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Monday, February 6, 2017
Books for Writers - Guerrilla Marketing for Writers
50 comments:
I've heard of both these titles, but haven't checked them out. Thanks for the reviews, Chrys!ReplyDeleteReplies
You're welcome, Madeline!Delete
I have the second one but I've not checked out the first one yet.ReplyDeleteReplies
I think they're both great.Delete
Oh dear. I know I should be more motivated, but I find marketing so dry and so hard to do...ReplyDeleteReplies
Marketing is hard to do, but I find that when I look at things like this, and see all the different ideas, I get a little excited to try it.Delete
Sure sound like they will help try and kick things into gear. But marketing? What's that? I think the cat just walked away lolReplyDeleteReplies
Would the Cat consider marketing to dogs? :PDelete
No, I don't have a favorite marketing book, but I should have one. Thanks for the info. on these.ReplyDeleteReplies
You're welcome, Tamara!Delete
The only marketing book I've ever read was for creative businesses and using social media. I bet there are some similar ideas.ReplyDeleteReplies
I've looked at a few for social media. :)Delete
I have both of those books. 1001 ways is so invaluable.ReplyDeleteReplies
I got them from the library. I wished I owned them. lolDelete
I don't recall any marketing books off the top of my head that I've read or run across. Most of the marketing advice I've seen has come from the writing and publishing blogosphere. So many people (not just writers) don't understand effective marketing, and seem to think it just consists of nonstop Tweets or Facebook posts begging people to buy the products.ReplyDeleteReplies
Nonstop tweets do get on my nerves.Delete
I learned early on that librarians are a writer's best friend and that you can serve bugs for breakfast as long as you present them right. Aside from that, the idea of marketing sits in a drawer like an itchy old shirt I hope to grow out of before I ever have to wear it. However, this"Guerrilla Marketing" concept has me thinking fondly of camouflage stilettos ;-) I like the July and August idea too. Thanks for the tips, Chrys!ReplyDeleteReplies
You'e welcome, Diedre!Delete
I've never looked at any marketing books (yet!). I'll have to keep these in mind. :)ReplyDelete
I haven't read any marketing books, just writing ones, but these sound like good tips. Thanks!ReplyDeleteReplies
I think I've read more marketing books than writing books. :PDelete
Thanks for the tips with these books Chrys.......may come in handy one day.ReplyDelete
I like to hear that, Yvonne.Delete
I need help, that's for sure. My marketing is pitiful. May take a look. Thanks.ReplyDeleteReplies
You'll only benefit, Beverly. :)Delete
As you know, Chrys, I haven't got around to marketing yet. Still 'girding my loins' as they say, waiting on finishing my Paris novel. I have marketing books on my Kindle. Must get around to reading them. The first you mentioned sounds a bit complicated. There's lots of help out there. In my post today, I've posted some of the helpful comments from my IWSG post, where people offered some experience and advice on self-publishing.ReplyDeleteReplies
It's never too early to start drafting a marketing plan. :)Delete
I think this would help many writers because, from what I have red, many have a hard time to market themselves so any tips would be most useful. On another note I am wondering if anyone would like my new name...Chestnut LaneReplyDeleteReplies
It is tough. I even struggle with it. The more advice you can get, the better.Delete
Chestnut Lane? I like it. Almost reminds me of a horses's name. :P
These sound like very helpful marketing tips. Interesting idea to publish books during July and August. There's plenty of food for thought here.ReplyDelete
And food for thought is what we need. :)Delete
These are great suggestions. I haven't read either but will definitely add them to my list. I find most of my marketing advice through online articles these days.ReplyDeleteReplies
Online articles are full of great advice.Delete
Thanks for the marketing book tips. It's an area that I know nothing about, but probably should learn more about.ReplyDeleteReplies
It's always nice to start learning as soon as you can.Delete
Great resources, Chrys. Thanks for sharing them. I've only heard of the first book. One thing to think on is the difference between marketing a physical book vs. an e-book. There are so many differences. I personally found it much more time consuming and also fun to market the physical book. Also, like Deidre said earlier, Libraries are a great outlet. They also have a system for e-books now. This is an important topic because even if a writer has an agent, they are often responsible for their own marketing. It's not an easy feat.ReplyDeleteReplies
You're absolutely right!!!! The problem I had for the longest time was that I only had short story and novella ebooks available. Now that I have print books, the marketing is different. There's more ways to marketing and they are more fun, too. :)Delete
Since I don't have a book out there yet, I haven't paid much attention to marketing other than collecting blog posts on the subject. Funnily enough, I posted today about marketing tricks for Amazon that I learned from an interview with Chris Fox.ReplyDeleteReplies
Starting to jot down ideas that you could do or would be interested in trying would be a great place to start now.Delete
Every time I find marketing gold I put it in my magic folder. Not everything works for me, if you know what I mean. heheheReplyDelete
Anna from elements of emaginetteReplies
Not everything works for me either. lolDelete
Sounds like a great help for writers.ReplyDeleteReplies
These books sure are. :)Delete
I don't buy marketing books because I'd rather find out on my own through trial and error than use someone else's formula. What works for one person is never guaranteed to work for another person. We're more interested in finding what works best for us, and that's not a problem because we're never at a shortage for crazy marketing ideas.ReplyDeleteReplies
I like to get ideas from the marketing books and tweak them for myself. Trial and error is how it is done, for sure.Delete
Just thinking of marketing makes me feel tired. But I need to shake it off and check out the book.ReplyDeleteReplies
Marketing can have that effect.Delete
I bought John Kremer's book when I started out in publishing my children's activity books about 10 years ago. That's the only book on marketing books I've bought and . . . though it was thoroughly informative, can't say it's helped, even less so now that the ways of marketing have changed since its publication.ReplyDeleteReplies
That is true. Marketing changes each year.Delete
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Sun file photos
Friday, April 30, 2010 | 10:53 a.m.
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Sun Coverage
Attorneys for Mandalay Bay casino-resort in Las Vegas are asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to dismiss the bankruptcy filing by the Rumjungle nightclub there, saying it was filed in bad faith and is a misuse of the bankruptcy process.
Rumjungle Las Vegas LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on March 16, saying it needed court protection to prevent it from being evicted because of $1.1 million in back rent due the 4,328-room Mandalay Bay.
But in a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for Mandalay Bay said the "purported $1.1 million Mandalay claim is a fabrication made by Rumjungle in its hopes of circumventing Mandalay's contractual and state law rights."
Rumjungle and Mandalay Bay, owned by Las Vegas Strip giant MGM Mirage, have been locked in state court litigation since 2008.
Rumjungle claims Mandalay Bay breached the lease dated in 1998 allowing it to be the sole nightclub at the resort when Mandalay Bay opened the eyecandy sound lounge, which Rumjungle claims is a nightclub. Rumjungle also claims Mandalay Bay failed to send sufficient "comp" business to the club.
Mandalay Bay has counter-charged that Rumjungle and its sister business, the Red Square Restaurant at the resort, had previously breached their lease agreements.
In its filing Tuesday, Mandalay Bay said Rumjungle's problems relate to the recession and its lack of competitiveness with nightclub competitors that have opened over the years on and near the Las Vegas Strip.
"Like for virtually all other Las Vegas businesses, 2009 was a bad year for Rumjungle. Las Vegas was in the throes of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Considering that Rumjungle is a decade-old and outdated nightclub that has suffered continuing revenue declines for several years due to competition, it surprised no one that Rumjungle's 2009 revenues continued to decline," Mandalay Bay's attorneys wrote in their filing.
Mandalay Bay said business was so bad for Rumjungle that its revenue failed to generate sufficient cash flow to trigger any minimum rent payments to Mandalay. That triggered Mandalay Bay's right to terminate the lease, the resort attorneys argued.
"Now, wanting to hold onto the premises and hold up Mandalay's abilities to improve the property, Rumjungle resorts to the fanciful assertion that Mandalay's breach of the lease by operating 'eyecandy' is responsible for Rumjungle's revenue shortfall. According to Rumjungle, this conveniently allows it to remain at a below-market rent for the premises indefinitely," Mandalay Bay's filing said.
"Mandalay wants to exercise its contractual rights and retake its property. Mandalay has no interest in a reorganization and believes that, even after every other creditor is paid in full, Rumjungle's assets are more than sufficient to satisfy any actual debt owed to Mandalay. Plainly, Rumjungle has no interest in a reorganization, either. It has nothing to reorganize and is simply trying to use the bankruptcy process to stay in possession of the premises in violation of its contractual and state law obligations," Mandalay's filing said.
"Rumjungle's filing with this court is false. Mandalay has never asserted that it is owed $1.1 million as a debt. Mandalay has never demanded that Rumjungle pay $1.1 million for ... rent from 2009. Rather, as the lease unequivocally states, Mandalay exercised its contractual right of termination because Rumjungle did not generate sufficient available cash flow in 2009 so as to generate enough business that Mandalay would receive at least $1.1 million," the filing said. "The lease does not provide that Rumjungle is obligated to pay $1.1 million in ... rent. It provides that Mandalay may terminate the lease if Rumjungle fails to generate sufficient business that results in Mandalay receiving at least $1.1 million in ... rent," the filing said,
The attorneys for Mandalay Bay, Todd Bice and Jeffrey Rugg of the Las Vegas firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, said in the filing that Rumjungle has plenty of resources to pay its real creditors and that the bankruptcy is simply running up unnecessary legal expenses.
Rumjungle has yet to respond to the motion that its bankruptcy be dismissed. The state court litigation between the parties has been transferred to the bankruptcy court, but if Mandalay Bay is successful in its motion the lawsuit will likely be sent back to District Court for Clark County.

subset: commoncrawl


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Some online resources that provide installation guides or manual for gas vent pipes are AmeriVent, VentingPipe and Metal-Fab Inc. These companies offer different types and brands of venting pipes, including DuraVent and MetalBest B gas vent systems.
At the AmeriVent site, there are round and oval type B gas vent pipes and fitting in a variety of pipe diameter sizes. This site also provides installation instructions for these types of gas vent pipes. Additionally, AmeriVent offers other venting products, including direct and pellet stove vents.
The VentingPipe site also has B class gas vent pipes for different brands, including DuraVent, HeatFab and MetalBest venting systems. The Metal-Fab Inc. site also has instructions for these types of vent pipes. Two different sets of instructions are available for pipe diameter sizes the range from 3 to 14 inches and from 16 to 30 inches. Other installation guide resources include Hart & Cooley and Gorman Industries Inc.


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French Kissing Techniques She Will Love - How to Nail the Perfect Kiss
Kissing is a very special part of physical intimacy
and women value it with so much passion and zeal that a make-out
session is not complete without it. To see it in the romantic light, a
kiss entails love --- and let's cut all that crap about "It's just a
kiss. No big deal". Old news --- it's for amateurs. A kiss is not just
a kiss --- it's so much more than that that's why it's a pity to get
stuck on your usual French kiss --- all too predictable and boring. We
all love a little sexual tension every time we kiss someone and let's
not waste time on not being creative. So let's try to give it a little
twist, shall we? Below are the five French kissing techniques she will
love --- and definitely drive you wilder. Nail that perfect kiss now.
The slow twirling of the tongue. It's time
to get your tongue some serious exercise --- the slow twirling of your
tongue on hers will definitely get her all fired up for some more.
Women love to be taken slow and nice and they love everything smooth
and easy that's why you should reflecting that on your future kisses
with her. Believe me, it will tease her senses and she'd be all over
you tonight.
Sweet, sensual start. Of course you can also get all rough and a bit more aggressive with your girl, however, it's important that you start slow at first. Give it a sweet sensual start and shift on it to get it more passionate. Once you hear her moaning, groaning and digging her fingers on your back, give it a go --- kiss her with fervor and urgency and she will match your pace with the same eagerness.
All passion and drama. This
is a perfect kiss for couples who haven't seen each other for some time
--- for a long distance relationship couple, perhaps? Give it your all
and pour to the very last ounce of your passion until you're both
panting and heavily breathing for more. Warning: might lead to have sex
in a matter of seconds.
The teasing flick. Glide your tongue in and out of her mouth, giving her tongue quick flickers of yours. It's like teasing and torturing her to ask for it, to deepen the kiss and end her agony. Keep it going even if she's already holding you tight and practically begging you to give it all --- the passion is like an explosion and the feeling is definitely overwhelming. Enjoy the treat!
Are you up for more hot sizzling kissing techniques guaranteed to make your girl ask for more? Get some free lessons on creative kissing tricks and even on French kissing techniques by visiting my website now! It holds all amazing techniques on how to be great and sensual with women and for you to seduce girls you thought you'd never get a chance with! You're on click away from all the excitement!
Sexy Neck Kissing Tips For Men - How to Stimulate Your Girl While Making Out
The neck is a very sensitive part of the body but is often taken for granted during foreplay. The amazing part is, it's not only supposed to be given extra attention during foreplay --- the neck can be a great spot to hit on when you're flirting and making out with someone. It has very sensitive and fragile endings and nerves prompting you to feel all high and turned on. And that goes the same with the girls --- kissing their necks is one way of making them feel totally beautiful and desired. So don't get stuck on your regular French kiss and making-out routine --- get wild with these naughty and sexy neck kissing tips for men and you will surely have her instantly!
Look at her first.
Eye contact is very crucial in your first attempts to start
neck-kissing her. Flirting can take you a long way and maintaining eye
contact all the while can be surely lead to other things --- go easy
there, cowboy. The eyes reveal so much that you don't have to mind
whatever she's saying --- if she can't keep her eyes off of you, that's
one sizzling go signals you have there.
Get adventurous. Neck-kissing is not just kissing the neck --- let loose of your imagination! Gentle bites, sloppy ones, light feathery kisses --- you can practically get all naughty and adventurous in all ways possible. Of course, take time to enjoy and savor the pleasure --- you'd surely have a great time.
Use your tongue. Now go easy
on this one, it might freak her out. Make sure that you're now in the
middle of your hot make-out session before you attempt this. A kiss is
not a kiss without the tongue so put it to good use --- when things get
all heated up and she's practically begging you to deepen the passion,
then it's prime time to unleash the tongue.
Make her moan.
How would you do that? Simple --- make it linger. Of course, I have to
warn you on possible beet red kiss marks on the neck but that's okay
--- everybody can understand. A few neck kissing escapades sure is a
sexy way to spend the weekend now, isn't it?
Let her know it feels good.
By this time, she may have reciprocated the action. When she's giving
you her own neck kissing techniques, let her know it makes you feel
good --- moaning and groaning can definitely get your message across.
It's going to turn her on big time in a snap!
Are you up for more hot sizzling creative kissing techniques guaranteed to make your girl ask for more? Get some free lessons and discover more on better kissing techniques and other naughty neck kissing tips by visiting my website now! It holds all amazing techniques on how to be great and sensual with women you thought you'd never get a chance with! You're on click away from all the excitement!


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Our June New Moon enters our horizon evening. New Moons represent a birth and renewal, and an IDEAL time to set Intentions.
We can use the Ancient Yogic Practice of Sankalpa to set our intentions. With this >>> Live Facebook Video
***** To hear the video sound please click/tap the actual video and / or hover ***** over the bottom right of the video to raise the volume.
Your participation remains the Source of my inspiration! Namasté!


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For starters, it's right on top of us. Much of our greatest science fiction is taking place right now. But instead of science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov's humanlike robot playmate or the Jetsons' jet cars, we have the Internet.
So it's time to dream new dreams. Let's fast-forward just five years, to the amazing world of 2005, to see what opportunities technology will open up for marketers:
* How about ads that are targeted not to a demographic or psychographic group, but to you specifically -- ads that know what you need, what you want, what you imagine?
* How about a house of smart appliances with Internet connections -- refrigerators that tell you when you're running out of milk and dryers that know to call the repairman before they break?
* How about a cell phone that knows where you are and can direct you to a great new Korean restaurant, or a Palm Pilot that delivers streaming video right to your hand?
* How about a TV that airs a pizza ad you can order from at the click of a button, with total integration between a channel and its Web site?
* How about underwear that knows your glucose level is dropping and automatically injects you with insulin or clothing that senses a heart attack coming and tells you to take a pill?
All these miracles are possible in the amazing world of tomorrow. These are not technologies in a lab, but working prototypes, many just about to hit the market.
The potential for marketers in just five years makes today's Web offerings look like a warm-up act. While these services will rely on the Internet to communicate between newfangled gadgets and more intelligent servers, most of the services won't be based on HTML for practical reasons.
For example, you can't run a Web browser on a cell phone screen, and you don't want one inside your shirt. A voice interface, already being advertised as a way to talk to your PC, may be the way to go, making "top of mind" marketing a real concept.
The pitfalls for marketers are also obvious. While today's Web is open, each of these new technologies has a potential gatekeeper -- cell phone operators, cable companies, appliance makers, even hospitals and insurance companies.
How the gatekeepers react may determine whether these visions become reality. In the 21st century, nothing is impossible. It's just a question of whether the market accepts it -- and whether you can break into the market.
The following scenarios are based on predictions by market researchers, futurists and company executives about the future's pressure points and where marketers will fit in.
You've never been in this convention town before, and you need to host a business dinner in 30 minutes at a restaurant that's not too expensive because your company is on a tight budget.
Since this is 2005, you pull out your new cell phone, which features a flat color screen. The phone knows where you are, and quickly lists a half-dozen nearby restaurants. Your phone also knows you have a dining card that offers discounts, so it displays in boldface a restaurant that accepts the card. You're not sure it's right for your guests, so you click over to a multimedia tour of the place.
You see it has a private dining room, so you use the phone to reserve it. The phone then tells you how to get there, warning you if you make a wrong turn.
This isn't science fiction. By the year 2005, cellular devices will know where you are, says Eddie Hold, principal analyst for wireless services at Current Analysis, Sterling, Va., a competitive analysis firm.
Already, many of the elements in this scenario appear on Mr. Hold's desk. Cellular phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson feature touch screens and computing power, and they're becoming more like personal digital assistants such as the Palm Pilot, he says.
"You'll be able to do some Web browsing on those," he says. "You'll be able to do things such as MP3 downloads [of music]. Ericsson already has an MP3 attachment for their phones."
Third-generation cellular technology, expected to be widely available by 2005, will offer download speeds up to 2 Mbps, Mr. Hold adds. "The speed depends on where you are, whether you're moving. If you're in the car, you still can get 384 Kbps."
Josh Bernoff, principal analyst for Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass.-based market researcher, disagrees with Mr. Hold on the need for both the screen and the broadband access. But, he says, most phones in 2005 should know where you are, using enhanced 911 technology.
"The future is a voice interface," Mr. Bernoff says. "It's a phone, talk to it. It just calls up the information source, and the source pumps some bits out."
The best applications for these phones will be time and location dependent, he predicts. "It will give you just what you ask for when you ask for it. It's instant answers to your questions."
Barbara Boyle, global marketing manager for Ericsson in Richardson, Texas, says her company is already working on a service called Mobile Internet Advertiser for these new phones.
"It will send simple ads to your mobile phone, based on a preference you input and your agreement with the service provider," Ms. Boyle says, explaining that those revenues will help subsidize the cost of the service.
Apparently, that call we described was free.
Wearable monitors
You've been a diabetic all your life, but now it's become more serious. Your doctor has warned you to get medical help immediately if you feel a hot pain in your feet. Trouble is, you can't feel your feet.
But your new socks can. You're walking to your office when your beeper issues a warning. You turn around and head for the hospital.
Sam Joffe, president of FitSense Technology, Wellesley, Mass., says wristwatches that measure your glucose levels already exist. The form may change, but the direction is clear, he says. "Tracking glucose, or tracking people with cardiac issues, those sorts of chronic diseases where an intervention can make a big difference," represents a big, new market for sensor technology.
Alex Lightman, CEO of Charmed Technology, Sherman Oaks, Calif., is working on "microtubes" that make the socks possible. "The socks aren't computers. [Microtubes are] sensors interwoven into objects, with Internet connectivity," Mr. Lightman says. "The clothing [with the] microtubes will exude scents and cleaning chemicals so they clean themselves."
The microtubes will broadcast as well as sense, he says. "People will get their clothes for free in exchange for tiny scrolling ad bars woven into clothing," such as shirts and jackets, creating what are essentially little billboards to advertise products.
But Julie Tracy, director of marketing for Thoratec Labs, a Pleasanton, Calif., company that makes portable heart pumps designed to help heart patients survive until a transplant, warns that regulatory agencies could keep Mr. Lightman's ideas in the labs for decades.
"Because the [Food & Drug Administration] regulates our industry, the approval time for these devices can be quite long," Ms. Tracy says. Still, the technology continues to advance as it waits approval. Thoratec's pump technology is nearly 20 years old, she says, "but the [unit] has gotten a lot smaller, down to less than 20 pounds," from 300 pounds originally.
Dr. Ross Jaffe, a physician and managing director of Versant Ventures, a Menlo Park, Calif., venture capital firm specializing in medicine, agrees with Ms. Tracy.
"Will monitoring technology improve healthcare? Yes," he says. "Will wearing a body suit be normal in five years? I doubt it."
The bigger change may be in the use of tiny PCs worn by doctors to collect data and access databases. Doctors would have a small screen in front of one eye and wear the PC on their head or on their wrist, with wireless connections to the Internet.
In five years, these will become small, cheap, light and fast, says Mike Jenkins, chief technology officer for Xybernaut Corp., a Fairfax, Va., company that holds key patents in this area.
Xybernaut's "core computing" technology will let doctors plug their PC settings and voice patterns into any other system that supports it, whether it's a desktop, laptop or wearable PC.
"It will be smaller than a Palm Pilot, operating at 1 GHz," Mr. Jenkins predicts. And it won't need FDA approval.
A network for every home
An e-mail from your burglar alarm company informs you that the refrigerator repairman came to your house. You didn't even know the appliance was broken.
On your way home from work, you page the oven to preheat to 450 degrees so you can start baking a pizza as soon as you arrive. While you're at it, you tell the guest bedroom to readjust its temperature to 73 degrees -- your mom's visiting, and she likes a warm room.
By 2005, new homes will be built with servers that link to the Internet and to appliances. The tools for creating these "smart" houses are now on sale.
Honeywell, Minneapolis, and IBM-spinoff Home Director, Raleigh, N.C., are among the leaders in this new market. Mary Walker, CEO of Home Director, says she expects 25% of homes to have some network capability by 2005.
The opportunities here will be huge, say Russ Straate, business development leader for the home comfort and systems group at Honeywell. "When we demonstrate the business model, the application will take off," he predicts.
The brain of the smart home will be a server that fits inside a wall and connects to phone lines, electric lines and a radio that can reach other appliances, Mr. Straate says. Homebuilders will install this type of computer in new homes, while heating and security companies will retrofit it into older homes.
Monitoring alarms, light switches and thermostat adjustments will be the first applications, he predicts.
Installing this circuitry in an appliance would add $2 to $6 per unit, Mr. Straate says, but this manufacturing expense will be offset by benefits such as the unit's market research capability.
"The manufacturer will see how appliances are used and are performing, which helps subsidize the cost," he explains. "Then there's the whole issue of service. [The cost of] a service contract now is based on statistical information. But if you knew how appliances were really performing, you would be better able to determine a price point" for a service contract.
The appliance could also alert a repair center about worn parts before they break, he says. That way, the repairman would always arrive with the correct part.
There will be other applications as well, says Home Director's Ms. Walker. "The washing machine will tell you exactly how to wash something with a merlot stain on it," she says. "It will access stain tables on the Net."
Then there are the entertainment applications. "The PC will blow apart," Ms. Walker predicts. "You'll have displays throughout the house. You'll have storage that won't be inside the PC," music and video servers that distribute signals to any TV or speaker in the house.
The only limit is delivery of broadband service, she adds. "All this stuff requires a fat pipe. Until you have 50% penetration, most applications don't make sense."
Interactive TV
You're watching chef Emeril Lagasse prepare a dish on TV, and you decide you really need that "essence" spice he keeps talking about. So you squeeze your TV picture down and use your remote to order some spice, then return to your show.
Ordering what you see on TV is going to get a lot easier by 2005. Forget using 800 numbers, fax machines or going to your PC to find a URL. Couch potatoes are about to get a "shop" button on their remotes.
They'll get it from a service called interactive TV.
The National Cable Television Association estimates as many as two-thirds of homes reached by cable already have been upgraded for digital service, and digital should be universal in five years.
By fall 2001, stores should start selling set-top boxes with Internet and transaction support, cutting the normal three- to seven-year cable set-top replacement time in half, says Don Dulchinos, VP-advanced platforms and services for CableLabs, an industry research group in Louisville, Colo.
All this means that TVs with cable access should have some Internet capability in 2005. But it won't be the Internet as we know it, says Forrester Research's Mr. Bernoff, and sites shouldn't treat it the same way.
"While you're watching TV you'll be able to interact with what you're seeing, ordering pizza or letting the Ford dealer know you're interested in a Ford," Mr. Bernoff says.
Once marketers are dealing with qualified leads, each prospect becomes far more valuable, he adds. "Why show a commercial to 2 million people, most of whom don't care, when you can show it to 20,000 and get their names and addresses because they do care?"
Once the U.S. has the basic technology, he expects use to ramp up very quickly. "I just revised my estimates for U.S. penetration [by 2005], and we're talking about more than half of American homes, 55 million, with digital cable or satellite boxes," Mr. Bernoff says.
The key is to make interactivity a basic service, he adds.
Giving away interactive TV is not only easier than selling a cable modem, it's far easier for the cable operator to control, says Mr. Dulchinos. These will be "Internet-like services," not the Internet, and the higher-quality TV picture should keep most viewers glued to their sets.
Advertising to one
When ads weren't entertaining, they used to be a waste of your time. Now, you find that TV ads and Web banners seem to be speaking right to you.
It's not your imagination. By 2005, prospecting via the Web or TV should be just as targeted as in any other medium. Advertisers may not call prospects by name, but they will know all about them.
"The tools will be in place" for addressing Web ads to individuals, says Kevin Ryan, president of DoubleClick, a Web ad network. "But it never makes sense to go literally to one person."
Advertisers will need to target their pitches as well as narrow their targets, says Cliff Allen, president of Guestrack, an e-mail marketing company.
The market will determine when ads get too familiar, says Larry Jones, president of MessageMedia, another e-mail company. "They'll let you know when they feel offended," he says, adding that an essential ingredient for targeting prospects or pitches is a sophisticated database.
These databases do what good salesmen did in the past, says Mr. Allen. The prospect database, however, still needs to be matched with a pitch database. Web ad networks such as DoubleClick also use databases to track individual preferences, then serve ads based on them. But the market reacted negatively this year after DoubleClick sought to combine that data with data from Abacus Networks, a direct marketing database company it bought in 1999.
Mr. Ryan says this taught him an important lesson. "The vast majority [of prospecting] will be done anonymously" in 2005, he predicts.
Or, in the words of a recent "Cathy" cartoon strip, everyone wants to be understood, but no one wants to be known.


text: I only noticed this when I used in a darker room, but the top of screen white menu bar reflects in the white screen surround, above and slightly down either side of the screen. If the screen is black there is no reflection, so it is reflecting from the screen light output, not the backlight. Is this normal? Thanks Neil


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28 Jul Knobs and Pulls: Deciding on Distinctive Cabinet Hardware
Whether you're looking for a small way to update your kitchen and bath, or you plan to do a total remodel, picking the right cabinet hardware is an integral part of the design process. Although simple knobs and pulls may seem too insignificant for anyone to notice, the small touches of décor can really make an impact in your home. From ornate to simple, metal to glass, the cabinet hardware you choose will help put the perfect finishing touches in your kitchen and bath.
So how do you choose the right cabinet hardware for your project? Consider the overall look you wish to achieve and find knobs and pulls that will best complement that style. Here are some design options that might help point you in the right direction:
If you have a contemporary-style home with sleek, frameless cabinets, consider rectangular pulls in stainless steel, or choose square glass knobs to add a touch of sophistication. This metal and glass knob by Richelieu offers a great contemporary element, perfect for high-gloss or textured laminate cabinetry.
Arts and Crafts
If the style of your home represents classic Arts and Crafts and includes rich wood built-ins, shelves and cabinetry, look for decorative hardware that is solid bronze or iron. The Breckenridge Collection from Schaub and Company offers an array of hammered knobs and pulls sure to complement any Arts and Crafts home.
Country Cottage
If your décor evokes a country or cottage charm, choose cabinet hardware that will enhance that ambrosial feel. Look for pulls and knobs that include a filigree pattern etched into weathered nickel, such as the Inspirations Collection by Amerock, or incorporate porcelain knobs painted with colorful floral accents.
For a more traditional kitchen that showcases solid wood or painted cabinets, complementary hardware can come in a variety of finishes, from brass to chrome to oil rubbed bronze. The American Classica Collection from Berenson Hardware offers a wide variety of handles, cup pulls and knobs in many styles and finishes.
Retro/Mid-Century Modern
With the surge in retro and mid-century modern popularity, adding a kitchen that includes flat-panel cabinetry, chrome accents and Formica countertops is sure to bring the old-is-new-again style right to your home. A lot of fun cabinet hardware is available, including these Boomerang pulls by Rejuvenation. Look for modern, swoopy shapes in polished chrome.
If your home encompasses a mix of styles that can't easily be defined, keeping your cabinet hardware less decorative and more functional may be the way to go. A simple satin nickel or oil rubbed bronze pull, such as from the Somerset Collection by Top Knobs, will complement almost any décor and add a touch of flair without being too flashy.
For the homeowner who wishes to make a bold statement with design details, incorporating cabinet hardware that has unique shape, color and shine will make your cabinetry pop. Although these jazzy pieces may seem a little more challenging to find, you will be amazed at the variety of styles out there. This 32mm pull from the Skyevale Collection by Schaub and Company is made from satin nickel and glass crystals, sure to dazzle any kitchen or bath.
Cabinet pulls, handles and knobs are not only stylish but also practical. Updated hardware in your kitchen and baths can change or enhance the overall look and feel of your home. Contact us to learn more about cabinet styles and the hardware that best suits them.


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"Unfortunate is the hen who hatches a duck but she must make the most of it."
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe
in an 1864 letter
Even in a family of eccentrics, young Harriet Beecher was considered a bit odd. Brilliant, but odd.
One minute she was lethargic, dreamy, her mind adrift in an internal world; her appearance dull, her shoulders drooping.
The next, she was animated and entertaining, surprisingly pretty; shrewdly -- and often comically -- observant of the drama of everyday life.
"A strange, inconsistent being," her stepmother, Harriet Porter Beecher, once called her.
She has a peculiar habit of "owling about," her brother Henry complained.
"She is as odd as she is intelligent and studious," her father, the famous preacher Lyman Beecher, said of his fourth daughter.
In short, Harriet, who was born in 1811, had the makings of a writer as early as age 7 or 8, when she would steal away to the kitchen garret of her family's ramshackle Litchfield home and there, amid the rows of old bonnets, bins of shelled corn and pungent dried herbs, escape into the magical prose of "The Arabian Nights."
A precocious and ambitious student, she easily mastered lessons meant for older students and volunteered at age 9 to write weekly essays.
At 12, her essay titled "Can the Immortality of the Soul be Proved by the Light of Nature?" was selected to be read before all the literati of Litchfield. By 13, she was an inveterate bookworm who had to be startled out of her reveries with a scolding from her father.
As much as Lyman Beecher was bemused by Harriet's strange habits, he also recognized her special talents, noting in a letter when she was only 8, "Harriet is a great genius -- I would give a hundred dollars if she was a boy."
Lyman's remark was sexist, but it was also practical. Lyman was a committed Calvinist and wanted to spread the good word. In the Victorian era, only sons could be preachers. Indeed, daughters weren't even allowed to stand up before a group of people, never mind speak to them.
In time, however, Harriet, who received her secondary education in Hartford and spent her later life there, would prove her father's vision limited. From her perch in a family of celebrity ministers and activists, Harriet found a way through her writings -- most particularly "Uncle Tom's Cabin" -- to preach her views with an eloquence and urgency that had far more impact on the world than any sermonizing done by her seven preacher brothers.
From the mid-19th century through its end, there is hardly a major moral or religious issue that Harriet did not address -- whether slavery or women's suffrage or temperance.
She wrote about European art and architecture, efficiency and housework, and about how to avoid spoiling your children.
In 1860, she wrote to her editor at The Atlantic Monthly that she would like the "freedom and latitude" to strike "any where when a topic seems to be on the public mind."
As Edward Wagenknecht wrote in his 1965 biography of Stowe, "All in all, it may be doubted whether any American woman had her say so publicly upon so wide a variety of personal and public questions, and I doubt that any other has matched her in kind since."
How Harriet managed to become a kind of Victorian Oprah -- with an opinion on most subjects and the clout to be heard internationally -- has much to do with the prominence of her illustrious family as well as with her own inborn talent.
The Beecher name alone seemed to endow each family member with a sense of responsibility or destiny to contribute, to act upon a national stage, and a confidence that when they spoke, the world would listen.
Harriet chose fiction as her chief means of expression and influence. She would, in fact, revolutionize American fiction with "Uncle Tom's Cabin," while also transforming public sentiment about slavery, with a writing style that fused the two aspects of her personality -- the introvert and the raconteur, the logical and the visceral. She mixed high-brow purpose with a colloquial style.
The impact on readers was dramatic and immediate.
"Everybody imagined there were horrible slave masters, but no one had really thought about their effect on the family," said Mark Schenker, dean of academic affairs at Yale College. The book had readers asking: "You mean they sell children to different families? You mean they split up families?"
The book was dubbed America's first protest novel and was the first to be designated "the great American novel" because of the national scope of its themes and the range of regional characters portrayed.
Ultimately, Stowe would turn out 10 novels, and more than a hundred tales and sketches, while raising seven children and enduring much personal tragedy, severe illness and periods of depression.
But never again would any of her works carry the history-shaping clout of "Uncle Tom's."
The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, congratulated Stowe on "one of the greatest triumphs recorded in literary history," while writing in his diary, "At one step she has reached the top of the staircase upon which the rest of us climb on our knees year after year."
"I am trying to cultivate a general spirit of kindliness towards everybody. Instead of shrinking into a corner to notice how other people behave, I am holding out my hand to the right and to the left, and forming casual and incidental acquaintances." From a letter written by Harriet while in Cincinnati.
Almost nothing is more propitious for a young writer than to leave home. Although her family came with her, Harriet's departure for Cincinnati in 1832, at 21, had just that transforming effect upon her.
The move was inspired by her father, who was determined to save the West from the Roman Catholics and any other nonevangelical Protestants, and by her sister, Catharine, who planned to open a new school for women and needed Harriet to teach.
From the start, Harriet embraced her new home as a place for growth. It opened her eyes to other cultures, other religions, made her less a New Englander and more an American.
Here, also, Harriet and Catharine were invited to join a literary society called the Semi-Colon Club, which offered Harriet a sympathetic audience for her early writings, as well as friendships.
"This kind of pleasure in acquaintanceship is new to me," she wrote to her friend, Georgiana May.
This bookworm was beginning to enjoy herself. After a party involving four of her woman friends and two young men, she wrote to her brother, George, "As to what we did -- don't ask me ... There was pulling of hair & cuffing of ears -- & scampering, & screaming, -- & pouring water on each other & dancing & hopping and every kind of ing."
Perhaps most important, Cincinnati provided Harriet with a front-row seat in the simmering debate over slavery. Located along the Ohio River, the boundary between what was the slave state of Kentucky and the free state of Ohio, the city was rife with tensions on the topic.
By 1836, the city was sizzling. James Birney, publisher of the abolitionist paper, The Philanthropist, had his office broken into and his press damaged. When he refused to stop publication, some of Cincinnati's most prominent citizens planned to have him mobbed.
Harriet, who had since married a professor and minister named Calvin Stowe and was pregnant with twins, was appalled. It would have been indecorous for a lady to speak out on the issue herself, so Harriet began her anti-slavery writing career using the pseudonym "Franklin" in a letter sent to the editor of the Cincinnati Journal.
The letter uses a technique Harriet would use to great persuasive effect all her writing life. It is written as a conversation between Franklin and a more conservative friend, allowing the reader to hear both sides of an argument as it might unfold naturally, almost like an informed talk radio discussion.
Also in Cincinnati, Harriet for the first time heard the voices of slaves and former slaves.
Eliza Buck, a former slave who worked as Harriet's cook, told how she was sold to a Kentucky slave master who became the father of all her children. Explaining the sexual realities of a slave woman's life, Buck said: "You know, Mrs. Stowe, slave women can't help themselves."
Later, Harriet would not mince words on this subject in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" when Cassie, a slave, speaks of being Simon Legree's mistress: "I've been on this place five years, body and soul, under this man's foot; and I hate him as I do the devil! ... Did I want to live with him? Was n't I a woman delicately bred; and he -- God in heaven! What was he, and is he? And yet, I've lived with him these five years, an cursed every moment of my life, -- night and day! And now, he's got a new one, -- a young thing, only fifteen."
"Since I began this note I have been called off at least a dozen times -- once for the fishman, to buy a codfish ... then to nurse the baby -- then into the kitchen to make a chowder for dinner and now I am at it again, for nothing but deadly determination enables me ever to write -- it is rowing against the wind and tide." -- from a letter Harriet wrote to her sister-in-law in 1850.
If Harriet Beecher wanted to write, she probably couldn't have married better.
Calvin Stowe was thought to be the most brilliant biblical scholar of his times in the 1830s, when he came to teach at Cincinnati's Lane Seminary.
His greatest desire in life was to be what he called a "literary man." But he lacked the discipline required to publish and was given to torrents of melodrama and hypochondria.
These personality traits combined to make him a great booster of Harriet's work while also providing her with an urgent reason to write: They were desperately poor and needed money.
In 1842, Harriet, now 35 and the mother of five children, wrote to Calvin of her desire to be a "literary lady," but said, "Our children are just coming to the age when everything depends on my efforts. They are delicate in health, and nervous and excitable, and need a mother's whole attention. Can I lawfully divide my attention by literary efforts?"
Calvin insisted, "You must be a literary woman. It is so written in the book of fate."
Harriet met Calvin through the Semi-Colon Club. While the couple was well-suited intellectually, they had to reckon with vastly different temperaments, poverty, health problems, frequent childbearing and efforts to limit their family size through separation and sexual abstinence.
Calvin chided Harriet for becoming so consumed by whatever interested her at the moment -- whether gardening or a particular issue -- that she would let the rest of her household responsibilities lapse. That ability proved valuable to Harriet, however. With seven children, how else could she write?
Looking for ways to add to their income, Harriet hired young immigrants to do the housework and to watch the children. By doing so, she wrote to her friend, Georgiana, in 1838, "I have about three hours per day in writing, and if you see my name coming out everywhere -- you may be sure of one thing, that I do it for the pay -- I have determined not to be a mere domestic slave."
But during these years of childbearing, Harriet also contended with exhaustion, illness and depressed spirits.
In an 1845 letter, she wrote to her husband, "I am sick of the smell of sour milk, and sour meat, and sour everything, and the clothes will not dry, and no wet thing does, and everything smells mouldy; and altogether I feel as if I never wanted to eat again."
During the 1840s, Harriet relied on "blue pills," which doctors dispensed freely for almost any complaint. But the pills contained mercury and might have caused Harriet's ailments.
She eventually spent almost a year at a kind of health spa in Brattleboro, Vt., that offered a "water cure," where she recovered her health and her energy. Nine months after her return home, she gave birth to her sixth child, Samuel Charles, in January 1848. "Charley" was the healthiest child Harriet had had.
She rhapsodized about her youngest so much that Calvin wrote her, "You set your heart upon him so much, I fear the Lord will find it necessary to take him away from us."
His words proved all too prophetic. In the summer of 1849, cholera broke out. In early July, Charley became sick. Harriet used hydropathic remedies -- a wet sheet -- and he appeared to be recovering.
But on July 16, he became much worse and died five days later.
"It was at his dying bed, and at his grave," she later wrote of Charley, "that I learnt what a poor slave mother may feel when her child is torn away from her."
"I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and heartbroken, with the sorrows and injustice I saw." -- Harriet's explanation of why she wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in the spring of 1850, Harriet, who had been on the fence about abolition, became outraged.
The federal act compelled all citizens to help capture and return runaway slaves. In essence, all citizens had to actively support slavery or defy the law and risk fines and imprisonment.
Harriet cried tears into her pillow over the "wrongs and sorrows of those oppressed ones," she wrote to her brother, Henry.
She knew she wanted to write something that would open the eyes of the nation to slavery, but what? Having moved to Maine from Cincinnati because Calvin had a new job teaching at Bowdoin College, Harriet was sitting in church in Brunswick on a cold Sunday in February when she saw a vision. She saw a scene in which a slave was being beaten to death by his master with the help of his two lackeys.
Harriet was so disturbed that she went home and wrote it all out. When she ran out of writing paper, she reached for brown wrapping paper and continued.
Exhausted and uncertain what to do with the story, Harriet read it aloud to her children and then abandoned it on her desk.
Calvin came across it weeks later and told Harriet: "You must go on with it. You must make up a story with this for the climax. The Lord intends you."
So began "Uncle Tom's Cabin," in the casual intimate parlor voice that Harriet had perfected long ago in Cincinnati: lawyerly and shrewd in its logic, yet infused with warmth, friendliness, comic irony, intimacy and passion.
To her, slavery was not a political matter. It was a grievous sin that entailed the treating of fellow human beings as "things" and the tearing apart of families.
Harriet's ideas were not radical, but the application of those ideas to slavery provided fresh illumination. As Joan Hedrick wrote in an introduction to "The Oxford Harriet Beecher Stowe Reader," "She spoke for motherhood and the flag and apple pie, but made her readers uncomfortable eating that pie unless others were eating it too."
From the first installment published on June 5, 1851, in the National Era, an anti-slavery weekly just before Harriet's 40th birthday, the nation was fixed on the story.
Neither she nor her publisher ever envisioned how successful the book, which was published on March 20, 1852, would be. By mid-June, 10,000 copies of the book were being sold each week, and within six months, 150,000 copies would be sold.
Sales of the book during the 19th century were second only to the Bible, and it was as popular abroad as at home.
Harriet soon left for a European tour, although owing to Victorian etiquette, the little woman who had spoken so loudly in print was not allowed to address her adoring fans herself.
So she sat by listening while Calvin spoke for her.
"Now it is very easy for me to write, writing is my element as much as sailing is to a duck." -- From a letter to her twin daughters, Hatty and Eliza, in 1863.
If Harriet's life had been a fairy tale, it might have ended not long after such huge success.
But she continued to produce prodigiously, though her works never again attracted quite so much attention as "Uncle Tom's Cabin." And, indeed, she lived to see the popularity of her masterwork fade.
In a sense, once slavery ended, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" became a historical artifact, and a misconstrued one at that, as the negative stereotypes associated with "Uncle Tom" -- derived from minstrel shows that misrepresented "Uncle Tom" -- eventually overwhelmed the book itself.
The literary climate shifted, too. By the late 1800s, "Uncle Tom" was considered too cause-driven to be considered high art. Just the fact that it made people cry and laugh disqualified it as a work to be taken seriously.
Even though the novel had brought her a healthy return, the money didn't last long. With a husband who never had a steady income, Harriet continued to be the main breadwinner with six children to feed, clothe and educate.
The financial situation forced her, as Calvin once feared, to become a "slave" to her pen. During the quarter century following "Uncle Tom's Cabin," for most of which she lived in Hartford, she would turn out nine more novels, more than 100 tales and sketches and many magazine and newspaper articles.
She produced even while enduring personal tragedies.
In 1857, her favorite son, the talented, handsome Henry, drowned in the Connecticut River while on break from Dartmouth. Her third son, Freddy, was an alcoholic whom she tried endlessly to help. He sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco and went ashore, but disappeared and was never heard of again. Her daughter, Georgiana, used morphine while giving birth to her children and apparently became addicted; she died young.
Of necessity, Harriet became shrewd in her business dealings, often providing publishers with exacting instruction as to how much she should be paid and how her work should be publicized.
Six days after President Lincoln was assassinated, Harriet wrote to her publisher, noting that she had "more to say of our lost President" and suggesting it be packaged with "mourning decorations."
"I think we might sell thousands and I want to say something to thousands."
"I am passing the last days of my life in the city where I passed my school-girl life." -- From a letter, 1893.
In 1862, Stowe returned to Hartford, where she and Calvin contracted to build an extravagant eight-gabled home, which some people say was deliberately planned to outdo Nathaniel Hawthorne's seven gables.
But the house soon proved far beyond her means, and she moved into a smaller home at Nook Farm in 1873, where she was Samuel Clemens' neighbor.
She and Clemens shared a sense of humor. Once when Clemens' wife chided him for visiting Stowe without a hat and tie, Clemens sent his butler over with those items on a tray. Stowe quipped that Twain had "discovered a principle ... that a man may call by installments."
In 1878, she published her elegy to her New England childhood, "Poganuc People." The novel had its origins in the oral tradition of the parlor. In a letter, she proposed the book as "my own remembrances of life & times I have thought of calling it Early Days of an odd little girl."
Stowe continued to write well into her 70s, but in 1889, at the age of 78, she suffered a major decline. Her daughter, Hatty, said of Harriet in a letter, "Her mind is in a strange state of childishness and forgetfulness, with momentary flashes of her old self that come and go like falling stars."
A few years later, however, Harriet showed that neither her acuity nor her poetic sense were entirely gone: "My mental condition might be called nomadic. I have no fixed thoughts or objects. ... In pleasant summer weather, I am out of doors most of the time, rambling about the neighborhood & calling upon my friends ...
"And now I rest me, like a moored boat, rising & falling on the water, with loosened cordage and flapping sail."
Harriet died on July 1, 1896, two weeks after her 85th birthday.
"You don't know how perfectly wretched I often feel, so useless, so weak, so destitute of all energy."
--1827 letter from Harriet in Boston to Catharine in Hartford
"I often think of what you said to me, that another child would not fill the place of the old one
that it would be another interest and another love...so I find it."
--1850 letter from Harriet to sister-in-law Sarah Beecher
"There comes a time when girlhood must end and womanhood must begin."
--1863 letter from Harriet to her 27-year-old twin daughters
"So you want to know something about what sort of woman I am. ...
To begin with, then, I am a little bit of a woman--somewhat more than 40--about as thin and dry as a pinch of snuff never very much to look at in my best days--+ looking like a used-up article now."
--1852 letter from Harriet to a London woman
Much of the material printed here was part of a special series on the Beecher sisters -- also called "Those Beecher Women!" -- published in The Hartford Courant in 2001 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The lead reporter on the project was staff writer Valerie Finholm, who researched, compiled and wrote much of the material, along with staff writers Susan Campbell and Kathleen Megan. The stories were edited for the newspaper by Barbara T. Roessner, and Joellen Black was the photo editor. Suzette Moyer and Jim Kuykendall designed this publication.


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Boston, MA (PRWEB) August 13, 2013
The Lucian Leape Institute (LLI) at the National Patient Safety Foundation has announced the program for its 6th Annual Forum & Gala to be held in Boston on Thursday, September 12, 2013.
The afternoon forum will feature an interactive program with LLI members that will touch upon themes of the Institute's recent work:
•Engaging Patients and Families in Improving Safety
Discussion led by Susan Edgman-Levitan, PA, executive director, John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital
•The Transforming Concept of Transparency: What Are Our Priority Areas of Focus?
Discussion led by Gary S. Kaplan, MD, FACMPE, chairman and CEO, Virginia Mason Medical Center
•Leveraging Efforts to Contain Costs to Advance the Safety Movement
Discussion led by Janet M. Corrigan, PhD, MBA, former president and CEO, National Quality Forum
•Joy and Meaning in Work: Building the Bridge from Recommendations to Action
Discussion led by Julianne M. Morath, RN, MS, president and CEO, California Hospital Quality Institute; and Paul O'Neill, former chairman and CEO, Alcoa, and 72nd Secretary of the US Treasury
During the evening gala, keynote speaker Carolyn Clancy, MD, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from 2003 through August 2013, will speak on the topic of "Patients' Safety: From Knowledge to Impact."
"Dr. Clancy is a founding member of the Leape Institute and has led AHRQ through a period of significant changes in health care," said Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS, president of LLI and of the National Patient Safety Foundation. "We are honored to have her share her unique perspectives on the progress that has been made in patient safety and the practical application of safety science in health care."
The Lucian Leape Institute, a think tank based at the National Patient Safety Foundation in Boston, is named for and chaired by Dr. Lucian Leape, adjunct professor of health policy, Harvard School of Public Health, and a renowned leader of the patient safety movement.
This event caps a productive year for the Institute. With the recent publication of two white papers, the LLI members have initiated discussion and calls-to-action regarding the physical and psychological safety of the health care workforce and the need for greater integration of care delivery across the health continuum. The annual Forum & Gala is an opportunity for Institute members to share their work while also listening to the perspectives of those in attendance, who represent health care organization and industry partners.
This year's program is being held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston. The afternoon forum will run from 1 pm to 5 pm. Attendees may take a self-guided tour of the museum from 5 pm until the start of the evening program at 6 pm.
Individual tickets to the Lucian Leape Institute Forum & Gala are available at a cost of $275 each. Leaders of health care organizations who wish to reward key members of their teams may purchase a table (10 seats) at the cost of $2,750. Further details of the agenda and how to reserve a place are available at http://www.npsf.org/gala. For information about supporting the Leape Institute, contact David Coletta at dcoletta(at)npsf(dot)org.
About the Lucian Leape Institute
The Lucian Leape Institute at NPSF, established in 2007, is charged with defining strategic paths and calls to action for the field of patient safety, offering vision and context for the many efforts under way within health care, and providing the leverage necessary for system-level change. Its members comprise national thought leaders with a common interest in patient safety whose expertise and influence are brought to bear as the Institute calls for the innovation necessary to expedite the work and create significant, sustainable improvements in culture, process, and outcomes critical to safer health care.
About The National Patient Safety Foundation
The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) has been pursuing one mission since its founding in 1997– to improve the safety of care provided to patients. As a central voice for patient safety, NPSF is committed to a collaborative multi-stakeholder approach in all that it does. NPSF is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. To learn more about the work of the National Patient Safety Foundation, please visit: http://www.npsf.org.


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Shakira: Press Conference in Jerusalem!
Shakira hugs Shimon Peres, president of Israel, at a joint press conference held on Tuesday (June 21) in Jerusalem, Israel.
The 34-year-old Colombian singer and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador also visited a bilingual school on Tuesday. Shakira met with Israeli and Palestinian children during the day.
During the press conference, Shakira spoke about the importance of education through her charity, The Barefoot Foundation.
"I'm convinced that investing in education is the best solution for global stability and peace," Shakira said after accepting a traditional Yemeni necklace from a young Israeli girl.
15+ pictures inside of Shakira making a visit to Jerusalem…


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With rumors that Square just filed for an IPO and Apple's latest earnings raising questions about Apple Watch sales, you may have missed some of this week's best new apps.
Luckily, every weekend, we round up our favorite new and updated apps. This week's list includes a social news app, a relaxing game centered around a tree and Google's immersive Spotlight Stories app making its iOS debut.
Check out the gallery, below, to see our top picks. If you're looking for more, take a look at last week's roundup of can't-miss apps.
Google Spotlight Stories (Free: iOS and Android)
Google is finally bringing its immersive Spotlight Stories app to iOS. The app allows you to get a full 360-degree video experience with just the display of your device. Rather than watching a video with your phone directly in front of you, the display acts as a sort of viewfinder for the spherical videos: as you move the device around, you can see new areas of the frame.Keep an eye on: Google has managed to tap quite a few notable names to create videos for the app over the years, including Justin Line, who debuted a new story called "Help" for the app earlier this year.
Pro-tip: It's easiest to get a full sense of the videos while standing up, that way you can hold the device over your head, behind you and move around quickly as the story unfolds.
Prune ($3.99: iOS)
This tree-themed game is much more than meets the eye. The premise of Prune is simple: Plant a tree so that it will grow toward the sun and flourish while avoiding harmful obstacles. Keep an eye on: The angle at which you plant the seed at the start of each level plays a big role in the trajectory the branches take.Pro-tip: Use two fingers to zoom in on the trees to trim the exact branches you want. If you get stuck on a challenging level, the game lets you skip ahead to the next one.
Storyline (Free: iOS)
This Twitter app from celebrity investor Mark Cuban takes a different approach to sorting tweets in your timeline. Rather than reverse chronological order, the app sorts tweets by account so you can find the accounts you're most interested in seeing updates from, and see all their most recent tweets at once. Keep an eye on: After you view a tweet, it disappears from your feed forever to help keep you from seeing repeat content.
Pro-tip: Use the app's search if there's a particular account you want to view. While you can't compose new tweets from the app, you can retweet, favorite and reply. The app is a beta right now so there are likely more features on the way.
Vervid (Free: iOS)
A video platform completely dedicated to vertical videos, Vervid allows users to share and edit vertically-shot video clips. Part Vine, part Snapchat and part YouTube, its creators say they are trying to create the "YouTube of vertical videos.
Keep an eye on: The app's social features, which make it easy for users to follow one another and comment on each other's videos. The app also has quite a few editing tools so you can shoot or edit existing clips right inside the app.
Pro-tip: Don't forget to record a burst — 8-second video clips anyone can view from your profile. The app's users tend to be very creative with the feature so it's worth checking out.
Vizo (Free: iOS and Android)
Vizo takes a highly visual approach to the daily news digest format. The app curates the biggest news stories of the day and breaks each one down into a bite-sized summary of the most important facts using a number of sources.Keep an eye on: If you want to dig into a particular story more, tap the book icon in the bottom right corner to see a list of all the summary's sources, with links back to the original articles.
Pro-tip: The app will also read the news to you; hit the play button at the top an article to begin the audio.


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Stella Technology, Inc. is a health information technology services and product development company formed through collaboration of some of the most recognized names in the industry. As a team of seasoned professionals who have designed, implemented and run some of the nation's leading health information exchanges (HIE) and health information technology projects (HIT) for the past twenty years, Stella Technology has the deep knowledge, unparalleled experience and above all, sheer passion to turn your care coordination, patient access, and information exchange projects into resounding successes!
"Stella brings deep expertise in clinical information exchange, care coordination and provider/patient collaboration. Combined with years of tried and true, practical experience in technology, product development, implementation and operations, we feel privileged and honored to serve some of the most prestigious healthcare organizations in the country. Thank you for entrusting us with your business." - Lalo Valdez, CEO


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Sponsored by the Department of Public Works, the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program is designed to allow companies to present new technologies to the Government without a requirement. While the program is open to solutions for use by all of Government, there are areas that can also find defense applications. Take for example the company Inversa. They have developed a system using the Deep Backscatter Tomography (DBT) technique that scans culverts and tunnels for maintenance problems so that waste water personnel won't have to excavate pipes. It's basically non-destructive inspection for sewers. Now, imagine using such technology to inspect culverts for IEDs.
Innovation often comes from small companies. Unfortunately, they often lack the expertise or staff to present their capabilities to the Government. Oftentimes, they are preyed upon by those who take their money, promising to open doors and grant Government access. In most cases, such access is readily accessible without the cost of a "consultant." Another issue is that the Government's procurement system is requirements based. If those writing requirements don't know a capability exists, they can't ask for it and may continue to do things the same old way.
It's good to see the Canadian Government cut some of the red tape so that they can see the latest in technology and open opportunities to small business. It can be a win-win situation.


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2009 Videos
Where Information, Culture and the Unexpected Collide
Diane Ackerman - Author Talk: The Zookeeper's Wife (08:30)
The Zookeeper's Wife is about one of the most successful hideouts of World War II. It's a tale of people, animals, transcendence, and subversive acts of compassion. The One Book, One San Diego program, a partnership between the San Diego Public Library, San Diego State University and KPBS, presents the author as she discusses some of the themes in the book.
New Logan Heights Branch Library Architectural Features (07:33)
The new Logan Heights Branch Library opened December 11, 2009. This incredible two-story, 25,000-square-foot branch library is at the heart of the Logan Heights Community. In this video, San Diego Public Library Director Deborah Barrow describes the impact of the new facility, San Diego City Council President Ben Hueso discusses the community's participation in building the library and architect Joseph Martinez describes the strong latino influences in the library's design.
Got Homework? We've Got Help (00:33)
Online homework help for San Diego students with live, one-on-one professional tutors--for FREE with your San Diego Public Library card. Student from elementary school through college can get help with math, English, social studies and science. Tutors will even critique essays and research papers.


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Last week we focussed on getting the cable correctly into the lever end. The other end of the brake cable is, of course, the actual brake. We will need to look at both front and back brakes.
We've spread this particular tutorial over a couple of blog posts. Also, we deal with a few different brake types - from dual or single pivot, to V-brakes to caliper brakes. All common types that you will frequently come across in bike maintenance. For now, here's a couple of examples of front brake cable fitting:
Cable Fitting Into Brake - Drop Bar Bike - Dual or Single Pivot Front Brake
STEP 1: As the cable housing comes out of the lever, route it along the bar (ensure to push the cable into any recessed cable guide channel if present).
STEP 2: Tape it down in a couple of places with electrical insulation tape - especially on the bend.
STEP 3: Ensure that the housing curves gently down to the front brake barrel adjuster.
STEP 4: Guide the housing and cable through the barrel adjuster on the front brake.
STEP 5: Feed the inner cable through the pinch bolt, ready for tensioning.
Cable Fitting Into Brake - Straight Bar Bike - V Brakes Front
STEP 1: Once you have routed the cable through the lever as shown in our previous tutorial, then route the cable into the noodle as shown here.
STEP 2: Bring the housing down and guide the noodle into the cradle on the right side caliper arm.
STEP 3: Pull the rubber boot onto the ferrule end of the noodle.
So that's it for this time folks! Don't forget to sign up to our mailing list for more offers and tips from us here at Cycle Systems.
Next blog in this 'Open to all' series will cover routing your cable into a back brake.


text: I happen to know a female escort who has sex with men for money. I realized there is prob. a lot of money in her stories combined with perhaps if she took some erotic pictures of herself. I asked her if she'd be willing to split the profits of a website 50/50 with me. Does anyone have any ideas of how to go about making this blog, and making it extremely profitable?


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Christmas music is available year-round on virtually any Internet music-streaming website or app. Spotify, Pandora, AccuRadio, iHeartRadio and Live 365, along with many others, offer one or multiple Christmas-specific stations.
Streaming radio-style websites such as Pandora, iHeartRadio, AccuRadio and Live 365 select the order of the songs that play on their Christmas stations. Many of these websites offer a variety of stations that focus on different sub-genres of holiday music. For example, AccuRadio offers over 50 Christmas stations with themes ranging from the old standards to seasonal Celtic tunes to indie rock covers of Christmas songs.
Websites such as Spotify and Youtube, which allow users to choose individual songs to stream, also boast large collections of Christmas music that are available free of charge. Users can use the playlist functionality of these websites to build custom Christmas playlists to enjoy for years to come.


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Are parents and community informed, confident and supportive?
Partnerships with community
Lakeview Elementary has a long history of partnerships within the community. Whether it is with community organizations, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, or local agencies, Lakeview has embraced the many opportunities to build these relationships. The following are many of the organizations/agencies or programs helping to form these partnerships: UW-Whitewater (America Reads, mentors, student teachers, field study students, and UW-students working with our staff and students on specific academic projects), WHS students and staff, Whitewater Police and LaGrange-Lauderdale volunteer fire department, Whitewater Library, 4-H and Scouts.
Parent/teacher conference participation
Parent/teacher conferences occur in the fall and spring. We have recently moved to the portfolio style of conferencing in which students are involved in the collaboration. The opportunity for parents/teachers and students to conference together is critical in building tight home and school connections. Typical conference turnout for the building is approximately 96%.
Volunteers in schools
Lakeview Elementary has a very active volunteer program. Our volunteers are critical to our students' success and we appreciate all they do for our school. Our volunteers are engaged in many different facets of our school, ranging from assisting students, teachers, and the office, to working with students in after-school programs. Lakeview has a wonderful learning environment and our volunteers contribute greatly to it. Although the sources of volunteering come from many areas, some of these areas include the PTA (Parent Teacher Association), parents, grandparents/other relatives of students, UW-W, former staff, community organizations, and service agencies. Lakeview, like other district buildings, employs a Volunteer Coordinator who does a great job of bringing volunteers into our school. Mrs. Cassie Stachow is our Volunteer Coordinator and can be reached at 472-8402. We are always excited to have volunteers offer the opportunity to make a positive difference for our students.
Family involvement in school activities
One of our top priorities at Lakeview is family involvement. We have a very supportive and active PTA. Our PTA president this year is Corey Salverson; Vice President - Karen Mayer, Secretary - Carrie Hintz; and Treasurer - Holly Crowley. Please go to the PTA link on our website for more information. While the list of involvement activities is extensive, this is a generous sampling: Open House/Book Fair, Christmas Corner, Pennies For Patients/Halloween Party, Spring Fling, Olympic Day, Grandparent's/Important Person Day) Building Leadership Team (consisting of principal, staff and parents), Student Council activities, and various fundraisers, band concerts, and choir concerts.
Families involved in parent training
Lakeview families have parent training opportunites provided to them. Some of these are: Love and Logic, Effective Parenting through our district FAST (Families And Schools Together) program, and other opportunites established by the district's Title I Family Coordinator, Mrs. Shirley Cutshall.
Student Achievement


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U.K. Cop to Face Charges Over Police Dog Deaths
LONDON – Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says a police officer who left two police dogs in his car during a heat wave will be prosecuted for their deaths.
RSPCA spokesman Andy Robbins says the officer will be charged with causing unnecessary suffering to the two German Shepherds.
The dogs had been left in a car three weeks ago in the parking lot of police headquarters in Nottingham, about 140 miles north of London.
Police said Tuesday the officer has been suspended pending the results of an internal inquiry.
The maximum penalty for causing unnecessary distress to an animal is six months' imprisonment or a $32,600 fine, or both.


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Prices, specials, features and availability subject to change.
Contact for details
At Venice of Crystal Lakes, you will come home to meticulously landscaped gated entries and sidewalks. We're ideally located with easy access to the Turnpike, parks, schools, dining and shopping.
Pets Accepted. Breed Restriction. Call for service animal policy.
200 units
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-6:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am-4:00pm
Sunday: Closed
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Babruisk: prosecutor's office refuses to bring a criminal case concerning repressions against 'Bobruiskiy Kurier'
The prosecutor considered the complaint of Anatol Sanatsenka (chief editor of the non-state newspaper Bobruisky Kurier) and found no corpus delicti in the actions of officers of Babruisk town executive committee.
The complaint was filed to the prosecutor's office three months ago, on 18 December 2008. In it Mr. Sanatsenka stated that some of the state officers systematically violate the freedom of mass media and the rights of the editorial office. He also attached to the complaint a number of documents witnessing the violations, including creation of obstacles to distribution of the edition, denials of accreditation and restriction of access to information.
The plaintiff believes that by their actions the state officers grossly violated the law on mass media and Article 198 of the Criminal Code ('creation of obstacles to the lawful professional activities of a journalist'). Later an investigator of the prosecutor's office asked Anatol Sanatsenka for additional explanations on this case and the editor told him the exact dates of the violations and the surnames of the protractors.
Nevertheless, the senior investigator of Leninski district prosecutor's office of Babruisk Siarhei Sharamet came to the conclusion that there was no corpus delicti in the actions of the local authorities.
At present obstacles to distribution of non-state press are created in many parts of Belarus. The worst situation is observed in Babruisk, Baranavichy and Baranavichy.


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As judging gets underway this morning for the storied Westminster Kennel Club dog show, the more athletic pups already had their night to shine this past weekend. On Saturday, Westminster hosted their first annual Masters Agility Championship. It also marked the first time mixed breeds could participate in a Westminster event since 1884 (apparently non-purebreds were included in the early days). The American Kennel Club has only allowed mixed breed dogs to participate in their companion sports events (agility, rally obedience, etc.) since 2010.
To show their dedication to all dogs, regardless of bloodline, Westminster designated spots in the in the final Championship round to the highest scoring All American (mixed breed) in each height group (calculated by their performance in two qualifying rounds). A special award was also given to the top All American across height groups in the finals.
While the top three dogs in each height group automatically advanced to the finals, the remaining spots were given to the highest scoring breeds not represented in the top three. You can imagine if they didn't have this rule in place, the 20" height group for the finals would be nearly all Border Collies.
Although I was a little disappointed that not all of the most competitive dogs were represented in the finals, it did meet the goal of bringing more awareness to this rapidly growing sport. The Masters Agility Championship had the most media attention I've ever seen for an agility competition. Breed diversity in the final round highlighted the fact that any dog can participate in this sport.
The finals showcased many amazing runs, as dogs gracefully negotiated difficult obstacle combinations at top speed, but I was most moved by watching the special bond between the handlers and their dogs, as well as the support and friendship between competitors. Also, I've never watched so many of my friends on television before and it was nerve wracking to watch them!
In the end, Kelso, a 7-year old Border Collie handled by Delaney Ratner of Cape Elizabeth, Me. won the overall Masters Agility Champion award and Roo!, a 6.5 year old Husky mix handled by Stacey Campbell of San Francisco, Calif. won the Best All-American award.
If you missed the Masters Agility Championship at Westminster, the National Geographic channel will be rebroadcasting the finals on Wednesday, February 12th at 9 p.m. ET. The results can be viewed on the Westminster Kennel Club web site.


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There are currently no narrow boats on special promotion at Venetian Marina, but below is a list of boats that have been reduced in price.
This is the smallest stern area offering the least external space, and stems from traditional working boats. Ideal for live aboard, typified by short back deck of 2-3 Feet in length, giving more room inside for living.
A good compromise between traditional and cruiser; these have the looks of a traditional stern with the space of a cruiser.
Widebeams are wider than 6ft10 narrowboat. Typically a widebeam boat can be 10 or 12 feet, sometimes wider.
These types of sterns offer a large expanse of external space, ideal for recreational cruising. An ideal holiday boat, a back deck of between 4-8 Feet in length, providing ample space on the back for several people to stand and socialise.


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29 U.S. Code Subtitle E - Special Provisions for Multiemployer Plans
1980—Pub. L. 96–364, title I, § 104, Sept. 26, 1980, 94 Stat. 1217, added subtitle heading. Former subtitle E heading "Effective Date; Special Rules" was struck out. See subtitle F of this subchapter.
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


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In response to high gas prices and outrageous restrictions by airlines, many people are staying home instead of going on vacation. This trend has given rise to the "stay-cation" – finding things to do in your own hometown (or very nearby) that don't cost you an arm and a leg.
But what if you want something in between? You want to sleep in another bed for a few nights, and not have to worry about making it up yourself in the morning. And you don't want to drive far. You're in luck! Almost every city has a pool of great hotels or resorts, and because travel is in a lull right now, most are discounting their rates to attract visitors.
Find one you like, and call them up. Talk to the manager and ask for a "locals" discount. It's very likely you'll get one! Particularly if you are willing to stay mid-week. Tuesday and Wednesday nights are generally wide open and discounted rates are available.
Don't know where to start in finding a hotel in your own backyard? Have a look at TheTopTenSite.com. For example, here's what they recommend in the way of boutique (smaller) hotels in New York City.
The Casablanca
The Gansevoort
The Bryant Park Hotel
The Hotel Elysee
The Library
The Gramercy Park Hotel
The W Hotel Union Square
The Lowell
The SoHo Grand
The W Hotel Times Square
Find a hotel that has a restaurant, a bar and a spa, and you won't even have to go anywhere for a few days! But if you do want to venture out some, don't forget to check out your city's convention and visitor's bureau pages for discounts on local attractions. Now's the time to check out that museum or art gallery you've been meaning to visit. Go on … be a tourist in your hometown! Not only will you get to know your city a little better, you'll be helping boost the local economy.
Happy Travels!
Similar Posts:
- M.I.S.S. Jet Set: How to Bargain Bid on Travel
- Design Insider: Designer Hotels for Creative Vacations
- M.I.S.S. Jet Set: Websites to Bookmark for Travel
- W Hotels "Bubble + Cube: A View of London Style"
- M.I.S.S. NYFW: YSL Free Totes! We Got Ours!


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Lyrics Depot is your source of lyrics to Nature's Interface by Haujobb. Please check back for more Haujobb lyrics.
Nature's Interface Lyrics
Artist: Haujobb
Album: Solutions for a Small Planet
cities close to the seas calming objects to me trying to
keep it in memory before all illusion leave a dead letter
"first contact - growing fear" life lessons like old time
movies casting a deadly spell - running scared a memory
play cities beneath the seas brave new system those last
legends wanted dead or alive the world sounds so small
haunting passion duplicates minutes after noon attached
visitor's choice the force of nature's interface
homeworld fear inside colour of authority in suspicious
minds redemption
Haujobb Lyrics
Haujobb Solutions for a Small Planet Lyrics
More Haujobb Music Lyrics:
Haujobb - Analysis Lyrics
Haujobb - Eye Over You Lyrics
Haujobb - Final Race Lyrics
Haujobb - Homes & Gardens (Optimized v1.2) Lyrics
Haujobb - Maternal Instinct Lyrics
Haujobb - Mediaeval Lyrics
Haujobb - Nezzwerk Lyrics
Haujobb - The Noise Institute Lyrics


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October 10th, 2012
More information is coming out on Anoka Minnesota's continued war on gay teens. As we discussed yesterday, the city's annual Halloween Parade barred Justin's Gift, a group that seeks to help bullied gay kids with "the following needs: belonging, self-esteem, self-respect, and ultimately a realization of their importance in the world", from participating. They claimed that they "have reached our maximum for walking units."
But as local media investigates, the claim of "maximum" seems to have little credibility. It seems that neither the city nor the police had placed any kind of maximum on the parade nor was their any discussion of a maximum in any of the organizing committee's literature. In fact, they hadn't even yet given any indication of size to the city. (MPR)
"At this time we are unable to accept your application for the parade," the letter said. "We have reached our maximum for walking units."
However, the application for the parade license, obtained by MPR News, was not submitted until today — 15 days after Justin's Gift was told the parade was full.
The application, submitted to the city of Anoka by Elizabeth McFarland, estimates the parade will include approximately 31,000 people, 250 parade units, 200 vehicles, 50 dogs and 12 horses. McFarland did not return a call seeking comment.
Anoka Police Chief Philip Johanson said he is not aware of any official limit on the number of parade participants, although he said the parade route needs to be approved in advance to allow enough time for public safety officials to redirect traffic.
Nor is this the first time that the Parade has made up special reasons to disqualify a gay group. (Pioneer Press)
He added that Twin Cities Pride initially was denied involvement in the parade last year because it didn't list its theme on the application, even though the application didn't ask for one, Fietek said.
Members eventually were allowed to walk, but some in the community complained, Fietek said.
"I am hoping this isn't a case of the Anoka Halloween Committee caving to public pressure," he said.
Also interesting is that the organization didn't lead the protest. At first Jefferson Fietek, vice-President of the group and a local teacher, just assumed they were telling him the truth. (MinnPost)
Fietek said Monday that he can't say the parade application was rejected because of the group's LGBT focus, but he wishes the event's organizers had considered the potential appearance and impact of excluding the kids — particularly at a time when families and educators are trying to rebuild.
"It doesn't seem to be a very well-thought-out decision," he said. "The history of the [Anoka Halloween] organization is showcasing youth organizations; that's confusing to us. Especially when there's outside groups marching, we got bumped?"
In a poll posted on its website, Justin's Group members had voted to march dressed as their favorite fairy tale characters. "We foolishly assumed that given we were an Anoka-based youth organization, we were in," said Fietek.
It was angry parents of the kids who started the petition and spread the word. But Fietek is now beginning to think that it truly was an example of discrimination.
As more of this story develops, I think it will prove to be a big embarrassment to Anoka. If, of course, they even have the capacity to feel embarrassed for their bigotry. And I wonder how this story might impact the upcoming vote to ban gay couples from marriage or civil unions.
This does appear to be a case of discrimination since the explanation proffered is an obvious pretext. As these things go, this is really on the extreme end of the scale for pure malice. To discriminate against a gay group is one thing, but to discriminate against an anti-bullying group, where the marchers would all be kids and where the group is named after a recently deceased bully victim is mind boggling. MN has never been a hotbed of anti-gay hatred. I don't know what it is about Anoka. It is like someone carved out a slice of Alabama circa 1977 and grafted it onto MN in 2012.
MN bans discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation and this public parade is likely covered. If Lambda doesn't come in here and represent Justin's Gift in a lawsuit, there is something seriously wrong with our movement. Let there be a suit, let there be discovery and let it all become public.
Anoka Minnesota, proudly carrying the bigot banner of Selma and Montgomery into the 21st Century!
The grief and public abbrobation the parade organizers are getting from this decision . . . surely they realize it is not worth the time and energy it is taking to make up more lies and excuses. Just say "there's always room for more in our parade" and get on with it.
Or, you know, run the risk the city will deny the parade permit on the grounds the private organizers are violating state non-discrimination law. Now THAT would be an interesting development!
Michael C
I am getting so tired of the hatred coming from my neighbors in Anoka.
I do want to defend Minnesota, Minneapolis in particular. To those of you who have never been to Minneapolis, we are awesomely gay. You can't throw a stone without hitting at least a couple of us. Every other house displays "Vote No" yard signs (MN is fighting prevent the passage of an anti-marriage amendment this Nov). "Gay" is such a non-issue to the vast majority of Minneapolis residents. While Anoka seems to be doing everything they can to make Minnesota look foolish (I'm talking to you, Michelle), Minneapolis and much of the surrounding communities truly represent the future of our Country.
I'm not into conspiracy theories. But there's really only one way that this ongoing petty anti-gay crap can go on in Anoka. Which is that there's a bunch of pretty well connected locals pushing for it.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for "cross-gender disturbance" in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation's embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that "[Paul] Cameron's 'science' echoes Nazi Germany." What the SPLC didn"t know was Cameron doesn't just "echo" Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution's architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a "plausible idea" in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day "Love Won Out" ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To "Love Won Out"
Part 1: What's Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With "No Exceptions"
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don't miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the "Dutch Study" to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins' Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family "Research" Council.
The FBI's annual Hate Crime Statistics aren't as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.