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CraigR necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 271 diseños de 39 diseñadores freelance.
Richey Property Management, LLC
We are a small property management company owned by Craig & Sue Richey. We are two long time real estate agents who also own some rental properties of our own. We have been selling real estate since 1997 and managing properties since 2004. We are good at what we do and like to run an efficient company with a high level of service. Our clients trust us to make the right decisions for them and take care of them as we would for our own family.
Most of our properties are residential homes, but we are open to small offices or small retail work as well. Our clients usually own one to four properties; they are mostly nice homes and desirable locations.
The owners operate our real estate sales business from a sister company, Richey Homes, LLC. This is only important because we may want to design a complementary logo for that business in the future.
Our target market is the population of Northern Virginia (in the Washington, DC suburbs) who have investment properties to rent or have to leave the area and don't want to sell their home. Our cleints are well educated (the DC area is among the highest educated group in the country), ethnically diverse, and world-wise. Almost all have a college education and many have advanced degrees - law, medical, MBA, engineering, etc.
Many of our clients and our target audience work for the US Department of State, companies that contract with the Department of Defense (Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, BAE, Boeing, etc), IT companies (Oracle, Cisco, etc), Law firms, etc. They are mostly in their 30s-40s in age.
We need a Logo, Business Card design, and Letterhead.
The Logo is most important. We want a fresh, crisp, bold, clean design that is not too busy or cluttered. It should be easy to print and recognize in color or b/w whether large or small. We want to give a smart, fresh, responsible and efficient image. We love simplicity for many reasons - easily recognizable, usable at any size, & can be used in many ways on print, email and marketing materials. I envision using it on our website, brochures, business cards, note cards, letterhead, forms, etc.
The Business Card can be two sided in full color, and we would prefer some light colored area somewhere on it so that we can write other info as we often are asked to do. It can be a simple arrangement of the name and info or a complementarty design that incorporates the logo.
The Letterhead is somewhat optional. I don't mind simply using the logo on our paperwork along with an address. If you have a better idea I would love to see it.
+ The "LLC" in our name doesn't need to be used in any title line, only in an address line.
+ Please use solid colors. We have shaded colors (I think they were printed with layered colors at some % of opacity) in our current card design and a printer said that is what makes the colors get muddy.
+ We need the files in all the normal formats for Adobe, print shops, PDF, JPEG, etc.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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MDM Day Advice: Connect MDM to a Tangible Business Outcome or You Will Fail
"Start your master data management (MDM) journey knowing how it will deliver a tangible business outcome. Will it help your business generate revenue or cut costs? Focus on the business value you plan to deliver with MDM and revisit it often," advises Michael Delgado, Information Management Director at Citrix during his presentation at MDM Day, the InformaticaWorld 2014 pre-conference program. MDM Day focused on driving value from business-critical information and attracted 500 people.
In Ravi Shankar's recent MDM Day preview blog, Part 2: All MDM, All Day at Pre-Conference Day at InformaticaWorld, he highlights the amazing line up of master data management (MDM) and product information management (PIM) customers speakers, Informatica experts as well as our talented partner sponsors.
Here are my MDM Day fun facts and key takeaways:
- Did you know that every 2 seconds an aircraft with GE engine technology is taking off somewhere in the world?
GE Aviation's Chief Enterprise Architect, Ginny Walker, presented "Operationalizing Critical Business Processes: GE Aviation's MDM Story." GE Aviation is a $22 billion company and a leading provider of jet engines, systems and services. Ginny shared the company's multi-year journey to improve installed-base asset data management. She explained how the combination of data, analytics, and connectivity results in productivity improvements such as reducing up to 2% of the annual fuel bill and reducing delays. The keys to GE Aviation's analytical MDM success were: 1) tying MDM to business metrics, 2) starting with a narrow scope, and 3) data stewards. Ginny believes that MDM is an enabler for the Industrial Internet and Big Data because it empowers companies to get insights from multiple sources of data.
- Did you know that EMC has made a $17 billion investment in acquisitions and is integrating more than 70 technology companies?
EMC's Barbara Latulippe, aka "The Data Diva," is the Senior Director of Enterprise Information Management (EIM). EMC is a $21.7 billion company that has grown through acquisition and has 60,000 employees worldwide. In her presentation, "Formula for Success: EMC MDM Best Practices," Barbara warns that if you don't have a data governance program in place, you're going to have a hard time getting an MDM initiative off the ground. She stressed the importance of building a data governance council and involving the business as early as possible to agree on key definitions such as "customer." Barbara and her team focused on the financial impact of higher quality data to build a business case for operational MDM. She asked her business counterparts, "Imagine if you could onboard a customer in 3 minutes instead of 15 minutes?"
- Did you know that Citrix is enabling the mobile workforce by uniting apps, data and services on any device over any network and cloud?
Citrix's Information Management Director, Michael Delgado, presented "Citrix MDM Case Study: From Partner 360 to Customer 360." Citrix is a $2.9 billion Cloud software company that embarked on a multi-domain MDM and data governance journey for channel partner, hierarchy and customer data. Because 90% of the company's product bookings are fulfilled by channel partners, Citrix started their MDM journey to better understand their total channel partner relationship to make it easier to do business with Citrix and boost revenue. Once they were successful with partner data, they turned to customer data. They wanted to boost customer experience by understanding the total customer relationship across products lines and regions. Armed with this information, Citrix employees can engage customers in one product renewal process for all products. MDM also helps Citrix's sales team with white space analysis to identify opportunities to sell more user licenses in existing customer accounts.
- Did you know Quintiles helped develop or commercialize all of the top 5 best-selling drugs on the market?
Quintiles' Director of the Infosario Data Factory, John Poonnen, presented "Using Multi-domain MDM to Gain Information Insights:How Quintiles Efficiently Manages Complex Clinical Trials." Quintiles is the world's largest provider of biopharmaceutical development and commercial outsourcing services with more than 27,000 employees. John explained how the company leverages a tailored, multi-domain MDM platform to gain a holistic view of business-critical entities such as investigators, research facilities, clinical studies, study sites and subjects to cut costs, improve quality, improve productivity and to meet regulatory and patient needs. "Although information needs to flow throughout the process – it tends to get stuck in different silos and must be manually manipulated to get meaningful insights," said John. He believes master data is foundational — combining it with other data, capabilities and expertise makes it transformational.
While I couldn't attend the PIM customer presentations below, I heard they were excellent. I look forward to watching the videos:
- Crestline/ Geiger: Dale Denham, CIO presented, "How Product Information in eCommerce improved Geiger's Ability to Promote and Sell Promotional Products."
- Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply: Director of Marketing, Kitch Walker presented, "Driving Omnichannel Customer Engagement – PIM Best Practices."
I also had the opportunity to speak with some of our knowledgeable and experienced MDM Day partner sponsors. Go to Twitter and search for #MDM and #DataQuality to see their advice on what it takes to successfully kick-off and implement an MDM program.
There are more thought-provoking MDM and PIM customer presentations taking place this week at InformaticaWorld 2014. To join or follow the conversation, use #INFA14 #MDM or #INFA14 #PIM.

subset: commoncrawl


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In another time and another place, Lew Wolff might have romped around sweltering Oakland Coliseum on Saturday in a St. Louis Cardinals cap.
Those days are distant memories for the owner of the A's and the Earthquakes. The Missouri man has switched allegiances since his childhood.
He's also embraced less traditional sports. How else to explain a Saturday outing that included sold-out games at the A's and the Earthquakes in a doubleheader that could test the most ardent Bay Area fan?
Wolff, 77, was determined to survey his teams that are heading in opposite directions. The A's are as hot as the weekend thermostat. The Quakes own one of the worst records in Major League Soccer less than a year after winning the Supporters' Shield.
His take-away after a long day as a spectator: Both franchises are in good shape, despite the ebbs and flows of any given season.
Sitting five rows behind home plate, Wolff confided, "If we don't win this game, I hope the Cardinals do."
He was joking. The Cardinals were not with a 7-1 victory to end the A's winning streak at three games.
But "Small Ball" reigns again in the East Bay. The A's (47-35) opened the second half of the season in front of 36,067 fans after enjoying their best first-half record in 21 years.
Wolff was in no mood to discuss the one festering issue that has taken the joy out of the team's resurgence: ownership's desire to move the club to downtown San Jose. The change of residence has been stalled by Major League Baseball's lack of action on a dispute over territorial rights with the Giants.
When talking about how co-owner John Fisher and his family helped keep the Giants in San Francisco years back, Wolff quipped, "No good deed goes unpunished."
He also went out of his way to praise MLB commissioner Bud Selig, a fraternity brother from the University of Wisconsin. He described Selig as the best commissioner in baseball history, despite their differences over the move to San Jose.
After the tough day at the ballpark, Wolff looked refreshed at Stanford Stadium, where the Earthquakes faced the rival Los Angeles Galaxy in front of 50,028 fans.
The temperatures weren't the only cooling trend on the other side of the bay for the nighttime event. While Wolff's overachieving A's are rolling toward the All-Star break, his Earthquakes have been wanting. The soccer team already lost longtime coach Frank Yallop, who left three weeks ago.
Wolff, however, threw his support behind president Dave Kaval and general manager John Doyle, saying he believes in their efforts to build a successful soccer team in the South Bay.
Twenty minutes before the game, Wolff, wearing a Quakes cap and jersey, sat alone near the field. None of the fans seemed to notice the team owner among them. After all, he looked and acted like one of them from Oakland to Stanford.
"I'm a fan," he said. "I want to think like a fan."
Wolff predicted a 2-0 Quakes victory before the game. When the Galaxy scored in the 20th minute, he acknowledged his miscalculation: "There goes that," he said, surrounded by his daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons who live in Los Gatos.
Although he has lived in Westwood for four decades, Wolff tilts toward the Bay Area. He built the Fairmont Hotel Annex, as well as other development deals in the area.
When the former Earthquakes moved the team to Houston, Wolff accepted a chance to create an expansion team in San Jose. After five years, the ownership group is building a privately funded, 18,000-seat stadium across from Mineta San Jose International Airport.
Wolff credits Fisher — heir to the Gap retail fortune — with making the stadium a reality. It is scheduled to open next year.
The opening might have received a boost Saturday night with the Quakes' stunning 3-2 come-from-behind victory.
Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/elliottalmond.


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Impeccable Design
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Music, Minus Your Phone
Take your music with you and leave your phone behind. The Gear 2 comes with a stand-alone music player, so you can store your favorite songs and playlists right on the device for easy access.
Change the Channel
No more getting up to search for the hidden remote control. Now you can control your TV right from your wrist, using WatchON™ and the built-in IR blaster on the Gear 2.
Never Miss the Moment
Be ready in an instant, whenever the perfect moment happens, with the ultra-responsive 2MP camera built into the face of the Gear 2. Just capture, save and go.


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Howdy! Welcome to our community of more than 125.000 members devoted to web hosting. This is a great place to get special offers from web hosts and post your own requests or ads. To start posting sign up here. Cheers! /Peo, FreeWebSpace.netDismiss Notice
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Frederik Wellmann
A. MS. notebook
MS. 316 continues MS. 314, and was in fact delivered as part of Lecture VI. What is the end of a term? Distinction between term and rhema. The common noun, its late development and restriction to a peculiar family of languages. Term and index. Three truths necessary for the comprehension of the merits of pragmatism: that all our ideas are given to us in perceptual judgments that perceptual judgments contain elements of generality (so that Thirdness is directly perceived) that the abductive faculty is a shading off of that which at its peak is called "perception." Pragmatism and the logic of abduction.
Continuity, Generality, Index (see also Signs), Multitude, Noun, Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism, Percept and Perception, Pragmatism and Pragmaticism, Rhema (see also Proposition), Term(s), Thirdness
pp. 44-60


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[Illinois] Cancer Community Symposium 2012: Chemical Imaging for Histopathology: An Emerging Route for Molecular and Structural Analysis of Tissues
Licensed according to this deed.
Published on
Cancer Community At Illinois Symposium 2012
April 5-6, 2012: Connecting patient care, research, and scientific advancement
Symposium Premise
This on-campus research symposium aims to bring together members of campus and the surrounding community to foster interdisciplinary discussions on cancer research and its affects on patient care. In order to increase understanding and awareness, we will discuss in an open forum with research talks, poster presentations, and panel discussions. We invite community members, clinicians, and researchers from UIUC and other Midwest regional institutions from departments ranging from the social sciences to basic sciences to engineering and medicine.
The symposium features invited talks from nationally-recognized cancer researchers, oral presentations from UIUC faculty and students, and poster sessions. We encourage student researchers from UIUC and from other regional schools to apply (travel awards are available).
About CC@I Symposium
The Cancer Community at Illinois (CC@I) Symposium is organized by a group of students on the University of Illinois campus to bridge the areas of social science, basic sciences to engineering and medicine as they relate to cancer. The symposium mission is to: 1) Facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding that transcends established departmental affiliation; 2) Foster an increased understanding of the social and environmental factors affecting patients; and 3) Develop unique vantage points afforded by interactive dialogue between and among the various cancer research disciplines. In order to accomplish this, the symposium will engage the local patient community through use of the nascent social and support efforts of the Mills Breast Cancer Institute, Carle Hospital, and regional clinical collaborators.
Much of my postdoctoral work has focused on the translational development of mid-infrared imaging modalities towards clinical translation. This has involved developing FT-IR imaging and related computational tools towards being a rapid, objective, non-destructive and automated infrared imaging approach for cell type identification and for disease diagnosis/prognosis, with a focus on breast and prostate cancer.
I have also worked extensively towards developing the use of high-resolution FT-IR imaging modalities for the identification and chemical characterization of small but clinically important cell types and tissue structures. The implementation of high-resolution imaging will be a critical component of developing FT-IR imaging as a robust and comprehensive diagnostic tool for clinical translation.
-From Dr. Walsh's website
Sponsored by
The Focal Point Project by the Graduate College
Departmnt of Cell and Developmental Biology
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Department of Computer Science
Division of Biomedical Sciences
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory
Midwest Cancer Nanotechnology Training Center
Molecular and Integrative Physiology
University of Illinois Office of the Provost
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


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Tooling Update
Clamp Facilitates In-Press Removal of Gas Springs
Compared to other spring-removal options—flange mount, rear fastening or sheetmetal catch—the GSC eliminates the need for a machined pocket or shims, or any custom fabrication. The GSC comes in eight models for springs 19- to 75-mm dia.
Standard Lifters: 616/301-2181; www.standardlifters.com
See also: Standard Lifters LLC
Related Enterprise Zones: Tool & Die
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The Complete Short Stories
Mark Twain
Introduction by Adam Gopnik
Everyman's Library: 716 pp., $28
Mark Twain was on the lecture circuit for over three decades. He would take the stage feigning bemusement at discovering his audience and stand silently smoking one of the 30 cigars he would enjoy that day. He was a solitary performer working in dusty, drafty, dimly lit halls, sans audio equipment, Twain knew every trick to keep his audiences engaged. His delivery, emotion, intelligence and humor would bring crowds to their feet. The power was in his voice and that doesn't imply high volume, but his expressed genius.
"The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain" published in a new edition this month by the Everyman's Library, is reminiscent of Twain in performance. He is talking directly to you and determined to keep you entertained.
While there are no previously unpublished stories in this edition, there are well-known riches. New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik's misguided assertions in his introduction to this volume aside, Twain was a master at the short story. With his carefully developed plots, delightful, unexpected conclusions and his distinctive voice bell-like in its clarity, his shorter works were more tightly crafted than his novels.
In his longer works he was prone at times to either questionable elaborations, the ending of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," which scholars are still arguing about comes to mind, or he simply ran out of energy and left incomplete manuscripts — "Pudd'nhead Wilson" and "Those Extraordinary Twins" are two examples. This collection, since it provides his entire oeuvre, offers the interested reader insight into Twain's growth not just in terms of his craft but his sophistication as a satirist as well.
Certainly at this juncture in America's literary journey there is no need to expound upon why Twain is one of our greatest writers. We should simply recall Hemingway's pronouncement regarding Missouri's favorite son: "The good writers are Henry James, Stephen Crane, and Mark Twain. That's not the order they're good in."
What might be best then is to road test Twain, so to speak, under current operating conditions to see how well his prose and wit stand up to our multi-tasking, multi-social media, multi-distracted world. To that end the 60 stories ranging from Twain's first hit, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," to his unfinished novel, "The Mysterious Stranger," in this edition were read by this reviewer in various locations throughout Los Angeles County both silently as well as out loud.
Ever the control freak, Twain thoughtfully provided instructions for interacting with his prose: "It is so unsatisfactory to read a noble passage and have no one you love at hand to share the happiness with you. And it is unsatisfactory to read to one's self anyhow — for the uttered voice so heightens the expression." Thus, let the experiment begin.
First stop, a couch in Claremont on a weekday evening. With a busy cat kneading away on a blanket and an impatient, distracted teenager who lives to text his friends sitting in a nearby easy chair, a random opening turns to "Cannibalism in the Cars" (1868). Hysterically funny, this trenchant commentary about the culture of "Congressional affairs" features a delicious riposte of parliamentary procedure. The conclusion arrives with Twain's trademark snapper where the reader is left with a conundrum of deciding whether the former Congressman is a babbling lunatic or a bloodthirsty cannibal. Either possibility comes replete with its own rich satiric implications. Read aloud, Twain best holds the 16-year-old's attention when the bodies start disappearing and the possible implications are realized.
A late spring day on the beach in Malibu. Plopping down on the sand with crying seagulls overhead, "A Ghost Story" (1888) is the day's selection. Every scary, gothic cliche imaginable is employed to tell the tale. An abandoned building in Manhattan, a dark and stormy night, cobwebs in the face, invisible fingers tugging down the blankets, heavy footsteps — enough prompts for an entire Tim Burton film. Then the joke arrives when the terrified boarder tells the ghost of the Cardiff Giant, a.k.a. the Petrified Man, who is on display in the museum across across the street: "Why you blundering old fossil, you have had all your trouble for nothing — you have been haunting a plaster cast of yourself. . . ." In short, the ghost should have been in Albany where the "real" Petrified Man was kept. There is, though, the double joke for readers in the know. The petrified man in Albany was a fake as well, and Twain's entire story is a tall tale based on a real hoax.
The ultimate test is reading Twain while sick. Hacking away with bronchitis while visiting a friend in Santa Monica, sipping hot tea in bed with a snoring English bulldog, turning to "The Diary of Adam and Eve" (1893, 1905). If a short story can also be a love poem then the perfect instance is found here. Completed the year after the death of his wife Olivia, Twain is at his best, moving, funny and wise. He concludes the story with the beautifully sentimental line: "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden." This prose perfection, and this is no tall tale, actually had a healing effect upon the reader. Living in an age of relationship and marriage interruptus, this gently humorous paean to love is comforting to the world-weary reader who would like to imagine that such possibilities might just still exist.
Finally, the publication of this new edition prompts the obvious question: "Do we really need another edition of previously published short stories by Mark Twain?" Certainly there is no danger of running out of the plethora of collections already in print and with the nagging helpfulness of cyberspace, such sites as mtwain.com provide links to his short stories and novels 24/7.
For those who love the heft and feel of books, the choice of a physical specimen is a conscious salute to tactile pleasures. And as Twain noted, books can serve purposes for which they may not have been necessarily designed: "A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razor strap. A thin book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat."
"The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain" makes a perfect literary companion under all conditions. And there is the value added bonus of which the author would approve, the book can also be used as a handy doorstop or charcuterie platter. So bon appétit!
Skandera Trombley's most recent book is "Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years." She is the president of Pitzer College.


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In 2009, Studio AKA produced a film inspired by Jeffers' picturebook. The film has gone on to win 60 awards, that's right, 60, and its still winning awards, quite amazing - they are listed on the Studio AKA site, if you want to be WOWED! The 2009 BAFTA Award is probably the most prestigious.
|Screen shot from one of the film scenes.
I did have a link to a youtube trailer of the film here - but it's been removed from youtube. Great pity ... it was a good trailer.
|Jacket flap photo
The front and back covers, when opened out, create a whole scene, the boy and the penguin floating in the cold antartic waters. This is a culminating image as it is from the end of the story: the friends have been separated and reunited.


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The Middle East is a swirling caldron of nastiness, constantly bubbling up frightful objects that cause us to recoil in horror. As current events stir the murky concoction, to the surface comes Mohammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.
As a background primer, a massive uprising by the people of Tunisia in early 2011 sparked a movement now known as 'The Arab Spring,' and Egypt was caught up in it. As the people there revolted against President Hosni Mubarak, the world held its breath as their military commanders decided whether to side with the regime or crush the revolt. The United States strongly advised military restraint, even though it was unclear what factions and what agendas were in play. It resulted in the termination of Mubarak's three-decade rule, and after a messy false start, the rise to power of Morsi. This man is the product of the Muslim Brotherhood, a faction of Islamic extremists with strong ties to Hamas, sworn enemy of Israel. Yet his first move was to engineer a cease fire of Hamas' rockets from the Gaza strip into Israel - jointly announced with much fanfare with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama praised the president. Morsi's second move, one day later, was to decree that Egyptian courts no longer had authority over his future actions. In essence, he gave himself absolute power.
The Egyptian people aren't idiots and immediately realized they had jumped from the frying pan into the fire - and began revolts anew. White House spokesman Jay Carney said move one and move two by Morsi were not connected. So Carney is either a mouthpiece for an administration that is delusional or one that is trying to delude the world.
Most likely it is both. They want so badly to believe this guy will broker peace between Hamas and Israel - after all, we send Egypt $1.3 billion a year to stay neutral. Ironically, most of this money goes to bolster the Egyptian military, now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, and they are definitely not sympathetic to the current protest by the people. Even if Morsi is a bad guy, the current administration cannot admit it.
The foreign policy of the United States is a hot mess. Like rats on fire our Central Intelligence Agency spreads havoc throughout the world that will inevitably burn down our own ship. It has become a bureau of arrogance, wielded by countless administrations with little understanding of the cascade of consequences that follow in the wake of its unleashing. Consider what has happened in one lifetime:
JFK's Bay of Pigs in which the CIA trained Cuban exiles for a failed invasion against Castro; LBJ's Golf of Tonkin, a fabrication engineered by the NSA that led to a resolution for military action against North Vietnam; Carter's arming of the Mujahedin, the forerunner of the Taliban, to fight against Russia in Afghanistan; Reagan's Iran-Contra affair in which weapons were sold to Iranians and a portion of the proceeds siphoned to fund anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua; Clinton's tripling of weapons exports with much of the $60 billion in munitions pouring into the Middle East; Bush's WMDs; and now Obama with Libyan arms reportedly being transferred to Syrian rebels with ties to al-Qaida and billions of dollars in aid funneled to hostile Muslim factions in Egypt.
We are fools to believe our elected officials know what they're doing. Granting big authority to big government will forever be mankind's biggest mistake.
Columnist Michael Raymond can be reached at email@example.com.


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IFS Plugfest registrations open
The 20th edition of IFS Plugfest is now open for registrations. IFS Plugfest is an event for file system filter driver ISVs organized by the File System Filters team at Microsoft. All file system filter driver ISVs are invited to this event, which is held on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. Benefits for participants… Read more
- Tags: Announcements, Events


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For 40 years, the Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale has produced a national juried art exhibition of works on paper submitted by artists from across the United States. "Brand 40: Fortieth annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper: Entrances & Exits" was officiated by juror Peter Frank, an art critic and curator at the Riverside Museum of Art, who culled through hundreds of entries to organize the show. Of the 10 donor prizes awarded, the most significant is the "Jane Friend Purchase Award," which purchases the winning art piece to add to the permanent Brand Library and Art Center collection.
This year's purchase prize was awarded to Ellen Ziegler of Seattle, Wash. for her work, "The Book of Knowledge," made of mixed media on tar paper, opening to 26 inches by 52 inches. The oversized volume has several black tar paper pages, mottled shiny and dull, almost sticky in appearance, with applications and treatments that give each page a unique set of characteristics that look like a running panorama of the universe. Solar systems, black holes, meteors and nebulae run through the book like a narrative to induce the imagination and define the unexplainable. It has a tactile attraction. One wants to touch and turn the pages. The gallery provides a white glove to preserve the piece.
The Irena Raulinaitis Donor Award went to Chris Perry of Brooklyn, N.Y. for his paper sculpture, "86 Ripples: droplet" (paper, fabric, wood, gel acetate, 13 inches by 34 inches by 8.5 inches). Two orange books — one bound horizontally, the other vertically — are connected by a paper bridge. Pages flow out of one into the other. There is no text. The centers of the books have been altered to remove the area that traditionally would be occupied by words and images. A red acetate filter fills the hole on the horizontal book. One can imagine all kinds of meaning here, possibly touching on censorship, revisionism or the absence of empirical knowledge. Only Perry knows for sure.
One rather haunting archival digital print produced by Matthew Derezinski of Kirksville, Mo., was not awarded a prize but is worthy of mention. His "Aftermath" (20 inches by 30 inches) is brown and black with tinges of red. Features of architecture and power lines are obfuscated by the appearance of hostile, wicked, swirling debris. The image moves the viewer's eye back and forth across the picture plane. It brings to mind the recent images of terrible tornadoes that tore through the region of the United States that the artist calls home.
The Brand's "Entrances & Exits" exhibition title was inspired by a quote from the Catholic writer and monk Thomas Merton: "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." The exhibition overall is among the best of the Brand's annuals in recent memory, and most of the entrants remain unseen. There is only so much gallery space, so it's easy to imagine how difficult Frank's choices must have been.
What: Brand 40: Fortieth Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper: Entrances & Exits.
Where: Brand Library and Art Center, 1601 West Mountain St., Glendale, 91201
When: Sept. 17 to Oct. 28, 2011. Gallery hours are Tuesday and Thursday 12-8 p.m., Wednesday 12-6 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Contact: (818) 548-2051 or www.brandlibrary.org.
Teri Martin is an art historian and a critic for the Glendale News-Press.


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The image of the cowboy riding off into the sunset has been a part of America's soul since Hollywood made its first Western. And the picture of the gold prospector walking along side his trusty burro, out to seek his fortune, remains ingrained in our nation's past. Even today, the thunderous galloping of wild horses across the desert plains continues to serve as a backdrop for the southwest's stage. But these animals aren't just characters in a film or photographs in a history book. Instead, they continue to thrive as part of our nation's heritage.
To help restore this delicate balance, the BLM gathers some wild horses and burros and offers them for adoption to people and groups willing and able to provide long-term humane care. Since its Adopt-a-Wild Horse or Burro program began in 1973, the agency has successfully adopted out more than 207,000 animals.
Program Information
Burro Information
Gather Information
Hassayampa Field Office (Ben Avery Area) Bait Gather (May 26 thru December 1, 2015)
Bullhead City Area Bait Gather (March - June, 2015)
Yuma (Bard Area) Bait Gather (May 2015 thru completion)
Adoption Tales
Read or watch stories of adopters and the amazing animals in their lives.
Read the Stories
Watch Arizona Videos


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About snidely
If she had just stayed in school until she had her PHD (Pimpin' Ho's Degree) she would have known to avoid this traceable communication.
You know what's going to happen next -- the amendment will be approved and it will get the "clean it up in conference" treatment. Some Hill staffer will just magically make the amendment disappear since it won't be in the Senate version during the conference negotiations.
In future news, the White House announces that they have raised the minimum number of signatures for their online petition to 310 million.
"Can you tell me why video games need a tax incentive?" Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, asked Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Jesse Panuccio at one point.
Well, she is the Senator from Hollywood.
This just reinforces the many comments from former employees that Jobs was a dick. I have a lot more respect for Ed Colligan as a man of principle. I hope his image gets a nice upgrade from this fiasco.
This might not be a bad precedent...you could go after every gun manufacturer for promoting murder in the first degree.
On a more serious note, I don't see how a case like this would ever be successful. As the defendant, you could point to hundreds of products used in the promotion of gambling (electricity, Windows products, Google products). You can also easily make the case that automobile manufacturers aren't sued when their cars are used in a crime or gun manufacturers either.
But if I stop doing business in Italy, how will I ever get invited to one of Silvio's bunga bunga parties?
I'm really surprised that you can't train a computer to recognize the parasite images. I would think that a computer that does OCR could easily learn to recognize the variations in the parasite images.
P.S. I just patented "method and process for identifying malaria parasites on a computer."
I agree. How is this different than walking into 7-11 or pretty much any other building? All the SF DOT has to do is slap a small sticker on the bus window that says "You are being filmed."
I think you guys are missing Wes' point. There might be a "mismatch" in what Mike got from the HuffPo statement. I also saw it more innocently that HuffPo might be trying to better match a story about golf with Titleist's ads rather than the Titleist ad appearing on a page about the hurricane. It might not be this sinister thing that advertisers can block comments and more about making the ads relevant to the comments.
PSY might be big everywhere else, but he's a nobody in Germany since you can't watch any videos because GEMA hasn't licensed the rights. Rights that they probably don't even hold.
You can tell The Verge that not allowing people to read full articles on their RSS feed also drives down readership. The Verge has great info, but you can get the same stuff from Engadget, BGR, IntoMobile and they let you read full articles in RSS. I'm happy to go to Verge's site to share or comment, but hate getting only two lines in RSS.
I had a similar thought -- is Craigslist now responsible for any libelous or infringing work posted to their site? This might come back to bite them.
How long until somebody attempts to copyright the interface to attach to the international space station? Hey, it's just a big API and it's in SPACE, so it definitely needs a license fee to attach.
Note that this is a material change in the terms of your contract with Sprint and you can cancel service with no early termination fee. Generally, if you call in and complain and say that you are going to cancel the account because of the change, Sprint will offer some discounts to get you to stay. Just be sure that whatever they offer does not reset the contract termination date.
If corporations are now people, why can't URLs be people too?
Sorry, hit send too quick. Here's the link to the story -- http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/articles/operators-agree-mobile-content-must-pay-its-way/22620
You have to give AT&T a few points for trying to at least make it sound like its for the customer benefit. Did you see the tripe being rolled out by the telecom execs at the Mobile World Congress this week? It's the same stuff that Whitacre was saying in 2005. You just want to go on stage and slap them.
In 2010, 14-year-old Jakadrien Turner ran away from home, "distraught over the loss of her grandfather and her parents' divorce."
I think this was a plot point of a recent Mad Men episode. They should totally sue Jakadrien for stealing their idea!
From an economics point of view, I wonder if this won't set an artificial ceiling on art prices. If the law only applies to artwork that sells for $10K, wouldn't galleries have a huge incentive to price works at $9,999 just to avoid paying the ongoing extortion fee?


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Readers of this column will be familiar with the story of Noelle, the white dog owned by the Rev. Louis Scurti that was lost in White Marsh for almost 17 months after the car in which she was being transported back to Father Lou's home in New Jersey was in an accident on Interstate 95. That's when Noelle ran from the scene and landed in White Marsh, eventually turning up in New York City where she was picked up by Manhattan Animal Control.
Then Kristen Edmonds, who runs Treasured K9s, picked up Noelle, (then known as Bell) cleaned her up and took care of her. Treasured K9s, founded by Kristen, is a nonproft volunteer group in New Jersey that rescues Korean Jindo dogs and other breeds. Noelle was a Jindo, Kristen said.
Luckily, through publicity generated by the stories about Noelle in this column, Kristen realized that the Jindo she had gotten from the New York shelter might be Father Lou's missing dog. The priest and his dog were soon reunited. Sad to say, Noelle, who had become severely underweight, died a few weeks later.
Now we have the chance to help another dog that Kristen has taken under her wing.
Your help is needed to spread the word about a retired and decorated Marine from Baltimore and his need to find a new home for his beloved Jindo, Elkea. Thomas Ray is a Maryland native who has spent a large part of his adult life in government service, beginning with Vietnam in 1968. Later, he worked as a government employee in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Tom left active service in 1989. He turns 66 later this month. He has dealt with many medical issues — he was in three helicopter crashes as a Marine — but none as serious as he faces now. In January, Tom was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
As his health declines and he is physically unable to care for Elkea, Tom has turned to Treasured K9s for help.
Kristen is committed to finding the right home and family for Elkea to give Tom the assurance that his pet will be taken care of for life.
Elkea is a 10-year-old male, purebred Korean Jindo — the same breed as Noelle was — and knows commands in Korean. He weighs about 44 pounds and stands 32 inches from the bottom of his paw to the top of his head. He is up to date on necessary shots and recently was neutered. Elkea has medium-length, reddish-brown fur. He enjoys being brushed. He has a good personality and he likes people. He loves going for walks. He is a good jumper so his new owner may enjoy teaching him to fetch a ball or play Frisbee.
Jindos typically bond to one person. Asked if Elkea will be able to bond to someone new, Tom says, " I think he can do that for one reason: I sent up (to Treasured K9s) some of my clothes in a Ziploc bag."
Tom is confident that bonding will occur as ""The dog will associate the clothes with me and gradually with the new owner."
If you are interested in knowing more about Elkea and the Jindo breed, go online to treasuredk9s.org/history-of-the-jindo.
If you are interested in adopting Elkea, email Kristen at firstname.lastname@example.com or call 877-774-8597.
In the meantime, Elkea will be staying with New York's Dog Whisperer, Jeff Kolbjornsen of http://www.newyorkdogwhisperer.com, who has offered to care for Elkea until a home can be found.
This is where readers of this column come in. Tell everyone you know about Elkea. Online, use this article and Elkea's picture to share with your friends and ask them to do the same. With all of us working together, we can help Treasured K9s find Elkea the new home he deserves and give Tom the peace of mind he needs.


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How Cycle to Work schemes work
How Cycle to Work schemes work
The good news is that you can also save money on these if your employer is willing to take part in the Government's Cycle to Work scheme.
Here's how it works:
First of all check that your employer is signed up to the scheme and/or uses a commercial company to facilitate the programme for them - in which case you may have to use a particular retailer or supplier to provide your equipment. Some of the main providers are part of the Cycle to Work Alliance.
If your employer is not signed up to a commercial provider, they can still implement the scheme, but may have to contend with some fairly complicated paperwork.
If they are reluctant to get involved with it, try pointing out that being a cycle-friendly employer means having a leaner, greener, healthier workforce that doesn't rely on fossil fuel or take up spaces in the staff car park !
There was a big uptake in cycling to work by Network Rail employees after it launched in August 2012 - possibly as the result of an upsurge in interest after the Olympics?
Choosing your machine
Next, comes the exciting bit. Visit a good bike shop that has a wide range of machines to choose from. Spend time discussing your particular needs. Will you stick to riding on main roads? Will you add in a little section of towpath or off-road track? Do you need mudguards or will you only ride to work in good weather? What about a set of lights and a rack for carrying spare clothing? Usually you are allowed to select a bicycle and 'safety equipment' up the value of £1,000 combined. Safety equipment can include:
- Cycle helmets which conform to European standard EN 1078
- Bells and bulb horns
- Lights, including dynamo packs
- Mirrors and mudguards
- Cycleclips and dress guards
- Panniers, luggage carriers and straps
- Child safety seats
- Locks and chains
- Pumps, puncture repair kits, cycle tool kits and tyre sealant
- Reflective clothing
- White front reflectors and spoke reflectors
Do the maths
Lastly, you will then have the amount you paid for the bike and equipment deducted from your salary - usually in roughly twelve monthly instalments. This will happen BEFORE you have paid any tax or national insurance on it. The amount you can save will depend on the rate of tax you are on and your salary but could amount up to quite a nice sum. Typical savings for employees are between 32% and 42%, meaning on average up to 40% of the total cost. However, you will have to pay VAT as well on the salary sacrifice payments. To work out how much you might save using the scheme, you can use Cyclesheme's calculator.
What's the catch?
There isn't really one, except that you don't actually own the bike and gear, even after you've paid back the full sum for it. This is because you technically enter into a hire agreement with your employer in order to get round the rules on taxable benefits. But in reality, nearly all employers transfer ownership of the bike to the employee as soon as the hire period is over for a nominal fee. If your employer has used an intermediary you'll usually deal directly with them. The amount you'll pay to own the bike is based on its estimated market value: HMRC has issued guidance on how this amount should be calculated.
The only other possible drawback is that the rules state that the bike should be used mainly for commuting. So forget that shiny new downhill bike – unless you work at the bottom of a mountain of course or you are Danny Hart! Oh, and you can't take part in the scheme if you are self-employed.


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TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, OK -- An Air Force reservist at Tinker AFB is taking the charge to be "Fit to Fight" seriously. Master Sgt. Matt Thomas, a jet engine mechanic for the 513th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, has used the program to get himself not only fit, but also into outstanding health as well.
In 14 months, Sergeant Thomas has increased his overall fitness score from 43 to 98.89. In the process, he lost 122 pounds and shaved 13.5 inches off his abdominal circumference.
Plagued with high blood pressure, back and foot problems and being 100 pounds overweight, Sergeant Thomas took the initiative and worked out a solution. The beginning came with his resolve a year ago to make a change, initiating a self-help program that included radical life changes in exercise and diet.
"Exercise is the main ingredient to losing the weight and getting back into a healthy routine quickly," he says.
To get into shape, Sergeant Thomas applied the discipline, motivation and hard work characteristic of his performance as a professional Airman. He began working out tenaciously, running four to five miles, five times per week.
Not liking to do static exercise machines, he found running was the best all-around exercise that would lean him down while enhancing his endurance in the other areas of exercise and fitness.
The running clearly paid off for Sergeant Thomas, who cut a full third off his time, from a 15:40 mile to just over 10 minutes and he recently ran the Wildcatter Run 10K in under 40 minutes.
Strengthening his abs with the running helped in another aspect of the "Fit to Fight" regimen as well: his crunch count more than doubled, from only 19 in May 2005 to 42 in September.
In addition to the running, Sergeant Thomas increased his ability to lose weight and exercise with a radical change in diet, from standard western fast food-style fare to a healthier mixture minus the fried, rich and sugary foods. Instead of soft drinks, he now drinks a calorie-free drink.
When asked about the best part of losing the weight, Sergeant Thomas replies, "My wife can finally put her arms around me. If that isn't motivation, what is?"
Photo: Master Sgt. Matt Thomas runs in a 10K. Sergeant Thomas, a jet engine mechanic for the 513th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, OK, lost 122 pounds and shaved 13.5 inches off his abdominal circumference in 14 months. U.S. Air Force photo.


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NOTE: While new carpeting is being installed at the Oshtemo Branch Library, access to some materials may be unavailable. Thank you for your patience.
Log in
Kalamazoo has long had a strong connection with the production and performance of music. Since the mid-nineteenth century, local, nationally-recognized, and even world-famous instrument makers, educators and performers have actively pursued their craft in Kalamazoo. Yet perhaps few were as revered during their own time as were the bands and orchestras of Charles and Burton Fischer, known throughout the world as Fischer's Exposition Orchestra.
Born in Kalamazoo in 1879, Charles Leonard Fischer was already a success orchestra leader and business manager by the time he was a teenager. During his lifetime, one would be hard pressed to discuss anything about popular music in Kalamazoo without hearing Fischer's name mentioned. The son of William Fischer, a prominent local butcher, Charlie was educated locally, and learned to play the violin while attending the Madam Jannasch-Shortt Musical Institute on East Main Street. He later attended Kalamazoo College, where he studied under Ms. A. G. Slocum.
In 1894, Charles—just fifteen years of age at the time—joined Chester Z. Bronson's Symphony Orchestra, an early precursor to the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Fischer would later play leading roles in subsequent orchestras that ultimately led to the formation of the current KSO.
The younger of the two brothers, Burton Edward Fischer was a skilled pianist, instructor, music publisher, and prolific composer. Born in Kalamazoo in 1882, Master "Bertie" Fischer was a star pupil when Madam Jannasch-Shortt and her students gave their holiday concert at the Academy of Music in December 1892. By age fifteen, Burton was already playing for dances and other social occasions with his brother and their friends.
Burton Fischer would devote his entire life to writing, performing, publishing and teaching music. Over the years, Fischer composed and published dozens of popular tunes, including pieces written specifically for the Western Normal School (WMU) football team ("The Squad"), Kalamazoo College ("All Hail to Kazoo!"), the University of Michigan's junior dance called the "J-Hop" ("A Toast to All the Girls"), and others.
"The Symphony orchestra has lately been organized... They have been busily engaged in rehearsals lately and are now prepared to furnish music for parties, receptions, etc."
—Kalamazoo Gazette, 4 December 1896
The Fischer brothers formed their first professional orchestra in 1896 while both were still in high school. The seven member orchestra consisted of Charlie Fischer, director and first violin; Burton Fischer, piano; Carey Lull, second violin; James C. Hatfield, second violin; Arthur Slocum*, second cornet; Harry B. Parker**, flute; Allen Hughes, first cornet; and Ary Bradshaw, alto. Billing themselves as the "Symphony Orchestra," their first professional engagements were at the local YMCA. According to one band member, the young musicians were paid nothing for the first performance, and just 55¢ for the second.
* Son of Arthur Gaylord Slocum, the sixth president of Kalamazoo College. ** Harry B. Parker was a founding member of the 1923 Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.
The following summer, Fischer's "Symphony Orchestra" performed for the Kalamazoo High School graduation exercises at the YMCA auditorium. According to the Kalamazoo Telegraph, "The Symphony orchestra played the opening march, and furnished music throughout the evening. Every seat was occupied."
The group soon found themselves playing for dancing parties nearly every Monday evening in downtown Kalamazoo. According to Harry Parker, flutist in Fischer's first orchestra and later a founding member of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, "Charlie got $1.50, Bert got a dollar, and the rest got 75 cents" (Gazette). Humble as it might have been, this was the beginning of one of the most popular dance bands in the Midwest at the time.
By 1899, Fischer's Orchestra was working steadily, playing frequently for parties, dances, and other social gatherings. The band consisted of six full-time members by this time; Charles Fischer, manager, leader and first violin; Burton Fischer, piano; Fred Day, clarinet; Fred Davis, cornet; Frank Newell, trombone; and John Quintal, second violin. In June 1899, the orchestra was contracted to play for the Paw Paw High School commencement exercises, and the social dance that followed. A feature of the band's repertoire that season was a ragtime piece called "Kalamazoo, An Original Rag-Time Cake-Walk," composed by their good friend Eddie Desenberg.
During the spring of 1901, the Fischer brothers got their first big break when Charlie signed a contract with E.M. Statler to play a twenty-week engagement at Statler's Pan-American Hotel in Buffalo, New York, in conjunction with the 1901 World's Fair, known as the Pan-American Exposition. With accommodations for more than five thousand, Statler's hotel provided an ideal venue where hundreds of thousands of guests could see and enjoy Fischer's Orchestra. "It is a well deserved honor," applauded the Telegraph, "and is a credit to [Fischer] as well as a compliment to the musical talent of Kalamazoo." As a special honor, Fischer's Orchestra was selected to perform at the Michigan Building on the Exposition grounds during Michigan Day, August 20th. Thereafter, the orchestra became known as Fischer's Pan-American Orchestra, and later, Fischer's Exposition Orchestra.
"The orchestra has met with splendid success at Buffalo, having played at some ultra-swell social maneuvers at Statler's and been the recipients of many compliments."
—Kalamazoo Gazette, 1 September 1901
Following the orchestra's successful run in Buffalo, Fischer immediately began to receive additional offers, including a request to perform at the Charleston (SC) Exposition later that same winter. Fischer declined, however, saying "I wanted to get back to old Kazoo and our friends" (Gazette).
After the 1901 Worlds Fair, the band returned to Kalamazoo and enjoyed several seasons of steady employment at area hotels, colleges and resorts. With the success of their first World's Fair engagement, an opportunity of special merrit came along in December 1901 when Fischer's Orchestra was selected to furnish the music for the University of Michigan's annual junior dance known as the "J-Hop." This was the first time an orchestra from outside of the Detroit area had been chosen to perform, so Fischer assembled a full fifteen-piece orchestra for the occasion. The event was a hit, and the Ann Arbor J-Hop would become an annual tradition for Fischer and his orchestras. In all, Fischer's bands would be featured some sixteen times at this yearly event.
In 1904, another big break came when Fischer again contracted with E. M. Statler for a five month stint at the St. Louis World's Fair, playing daily at Statler's famed Inside Inn. The prestigious 2,257-room Inside Inn with dining room and restaurant seating for 2,500 was considered the "official" hotel of the World's Fair as it was located right on the Exposition grounds. "We recognized the orderly and gentlemanly conduct of the boys," stated E. M. Statler in a letter to Charles Fischer, "and will pay you more than was asked by another organization, equally as good but the members of it we do not know." Fischer packed up his finest ten-piece orchestra and boarded the train for St. Louis on May 16th. Once again, Fischer's musicians would be able to showcase their expertise in front of the millions who flocked to the World's Fair.
Thereafter adopting the name of Fischer's World's Fair Orchestra, the band again returned to Michigan and performed tirelessly throughout the summer months at entertainment hot spots like the Allendale resort on Gull Lake, Kalamazoo's Oakwood Park, the Imperial Hotel in Petoskey, and the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Additionally, Fischer's Orchestra was engaged for multiple tours of the Midwest and South with Redpath Chautauqua, Community Chautauqua and others. For its 1906 season, the orchestra logged nearly 15,000 miles. Reports of audiences numbering in the thousands—even tens-of-thousands—were not uncommon.
At one point, Fischer split his musicians into at least six different ensembles just to fulfil an ever-growing list of commitments throughout the Midwest. For example, on one single evening—New Years Eve 1919, Fischer's Exposition Orchestra (under the direction of Charles Fischer) played for a dance in Battle Creek, while Fischer's Jazzadores (directed by Burton Fischer) were in Lima, Ohio. At the same time, Fischer's Novelty Orchestra (directed by Peter Houtsema) was in Holland, Fischer's Banjo Phiends (directed by Jim Johnstone) were in Niles, Fischer's Jazz Orchestra (directed by Burt Reeves) was in Kalamazoo with Godwin's dance assembly, and Fischer's Jazz Band (directed by Ms. R. Briggs) entertained the hometown crowds at the Park-American Hotel, also in Kalamazoo. A typical week during this era might see Fischer's "First" Orchestra performing in Jackson on Tuesday, Grand Rapids on Wednesday, Saginaw on Thursday, Lansing Friday and Saturday, then back in Kalamazoo on Monday. According to an April 1907 report, the band performed every single night (except three) for seven months in a row, and was still booked to play every night for several weeks after that.
Fischer's schedule included engagements at some of the finest resorts in the Midwest and many prestigious special events, including a performance for President Roosevelt during a reception in Lansing in 1907, which was said to be "the swellest event of the season" (Gazette).
In the fall of 1907, Fischer again packed up his orchestra and headed to Norfolk, Virginia, for a extended run at the Inside Inn during the Jamestown Exposition, Fischer's third World's Fair engagement. From mid-September until mid-November, Fischer's World's Fair Orchestra entertained guests inside the massive hotel and during specially scheduled concert performances on the exposition grounds, where as many as four thousand were in attendance for each performance.
In 1908, Charles Fischer and his wife purchased a stately home at 912 South West Street (now 914 South Westnedge). Aside from being his family residence and orchestra business office, the Fischer home served as a rehearsal space where band members could work out the intricate arrangements of their latest compositions, and an instruction room for band members who gave music lessons to supplement their orchestra commitments and various "day jobs." 912 South West Street would remain the primary address and business office of Fischer's many orchestras and ensembles for some 22 years.
In addition to their orchestra work, the Fischer brothers were both active music merchants in the local economy. Charles Fischer owned and operated a retail music store (Fischer's Music Shop) in downtown Kalamazoo from 1911 through 1919, where the latest popular music sheets (including Burton Fischer's compositions), Victrolas, and 78rpm records were sold. Fischer's Orchestra performed at the store on special occasions, including a concert performance during the grand opening in June 1911. Burton Fischer formed his own music publishing company (The Burton E. Fischer Publishing Co.) as a commercial outlet for many of his own compositions and the work of others.
"The Bee Ne'er Returns..." by Burton Edward Fischer, 1910
Midi sequence by James Pitt-Payne, London, UK, 2004
Today, we enjoy music in a variety of formats; Internet streams, radio, iPod, compact disc, mobile devices, etc. A century ago, sheet music was all the rage. While the recording industry was in its infancy, fans without the desire or ability to acquire an actual recording simply bought the music sheets and attempted to recreate their favorite tunes for themselves.
Word of Burton Fischer's music began to spread. John Philip Sousa purportedly praised Fischer during a local visit in 1912. "You have quite a famous composer right here in Kalamazoo," said Sousa. "I know from what I have heard here in Kalamazoo that Mr. Fischer is all right. That 'One Little Dance' sounds awful good to me" (Gazette). Sousa's band reportedly featured the song as an encore during the tour.
As Fischer's orchestras grew more and more popular, fans combed the music shops for copies of the latest pieces that the bands were playing, many of which were composed by Burton Fischer himself, with words by leading local and regional lyricists.
The Fischer brothers were driven to keep their organizations up-to-date, and always at the forefront of technology for their time. In October 1917, the orchestra traveled to Camden, New Jersey, to make a few test recordings for Victor Records. According to Victor ledgers, the band cut at least a half-dozen sides on 10 October 1917. These included "Casino Jazz" (a Burton Fischer composition) (two takes), "Vienese Melodies" (one take), "Oodles of Pep" (another Burton Fischer composition) (one take), and a Burton Fischer arrangement of "Annie Laurie" (two takes), a trombone and cornet duet by Edward Snuggs and William Reifsnyder, both members of Fischer's Orchestra. Unfortunately, it appears that none of these recordings were ever issued commercially and apparently no future contract with Victor resulted.
During the infant days of radio, Fischer's orchestras were "on the air," as well. In 1922, Fischer's "Full" Orchestra became the first band outside of Detroit to broadcast over WCX (now WJR), just days after the station first went on the air. On Sunday evening, 28 May 1922, the orchestra performed before a crowd of some five thousand in Milwaukee, which was, in turn, broadcast live over the radio and played for the band's home audience at a special Oakwood Park "Radio Dance."
After the First World War, musical tastes began to change and audiences were drawn to newer, more modern "jazz" arrangements. Always eager to keep their organizations up-to-date, the Fischer brothers formed a host of touring jazz bands during the nineteen-teens and early twenties, just to meet the growing demand for a "peppier" syncopated sound. These included the Fischer Jazz Band, Fischer's Jazzadores, Fischer's Banjophiends, and Fischer's Serenaders. And Fischer had no trouble keeping all of his bands busy. During the summer of 1920, Fischer's Exposition Orchestra kept the folks dancing at the "Big Casino" in South Haven, while Fischer's Jazz Band (featuring James "Jazz" Johnstone) entertained the crowds at Kalamazoo's Oakwood Park, Fischer's Jazzadores played concert and dance engagements at the resort hotels in Charlevoix and Petoskey, and Fischer's Banjophiends filled engagements elsewhere in Kalamazoo and around the state.
Fischer's star banjo player, a long-time Gibson employee named James H. "Jazz" Johnstone, made quite a name for himself during the early twenties as a music instructor by teaching eager students how to "jazz" on the tenor banjo and mandolin. At the same time, several other members of Fischer's Orchestra were part of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra's 1921 inception, including Frank Newell, Charles Brocato, and William Reifsnyder.
In 1922, the Fischer brothers tried again to capture the sound of their orchestra on record. This time, they traveled to Richmond, Indiana, for a session at Gennett Records, now legendary for the many famous names that recorded there (New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, William Jennings Bryan, and others). According to discographer Brian Rust, two pieces were attempted during the October 7th session; "Maggie Blues" (no. 11198) and "Faded Love Letters" (no. 11199). Unfortunately, it appears that, like the previous attemps with Victor, neither of these recordings were ever issued commercially.
For many years, the Kalamazoo Gazette ran a column called "Twenty Years Ago," which culled interesting tidbits from the daily papers published two decades earlier. In January 1909, a forward-looking counterpart called "Twenty Years From Now" took readers on an imaginary voyage into the future to see what Kalamazoo's leading residents might be doing by then. In a lighthearted jab at Fischer's then exploding popularity, the columnist fantasized that "Charles Fischer and his Famous Exposition Orchestra [had just] returned from Europe where they played with great success before the crowned heads of Europe" (Kalamazoo Gazette, 30 January 1909). Who could have imagined that those very words would indeed ring surprisingly true... almost exactly twenty years later?!
In 1926, the band had yet another big break when Fischer contracted with Belgium's Red Star Line for a four-month around-the-world cruise as the official shipboard orchestra aboard the SS Belgenland, advertised as "The Largest Ship to Circle the Globe." During the 29,000 mile, sixty-city journey (the ship's third world cruise), Fischer's Orchestra performed while on board and in many of the ports they visited along the way, including luxury hotels in Tokyo, Peking, Bombay (now Mumbai), Cairo, and Naples.
The 1926-27 excursion proved successful enough that the Fischer Orchestra was again engaged for three subsequent world cruises; 1927-28, 1930-31, and a fourth in 1931-32—the SS Belgenland's final cruise around the world.
During the 1930-31 cruise, actor Douglas Fairbanks and his wife Mary Pickford were passengers aboard the SS Belgenland, as was professor Albert Einstein. According to one newspaper account, Einstein borrowed Charlie Fischer's hat during the trip when they went ashore for a stroll, only to have the hat stolen by an apparent souvenir hunter. Amused by the incident, Fischer told the reporter, "I still laugh when I think how someone must be treasuring that hat. I wonder what they'd do if they knew who really owned it."
In addition to his scientific mind, Einstein was a great lover of music and he enjoyed playing the violin. After an afternoon of rehearsing with the orchestra, Einstein borrowed Charlie's violin and joined the band for a few selections during a special Christmas Eve program off the west coast of Central America while en route to California. "After a few minutes," commented Fischer band member Carl Kay, "we were listening to one of the world's greatest scientists doing a good job of playing the violin." Einstein was featured in three selections; Beethoven's 5th violin sonata "Spring," "Berceuse" by Benjamin Godard, and as requested by Mrs. Einstein, Handel's "Largo." "We were all glad that Einstein asked to play with our orchestra," noted Kay, "and I think he enjoyed it too."
Fischer's musicians had numerous opportunities to show off their talents during their four world cruises. They performed live radio broadcasts for KGU in Honolulu, JOAK in Tokyo, JOBK in Osaka, Colombo Broadcasting Station in Sri Lanka, and the Indian Broadcasting Company in Bombay. Following their 1931 broadcast in Tokyo, Fischer's Orchestra performed for three consecutive nights at the lavish Florida Ballroom in that city, where they were awarded a silver cup for winning a "battle of the bands" contest against another American dance orchestra. Later in the same trip while en route from Hong Kong to Bangkok, Fischer's Orchestra was featured during a special party held in the ship's Tea Room for Douglas Fairbanks.
During the 1930-31 world cruise, Fischer's bassist Carl Kay kept a detailed journal about the places they visited and the experiences they had. In his journal, Kay noted that the Japanese audiences loved American jazz, and were enthralled with Kay's "slap string bass" style of playing, evidently the first time those audiences had seen, as Kay described, "such a queer method of playing."
While in Osaka in January 1931, the band spent the better part of a day at the Columbia Recording Company's "laboratory," where they cut four songs – two popular jazz pieces (Phil Baxter's "Harmonica Harry" and "Ding Dong Daddy"), plus two Japanese folk songs—"jazz style." (It is not yet known if these were ever commercially released.)
For more than fifty years, Fischer's motto was "You Don't Have to Dance To Fischer's Music, Just Get On and Ride." Even in later years, the Fischer name continued to be an important part of the Kalamazoo music scene. Charles Fischer, Burton Fischer and Ed Snuggs performed frequently during the forties as the "Twilight Serenade Trio" and were often broadcast locally over WKZO radio.
Fischer's "Globe Trotters," including long-time Fischer alumni Ed Snuggs and Will Reifsnyder, continued to perform locally and around the region until Charles' death in 1948. Burton Fischer continued to write and perform right up until his death in 1965, as did fellow bandmate Edward Snuggs, who led a popular series of Sunday band concerts in Milham Park until his death in 1971.
Like many of our Local History essays, this article is by no means a definitive study; rather it may be viewed as a work-in-progress. If you have new information, corrections, or items to share, please contact the author or the Local History Room.
Encyclopedic Discography of Victor RecordingsAn index to master recordings (matrixes) and published discs made by the Victor Talking Machine Company beginning in 1900.
Related reading from Kalamazoo Public Library's Local History essays.


text: Brooklyn-based graphic designer Victoria Siemer, also known as Witchoria, has an ongoing photography series updated weekly called 'Human Error" in which the artist digitally overlays an existential or lovelorn computerized error message over a scanned Polaroid. The error message prompts the viewer for an action or to wait, illustrating the futility of this technological exercise when perceived in the context of heartbreak or ennui. Siemer's series elegantly pairs new technology, represented by the computerized message, with older technology, represented by the vintage mode of a Polaroid photograph, combining the nostalgia evoked by a Polaroid with the technological angst that fuels many of our modern relationships.


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Some travelers can leave their shoes on and laptops in their bags when clearing airport security with the Transportation Security Administration's PreCheck program. The list of airports and airlines participating is growing.
The PreCheck program offers invited frequent flyers, from several major airlines, access to dedicated security lanes at U.S. airports. Typically, an elite membership in an airline's frequent flyer program is required to participate, but the time saving program is also open to passengers, who have signed up for the Global Entry program with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.
Newly added this week is a lane at New York's LaGuardia Airport for invited members of Delta Air Lines' SkyMiles program, as well as additional checkpoints for American Airlines AAdvantage members at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
The program is targeted to expand this year, and will eventually include 35 airports across the country.
When the program launched, I was invited by American Airlines to participate, but have yet to travel with them through one of the airports in operation. The current list of airlines and airports is as follows:
- Atlanta (ATL): T-South Checkpoint (Delta)
- Chicago (ORD): Terminal 3, Checkpoint 8 (American)
- Dallas (DFW): Terminal C, Checkpoint C30 (American)
- Detroit (DTW): Checkpoint 2 on the ticketing level (Delta)
- Las Vegas (LAS): D Gates First Class Checkpoint (American and Delta)
- Los Angeles (LAX): Terminal 4 (American)
- New York John F. Kennedy (JFK): Terminal 8 Main Checkpoint (American)
- New York LaGuardia (LGA): Delta Main Checkpoint (Delta)
- Miami (MIA): D2 Checkpoint (American)
- Minneapolis (MSP): Lindbergh Terminal, Checkpoint 4 (American and Delta)
- Salt Lake City (SLC): Terminal 2 Checkpoint (Delta)
- Washington D.C. (DCA): Terminal B, South Checkpoint (Delta)
According to the TSA website, Alaska Airlines , United Airlines and US Airways will begin offering select passengers access later in 2012.


text:
If u want zoom on a text on Flash, then do the following:
1. Create text in the middle of your movie area.
2. Right-click (Mac: Ctrl-click) on frame 40. And Select Insert Keyframe.
3. Click on frame 1. Go to the Frames Panel. For Tweening select Motion
4. Right- Click (Mac: CTRL+CLICK) on frame 20 and select Insert Key Frame
5. Select the text and go to Modify>Transform>Scale & Rotate. Enter 900 for Scale and click Ok.
6. Contol>Rewind and then Control>Play. Finished.


text:
Courtesy of Michael J, who found the pic on some other site, here is Kenny Baker taking a break from being stuck in a little tin barrel in the blazing desert sun. As you can see, he is Pounding the fuck outta that hot dog.
Pounding Tweets
- RT @HamillHimself: 4 Decades of #StarWars & I never got a cereal. Seriously, even a Stormtrooper gets his own box? #Outrage! Time's running… 4 months ago
- RT @wesingyourtweet: We hope you're all doing well out there. Here's a duck eating pizza. #GoDucks #WSYT https://t.co/qPpvHhbXwO 9 months ago
- Thank you for the last eight years, Mr. Obama! We wish you happiness! #CPI 2 years ago
Pounding Calendar
April 2019 M T W T F S S « Oct 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Recent Poundings
Tags@BarackObama @britneyspears @clebspoundingit @KimKardashian Adam Brody Adam Richman Amy Winehouse Arnold Schwarzenegger AUdrina Patridge banana Barack Obama Bear Grylls Beautiful Big Mac Brad Pitt Britney Britney Spears Carrot Top CelebritiesPoundingIt Celebrities Pounding It Celebrities Pounding It Hard corn Courtney Love CPI Delicious Destroying It Donald Trump French Fries Gelato george bush Gerard Butler heidi montag Hillary Clinton Hollywood hot dogs Ice Cream Jake Gyllenhaal James Gandolfini Josh Duhamel Justin Bieber Katherine Heigl Katie Holmes Ketchup kim kardashian Kirsten Dunst LA Legend Lindsay Lohan Lola Berry Luke Wilson Maggie Gyllenhaal mcdonalds Mike Tyson Mischa Barton Mitt Romney Natalie Portman Nicole Richie Pasta Pinkberry Pizza pounding pounding food Pounding It Presidential Pound President Obama RNC2012 Sandwich Sarah Jessica Parker Shia Slices soup The OC Tori Spelling Vince Vaughn Watermelon


text:
A plan to roll the Empire State Building into a real estate investment trust is a whisker away from obtaining the necessary investor approval for a stock offering allowing the public to own a piece of the iconic skyscraper, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.
Investors holding 99.3 percent of the Empire State Building units needed to approve the plan for an initial public offering have voted for it, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Continue Reading Below
The plan calls for the building to be the centerpiece of more than 18 properties in Empire State Realty Trust Inc.
The latest update on the vote comes in the wake of a court decision upholding a provision that would force a unitholder to vote for the deal or sell back the unit for $100 once investors holding 80 percent of the units vote for the plan. That would enable the 100 percent backing needed under the original 1961 agreement.
So far votes representing 79.6 percent of the units in the Empire State Building have been in favor of the plan.
Two other buildings require similar unitholder approval to be included in the REIT. As of Wednesday, investors in 250 East 57 St. have approved the plan, according to the filing.
The REIT so far has received the 98.8 percent of the votes needed for 60 East 42nd Street, also known as One Grand Central Place, to be included.
(Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)


text:
My friend Irene was here last week, visiting from her exotic homeland of London, England. We were at lunch, and then I confessed something, Something horrible.
Me: I have to say, I feel a little gross. I didn't shower for a few days, and then this morning I went to the gym and when I got back home, the water was shut off because they're doing some kind of plumbing work.
Irene: [Horrified stare]
Me: So then there wasn't enough time to go back to the gym and shower and still meet you for lunch, but we have this kind of large Brita container, which holds a lot of water, but it was in the refrigerator, so I basically gave myself an icy sponge-bath. And then dumped the rest of the water over my head. Which was bracing, to say the least. It was like an ice-cream headache, only more so.
[Irene stares at me as if I had told her that I like to poop in the sink.]
Irene: But…why didn't you shower in—how many days, did you say?
Me: Um. A few? Maybe a couple. I kind of can't remember.
Irene: You can't remember the last time you showered?
Me: I can't say my showers are all that memorable. Don't look at me like that. You live in Europe! You should be comfortable with the unwashed!
Irene: You used to shower every day, in college!
Me: Are you saying you still shower every day?
Irene: …
Me: !
Then we agreed never to talk again.
Or rather, we made fun of each other for a while, then changed the topic. I may have made her smell me, at some point. (For the record, I smelled fine. Ice water and baby wipes can accomplish quite a bit.)
It should be said that Irene does not have kids. (And no disparaging Irene, please; she's one of my best friends and I will have to come to your house and give you a noogie if you do.) (Don't think I won't.) So I could say that she has all the time in the world to take daily showers. But my son is six. It's not like he's an infant. I have time. And yet I find myself forgetting to shower. Forgetting, or deciding there are better things to do, like, I don't know, read? You can't read in the shower, after all. Someone needs to fix that.
I ran into my other friend (I have more than one!) Jennifer today, and we were talking about this not-showering habit of the children-having. Jennifer has two kids, so she has more reason to not shower. "Not only do I not shower, but I forget to brush my hair," she said.
"I don't own a brush," I countered.
"I never look in the mirror," she said. "One day I got my hair wet in the outdoor sprinkler, and my hair was all plastered down on one side and it was like that all day. And I had no idea."
"Oh, I have to look in the mirror," I said, "because I usually have something crazy stuck in my hair. Like a cat toy, or a pack of gum. Seriously. Did I tell you about the time I walked around with a hanger hanging from the back of my coat? I never leave home without giving myself a once-over."
"I'm going to shower now," Jennifer said, "Since I just went to the gym. So that's good, right?"
"I hope your water is on, but if it's not, may I recommend ice water and baby wipes?"
Somewhere in England, a glamorous, freshly showered woman wept for all of us.


text:
UFO (RoMe-n-MoNe) - Lights All Around Me [DMV Unsigned Hype]
"WORLD BREAKING NEWS!!! There has been numerous UFO sightings in major cities including NY,ATL,CA and MIA. But surprisingly, the DMV is ranked #1 with the most UFO sightings and alien encounters in the world. Here's the most recent sighting..."
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Add to Calendar
October 20, 2018 @ 11:00 am
Just like our regular FNM Standard, but with Standard Showdown boosters made by Wizards.
Standard is a format of approximately the last two years worth of cards from "normal" sets (i.e. not Commander, etc)
Registration 10:00am – 10:55am for an 11am start – $12 Entry.
3 rounds, each round you'll be paired up with someone who has won the same number of matches as you to play a best of three match in 45 minutes.
Win a booster as a prize for every match you win, this includes the Standard Showdown booster.
We'll focusing on participation first to try and spread them as widely as possible.
Each booster contains:
- 2 rare or mythic rare cards from a currently legal Standard set
- 1 premium basic land
- 1 premium card of any rarity from a currently legal Standard set
We're running seven standard showdown events, all on Saturdays. There's a draft after each one, starting at 2pm.


text:
All items > Knives > Out The Front Knives > Microtech (OTF) > Microtech Troodon
- Overall Length:7.65"
- Blade Length:3.00"
- Blade Material:Elmax
- Blade Style:Drop Point
- Blade Grind:Flat
- Finish:Black
- Edge Type:Plain
- Handle Length:4.25"
- Handle Thickness:0.45"
- Handle Material:Aluminum
- Color:Tan
- Weight:3.00 oz.
- User:Right Hand
- Pocket Clip:Tip-Down
- Knife Type:Automatic
- Opener:Thumb Slide
- Brand:Microtech
- Model:Troodon
- Model Number:139-1TA
- Country of Origin:USA
- Best Use:Everyday Carry
- Product Type:Knife
The Troodon is a compact automatic knife with Microtech's signature double action out-the-front performance. It was named after the Troodon dinosaur, a small, smart and quick hunter. The handle is shaped with tapered ends and grooves for added grip. If you're looking for a bigger knife that features the same great style, the Microtech Combat Troodon (25% larger) is an excellent choice.
This Troodon has a two-tone black coated stainless steel drop point style blade with a plain edge. The handle is tan anodized aluminum with bead blast finished hardware, pocket clip and glass breaker tip.


text:
Coming off a thrilling World Cup run, the US Women's National Team has returned to America as beloved
chokers athletes. Abby Wambach scored the biggest American goals in the tournament and she went right back to work after quick stops on Good Morning America and Letterman.
Meanwhile, Hope Solo and Alex Morgan look like they'll be slower returning to the field. The soon-to-be 30 year old, Solo and 22 year old, Morgan look like they'll continue to be the faces of US Women's soccer. Solo was on GMA and Letterman with Wambach before joining Alex Morgan on a couple ESPN shows and eventually, the red carpet of the Entourage premiere.
In addition to the media, Morgan has also started fielding offers from other athletes. The first being Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria who started his own Twitter campaign to woo Morgan. The question is, with the World Cup over, how long will we continue to talk about these girls? Will the novelty wear off as they turn back into "just soccer players."


text:
Hornets forward David West knew the Spurs were going to feed the ball to star Tim Duncan early and often in Game 2 on Monday night after he was held to five points in his team's opening loss of the second-round Western Conference playoff series.
And with the Hornets ready on the defensive end and point guard Chris Paul utilizing his skills as a playmaker and scorer, the Hornets blitzed the Spurs 102-84 in front of a sellout crowd of 17,927 at the New Orleans Arena. Duncan scored a team-high 18 points, but he was largely ineffective in the third quarter, when the Hornets went on a game-changing run.
The Hornets now have a commanding 2-0 lead against the defending-champion Spurs. The best-of-seven series resumes Thursday night at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
The Hornets have never advanced beyond the conference semifinals, but are now only two victories from playing the Los Angeles Lakers-Utah Jazz winner in the Western Conference finals.
"I'm proud of the way this team has played," Hornets Coach Byron Scott said. "We've had a heck of a season. We still got a lot of people out there that doubt us. I think that's what fuels these guys."
Paul led the way again with a game-high 30 points and 12 assists. Forward Peja Stojakovic scored 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting, which included five of seven 3-pointers. Shooting guard Morris Peterson made all five shots from the field for 12 points, and the Hornets made 48 percent of their shots.
After trailing 43-42 at halftime, the Hornets opened the third quarter with Stojakovic hitting a 3-pointer, a Paul finger-roll layup and a 3-pointer from Peterson, and the rout was on.
Three minutes into the quarter, the Hornets had a nine-point lead and Duncan began to show the same frustration as he did in Game 1.


text:
The information published in this post is now out-of-date.
—IEBlog Editor, 12 September 2012
There's a new security update for IE available. You can find the security bulletin here
and the Knowledge Base article here
Candidly, I'd like to write in depth about the vulnerability, different approaches we thought of in defending against it and the compatibility issues (site and application) that each approach entailed, and how we chose the one that we released.
The main reason I can't is that folks who want to find security holes and hurt Windows customers look at every single communication that comes out from Microsoft for anything that will help their effort. I don't want to give it to them. No, I'm not happy about this. Yes, this frustrates me too. The longer I work with the Microsoft Security Response Center, and the more I see of both responsible and irresponsible disclosure of security issues, the more I respect their judgment on this one.
I am trying to figure out if there is something (instead of nothing) that we can say publicly about the changes. I hope to have an answer next week. If nothing else, I'm glad we were able to release this today given the interest with press, customers, and developers that this vulnerability generated.
In the meantime, I'll answer a question that bothered me for a long time. Is the numbering scheme for these releases totally random?
Despite appearances to the contrary, no. Security update numbering starts with the two digit year of the release (yes, I look forward to the posts about our Y2100 issues) and then are sequential. The first security update each year from Microsoft is 001, then 002, etc. When you look at just IE's (the way I do), the numbers are all over the map. We actually don't know the number while we're working on the release because we can't make assumptions about when we'll release versus other security work that's going on.


text:
The Cleveland Browns haven't even made a head coaching job available since owner Jimmy Haslam took over, and they already are dealing with coaching rumors -- for another job.
WREG-TV in Memphis, Tenn., reported Tuesday night that Jon Gruden has a coaching offer to take on the University of Tennessee job. As part of the offer, Gruden reportedly would get an ownership stake in the Cleveland Browns. Haslam is a Tennessee grad and booster, although this report strains credulity for a few reasons.
The biggest reason: The Browns strongly deny it.
"Jimmy Haslam has no involvement in the University of Tennessee head coaching search, and the report that Jon Gruden would potentially have an ownership stake in the Browns is completely erroneous," Browns Vice President of Media Relations Neil Gulkis said in an official statement.
We mentioned a few weeks back that Gruden coaching rumors would likely get out of control this year, with word leaking that he's just as interested in college jobs as potential pro offers. We are just getting started.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.


text:
Gen Y Security Threat
Picture the kind of person you'd consider a security problem, and what leaps to mind? Chances are it's the image of a young male who thinks he's pretty darn smart—the Kevin Mitnick type. But it's time for CIOs to focus their security efforts on young men and women who aren't thinking smart. Will your security staff get through to them before they inadvertently let a real hacker get at your company data?
Now, it would be unfair and inaccurate to say that Generations X and Y have a monopoly on IT carelessness. A study on social networking released in October by CA Inc., and the National Cyber Security Alliance found that workers over 35 are more likely than younger people to—d'oh!— post their phone numbers and addresses on social networking sites or respond to unsolicited e-mail. (Apparently people do respond to Viagra spam.) But there's enough evidence—besides the pictures of young people behaving badly splashed all over these sites—that young adults are less discrete than older workers.
Of the 2,163 adults surveyed by CA and the NCSA, 51 percent of the under-35 crowd use these sites at work—that's 9 percent more than 35- to 54- year-old workers and 28 percent more than workers 55 or older—and they tend to engage in riskier behavior. Sixty-six percent download files from others' profiles "all the time" or "sometimes," setting themselves up to download Trojans, worms and other headaches. They are also less likely to close their profiles to anyone but friends—just 69 percent do that—leaving them open to more social engineering scams, and leaving their work-related postings accessible for anyone to see. So when 83 percent of the respondents to CIO Insight's May Security Survey say social networks, blogs and wikis will increase their security risks, they know whence they speak.
Another sign younger people aren't as careful as they should be: They are more likely to have their identities stolen. Not to blame the victims— save that for the scuzzy perpetrators of these crimes—but it stands to reason that people who take more precautions are less likely to be victimized and vice versa. A 2007 study of 5,000 adults by Javelin Strategy and Research found people 18 to 24 are at higher risk of ID fraud. "Victims in this age group are less likely to use basic precautions, such as shredding documents, switching paper bills and financial statements to electronic versions or using antivirus, anti-spyware software or firewalls," Javelin's report summary states.
"Members of this age group were the most likely to fall victim to fraud in the past 12 months, with an incident rate of 5.3 percent." And that's understandable: To younger workers, computers, digital cameras and the Web have been toys and companions. But security experts know they are double-edged swords that can deliver nasty, self-administered wounds. Other more experienced IT people know it, too. If CIOs are to minimize careless online behavior—their No. 1 concern, according to this year's CIO Insight Security Survey—it's time they target younger workers and find a way to get their security message across loud and clear.
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text:
The odds of a death sentence for those suspected of killing white people are about three times higher than those accused of killing blacks, according to a new study from a University of Colorado professor who combed through death sentences in North Carolina over a 28-year period.
The study, which will be published in the North Carolina Law Review next year, was conducted by Michael Radelet, a sociology professor at CU's Boulder campus, and Glenn Pierce, a research scientist in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston.
"It's just kind of baffling that in this day and age, race matters," Radelet said.
Radelet, one of the nation's leading experts on the death penalty, said the study will be used in appeal cases.
Leading up to the study, legislators in North Carolina had raised concern about the racial disparities of those on death row -- but there was no hard evidence.
"It confirmed the worst fears," Radelet said.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that statistical evidence of racial bias could not be considered in individual cases, but that states could pass their own legislation to do so.
North Carolina has one of the nation's largest death rows, with 155 men and four women now facing execution. The state became the second in the nation, following Kentucky, to allow murder suspects and those already on death row to present statistical evidence of racial bias.
The law is intended to make sure that the race of the defendant or victim doesn't play a key role in sentencing. The study by Radelet and Pierce is the first to be released since North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act.
Radelet and Pierce examined 15,281 homicides in North Carolina between 1980 and 2007, of which 368 resulted in death sentences for those convicted.
For their research, they used reports from the FBI and records from the North Carolina Department of Correction and the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
They gathered information on all death-row cases in which the victim was either black or white. The authors looked for any additional factors -- such as multiple victims or homicides accompanied by an additional felony, such as rape or robbery -- that might explain the disparity in death penalty sentencing.
The additional factors partially explained death penalty decisions, but even after statistically controlling for their effect, race remained an important predictor of who was sentenced to death.
The study found that the odds of receiving a death sentence in North Carolina "in a white victim case are on average 2.96 times higher than are the odds of a death sentence in a black victim case."
"It turns out the race of the defendant doesn't matter at all," Radelet said. "It all depends on the race of the victims."
A study that Radelet conducted in Colorado yielded similar findings. He examined cases between 1980 and 1999 and found that prosecutors were more likely to seek the death penalty for those accused of killing whites.
In Boulder County, there has never been a death sentence verdict issued, said Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett.
Garnett, who is running for Colorado attorney general, said he respects Radelet's work. "There's no question that there's an issue of racial disparity, as reflected by Michael's work."
Garnett has said he reviews every first-degree murder case closely to make a death penalty decision.
"I am not morally opposed to the death penalty," he said. "But I think, practically, it's a difficult and expensive result to see through the legal system."
Contact Camera Staff Writer Brittany Anas at 303-473-1132 or email@example.com.


text: Thanks for the reply Joe.... atop seems to be a really cool tool that would be very helpful once I get a chance to patch the kernel on file servers (for process level disk usage and ethernet usage information.). I am setting up a test cluster to reproduce the problem. Would post updates as I find more info... Amrik Joe Landman wrote: > Hi Amrik: > > Amrik Singh wrote: >> Hi, >> >> We are running a cluster of 180 diskless compute nodes. 60 of them >> have 32 bit AMD Semptron processors and rest are dual core AMD >> Athelon 64 bit processors. 32 bit machines have 10/100 mbps and rest >> have gigabit ethernet cards. We have four file servers, each hosting >> around 3.5TB on SATA drives connected to 3Ware RAID controller cards >> configured on RAID 10 array. These file servers are exporting the >> drives through NFS. Each file server is running 265 daemons for nfsd. >> >> The file servers are mainly hosting large number of small files >> ranging from 256KB to 2 MB. The compute nodes are primarily doing a >> search through these files, so there is lot's of reading and some >> writing to the file servers. >> >> Recently we started noticing very high (70-90%) wait states on the >> file servers when compute nodes. We have tried to optimize the NFS >> through increasing the number of daemons and the rsize and wsize but >> to no avail. >> >> Can someone point us in the right direction as to how we should be >> trying to troubleshoot this problem. > > You might want to look at the read patterns. > >> >> PS: All the nodes are running SuSE 10.0 and servers are running >> SuSE10.0 and 10.1 and all the drives are formatted with reiserfs. > > Hmmm... I remember Reiser has had a problem in the past when file > systems get full or nearly so. There are file tail optimizations you > might want to turn off, as well as use noatime for mounts. I might > suggest turning to a better file system for your servers (if possible, > it might not be a trivial undertaking), but even then that might not > be responsible. > > Grab a copy of atop (google for it), run it on your file server. See > if it is the file system that is problematic (disk devices running > near 80% or higher capacity for reads/writes all the time). > > Other possibilities are your file access patterns, what the file > server is doing itself, whether or not your networks are being flooded > with small packets (see if your csw is very high, or the number of > interrupts or packets are very high). > > Joe > >> >> >> thanks >> >