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A U.S. grand jury has indicted Chinese government officials with stealing American trade secrets through cyber espionage, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday.
The charges were handed down on five people who allegedly worked for the People's Liberation Army. They allegedly spied on U.S. companies in the nuclear power, metals, and solar products industries.
The charges mark the first time the U.S. has brought cyber-espionage charges against a state actor.
Six American companies and one labor union were victims of the Chinese hacking attacks, Holder said. The companies targeted include the United States Steel Corp., Alcoa Inc., Westinghouse Electric, Allegheny Technologies Inc., and SolarWorld AG.
The defendants named in the case were Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, who were officers in Unit 61398 of the Third Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
"For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries," FBI Director James B. Comey said.
"The indictment announced today is an important step," Comey said. "But there are many more victims, and there is much more to be done. With our unique criminal and national security authorities, we will continue to use all legal tools at our disposal to counter cyber espionage from all sources."
The indictment carries 31 total counts. All defendants are charged in all counts. Charges include conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse; accessing (or attempting to access) a protected computer without authorization to obtain information for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain; transmitting a program, information, code, or command with the intent to cause damage to protected computers; aggravated identity theft; economic espionage; and trade secret theft.
The Obama administration has repeatedly clashed with the Chinese government over cyberspying, and the administration has long been privy to the threats China presents.
"Chinese actors are the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage," the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a U.S. government agency, in a 2011 report (PDF) titled "Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace."
"U.S. private sector firms and cybersecurity specialists have reported an onslaught of computer network intrusions that have originated in China," the report said.
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping have held meetings twice in the past year — last spring in Sunnylands, California, and last September at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia — that focused on cybersecurity issues.
The two countries agreed to hold semiregular talks on cybersecurity and espionage last year.
"The President underscored that we view this not simply through a security prism, but what we're focused on is concerns about the potential theft of trade secrets emanating from China," Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters last September while reading out the Obama-Xi meeting.
This post was originally published at 8:08 a.m. ET on Monday, May 19, 2014.


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An interesting issue arises in reading the relevant Cabinet Paper (the second of the two in red below). The Minister talks about being able to rezone Orange properties to Green because "... many of the remaining areas can be repaired on an individual basis." Cabinet Paper, Section 15. What is not discussed is the timeliness criteria. How long will it take? What period of time fits within the initial criteria? Two sections from this part of the Paper have been withheld, along with details of work in some Orange zone areas (Sections 29 and 30).
As to the near future, Section 31 of the Paper reads:
Of the remaining Orange Zones not discussed above (NOTE: this is a reference to the two deleted paragraphs), I expect to receive final zoning advice in time for an announcement over the coming weeks. In these areas, T&T has indicated that further assessment is required to determine if an individual solution is practical, and if not, the nature and cost of area-wide works which would be required for rebuilding.
For those who are statistically minded Appendix 3 of the same Paper lists the number of houses being made Green by suburb or location, and another table for the suburbs and communities that remain Orange.
The October 28 related releases are listed below. Some of them have had sections removed - withheld under the Official Information Act. The Cabinet Minute and Paper relevant to the decisions released on the 28th are in red, and link directly to the document.
- Cabinet Minute (11)37/22 - Decisions of joint ministers with power to act
- Cabinet Minute (11)39/4 - Decisions on Canterbury orange zones
- Cabinet Paper - Decisions of joint ministers with power to act in relation to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery 2011
- Cabinet Paper - Decisions on Canterbury orange zones
- Cabinet Paper - Decisions on Canterbury land green zones in Selwyn and Waimakariri districts
- Cabinet Paper - Interim process for progressing rebuilding in some white zones
- Cabinet Paper - Kaiapoi town centre white zones

subset: commoncrawl


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Many of my friends posted photos on Facebook of their "Hurricane Survival Kit(s)": lots of beer, canned soup, the occasional candle adorned with an etching of Jesus (like the kind you find in a bodega), Maker's Mark bottles, flashlights, batteries, etc. Everyone's got their own special list of what they need to weather the storm.
I am fortunate enough to live above barVino, so finding liquid refreshments was not a problem. But how do you pass a gray and rainy afternoon without electricity? Cue the list:
1) A bottle of Beckman Cabernet Sauvignon (well, really only two and a half glasses, but they were filled with big fruit and a long smooth finish that helped inspire the pasta dish my roommates and I made: see #5)
2) A bottle of Museum Crianza Tempranillo (sort of the unofficial bV wine: it's got a dry, dusty "basement" nose, but then has a lush smokey mouthfeel of concentrated fruit . . . definitely recommend it for those of you who haven't had tempranillos before).
3) A bottle of Michel Torino "Don David" Malbec (I've enjoyed all the Michel Torino wines I've had and the "Don David" collection is no exception. Grown at such a high altitude that the grapes aren't really plagued by bugs and thus don't require pesticides, this is wine of beautiful structure with really yummy fruit notes – almost jammy, but not quite – a hint of spice and a bit of toastiness from the oak).
4) My roommates Patrick and Sarah (with a special guest appearance by our friend Sara Lindsay) for general entertainment value
5) A bag of Doritos (Spicy Nacho), an almost full bag of peanut M & Ms (courtesy of the Sara with no "h"), penne pasta with vodka sauce, crimini mushrooms and sauteed yellow peppers (made on the bV stove with our flashlights to show us the way)
6) Trivial Pursuit & Taboo
7) Headlamps and lots of flashlights
We faired far better in North Creek than a lot of the areas hit by the hurricane and for that I'm very grateful. And to all the people who worked hard to get the electricity back on by Monday afternoon: thank you so much!


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Neith's paintings are visions from her imagination, and explore the figurative, symbolic and narrative.
Nevelson's grandmother was the 20th century sculptor Louise Nevelson, her father, Mike Nevelson, was a sculptor and her mother, Susan Nevelson, is an artist and textile designer.
Nevelson grew up in Florence, Italy, and began painting at the age of two. She spent her childhood in Florence and New York City, and as a teenager moved to New York, to live at her grandmother's studio.
She has lived in Coconut Grove in Southern Florida, since 1977.
Nevelson studied briefly at the Accademia di Belle Arti, in Florence, Italy. As a student she concentrated on subjects she eventually became known for rather than the standard curriculum of still life drawings and landscapes, and was eventually expelled. Her first exhibition was in 1974 at the Galleria Nuova in Florence. Her last was in 1994; the catalog and exhibition were entitled, "Neith Nevelson: In the Middle of the Night", by Wendy Blazier.[2] She was influenced by Cubism, Surrealism, and Expressionism.[2] Some art-critics have labeled Nevelson as "Outsider" artist.[2
Nevelson's early work, which she has continued to experiment and embellish on to the present day, take the form of line drawings. Her style developed into complex paintings based on the gestural fluidity of drawing, underscored by her larger art-works which tend to combine elements of all her three major themes. As described in "Neith Nevelson: In the Middle of the Night," Neith's paintings are visions from her imagination, and explore the figurative, symbolic and narrative. As described by the Miami Herald's lackluster review of the same 1994 exhibition, the form of her art reflects the conflicts and contradictions of her life, living in the world of her famous grandmother and the New York art world of the 1960s, hardship and isolation from family, and remembering and longing for childhood.[3]
She is the illustrator a forthcoming book of poems tentatively titled, "Day's Night" by Jorge Reyes.[4]
Outside of her artistic endeavors, Nevelson is notable for political involvement in the area of abortion advocacy,[2] for which she was jailed in Florence Italy in 1977 along with a group of advocates from the Radical Party, a left wing activist group still active in Europe.
In 2009, Neith's life was the basis of a TV show special called "Caso Cerrado" with Ana María Polo, a hugely popular TV show broadcast daily in the US by the Telemundo Network.


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The Daily Mirror is today reporting that Forest striker Nathan Tyson could be heading out of the City Ground at the end of the season and on his way down the A52 to join arch rivals Derby County.
Tyson is still only 28 years old and has been at the City Ground since signing from Wycombe Wanderers for £675,000 in January 2006. It would seem a strange move for the lad, bearing in mind the now legendary flag waving antics of last season. Infact, his most noticeable and memorable performances in a Forest shirt have been against the Sheep.
The striker is out of contract at the end of this season and it would appear that the club are prepared to let him go, having not yet offered him a new deal. Blackpool were linked with a January move for Tyson, but the club managed to bat that one away. As things stand now, he looks to be on his way somewhere in the summer and it could be for free.
Although Tyson is a favourite with the fans, his strike rate since joining the club in 2006, isn't as impressive as some might think. He's scored 40 goals in 174 appearances for the Reds', which is only 0.25 goals per game. He's a grafter and a very likeable player, but it does look very much like the Championship is a step too far in his career.
This is the same support he joyously waved a flag at about a year ago? – Got to love football haven't you 😉


text: Hi I've been trying for ages to find some Warwick finishing wax for my Dolphin, but can't track any down in the UK. Just get distributor has changed and aint none about try again in a month Pointers to sites where I can find some would make me a V happy bassist. Cheers


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Brief Description
The event is a musical show performed by Master T. Sharathchandra of the yester year classics of the legendary singer Sri. Ghantasala venkateswara rao. The 3 hour show basically comprises of wonderful solos, classic duets and brilliant telugu poems written by various great poets. The event is organized mainly to support a social cause. The amount accumulated is used for a social project of our own which is supplying clean water for every home and creating basic medical aid in a remote village of AP.
Artist Info
The artist of the day is a much applauded singer dedicated to only Ghantasala's genre of songs. He owns the credit of having given numerous live shows of approx. around 3700 all over India and also in countries like America and Dubai. He has been honoured with several rewards and titles like 'Apara Ghantasla', Swara hamsa' and is popularly respected as 'Swarasamraat', who is a gem of Ghantasala's singers. He is founder of Ghantasala Sangeetha Kalasala in major cities of AP and is also actively involved in various social projects, all of which is achieved through propagating the classic Ghantasala's music.


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Falcon Zero Touch HD Dash Cam Review by SpderWayne Giveaway Falcon Zero has given me two Touch HD Dash Cams to giveaway on my YouTube Channel. The giveaway will end on Monday, August 22, 2016. Click here for my YouTube Giveaway. Thank you Falcon Zero! Falcon Zero F170 Dashcam Features Hi Tech Premium Lens First and foremost, a dash cams most important feature is the clarity of the footage you have captured. Falcon Zero incorporates 6 glass lenses, WDR technology a...More
Rail-a-Prompter Review and Giveaway
Rail-a-Prompter Review and Giveaway Rail-a-Prompter by Telmax is an excellent tool for any blogger looking to improve their videos. Looking directly into the camera is about as close as you can get to making eye-contact with your viewers. Reading your notes off to the side or above or below your camera will look unprofessional and this is where a teleprompter can really help to improve your video content. Telmax makes many different teleprompters from the huge in studio type to the extreme...More


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About Me
- Tyler Legg
- Charlotte, NC, United States
Welcome to THFF.com! Kick your wading boots off and stick around for a while. You'll find content ranging from NC fishing reports, videos, pictures, fly fishing news from around the state/country/world, humor, and even some irrelevant, yet interesting posts.
Have a question, comment, fishing report, or a few suggestions regarding THFF or fly fishing in NC? Feel free to e-mail me at firstname.lastname@example.com
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Saturday, September 20, 2008
Troutfest 2009 is going to be a big hit in May of next year. There will be tons of fly tyers and famous fly casters demonstrating there. I will be there doing fly tying demonstrations, and exploring Troutfest. Come on out on the 16th and 17th of May 2009 and help make this a great event. The money made will go to Trout Unlimited to help with the native brook trout stream restoration here in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Visit Troutfest.org or go to Little River Outfitters.com for more info.
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Stocking Schedule Changes!
Make sure you check out the new stocking schedule provided by the NCWRC!
Blog Archive
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This cube craft paper toy is Ryuji Suguro, nicknamed "Bon", an Exwire at the True Cross Academy, where he is Rin's rival and the prodigy in the class, based on the manga Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist), the papercraft was created by alonso jacobo. Ryuji Suguro was the child of the Head Priest of the Temple which was destroyed by Satan 16 years ago. As the temple was called 'cursed' by other people, he swore to destroy Satan.
Though his appearance is rebellious, his personality is the exact opposite of his appearance. He's stern and takes everything seriously or too seriously as Konekomaru stated. His hardworking streak comes from his desire to defeat Satan for turning his temple into a cursed temple in the eyes of the public. He is shown to dislike people who don't work hard and slack off during classes, such as Rin who occasionally slept in class and Bon telling him to just get lost because everyone in class was serious about being an Exorcist. He dislikes it when people look down on him, an emotion triggered because of his childhood where people called him the child of the cursed temple. He is a very strong willed and determined person as shown when he was ready to face the Leaper just to show just how determined he was to become an Exorcist.
However, there is a different side in his personality as well. He constantly gets into fights with Izumo and Rin usually because of their different views. He can be quite immature as shown when he fights with Rin for small reasons such as food. He can be calm and collected and he can be bad tempered and violent in other times. He is said to be so similar to Rin that they don't get along because of it.
He's a prodigy and entered the same school under the same scholarship as Yukio, known to be the youngest Exorcist. He is a top student in his class and gets 98 out of 100 in tests. He can also seem to memorize things easily as it's shown that he can remember 21 scripts from the bible.
Bon is an adolescent boy with a rough exterior and well as a small goatee on his chin. Bon's most distinguishable physical traits are his stern expression giving him a scary, unapproachable appearance and the large blonde streak that runs down his natural short and messy dark brown hair. Bon also has multiple piercings in his ears, which combined with his demeanor and hairstyle, make him appear like a typical delinquent. He wears a beige-colored vest that has a pink 'V' at the neck of it, with a base brown colored tie that has black and white stripes, which he wears underneath the Academy's jacket. [Source: wikia]
You can download this cube paper craft toy here: Ao no Exorcist - Ryuji Suguro Cube Craft Free Paper Toy Download


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KBzine: the original kitchen and bathroom industry e-news - since 2002
23rd May 2019
We strongly recommend viewing KBzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Henley Tiles: Inspiration brought to life
Balineum presents an exclusive range of ceramic tiles: the Henley collection.
Two years in the making, Henley's groundwork was laid when founder Sarah Watson decamped to Brussels for a long weekend of design trekking. She popped into the Horta Museum and was immediately smitten with an impressive display of tiles decorating the dining room.
"I loved the sheer expanse of it, the mix of full and half brick field tiles lining the walls and ceiling. It felt unique and I came away truly inspired by that," she says of the Art Nouveau installation.
Back home in England, Sarah began noticing similar tile on building facades throughout the city, from countless pubs and 19th century office blocks in Soho to the iconic Liberty department store. Taken out of context, and with refined proportions, she thought these simple glazed tiles would lend themselves perfectly to the bathroom.
Sarah sought out local British makers in Stoke-on-Trent to fabricate this exciting new line. The artisan studio handcrafts each tile using English white earthenware clay that's then glazed in a spectrum of colours, from chalky pastels to rich jewel tones. As the tiles are hand cut in wet pliable clay, each one bears the wonderfully subtle markings of a handmade object, be it slight irregularities in shape or subtle variations in shade. You may even spot the tile-maker's fingerprints on the underside!
Henley comprises 12 colours across twelve configurations, including 6 x 21cm field tiles along with half bricks, baseboards, liner tiles, trim and bullnose versions. Use them in any number of formations, be it the chevron we previewed at Decorex or a Horta style twist on subway.
W: www.balineum.co.uk
2nd May 2014


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The above image is an artist's impression depicting the nEUROn Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV, or drone) whose prototype, designed by French defence contractor Dassault, was first displayed at the Paris Air Show in 2005. The name, presumably, is intended to indicate its pioneer status as one of the first combat drones developed by a European company.
I happened across the nEUROn drone when browsing through recent posts from the official Wikileaks Twitter account. After a somewhat catty blog post at the New York Times by former editor, Bill Keller, the 'Leaks are currently using their tweets to explain exactly why they decided to go home and take their ball with them, and while we're at it we dropped the NYT, Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais, etc., not the other way round, thank you very much.
One of the reasons for their ire was apparently the amount of redactions insisted upon by their media partners - not just names of diplomats, but frequently also names of banks and major corporations. So they're publishing the unredacted versions over at Cabledrum.net. Including this one in which someone evidently insisted on redacting Italy's interest in investing in Dassault's new UCAV.
There's an interesting connection between Dassault and the world of avant-garde music. Back in 1984, Pierre Boulez's IRCAM institute needed its new 4X computer put into production - and fast! The premiere of Boulez's Répons was looming and four such machines were required to make work its delicate interplay of acoustic and digital music interacting in 3D space. So, IRCAM sold the designs to Sogitec to put them into production. Sogitec had at that time just been bought by Dassault.
In her book, Rationalising Culture, an ethnographic look at the inner workings of the famously secretive IRCAM institute, former Henry Cow / National Health bassist, Georgina Born recounts the frustration of some IRCAM workers at the sale of their baby to the notorious arms manufacturer:
"The 4X-Sogitec saga was kept quiet during 1984 and was not spoken of freely within IRCAM. A few workers mentioned confidentially that they were upset by the militarist implications of the deal, and equally b the failure of the 4X to reach a larger musical public, but most remained silent."
Since the early 80s, Sogitec has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Dassault, with a particular speciality for flight simulators and 3D imaging. IRCAM sold them the 4X on the basis that it would be able to create realistic flying noises for their flight sims. The 4X was IRCAM's flagship computer, probably the most sophisticated piece of music hardware ever built, capable of real time filtering and morphing of sounds, and the last of its kind - after Sogitec made only a small run of 4Xs, insufficient to be put into use at other music research centres around the world, the emphasis largely moved to software based systems like MAX.
Of course, Sogitec make simulators - not actual combat vehicles. Except of course that with drone warfare the line between simulation and real warfare becomes increasingly blurry. From the pilot's point of view - and perhaps even from the point of view of at least some of the hardware and software components - controlling a combat drone in an actual field of war and taking part in a flight simulation might be almost impossible to distinguish.
As one final note, it may be amusing to recall that in his April 2000 column for The New Yorker about Pierre Boulez ("a great but ungenerous artist"), Alex Ross singles out Répons for criticism precisely because of its over-reliance on drones!


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Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America
VI. Education: The Gap Between Expectations and Achievement
Latino schooling in the U.S. has long been characterized by high dropout rates and low college completion rates.15 Both problems have moderated over time, and across generations, though a persistent educational attainment gap remains between Hispanics and non-Hispanics.16 Yet, despite lower enrollment and attainment rates, young Latinos are just as likely as other youths to say a college education is important for success in life.
This chapter17 analyzes educational outcomes for youths using data from the March 2009 Current Population Survey.18 It also presents findings from the 2009 National Survey of Latinos and other surveys that explore young people's attitudes toward education.
School Enrollment
Nearly half (48.9%) of Latinos ages 16 to 24 were not enrolled in either high school or college in March 2009, while 30.6% were enrolled in high school and 20.5% were enrolled in college.
Not being enrolled in school is less common among non-Hispanic youths. Overall, 41.6% of the nation's youths were not enrolled in school. The share of youths not enrolled in either high school or college was 40.4% among whites, 41.5% among blacks and 27.1% among Asians.
There is little difference between young Hispanics and other youths in the shares enrolled in high school. Just as with young Hispanics, about 30% of all groups of youths are enrolled in high school. However, the share of non-Hispanic youths enrolled in college is higher: 30.4% for whites, 24.6% for blacks and 44.4% for Asians.
Among those enrolled in college, Latino youths are more likely to attend on a part-time basis. Nearly one-in-four (23.7%) Latino college students attend only part time, much higher than the national average of 14.7% and nearly double the rate among whites (12.4%). Almost all youths enrolled in high school attend on a full-time basis.
A primary reason Latino youths trail other youths on enrollment measures is the relatively low rate of school enrollment among the foreign born. Nearly two-thirds (65.7%) of foreign-born Latino youths are not enrolled in either high school or college, compared with 41.6% of all youths. Native-born Latino youths (41.1%), meanwhile, are no more likely than all youths to not be enrolled in either high school or college.
There are two differences in the pattern of school enrollment between native-born Hispanic youths and all youths. First, there are relatively more native-born Hispanic youths in high school—35.3% versus 30.2%—and relatively fewer in college—23.6% versus 28.2%. That is because native-born Hispanics, even within the 16-to-24 cohort, are younger than average. In other words, native-born Hispanics are more likely to be of high school age than college age.
Further, native-born Latino youths, like foreign-born youths, are less likely to be enrolled full time in either college or high school. Some 22.8% of native-born and 27.0% of foreign-born Latino youths in college are part-time students. That compares with 14.7% for all youths.19
Within the cohort of native-born Latino youths, the children of immigrants, or the second generation, show greater engagement with schooling than the third and higher generations. Only 36.8% of second-generation Latino youths are not enrolled in either high school or college. That share is lower than the share for all youths (41.6%) and the shares of white (40.4%) and black (41.5%) youths who are not enrolled in school. However, among those in college, second-generation young Latinos are more likely than the third and higher generations to attend part time—25.9% versus 18.2%.
Educational Attainment
The educational attainment of youths is difficult to define unambiguously because so many youths ages 16 to 24 are still in the process of completing their schooling. This section presents evidence on three indicators in common use in the education literature. The first is the so-called status dropout rate. That is simply the share of youths who have not received a high school diploma or an equivalency certificate and are not enrolled in school or college.
A second measure is the "status completion rate." This statistic, used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), measures the high school completion rate for youths ages 18 to 24.20 Age 18 is the lower bound for this measure because most high school graduates have earned the diploma by that age.
The final indicator is a college enrollment rate, the share of those who have finished high school and are enrolled in college. Because this rate is defined only for those with a high school diploma or equivalency certificate, it differs from the enrollment patterns for the entire population of youths as reported in the preceding section.
Latino youths have much higher dropout rates than other youths. In March 2009, some 17.2% of Latino youths had not received a high school diploma or equivalent and were not enrolled in school, compared with only 8.3% of all youths. The dropout rate for Latino youths was nearly twice as high as the rate for black youths (9.3%), three times the rate for white youths (5.7%) and more than four times the rate for Asian youths (3.7%).
Correspondingly, the high school completion rate among Latino youths ages 18 to 24 was much lower than average—77.2% compared with 89.7% for all youths. And among those who have graduated from high school, only 38.8% of Latinos ages 16 to 24 were enrolled in college. That was lower than the rates for all youths (45.6%), whites (46.4%), blacks (43.1%) and Asians (66.0%).
The high dropout rate among Hispanic youths is driven by the foreign born. Some 32.9% of foreign-born Latino youths are high school dropouts. In contrast, 9.9% of native-born Latino youths are high school dropouts. Compared with other racial and ethnic groups, the dropout rate of native-born Latino youths is similar to the rate for black youths, but it is nearly double the rate for white youths and almost three times the rate for Asian youths. Notably, the second generation of Latino youths has a lower dropout rate than the third and higher generations—8.5% versus 11.6%.
Foreign-born Latino youths are also the primary reason that the high school completion rate for all Hispanics is below average. The high school completion rate for foreign-born Latino youths ages 18 to 24 is only 60.3%, well below the rate for native-born young Latinos (87.0%). The second generation of Latino youths has a high school completion rate of 89.1%, higher than the third and higher generations and matching the national completion rate, but trailing the white completion rate of 93.5%.
Likewise, there is not a large difference between native-born Hispanics and other youths in the shares of high school completers who are enrolled in college. Some 42.7% of native-born Hispanic high school completers are enrolled in college, compared with 45.6% of all youths and 46.4% of white youths. Among native-born Hispanics, the college enrollment rate is higher among the second generation than among third and higher generations—46.2% versus 38.3%. Foreign-born Latino youths have the lowest college enrollment rate (29.1%) and account for the relatively low enrollment rate observed for all Hispanics.
The Importance of Education
Despite their relatively low high school completion and college enrollments rates, nearly all young Latinos believe that it is necessary to have a college education to get ahead in life. According to the 2009 National Survey of Latinos, fully 89% of young Hispanics say this, similar to the share of all young people (82%) (Pew Social & Demographic Trends, 2009). Moreover, all Hispanics ages 16 and older are more likely than the overall U.S. population ages 16 and older to agree that a college degree is important for getting ahead in life—88% versus 74%.
There are small differences on this question by nativity, language use and gender. Foreign-born young Latinos are more likely than second- or third-generation young Latinos to say a college education is important—94% versus 86% and 84%, respectively. Nearly all (97%) Spanish-dominant young Latinos say a college education is important, compared with 89% of bilingual youths and 83% of English-dominant young Latinos. Also, there is a gender gap on this question: fully 95% of young Hispanic females agree that a college education is important for success, compared with 84% of Hispanics males who say that.
Latino youths are not the only ones to place a great emphasis on a college education; so do their parents. More than three-quarters (77%) of Latinos ages 16 to 25 say their parents think going to college is the most important thing for them to do after high school. Just 11% report that their parents think the most important thing for them to do after high school is to get a full-time job.
Educational Expectations
The value that young Latinos place on a college education is not nearly matched by their own personal expectations for educational advancement. Some 48% of young Latinos ages 18 to 25 say they expect to get a college degree or more, compared with 60% of the overall U.S. population of non-Hispanic youths ages 18 to 25.21
This gap is largely explained by the relatively low educational expectations of young immigrant Latinos. Fewer than one-in-three (29%) say they plan to get a bachelor's degree or more, compared with 64% of second-generation Latino youths and 54% of the third and higher generations.
A similar gap appears between young Latinos who primarily speak Spanish and those who are bilingual or who primarily speak English. About one-quarter (24%) of Spanish-dominant young Latinos say they plan to obtain a bachelor's degree or more, while about half (49%) of bilingual young Latinos and more than six-in-ten (62%) English-dominant young Latinos say the same. Along these same lines, nearly four-in-ten (38%) Spanish-dominant young Latinos ages 18 to 25 say they have no further plans to continue in school. Almost one-in-five (18%) bilingual young Latinos and 12% of English-dominant young Latinos say the same.
Plans to continue in school are closely related to the current enrollment status of young Latinos ages 16 to 25. Among Latino youths who are currently enrolled in high school, nearly six-in-ten (57%) say they plan to obtain a bachelor's degree or more, while just 15% say finishing high school is as far as they plan to go in school. Among Latino youths who are currently in college, 87% say they plan to obtain a bachelor's degree or more. Among Latinos ages 16 to 25 who are not currently enrolled in school, nearly three-in-ten (29%) say they plan to obtain a bachelor's degree or more. However, 38% say they do not plan to return to school.
Why Don't Young Latinos Continue Their Education?
The biggest reason for the gap between the high value Latinos place on education and their more modest expectations to finish college appears to come from financial pressure to support a family. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of all 16- to 25-year-old survey respondents who cut their education short during or right after high school say they did so because they had to support their family. Other reasons include poor English skills (cited by about half of respondents who cut short their education), a dislike of school and a feeling that they don't need more education for the careers they want (each cited by about four-in-ten respondents who cut their education short).
The foreign born make up 34% of all Latino youths, and they are much more likely than native-born Latino youths to be supporting or helping to support a family, either in the U.S. or in their native country. In 2007, 29% of all immigrant female Hispanics ages 16 to 25 were mothers, compared with 17% of native-born female Hispanics and 12% of white females (Fry, 2009). In addition, nearly two-thirds (64%) of all immigrant Hispanics ages 18 to 25 say they send remittances to family members in their country of origin, compared with just 21% of their U.S. born counterparts (Lopez, Livingston and Kochhar, 2009). In short, young immigrant Hispanics appear to have financial commitments that limit their ability to pursue more education, even though they see a college education as important for success in life.
The Latino Education Achievement Gap
"Parents expect so much and it gets…overwhelming. You have to support your family and take care of your brothers and sisters… [and] some people gotta grow up [quick and] basically never really have a childhood."
—15-year-old Hispanic male
""Our parents are exhausted every time they come home. They don't have time to be 'oh you need help with your homework?'"
—21-year-old Hispanic male
Not only are young Hispanics less likely than all young people to be enrolled in high school or college, but Latinos who are in middle school or high school have a significant gap in reading and mathematics achievement compared with white and Asian students, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.22
When asked a question that presented a number of possible reasons that Latinos do not do as well as other students in school, more respondents blamed poor parenting and poor English skills than blamed poor teachers. The explanation that Latino students don't work as hard as other students was cited by the fewest survey respondents; some 38% see that as a major reason for the achievement gap.
There are differences by age in several of these attitudes. For example, 61% of older Latinos (ages 26 and older) say the failure of parents to play an active role in helping their children succeed in school is a major reason for Latino students' lagging educational achievement, compared with less than half (47%) of Latino youths who feel that way.
In addition, nearly six-in-ten (58%) older Latinos say the limited English skills of Hispanic students is a major reason; some 43% of Latino youths agree.
Older Latinos are also more likely than young Latinos to say Hispanic students not working as hard as other students is a major reason that Hispanics students are not doing as well in school as other students—41% versus 31%.
Immigrant young Latinos are about as likely as adult Latinos to blame parents, the English skills of Hispanic students, and Hispanic student themselves for the poor academic performance of Hispanic students. For example, 62% of immigrant youths say parents of Hispanics students are a major reason that Hispanic students do not do as well in school as others, similar to the share (61%) of older Latinos who say the same.
Yet foreign-born young Latinos are more likely than second- or third-generation young Latinos to identify parents, the English skills of Hispanic students, teachers, and Hispanics students themselves for the poor performance of Hispanics students relative to other groups. More than half (51%) of immigrant young Latinos say Hispanics students not working as hard as others is a major reason that Hispanic students do not do as well in school as others. This is more than twice the share (22%) of second-generation young Latinos, and nearly five times the share (11%) of third-generation young Latinos who say the same.
- Kewal Ramani, Gilbertson, Fox and Provasnik, 2007. ↩
- For more background, see the Pew Hispanic Center report "The Changing Pathways of Hispanic Youths into Adulthood" (Fry, 2009). ↩
- Many of the findings in this chapter were presented in a Pew Hispanic Center report, "Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap," published Oct. 7, 2009. That report was prepared for the Latino Children, Families, and Schooling National Conference sponsored jointly by the Education Writers Association, the Pew Hispanic Center and the National Panel on Latino Children and Schooling. The conference was held Oct. 6, 2009 at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C. ↩
- The CPS-based analysis is restricted to ages 16 to 24 because that is the age range the CPS uses to collect and present data on school enrollment. The estimates in this section will differ slightly from official government estimates, which are typically based on the October 2009 CPS. That is because school enrollment and attainment measures are subject to seasonal fluctuations. ↩
- Also, it is the case that Latino youths are more likely to attend two-year colleges and less likely to attend four-year colleges than other youths (Fry, 2005). ↩
- The status completion rate is defined for 18- to 24-year-olds who are no longer enrolled in high school. ↩
- For more background on the general U.S. young adult population ages 18 to 25, see the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press report "How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics: A Portrait of 'Generation Next'" (2007). ↩
- According to the National Center for Education Statistics, among eighth-graders, a smaller share of Hispanic students (15%) than non-Hispanic white (39%) or Asian/Pacific Islander (40%) students scored at or above proficient on the reading assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2005. On the 2005 mathematics assessment of the NAEP, among eighth-graders, a smaller percentage of Hispanic (13%) students than non-Hispanic white (39%) or Asian/Pacific Islander (47%) students scored at or above proficient levels (Kewal Ramani, Gilbertson, Fox and Provasnik, 2007). Among high school twelfth-graders in 2008, Hispanic students scored 9% lower than non-Hispanic white students on the NAEP reading assessment, and Hispanic students scored 7% lower than non-Hispanic white students on the NAEP mathematics assessment (Planty et al., 2009). ↩


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How to Grow your Business Online Using Technology
Online marketing is the most popular and ineluctable way of selling in today's high tech world. It is the most powerful strategy due to its attributes like accessibility and cost-effectiveness. Having a business on the internet is an antic that may get the company at a convenient time. To allow your web business develops continuously one should care for the next points that are crucial.
Ensure that you have a responsive website design. When any business decides to go for online marketing, having a responsive website is the basic requirement to have. It gives a store online, which is presence of the company.
You must also have an advertising tactic. The various possibilities are there to market one business online. These strategies include paid-per-click, official advertising, e-mail marketing, search engine optimization and so forth.
These several useful methods can be used to drive traffic to your site. SEM is probably one of the most used approaches. The strategy ensures that organic traffic is coming on the site. It is the traffic on internet site that is directly proportion to the transformation.
Another approach that can be used for marketing your business online includes split testing ads. It is a system by which one can figure out that how many people seen an ad. Here, both pictures can be put together on a page that is same and by split testing; one can learn that which image was seen the most.
You can also use a Blog to market your business. Very often learned that content is the king. Therefore, blogging with the info that is pertinent is essential. A regular posting of this content in the form of the site, post every day, raises the website visibility. This performs an important part in online marketing for your company.
It is also important to use email advertising. The email advertising plays an important part in raising the knowledge of individuals. It is a direct advertising through email. It truly is the best means to distribute knowledge, the branding, and loyalty.
Your business can also use banner marketing for its advertising. The banners are extremely significant as they are boldface and go overlooked. The banner advertising on other societal platforms, B2B sites helps in raising traffic.
The transformation of visits to the prospective clients/ customers relies upon the variables mentioned above. Online marketing is a constant procedure that occurs gradually. Nevertheless, the best thing is that once it is marketed it becomes a business name. In the fast rate growing an online business, marketing strategies seem to be shifting. Now on-line marketing can be chosen by all irrespective of the size and the class all by getting listed on social listing and the enterprise directories.
Source: check this out


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So - it is spring already,. Just realising that my latest post is from October...but that doesn't mean I wasn't busy. About 200 people enjoyed their Christmas dinners here on various events in December. Then I took a month off and travelled India.
And over the last months there were various Hen Parties and the usual diners who enjoyed some good food in good company.
So if you have something to celebrate this spring or summer just get in touch - or join a group of strangers for a dinner party.


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Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics
The Policy, Planning Research and Statistics (PPR&S) Department is primarily responsible for coordinating the planning process across the Ministry. The department prepares the Ministry's budget and coordinates the update of the Medium Term Sector Strategy (MTSS). It also monitors and analyzes all the sectoral MDA's budget performance and activities on a quarterly basis.
Other functions of the department are:
- Review of the Lagos State Policy on Education
- Coordinate the State's delegates for National meetings e.g. JCCE, NCE
- Coordinate Federal Ministry of Education programmes e.g. Education Sector Analysis (ESA), Education for All (EFA)
- Coordinate the implementation of the Education Summit
- Coordinate collaboration with Donor Agencies/Partners e.g. ESSPIN, UNICEF
- Organize State Merit Award for students and staff in Primary and Secondary schools
- Manage the Ministry's Education Data Bank
- Conduct the Annual School Census (ASC)
- Publish the Lagos State Public & Private Schools Directory, Annual Education Sector Performance Reports and Educational Statistics
- Conduct Research work


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Boldly Artistic
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Black Onyx Red Jasper Earring (HB-E008)Materials:
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TierraCast Pewter (Lead-Free) Beads
Red Jaspers (natural), 4mm
Non-tarnish brass wire
100% Genuine Goat Leather
Earwire, surgical steel, gold plated
Length of Earring is 3.1 inches from top of ear wire
Roots Earring (HB-E010)Materials:
100% Genuine Goat Leather
TierraCast Pewter (Lead-Free) Cone and Beads
Earwire, surgical steel, silver plated
Length of Earring is 3.5 inches from top of ear wire
Button Leather Earring (HB-E011)Materials:
TierraCast Pewter (Lead-Free) Beads
Czech Glass Seed Beads
100% Genuine Goat Leather
Earwire, surgical steel, gold plated
Length of Earring is 3.5 inches from top of ear wire
Black Onyx Red Jasper Earring (HB-E012)Materials:
TierraCast Pewter (Lead-Free) Beads and Findings
Black Onyx (dyed), 8mm
Red Jasper (natural), 6mm, 4mm
100% Genuine Goat Leather
Earwire, surgical steel, silver plated
Length of Earring is 2.2 inches from top of ear wire
Red Jasper Hoop Leather Earring (HB-E013)Materials:
Red Jasper (natural), 4mm
100% Genuine Goat Leather
Earwire, sterling silver-filled
Ear Hoop approxiimately 2.2 cm diameterAdd to Cart$32.00
Lava Rock Indian Agate Necklace (CR-N022)Green Donut Shape Lava Rock acts as a focal pendant for the necklace. The necklace is designed with Indian Agates, TierraCast Pewter Beads and multi-strand leather embellished with Indian Agates.
Lava Rock (dyed), 48~49mm rondelle
Indian Agate (natural), 8mm
TierraCast Pewter Bead, brass oxide, 3mm
Genuine Goat Leather, 1mm, brown
All other components and wire parts are in TierraCast Pewter, brass oxide
Length of necklace is 24 inchesAdd to Cart$98.00
Turquoise Chips Chain Earring (HB-E014)The earring shown has turquoise chips and brass chain attached to a jumpring. I have added small tiny metal beads at the bottom of the chain attached to another jumpring. Two metal spacers are added as embellishment to the centre jumpring above to give this a really unique design.
Turquoise Chips
TierraCast Pewter (Lead-Free) Beads and Findings, Brass Oxide Finish
French Earwire, surgical steel
Length of Earring is 2.5 inches from top of ear wireAdd to Cart$26.00
Swarovski Crystal Pewter and Leather Bracelet (CR-B011)This Bracelet is made up of three 3/4" Spiral Rings connected together with jumprings. In the centre of each Ring consists of a swarovski crystal inside a 4mm bead frame. Each side of the bracelet is unique. On one side, chain of jumprings while the other side pewter beads with leaf design and heishi spacers strung through thin leather cord. The bracelet ends with a classic black finish toggle clasp.
Swarovski Crystals, 4mm
TierraCast Pewter (Lead-Free) Beads and Findings in antiqued fine silver, brass oxide and black finish
100% Genuine Goat Leather
Length of Bracelet is 7 inches
* If you need smaller or larger size, please email me. There will be no additional charge for size adjustment within 1/2 inches.Add to Cart$64.00
Chainmaille Button Bracelet - "SOLD" (CR-B012)European 4-in-1 Chainmaille Bracelet designed with 304 Stainless Steel Jump Rings, 5mm diameter. The Bracelet is embellished with TierraCast Pewter Beads all around the edges and the centre of the Bracelet is a TierraCast Coin Pewter Button in antiqued brass finish.
Length of Bracelet is 6 inches.
Price is for 6 to 6.5 inches length.
Made to Order
* Please indicate in comments, the required length and allow for additional 4 to 5 days.Add to Cart$188.00
Red Jasper Leather Earring - "SOLD" (CR-E021)Materials:
Red Jasper (natural), 8mm
TierraCast 3/4" Spiral Ring, Antiqued 22K Gold Plated Pewter
TierraCast Sterling Silver Ear Hoop
Genuine 100% Goat Leather
Gold-plated Headpins and Jumprings
Length of Earring is 6cm (excluding Earwire)Add to Cart$38.00
Blackened Sterling Silver Spiral Earring (CR-E050)Gold Plated Sterling Silver Drop dangles from a hand-fabricated sterling silver wire which have been flattened, lightly textured, spiralled and oxidised to give it a black patina. The earring hangs on a surgical steel earwire.
Length of Earring is 6cm from top of earwire.Add to Cart$58.00


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I love the sweet image with all the books on Anne's card! Her sentiment is from Dr. Seuss, how fitting for this week's challenge! Super job, Anne! We hope you can take a moment to stop by and visit Anne's blog- AnneMade http://annemade-it-for-you.blogspot.co.uk/ Thank you, Anne for being our guest designer this week!
Well I guess you must already know my name as my card making identity of annemade is a dead give away. I live on the Isle of Wight with my Border Collie called Kofi. Yes - after Kofi Annan. I'm a lucky girly who has inherited some very crafty genes, but sadly nothing that has made me so much money that I can give up my day job as a manager in the civil service. As much as I enjoy my work, I would so love to craft all day. Outside of work I can be found crafting or running around an agility ring with my dog. Quite frankly there's very little time for anything else when you're creative - wouldn't you agree?
Remember, there's still time to play along with our challenge this week, the linky collection will remain open until Sunday 12 noon EST. To enter your card in our challenge please see the post below. Have a great day!


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The following keywords can be used in the global section to enable debugging:
Enables debug mode which dumps to stdout all exchanges, and disables forking into background. It is the equivalent of the command-line argument "-d". It should never be used in a production configuration since it may prevent full system startup.
Do not display any message during startup. It is equivalent to the command-line argument "-q".


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Reviewby Mike Crandol,
Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind
Perfect Collection (manga)
Viz's Perfect Collection box set collects all 4 volumes of Hayao Miyazaki's manga masterpiece "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind," the basis for his landmark animated film of the same name. A peaceful princess of a tiny kingdom in a polluted, post-apocalyptic future, Nausicaa's life is forever changed when her country becomes embroiled in a bitter war between the empires of Torumekia and Dorok for supremacy of what little habitable land is left in the world. Nausicaa is bound to serve the Torumekian warrior princess Kushana but soon strikes out on her own path to find a peaceful means to end the war and a way for humanity to coexist with the giant mutated insects and poisonous forests that cover the land. Her journey proves to be the means to its own end, as Nausicaa's indomitable yet gentle spirit wins the devotion of all she meets and unites the world as one.
For fans of the epic animated classic "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind," reading Miyazaki's manga on which the film is based is akin to finding three long-lost books of the Bible. Written and drawn by the master himself intermittently from 1982 to 1994, the events of the anime version comprise only the first quarter of the manga's story. Nausicaä's prophecy-fulfilling rescue of the Valley of Wind only sets the stage for a much grander tale that takes the heroine to new lands and introduces dozens of new characters. Miyazaki creates a literary fantasy world that is far more intricate and believable than any of his anime creations (themselves awesome accomplishments,) and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the works of Tolstoy and Tolkien as one of the most fully realized pieces of fiction in history.
It is an amazingly complex story, yet remarkably easy to follow. In lesser hands the manga would soon crumble under its own weight but Miyazaki balances half-a-dozen plotlines with effortless grace, constantly interweaving the threads of the tale into a wondrous epic. Nausicaä criss-crosses the globe, meeting many friends and foes along the way, some of whom later end up with Lord Yupa's and Prince Asbel's own traveling company. Meanwhile Princess Kushana and her aide-de-camp Kurotowa desperately try to wage war against an external foe while orchestrating a coup d'etat against her father, the king of Torumekia. We are introduced to an entire nation of people absent from the anime, the Dorok. They are not the aggressors in the war with Torumekia but their condemnable battle tactics make them no better than their attackers. The author intentionally blurs the lines between good and evil, and in the end there are no real villains--a theme he would later revisit in Princess Mononoke. Nausicaä leads a Torumekian army into battle against Dorok High Priest Charuka in volume two, but by volume three Nausicaä is his close friend and confidant. Even the fearsome God Warrior is given an ambiguous nature when, unlike the anime, he fully revives and thinks Nausicaä is his mother.
No less impressive than the multilayered plot is the expansive world-building. The film drops only vague hints about the Seven Days of Fire, which destroyed our modern civilization thousands of years before. The manga illuminates not only what led to the tragedy but an equally sinister plot set in motion at the same time to counteract the disaster at a terrible cost. The histories and customs of Dorok, Torumekia, and the Valley of Wind as well as many other nations and cultures are fully fleshed out as well. It's all seamlessly woven throughout the fabric of the story, and like any Miyazaki story it is profound and enchanting. One feels he is getting not merely a fictional history lesson but a grand tour of an exciting fantasy universe.
There are many characters here that are unique to the manga, and some like Charuka and the telepathic child prodigy Chikuku are so wonderful one wishes they had been in the anime. But more interesting is the depth Miyazaki adds to the familiar faces of the movie. Instead of a revenge-crazed dictator, the manga's Princess Kushana is a determined commander who, while not afraid to get her hands bloody, is ultimately most concerned about her people's well-being; she is without a doubt the template for Princess Mononoke's Lady Eboshi. The conniving, self-centered Kurotowa not only comes to respect Nausicaä and Kushana, but he is eventually prepared to sacrifice his life for their safety. Even the dark-haired girl who switches clothes with Nausicaä in the movie is a fully-developed character here; her name is Ketcha, and she is swept up in Nausicaä's adventures like so many others.
Set amidst all the political intrigue and multifaceted cast is Miyazaki's favorite theme of ecological awareness. Unlike the film the manga addresses the complexities of humanity coexisting with his natural environment. It is much easier said than done, and sometimes the best intentions can lead to disaster; as Nausicaä finds out near the end of her quest, her own plan to save the planet may in fact destroy it. There is no all's-well-that-ends-well finale, and Nausicaä and her friends must continue to strive for a balance between man and nature--another idea that would be revisited in Princess Mononoke.
Miyazaki is of course a tremendous artist, and it is a rare treat to see his manga work, which is even more personal than his anime productions. There is a lot of care put into each individual drawing, as evidenced by the exhaustive line-shading technique used in every panel. The aircraft are, of course, expertly depicted. It must be said though that Miyazaki is more adept at film production, and his panel work is not as polished as that of manga-ka like Kia Asamiya or Kenichi Sonada. The page layouts are pretty straightforward and tame, almost more like an American comic book than a manga. His artwork, beautiful as it may be, is a little too busy for the comics medium, and often his panels are overly-crowded with word balloons. But in light of the book's many other incredible accomplishments, to carp seems trivial.
The animated version of "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind" is unquestionably an amazing piece of work, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. I dare say the manga is Hayao Miyazaki's finest work ever--animated, printed, or otherwise--and that's saying a lot. Manga allows for a depth of plot and character unattainable in the cinematic medium, and Miyazaki uses it to its fullest potential. It is also the most adventuresome and the most heartfelt of his stories, with action grander than Princess Mononoke's and more emotion than Spirited Away. Simply put, everyone should read this book.
|Production Info:
Overall : A
Story : A+
Art : A-
+ an expansive epic tale that is even better than the animated version
Full encyclopedia details about


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Carol Cone: Cause Marketing Is Dead (It's All About 'Purpose')
When the mother of cause marketing declares that "cause marketing as we know it is dead," it's time to pay attention. So said Carol Cone last week as she introduced the fourth annual Good Purpose Global Study by Edelman in New York. More than 7,000 consumers, ages 18 to 64, were surveyed in 13 countries for the study – and the top-line result was fascinating: 87 percent of those surveyed said that corporations should place the interests of society on at least equal footing with making a profit.
At a panel discussion last week at the BSR Conference, Cone said that corporate "purpose" has come to displace corporate philanthropy and cause marketing. "Slapping on a ribbon or some other short-term association doesn't work any more," she said. "It's not about purpose, values in action."
Consumers, she said, expect companies to have more of a social purpose – particularly among so-called millennials, those board after 1980. But there was also a warning for "social good" marketers in the Edelman, which was cued by advertising columnist Stuart Elliot in The New York Times: "However, 47 percent of respondents said they believed that brands supported causes only for publicity and promotion, not because they really cared. That was an increase of 10 percentage points from the survey last year."
And panelist Matthew Bishop, U.S. business editor of the Economist and author of Philanthrocapitalism, also raised a note of skepticism – wondering if the results were more aspirational than actual among consumers. "Are we really not going to buy Apple because they have crappy environmental policies?"
Some highlights from the Good Purpose study:
- For four years in a row, U.S. consumers rank purpose as significantly more important than design/innovation or brand loyalty as a purchase trigger when quality and price are the same. According to the 2010 goodpurpose Study, nearly half (47 percent) of Americans cite social purpose as the number one deciding factor, while 27 percent cite loyalty to the brand and 26 percent cite design or innovation when quality and price are the same.
- While a significant number of American consumers are willing to purchase, recommend and promote companies that show a commitment to good causes, many are also willing to punish those that do not. More than one-third of Americans would punish a company that doesn't actively support a good cause by criticizing it to others (34 percent), refusing to buy its products/ services (36 percent), or sharing negative opinions and experiences (37 percent). Nearly one half (47 percent) would not invest in such a company.
- 53 percent of American millennials would help promote a socially responsible brand by promoting it on Facebook or Twitter.
- Consumers in Brazil, China, India, and Mexico are more likely than Americans to purchase and promote brands that support good causes. They also demonstrate higher expectations of brands to support good causes. Approximately 8 in 10 consumers in the emerging markets (Brazil: 87 percent, Mexico: 85 percent, China and India: 79 percent) expect brands to do something to support a good cause, while only sixty-three percent of Americans agree.
Related articles
- Consumers in Emerging Markets are Even More Cause-Centric Than Western Counterparts (fastcompany.com)
- Survey: Eight in 10 Consumers in Emerging Markets Expect Brands To Support Causes (mediabistro.com)
- Role of 'Citizen Consumer' to Tackle Social Issues Rises, as Expectation of Government to Lead Declines (prnewswire.com)
- Support for Do-Good Advertising (But Skepticism Too) (mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com)
- Good Purpose Goes Global (edelman.com)
- 4 Lessons for Nonprofits from the 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study (nonprofitmarketingblog.com)


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This shift from wages to profits is called redistribution. It is the central fact of American economic life. And it is the primary reason that economic inequality in the United States has skyrocketed. Yet wages, which are descending, are taxed at a higher rate than income derived from corporate profits — capital gains and dividends. Far from mitigating the consequences of this shift, the U.S. tax code reinforces the redistribution from wages to profits. Broadly speaking, it rewards the winners of this epochal shift and penalizes the losers, who are the vast majority of Americans. The lower tax rates for capital gains and dividends, then, effectively reward offshoring more than work done within the United States, increase economic inequality and deprive the federal government of revenue it will need to support an aging population and meet its other obligations. None of this upsets Republicans, but it would be nice if Democrats realized that these tax breaks undermine everything they stand for. -- A tax deal only the ultra-rich could love, Harold Meyerson, Washington Post, today Yesterday I wrote that I expect the Dems to recapture control of the House in the 2014 election, despite the current extreme-gerrymandering. I listed reasons why, and noted that while it's been reported that in order to do that the Dems would have to win nationally, in the aggregate, in House races by between 7% and 8%, they did that in 2006 and 2008; at least that's what I read recently. A main focus of that post was on the importance of ensuring that the public actually understands that "raising the debt ceiling" is not raising appropriations but, instead, simply authorizing payment by the Treasury of already-appropriated expenditures. But there are other tremendously important facts that the Dems badly need to tell or explain to the public. One is something that I was shocked to read a day or two: that Defense Department appropriations have doubled in the last decade, from about $270 billion to (if I recall correctly) about $580 billion--during a decade of dramatic tax reductions. Another is that the budget deals of the last two years, including the "fiscal cliff" one, coupled with a (however-slowly) recovering economy (fueled partly, at least in the rust-belt Midwest, by the auto-industry bailout), will have reduced the national debt by about $2.7 trillion dollars. A fourth of that (if I correctly recall the article I read) is from the tax hikes in the fiscal cliff deal. Y'know, the part of that deal that the Republicans fought so hard against and that most of their House delegation voted against. The remainder comes from--yup--reductions in federal spending. Obama of course will tout the reductions in federal spending, in his inaugural and State of the Union addresses. He probably also will mention the added revenue from the fiscal-cliff-deal tax-rate increases on the very wealthy. But he also needs to point out--to say and then explain--what Meyerson does in his column today. Obama, it seems, thinks that explaining anything economics-related to the masses is like explaining rocket science to people like, say, me. It's not. He needs to do it. He needs a speechwriter who, rather than concentrating on writing memorable, lofty lines--the standard job of presidential speechwriters--actually understands fiscal policy and can, and will, craft a speech that explains it in the way some of the best liberal pundits do. But if he doesn't do that, others, I trust, will. And soon. They'll do effectively enough to create a public groundswell that will win the House for the Dems next year.
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Marijuana may be legal in many states, but that does not mean it cannot be addictive and cause major issues for people who abuse it.
Prolonged use of any illicit drug can cause dependence, creating an unhealthy relationship between the user and the substance. Excessive use of marijuana can create negative impacts on one's career, school work or relationships.
Is marijuana addictive? Understanding how marijuana works helps to answer that question.
Marijuana Basics
Marijuana has been known by many names over the years, from Mary Jane to doobie to weed to pot. Marijuana consists of the dried leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds from the cannabis sativa plant. Marijuana contains a mind-altering substance, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC.
Marijuana is a gateway drug and is among the most frequently used illicit substances among teens. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana use is very common. In 2017, 45 percent reported using marijuana at least once, with 37.1 percent having used it in the last year. Among 8th graders, 13.5 percent had used it during their lives, 10.1 percent of whom had used in the past year.
Many marijuana users report feeling calmed and sedated after using the drug. THC interacts with certain receptors in the brain and alter neural functions.
Pot is commonly smoked in different ways. Marijuana joints include rolled pot that is lit and inhaled, usually without the use of a filter, meaning more smoke and heat are directly sent to the lungs. Larger, cigar-sized rolls are called blunts.
Other users use pipes or bongs to inhale marijuana. Vaping marijuana is also common, in which a vaporizer heats the cannabis, producing vapors that can be inhaled.
Marijuana is also used as an ingredient in foods, referred to as edibles. Chocolate bars, brownies, and cakes are common substances that can be made with pot as an active ingredient.
Users can experience a number of sensations when using marijuana, including:
- Altered senses, including altered sense of time and place
- Impaired memory
- Paranoia
- Poor coordination of motor skills
- Slowed thinking
Is Marijuana Addictive?
Marijuana is a psychologically addictive substance. Those suffering from can also be psychologically addictive. People who are addicted to pot may find themselves with a cannabis addiction continue to use the drug despite the negative impacts on their lives.
Those with a dependency on marijuana may find themselves skipping classes to get high, not doing homework, arriving at work high, or rearranging their schedules so they can use. Marijuana is often done in social circles but can also be a lonely, isolating addiction.
If you are unsure if someone close to you is addicted to weed, look for the following symptoms:
- Bloodshot eyes
- Elevated heart rate
- Impaired cognition
- Impaired coordination and motor skills
- Increased appetite
- Lack of motivation
- Nervous or paranoid behavior
- Slowed reaction time
- Weight gain
The psychological impacts of prolonged marijuana abuse are not fully known Some studies indicate that extended use of marijuana can lead to the development of mental disorders or the worsening of existing disorders, including anxiety, depression, motivational disorder and schizophrenia. Despite the general impressions that pot use has a mellowing effect, some users report enhanced anxiety and emotional discomfort when abusing.
Long-term abuse can lead to mental impairments, some of which, when abuse begins in the teen years, can endure for years if not lifetimes. These issues can include a reduced ability to learn, mood swings, inhibited mental development, memory loss, and panic attacks. Frequent inhalation can lead to acute and chronic lung infections.
Marijuana Treatment
Long-term marijuana use can cause users to become addicted to marijuana. Those who are physically dependent will undergo withdrawal symptoms that should be closely monitored in a safe, secure, and supportive environment
Symptoms of withdrawal in someone addicted to marijuana will include:
- Anxiety
- Chills
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Lack of appetite
- Low mood
- Stomach pain
Cannabis addiction requires close ,careful treatment that addresses the underlying causes and emotions that have prompted a dependency on marijuana. Our approach is holistic, treating the physical and emotional needs of our patients. We help to address the cravings to use marijuana and the skills necessary to prevent those addicted to pot from relapsing.
Our approach includes physical activity, group and individual therapy and skills development. Our 90-day program includes a 30-day detox program, twice as long as most other marijuana treatment centers. We also provide extensive aftercare services, including group therapy referrals and one-on-one follow-up sessions.
Our approach focuses on identifying and honing skills that allow patients to thrive manage stress, and avoid relapse.


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I've really got to stop previewing the next game in the summary of the game before it–I keep taking all the things I'd like to say. But I'm just going to repeat a few main points, and then add some others:
–This is the last game of the first half of the season.
–Espanyol: surprise of the season thus far. Fifth place? One game out of CL spots? Let's bring them back to earth.
–We are currently in 10th place, but also we are one point away from European spots. Our best strategy is to win games.
–SERGIO SANCHEZ IS ON THE LIST OF 22 PLAYERS TODAY. Amazing. Unbelievable.
–I don't know much about their lineup or who's healthy, but you can rest assured that Kameni will be in goal, frustrating us to no end.
Game is 4pm ET. Let's win this game. And also let's watch this game. Will you be here?


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Meet Marissa
A native New Yorker, Marissa's dreams for building a creative business became a reality with the launch of Marissa Allie Designs in 2013, a destination for all things design and paper. The modest studio that was founded in Manhattan has continued to grow into what is now a thriving bicoastal business with a wonderful studio location in Los Angeles.
With a degree in Fine Arts and Graphic Design, Marissa is able to conceptualize, design and produce creative visuals, translating the visions of her clients into reality. From wedding invitations and birth announcements to business branding, Marissa continues to inspire, creating paper and presentation materials that reflect her distinct aesthetic and experience in art direction.
When it comes to innovation and uniquely creative ideas, Marissa is ahead of the game--she doesn't follow trends, she makes them. Always up for a challenge, Marissa prides herself on giving her clients the most current design options available and utmost customer service, using a vast network of resources to make her client's event dreams come true.


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Beginning tonight, LeBron James will showcase a number of Player Exclusives of the Nike LeBron 15 signature shoe inspired by iconic sneakers of the brand's past as well as the personal heroes that have driven the 3-time champion to immeasurable success. The first PE of LeBron Watch is this blue/yellow/black colorway inspired by the Waffle Trainer; in addition to porting over the classic palette of tones, this LeBron 15 also features a leather swoosh stitched onto the Flyknit upper.
Via: Sneaker News


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Love-Hate Relationship Between Bond Yields and Stock Prices
June 3, 2013 - Stock prices and bond yields have historically had a love-hate relationship that would make the romantic ups and downs of any soap opera seem mild by comparison. But, currently, the relationship between them remains tight and far from crossing the line that would lead to a breakup.
To read the rest of our Weekly Market Commentary, click to download PDF.
Complete the following form, or call us toll-free at 888-854-7526 if you would like to speak with someone or get more information.


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Why Register?
How can you prove you're a real professional?
By joining thousands of other stylists as a State Registered Hairdresser, you will gain:
- Official recognition under the law: the Hairdressers Registration Act
- A Certificate underwritten by the law, by Act of Parliament.
- The right to use the initials SRH after your name.
- The right to apply for the Master Craftsman Diploma, possibly after just two years.
Only State Registered Hairdressers can be Master Craftsmen in hairdressing.
- Credentials you will find useful - or may need - if wanting to practise hairdressing in Europe, America or elsewhere.
- Access to free advice on the SRH dedicated phone line.
- Access to possibly the cheapest insurance cover available.
- Every issue of the exclusive 'Hairdresser' magazine.
- The possibility of attending a reception in the House of Commons to mix with politicians, industry figures and celebrity stylists
Why wait? register today !


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Book Review: A THRONE OF BONES by Vox Day
After Tolkien, no fantasy novel captured my attention again, though not for lack of trying. Over the decades, I picked up a lot of authors, each of them creating worlds and plots as anaemic and derivative as the rest. Few held my attention for even a chapter. By the late 90s I had stopped picking them up altogether. As far as genres went, fantasy was a dead end.If you haven't read A THRONE OF BONES yet, it's available in Kindle, KU, hardcover, and paperback. And audiobook fans will be pleased to know that Jeremy Daw has begun recording what will be a 36-hour monster. He has already recorded THE LAST WITCHKING & OTHER STORIES if you want to hear what he sounds like.
Then my wife heard about a new television series, and we binge watched a couple of seasons. No prizes for guessing what it was. After the first few episodes, I was so inspired I took a 'look inside' the first instalment on Amazon. George R.R. Martin was as good on paper as Benioff and Weiss were on screen. This was good stuff, and I started to wonder if I had finally found what I was looking for.
Alas, no. By the time I got my hands on a copy of Game of Thrones, Martin's predilection for proving points by killing characters had become tiresome. As had his points about the cartoonish nature of good battling evil. I watched on, losing interest, putting aside the book, which I never started. Besides, my wife heard about Breaking Bad, and GoT faded into the background.
I could be forgiven, then, for skipping over reviews extolling the virtues of a new epic high fantasy by Vox Day when they first started appearing. For several years, I ignored advice to read Throne of Bones from people who struck me as otherwise sensible. I had had enough. It was one thing to read the man's blog, but quite another to have my antipathy towards the genre confirmed.
That turned out to be a foolish mistake, because Vox Day is not like other fantasy writers. Where others try to mock and tear down all that is central to Western civilisation, Day has returned to the very heart of what makes the West great. And by doing so has provided us with the first true epic high fantasy since Tolkien to confront the consequences of losing out to barbarism.
Those who have expressed interest in giving out copies of SJWADD to members of their organizations should be pleased to know that the paperback should be available on Amazon by the end of the week. And speaking of reviews, of a sort, it was nice to see this in a piece on Hollywood Values champion James Toback over at Taki's place:
Regarding the allegations being made against him, Toback told the up for sale ass brownie known as Rolling Stone:Read the whole thing there. But as grateful as I am for Mr. Spielman's praise of my book, I can't say that I agree with his hypothesis. As Nick Cole and I have both independently concluded, the Hollywood Values scandal is not aimed at Warren Beatty (who, as an Alpha, never needed to engage in the predatory Gamma behavior exhibited by Weinstein and Toback), but rather, is primarily a defensive burn by the powerful Hollywood gays to try to distract from their exposure and eventual reckoning.
The idea that I would offer a part to anyone for any other reason than that he or she was gonna be the best of anyone I could find is so disgusting to me. And anyone who says it is a lying cocksucker or cunt or both. Can I be any clearer than that?
Toback's statement signals that he's either well versed in Vox Day's 2015 masterpiece SJWs Always Lie, a psychopath, or both.
As Nick pointed out, Dustin Hoffman? How long has it been since he was even remotely relevant? That is the desperate behavior of evil men on a sinking ship throwing out everyone and everything they can get their hands on in a futile attempt to keep the ship from going underwater.
Labels: Book Review


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A Trojan is openly available for sale in the underground market that can steal credit card information from computers using Windows operating system.
The malware named vSkimmer can detect the card readers, grab all the information from the Windows machines attached to these readers, and send that data to a control server.
The malware has capabilities similar to Dexter but has certain additional functions as well.
Botnet like Zeus and SpyEye can perform financial fraud using extremely sophisticated techniques including intercepting the victims' banking transactions. Vskimmer, on the other hand, directly targets card-payment terminals running Windows.
This malware uses a standard installation mechanism and copies itself as svchost.exe into %APPDATA%, modifies the registry key to add itself under the authorised list of apps, and runs ShellExecute to launch the process.
In a computer is not connected to the Internet, the malware would wait till a USB device is connected to the infected machine and would copy the card info collected from the victim to the USB device.
vSkimmer can also grab the Track 2 data stored on the magnetic strip of the credit cards. This track stores all the card information including the card number.


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Folk bird-whistlels from Krakow, Poland, photo by Maja Trochimczyk
In 2018, the Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) will celebrate its 75th anniversary. As part of the celebration, PAHA plans to publish an illustrated volume on the immigrant experience of Polish Americans, people who travelled across the Atlantic to establish a new life in North America.
Polish folk Dances - Krakowiak and Kujawiak by Zofia Stryjenska
Historical photo from the Polish Home in Rochester, NY
Such objects can tell a story of their past, emotional involvement, aesthetic preferences, ethical life choices, and leisure activities. They provide insight into the material culture, diverse ways of living, and pasts that they wish to either remember or forget. The materials objects carry both local and global dimensions; they can define us directly or indirectly through associations. Finally, the decision to keep certain objects not only speaks about our past life, but about us in the present as well.
Dance of the Krakusy Ensemble in Los Angeles in Lowicz costumes, 1980s
The Polish American Historical Association is announcing a wide, American search for material objects that speak about and to the Polish American experience, an experience of the life of an immigrant: its plurality and complexity, including fear and longing, joy and excitement, and the desire for and the fluid nature of stability. We are looking for photos and description of objects that traveled across the Atlantic along with their owners as symbols of lives and homes left behind as well as those acquired during the journey and after the arrival to the new place, as something that symbolizes individual activities and identity shaped here; for example, clothing, household items, toys, musical instruments, and various small or large self-made objects that tell a piece of a family's history. We are especially interested in the history that a given object carries, its individual story, values, joys, and tribulations it symbolizes; and particular events or people from the past it commemorates.
Polish medal pinned to bread, photo by Maja Trochimczyk
Szopka krakowska (Nativity Scene) and bird-whistles, photo by Maja Trochimczyk
Anna Muller
Department of Social Sciences
4901 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128, USA
The deadline for submission is July 1, 2017.
St. Casimir Society in Rochester, NY - Photo from Society of Poles's Polish Home.


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Wednesday, February 17, 2016
When The Words Won't Come
I've many pictures to share with you, some I have been holding onto for more than a week. I've been trying to find words to match them, ways to write the stories that go with them but the words won't come. And then the worst thing that can happen when I am trying to write happened - I started to stress about the fact that I seem to have lost my blogging voice. Stress is, as we all know, counterproductive to any creative pursuit, and for me that includes writing. I have thoughts I want to share with you, little stories I wanted to write about but none of them seemed to fit together somehow, and none were significant enough to stand alone.
So here today are just some pictures, and a few simple words to go with them.
Words such as these baby chickens that have been escaping their pen almost daily for the past week. With a little reshuffling in the housing department, however, they are now secure and have not escaped for several days.
Around the house there are beautiful pink flowers, and buzzing bees to go with them. And farther along there are smiling sunflowers that I haven't snapped, and drooping ones too that have lived their short life cycle.
And there are sweet weaner lambs growing up, and green paddocks and the stillness of production that seems to come every February. There is nothing being born, nothing being bred and little happening in the garden. February is a still month for us, one usually of waiting and planning and this particular February seems to be one of repetition.
I'd love to know what your February is like. Is it similar every year? Perhaps something about it has changed this time around?
Are your thoughts jumbled or clear?
I hope the rest of your week is good,
Sarah x
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20 comments
Anything from your blog is always interesting. For me in FNQ I am wishing February would end. We are having 37deg C days and 26/27deg C nights. The humidity is the worst I have known and I think I now resemble a blob of perspiration!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank-you Ann! We're in FNQ too, although thankfully I don't think we've gotten over 35'C yet! We've been having the warm nights too, it's not very pleasant is it?Delete
Your pictures alone can carry your blog....they are gorgeous, each and every time. Our February is pretty much the same as always. We have a really cold week and then a warm one and then it repeats. We have had an exceptionally wet fall and winter this year, though. I start getting spring fever about this time of year, not that I dislike cold. But because I'm dreaming of a garden and flowers. Love your blog! Keep it up!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank-you so much Laurie! August is like that for us - it makes me think winter is leaving and then it comes back again. Hopefully spring arrives for you soon. I'm hanging out for Autumn xDelete
What beautiful pictures and words! February is alway busy with the start of a new school year. We spend the first few weeks trying to find that ever evolving rhythm that will suit the family!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank-you Kate! I hope you settle into a routine soon xDelete
Lovely Sarah...words don't always flow do they? But somehow things eventually fit together. Much like Kate, we are busy getting into a school routine as well as the constant farm stuff. Your animals look so content as always. xReplyDeleteReplies
No they don't...however unusual it feels to write about not writing ;-)Delete
I hope that all is ok in your world, Sarah. Try not to let the stress get you. Just take life as it comes and be quiet whenever you need it. Never mind the lack of words - pictures are worth a thousand anyways. Mind your heart.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank-you so much for your thoughtful comment Laura, I really appreciate it xxDelete
- Anonymous17 February 2016 at 16:36
What you captured in your photos speaks what your soul was witnessing . . . capturing the moments, the beauty, the action, the living, the choosing of the subject in each . . . it seems you haven't lost your voice, you are just speaking another language that can be heard and understood by all. Darlene P.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank-you so much Darlene! They do say a photo is worth a thousand words, don't they? xDelete
Spookily, I felt just the same this month. Our February is cold and it's a bit of a drag at the tail end of winter. Roll on spring I say!ReplyDelete
Sometimes blog posts don't need lots of words - I'm happy to gaze at your photos with their vibrant colours, which are such a contrast to our February.Replies
Thank-you Anne. I hope Spring comes for you soon! xDelete
February here is cloudy and cold with a chance of snow and ice, then the very next day it can be beautiful blue skies and warm days for a week. I guess I shouldn't complain because I like both types of weather, but I really wish it would just be winter like it's supposed to. This month has had a lot of drama in it. I will be glad when it all passes. Twenty year old children think they know it all.ReplyDeleteReplies
Changing weather is annoying isn't it? August is usually like that for us, I can almost guarantee that I catch a cold at the end of winter every year :-)Delete
I hope the remainder of February is more peaceful for you x
Great post! Your pictures of the animals on the farm are always so interesting and pretty. February in South Carolina, though not as cold and snowy as some other parts of the U.S., is definitely not exactly springlike or summery either most of the time. That said, the past couple of days have shown some warmer than usual temps. That is part of the wonder and beauty of the world we live in!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Lynn. Everyone I have spoken to lately has been having unseasonal weather. It certainly does make the world interesting xDelete
These photos speak for themselves. Stunning.ReplyDelete
Thank-you so much Amalia xDelete
Hello! Please don't be shy - leave a comment, answer a question or tell your own story! I love the conversation and community - it's what blogging is all about x
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100 Moments: Hamm's Hat Trick On ESPN
Mia Hamm gets much credit – all deserved – for helping popularize women's soccer and the U.S. Women's National Team in the United States.
She had all the tools to be a superstar: the backing of major sponsors (Nike and Gatorade, to name a few), the platform on which to perform (the National Team and international stages), and she was incredibly well-spoken, photogenic and telegenic.
Of course, most importantly, she helped win games and she scored goals. Lots of goals.
She finished her career as the world's all-time leading scorer with 158 during her 18-year international career.
On the field, she also had a flair for producing that dramatic moment.
Three such moments occurred on May 9, 1997, against England at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, Calif., when she scored the third of eight hat tricks in her career.
What made this performance incredibly special was the power, style, sophistication and diversity of each of the three goals, plus the fact that she did it live on ESPN in front of what was, at the time, a massive crowd for women's soccer.
The U.S. Women started having games broadcast live in the United States in 1995, so in those early years, fans were just getting to know the players.
If she hadn't done so already (although remember, no matches of the 1996 Olympics were on live TV), Hamm said "Hello, America" in that 5-0 victory against England in front of 17,358 fans.
After Shannon MacMillan had made it 1-0 with an excellent finish from 14 yards out into 37th minute by running onto a ball over the top from Tiffeny Milbrett, Hamm scored three times in a 16-minute span starting just seconds before halftime.
Hamm started with a rocket free-kick from 36 yards that was in the net almost before the 'keeper could raise her hands. She collected her second goal six minutes into the second half when she took a short pass from Milbrett on the left flank, dribbled square across the top of the penalty box, and hit a vicious bending shot on the ground that darted into the goal by the right post.
She saved the best for last, finishing the hat trick with a dynamic dribbling run in the 60th minute. The goal came off a lightning U.S. counterattack after goalkeeper Tracy Ducar punched out an England corner kick. Defender Lorrie Fair cleared the ball to Milbrett, whose pass led Hamm down the left side. She cut into the middle on England defender Mary Phillip at the top of the penalty box, then cut back to the outside and drove her left-footed shot past three defenders and the goalkeeper into the far post from eight yards out.
Julie Foudy added a fifth on a header in the 81st minute, but Hamm's three goals, which lit up the Spartan Stadium crowd and a national TV audience, were vitally important in showing fans the U.S. WNT could put on that kind of show and score that kind of entertaining goals.
Two years later at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, all of America and most of the world would learn it as well.
The rest, as they say, is history.


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* Sept crude buying rises for third month to 4 mth high
* Refiners say they are concerned about high crude oil prices
* Gas imports drop from August
BEIJING, Oct 12 (Reuters) - China's daily crude oil imports in September hit their highest level since May, customs data showed on Friday, as independent refiners looked to shore up their inventory ahead of winter.
Shipments into the country last month stood at 37.12 million tonnes, or 9.05 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 9.04 million bpd in August and marking their third straight monthly rise, according to numbers from the General Administration of Customs.
Total crude imports over the first nine months of the year climbed 6 percent from the same period in 2017 to 336 million tonnes, or 8.98 million bpd, the customs data showed.
"Crude run rates have been rising since September. With stable fuel demand, we have been scooping up crude oil, pushing up premiums of some crude grades," a crude trader with an independent refinery said before the data was released. He declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak with media.
However, some Chinese refiners said they were concerned that a rally in global oil prices would erode their profit margins.
International benchmark Brent crude oil futures stood around $80.60 per barrel on Friday, up more than 20 percent from the beginning of the year.
Looking ahead, China has hiked non-state oil import quotas for 2019, potentially supporting imports of the commodity.
Total natural gas imports in September came in at 7.62 million tonnes, the customs data showed, dropping from 7.76 million tonnes in August. Imports over the first 9 months of 2018 stood at 64.78 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 34 percent.
For more details, click on TRADE/CN (Reporting by Meng Meng and Aizhu Chen Editing by Joseph Radford)