text:
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Sea Shepherd Australia said Thursday that a legal settlement involving the conservation group's U.S. founder will not affect its anti-whaling campaign in the Southern Ocean.
Spokesman Adam Burling said the Australian arm of the group has been deliberately independent from the U.S. organization since the court case began several years ago.
This week, Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research and a whale ship operator announced they'd reached an agreement with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the U.S. and its founder Paul Watson.
The group was made famous by the television show "Whale Wars." Typically each Southern Hemisphere summer, Sea Shepherd sends out boats to try and stop Japan's whaling fleet from catching whales in the Southern Ocean.
Burling said the Japanese fleet has a quota of 333 minke whales this summer, and Sea Shepherd Australia plans to make an announcement next week about what kind of campaign it intends to run this year.
"We've got a brand-new vessel, the first ship in 40 years that has been custom-built for us, called the Ocean Warrior," he said. "We've got a long-term commitment to end whaling."
Burling said most of its budget comes from fundraising within Australia and that Sea Shepherd New Zealand also provides support for the ships at New Zealand docks.
Speaking this week from his home office in Woodstock, Vermont, Watson said the settlement only prevents the group's U.S. organization from interfering with Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.
"What it means is Sea Shepherd USA cannot contribute money toward the Southern Ocean campaign, cannot be involved in the Southern Ocean campaign, and that's fine. We've got plenty of other campaigns to do," said Watson, who recently returned to the U.S.
"Whether Sea Shepherd Australia or Sea Shepherd Global ... if they intend to return to the Southern Ocean that's their business, it's not ours and I can't control them," he said of the settlement filed on Tuesday.
The Institute of Cetacean Research, which studies whales, also is paying an undisclosed amount to the anti-whaling group on the condition the money will not be transferred to its affiliates elsewhere, including in Australia.
Japan Agriculture Minister Yuji Yamamoto on Thursday welcomed the agreement, saying, "I take it as a positive development that would contribute to the safety of the research whaling fleet."
Yamamoto, however, said that Japanese whalers should continue to use caution and be aware that there are staunch opponents of whaling.
Sea Shepherd Global media director Heather Stimmler said all of its entities around the world — except those in the United States — will continue to oppose what it believes is illegal Japanese whaling near Antarctica.
The International Whaling Commission imposed a commercial ban on whaling in 1986, but Japan has continued to kill whales under an exemption for what the country says is research.
Interpol lists Watson as being wanted in Japan on charges of conspiracy to trespass on a whaling ship and interference with business, and in Costa Rica on a charge of interfering with a shark finning operation.
Watson, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, was arrested in Germany but then fled to sea for 15 months when he said he heard that he would be extradited to Japan. He then lived in France for two years before he said he was allowed to come back to the U.S., which he did within the last two weeks.
In his office, surrounded by artifacts from his journeys, the 65-year-old Watson said he will continue to coordinate with other Sea Shepherd entities. As president of Sea Shepherd USA, he said is in touch every day with the ship captains who are working on campaigns, such as with the Mexican Navy to protect an endangered fish and dolphin, and doing research on viruses and parasites among farm-raised salmon.
"Japan made a big mistake because they thought by removing me they'd shut down Sea Shepherd. That's precisely why I wanted Sea Shepherd to become a movement and not something controlled by me. A lot of people think I am Sea Shepherd. No I'm not, I'm just part of it," he said.
Rathke reported from Woodstock, Vermont. AP writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.


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This is an essay I decided to write after browsing the forum and scratching my head a few times.
I had to wonder, Why is there a subsection for "The Law of Attraction" on a website primarily
concerned with Eckhart Tolle, but also other non-dual inclined spirituality? I've done some reading
around the internet to get into the meat of "The Law of Attraction" (Which I'll abbreviate as LoA)
and I'm a little concerned about it. In this short essay I'll try to explain three things; 1) That
LoA does not work, 2) That LoA has absolutely nothing to do with nonduality and 3) That LoA
is harmful to genuine spiritual enquiry. One may wonder why I've decided to single out LoA
as a target for decapitation and the reason is simple; because it's so popular. The most recent
incarnation of this vacuous phenomenon arrived to us as "The Secret", the ironically titled
movie and book by Rhonda Byrne. The Secret topped best seller lists for a long time, and
also managed to maintain a strong position in the Amazon charts which is no easy feat. It
also comes as no surprise to me that Oprah Winfrey highly recommended it. Now, Oprah
Winfrey did boost Eckhart to spiritual stardom, and I'm quite sure I might never have heard
of him if it weren't for Oprah's endorsement of The Power of Now and A New Earth, but, I
think one can safely assume that Oprah is not aware of the much deeper implications
within Eckhart's books. I'm concerned by the popularity of the LoA because upon
closer inspection it is nothing more than a pyramid scheme in a spiritual outfit. It essentialy
goes like this; if you really want something and truly believe it's possible, you'll get it.
1) LoA simply does not work.
How many times have you really wanted something and desparately imagined having it, only for
it to simply not come into fruition? I'm sure that this happens to most people on a daily basis.
Sure, sometimes these things do come true, but one can put this down to mere chance or luck of
the draw. Let's examine this system in more detail;
Quoted from Wikipedia:
How many people have asked the universe for their desires to be fulfilled? People are constantly"Step 1 Ask Know what you want and ask the universe for it. This is where you need to get clear on
what it is you want to create and visualise
what you want as being as 'real' as possible."
anticipating the future for their deepest desires to be fulfilled. They wait for things to happen for them,
or they put all of their mental and physical effort in to achieving their goals. I put it that this is not
spiritual at all, this is the daily struggle! This the grasping and rejecting, the clinging on to conditions
to achieve some desired outcome.
How is this anything but desperation? How is this anything but belief in a belief, asserting an assumption"Step 2 Believe Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way. Focus your thoughts and your language on
what it is you want to attract. You want to
feel the feeling of really 'knowing' that what you
desire is on its way to you, even if you have to trick
yourself into believing it – do it."
as true even before the outcome is known? How is this different from faith? I am reminded of Christian
Fundamentalists who desparately believe that Jesus is definitely coming SOON, despite the nearly
two thousand year period in which 'soon' has become 'very late'. How is the LoA any different from
a christian who prays and prays for Jesus' Second Coming (Step 1 and 2) and yet has not 'Received'?;
One must ask, if the LoA is true, why has Step 3 not come true for those countless christians who have"Step 3 Receive Be open to receiving it. Pay attention to your intuitive messages,
synchronicities, signs from the Universe to help
you along the way as assurance you are on the
right' path. as you align yourself with the Universe
and open yourself up to receiving, the very thing you
are wanting to manifest will show up."
prayed and prayed for millennia for the coming of their King? I use the Christian example not as an attack
on Christianity, but because it is an excellent and enduring example of why the LoA is simply false
wishful thinking. Another, more morbid example I feel I should use is that of an impoverished nation, or
a starving child. It would appear that Rhonda Byrne overlooked the majority of the human population
when she wrote her book, because she failed to notice the billions who go without basic human
essentials day in and day out. Does a starving child not know it is starving, does it not ask for food
and beg everyday? (Step 1) Does the child not have some hope and faith that one day there will be a day
that it will not go hungry? (Step 2) Is the starving child not 'aligned with the Universe' enough, even though it has
to live in dirt and is susceptible to all of nature's most terrible diseases? Is the starving child not open to receiving
what it so desparately needs? (Step 3). I hope the barbaric nature of LoA has become clear at this point. When Rhonda
Byrne came up with this tripe she clearly intended only to extort money out of the wealthy middle classes who could
afford another self-help fix, and as a consequence forgot entirely about the countless people who LoA clearly could not 'help' and have since died since you have read this paragraph.
What Rhonda Byrne is doing here is nothing new. Her version of LoA is actually nothing more than wishful - every day
desiring, but sexed up. This is in it's own way marketing genius but also incredibly fraudulent. LoA is nothing but
the old paradigm. The old paradigm is the constant grasping and rejecting of conditions which leads to the cycle
of suffering, she is selling Samsara as "The Secret". She paints it with a new coat, but scratch the surface and one
can see what it really is. One does not need to pay money to know "The Secret" because one already knows it as
their everyday experience, infact she offers nothing but your own experience back to you- but for a price. The way
in which this is done is twofold;
a) The bastardization of Scientific concepts.
The first way in which the LoA seeks to extort money out of the innocent and the gullible is to resell wishful thinking
as some sort of scientifically proven 'method'. This is done very easily by associating it's wishful thinking
with scientific or psychological jargon. It emphasises that 'our thoughts create our reality' (that is, that thoughts
have an impact not only on the body physically and emotionally but also on the material world in which the body
inhabits.) According to proponents of this law, thoughts have an energy which attracts whatever it is the person is thinking of. A current trend amongst LoA and other New Age circuits is the attempt to combine their wishful thinking with
Quantum Mechanics. Proponents of this rubbish attempt to ape the 'Observer Principle' and the Heisenburg Uncertainty
as evidence that Reality is determined by what we think or wish to create. This is also very often sold as Spirituality,
which not only is deeply dishonest and disrespectful to Science, but also genuine spiritual enquiry.
b) The bastardization of Spiritual concepts.
The second way in which LoA fools people is it's alarming use of and raping of spiritual or philosophical
terminology. Much like their theft of scientific principles in order to appear ground breaking, LoA constantly
uses spiritual concepts in order to appear profound. The proponents of LoA throw such words as 'Universe'
'Energy' 'Source' 'Being' 'Love' 'Wholeness' 'Oneness' to such a degree that they appear at the very least
mysterious or enigmatic, and at the very worst as completely empty of all substance and meaning, divorced
from the original context in which such terms are understood correctly. Such words, even if not understood
clearly, speak to the very core of our nature, and this is why they are carelessly plucked from their proper
place and peppered all over the pages of drivel such as LoA and many other New Age nonsenses
in order to make a lot of profit.
2) LoA has absolutely nothing to do with nonduality.
This is what initally puzzled me and brought me to writing the essay. Let us pretend for a moment that
the LoA is actually a genuine spiritual philosophy/belief system. What does it teach? It teaches that
our minds have a profound effect on the universe, and that somehow what we wish for can be created,
or manifested, by the joint power of the universe and our minds, if we so badly desire it. So what
does this have to do with nonduality? Nothing! Even if all this were true it still in no ways can be
compared with or even considered amongst the philosophy, practice and enquiry of nonduality.
I am reminded of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. In this epic poem, there are many gods, there
are many demons, there are many castes, there are many spiritual practices, there are many
traditions all at work within the same society. But at the very core of this society, and this epic, lies the
teachings of Krishna, who imparts his wisdom to Arjuna on the battlefield before the war
between the Kuru cousins commences. Now Krishna is an incarnation of the Supreme
Being, and his teaching is nonduality. His teaching throws away all of the old paradigms, it
throws away all of the gods, all of the demons, all of the traditions, even many of the spiritual
practices are thrown away into the abyss of irrelevancy. These things which have seemed
so important, so vital to the society he throws away, because compared to the ultimate truth
which is to be realized if one follows his teaching, compared to that none of those other
things matter, they are not even worth considering. He teaches Arjuna spiritual practice
and Self enquiry, genuine spirituality. This is all he needs to realize Reality. All of the
other things are ultimately not useful or are a hindrance. Nonduality is about
understanding Reality, and understanding oneself, not through belief systems, not through
pseudoscience or intellectual pursuits. Not through wishful thinking. Through practice, through
enquiry and through experience, this is how nonduality works. This is why it has
nothing to do with LoA, which requires none of those things, and should not even be considered
alongside LoA. The two simply cannot be reconciled, even if LoA were genuine, because nonduality
works at the very deepest levels of experience, and asks the very deepest questions one can
ever ask, (Who am I?). To mix the two, or follow the two can only lead to confusion.
3) LoA is harmful to genuine spiritual enquiry.
Some might argue that although LoA is quite a transparent attempt to make a shedload of cash, it
does serve some spiritual insight or benefits. Whilst I won't argue with the material benefits that
some will claim to have received (although this could be put down to the Placebo effect or just blind
luck) I do contend the claims that LoA, and other similar 'spiritual' schemes can genuinely lead
one down the path to enlightenment. LoA can never be of complete use or purpose and the main
reason is this;
LoA rests on the assumption of materialism, and therefore encourages it.
Now by this I do not simply mean that it encourages you to horde objects and riches, and be generally
concerned primarily of ownership of things (although I would not be surprised if it did!) but rather that
it equates the Self with things not Self (such as body, such as thinking). The LoA rests on the most
basic assumption, and the most basic error, that the Self is the body, the individual. The most
basic materialism is seeing the Self as the body, and so assuming ownership over it. This is the cause
of all woes, the cause of all spiritual ignorance, and the LoA (among many other beliefs) falls right into
the trap of this assumption, and then it takes it's base therein, and makes it's assertions from there.
This is why it cannot be considered as genuine spirituality, and belief in LoA can be dangerous and
counterproductive to all seekers of genuine spiritual enquiry. LoA does not and cannot inspire
or require spiritual practice because it only works on the level of materialism. It is only concerned with
the false identity of the Self as the body, as the Self as the thinker. And yet even as a materialistic
philosophy it still does not inspire or require action. This is why it fails as both a spiritual philosophy and a
material self-help system. Even in materialism one is required to perform action in order to obtain desired
consequences. Like Newton said "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." LoA does not
ask that one does anything at all except concentrate one's thought into a belief and have faith in that belief.
There is no action in LoA so how could there possibly be a reaction? Generally, when one does nothing but
expects results, you don't get the result you expected! LoA merely asks one to assert and reassert a mental
position in the hope that it will be 'manifested' by the universe, as if without effort. It is lazy and inspires laziness,
both materialistically and spiritualy. It can neither be spiritualy gratifying (because there is no spiritual practice)
or materialy gratifying (because there is no impetus for action driven by the desire to be emotionally or physically
None of these quick fix pseudoscience/spiritual/philosophical systems inspire genuine spirituality, genuine
spiritual exploration (which is Self exploration). Aside from all of the previous things I have mentioned (1 and 2)
it is simply the fact that LoA asserts it's position based on the assumption that the Self is the body that it cannot
be valued in any way. This is the ignorance (avidya) which all genuine spirituality seeks to remove. You will see
it in Advaita, you will see it in gnosticism, you will see it in Buddhism, you will see it in Sufism, you will see it
in Taoism. This ignorance is Tolle's Ego. This is the rope's snake. This is the tiger in the dream. And this
ignorance is where all of these New Age belief systems work from. LoA and others like it are not at all spiritual
in any meaningful way and can be of no lasting beneficial use to anybody who is sincerely working towards
liberation. It is a poisonous doctrine. It can hamper one's ernest efforts to be free from ignorance about one's
nature and so one's suffering. Without those tried and tested spiritual practices such as meditation, selfless
service, devotion, mindfulness etc or direct Self enquiry (Jnana) then one can never be free from that superimposed
ignorance which is so limiting. The LoA and all of the others which don't ask of or require these two vital things must
be discarded because they simply cannot bring you to nondual realization. It is much wiser to go and swim down
into the deeps of the ocean, where nobody has been, than in the shallows, in order to find that pearl of great price.
The pearl of Self awareness.
I would personally suggest removing the subsection for "Law of Attraction" from the forum, not only because it does not receive as many visitors as other sections, but because, as I have hopefully explained, it may not work as a system, it has
nothing to do with nonduality or Eckhart Tolle and is not a helpful step on the path to enlightenment.
Thank you for reading.
ps: Sorry for the messy layout!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
What's next? Might & Magic Kart Racing?
With roots dating back to 1987, Might & Magic has been a staple in PC
role-playing for well over a decade. Though the last few games have been dismal,
the excellent Heroes offshoot spawned a terrific line of turn-based strategy
there should be a statute of limitations on how long you can ride a game's success
before having to cash in your chips and start over. Someone decided that role-playing
and strategy wasn't enough, and the next logical step was to crank out an action-adventure.
The result was Crusaders of Might and Magic for the PSX, which was a
genuine flop and should have warned against trying to take a license too far.
Instead, we get Warriors of Might and Magic, another third-person action
RPG romp, but this time for the PS2. And while hardly as bad as its PSOne predecessor,
this one seems content mired in utter mediocrity.
You play Alleron, a would-be hero accused of practicing Necromancy and cast
into a pit of hopelessness. With a nasty mask 'o shame strapped to your head,
you set out to clear your name and stop an all-encompassing evil from decimating
the land.
So it ain't Shakespeare. Plus, whoever designed Alleron must be a fan of Siegfried
and Roy, because our long-haired masked hero looks like a gay magician.
The gameplay is very straightforward. You run around 9 large levels hacking
at monsters, solving simple puzzles and occasionally jumping around on platforms.
Sound familiar?
Warriors of M&M follows traditional role-playing elements by allowing
you to gain experience in four categories (strength, intelligence, endurance
and speed), acquire and equip all manner of weapons and armor, and learn a dozen
or so spells.
Most of your time is spent creeping around killing baddies. The combat is essentially a hackfest – just grab the burliest weapon you have and whack away until the enemy stops moving. The spells are largely generic – fireballs, ice storms, etc. – and tend to be very effective.
Unfortunately, the control gets a bit frisky because the camera operates independent
of your character. Eventually you'll get used to it, but some gamers might find
the analog sticks to be a little imprecise, particularly when it comes to jumping.
The delivery is decent if hardly next-generation. The world is generally believable, but some of the textures are incredibly grainy. 3DO knows how to crank out FMV, and while the general character design is lacking, the smooth cut-scenes are pretty high in quality. Plus, as you find and equip different items, you'll actually see the physical change on your character. This really helps with the mood.
alas, Alleron moves with all the grace of a claymation figure dipped in wax;
the jerky animations scream PSX. The enemies are also lacking in interesting
animations, though some of the bigger ones look pretty cool.
However, none of them act cool at all. The AI is simply moronic. Baddies
often get caught behind objects, leading to a quick demise. There is no teamwork
among enemies – they just bum rush you like a bunch of screaming girls at an
N'Sync show (not that I know what this looks like first hand). Sadly, it's not
nearly as satisfying killing the denizens of Warriors as it is torturing
randomly selected members of boy bands (not that anyone can prove a thing.)
To its credit, this is a big game. The 9 levels are split up into about 20
smaller sub-levels, and they're all pretty large. This won't be beaten in one
sitting, I can guarantee.
There are also puzzles to deal with, few of which require much brainpower.
Still, it's a nice touch in a game that doesn't really need it.
Frankly, Warriors of Might and Magic ends up giving gamers pretty much
exactly what they'd expect – a decent yet uninspired action/RPG. While the dumb
AI and trite gameplay will bore veterans, there's enough meat here to give the
less discerning gamer some fun. Considering the largely disappointing offering
of PS2 games available, this is at least worth a rental.


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text:
Archer subtitles
|#1 - #2 - #3 - #4 - #5 - #6 - #7 - #8 - #9 - #10 - unsorted subtitles
|September 17, 2009
|Adam Reed, Lucky Yates, George Coe, H. Jon Benjamin, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walter
|8.6 / 10 (131492 votes)
|"". At ISIS, an international spy agency, global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other.
|Share this:
Visitors of SubtitlesBank have given a rating of 8.6/10 for Archer subtitles . Subtitles of different languages may be downloaded for free as a .zip file from our site. Inside, you'll find an .srt file, which is actually what adds the translation to your video. HD-quality versions are also available.
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Vampire in Vegas (2009) 3/1/09


text:
Metropolitan Hilarion in Slovakia and Czechia
On December 6, 2011, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's department for external church relations, arrived to Slovakia for the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and on the invitation of His Beatitude Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
On 7 December 2011, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk visited the University of Prešov. He was met by the Rector, Professor René Matlovič, and by the Dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, archpriest Ioann Shafin.
The Academic Board of the University of Prešov granted the degree of doctor of theology honoris causa to Metropolitan Hilarion. A grand meeting was held at the assembly hall to celebrate the event. It was attended by the rector and professors of the University, as well as guests of honour, including His Beatitude Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech Lands and Slovakia Archbishop John of Prešov, Archbishop George of Michalovce and Košice, Bishop Paisiy of Gorlica (Polish Orthodox Church), many representatives of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Slovakia P. Kuznetsov.
The Rector described the life of Metropolitan Hilarion, and the dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology told the audience about his contribution to the development of contemporary theological scholarship.
After receiving diploma and insignia of the doctor of theology, Metropolitan Hilarion delivered a report on "Christian response to the challenge of totalitarian relativism." His Eminence presented the University's library with his book "Orthodoxy" in two volumes, and the dean Ioann Shafin – with cross with decorations.
In conclusion of the ceremony the choir of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology sang hymns in the Church Slavonic language.
That same day in the evening, His Beatitude Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech Lands and Slovakia and His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion left Prešov for Prague.
Source: www.mospat.ru


text:
Competition winners get special tours
3 November 2015,
We have had more of our I Spy Nature Competition winners in for special behind the scenes tours of National Museum Cardiff.
We ran a drawing competition as part of our I Spy Nature Pop-up Museum at the Capitol Shopping Centre over the summer. We had some fantastic entries and it was extremely difficult to choose the winners. However, we managed to select several winners and they were given natural history related goodies from the Museum's shop and offered special tours to see what happens once you leave the public galleries and go into the museum's collections.
These three lucky winners had tours in the fossil and mineral collections with palaeontologist Dr Lucy McCobb and mineral curator Andrew Haycock.
Some of our other winners have also been in to see what happens in the marine, shell and vertebrate collections.


text:
Marketing that prospects can't resist
How did I find out about my new club? As someone who covers fitness, it's my business to know about the hot new clubs, but in New York City there are plenty of trendy health clubs. The club I chose to join, quite frankly, created an image that set it apart, and it has never wavered. Its staff members are regularly quoted in top magazines. One of its branches has hosted press gatherings for a major sporting goods manufacturer and given attendees free classes and a sweatshirt emblazoned with the club logo. How could I not have formed a positive impression that would ultimately convince me that this was the gym I wanted to join?
While most small clubs don't have the manpower or the budget to do things like that, any club, regardless of size, can market itself effectively. It is imperative to self-promote.
"Promotion is a way to make yourself well known and well thought of," says Klaus Hilgers, president of Epoch Consultants, in Clearwater, Fla. "If a club doesn't promote, it'll just disappear."
Promotion also helps you keep your membership base hale and hearty. "If you want more members, you've got to promote," says Hilgers candidly.
But how do you promote on a shoestring budget and, more importantly, how do you determine if a promotion has worked? Actually, the process of assessing your promotions is quite straightforward.
* Look at your hard numbers. This is the most basic and telling assessment tool. "Assess how much money you're spending on promotion and the kind of promotion you're doing," Hilgers explains. "Then look at how many new members you're getting." According to Hilgers, "if you do a direct mail to a cold public, you can figure on getting about a 1/2 to 1 percent response rate. If it's below 1/2, something is wrong."
* Rely on your sales staff. "When a person walks in your door, your salesperson should ask: 'How did you find out about us?' " Hilgers advises. "This way you can actually track how people have heard about you. It's the most basic thing you can do."
* Survey, survey, survey. "The reason some promotions don't work is because most small- and medium-size clubs do not survey," Hilgers claims. "They do what is called shotgun marketing, throwing something out there to see if it will stick."
Before clubs can market themselves, they need to survey their public. First, ask questions such as: What would make you choose one club over another? What do you think the benefits of working out are? If you could improve anything about yourself, what would it be?
The plusses of surveying are twofold: One, the answers can provide you with the information you need to promote your club effectively. Two, the survey gives you the chance to get people to walk through your front door. How? In exchange for answering survey questions, offer people a two-week pass to your club. "If you get people in for two weeks, and you can't close, then you've got a sales problem, not a marketing problem," Hilgers says.
* Promote consistently. "In order to become a brand, you have to promote on a consistent basis and you have to promote a consistent message," Hilgers says. "A lot of clubs change their message all the time instead of sending out the same message over and over so it becomes familiar." One time, the club may promote to the family and the next time, to singles. One time, it'll extol the benefits of working out; next time, it points out the consequences of not working out. The result: "You don't identify with the club," Hilgers explains. "Branding has to do with differentiating yourself. That has to do with the quality of the message you send out."
* Test your promotional campaign to a small audience. "Send out assorted promotional pieces-a hundred of each-and see which one gives you a better response," Hilgers suggests. "The one that does is the one you put your money behind." Or walk around your club and ask members what they think of a particular ad you're planning to run. Assess your promotion with the help of a focus group, or send staffers out to the mall to get input.
* Be tenacious. "You have to keep analyzing how effective your promotions are," Hilgers says. "You want to look at them all the time. You may discover new things that can strengthen them." For example, you might find that using the term "shape up" instead of exercise would be more effective.
* Track positive media mentions. Good public relations are important, so send press releases to local media. "PR gets you third-party endorsements which create an environment of trust," Hilgers offers. "If you get written about in a local paper, that's a third-party endorsement which gives you credibility. A week later when the person gets your postcard in the mail, he thinks, 'Oh yeah, I just read about these guys.' "
Promotion 101
You've got to promote. That much you know. So how do you choose one approach over another? Which type of promotion will give you more bang for your buck? Here's an analysis of some common promotional tools:
DIRECT MAIL: The con for smaller clubs is that direct mail can be expensive, explains Klaus Hilgers, president of Epoch Consultants. Whenever possible, use the fax or e-mail. "When you get a person's name, get his fax and e-mail address," Hilgers advises. "If you have permission, faxing and e-mailing a person can be less expensive than direct mail. People have to start thinking in terms of using the Internet to keep their costs down." The pro to direct mail: "If you have a good piece that really communicates and makes a good offer that people respond to, you'll get more walk-ins and call-ins," Hilgers says. "It's that basic. The one stat you can always push up is sending stuff out to the general public. You always have control over that. And that is the one that really determines your future."
THE YELLOW PAGES: "Who knows who is going to the Yellow Pages these days to look for things?" Hilgers asks. "But in order to make yourself real to the world, you have to show up in places like the Yellow Pages, like the Internet, like a person's mail box. If you're not doing it, you don't exist and eventually you'll be out of business."
FLYERS: "Flyers work," Hilgers maintains. "The nice thing about flyers is that you can put them out by your reception desk and people walk out with them." Depending upon what you're promoting, have your front desk hand out the flyers. "Front-desk people should be one of your key promotional activities within your club," Hilgers notes.
Hilgers recommends making up guest passes the size of business cards. "Give them to members to pass around," he suggests. "A big flyer isn't easy to carry. Most people have a system set up for business cards, and it's usually easier to carry around and hand out."
BILLCARDS: These are expensive and their effectiveness is often determined by their location. "A billboard gives you a presence," Hilgers concedes. However, unlike direct mail (which you can follow up with a phone call), you can't control if you get a response to a billboard.
TELEVISION/RADIO/NEWSPAPERS: "Most media are pretty good tools as long as your message is clear," Hilgers says. Television can be costly for a small club, as can radio. But with some ingenuity, you can get airtime and print exposure gratis. Run quick announcements about club events. Promote yourself to the TV and radio stations, and try to land a guest spot on a talk show or in a news or feature segment. Get the word out that you're the expert on fitness in your area.


text:
- The thermostat is set at 64 this year. We wear sweatshirts.
And have no whining offspring around these days to complain.
- We turned down the hot water heater.
- I traded in my SUV for an energy-efficient sedan.
- When I forget my cloth grocery bags, which I do with frightening regularity, I recycle the plastic bags.
- I recycle everything I can. Did you know Staples takes used ink cartridges and gives you a refund?!
- We use vinegar to clean a large portion of the house. It sometimes smells like a big salad in here.
- We have a salt generator on the pool so we don't use chlorine.
- I rarely buy water bottles.
- I "buy local" as much as possible.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Green Me
19 comments:
- Lisa said...
I recycle my old cell phones (when upgrading) by giving them to charities and the Cell Phones for Soldiers program.
I also make sure to throw any and all batteries -- that haven't yet been replaced by rechargeable ones -- in the recycle bin. It's usually so easy to forget those AAs should be recycled, not thrown in the garbage.
- November 4, 2009 at 10:51 AM
- No more imaginary friends said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- November 4, 2009 at 11:09 AM
- Tracey9AD said...
Instead of buying individual packs of yogurt, I buy the big jug and divide it into one cup glass containers. They don't recycle yogurt cups around here, so it helps with the amount of waste.
- November 4, 2009 at 11:13 AM
- Nurse Nancy said...
We use a plastic sandwich container for sandwiches every day instead of plastic bags. JBM insists on it. Also replaced lunch box with small bags made of recycled paper.
- November 4, 2009 at 11:15 AM
- abb said...
I am constantly turning off lights. And I'm trying to give up my deep and long-abiding addiction to paper towels...so far it hasn't worked.
- November 4, 2009 at 11:28 AM
- I Am Woody said...
I feel like such a big earth-resource-sucking loser with my 68 degrees...
- November 4, 2009 at 11:32 AM
- Gin said...
Stainless steel water bottles for each family member instead of plastic
Cloth grocery bags
Fill containers with cold water while you are waiting for the hot water to kick-in. Water plants and animals with it.
- November 4, 2009 at 12:29 PM
- Deb said...
I have one better on the cartridges. Cartiridge World will refill your cartridges at half the price of new ones. I used to recycle at Staples, but this place provides a bigger savings plus, they have over 300 inks to blend.
I no longer purchase bottles water either, but purchased a water bottle for everyone and refil.
My SUV is bye bye and now I drive a very economy friendly car.
While shopping at Whole Foods, I always look for the veggies and meat from the local producers. It really saves!
I went to whole foods 365 laundry detergent.
I've lowered the thermostat too, but cannot quite drop it as low as you because of Jack and MIL.
So, you and i are on the same page...
I'm considering going to one ply tp...but that may be one step too far!
- November 4, 2009 at 12:57 PM
- Magpie said...
Cloth napkins.
And a night time set-back on the thermostat, to 55.
- November 4, 2009 at 12:57 PM
- Daryl said...
Last time I was in BB&B I found this pack with cloths that sop up wet and work on dust and included was a chamois for cleaning my glasses ... cost of $9.99 and now I dont use paper towels ... I also steal recycled hand towels from the office to use when Gus recycles his breakfast
I have a cloth tote in my shoulder bag all the time so I never need to get a paper or plastic sack when I food shop... which also earns me ten cents off my purchase at Zabars
- November 4, 2009 at 1:43 PM
- big hair envy said...
When we enclosed our garage this year, we went ahead and had a propane tank installed. Now, we have an instant hot water system, which has already saved us quite a bit of $.
We, too, have the salt system for our pool, so NO chemicals.
Unfortunately, we choose to burn our paper trash. It helps us save on trash bags, and trips to the dump. This, I believe, cancels out any effort I may make to go green! Something about emissions...
- November 4, 2009 at 2:25 PM
- Noe Noe Girl...A Queen of all Trades. said...
We recycle everything at the Little House. Cardboard,paper, and all the aluminum we sell and give the money to our chuch. With the help of others we have raised about 5 thousand dollars in the last 5-6 years. I use alot of Vinegar too. We put in a geothermal heat system last year and our power bill is down about 100.00 a month. And we use those new light bulbs. I am still getting used to them.
- November 4, 2009 at 2:30 PM
- Chesapeake Bay Woman said...
The times that I forget my cloth bags for the store, I always get paper. Then I use those as trash bags (remember, like we used to do before plastic was invented?).
I refuse to buy bottled water or any sort of bottled beverages that come in a million small plastic containers. We will fill a thermos with tap water if we need to, and I'm going back to making orange juice, etc. from concentrate and storing it in glass pitchers in the icebox. (YOu know, like we used to before plastic was invented.)
I also minimize use of paper towels by using more cloth napkins and cloth kitchen towels to mop up mess in the kitchen. Just rinse and toss in the wash with the rest of the dirty laundry, it's no big deal.
I have four thousand cats and u sed to buy those four packs of wet food. Now I will buy the larger single cans. It's not only less waste from a can perspective, it's cheaper.
Glad to hear you like a cold house - you can see your breath here! Bundle up.
- November 4, 2009 at 5:58 PM
- Country Girl said...
We've been recycling and going to the dump with all our trash. We go once a month because it's just the two of us.
My husband line dries all of our laundry to save energy. It's cut our electric bill in half.
We keep the place fairly cool and wear sweaters. Saves a lot on fuel costs.
- November 4, 2009 at 6:25 PM
- Snooty Primadona said...
I recycle everything I can but I suspect that there is nothing additional to your list except that when we aren't using certain appliances, we unplug them.
Also, one thing that has helped me to remember my cloth bags: I went online to dogeared dot com and bought their fun, heavy-duty canvas bags. I'm so proud of them that I seldom forget them & no one else has them, so the bags always get lots of stares!
- November 4, 2009 at 7:08 PM
- noble pig said...
OMG My thermo is at 73!
I am planting a sustainable vineyard!
I buy local as much as possible too.
- November 4, 2009 at 10:03 PM
- Decadent Housewife said...
I use cloth grocery bags until I run out of kitchen trash bags. Then I buy the plastic bags provided at the cash register for those bad people who don't use reusable cloth bags to pack their groceries.
I do this until I get enough plastic bags to last a while to use as kitchen trash bags. Then I go back to using the cloth bags. The plastic grocery bags cost less and are larger than the ones actually meant for kitchen trash.
I wonder how many other people do this. I still get nasty stares by people for "forgetting" my cloth bags.
- November 5, 2009 at 9:48 AM
- Sassy said...
I wish we could set our thermostat....we are still at 95.....so sick of the heat!!!!! Good for you....it has to start with each one of us.....
- November 5, 2009 at 2:29 PM
- imom said...
I do many of the things you do. We also use energy efficient lighting. In fact we are considering getting LED lights for christmas decorating this year. Every little bit helps!
- November 5, 2009 at 5:17 PM


text:
The webzine Pulp Engine (http://www.pulpengine.com) has published another of my short stories. If you have a hankering for some fiction, go check it out!
"At the Top of My Lungs"--Not so much horror as a weird idea I had. From the editorial summary:
At 9:32 a.m. on a Thursday morning, Ed Prescott began to scream. So begins Scott Standridge's latest tale raises the pitch from something horrific to, perhaps, something else entirely.
And here's a link to my previous story on Pulp Engine, which is totally horror, "What You Made Me."
Once, she was hopeful, even happy, with plans for the future. That's all gone now, though. Now, Sherry Williams' loss consumes her, like a cancer growing out of her heart, growing and throbbing, beating with a life of its own, consuming . . . like a tumor . . . .Please let me know what you think!
--The Vicar


text:
Until last year, when she spent a month practicing obstetrics in a rural clinic in Uganda, Mary Moreno, M.D., a family medicine resident at the New Hampshire Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency Program in Concord, N.H., never fully understood the breadth and scope of family medicine. By the end of a one-month rotation delivering babies, performing cesarean sections and treating a variety of afflictions not commonly seen in the United States, however, Moreno had developed a greater respect and appreciation for family medicine. And she returned to the United States with renewed motivation and confidence in her skills as a family physician.
Mary Moreno, M.D., a family medicine resident at the New Hampshire Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency, holds a newborn that she helped deliver at a rural clinic in Uganda. The New Hampshire AFP helped finance Moreno's trip to the clinic.
Moreno's trip to Uganda was funded, in part, by the New Hampshire Academy of Family Physicians (NHAFP). Such international opportunities are just one example of how the NHAFP is working with medical students and family medicine residents in the state to encourage their interest in family medicine.
During the past several years, the NHAFP has spent $15,000 to help these students and residents travel to third-world countries to further their interests in global medicine. In addition, the NHAFP supports student clerkships with family physicians in the state and provides seats for students and residents on its board to capture fresh perspectives. The chapter also pays for medical students and residents to attend various AAFP conferences throughout the United States, according to Robert Kiefner, M.D., president of the NHAFP.
"By supporting students and residents in special projects and helping them to see what a broadly trained family doctor can do, we believe we are nurturing their passion for the specialty," said Kiefner.
Story Highlights
- The New Hampshire AFP has spent countless hours and thousands of dollars helping medical students and family medicine residents pursue their interest in family medicine during the past several years.
- The chapter has established mentoring programs for these students and residents and funded trips for them in this country and abroad.
- Those efforts have paid off as the number of students graduating from the state's only medical school who go on to enter a family medicine residency has grown.
As a small chapter in a small state, the NHAFP has limited resources, but the chapter has made a commitment to support these medical students and family medicine residents. "Most of our main programs are for our students and residents," said Catrina Watson, executive director of the NHAFP. "When we see a student who is passionate about family medicine, we feel it is important to stoke that fire.
"We have very active student and resident representatives on our board. So if a student wants to attend a particular conference or go overseas, that student will come and present to our board. The student will tell us what they are planning, and then the board decides whether to approve it."
NHAFP members also benefit from interactions with the residents and students, said Watson. This is especially true for older family physicians who, according to Watson, "have been around the block, fighting for payment reform and against unfair payment rates. They see the excitement on the faces of students and residents, and it reconfirms why they followed their dreams and became family physicians in first place."
Promoting Family Medicine
The job of generating interest and support in family medicine is not easy in a state as small as New Hampshire. The state's only medical school, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, is an Ivy League institution that tends to discourage students from going into primary care and family medicine, said Kiefner. But the New Hampshire AFP has been able to counter that message because of its support of residents and students.
"Out of 100 graduating seniors this year at Dartmouth, just five are going into family medicine," Kiefner said. "But that is an improvement over last year when only three went into family medicine."
The NHAFP also has direct ties with the Geisel School of Medicine and the New Hampshire Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency, giving the NHAFP additional opportunities to promote family medicine among medical students and residents. Douglas Dreffer, M.D., the NHAFP's vice president, serves as the residency director for the residency program, and other board members teach at the medical school.
When Carolyn Johnson arrived at Geisel School of Medicine as a first-year medical student nearly four years ago, she had no intention of pursuing primary care or family medicine as a career. "It was the last thing on my radar," she said.
But then Johnson became involved in a family medicine interest group at Dartmouth, a joint initiative funded by the NHAFP and the Department of Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine. That program introduced Johnson to family physicians who encouraged her interest in family medicine.
Facts About the New Hampshire AFP
Executive director: Catrina Watson
Date chapter was chartered: 1949
Number of chapter members: 609
Location of chapter headquarters: Concord, N.H.
2014 annual meeting/scientific conference date/location: TBD
During her first and second years in medical school, Johnson participated in a clinical preceptorship established by the medical school. As a part of that learning experience, she shadowed a family physician every two weeks as the physician cared for patients in a variety of settings, such as the local nursing home, the county jail and the homes of patients.
"Through the interactions with the family physician and meeting his patient population, I realized the valuable skill set that family physicians bring to the community and the tremendous resource they are within their local communities," said Johnson.
But Johnson's "pivotal moment" came when she attended the AAFP's National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Students, which gave her the chance to experience the enthusiasm surrounding family medicine firsthand. The NHAFP funded a portion of that trip.
"The energy and excitement about family medicine at National Conference was contagious, and there I got a chance to see the many different ways that family medicine is practiced all over this country," said Johnson.
Pivotal Role
Johnson and other students interviewed by AAFP News Now also point to the "pivotal role" of the NHAFP in encouraging medical students at Dartmouth to pursue careers in family medicine.
"Every student who has come out of Dartmouth to practice family medicine in the last two years has gone to some conference sponsored by the NHAFP or gone to some kind of talk or seminar sponsored by the chapter," said Johnson. "The NHAFP has been pivotal in setting people up with mentorships and summer preceptorships, which have allowed them to experience family medicine in a way that they could not otherwise experience it."
Watson is convinced that the NHAFP is developing a following and a legacy for family medicine in the state that will grow stronger in the years ahead. "We are going to keep doing what we are doing," said Watson. "Hopefully, the students and residents we have helped sponsor will return to the state to practice."
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text:
Holy sh*t! That was my dear friend Pauline's reaction when I told her that Meritage, a charming restaurant and wine bar near Rittenhouse Square, is bringing back its now infamous Korean fried chicken. Since Chef Ann Coll debuted this wondrous concoction back in 2010, it's become somewhat of a cult favorite in Philly, especially given its sporadic appearance on the menu.
Perhaps to keep up its elusive reputation, Meritage will only be offering the chicken on Thursday nights. The deal includes a platter of the sesame-ginger-garlic-onion-marinated, twice fried free range chicken, plus two sides, for only $16. To wash it all down, cans of Sapporo will be on special for $5. And if you're still hungry, Korean short rib tacos will also be available.
Full disclosure: I have yet to try the chicken that I've written so glowingly about in this post. But I'll definitely be heading to Meritage soon, before this tantalizing special disappears (again)!
500 S. 20th St. (20th & Lombard)
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 985-1922
(Photos courtesy of Meritage)


text:
Well we did send all those crims to Australia for a reason...
First, a declaration of interest. Before I joined El Reg, I was working on an analyst project (PDF/721 KB) with Sydney company Market Clarity led by long-time friend Shara Evans. This project yielded a couple of data points that are relevant to claims about internet piracy in this country. The first is that while most …
This post has been deleted by a moderator
It's Senator Conjob.
That complete tool is more than willing to make a dictatorial decision and damn the consequences. He's more than willing to be a patsy for the factions who receive and appropriate "donations". He's more than willing to silence opposition to his plans.
The right person for the job is Kate Lundy, she has no factions backing her for Cabinet selection.
While AFACT (ASTRONGLYHELDBELIEF doesn't have the same ring to it) was battling an ISP that refused to do the leg work for them, and in fact pushed the studios to follow the right procedure in asking for law enforcement help, Conroy stood on the sidelines and refused to even have an opinion.
The man's a waste of public space, and I bet AFUKT it heavily advising him at the moment...
.... equate to lost sales.
When will the content providers/government realise this?!
Consider the lates blockbuster movie, eg, Saw33D. My viewing options are:
A) torrent it
B) buy/rent DVD
C) wait for it to be on Film4 (about 3 weeks later)
If option A is taken away from me then I am perfectly happy with option C.
When I was young, the average price of a game for my ZX Spectrum was £5. When the Adventure game The Hobbit was released it cost £20.
Well I couldn't afford that and neither could my friends. So 4 of us clubbed together to pay for it and made 3 illegal copies.
If we hadn't made those copies none of us would have bought the game and the publishing house would have lost the sale.
And I'm sure legions of broke students use the same argument.
However, it reduces the amount Film4 are willing to pay, if no-one watches because it's been torrented to hell. That's lost sales. Both options (B) and (C) suffer if (A) is an option. This is surely blindingly obvious.
The industry is acting in a purely self-interested way and exaggerating their claims, but so are you guys, so it's pretty much six of one and half a dozen of the other.
However, the a priori moral wrongdoing is not coming from the studios (although they may act questionably after the fact).
Great Article
The ISPs, Government s everywhere need to ignore these guys. Yes there is some significant downloading of Copyright Material. But the response needs to be appropriate and proportional and not penalise the innocent majority.
Wide Spread monitoring would add cost and drive the minority that do real piracy to use BluRay disks in post or encrypted vpns. It would catch very very few real pirates and substantially add to cost.
Rights holders need to pursue real commercial pirates and also make content available to buy, universally in all markets at same time and price.
A warrant should be needed to monitor someone's Internet connection, just like phone or mail.
" the average mobile user's download throughput was far less than the fixed user: around 2.5 GB per customer, per month."
An *average* mobile user managed to download 2.5GB a month? Wow, I wish we had that in the UK. The outliers must be astonishing. Try finding a UK plan over 500 Mb that isn't 3 (their service is, charitably, awful).
Are you confusing mobile broadband with phone data allowances?
I've just had a quick look at Orange and O2; Orange offer 1G/month plans and O2 offer 2Gb/month plans - both of them also allow you to add data to those plans for the small cost of one extra limb.
That said, my experience of mobile broadband in this country does suggest that you would have difficulty transferring 2.5Gb/month in most places, even if you were trying.
My Vodafone business account I signed up for last August. For £30 + vat a month I got an up-to-the-minute Android phone (with tethering/hotspot enabled) for £0, unlimited landline calls, 12 hours mobile calls, and unlimited (yes, I said unlimited) data every month. Oh and 250 texts but I don't do much of that.
Carefully reading the contract I could find no fair usage policy or a call-out to 'other terms and conditions'. I understand from others with a similar package that Vodafone don't take an interest in you until you regularly exceed 8Gb a month...
Now you won't get that by just going in and expecting it to be handed to you, but if you want a business account you can tell them how important having data is and that the standard amount is too low, maybe I should talk to O2 or 3... worked like a dream for me.
According to theGOOG here: http://code.google.com/speed/articles/web-metrics.html the average web page is 312KB. Adding the averages of 185KB for images, 66KB for scripts and 27 KB for stylesheets gives a total download size of 590KB per page. Assuming an average of 6.5GB per month give a basic estimate of about 11000 pages per month or about 366 pages per day. This might seem like a lot even when split among the users on a single line but add in the likes of the Facebook Farm Mafia and what do you get? I'm fairly certain Google doesn't have its spiders playing games of Facebook or anywhere else, but I could be wrong.
While I don't doubt that the industry is massively inflating the number of pirates out there your logic that only people who transfer large amounts of data can be pirates is equally flawed. Not all pirates will be downloading the entire internet each month. Infact I suspect the majority download a handful of mp3's rather than GB's of data. This could easily be as little as 20MB, something it's quite possible to do on the most basic of internet packages.
I take your point, but when the content industry insists that all unlawful downloads are directly equatable to lost sales, the logical drive is thus to focus on targeting those who are consuming the most without paying for it.
I mean, if we're going to talk about flawed logic, the more worrying examples are the "all unlawful downloads=lost sales" and "high download volume = high unlicensed download volume" ones, since they don't take into account factors like material not available for sale (things like content being out of print, not released on your local region optical media, or being a limited edition that can only be found at stupid prices in secondary markets that don't benefit the publishers anyway) or legitimate high-consumption download services (Steam, iPlayer/4OD/FiveTVPlayer/ITVPlayer streaming, Youtube, emusic subscriptions, ad-hoc Amazon download purchases, and so on).
The thing about pirates who download a handful of mp3s is that, at this point, it's a pricing issue. If it's affordably available from Amazon or iTunes or whoever, it's more hassle (ie only an incentive for the truly skint) to pirate (and wait for it to be seeded/uploaded, and hope the quality's not shite, and that you're not actually getting Mongolian dogporn instead of the latest album by Whoever And The Bad Examples) than it is to throw a few quid at one of the legitimate retailers and buy the damn thing. And, well, if someone's truly skint you're not getting money out of them anyway. At which point there's no real benefit of haranguing them to the courts and back over pirating a half a dozen mp3s, because all you'll do that way is guarantee they never give you any money in future...
is that you can actually download anything in .au at all.
each and every internet denizen from .au has always claimed to have an utterly utterly rubbish connection.
so yeah, anecdotal evidence collated over 15+ years suggests piracy in australia is no where near as good as it is anywhere else. reckon I'd find more supporters of my claim than any industry sponsored report, no issue.
sack up guys, get some proper pipes please.
(paris knows a decent pipe when she sees one)
To put it another way, and the MU used to:
home taping is skill in music
twas bollocks then and still is today.
When i was a lad, and under the misconception that pimply faced tossers with extravagant hair had something to say that was worth listening to. I and 1000's and 1000's of equally pimply faced tossers like me used to dilligently listen to the top 40 every sunday and tape the living daylights out of it.
piracy on a massive scale.
difference is that that was much harder to count than downloads. (or guestimate)
the music biz today is still awash with cash (it's target audience have disposable income, no finacial commitments and poor judgement, same as always)
the changes to the business model will ultimately squeeze the hell out of the business side and ultimately content providers will come out on top.
The false piracy claims/imaginary damage/IP abuse etc etc can be bounced back an forth until they lobby enough to have our thoughts filtered. What I wanna know is if Chigwin has met Orlowski. I know who I'd be jumping in for.
Yours sincerely,
Freetard, software developer, embarrassed by pretty much all governments, disgusted by content industry.
Of course lobby groups exaggerate the figures. I've written many times that two thirds of people (in the UK) don't download unlicensed material at all. The "we are all Pirates" claim is empirically false. But it isn't one being made here - it's merely an analogy.
The contention that piracy hurts legitimate markets is not falsified by this. (There is plenty of research on this - Google for "substitution ratios".)
Nor is the contention that creating new legitimate paying markets (that grow the industry, like DVDs did for movies) made much harder when they have to compete with freetards falsified, either.
If you're suggesting that piracy is a victimless crime, the data shows otherwise. It harms small bands, small publishers, small labels. You may _wish_ it to be otherwise, but that's neither here nor there.
"If you're suggesting that piracy is a victimless crime, the data shows otherwise. It harms small bands, small publishers, small labels. You may _wish_ it to be otherwise, but that's neither here nor there."
I know plenty of freetards who claim that they only download material from big corporations, big bands, big publishers, etc. and they support the little guy financially. However I've found that most of them are talking out of their hole and actually download anything that takes their fancy.
Just like the people who claim that they always buy the stuff they download and like and delete anything they don't. Any reasonable person knows that's a crock. How many movies have you enjoyed on one viewing, but not enough to go out and buy the damn thing on DVD or Bluray or whatever?
I'm not saying I've never downloaded anything "illegally". I will admit to having downloaded stuff I already own on vinyl. I will also admit to having downloaded stuff that I already bought, but has been lost or damaged. And finally to having downloaded stuff that I simply couldn't find anywhere to buy. And I know that all those actions are technically illegal, but I like to think they are morally acceptable. I'm sure there are those who would disagree.
Back in the day everybody used to tape albums. Although there was the whole "home taping is killing music" campaign it wasn't demonised te way it is today. It all got demonised when pirate video became big business* and organized crime gangs got involved. So these days the industry like to tar all downloaders with the same brush. If you take the view that pirate DVDs fund people trafficking and drug smuggling then illegal downloading can only be seen as a good thing. Who's going to buy a pirate DVD when they can download it from the interwebs for free?
* And I do wish Lynn Folding Wood or whatever her name is would shut up about pirate DVDs funding the drug trade. If the drug trade needed funding that would mean it was running at a loss. If it was running at a loss it wouldn't exist.
The other possibility is they took a small sampling set deliberately from a section of population thats statistically more likely to be pirates, high school pupils for example. And then upscaled the results to form a "statistic" (I place it in quotation marks because any "statistician" doing that deserves to be beaten to death.......... with probability distribution tables). I don't know if they've done this, haven't seen an indepth breakdown of the analysis and the data that generated it.
Although, to be honest it looks like another attempt by the industry to prop up a lame business model, and a stubborn refusal to kill the business model. Seriously, whats the problem with trying to create Streaming services, like many UK channels have done. Has no-one in Australia/USA worked out that if you give the people a legitimate way to watch the programs/listen to the music, that it stands a good chance that they will? Or that you can do whats know in broadcasting as "advertisements" to raise funds to do such a system/make money?
used to have a mostly tolerable broadband plan once.
Every 6 months I hit the 20 GB day limit and most of offpeak limit when a new distro was released or Sun put out an update.
So these suited petty thieves then assess users like me as pirates simply for saying current in work skills ?
Back to the late middle ages in attitudes as the dregs of western culture abandon reason, democracy and adulthood.
I can see it now, a piece of dead tree required to download more than 20 Mb a week, to be applied for from ACMA and delivered to the local cop shop for the network unlock pass-key, valid for 2 whole days on port 21
The key here is to look at the way that the content industry calculates their figures for piracy. They don't simply ask people about their downloading habits, they apply a series of "modifications" to the answer that people give them, and then present that as their final figure.
A year or so back a British computer magazine did an editorial about a recent (for the time, that is) survey that claimed that piracy was rife in the UK. The found that the company took data from a small number of people, decided without actual evidence that a significant percentage of the people who said that they didn't pirate were lying, and changed their answers, then extrapolated this across the entire internet using population of the UK. Along the way they turned a handful of people who admitted pirating stuff into millions of people.
Basically for every 12 year old son admitted that one time they downloaded a single music track, they determined that there must be a couple of dozen 90 year old grandmothers who downloaded Call of Duty 1 to X.
Seriously, they "extrapollated" the data so far that it became meaningless.
There was also a report done a while back on pirated iPhone apps. When the report was analyzed, and the number of pirated apps was compared to the number of people who'd actualy jail broken their phones so that they actually could use a pirated app, it turned out that the average iphone app pirate must have something like 1 million apps on their handset.
So let's imagine that the content industry's figures are correct and the majority of us broadband users are breaking IP laws. Is it maybe time to consider that the laws themselves are the problem, and not the downloading? Perhaps, rather than increasing the scope and enforcement of current IP laws, we need to do away with them altogether for non-commercial copying, and stop attempting to criminalise the majority of the online population?
Your point is most interesting and I subscribe to it 100%.
If I were a politician and content creators came to tell me that 100% of the population are pirating stuff, then the obvious thing - WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS - is to legalize piracy.
And I would do it in an instant - well, right after having had a proper, earth-shattering public announcement drawn up.
Man, I would love to be in THAT press conference !
The public want all sorts of things. They want zero taxes. They want high quality free public services. They want all sorts fo things to be legalized. The public at large want a hell of a lot. And they get none of it.
There's a simple reason for this: it's not up to the public to decide in any nation on earth. Never will be either. There are those around who are niaive enough to believe that systems like a parliamentary democracy somehow mean that the public do get to decide, but they are wrong. A parliamentary democracy means the public get to choose who rules them, nothing more or less.
I know there are different ways of determining the average for a data set, however it is reasonable to expect that given a sample size of over 4 million the different methods are likely to deliver results which are fairly close.
That said, in pretty much any normally distributed type system where you define an average roughly half the samples will be below the average and roughly half above.
If you then eliminate the samples that are well above the average you don't reduce the percentage of samples above / below the average, you just reduce the average.
eg: monthly download values of:
1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7 = average of 41/10 = 4.1 ==> 5/10 above average = 50%
Remove two bad boys and you get average of 27/8 = 3.375 ==> 4/8 above average = 50%
Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2020


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Tax Foundation: New York, Again, Ranks Last In Nation For Tax Climate
New York may be open for business, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo touts, but a report today ranked New York as the worst in the nation for its business tax climate.
The annual report by the Tax Foundation
, a national group based in Washington D.C., found that New York's tax climate trails the rest of the country. Last year, it was 49th, just ahead of New Jersey. Now New York fell behind New Jersey, which ranked 49th in the country, the group said.
"Despite moderate corporate taxes, New York scores at the bottom this year by having the worst individual income tax, the sixth-worst unemployment insurance taxes, and the sixth-worst property taxes," the group said in a statement. "The states in the bottom 10 suffer from the same afflictions: complex, non-neutral taxes with comparatively high rates."
The group's State Business Tax Climate Index collects data on more than 100 tax provisions for each state. The top states for business tax climate were Wyoming, South Dakota and Nevada. Those states have no corporate or individual income tax.
Maine improved its business climate the most of any state, the group said, moving 37 last year to 30 this year.
"Even in our global economy, a state's strongest and most immediate competition often comes from other states," said Tax Foundation economist Scott Drenkard in a statement. "State lawmakers need to be aware of how their states' business climates match up to their immediate neighbors and to other states in their region."
The group has consistently found New York as the worst in terms of taxes, both income and property taxes. Westchester County ranks first in the nation in property taxes, the group has found, while upstate counties, including Monroe and Wayne, have the highest property taxes compared to home values.
Cuomo has sought to rebuild the state's business climate, developing an "Open for Business" campaign and implementing a property-tax cap. Last year, the Democratic governor and the state Legislature agreed to slightly lower income taxes on the middle class and keep higher taxes on the wealthy -- although taxes on the rich dropped from prior tax rates.


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|Dave Goelz puppeteer
|Michael Kilgarriff voice
SkekUng is the general of the Skeksis. He commands the Garthim which fight and hunt for the decadent Skeksis, so he's better known as the Garthim-Master. He is a stern, massive, sneering presence, and a natural leader who values anger and brute strength. SkekUng's alter ego amongst the gentle and wise Mystics is urIm, the Healer.
In the pre-production notes for the film, the Garthim-Master is "identified by the sound of his spurs striking on the castle floors and his complete lack of subtlety. The Garthim-Master enjoys tearing apart soft Gelflings for sport." The Garthim-Master is identifiable amongst the Skeksis for its rattling armor, yellow fangs, and bellowing voice.
Upon the death of the Skeksi Emperor skekSo, it is skekUng, the Garthim-Master, that feels confident that his violent strength will earn him the throne. He enjoys the support of skekTek and skekNa.
"Strongest of all for brute force, after the Emperor was skekUng the Garthim-Master. Torment was his pleasure, though his urSkeks original had been a healer and continued so in his urRu form. Hidden in that tall, shining urSkeks was one who, ages later, could find pleasure in tearing apart the gentle Gelfling. The urSkeks knew this evil was in them and tried hard to burn it out. The soul driven by strong forces is weak, and the soul without strength is helpless. Wisdom and compassion have their roots in the same soil as violence and hate; the strong being allows them to fight within him, to recognize that his strength of will must control the evil he could do. That the urSkeks did not understand this and violated their nature was the ruin of our World. They looked and spoke like superior beings, but they too were capable of error."
—The World of the Dark Crystal
In The World of the Dark Crystal, Jim Henson stated that the Skeksis started out as based upon the Seven Deadly Sins. SkekUng would represent Wrath.
The original creature resides at The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.


text: My my, how time flies. Its been nearly 13 years since Misty was written off the anime way back in November of 2002. And in that timeframe she stayed gone permanently for the entire duration of the anime, never returning to the cast in any of the following arcs. Even her cameos/guest appearances stopped a decade ago back in 2005, since not counting flashbacks, Misty hasn't physically shown up in an episode since Ash came home from the Hoenn league back in 2005. As someone who was part of the fandom when Misty originally left, its both rather funny and kind of ironic that all the people who sat there raging about Misty leaving did it all for nothing. Because as we can see, Misty never returned to the anime after 13 long years, and her character was essentially dropped at the very beginning of the series. Looking back at this now a decade later, it really puts into perspective how irrelevant Misty actually was to the overall series. She turned out to be nothing more than a short-lived sidekick character who was only around for the first 5 years of the show, and the anime is currently in its 18th year. The writers really did turn the series against Misty in virtually every way possible, completely burying her character in almost the same manner as Tracey and promoting the hell out of all the female companions who came after her. Also now entire generations of kids have grown up watching the anime without her for a decade, so she's practically irrelevant to 70% of the animes run now. How time flies.


text:
Republican Strategy on the Supreme Court Vacancy
President Obama is not the only one with a difficult decision to make in the face of mounting pressure from various groups. The Republicans will have to decide what posture to take: combative or deferential, political or analytical.
With Obama still at the height of his popularity, and with solid Democratic control of the Senate (even without Arlen Specter and Al Franken), the GOP is unlikely to sustain a filibuster or generate significant opposition to any but the most extreme nominee — such as the radical transnationalist Harold Koh, whose nomination to be the State Department's head lawyer is currently pending.
What Republicans should do instead is force a full public debate about constitutional interpretation and judicial philosophy, laying out in vivid detail what kind of judges they want. Instead of shrilly opposing whomever Obama nominates on partisan grounds, now is the time to show the American people the stark differences between the two parties on one of the few issues on which the stated Republican view continues to command strong and steady support nationwide. If the party is serious about constitutionalism and the rule of law, it should use this opportunity for education, not grandstanding.


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Managing Disruptive Behaviors
Students with Disruptive Behavior: A Guide for SJSU Faculty & Staff
What Constitutes Disruption?
"Disruption," as applied to the academic setting, means behavior that a reasonable faculty or staff member would view as interfering with normal academic functions.
Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Persistently interrupting or using disrespectful adjectives in response to the comments of others.
- Use of obscene or profane language.
- Persistent and disruptive late arrival to or early departure from class without permission.
- Physical threats, harassing behavior, or personal insults (even when stated in a joking manner).
- Use of personal electronic devices such as pagers, cell phones, PDAs in class, unless it is part of the instructional activity.
The best time to deal with disruption is before it begins. When discussing standards at the beginning of the semester, consider an approach that encourage expression of ideas and opinions that are relevant to the course objectives versus shutting down critical thought processes. Faculty can take steps to reduce the likelihood of disruptive behaviors in the classroom by encouraging appropriate behavioral or establishing appropriate behavior standards.
- Explicitly state expectations for conduct in the syllabus. Include behavioral specifics, such as "turn off pagers and cell phones before entering the classroom." Explain consequences for inappropriate behavior and follow through.
- Review these expectations with students during the first class meeting.
- Model respectful communication and behavior with your students.
- Facilitate respectful exchange of ideas among your students.
- Address problems consistently and in a timely manner.
Handling Classroom Disruptions
In cases of direct threat to you or others, call the University Police Department (408) 924-2222 immediately. (Consider saving this phone # into your cell phone.)
- For an isolated incident, have a private conversation (after class or schedule a meeting) with the student to discuss the behavioral disruptions you are observing, clarify expectations, and clearly and calmly state the consequence of not making necessary adjustments. Students' behaviors may not be intentional, and immediately addressing them will be helpful and may be an educational opportunity. It is also helpful to start the conversation with acknowledging the student's strengths (e.g., passionate about the topic, good attendance, motivated in class, etc.).
- Follow up with a written summary to the student, re-stating your care, expectations, and consequences for continued disruption. Consequences may include referring student to the Department Chair, the Associate Dean, and/or Dean of the College, the Office of the Student Conduct and Ethical Development, and/or the University Police.
- Students who chronically disrupt and interfere with the learning environment may be asked to leave the class for the remainder of that class period. University Police may be called to remove the student if necessary. Although permanent removal from a class requires initiative of formal disciplinary proceedings, faculty may eject a student from a single class when necessary to end a seriously disruptive or threatening situation.
- Consultation with your Department Chair, College Dean, or supervisor may be helpful in developing a plan for dealing with a disruptive student. If you remove any student from your class, it is recommended that you immediately inform your department Chair.
- Faculty or staff can consult with the Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development or the Ombudsperson, and may consider filing a Complaint of Misconduct.
- Formal disciplinary action may include: Disciplinary reprimand, probation, suspension or dismissal.
- If the student seems to be struggling emotionally or personally, their behavior and thought process may have been negatively impacted. State your concern and care with the student. Please feel free to consult with Counseling and Psychological Services at 408-924-5910.
- Keep records of the difficulties, and your efforts to resolve them, including all written communication.
- If the disruptive behavior continues, this may be a student conduct concern. Consider consulting with Student Conduct and Ethical Development Office at (408) 924-5985.
Threatening or Potentially Violent Situations
Call University Police (911 on any campus phone; or, 408-924-2222 from your cell; dialing 911 on your cell phone may not connect you to the University Police, depending on the cell site to which you have connected) when:
- You are or another person is in immediate danger.
- A student is about to harm him/herself.
- A student seems out of control and about to put others in harm's way.
If the student's behavior leaves you uneasy and/or there was direct or implied threat, harassment, and/or stalking, it is recommended that you immediately discuss the incident(s) with your supervisor or Department Chair. You or your supervisor may consider completing an incident report to the campus Behavioral Intervention Team. (See http://www.sjsu.edu/bit for more information.) It is helpful when such document describes specific behaviors, with time and date of the incident. University Police will also assist you in assessing the threat and determining possible steps to take.
If a threat does not seem imminent or urgent and you would prefer to file a report anonymously, please consider contacting TipNow:
Additional Tips
Please see "De-escalating Aggressive Behavior" for additional recommendations.
Consult with Someone?
Faculty members and staff are educators, and we all strive to be helpful and caring. Sometimes, being forced into another role (such as counselor or friend) by a student situation can be uncomfortable. In such situations, consider consulting with campus resources that may be helpful in resolving issues with the student. A range of support services and information are available to faculty, staff, and to students.
The staff at Student Conduct and Ethical Development provides information and support regarding application of the Student Conduct Code. Referrals can also be made to Counseling and Psychological Services, Accessible Education Center, and/or the Ombudsperson.
Some disruptive students may have emotional or mental struggles, and some may be disabled and protected under the Rehabilitation Act/ADA. We appreciate campus community members' sensitivity to students' emotional struggles and for referring them to appropriate resources on campus. All students are held to the same standards of conduct.
Resources, Locations, & Contact Information
University Police Department
UPD Building (corner of 7th and San Salvador)
Behavioral Intervention Team
Student Wellness Center 300B
Counseling and Psychological Services
Student Wellness Center 300B
Accessible Education Center
Admin Building 110
Faculty Development, Center for
Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs
Admin Building Room 212
Admin Building Room 218
Student Conduct and Ethical Development
Admin Building Room 218
This document was adapted from the following sources:
- Disruptive Students: A Guide for SSU Faculty & Staff, Shawnee State University
- Responding to Disruptive or Threatening Student Behavior: A Guide for Faculty, California State University, Northridge


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OKLAHOMA CITY—When your business is located in Tornado Alley, it pays to have a contingency plan, a fire and life safety company here has concluded after two F5 tornadoes roared through the vicinity in May.
OKLAHOMA CITY—With 60 percent revenue growth last year, several large-scale projects under way and a hiring increase, it's really not surprising that STAMPSCO has been named one of this city's top 50 fastest-growing companies. And this marks the second time in a row that the fire and life safety company has won such recognition.
YARMOUTH, Maine—In the one year that Stampsco has been active on social media, staff at this small but busy fire company has had to carve out time to figure out how to best use sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
"Typically," said Rodney Stamps, president of Oklahoma City-based Stampsco, "we have normal business activities during the day, and in the evenings come in and discuss what we're going to do on social media."
OKLAHOMA CITY—Complex new requirements for how fire alarm and mass notification systems are designed, installed and tested, especially for military applications, led Stampsco, a fire and life safety company based here, to create a team of experts specializing in such work.
OKLAHOMA CITY—Since the start of the economic recession, Stampsco, a fire and life safety company based here, has more than doubled its revenues, nearly tripled its office space, and has twice as many employees, according to company president and CEO Rodney Stamps.
© 2020 United Publications ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


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"It's a great feeling to be continuing after five generations. It feels like a big accomplishment to be done with all the schooling and to stayed involved in the community and all the different projects," said Papavero, an active member of the Maspeth Lions Club and the Maspeth Chamber of Commerce.
Papavero, 23, knew for years that he wanted to join the family business, but at the urging of his parents, he received his Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Fordham University's College of Business. Coming out of school he had a job prospect with Merrill Lynch, but he knew his heart wasn't in it.
"I definitely had to do this. When I went to school and checked out different options, I still always found myself coming back to the funeral business and thinking it was the one thing I wanted to do," said Papavero.
He admitted it's not a job most children grow up wanting to do, but he realized from an early age that his great-grandfather, grandfather, father and uncles had the power to touch the lives of people who were going through some of their most difficult times. He wanted to be a part of that.
"By the end of the funeral, you realize you've made a difference in that family's life in a short time. To see that you've helped a family through a tough time, it's a rewarding feeling that many people don't get to experience," said Papavero. "I feel privileged to have that feeling everyday."