text:
Twilight fans — your vampire hunk Edward could have been a neurotic Jew named Shmoikel!
At least, that's the premise of "Shmoikel's Twilight," a mockumentary which reveals the secret history of the tween-film phenomenon "Twilight," in which Robert Pattinson was, in fact, the second actor cast to play the lead roll Edward, after Hollywood executives decided the self-described neurotic and Brooklyn filmmaker Keith Black might not be the right fit.
"I was the original pick to star in the "Twilight" franchise," Black said. "I interpreted Stephenie Meyer's book as a Jewish allegory."
In the faux film, Black — who somehow managed to achieve complete creative control of the blockbuster film project — changed Edward to Shmoikle, a nice Jewish vampire from Brooklyn, and Jacob to Mordecai, who sells beepers in New Jersey
He was about 50-percent of the way through with his reimagining of the 'Twilight' story, when Hollywood got their hands on the footage and realized the terrible mistake they'd made.
"I wanted to show if a vampire can be neurotic, we all can," Black said. "Nobody can be perfect at everything!"
Realizing that Black's interpretation would do nothing for their teenage girl target audience, producers supposedly canned Black, hired Pattinson, and cut their losses, all the while keeping Black's project as hush, hush as humanly possible.
But the Jewish filmmaker dug up the old footage to prove to everyone that his reimagining of the vampire story had more in common with Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" than HBO's "True Blood."
"In a way, It's kind of like "Annie Hall" with fangs," said Black.
And Shmoikel the vampire isn't neurotic for nothing.
"[He] drives the waiters crazy, because he worries that they will put garlic in his food," Black said. "I've really done that to waiters. I don't eat farm fish, only fresh-caught fish. One time, I kept sending this waiter back to the kitchen, like six times, and he eventually turned to me and said, 'What do want? A video of the fish being caught?'"
Black hopes the $500 budget mockumentary will stand as a testament to his talents as a film maker, and prove an inspiration to middle-aged men, still hoping to break into the Hollywood spotlight.
"There is a niche for a guy like me," Black insisted. "I'm middle aged and I'm relishing it instead of fighting it. I'm optimistic and have the same energy as every 18 year old. If Hollywood puts me on the screen, millions will identify with that."
"Shmoikel's Twilight" at IndieScreen [285-289 Kent Ave. at S. Second Street, in Williamsburg, (718) 388–4306, www.indiescreen.us]. Nov. 16, 6:30 pm.rReach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cn
©2012 Community News Group
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynDaily.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynDaily.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.


text:
Dedicated Microsoft Windows Hosting
There are hundreds of companies that provide Windows Hosting throughout the world. So how do you choose one Windows hosting provider over another? Only Connectria can provide a range of solutions that includes Unmanaged Windows environments, to Managed Windows environments, to fully customized Windows and/or mixed technology environments. We offer dedicated servers, public cloud servers, private cloud environments, or any combination of the three. We also support the broadest mix of technologies to run in a Windows environment, including Oracle, Citrix, the Lotus family of products, IBM WebSphere, Blackberry Enterprise Server, and the full complement of Microsoft servers (Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, etc.)
Our very first customer in 1998 was the world's largest bank, Deutsche Bank. To date, we've supported over 1,000 customers in over 30 countries, including Windows Hosting for Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Farmers Insurance and UPS Logistics among many others.
The DNA of our entire organization is focused on supporting and running business-critical environments - including Windows environments - that require the highest levels of security, reliability, and accountability. We are SSAE 18 Type II Certified, we are a Microsoft Gold Hosting Partner, and we operate highly secure, highly reliable world‑Class Data Centers in North America. We know Microsoft technologies well, and we know how to deliver cost effective, reliable, secure Windows environments.
Connectria offers Windows Hosting solutions using Enterprise Class x86 Servers (Dell, HP, Lenovo). These include Managed Hosting services for standardized Windows Hosting solutions as well as customized Windows Hosting solutions.
You can configure your Dedicated Servers with a range of Server Features and Managed Services backed by our 24x7x365 Exceptional Support.
Or feel free to Contact Us if you would like assistance in putting your configuration together.
Our Solutions Architects are available 7 days a week to assist you. Our only priority is to find a hosting solution that best meets your needs.
Please fill out the form below and we will try to get you a detailed quote within 24 hours. If you need it faster, just let us know and we will do our best to meet your needs!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Standard Generation Service
If you are a UI customer looking to switch to UI's Standard Generation Service, we've made the process very easy. Just click on the "Make UI My Electric Supplier" button below and enter your account number, name key, and POD ID. Your electronic request will be sent to our Customer Care Center for processing. Please note that you will need your account information to switch. Please have a copy of your electric bill available.
Delivery/Generation Charges
As a result of Connecticut's 1998 deregulation law, your electric bill now has two major parts: Delivery and Generation. These are presented separately on your UI Bill.
Delivery is the service that UI provides. We own and operate the system that safely and reliably delivers electricity to your home or business. No matter which Generation supplier you choose, UI remains your electric utility. For more information about the Delivery portion of the bill, visit UI Rates.
Generation is the cost to create the electricity you use. There is a competitive market to provide this service. If you buy Generation service from UI, you pay what we pay, at no markup. Or, you can buy it from alternate suppliers and pay the rates they offer. This appears on your UI bill as the "Generation Services Charge."
If you are interested in switching to an alternate supplier, you may find a current list of companies offering generation service in UI's service territory at EnergizeCT. You should contact the suppliers directly to switch.
If you decide to switch suppliers (tips):
Alternate Supplier Referral Program
Competitive suppliers that offer 12-month fixed rates may have their offerings communicated via UI's Customer Care Center and website. The chart below shows suppliers participating in this program, with their qualifying electric offers for residential and small commercial customers. (UI Standard Service rates are provided for reference.) In addition to the fixed price, these suppliers may offer time-of-day rates and other price options. Please check with each supplier for information about their offers and see EnergizeCT for more supplier offers.
To compare generation rates with other suppliers, visit Energize CT.com.
To learn more about the referral program and to be transferred to one of the participating suppliers, call UI at 800-7-CALL-UI (800-722-5584). To read the Connecticut PURA decision that provides the guidelines for the referral program, visit Docket No. 05-08-05RE02. Also, view UI's Electric Generation Disclosure Label.
CT Clean Energy Options
CTCleanEnergyOptions is a state-approved program that allows any UI customer the opportunity to support clean energy made from approved renewable resources such as wind, small hydroelectric and landfill gas. Customers who enroll continue to receive electric delivery service from their utility and pay a small clean energy surcharge. Please visit CTCleanEnergyOptions for full details.
For Energy Suppliers and Aggregators Only
If you are an electric supplier or aggregator seeking additional information, please click here.


text:
Easily manage the Citrix portfolio of products from the cloud. Simplify control of your apps, desktops, content, devices and network.
Attacks against the web have become more vicious than ever. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks starve legitimate traffic of resources; SQL injection attacks pass through firewalls to steal data; Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks use unvalidated scripts for malicious activities; and legacy SSL protocols can reveal application data to the determined hacker. Every type of business, no matter the size or industry, requires protection to address these threats.
Learn how
Citrix networking solutions block all next-gen threats in one strategic, affordable platform. While protecting all layers of the computing stack, they provide accelerated app delivery and superior load balancing with 100 percent uptime.
DDoS attacks are resource wasters—they work by saturating network infrastructure so that it is unable to process legitimate traffic, making applications inaccessible. For a business, a web application that has crashed is no different than one that is under DDoS attack.
NetScaler ADC and NetScaler AppFirewall easily thwart a variety of DDoS and DoS attacks, providing protection against tactics such as external entity references, recursive expansion, excessive nesting, and malicious messages containing either long or a large number of attributes and elements.
SQL injection is commonly used to steal identity data and other sensitive information. By inserting unauthorized database commands into a vulnerable web site, an attacker may gain unrestricted access to the entire contents of a backend database.
NetScaler AppFirewall identifies and mitigates against all kinds of SQL injection attacks. It also prevents all XML attacks by incorporating a rich set of XML-specific protections.
SSL-based attacks, in the absence of dedicated hardware for SSL termination and inspection, carry a heavy processing penalty. NetScaler ADC protects against compute-intensive SSL-based DoS attacks, providing substantial coverage without the need to implement another set of dedicated devices. Dedicated SSL accelerators, which operate in conjunction with a full-proxy capability of identifying and dumping empty or malicious SSL connections, are instrumental in enabling NetScaler ADC to fend off SSL flood attacks.
XSS attacks are commonly used to steal user identities, hijack user sessions, poison cookies, redirect users to malicious web sites, access restricted sites, and even launch false advertisements.
NetScaler AppFirewall has dynamic, context-sensitive capabilities to prevent XSS attacks. The platform looks for anything that looks like an HTML tag and checks against allowed HTML attributes and tags to detect XSS attacks. Custom XSS patterns can be stored to modify this default list of tags and attributes. Both HTML and XML payloads are inspected. Field format protection and form field consistency is included.
Architecting a scalable and secure data center
Networks are extremely important for mobile and applications are the new perimeter.
Citrix NetScaler: A powerful design against denial of service attacks
Protect against both network-layer and application-layer attacks.
A foundation for next generation data center and cloud-based security
NetScaler combines app security, network optimization, and a cost-effective approach.
Next steps


text:
Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen. more
Sony has already packed its bags and left Berlin but the music scene is unconcerned. Electronic music in the German capital is in the hands of a lively network of small labels, experimental, alive and kicking. By Oliver Ilan Schulz
read more
In Roskilde, people don't wait for Bob Geldof to provide them with live music. Every year, those willing to do without sleep and toilets take part in the raucous ritual of the Roskilde Festival. And proceeds go to a worthy cause. This year, everything was great, except the music. By Andreas Becker
read more
On the 25th anniversary of the legendary German band Einstürzende
Neubauten, Max Dax interviewed its co-founder and multi-instrumentalist
Alexander Hacke on Berlin in the eighties and the End Time aesthetics
of Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
read more


text:
If you've got this far, you may already know something of what I do, or have done: theatrical song-writer, lyricist, playwright, actor, musician. The CV pages are split into sections to reflect these. But it should be mentioned that I am a formidable painter-and-decorator, can turn my hand to decent carpentry and I have been known to draw appreciative nods for my cooking. Hey, phone for details: I'm not cheap but I am available. OK, here's some of me working life-story, and I'll try to keep it brief;
1959. Born in Harlow, Essex. Not my fault. "Educated" at Burnt Mill Comp: 7 O levels & an A level in Chemistry. I was thinking, vaguely, of going to Uni to read Organic Chemistry, but spent my sixth-form years, instead of studying, writing and producing two pantomimes and bossing the rest of the sixth-formers to be in it. Then then a mate from Harlow Youth Theatre said he was auditioning for drama schools, of which I had never heard. I auditioned for eight of 'em, got turned down by most, got into RADA.
1977. Went to RADA. Learnt gestures. After RADA sat on my arse for six months, writing bad poetry, whilst a girlfriend kept me. Offered my first job & equity card at Theatre Centre from Geoff Bullen, who had directed me at RADA,
Theatre Centre was brilliant and for three years, I worked on nothing but new plays, most by the fine hand of David Holman. Cutting, pasting and rewriting new work thus became, for me, how I thought all theatre was generated, but did not rediscover this until working with The Right Size, many years later. Wrote my first play for Theatre Centre - a Christmas nonsense for kids called Hollyquinade.
Met my first wife at Theatre Centre - Allyson - with whom I had a baby boy and whose story is told in An Instinct For Kindness.
1982. Moved to Manchester & spent a few happy years in constant work on the Northern Rep circuit: Bolton, Contact, Library, Lancaster, Leeds. Play after play without a break - didn't know I was born. John Adams, at Bolton Octagon, gave me my first music-writing job: a production of A Wizard Of Earthsea.
Trundled along, job after job. Nothing world-changing but paid a mortgage. Bits of telly, the odd radio play, but mostly theatre. More theatrical music commissions, mostly from Jonathan Petherbridge at the Duke's, Lancaster, and the London Bubble.
In 1992, during a fortnight's workshop (mess-about in a rehearsal room) for a proposed production of Gargantua which someone had persuaded both Terry Jones to write and several other people to invest in, I met Hamish McColl and Sean Foley of The Right Size. From that meeting was to develop a relationship with them which lasted for eight years, with me being songwriter and they - and Jos Heuben their director - being the most inspirational theatre partnership I had ever witnessed
In 1994 got the part of the idiot, Clingfilm in London's Burning, which lucrative and amusing job propelled me briefly to street-recognition and continued for four seasons, till new accounting brooms discovered how much I was earning.
Also in 1994, whilst playing Ugly Sister at Lewisham theatre, met a man called Mark Stevens who was MD for the show, I had written an Uglies duet (Blow Me, What a Beautiful Pair) and from that he and I started working on songs and music together, which fruitful and joyous partnership blossomed for fifteen years, culminating in our two musicals, The Translucent Frogs of Quuup, and On The Island of Aars, before Mark's tragic, early death in 2009.
Still writing, still song-writing, still acting (just!). .. exhaustive details, if you want, on other pages under "CV". But let's not forget the painting/decorating, shall we?


text:
"Hassick" Surname
Frequency of "Hassick" Surname in the US
2000 US Census
The surname "Hassick" is not included in the US Census Bureau's ranking of surnames with 100 or more people. Since fewer than 100 people with this surname were included in the 2000 Census, it is relatively uncommon.
Source: "Frequently Occurring Surnames from the Census 2000", US Census Bureau.
1990 US Census
Accoring to the US Census Bureau, "Hassick" ranked #63,474 in frequency out of 88,799 surnames for which statistics were released from the 1990 Census.
Source: "Frequently Occurring Surnames from the 1990 Census", US Census Bureau.
"Hassick" Graves on Histopolis
Histopolis currently has 3 grave(s) with the surname "Hassick".
Search the Histopols Grave Index for the surname "Hassick".
Resource Links for "Hassick"
Do you know of a web page containing information about this surname that would be useful to genealogy or history researchers? Please add it now! (Free registration required)
Surnames that Sound Like "Hassick"
The surname "Hassick" has a Soundex code of H220. The following 198 surname(s) may sound similar to "Hassick" since they share the same Soundex code.


text:
U.K. House Of Lords Declares Amgen's Erythropoietin Patent Invalid
Dealing TKT some welcome relief after a setback in the U.S. earlier in the week, the U.K.'s highest court upheld on Thursday the Court of Appeal's decision that TKT and its partner, French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis, did not infringe Amgen's patent and reversed...
To view the full article, register now.
Try Law360 FREE for seven days
Already a subscriber? Click here to login


text:
We all knew that it was coming soon, and Meagan Good married her man producer and preacher DeVon Franklin over the weekend in California. Congratulations to the newlyweds, and we will see if kids will come some time soon!
DeVon Franklin And Meagan Good Now Husband And Wife!
Leave a Comment


text:
Deborah Lamb, Head of Communications
Deborah (Debbie) Lamb is a freelance copywriter, editor and marketing specialist. She has been managing COBCOE's online newsletter Window into Europe, Make Europe Work! magazine and other communications since January 2015.
Debbie's background is in journalism and marketing communications. She was Deputy Editor of Money Management magazine and has held marketing roles with financial services groups in the UK and Hong Kong.
Debbie has been working closely with Anne-Marie Martin since 2010. She aims to serve COBCOE members by promoting relevant issues, events and initiatives to the COBCOE community and the wider world.
Now based in England, Debbie has lived and worked in Germany, Hong Kong and the USA.
To contact her, email email@example.com


text:
Latest Reviews
Latest Previews
Kicks Online
Kicks Online is a free-to-play football MMO (massively multi-player online). Kicks Online adopts street football modes and rules. Only through different tactics (such as various ways of passing ball and adjusting football surface harness) and strong teamwork players can win the match. More the player plays, more the characters skills will improve.
Page 1 of 1
Page 1 of 1


text:
|Organic Shopping
International News
"Cloned food. GMOs and rBGH. Oh my! Interesting how swiftly these food technologies were rushed to market, when organic fought for 13 years to become federal law. Eleven years ago, genetically modified food was not part of our food supply; today an astounding 30 percent of our cropland is planted in GMOs. Organic is the only de facto seal of reassurance against these and other modern, lab-produced additions to our food supply, and the only food term with built in inspections and federal regulatory teeth." www.organic.org
Misi Kami - Our mission is to provide a central resource for everything organic in Indonesia - all organic businesses - large and small. Send us information about organic / natural product businesses you know. Contact us.
Last modified: 2015-12-28 23:52:58
Chronic exposure to pesticides can damage children's lung function by about as much as secondhand cigarette smoke does, according to a study of farmworker children in the Salinas Valley. The long-term study of 279 children from farmworker families is the first to suggest that even being one step removed from pesticides can bring harm to children's lungs. Previous studies examined effects on adults who spray the chemicals or work in fields where the pesticides are applied.
Keywords: Indonesia, Organic, Pesticides, kid, lung, farmworker, Salinas Valley, chemical, research,, secondhand cigarette smoke
Last modified: 2015-12-06 22:55:59
Jakarta. President Joko Widodo will introduce Indonesia's plans to reform the way it manages its forest and peatland at the annual conference of parties on climate change in Paris this week, as it sets an ambitious target to reduce carbon emissions by 29 percent by 2030.
Keywords: Joko Widodo, Forestry Reforms, Moratorium at Climate Change Summit, Joko, to, Introduce, Forestry, Reforms,, Moratorium, at, Climate, Change, Summit, Paris climate talk
Last modified: 2015-06-01 02:49:26
Dr. Ramon Seidler, a retired senior scientist from the US Environmental Protection Agency, has become a leading spokesperson against genetically modified foods and the increasing use of pesticides with GM crops. He actively supported Oregon's GMO labeling initiative, Measure 92, which was narrowly defeated last fall.
Keywords: Dr. Ramon Seidler, EPA, GMO, pesticide treadmill, pesticide, Former EPA scientist, Biotech companies encouraging pesticide treadmill
Last modified: 2015-06-01 02:23:02
In late March, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO), determined that glyphosate-the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup-is a Class 2 A "probable carcinogen."
Keywords: glyphosate, herbicide, Roundup, carcinogen, astroturf, Dr. Oz, label, Prop 65, residues, contamination
Last modified: 2015-06-01 02:23:33
Sometimes the best remedies are found in nature. A chicken farm in Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania is utilizing oregano to feed chickens.
Keywords: oregano, antibiotic, nature, chicken, herbal, nutritional, clean, disinfect
Last modified: 2015-06-01 01:04:06
Wheat harvest protocol in the United States is to drench the wheat fields with Roundup several days before the combine harvesters work through the fields as withered, dead wheat plants are less taxing on the farm equipment and allows for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest
Keywords: wheat, toxic, Roundup, gluten, conventional, pre-harvest, herbicide, ghyphosate
Last modified: 2015-05-31 23:05:52
Biocarbon Engineering — led by former NASA engineer Lauren Fletcher — plan to plant one billion trees a year, using multipurpose drones.
Keywords: Biocarbon Engineering, drone, plant, billion trees, reforestation, NASA, Hand planting trees, biodiversity
Last modified: 2014-12-05 00:14:48
In 2013, the United Nations announced that the world's agricultural needs can be met with localized organic farms. That's right, we do not need giant monocultures that pour, spray and coat our produce with massive amounts of poisons, only to create mutant pests and weeds while decimating pollinators and harming human health. Don't believe the hype: We do not need genetically modified foods "to feed the world."
Keywords: United Nations Calls for an End to Industrialized Farming, organic, farming, misconceptions, localized, feed the world, Russell Brand, IITP, international trade
Last modified: 2014-09-23 00:00:47
According to the new UN report, major changes are needed in our food, agriculture and trade systems, with a shift toward local small-scale farmers and food systems recommended.
Diversity of farms, reducing the use of fertilizer and other changes are desperately needed according to the report, which was highlighted in this article from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
Keywords: organic,future,sustainable farming,UN reports,monoculture,high external input,UN Commission on Trade and Development,UNCTAD,Trade and Environment Review 2013: Wake Up Before It's Too Late,urban farming,managing water,water
Last modified: 2014-09-07 23:54:47
Coconut oil has been a dietary and beauty staple for millennia. It's a powerful destroyer of all kinds of microbes, from viruses to bacteria to protozoa, many of which can be harmful, and provides your body with high-quality fat that is critical for optimal health.
Keywords: coconut oil, uses, benefits, lauric acid, monolaurin, health, beauty products, hair, toothpaste, oil pulling, detox, antimicrobial, anti-viral,


text:
Top schools vie for national title
Methodist looks to capture its 11th NCAA championship
HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. – The usual suspects will have a say in who wins the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship at Mission Inn Resort & Club this week.
Some might argue that one quarter of the field of 41 has a chance to hoist the trophy after 72 holes of stroke play golf on Friday afternoon.
Top-ranked Methodist will be hard to beat. The Monarchs, champions in 2010 and with 10 overall, make a 32nd consecutive appearance. Twenty eight times the North Carolina school has finished inside the top five at the DIII Championships. Steve Conley's squad features all five players inside the top 32, statistically, led by junior Mike Wesko, who tied for 11th at the 2011 Championships, sophomore Dakun Chang, and senior Robby Bruns, who finished tied for 54th in 2011.
Oglethorpe won the 2009 DIII title and tied for 11th in 2011. The Stormy Petrels, under 18th year head coach Jim Owen, have three players inside the top 15 -- rookie Anthony Maccaglia and junior Eric Quinn.
|• Field announced
|• Championship history
|Venue information
Guilford won titles in 2002 and 2005 and is making its 18th appearance. The Quakers are led by junior Noah Ratner, who tied for 11th in 2011, and a pair of freshmen – Andrew Thompson and Mitch Robinette.
Texas Tyler is making just its third appearance but head coach King Campbell's Patriots pack a powerful punch. How deep is Texas-Tyler? Seven players are ranked inside the top 125 with senior James Walsh leading the pack. Junior John Dukes, senior Matt Stephens and freshman Trent Bodoin are all inside the top 25.
California's Redlands has freshmen Bobby Holden and Perry Johnson, plus sophomore Jeremy Sanders, all among the top 40. Redlands has been bridesmaids four times at the DIII Championships.
Illinois Wesleyan made a final day charge in 2011, coming up six strokes short. Jim Ott's Titans are certainly a threat this week. Three of the five starters played in the 2011 Championships with senior Dax Reese finishing ninth after a final round 69. Shane Smith and Stefan Johnson are also back with a pair of freshmen also ranked among the top 135. 2012 marks the sixth consecutive appearance for the Titans.
Transylvania's Pioneers just missed the cut in 2011 but four of those starters are back led by senior Justin Tereshko. Sophomores Jantzen Latham and Clay Hinton teed it up as freshmen for Transylvania at the 2011 Championships.
Greensboro, the 2011 champions, return Ben Nihart, who tied for 11th last May, and Kirk Mitchell, who tied for 16th.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is back for the first time since 2006 with a pair of heavy hitters in sophomore Brad Shigezawa and 2010 medalist Tain Lee, battling back from a wrist injury suffered in January.
LaVerne has three top five finishes in 12 appearances. The Leopards from California have six players inside the top 130 – four of them freshmen – with junior Derek Zachman among the top 10.
Forty-one schools representing 21 states will participate in the four day event.
CMS's Lee is the highest returning individual finisher. The senior was second in 2011 after winning medalist honors in 2010. LaGrange's Hudson Keener had two sub-70 rounds last May and finished third, with Redlands' Sanders tossing in a pair of 68s on his way to a tie for fifth. Seven of the top 11 finishers from 2011 are expected to tee it up this week.


text:
Welcome to our website
To take full advantage of all features you need to login or register. Registration is completely free and takes only a few seconds.
Evidence for a Castle in the 'iCloud' for Lion
Posted by Philipp Esselbach on: 04/30/2011 11:57 PM [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]
Mac Rumors reports that French blog Consomac discovered further evidence of the suggested Find My Mac feature in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and the fabled iCloud domain name.
In searching through Lion's strings for references to Find My Mac, iCloud or MobileMe, they came up with the localized strings seen in the image: "Complete your Castle upgrade," and "Click OK to open System Preferences and complete your upgrade from MobileMe to Castle."
Evidence for a Castle in the 'iCloud' for Lion


text:
29 May 2009
New research from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) indicates that men may be changing their cosmetic surgery preferences during the recession.The study showed that while women in the USA account for more than 90 per cent of cosmetic surgeries and procedures in 2008, men are increasingly considering cosmetic enhancement as a serious option.Liposuction remained the most popular aesthetic operation among men last year, followed by rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery and male breast reduction. However, the number of men seeking pectoral implants tripled over the year, while dermabrasion, cheek implants and buttock lifts also saw increases in popularity. The figures echo revelations from the Harley Medical Group earlier this year showing that the number of men considering having cosmetic surgery were up by 26 per cent, with civil servants, city workers, politicians, lawyers and accountants most likely to go under the knife. Among women, breast enlargement occupied top spot, followed by liposuction, eyelid surgery and tummy tucks. Breast reduction operations rounded up the top five. The most popular non-surgical procedure in the United States was Botox, with nearly 2.5 million Botox procedures being carried out in 2008. Chemical peels and laser skin resurfacing treatments both saw rises in popularity, of three and 12 per cent respectively. Some analysts expect the trends in the American cosmetic surgery market to cross over the UK in time. Earlier this month, research from Mintel found that almost half of adults in the UK would consider cosmetic surgery, with mothers being most likely to do so.


text:
Open Thread: Friends and Family and Everyone Else
Here's a place to talk about the relationships in your life whenever you want.
The first time an article I wrote that got picked up by a major publication with some name recognition, my uncle wrote this to me:
"Who would have thought that the grandchild of humble Hong Kong farmers would have her writing read by people all over America? That people would know her name? Who would have thought that our family would get to this point? Very proud of you, niece."
Those words have stuck with me every single day that I write. Every single time that I pack up my laptop and leave my cozy apartment to sit in a comfortable coffee shop where I can afford one or two cups of coffee, maybe some tofu skin rolls for lunch, and write about my "adventures" in this city, I think about those words.
I look at the world I inhabit in Hong Kong, one of comfort and safety, support and opportunity, and there are times I want to weep with gratitude. My Hong Kong is not my entire family's Hong Kong. My Hong Kong is, in many ways, the Hong Kong they wanted for.
While I've always had an awareness of the two sides that make up my Hong Kong heritage — Eurasian society and Chinese working class — nothing quite prepared me for the wash of emotion and realization that recently visiting my mom's old neighborhood would bring forth.
Though my dad's side of Eurasian privilege is the world that is usually more dominant in my "expat experience" — due in no small part to Hong Kong's history as a British territory and the "status" of being mixed-race and English-speaking — it is my mom's "humble beginnings" that continue to draw me in and resonate with me.
Since arriving in Hong Kong, it's been my goal to explore more of where my mom came from. Unlike my dad, her family's name and their legacy is not stamped on street signs, on libraries, on the names of foundations. Sometimes I wonder if my dad's ancestors would think their "Hong Kong Girl" (a nickname a Chinese classmate once gave to me) was "slumming it" — living outside of "society" life, having worked greasy, menial jobs since I was a teenager, maintaining a current job (or several jobs) that offers no glamour or prestige.
This is not to say that my dad's family was unkind or shallow (my grandmother was compassionate and generous to everyone, almost to a fault), but my grandparents, great grandparents, and great great grandparents were simply Eurasian People of Note. Most were born into a kind of life that I don't understand. You can find them in history books with names that begin with "Sir" and "Lady."
In many ways they are mythic to me, almost like the people of fairytales. I am fiercely proud of my Eurasian heritage, but I sometimes wonder if I'm a little too "rough around the edges" for them.
On the other hand, I wonder if my mom's ancestors would look with surprise, maybe astonishment, at the person I am. A woman who shares their blood, many of their experiences, but who speaks English without judgment from other English-speakers, has a choice in her profession, and who walks confidently in the company of both Chinese and westerners.
I don't say this with ego or with condescension, but it is a truth that my mom's family was more concerned with putting food on the table, making a better life for their children than they did themselves, and hoping that at least one of their offspring would be better than their circumstances. Though my life is "humble" by many people's standards today (either in the US or Hong Kong), I'm beginning to understand that I don't really know the meaning of the word.
So with a visiting friend in tow for emotional support, we decided to spend an afternoon walking around what was once my mom's childhood neighborhood. Though the area has long been "cleaned up", and hipster bars that would look right at home in Brooklyn have popped up on a few street corners, the bones of the neighborhood are still there, poking out at odd angles from beneath the veneer.
Those are my mom's bones, and to some extent my bones.
My friend and I started on a side street near the base of a steep uphill climb from the main road. Walking down that quiet street, we passed the brightly colored flats that my mom often mentioned from her childhood. They are historic houses now, in the midst of preservation, but my mom remembers them as tenements.
Against high rise apartments and gleaming new condos leaned squat, stained buildings. On the ground floors were stationery shops, mechanical repair shops, auto repair shops. At the dead end of one street was a pile of tires and an old black dog who who barked at us seemingly out of habit, then lost interest.
I thought of my mom as a little girl. Did big dogs bark at her? Did they frighten her? Did she make friends with them? My mom can make friends with anyone, man or beast.
We ducked down one little street and I remembered my mom mentioning the name of the street as where my grandmother would send her for dry goods "to heave up the hill." My mom is tiny now, she was even tinier then. My heart ached for my small child-mom. I felt like if I squinted hard enough I could catch a glimpse of that young ghost, maybe lend her a hand (not that she would have taken it).
The little street was now quiet, rather sanitary, with one small "old Hong Kong" themed bar glowing in the late afternoon gloom. A guy played an acoustic guitar at a table on the patio while two woman smoked cigarettes and bobbed their heads to his singing. I think it might have been a Bruce Springsteen song.
In this place, this pocket of old Hong Kong being gobbled up by new buildings and "appealing nostalgia," I saw people around my mom's age now, waiting in their shops for customers, sweeping their sidewalks. Did they share these streets with my mom when they were kids?
And more than that, did they just see me as another tourist ogling their home? Just another person on "urban safari" in Hong Kong? I have never felt so close to, yet far away from my family's culture. I felt a bit like an intruder.
A knot formed in my chest and a sense of sorrow came over me. It's through no fault of my own that I was born into a different life, a life my mom fought hard for me to have. But by distancing herself from the life she didn't want for her daughter, was it at the cost of my mom's past? Like the streets of my mom's old neighborhood, has her past been smoothed out and repaved? Will I ever know what lies beneath?
The reality that I can never truly understand where my mom came from hit me hard. I am indeed a tourist to her life at times. I wonder if it's lonely for her?
As we walked up and up the sloping streets, passing a temple with incense smoke wafting out of its open doorways, I thought of my mom in her school uniform making her way down to the harbor before dawn.
As a young girl she found herself with the opportunity to study at one of Hong Kong's most prestigious girls' schools. But unlike many of her wealthier classmates, her family did not have the money to put her in a car, let alone a bus, to get her to the school across the harbor.
So my mom would wake up before the sun, and walk down from her family's flat high up on the hill, cut through the sailors, merchants, and prostitutes starting up or finishing their day, and catch the ferry to Kowloon side. Her ferry disembarked mere blocks from my where my apartment is now.
She'd then continue her walk all the way down the main road in my neighborhood — the same road I walk halfway down to catch my train — to start her day at her fancy school. Then she'd do the whole journey in reverse at the end of the day.
While some girls' trip to school was only a short drive, my mom's walk took hours — sometimes in the pouring rain, sometimes in the sweltering heat and humidity.
As I climbed up slippery stone steps and walked past shops where men peered at me from the dark, I thought of my mom choosing not to be nervous, afraid, or even tired. She's still like that now.
My mom still talks about "little luxuries" from those days — when the English girls on the ferry would walk with her part of the way, when she had a little extra change in her pocket so she could be assured a bun or some rice and soy sauce for lunch.
Little luxuries. My life is full of little luxuries. The cup of coffee I buy a few times a week, the hot snacks I get from my favorite food cart, the little rice puffs I get whenever I feel like it from the cake shop by my subway stop — it was a startling realization that the places where I got those little luxuries lined the street that my mom walked to get to school. A version of those very shops may have existed in my mom's time.
In another time, did a small, thin girl with very long black hair and smiling eyes walk down my street and sniff the air wishing that she had some extra money for a sweet bun?
Did she wonder about her future? Her daughter's future? Would she have any idea that her daughter's life would be so different than hers?
Would it make her sad?
I admit that I am a little sad, maybe for both of us. I am the child of two vastly different worlds, but like the new buildings eating up my old neighborhood, I sometimes fear that my "expat-Eurasian" self will eat up my mom's "humble beginnings." It's not necessarily a choice, it is the strong tide of the world I live in.
But with that in mind, I choose to hold on tight to the other side of who I am, the daughter of the little girl who took the long walk to a better life everyday.
Whatever "point" life takes me to, whoever I become, I will always be the grandchild of humble Hong Kong farmers.


text:
DEKTON® INDUSTRIAL | Table Top
Dekton® Table Top
Dekton®'s Industrial collection is the ideal material for use in large commercial and architectural projects thanks to its impressive appearance, and outstanding technical properties, which include UV, scratch, stain and heat resistance, along with production in large format slabs (up to 144cm x 320cm) and different thicknesses (20mm, 12mm and 8mm). These large format slabs allow for the creation of seamless surfaces and spaces without limits and joins, both in indoor and outdoor spaces. Dekton® Industrial is also the ideal choice for domestic use for flooring, staircases, bathrooms, cladding and worksurfaces.
Dekton® Industrial is composed of the following shades:
Dekton® Trilium offers a mixture of colours inspired by volcanic rock, with intense accents of black and grey. Made using up to 80% recycled materials, Trilium was created in 2016, becoming the first ecological Dekton® colour. During its first year of existence, Dekton® Trilium received a great deal of recognition from industry magazines and publications, including the Fuera de Serie de Expansión (Spain) Design and Innovation Prize 2016; the Interior Design (USA) Best of the Year Prize 2016, and the Architectural Record (USA) Product of the Year Prize 2016.
Dekton® Radium represents a sheet of rusted, acid-washed steel, creating a look that perfectly combines the warm expression of orangey brown tones with the coldness of blue and green hues. Made using sustainable production methods, Dekton® Radium is manufactured using 80% recycled material.
Dekton® Nilium forms the minimalist element of the Industrial colour collection. Inspired by metal, Dekton® Nilium offers a subtle blend of silver and white colours. The delicate appearance of warm colours represents the beginning of the oxidation process.
Dekton® Orix takes inspiration from eroded cement; an industrial appearance characterised as being steely, cold and broken. Representing a dichotomy between the old and the new, the colour combination is based on different tones of grey, blue and green.


text:
As the show makes their TV debut on Revolt TV, today's guest, 50 Cent sat down with DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne Tha God of Power 105′s The Breakfast Club where the Southside Jamaica, Queens rapper speaks G-unit, running into Ja Rule & Diddy, street credibility, his upcoming album Animal Ambition, his beef with Rick Ross, and more.
© 2014, miixtapechiick. All rights reserved.


text:
Separate names with a comma.
Discussion in 'GBAtemp & Scene News' started by TPi, Apr 9, 2006.
Sweet another Demo
Sure I could just run the full game... but what the fun in that
The Icon is wrong. I get an Icon from a girl (not sure how they called, because I don't know the game so good). But this is the icon from the retail game. The Icon from the Demo is different.
The Demo probably contains beta.
MattyXB: That would be Joe's Sister Jasmine
The Teej: Probably... and Beta... but it ain't beta


text: My practice specifically relates to the exploration of instinctual form in relation to unorthodox surface methodology. My intention is to be as spontaneous as possible, a hard task given the volatile nature of clay, heat and chemicals. I prefer my work to serve a purpose, even if that purpose is not based on a functionality that is obvious in the traditional sense. I like to think that my work is about something 'other' than itself, awkward balance and pictorial narrative always present, always linked, the tangible object on the shelf or canvas on the wall representing the sometimes intangible whole, my goal being to achieve a palpable tension of opposites that is affecting on many levels. Although in a constant state of 'flux', my practice always relates to the exploration of the instinctual and expressive. I am forever immersed in colourful chaos but this freedom of expression is necessarily underpinned by considered and formal elements of design, manifesting in tangible objects that purposefully reflect and focus on love and all that is beautiful in this World, in this respect my motive remains constant regardless of material, method and outcome.


text:
Overview of the State College of
Florida Libraries Website : Scf.edu/library
For best results, do not use Explorer as a browser when using Library Resources.
If you cannot see the video, go here. If you would prefer to read the script, see below.
Hello, my name is Rhonda Kitchens. I am a Librarian at the State College of Florida at the Lakewood Ranch and Venice Campuses. You can also often find me on the library's chat/email/text service Ask A Librarian.
This video is an overview to the Library Website. It has many sections to help and guide you. It contains the Library Catalog and links to our databases.
The Home icon goes back to the main college website.
Use the Library catalog to search for books, articles, eBooks, eVideos and more. When just looking for a book by subject or to get a general feel for resources on a topic, it is a good way to browse. You may also request books from other campuses here.
Contacts and Hours will take you to all the librarian's email addresses and phone numbers. It will also let you know the hours of the Library on each campus.
Help is precisely that. The top three links are to our most asked questions.
How to log in…how to find scholarly articles….and how to cite your work. This covers APA, MLA, ASA and AMA. If you need to renew or see what you have checked out, use the Your Account link. There's also a link and widget to Live chat, email and text to a Librarian.
The next drop down box is called databases. It has many ways to access them.
SCF Databases has links to a list of our over 100 databases arranged alphabetically. You can also search this page in two key ways. First, you can search for a database by title. This search also finds keywords in the description of the title, such as, marketing or environment. You can also search or locate databases by subject. On the right hand side of this screen, if there's a Librarian produced guide on the topic, it will also appear.
Journals A-Z is where you locate what journal titles SCF has available to you full text. This is great to use when you're using another search and hit a pay wall. That is, when something on the internet asks you for money to view an article. Search for the publication name here and you may find a full text instantly readable version here.
We have also set up a Google Scholar search that will show you what SCF has available to you. Use this customized link to perform a scholarly search and look for SCF FULL TEXT link on the right hand side of the search results. Follow that link to full text. This is an expert search that many Professor's use.
Course reserves is a searchable electronic list of professor donated textbooks and course related reading.
The next drop down box is Librarian created subject and help guides. Many high schools no longer have librarians on their staff, so the terms that your Professors use may be unfamiliar. Such as: Scholarly, peer reviewed. You may need to know how to evaluate and annotate resources. These guides will also help find specific databases to help with an assignment. Remember – we have over 100 of them!
Some are specialized like the Fitne Nursing theorists evideos or broad covering many disciplines all in one search. Academic Search Complete is a database that is comprehensive. We recommend this database the most as its coverage includes primarily scholarly journals from Astronomy to Zoology. It's a great place to begin a search.
Our search box to the right searches our library catalog from every library page.
The navigation bar is on most every page that the library produces. If you can't find something, you can always find help.
The rest of the page has sections telling you about library services and library announcements. Did you know we lend out ipads? We also lend microphones and video cameras. We have a section dedicated to student recreational reading. You can make suggestions of titles, authors and series to add to this and our Student Choice DVD collection.
If you have any questions, please use any of the ways we've provided to ask. We want you to be successful in your academic pursuits. We're here to help.


text:
Identification and molecular characterization of the switchgrass AP2/ERF transcription factor superfamily, and overexpression of PvERF001 for improvement of biomass characteristics for biofuel
The APETALA2/ethylene response factor (AP2/ERF) superfamily of transcription factors (TFs) plays essential roles in the regulation of various growth and developmental programs including stress responses. Members of these TFs in other plant species have been implicated to play a role in the regulation of cell wall biosynthesis. Here, we identified a total of 207 AP2/ERF TF genes in the switchgrass genome and grouped into four gene families comprised of 25 AP2-, 121 ERF-, 55 DREB (dehydration responsive element binding)-, and 5 RAV (related to API3/VP) genes, as well as a singleton gene not fitting any of the above families. The ERF and DREB subfamilies comprised seven and four distinct groups, respectively. Analysis of exon/intron structures of switchgrass AP2/ERF genes showed high diversity in the distribution of introns in AP2 genes versus a single or no intron in most genes in the ERF and RAV families. The majority of the subfamilies or groups within it were characterized by the presence of one or more specific conserved protein motifs. In silico functional analysis revealed that many genes in these families might be associated with the regulation of responses to environmental stimuli via transcriptional regulation of the response genes. Moreover, these genes hadmore »
- Authors:
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Report Number(s):
Journal ID: ISSN 2296-4185
- Grant/Contract Number:
- Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 3; Related Information: Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology; Journal ID: ISSN 2296-4185
- Publisher:
- Frontiers Research Foundation
- Research Org:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 09 BIOMASS FUELS; 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; molecular characterization; switchgrass; biomass characteristics for biofuel; AP2; ethylene response factors; stress response; transcription factors; biofuel; PvERF001; overexpression; sugar release
- 1225355


text:
The leadership of Henrico County Public Schools regularly reviews what we're doing, where we want to go, and how we can do a better job helping students succeed.
Our strategic plan for 2015-18 has four overarching goals for improvement: Student Safety, Academic Progress, Closing Gaps and Relationships. For each of these areas, we've identified what we're doing to achieve the outcomes we want.
One way we chart our progress toward the strategic plan goals is by asking our stakeholders. Every two years, parents, students, HCPS employees and business leaders are invited to give their views on what Henrico Schools is doing well and what the division could do better. Click here to see the results of the 2016 stakeholder surveys and focus groups.
If you'd like to know more about how HCPS is moving forward, the links below will let you dig a little deeper.
The 2015-18 HCPS Strategic Plan also includes the HCPS mission statement (what we do) and our vision statement (why we do it):
Our Vision: Henrico County Public Schools believes in the right to achieve and the support to succeed for all.
Our Mission: Henrico County Public Schools, an innovative leader in educational excellence, will actively engage our students in diverse educational, social, and civic learning experiences that inspire and empower them to become contributing citizens.
Click here to review the goals and desired outcomes/indicators in the 2015-18 HCPS Strategic Plan. This version can be printed for your convenience.
Click here to review a larger document, which includes implementation tools and data that HCPS will use to achieve the desired outcomes/indicators.
Click here to review additional components of the plan, including information about enrollment projections, instructional technology and school improvement.
Henrico County Public Schools will provide expectations and training for all students/staff (school community) contributing to a physically and emotionally safe, clean, and orderly environment.
Henrico County Public Schools will provide consistent positive behavior intervention and supports in PK-12 while ensuring the Code of Student Conduct is followed.
Henrico County Public Schools will foster open dialogue and safe communication channels for all stakeholders.
- Above average or outstanding on all safety audits
- Decrease in out-of-school suspensions
- Stakeholder survey results from student and staff show decrease in bullying as an issue
Henrico County Public Schools will ensure that ALL students will achieve to their fullest potential.
Henrico County Public Schools will utilize a uniform method of monitoring and encouraging student growth
beyond standardized achievement tests.
Henrico County Public Schools will ensure supportive procedures for quality instruction across the division.
Henrico County Public Schools will establish and monitor programs that focus on successful progression
between grade levels.
Henrico County Public Schools will provide opportunities for students to develop life skills that will ensure
individual success in a 21st century global society.
- Student stakeholder survey
- On-time graduation rates
- Students will show a score increase in NWEA Measures of Academic Progress, Standards of Learning tests, Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening, end-of-year testing.
- Increase in the number of students enrolled in advanced courses (Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Honors)
- Increase in the number of students in dual-enrollment classes
- Decrease dropout rates
- Safety audit data pertaining to internet safety instruction
Henrico County Public Schools will provide staff development and resources to focus on literacy intervention and mathematics proficiency at all grade levels.
Henrico County Public Schools will publish and analyze data at the division and school level to respond to barriers preventing students from meeting their academic potential.
Henrico County Public Schools will set policies and procedures to attract and retain staff with proficiency in recognizing and overcoming barriers to student achievement.
- Graduation rates (gap data)
- Standards of Learning gap data
- Discipline gap data; i.e. minority, students with disabilities, socio-economic status
- Third-grade reading report by gap group
- Increase Advanced Placement participation by gap group
- Data on staff retention/attrition
Henrico County Public Schools will foster positive student/teacher/parent relationships through established
programs with monitored expectations.
Henrico County Public Schools will practice civic responsibility and good stewardship of resources in our
Henrico County Public Schools will create community-friendly schools in which families, students, and employees feel valued, respected, and acknowledged.
Henrico County Public Schools will build cultural understanding and appreciation among staff through focused staff development.
- Stakeholder surveys (focusing on improvement)
- Decrease out-of-school suspensions
- Decrease truancy
- Increase family and community engagement as measured by increased participation in our schools
- Increase community service hours and number of community service opportunities


text:
For the TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM (TSM)
505 Deaderick Street, Nashville, TN 37243-1120
Robert P. Thomas, Chairman, TSMF
Lois Riggins-Ezzell, Executive Director, Tennessee State Museum
Leigh R. Hendry, Director, TSM Director of External Affairs
The Tennessee State Museum Foundation seeks proposals from qualified fundraising consultants to conduct a feasibility study for a capital campaign to support the development of a new, freestanding facility to be located in Nashville, Tennessee. The study should determine how much capital can realistically be raised for the project and estimate a timeframe for obtaining the campaign goal which is anticipated to be between $50 and $100 million – approximately 25% of the total cost of the new museum project.
For additional background on the Tennessee State Museum and Tennessee State Museum Foundation, please see Appendix A.
Current Status:
As part of his FY14 budget proposal to the Legislature, Governor Haslam created the "Governor's New Museum Task Force" with the charge to develop a new master plan that will include a conceptual program, site location analysis, operating plan and budget, and capital plan and budget. The Governor also charged the Task Force with developing a funding plan that requires at least 25 % of the funding to come from private sources.
Objective and Deliverables:
I. Outline of Consultant's Role
The Tennessee State Museum Foundation is seeking a consultant to conduct a capital campaign fundraising feasibility study to determine the amount of capital that could reasonably be raised from private-sector donors, philanthropic organizations and foundations. The consultant, working in close consultation and coordination with the Tennessee State Museum Foundation Board members, the State Museum Commission members, as well as the State Museum staff leadership, would:
· Perform a fundraising assessment of the organization's fundraising capabilities
· Develop a preliminary case for future support
· Identify broad-brush examples of potential donors and reasonable gift levels
· Recommend the resources, including number of staff, volunteers and infrastructure necessary to achieve anticipated capital campaign goal of between $50 million and $100 million
The Tennessee State Building Commission recently approved state funding to engage a museum planning consultant to develop a master plan for the new State Museum (SBC#--529/050-01-2013). The successful Capital Campaign Feasibility Study Consultant selected by the Tennessee State Museum Foundation will work in tandem with the museum master planning consultant chosen by the State of Tennessee.
II. Deliverables
The consultant's primary deliverable is a feasibility study outlining the State Museum's short-and-long term fundraising goals and long-term opportunities for financial success. The feasibility study must address the key areas cited below:
· Situation Analysis—establish existing assets, challenges, opportunities and threats to the potential campaign's success, based on:
- Stakeholder research (interviews, survey, audience mapping, etc.)
- Materials review
- Infrastructure audit
- Peer Competitor review/environmental scan
· Test basic planning assumptions with potential donors
· Assess potential support through interviews, research and development knowledge of the "landscape" of major potential donors in the state of Tennessee and beyond
· Provide realistic assessment of campaign's potential success by determining if there are enough donor prospects at every level to reach the stated campaign goal
· Determine a realistic campaign goal
· Recommend potential campaign strategies and identify potential strengths, weaknesses and a prognosis for success or inability to reach the stated campaign goal
· Develop the preliminary Case for Support, including themes and supporting documentation for use in guiding a successful campaign.
· Prepare and submit written report/fundraising plan, which integrates information gleaned from confidential interviews and other research, and make final recommendations for requirements necessary to conduct and implement a successful capital campaign.
III. Selection Process
A Selection Committee comprised of the Chairman of the TSMF, the Chairman of the Governor's New Museum Task Force, and the Chairman of the Douglas S. Henry State Museum Commission, along with the TSM Executive Director and the TSM Director of External Affairs, will be responsible for reviewing responses to this RFQ against Criteria for Selection and developing a short list of firms to interview. Selected firms will be invited to make an oral presentation to the Selection Committee, which will then select the most qualified Capital Campaign Fundraising Feasibility Study Consultant, again referencing published Criteria for Selection below. The TSMF Chairman and Museum Executive Director will then begin contract negotiations with the most qualified firm. Should those negotiations not be successful, the next most qualified firm will be contacted.
IV. Criteria for Selection
The purpose of this RFQ process is to identify the qualified firms most capable of providing the desired services. The RFQ submittal should be organized to address the following criteria, which will be used to evaluate all submissions:
· Relevant experience of firm principal and any staff to be included---40 points
· References for projects of similar scope---30 points
· Familiarity with TN statewide fundraising climate & major donor prospect contacts---25 points
· Anticipated schedule and current availability---10 points
V. Submittal Requirements
All submittals must be made electronically to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Please identify your submittal as: TSMF Capital Campaign Feasibility Study Proposal. It must be delivered electronically on or before 5 p.m. on October 8, 2013.
The recipient is:
Ms. Leigh R. Hendry
Director, External Affairs
Tennessee State Museum
505 Deaderick Street
Nashville, TN 37243-1120
Unfortunately, late submittals will not be accepted. Submittal review and candidate interviews will take place in mid-October of 2013. Anticipated notice to proceed will be given in late October/early November of 2013. The final study should be ready to present on or before April 18, 2014.
Please provide straightforward and concise descriptions of the Respondent's capabilities for satisfying the requirement of this RFQ.
Submittals should be organized in the following manner:
1) Outside cover and first page shall contain project title: TSMF Capital Campaign Feasibility Study Proposal with the Respondent's name and the Submittal date;
2) Table of contents;
3) Transmittal letter which summarizes why the Respondent is the most qualified applicant;
4) Contain a statement that notes that all information contained in the RFQ submittal is complete and accurate;
5) Contain a statement granting authorization for any member of the TSMF Selection Committee to contact any previous client of either the Respondent's firm or a Respondent Team member to obtain an independent evaluation of the Respondent's performance; and
6) Contain a statement, based upon reasonable inquiry, of whether any individual who shall perform work under the contract has a possible conflict of interest (e.g., employment with the State of Tennessee) and, if so, the nature of the conflict.
7) The transmittal letter must have the signature of an officer of the responding firm; and,
8) The RFQ may not exceed a total of 10 pages when printed out.
Firm Description:
Include a complete narrative description of the Respondent's firm (or firms if there is more than one firm involved). Information should include the firm's area of specialization, the firm's history, the location of office (s), names of principal officer(s) and the identification of major consultants to be utilized.
Experience: List no more than six relevant projects but cite at least three. A relevant project is one which best demonstrates your qualifications for this project. Special focus and emphasis should be placed on projects that have a high degree of similarity to this proposed study. Include the following information for each example cited:
a. Name of project
b. Type of Feasibility Study
c. Project location
d. Total project cost
e. Services provided by your firm
f. If applicable, indicate any team members involved in project and explain their specific role
g. Provide a statement acknowledging whether the study was completed on time
h. State if you were retained for any additional or follow-up role in the project
i. Provide any addition material you feel may be relevant
Project Plan:
Include a narrative based on the selection criteria, to describe how the Respondent will organize and carry out the work to deliver the feasibility study as requested.
If applicable, include an organization chart showing how the Respondent, if selected, would organize any additional personnel for the feasibility study.
If applicable, identify any key members of the team who would be involved in the project and describe their area of expertise while noting the role they will fulfill in the project and their availability.
If applicable, provide resumes of any person identified as key professional and include name, educational background, and their proposed role in the project, identify other relevant projects they have been involved in and add any other information that you believe may be relevant.
Tennessee State Museum Purpose & Organizational Background
The purpose of the Tennessee State Museum is to procure, preserve, exhibit, and interpret objects that relate to the social, political, economic, and cultural history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, and to provide exhibitions and programs for the educational and cultural enrichment of the citizens of the state.
The Tennessee State Museum (TSM) was officially created in 1937 when the Tennessee General Assembly voted to establish "a state museum for the purpose of bringing together the administration of the various collections of articles … owned by the state." (T.C.A. 4-12-101)
Governing Authority:
Effective July 1, 2009, the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission (DHSMC) was formally established as the TSM's governing agency. The 13 voting members of the commission include 11 appointments made by the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker of the House, in addition to the chairs of the House and Senate Finance Committees or their designee. Additionally, the TSM executive director serves as an ex-officio, non-voting member. The DHSMC oversees museum operations and is entrusted with the strategic direction of the Museum, with an emphasis on the educational and cultural enrichment of the citizens of the state.
Museum Foundation:
The Museum also has a 501 (c) (3) non-profit fundraising organization: the Tennessee State Museum Foundation (TSMF), which exists solely to support the programs and activities of the State Museum through a statewide membership program, fundraising activities, grants management and a retail operation (T.C.A. 4-12-111). Originally founded as an organization to assist the Museum more than 30 years ago, the Tennessee State Museum Association was restructured and renamed TSMF in 1981 as the needs of the Museum became more defined.
The Foundation has a 22-member volunteer Board comprised of two legislative appointees (one from the State House of Representatives and one from the State Senate), plus one Governor's appointee along with active community leaders and the museum's Executive Director. During the past 25 years, the Museum Foundation has funded a number of highly regarded and well-attended major international art exhibitions, developed a more engaged statewide membership, produced special exhibition catalogs and scholarly publications, printed an award-winning quarterly newsletter and supported the Museum's free, outstanding educational programs.
Museum Background:
In 1981, the Museum's permanent historical exhibitions from pre-history to1900 opened in the James K. Polk Building (JKPB) in downtown Nashville. The TSM currently occupies approximately 120,000 square feet on three floors, including 60,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, along with 7,000 square feet of permanent foreign war exhibitions in the War Memorial Building.
In addition, The TSM administers the artifact collection at the Tennessee's Governor's official Executive Residence and the artifact collection and tour programs at the Tennessee State Capitol. The also TSM maintains ownership and oversight of most artifacts at the renowned National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and provides traveling exhibitions and technical services to museums and historic sites across the state.
Museum Collection:
The TSM has one of the oldest collections in the United States, since it manages in trust the artifacts of the Tennessee Historical Society, which includes a nucleus from 1818. TSM is one of the finest and largest state museums in the nation. Within its collection of more than 115,000 artifacts, the TSM has many one-of-a-kind items associated with such famous Americans as Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone, James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, David Crockett, Sam Houston, Alvin York, Cordell Hull, Alex Haley, and Elvis Presley. The collections include art (fine arts, decorative arts, folk arts, and contemporary arts), political and social history (state, national and international), and military history (flags, uniforms, firearms, edged weapons, and artifacts related to civilian life during wartime), science, and natural history.
The Museum is an accredited member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and adheres to the association's ethical and professional standards and practices.
Programs, Activities, and Visitation:
TSM serves more than 100,000-plus visitors annually (nearly 179,039 in FY 2012-2013). School groups account for approximately 65% of the visitation. For its school programming, the TSM strives to provide exhibitions, resources and programs to serve Tennessee's primary and secondary schools, both public and private. The service goals for the non-school public are to provide special programs that enrich the visitor's knowledge of the exhibitions and provide printed materials which meet a range of needs: from family activity guides to special tours, seminars, workshops, and other activities for adults. The Museum's store also carries educational materials and gifts for these diverse visitors.
Museum Staff:
The professional and clerical staff of the museum numbers 42, arranged into seven program areas: Administration, Museum Services, Collections, Exhibit Planning and Fabrication, Exhibit Design, External Affairs/Museum Foundation Liaison, and Public Programs. Each program is headed by a departmental director who reports to the Museum's executive director. The executive director, in turn, reports to the DHSMC.
Annual Operating Budget:
The State Museum's annually confirmed state operating budget is approximately $3.9 million, including a small state allocation reserved for acquisitions. Additional support for TSM projects and activities comes through the fundraising efforts of the Tennessee State Museum Foundation.
505 Deaderick Street
Nashville, TN 37243-1120
The Tennessee Military Branch Museum is open for visitors.
301 6th Ave N
Nashville, TN 37243
505 Deaderick Street
Nashville, TN 37243-1120
The Tennessee Military Branch Museum is open for visitors.
301 6th Ave N
Nashville, TN 37243


text:
Our BoardCommNexus is a non-profit organization that is member supported. We rely on the sponsorship of industry companies, along with the participation of individuals from our community, to assist us in helping the San Diego technology community. Our Board of Directors is comprised of representatives from our sponsor companies and industry advisors.
Our Team
At the heart of EvoNexus is a driven team working tirelessly to ensure EvoNexus provides startups with the support and opportunities needed to prosper and pioneer the future of technology.
Austin Neudecker
Mentor In Residence
Head of Growth at Rev.com
Grew up in San Diego, went East for school (MIT) and stayed for ~12 years. Dabbled in tech startups in undergrad. After a successful 5-year career in Strategy Consulting (Mars), managing high-impact projects for Fortune 50 companies, I left for an MBA (Wharton), joined a VC firm (Genacast) and started investing in early stage tech companies. Left to start a couple digital health companies (AdhereTech & Yealthy).
Went through the Y Combinator program in San Fran, raised a couple rounds and moved back to San Diego. While here I have continued to iterate on startup ideas, advise numerous companies, and help build the ecosystem in town by founding Startup San Diego and starting a handful of open programs (Mentor Night, Domain Expert Hours, SD Startup Week…) + helped build the EvoStart accelerator program. Spend a huge amount of time helping others, hacking away on my next big idea, but always looking for the right opportunity.
Now I am head of Growth at Rev.com, an amazing startup in SF growing at an exponential pace. It's a wild ride and I am tremendously lucky to be a part of such a strong team.


text:
Press Release brought to you by Zephyr Real Estate
Zephyr Real Estate Launches Free Mobile Websites for All Agents
Zephyr Real Estate Launches Free Mobile Websites for All Agents
San Francisco, CA – April 3, 2014 – Zephyr Real Estate has just added another major asset to the stockpile of value-added tools for all its agents. Zephyr agents now have at their disposal their own mobile-optimized agent websites.
Zephyr has provided its agents with free individual websites for several years now. The free agent websites pack all the features and functionality of the full Zephyr website into an individual website with customization for the agent. With the addition of a mobile-optimized version built in, agents can now offer clients the best user experience whether on a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
Zephyr's website includes MLS-powered property searches enabling users to easily find all available properties for sale in San Francisco. Property searches are by neighborhood rather than zip code, providing users a more refined and detailed search, which includes photos, detailed descriptions and property features. Searches can be further filtered by bedroom and bathroom count, parking availability, property type, price and much more.
Clients who register with a free MyZephyr account will find even more detailed features. For example, users are able to find additional properties not available on public websites, search pending and sold properties, save searches and favorites, receive new listing and price reduction email alerts, and use Zephyr's exclusive Home Tour tool. This tool allows the creation of a customized tour map when planning a tour of Sunday open homes. All of the personalized saved information, from searches to tours, is available from anywhere for those with a MyZephyr account, whether utilizing the full site or the mobile site.
"As technology continues its rapid advances, one of our goals is to ensure that our agents have the best, most effective tools available," commented Randall Kostick, Chief Operations Officer at Zephyr. "Providing free mobile websites is simply the latest of many assets now available and yet to come."
About Zephyr Real Estate
Founded in 1978, Zephyr Real Estate is San Francisco's largest independent real estate firm with nearly $1.8 billion in gross sales in 2013 and a current roster of more than 220 full-time agents. In 2010, Zephyr launched its new website, which has earned two web design awards, including the prestigious Interactive Media Award. Zephyr Real Estate is a member of the international relocation network, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; the luxury real estate network, Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate; and the local luxury marketing association, the Luxury Marketing Council of San Francisco. Zephyr has six strategically located offices in San Francisco, a business center in Marin County, and serves a large customer base throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit http://www.zephyrsf.com.
04/02/2014 - 14:43
Zephyr Real Estate
Want more news about Zephyr Real Estate? Click here
Connect: Contact company


text:
The world's thinnest and lightest business-class laptop!
Exquisite craftsmanship and exceptional performance are united in the HP EliteBook Folio. With hand-selected materials and premium features optimised for collaboration, it's the choice for those who value a flawless experience.
The Folio is built for business to handle high-performance requirements with a 6th Generation Intel® Core™ processor, PCIe SSDs, 8GB of memory, and long battery life.
Weighing less than 2.2 lb/1kg this PC is designed to turn heads with a polished diamond-cut CNC aluminium, durable body. The ultra-thin design features a 180-degree unique piano hinge to lay completely flat for easy sharing with others.
Complete with crystal-clear audio by Bang & Olufsen and the HP Premium Collaboration Keyboard to launch calls and video chats with a touch of a button.
The following models are now available for quoting in iQuote:
AMS Smart Buy Models: W0R77UT,W0R79UT,W0R80UT,W0R82UT,W0R78UT,W0R81UT,W0R83UT,W0R84UT
AMS 'A' Models: W0R79UA,W0R80UA,W0R82UA,W0R78UA,W0R81UA,W0R84UA
EMEA 'A' Models: V1C36EA,V1C40EA,V1C39EA,V1C37EA,V1C42EA,V1C41EA,V1C60EA,V1C64EA,V1C43EA
iQuote is Configure, Price, Quote Software developed for HP Inc. by www.channelcentral.net/CPQ


text:
March 28, 2015
|Brazil's economy is likely to come under increasing pressure as the dollar rises in value. Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters
Greek ministers are spending this weekend, almost five grinding years since Athens was first bailed out, wrangling over the details of the spending cuts and economic reforms they have drawn up to appease their creditors.
As the recriminations fly between Europe's capitals, campaigners are warning that the global community has failed to learn the lessons of the Greek debt crisis – or even of Argentina's default in 2001, the consequences of which are still being contested furiously in courts on both sides of the Atlantic.
As Janet Yellen's Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates, boosting the value of the dollar, while the plunging price of crude puts intense pressure on the finances of oil-exporting countries, there are growing fears of a new debt crisis in the making.
Ann Pettifor of Prime Economics, who foreshadowed the credit crunch in her 2003 book The Coming First World Debt Crisis, says: "We're going to have another financial crisis. Brazil's already in great trouble with the strength of the dollar; I dread to think what's happening in South Africa; then there's Malaysia. We're back to where we were, and that for me is really frightening."
Since the aftershocks of the global financial crisis of 2008 died away, the world's policymakers have spent countless hours rewriting the banking rulebook and rethinking monetary policy. But next to nothing has been done about the question of what to do about countries that can't repay their debts, or how to stop them getting into trouble in the first place.
Developing countries are using the UN to demand a change in the way sovereign defaults are dealt with. Led by Bolivian ambassador to the UN Sacha Sergio Llorenti, they are calling for a bankruptcy process akin to the Chapter 11 procedure for companies to be applied to governments.
Unctad, the UN's Geneva-based trade and investment arm, has been working for several years to draw up a "roadmap" for sovereign debt resolution. It recommends a series of principles, including a moratorium on repayments while a solution is negotiated; the imposition of currency controls to prevent capital fleeing the troubled country; and continued lending by the IMF to prevent the kind of existential financial threat that roils world markets and causes severe economic hardship.


text:
|10 October 2017
Samuel Enslin
3D Generalist
Acolori Medienproduktion GmbH
Hamburg, Germany
How to create proper wrinkle maps?
Hey there,
I´m considering the use of wrinkle maps for my upcoming short film about Tardigrades (links in my signature).
But I´m not sure how to create them properly...
My guess would be:
1. Export basemesh+base displacement layer.
2. Rig.
3, Pose in several poses, where I want wrinkle maps (for example between legs and body).
4. Export poses.
5. Import poses in Zbrush.
6. Sculpt wrinkles for each pose separately in Zbrush.
7. Export wrinkle maps and blend maps with base discplament in animation package.
I´m not sure though, if I maybe need a step after Number 6, where I first apply the based displacement to the posed mesh and then sculpt the wrinkles on a layer on top of that.
And i have no idea right now how to control the blending of the wrinkle maps, since rigging and animation is going to be done in Maya, while shading and rendering will be done via Alembic in 3ds Max.
Which means I won´t be able to use the rig to drive the wrinkle maps, unless i can also export the animated rig together with the mesh somehow....
Or I can just hand key the wrinkle maps in Max...
|10 October 2017
Rigging TD
Axis Animation
Glasgow, United Kingdom
You should be able to create wrinkles like any other pose space deformation (PSD), typically when people think of a PSD they think of a corrective blend shape being activated by a rotation, an example of this would be on the elbows and knees, however PSDs can be driven by anything so you could use the translation of your eyebrow control to drive the blend shape weights.
The process should be like this:
- Rig the character
- Create poses in areas you want to have wrinkles
- For every pose, duplicate and export the mesh to ZBrush
- Sculpt the wrinkles
- Extract the vertex difference between the sculpt and the pose and apply it to a new mesh
- Use the new mesh as a blend shape target
- Drive the weight of the blend shape using the translation of the control
At Axis we export information to Houdini for light and shading, sometimes when we sculpt the correctives we sculpt on a higher subdivision layer and extract a displacement map which is used in the shader. The value of the displacement is driven by some object in Maya, we can do this because Alembic allows you to export animated attributes, you should be able to do the same thing in 3ds Max.
Hope this helps.
|10 October 2017
Samuel Enslin
3D Generalist
Acolori Medienproduktion GmbH
Hamburg, Germany
Hey Harry,
thanks for the input!
This confirms at least the first part (who to sculpt the wrinklemaps properly).
For the second part I´m not quite sure yet how I can use that in 3DS max.
Since the animated mesh is pretty lowpoly and I modelling the topology to make it wrinkle would have been too much work, I want to drive the wrinkles through displacement maps.
AS far as I could follow you now, I would have to make sure to not just export the animated geo from Maya via alembic, but also include the control objects.
Using them I should be able to wire up a wrinkle-map setup in 3ds Max...right?
|10 October 2017
Rigging TD
Axis Animation
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Sorry for the late response, I didn't get any automate email that you had replied to my message.
When you cache the alembic you lose the rig, all that's stored is the vertex animation. You can also export animated channels, so if you have a control to animate the eyebrow moving up and down then you can export the translation channel and use the value to drive a multiplier of a displacement map. So if you eyebrow control goes from 1 to -1 (1 is 100% up and -1 is 100% down) in the translate Y channel (could be another channel but Y is the world space UP direction in Maya) you can wire this into a composite texture in 3ds Max which control the displacement.
At Axis we just have an empty transform group which is used to store all the animated channels we want to export into Houdini. You would just create a new attribute on the group and connect the value from your controls to the group.
|10 October 2017
Export mesh in desired pose to ZBrush...sculpt wrinkles, generate normal map or displacement map...import into max...create a composite material with base displacement map, apply another layer which is your wrinkle map, create a mask for that layer...changing opacity value in the wrinkle map brings in desired wrinkle map.. Hook up the wrinkle map to rig system (using Rig Vadar or similar)..
|10 October 2017
Samuel Enslin
3D Generalist
Acolori Medienproduktion GmbH
Hamburg, Germany
No problems, the problem is a bit further down the road for my project anyways...
Just wanted to get an idea early on, sculpting will be first and I´ll give your tips about the empty transform group to my rigger.
Thanks again!
|reply share thread
« Previous Thread | Next Thread »


text:
Some free programs to clone a hard drive are AOMEI Backupper Standard and DriveImage XML. AOMEI Backupper Standard is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10. Its Disk Clone feature lets users copy the contents of one hard drive to another.Continue Reading
DriveImage XML is compatible with Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 7 and 8. The private edition of this software is free for home use. Users can create an image of a hard drive and restore the image to another drive. It supports various hard drive formats, including FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32, in addition to NTFS. Alternatively, users can copy the content of one hard drive directory to another.Learn more about Computers & Hardware


text:
Inspiring and preparing young people for employment by bringing together education and business.
I really enjoyed the day! The event helped me improve my public speaking and presentation skills.
I now have a better understanding of what it will be like to work in catering and hospitality.
It was great to see the students engaged and really learning from the workshop. It was really rewarding to be able to give them support and feedback.
I found the careers fair to be an excellent way of engaging with pupils, being able to talk to them about our industry and products, as well as getting them excited about a possible career at L'Oréal.
Now I know the importance of languages and how they break so many barriers and bring opportunities.
This was a great opportunity for young people to see what UKTV is about and for UKTV to have an awareness of potential future talent in the local community.
It's great working with One EBP they give us access to the community of students, they help us to fast track into those communities and they've acted as an ambassador for our programme.
One EBP provides training for our volunteers, together with support and advice, ensuring that our staff have the key skills when working with young people.
Do volunteer – there is development for yourself as well as the student.