text:
March 4, 1982
PIX #1 - O.T. Shutt
PIX #2 - Frank Serfoss
PIX #3 - Dr. Emery, dentist
PIX #4 - W.M. Ralston
There were a number of recollections your author wanted to tell in the East Center Street story, but there was not space. Here is some more.
Why shouldn't I recall a lot about that area, since I helped The Daily Review move from the old Foster home to their new location on Center in 1923, and earlier I had carried the paper in that area and knew many residents.
At that time, Clayton Kinsey was in charge of the Review's carrier boys and was also advertising manager. Art Winkler was mechanical suerintendent, V.E. "Vic" Schuh was foreman of the compsing room. News reporters and writers were Calir Crawford and Hal Stout. Ella McNally was society editor and publisher. Later, there was Ange Fletcher Cole as society editor and Virgil "Poody" Switzer as city editor.
In doing research for the story, I came across the name of a man whom I had been trying to recall for several years, George Caldwell. He resided at 123 1/2 E. Center. George was a "hackie", that is, he drove a "hack", a horse-drawn carriage which was something like a stagecoach modernized a little.
George met all the passenger trains in Fostoria, of which there were many every day, since there were five railroads. Many of the passengers were traveling men and each generally had more than one big bag, often loaded with samples. They wanted to get to either a hotel, factory and business.
I can still see George, giving his spiel "Hack and baggage" as the passengers detrained. His driver's seat was elevated in front, like the old stagecoaches.
Remember Henry Peters lunchroon, which later was taken over by Clarence Harding? Since it was close the The Review, I often dropped in for a tall glass of draft rootbeer, good and cold, with a real rooty tang, not the overly sweet taste of most of today's bottled variety. It was a good place to eat lunch or sandwiches too, beef, pork and breaded veal. As I recall, lunch was 25 or 30 cents.
Peters, a rotund jolly man, nicknamed me "the mayor of Oklahoma". After Peters retired, the business was taken over by Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Harding, his son-in-law and daughter.
I recall that I carried The Review to J.G., "Jim" Van Vlerah's saloon at 113 E. Center before it was taken over by The Review. The saloon was downstairs, and he lived upstairs. He was a very tall, stately-looking man with gray hair. Jim always personally paid for the paper. If I couldn't catch him in the saloon downstairs, the bartender would send me to his living quarters which today is The Review Times administration office and editorial department.
I still recall that his saloon was one of the quietest and most elegant saloons in which I had to collect for the paper. In the front, he had a large round table surrounded by overstuffed leather chairs, evidently reserved for businessmen who met for discussion over a drink.
There were a lot of nice people living in that area and many of them were my Review customers. Here are just a few of them:
There were the O.T. shutts, living at 150 E. Center. Later, Hatie Drenner, my wife's grandmother lived there. Shutt was an agent for the Lake Erie & Western railroad, the office and station being where Camp Fire headquarters is now. He was one of my Sunday school teachers at the Presbyterian Church. The Shutt's always gave me a Christmas gift when I delivered papers, one of them being a book which I still have.
O.T. Shutt's brother, Jim, lived at 203 E. Center, where the Robert Hanley family live today. Shutt and his daughter Crickett operated the Fair Store at 113 S. Main St., where Flower and Gift Shop is now.
A.C. "Tony" Dumont who lived in the brick house at Center and Poplar streets (it is still there), was proprietor of the saloon where Medina's Bar is now. I carried The Review to his house, surrounded by an iron fence but often collected at the saloon.
There wasn't space to include the photo of Frank Serfoss in the East Center story, so it is included with others today. He had the machine shop across from The Review. My family knew all the Serfoss family. My sister, Ruth and Virginia were friends of their daughters, Mildred and Helen. We lived just around the corner from Poplar on North.
Mrs. Henry (Helen Serfoss) Gary has kept namy of her father's old business paper transactions and here are a few interesting items from the collection:
Central Union Telephone Co. (service one month) $1.50; Logan Natural Gas & Fuel co. (5,000 cubic feet gas) $1.50; Standard Light Power Co. (one month's service) $1.71; rent for building (to Emerine and Henry) $15; Fostoria Water Works (one month) $1.50; G.B. Will & Co. Hard and Soft Coal, 124 S. Main St. (500 pounds chestnut coal) $1.75.
The good old days.
In that same neighborhood there lived many other fine families: the Eisslers, Wades, Goods, Ralstons, Neiderhousers, Mergenthalers, Mohlers (the tailor), Dr. Emery, Wards others.
Mildred Mohler, now Sister Charles, still resides in Toledo. I remember her, but haven't seen her since she became a nun.
The Ralstons were our next door neighbors. Mr. W.M. Ralston worked at the Hocking Valley Railroad Depot, and was Fostoria's socialist mayor in 1912-13. During his term, those arrested for local offenses were given jail terms and a menu of bread and water. Their son, Byron, became a U.S. Naval officer and a lawyer in New York after he retired. Ruth Ralston Leonard just died recently in the southwest, where she had resided for many years.
Mrs. W.W. (Amanda) Sayre, who had the millinery store on the second floor of the building where The City Loan is now, lived at 235 E. Center. The Howard Smith family live there now.
Ruth (Dennis) Barnes upon reading the East Center story wrote some of the recollections she has when as a girl lived with her family at 309 E. Center, close to the railroad tracks.
"I remember when I was about 10 years old, there was a young man who went from house to house to take family pictures usually outdoors. His name was Schell. He had a tripod and a very big camera. He took our family picture on the front porch steps that summer day".
"I remember the man who came around every night to light the (gas) street lights. Catherine and I were allowed to wait on the front steps to see him go along the street. After he passed our home my mother would call us into the house, it was bedtime".
"Previous to the restaurants you listed as Peters and later the Harding (123 E. Center), I remember the Huss Restaurant. Why? My father had a large oval metal lunch pail he used to carry his dinner when he was employed at the Harter Mill (now Mennel). Now and then, only on Saturday evenings, our parents would let us walk to Huss's place where they would fill this pail to the brim with the best vegetable soup with lots of beef for the grand sum of 25 cents. Although my mother was a very good cook, I suppose this was a treat for her".
"I remember playing on top of the boxcars that had been put on the siding at the freight office to be unloaded. As you remember, our playmates were all boys, Joy Huss, Wilbur Huth, Paul Morris and Adolph Kinn. All of us would climb to the top and race along jumping from one car to the next. When my father learned about that, the results? We learned to drape ourselved over his knee and he applied the punishment with his hand in the proper place".
"I remember living next to Mr. and Mrs. Huth. You see we were living in reflected glory, since Mr. Huth drove the horses for the Fostoria Fire Department".
"Just one more rememberance...at 309 E. Center, I had my first date with a young man named Harry Barnes. Eventually that date lead to a marriage of almost 50 years before he died in 1972".
While I'm talking about that part of town, I should tell my recollections about two places of business at East North and Cadwallader, The Gray Printing Co. and Eureks Planning Mill.
Our residence was close to both of them.
I would often go to the Gray plant to dig into the refuse box of discarded printed sheets, many of which showed ladies style of that day, printed in multiple colors, or industrial catalogue pages likewise in color, and printed from engravings, often wood made in the Gray shop by Howard Sauders. The later information, of course, was learned years later.
The Eureka Planning Mill had a refuse pile of a variety of wood, long thin strips suitable for kite frames and an assortment of other peices which boys my age always found useful for something.
Since those days, Gray Printing has expanded and taken in most of the houses adjacent to the original plant, including where Mayor Ralston lived as well as our old home.
The only part of the old mill left is the office area, which is now a Gray photographic area. The rest of the buildings were demolished and the area now contains new structures for the expanded facilities.
Joe Vargas, 819 Spruce St., a regular reader of Potluck, stopped at my house to show me an old book which he discovered in a room partition when he was doing remodeling at his house.
The book was a Fostoria Public School grammer book, used by a student who never turned it in. It carried a date of 1916. How the book got in the partition no one will ever know.
With the book was a statement issued to Dell Dixon by Demmel's Tire Shop, 119 E. Center St., for purchases. According to the statement gasoline was 19 cents per gallon, oil was 25 cents per quart and alcohol was $1 per gallon.
Demmel's was named in the East Center Street story.
According to Vargas, he emigrated from Mexico to Colorado in 1920, came to Fostoria in 1928 and worked all that time until retirement at the Fostoria Foundry.


text:
Using concepts from IT and networking, a Japanese consortium plans to develop large-scale energy grids that will handle power the way the Internet handles data, using "routers" and "service providers" to efficiently manage and direct the flow of electricity.
The Digital Grid Consortium, which was officially founded in September and includes NEC among its members, said Monday it will build experimental systems next year, and aims to launch large grid services to try out the concept after three years.
The group's fundamental aim is the development of technology to track units of energy across an entire grid, tagging them with their source and destination similar to the way data packets are handled on the Web. This will require grid addresses for everything from power plants to individual homes, along with routers that can convert and shuffle the energy units to where they are needed.
"This is a mechanism that will allow electricity to be sent out, or transferred back in any direction as required. This is something that doesn't exist in current smart grids, which are only really used to monitor electricity," said Rikiya Abe, a Tokyo University professor who serves as representative director of the consortium.
Creating power networks that are more intelligent is seen as a pressing need in Japan, which suffered sporadic blackouts after a powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami caused meltdowns at a key nuclear power plant. The central region of the country, which includes Tokyo, is still facing tight supply without the plant.
As with the traditional smart grids, the consortium plans for inputs to include existing power plants as well as solar facilities and other alternative sources. Local power storage such as large-capacity batteries in homes will be another key element, said Abe, as currently the entire grid must be built to handle peak loads.
Energy and financial exchanges on a grid would be managed by "service providers" which would be able to track and charge by distinct units of energy. Much of the day-to-day transactions could be virtual, similar to the way currency exchange markets work today, he said.
"This creates discussions about how an IT and networking company like NEC, which also has a battery business, can enter the energy industry," said Takemitsu Kunio, a senior vice president at the company.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Getting close to wrapping up my second time through Mass Effect, and since I almost never replay games, it's been an interesting experience. A friend asked me today how it was going through again, and to be perfectly honest, it wasn't nearly as fun as it was the first time.
Don't get me wrong—I'm not saying that there's anything the matter with the game itself, it's more about the kind of player that I am.
For me, the thing that drives me forward in video games is the feeling of discovery, and a personal curiosity to see what lies ahead. As long as I'm interested in seeing how a particular game's story turns out, or if a talented developer keeps surprising me with new mechanics and formula twists, I'm there. However, if I already know what's coming, then most of the appeal is gone for me, no matter how good the quality of the game itself.
Crusading through the universe with Commander Shepard again, there was a certain quality missing from the experience… A little bit of the mystery stripped away; a little bit of the magic gone. Although the very fact that I bothered to play the game again (going for all available quests with the exception of the ultra-tedious collection missions) speaks volumes about the quality of the game, I have to be frank in saying that it just wasn't the same. I wasn't in the kind of feverish, get-back-to-the-360-ASAP grip of must-play madness that I felt the first time.
Why not? It's because I knew what was coming.
With the knowledge that there were no more surprises; no more left-field revelations or new challenges to overcome, the game ceased to be an interstellar escapist adventure of the highest order, and instead became a very good game that I played. But still, just a game. As I was checking off quests on the way to achieving level 60, my brain was often distracted from what was going on in front of me, thinking about the new titles I have waiting in my to-play stack.
It just wasn't the same.
Some people may think I'm a little odd for only playing games once, but there are players of every stripe. It takes all kinds to create an industry and an audience as large and as pervasive as video games are today.
Although I'm sure some people reading this blog can't relate at all to the idea that there would be little-to-no appeal in revisiting a superb disc, that's no stranger than being the kind of player who combs every inch of a title to collect 100 hidden gold icons stashed away in the furthest corners of geometry, or the sort of player that gets every character in their party up to level 99 before beating the last boss.
It's no stranger than the kind of drive that makes people perfect second-shaving speed runs, or practice and memorize their performance so many times that they can clear levels with their eyes closed.
It's no stranger than the kind of player who buys a brand-new game and jumps straight into the multiplayer to shoot their friends in the face for for two weeks before even touching the campaign mode, and it's certainly no stranger than the compulsion of someone who regularly buys the newest, hottest title only to quit after the first three levels and trade it back in the next week for the next big thing.
Are any of these kinds of players more "true" or more legitimate than the others? Not really. Although the thought of spending more than fifteen minutes playing capture-the-flag would be enough to drive me towards any other kind of activity rather than sit around and repeat the same actions over and over without a finite endpoint, there's nothing wrong with that for people who enjoy it. Conversely, some would call me crazy for buying a game that I knew in advance I would likely only go through once, but that's just fine with me. It's how I prefer it.
It really does take all kinds. Though an entire legion of us may unite under the "gamer" banner, we're just as diverse and varied a group as any other. The thing that I'm thankful for, I suppose, is that I actually know which kind of gamer I am and I'm all right with it—and by being all right with myself, I'm just fine with every other gamer, too.
What about you?
- SVG 354: 'Sup Ron - September 16, 2023
- SVG 353: Wendy's Chicken Sandwich 8.5/10 - September 11, 2023
- SVG 352: Support SAG-AFTRA - September 2, 2023


text:
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Author John C. Wright goes off on an anti-homosexual rant
After this blog post was brought to my attention (by a rather horrified SF editor), I decided to drop that resolution.
The post starts off with Wright complaining about the problems of tokenism in fiction, the politically-correct demand that every book or TV show has a gay character or some other minority in it. He was skirting around something beginning to be a point there, although it's a dangerous game to be getting into as based on that logic, why bother having any black or Asian characters or smokers? Therefore, QED, having an all-white, all-straight cast should be totally believable, even in a futuristic setting (when demographic logic tells us the overwhelming majority of the world's population will be non-Caucasian). The only problem with that is that reading an SF work set in the future where the entire cast is white would be pretty ludicrous and send up the bullshit flag pretty quickly unless there was some overtly convincing reason why this was so.
Where the blog posts enters a more disturbing arena is where Wright basically outlines his views on homosexuality. In effect, he equates it with bestiality, necrophilia and pederasty and as being considerably worse than incest. He states that it is a sexual-psychological malfunction and is contributing to the 'moral decay' of society. It's nonsensical hate-speak, plain and simple, particularly unwise when espoused by a new author who is trying to build a career and fanbase in a genre which has a lot of LGBT readers.
This does potentially lead down the road of, well, do an author's personal views matter when all you're really concerned about is if their books are any good? And I would say yes, since the buying reader is contributing to their lifestyle and enabling them to go on doing the things they want to do. As such, I am not inclined to give money or publicity to someone who indulges in hate-speak and takes such an obsessive interest in what goes on behind the closed doors of his neighbours (seriously, what is up with that?). In addition, there is way too much good stuff out there to read, so removing his books from my 'to read' list does reduce the pile somewhat as well, which is an acceptable situation.
Wright's mistake here was that the more profitable career-path is to establish yourself as a huge, best-selling author first and then make the crazy ultra-con statements that alienate most of your fans but simultaneously bring in the extremists who'll keep your sales ticking over later on. He went down the bile-rising route way too early (the Internet's current reaction to the controversy: "Who the fuck is John C. Wright?"). Maybe it'll blow over and people will forget about it and he can go on to have a huge successful career, but this is going to be one of those things that's going to keep coming up in the future.
Interesting rebuttal of the original post by Hal Duncan, for those who have an afternoon free to read the whole thing ;-)
And another from Catherynne Valente.
32 comments:
- Neth said...
As I've said elsewhere, Wright has joined Terry Goodkind, Orson Scott Card, and Michael Crichton on my blacklist now.
- 13 August 2009 at 22:41:00 GMT
- Aidan Moher said...
Heh, take a look at his Wikipedia entry:
John C. Wright (John Charles Justin Wright, born 1961) is an American bigot and author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist (for the fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos), he was called "this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut novel, The Golden Age).''
- 13 August 2009 at 22:41:00 GMT
- Adam Whitehead said...
Good old Wikipedia. I daresay someone will change it back. Eventually.
- 13 August 2009 at 23:08:00 GMT
Ulike others here, I'm openminded to not allow a person's political views stop me from enjoying their work.
- 14 August 2009 at 01:04:00 GMT
What has Orson Scott Card done/said? I know about Crichton's views but not Card's...
- 14 August 2009 at 02:12:00 GMT
- Salt-Man Z said...
Basically, Card (being a devout Mormon) thinks homosexuality is a sin, and he also supported George W. Bush. Those two taken together means every liberal he once had (and plenty that he never had) vehemently hate him now.
He does have some interesting points about gay characters in SF/F, though (which a number of his own books feature). Of particular note is his lambasting of J. K. Rowling for declaring Dumbledore to be gay after the HP series was over. (His point is basically that Rowling did the character a disservice by ignoring his sexual preference in the text, and saying "Oh yeah, and he's gay" after the fact is a cop-out.)
- 14 August 2009 at 02:22:00 GMT
- Adam Whitehead said...
I don't believe Wright expressed any political views. He just unleashed a torrent of hate-speak against a sixth of the population (arguable figure but what the hell) for no logical reason.
Card's views are a bit odd as he claims to have many gay friends and points eagerly at his positive gay characters in his books (one of whom in the HOMECOMING series was pretty miserable until he married a woman though, but okay). He also claims that he objects heavily to the use of the term 'marriage' for the description of same-sex civil unions. However, I get hazy on whether he's okay for the unions themselves to go ahead. That's where his 'hate the sin, love the sinner' thing comes in.
I get the impression he isn't keen on homosexuality, but doesn't want to come out in a frothing rage of invective against it for fear of damaging his bank balance.
- 14 August 2009 at 03:29:00 GMT
- Neth said...
Well, Card has been had pretty harsh words for homosexuality. In one of his essays he actually supports an armed rebellion against the government if gay marriage is legalized.
Not a position I can support.
- 14 August 2009 at 04:47:00 GMT
- Jamie said...
Good post and agree 100% with regards to not contributing to the career of a homophobe.
- 14 August 2009 at 09:27:00 GMT
To play devil's advocate for a bit, but Wright of course is right when he says that homosexuality is the same sort of thing as bestiality, necrophilia and pederasty.
They are all sexual preferences who throughout the centuries and cultures have had different levels of acceptation. Though he should have added hetrosexuality and metrosexuality to the list. :)
- 14 August 2009 at 12:43:00 GMT
Wait , so people are entitled to opinions(in this case an authors view of gays) as long as it fits the PC view on the world ?
when he fuck did it become the case that your not allowed to have issues with homosexuality , call me a homophobe , but me and my buddy nature have issues with homosexuality
- 14 August 2009 at 13:55:00 GMT
We can not tolerate lack of toleration. We must hate haters! If you don't see homosexually as a good and natural thing, then shut up and hide it. Don't you dare say anything agains't!
- 14 August 2009 at 14:27:00 GMT
- Adam Whitehead said...
"me and my buddy nature have issues with homosexuality"
With the number of animal species that engage in homosexual activity, this is a REALLY stupidly ignorant thing to say.
As for the latter point, nice try but it doesn't work. Follow that logic and black people should still be slaves and women should be non-voting second-class citizens.
- 14 August 2009 at 15:13:00 GMT
As a gay man ( a black gay man I might add) I am cool with Wrights view, news flash guys, we don't need all you middle class white people to feel sorry and rush to the rescue of us minority's .
- 14 August 2009 at 15:34:00 GMT
Sorry double post, I should ask, are you gay yourself Adam ? If not then why do you feel the need to bring to the worlds attention this authors view on gays ? Do you think we the gay people need saving from 'opinions' of people who don't agree with our way of life ?
I mean I think religion is a sham and people who live their life around religious teachings are batshit crazy . Should someone somewhere write a blog rant about how evil I am for not going along with the status quo ?
Or maybe you are gay, and you did take exception to what he said.
- 14 August 2009 at 15:39:00 GMT
- Angelo said...
Adam, I think you're taking things to the extreme. We're not talking about not respecting every individual's rights. We're talking about opinions. And the moment someone wants to "snuff" certain opinions, that person should stop a minute and take a serious look at himself.
- 14 August 2009 at 15:44:00 GMT
- Adam Whitehead said...
Oh, he certainly has a right to say those things, and I would defend that right absolutely. The fact that it makes him look like an ignorant bigot to vast numbers of people and that is now his reputation in the field is also the consequence of his action. What opinions someone holds behind closed doors is up to them. If they want to come out and voice that opinion, then they should also be prepared to face the inevitable response.
- 14 August 2009 at 16:02:00 GMT
- Adam Whitehead said...
@ Christopher Donald
Interesting point. No, I am not gay, so I do not have a personal stake in the matter. Whilst I have gay friends, I am pretty certain of their ability to speak for themselves on the matter.
Why did I think it worthwhile mentioning on the blog? Because the blog's remit (as much as there is one) is reviews and news on the SF/F field. When a promising up 'n' comer utilises his (limited) fame to unleash hate-speech, it is worth bringing to widespread attention. If I'd started the blog a few years earlier I'd have done the same when Terry Goodkind went off on his infamous "Canada is a totalitarian state!" spiel as well.
You raise an interesting point though, although I'd be interested to hear where the lines are drawn. It's a no-brainer that non-Jews can voice their disgust of the Holocaust, but should then Whites have not supported the cause of civil rights back in the 1960s since it did not directly impact them?
- 14 August 2009 at 16:45:00 GMT
@ Christopher Donald
Do you really want to live in a world where only LGBT folk can say pro-LGBT things, where only racial minorities can say anti-racist things, and where only women can say pro-feminist things?
I know I don't. Such a world strikes me as very dark, very cold, and very lonely. And absolutely antithetical to any sort of change for the better.
- 14 August 2009 at 20:22:00 GMT
Of course not , but lets not deny there is a liberal brigade who tries to ride to the rescue after every perceived slight against a minority .
And lets not try to pretend people not agreeing with homosexuality is the same as slavery or women's right to vote.
- 14 August 2009 at 20:34:00 GMT
Double post again,
@ Chris , now you make a point where people not pushing their views on others is detrimental to any sort of change, now while I am gay I ask the question to you :
Who are you to decide what should be changed, now there are a lot of people who don't like homosexuality , who are you or any of your liberal friends to say that those peoples opinions are wrong
If others opinions do not equate to your own, then they must be wrong , right ?
I have and never will condemn a person for having issue with my sexuality
- 14 August 2009 at 20:39:00 GMT
now you make a point where people not pushing their views on others is detrimental to any sort of change
Hmm, no. That's not my point at all. Not even in the ballpark of my point.
But first off: "pushing their views on others"? When and whence did Adam get this mind-controlling widget that a) forces people to read his post, and b) forces them to agree with him?
Now, on to your misinterpretation of my point. Parts of your previous comments boil down to "mind your business, hetero." That's the sort of thing that, if it were to come true, would be detrimental to securing and safeguarding rights.
It comes down to numbers. Short of massively-armed rebellion, there is no way that a minority of -- generously estimating -- 20% can secure and safeguard rights on a large scale without sympathetic heteros.
And lets not try to pretend people not agreeing with homosexuality is the same as slavery or women's right to vote.
In the grand scheme of things, you're right. They aren't the same.
What is the same, though, is the underlying source of those things. Homophobia is on a level with considering Africans livestock (from which sprung slavery), and on a level with considering women subservient and of no importance (from which sprung the lack of women's suffrage).
Underlying homophobia can and has led to systematic oppression (see the imprisonment of homosexuals during and after the Nazi regime, deaths in Iran, crowd-pleasing threats of gay beheadings in Gambia, etc).
I get a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I hear a straight guy doing some variant of "Dude, not cool" to some homophobic tripe. Had I the money, I'd buy them all a beverage of their choosing.
I don't need them to speak in my place, but it's awesome to know that they're there to get my back, socially or politically.
- 15 August 2009 at 00:08:00 GMT
- Adam Whitehead said...
"When and whence did Adam get this mind-controlling widget that a) forces people to read his post, and b) forces them to agree with him?"
Actually, I did get get this from Blogger, but had to send it back when people insisted on continuing to buy the new KJA DUNE books after my blog post. Obviously it wasn't working ;-)
- 15 August 2009 at 01:16:00 GMT
I wonder if people here know what really means "homophobia". It's so easy to pick up the word to throw at people who had other views, that it lost its true meaning.
- 15 August 2009 at 08:57:00 GMT
errm a bit late and off the point now but thanks for answering my question re Orson Scott Card. I do not want to get bogged down in the debate that ignited after ;-)
- 17 August 2009 at 00:24:00 GMT
- Mark Zamen said...
The question is asked as to whether or not an author's personal views matter when deciding if one will read his work. Yes, they do. For example, I will never again see a movie in which Mel Gibson is involved in any capacity: Not one more dime of my money will ever go to a man who is well known to be vehemently anti-Semitic. In Wright's case, the hate and prejudice are directed towards homosexuals and serve as reminders that such sentiments are very much alive. It is a sad fact that a large segment of society still regards gay men and women as second-class citizens - or worse. That is the salient point of my recently released biographical novel, Broken Saint. It is based on my forty-year friendship with a gay man, and chronicles his internal and external struggles as he battles for acceptance (of himself and by others). More information on the book is available at www.eloquentbooks.com/BrokenSaint.html.
Mark Zamen, author
- 18 August 2009 at 00:21:00 GMT
Has anybody here read much of Wright's writing? I have, and I'll tell you it's not populated entirely by white people. In fact, he just adopted a Chinese child, if you want to read between the lines.
And as far as his argument being nonsensical hate-speech, read it for yourself if you have a problem with what other people have said about it. My personal opinion is that, although you might not agree with his logic, he spells it out for you. Plus, he's a whole lot nicer than all of you seem to be.
- 16 October 2009 at 03:52:00 GMT
- MsGoblinPants said...
To the Anonymous person at 16 October 2009 03:52:00 GMT:
John C Wright's adoption of a Chinese girl does not make me feel better, given that he calls multiculturalism a "sick dogma", compares teaching Native American culture in schools to zoophilia, mocks the existence of Native American studies, wants to deport all Muslims out of America, and is basically just completely unable to deal with anyone who is not a straight, Christian white man.
Nor am I all that convinced by your assertion that he's a nicer person than the commenters on this blog, given that he calls modern women "unpaid whores", thinks rock'n'roll music is sinful, thinks having sex with a consenting adult of the same sex is the same as sex with corpses, animals, and chidren, etc.
Basically, he's crazy.
- 10 December 2009 at 01:13:00 GMT
Too bad. Love his books though
- 16 January 2010 at 23:04:00 GMT
- mahasamoot said...
I may still check out one of his books... tho, now I'm not sure.
On another note:
WTFO--Is the term LGBT the best branding we fabulous folks can come up with? Seriously, aren't there any gay marketers out there?
- 30 March 2011 at 18:26:00 GMT
Wow. I haven't seen this many strawmen since my nephew's highschool scarecrow competition.
Goblin Pants is the real scream since she/he pulls what he says about music, the plight of women in the work force, multiculturalism and Native Americans so out of context that it's almost like (gasp!) she/he purposefully misrepresented his views in some impotent attempt to disparage someone she disagrees with (but lacks the chops to do so honestly). Sorry honey, try again.
Look. I don't agree with Wright on many things (I am gay myself, and am from the MCC, a church which doesn't exactly fly with Catholicism, not to mention the fact that I am about as Liberal as a human can be). I've argued with him before and I've lost my cool with him before.
But I would never go as far as to misrepresent his position or behave as petulantly as some of you have.
The fact is, he is a brilliant author and he is an intelligent individual who I generally enjoy debating/discussing with, even when I disagree with him (many times, that is).
Now if you'll excuse me...I've just been inspired to buy "Count to a Trillion" by this post. Thanks!
- 1 March 2012 at 04:43:00 GMT
- AM said...
Well, you're free to enjoy whatever work you like. But really, don't brag about how much more openminded you are for being able to ignore bigotry. People who are members of the groups he is attacking don't have that luxury, so please get off your smug high horse and STOP acting like you're better than them for not being offended by things that do not personally affect you.
- 6 July 2014 at 17:55:00 GMT


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The event will bring together national and international experts to exchange views on roles of Protected Areas, including World Heritage natural properties, for prevention of and recovery from the damage caused by large-scale natural disasters, such as the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake and the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the tsunami they triggered.
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DATE 2016 : Design Automation and Test in Europe
Conference Series : Design, Automation, and Test in Europe
|Link: http://www.date-conference.com/
Call For Papers
Scope of the Event
The 19th DATE conference and exhibition is the main European event bringing together designers and design automation users, researchers and vendors, as well as specialists in the hardware and software design, test and manufacturing of electronic circuits and systems. It puts strong emphasis on both ICs/SoCs, reconfigurable hardware and embedded systems, including embedded software.
Structure of the Event
The five-day event consists of a conference with plenary invited papers, regular papers, panels, hot-topic sessions, tutorials, workshops, two special focus days and a track for executives. The scientific conference is complemented by a commercial exhibition showing the state-of-the-art in design and test tools, methodologies, IP and design services, reconfigurable and other hardware platforms, embedded software, and (industrial) design experiences from different application domains, such as automotive, wireless, telecom and multimedia applications. The organization of user group meetings, fringe meetings, a university booth, a PhD Forum, vendor presentations and social events offers a wide variety of extra opportunities to meet and exchange information on relevant issues for the design and test community. Special space will also be allocated for EU-funded projects to show their results. More details are given on the DATE website (www.date-conference.com).
Areas of Interest
Within the scope of the conference, the main areas of interest are: embedded systems, design methodologies, CAD languages, algorithms and tools, testing of electronic circuits and systems, embedded software, applications design and industrial design experiences. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:
System Specification and Modeling
System Design, Synthesis and Optimization
Simulation and Validation
Design of Low Power Systems
Temperature-Aware Design
Power Estimation and Optimization
Temperature Modeling and Management
Emerging Technologies, Systems and Applications
Formal Methods and Verification
Network on Chip
Architectural and Microarchitectural Design
Architectural and High-Level Synthesis
Reconfigurable Computing
Logic and Technology Dependent Synthesis for Deep-Submicron Circuits
Physical Design and Verification
Analogue and Mixed-Signal Circuits and Systems
Interconnect, EMC, EMD and Packaging Modeling
Multiprocessor System-on-Chip and Computing Systems
Communication, Consumer and Multimedia Systems
Transportation Systems
Medical, Healthcare and Assistive Technology Systems
Energy Generation, Recovery and Management Systems
Secure, Dependable and Adaptive Systems
Test for Defects, Variability, and Reliability
Test Generation, Simulation and Diagnosis
Test for Mixed-Signal, Analog, RF, MEMS
Test Access, Design-for-Test, Test Compression, System Test
On-Line Testing and Fault Tolerance
Real-time, Networked and Dependable Systems
Compilers and Code Generation for Embedded Systems; Software-centric System Design Exploration
Model-based Design and Verification for Embedded Systems
Embedded Software Architectures and Principles; Software for MPSoC, Multi/many-core and GPU-based Systems
Submission of Papers
All papers have to be submitted electronically by Sunday September 13, 2015 via:
Papers can be submitted either for standard oral presentation or for interactive presentation. The Programme Committee also encourages proposals for Special Sessions, Tutorials, Friday Workshops, University Booth, PhD Forum and Exhibition Theatre.
Event Secretariat
Event Secretariat
Franziska Kremling, K.I.T. Group GmbH, DE
phone: +49 351 4967 541
fax: +49 351 4956 116
Eva Schubert, K.I.T. Group GmbH, DE
phone: +49 351 4967 312
General Chair: Luca Fanucci, University of Pisa, IT (Contact Luca Fanucci)
Programme Chair: Jürgen Teich, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE (firstname.lastname@example.com)


text:
- Abou-Alfa, Ghassan K. , Niedzwieski, Donna , Knox, Jennifer J. ... - ASCO GI - J Clin Oncol - 2016
- Abstract - Primary - Primary - GI - CALGB-80802
A meeting abstract must be submitted by the first or corresponding author to the Alliance Publications Coordinator (firstname.lastname@example.com) at least two weeks prior to the meeting abstract submission deadline. For detailed information about Alliance Publications guidelines, please refer to the policies, along with the author abstract deadlines.
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Disappointing German industrial output and orders data rekindled fears Wednesday that Europe's powerhouse economy may have stalled at the end of last year.
Industrial production rose by just 0.2% in November, following a fall of 2% the previous month, as a stronger performance in capital goods and construction outweighed declines in energy and consumer goods.
Economists were expecting an increase of around 1%.
Europe's biggest economy has managed to avoid the recession gripping much of the rest of the region, but declining activity in its eurozone partners in recent months has depressed exports. They fell 3.4% in November.
Related: Eurozone unemployment hits another record high
And a sharp fall in demand for its products in non-eurozone states was behind a 1.8% decline in industrial orders in November, again weaker than economists were expecting.
Germany's central bank warned last month that the economy may contract in the fourth quarter of 2012 and first quarter of this year. It expects 2013 growth of just 0.4%.
The economy ministry said November's data suggested industrial production was stabilizing.
"But it's still likely to be lower in the fourth quarter than the third," it said in a statement.
The first estimate of German gross domestic product in the fourth quarter is due next week.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her New Year address that Europe's debt crisis was far from over and warned economic conditions in 2013 would be tougher.


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TACOMA — Spc. Egbert Keil used to sing backup while his friend strummed a guitar at their small combat outpost in southern Afghanistan. Sgt. Sapuro Nena had the better voice, and sang lead.
Now home in Tacoma, Keil plays his guitar alone. He imagines Nena singing with him.
"I know he's not here. I know he's looking down on us," said Keil, 26.
He lost his close friend in September, when Taliban infiltrators in Afghan police uniforms turned their guns on six U.S. soldiers, killing four assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord's 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment.
His thoughts return to his fallen friend even as he embraces life with his wife, Ato, and 1-year-old daughter, Tiresa. Making it home safe to his girls filled Keil's heart like he knew it would.
Even so, he said he doesn't feel complete. "With my family, I'm glad I'm back. As a whole person, I feel like I'm missing something."
"I feel like I left part of me in Afghanistan," he said.
Keil is among more than 10,000 Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers who served in Afghanistan last year. Most came home between November and February, and are now settling into everyday life with no known deployments on the horizon.
It's a season of transitions, with some soldiers settling in to meet rising Army standards as the force draws down. Others are focusing on healing and reconnecting with their families.
"Everything's fresh; it's a whole new start," said Staff Sgt. Justin Wenske, a 1-14 cavalryman who attended a February marriage retreat with his wife, Melissa.
Some veterans say they're picking up right where they left off with their loved ones.
Sgt. Ryan Corcoran and wife Mallory, for instance, avoided the bumpy homecoming they had after his 2009-10 deployment.
This time, they worked with Chaplain Capt. Rick Pak to set reasonable expectations for Corcoran's homecoming from Afghanistan.
"We knew what to expect and planned accordingly," said Corcoran, 23.
"It's better," Mallory Corcoran, 22, agreed at a recent couples event at Lewis-McChord.
But after five months at home, the initial exuberance military families feel when they reconnect is starting to wear off for some.
Combat-related ailments, such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress, sleep disruptions and relationship issues, tend to surface about now, said Dan Christensen, chief of Madigan Army Medical Center's program that places behavioral health specialists inside active-duty units.
"There's usually a cycle," said Chaplain Pak of DuPont, who has served with the 1-14 Cavalry for the past five years and has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
By now, "We're actually going through issues that have been on the back burner," he said.
Pak sees the stress in soldiers' requests for counseling, or in short conversations he has with soldiers who bring up relationship issues. He hosted an overnight marriage retreat in the winter, and another daylong event this month.
His talks center on communication, helping spouses calm down and defuse fights that could derail a marriage.
Take a timeout, he says. Don't argue when you're drunk. Assume your spouse has good intentions.
"This gave us time to think," said Staff Sgt. Christian Ozuna, 27, of Tacoma. He and his wife, Lourdes, said they had a moment of insight during Pak's most recent session, inspiring them to address issues they'd been avoiding.
At the last event, Pak played on a tradition in the unit that grants gold spurs to soldiers who serve on a combat tour with a cavalry squadron. He fashioned gold spurs in the shapes of hearts and gave them to couples who agreed to take a step back to work on their relationships.
"I'm not saying marriage is like warfare," he told them, referring to the symbolism of the gold spur. "But it's a reminder to daily fight for your marriage."
Egbert and Ato Keil had a different kind of homecoming this time, too.
After the last deployment, they were newlyweds. This time, they're parents with more responsibilities.
"First he was a boyfriend; now he's a husband," Ato said.
They had just become serious about their relationship after Keil's 2009-10 tour of Iraq, even though they had known each other for several years back home in American Samoa.
Ato happened to move to Tacoma during Egbert's Iraq deployment to be closer to her sisters. They stayed in touch while he was overseas.
He proposed soon after he returned. Pak performed their wedding ceremony.
Their daughter was born in September 2011 – three months before Egbert left for Afghanistan. Ato moved in with her family in Tacoma while her husband went to war.
He thought of them constantly and took his first opportunity to get home on leave. He only had eyes for baby Tiresa when he saw his family at the airport for that break in May 2012. He just couldn't wait to hold her.
After his leave, Keil rejoined Nena at a small combat outpost near the Pakistan border in Zabul province's Mizan district. Their outpost sat in a valley surrounded by imposing peaks — geography that makes soldiers feel vulnerable to enemy attacks.
He and Nena coped with their environment by making jokes. They were laid-back guys who could make each other laugh. Afghan soldiers and police officers often referred to them as brothers.
They knew each other from their previous Iraq deployment. They both grew up in the South Pacific — Keil in American Samoa, Nena in Micronesia — and identified with each other.
Keil left Mizan for a different forward base in July. Nena stayed.
Two months later, Nena was shot to death in the insider attack with Pfc. Genaro Bedoy, Pfc. Jon Townsend and Spc. Joshua Nelson. It was a particularly brutal loss, even in a year when more than 50 Western service members died at the hands of Afghan allies.
"I feel like I shouldn't have left him," Keil said.
He found himself angry and avoiding Afghan police and soldiers as much as he could for the last two months of his deployment.
He felt like a changed man.
Keil has turned to Pak for help several times, first in Afghanistan and now at home. Egbert and Ato Keil attended the chaplain's overnight retreat in February, and said they benefited from the counseling.
Pak, too, wears a black bracelet with the names of the soldiers from the 1-14 Cavalry who were killed in the September attack. The chaplain knows what Nena's loss meant to Keil.
"They were very close," he said.
The Keils said they didn't talk much about Nena after the attack. Egbert came home in a darker mood than he felt after his first tour. He felt himself becoming impatient with his wife.
Pak's counseling helped them understand how to handle those moments, they said.
Ato has a big smile and an easygoing nature. They're committed to an Army career even if it takes Egbert overseas again.
"It is what it is; I married Army life," she said. "Whatever happens in life, I go with it."
At Lewis-McChord, Keil said he's hustling to hold his spot at a time when the Army plans to shrink its ranks. He still enjoys being a soldier, and he wants to provide a stable life for his family.
Bouncing his daughter in the palm of his hand, he looks completely present in his life in Tacoma. It's good to be out of Afghanistan.
"Coming home is the best thing you can think of," he said. "Coming home is your family; it's your future."
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Rachel Zoe is facing a fashionista's worst nightmare — lost luggage.
The celebrity stylist and star of Bravo's "The Rachel Zoe Project" was winging to St. Barts for a luxurious holiday when American Airlines lost her valuable valise filled with stylish resort wear, sources say. The suitcase contained a "Tom Ford for Gucci vintage leather jacket and Missoni caftans," we're told, among other prized threads.
Zoe — whose clients include Cameron Diaz, Eva Mendes, Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway — was headed to Miami for a quick stay before moving on to St. Barts this week. But when Zoe's bag went missing, she was left with only the duds on her back.
"Rachel jetted from Los Angeles to Miami just before the Christmas holiday, and her suitcase with all of her favorite pieces has been missing ever since," explained a source close to the stylist, famous for her diva catchphrase, "I Die!" — which we imagine she must have been muttering at baggage claim.
The quick-thinking clotheshorse managed to pick up some emergency backup gear in Miami before jetting to the tropical resort island.
"American has offered up no information as to its whereabouts," our source said of the lost-in-paradise bag. "It's been a week now. There hasn't been any info on [the bag's] whereabouts, or an estimated return date whatsoever."
A rep for American told us, "We are working diligently to find Ms. Zoe's bag, as we would for any passenger."
Either way, Zoe was spotted dining on St. Barts (fully clothed) at restaurant Maya's on Monday with Cinema Society honcho Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict. Ronald Perelman supped nearby.
American's had bad luck with some celebs lately: Alec "What's in Your Wallet" Baldwin got into a war of words with the airline after being bounced from a flight this month.


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Delight in mid-century modern appeal with the Hudson 3-in-1 Convertible Crib. Stylish rounded spindles bring a simple charm, and give the Hudson Crib an open, radiant feel. The all-spindle sides let you keep an eye on baby from all angles, while four adjustable mattress positions allow you to maximize comfort and safety for both you and baby. The Hudson 3-in-1 Convertible Crib converts to both a toddler bed (rail included) and daybed, and is solidly built from sustainable New Zealand pine wood. Whether you prefer a contemporary or time-honored palette for your nursery, Hudson has you covered; choose between a modern grey crib, clean white, or a new take on family-friendly white/espresso two-tone.
Babyletto Hudson 3-in-1 Convertible Crib with Toddler Bed Conversion Kit
by babychick


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The path to purchase journey
The path to purchase journey
The evolution of the 'path to purchase' over the past decade due to the Internet, digital innovation and the rise of ecommerce.
The 'path to purchase' is a traditional shopping concept that has evolved significantly over the past decade due to the Internet, digital innovation and the subsequent rise of ecommerce. Although the digital revolution hasn't altered the fact that consumers still experience the same stages of awareness, consideration, conversion and evaluation, the journey itself has changed. Instead of a path to purchase that is traditionally linear, it has become more of a cycle or even a web. Consumers move through and back and forth between the stages, influenced by a myriad of both offline and online factors at every stage.
In order to investigate the drivers, motivators, and inhibitors affecting consumers' decisions during a typical online transaction, a simplified cyclical path to purchase model was used for this study.
When comparing the impact of online versus offline touchpoints in creating the first trigger moment, it is interesting to observe that 52 percent of consumers cited at least one offline channel as a source of initial awareness, and 59 percent cited one or more online channels.
Retail websites or online shops were the most common source of initial product awareness, cited by nearly a third of consumers, and online advertisements were cited by 15 percent. At the same time, physical shops were the second most popular source of awareness, cited by 22 percent of consumers.
Ecommerce is clearly far from being an online-only affair. Both online offline channels are effective in creating consumer awareness and demand, especially when they are used together.
Millennials are more likely than the older generations to be influenced by online sources such as social media or peer reviews – but they are also more likely to be influenced by offline channels. Millennials were 25 percent more likely than Baby Boomers to have seen their most recent purchase in a shop, nearly 50 percent more likely to have talked to a friend about it, and more than twice as likely to say they saw a friend with it.
Although Millennials are certainly digital natives first, they are also at least as active and influenced as their parents are beyond the digital world.
During the consideration stage, the importance of online channels continues to prevail, with the top two channels for research being online reviews (cited by 55 percent of respondents) and company websites (47 percent).
Offline channels are also a significant source of information, with 26 percent of consumers saying they visited a physical shop during the research stage and 23 percent saying they spoke to friends or family about the product.
Overall, price or promotions (identified by 27 percent of respondents) were the factors most likely to influence consumers' decision regarding which product or brand to buy online. After price and promotions, product features (23 percent) or brand reputation (22 percent) were also commonly identified as the top considerations when making a final product choice.
In the conversion stage of the online purchase journey, the consumer exercises two decisions: where, and when, to buy a product. In the online shopping arena, however, successfully engaging consumers during the first two stages of the purchase journey far from guarantees success in the third stage.
As during the final product decision stage, price remains the most common consideration when consumers are deciding where to buy, particularly in certain categories such as electronics. Having a website that consumers like and/or trust is also important, especially in Asia, where consumers said buying from a preferred website was more important than price.
In a circular or web path to purchase model, the evaluation stage is at least as important as, and inextricably linked with, the awareness and consideration stages. Positive customer experiences are critical in generating loyalty and repeat purchases, and in an era of social media and increasingly trusted peer reviews, voicing customer experiences can significantly influence future buying decisions – both positively and negatively.
Around 30 percent of online consumers said they posted product feedback online and, in Asia, consumers were nearly 50 percent more likely than average to post a review. Understanding where consumers are posting feedback can help companies become more proactively engaged in monitoring, managing and fostering positive online customer reviews.
Generational trends indicate an increasing use of social media sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, blogs and Twitter for posting and reviewing feedback. The implication for companies is that user-generated reviews are being posted on sites that are increasingly beyond their sphere of control or influence. Companies will need to actively integrate these social media sites into their marketing and customer strategies.
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Our Business
Our auto repair shop in Ukiah is a trustworthy partner for all kinds of repairs. Your personal auto safety is assured when your car is on the road running smoothly. That's why we don't merely provide comprehensive consultation, but we also perform important safety checks for you.
In our garage, your vehicle is repaired exclusively by qualified, trained personnel.
Our workshop is equipped with the latest technology, and we always stay up to date with new developments in our profession.
Personal customer care, fair and transparent pricing, as well as high quality in our work are of the greatest importance to us. We gladly provide you with advice at any time, and we do our best to ensure your comfort and safety on the road.
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The news from Iran gets increasingly more depressing. I'm amazed nuclear weapon technology has been contained as well as it has for the last sixty years ... just think, nuclear weapons are nearly as old as television and older than general-purpose computers. But the nuclearization of India, Pakistan, North Korean, and now --- seemingly inevitably --- Iran may indicate that we're reaching a tipping point. I just can't see a good future for a world of loose nukes. New Zealand may be one of the best places to be, but that's not saying much. Christians, start your prayers.
I've been fixing random Mozilla bugs lately, mostly regressions plus a few security/stability issues. I've also been spending a lot of time reviewing Darin's event/thread rewrite. It's great stuff which will simplify our code, fix a lot of bugs, and seems to improve performance.
Over the last few months I've also reviewed a lot of SVG fixes --- the SVG issues that I highlighted in February are largely fixed! A lot of the remaining performance issues are lower-level problems with cairo and platform-specific rendering code.
Now that SVG is getting cleaned up, I'm hopeful that Brian Birtles and the rest of the SVG crew will be able to look at updating and landing Brian's SMIL animation patch without much more delay.
I'm trying to finally land a patch which will unify all documents into a single view manager hierarchy. This will let you do things like have the browser stack translucent XUL elements over content windows. Every time I try to land it, we encounter performance problems, and my attempt tonight did too, so I backed it out. I did gather some data so hopefully I'll be able to figure out what the problem is and get it right.
I've started working on pulling plugin windows up to the top-level window. We should be able to do it in a way that also lets us compute visibility information for plugin windows, so you can have a DIV with a solid background actually render on top of the plugin window --- by clipping a hole in the window where the DIV needds to appear. It's not hard in theory but as usual the devil is in the details, getting reasonable performance and dealing with fallout from touching the fragile, platform-specific plugin handling code.
I've installed SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (hope I got that right!) on my desktop and laptop. It's very slick. Xgl and compiz look fantastic on my laptop, and work flawlessly with my ATI graphics hardware, but I've had some problems with my desktop's NVidia setup ... this is ironic because NVidia has usually been considered reliable and ATI the problem child of Linux graphics drivers. I have to say that due to some combination of Xgl, compiz, the fonts, the default theme, and my laptop's high-density screen, my laptop now has the sexiest-looking graphical environment that I've ever used (and I'm writing this on an iMac at home). I wonder what more Windows Vista will offer that required Microsoft to dictate massive changes to their graphics stack and onerous hardware requirements, not to mention spend so much time developing the thing.
One thing that I really like about compiz that you don't see in the demos is that it grays out windows that aren't responding to events (a lovely effect, it makes the window a little darker and turns it black-and-white). This is a real usability win; you know that the application is not going to be responsive, so you don't keep clicking on it in hope, and there's no uncertainty about "maybe it didn't work because I clicked in the wrong place". Even better, you can see when it becomes usable again without having to periodically click on it to check.
One effect is still missing ... applications that crash just disappear abruptly. Abrupt shutdown should make the application's window explode in a realistic particle simulation.
Another Mozilla thing I'm planning to work on soon is getting the new textframe code into the tree so we can get people working on improving it in multiple directions. Before I do that I want to simplify the way textframes and inline reflow handle some corner cases, which I'll talk about in another blog post.
Update: By popular demand, I've made a screenshot. Because a great deal of the sexiness is the animation, you really need a video, something I can't be bothered doing (and which would probably get me booted off weblogs.mozillazine.org). All you can see here is the obligatory cube in action, plus window drop shadows and translucent window borders. Because the cube sides are lit, the actual desktop is considerably brighter than you see here.
Here's another showing the desktop in normal mode. Here I've stopped the OpenOffice process to demonstrate the grayed-out effect.


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In the event of a drill or actual fire, either the smoke detectors or fire alarm will sound.
- Leave the building in an orderly fashion, using the nearest fire exit, staying low to avoid smoke inhalation.
- If the fire alarm has not been activated, pull the closest fire alarm as you exit the building. (If the fire alarm has already been activated, there is no need to pull a second alarm.)
- Fire exit maps are located in the hallways on each floor. Familiarize yourself with your escape route as soon as possible after arriving on campus.
- Close the door of your room as you exit, reducing the fire's spread and damage.
- After exiting the dorm, meet in the assigned areas to be accounted for (see 7 below). Under no circumstances should you reenter a burning building!
- The following areas have been designated as meeting points:
- Wellons Hall: the small gazebo next to the Admissions office.
- Jackson Hall: the steps of Taylor Chapel.
- Drum Hall: the Northeast section of the Quad between the Aaron
- Building and the Taylor Music Hall.
- Melton Hall & King Street: the east end of the residential parking lot beside the hill.
- Terrace/Village (if utilized): the middle of the Terrace parking lot, on the grassy knoll.
The Director of Campus Safety will announce when you may reenter the building.
In the event of an actual fire, do not reenter the building unless cleared by local Fire Department personnel!


text:
Restore the youth and beauty of your face with our line of organic* facial products by Druide® Laboratories. Skin care products free from all toxic substances in order to respect both your skin and the environment. Choose from a wide selection of 100% safe and effective products.
*Certified organic by ECOCERT®, 100% vegan, biodegradable, hypoallergenic, not tested on animals without sulfates, parabens, gluten, GMO, fragrances. 100% recyclable containers.
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text: sinetwo 31 Posted May 19, 2018 (edited) Hi all, Has anyone had luck with On1 over lightroom for example? My main concern with buying in to the CC is that my post processing is far too sporadic - life gets in the way and I may not do any post processing for months. Therefore I'm looking at alternatives to buy something permanent. I know that adobe is/has been the market leader, and I'm well versed with Adobe products, but their move to cloud simply doesn't suit my lifestyle/use. I haven't been able to find many posts on On1 (in fact, no articles or posts) with regards to underwater photography. Does anyone have experience with this, particularly with things like: White balance Masking/alpha for separation of exposure etc. Spot removal Sharpness Watermarks And anything else generally used for UWP Any info would be greatly appreciated. Edited May 19, 2018 by sinetwo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
Sainz helps Leclerc edge Verstappen for French GP pole
Charles Leclerc used help from Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. to beat Formula One leader Max Verstappen and take pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday.
Sainz had nothing at stake since he was starting from the back of the grid after multiple engine-part changes, so Ferrari used him to give Leclerc a tow on his two runs in Q3.
Leclerc was up by just .008 seconds from Verstappen after his first run. The team worked seamlessly on Leclerc's second run as he beat his own leading time and finished .3 seconds ahead of Verstappen and .46 clear of Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
"It was a great lap. I have to say thanks to Carlos for the help. It was great teamwork," Leclerc said. "It's quite tricky to get it exactly right, in the first lap we were maybe a bit too close. In the second lap we adapted and it was a bit better."
Lewis Hamilton qualified in fourth for Mercedes.
Leclerc thanked Sainz on the team radio after his seventh pole of the season and 16th of his career. It was also a good sign of Ferrari working together, after Leclerc expressed frustration at team orders in Monaco and at the British GP.
"It's all about trust in the end. Carlos judged it perfectly and got out of the way at the right moment," Leclerc said. "It would have been a lot tighter with Max without the tow."
Verstappen said Ferrari's tactics were "smart" but that it wasn't something Red Bull could try, since they were both going for pole.
Verstappen was happy with Red Bull's straight-line speed but had a bit of trouble getting the tires in the right window in hot conditions that are set to increase for Sunday's race.
"On that final lap I just had two moments that cost me a bit of lap time. But we still have two cars in the top three, so that's good," Verstappen said. "It was a bit more tricky than I would have hoped, but overall we have a decent car for tomorrow."
Sainz's engine caught fire near the end of the last grand prix in Austria two weeks ago. He was handed a 10-place grid penalty on Friday because Ferrari changed the power unit, and extra engine changes on Saturday sent him to the last row with Kevin Magnussen, whose Haas team made similar engine changes.
McLaren's Lando Norris was fifth and Hamilton's teammate George Russel in sixth. Russel was still in the drop zone with four minutes left in Q2, and was worried about a potential yellow flag scuppering his final lap so he asked to come out as early as possible. McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo was 11th and eliminated.
Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Sainz and Magnussen (Haas) rounded out the top 10.
Sainz qualified ninth and will start 19th, while Magnussen was 10th and goes last.
The first part of Q1 saw Perez momentarily getting in Verstappen's way.
"What was Checo doing there on the line?" a puzzled Verstappen asked.
Leclerc, meanwhile, was already leading the first run and didn't see the need for another timed lap.
"I don't know why we did this second push to be honest," he said.
After two top 10 finishes at the British GP and Austria, Haas driver Mick Schumacher was confident heading to Le Castellet. But he was among the five drivers eliminated from Q1, along with home favorite Pierre Gasly.
"I completely lost the car in Turn 6. I'm very disappointed, this isn't the qualifying we wanted," said a dejected Gasly, who drives for AlphaTauri. "I was sliding in all the turns. It doesn't make much sense."
Earlier Saturday, Verstappen comfortably led the third practice by .35 seconds from Sainz and .64 from Leclerc, with Hamilton fourth.
Hamilton is taking part in his 300th race and seeking his first win of the season after three straight podiums.
Ferrari topped both Friday practices through Leclerc then Sainz.
Ferrari is seeking a third consecutive victory following Sainz's win at Silverstone and Leclerc's drive to victory in Austria, where he trimmed Verstappen's overall lead to 38 points.
Red Bull and Ferrari have won the first 11 races between them, with Red Bull up 7-4.
The atmosphere at the Paul Ricard Circuit in southeastern France was calm compared to some of the boorish behavior at recent races.
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Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima loves Twitter. He's always tweeting up a storm. He loves Twitter so much that his studio now has its own Twitter app, called Metal Gear TW.
The modified app uses your Twitter name and followers, but it has a special "camouflage mode" that allows you to censor elements of your own tweets so that only designated people can read them. Below you can see how that works.
Also, there's a stealth type mode, which was described as a "mute" button but sounds like a block or ignore function, allowing you to keep certain Twitter users out of your feed without them knowing.
The tweaks that Konami and Kojima have made to Twitter actually sound pretty damn cool. If he ever gets sick of making games, maybe Kojima can get a job at a social networking company?
Metal Gear TW will be out on iOS by the end of the year.


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Male hitchhikers in Zimbabwe are refusing to get into cars driven by women for fear of being raped. Apparently, there's a growing trend where men are drugged, subdued at gun or knife or even SNAKE point then given some boner-inducing juice and forced into repeated relations before getting ditched roadside. The classic nail and bail.
Sounds horrible, right? Reports of the first 'sperm hunters' emerged in 2009 but police have only arrested three women, found with a plastic bag of 31 used condoms. The attacks have continued since their detainment.
No one know why the hunters needs the sperm but some think it's for "juju" or traditional rituals to bring luck.
Oh, and it's not illegal for women to rape men in the country.
When asked about his reluctance to hop in a chick's ride one hitchhiker stated, "Of course we are scared…Even if she's old, we can't."
Don't knock it 'til you try, my man. The older ones can teach ya some sweet new moves.
How long before this is a show on A&E?
[SOURCE: The Telegraph via MetaFilter]


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|Sheen, Shiowshuh - Allen
|PANG, YU-HSIN - Rutgers University
|Sommers, Christopher
|KIT, L.YAM - Rutgers University
Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/9/2012
Publication Date: 6/25/2012
Citation: Sheen, S., Pang, Y., Sommers, C.H., Kit, L. 2012. Growth behavior of Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa on catfish fillets at abuse temperatures [abstract]. IFT Meeting. June 25-28, 2012, Las Vegas, NV. 1:1.
Interpretive Summary:
Technical Abstract: The foodborne pathogens, Escherichia coli O157:H7 (Ec), Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) and Salmonella (Sal) may pose an occasional microbiological hazard on fresh fillets due to cross-contamination and temperature abuse at the production, retail, and consumer levels. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Psa), a typical spoilage microorganism in seafood, is also included. The objective of this study was to characterize the growth behaviors of Ec, Lm, Sal and Psa on fresh catfish fillets at three abuse temperatures (8, 12 and 16 deg C for Ec, Lm, Sal; 8, 15 and 20 deg C for Psa). The catfish fillets were pre-treated with gamma radiation to eliminate the background microflora. Multi-strain cocktails of each pathogen were prepared and then inoculated onto the fillet surfaces to concentration 3 log CFU/g. The catfish fillet samples were then stored at three temperatures and the microorganism growth assessed during storage. The lag phases and growth rates were estimated using DMFit (Combase, Baranyi's model). Results showed that the growth patterns, in terms of lag time and growth rate, are temperature dependent. At 8 deg C, the lag phases for Ec, Lm, Sal and Psa were 42.0 h, 25.4 h, 50.7 h and 59.2 h, respectively. The growth rates were 0.047, 0.046, 0.044 and 0.050 log CFU/g/h, respectively. In general, lag time decreased as storage temperature increased, but growth rate showed the reverse trend except for Psa. The maximum populations of all target microorganisms reached 8-9 log CFU/g in this study, however, Lm reached only 6.5 log CFU/g after 6 days at 8 deg C. Growth rate and lag phase as a function of temperature can be described by linear regression models. Results will contribute to risk assessment of catfish fillets.


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Ukrainian activists set up an international training centre in Paris to teach women the art of naked protest
In a chaotic and crumbling former public washhouse in a rundown district of northern Paris, Inna Shevchenko was explaining how a large leather punchbag hanging from the rafters might be used by the foot soldiers of a new generation of feminists.
As she prepared to welcome recruits to the Ukrainian-based feminist group Femen's first «international training camp», it was clear that the instruction would not be all ideological. The talk was of «war», «soldiers», «terrorism» and «enemies». Was it not curious, one French journalist asked, that Inna and her warriors had adopted the language of combat, traditionally a male domain, to describe their mission?
Was it not also inconsistent, another asked, that the new feminists were using nakedness to rail against female exploitation? In a week that had seen the banning of photographs of a topless Duchess of Cambridge, it was certainly topical.
«Ah, but we have a different idea; we are talking about peaceful war, peaceful terrorism,» Inna said. «We are taking off our clothes so people can see that we have no weapons except our bodies. It's a powerful way to fight in a man's world. We live with men's domination and this is the only way to provoke them, the only way to get attention.
«We don't hide our bodies, we don't hide our faces, we confront our enemies face to face. We look them in the eyes and we have to be well prepared physically for that.»
There was, she explained patiently, no contradiction in going topless or naked to protest against what they view as the three main evils of a global «patriarchal society»: sexual exploitation, dictatorship and religion. Protesting naked, as Femen's slogans insist, is liberté, a reappropriation of their own bodies as opposed to pornography or snatched photographs which are exploitation.
On a less intellectual level, taking their clothes off ensures a lot of publicity.
«There is an ideology behind protesting topless, but we quickly realised that if we took our tops off and screamed loudly it was a good way to get attention,» Alexandra Shevchenko, one of Femen's founders, said. «It works. Of course, people talk about our nakedness, but they are also listening to our message.»
She added: «Believe me, it is really difficult for me to take my clothes off and stand in a public place. But this is the fight, and the fight is never easy.»
The Femen movement was created in Ukraine in 2008 to protest against sexism, prostitution and the exploitation of women in the former Soviet state. Inna, 22, second daughter of an army officer, and a journalism graduate, took off her top and joined the protests, a decision that would cost her a well-paid job as a press officer at Kiev town hall. In August, she fled Ukraine after a well-publicised stunt in which she wielded a chainsaw semi-naked to chop down a large wooden Orthodox cross in support of the jailed Russian feminists Pussy Riot: «Afterwards I was followed for three days by the secret services. In fact they're not very secret, they like you to know they are following you to make you scared. One morning they tried to break into my apartment. I thought it was a sign I was in danger. I wasn't scared about being in prison. I have already been in prison many times, but there are worse things.»
An open invitation from a group of feminists in France brought her to Paris, where Femen has set up camp in the Lavoir Moderne Parisien, in Paris's poor and ethnically mixed Goutte d'Or district. In his 1877 novel L'Assommoir, Emile Zola described the Lavoir Moderne, then a state-of-the-art public washroom, as an «immense hangar, with its flat ceiling, and open beams sitting on steel pillars closed off with large clear windows».
After closing in 1953, it began a second life as a community theatre, now under threat and in financial difficulty after a property developer acquired the building with a view to turning it into flats.
On the first floor, high above where the old zinc washing vats would have steamed, a vast airy room is plastered with Femen campaign slogans: «Nudity is freedom», «Let's get naked», «I am a woman, not an object».
If the male journalists and photographers who have beaten a path here since Femen announced its training camp are disappointed to find the girls fully dressed in the international uniform of jeans and T-shirts, they have the good grace not to show it.
Outside, on the streets of Goutte d'Or, the three tall, beautiful women cut an incongruous path through the veiled and headscarf-wearing women of the large local Muslim community, weaving their pushchairs through the roadworks. Femen's «Better naked than the burqa» campaign has made few inroads here.
«The decision to bring the fight to France and open a training centre was a French initiative, an invitation from French feminists who sent us a message saying they needed us,» said Inna.
«Before then we thought of France as a first world and already feminist country that didn't really need us. Since arriving, I have met many Frenchwomen and they say they need to start the fight again. We are bringing a new face, new blood, a new fight to feminism.»
She added: «Classical feminism is like an old sick lady that doesn't work any more. It's stuck in the world of conferences and books. We have the same ideas as the classical feminists, what is different is the form of fight. We fight in a way that will attract young women to the ideology again.
«Early feminists fought for the right for women to wear trousers and jeans and won. Now we can wear trousers and jeans, but when a woman speaks in parliament, do the men listen? It's still a world dominated by men, where women are slaves and where women still do not earn the same or have the same opportunities. So we have to start again. It's the clothing fight all over again.»
To that end, Inna is staying in Paris to give her new feminist recruits their «physical and ideological training», while Femen militants Alexandra, 24, and Oxana Shachko, 25, are returning to Kiev, where a similar camp will be established. A third is planned for Brazil, where Femen has a large following, in the runup to the 2016 Olympic Games.
«Soldiers will be born here, but they will not be French soldiers. They will be feminist soldiers, international soldiers,» said Inna. «Women in every country need Femen.»
Back to the big leather punchbag hanging from the rafters, and Inna admits that the training sessions will not be entirely pacifist. «Feminism should be provocative,» she adds. «There's no other way for women to get attention. It's the only action left to us. So the training will be moral but also physical. You have to be in good shape, because at protests you may need to run away or attack the police or jump on a building or a car.»
The French riot police in their «robocop» outfits have been warned.
Femen's topless warriors start boot camp for global feminism | World news | The Observer.


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This is a bright 12th century Byzantine icon of the Prophet Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from the very Hand of God on the top of Mount Sinai. Because icons can show simultaneous time, Moses also stands before the Burning Bush with his shoes off in respect of the Holy Ground where God first spoke with him. Moses was 40 years old when he first left Egypt and 80 years old when he was called by God at the Burning Bush to return to Egypt to lead the Hebrews out of their captivity. In this icon, however, he is shown without a beard, implying in iconographic symbolism that he was still a young man.
Moses did many wonders by God's grace and command but this was not his crowning glory. He was weak and had some sort of a speech impediment, so that he had asked God that his brother Aaron speak with Pharaoh in his behalf. Once he was angry and struck a rock twice to bring forth water, rendering him unfit to enter the Promised Land. What was most remarkable about this truly great prophet was his extraordinary meekness which God said was above all men. Let us learn from this and draw closer to God.


text: Hackers have found a way to circumvent controls in the Google Android operating system used on T-Mobile's G1 mobile phone, allowing them to get around restrictions created by the phone's designers.The hack gives G1 users a way to read data on parts of the phone that are normally walled off and could be used to install new programs, or even a new operating system, on the mobile phone. Currently, programs for the open-source Android operating system must be written in Java, rather than other popular programming languages such as C or C++.Details on how to gain superuser "root" access to the phone were posted Tuesday to an Android development forum. Step-by-step instructions have also been published online.According to posters on the discussion board, the hack should be attempted only by technically sophisticated users because a misstep could render the G1 phone inoperable.Developers were able to hack the phone thanks to a bug in the Android operating system, Google said Wednesday. "We've been notified of this issue and have developed a fix," the company said. "We're currently working with our partners to push the fix out and updating the open source code base to reflect these changes."Android is Google's answer to Apple's iPhone. One difference, however, is that Google makes only the phone's software. The G1 itself is made by Taiwan's HTC, and Google is lining up handset makers to build other Android systems. T-Mobile is the first service provider to sell an Android phone; its G1 went on sale in late October.The iPhone was similarly unlocked after its June 2007 introduction, through a process known as "jailbreaking."


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My daughter draws teeny, tiny ladies in period costumes. My son Sebastian has nimble fingers that sculpt amazing little things in Sculpey.
I have been charmed by little things for as long as I can remember. I liked to make things--horse brushes and boxes of "horse treats" for my Stablemate-size Breyer model horses.
I would cut the bristle part of the horse brush from Velcro and glue it to cardboard, adding a tiny hand-strap. I collected berries that looked like tiny apples from ornamental shrubs.
I still enjoy making tiny things, say, as Christmas ornaments.
We also occasionally will write one another tiny letters or cards in tiny envelopes, a la Tasha Tudor.


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I never tire of shooting giant bugs, so I was thrilled to see D3 publisher with not one, but two EDF titles on the Tokyo Game Show floor. Earth Defense Forces 3 Portable is port of the game we know as Earth Defense Force 2017 in North America and retains all of the B-movie charm of the original, just smaller. The organization of the game's content as individual stages plays well to the strengths of a handheld and it controls just as well as it did the first time around (maybe better).
The biggest difference over the original is in how it looks. All of the assets appear the same, but the color is so bright and vibrant on the Vita's OLED screen that it's a much better-looking game than the prior console releases.
I don't own a Vita yet and and the possibility of playing EDF on one hasn't sold me on purchasing one, but (recognizing the purchase as an eventuality) I know I will eventually pick this one up if it releases in the States.


text: Judges Trace Pathways to the Bench February 18, 2011 A discussion and reception convened by the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association highlighted diverse – and sometimes unexpected – journeys that lead lawyers to become judges. Five judges discussed the professional pathways that led each of them to the bench in federal, state, municipal and administrative courts at the Feb. 16 event, hosted by the law school. The council also announced that it will make five internships available this summer for students at the school. The panel featured the Hon. Juan R. Sanchez of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Hon. Sheila Woods-Skipper, supervising judge of the Court of Common Pleas Criminal Division in Philadelphia – and council president, the Hon. Charles Hayden of Philadelphia's Municipal Court, the Hon. Charles E. Rainey Jr., administrative law judge and bureau director of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission and the Hon. Tracy L. Henry, chief administrative law judge and bureau director of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Hearings and Appeals. Nobumasa Hiroi of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, Mourin Khaleel, president of the Middle Eastern Law Students Association, and Sekou Lewis, president of the Black Law Students Association, served as emcees. The event was part of the Growing Judges Program that the Judicial Council designed to demystify professional pathways to the judiciary for law students. Several other judges from the council took part in a reception with students following the formal program.


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Welcome to Heafner Automotive Group
Let Heafner Automotive Group show you how easy it is to buy a quality new or used car in Batesville. We believe fair prices, superior service, and treating customers right leads to satisfied repeat buyers.
Our friendly and knowledgeable sales staff is here to help you find the car you deserve, priced to fit your budget. Shop our virtual showroom of new and used cars, trucks and suv's online then stop by for a test drive.


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AOL CEO Blames Selfish New 401k Plan on Two Pregnant Women
What could make Tim Armstrong a worse boss, at this point? Pouring beers on his employees while they work? Here's a good start: Capital New York reports two female AOL underlings were blamed for the company's shitty new 401k plan.
It all started with an interview on CNBC earlier today:
"As a C.E.O. and as a management team," said Armstrong, "we had to decide, do we pass the $7.1 million of Obamacare costs to our employees? Or do we try to eat as much of that as possible and cut other benefits?"
Armstrong later elaborated on the corporate rationale for giving everyone a worse retirement plan. It turns out, chicks can be expensive!
"Two things that happened in 2012," he said, according to a transcript provided by an AOL employee. "We had two AOL-ers that had distressed babies that were born that we paid a million dollars each to make sure those babies were OK in general. And those are the things that add up into our benefits cost. So when we had the final decision about what benefits to cut because of the increased healthcare costs, we made the decision, and I made the decision, to basically change the 401(k) plan."
I'm sure it would be completely impossible for anyone at AOL to figure out who those women with troubled childbirths might be, right? An AOLer tells Capital NY that "people were just shocked that two particular women would be singled out on a company-wide call"—but given Armstrong's history on conference talks, I guess it could have been worse? Good luck at your conference, Timbo!
Photo: Getty


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Performance reviews can be stressful, but they're also an opportunity to re-examine your current position, your relationship with your employer and your career goals. By asking yourself some key questions, you'll increase the chances that your performance review will be productive for both you and your employer. Here are five points to consider before your review.
1. What did I do this year?
Start by reviewing the year (or whatever time period has passed since your last review). Examining old e-mails and files may refresh your memory. Take a month-by-month look at your responsibilities and achievements, both expected and unexpected. Keep an eye out for any cases in which you went beyond the call of duty. For example, did you take on added responsibilities when staff size was reduced? Did you find ways to reduce the costs associated with a particular project or process? Even an attentive manager isn't likely to remember all of your contributions.
As you look back, also note any projects that didn't meet expectations, as well as any challenges you've experienced. What happened, and what was your role in the end result? Such preparation will ensure you are not blindsided if an issue is brought up during your review and will help lay the groundwork for a substantial discussion with your supervisor.
2. What are my career goals and priorities?
Chances are you came out of your last performance review with some new goals or areas for improvement. Take the time to find and review last year's appraisal. If there are objectives that fell by the wayside, consider whether they remain important, or if new ones are now more appropriate. During your review, don't hesitate to ask about your employer's current ability to assist you with these goals. Many worthy career advancement intentions were set aside in 2009 as organizations focused on staying afloat. Is there technical or business training you'd like to pursue? Most managers have a genuine interest in helping employees keep their careers moving forward, but supervisors need honest input.
3. Should I ask for a raise?
Even if you think a raise is richly deserved, take into account the financial condition of your employer before broaching the subject. Also consider alternate ways your employer can express appreciation for your contributions, such as flexible scheduling, work-at-home options or additional benefits.
If you do ask for a raise, be prepared to back up your request with specific evidence of ways you've saved the company time and money. To home in on a realistic amount, consider past raises, the state of the company and the salary levels of other people in your area who hold your position. Publications such as the Robert Half Technology 2010 Salary Guide can give you an objective range to share with your manager.
4. What if I get a negative review?
First, be sure not to blow criticism out of proportion. A few suggestions for improvement can feel like harsh judgments, especially if you're accustomed to praise. Keep in mind that your boss may make a point of identifying areas for improvement even for top performers. Work with your supervisor to create a plan for addressing issues that arise.
Reacting defensively or emotionally to criticism can easily be more damaging than the problematic performance itself. If you find yourself tempted to divert blame onto a colleague (or, worse, your boss), it may be best to hold your tongue and request another meeting to discuss the issue further after you've had time to review it more objectively. If the criticism came as a surprise, it's a sure sign that you and your manager haven't been communicating optimally. Suggest regularly scheduled meetings to keep each other better informed.
5. What are my concerns?
In turbulent times, strong employees are often tempted to present themselves as selfless team players who are willing to take on added responsibilities without complaint. Savvy managers recognize, however, that overloading their top performers is a surefire way to lose them when conditions improve. While you may be genuinely grateful to have a stable position in today's economy, stifling valid concerns serves neither you nor your employer.
Your manager may ask for direct feedback on his or her performance. While providing this input may be uncomfortable, your response needn't be dishonest or ambiguous. Be respectful, and always balance any concerns with appreciation for areas of strength.
A performance review should be a conversation, not a trial. While you may make progress toward identifying goals and clearing up uncertainties, keep in mind that thorny issues may not be resolvable in one sitting. If that's the case, make sure you've agreed on a follow-up plan before you leave. Carrying the lessons of the review into the year ahead will help you keep your day-to-day priorities and your long-term goals in alignment.
Dave Willmer is executive director of Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis. Robert Half Technology has more than 100 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.rht.com.