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well, the results are in and we have our winners for the d*s/fred flare spring spruce up contest. let me say first that you guys are some crafty people! i was so, so happy with this contest- it was a blast to read through all these entries, but so hard to narrow it to three! thanks so much to everyone who took the time to photograph their projects- you guys deserve a huge pat on the back for all your hard work. so, here we go!
first place: Ragnheiður Ösp Sigurðardóttir who made ikea look chic as all get out. "I chose the stool benjamin designed by Lisa Norinder. It is mass produced and I wanted to make it unique. By drilling holes in it and decorating it with brodery, each and every stool becomes different and more valuable." hands down my favorite, such a cool idea and now my little benjamin stool that i rest my feet on as i write looks so plain. way to go, ragnheiður!
second place: jennifer who did a classy craigslist fix up! here were her steps for a fabulous cabinet makeover: "Take everything apart. Paint stripper to all surfaces. Get lamp rewired. Get new piece of plexiclass cut. Realize that stripping all the paint in the interior sections (the safe) is going to be a pain in the butt. Happen to see oil cloth at a fabric store and have an AH-HA! moment. Decide to use oil cloth to cover up the imperfect bits and to line the drawers and inside cabinet. Reassemble everything." congrats, jennifer!
third place: alex who got creative with wall treatments in atlanta! "My partner and I just bought a loft in Atlanta. Spring fever and the realization that we could do anything we wanted seemed to strike simultaneously! We had a great smokey purple color for the office that we didn't want to carry over into the living area, but there was no natural way to stop the paint progression. We decided that we could create a giant floor to ceiling floral stencil (which we just tiled out on a printer and cut out in posterboard) that allowed the color to end gracefully and added a beautiful and unique detail to the living area. It didn't go on smoothly when we originally painted it, so we have to finish the edges by hand. Hope you like!" I do, way to go, Alex!
honorable mention: siobahan who took her couch from drab to fab all on her own. so fun! good work, siobhan!
thanks to everyone for entering and thanks to fred flare for sponsoring our spring spruce up celebration!
[update for those concerned- our winner WAS the one showcased in readymade. you can check the issue for our winner's name and picture. so, no controversy, will still have a winner. xo, d*s]
Congrats to all the winners!
I was especially impressed with Alex's innovative paint solution (and I'm not just biased because I'm a fellow Atlantan :)
Sometimes there just seems to be no good place to stop/start a paint color. Alex's idea solves a problem while simultaneously adding a beautiful design element. The giant flowers are stunning, and I can also imagine this working well with a geommetric edge (I'm loving anything chain link right now).
So… kudos to Alex from your Atlanta neighbor – great job y'all!
-Erin -
I've seen this stool before in Readymade Magazine http://www.readymademag.com/toc17.php. Is this an original entry?
These entries look incredible! Good job, guys.
Since someone besides me will probably wonder where they saw it first, here is the Ikea stool re-do from Readymade Magazine: http://www.readymademag.com/toc17.php
design sponge — just so you know, your winner took the idea (and I believe the photo) from a ReadyMade magazine of one or two years ago.
Don't know if you care, but I think that is even the exact photo from the website. Kind of tacky.
I am just loving that second place winner's re-do. Wow! Wow! Wow!
the ikea stool idea was a project in an issue of ready-made. It's too bad the winner didn't have an original idea, but then again maybe its a coincidence or he's the original creator of this idea!
but the cabinet and wall paint spruce ups are super fantastic!
ps: i'm checking with the winner about the readymade controversy– i had no idea, so we'll see what they have to say and we'll move accordingly. i'll update when i have word back from the winner.
Hi, I am Ragnheiður who entered in the Ikea stool. The stool in the 2005 may/june issue of Ready Made is my stool aswell which I sent to California to be photographed.
You can take a look at my website here:Thank you
Hmm, I'm not sure if that's really fair, Ragnheiður. It's a really cool project and I loved seeing it in Readymade. But the whole DIY aspect of it seems a little iffy if it's already been published. Plus, I question that it was actually done in 2005 if it was photographed for their May/June issue – I don't know Readymade's lead times but I assume they'd be several months. May/June issue is generally on the newsstands in mid-late April. Most magazines have lead times of 12-16 weeks, or 3-4 months. I imagine you'd have had to have actually MADE the thing a fair amount of time before that, plus shipping to California from Iceland on an object that can't be flattened. It just doesn't seem credible that you actually made it in 2005 and it certainly doesn't fit the spirit of the competition, even if it is really cool.
in my opinion this is the very SPIRIT of diy. what the heck does being published have to do with it?? so if you redid your couch and readymade found it press worthy you wouldn't count it as diy anymore? i think that's far too narrowminded an opinion for my taste. something being published doesn't mean someone didn't make it themselves, that just doesn't make sense.
check the issue, it is in fact our entrant and i checked with the editor. if you feel the need to further investigate, drop me a line. i've done the research and this was in fact a legitimate and a wonderful entry. i think your rules of no publishing are totally unfair. i think diy design should be celebrated and if it happens to be published, who cares? even the better, that means more people can be inspired by it.
and all that about shipping and lead times?? you seem pretty upset about this and i just don't get why. i write for a lot of magazines and they all have diff lead times, i'd do some research before you get too upset.
ok, i just called readymade because some of you are seriously freaked out that someone copied something.
i spoke with the lovely jessica of readymade and she confirmed that this was in last may's issue and our lovely entrant is even pictured, name and all. this is why fact checking pays off.
so, before anyone else gets all upset that the winner copied something, chill. readymade confirmed it was her. research is always good before you start lobbing accusations at people.
(sorry about all this, ragnheiður, i'm really bummed you had to defend yourself like this)
in ali's defense, i think what she was saying was that the winning design was probably done in 2004 – like many, i saw this piece in readymade last year, so seeing it win the 'spring spruce-up' contest just feels weird. but your rules are your rules. congrats all, and i ADORE jennifer's cabinet.
I love the cabinet too and would love to see more pics of the process, and more of the finished ones larger and/or closer up. It just looks fantastic! I like the purple wall entry too — such a great idea, executed well. I wish I had the ability, ambition and talent to carry it off!
thanks for the compliments on my cabinet. it was the first time i'd ever done a project like this. there were lots of little (and not so little) problems to solve throughout the whole rehab process. in addition to design*sponge, fredflare and the surly guy at tru-value hardware, i'd like to thank all the brain cells that probably died while i was working with paint stripper in a poorly ventilated basement space.
Love the sofa…great work Siobahan!
the winners are brilliant – they are definitely inspiring me for my new home. really fresh and thoughtful ideas and all definitely made with love.
d*s, your choices are 100% on the dot as usual!
I luuuuuuv the Benjamin! What a great idea! But then again, IKEA really does inspire you to evolve their furniture!
Congratulations on winning! :)
i love the benjamin. i think it is the most professional of the whole, though the other things are also fine. cangratulations.
I got angry while reading bad reviews and comments on your piece. those people should find something else to do.


text: Does Animal Crossing 'Promote Otaku Citizenship?'Kirk Hamilton7/11/13 5:00pmFiled to: animal crossingkotakucorenintendootaku594EditPromoteShare to KinjaToggle Conversation toolsGo to permalink That's the question explored in this week's PBS Idea Channel video. AdvertisementNow, I've been writing on the internet long enough to know that otaku is Internet Dynamite. Like "dubstep" and "roguelike," it's a word that you can't even say without making hundreds of people break their keyboards typing apoplectic comments.That said, I thought this video was pretty interesting. I don't think it gets into the nitty-gritty of why this game is great nearly as directly as, say, Christian Nutt's great recent essay at Gamasutra, but it's food for thought.AdvertisementWhat do you guys think? Does Animal Crossing promote otaku citizenship?Reply59 repliesLeave a reply

subset: commoncrawl


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Variety Insight premium subscribers can access phone, email and more.
Jessica Goodman
EVP, Fox 2000
: Fox 2000 Pictures, 20th Century Fox
Access the industry's most accurate development and production listings,credits,contact info, org charts, box office, TV ratings and more.
Want to see projects Jessica Goodman is developing? Visit Variety Insight .
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Learn about this topic in these articles:
role of Meri
In 1988 Meri founded the
Estonian Institute, which promoted Estonian culture through contacts with Western countries. After Estonia's first free elections in 1990, Meri entered politics when he was named foreign minister. Estonia became independent in 1991, and Meri was appointed ambassador to Finland in 1992. He then ran for president as the head of Isamaa (Fatherland), a nationalist coalition...


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Kyi Toe, former political prisoner from Burma
Kyi Toe, a former member of the ABFSU was arrested in July 1989 for his involvement in the mass democracy uprising in 1988. He was sentenced to 5 years and spent 3 years in Insein prison. He became a member of the 88 Generation Students in 2005 but was forced to flee Burma in 2007 when the military came to arrest him. He is currently living in Nupo refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border where he is awaiting resettlement to a third country.
Jolly Tun @ Jawli Tun, a member of the ABSDF was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to 53 years imprisonment. He is still detained in Thayet prison.


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titfortat September 13, 2013 2:01 PM Lotus are great and Kimi isn't leaving due to him falling out with any one and so I'd hate for it to go bitter for the rest of the season. Kimi doesn't have many years left in F1 and he needs to go to a team that will most likely be fast with the new engines. The other thing Kimi struggles with is how slow the tyres takes to get up to temp on the Lotus, he needs a more well rounded card for his style. He made the right choice and he's given Lotus a massive boost these past two years, who knows where they would have been without. Just hope Hulk now gets that drive and proves himself to be every bit the driver Kimi is and carries that team. Reply Report abuse 16 agree 3 disagree
JohnMarston September 13, 2013 10:12 AM Hulk will get the drive. Reply Report abuse 9 agree 8 disagree


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Brand Red Line
Style 18101VD-RG-09-WH
Series Compressor
Style Chronograph
Gender Men's
Strap Width 23 mm
Case Rose gold tone ion plated stainless steel
Dial Color Rose
Hands Rose gold tone, black and luminous hour and minute. Red second. Rose gold tone subdial
Markers Rose gold tone and luminous indices
Clasp Type Buckle
Weight 109g
Case Shape Round
Strap Color White
Strap Material White textured silicone
Movement Japanese made chronograph quartz
Crystal Mineral
Case Diameter 45 mm
Case Thickness 13 mm
Water Resistant 10 ATM/100 meters/330 feet
Calendar Date display between 4:00 and 5:00
Subdials 60 second, 60 minute and 24 hour
Strap Length Up to 8.5 inches
Case Back Screw-down stainless steel
Crown Push/pull rose gold tone ion plated stainless steel with red silicone rim
Material Silicone
- New


text: It's Normal to Take A While Before Your Work Is as Good as Your AmbitionsMelanie Pinola5/05/11 8:30amFiled to: quotablesquote of the dayQuotesCreativity0EditPromoteShare to KinjaToggle Conversation toolsGo to permalink When you're just starting out making stuff, your work may disappoint you. It can be years before it ever catches up to your taste and has that killer special thing you want it to have. This is normal. Work through it. Advertisement Ira Glass, public radio personality and producer of This American Life, says he wishes someone had told him when he was starting out that everyone who does creative work goes through this phase where there will be a gap between your good taste, which got you into the game, and your work. A lot of people never get past this perfectly normal phase.And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece. It's only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.It's gonna take a while. It's normal to take a while. You just gotta fight your way through.You can see Ira Glass talking about taste and creative work in this video interview [via kottke.org]: Sometimes people ask me how I... | Put This OnYou can contact or follow Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.ReplyLeave a reply


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The 'August: Osage County' soundtrack blends a new Kings of Leon tune, vintage tracks and instrumental compositions.
The Kings of Leon and JD and the Straight Shot contribute new tunes to the soundtrack for August: Osage County, which also features music by Gustavo Santaolalla, Adam Taylor and Mateo Messina.
The album, out Tuesday, showcases Bon Iver's Himmon TX, Eric Clapton's classic Lay Down Sally, Billy Squiers' The Stroke, John Fullbright's Gawd Above and August actor Benedict Cumberbatch's Can't Keep It Inside.
Kings of Leon's acoustic Last Mile Home, written specifically for August, plays over the film's end titles. JD's Violet's Song also was tailor-made for the movie.
Santaolalla, founder of electro-rock/tango band Bajofondo and winner of original-score Oscars for Babel and Brokeback Mountain, wrote And Then They're Here, Barb Balcony and the extended End Credits. Taylor composed four short pieces: Don't Let Go, The Kiss, The Decision and Forward. Messina's hidden track is a remake of Quincy Jones' Sanford and Son Theme (The Streetbeater).
August, directed by John Wells and based on Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, stars Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney and Sam Shepard.


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All Entries Tagged With: "adobe indesign"
WoodWing Showcases Tools to Create iPad Magazines
Posted by Mary Ann Neder | Mar 26, 2010 | Comments 0
Attention all graphic artists! Care to create your very own iPad-ready magazine but don't know how? Don't be dismayed because WoodWing is here to help you, me and our other fellow graphic designers who are skillful in paginating with InDesign, yet lack the programming skills to bring it over to the iPad Platform. WoodWing Software, providers of software solutions for cross-media content, have recently unveiled their upcoming products to help graphic artists create magazines for the iPad. Go to iPadmodo to read the rest of the story.Read More


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In the ever-continuing work that he's been doing with SimpleXML lately, Ben Ramsey shares a new bit of code
It's not really a "problem," but FeedBurner's FeedCount image is a rigid 88 pixels wide, and I wanted to include it on my homepage under the "syndicate" heading, an area that I've defined in my template as having only 80 pixels in width. The 88 pixels were throwing things off, so I used the width attribute of the HTML img tag to solve the problem. Unfortunately, it just squeezes the image, making the text in it appear fuzzy.
FeedBurner conveniently provides what they call their "Awareness API," which is a RESTful interface to retrieve (as XML data) the same exact information displayed in the FeedCountTM image. I simply fired up an image editing program, shuffled things around a bit until the image was a nice, clean 80 pixels wide, and saved it as the base image (shown to the right) I would use for generating an image similar to the one FeedBurner provides.
He explains what the script does via the SimpleXML call and gives the code to accomplish it. It's a short bit of code, but quite powerful when combined with the API from Feedburner - grabbing the data from a local image and integrating the text response from the API. It's great that they have that too - definitely a wise move to allow users even more flexibility in integration for their site.


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Lot 1: A set of six David Shepherd designed WWF plates by
Sporting & Collectors
by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood
September 26, 2012
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Description: A set of six David Shepherd designed WWF plates by Royal Doulton and a set of six Spode equestrian plates.
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text: The world's smallest mirror reflects and traps individual atomsAlasdair Wilkins8/10/10 2:45pmFiled to: mad engineeringmagnetismMirrorMagnetic mirrorElectronicsEngineeringPhysicsScience18EditPromoteShare to KinjaToggle Conversation toolsGo to permalink Mirrors are usually surfaces that reflect light, which means photons bounce off of them. But a new kind of magnetic mirror can reflect magnetized atoms - one at a time. Advertisement This atom mirror was built by researchers at the UK's University of Sheffield. They created an array of tiny nanowires that, when properly activated, becomes solid and reflects the atoms. In order to do this, they placed magnetic fields perpendicular to the wires, which turns the mirror on. To switch the mirror off, they simply have to move the fields so that they're now parallel to the wires.Intriguingly, this construction is basically a "logic mirror" that exists in the binary configurations 0 or 1, depending on whether an atom is present. The researchers believe the magnetic mirror could be helpful in computing, perhaps even in devices that use atoms as qubits, the individual units of quantum information. Advertisement Lead researcher Thomas Hayward explains where they're headed next with their research: "We are looking for ways to build magnetic systems that can manipulate atoms. By using soft ferromagnetic materials, in the form of nanostructures, we can manipulate the material properties and direct atoms. The next step is to drop a cloud of ultracold atoms on the mirror so that we can watch them bounce."[Journal of Applied Physics]Reply18 repliesLeave a reply


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Kenten's Event Journal
Tuesday July 2, 2013 / 2:30pm
Sweet Revenge! (Or No Mother to Guide Her)
3 tickets
Assigned at Box Office Complimentary
How was your experience?
A lot of fun! I actually enjoyed the musical interludes best! The cast was uniformly fine! A wonderful afternoon of vaudeville entertainment!


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The Horse Forum
- Horse Talk
- - My brother wants to start horse riding!!
My brother wants to start horse riding!! I know i might be sounding like a spoilt brat when i say this but the truth is i dont want my brother to start riding. I was talking about it to my mum earlier and she was asking me about lessons - where i go riding. I have hardly ever had a lesson there and she is talking about it straight away!!! I mean to be honest my brother cannot ride. And i know he should have a lesson but i haven had a lesson in about 6 months!! The other reason is one that is really bugging me. My brother doesn't really like horses, he just wants to ride the 16 handers and go really fast, or that is what it has always sounded like anyway. he asks if he can go riding and my parents dont take long to say yes. I have apparently loved horses all my life and it took me years to convince them to let me ride. i started when i was 8 and am now 14. Now to me that is extremely unfair. However i dont want to say anything and am just hoping that he gets put off by the fact that he has to grow before he can ride the bigger horses and has to actually learn to ride before he can go galloping off into the sunset or whatever he wants to do. I guess what i am trying to ask is can any of you relate with other siblings and how do i cope without saying anything that might sound rude or selfish. Although i would prefer not to say anything at all. Thanks in advance!! |
I completely understand that. When my sister wanted to learn to ride it was just because I knew how and she wanted to do what I did. She got my dad talked into getting her a horse and the horse is amish broke and would be a great horse but was broke and then left in the pasture so she doesnt have much expirience and my sister wont ride her so she rode my horse and got threw off and now wont ride anymore. Good luck with your brother:D |
One of the first "life lessons" one should learn that makes it a bit easier-is-"Life is Unfair!" You're on the right track w/not saying anything (If you can't say something nice-say nothing at all.) Otherwise-open mouth-insert foot. Each child has a unique relationship w/each parent, & yes, boys or spoiled Daddy's girl's do get different treatment. You're 14-you have 4 years to plan how you will spend the rest of your life-enjoy your daydreams! Reality will hit soon enough-rent, car payments, utilities, transportation costs, medical & dental expenses. Etcetera. |
The fact that you have stuck with your lessons and enjoy it may have made your parents think that it will be the same for your brother and therefore were easier to convince this time round, which, I can see, would seem unfair to you. I think you are right not to say anything. Just let him start lessons and see what happens. He will either get hooked, or, like many people, realize that it is hard work and not nearly as easy as it looks and drop out. |
I had exactly the same thing with my sister, although it was not so much the fact that she rode that bugged me, as the fact that my parents kept going on about what a perfct natural seat and soft hands she had (kep in mind my parents know nothing about horses). She maintains to this day that she was a better rider than me, and that it is my fault she stopped riding because i quit and my parents didnt want to make the driv anymore, when in fact it was the other way around (she fell off and got scared, and I got interested in something else and my parents couldnt afford both sports for me). I just let her talk now though, I know I'm the better rider now (am taking lessons again), and I know I'm the one with horsefever in the family. I can imagine that it is annoying, but take it as a compliment. Younger siblings want to be like their big brothers/sisters, and will copy a lot of the things you do. Usually they will find out it isnt their thing and they wont stick with it though. |
You will love your brother riding horses in the future - it will be something you two can have in common , something you can share. Just seems like a pain in the butt now ... Trust me it'll work out. Posted via Mobile Device |
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Jared Tarbell: HappyPlace
Most people reading this blog are probably familiar with the work of Jared Tarbell, but he has never been properly blogged here. So stumbling over his HappyPlace piece provided me with a pleasant opportunity.
Jared is perhaps best known for his playful Flash work, which he has published on his Levitated.net site since the very early days. These consist mostly of generative sketches involving recursion, motion studies or technical experiments, which he generously provides the source code for. But these days he focuses more on his generative artwork, which finds a place on Complexification.net, his "Gallery of Computation" and "generative artifacts".
HappyPlace is a good example of his more recent pieces. It uses the underlying structure of a network of "friends" and "non-friends", simple agents acting on local rules. But through a baroque rendering style Jared has developed called Sand Stroke, these simple interactions become the raw material for delightfully intricate drawings. This strategy is not unlike that of C.E.B. Reas, who uses agent interaction as the basis of popular works like his Process series. Jared helpfully provides applets showing the agents moving both with and without the Sand Stroke rendering to make it easier to understand their behavior.
The style of drawing used in HappyPlace has taken Jared's work in a direction which is visually quite different from his earlier Flash work. Where Flash tends to produce smoothly rendered vector objects, he now explores grittily detailed surfaces with a painterly interest. Interestingly, this change coincides with his move to using Processing, which allows pixel rendering in the very high resolutions needed to produce print-ready pieces.
For more Tarbell goodness, see some of these examples:
- Orbitals a
- Intersection aggregate
- Sand Traveler
- Invader Fractal is a different type of work, dealing with permutation of simple systems (pixel graphics). The results are both familiar and likely to make you smile.
Sala: Websites as Graphs – Graph of Generatorx.no / Flickr: websitesasgraphs tag
HTML and markup languages like XML describe documents as hierarchies of tags, in what is called a Document Object Model. This structure can be visualized as a graph.
Websites as Graphs (by Sala of Onethousandpaintings.com) takes a web page URL as input, and outputs a graph of the underlying HTML structure. Used on any large content site like CNN or BoingBoing, it reveal the underlying logic of presentation used to build those pages. Related information form clusters, with color codes revealing a tendency towards table- or CSS-based design (the former being a no-no, obviously) as well as density of images, links etc.
While the graphs make for interesting images, it is still hard to make hard and fast assumptions about the page in question only by looking at the graph. But a well-structured document will always reveal itself as such, as will badly-structured documents. Websites as Graphs should be of interest to anyone who has tried to define a page structure, particularly if that structure conforms to the current CSS-based ideal of "logic-not-presentation" style of web design.
The source code for Websites as Graphs is freely available for download. It was built with Processing, using the Traer.Physics and HTMLParser.
Update: Markavian has hacked up a remix version which allows you to browse the tag structure interactively and even follow links to new documents. To use it, point your browser to a URL in the following format:
"mysite.com" should obviously be replaced with whatever URL it is you want to explore.
Relevant links:
- Websites as Graphs original post, with graph examples from popular web sites.
- Websites as Graphs (Applet), online applet which allows the input of user-specified URLs.
- Flickr: websitesasgraphs tag, user-contributed graphs of their own web sites.
- One thousand paintings, Sala's art experiment in selling generic art objects priced according to a numeric formula based on the number of paintings sold.
- Christian Riekoff: Tree. Another visualization of HTML hierarchies, using 3D tree structures.
Fornes / Nowak / Corcilius: From DIN to DIM
For a different take and a different scripting language, go read theverymany, Marc Fornes' blog on his experiments in computational architecture. 98% of his blog so far is Rhinoscript code for creating generative structures, accompanied by intriguing illustrations. It makes you want to work with Rhino just to be able to see it run.
For those who don't know it, Rhinoscript is a VBScript language used to control Rhino, a high-end 3D package used for anything from CAD/CAM and visualization to computer animation. Rhino is popular with coding architects, sculptors and CGI heads alike. It's not as old skool as AutoCAD and AutoLISP, which has been used for computational architecture since 1986. But it's likely a lot more useful.
theverymany is refreshingly focused on sketches and code, but there is documentation of one interesting recent project: "From DIN to DIM", a "series of experimentations looking at transitions between the German Standard of design to self-similar objects controled by declared variables…". Done with Vincent Nowak and Claudia Corcilius, it consists of generative formal studies, using nested loops to generate structure.
As with much computational architecture, the results are visually very compelling. The techno-organic tower structures recall fashions in blobby architecture, while simultaneously reminding one of 70s sci-fi book covers. The translation of simple code structures into complex and appealing form seems effortless, it would certainly be interesting to see the slides shown in higher detail.
Marc Fornes is a graduate of the AA's Digital Research Labotary class, and is currently working as an architect for Zaha Hadid Ltd. He indicates in the sidebar of his blog that his rhinoscript library might be available as open source.
Franchino: Petals #1 / Capozzo: Code.specific / Limiteazero: Laptop orchestra
C.STEM | Art Electronic Systems and Software-Art practices
1-2 June 2006, Sede 32 Dicembre, Turin
An upcoming exhibition / conference / club event in Turin looks set to blow the lid on the Italian generative art scene. C.STEM is organized by artist Fabio Franchino, and is possibly the first Italian event dedicated to generative and software-based procedural art. In a traditionally conservative Italian art scene this should prove an interesting event.
C.STEM will show the work of 3 Italians and one Norwegian, with myself (Marius Watz) representing the Nordic contingent. The remaining three are Fabio Franchino, Alessandro Capozzo and Limiteazero, all significant Italian artists or artist groups working with code. Their work has long been seen on blogs and web sites, and despite individual differences shows a tendency towards poetic, self-contained works. Aesthetics is a clear focus for all three, with a warm organic feel given to even the most abstract visuals. Whether this is an Italian specialization is hard to say, but it is interesting to note local differences in style and expression. Compare for instance to the Austrian scene with its focus on hard-edged abstraction.
Fabio Franchino shows an interest in autonomous virtual drawing machines, and has an at times painterly approach to his images. At home in print media, he creates sumptious compositions like City on sea, Suff and Petals. Other works like Homo and Blow are carefully exposed chaotic systems, in what is practically a kind of generative photography. Yet others (Silus, Toys) explore permutations of algorithmic form systems.
Alessandro Capozzo is more concerned with structure and topologies than with surface. His online works often deal with organic growth processes, but recently he has been branching out into installations and more complex interactive projects. One example is RGB, "an interactive musical installation for 2-9 users" where colored flash lights are used by the audience to influence the live music. Code Specfic is a new Processing application which interactively visualizes the structure of its own source code.
Limiteazero is an architecture, media design and media art studio based in Milan. Together, Paolo Rigamonti and Silvio Mondino create installations that are elegant not just in their simplicity, but also in their pureness of concept. Their Laptop orchestra sees the user "conducting" the sound and visuals on 15 laptops, turning them off and on to create a variety of soundscapes. The glass of a_mirror mirrors the world around it, but not without adding its own visual modifications, tracing the outlines of what it "sees".
As for myself, I will be showing a new series of 4 prints called C/M/Y/K, produced as offset-print posters to be given away in the gallery. This project marks a welcome experiment with a medium I have not worked with for a long time, and it's exciting to be able to exploit the sheer detail and scale of large prints.
For the purpose of stimulating discourse, C.STEM will feature a short panel of presentations moderated by theorist Domenico Quaranta. See the event program for details. The panel will then be followed by a C.STEM club event, with projections by the artists in many different locations. C.STEM is organized by Fabio Franchino and produced by Associazione Culturale 32 Dicembre with the support of Teknemedia.net.
For the record, I generally try not to blog exhibitions I am participating in. But this show is too interesting not too, purely by virtue of the quality of the work shown by the Italian contingent. I hope it will prove a fruitful platform for future C.STEM events.
This call for works is very exciting, as there are very few bigger exhibitions of electronic art in the Nordic region. Electrohype in Malmö did an excellent biennial for many years, but had to close down due to short-sightedness of the local funding bodies.
i/o/lab in Stavanger has long been aiming to become a full-fledged node in the Norwegian electronic art network. With the Article project they will contribute significantly to the scene.
Article is one of the main projects for Stavanger 2008 – European Capital of Culture. Article 2006 will be a pilot project for the 2008 installment, but also to underline that Article is intended as a biannual event BEYOND the scope of the European Capital year.
Article will be comprised of: a main exhibition; a conference related to the themes of the biannual; in-depth practical and theoretical workshops and seminars; and contributions from local resources and other collaborative partners.
The goal of Article is to promote artforms which don't merely employ electronic techniques in its production and display, but also actively comment on technology, the ethics and politics of technology and the evolution and dissemination of technology. Article wishes to establish an open arena for artforms which critique and engage social processes and present reflected positions on the expressive qualities and contexts of the media.
By «Unstable artforms» we intend to encompass art which is not institutionalised and stabilised by traditional frameworks of production and distribution, art which crosses disciplinary boundaries, which engages unusual contexts and references, or art which is not anchored by permanent, static objects. [...]
Deadline: 15 June 2006
URL: iolab.no/article/
URL:PDF with call details
The i/o/lab initiative was set up by Kevin Foust, Jens Laland and Hege Tapio. The programme committee for Article consists of Jon Brunberg, Kevin Foust, Juha Huuskonen, Mogens Jacobsen and Hege Tapio.
Harris / Kamvar: We feel fine
We feel fine is a lovely new project by Jonathan Harris and Sepandar Kamvar. It scrapes blogs, Myspace accounts and similar social networking systems, looking for the sentence fragments "I feel" and "I am feeling", recording the sentence and the context they appear in, including photographs in the case of Flickr entries. The result is a massive dataset of feelings and moods combined with demographic data.
Written in Processing, We feel fine is a delightful combination of data mining and typographic treatment. Like Golan Levin's The Dumpster, it is at once poetic and somehow serious. The playful use of color and typography supports the content of the piece, making it both beautiful and wondrous to explore.
While We feel fine goes a little further than The Dumpster in trying to project scientific axis on the data, both projects make a claim at scientific impact which is not really held up by the work. Ultimately, both are arbitrary visualizations of data which is hardly quantifiable. The success of these works (and they are successful) then stems from their ability to project a snapshot of human emotions in multitudes of permutation, as evidenced on blogs and social networking services. While the viewer may get a slight insight from the axis on which the data can be projected, the sheer size of the dataset is much more signficant in its impact on the audience.
Jonathan Harris presented at the OFFF Festival yesterday. See his site for his other visualization projects. Sepandar Kamvar founded a search engine called Kaltix, which was acquired by Google. He is a consulting assistant professor of Computational Mathematics and Engineering at Standford.
The EXTEND workshop with Casey Reas, Ben Fry, Zach Lieberman and yours truly is now underway. Today is the second day, yesterday was spent giving personal introductions and dividing the 18 participants into groups. Each day we have micro-lectures. Zach started off by talking about animation and movement, and showed some examples from his making things move workshop.
The participants have shown significant interest in data visualization, and so Ben presented some background to computational information design. He used his Linkology project as a specific example.
Casey is currently speaking about the history of Processing (traced back to ACU and other MIT projects) and how to sketch with code. He is also talking about the importance of the concept of libraries as a way of extending Processing, and in particular to bring it beyond the screen. In particular, he is demonstrating the new PDF library with some code examples that will soon be posted to the Processing site.
I will sporadically be blogging the workshop over on Code & Form, a new blog I just opened to support workshops, teaching and code experiments.
OFFF BCN: Hansol Huh – TypeDrawing / James Tindall: Sketchpad
The OFFF festival in Barcelona is next week, with a busy schedule mixing new media design heros with computational designers and generative artists. The EXTEND: Advanced Processing workshop has been mentioned here before, now the organizers have finally released the full list of projects for the exhibition.
Entitled "Drawing / Painting / Sketching", this year's exhibition has a focus on software works that emulate drawing processes. It might seem ironic that digital artists should spend so much time trying to recapture the quality of traditional drawing, but this is not necessarily out of nostalgia. The goal is ultimately the creation of organic expressions within a deterministic medium, with a richness of gesture often lacking in digital work. The last few years has seen a definitive move away from the technology-inspired images of the turn of the millenium, with complex animated works created through the use of computational processes coming to the fore.
The resulting works are nevertheless quite different both in style and focus – from C.E.B. Reas' complex process drawings, to Hansol Huh's playful TypeDrawing, to Leonardo Solaas drawing machine Dreamlines. Joshua Davis will be doing a workshop in the museum using his drawing components for Flash, while Zach Lieberman's Drawn and Hektor, the Graffiti Output Device provide interactive installations moving beyond the screen.
It looks like OFFF will be an interesting mix this year, be sure to have a look at the timetable for a full overview of the events, including the conferences which in true Barcelona fashion run until 21:00 in the evening.
Dein Lieblingsgestalter: Generative hip hop visuals
Jannis Kreft has uploaded videos of his generative hip hop visuals (made in VVVV), which was blogged here a while ago. It looked good in pictures, but in motion it really rocks. Massive kudos to Jannis for proving that abstract generative visuals can stand its ground against speculative booty videos. You can find the video over on DeinLieblingsgestalter.de, it's short but most excellent.
For those who of you who don't know German, Dein Lieblingsgestalter roughly means "your favorite designer", but Liebling also means beloved and so is a more ambiguous word. The name is a play on a German rapper whose artist name is Deine Lieblingsrapper. I have no idea if Jannis knows him or not. In any case, the video features a gem of German rap, created specifically for Jannis' finals show (note that this is transcribed from the video, and my German grammar is dodgy at best):
Dein Lieblingsgestalter: Generative hip hop visuals
I should say that Jannis is an ex-student of mine from the Universität der Künste, so I am probably biased when looking at this project. But I love the way he has managed to make the hip hop expression effortlessly his own, all the while making no attempts at satisfying any visual clichees from the genre in his visuals. He manages to create visual 3D spaces with sound-responsive input, without it feeling contrived or unoriginal. The colors are good, and he has a solid grasp of graphic vocabulary. Makes me think it would have been an excellent addition to the Generator.x tour.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I was still his teacher I'd be proud. Way to go, Jannis. It'll be interesting to see what you do next.
Wednesday 7th of June – Saturday 10th of June
at Atelier Nord Oslo/Norway by Susanne Jaschko & Erich Berger
Free participation
Urban public space operates as an interface between the individual and the public. It is a highly social, political and economic space. Nowadays digital technologies are omnipresent in this space, employed as systems for communication, control and organisation. The use and application of these technologies have strongly effected our understanding, perception and behaviour of public and private spaces.
The workshop will deal with the public space as field of artistic expression. We will analyse the properties and conditions of public space and the potential for art responding to this specific environment. Special attention will be laid on art and design using the existing technological infrastructure.
Deadline: 19 May 2006
URL: Complete text of the call for participation


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Weekend Box Office
The low-budget horror flick "The Devil Inside" took the top spot at the box office this weekend with an estimated $34.5 million.
"Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol" was runner-up, taking $20.5 million, and "Sherlcok Holmes-A Game of Shadows" rounded out the top three with $14 million.
Here's the top ten:
"The Devil Inside" ($34.5)
"Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol" ($20.5)
"Sherlock Holmes — A Game of Shadows" ($14)
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" ($11.3)
"Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" ($9.5)
"War Horse" ($8.6)
"We Bought a Zoo" ($8.5)
"The Adventures of Tintin" ($6.6)
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" ($5.8)
"New Year's Eve" ($3.3)


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Nicole Kidman has signed on to star in the second season of television thriller "Top of the Lake".
Nicole is reteaming with her The Portrait of a Lady director, Jane Campion, for Top of the Lake: China Girl, after the BBC confirmed her casting following months of rumors. The news was announced as the actress arrived in Sydney to begin filming with series star Mad Men actress Elisabeth Moss.
Carrie Underwood was a double winner at the 2016 CMT Music Awards on Wednesday night (June 8), but country music veteran Tim McGraw stole the show.
They're absolutely adorable together, and Keith Urban invited his wife Nicole Kidman to help him shoot a cellphone video for his new song "The Fighter."
The "Cop Car" crooner and his "Moulin Rouge" bride hopped into their Jeep Wrangler and cranked up the ditty, which features Carrie Underwood on backup vocals.
She's best known for her silver screen prowess, but it turns out Nicole Kidman is also quite the avid gambler whenever she gets a chance to hit the casinos.
Honoring the biggest and brightest stars in country music, the 2015 ACM Awards kicked off at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday evening (April 3).
And as could be expected, Chris Stapleton maintained a constant presence at the acceptance podium, bringing home four trophies to add to his growing collection.
He's admittedly one of the dreamiest hunks in Hollywood, and Robert Pattinson gets to kiss Nicole Kidman in his forthcoming film "Queen of the Desert."
The "Twilight Saga: New Moon" hunk puckers up for Mrs. Keith Urban in a new preview clip, and it's certainly drumming up some pre-release buzz.
Stepping into the spotlight once again, Nicole Kidman is plastered across Harper's Bazaar UK's front page for March 2016.
The darling Aussie actress looks lovely in an Alexander McQueen jacket teamed with a La Perla slip dress as she poses for famed photographer Norman Jean Roy.
Gearing up for a fun-filled evening, David Beckham showed up at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night (January 12).


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Topic Review (Newest First) |
Juliem24 |
Barking and carrying on Rudy is now 16 months old, we adopted him from a shelter in the city at ten months. He's learning to walk past other dogs without reacting (seriously, I didn't think that day would ever come), but now when inside the house, God help the person, squirrel, leaf, chipmunk etc that DARES walk past the house not to mention the most hated dog the cocker across the street. Sometimes, there is nothing that I can see out there, it's like he's making it up just to carry on with that big big bark. He carries on like he's warning us of the alien invasion. He does now, in the last few days, come to us when called and down-stay. After a while we release him, and he's good, and THEN the next alien walks past. it starts all over. What is up with this? I don't mind an alert, but defcon 4 is a bit much. Any thoughts as to why? I can stop it, but I'd rather it didn't start. Love to know what's in his head at that point. Any/all suggestions are welcome. |
Posting Rules | |


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I do hope that what I told my viewers online really speaks to them. I wrote nothing but the truth. It is hard to be here. It is challenging mentally, emotionally, physically but there is no better feeling than feeling accomplished for that I have done. I love to tell people about what I have learned from my experiences and that is why I am writing to you now. I, unfortunately, did not look up things like cadet blogs or online Q&A sessions. All I knew was that a service academy provided top-notch education and a stable career following graduation. I did not know about the specifics, such as what a daily schedule was composed of or what liberty meant. Luckily, I found some great friends and we all figured it out together as well as asking upper-class. Still, I would have liked to know things in advance and I applaud those who are doing so.
More about Jennifer.


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'Urban Wanderers' Opening Shatters Attendance Records
Nearly 1,600 guests attended the opening reception for SLUMA's popular exhibition, which is held in partnership with Stray Rescue of St. Louis.
Nearly 1,600 people participated in the opening night festivities Aug. 3 for Urban Wanderers, Saint Louis University Museum of Art's latest art exhibition hosted in partnership with Stray Rescue of St. Louis.
Museum guests view an art piece, a dress with images of dogs saved by Stray Rescue, during the Urban Wanderers' opening reception. Photo by Elizabeth Krasnoff Levy |
"At times, our guests had formed a line to view the artwork," said Mary Marshall, marketing coordinator for the museum. "I have never seen the gallery so crowded."
Urban Wanderers is inspired by the recovery stories of Stray Rescue's companion animals. All artwork in the exhibition is available for silent auction, and all proceeds will directly benefit Stray Rescue of St. Louis.
The theme of this year's highly anticipated fundraising event focuses on the survivors of Stray Rescue — innocent dogs and cats that have suffered shocking abuse, neglect and abandonment. Due to the efforts of the dedicated staff of Stray Rescue, these innocent victims of unspeakable cruelties are protected, sheltered and loved for the remainder of their lives.
The museum will host Urban Hour, a meet-the-artist and adoption event, from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17. Learn from the artists themselves how the rescued strays have not only caught their eye, but in the process, touched their heart. Several Stray Rescue pups will be on-hand and available for adoption.
Urban Wanderers is sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. and Barret's Buddies. For more information about the exhibit, visit sluma.slu.edu or call 314-977-2666.
The gallery entryway decorated for the exhibition. Photo by Danielle Lacey |
About Saint Louis University Museum of Art
This Beaux Artes building features modern and contemporary art by Serge Poliakoff, Richard Serra, Ernest Trova and many others. The Collection of the Western Jesuit Missions showcases religious art and artifacts from the 13th to the 20th centuries. The John and Ann MacLennan Collection of Asian Decorative Art is one of the largest collections of its kind in the United States: Whimsical netsuke figures carved from jade, amber and rosewood, beautiful household shrines of ivory, Japanese woodcuts and Chinese porcelain. To learn about visiting exhibitions and more, visit sluma.slu.edu.
About Stray Rescue of St. Louis
Stray Rescue's mission is to lead the way towards making St. Louis a compassionate city where every companion animal knows health, comfort, and affection, and no stray is euthanized merely because he or she has been abandoned, abused or neglected. As part of our mission, Stray Rescue is out on the streets daily taking a progressive, proactive approach to establishing a permanent resolution to the stray companion animal problem through dedicated rescue efforts, sheltering, community outreach programs, education, collaborations and the encouragement of responsible pet guardianship. For more information, visit www.strayrescue.org.


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With free parking, The Artisan Quarter Serviced Apartments are located a few minutes' walk from Cardiff city centre and The Millennium Stadium. Stylishly decorated, the modern apartments have fully equipped kitchens, washers/dryers, TVs with Freeview, ironing facilities and DVD players. A weekly maid service is also provided. Situated on Cathedral Road, the apartments are in the leafy suburb of Pontcanna, close to Cardiff Train and Bus Stations. The Artisan Quarter is a short walk from Cardiff Castle, The Museum of Natural History and the popular shopping areas.
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Orlan Lux
Date posted - September 4, 2013
Orlan Lux, age 71 of Hartley, IA, passed away at his home in Hartley, IA on Wednesday, September 4, 2013.
A funeral service will be held on Monday, September 9th at 11:00 a.m. at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Hartley, with Fr. Tim Hogan officiating.
Visitation will be at the Hartley Funeral Home in Hartley on Sunday, September 8th from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. with the family present from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon. A Family Prayer Service will be held at the funeral home on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Inurnment will be held at Pleasant View Cemetery in Hartley at a later date.
The Hartley Funeral Home in Hartley is in charge of the arrangements for 71 year-old Orlan Lux of Hartley, IA.
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Don't get me started on real estate brokers, especially in New York city. They're an affable but utterly contemptible lot who grossly overcharge relative to the service provided. Brokers rely on scarcity of inventory, market fragmentation, and an entrenched lobby to sustain themselves when they are in fact extracting rather than adding value to the market. Try selling without a broker and you'll probably be boycotted by buyers' agents, who want to discourage "For Sale By Owner" (FSBO). So most sellers suck it up and pay 6% because they're afraid not to. It's a lot like organized crime.
No thanks. I don't want to pay 6% and I certainly don't want to contribute to a system which sucks value out of the bottom and gives it to a lazily organized lot of sharply dressed morons.
So I undertook to sell my New York City condo without a broker.
Here's how I did it:
1) In order to make it easier to sell, I moved out of my residence. No bullshit lining the walls, no pictures, no furniture stained with baby vomit. We cleared out. Now, this isn't always an option but for us it was a necessity as we have infant twins so cleaning up and leaving the apartment for every showing just wasn't possible.
2) I hired a stager. In my case, I brought in Jessica and Amanda Salles. These ladies showed up and told me exactly what I needed to do to prepare the condo for sale. Their advice? Refinish the floors, paint, and get it professionally cleaned. Once those steps were complete, they would "furnish" the apartment. A lightly-staged apartment makes it a lot easier for potential buyers to imagine living there. A bed and a sofa give a room a sense scale and size that's hard for most people to imagine. And a staged apartment photographs exceptionally well. The Salles' referred me to their vendors – all of whom were excellent and very fairly priced.
2) I got the condo professionally photographed. This made a huge difference. See below..
3) I listed the apartment on RealDirect. RealDirect is a site that lets owners pay a flat fee ($395/month) to list a property for sale. RealDirect publishes the listing on the MLS, StreetEasy and all major real estate sites. They do not take a commission (under the plan I chose). But I decided that I would pay the buying broker a commission – 2.5%. I did this because most buyers have a broker and in order to get the foot traffic I needed to yield an offer, a commission was a necessary carrot.
4) I held 3 open houses, all on Saturdays/Sunday. I pushed most of the requests for private showing to the open houses, as I found having to stand around and listen to brokers lie to their clients somewhat tiresome. Total time: 6 hours.
5) I got 4 offers for my apartment. I'd listed it for $1,189,000. One offer was for $1,200,000. Another for 1,150,000. The other two for 1,050,000, but were all cash. Very quickly the higher bidder flaked, despite seeing the apartment three times and his broker assuring me of his good intentions. So I ended up going with the offer for $1,150,000. Total time spent dealing with brokers: ~8 hours.
In all cases the brokers called me up. Each told me how much their client was willing to pay or could be coaxed into paying. And each asked whether the client's high number would get the deal done. In no case did any broker attempt to meaningfully negotiate on the part of their client. The brokers don't care – a higher price is better for them. Which is a serious misalignment of interests between the seller and the seller's broker. As a buyer the biggest reason not to use a broker is negotiating leverage: there's at least a couple of percentage points discount available to you that would otherwise go to your dumbfuck broker. The second biggest reason is that your broker is probably quietly trying to drive up the price on you. He's certainly not trying to bring it down.
So net, net, here's what the deal would have looked like if I'd sold it with a broker:
- Sale price: $1,150,000
- 6% Commission: $69,000
- Net $1,081,000
Here's what it looked like in reality
- Sale price: $1,150,000
- Staging + paint + floors + Real Direct: $9000
- 2.5% commission to the buyer: $28,750
- Net $1,112,250
So, I saved myself $31,250. Or about $1953/hour that would otherwise have gone to a broker.


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Economic recovery doesn't help all
In an era with noteworthy economic growth, why does it seem so unsatisfying? Why do numerous broad-based business benchmarks point upward – just as so many people and companies feel so low?
Veteran Orange County banker Brian Horton at First Enterprise Bank lives this dichotomy daily, as he deals with a diverse clientele of small business leaders.
He's blunt about his thought as to why there are such mixed emotions within the local business community about the overall improving economic results: "There are 25 percent of the businesses, and they're top performers. And the other 75 percent? Many are barely treading water."
My Big Orange Index – a collection of three dozen benchmarks for the Orange County economy – shows that as an aggregate, the local economy is picking up steam.
In the third quarter, the overall Big Orange Index posted its 12th consecutive advance and its biggest quarterly upswing in nearly seven years.
On a yearly basis, The Big O tells me the local economy is growing at a 4.2 percent pace – the quickest expansion in a year. This growth puts my marker for local economic oomph back at 2008 levels.
Even by industry, signs point to a broad-based recovery. All six subindexes that comprise the Big O were up for the quarter – third consecutive "all in" from this sector-by-sector review.
That means local store owners come to the holiday shopping season off their ninth consecutive gain. One good reason: The Big O's measure of consumer confidence had its fourth consecutive advance – and 10th gain in the past 11 quarters. Real estate is a big reason for local optimism. Its Big O Index slice rose for the third straight quarter in its biggest advance in The Big O's database dating to 1988.
Now the Big O does hint as to why bosses have frequent angst attacks. The Big O's Boss Index – measuring economic items key to local decision makers – had its 12th straight gain in the summer quarter. Yet this increase was the smallest advance in this winning streak.
Is this a sign of a recovery that's running out of steam? Or do bosses sense other problems ahead?
Well, Horton's niche – banking, an industry supposedly highly sensitive to economic change – is enjoying a renaissance. By Big O calculations, for example, the local bill-paying rate is at its best level since 2008 as the pace of Orange County foreclosures and bankruptcies falls along with unemployment.
"I'm optimistic," Horton says. "I think things are better than what people think they are. I just think some people are just too negative."
Horton, an Orange County native whose family first came here in the 1850s, has been in the local banking business for nearly three decades
He's keenly aware of the local economy's habit of boom then bust. Yet he believes this past cycle was very different, and its resulting uneven recovery makes banking extra challenging. As Horton put it, "In the past, the rising tide lifted all boats. Not this time."
This varied performance, in Horton's eyes, is due to both an economic recovery that has not yet touched all corners of the business spectrum and the reality that not every manager or business owner is capable of tackling today's economic challenges.
Some business leaders didn't see the downturn early enough, Horton says. Their businesses, in many cases, are "still digging out of holes" created by the Great Recession.
Other companies had better strategic plans and were able to make tough, early course corrections to dampen the impact of the business downtown.
"It may sound corny," Horton says. "But the manager who really understands his business, these guys are the successful ones."
First Enterprise, co-founded by Horton in 2006, emerged from the downdraft virtually unscathed. The bank has never had a loan loss – not a track record many Orange County bankers can brag about.
These are relatively good times for local lenders, as businesses start to look for fresh funds for expansion – and bills are getting paid with more regularity.
The Big O found in the third quarter that foreclosures in Orange County, as tracked by Experian, dropped to a rate last seen in 2008. Southern California bankruptcies have fallen to a three-year low. Not so coincidentally, I'm sure, one measure of local enthusiasm for lending – DataQuick's estimate of new Orange County real estate loans – shows the number of mortgages made in the past year at a five-year high.
First Enterprise has grown its lending 50 percent in a year. Though, as Horton notes, a good chunk of that loan growth is added borrowing by existing customers. And one challenge for First Enterprise today – and a sign of a recovering economy – is that it's getting hard to win new business.
"It's very competitive," he says. "It's a good time to be borrowing."
Astro-Tek, an Anaheim maker of parts and support items for the aerospace industry, is the type of nimble company that Horton's bank likes to bet on.
This company started in 2006 when its founder, Gary Goldner, left a firm in a similar metals manufacturing niche to try out his own ideas. Astro-Tek switched to First Enterprise in 2008 when it was the only bank that would lend to Goldner's operation.
Since inception, Astro-Tek has growth fast – from four employees to 60 and from a factory with 2,500 square feet of space to a newly expanded production facility with 43,000 square feet.
"I have a heck of team of employees," says Goldner, deflecting much of the credit for what would be remarkable growth in the best of times – but accomplished in a painful slump for factory work.
Goldner says his growth formula is simple. To better serve his many customers with a cost-cutting mindset, he's willing to trim his price list and aggressively fight for the low bid.
"To be successful, I have to keep work on my floor," Goldner says. At this moment, that strategy has been so successful that his factory is "maxed out" – running two full shifts' worth of production.
"It hasn't been easy," Goldner admits.
The economy hasn't been kind to much of his industry – and looming federal defense cuts don't make the broad outlook brighter.
Plus, it's challenging to run a manufacturing operation competing on price in a high-cost region like Orange County. Factories making so-called "durable goods" – pricier, longer-lasting items – averaged 112,000 workers countywide in the past year. Yes, that's the highest level in three years – but the industry is also one-quarter smaller than it was in 1990.
"It's tough to make money in Orange County," says Goldner, repeating many of the complaints of his factory peers about local hurdles to expanded profitability – costly labor, facilities and regulations. "But, I love Orange County. This is the place to be. Right in the center of my customers and demand."
Ah, another love-hate relationship with the local economy.
But The Big O will tell you, lately the business climate's been too hot to hate for most folks.
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After Gianni, There Are Mostly Questions
byItalian political and business leaders are wondering how much longer Gianni Agnelli can run Fiat. Agnelli, 74, chairman of the Italian auto giant and patriarch of Europe's richest industrial dynasty, had an abdominal aneurism removed at New York Hospital on Apr. 25. His recovery is said to be slow and uncertain. Agnelli tried to kill the rumors of his retirement in early June during a television interview. "I will remain," said a somewhat frail-looking Agnelli, "as long as I'm necessary."
But signs increase that the three-decades-long Agnelli era may be drawing to a close, and that major changes may ensue at Fiat. Days after the TV interview, Agnelli slipped and injured his spine while yachting. He missed the June 22 annual meeting of IFI, the family holding company that controls 30% of Fiat. Cesare Romiti, meanwhile, Agnelli's 72-year-old chief ally and the hands-on managing director of Fiat since 1976, must devote more and more time to defending himself from a judicial inquiry into illegal slush funds allegedly managed from his office.
Fiat officials claim not to be worried. "The succession to Agnelli and Romiti is open, but it's not a problem for now," asserts Ernesto Auci, the head of Fiat's press office. Not everyone agrees. "My impression is that we will see changes at the top of Fiat sooner than later," says a source close to the Agnelli family. One person mentioned as a possible successor is Paolo Cantarella, head of the prospering car division.
Should Agnelli and Romiti step down in the next year, at least they will be leaving Fiat much stronger than it has been in years. Powered by the competitive edge of a devalued lira as well as popular new car models, Fiat turned a $1.1 billion loss in 1993--its worst ever--into a $612 million profit on $39 billion in sales last year.
MANY SHARES. Even if a possible succession goes smoothly, the Agnelli clan may still want to raise more money from its Fiat holdings, a desire that could dictate Fiat's future shape. Income from the family fortune gets divvied up among more than 300 descendants of Giovanni Agnelli, who founded the company in 1899. It's a far-flung bunch. A granddaughter, Susanna, is Italy's Foreign Minister. A great-granddaughter has an olive oil business in the south of Italy, while another family member raises terriers in rural Georgia. Egon von Furstenberg, the New York fashion designer, is a great-grandchild.
While probably no member of the extended Agnelli family is about to go on the dole, there is rising pressure, insiders say, for better returns from Fiat and other family holdings. To help address those needs, IFI's dividend was raised more than 60% on June 22, to 340 lira per share. While IFI's preferred stock trades on the Milan bourse, the clan holds 100% of the common, and bylaws make sales to outsiders difficult. IFI says while its stock in other companies may go, no change is planned for the Fiat stake. "But the problem, that more and more family members need cash, is still there," says a Milan banker close to the family. So some sort of push by the family to sell a chunk of Fiat is possible.
Others may want more out of their Fiat shares, too. France's Alcatel Alsthom, Germany's Deutsche Bank, and Italy's Assicurazioni Generali and Mediobanca together control 10% of Fiat's capital. They may not be patient investors anymore. Pierre Suard, the Alcatel chief and Fiat board member, was forced from office by a series of scandals. His successor, Serge Tchuruk, may not be as committed as he was to holding Alcatel's 2.2% Fiat position, especially since Alcatel's profits are suffering. Deutsche Bank--slowly moving away from industrial participations as it concentrates on banking--is said to be looking at ways to increase the value of its 2.5% stake in Fiat. One option could be to dust off proposals to merge Fiat's car division with another European manufacturer. Deutsche Bank will not comment on plans for its shareholdings.
The Agnellis will still wield plenty of power at Fiat, even if the family dilutes its stake or if group units are spun off. Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, the 31-year-old nephew of Gianni--known as Gianni Jr. in Italy--has been quietly groomed to play a leading role at Fiat. The Brown University graduate has steadily moved up the ranks of the $1.1 billion family-held Piaggio motor-scooter group and was recently named chairman. He was named to the Fiat board at the end of 1993 and on June 3 became the first of the fourth generation to make it to the board of the family holding company. The Agnelli saga will continue, even after Gianni takes his final bow.


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ArtMetalsocial networking for the metal arts |
machinesMetal working machines...
Larry Razza -
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - 10:11am
casting | etc. | jewelry machinery | lost wax casting | machines | metal | mold making machines | nickel plating | sandblasting Just wanted to let everyone know I have a lot of machinery and supplies for...Metal, casting, lost wax casting, electro plating, sandblasting, machining, jewelry machinery, mold making machines, etc. |


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Written by Anthony Moujaes
The Rev. Robin Raudabaugh won't be deterred by the actions of a vandal spewing hate. Her Minnesota United Church of Christ congregation remains unwavering in its support and affirmation of LGBT persons despite the fact that Pilgrims United Church of Christ, in Maple Grove, Minn., was vandalized twice in a one-month span.
"At this time, we have no plans to change our security or our message of extravagant welcome and radical hospitality," she said. "We know our local police plan to keep an eye on our property."
The church was first egged about a month ago, and more recently the building was defaced, and the congregation got messages filled with hate speech.
"We have had a couple hand printed notes left in our mailbox defining our actions as a church as sinful and wrong," Raudabaugh said "Following the first egging we also received a hand printed letter citing scripture passages and naming us the church of Sodom and Gomorrah."
"Our response up till now has been to ignore the messages — including the first egging about a month ago."
Raudabaugh thinks the vandal is likely someone unhappy with the congregation's support for marriage equality in the state. In early May the state legislature approved a law that will permit same sex marriage in Minnesota. In the fall, campaign signs, which urged voters to reject a marriage equality ban in the state's constitution, were stolen from the congregation's lawn.
The congregation has one part-time custodian and no office staff, so Pilgrims UCC members brought out the buckets and washcloths before worship on Sunday, June 2, to clean the eggs from the entryway "so those extended family members coming for the baptism would have a welcoming entrance," Raudabaugh said.
As for the person responsible for the vandalism, Raudabaugh simply chooses to turn the other cheek.
"Our continued response is to continue to be an open and affirming welcoming to everyone presence. We do not have any interest punishing the person or persons desecrating our church," she added. "Our hope is that they stop. We don't want people to be afraid to come to church."


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The film
The tangled love lives of the "Newlyn School", a colony of artists living and working on the Cornish coast in the run-up to the first world war, is the subject of this gentle period drama from British director Christopher Menaul. The tale centres on the love triangle between celebrated painter Alfred Munnings, aspiring artist Florence Carter-Wood and Gilbert Evans, land agent for the Lamorna Valley, whose rugged beauty inspired the artists and offered a suitably wild backdrop for their bohemian lifestyle.
On location
The film's production crew worked hard to capture the extraordinary light and brooding coastal landscapes that made the far west of Cornwall such a magnet for painters.
The beautiful cove at Lamorna, still home to several descendants of the Newlyn artists, is as atmospheric as ever – but for practical reasons most of the "Lamorna" scenes were actually shot at Prussia Cove, a private estate just east of Penzance, which is home to a handful of attractive stone cottages perched above tiny coves and inlets (see "Where to stay" below).
Some of the most memorable scenes were filmed on the National Trust-owned beaches at Holywell and Porthcurno. Sheltered by two rocky headlands, Holywell Bay, near Newquay, provides a dramatic setting for the exuberant horse-race sequences, while the white sands at Porthcurno, near Land's End, make an idyllic location for a beach party scene.
The "Newlyn School" was named after the fishing port where many of the artists were based. It's still home to a lively artistic community and a School of Art, offering short courses in drawing, painting, pottery and sculpture, opened in 2011. For total immersion in the landscapes and techniques that so inspired Munnings and his peers, sign up for the £130 two-day Abstract Landscape painting course in Lamorna.
Where to stay
The cast and crew of Summer in February stayed at the Cove in Lamorna, a collection of stylish self-catering apartments that have evolved from the original Jory's Cliff House Hotel, scene of many of the real-life events that the story is based on (from £125 per night for a one-bedroom apartment with sea views.
But for a flavour of the untamed beauty that attracted so many artists to this stretch of coast, the cottages at Prussia Cove (cottage sleeping seven from £678 per week in July) are hard to beat. What they lack in luxury they make up for with rustic charm and spectacular clifftop locations with footpath access to tiny coves that very few tourists discover.
'Summer in February' goes on general release in the UK this weekend


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Home confinement: Ex-sheriff took drugs from police storage
A newly elected West Virginia sheriff who acknowledged a meth addiction and taking the drug from a police evidence area for his own use was sentenced to up to 10 years of home confinement Tuesday.
Most Recent
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Mar 28th - 1:35pm
A man wounded last month while trying to intervene in an apparently racially motivated shooting at a suburban Kansas City bar has been honored with a $100,000 check.
US official: Trump to meet China's Xi first week in April
Josh Lederman, Associated Press | Posted
Mar 28th - 1:20pm
A senior State Department official says Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) will meet with President Donald Trump the first full week of April.
Commander says US may have played role in Mosul deaths
Robert Burns, Associated Press | Posted
Mar 28th - 1:18pm
U.S. airstrikes probably played a role in the death of dozens of civilians in Mosul earlier this month, but an ongoing investigation may reveal a more complicated explanation, the top commander of American forces in Iraq said Tuesday. One possibility is that Islamic State militants rigged the building with explosives.
Star gymnasts testify at Congress about sex-abuse scandal
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Mar 28th - 1:16pm
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Dallas woman found guilty in 2015 injection death of client
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Mar 28th - 1:05pm
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A Shakespearean tale: Babies Romeo and Juliet born 18 hours apart at same hospital
Jessica Ivins, KSL.com Contributor | Posted
Mar 28th - 12:57pm
It's a tale that would make the Bard himself smile. Two babies born hours apart at the same hospital bear the names of Shakespeare's most famous lovers.
Questions linger as New Jersey bridge case sentencings near
David Porter, Associated Press | Posted
Mar 28th - 12:54pm
The traffic jam that sank Gov. Chris Christie's presidential aspirations is set to conclude with the sentencings Wednesday of the two former aides convicted of creating the gridlock to teach a lesson to a mayor whose endorsement they couldn't obtain.
OAS weighs punishing Venezuela for disrupting democracy
The Associated Press | Posted
Mar 28th - 12:54pm
Diplomats from across the Western Hemisphere met Tuesday to determine whether to punish Venezuela's socialist government for violating the country's democratic order.
Arkansas judge rejects bid to halt multiple executions
Andrew Demillo, Associated Press | Posted
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An Arkansas judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state's lethal injection law, the latest setback for efforts to block the state's unprecedented plan to conduct four double executions over a 10-day period next month.
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Inspectors discovered that a California building in a rundown neighborhood lacked fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in every apartment and a working sprinkler system just three days before a blaze erupted and killed four low-income residents.
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Sadie Gurman and Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press | Posted
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The Associated Press | Posted
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Mar 28th - 12:44pm
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Authorities: Teen-teacher relationship not a 'romance'
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The Associated Press | Posted
Mar 28th - 12:30pm
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The Latest: Officials: 4th body found after Oakland fire
The Associated Press | Posted
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The Latest on a fatal fire in Oakland (all times local):
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Friendly Vallarta doesn't sell rooms, it sells unforgettable vacation experiences. This resort is different because the owners live on-site and it has extremely friendly staff. This hotel has a great 24-hr all-inclusive program for every vacation style.
See map- Located oceanfront in Puerto Vallarta, 5km from the Puerto Vallarta Int'l Airport and 5 minutes from downtown.
- beach access
- elevators
Check-in time:
3:00 pm
Check-out time:
12:00 pm
Your price includes:
- Round trip airport transfers
- All meals (buffet, breakfast, daytime and late night snacks)
- 24-hour all inclusive
- Dinner can be à la carte (reservations not required, dress code in effect)
- Unlimited domestic drinks
- All taxes
- All gratuities
Resort fee
A resort fee is a fee payable to the resort. This fee varies per resort and may cover items such as fitness centres, internet, local calls, etc.
Reviews 85% of guests recommend this hotel.
Loved our stay
We loved our time at the Friendly! Plan to be back this year.
we loved our stay, staff very friendly and resort extremely clean
Don't expect much!
7 th year coming up....home away from home..luv it!!
- See all reviews for this hotel
Have you visited Friendly Vallarta?
We'd love to know what you think.


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health: 50/75 of 910
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Zane: the lethal conspiracy of silence over contaminated land must end
Paul Mobbs
6th September 2016
The shocking death of Zane Gbangbola, killed by toxic gas from a 'forgotten' landfill under his home, exposes the UK's dangerous legacy of contaminated land, writes Paul Mobbs. Without action, these polluted sites will damage health and even kill for centuries to come. But governments, local authorities, landowners and developers are united in a shameful policy of silence and denial. more...Good nutrition begins in healthy soils
Patrick Holden
7th September 2016
There's no such thing as 'healthy food' if it's not produced by sustainable farming systems on living soils, Patrick Holden told the recent 'Food: The Forgotten Medicine' conference. But after 70 years of industrial farming, there's a huge job to be done to restore our depleted soils and the impoverished genetic diversity of our seeds and crops. more...How to spot hazardous 'rip currents' at the beach - before you get in the water
Martin Austin, Bangor University
25th August 2016
Five men tragically died this week at Camber Sands in East Sussex, making holiday makers are increasingly fearful of the dangers of sea bathing. One of the biggest dangers comes from so-called 'rip tides' which carry swimmers out to sea on fast-moving 'rivers' of water, writes MARTIN AUSTIN. So here's how to recognise the dangers - before you even get in the water. more...Dark days ahead for British agriculture? Or green shoots of a brighter future?
Keith Tyrell / PAN UK
25th August 2016
With Brexit the UK will have to chose between two visions of our farming future, writes Keith Tyrell. Will it be heavily subsidised corporate agribusiness that ravages both nature and small, high quality farmers. Or will we seize the chance to build a sustainable food and farming system that supports wildlife, landscape, family farms, organic production and diverse rural economies? more...England's £100m badger cull extensions condemned
The Ecologist
23rd August 2016
England is about to extend its badger cull policy to five new areas of the country, proving that only that science is a dead letter to May's conservative government as it was to Cameron's. While bovine TB infections in cattle rise in the existing cull areas, Wales has just achieved a cull-free 14% reduction. more...Millions spent, no one served: who is to blame for the failure of GMO Golden Rice?
Angelika Hilbeck & Hans Herren
15th August 2016
The real reason why 'golden rice' remains uncultivated after a 20 year effort is its poor agronomic performance, write Angelika Hilbeck & Hans Herren. But beyond that, the very idea of golden rice as a 'solution' to Vitamin A deficiency fails to recognise the real causes of malnutrition - poverty, hunger and poor diet. How will golden rice reach poor children in the first place? And will they ever get the rich, oily diet they need to assimilate its fat-soluble nutrients? more...Beri-beri disease and resistance to GM 'Golden Rice'
Ted Greiner, PhD
13th July 2016
Rice-eating peoples are very particular about the rice their diets are based on, writes Ted Greiner. And they have a strong aversion to yellow grains, the tell-tale sign of the deadly mould that causes beri-beri disease. That alone makes GMO 'Golden Rice' a non starter; 107 Nobel Laureates had better start eating their words. more...Chilcot: UK insists it has 'no long-term legal responsibility to clean up DU from Iraq'
Doug Weir
11th July 2016
The Chilcot report reveals that the UK has disclaimed any duty to decontaminate the toxic, radioactive ash left behind by its DU munitions, or even monitor the impacts on human health, writes Doug Weir. But Iraq and other countries are working towards a UN Resolution this October that would hold contaminating governments like the UK and the US legally accountable for DU pollution. more...Royal Society must end its partisan, unscientific support for GM crops and food
Steven Druker
13th July 2016
The Royal Society purports to provide unbiased information on scientific issues, writes Steven Druker. But its new guide on GMOs is grossly misleading - glossing over the many dangers inherent to the technology with bland, unsupported re-assurances. The Society must end its partisan promotion of GMOs or risk its reputation as Britain's premier scientific body. more...Korea's disgusting dog-eating 'festival' must end
Anneka Svenska
11th July 2016
With the coming of summer, South Korea's 'Boknal' dog-eating festival is under way, writes Anneka Svenska. Known for the extreme cruelty deliberately inflicted on dogs to improve the taste of their meat, Boknal is a barbaric relic rooted in ignorance and pseudo-medical superstition whose time is well and truly up. more...Pro-GMO campaign exploits Nobel laureates in 'Golden Rice' Greenpeace attack
Claire Robinson
4th July 2016
Greenpeace is being attacked for 'crimes against humanity' by 100 Nobel laureates for blocking GMO 'golden' rice, reports Claire Robinson. But the low-yielding crop is years away from going on sale, and there is no proof of any nutritional benefit to the malnourished children it's meant to benefit. Could the distinguished prize-winners have fallen for slick pro-GMO PR and spin? more...Glyphosate disrupts rats' uterine development
21st June 2016
As the EU prepares to vote on whether to re-authorise glyphosate this week, a new study finds that commercial formulations of the herbicide alter the development of rats' uteruses, potentially causing cancer and affecting fertility. more...
health: 50/75 of 910
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Plastic Ocean - why the world should declare plastic 'hazardous waste'
Lesley Henderson, Brunel University London
8th June 2016
Plastic is ubiquitous around the world's oceans, writes Lesley Henderson, but although it's visible from space, it can be surprisingly elusive in the water - as she heard from Jo Ruxton, producer of the investigative documentary 'A Plastic Ocean'. Solutions to this growing hazard have also proved elusive to date, hence the film's strong focus on action: educational, cultural and legal. more...Lies, damn lies and the national cycling 'strategy'
Donnachadh McCarthy FRSA
31st May 2016
The government's new 'strategy' for cycling is a feeble attempt to hide huge cuts to local transport budgets with a minute line of funds that would take over 2,000 years to bring the UK up to Dutch cycle lane standards, writes Donnachadh McCarthy. We must demand better! more...Scientific error, omission and misrepresentation: the Royal Society on GM crops
Soil Association
27th May 2016
The Royal Society has form on GM crops, writes the Soil Association - consistently Gung-ho! for the last 20 years, while refusing to engage with critics of the technology or even accept the existence of any problems. Its latest effort represents more of the same, while exposing this once August body to ridicule for its egregious scientific howlers. more...Alas poor Brock! The insanity of the badger cull
Martin Hancox
27th May 2016
The lives of all the thousands of badgers slaughtered in the name of TB eradication have been lost in vain, writes Martin Hancox. The cryptic reservoir of bovine TB is the cattle themselves, and no amount of badger killing will make the slightest difference to the problem. Once we have grasped this reality the solution is astonishingly simple: improved TB testing that picks up all infected cattle. more...Glyphosate in the EU: product promoters masquerading as regulators in a 'cesspool of corruption'?
Colin Todhunter
17th May 2016
With EU ministers due to decide tomorrow on the future of the glyphosate in the EU, Colin Todhunter finds evidence of collusion between regulators and the corporations whose sales of the 'probably carcinogenic' herbicide add up to many billions of dollars a year - evidence that underlies a legal action alleging fraud by the European Food Safety Authority against the EU's 508 million citizens. more...No, the UN has not given glyphosate a 'clean bill of health'
Georgina Downs
17th May 2016
News headlines today suggest that a UN report on glyphosate residues has given the controversial herbicide a clean bill of health, writes Georgina Downs. But that's seriously misleading: the panel concludes that exposure to the chemical in food is unlikely to cause cancer. But that does not apply to those exposed to it occupationally or who live near sprayed fields. more...ALERT: Critically Endangered Species: Homo sapiens
Willemijn Heideman
11th May 2016
The IUCN has mysteriously placed Homo sapiens outside its systems of thinking when defining the criteria for Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable Species, writes Willemijn Heideman: our collective inability to tackle our existential crises makes our survival on this planet a highly uncertain prospect. more...Pesticide-free cities are possible! But there's more to it than vinegar
Harriet Williams
9th May 2016
Bristol's decision to trial vinegar as a weedkiller in place of glyphosate certainly grabbed headline-writers' imaginations, writes Harriet Williams. But with a wide choice of proven chemical-free weed control strategies available, might this experiment be 'set up to fail'? more...Chernobyl, genetic damage, and the UK nuclear bomb tests - justice at last?
Chris Busby
6th May 2016
Britain's nuclear bomb test veterans suffered severe genetic damage from radiation, writes Chris Busby, and their case for compensation is being heard in the High Court today. Key to their case is evidence of similar damage inflicted on in utero babies exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl disaster, and how the dreadful health impacts of radiation cascade down to future generations. more...GMO lobby's false claims to defend GM oilseed against deformed butterfly findings
Claire Robinson / GMWatch
9th May 2016
A recent scientific study found the same long-chain omega-3 oils that are engineered into a new GM Camelina oilseed variety make butterflies grow up with deformed wings, writes Claire Robinson. Attempts by the 'pro-science' non-scientist Mark Lynas to discredit the study are a mixture of ignorance, research failures, 'straw man' arguments and outright errors. more...Withdrawn: the EPA's memo on the increasing use of glyphosate on food crops
Carey Gillam / USRTK
10th May 2016
The EPA's release of an internal memorandum last month showing the increasing use of the cancer-linked weedkiller glyphosate looked like a welcome opening up of information to the public, writes Carey Gillam. But then it was suddenly withdrawn, along with other related documents - though not before she grabbed her copy and reviewed the scale and scope of glyphosate usage. more...Scientists must challenge poor media reporting on climate change
John Krebs, University of Oxford
5th May 2016
The deliberate misrepresentation of climate science in our media deserves an urgent corrective, writes John Krebs. Recent misreporting by The Times - passing off partisan, unscientific, non-peer reviewed, ill-informed climate change-sceptic opinion as 'science' - deserves particular opprobrium. more...From Hillsborough to pesticides: establishment cover-ups, lies and corruption
Georgina Downs
4th May 2016
The British establishment does nothing quite so well as lies, cover-ups and high-level corruption, writes Georgina Downs - whether it's the Hillsborough disaster or permitting polluters to poison us. Georgina won her own High Court legal victory protecting rural residents from pesticide exposure as long ago as 2008 - only to have it snatched away as Court of Appeal judges closed ranks. more...ECOLOGIST COOKIES
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Home > News & Events > Press Releases |
Press Releases
Agencies Seek Comment on Proposed Interagency Guidance on Funding and Liquidity Risk Management Washington — The federal bank, thrift, and credit union regulatory agencies are seeking comment on the proposed Interagency Guidance on Funding and Liquidity Risk Management. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the National Credit Union Administration are issuing this guidance to communicate consistent expectations on sound practices for the management of funding and liquidity risks, and to strengthen liquidity risk-management practices. This guidance brings the agencies' liquidity risk principles into alignment with the international guidance issued in September 2008 by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision titled, Principles for Sound Liquidity Risk Management and Supervision1. Recent turmoil in the financial markets emphasizes the importance of good liquidity risk management for the safety and soundness of financial institutions. The proposed guidance emphasizes the importance of cash flow projections, diversified funding sources, stress testing, a cushion of liquid assets, and a formal, well-developed contingency funding plan for measuring, monitoring, and managing liquidity risk. The proposed guidance, when finalized, will apply to all domestic financial institutions, including banks, thrifts, and credit unions. The agencies are requesting comments on all aspects of the proposed guidance, which will be published in the Federal Register. Comments are due within 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. # # # Attachment: FDIC-PR-107-2009 Media Contacts:
1 NCUA is not a member of the Basel Committee and federally-insured credit unions are not subject to Basel-issued principles.
Last Updated 6/30/2009 | firstname.lastname@example.com |


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By Patricia Daddona
PBN Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE – The Providence Rotary Charities Foundation has donated $10,000 to support relief efforts by ShelterBox to help families left homeless by Typhoon Haiyan's devastation in the Philippines.
The foundation, a charitable arm of the Rotary Club of Providence, has also committed to match $10,000 in additional donations to bring the total maximum donation to $30,000.
ShelterBox is an international, Rotary-affiliated organization that responds immediately following natural and other disasters by delivering aid boxes to those who need them.
"We are incredibly appreciative of the generous donation from the Rotary Club of Providence," said Tiffany Stephenson, ShelterBox USA director of communications. "Their taking immediate action makes a significant impact on our ability to bring emergency shelter and supplies to families devastated by Typhoon Haiyan as quickly as possible."
Each green ShelterBox contains the essentials a family needs to survive in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The box is tailored to the needs of a particular disaster but typically contains a tent large enough to sleep 10 people, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, a children's activity pack and other vital items.
With each ShelterBox costing $1,000 to fill and transport, the foundation's anticipated $30,000 total donation will help as many as 300 people displaced by the typhoon survive until more permanent housing conditions can be restored, said Jenny Miller, president of the Rotary Club of Providence, and James Scanlan, vice-chairman of the Charities Foundation.
In a statement, they added, "ShelterBox is one of the most efficient disaster relief organizations in the world, in part because of its connection with Rotary. Members of local Rotary clubs are on scene to assure that every ShelterBox reaches people in genuine need as quickly as possible."
The New York Times has reported that United Nations officials in Geneva estimate more than 11 million people in the Philippines are in need of assistance and more than 670,000 lost their homes to the typhoon, which made landfall on the island nation Nov. 8.
Tuesday, March 21
5 days ago