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Playing for Keeps Not a Keeper
- Christian Hamaker Contributing Film and Culture Writer
- 2012 7 Dec
DVD Release Date: March 5, 2013
Theatrical Release Date: December 7, 2012
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual situations, language and a brief intense image
Genre: Comedy
Run Time: 106 min.
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Cast: Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, Dennis Quaid, Noah Lomax, James Tupper, Judy Greer
As Playing for Keeps, the new romantic comedy starring Gerard Butler (Chasing Mavericks) and Jessica Biel (Total Recall), builds to its conclusion, a character is challenged to search her feelings about one of the men in her life with this question: "Does he make you laugh?"
Good thing to consider, but unfortunately the same question could be asked about this ostensible romantic comedy: Does it make us laugh? Not really.
Playing for Keeps is more glum than lighthearted, its dialogue more clichéd than crackling, and its rooting interest in marriage more a plot convenience than a real-world plausibility. A story that sets itself up to be about a man establishing his independence and accepting the mistakes he's made in life—and their costs—is switched out for a feel-good ending that plays entirely false and unearned.
George (Butler) is a former soccer pro well past his prime. He's divorced, unable to pay the rent and in need of direction, but that doesn't keep him from spending his appointed days with his son, Lewis (Noah Lomax).
During one of Lewis's soccer practices, George steps in and rallies the team while the distracted coach walks the sidelines and carries on cellphone conversations. Seeing the boys' positive reaction to George, the team parents enlist George to take over as coach.
The story is about George finding his footing, so to speak, as the team's coach as well as in the game of life. He wants things to be the way they used to be, before he made the missteps that ended his marriage. Except this movie also wants to celebrate the way women swoon for George. He spends the first half of the film fending off the flirtations of one soccer mom after another. We're led to believe that George is weary of such come-ons, and wise to the risks they entail (some of the women who come on to George are married). This all leads to some weak chuckles.
It's a familiar formula, used in the hope of cementing Butler as a romantic leading man. The camera certainly likes the actor, but Playing for Keeps doesn't pan out any better than earlier attempts The Bounty Hunter or The Ugly Truth at making him the next Robert Redford.
The film feels twice as long as its 106-minute run time, thanks to the aforementioned tepid first-half attempts at comedy being paired with a second half that turns morose and maudlin as George tries to piece his life back together. The key to happiness, he believes, is to rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife Stacie (Biel), even though she's happily on the cusp of marrying her years-long boyfriend (James Tupper, Mr. Popper's Penguins), who has been more of a father figure to Lewis than George has.
Although Stacie challenges George to move on with his life just as she's moving on with hers, the movie wants us to root for them to get back together. While that may be admirable to some extent, it doesn't work dramatically. For when Stacie urges George to get his own life, we side with Stacie. When George gets in the way of Stacie's wedding plans, we wish, along with Stacie, that he would butt out. And when Stacie's boyfriend confronts her over her feelings for George, we watch as a man who has treated Stacie well is cast aside in favor of a man who can't pay his rent.
Granted, by that point in the film, George's situation has improved, thanks to the improbable contrivances of Hollywood storytelling (not only is one soccer mom extremely attractive, she has connections to ESPN and a potential broadcasting career for George). But with no reason to root against the man who's been good to Stacie and has helped her raise Lewis, viewers don't have much invested in George and Stacie's reconciliation.
Playing for Keeps releases amid a batch of strong end-of-year films, nearly all of which are more worth your time and money than this weak, conflicted film. Butler's star may still be rising, but when it shines this dimly, is it even worth noticing?
- Language/Profanity: "He-l"; "a-s"; "son of a b-tch"; "wankers"; "s-it"
- Alcohol/Smoking/Drugs: Drinking at a party; beer with dinner; women share drinks with George
- Sex/Nudity: Bare-chested George shown a couple of times; women come on to George constantly; one woman kisses him passionately, and the next scene shows George waking up to find a note from the woman, who has left; Lewis sees George kissing a soccer mom; a woman strips to her underwear and lays on George's bed, and tries to get him to join her
- Violence/Crime: Mention of damage to a boy's testicles; an offer of money from a player's dad is a form of bribery; George watches a horror movie with his son; a man has George bail him out of jail; George lets Lewis drive his Ferrari; men shove each other, pull each other to the ground and fight
- Marriage: George is divorced; a woman knows of her husband's infidelity and accepts it; advice to not stay in an unhappy marriage
Questions? Comments? Contact the writer at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Publication date: December 7, 2012

subset: commoncrawl


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Give the Gift of Entertainment
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NEW YORK (AP) _ Sesame Street's beloved Elmo character will continue despite the resignation of the puppeteer behind the character following sexual abuse allegations.
Fifty-two-year-old Kevin Clash resigned Tuesday after a young man sued him and accused him of engaging in sexual behavior with him when he was 15.
Clash did not address the allegations directly but said in a statement that he is "looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately."
Sesame Workshop says other puppeteers have been trained to serve as Clash's stand-in. The company said last week that "Elmo is bigger than any one person."
Toy company Hasbro says it is confident that "Elmo will remain an integral part of Sesame Street."


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You can download all customer magazines in PDF format.
Half a century of Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH means 50 years of commitment to the machinery and plant engineering industry. Gear technology originated in the technology of the revolving tower crane. Hans Liebherr wanted to buy a gear hobbing machine for gear manufacturing, but could not find what he wanted – so he simply built it himself. It's a typical Liebherr story, since many sectors in the company group have emerged in this or in a similar way. Taking things into one's own hands: an attitude that can still be found at Liebherr today.
The aircraft propulsion systems of today are wonders of technology. Since air travel is rapidly growing in demand around the world, the production technology employed until now needs to be modernised.
For the mobility of the future, we need solutions today. Sometimes this means starting from scratch. With a new production line, new processes and new machines.
Simply order from the catalogue and two days later the new shaping tool will arrive: Liebherr makes the process as straightforward as this for customers and offers a broad range of stock tools available for immediate delivery.
While we still have some way to go to achieve autonomous driving on the road, factories are miles ahead: AGVs (automatic guided vehicles) are already being used in the area of production.
Johannes Weixler has developed a new universal chamfering application – with the dynamic mathematical assistance of colleagues. Johannes Weixler has been employed at Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH for 20 years and is responsible for technical offering. He listens to the problems and imaginations of customers and finds solutions – "That is my job."
Quality management has a special place at Liebherr, it protects the core of the brand. The following is an overview of the processes necessary for quality assurance provided by Christof Porsche.
PHS Allround has become a bestseller of Liebherr Automation Systems. The modular pallet handling system appeals to a wide range of different areas of industry with a main selling point being its scalability. It has now been made even more flexible with the new double loader.
How do you get closer to the customer? For Liebherr the answer is simple: by increasing presence locally.
Due to the high demand, the automation division of Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH has restructured the area of robotics and made it a separate department. The editors of Liebherr Magazine went to visit and had a look around.
What challenges does Industry 4.0 present to companies and their apprentices? Liebherr is already working on the measures necessary for overcoming the technical obstacles of the future in order to train its own professionals.
Lisa Bozzi has been with Liebherr in Saline, Michigan, since 2017. She is an office manager and event coordinator for the Liebherr Gear Technology and Automation Systems division, but also supports the HR team in acquiring new talent for Gear Technology and Automation Systems and Aerospace.
With the newly formed "Industrial Services" department, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH is reimagining the service ethos. Customer orientation and service are a matter of course for the Liebherr Group. Without the two of them, how else can you meet the self-imposed demands on quality? This area is therefore being extended and expanded in a targeted manner in the interests of the customer.
The constantly rising demands from the markets, such as higher accuracy, more effective processes and increased flexibility, require sophisticated machine concepts. For this reason, the new gear skiving machine generation has been equipped among other things with a tool changing system integrated in the machine, multi-machining functions, an integrated measurement device for tools and the option of chamfering during the machining process.
It begins with an idea. But designers often have a long way to go before a perfect workpiece is made using a suitable manufacturing process. It is good that reliable partners such as Liebherr participate and share their experiences.
More than a new control panel: Under a 24 inch monitor, the LHStation combines the new Sinumerik One system line with the new LHGearTec software for all gear engineering equipment. This constellation makes complete machining of a gear workpiece possible.
The demand for high quality gear teeth in areas such as electric mobility, for example, come with great challenges. Liebherr is working on the development of solutions for economic manufacturing.
Wenzel GearTec GmbH has been part of Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH since May 2019. The Karlsruhe-based company has specialised in the measurement of gears, gear cutting tools and other rotationally symmetrical workpieces and has an innovative product range that perfectly complements Liebherr's own.
Rotary loading systems and bin picking, a robot system also referred to as pick and place, are a permanent feature in the Liebherr automation division. Together, they form a good team in automating inputs and outputs from production lines.
As before, ChamferCut is a technology with a great deal of development potential. A new upgrade is now pushing the limits of the impossible.
It starts with a blank. But how does the workpiece get onto the line or into the machine? Depending on the state it is delivered in, this task can quickly become very complex. Reliable 3D object detection systems optically capture and evaluate data. Liebherr works with a variety of 3D vision systems to match the requirements and smoothly handles the supply of every randomly stored part with process precision.
After an upgrade, the universal LC 280 DC gear hobbing machine shines with improved operating comfort and technical refinements.
Liebherr has met the needs of automation customers with the PHS Allround: The compact class for universal users has been in great demand. Alongside the current PHS 1500 Allround version, Liebherr has announced two more sizes - the 800 and 3000.
E-cars are very demanding in terms of gear quality. Great Taiwan Gear relies on Liebherr machines.
The first PHS 1500 Pro is at Herborner Pumpentechnik. Following an extension and machine change, the third expansion will start soon.
The first LK 500 skiving machine is in use at the Italian gear specialists SIAP. An innovative investment that will increase both productivity and quality.
Based on the proven LGG 280 generating grinding machine, Liebherr is presenting the larger LGG 400 M model at IMTS in Chicago.
High-quality machines with a second life cycle. What if a machine becomes outdated, but still performs well?
"The fire pump is the heart of every fire truck", explains Michael Schöftner, Head of Mechanical Production at Rosenbauer International AG, the global leader for fire service equipment. The equipment has to withstand enormous loads in cases of operation. Rosenbauer relies on an automation solution for pump manufacturing from Liebherr. The rotary loading system RLS 800 from the Kempten-based automation experts has been deployed in Leonding near Linz for around two years now.
Bauer Gear Motor operates two new LC 180 gear hobbing machines at its facility in Slovakia, producing gearing for all facilities. These machines are characterised by their operational versatility, given that they are used to produce around 180 different components in a very wide range of different sizes.
Weishaupt, headquartered in the Upper Swabian town of Schwendi, is a leading provider of burners, heat pumps, heating and condensing-boiler systems, energy recovery solutions, and facility automation. Since mid-2016 Weishaupt's new burner casing production facility has operated using an automation solution provided by Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH.


text: B20-B35X series of electric counterbalance forklift trucks, continue to follow the core Doosan tradition of delivering simple, powerful performance, whilst most of all, delivering the best possible value for our customers. The specially designed ergonomic operator compartment keeps the operator in complete control at all times, improving productivity and reducing stress and fatigue. The new cell offers improved visibility and the latest design in ergonomic hydraulic controls. Thanks to an improved durable design and an additional stability system, Doosan's new X-Series electric tricks exceed the highest demands for safe operation. Extended maintenance intervals and advanced technology components reduce the overall cost of maintenance. The latest AC control systems provide an unbeatable combination of power, performance and reliability. Each parameter is fully adjustable to perfectly match every customer's individual requirement, providing maximum control and accuracy for every function.


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By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com January 4, 2010 This is our first story of the new year (2010). DefenseReview has received a link to the "leaked" Remington ACR (Adaptive Combat Rifle) promotional/demo video (demonstration video) below that we presume Remington has actually released on purpose in calculated fashion (just a guess), pre-SHOT Show 2010. The video would …Read More »
Tag Archives: scar-l
Czech Republic CZ S805 Assault Rifle/Carbine: FN MK16 SCAR-L Meets HK G36. Civilian-Legal, Semi-Auto Version on the Way? And, if so, is it worth getting excited about?
By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com December 31, 2009 Since we just published a heads-up piece on the CzechPoint/CZ vz. 58 7.62x39mm Russian caliber semi-auto tactical rifle/carbine for the civilian tactical shooting market, we might as well touch on the next-gen Czech Republic army's assault rifle/carbine–and the military (select-fire/full-auto) vz. 58's replacement–the CZ S805 assault rifle/carbine, which was …Read More »
Are the FN SCAR Weapons (MK16 and MK17) Necessary? And do we really need to replace the Colt M4/M4A1 Carbine?
By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com May 20, 2009 According to Army Times magazine, The 75th Ranger Regiment is scheduled to battle test the Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) very soon. The Rangers will reportedly be taking 600 FN SCAR rifle/carbine/subcarbine/SBR (Short-Barreled Rifle) weapons packages into battle, but DefenseReview doesn't know how many of these are the …Read More »
TangoDown ARC Polymer 30-round Magazine for Tactical AR-15 Carbines and SBRs
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com December 17, 2008 DefenseReview has been using TangoDown "Rail Grip" polymer rail covers (a.k.a. rail panels), "BattleGrip" vertical foregrips and "Rifle Grip" pistol grips (for rifles) on tactical AR-15 carbines and subcarbine/SBRs (Short Barreled Rifles) for quite awhile, now. These products have always performed well, and we've been satisfied with them. TangoDown's …Read More »
Colt M4 Carbine's Future Uncertain: Dark Clouds Forming
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com Perhaps the single most exciting thing that happened at NDIA International Infantry & Joint Services Small Arms Systems Symposium 2008–away from the firing range, of course–was a confrontation between Jim Battaglini (Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. James R. Battaglini) of Colt Defense and U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Mattes, the director of …Read More »
Advanced Armament Corp. Launches Blog: Latest News on AAC Suppressors
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com Kevin Brittingham from Advanced Armament Corp. (AAC) just sent us a link to AAC's new blog at www.aacblog.com. The new AAC blog would appear to be the place to go for all the latest news on AAC silencers/sound suppressors and related products. One of the blog entries shows pics of the new …Read More »
2008 NDIA Small Arms Systems Symposium Firing Demo: Initial Report
by David Crane defrev at gmail.com May 25, 2008 Aaaand we're back. Sorry for the delay in reporting in, but we've been fighting the travel demons and illness (minor and temporary) simultaneously. We shot some good video at the 2008 NDIA International Infantry & Joint Services Small Arms Systems Symposium, but we're not sure how much of it we can …Read More »
FN SCAR Mk16 MOD 0 (CQC config) Firing Demo Video
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com May 1, 2008 Last month (April), DefenseReview received a link to an entertaining FN SCAR Mk16 MOD 0 (CQC config) a.k.a. FN SCAR-Light a.k.a. FN SCAR-L select-fire SBR/subcarbine firing demonstration video via email from a contact of ours at FNH USA. The shooter in the video fires 2-round full-auto bursts, a 30-round …Read More »
M16 Rifle and M4 Carbine: Time For a Change
By Charlie Cutshaw For those of you who may have been on another planet for the past three or four years, our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are having serious reliability issues with the M16 rifle and M4 Carbine, especially the latter. The basic problems with the M16 and M4 are nothing new. M16 reliability issues date to the mid-1960s …Read More »
SIG 556 SWAT Gas-Piston-Driven Tactical Rifle/Carbine/Subcarbine
by David Crane defrev at gmail dot com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and they are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. All photos were shot with a 7.2-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot digital camera (Model #: DSC-P150). December 27, 2007 The February 2008 issue of Guns & Weapons for …Read More »


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Lakeside Getaways in Great Plains Country
Wide open spaces and boulder-strewn mountains make Great Plains Country in southwestern Oklahoma one of the most awe-inspiring regions of the state. The area is also home to a number of fantastic lakes where you can enjoy water sports, swimming, boating, fishing and more. We profiled Lake Altus-Lugert in our "Big Six" overview of Oklahoma lakes, but take a look at some of the top lakes in southwestern Oklahoma and come see what makes this part of the state a can't-miss destination for outdoors enthusiasts.Learn More


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Monday, October 29, 2007
The End, Again
22 comments:
Everything is so pretty! I love your tablescapes....don't stop rearranging them....they make such delightful eye candy :-)ReplyDelete
I saw this post and knew I would like you!!!! I also live in a red house. I call it my little red house in the tall, tall pines!! How 'bout that??ReplyDelete
Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to reading some of your older posts to get to know you even better. I hope you will feel welcome to do the same at my blog!
Found you over at Nunnies Attic. I mainly use throwaway Monday's to surf the blogs and find interesting "friends"ReplyDelete
I love your photography, table settings, AND the fact that you read at the dinner table. Nice to meet ya!
Mary you have the greatest collections. I love all of your tablescapes. I just don't know where you keep it all when not in use...ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 29, 2007 at 9:41 AM
Great to meet you little red house;) a forest ranger? wow! that caught my eye...my oldest brother wishes the same thing! your place is cute, I'll be back and thanks for stopping by! :)ReplyDelete
Your pictures always represent a warm and cozy home....I love it!ReplyDelete
And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT - I love that phrase and I say it all the time and no one in my house knows what I am talking about and I don't want to have to explain it all. We need to find some old Monty Python videos.ReplyDelete
You never cease to amaze me with your lovely tablescapes, Mary. You have such a talent for it. These are all just beautiful!ReplyDelete
Gorgeous tablescapes!!! I love those silver frames....very pretty! I like to change things around frequently too! It keeps things interesting!!!!ReplyDelete
Once again, your table look wonderful! I wouldn't want to bet you keep them as is until Thanksgiving as that is still some time away. It is just too much fun to put out new things. I am itching to change some things and can when some boxes are out of my living room. They are going this week as renovations on our bathrooms has begun. Seeing your post only makes me want to do it that much faster.ReplyDelete
~~ Heidi ~~
- AnonymousOctober 29, 2007 at 1:31 PM
Wonderful scenes and tablescapes! Takes a real eye to create visual balance with the colors and textures! Always fun to have a fresh view in a room. BTW -- I JUST received my copy of Bunny Williams' newest decor book "Bunny Williams' Point of View" -- and its wonderful!ReplyDelete
Jan at Rosemary Cottage who will be spending the evening with the new book! :)
Thanks for popping in.ReplyDelete
I love your tabletops and the great thing is you can change them every now and then so everybody gets to see all of your lovely collections out in the open and not locked a cupboard.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I love all your pretty things, especially that the lovely old picture... I'll stop back her soon!ReplyDelete
It all looks so sweet and charming! You have a gift for display, table tops and everything else.ReplyDelete
I bet your home is so warm and inviting.
I love your table tops! They are always so warm/welcoming and inventive!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 29, 2007 at 7:32 PM
Hehe so pretty. Are you ready for Christmas?ReplyDelete
Hi Mary, just had to peek in! Your tablescapes are so pretty. I love the shell dish with the angel!ReplyDelete
Donna :)
Oh Mary I love the plates and that shell basket is way too cool!ReplyDelete
My cousin calls this table scapes and I call it vignettes!
They sure are fun to create!
Thanks for shareing your pretties!
Hugz, Dolly
Just wanted to say I am looking forward to your Christmas tablescapes. I know they are going to be lovely......ReplyDelete
Beautiful things, beautiful displays. I love your home very much. Thank you for sharing it the way you do.ReplyDelete
Amanda (aka Cottage Contessa)
Your things are all so pretty and isn't it fun to play house with them!? I too love to do this...re-decorate without spending a penny!ReplyDelete
You are so good at creating lovely vignettes!
Mary, what lovely tablescapes! The Limoges platter is gorgeous:) You have such a talent for arranging your beautiful collections and a very good eye for photography, I love how the sunlight is coming through the seashell basket.ReplyDelete
BTW I am a huge Monty Python fan! My husband doesn't understand why I just LOL at those silly things but I think they are hillarious.


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A friend of mine has chosen to believe that about people. Even people who let her down, or worse. She steps back, assesses the sometimes blazing damage done to the relationship in a fit of chaotic immaturity, when some one has lied about her or accused her of something or stolen from her or disrupted the peace in her life. And she decides to see it this way,
"They're doing the best they can, most people are. They didn't mean to cause all this damage."
I had a meeting today at the coffee shop with a really young woman (really young) who brings light into every room she enters. I was giving advice from the much travelled and loooooong road of my life to this dazzling "younger woman in the faith," to share my experience in hopes she'll avoid some of the distractions and missteps I've made.
We got to talking about Jesus {great topic, huh?}, the way He dealt with people, how He saw them. He just went around "doing good and healing all who were oppressed." He talked to the outcasts, and He dined with society's most hated. He set the sinful on fire with forgiveness, conversed intelligently with the rich and powerful and dealt gently with the poor. He told good stories and drew crowds. He touched blind eyes and deaf ears and people everywhere wanted what He could give.
But He didn't entrust Himself to people's whims and opinions and judgements. He didn't allow people's actions or words or acceptance or rejections to sway who He was and why He came. He didn't let His love die out based on the things they did, "for while we were yet sinners…" He didn't "entrust Himself to them," or as one translations says, "He did not entrust His life to them."
John 2.23-25 Amp. "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in His name [identifying themselves with Him] after seeing His signs (attesting miracles) which He was doing. But Jesus, for His part, did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people [and understood the [superficiality and fickleness of human nature], and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man [and human nature], for He Himself knew what was in man [in their hearts—in the very core of their being]."
And yet, and perhaps because He understood humankind and the all the ways we are quick to judge and condemn and criticize and withdraw – in spite of the fact that He could truly see people for who they were and what they were about, He loved them. And that love led Him straight to the cross for the these same (fickle) people, and you and me.
Sometimes we are moved to jump straight into the amazingly good and messiness of relationship because of love. But something untoward happens and we emerge wounded and shredded and torn up and surprised and mad and vowing we'll never do that again. People let us down. Sometimes people do worse. Sometimes we're shocked they could treat us so badly "after all I have done for them."
But I bet the problem was us (don't ask me how I know). Sometimes we entrust ourselves, giving power to others and their opinions and wishes; we give away a part of ourselves when it wasn't a required part of just loving them. Then we're disappointed, we're ticked. But parts of own hearts are out there walking around in some one else's possession – and we have let that happen. Of course we're wounded – they possess what we gave!
If Jesus had done relationships like we do, He'd probably have been pretty ticked off at us as He hung on the cross. But He'd kept His heart intact. He loved people. He did good to them. He blessed them and forgave them and healed them. But He kept His heart whole and healthy, whole and holy – strong for the mission. He remained wholehearted. And so He was able to show the ultimate love. He is love.
Like my friend reminds me, "People are doing the best they can." They're probably not actually trying to be the biggest jackwagons in the world, probably not trying to ruin your life, not meaning to let you down or disappoint you. They're doing the best they can and when they know to do better, they usually will.
Know how I know? 'Cause that's what you do. And me, too. We are all just doing the best we can and learning as we go.
Oh, to be like Jesus…
"…looking unto [fixing our eyes on] Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12.2


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A new report from the General Accounting Office that was released on Capitol Hill last week has found that more than $1 billion in federal funds were expended from 2002-2009 by six controversial nonprofits, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the Population Council, and the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States. The first two of these nonprofits received more than $941 million of this total, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation received another $3.9 million. The GAO notes that these amounts likely understate the federal expenditures made by the nonprofits because, among other reasons, the report excludes funds sent to entities with annual federal expenditures below a certain threshold ($300,000 until 2004, and $500,000 afterward).
Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana commented, "This report confirms that the largest abortion provider in America is being bankrolled by American taxpayers. In these tough economic times, there is simply no reason why taxpayer money should go to fund the activities of abortion providers and equip them with the resources they need to end innocent human life." Pence was among the 31 members of Congress, including Pete Olson of Texas, who requested the GAO analysis.
Pence's point is especially strong when one considers the fact that the nonprofit Pence is referring to, PPFA, regularly runs an enormous annual surplus. For example, PPFA's net income (revenue over expense) during the period 2002-2007 was more than a third of a billion dollars — $388 million. In 2006 and 2007 alone, the last years for which information is available, the organization ran a $197 million surplus. The surplus could easily derive from abortion clinic revenue and/or private donations to the organization. But the essential point is that the PPFA has enormous resources in surplus funding that call into question why taxpayers should endure soaring deficits while financing an entity that has such a large imbalance between receipts and expenditures.
Policy makers looking for entities capable of self-funding more of their activities without taxpayer grants and opponents of federal subsidies for the nation's largest abortion provider have an interest in common. The GAO report underscores why reducing grants for one of the nation's most controversial nonprofits makes sense from both a budgetary and ethical perspective. Instead, the new programs established under ObamaCare will almost certainly increase the PPFA's funding.


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Remember "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena"? Baby boomers who first danced to that 1964 pop hit about a granny burning up the road in her hot rod will begin turning 65 in January. Experts say keeping those drivers safe and mobile is a challenge with profound implications.
Miles driven by older drivers are going up and fatal crashes involving seniors coming down, but too often they are forced to choose between safety and being able to get around, experts told a National Transportation Safety Board forum on transportation and aging Tuesday.
Within 15 years more than one in five licensed drivers will be 65 or older, the safety board said. Their number will nearly double, from 30 million today to about 57 million in 2030, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Smarter cars and better designed roads may help keep them stay behind the wheel longer.
But eventually most people will outlive their driving ability — men by an average of six years and women by an average of 10 years. And since fewer Americans relocate when they retire, many of them probably will continue to live in suburban homes.
The result is a "mobility gap," Joseph Coughlin, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AgeLab, which develops technologies aimed at keeping older people active, said in an interview.
"For many, our homes will not be just a place to age, it will also be house arrest," said Coughlin.
Medical conditions can affect driving
Older drivers who are healthy aren't necessarily any less safe than younger drivers. But many older drivers are likely to have age-related medical conditions that can affect their driving.
A 40-year-old needs 20 times more light to see at night to see than a 20-year-old, Coughlin said. Older drivers generally are less able to judge speed and distances, their reflexes are slower, they may be more easily confused and they're less flexible, which affects their ability to turn so that they can look to the side or behind them.
Fatal crash rates for older drivers compared with other age groups begin to increase starting at about age 75, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Drivers over age 85 have a worse fatality rate than teenagers and drivers in their early 20s.
The main reason is that older drivers are more frail and less likely to survive an accident or recover from injuries, according to the institute. Older drivers primarily kill themselves in crashes, with these accounting for 61 percent of deaths in accidents involving drivers 70 and older. Sixteen percent of the deaths were their passengers.
Nevertheless, the fatal crash rate for older drivers has declined over the past decade, and at a faster rate than for other drivers. Researcher Anne McCartt of the insurance institute told the board the reason for the trend isn't clear, but it may be that older drivers are in better physical condition.
Many older drivers compensate for the erosion of their driving abilities by changing their driving habits.
"I'm never in a rush," said Grace M. Sanders, 87, a retired secretary in Atlanta. She takes care to map out a route in her mind before she leaves the house. She avoids driving near construction sites. If it's raining, she stays home.
But even though she could take the bus, it's important to Sanders that she keep her car.
"I always wanted to be an independent person and I maintained that independence throughout my life," she said in an interview.
Keeping seniors mobile
New technologies, some of them borrowed from the military and commercial aviation, may help older drivers stay behind the wheel longer, and more safely. Crash warning systems using sensors embedded in the car can alert drivers to an impending accident. They can even override the driver and apply the brake. Similar technology can parallel park the car. Night vision systems can help with one of the most frustrating problems for older drivers.
Not every remedy involves new technology. Sometimes it's just a matter of making dials larger so they're easier for drivers to find. A strap can be added to hold onto when getting in and out of a car. An extended mirror can help drivers avoid turning around as much.
"They may extend the driving careers of some seniors, but they are certainly not a panacea," cautioned Bonnie Dobbs, a gerontology professor at the University of Alberta. She notes that many technologies could distract or confuse older drivers, which could lead to accidents.
Better designed roads may also help. For example, traffic "roundabouts" that gently ease drivers into turn circles with no traffic lights could help reduce left turn-related crashes, which make up a disproportionate share of the accidents that kill older drivers.
What's not being addressed is how to keep older Americans mobile after they lose their driving skills, said University of Arizona professor Sandra Rosenbloom, an authority on transportation and aging.
"As people get older and lose the ability to drive, they narrow and narrow their circle of friends and their circle of activities until it gets to the point where they are housebound and they don't move at all," Rosenbloom said in an interview.
Seventy-five percent of older drivers live in suburban or rural areas where there are few alternatives to driving, she said. Public transportation isn't a realistic option, Rosenbloom said. For people who have lost the ability to drive, the physical and mental conditions that made driving untenable are also likely preclude hiking to a bus stop, especially if there's no bench. The act of getting on and off a bus can be prohibitive. Many older people — especially those over 80 — also worry about losing their balance on a bus and fear being victimized.
"You cannot address safety issues independent from how people live their lives and where they live them," Rosenbloom told the safety board.
Marcia Savarese, 73, began driving when she was 16. In 2008, she suffered a stroke and didn't drive for a year. Instead, she depended on friends, expensive taxis and delivery services.
Now, she's back on the road despite a loss of some of her peripheral vision. To compensate, she said she's trained herself to turn around to look more than before. She rarely drives at night, and she stays off the interstate. She does much of her grocery shopping and other errands early in the morning when parking lots are nearly empty. Rarely does she drive more than a few miles from home.
"I feel it is safer for other people if I stay right in the local area that I know," Savarese, a widow and retired estate jewelry dealer in Vienna, Va., said in an interview. She didn't want to move from her neighborhood, where she has lived for the past 40 years.
"I'm more comfortable here," she said. "My friends are here, my doctors are here, everything is here."


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This is Ashlee Simpson's video for her song Bat For A Heart which looks to me like a millennial version of Madonna's Lucky Star. She says "f-ck" and it's supposed to be hardcore.
How many different things has Ashlee Simpson tried to be? And is it unfair that we are critical of her, um, evolution because of her last name? At the beginning, when she fronted like a poseur Avril Lavigne -- in and of itself hilarious, someone posing like a poseur, and totally unironically -- Joe Simpson was all over it, and had probably created it. Every Ashlee iteration since then was presumably manufactured the same way: Emo Ashlee married Pete Wentz and stopped curling her hair. And that was supposed to convince us that she was the antithesis of her Porny sister.
Maybe she IS the antithesis of her Porny sister. Maybe Ashlee Simpson really IS whoever it is that she's telling us she is. Maybe we shouldn't define her by her family and that lip-synch incident on Saturday Night Live. But this is the problem with the marketing of the pop star -- if you're good at it, the public won't let you change. And if you suck at it, we get suspicious when you want to change, even if the "change" happens to be real. If there is such thing as "real". Not to get super meta about it but when they're pushed towards fame so early, is there ever really a "real" version of themselves? This is why so many of them end up in an existential crisis (see Miley Cyrus) at the age of 22. Between being told who you are and then told who you should become, when do they ever get to decide for themselves?
Attached - Ashlee Simpson with friends in New York a couple of weeks ago.


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This past April, the biggest news to hit the antiquarian book trade in roughly 400 years became public: my colleagues Dan Wechsler and George Koppelman, booksellers in New York City, unveiled a copy of a sixteenth century dictionary which could, quite plausibly, have once belonged to William Shakespeare — complete with annotations possibly in the bard's hand and many tantalizing, if ultimately circumstantial, linguistic and stylistic links to his plays. I'll leave it to better minds than mine to make a final determination regarding the dictionary's provenance. Wechsler and Koppelman have laid out an entire volume of compelling evidence in their just-published book, Shakespeare's Beehive (a copy of which I've just ordered); the Folger Shakespeare Library, the New Yorker, and numerous book bloggers have already begun weighing in, and I'm sure many more scholarly voices will be added to the fray over the coming months and years. I hope it's years, not months. I hope it's real, real enough at least to merit many years of scholarship – I really, really do.
But regardless what this volume turns out to be, whether the hundreds of annotations on its 400-year-old pages turn out to be the long-sought mainline to Shakespeare's creative process or just a host of happy coincidences, the whole wonderful escapade serves to remind me that this pursuit my colleagues and I are engaged in, which so many days feels like little more than a glorified exercise in rag-picking, has resonances far beyond the little world of booksellers, librarians, and collectors we imagine, on our worst days, is the only one we inhabit. For books, to revisit Milton's adage, "are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are…" *
So it goes with Shakespeare's dictionary; and so, on a somewhat less magnificent scale, did it go for a handsome American Bible which I recently had the good fortune to shepherd from the floor of the New York Book Fair to my friends in the Special Collections Division of the University of Tennessee Libraries. Now, this wasn't just any Bible: it was President Andrew Jackson's family Bible, presented to him by the publisher in an elaborate gilt-stamped morocco binding on the occasion of his second inaugural. Through a fairly predictable series of circumstances – apathy, the contempt bred of familiarity, and the temporary impecuniousness of a Jackson descendant – the Bible had become separated from the Jackson family nearly 100 years ago and made its way, finally, through the wilderness, into the hands of a reputable bookseller; thence to the New York Book Fair; thence to me (reputable or not – you make the call).
Here's what it looks like today:
The story unfolded quickly, and since it redounds only minimally to my credit (though a great deal to others'), I'll share it briefly. It was early on day one of the New York Book Fair. I'd had a fairly miserable set-up (for those who may not be familiar with the realpolitik of antiquarian book fairs, many dealers – I'm no exception – do up to 90% of their business before the show even opens. As of Friday morning, I'd done just about enough to pay for my first night's bar tab. Not good.), and I was sulking in my booth when my phone rang. On the other end was my friend Steve Smith, whose day job is Dean of Libraries at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, though for one week a summer he also joins me on the faculty of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar; we also share an appreciation for traditional Appalachian string band music, fine printing, and shaggy-dog stories with awful punch lines — needless to say, we're fast friends. Steve had heard a rumor, just a vague rumor, that somewhere on the floor of the New York Book Fair — "I think it might be in the Serendipity booth," he told me — a Bible once belonging to Andrew Jackson had been spotted for sale. "Would you track it down for me?," he asked, "and give it the once-over?"
Would I! Sitting in my own booth had become torture at this point, and I was glad for any opportunity to get up and wander around – this, despite the fact that Peter Howard's Serendipity Books hadn't had a booth at the New York Fair in at least ten years, and Peter himself passed away three years ago now. Despite that red herring It didn't take me long to track down the object of Steve's desire — among my Americanist colleagues, Jackson's Bible had apparently been creating something of a buzz all during set-up, though no one had managed to buy it yet, or to sell it over the phone. Happily, the Bible was in the booth of two of my best friends in the book business, Nick and Ellen Cooke of Black Swan Books in Richmond (that's Nick down below, peeking through the stacks of his lovely shop, which is made lovelier still by the presence of Ellen, his wife, who is not in this picture nor, sadly and mysteriously, to be found in any other image of Black Swan I've been able to get my hands on. She is not, for the record, to the best of my knowledge, a ghost.). These are folks who've done me many a good turn over the years. Now it was my turn to do one for them (the antiquarian book business depends for its continuance, to a substantial degree, on good turns).
Nick and Ellen are the real heroes of this story. They're the ones to whom Jackson's Bible was first brought, in a woeful state of preservation – covers and spine detached, binding loose, but magically still complete, including the genealogical register completed by hand by Jackson's daughter-in-law – some time late last year. They're the ones who did the research establishing that the Bible was, indeed, what it was purported to be, and they're the ones, most importantly, who put their money where their mouth was, ponied up the not inconsiderable cost to restore the binding, and took the time to catalog it and to bring it to the New York Book Fair, where news of its existence quickly spread as far west and south as Knoxville – as far, it turns out, as the news needed to spread. I called Steve back. "It's here," I said. "Is it real?," he asked. "Yes," I answered. "I want it," he said. Done and done.
So, Steve is the other real hero of this story. Getting wind of a great treasure with deep and significant roots in Tennessee, the state for which his library is the rare book depository of record, he immediately did what he was hired to do: he tracked the thing down and, false leads and vague rumors notwithstanding, bagged his prey.
And so the deal was done: two days later I was in my van on my way to Knoxville, where Steve and his entire Special Collections staff were waiting for me. They even threw a party in my honor (well, actually, they were having a party anyway, and they invited me along). In a quiet room in a distant corner of the McClung Museum, I unveiled the Jackson Bible for a small party of librarians and library patrons:
Once I'd removed the Bible from its rolling case and the layers of bubble wrap in which I'd encased it for the journey (I mean, this thing was hermetically sealed and bulletproof: I'd made sure that if by some tragedy my van ran off a cliff in the Great Smoky Mountains, my van and myself might perish in flames but Jackson's Bible would survive), everyone just stood and stared for a minute. I took a few moments to show off some of what I considered to be the Bible's finer points – the elaborate red morocco binding, signed on the front turn-in by James Birdseye, the journeyman finisher who completed the gilt decorations, and the two pages of genealogical register, on which had been recorded General Andrew Jackson's death, "peacefully, at home in the Hermitage, on the night of June 8, 1845″. There was a brief, slightly awed hush in the room. Then someone said: "I doubt he ever read the part about the Ten Commandments." Someone else said: "I doubt he ever got past the Old Testament." Someone else said, "I doubt he ever opened it at all." At which point I knew this Bible had found its rightful home.
Serendipity, indeed.
* (now accept my apologies as you ask yourself, as I have just asked myself: can you really countenance yet another antiquarian bookseller quoting Milton? Can you? Really?).
- See more at: http://blog.lornebair.com/#sthash.EL4blYjL.dpuf


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CRS: State Regulation of Tribal Lands in New York: City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, April 6, 2005
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
For other CRS information see: Congressional Research Service.
For press enquiries, consult our media kit.
If you have other confidential material let us know!.
For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: State Regulation of Tribal Lands in New York: City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York
CRS report number: RS22107
Author(s): Nathan Brooks, American Law Division
Date: April 6, 2005
- Abstract
- On March 29, 2005, the Supreme Court issued its decision in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, a case with serious implications for the State of New York's ability to regulate tribal lands within New York. A federal appeals court had ruled that the Oneida Indian Nation could, by purchasing former reservation lands illegally alienated from the tribe, reestablish the reservation status of those lands and thereby shield them from state taxation. The Supreme Court reversed this decision, holding that the passage of time between the illegal conveyance and the claim in this case barred the Oneidas' attempt to reassert sovereignty over the land in question.
- Download


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Thank you for visiting our website! Below you will be able to find the answer to Cause enthusiasm crossword clue which was last seen on Universal Crossword, September 10 2016. Our site contains over 2.8 million crossword clues in which you can find whatever clue you are looking for. Since you landed on this page then you would like to know the answer to Cause enthusiasm. Without losing anymore time here is the answer for the above mentioned crossword clue:
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|Beachgoers catch them
|Hair-raising place?
|Milky iridescent gem
|Object of worship
|Hatchet man's opposite
|One of the sexes
|Bids adieu
|Hardly underplay on stage
|Engages in chit-chat
|Noisy bustle
|Madam of 2-Down
|Kind of chop
|Edible root of the taro
|Uncle of an entire country
|"Planet of the ___"
|Like old recordings
|Lobe in the mouth
|What all drivers should be in
|DNA strand's shape
|Display intense anger
|Creative mental spark
|Equip for war
|24-can unit
|Some pole bearers
|Put on TV
|Slop spot
|Most vigorous and cheerful
|Go "humph!"
|Japanese soup
|Brownish gray
|Like many horror films
|One-dish meal
|Exposed publicly
|Type of terrier
|"All ___!" (court phrase)
|First mate?
|Toy that does tricks
|Coin opening
|That girl
|'50s TV "Kid"
|Jason's fabled craft
|Author Uris
|Shown to be true
|Game played with a deck of 40 cards
|Reduces debt
|On the safe side at sea
|With a discount of
|Gobble up
|Audition tape
|Buckwheat porridge
|More fitting
|Coin of the ___ (a country's money)
|Spumante lead-in
|Follow as a consequence
|Gloom partner
|Glove material sometimes
|Change to fit
|"You ___ well" ("Why not?")
|Does in gangland-style
|A sundial hour
|Cause enthusiasm
|Better than good
|Noble prefix with "crat"
|Burmese currency
|Cupid's projectile
|Mining excavation
|Does some tailoring
|Church area
|Son of Isaac in Genesis
|Cottontail's tail
|Capacity units these days
|Run ___ (go nuts)
|Eyelid affliction
|Flanders on "The Simpsons"
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Flying Through a Geomagnetic Storm
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March 2, 2012: Glowing green and red, shimmering hypnotically across the night sky, the aurora borealis is a wonder to behold. Longtime sky watchers say it is the greatest show on Earth.
It might be the greatest show in Earth orbit, too. High above our planet, astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been enjoying an up-close view of auroras outside their windows as the ISS flys through geomagnetic storms.
"We can actually fly into the auroras," says eye-witness Don Pettit, a Flight Engineer for ISS Expedition 30. "It's like being shrunk down and put inside of a neon sign."
Auroras are caused by solar activity. Gusts of solar wind and coronal mass ejections strike Earth's magnetic field, rattling our planet's protective shell of magnetism. This causes charged particles to rain down over the poles, lighting up the atmosphere where they hit. The physics is akin to what happens in the picture tube of a color TV.
Incoming particles are guided by Earth's magnetic field to a pair of doughnut-shaped regions called "auroral ovals." There's one around the North Pole and one around the South. Sometimes, when solar activity is high, the ovals expand, and the space station orbits right through them.
That's exactly what happened in late January 2012, when a sequence of M-class and X-class solar flares sparked a light show that Pettit says he won't soon forget. "The auroras could be seen [as brightly as] city lights on the Earth below--and even in the day-night terminator of the rising and setting sun. It was simply amazing."
Pettit is a skilled astrophotographer. He and other members of the crew video-recorded the displays, producing footage that officials say is some of the best-ever taken from Earth orbit.
The videos capture the full range of aurora colors—red, green, and many shades of purple. These hues correspond to different quantum transitions in excited atoms of oxygen and nitrogen. The precise color at any altitude depends on the temperature and density of the local atmosphere.
"Red auroras reach all the way up to our altitude 400 km above Earth," says Pettit. "Sometimes you feel like you can reach out and touch them."
"Green emissions, on the other hand, tend to stay below the space station," he says. They move like a living 'shag carpet' of lights. "We fly right over them."
Surprisingly, Pettit does not find this unsettling. "It is not disorienting to see auroras underfoot," he says. "Perhaps it is because I have been up here so long."
What he does find disorienting is the meteors.
"Occasionally we see a meteor burning up in the atmosphere below--and this does look strange. You should be looking up for meteors not down."
As marvelous as these sights are, Petit has seen better. He was the science officer for ISS expedition 6 back in 2003 when the auroras were even stronger than they were now.
"But this expedition is not over yet," he points out hopefully.
Indeed, more auroras are in the offing. Following some recent years of deep quiet, the sun is waking up again. Solar activity is now trending upward with a maximum expected in early 2013.
This means the greatest show on Earth—and in Earth orbit—is about to get even better. Stay tuned for updates.
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
|More Information
Auroras Underfoot -- ScienceCast video
Gateway to Astronaut Photography -- more great videos from the ISS


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This is the second of four posts about Launching Technology Ventures (LTV), a new MBA elective course I'm developing at Harvard Business School to explore lean startup management practices. Part I provides an overview of concepts covered in the course. Part III lists a set of tools and techniques that I think any MBA working in a tech venture should master. Part IV lists recommended readings for the course.
[Addendum, Apr. 10, 2011: if you are interested in lean startup concepts, you should also check out the LTV course blog. Students write blog posts instead of taking an exam. They've done terrific work.]
Here's a preliminary syllabus for the 15 class sessions of LTV, which will start in late January and run through early March.
The cases won't be available through Havard Business Publishing until the spring. If you are an academic and you want access to a case sooner for use in your course, contact me and I'll try to expedite availability.
In the meantime, I'd be grateful for feedback. Next year, I'd like to add a case about a big tech company (e.g., Google, Amazon) launching a new product. What else is missing? Can you suggest other case studies that would complement these?
- Dropbox. Accel/Sequoia-backed Dropbox offers a cloud-based service that allows users to synchronize and share files across PCs and smart phones. We'll use this case to introduce several course concepts, including product-market fit, user-centered product development, customer conversion funnel optimization in a 'freemium' SaaS context, and business development challenges for early-stage ventures negotiating with large corporations.
- IMVU. Guest: Eric Ries, IMVU co-founder & former CTO and HBS Entrepreneur-in-Residence. We'll discuss how he and his colleagues pioneered lean startup principles at Menlo Ventures-backed IMVU, which offers an instant messaging service built around 3-D avatars. Eric will also discuss how lean startup concepts have evolved and whether the concepts are applicable beyond info tech startups.
- Triangulate. Trinity Ventures/angel-backed Triangulate offers a Facebook-based dating service. We'll explore how this startup has used lean startup principles to guide product development through several pivots.
- Cake Financial. Cake was a website for consumers seeking to improve their investment portfolio performance. Although this TechCrunch40 finalist raised $9 million in venture capital and got press accolades, it never achieved strong product-market fit, and Cake's assets were sold to E*Trade last year. The case explores whether this outcome was inevitable given market conditions, and what, if anything, the team might have been done differently.
- David Skok, General Partner, Matrix Partners. David will share insights on SaaS economics, customer conversion funnel optimization, and how to build a sales and marketing 'machine' in an early-stage venture.
- Rentjuice. Angel-backed Rentjuice provides web-based tools for rental real estate agents. Building on Skok's ideas, we'll explore issues in building direct sales capabilities in a SaaS-based early-stage venure.
- Aardvark. Aardvark, backed by August Capital and subsequently acquired by Google, is a social search service. We'll focus on Aardvark's use of 'mechanical Turk' product development processes. To learn about customers' needs, the company substituted human operators for algorithms in routing beta users' search queries to parties in a social network.
- Mochi Media. Mochi, backed by Accel and subsequently acquired by Shanda, developed a three-sided platform, connecting Flash game developers, sites that aggregate these games, and advertisers. We'll use this case to explore the applicability of lean startup principles to platform-based businesses that harness strong network effects, along with the challenges of a 'middleware' business model that shares a large fraction of value with platform partners.
- Fred Wilson, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures. Fred will discuss the new investor ecosystem that is evolving to serve capital-efficient startups (e.g., "super angels," seed-funds, etc.), along with his perspectives on the tradeoffs between lean and "fat" strategies for building startups. He will be interviewed by Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Capital General Partner & HBS Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
- Predictive Biosciences. Flybridge/Highland/NEA-backed Predictive has developed accurate and non-intrusive ('pee-in-a-cup') cancer diagnostic tests. We'll explore the interplay between customer requirements and product development priorities in a life sciences context, and ask whether lean startup principles are applicable .
- Aquion Energy. Aquion is developing a low-cost, long-lasting, sodium ion battery suited for grid-scale energy storage. We'll discuss product and customer development priorities for an early-stage venture confronting the clean tech 'valley of death,' i.e., the challenge of raising more equity capital than VCs are typically willing to provide under conditions deemed too risky for debt financing.
- Chegg. Kleiner-backed Chegg dominates the emerging textbook rental business. We'll examine pressures that the company encountered as it grew explosively, and how management is responding to scaling challenges.
- foursquare. Union Square/Andreessen Horowitz-backed foursquare offers location-based services. We'll use this session to explore the applicability of lean startup principles to platform-based businesses that harness strong network effects. In particular, in such businesses, is it possible/advisable to achieve product-market fit before you identify a monetization strategy?
- OPOWER. Accel/Kleiner-backed OPOWER helps electric utilities improve efficiency by delivering reports to consumers about their energy use. We'll focus on how the company introduced formal product management processes.
- Course Wrap.
The cases won't be available through Havard Business Publishing until the spring. If you are an academic and you want access to a case sooner for use in your course, contact me and I'll try to expedite availability.
In the meantime, I'd be grateful for feedback. Next year, I'd like to add a case about a big tech company (e.g., Google, Amazon) launching a new product. What else is missing? Can you suggest other case studies that would complement these?


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Well, in case you have already forgotten--I know I sometimes do--it bears mentioning that people have been doing the same things we're doing with Photoshop long before Photoshop came along.
Pas de Deux, Norman MCLAREN, 1967 by shortanimatedworld
A blog from the Animation crew at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA.
When the Day Breaks is a cartoon animation, with a theme that uses the song, and a plot that uses it as a double-entendre. It begins with a Chicken, who finishes his breakfast, and goes to the store to buy more lemons, and biscuits. Meanwhile, over on the other side of town, a cheerful Pig sings the song's title to herself as she peels potato skins for her breakfast. As she reaches for milk to pour into her bowl of potato skins, she realizes that the milk had gone bad, so she decides to take a stroll over to the closest store to go buy some more milk. Coincidently, this is the same store the Chicken had gone to earlier to buy his lemons and biscuits. And as he leaves the store with his groceries, he accidently bumps into the Pig, and one of his lemons falls out of his hand and rolls down a drainpipe. He doesn't take the accident to well, and gives the Pig a quick, sharp scowl, and storms off. The Pig cringes, and walks into the store to pickup her milk, glancing at a tray of lemons as she enters. But before she finishes her purchase, she hears a loud crash coming from outside. She rushes out to see what had happened, and is horrified to see that the Chicken she had bumped into earlier, had just been hit by a car. The film begins to meld into the Chicken's entire life, his family, his childhood, and even his anatomy. And just as quickly as we enter this vision, we come back and see the ambulance with the Chicken drive off into the fog. The Pig, devastated to have witnessed the death of somebody she had just met, quickly finishes her purchase, and sprints back to her apartment, panting, and hearing her own heartbeat. Once she's home, all senses of joy, and optimism, are gone. She pulls down the blinds for her windows, blocking out the grey, and reality of the day outside. Though as she finishes her breakfast, she pulls herself back together, and reopens the blinds, and lets the sunlight back in. Earlier I mentioned that the theme of this cartoon revolved around the song 'When the Day Breaks', and that the plot used the title as a double-entendre. Well in my own opinion, indeed it did. Metaphorically speaking, the Pig was having such a wonderful and cheerful morning, prior to the incident, and it was this incident, which had almost in a sense broken all of that. The film was created by Amanda Forbis, and Wendy Tilby. It used a series of creative and innovative approaches to animation, in which the initial footage was filmed live action, where Amanda and Wendy would act out what the characters were doing, and the live footage was painted over into a cartoon; it was rotor scoped. The film was made for the National Film Board of Canada in 1999, and won many awards, including a nomination for an academy award (which it did not win, but came extremely close).
Image was copied from www.nfb.ca/.../viewing/ when-day-breaks-fr/


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The full body scans at airports—the ones that reveal your naughty bits in great detail—are fortunately optional, given prior abuse. But after Oct. 31, if you opt out, it looks like you'll be more thoroughly "screened" than ever.
While turning down the full body scan has always resulted in a patdown, there's a newer "enhanced" screening procedure that's being tested at some airports if you opt out, like at Boston's Logan airport. Here's what's it like described on Daily Kos:
Two (female) TSA officers stepped over to me, and gave me the new procedure, which included touching my face and hair, and in between and directly under my breasts. Much like a medical appointment, they explained the motions they would make before actually touching me, and both women were professional and polite about the screening - even apologetic about it - but I couldn't help but think this was overly invasive overkill.
And on another blog:
Immediately, the screeners we very rude to me and ordered me to sit down, which I did. I waited with no communication and no acknowledgement that my wallet and carry-ons had long since come through their screening, and were waiting on the other side for anyone to pick up.
Finally a team came over, had me go through the metal detector, collect my things and go to a separate area. These screeners were very pleasant, if also thorough–they took every single item in every pocket of every bag and swabbed each separately, and scanned for explosives. They patted me down and asked a lot of questions.
The Transportation Security Administration confirms to Christopher Elliott that it "is in the process of implementing an enhanced pat-down at security checkpoints as one of our many layers of security," which is being tested in Boston and Las Vegas.
They're more coy about how and when the new, gropier screening technique will be implemented across the country, but the gist of Elliott's conversation with the TSA is that it's either going to roll out out nationwide on Oct. 31, or it's going to be phased in gradually. (I would guess in time for holiday travel.) So get ready to spread 'em. Or, um, spread 'em. [Elliott.org via BoingBoing]


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Mobility / Stability Statistics - FAQs
Q: Under what circumstances is a student counted as "mobile"?
A: In general, a student is considered mobile any time he or she enters or exits a school or district in a manner that is not part of the normal educational progression. Examples of normal progression include advancing grades between academic years, matriculating between elementary school and middle school or between middle school and high school, and exiting as a graduate or completer at the end of the twelfth grade. "Unanticipated" or "non-normal" movements – such as a mid-year grade advancement, entry into a school or district after October 1, or exit from a school or district before the end of the school year – are considered instances of student mobility.
Q: What is the difference between the Student Mobility Rate and the Mobility Incidence Rate?
A: The Student Mobility Rate is an unduplicated count – meaning that once a student has been counted as mobile once for a given school or district she or he will not be counted again in the same year. In contrast, the Mobility Incidence Rate is a duplicated count. A student who moves in and out of a school multiple times will be counted as mobile multiple times under the Mobility Incidence Rate calculation.
The Student Mobility Rate Calculation:
Unduplicated count of grade K-12 students who moved into or out of the school or district in Year X
Total number of students that were part of the same membership base at any time during Year X
The Mobility Incidence Rate Calculation:
Duplicated count of grade K-12 students who moved into or out of the school or district in Year X
Total number of students that were part of the same membership base at any time during Year X
Example: During the 2017-18 school year, student John Smith transfers from district A to district B. Later that same year, John transfers back to district A for two months, then moves out of the state before the end of the school year.
- This would be counted as one instance of Student Mobility for District A (one student moved three times)
- This would be counted as one instance of Student Mobility for District B (one student moved in and out of the district)
- This would be counted as three instances of Mobility Incidence for District A (two exits and one late entry)
- This would be counted as two instances of Mobility Incidence for District B (one late entry and one early exit)
Q: What is the difference between the school mobility rates and the district mobility rates?
A: If a student transfers from one school to another within the same district, the student is not counted as mobile at the district level (because the student did not enter or exit the district). However, both schools would count the student as mobile as part of the school mobility rates.
Q: How are the State Mobility Rates calculated?
A: The state pupil count (the denominator for both mobility rates) is the sum of the pupil counts for all districts. Similarly, the total mobile student count and the total instances of mobility (the numerators for the Student Mobility Rate and the Mobility Incidence Rate, respectively) are the sum of the district totals in these two categories.
Q: Did the mobility rate calculation change in the 2017-2018 school year?
A: The mobility calculation timeframe was modified in the 2017-2018 school year so that only entries and exits that occur from the October Count date to the end of the school year are included in the calculation. Students must have a gap in attendance of more than 10 days for a move to be considered mobile.
For additional information, email Reagan Ward, firstname.lastname@example.com


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The word Synaxis in Greek (Sobor in Slavonic), signifies in the Church a gathering of the people for a specific liturgical celebration, often but not always following the day of celebration of a major Church feast. Thus the day after Theophany, or the Baptism of Christ, would become the Synaxis of St. John the Baptist. In this icon, the term Synaxis refers to the gathering of all of the Angelic and Bodiless Powers together in an assembly with Christ in their midst. This is celebrated on November 8, the commemoration of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel with all of the Bodiless Hosts.
The ranks of these Bodiless Hosts are in ascending order: Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Authorities, Powers, Domitions, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. Christ is seen here in a rondel of light sitting upon a six-winged Seraphim and surrounded by angelic beings who represent all of the Bodiless Hosts. We on earth often forget that in the description of Creation, Heaven, or the immaterial worlds, precede Earth, or the material worlds. God has been in the midst of these immaterial worlds since the beginning of Creation, and is still loved and adored by most of that Creation.