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When Jasia announced her topic for the 100th Carnival of Genealogy, I struggled with what to write on the subject "There's One In Every Family". Cousin, TK, of Before My Time was visiting and we were going through my photos of our mutual Schulte family. TK came across some interesting photos of one member of my family and she strongly suggested that I base my blog post on this relative. So, TK gets the credit for the decision and I will do my best to do the subject justice.
In my Schulte family, the men were known for their sense of humor. My grandfather, Elmer Schulte, had a good sense of humor and my father did as well when he was in the mood. But the one with the outstanding sense of humor and ability for joking around is my Uncle Mel.
Melbourne M. Schulte was born on September 27, 1920 in Detroit, MI to Elmer M. Schulte and Ella A. Wellhausen. He was their firstborn child and came along in their third year of marriage after my grandfather's return from WWI. Evidently my grandparents had the camera and the means to take multiple photos because many exist of my uncle as a baby and a young child.
As other children came into their family, their photo taking diminished some but this photo, taken in 1935, shows what a prankster my uncle was becoming. Here he is shown with his tongue out while his brother and sister are looking appropriately serious. When I told him recently about this photo, he laughed and said "I was such a pistol".
In 1940 both my uncle and my father got jobs as ushers at the old Rialto Theater on Gratiot Avenue and Mt. Elliott in Detroit. Here they are looking serious in their uniforms standing outside the theater.
My uncle reported that his favorite part of his ushering job was when he went up and down the aisles of the theater shining his flashlight down the rows of seats. He did admit to me that if there were pretty girls in the row he would shine his flashlight on their legs. He evidently found just such an interesting pair of legs because he chose the young woman to be his wife and they were married November 15, 1941.
And, where did they go on their honeymoon? Why, November 15th is the start of deer hunting in Michigan and my uncle, an avid hunter, did just that - taking his new bride up north in Michigan while he and his uncle went hunting all day. My aunt loves to tell the story that she sat in the cabin with her husband's aunt while the men hunted and this was her memorable honeymoon. And, each anniversary that followed? Why off deer hunting again.
I like to tell my uncle that he is lucky that my aunt stuck with him with his romantic ways. They both just laugh about it now but I wonder if she was doing a lot of laughing in the early years of their marriage!
With WWII in progress, both my uncle and my father enlisted in the Armed services with my uncle enlisting in the US Navy and my father in the US Army Air Corps. Both young men left for their duty on the same day at different locations and my grandmother told the story that they took one son off to the war and took the other son in a different direction off to the war as well on the same day causing her much anguish. My uncle also left behind his wife who was expecting their first child.
In December of 1943, my aunt and uncle became parents of a baby boy and the American Red Cross got their signals crossed and sent the notification of birth to my father instead of to my uncle. The postcard read "Congratulations on the birth of your new son. May be prove to be as fine of a citizen as you are a soldier". My father was understandably confused by this message and it took the Red Cross some time to get the message delivered to the true father in the Pacific.
Upon his return from the service, my uncle playfully posed for a photo with his father, Elmer Schulte. My his strength must have been great to be able to lift his father off the ground like this.
Melbourne & Elmer Schulte
ca 1945
Detroit, MI
ca 1945
Detroit, MI
Proud father with his son, they posed for this photo in 1947; in 1948 when I was born, this special uncle became my godfather.
In 1956, my uncle decided to show off his strength again by lifting his uncle, George Wellhausen, off the ground. I would like to tell him that it is obvious to me why NOW he is suffering from back problems. Should have left these full grown men standing on the ground by themselves.
Over the years his sense of humor and joke playing has made him loved by all. I have never seen him angry, never heard him scream or shout and his motto is that family is important, everyone should love each other and accept them as they are, though he can get pretty animated over US politics and politicians I will admit!
On September 27, 2010, my uncle turned 90 years of age. He told me that in church on the 26th of September he decided to go to the front of the church and make an announcement. He has no problem with shyness and up he walked where the minister asked him what he wished to share with the congregation. He told me that he stated that "tomorrow I will be 90 years of age and I never thought my wife and I would be here that long and on the 15th of November we will celebrate 68 years of marriage and I think I should get the Medal of Honor for this long marriage". He received much applause and laughter for this announcement and was proud to share it with me.
I, though, hastened to tell him that in reality his 2010 anniversary would be their 69th anniversary and not their 68th. Back and forth we went on the phone with my aunt getting in her opinion as well and they both insisted it was going to be 68 years. I reminded them they were married in 1941 (like I was even there!!) and they agreed it was 1941 and I stated that it would be 69 years as this is 2010.
My uncle's response? "Oh, my God now I have to go and stand up in church next Sunday and tell the congregation I made a mistake and shortchanged my wife by a year".
I am sure he did just that to another rousing laugh and round of applause from the members.
Today my aunt and uncle live in Arizona where my aunt is 92 and my uncle 90. He is my aunt's primary caregiver as her physical health has deteriorated but her mental health is sharp and her memory is intact (other than her memory of her years of marriage, of course!). He maintains his sense of humor and tells me some of the conversations he has with neighbors, church friends, bank tellers and others in their town in Arizona.
And I don't think he looks all that bad for his age. A sense of humor and positive attitude do help for sure.
Melbourne Schulte
2005 (85 years of age)
Sierra Vista, AZ
2005 (85 years of age)
Sierra Vista, AZ
Above photos from personal collection of Cheryl Schulte


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Pouches, pads, or plumes adorn animals for many reasons. Explanations for these incredible body parts are provided for the young reader.
A shell of bony plates covers an armadillo's body. This dense body armor protects the animal, but it also makes swimming difficult. To avoid sinking in water, an armadillo must inflate its stomach with air! In this book, children will learn about the diet, habitat, and unique look of the armadillo. Blastoff! Series
Badgers become fierce fighters when in danger. They can protect themselves from falling prey to large, strong animals such as wolves and bears! This book introduces beginning readers to badgers, highlighting the powerful jaws and strong claws of these animals. Blastoff! Series
Gophers are known for their puffy faces. They often stuff food into their cheek pouches and carry it back to their burrows. Young children will enjoy learning how gophers gather food and dig vast underground tunnels. Blastoff! Series
An owl has large eyes that work like a pair of binoculars. This, combined with excellent night vision and a rotating head, makes this raptor a skilled hunter. Beginning readers will have a hoot as they read about the unusual features of this bird of prey! Blastoff! Series
Using their beaks, woodpeckers peck holes in trees to get at the insects inside. They also hammer to attract mates and declare their territory. This book will interest children as it presents the behaviors and physical features of these noisy birds. Blastoff! Series
African elephants can weigh as much as 16,000 pounds! If their size isn't enough to make them stand out, they also have huge ears, long trunks, and ivory tusks. This title will engage beginning readers as it explains how Earth's largest land mammals use their trunks to keep themselves cool. Blastoff! Series

subset: commoncrawl


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Meet Civil Rights Shero Lenora Taitt-Magubane
Dr. Taitt-Magubane, has a deep history in the student non-violent protest movement that helped to fuel and carry out the principals of the civil rights movement.
Special To The Black Star News
[Business: Announcement]
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 from 7-11pm, in celebration of Women's History Month and to commemorate the ongoing celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, "Tea by Tiffany" will honor Civil Rights Freedom Rider, Dr. Lenora Taitt-Magubane at Grand Piatto d'Oro located at 1429 5th Avenue on 116th Street in Harlem.
Dr. Taitt-Magubane, has a deep history in the student non-violent protest movement that helped to fuel and carry out the principals of the civil rights movement. One of the most spectacular things this group of young people accomplished were the 'freedom rides' in which, during a perilous time, they rode interstate buses into segregated sections of the United States (1961) to test the United States Supreme Court decisions Boynton v. Virginia (1960) and Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1946) that ruled segregation of interstate highways illegal.
As a means to acknowledge phenomenal women and their contributions, each month Tiffany's Tea Party will recognize an individual woman or a group of women in a variety of sectors and industries.
Tea by Tiffany is a boutique tea lifestyle brand founded in 2010 by Social and Wellness Entrepreneur Tiffanydenise. The company began after a successful impromptu run at Harlem POP, a specialty pop-up experience shop curated by Society Hae in the fall of 2010.
Currently Tea by Tiffany has an online store, a retail location in Brooklyn's Dekalb Market (Spring opening April 2012) where guests can enjoy weekly Afternoon Teas and some of the best tasting hot and iced teas you will ever taste.
Space for this event is limited so make sure and confirm today. Tickets are $35 per person and includes food, desserts wine and champagne. To get tickets please go to www.teabytiffany.com/teaparty
We'll see you on the 28th! Stay tuned for more updates from Tea by Tiffany including the Spring 2012 Dekalb Market tea launch events, and various special events around the city. Drink more tea!
EMAIL: email@example.com
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I think you have "Filtered HTML" turned on here. If you switch to "Full HTML," it will probably...
googletag.pubads().definePassback('6785150/BENN/BlackStarNews', [[300,250]]).setTargeting('fold',['BTF']).display();


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HARTSVILLE, S.C. -- Barton College stormed out of the gate early in the first half and seemingly ran the court at Timberlake-Lawton Gymnasium Monday night against the Coker Lady Cobras, winning by a score of 79-58.
Barton (11-5, 10-1 Conf. Carolinas) shot 57.6 percent from the floor, compared to Coker's (2-14, 1-10 Conf. Carolinas) 29.4 percent. The Lady Bulldogs took their largest lead of the half at 21-12, before the Cobras rallied and closed the gap. At the end of the half, however, the Bulldogs returned to a nine point lead at 41-32.
In the first half, Barton was led by Janetta Robinson (Willard, N.C.) with 13 points and two rebounds. Senior Esty Flores (Virginia Beach, Va.) was also a major first half factor, scoring 12 points. The Lady Cobras offensive efforts were led by Jasmine Alston (Sumter, SC) with 10 points, and senior Henna Koponen (Vantaa, Finland) with eight points. Koponen also had four rebounds.
The second half was more of the same for the Lady Cobras, as their offense failed to overcome the intensity of the Lady Bulldogs. Barton's largest lead of the second half was an 18 point spread at 79-51. Coker then went on a seven point run to bring the final score to 79-58. The Cobra's did shoot 60.0 percent from the floor in the second half.
At the end of the game it was Barton's Flores leading the way offensively with 24 points, while Robinson had 19 points. Janae Jackson (Fort Belvoir, Va.) was the rebounding leader for the Lady Bulldogs with six rebounds.
Koponen finished the night with 16 points and six rebounds to lead Coker, while Alston netted 12 points.
The Lady Cobras will resume play Thursday, as they travel to Erskine College. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.


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Peer-to-Peer Observation and Feedback (P2P)
Peer-to-peer observation and feedback can be a rewarding and fulfilling journey of professional growth and collaboration. Completing this learning advances your ability to grow and learn through experience with other educators. Kentucky's children will benefit from your commitment to promoting educator effectiveness through the use of P2P processes!
Important Information:
1. This course replaces the previous training requirement for peer observers: KET's Professional Learning for Peer Observers. Educators should refer to their district's Certified Evaluation Plan (CEP) to determine peer observation requirements.
2. Teachers can expect to invest anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete this learning session depending on the depth/ level of prior knowledge teachers are equipped with upon engaging in the experience.
3. A certificate generates when you successfully complete the four required cases with a minimum pass rate of 80% on the final assessments. When the certificate generates, provide one copy for your principal and keep a copy for your records. The time stamp on the certificate indicates the time the certificate was printed; it does not indicate the time that the course was completed.
4. Your principal and/or district administrator may access your course results to review item responses and verify that you have successfully completed all requirements for peer observer certification.
5. This course is designed to be responsive to individual learner needs. In Case 5, you will find references used throughout the cases as well as other KDE-approved extended learning resources.
As you work through the four required cases in the course, the following resources will be helpful:


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Items: 1
Estado: Muy Bueno (nuevo o como nuevo, sin señales de uso)
Items: 1
Estado: Muy Bueno (nuevo o como nuevo, sin señales de uso)
The fourth doll in the Legends of Ireland® Collection is inspired by Deirdre of Ulster, a magnificent beauty whose tragic story made her a legendary heroine of Irish folklore. Deirdre was brought up in seclusion by Conchobar, King of Ulster, who planned to marry her when she was of age. Instead, she fell in love with a handsome warrier named Naisi, fleeing with him to Scotland, but the happiness was short-lived: Conchabar had an ill-fated plan in store. Naisi was killed, and Deirdre, who is also sometimes referred to as Deirdre of the Sorrows, later died from grief. This heartbreaking tale of eternal love results here in a beautiful doll with cascading red hair and a Celtic-inspired gown.
Ver todos sus lotes
Ver todos sus lotes en esta seccion
Sin valorar
País: España (Sevilla)
Antigüedad: 15/06/2017 Antigüedad: 15/06/2017


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Take in videos on our programs, events, exhibitions and installations, as well as our nearly famous holiday videos. watch more
Our online tour of the collection is now available! Use your mobile phone, tablet or computer to explore the Memorial Art Gallery—upstairs, downstairs and throughout Centennial Sculpture Park. learn more
Two interactive books published by the Memorial Art Gallery are available free from the iTunes Store. Ancient Egypt: Exploring Ancient Artifacts with Alex the Archaeologist and Ancient Greece: Exploring Ancient Artifacts with Alex the Archaeologist are designed for classroom use for students in grades 6–12. learn more
Subscribe to our podcasts using iTunes or RSS. Current podcasts include cell phone tours and performances on the Italian Baroque organ (descriptions below).
The Memorial Art Gallery's centennial year was presented by Lynne Lovejoy, with additional support from Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull, ESL Charitable Foundation and Nocon & Associates, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Below is a list of our lectures series from our Centennial celebration called "What's Up" as well as a few additional programs that we have recorded for your viewing and listening pleasure.
Experience a deeper level of understanding by listening to our cell phone tours. Access our phone tours by calling 585.627.4132. Tours are free, but your normal minutes apply. The first time you call, you will receive a text message with a link to our mobile site that gives you our complete cell phone tour listings.
"A difficult and challenging task." That's how MAG director emeritus Grant Holcomb describes the process of selecting just two dozen works for his Director's Cell Phone Tour. "I wanted the tour to reflect the great breadth of the collection and sought to balance favorite 'pilgrimage paintings'—major works by acknowledged masters—with more personal, even quirky, choices. And I finished the project knowing that, if asked to do it again, I might come up with a different set of personal favorites."
view portfolio of images for the Director's Audio Tour.
Former chief curator Marjorie Searl leads a tour of the 19th- and 20th-century American galleries.
Hear featured artists speak about their own works (selected Docent Gallery exhibitions).
These interactive sidewalks bordering Centennial Sculpture Park were a collaboration between the City of Rochester and local nonprofit organizations. Both projects were curated by a panel of judges with input from the community, and in the case of Story Walk, chosen from hundreds of public submissions. To listen, call 585.627.4132 on your cell phone and when prompted for the stop number enter the first four letters of the keyword engraved on the sidewalk.
learn more
Visitors who are visually impaired can enjoy detailed verbal descriptions of selected paintings. The descriptions are offered at original speed, and at a slightly faster version for those who are accustomed to the speed of screen reader programs.
Enjoy excerpts from organ performances held at 1:00 and 3:00 every Sunday at MAG. CDs are also available from the Gallery Store.


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Good morning crafty friends and welcome to Tiffany Doodles first blog hop of 2012! I was recently contacted by Jessica Griffin, who invited me to be a guest for today's hop to help celebrate the second anniversary of Tiffany Doodles! Tiffany Doodles is an online store offering a wide variety of fun digital stamps to meet all your crafty needs!
For my card today, I used "2 Butterflies". I printed this beautiful digital image on Neenah cardstock and coloured it with Copics. The image was cut out with Spellbinders Circles and matted with Lacey Circles. The papers are from Basic Grey (Picadilly) and My Mind's Eye. To finish it off, I added a bow tied with my Bow Easy.
If you're on Facebook, make sure to "Like" the Tiffany Doodles page for special deals and giveaways!
I just wanted to say a quick thanks to Tiffany and to Jessica for inviting me to be part of the Tiffany Doodles blog hop today...I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to join all the talented ladies on today's hop. :)


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Mr. Pill: "I don't know. The pharmacy never filled it."
Dr. Grumpy: "Whaaa..."
Mr. Pill: "I dropped it off last month, but they never called to tell me it was ready."
Dr. Grumpy: "Did you go by to get it? Or call them to ask if it was ready?"
Mr. Pill: "Was I supposed to?"


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A whimsical entry in the 'falling' genre
This is going to sound really weird, but when I was younger, I had a dream about my perfect game. It was basically an open-world version of Mirror's Edge without gunplay. It was more of a whimsical experience like Jumping Flash, taking you on a dream-like journey through a world, with an emphasis on free-falling.
Kersploosh! is basically a bite-sized realization of that game -- albeit a very brief, fleeting, yet enjoyable experience. It's a bit one-sided at times, but ultimately, it gives you exactly what it advertises: the ability to drop objects into a well and have fun falling down it.
Kersploosh! (3DS eShop)
Developer: Poisoft
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: March 7, 2013
Some time ago, Poisoft created a game called Hyu-Stone that launched with the Japanese 3DS eShop. After nearly two years, the game was re-worked for regions outside of Japan, and behold, Kersploosh! (Splash or Crash in Europe) was born.
Kersploosh! is both a time attack and survival-based game, as each object has a certain amount of HP allotted to it before it explodes, and every round is graded with a timer. This essentially allows you to enjoy the experience entirely within your own self-imposed parameters.
You'll control everything solely with the circle pad, and pretty much every object does what you want it to. It'll take a bit to get used to the really tight controls that may feel a bit oversensitive at first, but I was able to acclimate myself fairly easily.
Conceptually, the game is about "what an object sees" as they fall down a well, so you're going to experience some pretty wild obstacles, like donuts, pizza doors, and various delectable treats. These crazy objects keep things interesting and keep you guessing as to what the next well will bring.
The 3D looks great (although it can be overwhelming if you're not used to it), and the graphical style lends itself very well to a game predominately about imagination.
At first, you'll have access to a pebble, but as you start to unlock more wells, you'll unlock more objects, the use of which will in turn will unlock different objects.
These range from a drop of water that only has 1 HP, to a seemingly invincible wrecking ball, to an invincible bouncy ball, to a nesting doll that opens up one of its layers after striking an object. There are 10 objects in all, and they all feel extremely different, control-wise.
One of my favorite parts of the game is the introduction of each object before a stage takes place. For instance, the giant wrecking ball is thrown down a well by a former shot-putter, who is abandoning his dreams of making it big.
The only problem is that each object only has one intro. With some imaginative writers, these could have been something truly special, as I easily would have re-used objects just to read from a selection of 20+ short stories. It's just a small addition that could have gave the game that much more heart.
In terms of content, the main problem with Kersploosh! is that there's only 10 wells to choose from, so if you don't buy into the idea of replaying them with different objects, you're going to have a short experience -- I'm talking around thirty minutes.
To extend the replay value a bit, it would have been nice if there were online leaderboards included in addition to the ones shared through StreetPass. In fact, given the low price of the game, even friend list leaderboards would have done wonders, as it would be easy to convince people to buy the game just to best your score.
As it stands, the in-game leaderboards themselves have an old-school feel to them, and the game lends itself very well to a "pass and play" style where everyone vies for the top spot.
With a bit more content and some tweaking, Kersploosh! could have been one of the best games on the 3DS eShop, because as it stands, it's a hard sell for people who like their experiences padded with more content. If you're okay with a short, enjoyable journey to the bottom of a well though, it's more than enough.
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Kersploosh! reviewed by Chris Carter
Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.
How we score: The Destructoid reviews guide


text:
Hello, I'm Paul W. Frields -- welcome to my Fedora Project page.
I work on the following bits and pieces of Fedora:
- I work for Red Hat as the Fedora Project Leader and chairman of the Fedora Project Board .
- The DocsProject, as a writer, editor, and part-time balladeer;
- The FDP Steering Committee , where I was a founding member;
- Maintainer of fedora-release-notes and a few other useful packages .
I also help drive the Fredericksburg (VA) Linux Users Group (FredLUG), which meets twice monthly in my hometown.
I was a founding member of the Fedora Project Board , and served the community there from April 2006 to July 2007.
How to Contact Me
Email: [[MailTo(stickster AT DESPAMINATE gmail DOT com)] - GPG Public Key
You can often find me on Freenode IRC at #fedora-docs (username: stickster), but your best bet is always email.
Active Documents
|Drafts and Downloads
These documents appear on the Fedora documentation Web site and in Docs CVS . I have done authorial or editorial work on the following documents:
In the past, I've also worked on these (now obsolete) documents:
Package Maintenance
I maintain or co-maintain the following packages in the Fedora package collection :
- blogtk
- drivel
- fedora-release-notes
- nautilus-open-terminal
- nautilus-sendto
- perl-PatchReader
- xmldiff (This is the Logilab Python version.)
- xmlstarlet
I no longer maintain the following Extras packages:
- gnome-sudoku - moved into gnome-games
Obsolete Documents
These are deprecated because of changes over time to Fedora Core. Currently these still appear in CVS, but may eventually become wistful memories.
Web Publishing to fedora.redhat.com
This subject is now covered in the Documentation Guide .
Self Introduction
Name: Paul W. Frields
Location: Fredericksburg, VA - USA
Profession: Engineer
Company: Red Hat, Inc.
As the FPL
- Oversee the entire Fedora Project -- if it's in Fedora, ultimately I'm accountable for it.
- Work with the Fedora Program Manager (JohnPoelstra), Fedora Engineering Manager (TomCallaway), and the CommunityArchitecture team to make sure that Fedora is making constant, substantial progress in its mission to advance free and open source software.
- Chair the Fedora Project Board , and ensure that the Board is effectively advising and guiding the Fedora Project where needed.
- Be an effective bridge between the external volunteer contributor base and the contributor community inside Red Hat, such as RHEL engineers.
- Lower contributor barriers to the absolute minimum, and encourage others to get involved in FOSS through Fedora.
As a Contributor
- Provide top-tier quality documentation for Fedora products.
- Provide the odd low-maintenance package such as non-critical add-ons, where my programming skill (or lack thereof) is not a limiting factor.
- Strive to provide a good example of dealing with other people in a constructive, friendly way at all times.
Historical Qualifications
- The Fedora Project was my first work as an open-source contributor.
- I have used Linux since 1997, Red Hat Linux 4.1 (Vanderbilt), and have used every Red Hat and Fedora distribution since. I am comfortable with most aspects of system administration, and fellow sysadmins in my previous jobs often came to me with questions. On the other hand, through working in Fedora I've met truly gifted sysadmins who make my work look pretty shoddy by comparison.
- I have taught Linux to literally thousands of seminar attendees and classroom students (working professionals, mainly) using these products.
- I work on the Fedora Documentation Project, and they seem to trust me.
Skill Areas
HIGH: bash, GNU make, DocBook, RHCE, communication skills (writing, teaching, public speaking)
MEDIUM/LOW: XML/XSL/XSLT, Python, Perl, C/C++
GPG Information
pub 1024D/BD113717 1997-09-19 Key fingerprint = 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717 sub 4096g/46D87F1F 1997-09-19


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In This Issue:
- The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship
- Book Review: Perfect Software
- Hot Links
The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship
In the Spring of 2001, 17 software development experts got together to discuss successful approaches to software development. One result of that effort was the Agile Manifesto which defines what has become known as the four agile values. Each value is worded in the format X over Y, and although both X and Y are important agile developers have found that X in general is more important than Y.
Value #1: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Teams of people build software systems, and to do that they need to work together effectively. This includes -- but is not limited to -- programmers, testers, project managers, modelers, and your customers. Just as Walker Royce revealed a few years earlier in his book Software Project Management, the Agilists had discovered that the primary determinant of success on software development projects was the way that people work together.
Value #2: Working software over comprehensive documentation. Documentation has its place, written properly it is a valuable guide for people to understand how and why a system is built and how to work with the system. However, never forget that the primary goal of software development is to create software, not documents "- otherwise it would be called documentation development wouldn't it?
Value#3: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. Only your customer can tell you what they want. Having a contract with your customers is but it isn't a substitute for communication. Agile teams promote the practice active stakeholder participation where stakeholders, or their representative(s), interact with the team on a daily basis, they are responsible for providing information to the team in a timely manner, for making decisions in a timely manner, and for prioritizing requirements.
Value #4: Responding to change over following a plan. Change is a reality of software development, a reality that your software process must reflect. There is nothing wrong with having a project plan, in fact the vast majority of agile teams develop and maintain a high-level release plan. However, a project plan must be malleable, there must be room to change it as your situation changes otherwise your plan quickly becomes irrelevant.
The Agile Manifesto is a great start, but it's only a start. Recently a group of people have collaborated to write what they are calling The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship which extends the Agile Manifesto. The values of this manifesto is in the format X but also Y, where in pursuit of X they have found that Y is indispensable.
p>Value #1: Not only working software, but also well-crafted software. Although the principles behind the agile manifesto discussed the importance of quality, the values never did. Disciplined agile developers know that well-crafted software is loosely coupled, highly cohesive, easy to understand, and easy to extend and actively seek to write such software.
p>Value #2: Not only responding to change, but also steadily adding value. Agile developers embrace the concept that stakeholder requirements and priorities change over time, but that doesn't mean the change should occur in a haphazard manner. They invest time to analyze the business environment and to work with stakeholders to synthesize a productive vision for supporting and enhancing their organization.
p>Value #3: Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals. Disciplined agile developers work closely with one another, sharing their skills with one another and thereby learning together. They do this within the organizations that they work and in the larger overall IT community.
p>Value #4: Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnerships. Disciplined agile developers work closely with stakeholders to understand their environment and over time become trusted advisors to them.
I view this manifesto as an important step in the maturation of software development. I see it as a sign that we're moving away from the rhetoric of Level 1 agile software processes on the Agile Project Maturity Model (APMM) such as Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) to the more disciplined mindset that we see with Level 2 processes such as Open Unified Process (OpenUP) and Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM).
Book ReviewPerfect Software and other Illusions about Testing
Gerald M. Weinberg
Dorset House, 2009
Gerry Weinberg wrote this, 'nuff said! Seriously though, Perfect Software and other Illusions about Testing is great book for anyone directly involved with testing systems or who manage people who test systems. Weinberg has been involved with testing since the late 1950s, and this book shows it. The book is concise, at 182 pages, yet it contains wisdom rarely found in books five times that size. A lot of the book focuses on the people side of things, such as why defects occur, why we struggle to understand them, and why we often deny that they are even there. It also covers a lot of the misunderstandings about testing, such as belief in the ability to find all defects (instead you need to test to the risk), to do 100% path testing (path testing is exponential), that testing results in quality (fixing improves quality), and that anyone can test (testing takes skill).
Each chapter ends with a list of common mistakes, which is important because if you're not aware of your mistakes you can't possibly correct them. For example, common mistakes people make when trying to determine the significance of a defect is to confuse the difficulty of addressing the defect with its importance, misjudging the time it took to find a defect with the level of its significance (sometimes you can find really serious problems quickly), failing to realize that defect significance can be mostly political, and failing to reassess significance as new information becomes available (to list but a few).
Hot Links
The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship
The article Examining the Agile Manifesto explores in detail tha values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.
The article Active Stakeholder Participation overviews why and how stakeholders can become valuable members of software development teams.
For more information about agile approaches to requirements, read this paper.
The Agile Process Maturity Model (APMM) is described here.
My [email protected] blog is where I discuss strategies for adopting and applying agile strategies in the complex environments.
The article Examining the Agile Manifesto explores in detail tha values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.
The article Active Stakeholder Participation overviews why and how stakeholders can become valuable members of software development teams.
For more information about agile approaches to requirements, read this paper.
The Agile Process Maturity Model (APMM) is described here.
My [email protected] blog is where I discuss strategies for adopting and applying agile strategies in the complex environments.


text:
Slip into this brand for a delicious look and supportive fit. Crème Bralée makes beautiful bras in sizes that are often tough to find. Crème Bralée offers band sizes 32-46 in cups sizes C-G. Not only offering bras, there are also gorgeous thongs and panty selections. Bridal, sleepwear and shapewear is also offered by Crème Bralée.
Crème Bralée is a collection of QT Intimates. QT Intimates has been dressing women in comfort and support since 1945. They are also a part of the famous La Leche League International Intimate Apparel. Crème Bralée was started in 2013 for the full figured and full busted woman. The motto of the brand is, "Where fit doesn't have to be the enemy of fashion." Designers of the Crème Bralée collections say they paid attention to the smallest details like straps, hook-and-eyes and the overall comfort of each thing.
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Full busted and plus size women can find the size they need and the support they crave, and full figured women can find larger band sizes in styles far from boring. Shop HerRoom for the latest styles by Crème Bralée.


text:
Philadelphia Information Locator Service
Agency Information
Neighborhoods, Mayor's Office of;[Record group 60-119-1]
Mayor's Commission on Neighborhoods
Agency Function
- The purpose of the office is to advise and recommend to the Mayor strategies for improving the quality of life for citizens on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis; strengthening the existing City resources, in the delivery of service, making use of citizen volunteers, neighborhood organizations, and community groups to stimulate community and economic development; providing a clearinghouse for neighborhood activity throughout the City; and coordinate, monitor and evaluate the activities of all neighborhood programs administered throughout the City.
- Agency History
- The Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods was created by Executive Order 4-84, dated 9 February 1984. By Executive Order 3-85, Mayor Goode established the Mayor's Commission on Neighborhoods with the avowed purposes to provide a focus for issues of concern to the City's neighborhoods; advising the administration on issues and policies affecting the City's neighborhoods; and studying the services which the City provides to the neighborhoods. The Commission is composed of no more than 50 persons including representatives from the City Planning Commission, the Departments of Licenses and Inspections, Health, Recreation, Police, and Commerce, the Mayor's Offices of Community Services, Action Center and Office of Housing, the Private Industry Council, the Philadelphia Corporation on Aging, and the Energy Coordinating Agency, along with representatives from communities, neighborhoods and civic groups, and any other agency invited to participate.
- Archival Records
- No holdings
- Current Records
- Unavailable
Links to related information...
PhILS Home
-->City Agencies
---->Current Agency Information Sheet. (Graphical version of this page)
Send your comments to firstname.lastname@example.com
Last updated on July 9, 1999


text:
In the early 1990's the Minnesota Supreme Court appointed a committee to study the existence of racial disparities in the Minnesota courts. The Committee subsequently issued a long report finding the courts guilty of racial mistreatment of memebers of minorities and together with a set of statistical studies that belied the report's findings. Although the court system has been eager in essence to confess to its own (nonexistent) mistreatment of minority members, amazingly enough neither any Minnesota judge guilty of this alleged practice, nor any wrongfully convicted or sentenced defendant, has ever been identified in connection with the issue of racial mistreatment.
The text of the Committee report found that members of racial minorities were treated poorly in Minnesota's justice system. The statistical studies, however, strongly suggested that members of racial minorities were either treated equally or better than other Minnesotans. Nevertheless, since the issuance of the Committee's report in 1993, the existence of wrongful racial disparities in the justice system has been the official doctrine of the Minnesota courts and the Court has required lawyers to attend elimination of bias training as a condition of maintaining a license to practice law. We are, in the immortal words of the warden in "Cool Hand Luke," to get our minds right.
Which brings us to the saga of Angel Martinez. Martinez is a Hispanic gang member who was convicted of a serious gang-related criminal offense three years ago and sentenced to college — i.e., he was put on probation on the condition that he attend college. Mr Hernandez has tried but failed twice since then to get himself incarcerated by failing to attend school, and most recently by attending but failing three of his courses while dropping the fourth. Today's Star Tribune reports that the judge has ordered Hernandez to return to school part-time or transfer to a less demanding technical school.
Those of us unlucky enough to have our professional lives subject to the authoritiy of the Minnesota Supreme Court would dearly love to convene a committee for the study of stupidity in the Minnesota judicial system. Surely the case of Angel Hernanandez all by itself would merit a chapter.
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"Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." Winston Churchill
"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." Inscription on the Liberty Bell


text:
Today the government of Iran mounted an attack on Britain's embassy compound in Tehran. Its purpose was to produce shock and consternation. The "students" who carried out the attack appeared to be firmly under the control of Ahmadinejad's regime; the Washington Post quotes a description of the Basij militia members who stormed the compound as "government-controlled rent-a-mobs who are at the beck and call of Iranian security forces." This is certainly consistent with the way the riot was reported by the FARS News Agency, a government mouthpiece, which portrayed the rioters in a heroic light.
The attack on the British embassy was frightening for those inside or nearby. The rioters were perhaps least threatening when they engaged in theft:
Here, government thugs tear down the British flag from the embassy and replace it with Iran's banner:
Iranian "students" rampaged throughout the compound that houses the British Embassy. Here, they smash the windows of an outbuilding:
News accounts say that embassy personnel fled out the back of the embassy. It would have been easy for the Iranian authorities to seal off such escape routes, so it appears that for now, Iran's leaders do not intend to duplicate their "America Held Hostage" coup of 1979 and 1980. That could change, of course, at any moment.
The U.K. recently was involved in imposing sanctions on Iran, but whether that was a plausible motive for today's attack, and whether it made any real sense to single out Great Britain in connection with those sanctions, I do not know. What seems clear is that Iran wants to remind the West of the disaster that was the 1979-80 hostage crisis, presumably to deter further sanctions or other moves to hem in Iran's military options.


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text:
Why You'll Want LISP Routing – Part 1
I am going to spend the next couple of posts digging through one of the more interesting new technologies we are working on: a standard called Locator/ID Separation Protocol (or LISP). Why should you care—well if you are looking at deploying clouds, supporting mobility of end-points or VMs or are managing a routing architecture or any meaningful size or complexity, I think it will be worth your while to check out LISP.
LISP is a new approach to routing that is designed to address the changes in how we are using our networks. Lets explore LISP through the lens of one of the biggest challenges facing network architects today: properly tackling mobility, whether its mobile endpoints like smartphones, tablets or squirrels or the mobile workloads that are at the heart of server virtualization and cloud computing. While mobility this is probably the "sexiest" use case right now, there are a number of other use cases, like routing architecture scalability and IPv6 migration, which, while less alluring to all but the biggest networking nerds, are no less important.
So, what is my locator and my ID and why do they need to be separated all of a sudden? Let's use mobile phones as an example since the analogy seems to click for most folks I talk to. Looking at Cisco's main number +1.408.526.4000, we see the number implicitly contains location info: the "1" means its in the US, the "408" means its in the San Jose area, before number portability, the "526" would tie the number to a specific central office (trivia: in the old days, it tied the number to a specific switch in the CO). When I needed to route a call to +1.916.555.1212 it was relatively trivial to figure out the call needed to go to a specific CO in northern California and send it on its way. This all worked when phones sat on tables or were bolted to walls, but then came mobile phones. Suddenly, although my mobile phone has a 916 area code, I could be anywhere on the planet and the phone network needed to be able to quickly and efficiently route calls to me while I was on the go. While my phone number still uniquely identifies me (or at least my phone), the intrinsic location information was no longer useful for actually finding me.
We have a similar situation with IP addressing. Most of you know that if you look at an IP address like 192.168.1.1, some portion represents (say "192.168" for simplicity's sake) represents a specific network and the balance ("1.1") represents the address of a specific host. Many of you also know that a lot of time and effort goes into efficient allocation of addresses and of designing routing architecture. A branch office might have a specific set of subnets allocated to it—similarly and rack in a data center might be in a specific subnet. Unfortunately, much like the advent the mobile phone broke the model, the introduction of client mobility and workload mobility blew a hole in the traditional approach to routing.
In the data center, much of the focus has been around maintaining L2 adjacency to enable virtual workload mobility. Certainly, stretching L2 is a key part of any comprehensive solution and we have our own solutions in this space, namely VXLAN and OTV, but they have their limits and at some point L3 needs to enter into the equation, which is where a technology like LISP comes into play.
If you look at VXLAN as an example, while the technology allows you great freedom on where you can move your VMs, the L3 default gateway (i.e. the connection to the rest of the world) stays pinned to the original location. With VM migration within a data center, this is not really all that big a deal since the route to the outside world is probably the same for the entire data center. If you are looking are moving between data centers, it may make less sense. Say you are in LA and accessing a data center in San Francisco. Now, being its summer and there is a threat of rolling brown-outs so your workload gets live-migrated to a data center in San Jose. Even though your workload is now in SJ, your path to the outside world will still flow through SF. Minimally, you are looking at less efficient traffic flow (LA (you) > SF (default gateway) > SJ (workload) > SF (default gateway) > LA (you) but if SF actually goes down, you have totally lost connectivity that could cause varying degrees of grief. Ideally, you would want your workload-on-the-go to dynamically map to the nearest or optimal default gateway. We have a couple of ways of adding L3 intelligence into this discussion–the recently announced Cloud Services Router 1000V is one solution; however, in this case LISP would probably do the trick.
So, how does this magic all work? At its heart, LISP creates an extended address space that (surprise!) separates the host ID from its location and allows a "map and encap" routing scheme. The "address" looks something like 2001:0102:0304:0506:0708:0900:0a0b:0c0d:2001:0a0b:0c0d:0e0f:1111:2222:3333:4444 (IPv6) or 10.10.1.1.192.168.1.13 (IPv4). The blue portion is called the Endpoint Identifier (EID) and represents the IP address of a node. The red portion is called the Routing Locator (RLOC), which is the IP address of the LISP router for that host. LISP addressing is actually much more flexible than these two examples and the actual header format looks is a bit more involved, but let's not complicate things for the purpose of this post–I'll dig into the specifics with the next post.
As noted earlier, LISP uses a "map-and-encap" scheme. The "map" part uses pull a mechanism very similar to DNS. With DNS, you may query a DNS server for a given name ("hey, where is blogs.cisco.com") you get back an IP address ("you can find that at 22.214.171.124"). With LISP you can query a LISP mapping server that maintains RLOC/EID bindings for the location of a host or EID ("where can I find host w.x.y.z") and get back the address of the router or RLOC serving that host ("you need to go chat to router a.b.c.d"). With this information, your local router can now encapsulate and send traffic to the remote router which can then ultimately deliver it to the destination host. With this mechanism you can now unteather both you mobile endpoints and you virtual workloads without stuff breaking. But that is just scratching at the surface: I can take the same concept, but move entire subnets at one time. With my DR provider, I could bring up an entire data center at my DR site and simply change the mapping in the LISP mapping server to seamlessly re-route all traffic to the new location—again, more on the use cases in the third post.
So, this is the 60 second overview–I'll dig deeper into the underlying mechanics of LISP in the next post, but for now, let me wrap with a couple of benefits of the LISP approach:
- It's a network-based solution, so there is no tweaking of hosts needed
- There are minimal config changes on the routers, in fact, it is fairly prosaic in its design and implementation (i.e. uses pull mechanism similar to DNS)
- LISP is address space agnostic
UPDATE: You can find Part 2 here: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/why-youll-want-lisp-routing-part-2/
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.
6 Comments
Shehjad Sayyed
You simplified the stuff, looking forward the series. Thanks Omar 🙂
Vimal N
Great introductory article, Omar.
Rati Jokhadze
Great article , thanks


text:
In that same vein, I hope to apply that same kind of pressure
to the owners in all of my leagues by beating my opponents to
the punch in regards to personnel moves. Sometimes, reaching a
conclusion about a player too quickly is much like trying to blitz
Peyton Manning – dangerous and painful. However, coming
to a correct conclusion two weeks or two minutes quicker than
your opponents is considered foresight. Fantasy owners can be
a uneasy lot, knowing that one two-or-three-game losing streak
can wreak irreparable damage to his/her team's chances to
make a visit to the fantasy postseason. But just as it is in the
NFL and in life, it's hard to land the big prize by playing
scared. Thus, I will strive each week to help each of you become
a smart blitzer, so to speak.
Just about every fantasy football league in existence is either
right at the midpoint of the fantasy regular season or just crossed
the midpoint with last weekend's games. In many fantasy leagues,
the trade deadline looms as well, so I can't think of a better
topic this week than to discuss "second-half strategy".
Thankfully, there are a fortunate few owners out there - such
as myself - who are pretty much done with bye weeks...and it couldn't
come at a better time. One money league team in particular - the
one I mentioned in this space last week plus Brandon
Marshall (for now) – stands at 3-4 but is only two games out
of first and, barring further injury, will be at full strength
for the remainder of the season. I mention this team – Philip
Rivers, Maurice
Jones-Drew, Ronnie
Brown, Anquan
Boldin, Steve
Breaston, Marshall and a glut of TEs (Todd
Heap, Jermichael
Finley and Zach
Miller) are the key components – again this week because I
feel it best illustrates the points I will be emphasizing this
I've long fashioned myself as an owner who is going to "win"
draft night or, at the very least, come away with a substantial
foundation from which I can build my new team. But I've also said
quite regularly that if I cannot trade during the course of a
season (be it inactive owners or owners who overvalue their players
to a very high degree), I stand very little chance of winning
any league. In my Quarterly
Stock Report a few weeks back, I stated how fantasy football
resembled the stock market in a number of ways. Let's suppose
for a minute you went to the most knowledgeable stock market trader
you knew and told that person that he/she could have his/her pick
of the 15-20 stocks he/she felt were most likely to succeed that
year - but informed that person that he/she could not trade any
of those stocks at any time during the course of the year –
do you feel that person would be willing to take that challenge?
The point of this example is that to be an effective "portfolio
manager", an owner must have the flexibility to adjust to
current market trends – the same goes for owners in fantasy
football. But just like our portfolios, our fantasy teams are
rarely ever flawless. (And if by chance you may be thinking your
team is flawless now, wait a week or two.)
Another point I mentioned in the Quarterly Stock Report is how
some NFL coaches split their season into quarters, which is something
I also like to do in terms of building my team. However, when
it comes to winning leagues, I tend to view the season by "first
half" and "second half". In the "first
half", my main objective is to survive through my teams'
bye weeks. During that time, I'm pretty happy with a high-scoring
5-2 team or better. High-scoring 4-3 or 3-4 teams are also acceptable
so long as: 1) they have given me a reason to believe better days
are ahead or 2) have put several high-scoring performances together
but just have fallen victim to the schedule, which leads me to
another one of my fantasy axioms - it's all about who you play
against and when you play against them. I focus less on the record
at this point of the season and more on how many points my team
has scored, as well as my team's place in its division.
The second half of the fantasy regular season is like Saturday
at a PGA Golf event. The "second half" is when the
good teams (and owners) separate their teams from the pack. For
me, this usually involves taking a modified "all-or-nothing"
approach in which I attempt to clear out my bench via trade. In
short, I want as many "no-brainer" starting options
as possible and will go to great lengths to do it. Ideally, after
purging my bench by packaging as many "average" players
as I can for positional upgrades, I leave myself with at least
one worthy option at each position. But if the right situation
presents itself, I may leave my team with no proven alternative
on the bench at a position or two if it makes my lineup decisions
easier and, more importantly, makes my team better. In other words,
I will definitely sacrifice depth for quality in the second half.
Take the team I just referenced above – two weeks ago,
I was stuck with Boldin, Bernard Berrian and Tim Hightower as
my two WRs and flex player, respectively. While that combo isn't
too bad in a high-dollar PPR league, I wasn't getting the
"championship vibe" from that roster. Through some
luck and creativity, I managed to add Breaston, Marshall and Todd
Heap (reacting to Finley's knee sprain) in the meantime
without dealing a single "cornerstone" player. It
is my hope that I can package Marshall along with another bit
player for someone like Roddy White – a WR I trust much
more than Marshall, who has a difficult schedule ahead –
or Marques Colston, who I think will explode in the second half
as the Saints face a number of poor teams.
Another example, another money league - as luck would have it,
it just so happens that I am pursuing White in this league as
well. (Trust me when I tell it is pure coincidence that I started
this week not owning White in a single league and, before this
week is over, I may own him in three leagues.) In this league,
I failed in my attempt to break up my Carson
Favre conundrum at QB but I may be addressing my WR1 issues.
The White owner in this league has no quality WRs behind White,
so I found myself in the interesting position of dealing from
my team's biggest question mark – receiver – to address his biggest
weakness - WR. How does that work, you ask? My team in this league
is loaded with WR2 and WR3 candidates – DeSean
Jackson, T.J.
Houshmandzadeh, Torry
Holt and Bernard
Berrian – but lacks that one player that puts every other
WR in their rightful place (Jackson as a WR2; Holt as a WR3, for
example). As I write and edit this piece early Thursday morning,
I am nearing completion on a deal that will allow me to acquire
Devin Hester.
This, in turn, should allow me to send Houshmandzadeh and Holt
to the White owner to address his WR depth concerns and allow
me to secure the stud WR I desire. If I haven't lost you yet,
I hope to turn White around to re-acquire Colston, who I dealt
earlier in the year to secure Jones-Drew.
My WRs at the beginning of this week:
Jackson, Houshmandzadeh, Holt and Berrian
My WRs at the end of this week:
Colston/White, Jackson, Hester
The downside to trading away depth is obvious: What happens when
front-liners like MJD or Brown get hurt in the second half? In
the cases in which I can acquire the potential handcuff, I do
with the extra roster spaces I pick up trading quantity for quality.
For MJD, I would make sure to clear space for Rashad
Jennings and possibly Greg
Jones. For Brown, I will attempt to trade Bradshaw to the
Jacobs owner - who conveniently owns Ricky
Williams - and go from there. If I come up short on Williams,
I will make sure I secure Lex
Hilliard. Who? Hilliard is a 2008 sixth-round draft pick who
excelled during the 2009 preseason and would step into a significant
role should something happen to Brown or Williams. And if all
else fails, I can always roll the dice on the prospective second-half
waiver wire gem that seems to emerge every year right around this
time. This week, the Jets' Shonn
Greene is looking like a pretty good candidate for that title,
but he is taken in every meaningful league I'm in. Thus, I'll
set my sights on someone like Jason
Snelling or Justin
Forsett, two backs who are positioning themselves for more
work with Atlanta and Seattle, respectively.
My theory to fantasy team-building is this: I want a team that
I can confidently set the lineup for each week. Just like any
other owner, I don't like having to choose between 2-3 marginal
options when I could have done something earlier in the season
to make that a non-issue. I'd just as soon say that I went
all in on a team I believed in than to say I didn't make
the playoffs because I wasn't aggressive enough. At the
end of the day, I love the feeling of sitting back and looking
at the team I've built, knowing I have a combination of
players that my fellow leaguemates despise playing that week.
It's about time to take a look at the updated workload/target
numbers. By now, you know the rules, but here they are again.
For RBs, I've drew the line at seven touches/game and for
WRs/TEs, I stopped at five targets/game, rounding up if I need
Each position will be sorted by touches or targets/game
Cedric Benson is barreling toward a 400-touch
Allow me to clarify, Jones-Drew is on pace for 357 touches, but
I am far less concerned with his ability to maintain his current
workload because 50-60 of those touches will come from the passing
game, which quite often allow the RB to deliver a blow to a defensive
back or run out of bounds. In today's NFL, I want my backs to
get 25 touches, not 25 carries. Not only does this serve to benefit
us as PPR league owners and the rusher's long-term health,
it also allows our RBs to operate in space, where they often do
the most damage.
Quite often in fantasy football, fantasy writers like to indulge
themselves in the "opportunity equals production" discussion.
While that is usually a great rule to live by, other factors sometimes
get in the way, such as talent, supporting cast and schedule (DeAngelo
Williams is a great example). This year's RB leaderboard in PPR
leagues - so far - is just the most recent example this fantasy
cliché does not always hold true. Of the top 12 RBs that are averaging
at least 19 touches/game, only six find themselves in the top
12 at their position in terms of fantasy points/game. Several
of the backs missing from the top 12 of points/game just missed
the cut, but Michael
Turner or Ryan
Grant owners didn't draft their RB in the first three rounds
with the idea he would be battling Darren
Sproles for fantasy relevancy or that either player would
be greatly outperformed at the midpoint of the season by Ricky
Speaking of Williams and Miami, I want to give the Dolphins'
staff all the credit I can for their offensive gameplan each week.
Someday, in the near future, Chad Henne will have a real WR1,
which will make this offense even more dynamic than it already
is. In the meantime, Miami's offensive coaching staff does what
good coaches should do - play to their team's strengths
and stick to it religiously. Since the Week 1 debacle vs. Atlanta,
the Dolphins have asked Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams to handle
the ball 40 times a game on average! The duo has returned the
team's faith in them by combining for 1,083 total yards
and 12 TDs in five games.
Furthermore, the Dolphins have catered to each back's strengths.
Ricky Williams is no longer a battering ram that a coach wants
to religiously pound up the middle, but he has become a fine runner
on the perimeter and may be faster now than he was in his late
20s. Brown is the better inside runner of the two and can get
out on the edge as well, but the Wildcat is so effective at this
point because defenses must pick their poison of either getting
gashed by Williams on outside runs or Brown steamrolling linebackers
and safeties up the middle. If/when Miami finally decides to allow
Brown to hit a WR on a quick slant (that is, if more teams send
the corner blitz like New Orleans did in Week 7), the Wildcat
will have evolved yet again and give Brown's owners even more
reason to rejoice. If I were to find one fault with Miami's
gameplan, I would suggest the team do a better job at getting
both backs more involved in the passing game. Williams has 13
catches so far while Brown has nine, low numbers considering Miami's
receivers strike little fear into defenses.
Moving right along, I wasn't all that surprised to see Mike
Bell take a sizeable chunk of Pierre
Thomas' touches away from him upon his return from injury.
However, seeing Bell with more touches in the two weeks since
his return (27 to 24) does come as a shock, even more so when
one considers that all 12 of Bell's touches last week came in
the second half. I can tell you that if I had both players and
played in a flex league, I would strongly consider playing them
both and just eliminate all doubt about which one to play. The
Saints' RBs find themselves behind only Baltimore and Miami as
far as the most productive backs in fantasy. Certainly, Reggie
Bush does help contribute to that and does still get a touch
here or there, but a quick look at the remaining schedule reveals
New Orleans does not play against a defense currently ranked in
the top 15 in run defense the rest of the way. That fact alone,
plus the Saints' newfound commitment to running the ball, is worth
pinning your fantasy title hopes on this season.
While owners of Saints' RB savor the upcoming schedule, the owners
of DeAngelo Williams don't figure to do much celebrating over
the next month. All the potential problems that were discussed
in the PSAs regarding Williams this summer have come to fruition
(and then some, including Jake Delhomme's complete ineptitude).
Williams is so talented that he will produce some numbers in the
most difficult matchup, but I'd be shocked if top-10 run defenses
like Arizona or New Orleans allow him to do anything significant
over the next two weeks. (Keep in mind his last two games came
against the 31st and 32nd ranked run defenses.) Williams could
hit big in Week 10 (vs. Atlanta) and again in Week 13 (vs. Tampa
Bay), but it's time to put him on the market in all non-keeper
leagues. Although his fantasy playoff schedule doesn't look as
menacing as it did in August, all three teams (the Pats, Vikings
and Giants) have good enough offenses that Carolina may be forced
to abandon the run quickly.
What Leon Washington's owners lost over the weekend, Thomas Jones'
owners gained. And based off his utter domination of two overmatched
run defenses over the last two weeks, he didn't really need the
help. While Jones may not automatically come in when the Jets
near the goal line anymore - like he did for Washington - Jones
won't likely get pulled from goal line responsibilities when it
is "his" drive either. In other words, I predict he'll
maintain most of the value he had prior to Washington's injury
and add a bit more value by taking on Washington's passing-down
duties. To recap, I believe Jones' new role will be Washington's
old role plus goal line work on "his" drives. On the
other hand, I think Shonn Greene takes most of Washington's carries,
but receives very few opportunities to catch the ball. Despite
turning 31 earlier this year, Jones doesn't appear to be slowing
down and he can be safely viewed as a RB1 against what should
be a very favorable schedule, especially after the Jets' Week
9 bye.
It's rather amazing that Wes
Welker has missed two games already and is still challenging
the WR elite for the PPR points title. Based on a per-game average
in the PPR scoring systems I am familiar with, Welker is the most
productive non-QB in fantasy football at 23.8 fantasy points/game.
When QBs are included, he is ninth! While receivers like Welker
expose one of the flaws of a PPR scoring system, his production
cannot be denied in that format. He is the only WR in fantasy
to receive at least 10 targets in every game. Since he catches
74% of the ball thrown in his direction and averages just under
10 yards/reception, Welker is almost guaranteed 15 points each
week he takes the field (20+ if he scores a TD). As any veteran
fantasy owner will tell you, that is elite RB1-like consistency,
much less WR1-like consistency.
Feel free to tell me if I am missing something, but it would
seem to me by now that Arizona should be getting easier to defend
instead of harder. Kurt
Warner in currently in a four-way tie for 17th place (along
the likes of Delhomme, Kevin
Kolb and Donovan
McNabb) with seven "big" pass plays, defined by STATS, Inc
as plays over 25 yards. Considering the quality of WRs he has,
this stat suggests Warner won't go downfield...or can't. Even
though Fitzgerald has become a more complete WR, he is still at
his best (and so is the Cardinals' offense) when he is using his
incredible ball skills and beating the double team on a jump ball
down the field. Right now, it seems pretty clear that a team would
religiously bracket Fitzgerald and try to let a hobbled Anquan
Boldin and/or less-than-100% Steve
Breaston beat them as the TEs are afterthoughts in the Cards'
offense. As a defensive coordinator, I would gladly let Arizona
try to beat me with its league-worst three yards/carry running
game. Maybe I'm being a bit too simplistic, but I have to believe
if teams absolutely made it a priority to "rough up" Fitzgerald
at the line of scrimmage, he would not be averaging 10.5 targets
per game (with 13 or more in three of his last four games).
I don't own Carolina's Steve
Smith this year, but I do own the Giants' version in one league.
Both have to be driving their owners crazy and I'm not sure either
WR is to blame. For the Panthers' WR, let's just say that I believe
Delhomme's problems are in his head at this point. While he was
never the most accurate QB to begin with, Delhomme could always
be counted on to throw the ball in the general vicinity of his
best playmaker. So whether he is pain and just refuses to admit
it or just never got over the playoff debacle vs. Arizona, it
is well past the time to plug in A.J. Feeley or Matt
Moore. I am not generally the person who points to the QB
when things go south for a team, but Delhomme's 15 turnovers this
season through six games are a league high and match his total
from the entire 2008 regular season. The Panthers' problems are
more than just poor QB play, but when a QB can't produce despite
the backing of a solid ground game and presence of an elite WR,
then it is time to make a change.
As for the Giants' Smith, it is beyond comprehension how a player
could enter Week 7 as the league's leading WR (in catches) and
be targeted only twice in the first half, especially when one
considers how Mario Manningham may be losing playing time due
to drops and rookie Hakeem Nicks is still in a rotation of sorts
with him. Certainly, Nicks is emerging as a big-play threat and
Manningham has already proven his abilities in that regard, but
there is no way Smith should be getting his first catch in the
third quarter against any opponent, not with his sure hands and
the way he runs routes. I know I warned owners of the likelihood
that Smith would come back down to earth quickly, but I saw his
decline coming as a result of a more difficult schedule, fewer
TDs and Eli Manning's foot injury more than anything else. While
he did finish with 10 targets vs. Arizona, many of those - in
my opinion - were "empty" targets. This must change
if the Giants want to be an elite team in 2009.
Three receivers I really like as WR2s going forward: Derrick
Mason, Dwayne
Bowe and Devin
Hester. Bowe doesn't warrant much explanation, but I can't
wait to see what he can do in HC Todd Haley's offense when the
Chiefs finally get some substantial offensive talent around him.
The mere fact he is averaging 13 points/game in PPR leagues and
has had four games of five targets or less is amazing. Bobby Wade
has done a nice job since joining the team, but Bowe should be
seeing the same number of targets as Wes Welker. As for Mason
and Hester, throw out one game a piece for each player (for Mason,
Week 5 vs. Cincinnati; for Hester, Week 4 vs. Detroit) and you
have a pair of WRs who should be starting in all leagues. Since
Week 3, Mason is cruising along at a 22.4 points/game clip while
Hester is averaging 18.7 points/game (if you exclude the poor
games). Generally speaking, fantasy owners would pretty happy
with that kind of production from their WR1, much less WR2 or
WR3. If you any of these players, they need to be in your lineup
every week. And if you don't, go out and get at least one.
For all those poor Kevin Walter owners out there who had their
hopes built up by his Week 3 performance, you can put pretty much
all the blame on the emergence of Owen Daniels, who has essentially
doing his best Dallas Clark impression in reality and in fantasy.
Long knocked for his inability to score in the red zone in fantasy
circles prior to this season, QB Matt Schaub hasn't hesitated
looking his way inside the 20 this season as four of his career-high-tying
five scores have been 12 yards or less. Only Clark is doing better
in PPR leagues than Daniels at the halfway point on a per-game
basis at the TE position and only Antonio Gates and Vernon Davis
are being targeted more often. As hard as it is to believe, teammate
and PPR dynamo Andre Johnson is only outscoring Daniels by a single
point per game, so after you consider that RB Steve Slaton has
essentially become the Texans' third receiver, there just isn't
enough left for Walter or any of his other talented teammates,
even in Houston's pass-heavy offense.
Because I know I will get asked the question, the Redskins'
Fred Davis should have significant value for the rest of the season.
Contrary to current speculation, I don't see any way Chris Cooley
returns in four weeks. As
Bob Thompson points out, Cooley might be ready to return around
Week 12-13. At that point, the Redskins will have to ask themselves
if it is really worth it. I can't believe they will take
that chance.
In the meantime, Washington's continued devastation across the
offensive line should actually benefit Davis. Because his blocking
is poor, to say the least, Davis' only use to Washington
is as a receiver. I predict the Redskins' line will continue to
allow rushers to get to Jason Campbell on a regular basis, so
since he already is a check-down QB anyway, I can see Davis emerging
as a poor man's Heath Miller (the 2009 version).
e-mail me with any questions/comments.
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For questions about GMD seminars, contact Julie Singewald, Phone: (303) 497-6074 or Ann Thorne, Phone: (303) 497-4600.
Visitor Information: The Visitors Center and entrance to the Boulder Department of Commerce facilities are located on Broadway at Rayleigh Road. All visiting seminar attendees, including pedestrians and bike riders, are required to check in at the Visitors Center at the Security Checkpoint to receive a visitor badge. Seminar attendees need to present a valid photo ID and mention the seminar title or the speaker's name to obtain a visitor badge. If security personnel asks for a point of contact please list Ann Thorne (x4600) or Julie Singewald (x6074).
If you are a foreign national without permanent residency, please call Ann Thorne at 303-497-4600 (leave a message including your name) or send an e-mail to Julie Singewald at least one day before the seminar if you plan to attend.
Upcoming Seminars
Christine Wiedinmyer
|Thursday, June 27, 2019 02:00 PM
|David Skaggs Research Center, GC402 (multi-purpose room)


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"I love solving problems, developing talented people and figuring out how to take our service to the next level," said Willard Ross, senior vice president/chief retail officer at the over $2.2 billion Coastal Federal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C.
That he gets to do just that every day, working alongside a team dedicated to creating customized member-centric solutions to help further the organization, represents a homecoming of sorts and he likens it to being a kid in a candy store.
"I've been given the ability to take and apply everything I've learned over my 38-year career," said Ross, who spent some time on the "dark side" at banks and became frustrated with the inability to execute a strategy long-term.
"The banks were so focused on quarterly earnings it seemed every six months there was a strategy change, so we couldn't focus on the customers because the stockholders were more important," he said. "I finally had a moment of clarity and wanted to go back to credit unions. Being here, in this role has been a perfect fit and just a wonderful experience."
His ability to combine critical strategic thinking backed by consistent execution for driving the bottom line, marketing goals and employee engagement while streamlining Coastal's operational infrastructure and processes are just a few of the many reasons why Ross has been selected as Credit Union Times' Trailblazer Marketing Executive of the Year for 2014.
"It may sound simple but if we focus on our members and take care of them we will be fine," he said. "With all the information we have about our members, what we as an industry have got to figure out and get better at is how to put all that data together, so that it's really useful in helping each member in the way they need it."
Sometimes best serving the members' needs can mean taking them out of their comfort zone. Over the six years he's been at Coastal, Ross has successfully led a five-year branch transformation based on video teller technology, known as personal teller machines. The new technology not only improved the way Coastal operated, but also streamlined new checking account acquisition.
The enhanced interface allows tellers to provide traditional financial services to multiple branches from a single remote location for faster and more convenient service. Since the branch transformation, Coastal reduced the number of tellers by 40%, and increased teller hour services to members by 86%, running from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. Viewing checking accounts as a key economic engine for the credit union, Ross also simultaneously launched a marketing campaign to advertise a Go Green Checking product.
Coastal's vision board serves as a filter through which decisions are made to ensure the organization remains focused on employee engagement, member loyalty and delivering superior and sustainable financial results.
The two-pronged strategy of attracting and deepening member relationships through a focused product has helped branch managers and the team as a whole to be more sales-oriented in finding opportunities to cross-sell loan products. As a result of a much quicker transaction time, minimal wait time and the combined marketing effort Coastal garnered nearly 12,000 new checking accounts in 2013. The branch transformation also generated not only local but national buzz with articles in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and coverage from NBC.com and local CBS affiliate, WRAL.
"It's an innovation that's been a game changer and something our members love but if we had asked them years ago, 'Do you want to replace the traditional teller line with a high-tech video teller,' the answer would probably have been a resounding, 'No,'" Ross said.
"Innovation is about staying ahead of the game and trying to identify and deliver on what members don't even know they need yet. Our personal teller machines have enabled us to focus on our members' more complicated needs and sales have gone up dramatically." Coastal's total number of sales rose by 31%. Its new deposit account sales increased by 28% and the total number of loans increased by 41%.
He added that to thrive, the credit union industry as a whole must keep up with technology particularly in mobile.
"It's something we've been working on here. Even though we've got a good mobile banking service, we keep thinking of ways to improve, how to keep developing new features that better serve our members," said Ross. "We need to be able to more than just basic transactions, but also loans, opening accounts or whatever it is members want to do like chat with an expert on wealth management, that's what we need to spend time thinking about when we look at mobile."
As a way to further stand out from the competition, late last year Ross spearheaded Coastal's brand positioning of 'We Share,' which has been some two years in the making. Internal collaboration was a huge factor in coming up with the new branding concept where employees and members were interviewed and surveyed, along with extensive strategic planning sessions with the credit union's board of directors.
"We worked really hard to figure out what really sets us apart, and it boiled down to our motivation," said Ross. "At the heart our motivation is different because we create shared value for our members, in our community and for our employees. Our mission is to help our members with a lifetime of financial solutions one experience at a time. What's great is that our 'We Share' brand position fits hand in glove with our culture, mission, existing products and services, how we share in our community, it just ties everything we do and who we are together."
For example, Coastal's VIP program rewards those members who have their primary relationship with exclusive benefits and offers throughout the year. VIP members who also have two or more core loan types and/or two or more core deposit types are eligible to receive a special payout in the form of loan rebate and deposit bonus dividends.
The focus on those who have full relationships with the credit union has paid off with an increase of 18% over last year. With more than 180,000 members, Ross says it represents a huge opportunity to deepen relationships
According to Ross, the running theme of 'We Share' has been resonating with locals and building awareness of Coastal's cooperative mindset.
"Member satisfaction isn't enough," he said. "A member who is loyal and refers friends and family, that means something. That is what we ultimately want. That's our vision map. To have loyal members actively promoting us, highly engaged employees while delivering superior and sustainable financial results. It's a win-win all around."


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When I first saw this inventive fusion of technology, art, and style, I thought it had to be something from a science fiction novel. This open cast, cleverly titled the Osteoid, is the invention of the designer Deniz Karasahin, who is known for previous creations of like a sleek, elegant vacuum cleaner and trendy yet comfortable lounge chairs.
Unlike traditional plaster casts, the Osteoid has ventilation holes and might easily be removed; while it is capable of holding the broken limb in place, it also conveniently avoids causing irritation, itch, and odor. Trail-blazing ultrasound treatments have proved effective in healing bone, but the technology is rarely used, as the plaster cast renders its benefits insufficient. With the Osteoid, it is possible to target specific sites with healing ultrasound systems, which can be inserted into the cast itself. If used for only 20 minutes per day, it could help bone to heal at a rate 40-80% faster than normal.
The invention is as fashionable as it is groundbreaking; with its eyelet holes and jet black hue, it situates itself firmly within the 21st century. If Futurist artists like Giacomo Balla or Umberto Boccioni, with their lust for speed and mechanical ingenuity, could see us now, 100 years later, they would surely be beaming with pride. I shattered my elbow a few months ago, and I can now say, from an honest and personal space, that a magical bone-healing machine would have suited quite nicely. Take a look. (via Demilked and Geekologie)


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Last week I shared how most publishers are realizing just a fraction of their potential audience because they lack a social distribution strategy, and showed which topics are most likely to be shared by connected audiences.
But is topic the only aspect of content that influences sharing? Could articles with topics as disparate as gardening and bull fighting share some other characteristic that would make them both go viral?
The Journal of Marketing Research published the study What Makes Online Content Viral? in 2011 to appease inquiring minds. Researchers analyzed 7,000 New York Times articles over 2 months to determine what factors made an article more likely to earn a place on the Times' "most-emailed" list.
- Intensely emotional content is more viral
- Positive content is more viral than negative
- High-arousal emotions (like anger, awe and anxiety) increase sharing
- Low-arousal emotions (like sadness) decrease sharing
- Practical value, surprise and interest (you don't say!) all increase virality
But wait a minute…are the factors that predict email sharing the same as those that predict Facebook or Twitter sharing? Here's where we run into the difference between broadcasting and "narrowcasting." Remember that purple rash I mentioned last week? I'll email that WebMD article to my significant other (anxiety! practical value!) but I most certainly won't tweet about it.
I looked again at the Most Shared Articles on Facebook in 2011 to see which of the study's findings held up on the social networking stage.
Sound familiar? It mirrors the formula for success that Nieman Lab found Buzzfeed using to achieve record results. And, notably, practical value, the #2 driver of email virality, falls all the way down to the bottom of the list on Facebook.
In social network sharing, emotion is king. As Jonah Lehrer of Wired puts it:
"We don't want to share facts – we want to share feelings. Because people have a deep need to share their emotions, there will always be an insatiable demand for funny baby videos, angry political rants and Justin Bieber songs."
Before you go and replace all of your content with funny baby videos and Justin Bieber songs, remember that this isn't about sacrificing the integrity of content for traffic. It doesn't work that way. This is about engaging readers on the most important axis of all: the axis of significance. Emotional content helps us connect with friends online in a deeper way than a how-to video might.
But what if you're a publisher of practical content? No need to despair:
"The future is going to be about combining informational content with social and emotional content," says Jonah Peretti (founder of Buzzfeed).
We all have a powerful emotional drive to live a great life, and getting there means knowing how to be healthy, how to fix a leaky faucet and how to maintain successful relationships. Oprah's tagline "Live Your Best Life" is a beautiful example – no one is better at linking home décor and health advice to something far greater and more aspirational. Publishers in the midst of developing a social distribution strategy (especially those of us not lucky enough to traffic in Bieber songs) will be wise to follow her lead.


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How Should Schools Handle Bullying? — Survey of the Day
Bullying used to be considered something kids just had to deal with, but these days there is more and more pressure on schools to take direct actions to end bullying. A recent survey asked exactly how:
According to a University of Michigan poll of 2,144 adults, 95 percent think a school should intervene if bullying makes a student afraid for his safety. Eighty-one percent think a school should get involved if the bullying humiliates or embarrasses, and 75 percent think a school should be responsible for dealing with bullying that spreads false rumors.
However, things got a bit more muddled when the respondents were asked about one of the most common forms of bullying: social isolation. Only 56 percent think the school should jump in if a student is being ignored or shunned.


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recently got a asus u46e-bal6 with a i7 sandy-bridge processor ... said processor has some decent security hooks in the silicon and i wanted to register said machine with LoJaack. they require a security code (that i assume is tied to the physical chip hardware) on the "included post card" thats is of course missing from my packaging. all staff at point of purchase (best buy) are clueless about matter. so far any contact at asus dosn't know how to handle this.
* anyone know of a utility to pull this code out of the security section of this processor
* any one have similar situation w/resolutions
mobile i7 security
A place to talk about all things mobile
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3 posts • Page 1 of 1
Re: mobile i7 security
Correct me if I'm wrong here. Don't you install the software then that creates the unique code? Intel also has their own version of Lojack embedded in the CPU.
Re: mobile i7 security
the security features are built into the intel sandy bridge processor .... to register your machine with a recovery service (LoJaak) you need a unique security identifier ... that identifier is supposed to be provided on a pastcard you can use to activate those services ... that card was missing in my packagaing and seller is clueless about it or how to resolve ... nor has intel support been very helpful
since this is a identifier encoded in the physical there should be some way to query / recover that code string
since this is a identifier encoded in the physical there should be some way to query / recover that code string
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3 posts • Page 1 of 1