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Information by Country
Global Section:
Podcast: Innovations in Peacebuilding: How Technology is Changing the Way We See the World and Respond to Violent Conflict
NEW YORK, United States of America, 6 June 2014 Innovation has been a buzzword of this decade for good reasons. The world has changed in front of our eyes, and we have become witness to the ways in which innovative ideas can drive industry transformation, market creation and humanitarian response, to name just a few. But what does innovation mean in the context of peacebuilding? Do innovative ideas have the power to stop war and destruction? Can innovation cultivate peace?AUDIO: Listen now
To discuss these ideas, UNICEF podcast moderator Alex Goldmark spoke to Christopher Tuckwood, executive director and co-founder of the Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention, a Toronto-based organization dedicated to predicting and preventing mass atrocities through the innovative use of technology and cooperation with threatened communities; and Sanjana Hattotuwa, the Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation (Information, Communication and Technology for Peace), who is dedicated to improving crisis information management by using better information, communication and technology tools.
The model of the Sentinel Project is simple: Identify signs of violence and situations of concern at an early stage, and then work with the threatened community to find ways of stopping violence. It is very clear from decades of research that has been done on these matters that they are not spontaneous events, Mr. Tuckwood says.
Bringing specific examples from Burma and Kenya, he identifies some of the typical signs of how a specific group or minority can become alienated or threatened, such as denial of citizenship, targeted hate speech, exclusion from the economy or portions of the economy, expulsion from home, and deportation or relocation in camps.
We try to take a pretty broad approach in terms of gathering information, Mr. Tuckwood explains. We use things like social media looking for hate speech, as well as developing ways in which the members of the communities that are at risk can actually communicate directly with us and communicate incidents that might not appear in the media, or in other NGOs reports or in social media.
Talking about how technology has changed the way we monitor peace, Mr. Hattotuwa says that internet, social media platforms and mobile phones are providing the opportunity for billions of citizens around the world not just to consume information but also to produce it.
Moreover, technology is allowing us to bear witness regardless of where and who we are.
Bearing witness is an active process, because it takes courage to do it. It is not a passive scene it is observing; it is an act that you chose to do, Mr. Hattotuwa says. You are also adding to a body of knowledge, and, in the future, that can be very useful in helping understand why something happened around that time. So the technology is not only changing the way we see the world, but also how we engage, respond to and recover from violent conflict.


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After taking the Cool Bros to see Lucius last month, I wanted to take the boys to see one of their faves, The Lone Bellow. We could only do an outdoor concert since any venue would be at least 18 and up. However, with festival season winding down, we only had a couple of chances left this year.
The band played a homecoming show at Prospect Park on the 20th, but we were out of town for most of the day. Our last shot was Sunday evening's show at Long's Park in Lancaster, PA, a 3-hour drive from us. Continue reading

subset: commoncrawl


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NASA announced this week that a key piece of gear on its Kepler space telescope has run into trouble. And though the space agency hasn't given up on a jump-start, the mission may well be at risk.
It's already gone far beyond its planned duration, however, and presented us with many fascinating discoveries.
In this gallery, we take a look back at that mission -- at Kepler's intriguing quest to find Earth-like, life-friendly planets among the Milky Way's many stars.


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Aberdeen City Guide
Aberdeen, Scotland's third-largest city, is a town with sparkle. Its glittering granite skyline, famous the world over, is matched by an impressive line-up of culture, shopping and nightlife from world-class restaurants to first-rate museums. It's one of the only cities in Britain with a proper sandy beach and there's some of Scotland's most seductive scenery just outside the city in Royal Deeside, the The Cairngorms National Park and along the coast. You'll leave intoxicated by rich maritime history, eye-catching architecture and some of the world's finest whiskies.
Culture and heritage
Aberdeen has long and close ties with the ocean - it's a bustling port where ferries dock and depart, fishing boats bring home the day's catch and oil workers leave town for the offshore rigs. On land, Aberdeen boasts a lively cultural scene with several great venues hosting gigs, comedy and theatre.
You'll find all your favourite high street shops on Union Street, Belmont Street and George Street. For something more special try the boutique shops on The Green and in the West End. The Union Square development and Bon Accord Centre are good options if you want all your shops under one roof.
Take your pick from some excellent museums, have a day at the beach or tour one of Aberdeenshire's famous whisky distilleries. The award-winning Maritime Museum is a must-see as is Aberdeen's old town with its cobbled streets and graceful granite buildings.


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Welcome to discussions, introduce yourself!
Thanks for making Steepster what it is today. We're super-excited about this latest round of updates. If you have any feedback on the updates, let's hear them! Please let us know if you see anything bugs too.
Otherwise, play nice and have a good time meeting fellow tea-lovers, expanding your knowledge of tea, and just shootin' the breeze.
Hi there! Thank you soooooo much for adding even more features! That's the way to get people to come back, ya know!? I think we have a great core of people here and know it will just grow even more from here on out!!!
As if I wasn't here enough…now I will be here even more! Hope you aren't sick of me yet! LOL
Thanks again for this wonderful site!
Perhaps we should make this l'official Welcome to Steepster Thread as well? TeaEqualsBliss seems to have some sooper sekrit way of sussing out the new folks, but I am not as skilled.
Hello everyone! I'm takgoti, I also go by Heather, or "Hey, You!" I am not new to Steepster, but I am somewhat quirky and I like to write a lot. By that, I mean both that I really like writing and that I am sometimes debilitatingly verbose. I have also been known to drift off topic sometimes. Wanna go ride bikes?
I am 25, and I live in Northern Virginia. People here are close enough to DC that they often tell people that they just live in DC, but between you and me, I think that's kind of lame. Regardless of what you may be told, they are not practically the same. I'm a full-time student who's taken forever to get around to finishing her undergraduate degree and hopes to find herself in California [northern] in the near future. I am an adopted Korean who knows approximately 20 Korean words and derives too much pleasure from confusing "actual" Koreans on the street. If I sound really overwhelming right now, it's because I've been up for WAY too long studying. [But also, I can be kind of an overwhelming person.]
I came to Steepster because the stars aligned and I happened to discover it RIGHT as I was starting to REALLY get into tea. What started out as a lovely little distraction has evolved into an excellent learning tool. I'll drink pretty much anything at least once, but ironically am somewhat of a picky eater. I heart Steepster and I heart Steepsterites and I heart our Steepster Overlords.
Your turn!
I like Takgoti's suggestion of intrudocing ourselves!
I go by Angrboda around these parts and I am, so far as I have seen the only danish person around. If I'm not, do pipe up. I wonder if there might be a title in this for me if I am? Like… I don't know, ambassador or something. :p
I've been around this site since… uh… earlier this year or something, I think. I haven't looked. I used it a lot in the beginning and then my account lay dormant for a few months until I suddenly rediscovered it relatively recently. I can't actually remember how or why this happened.
I'm a terrible snob when it comes to quality of my tea. If I'm out somewhere I'll drink whatever I'm offered and not complain about it (until later when I give it dreadful review here) but at home I'm quite picky about what I buy.
Herbals and tisanes hold absolutely no interest for me. They are not tea, therefore they are not interesting. I have a few that I use to experiment with in blends, but the only time I'll drink a pure tisane is if I'm sick, in which case tea, proper tea that at one point came from a tea bush, tastes strange.
The only real tea that I can say I don't much like without it having something to do with the quality or an added flavouring is chai. I'm not too fond of that, but I've been on a learning experience lately with various chai drinks to go, trying to learn to like it better. I think it's working, but it's too early to say for sure.
Apart from tea I like writing fiction, although it's not really something I'm very good at, and I'm terribly addicted to my LJ account as well. I wonder if this is the source my long and rambly entries here at Steepster stem from. It seems to be impossible for me to just write about what I'm drinking without writing a setting for it first.
I love adding new people to follow here which is why I've ended up with a slightly unwieldy dashboard page. Seems like only last week I complained about having somehow ended up adding 70 people and that I might have to clean it up a bit. Oh wait, that WAS just last week. You would think some of them would have gone inactive, wouldn't you? That's what I thought too. But I went through the lot and could only remove three or four that had been completely inactive for more than two months. In the meantime I seem to have picked up a lot more people, so I'm back at 84. I think we can call Project Clean Up a bit of a failure. Before the recent site upgrade I had a habit of checking the front page to see who had posts shown there, and adding anybody I didn't already have added. Seems I can't really do that anymore without logging off first, and I suspect maybe it's for my own good… :p
Erm, I can't think of a proper way to round this off, so I'll just leave it here.
I love Following people here too and also have an unwieldy Dashboard. I've been thinking that I'll have to cull it periodically in the future. Good to know ahead of time that this might be a fruitless occurrence. I suspect the Latest Activity live stream will only add to my Following.
Ha, since then I've decided that it was useless anyway and it was much more fun just adding people… So…. I'm up a few *cough*hundred*cough* since then. :D
I have pretty much everything there is to know about me so please check it out. If you have a question, just ask- my life is pretty much an open book:)
Steepster Admins:
What is your opinion that subjects like politics and religion should be forbidden topics on Steepster? I come here to get away from all of that crap, but they do pop up.
I don't know how easy that will be to forbid. Current politics that have nothing to do with tea, sure, forbid away. But what about political discussions about the Chinese attempt to enforce a rigid definition for Pu-Erhs? Or political discussions on whether fair trade teas are better or even effective at what they try? Or a political discussion on the Ethical Tea Partnership's (ETP) decision to start monitoring South American tea estates? Or the economics of tea across the world. All of these political discussions seem on topic to me. By contrast, a discussion on domestic policy that doesn't involve tea seems inappropriate.
Religion has similar problems when it is designated as off-limits. Tea has a venerable tradition as a religious and spiritual pursuit. While I am not spiritual or religious myself, I certainly would not want to prevent other people from discussing the miracle of spiritual enlightenment they might find in a cup of hot green sencha or pu-erh or the tea ceremonies that bring them to a calm, centered spirituality.
Tea is more than a drink. It is an embedded cultural, religious, and political object with meanings that go beyond simple pleasures into our deepest pursuits. Stripping our discussions of these aspects seems like a shame to me.
Carolyn, while I agree with what you're saying, I would like to see politics and religion only come in to play when discussing tea. I certainly don't want to come on here and be berated by some random person for not having a similar political leaning (not interested), or religious faith (I'm agnostic). For on-topic discussion, sure. But for off-topic, I really don't want to hear about either politics or religion.
I've been involved in internet forums for a good 12 years now, and whenever religion/politics come up, it gets really ugly and messy.
New topics and discussions within those topics should remain focused on tea. That doesn't mean there cannot be political/religious discussions that involve tea. As Carolyn mentions, I think it would be appropriate to discuss, for example, "the Chinese attempt to enforce a rigid definition for Pu-Erhs" so long as you are discussing how it affects tea and the tea industry. Once you start discussing the merits of the politics themselves, that would be unrelated. So, just be aware and sensitive of this fact if you initiate/participate in such a conversation as those tend to escalate and get off topic quickly.
We will also be putting out a "Forum Rules & Guidelines" post soon, so hopefully that will help.
I think we generally agree then. Posts on the topic of tea: Yes. Posts that leave the topic of tea: No.
As to being berated for religious or political differences, I'd rather not be berated at all. I would hope that people could maintain politeness whether we are talking about whether one should put milk in pu-erhs, whether drinking matcha brings one to a spiritual space, whether one should re-steep, or whether we disagree on some facet of tea politics.
Rules & Guidelines, THANK YOU!
As for the politics/religion, I'm indifferent. I'm pretty good at walking away from those, but if restrictions can keep wank away from our doorstep I'm all for it. Anyway, we do have the 'report anything inappropriate' link to use if something appears to be heading towards Dramatown and needs a mod to step in.
Erm, actually I did mean posts about either religion or politics that had nothing to do with tea. Sorry — I should have been more specific.
While I completely agree that public convo about such things as politics and relgion can get messy especially if a convo between 2 people can be seen by everyone, we need to remember that right now private messaging is not available where those convos could take place. Just my two cents. And we have already proven that tea related topics can get just as heated lol.
Hopefully a new log to rekindle this fire with -
What about profanity?
I've censored myself a few times on here, fitting the kind of clean atmosphere that's been going on, but occasionally I'm rubbing out a word that fits naturally for me. Obviously, I'm not like most people from my generation who think that "f***ing" is the only adverb in existence, but from time to time I'd like to say something like "this tea was f***ing amazing", to add the appropriate, though slangly, emphasis to my statements.
I have been on other totally different sites where "hot" topics have emerged. I come to my computer to relax, enjoy and learn from other like minded people (tea drinkers etc). I do not wish to share my political or religious view with people I really don't know, so I will walk away from any such discussion.
Jason & Admins
I just want to squee over the new Discussion section here on Steepster. Thank you so much! I'm addicted already.
all the new updates are pretty awesome in my opinion :p
im Kitch3ntools, or Sarah :) im a 24 year old college student trying to get my registered nursing degree. i work part time as a medic in the air national guard, and at a dog kennel (i get payed to play w/ dogs<3)
im kinda shy so im forcing myself to break out of my shell by getting involved in discussions and such. i found steepster through a link on adagio.com and its kinda gone from there :) i drink mostly black and flavored black teas but im making myself try new things i wouldnt normally try (oolongs and rooibos) just by reading posts on here so this is a great educational tea tool :D
:D i agree!
My middle name is Mae even though I was born in September… but I guess my 1st name was supposed to be Jennifer up til I was born.
Is that your kitty in your avatar? He/she's a cutie.
mines Ann :) my mom decided on my name when she was 16 (she was 23 when she had me).
yes :D her name is Zoie. she loves to hamm it up for any picture ever :)
J.M.Kauftheil for the penname .
My screenname on some sites is "i'm dead – go away", which was what I changed my screenname to on a poetry site as a message to a girlfriend as our relationship was going up in flames… Didn't bother changing it afterward, and I started to like the ring of it, so it's stuck.
Some people still call me Jue (or Jew), as was my nickname through high school (long story, but I am a full-blooded Jew), or JM as is, I guess, a shortening of J.M.K – go figure.
Hardly 19, in college, but not for long. Dropping out of the university after this semester, because the city, Northridge, is a pit. Especially without a car. And I'm not a "school person", though I can write great essays (as I've been told by my roommate, who is a grad student in English.) Also returning because I miss my hometown of San Jose (it's near San Francisco). Bay Area is where I grew up… I can never be away for too long. Though I do need to get out every few months XD.
I'm extremely impulsive, though rather antisocial. I like meeting people, but I generally have a hard time tolerating groups of people – I honestly enjoy hanging out one-on-one more than anything. I've noticed that the people I tend to hang out with most are people that are really different from me in most ways, but share my obscure sense of humor. I like it – I get to see into different walks of life.
Been writing since my freshman year of high school, because a girlfriend convinced me to try it out. Found my niche in erotica, and once I gained confidence from the positive feedback I got online, I started to really take off with writing and pursue other topics, styles and ideas. I'm pretty prolific with my output – a lot of poetry, a lot of prose. Some serious stuff, some light-hearted stuff, some pieces based on wordplay, some emotional, some abstract…
If you want to check out my stuff (and I'd appreciate if you did),
or you want, basically, my life story told through hundreds of pieces of writing,
I sometimes feel like my personality is split between the sides of Daniel and J.M.K
I've been meaning to write about it a bit, but I haven't gotten around to it. If you're interested though, I do have this piece which I wrote as kind of a joke project with a friend.
Oh, and apparently I look like a dragon when I smoke hookah.
I am a 28 year old pc/tech/game enthusiast. I consider myself to be part Asian due to the way i look when I laugh and the fact that I love Asian cuisine and culture, but my real ethnicity is way more mixed. I am 25% Palestinian, 25% Hungarian, Irish and PA Dutch(German).
I remember always being fond of my mom making me a cup of lipton black bagged tea with milk and sugar in it. I have since graduated to drinking loose leaf after much reading up on the subject and realizing that the world of tea is very diverse.
My favorite type of tea is Oolong. I tend to like the less oxidized and more floral Oolongs(Jade Oolongs) better, but I also like the often nutty flavor of the more oxidized Oolongs as well(Da Hong Pao, Royal Red Robe, or Wuyi would be two examples of the kinds I like.
The first green teas I tried were Japanese style. You know, steamed and tasting like grass? I laugh at myself sometimes because, having a fascination with Japan I thought that Japanese green tea was superior to Chinese tea until I had sencha and realized that I don't like drinking tea that tastes like grass.
Thank god for Rishi being relatively inexpensive enough for me to try out some Chinese made varieties of tea. I now realize that in most cases, in my opinion anyway, Chinese Tea's have so much more to offer in the complexity and flavor department.
I like Chinese green and yellow teas as well, with black being my least favorite, although I have had some great black tea. Curly Golden Buds from Tea Trekker is a prime example of what a good black tea should taste like.
You will see me rate and talk about two sites mostly on Steepster, http://www.teatrekker.com, and http://www.rishi-tea.com/.
I started out drinking Rishi tea and my local supermarket Wegmans carries Rishi so I can get their tea if i ever run out of the better quality tea I buy from Tea Trekker.
You will hear me talk about Tea Trekker a lot because I have not had a bad tasting tea from them yet and their customer service is great. I live in Pennsylvania and if I order a tea on a sunday night its usually sent to me by Tuesday, if not Wednesday at the latest and they seem to know even their online customers due to the fact that they have given me samples of some of their best tea and even included post it notes on their samples telling me they know I will enjoy it. The tea they gave me a very small sample of was 20 dollars or more for just 2 oz. They know how to treat their loyal customers right. They source their teas themselves and have been in business for thirty years, writing a great book on tea called "The story of Tea". I would recommend the book to anyone wanting to know the ins and outs of tea. It is very comprehensive.
If you want to know anything else about me or my boring life just ask.


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Office of Workforce Diversity
2013 Annual Take Our Children to Work Day
On May 2, 2013, the Office of Court Administration held its annual Take Our Children to Work Day Program. Twenty children participated, along with Office of Workforce Diversity staff Doretha Jackson and Michael Moore. OCA employee chaperones included: Christine Cleavest and Melissa Thomas of the Human Resources Division, Jessica Marrero of the Continuing Legal Education Unit, Elaine Wright of Counsel's Office and Helen Zhu of the Division of Technology.
Twenty (20) children and OCA employee chaperones pose for the
2013 Take our Children To Work Day Program at 25 Beaver Street.
Thomas Cannava, Deputy Director, Human Resources Division, explains the functions of OCA and the
courts to the children at 25 Beaver St.
The day began with breakfast and welcoming remarks from Tony Walters, Director of the Office of Workforce Diversity. He spoke of the value of diversity in a working environment as well as one's personal life. He likened the Court family to a sports team, emphasizing how different kinds of people play many different positions with different skill sets, talents, perspectives and ideas all working toward a common goal.
Next, Thom Cannava, Deputy Director of Human Resources, spoke to the children and explained how the mission of the OCA is to provide the trial courts with the necessary tools to function. He was quick to point out to the children how, without the assistance provided to the Courts by their OCA employee parents and family members, essential court functions could not operate smoothly. This made the children beam with pride in knowing that their family members played such an important role in the operation of the court system.
Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling, Supreme Court, Civil Branch, NY County, takes a group
photo with the children, at 60 Centre Street after telling them about the law and the judge's
role in the courtroom.
The children then visited OCA's Department of Public Safety, where Georgina Walker and Sgt. Gideon Rabinovicz provided each child with an honorary employee photo ID card.
The children were then transported by their chaperones and NYS Uniformed Court Officers to the New York County Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street. At the courthouse they visited the courtroom of Supreme Court Justice, Milton Tingling. Justice Tingling discussed some of his experiences on the bench, and the children were given a chance to participate in a very lively question and answer session with the judge. Before they left for the next stop, the children posed for a group photo with Judge Tingling.
The children then headed to the Court Officers Academy at 123 William Street. The group enjoyed a pizza lunch and Captain Andrew Werner and Lt. Vinetta Anderton welcomed the children and explained the role that Uniformed Court Officers play in providing safety and security for all users of court facilities. The children then participated in a variety of activities including CPR, defense tactics, and physical exercise. Finally, the children were given a brief overview of weapon safety. They were told to "always" alert an adult if they ever encounter weapons. As always, the entire staff of the Court Officers Academy provided a very exciting portion of the program!
The children pose at the Court Officer Academy at 123 William Street with court officers
Lt. Vinetta Anderton, Lt. Kevin Duckfield, Sgt. David Salazar and Cpt. Andrew Wender.
Tony Walters, Director of the Office of Workforce Diversity poses with two of the children and their OCA parents, Yao Chen and Helen Zhu after presenting the children with Certificates of Appreciation.
The day concluded at 25 Beaver Street, where Tony Walters once again met with the children. Each child recounted their favorite part of the program and spoke about many of the interesting facts they had learned. Mr. Walters presented the children with certificates to commemorate their participation in the day's activities. Finally, after an informative and fun-filled day, the children were picked up by their parents.


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Gators arrive at Final Four amid key questions
ATLANTA - The police escort, the fans and autograph seekers roaming the hotel — all part of a Final Four welcome to Atlanta for Florida on Thursday.
Success, of course, has its price. The distracting speculation surrounding Billy Donovan's future has become the cost the Gators will pay during this, the final step in their quest for a second straight national championship.
Soon, both questions will be answered. On the court, the Gators play UCLA in the semifinals Saturday, a rematch of last year's title game. Off the court, Donovan's future — whether with Florida or at a new home in Kentucky — will soon be more clear.
The defending national champs need two more victories to become the first team since Duke in 1992 to win consecutive titles, the big reason Corey Brewer, Al Horford and Joakim Noah returned for another season.
"This is what we came back for," Noah said. "We came back to play in this situation. This is the big stage."
Donovan's future has taken center stage, too.
Since Tubby Smith left Kentucky to take the head job at Minnesota, speculation has grown that Donovan is at the top of the list for the Wildcats.
Florida players shrugged off talk about Donovan's future, saying they expect him to stay put.
"Anybody in their right mind knows he's probably not leaving," Brewer said. "But you never know. I don't think (he'll leave). I hope not. That would be crazy."
Donovan has spent the last 11 years in Gainesville, putting down roots with his wife and four children. His dad also lives there and coaches Donovan's oldest son's high school basketball team. The Donovans have been instrumental in getting a new Catholic high school up and running.
Oh, and he also turned a mediocre basketball program into a national power, at a place where football used to be king, defying the conventional wisdom held by his mentor, Rick Pitino, his predecessor, Lon Kruger, and dozens of other naysayers around the country.
"He made all this possible," Noah said. "Why would you want to be in a position where if you don't win a national title it's a disappointment• (Kentucky) is a great program, but you have to be realistic. The expectations there are unrealistic."
Donovan, an assistant under Pitino in Lexington, has had several opportunities over the past week to take his name out of consideration for the Kentucky job.
But all Donovan said was that the search "has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with Kentucky. I'm not in control of any their decision-making process. The only thing I'm focused on right now is our basketball team."
Donovan added Wednesday that he hoped the rumors wouldn't be a distraction in Atlanta.
"I think there's been distractions all year long for our basketball team," Donovan said. "If I were to address this right now ... My focus is on our team, our program and this great opportunity to play in the Final Four. To me, there is nothing more to address. I think I've already addressed it."
Florida fans would like more.
University of Florida president Bernie Machen offered some reassurance last week when he said, "We're not going to lose him to anybody."
Machen and athletic director Jeremy Foley have been working on a new contract for Donovan since last year. Negotiations began during Florida's title run, but Donovan postponed signing a deal worth about $2 million because he didn't want to send the wrong message to the players who turned down NBA riches to stay in school.
Donovan has two years remaining on a contract that pays him $1.7 million a season. His next contract could be worth considerably more, especially if the Gators win it all again and if Kentucky comes calling.
"I think he's fine where he is right now," Horford said. "Nobody really wants that Kentucky job. That's the way I look at it."
Whether Donovan wants the job remains to be seen. Much like Florida's shot at history, it won't be answered until after the team's final game.
"When you've got a great coach, you've got to expect it," guard Walter Hodge said. "Hopefully he'll stay."


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By Catey Hill
You've probably heard Suze Orman rail against buying all those "little things" on her TV show or author David Bach speak about the ill effects of the "latte factor" on your bottom line. But how much does spending a couple of bucks here and there on small-ticket items really impact your overall retirement savings?
Encore asked Steve Orr, president of the Orr Financial Group in Victoria, Texas, to do the math for us. To figure out how much these "little things" are costing us, Orr assumed that we buy these items five days per week for 40 weeks a year (or 200 out of 365 days per year), and we do this over a 35-year career.
- Latte ($3.95 each) = $27,650
- Energy drink ($3.99 each) = $27,930
- Muffin ($3 each) = $21,000
- Lunch ($8 each) = $56,000
(Note: These numbers don't factor in price inflation, meaning these impulse buys will likely cost you significantly more.)
Now, what if, rather than spend the money on these items, you actually put it into a 401(k) or Roth IRA each year for the next 35 years. Assuming a mere 3% annual rate of return, you'd end up with an extra $246,560 in your account after 35 years, Orr says. If you assume an 11.5% annual rate of return, which is roughly what the S&P 500 yielded from 1970 to the present, you'd end up with more than $1.7 million in your retirement account, he adds. (Try our compound interest calculator for your own amounts.)
Bottom line: You could throw away roughly $132,000 over the course of 35 years on these unneccessary buys, or you could invest that money, and end up with anywhere between $250,000 and $1.7 million over that same period, he says. "These little impulse buys really add up," Orr says, especially considering that when you invest the money you could easily become a millionaire.
To help you cut down on this kind of spending, Orr recommends writing down everything you buy and what it costs for a month. "Most people are amazed at how much it all adds up," he says. And the act of writing it all down helps to make us mindful of just how much we're really spending each day, he adds.


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(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)
"I felt like an apprentice." That's what Taylor Swift told Rolling Stone about collaborating with new and different writers on the tracks for her upcoming album, Red. "They taught me so much about melodic sense, and they let me do what I love, which is the lyrics," she said of her writing sessions with Ed Sheeran of One Direction, and pop hitmakers Max Martin (Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl") and Dan Wilson (Adele's "Someone Like You"). I have a feeling the feeling might be mutual and that those songwriters might have learned a thing or two from Swift. She also admitted to the magazine that her own tastes stretch way beyond the country genre and that she has playlists full of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa. But hip-hoppy beats aside, the lyrics of the new music will likely be classically Swift. This is how she sums up the way she crafts the stories in her songs: "I know general things about love. How to treat people well, what you deserve and when to walk away. Other than that, love is a complete mystery — and that's why I like to write about it."


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Skip to comments.Army Debuts New Slogan In Recruiting Commercials
Posted on 11/22/2006 11:55:37 AM PST by BeAllYouCanBe
The Army, facing another tough recruiting season, launched a $200 million-a-year advertising campaign this month and unveiled a new slogan: "Army Strong." The campaign's core message is that the Army builds not only physical but also mental and emotional strength in recruits, bonding them into a powerful, close-knit team. "There's strong, and then there's Army strong," a deep male voice intones as martial music rises from a brass band in the background. The television ads, launched nationwide for Veterans Day along with Internet placements and other outreach, omit all but the most fleeting images related to the all-volunteer Army's biggest endeavor ever: the war in Iraq. The main 30- and 60-second ads show soldiers jogging in formation, scaling a rope obstacle course and leaping out of a helicopter -- all take place in what appear to be familiar, grassy, domestic settings. The only brief glimpse of what could possibly be Iraq is of a group of soldiers hastily raising a tent -- although, unlike others in the ad, these soldiers wear no helmets or body armor. There are obvious reasons the Army might not want to underscore to potential recruits, and their parents, that signing up these days almost inevitably means deployment to combat zones in Afghanistan or Iraq, where the majority of the more than 2,850 killed and 21,000 wounded have been soldiers. The Army missed its fiscal 2005 recruiting target by more than 6,000 soldiers but rebounded last year with the aid of thousands of added recruiters, a doubling of the maximum enlistment bonus to $40,000 and some eased standards. The Army begins fiscal 2007 with another hefty target of 80,000 recruits and only about 15 percent already in the pipeline -- compared with a goal of 25 to 30 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
John Kerry's proposal: "If you're dumb as a rock, Uncle Sam wants you."
I personally like, "The US Army, killing people and breaking things since 1775."
The go from one lame theme to an even lamer theme. Army of one ? Show me an army of one and I'll show you defeat!
I felt the same way about that one. That was a good slogan. Seems the only things they're keeping the same are core training and tactics.
"An Army of One" didn't last very long, did it? That may work in peacetime, but if you're going to fight it is good to have some backup. That's the point of having an army.
I've always liked the Marines, "The few, the proud".
The Airforce, "Aim High", doesn't resonate with me -- I think that this is important though it is kind of an identity factor.
Try new Left Guard!
But gentle enough for a civillian.
"Army strong. Bizarro stronger!"
...and paying you to do it. :-)
Okay, I thought the "Kerry Smart" Scrappleface parody was funny anyway, but now that I've seen the commercial it was actually parodying I understand the complete genius of it.
I liiike it.
Sounds like a deodorant ad.
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Important 20th Century Decorative Art and Design Works Shine at Christie's New York
Tiffany Studios, A 'Peony' Leaded Glass Window from the Darius Goff House, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, circa 1893. Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2010.
announce the sales of Important 20th Century Decorative Art & Design and Important Tiffany, both including Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky. The sales will take place on Wednesday December 15. The auctions immediately follow the highly anticipated Day Sale of DeLorenzo: 30 Years. With over 100 lots, the Important 20th Century Decorative Art & Design sale is expected to generate upwards of $2.5 million, with works ranging from Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, to the Modernist and Contemporary movements. A notable sale highlight is the abstract Wisteria leaded Glass Window by Frank Lloyd Wright, pictured above. Hailing from one of the architects most acclaimed houses from his Prairie School period, the window was envisioned as a light screen, delineating interior space and unifying the interior with the landscape beyond.
Important Tiffany counts many splendid highlights such as 'Wisteria' Leaded Glass and Bronze Table Lamp, circa 1905 (Estimate: $400,000 600,000), pictured right. With graceful garlands twisting together to construct the shade, this rare example of the Wisteria series epitomizes Tiffany Studios consummate artistry.
Highlights from Christies Important 20th Century Decorative Art and Design Including Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky are:
Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann 'A Pair of Macassar Hydravion Bergères with Matching Ottomans', designed 1917 Estimate: $150,000-200,000
The exquisite pair of Hydravion Berères from Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann are especially rare as they each have their matching ottomans and are in excellent condition. Ruhlmann created them during the height if his career.
Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co.' An Enameled Cymric Silver Vase with Cabochons', 1900 Estimate: $70,000-90,000
Hailing from Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky this work by the leading British Art Nouveau designer is evocative of Celtic art from the Book of Kells, featuring typical blue and turquoise enameled decoration of the movement. Knox worked for Liberty & Co. from 1899 until 1912, where he spearheaded the firms Tudric pewter, Cymric silver and jewelry lines.
Harry Bertoia 'A Patinated Bronze Pre-Sound Sculpture', 1966 Estimate: $60,000-80,000
This kinetic Harry Bertoia work was the precursor to his acclaimed and highly sought after Sound Sculpture series. It explores the notion of wind moving fields of wheat and explores the sounds of the sculptures metal rods touching each other.
François-Xavier Lalanne`Crapaud' 'A pair of molded polyester armchairs', designed 1968 Estimate: $40,000-60,000
These whimsical oversize crouching frog chairs are synonymous with François-Xavier Lalannes penchant for the surreal and light-hearted. Frogs are among the artists animal menagerie that also includes dinosaurs, rhinoceroses and baboons.
Carlo Bugatti 'A Painted Parchment, Oak, Hammered Copper and Glass Cabine't, 1902 Estimate: $50,000-80,000
This exceptional painted parchment, oak, hammered copper and glass cabinet by the Italian designer Carlo Bugatti was created at the time Bugatti won a Diploma of Honor at the International Exhibition of Turin. The cabinet is a typical example of Bugatti's brilliant craftsmanship, and displays all of his most prized hallmarks: painted parchment, intricately cast bronze dragonfly handles, and beaten copper decoration. The cabinet also bears a rare plaque with his signature. It comes from the 'Estate of Alistair Bradley Martin'.
Armand Albert Rateau for Maison Bagues A Patinated Metal and Glass Butterfly Sconce, circa 1925 Estimate: $15,000-20,000
This sconce was designed by Armand Albert Rateau, and executed by Maison Bagues, who installed the fixture in the Pavillon de lElegance at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. It was created for the home of fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin.
Highlights from Christies Important Tiffany Including Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky are:
Tiffany Studios 'A 'Snowball' Leaded Glass and Bronze Floor Lamp', circa 1905 Estimate: $400,000-600,000
The sales cover lot, hailing from a private European collection, is an exceptional example of the Tiffany Studios Snowball model. With its domed shade, this floor lamp boasts a wealth of overlapping leaves and flora that exude a sublime naturalism that is characteristic of its shape.
Louis Comfort Tiffany 'An Important Brass-Inlaid Cherry Center Table', circa 1881 Estimate: $150,000 - $200,000
The table is a rare surviving object from Louis Comfort Tiffany's home at the Bella Apartment House at 48 East 26th Street in Manhattan. Few objects from Tiffany's Bella Apartment home are known; notably, the leaded glass window seen in the view of the hall is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Constructed in cherry and pine, the table incorporates brass-inset teak printing blocks imported from India.
Tiffany Studios 'A 'Peony' Leaded Glass Window from the Darius Goff House', Pawtucket, Rhode Island, circa 1893 Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000
Another highlight is a lovely and rare 'Peony' leaded glass window. Tiffany Studios produced a vast number of religious windows, but windows intended for a domestic setting are relatively rare. This window, depicting a vase filled with peonies sitting on a table, is an extraordinary example of one such window for use in a home. The extraordinary treatment of the flowers in the window exemplifies the high quality of work emerging from the Tiffany workshops at this time.
Tiffany Studios 'A 'Rose' Leaded Glass and Bronze Table Lamp', circa 1910 Estimate: $100,000-150,000
Also among the highlights from the Property from a Private European Collection, is a 'Rose' Leaded Glass and Bronze Table Lamp, circa 1910. This remarkable example possesses a striking contrast of the red petals with the green foliage of the roses being depicted.
Tiffany Studios 'A 'Tulip' Leaded Glass and Bronze Floor Lamp', circa 1915 Estimate: $120,000-180,000
Included in the sale are five exquisite lots from the renowned Collection of Max Palevsky. Leading this selection is A 'Tulip' Leaded Glass and Bronze Floor Lamp, circa 1915. This floor lamp features Tiffanys coveted Tulip motif, executed in rich shades of green and yellow.
Christies Rockefeller Center Galleries
Saturday December 11 10:00am 5:00pm
Sunday December 12 1:00pm 5:00pm
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Tuesday December 14 10:00am 5:00pm
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Christies Important 20th Century Decorative Art & Design Including Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky - Important Tiffany, Including Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky
Wednesday December 15, 2010
20th Century Decorative Art
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Today's News
December 11, 2010
Berlin's Alte Nationalgalerie Displays Eighteen Works Returned in the Past Ten Years
Visionary Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Peter Cort Marzio, Dies
After Decades in Storage, George Armstrong Custer Flag Sells for $2.2 Million
Michigan State Hires Michael Rush as Director of Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum
Columbia Museum of Art Announces Exhibition of Collection of Hudson River School
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Trove of John F. Kennedy Photos Sold for Over $150,000 at Auction in New York City
Important 20th Century Decorative Art and Design Works Shine at Christie's New York
Globetrotting Redheaded Comics Reporter Brenda Starr Leaving the Biz in January
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On December 9, estate jewelry & more goes up for bid at Turner Auctions + Appraisals
French museum chief hits back at call to return African art
David Castillo Gallery to present works by a stellar group of artists at Art Basel Miami Beach
Ancient Chinese painting auctioned for almost $60 million at Christie's Hong Kong
Exploring the watery remains of France's sunken Roman port of Olbia
Exhibition examines eroticism in paintings and drawings of the male and female nude
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Christie's sale of masterpieces formerly in the Collection of Monsieur and Madame Riahi realises $31.9 M
Christie's presents a week-long series of auctions devoted to magnificent jewels, watches, wine and design
Christie's Launches Spring 2011 Season of Post-War and Contemporary Art with First Open
Most Important Peploe Ever to Come to Auction Leads Scottish Colourist Paintings at Christie's
Extravagant Official Publishing Entreprise Leads Christie's Auction of Books and Manuscripts
Christie's Celebrates American Artistry and Craftsmanship with Exceptional Offerings
Christie's International Leads the Market for Watches in Europe, Asia, and the America's
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This Guest Post is by my friend, Mark Tankosich, who has dan rankings in both Sho-ha Shorin-ryu karate and Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei jodo. Along with the martial arts, his passions include the Japanese language. He currently lives and teaches in Hiroshima, Japan.
More than ten years ago, when I was working as a basic interpreting and translating skills teacher at a language school here in Hiroshima, I had an experience that I've often thought about.
A very famous interpreter (he had interpreted for several US presidents) was in town, and my bosses, I and some of my co-workers took him out to dinner. You may know that pretty much every major town in Japan has an "entertainment district," where you can find countless restaurants, an unlimited number of bars, and a variety of "adult entertainment." In Tokyo, this place is an area called Kabuki-cho. In Sapporo, it's Susukino. Here in Hiroshima, we have Nagarekawa, and so that was where we took our guest.
The dinner went well, and, when it started to get late, we left the restaurant and regrouped outside on the sidewalk. No one was driving that evening, and there was some discussion about how each person would get home. One of my co-workers, an attractive woman in her late 30s, said that she was going to catch a cab. Very soon an empty cab pulled-up and stopped a short distance from where we standing, She walked toward it and the back door opened. (Here in Japan, the taxi drivers can "automatically"open a back door for a passenger from where they are sitting in the driver's seat). My co-worker got into the cab, but an instant after she did, a stranger started to get in, too. I don't know if this man hadn't seen my colleague, or was doing this on purpose, but his action obviously surprised and scared her.
As any of us would probably do, my co-worker began to get out of the door that she had just entered, trying to push past the man. Unfortunately, at this point, the man put his hand on her shoulder and tried to push her back into the car. Seeing this, I reached from behind the man, grabbed his hand, and pulled it off of my colleague's shoulder. As I did so, I immediately noted several things: This guy was pretty stocky for a Japanese; he was dressed like, and had the calluses on his hands of, a laborer; he was a bit drunk; and he had 2 other friends standing right behind him
Anyway, with his hand removed from where he had placed it, the man turned to face me. As he did, without thinking, I instinctively hit him with one of my best weapons: a nice, big, friendly smile! He stared at me for a few seconds, then turned, and, with his friends, walked away.
Did I manage to avoid an ugly physical fight by smiling at this man? I honestly don't know. Is it always wise to allow your potential enemy the option of striking first? I really don't think so. Is there any kind of lesson to be learned from this experience? Personally, I guess that what I've gotten from it are 1) a greater appreciation of the wisdom of my own sense of intuition, instinct, or whatever you call somehow "just knowing" the best course of action; and 2) an increased understanding of the strategic value of friendly, disarming behavior.
Mark Tankosich


text: The Genealogy Center, along with the Allen County Public Library, will be closed Saturday July 3, Sunday July 4, and Monday July 5, in observance of the holiday. Use your holiday weekend to talk to relatives to gather and share family stories and activities. We will be back to our regular summer schedule on July 6th.


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Essential dictionary definition essential defined The definition of essential is completely necessary or part of the basic nature of something. Essential Wikipedia Biology. Essential (biology), part of an organism is a part which the organism cannot live or reproduce without; Essential amino acid, one that the organism cannot ... Homepage Essential Essentials 2015 Essential Essentials. Website design and management by FORM FUNCTION [ web production ]. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug ... Essential FCU Essential Federal Credit Union Baton ... Essential Federal Credit Union is a Baton Rouge credit union which offers a range of products, including loans, financial services, and credit cards. Amino acids: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS. Essential amino acids cannot be made by the body. As a result, they must come from food. 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text:
Boy, born April 2014
Down syndrome
Listed: Oct 2015
This cute little guy is Rocco. Rocco can sit without help for a while and can stand when held. He loves to grasp toys near him and to try to find dropped toys. He's very curious and is fond of exploring new objects. Rocco's an outgoing and active little boy who loves listening to music and playing with toys. He is also a little performer! He performed a sign language dance at party at his orphanage. He loves laughing, is very fond of imitating others, and would love to share that happiness with his forever family. Ask about Rocco and help him become a part of your forever family!


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posted by Thom Holwerda on Fri 19th Oct 2007 14:29 UTC, submitted by irbis
"10 Years ago - on October 3rd 1997 - the pkgsrc software management system was created by Alistair Crooks and Hubert Feyrer. pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection, was intended primarily as a packaging system for NetBSD. Derived from the FreeBSD Ports system, pkgsrc became a success story. Today, pkgsrc is a cross-platform framework, running on the BSDs, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, many Unix derivatives, and even on QNX and Windows. Ports- and pkgsrc-like software build frameworks are today standard on the BSDs and quite popular on some newer Linux distributions. In 2005 pkgsrc was adopted as the package management system for DragonFly BSD. Presently, pkgsrc provides more than 7300 stable packages. We continue the anniversary celebrations with a series of interviews: developers and users of pkgsrc and of related systems give insights into the history, the concepts, the problems and the future directions of packaging systems."


text:
Since 1997, the Pilgrim baseball team has won 149 games. I know this, of course, because Tuck told me.
He has chronicled all of them, one pitch, one out, one inning at a time. In his oversized scorebooks, with perfect accuracy, he has scored Pilgrim baseball games for 17 years now. He has missed two – once when he had an orthodontist's appointment, once when an afternoon game was moved to the morning and he didn't find out in time.
The next Pilgrim win will be No. 150 with Brian Tucker in the dugout.
There will be a celebration.
"He's the face of Pilgrim baseball," said head coach Scott Bailey.
Tucker would be surprised to hear that. The 31-year-old Warwick baseball institution still sees every game the same way he saw the first one.
Just a chance.
"It's an absolute joy to be able to do this and keep doing it," he said.
He was a 14-year-old freshman at Pilgrim when his baseball journey began. He's on the autism spectrum, and he was dealing with all the challenges that come with it. His resource teacher happened to be Gerry Habershaw, now the Warwick Vets principal who was then the Pilgrim baseball coach. Tucker had scored his brother's Little League games in the past, and he got Habershaw's blessing to do the same for Pilgrim.
It set the course for a baseball life.
"I'm autistic and it's really hard for me to get to know new people and talk to new people and this was great," Tucker said. "To me, baseball's the ultimate ice-breaker. The kids were good to me – they'd let me take BP before games, play catch with them, get to know them. It meant the world to me."
His younger brother Dan joined the team a few years later, so Tucker stuck around. He started scoring American Legion games, too. He kept track of all the stats, turned into a valuable resource in the dugout. And because baseball teams loves nicknames, Brian became Tucker and Tucker became Tuck.
"I was just off and running," he said.
He never stopped. He couldn't imagine leaving and as the years went on, players and coaches and fans couldn't imagine Pilgrim baseball without him. He has a job now with a data collection company – where his boss graciously accommodates baseball schedules – he's with his third head coach and some of the kids in Pilgrim uniforms now weren't even alive when he scored his first game. But he keeps turning the pages of his scorebooks, every game, every year.
"All the guys on the team love him," said senior Ryan Morris. "Every single guy you see who's graduated always asks, 'How's Tuck doing?'"
As long as there's baseball, it's a safe bet he's doing well.
It's been a lifelong passion.
His parents, Tom and Paula, got their children – Brian, Dan and Amy – into sports at an early age. As Tuck envisioned long summers watching his brother's baseball games, he made a choice.
"I started scoring baseball games because I knew I was going to be around my brother's games all the time," he said. "Instead of giving my parents guff about not wanting to go, I figured I would score the games. We solved that problem right away. As it turned out, I grew to enjoy doing it."
He followed his brother's teams to all-star tournaments and Babe Ruth regionals. He loved baseball, and his unique ability to focus on details – a strength amid autism's challenges – made keeping score a perfect fit.
"Baseball, every game is a different story," he said. "One game you can 10-run the best team in the league. Another game, you lose to an 0-18 team, like we did in 2007."
Like they did in 2007?
Yes, he remembers things, too. Maybe in the beginning, it was just a nice thing to do, giving the kid a chance to score, but that sentiment is long gone now. He fields a litany of questions every game from coaches and players. Often he has answers only he could have. No. 14? Yeah, he went opposite field for a double in an American Legion game two summers ago.
"I get emails, we get the full spreadsheet, scouting reports," Bailey said. "Stats from last year, legion – we know just about everything about our opponent through Tucker."
Even with all the tiny details filling his memory banks, Tucker has a special place for the games and stories he'll never forget. His favorite came in 2002, when his brother had the game-winning hit as Pilgrim beat Bishop Hendricken in the state semifinal series. Two future MLB draft picks, Zach Zuercher and Jay Rainville, were on the hill.
"That's my favorite game of all time," he said. "We played Hendricken in the state semis and won 2-1. Zuercher against Rainville. Rainville was throwing 95 as a sophomore. Zuercher was on three days rest, threw 138 pitches."
He pauses to say that he remembers every detail.
You don't doubt it.
"We won 2-1 and my brother had the game-winning hit, a little bloop into right field," he said. "I remember that game as if it was yesterday. It was incredible."
There have been other incredible games since – playoff runs, great players, fun times in the dugout. Tucker has loved every minute.
Baseball helped in difficult times, too. Tucker's father died in 2011 after a battle with cancer. His scorebooks remain a thread to the memory.
"My dad gave me my first scoring job," Tucker said. "Every time I score a game, I'm always thinking back to the fact that he was so willing to allow me to do it."
On the field, Tucker's team has seen its own challenges. Last year, longtime coach Ed Colvin resigned amid some team turmoil. Tucker stuck around, but it was a difficult season.
When Bailey – a former Colvin assistant – got the job this winter, Tucker was the first person to call.
"He was hurt the way things went down, but we talked over the winter," Bailey said. "He was the first person that called. He couldn't wait to get back out here."
The Pats have been up and down this season. Hoping for the milestone win Tuesday, they lost 10-1 to North Kingstown, falling to 6-7 on the year. But Tucker – the man who's seen every bit of Pilgrim's success for almost two decades – sees more in the future.
"I think coach Bailey has done a great job for this team," Tucker said. "I think he's totally changed the culture from last year. I think he's done an absolutely brilliant job of making this team what it was. I'm very happy with what's happened this year."
Tucker hopes the positive trends continue.
He'll be scoring them.
"Tucker's always going to have a spot with Pilgrim baseball, as far as I'm concerned," Bailey said. "Whether I'm here or not, he'll be here."
William Geoghegan is the sports editor at the Warwick Beacon. He can be reached at 732-3100 and email@example.com. Find him on Twitter @RhodyWill.
Thank you very much for such a lovely article. Brian is so very elated this really meant the world to him
Great article about a great guy. Brian is a true baseball fan and a great nephew.
Great article, Bill. Too often, guys like Tuck go unnoticed,


text:
Tensions between China and Japan, Asia's two biggest economies, are seen as one of the biggest risks facing the world. Here's a timeline of recent developments highlighting geopolitical tensions in Asia.
November 23: China declares "Air Defense Identification Zone" in East China Sea covering territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Move criticized by Tokyo, Seoul and Washington.
November 29: China says it scrambled fighter jets to monitor U.S. and Japanese planes as they flew in the new air defense zone.
December 5: The White House says China's new air defense zone is "unacceptable" and urges Beijing not to implement it.
December 7: China's parliament says Japan has no right to criticize air defense zone.
(Read more: China-Japan tensions: Who has the smartest approach?)
December 8: South Korea extends its air defense zone to partially overlap China's.
December 13: U.S. navy issues statement saying a U.S.guided missile cruiser operating in international waters in the South China Sea a week earlier was forced to take evasive action to avoid colliding with a Chinese navy ship. The incident is later confirmed by Chinese authorities.
December 14: Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says China's air defense zone is "unjustly violating the freedom of aviation over the high seas."
December 26: Abe visits the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo that honors Japan's war dead, including some convicted war criminals. China calls the visit "absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people" and Seoul expresses its "regret and anger." U.S. embassy in Tokyo says it is "disappointed."


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Chicago police are investigating the death of a 58-year-old woman in the Bronzeville neighborhood who may have had a heart attack during a domestic dispute this afternoon.
Police were called to the 400 block of East 46th St. at 3:54 p.m., said Police News Affairs Officer Thomas Sweeney.
The woman, had what was believed to be a "fatal cardiac event" during a domestic incident, Sweeney said. Detectives were conducting a death investigation, Sweeney said, correcting earlier information that detectives may have been conducting a homicide investigation.
The woman, who lived in an apartment building on 46th Street, died in one of the units of the building, neighbors and police said.
The Chicago Fire Department did list anyone as having been transported from the address where the woman was found, a spokesman said.
Check back for updates.
firstname.lastname@example.com | Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking


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Ever Wonder What Blake Shelton Would Look Like With Blonde Hair? [VIDEO]
Blake Shelton has been pretty hard core when picking on fellow The Voice coach and serious partner in bromance , Adam Levine. Adam Levine died his dark hair blonde a few episodes ago and Blake hasn't missed a chance to point it out! So, put the shoe on the other foot. What would Blake look like with blonde hair? Check out this video to find out!


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RVT.com Announces Winner in Dealer Contest
December 4, 2012 by RVBusiness · Comments Off on RVT.com Announces Winner in Dealer Contest
RVT.com, a leading online classified advertising website for RVs, announced the winner in its dealer contest as part of the 50th Annual National RV Trade Show in Louisville, Ky. According to a press release, Chuck Jung of Colerain RV drew the winning ticket and will receive up to 600 RV consumer inquiries or up to five years of free RV classified advertising, estimated at a potential $1.5 million in RV sales by RVT.com. Accepting the prize for Colerain, a family owned business with three Ohio locations, were Jung and his brother, Steve. "We're thrilled," Chuck Jung said. "Winning $1.5 million in RV sales will be a major motivator to everyone at Colerain RV to continue to give great service to our valued customers." Colerain RV will also enjoy a number of valuable advertising upgrades, including bold and "bold red" ads, various special featured listings, "JUMBO spotlight" ads on the RVT.com homepage, plus thousands of targeted banner ad impressions. RV dealers from across North America entered the drawing by requesting "10 Free Leads" from RVT.com. "We're doing our part (as lead generators) to give every RV dealer a leg up into the 'Golden Opportunity' that is 2013," said Shawn Friesen, vice president of RVT.com. "Every dealer who entered the draw will now receive more inquiries and make more sales to the RV buying public as a direct result."


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Website hrbuni HRBUniversal, LLC
HRBUniversal is a leading expert in the hospitality industry. With expanded services to include ServSafe® & National Restaurant Association Certification Programs, Third-Party Food Safety & Brand Standard Audits, Mystery Shopping, Recruitment and much more. Trust your business to the experts in the industry to deliver professional and quality services at reasonable rates.
Thornton, Colorado ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor is with HRBUniversal. This is as an independent contractor and is compensated by student or class as well as sessions are scheduled according to instructor/trainer availability. All expenses are paid by HRBUniversal to conduct training and ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor are responsible for all personal expenses (Mileage, Lodging, Meals, etc.). ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor must have a personality and be able to relate the topic training to the attendees of the session.
ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor Categories:
- Adjunct ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor – Schedule under 12 classes per month.
- Regional ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor – Schedule 12 or more classes per month
Qualifications: All requirements must be met to inquire.
- Must meet one of these
- 10 years Hospitality or Retail Food Service (Minimum of 5 years in salaried management)
- Professional Teacher/Professor in High School or College Hospitality, Culinary or Nutritional Programs
- Government Regulator
- Have a high school diploma/GED or advanced education (College).
- Have a current ServSafe® Food Protection Manager Certificate with a score of 90% or above on certification exam.
- Must meet be a Certified ServSafe® Instructors and Registered ServSafe® Proctors be in good standing for a minimum of 6 months.
- Be willing to be approved or certified in the following programs in the first six months of working with HRBUniversal – ServSafe Alcohol, ManageFirst, NRFSP, NEHA and SURE.
Depending on the program and the type of training instructor/trainers can earn a minimum of $150 per session and the maximum of $1050 per session. Earning potential is based on the number of people attending the training.
Submit an inquiry for consideration to become a ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor with HRBUniversal :
- Resume/CV
- A copy of your ServSafe® Food Protection Manager Certificate with exam final score of 90% or above.
- Approved ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor Certificate or approval letter.
- Must be willing to sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement (Click the link to download) prior to webcam interview.
- Must be willing to sign a non-compete agreement.
- Authorize HRBUniversal to verify current status (Click the link to download) as ServSafe® Instructor & Proctor.
ServSafe®, ServSafe Alcohol®, ServSafe Food Handler®, ServSafe Allergens™, ServSafe Workplace®, ServSafe® International, ManageFirst®, NRA Culinary Exams, and Foodservice Management Professional® (FMP®), ServSucess®, National Registry of Food Service Professionals® (NRFSP®) are a registered trademarks of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, used under license by National Restaurant Association Solutions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Restaurant Association.
To apply for this job please visit hrbuni.com.


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Heavy closed cell stamped pad
Pad Cover
500gms Heavy Reinforced Vinyl with UV Resistant Mesh Top
15kg UV resistant test thread for all stitching
2 years
All our items are shipped to you by courier using Startrack.
We aim to ship all orders we receive before midday the same day (Mon-Fri). All other orders received after midday or on a weekend will be shipped the next working day.
Once it leaves we will email with the couriers contact details and a tracking number so you can track the item via www.startrackexpress.com.au
Couriers have been advised to leave items at doorsteps if there is no one home. If the courier does not feel it is safe to leave they will leave a card advising of their attendance and you will need to call.
Delivery times are below.
If you require it to be there urgently call us on 1300 393 004 and we can advise you if it is possible.
Please note delivery is door to door, courier will not help assemble or help take upstairs.
We provide free delivery on all items to Mainland Australia and Tasmania excluding postcodes 0880 and 0881. For these areas we are happy to ship free to nearest capital city and then freight costs is at customers expense.
Please also note in the case of customer error and exchange, freight charges at the expense of the customer apply.
How much is delivery?
Oz Trampolines offers Free Delivery* on all trampolines and trampoline replacement parts Australia wide.
*Please note Free Delivery applies to delivery on all items to Mainland Australia and Tasmania excluding postcodes 0880 and 0881. For these areas or Australian islands, we are happy to ship free to the nearest capital city and then further freight costs at the customers expense apply.
Please also that that rural customers may not receive door to door delivery. Rural courier services may take on the service depending on location and may require pickup from their closest depot.
What are the benefits of an in-ground trampoline?
Our in-ground trampolines are fun and functional and a great investment for those who love to jump all year around.
What is your company's philosophy?
At Oz Trampolines our company's philosophy is simple. "To provide customers with superior quality trampolines and trampoline parts that are built to last".
We pride ourselves on great customer service, and ensuring that your experience with us is positive and enjoyable.
What is your warranty policy?
At Oz Trampolines our products are made of the highest quality and standards, but to always ensure that customers are completely satisfied, our products are covered by generous warranties, which vary per product and begin from the original purchase date of the products.
Our Warranty covers;
If a warranty issue does arise please contact us immediately via phone on 1300 393 004 or email with a description and images to email@example.com.
When will my item be dispatched for delivery?
All orders received by midday Mon-Fri will be dispatched the same day.
Orders placed after midday or on weekends will be dispatched the following business day.
How do I measure my trampoline?
To accurately measure your trampoline measure from the outside edge of the frame across the diameter. For accuracy it is recommended to measure across 3 spots of the frame.


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THL Toolbox > Audio-Video > Linguistic Processing
Linguistic Processing - Transcription, Annotation And Translation
Contributor(s): THL Staff
One is now ready to actually work on the language of the title. If the original recording is easy to understand and in the language that the target audience speaks, then one can possibly skip this step. However, if one at all cares about multiple audiences speaking different languages, then this is a crucial and complex step. The content remains inaccessible to anyone who doesn't understand the original language of the content.
The first step is time-coded transcription. The speech of the title should be transcribed in the original language's script, and time coded such that each clause or sentence is marked in terms of beginning and end times. Serious transcription is a difficult and time consuming process. The resultant transcript then can be translated into the relevant target language. Finally, one can also add rich annotations to the transcript to provide relevant details on lexical, grammatical, social and other issues pertaining to the title and its language. Intellectual processing in the form of annotations is necessary to contextualize and interpret the titles:
THL is currently using InqScribe as a transcription solution. See below for InqScribe transcription instructions.
For some uses, a subtitled version may be preferable to synchronized transcript. A synchronized transcript is useful in that the entire transcript can be searched, one can consult the transcript and selectively decide what parts should be viewed, and one can see the overall context of a given line by looking above and below the transcript. However, subtitles can be delivered easily on DVDs and other self-contained media easily used in computers or DVD players, while the simplicity of DVDs can be attractive for focusing entirely on the media. Whether or not the title has speech in it, subtitles and other forms of guides can also be made to help navigate and understand the title. This includes slide shows of images to accompany audio sound tracks.
- Transcription & Inqscribe
- Translation Guide
- Uploading Transcriptions to Audio-Video
- Transcription & QuillDriver
- Transcription Manual:
- Spelling Document Table.doc
Provided for unrestricted use by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library


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Dell Further Enables Self-Service BI with Toad Business Intelligence Suite
|Join the conversation.
- Expanded data access, new storyboarding and visualization capabilities, and optimized virtual data layer performance deliver actionable business insight
Dell Software today announced the latest version of Toad™ Business Intelligence Suite, an integrated solution that enables organizations to more easily access and extract meaningful information from traditional and non-traditional data sources. With the latest release, Toad Business Intelligence Suite delivers a host of enhancements designed to further facilitate self-service business intelligence across complex data environments.
News Facts:
Toad Business Intelligence Suite allows users to rapidly combine data across multiple sources, locations and formats — relational databases, BI platforms, cloud databases, and Big Data sources like Hadoop. Users can then synthesize this information through Toad Business Intelligence Suite's customized BI tools, designed specifically for both business and IT users. Key new features in version 2.0 include:
- Expanded heterogeneous data connectivity – Toad Business Intelligence Suite 2.0 extends its list of data connectors with complete support for Microsoft Analysis Services and connectivity to Amazon's DynamoDB and Redshift databases. Unlike traditional BI tools that address siloed data sources, Dell Software's data-agnostic approach provides one tool that works across all data sources to reduce complexity and improves business analysis and self-service BI.
- Storyboarding and enhanced visualization – New storyboarding capabilities empower users to publish in-depth analyses via the web for consumption by additional line-of-business decision makers.
- Optimized data access and desktop self-service integration—Desktop self-service data integration becomes faster and more agile with performance enhancements that accelerate the ability to share data and queries in real time while streamlining collaboration and analysis.
Concordia University Turns to Toad Business Intelligence Suite to Deal with Modern BI Challenges
- Concordia University is a private, liberal arts university based in Portland, Oregon. One of 10 universities under the Concordia umbrella, the Portland campus serves more than 3,000 students, half of which enroll in the college's rapidly growing online curriculum.
- The ongoing need to extract meaningful information from multiple databases and different data sources created a bottleneck for the BI department responsible for supporting 200 faculty and full-time staff. Additionally, the BI team was tasked with working with an outside vendor to support the university's efforts to recruit online students and faculty, as registration and classes for this fast growing area had doubled over the past three years. The vendor required access, analysis and provisioning of data for online students, which wasn't readily available. Providing other external contractors and internal teams with access to relevant data sources in order to produce a variety of reports and analysis was equally problematic.
- After evaluating a handful of traditional BI solutions and finding them incapable of linking multiple data sources as well as lacking the desired intuitive interface, director of business intelligence Rebekah Anderson turned to Toad Business Intelligence Suite to help its recruiting partner, outside contractors and internal staffers get more out of existing information.
- Toad Business Intelligence Suite enables Concordia to provide the right tool for the right user, which improves productivity for both technical and non-technical users, while still adhering to governance requirements. Toad Business Intelligence suite further provides the university with a BI tool that connects to any data source, including the college's Oracle Banner system, MySQL CRM, Blackboard LMS data and Salesforce application.
Supporting Quotes:
- Rebekah Anderson, director of business intelligence, Concordia University
"Toad Business Intelligence Suite had everything I was looking for in a self-service BI tool. Toad Business Intelligence Suite is unique in the sense that my different users have lots of options. For the more technical data consumers, I enable them to provision data, make changes and run reports on demand. For the less-technical, business consumers, it's super easy for them to browse and visualize data without having the ability to make changes. With Toad Business Intelligence Suite, I have a single solution for everything that comes up."
- Shawn Rogers, vice president of research, Enterprise Management Associates
"As data ecosystems become more complex and present greater data driven opportunities, IT departments are struggling with the need to connect multiple data sources, across distributed landscapes, in order to meet the needs of today's sophisticated business intelligence consumer. The latest release of Toad Business Intelligence Suite again demonstrates that alleviating this challenge, particularly for mid-market customers, is a major priority for Dell Software as they continue to build out their broader information management offering."
- John Whittaker, director of product marketing, information management, Dell Software
"Instead of being hamstrung by legacy BI technology that evolved to address separate and discreet data sources, Dell Software delivers a modern set of tools that encompasses all enterprise data as it grows in volume, velocity or variety. As a result, Toad Business Intelligence Suite provides a data-agnostic foundation, high-value visualizations and a well-governed virtual data mash-ups layer to facilitate actionable insight and self-service BI."
Pricing & Availability
- Toad Business Intelligence Suite will be available beginning in Q2, with pricing starting at $9,995 for five named users.
A Complete End-to-End Information Management Solution
Toad Business Intelligence Suite is a part of Dell Software's Information Management group. Dell enables organizations to turn data into actionable business insights by delivering an integrated set of vendor-, location- and data-agnostic solutions spanning the modern information management lifecycle, including database management and optimization, data integration, data warehousing, business analytics and discovery. Learn more about Dell's Information Management software solution online.
About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.
Press Kit
RemoveAccelerating ResultsJohn Swainson hosts press and analysts on April 24, 2013 to discuss th …


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Video: Kelly Clarkson, The Wedding Singer??
Nigel Campbell | July 3, 2013
Instinct reader, Ben, tweeted us to let us know that he and his fiancé Ray made the Los Angeles local news due to a special request: they want Kelly Clarkson to perform at their wedding!
Check out their short myFOXla segment. (Sorry, the embedded version of the clip was being wonky.)
We think it was pretty sweet of Julie Chang to share their request, so we figured we'd do the same!
That said, it's not completely selfless. In the event that Kelly makes an appearance we definitely want an invite to that wedding!!
Nothing's free, Ben!!!
We kid. Kinda. Crossing our fingers that Kelly makes the happy couple's dream come true! TIE IT UP!!
Image Source


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Value Line is regarded as the best independent research available. More than just recommendations, Value Line provides the rationale behind its picks for greater understanding.
One way in which stocks are valued is the price to earnings ratio, commonly abbreviated as P/E or p/e. It is a fairly simple calculation that divides a stock's price by the company's earnings per share for a given 12-month period. The logic of the ratio is that by owning a share of a company you are, arguably, buying the future stream of earnings the company generates.
If a company's earnings are growing strongly, investors might logically assume that today's earnings are worth more because of the potential for future growth. Conversely, if a company's earnings are growing slowly or unevenly, it wouldn't make logical sense to pay a premium. This last statement highlights an important aspect of the P/E ratio—by itself it provides minimal information. To properly use the P/E as a valuation tool, it must be compared to something.
In many cases, an individual P/E is compared to the average P/E of the broader market. Value Line publishes the P/E of the market each week for this very purpose. Moreover, each Value Line research report contains both the actual P/E and the company's relative P/E. A relative P/E above 1.00 suggests a valuation level above that of the broader market and a relative P/E below one suggests a valuation level below that of the market. Another common comparison is to consider the current P/E versus a company's historical P/E ratio. This information is provided in the historical section of the Statistical Array on each Value Line report. Price to earnings ratios can also be compared between peers, to spotlight the companies in an industry that are trading at a high price and pinpoint the ones that are trading relatively inexpensively. As a valuation tool the P/E is very valuable and should be a part of every investors' toolkit.
Very often, a P/E is best used to simply cut companies from a list of research candidates. It is, indeed, a quick way to pull out companies that are trading relatively cheaply from a much wider group. To this end, each week The Value Line Investment Survey contains a listing of the 100 companies with the lowest price to earnings ratios out of the approximately 1,700 followed by the Survey. For value-oriented investors, this list of low Price to Earnings ratio stocks is a great place to start looking for investment ideas. Below is information on one company that was recently found on this list, Forest Oil Corporation (FST).
Forest Oil Corporation
Forest is a small-cap U.S. company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGL). It now runs mostly horizontal drilling operations located in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the East Texas / North Louisiana Area, and has no immediate plans to develop new markets. For the nine months ended September 30th, those categories accounted for 49%, 34%, and 17% of revenues, respectively. Fluctuations in the market prices for these natural resources have a significant impact on the company's financial results and also influence decisions on capital expenditure and hedging activity. The resulting stock price volatility helps explain FST's poor marks for Safety (4) and Stock Price Stability (25).
In November, 2013, the company completed the sale of its Texas Panhandle assets for $1 billion in cash. Management intends to use these funds to pay down debt on Forest's highly leveraged balance sheet. We think this was an appropriate move considering long-term debt has exceeded total capital since late 2012 and has been over 50% for years. The more attractive balance sheet will likely get more risk-averse investors to consider the shares.
In its September quarter earnings report, the company gave 2014 output guidance that was largely in line with Wall Street's expectations. Also, the company is looking for the product mix to shift toward more profitable crude oil. Indeed, Eagle Ford production guidance of 5,800 to 6,600 boe/d would mark more than double the amount produced in 2013. Capital Expenditure should be moderately higher than last year, and production expenses are set to rise a decent amount also, due to a larger-than-expected impact from cutting the panhandle assets. Further, overall volumes are set to come down significantly as the Panhandle formerly accounted for a little less than half of Forest's total output. On the bright side, earnings per share should see a lift from a near 0% tax rate in 2014, which is stemming from changes in the valuation allowance on Forest's deferred tax assets.
Since the decent September results were released, the stock price has fallen around 30%, a stark contrast to the near 30% rise in spot prices for natural gas. Shares of FST are now trading around 1% above their 52 week low. Although the high debt load, uncertain demand environment, and transition to oil products all add risk, we think the long-term potential for the company to capitalize on its proven reserves should appeal to risk-tolerant, long-term investors.
At the time of this article's writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.


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Montana Looks North for Health Care That Works
A little over a decade ago he was busing Montana senior citizens to Canada to fill their prescriptions at reasonable prices—a way of protesting the American pharmaceutical industry. Now, Montana governor Brian Schweitzer is planning to establish a state-wide universal health care system modeled after that of the state's Canadian neighbor, Saskatchewan.
The governor, a Democrat, announced last month he will seek a waiver from the federal government to design his own health care system in Montana rather than implement all the regulations set by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the federal health care reform package signed into law last year. His goal is simple: better care, for more people and less money.
Schweitzer follows in the footsteps of Vermont governor Peter Schumlin, who signed a bill earlier this year to move toward a single-payer health care system in that state. Vermont's system will also require a federal government waiver, an option included in a provision of the PPACA to allow states to pursue their own approaches to health care reform. The waiver won't be available until 2017, but legislation has been introduced to move that date up to 2014, when many of the PPACA mandates take effect.
Schweitzer says about 50 percent of Montana's health care patients are enrolled in one of four government programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Indian Health Services, and the Veteran's Administration. While three of the programs are federally run, Medicaid, which provides care to low-income people, is the one government health care program the governor has some authority over, with 35 percent of its funding coming from the state.
In 2014, when the PPACA kicks in, many of the uninsured will be given the opportunity to enroll in Medicaid. With this change, Schweitzer expects the state's Medicaid population to double, creating a huge financial burden on the state of Montana under the current health care system. But the straightforward rancher-turned-governor isn't afraid to challenge policies he doesn't think make sense, no matter how established they are.
"Here's what I know," he says firmly, "that unless we challenge the underlying costs of health care ... it will bankrupt the states because there's no way of decreasing the cost of health care under the current system."
Like many, Schweitzer became frustrated with the health care debate in Washington, D.C., especially because lawmakers weren't looking to systems already working in other countries. Instead, they remained centered around American insurance industry interests. Montana is one of just a few states in the nation that has maintained a budget surplus throughout the recession, and the governor doesn't plan on letting disappointing aspects of the federal program get in the way of that:
"I thought, 'My gosh, if I'm going to have to double my patient load and run the risk of bankrupting Montana, why wouldn't I look at a system that a neighbor is using for those people that are in the Medicaid population?"
Schweitzer points out the similar demographics between his state and the province to the north: Montana has a population of about 990,000, while Saskatchewan's is just over 1 million; the average age is just two months different; the ethnic make-up is about the same; and the economies of both are centered around farming, mining, logging, and energy production. Yet with the universal health care system in place, Saskatchewans live two years longer on average and have a lower infant mortality rate than in Montana.
After working through the numbers to compare health care systems with Brad Wall, the conservative premier of Saskatchewan, Schweitzer discovered the province spends about $4,000 per person per year to provide care to all citizens—that's half what Montana currently spends per person to provide care to only a portion of the population.
And while providing better service to more people for half the cost, Saskatchewan's health care providers are rewarded more generously than those in Montana. "The beauty of this system is that the general practitioners of Saskatchewan actually make $220,000 a year," Schweitzer says. "And, uh, general practitioners in Montana make far less than that."
The difference, he says, is that Saskatchewan's health care program is not centered around profits. The province's health care is about 70 percent public and 30 percent private, while Montana's is about 50/50; in Saskatchewan, 87 percent of care takes place at community health clinics set up across the province, with contracted specialized services accounting for 13 percent, according to the governor.
Schweitzer says time and money are wasted on unnecessary procedures and equipment under the U.S. health care system because patients pay through third party insurance companies. With indecipherable medical bills and prices for every procedure pre-negotiated between health care providers and insurance companies, patients leave without knowing what they bought or how much they paid for it.
Contrary to rhetoric about "socialized medicine" coming out of Washington, Schweitzer argues Canadian health care providers are actually better capitalists because they negotiate prices with medical device and pharmaceutical companies. "Whatever pill it is that they're peddling, if that pill doesn't provide a better health outcome than a pill that's already available at a lower price, [health care providers] don't even buy the pill."
And eliminating insurance companies saves immense administrative time and money, allowing health care providers to focus on doing what they're meant to do: provide quality care.
Paid Sick Leave for All
Nearly 40 percent of all U.S. private sector workers get no paid sick days—but Connecticut is leading the way to change that.
Schweitzer plans to emulate Saskatchewan's system by setting up community health centers across the state, employing physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners to provide almost all the care needed. For more advanced or specialized procedures, patients will be sent to contracted service providers.
The governor isn't confident that the waiver will be approved by the federal government, which recently denied his request to sell prescription drugs at Medicaid prices to all Montana citizens. Still, there seems to be little opposition to the proposal so far, as it addresses both liberal and conservative concerns with the Affordable Care Act and exercises states' rights.
State senator Jason Priest, a Republican from Red Lodge who has been involved in crafting GOP measures to undermine the PPACA, said, "I don't want to reject it before I see the details. I am just glad he is thinking about it."
While his ultimate goal is to provide care to everyone in the state, Schweitzer plans to start out with those he's responsible for insuring: Medicaid patients, government employees, and university faculty and students. For others interested in the program, the governor says they'll calculate the cost for citizens to buy into the program.
"And we'll say to the federal government, 'We have a better system than your Medicaid, your Indian Health Services," Schweitzer says. "If you want your patients to have better care, you can just bring them on over."
Health care's just part of the picture. Five policies that would be good for our health, happiness, and wallets.
A question and answer session with Dr. Ida Hellander helps demystify Vermont's new health care bill.
Wendell Potter, a health insurance executive-turned-critic, on what Vermont's new law could mean for American health care.