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T is for Training Meme
January 8, 2010 6 Comments
Our illustrious leader, Maurice Coleman aka baldgeekinmd, challenged the cast of regulars on the podcast T is for Training to answer these 27 questions. We had to limit our answers to one sentence. So here are the questions with my answers bolded.
1.) Your One Sentence Bio
Coordinator Software Support and Training for Howard County Library, social web aficionado, budding photographer.
2.) Do you blog? If yes, how did you come up with your blog name?
Yes. A variation on the name of my blog from Maryland's 23 Things.
3.) What is your professional background?
Jacquelynn of all trades, mistress of some regarding work in the library (Circ[past], ILL [past], IT and training [current]).
4.) What training do you do? staff? patrons? types of classes?
Yes, yes and technology/social web based classes for both.
5.) What training do you think is most important to libraries right now
Technology based training – anything from social web to word processing to apps for mobile phones.
6.) Where do you get your training?
Pick it up where I can.
7.) How do you keep up?
TisforTraining podcast, Twitter (trainers group), blogs and RSS feeds – especially from the cast of regulars (they rock)!
8.) What do you think are the biggest challenges libraries are facing right now?
Funding and getting the respect they deserve as part of the education process within the community.
9.) What are biggest challenges for trainers?
The students, seriously you can teach almost anything but if the person is resistant….well.
10.) What exciting things are you doing training wise?
Nothing really other than using Jeopardy as a way to access if the class got it – they have fun and so do I.
11.) What do you wish were you doing?
List is too long to put here.
12.) What would you do with a badger?
Release it to the wild or give it to a wildlife sanctuary.
13.) What's your favorite food?
Food! Literally I love all kinds and they are my favs (but big on carbs and sweets unfortunately).
14.) If you were stranded on an island, what one thing would you want to have with you?
My cell phone because it would keep me connected to the world (assuming that I'd have coverage there).
15.) Do you know what happens when a grasshopper kicks all the seeds out of a pickle?
Umm, it curls up inside and goes to sleep???
16.) Post it notes or the back of your hand?
Big Post-It note fan here.
17.) Windows or Mac?
18.) Talk about one training moment you'd like to forget?
My Twitter class for the public when within 10 mins of starting 2 people left which rattled me for the rest of the class.
19.) What's your take on handshakes?
Firm has to be firm because wimpy just doesn't do.
20.) Global warming: yes or no
Sadly, yes although if you judge by this winter you wouldn't know it.
21.) How did you get into this line of work?
See blog post for how I got started in library biz – I feel into the role of training and discovered was good at it and people enjoyed/learned from my classes.
22.) Why is the best part of your job?
That I honestly learn something new every day!
23.) Why should someone else follow in your shoes?
Because they love to help people, love that ah-ha moment and love to learn themselves.
24.) Sushi or hamburger?
Sushi, definitely.
25.) LSW or ALA?
LSW without a doubt.
26.) What one person in the world do you want to have lunch with and why?
Hmm, would have to be some of the brains that work at Google because they are innovative and rate a high cool factor 😉
27.) What cell phone do you have and why?
MyTouch 3G (running on open source Android OS) because I love to stay connected and informed.
My fellow T is for Training folks and their answers to the questions:
Nicole Engard – The T is for Training Challenge
Polly-Alida Farrington – The T is for Training Challenge
Bobbi Newman – T is for Training Meme
Alison Miller – A T is for Training Challenge
Maurice Coleman's Getting to Know All About Me Post
Betha Getsche – I Like Sushi & Libraries
Laura Botts – "C is for Challenge" at "T is for Training"
Heather Braum – T is for Training Challenge Meme
Jill Hurst-Wahl – Me. Coffee. Morning.
Pete Bromberg's 23 things (minus 3): A getting to know ya post
Stephanie Zimmerman – A Get to Know Me Meme from TIFT
Marianne Lenox – 27 Questions (Supplemental Pictorial Essay)
Paul Signorelli – Paul's Getting to Know Me Post
Lauren Pressley – 23 Questions with Lauren Pressley
Buffy Hamilton – 27 Questions with Buffy Hamilton
Jay Turner – 20 Questions for Just that Guy
Julie Strange – T is for Training Questionapalooza v 1.1
Angela Paterek – Getting to Know Me


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Ballyclare Comrades 2, Institute...(2) 2
Institute will feel this was two points dropped rather than one gained, as they let slip a two goal lead at Ballyclare Comrades on Friday night.
Leading 2-0 at half-time thanks Michael McCrudden and Stephen O'Donnell goals, Comrades somehow earned a point with two quick fire goals through Michael McQuitty and Gary Brown.
'Stute boss Kevin Deery will be a frustrated man as his side should have easily seen out the game after missing chances to score a third and were in complete control until McQuitty's first goal on 74 minutes.
Institute gave a full debut to midfielder, Ryan Doherty, as winger Stephen Curry dropped to the bench, while Ryan Morrow returned from suspension to replace Dean Curry.
The visitors started brightly and had a half chance on six minutes but Sean McCarron's tame left footed strike after was easily gathered by keeper Paddy Flood.
The woodwork came to the home side's rescue on 16 minutes as Michael McCrudden's fantastic left foot volley from the edge of the box, which had keeper Flood beaten, rattled against the post.
'Stute eventually took the lead on 21 minutes in superb fashion as Niall Grace won possession before feeding McCrudden inside the box and he made no mistake from close range.
The Drumahoe side doubled their advantage on 40 minutes as McCarron put Flood under pressure when a high ball came into the box and while the keeper managed to punch the ball into the air, O'Donnell was on hand to head home the loose ball.
McCarron had a great chance to add a third on 50 minutes after Ciaron Harkin's right wing centre found the striker inside the box but his low drive was straight at Flood.
Minutes later Doherty broke clear down the left before cutting the ball back to McCrudden but the midfielder slid the ball wide with the goal at his mercy.
Soon after the visitors had to make a change as goalkeeper Harry Doherty came off the bench for his debut to replace the injury Marty Gallagher.
And what a debut it was as the home side then scored twice in two minutes to incredibly level things on 76 minutes.
First, centre-back Michael McQuitty turned the ball home after Doherty failed to deal with Michael O'Hanlon's initial corner.
And straight away, the Comrades levelled things when Gary Brown's 20 yard strike took a deflection on it's way past Doherty.
Right at the death Chris Trussell got in behind Mark Scoltock but, after bearing down on goal, he fired wide from just inside the box.
Ballyclare Comrades: Flood, Woods, Youle (Shannon 82), McMullan, McQuitty, McCullough, Brown, Dobbin, Trussell, O'Hanlon, Robinson (Irwin 85).
Institute: Gallagher (H Doherty 58), Morrow, O'Donnell, Scoltock, McFadden; A Harkin, C Harkin, R Doherty (Cooley 77); McCrudden, McCarron (S Curry 67), Grace.
Referee: Peter McGrath

subset: commoncrawl


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MPA TV brings you closer to the industry's
most influential leaders and thinkers. Click on the videos below to watch the interviews:
Franklin Covey Executive VP of Strategic Markets Shawn Moon will be at the Power Originator Summit to share secrets to optimizing your business. Join him at the Anaheim Convention Center on April 4th.
While it's still a relatively small fraction of the mortgage market, non-prime is coming back in a big way. At the forefront of this resurgence is Citadel Servicing Corporation. MPA recently chatted with Citadel's Tony Guidicessi about what sets Citadel apart from the pack – and how non-prime has changed since the pre-crisis days.
With a changing regulatory environment and another Fed rate hike expected by the end of the year, the mortgage industry is in a state of flux. So how can originators keep their business booming? MPA recently sat down with Academy Mortgage Corporation's Aaron Nemec to find out how Academy gives its originators the tools for success.
The only thing certain about the mortgage industry is that the landscape is ever-changing. So how can loan officers keep their business strong through market fluctuations and regulatory uncertainty? MPA recently sat down with one of the country's top originators, Guaranteed Rate's Shant Banosian, to chat about how he keeps his business booming through thick and thin.
The last few years have seen a lot of change in the mortgage industry. And now, continued home-price gains, regulatory uncertainty and a new administration mean even more change on the way. MPA recently chatted with Raymond Bartreau of Best Rate Referrals about the current state of the industry.
Many originators shy away from VA loans, thinking they'll be too complicated. Coming off of a record-breaking year for VA loans, the product can be more viable now than ever. MPA sits down with Carrington's Ray Brousseau to get his take
House Financial Services Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Sean Duffy's bill passed with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 401 to 2 this week. The bill would bring greater transparency and accountability to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The share of zombie homes has increased, despite the decline in total foreclosures, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac.
The CFPB released its rate checker tool in an attempt to better prepare consumers for buying a home. While their intentions may have been good, the result was not, according to NAMB.
This video is worth a good laugh. LendingTree breaks down those tough real estate terms for your clients.


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How to Use
the Readings
Inquiry Question
Reading 2: The Wright Brothers as Printers
Situated on the corner of South Williams and West Third Streets, the three-story commercial Hoover block was constructed in 1890 by Zachary T. Hoover as a mixed-use building. The first floor was designed to accommodate three shops; the second housed three suites; and the third was devoted to a large open meeting hall.
From 1890 to 1895, the Wright brothers operated "Wright and Wright Job Printers" in a suite at the front of the second floor of the Hoover block. The printing shop represented the first of Wilbur and Orville's three joint business ventures--printing, bicycles, and airplanes. It afforded them a significant opportunity to increase their mechanical and business skills and nurtured in them other abilities that would aid them in their later accomplishments. The years in the printing enterprise played an important role in the shaping of the young brothers' minds and stimulated their inventive and enterprising spirits.
The first Wright brothers' job printing business began in 1889 in a rented room of a building, which has since been demolished. While at that first location, the brothers issued two newspapers: the weekly West Side News and the daily Evening Item. The Wrights designed and built a homemade printing press to print their newspapers from junk iron, firewood, a gravestone, and a buggy top. The design of the press was such a mechanical success that the Wrights were hired to design and build printing presses for other firms as well.
Orville served as the publisher of the newspapers, while Wilbur was editor. Both these two papers eventually proved unsuccessful because of a lack of community support, and the brothers returned to filling traditional printing orders. As the Wrights remarked in their final editorial of the Evening Item:
…The greatest difficulty we had to contend with is the fact that the people of the West Side will not believe that "any thing good can come out of Nazareth." They seem to have a way when something new is started up over here of standing back and saying they do not believe it can succeed, instead of at once doing something to support it.¹
In 1890, the brothers moved their business to the newly constructed commercial Hoover block. Here, the firm of Wright and Wright prospered moderately by filling orders for calling cards, posters, annual reports, directories, letterheads, advertisements, and broadsides. Likewise, the Wright brothers received considerable business from their father, Bishop Milton Wright, who served as publishing agent for the Old Constitution of the United Brethren Church and publisher of the Christian Conservator.
Shortly after moving to the Hoover block, Wright and Wright became involved in yet another newspaper endeavor, the Dayton Tattler. This weekly paper, started in 1890, was the creation of the Wrights' friend, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar, an African American who later became a poet of international renown, conceived of the Tattler as a paper devoted to and for "every family of our race in the state. The price so low that all can afford it."²
The Wrights worked with Dunbar on the Tattler at the Hoover block throughout its short-lived existence, Orville remarking, "We published it as long as our financial resources permitted of it, which was not for long."³ In all, only three issues of the Tattler were published. However, Dunbar still appreciated the effort of the Wrights, especially the help of his high school classmate Orville.
In 1894, the Wrights again embarked on a newspaper enterprise with Snap-Shots, a weekly publication directed toward Dayton cyclists. By February 1896, one year after the printing business had been combined with the bicycle business at 22 South Williams Street, Snap-Shots was devoted to cycling news and the promotion of The Wright Cycle Company. First issued on October 20, 1894, and continuing until April 17, 1896, Snap-Shots was the longest running of any of the Wrights' papers.
Although Wright and Wright Printers moved from the Hoover block to 22 South Williams in the spring of 1895, the Hoover block was later again associated with the Wright brothers. The West Side neighborhood of Dayton showed overwhelming support of the Wright brothers and their invention of the airplane. In May 1909, upon the return of the Wrights to Dayton from an extended trip of successful flying demonstrations in Europe, a group of West Side businessmen organized the first aeroplane club in the world "to honor Wilbur and Orville Wright, two neighborhood sons who had conquered the air and just then returned from European laurels."4 This club, incorporated as the International Dayton Aeroplane Club, held its club meetings and social functions at the Hoover block. The members met monthly:
For the purpose of stimulating and fostering research in the science of aeroplanautics and aeronautics in general, co-operating in the exploitation of aerial devices, collecting literature bearing thereon and recognizing meritorious contributions or achievements by the conferring of suitable honors.5
Dues were a dollar a year and the club boasted a membership of more than 200. Among the members were Bishop Milton Wright and Wilbur and Orville's older brother, Lorin. As honorary lifetime members, Wilbur and Orville "frequently sat in on confabs about airplanes, balloons, and aviation."6
The Hoover block was the home of the first common business venture of Wilbur and Orville, a business that nourished their intimate bond of friendship and fostered a harmonious working relationship between them. Through the newspaper business, the Wright brothers learned how to report and record events accurately, a skill that would assist them in documenting their work with the airplane and would aid them in winning court cases of patent infringement. As printers, the Wrights designed and built machinery to ease their work, an experience that would aid them in their later development of machinery and mechanics to manufacture bicycles and build an airplane. Their time as printers developed their business experience as well, helping them later in founding the aviation industry. The 10 years that the brothers were in the printing business proved to be an important precursor to their later experiences of inventing and marketing the airplane.
Questions for Reading 2
1. What Wright business was located in the Hoover block?
2. As printers, what did the brothers invent to help them in their work? What was it made of? Does this seem unusual? Why or why not?
3. In what ways did printing help the brothers in their pursuit of aviation?
4. What other famous Daytonian is associated with the Wright brothers and the Hoover block?
5. How did the West Side neighborhood finally show their support for the Wright brothers?
Reading 2 was compiled from David G. Richardson, Jill York O'Bright, and William S. Harlow, "Wright Brothers-Associated Properties in the Dayton, Ohio Area" National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1990); Mary Ann Johnson, A Field Guide to Flight: On the Aviation Trail in Dayton, Ohio (Dayton, Ohio: landfall Press, 1986); Fred Howard, Wilbur and Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers (New York: A. Knopf, 1987); and Tom D. Crouch, The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989).
¹ Dayton Evening Item, 30 July 1890.


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Revit Tutorials
Professional 3D modelers on CGTrader are always open to share their experience in creating great 3D models. Find quality 3D tutorials and examples to learn from offered by our community. Best practices on how to efficiently create character models from A to Z, or from hand to skeleton and skin, tips and tricks on creating shiny robot surface, and step-by-step tutorials on constructing interior piece by piece - all this can be found in this knowledge sharing space.
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Karma Bank Deposits
Bob Cummings
Employer: Associated Bank
Job: Senior Programmer
DDJ: What is your job?
BC: I have two jobs. At the bank, I work on the "one off" projects. Sometimes a business unit will want something that is beyond the scope or available bandwidth of their IT unit. At night, I am self-employed, working remotely with research ecologists all over the U.S. developing simulations.
DDJ: What do you like about your job?
BC: At the bank, I love the variety of different projects. It definitely keeps me from becoming bored. The work with the scientists is very rewarding; it feels like I am making deposits in the Karma bank. One simulation I worked on has been used for everything from trying to manage the Southern Pine Beetle infestation in the Appalachian Mountains to simulating the effects of Global Warming in Siberia.
DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job?
BC: Convincing the front-line end usersthe tellers, personal loan officers, and othersthat change is not always a bad thing. They are the people who will have to face the angry clients if something goes wrong and all of a sudden their debit card no longer works. With the simulations, I am usually working directly with a professor's grad students, gathering input data and testing. Trying to keep the students focused on the project from a distance while they live the college student lifestyle can be a challenge. Ah, to be that young again!
DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier?
BC: I think it is the network of people I can draw on to help solve problems, bounce ideas off of, and learn from. It seems no matter where they work, or what business they support, most software developers love to solve problems and help each other.
Globe Trotter
Guy Vider
Employer: BMC Software
Job: Global Practice Manager
DDJ: What's your job?
GV: I manage the technical aspects of every deployment of the BMC AppSight Problem Resolution System worldwide. I also design and develop "glue" applications to assist with deeper integrations with customers' ancillary software.
DDJ: What do you like about your job?
GV: Being exposed to different design, development, implementation, testing, and support methodologies every week, at every new account. This job affords the rare privilege of conducting a personal comparison study between some of the best R&D teams in the world. Compared to a regular developer's job, this job is like being locked in a candy store.
DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job?
GV: The personal challenge is the amount of travel. This position calls for global travel, and as anyone can attest, air travel in (and out) of the U.S. is not as fun as it used to be.
DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier?
GV: I found a myriad of online tools that make my travel life easier: sites that assist in managing trips, hotels, cars, etc. I also make it a habit to study new environments and methodologies before arriving on site. Developers like to speak to people who speak their language. Sites like MSDN and CodeProject make my professional life easier.
DDJ: What do you do away from work? Do you have a hobby?
GV: My current hobby is blogging. I started a travel/tech blog (The Traveling Tech Guy at www.guyvider.com) where I document and share some of my travel and technical experiences, recommendations, and stories. When at home, I frag away on my XBox 360 or try to teach my Mac to do new things (Mono for Maccool!).
Asking the Right Question
Greg Amerson
Employer: Genuitec, LLC
Job: Senior Eclipse Technologist
DDJ: What is your job?
GA: Sales support, right? Isn't that a developer's real job? :) Actually, my number one job is to think of better ways [to] deliver useful software tools to the developer community. Most days, that involves working on a team doing Eclipse plug-in development.
DDJ: What do you like about your job?
GA: Several things...Getting to deliver software that people really care about. Helping the half-million MyEclipse users do their everyday jobs better. I love it when other people look smart to their peers by using our software. Interfacing with third-party companies to help them extend MyEclipse. Staying up-to-date with the ever-changing Java Enterprise software landscape.
DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job?
GA: Two things: "asking the right question" and "software trade-offs." Banging code isn't hard and lots of people can do it. Being able to ask the right question, define the requirements, manage business risk: That is what is difficult. Software trade-offs can also be hard. Nobody likes to hack, but you must always be delivery- and end-user focused enough to make the hard choices and write ugly code if you have to solve a problem.
DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier?
GA: Working with really smart people. Not thinking that I have to solve every problem myself, but instead leveraging the shared knowledge of all my teammates.
DDJ: What is different about your job than other places you've worked?
GA: Relentless delivery. We have had over 50 product deliveries since I've been a member of the Genuitec team. We love to constantly be shipping software, and it drives everything we do. If on a particular day, I can solve a problem by deleting 300 lines of code, as opposed to having to write 500, that is a great day.


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Lost: Drama. 9 p.m. Thursdays on ABC. Special two-hour repeat of the Season 3 finale at 9 tonight. Special preview, "Lost: Past, Present & Future," 8 p.m. Thursday.
At first, ABC said it wasn't going to send out screeners of the Season 4 premiere of "Lost." Too many spoilers, the network said. Can't trust the critics.
Then, over the weekend, ABC sent an e-mail to critics saying, yes, they could watch the first two episodes online. A DVD appeared on Monday.
Three words for Thursday's first episode: Oh. My. God.
ABC kindly sent the second episode as well. Three more words: Oh. My. God.
For those of you who haven't invested in the first three seasons of "Lost," it's not too late. Tonight at 9, ABC is going to air the two-hour Season 3 finale, complete with "onscreen facts" dominating the bottom third of your screen, which will set the stage for what is happening and which elements are important.
At 8 p.m. Thursday, ABC will air a one-hour table-setter called "Lost: Past, Present & Future," which should bring everyone up to speed before the kickoff to Season 4.
Let's be honest here. Season 1 was incredible. It mixed action with mythology to create a wonderfully intriguing drama. The fictional Oceanic Flight 815 veered off course, exploded in midair and crashed. There were survivors on a strange island.
They were not alone.
There is a theory of complex, mythological or science fiction-oriented television series that centers on a viewer's willingness to "opt in." The idea is that you start watching a series, something out of the ordinary happens, and you have to make a decision on whether to continue watching. On Thursday night, ABC will premiere a midseason drama called "Eli Stone," in which a lawyer in San Francisco suddenly starts hearing George Michael. Then he sees George Michael - in his living room.
That's your "opt in" moment. Are you going to see where it goes or turn the channel? Examples like this abound, but in the original "Lost" pilot, the prime example comes when, stranded on a tropical island with all kinds of craziness afoot, a few of the castaways (including one with a gun) hear rustling in the leafy forest. And then loud rumbling. Something is coming. And fast. But what is it? Closer it comes, getting louder all the way. Viewers are riveted and then out of the forest comes ... a polar bear.
On a tropical island. Are you in? Many people said yes, but the two-part pilot then ratcheted up the bet. Something large and predatory - let's call it the Big Bad - was roaring and shaking trees as it moved. It seemed very scary - and very hungry. It was downright Jurassic. People were killed by it - but you never really saw what it was.
Again - an "opt in" moment. Some viewers said no. They turned the channel.
But those who stayed were treated to a very complex dramatic series that deftly used clues, red herrings, flashbacks and peculiarly intertwined arcs to seriously muddy up the storytelling. "Lost" brilliantly used the Internet to tap into the geek squad - people posting theories on Wikipedia detailing what it all meant. You could either immerse yourself in that culture of secrets or merely do your best each week to decipher where it was all going and what was happening to each member of the island as they battled mystical elements of the island itself and, as we learned, a group called "The Others," who were apparently already on the island before the crash.
Season 1 was thrilling and unique.
Unfortunately, Season 2 was one extended, mostly unsatisfying foray into deeper mythology with very little payoff. Some viewers - not getting what they wanted in 22 hours - gave up.
Season 3 started much the same, and there was an enormous amount of grumbling, as flashback after flashback on "Lost" illuminated each character's past but didn't really advance the plot much. Worse, an already bloated ensemble cast was fattened with more story lines about "The Others." Viewers continued to bail.
But then an interesting thing happened (actually, it happened weeks earlier but didn't materialize onscreen until midseason). The writers heeded the complaints. They sped up the storytelling, quickening the pulse, answering questions and deftly expanding the conceit. The result was that the last half of "Lost" in Season 3 was one of television's great thrill rides.
Season 4 rockets out of the gate on Thursday with much of that enthusiasm intact. The problem is, with a show like "Lost," it's really difficult to say anything about what's happening without encroaching on spoiler territory. Maybe ABC was right, initially, in withholding the DVDs. The network even gave critics a list of things they couldn't talk about.
It's a long list. For example: "Any details about (character X's) flash forward, or that (character X) even has a flash forward."
It kind of handcuffs critics. But it's not a bad policy to adhere to. Television doesn't have a surplus of joy for viewers. Why ruin what's there by telling people what happens? Make it special for them - the thrill of discovery and shock.
And there's plenty to shock, that's for sure. The first two episodes are roller coasters of fast action and revelation. It's good to see. It means "Lost" continues to be back on track. And yet the idea that hints can be given about what to expect - without spoiling anyone's fun - is almost too hard to pass up. Viewers are enduring a strike. "Lost" fans have waited a long time for these episodes. So, without ruining anything too shocking or twist-worthy, here are some hints to get your enthusiasm stoked for Season 4.
-- There's a car chase.
-- There's a flash forward. And a few flashbacks.
-- Daniels from "The Wire" shows up.
-- Punches are thrown. Triggers are pulled. Shots are fired.
-- Someone sees dead people.
-- A prophetic number is revealed: single digits.
-- There are whispers. There are tears.
-- Two reasonable people disagree - with apparently devastating consequences.
-- Episode 1 ends too quickly.
-- Episode 2 ends too quickly.
It's not too late to get "Lost."


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Lyte EN131 Professional Platform Step Ladder - 7 Tread
Metric Converter
- Class EN131 Professional
- Closed / Section Height (metres) 2.17 m
- Height When Open (metres) 2.06 m
- Platform Height (m) 1.43 m
- Treads 7 Tread
- Max Working Height (metres) 2.93 m
The Lyte Trade Platform Step Ladder are suitable for light trade, retail and domestic use. Certified to EN131-2 with a duty rating of 115 kg, the ENPL step ladder has a slim design making it ideal for storage and easy transport.
Main Features Include:
- Certified to the new EN131-2 standard
- Slim design - ideal for storage and transport
- Rubberised feet provide slip resistance and floor protection
- Fitted with high tensile straps
|Weight (kg)
|Lyte Ladders
|EN131 Professional
|Class Use
|Light Trade - for frequent use
|Max Working Height (metres)
|2.93 m
|Height When Open (metres)
|2.06 m
|Platform Height (m)
|1.43 m
|Closed / Section Height (metres)
|2.17 m
|7 Tread
|Tread Information
|Number of Treads Shown Includes The Platform / Top Step
|Ladder Width
|0.50 m
Questions on Lyte EN131 Professional Platform Step Ladder - 7 Tread
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Use the 'Delivery Estimate' above for accurate delivery methods and costsFree Delivery*
2-3 working day delivery after shipping date to Mainland UK, between 9am - 5.30pm. Some products are excluded from this delivery option.
|Standard Delivery
Standard 1-3 working day delivery after shipping date, between 9am - 5.30pm.
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All orders placed before 12pm Monday to Thursday will be shipped the same day for delivery the next working day.
Orders made before 12pm on Friday will be delivered on Monday and orders made after 12pm on a Friday will be delivered on the Tuesday.
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Available 09.00-16.30, Monday to Friday. Please allow 30 minutes to prepare your order.
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(CNN) - Ann Romney opened up about her struggles with multiple sclerosis while speaking Saturday with patrons at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The wife of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney shared some of her personal experiences when she met a woman who also suffers from the nervous system disease.
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"It was really tough on my balance," Romney said. "I couldn't figure out what was going on. That was sort of what was happening. I was trying to figure out what was going on, what was wrong with me."
Romney said she used to play tennis, but "when I got really sick I stopped playing so much."
"I was very coordinated and athletic, and all of a sudden I'm falling and tripping and losing my balance. And being so weak," she said. "And I was like, 'Something's wrong!'"
Romney, 63, is a survivor of both MS and breast cancer.
She was diagnosed with MS in 1998, and said in an interview with CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger this summer that her husband was an important part of her efforts to regain control of her life.
"Even when I was as sick as that he would curl up in the bed with me," she said. "It was like he was gonna do anything he could do just to say, 'I'm here. You're OK. Just stay right there, and we'll be OK.'"
Mitt Romney also described the couple's meeting with a neurologist after Ann's symptoms became serious.
"It was very clear that she was flunking the examination. She couldn't stand on her right foot without falling over and things like that. (The doctor) stepped out and she began to cry and I welled up tears as well and we hugged each other, and she said, 'Something is terribly wrong,' and I said, 'Yes, but Ann, we can go through anything so long as it's not fatal,'" he recalled.
Ann Romney has said MS and breast cancer would be two of her priorities as first lady if her husband is elected.
Later Saturday, Ann Romney attended a campaign rally in Boca Raton, where her husband and President Barack Obama will meet Monday night in the final presidential debate.
Also on the CNN Political Ticker
- Ryan zeroes in on energy jobs in Pennsylvania
- Poll: Races in Florida, Ohio remains tight after second debate
- Early voting opens in seven states, D.C.
Tug on the heartstrings Ann! Go for the sympathy vote! It is too bad that she has this disease, but did she also say what might have been if hubby did not have a gazillion dollars? She can buy the best of everything and not worry. Let's hear the story based on one of us common folk out here. The middle class family, even with insurance, who will struggle with the cost, The elderly or someone else on medicare. A veteran. Or Mr. Romney's irrelevant 47% on medicaid or those who have nothing at all!
Poor Ann, she had to give up tennis! What about those folks who have to give up their jobs! I guess it's OK though. She got her million dollar horse! And it is a tax writeoff too!
Ann go back and use your sob story on your wealthy friends. Maybe they will give a damn and give you an expensive bottle of wine or another million for der Mitt's campaign.
Let's have a pity party. Don't know who I dislike more, Ann or Mitt. And I actually voted for him for Gov here in MA!
What does this have to do with the election?
I don't want her husband getting elected because he's a lying, insensitive, draft dodging flip flop.
The problem with MS is you are not a survivor. You never beat MS. You just continually deteriorate.
I thought she had Lyme disease per Romney's words during his campaign. Since Lyme disease is a very contradictory disease. American people deserve the truth.
That a lie. She does not have MS. She has Lyme. MS is not treatable but Lyme probably is. Romney even use her disease as one campaign bargain but now this lie just made her husband lost my vote.
I have a relative who suffers from MS so I know how debilitating it is. Shame on Mrs. Romney if she is using this life altering illness to gain sympathy and votes. Hopefully this not the case.
We don't care ,we still won't vote for a lier and tax cheat and after dip loses ,he won't have to show his tax returns gop train wreck in three weeks unless all voters are idiots !!!!
So why doesn't she understand from this that 40 million people without health insurance constitutes a serious social problem in America? She is fortunate enough to have money to pay for coverage. What about those who don't?
Top priorities as First Lady, eh? Well, Ann just so you know if there was a single payer national insurance then people wouldn't have to rely on being married to a very rich man when they got diagnosed with these dieseases to not go bankrupt.
Mitt Romney has been running for one political office or amother since at least the nineties. MS is a devastating disease which requires staying away from stress. Sorry, Ann. Your husband's ambition is the priority in his life. You deserved better.
A pre existing condition? good thing they are rich
Most who are sick would take Ann's place. What worry does she have of whether or not she can get or afford treatment? Most of America isn't so lucky. And her party wants to continue to make healthcare a comodity that only those who can afford it can get well.
Mitt goes with the lies, and Ann panders for the sympathy vote. Let's ask Joe Walsh what he thinks. Will he call out Ann like he calls out Tammy Duckworth? Everything about the Romneys is shady. Who can say for sure if Ann is even telling the truth? Her husband has no problem at all with being honest. Maybe if Mitt would release his tax returns, and Ann release her medical records, we could ascertain just how much truth the Romneys are telling. Just like "The boy who cried wolf", it's impossible to believe anything the Romneys say.
I have personally observed several friends and relatives regressive experience with MS and aggressive estrogen-fueled breast cancer over a period of time. Mrs. Romney deserves some sympathy for her milder experience with MS and nonaggressive breast cancer. But this is not the same as those individuals with MS who require wheelchairs for mobility and women going through failing treatments for breast cancer. same. That aside, it has to be said not everyone with MS and breast cancer has the treatment resources Mrs. Romney's wealth provides and publiciizing her condition as part of a pandering political campaign is despicable.The election is not about the Romneys personal problems but the needs of all Amercian people.
i wonder how she feels about them rebranding the meds and are now charging 20 times for them . oh wait she has money to purchase it .
Ann Romney says that MS and breast cancer will be her two priorities if she is first lady. That's great BUT, meanwhile, her husband plans to take down what's mockingly referred to as 'Obamacare' for the rest of us. Ann is a very lucky lady. Her husband is very rich and can get her the best care available, no matter what befalls her. And she doesn't have to worry about having a pre-existing condition because his boatload of money will save her any worry about that pesky little problem. It's the rest of us who have to worry about our health if Mitt becomes president. Seniors, good luck finding a good insurance plan you can afford when Mitt issues you vouchers. And good luck, too, to those of you with pre-existing conditions. If you don't have one now, you never know when you might develop one. So, when Mrs. Romney talks about her problems with MS and breast cancer, I have little pity for her under the circumstances. The person I sympathize with is the single mother who finds she has MS or breast cancer and who needs to bring in money to keep her family afloat ... and who will have no health insurance because Mitt Romney has gotten rid of 'Obamacare'.
How sad! Mrs. Romaney, you could not play tennis. Try if you have to work for a paycheck to provide for your family, but you could not
Can that poor woman getting the treatment as you did with your unlimited money?
Ms Ramney, We really don't give a damm about your MS. Your husband deprives most American women's right to get adquate health care!!!


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Standard Car Cover For Mercury Marquis 1977 Coupe 2-Door
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text: Reconstructed and distressed denim shorts are always street-ready. Evening-ready tailored twill and gabardine shorts polish off fine tailoring, while relaxed-fit and paper bag-style shorts in textural houndstooth and tweed textiles provide a playful alternative. Fine cotton and wool-blend jersey shorts elevate casual loungewear, with track shorts in performance fabrics advancing avant-garde sportswear styling.


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I wonder what is the best way to represent a user setting that could either take a value from a set (such as 'High', 'Medium' or 'Low') or be a list of IDs from another (or the same!) table (Many to Many relation).
I would like to know what is commonly used and what are the drawbacks/assets of each solution (in terms of performances, integrity and sustainability).


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Rossellini is responsible for Fox's largest financial partner, Dune Capital Management, which has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the studio's films during the past seven years. The exec introduced the New York-based hedge fund to Fox in 2005 and has managed the studio's relationship with its longtime backer ever since; she is spearheading efforts to re-up that partnership. That's notable in an atmosphere where film investors are few and far between. In addition to her Dune duties, Rossellini manages Fox's relationships with U.K.-based investor Ingenious Media and James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, the latter of which is at work on the upcoming "Avatar" installments. Ingenious, which along with Dune, co-financed Cameron's first blockbuster pic, continues to be an important financial backer for a number of Fox films.
What makes a deal stick: "You have to be committed to maintaining the relationship long-term. Overall, it's a good business if you do the deal correctly.
Popular on Variety
"Words of wisdom: "Be true to yourself and your ideas and to not be afraid to be a passionate advocate for your beliefs. I think the strongest executives and the most valuable ones are the ones who are passionate about something and aren't afraid to be an advocate for what they believe."
Smartphone on vacation? "Yes. I'm much more comfortable enjoying time away if I know that I'm accessible."
Work week: "(I put in) as many hours as are required. When I'm watching a TV show, I'm thinking about how to restructure something."
Life-work balance: "I think it's probably harder when the kids are very young and you're younger and you're less certain in your professional life."
Charitable passions: "The UCLA Ted Gagliano (Fox's feature post-production prexy) brain tumor research fund … he had a friend who was diagnosed with this horrible disease and he just founded this fund very generously."


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There are plenty of games out there that posit alternate realities. Upcoming MMO The Secret World bases its whole plot around the idea, while piles of other games have at some point integrated themselves into the real world, often for marketing purposes.
But one ARG is taking the premise of games like Missing: Since January (a.k.a. In Memoriam) and drawing it out into the physical world. Mashable reports on Alternet Reality, a small start-up that has online players control the actions of real people to tell a collaborative story.
The first game the company ran, last October, featured a single character: a man who was kidnapped, and found himself alone in a boat. Players had to instruct the man how to solve the puzzles around him so that he could deduce his location, and have other characters come to his rescue. The actor himself had no idea where he was, making his on-screen behaviours a combination of improvisational acting and real-life confusion.
The human element of the "player character" is what sets this game apart. As Mashable describes:
This is a computer game, of course, but there are no animations. There are no special effects, no rules and no prizes.
There's just a living, breathing man floating in a real boat.
"They yell back," says Anthony Purzycki, one of the game's creators, about the difference between a game with live actors and a traditional computer game. "If you stop playing for a minute, for example the old Mario games, Mario stops and taps his foot.
"With this, if you stop playing, there is a person on the other end. They're not just going to stop and tap their foot. They're going to start yelling, 'Hey, let's go. Help me.'"
Purzycki insists that no actual harm comes to the potentially startled actors, who, while in uncomfortable and potentially dangerous positions, are safe. And yet, players who are accustomed to killing their video game characters in a thousand different ways just to see what happens may not always have a human avatar's best interests at heart. He added, "Your interaction is really controlling whether this person gets rescued. So, if the audience decides they don't like you, they're probably just going to leave you to die."
Naturally, we all know that no game design company would actually leave an actor to die. Provided that he is really an actor, of course, and it's not all just a cover-up for them...
'Truman Show'-Style Online Game Uses Actors, Not Animation [Mashable]
Photo: Bitterroot/Flickr


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LEWISTON, N.Y. -- Chris Casey has inherited a winning program and high expectations in his first Division I head coaching job.
Casey was introduced Monday as the new men's basketball coach at Niagara University. The former coach at Division II Long Island University Post takes over a program that went 19-14 and won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season championship in 2013 with the youngest roster in the conference.
"Most coaches come into a job and they come in because the situation hasn't been good," Casey said. "That is certainly not the case here."
Casey is replacing Joe Mihalich, who won 265 games and led Niagara to five postseason berths, including two NCAA tournament appearances, in 15 seasons before leaving for Hofstra.
"I want to acknowledge Joe Mihalich," Casey said. "He didn't do a good job, he did an outstanding job. I spoke to him on the phone a couple times these last few days and tried to pick his brain for some insight. I kidded him and said, 'Joe, could you make it any harder? Not only did you win, but you might be the most loved person in western New York that anyone has ever come across.' "
Casey did his share of winning at LIU Post, going 62-25 over the last three seasons and twice qualifying for the Division II NCAA tournament. Casey previously spent six seasons as an assistant at St. John's University. Casey also spent three seasons at Central Connecticut State, where he was named the 2003 national assistant coach of the year.
He spent three seasons as a head coach at Rutgers-Newark, and also had stints as an assistant at St. Peter's College, Western Connecticut State and St. Francis (N.Y.).
"Chris Casey impressed many in our administration and we feel that he can lead us to new heights," Niagara athletic director Tom Crowley said. "Chris has a long line of experience in college basketball and is someone we think will build on our tradition and become our next outstanding coach."
Antoine Mason, Niagara's leading scorer a year ago, has heard good things about Casey from his older brother, Anthony Mason Jr., a former St. John's player.
"He said that he's a very good guy," Mason said. "He will let his playmakers make plays and that's something that we have, a lot of playmakers."
Juan'ya Green, who like Mason was selected to the all-MAAC team as a sophomore, said Casey made a favorable impression when he met with the team Friday.
"He gave off a good vibe to everybody," Green said. "He has the same coaching style, basically, as Coach Mihalich. So I think he'll fit perfect."
Niagara is set to return all but one rotation player from last season, including its top five scorers.
"What they did last year was special. It doesn't happen all of the time," Casey said. "They are in the envious position of a lot of people to have 90 percent of that back and have the opportunity to do something really special. They came in together, persevered through difficult things together and had victories together. Now let's go ahead and chase the prize and finish the job."
Casey becomes the second consecutive LIU Post coach to make the jump to the MAAC. In 2010, he replaced Tim Cluess who has since led Iona to two NCAA tournament appearances.


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Thomas Sherman
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Staffers Share Their Favorite Moments
To take you behind the scenes in the final days of MSA, we offer these candid accounts of memories from franchise executive and staff members who worked in the old building (in alphabetical order).
As a spectator, the back-to-back nights that Billy Joel and Paul McCartney played. Two fabulous evenings of music.
As an employee and former Pacer beat writer, the best memory of all was Michael Jordan's comeback game, March 19, 1995. It was my first year working for the Pacers and we had less than 24 hours to prepare for an NBA Finals-like event at noon on Sunday. The way everyone chipped in to help, both marketing and facilities (who had a hockey game the night before), with little or no sleep showed me what a special place it was to work at and what special people worked there.
Plus, we won the darn game.
Compared to the palace that is Conseco Fieldhouse, Market Square Arena was a barn. But it was a barn in which much hay was made.
Everybody remembers the big games, the big shots, the famous players, so I won't repeat accounts of those moments. Instead, here are a few personal favorites:
Roger Brown's funeral on MSA floor . . . how touching and appropriate that was.
My best memories of MSA don't come from working there, they come from my high school days. Warren Central was one of the first high schools to have its graduation ceremonies at MSA, and my class (1988) was the second WCHS class to use MSA. It was still a big deal that we were bucking tradition by not using our own gymnasium. Considering the numerous ''General Admission'' concerts I attended at MSA during the late '80s, it was a perfect place to end my high school career. I grew up with MSA so I will be very sad to see it go.
MSA Memories of 1987 - 1999:
The Sound: The single most significant thought that comes to mind during the time period is the deafening sounds of the Pacers crowds during the many playoff runs of the mid-to-late '90s. Never before could I recall what nearly 17,000 people cheering and reacting to great Pacers shots, games or wins sounded like in other venues. Not even during the rock concert heyday of the '70s or '80s do I remember my ears humming long after the game was over.
Pacers Pride: Not only were the screaming sounds of Pacers fans ringing in my ears, but Pacers pride was shining through, too. I will remember with pride watching Donnie Walsh's precise and deliberate game plan of building the franchise with patience. From Chuck Person to Larry Bird, Donnie always shared his plans with his staff with honesty and integrity. You believed in him when others didn't. And to have his plan nearly reach the ultimate prize were the greatest years I can recall in MSA. It sure was fun being a part of it!
The Great One Returned: Seeing Wayne Gretzky walking to the Edmonton Oilers dressing room for an early '90s preseason NHL game in what looked like a two-piece suit two sizes too big. Knowing how this superstar changed the game of hockey, it was surprising to see how small a man in stature compared to the legend he truly is.
Thoughts: It used to be we'd see a building's era end, or a new one begin. Now, we're seeing arenas open and close in one lifetime.
What other building will we remember experiencing sitting above a street?
Boomer made his mark in MSA entering from the ceiling. It's something that the new building cannot duplicate.
My fondest memories are the people I've worked with at MSA. I remember Buddy, Paul, Curtis, Jerry Cole, Jim Snodgrass, Ron Languell, Bill Hart and so many others that are no longer with us. They made us laugh, smile and cry when we said goodbye. I think about the excitement I felt the first day I walked through the doors and the bittersweet feeling I had when I walked out for the last time. I remember and give thanks for the friends I have made the past 18 years. The owners, coaches, players, trainers, managers, media, and all the wonderful people that I have met and had the opportunity to get to work with. I'm so blessed to say that I was a part of it. MSA, I miss you!
Now you want the funniest story? It happened at one of the Disney on Ice shows. I was working on one of the doors for Crowd Management. A gentleman came to the door with a small child and said his daughter needed to use the restroom. He did not have a ticket, so I tried to explain to him that I could not let him in without a ticket and apologized that I could not leave the door to escort him to the restroom. He said his wife had his ticket and she was on the sixth floor. I advised him to go to the sixth floor to gain entrance in the arena and instructed him how to get to the restroom. He was pretty angry when he left because I would not let him in. Shortly thereafter, he appeared at the door and asked if I remembered him. I stated that I had seen a lot of people come through my door. He asked again. I apologized, because I did not remember where I had seen him. He then reached behind his back and put something in my face and said ''remember me now''? He stated that since I would not let him in, his daughter messed her pants. He was holding a pair of soiled underwear. He walked away so fast, I did not have time to react. I was really angry at the time, but when I went to tell Rick Fuson (the arena's general manager) what had happened, I started laughing so hard, I could barely tell him.
It was a typical Saturday preparing for the Pacers Sunday game vs. the Chicago Bulls. I strolled into the Pacers' office at Market Square Arena at 11:00 a.m., thinking I would get home in about four hours and enjoy the rest of the day. I sat down at my desk and about 11:50 a.m. my phone rings. It was the Media Relations Director of the Chicago Bulls. When I recognized his number on my caller ID, I answered the phone, ''Don't even.'' His reply was a simply, ''Yes.'' From that moment on, myself, along with my department (at the time all three of us) and some co-workers who came to volunteer, spent the entire day and night preparing for the return of Michael Jordan. Instead of spending four easy hours at work, we all spent over 11 hours in utter chaos as all the phone's in the office were ringing as media members just kept calling any number they thought would get through to us. I will always remember sitting at my desk, answering my phone and uttering some words that weren't very lady-like as I was the first to get the news of Jordan's return.
Here's another: We use to have a paging system in the Pacers' offices at Market Square Arena which was very beneficial, especially during playoff times. I can remember when the Pacers started making their first successful trips into the playoffs and office members, including the Vice President, getting on the paging system, and leading the office in cheers.
And yet another: One of my favorite moments was during the 1994 Eastern Conference First Round vs. the Orlando Magic. Our office staff had a viewing party in Market Square Gardens, the sixth-floor restaurant, of Market Square Arena. To my knowledge this was the first viewing party the Pacers' office had for front office members (at least since I had started), and it was packed. I adopted one of the cloth napkins as my ''official rally towel.'' We all watched and went totally crazy when Byron Scott hit the shot heard around Indianapolis (the Pacers defeated the Magic, 89-88). All of us staff members were dancing and screaming and running around the entire restaurant screaming Byron's name, along with everything else that came to mind. I was waiving that rally towel like crazy. It was great, one of the best times, I ever had as a front office member. And, believe it or not, that rally towel stayed on my desk until our offices were moved to Conseco Fieldhouse. (p.s. I still have it and pulled it out last year during the NBA Finals)
The cloggers that someone (who will remain nameless) booked for a halftime show and Tom Rutledge made them perform barefooted so they wouldn't destroy the basketball floor. Of course, he made it up to me years later when he arranged for a private Barbara Streisand concert, pizza and wine mid-court to christen the newly installed sound system.
I have been in the ticket sales and marketing dept of the Pacers for 13 1/2 years. My fondest memory is 1994 when we won the first round of the playoffs for the first time.( It was a home game) I was working the game (in those days everyone worked every game till the end) and at halftime I had the chance to sit down for the second half of the game with my husband and children. The nail-biting excitement generated during that game was unreal. I was hard to fathom ever making it into the second round. When the final buzzer went off and we had won the crowd was wild. To experience that thrill with my family is a memory we talk about often at my house. After the game I had to send John home with the kids because the staff had to stay most of the night to get ready for the second-round tickets to go on sale the next morning. The staff was in at a loss as to what to do next because we had never been in that position before.
The day after the first-round win in 1994 I will never forget the crowd wrapping around Market Square Arena waiting in line to pick up Pacer banners and to buy items in the gift shop.
The sales persons were in charge of booking acts, bands, choirs, etc. I will never forget the times we booked large groups and they were spread out in the back stage area ( that was sooooo small) warming up, along with the Pacemates , the color guard, Boomer, and a reception going on for our sponsors. This was all taking place outside of the visitors' locker room. To get to the floor the visitor players had to make their way thru all this.
Then there was Michael Jordan's return, and all the games that were won on last-second shots by Reggie and Rik.
Well there was the day back in 1977 that there was so much ice on the ramp, and Channel 4's remote truck got halfway up and got stuck. The driver, (the late Ken Houchin) could not go forward because the wheels were spinning and was afraid to go backwards, for fear that the trailer would go sideways. Once Woody iced the ramp down we had to wait about 2 hours before the driver could back down to New Jersey street. By then it was 5:30, but that great channel 4 remote crew was set to go by 7:30. I'm really not bragging on our work, MSA was just a very easy place to set up for television.
Then there was the time when that great Channel 4 crew came in at 8 a.m. to set up for a Racers Hockey game that started at noon. Following that game (3:30 p.m.), we struck the cameras and audio while the MSA set up crew reset the building for basketball. When they were done, our crew had to reset our cameras and audio for a 7:30 p.m. Pacers game. I remember the TV Producer from the Washington Bullets telling us that this could not have been pulled off anywhere else. That's an example of how great the people at MSA were back then.
The crowds in Market Square Arena got national attention during the Pacers' conference finals appearances for being among the loudest and most passionate in the NBA. Rightly so. But in my 15 years with the Pacers, the loudest I ever heard the crowd in MSA - and the only time I literally saw a crowd carry a team to victory - was during the opening round of the 1991 NBA Playoffs. Let me set the scene. The Pacers finished the season 41-41 and faced the Atlantic Division champion Boston Celtics. Boston edged the Pacers in Game 1. However, led by Chuck Person's 39 points, Indiana won Game 2, 130-118, in the fabled Boston Garden. Returning to Indianapolis for the next two contests of the five-game series, the Pacers' fans hoped that the team could hold its homecourt advantage and win its first NBA playoffs series. The Celtics won the bitterly fought Game 3, 112-105. Two nights later in Game 4, the Celtics built a seven-point lead over the first three quarters.
During the timeout between the third and fourth periods, public address announcer Reb Porter implored the crowd to ''get on your feet and help YOUR Indiana Pacers during the final quarter.'' The crowd rose, began to make noise and no one - I mean no one - ever sat down the rest of the night. The Pacers began chipping away at the Celtics' lead. With every Pacers' point and every Celtics' miss, the crowd got louder and louder. Standing and cheering through every time out, every free throw and every second of action, the crowd needed no encouragement. There was no music played over the loudspeakers, no announcements to instruct the fans to support the home team. As the team's public relations director, my seat was next to the Pacers' bench. During timeouts, I could see in each player's eyes the adrenaline rush that was pushing them to new heights.
The team played harder in that fourth quarter than any I had ever seen. By midway through the quarter, the roar was deafening. The Pacers eventually grabbed the lead and held on for a 116-113 victory to send the series back to Boston for a deciding Game 5. (The Celtics prevailed in another thriller, 124-121, in a game still among the most storied in Garden history. Larry Bird, sent to the locker room to recover from hitting his head on the floor, returned to the court in the second half to inspire the Celtics to the victory.) But the intensity - on the floor and off - during those 12 minutes in the final quarter of Game 4 will never be matched - in my eyes, or in my ears.
I joined the Pacers' franchise in February 1994 to head up Game Entertainment. My challenge was to assist in creating a better fan experience. Up to this point, our fans were never perceived as being really boisterous. My boss at the time was Mark Andrew and I approached him with an idea on how to assist in creating a loud crowd. I really felt the crowd needed some prompting; perhaps a battle cry or fight song. It had to be something unique to Indiana fans and relatable to the team.
President Donnie Walsh had assembled a group of young talent along with one of the best coaches in the game, Larry Brown. We had the powerful Davis duo of Antonio and Dale, as well as the quickness of Reggie Miller. Coach Brown was preaching toughness and quickness. Larry demanded that the team be in place for both defense and offense. I can recall Coach Brown barking out instructions, ''Get back faster, move, move, move, don't stand there, move! Get tough down low and rebound so you can run!''
It occurred to me one day, there was a sound that really captured what Coach Brown was teaching and drilling in the minds of players and fans. It was a sound I had heard all my life as a Hoosier. It was the sound of Spring over-taking Winter; when Indiana seemed to come to life again. It was the powerful, racing sound of an Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway Indy Car. At first everyone thought I was nuts, but I was able to sell the idea based on the team persona.
The fans immediately took to it because they could easily relate to it and it signaled to them that it was okay to scream and yell at the game. For some who may have been embarrassed to be acting like a youngster, the Indy Car sound assisted in unifying everyone so no one person was seen or heard to be acting jubilant alone and perhaps provided some false courage to scream. The race cars helped to create the image in Market Square Arena that our fans were the Loudest Sixth Man in the NBA, but in reality the race car noises merely acted as a catalyst to open the gates to Hoosier Hysteria bedlam.
What was really amazing is the notoriety the Indy Car sound received across the country. Other teams were screaming foul; that it wasn't right and they wanted the NBA to intervene to stop it. Nearly every newspaper in the country discussed the controversy. The race car noise was even a major story on NBC telecasts. Reggie Miller and other Pacers used the noise factor to help psych out opponents. All in all it was a great deal of fun.
The truth of the matter is that the sound effect of race car noises was merely a byproduct of a special season. It was a great team coming together with its fans. The team's dedication on the court and the fans believing in and embracing the team is the real joy. As many of you know, Coach Brown focused our team down the stretch to make an incredible run in the playoffs. It was the longest run in the Pacers' NBA history and Market Square Arena was absolutely the loudest building in the NBA Playoffs with an enthusiastic Sixth Man that continues to this day.
I'm not a storyteller, so here are the best tidbits I remember:


text:
Richard NICHOLS, Congress, KS (1926)
NICHOLS, Richard, a Representative from Kansas; born in Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kans., April 29, 1926; attended public schools; B.S., Kansas State University, 1951; ensign, United States Navy, 1944- 1947; informational counsel, Kansas State Board of Agriculture; associate farm director of a radio and television station in Topeka, Kans.; agricultural representative of a bank in Hutchinson, Kans.; president, chairman of the board, Home State Bank, McPherson, Kans., 1969- present; member, Kansas State Republican Executive Committee; delegate, Republican National Convention, 1988; Republican Party chair, Fifth Congressional District, 1986 to 1990; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Second Congress (January 3, 1991-January 3, 1993); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1992 to the One Hundred Third Congress; is a resident of McPherson, Kans.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present


text:
Make your own penguin headband and have a penguin party!
- Copy of the headband pattern
- Color printer or blue construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Optional: glitter, mylar, fabric, yarn or lace
- Example: Penguin Headband
- Print out the headband pattern.
- Cut out the wave patterns.
If you printed the pages in color, tape the two wave patterns together to make a long, continuous headband. If you printed the pages in black and white, place the wave shapes side-by-side on a strip of blue construction paper and trace and cut around them to create a long, continuous headband.
- Color and cut out the penguin shapes, add glitter and other decorations.
- Glue your penguins to the headband, spacing them toward the front.
- If you wish, glue strips of mylar, fabric, yarn or lace to the crown in a flowing manner so it looks like water.
- Measure your headband to fit your head, and then tape or glue it to fit.


text:
Short-dated options provide protection
Are option premiums too expensive for you? Consider short-dated ones. They are cheaper, and the ability to re-sell them once the event you want to protect against has passed makes them even cheaper.
Introduced two years ago, short-dated options are relatively new, so not many producers use them. However, they offer distinct advantages versus standard options.
For example, in late January, an at-the-money December standard corn put of $4.50 carried a 37¢ premium. By contrast, a July short-dated option carried a 24¢ premium and for May a 16¢ premium, says Brian Basting, an Advance Trading commodity research analyst.
On the flip side: A short-dated July soybean option was 11¢ less than a December standard option. But Top Third Ag Marketing's Mark Gold prefers a full-dated option because it offers longer-term protection.
"Short-dated options are a valuable tool, particularly this year," Gold says. "The downside risk for soybeans is $8." Even corn, which took major hits early, has additional downside risk, Gold says, "with farmers long 5.5 billion to 6 billion bushels."
However, short-dated options aren't for everyone. If you use them, you must budget more marketing time into your schedule. They only offer protection for a limited time.
"You can't lock something in and be done with it," says Frayne Olson, a North Dakota State University ag economist. "You have to pay more attention to the markets."
Analysts say short-dated options offer farmers low-cost protection against single events that can turn the market against you, such as USDA's March 31 Prospective Plantings report.
"Short-dated options can get you through the March 31 report with no surprises," Basting says.
"On paper, you can make a case for short- dated options, but in the real world, few producers do."
Return on Time
To showcase the power of short-dated options' ability to protect against a specific event, look at last year's numbers. Two days before USDA released its March Prospective Plantings report, December corn futures closed at $5.71 per bushel. However, the report was surprisingly bearish. By April 2, futures closed at $5.36, a 35¢ correction.
If a farmer bought a $5.70 at-the-money put March 26 with a 49¢ premium, the put could have been re-sold April 2 for 65.25¢ for a profit of 16.25¢. Olson explains that futures' options don't move one-for-one. "It's closer to two-for-one for at-the-money options," he says. "For full coverage, you'd have to double-down, buying two options for every futures contract you want protection on."
Not only should you think about using and re-selling short-dated options, but also the strike price. If an out-of-the money $5.40 put was purchased, the premium was less at 34¢, but the gain from re-selling would have been 12.6¢.
With the benefit of hindsight for last March, the best deal would have been to buy an in-the-money $6 put. It cost 66.9¢ March 26 and sold for 86.4¢ April 2, netting 19.5¢ for a five-day holding.
If the report had been bullish and the futures market went up 35¢, you probably could have re-sold the put for 33¢. The net cost for protecting against negative price moves was 16¢ or an insurance premium, Olson says. While short-dated options would've had lower premiums than the above example of full-dated options, the price relationships are similar, he says.
If you choose to use short-dated options this year, Gold cautions against re-selling too quickly. Consider protecting against the potential for ideal spring weather and a large South American crop before re-selling them, he says. These events are relatively close together.
Short-dated options are not the cheapest strategy. Mike Florez, owner of Florez Trading, says that weekly options are the cheapest alternative for farmers who want to protect themselves against a specific event. However, their duration is only for a week or less.
Weigh Your Options
The downside to short-dated options is that you have limited protection. "You have to ask yourself if you want protection until May or July, or all the way to December," Basting says. Of course, the longer dated the option is, the higher its premium.
On paper, you can make a case for short-dated options, but in the real world, few producers do, adds Bob Utterback, president of Utterback Marketing Services. For farmers who choose to use them, he advises purchasing one to two weeks ahead of the event you are protecting against. Within two days of the event, such as a major report, premiums can skyrocket.
Buying and selling short-dated options "is not a simple decision; it adds complexity to marketing," Utterback says, noting that it's important for farmers to know that when they both buy and sell options, they leave the land of hedging and enter one of trading.


text:
Add the following to your
alias please=sudo
thinking outside the { }
Add the following to your
alias please=sudo
Before I started developing on Android in early 2009, I had very much enjoyed the blessings of Ruby's ActiveRecord object-relational adapter which makes development very easy and fast compared to such heavyweight und – for my taste – cumbersome approaches as the DAO/JPA-Template/Hibernate layer cake that is commonly found in the Spring-dominated world of Java server development. But what I encountered when I first used Android's way of creating and accessing SQLite databases was even worse than that. You get the least thinkable amount of support from the system and have to write your mapping and persistence logic (table creation, finders, etc.) as a thin layer directly on top of the SQL query interface.
As a remedy, I used and still use SQLiteGen in some of my projects, which generates a glue layer in the form of Java beans, as directed by the developer through Java annotations. It works, but project development seems to have run dry and the current version could use several improvements.
That's why I started to look for something new and, a few weeks ago, stumbled across Sugar, a simple but effective object-relational mapper that imitates the behavior of ActiveRecord, mainly by using reflection to inspect the data structures that are mapped to database tables. I liked its general approach and forked Sugar on GitHub to convert it into an Android library project, fix some issues and inject new features, such as support for Enum-typed fields. If you are a an Android developer looking for an alternative way of mapping between your application model and your database, maybe you should give Sugar a spin.
The art of generating code that is just barely correct enough that most of your customers won't notice problems.
Steve Yegge (former big shot developer at Amazon)
A friend on Facebook mentioned a nice little naming problem I had not been aware of in years of computer science:
We are always drawing tree structures with the root on top, sometimes with the root on the left, but almost never with the root where it belongs (according to biologists) in a tree: at the bottom.
In a comment, a kind soul suggested viewing the usual top-down trees as Christmas trees, and thus naming the root "star". Should I ever teach data structures again, I will use this one.
And the start of a tree drawn from left to right could be … the source (of a creek, a river).
James Gosling has left Sun.
And I hadn't heard of it until now. Looks like I'm not such a geek after all.
But it shocked me just as much as when I heard that J.D. Salinger had died – it actually made my eyes well up – so I guess I am quite a geek.
When I wrote about the departure of other Java Gods, I thought I was making a joke when I wondered how long James Gosling would remain at Sun. Now Guy Steele is the last man standing… but for how long?
Ever since the takeover by Oracle, I haven't had a good feeling about the future of Java. IBM would have been a much better match. Oy vey…
rvm is great, but I still sometimes lose track of which Ruby version I'm currently using. As a little reminder, I put the Ruby version in my shell prompt, like this:
PS1="\u `ruby -v | grep -e "[0-9]\.[0-9]\.[0-9]" -o` \w"
Works nicely.
I use this posting for blatantly advertising one of the development projects I was recently involved in – an Android application called Hoccer. It was released by ART+COM Technologies as a free app on the Android Market and as entry for the 2nd Android Developer Challenge.
The aim of Hoccer is to simplify the process of sharing data (currently pictures and contacts) between devices – you use certain gestures for one-to-one (tap) or one-to-many (throw/catch) to determine sender and receiver(s) and the data is transferred over the internet subsequently, so no other mechanism of pairing etc. is needed.
An iPhone version is currently under development, and there's a web client to hoc data from a desktop computer to a mobile device, so no one's left out.
I always suspected that anyone who likes to write Perl programs can't be a healthy human being, but I didn't know what evil, murderous psychopaths these people really are until I read this headline:
How to optionally kill a child and capture status if not killed
How could killing a child ever be optional? It's illegal! It's disgusting!
We must not tolerate these criminals in our midst any longer. Now is the time to put an end to that vicious disease called Perl.
There seems to be a new kind of scam, involving the telephone network: my sister (from her O2 mobile phone) called me (on my Alice fixed-line phone), but the Lithuanian premium-rate number 0037091005481 was displayed as caller ID – although we're both in Germany! This has happened to dozens or probably hundreds of people in Germany in the last few weeks, apparently mostly to customers of O2 and Alice.
Of course, phone scams have been around for a while, but they usually involve social rather than technical engineering. The twist in this one is that the scammers must have hacked some kind of telephone switches. I don't know what hardware and software phone providers are using these days, but I think it's safe to assume that it's connected to the Internet, and it's increasingly involving VoIP. It's also interesting to note that Alice cooperates with O2 for its mobile services. Integrating disparate systems can get messy – maybe a door was accidentally left open somewhere on the way?
Being curious, I called that mysterious number and heard the following recording:
Thank you for calling pentowork [sic? the name was hard to understand] payment system, the most efficient internet based billing solution. To receive your unique PIN code, you are required to hold the line for thirty minutes.
So the aim seems to be the same as in many other phone scams – get people to call an expensive number, and make them stay on the line for as long as possible. The three or four calls it took to correctly write down the recording cost me about €10, but I also got to enjoy some nice background music: Comanche from the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack and Man on the Moon by REM. I wonder what they selected for the remaining half hour…
More reports and speculation can be found at this thread about the scam (in German), some of which involves the Lithuanian secret service, letters to Vladimir Putin, emails to the Bundesnetzagentur and the fact that 0037 was also the international calling code of East Germany.
Short note to myself and whom it my concern. If you try to
sudo gem install mysql on a Debian system and it responds, after some working, with:
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing mysql:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more
details. You may need configuration options.
Gem files will remain installed in /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.7 for inspection.
Results logged to /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.7/gem_make.out
then this should be the solution for you: First you install libmysqlclient15-dev, which generates a
mysql_config file, and the install the gem using the config.


text:
Pluots, plumcots and apriums are the best of two worlds
Sweet, tangy plum-apricot hybrids combine the best of both worlds
Some say that pluots, a happy meld of plum and apricot, with sweet flesh and tart, plum-like skin, are the best of both worlds. And they're at the peak right now.
Most pluots come from San Joaquin Valley orchards like Tory Farms in Tulare County, where Tory Torosian grows 12 to 15 varieties.
It has been about two decades since pluots, which are about three-quarters plum and one-quarter apricot, hit the market. Since then, other plum-apricot hybrids such as the plumcot, aprium and apriplum have come into the market.
Pluot varieties include the Crimson Heart, Dapple Dandy, Flavorosa and Flavor Supreme, each with its own characteristics. The greenish egg-shape Flavor Grenade, for example, remains crisp when ripe, Torosian says, while a fully ripe Flavor King is very soft.
How to select: Choose somewhat firm, unblemished fruit. Ripe pluots will give slightly to a light touch near the stem end and will smell sweet. If they are underripe, leave them stem side down, enclosed in a loosely closed paper bag, if you want, at room temperature; they should continue to ripen.
How to store: Refrigerate ripe fruit in the crisper drawer or in a loosely closed plastic bag for a few days; avoid piling them on top of each other since they can bruise easily. Refrigeration slows the ripening of pluots, but Torosian says they will become mealy after 10-14 days.
Pluots in Spiced Red Wine Syrup
Makes about 2 to 2 1/2 cups
You can serve the pluots and syrup as soon as they are chilled, but leaving the pluots overnight in the syrup will maximize the flavor and color. Use the extra syrup in cocktails or to flavor tea or sparkling water.
- 1 1/2 cups red wine such as Pinot Noir
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 star anise
- 2 to 3 teaspoons black peppercorns
- -- About 1 pounds pluots, cut into wedges about 3/4-inch thick
- -- Vanilla ice cream, for serving
Instructions: Combine the wine, sugar and spices in a medium nonaluminum saucepan. Bring to a hard simmer and cook until reduced to about 1 cup, 8-10 minutes. Strain out and discard the spices, then return the syrup to the saucepan.
Meanwhile, set up an ice bath that contains an empty medium metal or ceramic bowl, which transfers heat well (see Note).
Add the pluots to the hot syrup and return to a bare simmer. Stir often to make sure all the pluots contact the syrup and cook evenly. Cook until the pluots soften but retain their shape, about 2 minutes in the hot syrup depending on the thickness of the wedges and ripeness of the fruit.
Transfer the pluots to the chilled bowl in the ice bath. Or, return the syrup to the heat and reduce to about 1/2 cup to thicken. Cool, then add to the pluots. Transfer to a nonaluminum container, cover and refrigerate up to a week or so.
Serve with ice cream.
Note: Using an ice bath is optional, but this method of chilling the pluots quickly helps keep them from overcooking, softening too much and falling apart. If that happens, they won't be as pretty but will still taste good. The skins often pull away from the fruit, which is fine.
Per 1/4 cup: 89 calories, 0 g protein, 16 g carbohydrates, 0 g fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 2 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.
- Lynne Char Bennett, email@example.com


text:
Inside History magazine has just launched a special iPad edition which allows users to explore, share and interact with the State Library of NSW's unrivalled collection like never before.
"Inside History magazine is thrilled to be working with the talented team at the State Library to launch this unique tour of arguably one of the world's great libraries," says Cassie Mercer, Inside History editor.
"I was nine when I first visited the State Library of NSW from the country, and I still remember being mesmerised by the Mitchell Library's extraordinary leadlight windows and the seemingly endless levels and shelves of books stacked up to meet them. I feel like I grew up at the Library," says Ms Mercer
This special edition brings together short films, photo galleries and highlights from staff curators and guest writers who reveal the intimate history of objects, their creators and owners.
Many intriguing questions are answered, like why the Macquarie Collector's Chest was created and how the original 1644 Tasman map ended up in Paris and then at the State Library.
The feature story on the current major exhibition, Lewin: Wild Art, takes you into the world of a young illustrator, John Lewin (1770-1819), who was inspired by Australia's flora and fauna to develop his own remarkable style. And this issue is sumptuously illustrated with Lewin's beautiful artwork.
Users can go behind the scenes as State Library of NSW conservators restore 3,500 glass plate negatives from the gold rush, discovered in a garden shed in Chatswood in 1951. This extraordinary find proved to be the most important photographic documentation of goldfields life in Australia.
"From displaying Matthew Flinders' logbook and journal on board the Queen Mary 2 as it retraced his circumnavigation, to utilising new technologies, the State Library continues to explore new opportunities to ensure as many people as possible have the chance to engage with the Library's remarkable collections," says NSW State Librarian & Chief Executive, Alex Byrne.
"Inside History is an active champion of the State Library and, with our shared passion for making history interesting and accessible, we jumped at the chance to jointly launch this special iPad edition. It's a wonderful addition to our extensive online offerings and we hope it makes people wonder what else might surprise from in the vaults of the State Library." says Dr Byrne.
Download the FREE app here for your chance to win an original illustration of Paul Keating from the pen of Daily Telegraph cartoonist, Warren Brown.
For more information please contact:
Ben Mercer, Inside History magazine, 0405 272427, email@example.com
Vanessa Bond, State Library Media & Communications Branch
(02) 9273 1566, 0411 259 898, firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
- Welcome
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