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Physician Assistant - Primary Care- Permanent/Full-Time
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Lyle Staffing
$219,360.00 -219,360.00/year*
Rochester , MN
Healthcare - Physician
4300 31st Ave NW
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Urgent Care opening in , Minnesota. This and other physician assistant jobs brought to you by DocCafe.comOur Maplewood, MN client is currently looking to add a full time permanent Physician Assistant to their primary care team. For decades, this client has used forward-thinking providers who understand what today s healthcare patient expects and needs. Three or more years work experience with urgent care, primary care or occupational medicine is preferred, but negotiable. Dot certification is required. Candidates must be efficient with time management, able to see 20+ patients a day, proficient with computer skills, and stay on top of proper visitation documentation. A pleasant and costumer friendly attitude is required, as providers must offer compassionate, personalized service at all times. This position comes with an excellent benefits package with a competitive above market salary. About Maplewood: Located less than ten miles from downtown St. Paul, Maplewood is a suburb of about 37,000 people in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. This city is filled with a combination of lush wooded areas, lakes, ponds, and over 33 beautiful parks with extensive trail systems. Maplewood is noted for its safe residential neighborhoods and well planned commercial and industrial areas. Just twenty minutes away, the thriving city of Minneapolis welcomes visitors from surrounding cities. Swank art museums, rock clubs, edgy theaters, organic and ethnic eateries- all accessible to Maplewood residents. This area is an unbeatable combination of small-town atmosphere and cosmopolitan sophistication, making it the perfect place to continue your career as a PA. Apply today, as this job will not last long!
Associated topics: bilingual, care, clinic, family medicine, family medicine physician, general practice, physician, practitioner, provider, urgent
* The salary listed in the header is an estimate based on salary data for similar jobs in the same area. Salary or compensation data found in the job description is accurate.
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text:
With Earth Day right around the corner, Sunday, April 22, now seems like the natural time to share our top picks in eco beauty. All week long, we'll be sharing our green recommendations in makeup, shower staples, skin care and more. Today, we're sharing the eco-friendly skin care products we can't be without. Read on for lots of plant extracts, oils and the most brilliant multitasking balms and creams.
1. Acure Facial Cleansing Crème, Olive + Mint. This creamy cleanser helps encourage new cell growth and actually helps you look younger. Literally, with each use, you are washing away worry lines! Organic acai berry, fair trade organic olive oil and Organic Chorella Growth Factor (to boost collagen…a.k.a. younger-looking skin!) are the star players. The cleanser is a fresh minty green color, and the smell is naturally sweet. ($14.99, Acure Organics)
2. SIA Botanics Blueberry Oxygenating Exfoliator. This brand recently popped up on our radar. All of SIA's products are grounded in botanical bases and do wonders for damaged skin, blemish-prone, dull, dry, YOU NAME IT! The oxygenating action comes from jojoba beads which exfoliate the skin so gently you hardly know it's happening. Blueberries and cranberries offer a surge of antioxidant power and olive and hibiscus are on standby to decongest pores. ($20, SiaBotanics)
3. La Fresh Waterproof Makeup Remover Wipes. La Fresh has a wipe for everything (and everyone!) — nail polish remover, insect repellant, body refresher, deodorant, puppy dogs, etc. We love the Makeup Remover Wipes and how they easily break down stubborn eye and lip makeup. They contain zero alcohol and no artificial fragrance or parabens. Look for a six oil blend of olive, jojoba, sesame, grapeseed, vitamin E and lavender. The lavender scent is very soothing at the end of a long day. True story. ($9.99 for 24, La Fresh)
4. Weleda Skin Food. One of the best skin care products, ever. It can be used on dry hands, elbows and even your face. I even use it as a highlighter on my face as it gives a believable, natural dewy look to the skin. Organic pansy extract, known to be a mild antiseptic, calms irritation and essential fatty acids, vitamin E and organic sunflower seed oil heal the skin as well. It's like a garden. It's also super affordable and lasts a very long time. ($11.50, Weleda)
5. TAY All-Purpose Shea Butter. We live for a good shea cream. And Tay's is about as pure as it gets. Organically harvested shea butter, from the Women's Coop in West Africa, is infused with USDA Organic rosemary essential oil to create a truly aromatherapeutic cream. The scent is earthy and the benefits plentiful: hydrates skin and scalp, doubles as a hair styling aid and works wonders on ragged cuticles. The engraved wood packaging is also so unique. We love this! ($28, TAY Everyday)
6. One Love Organics Skin Savior Balm. Balms are a gift to the skin, and to those who never have enough time in the day. Pure, cold-pressed plant oils do the job of cleansing your skin and moisturizing it. The old oil breaks down oil story – it's legit and this stuff works! Skin Savior is a precious organic blend of coconut oil, sweet soy seed oil, beeswax, mango seed butter, chia seed extract and more. We love to use this on our face, but also massage this in to the skin – anywhere head-to-toe – for an extra dose of pampering. ($68, One Love Organics)
7. Stark Skincare Green Tea Detox Clay Mask. By now, we're all familiar with the "just add water" exfoliator, right? A brilliant idea that Stark takes one step further with a "just add water" mask. It's a gentle, but powerful, blend of clay, green tea and fruit extracts that leaves skin brighter and cleaner after just one use. Green tea helps repair damage done by the sun and pollution and the mineral-rich clays remove impurities from the pores and improve skin's clarity. The apple extract contains alpha hydroxy acid to gently exfoliate and improve skin elasticity. All of this in a POWDER! ($30, Stark Skincare)

subset: commoncrawl


text: The following describes the basic format of the ELPT. The specific sections that you will take depend on your overall proficiency and our assessment of your need for evaluation. Please note that, given the numerous combinations of skill levels represented across the various student populations attending the university, not all students will be required to take the same sections of the exam. The director of the program, based on a review of all pertinent test scores and relevant information, will determine which sections each individual student is required to take. If you have a question or concern regarding the section(s) you are assigned, do not hesitate to ask the director during the exam, or after the exam is complete. 1. Reading, Summary, Essay (~75 minutes) The essay section of the ELPT is combines critical reading with skills in writing an original essay and summarizing both written and oral information. If you are assigned to complete the reading section, you will respond to 10-15 questions based on 2-3 reading passages. You may also be asked to write short summaries of information contained in the articles. Finally, you will be asked to write a brief expository essay in which you take a position on an issue presented and support that position. The focus of assessment of the reading responses is on demonstration of ability to identify isolated pieces of information within an academic passage as well as demonstration of ability to process the main ideas of a passage and communicate them in appropriately paraphrased form. The focus of assessment on the essay is demonstration of control of discursive elements appropriate to writing for the U.S. academy as well as command of linguistic structures appropriate to writing for the U.S. academy. We do not assess the opinions or positions expressed. We are only interested in the clarity and appropriateness of the language you use to express those opinions or positions. 2. Interview (~10-15 minutes) The interview section of the ELPT is an informal, face-to-face interview with two trained interviewers. The interview is required for those students who have not met the minimum score meriting a waiver from this section (e.g. a 24 on the Speaking section of the iBT). There is no standard set of questions for this interview, as the interviewers adjust their expectations as the interview and responses emerge. As a result, the interview may last for a varied length of time, depending on the sophistication of the responses provided and the amount of discussion the interviewers need in order to make a solid assessment of the interviewee's current oral/aural skills. This section tests your ability to comprehend questions in English as well as to answer them appropriately. The focus of assessment is on the appropriateness of your discursive response as well as its linguistic accuracy, not on the actual opinions you express. In other words, we do not assess your position on issues or opinions about situations. We are interested in the way in which you express those positions or opinions. Initial questions may focus on your academic plans. Additional questions may focus on hobbies or current issues, although knowledge of current events or issues is not tested. Like the TOEFL, the ELPT provides a snapshot of your overall language proficiency at the time of testing. Although studying for the ELPT is not recommended, spending time reading, listening to, speaking and writing in English prior to the test would be beneficial. Any activities that force you to use English as a medium of communication will help you hone your skills and improve your proficiency, which should be reflected on your ELPT results. 3. Listening (~20 minutes) The listening section is required for students whose test scores suggest remaining challenges in their aural development. The listening section is an objective, multiple-choice test. Both the listening score and interview performance factor into placement in oral/aural classes. Note: The integrated and complex nature of language assessment necessitates that the director of the program review the scores of each individual student before final scores and placements are determined. Further Information If you need additional information, email the director of ILC at firstname.lastname@example.com. Please put your family name and "Query, ELPT format" in the subject line of your message. Example: Subject: Basso - Query, ELPT format


text:
Them's fightin' words, Julia… allegedly
First, she has allegedly gone an accused alleged bloggers, who in the most part are allegedly just people with alleged day jobs and a bit of alleged passion and concern, of "gender-based" attacks.
Yep. Allegedly that's OK. But what does "gender based attacks" even allegedly mean? And JFTR, when was the last time before this week anyone had allegedly heard the word, "scurrilous"? Is the next Pirates of the Caribbean going to be, in alleged fact, "Pirates of the alleged water cooler at the alleged Parliament House"?
Whatever that allegedly means, something's got the allegedly so-called shagger Thomson all allegedly fired up again… allegedly.
CRAIG Thomson has declared Fair Work Australia is living in "a dream land" if it attempts to prosecute him over union rorts…
And then, this… after all.
JULIA Gillard admitted to law firm Slater & Gordon during an internal probe that she should have opened a file for the controversial legal work that she had done for her then client and boyfriend, union boss Bruce Wilson.
Standard practice would require a file being opened lest one want to defraud their own law firm… hypothetically speaking, of course, but not allegedly.
Allegedly, Gillard and her alleged Co. have had an alleged Pow Wow allegedly over the alleged night and might allegedly come out today, allegedly Wednesday, with their metaphorical alleged gloves allegedly off.
Sorry, can't print that quote. You know, allegations and all.
PS Andrew Bolt, I love your work but you were too harsh on Larry Pickering.


text:
Restoration and Reformation
"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'" (Matt. 4:17). What was the first word spoken by John the Baptist and by Jesus as they came preaching? Each of them …Read More
The Reversal of the Curse
God promises us "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21:1). Some people leap to the conclusion that God will simply throw the present creation onto the scrap heap, so to speak, and start over again from scratch …Read More
Paradise Restored
Where do believers go when they die? If you ask any Christian this question, the response will likely be: "Why, they go to heaven of course." But if you then ask them, "Where do believers go after they go …Read More


text:
I love everything here, the stripe with the check – I'm not sure if it even "goes together" but when it looks this good why even ask.
I also really love the club collar shirt, so often they come off looking costumey but here it looks so natural.
Monday, September 29, 2008
I love everything here, the stripe with the check – I'm not sure if it even "goes together" but when it looks this good why even ask.
I also really love the club collar shirt, so often they come off looking costumey but here it looks so natural.
57 comments
Well, that's actually quite of this season…stripes and checks…yeah, looks pretty cool if you manage the colours properly…
O I love this ! Who cares if it 'goes together' ?
Because he wears it confidently, he makes it looks great !
my eyes will believe that everything he is wearing is in a shade of blue so that it's all about pattern contrast..be blue, be blue, be blue…
It`s all about additude and this guy means business! Great look!!
Great style, it looks so unforced. To use an old-fashioned word: natty!
Well… what I read is that as long as one of the colors in the check matches a color in the stripes you are in business, which he manages to do. It seems like the scale of the check and the stripe width are also good matches! Where was this taken? We are still in shorts and espadrilles here! Jorge from W Palm Beach
The club collar looks good although in this context it could be seen as an anachronism. My favorite thing about the look is that the presence of the casual quilted vest and his other things suggests (and it may not be true) that he might dress like this all the time- I can imagine that this is just another day's attire for him, which is a nice thought.
nice waistcoat!
mmm, perfect.
Hello You !
Nice photo…
The man is "lovely" for a woman…
See You later…
The monochromatic palette lets the patterns be the whole story. They are also well scaled to one another. I almost think the shirt collar is one distraction too many, but it isn't fatal.
Such brio!
I think the colors and patterns work. They make the outfit interesting while still being tasteful.
I think that the vest could fit better. It seems to be pulling at the buttons in the middle. I suggest that he leave the bottom button on the vest undone.
I'm not a fan of the club collar shirt. It always makes me think of Peter Pan. I think that style of collar looks great on women and on young children, but for men I stick with straight, spread, button down, or tab collar styles.
club collar shirt is my thing too… in fact, that's what i wear at work often… i would have taken that vest off though.
Lovely pattern and colour mixing. The off-white puffer vest over his arm (I'm assuming he wore it in the morning when it was cooler) suggests that it's as in Milan as in parts of Canada right now…
This man has put himself together
nicely. the attention to detail and
the check/stripe is clever. However, well dressed this individual is, it dosent mean that it is really all that interesting. You can look at past posts and compaire to others who are dressed the same way. Not to say that fashion has to always be fresh, put being none compareable, such as the post below"pleated pants" is ideal.
I am just delighted that, in the middle of a global financial crisis with banks collapsing all over the place, we have a great time here discussing shirt collars, colors, textures ….just love it !!!
I love how menswear gives off a playful whimsy, with a little mismatch pairing with a tie and vest.
Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. – Einstein
He knows. He looks great.
I would don his waistcoat on, is it me or are the clothes old men wear coming into fashion?
i absolutely adore your photos. how are you able to capture those moments??
feel free to check out my blog too
Joyce :)
wow he can pull it off easily
I do think that actually they go together…and i find it amazing to tell the truth =O!!
come to BUENOS AIRES!
he's great-looking. love everything here. he's a natural!
Why not, right? Clashing always signifies a strong fashion sense, anyway. Or at least a unique one!
There is something about Milanese Italian men and the way they dress that makes everything look good… even those things which were never meant to be worn together like stripe and check mix match!
…and some people say older people don't have style…
His look is pure perfection!
Perfect proportion, confusing combination.
it looks wonderful how inspiring
Caramba! que combinación más atrevida: cuadros y rayas pocos sutiles!
His attitude…he just pulls the look off so well (and isnt it usually the opposite? As you age, daring looks/mixing of patterns become harder to pull off…)…Wonderful Shot!
I never tough, that is going to be a good mach with check waistcoat and stripe tie
And he just went outside to buy a newspaper…
He looks great but please DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME.
Awwwwwww that vest is divine. Kudos old man.
this is a great outfit. your right the collar is amazing in this ensemble.
This is a gentleman with a little more swagger than my grandfather ever had.
I think one of the best things about this blog, aside from the wonderful photos, is that it underscores the notion that 'fashion' and 'looking good' is not limited to the 20-something individual.
One can proudly look great at any age!
haha yeah im digging the club collar
oh just amazing
I like it very much.
What about the jacket he has over his arm? Barbour or something? I would love to see that over his ensemble. Ca c'est bien, biensure.
One of your best pics ever
Great shot Sart
It seems alot of these milanese businessmen types are carrying a pile of stuff with them. That mess (the jacket, daily paper etc.) almost makes the actual look seem dandier. Ah yes, just going about my daily route, arms full of crap, looking fantastic as usual. like putting on that vest wasn't even a stretch for him. You're right sart, this is inspiration. My favorite photos are ones like this, ones that give off a very 'real' feel. This is accessible.
MMmm. not sure if managing the colour is the right word. I think a play on color based on seasonal themes and ones own personal persona and aesthetic could be more intriguing.Though this picture is very nice i think that its a classic take on men attire. Its a wonderful picture.A very Ralph Lauren or brooks brothers look.
I'm not the biggest fan of that vest because of the color, but I am in love with the collar. It complements his face somehwo….
Absolutely. If some can rock it well, who cares if it "goes together"?
He looks charming. I like it!
Anything at all aesthetically pleasing does go together. Period.
You have to give it to the italians, it's not all fashion but always style. I do belive an englishman would have unbuttoned the last button?
He's wonderful. He can wear whatever he likes but obviously has a knack doing it right.
i didn't even notice the club collar until you pointed it out, that's how natural it looks.
he definitely pulls it off. and acts like he isn't even trying. 4 stars for him.
i have just got a white club collar shirt..love it….anyway who cares if stripe and check dont go tougrther..i think this is a great look


text:
Staff writer
Sacrifice. Discipline. Hard work. Hillsboro High School head wrestling coach Scott O'Hare said these are the staples of most winning high school wrestlers. Every few years there will be a grappler blessed with incredible physical gifts who can win without an established work ethic … until he meets a talented wrestler with technique.
The physical requirements to wrestle are immense. Wrestlers must build cardiovascular and muscle endurance. Hillsboro junior Preston Nelson can speak to the need for endurance. O'Hare said Nelson has the strength, agility, and aggressive nature suited to be a great wrestler. However, he started last season late and never caught up with his conditioning. Starting in the first week this season, O'Hare said Nelson should be ready this season for matches at either 138 or 145 pounds.
"In matches, he would come out blazing," O'Hare said. "But then he ran out of gas."
There are mental rigors to wrestling as well. At practice on Nov. 14, O'Hare and assistant coaches Jake Schenk and Terach Antoine went through fundamental takedowns meant for when a leg is grabbed successfully. Within that instruction were notes to apply pressure with the head and shoulders to enable wrestlers to use a proper amount of leverage. O'Hare wants all of that to be natural when matches start; to new wrestlers it seems very unnatural now.
Many of the Trojans are not new to the team. O'Hare said even the high schoolers that have been wrestling with him since Hillsboro Kids Club often wonder the need to go through the simplest techniques at the beginning. One wrestler, who paid attention despite his experience, was Tanner Jones.
Beginning his senior year, Jones was one of two Hillsboro wrestlers to advance to the state tournament last season. After tasting that success, O'Hare said Jones is looking for any small clues, a trick or two, to allow him take another step forward and place at Hays as a 160-pound grappler.
"Tanner does exactly what he needs to," O'Hare said. "He'll take any advantage he can get out of the wrestling room."
Mental toughness is more important over an entire season. O'Hare is expecting good seasons from sophomores Jon Carey and Jesse Meier.
Powerfully built with short stature, O'Hare expects Carey to wrestle at 120 pounds this season. O'Hare marveled at Carey's motor. He said the work ethic is in place for Carey to excel. In many matches last season, O'Hare said Carey's energy would override proper technique and a potential scoring move would quickly be countered into points for an opponent.
"He did some things and looked really slick, but he gave up position and he didn't get the take down," O'Hare said.
With fewer wrestlers than the past two seasons — he only has 12 this season — O'Hare had Carey and Meier, 152 pounds, wrestling more on varsity than he would prefer. Both wrestlers struggled in their first high school season and ended the year with losing records.
Instead of contemplating whether to continue with the sport in the offseason, Meier decided to continue and wrestle in the spring with the Hillsboro club team. Meier turned a corner in the club state tournament, winning multiple matches and holding his own against some of the best wrestlers in the state in his age group.
"When I ask them to do something, they're going to do it as hard as they can," O'Hare said of Carey and Meier. "They're going to be nice leaders for us down the road because of work ethic."
O'Hare understands that staying with the sport is difficult when wrestlers are learning it. Two freshmen listed at 182 pounds, Zac Gharemanzadeh and Levi Mendoza, started wrestling as seventh graders. They struggled mightily their first season. Last season, Mendoza only lost one match and Gharemanzadeh improved leaps and bounds. They may be faced with a similar situation this season and O'Hare will try to keep their confidence up as much as possible.
"If we can hold on to them long enough, they're hooked," O'Hare said.
Besides Jones and Nelson, there are three other experienced wrestlers poised for success.
Junior Cody Delk and freshman Austin Cross are mismatched in age but similar in terms of height and length. Delk is over 6 feet and listed to wrestle at either 145 or 152 pounds. Cross is about 6-4 and O'Hare wants him to wrestle at 138 pounds. Delk has wrestled with Kids Club. Cross comes to Hillsboro with a youth wrestling background in several locations in Kansas and Ohio. O'Hare wants to drill each wrestler to use a considerable advantage in length.
"Me and coach Schenk both ended high school career at 160," O'Hare said. "We both hated wrestling taller lanky wrestlers."
While Cross and Delk are about equals, Tyrell Thiessen stands alone, even with two other 285-pound wrestlers on the Hillsboro roster, junior Matt Reeh and sophomore Dermot Morey. In his first year wrestling in high school, Thiessen advanced to the state tournament and won a match.
Thiessen possesses exceptional quickness for his weight, giving him an advantage against most wrestlers in his class. O'Hare said the onus for Thiessen is twofold. The first is to continue to build a solid foundation of technique.
"Every year he's been in high school his work ethic has improved," O'Hare said.
The second point of emphasis is keeping Thiessen healthy over the course of an entire season. Thiessen struggled last season with small injuries and illness. He begins his senior campaign with a nagging ankle injury incurred in the last game of football season.
The wrestling season begins Thursday with a home dual meet with Halstead and Minneapolis. The first major tournament is Dec. 8 in Hesston.


text:
There have been many tributes to the Constitution but the highest tribute of all is the willingness of a person to take the time to study it.
The Constitution is an exciting charter for human freedom that establishes nearly 300 vested rights as they apply to various segments of the American society. Many people do not know the nature of these rights or how too protect them. This is why many of those rights have been eroded or lost.
This book is designed to revive a better understanding of
's great Charter of Liberty by using one of the oldest teaching methods ever invented - asking questions. It was used so extensively by the famous Greek philosopher, Socrates, that it is often referred to as the "Socratic method of teaching" -teaching by asking questions. America


text:
|2009-05-14, 02:56
|Link #1
ARCAM Spriggan agent
The purpose of this thread is to discuss the setting for Valkyria Chronicles. You can feel free to discuss the different aspects of the setting, from the countries involved, to the current conflict, to the military organizations and so on. Anything technology or hardware related should go in the Weapons and Technology thread. http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=80859
In particular, I get the feeling that there can be spoilers lurking in some of the background material, so please use those spoiler tags!
Thread Guidelines
Principality of Gallia
The Principality of Gallia, located in between the Atlantic Federation to the West and the Eastern Europan Imperial Alliance to the east, is known for its neutrality with the policy of universal conscription among its nationals to serve in the Gallian military and its richness in ragnite ore.
Its capital is located in Randgriz, with the government being led by a Prime Minister and the throne being led by the House of Randgriz. Its currency is the ducat.
East European Imperial Alliance
A union nations in the eastern regions of the Europan continent under the East Europan Emperor. It is known by all informally as "the Empire".
Its origin is traced back to the Industrial Revolution, when ragnite was harnessed as an energy source which resulted in the creation of many east Europan nations. There are, however, joined by a network of marriages among their royalty.
The Empire holds customs dating back from medieval times, including a strong hatred for the Darcsen people for the "Darcsen Calamity".
Atlantic Federation
A union of West Europan democracies created during the Industrial Revolution, they are known informally as "the Federation".
Thanks to the Industrial Revolution and with the discovery of ragnite, many west Europan countries underwent many revolutions that resulted in the creation of democratic states. A Councilor is the head of the Federation, though there are rare agreements with the Federation's members.
It is rumored that alliances were gained by blackmail and secret agreements.
Last edited by Yu Ominae; 2009-05-14 at 22:23.
|2009-05-14, 22:29
|Link #6
ARCAM Spriggan agent
|2009-05-14, 23:16
|Link #7
Observer/Bookman wannabe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 33
While I can understand why Max wants Gallia, I don't get the Federation's attempts to stir the pot. They think that they can get a cheap victory at the Empire's expense or what?
|2009-05-15, 00:07
|Link #8
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
You mean interfering in Gallia? Gallia has huge deposits of ragnite and the entire reason for the second Europa War was due to growing scarcity of it in the Empire and Federation. Securing Gallia for any side would mean they would have a distinct advantage over the other.
|2009-05-15, 00:56
|Link #9
Observer/Bookman wannabe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 33
Ah, the old "conquest for resources" gambit. But, given the Federation's MO, I would have expected them to use commercial ways to secure the ragnite. A well-worded treaty would be more useful than provoking a full-scale war.
|2009-05-15, 01:30
|Link #10
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Eh, they probably tried years ago. However when you've got an institutional system of training all your citizens for warfare AND the resources to build/purchase supplies for them all AND have a few genius weapon designers like Professor Theimer... well... I'm betting Gallia thumbed their noses at a deal because it wouldn't benefit them at all.
Also, given the way that they're portrayed in the game it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that a number of small nation states were forced into joining the Federation rather than willingly joining.
If Maximillian hadn't invaded Gallia there was a distinct possibility that the Federation would have still tried to strong-arm them into joining through an invasion.
|2009-05-15, 01:30
|Link #11
ARCAM Spriggan agent
Spoiler for Game spoilers I guess. Better be safe than sorry:
|2009-05-15, 03:30
|Link #12
Observer/Bookman wannabe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 33
The Fed reminds me of the side Westwood/EA created for their Dune games: the Ordos. No doubt, there is a ruling cartel behind. I wonder who their "first among equals" is?
|2009-05-15, 17:31
|Link #14
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Really hoping that Sega expands on the series so we can actually learn more about the setting. I love these sorts of alternative universe Earth stories, like Harry Turtledove books.
After all, while Gallia is heavily fleshed out, we know only small portion of what there is to know about the Empire and even less about the Federation, let alone the rest of the VC world.
|2009-05-19, 00:45
|Link #15
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
I've never played the game, and I'm curious about a few things:
1. What are the sizes of the respective militaries? By all appearances, the Imperial army is the largest of the three belligerents, but by how much? And how much of that force has been sent to the Gallia campaign?
2. What's the relationship between the Gallian Militia and Regular forces, and their respective sizes? I would presume that the Regulars were the standing pre-war military, and the Militia are the conscript soldiers called up to active duty at the beginning of hostilities. However, do the Regulars get their forces enlarged by conscripted troops as well, or do they all go into the Militia?
3. How heavy is the fighting in Gallia? From the beginning, I assumed that the Imperials were in danger of overrunning Gallia, but from the relaxed attitude of the Gallian soldiers and their ability to counterattack seems to refute that. Maximillian is supposed to be some sort of strategic genius, but the lack of action seems to belie that. Is the section of the front where Squad 7 is just really quiet, or has the Imperial force stalled, or are the Imperials just not that good?
By the way, if the answers are spoiler territory, please don't answer them.
|2009-05-19, 01:01
|Link #16
ARCAM Spriggan agent
Spoiler for Answer:
Spoiler for Answer:
Spoiler for Answer:
|2009-05-19, 01:15
|Link #17
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
1) Funnily enough, the game implies that even though the Imperials have a massive standing army... they're actually the technologically superior force rather than the numerically superior force. Their tanks, weapons, training methods, etc, are all leaps and bounds ahead of the Federation.
The Federation on the other hand relies primarily on numbers and quickly churning out massive numbers of tanks and weapons thanks to their better industry and commerce capabilities, but overall they're somewhat like Soviet Russia during WW2 without the T-34 and more money.
As for the size of the force sent to Gallia, I would suggest that it isn't too large. Maybe 100,000 to 300,000 soldiers tops? (Though Selvaria counts as a few thousand soldiers all by herself as episode 8 will likely show.) The Empire wants it for the ragnite, or at least to keep it out of the clutches of the Federation, but overall its not exceedingly valuable. Hence why an Imperial Prince out of favour was sent there. Except that Max volunteered...
2) Exactly as you said, except the Militia originally comprised of volunteers rather than conscripts. As the war goes on in the game you read newspaper articles about various stages of conscription however.
Technically I believe the Militia are meant to be put under the command of Regulars officers like Captain Varrot and then incorporated fully into the Gallian army. The reality is that Damon goes for segregation, hence why things seem clunky. As further evidence of said segregation, the reality is that Captain Varrot is ex-Europa War 1 Militia who stayed on after said war, and thus likely why she was put in charge.
3) So far Squad 7 have been deployed against:
- The "arrow point" of an extremely long blitzkreig thrust. (The bridge.)
- The far south east supply camps of the Imperial army when the major thrusts came from the east and north east.
- The Barious Desert, a place with no strategic worth, no ragnite, no nothing.
So yeah. Not exactly the full force of the Imperial army, but enough to cause issues.
Also, since the blitz against the bridge was pushed back, no Imperial forces have been advancing against Randgriez, which is where the militia base is located. The far north of the country, where the majority of Gallia's ragnite deposits and industry are located, are probably all under Imperial control by this stage of the anime.
|2009-05-20, 14:30
|Link #18
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
The answers to my questions don't seem to have any spoilers, so I'm going to drop the spoiler tags.
|2009-05-20, 16:04
|Link #19
ARCAM Spriggan agent
Another good question is how the regs replenish their ranks. Not sure how I can answer that.
|2009-05-20, 17:00
|Link #20
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Seriously. Dude had a hand in just about every single weapon upgrade in the game except for about... maybe 3 of them?
As for the Federation, I would say they would be a copy of the massively underprepared pre-involvement in WW2 Soviet Russia. From the info in the game it sounds like they were pushed hard at the start until they re-wired all their industry into making weaponry and conscripting soldiers. Only then could they hold their own.
1) Maximillian is very very very patient. He's been waiting ~15 years for revenge, knows he has the superior force, and mentioned a key facet of his desires for taking Gallia in episode 7. He didn't want to invade any faster and further until he learned that in case he potentially harmed it.
2) The nobles decide when and who the militia will conscript. Damon is the current favoured noble lackey of the man who makes those decisions. Guess who's getting incorrect and biased information about the war's progress?
Spoiler for Third Point:
Spoiler for Largish Game Spoilers, though not overly important ones:
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text: Tender Wizard is an exclusive, most vibrant end to end solution for buying / selling of products and services through tendering process. It supports A - Z activities of tendering based on proactive work flow concept. Fine details of tendering like vendor registration, tender announcement and corrigendum, tender form processing, opening, negotiation and tender awarding are supported in a real time interactive environment. Tender Wizard creates a true dynamic market place for both buyers and vendors to interact with each other and transact business.


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Best Western The Rose And Crown Colchester3
East Street, Colchester, CO1 2TZ
Price FromView Rooms
- Very Good
- 146 guest reviews
"Charm if you're looking for lots of character and a warm welcome, this quirky hotel has both. Staff were always friendly and willing to help..."
"A hotel full of character with contemporary comfortable rooms..."
"Staff were excellent! Very helpful when my safe wouldn't work with all my personal things in it, was quickly resolved & I enjoyed the compli..."
"On arrival I was told that the twin room I requested was actually a double (I was with my father). Credits to the hotel they re-arranged thi..."
"Lovely hotel full of history. Nice spacious room, excellent shower facilities. Fantastic food. Good selection of types of drink. Plenty of p..."
About the hotel
The oldest Hotel in England's oldest recorded town. The BEST WESTERN Rose and Crown Hotel, originally a 14th century posting house, lovingly restored to a modern day hotel. Twelve Superior rooms renovated October 2013 with, Eco LED Lighting, Superior Soft Furnishings and beverages, including mineral water and hot chocolate, Contemporary art work, Safes, I Pod docking station and Ultra modern bathrooms with rainfall shower, no touch mirror lighting giving a very clean & crisp look.
Alternatively, choose from the historic oak beamed rooms in the original house, or the more contemporary rooms in the Executive building. Free Wifi throughout the hotel. The Tudor Bar Brasserie offers a wide selection of dishes from pub classics to contemporary fair and for those cold winter nights a real log fire to welcome you to enjoy a real ale or fine wine. The hotel is within walking distance of Colchester Town centre (15 minutes) and accessible to all the historic sights of East Anglia. The BEST WESTERN Rose & Crown in Colchester was awarded Best Business Tourism Initiative for Essex.
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- Main
- Hotel Non-Smoking Throughout, Disabled Facilities, 24 Hour Reception, Cots available, Wedding Licence, Safety Deposit Box, Tea/Coffee making facilities in each room, Hairdryer in each room, Iron And Board In Each Room, Telephone In Each Room, Limited Hours Room Service, Limited room service for hot food, Wake Up Call Available, Ground floor bedrooms
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- Car parking available onsite
- Business
- Wi-Fi Available, In-room Broadband, Wi-Fi Available In Public Areas, Wi-Fi Available In Rooms
- Dining
- Restaurant, Lounge Menu, Bar
- In Room Entertainment
- TV, Satellite TV
- Accessibility
- Disabled Access Public Areas, Disabled Access Bedrooms, Disabled toilets on ground floor, Wheelchair Access, Wheelchair Access To Conference Rooms, Wheelchair Access To Disabled Car Parking Spaces
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- 20/02/2013 to 31/12/2022 - *Please note that the rooms in the main building have beams and low ceilings, as this is a period property. Guests can contact the hotel if this is a problem and rooms can be allocated accordingly.* The price shown is based on the occupancy and dates you have searched for. Prices and availability are subject to change based on the arrival date, number of nights and occupancy searched for. All prices are inclusive of all local taxes.
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BEST WESTERN The Rose And Crown Colchester
Charm if you're looking for lots of character and a warm welcome, this quirky hotel has both.
Staff were always friendly and willing to help...
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A hotel full of character with contemporary comfortable rooms...


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Lute / Theorbo » Lute » Lute solo » sds012
Le jouer du luth. Bulletin de la Société Française de Luth, Décembre 2011... La presentation est particulièrement esthétique et soignée : couverture couleur, bonne introduction ... plus tablature claire et aérée sur papier ivoire ... (PB)
Nostalgia - Newsletter from the Lute & Early Guitar Society Japan (November 2011)... The preface by Michael Treder, who is also responsible for the editing of the partita, informs us Kalivoda was from Prague, and this Partita by his hand comes from the so-called Buenos Aires manuscript. Having just played through music by the great Couperin and Weiss, Kalivoda's music appears a little dull, but this is not fair, as it has attractive melodic qualities and certainly deserves its place in this fine series by Ut Orpheus ... (David van Ooijen)


text:
Little Theatre of the Rockies celebrated its 75th anniversary season on Friday with the announcement of the Tom McNally Scholarship, a special performance of "The Sunshine Boys" and a barroom remembrance for late actor David Richards.
But the festivities were significantly dampened by the explosive news earlier in the day that longtime University of Northern Colorado professor of theater Vance Fulkerson had been arrested on the felony charge of sexual exploitation of children; as well as misdemeanor charges of unlawful sexual contact, and suspicion of marijuana possession.
Here is our slideshow from Friday's festivities:
Photos by John Moore and Catherine E. Worster Freeland.
Little Theatre is the university's professional summer-stock theater program – at 75, the oldest theater company in the state of Colorado. To catch up on all three of these stories: Read more…


text:
Bayview Eden Melbourne is ideal for business and leisure travellers alike. Situated adjacent to Albert Park Golf Course and Lake, the hotel is close to all Melbourne has to offer.
As you enter the lobby you will be greeted by a ten-metre wide stained glass masterpiece that depicts Melbourne's Princess Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral from the 1800's. Each of the 180 guest rooms and 12 suites offer the pleasurable comfort of home, which are designed to ensure a stay that is both restful and productive.
Bayview Eden Melbourne features 24 hour reception and room service, 17 metre indoor heated swimming pool, billiards room, rooftop health club including sauna, spa, gymnasium and rooftop terrace.
There is a business centre, complimentary WiFi and on-site undercover car parking for your convenience. Although please note charges apply for these services.
Bayview Eden Melbourne also has a flexible Grand Ballroom with up to five individual rooms.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner can be enjoyed in the Niche Cafe, where you can choose from international cuisine and an extensive wine list or grab an early morning coffee at Niche Cocktail Bar. Open seven days a week until late and serves light meals and drinks all day.
Superior King Room
Fully Refurbished in 2017. Well-appointed for work, rest or play, the superior queen rooms comprise of a comfortable queen size bed, intimate sitting area, and generous ensuite bathroom with a shower over the bath. The room also feature LCD flat screen television, paid movie channels and Fox Sports, large working desk, iron and ironing board, tea and coffee facilities, in-room safe and hairdryer and make up mirror.
Superior Twin Room
Fully refurbished in 2017. Superior twin rooms offer two king single beds, providing the perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle of Melbourne. Relax with an intimate sitting area and ensuite bathroom with a shower over the bath.
Junior Suite
The Junior Suites each have prime corner positioning giving them maximum natural light and views of Albert Park Lake and 18-hole Golf Course. The room features a king size bed, ensuite and separate living area that offers ample seating including a dining table, chairs and couch.
King Suite
You will love the picturesque views of Albert Park Lake and Golf Course from the king suites. You can work in the comfort of your room or from the spacious living area then unwind on your luxurious king bed. Your bathroom comes with a separate shower and bath spa.
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Internet Points:
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Map pins are available via the tab key in a list after the map.
You can pan the map with the keyboard arrows.
-37.8377897 144.973939


text:
The Role of Hormones in the Development of Mast Cell Tumors in Animals
Dear OncoLink "Ask the Experts,"
I was wondering if any research has been done on the effects of hormones like estrogen on keeping dog Mast Cell Tumors (MCT) in check? I know it may just be coincidence, but my Rhodesian ridgeback had one MCT for 3 yrs, and after she was spayed, developed 4 more within the next year (which have been removed). Just curious if there is any new research out there!
Lili Duda, VMD, Editor of the OncoLink Veterinary Oncology Section Menu, responds:
There is nothing in the veterinary literature to indicate that estrogens play much of a role in canine mast cell tumors. The little anecdotal evidence that exists is contradictory. On the one hand, some evidence suggests that estrogen receptors are present on malignant mast cells. This would suggest that estrogens might promote tumor cell growth, and removal of estrogen would cause tumors to regress. On the other hand, there is a syndrome of multicentric mast cell tumors in young Siamese cats that typically regresses spontaneously as the cats mature. In addition, there is a mastocytosis syndrome in adolescents that regresses when they reach puberty (it should be noted however that the human disease differs significantly from the canine and feline disease.


text:
Sycoca - KDE's System Configuration Cache
Sycoca stands for System Configuration Cache and is nominated to be the successor of kregistry. It is a light weight database optimized for looking up static system configuration information fast and with minimal memory usage.
The database will offer read-only access to many clients at once. The database is read-only which means that looking up can be very fast since no locking or transaction operations need to be performed. The database is created/updated by kbuildsycoca from human readable configuration files. kded monitors these configuration files and will call kbuildsycoca to update the database when a change in any of the configuration files is detected.
Updating the database will mean that the database is replaced as a whole by a more up to date version. This approach allows a very straight forward database implementation. With Sycoca it will not be necessary any more to parse multiple files when looking for static system information. Instead Sycoca can return the requested information with a performance near to O(1). Examples of static system information are mimetype bindings and .desktop information (servicetypes). Application specific configuration information will _NOT_ be stored in Sycoca since this information is usually subject to regular change.
Applications never use sycoca directly but always through classes provided by the KDE framework. The following classes use sycoca to obtain their information:
KSycocaDict offers a fast lookup-index based on string keys. Creation of the index is reasonably slow, but once the index has been created information can be found with a small number of steps nearly independent from the data size.
During creation KSycocaDict creates a hash-function and a hash-index which is populated for approximately 20% and which has a typical hash collision chance of 10%.
This means that existing objects can be found at once in 90% of the time. In the other 10% the collision list has to be searched. A collision list typically contains 2 entries.
Not existing objects have a chance of 20% to give a false hit. A hit should therefore always be verified by loading the actual object.
KSycocaDict is used by the KSycocaFactories to be able to create fast lookup functions for the objects it maintains.
KServiceTypeFactory is repsonsible for the following classes:
KServiceFactory is responsible for the following classes:
Implementation notes:
Initial Author: Waldo Bastian email@example.com


text:
The Internet of Things is like a grand industrial equivalent of a very badly run party—guests who aren't sure where they're going and don't speak…
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- 10/07/19 @ 04:07 biometric technology in banking Biometric technology has changed the way banks and financial institutions are creating a safe zone for customers. Voice recognition, fingerprint ID, and iris recognition is nearly 100% unbreakable ways to provide reliable security system and solve safety issues for banks and financial services. This technology has improved and simplified security systems.
- 02/07/19 @ 05:07 Dominic Pallone Any updates on this? I'd like a DDL TOO!
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They'll arrive in the dead of night on the cobblestone streets of Manhattan's Gansevoort Market, where meatpackers have been plying their broad-shouldered trade along the Hudson River for more than a century.
While some Chicagoans quietly shun the "Hog Butcher for the World" label, that Carl Sandburg hung on the city, many businesses and residents in Gansevoort are loudly embracing their meatpacking past.
For more than two years, advocates have been fighting to turn this working-class neighborhood northwest of Greenwich Village into a historic district. Their arguments have caught the ear of city officials, who have begun preparing to designate the area a landmark.
As the sidewalks oozed green with cleaning fluid one recent morning, and the meatpacking plants disgorged fat and bone that would be turned into soap and fertilizer, proponents stood outside explaining the reasoning behind the proposal.
"It's an entire area composed of what I would call `everyday masterpieces,'" said Thomas Mellins, an architectural historian.
He pointed to the area's one- and two-story meat processing plants, which have metal awnings supporting a pulley system of meat hooks that bring carcasses into the plants. Other meat market buildings in the area were designed by architects who endowed them with neo-Greek sills and lintels and other stylistic flourishes. Among the architects: Boring and Tilton, the firm that designed the Immigration Station on Ellis Island.
"What you are preserving is rooted in the architecture, but it is about the place," Mellins said. "It represents a new level of sophistication that the preservation movement understands--place is worth preserving, too."
In Chicago, however, far too many "everyday masterpieces" are being discarded like so much gristle.
The city has a national reputation for being a vigilant protector of marquee landmarks designed by such renowned architects as Frank Lloyd Wright and Daniel Burnham. But Chicago is much less careful about safeguarding the lesser-known architectural gems, that give its neighborhoods their character.
Hundreds are gone, a Tribune investigation has discovered, even though the city, in a 12-year study it conducted that cost more than $1.2 million, identified them as architecturally or historically important. The demolished structures--more than 200--ranged from Spanish Baroque theaters to Georgian mansions to Queen Anne taverns.
Chicago "is one of the largest cities with one of the greatest architectural traditions," said Jim Peters, a former landmarks staffer in Chicago and director of planning for the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, a statewide advocacy group.
When it comes to historic preservation, he said, the city "deserves more than what it has."
On Thursday, the Chicago City Council is expected to approve a proposal sponsored by Mayor Richard M. Daley that will place a 90-day hold on demolition permits for buildings that are rated red or orange, the two highest categories assigned by the city's color-coded survey. During those 90 days, the matter would be referred to the city's Landmarks Division, which could give the building landmark protection, effectively halting demolition. At best, though, Daley's plan will have minimal impact, not only because many structures are raised illegally, without demolition permits, but also because the proposal is full of loopholes.
As alternative approaches around the city and country show, there's much more that can be done to counter the demolition machine that is devastating Chicago's neighborhoods and is doing even more harm in cities such as Detroit. That machine is fueled by government officials who tear down structures they deem unsafe and by developers who are replacing small old ones with huge new structures that dwarf their neighbors.
The alternatives grow from a different set of assumptions than those governing the actions of officials and developers in Chicago: Everyday buildings can be as important as architectural masterpieces in defining a city's character. As U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) stated in a letter to city officials supporting the meat market as a historic district: "The remaining vestiges of this industry still permeate this eclectic neighborhood, giving it a flavor like no other."
The noise and stench
Illustrating how Chicago often fails to grasp that philosophy, officials have pushed meat markets out of gentrifying neighborhoods such as Lake View after young professionals complained about the noise of trucks and the stench that Upton Sinclair, in "The Jungle," described as "an elemental odor, raw and crude."
The same situation is playing out differently in New York's working-class Gansevoort Market neighborhood, where boutiques, galleries and fine restaurants are moving in next door to the meatpackers that have defined the area for so long. But here, instead of trying to drive the meatpackers out, many residents are working with them to protect the diverse neighborhood that Gansevoort has become.
After dark an active night life swings into action, with coarse biker bars such as Hogs & Heifers and trendy nightclubs setting the tone for the neighborhood.
By 2 a.m., as the clubs are closing, the meatpackers take over the streets. Shipments of carcasses and boxed meat from Chicago and elsewhere come in, and the scraps are hauled out.
The 24-hour cycle is not tearing the neighborhood apart. It may be what saves it. Those seeking historic designation want to preserve everything that has evolved here.
"You can't have a meat market without meat people," said Robert S. Wilkins, owner of Lamb Unlimited Inc. on Washington Street in the Gansevoort district, down the block from Hogs & Heifers.
"We were here first. But we all feed off of each other."
Wilkins is undecided whether he supports designation as a historic district. As a business owner, he's wary of any new layer of city bureaucracy.
But he knows that developers are eyeing the neighborhood for huge residential towers that would be out of character with the low-slung packing plants. And he knows that no matter how "quaint" new residents might think the meatpackers are when they move in, soon they'll get a whiff of that "elemental odor" Sinclair described.
"It would put us out of business," he said. "The presence of residential creates problems. Our industry at night has certain noises, certain odors, certain dangers. You wouldn't want children running around with all these trucks on the street."
Rather than dismissing the meat market's advocates as hopelessly nostalgic, New York officials are working closely with them.
Mary Beth Betts, director of research at the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, said the studies conducted by Mellins and other supporters of a meat market historic district have helped persuade the city to give the proposal full consideration.
"You do have a very unique sense of place there," Betts said.
"It's not about stopping change," added Jo Hamilton, co-chair of the Save Gansevoort Market group pushing designation as a historic district. "Change has been very much a part of this neighborhood."
"In the end, it's about the meatpackers," she said. "It's about the fact this is a working neighborhood. There are not trash baskets on the corners. There are not trees trying to make anything pretty. There is no pretense here. People are working. You see it. You feel it."
The effort to save such landmarks evolved quickly after the dawn of the preservation movement here, which was spurred by the destruction of New York's grandly scaled, Beaux-Arts Penn Station in 1963 and led to the creation of New York's landmarks commission in 1965. Today, the New York preservation movement is a political powerhouse, one that is every bit a match for the city's clout-heavy developers.
You could even call it a preservation machine.
The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission has jurisdiction over 79 historic districts and more than 22,000 historic properties, including buildings in historic districts and 1,109 individual landmarks. That's nearly 3 percent of all the buildings in the city.
By comparison, Chicago is very much the Second City, with 35 historic districts and more than 4,800 historic properties, including buildings in historic districts and 178 individual landmarks. That's roughly 1 percent of the city's building stock.
In other words, New York has given legal protection to the same percentage of structures that Chicago merely identified in the historic buildings survey between 1983 and 1995.
Chicago listed 17,371 buildings in the survey, including thousands that already were protected as city landmarks. The rest got no safeguards, and now, a simple spot check of 23 of the city's 77 community areas by the Tribune found more than 200 of them are gone.
More personnel
Another revealing difference: The size of New York's landmark commission staff, 48 compared with the equivalent of 10 1/2 in Chicago.
The big staff is needed to review permits for the city's sprawling array of landmarks, yet it also allows New York to undertake such ambitious efforts as the 2,000-building Upper West Side Historic District, which ranges from the clifflike wall of apartment towers along Central Park West to busy storefronts along Columbus Avenue. The district took nine years of fieldwork, meetings with residents, and other work by 15 commission staffers.
"New York seems to allocate the resources that are needed there," said Peters, of the Landmarks Preservation Council.
The impact of the New York landmarks staff is magnified because for years it has cultivated a strong working relationship with the city's Department of Buildings -- even though that department is charged with building the new rather than saving the old.
For example, if the preservation commission learns that a building it mightwant to protect is in danger of demolition, it informally asks officials in the buildings department to hold off until a decision can be made about its worthiness as a landmark.
That sort of cooperation has been fostered at the highest levels of city government.
"It comes from the top," said Sherida Paulsen, the immediate past chair of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. "A mayor or city manager has to say landmarks are important to our city."
In Chicago, by contrast, a lack of cooperation between the Buildings Department and the Landmarks Division sparked a furor last year when the billionaire Crown family asked for -- and received -- a permit to demolish the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Building at 300 W. Washington St. Preservationists were enraged that the Mercantile Exchange, which was rated orange in the Chicago survey, was given a death sentence with no debate.
The chief reason for the disparity between the two cities: New York, unlike Chicago, has a vast network of preservation activists, and they speak early and often on behalf of historic buildings, large and small.
City Hall gets the message.
"There's a really good preservation advocacy network in New York City," Paulsen said. "When I talked to the commission staff in Chicago, they said they felt there wasn't as much neighborhood interest and support in Chicago. We get phone calls from people saying, `This work is going on -- do you know about it?'
"It's like a spy network," Paulsen said. "But it works."
Alan Solomon, for example, has 211 Pearl St. in lower Manhattan under surveillance.
A real estate broker and amateur historian, Solomon was asked by tenants of the Pearl Street building to look into its history when they began hearing rumblings about its impending doom.
He discovered that it was built in 1832 by William Colgate -- founder of the Colgate-Palmolive soap company. The five-story Greek Revival structure at one time was a prominent building in the city's wholesale dry goods district. It became one of the few buildings of its kind to survive a devastating 1835 fire in New York.
But the building is not designated a landmark, and so had no official protection under New York law.
Last month, according to Solomon, a developer got a permit to demolish the building to make way for an apartment tower.
When Solomon learned of those plans, he contacted a citywide preservation group, which contacted the developer and the Landmarks Preservation Commission -- setting in motion a chain of events that is common in New York.
Now, city officials are negotiating with the developer to see how the building can be preserved. Since those talks are under way, officials would not comment on the case, or even confirm whether a demolition permit had been issued. Although the building's fate is still uncertain, past experience in New York suggests that its chances for survival are good.
"I'm a lay person awakened to the value of preservation," Solomon said. "What it means to the city, and how we make decisions about what to keep and not to keep and what we will pass on to other generations."
This individual activism is backed by a panoply of institutions, from neighborhood groups to community councils to citywide organizations such as the Municipal Arts Society, which has spun off an advocacy group for historic districts and another group that raises money for historic preservation.
The New York Landmarks Conservancy, a 30-year-old private non-profit group, provides about $1 million per year in low-interests loans and another $800,000 to $1 million in grants that help building owners with the upkeep of landmark buildings. And the conservancy provides technical assistance.
Preserving in poor neighborhoods
Some historic districts are in the poorer neighborhoods of Harlem and Brooklyn, where owners often have trouble getting bank loans needed to maintain their buildings. Typically, homeowners are eligible for loans of between $40,000 and $100,000 from the conservancy. Businesses and cultural groups also are eligible.
"A lot of it is for roof repairs," said Peg Breen, president of the conservancy. "Masonry repairs. Shoring up a foundation."
No similar group has arisen to help finance historic preservation in Chicago.
While New York illustrates one path of preservation for Chicago, Detroit embodies the opposite route. It is a city where, on many blocks, there are more vacant lots than buildings. This should come as no surprise. The city's automotive industry has shaped a mind-set that old is bad and new is good, so historic preservation has taken a back seat to demolition.
"This is the city of the annual new model," said William Worden, director of the city advisory board that reviews historic buildings.
For decades, as its white population fled to the suburbs and left acres of vacant buildings behind, Detroit bulldozed thousands of those structures, including some that might have wound up on the National Register of Historic Places.
Demolition is so much a part of the city's culture that in 2001, when he was running for mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick pledged to knock down 5,000 abandoned and dangerous buildings in his first year in office. After he was elected, he found there wasn't enough money in the budget to fuel such a ravenous demolition machine.
Even so, Detroit spent $8.5 million last year knocking down 1,995 dangerous buildings. On one street that Worden's department surveyed, officials found that 90 percent of the houses were gone.
Some neighborhoods are so devastated that officials simply write them off. They search these areas for potential National Register structures -- not so much in hope of placing them on the coveted list, but to ensure that such buildings aren't there. The reason: Areas without them can be bulldozed more quickly.
There are alternatives to the demolition machine, however -- some of them already being practiced in Chicago.
One example is in the South Side ward of Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), which is dotted with graystones, red brick rowhouses and Queen Annes. But in the 1980s, it was on its way to becoming another Detroit.
Under the previous alderman, Tim Evans, the city was razing the ward's old buildings rather than saving them. "We have a wonderful community that had been nibbled away over the years," Preckwinkle said.
Now the ward contains three landmark districts -- two of which are unusual because they are not composed of entire blocks of historic structures, but rather are made up of clusters of buildings over a large area.
As an option to tearing down the neighborhood and starting with a blank slate, the buildings in the landmark districts act as a model for new construction. Developers fill in the gaps between them.
"Here's my favorite in-fill housing," Preckwinkle said as she pulled up to two new three-flats at 4510 and 4512 S. Greenwood Ave., both mirror images of a neighboring 110-year-old Gothic Revival three-flat at 4514 S. Greenwood, with its domed turrets, balcony and columns.
There is much that the city could be doing instead of razing old buildings. Preckwinkle said the city should have a program that bricks up abandoned buildings, the equivalent of mothballing them for future use. That can be expensive and involves the problem of officials having to monitor and maintain the buildings.
Another alternative to rampant demolition can be found in the Near Northwest Side enclave of Ukrainian Village, where residents banded together after mammoth new apartment buildings began eroding the character of their community. That character was exemplified by tidy brick cottages and two-flats, with small but carefully maintained front gardens.
Standing in front of a massive eight-flat at 2140 W. Haddon Ave., longtime resident George Matwyshyn said: "This totally disrupts the neighborhood character of our village here. . . . You probably had a bungalow there before."
Matwyshyn was a leader in the yearlong effort to have a portion of the community designated a landmark. Nearly a dozen coffees were held block by block to sell the idea to residents. At least 20 people were at each coffee, and no opposition was raised, clearing the way for Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd) to embrace the idea.
"We felt it was the only way to preserve our neighborhood from the construction companies and developers," Matwyshyn said.
The effort was crowned with success on Dec. 4 when the City Council designated much of the northern part of Ukrainian Village as a landmark. Local preservationists are now trying to have another large section of the area given landmark designation.
To be sure, landmark districts are not universally loved. Many property owners oppose the districts because they have to get permission from bureaucrats for even minor alterations to the exteriors of their homes and businesses.
But property values for homes in historic districts typically are higher than those for comparable homes outside the districts, a recent study in New York by the city's Independent Budget Office showed.
Boosting economic growth
And in some commercial districts that have been given landmark status, designation has helped trigger economic growth.
Perhaps New York's best known example is SoHo, with its classic cast-iron architecture. In the 30 years since it was designated a historic district, SoHo has morphed from a den of artists to quirky little stores, then to boutiques and then fancier stores.
"It still has the beautiful 19th Century architecture," said Simeon Bankoff, the director of the Historic Districts Council, a coalition of 125 perservation groups. "It is a good thing. We saved that place. And today it is vibrant. On the other hand, you have the big "g" word -- gentrification."
Landmark designation was even more directly responsible for the economic explosion of Manhattan's Ladies' Mile, about 150 buildings stretching from 16th Street to 23rd Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway. The district consists mainly of 19th Century commercial buildings, including the city's first department stores.
By the 1970s and 1980s, many were vacant or underused. Residents began pushing for a historic district, arguing that the commercial buildings should be preserved before they were demolished or altered too significantly. Historic designation came in 1989.
Today, the buildings of Ladies' Mile are filled with tenants, like a Barnes and Noble and home furnishing stores, that were perfectly suited to the cavernous spaces of the former department stores.
"It seemed kind of rundown before," Bankoff said. "Now, it doesn't at all. It's bright and vibrant, with a lot of economic activity that was spurred by making it a historic district."
What about Chicago?
Can Chicago replicate such turnarounds?
If the city broadened its commitment to historic preservation, would it see more of the successes that New York has routinely accomplished?
In Chicago, the controversy over the Mercantile Exchange Building led to Daley's proposal for a 90-day delay on demolition permits for certain structures listed in the city's color-coded survey. But the question is whether Chicago will use that measure as a jumping-off point to craft a more meaningful package of reforms.
"We know that this isn't going to stop the demolition of all orange-rated buildings, but it will give us our day in court," said Jonathan Fine, the president of Preservation Chicago, an advocacy group.
"Our work is not done. It's just beginning."
The place to start is to recognize that Chicago has entered a new era of landmark preservation.
Preservationists long ago won the battle to save high-style masterpieces like Wright's Robie House or Burnham's Reliance Building.
Now the most important challenge is to safeguard the "everyday masterpieces" that lend the city's neighborhoods their distinctiveness.
While Daley's amendment is likely to protect the mayor from future political embarrassments, such as the Mercantile Exchange, the real issue is: How many potential landmarks will it protect?
Are city officials ready to let the amendment be the start of a discussion on what else needs to be done -- or will they use it to close the door on debate about the direction of landmark preservation in Chicago?
The questions don't stop at City Hall -- they're also directed at Chicago's nearly 2.9 million residents.
Are they willing to enlist in a "spy network" that watches over all corners of the city, not just those in the spotlight? Would the wealthier ones pony up to create a loan fund for landmarks? Would they organize coffees and lobby to protect their neighborhood gems, as their fellow Chicagoans in Ukrainian Village did?
Real estate agents and developers sell Ukrainian Village to outsiders because of its character, Matwyshyn said as he walked through the neighborhood. But the tendency to tear down old structures and replace them with overlarge new ones damages that character.
"They're destroying what they came here for," he said. "The people are coming here because it's a neighborhood. It's not a transient hotel. You don't roll in and roll out."
He paused at a tall, incredibly thin four-story building at 2033 W. Iowa St., newly built and looming over nearby two-flats. "My daughter calls it the `Pencil Building,'" he said.
Such ungainly structures are extracting a toll on neighborhoods, residents and all of Chicago.
"We lose something in the transition that has no monetary value," Matwyshyn said.
"And, once it's lost, it's lost."
Tribune reporter Nathan Bierma contributed to this story.


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When you think law school, you don't necessarily think of hazing and frat houses.
Unless you're in Michigan that is.
Above The Law has a hilarious expose of the Phi Delta Phi frat at the University of Michigan Law School that apparently values very organized hazing.
Check out the email a tipster sent ATL, claiming the "law school frat is kind of out of control":
As ATL points out, "if you're going to be hazing your pledges, you should know better than to leave a paper trail — especially when it sounds like you're planning on drowning your newest members."
It also costs $75 to join Phi Delta Phi.
Belonging to a family of sorts in college, at any level, is fun and an important part of the process, but given the state of Michigan's less-than-stellar bar exam results, these students might want to focus more on their studies and less on stereotypical hazing rituals.
Head over to ATL for their full, and entertaining, analysis of Michigan Law's latest antics >
DON'T MISS: Nearly Half Of The People Who Took The Michigan Bar Exam Completely Bombed >


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Excelling at Customer Service
February 29, 2012 4 Comments
"Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude."
Ralph Marston (1907 – ) Professional Football Player in 1929
"If you want to give a great customer experience you have to align your culture and the way you reward staff. None of our customer facing staff has sales targets or sales bonuses — their rewards and bonuses are based purely on their customer satisfaction scores."
Anthony Thomson, Chairman, Metro Bank
Quote courtesy of Institute of customer service
Life has a way of taking everything in its stride and I am often compelled to go through the related emotions. Sometimes, I marvel at the way life turns corners and obviously as human beings, we all have this uncanny ability to learn from mistakes and move on by not repeating those same mistakes. We learn, change and adapt.
Organisations are very similar to us (in theory) and are supposed to learn from their mistakes, change processes to reflect that and become 'the ideal organisation.' So, I have to ask myself then, 'Why in today's day and age, are we still dealing with organisations' that are failing its customers, in terms of customer service?'
Obviously, during my life, I have had many good experiences of customer services and some pretty dire ones. The reason for writing this blog is that recently, I dealt with three organisations that should have excelled at customer service but in reality, they failed in their promise to provide even the basic levels of customer service. I have debated whether to play the 'name and shame' game but that just wouldn't be me. So, instead, I have decided to write about how to provide excellent customer service.
According to a survey conducted in the U.S. and eleven other countries in 2010, by American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, Americans Will Spend 9% More with Companies That Provide Excellent Service
Although only a little more than a third of Americans (37%) believe that companies have increased their focus on providing quality service:
- 27% feel businesses have not changed their attitude toward customer service.
- 28% say that companies are now paying less attention to good service.
So, where do I start?
Let's start with:
- Culture
According to Catherine Lovering, "Make the goal of providing excellent customer service a company-wide commitment. Put a customer-service policy in writing, and post it in a prominent place. Translate customer-service objectives into specific actions for employees to follow, such as: deliver prompt service, offer a polite demeanour, and make product information readily available."
Inc.com says, "Start by hanging on the wall a set of core values, 10 or fewer principles that include customer service ideals, suggests Susan McCartney, Maggiotto's colleague at the Buffalo SBDC. "Share them during the training, have employees sign them, and evaluate employees based on the values," she says. "But don't call them rules."
Employee training on customer service precepts should be intensive: written materials, verbal instruction, mentors, and on-the-job demonstrations all ought to be part of the coursework, says McCartney."
This theme continues in 10 Examples of Shockingly-Excellent Customer Service and 12 ways to dazzle your customers.
- Staff morale and motivation
Catherine Lovering says, "Treat your employees well, so they in turn will treat customers well. Employees will bring enthusiasm and a positive attitude to their job when they know they're appreciated and respected. Recognize employees who continually provide good customer service and praise the entire staff for their efforts. Customer-service work can be emotionally draining unless the company involved is supportive and gains the loyalty of its employees."
Inc.com says, "Companies renowned for their customer service — the online shoe retailer Zappos, for example — treat employees as they would have their employees treat their customers. "Employees take on more responsibility because they know they are appreciated and an important part of the team," says the University of Missouri's Proffer. "People who don't feel like they're part of the bigger picture, who feel like a small cog in a big machine, are not willing to go the extra mile."
Not every business can afford to shower staff with generous pay and benefits, but not every business has to. Small companies, says McCartney, can show "intense interest" in employees, in their welfare, their families, and their future — what McCartney calls the family model. It's also important to recognize an employee — publicly — for a job well done. Some companies also offer incentives for exceptional customer service, but if you can't spare the cash, you might throw an office party or offer another token of appreciation. When he was a manager at cable provider Tele-Communications Inc., for instance, Proffer personally washed the cars of notable employees."
- Knowledgeable staff
Staff need to know their products and services and that can only be achieved by a comprehensive induction and training programme for staff that not only includes products and services but also includes an initiation with an organisation's processes and knowledge of the internal and external network of people who can help resolve issues and problems. A 'can do attitude' needs to be instilled in staff right at the outset while empowering customer service staff to engage in activities that resolve the problem while highlighting to management any processes that hinder resolution. That way employees are highlighting processes that hinder the delivery of excellent customer service while improving customer service delivery at the same time.
Inc.com says, "The best salespeople spend 80 percent of their time listening, not talking," says Marc Willson, a retail and restaurant consultant for the Virginia SBDC network. Ask open-ended questions to elicit a customer's needs and wants. "
Further in the article, Proffer offers the The Five A's. method, "It's helpful to think of resolving a dispute as a five-step process called the Five A's: Acknowledge the problem. Apologize, even if you think you're right. Accept responsibility. Adjust the situation with a negotiation to fix the problem. Assure the customer that you will follow through."
- Well trained staff
Training is paramount and well trained staff needs to help customers resolve their problems regardless of how much time they have spent resolving it (within reason). Many organisations tend to operate their measuring metrics for customer services advisors' on calls closed rather than calls resolved. Well trained staff will have the ability to resolve calls and close them better than ill trained staff. Staff training should be reviewed periodically and refresher courses offered based around lessons learnt, processes improved and latest innovations in delivering better customer service.
Catherine Lovering in her article on customer service said, "Teach the staff stress-reduction methods and techniques in conflict resolution. Train staff to use language that promotes good customer service. Phrases such as "How can I help," "I don't know, but I will find out," and "I will keep you updated" let customers know that their needs will be met. It also will demonstrate a willingness to find a solution to any problem and a commitment to communicate with the customer. This dedication will go a long way toward defusing dissatisfaction among clientele."
She further adds, "Train staff to accept responsibility for errors and to apologize to upset customers. Good customer-service representatives must refrain from arguing with an upset customer and instead ask the customer what they can do to solve the problem. Advise employees to speak calmly to customers and to assure them that they'll do what they can to help. Follow up with a clear resolution to the complaint."
- Empowered staff
Catherine Lovering says, "Empower these staff members to not only deal well with upset customers on an emotional level but also to provide tangible benefits. For example, "Entrepreneur" magazine recommends giving employees the authority to give any dissatisfied customer a 10-percent discount."
The emphasis should be on, "What can we do that will make the situation better for you? Add the wow factor –"For example, one winner of The WOW! Awards is a restaurant in Leeds called Gueller's. They keep a range of prescription spectacles, just in case customers forget their own and are having difficulty reading the menu."
Give them something that will make them feel valuable. That could be a freebie, the ability to resolve their problem, following up the matter on their behalf and make them feel that their concerns have been heard and addressed (or will be addressed)
- Customer service, IT systems and process review – Capture, monitor and report
IT systems need to be setup according to effective measurement metrics. For example, it is not good enough to measure "How many calls did an agent take/close today?" An effective metric would be, "How many calls did an agent close today that was satisfactorily resolved for the customer?" Each call should also be followed up by the completion of customer satisfaction surveys and that opportunity utilised for creating other effective metrics and for highlighting process improvements.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is used extensively within the IT industry and it can be modified to deliver excellent customer service. Karen Francis of Macanta consulting says, "My opinion is that we shouldn't be too precious about what we use as long as it works for us. If an organisation is already using ITIL for the IT department and finds that it can be adapted for the non-IT departments, then why not do it.
ITIL may not cover things such as sales and marketing and HR, but if you already have effective and efficient processes for managing faults, problems, changes, inventory, capacity, business continuity, service levels and so on, why not use them for non-IT if they translate well?"
As a fan of Deming, I would like to add Danielle J Baker's thoughts, "ITIL's iterative approach and focus on continuous improvement is the basis of IT Service Management as defined by the ITIL set of best practices.
The following needs to be done prior to the installation of any IT system for customer service.
- Do we know what processes we have captured in existing systems?
- How do we go about capturing processes that are not captured by our existing systems?
- What processes can we improve, prior to using IT?
Use new innovative tools for interacting with customers, such as Desk.com (Or similar tool). According to Desk.com website, "Connect to your customers on Facebook and Twitter as easily as on traditional support channels like email, phone and web. Desk.com organizes all of your support in one place so you can respond efficiently wherever your customers reach out."
One of their client's, Bonobos said, "I was excited by the look and feel of Desk.com when I saw it. By lunchtime the next day we had switched over entirely."
- Benchmark
As a big fan of benchmarking, I highly recommend benchmarking and covered this in my blog post, IT benchmarking
Catherine Lovering said, "Create customer service benchmarks for employees to meet, and reward the workers who meet and exceed them."
- Customer service and relationship management
Catherine Lovering said, "Communicate with customers so you know what they want. Distribute surveys, request feedback, and make it easy for customers to let you know how they feel about their shopping experience. Add a personal touch to customer communication by answering comment letters with a note of thanks. Keep an eye on the competition to see how they implement customer-service policies, especially if it appears that those services are well-received by customers."
Inc.com says, "The cost of acquiring a new customer is five times that of retaining an existing one."
Contact with the organisation should be easy and should include an element of 'self service' via social media and an organisation's own website. That could include, for example, a knowledge base or frequently asked questions (FAQ). This could be done by keeping track of the most common type of service desk requests and enabling access to them via these methods.
In her excellent article, 4 Steps to Overcome Being a Pain in the Ass Call Center that I would recommend reading (All 3 parts), Dr. Jodie Monger says, "According to W. Edwards Deming, the father of the quality evolution, "workforces are only responsible for 15% of mistakes, where the system desired by management is responsible for 85% of the unintended consequences. [1]" In other words, 85% of a worker's effectiveness is entirely out of his or her control! It's rather unfortunate that it is the 15% that is under workers' control that call centers tend to focus on through quality monitoring efforts, Voice of the Customer programs, mystery shopping and the like.
A well-designed, well-executed quality program will provide a holistic view of your organization's strengths and opportunities by answering ALL four of the vital questions:
- How are we—as an organization—doing at representing our company to its customers?
- What can we—as an organization—do to improve?
- How are you—as an individual agent—doing at representing our company to its customers?
- What can we—as a management team—do to help you improve?
Note that in accordance with Deming's philosophy of systems and process management, only one of the four vital questions focuses on the activities of the worker.
What would your answers be?"
On that thought provoking question by Dr Judie Monger, I would like to end this blog and hope that this blog post contributes to even better customer service!
References and further Information:
10 Examples of Shockingly-Excellent Customer Service
12 ways to dazzle your customers
Why is Customer Service Still So Lousy?
Customer service frustration leads to lawsuit
Americans Will Spend 9% More With Companies That Provide Excellent Service
The high price of bad customer service
American Express – A story of customer service gone bad
Create a culture of excellent customer service
7 Secrets to Providing Excellent Customer Service
Providing Excellent Customer Service
Tips for excellent customer service
How to provide excellent customer service
How to deliver great customer service
How to provide excellent customer service
Salesforce.com Revolutionizes Customer Service for a Social and Mobile World with Desk.com
Using ITIL for Non-IT Purposes
How ITIL Help Desk can help SMBs?
Are you a Pain in the Ass Call Centre?
The Deming Centre for Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School
Related articles
- Excellent Customer Service does exist (killerteacup.wordpress.com)
- Good Advertising Bad Customer Service – SMX San Jose (pestcontrolseo.wordpress.com)
- "Social Customer Service is a failure" (wearesocial.net)
- Syria, Customer Service, Noir And The Godfather, Or A List Of Things To Consider (theintrepids.wordpress.com)
- Give customer service excellence (thegrinchwhostoletv.com)
- Is this approach suitably people-centered or is it customer-insensitive? (blogs.gartner.com)
- Best Jobs 2012: Customer Service Representative (money.usnews.com)
- Info-graphic: The Most Important Online CRM & Social CRM Applications | Customer Service in the Cloud (serve4impact.com)


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The Joint Commission (JC) is an independent, not-for-profit organization established over 50 years ago. JC is the world leader in evaluating the quality and safety of care delivered in over 17,000 healthcare organizations across the country--from hospitals to home care providers, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, outpatient clinics, behavioral health centers, critical access hospitals and healthcare networks.
To maintain and earn accreditation, a hospital undergoes an extensive on-site unannounced review by a select team of JC professionals such as administrators, physicians, and nurses at least once every three years. The purpose of the review is to evaluate the hospital's performance in areas that affect patient care. Through an assessment of a hospital's processes and personal visits with its patients and staff, the hospital is evaluated and scored. Accreditation may then be awarded based on how well the hospital met JC standards. Mississippi Baptist Medical Center is accredited by the Joint Commission.
Because its standards are regarded as the most rigorous in the industry, hospitals that choose to be evaluated by JC are therefore committed to providing the highest level of quality care to their patients.
A list of JC accredited hospitals and their survey results are posted in the "Quality Check"™ section of the JC website at www.jointcommission.org. You can also call JC's Customer Service Department directly at 630-792-5800 for additional information.
If you have any patient quality or safety concerns, please speak with the supervisor on duty, the Clinical Director, Nurse Manager, Risk Manager, Vice President, or Baptist Medical Center President (call 601-968-1000 or 601-968-5130) or contact the Office of Quality Monitoring at The Joint Commission (1-800-994-6610).
Baptist Medical Center has been awarded the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval ™. Additionally, Baptist has achieved Advanced Disease-Specific Certification in the area of stroke, and is recognized as a Primary Stroke Center. Baptist has also achieved Advanced Disease Specific Certification for Inpatient Diabetes. Other Disease Specific Certifications include Acute Coronary Syndrome, Heart Failure, Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery, care of Premature Infants, and Breast Cancer.
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Miss Info Spills An Inside On The Real Break Up Of Jim Jones & Cam'Ron! (Woman & Jealousy?) "I Think Kanye West is Losing Mind" + Green Lantern Speaks To Tim Westwood
Tim Westwood - Miss Info & Green Lantern interview Radio 1
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Welcome to the Space-Stars guide at TV Tome. Space Stars was an hour long and featured episodes Teen Force, Astro And The Space Mutts, The Herculoids, Space Ghost, and Space Stars Finale each show. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and premiered on NBC on September 12, 1981. On this page you will find the Teen Force, a show about three teenagers named Kid Comet, Moleculelad, and Elektra, who have to fight for their freedom; Astro And The Space Mutts, a show featuring Astro the dog from the Jetsons along with two dog friends named Cosmo and Dipper who are police officers; and Space Stars Finale which had the members of the Space Stars shows fighting bad guys.
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