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Eric Jackson reportedly owns only 45 shares of Yahoo stock, but he's making a huge splash with them. It's a tribute to his ability to use community-building tools – the same kinds of tools that Yahoo has been trying to leverage with its web 2.0 acquisitions – that his campaign has been gaining steam. He says he has a group of like-minded Yahoo shareholders backing him up that together own close to a million shares of the beleaguered company.
He started in early January with an appeal to other shareholders to present ideas for a "Plan B" to save the company. His outreach tools include a blog, YouTube videos and a wiki. He seems to have received a lot of input. In late February he submitted a finalized version of "Plan B" to Yahoo's corporate secretary with the intention of presenting the plan at the company's annual meeting in May.
Jackson isn't simply web savvy, if his biography can be believed. He has a PhD from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York, where he specialized in strategic management and organizational behavior. His thesis would seem to be right up the alley of trying to turn Yahoo around; it covered "how the composition and processes of top management teams and boards are linked to longer-term firm performance," to quote the bio directly. He has several publications on corporate management performance to his credit, and has served as vice president of strategy and business development at VoiceGenie, which is now part of Alcatel. He is currently the CEO of his own consulting firm, Jackson Leadership Systems.
So are the nine points of Plan B going to save Yahoo, or is something a little more self-serving at work here? Let me paraphrase Star Trek's Dr. McCoy and say I'm a writer, not a business analyst. On the other hand, I've spent about seven years covering technology and technology-related companies. I've looked at my share of financial results, and for the last two years I've followed the search field pretty closely. So what you're about to read is coming from a somewhat informed layman. Keeping that in mind, let's see what Jackson's plan offers Yahoo.
{mospagebreak title=The First Three Points}
The first point is the immediate replacement of Terry Semel as Yahoo's chairman and CEO. Jackson lists a number of missteps Semel made during his tenure, including the failure to purchase Google in 2002, MySpace in 2005, and YouTube in 2006. He also argues persuasively that Yahoo's loss of shareholder value is a cause for dismissal. While acknowledging that Semel's defenders will point to a rise of 227 percent since Semel started at Yahoo in 2001, Jackson points out that most of that gain, which occurred over a one-year period, "had to do with a general recovery in the Internet Advertising market, which benefited Yahoo and its two main rivals – Google and Microsoft – during this time." Jackson also points to Yahoo's eroding market share in search as evidence that Semel's tenure has been toxic to Yahoo. With Terry Semel already 64 years old, it might make more sense to seek his immediate retirement rather than his head.
The second point concerns Yahoo's board of directors. Jackson and his fellow shareholding sympathizers want to see six out of the ten directors replaced: Terry Semel, Robert Kotick, Roy Bostock, Ron Burkle, Eric Hippeau, Arthur Kern, and Gary Wilson. The only members they want to see stay include Jerry Yang (co-founder of Yahoo), Ed Kozel, and Vyomesh Joshi.
From the explanation given, Jackson holds those six board members as most responsible for Yahoo's recent missteps (because Semel reports to the board) and believes they must be held accountable. As for the ones favored by Jackson, Kozel and Joshi have directly purchased Yahoo shares, but the other board members "have only exercised stock options of late." It's worth pointing out at this juncture that Eric Jackson has nominated himself to the board, so he might have more than just the other shareholders' interests at heart.
The third point involves the Yahoo Media Group and campus in the Los Angeles area. Jackson wants to see it closed because "There are no meaningful outputs from the group to speak of which have had any positive shareholder value-creating impact." The Yahoo Media Group was created a little over a year ago and run by former ABC TV executive Lloyd Braun. The goal, apparently, was to enhance Yahoo's content and therefore attract more visitors. It was part of a larger strategy to be a bigger player in the entertainment field, which seems a natural move given Semel's 24 years at Warner Brothers. It's a move, Jackson insists, that hasn't worked for Yahoo.
{mospagebreak title=The Next Four Points}
Eric Jackson seems to think Yahoo has lost its way, which is why the fourth point of Plan B calls for the company to make additional research and development investments in the Technology Group. Certainly, it can be argued that Yahoo's competitors (particularly Google) have moved much more quickly to implement more interesting technologies. Indeed, some of Yahoo's problems can be attributed to this slowness; for example, more than one observer has pointed out the irony that Google's AdWords and AdSense were "inspired" by Yahoo's search engine advertising (an expertise Yahoo gained from purchasing Overture) to the point of Yahoo filing a lawsuit…and that Yahoo's Panama is now very much like Google's search advertising. The increased investment in research and development is supposed to come in part from closing the Yahoo Media Group and campus.
The fifth point of Plan B is a call for efficiency. Yahoo has never properly streamlined many of its purchases, nor rolled them together as would be expected. Jackson gives several examples: Flickr is still distinct from the homegrown Yahoo MyPhotos, and del.icio.us is still separate from MyWeb. Jackson believes that it makes sense to roll these similar groups together, and that it should have been done a long time ago. This would increase the company's profitability by saving some money. Jackson would also like to see some clarification as to who has "distinct ownership and accountability" for these key services. The now-famous Peanut Butter Manifesto made it clear that this kind of restructuring is sorely needed at the search company.
The idea behind the sixth point of Plan B seems to be emphasizing accountability going forward. It calls for a pay-for-performance plan for all of Yahoo's management. "Bonuses should be tied to preset goals for increases in revenues, cash flow, and EPS."
The seventh point is concerned more directly with the company's stock price. Jackson wants to see Yahoo step up the pace of the $3 billion stock repurchase plan that the company announced in October 2006. Interestingly, the company's stock price bottomed out on the same day that Yahoo unveiled its plan to repurchase that much stock over the next five years. According to Jackson, the stock's price has been rising steadily since he went public with his work on Plan B on January 7, 2007. If the stock price continues to increase, it will decrease the number of shares that Yahoo would need to repurchase. So Jackson and his cohorts "strongly wish to see evidence that the board of directors is accelerating the share repurchase now, rather than when the stock increases in value substantially further months down the road." One wonders if it isn't just a little presumptuous to think that Yahoo's rise in stock price is due to Plan B.
{mospagebreak title=The Last Two Points}
In the eighth point of Plan B, Jackson calls for Yahoo to pay a modest annual cash dividend on its stock. He thinks that five cents a share is about right; it comes to about $40 million a year, which should not inhibit the company's ability to compete effectively. Why? "More important than the cash to shareholders (which does increase value in and of itself), the dividend would be an additional discipline to Yahoo! management to spend its cash wisely. It would also symbolize management's confidence in the business, moving forward, that it will plan for and can sustain this dividend to shareholders." In short, it's another note in the theme of accountability and taking responsibility that runs through the plan.
The ninth point of Plan B is almost icing on the cake, a slap in the face of management trying to protect itself from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Jackson notes that Yahoo's most recent 10-Q filing cites anti-takeover provisions which "could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us" as a risk factor facing the company. But Jackson believes that "These anti-takeover provisions are not shareholder-friendly. They do not serve shareholders' interests, but management's. They should be swept aside immediately."
While much of the buzz surrounding this grassroots campaign has been positive, Jackson has certainly received his share of heat. Some of the comments on his blog, especially in reply to the finalized version of Plan B, have accused him of being self-serving, to put it mildly. On the other hand, at least one observer thinks the plan doesn't go far enough. With Yahoo being a weakening second to Google, the latter's dominance of the field will only continue to increase, squeezing out the rest of the competition. This is bad for those of us who want to see continued search innovation.
Jackson may not have all the answers; his grassroots campaign may not even succeed. But he has brought a focus to Yahoo's woes, and how deeply they need to be repaired, that not even the company's own restructuring plan (released early in December) has been able to bring to bear. One way or another, Yahoo will be forced to find its way; let's hope it leads to a stronger future for the search engine.


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"I'm impressed!" stated Howard N. Lee, former mayor of Durham, N.C. State Senator for 10 years and chairman of the State Board of Education. His last appointment was executive director of the Education Cabinet under Gov. Bev Perdue. Lee made the remarks after visiting classrooms on the campus of The Roger Bacon Academy's Charter Day School in Leland.
Cedar Grove Middle announces honor roll
Cedar Grove Middle School has announced its third nine-weeks honor rolls:
A honor roll
Sixth grade: Mia Babson, Alexis Bryant, Mallory Campbell, Stephen Cannaday, Christopher Chestnut, Carli Coffey, Lasha Epps, Owen Evans, Megan Godfrey, Natyra Gore, Jalisa Grissett, Hannah Hewett, Taylor Hill, Lucas Hunsicker, Leah McDonald, Kayla Nixon, Austin Reed, Yaritza Roblero, Mikela Schmidt, Bravin Troy.
This year, the Friends of the Rourk Library encouraged library usage with the younger population in the community. The idea was to have each third-grade student at Union Primary School design a bookmark using the theme, "What My Library Means to Me." The response was more than 120 submissions, each with a colorful design and message.
BOLIVIA—School lunch prices are set to increase by 10 cents a plate next school year.
At their meeting Tuesday night, members of the Brunswick County Board of Education unanimously approved an increase to school lunch prices by 10 cents per plate.
Breakfast prices will increase by 5 cents per plate.
Brunswick County has a new teacher of the year for 2012.
On Friday afternoon, South Brunswick High School social studies teacher Laura Hunter was named the teacher of year by the Brunswick County Association of Educators during a luncheon at the Isles restaurant in Ocean Isle Beach.
More than 100 teachers, educators and members of the community joined together to recognize 19 teachers named teacher of the year for their respective schools. Hunter was selected as the teacher of the year representing the county.
The Waccamaw School ROCAME team competed in the local jamboree at North Brunswick High School on Saturday, March 24. ROCAME students earned the following awards:
First place, PowerPoint Presentaton: Tatyanna Bellamy.
First place, Metric Mastery: Cesar Ramos and Monty Stanley.
Second place, Oratorical Contest: Monty Stanley.
Third place, Write It/Do It: Cheyenne Marlowe and Aaliya Gore.
Third place, Pentathion: Nydasia Miller, Bernesha Daniels, Tashayla Daniels and Harvey Bolanos.
Have you ever wondered where on Earth you are? What is your absolute location? What are your coordinates?
Jada Fimbel, a fourth-grade teacher at Union Elementary School, wanted her students to learn about it and also apply the information to the world around them.
With the help of a Smart Connections Grant from ATMC, they are now on the map and can tell you exactly where on Earth they are.
Brunswick Arts Council plans art camps
The Brunswick Arts Council, in conjunction with several arts groups in Brunswick County, will conduct a series of art camps this summer. Four summer art camps will be offered from June 20-23.
The camps will allow middle school students to work with local professional artists to create an art project in three days that will be shown to parents and friends on the fourth day, a Saturday. A fifth art camp will be offered from June 28-July 1.
Each semester, the Department of Cosmetology at Brunswick Community College hosts a hair design contest where currently enrolled students compete.
The theme for the spring 2012 semester was bridal, where students were to design their style of choice. Students were given one hour on the day of the competition to completely make over a mannequin, which was then judged by a panel composed of local stylists and estheticians.
Winning first place was Olivia Chapman; second place was Misty Vining; and third place went to Simone Taylor.
This summer, Millstone 4-H Camp will host three weeks (sessions) of camping. North Carolina 4-H has piloted Camp Corral at Millstone last summer for Golden Corral Corporation. It was so well-received franchise owners and company stores are taking Camp Corral nationwide.
Copyright © 2018
The Brunswick Beacon is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Brunswick County, North Carolina and surrounding areas.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Dunloe Hotel & Gardens is one of the leading 5 star luxury hotels Ireland has to offer, overlooking the famous Gap of Dunloe, set on its own 64 acre estate leading to the ruins of the 12th century castle and River Laune. The Dunloe Hotel & Gardens is one of the finest luxury hotels Ireland has to offer, boasting magnificent 5 star hotel accommodation in Kerry, Ireland, only 5 miles from Killarney town.
As one of the leading luxury hotels in Ireland, The Dunloe Hotel & Gardens rests on an estate with manicured pathways leading to the ruins of an old castle which lies hidden within the grounds. Guests can enjoy a range of complimentary onsite leisure activities including swimming, sauna, steam room, techno-gym, fishing, horse riding, and tennis. A kids club and movie night programme runs for children throughout the summer months. Golf, tours and walks can also be arranged locally. We enjoy a unique countryside private setting which truly sets us apart from some of the other 5 star hotels Ireland has, that have more city or town based settings.
For fine dining in Killarney, visit our restaurant and enjoy the best of local produce in our luxury hotel. Ireland, and particularly county Kerry, is home to some of the best gourmet food in Europe. Wild Atlantic fresh fish and high quality Kerry lamb frequent our menu. 5 star luxury hotels in Ireland also boast treatment rooms for luxurious spa therapies, massages and beauty treatment. The Dunloe Hotel & Gardens is no different with a full treatment menu to choose from.The Dunloe Hotel & Gardens… the sophisticated, discerning visitor's choice for luxury hotels in Ireland. Space, grace and elegance on a grand scale.
Geographic coordinates (GPS Codes): +52° 3' 36.13", -9° 37' 36.37"


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Teen Mom star Maci Bookout is starting to have second thoughts about doing the popular MTV show according to a new interview with Life & Style magazine.
The reason? Maci, 19, worries about how the show is affecting her 2-year-old son Bentley Edwards. "I don't want to steal his childhood," says Maci who is worried about Bentley growing up under a harsh media microscope. "I don't know if being on TV in elementary school would be difficult for him. I want him to have a normal life."
Maci, who reportedly earns $60,000 per season, however adds that choosing to walk away from the
fame show would be a very difficult decision because it has allowed her to provide for her son. "Without the show, I would have had to have a full-time job and be in school full-time, and I'd rarely get to spend time with Bentley," Maci says. "It's been difficult, but it's also been a big blessing."
As for the moment, Maci assures us Bentley's not being affected by the show in any negative way. "He actually enjoys it," she confesses. "Bentley thinks it's cool to watch himself on TV and to have cameras around."
In other Teen Mom news, Catelynn Lowell, you know, the one that sort of has it together and therefore no one really talks about her, is making recent headlines. The reason? It all has to do with an eviction.
According to TMZ Catelynn and her boyfriend Tyler Baltierra, who were shown moving into their 1st apartment together on the MTV show, were evicted from the same apartment for failing to pay rent! The 19-year-olds signed a lease on the apartment in Marine City, Michigan, in August, 2010 with court documents showing they stopped paying rent in December, 2010.
This caused their landlord to give them an eviction notice while also taking them to court. The landlord ending up winning big as the two had to give up their $450.00 security deposit, in addition to paying an additional $450 in back rent and moving out of the building.
The two of course did what any other 19-year-olds would do by taking to their twitter pages to give their side. "The landlord was an idiot and didn't fix anything I payed [sic] every month that I lived there," Catelynn tweeted. Tyler added, "Ok everyone I did not get evicted, I left bcuz the landlord was a lazy unprofessional man of business, and I refuse to put with it FYI." Guess we'll have to wait and see if the eviction drama makes the show.
A new episode of Teen Mom airs tonight on MTV at 10/9c.


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In the two weeks since Maine voters approved a law allowing same-sex marriage, Clay Hill Farm has been getting phone calls and emails from gay couples inquiring about open dates and wedding packages at the restaurant and wildlife sanctuary, a popular wedding spot in York.
The law won�t go into effect for more than six weeks, but already couples from in and out of state have called, said Jennifer Lewis-McShera, who heads the wedding department there.
Clay Hill Farm puts on dozens of wedding ceremonies a year, as well as receptions and rehearsal dinners, and provides catering services to wedding parties at other locations. Legalizing same-sex marriage can only help, Lewis-McShera said.
�It will increase business in this area because we�ll attract more couples from Boston and the New York metropolitan area who now can have the wedding of their dreams in Maine,� she said. �This puts Maine on the map.�
Add the coast of Maine, the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and the shores of Lake Washington to gay wedding destinations. Next month and in January, laws go into effect in Maine, Maryland and Washington that allow same-sex marriage. They�re the first states where voters approved such laws, rather than legislators or courts.
Nearly 18,000 same-sex couples in those states will exchange vows in the first three years after the new laws are in effect, estimated The Williams Institute, a national think tank at the UCLA School of Law, and the laws should generate at least $166 million in wedding spending in the three states over the next three years from in-state couples alone, boosting tax revenues and creating new jobs.
Wedding-related spending for in-state couples is projected be about $16 million in Maine, $63 million in Maryland and $89 million in Washington.
The numbers go up when figuring in out-of-staters who travel to those states to be wed. In Maine, for instance, the new law could boost the state economy by $25 million and create up to 250 new jobs in the coming three years, said Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute and an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts.
So many people have ties to Maine through vacations, summer camps while growing up or seasonal homes, said Portland wedding planner Diane York. �Now Maine will be able to make its case: This is beautiful, you should come here to get married,� Badgett said.
The average cost for a wedding nationally is about $27,000, and about $2,000 less in Maine, York said.
Other states that have legalized gay marriage have benefited economically as a result.


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Dr. Theodore Delbridge has been named the first Distinguished Professor in Emergency Medicine. Delbridge, a physician, is professor and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the medical school. The professorship was created through contributions of $333,000 matched by $167,000 from the state's Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund. The funds will be used for faculty recruitment and retention and other special projects as determined by Delbridge.
Dr, Charles Hodson, a reproductive physiologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been named the first D.E. Darnell Jones, MD, Endowed Professor for Residency Education. That chair was also created by $350,000 in contributions matched by $167,000 in state funds. Hodson will use interest generated by the money to further resident physician education in the department. The chair is named for the longtime chairman of OB/GYN, who retired in 2005.
The Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund was established in 1985 by the North Carolina General Assembly to enable each constituent institution of the UNC system to receive and match challenge grants to create endowed chairs for selected distinguished professors. It provides matching grants of $1 in state money for every $2 in private funds.
ECU has 30 professorships endowed through the fund, nine in the Division of Health Sciences, which includes the Brody School of Medicine. The ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation is raising funds for three more endowed professorships in the division.
Doug Boyd
| 252-744-2482


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Charles "Chuck" Skorupa
Charles "Chuck" Skorupa, 86, of East Conrad, passed away peacefully of natural causes the afternoon of Sept. 8 at Pondera Medical Center with family at his side.
Chuck, sixth of nine children, was born June 6, 1927 to John and Anna Cisak Skorupa in Bridger. Chuck grew up working on the Skorupa family farm in Bridger where he began shaping his strong work ethic. Growing up in his time required a lot of hard work and was usually done by hand and often by lantern or candle. Horses were the technology and he began riding at an early age. Many broken bones were acquired over the years by breaking and training his horses, some for others and the occasional mishap on a hunting trip.
Chuck graduated from Bridger High School in 1947. He was a good student and very sports minded, participating and winning awards in football, basketball and track. He was the only student his junior year to letter in track. Chuck was heavily involved in Future Farmers of America (FFA), enhancing his skills for his future. In FFA he won many awards, often for his animals even though his sisters did much of the grooming.
Chuck began farming and ranching on his own in 1950, beginning with leasing a farm in Bridger. In 1955 he sold his farming equipment and livestock and moved to Conrad, initially leasing the Berland farm in 1955 that he would later purchase and raise his family on. In 1963 he purchased a dry land farm west of Conrad which he later sold in 1971 to purchase another farm closer to his farmstead. In 1971 he began erecting grain bins across his land ending with nearly fifty.
In 1963 he married Valda Jean (Summer) Hicks. They lived on the farm east of Conrad where they raised their son, Robert Charles Skorupa (Brady). His son, Robert, worked with him on the farm beginning at an early age. His step-children, Dennis Hicks (Conrad) and Diana Childers (Ventura, Calif.) brought great enjoyment to his life.
The skills Chuck developed as a young child was well polished and apparent by his pronounced stewardship on his farm. No weed stood a chance. If a weed was within his line of sight you could consider it pulled. Many hours of many days passed with Chuck working diligently to do his best. Preferring not to be known as a hard worker, he enjoyed the benefits of his labors, to him it was not work but simply the necessity of what needed to be done. Strong body and mind are two characteristics he embodied and relied upon throughout each day.
Chuck "lived to dance". He loved a variety of music with big band being his passion. It wasn't surprising to see him dancing in the kitchen while cooking breakfast or even out in the field while working. No radio needed to be on; he would whistle and hum songs aloud.
Chuck was an avid outdoorsman enjoying hunting and pack trips. He also enjoyed protecting his crops and animals from local predators. These hunting adventures around the farm usually involved his faithful four-legged companion who would retrieve on command. A special enjoyment of his was his early 1900s Yellowstone Park tour bus that was converted to a grain truck. Giving family and friends a "bus ride" around the farm or driving it in a parade brought a big smile to his face.
Chuck found pleasure in many things in life. He was involved with the East Slope Back Country Horseman, Montana Draft Horse and Mule Pulling Association, Montana Farm Bureau Federation, MOOSE and ELKS. A great passion was his membership and involvement with the National Farmer's Organization (NFO). The NFO taught him several respectable farming practices and broadened his philosophy of agriculture. Chuck held a strong bond with the people in the NFO who helped him over the years. He valued his relationship with them, looking upon each person as a friend.
In his later years, Chuck never stopped moving. He enjoyed several trips around the world, one finding him in Japan drinking Saki, another leading him to kissing the Blarney Stone, another to bungee jumping in California in his 70s, one to the beaches of Hawaii and another taking him on a two week cruise where he danced every night. Turning back to the importance of his heritage and to his heart, Chuck purchased the Skorupa family farm in Bridger in 1998 when his brother retired from farming it to ensure it would stay in the family.
Chuck was preceded in death by his wife; his parents; and three brothers, Walter, John, and Albert.
He is survived by his son, Robert; step-son, Dennis; step-daughter, Diana; brother, Bill Skorupa (Marion) of Bridger; and sisters, Helen Thompson (Archie) of Silverdale, Wash., Alice Peterson (Richard) of Casper, Wyo., Mary Bond (Allen) of Billings and Florence Vacura (Joe) of Kalispell; many cousins, nieces, nephews and their families.
The family wishes to acknowledge and thank the extremely skilled and compassionate care Chuck received from the nurses, hospital staff, hospice and his physician, Dr. Grena. The family also wishes to thank all of the friends for their support, visits, and prayers.
Chuck touched the lives of many people over the years and he will be forever in our hearts. At his request, a celebration of life will be held at a later date.
Memorials can be made to an association of your choice. Pondera Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. Condolences can be made to www.misermortuaries.com .


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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Five non-editorial employees of a newspaper in northern Mexico were kidnapped but released within a few hours, the company said in an editorial posted on its website Friday. It complained there is a lack of security for news workers in the violence-plagued region around the city of Torreon.
The newspaper Siglo de Torreon, in the state of Coahuila, said abductors took two people who operated its online services, two employees of the advertising department and one administrative employee. It said the workers were released early Friday, but that for security reasons, it would not give any further details on the incident.
Mexican newspapers and journalists have been subject to frequent attacks in areas where drug cartels are battling for control of key regions and seek to dictate news coverage. Torreon is a city where authorities say increasing violence is a product of a turf war between the Zetas and Sinaloa cartels.
An official at the Coahuila state prosecutor's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said authorities were investigating the kidnapping of Siglo de Torreon's workers but had no suspects. He said the five employees apparently were taken from different locations.
Siglo de Torreon's offices have been attacked by gunmen twice since 2009. No one was hurt in either incident, but the newspaper decided after the first shooting to stop identifying drug gangs in their stories and to end investigative journalism.
A press freedom group said the abduction of non-journalists was a new and worrisome trend and drug cartels seemed to be behind it.
Juan Carlos Romero, officer for freedom of expression in Mexico's chapter of the London-based Article 19 group, said it had received reports from news companies that drug-trafficking groups are looking to spread their threat by targeting all media employees. He said the news companies had chosen not to make the threats public.
"Before, you would kidnap a reporter of the crime beat, (or) an editor, and you would tell them what to publish," Romero said. "Nowadays, it's not necessary to take reporters. You target employees outside the editorial section, like in this case, and you can still dictate what to write to a news organization."
Siglo de Torreon acknowledged in its editorial that it was frightening to learn that not only journalists are in danger now, but anyone working for a media company.
"What happened Thursday night is alarming because it exposes a new threat for the media, because those kidnapped were not editorial employees," the newspaper said.


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Timberwolves finalize training camp rosterPosted by Inside Hoops
Sep 29
The Minnesota Timberwolves today finalized the team's 2012-13 training camp roster by signing unrestricted free agents Will Conroy, Mike Harris, Chris Johnson, Phil Jones, Seth Tarver and Jermaine Taylor. Today's signings complete the Wolves training camp roster, which stands at 20 players. Minnesota's training camp is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 2 - Friday, Oct. 5.
Taylor, a 6-4 guard, has played parts of two seasons for the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings. He spent the 2009-10 season in Houston, averaging 4.1 points in 31 contests, including four starts. He started the 2010-11 season with the Rockets before finishing it with the Kings. In 26 games, eight starts, with Sacramento, Taylor averaged 7.1 points in 15.6 minutes. Taylor was originally drafted by the Washington Wizards with the 32nd pick in the 2009 NBA Draft after completing his collegiate career at Central Florida.
Conroy, a 6-2 guard, has played parts of two seasons in the NBA, most recently appearing in five games for the Houston Rockets in 2009-10 where he averaged 1.2 points and 1.4 assists. Conroy played for the Memphis Grizzlies (three games) and Los Angeles Clippers (four games) during the 2006-07 season. Conroy went undrafted in 2005 after a four-year career at the University of Washington where he became the school's all-time assist leader with 515 assists.
Harris, a 6-6 forward, has spent parts of three seasons (2007-08; 2009-10; 2010-11) with two different NBA teams, playing for the Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets. Harris most recently averaged 2.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in four games with Houston during the 2010-11 season. In 34 career NBA games, he has averages of 2.9 points and 2.4 rebounds. Harris was on the Wolves' 2012 Summer League entry, averaging 9.6 points and 6.6 rebounds. Harris finished his collegiate career as the fourth player in WAC history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, leaving as Rice University's all-time leading scorer (2,014 points, ninth all-time in the WAC) and rebounder (1,111 rebounds, fourth).
Johnson, a 6-11 center, has played parts of two NBA seasons with Boston, Portland and New Orleans. Johnson started the 2011-12 season with Portland, averaging 1.6 points and 0.9 rebounds in 20 contests. He finished the season in New Orleans where he averaged 3.3 points and 3.1 rebounds in seven contests. In 41 career games, he holds averages of 2.1 points and 1.5 rebounds. Johnson was named the 2011 NBA D-League Defensive Player of the Year, earning a spot in the All-Star Game. He averaged 16.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.8 blocks during the 2010-11 season for the Dakota Wizards. Johnson spent his collegiate years at Louisiana State University. He went undrafted in the 2009 NBA Draft.
Jones, a 6-10 forward/center, has played overseas for the past two years after playing collegiately at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has made stops in Uruguay, Brussels and spent the past season in Romania. A U.S. Virgin Islands National Team member, Jones played at the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship, averaging 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in four games.
Tarver, a 6-5 guard, has spent the last two seasons with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA D-League. Tarver averaged 11.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 45 contests last season. Tarver went undrafted in 2010 after a four-year collegiate career at Oregon State.


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BLOG: VMware co-founder and former CEO Diane Greene working on a new stealth project
If you thought virtualization enthusiasts had forgotten about the name Diane Greene, the ex-CEO and co-founder of VMware, you thought wrong. It's been five years since Greene was abruptly removed from power and dethroned as the CEO of VMware, but the name still rings true with VMware users.
For those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, you might remember the commercials from the financial world with the famous slogan, "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen." Decades later, for those of us in the virtualization world, we know that when Diane Greene's name is mentioned, people listen.
After starting a company in 1998 that ultimately caused a swarm of data center administrators to brand their cars, computers, and bodies with the VMware logo, Greene still has a cultlike virtualization following that is waiting to see "what's next" from this technologist. She's been out of the limelight for the past five years, and people have been anxiously awaiting to see if she has something new and innovative up her sleeve. In essence, people are waiting for the next big idea.
The latest rumor started last month when Diane Greene's name was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article talking about Cumulus Networks emerging from stealth mode. The company announced $15 million in venture capital funding, part of which came from the investment of Diane Greene who said she invested "because of the disruptive nature of the company."
But the line within that article that really caught the attention of virtualization reporters was when Greene told the Wall Street Journal that she needed a solution like Cumulus to provide "a switch and a scalable data center for her own new project."
Just like that, four tiny little words — "her own new project" — caused quite a stir.
Since being ousted as CEO of VMware back in July 2008, Greene has remained fairly quiet. Prior to her tenure at VMware, Greene held technical leadership positions at Silicon Graphics, Tandem Computers, and Sybase; she was also the CEO of VXtreme. Since her departure from VMware, Greene has become an active angel investor, reportedly providing investments to companies such as Cloudera, CloudPhysics, Cumulus Networks, Nicira, Nimbula, Pure Storage, Typesafe, and Unity Technologies. She's also on the board of Intuit, and more recently Greene joined the Google board of directors in January 2012.
Now, it sounds like Greene is ready to get back in the game, no longer satisfied with sitting on the sidelines as an investor.
Rumors first began circulating that Greene was about to target storage giant EMC with a new Silicon Valley-based storage virtualization company coming out of stealth mode called Datrium Storage. The rumor spread quickly without any solid facts, instead powered by calls for karma.
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text:
Category talk:Community
From Openembedded.org
I would like to see OE taking an official stand that the project expects its members to treat each other with decency and respect. I think the ground rules from the Ubuntu code of conduct really nail this issue right on the head. I see this as a prerequisite to a growing community that people enjoy being a part of. --Laibsch 11:38, 28 September 2008 (UTC)


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Recapture youthful looking skin with Paula's Choice CLINICAL 1% Retinol Treatment, an anti-ageing formula that works to firm the skin and improve several signs of ageing.
Fortified with 1% retinol and a blend of beneficial antioxidants, the treatment gets to work on ageing skin, absorbing quickly to instantly refine enlarged pores, smooth out deep wrinkles and fine lines, and eliminate brown spots. Its advanced, lightweight formula improves skin elasticity and helps correct pigmentation from old blemishes, whilst added liquorice and oat extract minimise irritation that some people experience with retinol-infused products.
After use, skin will feel refined, radiant and younger looking. - K.N.
Suitable for all skin types.
Non-irritating and 100% fragrance free. No added dyes. Not tested on animals.


text:
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A key U.N. committee voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for a resolution strongly condemning "gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms" by Syrian authorities and government-controlled militias and demanding an immediate halt to the violations and attacks against civilians.
The resolution urges Syrian authorities to immediately release all detainees and calls for a prompt independent international investigation into abuses and violations of international law with a view to bringing to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other crimes.
The General Assembly's human rights committee approved the resolution by a vote of 130-12 with 35 abstentions. Russia, China and Iran, key allies of President Bashar Assad's government, were among the countries voting "no."
The resolution is virtually certain to be adopted by the 193-member world body when it votes next month. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion and carry moral and political weight.
The resolution makes no mention of opposition forces but does express "grave concern at the escalation of violence" in the country. It singles out the Syrian government for failing to protect its people.
The resolution condemns the continuing widespread rights violations by Syrian authorities and the "shabbiha" militias, citing the aerial bombing of civilians, massacres, arbitrary executions, torture, sexual violence, use of heavy weapons and the killing and persecution of protesters, human rights defenders and journalists.
It also strongly condemns "intentional and repeated attacks against medical facilities, personnel and vehicles" and the use of hospitals and medical facilities "for armed purposes."
The resolution stresses the General Assembly's support for the Syrian people's aspirations for a peaceful, democratic and pluralistic society and expresses deep concern at the failure to implement a six-point plan to end the 19-month conflict drafted by former U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
Syria has refused to cooperate with a commission of inquiry into rights abuses authorized by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. The resolution demands that Syria provide immediate access to its members.


text:
The body of a man who held a 5-year-old boy hostage for nearly a week before dying in a shootout with the FBI has finally been removed from his underground bunker in Alabama.
FBI spokesman Jason Pack says the body was removed Wednesday night, after agents determined there were no other explosives on the property besides those that were discovered in a PVC pipe leading into the bunker and inside the bunker itself.
An autopsy was planned for Thursday. Dale County Coroner Woodrow Hilboldt has said it will be performed at the state forensic laboratory in Montgomery.
FBI agent Paul Bresson said Wednesday that since additional explosives have been ruled out, evidence-collection and review teams have begun sifting through the crime scene.


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text:
16 U.S. Code § 831dd - Liberal construction of chapter; sale of surplus lands
This chapter shall be liberally construed to carry out the purposes of Congress to provide for the disposition of and make needful rules and regulations respecting Government properties entrusted to the Authority, provide for the national defense, improve navigation, control destructive floods, and promote interstate commerce and the general welfare, but no real estate shall be held except what is necessary in the opinion of the Board to carry out plans and projects actually decided upon requiring the use of such land: Provided, That any land purchased by the Authority and not necessary to carry out plans and projects actually decided upon shall be sold by the Authority as agent of the United States, after due advertisement, at public auction to the highest bidder.
As originally enacted, the last sentence of this section contained, at the end thereof, the words "or at private sale as provided in section 3 of this amendatory Act." Section 3 of the amendatory act of Aug. 31, 1935, added subsec. (k) to section 831c of this title.
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


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RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Residents in the Black Hills were navigating through a sloppy mess Sunday after warmer temperatures began melting record-setting snowfall, leaving standing water on plowed roads rather than making its way through drainage systems.
Law enforcement officials shifted their focus to recovery after having caught up with a backlog of emergency calls from the weekend storm that dumped 4 feet of snow near Deadwood and 3.5 feet near Lead. No fatalities were reported as a result of the bad weather.
"We're even Steven. We don't have 911 calls holding at this point," Rapid City-Pennington County emergency manager Dustin Willett said Sunday. "Most of our life safety missions have been completed and as we start out today, it's going to move to snow removal, debris removal and power restoration."
An estimated 5,000 people in the county were still without power, Willett said, down from more than 25,000 in the area on Saturday.
Temperatures rose several degrees Sunday, which led some people to venture out even though many roads had not been plowed. Some motorists were still getting stuck Sunday and impeding recovery efforts, Rapid City spokeswoman Tara Heupel said.
Willett said the melt from the "impressive drifts and ridiculous amounts of snow" was causing a "slushy watery quagmire," partly because the snow buildup on plowed highways was creating channels and making it difficult for the drainage system to work normally. However, Rapid Creek wasn't expected to flood.
"Is the creek going to be up? Absolutely. Is the creek going to be in an action stage or flood stage? Probably not," Willett said.
Dave Barber, National Weather Service meteorologist in Rapid City, said most flooding problems from snowmelt occur when the ground is frozen — that isn't the case with this storm.
"In this part of the state, it's been not real dry but relatively dry," he said. "So, stock dams and small ponds are, if not dry, at least low and have capacity to absorb a good bit of water that does run off."
Reports of 20 or more inches of snow were common throughout the Black Hills. Barber said the 21½ inches in Rapid City were a record for both a 24-hour period in October and the entire month.
"There was a lot of water vapor present on the east side of the system that got pulled around as the storm developed," Barber said. "It slowed down and did so in the right spot for western South Dakota to get clobbered."
Authorities used snowmobiles to help rescue some motorists Saturday. The storm closed many highways, including Interstate 90, which reopened Sunday after workers spent most of the day clearing it from Murdo to the Wyoming border.
"At least we're beyond the phase where as soon as the plows go through, the road gets closed behind them because of blowing snow," Barber said. "That's what they were fighting Saturday, at least early in the day."
Wind gusts of more than 70 mph were reported around the Rapid City area, resulting in downed trees and branches. City officials on Sunday told residents to leave tree branches and debris on their property until drop-off sites could be prepared.
The Red Cross had 35 people at a shelter in a Rapid City high school Saturday night, including four residents who were displaced by a house fire, said Michelle Lewis, Red Cross spokeswoman. Volunteers from South Dakota and North Dakota were scheduled to arrive Monday with supplies and equipment, she said.
Sunday is expected to be sunny with his in the 40s — perhaps low 50s — in most of the Black Hills region.
"If there wasn't a whole lot of snow on the ground it would be an absolutely beautiful Sunday," Willett said.


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Jun 09, 2018 Jim Franco
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4 hours ago
Tonight's schedule at the #EmpireStatePlaza ⬇ ... See MoreSee Less
The pies are in!! Pie eating contest presented by Golden Harvest Farms at 8p on the West Patio! 🥧🍴
Empire State Plaza Events added 4 new photos.
7 hours ago
#EmpireStatePlaza Farmers Market until 2p #shoplocal 🍓🍑🌾 ... See MoreSee Less
Capital District Transportation Authority - CDTA
7 hours ago
Congratulations to this month's winner of a monthly Navigator pass! Take our survey and you could be next! goo.gl/KaSrwF ... See MoreSee Less
9 hours ago
📣#UPDATED Schedule for Hops & Harvest Festival tonight 9/19 | 7:30p - 10:00p📣
-7:30p The Lonely Heartstring Band
-8:00p Honeysuckle
-8:30p The Infamous Stringdusters
More information at: ow.ly/6tLl30lSUsP ... See MoreSee Less
Visit the Empire State Plaza and New York State CapitolThe Hops and Harvest Festival features the best of fall in Upstate New York with activities like a pie eating contest presented by Golden Harvest Farms, hops demonstration, food vendors, music, and mo...
NOTE: Empire State Plaza Events and sorry to Vendors: due to the change in times we will only be attending for music and will be supporting other food and drink establishments leading up to 7:30. You have lost the dinner crowd.
Erica Leigh levon Tim Jessica Houle... anyone want to go for some fall hops!?!?
Capital District Transportation Authority - CDTA shared Two Buttons Deep's Upstate Old School - Saratoga Automobile Museum.
9 hours ago
Two Buttons Deep
Vic visits the Saratoga Automobile Museum for a tour of their historic facility, and to see what's in store for the Saratoga Auto Auction on September 21 and 22 where over 300 classic cars will be auctioned off, including a 1966 Batmobile replica.
SHARE this video for a chance to win 2 tickets to the event.
Driven by Capital District Transportation Authority - CDTA
Video produced by Jack Carpenter
cc: Vic Christopher Saratoga Auto Auction 2018 Saratoga Performing Arts Center Relentless Awareness ... See MoreSee Less
Capital District Transportation Authority - CDTA is there anyone working in your radio department? Was transferred to that department from the lost and found department but there was no answer and my daughter ended up forgetting her favorite stuffed kitten on the bus
10 hours ago
Kinderhook Bank employees volunteered to serve lunch at the Montgomery County Office For Aging's Annual Senior Picnic last week to over 300 seniors and they also had fun assisting with the BINGO games! (L-R: Kim Roberts, Angela Baker, Toni Zidich, AVP & Branch Managers and Gloria Pickering, VP Operations. Carl Marucci (MCOFA Board Member) and Nancy Nigro (KB retiree) also volunteered but missed the picture :) #TeamKINDerhookbank #petfriendlypeoplefriendly ... See MoreSee Less
Kinderhook Bank shared East Greenbush Community Library's post.
11 hours ago
Mark Your Calendars for these upcoming events! 9/19 Farmers' Market, 4-7pm - Mort's Maple & NY Connects Resource Fair. Children's Festival/Book Sale 9/22, Children's Book Sale 9/23. Flu shot clinics 9/26 (at Market), 10/3 (at Market) & 10/6 (in library). Prescription Drug Drop 9/29 (in library). Visit: events.eastgreenbushlibrary.org for complete listing of all library events. ... See MoreSee Less
23 hours ago
In observance of Yom Kippur, OGS will begin the Hops and Harvest event at 7:30 p.m. on September 19. ... See MoreSee Less
Empire Hops & Harvest Festival YOU ARE JOKING RIGHT? In less than 24 hours you announce you are going to delay the start of an event and impact vendors and businesses who are expecting crowds at 5 pm, when work gets out? I am all for people who need to observe a religious day, and totally respect their faith, but this is illogical. Yom kippur has been on the calendar for hundreds of years. People who were planning in vending, attending, and performing, would have checked this calendar and made a decisions well in advance. however all those planning on vending the event, performing and attending the event wetr in board (and I am sure they respect those who are observing)...both the event and Yom Kippur have been on the calendar for several months if not hundreds of years. People made arrangements for this event to vend and/or attend. Many people planned to attend after work and get home at a reasonable time. The loss of money and supplies may be great and I hope vendors take legal action if you choose to pursue this. change of time. Let those who observe observe, and those who don't observe should continue on and attend as scheduled. Those observing are not likely coming to a hops and harvest fest at nightfall. Be sensible and logical. Seriously, have people given this any serious thought in terms of the financial impact of the vendors who paid permits to be there? Its not like this was planned yesterday. Why is this coming out of the blue less than 24 hours before the event? All Government offices aren't closed tomorrow, a handful of schools are closed but not all, banks are open, post office is open, colleges have classes. Those who observe, get time off. What is REALLY going on here and why would you choose to impact so many who aren't in the Jewish faith?
It's usually been a hard stop at 9:00. how are you gonna pull off 3 bands in 1.5 hours???. I have been lookIng forward to (and promoting) THIS EVENT for three - four months. Perhaps those who observe can be content to forego the opening bands and arrive for the headliners. WIN WIN!
Capital District Transportation Authority - CDTA shared Two Buttons Deep's Oh The Places You Can Go On A CDPHP Cycle.
1 day ago
What a great video of our friends at Two Buttons Deep trying out the CDPHP Cycle bikes! Check it out!
Two Buttons Deep
Jack and the Troy Innovation Garage crew set out via bikes to see a few of the sights and sounds of the Capital Region.
cc: Capital District Transportation Authority - CDTA CDPHP Troy, New York Downtown Troy Business Improvement District Lansingburgh Historical Society Waterford Harbor Farmers Market Tom Nardacci CDPHP Cycle Cohoes News ... See MoreSee Less
1 day ago
You may feel like a broken record telling your kids to wash their hands all the time, but with school back in session and flu season nearing, washing your hands is really the best defense against cold and flu germs! bit.ly/2jAPjGz ... See MoreSee Less


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(15 Days - Departs Daily on a Private Basis)
Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Baden-Baden, Zurich, Lausanne
This is the ultimate private luxury tour of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Enjoy flexible private touring of the most interesting cultural attractions and scenic destinations, including the magnificent Austrian and Bavarian Alps; charming villages along the Romantic Road, in the Black Forest and along the Danube; historic castles and palaces; fantastic museums and art galleries in Vienna, Basel and Zurich; the Baroque splendor of Salzburg's old town; visits to luxury car factories and museums in Munich and Stuttgart; the best local shops and restaurants; and time in Germany's finest spa town. Visits to breweries and wineries will also be arranged if desired. Accommodation is at the most luxurious hotels in the region.
Begin in Vienna. During private touring, your expert local guide will take you to the most important palaces and museums, interesting neighborhoods, Viennese cafes and open-air markets, and help you navigate the overwhelming wealth of spectacular art, architecture and history in this former imperial capital. Visit the Spanish Riding School to see the Lipizzaner Stallions during a training session. See the highlights of world-renowned palaces and museums such as the MuseumsQuartier, Kunsthistorisches, Albertina, Liechtenstein, and Schönbrunn Palace. Tour architectural monuments that exemplify the best in Vienna's Gothic, Baroque and Secessionist styles. Visit our favorite shops selling exquisite linens, crystal, chocolates, gourmet foods and antiques. Visit up-and-coming neighborhoods known for their designers and chefs. Taste local culinary specialties at our favorite stalls in the enormous Naschmarkt food market. We'll also ensure you have opportunities to visit Vienna's leading coffee houses.
Transfer to Salzburg, opting to visit the Hallein salt mine or the wine-growing region of Wachau en route. In Salzburg, tour major cultural highlights such as the Cathedral, Mozart's birthplace, and sites related to The Sound of Music, such as the Mirabell Palace and Gardens. Walk down Getreidegasse, Salzburg's most famous shopping street, and visit select boutiques specializing in local products such as trachten fabric, loden coats, pewterware, Christmas decorations, gilded glass (verre eglomise), and of course Mozartkugel chocolate pralines. Also enjoy a short private excursion through the Salzkammergut, a stunning region of mountains and lakes in the Austrian Alps, for a cruise on Lake Wolfgang and to visit more Sound of Music sites.
Next, you'll be driven into Germany, through the beautiful Bavarian countryside, to visit Neuschwanstein, the fairytale castle built in the 19th century for King Ludwig II. The model for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle, Neuschwanstein is a romantic vision of towers and turrets that rises out of a rocky hilltop and offers panoramic views of surrounding mountains, lakes and farmland.
Spend three nights in Munich, the dynamic capital of Bavaria. Explore the Old Town during a flexible private tour. See the famed Glockenspiel and watch its life-size mechanical figures dance and joust. Stroll interesting shopping streets and squares, and browse the Viktualienmarkt outdoor food market. Visit the Frauenkirche—the symbol of the city—and the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, if desired. Other touring options include the Residenz (the former royal palace) or the Alte Pinakothek art museum. Also enjoy a private tour of the BMW factory and museum or of the Nymphenburg porcelain factory.
Transfer to Baden-Baden, an elegant spa town in the Black Forest, for three nights at an elegant hotel with a renowned spa and extensive grounds. One day, enjoy a private excursion into nearby Alsace (in France) to visit charming towns such as Strasbourg and/or Colmar and local wineries. During free time in Baden-Baden, enjoy the hotel's many facilities, including a renowned spa and excellent restaurants. Also explore the town's beautiful parks, quaint shops, and excellent museums such as the Museum Frieder Burda.
Continue to Switzerland and drive through the scenic Black Forest, stopping as desired in towns such as Triberg and Titisee—both known for cuckoo clock production—or Freiburg, a renowned university town. Alternatively, stop in Basel, home to dozens of excellent museums and one of the world's most important contemporary art fairs.
Spend two nights in Zurich, a city of renowned art and architecture. During private touring with your local expert guide, see highlights such as the Old Town, Kunsthaus, Landesmuseum (Swiss National Museum), the Centre Le Corbusier-Heidi Weber Museum, and churches with stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall and Sigmar Polke. Alternatively, Artisans of Leisure can arrange a private excursion to see the highlights of nearby towns, such as the Oskar Reinhart Museum in Winterthur or the UNESCO-inscribed abbey and library in St. Gallen.
Next, you will be transferred to Lausanne. En route, stop in Bern, the capital of Switzerland and one of its prettiest cities, and enjoy a private tour of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Old Town. Alternatively, visit Lucerne, a picture-perfect Swiss town on the shore of Lake Lucerne, to explore the highlights of the Old Town and, if desired, also visit the Swiss Transport Museum.
Continue to Lausanne and the beautiful Lake Geneva region for two nights at one of Switzerland's most luxurious lakeside resort hotels. During private touring, take an excursion into the surrounding countryside. Visit the Lavaux wine region, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of 800-year-old terraced vineyards that skirt the edge of Lake Geneva and offer dramatic views of the Alps. Taste Chasselas and other delicious local varietals in Lavaux cellars, and perhaps enjoy a gourmet meal at one of the finest restaurants in Switzerland. Also, tour Chateau de Chillon—Switzerland's most interesting castle—which sits on a small island in Lake Geneva and offers evocative insights into the daily life of medieval aristocracy.
|Itinerary Overview


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A downloadable zip file is available for this article.
Let's add one more piece of functionality to the CelebrityCollector application. Say we want to select a "celebrity of the week." This will cause one of the celebrities in our collection to have his or her name displayed on the home page of the application.
One of the ways we can do this is by having a drop-down list with celebrities' names somewhere in the application, and a button that will assign a selected celebrity to be the "celebrity of the week," something like this:
And here is a mock up for this piece of the user interface:

Select a Celebrity of the Week:

<form action="">
<option value="1">Angelina Jolie</option>
<option value="2">Bill Gates</option>
<input type="submit" value="Save"/>
I suggest placing this bit at the CelebritiesList page, just under the table. At a later stage we might add a special Admin page and move it there.
Let me briefly remind you how the HTML <select> element works. It has a number of <option> child elements that provide the options available in the drop-down list. The text inside an option, such as "Bill Gates" serves as a label for that option; this is exactly what the user sees.
The value attribute is optional. If it is not provided, the label will be used as the value for that option.
When the form containing the <select> is submitted, it is the value of the selected option which gets reported to the server. For instance, in the example above, if the user selected Angelina Jolie, what gets submitted to the server is the value "1."
On the server side we'll have a property of the page class, and we're going to store the celebrity, selected by the user, into that property. So on one hand we have the value "1" arriving from the user, and on the other hand we have a page property of the Celebrity type in which we are going to put the result of the selection. You can see a significant gap which we'll need to fill in with some code converting the "1" into a Celebrity object filled with information on Angelina Jolie.
There is also another task at hand. We have a List filled with Celebrity objects on the server side, but on the client side we want to have a <select> with values and labels of its options properly filled in. That's another piece of code to write. And every time we'll want the user to select a Celebrity, we'll have to write some code to enable this functionality, more or less the same code again and again. Wouldn't it be great to delegate this work to a component?
{mospagebreak title=Configuring PropertySelection}
As you already know, the component used to do this kind of job in Tapestry is PropertySelection. Let's configure it in the CelebritiesList page. Here is the addition to the template:
<form action="" jwcid="@Form">
<select jwcid="selectCelebrity">
<option value="1">Angelina Jolie</option>
<option value="2">Bill Gates</option>
<input type="submit" value="Save"/>
Let's add a property to store the selected celebrity in the page class. We want some other page to be able to display the selected celebrity afterward, so it will be an ASO:
public abstract Celebrity getCelebrityOfTheWeek();
You already know how to configure an ASO in hivemodule.xml, but here is the addition, just to help you:
<contribution configuration-id="tapestry.state.ApplicationObjects">
<state-object name="celebrityOfTheWeek" scope="session">
Finally, we need to configure the component in the page specification:
<component id="selectCelebrity" type="PropertySelection">
<binding name="model" value="celebrityModel"/>
<binding name="value" value="celebrityOfTheWeek"/>
The last piece of configuration is to provide a model, which should be an implementation of the IPropertySelectionModel interface. We don't have a proper model yet, so let's just return a null:
public IPropertySelectionModel getCelebrityModel() {
return null;
This will not work however as we need to return a real model. To summarize what we have already done, you can see that the PropertySelection component per se is quite simple, it doesn't take much effort to configure. It is the model that requires the most thought this collaboration, and we do need to write some code to implement it.
{mospagebreak title=Working on the Model}
Let's begin by creating a new class, CelebrityModel, and let it implement the IPropertySelection interface:
public class CelebrityModel implements IPropertySelectionModel {
/** Creates a new instance of CelebrityModel */
public CelebrityModel() {
At first, NetBeans will not recognize the interface, but press Alt-Shift-F, and it will add an appropriate import statement automatically. Now NetBeans will complain that the class doesn't implement the methods of the interface, and there will be a little bulb to the left of the underlined line of code. Click that bulb, and the IDE will suggest adding the required methods. Let it do so, and you will see that five methods were added to the new class. We need to slightly modify the code to get rid of red underlining. Make it look like so:
public class CelebrityModel implements IPropertySelectionModel {
public CelebrityModel() {
public int getOptionCount() {
return 0;
public Object getOption(int i) {
return null;
public String getLabel(int i) {
return null;
public String getValue(int i) {
return null;
public Object translateValue(String value) {
return null;
Now let's modify this code to make it work with our celebrities, and learn what different methods do along the way.
First of all, we need to pass our list of celebrities to the model. This is convenient to do in the constructor. Add a private List property and modify the constructor to look like this:
private List celebrities;
public CelebrityModel(List celebrities) {
this.celebrities = celebrities;
Now let me tell you about the getOptionCount(() method. It serves to tell the PropertySelection how many options it is going to display. All we need to do is return the size of the list of celebrities:
public int getOptionCount() {
return celebrities.size();
The next method, getOption(int i), takes the index of an option and returns the object corresponding to this index. Say we've told PropertySelection in the previous method that there are four options to display. It will number them, starting from zero: 0, 1, 2, 3. Now it asks the model: which Celebrity object corresponds to, say, option 2? We can answer this question easily:
public Object getOption(int i) {
return celebrities.get(i);
The next method, getLabel(int i), is equally simple. It answers a PropertySelection's question like "What should be the label for option number 0?" Say we want to display the full names of celebrities as labels, in which case the answer will be:
public String getLabel(int i) {
Celebrity c = (Celebrity) celebrities.get(i);
return c.getFirstName() + " " + c.getLastName();
The next method, getValue(), answers a question like "What should contain the value attribute for option number 3?" The simplest possible approach is to use the index itself as a value — just convert it into String:
public String getValue(int i) {
return Integer.toString(i);
The final method, translateValue(), will work when the user has made some selection and submitted the form. His or her choice will arrive at the server as the contents of the value attribute of the selected option. As we have specified in the previous method, this is going to be a string representation of the option's index, like "0," or "1," or "2." The translateValue() method should define how to find the appropriate Celebrity object using the submitted value, which is quite simple in our case:
public Object translateValue(String value) {
int index = Integer.parseInt(value);
return celebrities.get(index);
Finally, we need to change the getCelebrityModel() method of CelebritiesList page so that it returns an instance of the just created CelebrityModel class:
public IPropertySelectionModel getCelebrityModel() {
return new CelebrityModel(getCelebrities());
You can run the application and see that it works, and the drop-down list is filled with celebrities from the DataSource. When we press the Save button, the selected celebrity (i.e. a Celebrity object filled with his or here data) is stored as an Application State Object, but at the moment we can't see that and can't be sure of that. To complete what we've planned to do, we need to display the Celebrity of the Week at the Home page, and perhaps display that page after the selection was made.
Add the following piece of HTML to the contents of the Home.html file, wherever you see as appropriate:

Celebrity of the Week:
John Smith

The component we are using here is an Insert. Let's configure it in the Home.page specification:
<component id="celebrityOfTheWeek" type="Insert">
<binding name="value" value="fullName"/>
And then add to the Home class a method returning the full name:
public String getFullName() {
Celebrity c = getTheCelebrity();
return c.getFirstName() + " " + c.getLastName();
As you see, we also need a method in the Home class which will give us a reference to the celebrityOfTheWeek ASO:
public abstract Celebrity getCelebrityOfTheWeek();
Finally, after the Celebrity of the Week was selected at the CelebritiesList page, we want to show the Home page, and this turns our attention back to the CelebritiesList class. This class should have some listener method invoked when the user presses the Save button. We don't have a listener yet, so let's add it. Here is the addition to the CelebritiesList.html template:
<form action="" jwcid="@Form"
<select jwcid="selectCelebrity">
<option value="1">Angelina Jolie</option>
<option value="2">Bill Gates</option>
<input type="submit" value="Save"/>
And here is the listener method itself:
public String onSaveCelebrityOfTheWeek() {
return "Home";
{mospagebreak title=One More Detail}
Is everything ready now? Not yet. Try to run the application, and when the Home page appears for the first time, you will see something that is not very nice:
AS soon as the application started, the Home page requested an instance of the Celebrity class to be injected into it as a celebrityOfTheWeek ASO. Tapestry created such an instance and gave it to the Home page. However, this instance is empty; all its properties, including firstName and lastName have their default values, null. Hence the result.
What we actually want is to show the celebrity of the week only if it was already chosen. This sounds like we need an If component. But what will be the criterion of whether the ASO was filled in with proper values or not? Let's say the first name should have some value stored in it. All we need to do is surround the fragment of the Home.html template displaying the celebrity of the week with an If component, like so:

Celebrity of the Week:
John Smith

Note that I am intentionally mixing together implicit and declared components. This might be not the best approach in a real life application, but here it gives me an opportunity to show you both ways. Also, you have a chance to develop a feeling for where your personal threshold between implicit and declared components lies.
If you run the application now, it should work properly. When the Home page is displayed for the first time, it has no information about the Celebrity of the Week on it. Go to the list of Celebrities, grab the glorious title attached to one of them, and you'll see his or her name appearing on the Home page.
If you now navigate to the CelebritiesList page again, you'll see that the celebrity you've just selected appears as a default choice in the drop-down list. This means that the connection between the PropertySelection component on the page and an ASO in the session on the server remains active.
{mospagebreak title=So what have we done?}
To summarize, after we have created a model (an implementation of IPropertySelectionModel), working with drop-down lists in a Tapestry application becomes very simple. All we need to display the appropriate options is to provide the created model to a PropertySelection component through its model binding.
And in order to put the result of the user's selection into a page property or even straight into an ASO stored in the session, all we need to do is provide the familiar value binding. There is no code to write at all, even if the selection covers a very complicated object, perhaps retrieved from a database. All the code is written just once and encapsulated into the model; it then can be reused numerous times across multiple applications.
Writing an implementation of IPropertySelectionModel isn't a big deal either. We just need to remember which question each of its five methods answers and provide an appropriate answer.
What comes next?
My initial plan for the next issue was to start a new big topic, namely custom components development. However, I have suddenly realized that there is another Tapestry component which resembles PropertySelection; that one is named Autocompleter. It is also one of the AJAX-enabled components that come with Tapestry 4.1, and I know that many of you are waiting impatiently for something about AJAX.
So in the next article we are going to touch on the AJAX side of Tapestry and maybe, if space will allow, cover one of the minor outstanding topics that has accumulated over time. And then, in the article after the next, we'll unleash our creativity developing custom components.
Until the next article then.


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The Phillies have traded Mike Zagurski to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a player to be named later or cash considerations, according to Zagurski's agent, Marc Kligman.
The lefthander Zagurski was designated for assignment by the Phillies last Saturday. He pitched in four major-league games this season and allowed two runs on three hits. Zagurski finishes his Phillies career with a 6.82 ERA in 37 games over three seasons.
He was passed on the lefthanded relief depth chart by Juan Perez during the season. And when the Phillies wanted to add another lefty this month, they opted for Joe Savery over Zagurski.
The 28-year-old had no options remaining, which meant the Phillies would have to keep him on the roster coming out of spring training in 2012 or cut him loose.
Arizona added Zagurski to its active roster.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
Download our NEW iPhone/Android app for easy access to all of our Phillies coverage, plus app-exclusive videos and analysis. Get it here.


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Have any questions? Call us.
Thu, Jun 29, 2006
Did you happen catch the Pollock-inspired RV parked near the front of Mershon Auditorium and the Wexner Center on Tuesday (see above)? The vehicle in question was the rolling home to a video crew for the 12-part television series, Artland: USA, produced by a British studio. Their stop in Columbus was part of a two-month trip across the U.S., visiting museums, artists, architectural wonders, and roadside attractions--and at the Wexner Center, they were most interested in our high-profile artist residencies.
Producer Sebastian Grant, host Charlie Luxton, and a video crew shot footage of the building's exterior and the galleries, and taped an interview with former Wexner Center residency artist and OSU faculty member Ann Hamilton in her Columbus studio. (They even found time to buy a few things from the Wexner Center Store to take back to London.) The series should air sometime in the fall on the 24-hour arts network Gallery HD, one of 15 high-definition outlets provided by VOOM HD Networks. Watch this space for more details.


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Cerent Engineering Science Complex
The Engineering Science Laboratories are named as Cerent Engineering Science Complex to honor the engineers from 'Cerent' (now part of Cisco) whose contributions were instrumental in founding the MS-CES program. The Cerent Engineering Science Complex consists of eight well-equipped state-of-the-art laboratories in the areas of communications, networking, photonics, microanalysis, electronics, computer-controlled instrumentation and software engineering.
These labs are part of the MS-CES Program and supported by many local industries and private funds. The goals and objectives of these labs are to (i) enrich classroom instructions with hands-on experience in the laboratories, (ii) provide cutting edge research and development facilities to the students and faculty of SST to do state-of-the art projects, applied research and fundamental research, and, (iii) act as incubators to develop new technology and applications. An overview of these labs is given below.
AFC Access Technologies Laboratory
Named after the industry Advanced Fibre Communications (now part of Tellabs), one of the Program's major supporters, this laboratory is equipped with the state-of-the art broadband communications and access equipment such as loop carrier simulators, wireline simulators, DSL/ADSL and cable modems such as cablespan and lightspan, network access equipment, telecommunications network analyzers, transmission impairment measurement system, various types of switches. The lab is capable of emulating end-to-end a multimode multi-user broadband communications system with various types of access technologies at the user ends. Studies can be conducted on data aggregation techniques and interfaces, access technologies for high speed efficient transmission over subscriber loops, switching techniques, etc.
Agilent Technologies Communications Laboratory
Named after the industry Agilent Technologies, one of the Program's major supporters, this laboratory is equipped with the state-of-the art optical communications equipment such as optical switches, optical spectrum analyzers, BERT systems, high frequency signal sources, digital communications analyzers, optical transmitters and receivers. The lab is capable of emulating various configurations of optical fiber communications system, study optical networking, analyzing and evaluating their performances.
Rolf Illsley Photonics Laboratory
Named after the founder of Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc. (OCLI), a major supporter of the MS-CES Program and a division of JDS Uniphase, this laboratory is equipped with the state-of-the-art photonics equipment. It is organized in six experimental stations each with equipment such as optical spectrum analyzers, optical power meters, sweep wavelength system receivers, microscopes, etc. Other major equipment in the lab are various types of light sources, splicing station, 48-ports AWG devices, a variety of couplers, connectors, etc. The students in photonics and optical fiber communications courses can characterize lightwave components and devices and optical fibers, and, study beam propagation behavior.
In addition, the laboratory is equipped with the optical and telecommunication software modeling tools from RSoft. This allows the students to simulate their experiments and compare the two results.
William Keck Microanalysis Laboratory
The Microanalysis Laboratory consists of four major instruments at the present time:
- Hitachi Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
The SEM instrument is configured to allow imaging of inorganic objects as well as the more difficult to prepare and analyze biological specimens. Magnification up to 300,000X is well within the range of the instrument. A sample holder allows us to maintain the sample temperature from -20C to +85C. In addition, to the traditional SEM functionality, this instrument is equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX). We are able to collect full atomic elemental analysis on a per pixel basis of the entire SEM image. As such we obtain extremely magnified images while simultaneously measuring the elemental content of any portion of the image.
- Olympus confocal imaging system
The confocal imaging facility is equipped with an Olympus FV300 laser scanning system attached to an Olympus BX61 upright microscope. This system has three lasers: Argon (488 nm), Red HeNe (633 nm) and Green HeNe (543 nm) allowing the utilization of a wide range of fluorescent probes for specimen analysis. The unique feature of this instrument is its ability to generate 3D confocal images of a variety of living and non-living biological materials. With the help of an SIS Biological Suite Imaging Software, the digital camera attached to the above microscope system allows researchers to gather and analyze high quality bright-field, dark-field, phase and Nomarski-DIC images of specimens.
- Pacific Nanotechnology Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM)
The Pacific Nanotechnology SPM is a tool that allows us to measure the properties of atomic surfaces. Sometimes the SPM is referred to as an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The SPM or AFM is comprised of a very small and sharp tip, the point of which is only a few atoms in diameters. This tip is connected to a cantilever and is moved in a systematic way over the surface of the sample. The repulsive Van der Waals force between the tip and the sample results in the movement of the cantilever. That movement is imaged via a secondary laser system built into the instrument. Typical scan areas can vary from 100 nanometers(nm) X 100 nanometers up to 100 microns X 100 microns. A nanometer is 10-9 meters, while a micron is 10-6 meters. The height profile ranges from 0.1 nm to 100 nm. An instrument similar to this instrument recently certified the average roughness of the mirrors used in the new NASA x-ray telescope EXAFS.
- PHI Auger spectrometer
The PHI Auger spectrometer is an instrument that allows us to measure the strengths of various atomic bonds in a particular specimen. The EDX instrument mentioned above allows us to determine the presence of a particular atomic element in a specimen. The Auger spectrometer then allows us to probe the chemical nature of the specimen more deeply.
Each of the above instrument probes a different aspect of a particular sample. Therefore, combination of these instruments is actually more important than any one instrument. In combination, we can learn/deduce key mechanism in the formation of the sample. For example, we can determine whether a thin film was evaporated or sputter deposited. We can deduce the ability of a thin film sample to withstand abrasion and predict how well it will withstand harsh chemical environments.
Networking Laboratory
This laboratory, available to be named after a major supporter, provides facilities for instruction and experimentation in computer networking. Each of six identically equipped work areas contains hubs, switches, routers, and computers that can be connected and configured for a wide range of experiments. Every computer can run a choice of operating systems, and each contains a variety of programming and networking tools. There are easily reconfigured interconnections that connect the work areas to each other, to dedicated servers and to the Internet.
Human Computer Interaction Laboratory
This laboratory, available to be named after a major supporter, is equipped with computer controlled instrumentation equipment and software. It supports National Instrument's Labview as well as HP's VEE software. In this lab, studies will be conducted to develop user-friendly hardware/software interfaces and/or systems which allow a user to perform tests and measurements in their laboratories remotely. Other areas of study which will be conducted in this laboratory are user-friendly graphic design and distributed computing.
Software Engineering Laboratory
This laboratory, available to be named after a major supporter, provides computers and software that support a range of software projects as well as undergraduate and graduate instruction in software engineering. For each computer there is a choice of standard operating systems and a selection of software including compilers, databases, and tools for graphics. The lab is configured to be used either for projects or for classroom instruction. One computer is connected to a large screen data projector and wireless keyboard and mouse for convenient instruction. All computers are networked to the Internet.
Electronics Laboratory
The electronics laboratory, available to be named after a major supporter, is equipped with function generators, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, power supplies, networked computers, soldering stations and necessary breadboards and electronic components. In addition, it is equipped with the spice, multisim and synopsys software.
The lab is used to provide fundamental as well as advanced instruction to undergraduate and graduate students in digital and analog electronics, VLSI design, embedded systems and computer architecture. In addition, students use these facilities to carry out their design projects and research.


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Entrepreneurs typically don't lay much emphasis on diet trends, but there are some fads worth following. The following are the best crash diets recommended for busy entrepreneurs hit by stress induced weight.
Known for helping with digestion, weight loss and disease prevention, the gluten-free diet was – sometime ago – only meant for people with gluten sensitivity. Eating gluten-free has today become much more widespread, for the right reasons. There are many gluten-free food alternatives available in supermarkets. Since the majority of processed foods comprise excessive gluten, eliminating them from your meals and resorting to vegetables and fruits help increase your nutrient consumption and enhance better digestion, improving your energy levels. Such nutrient-rich diets also negate carbohydrates and unhealthy oils typically seen in bread items like pastries and donuts, leading to lower levels of cholesterol. Substituting crackers with a lettuce bed or cucumbers to swap the bun could be done by anyone, even people who aren't medically inclined to consume less gluten.
Paleo Diet
Also known as the "caveman diet," the Paleo diet replicates diet patterns of our forefathers from our pre-processed and pre-agricultural eras. Introduced by Loren Cordain, a nutrition science specialist, the diet claims that the existence of type II diabetes and obesity is due to the body not being able to handle sophisticated diets generally replete with processed food and sugars. The diet emphasizes on consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits, seeds and nuts, fish, eggs and grass-created meats.
A major benefit of the diet is that it reduces refined carbohydrates and added sugars, so that the internal system isn't burdened. This is wonderful for the immune system. And this results in good digestion, which further translates to better health. If you are keen on this diet, learn more about the nutrients not part of the diet, so that you resort to alternative food sources and make up for the lost nutrients.
Juice Diet
The juicing culture has been around for several thousand years, but it has only recently become popular in the West, for it being an easy way to consume vegetables and fruits. Nutrient consumption in the liquid form could be ideal when there isn't adequate time to enjoy and relish a complete meal. The body processes liquids quickly. Drinking juices over an elongated period instead of a five-minute meal also helps with blood sugar stabilization, keeping you from energy crashes and spikes. Though juice diets are popular, these should always be supplemented with some healthy solid food items. After all, smoothies aren't packed with sufficient amount of calories and, therefore, cannot be considered meal replacements.
Mediterranean Diet
This diet is perhaps the most suitable for entrepreneurs. It's rich with nutrients that bring down inflammation and enhances brain focus and health. The diet lays emphasis on vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, flavorful herbs, olive oil, spices and healthy fats like fish- and nut-based omega 3 acids. Finish off the diet with some wine. This diet also lays emphasis on food texture, flavor, and taste.
Entrepreneurship and Diets – Benefits and Importance
Focusing on eating the right food helps build businesses. Good food offers improved fuel, which increases concentration and productivity. Energy, attitude and concentration courtesy healthy food are just a few examples. Every entrepreneur must acknowledge the need to eat right.
According to experts, close to 75 percent weight loss results hinge on food and not exercise. It's all about being in the balance.
Being aware of the importance of entrepreneurship and diets is only a starting point. It means nothing if there are no active changes implemented. In fact, people falter here, in the execution part. They know how and what to do, but bringing about the change becomes difficult. This is understandable as altering habits is not easy.
For efficacy with entrepreneurship and diets, it's better to implement changes in installments. For instance, if one wakes up late and invariably skips his breakfast, changing that routine would be a good start. Even minor things such as substituting the elevator with stairs add up. The major reason why most people give up on a healthy lifestyle is because they take a huge jump while transitioning from a sedentary to healthy lifestyle. Such overloading results in burn-outs.
People typically complain the rising prices of organic or unprocessed foods, but ironically opt for the more expensive alternatives, such as restaurant food. Generally, people do not know what goes into the food they eat outside. Most places cut expenses using cheap, unknown ingredients. Therefore, even a healthy dish may be enriched with toxins.
To address this issue, self-cooking is the only resort. Go through the grocery store labels and purchase local, whenever you can. As aforementioned, go gluten-free whenever possible. Use every knowledge you amass relating to simple and natural foods, which should help you feel better about yourself in both your professional and personal life. Besides the above mentioned diet plans, also check out a few other tested and working diet options such as the sacred heart diet plan and lemon and cayenne pepper diet.
Honorable mention will have 3 Week Diet Program and many who have gone through the program were happy that this program is a lot shorter than other diet programs. Some programs are 3 months long, so results are not seen for months. 3 Week Diet Program results only take three weeks. Many people have been astonished by the results. They have lost twelve to twenty-three pounds in a short amount of time.
Others have said they saw a two to four inches reduction from their waistline. Women who have gone through the program said they dropped an average of two to three dress sizes, and many are proud that they can finally wear a two-piece bikini and not feel self-conscious about their bodies.


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Milford tennis player Colt Williamson played in the DIAA state tournament this year, and he's only a freshman.
Colt Williamson is an active 15-year-old, who just finished his freshman year at Milford High School.
What sets him apart from his classmates is the fact that as a ninth-grader, he earned the number one singles position this spring as the top boys tennis player on the Milford High School varsity team.
To him, though, it's no big surprise. He's been playing tennis since he was an infant.
"I've been playing tennis practically since I was about two years old," Williamson said. "I was given a racquet then, and I've been playing ever since that time."
His father, Rexx, has coached him throughout his young career.
"My father has coached me since I was very young, and my strength is probably my forehand shot, but also I would say it's the mental aspects of the game," Williamson said. "My dad has taught me those skills, and they have been a huge advantage for me."
Williamson said his most memorable varsity matches, so far, were those against archrival Caesar Rodney.
"I actually lost both of those matches, but I learned a lot from losing, such as what to improve upon, and how to play better," Williamson said.
His toughest match to date? The quarterfinals of the DIAA state tournament in May.
"I had a tough first set against Alex Matulas from Salesianum, and I wound up losing the match to him," Williamson said.
Matulas eventually won the state tournament in first singles.
Williamson said he enjoyed playing on the Buccaneers team this spring.
"Tennis is primarily an individual sport, but I really enjoyed the team aspect of tennis at Milford. We did well this season and we all worked very hard, and I think that we did the best we could," he said.
He said he liked playing singles because he likes being in control of his out outcome.
"There's no coaching on the court during a game, if there's a problem on the tennis court you have to fix it yourself," he said. "You're all alone out there during a match."
Williamson was grateful for his father's tutelage, but also for the help of his other coach, Gabby Brengle.
This summer, he'll be training with Brengle, working to get stronger and stay in shape. He'll be playing in tennis tournaments almost every week this summer. Williamson recently won the boys U16 singles title and also the boys U18 doubles championship with partner Nikola Sijan at the USTA Delaware Junior State Championships.
Williamson followed those victories up with a win in the Wilmington City Clay Court boys U16 tournament at the Wilmington Country Club.
He's been under the weather lately, so he'll likely take some time off before participating in the USTA Level 6 Championships in Lansdale, Pa.


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Daily Links, Jan. 4: Bishop Zavala, Rick Santorum, and Elizabeth Ann Seton
The big story in Catholic news today, of course, is that Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala has resigned after admitting to having a family. While it is unfortunate that in the Catholic Church having a family and being a bishop are mutually exclusive, this is certainly a scandal as for a bishop, a public face of the church, to break a vow and keep such a secret for so many years is troubling. According to NCR, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said, "The archdiocese has reached out to the mother and children to provide spiritual care as well as funding to assist the children with college costs. The family's identity is not known to the public, and I wish to respect their right to privacy."
The other big story rocking not just the U.S. Catholic church, but the whole United States is how Rick Santorum, one of two Catholic candidates running in the Republican primaries, came out of nowhere this week to end up second (by 8 votes) to Mitt Romney in the Iowa Caucus. But will the near win capture the interest of Catholic voters?
Not exactly making headlines, but still important, is that today is the feast day of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first U.S.-born saint in the church. Sister Maxine of A Nun's Life wrote Seton a letter.
And hat tip to Religion News Service for this link photos of the world's coolest church. Baby, it's cold outside. And inside.


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BERLIN (AP) — A prominent former German lawmaker has been charged with possessing child pornographic photos and videos.
Prosecutors in Hannover said Thursday that Sebastian Edathy is accused of downloading child pornographic images and videos on his parliamentary laptop last November and of possessing other material deemed to be "youth pornography," a term used when children aged 14 or over are involved.
Edathy, a member of the center-left junior party in Germany's government, resigned his seat in February, days before police searched his home and offices. The case centers on the alleged ordering of images of underage boys.
Edathy has denied any wrongdoing.
Edathy was a rising star in his party before German elections last year. He chaired a parliamentary committee that investigated a string of killings by a far-right group.


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"Differences" Between the SOA and the WHINSEC- Chart outlining the lack of difference between the two institutions.
SOA Course List-under construction
SOA Budget-Under Construction
WHINSEC Course List- the following description of courses have been compiled from US goverment documents
WHINSEC Budget-under construction
WHINSEC Annual Reports-Secretary of Defense Annual Reports on WHINSEC to Congress
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SOA Watch
733 Euclid Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
phone: 202-234-3440
email: email@example.com


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A Delicate Job Reference Question
Q: A family friend asked me to give career advice to his son, who has Asperger's syndrome and is about to graduate from college. My phone conversation with the young man was awkward. I found him vague, defensive and lacking in social skills. I gave him some advice in a follow-up email, but don't feel comfortable referring him to colleagues. How can I be helpful?
—A.L., New York
A: It's best to be honest with your family friend. Explain that your impressions from the phone call limit your ability to refer his son, says Phyllis Hartman, an Ingomar, Pa., human-resources consultant. If you want to provide more help, consider meeting with his son in person, she says. First impressions can be misleading. His degree suggests he can learn. People with autism disorders often have strengths suited to certain jobs, Ms. Hartman says.
You might suggest that the young man ask career-services or disabilities-services specialists on his campus for help with interviewing skills, if he hasn't done so already, says Melanie Whetzel, a senior consultant for the Job Accommodation Network, a free service at askjan.org offered by the Labor Department. The network aids job seekers with disabilities. A vocational-rehabilitation office in his state may be able to provide a counselor who can help with writing a résumé and matching his skills with jobs, Ms. Whetzel says.
Other resources offering support, services and education for people with autism include the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, at autisticadvocacy.org, and the Asperger Syndrome Training & Employment Partnership, at asperger-employment.org.
—Email email@example.com.


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Program Co-ordinator: TBA
The Diploma in Professional Writing (DPW) aims to develop students' skills in a variety of genres such as the report, feature article, satirical commentary, speech, song lyric and review. Students complete 24 credit hours in which they are introduced to professional writing as a process: they draft, revise and edit their work in preparation for publication in various media.
The 6 credit hour instructional field placement is completed in a professional situation, e.g., a division of the University, an arts organization, government or the media. Students also attend seminars on professional writing and submit journals about their work experience.
Applicants to the Diploma in Professional Writing should include a letter of application, a transcript (if the applicant is a student or a graduate of a university program), and a portfolio of work. Admission to the diploma is limited. The following are eligible to apply:
students taking a Bachelor of Arts or another degree program;
graduates of a Bachelor of Arts or another degree program; and
individuals without a degree who wish to develop skills in writing and editing. Such applicants must meet the prerequisite requirements for the Diploma in Professional Writing courses.
Students are required to complete a minimum of 24 credit hours of course work, including:
One of English 3817, English 3911, English 3912, English 3913 and English 3914.
One of English 3900, 3901, 3902, 3903, 4910, 4911, 4912, 4913.
English 5200 (6 credit hours).
Further information regarding the Diploma in Professional Writing may be obtained at www.mun.ca/english/diplomas/professional.php.