text: On 6/6/12 6:36 AM, "Vincent Diepeveen" <diep at xs4all.nl> wrote: >How much airflow per square centimeter do they generate? That's not typically how fans are rated.. You'll have a curve of volume/time (e.g. Cubic feet/minute or cubic meters/hour) for a given back pressure (usually in "inches of water column") Fan ratings at zero backpressure are almost worthless. There's huge variation from the freeflow number to a backpressure number. You need the number at some decent backpressure (0.25" water column, for instance) A EBM Papst 4182 NX is nominally 105.9 CFM..at 0.1" it's about 90 CFM, at 0.2" it's about 50, and at the max backpressure for that fan. > >As for the cluster here plenty of space available. To rent office >space is around a 50 euro a square meter a year over here, >not sure about there. So the cluster, some cardboard and huge fans of >14 and 18 CM are diong the job to cool the nodes >and switch, mellanox of course. now as i understand the square meters >they reserve for datacenters is always far too limited, >causing space each node eats as important as well, yet that's not the >problem here in my office. > >The thing that worries me more is the airflow to outside (and >inside). Usually only have limited amount of square centimeters of >tube there. The 'industrial' fans that have massive airflow, they're >very very noisy. Not true... You can get VERY quiet fans that push a lot of air through a large duct. It's all about the air speed. You might want to look at a centrifugal blower rather than a axial fan. Axial fans don't do as well against high static pressures, and if you're doing a scheme with ducting, a centrifugal fan is usually a better choice. > >I'm already wondering about using some massive cardboard box and blow >in air there using 8 fans (@ 100CFM each) or so >and then behind them a second layer of fans, around 6 @ 100CFM, >creating a massive overpressure, hoping that this will >generate more airpressure, enough to blow in and blow out through >some meters of tubing, but seems not like a perfect solution to me. That sort of works, but the problem is that unless your "taper" is very, very long, you're basically just creating a pressurized plenum, and the fans will be inefficient working against that backpressure. What you are trying to do is combine multiple low speed flows into one high speed flow, and that's a tricky aerodynamics problem. That said, it does allow you to put a noisy fan somewhere else. IN general, high pressure fans are more noisy than low pressure fans, for the same flow or horsepower rating. Stacking fans doesn't work very well. The flow coming off the fan is twisting (unless you've got vanes to recover the rotational energy) so the second fan in the stack is working against a spiraling flow. Counter rotating sequential fans does work, but is trickier to design, and there's a lot fewer fans available with reverse rotation. > >On Jun 6, 2012, at 2:42 PM, Prentice Bisbal wrote: > >> >> On 06/06/2012 05:38 AM, Daniel Pfenniger wrote: >>> Nathan Moore wrote: >>>> All, >>>> >>>> This is barely beowuf related... >>>> >>>> New desktop machine is a Shuttle SX79R5, >>>> http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/SX79R5.html >>>> >>>> In the past, shuttles have been very quiet, but this one has a >>>> fairly loud >>>> variable speed fan on the CPU heat exchanger. I normally buy >>>> replacement parts >>>> from vendors like newegg, but their selection of 90mm case fans >>>> mainly seems to >>>> be described by CFM and whether the fan has LED lights mounted in >>>> it (FYI, that >>>> is not a selling point). >>>> >>>> So, is there an engineer's version of newegg that ya'll know >>>> about? There must >>>> be a super quiet 90mm fan out there that I can pick up for $10... >>> I remind ads for quiet and more efficient rotor-less fans for PC's >>> but >>> cannot find such products anymore. >>> >>> The idea was to maximize the air flow area by displacing the >>> central motor >>> to the blade edges. Not only the larger central area would allow >>> a lower, >>> quieter blade speed, but the blades being accelerated at their >>> extremities >>> by the circular motor would be mechanically more stable, less >>> subject to >>> vibrations. My guess is that such fans, although technically >>> better, were >>> too expensive in regard of the advantages. >>> >> I had one of these fans on one of my CPU heatsinks a few years ago. It >> was much quieter than the fan it replaced,but still not all that quiet >> when compared to a Dell or HP tower. I forget the name of the >> manufacturer or the model. The last time I looked, I couldn't find >> them >> anywhere. >> >> -- >> Prentice >> _______________________________________________ >> Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin >> Computing >> To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit >> http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > >_______________________________________________ >Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing >To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit >http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf


text:
Proliant DL760 G2 rack-mount server Xeon 2.5-inch-1M/4P/4G
Manufacturer Part# 338974-B21
Overview:Today's mission-critical applications demand ever-increasing scalability and availability from Enterprise servers. The ProLiant DL760 G2 with Intel Xeon MP processors Hot-Plug RAID Memory and a full implementation of PCI-X I/O delivers the performance and uptime required to meet the current and future demands of enterprise server consolidation e-business database ERP thin client compute engine mail and messaging and data mining/warehousing applications. Based on HP developed F8 architecture the ProLiant DL760 G2 offers excellent scalability driven by its balanced system architecture.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Dell Expands Availability of Premium Support for PCs to Consumers in 110 Countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America
• Dell Premium Support is the industry's first and only consumer support service combining 24x7 phone access to expert technicians, onsite service after remote diagnosis, support for both hardware and software and proactive automated support1,2
Dell today announced it is expanding the availability of Premium Support, a service for consumer PCs that dramatically improves the customer experience through simplified, hassle-free support. Currently offered in the US and Canada, it is being made available in 110 additional countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Premium Support provides 24x7 anytime, anywhere phone access to expert technicians, onsite service after remote diagnosis and the first and only proactive automated support for consumer PCs and tablets.1,2
Powered by Dell's innovative, award-winning SupportAssist technology, Premium Support automatically detects both hardware and software issues and proactively alerts consumers when they occur. SupportAssist also enables Dell's technicians to initiate contact6 with customers and begin resolving the problem, often before they even know an issue exists.
Key features:
Supporting quotes:
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Latin America and Asia-Pacific
For more information, visit www.dell.com/premiumsupport.
About Dell
2 In EMEA, English-only support after local business hours.
3 Based on May 2015 Principled Technologies Test Report commissioned by Dell comparing tech support troubleshooting for hard drive failure. Testing conducted in the United States. Actual results will vary. Full report: http://facts.pt/DellPremiumSupport1
4 Onsite Service after Remote Diagnosis: Technician or replacement part will be dispatched if necessary following online or telephone-based troubleshooting. Subject to parts availability, geographical restrictions and terms of service contract. Response times may vary depending on product's geographical location. For details about Onsite Service, see dell.com/servicecontracts.
5 Availability varies by region and by retailer.
6 Dell does not make unsolicited calls asking to charge to fix an issue a customer did not report or previously request help with unless they have signed up for our premium support services like Dell Tech Concierge, Dell Premium Support or Dell ProSupport services.
Media Contacts
- Christina Furtado
- Dell | CSMB Communications
- Round Rock, Texas
- +1 512 723 7523
- +1 646 318 8003
- firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Rubber manufacturing in America: Tire makers pump billions into facilitiesComments Email
Looking strictly at the rising import penetration of passenger and light truck tires in the U.S. replacement business, it might be easy to get the impression that tire manufacturing in the U.S. is a dying industry.
But that impression couldn't be further from the truth. Looking outside the low-cost radial and entry level tire markets—the majority of which are imported—new plants and expansion projects are popping up in various parts of the U.S., with South Carolina getting a large piece of the investment pie.
For the year ended August 2012, tire makers earmarked $2.75 billion for expansion projects in North America, and in the following 12 months announced planned expenditures of $1.8 billion. Some recent projects have included:
• Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C. opened its $500 million passenger and light truck tire facility late last year in Sumter, S.C., and has spent heavily at its other U.S. factory in Mount Vernon, Ill.;
• Bridgestone Americas Inc. is spending roughly $1.2 billion just in Aiken, S.C., building a new off-the-road tire plant and expanding capacity at its existing passenger/LT tire facility. It also has projects ongoing at a number of its other U.S. factories;
• Yokohama Tire Corp. broke ground on its $300 million truck and bus tire plant in Mississippi, as the Japanese-owned company will add its first greenfield site in the U.S. to join the tire plant it acquired in the U.S. about a quarter-century ago;
• Michelin North America Inc. christened its new OTR plant in Starr, S.C., saying the facility was built with expansion in mind, and is boosting capacity at its compounding facility on adjacent land;
• Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing Inc. continued to expand its tire production site in White, Ga.; and
• Two South Korean-owned firms are looking to add their first U.S. tire manufacturing sites, with Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. expecting to break ground this year on a PLT plant in Tennessee and Kumho Tire USA Inc. restarting a long-stalled project in Georgia.
"If you look at the tire market in North America, it's very competitive," said Steve Shelton, Bridgestone Americas senior vice president of technology, manufacturing and procurement. "But I also think we look at tire manufacturing here in a very positive light. If you look at the last couple of years, we've probably spent $1.5 billion in capital improvements. I think that speaks well for how positive we look at tire manufacturing, especially in the U.S."
Conti is proud of its new plant in Sumter as well as the Mount Vernon facility, according to David Johnson, the firm's manufacturing coordinator in the Americas. "We have Sumter on track for this year to produce 800,000 tires and to continue growth along the next decade or so until we get it up to 8 million tires," he said. "At Mount Vernon, we just completed our cornfield expansion. We're ramping that up to get the tires out of there. I think it's very clear that Conti has a commitment to the two U.S. tire plants to continue growth in this area."
The exodus subsides
Many tire makers believe it's important to have production near the region where the tires will be sold, thus saving heavily on logistics, shipping costs and inventory needs.
"Yokohama's strategy is to employ local production for local consumption as much as possible," said Alan Easome, senior director, new plant development, for Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi. "With growing demand in the U.S. for our products, it only makes sense for us to look toward production in the U.S."
Others echoed those sentiments. "We have a corporate philosophy of being close to the market," Conti's Johnson said. "It doesn't make too much sense with shipping costs to produce our tires too far afield and then bring them in here."
Said Shelton: "It's easier to ship raw materials than it is to ship tires."
That wasn't always the case for tire manufacturers. James Hawk, president and general manager of Toyo's manufacturing site in Georgia, remembers not too many years ago when there was a mass exodus of firms looking to locate in low-labor sites such as China, Indonesia or the Czech Republic.
"What they were chasing was labor costs," Hawk said. "They were trying to mitigate or eliminate the legacy part of the labor costs."
While labor and other costs may have been cheaper overseas, it forced those tire firms to carry more inventory, deal with currency fluctuations and ship products halfway around the world, he said, noting logistics costs aren't getting any cheaper.
"It recently turned around," he said. "You see people wanting to expand and grow in the U.S. And people deep down inside still like "Made in America,' or at least "Made in North America.' They view that as higher quality."
For Toyo's product line, it was important to establish a U.S. manufacturing presence, Hawk said. "We make lots of heavy truck tires, and they don't ship very well. Weight, density, containers and costs. It makes a whole lot of sense for us to be in America."
Where to locate
It's no surprise to Hawk that much of the domestic tire manufacturing is located in the Midwest and upper Southeast. Even if you could get a permit to build a plant in California, it's not a central location from which to ship, he said.
Yokohama weighed many factors when it decided to build in Mississippi, said Tex Murakami, president of Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Virginia.
"At the forefront of our decision process is our social responsibility to the communities that we locate in," he said. "We don't want to just be a new neighbor. We want to be a new neighbor that makes a positive impact on and enhances the lives of those around us."
Shelton said Bridgestone looks at capital structure, infrastructure, good road systems and rail spurs, access to shipping lanes, the environment of labor and having a good available work force.
"We've had huge success in South Carolina with our Aiken plant," he said. "The environment of South Carolina is good to have a manufacturing plant."
The cost of labor is going to be a consideration when talking about manufacturing, Shelton said. "One of the things we've been able to overcome here recently is we're doing a lot of automation work. So with the automation, the efficiency just continues to improve, and as those efficiencies improve, the amount of cost relative to labor continues to go down some from what it was in years past."
Johnson said labor costs impact production anywhere in the world—not just in the U.S. "If you talk about comparatively," the Conti official said, "I would say the U.S. has become very competitive in recent years. It's not so much because anything has happened to reduce labor costs here, but the efficiencies in the U.S. are very high, and I think we see labor costs in other areas—particularly the more competitive areas of Asia—are climbing, and they're catching up to where we are here in the U.S."
What challenges remain
One thing the passenger/light truck numbers don't lie about is how difficult it is—if not impossible—to make entry and low-cost lines competitively in the U.S.
"Most products can be successfully manufactured in America given the right environment," said Yokohama's Easome. "However, higher-end product—or the "better and best' categories—are an easier fit because companies can cover their capital costs and expenses easier."
Hawk said much of the sales for smaller tires are for older vehicles, where customers are looking for safe, but more economical products. And while the labor cost to produce the smaller tires isn't a lot different than some larger lines, the price points are significantly different. "You just can't get enough money to make those in the U.S.," he said.
Shelton sees several challenges to manufacturing in the U.S. One of the most important, he said, is attracting skilled trades, electricians, mechanics and engineers to a grueling environment that operates continuously throughout the year. Bridgestone has ramped up its recruiting, especially at its technical center in Akron and its manufacturing locations, to get a broader spectrum of people looking to work at Bridgestone. It also is working closely with community colleges to help groom future talent.
"We have a lot of people working on making Bridgestone in the Americas a premier place to work," he said.
Johnson doesn't see many challenges producing in the U.S., but he said the market still can't be considered a low-cost manufacturing country. Besides efficiencies, though, producing locally also brings benefits in response time, the Conti official said.
"If we're bringing tires in from overseas anywhere, there are always lead times to consider, and that means we can't often be as agile as we'd like. The bottom line is when you get ready to put the tires in the market, it makes economic sense to produce them as close as possible to that market," Johnson said.


text:
HSBC is expected to almost double first quarter profits to about $8 billion on Tuesday helped by a fall in costs and bad debts and showing the benefits of a three-year restructuring that is nearly complete.
The results will keep HSBC as one of the most profitable and most strongly capitalized banks in the world although Europe's biggest bank still has more to do on costs.
Continue Reading Below
HSBC, like many of its rivals in Europe and the United States, has had to cut back to recover from the financial crisis and cope with the harsher business environment and tighter regulation that has followed it.
The bank acted sooner more aggressively than many of its peers, some of which are only now making cuts.
The bank's Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver has already slashed $3.5 billion in annual expenses - 38,000 jobs have gone. The CEO has struck 52 deals to shed businesses that deliver low profits or lack scale but is struggling to get costs to below a target of 52 percent of income.
HSBC's complexity, its unprofitability in many countries and a negative impact on income from low interest rates mean Gulliver is likely to fall short of his cost/income target by the end of this year.
He is due to update investors on strategy on May 15, which is likely to include another $1 billion in savings.
Costs in the latest quarter are expected to drop to $9.6 billion, from $10.4 billion a year ago, analysts forecast.
HSBC is expected to report a pretax profit of $8.1 billion for the three months to the end of March, according to the consensus forecast of 14 analysts provided by the company.
The latest quarter will benefit from more than $1 billion of gains from a reclassification of its stake in Industrial Bank in China and other exceptional items, analysts estimate.
Cost-cutting and restructuring will also be the focus at a trio of euro zone banks - France's Societe Generale and Credit Agricole and Germany's Commerzbank - that also report first quarter results on Tuesday.
Unlike HSBC, which has offset weakness in Europe with strong growth in Asia, these banks are likely to show the impact of the euro zone crisis more sharply.
SocGen and Credit Agricole, France's second and third biggest banks, are expected to post profit falls, partly as a result of record unemployment and weak growth in their home market.
SocGen's first quarter net profit is expected to drop 7.8 percent to 675 million euros ($885.36 million), according to the mean estimate of analyst forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenues are seen falling 16.8 percent to 5.26 billion.
Credit Agricole is expected to post a one-third fall in earnings to 674.6 million euros, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenues are seen down 28 percent to 3.9 billion euros.
In Germany, Commerzbank has already said it continued to lose money in the first quarter due to restructuring charges linked to job cuts. Analysts estimate Germany's second biggest bank's loss at 125 million euros.
More details are expected on the bank's planned 2.5 billion euro capital increase to repay some of its state bailout. This could take place in mid-May and follows rival Deutsche Bank's 3 billion euros share sale last week.
($1 = 0.7624 euros)
(Reporting by Steve Slater in London, Lionel Laurent in Paris and Arno Schuetze on Frankfurt. Editing by Jane Merriman)


text:
A stator winding is simply the stationary winding in an electric motor, either for rotary or linear. The stator in an AC motor is a wire coil, called a stator winding, which is built into the motor. When this coil is energized by AC power, a rotating magnetic field is produced.
The stator windings have a very low resistance and the winding is also insulated from the frame. The motor stator winding is identical to a generator armature that has a like amount of poles. Each stator winding is overlapped and is electrically and mechanically 120 degrees out of phase.
Our Process
The Swiger Coil Difference
Swiger Coil Systems has extensive expertise in customized precision stator winding manufacturing for transit and industrial markets.Armature winding and refurbishing services for traction motors are also available.
Capabilities and Technologies
New manufacturing equipment has been added in all departments and we've invested over $3.5 million in our business in the past few years.
Contact Swiger Coil
Swiger Coil is committed to providing the best customer service and products. Contact us today for more information about our products or services and what they can do for your business.
Copyright © 2015 Swiger Coil Systems, A Wabtec Company - All rights reserved
Privacy Policy
Armature Coils Edgewound Coils Field Coils Rotor Coils Specialty Coils Stator Coils
Traction Motor Manufacturer Traction Motor Repair Mining Motor Repair Traction Motor Parts
Traction Motor Coils Armature Winding Stator Winding Line Reactors for DC Rail Magnet Wire


text:
California Electronic Death Registration System
CA-EDRS is California's system for electronic death certificate origination and registration. A death certificate provides prima facie evidence of a person's death and is relied upon for important legal proceedings as well as for the creation of important derivative public health and regulatory data. California currently processes over 250,000 new death certificates per year (1 in 10 deaths in the U.S.). The Web-based CA-EDRS system provides the ability for coroners, funeral directors, doctors, and hospitals to submit electronic death certificates for registration 24 hours a day.
EDRS Benefits :
To find out more about CA-EDRS, click here.


text:
Shallow, I know
But I think MeeGo's biggest obstacle to market penetration is its incredibly childish and ill-chosen name.
Acer has revealed the first product in its forthcoming M Series - a 10in tablet that runs on MeeGo, the mobile-centric version of Linux. The Iconia M500 - unveiled by Acer's Asst VP David Lee at Computex this week - is a doppleganger of Acer's android alternative, the A500, sharing similar dimensions and an identical screen …
I tried it for, oooh, a day. For a mobile-oriented system, its 3G support is woeful (though at least better than non-existent in the last version). Get the APN wrong, no GUI way of fixing it - and so few tools installed that impossible to search the drive for likely config files etc. Dialog boxes still go off screen (with Alt-mouse not helping) and the whole thing is generally clunkier than an Audi's door, with incomprehensibly-volatile tabbing between apps (assuming they've not already bombed out) and other downright strange GUI decisions and inconfigurability.
Such promise, but the only "unstoppable" bit will be its consignment to history, I fear.
A tablet I actually come close to giving two shits about! If the interface is like the demos we saw last year/earlier this year, I'd be tempted. Lack of a physical keyboard is still a bitch, but Linux without an abstraction layer will always get my attention. Say what you like about its predecessor Maemo - and I could - it's very capable for nerdier shut-ins like me.
You tried what, exactly? A commercially-released MeeGo device running a properly customised UI (because if so please tell me where I can buy it)? Or did you in fact come by your harsh and ill-formed opnion based on the reference UI of a pre-release version of MeeGo running on a device which has had minimal or no QA?
Thought so.


text: Dear All, I am forwarding this message as I believe that it will be interest to some of you. Particularly: Libra: Economic-based Scheduler for Service-Oriented Cluster Computing You can find a link to it from: http://gridbus.org/ It is currently implemented as a plug-in scheduler for PBS. A short message on this work that I posted to TFCC discussion list is given below. Of course if you like to extend/collaborate on future work of this project, you are welcome: ----------- I would like share information about our recent work on cluster scheduling and seek your comments on the same [This is also an attempt to apply our previous work (for the past 3+ years) on Economic paradigms for Grid Computing, more about which can be found at: http://buyya.com/ecogrid/]: In an attempt to apply Economy and user QoS requirements driven mechanism for Cluster resource management and scheduling, we created a new scheduler (called Libra, a component of Gridbus). It essentially allows users to submit jobs to cluster in normal way, but users have an opportunity to add two more parameters: "deadline" and "budget" to their "job script" before submission. We found that this approach is able to complete more jobs within deadline than without it. Additionally this approach provides incentive for users for submitting a job to cluster with relaxed deadline. This initial concept is being demonstrated by implementing a pluggable Libra scheduler for PBS (and currently porting it to SGE). A technical writeup on this can be accessed from: http://gridbus.org/ [click on Libra or it can be directly accessed from: http://buyya.com/papers/libra.pdf] I personally believe that a service like this at cluster level will help in providing an enforceable QoS services and supporting so called "service-level agreements", a term quite often used within Web services community I guess. Comments (even collaborations) are welcome and appreciated as this is an ongoing effort. cheers Raj ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rajkumar Buyya Grid Computing and Distributed Systems (GRIDS) Lab: http://gridbus.org Dept. of Computer Science and Software Engineering The University of Melbourne SEECS Building, Room. 3.38 221 Bouverie St., Carlton Melbourne, Australia Phone: +61-3-8344 9317 (office); +61-3-9571 3629 (home) Fax: +61-3-9348 1184; eFax: +1-801-720-9272 Email: rajkumar at buyya.com | raj at cs.mu.oz.au URL: http://www.buyya.com | http://www.csse.melbourne.edu/~raj ------------------------------------------------------------------------


text:
Developers & OEM
ARFX for Developers and OEM solutions.
Software and Game Developers.
Alternatives to above come in the form of color maps. For example, a 2D color map can be created, matching the 2D/3D game board or game space; the (x,y),z) of player location can be used to perform lookup on the 2D color map to select ambient output color.


text:
Yes, you've read that headline correctly: Irish American whiskey. What on earth?
You might recall my post from October in which I first showed you William Jameson's whiskey. It sparked a bit of discussion about the connections between William and John Jameson, the Jameson brand we know today. As a commenter there pointed out, William was the son of John and started a distillery to compete with old dad. But as I recounted in October, the Irish uprising, followed quickly by Prohibition, resulted in the demise of many an Irish whiskey distillery, Wm Jameson included. (Ads are from various 1937/1938 issues of Life magazine.)
What remaining stocks William's company had left were quickly bottled and shipped into the American market to fill the growing post-Repeal thirst for whiskey. As supplies dwindled, and as American distilleries ramped up production, the William Jameson company began blending its own whiskey with American product as a way to stretch its inventories–hence, Irish American whiskey.


text:
Shelleymruff necesitaba un nuevo diseño de papelería y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 26 diseños de 10 diseñadores freelance.
The Law Office of Shelley Harvey
I am an attorney opening my own law practice. I plan to focus on real estate law initially, and eventually expand my practice to other areas such as employment law.
My target market initially will be mortgage companies, realtors, and buyers and sellers of real estate. I would like to attract high end buyers and sellers of real estate.
This is NOT a logo design. I am looking for a business card with a nice font and color to represent my firm. I would like a professional, clean image to represent my law firm. Here is what I am looking for:
1. The typeface should be simple, bold, and something that stands out.
2. I am not looking for a logo. The image should be professional yet simple. I am looking for something like this:
The Law Office of
Shelley Harvey
Obviously fancier, and less space between the line and the font. I need a professional font and an attractive color for the name of the business.
3. Feel free to experiment with colors. However, the colors should be somewhat gender neutral.
Here is an example of a law firm image that I like:
The files I will require are:
pdf, jpg, eps
I am not well versed on file types, but I do need something that is a high resolution/high quality image.
Please be creative and help me project a clean, professional image!


text:
Swine Flu at the National Geographic Society!
In a clear act of porcine aggression against our nation's geographers, the dreaded Mexican Pig Flu has struck the National Geographic Society. We have the memo.
A tipster tells us this comes from an internal NGS memo, and refers to the Washington, DC office:
Possible H1N1 case at NG
Article posted by Karen Gilmour
Statement from [NGS Human Resources SVP] Tony Sabló
An NG staffer has come down with what may well be the Society's first
diagnosed case of the H1N1 virus, which has also been known as swine
flu. While the lab test results are still pending, the general wisdom
in medical circles these days is to treat any such set of symptoms as
if it is, in fact, H1N1.
The employee is now resting at home under a doctor's care and is
expected to make a full recovery. While members of the person's work
group have been contacted by our medical unit about precautions they
may take, we thought this would be a good time to remind everyone
about "best practices" to reduce the risk of contracting any and all
communicable diseases, including the flu.
Clearly, swine flu has become self-aware and is moving further and further up the intellectual food chain: it went from private schools to Conde Nast to the Washington Post to the National Geographic Society. Soon it will start systematically attacking institutions that really matter, such as the Sanitation Department.


text:
After a season of covering US contests leading up to the Olympics, I had a the urge to photograph somewhere new. I needed to reset my inspiration button and find a creative photo adventure to embark on. When I found out that X Games was to debut in France, I figured this was my chance. It would be my first time to Europe, not including Scandinavia, so I was pretty new to how things work over there. With a bit of emailing amongst the Euro X rider list and a few other friends, I had set an itinerary to ease the visit to unfamiliar territories. I would arrive in Geneva, Switzerland and link up with the Homies Crew in Portes du Soleil, then head over to Tignes, France to cover the Euro X Games, and freestyle the rest of the trip. The photo gallery below is what happened.
-Chris Wellhausen
If you get a chance to shred Switzerland, you definitely need to hit up Les Croset.
And when in France, Tignes and Avoriaz will both offer more freeriding than you can handle.
As I said, BIG PROPS to the Homies Crew! Check out their movies and web updates here: HomiesGrounds.com
"Merci Beaucoup" to the riders, Nico Droz, Kevin Prusse, and Ivan Zwahlen!!!


text:
i like to lift too...but my joints are all out of wack because i used to lift 5 days a week several years ago. i took up kick boxing and its been doing wonders. tones you up, mix in 3 days of endurance lifting with it, and it will get you looking like bruce lee in 2 months. dont lift too much. its really not good for your joints. you can develope arthritis easily...and if you end up hurting yourself at all, itll never go back the same way. as for protein, you have metabolism like one of my friends. i doubt you will be able to gain weight. he is 5'9, 137...and hes tried everything. sometimes, youre just born skinny. not much you can do...just be glad you werent meant to be fat.
So, I will look like Bruce Lee, but not Arnold?
no, lift to get big. you will always be cut. arnold always said "you can't tone bone".anyway, i would reccomend for someone with your physique to do the followingday 1: bench press, incline press, dips, pull-ups, rowsday 2: shoulder press (in front), side lat raises, barbell curls, close grip bench press (for triceps)day 3: squats (will help you bulk up more then anything else you do), leg curls, front leg extensions (or substitute leg press)day 4/5 offor something similar. make sure you go as heavy as possible and do 3 sets of each with 8, 6, 4 reps for each set. remember if you can do more then this amount of reps you will need to add weight.if you do this and eat as much as you can you will def bulk up. dont do any cardio until you been doing this workout for 6 months or so (it will keep you from gaining muscle mass).


text:
West Ham forward Ricardo Vaz Te could be out for up to 12 weeks after suffering a dislocated shoulder in the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal.
The 26-year-old had to be replaced by Matt Taylor just after the hour-mark after falling awkwardly following a challenge with Arsenal goalkeeper Vito Mannone. Hammers boss Sam Allardyce confirmed after the match that Vaz Te would not be fit to return until after the international break and could be out until the festive period.
"No he won't be right, it will be six to 12 weeks depending," he said.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2012, All Rights Reserved.


text:
Advanced Search
Recruitment | News
North Central University, a
private, undergraduate college in Minneapolis, is implementing a cloud-based
constituent relationship management (CRM) solution to improve internal and
external communications.
The university's previous approach to constituent management was manual and
segmented by department, causing redundancies and inconsistencies. In an effort
to coordinate communications between departments and improve communication with
potential students, the university decided to implement
Enrollment Rx,
a cloud-based CRM solution for higher education.
According to information on the company's site, Enrollment Rx enables
colleges and universities to configure prospect pipelines, lead assignment rules
and communication plans. The system also includes dashboards, reports and
analytics, including a Custom Applicant Portal that lets potential students
apply online and access their application status and requirements in real time.
Other features include event management tools, counselor appointment management
and feeder high school tracking.
In addition to improving internal and external communications, the university
plans to use Enrollment Rx to create consistent, automated workflows.
"Enrollment Rx will bring a measure of cohesion to our internal processes, which
will be a great step forward for ensuring consistent, unified communication with
constituents," said Michael White, vice president of university relations for
North Central University, in a prepared statement.
According to the company, North Central University plans to go live with
admissions and external relations department users in October 2014.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
View More Webcasts
View More Whitepapers
Sign up for our newsletter.
I agree to this site's Privacy Policy.


text:
Accessibility tools
Service tools
Language selector
Navigation path
Left navigation
Additional tools
Other available languages: none
European Commission
Brussels, 17 December 2012
Preparation Agriculture and Fisheries Council, 18 and 19 December 2012
The Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting of December 2012 will take place in Brussels on 18 & 19 December 2012, under the presidency of Mr Sofoklis Aletraris, Cypriot Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment. Maria Damanaki, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and Dacian Cioloş, Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development, will represent the Commission at the meeting. The Fisheries points will be dealt with on Tuesday 18 December and again on Wednesday 19 December in the afternoon. A press conference will be held at the end of the discussions. The Agriculture points will be dealt with on Wednesday morning and a press conference will be held at the end of the morning's session.
The public debates and the press conferences can be followed by video streaming: http://video.consilium.europa.eu
Fishing opportunities for 2013
Commissioner Maria Damanaki will present the Commission's proposals for fixing fishing opportunities for 2013 for the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Black Sea. Ministers will discuss these proposals with a view to reach political agreement so that the limits can enter into force on 1 January 2013.
Atlantic and North Sea
One Commission proposal concerns the 83 fish stocks in the Atlantic and the North Sea managed by the EU exclusively (IP/12/1148). In line with scientific advice, the Commission proposes to increase or maintain the total allowable catch (TACs) for 16 stocks (including certain stocks of cod, Norway lobster, and sole), and reduce them for 47 stocks. The Commission's goal and one of the pillars of the on-going Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform is to have all stocks fished at sustainable levels, the so-called Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) by 2015. Long-term planning is key to achieving this goal and will enable more and more fish stocks to reach MSY which in return will benefit the whole fishing industry.
Ministers will also discuss the proposal concerning fish stocks managed together with third countries or through Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) throughout the world (IP/12/1229). For the preparation of these proposals the European Commission has used scientific advice to negotiate with third countries (Norway, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Russia) the quantities of fish stocks to be caught in the following year. For the stocks in international waters and for highly migratory species, such as tuna, the European Commission has negotiated fishing opportunities in the framework of RFMOs.
In negotiations with its international partners, the Commission has done its utmost to reach agreements that are sustainable and respect scientific advice.
Black Sea
Bulgaria and Romania are the only Member states concerned by the proposals for fishing opportunities for the Black Sea. The Commission proposes to cut the EU quota for turbot by 15%, to 74 tonnes and keep the EU quota for sprat unchanged, at 11,475 tonnes (MEX/12/1203).
Other fisheries points
Long-term plan for cod stocks
The Council will also discuss a proposal of the Commission for long-term plan for cod stocks and the fisheries exploiting those stocks.
The plenary session will be dedicated to the presentation of the Presidency's progress report on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reform. This Report presents the Presidency's opinion on progress achieved in the negotiations on the reform the in the last 6 months, identifying key issues which remain outstanding.
Any other business
Agriculture issues
Health issues
The Presidency will inform participants on the conclusions of the International Conference on the movement of exotic animals organized by FVE and the Cypriot Presidency on 4 and 5 October 2012
Side Bar


text:
Assessment |
Biopsychology |
Comparative |
Cognitive |
Developmental |
Language |
Individual differences |
Personality |
Philosophy |
Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Cognitive Psychology: Attention · Decision making · Learning · Judgement · Memory · Motivation · Perception · Reasoning · Thinking - Cognitive processes Cognition - Outline Index
Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low level details required. It is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice.
Examples of automaticity are common activities such as walking, speaking and driving a car. After an activity is sufficiently practiced it is possible to focus the mind on other activities or thoughts while undertaking an automaticised activity (for example holding a conversation or planning a speech while driving a car).
LaBerge and Samuels (1974) helped explain how reading fluency develops [1]. Automaticity refers to knowing how to do something so well that you don't have to think about.
Companies, such as AutoSkill [2], incorporates the concept of automaticity into computer software. By measuring the consistency of processing speed and accuracy of students' responses, foundation reading skills can become automatic. As a result, students can devote cognitive effort to higher order comprehension skills.
See alsoEdit
References & BibliographyEdit
Key textsEdit
- Cheng, P. W. (1985) Restructuring versus automaticity: alternative accounts of skill acquisition, Psychological Review 92: 414-23.
- Logan, G. D. (1991). Automaticity and memory. In W. Hockley & S. Lewandowsky (Eds.), Relating theory and data: Essays on human memory in honor of Bennet B. Murdock. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Logan, G. D., & Compton, B. J. (1998). Attention and automaticity. In R. Wright (Ed.), Visual attention. (pp. 108-131). New York: Oxford University Press.
- Logan, GD, Taylor, SE, Etherton, JL. "Attention and automaticity: Toward a theoretical integration." Psychol. Res.-Psychol. Forsch. 62: 165, 1999.
- Logan, G. D. (2004). Attention, automaticity, and executive control. In A. F. Healy (Ed.), Experimental cognitive psychology and its applications: Festschrift in honor of Lyle Bourne, Walter Kintsch, and Thomas Landauer. (pp. 129-139). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Press
Additional materialEdit
- Logan, G. D. (1997). The automaticity of academic life: Unconscious applications of an implicit theory. In R. S. Wyer (Ed.), Advances in Social Cognition (vol. 10). (pp. 157-179). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
PhysioEx 6.0 - Peter Zao - Timothy Stabler - Greta Peterson - Lori Smith


text:
I love the way she has used the raised cup stitch for the flowers,and of course, those beads in the center.
Very creative use of beads for the dress,don't you think? Good choice of herringbone stitch and trellis couch for the dress too.
Here's the complete piece. The background is crayon tinted. I have never tried that method.Will have to one day... Thank you Anu ,for this lovely gift...I enjoy looking at it everyday.
While I was recovering from this surprise, another one landed on my doorstep.Here it is..
Till next post,


text:
Ergonomics is a common term in factories and office buildings where assembly work and typing can cause repetitive-motion injuries to workers. Now it's becoming a buzzword on job sites, where ergonomically designed tools and equipment ease the strain of fast-track projects. Further, many electrical contractors are finding that ergonomics training can increase profits and reduce worker injuries. That's why many contractors are taking the time and spending money on ergonomics training.
Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines ergonomics as "an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that people and things interact most efficiently and safely-also called human engineering." Because of the increasing number of injuries caused by repetitive motion, excessive force and/or awkward postures and positions, ergonomics has become a critical factor in workplace safety. Ergonomics is the science that seeks to adapt tasks and tools to fit the person. It's a way of looking at the design of tasks, tools and equipment, workplace layouts, and the overall organization of work to fit the job to the worker, rather than the person to the job.
Injuries from poor ergonomic conditions typically involve the bones, muscles, joints, tendons, and nerves. Some of the chronic or cumulative trauma injuries are caused by tools being used today-even though many new ergonomically designed hand/power tools are being developed.
Lost time injuries from sprains, strains, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tendonitis (numbering more than 76,500 a year) result in almost a half million lost work days and 4 million lost hours, according to Scott Schneider, Ergonomics Program Director, The Center to Protect Workers Rights (CPWR), Washington, D.C. These injuries cost $56 million in lost wages and at least $400 million in insurance claims each year. The CPWR-which is the research arm of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL/CIO labor organization-has a Construction Ergonomics Checklist (that can be downloaded from www.CPWR.com). The form is designed to be filled out jointly by general contractors and union reps every two weeks. Because construction-industry contractors work in a highly competitive marketplace, they are especially concerned with the cost of workers' compensation EMR (experience modification rate-an insurance-industry guideline for setting premiums) and lost work time caused by musculosketetal disorders.
Some firms are actively involved in improving work processes, seeing this improvement as benefiting overall company profitability. The present skilled-worker shortage also makes retaining workers in construction a primary issue. Some electrical contractors are taking proactive step when it comes to ergonomics and safety.
Wes-Con Electric Inc., an electrical construction, maintenance and 24-hour emergency service firm in Trabuco Canyon, Calif., offers an ergonomics tutorial on their Web site at www.webworldinc.com/wes-com/. Located on the Tail Gate Safety Topic page, the tutorial gives some common sense solutions to basic job-site ergonomic problems.
Continental Electrical Construction Co., Skokie, Ill., uses its new 100-seat Tech Center for regular foremen meetings in which the latest ergonomics/safety issues are discussed as a formal safety program that focuses on reducing any type of personal injury. Each supervisor must complete an Accident Investigation Reporting form when a mishap occurs. The report, which includes a "Guide for Corrective Action" section that must be filled out, is then filed with the director of field operations. This information is later shared with all employees as part of the accident prevention program.
Ergonomic professionals
Ergonomic Technologies Corp. (ETC), Oyster Bay, N.Y., is one of the largest ergonomics consulting companies in the United States. The company assesses and redesigns products, tools, and workplaces. ETC's clients include Chrysler, toolmaker Ingersoll-Rand, paper-manufacturer Westvaco, Long Island Lighting Co. (LILCO), Rochester Gas and Electric, and Florida Power & Light.
"Ten years ago, I had to spell the word ergonomics to people," said Cindy Roth, ETC president and senior partner. "Once confined to academia, ergonomics has come to be seen by many companies as a valuable tool for increasing productivity as well as for reducing on-the-job injuries." If you can allow employees to be more comfortable, you can get tremendous productivity as well as quality from them, Roth said.
For LILCO, the consultant redesigned a plunger bar, a tool used for probing gas leaks that normally put stress on the wrist and shoulder. They alleviated this stress by redesigning the tool with shock absorbers. The firm has also worked on redefining medium voltage cable splicing methods, and it has done evaluation and training procedures for utility linemen to minimize their stress when working on overhead and underground electric utility lines.
The ETC staff (all Certified Professional Ergonomists) preaches five ergonomic risk factors: force, repetition, posture (e.g., how much bending of the wrist or other part of the body is necessary to use a tool), environmental (e.g., noise, heat/temperature, vibration), and personal risk (e.g., size, vitamin deficiency, certain syndromes, pregnant women).
By using an "ergo measure," ETC can study body posture and muscle exertion to better design a product. The firm also sells software designed to help companies manage their own ergonomics program. For example, if a worker has left shoulder pain, management can look at other jobs in a worker's department that has a different mode of activity. Giving that worker an alternate job within the organization means that person can be brought back to work sooner.
Ergonomic assembly line
At Lockheed-Martin's C-130J Hercules transport assembly line in Marietta, Ga., manufacturing techniques hadn't changed for 40 years, during which time more than 2000 C-130 aircraft were produced. The current plant renovation program is designed to turn the manufacturing of one of the company's most popular aircraft into a state-of-the-art, world-class operation.
At the heart of the "lean enterprise initiative" program is the installation of several sophisticated new manufacturing tools designed, built, and installed by the Hyde Group Ltd., Manchester, England. The Atlanta office of McClier Corp., architects, engineers and construction managers, is providing architectural and engineering services and facility requirements.
"The basic manufacturing tools of years ago were designed before ergonomics was a science," said Keith Mawson, McClier vice president of engineering. "Initially, manufacturing involved separate assembly of discrete subsections, which were then moved by crane to a final assembly area. So the new manufacturing advancement program addresses a number of ergonomic and quality issues."
Because portions of the assembly line literally move an airplane through the plant during production, the new floor slab sections accommodate trenches for compressed air, fire control systems and data communication circuits- and a new electric power distribution system. These electric power feeders and branch circuits address the issue of adequate lighting.
The new lighting is supplied by industrial-type 4-ft T12 two-lamp fluorescent fixtures with acrylic plastic lenses mounted on the project tooling (jigs) and work platforms around the aircraft. In addition, wheeled stations with these fluorescent fixtures are rolled inside a fuselage, allowing task lighting to be directed close to interior surfaces where intricate tubes, wires and components are installed. Other ergonomically helpful components include bench seating and "mini-platforms" that raise the floor level sufficiently to make overhead work on the fuselage easier.
An intricate data communications network using both Category-7 twisted-pair copper cable and runs of 18-pair multimode fiber-optic cable forms the backbone of the Manufacturing Assembly Tracking System (MATS), an on-line paperless assembly shop floor control system that, when completed, will have 50 terminals serving 300-plus users. Task status will be maintained "accurate to the minute," and the system will eliminate almost all paper usage and related nonproductive efforts, such as looking for engineering drawings.
"We can determine whether a given procedure puts too much strain on an assembler's elbow or shoulder," said James A. "Micky" Blackwell, president and COO of Lockheed Martin's aeronautic sector. "Then we can adjust the procedure so it's easier and less stressful. That makes for happier workers, better safety, and improved productivity."


text:
Aaron Lennon broke Newcastle's hearts at the death once again as Tottenham fought back to snatch a draw at St James' Park.
Lennon struck a minute into injury time just when it looked as though Fabricio Coloccini's 59th-minute goal had handed the Magpies all three points.
However, just as they had done last Sunday at Sunderland, Alan Pardew's men conceded in stoppage time to let two points slip from their grasp.
Spurs would argue that they deserved at least a point after dominating for long periods, but they left it desperately late to get their reward.
Leon Best and Luka Modric both it the bar and the Magpies were indebted to goalkeeper Steve Harper for two fines saves.
Newcastle went into the game once again shorn of key players Andy Carroll, Cheik Tiote and Steven Taylor and with Alan Smith ruled out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.
Spurs had lost on each of their previous four visits to St James' Park, but the two clubs have enjoyed contrasting fortunes since their last encounter on Tyneside.
The visitors started at a high tempo and lone striker Jermain Defoe whipped a third-minute shot across Harper's goal after keeper Carlo Cudicini, deputising for the injured Heurelho Gomes, sparked a lightning attack with an early throw to Lennon.
Defoe was to prove a thorn in the Newcastle side for much of the opening 45 minutes, although without troubling Harper unduly until the dying seconds of injury time.
Spurs dominated possession, but as the Magpies got men behind the ball, they struggled to break their hosts down.
Man-of-the moment Gareth Bale, who lined up at left-back with new signing Steven Pienaar taking over ahead of him, lasted just 11 minutes before limping off to be replaced by Tyneside old boy Sebastien Bassong, and that removed one potential problem for Pardew's men.
There were plenty of others, however, although the Newcastle boss will have been reasonably satisfied with the way those challenges were met by his players.
Indeed, they started to make an impression themselves and after Shola Ameobi had failed to hit the target with two half-chances, they almost took the lead with 28 minutes gone.
Jose Enrique, who was largely occupied by Lennon, got forward well to send an inviting cross to the far post, where Best slid in to divert the ball on to the crossbar.
Spurs finished the half with a flurry, and almost went in front in injury time when they put together their best move of the half.
Rafael van der Vaart flicked Pienaar's pass into the path of Defoe, who seemed certain to score before Harper spread himself to make a vital block.
Newcastle returned in determined mood with Best proving a handful in the opening minutes of the second half, heading wide from a Jonas Gutierrez cross and seeing a shot blocked as he caused problems on the edge of the box.
But as the home side pushed men forward, the visitors started to exploit the space they left behind, although Pienaar in particular was unable to make the most of several promising openings.
However, it was the home side who took the lead in stunning fashion with 59 minutes gone when Coloccini controlled Danny Guthrie's cross on his chest before smashing a shot past Cudicini.
Tottenham would have been level within six minutes had it not been for another crucial intervention by Harper, who turned Lennon's well-struck shot around the post with the visitors responding.
Harry Redknapp sent on striker Peter Crouch for midfielder Jermaine Jenas with 19 minutes remaining, but Newcastle could have been 2-0 up within seconds when Joey Barton split the Spurs defence and substitute Peter Lovenkrands saw his first-time shot blocked by Cudicini.
Harper had his crossbar to thank for denying Luka Modric a 76th-minute equaliser with a fine right-foot drive, but substitute Nile Ranger wasted a glorious opportunity to secure victory in the final minute of normal time.
The miss proved costly in injury time when Lennon cut inside and blasted a right-foot shot past Harper to snatch a point.


text:
shodesign needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 39 designs submitted by 16 freelance designers.
Need logo for website which is currently under construction.
Hello designers, We're looking for a cool, fun design for our website ILOVEMYBAR.COM.
- looking for a bold, easy to read font
- looking for the word "love" in ILOVEMYBAR.COM to be a drawing of a heart shaped liquor bottle with a bottle neck coming out of the middle of the heart closed with a cork on the top
- if possible the effect of liquid splashing around inside the bottle
- the bottle drawing should be a shade of red
- open to different fonts but must be easy to read
- want the logo to be cool and fun to look at!
- open to other creative designs with the concept in mind
- no script fonts
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
The word is out concerning our little NaviNote ploy.
This is what happened:
Matty and I were chatting via battletags, and the conversation turned towards Navimie.
To be honest, I'm not exactly sure why; but I have an idea. You see, she is the one that introduced us. I never would have met Matt if not for Navi. It was also Navi's 3rd year anniversary for her blog. I was also complaining that I missed out on the Christmas events that had happened.
Conversation turned towards, "what if." What if we could do something nice for someone…what would it be? Who might that someone be?
Almost immediately, we both knew: Navimie!
Matty brought up the idea of everyone writing notes. I thought about having them scanned in as a picture or pdf, and putting them into a montage or collage.
I'm ashamed to say that I was telling people to send me a GIF.
I think it was Fannon who said, "The 1990s called, and wanted their image file back."
FYI – JPG(s) are the new hotness! Or maybe it was the Bit…or PNG…or… /meltdown!
I went through Navi's blogroll…
Remind me to never do that again! There are well over 60 blogs listed there. Oh, and not everyone has a way to contact them listed on their blog. I can only wince at the amount of investigative work Navimie has to do to get a Navispam done. I spent 5 hours that first night just trying to find email addresses, twitter feeds, or some kind of hint on how to contact them.
For those that have contact forms on their blogs… I could kiss you!
I do have one regret. If I was to do it over, I would put the "due date" for the notes farther out. I knew that some of the emails would probably go into spam folders. I knew that there would probably be someone coming in at the end, wanting to be a part…but it would be to late.
If anything, I would have divided up the blog list between 2-3 people. Give the contact team at least a week to make contact with potential participants.
From my heart: For those of those unable to take part, I'm truly sorry. No one was missed intentionally.
So, I finally got in as many notes as I was going to get in. I made the collage (yes, there is an app for that!), and could barely wait for Monday to hit! (Seriously, I had the easy job at the end. Some of those notes are just awesome! It really was a group effort.)
I got online first thing that morning, knowing that 8:00am for me is like 1:00am for her.
I was able to catch her!
Of course, if you read (or have read) her post…you know the rest.
Navi, I'm going to do something I very rarely do. I'm going to speak for myself AND someone else. I firmly believe that Matty and I agree that you are a very special someone. You are worth it. Not because of what you do, but because of who you are. You do those things we appreciate so much BECAUSE of who you are.
Don't change.


text:
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: http://qod.andrews.edu
Phone: 269-471-3322
Scholars gathered at Andrews University from October 24-27 to discuss what many consider to be Adventism's most controversial book, amid concerns that the gathering itself might lead to new controversies. Instead, they experienced what turned out to be a rich spiritual feast.
More than 200 scholars, pastors, administrators and lay members of the Adventist church met to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine, a book released as a response to doctrinal inquiries by conservative Protestants in the mid-1950s. Over the past half-century, the book has been the subject of an intense debate among many Adventists--with the debate centering on the book's treatment of the human nature of Christ.
Many of the participants of the Questions on Doctrine 50th Anniversary Conference had been part of that contentious debate. "I think it is safe to say that no prominent players in the controversy...were left out," said Robert Johnston, professor emeritus of New Testament at Andrews University who chaired a panel discussion. "Every possible view that could be reasonably discovered was credibly represented."
The conference, which was billed as "an engaging, reflective, scholarly dialogue about Adventist history and theology," consisted of 12 formal sessions during which 24 presenters (two of them non-Adventist scholars) read papers, engaged in panel discussion and delivered homilies. Most of the sessions featured academic papers representing difference perspectives on the history and theology of Questions on Doctrine, the relationship between Adventists and evangelicals, and the present and future of Adventism. Through all these, the goal of the gathering was "simply to listen to and understand each other better," rather than to debate or to arrive at a binding consensus, according to the organizers representing Andrews University, Loma Linda University, and Oakwood College, the three co-sponsors of the conference.
Though there were some concerns that this conference would itself lead to new controversies, the spirit exhibited by the participants of the conference was anything but contentious. "It was a wonderful conference of fellowship, clarification of issues, and inspiration," exclaimed Hubert Sturges of Woodland, Calif. Colin Standish, president of Hartland Institute who presented a paper, remarked that this was "one of the most inspiring conferences" he has attended. Roy Adams, associate editor of Adventist Review who also gave a presentation, observed that such an atmosphere was possible because "just about everyone was compelled to adjust their attitude" to be more sensitive toward each other's views, "even if minds may not necessarily have changed."
Not only did cordiality mark each session, but also some healing took place among participants. "This conference...gave people the long-needed opportunity to share their views, listen to others' positions, and start to heal relationships that have been damaged for so long," said Bronwen Larson, an attendee from Loma Linda, Calif. "People in our church have desperately needed to know, and experience, that it's okay to believe a little differently and still be part of God's family," she added. Another attendee, Lisa Clark Diller of Collegedale, Tenn., observed that "there was so much tear-shedding and constant reaffirmation of the Christian love that we share that I know the Spirit moved in really powerful ways." "Hopefully from now on," she continued, "people will recognize that it is too easy to caricature people you disagree with and that face-to-face prayer and study are the way to have unity in diversity." Edwin Reynolds also of Collegedale, Tenn., echoed Diller's sentiments: "I hope we can have more conferences like this one to bring Adventists together to talk to each other about things we value, though we may differ on the details of interpretation."
All the papers presented at the conference and the video recordings of all the sessions will be available in January on the conference web page at http://qod.andrews.edu.


text:
Dancer and choreographer Sean Cheesman was on the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy campus Feb. 3 to teach a group of 20 dancers an Afro-Jazz routine. He is choreographing a gospel number for the school's annual dance concert in April.
Cheesman is familiar to viewers of the TV show, "So You Think You Can Dance" and has worked with pop icons Michael Jackson, Prince and Britney Spears. He is a longtime friend of Sacred Heart's dance teacher, Cindy Montoya, whom he met 20 years ago when they were both background dancers for Paula Abdul.
"Sean has one of the most innovative minds for telling a story through unique rhythmic movement," Montoya stated. "When I was thinking of how to incorporate meaningful movement into this year's dance concert, I knew that Afro-Jazz, with its earthy roots, complex rhythms and athleticism, would help convey the emotion of certain American history themes."
Cheesman said he enjoyed working with the teens. "It's wonderful to feel that energy that they bring."
He is scheduled to return to the campus next month to help them prepare for their upcoming dance concert.
-- Carol Cormaci, email@example.com
La Cañada officials warn of potential beetle infestation
Local half-dozen girls' basketball squads headed to playoffs
La Cañada's Kate Hansen slides into 10th at first day of Olympic competition


text:
Miami, FL – 02/16/18 – Set your Friday night on fire at Blume Nightclub.
Miami native, Ayman Shurafa is Founder, CEO, and Head Photographer at Posh Panel. With his perseverance and natural talent, the Posh Panel concept was created in 2012. Ayman's vision of this concept is based on quality, presentation, and delivering an up close and personal experience through the photographs captured.


text:
Part Time Locum Dentist opportunity available now to join our team in our well established practice in Brighton.
Locum dentist opportunity available across 4 days in the week, for the months of April and May . We can offer flexibility with working days and hours, and a contribution towards travel expenses. There is also an opportunity for this to turn into a permanent position with the practice with a small amount of UDAs and excellent private potential.
It is a fantastic time to join Oasis as we were recently named in the 'Sunday Times' Top Track 250. Ranking 61st we achieved a massive leap up from 119th last year.
If you are asking yourself the question 'why join Oasis' then please allow me to highlight just some of the incentives that I think you'll really like!
- Excellent Working facilities
- Most enjoy modern equipment such as digital X-rays
- Opportunities to develop your personal career
- Discounted CPD courses
- Discounted Indemnity that actually offers you 'full' cover, bespoke to Oasis
- Opportunities to relocate to other practices, with an easy transition process
- Clinical freedom and support


text: Sijun Forums :: View topic - Drawing on the Right Side: Self Portrait Q Log in to check your private messages Sijun Forums Forum Index >> Digital Art Discussion View previous topic :: View next topic Author Topic : "Drawing on the Right Side: Self Portrait Q" BugscratchmemberMember #Joined: 23 Sep 2000Posts: 313Location: Germany Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 10:07 am Hey guys, I just sat down to do this self-portrait you're supposed to do at the end of chapter 10 of Betty Edwards "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". You're supposed to sit at arms length of a mirror, have crosshairs drawn on the mirror and start drawing by drawing your Basic Unit on the mirror and then on your paper. Still I find that hard if not impossible to do. Sitting this close to the mirror I find that binocular disparity makes it impossible to really determine where any parts of your face are in relation to the crosshairs on the mirror. Have you guys any ideas on how to solve that problem ? -bugscratch Back to top Crixjunior memberMember #Joined: 01 Dec 2000Posts: 18 Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 11:10 am Hmmm, a photo ? I´ve just started a self-portrait from a photo and I was quite easy (only quite easy ) Back to top BugscratchmemberMember #Joined: 23 Sep 2000Posts: 313Location: Germany Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 11:22 am Yeah, well the exercise demands a portrait from life, so that's not really an option.... Back to top Ben BarkermemberMember #Joined: 15 Sep 2000Posts: 568Location: Cincinnati, Ohier Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 11:25 am Close one eye. Or just go for it, it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect. I've had that problem before, and I think you'll be surprised how it disappears if you just start drawing. Back to top BugscratchmemberMember #Joined: 23 Sep 2000Posts: 313Location: Germany Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 11:31 am Hmm. I already tried that, though this creates the problem that your reflection on the mirror shifts depending on which and how many eyes you have open. And I really don't want to do the entire picture with one eye closed. On the other hand I guess I won't find any other options. -bugscratch Back to top BugscratchmemberMember #Joined: 23 Sep 2000Posts: 313Location: Germany Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 1:28 pm Page 218 in the 2000 edition. Yes I was referring to that middle line process you described, which Edwards is calling "drawing crosshairs". I'd like to work without that as well, but I want to follow her instructions as she has written them, because I guess she had a reason for putting things this way and not that way. Anything I do after finishing the book, I can still do that without the tools she uses in the book. -bugscratch [This message has been edited by Bugscratch (edited January 06, 2001).] Back to top u2artmemberMember #Joined: 17 Nov 2000Posts: 133Location: FL, USA Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 2:13 pm hmmmm still cant find it... But you are right...follow the book, it is set for a reason. Good luck! Art Back to top BugscratchmemberMember #Joined: 23 Sep 2000Posts: 313Location: Germany Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 2:20 pm Hmm. It's the final drawing exercise before she goes into colours. Well I'm gonna do that one tomorrow I guess. Guess I'll just have to do it the hard way, with one eye closed. -bugscratch Back to top SporQmemberMember #Joined: 22 Sep 2000Posts: 639Location: Columbus, Ohio Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 8:05 pm hmm, it sounds like you're trying to hard to see the features in relation to the lines. the lines are there only to help you reference, and you should focus on the face. i think that is the reason for sitting so close. it doesnt let you focus on both the face and the lines, sort of to help you graduate into not needing the guidelines at all. hope that makes sense and helps, SporQ Back to top IrulannmemberMember #Joined: 20 Nov 2000Posts: 66Location: Dallas, TX Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2001 11:25 pm Those drawing on the right side of the brain books are great, but sometimes they just mess with your head if you find you cant do one of the exercises, dont sweat it ********************** I Imagined an Image My Image Imagined Me and I became It's puppet just a Child of It's Imagery http://www.geocities.com/winterblood_fyrestryfe/digipage.html [This message has been edited by Irulann (edited January 06, 2001).] Back to top u2artmemberMember #Joined: 17 Nov 2000Posts: 133Location: FL, USA Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2001 12:58 am Hi ya! First, I checked and I cant find what you describe...what page is it... 2 draw from life!!!! No matter what people say, someone who can draw well can tell someone who uses flat photoreference constantly, and someone who understands the principles of light shade form mass weight volume, etc. I cant find the page, but you can just forget the tape thing and start from just the mirror. Many traditional teachers instruc how to layout the figure on a page by the middle line process, where you divide the paper lengthwise and widthwise, then use that as a basis for distributing visual balance and composition. Is this what you speak of?? I'll repost when I find the page. Betty Edwards book is very good, so I suggest you just try the exercise how it asks, and let all the exercises build to a final product. take care Art Back to top Giant HamstermemberMember #Joined: 22 Oct 1999Posts: 1782 Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2001 3:52 am i remember watching a video about this one famous artist that would draw one part of his drawing and then walk around the chair and draw the next part and would continue circling the chair drawing the seperate parts....his drawings were, quite abstract but...it gave me an idea, just close one eye, draw some of the picture, switch eyes and draw more, and back again. ------------------ -JameZ the Giant Hamster- The Hamster Alliance AIM: Gianthmstr Multimedia Producer/designer/all of the above.,overall guru :)...and music music music! weee!! Back to top BugscratchmemberMember #Joined: 23 Sep 2000Posts: 313Location: Germany Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2001 4:24 pm Well I decided to fuck crosshairs, viewfinder and all that stuff and did it without them. Went pretty good that way, even though I don't like the result too much. Anyways, if any of you guys want to see it it's in the Gallery under "Pic #1 of 365: Self-Portrait" . Thanks for all the suggestions guys. -bugscratch Back to top Quinnbeastjunior memberMember #Joined: 31 Dec 2000Posts: 16Location: Aberdeen, Scotland, UK Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2001 6:50 am Sounds a bit weird that, but I suppose the author knows what he or she is on about Just as a reminder, you don't always have to do things, dare I say it, by the book. It's possible to think too much about what you're trying to do, sometimes you have to just DO IT (sounds like a Nike advert). Try setting up two mirrors and drawing your head from as many different angles as you can. Try different lighting - natural light, desk lamp, candles and so on. Vary the media and don't worry if it ends up looking like a turd with a nose...its all part of the learning curve Actually, drawing self-portraits of the whole body is a good alternative to life drawing...it certainly beats drawing from a photo. Back to top BugscratchmemberMember #Joined: 23 Sep 2000Posts: 313Location: Germany Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2001 7:22 am Yeah I guess sometimes you have to do that. Like I did yesterday Another artist I talked to Saturday even said to avoid drawing after books as much as possible, using them just as reference for anatomy and such. Well I'll do both -bugscratch Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Sijun Forums Forum Index -> Digital Art Discussion All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Digital Art----------------Digital Art DiscussionWork in ProgressGallery/Finished Work Miscellaneous----------------Random MusingsArchive : Sep99 - Dec00 You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2005 phpBB Group


text:
If you have opened this page, you've made a minor mistake that happens all the time on websites.
It's all about either scrolling over a page at the top (which is what you need to do to reach the page you're looking for)
or clicking on it.
Some require a 'scroll' with your cursor, others require a click.
Scrolling over nested pages takes a bit of getting used to; but hey, so does riding a vintage bicycle 🙂
For example, if you examine the picture below (of this website) you can see that to reach the page of the 1895 Crypto Bantam,
you need to just scroll your cursor over BIKES 1800s – not click on it. This enables you to see the pages nested inside it.
Then again scroll your cursor over its subsidiary page 1894-1895.
Then click on the required page 1895 Crypto Bantam.
Thanks for your perseverance.


text:
Version: 2.312
Platforms: Series 60, Symbian OS
Developer: Kasidit Yusuf
Distribution Type: Freeware
Downloads: 7859
File Size: 87 Kb
WMouseXP Bluetooth Presenter Remote App -
Just press your Nokia's joystick to change the slide in your Powerpoint - as you walk freely on stage giving that great Presentation.
Use your Nokia to remote-control your Powerpoint Presentations via Bluetooth.
What can it do?
Change Powerpoint Presentation slides wirelessly from your phone!
Media-Player control: Play, pause, stop, next, previous song/video.
Volume Control: Mute, Unmute, Increase, Decrease sound volume!
VERY EASY SETUP, MOST EASY TO USE! Intuitive keypad-command mappings - you don't have to look at the phone once you get used to it!
Try it NOW! Install and start this WMouseXP mobile-side on phone, then Install the PC-side WMouseXP on computer from ClearEvo.com and "Connect" from computer.
New! Now WMouseXP works with touch-screen Nokia phones too! Press the middle button of the on-screen joystick for next-slide (simulates a mouse click on PC) and tap the "2" button for previous-slide.


text:
Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn Venetian Suite
Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn Suites are located on the west end of Main Street above Friedhelm's Bavarian Restaurant. The property has six private suites, each with private entrances; the Venetian, Wrought Iron, and African Safari Suites all have interior entrances, with the Texas Suite, Roaring 20's, and Bavarian Suites all having exterior entrances. The outside balcony offers table and chairs for your comfort as you enjoy your evening glass of wine. Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn Suites are perfect for a couples relaxing getaway or for several couples to come spend time in Fredericksburg, TX.
- No Breakfast
- King-size Sleep Number Beds
- Double Jacuzzi Tub with Stand-alone shower
- Flat screen TV with Cable
- Coffee Makers in each Suite
- No Breakfast
- Daily Housekeeping
- Phone
- Individually climate controlled
- Iron & ironing board
- Hair dryer
- Sitting areas
- Wood & Tile Floors
- No personal refrigerator or microwaves in suites
- Ice Maker available (in common area)
- Elevator available (in common area)
- Outside Balcony area with Table and Chairs (shared)
- 2 Suites have views of Main Street
- Located on the West end of Main Street
- Located above Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn Restaurant
Rates & Restrictions
- Check Rates & Availability
- 2 nights required for All Event and Holiday Weekends
- No Children
- No Pets
- No Smoking
- Maximum Occupancy – 2
- Rent all 6 Suites Venetian Suite, Wrought Iron Suite, African Safari Suite (view of Main), Texas Suite (view of Main), Roaring 20's Suite and Bavarian Suite for up to 12 guests


text:
Maps of electoral wards 1995-1999
East Renfrewshire council area
The wards shown on these maps resulted from Ministerial Directions after the formation of 32 unitary authorities by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, and were used in elections from 1995 to 1999. The wards were based on our recommendations for district wards in our Second Reviews of Electoral Arrangements. The relationship with those earlier wards is explained in the East Renfrewshire section of the 1995 formation electoral arrangements page. These wards were replaced by wards from 1999 to 2007 which resulted from our Third Reviews of Electoral Arrangements.
If you want to find out which ward you are in, use our Your Area search facility. All of these documents are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. Details of how to handle PDF files, and in particular large PDF files such as those on this website, are available in the Technical section of our Frequently Asked Questions.
1995 formation electoral arrangements | All ward maps 1995-1999 | Maps index
1995 formation electoral arrangements | All ward maps 1995-1999 | Maps index


text:
Subscribe to our Newsletter & never miss a latest product or offer
20 Pills Free | @ $1.20/pill Buy Now...... Safe & Secure Transaction...READ MORE
Kamagra and Viagra don't just treat Erectile Dysfunction or Impotency. Many young men in their prime age want to enhance th...READ MORE
All trademarks and brand names mentioned on this site (Viagra, Cialis, Viagra Soft Tabs, Cialis , Cialis Soft Tabs, Viagra Professional, Cialis Professional, Viagra Super Active, Cialis Super Active, Levitra, etc.) are the property of their respective trademark holders and are not affiliated with this site. All mentioned trademarks and brand names are given for illustrative purposes only and serve as an example of known products based on the same composition that generic products presented on this site are. You should not use the information contained herein for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, promptly contact your health care provider. The information herein is not a substitute for medical advice from your primary care physician. Testimonial results are not typical.


text:
|The Rattle Trap was designed to move over very rough terrain. It's tail swings forward to clear everything in it's way. Wired for voice-command, this transport can rear up to provide unobstructed views over fortress walls. The Snake Men feel right at home in this scaly vehicle. Most definitely would of been created by Snake Man-At-Arms.
ALLEANZA : Snake Men


text:
Welcome to your Kihei Vacation
Our 1 bedroom Kihei vacation rental in the heart of South Kihei is in the perfect holiday location; close to beaches, recreational opportunities, shops, services and a variety of dining. It is popular with guests celebrating their wedding, anniversary or honeymoon and provides a great home base for those wishing to experience all Maui has to offer during their Hawaiian getaway.
Special Promotion!
Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis.
Only $299 / night *
Close to the Beach
Just 300 yards from the condo is the nicest and largest beach in South Kihei - Kamaole 1 & Charlie Young Beach. Here you'll enjoy a large sandy beach, sea turtles, humpback whales and great snorkelling conditions at the coral reef!
Modern and Spacious
A wall that completely disappears, a complete kitchen with extra large sink, reverse osmosis filtration and a sound system built into the ceiling are just some of the thoughtful features that make the condo unique.
Pool, Barbecues & more
The renovated pool area has abundant lounge chairs and is situated in a lush tropical setting with towering palm trees swaying peacefully overhead. Stainless steel barbecues and an outdoor dining area is beside the pool.
The owners added every amenity possible to make their visitors stay so memorable.Lyn
Your condo in Kihei was in a fantastic location (close to the beach, restaurants and stores).Janice
The benefits to your condo were greatly appreciated. The reverse osmosis system was invaluable! The television was wonderfulTom and Marcy
Great Location
South Maui's best surf spot, South Kihei's best beach, Kalama Park, restaurants and shops galore! Exciting aspects of Kihei both to the north and south are all within walking distance!
Organic cotton linens, reverse osmosis water filtration, natural latex mattress and pillows and more. We have incorporated both health conscious and eco-friendly features into our condo.
Abundant Amenities
From a 60" 1080P 3D TV with Netflix, Pandora radio & blu-ray player, reverse osmosis water to beach chairs, coolers and snorkelling gear for the beach, we've thought of everything to make your trip easy and fun!


text:
U.S. News
American Bar Association Journal Highlights HIV/AIDS and Human Rights
August 6, 2010
The latest issue of the American Bar Association's "Human Rights" magazine is dedicated to HIV/AIDS and the rule of law. In the issue, the editors "hope to shine a light on the human rights issues at home and around the globe that continue to fuel this epidemic," according to the magazine. The issue includes articles on the need for more "focused attention to human rights" to achieve universal access, sex trafficking and HIV/AIDS, a "deadly junction for women and girls," the role of faith-based organizations and how "culture, history and laws can combine to deny women and girls equal access to HIV prevention and care" (Spring 2010).
Back to other news for August 2010
Blog: 100 Reps. Sign Letter Asking President Obama to Make Three-Year, $6 Billion Global Fund Commitment
This article was provided by Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. It is a part of the publication Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report. Visit the Kaiser Family Foundation's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)


text:
Utility Executives: Don't Waste Millions in Operating Costs Due to Bad Asset Data
"Trying to improve the quality of asset data when you don't have a solid data management infrastructure in place is like trying to save a sinking boat with a bailing bucket," explained Dean Balog, a senior principal consultant at Noah Consulting, in this webinar, Attention Utility Executives: Don't Waste Millions in Operating Costs Due to Bad Asset Data
Dean has 15 years of experience in information management in the utilities industry. In this interview, Dean and I discuss the top issues facing utility executives and how to improve the quality of mission-critical asset data for asset management / equipment maintenance and regulatory reporting, such as rate case submissions.
Q: Dean, what are the top issues facing utility executives?
A: The first issue is asset management / equipment maintenance. Knowing where to invest precious dollars is critical. Utility executives are engaged in a constant tug of war between two competing priorities: replacing aging infrastructure and regular maintenance.
Q. How are utility executives determining that balance?
A. You need to start with facts – the real costs and reliability information for each asset in your infrastructure. Without it, you are guessing. Basically, it is a data problem. Utility executives should ask themselves these questions:
- Do we have the ability to capture and combine cost and reliability information from multiple sources? Is it granular enough to be useful?
- Do we know the maintenance costs of eight-year-old breakers versus three-year-old breakers?
- Do our meters start failing around the average lifespan? For this example, let us say that is five years. Rather than falling uniformly into that average, do 30% of our meters fail in the first year and the rest last eight years? Those three extra years of life can certainly help out the bottom line.
Knowing your data makes all the difference. The right capital investment strategy requires combining performance, reliability, and cost data.
Q. Why is it difficult for utility executives to understand the real costs and reliability of assets?
A. I know this does not come as a shock, but most companies do not trust their data. Asset data is often inaccurate, inconsistent, and disconnected. Even the most basic data may not be available. For example, manufacture dates on breakers should be filled in, but they are not. If less than 50% of your breakers have manufacture dates, how can you build a preventative maintenance program? You do not even know what to address first!
A traditional approach to solving this data problem is to do a big data cleanup. You clean the data, and then before you know it, errors creep back in, and the trust in the data you have worked so hard to establish is lost.
I like to illustrate the pain of this issue by using the sinking boat analogy. Data cleanup is like bailing out the water collecting in the bottom of the boat. You think you are solving the problem but more water still seeps into the boat. You cannot stop bailing or you will sink. What you need to do is fix the leaks, and then bail out the boat. But, if you do not lift up your head from bailing long enough to see the leaks and make the right investments, you are fighting a losing battle.
Q. What can utility executives do to improve the quality of asset data?
A. First of all, you need to develop a data governance framework. Going back to the analogy, a data governance framework gives you the structure to find the leaks, fix the leaks, and monitor how much of the water has been bailed out. If the water level is still rising, you have not fixed all the leaks. But having a data governance framework is not the be-all and end-all.
You also need to appoint data stewards to be accountable for establishing and maintaining high quality asset data. The job of a data steward would be easy if there was only one system where all asset data resided. But the fact of the matter is that asset data is fragmented – scattered across multiple systems. Data stewards have a huge responsibility and they need to be supported by a solid data management infrastructure to ease the burden of managing business-critical asset information.
Master Data Management (MDM) ensures business-critical asset data is consistent everywhere by pulling together data that is scattered across multiple applications. It manages and masters it in a central location on a continuous basis and shares it with any applications that need that data. MDM provides a user interface and workflow for data stewards to manage the tangled web of names and IDs these assets are known by across systems. It also gives utilities a disciplined approach to manage important relationships between the asset data, such as an asset's performance reliability and its cost.
Q. Any other pressing issues facing utilities?
A. Yes. Another big issue is tightening regulations that consume investment dollars and become key inputs into rate case submissions and defenses. One of the complicating factors is the number of regulations is not only increasing, but the regulators are also requiring faster implementation times than ever before. So, utilities cannot just do what they have done in the past: throw more people at the problem in the short-term and resolve to fix it later by automating it "when things slow down." That day never comes.
Q. How can utilities deal with these regulatory pressures?
A. Utilities need a new approach to deal with regulations. Start with the assumption that all data is fair game for regulators. All data must be accessible. You need to be able to report on it, not only to comply with regulations, but for competitive advantage. This requires the high quality asset information we talked about earlier, and an analytical application to:
- Perform what-if analyses for your asset investment program;
- Develop regulatory compliance or environmental reports quickly, because the hard work (integrating the data within your MDM program) has already been done; and
- Get access to granular, observed reliability and cost information using your own utility's data – not benchmark data that is already a couple of years old and highly summarized.
Q. What is your advice for utility company executives?
A. If you are the one responsible for signing off on regulatory reports and you do not look good in an orange jumpsuit, you need to invest in a plan that includes people, process, and technology to support regulatory reporting and asset management / equipment maintenance.
- People – Data stewards have clear accountability for the quality of asset data.
- Process – Data governance is your game plan.
- Technology – A solid data management infrastructure consisting of data integration, data quality, and master data management is your means.
If you are responsible for asset management / equipment maintenance or regulatory reporting, particularly rate case submissions, check out this webinar, Attention Utility Executives: Don't Waste Millions in Operating Costs Due to Bad Asset Data
Our panel of utility data experts:
- Reveal the five toughest business challenges facing utility industry executives;
- Explain how bad asset data could be costing you millions of dollars in operating costs;
- Share three best practices for optimizing asset management / equipment maintenance and regulatory reporting with accurate, consistent, and connected asset information; and
- Show you how to implement these best practices with a demonstration.


text:
Peter Wehner argues that the market collapse in September probably doomed John McCain. Accordingly, Peter maintains that the mounting second-guessing of McCain's campaign is misguided. McCain made mistakes, as all candidates do, and possibly more than the average number. But Peter's contention is that, when we look back, we may well have to conclude that even a perfect campaign would not have sufficed in this environment.
He writes:
As pre-criminations are beginning to increase by the day and as commentators (including conservative commentators) begin to ascribe blame for where McCain and the GOP find themselves, it's worth considering that sometimes events happen that are unfavorable, unfortunate, and that have bad consequences. To then use ideological, political, and personal predispositions to explain away why things are going poorly — McCain is too cranky and negative, Sarah Palin is a fool, their campaign is a joke, conservatism and capitalism are dying, the nation has become enchanted with liberalism, and so forth — is unfair and unwise. And people, including those advocating more grace and high-mindedness in our politics, who begin to unsheath their knives and stick them into the most convenient target look rather petty.
This is right, I think. The outcome of all but the closest elections is determined not by the candidates' talking points, or even their ideology, but rather by powerful currents over which they have no control (e.g., the state of the economy). This is why models exist that can, with reasonable precision, explain the outcome of past elections based on a relatively small number of variables. They accomplish this without regard to the characteristics of the candidate except whether he's the incumbent or a member of the incumbent's party.
This is not to say (and Peter does not suggest) that all approaches to winning an election are equally effective or that there are no lessons to be learned from an unsuccessful campaign. But when a pundit or operative argues that an unsuccessful candidate would have polled appreciably better by pushing the pundit or operative's pet theme, the appropriate response is lots of skepticism and a demand for evidence. And this is especially true, as Peter suggests, when the pundit or operative has an ideological ax to grind.
Peter's conclusion is also sound:
[I]f the current polls hold and Republicans suffer badly on November 4, an intellectually and politically serious re-evaluation should occur. I hope it does; and I hope it's done in a manner that is calm and reasonable — rather than emotional and bitter. Based on how things look at this point, that hope may be a fanciful one.


text:
The 2000 release of the first compilation of original Mafia songs ever to be published, "Il canto di malavita – La musica della Mafia" marked a break with the media's habituated portrayal of the Italian Mafia: the songs were wonderful, the texts and their delivery by Calabrian singers heartrending, but the ›canti di malavita‹ triggered widespread consternation, having so little in common with the Mafia's popular prototypes, the latter being either that of the "cancerous growth", the "criminal octopus" – or modern myth's "cool and dignified" version depicted in films like The Godfather. The idea of an indigenous Mafia culture, growing in songs, dances and rituals for over the past 150 years was a disturbing insight for many listeners.
Ten years ago, the release was followed by an immense echo in the features sections of Europe's leading papers– from the London Times, Nouvel Observateur, Der Spiegel to La Repubblica, hardly any neglected to add their own views and new dimensions to the old story. Irritatingly enough, the songs of the 'Ndranghetà turned out to be a highly effective publicity campaign for the reputed "Mafia province" of Calabria, drawing more media attention to the tip of Italy's boot than any other event in the first decade of the new millennium.
Francesco Sbano's documentary, »Uomini d'Onore – Men of Honour« picks up on this new awareness: whether in our belief or denial, in support or opposition – this culture does exist, and there are victims of the 'Ndranghetà that, again, do not fit the mold of the world's perception of Calabria: the people of the small town of San Luca in the province's south, who grow up and lead their lives in the shadow of the 'Ndranghetà. Fracesco Sbano brings their fate into focus by portraying a society under the burden of an inherent stigma: born in San Luca, one is automatically a potential Mafioso. Mr. Sbano's vehement partisanship is a courageous stance that takes a good measure of conviction – and the will to withstand harsh criticism, for example when he uses images of children at play to drive home the reality of stigmatization.
The invisible divide between "us" and "them" has been the leitmotif of Sbano's journalistic work for over decades, dealing with how this line is defined in his home country of Italy and in opposition to the simplicity of good vs. bad. In brief, he invites those who take a moralist stance to rethink their views and question how valid these are, or if they may be based on the naïve longing for a simple world order.
Whether he will succeed remains questionable. What is certain is that his documentary and meanwhile three CD compilations with Mafia songs make a discussion of the uncomfortable existence of a Mafia culture possible in the first place – primarily due to the compelling testimonial to this culture depicted entirely in original footage and recordings. Sbano managed to win over former Mafia members, fugitive Latitante in the hills of Aspromonte and even one Mafia boss for the film. As opposed to sensational TV documentaries, Sbano simply lets them speak for themselves. Particularly in the last third of the documentary, when the content becomes increasingly shocking, he abstains almost completely from comments.
The haunting climax of »Uomini d'Onore« is the footage of an initiation ceremony of a new Mafia member. While perhaps distasteful, it is anything but sensational – but rather a social reality, be it the rough reality of a parallel society.
Max Dax