text: Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been admitted to a police-run hospital in Guatemala City after suffering chest pains, it has been reported. McAfee's lawyer described the medical event as relating to "stress, hypertension and tachycardia" (a raised heart rate) and added that his client had not suffered a heart attack, as earlier assumed by reporters who photographed him lying in the back of an ambulance with his eyes closed.The US founder of the McAfee antivirus brand was finally arrested on Wednesday after sneaking into Guatemala from Belize where is wanted for questioning as a "person of interest" over the murder of his US-born neighbour, Gregory Viant Faull on 11 November.It is not clear when McAfee will be deported back to Belize - his legal team is mounting an appeal that could delay matters - but he has appeared upbeat in recent blog entries."I am in jail in Guatemala. Vastly superior to Belize jails. I asked for a computer and one magically appeared. The coffee is also excellent," he wrote nonchalantly in the hours before suffering his apparent medical problems.McAfee is keen not to return to Belize where he claims he might be killed by the authorities but seems aware that his date with police there is now only a matter of time."I just spoke with the duty officer at the Embassy who said there is nothing that they can do. I asked to be returned to the States, and again nothing they can do. So I will wait and see," he wrote on his blog. "P.S. Anybody have friends in the State Department?."From the start, McAfee's attempts to evade police questioning by going into hiding while blogging about it have sounded more like an hallucinogenic farce from the pages of Hunter S. Thompson than the aftermath of a serious crime.That Belize police haven't directly accused McAfee of any involvement in the death has added to the odd atmosphere hanging around the case.McAfee's claim to fame is for having founded McAfee Software in 1987, the company whose software now protects millions of PCs from malware depsite having had no connection to the famous entrepreneur since the 1990s.


text:
Top Items:
Apple's App Store Downloads Top Two Billion — More Than 85,000 Apps Now Available for iPhone & iPod touch — Apple® today announced that more than two billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world.
Discussion: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, TechFlash, jkOnTheRun, ReadWriteWeb, PC World, Technology News, Fast Company, mocoNews, Silicon Alley Insider, Brainstorm Tech, TheAppleBlog, Epicenter, Tech Trader Daily, The Forrester Blog …, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, Maximum PC, Pulse2, The Toybox, Between the Lines, The iPhone Blog, I4U News, IntoMobile, geeksmack.net, GMSV, TUAW, TechCrunch, Seeking Alpha, Neowin.net and The Apple Core
Todd Bishop / TechFlash: Apple's head start: 85,000 apps
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun: Why Isn't Microsoft Touting Number of Windows Mobile Apps?
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb: 2 Billion Downloads Later, Apple's App Store is Still Going Strong
David Coursey / PC World: After 2 Billion Downloads, Can The iPhone Be Stopped?
Don Reisinger / Technology News: Apple App Store hits 2 billion downloads, 85,000 apps
Tricia Duryee / mocoNews: Apple's App Store Hits Two Billion Downloads
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider: iPhone App Store Hits 2 Billion Downloads
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech: 85,500 iPhone apps, 2 billion downloads
Charles Jade / TheAppleBlog: App Store: 2 Billion Apps Served
John C Abell / Epicenter: With Two Billionth iPhone App Download, Apple Gets Blasé
Eric Slivka / MacRumors: Apple Surpasses 2 Billion App Store Downloads
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac: App store tops 2 billion downloads, 85,000 apps
Amit Chowdhry / Pulse2: Apple App Store Hits 2 Billion Downloads
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines: Apple's App Store: 2 billion apps downloaded
Rene Ritchie / The iPhone Blog: Apple's iPhone App Store Passes 2 Billion Downloads
Robert Evans / I4U News: Apple App Store: 2 Billion Downloads
Stefan Constantinescu / IntoMobile: Apple: 2 billion applications downloaded, 85,000 apps total …
John Murrell / GMSV: Apple's App Store — more than 2 billion served
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch: Apple Shares App Store Stats: 85k Apps Available, 2 Billion Downloads So Far
Andrew Fairbairn / Neowin.net: Apple's App Store passes 2 billion downloads
Jason D. O'Grady / The Apple Core: App Store surpassed 2B apps downloaded
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Apple's Apps Flying Off the Virtual Shelves: 6.6 Million Downloads Per Day — Another milestone Apple is happy to brag about: The company says it has served up two billion apps for the iPhone and iPod touch from its iTunes store. — How do we put that in context? A couple different ways.
Discussion: eWeek, MediaPost, NEWSFACTOR, Guardian, Reuters, VentureBeat, internetnews.com, Ars Technica, GigaOM, Bits, Agence France Presse, BusinessWeek, Softpedia News, GottaBeMobile.com, Boy Genius Report, Mashable! and AppScout
Don Reisinger / eWeek: 10 Ways Consumers, Companies Can Prepare for iPhone Ubiquity
Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost: How Many Of Those 2 Billion Apps Are Still Used?
Patricia Resende / NEWSFACTOR: Apple's App Store Reaches Two Billion Downloads
Charles Arthur / Guardian: Apple hits 2 billion App Store downloads - but what are they worth?
Sinead Carew / Reuters: Apple passes 2 billion app downloads
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Apple's AppStore downloads surpass two billion
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica: Over 2 billion served: App Store passes another milestone
Om Malik / GigaOM: 2 Billion iPhone Apps Downloaded, Apple Says
Brad Stone / Bits: Apple App Store Crosses Another Threshold
Peter Burrows / BusinessWeek: App Store Passes Two Billion Downloads
Warner Crocker / GottaBeMobile.com: Playing with Numbers: Apple Hails 2 Billion Downloads
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report: Apple App Store downloads pass the two billion mark
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!: 2 Billion Apps Downloaded From the Apple App Store
Brian Heater / AppScout: iPhone App Store Hits Two Billion Downloads
Franklin Paul / Reuters:
Xerox to buy Affiliated Computer for $6.4 billion — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Xerox Corp said on Monday it will buy Affiliated Computer Services Inc for $6.4 billion in a cash and stock deal that expands the copier company into technology outsourcing and data management.
Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and Gearlog
Kevin Kingsbury / Wall Street Journal: Xerox to Acquire ACS for $6.4 Billion
Brian Heater / Gearlog: Xerox to Acquire IT Company Affiliated Computer Services
Business Wire:
Xerox to Acquire Affiliated Computer Services
Xerox to Acquire Affiliated Computer Services
Katie Hoffmann / Bloomberg: Xerox to Buy Affiliated Computer for $6.4 Billion
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: M&A binge continues as Xerox buys ACS to get into services
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge: Xerox to Acquire ACS for $6.4 Billion
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM: Will Xerox's $6.4 Billion Bet on the Cloud Pay off?
James Rogers / TheStreet.com: Xerox Shares Plunge on ACS Acquisition
Rodney H. Brown / Mass High Tech: Xerox to pay $6.4B for Affiliated Computer Services
Cru Jones / Seeking Alpha: Xerox Shares Overreacting to ACS Deal
Voices on All Things Digital: Xerox Pays $6.4B for ACS in Cash and Stock; Share Price Down 12 Percent
Wade Roush / Xconomy: Xerox Spends $6.4B on ACS
David Schepp / DailyFinance: Stocks in the News: Abbott Labs, J&J, Xerox
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Xerox buys ACS; Makes its big services bet
Xerox buys ACS; Makes its big services bet
Discussion: internetnews.com, GMSV and Tech Trader Daily
John Murrell / GMSV: Xerox copies Dell, buys services company
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Google Wave Faces Tougher Test in Rollout to 100K Users — Table of Contents: — Google's Wave collaboration platform will soon face its first true test when the company rolls it out to 100,000 consumer and business users. Perhaps the biggest mystery is what companies will do to build on top of the Wave platform.
Discussion: DailyTech, Maximum PC and FierceVoIP
Shane McGlaun / DailyTech: Google Wave Headed to 100K Beta Users
Paul Lilly / Maximum PC: Google to Subject Wave to 100K Beta Testers
Pete Wylie / FierceVoIP: Google Wave to add 100k beta users
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
Online electronics store NewEgg files for $175M IPO — NewEgg, a consumer-facing online retailer that sells computer components and other electronics, including software, digital cameras, cell phones and laptops, has filed to go public, expecting to raise $175 million, reports PE Hub.
Discussion: TechCrunch, Between the Lines, alarm:clock, Reuters, Mashable! and Hardware 2.0
Leena Rao / TechCrunch: Newegg's IPO Filing Reveals The Financials Behind A $2 Billion Electronics Retailer
Adam Ostrow / Mashable!: Online Retailer Newegg to Raise $175 Million in IPO
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0: Windows 7 OEM pricing emerges ... some serious discounts available
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey invested in Foursquare — Twitter just closed a massive funding round that reportedly has given it a billion-dollar valuation. Meanwhile, co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey is making investments of his own: he's one of the undisclosed angel investors …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Mashable! and FierceVoIP
Christina Warren / Mashable!: Twitter Inventor Invests in Foursquare
Pete Wylie / FierceVoIP: Twitter nets $100M, valuation soaring
Phone Arena:
The Motorola Sholes A855 passes the FCC, next stop Verizon as the Tao? — Published on: Yesterday by PhoneArena Team — According to the FCC site, the Motorola Sholes A855 has passed testing. When going through the available files, we see that the Sholes A855 will not only support EVDO Rev A …
Discussion: Android Phone Fans, MobileCrunch, Softpedia News, I4U News, MobileTechWorld, Boy Genius Report and Mobilewhack.com
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch: Android-powered Motorola Sholes clears the FCC
Robert Evans / I4U News: Motorola Sholes Passes FCC Tests
Michael Bettiol / Boy Genius Report:
Motorola Sholes passes the FCC with EV-DO and Wi-Fi on board
Motorola Sholes passes the FCC with EV-DO and Wi-Fi on board
Discussion: IntoMobile, Softpedia News, pocketnow.com, Android Phone Fans, FierceWireless and Electronista
Stefan Constantinescu / IntoMobile: Brief: Motorola Sholes hits the FCC
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
With Google Places, Concerns Rise That Google Just Wants To Link To Its Own Content — One of the original goals of Google has always been to help people find the information they are looking for and get out of the way as fast as possible. It was a point of pride, and in fact a design principle …
Discussion: DSLreports, Beyond Search, Softpedia News, Techgeist and Search Engine Land, Thanks:atul
Stephen E. Arnold / Beyond Search: Google on Path to Becoming the Internet
Michael Klurfeld / Techgeist: Is Google Redirecting To Its Own Content Too Much?
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land: Despite Assurances, Google Places Pages Now Showing In Search Results
Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
Zune HD: The best portable media player you may never buy — On Friday, I bought a Zune HD 32, so that you wouldn't have to. — On Monday, I may return it. — The Zune HD is perhaps the best portable media player released by any vendor — even better than iPod touch.
Discussion: The SiliconANGLE, MobileContentToday and Podcasting News
Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins / The SiliconANGLE: Despite Recent Anti-Zune Sentiment, The Zune HD Still Has an Opportunity to Dominate
Todd Ogasawara / MobileContentToday: Microsoft Not Even Bothering to Market the Zune HD to Whet Interest?
James Lewin / Podcasting News: Zune HD: A Platform Without A Purpose
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Google Apps Outage Caused by High Load to Google Contacts — The downtime for Gmail and Google Contacts last week was caused by high load to Google Contacts. Google Apps users could not access or experienced disruptions in their Gmail accounts from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT.
Discussion: CloudAve
Krishnan Subramanian / CloudAve: Dear Google: Act Like A Cloud
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Yahoo's $100 Million TV Ad — Don't say they didn't warn you: Last week, Yahoo formally rolled out its new $100 million-plus marketing campaign. Today, the TV ads begin. Here's what you'll be getting if you watch AMC, ESPN, USA, Comedy Central, Bravo or any of the broadcast networks in the U.S. (Live in the U.K. or India?
Discussion: Yodel Anecdotal, AdAge, Search Engine Watch, paidContent, Between the Lines and AppScout
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge: What Do You Think of Yahoo's New TV Ad?
Nathania Johnson / Search Engine Watch: Yahoo! Unveils First Y!ou Ad
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent: Yahoo's New TV Ad: Count The 'Yous'
Chloe Albanesius / AppScout: Yahoo Kicks Off "Y!ou" Campaign With Random TV Ad
Mallary Jean Tenore / poynter.org:
AP Stylebook iPhone App Launches Today, a Hybrid of Print & Online Versions — In recent months, the AP Stylebook has made headlines for adding Twitter and other techy terms to its list of entries, increasing its print sales and redesigning its Web site. Now, in an attempt to reach …
Discussion: Editor and Publisher
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Lenovo vows 'unbelievably' fast Windows 7 boots — Business PCs will boot up to 56% faster — Computerworld - Lenovo Group Ltd. is staking an early claim to potentially key turf in the Windows 7 gold-rush: the PC vendor boasting the fastest boot-up and shutdown times.
Discussion: geeksmack.net
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Helios: Another Microsoft operating system project to watch — Microsoft's researchers are working on yet another operating-system research project which can trace its roots to the company's Singularity project. This new operating system, known as Helios, is a heterogeneous multiprocessing platform built around satellite kernels.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter Unearths A Secret: Journalists Have Opinions — "All Washington Post journalists relinquish some of the personal privileges of private citizens. Post journalists must recognize that any content associated with them in an online social network is, for practical purposes …
Discussion: Media Decoder, paidContent, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Maximum PC, techPresident, Pursuing the Complete … and /Message
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent: WaPo's Social Media Guidelines Paint Staff Into Virtual Corner …
Pulkit Chandna / Maximum PC: Washington Post's New Guideline to Curb Staff's Twitter Escapades
Nancy Scola / techPresident: Be Social, But Don't Get Personal: WaPo Tells Reporters How (Not) to Tweet
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Ignoring RIAA lawsuits cheaper than going to trial — Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum captured the nation's attention when they were defendants in the RIAA's first two trials against accused online infringers. But here's the mind-warping reality: both defendants …
Jon / p2pnet: Pay the RIAA? Nor not?
Michael Klurfeld / Techgeist: RIAA Trials Are Better For Defendants When Defendants Don't Show Up
Laura June / Engadget:
Website rates best and worst cellphones by radiation output levels — how does yours stack up? — You're surely aware that your cellphone bleeds radiation into your face the whole time you're on the phone with your mom, best friend or lover, right? Yes, it's a fact we try …
Discussion: digg.com
Kirby Chien / Reuters:
Unicom says to sell iPhones in China from October — China Unicom, the country's No. 2 mobile carrier, said on Monday Apple's popular iPhone would be sold in China from October at a retail price of 5,000 yuan ($732.5). — Eight service packages will be available for iPhones ranging …
Discussion: Engadget, Reuters, Brainstorm Tech, iPhone Buzz, MacRumors iPhone Blog, Softpedia News, IntoMobile, AppleInsider, Agence France Presse, SlashGear, I4U News, TUAW, iLounge, 9 to 5 Mac and Gearlog
Thomas Ricker / Engadget: China Unicom prices iPhone for October 1st launch
Kirby Chien / Reuters: Unicom to sell Apple iPhones in China from Oct
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech: China's mysterious iPhone plans
Shane McGlaun / iPhone Buzz: Unicom to sell iPhone 3G in China in October
Eric Slivka / MacRumors iPhone Blog: iPhone to Launch in China on October 1st
Stefan Constantinescu / IntoMobile: China Unicom iPhone launch day and prices unveiled: October 1st for $733
Shane McGlaun / SlashGear: China Unicom to get iPhone 3G in October
Shane McGlaun / I4U News: China Unicom Launching iPhone in October
Lauren Hirsch / TUAW: China Unicom to start selling the iPhone in October
Charles Starrett / iLounge: China Unicom announces iPhone pricing, October launch
Brian Heater / Gearlog: iPhone Coming to China Next Month
The Official Google Blog:
More insight into claimed content on YouTube — (Cross-posted from the YouTube Biz Blog) — We announced last week that we now have over 1,000 partners using our content identification and management tools to control how and where their videos are distributed on YouTube.
Discussion: NewTeeVee, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and Seeking Alpha
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb: More Data for YouTube's Partners: Google Integrates Content ID and YouTube Insights
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
Truckers Insist on Keeping Computers in the Cab — Crisscrossing the country, hundreds of thousands of long-haul truckers use computers in their cabs to get directions and stay in close contact with dispatchers, saving precious minutes that might otherwise be spent at the side of the road.
Discussion: Computerworld, blogs.chron.com and Gawker
Thomas Wailgum / Computerworld: Truck Drivers Told to Keep Computing, Despite Risks
Andrew Belonsky / Gawker: Truckers: Text War Spoilers?
Robin Blumenthal / Wall Street Journal:
Monster Has Plans to Become 800-Pound Gorilla of Job Ads — Amid the worst recession since the 1930s, Monster Worldwide, parent of online job site Monster.com, has been busily investing in its business. — Over the past three years, it has spent more than $200 million to redesign its Web site …
Agence France Presse:
EU orders MP3 makers to turn down the volume — The European Union on Monday ordered MP3 and mobile phone makers to turn down the volume on their must-have gagdets, warning on the risk of deafness to millions of teenagers. — Meglena Kuneva, who heads the European Commission's consumer protection unit …
Discussion: Computerworld, Reuters, Electronista, I4U News, Pocket-lint.com and Gearlog
Bate Felix / Reuters: EU seeks to turn down MP3s music player volumes
Robert Evans / I4U News: EU Turns Down The Music
Duncan Geere / Pocket-lint.com: EU imposes music player volume limit
Brian Heater / Gearlog: EU Looks to Legislate iPod Volume

subset: commoncrawl


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Resource Library
APQC's Resource Library is your source for timely and topical information to help you meet your most complex business process and knowledge management challenges. Explore our ever-growing collection of more than 8,000 research-based best practices, benchmarks and metrics, case studies, and other valuable APQC content.
Digital transformation and automation are changing the work that employees do and how they interact with information and one another. Organizations are experimenting with…


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Emerging European economies are starting to recover from a steep and painful slowdown.
By Justin Keay
For those of an anxious disposition, emerging Europe last year was an uncomfortable place, with the risk of panic never far away. Early hopes that the region might dodge the global downturn soon gave way to recognition that its close integration with the global economy, along with its dependence on exports to a depressed EU and on large inflows of foreign capital, had actually made it more exposed.
As the year proceeded, Serbia, Latvia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Romania all followed Hungary's 2008 lead in seeking substantial International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU) support. Concerns grew. Banking crises, sovereign default, rising unemployment leading to social unrest, political paralysis, a suspension or even reversal of reform programs—anything now seemed possible. This litany of worry was reinforced by new forecasts that suggested the region was nearing the financial precipice.
In October 2009, for example, the IMF revised earlier forecasts suggesting positive growth for most countries. The new figures were horrific: Instead of growing 4.8%, Romania's economy would instead contract 8.5%, while Bulgaria's hopes of GDP growth of 4.2% were dashed and replaced by fears of a 6.5% decline.
Southeast Europe was by no means the worst area. Latvia and Ukraine seemed locked in a grim contest in the doom-and-gloom stakes, as forecasters suggested declines of up to 20% (the final outcomes were, respectively, 18% and 15%), exacerbated in Kiev by a political paralysis that led the IMF to suspend disbursements from its $16.4 billion program at the end of 2009.
Looking back, however, it would seem that emerging Europe—for all the very real reversals its economies and people are still grappling with—averted the worst. Sure, GDP contracted by 6%—more in some countries—but analysts stress it is important to keep things in perspective. "Even those countries worst affected by the crisis, like Latvia, are still materially much better off than they were in 2006, before the downturn started," says Charles Robertson, head of emerging market research at ING Barings in London.
Moreover, although the man in the street may not feel it—particularly with many holding foreign debt rendered more expensive by local currency depreciation and unemployment still rising in most countries—the end of the downturn is nigh. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently raised its forecast for emerging Europe this year, suggesting GDP would expand 3.3%, rising to 3.8% in 2011. Within the region, EBRD president Thomas Mirow suggests central-east Europe will see "fragile and modest" growth due mainly to the Baltic states and Hungary, while a gradually recovering southeastern Europe has "the potential for faster growth."
Vibrant market: Poland was the only CEE country to post GDP growth last year
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are expected to recover fastest of all, with their economic growth fueled by rising oil and commodity prices. ING Barings anticipates Russian GDP growing 4.1% after a 9% contraction in 2009, while even Ukraine is expected to see growth of 2.5% on the back of its heavily devalued currency, recovering steel prices and widespread hopes that the new government will move to normalize relations with the IMF.
Another positive is that for now at least the region does not seem to carry much risk of contagion from the Greek crisis. "Emerging Europe's problems are not predominately fiscal, and those countries that were perceived as problematic in this regard, like Hungary and Latvia, have been moving fast to improve things," argues Neil Shearing of London-based consultancy Capital Economics.
Much of the reason for this guarded new confidence reflects what did not go wrong, despite the near panic that prevailed a year ago. Governments and central banks deserve much of the credit for this after following broadly sensible and realistic policies that helped sustain investor and market confidence. Proactive moves by the likes of the IMF, EU and EBRD also played a key role.
Thus, despite wobbles—such as those within Ukraine's local currency debt market last year—there were no sovereign defaults. Indeed, in March 2009 Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on Ukrainian sovereign debt to stable from negative, suggesting a rosier outlook for one of the countries most affected by the downturn.
Despite massive pressure, none of the countries with currency boards and fixed euro exchange rates—Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania—were forced into devaluation. And putting aside Latvia's Parex Banka (which had to be rescued) and various problems in the CIS, notably Kazakhstan and Ukraine, none of the region's largely foreign-owned banks failed.
This can be largely attributed to such moves as the Vienna Initiative, organized last year by international financial institutions, which encouraged West European parent banks to remain involved in the region and recapitalize their local subsidiaries as and when necessary. Backed by the €24.5 billion joint action plan sponsored by the IMF, EBRD and the European Investment Bank (EIB), which sought to enhance bank sector stability and support bank lending to the real economy, the Vienna Initiative played a key role in calming the febrile environment that developed in the wake of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
"Although not legally binding, this initiative may be the single most important reason for absence of either a currency collapse or the failure of a major bank," says Peter Sanfey, lead economist at the EBRD.
Another reason, though, was the relative stoicism of the people, who seemed to accept the need for often severe austerity measures, despite their impact on already constrained living standards. Cynics might argue that the many years of belt-tightening that accompanied the early years of transition inured people to tough times. Certainly this acceptance contrasts with the blind fury of Greeks and others in the eurozone who have responded with strikes and sometimes violent demonstrations.
So with the crisis largely passed, what does the immediate future hold? In the short term, sadly, more pain as the region gradually comes to terms with a very different post-crisis environment. The downturn may be over, but its effects are not. Almost everywhere will see an increase in non-performing loans, corporate defaults and bankruptcies, which will further test already risk-averse banks. As the EBRD's Mirow warns, "Recovery will be hampered by slow credit growth due to continuing weaknesses in bank balance sheets."
Mirow: "Recovery will be hampered
This will inevitably lead to higher unemployment, with all its accompanying negative social and political implications. These could include growing support for far-right parties such as Jobbik in Hungary, which was expected to do well in April's parliamentary elections, and the Slovak National Party, which may do likewise in Slovakia in June.
Some pessimistic observers have pointed to fears that the Greek crisis could somehow affect its banks, which have a significant presence in southeastern Europe, prompting them to reduce their presence in the region. Others reject this, pointing out that Alpha Bank and others worked hard to establish a leading market presence in such countries as Bulgaria and Romania and still see them as a source of growth, despite experiencing major falls in net profits last year.
However, growth is likely to be hampered by continuing tough action by governments to constrain fiscal deficits. Although by EU standards the region has relatively low indebtedness—the average is around 40%-50% of GDP—governments are desperate to be seen as paragons of fiscal probity, especially those angling to join the eurozone. This will help keep domestic demand weak at the same time as export demand continues to be hampered by the slow recovery in the EU, which remains by far the most important market for the region.
Investment Plunges
Foreign direct investment (FDI) will hardly play the role that it did in the pre-crisis era. Last year it fell by more than half the 2008 level to $77 billion. Some countries felt the pinch even more, proportionately: The Baltic states saw capital inflows plunge by over 70% while Russia also experienced a dramatic slowdown thanks to continued perceptions of widespread corruption, onerous bureaucracy and an overvalued currency caused by high oil prices.
A study released by PricewaterhouseCoopers in early 2010 suggested FDI would eventually reach 2008 levels, but not until 2013. To encourage inflows, many countries are expected to kick start privatization—most notably Poland and Croatia, which among other things plans to sell its ports into the private sector, once satisfactory buyers have been found. Russia also has ambitious sell-off plans, with stakes worth some $2.4 billion expected to be offered over the course of this year. Over the longer term, large, strategic businesses such as Russian Railways and shipping company Sovcomflot may launch IPOs to finance ambitious expansion schemes.
The possibility remains that the modestly upbeat growth projections of the IMF and EBRD will not be realized, which would have highly adverse consequences. "Another year of zero growth could accelerate bankruptcies to the point of crisis. This remains a dangerous time for emerging Europe, with the feeling that we are in something of a hiatus," says Bob McKee, global strategist with Independent Strategy, a London-based consultancy.
However, there are encouraging signs. In late March Hungary and Romania cut interest rates—to 5.5% and 6.5%, respectively—in response to improving market sentiment about their economies, which has led to an easing of pressure on the forint and leu. Generally improved sentiment within the eurozone in the wake of the Greek bailout is also good news, given this region's strong trade and investment connections to central and eastern Europe. And further ahead, market sentiment will be buoyed by such expected events as Estonia's joining the eurozone next year and Croatia finally being admitted to the EU in 2012.
For emerging Europe as whole, though, growth will be patchy, with southeastern Europe, which lagged central-east Europe heading into recession, likely lagging the rest of the region and the CIS heading out of recession, too.
"Recovery across the region will take a few years to play out, and when it settles down, [growth] will be around 4%, rather than the 7% to 8% we often saw pre-crisis. Those days, I'm afraid, are gone," says Capital Economics' Shearing.
They are both located in the heart of central Europe and for years have successfully attracted investors to their diversified economies. Both can boast well-educated workforces, cosmopolitan capital cities and attractive investor incentives. Historically at the forefront of fighting communism, both have seen their Socialist parties wither, with rightist parties now dominating the agenda.


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In our next-to-last edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, I (Fahey) decided to stick with a simple question that encompasses the very essence of what Speak Up was originally created to do. Commenter Saljuice want to know which video game bosses have given you the most trouble. Stephen Totilo doesn't count.
Last night I spent 3 hours trying to beat The Fury in Metal Gear Solid 3. This morning I beat him on my second try with no health loss.
What are the boss battles you've had the most trouble with?
About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have a forum on Kotaku called TAY. That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best TAY posts we can find and highlight it here.
Image via the amazing Saber-Scorpion.com


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Will Smith spent Friday night in the bleachers cheering on his oldest son Trey's high school football championship win. Look at Will. He does NOT have an 18 year old son. Trippy.
Trey, unlike his younger brother and sister Jaden and Willow, appears to be not interested right now in a life in the spotlight. It's been well enforced that he is off limits to the media, even though his teammates are able to talk to the press. (PS. That other kid? The blonde in the grey hoodie and glasses? That's Trevor Gretzky. He's a quarterback. I've attached a video below because, well, you know. He's exactly the mix of his dad a mom. This team is CRAZY. Joe Montana's son plays too.)
While Will was in California celebrating with Trey, his two younger children were in New York for Z100's Jingle Ball. Jaden, 12, performed with Justin Bieber. The week before, Willow whipped her hair at the Holiday Tree Lighting event in Los Angeles. I run to that song. It works. And I'm not going to lie. I am really into Willow Smith. In a way that makes me uncomfortable because she's 10 and it goes against my rage against parent pimps. But these Smith kids, they have It. They do. You can't take your eyes off of them. Willow describes it this way:
"It's what I've wanted to do my whole life. I get my flow from Daddy, my singing ability from Mommy, the camera stuff from both. That's just what happens when you hang out with the Smiths."
Her whole life? She's 10! She's only been conscious for, what?, like 5 years?
But...what's the rush?
And is it worth it for this?
"I never really get to go to school because I am always on tour or with my father. There is a tutor most of the time, but usually I am working so I never get to do the lessons. The worst thing about maths is all the kids are ahead of me because they go to school."
The effect of which is already revealing itself...
"Famous-ness is awesomeness... but some parts of famous-ness can be hard."
What's hard? When a 10 year old starts talking about "famous-ness" in terms of WORK, that's when it gets hard:
"It felt like all the hard work paid off, mostly that. All the hard work that I've done, like recording 'Whip My Hair' - it's paid off. We went to this building, I don't remember what it was, but we had a meeting and I got to hang out with [Jay-Z] and (sing with) him, and it was fun."
Having said that, here's how the Smiths are justifying their children's early entrance into the business:
"Being part of the family she's from, and working in the industry she's chosen, she needs some guidance. So I'm here to teach her how to look after her later. Willow isn't the breadwinner. Most times in this situation, a kid is supporting herself and an entire family. She's not doing it to support a family, so she can do as much or as little as she wants to." – Jada Pinkett-Smith
You know, she's right about her kids being different from the Lohans, the Spears, and the Cyrus ones too in that it's true Jaden and Willow don't need the money. So for them, what they're doing right now, the Karate Kidding, the hair whipping, they would say it's their version of your kids playing minor league hockey, soccer, violin, orchestra. I guess...? #I'mconflicted
Photos from Bauergriffinonline.com and Ernie M/EduStarts/Splashnewsonline.com and Bryan Bedder/Gettyimages.com


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The leader of Britain's Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has vowed, if he becomes the next prime minister in general elections on May 7, to outlaw "Islamophobia."
The move — which one observer has called "utterly frightening" because of its implications for free speech in Britain — is part of an effort by Miliband to pander to Muslim voters in a race that he has described as "the tightest general election for a generation."
With the ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labour running neck and neck in the polls just days before voters cast their ballots, British Muslims — who voted overwhelmingly for Labour in the 2010 general election — could indeed determine who will be the next prime minister.
In an interview with The Muslim News, Miliband said:
"We are going to make it [Islamophobia] an aggravated crime. We are going to make sure it is marked on people's records with the police to make sure they root out Islamophobia as a hate crime.
"We are going to change the law on this so we make it absolutely clear of our abhorrence of hate crime and Islamophobia. It will be the first time that the police will record Islamophobic attacks right across the country."
Miliband appears to be trying to reopen a long-running debate in Britain over so-called religious hatred. Between 2001 and 2005, the then-Labour government, led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, made two attempts (here and here) to amend Part 3 of the Public Order Act 1986, to extend existing provisions on incitement to racial hatred to cover incitement to religious hatred.
Those efforts ran into opposition from critics who said the measures were too far-reaching and threatened the freedom of speech. At the time, critics argued that the scope of the Labour government's definition of "religious hatred" was so draconian that it would have made any criticism of Islam a crime.
In January 2006, the House of Lords approved the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, after amending the text so that the law would be limited to banning only "threatening" words and not those that are merely abusive or insulting. Lawmakers also said that the offense would require the intention — not just the possibility — of stirring up religious hatred. They added that proselytizing, discussion, criticism, abuse and ridicule of religion, belief or religious practice would not be an offense.
Miliband's renewed promise to make "Islamophobia" (a term he has not defined) an "aggravated crime" may signal an attempt to turn the 2006 Act — which already stipulates a maximum penalty of seven years in prison for stirring up religious hatred — into a full-blown Muslim blasphemy law.
According to British commentator Leo McKinstry, "Miliband's proposal goes against the entire tradition of Western democracy, which holds that people should be punished only for their deeds, not their opinions." In an opinion article, he added:
"In Miliband's Britain, it will become impossible to criticise any aspect of Islamic culture, whether it be the spread of the burka or the establishment of Sharia courts or the construction of colossal new mosques. We already live in a society where Mohammed is now the most popular boy's name and where a child born in Birmingham is more likely to be a Muslim than a Christian. If he wins, Miliband will ensure that the accelerating Islamification of our country will go unchallenged."
McKinstry says Miliband is currying favor with Britain's three million-strong Muslim community to "prop up Labour's urban vote."
Muslims are emerging as a key voting bloc in British politics and are already poised to determine the outcome of local elections in many parts of the country, according to a report by the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella group.
The report shows that Britain's Muslim population is overwhelmingly young and will exert increasing political influence as time goes on. The median age of the Muslim population in Britain is 25 years, compared to the overall population's median age of 40 years.
An extrapolation of the available data indicates that one million British Muslims aged 18 and above will be eligible to vote in this year's election. According to one study, Muslims could determine the outcome of up to 25% of the 573 Parliamentary seats in England and Wales.
Others say that although Britain's Muslim community is growing, it is also ethnically diverse and unlikely to vote as a single group. One analyst has argued that the potential for Muslim influence in this year's election "will remain unrealized because the Muslim vote is not organized in any meaningful way on a national level."
A study produced by Theos, a London-based religious think tank, found that although Muslims consistently vote Labour, they do so based on class and economic considerations, not out of religious motives.
Indeed, a poll conducted by the BBC on April 17 found that nearly one-quarter of "Asian" voters still do not know which party they will support at the general election. Some of those interviewed by the BBC said that economic issues would determine whom they vote for.
In any event, Muslim influence in the 2015 vote will be largely determined by Muslim voter turnout, which has been notoriously low in past elections: Only 47% of British Muslims were estimated to have voted in 2010.
Since then, several grassroots campaigns have been established to encourage British Muslims to go to the polls in 2015, including Get Out & Vote, Muslim Vote and Operation Black Vote. Another group, YouElect, states:
"A staggering 53% of British Muslims did not vote in the 2010 General Election, such a high figure of Muslim non-voters indicates that many Muslims feel ignored by politicians and disillusioned by the political process.
"With the rise of Islamophobic rhetoric in politics and an ever increasing amount of anti-terror legislation which specifically targets Muslims, it is now more important than ever that Muslims use the vote to send a message to politicians that their attitudes and policies must change.
"YouElect wants to get the message across that there is something you can do about the issues you care about. We have launched a new campaign using the hashtag #SortItOut, which calls on Muslims to use the political process to address the issues that concern them most.
"With 100,000 new young Muslims eligible to vote this year and 26 parliamentary constituencies with a Muslim population of over 20%, the Muslim community has a very real opportunity to make an impact on British politics."
Not all Muslims agree. The British-born Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary is actively discouraging Muslims from voting. In a stream of Twitter messages using the #StayMuslimDontVote hashtag, Choudary has argued that voting is a "sin" against Islam because Allah is "the only legislator." He has also said that Muslims who vote or run for public office are "apostates."
Other British Islamists are following Choudary's lead. Bright yellow posters claiming that democracy "violates the right of Allah" have been spotted in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and Leicester, as part of a grassroots campaign called #DontVote4ManMadeLaw.
One such poster stated:
"Democracy is a system whereby man violates the right of Allah and decides what is permissible or impermissible for mankind, based solely on their whims and desires.
"Islam is the only real, working solution for the UK. It is a comprehensive system of governance where the laws of Allah are implemented and justice is observed."
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.


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Workbook Companion Vol. I (1-180)
Price: $17.95
In Stock
CMC *Supporting Members* pay only $16.16
To become a CMC *Supporting Member* click here
The indispensable companion to A Course in Miracles, illuminating your journey through its 365 daily lessons. Allen Watson and Robert Perry provide first-rate help and guidance in their Workbook Companion series. These books offer abundant provisions for the journey, from insightful teachings and personal anecdotes to detailed lesson instructions and cameo essays on related topics such as meditation in the Course. Allen and Robert's companionship and wise counsel make the lessons spring to life, bringing miracles into your daily experience.
Included are:
Volume I covers Lessons 1 through 180.
Thousands of ACIM students worldwide have already benefited from the lesson commentaries and summaries found in A Workbook Companion. Scores have written the authors to tell them how their practice of the Workbook lessons has been transformed and their understanding and appreciation of the teachings enriched.
A Workbook Companion has been revised before being reissued in this Second Edition.
From the Author, Allen Watson: "A Workbook Companion is intended, not as a replacement for the Workbook for Students, but as a companion to the Workbook to encourage students in practicing the exercises as we believe the author intended for us to do them. May these daily readings encourage you to put the daily thoughts offered by the Workbook into practice, filling your mind with them, until you begin to experience the inner peace and joy promised by A Course in Miracles."
By Allen Watson and Robert Perry


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The new version of Android, Jelly Bean, was to be officially rolled by a carrier for the first time this week in Australia. Sadly, Vodafone couldn't see it through, because the new OS failed to meet regulations related to emergency calls.
Vodafone announced the problem in a blog post yesterday, though it's a little scant on details. Currently, it's not clear whether this is a carrier-specific problem or an issue that has been present in Jelly Bean from the off.
Vodafone Australia was supposed to be the first carrier in any country to roll out the software update, which was to be targeted at the Nexus S. Currently, there's no estimate of when the update will now be available.
It remains unclear if this issue might affect the rollout of Jelly Bean in other countries. [Vodafone via The Next Web]


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A group of game developers in Austria say someone figured out the password to their PayPal account and used it to buy themselves a bunch of new PlayStation 4s.
The folks at Broken Rules, perhaps best known for the recent Wii U game Chasing Aurora, are in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign for their newest project, Secrets of Raetikon. Yesterday, they noticed that someone had used their PayPal account to order three new PS4s, which might have been kinda cool if it was one of them, and not some hacker who got his or her hands on the company's password.
Marketing man Martin Pichlmair (on the left up there) said he was bummed out about the hack.
"The amount was significant but not huge – a few thousand dollars," Pichlmair told me in an e-mail. "Still, it's the last thing you need during a crowdfunding campaign."
Pichlmair says it looks like PayPal has frozen the charges and will be refunding them the money. He thinks the hackers nabbed their password during the big Adobe hack last month, and he's hoping that everything gets sorted out soon.
"This does in fact feel like someone breaking into your house," said Pichlmair. "It teaches us to use different passwords for different services from now on and so it should teach you and your readers."


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text:
Avalanche Defeat Flames, Take 2-1 Lead In Playoff Series
DENVER (AP) — A wide-open Cale Makar screamed toward Nathan MacKinnon to deliver him the puck.
That made an instant impression with MacKinnon on a night when Makar made an immediate impact. This newly signed rookie isn't intimidated by the stage or his surroundings.
MacKinnon scored twice in the first period and set up Makar's first NHL goal in his debut as the Colorado Avalanche routed the Calgary Flames 6-2 on Monday to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
"It's pretty weird. Pretty special, though," Makar said of his first game. "Obviously, it's a cool moment."
Matt Nieto added a short-handed goal, and Mikko Rantanen and Erik Johnson also scored for the wild-card Avalanche, who built a 6-1 lead early in the third period and finished with 56 shots. Philipp Grubauer was credited with 27 saves.
MacKinnon had two power-play goals. But the goal of the night was turned in by Makar, the 20-year-old defenseman who was signed Sunday and jumped into Colorado's postseason lineup two days after his college season ended when Massachusetts lost in the Frozen Four championship game.
Makar, who grew up a Flames fan in Calgary, was the fourth overall pick by the Avalanche in 2017.
It didn't take long for Makar to make a big contribution as he took a drop pass from MacKinnon, fought off a Flames defender and beat goalie Mike Smith with a wrist shot — on his first NHL shot on net, too. Makar was immediately mobbed by teammates as his parents celebrated in the stands.
"I heard him, too. He was calling for it," MacKinnon said. "First game ever and he screamed at me. That's great. You want a player to be aggressive, assertive, and I was really impressed by that."
Sam Bennett and TJ Brodie scored for the Flames, the top seed in the Western Conference.
PHOTO GALLERY: Avalanche 6, Flames 2
Game 4 is Wednesday night in Denver.
"We've got to regroup here, and stick together as a team," Calgary defenseman Mark Giordano said. "There wasn't much good, honestly, throughout the night. We made that team look and feel good all night."
There was talk of pulling Smith after the second period, just to save some energy. He didn't want to surrender the net.
"As a goalie in this league, you want to battle no matter how many goals have gone in," Smith said.
Things got physical in the third period with the game out of hand. First, Bennett was given a misconduct penalty for a fight with Matt Calvert. Later, Matthew Tkachuk received a misconduct penalty for mixing it up with Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who had a cut under his eye. Finally, Garnet Hathaway and Nikita Zadorov were sent to the dressing room for their skirmish.
"I thought it got away from us early and obviously we chased the game the rest of the game," Flames coach Bill Peters said.
The first period was a debacle for Calgary in falling behind 3-0. The team took two penalties on one play — hooking and too many men — to give Colorado an early 5-on-3 power play. MacKinnon sent in a high wrist shot over Smith.
Later in the first, the Flames were called for another penalty and MacKinnon added another power-play goal.
Still, it might be MacKinnon's pass that is best remembered. He set up Makar at 16:02 of the first period. The NHL communications department said on Twitter that Makar became the seventh player in NHL history and first defenseman to make his debut in the Stanley Cup playoffs and score a goal.
Wearing No. 8, Makar jumped on the ice early in the game and was given a loud cheer by the capacity crowd. About the only hiccup was in the second period when he lost control of the puck with no one around near his own goal. But he gained control just before it hit the post, with Grubauer looking back.
It's certainly been a whirlwind week for Makar: He won the Hobey Baker Award on Friday as college hockey's top player before losing to Minnesota Duluth on Saturday in the title game. He signed a three-year deal with Colorado on Sunday and arrived in town later that night.
Now, he's donning an Avs sweater against the team he grew up rooting for. He practiced with Colorado for the first time Monday morning.
While in college, he caught his fair share of Avalanche games.
"When I wasn't doing homework and other stuff," Makar said. "I like the way they play. They're very fast."
NOTES: Tkachuk slid into the boards in the second period and lost a blade on his skate. ... Avalanche D Samuel Girard was out with an upper-body injury. ... Avalanche D Ian Cole had two assists. ... The 56 shots were the most by Colorado in a playoff game since June 10, 1996, at Florida. That total was also 56, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Calgary will try to tie the series in Game 4 on Wednesday night in Denver.
By PAT GRAHAM, AP Sports Writer
(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Best Way To Teach Kids To Read
- Posted on 26th March 2021
- in Articles, Parenting
- by Amy Stewart
What is the best way to teach children to read?
According to the National Reading Panel, teaching children to manipulate phonemes in words was highly effective under a variety of teaching conditions and learners.
From across a range of grade and age levels and that teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to Phonemic Awareness."
This is a statement made by the National Reading Panel (NRP) in their report titled Teaching Children To Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment Of The Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction.
Phonemic Awareness instruction was selected for review by the NRP in their report because studies have identified phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as 2 of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read in their first 2 years of entering school.
There is strong scientific evidence to suggest that phonemic awareness instructions are an important part in helping children develop reading skills.
One study discussed the presence of phonemic awareness in Austrian children aged 6 to 7 that were unable to read when first entering school.
This study found that many children had not one correct response in their test of a simple vowel substitution task.
However, a few children who exhibited high phonemic awareness scored close to perfect on this same task.
The study further stated that there was a specific predictive relationship between initial phonemic awareness differences and success in learning to read and to spell.
Even more importantly, the study indicated that it was phonemic awareness abilities, and not IQ, that predicted the accuracy of reading and spelling at the end of grade one.
Children with high phonemic awareness at the beginning of grade one had high reading and spelling achievements at the end of grade one, compared to some children with low phonemic awareness who had difficulties learning to read and spell.
In the National Reading Panel report, they also determined that the beneficial effects of phonemic awareness on reading lasts well beyond the period of training.
While phonemic awareness instructions are proven to significantly help children learn reading, it is not a complete reading program.
What it does, is provide children with a foundational knowledge base of the alphabet language.
The NRP analysis also showed that phonics instructions produce significant benefits for students from kindergarten through grade 6, and is also helpful for children with learning to read difficulties.
Children who are taught with phonics and phonemic awareness instructions are consistently able to decode, read, and spell, and even demonstrated significant improvement in their ability to comprehend text.
Even older children who receive these similar teachings improved their ability to decode and spell.
The NRP made a key statement saying that conventional wisdom has suggested that kindergarten students might not be ready for phonics instruction, this assumption was not supported by the data.
The effects of systematic early phonics instruction were significant and substantial in kindergarten and the 1st grade, indicating that systematic phonics programs should be implemented at those age and grade levels.
However, I would like to further expand on that by saying that children as young as 2 years old can learn to read through phonics and phonemic awareness instructions.
If a young child can speak, then they should be able to learn to read, even if they are as young as 2 years old.
In fact, I have proven this with my own children.
We started teaching our daughter at 2 years and 8months, and she was very capable at reading by the time she was just 2 years and 11 months old.


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- This event has passed.
DAY-HYBRID-EMIS Weekly Workshop
March 28 @ 8:30 am - 10:00 amFree
This is a hybrid meeting that will be both in person and via ZOOM meeting. Registration is REQUIRED for the IN PERSON VERSION of this event.
This will be a ZOOM version and an In Person version at the same time. Registration for the ZOOM Meeting is not required. The link for the EMIS Weekly Workshop will be sent to all META Dayton EMIS Coordinators the Monday before the workshop. Remember, you can join us during the ZOOM meeting to get answers to any questions or concerns you may have, or just listen to questions or concerns that others have. Additionally, you can join the meeting for the entire time- or any part of the time.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the online EMIS Weekly Workshops (email@example.com).


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Google Summer of Code 2014 Ideas
- Back to the main OSGeo Google Summer of Code 2014 wiki page.
OSGeo Google Summer of Code 2014
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation would like to extend a welcome to all SoC students. On this page you will find links to a host of ideas organized by project. You will find ideas ranging from the depths of computer science graph theory to the heights of visualization. One thing all these ideas have in common is lots and lots of spatial data.
These ideas are *only* to motivate you, and serve as example of the kind of hills we want to charge up. Your own ideas are more than welcomed - they are encouraged. We view you as the next wave of open source leaders; show us what you've got.
- Students: If you need more information on how to apply you can contact all the mentoring organisations via the OSGeo-SoC mailing list (see below)
- There is a Google SoC flyer to look at and post in appropriate places and an OSGeo flavoured one as well.
- Ok, OSGeo is involved in working with maps and things, but what kind of projects does it really do? Have a look at the live blog feed to see what people are working on right now.
- Mentors, there's an additional link providing some tips and specifying your responsibilities on the main OSGeo Google Summer of Code 2014 wiki page.
Important dates
- February 24: Google announces accepted organizations.
- If OSGeo is accepted as an organization for Google Summer of Code, start talking to us earlier rather than later.
- March 10: Student applications open.
- The earlier you start the more probable it is that you will be accepted!
- There is two way feedback during the application process which really helps you improve and clarify your application before the final deadline. The better your involvement with your potential mentors during this period, the better your chances of being selected.
- March 21: Student application deadline.
- April 21: Accepted student proposals are announced and Community Bonding Period begins.
- May 19: Coding begins!
- (you may unofficially start a week or two earlier if you know you'll have to take a week or two off during The Summer or you'll be sitting finals in the first week(s) of the program. This must be reflected in your application timeline)
- June 23: Mid-term evaluation begins
- August 11-18: Pencils down!
- August 18-22: Final evaluations
- August 22: Students begin submitting required code samples to Google
- August 25: Final results announced
The ideas pages
[Check back often, it's a work in progress]
Each participating project's list of ideas is on the respective projects' wikis, with a short description of the project and what type of students would be interested in it:
OSGeo Foundation member projects
- More coming soon: Get started talking to your favorite project's development team today!
- GRASS GIS SoC Ideas: GRASS GIS is an open source GIS focusing on analysis, modeling and visualization. It is a collection of modules written in C and Python and has a GUI written in wxPython. If you know Python, or want to implement algorithms in C, take a look!
- QGIS SoC Ideas: QGIS is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports vector, raster, and database formats. It is written in C++ and Python.
- GDAL Ideas: GDAL is a C++ library for reading and writing geospatial data raster and vector formats.
- gvSIG Ideas: gvSIG is a free GIS project for Desktop, PDAs, and mobile phones. The gvSIG project looks for students with Java skills that want to develop new ideas on any of these products.
- Opticks Ideas: Opticks is an extensible remote sensing and imagery analysis desktop application. It provides a framework to process remote sensing data such as Hyperspectral (HSI), Multispectral (MSI), and Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery and video. The application is written in C++ and licensed under LGPL v2.1. Extensions are written using C++ or Python. You can review the available extensions and feature tour to get a better idea of what Opticks can do.
- OSGeo-Live Ideas: OSGeo-Live packages over 50 of the best geospatial open source projects, preconfigured with data, quickstarts and project overviews. (See below)
- PostGIS Ideas: PostGIS spatially enables the popular PostgreSQL object-relational database, allowing it to be used as a back-end database for geographic information systems (GIS) and web-mapping applications.
- OSSIM SoC Ideas: OSSIM Open Source Software Image Map (OSSIM) is a high performance engine for remote sensing, image processing, geographical information systems and photogrammetry. It has been actively developed since 1996.
Guest projects
- LSIViewer Ideas: LSIViewer Libre Spatial Information Viewer (LSIViewer) is a web based geospatial data viewer which allows you to view your data, style it, export to SVG/PNG/JPEG formats and can be for used in reports and presentation. It uses Wt, a C++ web toolkit which comes with its own http server and has good support for embedded platforms. The initial version had support for only shapefiles but around 13 vector formats, OSM layer, 3D view has been experimental on the lab's internal repository.
- OpenStreetMap Ideas: OSM is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways.
- This year OpenStreetMap students will again be hosted under OSGeo's GSoC umbrella. Talk to OSM, but apply with us. Begin your proposal description with "OSM: " so we know which way to direct it.
- pgRouting Ideas: pgRouting extends the PostGIS / PostgreSQL geospatial database to provide geospatial routing functionality and more.
- PyWPS Ideas: PyWPS is server implementation of OGC WPS standard on server side using Python programming language. Currently, new version of PyWPS is being done, were we would like to implement several new attractive features.
- JGrasstools and uDig SoC Ideas: User-friendly Desktop GIS (uDig) is a Java application written with the Eclipse RCP framework. The project has a community svn area to host student plug-ins, tutorials cover how to package up a custom application to show off your work.
- FIXME: move to a member project's idea page:
- Feature-based Map Algebra SoC Ideas Map algebra (or cartographic modeling) operations provide powerful tools for analyzing and manipulating geographic data in the raster data model both in commercial and open source GIS software. This project extends these operations to the vector data model and makes them available in PostGIS and QGIS. It will be implemented primarily using the Python programming language.
Which project do I choose?
Most of the software projects are available pre-built on our Live demo { DVD | USB stick | VirtualMachine } with project overviews and short tutorials where you can try everything out.
- View the documents and download the ISO from http://live.osgeo.org
How to get in contact via mailing lists
Since OSGeo is an umbrella organisation for multiple projects, each project has their own discussion and development mailing lists.
Main OSGeo mailing lists of interest to students:
- Please start here, when contacting us for the first time with questions about Google Summer of Code.
- OSGeo SoC Mentors and Students - email@example.com (http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/soc)
- OSGeo Wide Discussion List - email@example.com (http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss)
Also see the Mailing Lists page for project specific lists, as well as the longer list at http://lists.osgeo.org.
How to get in contact via IRC
Primary channel:
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#osgeo (Web based IRC client, alternative)
GSoC @ OSGeo inter-project discussions:
Project irc channels:
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#gdal
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#geoserver
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#geotools
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#grass
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#gvsig
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#mapguide
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#mapnik
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#mapserver
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#openlayers
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#opticks
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#osgeolive
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#ossimplanet
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#pgrouting-project
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#postgis
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#qgis
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#udig
- irc://irc.oftc.net/#osm-dev
Application questions we'll ask you
- All questions must be answered, no exceptions. Treat this as something between a formal job application and a scholarship application, because that's exactly what it is.
Name: Country: School and degree: Email: Phone: OSGeo project(s): Title: (please include the name of the member project as part of the title, for example: "Gee Whiz Foobar 2001 for QGIS") Describe your idea 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. The idea 4. Project plan (detailed timeline: how do you plan to spend your summer?) 5. Future ideas / How can your idea be expanded? Explain how your SoC task would benefit the OSGeo member project and more generally the OSGeo Foundation as a whole: Please provide details of general computing experience: (operating systems you use on a day-to-day basis, languages you could write a program in, hardware, networking experience, etc.) Please provide details of previous GIS experience: Please provide details of any previous involvement with GIS programming and other software programming: Please tell us why you are interested in GIS and open source software: Please tell us why you are interested in working for OSGeo and the software project you have selected: Please tell us why you are interested in your specific coding project: Would your application contribute to your ongoing studies/ degree? If so, how? Please explain how you intend to continue being an active member of your project and/or OSGeo AFTER the summer is over: Do you understand this is a serious commitment, equivalent to a full-time paid summer internship or summer job? Do you have any known time conflicts during the official coding period? (May 19 to August 18)
What to expect during the summer
- A group of past GSoC students, mentors, and Googlers have prepared this short book just for you:
- Flip bits not Burgers: The Student's Guide to the Summer of Code -- READ THIS eBOOK
Be prepared to be in constant communication with your mentors and project
You and your mentors will decide on the specifics, but we will expect you and your mentor to communicate *a lot*. Part of the idea of SoC is to integrate you into the developer community, so you should get involved with them from the start. The more you communicate the easier it will be. Don't be afraid that the mentors will request your phone number. It is only to make sure that we can reach you in case of problems, like making sure you get paid.
University exams and semester terms vary widely, if we know in advance that you need a week off to study, or that you've already scheduled a short vacation to somewhere off the grid, that's fine and won't count against you. But you need to communicate this up front so we can make a plan to work around it.
Weekly reports
Yes, every week we expect to see a report posted to the soc@osgeo mailing list that at least answers the following questions:
- What did you get done this week?
- What do you plan on doing next week?
- Are you blocked on anything?
These questions BTW are the same as are used in real-work, when developing with the Scrum development process. ;)
If you want, feel free to write *more*. But three sentences is the bare minimum. *IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU SEND YOUR PROGRESS REPORTS ON TIME*, if you don't send this email your mentors will start to get twitchy, and *especially* if they don't get any responses to their emails / don't see you in IRC. Twitchy mentors is not what we want. If you are blocked by finals, that's cool. We have all studied at some point, just tell us about it up front, be honest, and we'll work around it. If you don't know how to proceed and your mentor isn't answering *definitely* tell about it. The SoC project admins will always be available. Basically the point is that you open up the communication channels, and keep them open. That way you will have a super summer, and get paid ;)
Last year this weekly report proved to be very popular among the students and mentors alike, so we will keep it up.
Wiki page and blogs
In addition to weekly reports we require you to maintain a wiki or blog page for your project. You should store your weekly reports there and add other information, like how to compile and test your program. If applicable add screenshots and other nice info.
Wiki and/or blog space can and will be provided by OSGeo if your project doesn't have anything already set up for this.
We plan to link all of the students' blogs to the OSGeo Planet blog aggregator for maximum community exposure and hopefully early feedback from the experts who read it, which may save you a lot of time and trouble if, for example, some obscure wheel has already been invented by another partner project.
Final reports from those blogs and wiki pages will be collected into a OSGeoofcode posting about what everyone did during the summer, ensuring you long lasting fame and fortune. (Or failing that, a bit of public press, a bit of cash from Google, and a lot of gratitude and kudos from us, your peers.)
[Back to Google Summer of Code 2014 @ OSGeo]


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Colorado and the nation have a long ways to go in keeping us all safer from gun violence.
But Gov. John Hickenlopper took at least a small step forward this week by proposing a renewed focus on mental health services in Colorado. The changes he proposed are tentative, and far from what's needed not only to provide for desperately needed mental health services, but also for services that might somehow stop assaults and murders.
After months of focus, Hickenlooper is asking state lawmakers to provide an additional $19 million to expand statewide mental health services, which would include a crisis hotline and five always-open walk-in centers.
It's a start, but Hickenlooper and others are naive if they believe this might make a substantive dent in the incredible need for services in Colorado, or that this alone would be enough to create a community safer from gun violence than it is today. A safer community depends just as much on gun control reform, if not more. But increasing mental health services is equally needed, only the need calls for much, much more.
Last year, a report revealed that states and the federal government had cut a whopping $2 billion from mental health programs across the country, sending already overloaded and nearly meaningless resources to the breaking point. Here and across the country, massive cuts to mental health services in the 1960s and 1980s have been combined with consistent and pervasive smaller reductions in services. The entire problem is made worse because mental health services still carry a stigma with most of the population, and many health insurance companies provide unsatisfactory and often no benefits for paying members.
Truly, when looking at some cases of horrendous gun violence, including right here in Aurora in the case of James Holmes and the July 20 theater shootings, the deadly shooting melee that left former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords with brain damage, and most likely the recent slaughter of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, prophylactic mental health intervention might have prevented these massacres.
But as with so many deadly and critical issues in the United States, our shortsightedness means that we prefer a government that deals with dangerous problems after the fact, rather than head them off. A host of Colorado lawmakers irresponsibly gutted mental health programs during the 1990s in an effort to reduce the size of Colorado's government. Now, those who would have been much happier, healthier and productive persons, are being treated by state-sponsored mental health programs. They have become expensive liabilities in prison cells and state hospitals.
It's a lesson that legislators never seem to learn. By ignoring the real mental health needs of so many here and across the country, hoping they'll just go away or really not caring about those who are suffering, we create a system that costs so much more in providing an endless list of other, more expensive programs and services to people who just don't function.
It's not just state officials who just don't get it. In 2006, Aurora lawmakers killed an effort by Aurora Mental Health to create a mental health district at bargain rates to ensure residents with psychological problems get the treatment they need to keep them living productive lives instead of becoming expensive liabilities in prisons, state hospitals and unemployment programs. We could not create a more expensive or ineffective way to deal with health care in the United States if we tried.
So while we applaud Hickenlooper for recognizing Colorado's shortfall when it comes to mental health services, we want to point out how little this proposal really offers compared to what's needed. As the state Legislature reconvenes in January, we would hope state House and Senate leaders find a way to expand on the governor's recommendations.


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Starting from Android 6.0 (API level 23), Android introduces two power-saving features that extend battery life for users by managing how apps behave when a device is not connected to a power source. Doze reduces battery consumption by deferring background CPU and network activity for apps when the device is unused for long periods of time. App Standby defers background network activity for apps with which the user has not recently interacted.
While the device is in Doze, apps' access to certain battery-intensive resources is deferred until maintenance windows. The specific restrictions are listed in Power Management Restrictions.
Doze and App Standby manage the behavior of all apps running on Android 6.0 or higher, regardless whether they are specifically targeting API level 23. To ensure the best experience for users, test your app in Doze and App Standby modes and make any necessary adjustments to your code. The sections below provide details.
Understanding Doze
If a user leaves a device unplugged and stationary for a period of time, with the screen off, the device enters Doze mode. In Doze mode, the system attempts to conserve battery by restricting apps' access to network and CPU-intensive services. It also prevents apps from accessing the network and defers their jobs, syncs, and standard alarms.
Periodically, the system exits Doze for a brief time to let apps complete their deferred activities. During this maintenance window, the system runs all pending syncs, jobs, and alarms, and lets apps access the network.
At the conclusion of each maintenance window, the system again enters Doze, suspending network access and deferring jobs, syncs, and alarms. Over time, the system schedules maintenance windows less and less frequently, helping to reduce battery consumption in cases of longer-term inactivity when the device is not connected to a charger.
As soon as the user wakes the device by moving it, turning on the screen, or connecting a charger, the system exits Doze and all apps return to normal activity.
Doze restrictions
The following restrictions apply to your apps while in Doze:
- Network access is suspended.
- The system ignores wake locks.
- Standard
AlarmManageralarms (including
setWindow()) are deferred to the next maintenance window.
- If you need to set alarms that fire while in Doze, use
- Alarms set with
setAlarmClock()continue to fire normally — the system exits Doze shortly before those alarms fire.
- If you need to set alarms that fire while in Doze, use
- The system does not perform Wi-Fi scans.
- The system does not allow sync adapters to run.
- The system does not allow
JobSchedulerto run.
Doze checklist
- If possible, use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for downstream messaging.
- If your users must see a notification right away, make sure to use an FCM high priority message. Be sure to only use high priority for messages that will result in a notification. For more guidance, refer to FCM's documentation on message priority for Android.
- Provide sufficient information within the initial message payload, so subsequent network access is unnecessary.
- Set critical alarms with
- Test your app in Doze.
Adapt your app to Doze
Doze can affect apps differently, depending on the capabilities they offer and the services they use. Many apps function normally across Doze cycles without modification. In some cases, you must optimize the way that your app manages network, alarms, jobs, and syncs. Apps should be able to efficiently manage activities during each maintenance window.
Doze is particularly likely to affect activities that
AlarmManager alarms and
timers manage, because alarms in Android 5.1 (API level 22) or lower do not fire when the system
is in Doze.
To help with scheduling alarms, Android 6.0 (API level 23) introduces two new
AlarmManager methods:
setAndAllowWhileIdle() and
setExactAndAllowWhileIdle(). With these methods,
you can set alarms that will fire even if the device is in Doze.
Note: Neither
setAndAllowWhileIdle() nor
setExactAndAllowWhileIdle() can fire alarms more
than once per 9 minutes, per app.
The Doze restriction on network access is also likely to affect your app, especially if the app relies on real-time messages such as tickles or notifications. If your app requires a persistent connection to the network to receive messages, you should use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) if possible.
To confirm that your app behaves as expected with Doze, you can use adb commands to force the system to enter and exit Doze and observe your app's behavior. For details, see Testing with Doze and App Standby.
Understanding App Standby
App Standby allows the system to determine that an app is idle when the user is not actively using it. The system makes this determination when the user does not touch the app for a certain period of time and none of the following conditions applies:
- The user explicitly launches the app.
- The app has a process currently in the foreground (either as an activity
or foreground service, or in use by another activity or foreground service).
Note: You should only use a foreground service for tasks the user expects the system to execute immediately or without interruption. Such cases include uploading a photo to social media, or playing music even while the music-player app is not in the foreground. You should not start a foreground service simply to prevent the system from determining that your app is idle.
- The app generates a notification that users see on the lock screen or in the notification tray.
- The app is an active device admin app (for example, a device policy controller). Although they generally run in the background, device admin apps never enter App Standby because they must remain available to receive policy from a server at any time.
When the user plugs the device into a power supply, the system releases apps from the standby state, allowing them to freely access the network and to execute any pending jobs and syncs. If the device is idle for long periods of time, the system allows idle apps network access around once a day.
Using FCM to interact with your app while the device is idle
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is a cloud-to-device service that lets you support real-time downstream messaging between backend services and apps on Android devices. FCM provides a single, persistent connection to the cloud; all apps needing real-time messaging can share this connection. This shared connection significantly optimizes battery consumption by making it unnecessary for multiple apps to maintain their own, separate persistent connections, which can deplete the battery rapidly. For this reason, if your app requires messaging integration with a backend service, we strongly recommend that you use FCM if possible, rather than maintaining your own persistent network connection.
FCM is optimized to work with Doze and App Standby idle modes. FCM high priority messages let you reliably wake your app to engage the user. In Doze or App Standby mode, the system delivers the message and gives the app temporary access to network services and partial wakelocks, then returns the device or app to the idle state. For time sensitive, user-visible notifications, consider using high priority messages to enable delivery in Doze mode. High priority messages are expected to result in notifications. See FCM's guidance on high priority messages for more information.
For messages that don't result in notifications, such as keeping application content up to date in the background or initiating data syncs, normal priority FCM messages are the correct choice. Normal priority messages are delivered immediately if the device is not in doze. If the device is in Doze mode, they are delivered during the periodic doze maintenance windows or as soon as the user wakes the device.
As a general best practice, if your app requires downstream messaging, it should use FCM. If your app already uses FCM, make sure that it uses high priority messages only for messages that result in user-facing notifications.
Support for other use cases
Almost all apps should be able to support Doze by managing network connectivity, alarms, jobs, and syncs properly, and by using FCM messages. For a narrow set of use cases, this might not be sufficient. For such cases, the system provides a configurable list of apps that are partially exempt from Doze and App Standby optimizations.
An app that is partially exempt can use the network and hold partial
wake locks during Doze and App Standby. However, other
restrictions still apply to the app, just as they do to
other apps. For example, the app's jobs and syncs are deferred
(on API level 23 and below), and its regular
alarms do not fire. An app can check whether it is currently on the exemption
list by calling
Users can manually configure the list of exempted apps in Settings > Battery > Battery Optimization. Alternatively, the system provides ways for apps to ask users to exempt them:
- Most apps should invoke an intent
that contains the
- Apps that satisfy an acceptable use case
can instead invoke an intent that contains the
ACTION_REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONSintent action to let the user add the app to the exemption list directly, without going to system settings.
Note: Google Play policies prohibit apps from requesting direct exemption from Power Management features in Android 6.0+ (Doze and App Standby) unless the core function of the app is adversely affected.
An app can check whether it is currently on the exemption list by calling
Testing with Doze and App Standby
To ensure a great experience for your users, you should test your app fully in Doze and App Standby.
Testing your app with Doze
You can test Doze mode by following these steps:
- Configure a hardware device or virtual device with an Android 6.0 (API level 23) or higher system image.
- Connect the device to your development machine and install your app.
- Run your app and leave it active.
- Force the system into idle mode by running the following command:
$ adb shell dumpsys deviceidle force-idle
- When ready, exit idle mode by running the following command:
$ adb shell dumpsys deviceidle unforce
- Reactivate the device by performing the following command:
$ adb shell dumpsys battery reset
- Observe the behavior of your app after you reactivate the device. Make sure the app recovers gracefully when the device exits Doze.
Testing your app with App Standby
To test the App Standby mode with your app:
- Configure a hardware device or virtual device with an Android 6.0 (API level 23) or higher system image.
- Connect the device to your development machine and install your app.
- Run your app and leave it active.
- Force the app into App Standby mode by running the following commands:
$ adb shell dumpsys battery unplug $ adb shell am set-inactive <packageName> true
- Simulate waking your app using the following commands:
$ adb shell am set-inactive <packageName> false $ adb shell am get-inactive <packageName>
- Observe the behavior of your app after waking it. Make sure the app recovers gracefully from standby mode. In particular, you should check if your app's Notifications and background jobs continue to function as expected.
Acceptable use cases for exemption
The table below highlights several use cases and whether it's acceptable for
apps to use the
intent action in these situations. In general, your app shouldn't be
on the list unless Doze or App Standby break the core
function of the app or there is a
technical reason why your app cannot use FCM high priority messages.
For more information, see Support for other use cases .
|Can use FCM?
|Exemption acceptable?
|Instant messaging, chat, or calling app.
|Requires delivery of real-time messages to users while device is in Doze or app is in App Standby.
|Yes, using FCM
|Not Acceptable
|Should use FCM high priority messages to wake the app and access the network.
|Yes, but is not using FCM high priority messages.
|Instant messaging, chat, or calling app; enterprise VOIP apps.
|No, can't use FCM because of technical dependency on another messaging service or Doze and App Standby break the core function of the app.
|Safety app
|Apps that keep their users and their families safe.
|If applicable.
|Task automation app
|App's core function is scheduling automated actions, such as for instant messaging, voice calling, or new photo management.
|If applicable.
|Peripheral device companion app
|App's core function is maintaining a persistent connection with the peripheral device for the purpose of providing the peripheral device internet access.
|If applicable.
|App only needs to connect to a peripheral device periodically to sync, or only needs to connect to devices, such as wireless headphones, connected via standard Bluetooth profiles.
|If applicable.
|Not Acceptable


text:
MORE Parks in one space
Get outside and enjoy nature. Florida's Space Coast preserves its natural legacy within many parks including the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, Canaveral National Seashore, and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. There are a total of 108 parks, 3 campgrounds, 3 golf courses, 6 nature centers, 42 beach access sites, 13 school athletic sites, and more than 17,000 acres of environmentally endangered lands sanctuaries and conservation areas.
Visitors can discover unique features and recreational opportunities available throughout the park system including:
- Public golf at beautiful golf courses
- Camping at unique campgrounds
- Horse trails, fishing holes and nature trails
- Boating with access to the waterways by boat ramps at many parks
- Beach, river and lake swimming and various venues for watersports including sailing, windsurfing, surfing, rowing, paddling and sailing
- Sports facilities including softball, tennis, volleyball, horseshoes, shuffleboard, and ball fields
- Clubhouses, pavilions and playgrounds
Many county parks in Brevard preserve the sensitive ecosystem and include endangered lands and threatened species. Educational programs at nature centers and sanctuaries teach visitors about wildlife including the osprey, eagle, egret, pelican, sea turtles and manatees.
Don't Miss
Browse Properties
Enjoy the Space Coast and its restaurants at the same time! Everyone loves a picnic, and the Space Coast is full of incredible parks where you can bring some local...
Park it on the Space Coast! Hiking, biking, grilling, splashing, playing, learning – no matter how you like to enjoy the outdoors, there's the perfect park for you and your...
Vacation Planner for Florida's Space Coast
Dive into the Space Coast Vacation Planner then launch into an unforgettable getaway.


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SREC - solar renewable energy credit. The MA government under Deval Patrick set a goal to dramatically increase solar electric generation and jobs, and the increase has been dramatic - from under 4 MW in 2007 to 118 MW installed or in process currently. The state has used multiple tools, including tax credits and outright rebates from the MA Clean Energy Center, yet the one that will put the most green in my pocket is the SREC.
The utilities are required to have an increasing % of their generation from renewables and a portion of that from solar electricity. If they don't have it, they can purchase credits from those who do own systems producing solar kWh. Small systems like mine are pooled by aggregators (not to be confused with Republican presidential candidates, who are aggravators) who sell them into the open market quarterly at auction. The latest auction went for $540/mWh, or $0.54 per kWh (an SREC is 1,000 kWh or 1 mWh). That's almost three times what I pay for electricity from Nstar here on MV. My net after fees and such was $502 for my first SREC. My system should make 5-6 SRECs annually.
This golden goose doesn't last forever. I'm signed onto this for 40 quarters. Once the utilities hit the required targets the price will drop, but it's fairly likely that I'll be clearing over $250/SREC. So my SREC income over the next decade should be over $15,000. I should be installing solar electric systems wherever I can, it's a way better investment than any other I can make :-)
I'm not really a fan of subsidies. I wish for an economy where all subsidies are removed - if the effects of oil, gas, nuclear, etc. were accounted for, solar wouldn't need subsidies to compete. However, unlike a flat tax credit or a rebate, paying per unit of produced energy at least directs the subsidy towards lowering the cost of the technology - my motivation is to make as much energy as possible at the least cost, and that's the right form of incentive. If you live in MA, you should be putting solar electricity on your roof (or mounted on the ground) - get guaranteed dividends while cleaning up our energy supply.


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Happy Friday! If you are just stopping by today, welcome. Each Friday provides an opportunity for us to share the yummy recipes we bookmarked during the week. We had 19 amazing lists linked last week, and I found new recipes to Pin by browsing! Thanks to all of you who linked up & shared your recipe finds with us.
Here are the recipes that made my "to-try" list:
{Note: I'm using Pinterest for the photos/links - click on "source" to see the recipe}
Source: radreciperoundup.blogspot.com via FindingJoyInMyKitchen on Pinterest
Now, let's see what recipes you added to your list this week. Please link up to a post containing your list of recipes to try -- do not link up individual recipes please, save those for other linkys. Be sure to leave a link back here to Finding Joy in My Kitchen.


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The course builds on the foundation laid by the first course of the Specialization called "Introduction to Programming with MATLAB." It covers more advanced programming concepts such as recursion, vectorization, function handles, algorithm efficiency and others. At the same time, it presents many features that make MATLAB a powerful programming environment for engineering and scientific computing, such as its support for object oriented programming, the new user interface design environment and Live Scripts.
By the end of this course, you will be familiar with more advanced computer programming concepts, able to write more efficient code, and able to create object oriented MATLAB applications with graphical user interfaces.
What you will learn
Functions Revisited
How to Write Efficient Code?


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Dateline — Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, Charlottesville, Va.
Mom and Dad had seen enough.
At some point during the evening of Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 1980, my parents happily went to bed knowing that their guy, Ronald Reagan, was going to be elected the next president of the United States.
Me? The night had just begun. I was determined to stay up until it was official.
Sure, NBC had declared the Gipper the winner sometime around 8 p.m. Eastern Time, but polls were still open out west and President Jimmy Carter would not concede until shortly after midnight.
(AP/Ron Edmonds, File)
Finally, with the outcome no longer in question, I went into my parents' room and shouted, "We won! We won! Ronald Reagan is president!"
My dad rolled over and smiled. "We know, we know," then he offered a quick explanation of how they could know such a thing before polls were closed and before Carter had even conceded.
Then he added, "Now, quit jumping on my bed."
That was eight elections, four presidents and a whole mess of politics ago.
Not surprisingly, that 9-year-old bed-jumper went on to become a political junkie. And by political junkie, I mean psychologically dependent on the magic of "Crossfire" and "The McLaughlin Group."
Through the years, I learned a lot about government, politics and the people who make it all work. I learned that my first hero was more special and unique than I could have known that night in 1980. I also learned that he wasn't a perfect president, but he sure was a hopeful one who inspired my family to believe that it really was "morning in America again."
Credit: AFP/Getty Images
By the time I eased out of public policy to focus on writing fulltime, I was ready for a break. Partly because both my schedule and carry-on luggage couldn't hold any more, but also because I hadn't run into any presidential candidates who really make me want to jump on the bed.
Don't be mistaken — I've hardly gone "cold turkey." Televisions and computers in the Wright house still flip wildly from source to source on election nights. I can still carry on a wonkish conversation about the battle for the Senate in 2014. My kids all know who John Boehner and Harry Reid are. They might even have heard an opinion or two about them over dinner.
My oldest son is just a few months older than I was on that exhilarating night in 1980. Now, with the 2016 race revving up with a slew of polls already hitting the streets, I wonder if anyone will emerge who inspires childlike bed jumping.
As the candidates declare and campaign, will it be clear to my kids who stands for what? Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter stood at opposite ends of the political spectrum and everyone knew it. They explained what they believed as clearly and articulately as they could.
Sadly, I suspect my kids will need to dig a little deeper than I did in order to decide who represents the America they want to live in.
When they do pick a side, are they going to imagine a group of patriots working to lead a great nation in the right direction?
Will someone give a speech that lines up with the idea of America that is being formed in their little noggins?
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama talk to each other during a town hall style debate at Hofstra University October 16, 2012 in Hempstead, New York. During the second of three presidential debates, the candidates fielded questions from audience members on a wide variety of issues. Credit: Getty Images
Is anything that happens during a debate or convention between now and November 2016 going to matter enough to push past the latest Disney movie or Wii game?
I would love to have a moment like my parents did. I'd gladly go to bed early, confident the people I believe in and trust are going to have a chance to lead the country.
I would even welcome a bouncy midnight wake-up call with a couple of giddy kids yelling, "We won! We won!"
But even if the next few election nights don't all go their way, I hope my children always remember how blessed they are to live in a country where they have the freedom to discuss and complain, to hope and argue and, ultimately, to vote.
More than anything, I hope a courageous, inspiring candidate emerges who makes my kids want to jump on my bed at midnight.
I can't wait to join them.
Jason Wright is a New York Times bestselling author of 10 books, including "Christmas Jars" and his latest, "The 96th Annual Apple Valley Barn Dance." He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com, applevalleybarndance.com or jasonfwright.com
TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.


text:
A recent article, Motivating Online Publication of Data, in BioScience identifies multiple benefits for scientific authors when they publish data online. Among them are:
• additional publications
• greater citation rate
• invitations to collaborate
Author Mark Costello is a marine biologist at the University of Auckland, and has written widely on ocean biodiversity informatics.
Costello argues that Considering that science is based on observations, it is astonishing that the publication of primary data is not a universal and mandatory part of science.
He presents a cogent analysis of why data publication is crucial, how it can be encouraged, and what scientists, editors, and publishers must do to ensure access to data. In addition to itemizing varied and far-reaching benefits to data archiving, he also repeats oft-stated reasons scientists have given for not making their data available, and rebuts them succinctly.
Authors are not the only beneficiaries when data is openly available. Considerable benefits exist for editors, publishers, data centers and funding agencies, including:
• independent verification of research findings
• increased citations to related research papers
• better financial return from research investment
Data sharing is fundamental for scientific advancement; no arguments there. But how encourage data publication as a routine component of scientific research? We need to identify the benefits, and ensure that repositories, publishers, and other participants in the research process pay attention to incentives, implicit and otherwise, throughout the publication cycle.
Costello's article is a good place to start.