text:
|2013-08-26, 06:02
|Link #32921
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
And she might have excused her poor writing saying she was trying to make the games look as if Maria wrote them.
Also Jessica wouldn't harbour feelings for Kanon if she were to know he's Shannon or she wouldn't try to pair Shannon and George together.
My best theory is that Shannon began to play the role of Kanon after Kinzo's death and with Natsuhi and Krauss' agreement so as to use Kanon as an extra servant who has viewed Kinzo was around when the siblings were around. Also it's possible due to Krauss poor business they couldn't hire more Fukuin children but didn't want to openly show this to the siblings so used 'Kanon' to make it look like they have enough servants.
Note how the servants on Rokkenjima during the siblings' visits are all in with Kinzo's death apart from Gohda who can't be replaced because they need someone to prepare food and how Gohda was hired after Kinzo's death so he can't notice anything different in his behaviour.
I like to think though that Natsuhi left Jessica out of this, so as not to force her to lie or be involved in the crime of hiding Kinzo's death. Jessica though might have her suspicions but since she seems to be pretty protective of her parents she might have not investigated too deep in this.
It'll be interesting if Jessica's feelings for Kanon are all Yasu's fantasy and more than crushing after Kanon she was trying to be his friend and live better.
After all we can't prove the baby existed. His birth wasn't recordered, Natsuhi's confession to the grave of the husband of the maid supposedly wasn't witnessed, Genji, Kumasawa and Nanjo are dead and likely didn't let medical records that could prove that Kinzo's illegittimate child existed (though there can be documents of Nanjo taking care of a baby), for the Fukuin house the baby would be nothing more than another orphan so... it can very well be all in Yasu's mind as someone theorized in the past.
So it can entirely be Kinzo never touched his daughter in Prime and never had a child from her.
|2013-08-26, 06:55
|Link #32922
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
I think Kanon works similarly to Beatrice. He's just an imaginary friend at first, but then Yasu decides to rewrite the world so that she can be him, not just talk to him, at which point he is able to manifest to others. And presumably that change is triggered by her learning that she was born male, motivating her to try experimenting with a male persona - and, funnily enough, that's the exact point at which she becomes the head, so she can easily get Genji to pull some strings so that 'Kanon' can start working at the mansion. The motivation to make Kanon manifest in the human world and the access to the "magic" that could make that happen occurred at exactly the same time.
And I do think that people overstate how difficult it would be to pull off. It should be fairly easy for Genji to fix it so that Shannon and Kanon are almost never stationed at the mansion at the same time. I actually wouldn't be surprised if the 1986 family conference is one of if not the only time they're ever stationed together.
|2013-08-26, 08:22
|Link #32924
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
If a new servant boy was hired, and what's worse a new servant boy who's supposed to be in with the secret of Kinzo being dead as he's made Kinzo's special servant, I think she would like to have a say in all this.
That's why I think Natsuhi (and Krauss) likely knew Shannon was playing a double role otherwise they wouldn't have trusted a stranger to be in with their secret, probably not even if Genji recommended him.
Hiding Kinzo's death is serious business so I think they would be really wary about who can know and who can't (Gohda, for example, likely had no idea Kinzo was dead).
|2013-08-26, 08:24
|Link #32925
Join Date: May 2009
That said, it's supported, at least: Kinzo's entire motivation for the epitaph seems to be to find his missing heir who he is quite sure is "Beatrice." He seems crazy enough to recognize anybody who does this as Beatrice whether it's a reliable association or not; granted, he thinks Yasu looks like her, but let's be honest, Yasu can't IRL look anything like Beatrice or everybody would notice including Battler. So more likely than not his thought process boils down to "solved epitaph and is the right age and isn't one of my other kids or grandkids == my long-lost kid." All Genji has to do is nudge somebody toward that, which he does with Yasu. There's nothing to suggest that Yasu had any inherent advantage solely because of blood or anything, since the epitaph is a strictly intellectual thing. In fact, she was at a distinct disadvantage compared to Kinzo's children, in that she didn't know about the Taiwan thing until Genji dropped the hint.
Also if Yasu isn't Lion then that explains the ep7 thing where Shannon and Kanon can't be in the same place but Lion can be in the same place as either of them, though that's pretty weak as a claim given the nature of that board. So one could argue that there was no baby, or the original baby (Lion) died, and that Yasu is a random replacement who happened to be of the right disposition and such to be chosen by Genji to fill the role. It's a devil's proof, it's unfalsifiable based on the information that we know.
On the other hand, she was always given special treatment from the start. Granted, Yasu could just be sort of retroactively trying to justify her own specialness by believing that the reason she had special treatment was because of who she is, and not that she simply got lucky to be about the same age as Jessica. It could also be handwaved away as Genji planning for the long-term to give Kinzo mounting "evidence" that his child has secretly come back. There's also the apparent "confession" from Nanjo and Genji, although again we don't know what was said specifically and whether it was true (not like Nanjo can't be paid to lie). Since we know so little about Genji and even less about his recent motivations, it's impossible to say for sure what he was even trying to do. As people have pointed out, if Yasu is the child, then Genji's actions are reckless and grossly irresponsible, and we have no clear understanding of why he did what he did outside of a vague sense that he was trying to do this for Kinzo's sake. Maybe.
I guess the biggest issue is whether Shannon/Kanon look anything like Kinzo or Beatrice at all. If they looked like Beatrice, surely someone would point out the similarity at some point or Battler would find her face familiar. If they looked like Kinzo, well... seems like that would be hard to hide, given that the family thinks Battler looks like Kinzo did as a young man, so they must know what Kinzo looked like at a younger age. You'd think someone would've caught on. Orphan-Yasu would entirely escape notice because she in fact does not resemble any of the others. But it also isn't impossible for a child not to resemble either of his or her parents.
|2013-08-26, 10:09
|Link #32927
Join Date: May 2009
There's no way to know for sure, since we don't know two things: What Genji's actual motivation was in structuring Yasu's life (since we never get into his head), and whether Yasu's body image issues are based on something real or imagined (since we don't know what the "flaw" specifically even is). I think Ryukishi probably intended us not to question it, but it's so stupid it's hard not to. Ultimately, it doesn't matter to Yasu whether it's true or not, as Yasu believes that it is true and acts accordingly. But it might say a lot about Genji and Kinzo if a lot of the backstory Yasu has filled in for herself is imagined.
That said, it seems highly likely there actually was a baby as otherwise everything Natsuhi is feeling guilty about doesn't exist, and that guilt must come from somewhere. As I said, likely and probably intended, but it's odd that he's left enough of a gap to doubt by being so vague. And the existence of a baby doesn't necessarily mean Yasu was the baby. After all, Yasu can never know that.
|2013-08-26, 10:46
|Link #32928
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
It's also possible to assume that Beato was Beatrice's daughter but Beatrice could have conceived her with an Italian officer, which would explain why, to Kinzo, she looks so much like her mother. Since often foreigns look all the same if Beatrice resembles her mother and doesn't have Japanese features she can look completely like her mother to Kinzo after so many years he's also not seeing the original Beatrice.
Kinzo might be unaware she's not his daughter or might know but decided to pretend he doesn't as he doesn't like the idea the first Beato might have loved another man and raised second Beato as his daughter.
However, when he fall for her, he might have decided that, since she wasn't really his daughter, it was okay to court her. Not that it matters for Beato since, regardless of Kinzo telling her the truth or not, she views him like a father figure and not like a lover.
As for Yasu resembling Beato... she was dressed up like her, was wearing a wig and make up. And Kinzo was old, probably sick, with not so much time to live. It was night and we don't know how well the place was lighted but, more important, Kinzo wanted to believe she was Beatrice.
Maybe even if Genji had dressed up like Beato he would have believed him to be Beatrice.
After all if we compare Yasu's behavious in that scene it doesn't seem to match with Beato 1 at all and it doesn't match well with Beato 2 either.
The real problem is the red that comes after.
Or it can be a truth of the gameboard and therefore not be related to Prime.
Still, it's the hardest point to wave away.
Honestly I would have preferred if Yasu wasn't Kinzo's child considering she ends up being forced to work as a maid at such a young age in the house in which she was supposed to become the head.
Instead, if she wasn't Lion, I could accept more easily how Genji thought it was okay to have her working as a maid for the Ushiromiya.
Also, if she really somewhat resemble Beatrice, she's defined a girl and work as maid for the Ushiromiya, it's way more easy for Kinzo to persuade himself she's Beato reincarnated and make a move on her and in her condition it would be even harder for her to refuse him. Considering he said he hid her because he feared this... hiring her it's like if he handed her to Kinzo on a silver platter.
Still this would require to have another doctor involved in a sex reassignment surgery... it'll be interesting if the manga were to show us there's such a person.
Still... why to lie to Yasu as Kinzo dies short after? If Yasu were to claim to be Lion Natsuhi and the other siblings would, for sure, check if she really is who she claims to be or not. Unless Genji plans to blackmail Natsuhi, who knows the baby was a male, into silence due to her guilt?
LOL, Will wouldn't be happy with me but evilmastermind Genji is a fun theory!
|2013-08-26, 11:11
|Link #32929
Join Date: May 2009
Ultimately if Yasu were to claim it's true, there's basically no evidence for it and thus nothing to find, and any evidence that does exist has been under Genji's control and could therefore have been doctored. There's basically no way for Yasu to prove anything if the adults choose not to accept her claim, but there's also no easy way for the adults to dismiss her claim, especially since Rosa knows for a fact that a woman did live on the island in the 60s.
The only sure test would be a genetic one, which should turn up... interesting results if Kinzo was both her father and grandfather. As well as interesting information about Yasu's biological sex. But good luck getting a sample from an asploded person.
|2013-08-26, 11:19
|Link #32930
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Also, this doesn't seem to be a full-on sex change operation we're talking about here. Actually, I imagine it probably basically just amounted to a castration, done out of necessity because of the irreparable genital damage. I'm pretty sure that there are actual cases of boys being accidentally castrated at a young age and subsequently raised as girls.
You are both right that Genji's plan is pretty screwed up and nonsensical regardless, though. But it's not like Yasu not really being the baby makes that any less the case, so by Occam's Razor it seems better to just assume that she is.
|2013-08-26, 11:37
|Link #32931
Join Date: May 2009
A better question is why, even if we assume everything is true, anyone ever told her in the first place? Like try to envision for yourself a scenario in which Genji or Nanjo feel compelled to even bring this up. Why? Why would you do that? It only seems rational in response to Yasu confronting them about something, be it her perception of her own body or some knowledge she's learned from Natsuhi or Kumasawa or somebody which calls into question what Genji and Nanjo are up to. At that point why would you give that particular story? If they're telling the truth that's unbelievably cold, and if they're making up a lie it's an absurd one. "You were born like that" isn't good enough for them?
If she was just like "Hey, something about my body doesn't seem normal, do you know why?" I can think of plenty of nicer lies that will get her to stop asking than "Yeah you were originally Kinzo's male son with his own daughter but Natsuhi pushed you off a cliff and Nanjo had to castrate you because of the injury and then we introduced you to an orphanage as a girl and brought you back here to work for a decade in and around the environment where your rapist dad lives. Our bad."
|2013-08-26, 11:50
|Link #32932
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
|2013-08-26, 11:54
|Link #32933
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Of course it's also possible to consider that red as 'Yasu really said so'.
Or, even more easy, on Beatrice's gameboard that's true, in Prime it's just Yasu being deceived by Genji.
LOL, it's rather amusing how 'untrustworthy' can be red for being 'simply the truth'. Without context a truth really doesn't mean much.
As for the motive of this lie we have:
- he wanted to please Kinzo
- he aimed to use Yasu to control Kinzo's fortune
... though ultimately he doesn't do it officially... he's using Kinzo's money as Yasu can put it into bank accounts so... was he maybe taking much more of it and, where he to be discovered he would use Lion/Yasu as excuse?
Or maybe Kinzo's suddent death was a problem for his plan because Kinzo didn't manage to write a document officializing Yasu's position as heir so he gave up on controlling Kinzo's fortune but, by then, Yasu was persuaded she was Lion?
Though I don't really know how law in Japan work and if Kinzo can kick out of the family his legittimate children and acknowledge as heir Yasu. And, after all Genji might not know as well and think it'll work. Surely Kinzo seemed to think he could make Lion his heir if he were to find him... though Kinzo might think so because he believed no one would argue with his decisions and not because his decisions are supported by law.
If Natsuhi wanted to be alone all she had to do was to say she wanted to go for a walk alone, if the servant suggested to come with the baby all she had to say was it would be better to make the baby rest indoor.
But that's secondary.
All we can prove is that a servant died on Rokkenjima. We can't really prove how. I wonder if the police investigated about it because if she didn't we can't even prove where. We've just Genji's word. Probably it's possible to prove Rosa was on a schooltrip and Krauss was out working without Natsuhi so likely Natsuhi was on the island.
It seems no other maid apart from Kumasawa and the one she died saw the baby so it can be the maid really was victim of an unfortunate incident, like Genji said to the husband.
We can't prove if Natsuhi felt guilty for her death or if she was with her but there are other ways for her to feel guilty for her death that doesn't include her pushing the maid off the cliff. Maybe Natsuhi knew that place wasn't really safe but she forgot and sent the maid there... or she didn't warn everyone that place wasn't safe so when the maid went there she met her death.
Ergo Genji, Kumasawa and Nanjo make up an unbelievable story that feed further Yasu's fantasy.
|2013-08-26, 12:09
|Link #32935
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
So really, maybe Nanjo is the best doctor ever but Umineko doesn't present him as such a great doctor... and I would think a sex-changing operation on an infant, or even just its castration, isn't exactly that easy he could do it with no problems. Though maybe it's a lot easier than I think.
He might think he had repaid his obligations to Kinzo by serving him and to Lion by sparing him a destiny like his mother.
|2013-08-26, 12:17
|Link #32936
Join Date: Aug 2013
If Yasu and Lion had the same chromosomal disorder, due to inbreeding, that may not have been easy for a family physician to diagnose in the mid-80's. This is more plausible than injury, since any damage to that area would shatter the pelvis more certainly than the genitals. Hir walking pace would be noticeably hobbled if hir junk was wrecked by blunt force trauma.
|2013-08-26, 12:32
|Link #32937
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
|2013-08-26, 12:51
|Link #32938
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
|2013-08-26, 12:56
|Link #32939
Join Date: Aug 2013
Treachery of Images is such a prevalent theme in this story that I can't tell if the differences really appear this drastic to anyone within the setting, or if that's just for the sake of distinguishing the characters for the audience.
|2013-08-26, 13:03
|Link #32940
Join Date: May 2009
Genji is a big fat Later Queen Problem staring everybody in the face, and it's probably one of the more Anti-Mystery aspects of the solution as presented. As long as we don't know his heart, his head, it's hard to know if everything we've been presented is even true. All the things Yasu knows about herself, all the things she relies upon, are fundamentally controlled by a gatekeeper who has chosen to present a particular story as the truth, to no apparent gain to himself. Now we can say "well, he really is just that loyal," but we can't know that, especially after Kinzo dies. Hell, we don't even know how many things Genji does are his idea or not. He can and does justify everything as the "Master's wishes," but he's always evasive on which master he's talking about and we never see those orders being conveyed.
Is Yasu the new master, the hidden heir, manipulating matters from behind the scenes? Or is she a dumb kid with a fanciful imagination who has jumped to a series of wild conclusions about her life and played right into somebody else's hands? Who filled in the gaps in all of these disparate facts about a submarine base and a girl living on the island in the 1960s? Who knows everything? Who can confirm everything? Yasu can't, but there's one man who can... but did he? We have no idea, and no way of knowing.
It's hard to accept robot-Genji and the submarine story and the three generations of Beatrice and all of that knowing that it's a tainted informational line that only a tiny number of people actually knew (half of them dead). And Yasu may not be as clever as she thinks she is... or at least Genji might not think she's as clever as she thinks she is. Thought about this way, we suddenly have a very different Yasu Culprit angle that might, perhaps, be more justifiable... or maybe nothing of the sort was going on at all and all of this speculation is nonsense cooked up by Witch Hunters to try to explain a silly game gone wrong.
|Thread Tools


text:
by Sue Ann Rybak
Paul W. Meyer, executive director of the Morris Arboretum, has been credited with transforming the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania from an estate garden into one of the best public gardens in the country. In May, Meyer received the American Public Garden Association Award of Merit at the 2013 APGA National Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona.
The award recognizes APGA members who have excelled in the public garden profession and whose accomplishments include a combination of botany, horticulture, gardening, research, extension education, development or administration. The award is given to an individual during the latter part of an illustrious career.
Meyer, who has been executive director since 1991, credits his success to the hard work of the Morris Arboretum's Board, staff and volunteers.
"The point I want to make about the award is that these are not my personal achievements," Meyer said. "They are collectively all of our achievements. Without a hardworking staff and generous and hardworking volunteers and our board, none of these things would have happened."
When the Morris Arboretum opened to the public in 1933, visitors saw a majestic, elegant, cultured and flawlessly maintained garden, but by the 1970s the gardens were neglected and overgrown – fountains and historic structures were decaying and in danger of collapsing.
In 1978, the Morris Arboretum launched a master plan to restore and transform the historic gardens and structures. Meyer said the goal of the arboretum was to "transition from a private estate to a public garden."
Meyer said that in the 1970s the Morris Arboretum had about 25,000 visitors a year. Since the implementation of the master plan and generous donations, he noted that the arboretum now gets about 125,000 visitors a years.
Meyer said prior to the implementation of the master plan "the estate was pretty much the same as it was in John and Olivia's [Morris] time, except that it was more run down."
He said there was no driveway or parking lot.
"There was no easy way to traverse paths through the arboretum that made any sense," Meyer said. "There were just bits and pieces of paths. The education center was a garage."
The garage Meyer was referring to was the former carriage house for the Morrisses' mansion, which was used by the grounds crew as a garage. The carriage house was converted into the George D. Widener Education and Visitor Center in the 1980s.
"Access and circulation were important steps forward," Meyer said. "The loop path wasn't completed until 1995."
Meyer said by 1995, the arboretum had a path system, a driveway and a parking lot, but attendance at the time was still just over 30,000.
"We needed something to blow the lid off," Meyer said.
Creating a family destination
In 1996, Meyer met Paul Busse, of Applied Imagination, while leading an intern field trip to the New York Botanical Garden. Busse was installing a railroad and told him what a great marketing tool it was. Just 18 months later, the Morris Arboretum opened its first garden railway exhibit on July 4, 1998.
"It was a landmark year," Meyer said. "That year our attendance nearly doubled to over 70,000 and membership grew by 65 percent."
He said it enabled the Morris Arboretum to reach a younger audience. Meyer said the Garden Railway has helped to make the arboretum a family destination.
"Not only does it (Garden Railway) get kids outside and encourage them to connect with nature, but the arboretum is a wonderful place for family to connect with one another," Meyer said. "As people walk, they can talk and connect in ways that may not do at home with all the distractions."
"One of our concerns here at the arboretum is that kids are unconnected with nature these days," Meyer said. "They spend their life tethered to their electronic devices. Whether its television, computers or iPads, kids don't spend enough time engaging with nature."
He said the arboretum plays an important role in helping kids and their families connect with nature.
"We use every little tool we can think of to entice them," Meyer said.
He said the treetop walk Out on a Limb, which opened in July 2009, was directed at attracting families.
"It's something that everyone will enjoy – not just kids but their parents and their grandparents," Meyer said.
According to Meyer, since opening the exhibit attendance has gone up 30 percent.
More than just a public garden
Meyer said not only is the arboretum a historic public garden – it's also a research and education institution.
"There are many aspects to the Morris Arboretum's work that this award recognizes," Meyer said, referring to the American Public Garden Association Award of Merit he received in May.
He said the arboretum maintains an online database on Flora Pennsylvania.
"Our staff are 'the keepers', if you will, of all the data on Pennsylvania's plants," he said.
Recently, the arboretum published "Aquatic Plants of Pennsylvania: A Complete Reference Guide."
"The arboretum is a museum and the objects in our museum are plants," Meyer said. "When we acquire a plant, we don't go to Home Depot," Meyer said. "We go to China or sites in North America, and we collect seed, and when I say 'we,' it's not just the Morris Arboretum staff but typically we are working with other botanical gardens both in the U.S. and abroad. The Morris Arboretum is really among the best arboretums in the world. We have some plants that are the oldest and biggest of their kind in North America and others that may only be a few years old, but are among the rarest of our plant species."
The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University recently published an article by Meyer describing the arboretum's research and findings from an exploration to China.
Meyer initially entered Ohio State as engineering major but discovered his passion for horticulture after getting a summer job at the university's arboretum.
"Growing up, I was in a family who enjoyed gardening," Meyer said. "But, I really never thought of it as a profession."
In the fall of his sophomore year, he took Introduction to Horticulture 101 and said he "instantly switched his major."
Looking to the future
Since then Meyer has worked to reconnect people with nature, this year the arboretum plans to discuss ways to grow its youth education programs. He said currently the arboretum has conceptual plans for a new education building at the 67-acre Bloomfield Farm, which is on Northwestern Avenue across from the arboretum.
The new education center, which is part of the original 1978 Master Plan, will accommodate 200 people for lectures and seminars. Currently, the arboretum's maximum lecture capacity is 67. The new education center will also contain three classrooms.
"The new education building is sort of the crown jewel of the arboretum's master plan," said Meyer. "It will be part of the Horticulture Center Complex that we opened three years ago."
The Horticulture Center Complex is a 20,840-square- foot LEED Platinum certified facility.
"It's a functional building, but it's also an exhibit on sustainability features," Meyer said.
The facility features green roofs, photovoltaic panels for electricity, solar water heaters, geothermal wells, and above and underground cisterns to provide water for toilets and irrigation.
The $13 million Horticulture Center is the first new building at the arboretum since the property was bought in 1887. The building, which was designed by architects from Overland Partners of San Antonio, Texas, Muscoe Martin of Philadelphia's M2 Architecture, and Andropogon Associates, was awarded the American Architecture Award, which recognizes the best new building design produced by leading American architects, urban planners and landscape architects.
"We need to make sure whatever we do represents the highest quality," Meyer said. "In all the things we do – whether its plant exploration, historic preservation, disseminating knowledge about plants, growing and nurturing the arboretum's volunteers and staff, creating compelling visitor experiences or expanding our educational impact through creative marketing – we try to make it fun and exciting but substanitive."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Spoken Word Of The Week: "A Queen Loses Her Crown When She Loses Her Virginity. And A Queen Becomes The B*tch When She Likes It"
By Kai Davis
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text:
Interesting stuff from an article here:
BARACK Obama is facing escalating death threats from white supremacists, according to senior law enforcement officers, prompting severe security restrictions in Washington DC.
The inauguration of the first black US president increases the danger, "particularly stemming from individuals on the extremist fringe of the white supremacist movement", says an intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.
CNN reported that interest in racist ideology was so high right after the November 4 election that computer servers for two white supremacist websites crashed.
I've mulled this issue on and off. We've clearly made incredible gains as a society on the racial front; indeed, we as a nation have been better than other societies at working at getting better. That's why many conservatives argue passionately that it's high time for everyone to stop claiming that racism is still a problem in America.
But this article reminds us that we still have a ways to go, doesn't it? In a funny way, many Americans and many conservative Muslims overseas sound similar — "Look, don't claim that the actions of a few nutcases taint the rest of us." Maybe, but that still means that both Americans and overseas Muslims have some work to do to take on the nutcases. A healthy society must always take responsibility for its extremes, rather than than getting defensive at a public relations level.


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Chicken Tree by Bob Hartman was published by Song Solutions in July 2012. The ISBN for Chicken Tree is S00040485.
|Author / Artist
|Bob Hartman
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|Song Solutions (July 2012)
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|13th October 2009


text:
Witness the unfolding campaign to strip your rights
There's a new angle in the campaign to strip you of your rights to defend your self with the Constitutional tools afforded to you. In the wake of the Martin shooting in Florida comes a recent op-ed piece by Tom Brown for Reuters masquerading as reporting the "case" being built for the deconstruction of so called "stand your ground" laws.
On June 5, 2006, not long after Florida enacted the first "Stand Your Ground" law in the United States, unarmed Jason Rosenbloom was shot in the stomach and chest by his next-door neighbor after a shouting match over trash.
Exactly what happened that day in Clearwater, Florida, is still open to dispute. Kenneth Allen, a retired police officer, said he shot Rosenbloom because he was trying to storm into his house.
Rosenbloom told Reuters in a telephone interview this week he never tried to enter the house and was in Allen's yard, about 10 feet (3 meters) from his front door, when he was shot moments after he put his hands up.
Now living in Hawaii, Rosenbloom said he had been unaware of the growing outrage over last month's shooting in Sanford, Florida, of an unarmed black teenager by a neighborhood watch captain.
The language in the rest of the article only grows more grotesque. Then again this is the same agency which employs "journalists" to "embed" with insurgents in Iraq then has the audacity to complain when they're caught in the cross fire.
This morning the Christian Science Monitor ran an Op-Ed by NYU professor Jonathan Zimmerman, titled Where's the Trayvon Martin petition about gun control?. It pretty clearly lays out, what I think will be, the strategy they'll use going forward, race card and all.
…we need to ask whether any private citizen should be carrying a concealed weapon, and whether "Stand Your Ground" measures make people trigger-happy. And most of all, we need to think about the most common victims of our lax gun laws: African Americans.
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists, Media


text:
If you're out and about this weekend, traveling around, you may want to update that Hulu Plus app for Windows Phone 8. The popular TV streaming site for the US got a teeny update to 22.214.171.124, which you should know by now means some bug fixes and not new features.
So what can you expect in to be fixed? Luckily Hulu detailed it in their changelog:
- Addressed volume consistency issue
- Various bug fixes and performance improvements
Okay, so that last one is a bit generic but hey, at least if you experienced any problems before, you have them fixed with this update. Head to the Windows Phone Store to grab it now, right here.


text:
HANG TIME NEW JERSEY — It's been a pretty miserable season for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Because they're in the Eastern Conference, the Sixers were just four games out of a playoff spot when they took the floor against the Orlando Magic. But not once in the last 3 1/2 months have they ever resembled anything close to a playoff team. And not once has Andrew Bynum been close to actually playing in a game.
Well, things clearly hit rock bottom for Philly on Tuesday night when they lost by 14 points at home to the Orlando Magic, a team that was 3-28 (1-14 on the road) since Dec. 21, had traded one of its best players five days ago, and was looking like it would hold the No. 30 spot in our Power Rankings for the rest of the season.
The embarrassing loss, the Sixers' sixth straight, was apparently the breaking point for Sixers coach Doug Collins, who had some interesting things to say in his post-game press conference. Collins basically avoided all blame for his team's struggles and mostly threw his players under the bus.
And he came out firing right away. First, he called the game "mind-numbing." Then, he used a Pat Summit story to say that a coach can't control energy and effort, and gave the reporters in the room a look that said, "See what I'm saying here?"
Collins also brought up his own effort as a Sixers player for comparison.
"I gave my body to this franchise," he said. "I was never booed as a player. Never. I ran through my sneakers."
There were references to the fact that Bynum hasn't played a single minute this season…
"The team that we tried to put together we've never seen. And so I think, when you take a huge piece away from it, your warts show."
And there were more obvious criticisms of his players…
"I did not think our guys prepared themselves during the [All-Star] break to come back to play."
More of the I'm-doing-everything-I-can talk….
"If everybody looked inside themselves as much as I did, this world would be a CAT scan. OK? Believe me, there's not two days go by that I don't go to Rod [Thorn], I don't go to Tony [DiLeo], 'What can I do? Can I do anything different? How can I be a better coach? How can I be a better leader? How can I help these guys?'
"Sometimes, you've got to help yourself, you know? Sometimes you've got to help yourself. Youth is a very blaming thing."
"My job is to not put that kind of product on the floor. I'm incredibly hard on myself. I love it when the fans start yelling at me. I'm not playing. You didn't yell at me when I played. Why are you yelling at me when I'm coaching?"
Want another way to say that the coach can't control energy and effort? Here you go…
"They say it's a players' league. Well, then take ownership. Take ownership. That's all I'm asking. Take ownership of what you're putting out there. To me, I'm a day's work for a day's pay kind of guy. That's all I've been ever taught."
I did my job, but they're not doing theirs…
"There's nothing wrong with our preparation. I looked out there to start the game, three guys weren't even sweating when we started the game! They were going to ease themselves into the game. You've got to get sweaty. You've got to be ready to go."
Spencer, I coached Nik Vucevic. I knew Nik Vucevic. Nik Vucevic was a player of mine. Spencer, you're no Nik Vucevic…
"We made a huge deal. And we have nobody playing as part of that deal. How many teams can give up Andre Iguodala, Moe Harkless and Nik Vucevic, and have nothing in return playing? That's tough to overcome, right? That's just the facts. I'm not looking for any out. But that's the facts. Nik Vucevic had 19 rebounds tonight. Spencer had one. I think Lavoy [Allen] had two."
Finally, about 10 minutes into the press conference, Collins falls on his sword … sort of …
"I don't want you to feel like I'm up here blaming. I don't want you to think I'm making excuses. That's not what this is about. I'm not a blamer. I'm not an excuse kind of guy. No one takes this harder than I do. Nobody. I'm a guy, who, when I have coached, I've always been able to find some answers. And I have not been able to find answers. And from my standpoint, that is very disappointing, because I'm paid to do that."
The Sixers next play on Thursday, when they visit the Bulls (who also suffered a pretty embarrassing loss on Tuesday) at 8 p.m. on TNT. Should be interesting.
John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.


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How Banks Freeze Terrorist Founds With A Free, Public, .TXT Image courtesy of
A text file. That's what banks use to freeze the assets of terrorists, drug traffickers, and nuclear weapons dealers. A dot txt downloadable from the U.S. Treasury website.
A text file. That's what banks use to freeze the assets of terrorists, drug traffickers, and nuclear weapons dealers. A dot txt downloadable from the U.S. Treasury website.
Let's find out how it works, and what to do if your credit report says you're a terrorist…
The US government uses the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), created in 1950, to staunch the flow of banking transactions. OFAC's primary asset freezing tool is the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. This list is a database of foreign individuals and groups known for narcotics trafficking, WMD proliferation, and acts of terrorism.
And anyone can download it free from the OFAC website!
"All Financial Roads Lead to New York"
In a public Senate hearing on September 12, 2006, the director of OFAC, Adam Szubin, explained that nearly every financial transaction in the world passes through the US at some point. Section 326 of the 2001 Patriot Act mandates US banks to update their account holder software to jive with the SDN. Any transaction with a name matching a name on the SDN gets stopped and reported to OFAC. Easy-peasy.
Furthermore, Szubin said, countries often adopt OFAC sanctions to avoid doing business with international terrorists. Citing Kuwait and Latvia as two examples of countries voluntarily adopting SDN screening, Szubin declared that tOFAC's list runs, "across the computer screens of banks around the world."
However, to avoid OFAC, terrorist financiers can try circulating funds through a few non-SDN complaint countries and banks. Alternatively, they can look up their name on the SDN and make sure to use one not on the list.
On the SDN one finds terrorist celebrities like Saddam Hussein, various Al-Qaeda party members, and Osama Bin Laden. Each has a designation code. Bin Laden ranks a SDT and SDGT for "Specially Designated Terrorist" and "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."
• SDNT – Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker
• SDNTK – Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker Kingpin
• BPI-SDNTK – Blocked Property and Interests SDNTK
• SDT – Specially Designated Terrorist
• SDGT – Specially Designated Global Terrorists
• NPWMD – Non-Proliferation Weapons of Mass Destruction
• FTO – Foreign Terrorist Organization
(This could be incorporated into some kind of Myspace pass-along. What kind of terrorist are you?)
A Terrorist by Any Other Name
Credit reporting agencies also adopted OFAC measures. This helps prevent terrorists from refinancing their home. It can also mean a headache if your name is similar to one on the SDN.
On Sept. 5, 2006, The Arcata Eye news reported that a man who shared a similar name to one of Saddam Hussein's less ambitious sons, Ali Saddam Hussein, was denied a home loan on the basis of the SDN match. The Arcatan's name was "Hassan."
A section in OFAC's online FAQ, "What Is This OFAC Information On My Credit Report?" advises that if your credit report indicates an SDN match:
- "This does not necessarily mean that someone is illegally using your social security number or that you have bad credit. It is merely a reminder to the person checking your credit that he or she should verify whether you are the individual on the SDN list by comparing your information to the OFAC information. If you are not the individual on the SDN list, the person checking your credit should disregard the OFAC alert, and there is no need to contact OFAC."
If this a false match, you can request its removal by contacting the credit bureau(s) and reporting the false information, the same as any old piece of credit report misinformation.
Otherwise, if you have the misfortune to have a name similar to one on the SDN list, just hope that your lender has more of a backbone than Hassan's. Or, change your name. — BEN POPKEN
Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.


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White Papers
JOBS ACT to Revolutionize Hedge Fund Marketing
The new JOBS Act, recently passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, is designed to make it easier for small businesses to raise capital and create new jobs in the current economy. An indirect beneficiary of this legislation is the hedge fund industry, as it will revolutionize how alternative investment managers can market their funds to the public. Until now, hedge funds have been banned from making general solicitations and advertising to the general public. This new legislation directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to eliminate the ban on general solicitation and advertising within 90 days; however, hedge funds will still only be able to accept investments from accredited investors. We may soon see newspaper, magazine and television advertisements from hedge fund organizations, which will have both positive and negative consequences for the hedge fund industry, institutional investors and the general public.
The hedge fund industry will benefit from this new legislation as the SEC provides greater clarity regarding how information can be provided to the public and what type of information hedge fund managers are allowed to disseminate. To date there has been conflicting legislation regarding what information hedge funds can provide, along with wide differences in the interpretation of these regulations within the hedge fund industry. The conservative interpretation of Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933 pertaining to the ban on general solicitation has included 1) no communication on any subject to the media, 2) no participation in databases, and 3) no contact information on a firm's website. Yet many of these same firms are registered with the SEC and must also comply with the conflicting legislation of the Investment Advisors Act of 1940, which requires these firms to submit a Form ADV to the SEC and state securities authorities. Form ADV contains detailed information about their organization, which is available to the general public on the SEC website, and makes it impossible to be in compliance with both legislations simultaneously. Other hedge funds have been more liberal in interpreting these rules and believe it is appropriate to speak to the media regarding industry information excluding their firm and fund, participate in databases that are published in the media and provide some information on their website regarding their firm and investment process. The new legislation should help bring clarity and a more level playing field to marketing strategies among hedge funds.
SEC rules stemming from the JOBS Act should also benefit the hedge fund industry in reaching out to a wider audience, particularly with respect to high net worth individuals. Until now, a vast majority of direct hedge fund investments have come from institutional investors or ultra high net worth individuals. High quality small and mid-sized hedge funds should benefit from the opportunity to build stronger brands in the marketplace in order to effectively compete with their larger rivals. Over the past 3 years, most net asset flows within the hedge fund industry have gone to hedge fund organizations with the strongest brands and not necessarily the highest quality fund offering. This is especially true for the hedge fund of funds industry, where many small and mid-sized funds have had a difficult time raising assets. For many high net worth individuals looking to diversify into hedge funds, a hedge fund of funds may be a more appropriate alternative due to the diversification benefits of investing in multiple managers. We expect the hedge fund of funds industry to be a major beneficiary of this new legislation.
Institutional investors will benefit from greater transparency throughout the hedge fund industry. Currently it is cumbersome to identify top quality hedge funds, compare them to top competitors in the strategy, and perform appropriate due diligence. This is because of the difference in transparency between the mutual fund and hedge fund industries. In the mutual fund industry, a vast majority of firms provide information about their funds on their company websites and to leading industry databases. This allows investors to quickly compare mutual funds based on style and rankings in a database, and then access more detailed information about individual funds on their websites. In the hedge fund industry, many hedge funds elect not to participate in databases. In addition, US based hedge funds have password protected websites. As a result, analyzing hedge funds has been an arduous task that includes starting with hedge fund data bases and then leveraging trade publications, industry conferences, prime brokers, third party marketers and friends to help identify top hedge funds. This is followed by contacting the hedge fund directly to obtain information about the manager, which makes it a very inefficient process.
The hedge fund industry represents a significant number of the leading investment minds in the financial industry. This new legislation will benefit the general public because hedge funds should be more inclined to share their investment views on television and in print media. As a result, retail and high net worth investors will gain valuable insights into a variety of hedge fund strategies and investment ideas.
The negative aspect of this legislation is the potential for unscrupulous marketing activity by shady hedge fund mangers who may be able to take advantage of high net worth individuals with a lower level of investment knowledge. The historical investor base of hedge funds have been Institutional investors and ultra high net worth individuals who typically have a high degree of investment knowledge and use multiple evaluation factors when selecting a hedge fund. Unfortunately, some retail investors may be persuaded to invest in a fund based solely on high historical returns. The highest returning managers often are not the highest quality managers. Their historical performance might have been based on 1) a very small asset base, 2) taking significant risk, or 3) even luck. If these investors end up having an experience significantly below their expectations, it could create negative publicity for the hedge fund industry.
Hedge Fund Marketing Strategy
This new legislation should prompt all hedge funds to re-evaluate their marketing strategy and determine the impact it will have on their firm. Most hedge funds will initially take a 'wait and see' approach to observe what strategies are being utilized by other hedge funds. Some of the questions that need to be addressed include:
What other information should be made available on the company website, including appropriate disclosures?
Not all hedge funds will modify their marketing strategy for some of the following reasons:
Where Does This Leave Hedge Fund Salespeople?
Institutional-quality hedge fund salespeople will become more valuable because the majority of assets will continue to be derived from institutional investors whose decision making process is little impacted by advertising. These investors will see a significant increase in solicitations by hedge funds due to the new legislation, making them more difficult to get meetings with. Nevertheless, like the institutional long-only world, in order to increase the probability of receiving a mandate it will continue to be very important to meet with these investors face to face and clearly articulate the differential advantage a firm offers across all of the evaluation factors institutional investors use to select hedge funds.
Over the next 90 days the SEC has been directed to develop new regulations for the hedge fund industry, and once these regulations are finalized, we will begin to see many hedge funds start the process of broadening their marketing strategies. For those organizations that are bold enough to lead the charge in being the first to advertise, we expect them to enjoy a material advantage in building their brand not only through advertisements, but also the publicity generated by these ads. In order to be a first mover, these organizations need to start planning now.
© 2018 Agecroft Partners LLC


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You can upload custom files to BIG-IP® Access Policy Manager®(APM®) to provide resources directly to users.
For example, you can upload BIG-IP Edge Client® installers, antivirus or firewall update packages, or Citrix receiver files for your users to download. You can upload custom images, web pages, Java archives, JavaScript files, CSS files, archive files, and many other types of files as well.
Optionally, you can compress and upload multiple files as a single ZIP archive file. When you upload an archive file, you can choose to either upload the compressed file, or upload and extract the compressed file.
Hosted content is any type of file you would like to serve from Access Policy Manager® (APM®) to access policy users. Hosted content can include executable files, scripts, text, HTML, CSS files, and image files. You can serve hosted content from a webtop link, or from a portal access link.
To access hosted content, a user must belong to an access profile that is associated with the hosted content. After content is uploaded to Access Policy Manager® (APM®), the entire hosted content library must be associated with one or more access profiles. These access profiles alone can view the content.
In addition, each file uploaded to the hosted content repository is assigned a permission level that determines the users who can access that content.
A permission level is assigned to each file in the hosted content repository, as described here.
|Permission level
|The file is available only to users who have successfully completed an access policy, with an Allow ending result, and an access profile associated with the hosted content repository. You can assign this to display an HTML file that only a verified user can see.
|The file is available to anyone with an access profile associated with the hosted content repository. You can assign this to allow access to an installation package that a user needs to start an access session.
|The file is available only to users with an active access policy session and an access profile associated with the hosted content repository. You can assign this to allow a user with an active session access to a required logon component.
To add hosted content to Access Policy Manager® (APM®), complete these tasks.
As a result of these implementation tasks, you have edited files and deleted hosted files on Access Policy Manager® as necessary.


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Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport at Town Center
The Award-Winning Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport @ Town Center is conveniently located at I-75 and Alico Road across from the Gulf Coast Town Center. Travel I-75 South: Exit 128 (AlicoRoad); off ramp turn left onto Alico Road; loop under I-75 and take left at Alico LakesVillage. Take the first left on Interstate Commerce Drive and hotel is at the end.The new full service contemporary Holiday Inn is only minutes away from many of the area's popular shopping, dining and entertainment options. Some of these include the Gulf Coast Town Center, Germain Arena, Edison-Ford Winter Estates, Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Center, Florida Gulf Coast University and of course the Gulf Beaches. With 169 guestrooms and 7,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, we can accommodate a variety of meetings and events! Meeting planners will love the flexibility of our function space, excellent food quality and outstanding service. Our fresh regional cuisine and indoor / outdoor poolside and lake view "Oasis" lounge complement the many amenities the hotel has to offer. Whether you are traveling on business or pleasure, the staff at the Award Winning Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport @ Town Center is committed to making your visit a rewarding and memorable one!


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SOURCE: Beta Music Group, Inc.
March 19, 2014 08:00 ET
MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Mar 19, 2014) - Beta Music Group, Inc. (OTCQB: BEMG) ("BEMG" or the "Company"), Inc., a digital media holding company that provides interactive and digital marketing, social and mobile marketing, strategic media planning, direct marketing and other specialty communications services to promote small businesses announced today that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Viewpon.TV ("Viewpon"). Viewpon (www.viewpon.tv) is a lifestyle entertainment show and online listing services website that features small businesses across San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
Viewpon complements BEMG's operating model, which produces digital video commercials for small businesses and creates solutions to advertising and marketing challenges to increase a company's visibility. The transaction, if finalized, is expected to close during the second quarter of 2014 and is subject to customary closing conditions, satisfactory due diligence and including signatures of a definitive purchase agreement.
"We have worked closely over the past several months with Viewpon's executive management and are excited to be working together regarding this expansion. Launched over four years ago, the Viewpon.TV show and website created an instant success for over 400 local small businesses up and down the west coast. Viewpon's deep experience in serving the small business sector will complement the expansion strategy for our Company," stated Jim Ennis, Chief Executive Officer of Beta Music Group, Inc. "This transaction is part of the strategic expansion of our digital media offerings to achieve accelerated growth serving the small business sector. Viewpon will enhance our digital media offerings to small businesses including digital video commercials, digital customer reviews, online presence marketing products including website design, mobile marketing, social media marketing, social bookmarking, blog commenting and video review postings."
"We are very happy to accelerate Viewpon's expansion from the Pacific Northwest to the Northeast and across United States," said Mr. Ennis. "We believe our interactive and digital media, social and mobile marketing and specialty technology communications services provide Viewpon with highly scalable opportunities. Viewpon will be working with our financial communications partner, CSIR Group, LLC, previously announced in February, in serving as a liaison to the investment community. They will be working with our technology partners to create, develop and release an Android and Apple iOS App of its popular Viewpon lifestyle entertainment television show serving small businesses and to keep pace with their growing mobile user base. The mobile applications are forecasted to be released by during the third quarter of 2014."
About Beta Music Group, Inc.:
Beta Music Group, Inc. (www.betamusicgroupinc.com) is a digital media holding company that provides interactive and digital marketing, social and mobile marketing, strategic media planning, direct marketing and other specialty communications services. The company provides digital, mobile, social and video content productions to promote small businesses to their clients. The Company produces digital video commercials for small businesses and creative solutions to advertising and marketing challenges to increase company's visibility. The Company helps local businesses find and keep more customers via strategic marketing partnerships and digital commercial promotions.
About Viewpon.TV:
Viewpon.TV (www.Viewpon.TV) is a lifestyle entertainment show and online listing services website that features small businesses and stories across San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, Tahoe and from the High Sierras to the Pacific Northwest. From the coolest places to stay, play and dine, Viewpon.TV takes viewers on a tour of all that's best in the area where they live. Viewpon.TV is a weekly television show and digital video content website that highlights local small businesses and fun things to do in your area and then offers those experiences at a discount. With up to 100,000 viewers each week, the Viewpon television show drives customers to our website where customers can view digital videos of all our small business clients. ShopViewpon (www.shopviewpon.com) finds the coolest places up and down the West Coast to stay, spa, dine and have fun while offering huge discounts, to every spot featured in our show. Viewpon offers incredible savings on awesome experiences and customers get to "View" before they purchase. Everything offered on Viewpon's website has our seal of approval, plus deals never expire. Gift cards are also printable, so you can enjoy your adventure right away.
Forward-Looking Statements/Disclaimer
Information in this document constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "forecast," "anticipate," "estimate," "project," "intend," "expect," "should," "believe," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve, and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause The Company actual results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from the future results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more fully discussed in The Company Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements attributable to The Company herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. The Company disclaims any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this estimate, except as may be required by law. This press release may also contain forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including the risk we may encounter delays or other difficulties in ramping-up production of our new products; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render the Company's products and services obsolete; and other factors discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 as well as other subsequent filings.
Investor Contact:CSIR Group, LLC.(212) email@example.com
Investor Contact:CSIR Group, LLC.(212) firstname.lastname@example.com
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One way or another, electrical contractors have to embrace technology. In the end, you will either be the one to drive change or be left riding the bus. If you choose to be a bus rider, control of your business will quickly pass to those in the driver's seat. But before taking steps to automate your business practices and gain control of your destiny, you must face some of the factors head on that typically decrease operational efficiency in an electrical contracting firm.
EC self evaluation.
Project owners have grown increasingly intolerant of the inefficient and antiquated processes still employed by many electrical contractors. Too often, capturing the data from a project is a haphazard, disorganized, and duplicated process featuring a mess of approaches — from punch cards for timekeeping to paper-based purchase orders, delivery slips, and receipts. Some job-site information is recorded and then re-recorded as often as five times before it reaches home base to be entered into an accounting system. Administrative staff who usually can't be billed to a project have to be hired and housed in the field just to direct this flood of data, while even more staff must be hired in the back office to re-key it into accounting systems. Within this scenario, errors are inevitable, as the same information is entered and re-entered. As a result, delays become unavoidable, as paper-based records get lost or simply held up on their way between the field office and home base.
As a service contractor, consider the situation from the project owner's perspective. Within this deluge of information, it's difficult — at best — to track the costs and status of a given project with any kind of real-time accuracy and provide the granular intelligence that can tell a project owner how a variable (such as weather) is affecting the budget. Is it delaying the arrival of materials on-site? Is it too severe for workers to step out the door? Are time and resources being lost to repairs and maintenance? These are the questions a project owner and electrical contractor must be able to quickly answer to take the action necessary to minimize project disruption.
These days, project owners are demanding greater transparency. They want to tender a contract confident that the winning bidder has the internal processes in place to deliver the project with minimal variance. They expect a budget that makes the most efficient use possible of labor, materials, and equipment — with accurate and up-to-date status reports along the way. Old-school thinking that relies on general accounting software, spreadsheets, and paper-based data collection from the field simply does not provide you with the insight and understanding necessary to meet these reporting requirements. An untarnished safety record and a guaranteed work schedule are no longer enough to win a contract bid.
To remain competitive in this environment, the onus is on you as the electrical contractor to take a hard look at your current model and acknowledge where you can make improvements to business processes. Fortunately, there are many enterprise-level workflow and data-collection software solutions on the market today that can help you deliver the kind of accuracy and accountability project owners have come to demand.
Back-office-out vs. field-in strategies.
These software solutions fall into two general categories: back-office-out or field-in.
With back-office-out solutions, the flow of data is two-directional. The request for information goes out to the field from the back office, and then the requested data is pushed back. While this push and pull can be quick when done electronically, it's not as efficient and cost effective as its field-in counterpart.
Field-in solutions rely on pushing the data in from the field in a one-way flow of information that requires fewer administrative staff in the back office. This means that as business grows, you are only adding revenue generators. Conversely, when the cycle moves downward, you're not stuck with too many administrative staff who must either be laid off or carried on a monthly basis.
When deciding what software approach is right for your business, remember that not all field-in solutions are created equal. A number of field-data-capture solutions push raw data in from the field, but lack the features and sophistication to also process this data and smoothly integrate it into your existing back office accounting and reporting software to provide accurate labor/materials management and timely purchasing/invoicing. Solutions that only capture and push raw data lack the seamless integration with back office systems crucial to making life easier for staff and the business as a whole operate more efficiently.
What should you look for in a field-in solution? You should only have to enter a piece of data into the system once, to reduce labor costs and the likelihood of human error that arises when data must be keyed in several times. This means staff in the field must be equipped with a handheld device or laptop computer that relays the data back to head office — or collects it for later download from locations where a wireless connection isn't possible.
Once that piece of data is in the system, an automated process should distribute it wherever it must go. There should be no manual re-keying of data or need for human intervention to import data between systems, processes, or software applications. The flow and management of data should be centralized and standardized to reduce administrative errors and improve productivity for all aspects of a project.
For example, the procurement team may have to check inventory, purchase materials, and ship the material to the job site or have it available in the shop or warehouse for pickup. These are functions that have always been carried out, but they should now be executed without having to re-key data. The procurement team simply chooses vendors, prices the material on the purchase order with the vendor, and orders it.
The next step is receiving the materials in the warehouse or on-site. Materials can also be received at the distributor's location. Again, it's a matter of clicking a button and indicating what quantities have been received. The final step in this integrated process is the accounting team matching an invoice to approved purchase orders that have been fully received. If they have not been fully received, a backorder is automatically generated.
Using this high standard of efficiency and functionality will allow you to quickly identify the select solutions that are ideal for an electrical contracting business and provide the level of accuracy and accountability that project owners have come to demand.
It's not just the flow of data that should move in one direction from the field into the office, but the entire strategy behind the development and implementation of the new IT solution. For a new IT system to succeed, contracting firms must see that starting in the field, where most of their significant inefficiencies lie, will result in a far more productive end-point — with happier field staff and an IT infrastructure that supports and drives their business. However, too often when electrical contractors consider an IT implementation, it begins in the corner office. The company's management in the field has little or no idea about the existence of the new system until it has already been implemented.
This can leave field staff frustrated because the new system fails to address the administrative headaches they deal with on a daily basis. Company executives may be pleased with the final outputs generated from the new system, but they may not realize the whole process is far from optimized — and that their final data is still the product of a series of time-consuming and error-strewn manual processes.
Survival of the fittest.
The writing is on the wall for contractors facing a recession. Those that cling to archaic business processes will find themselves outpaced by competitors who have taken advantage of technology solutions that allow them to be more responsive to customers. History has demonstrated companies that take steps to improve the efficiency of their operations during a downturn are the ones that continue to win business and end up in a far stronger position when the market recovers. Electrical contractors that fail to adopt technology solutions that can improve their business processes and make them more accountable to the project owner will be the ones most likely to fold.
More efficient management of materials and resources in the field — and the collection and interpretation of that data to better manage a project — can improve a firm's reputation as a reliable and trusted partner as well. This will draw new business and skilled labor. Most importantly, it will make for a leaner, more efficient shop capable of enduring a downturn where others will fail.
Hilsenteger is CEO of Singletouch Corp., Goodyear, Ariz. He can be reached at [email protected]
Sidebar: Challenged by Growth
One electrical contractor that quickly saw the value of using technology to improve its business processes and level of service is NorCan Electric, Inc., Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 2005 by Cameron Cassels and Marcel Andre, the company enjoyed rampant growth over the next few years in Alberta's oil sands.
In its first year of operation alone, NorCan grew from two to 200 staff as it rode the oil sands boom, creating significant project-management headaches for its founders. With much of its work coming from the Major Products Group of Suncor Energy, which focuses on capital projects in excess of $20 million, NorCan had a critical challenge managing such rapid growth.
"We would touch data so many times, it was absolutely killing us," says Cassels, who admits the firm pushed its use of spreadsheets to the maximum and found such office software woefully inadequate. Significant pressure was put on staff, creating stress that impacted performance and morale.
This was painfully evident in the collection and processing of time sheets. After time sheets were collected from field personnel, the site foremen would take them back to the office where a payroll clerk would enter the information into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, summarize it, and then enter the information again into NorCan's payroll software.
This manual process was slow to provide the updated payroll data needed for accurate job costing. It was vulnerable to human error because data was being recorded by hand, then entered and re-entered. Different customers also had different information reporting requirements, which forced office staff to devote even more time to manipulating the data. To manage and interpret this flood of information as best they could, management was stuck working 12- and 14-hr days.
Desperate to adopt a more accurate and efficient alternative, NorCan turned to enterprise workflow software tailored to the electrical contracting industry that pushed data in from the field and required it to be entered only once.
With this solution in place, foremen now use a handheld device to scan employees in and out of the job site. The data on this device is downloaded at the end of the day to the company server, where the information flows into NorCan's existing back-office accounting and reporting software. NorCan can quickly and easily print daily and weekly time sheets and bundle them with invoices.
Implementing this solution dramatically reduced the workload on office staff, allowed for accurate tracking of labor costs in real time, and enabled NorCan to be much more accountable to the project owners. Best of all, deploying this solution allowed NorCan to do more with less at a time when qualified labor was in short supply. In the end, the benefits have extended beyond tracking labor costs to include materials, subsistence, and all the other aspects of a large remote job site.
"It took away a tremendous amount of frustration," says Cassels. "We can now react far more quickly when our clients request a current view of the cost of a project. Our general and administrative costs have been slashed, and fewer office staff is required to support our workers in the field."
The insights provided by this solution even helped NorCan identify an error in its mass of spreadsheets that had led it to undercharge a client by $300,000.
Now that the oil sands is facing a construction slump, Cassels is confident that adopting these kinds of business-process improvements has left the firm in an excellent position to weather a downturn, thanks to the leanness of its operations.


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Two Member States join SSA programme
Luxembourg and Finland are the two latest participants in ESA's new Space Situational Awareness programme, bringing the total number of subscribing Member States to 13.
ESA received formal notification from both the Luxembourg and Finland national delegations that they will subscribe to the Space Situational Awareness Preparatory Programme (SSA-PP). Subsequently, at the 5th SSA Programme Board meeting held 28 May, their participation was unanimously agreed.
The countries' decision to take part in SSA-PP is a strong boost to the Programme and will provide a formal framework through which their existing national assets can be federated into the overall SSA system.
Europe watches for hazards
Under the SSA Programme, Europe is preparing to develop the capability to watch for objects and natural phenomena that can be hazardous to satellites in orbit or facilities - such as power grids - on the ground.
To achieve this, the SSA Programme is focusing on three main areas:
SST: Space Surveillance and Tracking of objects in Earth orbit
Watching and warning for active and inactive satellites, discarded launch stages and fragmentation debris that orbit Earth.
SWE: Space Weather
Monitoring conditions at the Sun, in the solar wind, and in Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere that can affect spaceborne and ground-based infrastructure or endanger human life or health.
NEOs: Near-Earth Objects
Detecting natural objects that can potentially impact Earth and cause damage.
All participating Member States contribute to the Programme's core element (which includes the SSA architecture development, governance, data policy, security and the Space Surveillance and Tracking Segment), while the space weather element including NEO activities, the radar element (prototype system development) and the pilot data centres element are optional.
Finland has also opted to join in the discretionary space weather element.
Wide range of SSA customers
SSA services will ultimately be used by a wide range of customers, including institutional and commercial entities such as:
- European governments (EU, national, regional)
- European space agencies
- Spacecraft operators: commercial, academic and governmental
- Academic and research institutions
- Space insurance and space industry
- Energy industry, including surveying, electricity grid operators, electrical power suppliers
- Network operators, telecommunication operators, radar system operators, space weather service providers, etc.
- European and other air traffic control and navigation service providers
- European and international rescue and disaster-response authorities
- UN and other international bodies
- Defence sector/defence security
Participating Member States
To date, the following ESA Member States have chosen to participate in SSA-PP:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- Norway
- Portugal
- Spain
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
The SSA Preparatory Programme was authorised at the ESA Ministerial Council meeting in November 2008.
The Preparatory Programme is running from 2009 to 2011/12 and is focusing on governance, data policy, technical requirements and the architecture of a future full European SSA capability.
Based on the results of the SSA Preparatory Programme, a proposal for the full programme will be submitted for approval by ESA Member States at the next Ministerial Council meeting, to cover 2012-19.
Since ESA's creation in 1975, the Agency has provided an effective framework through which Member States can invest in space, coordinating the efforts and financial contributions of national members, industry, operators, scientists and research centres. This has enabled Europe to play a key role in space exploration and facing global challenges.
Editor's note:
The images in this article show some of the existing European infrastructure that may be federated into the overall SSA system in support of debris tracking, NEO detection and space weather observation. More information: http://www.esa.int/ssa


text: On Tue, 2007-03-20 at 10:34 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote: > On Thu, 15 Mar 2007, Joe Landman wrote: > > > I seem to remember after my joyous year with Pascal in the early 80s that > > they quickly caught the Modula fad (Niklaus Wirth could do no wrong), > > dabbled a bit in other things, and came out strong in C++ around late 80s > > early 90s. > > Certainly at Aberystwyth the CS department was torturing students with ADA in > the late 80's, early 90's. Those who took the graphics part of the course > did, IIRC, get to play with some C.. I was the last year of intake to be taught Ada when I started in 1996, there was a "C and Unix" module in the second year which I'm fairly sure was compulsory. These days I program mostly in c although can at least read fortran. They switched from Ada to Java which they were still using last time I checked. Ashley,


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Players excited for upcoming Yankee Stadium seriesby Tal Pinchevsky
NEW YORK -- Two of the NHL's most intense rivalries will open a new chapter in 2014 by taking the battle outside.
Executives and players from all three teams were on hand Thursday when the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders -- along with the National Hockey League and NHL Players' Association -- officially announced the details of two January games that will take place in Yankee Stadium as part of the 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series.
The twinbill in the Bronx will feature a Sunday afternoon game on Jan. 26, pitting the Devils against the Rangers (12:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC), followed by a Jan. 29 night game between the Islanders and Rangers (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN).
It's the start of a memorable week of sports in the metropolitan area, which will be hosting the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Feb. 2.
The Rangers will host the Devils on Jan. 26
followed by a Jan. 29 game against the Islanders.
(Click to enlarge) Photo: Getty Images
"It's no secret that people have urged us to play at Yankee Stadium since the moment it became clear that our outdoor games were such special, unique and fun events," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said at Thursday's press conference. "The creation of the Coors Light NHL Stadium Series allowed us to work within the Yankees' scheduling parameters and, just as important, include all three NHL teams from this area at this spectacular place.
"The rivalries between the Rangers, Islanders and Devils are among the most heated in sports. These games in this venue will showcase our players and our sport to a national viewing audience as well as to a variety of visitors who we anticipate will be in the area at that time. I hear a rumor that there is a football game in New Jersey sometime later that week."
For the three New York-area franchises, which have combined to win the Stanley Cup eight times since 1980, it will be a monumental doubleheader in the thick of the 2013-14 regular season. The Rangers are the only team to have appeared in an outdoor game previously; they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, which was played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
"We had the fortunate time of playing against Philly a couple of years ago and I can honestly say it's one of the few events that lives up to the hype," Rangers assistant general manager Jeff Gorton said. "The players loved it, the fans loved it, and to have the opportunity to do it here at Yankee Stadium is just surreal for us and this organization. It should be two great games, and we're looking forward to it."
Most of the Devils and Islanders will be playing in their first NHL outdoor games, which have taken off since the Edmonton Oilers played the Montreal Canadiens at Commonwealth Stadium in the Heritage Classic 10 years ago. Both clubs are looking forward to the spectacle of taking on the Rangers at Yankee Stadium in front of tens of thousands of spectators and millions of fans watching at home.
"It's a regular-season game, it's an important game. Obviously it's playing against our rivals, that's exciting," Islanders star John Tavares said. "You just really get to experience all the time you've taken to get to the National Hockey League, everything it took. A lot of that for me was playing outside."
The two Yankee Stadium games will be part of the 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series, which includes outdoor games in Chicago and Los Angeles. In addition, the 2014 Bridgestone Winter Classic will be played Jan. 1 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, and the 2014 Heritage Classic will take place March 2 at BC Place in Vancouver.
The two games at Yankee Stadium will add another chapter to the lore that surrounds one of the most famous sporting venues in the world.
"We are excited to have the National Hockey League, the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils here at Yankee Stadium. It's a great honor," Yankees president Randy Levine said. "When we built this stadium, one thing 'The Boss' (late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner) insisted was that this has to be the home of the New York Yankees. But he also insisted that this be a place that is utilized year-round. We've done that."


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First off, please be sure to stay in touch with me with my blog, my Facebook Fan Page, and/or Twitter. You never know what goodies you'll find from me (surprise coupons, freebies, sales, new products, etc..).
(not all shown in the preview)
While I am in the Spotlight, my entire store is 30% off during my Spotlight. Enjoy!
If you haven't already joined in my monthly Brag About It Challenge, you should get it a try this month. I provide a brag book sized kit for all participants. All you need to do is make one 4x6 page and at the end of the month you will receive one large coordinating brag book. In March, it coordinates with Owl Adore You
(brag book kit preview coming very soon)
And, last but not least, here's your blog train freebie!!! Enjoy!
I do have some other FREEBIES available on my blog right now too. One is from a couple days ago, some from later. You'll just have to search on here to find them. Happy hunting!
Download is HERE for you to enjoy :)
(please don't forget to leave some love for the designers who made all these goodies for you)


text:
Wala pang bala
At nanggugulo
Sa blog ng may blog
Author: aysabaw
Aysa is a self-proclaimed hotelier without any culinary talent. She used to fly around Dubai for ten years via her magic carpet but destiny led her to a new path. She is now a little mermaid swimming in and around the Maldivian waters. If she is not reading her books, writing something comical, leaving rubbish comments on your posts or strumming her guitar, then she's up to some mischief. View all posts by aysabaw


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Advocacy | News
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) has made the appointment official. The formerly named Sloan Consortium (rebranded earlier this month) has named Kathleen Ives CEO and executive director, following an interim stint in those roles. OLC is a non-profit organization focused on helping colleges and universities "launch and sustain high-quality online learning initiatives."
Ives, who has been at OCL since 2005, previously served as associate executive director and chief operating officer. She was responsible for overseeing operations and running workshops in higher education online best practices.
Initiatives launched this year under her leadership include development of an advanced online teaching certificate program, launch of new mastery series programs in spatial thinking and Web mapping as well as nursing and online labs, rollout of a revised quality scorecard for United States online programs and creation of a Spanish version, new partnerships to work on developing and facilitating programs in Latin America and introduction of an online education report in alliance with other organizations to research the global impact of online learning.
"Kathleen has demonstrated exceptional leadership since becoming interim CEO and executive director last fall," said Joel Hartman, president of OLC's board of directors. "She has skillfully led the recent transition of Sloan-C to OLC. Her deep experience and understanding of our members' complex needs will ensure the continued advancement of the Consortium and expansion of our services, as well as the constituencies we serve."
Before joining OLC, Ives oversaw alternative instruction at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, MA and has taught in face-to-face, online and blended formats for several universities.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at email@example.com or on Twitter @schaffhauser.
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Physicians at Baptist may use minimally invasive techniques for a number of surgeries related to the nose and throat. Some conditions that may be treated include:
Surgery is sometimes recommended to open the sinus pathways for drainage to relieve pain and pressure. Baptist offers balloon sinuplasty, a procedure that is done without removing any tissue or bone, allowingmeans faster recovery and less post-procedure discomfort. Read more at this press release.
In certain cases, early-stage tumors in the larynx can be removed without making an incision.
Surgery is sometimes indicated to correct structural irregularities of the nose, septum and turbinates to restore function.
In minimally invasive surgery of the nose and throat, physicians use a device called an endoscope, a slender illuminated optical or fiber-optic instrument that is used for visualizing the interior of the sinus cavities. Endoscopic surgery eliminates the need for an incision; surgeries are done through the openings of the nose and throat.
For certain surgeries, physicians use computer-guided imaging to enhance their ability to visualize the surgical area. This is especially useful when previous surgeries or structural irregularities have created variations in the anatomy that make the procedure more complex. Computer-guided imaging combines the use of computed tomography ("CAT") scans and real-time infrared signals from specialized surgical equipment and computers.
Learn more about sinus disease and its treatment in this podcast.
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Parking Permits & Applications
boston college transportation and parking services
A permit system is in place for the various constituencies that use parking at Boston College. In an effort to enhance parking and, at the same time, find a way to more equitably share the financial burden of parking costs previously funded through student tuition, all permits will require a fee. For more detailed information, please select the appropriate link below:
- Athletic event parking
- Faculty and staff parking
- Student parking
- Temporary overnight parking
- Visitor parking
Overnight parking is not allowed unless qualified under strict criteria and a valid permit obtained. Those faculty and staff holding valid A, R, M or POOL permits may also park on Middle Campus between 5:30 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. Monday through Sunday.
Please note that in the unlikely situation that parking is full in both garages, overflow parking will be available at a parking lot located in Brighton and within walking distance of campus.
All aspects of parking and traffic rules and regulations are codified and each population segment above is included in the Summary of Parking and Traffic Regulations.
Motorcycle Parking Permits
Vehicle access and parking privileges require a Boston College parking permit. This includes motorcycles.
To acquire a motorcycle permit, the employee or student must apply for the permit in person at Student Services.
All motorcycles are limited to G permit parking areas.
Employees may register and acquire up to one motorcycle permit per year. If it is the only vehicle being registered by an employee, it will incur the prevailing G permit price. A motorcycle permit is registered separately from a four-wheeled vehicle and is not included as one of the three vehicles registered to a single permit.
A motorcycle permit is a permanent sticker that is not intended to be repositionable. The permit must be displayed on the left front "fork" of the motorcycle.
Students must pre-qualify for on campus parking. If they meet qualifications, they may have a parking permit for either a four-wheeled vehicle or a motorcycle, but not both. Students may have only one campus parking permit each. The permit price for a motorcycle is the same as that for a four-wheeled vehicle.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact us.


text: Where we are Find shops, events and services near you with our interactive map. Alternatively, find our office addresses and directions to them below. Take me to the BHF map Customer Service Centre Please contact our Customer Service Centre for general enquiries or for information about fundraising or making a cash donation. Tel: 0300 330 3322 Email: [email protected] British Heart Foundation Lyndon Place 2096 Coventry Road Sheldon Birmingham, B26 3YU If you have a query about our shops or donating to our shops, please contact our Retail team. Enquiries about BHF Events: Tel: 0300 330 3322 Email: [email protected] Want to find a BHF office? To find details of our regional offices, please use the map.


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Days of Pirates And Play
Once a year, the staff at the Montauk Lighthouse presents Lighthouse Weekend, which offers an opportunity to take a step back in time and learn the ways of colonial people. The event will take place on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
There will be old-fashioned games with Shari Crawford, basket weaving with Camille Meade, and leather crafting with Steve Crawford. Stuart Vorpahl will demonstrate how to trap fish, and the Kings of the Coast Pirates, a scary-looking lot, will recreate a pirate battle complete with "Arrs!" and "Blimeys!" and a shout of "Fire in the hole!" before a very loud cannon is blasted. They may even dance the hempen jig. The pirates will perform twice a day each day, at 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Some of them will mingle with the crowd afterward.
There will also be face painting, book signings, artwork, and boat-safety tips offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Admission is $9 for adults, $7 for those over 65, and $4 for children 12 and under. The fee to park, which is charged until 4 p.m., is $8.
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