text:
ALBANY -- Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner last month sat alone before the state Legislature's most powerful leaders at a budget hearing without the usual entourage of political advisers and numbers crunchers. It was no sweat. She was already embroiled in a rare public dispute with powerful Gov. Andrew Cuomo over one of his proposals for local governments, daring to call it risky and "an accounting gimmick." For a Cuomo, "gimmick" is a lightning rod that goes back to the days when his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, "sold" Attica state prison to another state entity to raise cash for the budget. In New York Times commentary on Thursday, Miner used the word "gimmick" three times and called on Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and the Legislature to reject Cuomo's budget until more and better fiscal options are offered to cities and counties outside New York City. Those smaller municipalities are slipping closer to insolvency as taxpayers reach their limits, cuts are made to police, fire and other services, and costs soar. The response was swift. Cuomo's director of operations, Howard Glaser, took to an Albany radio station Thursday morning and said Miner was just begging for state money to solve problems her city created, though she hasn't asked for a bailout from a broke Albany. Then Glaser issued not-so-friendly advice. "If you're unwilling or unable to solve a problem in fiscal management in a city," Glaser told WGDJ-AM, "you ask the Legislature to create a financial control board, and the financial control board will solve the problem for you." Under a control board, Cuomo's appointees would take over her city and use extraordinary powers to overhaul its fiscal structure, including labor contracts. The reaction from Miner, whom Cuomo appointed as co-chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, was rare in Albany. "Of course it was difficult," Miner, 52, told The Associated Press about her challenge to Cuomo. "But the most profound job I have is to represent the people of the city of Syracuse ... I don't want Syracuse to become Detroit." Elected in 2009, Miner has called on Cuomo and the Legislature to hold a summit to find more options like loosening laws adopted in Albany over decades that favor politically powerful public worker unions. Cuomo, who has held summits to advance Greek yogurt and beer and wine sales, isn't budging. He is trying to get local government officials together this summer but only to field teams in an exhibition for a white water rafting tourism event. "If we had more tools, then we could solve it," said Miner, who recently announced she would run for a second term. "But these problems were created to a large part because of state regulations." E.J. McMahon of the conservative Manhattan Institute said this is a critical time for cities to act and an opportune moment for Cuomo to take bold action. The state's binding arbitration law is expiring, which gives a governor extraordinary power to change a measure that the Legislature desperately wants extended. Cuomo is proposing a break for cities by forcing arbitrators in labor disputes to consider for the first time the ability of taxpayers to afford large payouts or benefits. That would be a major change and would join Cuomo's past measures that also help local government finances, including the state takeover of increases in Medicaid costs. McMahon says Cuomo can do much more, such as ending work rules that allow police and other public workers to earn overtime pay that could be avoided. Cuomo, however, as chief executive and perhaps as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, must strike a balance. The union revolt in 2011 in another strong union state, Wisconsin, forced an unsuccessful recall vote of that state's governor. "The unions react like you shot their dog no matter what you do," McMahon countered. Cuomo's "budget seems to reflect a continuing desire to appear bold, but I think that in contrast to especially his first year, the reality is that a lot of it is cautious and incremental." Miner insists the fight isn't personal or political. "It's not just my job, but these are my friends, these are my family, these are my neighbors," she said. "When you can't sleep at night because you are worried about being able to provide services that are fundamental to the quality of life and you say to yourself, 'Somebody has got to do something,' and then you remember you are the mayor and you are that somebody, that's pretty much how it plays out."
ANALYSIS: New voice gains strength against Albany
- Michael Gormley
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Section 8 Chicago is the Independent Supporters' Association (ISA) for the Chicago Fire Soccer Club, a registered 501(c)7 non-profit organization run by volunteers through an elected board of directors. Section 8 Chicago represents all Fire supporters, organizing in-stadium support, road trips, tailgates, watch parties and social events.
Chicago Fire supporters' groups mostly occupy an area in SeatGeek Stadium known as "Section 8" stemming from its original location at pre-renovated Soldier Field. The name has stuck, despite changing stadiums and section numbers.
At SeatGeek Stadium, Section 8's physical section numbers are 116/117/118 in the north Harlem End of the stadium. Fire supporters are well known domestically for their non-stop chanting, colorful tifo displays and undying support of the club -- showing a spirit and devotion typically associated with fans of large clubs worldwide.
Section 8 Chicago works on behalf of all fans -- affiliated supporters' groups and independent fans alike -- to foster a true soccer community. The vision of the ISA is ". . . to unite all Chicago Fire fans, to create a dominant in-stadium force unseen in any American team sport and to establish a homefield advantage whenever the Chicago Fire play."
The ISA exists to supplement the efforts of independent fans, coordinate between the supporters groups and act as liaison between all fans and the Chicago Fire Soccer Club. As a non-profit organization, a board of directors is elected yearly at the Annual General Meeting by the assembled supporters.
The ISA uses money raised and donated to offer discounted road trip packages to encourage fans to support the team away from SeatGeek Stadium, produce section-related merchandise, pay for in-stadium tifo displays and to make charitable donations to the Chicago Fire Foundation.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
That evening she had to look especially good. Her make up had no mistakes. She put on the new dress she had bought particularly for that occasion, combed her hair in a special and charming way. Shoes matched the hand-bag she had, also, bought for that special purpose of the night.
While watching herself in the mirror to make a final check of this perfect look, her boyfriend's face peeped through the door, seeming rather impatient. He had been waiting for alomost one hour, then, and he was not going to wait any longer. The expression on his face was saying it. But, as soon as he saw how his girlfriend looked, his lips turned into a wide smile of pleasure.
"Wow!" He exclaimed. "You look great! I was not waiting in vain! Oh, man!!!"
She turned around in front of him, strait and pround of the success she made and happy to see that he liked it. Then he offered her his arm bent in elbow, she took him under his arm and they went out.
The night was beautiful. The sky was full of stars. The air was fresh and clean. They crossed a field in front of their house and went into a nearby forest. Trees seemed to bow down in admiration of this nice looking couple. They felt it and waved them back friendly. When they got to a glittering stream, there was an old oak's log on its bank. They set on it. He put his arm around her sholders, she bent her head on his sholder and they set there in silence, watching the stars.
"OK, you two", they heard the voice of a man who came and set beside them, "what are we going to write about tonight?"
They both smiled and set strait, then she said:
"Well... about New Year's Eve, of course!"
"Oh, silly me!", said the man, "I should've guessed it myself! That's why you look and smell so gorgeous!"
She winked and smiled, blushing from pleasure, for her lovely appearance did not pass unnoticed.
"Great! What is the title?" Asked the man.
"Epistolary Literature of the 21st Century." Said the boy.
"Hmmmm... I like it!" The man agreed.
"His first message to her:" Started the boy. "Hi! I've seen your profile and I like it. Would you mind if we excanged messages?"
The girl continued: "Her first message to him: 'Of course, I wouldn't mind. That's why I am here.' And she put a little smiling face at the end of the message, meaning that she was very pleased for receiving his message."
"His second message to her: 'I am a writer, what do you do for living?'"
"How very nice! I am a writer, too. That's so exciting to find a colleague on this site!'"
"He read her message and paused to think what to tell her next." The man overtook the story.
"The New Year's Eve is getting closer', he typed then, 'do you have any plans?'" Continued the boy.
"While reading this message she thought what to answer. To tell him that she had no plans, he would think that she was some stupid girl left alone while everybody is being together with somebody... No! That wouldn't seem appropriate, so she wrote..." The man said.
"'Sure. My boyfriend has arrived few days ago from abroad just to spend the New Year's Eve with me. How about you?" The girl carried on.
"He seemed a little disappointed, got up from his chair in front of computer, walked to a window and looked out. Then he returned and wrote..." The man finished.
"'I am still not sure. There are two girls asking me to spend the evening with them, so... I think I'll be with both of them', here he put several smilies to express how funny he thought the situation was, then continued: 'if they agreed', then another bunch of smiles grouped at the end of the message." The boy overtook the story.
"'Excellent! I wish you to have a great party! Don't get drunk, though!' Now she put a group of smilies to express that she was only joking with him." Said the girl.
"Around 8 o'clock in the evening on the very day of New Year's Eve they both set beside their computers almost simultaneously." The man said.
"Hi! I am ready to go out. Can you believe it: both girls accepted my invitation, although they new that there would be another girl with me, hehe?'" The boy said.
"Really!? How extraordinary! My boyfriend has just called me. He is coming to pick me up and take me to some nice, romantic place. I am ready and waiting... Oh, here he is! Have a good time, I must run.'" The girl said.
"He read her message and went to the kitchen to have some wine. He looked through the window. The town was all shining adorned with New Year's lights. He didn't turn the light at his home on. He wanted to be in darkness, it suited his mood. On the other side of the computer, she was walking around her flat in darkness, too, not knowing what to do. She took a book and read a few pages, then went to the computer again. Should she tell him the truth that she was all alone and that there was no sign of any boyfriends in her life, or anything? But, then, she said to herself, no, it is better like this. 'You've got a new message!' The screen wrote. She opened the message. Wow! Him again! And the message said:" The man silenced.
"'It seems that I will be late a bit. Who cares! Let them wait, won't harm them. He, he... I just wanted to see have you left already." The boy overtook the story.
"'No, but my boyfriend is here, prepairing some drink for the two of us. My comp is in another room, I've just dropped in to take some things when I noticed your message.'" The girl continued.
"'Oh! Are you two going out?'"
"Here she made a pause to think. Then an excellent idea came to her mind and she typed:"
"The atmosphere in my flat is so romantic and since we haven't been together for some time, we decided to spend the night here.'"
"'Really!? How nice! Hmmm... I think I'll do the same. I'll call the two girls to come to my apartment. Should be fun. Thanks for the idea!'"
"He sent the message to her and after nearly half an hour she replied:"
"'He is so sweet, my boyfriend! We had a few drinks, I told him that I had some things to collect from this room where my computer is, just to see if there is any message from you. Have your girlfriends arrived?'"
"'Yes, they are here. Oh, man! How gorgeous they look. One is blond and the other is black-haired. It is good that I decided to be with both of them. I just wouldn't know which one to choose if I had to. They have just arrived and are in the kitchen prepairing some food and drinks. They get along quite well. I think we are going to have a hot night tonight!'"
"'I am sure you would!'"
"She sent the message and a few drops of tears twinkled in her eyes. She felt more and more lonely with the approaching of midnight, but somehow her unpleasant feelings got soothed when she wrote and received the messages to and from him. After half an hour he called again."
"Hi! Are you around? See what happens here! I went to the kitchen, the girls made everything. In the dining room there is a table, completely set. They brought lots of nice things to nibble. There are candles everywhere, baloons and all those silly, funny New Year things around. We set there, I turned good music on. After a few drinks they both set on my lap kissing me passionately. I feel like being in paradise! I came here to take a book about making love with two girls to show them. Oh, boy, we are laughing so much! How about you two?'" The boy said.
"'Our atmosphere is similar as yours. Only, we are two and passionately in love with each other. He adores me. I love him, too, of course. He is tall and slim. He has big tender eyes. We kiss every now and then... Well, we've always been so happy together.'"
"They kept exchanging messages of this sort every half an hour, explaining why were they in the next room, to take this or to do that, and inventing stories about how happy they were in their apartments and companies. At midnight she wrote:"
"'Can you believe it! He went to the bathroom exactly at midnight, he, he... Well, I hope he won't be long. Drop a few words how things go there when you find time.'"
"His answer arrived immediately:" Said the man.
"'It's funny. We made love before midnight. Wow, it was hot! With two girls. I've never done this before! But I enjoyed it extreemely. Now they are both asleep, because, they said, I made them so tired, haha.'" The boy continued.
"He was holding the back of his chair and his head leaning on it. Watching the screen of his computer, an idea suddenly occured to him, and he added in his message:"
"'If your boyfriend fell asleep, too, why wouldn't we meet somewhere...?'"
"When she read this message, her mind got enlightened, as well: he had been inventing it all, just as she had! She burst into laughter after realising it. So, she typed her mobile phone number, and sent it to him, saying nothing more. After a few seconds her phone rang, and she heard the most beautiful male voice... This is how their love began." The man finished the story.
"I liked it so much!" The young couple exclaimed at the same time.
"So, tomorrow - same time, same place." Said the man expectingly.
"Of course!", replied the couple, "We love you!!!"
"I love you, too!!!"... and off they went.


text:
Last night on the finale of her show, Paula Abdul wore another of my dresses. She looked so good in it! I'm so happy to have her as a client. :)
I made this dress for her back in late October. I had one day notice to do it and get it to her, so I pulled an all-nighter and did it. Then I remember I had to literally sprint a mile, dress in hand, to the Fedex office to just barely make the cut-off ship time. It was well worth all the work.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Paula in peach
6 comments:
- Stereoette said...
watching last night, I wondered if that dress was by you! Paula looked adorable in both of your dresses. Then again, I have been a big fan of hers since I was an elementary school kid trying to learn the steps to her videos, so maybe I am biased!
- February 10, 2011 at 9:50 AM
- TheChambrayCountess said...
It looked great on her- your hard work was totally worth it!
- February 10, 2011 at 10:48 AM
- Love + Marriage said...
I love the behind the scenes glimpse! So amazing! And the dress is beautiful. Funny...today I was looking through a magazine and I thought "Beyonce should wear a Leanne dress." So I think she should be next on your list!
- February 10, 2011 at 4:18 PM
- jacintha said...
aamazing! love the dress
- February 11, 2011 at 1:24 PM
- B said...
gorgeous dress! I'm such a big fan of yours and ecstatic that paula wore your dresses on tv! GET...IT!
- February 15, 2011 at 4:55 PM
- big homie said...
- February 17, 2011 at 9:04 PM
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text:
The PINNACLE Sukhumvit Inn
is a 42 room Budget Hotel located on Sukhumvit Road within walking
distance of the Nana shopping and entertainment areas. It is also
within easy reach of the BTS sky train and the MRTA subway stations.
The hotel attracts many regulars who enjoy being close to the business and entertainment facilities of Sukhumvit.
The hotel offers accommodation in a casual and
relaxed atmosphere. All rooms face the city center and are equipped
with :
|Standard Room
|Pinnacle Room
|Food & Beverage Service
Other Facilities & Services


text:
Hello java members i got a programm to complete and im a lil bit confused.Let me explain you somethings first.I got some classes like UniversityDepartment & PolytechnicDepartment these 2 classes extends *AcademicDepartment* class.And the problem want me to do this.The AcademicDepartment can have pre-graduate program & after-graduate program.And the departments will be 2 University & Polytechnic.For a department to be polytechnic or University depending on the number of labs that have in pre-gruduate program.So if we are in pre-graduate or after-graduate program i think the user must type it from keyboard and if we are in pre-graduate we also must be asked how many labs we got to see if we are in polytechnic or university.So How i will do this?.I will give u an example of my code.
import java.io.*; public class AcademicDepartment { private String names; private String labs; private int teachers; private int graduates; private boolean studies; public void infostudies() throws IOException{ System.out.println("Enter the department you want.Press 1 for pre-graduate program or 2 for after-graduate program" ); boolean studies = ""; BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); studies = br.readLine(); if (studies == 1){ System.out.println("You are in pre-graduate program"); System.out.println("Enter the number of labs"); String labs = ""; BufferedReader br1 = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); labs = br1.readLine(); if (labs > 5){ System.out.println("The department is polytechnic"); } } if (studies < 5 ){ System.out.println("The department is University"); } else { System.out.println("Wrong number try again"); } } public AcademicDepartment(String names,String labs,int teachers,int graduates){ names = new String(names); this.labs = labs; this.teachers = teachers; this.graduates = graduates; } public void printdepartmentinfo(){ System.out.println("The names are:" + names); System.out.println("The labs are:" + labs); System.out.println("The GRADUATES are:" + graduates); System.out.println("The teachers are:" + teachers); } }


text:
More of you are Priced Out For-EVEH!!!!!!
And now for some Totally Obvious News for Anyone Who's Been Paying Attention, courtesy of the San Jose Mercury News (nickname: Adventures in Irrelevance).
Many first-time buyers shut out of Bay Area housing market
By Pete Carey, San Jose Mercury News
As the peak homebuying season ends, months of rising prices, tight inventory and competition from investors have left many would-be first-time buyers on the sidelines.
Prices are up an astonishing 31.7 percent in August from a year ago for all types of homes in the nine-county Bay Area, and for moderate-income buyers that represents a growing hurdle.
And the slice of home sales for less than $500,000 has dropped from a combined 59.1 percent to 42.2 percent in August in Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, according to real estate information company DataQuick. Homes under $300,000 are down from a combined 29.7 percent in the four counties to 15.2 percent.
See the proud homedebtor in the piccie above? He got himself a house. In Hayward, City of Diversity. And lately we've been seeing ads for new homes in Mountain House. Not Mountain View, Mountain House. Mountain House is what people in Livermore point to when asked where the "exurbs" are, Extra chuckle points to whatever robot put that page together calling San Ramon a "nearby community." Sure, just like Prunedale is "nearby" Almaden Valley.
Just as there is nothing wrong with any house that price cannot fix, there is nothing wrong with any price that distance cannot fix either. It's just that some of you are going to have to buy in Turlock.
This is not only your Weekend Open Thread, it may have to do for the entire week. Tune in tomorrow and find out if there's going to be a new edition of Burbed or not!


text:
3 results
Photorealistic SketchUp rendering bundled with lots of extras to create renderings, reports, and informative client presentations.
Link components to websites, proxy, layers, scenes, sounds, files and folders.
The RPS 3D PDF Exporter will take your SketchUp models and turn them into interactive 3D PDF files which you can then post on a web page, or send to clients and which can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader.


text:
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - It may have sounded good on paper: Win re-election, fly to Asia, soak up the adulation of fellow world leaders, then go home with at least a few tangible rewards to show for a legacy-shaping U.S. strategic shift eastwards.
But U.S. President Barack Obama's first post-election trip abroad did not work out exactly according to plan.
To be sure, he had a chance to tout a foreign policy success with a landmark visit to the former pariah state of Myanmar, demonstrate he was serious about improved U.S. ties with nations in China's backyard and take in a travelogue's worth of iconic religious and cultural sights.
But even as Obama sought to strengthen his administration's "Asia pivot," he came face-to-face with the tough realities of what it will take to counter China's influence in the region.
At the same time, he found his attention constantly diverted back to the world's biggest hotspot, the Middle East, where a Gaza crisis raged on.
As if that weren't enough, Obama was reminded regularly of the biggest problem facing him back home - a looming "fiscal cliff" of year-end tax increases and spending cuts that would shake the U.S. economy and reverberate worldwide, including economically dynamic Asia - unless he and Congress can avert it.
As a result, Obama's three-day tour, which ended on Tuesday, seemed be more symbolism than substance.
At a regional summit in Phnom Penh, Asian leaders no longer seemed starry-eyed in his presence, as they did when he first swept into took office and was feted globally like a rock star.
Though Obama was roundly congratulated on his re-election, which would appear to strengthen his hand internationally, no one seemed eager to offer up major concessions.
A one-on-one meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who will retire next year, yielded no immediate sign of progress on economic issues that have especially bedeviled relations between the world's two biggest economies.
And China sometimes looked like the one setting the agenda at the East Asia summit.
Obama urged Asian leaders to reduce tensions in the South China Sea and other disputed territory, but stopped short of firmly backing allies Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in their disputes with China.
Possibly not wanting to further antagonize China in the midst of its once-in-a-generation leadership change, he steered clear of the kind of tough public rhetoric he used against Beijing during his last Asia tour a year ago.
Obama did give what the White House described as closed-door browbeating to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen over the need to improve his human rights record just minutes before the long-ruling authoritarian leader opened the summit on Monday night.
But Obama aides offered no sign that Hun Sen had promised any major reforms like the ones that Myanmar's quasi-civilian government undertook to win suspension of U.S. sanctions and a first-ever U.S. presidential visit.
The summit was not a complete bust. Progress was made of efforts to forge a trans-Pacific trade area, promises were issues against protectionism and there was talk of fighting climate change.
However, actual concrete gains for Obama were limited.
It was the Gaza conflict that may have crystallized for Obama that despite his preferred focus on fast-growing Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, his global agenda in his second term may be destined to be usurped by one Middle East crisis after another.
After dining with Asian leaders on Monday, Obama stayed up until 2:30 a.m. working the phones on Gaza amid growing U.S. alarm that Israel would follow through on its threat to launch a ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave.
He finally decided to dispatch Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for talks in the Middle East.
Asked whether this was distracting Obama from his Asia focus, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters: "We believe that the United States can walk and chew gum at the same time."
But the fact remains the time a president can devote to foreign policy is limited by domestic reality, and the Middle East is continuing to gobble up a large portion of his schedule.
Also dogging Obama's travels was uncertainty about whether he will be able to put America's fiscal house in order after bouts of political dysfunction shook international confidence
Obama took time on his Asia trip to call senior corporate chieftains, including JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and legendary investor Warren Buffett, to lobby them to back his fiscal plans.
But there was a definite undercurrent of concern. A development bank official who addressed the leaders on Tuesday spoke of the fiscal cliff as a threat to the world economy.
And even an aide to a monk who guided Obama in a tour of the centuries-old Wat Pho temple in Bangkok on Sunday sympathized with Obama's fiscal challenges, telling him: "Good luck with the fiscal cliff."
Reporting By Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Ron Popeski


text:
Golf Set to Jettison Anchor Putting
As expected, the U.S. Golf Association and the R&A proposed a new rule Wednesday morning that would prohibit anchoring a club-most notably, the putter-against the body when making a stroke. John Paul Newport has details on The News Hub. Photo: AFP/GettyImages.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the ... state live I'm Simon console ... Enel all the professional golf the long arm of the USDA said the new rules the goal was to use long process ... also known as a family pot says ... jump all new Ford ... has the story on this e joins us from the land to New York Fed simple thank you Brian much for being now ... I find ... it here ... so ... long pot bellied process so what's the problem with that ... people what they are ... very accurate ... didn't ... I ... I know ... that I bought it and great people and the water ... Audi ... get GAM the Wellington ... I didn't even find objectionable ... they ... could not get fundamental all the ... other part of the one and then going to get the book more stability ... Jones told this technique has been used for years and years and years while in making this change now ... to read and really it become ... a wildly popular in the last year has really taken a toll on ... the last thirty years at the new ... radically to report that the player may be on the road to admit that they could live with that ... the player or people that have ... been hit your back problem ... now although not only that they can all wear and compared with twenty five of the player the internet ... with the golfing not because they consider it up ... a ... health problem because ... the thing about your fundamentally better way ... to play the trend of that before it gets completely out of hand and they ... know what the fundamental goals ... awful the ... car with a body and when you really around the bar ... is well is a huge it would lead to ... that song makes some sense well and when you also love back in the history of golf ... alas that scene is you seen a lot will ... aam high tech materials being used which which allowed just know little things that happened with with the with full swing it in our in on ... me an ... enormous distance is ... why every focusing on this and all things that change the game as well ... with the euro a really good lower in a minute or AAA ... rating another ... now ... the point where a ... huge problem that the fall that problem ... to all the law tissue manufacturer that the love of litigation is a much bigger nation ... that we wanted to pop up quickly ... they wanted they won or were they to do it relatively quickly ... and the ... andthe hope will help them get to that of the nation ... talk of rolling back or maybe or that ... it may or may not happen but it that that issue ... it's the SNC slobs aam ... this means ... having to be penning some of those tantalizing enough a look and you know really just isn't easy open season on golf clubs ... the pay band ... called up ... that you can find out if they didn't want or ... you can go to the campaign for the body ... the ... now that that that that is is is not designed to manage and changed the ... nature of the game to any particular plan Simon who use this technique a nominal will adjust adapt and it'll be just as I was a was was really ... why why would they will be in the brain of the proposal but although ... it will be ... our go there are quite a lot of people and a great story about fighting to tap into that that one but what are ... you planning for long but are ... they going to have to adapt ... they will have three years though ... I didn't go into effect until two thousand and sixteen ... it's always easy to see the issue you a hand in hand pop also because there's so much money and stay ... right I mean in any game between ... between friends ... um when when when no one is this thing it's like there's no prize money on any ... of this sponsorship Saturday when each of mind as long as everyone agrees to the same rules ... at any given for my ... public golf court they were ... but when ... we bought the rule ... but the amateur competition ... as it people operate in the shadow of the room will ... go to the fact that I think that most people don't care that allowed but not allowed ... it to be a little better and to ... be using at their door people call now to go further ... you could you ... want to deprive the bottom ... the people of all please don't ... the older people in this office is that this is a ... very strange decision how would that that's likely to go through the seasonal don't see anything in a much Joan told you for joining us of the phone Wall Street John all ... aam


text:
IBM buys backup service provider Arsenal Digital for SaaS push
IBM acquires Arsenal Digital and Seagate picks up l e-discovery service provider MetaLincs, ending a year filled with storage service provider deals.
IBM today acquired one of the leading independent managed storage service providers, Arsenal Digital Solutions USA Inc., continuing the push of large storage vendors into the Storage as a Service (SaaS) market.
Arsenal Digital will join IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) business unit, which is part of the IBM Global Technology Services division, when the deal closes, probably in the first quarter of 2008. Arsenal claims to have more than 20 PB of data under management. It sells services directly to customers, but also provides the technology that AT&T and other telecommunications companies rebrand as their service offerings. Arsenal claims more than 3,400 customers in 12 countries.
Seagate acquires e-discovery vendor
Also today, Seagate technology added to its services portfolio by acquiring e-discovery software vendor MetaLincs. MetaLincs will become part of Seagate's services group, and some of its features will integrate with EVault, a services provider and Arsenal competitor that Seagate bought for $185 million last January. Neither IBM nor Seagate disclosed the price of their acquisitions.
Service providers have been a hot target for acquisition-minded storage vendors this year. The deals began with Seagate's purchase of EVault and included EMC Corp.'s $76 million pickup of Berkeley Data Systems Inc., Autonomy Corp.'s $375 million acquisition of email archiving service provider Zantaz Inc., and a slew of Iron Mountain Corp. deals in e-discovery and records management, including a $158 million grab of e-discovery services firm Stratify Inc..
Mike Riegel, IBM's vice president of information protection services, said IBM evaluated several service providers but picked Arsenal mainly because its services are aimed at midsized and large companies, and because its architecture scales across a range of backup technologies. Arsenal's main services are ViaRemote, which is used to back up all of a company's data; ViaBack, for backing up mission-critical data; and ViaManage, for managing storage at the customer's site.
Forrester Research analyst Stephanie Balaouras said Arsenal is valuable for IBM because Arsenal offers customers the option to back up all their data to an offsite data center or back up locally to disk, and vault a second copy to the provider.
"They are a major player because they are both service provider and enabler," Balaouras said. "They have many of their own clients but a lot of telco players rebrand and resell Arsenal online backup services. I think their real value is that they know how to deliver SaaS – they can do multi-tenancy, billing, reporting and so on."
Balaouras also said the move was at least in part a reaction to EMC's acquiring Berkeley Data's Mozy online backup service. "I think [IBM] felt they probably needed to make an acquisition in this space in response to EMC's acquisition and also to get a footing in a critical market," she said. "Most SMBs will turn to online backup services and even large enterprises are very interested in online backup for PCs, and for remote office PCs and servers."
Riegel played down the comparison of Arsenal Digital's services to Mozy. "There's a real difference between offering somebody the ability to back up pictures and personal PCs, and protecting a company's critical information", he said.
Mozy does have a corporate backup service that includes General Electric Co. as a customer, however, and EMC has disclosed plans to offer SaaS and prepackaged versions of all its software.
Arsenal executive vice president Brian Reagan said he considers Seagate Evault and Iron Mountain Live Vault his major competitors. Riegel said Arsenal's 100 employees will join IBM, and Arsenal CEO Frank Brick will head the data continuity business in the information protection services group.
Arsenal Digital raised $86 million in equity and debt funding since it was founded in 1998, with its last funding round coming in 2003. Reagan said the company is profitable.
Seagate's latest target is a smaller, less mature company. MetaLincs has 50 employees and fewer than 25 customers, according to Seagate Services Group senior vice president and general manager Mark Grace. Seagate will continue to offer MetaLincs as a licensed product but is looking to turn its technology into a services offering. Some of the e-discovery capabilities will be integrated into EVault's Pro Mail product, Grace said.
Grace heads the services company that Seagate operates as an independent unit inside the disk drive company. He said the division sprung up because Seagate sees a huge opportunity in SaaS, and will continue to shop.
"Seagate has mustered quite a bit of corporate dollars to put a stake in the ground here," Grace said. "We've made big bets and the growth we want to do will require some inorganic stuff, as well as organic growth too. We will be out there looking for the best building blocks."


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|<< Back
|Introducing The Kindle Owners' Lending Library
Books can be borrowed and read on all Kindle E Ink devices and Kindle Fire
SEATTLE, Nov 02, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Today, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced the launch of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. With an Amazon Prime membership, Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free - including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers - as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. No other e-reader or ebookstore offers such a service. With an annual Prime membership, the Kindle Owners' Lending Library is included at no additional cost. Millions of Prime members enjoy free two-day shipping, unlimited streaming of nearly 13,000 movies and TV shows, and now thousands of books to borrow for free with a Kindle.
"Owning a Kindle just got even better. Today, we're introducing a new Prime benefit built for Kindle: The Kindle Owners' Lending Library," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. "Prime Members now have exclusive access to a huge library of books to read on any Kindle device at no additional cost and with no due dates."
The Kindle Owners' Lending Library offers access to a wide array of categories and genres in fiction and non-fiction, and includes popular titles such as Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Big Short and Liars' Poker by Michael Lewis, TheHunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen --plus award-winning books such as The Finkler Question and Guns, Germs, and Steel, memoirs such as Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, and motivational books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Just as with any other Kindle book, your notes, highlights and bookmarks in borrowed books will be saved, so you'll have them later if you purchase or re-borrow the book. Books are borrowed from a Kindle device, and customers can have one book out at a time. When customers want to borrow a new book, any borrowed book can easily be returned right from their device.
Titles in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library come from a range of publishers under a variety of terms. For the vast majority of titles, Amazon has reached agreement with publishers to include titles for a fixed fee. In some cases, Amazon is purchasing a title each time it is borrowed by a reader under standard wholesale terms as a no-risk trial to demonstrate to publishers the incremental growth and revenue opportunity that this new service presents.
"The Kindle Owners' Lending Library is a great new benefit for Kindle owners and an entirely new growth opportunity for authors and publishers," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. "With the growth in Prime membership and the recent addition of Prime Instant Video, we've been able to broaden our relationships with movie and TV studios such as CBS, Fox, and NBCUniversal and significantly increase their revenue. We're excited to expand that investment to books - with this launch, we expect three immediate results: Kindle owners will read even more, publisher revenues will grow, and authors will see larger royalty checks."
"We're excited to offer titles from our ebook 'Chapters' series, which covers some of the world's most popular destinations, to members of Kindle Owners' Lending Library," says John Boris, EVP Lonely Planet. "Our ebooks have done incredibly well on Kindle and this is a great way to showcase our travel expertise to an even broader audience."
"We're excited about any program that helps readers discover our authors and their books," said David Nussbaum, Chief Executive and Chairman of F+W Media Inc. "We think this will lead to more people reading F+W's books, and more profit for our authors."
To learn more about the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, visit www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary. To learn about all of the additional benefits included with Amazon Prime, or to start an Amazon Prime free trial visit www.amazon.com/prime.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes - still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon's new revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core processor.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and www.amazon.es. As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc.


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NEW YORK, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Using frequency of crime as an indicator of a citizenry's safety, U.S. researchers found more gun owners doesn't translate into less crime in developed nations.
Dr. Sripal Bangalore of New York University's Langone Medical Center and Dr. Franz H. Messerli of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, examined data for 27 developed countries.
The gun ownership data were obtained from the Small Arms Survey, and the data for firearm-related deaths were obtained from a European detailed mortality database from the World Health Organization, the National Center for Health Statistics and others.
"The gun ownership rate was a strong and independent predictor of firearm-related death," Bangalore said in a statement. "Private gun ownership was highest in the United States. Japan, on the other end, had an extremely low gun ownership rate. Similarly, South Africa at 9.4 firearms-related deaths per 100,000 and the United States at 10.2 per 100,000 had extremely high firearm-related deaths, whereas the United Kingdom, at 0.25 per 100,000, had an extremely low rate of firearm-related deaths."
There was a significant correlation between guns per head in each country and the rate of firearm-related deaths, with Japan being on one end of the spectrum and the United States on the other, the study found.
"This argues against the notion of more guns translating into less crime," Bangalore said.
The researchers used age-standardized, disability-adjusted, life-year rates due to major depressive disorder per 100,000 inhabitants with data obtained from the World Health Organization database as a presumed indicator for mental illness burden in each country to assess whether there was a correlation between mental illness burden of a country and the crime rate in a country. The study found no significant correlation between mental illness and crime rate.
"Although correlation is not the same as causation, it seems conceivable that abundant gun availability facilitates firearm-related deaths. Conversely, high crime rates may instigate widespread anxiety and fear, thereby motivating people to arm themselves and give rise to increased gun ownership, which, in turn, increases availability," the researchers said. "The resulting vicious cycle could, bit by bit, lead to the polarized status that is now the case with the United States."
Regardless of exact cause and effect, the current study debunks the widely quoted hypothesis that countries with higher gun ownership are safer than those with low gun ownership, Bangalore and Messerli said.
The findings were published in The American Journal of Medicine.


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Al Qaeda Leader Captured in June, U.S. Spokesman Says
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep. 6, 2006 - A high-level al Qaeda in Iraq leader whose capture was announced Sept. 3 by the Iraqi government was actually captured June 19 and has been yielding valuable intelligence since then, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said today.
Abu Humam, also known as Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi and Abu Rana, has been in custody of the Iraqi government since his capture near Baquba, and has provided intelligence that has led to the capture of 11 mid-level and nine lower-level al Qaeda in Iraq members, said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman.
"He was the most significant al Qaeda leader captured since the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," Caldwell said. "Abu Humam admitted to being a senior leader within the terrorist organization, particularly in the Saladin region, where he had several terrorist cells reporting directly to him."
The announcement of Humam's capture, which came from Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security advisor, was made because the Iraqi government had just cleared the release of the information, Caldwell said. The announcement was not made sooner because Humam was still providing actionable intelligence and the Iraqi government didn't want the terrorists he was associated with to change their tactics, he said. In most cases, when terrorists are captured, their capture is not announced until their intelligence value has been exhausted, he explained.
Over the past two weeks, Iraqi security forces with coalition support have conducted many other successful operations that continue to dismantle and disorganize the al Qaeda in Iraq network, Caldwell said. Iraqi forces have conducted more than 80 missions targeting the al Qaeda in Iraq network, resulting in the deaths of 49 terrorists and the detention of 225 other suspected terrorists, he said. Those detained were connected with terrorist activities including emplacing improvised explosive devices, kidnapping, murders, armed attacks, and facilitating movement of foreign fighters, weapons, explosive materials and funding, he said.
[Web Version: http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=709]


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7111.0.55.001 - Agricultural Survey: Farm Business Operations and Management, Australia, 2001-02
Latest ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 31/10/2002
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ABS provides a picture of changes to farm business management practices
Preliminary estimates from the 2001-02 Agricultural Survey released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today provide indicative information on the business operation and management of Australian farm establishments for the first time.
These estimates show that 64% of respondents indicated some change to farm business management practices during the year ended 30 June 2002. The main changes made were related to improving general land use and use of soil (24%), financial management (19%) and production management (18%).
The results indicate that 40% of respondents attended a demonstration site or field day, 25% participated in workshops or short courses, 16% attended a conference and 12% engaged a consultant.
While 9% of respondents attended a TAFE course, only 1% attended a university course. Approximately 32% of respondents reported they did not participate in any courses.
These preliminary estimates are in Agricultural Survey: Farm Business Operations and Management, Australia, 2001-02 (cat. no. 7111.0.55.001) - an electronic release available on this web site.
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Q&A: Cesar Victora – 30 years of Brazil cohort studies
Birth cohort studies follow large numbers of people from birth, collecting information on the health, environmental and socio-economic factors that may affect their long-term health outcomes and human capital achievements. The Wellcome Trust funds three cohort studies in Pelotas, a city in the south of Brazil, run by Cesar Victora, Professor of Epidemiology at the Federal University of Pelotas.
Cesar was influential in setting up the Consortium of Health Orientated Research in Transitioning Societies (COHORTS), a collaboration between five large cohort studies in low- or middle-income countries. This initiative is showing the importance of nutrition in early life. Benjamin Thompson spoke to Cesar on his recent visit to London.
You're an epidemiologist, but I understand you started off as a medical doctor?
Yes I started as an MD. I worked in a slum and saw the same kids coming back all the time with the same health problems, some of whom would die.
What sort of diseases are we talking about?
Malnutrition, diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles: common diseases of childhood and all ultimately preventable. I felt that I had to do something better than just treat the problems. That's when I decided to do epidemiology.
So you moved over to England?
Yes, I came to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1980 to study for a PhD. A colleague of mine called Fernando Barros from Pelotas was also studying here. He went back to Brazil earlier than I did, and we began the cohort. He was actually the one who was in charge of the study day-to-day in 1982, as I didn't return until 1983. When I came back I got some funding to continue the study and here we are now 30 years later.
Why did the Pelotas cohort study begin?
It all began in the early 80's when we didn't have enough data on low birthweight, preterm birth and infant mortality in Brazil, because the statistics were not very good. We decided to do a population based study, in which we included all the births in our home city during a one year period – 1982. At that stage we thought it would only be a short study on child health. We never thought that 30 years later we would still be following up!
Why did you pick Pelotas?
We didn't pick Pelotas for any special reason, it's where we lived. In the end it was a very wise choice. It's not a big city, but it's not too small. The people don't move around very much, which is essential if you're doing a cohort study, if you have a lot of out migration, your sample is lost within a few years.
Which is how you've managed to keep a large amount of people involved in the study?
Exactly. It's a good-sized city. It had around 230,000 inhabitants when we started, now about 400,000, which is still a reasonable size. We've always had very high response rates. The people we can't interview are the ones who moved far away. If they live nearby they still come back to do the interviews. That's why the last time we saw them, when they were 25 years old, over 4,500 out of 6,000 participated. It's really amazing.
Why is the response rate so high?
The participants are really proud to be involved. We try to do quite a lot of publicity around the study and dissemination of the results. We get a lot of press coverage and there are always pieces in the newspaper and on the local TV. Earlier this year the biggest scientific programme on Brazilian television featured our cohort.
The poverty gap in Brazil as a country is enormous. How is it in Pelotas as a city?
Pelotas is pretty close to the national average, it's a poor city in a rich area of Brazil. There is a huge gap between the rich and poor, although the gap is getting smaller. But still, when we did the study in 1982, the infant mortality among the poorest group of the population was seven times higher than the richest. Within the city you had these very distinct sub-populations – the differences were quite shocking. The first book we wrote about the cohorts in 1987 was called Epidemiology of Inequality because this was the most striking thing we came across when we analysed our data on child health.
Brazil is getting richer and with the World Cup and the Olympics being hosted there in the next few years there will be a huge spotlight on the country. How has it changed since 1982? Where will it be in 2016?
When we did the first cohort 20 per cent of the population were not entitled to any healthcare, other than in a charity hospital run by Catholic nuns. We now have a universal healthcare system, which we didn't have in 1982. It still has problems and it's not perfect, but at least everybody has access to healthcare. Brazil used to be number one in the world in terms of income disparities, famous for the gap between rich and poor, but it's getting much better. We're number 16 now. Still too high, but the trend is in the right direction, which is good to see.
You said there was a seven times gap in infant mortality between rich and poor. Is that getting closer?
Let me give you an example. In the poorest section of the population we had an infant mortality rate of 90 deaths per 1000 live births, now it's just over 20. Infant mortality rates are dropping for the rich too, so the gap persists, but in absolute numbers the mortality has dropped much faster among the poor than the rich.
So the baseline is going up?
Yes. It's very good news. The country getting richer has also affected child nutrition, which is much better now. But whenever you have a change like this, you have side effects. Now we have fat children…
Now you're also involved in a comparison of cohort studies from low and middle-income countries.
In cohort studies it's important to replicate the results. We applied to the Wellcome Trust for a grant, and I looked around the literature for five largest cohorts in low- and middle-income countries. By coincidence they are in very different parts of the world: Brazil, Soweto, New Delhi, Cebu [the Philippines] and Guatemala.
So I said, "Let's do the analysis together". I invited the other PIs and they all loved the idea. We then set up the COHORTS (Consortium of Health Orientated Research in Transitioning Societies) collaboration, with support from the Trust.
And your biggest finding in COHORTS was about rapid weight gain in the first two years of life.
We all got very consistent findings, mainly that these populations had low birthweights and were undernourished early in life. What we really found was that if babies put on weight and height in their first years of life it's mostly beneficial. They have bigger brains, higher IQ, do better in school, they are taller as adults, they are more productive, they make more money, lots of good things on what we call 'human capital'.
At that age range, most of the weight and height gain is very positive. But if they tend to put on weight after two years of life – and mainly after four to five years – it just builds up as fat mass. As a result they're more likely to have diabetes, hypertension, obesity and so forth.
It's quite interesting as you still see in a lot of developing countries that doctors are worried about children putting on weight as they're worried about malnutrition. We showed that there is a window of opportunity – the first 1000 days of life.
Incidentally, do you know who made up the term? One of Hillary Clinton's press officers! It's a beautiful expression, which says that you have 270 days of pregnancy and 730 days [two years] to act to prevent undernutrition. This is your 1000 days, your window of opportunity. We're really trying to get this message across to policymakers through the media and through the population in general. It's very important. If you miss that window, there is irreversible damage that may be done.
Are you seeing this message get across?
I think the 1000 days idea is getting more visibility, but still we see paediatricians and nurses in low- and middle-income countries who see a child at three or four and think they should put on weight. The problem is that forcing a child to put on weight at this age has negative effects.
The window has closed?
The window has closed. That's what we're trying to disseminate now, a number of recent papers that have come out of the COHORTS collaboration are just repeating this message. We have to do a better job of disseminating, so I'm happy you're picking this up. It's important to reach outside of the medical journal readers.
Is it more difficult to carry out cohort studies in Brazil than in high-income countries?
Rich countries are much better organised and people can be followed up passively by the investigators. A good example is the NHS number. You can find out when the patient dies, or gets sick. We have to do everything by visiting them. The funding we received from the Wellcome Trust served as motivation to the Brazilian government to put some money into our cohort study. This has provided new buildings for our unit, just for the fieldwork.
So people come in to see you now, rather than you having to go and see them?
Yes. The buildings are funded the government, and all of the fieldwork is funded by the Trust.
You now have three cohort studies in Pelotas: '82, '93 and '04. What differences are you seeing between them?
Big things in obesity. Behavioural problems too; the kids are more aggressive. A lot of interesting findings are just starting to come out.
So you're seeing clear changes between your groups?
We are. But many things are getting better: they participants are taller and healthier overall, their IQ's gone up, you name it. But they are fatter and this will catch up with them later.
What about you Cesar? What gets you out of bed in the mornings?
I've always thought that action in prevention is better than treatment, although you need both, it's not a simple dichotomy. My inclination was to always be more of a researcher than a clinician and designing strategies for prevention. To prevent you have to know how things are caused. You need to know about the 1000 day window if you want to improve adult health. I think in many ways, we started from nothing, just me and a colleague. Now we have this huge set of buildings and labs, and over 200 people work with us, so it's great to have created something.
Of the work you've accomplished so far, what are you most proud of?
I think the fact that we got to do good work and managed to find the funding for it and that we got to become recognised and have publications in the Lancet, that sort of thing. From a scientific standpoint they're pretty rewarding. From a personal aspect, it's that I'm doing something relevant, the fact that we're influencing policy – 130 countries in the world, now use growth curves that we made in a World Health Organization multicentre study that took place in six countries, including Pelotas. Now, if I walk into a clinic in London or New York, I can see our work.
I'm also President of the International Epidemiology Association and in the other half of my life, I work with the coalition 'Countdown to 2015', to plot how countries with high child mortality and high undernutrition are progressing towards the UN Millennium Development Goals. We're taking the best available data, analysing them, and presenting them in a way that's very simple to understand. Policymakers and people in health ministries can look at this and say, "This is what's happening in my country".
This is starting to look a lot like politics. Is that something you've ever considered moving into?
No, never. I love to do politically relevant scientific work, but I could never be a minister for health. I've been approached for this type of position, but no, this is not my thing. I think you should keep doing the things you do well.


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Suunto has joined forces with the Finnish airline company Finnair's loyalty program Finnair Plus for a long-term strategic partnership to boost innovation, digitalization and to support healthy lifestyles.
With this partnership, Suunto, a leading wearable tech and sports watch company celebrating its 80th birthday this year, reaches new potential customers who are interested in wearable technology and sports solutions.
"Our customers are increasingly interested in an active lifestyle and comprehensive well-being. Together with Suunto, we are creating a new and unique way to encourage our customers to make physical activity an integral part of their lifestyle" says Johanna Jäkälä, VP Brand, Marketing & Customer Loyalty of Finnair.
The first result of the cooperation is the Be Active campaign, which was launched in July and encourages participants to earn Finnair Plus award points by running.
Run for frequent flyer points
The idea of the ongoing Be Active campaign is simple: track your runs with a Suunto GPS watch or Suunto Movescount app, sync them with sports community and service Suunto Movescount, and you can enter a chance to win Finnair Plus award points. The more you run, the more points you accrue, and the better chance you have of winning. During the campaign, Finnair will give away a total of 10 million Finnair Plus award points.
The campaign is being held globally, and and the winners are drawn randomly every month. The points can be used for Finnair flights, upgrades as well as purchasing a variety of products and services. The campaign lasts until the end of October 2016.
Since the beginning of the campaign, thousands of active people have run for points. So far, over 270,000 km of runs have been covered. The first winner won almost 300,000 Finnair Plus award points and is now planning on making her dream come true by using her points to fly to Japan and run on the inclines of Mount Fuji.
Appealing running and outdoor features for active travelers
Heatmaps at Suunto Movescount are a new and unique feature that show running and other sport tracks frequently used by Suunto Movescount members. They offer an easy way to explore and discover new places when traveling for holiday or business, as you can easily download ready-made routes and plan an activity in a new location. In addition, Suunto Movescount provides many other valuable features for active people, like tools for following and analyzing your running performance and progress.
Running enthusiasts traveling to big cities like London, New York, Shanghai or Tokyo can find interesting running spots when on holiday or during a business trip. In addition, Suunto Destination Run running events will be arranged in popular locations to give enthusiasts opportunities for group runs.
Finnair and Suunto will also promote interesting running spots through the airline's inflight entertainment system. Starting in the fall of 2016, the routes will be integrated into the inflight entertainment system (IFE) of Finnair's newest aircraft, the Airbus A350. Suunto will also have its own adventure channel on Finnair's IFE system, reaching millions of travelers from all over the world.
The partnership continues
The long-term partnership between Suunto and Finnair will continue to expand and develop, adding new sport activities and product testing, for example.
"We are proud to partner with Finnair, whose home airport in Helsinki is an international hub, connecting tens of thousands of people from Asia and Europe every day. Together we can inspire and guide people to live an active life and discover new places around the world by using Suunto Movescount's heatmaps." Mikko Moilanen, President of Suunto, sums up the fresh partnership.
You can still participate to the Be Active campaign. Find the instructions how to link your Finnair Plus and Suunto Movescount accounts here.
For more information
Partnership Manager Anna de Torres
+358 50 576 6015, email@example.com
Development Manager Karolina Baszarkiewicz
+358 40 506 7929, email@example.com
First winners of the campaign are chosen
Be Active with Finnair Plus and Suunto campaign site
Suunto Movescount
Finnair Plus
Since 1936 Suunto has been at the forefront of design and innovation for sports watches, dive computers and sports instruments used by adventurers all over the globe. From the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, Suunto physically and mentally equips outdoor adventurers to conquer new territory.
Finnair flies between Asia, Europe and North America with an emphasis on fast connections via Helsinki, carrying more than ten million passengers annually and connecting 17 cities in Asia with more than 60 destinations in Europe. Finnair is a member of oneworld, the alliance of the world's leading airlines.


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Occupy Wall Street participants have been pitching in all around the city. The below updates have been collected from coordination emails and facebook status posts on Occupy Sandy's facebook page. Shoot your relief stories to email@example.com and we will publish them as they roll in...
Michael Premo: Rockaways
'The air was thick with water spray and smoke.... a line for food at the community hub just opened tonight at B113th Street and Rockaway Blvd. We had the generator up and running with lights and served 60+ people warm food and distributed clothing, blankets (It's cold tonight!) and supplies. We also met some really great new friends from the neighborhood. The FDNY continued to battle a fire throughout the evening behind us.'
Jackie Sheeler: Harlem
'I made 60 sandwiches at home & gave them out to residents at Baruch Houses. NYCHA workers suggested a fire hydrant as a good place for food distribution, & they were right....people (were) carrying their buckets & bottles of water up many flights of pitch-black stairs in the projects. many of them are doing it for elderly or disabled neighbors as well as their own families. the few open bodegas can't take food stamps (the card readers are out) and some of them are price-gouging. $8 for a half gallon of milk. sickening.'
Timothy Wheldon: Chinatown
'...many of us spent the entire day in chinatown at the CAAAV office talking to residents; manning our portable generator/cell phone charging station; handing out food, water, flashlights, and batteries; and going door to door in buildings to make sure people are okay and have what they need.
At one point, almost ten cops came with their lights flashing to tell us we had to stop, because all the people on the sidewalk were creating a "safety hazard," and they were worried about "rioting" and "theft of iPhones." they said this was all in the name of "helping the community."
they made several announcements to the crowd of residents to disperse, at no point letting us interpret what they were saying so that the crowd of mostly chinese mandarin/cantonese/fujianese speakers could understand what the cops were telling them.
We were able to negotiate with them to keep our adhoc relief center open, but it was a stark reminder of who actually keeps our communities strong and resilient - our residents and our neighborhood organizations who actually give a damn.
At no point did we see anyone else from a city agency, or any relief agency (red cross, where you and your billions at?), or any elected officials office.
SO MUCH LOVE to caaav members, staff, volunteers, and supporters who came out today to help. i'm feeling very tender-hearted today towards the city that i love and its people who keep it going.'
Danette Chavis: Chinatown (Smith Towers)
'...please inbox me as soon as you hear "electricity" has been restored in the area! I couldn't get any information about it and went there personally this morning... (There are elderly tenants in those high rise building, in the dark, with no heat and the elevators are not working) The manager of La Guardia apartments told me they had just got the "cold water" turned on today, and the information they're receiving about the "electricity" being restored in the buildings "keep changing".'
Stephanie Johnstone: Chinatown
'There is definitely still a great need for...especially humans to go door to door - there are so many people stranded (especially in the projects at Cherry St.) who are without food and water. And those who could get down all the stairs often didn't have clear information about what is going on or when power would be back on, etc....
...one woman, who barely spoke English said to/about us "This is why America is Number One. Because it is built on love. People loving each other." I felt great warmth towards this woman, and also the statement is so layered, I don't even know where to begin!'
Maria Gianas: Chinatown
'We were there yesterday and although building doormen are saying they are knocking on doors, we contacted and gave bags of food and water to elderly residents who had not been contacted by anyone....especially on upper floors. Just show up with water and food and knock on doors. give them time to get to the door!!!'
"Trick or Aid": Greenpoint
'North Brooklyn was hit hard in places too, but since many of us retained power and stayed dry, we may have a lot of resources direly needed by others...let's go "trick or treating" for direly needed supplies. Wear your costumes -- or don't worry about it - but make sure to dress warm, it's getting chilly out there!'
Daniel Florio: Central Jersey
'Call for assistance: I've had no power since Mon night. We've been using a generator for my respirator and the boiler.
Will run out of fuel tomorrow and there doesn't seem to be any in the area. My brother has tried many gas stations today! If anyone in N or Central Jersey can get cans of gas please do so! I live in Maplewood, but someone in my family could pick it up from you if necessary. I don't have Internet or phone access.
UPDATE: I'm literally overwhelmed by the generous response from friends, acquaintances, and strangers to my posting asking for gas. I'm just now in a place a few towns away from home with internet access, so I literally haven't started reading all of your posts. I'll respond and thank you all individually when I'm better able, but I'm very grateful for your thoughts and concrete steps to help alike.
I now have enough gas for a couple more days, and there are some solid leads on getting more.... Thanks to my Aunt Elaine for the acting as Coordinator. This role was sprung upon her, and we had no idea how daunting the magnitude of the response would make this task. Thanks again, and hope you're all safe.'
Udi Pladott: Rockaway
'I would (send) some pictures of what I saw at Far Rockaway, but since the entire place is smothered in utter darkness, there's little to see. You couldn't really fully grasp it from the pictures, without breathing in the smell of recently burnt down city blocks. The scene is post-apocalyptic: entire streets blocked with huge pieces of the boardwalk thrown around like you would cast a bunch of tooth picks on your dinner table; some streets are just not passable with a conventional car because there is no remnant of the pavement; countless cars lying on the street at odd angles, some perched on top of other cars; more than anything - entire city blocks completely lifeless, without even the flicker of candle lights in the windows. But then, in the midst of all that, there are small groups of people huddled together, either around a bonfire, or around a generator. They need food. They need blankets. They need flashlights and batteries, and so much more. Some of them just really appreciate knowing that they're not forgotten. They thanked us for simply being there.'
Point Breeze Volunteer Fire Department: Rockaways
'PBFD firehouse has severe damage we lost most of our equipment, our 2 engines are still operational but on borrowed time, we lost a Chevy Tahoe, everything was under 4 feet of salt water. If any departments have spare supplies we could really use it, flashlights, radios, turnout gear, 4x4 apparatus, office equipment, mobile trailer, etc. We rescued many people and saved a lot of houses under some extreme conditions. FEMA and OEM have been useless. Please spread the word and repost and share. Thank you'
Agnes Johnson: Rockaways
'NADLER SHOULD BE CALLED " The National Guard and FEMA were to distribute meals at 3:00 pm in Coffee Park, where over 200 people stood in line since noon to receive food. At 3:00 pm the supplies and foods were not at the site. I asked one of the lead Guards/Organizers at what time was the food expected, only to get a pathetic "I don't know" look.
This is yet another example how the people cannot rely on the government to fulfill the needs of our people. When this system has never been able to serve the basic need of our people, we must take a step back and evaluate the work that we do and who we are working for. Only People Power can ensure the survival of our neighborhood no matter how many lies Bloomberg, the President and the Ruling class wants to feed us.'
Sofia Gallisa Muriente: 4 a.m. 11/2/12, Far Rockaway
Homeland Security personnel in military gear, bulletproof vests and holding long rifles pull over three young black men in the middle of blacked-out Far Rockaway as they walk down the street for a glorified Stop and Frisk justified as crackdown on looting. Meanwhile, the streets are full of people in desperate need for help, food, water, electricity, support and other resources.
Kelli Daley: Brighton Beach
The Warbasse houses are still without power making it difficult for the many elderly immigrant residents on the upper floors to get adequate food and water. On Friday there was amazing outreach as several unconnected groups teamed up to make sandwiches, donate groceries and bring those supplies to those in need. That could only be done by navigating the dark stairways, up to 23 floors, with headlamps and flashlights. Everyone was pitching in to share their lights and translation skills.


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Last week, I had a lovely post planned for this space. Memories of barbecues from when I was a kid, and evocations of the taste of well-charred meat, and elaborate analogies to make you laugh.
But you know what? That farm-to-table dinner that Danny and I cooked on Friday took most of our minds' space last week. We loved the sun-glowing day (we haven't seen the sun much around here, so excuse the hyperbole). We loved the chance to cook together all afternoon, with friends, and even with a small person at pantry a few times. We loved meeting so many of you, making the connection with faces and stories, and humbled to hear how much you love reading here. Thank you. It was a glorious day.
Wow, though. I was exhausted the next day. As much as I loved the work being about slicing carrots, grilling slices of sourdough baguettes, and pureeing curried red lentils, instead of sitting in front of a computer, I am not used to being on my feet for nine straight hours. Danny didn't blink. He does this every day. I'm in awe of him. Me? I needed to sit down on Sunday, and not in front of a computer.
And now, when I thought I had cleared a couple of hours to write this post, Lu has decided that 10 pm is wake-up-and-frolic time. I can hear her in her bedroom, running through the entire catalog of songs she has begun to sing this week. "Tinkle tinkle dar!" she shouts, then glides right into "Ashes, ashes, all down," which slides into "Up down! turn aroun," from the Wiggles. People, I don't think we're going to bed until midnight tonight. We're in the middle of a growth spurt. There's too much joy to sleep.
(I was right. Danny listened to her sing while I fixed our dinner, then I sat with her as she clapped and danced as he ate, and he reminded her it was time to sleep while I ate our mustard-roasted chicken, and we both settled her down to a stupor just about midnight. So this is Tuesday now, sleep-deprived but still smiling.)
So, I'm going to go fast, in a list form, and tell you about the week we ate out of Spike Mendelsohn's The Good Stuff Cookbook: Burgers, fries, shakes, wedges, and more.
1. Do you remember Spike? If you watch Top Chef you do. He was the slightly cocky, slightly obnoxious, slightly loveable chef who tried to portray himself as Johnny on the street (with a tweed fedora) but actually had a whole raft of classical training and fine-dining experiences under his belt. I was sort of annoyed by him and sort of pulling for him that season. He seared frozen scallops, which turned to mush, and then he went home.
2. And then he opened this restaurant in Washington D.C. called Good Stuff Eatery. (Even when you lose on Top Chef, you get a lot of attention, particularly if you set out to make yourself a recognizable character.) From all accounts, it's fabulous. Burgers, fries, salads, sides, and shakes, made with fresh ingredients and classic techniques and little chef twists that make each one outstanding. He's gotten a lot of press for this place.
3. From that, this cookbook. (I have to tell you that The Good Stuff Cookbook: Burgers, fries, shakes, wedges, and more is published by Wiley, which is publishing our cookbook in September (!!). Also, our amazing book editor edited this book. This, and the free copy, really didn't affect why we cooked out of this book, however. It just looked good, right in time for grilling season.) The cookbook is bright, full of vivid photographs, and stuffed with smiling people and crisp brown fries. It's not pretentious. It's not trying to be anything other than what it is. We liked it.
4. The book is credited to Spike Mendelsohn in big letters, and just underneath it, in small type: Micheline Mendelsohn. That's his sister. How cool is it that this guy wrote his book with his sister? The book, and the ethos of Good Stuff, is clearly all about family. Danny and I love that, since it's what's important to us too. Good man.
(Also, no offense to Spike, but it's clear that the smaller type person actually wrote this book. I'm married to a chef. Chefs cannot sit down long enough to write a book. Remind me sometimes to tell you about the hilarious way we had to write our cookbook. So, way to go, Micheline!)
5. Spike makes his mayonnaise with grapeseed oil. That makes it a greeny green. I haven't decided if that makes it look like it belongs in the Munsters' house or if it's a soft pastel, like the first photos of spring taken by hip girls with Pentaxes. Either way, it was sure good.
6. The Good Stuff sauce, slathered on all the burgers at the place, uses this green mayonnaise with molasess and other secret ingredients. I just fricking loved it. I could put it on every sandwich and roast chicken and in eggs. Really addictive.
7. The toasted marshmallow milkshake. Oh, I was so excited about this one. Apparently, it's the calling card of the Good Stuff Eatery. Everyone loves it, craves it. And to make it, you toast marshmallows under the broiler, so they take on that charred, almost blackened but raw in the middle experience that you get when you're an impatient kid at a campfire. I was SO excited about this shake.
Bleh. It was way, way too sweet for me. Maybe it wouldn't be for you. After all, it's popular. I've lost much of my sweet tooth since I was pregnant with Lu. Ripe raspberries taste perfectly sweet to me, and anything else is too much. Still, Danny has a famous sweet tooth, and he couldn't finish this shake either. So that was a disappointment.
8. The fries from the book, however, were great. Danny has been telling me for years about the towering piles of shoestring fries, hot and showered with salt, crisp and addictive, that he used to make at Cassis, here in Seattle, when he was the sous chef. However, Cassis closed and he has never made me those fries.
We made the fries out of of Spike's book, the first fries we had ever made together. Oh yeah.
I miss fries. Did you know that if you have to eat gluten-free, you can't eat French fries in most restaurants across the United States? Fries are most often fried in the same oil as onion rings and other gluten-containing goodies. Do you know how often most restaurants change their fry oil? Um, not often, according to Danny. So all that gluten hangs out there and contaminates the potatoes.
Much better to make them yourself at home. The Good Stuff Cookbook makes it easy for you.
9. However, I think I enjoyed the baked sweet potato fries with thyme and honey even better than the French fries. These are keepers.
10. I was grateful for the salads in The Good Stuff Cookbook. Not only because they are interesting combinations of flavors and lots of them wedge salads with iceberg, which I'm starting to love but also because I needed a respite from all the burgers and fries.
This was the wedge salad with fried goat cheese, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds. Fried goat cheese! I'm keeping that one too.
11. The truth is we tried to eat out of this cookbook all week long, the way we normally do with the cookbooks we feature here. We gave up after a few days, though. I just couldn't eat one more burger.
There are vegetarian burgers and turkey burgers and tamarind-glazed pork burgers with red cabbage slaw and grilled pineapple. They all sounded fabulous. So it's not as if we had to eat a big hunk of beef every day to cook out of this book. The sides alone would have sustained us. I wish that the watermelon at the store had been good so I could have made the grilled watermelon, yuzu, and feta salad. Soon, I will.
12. That's the thing. This is a great book if you want to use it occasionally. With the Fourth of July coming up this weekend, we're pulling it out again for the big party we're attending on the island. Maybe I'll bring the perfectly roasted wild mushrooms or the zucchini fritters or the farm-fresh potato salad. I may not want burgers two days in a row (and the day after we made the burger, fries, and the toasted marshmallow shake, I swore I wouldn't be eating a burger of any kind for months), but I like this book.
13. The Good Stuff Cookbook is fresh, filled with good flavors, and doesn't take itself too seriously. We really dig it. We think you will too. So we're giving away a copy. Tell us a story about burgers or fries or your favorite side for a barbecue or what you consider good stuff (food done right without any pretension). We want to hear.
14. Frankly, the book was worth it for us because cooking out of it forced me to finally create a recipe for gluten-free hamburger buns I like.
And frankly, after you read the title of this post, that's probably the only thing you wanted to see.
So here you go.
Gluten-Free Hamburger Buns
I've been wanting to bake hamburger buns that make me happy for about 5 years. I don't mean those starchy, super-flimsy grocery store buns. I mean the buns that are really great bread rolls, crusty on top and soft inside. If grocery-store buns are a Casio keyboard, then great rolls for hamburgers are the organ at Westminster Abbey.
Well, last week, I started singing Hallelujah. After all the baking work we have done these past two years, and what I have learned about bread baking in general, I created these. And then I did it again, and again, to make sure this wasn't a fluke. It's not a fluke. You could be eating these for the Fourth of July this weekend.
The recipe was inspired by the hamburger buns in the Gourmet cookbook, which many people told me was their favorite. I've also been playing with making sponge starters for bread recently. I like them with gluten-free baking, in particular, because sponges build more flavor and a better structure to breads. We can always use that with gluten-free. I learned this technique from the incredible book Baking by James Peterson. It's my new baking bible. I'll be sharing much more soon.
After fiddling and eating, I came up with the rolls of my dreams. Golden crusted and a little crisp, with a soft crumb and air holes. These are not too dense. (You couldn't use them as hockey pucks.) They don't taste funny. In fact, the many people whom I handed these to in the last few weeks could not tell they were gluten-free, at all.
And here's a bonus. If you have a baguette pan, you can use this recipe to make crusty baguettes.
If you're new to baking, this recipe might seem long and fussy. Believe me, it's worth your time. You could be eating toasted hamburger buns this weekend. Or maybe even tonight.
Enjoy, everyone.
Update. Please read: A few of you were kind enough to write to me here and on email to say that the batch of hamburger bun dough you made was too wet. Perplexed, I shook my head and thought. I've made these at least five times before writing it. What could be wrong?
I just figured it out. When I originally typed this recipe (sleep-deprived, at the public library), I transcribed the wrong numbers from my recipe notebook. Instead of 70 grams of potato flour and almond flour, as I had originally written, it should be 140 of each. Big difference! I'm sorry to those of you whose doughs turned out wet from my mistake. (I have to stop typing up recipes when I'm so tired.) But thank you for writing and pointing out the error.
280 grams Aherns' all-purpose gluten-free flour
140 grams almond flour
140 grams potato flour
100 grams soy milk (if you use cow's milk, and your sponge is runny, use less next time)
165 to 260 grams water
1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon guar gum
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 egg, well-beaten (optional)
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
Combining the flours. Put the all-purpose flour, the almond flour, and the potato flour into a food processor. Mix them for a few moments until they have become one, coherent flour. Using the food processor aerates the flours in a way that seems to really help the bread. If you don't have one, then use a stand mixer or a large bowl and whisk, then sift the flours into another bowl. This only takes a few moments, and it will really help the final buns.
Making the sponge. Measure out 210 grams of the combined flours into a large bowl. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it is barely warm. After you have put on the milk, let your tap water run warm until it is 115 degrees. (This is the temperature when the water runs over your wrist warm, the same warmth as your flesh.) By the time you have added the water to the flour, the milk should be warm enough. If it's hot at all, wait a few moments for it to cool down before you add it to the flours. Add the milk to the flours, then 165 grams of the water, and stir them all to combine. Stir the sponge well until it has the consistency of a thick porridge. If the sponge is too thick, add more warm water until you have the right consistency. (Each kitchen, depending on the heat and humidity, and elevation of where you are, will be slightly different.) Sprinkle the yeast over the mixture and let it sit for 3 minutes. Stir. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow it to sit in a warmish place until it has doubled or tripled in volume, about 1 to 2 hours.
(Here a note. If you let the sponge go more than two hours, say, overnight, the way I did once you'll have even more flavor. However, the sponge turns more liquidy the longer it goes. Adjust your flours accordingly.)
Finishing the dough. Put the remaining flour and the sponge, along with the guar gum, melted butter and eggs, into the stand mixer. (If you don't have one, you can do this by hand, with a lot of bicep work!) Mix until the dough is coherent, about 2 minutes. Cover the bowl of the stand mixer with plastic wrap or damp towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Add the salt to the dough, then knead the dough in the stand mixer until it comes together into a ball, about 7 minutes. (The salt might make the dough stick to the sides of the mixer, but it will come back into a ball again. If it doesn't, then scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula. Remember that gluten-free bread doughs are always wetter than gluten doughs. It should be more like a thick cake batter, slightly sticky to the touch, than a finished gluten dough would be. See photo of it here.)
Once you have scraped the dough down into a one ball, shape it with damp hands into one coherent dough. (See photo of that here.) Put it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp towel and allow it to sit in a warmish place in the kitchen until it has risen to twice its size, about 2 hours.
Baking the hamburger buns. About 1 1/2 hours after you have set the dough to rise, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If you have a pizza stone (and boy, does it help with gluten-free baked goods), put it in the oven to come to temperature. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. When the oven is fully hot, take the dough out of the bowl. It should feel good in your hands, like a traditional bread dough. (If it's sticky, because you let the sponge grow for longer than 2 hours, simply wet your hands and work with the sticky dough.) If you want small buns (like sliders), cut the dough into 8 pieces. If you want larger hamburger buns, divide the dough into 5 pieces. Roll each piece of dough under your hands until it feels like a good ball of dough. Place it on the baking sheet and flatten it just a bit with the palm of your hand.
If you wish, brush the top of each dough ball with the beaten egg, then sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
Put a large sheet tray into the bottom rack of your oven. Fill it 1/2 way full with water. (I pour it from the tea kettle.) Slide the sheet tray with the dough on top of the pizza stone (or on a middle rack, if you don't have a pizza stone). Spray the inside walls of the oven with water from a clean spray bottle. Close the oven door. Wait 30 seconds. Do it again. Bake the hamburger buns until they are golden brown, give a good hollow thump on the bottom, and have reached an internal temperature of 180 degrees (but no higher). This should take about 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the size of the buns you make and your own oven.
And voila! Hamburger buns.


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Iain Walker
Dr. Iain Walker is a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). He has more than 20 years of experience as a building scientist and consultant, conducting research on energy use, ventilation, moisture, performance simulation, and commissioning/diagnostic issues in residential buildings. His current work focuses on retrofits, Zero/Low Energy Homes and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in residential buildings through field and laboratory evaluations, modeling and simulation activities, and standards setting. He is Executive Editor and member of the board of Home Energy magazine. He is the task group leader for the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards committees on building and duct system air leakage and sealant longevity. For the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) he serves on National Standards committees for indoor air quality, weather, moisture design, and equipment air leakage. He also serves on Building Performance Institute (BPI) and Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) Technical Committees, the Affordable Comfort (ACI) conference planning committee and provides leadership and technical input to many local, state, national and international bodies.


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LOS ANGELES -- Today in sunny Southern California, the NFL Players association will host their second annual Collegiate Bowl at the Home Depot Center in Carson, set for 6PM ET and airing live on ESPN2.
While the event is still building it's brand, the league is paying attention. Many NFL teams had scouts represented and watching practices this week while draft luminaries like ESPN's Todd McShay were in attendance as well. To help the players get some critical tips on their technique, the NFLPA brought in a host of former players like Priest Holmes, Kevin Mawae and Isaac Bruce among many others to act as assistant coaches.
"It's been a real blessing," said Ohio State Safety Orhian Johnson. "To get to learn from a player like Darrelle Greene ... has been amazing."
Not to mention the talent evaluators overseeing the whole process. Former Colts GM and Woody's Johnson's confidante on the GM search Bill Polian was on hand to oversee the talent evaluation process that the NFLPA is using.
As far as the actual game, former Jets coach Herman Edwards (American team) will be pitted against the man who Dick Vermeil (National team) gave him his first shot in the NFL but whom he knew since he was 17. While both Vermeil and Edwards expressed their enjoyment at being back around football for a few days, both know that this is more about life lessons for the young men who will be getting opportunities in the NFL in just a matter of months.
"The NFL Players Association wants this to be more than just a game, they want it to be a NFL educational experience," Vermeil told reporters during a press conference on Friday, flanked by his players. "This will be these players' first introduction to the National Football League without the pressure of making a team in training camp. By the time they are drafted and go to training camp they will have an understanding of what's expected of them, having worked with NFL coaches and players for a week. There won't be anything like this."
Edwards agreed with his former coach in more matter of fact terms. "In the NFL, players don't graduate ... in pro football ... you come out of college and there's a 30-year-old man standing there saying, 'You're trying to take my job.'"
It's something that the players all seemed to be aware of now, but they also were just appreciative to be part of this process and to get a chance to extend their life's long pursuit. While the real world might await, many of them talked about the decision points they'd made in recent months.
"It was something that I had to talk about with my family," said Miami RB Mike James. "I had to decide about who to do next, to go get a job or work as hard as I could to live my dream."
Players who are in this game know that they will have to sacrifice to make it in the NFL and they are willing to do what it takes. Vermeil said one of his linebackers was asked about playing fullback in the NFL. Another prospect Alabama State QB Greg Jenkins played some receiver in practice this week ... and actually looked pretty good at it. Could he be the next Brad Smith? As his coaches are telling him, he's going to have to work very hard whatever he does to get his shot in the NFL.
For some guys, getting their shot might be harder or easier just based on their names. The event has drawn promising prospects with familiar names -- Wisconsin cornerback Marcus Cromartie (brother of Jets corner Antonio and cousin to Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie), Vandy QB Jordan Rodgers (brother to Aaron) and Utah's David Kruger (brother to Paul Kruger of the Ravens) as well as some up and comers like Miami RB Mike James, Virginia Tech LB Bruce Taylor and Texas WR Marquise Goodwin.
But for players with last names that we might know, it's clear that they are not looking to trade on them. When American team Head Coach Herman Edwards joked Jordan Rodgers during the press conference about whether he's ever asked by reporters about being Aaron's little brother, Rodgers joked back that he just tells reporters that he "plays to win the game."
Edwards quickly took the learning opportunity to coach up Rodgers some more by telling him to add the trademark 'hello?!' at the beginning.
These young guys are still learning ...