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Critics say new format undermines position of architects in construction process and ignores sustainability issues, writes Laura Mark
Next week the RIBA's 50-year-old Plan of Work will be consigned to history. The familiar A-L work stages will be scrapped, replaced by eight new, numbered steps.
Some practices have already geared up to use the new plan when it is officially launched on 21 May. But it is still unclear whether there will be widespread take-up and the reworked workflow has come in for criticism. Some architects claim the new plan is too vague, fails to address sustainability issues and is not specific enough for architects, based as it is on the Construction Industry Council (CIC) schedule of services.
The RIBA maintains the new Plan of Work is 'procurement neutral', in acknowledging that not every contract follows the traditional procurement route or even the design and build route. As a result, the plan has been criticised for its alleged 'one-size-fits-all' approach.
Elspeth Clements, partner at east London-based Clements Porter, said: 'It is difficult to see how we will use it. The new Plan of Work is fine for larger, non-traditional projects, but not necessarily for smaller traditional ones.'
Rab Bennetts, founder of Bennetts Associates, added: 'Updating the Plan of Work in line with CIC's pan-industry equivalent is welcome and overdue. However, the really big issue for us has never been how the stages are labelled, but what they contain. Different architects have very different understandings of each stage and we are often surprised at how little information is produced by some firms.'
Bennetts concluded: 'The words contained within the Plan of Work are of little value without visual material in support.
'There should be a manual containing exemplar drawings for each stage in the same way CIBSE once produced standard drawing types for services design. Only then will the industry have a consistent benchmark with which to judge quality, fees, programme, and so on.'
Some architects also feel the updated plan 'sends out the wrong message' on sustainability. Although the green overlay (as it was known previously) has been incorporated into the new plan of work through sustainability checkpoints, these are optional and architects can 'turn them off'.
Elrond Burrell, an architect at Architype said: 'The only suitable and cost-effective approach to sustainability is to fully integrate it in the project design and delivery. It should be part of the core objectives at every stage.
'To see it as an optional add on is not where the profession should be positioning itself today. Architects have a crucial role to play in helping the UK meet required CO2 emission reductions, in eliminating the performance gap, in ensuring an equitable use of scarce resources and in creating a healthy vibrant built environment: the Plan of Work really should reflect this.'
Robert Prewett, a partner at Prewett Bizley Architects, agreed: 'In a week when we went over the 400ppm CO2 level and seemed headed towards the catastrophe, I am horrified that sustainability points might be turned off.
'The message this sends out to designers and clients alike is that they are not important.
'The RIBA is duty-bound to lead on this matter and any backsliding would not only be of regret for climate change but also a huge own-goal for the RIBA.'
The Association of Consultant Architects (ACA) has been particularly vocal in its criticism of the RIBA's updated plan and has refused to endorse it.
The organisation, which may draw up its own updated version of the A-L stages, believes take-up could be 'patchy' and that 'it might eventually disappear, but only after much pain and suffering'.
ACA president Terry Brown said: 'Though the existing plan could benefit from some revision, the wholesale changes that the RIBA has introduced do not sufficiently support the architect's position within the design and project team.'
The changes do not support the position of the architect within the design team
'[The RIBA has] reduced the stages for design, thereby losing the opportunity for detailed, relevant and useful waypoints, gateways or signoffs for information exchange between architect and client.
'The new Plan of Work seriously puts pressure on the design process, rushes design and undermines its importance in favour of participating in government initiatives involving "strategic procurement" predesign work and "soft landing".'
Former ACA president Brian Waters added: 'By adopting the outline of the CIC work stages the RIBA is losing sight of the purpose of the original, namely that it sets out standard stages for the design process, rather than describing a procurement process that is likely to be led by the contractor.'
Invisible Studio's Piers Taylor, doesn't use the RIBA's Plan of Work, and doubts this will change with the new workflow.
He said: 'Most of our projects can't be neatly slotted into the RIBA's rather prescriptive and unimaginative scope of work and find it's an excuse not to think in an original and appropriate way about each project.'
But a number of practices, including Austin-Smith:Lord, EPR Architects, Architype, and Peter Morris Architects have said they will be using the new Plan of Work 2013.
Austin-Smith:Lord partner Maggie Mullan said: 'It has started coming through in bids. We have commenced our in-house training to ensure we can hit the ground running.'
The new Plan of Work will explain my services as an architect in an easier and less complicated manner
Gabrielle Omar, Apprentice star and founder of Lolli & Square, also praised the new plan. She said: 'I look forward to using the new Plan of Work, which will help explain my services as an architect in an easier and less complicated manner. It is more straightforward and comprehensible in its language, as well as more concise in highlighting the benefits of using an architect.'
However if the new plan is to catch on, it needs a greater groundswell of support from the profession. The drive has already been hampered by a lack of communication about the changes to its members (AJ 25.10.12).
And for some, including John Flinn of Cheshire-based small practice Davenport and Flinn Architects, the new Plan of Work is just another case of the 'usual hogwash that the RIBA pushes out'.
Tom Hart, director at RG+P added: 'It has to be architects that push the use of the new Plan of Work so that we can become instrumental in the construction process once again.'
The RIBA meanwhile sees the implementation of the new plan as a three-year process, and does not expect practices to take to it straight away.
'It will only really be adopted if architects support it' acknowledged RIBA director of practice Adrian Dobson.
Further comment
Dieter Gockman, EPR Architects:
'EPR Architects considers the publication of the re-formatted and flexible 2013 Plan of Work to be a very positive initiative by the RIBA. The new work stages are a much better reflection of current procurement practice and are more suited to the reality of the way we are delivering services to clients.
'At EPR Architects, we are already raising awareness of the new plan across the practice and have seminars planned to coincide with the plan's launch to demonstrate how our architects can use the plan online and tailor it to their needs. EPR Architects' standard schedule of services has already been restructured to reflect the new work stages and is ready to be used to accompany all of the practice's fee proposals from the 21 May.
'I hope the profession unites behind the new plan and proactively encourages the industry to do likewise. Through the publication of the 2013 plan the RIBA is providing us with an opportunity to reassert architects' position as design team leader, an opportunity I hope we should not squander'.
Peter Morris, Peter Morris Architects:
'I am excited about the changes to the RIBA plan of work. The language used is simpler and easier for clients to understand. It is now more relevant to a diversifying architectural profession, in a time when innovation and diversity is key to our future.The only regret is the omission of the word 'Tender'. Choosing a partner to take any project forward to completion is an extremely important part of the design period process and deserves it's own section in the Plan of Work.'
Roger Fitzgerald, ADP Architecture:
'There are both opportunities and threats in this new structure. The work involved in preparing a compliant planning application is much more involved, and this new plan gives the opportunity to charge more, earlier. However I can see some clients claiming that they don't need a "Technical Design", and there needs to be more definition of the distinction between that and "Developed Design". Feedback from the "In Use" phase will be valuable to all, but I'd be very wary about attributing too much fee to that phase.
'We have a lot of historical data about where the time gets spent on projects which relates to the old workstages, so we are looking at how to update that information to the new Plan of Work'.
Luke Tozer, Pitman Tozer Architects:
'The new Plan of Work is a worthy exercise to integrate the myriad of tasks in a project into a 'simple' set of stages but one that needs road testing. The proof of whether it works and is scalable for projects large and small I assume will come but it would have been helpful to see some actual projects mapped in both old and new plans of work. The bespoke sections are the most interesting aspect and where I would like to see examples. First impressions are that it seems driven by BIM and aligning with other established industry models (CIC) to promote the currency and influence of the RIBA plan of work in the industry and big practice rather than its usefulness for RIBA members and small practices with refurbishment work. Who knows any architects who use the term "Close Out"…?'
Alfred Munkenbeck, Munkenbeck and Partners:
'The new Plan of Work was not created by the RIBA. It precisely follows the plan of work produced by the CIC entitled "CIC Scope of Services Handbook". The CIC decided to simplify the RIBA Plan of Work by inter alia collapsing 4 pre-tender design stages (C-F) into 2 (called stages 2 and 3) and to use a 1 through 6 numbering system instead of letters. The RIBA has now simply adopted the CIC system and added a second pre-design stage 0 at the beginning and a post construction stage 7 at the end.
'Sadly, the RIBA has gone AWOL in becoming much more concerned about stages before design as well as stages after construction. Ironically, these are not areas where architects ever will have very much to contribute. At the same time they have reduced the stages for design thereby losing one of the detailed waypoints for information exchange between architect and client. They are effectively rushing design and undermining its importance if favour of participating in government initiatives involving "strategic brief" pre-design work and "soft landing", post-completion feedback/analysis. They have tossed out the baby with the bath water… collapsing a time honoured design process.
'There is no indication when you go to planning, building regs or tender. These are the major milestones which matter and which clients care about'.
Jon Greenfield, NPS Group:
'I warmly welcome the changes. The 1963 Plan of Work was getting very out of date and the CIC Plan would have taken over in substantial portions of the construction industry, undermining the RIBA's central role.
'In short I feel that the new plan of work is much better adapted to the kind of appointments architects receive today – particularly because the plan of work changes depending on key project parameters. The old Plan of Work has become embedded in architectural parlance, so it will take a while to make the change, but it will come'.
Brian Waters, ACA:
'By adopting the outline of the CIC work stages the RIBA is losing sight of the purpose of the original, namely that it sets out standard stages for the design process rather than describing a procurement process likely to be led by the contractor.
'The majority of projects are, for clients, one-offs. They rely on a standard programme for guidance. They are not interested, nor is it often in their interest, to appointing the whole team before there is a signed-off brief, or design or even a planning permission.
'The current Plan of Work needs refreshing to allow alternatives to the conventional tender process and the RIBA is right to seek that but, as Alfred says, the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater. The idea that there is a contractor before there is a planning permission for an approved design strongly suggests that the architect becomes a subcontractor and so loses his professional role with the client.
'That this happens already with PFI etc may have to be accepted but is to be regretted. Why should the RIBA encourage it?
'As to the timing of the planning permission, it is no good the RIBA just responding that we can make upour own bespoke version; planning committees have at long last adopted the alphabet of the PoW and often seek the assurance of a detail design they describe as 'Stage D+', meaning Stage D with a bit more committed detail to ensure they can enforce the quality of design they are permitting'.
Maggie Mullan, Austin-Smith:Lord:
'The revised plan of work aligns more closely with trends in procurement – particularly the slightly more expansive Stage 3 which has taken on board the increased input expected at this stage to mitigate construction risk. Although the plan refers to both BIM and Soft Landings, there is still a gap in both the understanding and provision for the increased liability these initiatives impose on architects.
RIBA's new Plan of Work under fire as A-L stages are scrapped
Readers' comments (1)
As an Architectural Lighting Designer I have found the old plan of work becoming increasingly f=difficult to reconcile with the current project management and procurement methods. We have found ourselves engaged much later than is best value and best input to the project. I think the new plan of work is much better suited to current practice and much easier for us to adopt wholesale. I agree with Rab Bennetts' suggestion that a standardised drawing example set should be developed. We do see very wide variation between different practices as to what is currently submitted at the old Stage C and Stage D. Standardisation makes it much easier for us sub consultants to integrate our services and our fee proposals with the general workflow
Sadly the success of this new plan of work is probably more in the hands of project managers than architects in the current climate. We also need to ensure that it is not used to reduce fees for architects and designers. We still need to do do the same quantity of work no mater how the work stages are set out and named.
Kevan Shaw
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ALEX Toys Do-it-Yourself Wear Duct Tape Tote
by ALEX Toys
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Product Description
Design a really cool bag and stick it together yourself with bright, colorful duct tape! Watch your bag go from drab to fab with cool duct tape patterns you design. It's so easy and fun! A creative tween craft – great for gift giving and parties. Includes everything you need to make 1 Duct Tape Tote: 1 pre-sewn bag, 6 rolls of duct tape (solid & patterns), non-stick paper, stencil and easy to follow instructions. Watch the video to learn more. An awarding winning creative craft product.
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Visitor's Day | Promo
Preview: Season 3 Episode 4 | 30s
Juan Carlos ran away from an abusive home and lived on the streets of Mexico City before finding his way to IPODERAC, a group home where dedicated staff ensure that the young boys receive the education, training and emotional support they need to heal the scars that haunt them. Follow Juan Carlos as he finds the strength to overcome his sense of abandonment and forgive his father for the past.
Aired: 10/07/18
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Funding for season three of Doc World provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Wyncote Foundation.


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In the hope of reconstructing a pivotal step in evolution — the colonization of land by fish that learned to walk and breathe air — researchers have decoded the genome of the coelacanth, a prehistoric-looking fish whose form closely resembles those seen in the fossils of 400 million years ago.
Often called a living fossil, the coelacanth (pronounced SEE-luh-canth) was long believed to have fallen extinct 70 million years ago, until a specimen was recognized in a fish market in South Africa in 1938. The coelacanth has fleshy, lobed fins that look somewhat like limbs, as does the lungfish, an air-breathing freshwater fish. The coelacanth and the lungfish have long been battling for the honor of which is closer to the ancestral fish that first used fins to walk on land and give rise to the tetrapods, meaning all the original vertebrates and their descendants, from reptiles and birds to mammals.
The decoding of the coelacanth genome, reported online Wednesday in the journal Nature, is a victory for the lungfish as the closer relative to the first tetrapod. But the coelacanth may have the last laugh because its genome — which, at 2.8 billion units of DNA, is about the same size as a human genome — is decodable, whereas the lungfish genome, a remarkable 100 billion DNA units in length, cannot be cracked with present methods. The coelacanth genome is therefore more likely to shed light on the central evolutionary question of what genetic alterations were needed to change a lobe-finned fish into the first land-dwelling tetrapod.
The idea of decoding the coelacanth genome began six years ago when Chris Amemiya, a biologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, acquired some samples of coelacanth tissue. He asked the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T., a biological research institute in Cambridge, Mass., to decode the DNA and invited experts in evolutionary and developmental biology to help interpret the results.
Dr. Amemiya's team has sifted through the coelacanth's genome for genes that might have helped its cousin species, the ancestor to the first tetrapod, invade dry land some 400 million years ago. They have found one gene that is related to those that, in animal species, build the placenta. Coelacanths have no placenta, but they produce extremely large eggs, with a good blood supply, that hatch inside the mother's body. This gene could have been developed by land animals into a way of constructing the placenta.
Another helpful preadaptation is a snippet of DNA that enhances the activity of the genes that drive the formation of limbs in the embryo. The Amemiya team focused on the enhancer DNA sequence because it occurred in the coelacanth and animals but not in ordinary fish. They then inserted the coelacanth enhancer DNA into mice.
"It lit up right away and made an almost normal limb," said Neil Shubin, meaning that the coelacanth gene enhancer successfully encouraged the mouse genes to make a limb. Dr. Shubin, a member of the team, is a paleontologist at the University of Chicago.
Present-day coelacanths are ferocious predators that live in a twilight zone about 500 feet deep where light barely penetrates. They lurk in caves during the day and emerge at night to attack surface fish as they descend and deep-sea fish as they rise to the surface. They have no evident need of fins that might help them walk on land.
"This is probably an unusual habitat for this lineage," said Axel Meyer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Konstanz in Germany and a member of the team. "Other coelacanths lived in more shallow, estuarylike environments 400 million years ago, and you can envisage them using the fins more like walking legs."
The Amemiya team reports evidence that the coelacanth's genes have been evolving more slowly than those of mammals, possibly because of "a static habitat and lack of predators." But its environment must have changed quite considerably over the last 400 million years, Dr. Meyer said. Its principal habitat at present is the caves beneath the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean, but since these are extinct volcanoes a mere 5 million to 10 million years old, they must be a quite recent home for the coelacanth.
The Amemiya team does not possess a full coelacanth — these are endangered species — and decoded the genome from tissues obtained from Rosemary Dorrington of Rhodes University in South Africa. Dr. Dorrington supplied DNA kits to the Comoro Islands fishermen who occasionally snag coelacanths by accident. When a coelacanth was captured in 2003, they preserved blood and tissues, which were given to Dr. Dorrington and kept frozen, Dr. Amemiya said.
The specimen was preserved in Moroni, the capital of the Comoro Islands, but Dr. Amemiya has been unable to find out where it is now because of the constant state of civil war in the islands, he said.
Can he be certain, then, that the tissue came from a coelacanth? "Oh, no question," Dr. Amemiya said. "We have DNA from several other coelacanths, from Africa and Indonesia, which is very similar to this one." The one caught in 2003 was identified as a coelacanth by Said Ahamada, a South African expert, Dr. Amemiya said.
Because the original specimen is not available and the DNA sequencing is incomplete, the Amemiya team does not know its sex.
Lobe-finned fish like the coelacanth and lungfish are known to zoologists as sarcopterygians, meaning fleshy fins. Tetrapods, including people, are descended from this group, and the coelacanth is more closely related to people than to other fish. "Evolutionarily speaking, we are sarcopterygian fish," Dr. Meyer said.


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Blast Off!
(Discovering the God of Creation)Celeste Clydesdale & David T. Clydesdale - Lillenas Publishing Co.
Blast Off!
(Discovering the God of Creation)Celeste Clydesdale & David T. Clydesdale - Lillenas Publishing Co.
Click to review
Blast off on an intergalactic adventure and join Rudy, Rachel and Riley aboard the space shuttle Discovery, as they travel through space and discover all the indescribable things in Creation that were made by the hand of God. With help from various stars, planets, a cantankerous robot and the wise and patient Flight Commander, Mr. Houston, they learn that the God who created the stars and the heavens is the same God the loved the world so much, that He sent His son to die for them, wants to have relationship with them, and that with Him nothing is impossible. An accompaniment DVD with videos for three songs and a spaced-themed video loop has been created to aide in performance, as well as a Digital Resource Kit and Demonstration DVD to help with teaching and choreography. This year, gather your students and Blast Off! together to discover the God of Creation! Titles: Space Camp; Blast Off!; Indescribable with What a Wonderful God; In the Beginning; It Is Good!; In Your Image; Like an Eagle; Eternity and Beyond and Blast Off! Finale.
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CARACAS, Venezuela -- Former Arizona Diamondbacks player
Alex Cabrera on Saturday denied ever using steroids after his name
appeared in the Mitchell Report.
The report chronicles the discovery of a bottle containing
steroids in the Diamondbacks clubhouse in September 2000. A
clubhouse employee found the bottle and several hundred pills in a
package that had been mailed to Cabrera, according to the report.
"I couldn't have used the substances that are identified,"
Cabrera said. "I never had possession of the alleged box that
supposedly contained the pharmaceutical drugs."
Cabrera made his denial on the Web site of the Caracas Lions,
his winter league team in Venezuela. He could not be reached for
The substances were sent to the commissioner's office by
then-general manager Joe Garagiola Jr., and later passed on to the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to be analyzed.
The bottle contained stanozol, an injectable form of steroids,
and the pills were over-the-counter diet pills, according to the
report. By the time the tests were completed, Cabrera's contract
had been sold to the Seibu Lions of the Japan League, the report
Cabrera, who played outfield and first base in his one season
with the Diamondbacks, hinted in his statement he was a scapegoat.
"It was easier to suggest that a recently acquired rookie whose
contract had been sold to Japan was responsible for the phantom
box, which I never saw," he said.
"Those who have followed my career can see that my physique has
not changed since my days as a rookie and my performance has
improved as a result of hard work in the gym and on the field," he
Cabrera was among more than 80 current and retired players
identified in Thursday's report by former Sen. George Mitchell.


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Now showing items 1-5 of 5
Measurement of D-meson production versus multiplicity in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV
(Springer, 2016-08)
The measurement of prompt D-meson production as a function of multiplicity in p–Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC is reported. D$^0$, D$^+$ and D$^{*+}$ mesons are reconstructed ...
Centrality, rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of the J/$\psi$ suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=2.76 TeV
(Elsevier, 2014-06)
The inclusive J/$\psi$ nuclear modification factor ($R_{AA}$) in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=2.76TeV has been measured by ALICE as a function of centrality in the $e^+e^-$ decay channel at mid-rapidity |y| < 0.8 ...
Differential studies of inclusive J/$\psi$ and $\psi$(2S) production at forward rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\mathbf{\sqrt{{\textit s}_{_{NN}}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
(Springer, 2016-05)
The production of J/$\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$ was measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC. The measurement was performed at forward rapidity ($2.5 < y < 4 $) down to zero transverse momentum ($p_{\rm ...
Measurement of jet quenching with semi-inclusive hadron-jet distributions in central Pb-Pb collisions at ${\sqrt{\bf{s}_{\mathrm {\bf{NN}}}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
(Springer, 2015-09)
We report the measurement of a new observable of jet quenching in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV, based on the semi-inclusive rate of charged jets recoiling from a high transverse momentum ...
Centrality dependence of inclusive J/$\psi$ production in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV
(Springer, 2015-11)
We present a measurement of inclusive J/$\psi$ production in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV as a function of the centrality of the collision, as estimated from the energy deposited in the Zero Degree ...


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In setting up the White Sox bullpen, general manager Ken Williams said Friday that the coaching staff and front-office personnel were in agreement on one thing: They wanted Jesse Crain and Matt Thornton available for the eighth inning and maybe the seventh inning on some occasions.
"We all know in a game that [the] ninth inning doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have the toughest hitters up," Williams said. "The situation to win the game might be in the seventh or the eighth inning, so to have those guys available and interchangeable for that kind of fit everything together."
After that decision was made, the final call came down between rookies Addison Reed or Hector Santiago for closer. Santiago's screwball to combat right-handed hitters from a left-handed pitcher helped his cause, as did his 95-mph fastball.
"Aggressiveness, and he can spot it from both sides of the plate and then turn it over with a changeup and then the screwball that you can't really practice," said Williams of Santiago. "And if you only see it on occasion, it can really screw you up.
"So, I think we were all privately thinking that. Then when we came together for a meeting and the subject was brought up, no one was caught off guard or surprised. So we just kind of came to the deal together."
Santiago picked his third save in three chances during Friday's 5-2 victory over the Tigers, striking out two in the ninth inning. Reed made his fourth consecutive scoreless appearance and Thornton made his fifth consecutive scoreless appearance.
April 13, 2012
Agreement on the bullpen by matchup concept
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Inspiration, ideas and information to help women build public speaking content, confidence and credibility. Denise Graveline is a Washington, DC-based speaker coach who has coached nearly 200 TEDMED and TEDx speakers--including one of 2016's most popular TED talks. She also has prepared speakers for presentations, testimony, and keynotes. She offers 1:1 coaching and group workshops in public speaking, presentation and media interview skills to both men and women.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
It's not the mistake. It's how you deal with it.
This sounds familiar to me.I tell it to my public speaking and presenting trainees all the time. And I hear it when I pause in my guitar lesson, where my instructor has told me, "You can't stop when you make a mistake...You're pausing to think what you did wrong and how to fix it. But you've got to keep going. The pros make mistakes all the time, but they keep going."
In music or dance, when one performer lets a mistake stop her, it throws the rest of the people off who are performing with her--and that can throw the performance. And even if you're the only one speaking, a mistake that stops you stops the audience and becomes the focal point.
But the speaker who can figure out, fast, how to keep going will have the audience on her side--either because they don't know what happened (often) or because they admire how you kept going. (That's happened to me before when I had to make lemonade out of lemons at a talk.)
How should you deal with mistakes? That depends on the mistake. If you've forgotten something, you can pause to think, leave it out or come back to it later. If you can use humor carefully to acknowledge the mistake and move on, that's a popular tactic--just be cautious about using humor, and don't direct it at yourself or the audience. Even a seemingly catastrophic mistake, one out of your control, can be handled deftly; I think of the emcee who watched a priceless crystal sculpture fall and break right before it was to be presented to the honoree, whom he told, "You're about to receive more pieces of Irish crystal than anyone in history."
Now that's good on your feet! He didn't apologize, fuss, or panic--that the audience could see--and made it alright to laugh and react to an improbable situation, just what a good emcee should do. In a similar way, you should deal with speaking mistakes externally, not internally. Too many of us stop ourselves with internal recriminations because we're afraid a mistake equals failure, a comment against us, a wall we can't surmount. In reality, it just means you're human and not a speech-making robot. When that voice in your head says "Oh, crap, I did that again, I always do that, I hate when I do that," or "OMG, what was that? Why did I do that stupid thing?" you're derailing your own train, sister--and doing it when no one put up a "stop" sign but yourself. And that ties up your tongue.
Psychologists say the only thing you get to control in most situations is your own reaction. So focus on staying calm. Smile. Breathe. Learn some quick recovery maneuvers to keep in your back pocket--some time-buying phrases (see below), or the ability to stop and correct yourself ("No, that's not right--I meant to say..."). And then keep going. No need to apologize or get self-deprecating. Chances are high that we won't notice the mistake (after all, we didn't practice with you, did we?) and you'll forge ahead and finish. And then you won't want to stop.
Related posts: What to say when you don't know what to say: Intelligent time-buyers
Confidence: Fake it until you make it
Are you comfortable with silence as a speaker?
Use the Evernote clip button, above, to save this post in an Evernote notebook. Go here to subscribe to Step Up Your Speaking, my free email newsletter that looks at a different speaking topic in depth each month...then become a fan of The Eloquent Woman on Facebook and join the conversation with thousands of other women (and men) about public speaking skills and confidence.


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Thanks to Earl Newton (Creator / Executive Producer of Stranger Things), we have the script (in pdf format) to Stranger Things Episode 5 Disconnect.
When their prize reality star goes missing, a monolithic network enlists the aid of the entire world to find him.
Written by Earl Newton. Story by Earl Newton and J. C. Hutchins
The rundown:
Watch Disconnect
Read the script (pdf)
Check Out the scripts to previous episodes of Stranger Things, the only science fiction anthology shot in High Def.


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Edwardian Elegance at Milford!
Ulster Gazette Armagh Tuesday 7th August 2012
Ulster Gazette Armagh Tuesday 7th August 2012
The Milford Buildings Preservation Trust, a company and registered charity (no.XR82797) was set up in 1999 by Stephen Mc Manus and aims to:
"Protect, promote and preserve Milford House, its parkland and the heritage attached to it for the benefit of the nation. Also to protect, promote and preserve the built architectural, industrial and natural landscape of the Milford area for the benefit of the nation".
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The Situation of Emotion
Posted by The Situationist Staff on April 27, 2012
From by UCtelevision:
Robert Levenson, UC Berkeley Department of Psychology, explores the changes in emotion that occur with age. Much of his research focuses on the nature of human emotion, in terms of its physiological manifestations, variations in emotion associated with age, gender, culture, and pathology, and the role emotion plays in interpersonal interactions.
A sample of related Situationist posts:
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Molyneux: industry wasn't ready for Milo's "concept"
Speaking in one of his last interviews as creative director of Microsoft's European studios, Peter Molyneux's has told VG247 that technological ambition had nothing to do with Milo's demise: it was all about the concept.
Milo headlines
Milo & Kate video shows off environments
A Milo and Kate video has appeared that shows off what some of its environments. Beach, living room and garden locations are spotted The Lionhead Kinect title was announced back in 2009 at E3, with comments appearing on and off about a retail release. It was supposedly canned last September, but Microsoft or Lionhead has […]
Milo storyboard images surface, show secret woods
Develop has gotten its hands on storyboards for Milo, the missing-in-action Kinect game from Lionhead.
Kinectimals doesn't include Milo tech, reiterates Frontier boss David Braben
David Braben has reiterated Kinectimals does not include any of Lionhead's Milo & Kate tech.
Milo tech could possibly make its way into Fable franchise, says Spencer
Phil Spencer has said Milo is "a vision of what's possible with Kinect", and the public will continue to see innovation from Lionhead come to market, but he's not convinced it will be "under the idea and framework" of Milo.
Milo: It's "enormously contentious" to "do a game about a boy", says Molyneux
Peter Molyneux has said at this point, Milo is not thought of as a "release" project and furthermore, it's "contentious" of Lionhead to do a game about a boy in the first place.
Molyneux at TED: Milo has "dark adventures," but there are no plans for release
If the BBC is to be believed, Peter Molyneux said in his Milo TED talk yesterday that Microsoft has no current plans to release Kinect child-sim Milo & Kate.
Molyneux demos Milo squashing snails, skipping rocks at TEDGlobal 2010
Peter Molyneux was on hand at TEDGlobal 2010 in Oxford, England today, showing a "more refined" version of than the one shown at E3 last year.
Molyneux's Milo & Kate TED talk detailed
Details for Peter Molyneux's TEDGlobal seminar, which will feature a re-reveal of Kinect oddity Milo & Kate, have been confirmed.
Molyneux: Milo explores "whole new area of interaction"
Peter Molyneux's told Techradar that Natal-based Milo & Kate will herald a "whole new area of interaction" in games, with focus coming back on the player as opposed to just being on the screen. "What we found while making Milo, is that part of the skill of designing this whole new experience is in making […]
IGN makes comedy Milo video
After the break. Poor old Peter Molyneux. He wanted to make groundbreaking game technology. Bet he never saw this coming. Happy Friday.
Miyamoto checks out PSP Go, Natal at E3
Shigeru Miyamoto was spotted visiting the Sony booth at E3 checking out the new PSP Go. Later on, Peter Molyneux gave him a demo of Project Natal and Milo. This is really not earth-shattering news, but it's Saturday, and everyone pretty much likes Miyamoto so why not. More over on D'toid.
Peter Molyneux's Milo - the whole thing in video
You must watch this. It's Peter Molyneux's Milo project for Natal, the Xbox 360 camera announced in the Microsoft press conference yesterday. You'd probably already seen it, but still. Bonkers.
Milo latest
Kinectimals doesn't include Milo tech, reiterates Frontier boss David Braben
Milo tech could possibly make its way into Fable franchise, says Spencer
Milo: It's "enormously contentious" to "do a game about a boy", says Molyneux
Molyneux at TED: Milo has "dark adventures," but there are no plans for release
Molyneux demos Milo squashing snails, skipping rocks at TEDGlobal 2010


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Welcome to Asianart.com Links. Please feel free to add and modify your own resources. Soon we may be charging a very nominal fee for commercial listings, but for the immediate future, as we further develop the links system, all postings will be free. (You will not be charged without your consent, of course, and we will notify commercial postings well in advance)
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Gales Ferry woman takes TV's ultimate quiz on 'Jeopardy!'
The answer is: Retired naval officer Meredith Robinson.
In true "Jeopardy!" style, the correct response to that prompt - in the form of a question, naturally - is "Who is the region's latest contestant on America's favorite quiz show?"
The Gales Ferry resident, who served as a lawyer at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, appears on "Jeopardy!" at 7 tonight after a whirlwind of pre-tests, an audition and the final taping - all of which started in January.
But Robinson's history with "Jeopardy!" extends to the 1990s, when she made her initial attempt to get on the show. She was posted on Guam at the time, and the show had traveled there on a contestant search. That year was a no-go, but years later she tried again and took the online test that assesses potential contestants' mastery of trivia. She didn't hear back that year, but her third attempt in January of this year proved to be the charm; come April producers contacted her to schedule an audition in New York. After testing well on screen and passing yet another trivia test, producers placed Robinson in the contestant pool for the year. Early this summer, she got the call to compete, and she was off to Los Angeles in August to tape her episode.
So what's Alex Trebek really like? Very professional, as it turns out. Robinson explained that the longtime quiz-master stays somewhat sequestered from contestants going into each show. As the holder of all the answers to every episode's questions, producers want to ensure no contestants acquire any accidental advantages by chatting with the host beforehand. At the first commercial, though, Trebek makes time for photos and conversation with contestants.
And while contestants are not allowed to divulge the outcome of a given show, Robinson did share what it's like for a first-time contestant to step behind the podium and pick up the buzzer in front of a studio audience and several TV cameras.
"It's kind of crazy," she says, laughing. "It's such a cliche, but when you sit on the sofa it's so much easier to come up with the correct answers. ... and then there's Alex Trebek, right there next to you."
"Jeopardy!" airs at 7 p.m. on WTNH. Robinson says she's hosting a viewing party tonight from her backyard, where her she'll have a screen and TV projector set up for optimal viewing.


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What's the center of power in California right now?
The legislature that is finishing up a budget? The governor's office? Maybe some poiltical consultant navigating initiatives or the top two primary?
No, no, and no.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Right now, the power is in the LA County suburb of Norwalk. And especially in the county government offices there on Imperial Highway -- where Los Angeles' registar-recorder works.
That registar-recorder, Dean Logan, is important right now because he has two very important things to count. They are:
1. Unprocessed ballots from the June 5 primary elections.
You may have thought those elections were over, but there are still more than 400,000 unprocessed, uncounted ballots statewide -- that is, mail ballots that came in late and provisional ballots. By far, the larger number of unprocessed, uncounted ballots is in LA County -- 131,177, as of late Wednesday.
The count in Norwalk could be enough to swing the result in the still-very-narrow race over Prop 29, the cigarette tax to fund cancer research. There are also a handful of close Assembly races that could be determined by whatever comes out of Norwalk.
2. Signatures submitted on ballot initiatives whose sponsors want them qualified for November.
The registrar-recorder counts, samples and certifies signatures on ballot initiative petitions. The deadline for qualifying an initiative for the November ballot is just two weeks away -- June 28.
And a number of high-profile measures -- including Gov. Jerry Brown's temporary tax initiative -- filed their signatures very late. So late that they may not be counted until after the deadline.
Whether the initiative makes it or not depends on Norwalk -- since LA County has produced by far the most signatures for these initiatives. And so far, Norwalk hasn't done its random sample on those measures. If the work isn't done by June 28, Brown's initiative may not qualify in time for this November's ballot.
Thus, don't be surprised if you hear and see a lot of praise for Logan and the folks at Norwalk. The legislature might even find a way to squeeze some extra money into the budget.
Anything to get those powerful people in Norwalk to count faster.
Lead Prop Zero blogger Joe Mathews is California editor at Zocalo Public Square, a fellow at Arizona State University's Center for Social Cohesion, and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (University of California, 2010).
Send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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|2016-December-04 05:50:03 PM
News: Click here for my public PGP key Google Translate Wikipedia Comparison of Language Translator programs I use Firefox browser & add-on called "Google Translator for Firefox"
�I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.� ~Thomas Jefferson
�Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge has its limitations, while imagination has no limits.� ~Albert Einstein
I love Arizona, I loathe its intrusive governments, especially the City of Phoenix.
Picacho Peak
�The 'Greatest Generation' is the one that ABOLISHED the USA military draft.�
~Dennis Wilson, Arizona writer
Brainstorming!! Give it a try! Subject Index to my Published Articles
Creative Commons vs Copyright Notice Disclaimer
Donations? Hell, NO!*
Because robo-spammers outnumber real people by 20 to 1, you MUST register to post AND your membership MUST be approved.
SEND EMAIL with YOUR comments or a posting to Admin (at) DennisLeeWilson.com to prove that you are NOT an automaton.
Sure. It is a bother. But you only have to do it once to become a member. And you don't have to wade thru the spam.


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SimpleSplash necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 888 diseños de 147 diseñadores freelance.
I'm leaving creativity open to you...
though it MUST have an element that's impressive enough to make people stop and stare.
Read BRIEF for details.
Simple Splash
After 2days into the contest, I realized my first "brief" might be limiting creative ranges and ideas.
I'm loosening original requirements and opening the floor. You can stay the course with "splash" concept, or take ANY new direction you feel.
You'rethe pro's, so I'd like to see what ideas you have for my company.
Bottom line is I'm a designer who puts a lot of passion into my designs. I want every project to be unique and interesting, and my LOGO should be the same.
I'd like to know what you would create when given 100% creative freedom to deliver a logo that fits my name and passion for unique design.
You canpreview the current logo, which was a temporary design, at http://www.SimpleSplash.com
I'm opento all ideas about font style and colors for company name, though I think it'sbest if entire name is uniform in color.
Thesplash effect should be at either end of logo only, and the colors shouldprobably be primary. The texture needs to look like Paint, rich and thickwith a glossy gradient.
Here aresome texture examples for the paint
We'regoing to place the logo on a 3D shelf at the top of the site and the"paint" is going to be dripping down the page.
FOR REFERENCE of 3Dshelf, you can see how the banana is resting on the shelf of this design.
- Clean and "Simple" :)
- Artistic yet still sexy and sleek
- Gradients on company name
- Both "S" capitalized
- Use of 2 or 3 colors
- Use of a colorful icon or image(s) to compliment name
- text that is too fancy and hard to read (company name)
- logo with only blue and black colors
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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- Font:
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- -
Whether a home is newly purchased or long inhabited, an updated kitchen, a new deck or even a coat of fresh paint can make it feel spiffier. When it comes to luxury real estate, however, some homeowners take upgrades to an extreme, spending big bucks on outrageous amenities.
We pulled together a list of upscale abodes for sale or just sold that have been equipped with fantastic, unusual — and in some cases downright wacky — amenities. These are not your typical luxe enhancements like home theaters, wine cellars and game rooms, although most of our estates have those features too. Our friends at Trulia.com, Realtor.com, Sotheby's International Realty and Coldwell Banker Previews International helped us uncover these unique listings.
Forbes.com slide show: Homes with the most outrageous amenities
The $10 million cliffside dwelling at Point Place in Laguna Beach, Calif., would make Bruce Wayne proud. The driveway has a secret, subterranean entrance below the house's steep perch, inside the cliff itself. Once a car passes through the hidden garage door, a commercial-grade hydraulic lift transports it up and into the house.
Even among snazzy home swimming holes, Las Vegas' $10 million Wood Creek Court residence stands out. It has a full-on water park with sandy beach island, a sunken swim-up bar--even a lazy river. The owners of the $7.4 million French Bastide in Greenwich, Conn., converted an English phone booth into a poolside outdoor shower. Recently Sotheby's International Realty sold a Beverly Hills home, complete with a giant bird-shaped swimming pool, for $4.2 million. As if a winged body of water wasn't enough of a talking point at house parties, the owners also dug out an underwater observation room.
Other homes have indoor water works. The $3.4 million Midwest Club estate in Oak Brook, Ill., is on the market for $3.4 million, thanks in part to waterfront views and seven bedroom suites with private living areas and a foliage-lined indoor koi stream. The koi stream warps around a little island holding a ficus tree, while the stream's banks nourish dozens of plants. If you want to access the far side of the room, a stone-tiled bridge will take you there.
"I have a lot of fun showing it," gushes Carol Lee Cikanek, the property's listing agent at Coldwell Banker Previews International. "I think the buyer of this home is certainly not going to be someone who says, 'this is exactly what I've been looking for.' It's going to be the opposite. The buyer says 'I never thought I would buy a home anything like this, but it's just way too cool to pass up!'"
Forbes.com slide show: The world's most unique luxury hotels
High-end homes with outrageous and wacky amenities lure many a gawker, but attracting real buyers can be tricky. Luxury homes with unusual amenities speak to a small niche and can sit on the market for longer periods of time, waiting for the right buyer to come along.
"The quirkier they (extreme amenities) are, the more they complicate the prospects of reselling the property," says Tara-Nicholle Nelson, consumer educator at Trulia.com, a San Francisco real estate listing site. However, she also notes, "Some of the extreme high-end home features actually create a clear way for sellers to differentiate their otherwise already highly attractive home from the other uber-opulent homes on the market."
Hall Willkie is president of Brown Harris Stevens, a New York real estate firm that represents a $35 million Manhattan townhouse boasting a two-story indoor wall of water. Willkie says both the pool of potential buyers and the selection of homes with opulent amenities are small.
The homes "are the opposite of cookie cutters, so when buyers find a property like that that they like, they tend to become a little aggressive about getting it," he says.
More slide shows from Forbes.com:
Nine creepy abandoned mansions
The most expensive U.S. cities to visit
© 2012 Forbes.com


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Oakland Diocese requiring educators to conform to church teachings
Educators in the East Bay must sign morality pledge
Educators at East Bay Catholic schools must sign a new contract Friday with the Diocese of Oakland pledging to conform to church teachings outside the workplace - leaving some, particularly non-Catholics, wrestling with a professional and moral dilemma.
In contention is an updated clause specifically outlining what teachers of the diocese's 54 schools do in their personal lives.
"In both the employee's personal and professional life, the employee is expected to model and promote behavior in conformity with the teaching of the Roman Catholic faith in matters of faith and morals, and to do nothing that tends to bring discredit to the school or to the Diocese of Oakland," the new contract says.
The previous contract did not delineate between a teacher's personal and professional life.
The clause is creating anxiety in a diocese where 18 percent of the 1,217 teachers are not Catholic, according to church statistics.
The new contracts were due May 1, but some sympathetic school administrators gave teachers until Friday to sign.
State and federal employment law offers little protection from being fired for violating church teaching - sparking fear that teachers could lose their jobs for using contraception, having premarital sex, trying to conceive a child by artificial insemination or marrying someone of the same sex.
Tim Newman, who has taught science at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland for 23 years, says some of his colleagues won't sign a contract forcing them to be disingenuous. Others worry the contract gives the diocese a reason to discipline them for actions outside the classroom.
"I will lose good teachers in my department," he said.
'Not a witch hunt'
Diocese spokesman Mike Brown said "this is not a witch hunt." He said the new language is an attempt by Oakland Bishop Michael Barber, who took over last year, to "be more clear about the contract."
"It simply states what was inferred before from a new bishop's perspective," Brown said. "There is no list of behaviors from this diocese."
Similar controversies have popped up elsewhere in the nation, most notably in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati this year, where a new contract banned teachers from "public support of or publicly living together outside marriage, public support of or sexual activity out of wedlock, public support of or homosexual lifestyle."
In California, earlier this year Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa tried to require educators to sign a morality clause that described contraception, abortion and gay marriage as "modern errors" that "gravely offend human dignity." In March, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that Vasa included the language to avoid legal challenges from teachers who were fired for conduct that contradicts Catholic teaching. He later backed down from the proposal.
The contract in San Francisco's Catholic schools requires educators "not to engage in conduct contrary to such (Catholic) principles in the course of Teacher's academic or personal life."
Letter from the bishop
In a March letter explaining the changes to diocese employees, Barber wrote that for months California's bishops have been discussing "the importance of Catholic identity and especially how it is expressed in our Catholic schools. ... (A)n appropriate way to honor this commitment is to spell it out in the contract or work agreement each person signs each year."
Legally, such contracts would be protected by the First Amendment, said David Rosenfeld, who teaches at the UC Berkeley School of Law and has represented teachers unions.
"A private school like this has the right to impose any religious restrictions it wants," he says. "If they got wind that somebody was buying contraceptives, they could fire them."
Still, Rosenfeld said, the change is "a bizarre, bizarre thing," given that Catholic schools have shown no hesitation in hiring non-Catholics for years. "They've tolerated that, if not encouraged it, as long as you don't preach your religion in the classroom."
Facing that legal reality and their own consciences, teachers were agonizing over their dilemma at a faculty meeting this week at O'Dowd, said Bonnie Sussman, a teacher representative at the school.
"A lot of them said, 'I can't afford not to sign,' " said Sussman, who has taught in Catholic schools for 40 years and is not Catholic. At 63 years old, she said, "I'm in that category, too.
"I love O'Dowd. I don't want to leave. But the question is: Do you want to fight discrimination from within the system or from the outside?" Sussman said. "There are some fabulous teachers who in good conscience say, 'I can't sign it.' And if that happens, ultimately, the Catholic Church loses out."
Some East Bay parents fear the controversy surrounding the new language will spill over to the classroom. Newman, who has not yet decided whether he will sign the contract, worries about the message it sends to prospective students and parents, who over the years have asked him whether a Catholic school would, for instance, be accepting of a student who is gay.
"I always say, 'Yes,' " said Newman, who is not Catholic. "But now I'm kind of lying about that, in terms of what I sign."
Gives a parent pause
Adam Byer, who is the parent of a child at an East Bay Catholic school, said if teachers are dismissed because of what they do in their private life, he would "think long and hard if I want my daughter to be in that school."
Some teachers like Sussman are proposing that educators work under the old contract for this year while they discuss any proposed changes with the diocese.
But at this late date, Brown, the diocese's spokesman, said: "It's clear that's not going to be the case.
"It's in each principal's best interest to know who will be teaching at the school in the fall," he said.
Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter: @joegarofoli


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Polyvinyl Chloride is a popular Vinyl based material that is used in Structural Applications. It has a high strength to weight ratio, is weather resistant, and offers great chemical resistance.
VIZUON XIGN (Curling-Resistant Banner)
Break free from banner materials traditionally manufactured with fabric. VIZUON XIGN with PET is the ideal solution for stand applications.
ColorGard™ Digital PS Overlaminates
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Performance Guide IMAGin® JT5929BFDMQ
Fire Characteristics of Sintra Material
Sometimes it is necessary to know the fire characteristics of materials that are used in the production of certain signage, graphics, exhibits or displays. These characteristics become important when the materials are used in applications where there may be stringent rules on how the materials behave when exposed to sources of combustion.
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Set your digital image apart from the standard. Light refracting additives create a unique, glistening appearance.
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Sintra® material is often screen printed when used in the signage and display industry. Identifying a quality ink for your project is crucial for great results.


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A joint initiative between the American Immigration Council and AILA seeks to change the playing field for immigrants facing deportation.
Register for AILA's National Day of Action (NDA) on April 11, 2019, to meet with members of Congress and share how the administration's immigration policy changes are harming American families, businesses, and communities.Register Now
* AILA updates this information periodically. Rules are subject to change. Please verify with your jurisdiction.
|AILA's Provider Status:
|n/a - AILA applies after each program upon attorney request. Programs are typically approved.
|Approved Programs:
In-Person Conferences
Live Webcasts of In-Person Conferences
Live Audio and Web Seminars
|Credit Available:
|View your state's conference information page for the amount and type of credit available for in-person conferences and live webcasts of in-person conferences. Audio/web seminars are all 90 minutes in length and are eligible for 1.5 general credits, unless otherwise noted. OnDemand programs receive the same amount of credit as the live version of the program.
|Credit Restrictions:
|Credit for OnDemand programs are only approved for the online, on-demand format (not CD-ROM) and are only available for in-person conference programs from January 1, 2011 and for seminar programs from March 1, 2011.
Iowa does not approve OnDemand programs for credit.
|AILA's Reporting Requirements:
|AILA does not report attendance.
|Attendee Compliance for CLE:
|Each attendee must submit and affirm the sessions they attended using webCLE. A four-digit attendance verification code is given during each session and must also be submitted. Attorneys must complete their webCLE submission within one week of the event to receive a certificate of attendance and to have their attendance reported.
|General Credit Requirements
|15 total credit hours per compliance period.
|Specialized Credit Requirements:
|2 ethics credits per compliance period.
|Compliance Period Length:
|1 year
|Compliance Deadline:
|December 31
|Reporting Deadline:
|March 1
|Credit Calculation:
|60 minutes per credit hour
(AILA's CLE Calculator)
|Attorney Reporting Requirements:
|Attorneys are responsible for tracking attendance and filing an annual report online. Attorneys may access CLE transcript on-line at any time.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-2020
American Immigration Lawyers Association.


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SACRAMENTO — California's government will increase the amount it contributes to state employees' pensions starting this summer, and cities and other government agencies will follow suit in two years, to help cover the cost of benefits for retirees who are living longer.
The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System approved new assumptions for the pension system Tuesday that effectively increase contribution rates.
Projections show workers are expected to live an average of as much as two years longer, driving up the cost of paying benefits to people until they die.
Contributing more to CalPERS' $282.5 billion pension fund means local governments will have less money to pay for services such as police, roads and parks. But delaying payments to the pension system would cost more in the long run.
The rates cities, counties and school districts pay for their employees won't change until 2016 and the increase will be phased in over five years, with the added contributions over a 20-year period covering the extra cost of workers' longer lives. But the board voted 7-4 to approve a request from Gov. Jerry Brown to accelerate the state's payments starting this summer, with the increase phased in over three years. Brown said waiting would have cost the state $3.7 billion on top of its $45 billion in long-term unfunded pension liabilities.
Starting July 1, the state estimates its annual pension payment will rise by $440 million, including $260 million from the general fund. Once the increase is completely phased in, the state's annual payment is expected to be $5 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion.
"The board today took important and responsible action to strengthen California's pension system," Brown said in a written statement.
But some CalPERS board members and union representatives said the move to treat the state differently was unnecessary, given that it could voluntarily pay more for pensions, as it has in recent years.
"I don't see a reason to mandate an acceleration, and quite frankly, if the state really has extra money, the fund across the river is actually in far worse shape," said J.J. Jelencic, one of four board members who voted against the governor's request, referring to the state's $80 billion unfunded liability for teachers' pensions.
Most county and city governments surveyed agreed with CalPERS' approach to phase in the increase over five years and spread the total cost over 20. But the new rate increases are on top of additional rate increases coming next year.


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Grammy Awards 2010 Articles
Grammy Awards 2010 news, gossip, photos and video.
Best Grammy quiver
Thank you for your emails in support of my quiveration for Eminem validating me against Duana's disgust. He was HOT last night. And even Michelle admitted his face didn't look so f-cked up. Check the way he's wearing his pants. Please. With Drake and Wayne, Em delivered. Em was sharp, Em was tight, Em was SEX, and Drake is the pride of the 416. Full Story
Grammy Off Key
I still love her. Still admire her. Am still down with her talent, her capability, her attitude, her work. But can we all concede she's not strong on vocals? On the night when she should have been backing up her wins and nominations with some vocals, the vocals totally sucked sh-t. Could barely stand to listen to it. Full Story
Grammy Gaga + Elton
"How wonderful life is, with Gaga in the world." I liked her, and then I saw her live. And that's when you know. She's so sublimely absurd, ridiculous, campy, and the theatricality of it all is so intoxicating, so amusing, so ENTERTAINING, so cleverly ironic, you cannot help but love her. Full Story
Grammy Favourite Dress
It's controversial. We will fight. I know this. But Katy Perry's Zac Posen was my best. It was cheeky and flattering and looked like nipple pasties with sequins but on her, it was a perfect choice. The detail is exquisite, and well, there's something about this relationship with Russell Brand. Full Story
Grammy Sasha Fierce
Three changes, none of them Tina Knowles, no Dereon for the Grammys. The result was three different, three good looks. The first during arrivals was a skin tight Stephane Rolland, exquisitely detailed, and then a badass black leather Versace for Sasha Fierce's performance, and then Celine Dion's dress twin for the final part of the evening which is what she wore to collect her award for Best Female Vocal Performance. Full Story
Grammy Country Bitch and the Senator
He rushed to LA to be by her side after Hockey Day in Canada as the Senators schedule conveniently allowed for Mike Fisher to join his fiancée for Grammy weekend where they made their official Hollywood debut. However, Carrie Underwood walked the carpet alone, telling Ryan Seacrest that she didn't want to feed Fisher to the wolves just yet. Full Story
Grammy GLEE
It was good. Finally Lea Michele picked a dress appropriate for the occasion, for her age, and for her status. She looked great. But holy Posh, the poseharding is epic. She also doesn't seem to like wearing her hair up either, Jennifer Aniston. And there's a slight new half fringe, cut specifically Full Story
Grammy Short-Off
It is my professional duty to care about Justin Bieber. And he's Canadian which means the caring is multiplied by 5 to satisfy Canadian Content requirements. Michelle assures me this will only last another year. Is that longer or shorter than Jersey Shore? Please let it be over. Also debated during our live blog – when can we expect a Bieber growth spurt? Bieber is almost 16. Full Story
No Grammy lunging
What? This is what happens when you make Celine Dion share the stage. She doesn't have enough room to lunge! Celine of course performed during the MJ tribute with Usher, Jennifer Hudson, and the Country Bitch. She could have also performed during the Haiti piece with Mary J Blige and Andrea Bocelli singing Bridge Over Troubled Water. Full Story
Grammy Spanx
Jennifer Lopez in Versace but really it was silver body Spanx with a white curtain on top. And, ironically, not very flattering. In some of these shots it's like she has a phantom leg. Some of you even suggested, from a blurry distance, she could have been Celine Dion. She probably wouldn't appreciate this comparison. Full Story
Grammy one year later
Like I said earlier, I'm not interested in a Rihanna who shows up in someone I would wear. Or something you would wear. Why would Rihanna ever wear anything we would wear? This is absurd. And so is judging her style according to the standards of what we would consider wearable. When you look like Rihanna and can work it like Rihanna, it's a totally different playbook. Full Story


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|1,321 free recipes at www.edenfoods.com
Serves 7 | Prep Time 10 minutes | Cook Time 25 minutes
6 medium organic potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups water
or vegetable broth
1 1/2 tsp Eden Sea Salt, or to taste
2 Tbsp Eden Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium onion, minced
3 cups Edensoy Original
or Edensoy Extra Original
2 cups green beans, stems removed, cut into 1" pieces
1 tsp dried marjoram, or to taste
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Place the potatoes, salt and water in a soup pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes for 10 minutes or until tender. Mash the potatoes with the cooking liquid in the pot. Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the onions, Edensoy, green beans, marjoram and black pepper to the mashed potatoes. Bring almost to a boil. Reduce the flame and cook another 10 minutes or until the beans are tender. Serve hot.


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You are about to enter a website that may contain content of an adult nature.
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Denim/Grey STARS - Brushed Hacci - By The Yard
Hacci Sweater Knit
Poly Spandex 95/5
"Brushed" means is has a brushed "fuzzy" texture to it
2-way stretch
Medium weight
58" Wide
This fabric is very soft and cozy. Perfect for sweaters, tops and dresses.
Listing is sold by the yard.
CARE: wash cold, tumble dry or lay flat to dry


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- Likes
- 65
- Downloads
- 63664
- Author
- Chris Twist
Install skin
You can also install the skin by unzipping this file into the skin folder.
- Min. jAlbum version
- 9.6.1
- Description
Most of the jAlbum skins are intended to show photograph albums. However, I needed to show an artist's portfolio, and the requirements are a bit different. Although Mirage was initially intended to display art, it also works very well for photo albums, as long as you don't want to show photo meta-data (e.g. aperture, focal length).
1) Why use the Mirage skin?
- If you want to create an art gallery, I think this is the best available skin.
- Mirage and its 3rd party plug-ins are completely free for personal and commercial use.
- Albums are compliant with HTML5.
- The "variants" feature allows a slide page to contain thumbnails of related images, videos and web pages. This provides a more focussed view than an index page.
- The "superimposed" feature allows you to combine a main image and a secondary image on the same slide page. This can provide extra impact.
- Albums can be viewed in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iPad and iPhone.
- If you want to include videos in your album, your choice of skins is limited. Mirage supports the major video formats, and handles cross-browser inconsistencies.
- With any skin, it is possible to combine multiple albums into a master album, but this is complicated. Mirage simplifies this task by allowing a project to contain Windows shortcuts or Internet shortcuts; this lets you easily copy and paste links to your albums (or portions of albums). Each linked album can be created with any skin.
- An album can contain thumbnail links to web pages. This allows you to include external content that complements your photo collection.
- The number of index page columns can be automatically adjusted, so that the thumbnails fit the width of any browser window.
- Flash-free presentation displays images without distractions, and ensures compatibility with devices that don't support Flash.
2) Other features:
- An album can contain:
-> Images (JPG, GIF, PNG).
-> Videos: Any video that is compatible with jAlbum Video Support is converted to MP4.
-> Alternatively, Mirage Video Support plays supported videos in their original format (MPG, AVI, MOV, MP4, WEBM, OGV, WMV, DivX, Xvid, FLV, SWF, 3GP, YouTube, Vimeo).
-> PDF files.
-> Links to other albums or web pages.
-> "Zoomify" images. These can be zoomed and panned, so that you can examine fine detail.
- Video and PDF files are usually embedded, so that they blend with the album's overall appearance.
- A streamed YouTube or Vimeo video can easily be added to an album by a click and drag.
- 44 styles are included.
- Albums display correctly in all the major web browsers.
- Index pages:
-> Each folder is shown as a "folder icon" that contains an embedded thumbnail of any image.
-> A "For Sale" or "Sold" label is superimposed on the thumbnails of paintings that are for sale.
-> A "New" label is superimposed on the thumbnails of new album objects.
- Features
Touch interface supportjAlbum widget supportFreewarePlays video filesUses JavascriptDisplays EXIF/IPTC dataMulti-language albumsSupports folders
- Created
- Apr 5, 2006
- Last updated
- Feb 11, 2020
- Support
- Mirage forum
- Homepage
- Usage
Commercial use is allowed.Modifications of the skin are allowed.
9.3.1 Feb 11, 2020 (current)
Fixed 2 recent bugs that just affect old versions of jAlbum. If you use jAlbum 12 or later, you don't need this update.
- Error "Unknown class: MgSkin" when opening an album in jAlbum 11.6.17, although the album does open successfully. (since 9.2)
- Album generation error in old versions of jAlbum: "Exception caused by line 6: java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: rootFolder". (since 9.3)
CORRECTION Feb 12, 2020
There were some errors in the documentation. A corrected document is available at http://ctwist.jalbum.net/doc/mirage/Mirage.pdf


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Vail – Like Nothing On Earth!
For over fifty years, the name "Vail" has been synonymous with the American alpine experience. Situated high up in the Gore Valley and surrounded by the White River National Forest, our community is ideally located in proximity to all that the Rocky Mountains have to offer. The founders of Vail decided to model the town after a European style alpine village. Today hand painted floral exteriors on several lodges creates a charming atmosphere for families and couples. Whether you are here for the ski season or the summer, Vail is the most spectacular valley in Colorado. This web site will help you with any questions about activities, planning your vacation, relocating, or any other general information. We hope that you have a great experience!!


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I am currently trying to organize a small workshop for several people to generate interest in android. I intend to conduct a hands-on workshop, taking everyone through various components and features by building an app.
One way I can think to do this is to write an app before hand, share it with everyone and then try to develop in group the same code again, understanding the nuances. However, I am not sure how well that'll work out.
I am curious to hear other methodologies or ideas which will help me make this workshop fruitful and engaging for everyone.
I am guessing some of you have experience with similar stuff, can you please suggest what would be a good way to go about it?
PS - Using possibly irrelevant tags, as my reputation won't allow me to create new ones.


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|UMass Amherst chancellor Robert Holub
Chancellor at UMass may face ax
Holub, trustees to meet on terms of departure; panel's report follows medical school flap
A committee evaluating UMass Amherst chancellor Robert Holub is recommending that his contract not be renewed following a series of missteps that critics say reflect a politically tone deaf leadership style, the latest example being a thwarted plan to open a medical school in Springfield, according to several people connected with the university who have direct knowledge of the situation.
Holub, whose three-year contract expires July 31, is expected to meet this week with University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson and key trustees to negotiate the terms of his departure.
The evaluation committee's recommendation probably marks the beginning of the end for a tenure that began with great promise and hope that the German literature scholar from the University of California, Berkeley, would boost the national stature of the state's flagship campus. If Holub's tenure is cut short, UMass will have churned through four chancellors in the past decade.
"The fact that we have this revolving door — parents and educators are going to figure: 'What the heck is going on here? Why can't they keep a chancellor?' '' said biology professor Brian O'Connor, who has taught at UMass Amherst for 43 years. "In the long run, this does not help us.''
Holub would not directly comment on his status, but defended his record in an interview.
"In my view, things are all going in the right direction,'' he said. "I have every academic indicator on my side. I have so much of a stake in things that are going on here. So much of what I started, I want to see them through.''
The evaluation committee — which represents trustees, alumni, and faculty — spent the past two months examining Holub's record and hearing from students, professors, senior administrators, community and political leaders, donors, and staff.
Repeatedly, a portrait emerged of a leader who struggles to communicate and build relationships with important allies such as faculty, legislators, and trustees and who bristles at criticism, said those familiar with the evaluation, who were willing to speak only with a promise of anonymity because they were discussing a personnel matter.
The results of a union survey of faculty were also less than stellar, finding that at least half of the respondents lacked confidence in Holub's ability to forge unity on campus and build morale. They also doubted his ability to promote affirmative action in admissions and hiring, according to results posted by the Massachusetts Society of Professors.
One of the most troubling findings for some members of the evaluation committee was Holub's seemingly cavalier attitude toward the goal of increasing diversity on campus, said two people who know about the results.
The number of African-American undergraduates enrolled at the flagship campus has dropped 24 percent during his tenure, a concern among system officials that did not appear to alarm Holub, they said. Instead, they said, he responded to the committee's concerns by pointing out the increase in minority students overall, including a 33 percent jump in Latino students, but did not articulate a plan for recruitment of black students.
John Kennedy, a spokesman for Holub, pointed to a UMass Amherst initiative, launched in March, to recruit transfer students from community colleges, which is meant to increase the number of black and other minority students.
While the evaluation committee regards him highly as a scholar who has written a dozen books on 19th- and 20th-century German intellectual, cultural, and literary history, the sources said it became clear Holub was miscast as chancellor.
Holub taught at Berkeley for 27 years and served as an undergraduate dean there before becoming provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee's flagship campus in Knoxville.
But some trustees said those academic credentials did not prepare the 61-year-old chancellor to navigate the minefield of Massachusetts politics. They described him as overly confident in his decision-making, unwilling sometimes to consult with others in the UMass system and, in the process, alienating some key system officials.
The most recent example: With no input from UMass trustees, Holub hired consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in January to explore the feasibility of opening a medical school in Springfield affiliated with the parent of Baystate Medical Center. Early estimates from consultants suggested it could cost $30 million to $40 million to start a new medical school, not including construction.
Holub and administrators from the large Springfield hospital believed that a new medical school would burnish the standing of UMass Amherst and inject promise into Springfield. But Holub soon ran into the buzz saw of Massachusetts politics, and the embryonic plan was torpedoed in March.
The problem: The university system already has a medical school in Worcester, a prized institution that caused its own share of political upheaval when it opened nearly 50 years ago. Baystate Medical serves as a teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine, a politically connected force in Boston.
"It was a mess in that he jumped the gun,'' said a trustee who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues. "People were very surprised, and people don't like surprises. I don't think anybody really understands what Bob was thinking.''
The gaffe cost the university nearly $119,000 in consulting fees, of which half will be reimbursed to UMass by Baystate, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers bill and memorandum of understanding between the university and hospital obtained by the Globe through a public records request.
Holub said in an interview that he was just doing his homework before presenting the medical school idea to trustees.
"I am an academic at heart,'' he said. "The way I do things is I gather facts. When I present things to someone, I want to have the facts so I can present a reasoned argument and answer any questions.''
Mark Tolosky, president and chief executive of Baystate Health, said in a written statement that the consultant's study, which was never completed, would have "provided an assessment of the long-term possibilities and resources needed to develop new models of medical education in Springfield.''
US Representative Richard E. Neal praised Holub for floating the medical school idea.
"Anytime you can bring UMass to a city like Springfield, it would be welcome,'' the Springfield Democrat said. "All you have to do is see what UMass Medical School did for Worcester.''
Tapped three years ago to lead UMass Amherst to greater heights, Holub quickly formed ambitious plans to raise the 26,000-student university's stature. He recruited more out-of-state students whose higher tuition payments help the university generate revenue at a time of declining state support.
He moved the university to Division 1 football, oversaw an ambitious campus construction program, and strengthened the honors college to attract higher caliber scholars. During his tenure, the academic quality of incoming freshmen as measured by SAT scores and grade-point averages also rose, and the university became more selective.
"He has put the focus on not letting UMass hover as a second-tier institution, but pushing UMass up, and we feel it,'' said Robert Pollin, an economics professor at UMass Amherst.
Holub's ultimate goal: to secure membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, made up of the nation's top 62 research universities. Opening a medical school in nearby Springfield, he figured, was one avenue to increasing UMass Amherst's research profile.
"It's the job of the chancellor to see what makes sense and what doesn't make sense, but unfortunately, the premature discussions for a new medical school got on the street,'' said James Karam, chairman of the UMass board of trustees. "I didn't think that it was a particularly good idea, and it wasn't going to get too far.''
While supporters praised Holub as a visionary, they conceded he was not adept at communicating his ideas or getting buy-in from interest groups.
Biology professor O'Connor, while acknowledging that the medical school idea was a poor political move, said, "I will defend him for trying to do that because that's the only way I think that we're going to get into the Association of American Universities.''
"His style doesn't necessarily help his ultimate goals,'' said O'Connor. "His head is in the right place. But his methods of trying to do it just didn't work.''
Following its meeting last week, the evaluation committee verbally delivered the overwhelmingly negative review of Holub to Wilson and recommended Holub's contract not be renewed, according to UMass sources with direct knowledge of the process. A formal written report has not yet been issued.
Wilson, who makes the ultimate decision on Holub's contract and whose eight-year presidency draws to a close at the end of June, could present a summary of Holub's evaluation as early as June 8, the next time the university system's trustees meet. Wilson said through a spokesman that he would not comment until he has an opportunity to study the committee's findings.
Holub's departure would allow Robert Caret, who will succeed Wilson as president of the five-campus university system, to appoint his own chancellor.
Holub's contract stipulates that he be given six months' notice if he is not going to be renewed, so his term could stretch beyond the end of July, when his contract expires. Holub, who earns $375,000 annually, could receive a severance payment, but such discussions have yet to occur, according to UMass officials.
"We can't build momentum at the university if we get rid of chancellors every three years,'' Pollin said. "To change now, when the guy is really just getting started, it would be . . . a devastating blow to forward progress at the university.''
Tracy Jan can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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The jokes write themselves with this one, so I'm going to try to keep it as straight as possible: brewing with peas is an ancient tradition, going back at least 400 years in Britain, and it still takes place in Lithuania, the United States and Japan.
The earliest mention I have found for peas in beer is from Gervase Markham's The English Housewife, published in London in 1615:
Now for the brewing of the best March Beer, you shall allow to a Hogshead thereof a quarter [eight bushels] of the best Malt well ground, then you shall take a Peck [a quarter of a bushel] of Pease, half a peck of Wheat, and half a peck of Oats and grind them all very well together, and then mix them with your Malt …
This, Markham said, would make "a Hogshead of the best and a Hogshead of the second, and half a Hogshead of small beer, without any augmentation of Hops or Malt." Even though the hop rate was just a pound a barrel, the strong beer, brewed in March or April, "should (if it have right ) have a whole year to ripen in", Markham said, and "it will last two, three, or four years if it lye cool; and endure the drawing to the last drop." That is probably more down to the strength of the beer – at some five and a half bushels of fermentables per barrel, the alcohol per volume was quite likely north of 11 per cent – than any magic the peas brought to the brew.
A few words about the word "pea", incidentally: it began as "pease", singular, with "peasen" the plural. By the 15th century "pease" was often being used as both the singular and plural, and as a "mass noun", like rice or malt. Eventually , by the 17th century, "pease" was misanalysed as the plural of a singular "pea". "Pease" and "peasen" survive today only in "pease pudding" and in place names such as Peasenhall in Suffolk.


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Salaam and Greetings of Peace:
If God is slow to grant your request and you do not receive what you ask for promptly, do not be grieved, for you are not wiser than God.
It this happens to you, it is because either your way of life does not accord with your request, or because the pathways of your heart are at odds with the intention of your prayer.
Or it may be because your inner state is too childish by comparison with the magnitude of the thing you have asked for.
It is not appropriate that great things should fall easily into our hands, otherwise God's gift will be held in dishonor, because of the ease with which we obtain it.
For anything that is readily obtained is also easily lost, whereas everything which is found with toil is preserved with care.
– from Daily Readings with St. Isaac of Syria (also called St. Isaac of Nineveh), edited by A.M. Allchin.
Ya Haqq!
Note: Alhamdulillah! that such men have through the ages sent forth their spiritual wisdom, for they too are a particle of the mercy of Allah.
St. Isaac also said:
'Like a handful of dust thrown into the sea are the sins of all mankind compared with the mercy and providence of God'."