebounds and Alyssa James had five points, 10 rebounds and four blocks for St. Mary's, which hosts the CHSAA quarterfinals Wednesday.
"We're undefeated right now and that's cool," Augustus said, "but we have to stay focused and make sure we keep it that way."
Kelly Carey scored 24 points and Hannah Woodward had six for the Titans (6-12, 3-10).
"Having two of my best friends with me -- in school and on the court -- made the transition easier," Bautista said, "but the whole team welcomed us, so we're really comfortable here and we've settled in."
And for upcoming opponents, that's unsettling.


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This article is by Sara Rotman, CEO and chief creative officer, MODCo Creative.
Perhaps the biggest news within the retail industry at the moment is the sudden resignation of JC Penney's president, Michael Francis. Only eight months after taking the helm at the retail behemoth, news of Francis' abrupt departure was shocking to many.
Flashback to January 2012 – just six short months ago: In advance of the company's new ads hitting market, there was a huge feeling of excitement and positive anticipation from within the industry. We all (myself included) eagerly awaited the roll-out of the company's marketing strategy. If JC Penney's strategy proved to be successful, it would quite literally revolutionize the way in which we all consider retail promotion – which would benefit not only JC Penney, but also all other retailers moving forward.
So, what went wrong?
Industry-Consumer Disconnect
If there is one thing that JC Penney did extremely well, is was communicate its strategy clearly and boldly to the marketing industry press. Industry insiders understood the company's ambitious marketing strategy from the beginning and were downright giddy to watch Michael Francis' plans unfold. After all, the man is heralded for establishing Target's successful (and multi-billion dollar) cheap-chic image.
Given this, I think it's safe to say that the industry was more than a little bit surprised and disappointed to see such a huge disconnect between what the company had planned to communicate to consumers – and what the ads actually conveyed about the brand. Had I not been following all of the reports surrounding the brand's marketing strategy in advance of its launch, I would have been just as confused as JC Penney's core consumers once those non-consumer-friendly ads aired.
Changing the Story
To start, the core messaging that the strategy was built on was not included within the advertisements. Local in-store displays simply did not reflect the company's rebranded ethos. Then, most surprising to us all, the messaging was altered along the way. I remember seeing no less than three totally different iterations of ad campaigns during the initial relaunch. Whether this was planned or in response to consumer reaction doesn't much matter; either way, it's disconcerting as the imagery and point of view of each effort were incredibly confusing and dispirited, which is antithetical to a solid relaunch. Simply put, it appeared as though they were talking to themselves rather than to their customers – which is detrimental.
Misfiring and then making so many adjustments to a brand's relaunch messaging immediately out of the gate is devastating to consumer confidence – and making so many quick changes in succession ultimately confuses rather than strengthensa brand's image. Without consumer endorsement and understanding, a brand has very little.
Lack Of Internal Buy-in?
I believe that JC Penney has a strong desire to revitalize the brand's strategy at the top of the corporate ladder. However, there appears to have been some difficulty (and perhaps even resistance) instilling the relaunch messaging down and across all units and sectors of the company – and therein lies the huge disconnect. In order for a marketing strategy to truly be successful, everyone must be on the same page. And while I acknowledge that it's far tougher to change the direction of a large ship compared to a smaller vessel, it remains possible.
A Missed Opportunity… But Still a Chance for Something Revolutionary
It's safe to say that JC Penneymissed a huge opportunity to reinvent its image and to do something truly special for the brand. As
an industry insider, my feeling is that the company entered into the brand relaunch with the best of intentions; however, those intentions were lofty, to say the least – and it takes time to reroute a ship of this stature.
With Francis' sudden departure from the company, this missed opportunity lingers, and many question how the departure will affect the brand moving forward. JC Penney will continue to live, but moving forward, there will be far less opportunity for an innovative relaunch due to the anti-climactic misfire that the brand endured. In my opinion, a lot of money was ineffectively spent in an attempt to enhance the brand.
As it stands, CEO Ron Johnson has made the decision against hiring a replacement for Francis – which reinforces his need to dive in and be thenew brand "cheerleader." Regardless of the direction that JC Penney plans to take in future, the following remains clear: The brand needs love, fortitude and a focused vision across channels to steer such a big ship.