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What is "The Spoony Experiment?"
It's an online comedy video series created and hosted by myself (Noah Antwiler), in which I review the worst (and sometimes best) movies, videogames, and comics I've ever experienced. As an avid gamer of nearly everything that can be played (consoles, computers, cards, boardgames, tabletop RPGs), and an avid movie buff, I've got something to say about nearly everything.
Who the hell are you?
I'm the award-winning creator and host of this popular site and online video review show. For over three years I've created a hilarious series of videos and blog entries skewering all aspects of nerd culture, from movies to video games to comic books. My first work was as a freelance movie critic for Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine, back in the days when I had a lot more time to play Dungeons and Dragons and write long-winded recaps of godawful fantasy flicks. I've acted on the Arizona State University mainstage and appeared in several short films, even starring for a time in a touring dinner theater. What started as a geeky hobby has become a full-time madness, and now I'm living the dream as a comedian and a paragon of Internet nerdiness!
Where does the "Spoony" thing come from?
The story of the "Tandem the Spoony" mantle is, of course, an extraordinarily nerdy one that started at a Dungeons & Dragons table, where I played a swashbuckling (and often accident-prone) bard. While playing the game Final Fantasy 2, I came across a scene where the game's bard, Edward, was getting the crap beaten out of him by an old sage. During this Rodney King-esque beating, the sage howled in badly-translated Japanese rage "You spoony bard!!" I still don't know what the hell it means, but after some in-jokes exchanged at a Dungeons & Dragons session in reference to my bard character "Tandem," Tandem the Spoony was born. Today, spooniness indicates a devil-may-care swashbuckling spirit, where all men are equal and free and should be generally nice to each other, and embrace wine, women, and song. Now I carry the name as an Internet handle, because – while silly – it's infinitely more memorable and interesting than Noah Antwiler.
What's the deal with the blue robot?
That's my robot, Burton. A few years ago, I'd gotten it in my head to write, produce, and shoot a feature-length film about my own experience working at a game store, so I wrote a screenplay, bought a decent DV camera, and had even gone so far as to hold auditions when suddenly the location I was using closed down, and it derailed production. I was on a micro-budget as it was, and I couldn't afford to go anywhere else. It was probably a good thing, because I have to admit that the screenplay I ended up with was not very good.
Anyway, I ended up stuck with this camera, and I had another mad plan to shoot some Mystery Science Theater-style videos using public domain movies as fodder, complete with robot puppets and a storyline. To that end, I enlisted some help to construct the robots, named Burton, Sorbo, and Morgan (after Big Trouble in Little China's Jack Burton, Hercules star Kevin Sorbo, and nerd vixen Morgan Webb). Burton was the only robot we managed to finish, and he's unarguably the best of the bunch. He's got an expressive face and a cool color scheme, and I really think he blows the other two robots away. Sorbo is a stainless steel robot made out of a disinfecting UV lamp, and Morgan is a modified salon hair dryer, but they don't have the distinct look of Burton's cyclopean Dustbuster head and floppy red useless arms.
I ended up retiring the MST project also. I began to realize that what I was attempting was bigger than something I'd be able to do on my own, obviously because I would need at least one, hopefully two, and ideally three other people to host the video with me (to run the puppets and play other characters). I toyed with the idea of doing it solo without robots, but I didn't like it much. Part of the fun is having more than one person to bounce jokes off of, otherwise who am I talking to? And I hadn't even gotten into the manpower needed to produce the show. I couldn't find anyone willing to devote the time to write, film, or do any meaningful work for the show. And I can't blame them. It's a lot of hard, unpaid work for a pretty pathetic nerdy exercise.
After all that, I didn't really have anywhere to store poor Burton, my robot without a function in life. The other robots I could throw in the closet; they hadn't been finished yet and so there wasn't much to damage, but Burton is a fragile guy and I prefer to keep him where I can see him, sitting upright so he doesn't fall and break off any pieces. So there he sits, behind my recliner, watching disapprovingly as I review games and movies instead.
What are your goals?
Making reviews is a lot of fun, and right now I'm living the dream of slackers everywhere. But I've been branching out into several new areas like net journalism, covering breaking news at major press events like the Electronic Entertainment Expo, ScrewAttack Gaming Convention, Penny Arcade Expo, and others. I'm also discovering a lot of potential in appearing as a guest speaker at these conventions, as I was recently featured as a guest at the Music and Gaming Festival (MAGFest). The main reason I bought a camera and started this whole thing, though, was that I wanted to one day write and direct a feature-length motion picture. Creating a movie is still a lifelong aspiration of mine, and hopefully I can use the contacts and knowledge I've gained from this site as a launchpad into even greater things!
What editing program do you use?
Up until about 2009 I used Sony Vegas Pro almost exclusively, which worked great for me. Recently, in one of the greatest acts of generosity I've ever personally witnessed, a fan donated the Adobe software suite to me. Since then I've been using Adobe Premiere Pro for nearly every project. I use a PC, as opposed to a Mac.
What camera do you use?
A Panasonic AG-HMC150. It's a relatively large HD-camera, chosen because it has XLR microphone inputs and saves to SD-cards as its recording medium. Before that I had a Sony PD-100A DV-camera, which saved to tapes. Great little camera that I completely wore out.
How do you record game footage?
The easiest way is to use a DVD recorder, which will accept input from almost any other gaming device. From there you can rip the footage off the DVD rather easily. I have a Dazzle and a video capture card on my computer that I sometimes use, but they're not as reliable and as simple as the DVD recorder. Capture cards are often not ideal for gaming since they might introduce a delay between input and on-screen results. For computer games, I've used FRAPS in the past, but lately I've been using Open Broadcasting Software, which I've found to be very versatile (and free).
What are your favorite movies?
I have a TON of favorites. I never like to put one above the others because they're all great in different ways and it's tough to compare movies in different genres. In no particular order, I love Big Trouble in Little China, the original Star Wars trilogy, Oldboy, Jaws, The Eye (by the Pang Brothers), Infernal Affairs, the Back to the Future Trilogy, the Indiana Jones Trilogy, Highlander, The Dark Knight, Hot Fuzz, John Carpenter's The Thing, Airplane!, Best Worst Movie, The Last Starfighter…I'm sure there's more.
What are your favorite video games?
I was a big fan of anything Origin Systems made for the PC, like the Wing Commander series, the Ultima RPG series, Strike Commander, and Crusader: No Remorse. My favorite games of all-time are Wing Commander: Privateer (PC), Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube), Mass Effect 2 (X360), Shadowrun (SNES), Wing Commander IV (PC), Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2), Fallout (PC), Descent: Freespace (PC), and Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny. My favorite arcade game is Rampart, and I will crush you if you are foolish enough to challenge me.
What is your favorite music?
My taste in music is as fickle as it is eclectic. I usually can't say no to artists like Weird Al Yankovic, Austrian Death Machine, or Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. But I love classic rock of the 70s, pop music of the 80s, and punk of the 90s. I'd guess my favorite song is "The Break-Up Song" by the Greg Kihn Band.
What are your favorite books/novels/comics?
My favorite books are "Snow Crash" and "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson and the "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin. My favorite comic author is Warren Ellis, creator of "Transmetropolitan" and "Nextwave."
How did you get started?
Very poorly. My first videos were largely improvised, slipshod efforts that mainly consisted of me slapping together loosely-edited footage and then narrating over it on a headset microphone. My process evolved quickly into having much more scripted formats, just so I could keep the pace and humor consistent, and it's a much more professional presentation. I started making videos mainly to entertain my friends on a message board by showing them my own experiences struggling at all the bad games I could never beat as a kid. From there, my fanbase spread exclusively through word-of-mouth (word-of-blog?).
Actually, what really set word of the site running rampant on the Internet was when I started reviewing Final Fantasy 8. My early FF8 coverage wasn't very good, even I admit, and to this day I regret making a few very tasteless jokes for cheap laughs ("Gay gay sissy gay!" Ugh.). But at that point, nobody had dared to tip over the sacred cows of Squaresoft. FF8 was still held in great reverence as one of the best examples of RPGs and a solid title in the Final Fantasy library. When I started making fun of it, people started passing the links around like crazy, and the reactions almost set the Internet on fire. I got thousands of e-mails, some in support, mostly decrying my blasphemy, horror-stricken at my sacrilege. I knew from that moment, I had to keep making videos like that, if only to keep generating responses that passionate. Love me or hate me, people were watching me and wanting to hear what I had to say next (even if it was complete, deranged insanity).
How can I get into reviewing?
I won't lie. It's a tough racket to get into, especially if you have hopes of making any kind of sustainable income. You have to generate a fanbase, and that's not easy with as much competition as you'll have. It's best that you start out making videos out of a desire to entertain people rather than as a serious business plan. I'm just saying that the same way I'd warn anyone who's considering a career in dance, acting, or singing. It's tough to be successful, and it doesn't always have much to do with talent. Make some videos and show your friends on message boards. Listen to their advice and make better videos, and keep refining your style, and if they're good, your friends will pass the links on. Keep encouraging people to pass on the links if they like what they see. You have to grow a fanbase, and it's slow-going. But that's how I did it.
You don't need a great camera, a great shooting space, or great audio. These things help, but it's about finding your own style– something that sets you apart. You have to be comfortable in front of a camera. You have to be comfortable speaking, acting, and performing. You have to be prepared to make a total ass out of yourself in the name of entertainment. You also need to prepared to weather some pretty harsh criticism from the Internet audience, which can be notoriously brutal. You gotta be bulletproof to some pretty nasty, ignorant hate-speech.
What is your relationship to Channel Awesome and That Guy With the Glasses?
TGWTG was looking for new talent to help their own site grow, and they found me as one of the bigger movie/game critics on YouTube, so they offered me a partnership and featured my videos on their site. It's been a lot of fun, and I've really loved the opportunity to work with Doug and Rob Walker in the Epic Brawl, Kickassia, and all the major crossover projects. It's helped me meet and make videos with some of the funniest people on the Internet like Angry Joe, Linkara, the Game Heroes, Guru Larry, the Cinema Snob, Bennett the Sage, and many others.
What is your relationship to James Rolfe (the Angry Video Game Nerd) and ScrewAttack?
We made out one time, but it's nothing serious.
Just kidding. James and I have worked together on a couple of projects like the TGWTG Epic Brawl (Nerd vs. Nostalgia Critic) and Deadliest Character. He's been wonderfully cooperative with any requests for help I've sent his way. But truthfully, we aren't in contact much. I'm working pretty much all the time, and I can only imagine how busy James must be with his numerous commitments, so I only bother him when strictly necessary. I have no formal relationship with ScrewAttack, but I was very happy to appear as a panelist and guest at SGC.
When is your next video?
I try to have a new video every 2 weeks, but this is a loose schedule. Sometimes I release videos a little faster, sometimes slower. It depends on a lot of things like upcoming conventions. I know this isn't very helpful, but I release videos when they're done and I'm happy with how they turned out.
I have an idea for a review. Can I make a request for a movie or game for you to talk about?
Sure, you can e-mail me your suggestions at email@example.com .
Can I contact you on Skype/MSN/AIM?
Sadly, no. I rarely use instant-messaging except when I'm collaborating with my co-workers.
Why don't you ever respond to your e-mails? You bastard.
I know. I suck. I get such a huge volume of e-mails every day though, I can't possibly respond to everyone. Heck, I can barely find the time to respond to people I work with. If I spent time responding to every e-mail I got, it's all I'd be doing every day. Wouldn't you rather I spent that time making more videos? I do read your e-mails when I can, but I'm very sorry that I can't respond most of the time. It's just not possible.
Are you planning to release any DVDs?
Not at the moment. I'm looking into creating videos that are more suitable for sale.
I've heard you've been having some health troubles. Are you ok?
2010 was a rough year for me, health-wise. I was out of commission for quite a while with a persistent and debilitating nerve condition the doctors diagnosed me with called vasodepressor syncope. It's a fainting condition, aggravated whenever my heart rate gets above 130bpm or so. My heart squeezes too hard when it beats quickly, and it causes circulation problems. When that happens, my heart rate drops dramatically and I collapse. It got really bad and I was incapable of doing even minor household tasks without feeling nauseous.
The good news is, I've been seeing a doctor and we're zeroing in on the right balance of medications to get the problem under control. I already feel a lot better. I'm working out, losing weight, and feeling a lot less-stressed about it.
Do you have a mailing address I can send letters or donations to?
Yep! I just got a P.O. Box. You can send your letters to:
Noah Antwiler
2758 US Highway 34
Oswego, IL 60543


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We're your local college foundation. We've been here since the beginning, supporting the hopes and dreams of local and regional students to build better lives through education.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Records of decisions for Operable Units 1 and 2 (the former W.R. Grace Export and Screening plants) at the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site in Libby, Mont., were signed this week by Richard Opper, director of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, and Carol Campbell, assistant regional administrator for Ecosystems Protection in EPA's Region 8. These records of decision determine the remedies for the cleanup of two prominent properties within the Superfund site.
EPA significantly amended its proposed plans to address the concerns of the citizens in Lincoln County. In order to protect human health and the environment, a combination of soil removal and containment (capping) will be used to break the critical soil-to-air exposure pathway.
"EPA will work closely with the city of Libby, the owner of OU 1, during the design so the remedy will complement any planned future use of the property," Campbell said.
In November 1999, EPA sent an Emergency Response Team to Libby as the result of local concern and news articles about asbestos-contaminated vermiculite that was mined near town by the W.R. Grace Corporation. The mine has been inactive since 1990 and access to the Grace property has been restricted for several years.
In 2002, the Libby Asbestos Site was added to the National Priorities List (Superfund) and more than 3,000 properties were inspected and sampled. By October of 2009, more than 1,100 properties had been cleaned up in the residential areas (OU 4) and significant toxicity studies had been initiated to complete the Baseline Risk Assessment.
Investigations are ongoing in the neighboring town of Troy (OU 7), at the mine site (OU 3), at various former vermiculite processing areas (OUs 1, 2, and 5), OU 6 (the railroad rights of way) and OU 8 (state highways).
In June 2009, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced the agency has determined that a public health emergency exists at the Libby asbestos site. This is the first time EPA has made a determination under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) that conditions at a site constitute a public health emergency. This determination recognizes the serious impact to the public health from the contamination at Libby and underscores the need for further action and health care for area residents who have been or may be exposed to asbestos.


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Upholstered Linen Queen Bedframe - $1,700
Add a touch of glamour to your bedroom with this 1920s curved bedframe. Check out this and other finds after the jump.
Apartment Therapy New York Furniture Classifieds are open for your business in the Shopping Guide. They are local and JUST DECOR. Post a particularly good thing, and we'll highlight you here on the front page.
• Upholstered Linen Queen Bedframe - $1,700
• Stylish Sleeper Sectional - $495 (Sheepshead Bay)
• Pottery Barn Ogee Bench - $400 (Sunset Park)
• Knoll Settee - $600 (Fort Greene)
• Design Within Reach Knit Pouf - $700 (East Village)
• Rounded White Credenza - $150 (Fort Greene)
• Donghia Tufted Chaise - $1,200
• (2) Silk Tufted Bamboo Stools - $400 (Upper East Side)
• (4) Bentwood Stools - $600 (Hoboken)
• Crate & Barrel Living Room Chair - $150 (Brooklyn Heights)
>> The most recent New York Scavengers
Are you on Twitter? Share your own regional finds (you know, the great deals that you don't have room/money or use for) by using the hashtag #ATScavenger. ATScavenger will share your finds with the rest of the community — whether it's a Craigslist find, eBay gem or a discarded table left out for the trash.
Follow ATScavenger for the best furniture finds and projects.
Apartment Therapy is not the seller of these items. This is an edited selection of our favorite offerings from other independent sources. Please check the item's link for the original source.


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Because it is not as old as its neighbors Conwy and Caernarfon castle Penrhyn castle struggles a bit to attract visitors. This is really a shame because it has some quite unique things to offer: a walled garden, a slate bed for Queen Victoria and an Ice Tower.
This is a view out of a wooden hut on the "bog garden"
Wales (Cymru in the Welsh language) is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The major cities are Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Bangor. The city of St. Davids is the smallest city in the UK with a population around 2000. Wales itself has a population of around 3 million. The Welsh language is spoken by around 20% of the population.


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With sports and their stars earning unprecedented sums to wow us with amazing on-field performances, the big question nowadays is how to translate that excitement into other forms of entertainment and media.
The games we watch are already television's biggest hitter. NBC's regular season telecasts of the NFL's "Sunday Night Football" delivered higher ratings than almost any other broadcast series last season, and ESPN's "Monday Night Football" performed similarly on cable. In June, NBC retained the rights to four future Olympics Games for a staggering $4.38 billion.
Building on that success, Jeff Jenkins, who is the exec producer of "Khloe & Lamar," which focuses on the marriage of Khloe Kardashian and Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom, believes the reality genre is poised for increased athlete involvement.
"I think this is only the beginning," he says, adding that "Khloe & Lamar" proves "it is safe to come play in the reality television world because it can add to what you're doing.
"A lot of athletes fear that they can be thrown under the bus, but that's not what we do. We may show a dark side or a conflict, but we work hard to tell a well-rounded story."
Indeed, along with Odom's series, ABC's popular "Dancing With the Stars" has been a strong vehicle for numerous sports personalities with athletes winning six of the season's 12 contests. On HBO, the documentary skein "Hard Knocks" has helped elevate the personas of those in the sporting world, such as New York Jets coach Rex Ryan.
Nevertheless, Wasserman Media Group chairman Casey Wasserman, whose conglom represents numerous top players from professional leagues, isn't convinced that players in front of the camera are going to prove the type of boon that Jenkins suggests.
"There is no question that athletes continue to move up the value chain in the world of media, but as valuable as sports are, you'd be hard pressed to find more than a small handful of (entertainment) projects that can be built on the backs of the athletes," Wasserman says.
Wasserman says sports are such a ratings winner because they are the ultimate reality television. As a result, centering other entertainment programming on sports would feel relatively flat.
"Sports have high drama and an unpredictable ending," he says. "That's what makes sports sports, and it is why there hasn't been a lot of reality television based on sports. There isn't an 'American Idol' to be a player in the NFL, because if you have the skill it's already identified."
At the same time, Wasserman sees the uptick in player stature as an opening for another area: social media and e-commerce. Because players have been savvy with their use of online tools such as Twitter and have built-in local audiences, they are very well-placed to leverage those networks.
"Athletes are in a position to take advantage of that commercially," Wasserman says. "They have a home team … and they already have fans who want to buy their jersey. What if athletes could have their own branded shoes that they could sell directly? (Social media) is a great channel. Those conversations are and will happen."
Taking a broader look at this question, Peter Guber, Mandalay Entertainment CEO and co-exec chairman of the NBA's Golden State Warriors, suggests the answer is more holistic. It requires looking broadly at why sports succeed and then adapting those practices elsewhere in the entertainment world.
For example, Guber believes areas where sports get it right, like delivering information to fans quickly or emphasizing crowd participation at games, should be considered in other entertainment ventures and tailored to that experience.
"There are silos of entertainment that we grew up with — movies, theater, radio, TV — and there is sport entertainment," he says. "What you realize is the same audience watches all with different values. If you can learn what is the most engaging part … you're more likely to create an energy that is tremendously compelling."


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Closing the Gender (Data) Gap: Clinton, Kim Launch New Efforts for Better Gender Data
The phrase "gender gap" may be well known – but what about the gender gap for data? Today at an event at the Gallup Organization in Washington, D.C., U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim called for better data-gathering on girls and women as an essential way to boost women's empowerment and economic growth.
"Gender equality is vital for growth and competitiveness," said Dr. Kim [1] at "Evidence and Impact: Closing the Gender Data Gap [2]" in Washington, co-hosted by the State Department and the Gallup Organization [3].
But the lack of gender-disaggregated data hampers development efforts in many countries, Dr. Kim said.
"We need to find this missing data. We need to make women count."
Global progress is lagging on women's voice and agency—the ability to act on one's own behalf and participate in society, according to World Development Report 2012 [4] on gender. And very little data is available on women's economic opportunity and voice in developing countries.
To ease access to what does exist, Dr. Kim introduced the World Bank's new Gender Data site [5] -- a one-stop shop on gender data, including surveys, statistics, analytical work, and reference materials covering girls' and women's employment, access to productive activities, education, health, public life and decision-making, human rights and demographic outcomes.
Secretary Clinton also announced a new initiative, Data 2X [7], that will develop new curriculum standards to ensure data producers and users train in gender-sensitive techniques. The project will work with key data organizations, including the UN [8], World Bank [9], OECD [10], PARIS21 [11], and Gallup, to also publish a roadmap on how to fill priority gaps in gender-sensitive data as quickly as possible. Data 2X will report on its progress in one year's time.
Added Secretary Clinton [7]: "If we're serious about narrowing the gender gap and helping more girls and women, then we must get serious about gathering and analyzing the data that tell the tale."
"We already know that investing in women delivers returns for entire societies, but we are missing critical information to guide our investments better... And since women make up half the population, that's like having a black hole at the center of our data-driven universe."
Citing the Human Development Report [12], Secretary Clinton said inequality between men and women can reduce a country's overall progress in health, education, and standard of living by up to 85%.
Other studies have shown that eliminating barriers to women's participation in certain industries or levels of management could increase the productivity of all workers from 3 to 25%. In addition, if women farmers had access to the same seeds, equipment, irrigation as men farmers, they could increase their crop yields by as much as 20 to 30% and feed up to an additional 150 million hungry people, Secretary Clinton said.
"This points to a tremendous opportunity. Elevating the status of women and girls has been shown to have a positive impact on entire societies and in country after country, education improves, spending on nutrition and health increases, productivity goes up, economies grow," she said.
Dr. Kim and Secretary Clinton called for more investment in data and evidence to guide decision-making and help close the gender data gap. In the next year, the World Bank will aim to make progress in 10 countries where data is currently missing, said Dr. Kim.
The Bank's new gender data site offers easy access to multiple sources of data on gender, including Global Financial Inclusion Index [13], GenderStats, World Development Indicators [14], the Bank's Enterprise Surveys [15], Women, Business and the Law [16], and a host of other sources. Data visualization tools allow users to create maps, figures and charts using country-level data. The database will be continually updated as new data becomes available. As part of the World Bank's broader open data [17] initiative, visitors will be able access a whole range of data on Bank operations and financing.
"If we are to make significant and lasting change, we need to direct the data back towards developing countries," said Dr. Kim. "By making data accessible, we can help empower men and women in the real world to become agents of change. This is important, because it's only with sufficient country demand for better gender equality that we will ultimately succeed."
Related Links:
Data Gaps Hampering Efforts to Empower Women [18]
Photos: World Bank President Kim and US Secretary of State Clinton at "Evidence and Impact: Closing the Gender Gap" at Gallup [19]
- Tags:
- The World Region [20]
- world bank [21]
- women [22]
- voice [23]
- Visualizaton [24]
- united nations [25]
- State Department [26]
- open data [28]
- oecd [29]
- Jim Yong Kim [30]
- Human Development Report [31]
- Hillary Clinton [32]
- Global Findex [33]
- Gender Gap [34]
- Gender Data [35]
- Gender [36]
- Gallup [37]
- equality [38]
- Development [39]
- Data 2X [40]
- data [41]
- Business and the Law [42]
- Agency [43]


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Elyria High School graduate Tianna Madison has been selected for the U.S. bobsled team.
She joins other runners, including Lolo Jones, who said she needed something to take her mind off the rigors of her Olympic track season.
Jones and Madison, who won a gold medal at the London Olympics, were two of 24 athletes selected to the U.S. bobsled team today.
"I just came out here and kind of needed to get away from track for a bit, kind of wanted to get some motivation," Jones told The Associated Press. "I thought coming out here with the other girls that we could help each other, we could benefit from one another. I could help them with their speed and they could help me with my strength. And just being around them, hearing their goals gave me new goals and refreshed me."
Jones was fourth at the London Games, the second time she's gone to an Olympics and come home without a hurdles medal. She was the favorite for gold at Beijing in 2008, then hit the next-to-last hurdle and finished seventh.
She still plans to compete in hurdles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Only now, a trip to the 2014 Sochi Games — in a bobsled — might come first.
"This is a breath of fresh air — cool, very cool, cold air," Jones said.
Jones and Madison were among a small number of track athletes invited to Lake Placid for bobsled's push championships this month by U.S. coach Todd Hays. He believed veteran Olympians would, if nothing else, help some of the team's younger competitors and raise team morale.
But Hays also had another idea in mind — recruitment. Bobsled has long sought athletes from the track world, with their strength and explosiveness considered the perfect combination to get a sled going quickly down an icy chute.
Madison, who was part of a world-record-setting 4x100-meter relay Olympic win in London, and Jones fit what Hays was looking for. Neither had done any real training since the London Games, so the last three weeks have been hectic for Madison and Jones.
"Once they were revved up, things started clicking for both of us," Jones said. "It kind of overwhelmed us quite quickly."
Both bring star power. Jones brings an element of celebrity as well.
This summer in London, Jones competed amid criticism, even from some teammates, that she received more attention and endorsements than her accomplishments on the track warranted. One of the things she said attracted her to bobsledding was that, traditionally, it's the pilot — not the push athlete — who gets virtually all the attention after races.
If that holds true, Jones might be thrilled.
"When I came here, I didn't want any distractions," Jones said.
Madison ran the opening leg of the gold-winning relay in London, one that smashed the record held by East Germany for 27 years.
Other women in the push-athlete mix are 2010 Olympian Emily Azevedo, world championship medalist Katie Eberling, Lake Placid start-record-holder Aja Evans and former Cal track athlete Cherrelle Garrett.
Three women's pilots are on the roster: reigning world championships bronze medalist Elana Meyers will drive USA-1, Jamie Greubel will drive USA-2 and Jazmine Fenlator will be at the controls of USA-3. Coaches will likely determine next week which three push athletes work with the drivers for the first World Cup event of the season. Because that's six women vying for three roles, there's no guarantee that Jones or Madison would start on the World Cup circuit.
The men's roster had few surprises. World and Olympic champion Steven Holcomb will drive USA-1, with Nick Cunningham in USA-2 and Cory Butner in USA-3.
Push athletes Steve Langton, Justin Olsen and Curt Tomasevicz helped the "Night Train" sled driven by Holcomb to the world title last year, and all are back this season. Coaches chose nine other men's push athletes as well: Adam Clark, Johnny Quinn, Chuck Berkeley, Laszlo Vandracsek, Chris Fogt, Dallas Robinson, Jesse Beckom, Andreas Drbal and Nic Taylor.
The U.S. skeleton roster will be announced next week after team selection races end in Park City, Utah. World Cup racing for bobsled and skeleton opens in Lake Placid on Nov. 8.
"It was definitely a thrill," Jones said. "This is definitely the first time I've made a team and I haven't had to cross the finish line and look at the scoreboard."


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Born on January 7, 1919, in Oakland, California, Robert Duncan began writing poetry as a teenager in Bakersfield, when a high school teacher encouraged his creative endeavors. In 1938, after two years at University of California, Berkeley, Duncan moved to New York and became involved in the downtown literary coterie that had sprung up around Anaïs Nin.
While in New York, Duncan took an active role in emerging arts movements, following the works of the Abstract Expressionists, the development of Pablo Picasso's brand of modernism, and the emergence of an American Surrealism as seen in the works of his acquaintances Roberto Matta and Hans Hoffman. During this time, Duncan launched the Experimental Review with Sanders Russell; Duncan and Russell published the work of Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Kenneth Patchen, Lawrence Durrell, and other writers in their circle.
Duncan returned to Berkeley in 1946. The poetry scene there was developing into what would soon be called the San Francisco Renaissance: Jack Spicer and Robin Blaser were together devising their concept of a "serial form" for poems linked by repeating themes, images, and phrases, while Kenneth Rexroth was holding his literary and anarchist meetings, which Duncan, Blaser, and a host of others attended.
In 1947 Duncan met Charles Olson, and over the years that followed the two developed a relationship rooted in their literary interests. Olson introduced Duncan to Robert Creeley and, in 1956, invited Duncan to teach at Black Mountain College. During his time at Black Mountain Duncan composed most of the poems in his first mature collection of poetry, The Opening of the Field. Indeed, Olson's theory of "projective verse" and "open forms," which propose a poetry shaped by the poet's "breath" rather than by the traditional rules of meter and rhyme, seem to have directly influenced Duncan's "grand collage" concept of verse. Duncan, in effect, took Olson's idea of "breath" one step further, presenting the poem as a "compositional field" to which the poet might bring whatever he or she pleases.
Duncan's rather spiritual upbringing shaped the scope of the poet's work. After his biological mother died giving birth to him, Duncan was adopted by a couple who practiced theosophy, an occult religion popularized in the late nineteenth century by a controversial figure who called herself Madame Blavatsky (W. B. Yeats was a follower of theosophy, in its early stages). Theosophy, which promotes belief in reincarnation and an "essential oneness" of spirit, draws from world religions and philosophy. Duncan's adoptive parents, spiritual-seekers who seriously pursued their interests in enlightenment, selected Robert based on the configuration of his astrological chart. Duncan took his parents' beliefs quite seriously; the occult, in particular, informed both his poetry and theories of poetics throughout his life.
Despite his affiliation with several major movements in American poetry of the fifties and sixties, Duncan forged a style uniquely his own. Utilizing archaic diction and spelling, and complex repetition of phrase, Duncan creates a poetic space both ethereal and obsessive. Throughout his life Duncan became increasingly interested in the writing process, striving to write poems of a purely organic form. His most famous poem, the central piece of The Opening of the Field, provides a commentary on Duncan's work as a whole, and serves as a precursor for his work to come:
OFTEN I AM PERMITTED TO RETURN TO A MEADOW as if it were a scene made-up by the mind, that is not mine, but is a made place, that is mine, it is so near to the heart, an eternal pasture folded in all thought so that there is a hall therein that is a made place, created by light wherefrom the shadows that are forms fall.
Duncan died on February 3, 1988.
A Selected Bibliography
Early Poems (1939)
Heavenly City Earthly City (1947)
Poems (1949)
A Book of Resemblances (1950)
Medieval Scenes (1950)
Fragments of a Disordered Devotion (1952)
Letters (1953)
Selected Poems (1959)
The Opening of the Field (1960)
As Testimony: The Poem (1964)
Roots and Branches (1964)
Medea at Kolchis: The Maiden Head (1965)
A Book of Resemblances Poems (1966)
Of the War: Passages (1966)
Bending the Bow (1968)
Derivations: Selected Poems (1968)
Names of People (1968)
Play Time Pseudo Stein (1969)
65 Drawings, A Selection . . . from One Drawing Book (1970)
Poetic Disturbances (1970)
A Prospectus for . . . Ground Work (1971)
Caesar's Gate Poems (1972)
Poems from the Margins of Thom Gunn's Moly (1972)
A Seventeenth Century Suite (1973)
An Ode and Arcadia (1974)
Dante (1974)
Selected Poems (1977)
Medieval Scenes (1978)
Ground Work: Before the War (1984)
Ground Work II: In the Dark (1987)
Selected Poems (1993)
A Great Admiration: H. D./Robert Duncan Correspondence (1992)
A Selected Prose (1995)
Writing A Composition Book Stein Imitations (1964)
Faust Foutu: An Entertainment in Four Parts (1959)
Fictive Certainties: Essays (1979)
The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov (2003)


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Let's KONYIfy Development through Virtual CDD (KONY 2012, Part 2)
In my last blog, I spoke about how a simple video message about a warlord who lives thousands of miles away from most of the video's viewers, created by Jason Russell, inspired millions to "make Kony famous", and end the atrocities of Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Many of us development professionals entered the profession with a desire to create a better world. We knew it would take time and effort but were happy if we knew we made at least a small dent. With technology, our dreams have suddenly become bigger. Is it really possible to use technology to amplify development impact? If anything the KONY 2012 campaign gave all of us believers in the power of technology to do good, something we longed for - HOPE.


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Tony Hawk brought together some powerhouse celebrities, athletes, and the locals who keep skateboarding alive to help raise $50,000 for the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark in NYC. No doubt, the Tony Hawk Foundation is one of the best things going in skateboarding right now. Keep lurking for the full recap and epic slideshow…
Tony Hawk Foundation Brings Signature Benefit Event To The Hamptons
Inaugural East Coast benefit raises $50,000 for New York City skatepark.
8/11/08 (Bridgehampton, NY) – The Tony Hawk Foundation brought its signature Stand Up For Skateparks fundraiser to The Hamptons, raising $575,000 to help develop public skateparks across America, including $50,000 for the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark in New York City.
Held at the Ross Lower School campus in Bridgehampton, New York, the event marks the first time Stand Up For Skateparks has been held outside of the Los Angeles area. Attended by the likes of Jon Bon Jovi, Russell Simmons, Vern Troyer, Michael Gelman, Nacho Figueras, UFC fighters Wanderlei Silva and Matt Serra, and others, this exclusive, family-centric, action-sports carnival featured a Vert Demo with Tony Hawk and his Boom Boom HuckJam cast of top skateboarders and BMX pros: Neal Hendrix, Sergie Ventura, Jesse Fritsch, Elliot Sloan, Kevin Robinson, and Dennis McCoy. Jason Ellis pulled double duty on both on the mic and his board while video turntablist Mike Relm plugged into the Jumbotron to provide the show's sounds and images. The festival area included games, food, auctions, and music, plus the Jeep Skate Clinic course that was open to event guests.
The Stand Up For Skateparks Benefit Committee includes Tony Hawk, Lance Armstrong, Andre Agassi, Russell Simmons, Rob Dyrdek, Christopher "Big Black" Boykin, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jamie Lee Curtis, Mia Hamm, Dana White, Jr., Jon Favreau, Mat Hoffman, Shaun White, Bobby Kotick, Bob McKnight, Ron Burkle, and Scott Greenstein, each of whom has assisted the Foundation in its fundraising efforts. During the Pledge Drive for the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark, Scott Greenstein's personal appeal for guests to reach out to New York youth and help them build their dream skatepark was met with enthusiasm and contributed to the success of that effort. To make a contribution to the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark, visit www.mbskatepark.org.
Activision Presents Stand Up For Skateparks was made possible through the support of event guests and sponsors, including Activision, Jeep, NetJets, T-Mobile Sidekick, UFC, Maverick Business Adventures, and Guitar Hero.
Through grants and technical assistance, the Tony Hawk Foundation helps communities across the U.S. build free, quality, public skateparks in low-income areas to give at-risk youth access to safe, sanctioned places to skate. With over 13-million skateboarders in the U.S. and only about 2,500 skateparks nationwide, most skateboarders are forced to skate in the streets, in parking lots, and other locations where they're often not welcome. Public skateparks provide not only a safe place for them to pursue their passion for this healthy, athletic, and creative activity, but also helps them build a sense of community.
The next deadline to submit Tony Hawk Foundation Grant Applications is October 1, 2008. Applications will be available online from August 15, 2008 at www.tonyhawkfoundation.org.
Donations to the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark in New York City can be made at www.mbskatepark.org, where visitors can see a video about the project.
The Tony Hawk Foundation will host its next Stand Up For Skateparks benefit in Beverly Hills, California on November 9, 2008. For more information, visit www.standupforskateparks.org, or contact C.C. Flashman at firstname.lastname@example.com or 760-477-2479.
A charitable, non-profit organization, the Tony Hawk Foundation was established in 2002 by its namesake, professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, to promote and provide funds for high-quality public skateparks throughout the United States—with an emphasis on the word "quality." Since then, the Foundation has awarded $2,348,500 to 390 communities. The Foundation focuses on working with local officials and grassroots, community-based organizations that plan to hire designers and contractors with strong experience designing and building skateparks.
The Tony Hawk Foundation was established by a gift from Tony Hawk. Its directors raise additional funds through events, industry donations, and continuing contributions from Tony and other entities. In addition to skateparks, the Foundation also makes donations to other children-related charities, as chosen by its Board Of Directors. For more information or to make a donation, visit the Foundation's Web site at www.tonyhawkfoundation.org.
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Scientists Find Faint Objects with Hubble that May Have Completed the Universe's 'Dark Ages'
Researchers at Arizona State University using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope believe they are seeing the conclusion of the cosmic epoch where the young galaxies started to shine in significant numbers. This marks a time when the so-called "Dark Ages" of the universe was completed, about 13 billion years ago. (Based on an estimate of 14 billion years for the current age of the universe.)
The arrows in this Hubble image indicate three of the thirty objects that the team discovered using Hubble's new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Astronomers believe that these numerous objects are faint young star-forming galaxies seen when the universe was seven times smaller than it is today (at redshifts of about 6) and less than a billion years old. This is right around the cosmic epoch where astronomers believe that radiation from hot stars in numerous young galaxies was converting the universe's cool hydrogen into a hot ionized gas.
The distances to the suspected young galaxies are believed to be so large given how red the observed objects are. This is interpreted as being caused by the enormous expansion of the universe since that early epoch. Almost all of the ultraviolet light from the young stars has been stretched (or redshifted) to far-red wavelengths. As a consequence, these three objects are only visible in the reddest of the two filters aboard the ACS.
The entire ACS field of view shows about thirty such faint red objects. This means nearly 8,000 such objects would fill a patch of sky no bigger than what is covered by holding your thumb at arm's length, the Arizona researchers estimate. They conclude that at least 400 million such objects filled in the entire universe at this cosmic epoch to the limit of this Hubble image. And, this is likely only the tip of the iceberg. NASA's planned 7-meter James Webb Space Telescope will see the entire population of these proto-galactic objects.
NASA, H.-J. Yan, R. Windhorst and S. Cohen (Arizona State University)


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Prince Harry, who has now completed a 20-week deployment in Helmand province, insisted he and his brother were "not special" and said the Duke of Cambridge is envious of his tour of duty.
Speaking alongside an Apache attack helicopter at Camp Bastion, the 28-year-old co-pilot gunner said there was no reason why members of the Royal family should not be "shot at" if troops on the ground are facing the same dangers while taking on the Taliban.
The Duke, 30, who is the future Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is an RAF Flight Lieutenant and works as a Search and Rescue Force pilot on Sea King helicopters based at RAF Valley on Anglesey.
But the second in line to the throne has never seen active service because it is considered too dangerous.
Prince Harry believes his brother could fly Chinook helicopters with emergency medical crews on board to pick up casualties.
He said: "I think there is a bit of jealousy, not just the fact that I get to fly this, but obviously he'd love to be out here. And to be honest with you, I don't see why he couldn't.
"His job out here would be flying the IRT [Immediate Response Team], or whatever, doing Chinook missions. Just the same as us. No one knows who's in the cockpit.
"Yes, you get shot at. But if the guys who are doing the same job as us are being shot at on the ground, I don't think there's anything wrong with us being shot at as well.
"People back home will have issues with that, but we're not special. The guys out there are. Simple as that."
No future monarch has seen active wartime service since George VI, then known as Prince Albert, who served with the Royal Navy during the First World War.
His brother, the then Prince of Wales, who later reigned briefly as Edward VIII, also served in the Great War, as a staff officer behind the front line at the Battle of the Somme.
Prince Harry admitted the jealousy between him and his brother works both ways.
"Before coming out here I was very jealous of my brother," he admitted.
"His job's very cool, and I think he's doing a wonderful job, even though he's in the RAF" he joked.
"It's operational flying back home. You get all the luxuries of operational flying - the pride, as you call it - and the reward of basically in his case saving people's lives, which is exactly what we try and do as well.
"And back home he gets to go home to his wife and his dog, whereas out here we don't. We're stuck playing PlayStation in a tent full of men."


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The procurement of certain commodities and services have limitations or require special procedures.
8.1 Architectural and Engineering
8.1.1 Projects Exceeding $250,000: In the procurement of architectural and engineering services, including those professional services of an architectural or engineering nature, for projects estimated to exceed $250,000 (construction cost and architectural fees), an Expression of Interest shall be requested of interested firms by the Purchasing Division. Special procedures in the selection of architectural and engineering services are required in accordance with Chapter 5G of the West Virginia Code. Agencies must use the standard EOI format for projects expected to exceed $250,000.
The expression of interest shall include a statement of qualifications and performance data and may include anticipated concepts and proposed methods of approach to the project. The project must be announced by public notice.
An evaluation committee shall consist of three (3) to five (5) representatives of the agency. The committee shall:
(a) Evaluate the statements of qualifications and performance data and other material submitted;
(b) Develop a short list (minimum of three [3] firms) which, in their opinion, are best qualified to perform the desired service; and
(c) Interview each firm on the short list and discuss anticipated concepts and proposed methods of approach to the assignment, including clarification of qualifications and performance data, the scope of services offered and needed time to complete project.
The committee will rank no less than three (3) firms deemed to be the most highly qualified on the basis of the matters discussed during the interview, in order of preference, and present such list to the state agency and the Purchasing Division. The committee will forward its recommendation to the Purchasing Division along with a written justification as to the selection of the firm. The justification must provide a score sheet with complete explanation of all points deducted to clearly indicate how the firms were ranked. The committee will then commence negotiations as to scope of service and price with the highest qualified firm.
If the agency fails to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the highest qualified firm at a fee determined to be fair and reasonable, negotiations as to scope of services and price with the firm of second choice will commence. Failing that, negotiations as to scope of service and price will be undertaken with the third most qualified firm. In no situation, after negotiations have been terminated with a firm, will negotiations be reopened.
If the agency fails to negotiate a satisfactory contract with any of the selected firms, in order of their competence and qualifications, they will rebid.
8.1.2 Projects $250,000 or Less: In the procurement of architectural and engineering services for projects estimated to cost less than $250,000 (which includes construction cost and architectural fee), competition shall be sought by the agency.
The agency shall conduct discussions with three (3) or more firms solicited on the basis of known or submitted qualifications for the assignment and the scope of services prior to the awarding of any contract. The Purchasing Master Terms and Conditions must be included with the negotiated contract that is submitted to the Purchasing Division, so that all vendors are aware of the requirements of the potential contract.
Price may not be discussed prior to selecting the highest rated firm.
The agency and the initially selected firm shall further develop the scope of services and, at this time, discuss price. If negotiations fail to result in a satisfactory contract, the agency may commence negotiations with the next ranked firm in the same manner, continuing until a satisfactory contract is negotiated.
Once negotiations conclude with the selected vendor, the agency must send the negotiated contract to the Purchasing Division to be properly executed.
If a judgment is made that special circumstances exist and that seeking competition is not practical, the agency may, with the prior approval of the Purchasing Director, select a firm on the basis of previous satisfactory performance and knowledge of the facilities and agency's needs.
Change order for projects estimated to cost less than $250,000 (which includes construction and architectural fee) that far exceeds $250,000 may not be approved and may necessitate a rebid.
8.2 Capitol Improvements
8.2.1 State Capitol Complex: Pursuant to the West Virginia Code §4-8-5, No contract or contracts which will result in physical changes to the state Capitol or any approaches, structures or facilities incidental thereto shall be let, nor shall any physical changes be made not requiring a contract, until approval of the commission has been obtained.
The Code requires the Capitol Building Commission to review and either approve or reject all plans recommending substantial physical changes inside or outside the state Capitol or surrounding complex, including the public meeting rooms, hallways and grounds which affect the appearance thereof. The surrounding complex shall include the governor's mansion and other buildings used by the governor as part of his residence; the state science and cultural center; all state office buildings located in the immediate vicinity of the state Capitol and the roadways, structures and facilities which are incidental to such buildings. Substantial physical change means any permanent physical changes that alter the appearance of the public areas of the Capitol and surrounding complex.
The approval of the Capitol Building Commission is mandatory before any contract may be bid for work requiring a substantial physical change, or before changes are initiated if the work is not done under a contract.
8.2.2 State-Owned Office Buildings: Pursuant to the West Virginia Code §4-8-4, The Capitol Building Commission shall review and approve or reject all plans recommending substantial physical changes inside or outside the state capitol building or surrounding complex, including the public meeting rooms, hallways and grounds, which affect the appearance thereof. The approval of the commission is mandatory before a contract may be let for work which constitutes a substantial physical change, or before changes are started if the work is not done under a contract. As used in this article, the surrounding complex shall include the governor's mansion and other buildings used by the governor as part of his residence, the state science and cultural center, all state office buildings located in the immediate vicinity of the state capitol, and the roadways, structures and facilities which are incidental to such buildings. As used in this article, substantial physical change shall include, but not be limited to, permanent physical changes that alter the appearance of the public areas of the capitol building and surrounding complex. The secretary of the department of administration shall promulgate rules and regulations, pursuant to the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, which rules and regulations shall be subject to the approval of the capitol building commission, to implement the provisions of this article. In addition, West Virginia Code §4-8-4 states that no contract or contracts which will result in physical changes to the capitol building or any approaches, structures or facilities incidental thereto shall be let, nor shall any physical changes be made not requiring a contract, until approval of the commission has been obtained.
8.3 Data Processing Equipment or Software
The West Virginia Code §5A-6, requires that the Chief Technology Office (CTO), in conjunction with the Information Services & Communications Division (IS&C) of the Department of Administration, review and approve all data processing procurements for state agencies.
All infrastructure purposes, regardless of dollar value, require CTO approval prior to submission of a request to use any type of solicitation. Since the CTO may require changes by the agency, the Purchasing Division's review of documentation without CTO approval may not be practical. All state entities, with the exception of Constitutional Officers, Higher Education and K-12, shall request approval for, at a minimum, but not limited to, the purchase of servers, storage device, routers, hubs, switches, firewalls, video conferencing and telephone equipment, including PBX system. The applicable infrastructure purchases also include infrastructure software of all types, whether it is e-mail applications, anti-virus software or any other interoperability application.
Different than infrastructure purchases in the previous paragraph, state agencies may procure computer application software and other non-infrastructure software, as well as IT consulting services with an estimated value of less than $10,000 without CTO approval, but must provide copies of agency purchase orders to the CTO. All purchases of computer hardware, software and consulting services in excess of $10,000 must have prior approval of the CTO before it can be processed. Such proposed purchases must be submitted to the Office of Technology for review and evaluation, and the results will be forwarded to the CTO for final approval.
The agency must obtain approval from the CTO prior to submitting purchasing transactions to the Purchasing Division.
8.4 Design Services or Consultant: Any individual, corporation, or firm (except as provided by a statewide contract) paid to custom design or write specifications for a modular office system, computer system, construction or any other project or contract shall not be permitted to competitively bid to provide the product or service that was designed. This removes the possibility of the designer developing specifications that only the designer can meet or restrict another vendor from meeting. This also prevents the appearance of any impropriety, thereby protecting the integrity of the competitive bid process.
Agencies may call vendors for information or copies of specifications for consideration of a particular brand or manufacturer without jeopardizing the vendor's ability to compete in the bid process as long as the vendor does not receive compensation or any form of favoritism.
8.5 Sole Source Purchases: A sole source purchase is a transaction in which a purchase is made for a commodity or service that is unique and possesses specific characteristics that are available from only one known source.
For additional information on sole source procurements, please visit Section 22.214.171.124.
8.6 Emergency Purchases: In accordance with the West Virginia Code §5A-3-15, purchases may be necessary to be made when unforeseen causes arise; however, emergency purchases are not used for hardship resulting from neglect, poor planning or lack of organization by the spending unit.
For additional information on emergency purchases, please visit Section 18.104.22.168.
8.7 Lease or Lease Purchase of Equipment: Lease or lease purchase of equipment are methods by which a state agency may obtain equipment and make payments for the use of the equipment over a period of time.
Leases and lease purchases are subject to annual funding authority of the Legislature. The state agency must provide the required funding over the life of the agreement. A reduction in funds or an administrative freeze shall not be sufficient justification to cancel a lease or lease purchase agreement. No lease or lease purchase can be canceled without approval of the Purchasing Division.
State agencies may be authorized by the Purchasing Division to purchase equipment currently under lease if the Purchasing Division competitively bid the lease originally. Each request will be evaluated on its own merits by the Purchasing Division. Approval is required by the Purchasing Division.
The minimum purchase price for this method should be $100,000. Borrowing money is discouraged; however, if it is critical to the operation to gain financial assistance, it is vital to prepare a letter of justification and submit to the Purchasing Division. A mandatory statewide contract for financing is available to all agencies.
8.8 Piggybacking Contracts: In accordance with the West Virginia Code §5A-3-19, the Purchasing Director "may, upon the recommendation of a state spending unit, participate in, sponsor, conduct, or administer a cooperative purchasing agreement or consortium for the purchase of commodities or services with agencies of the federal government, agencies of other states, other public bodies or other state agencies, if available and financially advantageous."
State agencies must complete a Cooperative Purchasing Request, Justification and Approval form (WV-40) to request that the Purchasing Director consider granting the state agency permission to purchase from one of the above contract categories. The completion of this form is required for each subsequent purchase from the respective contract unless the Purchasing Director designates the identified contract as mandatory. Contracts identified as mandatory do not require submissions of the WV-40 for each purchase.
The Cooperative Purchasing Request, Justification and Approval (WV-40) requires the agency to indicate the type of contract (public cooperative entity, such as NASPO, WSCA, NJPA; federal government, such GSA; state entity other than West Virginia; West Virginia state entity; or another public body); contract name and number; contract purpose; cost of contract purchase; verification requirements, including a copy of the valid contract and the release order; identification of existing state contracts; and West Virginia vendor impact.
Should a state agency receive approval through the WV-40 process from the Purchasing Division to piggyback an existing contract, the agency must submit a Requisition, attaching the WV-40, indicating a release to the approved contract. Please note that certain additional Purchasing Division forms, such as the Agreement Addendum (WV-96) , Purchasing Affidavit, Certificate of Non-Conflict, may be applicable.
The Code of State Rules 148 CSR 1 7.9 address these types of contracts by stating:
7.9. Purchases from contracts issued by other public agencies and entities
7.9.1. The Director may approve a request by a spending unit to make a purchase from contracts issued by agencies of the federal government, agencies of other states, other public bodies or other state agencies. The Director may require the use of a contract issued by another public organization or a spending unit to make a purchase from contracts issued by other public agencies and entities.
The Director may participate in cooperative purchases with other public agencies and entities. In all cases, these contracts or cooperative arrangements shall be from valid properly awarded contracts and considered by the Director to be available and financially advantageous and comparable to what can be obtained by competitive bid. The Director shall require spending units to prove that their requests to use such contracts:
(a) Do not conflict with existing State of West Virginia contracts unless the prices on the contracts issued by other public agencies and entities is substantially lower than the state contract based on an equal comparison. No price comparison may be based on differing specifications as determined by the Director;
(b) Will not cause a West Virginia vendor that offers like products and services to lose substantial business, unless the Director determines based on submitted documentation from the spending unit that the difference in price is so great that the State's best interest is served by using the contracts issued by other public agencies and entities; and
(c) Does not cause extensive hardship to any spending unit offered preference under the West Virginia Code.
7.9.2. All requests to use such contracts shall be submitted in advance to the Director with necessary evidence and documentation. The Director shall approve only those requests submitted with evidence that justifies use of such contracts. Any request that is not supportable shall be returned to the spending unit.
8.9 Prevailing Wage Rates: Fair minimum rate of wages, including fair minimum overtime and holiday pay, determined by the West Virginia Division of Labor, that must be paid to laborers, workmen, or mechanics on all contracts for the construction of a public improvement.
8.10 Printing and Printing Equipment: All printing and binding services must be performed by Correctional Industries or a letter of refusal must be attached to the Requisition (over $25,000), or maintained with agency invoice or purchase order file ($25,000 or less).
8.11 Professional Services: Professional service contracts provide a mechanism to acquire specific professional expertise. Unless specifically covered in Section 9, professional services shall be competitively bid.
8.12 Rentals: Rentals require an Agreement Addendum (WV-96) and shall not exceed thirty (30) days.
8.13 Telecommunications Systems: All telephone systems with a total cost (purchase price or total of lease purchase payments, including maintenance if selected by the agency at the time of award) over $25,000 must be bid through the Purchasing Division. Upgrading of existing systems may be considered a sole source purchase, if the displaced equipment represents less than 50% of the present day dollar value of the existing equipment, and the equipment remains under the terms and conditions of its original maintenance agreement. Expansion of existing systems not involving an upgrade and/or added features may be considered sole source purchases if the equipment remains under the terms and conditions of its original maintenance agreement.
All telecommunications systems, upgrades and expansions, regardless of cost, must be approved prior to bidding by the Information Services and Communications Division. All telecommunications purchase orders greater than $25,000 must be approved by the Chief Technology Officer of the Governor's Office of Technology. Evaluation of bids will include installation, training and post-warranty maintenance. This policy is vitally important to maintain the integrity and compatibility of the state's massive voice and data telecommunications system.
8.14 Vehicles: Approval by the Fleet Management Office is required to purchase vehicles, unless statutorily exempt. Any request under the authority of the Fleet Management Office to increase an agency's fleet size must be approved by the Executive Director of the Fleet Management Office. Vehicles ordered from the statewide contract, with options not included on the statewide contract, require a written quote (dealer cost) from the vendor, written agency justification, and approval of the Purchasing Director. All vehicle purchases, regardless of dollar amount, must be processed through the Purchasing Division. Purchases of vehicles from Surplus Property are exempt from Purchasing Division approval, but still must obtain Fleet Management Office approval.
8.15 Used Property: State agencies may purchase used property through the normal competitive bid process after first checking the item availability with the West Virginia State Agency for Surplus Property and documenting this contact in the official file. In accordance with the Code of State Rules, 148CSR7.5.6, the Purchasing Director shall issue prior approval or disapproval for used equipment to be purchased directly without competitive bids. If disapproved, the Purchasing Director shall return the request to the spending unit and direct another method of purchasing.
8.16 Banking Goods and Services: The Office of the State Treasurer must approve the acquisition of any kind of banking goods or services, which includes accepting payments and receiving funds via electronic commerce. Agencies must submit a request to the Office of the State Treasurer before issuing any Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quotation (RFQ) or entering into any contract with another entity for banking goods or services, in accordance with West Virginia Code §12-1-7 and §12-3A-6.
8.17 Radios and Microwave Equipment: In accordance with Governor's Executive Order 2-11, any purchase by a state spending unit or state agency, including purchases on behalf of state agencies, of two-way radio, microwave or satellite equipment and related services, or purchases that utilize state or federal funds distributed to local entities by the state of West Virginia which are not listed on the Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee's State Interoperable Radio Network (SIRN) Approved Compatibility Equipment List, shall obtain the prior written approval of the Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC) for any proposed purchase of goods and services. SWIC approval or verification that the equipment is on the Approved Compatibility Equipment List must be submitted with the Requisition to the Purchasing Division.
For a list of approved radios for use on the Statewide Interoperable Radio Network, visit:
All contractual documents for two-way radio, microwave or satellite equipment and related services, including, but not limited to, land or tower leases, memorandums of understanding/agreement, training contracts, agreements or services, and purchasing or service contracts related to two-way radio, microwave or satellite equipment and related services for any agency of the state of West Virginia, and all local entities of the state of West Virginia which utilize state or federal funds distributed by the state of West Virginia, must be reviewed and approved by the SWIC to ensure compatibility with the SIRN, to promote the best possible value in purchasing, and to ensure all agencies participating in the SIRN and needing equipment and related services are covered by contractual documents. Questions may be directed to the Statewide Interoperability Coordinator at (304) 766-5899.
8.18 Grants: In accordance with West Virginia Code §5A-3-11(i), a grant awarded by the state is exempt from the competitive bidding requirements, unless the grant is used to procure commodities or services that directly benefit a spending unit. If a grant awarded to the state requires the procurement of commodities or services that will directly benefit a spending unit, the procurement is not exempt from the competitive bidding requirements. If a grant awarded to the state requires the state to transfer some or all of the grant to an individual, entity or vendor as a subgrant to accomplish a public purpose, and no contract for commodities or services directly benefitting a spending unit will result, the subgrant is not subject to the competitive bidding requirements.
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text:
Network World, the arch provider of information, intelligence and acumen for arrangement and IT executives, singled out the movement to a next bearing firewall as a antecedence for 2011. Now about two years later, the industry account antecedent is still putting the technology in the spotlight. From a 1% acceptance if the commodity was written, acceptance of the technology was accepted to arise to 35% by 2014.
At their inception, next bearing firewalls drew absorption from Arrangement World because they appropriate "a altered way of cerebration about (network) aegis goals associated with a firewall."
What differentiates a next bearing firewall from a acceptable firewall?
According to Fortinet and added vendors,
It puts a antecedence on the enactment of controls in agreement of how a business's advisers "access the Internet, the Web and amusing networking sites." Added specifically, it can block advisers from announcement to time crumbling sites like Facebook.
Unlike a acceptable firewall, a next bearing firewall is not anchorage based.
A next bearing firewall is faster and added intelligent. In particular, it can advantage technologies like acceptability clarification and can "integrate with Active Directory for character and action management."
It enables business owners "to authorize and accomplish identity-based appliance acceptance policies."
VPN capabilities can be congenital into them.
It can ambit cartage at the appliance band with the aim of preventing intrusions.
It affords users an bare appearance into their arrangement action and bandwidth consumption. As a result, they "can administrate appliance controls accompanying to bandwidth needs and priorities."
Are they communicable on as anticipated?
In a aftereffect article, Arrangement World declared that the new firewall technology was absolutely "off to a acceptable start." And the advertisement antecedent singled out Fortinet as one of the top three leaders. Moreover, if the achievement of these leash of providers were ample adjoin anniversary other, Fortinet's FortiGate next-generation firewall ranked high, scoring above credibility for its administration interface and usability.
Another breadth that set the Fortinet next bearing firewall afar was its rule-writing capabilities, which allows advertence to IP addresses as able-bodied as geography. FortiGate aswell "has a glossy rate-based action affection advised to abstain denial-of-service attacks," the allusive abstraction acicular out.
How are appliance controls chip into them?
This depends on the specific vendor, and it is a cogent adverse point amid artefact offerings. Fortinet's access to this affair is one in which a individual aphorism abject applies to everything. Arrangement World not alone begin this access "the easiest to administer and the a lot of automatic from a basal aegis point of view" but aswell "potentially the a lot of able because it allows cartage to breeze alone if all attributes bout up." What's more, "it allows you to interleave rules with and afterwards appliance controls."
What is the accepted accompaniment of next bearing firewalls?
Almost three years afterwards Arrangement World singled out the technology as something to watch, the advertisement says that next bearing firewalls are now common.
Concord Technology Group offers aegis solutions accouterment next bearing firewalls and agreeable analysis engines.


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Are you ready to call the election? Mitt Romney certainly isn't, nor for that matter is President Obama. But a few hardy academics have done so. Out now are a baker's dozen forecasts produced by political scientists that predict the outcome in November.
Polls give Obama the advantage, nationally and in most of the battleground states, but they are, as is often said, snapshots in time, not predictions of the future. The election forecasts are in fact predictions, based on various and varied statistical models. Most give the advantage to the president, but the verdict is not unanimous.
The 13 projections are contained in the new issue of PS: Political Science and Politics, which is published by the American Political Science Association. Eight of them project that Obama will win the popular vote; five say the popular vote will go to Romney. But the degree of certainty in those forecasts differs. One projection favoring the president says there is an 88 percent certainty that he'll win, while two others forecasting Obama say there is only a 57 percent certainty.
James E. Campbell, the department chairman at the University at Buffalo in New York, who wrote the introduction to the package, rates them this way: Five predict that Obama will win a plurality of the two-party vote, although three are on "the cusp of a toss-up." Five predict that Romney will win the plurality of the two-party vote. Three are in what he calls the toss-up range.
One of the most bullish of the Obama-will-win projections comes from Helmut Norpoth, a professor at Stony Brook University, and Michael Bednarczuk, a grad student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They wrote that Obama will defeat Romney "by a comfortable margin."
Their projection, made 299 days before the election, is based on a model that takes into account the performance of the candidates in the primaries and presidential election cycles. "In plain English," they wrote, "Obama has history on his side as well as the fact that he was unchallenged in the primaries."
One of the most bearish about the president's prospects is Alfred G. Cuzan, the department chairman at the University of West Florida. He notes that since 1880, a sitting president has lost his reelection bid only six times, and only twice when the incumbent had succeeded a president of a different party.
But Cuzan, whose model is called the "Fiscal Model," looks at changes in government spending relative to the size of the economy as his guide. He argues that the expansionary spending policies of the president dim his chances of winning.
"Even if he does squeeze by the Republican candidate," Cuzan wrote, "it is highly likely that President Obama would do so with a smaller share of the vote than in 2008, the first president in well over a century to be reelected to a second term by a thinner margin of victory than he received the first time around."
Alan Abramowitz, a professor at Emory University, looks at the advantages of incumbency, presidential approval as of the end of June in an election year and change in real gross domestic product in the second quarter of the year. He calls his method the "Time for a Change" model. He also has made adjustments to factor in the increased polarization in the electorate, which he says has affected the impact of certain fundamentals that generally determine the outcome.
He projected a one-point margin for Obama in the popular vote, but added: "Barring any changes in the second quarter GDP estimate, this is the closest popular vote margin predicted by the model in the entire postwar era although it is only slightly smaller than the 1.2 point margin predicted for Jimmy Carter in 1976."
That was before the government revised its second-quarter real GDP growth estimate down from 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent. I e-mailed Abramowitz to ask whether he would change his forecast. He said the idea is to forecast the result before the conventions. He said the new GDP number would reduce Obama's predicted margin but said the president's better approval ratings would somewhat offset that. He also said he believes the race will tighten before November.
Campbell also foresees a close outcome, but he still tipped in Obama's direction. He uses two different models, although both include real GDP as one of the factors. Incumbency, he notes, is one big advantage for the president, while the economy is obviously Obama's problem. In terms of economic growth, he noted, Obama ranks eighth out of the past 10 presidents who sought reelection.
Veteran modeler Michael Lewis-Beck of the University of Iowa and Charles Tien, the department chairman at Hunter College in New York, offer contrasting forecasts based on competing models.
A traditional "Jobs Model" shows Obama in deep trouble. But using a different model, they see Obama winning. Forced to choose between the two, they stick to the jobs model, which shows Obama capturing about 48 percent of the vote. Conceding that any inherent margin for error could result in an Obama victory, they nonetheless concluded, "It still suggests an Obama victory is unlikely."
Robert Erikson, a Columbia University professor, and Christopher Wlezien of Temple University use a wide variety of economic measures in their "Leading Economic Indicators and the Polls" model. They noted the disparity between perceptions of business conditions and leading economic indicators on the one hand and income growth on the other. Four years ago, the first two were at historic lows while income growth was "middling." This year it is the reverse.
They ask: "What does this suggest about President Obama's electoral fate? Is it a dismal election-year economy that dooms the president to certain defeat? Or are economic circumstances brighter than the income numbers would indicate, offering promise of reelection?"
Their answer, made a month before the party conventions, was for a very close election with Obama slightly favored, despite the fact that economic conditions alone would seem to make Romney the heavy favorite.
Douglas A. Hibbs, a retired professor of economics and political science, uses a "Bread and Peace" model — the classic construct of peace and prosperity as the only two factors that really count in presidential elections. He looks at per capita disposable income and U.S. military fatalities in foreign conflicts.
Hibbs projects that, on the basis of his model, Obama will almost certainly lose to Romney. But he is quick to note that he "deviates substantially from prevailing views — particularly those in which I generally put greatest stock: betting price data at the Iowa Electronic Market and Intrade," which he notes has been bullish about Obama's chances of winning.
Thomas Holbrook, department chairman at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, uses only a few measures in his model: presidential approval and satisfaction with personal finances, while taking into account whether one candidate is an incumbent. "This portends a close election, but one in which Mitt Romney is the favorite."
Three models attempt to project Electoral College results rather than the popular vote. One projects Obama with 213 electoral votes, another with 324 electoral votes (but allows that Romney could win) and a third with 301 votes while acknowledging "a great deal of uncertainty about the outcome."
Several of these scholars will talk more about forecasting elections on Oct. 16 at the National Press Club. In the meantime, as pollsters continue to track the race, they've boldly made their predictions and will await the real results along with the rest of the country.
For previous columns by Dan Balz, go to postpolitics.com.