text: Minutes of the regular meeting of Tuesday, September 4, 2001. The San Francisco Public Library Commission held its regular meeting on Tuesday, September 4, 2001 in the Koret Auditorium, Main Library. The meeting was called to order at 4: 06pm by President Higueras. The following members were noted present: Commissioners Bautista, Coulter, Higueras, and Streets. President Higueras noted that Mr. Cooley Windsor would act as Commission Secretary for this meeting. Commissioner Steiman joined the meeting at 4:11pm AGENDA ITEM #1 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF August 7, 2001 SPECIAL COMMISSION MEETING Public comment on AGENDA ITEM #1 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF AUGUST 7, 2001 REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING An anonymous member of the public noted that this person's comments concerning site selection for the Ingleside Branch Library were not included in the recording of the meeting. This individual also observed that a comment offered by Commissioner Swig requesting that the Secretary carefully check and amend any errors in the reported descriptions of the various proposed branch library sites reported in the Minutes so that they correctly matched the designations identified in the report made to the Commission was not accurately reported and that needed corrections were not made in the approved Minutes (as available at the Library's Government Information Center). The anonymous member of the public further suggested that these comments on these topics would also not be reported in the Minutes. Commission comment on AGENDA ITEM #1 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE AUGUST 7, 2001 REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING Commissioner Chin noted that she had informed the Commission Secretary that she would be out of the city and therefore unable to attend the August meeting. Commissioner Bautista requested that amendment be made to the Minutes to correct any error in the letter designations of proposed branch library sites as identified by the anonymous member of the public. MOTION: by Commissioner Bautista, seconded by Commissioner Streets for approval of the August 7, 2001 Minutes as amended. ACTION: AYE 6-0 (Bautista, Chin, Coulter, Higueras, Steiman, and Streets) AGENDA ITEM #2 CITY LIBRARIAN'S REPORT City Librarian Susan Hildreth called the Commissioners attention to the selection of Mr. George Nichols, Library Finance Director, as one of five citywide winners of an award for managerial excellence by the Mayor's Fiscal Advisory Committee (MFAC), a matter that became known after the meeting agenda had gone to print. Ms. Hildreth then announced that the Anza Branch had reopened after extensive improvements and that a reopening ceremony would held at 1pm on September 15, 2001. The City Librarian next discussed ongoing work at the Bayview Branch noting that it would reopen with a new roof and building upgrades on October 3, 2001. Ms. Hildreth noted that the Presidio Branch Library would be closed for furnace replacement work and that it would re-open on September 10, 2001. The City Librarian then discussed aspects of the library's staff's efforts to put out a request for proposals (RFP) for an Integrated Library System. She described the work of the various staff committees in each area of specialization which would be put together in a proposal for a system by library consultant Diane Mayo. Ms. Hildreth noted that this RFP could be issued by the end of the year, with all proposals to be received and preliminarily evaluated in February 2002. Then she reported that during March and April of next year the top three vendors would be evaluated further by staff and members of the public before a finalist was chosen in April or May with contract approval by the Fall of 2002. The City Librarian suggested that the system could be installed and active by July of 2003. Ms. Hildreth next discussed the Zapfest, calligraphic design in the digital age, a library celebration of the calligraphy and typographic work of Hermann and Gudrun Zapf. The City Librarian then reported on a series of lectures featuring well know figures in the world of calligraphy and typographic design being held in conjunction with the Zapfest. Lastly, Ms. Hildreth reported on Land and Scape, the Art of the Farmer, an exhibit and series of lectures sponsored in part by the Library's Stegner Center on the Environment. Public comment on Agenda Item #2 CITY LIBRARIAN'S REPORT: An anonymous member of the public expressed a hope that this would not be the last exhibit of work by the Zapf's and called attention to the importance of their work and of the art of calligraphy. This anonymous member of the public noted concern with the cost of the Integrated Library System. This person also expressed the view that members of public as well as the Commissioners should have opportunity examine in detail all aspects of the proposed Integrated Library System while the proposed systems were being evaluated rather than at the end of the process. Peter Warfield echoed concerns of the previous speaker and urged that the interests of library users be given full consideration when evaluating any proposed replacement system. Mr. Warfield noted that staff might not be as familiar with problems and needs of the users as they frequently access the catalog differently. Mr. Warfield recommended that user views be sought out in both addressing difficulties and seeking improvements in the online systems. COMMISSION COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM #2 CITY LIBRARIAN'S REPORT President Higueras pointed out that last year City Librarian Susan Hildreth had been a winner of the prestigious MFAC Managerial Excellence Award and that the Mr. Nichols being named a winner this year called attention to the respect which our library's management team had gained in recent years. President Higueras expressed the hope that this trend of award winning management would continue with additional winners next year. AGENDA ITEM #3 LIBRARY 2000/2001 BUDGET UPDATE REPORT Mr. George Nichols, Library Finance Director, expressed his appreciation to the City Librarian and the management team for nominating him for the MFAC Award and for their strong commitment to effective fiscal management which made his efforts much less difficult. Mr. Nichols also acknowledged the dedication and hard work of his staff in the Finance Office whose devoted efforts led to this recognition. Mr. Nichols then provided the Commissioners with an extensive overview of the final figures for the FY 2000/2001 Library Budget, (copy attached). PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM #3 LIBRARY 2000/2001 BUDGET UPDATE REPORT An anonymous member of the public commented on the MFAC Award and noted that there was an explanatory four-page document related to Mr. Nichols' report that was not noted in the agenda. This person additionally commented on an observation by Mr. Nichols that the budget had been approved by the Supervisors without controversy suggesting that members of the public might be interested in reviewing tapes of the Board of Supervisors approval of the budget to see if they felt that it had been approved without controversy. Mr. Peter Warfield expressed disappointment that that Mr. Nichols' written report was not referenced in the agenda or included in the agenda mailing. Mr. Warfield found that making the report available at the meeting allowed insufficient time to study and understand such a complex document. Mr. Warfield also inquired regarding whether all of the funds budgeted for books in the 2000/2001 budget had been spent as was proposed in the budget. COMMISSION COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM #3 LIBRARY 2000/2001 BUDGET UPDATE REPORT In response to a question by Commissioner Steiman, Mr. Nichols explained that permanent salary savings referred to regular staffing losses resulting from attrition. Responding to questions by Commissioner Bautista, Ms. Hildreth and Mr. Nichols outlined various proposals under consideration by the city to address power usage issues. Ms. Hildreth identified Matt Smyth as the Library staff member overseeing overall conservation and energy use by the Library. In answer to a query by Commissioner Streets, Mr. Nichols noted that the Controllers and Mayor's Budget Policies for the next fiscal year are expected to take a very conservative approach with a 3 to 5% revenue growth level the maximum to expected. Responding to another question by Commissioner Streets, Ms. Hildreth and Mr. Nichols outlined the status of the Library's current labor contacts and proposed to inform the Commission concerning when they would next be re-negotiated. Responding to a question by President Higueras, Mr. Nichols explained that funds budgeted for electrical improvements could be reallocated to mitigate immediate needs in branch libraries prior to major improvements which would be undertaken through the Branch Library Bond program. Mr. Nichols further clarified for President Higueras that all of the encumbered funds budgeted for specific purposes in this budget must be spent from those purposes. President Higueras announced that Agenda Item #6 Branch Library Bond Committee would be taken up next. AGENDA ITEM #6 BRANCH LIBRARY BOND COMMITTEE City Librarian Susan Hildreth recommended that the Library Commission create a special committee of the Commission to address the many and complex issues that must be addressed in managing the Branch Library Bond Program. Ms. Hildreth suggested that by creating this committee, which would make regular reports on its work to the full Commission, a significant amount of needed attention could be focused on bond related issues without overburdening the regular Commission meetings. President Higueras agreed that this committee could address in detail aspects of the bond program, preparing them for discussion and approval by the full Commission and that it was his recommendation that at least initially that it meet monthly. In response to a question by President Higueras, Deputy City Attorney Adine Varah noted that the commission committee would become a full policy body subject to all public meeting laws. President Higueras noted that he would serve as chair of this committee and requested that other commissioners volunteer to serve on this committee. Vice President Steiman and Commissioner Bautista agreed to serve on the Branch Library Bond Committee. In response to a question by Commissioner Streets, President Higueras suggested that the Committee would act to address routine reports and extensively prepare items for the Commission's approval. He further commented that framing its exact charge for the full Commission's consideration and approval would be among the first duties of this committee. Deputy City Attorney noted that according to the Commission Bylaws the Commission was authorized to create an Ad Hoc Committee for the purpose of overseeing implementation of the Branch Library Bond Program. MOTION: by President Higueras, seconded by Commissioner Streets that the Library Commission create an Ad Hoc Committee on the Branch Library Bond Program composed of Commissioners Higueras, Bautista, and Steiman to meet on a monthly basis. PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM #6 BRANCH LIBRARY BOND COMMITTEE An anonymous member of the public observed that this person had previously supported the creation of commission committees but had two questions, first regarding whether creation of such a committee required an amendment of the Commission Bylaws, and secondly concerning what the charge of this committee would be. The anonymous member of the public noted that they were City Charter restrictions limiting the power of Commissions to delegate action items to committees. This person found creation of this committee a step toward greater public input and access to the work of the Commission. ACTION: AYE 6-0 (Bautista, Chin, Coulter, Higueras, Steiman, and Streets) AGENDA ITEM #4 BRANCH LIBRARY FACILITIES PLAN City Librarian Susan Hildreth gave a brief overview of the background of the Branch Library Facilities Plan funded by the Friends and Foundation. She then introduced Mr. Jorge Alfaro, of the Bureau of Architecture, David Binder, and Library Consultant Dallas Shaffer for a more detailed presentation of the aspects of the plan. Mr. Alfaro discussed in some detail the yearlong effort that went into creating this first draft of the guide to educate the professional teams which will be working on making needs assessments, facilities condition assessments, working with design standards, and implementation scenarios for the various branch library projects. Mr. Alfaro focused his report on facilities condition assessments and setting design standards. Mr. Alfaro noted that these facilities conditions assessments were based both on review of many years of records and site visits to develop preliminary lists of needs in the areas of seismic conditions, disability access, code impacts, condition repairs, and hazardous materials. Mr. Alfaro then discussed the preliminary development of design standards based around both the existing branches as well as the needs of new branches. He noted that these standards were based on general building design principles, specific design guidelines developed for libraries, and design standards for building systems such as heating, air conditioning, electrical, and accessibility design standards and codes. Mr. Alfaro finally discussed special design needs for these branch libraries that were being identified. Mr. Alfaro noted that these guidelines could provide a roadmap and a tool to guide the designers of the various library projects. Mr. David Binder discussed the focus groups and branch surveys that were done in conjunction with the development of the facilities plan. Mr. Binder discussed information gathered from the five focus groups that were done in April. Mr. Binder reported very positive remarks about the branch libraries and gathered some information concerning the what improvements participants wanted to see in their libraries. Mr. Binder reported up to date materials as the number one request for improvement and lack of space and poor maintenance as the biggest concern of these respondents. Mr. Binder noted the more natural light, comfortable seating areas, and lounging spaces as among the amenities favored. Mr. Binder noted a number of areas where questions asked received a mixed response such as availability of more computers and concerning the look of the branch libraries. He noted that naming book collections or spaces for individual donors was favored but naming for corporate donors was reported disfavored. Mr. Binder reported that there were some concerns about long lines with the questions about combining check out and service desks. Mr. Binder reported that there were 2,355 surveys completed in branch libraries and outlined in detail the responses gathered through these surveys. Mr. Binder in particular pointed out differing answers among the various ethnic and demographic groups' responses to the various questions and differing levels of interests in various kinds of proposed improvements. He in particular pointed to strong support for more teen spaces in branch libraries when respondents were asked to choose among various options for improvements. Finally, Mr. Binder discussed interest in various suggested options for other alternative services. He noted that the most frequently volunteered comments were various positive comments about the library. Ms. Dallas Shaffer gave the Commissioners a wrap up of the functional building program and suggested that now that the Commission was going to have to make decisions based on all of the information it had received. Ms. Shaffer discussed in some detail the impact of the demographic changes that were highlighted by the results of the 2000 census including reductions in numbers of both seniors and children as potential users of the library with a very large group of adults as the primary users of the library. Ms. Shaffer discussed the impact of technological change on how the library provides services and what kinds of spaces which can be made available in the library. She emphasized that all of this information will confront the Library Commission with the responsibility for making very difficult choices. Ms. Shaffer noted that there would not be significant increases in space in most of the branch libraries with greatly increased demand for uses of various spaces. Ms. Shaffer emphasized that to meet these demands some changes had to be made to take some things out of the branches to allow space for those things that were wanted. She discussed extensively examples of choices made by other library systems, including reducing some branch book collections, to make their branch libraries function in the most effective way for their patrons. Ms. Shaffer cited a number of options which the library could consider to create workable staff work space, apportion branch library space for various users to match the demographic profile of its neighborhood, and consider reducing some branch book collections to emphasize quality instead of quantities of materials which might be available in other formats. President Higueras called a brief recess at 5:552pm The Commission returned to session at 6:01pm PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM #4 BRANCH FACILITIES PLAN An anonymous member of the public commented that the report was interesting and that it raised very important issues. This person observed that the reports pointed out that people had rising often-contradictory expectations of what the library should provide. The anonymous member of the public noted that the Commissioners would have to make choices based on not clearly understood information but that this individual had no doubt that libraries as libraries rather than community centers or computer centers would remain important. This person pointed out that the traditions of libraries have withstood centuries of changes by fulfilling the important role of tying the present to the past. Mr. Peter Warfield found it unfortunate that the documents had not been made available earlier. M r. Warfield expressed concern that there was no specific mention or any commitment made to any level for volume of books, or book and material storage, to be maintained in branches. Mr. Warfield commented that the survey demonstrated that people wanted books, as well as hours, although that had not been a question asked. Mr. Warfield expressed interest in questions being asked concerning the availability of old books and expressed concern with Ms. Shaffer's suggestion that branch library book collections be reduced. COMMISSION COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM #4 BRANCH FACILITIES PLAN In answer to a question by Commissioner Streets regarding the impact of demographic trends on the on going planning from the new branches, Mr. Binder highlighted the various kinds of data that would be available to the library. The City Librarian called attention to information in chapter 5 of the report and observed that staff was seriously considering doing detailed neighborhood surveys as the planning for a specific branch went forward. Commissioner Coulter praised the reports and emphasized that it was important the Library have a picture in detail for each branch as the planning goes forward. He pointed out that some of Ms. Schafer's suggestions would be explosive and asked for a more detailed description of exactly how the Portland Library addressed these issues. In particular, he asked what people wanted and what people wanted to get rid of. Vice President Steiman noted that maybe a better way to look at this problem would be to identify what was most appropriate for a branch. Commissioner Bautista suggested considering a mechanical book storage system as way of solving the space problem such as cleaners handle storage. Commissioner Bautista expressed reservations about informing a community that some of their books might be taken away. She also expressed a preference for better lighting, including skylights. Commissioner Bautista expressed happiness that teenagers had taken interest in spending time in the libraries and recommended that programs be tailored to help them. Commissioner Bautista also requested information concerning university students using the San Francisco Library. Vice President Steiman offered a personal observation that branch libraries were not sufficient for university students for anything other than recreational reading. Commissioner Chin called attention to the heavy use of public libraries by public school students and noted that often these students depend on their branch libraries. Commissioner Chin also inquired concerning how realistic it would be to include extensive seating areas given their small size. Commissioner Chin requested that a chart be prepared which outlined the dollar amount that would be allocated to each of the branch libraries. Vice President Steiman noted that floor plans should be made to allow flexibility as needs change and that preparing for this change will make it easier to accommodate. President Higueras commented that that the report was excellent and in particular agreed with Ms. Shaffer's point that difficult choices will have to be made. President Higueras noted that many of the issues that would have to be addressed went far beyond facilities questions and into broader questions of policy. President Higueras thanked the presenters for providing an excellent report and setting the stage for future discussion of these important issues. AGENDA ITEM #5 BRANCH LIBRARY BOND UPDATE Library Branch Improvement Bond Program Manager Marilyn Thompson reported that the initial $17.665 million from the initial bond sale had been appropriated and set up into bond project accounts. Ms. Thompson noted that site acquisition budgets were created for the Glen Park, Ingleside, Visitacion Valley, and Portola Branches. Ms. Thompson informed the Commissioners that design and engineering budgets had been set up for the Marina, Noe Valley, Parkside, Richmond, Mission Bay branches, and for the Support Services Center. The Branch Bond Project Manager commented that she was preparing the first quarterly budget report on funds available, expenditures, and encumbrances for each of the various projects to be presented to the Commission's branch Bond Committee next month. Ms. Thompson next gave the Commission an update on developments regarding the proposed Mission Bay Branch. Ms. Thompson informed the Commissioners that the work in preparing the Prop. 14 (State Library Improvement and Construction Bond) applications for work on the Richmond Branch Library would be undertaken in earnest during September in order to be ready for the first cycle of funding in June of next year. Ms. Thompson reported that she would propose other projects to be considered by the Commission's Branch Bond Committee for application for Prop. 14 funds. The Branch Bond Program Manager reported that cooperative discussions were underway with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) concerning the possible co-location of some branch libraries on school district properties. Public comment on AGENDA ITEM #5 BRANCH LIBRARY BOND UPDATE An anonymous member of the public commented that this report again reflected the potential for conflict between what was wanted and what was possible, observing that the original bond amount had been reduced by $25 million. This individual expressed approval that the Prop. 14 (State Library Construction and Improvement Bond) process required public input, and looked forward to participating in particular regarding the Richmond Branch Library. Commission comment on AGENDA ITEM #5 BRANCH LIBRARY BOND UPDATE In response to a question by Commissioner Bautista, the City Librarian reported that there was no official limit of the number of Prop. 14 applications, but that practically speaking that the Library would only probably submit 2 or 3 applications in the initial cycle with the understanding that there would be two more opportunities to apply during the life of the bond program. The City Librarian noted that there would be a very great number of applications in the first cycle because of pent up demand. In response to questions by President Higueras, Ms. Hildreth noted that the application process was fairly onerous and that the Library would be very carefully choosing the projects that it proposed to submit for these funds to insure greater chance of success. Agenda item #7 FRIENDS AND FOUNDATION REPORT Ms. Denise Donovan, interim Executive Director of the Friends and Foundation, informed the Commissioners concerning the big annual book sale taking place at Fort Mason, this year featuring 125,000 volumes. Ms. Donovan informed the Commissioners that Mr. Charles Forester, Executive Director of the Friends and Foundation, had resigned and that she would serve as Interim Executive Director while its Board conducted a search process to fill this position. Ms. Donovan next informed the Commissioners concerning the charette exploring design issues and concepts for future branch libraries which the Friends and Foundation will be holding in the Koret Auditorium on October 5,6, and 7, 2001. Ms. Donovan then informed the Commissioners about plans for next year's Laureates Dinner. Ms. Donovan next reported to the Commissioners about a September 19, 2001 discussion sponsored by the Friends and Foundation featuring Library Consultant Dallas Schafer and Library Chief of Branches Donna Corbeil which would address new trends in branch libraries. Ms. Donovan then gave the Commissioners an update on this year's Literary Lecture Series and a reading by author Alice Randall that had been arranged by Commissioner Streets. Public comment on Agenda item # 7 FRIENDS AND FOUNDATION REPORT Ms. Sue Cauthen requested that the microphones be adjusted so that members of the audience could hear the speakers. Ms. Cauthen also expressed the hope that information on the design charette would be made widely available so that all that might be interested in attending could do so. Commission comment on Agenda item # 7 FRIENDS AND FOUNDATION REPORT In response to questions by Commissioner Bautista and President Higueras, Ms. Donovan explained that more that 300 invitations to the design charrette would be sent to members of the public, the Council of Neighborhood Libraries, library staff, Friends and Foundation donors, members of the Board of Supervisors, and neighborhood residents identified by the District Supervisors as community leaders interested in this subject. In response to a question by Commission Coulter, Ms. Donovan confirmed that members of neighborhood associations had been invited as well. In response to a question by the City Librarian, Ms. Donovan indicated she would look into posting the invitation to the design charette on the Friends and Foundation website. President Higueras remarked that this design charrette was not intended to offer solutions to the needs of any specific branch library but was intended to create excitement and offer ideas and concepts which could inspire those ultimately chosen to design the new branch libraries. Ms. Donovan then outlined in some detail the various parts of the design charrette program to be held during October 5, 6, and 7, 2001. Agenda Item #8 LIBRARY LABOR UNION REPORT No report was made. Agenda item #9NEW BUSINESS None offered. Agenda item #10 PUBLIC COMMENT The anonymous member of the public offered two brief comments, first noting that the discussion of charrette contained conflicting implications that it was both open to the public and that it was by invitation only without providing a clear answer to this question, Secondly, this anonymous member of the public observed that given the experience learned through the controversy concerning the design of the Main Library that the concept that controversy is our friend should be embraced. This person disagreed with the aphorism that the administration of power is not consistent with the concept of loyal opposition noting that controversy in fact revealed truth that broke through institutional barriers. Agenda Item #11 ADJOURNMENT MOTION: by Commissioner Bautista, seconded by Commissioner Chin that the meeting be adjourned. Commissioner Streets raised a point of clarification regarding whether or not there was a Commission Policy or a general city policy concerning the appropriate manner by which members of the public should communicate with commissioners. In response to Commissioner Streets inquiry, Deputy City Attorney Adine Varah replied that she was aware of no existing policy addressing this issue, but that she would be happy to discuss this matter with the Commissioner. Ms. Varah recommended that discussion of this question be calendared for appropriate discussion at a later meeting. Public comment on Agenda item #11 ADJOURNMENT An anonymous member of the public found it extraordinary that this topic should be discussed during the Adjournment Agenda item and suggested that it was regrettable that there should be either an aggressive or defensive stance in such a question, noting that an inquiry is either about a public record or it is not. In response to President Higueras' remarks that civility should dictate that such questions be pursued through proper channels, the anonymous member of the public noted that an individual always had the option to file suit. ACTION: AYE 6-0 (Bautista, Chin, Coulter, Higueras, Steiman, and Streets) The meeting was adjourned at 6:52PM. Michael Housh, Commission Secretary 10/5/01 Please note: Copies of Commission Minutes and handouts are available in the Office of the Commission Secretary, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102


text:
SwiftKey Prediction Keyboard for Android Adds Flow To Smartphone Typing
SwiftKey is one of the few Android Apps that I will pay full price for. By letting that app search your email, text messages, Twitter, and Facebook accounts, it can learn how you type and suggest words just as soon as you start typing. The app is so good that I can enter complete sentences after touching just a couple of letters.
SwiftKey steps its game up and adds Swype-ish keyboard functionality it calls "Flow" that lets users drag their fingers over keys for even faster keyboard entry. In other words, instead of tapping a couple of keys to get the app's prediction engine going, you simple drag your finger over the keys to get suggested words. According to the SwiftKey blog, "this means you can seamlessly switch between the two as you please, 'flowing' a quick text if you only have one hand free, or tapping out a longer note with both thumbs at speed. Add the fact that SwiftKey constantly predicts the next word in a sentence and you may not even have to type at all for some words."
It does sound a little too good to be true, but the demo video does a decent job of showing how fast you could type using SwiftKey flow. Too bad I can't get my hands of the app to try it out now. SwiftKey Flow is "soon to be released" and you have to request an invite. If gliding my fingers over keys is as easy as tapping suggested words to bang out long emails on my Android, i'm sure it will be a winner.
No word yet on what Swype has to say about this "new" technology.
For more from Terrance Gaines, follow him on Twitter @BrothaTech

subset: commoncrawl


text: Dear Jesus Prayer, Please read I trust you as my Savior and want my spirit redeemed through you. I will follow you Jesus this day forward. And I will repent of my sins daily. I will have you as my guide, Please help me to do your will. I pray this in your name my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." and go to my website www.suzaechevalier.com for video Please like & share:


text:
I've noticed in the devkit the option for Intuition to support plugins...
is there anything special here to be aware of or does anyone have any example toy plugins showing demo effects?
Is there anything I should "build in" with regards Perception-IME finally getting something visible that people can click on...
I'm more interested at this point as to what ideas people may have for what it could look like,
I'm only thinking of a basic Language selection in a screen corner... or should I look at more than that such as macro-replay removal of N-ascii inputs followed by UTF8 being pushed to replace the removed ascii?
Other than quick access to Locale and Langauge settings... what would be good?
Maybe a dictionary-by-language tool? or something else?
uhmm...yeah... using the system-wide input.device hook mechanism for a reason, moatly for immediate input choice updates
Still need to work out some details (all setting/display related) so any suggestions as to what may look good on AmigaOS (AOS4 or AROS) would be appreciated.


text:
Forum and Blog
Users are encouraged to participate in this informal knowledge sharing, by submitting questions of their own, and also by offering their own comments and suggestions in response to questions posed by others
SKF Knowledge Centre Forum
The Knowledge Centre features a number of forums to facillitate collaboration and information exchange between users and SKF subject specialists.
SKF e-learning forum
The SKF E-learning forum is provided to support users of our on-line courses.
SKF reliability discussion forum
The SKF Reliability forum is open to all people with an interest in plant reliability and condition monitoring - whether your interest is technology or product-based.


text:
Keywords may be separated by AND and/or OR statements for greater control of the search results.For example, Microsoft AND mouse would generate a result set that contain both words. However, for mouse OR keyboard, the result set returned would contain both or either words.Exact matches can be searched for by enclosing keywords in double-quotes.For example, "notebook computer" would generate a result set which match the exact string.Brackets can be used for further control on the result set.For example, Microsoft and (keyboard or mouse or "visual basic").
email; firstname.lastname@example.com - phone; 01179 426 446
Copyright © 2019 Perfect Pashmina


text:
Use Code SAVE19 at Checkout to Save 19% on Your ENTIRE Order
BB Penguins in Paradise Die-namics
This Die-namics coordinates with the Penguins in Paradise stamp set for perfectly sized die cuts every time. The dies are open inside to allow you to stamp, then cut OR cut, then stamp. This feature keeps our Die-namics lightweight and allows for easy removal of the die cut from the die.
MFT Die-namics, our very own exclusive American-made line of steel dies.
Die-namics dies work with your favorite die-cutting machine.
June 2015 Release


text:
Helpful A-Z glossary listing key parliamentary terms and their definition.
Details how to register for email alerts and also how to unsubscribe
Further information on RSS feeds which lets users view the latest content from a website through a feed reader rather than having to visit the actual site.
Footer links


text:
- GP2, Singapore Grand Prix, Race 1
Chilton wins in Singapore as Valsecchi takes title
- Race:
- Singapore GP2 round
- Drivers:
- Max Chilton
- |
- Esteban Gutiérrez
- |
- Fabio Leimer
- |
- Davide Valsecchi
- Teams:
- Carlin
- |
- Lotus GP
- |
- Marussia
- |
- Racing Engineering
Max Chilton won the GP2 feature race at Singapore while Davide Valsecchi finished fourth to take the 2012 championship.
Chilton took the lead at the start of the race and managed his tyres perfectly as several drivers struggled with degradation behind him. Esteban Gutierrez was a constant threat behind but never had the pace to make a serious challenge for position while Fabio Leimer completed the three podium places with a solid race to third.
The two championship challengers Valsecchi and Luiz Razia finished line astern in fourth and fifth, with the DAMS driver knowing he simply had to keep the Arden behind him to be crowned champion. There were a couple of moments when the circuit's walls loomed large as he looked to pass Joylon Palmer and Luca Filippi, but in the end it was a fairly straightforward race to the title after arriving in Singapore with a 25 point lead.
The race was topped and tailed by safety car periods when a first lap incident resulted in Rene Binder's car becoming marooned in the middle of the circuit. A second safety car could have been summoned on lap six when Simon Trummer went off at turn 18, but instead the marshals cleared the car under yellow flags. It did, however, trigger the first pit stops a little earlier than the teams probably would have planned and as a result several drivers suffered severe degradation towards the end of the race.
Race leaders Chilton and Gutierrez held out to lap nine for their first pit stop and in doing so put themselves in a better position to preserve their tyres. A final safety car came out at the end of the race when Luca Filippi, who had dropped from pole to third before making a second pit stop, dislodged his front wing at turn 18 and then lost control as the wing folded under his front tyres in the final corner. He was lucky to walk away unharmed and the accident brought about a bizarre end to the race as the safety car picked up the leaders for just one lap before diving into the pits at the final corner.
Chilton crossed the line to take his second race win of the season, but Valsecchi was the man of the moment, taking the championship in his fifth year in the series.


text:
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action Plans
Coming Soon!
For more information about Affirmative Action and the University of Houston, please contact the Office of Equal Opportunity Services.
Diversity Recruiting Resources | Outreach Sources by Discipline
Diversity Recruiting Resources
Developing a diverse pool of highly qualified applicants is essential for UH to effectively serve our students and achieve our goals. The search committee plays an important role in actively recruiting candidates. To assist search committees in their recruiting efforts, the Office of Equal Opportunity Services has assembled a list of diversity recruiting resources.
Advertising Resources
- disABLEDperson
- Academic Diversity Search
- Diverse Issues in Higher Education
- Diversejobs, The Higher Education Job Source
- Diversity Nursing
- Faculty for the Future
- Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education
- Hispanic Link News Services Inc.
- Minority Postdoc
- Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education
- Tribal College Journal
- The Tribal Employment Newsletter
- Women in Higher Education
Associations/Organizational Resources
- American Association of University Women
- Asian/Pacific Librarians Association
- Association of Black Psychologists
- Association of Latinos Professionals in Finance and Accounting
- Association for Women in Science
- Black Caucus of the American Library Association
- Black Coaches Association
- Chinese American Librarian Association
- National Association of Black Accountants
- National Society of Black Engineers
- National Indian Education Association
- National Black MBA Association
- National Society of Hispanic MBA
- National Society of Hispanic Professionals
- Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Sciences
Faculty Resources
- Wellesley College
Recruitment Resources and Guides for a Diverse Faculty:
Searchable Databases, Posting Outreach Sources by Discipline
- University System of Georgia
Diversity Summit Diverse Faculty Recruitment:
Policy Updates and Reports, Best Practices in Colleges and Universities, Resources from various professional and academic organizations
- Society for the Teaching of Psychology
Faculty Recruitment and Retention Resources:
References from the Literature, On-Line Resources, Selected Resources and Practices at Specific Institutions, Support Programs
- American Association of University Professors
Resources on Diversity and Affirmative Action:
AAUP Policy, Research, & Analysis, AAUP Actions & Initiatives, Other AAUP Resources
Outreach Sources by Discipline
Africana Studies
- Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora
- African Studies Association
- Association of Black Women Historians
- Association of African Women for Research and Development
American Studies
Anthropology and Archaeology
- American Anthropological Association
- American Association of Physical Anthropologists
- American Philological Association
- Earthworks
- Postdoctoral Opportunities in Anthropology
- Primate-jobs
- Society for American Archaeology
- Society for Historical Archaeology
Art and Art History
- About Art History
- College Art Association
- MERC Museum and Cultural Resource Jobs
- Resources in Art History for Graduate Students
- American Astronomical Society
- American Institute of Physics
- Earthworks
- Nature Jobs
- Physlink.com Job Board
- Science Careers
- American Association of Anatomists
- American Association of Immunologists
- American Society for Cell Biology
- American Society for Microbiology
- Experimental Medicine Job Listing
- Employment Links for the Biomedical Scientist
- Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
- Nature Jobs
- New Scientist Jobs
- Postdoc Jobs
- Science Careers
- Society for Developmental Biology
- AACC Job Center
- Cen-chemjobs.org
- ChemSoc: The Chemistry Societies Network
- Nature Jobs
- New Scientist Jobs
- Postdoc Jobs
- Science Careers
Chinese and Chinese Studies
- American Oriental Society
- Association for Asian Studies
- Chinese Language Teachers Association
- European Association for Chinese Studies
Cinema and Media Studies
- Association for Educational Communications and Technology
- Broadcast Education Association
- Society for Cinema & Media Studies
- University Film & Video Association
Classical Studies and Civilizations (Greek and Latin)
- The American Classical League
- American Philological Association
- The Classical Association
- Classical Association of the Atlantic States
Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences
- Canadian Linguistic Association
- Chartered Institute of Linguists
- Linguistic Society of America
- Cognitive Science Society
Comparative Literature
Computer Science
East Asian Languages and Literature
- Economics Research Network
- JOE (Job Openings For Economists)
- Inomics: The Internet Site for Economics
- AACTE Position Vacancies
- American Counseling Association
- American Educational Research Association
- College of Education and Human Development
- University Council for Educational Administration
Environmental Sciences
- Earthworks
- Ecological Society of America
- EE-Link
- Entomological Society of America
- EnvironmentalCareer.com
- Environmental Career Opportunities
- Environmental Jobs and Careers
- Job Opportunities in Entomology
- Society of American Foresters
- Texas A&M's Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department
French and French Cultural Studies
Geography and Geology
- Association for Women Geoscientists
- Earthworks
- Geological Association of Canada
- Geological Society of America
- Earth Magazine
- Association of American Geographers
German and German Studies
- German Studies Association
- Association for Modern German Studies
- American Association of Teachers of German
- German Academic Exchange Service
International Relations
Italian Studies
- American Association of Teachers of Italian
- Canadian Society for Italian Studies
- American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language
Japanese and Japanese Studies
Jewish Studies
- Association for Jewish Studies
- National Association of Professors of Hebrew
- European Association for Jewish Studies
- World Union of Jewish Studies
Latin American Studies
- ASA JobWeb
- American Mathematical Society
- Canadian Mathematical Society
- European Mathematical Society
- Math-jobs.com
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
- OR/MS Today
- Ph.Ds.Org.: Science, Math, and Engineering Career Site
- Purdue University Mathematics Department
- University of Washington Statistics Department
Media Arts and Sciences
- International Digital Media & Arts Association
- Art & Science Collaborations, Inc.
- Association for Educational Communications and Technology
- Broadcast Education Association
- Society for Cinema & Media Studies
- University Film & Video Association
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Middle Eastern Studies
- Society for Neuroscience
- International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
- Federation of European Neuroscience Societies
- British Neuroscience Association
- Canadian Association for Neuroscience
- American Neurological Association
- Association for Research in Otolaryngology
- Cognitive Science Society
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Peace and Justice Studies
- American Association of Physics Teachers
- American Institute of Physics
- American Physical Society
- Brightrecruits.com
- Physlink.com Job Board
- TIPTOP Jobs On-Line
Physical Education
Political Science
- APA Online/PsycCareers
- American Psychological Society
- Psychwatch.com
- Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Quantitative Reasoning
- The Mathematical Association of America
- ASA JobWeb
- American Mathematical Society
- Canadian Mathematical Society
- European Mathematical Society
- Math-jobs.com
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
- AAR/SBL Employment Information Services
- Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion
- Council for Christian Colleges & Universities
Russian and Russian Area Studies
- The American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
- Association for Slavic, East, European, and Eurasian Studies
- Central Association of Russian Teachers of America
Theatre Studies
- American Association of Theatre Educators
- American Society for Theatre Research
- Association for Theatre in Higher Education
- National Communications Association
Women's Studies
Writing Program
- Association for Writers and Writing Programs
- National Writers Union
- Society for Technical Communication
- Writers Guild of America
- Asian American Journalists Association
- International Women's Writing Guild


text:
Free Music D/L Plus by S & S Royal Ltd
We want to show you a new application With a talking name "Free Music
With a help of this app you can easily and rapidly download music for
free. And what is more important, it is legal.
We use basis of most popupar sites(you may see the list in app) Which is over
500,000 free mp3 songs, Over 90,000 free live concerts, Over 6,500
free audio books. It provides a unique opportunity to download music
videos from such services like blastro.com, http://www.roxwel.com,
http://www.yallwire.com, VEOH.com e.t.c. It allows 10 downloads at the
same time.
You can get all this with new "Free Music Downloader".
The review on your site is really important for us.We do really hope
you'll help us
Please let me know if you are interested so I can send you the press
kit and promo code(s) for a review.
Developer Website: http://musicdlapp.com/index.php


text:
Water Street, Liverpool, L2.
Based in Water Street, Michael Humphreys is a business.
Michael Humphreys are listed in the businesses section here:
Tell Liverpool about your experience of Michael Humphreys...
There are no reviews for this listing yet. Why not be the first person to write a review?
Michael Humphreys is in Water Street, Water Street. You can view a list of neighbouring businesses by going to the Water Street page.
If you would like a list of other barristers office & administration listings throughout Liverpool, please visit the Barristers section of this website.
More places in or near Water Street...
Map showing business location in Water Street
Note: the pin is positioned at the postcode centre, and may not correspond with the precise location of Eighth Floor/India Building, Water Street.


text:
Una fuga romantica a Roma, solo per due!
The Abitart Hotel in Rome is the art boutique hotel par excellence of the capital. A fine tribute to the energy of contemporary art and at the same time habitable house for businessmen tired of ordinariness, travelers who look at the world through different eyes and artists searching for inspiration
With its irreverent industrial profile framed by greenery, Hotel Abitart could only be born here, between the districts Testaccio and Ostiense, 5 minutes by Eataly, the Macro and Casa Italo. This is the real heart of old Rome, this is the forge in turmoil all the latest creative trends
You don't expect to find such a hotel in Rome. Ours is not a museum of Art but the Art of living; welcome and familiar. Art amongst which you can read your newspaper, make your business calls, sip an aperitif or sit down to dinner with close friends as if you were at home.
A hotel and restaurant in tune with art and modern life. I was welcomed by a sense of delight and great taste as soon as I walked in . (italiantraveller67, Roma – TripAdvisor)
Abitart Art Hotel - Art & Design Hotel a Roma |


text:
This site has been running Drupal 5 for over a year now, even though Drupal 6 has been available since February. I kept meaning to update it, but never got around to it. Of course, then along came Acquia and a pressing need to try out the new kid on the block (for purely professional reasons, of course). So, armed with proper backup tools and a fast Internet connection, I set about to sacrifice my blog on the alter of experimentation. Onwards!
The documentation, available right from the downloads page, is a fairly extensive and thorough PDF. Of particular note, it goes out of its way to specify PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5.0 as minimum requirements. Thank you, Acquia! (For RHEL 5 users, who are stuck with PHP 5.1, it does point out that most of Drupal will work but, for example, Date module will have reduced functionality.)
The documentation includes lots of screenshots. Database setup is guided through phpMyAdmin, which makes sense as it's the most likely tool that all users will have available on their host. It also goes out of its way to highlight edge-case caveats, such as "Safari 3 will extract the download files for you" and "remember that .htaccess file that most FTP clients don't!" Command line instructions are provided, too, for the l33t crowd.
For those migrating from an existing Drupal site, instructions are only provided for Drupal 6. They are extensive, however, and follow through the process of moving modules around to "prepare for Acquia" (that is, making sure you don't have copies of modules Acquia provides, as then Drupal gets all confused). Of course, I'm upgrading from Drupal 5 so I decided to be adventurous. (And to make copious backups, of course.)
After jotting down all the modules that I actually use, I took this site offline and did a simple replace of everything except .htaccess, files, and sites. Actually, I did that twice as Acquia released their 1.0.1 version literally as I was uploading the 1.0.0. The 1.0.1 includes the Druapl 6.5 upgrade, about 24 hours or so behind the official release of 6.5. Not a bad turnaround time. I then removed any modules from my sites/all directory that were already included in Acquia's distribution, and dropped in the Drupal 6 versions for the rest.
So after totally trashing my entire install, what did I get? A page not found error. Surprise surpirse. :-) When I went straight to update.php, however, I got the normal update screen. Running that resulted in "only" 2 errors, both from update #5200 of the image module. Why image module was giving me errors I don't know, as it was not, in fact, installed to begin with. Again, feeling adventurous, I went ahead to the administration page. It loaded!
Quick, to the modules page! Apparently Drupal had figured out where all of my modules went, as even after submitting the modules page there were no more updates to make. Nice.
What's not so nice is that most of my Views seem to have gone missing. I'm not entirely surprised at that, however, as Views changed so much between Drupal 5 and Drupal 6. Views includes a converter (that is separate from the updater) that was able to resurrect the 3 or 4 I had in the database. They needed some tweaking, though, and the process wasn't perfect. For instance, it kept defaulting to "Published: False" for no reason I could figure out. Fortunately they were simple views so I was able to restore them fairly easily, and trick them out with the "Use AJAX" checkbox (the coolest feature in all of Views 2).
Well, that wasn't so hard. Of course, in practice all I have now is a Drupal 6 site with a lot of modules I don't need. What about Acquia's services? Fortunately Acquia is offering (for now) a free basic subscription, so I signed up on their web site and purchased one. The purchase process was quick and painless (and cost-free), and the system didn't freak out at the idea of a purchase for $0. I then enabled the "Acquia agent" and "Acquia site information" modules, which promptly gave me links to the next settings pages to visit to set up the account. Nice. Acquia's subscription also provides Mollom keys, but since I already have my own I just continued to use my existing account.
Acquia's control panel on their site isn't bad. It's a bit confusing that the tabs at the top of the page are actually sub-navigation for the "Site selector" on the left, but once I figured that out it was reasonably self-explanatory, if extensive. Because I already have cron running through my web host I told Acquia I'd take care of it, and that I'd run cron every 2 hours. (It actually runs every hour, but I don't want it to panic if it's off by a minute or two.) To Acquia's credit, the "messages" section also has an RSS feed for those of us who never actually bother to log into anything.
I guess we'll see how well Acquia does of notifying me of a new release in 3 days or so, whenever the next CCK RC is released. I'm not sure yet if I'll be using Acquia or Drush to handle the update. I guess we'll see how easy Acquia makes it.
Acquia Drupal also includes a new "Marina" theme, which I'm going to try out for a little bit. I can't say I'm too enamored with it so far, but I'll give it a few days and see if I still dislike it. Already I can say that the left and right margins are way too large, causing my body text to squeeze unpleasantly. As a result it also looks really bad in the admin. (And not just mediocre; the alignment for fieldsets is absolutely horrid and the main admin page ends up being a single shifting column.) On the other hand, it makes really good use of the new theme settings API.
For now, though, happily running on Acquia, and not noticing that big of a difference. The whole process took around 2.5 hours. I'll dig through the code of Acquia's modules and the Marina theme to critique those later.
Woohoo, congrats on the
Woohoo, congrats on the upgrade!
As far as Marina goes, I understand your issues with it -- if you're coming from a fluid width theme, the fixed width with two sidebars will probably drive you batty. And the way the right sidebar is inset, it's really only intended for a smaller couple of blocks in text content, thus definitely not well suited for an admin theme :)
A fluid width setting has been requested by a few people so we'll consider it for a future release, plus there will be more Acquia themes included down the road to choose from.
Image confusion
It strike me odd that you didn't have the Image module running, yet when you ran update.php it also ran the #5200 update for the image module. Is it possible that you had loaded the Image module at one time (perhaps with Drupal 4.7) and at some point in time removed the Image module's directory without disabling it through the admin/build/modules page? This likely would explain why an update.php updated a module that you thought you didn't have running.
I spent some of this week wrestling with the Image module during a Drupal 5 to 6 upgrade. With the module still in alpha, let's just say I got know the Image module a little bit more than I had expected.
Hm, so I did
I have no idea what I was using it for, but I went back and looked at my original post when I first moved to Drupal. Apparently I had installed image module originally, and never actually used it. It probably went MIA when I upgraded to Drupal 5 and pruned my module list.
Well now that I've got it again, I'll have to see about getting rid of it properly. :-)
I know the feeling…
Yeah, I've been wanting to upgrade my personal blog to Drupal 6 and PostgreSQL for the longest time know, but somehow, the stuff that earns me money always tend to get higher priority ;)
going from 4.6 to 6.x?
I see from the comments that you were once in 4.x so maybe you are a good person to ask. Based on your experiences with upgrades and Acquia, do I have any hope in going from 4.6 to 6.x? Do you recommend acquia? Is there anything you can share?
Not the best idea
It's not the best idea to migrate straight from 4.6.x to 6.x. You'll want to upgrade to 4.7.x first, then 5.x, and then 6.x or Acquia Drupal.
got the upgrade to work
I just found that I asked this question on your page and wanted to share that I did the upgrade from 4.6 to 6.x. I didn't go to acquia but if anyone is still in my shoes, I documented the process I used.
Moving Right Along
Congrats on the upgrade...looks like we can't deny the Drupal Trend or stop the progress. Thanks for your dedication.


text:
BELMONT, Mass. — In ticking off his credentials on the campaign trail — management consultant, businessman, governor — Mitt Romney omits what may have been his most distinctive post: Mormon lay leader, offering pastoral guidance on all manner of human affairs from marriage to divorce, abortion, adoption, addiction, unemployment and even business disputes.
Bryce Clark was a recipient of Mr. Romney's spiritual advice. Late one summer night in 1993, distraught over his descent into alcoholism and drug use, Mr. Clark, then a 19-year-old college student, decided to confess that he had strayed from his Mormon faith. So he drove through this well-heeled Boston suburb to Mr. Romney's secluded seven-bedroom home.
As the highest-ranking Mormon leader in Boston, Mr. Romney was responsible for determining whether Mr. Clark was spiritually fit for a mission, a rite of passage for young Mormon men. Mr. Clark had previously lied to him, insisting that he was eligible to go. But instead of condemnation that night, Mr. Clark said, Mr. Romney offered counsel that the younger man has clung to for years.
"He told me that, as human beings, our work isn't measured by taking the sum of our good deeds and the sum of our bad deeds and seeing how things even out," recalled Mr. Clark, now 37, sober and working as a filmmaker in Utah. "He said, 'The only thing you need to think about is: Are you trying to improve, are you trying to do better? And if you are, then you're a saint.' "
That encounter with Mr. Clark provides a rare glimpse into the way Mr. Romney — now a Republican candidate for president — expresses his faith and exercised authority as a religious leader. From 1981 through 1994, he was a powerful figure in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is run almost entirely by volunteers beyond its headquarters in Salt Lake City.Continue reading the main story
First as bishop of his own congregation, and later as Boston "stake president," overseeing a region akin to a Roman Catholic diocese, he operated as clergyman, organization man and defender of the faith, guiding the church through a tumultuous period of rapid growth.
He confronted anti-Mormon sentiment and management challenges, supervising youth programs, the church's social welfare system, missionary training and outreach to Hispanic, Portuguese and Southeast Asian converts, including Cambodian and Laotian refugees whose teenagers were joining the church in droves.
Later, when his official duties were complete, he contributed handsomely to the construction of the grand — and controversial — Boston Temple, high on a hilltop in Belmont, its steeple topped by a golden angel, just minutes from the Romney home. "Mitt's Temple," some local residents called it derisively.
Some Mormons, like Mr. Clark, found Mr. Romney thoughtful and compassionate; one mother recalled his kindness to her dying son. Others, including a group of Mormon feminists demanding a greater role for women, found him condescending, doctrinaire or just plain bossy. He clashed with a married mother of four who sought to terminate a pregnancy; the incident made news years later, when Mr. Romney ran for United States Senate as a supporter of abortion rights — a position he has since abandoned.
"Mitt is the type who liked to be called Bishop Romney or President Romney," said Judy Dushku, a professor of government at Suffolk University in Boston and a Mormon feminist leader. "He is very conscious of his place in the hierarchy, but not yours."
Mr. Romney declined to be interviewed for this article. Facing a primary electorate in which Christian conservatives are a powerful force, he is trying to keep his religion from becoming a barrier to his election. When his faith has become an issue — a Texas pastor supporting a rival candidate recently proclaimed Mormonism "a cult" — Mr. Romney has not offered a full-throated defense, but instead called for civility.
But here in Belmont, where Mormons estimate their population at 500 in a town of 25,000, Mr. Romney's fellow congregants, many of them professionals and academics, are accustomed to hearing him talk of his beliefs. Mr. Romney has traded his large home for a townhouse; just a few months ago, he stepped to the lectern during a Sunday service to deliver what Tony Kimball, a retired professor of government, called a "traditional Mormon testimony," in which he proclaimed his faith in Jesus as his savior.
Mr. Kimball, a close aide when Mr. Romney was stake president, says culture, rather than political calculus, may keep candidate Romney from talking about faith. "It's kind of considered bad form by a lot of Mormons to wear it on your lapel," he said, "and Mitt is not that way."
Deep Church Roots
Mr. Romney has an impeccable Mormon pedigree. His family traces its church lineage to 1837; a great-great-grandfather, Miles Romney, began following the first Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, that year, and later trekked to Utah with the early Mormon pioneers. As son of one of the nation's most prominent Mormons — George W. Romney, a former Michigan governor and presidential candidate — Mitt Romney seemed destined for a prominent position in the church.
In 1971, Mr. Romney arrived in Boston to attend a joint program at the Harvard Business and Law Schools. He had completed a Mormon mission in France, graduated from Brigham Young University and was already married with a son. On weekends, he and other young Mormons would take overnight bus trips to the nearest Mormon temple, outside Washington, to perform sacred rituals, like baptism for the dead.
"Most of us would yak or sleep on the bus, or read a book," recalled one of the participants, Helen Claire Sievers. "Mitt was always working."
It was an early hint of the intensity and business acumen that would make Mr. Romney rich as the founder of Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm. He used those same skills, in salesmanship, deal making, organization, networking and public relations, as a steward of the church.
He was highly motivated and "hands-on," said Philip Barlow, a professor at Utah State University, who as a graduate student was one of Mr. Romney's top aides as bishop. If somebody's roof leaked, Mr. Romney would show up with a ladder to fix it. Mr. Barlow remembers Mr. Romney picking butternut squash and yanking weeds on the church's communal farm.
When young Southeast Asian converts began joining gangs, Mr. Romney set up small storefront churches in rough areas of town, with the hope of drawing them back. When the approach did not work, he shut the branches down. Every other Sunday, he convened his high council — akin to a president's cabinet — to discuss operational matters.
"He would run it like a business, and he would listen to us," said Mick Watson, a Brandeis University graduate school dean and one of the councilors. "But Mitt, of course, was in charge — he was always in charge."
That take-charge attitude sometimes rankled in a setting where people yearned for consensus.
Ron Scott, a journalist and Mormon who has written a forthcoming biography of Mr. Romney, remembered how, when he moved to Boston, Mr. Romney asked him to run public affairs for the church — and then proceeded to tell him precisely how to do the job. "He had more of an imperious approach," Mr. Scott said. "He wanted to direct everything."
Yet he proved himself an effective salesman for his faith. Shortly after he became bishop, at age 34, with five young sons, the church announced plans for a new meetinghouse in Belmont, on a wooded, 14-acre plot. Townspeople were suspicious. "The tenor was, 'The Mormons are moving in,' " said Grant Bennett, who succeeded Mr. Romney as bishop. In 1984, with the construction almost complete, the meetinghouse burned down. Officials suspected arson.
Soon Mr. Romney was flooded with offers from other churches wanting to lend their buildings. Sensing an opportunity to strengthen community ties, he accepted them all, and the Mormons of Belmont rotated from one house of worship to another for a year while theirs was being rebuilt.
It was not the last time Mr. Romney would try to smooth church-town relations. In 1996, church leaders in Salt Lake announced plans for a granite temple — 94,000 square feet with six soaring spires — on a hilltop adjacent to the Belmont meetinghouse. (Unlike Mormon meetinghouses, Mormon temples are reserved for sacred ceremonies, and non-Mormons may step no farther than the lobby.) Incensed neighbors filed suit.
Mr. Romney, fearing he would become a lightning rod after his Senate loss to Edward M. Kennedy in 1994, kept a relatively low profile. He and his wife, Ann, hosted meetings in their home so the neighbors could meet the architects, and perhaps sort their differences out. He spoke in favor of the project at a public hearing. His tithe — Mormons are expected to give the church 10 percent of their income — helped foot the $30 million bill.
But mostly, said Scott Ferson, a public relations executive (and former Kennedy aide) who helped calm tensions, Mr. Romney functioned as high-level adviser, a liaison between Boston and Salt Lake. The project was eventually built, albeit on a smaller scale.
"He was kind of a Big Mormon," Mr. Ferson said of Mr. Romney. "A lot of people would say, 'Let's see what Mitt thinks.' "
Hewing the Line
As a Senate candidate, Mr. Romney angered higher-ups in Salt Lake with his independent stance on abortion; he said that he was personally opposed, but favored laws allowing women to choose. But earlier as a church leader, he hewed much more closely to the official Mormon view.
Mormons oppose abortion, except in extreme cases like rape, incest or where the life of the woman is in danger — and require that church elders be consulted. In 1990, Exponent II, a Mormon feminist magazine that Ms. Dushku, the Suffolk University professor, helped found, published an article by a married mother of four who recounted her own experience after doctors advised her to terminate her pregnancy when she was being treated for a potentially dangerous blood clot.
Her bishop got wind of the situation, she wrote, and showed up unannounced at the hospital, warning her sternly not to go forward. The article did not identify Mr. Romney as the bishop, but Ms. Dushku later did.
Now the woman has come forward, identifying herself in Mr. Scott's book as Carrel Hilton Sheldon. (Through Ms. Dushku, she declined to be interviewed.) "Mitt has many, many winning qualities," she is quoted as saying, "but at the time he was blind to me as a human being."
Ms. Dushku sees hypocrisy and callousness; Mr. Scott sees inexperience.
"I don't think he's an evil, unfeeling, uncaring kind of guy," Mr. Scott said. "He was a brand new bishop, he was pretty young to begin with, my sense is he was pretty full of himself, and he thought that he would not fulfill his obligation as bishop if he didn't press the matter."
But if Mr. Romney was blind in that instance, his time as an ecclesiastical leader may have also opened his eyes. Having been raised in wealth and privilege, he was now exposed to hardship and human suffering, especially among Boston's immigrant populations. "I had no idea people lived this way," Mr. Barlow recalls him saying.
A Reserved Demeanor
Ted Oparowski, a retired firefighter, and his wife, Pat, a secretary, still praise Mr. Romney for ministering to their 14-year-old son, David, who was dying of cancer three decades ago.
The boy, upon hearing that Mr. Romney was a lawyer, asked him to help draft a will, so that he might leave something to each of his friends. Mr. Romney pulled out a legal pad, and together they wrote one up. Later, he gave the eulogy at the boy's funeral.
If Mr. Romney, who no longer holds an official church title, seems overly polished or wooden on the campaign trail, his defenders say that is just how he is, reserved yet caring. "He's always been that way, that's his demeanor," Mrs. Oparowski said.
Because the church imposes such heavy volunteer obligations on its members, much of Mr. Romney's work involved functioning as a cheerleader to keep things up and running. When a congregant asked to be released from his church duties during a difficult divorce, Mr. Romney said no; he did not want to send a message that divorced people could not serve.
When Clayton Christensen, a Harvard business professor, and his wife, Christine, felt overwhelmed by church obligations, Mr. Romney showed up unexpectedly at the door. With three young children, Mr. Christensen was in charge of missionary work; his wife ran the relief society, ministering to Boston's poor.
"He said, 'I was just driving home from work, and I had a feeling that I needed to stop by and tell you that God loves you.' " Mr. Christensen was so moved, he recalled, that he wept.
On the night in 1993 that Mr. Clark, the filmmaker, arrived at the Romney home here, Mr. Romney greeted him in a white business shirt, dress slacks and bedroom slippers. He was waiting at the door; the young man's parents had called ahead.
The Clarks and the Romneys had been close for years — Mr. Clark's father, Kim, now president of Brigham Young University's campus in Rexburg, Idaho, was then dean of the Harvard Business School — and Mr. Romney had been the family's "home teacher." For nearly a decade, he made monthly visits to the Clark home, checking on the family's welfare and serving up Gospel lessons to the seven Clark children.
The Romney house, Mr. Clark remembers, was quiet. Mr. Romney ushered him into the library, and they spoke for more than an hour. "He talked a lot about the Savior, and what the atonement means," Mr. Clark said. "He said, 'I just want you to know you are not alone.' "
In the months and years that followed, Mr. Romney wrote the young man notes of encouragement, frequently reminding him of what he had said that summer night, about always "trying to improve." Mr. Clark says he still has them.Continue reading the main story


text:
Bishop Tikhon (Stepanov), SVOTS Alumnus, Reposes
On Tuesday, October 19, 2010, His Grace Tikhon (Stepanov), bishop of Archangelsk and Kholmogory, reposed in the Lord, at age 47.
Archbishop Tikhon (Stepanov) was born March 2, 1963, in Kostroma. His Eminence studied at the Leningrad Theological Seminary from 1984–1986, at the Leningrad Theological Academy from 1986–1990, and at St. Vladimir's Seminary from 1990–1991. On August 28, 1991, Archbishop Tikhon took monastic vows and was ordained to the Holy Diaconate and Holy Priesthood on August 29 and September 1, respectively. On June 16, 1992, Archbishop Tikhon was elevated to the rank of igumen.
His Eminence was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite on January 1, 1996, and consecrated to the Holy Episcopacy as Bishop of Arkangelsk and Kholmogory on February 4, 1996, by the late Patriarch Alexy II in Moscow's Holy Epiphany Cathedral.
The entire seminary community is praying for the soul of Archbishop Tikhon.


text:
Business, Management, Marketing and Technology from the Perspective of a Swedish Millennial
by Fredrik Savin on 19/04/2008 · 0 comments
This is the Blog and Web site of Fredrik Savin, a Swedish e-Marketing & Communications professional and Digital Project Manager.
I'm always looking for new problems to solve. Feel free to contact me, find me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter.
Copyright © 2007-2011 fsavin.com. All rights reserved.


text:
You: I wanna put in a treehouse.
Community Board: Hell no, it won't match our ugly exteriors.
You: Oh yeah?
You are looking at the work of artist Benjamin Verdonck. He recently installed this tree house in the down of Ghent, Belgium. It fits in so perfectly it looks like it's the result of a horrible tornado accident. Verdonck also once built a freaky-realistic human-sized bird's nest on a sky scraper in Rotterdamn. I want to hang out with this dude. [Fubiz via Neatorama]


text:
INDIANAPOLIS – UMBC women's soccer, the champions of the America East Conference, will look to continue their historic season as the Retrievers meet No. 1 Virginia Tech in the first round of their first-ever NCAA Tournament. Game time is set for 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15 at Thompson Field in Blacksburg, Va.
"We are excited about being in the tournament and now knowing who we face, we are excited for the challenge ahead against Virginia Tech," head coach Leslie Wray said.
UMBC completed the worst-to-first feat, going from 1-11-5 in 2011, including a 0-5-3 mark in America East play, to capturing a share of its first-ever regular-season title with a 6-2 mark in the league action, setting a program record in wins (13) and taking home its first-ever conference tournament crown.
UMBC (13-5-2) earned its first America East postseason victories in 2013, starting with a 2-0 victory against No. 4 Hartford in the AEC semifinals. The top-seeded Retrievers took down the co-regular-season champion Stony Brook Seawolves on Saturday, coming from behind to defeat SBU, 2-1, completing the biggest turnaround in America East history.
Virginia Tech (16-4-2) upset the top-seeded Virginia Cavaliers in the ACC Semifinals, before falling to Florida State, 1-0, in the finals. The Hokies enter the tournament as the No. 6 rated team in the country.
The winner of UMBC versus Virginia Tech will move on to the second round and take on the winner of Rutgers and West Virginia.


text:
Discover Rafting Experiences with Fixers
Unique Rafting Experiences in Nepal coming soon
Zoe Blaskey
We went to Morocco with fixers and I can honesty say it was one of the best holidays ever.
Louis Solito
Excellent experience with Fixers - selecting every details based on our preference, yet using their own experience & personal touches.
Ellie Prohan
This year I promised myself I'd do things I've never done before! Massive love to @wearefixers & @gymboxofficial for making that a reality.
Mikey Brouwer
Smashed the brief for our holiday and the booking platform made everything easy as pie to book.


text:
Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin was fired up about God and country when she spoke Friday at Southeastern University in Lakeland.
LAKELAND | Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin was fired up about God and country when she spoke Friday at Southeastern University in Lakeland. And she was dressed for the part.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate visited the Sunshine State at the request of the organizers of the school's seventh annual leadership forum. She was quite a presence on the stage, in a lipstick-red suit and fierce high heels.
Her passionate talk was peppered with such vibrant cries as "Cling to your God, your guns, your Constitution!" and pleas for the next generation to change the country's moral fiber. "That will make our foundation crumble if we choose to ignore it," she said.
Not one to tiptoe around sensitive topics, Palin got right to the point on reasons she said the country is in crisis.
"Today, look around, and don't you wonder sometimes if, as a nation, we have forgotten God altogether? This is a crucial question," she said.
Palin said the school asked her to talk about hope and resilience. She said she would but "not that Washington, D.C., 'hopey-changey' blah, blah, blah stuff, but real hope."
Mostly, the 49-year-old hammered such topics as the corruption of Washington, D.C. — "It's a hotbed of cronyism" — and federal spending — "The federal government is bloated, corrupt and out-of-control."
The Forum is a fundraising event for scholarships at Southeastern, and sponsors pay for the speakers. Southeastern officials don't disclose how much speakers are paid, but it was reported Palin received $75,000 in May 2010 to speak at California State University, Stanislaus.
Palin said Friday she was happy to visit a Christian school, and she encouraged students to go forth and spread the word. She encouraged them to "infiltrate" the nation. Study journalism, she said. Get into Hollywood and the sports world.
"Get out there and influence culture," she said.
Palin closed her talk with a battle cry.
"The future of the country depends on what you do," she said. "God bless you."
After the speech, Palin answered questions from Southeastern professor Christina Gard, who was Miss Alaska in 2004. It was then Palin said something that brought the strongest applause.
Asked how she dealt with critics, Palin said it's important to know who you are, and that's why she speaks out for God publicly in a country where she said it's often frowned upon or against the law to talk about religious beliefs.
"God deserves so much better than what we give him," she said. "What has happened when we can't say his name in public?"
[ Mary Toothman can be reached at email@example.com or 862-802-7512. Her Twitter feed is @MaryToothman. ]


text:
My town used to be inhabited by American Indians, obviously before the white settlers came. Supposedly they put a blessing over our area, protecting it from tornados. And sure enough, our little town has never been devasted by a tornado, just a few limbs here and there that have fallen, and a lawn chair that blows across the street. As a child I used to think this was the NEATEST thing ever...until I've grown up and realized that the Indian blessing was just an old wives tale. It's really the tall bluffs and the near by river that has been the blessing!
The Blessing
Started by ghosthunter_girl , Jun 07 2003 09:26 PM
3 replies to this topic
Posted 07 June 2003 - 09:26 PM
"The head are the invisible ones, but not the absent ones." -Victor Hugo
Posted 10 June 2003 - 01:37 AM
God Bless!
Take my hand and we'll go riding through the sunshine from above
Posted 06 July 2003 - 07:44 PM
:DHey a blessing is a blessing, no matter where it came from..lol
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." Buddha (563BC-483BC )
Posted 06 July 2003 - 08:40 PM
Good point Angel! I guess whatever has worked for this town for the past 100+ years is good enough!
"The head are the invisible ones, but not the absent ones." -Victor Hugo
1 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users


text:
Here's an important fact you haven't heard much about in the presidential campaign: The armed forces of the United States are at war in at least four countries, and that number could increase any day.
About 87,000 Americans are still fighting in Afghanistan, and some are likely to stay past 2014. We're at war in neighboring Pakistan too, mostly using unmanned drones but with a handful of people on the ground.
U.S. drone and special operations forces are also waging attacks in Yemen and Somalia, operations big enough that President Barack Obama felt compelled to acknowledge them publicly last month in a letter to Congress.
In addition, theU.S. Navyis hunting pirates in the Indian Ocean and patrolling offIran'scoast in the Persian Gulf, and in both missions shots have been fired.
American troops are training and advising counter-terrorism forces in West Africa and the Philippines. More troops are on the ground in central Africa, helping local forces root out the brutal Lord's Resistance Army.
And those are just the missions we know about. U.S. special operations forces are engaged in "more than 100 countries worldwide," Adm. William H. McRaven of the Special Operations Command told the Senate last month. Most of those engagements don't involve actual combat, but because what Admiral McRaven's units do is secret, it's impossible to say exactly how many places U.S. forces are fighting in at any given time.
So why, when American troops are engaged in so many places, are the operations receiving so little public attention?
Some of the reasons for our national inattention are obvious. Americans, and the presidential candidates, are preoccupied with the travails of the domestic economy. And now that we have a professional, all-volunteer military, a narrower cross-section of Americans has a family member in the armed forces.
But another reason we're hearing so little about U.S. combat operations is that we have two presidential candidates who don't seem all that comfortable with their own positions on war and peace.
In 2008, Mr. Obama could run as an antiwar candidate, but that's hard to do as commander in chief of a military engaged in combat — and one who drastically increased drone strikes. The president has made a commitment to keep troops in Afghanistan through 2014, and he plans to keep advisers and trainers there even longer. But he has never seemed all that enthusiastic about putting American lives and money into defending Hamid Karzai's regime.
Moreover, he knows the Democratic voters he's relying on for reelection grew sick of the war long ago. A nationwide poll released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs this week found that 67 percent of Americans think the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting, and that number rises to 79 percent among Democrats. It's no wonder the president doesn't talk about it much, beyond noting that he's set a date for pulling out most of the troops.
Mitt Romney has an equally thorny dilemma. Unlike Democrats, Republicans are deeply divided over the war. The Chicago Council poll found that although 58 percent of Republicans say the war isn't worth fighting, 41 percent still think it's worthwhile.
That means that Mr. Romney has to tread lightly. As much as he'd like to criticize the president's handling of the war, finding the right grounds to do so has proved tricky. He criticized Mr. Obama's 2014 deadline for a troop drawdown, only to later call it "the right timetable." He has expressed support for the war effort in Afghanistan while at the same time saying that "we've learned that our troops shouldn't go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation."
But with U.S. citizens engaged in seven or more conflicts around the world, don't both candidates owe us some plain talk about their plans? How many troops would they keep in Afghanistan after 2014, and how long would they keep them there? How would they deal with Pakistan, our most troublesome "frenemy"? If sanctions don't cause Iran to abandon its work on building a nuclear weapon, would they support military action there? And what about Syria?
Later this month, Mr. Romney plans to head to London (to remind voters that he once ran the Winter Olympics), Israel (to remind pro-Israel voters that Mr. Obama hasn't been there since taking office) and Poland (to remind hawks that he favors more spending on missile defense).
While he's abroad, he should seize the opportunity to talk more about America's many armed conflicts and how he would handle them. And he should challenge Mr. Obama to explain his thoughts on military engagement too.
Judging from the current state of the campaign, both candidates seem as if they could use a change of subject. And so could we.
Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, where this article originally appeared. His email is


text:
Posted by R. Berg on April 01, 2006
In Reply to: "For old time's sake" posted by Smokey Stover on March 31, 2006
: : "For old time sake"
: : I overheard someone using this phrase earlier. What's the meaning of this phrase, and where does it originate from?
: Does it mean more to you as "for old time's sake"? It should. It means, approximately, in memory of old times, or as a tribute to past times. Usually one can understand it as "for past times together," in which we shared some degree of comradeship or common experience. Its age and origin are unknown to me. SS
Old times' sake. Plural. ~rb


text:
Conductive Rework Systems
PACE revolutionized the electronics industry in the 60's by creating the first self-contained continuous vacuum desoldering system. Since then, we have produced the best rework and repair stations on the planet, then made them better. Renowned for their reliability and longevity, tens of thousands have been manufactured in the USA, many of which are still in use after 20 years! And we are constantly producing new products and technology to meet the rapidly changing needs of electronics rework and repair professionals. Check out our latest below.
|Part Number
|MBT 301 with PS-90 & SX-100
|ST 115 Power Supply


text:
I participated in a food discussion board for about 5 years. Because people posted on the board from all over the U.S. (and also Canada and Australia) their regional tastes affected their food preferences. As a lark, I created what I called the New Jersey Condiment rules, which all loyal native New Jerseyans were expected to observe:
mustard goes on pink meat (such as ham, bologna, and hot dogs)
mayonnaise goes on white meats such as chicken and turkey, tuna, and potato and noodle salad.
ketchup goes on hamburgers, French fries, and (possibly) meatloaf and cube steak sandwiches.
I told the other board members that if you broke the New Jersey condiment rules (such as by putting mayo on pink meat) they charged you double tolls on the Garden State Parkway!


text:
Collins trusts Tejada will rediscover his swing
NEW YORK -- Spring Training statistics may not matter, but they do create impressions. It was impossible to ignore, for example, that shortstop Ruben Tejada finished his Grapefruit League season batting .096 with three extra-base hits. After homering against Stephen Strasburg in his first spring at-bat, Tejada went 4-for-51 with two singles and two doubles.
Once a leadoff candidate for the Mets, Tejada instead slipped to eighth in the Opening Day lineup. But manager Terry Collins said before the opener that he was willing to forget all that, provided Tejada begins hitting now.
As if on cue, the shortstop mashed an RBI double in his first at-bat of the season, which Collins called the most important knock in the Mets' 11-2 win over the Padres.
"That was a huge hit," Collins said. "He's had a tough spring. To have him be the first guy that gets a big hit, I thought was good."
Saying he could "not explain what happened in Spring Training," Collins guessed that Tejada simply did not worry himself with results, knowing he was already entrenched as the starting shortstop. Instead, Collins said that Tejada worked on specific skills, such as hitting the ball the opposite way and keeping his batted balls on the ground.
"I trust my players," Collins said. "Ruben and I had a number of discussions in the last two weeks, and he reassured me he will be ready, and he will be the same player that we've seen in the past during the season."


text: I live in NC and me and my dad are going up to OCMD around the 18th and 19th for a little surf road trip going from there to VB and then down to the banks. i have never surfed OCMD of VB so I have no idea what to expect. I was wondering if any of y'all can give me some advice on board choice and what rubber i need to bring. Any info is appreciated.


text:
Here's something that's hopefully simple and fun to draw! Foxes are popular animals to draw and I thought it would be a good first tutorial to contribute to the site :) Hope you guys enjoy!
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


text:
Part of National Museums Liverpool
Also in this section…?
Stunning images of the everyday life of Mongolian Buddhists are on show in this vivid, colourful exhibition of photographs by Barbara Hind.
This accomplished photographer, originally from Knotty Ash in Liverpool, visited Mongolia 16 times between 1994 and 2001. The resulting collection of pictures is breathtaking.
Rich in colour and texture, the images capture intimate moments in the daily routine – from the call to morning worship to individuals in private conversation. They also touch on formal events such as the ordination of monks and the building of a new temple.
Barbara's talent is to provide a unique insight into a deeply fascinating way of life, in a natural, respectful and unobtrusive way. The photos perfectly reflect the effortless integration of the spiritual and mundane in the lives of the Mongolian Buddhists.
The exhibition was itself shown at the National Museum of Mongolian History in Ulaanbaatar, 2001, where Barbara became the first westerner to be invited to display her work. This gave local people, whose lives she had documented, the chance to see the pictures for themselves.
Barbara says of her work:
"The Mongolian Buddhist images have grown out of my personal association with the monasteries and nunneries I have visited. Through my photographs I try not only to represent my own experience of seeing other people's worlds but to also try and evoke the people's experience in those worlds."
You can see a selection of the images on this website, but be sure to visit the museum to see the glorious display in full colour.
Visitors to the Mongolian Buddhism exhibition may also be interested in World Museum's comprehensive display of Buddhist artefacts from Asia. The World Cultures Gallery includes an evocative Tibetan Buddhist shrine.
Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of the photographs.
Batbaatar and Munkhchuluun
Before morning ceremony
Conversation between nuns Daria and Nwmehjargd
Lama Dashidorje reading Tibetan text
Nun Gantamur during mandal urguh
Outside Narkhajid Nunnery
Sherendetsel and Sugar
The building of a new temple which opened on Buddha's official birthday
Worshipping at Gandan Monastery
We use cookies to make our website work better for visitors. They allow improved functionality, personalised services or advertising and the ability to analyse traffic on our website. For more information on how we use cookies, please read our Cookies Policy.
© Copyright 2019


text:
The following op-ed by Carl Safina appeared in Newsday, July 9, 2009.
Will there always be another fish in the sea?
Carl Safina, a MacArthur fellow who lives in Setauket, is the president of Blue Ocean Institute. His most recent book is "Voyage of the Turtle."
I grew up along the shores of Long Island and have wonderful childhood memories of standing in the shallow water of Jones Beach, holding my father's hand and a butterfly net, catching minnows and putting them in buckets. From these local beginnings, my love of the sea and its creatures led me into scientific studies of fish and seabirds around the world.
The ocean, however, is changing. Everything humans do affect the waters of our world. From my research and a lifetime of recreational angling, I've witnessed the disturbingly rapid declines in tunas, sharks, marlin and other sea life. It's an underwater version of the last buffalo hunt.
That's why I'm so surprised that one of New York's senators – and one with a reputation for conservation – would introduce a bill that's bad for our oceans, the fish that live in them, and our coastal economies that depend on these fish.
In the United States, nearly a quarter of our commercially important ocean fish populations – such as cod, flounder, snapper and grouper – are severely depleted. This means that we've been taking these fish from the ocean much faster than they can reproduce. In some cases, they are nearing commercial extinction.
To help restore America's ocean fisheries, in 2006 Congress reauthorized the law that governs our ocean fisheries – the Magnuson-Stevens Act – with requirements to end overfishing and strengthen directives to rebuild depleted fish populations within 10 years, if biologically possible.
Unfortunately, a bill sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009, would allow fishery managers to delay rebuilding deadlines if they can point to a "positive rebuilding trend" or attribute declining fish populations to causes other than overfishing.
In other words, fishery managers could theoretically extend rebuilding deadlines indefinitely for dozens of fish populations, if the population grew by only one fish, or if they could point to an additional cause for a decline.
To put it bluntly, they could use just about any excuse to avoid letting fish populations recover. And that's bad for everyone with an interest in fish and fishing.
While some fishermen and politicians claim that the 10-year rebuilding deadline is arbitrary, there was critical need behind the provision. From 1976 to 1996, fishery managers had the power – but not the requirement – to maintain and rebuild fish populations. But because of exactly the kinds of pressures now behind Schumer's bill, managers presided over the overfishing and collapse that made the current requirements necessary. Schumer's bill would take us back to this era of depletion.
In 1996, Congress utilized the input of fishery scientists who noted that most depleted fish populations could be rebuilt in five years. To minimize economic hardship, Congress gave fishery managers the flexibility to choose a 10-year rebuilding deadline, with further exceptions for populations biologically unable to rebuild in that time frame, or if an international agreement dictated otherwise.
In a study published in the journal Science in 2005, several co-authors and I found that the vast majority of depleted U.S. fish populations could be rebuilt within 10 years. Additionally, we found that continued overfishing and delaying rebuilding undermines diversity, risks ecosystem structure, reduces chances of recovery and increases economic costs. We've certainly learned the mistake of deregulating banking, and for similar reasons, now's not the time to deregulate fishing.
The first time my dad took me fishing, I learned the most important lesson ever about fisheries management – you throw back the little ones to leave some for tomorrow. When fishery managers have focused on the main goal of allowing a depleted species to rebuild, we have indeed seen recovery in such important species as striped bass and bluefish in the Atlantic and king mackerel in the Gulf of Mexico.
During decades of service, Schumer has championed numerous efforts to protect wildlife and wild places. But, this bill would unravel a decade and a half of hard-won progress in fisheries management.
Senator, please throw back this bill.


text:
A Christmas Tree Tale
It's a particularly warm December day in Florida, but the Christmas spirit makes its way into the hearts and homes of thousands of military families. It is the day when every local military family has the chance to bring home a free Christmas tree. With the help of FedEx employees, the Trees for Troops organization brings thousands of freshly cut Christmas trees to military bases across the world. At MacDill Air Force Base, this annual tree giving event is highly anticipated.
I arrive at the location half an hour early and there are already dozens of families from all branches of Service ahead of me in line. The smell of freshly cut Christmas trees is enchanting. Holiday music is playing in the background and happiness sparkles in the eyes of the children. Everyone already has their perfect Christmas tree in mind and is anxious to pick it up.
As the hour of choosing a tree approaches, the organizers of the event serve us cookies and hot beverages. They are all smiling and thanking service members for the sacrifices they are making for the country. A sense of pride, accompanied by a smile, appears on the faces of military families present. I feel very fortunate to be part of this large family.
One by one, each person goes to pick out the tree of their choice. Children run and point their parents to the tree they desire. Everyone seems, for that particular moment, to have forgotten about all the worries in the world. FedEx employees help carry the trees to the cars and everyone rushes home to start decorating their new Christmas tree.
Once I select my Christmas tree, I notice it is accompanied by a hand written note thanking the troops for guarding our freedom and wishing them a Merry Christmas. I look closely and notice all of the trees carry the same message. It is a true gesture of respect and appreciation.
Among the events I attended at MacDill Air Force Base, this seems to be the one that brings most smiles and light to the community. Bringing a Christmas tree home becomes a symbol of hope and joy. This year, Santa Claus will have a few more decorated trees to admire as he spreads his gifts around the world.
What is your favorite holiday memory or favorite place you've spent the holidays?
Posted by Marlis Perez Rivera, a Volunteer with the National Military Family Association
0 CommentsAdd yours
This is a wonderful thing. Blessings to all military and family.