text:
CryoSat-2 satellite redraws Arctic sea-ice map
21 June 2011
Scientists at UCL have produced the most extensive map of Arctic sea-ice thickness yet using just two months' worth of data from the European Space Agency's ice mission, CryoSat-2.
Data from the satellite has also helped them create an updated map of ocean circulation in the Arctic, and a topographical relief map of Antarctica. All three maps demonstrate that CryoSat-2 is working well and, in some cases, is exceeding expectations.
'This is the first time we've been able to measure sea-ice thickness over almost the entire Arctic ice pack,' says Dr Seymour Laxon, director of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at UCL.
'The map shows clear agreement with data gathered from aircraft during a recent Arctic campaign, showing that CryoSat-2 can accurately measure changes in ice thickness.'
'We can't yet say anything about changes - for that you need a longer dataset,' he adds.
The sea-ice thickness map is based on data from January and February 2011 and shows thicker, rough, multi-year ice - which has survived last summer's melt - north of Canada and Greenland, stretching to the North Pole and slightly beyond. Elsewhere in the Arctic the map reveals thinner, first year ice, and corresponds well with maps produced by other researchers.
'Other European Space Agency satellites, like Envisat and ERS-1 have let us build a map of sea-ice thickness up to 81.5 degrees north. But CryoSat-2 goes right up to 88 degrees north, which means we've got more coverage up to the North Pole,' says Dr Katharine Giles, also from CPOM.
CryoSat-2 is designed to take precise measurements of changes in the thickness of ice in the Arctic and Antarctica, helping scientists understand how melting polar ice could affect ocean circulation patterns, sea-level rise and the global climate.
The satellite measures the thickness of polar ice using an instrument called an altimeter, which fires pulses of microwave energy at the ice and records how long they take to return.
Researchers at CPOM calculate the thickness of the ice by comparing how long it takes for the echoes to return from the top of ice floes and from the water in cracks in the ice, called leads. The aim is to measure the freeboard - the part of the ice that sits above the waterline.
The satellite can also tell scientists how winds affect the Arctic Ocean by measuring differences in the height of the sea surface exposed between ice floes.
Echoes returning from leads have a much sharper signature than echoes from the ice. It's this data that has let the CPOM researchers to produce a map of ocean circulation in the Arctic using CryoSat-2 data.
They created a similar map in December 2010. But most of the data for that map came from another ESA satellite called Envisat. The CPOM team used CryoSat-2 data to plug a huge hole over the North Pole left by Envisat.
CryoSat-2 can also measure the height of the ice around the edges of Greenland and Antarctica, which is important for understanding changes in ice thickness.
To test how well it does this, the researchers switched the satellite to a different measurement mode as it passed over a prominent chain of mountains under the sea around Hawaii. The mountains in the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount Chain are so enormous they change how gravity acts on the ocean above them, creating slopes and troughs at the surface.
'We were astonished to find we could measure tiny changes in the ocean surface caused by the seamounts lying deep under water,' says Dr Natalia Galin, also from CPOM at UCL.
The satellite is in a polar orbit around 700 kilometres above the Earth. It's expected to be in operation for three years, 'but has enough fuel onboard to keep going for up to seven years,' says Professor Duncan Wingham from CPOM at UCL, who conceived the idea for CryoSat-2 more than ten years ago.
Cryosat-2 was launched onboard a Dnepr rocket - a converted intercontinental ballistic missile - from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 8 April 2010.
This article is reproduced from a piece that first appeared in NERC's online magazine Planet Earth.
Images: A plot of Arctic sea ice thickness (top) A plot of the Arctic sea surface height (middle) Elevation
map of Antarctica from January and February 2011 from CryoSat-2 (bottom) Credit: CPOM/UCL/ESA


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Guatemalan Mother and Baby - San Pedro Sacatepequez, Guatemala
Sonia runs a small shop in San Pedro Sacatepequez (Guatemala) with her daughter always on her back or side as she works.
Read more about our visits to Kiva microfinance borrowers in Guatemala.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Adoring Mother and Son - Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
A proud mother gives us a big smile as we play games and adore her first son.
Taken near Bagarchhap village on the way from Dharapani to Chame on the fourth day of our Annapurna Circuit trek in Nepal.
Read more about our Annapurna Circuit trek.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Woman and Baby - Bac Ha, Vietnam
A Black Hmong woman and child take a moment at Bac Ha Market outside of Sapa in Northern Vietnam.
Read more about Bac Ha market in Vietnam.
Burmese Mother and Child - Toungoo, Myanmar
We met this adorable girl and her mother waiting at the train station in Toungoo, Myanmar. The yellow powder on the faces is thanaka, known locally as "Myanmar make-up" and comes from a type of wood (mixed with water).
Read more about our visit to Myanmar.
Smiling Marma Mother and Son - Bandarban, Bangladesh
Taken at the weekly indigenous market in Bandarban, Bangladesh.
Proud Mother and Child - Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Taken on Day 3 of our Annapurna Circuit trek on route to Dharapani, Nepal.
Read: Himalayan Trekking Stew
© UncorneredMarket.com
Mother Giving Child A Bath - Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
This little girl didn't seem to enjoy her bath much, but endured the mountain cold water nonetheless.
Taken on the way from Ghasa to Tatopani on day 14 of the trek around the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal.
Read more about our Annapurna Circuit trek.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Tibetan Mother and Child - Xiahe, China
Tibetan Mother and Child. Taken in Xiahe, China.
Read more about our visit to Xiahe, China.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Mother and Daughter - Inle Lake, Burma
A mother and daughter moment. Taken at a railway station stop on the first day of our trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake in Burma (Myanmar).
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Kyrgyz Mother and Son at Osh Market, Kyrgyzstan
A tender moment between mother and son in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.
Read more about Kyrgyzstan's sights and cities.
Chinese Mother and Child - Chengdu, China
A mother proudly displays her baby boy to us at a local covered food market in Chengdu (Sichuan province) in China.
Read more about our visit to Chengdu and to the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Masai Mother and Child - Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Mother and Son at Zumbahua Market, Ecuador
Read more articles about our visit to Ecuador.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Crying Burmese Baby - Toungoo, Burma
This little Burmese baby was not accustomed to seeing big white people like us...After one look, he burst into tears. We tried to assure him we weren't aliens, but he didn't seem to believe us. ..Taken in a village outside of Toungoo, Burma (Myanmar).
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Proud Grandma - Kathmandu, Nepal
Love the charcoal eyes and pride in this grandmother's face. Taken in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Garo Mother and Baby - Srimongal, Bangladesh
A visit to a Garo indigenous village outside of Srimongal, Bangladesh.
Iranian Mother, Grandma and Baby - Shiraz, Iran
Three generations of an Iranian family together in Shiraz, Iran.
Mother and Child - Bac Ha, Vietnam
Notice how even the carrying bag for the baby is embroidered with the same care and bright designs as the rest of their clothing. Babies are remarkably well-behaved - we don't remember hearing any crying.
Read more about Bac Ha market in Vietnam.
Kiva Borrower, Mother and Daughter - San Pedro Sacatepequez, Guatemala
Taken in a village outside of San Pedro Sacatepequez, Guatemala.
Read more about our visits to Kiva microfinance borrowers in Guatemala.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Proud Mother and Daughter - Yauli, Peru
Juana poses with her youngest daughter outside her house in Yauli, Peru (near Huancavelica).
Read more about microfinance at work in Huancavelica.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Mother and Little Tyke - Outside Cuenca, Ecuador
A mother proudly holding her seventh child. She said this was the last one...we'll see. Taken in the village of Parroquia Quingeo outside of Cuenca, Ecuador.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Burmese Mother and Son - Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar)
A wide-eyed Burmese baby at Theingyi Zei market...Taken in Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar).
Read more about our visit to Rangoon (Yangon).
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Kiva Borrower, Guatemalan Woman with Baby
Florinda Augustina has a small sewing business creating aprons and adding special trim and designs to make them unique.
Taken in the village of Paraje Xecaje outside of Totonicapan, Guatemala.
Read more about our visits to Kiva microfinance borrowers in Guatemala.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Leon, Nicaragua: Say Ah
Goofing around on the main square of Leon, Nicaragua.
Read more stories about Nicaragua.
© www.uncorneredmarket.com
Mother and Daughter - Lahic, Azerbaijan
Lahic, Azerbaijan.
Read about visit to Lahic in Azerbaijan.

subset: commoncrawl


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By ROBERT BURNS and JONATHAN LEMIRE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump insisted Sunday that Iranian cultural sites were fair game for the U.S. military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian official.
Trump's comments came amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds force. Iran has vowed to retaliate and Iraq's parliament responded by voting Sunday to oust U.S. troops based in the country.
Trump first raised the prospect of targeting Iranian cultural sites Saturday in a tweet. Speaking with reporters Sunday as he returned to Washington from his holiday stay in Florida, he doubled down, despite international prohibitions.
"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way," Trump said.
The targeted killing of Soleimani sparked outrage in the Middle East, including in Iraq, where more than 5,000 American troops are still on the ground 17 years after the U.S. invasion. Iraq's parliament voted Sunday in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for the expulsion of the American forces.
Trump said the U.S. wouldn't leave without being paid for its military investments in Iraq over the years — then said if the troops do have to withdraw, he would hit Baghdad with economic penalties.
"We will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame," he said. "If there's any hostility, that they do anything we think is inappropriate, we are going to put sanctions on Iraq, very big sanctions on Iraq."
He added: "We're not leaving until they pay us back for it."
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The administration has scrambled to contend with the backlash to the killing of Soleimani. Though he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, the targeted American strike marked a stark escalation in tensions between Washingtonand Tehran.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. military may well strike more Iranian leaders if the Islamic Republic retaliates. He tip-toed around questions about Trump's threat to attack Iranian cultural sites, a military action that likely would be illegal under the laws of armed conflict and the U.N. charter.
Pompeo said only that any U.S. military strikes inside Iran would be legal.
"We'll behave inside the system," Pompeo said. "We always have and we always will."
Trump's warnings rattled some administration officials. One U.S. national security official said the president had caught many in the administration off guard and prompted internal calls for others in the government, including Pompeo, to clarify the matter. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the issue, said clarification was necessary to affirm that the U.S. military would not intentionally commit war crimes.
Oona Hathaway, an international law professor at Yale and a former national security law official in the Defense Department's legal office, said Trump's threat amounted to "a pretty clear promise of commission of a war crime."
The president's threats to Iran did little to quell Tehran's furor over the death of Soleimani. Iranian state television reported that the country would no longer abide by any limits of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with the United States and other world powers. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018 and stepped up economic sanctions on Tehran — actions that accelerated a cycle of hostilities leading to the last week's killing.
The administration also pushed back Sunday on questions about the legality of the strike on Soleimani. Pompeo said the administration would have been "culpably negligent" in its duty to protect the United States if it had not killed him. He did not provide evidence for his previous claims that Soleimani was plotting imminent attacks on Americans. Instead of arguing that an attack had been imminent, he said it was inevitable.
"We watched him continue to actively build out for what was going to be a significant attack – that's what we believed – and we made the right decision," he said, adding later: "We continue to prepare for whatever it is the Iranian regime may put in front of us within the next 10 minutes, within the next 10 days, and within the next 10 weeks."
Congressional Democrats were skeptical.
"I really worry that the actions the president took will get us into what he calls another endless war in the Middle East. He promised we wouldn't have that," said Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate's top Democrat.
Schumer said Trump lacks the authority to engage militarily with Iran and Congress needs a new war powers resolution "to be a check on this president." To which Pompeo said: "We have all the authority we need to do what we've done to date."
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the administration violated the Constitution by not consulting with Congress in advance.
"It's also important because one, you potentially get members of Congress to buy in ahead of time, and two, they may ask that hard question that's not asked in an insular group," Warner said.
Congressional staffs got their first briefings from the administration on Friday, and members were expected to be briefed this week.
But Trump made clear Sunday that he saw little reason to give Congress advanced warning if he orders the military to carry out further actions against Iran.
"These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner," he wrote on Twitter. "Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!"
Democrats in Congress have complained that Trump's order to kill Soleimani took place without first consulting with or informing top lawmakers, noting that Congress still holds sole power to declare war. Trump did meet the 48-hour deadline required by the War Powers Act to notify Congress of the deadly drone strike, though the document provided Saturday was entirely classified and no public version was released.
Moving swiftly to rebuke Trump for not consulting with Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said late Sunday the House would introduce and vote this week on a war powers resolution to limit the president's military actions regarding Iran. In a letter to House Democrats, Pelosi called the airstrike "provocative and disproportionate" and that it had "endangered our servicemembers, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran." A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate.
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Some of the Democrats running to challenge Trump in November questioned whether he had a long-term plan for the Mideast.
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Trump was ill-prepared for the repercussions of the strike on Soleimani and had alienated allies by not alerting them of the plans. "I think we need a president who could provide steady leadership on Day One," he said. "The next president is going to inherit a divided nation and a world in disarray."
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. said: "When you're dealing with the Middle East, you need to think about the next and the next and the next move. This is not checkers. And I'm not sure any of us really believe that this president and the people around him" are "really going through all of the consequences of what could happen next."
Pompeo appeared on ABC's "This Week," CNN's "State of the Union," NBC's "Meet the Press,"' CBS' "Face the Nation," "Fox News Sunday" and Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures." Schumer was on ABC, Warner and Warren were on NBC, Petraeus was on CBS, Buttigieg was on CNN and Graham was on Fox News Channel.


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Some peoples' idea of "heaven on Earth" involve such lofty concepts as peace on earth, an end to poverty and starvation, and so forth- Worthwhile goals indeed. Others, however, dream simply of a chocolate-covered dessert paradise, and I'm here to say that at least this sort of utopia is achievable immediately, and from the comfort of your own kitchen. Sweet Utopia by Sharon Valencik is just the ticket to take you away to this sugar-coated place, boasting over 130 widely varied vegan recipes, running the gamut from cakes and custards to pies, cookies, and everything in between.
Unlike so many cookbooks that are purely lists of recipes, what really appealed to me about Sweet Utopia was the extensive explanation of ingredients, conversions, and pan sizes in the front of the book. For a newbie vegan baker, or just one that wants to learn more about the process, this information is invaluable. It helps to build a basic understanding that could empower a young vegan to take desserts into their own hands, and create or modify recipes to achieve new baked feats. Even if one isn't so adventurous, I loved the fact that many recipes included numerous suggestions for adaptation, with other flavor combinations that may appeal, or ideas for simplifying should time be of the essence.
Featured by Book Publishing Co. as part of their Luscious Vegan Desserts Campaign, I was happy to secure myself a copy for review. Since almost every recipe has a tempting color photo included, my mouth was watering as I flipped through this modest collection, trying to decide what to make. Ultimately, it was a craving for a simple comfort that drew me first to the cake section.
Baking up easily and without incident, the Chocolate Chip and Nut Streusel Coffee Cake was practically instant gratification. With a moist and tender crumb gently yielding to slightly gooey chocolate chips, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that might object to such a cake. Spotted with just enough chocolate to keep the flavor present throughout, but not so much that it overwhelms the whole dessert, it manages to maintain a fine balance between opposing elements. I do, however, have a few qualms about calling this a "streusel" or "coffee cake," since the streusel is composed merely of sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. In my eyes, a streusel must be of the crumb-variety, preferably layered on thick, and with much more heft than this light sugar sprinkle. Overall a tasty treat that gets a solid B grade, but by no means the best coffee cake I've tasted.
Turning next to a cookie that sounded like it was made with me in mind, I could hardly resist the siren song of the Minty Green Tea Stars. Combining two of my favorite flavors, matcha and mint, it sounded like a match made in heaven. Shaping mine to like leaves to harken back to these star ingredients, I was happy to see that they didn't spread too much in the oven, holding even their delicate veins nicely. Staying beautifully green in the oven as promised, they were truly lovely little morsels, the perfect sort of thing to liven up a cookie platter, and one I will definitely keep in mind when the holidays roll around. However, the flavor may need a bit of tweaking next time around, because I didn't taste even a hint of that illustrious and expensive matcha powder. Intensely and downright aggressively minty, the extract could probably stand to be dialed down a bit, because it's a shame to use matcha powder merely as a coloring agent. For someone seeking just a soft mint sugar cookie, however, simply omit the green tea, and you have a perfectly refreshing peppermint treat on your hands!
Finally, I couldn't resist the intrigue of a Carrot-Ginger Pudding. They may look like pumpkin or butterscotch, but the flavor sings with bright ginger flavor, and a comforting carrot cake-sort of undertone. Very softly set, I was disappointed at the grittiness of the carrot, but that may just be an execution error on my part. Brimming with bites of sharp crystallized ginger, you've gotta love the spice to enjoy this dessert, but I definitely did. Even better yet, I decided to top it off with the Cashew Creme, and it unexpectedly stole the show. I wouldn't make this pudding without it; Complimenting that spicy flavor with a cool, creamy, and rich topping, it brought the whole dessert together harmoniously. Finally, a nut-based whipped creme that doesn't just taste like… Well… Nuts! This is one that I will definitely default back to time and again.
Overall, Sweet Utopia is an inspiring cookbook for any dessert lover who's looking to expand their vegan repertoire, or any vegan seeking to delve into the sweet paradise that is home baking.


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Belle Fleur Brief
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Men's Wild West Caiman Belly With Deer Boots Dubai Toe
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Let's hope that Ted Turner wasn't watching his baby on Valentine's Day.
If he was, there is a good chance he had his heart broken.
Because February 14th, 2012 was the day CNN, the once-venerable and omnipresent newsgathering machine, officially kicked off the Jeff Zucker Era by dropping its anchors in the salty brine around the Poop Ship—the disabled, infamously sewage-laden Carnival Triumph cruise liner. And they left their flagship "news personalities"—along those lethargic, easily-entertained viewers willing to endure them—locked down on the long, drawn-out towing of the Triumph back to port…for nearly 12 hours! Even worse, they touted this sad attempt to squeeze blood from a turnip as a "CNN Exclusive" and "Breaking News."
To be fair, watching the wall-to-wall coverage of this mostly-irrelevant story did give viewers a sense of what it must've felt like to be trapped in a confined space, dodging streams of sewage and completely shut off from the rest of the world. Because that is what the post-AOL/TimeWarner Era has been like at CNN—a slow, steady decline into the equivalent of a bad cruise, featuring subpar entertainment, self-promoting cruise directors and a steady diet of empty calories that fatten both the belly and the mind.
That's what we got from CNN. In fact, that's all we got.
CNN's "hosts" filled the relentless emptiness with repetitive blather under a mind-numbing wide shot of the slow-moving ship. The process began with Ashleigh Banfield and Brooke Baldwin, through the "shows" of Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett, and then onto a painful-to-watch finale "anchored" by Chris Cuomo in which he conducted a series of stilted phone interviews with people clamoring to disembark from the Triumph.
It is important to remember that these people are hosts, not journalists. They host shows, much like cruise directors host cruises. At one point, Erin Burnett teased a segment featuring the well-coifed and perpetually-tanned Donny Deutsch leading an "All-Star Panel" ready to "weigh-in" on the Poop Ship.
That's right, America. The self-described "Most Trusted Name in News" tossed to a panel of blatherati filling an echo chamber with "insights" and opinions about a disabled cruise ship.
This is not a joke. But their coverage is.
This cable news emperor has been parading around for some time without much clothing. And their hind-quarters are not the only thing lacking coverage. Here are just a few stories CNN could've covered that day by deploying real journalists out in the real world digging up real news:
- How private investors exploit the foreclosure crisis to become mega-landlords
- Ongoing carnage in Iraq as the "post-war" death toll mounts and civil war looms
- On the scene reporting and footage of a NATO airstrike that killed ten Afghan civilians (incl. five children) within hours of Obama's State of the Union speech
- A much-needed report on America's newest ally—Burma—and its violent crackdowns that may include white phosphorous weapons
- The use of fracking to extract uranium in Texas and widespread use of injection wells to pump toxic and radioactive waste into aquifers around North America
- Exposés on revolving doors at the SEC and the EPA and how federal agencies investigating corporate crime often climb in bed with those they once investigated
- And many, many, many more…
Instead, CNN gave us Martin Savidge comparing the travails of the Poop Ship's passengers to those suffered by the victims of Katrina. Savidge is a veteran reporter, but years inside the news bubble have taken a toll. Both his network and the news business have totally lost touch with the reality of real news as they've devolved into a pale reflection of reality television—one that people don't really trust or watch in significant numbers.
The painful fact is that CNN, and the rest of the American broadcast news business, covers less and less news with each passing year. Less actual reporters and less working bureaus equal less actual reporting on fewer stories from fewer places around the globe.
Instead, we've gotten more and more personality-driven drivel. The transition from reporters in the field to hosts in the studio began with OJ and ended when Monica-gate finalized the Clinton Era shift from the costly enterprise of original reporting to the cheap and profitable business of letting "personalities" and pundits in the studio simply bloviate about re-hashed wire reports on sensationalized scandals, titillating tragedies, political ping-pong, major weather events and tiresome celebrity blah-blah.
The AOL/TimeWarner merger enshrined in perpetuity the gassy news bubble that surrounds America. Bureaus in Europe, Asia, South America and various notable capitals around the world—all were lost as the talking windbags took over at the 24-hour news networks.
Wars get covered, so long as the shocking, awe-inspiring pictures keep coming. Once those initial explosions give way to complicated gray areas, civilian deaths and troubling blowback, the wars suddenly become too costly to cover and too complicated to explain to "Joe Six-Pack."
Although natural disasters remain a mainstay of cable news coverage, the deeper stories of environmental degradation and looming crisis require actual knowledge on actual science and the willingness to go to places and talk to people in ways that cannot be easily explained by an "All-Star Panel" of blatherati.
And now that Jeff Zucker is on board, expect more of this incredibly cheap to produce, reality-styled programming from the network formerly known for news. The man who had a knack for "failing upwards" and gave us the Katie Couric's self-titled talk show is likely to go full steam ahead into the iceberg of irrelevance Paddy Chayefsky warned us of back in 1976.
In Network, Faye Dunaway plays Diana Christensen, a voracious programming executive who lusts after the control of the news division. She gets her wish, transforming news into the sort of infotainment becoming so commonplace today. Now life imitates art, with Zucker, the programming executive as news ratings savior, "re-booting" the Love Boat franchise in real time. With a "newsy," scatological twist!
Perhaps that day Ted Turner was out where his buffalo roam and didn't see his once-grand experiment go down with that ship. However, Ted, like us all, should be mad as hell about it. Democracy simply can't take it anymore.Tweet


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Published July 28, 2020
When I was a kid, my dad used to regularly offer me the same unsolicited advice, "Buy low, sell high." It wasn't until I was a book publisher calculating the retail prices of our books that I understood what he was saying: A completed business transaction doesn't guarantee you've made a profit on it.
You'll go broke fast if you don't buy your products at a low enough wholesale price to generate an adequate profit from your own retail sales.
Let's go over the multiple benefits of buying wholesale, the differences between wholesale and dropshipping suppliers, and five ways to find the best wholesale companies for your small business.
Overview: What is wholesale?
Wholesale purchasing occurs when businesses buy discounted products in bulk to resell at higher prices to consumers or other businesses. Companies typically work with a wholesale distributor, which makes purchasing more efficient because you don't deal with multiple individual manufacturers.
Wholesale purchasing is one step within the larger product supply chain, which starts with raw materials and ends with a customer's purchase.
For example, the U.S. has hundreds and maybe thousands of book publishers, and no bookstore has the time or resources to deal with each one individually. Instead, about half a dozen major book distributors stock books from these publishers to sell to single bookstores or bookstore chains.
What is wholesale pricing?
The amount you pay a wholesaler, distributor, or manufacturer for a product is the wholesale price. Wholesalers use a sliding scale for per-unit prices based on the order amount, so the bigger the order, the larger the discount.
While you can obtain lower per-unit wholesale prices through larger volume purchases, chasing these discounts can have a downside -- the ongoing cost of storing goods you're not selling. Use the economic order quantity (EOQ) formula to determine how many units you should buy based on past sales.
Wholesale vs. dropshipping: What's the difference?
Wholesale buying is sometimes conflated with dropshipping -- both involve selling discounted products at retail prices to consumers -- but the two use different processes.
Wholesale purchases require the retailer to buy stock to have on hand before making a sale. With dropshipping, the retailer never sees or handles the products sold. Instead, the customer places an order with the retailer, usually online, and the retailer relays it to the product's supplier, who ships it to the customer.
Dropshipping is attractive to online merchants because there are no warehousing costs, they aren't stuck with inventory that doesn't sell, and suppliers pick, pack, and ship orders.
Profit margins are smaller, however, because product suppliers are responsible for order fulfilment and warehousing. Merchants' reputations are also at the mercy of these suppliers, who are responsible for timely delivery of the correct, high-quality products.
Benefits of buying wholesale
Wholesale purchasing allows you to reduce per-unit costs, but you'll enjoy extra benefits once you develop a reliable network of suppliers. These will impact your most important key performance indicator (KPI) -- the bottom line.
1. Lower costs
As you lower your unit costs with wholesale purchases, related expenses go down. Larger orders -- a pallet or more of products -- can significantly drop your shipping prices. You'll also make purchases less often, which further reduces shipping overhead.
Buying from wholesalers reduces your administrative costs because you deal with a handful of suppliers instead of 10 or 20 or more individual manufacturers. The best point-of-sale (POS) systems include POS inventory management that automatically orders stock once levels drop to preset levels.
2. Better product selection
Wholesale buying gives you a wider product selection to choose from. If you own your bookstore, working with one or two book distributors lets you stock books from the big five U.S. publishing companies and hundreds of independent presses.
To compete with Amazon, you must provide a customer experience that online buying doesn't offer, but you can stock the same national bestsellers and classics many readers want.
3. Ability to scale up
Wholesale buying lets you scale up your business as it grows. If you sell retail apparel and set up another location, adding inventory only requires a larger order from your wholesale clothing supplier.
Or, if sales of a particular product or product line spike, your established relationships with suppliers will allow you to keep inventory in stock.
How to find wholesale suppliers for your small business
When your business is ready to work with wholesale suppliers, don't rush into any agreements or contracts. Do your research and consult with your industry peers to make sure you find the best deal for your small business.
Step 1: Assess your needs and resources
Buying wholesale can save money and increase your profit margins, but you must assess multiple factors to leverage these benefits to best effect.
Areas to examine include:
• Sales history: Do you have the sales to justify buying wholesale? Your POS terminal does more than accept credit card payments; it also tracks your sales. Most wholesalers have minimum purchase amounts, so you need to identify the products best suited for bulk sales.
• Warehousing: Where are you going to store your bulk purchases? Can you do this on-site or will you store products elsewhere? Don't forget these storage costs add to the wholesale unit price. Inventory management POS features will help you determine how much space you need.
• Projected sales: The POS data your POS hardware and virtual terminal collect help project future sales. Are your projected sales large enough to cover storage costs and avoid potential losses due to perishable items or those with a limited lifespan? A great deal on 2020 calendars isn't so good once the end -- or even the middle -- of the year arrives, and you have a pallet of them still sitting in your warehouse.
Don't underestimate the storage space you'll need. Nothing is worse than having a shrink-wrapped pallet of goods delivered to your store or office and realizing you have no place to put it.
I used to work for a small craft beer brewery, and when it needed more storage space, the owners bought a used shipping container they dropped outside the brewery in the parking lot. However, not everyone has that luxury.
Step 2: Research your industry
Every industry has its own product supply chains and wholesale supplier networks. Nothing beats old-fashioned research to discover the ins and outs of your market sector, whether it's running a restaurant, selling clothes, or serving craft beer in a taproom.
Methods to research your industry's wholesalers include:
• Business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces: Alibaba is the world's largest online B2B sales website, and you can find everything from shirts to tractors to electronics and a whole lot more. You can also choose from other B2B marketplaces, and some research may turn up ones that specialize in your industry.
• Industry trade publications: Wholesalers want to find you, and one method they use is advertising in trade magazines. Find the best publications in your industry and subscribe to them. Not only will you discover wholesalers, you'll stay up to date on current industry news.
• Business directories: Multiple business databases are available with information about virtually every company worldwide. The cost to access them on your own can be expensive, but many, such as ReferenceUSA, are available at many public libraries.
When I got into book publishing, I realized there was plenty I didn't know. I found the best resources I could to study, which included "Publishing for Profit: Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers."
It was an invaluable resource covering the entire trade book publishing industry, with information about wholesale and retail pricing, book distributors, and more. And if it didn't have the answers I needed, it steered me to where I could find them.
Step 3: Network within your industry
No man is an island, so learning first-hand about best practices in general and wholesaling in particular is a good reason to actively network with your industry peers.
Networking opportunities include:
• Local competitors: You probably shouldn't walk up to someone you haven't met or barely know and say, "Hey, tell me all about your wholesale purchasing." Everyone loves to talk shop, however, so get to know your local competition to cultivate at least a professional relationship.
• Business networks: Local business networks include your chamber of commerce, Small Business Administration (SBA) community groups, and Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), a nationwide network of business mentors. Join your national trade association(s) to participate in networking events, online forums, and other informational opportunities.
• Online networking: Facebook and LinkedIn have industry-specific user groups where you can ask questions, help others with your expertise, and build your list of contacts.
The nature of business may be dog eat dog like Alec Baldwin's salesman character in Glengarry Glen Ross -- "Coffee's for closers" -- but many of your competitors will have an "It's all of us versus the world" mentality.
Some of the most valuable inside information I learned and contacts I made came from generous, long-time book publishers who shared what they knew to keep the industry growing.
Step 4: Attend industry events
Industry trade shows are another valuable source of wholesale supplier information. Concentrate on B2B or industry-specific shows, which normally occur at least once a year. Joining trade associations, searching their websites, and checking industry publications will tell you when and where to go.
Tips to get the biggest return on trade shows include:
• Make a plan: Every trade show publishes a list of events -- keynote speeches, panel discussions, and product demos -- and a daily schedule helps you stay organized. They'll also provide a list of exhibitors and exhibit hall map(s), so identify whom you're interested in talking to and find out where they'll be.
• Set up meetings: If you're ready to make a deal, schedule meetings with vendors before the trade show. Exhibit halls are frequently loud and crowded, which is not conducive to an extended one-on-one conversation. Contact the wholesalers you're serious about, and they should be more than willing to set up a private meeting.
Don't make the mistake of thinking a trade show is a vacation, despite the fact they're often held in great places to visit. But you don't have to be a slave to the grind. Make a plan for your downtime at night or during targeted breaks so you have something to show -- and bring home -- besides exhibitor booth giveaways.
Step 5: Hire a consultant
It's OK to admit you don't know everything. Choosing a wholesaler to work with will dramatically impact your business, so you must make the right decision. If you can't decide what to do or have questions you can't satisfactorily answer on your own, consider hiring a consultant to help.
All consultants are not created equal, so make sure you:
• Choose carefully: Look under any rock and you'll find an industry "expert." Research your options before hiring anyone. What is their demonstrated industry experience? Who are their previous consulting clients? What makes them an expert?
• Identify the deliverables: What exactly will your consultant provide? A list of recommended wholesalers based on an examination of your sales? Introductions to potential suppliers? A final report?
Our book publishing operation grew to the point where we needed to make some hard choices about our future that we couldn't afford to get wrong. I went to a presentation at a book conference by the author of "Publishing for Profit."
After a long publishing career, he'd gone into consulting, and after hearing him speak, he seemed like a good fit for us.
Following negotiations about cost and final deliverables, he spent several days at our offices inspecting our operations from top to bottom. He made recommendations for book printers to lower our production costs and personnel to add, and he helped us sign with a national book distributor.
It was absolutely the best choice -- and expenditure -- we could have made at that time.
Discover the benefits of buying wholesale
If you're not already purchasing inventory in bulk, now's the time to begin wholesale buying. Use your POS cloud data to make smart purchases, and you could enjoy multiple benefits beyond my dad's "buy low, sell high" maxim.
MSN Money
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The price of shame
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I grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church. Here's why I left
What's it like to grow up within a group of people who exult in demonizing ... everyone else? Megan Phelps-Roper shares details of life inside America's most controversial church and describes how conversations on Twitter were key to her decision to leave it. In this extraordinary talk, she shares her personal experience of extreme polarization, along with some sharp
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Why the buildings of the future will be shaped by ... you
"Architecture is not about math or zoning — it's about visceral emotions," says Marc Kushner. In a sweeping — often funny — talk, he zooms through the past thirty years of architecture to show how the public, once disconnected, have become an essential part of the design process. With the help of social media, feedback reaches architects years before a building is
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The curly fry conundrum: Why social media "likes" say more than you might think
Do you like curly fries? Have you Liked them on Facebook? Watch this talk to find out the surprising things Facebook (and others) can guess about you from your random Likes and Shares. Computer scientist Jennifer Golbeck explains how this came about, how some applications of the technology are not so cute — and why she thinks we should return the control of
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The tribes we lead
Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.
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Why privacy matters
The line between public and private has blurred in the past decade, both online and in real life, and Alessandro Acquisti is here to explain what this means and why it matters. In this thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares details of recent and ongoing research -- including a project that shows how easy it is to match a photograph of a stranger
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How the Internet will (one day) transform government
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Social maps that reveal a city's intersections — and separations
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The strangeness of scale at Twitter
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Let's design social media that drives real change
Wael Ghonim helped touch off the Arab Spring in his home of Egypt ... by setting up a simple Facebook page. As he reveals, once the revolution spilled onto the streets, it turned from hopeful to messy, then ugly and heartbreaking. And social media followed suit. What was once a place for crowdsourcing, engaging and sharing became a polarized battleground. Ghonim asks:
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After your final status update
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An interview with the founders of Black Lives Matter
Born out of a social media post, the Black Lives Matter movement has sparked discussion about race and inequality across the world. In this spirited conversation with Mia Birdsong, the movement's three founders share what they've learned about leadership and what provides them with hope and inspiration in the face of painful realities. Their advice on how to
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A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security
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Digital humanitarianism
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What's your 200-year plan?
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When online shaming spirals out of control
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IEA became a legal entity in 1967. Its origins, however, date back to 1958 when a group of scholars, educational psychologists, sociologists, and psychometricians met at the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE) in Hamburg, Germany, to discuss problems associated with evaluating school effectiveness and student learning. They argued that effective evaluation requires examination of both the inputs to education and its outcomes (such as knowledge, attitudes, and participation).
The founders of the IEA viewed the world as a natural educational laboratory, where different school systems experiment in different ways to obtain optimal results from educating their youth. They assumed that if research could obtain evidence from across a wide range of systems, the variability would be sufficient to reveal important relationships that would otherwise escape detection within a single education system. They strongly rejected data-free assertions about the relative merits of various education systems, and aimed to identify factors that would have meaningful and consistent influences on educational outcomes.
The first IEA study, conducted in 1960 in 12 countries, assessed 13-year-old students' achievement in mathematics, reading comprehension, geography, science, and non-verbal ability. The aim of this research, known as the Pilot Twelve-Country Study, was to investigate the feasibility of more extensive assessments of educational achievement. The study produced findings of academic and practical value, but more importantly demonstrated the feasibility of conducting large-scale, cross-national surveys.
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Access our 60 years of IEA (1958-2018) publication for more IEA stories.
The encouraging findings of the Pilot Twelve-Country Study gave rise to the First International Mathematics Study (FIMS), which employed an improved sampling procedure and an extended test of student achievement. Data were collected in 1964 in 12 countries from two populations (13-year-old students and final-year secondary students). The study found that 'opportunity to learn', which refers to how a subject is actually taught in the classroom, in contrast to how it is prescribed in the curriculum, was a remarkably good predictor of systematic differences in student performance. The study also showed that all school systems suffer, to some extent, from lack of equity across different groups of students.
The Six Subject Survey (1970–1971) expanded the scope of investigation to science (known as the First International Science Study, or FISS), reading comprehension, literature education, English as a foreign language, French as a foreign language, and civic education. The researchers moved the target population from 13 to 14 years of age because by that time nearly all participating countries were keeping children in fulltime compulsory education until they reached their 15th birthday. The researchers also included additional populations (10-year-old students and final-year secondary students) for some subjects. The survey helped to identify new predictors of student achievement related to interests, motivation and attitudes, methods of teaching, and school practices.
In 1971, the IEA organized a seminar on curriculum development and evaluation in Gränna, Sweden. Researchers and curriculum experts from 23 countries participated. It is often said that this seminar had a major influence on curriculum development in the majority of countries that attended.
During the late 1970s, several researchers suggested that periodic studies of the key subject areas might allow IEA to measure changes in educational achievement over time. This thinking led to the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS), which was conducted in 20 countries in 1980–1982, and the Second International Science Study (SISS), which was carried out in 24 countries in 1983–1984. The strategy of repeating a study over an interval of several years provided participating countries with important information on trends in their students' standards of achievement in mathematics and science.
While SISS was a deliberate replication of FISS, SIMS incorporated a short-term longitudinal component. The Classroom Environment Study (1981–1983) was also longitudinal, and studied the effects of teaching behavior on student learning outcomes in nine countries; during this study, and with SIMS, the participating countries tested the same students on two separate occasions. However, it became evident that conducting measurements over only two points of time was not enough to yield the information needed to accurately estimate the effects of schools and teaching behaviors on educational achievement.
By the beginning of the 1980s, more children around the world were being enrolled in preprimary education. IEA's member countries considered that more should be known about the cognitive, attitudinal, social, and emotional development of children in different preschool settings, including the home environment. The longitudinal Preprimary Project (PPP) addressed this interest by examining how children's early experiences at age four affected their later cognitive and language development at age seven. Seventeen countries participated in one or more of the three phases of the study, conducted in 1987–1989, 1992, and 1995–1997, respectively.
Further studies included the Written Composition Study, which was conducted in 1984–1985 in 14 countries. It examined the teaching and learning of written composition by assessing students near the end of primary schooling, students near the end of compulsory schooling, and students near the end of academic secondary school in order to identify the associated beliefs and conventions. The study assessed six types of writing according to the dimensions of style and tone, overall impression, content, and organization, with particular attention paid to cultural background, curriculum, and teaching practices.
Levels of reading literacy of 9-year-old and 14-year-old students across countries, as well as the nature of reading instruction and relationships between reading comprehension and aspects of home and school environment were examined in the Reading Literacy Study, which was conducted in 1990–1991.
The 1990s brought new challenges and successes. As a result of government programs, computers began to play a more significant role in school education. The Computers in Education Study (COMPED), conducted in 1989 and 1992, aimed to describe and analyze various aspects of the introduction and use of computers in participating countries. Stage 1 of the study was a descriptive survey that investigated computer use at the elementary, lower-secondary, and upper-secondary levels. The first part of Stage 2 was a follow-up of Stage 1, enabling a longitudinal study of trends. The second part involved assessing the effects of schools, teachers, and classroom practices on student outcomes in the domain of computer usage in schools.
The Second Information Technology in Education Study Module 1 (SITES-M1) provided an update on the state of affairs in 26 countries, investigating computer technology resources and their use and integration into the instructional process; data were collected in 1998–1999. SITES-M2 (2001) was a qualitative study, based on case studies of innovative pedagogical practices using information and computer technology (ICT) in 28 countries. Five years later, SITES 2006 explored what countries' efforts to promote the pedagogical use of ICT had achieved since the SITES-M1 data collection.
Political changes resulting from the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and central-eastern Europe raised new questions about education of the "good citizen." To answer these questions, the Civic Education Study (CIVED) investigated 14-year-old students' civic knowledge and engagement, as well as related policies and practices. Thirty-one countries, including nine former communist countries, participated in one or both phases of the study (1996–1997 and 1999).
Another study that aimed to meet the policy demands of the late 1990s was the Language Education Study. Initially planned as a three-phase project but due to lack of funding only Phase 1 regarding the policy context was completed. Twenty-five countries participated in this phase of the project in 1995. These countries collected data on second and foreign language education and polices for four languages: English, French, German, and Spanish.
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 1995) was the first in a four-year cycle of assessments in mathematics and science, now known as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. With 46 participating countries and over half a million students in five grades, it was also the largest and most ambitious study of comparative education undertaken at the time. As an additional option, some countries tested two special subgroups of final-year secondary students enrolled in advanced mathematics and/or physics courses. This option later became known as the first cycle of TIMSS Advanced. Subsequent regular data collections for TIMSS took place in 1999 (also known as TIMSS-Repeat), 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. All of these assessments were conducted at the fourth and eighth grades.
The Reading Literacy Study (1990–1991), with 32 participating countries, was a milestone for the IEA. It was characteristic of other IEA studies in its focus on both student achievement and educational contexts. The study also collected background information on students' voluntary reading activities. The Reading Literacy Study was a major step forward for the IEA, acting as a predecessor of PIRLS.
The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) has been conducted in five-year intervals, to date 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016. PIRLS investigates changes over time in children's reading achievement at the fourth grade, an important transition point in their development as readers. The study also gathers information on reading education and children's early experiences at home and school in learning to read. In 2011, PIRLS Literacy (formerly known as prePIRLS) was offered for the first time for countries whose fourth-grade students were still developing fundamental reading skills. In 2016, ePIRLS was launched, an innovative assessment of online reading enabling participating education systems to understand how successful they are in preparing fourth grade students to read, comprehend, and interpret online information. This option was further developed into digitalPIRLS for PIRLS 2021.
The IEA's cycle of trend studies in basic school subjects continues to attract an increasing number of countries from all around the world. More than 45 education systems participated in PIRLS and over 60 education systems joined TIMSS in 2011, a year that marked a unique event—joint assessment at the fourth grade—in the history of both cycles. Some participants were 'newcomers' to international assessment, while many others represented low- or middle-income countries whose social, political, and economic situations differ from the countries that have traditionally participated in IEA studies.
The first decade of the new century brought two meaningful developments to IEA studies: creating a base for new cycles (civic education, advanced mathematics and science), and entering new areas of assessment (computer and information literacy of students, teacher education). We also continued to develop and adapt our existing studies to keep pace with progress in educational assessment and policy.
The first International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2009) investigated the ways in which young people in 38 countries were prepared to undertake their roles as citizens. ICCS 2009 assessed changes over time since CIVED. It also broadened the scope of research by introducing novel regional modules for Asia, Europe, and Latin America. This approach allowed the countries in these regions to address questions important in their specific contexts.
The second cycle of the study, ICCS 2016, also investigated students' knowledge and understanding of concepts and issues related to civics and citizenship, as well as their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. For countries that participated in ICCS 2009, the study was designed to monitor trends in civic knowledge and engagement over seven years.
For ICCS 2022, IEA is working in collaboration with UNESCO to incorporate indicators of knowledge and understanding, skills, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors relating to Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), with the aim of helping countries monitor progress toward the new sustainable development goals (SDGs), particularly target 4.7. ICCS is now the world's longest running international civic education study.
TIMSS Advanced 2008 assessed achievement in advanced mathematics and physics at the upper-secondary school level. It helped 10 participating countries gain a better understanding of what is educationally feasible when preparing students for future careers in related professions. The study also enabled the countries that participated in the TIMSS Advanced 1995 assessment to consider changes over time. TIMSS Advanced 2015 assessed final-year secondary students' achievement in advanced mathematics and physics. The study also collected policy-relevant data about curriculum emphasis, technology use, and teacher preparation and training.
The next TIMSS cycle, TIMSS 2019 introduced an e-assessment option. eTIMSS continues all the benefits of TIMSS, enabling countries to measure how effective they are in teaching mathematics and science. This approach maintains continuity with TIMSS to preserve trend measurement, while keeping costs to a minimum.
The Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) was the IEA's first study of tertiary education. It examined the policies, programs, and practices for preparing elementary and lower-secondary mathematics teachers in 17 countries.
In response to continuing interest in ICT as a "21st century skill," IEA initiated the International Computer and Information Literacy Study, ICILS 2013. The aim of this study was to evaluate students' understanding of and skills in using computers via an authentic computer-based assessment for eighth-grade students. ICILS 2018 is linked directly to ICILS 2013, allowing countries that participated in the previous cycle to monitor changes over time in computer and information literacy achievement and its teaching and learning contexts. ICILS 2018 also introduces a new, option computational thinking strand. This domain includes not only programming but also structuring and manipulation data sets.


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Steve's Deal of the Day – Plymouth Yarns Grandiosa Hand DyedFriday, June 20th, 2014
Steve's Deal of the Day for this weekend is Plymouth Yarns Grandiosa hand-dyed – $8.19/hank (reg $17.99). This super bulky yarn knits up at just 2 stitches per inch for super quick and cozy projects.
With just 2 skeins you could whip up your own Herringbone Neckwarmer, which is a FREE pattern, like Ravelry user paigecm has done.
Or with only 3 skeins you could do what Ravelry user knittingnurse has done and whip up an Ovate shawl for yourself.
Don't forget! Plymouth Yarns Grandiosa hand-dyed is Steve's Deal of the Day through 11:59pm EDT Sunday, June 22, 2014. Use Promo Code FBGRANDIOS3 at checkout to get the special price, $8.19/hank (reg $17.99).


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Celebrity News July 01, 2014
Bruno Mars Serenades Girl Who Lost Family in a Car Accident
Singer Bruno Mars gave one special fan a moment she will always remember.
At his Cleveland concert on Saturday, Mars serenaded Zumyah Thorpe, an 11-year-old who lost her pregnant mother and two younger sisters in 2013 when a drunk driver hit their car. Though she survived, Zumyah suffered severe physical injuries including brain damage.
The crooner sang Thorpe's favorite song, "Just the Way You Are" and dedicated the concert to the brave little girl and gifted her his guitar and signature fedora.
Local Cleveland radio station WKYC reports the nurses in the hospital where Thorpe was recovering continually played Mars' songs and her doctor believes his music had a healing power.
Zumyah's doctor told the station, "I am absolutely convinced that singing those Bruno Mars songs and being able to say 'Bruno Mars' is in itself a miracle… knowing all the words to the songs has helped her recover. I asked her who her favorite singer was and she said 'Bruno Mars' as quick as anyone would say any singer, and she just started singing every single word."
Bruno also posted a sweet pic on Instagram, writing, "Zumyah tonight you gave my band and I something we've never felt before. you're an inspiration to the world! #WeLoveYouZumyah."


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Posted by Mackenzie on Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thankful for a healthy baby.
Thankful that one of the new designs I just got back from the printer looks awesome (I tried something new and was sweatin it a little).
Thankful for everyone who has offered to help us with dishes, dinner, laundry and life in the last 2 months.
Thankful for the people who read my blog :)
Thankful for my family, all of them (Law's and in-Law's)
Thankful for the 7 un-interrupted hours of sleep I got last night. Glory, Hallelujah.
Anyone else care to share?


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Rated PG
Copyright 1988 Golan-Globus
Reviewed by
Andrew Borntreger
on 5 December 2008
The Characters:
Wanda Saknussemm - Kathy Ireland! Yet again, proof that anyone looks like a nerd if you stick a pair of thick glasses on their nose.
Guten "Gus" Edway - He believes that a man should, "Speak softly, and carry a twenty inch frying pan." He does not wear glasses; his teeth are normal in size and spacing.
Roeyis - Gus' unhappy girlfriend. Why is she unhappy? She is an Eloi who was born 800,000 years too early, meaning that she is going to miss out on "Happy Happy Joy Joy" hour. She is pretty bitter about that.
Charmin' - At first, this suave underworld dweller was going for the Valentino look, but he quickly discarded that and settled for the much easier "tough dude on a motorcycle" shtick.
Prof. Saknussemm - What luck, he discovered a bottomless pit in his mud room!
Gen. Rykov - She is such an epitome of the empowered woman of the 1980's, black peacock eye patch and all, that she is often mistaken for a man.
Shank - Imagine if Lydia from "Beetlejuice" became a bag lady.
Mambino - The midget mob overlord of the underworld. His eyelashes are so long that they probably hang in his minestrone soup.
Lord Over - Doesn't sitting on that throne ever make him dizzy?
The Plot:
Wanda Saknussemm is an insecure nerd with an annoying voice, and it is hard to feel sorry for her. Sure, she cannot help it that nature graced her with a goat's larynx. Nor did she have anything to do with her father's decision to move to Africa (actually, her voice might have had something to do with that). However, Wanda's biggest problem is that she thinks "adventuresome" means taking a walk on Malibu Beach, which is across the street from where she lives.
Thanks to her father's occupation, the high-pitched geek's life is about to change. Professor Saknussemm studies deep holes in the ground. That is why he moved to Africa: to study deep holes in the ground (not to escape his daughter's annoying voice, as some irresponsible individuals have theorized). While checking out one of these deep holes, the good professor fell in. The grim news that her daddy is somewhere at the bottom of a bottomless pit finally pulls Wanda out of the worthless rut that is her life. She climbs aboard the first rattling C-47 destined for Africa.
"The bottom of a bottomless pit" - isn't language a funny thing?
Once she gets to Africa, Wanda barely has enough time to read her father's research notes before she falls into the same bottomless pit that already sucked in the senior Saknussemm. Well, the pit is not quite "bottomless." It has a bottom! Wanda hits the sandy surface. She is not horribly splattered, bloodily ruptured, or even gruesomely permeated by the silica. She just makes a Wanda-shaped impression in the sand, dusts herself off, and starts following the footprints her father left after experiencing the same miraculous survival in the face of certain death.
Look, I'm all for Nature preserving the number of beautiful women in the world (even the ones with whiney voices), but that was ridiculous.
The reason Professor Saknussemm spent years studying deep holes is that he believes the lost continent of Atlantis was actually a spaceship that was swallowed up by the Earth, and that it is the center of an underground civilization. He was right, and his daughter meets an unlucky Atlantean miner named Guten, who she nicknames "Gus." Professor Saknussemm already knows that his hypothesis was correct, because he is currently a guest in the Atlantean prison. Good on ya, mate! You proved that you are not the crackpot that every other scientist under the sun thought you were. Don't drop the soap.
For reasons unknown, Gus helps Wanda look for her missing father. He is not interested in having sex with her, taking advantage of her, exploiting her, or any of the other things that a man wants when they do something nice for a woman. Wanda fails to notice Edway's noble assistance. She is either gawking at the sights and sounds of the buried metropolis of Atlantis, or remarking how sad it is that Gus has never seen the sun, moon, or the stars.
Look, Wanda, we are all happy that you found an entire race that is more pathetic than yourself. People who think that the whole of creation is just a series of dark and dirty caves. Don't let it go to your head. There are still more than six billon of us on the surface who think that you are a geek.
The crammed subterranean city of Atlantis is not a bad attempt. It turns out better than the one in
Super Mario Bros.
(not that that is hard to do). The underground society is also a police state. Regular broadcasts remind the citizens that there is no such thing as the "surface world" and, by that reasoning, there can be no such things as "aliens" from the "surface world." Inappropriate thoughts are considered contraband. Anyone harboring them should turn themselves in to the proper authorities, so that the improper ideas can be removed at the earliest opportunity, using the most invasive means.
I swear, one of the best things about this movie is the Atlantean announcer who constantly issues absurd propaganda bulletins over the city's video system. The whole film tries to be weird, in that elusive "cult weird" sort of way, but it utterly fails. The announcer is one of the few successful attempts. They should have made the movie about him.
There are a multitude of dangers in Atlantis. One of those dangers is Shank; she is a freaky girl who kidnaps people by injecting them with some sort of narcotic, and then sells them to either the government or Mambino. Shank abducts Wanda and sells her to the mob boss. Fortunately, Gus puts in an appearance and thumps the lipstick-wearing mobsters. Unfortunately, the government learns that another alien is loose in the city. To help capture the alien, the authorities decide to bring back the lottery. In this case "lottery" = "manhunt." Find the Wanda and win big! Where's Wanda?
It doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?
Now Wanda has the entire city after her, but her lucky streak continues. A mysterious stranger (Charmin') saves Wanda from an orthodontically enhanced version of Frankenstein's monster; Wanda falls in love with Charmin' at first sight. I have no idea why. Maybe it was his manly way of beating another living being's skull in with an iron pipe, maybe it was the way he looked, with the turban and black mascara, not entirely unlike Valentino, or maybe it was his honesty. Something made Wanda fall in love with Charmin'.
"Do you just want me for my body?"
"Will you not help me if I ask?"
"Do you want to eat my brains?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Do you like my voice?"
I hope that all of you male readers were paying attention. Charmin' answered
every one
of those questions correctly. Most girls will not go out with a guy who wants to eat her brains, and any girl who looks like Kathy Ireland, but sounds like Wanda Saknussemm, already knows that her voice is the reason she is single in the first place.
The Atlanteans consistently refer to Wanda's physique as "big-boned." That is quirky and amusing. I spent the whole movie looking for something quirky and amusing, or, failing that, entertaining. "Big-boned" and the propaganda broadcasts were all that I found.
General Rykov's police finally capture Wanda, and she is taken, with her father, to Lord Over's chambers. The military leader wants to execute Wanda and her dad as spies; it is obvious that the surface dwellers are planning an invasion. The only thing standing between the annoying girl from Malibu Beach and a hangman's noose (or however they execute spies down there) is her ability to convince Lord Over that she and her father are
not spies
. Which means that Wanda has to talk, which is a bad thing.
Did anyone else find the way that Wanda says "Daddy!" just a little creepy?
Surprisingly, Wanda manages to convince Lord Over that she and her father are just wayward explorers. At that moment, Gus barges in and starts head butting people. He drags Wanda and Professor Saknussemm out of the audience chamber, and takes them to meet Professor Galba. The nutty Atlantean scientist has been telling everyone for years that there must be a surface world. He even built a rocketship to find it! No, really. The poor fellow built some sort of exhaust-propelled craft to reach the surface. I guess that climbing is a lost art in Atlantis.
That, my friends, is how Wanda went from being an insecure geek with an annoying voice to a bikini-wearing vixen who knows that she is God's gift to the men of California (so long as she does not open her mouth, because her voice is still enough to drive a man into the arms of a lesser woman).
Things I Learned From This Movie:
Useless girlfriends are the reason men invented surfing.
God hates whiny nerds.
If you see a mail carrier wearing a pith helmet, it means that they are delivering a letter out of Africa.
Archeology and dominos do not mix.
The suburbs of the center of the Earth look like a hemorrhoid relief cream commercial.
After a hard day, nothing tastes better than a hot open-faced blueberry annelids on rye sandwich.
Sometimes, just sometimes, being the "key hair stylist" is a fate worse than death.
Stuff To Watch For:
7 mins - Before you open that door, let's go over the checklist. Matches: check, sweat-soaked handkerchief: check, sandy floor: check, functioning lungs: check, Milla Jovovich: uh-oh...
15 mins - You are lucky that you did not wake up slathered with KY and choking on a ball gag. They do that in films these days.
20 mins - That is the end of the movie! Thank you all for coming. Good night, and God bless...ah, fiddlesticks!
36 mins - Is that green felt?
42 mins - That looks like a bottle with a glow stick glued to the end.
50 mins - He is right about your voice. An-noy-ing. Say, shouldn't you be dead?
55 mins - Great galloping green garbanzos!
59 mins - That must be a Spyderco knife; the entire blade is serrated.
67 mins - You just missed the perfect opportunity, moron.
74 mins - Warning: the film becomes very painful, and it continues with painful for the next four minutes, at which point "complete and utter desolation of the movie watcher's soul" sets in. The movie actually gets better after it ends, because the propaganda announcer reappears.
Audio clips in wav format
Starving actors speak out
Wanda: "What don't you like about me, and I'll change?"
Ex-boyfriend: "All right: your glasses make you look stupid, your hair is ugly, you dress like a nerd, you walk like a clod, and your voice gives me a headache. Is that enough?"
Wanda: "How come you never told me this before? Huh? Why'd you even go out with me in the first place if I'm such a geek?"
Prof. Galba: "What do you want?"
Gus: "You was kicked out of the University for yapping about there being a surface world, right? Aliens and stuff?"
Prof. Galba: "Yes, yes."
Gus: "Well professor, how would you like to meet an alien?"
Charmin': "Okay, maybe I might help you. It's only because I'm a sucker for big-boned dolls in trouble. Now, tell me your problems and I'll decide if I've got the time."
Wanda: "Well, it started when I was ten years old."
Charmin': "Wait a second."
Wanda: "What?"
Charmin': "Is that really your voice? Come on."
Announcer: "Lord Over has issued a statement which reminds citizens of Atlantis that there is no such thing as a 'surface world,' and rumors of the actual existence of aliens are wrong, misleading, and counterproductive to the future of our great city-state."
Theme Song
Listen to a clip from the soundtrack.
Click for a larger image
Scenes from the movie
Watch a scene
MPEG video files
- 5.4m
Gus introduces Wanda to Atlantis. Gosh, her voice is so annoying that even the rocks would cover their ears.
The funny thing is that Wanda's irritating vocalization almost worked in the film's favor. They just got it too right.
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In our most recent update we moved in "Recurring Expenses", into your go-to invoicing software Zoho Invoice and your ever-so reliable accounting
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are going to sign off and let you try this feature. But we won't be
away for too long. We will be back soon with a very interesting addition
to talk about. Until then, enjoy accounting and invoicing with Zoho.


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Two men died and went to Heaven. St. Peter greeted them, and said Im sorry, gentlemen, but your mansions arent ready yet. Until they are, I can send you back to Earth as whatever you want to be.
Great! said the first guy, I want to be an eagle soaring above beautiful scenery!
No problem, replied St. Peter, and POOF! The guy was gone. And what do you want to be, St. Peter asked the other guy.
Id like to be one cool stud! was the reply. Easy, replied St. Peter, and the other guy was gone.
After a few months, their mansions were finished, and St. Peter sent an angel to fetch them back. Youll find them easily, he says… One of them is soaring above the Grand Canyon, and the other one is on a snow tire somewhere in Detroit!


text:
Event 2011 HRH Crown Prince Frederik Higashi-Matsushima School
On March 14, 2011, HRH Crown Prince Frederik visited Hamaichi Elementary School which had recieved a number of displaced children who had lost their former school to the tsunami on March 11, 2011. At the school HRH the Crown Prince met with and shared lunch with the school children. Afterwards he participated in a soccer match with the children. After an exciting and fun match the children of Hamaichi Elementary School won 3 - 2 against the Crown Prince and his team.Read More


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