text:
Do you have the finance talent you need now? A CFO Insights article
Asking five deceptively simple questions can help CFOs identify critical performers and develop strategies to keep them loyal and productive.
Economic volatility. Tax reform. IFRS and convergence. Hedging strategies. The scope of a chief financial officer's (CFO's) responsibilities is constantly evolving and expanding and calls for a team of highly skilled leaders as well as deep bench strength. Identifying and keeping that talent is far from easy.
In fact, it is the talent paradox. Despite continued high unemployment rates, CFOs tell us that they cannot find the talent they need. In the Q1 2011 CFO Signals survey, for example, one out of three CFOs surveyed said they were having trouble filling open positions, and nearly 60 percent were taking steps to engage and "lock in" top performers.1 At the same time, critical talent is on the move. Since the end of the recession, for example, voluntary quit rates have nudged higher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and employees leave for a variety of reasons (see figure 1). In addition, finance employees are at greater risk of being poached as companies compete for the same highly skilled talent pool.
None of that bodes well for CFOs who want to move beyond their operator and steward roles and focus long term on the development and execution of strategy. It is hard to move forward when you do not have the team you need to make such an advance. When CFOs honestly assess their teams, they often do not see the talent necessary to free them up to spend more time on broader business priorities. So when critical talent can be identified, it is even more imperative that CFOs work to retain that talent and neutralize the numerous triggers that can lead to a separation.
In a recent issue of CFO Insights, we looked at the benefits of having a finance strategy that identifies the people and skills needed at the macro-, micro-, and individual levels; integrates and deploys those people and skills into both the finance and business functions; and supports finance professionals across the employee life cycle—from acquisition to retirement.2 In this issue, we take a deeper dive into ways to identify critical performers and develop strategies to keep them loyal and productive. In addition, we will discuss how to align those best-in-class finance executives with all-important value creation.
Differentiating good employees from critical players
With finance-talent at a premium, it might be easy to view everyone on your team as essential. After all, it takes time and money to identify and develop critical skills—a real deterrent to changing up talent even when the situation warrants it. In addition, it is often easy to get caught up in the "rescue fantasy" associated with trying to mold certain subpar performers into the talent that is necessary.
But identifying your truly critical players is the first step in developing a world-class team, and the process entails more than just measuring productivity. Instead, it requires a careful evaluation of a) who has the skills necessary to execute on your current set of priorities, b) who can be trusted to effectively execute those priorities, and c) who can raise the bar on performance and reshape expectations. As one CFO recently told us, his yardstick was to imagine exiling all of his employees out to the parking lot and then inviting back only those he could not do without. Our alternative is to simply ask the following questions:
- What knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences do you need now? What about going forward? Who on your team best embodies those skills.
- Given your priorities in finance over the next 12 months, who are the wingmen you can count on to execute those priorities?
- If someone you consider critical resigned tomorrow, do you have the bench strength to backfill the position? Can you develop a successor from among the talent you already have?
- Despite how talented an individual is, does he or she contribute in any negative way to the organization? In other words, does this person pull energy out of the team or of you personally?
- Finally, when you evaluate your key players, do you only consider their value as individuals or as part of a larger whole? In other words, do they team and do they team well?
But identifying your truly critical players is the first step in developing a world-class team, and the process entails more than just measuring productivity.
Departure triggers and retention levers
Once the key players are identified, the challenge then becomes how to motivate and retain them. That's not so easy when many are eying the door. In fact, among 356 global employees surveyed in March 2011 for Deloitte's Talent Edge 2020 study, only 35 percent expect to stay with their current employers, down from 45 percent in 2009. Moreover, 65 percent of global employees report they are either passively or actively testing the job market.3
Once the key players are identified, the challenge then becomes how to motivate and retain them.
In finance, such turnover could be devastating, given the leanness of most operations and the current focus on growth. But the solution is not simply a matter of increased compensation or benefits. Rather, in the same research study, we found that retaining top talent in the changed environment mandates an understanding of employee expectations. And in finance, we would argue, it is up to the CFO to develop the finance-talent strategy to meet those expectations and tailor it for critical performers.
Specifically, the research identified several departure triggers. Here, we offer some suggestions for muting them for top performers:
- Lack of career progress. Topping the list (28 percent) was the lack of opportunity to grow and advance—and nowhere is that more important than in finance. As we discussed previously, the hallmarks of a world-class finance-talent organization are clear competency models, articulated views of career advancement, and positive talent experiences. With "must-have" employees, CFOs should also avoid handcuffing them to certain roles because of their critical skills. Instead, you should consider stretch and developmental assignments such as moves inside and outside of finance, particular roles in key geographies and/or business units, and board and enterprise projects and special initiatives.
- Lack of compensation increase. In this era of cost cutting and wage stagnation, it is not surprising that inadequate compensation is often a departure trigger (24 percent). In finance, though, with so much compensation data publicly available or shared over social media sites, the issue is not often the pay itself, but the perception of the fairness of pay. In our experience, there will always be a small number that will leave for the money, but most high performers are looking for balance. Consequently, it is up to the CFO to find out what top performers actually value—whether it is off-cycle bonuses, virtual work arrangements, etc.—and tailor those factors to ensure motivation and loyalty. At the same time, when corporate uncertainty mandates certain skills, CFOs still should consider "ringfencing" their top performers with pay packages or incentives that prevent exits at inopportune times.
- Lack of trust in leadership. Quite simply, employees want leadership that inspires trust. For high performers in finance, that trust is embodied in the CFO, who earns it by being straightforward, honest, and complete. For some highly talented employees, gaining trust is sometimes a matter of straight talk from the CFO. Finance professionals often are in the know regarding many challenges facing the company; it helps to hear the CFO address these concerns directly. This trust can further be developed through clearly communicating individual career expectations or commitment to a given employee.
- Lack of job security. Given the volatile economic conditions, job security is obviously a departure trigger, cited by 24 percent of respondents. For top performers, however, the skills that make them critical, such as tax or treasury expertise, often provide job security. At the same time, that expertise also makes them prime poaching targets. In such cases, offering selective contracts or other incentives may be something CFOs want to consider.
- New opportunities in the market. Finally, there is always the risk of a competitor offering your top performer a better pay package or an opportunity he or she will find hard to refuse, such as a position that expands his or her skills using analytics. To keep critical performers from straying requires communication as well as action. Simply having regular checkpoints with your talent—not just about their work, but their attitudes toward their work and their workplace—is crucial. In addition, as CFO, you should keep an ear to the ground for potential competitor moves that might lead to the poaching of your staff. And if all that seems too time-consuming, keep in mind that much of an executive's value comes from effectively navigating the firm—something your top performers already know how to do.
The talent/value equation
Simply knowing the triggers, of course, does not guarantee retention, particularly with high-demand talent. That is why it sometimes pays to incorporate creative incentives that leverage critical players into a finance-talent strategy. Take the case of the telecom CFO who recently challenged his team to elevate the process of finance hiring and leveraged 25 key performers as mentors to summer interns. Those key performers not only helped identify future finance leaders, but also helped reinvigorate the finance career track at the company.
Another CFO we recently worked with sought to transform his department into a "net exporter of talent." Concerned that other parts of the business did not truly value finance, he developed a competency model and finance-talent strategy that determined which high performers were prime candidates to move out into the business units. Those critical staffers not only gained valuable strategic skills, but helped raise the profile of finance throughout the company—so much so that the program is now being adapted for other parts of the business.
Sometimes retention is tied to other more basic factors. Another CFO recognized a critical member of the team was working long hours on a deal in addition to making a long commute. He proactively encouraged the adoption of more flexible work arrangements from home to help the employee feel valued, reduce travel time, and avoid burnout.
In each case, the CFO was thinking strategically, as well as tactically, about how to retain his top performers and keep them performing to create value. Such creative thinking is a competitive weapon at a time when recession as a retention strategy no longer has merit. And by developing finance-talent programs that keep top talent committed and challenged in their jobs, excited about their prospects, and confident in their leadership, you may not only thwart the triggers that lead to separation, but also set your organization apart as a world-class employer.


text:
Thanks for checking us out! We are so excited that you are here! We put a lot of work and research into what we do. We have been handcrafting beauty care products sine 2004.
Enjoy looking around and please let us know if you have any questions!
All Orders must be paid in full, We do accept checks, Money Orders, Credit and most forms of payment. If paying with a Check please note the order will take longer due to the time frame for the Check to clear.
Some orders ship USPS Priority Mail and those DO come with tracking & insurance. Smaller orders ship in a bubble envelope to help keep the cost of shipping down and DO NOT have tracking or Insurance on them unless extra is paid and set up ahead of time. Note we do not cover things lost in transit unless covered by ins. If you have questions please message us before you place your order.If you require an order by a certain time please make sure to talk to us first as we get very busy and want to make sure can get it to you in a timely manner
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
If anything is damaged contact me immediately! Bath & Body is not refundable due to the nature of the product (We cannot resell). If there are any issues please contact us.
We are not responsible for items lost by the postal service, we do recommend insurance but for smaller items it's your choice. We do try to ship Priority which does have insurance.
Custom orders will not be started without being paid in Full, No exceptions.
Yes! We do offer customized products. Contact us for requirements
Right now we are not accepting any more WS accounts feel free to message us about being put on a waitlist

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Federal prosecutors on Friday announced felony charges against Rene Boucher, the man accused of brutally attacking his neighbor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in November.
Boucher's alleged assault was primarily motivated by anger over Paul stacking a pile of trimmed branches and other brush, officials said. The stack was on Paul's land, but close to Boucher's property line, and when Boucher saw Paul making the stack, he reportedly reached a breaking point. Paul was surprised by the attack because he was wearing sound-canceling headphones, and he suffered five fractured ribs, pleural effusion, and pneumonia linked to his lung injuries.
The prosecutors said Boucher admitted to tackling Paul and maintains he was not motivated by politics. Boucher is charged with assaulting a member of Congress. He has signed a plea deal and faces up to a decade in prison with fines up to $250,000. Bonnie Kristian
In an attempt to deliver a zinger on Twitter, Republican Senate nominee Corey Stewart may have only succeeded in zinging himself.
The Virginia candidate often tweets inventive hashtags about his political rivals, sometimes with disastrous results. On Friday, Stewart shared a picture of "AntifaTimKaine," depicting Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) shaking hands with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
#AntifaTimKaine pic.twitter.com/8sc9amOWFe
— Corey Stewart (@CoreyStewartVA) August 17, 2018
Ignoring the fact that the U.S. and Soviet Union were allies at the time that photo of Stalin was taken, Stewart joked that Kaine and Stalin were "discussing economic policy" back in 1944, making it out to be scathing commentary on Kaine's policies. Stewart is looking to unseat Kaine, but Kaine's communications director didn't seem too worried about the latest doctored images, pointing to Stewart's support of a white supremacist candidate and providing some edited photos of his own.
Stewart's inflammatory rhetoric isn't coming to an end any time soon, he said, promising more surely-hilarious photos of his opponent "playing golf with Karl Marx!" Summer Meza
Nothing ever ends — which is why HBO is bringing Watchmen back to the screen.
The network is set to get started on its first-ever superhero series with Watchmen. Spearheaded by Damon Lindelof, who is most recently known for his work on The Leftovers, the classic graphic novel will experience a new twist when it comes to the small screen. A pilot for the show was ordered back in 2017, and the series is now headed for a 2019 premiere, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
BREAKING: HBO Officially Orders WATCHMEN to Series!https://t.co/HTaQ347WgH pic.twitter.com/4x3SfgaLuH
— ComicBook NOW! (@ComicBookNOW) August 17, 2018
Lindelof has referred to his adaptation as a "remix," with HBO adding that it will be set in an "alternate history where 'superheroes' are treated as outlaws." But even with changes in the works, many of the major characters from the graphic novel will feature in the show. The network has chosen a star-studded cast to step into the iconic superhero shoes, too, with Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Tim Blake Nelson, and Louis Gossett Jr. all set to appear.
Watchmen is just one of many new dramas coming to HBO. With Game of Thrones gearing up to its series finale, the premier channel has been ordering new series left and right. Projects from notable creators such as J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele, and Joss Whedon have all been given the green light.
The last time Watchmen saw screen time was in Zack Snyder's 2009 film adaptation, so it'll be interesting to see how the show gets reimagined 10 years later for television. Read more about the series at The Hollywood Reporter. Amari Pollard
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spars with Washington Post reporter over barring press from public event
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stunned the nation when she defeated longtime Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) in a Democratic primary back in June. In vanquishing Crowley, who held the fourth-highest position in Democratic House leadership, Ocasio-Cortez showed the appeal a political newcomer can have in a party increasingly fed up with its old ways.
But Washington Post reporter Seung Min Kim exposed the potential pitfalls of Ocasio-Cortez's greenness in a tweet Friday, calling out the probable congresswoman for holding a public event that was closed to the press. Kim tweeted out a story from the Queens Chronicle, a local paper in the district Ocasio-Cortez is hoping to represent this fall, that noted, "Unless you were in the room Sunday, you won't know what specific community problems were mentioned. ... That's because her campaign banned members of the media from attending the event, which was otherwise open to the public."
Kim noted that Ocasio-Cortez would be "in for a rough time on Capitol Hill" if her preference is to avoid reporters. When Ocasio-Cortez's campaign said it "wanted to help create a space where community members felt comfortable," the reporter noted that the campaign could've just made the event entirely private to ensure that.
Ocasio-Cortez herself eventually responded to Kim's tweets, writing that because the community is "50 percent immigrant" and includes "victims of [domestic violence], trafficking, and ... personal medical issues," the event was "designed for residents to feel safe discussing sensitive issues in a threatening political time." She also noted that her campaign had told press in advance that they were not welcome at the event. Kim responded: "You cannot ban members of the press from events that are otherwise open to the public. ... Period."
Ocasio-Cortez is virtually guaranteed to prevail in the general election in New York's heavily Democratic 14th District. Read the original Queens Chronicle article here. Kimberly Alters
Judge in Manafort trial says he's 'received threats' and had 'no idea' the case would be this controversial
Paul Manafort's trial is coming to an end with some curious new developments.
Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, is facing 18 charges of tax evasion, money laundering, and bank fraud. The jury has been deliberating since yesterday, after the prosecution made its case for two weeks and the defense decided not to call any witnesses. But the judge overseeing the trial, T.S. Ellis, emphasized Friday that those jurors will remain anonymous through the entire process, telling reporters he'd "received threats" and didn't want the jury to experience the same.
BuzzFeed News reports that Ellis denied a request to release the names of the jurors, saying "in a case of this notoriety," publicizing the names would cause people to "be scared." He said that he has been living with "the [U.S. Marshals'] protection at all times, they go where I go. I don't even go to the hotel alone," but added that he was surprised by the threats. "I had no idea this case would excite these emotions, I will tell you frankly," he said.
While Ellis said in the morning that he expected the jury to announce a verdict by the end of the day, it appears the jurors are not pleased to have given up their summer Friday hours. Jurors reportedly sent a note to the judge that said they want to leave no later than 5 p.m., and Manafort's attorney told Fox News that the jury wanted to wrap things up as early as possible.
Trump on Friday defended Manafort as a "good person," calling the trial "very sad." He declined to answer a question about whether he would offer Manafort a pardon if he is convicted. Summer Meza
IKEA is setting aside its signature minimalist design style for something a little more ... ostentatious.
The Swedish furniture company is going a little avant-garde with some upcoming "pretty, ugly, lovely objects," Fast Company reported Friday. Instead of clean lines and simple functionality, IKEA is collaborating with decidedly un-IKEA-like artists who are bringing a new sensibility to the store's decor items.
In its latest "maximalist" collection, artist Per B Sundberg is creating a line of "future antiques" that are meant to look one-of-a-kind, quirky, and handmade. Poodle-shaped candle holders will be sold alongside sculptural trinkets that would definitely add some intrigue to any apartment — especially if that apartment was previously furnished with IKEA's comparatively dull Grönlid sofa.
The line is set to launch next month, with items like banana-shaped vases available for less than $30. "Each piece of the Föremål collection is different, representing more than function and going beyond reason," the company said in promotional materials. Indeed, shoppers looking for both reasonable, inexpensive flatware and "beyond reason" skull-shaped planters need look no further. Read more at Fast Company. Summer Meza
At least 324 people in the southern Indian state of Kerala have died in the past nine days after heavy rain caused severe flooding, officials told The Associated Press on Friday.
Rescuers evacuated thousands of people in Kerala, entering with helicopters and boats Friday to help. Many people were stranded on their rooftops, rescued by one of more than a dozen helicopters. More than 220,000 have evacuated to state-run relief camps, following weeks of rain that has caused landslides and destroyed homes and bridges all over the region.
While monsoon season is deadly every year in India, officials said this season was unprecedented in its severity. Kerala's hospitals are reporting shortages of oxygen, gas stations are running out of fuel, and a major airport in the state suspended all flights, citing a flooded runway.
Across seven Indian states, more than 1,000 people have died since monsoon season began in June, with Kerala being hit hardest. Read more at The Associated Press. Summer Meza
The income gap keeps growing. Chief executives at 350 of the largest companies in the U.S. now make 312 times more than their average employee, research from the Economic Policy Institute found.
Compensation for CEOs keeps growing, The Hill reported Friday, while employee compensation stagnates. In 2017, CEOs made an average of $18.9 million, a 17.6 percent increase from the year before. Meanwhile, the wages of average workers increased just 0.3 percent.
The think tank said that pay for CEOs has grown at a much faster rate than stock prices or corporate profits at these major companies. Executive compensation has risen nearly 1,000 percent since 1978, which continues to push the CEO-to-worker pay ratio wider. In 2016, the ratio was 270-to-1, while in 1995 it was 112-to-1. Back in 1965, the ratio was just 20-to-1.
"CEO pay continues to be very, very high and has grown far faster in recent decades than typical worker pay," the institute report said. "Higher CEO pay does not reflect correspondingly higher output or better firm performance. Exorbitant CEO pay therefore means that the fruits of economic growth are not going to ordinary workers." See more results at the Economic Policy Institute. Summer Meza


text:
Hubble: Deep Field
My friend Gwyan just sent me this and I actually can't find many words to describe the effect it had on me. There was a moment, and I will let you find that moment, when I caught my breath and actually became too emotional to speak. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It is, quite literally, awesome.


text:
Delivery Time Clean: 1-10 Working Days
- Clean Service have 70% Ratio
- Clean Service Does Not Support Support Blocked/Lost/Stolen/Blacklisted/In Contract/Unpaid Bills iPhones
- All iPhone Models Supported
- Update iOS anytime
- Life Time Unlock
- Any Question, Please Contact Us
Apple Official Factory IMEI Unlock iPhone 7+ Plus, 7, SE, 6S+ Plus, 6S, 6+ Plus, 6, 5S, 5C, 5, 4S & 4 for T-Mobile Macedonia through iTunes, retaining the certified warranty of the iPhone. Unlock your iPhone for T-Mobile Macedonia carrier using IMEI iPhone Unlock, also supporting all versions of iOS including 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Our IMEI iPhone Unlock works with any baseband, and caters all Networks Worldwide.
What is iPhone Unlock Service for T-Mobile carrier (Macedonia)??
Simple, iPhone Unlock for T-Mobile Macedonia is a permanent factory unlock for the Apple iPhones via iTunes. After unlocking, you will be able to use your iPhone worldwide, supporting all GSM carriers.
The 'How to Steps' for you to gain full control over the iPhone. (How to unlock iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6+ Plus, 6S, 6S+ Plus, SE, 7 & 7+ Plus for T-Mobile Macedonia?)
- First of all, double-check that your iPhone is currently locked to T-Mobile Macedonia. If you don't know your carrier then you can find the original carrier by using our iPhone IMEI Check Service.
- The second step will require you to fill out all the necessary details regarding your iPhone. Click on "Unlock Now T-Mobile Macedonia" section, insert you iPhone's IMEI number.
- Now that you are ready to place an order for 'iPhone locked to T-Mobile Macedonia", it's time to pay for the service. Press the 'Unlock Now' button and check out. We accept payments through Credit Cards payments via DalPay. We assure you that our payment method and system is 100% safe. For this purpose, please refer to our 'Terms & Conditions' page. Moreover, we are available 24/7 to address customer issues and queries.
- After paying for Unlock Service, We will process your order for unlock within the estimated delivery time. You can also view the estimated delivery time and order processing of the IMEI while selecting a particular network. For example estimated delivery time for unlocking iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6+ Plus, 6S, 6S+ Plus, SE, 7 & 7+ Plus, for T-Mobile Macedonia will be displayed under the T-Mobile Macedonia unlock section. Upon unlocking the iPhone, we will send you instructions that will accompany the 'confirmation email' on how to proceed further.
- So, this the final step regarding unlocking iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6+ Plus, 6S, 6S+ Plus, SE, 7 & 7+ Plus for T-Mobile Macedonia.
- Connect you iPhone to iTunes and back up all your data.
- Ensure that you have already received email from our end regarding confirmation on your unlocked iPhone. Insert a new SIM Card, for the carrier you intend to use now.
- Now connect your iPhone to iTunes and complete the entire 'set up' assistant process. The iPhone is unlock message will appear on iTunes as well.
IMEI Unlocking is the fastest and safest way for iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6+ Plus, 6S, 6S+ Plus, SE, 7 & 7+ Plus for T-Mobile Macedonia and doesn't lose jailbreak too.
Did you know that IMEI unlocking is the fastest and most secure way of using iPhone on all GSM carriers worldwide. Moreover, it retains the jailbreak along with the original settings as well. For keeping a precautionary measure, we suggest you connect the iPhone to iTunes as well. The benefits of factory unlocked iPhone are enormous. It would allow you to use your iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S,6, 6+ Plus, 6S, 6S+ Plus, SE, 7 & 7+ Plus that was previously restricted to use with T-Mobile Macedonia network only, to be of use with other networks throughout the world. Just follow the above mentioned easy steps and unlock your iPhone.
We guarantee, even if your iPhone is jailbroken and is locked to a particular network, we would enable you through a quick and reliable process to retain the iPhone's original settings with the added benefit for you, to use the iPhone with GSM carriers worldwide. Just fill out the necessary details required for unlocking and pay through our official medium (DalPay). We will process your order within the specified duration. And woallah! Your iPhone is unlocked.
How are we so different from others?
We at TheIMEIUnlock.com provide exceptional services when it comes to unlocking. Here's how we are different from others that failed promises of unlocking!
- We care about our customers, that's why we have a technical support team online 24/7 to address all queries and problems of our customers.
- Factory and certified unlock that does not void warranty of your iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6+ Plus, 6S, 6S+ Plus, SE, 7 & 7+ Plus for T-Mobile Macedonia.
- 100% satisfaction for our customers along with money back guarantee.
- Instructions placed for each carrier on the website.
- A user-friendly web interface requiring no prior experience from the customer.
- No technicalities.
- A web based support with an easy access for customers and a user-friendly interface.
- No SIM cutting and manual changes are required handset.
- It's safe and we can revert the payment as well (if, as desired by customers).
- Moreover, after receiving the confirmation email, we also mail the instructions to our customers / end-users.
Additional information
|iPhone Carrier
T-Mobile Macedonia Clean
|iPhone Model
7+ Plus, 7, SE, 6S+ Plus, 6S, 6+ Plus, 6, 5S, 5C, 5, 4S, 4
There are no reviews yet.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.


text:
Saturday Snapshots is a picture prompt brought to you by Author to Author, meant to inspire the creative genius within you.
Maybe you'll be moved to write flash fiction for it, perhaps it will kick start an old idea for a novel, or it may inspire a new short story. Whatever it does, we hope you'll enjoy these images around the web.
If inspiration does hit, we hope you'll post a snippet in the comments.
Today's image: Spring is in the Air
Photo Credit: http://phillyfashionistas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bird-at-spring.jpg


text:
Blog posts can be likened to the heart beat of a blog. They determine the health of the blog, its status and future. It is the most important element of the blog. Therefore, those who wish to improve their blogging skills need to consider how to write effective posts. What makes an effective post? (See some suggestions at Nine signs of an effective post)
Choose one of the following and write a blog post to share:-
- Provide a link to an effective post from a blog you have found (preferably not a post you have written). What is it about this post that makes it effective? What characteristics do effective posts share?
- Five steps to an effective blog post (or choose your number of steps)
- Five effective blog post ideas
Then please:-
- Add appropriate categories and tags. Make sure one tag is #ksyb Consider other tags eg effective_ blog_posts, what_makes_effective_blog_posts etc The search engines will pick up on these tags and drive more people to your blog.
- Add a comment back to this post with the link to your post. (See extension activity)
- Find at least three other bloggers in this challenge and comment back on their post. Add a question where possible to keep the conversations going.
Extension activities
- Add a link to your blog post in a comment rather than the url eg If I leave the following comment back on this post it should look like this:- See my post Down Blog's Memory Lane and not See my post http://murcha.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/down-blogs-memory-lane-10-questions-to-ask-my-blog/ Read Sue Waters' edublogger post on Adding links in comments to find out how.
- Read the winning Most Influential Blog Posts in the recent edublog awards. Checkout all those that were shortlisted. Consider why these posts were so effective.
- Read some of the amazing posts from Down Blog's Memory Lane where, at the time of writing this post, there were 53 bloggers from a number of countries including Indonesia, South America, USA, Canada, NZ and Australia. (Who have I left out?) One post is in Spanish, so either use google chrome as your web browser and ask to automatically translate or copy and paste the post into Google translator. Thanks everyone for a great round of first challenge posts.
- Check out the second challenge Effective and Engaging Posts for the beginner bloggers
- Join in on the discussion forums.
If you haven't joined in before, it is not too late to either complete this challenge or previous challenges. Look forward to reading the second round of posts.
142 Comments
Leave a Reply to Marsha Ratzel Cancel reply
Fini et ici: http://wp.me/p1Xfh1-I
check out my weak attempt at humor and edublogs interface "help"
An effective post needs 1)humor 2) a point 3) an audience
This is my post with a link to my blog page.


text:
Finance and Administrative Services Fred Podesta, Director
FAS has the most diverse set of responsibilities of any City department, so we've organized our website into the four general categories below to help you find the information you need.
Help, Information and Services
The City of Seattle believes that every person who interacts with City government should receive excellent service. The Customer Service Bureau will make that happen by helping you get information, request services, resolve problems, voice an opinion and submit complaints and suggestions.
Seattle has six Customer Service Centers located throughout the city. These "little city halls" are where you can go to find information about Seattle services and programs. In addition, they provide payment and information services with customer service representatives assisting more than 225,000 residents each year to obtain pet licenses, pay City Light and Combined Utility bills, pay traffic tickets, apply for U.S. passports, or to find information about City of Seattle jobs.
You have the right, as a customer, to get what you pay for and to pay a fair fee for services.
The Seattle Consumer Protection Unit regulates certain types of businesses and enforces those regulations. These regulations aim to increase consumer safety and ensure proper charges for certain goods and services. The Consumer Protection Unit regulates:
- Taxi, for-hire and transportation network companies (TNCs).
- Limo companies.
- Tow truck companies.
- Parking garages and lots.
- Businesses that use weighing and measuring equipment such as scanners and scales.
- Businesses that require a regulatory license.
Claims for damages against the City must be filed with the City Clerk's Office within the applicable statute of limitations. Claims must be filed on the official Claim for Damages form. Visit the City's Filing a Damage Claim website to learn more.
In accordance with the City of Seattle's commitment to an open and responsive process for public disclosure, we've assembled resources for requesting City records. Visit our Public Records Request Center to learn more.
The Seattle Animal Shelter was founded in 1972 to protect public safety and enforce all animal-related ordinances for the City of Seattle. In addition to our primary role, we care for the abandoned, abused and orphaned animals of Seattle. To fulfill our dual missions, we provide eight core services:
- Enforce animal-related ordinances.
- Investigate animal cruelty, neglect and abuse.
- License all cats, dogs, potbellied pigs and pygmy goats.
- Educate residents about responsible pet ownership.
- Care for the city's lost and unwanted animals.
- Reunite lost animals with their owners.
- Adopt orphaned animals to suitable homes.
- Administer a low-cost spay and neuter clinic.
Information for Businesses
FAS ensures all businesses operating in Seattle are properly licensed. If you need to get, renew or cancel a Seattle business license tax certificate, or for general business licensing information, visit our Licenses website.
FAS also ensures all businesses operating in Seattle are paying required business and occupation taxes. The Seattle business license tax is applied to the gross revenue that businesses earn. Visit our Business License Tax website for information about the tax and to pay your taxes online.
The City of Seattle regulates some business activities. These businesses require both a standard business license tax certificate and a regulatory endorsement on the license. Visit our Business Regulations website to find out if your business requires a regulatory endorsement.
City Purchasing and Contracting Services manages bids and contracts on behalf of all City departments and offices using competitive processes to acquire fiscally and socially responsible solutions.
Managing City Assets
The Civic Center is comprised of Seattle City Hall (SCH), the Seattle Municipal Tower (SMT) and the Seattle Justice Center (SJC). The Civic Center replaced the Municipal Building and the Public Safety Building and houses the majority of the City's downtown work force. The Civic Center website provides an overview of the design and construction of SCH, SMT and SJC.
The Fleet Management Division (FMD) centrally manages the City fleet to provide quality, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable vehicles and equipment to all City departments. FMD also provides vehicle and equipment acquisition, disposal and motor pool services, as well as replacement and green fleet planning to improve and maintain the quality of the City's fleet.
Real Estate Services (RES) is part of FAS' Facility Operations Division. RES provides professional and technical real estate services to all City departments. Services include:
- Excess property reuse and disposition evaluation.
- Property sale.
- Appraisal.
- Leasing.
- Citywide property database.
- Citywide real estate policy development.
- Property acquisition.
Other than real estate, disposal of all surplus City-owned property and equipment – such as furniture, computers, industrial material and street signs – is handled through the City of Seattle's central warehouse. Whenever possible, the City offers this surplus property for sale. For information about City surplus items, visit our Warehousing Services website.
In November 2003, 69 percent of people voting in Seattle approved the Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy. This program, which started in 2004, uses levy proceeds and other funding to:
- Upgrade, renovate or replace 32 neighborhood fire stations.
- Construct a new training facility and a new Fire Alarm Center.
- Establish emergency preparedness facilities and disaster response equipment that includes a modern, seismically safe Emergency Operations Center, emergency community supplies, emergency shelter power generators, and emergency water supply capacity for fire fighting in the event the city's fire hydrants are disabled.
- Build a new large fire boat, a new small fire boat, and renovate the Chief Seattle fireboat.
City Financial Information
The City Finance Director is located within FAS and oversees functions that ensure the City's financial health. These functions include managing City debt, purchasing insurance, overseeing City investments and assisting with the development of economic and revenue forecasts, all of which are essential to financial planning and budgeting. Visit the Financial Services website to learn more.
The City of Seattle issues general obligation bonds to finance various municipal projects and revenue bonds for each of its publicly owned utilities. Visit the Investor Relations page for more information.
The Seattle Tax Advisory Group:
- Provides a forum for the City of Seattle and the business community to discuss tax administration and policy.
- Provides a taxpayer perspective on specific tax issues.
- Assists in the development of tax policy.
- Identifies Seattle tax administration improvements.


text:
|SEI 2018 Brochure – English
SEI 2018 Brochure – Chinese
|WAnet Schools Brochure – English
WAnet Schools Brochure – Chinese
- About
- Schools
- Summer English Institute
- Learn
- Apply Now
- 中国网站
I absolutely think SEI was awesome. Although this was my first time joining SEI, I gained a lot learning and even fun! I love SEI.Bryan, SEI 2014 Student
I cannot believe how much I learned and I loved it!SEI 2013 Student
I love the teachers at my school!WAnet Student
The teachers at SEI were so helpful.SEI 2012 Student
Students coming into our American high school from SEI are distinctively more prepared and ready to be successful than students that come directly from their home country.Admissions Director
SEI is a great way for students to prepare for the rigorous academic environment of WAnet schools. SEI students bring a broad understanding of the U.S. classroom and enter the school year with much less stress.Director of International Program
SEI literally gave me the best summer of my life and in just one month I made a lot of friends. I know almost everybody in SEI, especially now I have 5 best friends from three different countries: Peru, Korea, and China…we keep in touch everyday and I can't wait to come back to SEI next year!Ellie, SEI 2014 Student
We notice that students who attend SEI are so much more confident to participate and try new things their first year. It gives them a huge advantage.ELL Coordinator
I loved the activities. I never had that chance back home.SEI 2012 Student
SEI is such an amazing experience. There's no doubt I'm going back next year! Highly recommend it if you haven't gone to SEI.Caleb, SEI 2014 Student
PO Box 1297
Temecula, CA 92593
900 Prince Crossing Road
West Chicago, IL 60185
Phone: 1-951-600-1383
WeChat: WAnetUSA


text:
Due by May 7, 2013
The United Way of Randolph County is now accepting agency applications for the calendar year 2014.
The United Way of Randolph County, MO provides funding in the form of grants to area social service agencies and programs that address the most critical needs of its residents including, health, education, income and safety net services.
Applicants must provide documentation of IRS 501(c) (3) status and copies of most current IRS form 990. Applicants must also be registered with the Missouri Secretary of State as a non-for-profit in good standing and be eligible to receive tax deductible donations according to current IRS guidelines to be considered for funding.
Applications may be requested by calling the United Way office, 660-263-6588 or by e-mailing email@example.com .
Applications must be completed and returned on or before Tuesday, May 7,2013. The United Way of Randolph County currently funds 22 agencies and programs, serving area residents throughout Randolph County.


text:
There was only one thing this term that could possibly overshadow my birthday, and that was Christmas. But we haven't gotten that far yet, so it's my birthday we're focusing on now.
Around the flat, we were always talking about going on day trips together—getting everyone together and heading off into Central for one reason or another, just to see the sights and hang out. This really never happened.
Except for my birthday. I turned twenty-four this term (yay?), and I wanted to do something awesome.
My birthday ended up being a two-part deal, but that wasn't a problem in the least. First and foremost, I went into Kingston with several of my flatmates, and we all joined together to subject ourselves to the mercy of Old London Road Tattoo and Piercing. That, in and of itself, would have made my birthday fantastic.
The guys around the shop were amazing, Cree, our artist, was wonderful, and the shop, aside from being highly recommended, is connected with a bar called The Fighting Cocks, so how could we not go?! (We never did get around to going to the bar though, which is unfortunate.)
Skip ahead to Thursday. After sitting through a three hour philosophy seminar about death (happy birthday!), we gather the troops, walk down to Barnes Station to take a train into Waterloo, and make our way to the London Eye.
I saw the Eye almost every week, but I never got a chance to actually go on it until my birthday. Seriously, though—BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. The best part, though, was that everyone had a lot of fun. It was the first time we'd all gone out as a group, we were doing something we'd all been wanting to do, and we all just had a good time.
We chose to go on the Eye at night, which was amazing. There are interactive screens inside each capsule that tell you what you're looking at from any direction, and it was a clear night, which meant we got to see the city in all its sparkly glory.
The Eye is at Jubilee Gardens and is Europe's largest Ferris wheel at 443 feet tall, and 394 feet in diameter—it's ridiculously huge, with each capsule large enough to hold twenty-some adult passengers, so the eighteen of us were able to all go in a capsule together, which made the whole experience that much better. And getting on and off is absurdly fun because they wheel never stops moving—you have to time it just right to get everyone on or off in the few seconds that the capsule is on level with the landing. They say that the Eye rotates slow enough that you can walk on and off, no problem, but I distinctly remember doing a bit more than walking.
The other cool thing about the Eye is that, you know how Ferris wheels never seem to last long enough, or they're the sketchy carnival ones that leave you hanging in the air for ever? The London Eye takes thirty minutes to make a full rotation, so there is none of that dissatisfaction about the ride being either too long or too short.
After the Eye, we went across the street for fish and chips, and then back to uni.


text:
Interfraternity Council (IFC) is the governing council for the 4 men's fraternities at Lycoming College. IFC coordinates recruitment, risk management events and programming for the entire fraternity community. Each fraternity has a voting delegate on the Interfraternity Council.
IFC is affiliated with the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC). The NIC serves the needs of its member fraternities through advocacy, collaboration, and education. Through the enrichment of the fraternity experience; advancement and growth of the fraternity community; and enhancement of the educational mission of the host institutions the NIC works to ensure that fraternities can operate in an environment conducive to their success. The NIC is also committed to enhancing the benefits of fraternity membership. Today, the NIC has 72 member organizations with approximately 5,500 chapters located on 800+ campuses in the United States and Canada with approximately 350,000 undergraduate members. You can find out more about NIC by visiting http://www.nicindy.org


text:
Fraud/Financial Irregularity
Fraud encompasses an array of irregularities and illegal acts characterized by intentional deception.
Irregularity refers to the intentional misstatement or omission of significant information in accounting records, financial statements, other reports, documents or records. Irregularities include (a) fraudulent financial reporting that renders financial statements misleading and (b) misappropriation of assets (e.g., cash, checks, misuse of P-cards, theft of property, etc.)
Irregularities involve:
- Falsification or alteration of accounting or other records and supporting documents
- Intentional misapplication of accounting principles
- Misrepresentation or intentional omission of events, transactions, or other significant information.
Auditors are not specifically searching for the existence of fraud when performing audits. We are more concerned with ensuring that adequate systems of internal control exist to reduce the risk of fraud. In situations where internal controls are weak, our testing is designed to determine if indications of fraud exist.
If you suspect fraud or an irregularity, you may report it in good faith to the Confidential Hot Line, or directly to the Internal Auditor by mail (campus zip 3171) or telephone 208-885-2133. Please provide as much detail as possible to allow investigation of the allegation. Our confidential hotline provides an option for anonymous reporting.
Retaliation is Not Tolerated
It is a violation of university policy for any employee to engage in retaliatory conduct, which includes conduct that intimidates, threatens, coerces or retaliates against any individual because that individual reports a perceived wrongdoing, inequity or violation of law or UI policy; files a complaint alleging illegal or prohibited discrimination; participates in a grievance or appeals procedure or participates in a dispute resolution through Human Resources or the Office of the Ombuds. The university may discipline an employee who engages in retaliatory conduct as described above up to and including termination.


text:
Recommended Stories
What's Hidden in Your Data? Exploring Better Attraction & Retention Strategies
CUs have a rarely-used tool from which to gain insights and develop strategies for improving employee recruitment and selection.
Finding Solutions to Predatory Litigation Alleged Under ADA
CUNA plans to address the threats and legal actions from lawyers abusing the ADA at the GAC.
On the Financial Literacy Front, We Have Work to Do
Learn the six components of a successful financial literacy program.
Resource Center
White Paper
Sponsored by Sageworks, Inc.
How to Transform Your Credit Union's Lending Process
Transforming your lending process takes commitment and an actionable plan. This white paper will guide your through four main phases of preparation and implementation.
White Paper
Sponsored by Kaufman Hall
How to Boost Your Credit Union's Profitability by Managing the Full Scope of Relationships
Learn how to improve profitability for your credit union by adding "relationships" to your credit union profitability analyses.
White Paper
Sponsored by DocuSign
How to Close More Mortgages with eSignature Solutions
Learn how your credit union can realize more value in lending and close more business by deploying an eSignature solution.
Credit Union Times
Don't miss crucial strategic and tactical information necessary to run your institution and better serve your members. Join Credit Union Times now!
- Free unlimited access to Credit Union Times' trusted and independent team of experts for extensive industry news, conference coverage, people features, statistical analysis, and regulation and technology updates.
- Exclusive discounts on ALM and Credit Union Times events.
- Access to other award-winning ALM websites including TreasuryandRisk.com and Law.com.
Copyright © 2018 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All Rights Reserved.


text:
2013's Best Episodes: Mad Men Comes Clean and The Office Closes Its Doors
Dec 29, 2013 5:00 PM EST
Torture! Clones! Betrayal! Sexting! And just sex! From touching series finales (farewell, 30 Rock and The Office!) to Game of Thrones' brutal Red Wedding, 2013 was brimming with fantastic hours of television. TVGuide.com has compiled the top 25 episo… Read more


text: Yesterday I visited the beach for the first time this year. For Oregon, the weather was quite good—sunny and savagely windy. I came home with sand in my socks, sea salt sprayed all over my pants, and a belly full of clam chowder and raw oysters. We collected sea shells to make sea shell mason jars and I found my first-ever in-tact sand dollar! All in all, it was a lovely day and it inspired me to share some of our equally lovely seaside puzzles since summer's just around the corner and beach days are going to be much more common for those of us flanking the coasts!


text:
It's Halloween, everyone! Let's see what we got in store for you this year!
We've done some major changes in the game logic so if you have any issues please report them in the comments. Next version with the first three Minigore Encyclopedia pages is almost ready for beta testing, so testers be ready :)


text:
Latin singer Marc Anthony has been handing $16,500 a month to his Miss Universe ex-wife since their divorce in 2004.
A judge in the Dominican Republic ordered the Latin Grammy Award-winner to pay Dayanara Torres $3,500 a month in alimony and $6,500 a month in child support for each of their two sons, Cristian, 11, and Ryan, nine.
The order was made public for the first time as Torres has recently moved to the U.S. and had to file paperwork in a Los Angeles court so it can be enforced in America, according to editors at TMZ.com, who obtained the documents.
The couple wed in Las Vegas in 2000 and Anthony married pop star Jennifer Lopez just a week after their divorce was finalized.
Anthony and Lopez split in 2011.


text:
Three new sets of brainy card games with color–Array, Spectrix, and CUBU–by Funnybone Toys are currently being sold at museum stores, toy stores, and online sites. Created by Julien Sharp and her team, the card games are recommended for ages 8 and up.
The cards represent a link between 21st century designs and 19th century ink-paper mechanisms. The games can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Store, the Phoenix Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, SF Moma, Denver Art Museum, The Smithsonian Institute, High Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Walker Art Center, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, and Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The games can also be purchased at Marbles Brain Store chains and Daily Gourmet. For more purchase information, visit www.funnybonetoys.com.


text:
« Back
UIndy now offers majors in Mechanical Engineering, Software Engineering and Industrial & Systems Engineering. Learn more about our engineering programs ►
Need Help?Contact Us
Why I Love UIndy Watch Video
Give to UIndy
Each year UIndy presents more than 100 arts-related events. Most are free to the public and family-friendly. With a great variety of art, music and theatre events, there's something for everyone!
Gifts of all sizes help UIndy continue to provide students with a transformational education experience. We value your support.
Give Now
1400 East Hanna Ave Indianapolis, IN 46227 317-788-3368 800-232-8634
UIndy News
The 2017-18 Faculty Artist Concert Series is presented by Katz, Sapper & Miller


text:
Suite 225
Melville, New York 11747
United States
|Areas of Practice
|1) Patent Prosecution
|Rice University (B.S.M.E., 1997)
|Most recent firm
|Carter DeLuca Farrell & Schmidt, LLP
Jason E. Gettleman is an associate in Morgan Lewis's Litigation and Intellectual Property Practices. In his practice, Mr. Gettleman focuses on patent procurement and patent litigation in the electrical and mechanical arts.
Mark W. Taylor is partner-elect in Morgan Lewis's Intellectual Property Practice. Mr. Taylor focuses his practice on patent litigation. He has advised clients in all phases of patent enforcement matters, from pre-filing investigation to post-trial


text:
Main Site - :: Why Won't God Heal Amputees? ::
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
I am sorry, you have this impression that I care. No, that ship has sailed. Then it sunk.-Nam
As much as I am likely to regret this statement......Could you guys kinda like.... stop the bullshit? (please?) I don't care who started it and why, but the trying to be the one who gets the last word/barb bullshit feels very jr. high to me.
I could be just bluing for the fun of it.


text:
Rumors have long circulated that Ernie and Bert are a gay couple as seen on Sesame Street.[1] Sesame Workshop disavows these rumors and points out that Ernie and Bert are puppets, not humans; the Workshop's official position, therefore, is that Muppet characters Ernie and Bert are simply good friends. Advocates of this position note that Ernie and Bert's bedroom contains two single beds rather than one larger bed.
Rumor Sources
"Bert and Ernie conduct themselves in the same loving, discreet way that millions of gay men, women and hand puppets do. They do their jobs well and live a splendidly settled life together in an impeccably decorated cabinet."
—The Real Thing by Kurt Andersen, 1980[2]
"Bert and Ernie are two grown men sharing a house and a bedroom. They share clothes, eat and cook together and have blatantly effeminate characteristics. In one show Bert teaches Ernie how to sew. In another they tend plants together. If this isn't meant to represent a homosexual union, I can't imagine what it's supposed to represent."
—Reverend Joseph Chambers radio show, 1994 [4]
Note that no skit has ever shown either character sewing, wearing the other's clothing, or cooking. Ernie tends to his plants alone.
On October 24, 2010, the Los Angeles Times published an article about how some gay advocates believed that Sesame Street was intentionally appealing more to gay viewers. The article commented on a tweet posted by Bert in June of that year: "Ever notice how similar my hair is to Mr. T's? The only difference is mine is a little more 'mo,' a little less 'hawk.'" Although meant as a reference to the recent release of the feature film adaptation of The A-Team, some interpreted the tweet's timing (around the time of a number of gay pride celebrations) and the use of the word "mo" (which could be read as short for "homo") as a sly, under-the-table effective outing of Bert. Sesame Workshop denied that they were intentionally trying to reach a gay audience, stating that "the idea that anyone would interpret this season that way never crossed our minds."[3]
In 2002, Sesame Workshop lawyers blocked further showings of the short film Ernest & Bertram by Peter Spears, in which a character based on Ernie confesses his romantic attraction to another character based on Bert.[1][4]
Another Sesame Street takeoff, the 2003 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q, includes two puppet characters, Rod and Nicky, who bear a striking resemblance to Bert and Ernie. In the musical, Rod is an uptight Republican banker, who is secretly in love with his sloppy, over-enthusiastic straight roommate, Nicky. Several numbers during the show focus on Rod's feelings for Nicky, including "Fantasies Come True", in which Rod dreams that he and Nicky rise from their single beds to share a romantic dance. Several members of the original cast (including John Tartaglia, Stephanie D'Abruzzo and Rick Lyon) were puppeteers who had worked on Sesame Street, but the musical has no connection with the television show. Advertising and merchandise based on the show include a disclaimer: "Avenue Q has not been authorized or approved in any manner by the Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, which have no responsibility for its content."
Official Statements
"Bert and Ernie, who've been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends."
—Sesame Workshop's consumer response prepared statement, 1993.
"There is nothing going on with Bert and Ernie, but there's this whole culture out there that thinks they are gay. It's clearly something that adults are projecting onto these characters. What they are is friends. In fact, if you think about the fact they are Muppets, they don't even have an existence below the waist."
—VP of Education and Research for CTW Rosemarie Truglio, 1998[5]
""They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets," says Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell. "They don't exist below the waist.""
—Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street (2009), p. 47.
"Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics... they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."
—Sesame Workshop statement, August 11, 2011 (issued in response to a Change.org petition to have Bert and Ernie marry which circulated shortly after gay marriage was legalized in the state of New York)[6]
Other Quotes
"They're puppets. They don't exist below the waist!"
—Steve Whitmire, who performed Ernie on Sesame Street beginning in 1993, to students in a Q&A session at Carnegie Mellon. (September 10, 1997) [5]
"All that stuff about me and Bert? It's not true. We're both very happy, but we're not gay."
—Ernie to students at Carnegie Mellon, 1997 [6]
"Oh, you had to ask that question. No, no. In fact, sometimes we are not even friends; he can be a pain in the neck."
—Bert to Spencer Howson when asked if he and Ernie are "more than just good friends" in an ABC Brisbane radio interview, March 7, 2005. (sound bite)
- When Michael Davis, author of the 2008 book Street Gang, was asked, "What's the biggest misconception that people have about Sesame Street that you're hoping to dispel with this book?," Davis responded, "That Bert and Ernie are gay... Certainly they [Sesame Street cast members] played to that notion and laughed about it and enjoyed speculating about Bert and Ernie, but the truth is that those characters are a projection of the real-life friendship between Jim Henson and Frank Oz."[7]
- Eric Jacobson to Vanity Fair, 2011:[7]
- I'm sure you're aware of the online movement this last summer to get Bert and Ernie married. Do you have an opinion about what did or didn't or should've happened?
- [Long pause.] You're going to have to talk to our P.R. department about that.
- But you're the guy who plays Bert. You don't have any thoughts about his sexual orientation?
- If you know the genesis of the characters, it's an absurd idea. They're like The Odd Couple. Just think of it like that. It's Felix and Oscar from The Odd Couple. That's what I believe the inspiration for Bert and Ernie was. If you look at the history, when the show first aired, that makes sense.
- "Hallo, wie wär's mit einem O?" (the German dub of "Would You Like to Buy an O?") also provided a reference to the pair's relationship on that country's version of the show: Lefty's lyrics at 0:45 are changed not only for rhyming's sake, but for comedic purposes also. "So buy the O, and take it home tonight" turns into "Nun kauf schon, und schenk es Deiner Frau!," which translates to "Come buy it, and give it to your wife," to which Ernie quickly asks: "Bert?"
Parody and References
- Family Guy
- American Dad
- Robot Chicken
- Avenue Q
- Bernie und Ert
- Ernest & Bertram
- Daryl Cagle's 2003 editorial cartoon on gay marriage
- The Jay Leno Show
- Matt Bors' 2011 newspaper cartoon
- Glee, Supernatural, The Colbert Report, Greg the Bunny, The King of Queens, The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, and Medium Large have all made minor references.
See also
- Tough Pigs - Muppet Sexuality
- Snopes.com Bert & Ernie's Relationship
- TV Guide Letter Column, 12/18-24/1993
- Answers.com Bert & Ernie
- Gay Today Quotes
- ABC Brisbane - Eric Jacobson interview
- "Bert & Ernie's Big Love", Jessica Max Stein (Richard Hunt's biographer) analyzes the controversy.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wolf, Buck "'Sesame Street' Threatens Lawsuit Over Gay Muppet Rumors" ABC News, April 9, 2002. Web.[1] (Accessed 11/1/09.)
- ↑ Andersen, Kurt The Real Thing; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980.
- ↑ Maerz, Melissa. "Some 'Sesame Street' viewers sense a gay-friendly vibe." Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2010.
- ↑ Goodridge, Michael "The best films you can't see: Ernest & Bertram is the latest in a series of acclaimed queer films banned from public view because their makers stepped on some famous toes." The Advocate (The National Gay and Lesbian News Magazine), July 23, 2002. Web.[2] (Accessed 10/31/09.)
- ↑ Wisconsin State Journal "Tour Opens Sesame on Campus" by William R. Wineke, September 25, 1998
- ↑ Oldenburg, Ann. "Marriage for Sesame Street pals Bert and Ernie?", USA Today. August 11, 2011.
- ↑ Felion, Marc; Fernós, Fausto "Sesame Street Cred" Feast of Fools, podcast #926, February 6, 2009. Web.[3] (Accessed 12/29/09.)


text:
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - March 28, 2013 --A plan to build a 33-story skyscraper in downtown Allentown has gotten preliminary approval from the city's parking authority.
Mayor Ed Pawlowski says the plans for a tower with 200,000 square feet of retail, office and residential space have been submitted by Salisbury Township developer Bruch Loch. The mayor says it looks like an interesting proposal that would be a good addition to the downtown.
It would be the tallest skyscraper in the Lehigh Valley.
Allentown Parking Authority Chairwoman Linda Rosenfield says the authority has given preliminary approval to the $60 million project. It would be a few blocks from the planned 8,500-seat PPL Center, which is slated to host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms hockey team starting next year.
The developer did not immediately respond to a message from The Express-Times of Easton.


text:
|19 Down...
|Carol Mendelsohn
|Naren Shankar
|Original Airdate
|December 11, 2008
|Previous Episode: Young Man with a Horn
|Next Episode: One to Go
19 Down... is the ninth episode in season nine of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
When a new murder leads to a connection with an infamous serial killer, Grissom secretly joins the class of well-known criminal pathologist Dr. Raymond Langston, to gain access to the killer and get a crack in the case.
The episode opens with a man watching a video of some sort with someone else behind him. He asks his friend what he "thinks it's worth" before being violently grabbed from behind and choked to death. His unknown guest then stuffs his body into a plastic bag, drags it into a car, drives into the wilderness and throws the bag down a hill, where it remains for a long time, the body inside decomposing.
Back at the crime lab, Grissom assigns his team their cases before making a surprise announcement: he will be leaving the lab. Afterwards, he gets called to a 419 on Mt. Charleston - the man in the plastic bag. He remarks that, considering the conditions, the bag might have been there for years. When the remains, which have decomposed to the bones, are examined at the lab, Nick finds a Star of David pendant on the body. Doc Robbins describes the man as being a Caucasian male, at least 25 years of age and around 5' 9". Cause of death is strangulation. As they work, the team and lab workers all wonder what Grissom will do when he quits and say their goodbyes to him.
Grissom inputs the physical description for the body in the bag into a missing persons database and narrows the possible missings down to one man: Joel Steiner, who disappeared in 1997 and was suspected of being a victim of the "Dick & Jane Killer", Nate Haskell. Haskell, a serial killer, was suspected of killing at least 14 people in Nevada, California and Arizona. Upon being stopped at a sobriety checkpoint, he was arrested when the police found DNA evidence linking him to two of the male victims on him and the inside of his car. In the middle of his trial, he changed his plead to guilty. He got two life sentences without parole and is serving it in Ely, Nevada. Though seven male victims were found strangled and their wives or girlfriends disappeared, Haskell refused to discuss the female victims. Each male victim had post-mortem stab wounds; the first had two, the second three, the third four, etc. Because of this, it was suspected that his first victims were never found. Joel Steiner and his girlfriend, Tiffany Cohen, were suspected to have been killed by him since they disappeared before any of the other couples and lived in the area.
While Grissom briefs his team, Brass talks to Joel Steiner's parents. They identify the Star of David pendant as his and give DNA samples to help identify Joel. In the lab, David, who is resentful of Grissom for quitting, examines a pair of sneakers found on the body. After Wendy identifies some hairs found in the bag as belonging to Haskell, David learns that the body is definitely not Joel Steiner; the sneakers were made only two years earlier, but Steiner has been missing for eleven years. The shoes, which were custom made, are traced back to a Gerald Tolliver, who has a criminal record for drugs and theft and went missing six months earlier.
Nick and Greg go to Tolliver's home along with a local police officer. As Tolliver had recently become an informant in a drug case, they figured he had left. Though the crime scene examination only uncovered some blood stains match to him, it also found a shoe print in the blood. As the house is searched, Nick, Greg and the detective find items that turn out to have belonged to various male DJK victims, including two Pearl Jam tickets that belonged to Steiner and Tiffany Cohen. At the lab, Grissom remarks that Haskell changed his plea because his defense was about to argue that it wouldn't have been possible for him to control the female victims while strangling the males. None of the males had any drugs in their systems except for small amounts of THC. Upon examining the shoe print photo, Greg recognizes it from the murders of Ian Wallace and Justine Stefani in Leave out All the Rest. Wallace had nine post-mortem stab wounds, which wasn't important at the time but fits Haskell's M.O. Greg figures that they were killed by a copycat who tried to continue the cycle.
Though there is no chance of getting Haskell to admit to even having accomplices, the CSIs realize that they'll never be able to question him directly. Grissom learns that Haskell will take part in a seminar at WLVU headed by Dr. Raymond Langston, a former physician who once worked alongside an Angel of Death who killed patients at the hospital they both worked at. Though the evidence was in front of him, Langston couldn't "connect the dots". Grissom attends the seminar posing as a professor and listens in. In the beginning of the seminar, Haskell tells the class his father beat him all the time and that he only has vague memories of his mother. During the Q&A part, the students are allowed to ask questions. When Grissom asks Haskell whether or not he shared his fantasies with others, he denies it. After the Q&A, the seminar ends and Haskell agrees to do it again the next day.
At the lab, the team learns that Wallace and Stefani had bought two Paramore tickets which were used after their deaths. Figuring the killers used the tickets themselves, they look at video footage of the concert and see two men at Wallace and Stefani's seats who wore caps from the same body shop. Brass questions them and learns that they got the tickets from a scalper, though they can't describe him. At the lab, Mandy examines the used tickets for fingerprints and finds one belonging to a Curtis Keesey. The LVPD raid his house only to find him dead for at least a month. Though his car's tires are the ones from the Wallace and Stefani crime scene, the shoe print doesn't match his shoes. The team figures that Keesey and "shoeprint man" killed Wallace and Stefani in a DJK copycat killing after which Keesey tried to make money on the stolen tickets and his accomplice killed him to shut him up in case they were traced back to him.
During the next seminar, Grissom tries to get information about Haskell's accomplices again. When he brings up the fact that, considering his size, it would have been difficult for him to subdue the male victims, who were larger and stronger than him, while controlling the female victims, Haskell insists that he committed his murders alone, but won't explain how. When asked whether or not he had help in his killings, Haskell vehemently denies it. When he starts talking about killing Joel Steiner, Mrs. Steiner, who was in the audience, angrily asks him where her son is buried. Haskell only says Joel is at "the perfect place, the place where it all began" and that he would bring him some company if he could. When Grissom reveals himself to be in law enforcement and offers to make life in prison a little easier for Haskell if he tells them about his accomplices, Haskell becomes uncooperative and the seminar is ended.
At the station, Langston is furious that the crime lab "hijacked" his class. Grissom promises to keep him informed. At the university, Langston gets a phone call from Haskell, who claims that Mrs. Steiner's outburst in class made him think about closure. He reveals that he buried Joel Steiner under a rock near a concrete tunnel near Boulder Highway. The CSIs go to the location and find the skeletal remains of Joel Steiner where Haskell said they would be. To their surprise, they also find a fresh male body with ten post-mortem stab wounds nearby - Haskell's copycat has claimed another victim.
Main Cast
- William Petersen as Gil Grissom
- Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows
- George Eads as Nick Stokes
- Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
- Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
- Wallace Langham as David Hodges
- Lauren Lee Smith as Riley Adams
- Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass
Guest Cast
- Laurence Fishburne as Raymond Langston
- Bill Irwin as Nate Haskell
- David Berman as David Phillips
- Liz Vassey as Wendy Simms
- Alex Carter as Detective Louis Vartann
- Archie Kao as Archie Johnson
- Sheeri Rappaport as Mandy Webster
- Larry Sullivan as Officer Akers
- Brad Carter as Gerald Tolliver
- Jimmi Simpson as Thomas
- Maury Sterling as Detective Ken Martz
- Matt O'Leary as Dan Forester
- Richard Gilliland as Mr. Steiner
- Caroline Aaron as Mrs. Steiner
- Todd Giebenhain as Donny
- Stephen Sowan as Richie
- Aimee Deshayes as Silvia
- James Aldridge as Jimmy (uncredited)
- Matthew Woodward as Scott Pherell (uncredited)
- Gil Grissom: So, let's assume that 'shoe print' was involved in all four murders. It's possible that he knew, Gerald, right? Is it also possible that he was an accomplice of D.J.K.?
- Greg Sanders: That would explain the 9 post-mortem stab wounds in Ian Wallace. It's a continuation of the master's work.
- Catherine Willows: But if he was D.J.K.'s helper, back in the day, why go quiet for 10 years then suddenly start killing again?
- Greg Sanders: Maybe he was doing time?
- Catherine Willows: And when he realized that his old partner turned informant, he got scared and killed him.
- Gil Grissom: Maybe that's what brought the old thrill back. Once these guys get a taste, it never seems to go away.
- Captain Brass grabs a concert ticket between thumb and index. He didn't have gloves on but his fingerprints don't appear.
- While designing the victim's shoe online, Catherine puts on the checkered design twice.
- As Nathan Haskell reveals the location of his first murder victim, the LVPD races to the scene: an old railway arch bridge. In the establishing shot of that arch bridge, a commuter train rolls past. The commuter train is a Metrolink train, which operates exclusively in Southern California.
- This episode marks the first appearance of Raymond Langston, who enters the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a CSI.
- This also marks the first appearance of Nate Haskell who appears several times after.
- This episode concludes a storyline that originated in an earlier season episode "Leave Out All The Rest".
See Also
- List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
- CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 9
- Category:Images from 19 Down...
|CSI:Las Vegas Season 9
|For Warrick • The Happy Place • Art Imitates Life • Let It Bleed • Leave Out All The Rest • Say Uncle • Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda • Young Man with a Horn • 19 Down... • One to Go • The Grave Shift • Disarmed and Dangerous • Deep Fried and Minty Fresh • Miscarriage of Justice • Kill Me If You Can • Turn, Turn, Turn • No Way Out • Mascara • The Descent of Man • A Space Oddity • If I Had a Hammer... • The Gone Dead Train • Hog Heaven • All In


text:
The leader in digital printing
HP has turned more than 25 years of experience into the industry's widest product range – and we're ready to deliver solutions that make you stand out.
HP Indigo digital presses
From commercial jobs to labels to packaging, produce a wide range of high-value applications using special inks and effects on over 2800 certified substrates.Learn more
HP PageWide web presses
Meet customers' high-volume printing needs – from books, newspapers and magazines to direct mail, collateral, posters and more.Learn more
HP Scitex industrial presses
Sign and display printers and corrugated packaging converters can confidently deliver on any request with versatile, powerful solutions for rigid, flexible, thick or thin media.Learn more
HP Latex printers
Wide-format print service providers around the world are turning to HP Latex Printing Technologies to expand their capabilities, shorten turnaround times and differentiate their prints and their business.Learn more
HP PageWide C500 Press
Produce affordable corrugated packaging and displays on a wide range of media. Expand productivity and impress with high-impact offset-quality in virtually any size industrial environment.Learn more


text:
sf_el_ux_comms_v2 Module Guide Resources
Last Updated:08/03/2017
Where can I find the references to module guide resources for the Module module on module?
Information on the module guide itself and the associated resources and known issues are available here.
Under Construction
Will be updated when the module guide is published.
Suitable Products
|SSP 1.2.0 and above


text:
One of the first steps in developing an architecture is to identify the transportation services
that are important to the Region. The following table lists each Market Package and its applicability
to the Region. Customized market package diagrams for each Market Package can be viewed by selecting
the market package in the table below.
Traffic Management
Maintenance and Construction
Public Transportation
Traveler Information
Commercial Vehicle Operations
Emergency Management
Archived Data Management
Vehicle Safety Systems


text:
Sat, May 30, 2015
Columbia, SC
Tour de Cure is more than just a cycling event. A day full of fun and excitement where riders of all levels join forces in the fight to Stop Diabetes® and raise critical funds for diabetes research, education and advocacy in support of the American Diabetes Association.
So take the Ride of Your Life and sign up today!
Whether you are an occasional rider or an experienced cyclist, there is a route just for you:
Route Distances: 100M, 65M, 35M, 15M, 5&1M Family Ride


text:
(Reuters) - Regulators on Monday launched a review of policy governing the way it enforces broadcasts of nudity and profanity on radio and television and asked for public comment on whether its current approach should be amended.
The Federal Communications Commission issued a public notice inviting comment on whether it should focus its efforts on pursuing only the "most egregious" cases in which rules are broken, or focus on isolated cases of nudity and expletives uttered on radio and TV shows.
The public notice follows a Supreme Court ruling in June 2012 against a government crackdown some 10 years ago on nudity and profanity.
"We now seek comment on whether the full Commission should make changes to its current (egregious cases) broadcast indecency policies or maintain them as they are," the FCC said on Monday.
It asked for public input over the next 30 days on whether, for example, it should treat cases of nudity in the same way as profanity, and whether "deliberate and repetitive" use of expletives is necessary to prove indecency.
Since the Supreme Court ruling, the FCC said it had focused its enforcement on "egregious cases" and had handled a backlog of more than 1 million complaints since June 2012.
The Supreme Court said that the FCC rules were vague and that it had not given fair notice of a tougher stance that resulted in three-high profile incidents that resulted in complaints and fines against U.S. networks.
These included the broadcast of a glimpse of singer Janet Jackson's breast at a 2004 Super Bowl half time show.
Under a 2001 FCC policy that was amended in 2004, network and local radio and television channels can be fined up to $325,000 for a single fleeting expletive blurted out on a live show or for brief glimpses of nudity. Cable and satellite operators are not subject to such rules.
The FCC said that it would continue to enforce its current polices as usual during the comment period and that Monday's public notice did not alter any of its policies.
The TV industry has argued that policies have been inconsistent over the years, allowing the television broadcast of movie "Schindler's List" that includes nudity, but leading to fines against News Corp's Fox television for expletives uttered by singer Cher and reality TV star Nicole Richie on awards shows in 2002 and 2003.
The most publicized case in recent years was the so-called "wardrobe malfunction" that allowed part of Jackson's breast to be briefly exposed during a half-time show for the 2004 Super Bowl football championship that drew half a million complaints.
CBS was fined $550,000 but the fine was thrown out by the Supreme Court in a separate judgment in late June 2012.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Eric Walsh)


text:
Fictional Moldovan Soccer Phenom Tells All
Inside the ingenious hoax that fooled the British sports press.
On a typical weekday, the English soccer press devotes itself to unsubstantiated rumors, manufactured scandals, and bikini pictures of players' girlfriends (who seem to roam the earth together in a giant conjugal yacht, like the Beatles in Yellow Submarine). This week, however, thanks to an ingenious hoax that took in the Times of London, the soccer press has been engrossed by Moldova. Specifically by one Moldovan teenager, who is not, as it happens, a real person.
Earlier this month, the Times ran a feature called "Football's Top 50 Rising Stars," which featured at No. 30 a 16-year-old attacker named Masal Bugduv, whom the paper, never one to fear irony, described as "Moldova's finest." A bright future seemed to fill Bugduv's windscreen. The young player had been "strongly linked," the Times said, with a transfer to the London club Arsenal, had already earned a mention on the popular soccer news site Goal.com, spawned excitement in online forums, and been portrayed as something of a savior by the magazine When Saturday Comes, which introduced him as "one bright spot" amid Moldova's nationalist strife.
But as the old scout's adage says, even the most talented young striker will struggle if he has no corporeal being. Blogger Neil McDonnell, who writes about sports under the name Fredorrarci, suspected something might be amiss after picking up a hint from a Russian blog commenter about a "fanny misteak" in the Times feature—the spelling presumably the result of complex transliteration from the Cyrillic for "dude, what?" After a bit of rifling through Wikipedia history pages and an exchange of e-mails with the editor of Soviet Sport magazine, McDonnell discovered that not only was there no such player as Masal Bugduv, Masal Bugduv wasn't even a Moldovan name.
McDonnell kept poking around. He found that the player had originated in a series of fake AP stories posted to forums and blog comment sections, as if they'd been copied and pasted there. Taken together, these formed the droll chronicle of a temperamental young talent, already a regular for the Moldovan national team as a teen, who was convinced of his own greatness—"I Will Destroy Luxembourg and Join Arsenal Says Bugduv" raged one headline—and frustrated by the unending delays, attributed to unspecified "diplomatic issues," that kept him from completing a move to his favorite club. The stories were just excessive enough to carry a faint Wodehousian aroma if read in sequence, but not quite excessive enough to arouse suspicion in a newspaper writer on a jag of pre-deadline speed-Googling.
The hoaxer, it seemed, had exploited the trickle-up nature of online information flow. The blog comments fooled the blogs, the blogs fooled the news sites, and the news sites fooled the magazines. When the Times came to Bugduv, his story was resting on a pedestal of widespread acceptance. In the end, the hoax laid bare what we had all dimly suspected: Sometimes, sportswriters do not know what they are talking about.
After McDonnell published the account of his investigation on the blog SoccerLens, Masal Bugduv speedily attained, in the soccer-y parts of world, the kind of Internet cult-king status normally reserved for the likes of Chuck Norris. Blogs bloomed, comments quivered. The media outlets that had fallen for the hoax apologized, Goal.com and When Saturday Comes relatively quickly, the Times only after attempting a cover-up—slotting in a new, nonfictional player in Bugduv's 30th-place position—that might have worked in 1785, the year the paper was founded. Other media outlets—the Guardian, the New York Times' Goal blog, radio shows, even ESPN—leapt in to cover the story, some to comfort their old-media brethren, some to taunt them, some to explicate the Sidd Finch parallels.
What no one seemed to remark on, however, was exactly what made the hoax so clever, which was the way it managed to beat the media at their own game. Unlike the major American sports leagues, the world's top soccer leagues have little in the way of salary caps or transfer restrictions. If Manchester City wants to acquire Brazilian superstar Kaká from AC Milan, as they tried to do last week, they don't concoct an ornate trade scenario involving expiring contracts and draft picks, they just offer Milan a cash payment—in this case, more than $130 million—during one of the designated transfer windows. And unlike the American sports media, most of the world's soccer press is delightfully unburdened by retrograde ethical standards regarding "the need to attribute quotations to a person" and "the need to report information that has features in common with the truth."
As a result, the sports pages in English newspapers—not just the gaudy tabloids but mutton-chopped old hussars like the Times—tend to be marbled, a little grotesquely, with fantasies about which star player is bound for which famous club for the GDP of which landlocked principality. They're full of hoaxes already, in other words, tales planted by manipulative club representatives, prehensile agents, and the nannies of David Beckham. The only difference with Masal Bugduv was that it was the papers that fell for the hoax and the readers, vengeful victims, who saw through it.
So, who was this clever hoaxer? Whoever engineered the prank left behind a calling card in the form of the fictional Moldovan newspaper Diario Mo Thon, described in one of the concocted AP stories as "the top sports daily in Balti." Diario means diary in several Romance languages, and mo thón is Irish for my ass—just the kind of nested, polyglot ass pun that every good imaginary-Moldovan prank requires.
It got better. After SoccerLens blogger McDonnell broke the story, Bugduv fans in Ireland noticed that the player's name was a phonetic twin for m'asal beag dubh, which is Irish for "my little black donkey." A second Irish ass pun, sure. But "My Little Black Donkey" is also the name of an Irish-language short story by early 20th-century writer Pádraic Ó Conaire. And the story, about a man tricked into overpaying for a lazy donkey based on some vivid village gossip, can be read anachronistically as a parody of the culture of soccer transfers, in which the flaming rings of hype around a player—about how good he is, where he might go, how much a club might pay for him—often seem to overwhelm the minor matter of what he does on the pitch.
Our hoaxer, then, was likely an allegorically inclined Irishman. This theory gained steam when, not long after the hoax was revealed, I got an e-mail via my Bugduv-obsessed blog from someone claiming to be the instigator of Bugduv mania. He said he was a newspaperman in Galway. Some of the fake AP stories had, indeed, been posted under the pseudonym "GalwayGooner," and the e-mailer's IP address did, indeed, match Galway. Now writing under a different pseudonym, he confirmed the prank's "Little Black Donkey" origin and passed along some entertaining anecdotes, including one about hearing Bugduv's name in a pub conversation before the Times piece went to press. He said he dreamed up Bugduv as a "social experiment."
What was strange, though, was that while I worked to confirm his identity—the more brilliant the hoax, the less you trust the person who takes credit for it—my quarry kept sidestepping every request for evidence. He knew the details of the hoax inside out and even sent me a rollicking narrative account of the work he'd done to create it. (You can read the alleged hoaxer's lengthy explanation of the Bugduv-creation process—and whether the fictional footballer is more like Borat or Forrest Gump—in this sidebar.) But whenever I pressed him for more definitive proof, he'd get skittish and threaten to cut off contact. Either this was another hoax—a counterfeit hoaxer trying to become the real thing—or else the actual hoaxer, like all good magicians, preferred to maintain an element of doubt.
What he sent me, instead of proof, was more about our imaginary player. I learned his nickname ("Massi") and the personality of his agent ("like the fat bloke who accompanied Borat around America"). I even got a new fake AP story, in which Bugduv claimed that he was real and the exposure of the hoax was a hoax. It became clear that while I was worrying over the unreality of my pseudonymous correspondent, he, whoever he was, was delighting in the reality of Masal Bugduv. The Moldovan phantom had taken on a life of his own.
Update, Jan. 28: Blogger Neil McDonnell has confirmed that our alleged hoaxer is indeed the man behind Masal Bugduv. Read all about it here.


text:
Technical Services (Res. & Com.)
Intec Communications
Intec is a Certified Minority Owned Company based in Texas. We service clients throughout the US marriaging their needs with our experience. We have the ability and staffing to do almost any type of work including but not limited to Installations, Audits, Direct Sales, Security Installations, Construction, any special project needed to be completed in […]
Superior Telecom Services, Inc
Superior Telecom, While still in its early stages, (3 years), its leaders combined have over 80 years experience in the industry, including on the MSO side at the Corporate level. Our expertise in the Telecom Industry includes but not limited to: Fulfillment, Audits/Collections, Commercial Installations and MDU Design, Post and Prewiring, Sweep and Engineering Services, […]
Cable Technologies International
Cable Technologies International, Inc. is a nationwide full service repair and refurbish equipment company with over 15 years of experience in Converters, including digital cable boxes, Headend Equipment, Distribution Equipment, Power Supplies, Fiber Optics and Cable Modem repair. Our quality, turn-around time, warranty customer service and unique pricing are unparalleled. Cable Technologies is also your […]
Direct Sales Unlimited
Direct Sales Unlimited is your company of choice to deliver a quality performance with the results you are expecting. TCW Comments: DSU has a long track-record of success with sales, collections, audits, installations, box placement or other special projects. View Website
PFG Cable Service
PFG CABLE SERVICES provides an in-the-field customer contact program that will assist our client field service efforts while maintaining a positive customer service attitude in keeping your reputation in good standing. We employ professional and courteous field representatives that will represent you the CLIENT with a professional demeanor at the customer's door. HOW YOU THE […]
RMH Cable TV
Bob Haddaway is the owner of this Austin, Texas based company. He has been performing…
K3 Cable Services
Ken B. & Judy C. Kirby III owners of K3 Cable Services have been in door to door Cable TV Sales, Auditing, and Installs since the early 1980's. They both started as in-house sales reps and rose through the ranks from there, Ken started at Continental Cablevision and Judy at Adelphia and then Time Warner. […]


text:
Olga Kurylenko always makes sure she carries snacks in her purse for fear of going hungry after facing starvation for much of her childhood.
The former Bond girl grew up in poverty in Soviet Russia, sharing a tiny apartment with her single mother and several members of her extended family, and she admits times were sometimes so tough, they would not have money to buy food to eat.
She recalls, "Suddenly we were poor and we couldn't eat. My mother's salary would run out and the (wage) envelope would be empty. And it was always an envelope, never a bank. There was no point in a bank."
Olga Kurylenko landed her big break as a 13 year old when she was spotted by a talent scout for a modelling agency, but even now she reveals she is plagued by the "psychological fear" of losing her fame and fortune and ending up cold and hungry once more - so she packs extra treats in her bag just in case.
She tells Blackbook magazine, "I loved birthday parties (as a child) because they had food in abundance. I would just eat up... But I was still hungry. The very first years when I immigrated to France I had to learn not to do that. I had to learn how to live with money."


text:
Back in the mid-'80s, a group of church leaders had a vision to get more affordable housing built throughout Hudson County for the region's working class residents. At the time, no one knew it would take more than two decades for these leaders to begin to realize their vision.
"All of the land that we were being offered was, at the time, chromium contaminated and that kind of woke us up to how large that problem was in Hudson County, and in Jersey City specifically," said Joe Morris an organizer with the Interfaith Community Organization (ICO). "We thought, well, let's put the housing idea on hold for a couple of years and get the chromium cleaned up, and then go back to the affordable housing plans later. As it turned out, it took about 20 years."
ICO, an interfaith grassroots organization that formed in 1987, ultimately became one of the leaders in the fight to get chromium contaminated land remediated by the companies that had once owned and operated metal finishing plants throughout Hudson County. With most of these sites now remediated, or currently being remediated, ICO has finally turned its attention to its original goal of increasing the region's stock of affordable housing.
In one of the first realizations of that vision, the first of 22 modular townhouses were recently delivered to the development that will be known as Jackson Green on Rose Avenue in the Martin Luther King Drive Redevelopment Area, also known as The Hub. The sale price on the three-bedroom, three-story homes will range from $112,000 to about $175,000, depending on the features requested by the homeowners.
'The Jersey City Planning Board and City Council have approved thousands of housing developments, but none more important than these 22.
So far, one modular home has already been sold and three other potential home-buyers are in the process of applying for a mortgage. Interested homebuyers must earn between 80 to 120 percent of the area median income, which is about $40,000 to $50,000 for a family of four.
"For us, this is a model block and it really represents the progression of different affordable housing and workforce housing projects that we've been advancing," said Robert Antonicello, director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA). The JCRA owned and donated the land on which Jackson Green is being developed. "Since 2006, the hallmark for the agency was to make sure that the entire city was represented in every project we do."
Antonicello emphasized that the 22 homes at Jackson Green will be sustainable, income inclusionary, and durable.
'The difficult art of financing affordable housing'
A partnership between the JCRA, ICO, Honeywell, and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a nonprofit developer, Jackson Green will be developed for approximately $7 million.
Along with the donated land from the JCRA, ICO was able to secure a $2.5 million investment from Honeywell, one of the companies that once owned a metal finishing plant in Jersey City.
The rest of the funding for the development is coming from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's CHOICE Program and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development HOME Program.
Sean Closkey, president of TRF, said the nonprofit tries to "pull the best practices from the for-profit world and the best practices from the non-profit world."
TRF Development Partners is a non-profit housing affiliate of The Reinvestment Fund and has been able to finance the construction of affordable housing developments throughout the country.
"TRF is great at two things," said Morris, whose organization has worked with TRF to build affordable housing in Brooklyn. "They're really great at the difficult art of financing affordable housing, which is harder and harder to do because banks aren't lending and there are less subsidies than there used to be," said Morris. "And they're great at design and building affordable housing that doesn't look like affordable housing. The reason why we brought TRF to this is because they specialize in this, this is what they do. They are a nonprofit developer. They only do affordable housing."
Jackson Green is not the first time the nonprofit has worked in Jersey City. TRF has provided financing for the Learning Community Charter School. And in 2005 the organization provided financing for an affordable housing development in the West Bergen neighborhood that saw the construction of 11 new homes. Like Jackson Green, the West Bergen project created affordable housing that was put up for sale. Two years later, in 2007, TRF provided financing that supported the creation of six units of special needs housing in the Greenville area.
Antonicello said the JCRA already has plans to work with TRF on other sites in Jersey City.
"It was very important for us to get TRF to do more than one project," said Antonicello. "We didn't want them to come in, do one project, then say, 'Sayonara.' We wanted to make sure that when they came in to do this project that they came in to do a project whose scale is much larger. So they are, in fact, going to be working on a lot of lots in and around the Hub that have been vacant for the better part of 20 or 30 years. The Jersey City Planning Board and City Council have approved thousands of housing developments, but none more important than these 22 townhouses…This is a real targeted approach to addressing vacant land the lack of quality housing."
Construction on the first four Jackson Green townhomes should be completed by April.
To learn more about Jackson Green, visit www.JacksonGreenHomes.com.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at firstname.lastname@example.com.