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I can't help but laugh at the above photos as you'd assume I was sitting in some fancy salon with a professional nail technician when in reality I was just chilling, after a spot of shopping, inside the glamorous location that is a fast food chain. Yes, I received an impromptu McDonald's manicure courtesy of my friend, Seraina, much to everyone else's probable vexation around us (#sorrynotsorry guys) and the results were actually pleasantly surprising.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
BRIT Awards 2015 Red Carpet Round Up
I've been anticipating tonight's award show for months now and I think we can all agree that, essentially being the UK equivalent to the Grammys, it's undoubtedly the most exciting night of the year when it comes to celebrating British pop music. Hosted for the first time by the nation's favourite TV duo, Ant & Dec, the evening was set to be one to remember and our best-loved celebrities certainly didn't disappointment when it came to entertaining us. Getting to see the star-studded red carpet is one of my highlights of the event, so here's the low-down on who's wearing what:
Taylor Swift looks stunning in a black Robert Cavali gown, embellished with a red dragon snaking down the back. Aside from opening the show with a spectacular performance of 'Blank Space', my fave also took home her first BRIT award for Best International Female Solo Artist so congrats girl!
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
GratiTuesday #8
Your favourite day of the week is here... it's time to look back on all the little things in life that we can give thanks to in the past week. If you're feeling especially positive, you can even gain extra brownie points by catching up on all my past GratiTuesday posts here! Keeping it short and sweet today so without further ado, let's get grateful:
Saturday, 21 February 2015
There's A Lot To Be Learnt From Nature
Posted by Nina JC at 15:49 4 comments:
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Fringed Fashion | Shop The Trend
You've seen it all over the catwalk, now it's here in our high street stores... yep, I'm talking about fringe and you're not going to want to miss out. With its vintage feel, the trend is going to play a huge part in the 70's revival this Spring/Summer 15, so my advice is to get ahead of the game while you can. Think suede, chains and tassels galore as you shop for that perfect festival wardrobe with my top high street picks:
Posted by Nina JC at 15:22 11 comments:
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
GratiTuesday #7
When you ignore the fact that I look like a 12-year-old/no-neck monster hybrid, the above photo actually becomes kinda adorable. My cat loves to sleep on my keyboard and while it can be super annoying when you're trying to get an essay written, it's also super sweet and the kind of thing you'd miss if it was suddenly taken away from you. Which is why it makes the perfect image for #GratiTuesday! The weekly series here on Lunar Look that is ALL about appreciating the little things in life that go unnoticed by most. Here's what I've been loving these past 7 days:
Spending the evening reading
Books have always been my favourite thing in this world and there's nothing better than having a reading list which is overflowing with new titles. My mother and I were both reading 'The Kite Runner' (which I've just finished now) and at 1am last night we were sat with our noses buried in the book whilst Classic FM played in the background, which may sound like an extremely pitiful situation but it's actually a really cool thing to do. Trust me, kids.
Crossing the street when the road is empty
There's something really powerful about this occurrence: almost like the Universe has aligned itself in such a flawless way in order to allow you to seamlessly cross the road - something that definitely shouldn't be taken as simply a coincidence. The Universe is always on your side and is actively responding to your every desire. Let this act as a reminder that you - and you only - withhold the inner power to craft your own reality in any colour that you wish.
Monday, 16 February 2015
WIN | Vodafone London Fashion Weekend Tickets
I have a verrrry exciting opportunity to share with you all today! One lucky style guru is in with the chance to grab a pair of gold tickets to the Vodafone London Fashion Weekend, courtesy of The Draycott, a luxury hotel set in the heart of the fashionable Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The event is due to take place from the 26th February through to the 1st March, and will be held in the magnificent Somerset house. As Britain's biggest consumer fashion showcase, this is an event not to be missed for anyone who loves style, shopping and design.
Sunday, 15 February 2015
Blogging 101 | Using Twitter To Drive Traffic
Twitter is doubtless my favourite social network and if you're a blogger who's yet to craft their first tweet, you're seriously missing out. The majority of my traffic is derived from promoting my posts via the app and there are plenty of ways it can help in boosting your site's exposure and making yourself known in the blogging community. Whether you're a new-found user or a prolific tweeter, here are my top 7 tips for utilising Twitter to your advantage:
Participate in blogger chats
A great way to network with other bloggers, share insider tips, or simply just to spend some time having a fun chat with those who share a common interest! There's a variety of different-themed chats every evening, so whatever style of blogger you are, there's bound to be something that suits - and the good news is that there's nearly always an opportunity to share your links at the end. A handy list of all the weekly chats can be found here.
Hashtag hashtag hashtag
#fbloggers #bbloggers #lbloggers - there's a hashtag for EVERYTHING and they can work wonders if you use them appropriately. The trick with this one is not to overdo it as, trust me, nobody likes a spammer and you'll likely be either muted or mentally blacklisted by other bloggers if you're found to be clogging a tag up with your self-promo.
Posted by Nina JC at 16:25 7 comments:
Labels: advice, blogging 101, tips, twitter
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
GratiTuesday #6
Isn't is just simply impossible to find a single thing to complain about when there's a gorgeous winter wonderland scene right outside your window? Uhhh, probably not for most people... but for me, there's always been something really awe-inspiring about being able to witness nature do its thang and I simply can't be unhappy whilst the snow flaunts its sublime beauty in our faces. Here's a few of the lovely things I'm expressing gratitude for this week:
Sunday, 8 February 2015
OOTD | Sass Master Jacket
Faux Fur Jacket - MeeMee | Jeans - Celeb Look* | Knee High Boots - Clarks
I guess I'm trying to subconsciously 'up' my sassitude game because I just can't seem to get enough of it lately!
Last week was all about this sassy hairstyle, this week it's all about this fierce fur number which is the ultimate staple in my winter wardrobe - super cosy, warm and not to mention stylish - who could really complain?
I've opted for everyone's favourite monochromatic vibes and have paired the jacket with my new leather over-the-knee boots that I'm actually pleasantly surprised with! (Who knew Clarks had such practical AND fashionable footwear?) The only thing I feel would top this outfit off would be a lovely white wonderland sitting in the background; if only I'd shot these photos a few days later...
Posted by Nina JC at 18:19 8 comments:
Labels: fashion, faux fur, ootd, outfit, personal style
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Steal Her Style | Taylor Swift
I may be biased, but alongside taking the pop world by storm and being everyone's favourite crazy cat lady of the moment, T-Swift also just happens to be the ultimate reigning queen of fashion (maybe it's due to all her top-model BFFs?) and her street style is simply impeccable. Despite being a multi-Grammy award-winning zillionaire, Tay's wardrobe is surprisingly affordable and every look below can be found hot off the British high-street for less than £40 per outfit. But you wanna know the best part.... everrrrrythang's on sale! So act fast and nab it while ya can.
Topshop Checked Cape
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
GratiTuesday #5
Yes, that is a photo of myself spinning dramatically in the wind like a five-year-old last summer. And yes, it just happens to be one of my favourite photos ever. I feel like it perfectly captures what these GratiTuesday posts are all about - living in the moment and finding joy in your current situation, whatever that may be, with total freedom from the past and unwavering faith in the future. Here are just a few of the wonderful things that have topped my gratitude list over the past seven days:
New month, new beginnings
I've never been one of those 'new year, new me!!!' kind of people, since I firmly believe that there are opportunities for change in every single second that goes by, but there's something so refreshing about flipping your calendar over onto a nice fresh blank page. As you can tell by my URL, I'm pretty obsessed with the moon so keeping track with the lunar orbit is also something that fascinates me about the arrival of a new month.
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Sutherland, Chris
Assistant Professor of Quantitative, Population,
and Spatial Ecology
Ph.D., 2013, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
E-mail: csutherland
Room 118 Holdsworth Hall
Applied ecology, quantitative ecology, spatial ecology
Research Interests:
I am interested in movement, dispersal and connectivity, specifically how large-scale biological patterns can be explained by an understanding of how and why organisms use space at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. My work involves developing biologically realistic statistical models for observational data collected at all levels of organization – typically using hierarchical models. My research balances methodological development with a strong focus on the application of these tools to biological systems to solve real-world problems.
Recent Publications:
Royle, J. A., Fuller, A. K., & Sutherland, C. (2017). Unifying Population and Landscape Ecology with Spatial Capture-recapture. bioRxiv, 103341.
Morin, D. J., Fuller, A. K., Royle, J. A., & Sutherland, C. (2017). Model‐based estimators of density and connectivity to inform conservation of spatially structured populations. Ecosphere, 8(1).
Tenan, S., Brambilla, M., Pedrini, P., & Sutherland, C. (2016). Quantifying spatial variation in the size and structure of ecologically stratified communities. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Muñoz, D. J., Miller, D. A., Sutherland, C., & Grant, E. H. C. (2016). Using Spatial Capture–Recapture to Elucidate Population Processes and Space-Use in Herpetological Studies. Journal of Herpetology, 50(4), 570-581.
Fuller, A. K., Sutherland, C. S., Royle, J. A., & Hare, M. P. (2016). Estimating population density and connectivity of American mink using spatial capture–recapture. Ecological Applications, 26(4), 1125-1135.
Sutherland, C., Muñoz, D. J., Miller, D. A., & Grant, E. H. C. (2016). Spatial Capture–Recapture: A Promising Method for Analyzing Data Collected Using Artificial Cover Objects. Herpetologica, 72(1), 6-12.
Sutherland, C., Brambilla, M., Pedrini, P., & Tenan, S. (2016). A multiregion community model for inference about geographic variation in species richness. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Tenan, S., Pedrini, P., Bragalanti, N., Groff, C., & Sutherland, C. (2016). Investigating the potential of opportunistic sighting data to inform wildlife conservation strategies. bioRxiv, 075945.
Royle, J. A., Fuller, A. K., & Sutherland, C. (2016). Spatial capture–recapture models allowing Markovian transience or dispersal. Population ecology, 58(1), 53-62.
Royle, J. A., Sutherland, C., Fuller, A. K., & Sun, C. C. (2015). Likelihood analysis of spatial capture‐recapture models for stratified or class structured populations. Ecosphere, 6(2), 1-11.
Sutherland, C., Fuller, A. K., & Royle, J. A. (2015). Modelling non‐Euclidean movement and landscape connectivity in highly structured ecological networks. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 6(2), 169-177.
Suwanrat, S., Ngoprasert, D., Sutherland, C., Suwanwaree, P., & Savini, T. (2015). Estimating density of secretive terrestrial birds (Siamese fireback) in pristine and degraded forest using camera traps and distance sampling. Global Ecology and Conservation, 3, 596-606.
Sutherland, C. S., Elston, D. A., & Lambin, X. (2014). A demographic, spatially explicit patch occupancy model of metapopulation dynamics and persistence. Ecology, 95(11), 3149-3160.
Sutherland, C., Elston, D. A., & Lambin, X. (2013). Accounting for false positive detection error induced by transient individuals. Wildlife Research, 40(6), 490-498.
You can access my full publication history from Google Scholar or Researchgate
Page updated: March 2, 2017

subset: commoncrawl


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Compact Japanese Holly
Compact Japanese Holly
Ilex crenata 'Compacta'Item #4450 USDA Hardiness Zone: 6 - 9
AvailabilityAdd to Favorites
Plant Description
Little pruning is necessary to produce or maintain the dense globular form. In spring, the young stems are purple and mature foliage holds its glossy green color all year. Small black fruit that hangs on throughout the winter. Evergreen.
- OverviewLight Needs:Full sunWatering Needs:Water regularly- weekly, or more often in extreme heat; less often when established.Average Landscape Size:Grows to 6 feet tall and wide.Key Feature:Deer ResistantBlooms:Inconspicuous; prized for foliage.Landscape Uses:
- DetailBotanical Pronunciation:I-leks kre-NA-ta kom-PAK-taPlant type:ShrubDeciduous/evergreen:EvergreenSunset climate zones:3 - 9, 14 - 24Growth habit:RoundedGrowth rate:SlowAverage landscape size:Grows to 6 feet tall and wide.Special features:Deer Resistant, Waterwise, Year-round InterestFoliage color:GreenBlooms:Inconspicuous; prized for foliage.Flower color:WhiteCompanion PlantsPeony (Paeonia); False Holly (Osmanthus); Astilbe (Astilbe); Blueberry (Vaccinium); Azalea (Azalea)
- CareCare InformationFollow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Watering frequency may be reduced, once established. Feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring. For a tidy, neat appearance, shear annually to shape.Light Needs:Full sunWatering Needs:Water regularly- weekly, or more often in extreme heat; less often when established.


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State of Origin 2013 Game 1: Blues vs. Maroons Date, Start Time and PreviewJune 4, 2013
Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
It's the most important rivalry in domestic Australian rugby—the Queensland Maroons taking on the New South Wales Blues in the State of Origin.
The three-match series, comprised of players returning to the state where they performed in their first senior leagues, is one of the biggest sporting events in Australia, period. And it's one that has been dominated by the Maroons, who have seven consecutive victories in the rivalry.
With this year's series getting underway on Wednesday, let's break down the first match.
When: June 5, 2013 at 6 a.m. ET
Where: ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Australia
Teams: Queensland Maroons versus New South Wales Blues
History: In 94 matches, the Maroons have won 49, the Blues 43 and two have been draws. In 31 full series, the Maroons have won 17, the Blues 12 and two have draws.
You could make the argument that the Maroons have four of the top talents in all of rugby at their respective positions. They have Billy Slater at fullback, Greg Inglis manning centre, Jonathon Thurston at the five-eighth and the skipper, Cameron Smith, holding down hooker.
Of course, Cooper Cronk at halfback is no slouch himself.
Inglis is the man to watch, however, as Ben Blaschke of NRL.com noted:
The Greg Inglis factor looms large on the minds of every man that coaches against him and rest assured Laurie Daley will have spent hours staring at his name on the Queensland team sheet.
Inglis' form in the No.1 jersey for Souths this season has been so good that there was serious discussion about the possibility of him replacing Billy Slater as Maroons fullback – a proposition that would have been deemed laughable not so long ago. Inglis has averaged 173 metres, scored 11 tries and made 65 tackle-breaks this season at the back but as NSW knows all too well he has been just as effective in the centres for Queensland in the past.
Notably Inglis is State of Origin's all-time leading try scorer – with 14 tries from 18 appearances.
But don't sleep on a very strong Blues' side. Led by captain Paul Gallen, a team that includes James Tamou, Greg Bird, Anthony Watmough, Mitchell Pearce and Robbie Farah is one to be feared.
The Maroons hold a slight edge in the back three, where the trio of Slater, Darius Boyd and Brent Tate are nothing short of brilliant, while Inglis and Justin Hodges should give Queensland an advantage at centre as well.
And the Maroons appear to be hold the advantage with a strong pair of halves in Thurston and Cronk as well.
But the Blues show their strength on the back row, where Ryan Hoffman, Luke Lewis and Bird must be dominant.
The Maroons' lineup has remained a bit more consistent, yes, but these are two very even sides, and most supporters of the Blues will be quick to point out that their squad was this close to ending Queensland's recent stranglehold on the rivalry last year.
While it is hard to pick against Queensland, it's even harder to predict a loss for NSW in front of their home fans at ANZ Stadium. This one will be tight as always, with the Blues opening the proceedings with a 16-12 win.


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The annual September Grand Prix visit to the bustling island of Singapore is a welcome fixture on the F1 calendar. For 2018 we've got great Singapore Grand Prix packages to enjoy an exciting weekend's Formula One racing. A long weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix allows you to watch as much on-track night action as you wish, hunt for bargains in the many malls and markets and sample the varied cuisines on offer in restaurants across the island.
Singapore is a small place, but there's a surprising amount to see and do. Take the Singapore Flyer and you'll have incredible views of the whole city or enjoy a night safari at the zoo and a treetop walk above the rainforest. In downtown Singapore you can stroll along the waterfront, take a riverboat ride and shop in Chinatown or Little India. Getting around is easy too. Much of Singapore you can explore on foot. Alternatively, you can use the efficient local transport systems or book guided tours at the hotel's front desk.
Once again in 2018 we are offering a 2-centre holiday, 4 nights in Singapore for the Grand Prix, followed by 3 nights at the Sofitel Resort & Spa on Sentosa Island.
If our Singapore Grand Prix package itinerary doesn't match your travel plans, or you want a longer tour, just call and we can tailor-make the perfect 2018 Singapore Grand Prix holiday!


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WASHINGTON — As Senate leaders celebrated passage of regulatory reform Thursday, financial industry lobbyists were already focusing on the myriad problems they hope to fix before enactment.
The industry is hoping to use the reconciliation process — in which House and Senate leaders iron out the differences between their versions of the legislation — to reverse a series of setbacks suffered during the past two weeks, including eliminating provisions that would regulate interchange fees on debit cards, prohibit banks from counting trust-preferred securities as Tier 1 capital and force institutions to spin off their swaps desks.
"The bill contains a large number of very problematic provisions, and it has turned very negative for banks of all sizes," said Ed Yingling, the American Bankers Association's president and chief executive. "We are going to have to try and clean up as much of this as we can."
The Senate voted 59 to 39 to approve the reform bill late Thursday.
Leaders from both chambers of Congress must now hash out a host of differences between the two bills before sending a final draft to President Obama. It is unclear whether the House and Senate will resolve the differences in a formal conference, as House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has advocated, or in the more customary process, ping-ponging versions back and forth between the chambers.
Complicating things, however, is the fact that the regulatory reform bill came to the Senate floor without a bipartisan agreement, which meant a lot of amendments were added with little debate.
"With the other banking statutes that were passed, there were much more extensive hearings, and there seemed to be a much more deliberative process," said Ron Glancz, a partner in the Venable law firm. "When we saw the provisions, we had a lot more time to react to them," Glancz said. "This has really gone with lightning speed in the Senate."
Yingling listed several provisions added in the Senate that his group hopes to kill as the bill is negotiated with the House.
Among them are an interchange amendment from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that would require the Federal Reserve Board to ensure interchange fees on debit cards were reasonable and allow merchants to offer discounts for particular forms of payment; a measure from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would bar banks from counting trust-preferred securities as Tier 1 capital; a provision from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln that would force banks to divest their swaps units and the proposed elimination of the thrift charter.
Yingling acknowledged that banks will not get everything they seek, and he blamed the Obama administration for fostering an anti-bank atmosphere.
"There is no way to get a bill that we like at this point," Yingling said. "But part of the problem is that they have in part created an atmosphere that is a bit of a feeding frenzy here in the Senate."
Camden Fine, the head of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said that his group had largely supported the thrust of reform but still has problems with last-minute amendments, including those added by Collins and Durbin. Though Collins has said she wants to change her amendment to apply only to the largest banks, the language in the bill would affect all holding companies.
"We are deeply concerned about the Collins amendment," Fine said. "Unfortunately, the way the amendment was drafted creates some very negative unintended consequences on community banks."
Similarly, though Durbin sought to exempt small banks from the interchange amendment, Fine said its impact would still be felt. The bill would allow the Fed to compel large banks to cut their interchange rates on debit cards. If that happens, community bankers fear retailers will be able to force them to follow suit.
"The effect of the Durbin amendment would be to knock 90% of community banks out from being able to even offer debit cards," Fine said. "They'll just have to stop because they'll lose money."
Though the focus has lately been on changing the Senate bill, the House version also has provisions that the industry would like altered.
For example, Ken Bentsen, the executive vice president of public policy at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said his group is trying to ensure that the final bill incorporates the Senate's version of resolution authority, which he said was more fully fleshed out.
"On resolution authority they made tremendous progress on establishing a bankruptcy-like regime in the Senate," he said. "We think there is a lot to like in this bill."
The industry also prefers the Senate preemption language, which gives federal regulators more leeway to preempt state laws than the House version.
The Senate bill would also limit the power of state attorneys general to enforce federal law against national banks, while the House bill gives them a freer hand.
John Courson, the president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said his group also hopes to persuade the House to agree to the Senate version of a proposed 5% risk-retention requirement for mortgages.
Under the Senate bill, regulators could exempt loans that were properly underwritten. The House bill does not include as explicit an exemption. The House version would mean that a lot of "nondepositories, small businesses and independent mortgage bankers would not be able to continue to exist," he said.


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The physical hardware buttons on the XPERIA Play may not be for everyone, but if you're the type of person who enjoys a good slide-out QWERTY keyboard, then the SONY Ericsson XPERIA Pro may be the right handset for you. The Android 2.3 device features a 3.7-inch 854 x 480 capacitive display with Sony Mobile BRAVIA® Engine, 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, 2 megapixel front facing camera with Exmor Râ"¢ for mobile, HTDI out, and what looks to be a pretty spacious four row QWERTY keyboard.
The SONY Ericsson XPERIA Pro will launch towards the end of Q2 and will be available in black, silver, and red. The XPERIA Pro is certainly not the most advanced smartphone that's been announced at Mobile World Congress this year, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of the X10 Mini Pro that SE unveiled in 2010. I think someone at SONY Ericsson finally realized that most people want a smartphone with a screen that's a bit larger than 2.5-inches.
SONY Ericsson XPERIA Pro Spec Highlights
- Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragonâ"¢ MSM8255
- Memory card support: microSDâ"¢, up to 32GB
- Memory card included: 8GB microSDâ"¢
- Phone memory: Up to 320MB
- Operating system: Googleâ"¢ Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- Size: 120 x 57 x 13.5 mm
- Weight: 140 grams
- Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 6 hrs 55 min*
- Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 430 hrs*
- Talk time UMTS: Up to 7 hrs*
- Standby time UMTS: Up to 400 hrs*
- Music listening time: Up to 31 hrs*
- Video playback time: Up to 7 hrs 25 min*
- Networks: UMTS HSPA 900, 2100 GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
February 13, 2011, Barcelona, Spain — Sony Ericsson today unveils the Xperiaâ"¢ neo and Xperiaâ"¢ pro, the newest additions to the new generation of Xperiaâ"¢ smartphones. Closely following the launch of the Xperiaâ"¢ arc smartphone earlier this year, these latest smartphones also feature cutting edge technology from Sony and an exceptional multimedia experience on the latest version of the Androidâ"¢ platform — Gingerbread.
As well as best-in-class imaging and display technology from Sony, the Xperiaâ"¢ pro combines an optimized slide-out keyboard with smart functions to create a fast messaging experience. Featuring an ergonomically crafted keyboard, Sony Ericsson has focused on integrating the hardware with clever messaging functions for a perfect user experience. Xperiaâ"¢ pro introduces the subtle but fast Type & Send functionality eliminating the need to open a dedicated app for each type of message, and Smart Keyboard that triggers predictive messaging actions automatically when the user slides out the keyboard.
Xperiaâ"¢ pro is also the ideal business phone for Android fans coming complete with a set of professional functions such as syncing your email, calendar and contacts in a secure way and the pre-loaded Office Suite Pro lets consumers view and edit office documents directly on the phone.
Steve Walker, Head of Marketing, Sony Ericsson said, "We want to be a leader in Android and with Xperiaâ"¢ neo and Xperiaâ"¢ pro, we are now are offering excellent, innovative Android choices for consumers. These latest devices combine stunning design with state-of-the-art Sony technology and a new faster messaging experience on the Xperiaâ"¢ pro, creating an entertaining smartphone experience."
The best of Sony technology once again features in both Xperiaâ"¢ pro and Xperiaâ"¢ neo. The Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine delivers exceptional visual brilliance and a crystal clear image which enhances the overall entertainment experience. Sony's award-winning Exmor Râ"¢ for mobile sensor enables the capture of high quality, bright pictures and HD videos even in low light. All pictures and videos can be shared on an HD TV in your living room via the built in HDMI-connector.
Xperiaâ"¢ neo builds on the stunning design language that Sony Ericsson has become known with a unique shape that not only looks good, but is ergonomically designed to fit perfectly in the user's hand, especially when taking pictures.
Both smartphones will launch on the latest version of the Androidâ"¢ platform providing access to Google Mobile Services and the myriad of applications available via the Android market. Xperiaâ"¢ smartphones add best in class entertainment on top of smartphone fundamentals such as apps, maps, email and fast uncompromised access to the Web with Adobe® Flash® Player to create the most entertaining smartphone experience.
Sony Ericsson Xperiaâ"¢ neo — Key features
- Exmor Râ"¢. Great stills and videos even in low light
- Reality display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
- Built-in HDMI. Your stills and videos on HD TV
- More than 100,000 apps on Android Market
- Googleâ"¢ services. At your service
The Sony Ericsson Xperiaâ"¢ neo will be available in the following colours: Blue Gradient, Red and Silver.
Sony Ericsson Xperiaâ"¢ pro — Key features
- Touch phone with perfect slide-out keyboard and smart functions for fast messaging
- Synch your email and edit office documents on the go
- Sony Mobile BRAVIA® Engine and Exmor Râ"¢ for mobile
- HDMI. Connect to an HD TV or a projector
- Googleâ"¢ services and more than 100,000 apps on Android Marketâ"¢
The Sony Ericsson Xperiaâ"¢ pro will be available in the following colours: Black, Red, Silver
Sony Ericsson Xperiaâ"¢ neo will be available globally in selected markets from end Q1 and Sony Ericsson Xperiaâ"¢ pro from end Q2.
For further information, images and videos visit www.sonyericsson.com/mwcnews


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Judy Greer is an American actress probably best known for her role on the Fox series "Arrested Development" and the voice of Cheryl Tunt on "Archer."
Her full name is Judith Laura Evans. As child and teen, she spent ten years training in classical Russian ballet.
Judy Greer attended DePaul University and graduated with a BA in Drama. She worked through college, including gigs as a telemarketer and oyster shucker and landed her first acting job only three days after she graduated in "Kissing a Fool."
Her other roles include parts in "Three Kings," "The Village" and "Adaptation," among many other projects. She will be seen as the female chimp Cornelia in the upcoming sequel "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes."
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Judy Greer said of the TV pilot process, "I always say I'm not going to care this time, but I always do…I always get disappointed [when shows don't get picked up], but then you get over it. Ever forward." She added about TV, "I like working in television because it's an evolving story that you tell. That's also one of the things I don't like about it, too."
She said of "Arrested Development," "It's awesome, first of all, because I get a lot of credit for doing very little work. And I get a lot of people screaming at me on the street and flashing me, and that's always fun…those are my favorite fans."
Regarding "Archer," when she got the pilot script, Judy Greer said, "I read the script before I went in and it was so dirty, I was like 'This is never going to make it on the air, but I'll make a couple of bucks for the day.' I loved it, but I always feel like whenever I love something, it never makes it on television, which is probably why all my pilots have failed until now."
As to voice acting, "you actually need double the energy. I find myself acting out the scenes and being very physical while I'm recording because I think you can tell when someone is just sitting on a stool."
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Judy Greer would love to star in a romantic comedy. "It would be fun to not to have interviews where they're like 'how come you're always the best friend, don't you want to be a movie star?'"
Aside from acting, she is an avid knitter.
She is married to Dean E. Johnsen, an executive producer on "Real Time with Bill Maher." They live in Los Angeles, California.


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Dandruff is something that many people have the unfortunate possibility of having to deal with at some point in their lives. There are many different reasons why people may get it, and if you are one of the millions of people that want to know how exactly to get rid of it for good then you are in the right place! There are many products and remedies out there that claim to relieve dandruff, but you may find that these products don't work at all, or only work for a limited period of time until they eventually stop working. This is because you may not be using a product that is appropriate for your hair type, which can lead to causing more damage and not to mention a huge waste of time and money. To find out how to deal with this annoyance, you must first understand:
What exactly is dandruff?
Simply put, dandruff is a condition that results in the shedding of dead skin cells of the scalp. It is a perfectly normal occurrence, but with that being said it can be very uncomfortably itchy and frankly embarrassing. If you notice small whitish flakes on your hair then this is what I am referring to. This can happen naturally or as the result of using certain hair care products that are not suitable for your hair. Cases of dandruff can range from a mild infrequent case to severe and chronic. To help you understand how it can occur, please consider:
What causes dandruff?
Dandruff can be caused by one or several reasons including:
Dry skin. If you are prone to having dry skin whether seasonally or frequently, then chances are you will get dandruff at some point.
Not shampooing often enough. If the hair and scalp do not get proper cleaning and stimulation, then a buildup of dead skin cells will occur.
Sensitivity to certain hair products. Hair care products with harsh chemicals can be damaging to the hair and cause it to become dry, frizzy, and unhealthy looking.
Hair sensitivity to heat. As with chemicals in hair products, heat can be very bad for your hair especially if it is often and at a very high temperature.
Not brushing often enough. Brushing the hair helps to stimulate the scalp and remove it of flakes in order to maintain a clean and healthy scalp.
A skin condition such as psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis or eczema. Many skin conditions lead to other symptoms of dandruff such as dryness and irritation of the scalp.
Improper diet. It is very important that you get the right amount of vitamins and nutrients in order to maintain a healthy body, skin and hair.
How to prevent and get rid of dandruff
Avoid using hair products with harsh chemicals including sulfates, alcohol, chemical fragrances, formaldehyde and propylene glycol. These components found in many shampoos, conditioners and other hair products can cause the hair to become dry, damaged and leave the scalp irritated. It is best to look for hair products that contain natural oils and cleansers in order to maintain healthy, shiny and flake free hair.
Find a brush that is suitable for your hair. Boar bristle brushes are excellent for people with dandruff because they naturally condition the hair by distributing the natural oils in the hair throughout. They also stimulate the scalp and actually help with reducing frizz and limiting the need for unnecessary hair products that can further damage the hair and scalp.
Use conditioning treatments as often as your hair type requires. Conditioning treatments are great to use on a regular basis because they will give your hair a quick pick me up when it is lacking in proper hydration which will help to reduce the appearance of flakes. If you have very dry and flaky hair then these treatments are usually best to be used on a weekly basis whereas someone with normal hair will only need to use such a treatment monthly.
Take daily vitamins that improve hair health such as vitamin a, b vitamins, vitamin c, and zinc. If your diet is lacking in any of these vitamins, supplements are an inexpensive and effective way to include them and the improvement of hair health is only one of the benefits that you will see by doing so. Many multivitamins include all of these and will give your body some more of the nutrients that it needs to maintain good health and wellness.
If you are wondering where to start when looking for the best products for treating dandruff, check out our product reviews and read what we have to say about some of the best products on the market today. We include only the most effective and high quality hair care products so that you don't have to waste your time and money looking for products that will give you little or no results. We know exactly what it is like to have to deal with dandruff and are here to help!


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Church Of The
Swimming Elephant
When passing text to processes that do not interpret text
according to this standard (e.g., mail protocol servers), then
NO linear-white-space characters should occur between a period
(".") or at-sign ("@") and a <word>. Exactly ONE SPACE should
be used in place of arbitrary linear-white-space and comment
Writers of mail-sending (i.e., header-generating) programs
should realize that there is no network-wide definition of the
effect of ASCII HT (horizontal-tab) characters on the appearance of text at another network host; therefore, the use of
tabs in message headers, though permitted, is discouraged.
Protect yourself from cyberstalkers, identity thieves, and those who would snoop on you.
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text: Alreadyhosting.com is a website where that allows you to make your own website for self and business process hosting through the worldwide. It's a type of hosting service and alreadyhosting.com is one of the leading host sites in the world. The alreadyhosting.com provides you to research web hosting articles, web hosting blog, web hosting news, web hosting interviews, ratings, web hosting coupon codes, web hosting comparison, and domain availability tools, and more. World's top most 10 best hosting companies such as host monster, just host.com, I page, inmotion hosting, bluehost, gate.com, value web, host gator, hosting source, and fat cow are available here. For the clients Alreadyhosting .com giving more offers such as free domain name, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited free space. It's one of the top most host site awarded for top web hosting, best blog hosting, best cheap shared host, best cheap hosting and best web hosting service in this year 2010. Different types of web hosting are available for purchase. Shared web hosting is one of the most popular web hosting solution and those who think to host real estate, ecommerce, personal and business. In companies virtual private servers hosting is used. The virtual private servers are also called as VPS hosting. More discounts, offers are available and the customer service is so good. If you are interested to host the site with low price just visit here.


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Items Tagged with "malware"
March Madness Security Threats Can Drive Any Organization Mad!
March 14, 2016 Added by:Mark Parker
Unfortunately, while the popularity of March Madness (the NCAA Basketball Tournament) has grown exponentially, nearly every facet of any employee's involvement with the event could open up the employee, as well as the organization, to a number of cyber risks.
Comments (0)
The Age of Advanced Threats Has Arrived
January 15, 2016 Added by:Luis Corrons
The most capable defense solutions must not only be centralized, but also be able to automatically block, identify, forensically profile and purge malware, even when it is veiled by legitimate programs and processes. The software needs to be smarter than the malware itself.
Comments (0)
Indicators of Compromise for Malware Used by Sony Attackers
December 21, 2014 Added by:Mike Lennon
Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) related to the Sony cyberattack that should be added to network security solutions to determine whether they are present on a network.
Comments (2)
Regin: A Malicious Platform Capable Of Spying on GSM Networks
November 25, 2014 Added by:InfosecIsland News
Kaspersky Lab's Global Research and Analysis Team has published its research on Regin - the first cyber-attack platform known to penetrate and monitor GSM networks in addition to other "standard" spying tasks.
Comments (3)
Kmart Says Hackers Breached Payment System
October 10, 2014 Added by:Mike Lennon
Kmart is the latest large U.S. retailer to experience a breach of its payment systems, joining a fast growing club dealing successful hack attacks that have resulted in the exposure of customer data and payment card information.
Comments (0)
Cybercriminals Use Patriotic Russians to Revive Kelihos Botnet
August 30, 2014 Added by:Eduard Kovacs
Cybercriminals seem to be well aware that many Russian nationals are unhappy with the sanctions imposed by foreign governments against their country, so they're relying on them to revive the Kelihos (Waledac) botnet
Comments (0)
Webcast: Detecting and Preventing Advanced Persistent Threats
July 08, 2014 Added by:InfosecIsland News
Please join Palo Alto Networks and SecurityWeek on Wednesday, July 9th at 1:00 PM ET for an informative webcast on how your organization can better detect and prevent advanced cyber attacks.
Comments (0)
ZeroAccess – The Sleeping Threat
February 20, 2014 Added by:Edward Jones
ZeroAccess, also known as Sirefef, is one of the most robust and durable botnets in recent history. It was first discovered back in July 2011 and has since infected almost 2 million Windows computers all over the world and cost online advertisers over £1.6 million each month through fraudulent clicks!
Comments (0)
How Target's Point-of-Sale System May Have Been Hacked
January 16, 2014 Added by:Ken Westin
Target has not revealed much regarding how their massive data breach occurred. The question we are all asking is how is it that all the point-of-sale systems across all Target stores in the United States were compromised at the same time?
Comments (0)
How The NSA Deploys Malware: An In-Depth Look at the New Revelations
October 08, 2013 Added by:Electronic Frontier Foundation
The template for attacking people with malware used by the NSA is in widespread use by criminals and fraudsters, as well as foreign intelligence agencies, so it's important to understand and defend against this threat to avoid being a victim to the plethora of attackers out there.
Comments (0)
Building OS X Trojans With AppleScript, Homoglyphs and iTunes
September 21, 2013 Added by:Tripwire Inc
A year or so ago I stumbled upon a way to create Trojans for OS X by utilizing homoglyphs and a bit of social engineering, I disclosed the vulnerability to Apple and presented it at ToorCamp.
Comments (1)
Kaspersky Uncovers Active Cyber-Espionage Attacks Targeting South Korean Think-Tanks
September 11, 2013 Added by:InfosecIsland News
Kaspersky Lab has uncovered details of an ongoing cyber-espionage campaign targeting South Korean think tanks.
Comments (0)
Carberp Botnet Lifecycle Infographic
July 02, 2013 Added by:Tripwire Inc
Carberp is sophisticated, modular and persistent malware utilizing advanced obfuscation techniques to evade detection, removal and the ability to disable anti-virus. It also offers malware developers the ability to customize the malicious package statically as well as dynamically via a remote command and control server.
Comments (4)
Mobile Security Processes Could Be Applied to Medical Devices: Bluebox
May 10, 2013 Added by:Steve Ragan
Before malware could become a threat to medical devices, Adam Ely said attackers would have to write malware specifically targeted to these devices and organizations; or the devices would have to adopt a standard platforms and software.
Comments (8)
New Approaches for Blocking Zero-Day Exploits to Prevent APTs
April 16, 2013 Added by:George Tubin
Cybercriminals continue to develop new methods to bypass security controls in order to install malware on corporate endpoints. An endpoint protection approach that provides both effectiveness and manageability must begin with an understanding of the attack vectors that require mitigation.
Comments (2)
New Malware Targets POS Systems and ATMs, Hits Major US Banks
March 27, 2013 Added by:Infosec Island
A new malware targeting point-of-sale (POS) systems and ATMs has stolen payment card information from several US banks, researchers say. The author behind the malware appears to have links to a Russian cyber-crime gang.


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Aiden Wilson Tozer Quotes About ObedienceQuotes about: Obedience
Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience. To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble.
The Christian gospel is a message of freedom through grace and we must stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. But what shall we do with our freedom? The Apostle Paul grieved that some of the believers of his day took advantage of their freedom and indulged the flesh in the name of Christian liberty. They threw off discipline, scorned obedience and made gods of their own bellies.
To avoid the hard necessity of either obeying or rejecting the plain instructions of our Lord in the New Testament we take refuge in a liberal interpretation of them. We evangelicals also know how to avoid the sharp point of obedience by means of fine and intricate explanations. These are tailor-made for the flesh. They excuse disobedience, comfort carnality and make the words of Christ of none effect. And the essence of it all is that Christ simply could not have meant what He said. His teachings are accepted even theoretically only after they have been weakened by interpretation.
Without doubt the emphasis in Christian teaching today should be on worship. There is little danger that we shall become merely worshipers and neglect the practical implications of the gospel. No one can long worship God in spirit and in truth before the obligation to holy service becomes too strong to resist. Fellowship with God leads straight to obedience and good works. That is the divine order and it can never be reversed.
I must be frank in my feeling that a notable heresy has come into being throughout our evangelical Christian circles -- the widely accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need Him as Saviour and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to Him as Lord as long as we want to... The truth is that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred scripture... Apart from obedience, there can be no salvation, for salvation without obedience is a self-contradictory impossibility.
We may sing, 'Crown Him Lord of all,' and rejoice in the tones of the loud-sounding organ and the deep melody of harmonious voices, but still we have done nothing until we have left the world and set our faces toward the city of God in hard practical reality. When faith becomes obedience then it is true faith indeed.
Aiden Wilson Tozer
- Born: April 21, 1897
- Died: May 12, 1963
- Occupation: Author
- Cite this Page: Citation


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What is link building and effective link building methods
In this competitive world, it is important to promote your website or blog in a correct manner using the internet techniques to stand out of the crowd. One needs to jump into marketing or promotion due to high demand in the market of the similar product. To carry out the function, one needs to develop the Search engine optimization strategies. It is very competitive and has produced results constantly. It is one of the Top Link Building Methods which is appreciated greatly.
Link Building
Why Link Building is important?
SEO itself helps in building the links. The more the links, the more the traffic to your website and hence, the more revenue. Links also helps in ranking higher on the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Top Link Building Methods will obviously yield the best result for you, since what you look for is the ultimate result for you.
Top Link Building Methods
Here are the five best link building methods which you should try. Follow the mentioned methods and you can get quality links and also drive decent number of traffic to your blog.
1. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is one of the most active and reliable way of creating high quality links to your blog. There are many blogs out there which accepts guest posts. Keep in mind to submit your guest post to a blog similar to your niche. Suppose, you have a blog related to technology, your blog's niche is technology. Lookout for technology blogs which accepts guest posts and submit your post there. Make such to read their guest posting guidelines and follow them.
2. Blog Commenting
This is also one of the widely used method in order to create links pointing towards one's blog. This is quite simple. If you are a blogger, you must be reading a lot. So whenever you find an article interesting, don't hesitate to give your opinion. But, keep in mind not to spam and keep the conversation related to topic only.
3. Social Networks
This method has a very high potential. Be active on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and build your presence there. Do not spam your pages there and create maximum buzz about your blog or product there. This works very well if you have loyal and active followers to your social network profiles. You can use such mediums to drive traffic to your website and also proves to be a good medium for the affiliate marketers.
4. Forum Signature
There are tons of forums out there and lots of users also use them. Be one of them. Create your account and setup profile on few of the most active forum related to your niche and add your blog's link to your signature. Help other users of the forum in their problem and never try to spam them. If you are caught in such activity, your details will be added into the forum spammers database and you will not be able to use any other forums.
5. Social Bookmarking
This method is emerging and drives a decent number of traffic to the website or blog. There are many social bookmarking sites out there such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, etc and you can use them to drive quality traffic to your blog. This will obviously help you to recognize the site whenever you are online and are checking out the various concerns.
After building links for your blog, keep your eyes on links of your blogs via backlinks checker. If you have followed any of the method, do share your experience with us in the comments section below.
Best Link Building Tools List
It is important for the website owner to understand the value of the backlinks and its quality as it plays an important role in ranking your website's page on Google. Here, quantity will not play an important role and you should be focusing on the quality of the backlink.
Backlinks are considered as one of the important parameter by Google in page ranking also. Now, the blog and website owners should be concerned about the quality of the backlink and the SEO of the their website. A research states that almost 95% of th SEO workers are now focusing on creating backlinks on the websites with higher page rank. This technique has been proved as an effective solution to rank higher.
The task is not so easy but there are few tools which can check the number of backlinks and their quality. Here is the list of 4 online backlinks checker tools which will help you to deliver your best in the process of ranking your website higher.
4 Best Online Backlinks Checker Tools
1. BackLinkWatch
This is a popular backlink checker tool that you can use in finding the numbers of backlinks to your website or blog site. The backlink checker tool is free and it also suggests additional services for bloggers such as valuable information about the quality of backlinks and the visitor statistics on your site.
2. Ahrefs
It provides one of the largest index of live backlinks on websites. It runs an updated backlink checking every 15 minutes to find large index of links on websites. It is one of the website owner's and SEO master's favorite backlink tool to use and it is also very convenient for the novice as it comes with simple and user friendly interface. One can easily find the data of new and internal links, anchors, best pages and linking domains of a website. It is also capable of checking ranking and competition on keywords that you use on your site. It comes with two type of account, free and paid and you can even use this without registration.
3. Majestic SEO
There are more than 10,000 users who rely on Majestic SEO backlinks checker tool. It has a broad database of indexed backlinks and it provides the latest data while conducting many updates each day to give the web searchers quality and fresh backlink report on their website. Majestic SEO is a backlink checker tool that could provide valuable diagnostic report on your website's backlink profile. The site is easy to use as well. Simply type your website on the search box to begin checking quality backlinks on your site. There are also tool kits available to help you do more from its backlink checker tool service. Try it now.
4. Open Site Explorer
The Open Site Explorer is created by SEOMoz and is considered as one of the favorite backlinks checker tools that is widely used by website owners. It comes with a premium and free backlink checking service. The free version allows for a maximum of 3 searches for backlinks a day while the paid version allows the subscriber to perform an unlimited search on websites for quality backlinks. To get more value for your money, the premium version also provides additional features and diagnostic tools that will help you monitor your competitor's website and other useful tools that you can use for your SEO strategy to rank higher.


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Ex-Coca-Cola Secretary May Flee: Prosecutors
In documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias and Assistant U.S. Attorney Byung Pak said that the possibility of a significant prison sentence demonstrates that Joya Williams is a...
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— EBook in PDF Format — Will be Available Instantly after Successful Payment.
Group Work with Populations a Risk, Fourth Edition is a fundamental resource for practitioners in health and mental health settings and a comprehensive guidebook of group work skills. Geared toward students and professionals gaining a beginning understanding of groups, this volume describes how to work with vulnerable populations. The first chapters, new additions to this edition and written by a new co-editor, provide overarching skills and techniques that apply across group work settings and populations. These skills, along with case examples, provide a template for practice with groups. The vulnerable populations that are addressed include returning war veterans, immigrants, the aging and their caregivers, children and adults who have been abused, and people struggling with substance abuse issues, cancer, and chronic mental illness. New chapters have been added for survivors of sex trafficking, children in need of social skills training, people who experienced intimate partner violence, parents who are homeless, and fathers who are incarcerated. Each chapter (designed to stand alone for easy reference) describes the population and reviews the relevant literature, identifies themes and practice principles, presents case illustrations, provides evaluation guidance, and refers readers to key references and web resources.


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Teen Talk
About Us
Back to School with Bipolar Disorder
Tracy Anglada
02 Jul, 2016
Knowing What You Know
You know your child. You even know that you know your child. Why? Because- you have years of experience in caring for this little life. No matter how sure you are in this knowledge, however, there may be times when someone makes you doubt what you know to be true. Maybe it's a medical professional, a family member, a teacher or even a close friend. Why does this doubt creep in? Sometimes it's because we trust the person who is questioning what we know. There is nothing wrong with considering
'Friends of Emmet' Raises Suicide Awareness through Music
What kills more people than war, more people than homicides, and more people than accidents – in fact, more people than all three of these combined? Suicide! Conversation about suicide is not only good, it's vital. It brings the topic into public awareness and has the potential to reach out to those who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts. One vehicle to raising awareness is popular media. Some of you may be familiar with the music of Friends of Emmet. Their song, Coming Apart, and its
Courage to Stay the Course
Every wall in my house used to be painted white. Over the years, I began faux painting various walls and rooms. I started playing with different colors and techniques. Each time that I undertake a new painting project, an interesting phenomenon happens. About a third of the way into the project, I look back at my work and think, 'Oh, no! What have I done?' The very first time this happened to me, I nearly repainted the wall and gave up. But instead, I just kept going. When I was done and


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3 Makeup Looks Inspired by My Favorite Albums of 2016
Since I'm a visual person I hardly ever remember the album title but I just remember what the album art looks like.
I recently told you how I forced my skin too cooperate, so now, let's get into how I covered up the mess I was battling for so long.
I started wearing foundation when I was 14 to hide the redness and the acne. But while I certainly covered it, the cakey makeup situation I had going on wasn't much better.
Fortunately, at some point, I discovered blending and that vital bit of knowledge, "less is more." So, luckily for me, I didn't wander off to university with half an inch of makeup on my skin.
So, before you do anything else, you'll need to make the surface of your skin as smooth as possible. Exfoliate regularly and make sure to moisturise, even if you have oily skin. Let your moisturiser sink in for a bit; I aim for 10 minutes, but we all know how mornings are, so try to give it at least three.
The first thing you'll need are blotting sheets to gently dab any excess surface oil. This is much better than using a harsh cleanser to strip all the oil from your face as blotting sheets won't take away more oil than is necessary.
The Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets are fine but I prefer the Boscia Blotting Linens because they're bigger, made out of a different material and actually cheaper (at least where I live) because you get 100 sheets as opposed to 50.
You'll need a primer to create the perfect canvas for your makeup. Primers aren't necessary for everyone, but they do help create a smoother surface. And if you have bumpy, broken-out skin that might also be flaky from harsh acne treatments, well, you need all the help you can get.
My two favourites are the Revlon PhotoReady Primer Color Correcting Primer and the Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer. I like the Revlon one for when my skin is oily and the Smashbox one for when it's dry, even though it's stupid-expensive.
I tend to favour a lower-coverage foundation to take the edge off the redness and breakouts before concealing but I know that when every inch of your skin is bright red and broken out, that's not really practical. So if you'd have to put concealer on half your face with a lighter base, I recommend the Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour Foundation. This stuff has great coverage and it really is quite long-lasting. I used to have a terrible habit of sleeping in my makeup and sometimes I wouldn't bother to remove it the next morning. Ddon't judge me; I was gross.
It is a little heavy-feeling if you're not used to heavier foundation but it's on par with the coverage you get.
The lighter-coverage option, and what I'll be demonstrating with, is Revlon Nearly Naked Makeup. It's buildable light-medium coverage at most, but the finish is just like it sounds it would be: natural and skin-like.
For concealer, I have three options for you. The Almay Clear Complexion Concealer is not the best for huge spots but, it's good for acne scarring and redness; Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer is good if your skin is flaky and dry; and Make Up Forever Full Cover Concealer is perfect for whatever the hell sprouted on your face overnight. This stuff lasts all day and comes in half a billion shades, so this should work for anyone. It's pricey, but it's lasted me for over a year, even though I managed to step on it and squirt half of it out onto the floor.
So maybe don't do that and then you should be able to stretch this tube for at least two years.
The last step is powder. I have two I can recommend, I've been using the New York Colour Smooth Skin Pressed Face Powder since high school and I love it, it's only a couple of dollars and it does a good job of mattifying the skin.
Revlon Nearly Naked Pressed Powder is every bit as amazing as the foundation and provides a tiny bit of coverage as well as mattifying then skin. I'd recommend pairing the NYC powder with a heavier foundation and the Revlon one with a lighter foundation.
How do you guys cover up breakouts?


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and MR SAJID
160. Leigh Lewis, Chief Executive of the Employment
Service, for whom I have enormous regard, rather took us aback
by saying that the rapid turnover in personal advisers was one
of the problems of success. People were moving on rapidly to other
jobs. There may be an element of that but was I right to greet
that with huge scepticism?
(Mr Convery) No; that is what I have described. It
is success. People are performing well in their jobs. The only
way the Employment Service knows to reward success is to move
them out of the job they are doing well and give them some other
161. I want to pick up on the GP analogy. I
wondered whether the problem was not so much with the GP, the
personal adviser, as the fact that there are not the specialists
to refer them to. I wondered how well you thought that was working
because some feedback I have had is that it is okay picking up
the problems but once you have picked them up if drugs rehab or
alcohol rehab or whatever is required, a huge supply does not
exist out there anyway.
(Mr Convery) There is a double difficulty. First is
the supply of those agencies. In some areas it is limited but
in other areas it is plentiful. There is no shortage of non-government
organisations out there doing spectacularly good jobs. The difficulty
they face is that the contractual engagement with the New Deal
is not one they can often afford. I have often come across instances
where the Employment Service is referring people to drug agencies
without sending any additional money or anything which will enable
that agency to do the job. Sometimes that means that within that
agency they feel a moral obligation to help out the New Deal,
possibly at the expense of other clients. The other problem is
that because New Deal does have a very rigid design framework
to it, it is not often possible for those specialists to have
the time necessary in order to, say in the case of drug rehabilitation,
take six, nine, 12 months to very seriously get someone off a
significant drug dependency up to job readiness, to acquire a
vocational qualification and then to start dipping their toe back
in the labour market. The design just does not allow them to engage.
(Mr Adebowale) There are examples. We have shown both
Tessa Jowell and David Blunkett examples of programmes which would
actually and do work in progressing particularly young people
towards job readiness. In a sense there is no need to re-invent
the wheel. The problem is that not enough attention is being paid
to the ability of the voluntary sector to deliver these programmes.
To be blunt, there has just not been enough investment in these
programmes and in the way of working. In Scotland they have something
called the New Futures Fund which is actually run by Scottish
Enterprise, which is run very well in that it allows the voluntary
sector to develop an ongoing, long-term relationship with Scottish
Enterprise and to work through outcomes and to enter jointly the
risk of working with highly disadvantaged young people. It is
a partnership rather than you will deliver this many outcomes
for this many people, regardless of their presenting issue which
is how New Deal tends to work in England. That is a real problem.
I know this is primarily about New Deal but there is a danger
that exactly the same issue around working with specialist servicesand
I do believe there are lots of specialist services out there perfectly
capable of doing this workwill re-occur in the rollout
of the Connexions programme. There is a danger in New Deal that
while it will succeed in terms of the state of targets, it will
create a real underclass of young people who never get access
to New Deal because there is no pre-New Deal programme, there
is nothing leading them into New Deal and there is nothing the
Government provides, no Government agency available, to cater
for young people who are homeless, who have drug or alcohol problems
and have mental health problems. There is nothing other than what
is provided by the voluntary sector.
162. I want to turn to the issue of New Deal
and ethnic minorities specifically. Could you briefly list for
us the key barriers you think exist in the context of young people
from ethnic minorities in terms of getting work and especially
through the New Deal and indicate as well whether you think there
is more that the Employment Service could do in terms of getting
work as a whole. A lot of the issues are not things which are
specific to New Deal, but about working with employers and so
on. The key issues you think exist as barriers and key lessons
which you wish the Employment Service would learn in terms of
overcoming those barriers.
(Mr Butt) One of the main barriers is confidence in
the actual labour market rather than getting the job you are actually
interested in. Quite often the question young black and ethnic
minority people put to me when I go on visits, and I go to different
districts like Liverpool, is whether the actual provision is out
there to meet their aspirations. If they want to be a rocket scientist
and they are born in Toxteth, can we provide that gateway for
them? How do you on the one hand cajole that young person and
say you can get them there, but on the other hand be realistic
and say it is going to be a very long trip, they have another
10 or 15 years ahead before they make it there. The whole thing
around employer discrimination is the huge, huge barrier. The
policy action team on jobs, for example, did say that there should
be a sustained campaign on racial equality which as of yet has
not been demonstrated by the Government. I know, for example,
the London Development Agency is going to have a mayoral campaign
for fair recruitment in the labour market and work with employers
both small and large, tackling the many barriers which disadvantaged
groups face. Mr Adebowale touched on the diverse provision out
there and it is true to say that the black and ethnic minority
voluntary sector has not really had a fair deal in getting provision.
There has not really been the investment there as well. A lot
of innovative work does happen at grassroots level in the voluntary
and community sectors, but yet again the black and ethnic minority
voluntary community sectors are often marginalised in the process.
Those who are in a position to tender for New Deal or obtain some
New Deal provision often stay out of it because they do not want
to be caught up in the bureaucracy of it and they do not want
to lose the niche position they have with local communities. I
can cite many examples. For examples, Leap in North West London,
which has brought the Stride programme over from America, will
not go anywhere near the Employment Service or touch New Deal
because it has very clear targets, it does meet them and it has
better job retention rates than New Deal. If that sort of investment
is going on, why can we not have a clear partnership arrangement
with that. In Glasgow, for example, with the Glasgow Anti-Racist
Alliance they have a number of innovative employment projects,
as does Skillset using positive action, as does CEED in Bristol
using positive action. Work is going on around us which has better
retention rates for black and ethnic minority communities but
we are not really picking that up through the Employment Service
in some sort of partnership arrangement. I agree that we do need
to have some sort of pre-New Deal and maybe that is where some
sort of ES co-financing arrangements can come in to enable that
to happen. We need to break the bond between the Regional Development
Agencies, RDAs, and the Learning and Skills Councils. They will
really take on board much of the ESF and will leave the Employment
Service in a very fragile position whereas they could do with
much of that additional resource to tackle some of the soft skills
which young black and ethnic minority people face such as team
building and active job search. Possibly another solution we can
look at is a much more dynamic way for mentoring and buddying
as well for young black and ethnic minority people, also possibly
utilising annual performance agreements a lot more before the
Employment Service is target driven. Maybe if you went to somebody
in the cities where New Deal is not performing particularly well
and set some hard targets for district managers to perform and
put their head on the block we would get better job outcomes.
Developing specialisms in Employment Service staff where good
practice is occurring. Why do you not develop a pool of expertise
then they can start networking units of delivery in their region
and spread that good management practice, district by district,
region by region and hopefully through to national level. We need
to create that sort of information and disseminate it. Quite often
many district managers, regional managers have their heart in
the right place but at the end of the day they are there to deliver
a job and they have not been delivering it. We have been campaigning
for many years and put many recommendations but very few have
been taken aside. It is only now, coming onto the stage of the
next election, that everyone is starting to worry because the
job outcome still has not improved. One more issue we need to
look at is about data collection at a regional level between the
national training organisations in terms of their workforce development
plans, so that we can analyse sector by sector exactly where there
are gaps in terms of skills base, also the RDAs and their skills
strategies and LSC Skills as well and the Employment Service.
Why can we not have a much more coordinated approach to the labour
market programme delivery, so you have good data collection, you
know exactly who is performing, what skills gaps are out there,
and what sort of financial packages you need to put together in
the provision to meet the client group to which you are supposed
to be delivering?
163. May I ask about the DfEE's Ethnic Minority
Strategy for New Deal? Has it been implemented well? Has it made
much difference and in particular on the key indicator are we
now any closer to achieving parity in New Deal outcomes between
ethnic minority participants and others? Which direction is it
going in and how effective is that strategy?
(Mr Butt) If you go to any New Deal partnership or
anyone who has seen the ethnic minority strategy they will sing
its praises. A lot of research went into it and we did a lot of
work to make it really accessible to those who did not have much
knowledge about it. We do not really think it is being used widely
and we do not think there is much follow-through in terms of regional
support on a regional basis or even a delivery basis for that
to happen. Obviously job outcomes have not improved much but some
good practice is occurring. Partnerships at the moment are required
to produce six-monthly reviews on the progress of implementing
the ethnic minority strategy, particularly around the toolkit
as well, "closing the gap". We have not really seen
any feedback yet, but that will come in time. If the ethnic minority
strategy is going to have any real impact we have to take it at
senior level, possibly recruiting more black district managers
but setting more targets as well for district managers and regional
managers to implement part of the strategy and the subsequent
toolkit. The biggest thing is around tackling employer discrimination.
Whilst we fudge around other issues, job outcomes still are not
improving and until we have ministerial clout, supported by real
resources at a national level, pumped through to a regional level
with the RDAs and the Chambers of Commerce, and other employer-led
bodies, then we are not going to see much difference.
(Mr Convery) It has been disappointing that the trend
level of job entry for people from black and ethnic minority communities
has not changed since New Deal launched to the most recent data.
It is still consistently for black Caribbean and black African
young people 30 to 40 per cent off parity with white young people's
job outcomes. That has been pretty steady right throughout the
lifetime of New Deal. Having said that, I do not think New Deal
on its own is going to reverse what are essentially deep inherent
discriminatory trends in the labour market. Mr Butt is right to
list a whole range of organisations and agencies because they
all have to be doing something in a pretty consistent and coherent
kind of way. I would not criticise New Deal for having failed
to shift these deep discriminatory trends significantly.
(Mr Adebowale) It is very difficult to know where
to start in terms of role models. Take my sector, registered social
landlords. There are 2,500 of them in the country, they have been
around since 1933 in their current form. There are currently two
black chief executives of mainstream registered social landlords.
Is that an accident? I doubt it. There are whole sectors of employment
where black and minority ethnic people of whatever age simply
do not exist and it is going to be a real problem for the country
because of the demographics. That is why the figures have remained
significantly steady. There are some employers who have recognised
this, not just because they are altruistic but because actually
they see there are real management and bottom line consequences.
For instance the BBC recognised that the black and minority ethnic
young people were just switching off. Why watch a programme which
has nothing to do with you whatsoever? These large employers need
to be taken up as examples, we need to look at how they influence
their supply chain, because the BBC has a huge supply chain of
medium and small-sized businesses. We need to look at how those
influences work, and I would say, at the risk of repeating what
has been said, that the lack of an overall Government race strategy
which is promoted bravely and rigorously does damage to New Deal.
It is worrying that when I go to the New Deal Task Force, the
same figures are repeated over and over again and everybody round
that table knows that employment practices within many of our
largest blue chip companies leave a lot to be desired in terms
of their equality practices.
164. I should like to broaden the discussion
we have just been having to the question of disadvantaged young
people as a whole. Each of you has to an extent already answered
the question I am going to put but it is good to put it in this
way. We have addressed the question of disadvantaged young people
who are entirely outside the system, but it has been suggested
to us that there is also an increasing number of young people
within New Deal who have multiple problems and a statistic of
over 20 per cent of current participants who are re-entrants who
failed to get permanent employment the first time. Is it true
to say that the numbers are increasing and in designing New Deal
II what should be done to assist? How can we ensure that the programme
is more geared, yes to the needs of those who are outside the
system altogether, but also to those within the system who seem
to be being failed by it so far?
(Mr Convery) The first thing is that we know very
little about the people who are being recycled, who are failing
in their first run through. We also know very little about people
who are dropping out, people who have gone to unknown destinations,
who are disproportionately drawn from more disadvantaged groups.
We know that because the research shows that disproportionately
the unknown destination leavers were early entrants because they
qualified on the early entry disadvantage criteria. It is something
in the range of nearly one third of all leavers currently going
to unknown destinations, although I always put this into context.
Under the last Government they would have been described as a
positive outcome because they are a sign-off. Any sign-off was
a positive outcome then. It certainly is a credit to Government
now that they regard it as a group we need to understand more.
However we do not understand and know very much about them. We
do not understand very much about the reasons why people are being
recycled other than that the period from the end of follow-through
to the requalification for New Deal is actually very short; it
is eight weeks in effect. I think that there is something about
follow-through which lacks the pace and purpose that really should
be there. There is a feeling that follow-through is there for
people who have somehow failed, they did not perform their option
well, they did not get a job out of it and there is a remedial
character to their period on follow-through. They are starting
their second time around in New Deal always marked as failures.
We have to understand the characteristics of those young people,
the system they have gone through that has failed them.
165. Is anyone doing that work, is anyone doing
that research?
(Mr Convery) Not systematically. It is not part of
the whole programme appraisal and evaluation. However, it is the
sort of thing that a number of non-government organisations are
interested in, ask the question repeatedly. It would be a complex
and quite demanding piece of research to really understand those
young people. I think it should be done.
166. It would be most usefully done within the
New Deal evaluation process itself rather than by the voluntary
(Mr Convery) It is not an either/or really. There
are provider organisations which are working alongside the ES
which have a fair bit to contribute to this, but it should be
a mainstream part of evaluation. I think there are parts of the
evaluation which are a complete waste of time to be candid. Resources
should be placed into this area.
167. Can you tell us which are a complete waste
of time?
(Mr Convery) I shall perhaps be diplomatic and write
a list of the least useful research here. There are some areas
of research which at first stab people thought would be of value
and would be interesting. Juggernauts started. We saw the results
and realised that there was not a great deal which helped either
policy or performance from that research, but it got done.
168. Are you going to send that to us?
(Mr Convery) Yes, I will.
Chairman: We look forward to receiving that
with great interest.
169. On the voluntary sector option and the
environment task force option it has been widely suggested that
these have become a reservoir for those young people who are least
employable. How far is that fair and what would your evaluation
of those options be and in particular what can we do to improve
the status and success of those options?
(Mr Adebowale) It is quite fair. Part of the problem
is that the option which was promoted as the most successful was
getting a job in the non-subsidised sectors and that is a real
shame and says something about how the voluntary sector is seen.
The voluntary sector option is not seen as valuable, neither is
the environment option. It is not seen as valuable. One of the
things which has been raised and was raised in the disadvantaged
report is the idea of merging options. At the end of the day a
job is a job. We require a high level of skill to work in key
areas of Centrepoint's business and that goes for many other voluntary
organisations, so why should that be an option which is seen as
any less valuable than the non-subsidised employment? We do have
to do some work there, because it does not really matter whether
a young person is disadvantaged or not, they want to be seen,
they want their careers and jobs to be seen as as valuable as
anyone else's. If someone slides them into an option that everybody
has ignored or not actually given much status, then you can expect
the results to be poor.
(Mr Convery) There is one clear thing which relegates
the voluntary sector option or ETF away from regular jobs and
it is that one is a job and the other is not. I feel I have been
saying this for several years: it is a very powerful message when
you say, "Here are two options: one where you get your benefit
plus £15.34 a week, another where you get a regular wage
for doing a regular job with a real employer". What I think
is to the credit of non-government organisations and local authorities
is that in a number of parts of the country where imaginative
financing has been put together, and this Committee has visited
these areas, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, in the non-profit
community sector real employment has been created paying real
wages, underlining the legitimacy of that work and genuinely taking
those young people out of welfare and into work, pulling them
out of all the complex benefit and poverty traps which are related
to that transition from being dependent on benefits as compared
with going into work. In Mark II New Deal the strongest message
one could give to Ministers is not to create that artificial divide
between real jobs and not so real jobs.
170. The message I am getting from you is that
what you are saying is that the voluntary sector can be employers
as well.
(Mr Convery) Yes.
171. It is a massive sector which can provide
good quality jobs. It does not just have to provide support for
people on benefit plus £15. There is a whole range of commercial
companies run by the voluntary sector and maybe as a Government
we ought to be looking at putting in more resource in terms of
building their capacity to offer those genuine employment prospects.
Would that be a fair summary?
(Mr Convery) Absolutely.
(Mr Adebowale) New Deal II will look at a greater
use of what is known as intermediaries to encourage that kind
of intervention. The voluntary sector is a £15 billion industry.
It may not be seen as such.
172. In practical terms, would it be a question
having to be worked out at local level? I chaired a meeting with
the Employment Minister and a number of the environmental groups
quite some time ago and they were quite frustrated because they
wanted to see that New Deal option being a positive future for
the environmental organisations and bringing in people with a
genuine interest in the environment as their first starter. Instead
of this, it was being put as this dross end of the market. Does
that have to be dealt with by local programmes or is there something
which could be put in at a national level to make that change
in New Deal Mark II?
(Mr Convery) At a national level, avoiding the presumption
that voluntary sector employment starts off as a benefit plus
formula, which smart people in smart places can just about squeeze
into regular employment, the presumption is that that work in
the social economy sector sits alongside work in the full profit
sector and they are pretty much of equal virtue.
173. When Centrepoint last gave evidence to
the Committee in early 1998 it was highly critical of the Employment
Service. Have you changed your mind?
(Mr Adebowale) We are still concerned about the bureaucracy,
we are still concerned about the reality of putting in place all
the recommendations of the disadvantaged young people report.
We are still concerned about issues of discrimination. We recognise
these are massive tasks for the Employment Service to deal with,
particularly as the issues around discrimination are very real.
We are concerned about the training and effectiveness of the personal
advisers. Finally, we think a lot of the New Deal service could
be done with and by the voluntary sector and that certainly has
not happened to Centrepoint yet. A lot of work has been done.
What I would say is that we recognise that the Employment Service
has attacked New Deal with enthusiasm and vigour. There have been
a lot of changes in the way the Employment Service relates to
young people in particular but there is still some way to go if
I am going to be able to withdraw every criticism that remains.
174. I think you all sit on the New Deal Advisory
Task Force.
(Mr Adebowale) Yes.
175. What advice have you given which has been
taken on board by Government and what advice have you given which
has been ignored and you think should be taken on board?
(Mr Adebowale) My colleagues are on the advisory group;
I am actually on the Task Force. It is an interesting question
because I was involved in the drawing up of the set of recommendations
which were specifically aimed at disadvantaged young people. The
report was accepted; not all the recommendations have been implemented
effectively. I suppose that would be the good test. I do not think
all my recommendations have been implemented fully as yet. There
are reasons for that but not all of them have. I pay particular
attention to the issues relating to homeless people, disadvantaged
people, but just as much young people from black and ethnic minority
communities. The two are often the same. I remain concerned about
how little progress we are making in that regard.
(Mr Convery) I do not think during this Parliament
the advice of the Task Force's many advisory groups has resulted
in the programme itself changing. We have not been fixing the
car as it drives down the road. What we have ended up doing is
helping shape a vision of what New Deal would look like in the
next Parliament, where there would be less emphasis on crude job
entry, where there may be more emphasis on geographical areas
of highest unemployment and greatest needs and a much, much more
effective read-across to all the other area-based initiatives,
other types of funds which are in place, where there will be a
much, much more flexible programme, where individual packages
of help are tailored and delivered for the individual, as is being
trialled now with the personal job account in the employment zones,
an emphasis on much higher levels of performance from contracted
organisations, having much better understanding of employer requirements
and making them match with employers and just the understanding
that New Deal should change, it should be almost an organic programme
rather than something which is fixed in stone and that one can
learn from a process of continuous improvement and innovation.
Even the programme which starts, let us say, a few months into
the next Parliament itself learns from what has been achieved
well and by the end of that Parliament it will be a slightly different
programme to when it started off.
(Mr Adebowale) I should be very, very worried if the
New Deal II did not put the disadvantaged first because it is
quite possible we could enter into a new round of New Deal and
still not have the target and the focus of the programme on the
most disadvantaged. If it does not do that we shall have missed
a lot of learning. That has to be number one.
176. Mr Convery, last time you appeared before
the sub-committee you argued in favour of a single working Age
Agency, you argued for something which dealt with people in the
labour market as a single agency, Benefits Agency and Employment
Service together. May I ask whether the Working Age Agency as
has been proposed is what you had in mind? Is that an effective
Government response to what you propose and do you or any of the
others think the Working Age Agency will improve matters?
(Mr Convery) As described by the Prime Minister last
year, yes, that is very much the agency I had in mind. With one
exception. What I had in mind then and still have in mind is an
agency which not only delivers benefits and keeps people in touch
with the labour market, all people of working age irrespective
of the type of benefit they are on if they wish to have labour
market attachment, but also an agency which is just much more
in touch with the whole of the labour market, which does not have
this 20 per cent market share as the Employment Service hasin
some parts of the country far less than 20 per cent; there are
huge regional variationsan agency which is not seen to
be brokering vacancies at the bottom end of the labour market.
That is a further step which I think Government would have to
take. Whether the new agency lives up to every wish that I can
have, it is hard to say. Very few of us have a very clear idea
about what that agency is going to look like. My anxiety is that,
the Prime Minister effectively having committed its launch to
June or July of this year, it is going to happen far faster than
is advisable, it will end up a very incremental roll-out and the
danger is that we might lose the best of the Benefits Agency,
with their attention to detail, getting the benefit calculations
right, understanding people's needs, and the best of the Employment
Service which is a strong focus on the labour market and understanding
jobs. If they do not get the best of both agencies through implementing
it too rapidly, we might not have the best agency which is fit
for this purpose.
(Mr Adebowale) We do not know enough about how it
is going to work. It is a massive risk. It is a massive opportunity
to change but if it fails the very people we are seeking to help
will lose faith in it completely. I wonder whether changing agencies
and creating a new agency will actually deal with the things which
need to be dealt with. What needs to happen is that there needs
to be marketing outreach which simplifies the programme, addresses
the issues we have discussed. There needs to be an emphasis on
basic life skills, on a pre-New Deal programme which addresses
the most disadvantaged. We need to address the issue of homelessness
and its attendant miseries. I have to say that I am not convinced
from what I have seen of the Working Age Agency that it has set
out with that kind of vision in mind. I am not just talking about
young people here, I am talking about across the board. If you
think that the purpose of all this is to get the most disadvantaged
into work, if you do that the other things will follow. I do worry
about the headline statements about what the Working Age Agency
is going to do and how it is going to do it and there is a danger
that we shall rebrand what is already there and the very people
we need to engage and have engaged or are engaging through New
Deal will lose confidence.
177. The other aspect which is being massively
reorganised at the moment is the Learning and Skills Council,
the £6 billion for education and training prioritised on
young people, the same sort of client group. Could you briefly
say whether you think the Learning and Skills Council at a national
level, then local level, is going to work? Are you in particular
as people involved with New Deal talking to the Learning and Skills
Council sufficiently to be able to dovetail your joint efforts?
(Mr Convery) I have recently been appointed onto one
of the local Learning and Skills Councils and onto the National
Committee for Adult Learners. I have taken a very close interest
in the establishment of the LSC over the last year and a half.
I do have some very grave anxieties about the pace of implementation
and the ability to get a live system running by the end of March.
I am not going to say more than that. If everything goes well,
in the first six to nine months the new LSC will be mainly pre-occupied
with bedding in its new systems, getting the new funding formula
working, maintaining its suppliers, particularly where suppliers
are facing sharp changes in volumes, prices they are going to
be getting, handling the ESF co-financing arrangements which are
scheduled for September of next year but which I suspect are not
going to be delivered in quite as comprehensive a fashion as was
originally intended by Ministers. Just keeping a steady ship going
will be the absolute preoccupation of the LSC in the first six
to nine months. As we go into the next Parliament some time in
the middle of this year into next year, it will be in year two
of the LSC's development that we shall be able to talk much more
effectively about getting the right mesh between Mark II New Deal,
the more vocationally relevant learning that the LSC will be spearheading
and the more effective operations of the Employment Service functions
within the new agency. It will be a year or so into the next Parliament
before we really start to see that working well.
(Mr Adebowale) I suppose I would say, bluntly if I
may, I take a very on the ground view of these things. When Centrepoint
and organisations like Centrepoint are fully aware of the impact
of the LSC, Connexions and indeed New Deal Mark II on our clients
and can see, because they have reached out to us and are actually
asking us, how it is going to work, then I can say with confidence
that these changes will have an effect. Right now I cannot say
that because I have no idea how the LSC is going to have any impact
whatsoever on the one in seven of Centrepoint's young people who
have left school and are having difficulty admitting to us that
they cannot read and have difficulty writing and have basic problems
with getting jobs. When I see a path into the LSC, which allows
me to deliver services to those young people, then I shall be
able to say with some confidence that these changes are credible.
Until then, they are just changes.
178. I got a very strong message from you there,
that one thing we all have to avoid is that the preoccupation
with reorganisation will actually deflect us from the job of getting
more disadvantaged, whether ethnic minority or not, into jobs
or improving their employability. As you sit now you rather fear
the worst.
(Mr Adebowale) It would be unfair to say, as a member
of the Task Force, that the Task Force has not been focused on
the needs of the most disadvantaged and indeed has not addressed
them. One of the good things about the Task Force, indeed New
Deal, is that they have brought to attention in a very clear way
the issues of disadvantaged, be it by race or by lack of housing
or drug, alcohol, what have you. My concern is that that has not
necessarily been followed up with the resources and the structures
which are needed to make the essential difference. I do not believe
these are big things. They are not massive, huge shifts, but there
is a fear somehow that if you give credibility to focusing resources
on the most disadvantaged, people will either not take the programme
seriously or these feckless sorts will somehow spend the money
on something else or the very organisations which actually see
these young people somehow are not competent to deal with the
problem. That is a really dangerous fallacy and it has been embedded
in our approach to New Deal. Nothing I have said to this Committee
is new in terms of what Centrepoint was saying right at the beginning
of the New Deal programme. There has been progress, we have been
involved in making recommendations around this. What I want to
see is change on the ground which allows us to have the resources
and it is down to resources and commitment necessary to make the
essential difference. It has not happened yet.
(Mr Butt) May I support Mr Adebowale on that. Rather
than focus on creating new bodies, new structures with glossy
magazines and glossy brochures and political messages about how
great everything is, why do we not focus on getting the job done
in the first place, breeding good practice, spreading the expertise
and then look to creating a much more dynamic structure which
can deal with the plethora of issues which disadvantaged young
people face in the labour market. That is something BTEG would
rather favour, particularly with the new Working Age Agency and
indeed with the new LSCs coming on board as well. Many of the
issues around the contractual arrangements, some of the guidance,
the funding processes and the equality agenda have been marginalised
in terms of some of the specialist provision required to meet
the needs of those discriminated and those disadvantaged in the
labour market. What I can say is the fact that our director has
been seconded to the DfEE to oversee the whole equal opportunities
agenda in the new bodies we hope will have some meaningful impact.
On that point, TECs were required to have equal opportunities
strategies and at the end of each year produce their results by
it. In the beginning not many were producing coherent strategies
and the gaps were still there but they have picked up and gradually
have had some success. Whilst they have reached that point, you
have a new structure coming in which really is not taking the
equality agenda seriously at all, so you have lost that sort of
expertise, that sort of good practice which has been developing
towards a new structure which will be more concerned about putting
the right systems in place. That is a fundamental flaw in the
Department which needs to be addressed. Rather like the New Deal
Mark II, let us try to put some of the recommendations in Mr Adebowale's
report of two or three years ago and our report back in February
1998 where we were talking about how to improve New Deal to those
who really are disadvantaged, those who keep slipping through
the net or coming back to New Deal again. At the end of the day
that is what New Deal was designed to deliver and once we know
what the research is showing in terms of what those coming back
onto New Deal are saying, let us improve the provision, simplify
the partnerships, bringing new people on board who can actually
say the right things at the decision-making table.
Chairman: Thank you very much indeed for what
has proved to be a fascinating evidence session and a lot of useful
warnings and encouragements to us coming from the depth of your
experience of involvement in the programme. The session is closed.