text:
In which issues concerning the profession of philosophy are
bitched griped about
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Status Update
I've had three interviews, one of which went nowhere, one of which turned into a campus visit (my first), and one of which I won't find out about for another few weeks.
The interview that went nowhere was a real bummer. I was very interested in the school and I felt very good about my performance. In previous interviews, I have always completely fucked up at least one question. This interview (from my perspective, anyway) seemed to contain no fuckups and several questions I was able to connect solidly with. I'm not saying I thought it was a home run, but I felt like I did very well and I allowed myself to start believing that I had a good chance of getting invited to campus. When I didn't get it I was super, duper bummed. I subsequently was invited to campus elsewhere, and I tried to channel the negative energy from the rejection into preparing a job talk.
I am extremely, very excited about this campus-visit situation. It's a good school in a nice place. My sense of the people is that they are awesome. I would love to get this job. But that is also a source of constant stress. I think about it all the time--I can't stop myself. And I'm scared to death I'm going to jinx it every time I have a remotely positive thought or one which presupposes that I will get this job, so I have been compulsively knocking on wood. The fact that I don't believe in jinxes notwithstanding, I am at a point where I must knock on wood for every second or third thought. This must be how mental illness begins.
Soon I will report on the actual campus visit. Good luck to all--I hope things are going well.
--Mr. Zero
44 comments:
I so remember the feelings you express (last year for me).
You probably already know this, but at this stage, they've narrowed the list down to about 4 people they really believe are qualified. Prove that they are not wrong, but, most importantly, prove you will be a good colleague. At the end of the day, they will select the qualified individual they would most like to work with personally. Smile, be friendly, demonstrate (somehow) that you'll pull your weight, and have fun with it.
Good luck!
- January 20, 2011 at 10:30 AM
As for the interview that went nowhere, keep in mind that it is possible that you did actually hit a home run, but so did three (or more) other people. This more or less happened in the search I am currently a part of from the other side. It was very hard to pick three on-campus candidates, but it had to be done.
- January 20, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Very excited for you! Hope it goes well!
I've heard from a number of people that there is just no way to tell how you did in the initial interview, because there is way too much going on behind the scenes. (A member of the committee who handed you an interesting but easy question about your work and smiled and nodded the whole time might just be acting interested because he/she is humoring some other member of the committee, and so forth.) Your first interview sounds like it lines up with this general conclusion.
- January 20, 2011 at 10:45 AM
How many publications do you have?
- January 20, 2011 at 11:07 AM
Break a leg at the fly-out!!
- January 20, 2011 at 11:34 AM
Congratulations, Mr Z. Just relax and focus on presenting your best stuff. The rest is out of your hands and there is no point in going crazy thinking about it.
- January 20, 2011 at 11:34 AM
Really, good luck. Best wishes to you.
- January 20, 2011 at 12:01 PM
Hey, good for you. I think positive thoughts can only help. If you do get an offer, you want to be excited about it. Anyway, once you make it to the on-campus stage, most people will want to like you as a candidate, so the pressure starts to ease up at this point.
- January 20, 2011 at 1:07 PM
To echo 10:30,
We are also running a search here, and while it was very easy to identify the 10 on the short list, it was very difficult to narrow that down to the 3 for on-campus interviews. The hardest part yet will be hiring only one of those 3, because they are all fantastic.
It means, of course, rejecting 2 people who hit home runs. But that's the nature of this game.
- January 20, 2011 at 2:16 PM
Zero, dude, way to go.
Don't beat yourself up over the one that got away. Chances are good it slipped away from you through no fault of your own, for reasons you'll never be privy to. The same can go for fly-outs. I had a fly-out last year that I felt really, really good about. I liked the department. I think I got on well with the faculty. I was a good fit for the job (as advertised). They ended up hiring someone with a completely different (unadvertised) AOS. Aside from the disappointment of not getting the job, I also don't know why, so I was not really able to learn anything from the experience (except maybe don't get your hopes up).
Go slay 'em on your fly-out. I have one next week, but I procrastinate on being nervous until the last minute. I recommend this strategy. Also, praying to pagan idols can't hurt.
- January 20, 2011 at 2:38 PM
- Mr. Zero said...
Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone. I appreciate them very much.
keep in mind that it is possible that you did actually hit a home run, but so did three (or more) other people.
I know what you're getting at, but that thought actually worries me just as much as the thought that I did not do well. Because, no matter how well I do, all that needs to happen is someone else be a little better in a small and possibly arbitrary way. If I did something wrong, I have something to work on. The prospect of waiting around until I get lucky is much more difficult to cope with than the prospect of having to do specific things to get better.
I'm not trying to be a sourpuss, but I can't help it.
How many publications do you have?
I hope you can understand why I don't want to say the specific figure, but I can say that I feel proud of what I've been able to accomplish while coping with a heavy teaching load.
- January 20, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Zero said:
"I hope you can understand why I don't want to say the specific figure..."
I didn't ask the question, but it's by no means obvious why you don't want to say. Why exactly don't you?
- January 20, 2011 at 4:09 PM
- Mr. Zero said...
...it's by no means obvious why you don't want to say. Why exactly don't you?
It's more of an identifying detail than I am comfortable revealing.
- January 20, 2011 at 5:09 PM
Maybe it's zero. His name is Mr. Zero, so that would be an identifying characteristic, but nothing to be proud of ( unless you want to be a community college instructor).
- January 20, 2011 at 7:26 PM
It's more of an identifying detail than I am comfortable revealing.
Ah, so you're the one with 24 pubs.
- January 20, 2011 at 7:32 PM
There's only one and it's Mr. Zero. He's the one who has been getting them all lately. The secret is to become an anonymous moderator on the Smoker!
- January 20, 2011 at 9:25 PM
Good luck Mr.Zero! I'm happy to see so much support for you here. It's great when this blog is positive and supportive
- January 20, 2011 at 10:16 PM
Don't forget that, most of the time, committees go into the 1st-round interviews with some sort of rough ranking of the candidates already. Sometimes it's explicit, other times a vague sense of who they consider to be the top few on the list of interviewees.
That list can be shaken up by the results of the 1st-round interviews, obviously, but if the committee is smart, they won't overweigh minute differences in the initial interview vs. all of the information they had going into the interview--publication record, writing sample, teaching portfolio, etc.
So it's quite possible that Mr. Zero did, as a matter of fact, have an awesome interview, but that the people above him also did well enough so as not to move him over them and onto the flyout list.
- January 21, 2011 at 5:34 AM
- Bobcat said...
How did you feel about your interview with the school you haven't heard from?
- January 21, 2011 at 6:07 AM
no matter how well I do, all that needs to happen is someone else be a little better in a small and possibly arbitrary way.
It's not a meritocracy. "Better" is not the issue. SCs might use those terms (or maybe "better for us"), but what they really are looking at is preference: who they'd rather have as a colleague. I think that's important, because the winner of an offer isn't the better candidate by any predetermined criterion, he's the winner because he's the consensus choice.
This isn't a criticism of the winner. Every reasonable candidate is measurably the best by some set of criteria, and thus deserves a job, but it's almost never the case that that precise set of criteria were selected ahead of time as determining the decision procedure for choosing a finalist.
- January 21, 2011 at 7:45 AM
I was lucky enough to have a good number of interviews in Boston. Of those places I interviewed with at the APA, I have now heard from less than half. One turned to an on campus. At another I didn't progress past the first interview. I'm in something of a holding pattern with the third (though not a very hopeful looking one). I found out about one more from the wiki. But the others have yet to give me any update. Is it still reasonable to hope for a fly out from one of the remaining places? It seems to me that after the interviews, committees should be able to pretty immediately make their fly out decisions. And it seems just courteous to let people know where they stand. Is it likely that the remaining schools have already made their fly out decisions and are just holding the rest of us in the wings in case all their job talks go belly-up?
- January 21, 2011 at 11:14 AM
Anon 11:14. This is the end of the first week of the semester for my school and I am sure others. When we hired, we didn't meet until the Friday afternoon of the first week of classes to make our short list down to three. From there, it had to clear the dean's desk. I think we made arrangements starting the the middle of the following week.
It's getting late, but not so late that you are done for.
- January 21, 2011 at 12:12 PM
I do not agree that the comments here have been entirely supportive and positive. I agree with the posters above that Zero's reason for not telling us how many publications he has is severely wanting. There's no way we could discover his real identity by disclosing this information. Failure to disclose is either a sign of delusional paranoia or poor reasoning.
- January 21, 2011 at 1:19 PM
"Failure to disclose is either a sign of delusional paranoia or poor reasoning."
This quote itself is a pretty good example of the latter.
- January 21, 2011 at 2:23 PM
Anon 2:23
If I said I had 3, 38 or any other number of publications, would that allow you to single me out as Mr. Zero? No. If you think that it would, then you need to get your head checked.
- January 21, 2011 at 3:57 PM
- Mr. Zero said...
Hi Bobcat,
It's hard to say. Felt really good about some questions, but just okay about some others.
Hi Anon 1:19/3:57,
I obviously don't think that everyone will go, oh, Mr. Zero's the one with x pubs.
Here's what happened. Somebody asked me to reveal some personal information, and I said that I'm not comfortable revealing the personal information. Then you had the gall to complain, anonymously, that you don't think my reason is good enough, as if I must reveal the information unless have a good reason to decline.
I don't think that's true. My policy is, withhold information unless I have a good reason to reveal it.
- January 21, 2011 at 4:22 PM
It's a good policy zero. Don't let it bother you one bit and really, don't reply to it either -- let it go.
- January 21, 2011 at 4:49 PM
I suspect that Mr. Zero is worried that a search committee member or someone privy to a search will be able to identify him based on the number of pubs he has. Given the information he has already disclosed, it would not be too difficult to "out" him. There are not too many searches going on. I could contact some people I know at about a dozen institutions that have searches in progress and easily figure out who he is. It's not really worth my time though. Good luck, Mr. Zero. We'll miss you as a moderator once you score a job!
- January 21, 2011 at 4:51 PM
I can't think of any reason Mr Zero is obliged to reveal the number of his pubs here. I'm not sure why anyone here would care either. It's not just the number that matters. It's also the quality of the papers, and of the journals they're published in.
And for most jobs, the pubs are just one part of the picture. Teaching experience, research plans, and references matter too.
So, I just don't get what all the fuss is about.
- January 21, 2011 at 5:01 PM
I think zero's reasons for keeping his pubs # private are legitimate. Speaking as an SC member, if he said a distinctive number (8 perhaps) that matched one of our finalists it would at least put the thought in my head that it might be zero. Then a really nosy SC member might be tempted to look for supporting evidence elsewhere on the blog.
That being said, nothing zero says on the blog is so negative that it would make me think less of him as a candidate. Still, you never know how someone else might react.
In truth, the really paranoid thing to do wouldn't be to keep the number of publications secret.... it would have been to lie about it. That would have been paranoid... and easy... and something I would have been tempted to do in his situation
- January 21, 2011 at 7:43 PM
Having sat on multiple search committees, and participated in other searches, I can't stress enough how right Xenophon is. This is not a meritocracy, though merit does play a large role.
Also, anyone who complains about Mr. Zero not revealing his publication number is an arrogant asshole, or mentally disordered.
- January 22, 2011 at 8:48 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
Good luck, Mr. Zero. We'll miss you as a moderator once you score a job!
Thanks. But I plan to stick around whether I get a job or not. I like it here. And although we devote lots of electrons to the job market, we're not just a job market blog. If and when I'm a new TT assistant prof, my focus will shift to those experiences.
Hi Zombie,
Would you mind sending me an email at email@example.com, please? Thanks. (Feel free to do so pseudonymously.)
- January 22, 2011 at 11:06 AM
If I were you I'd stress the if rather than the when. It is also possible that someone has already figured out your identity. That information, once disseminated, might stop you from getting a job. No search committee wants a potential troublemaker in their department, and while you might not be a troublemaker, the fact that you blog about the job market puts you under suspicion. If I were you, I'd quit the blog and focus on writing publishable papers, not blog posts. The blog is called the Philosophy Smoker, so it is predominantly about the job market. People don't come here to banter about philosophical issues. Even Leiter's blog is a better place for that.
- January 22, 2011 at 11:16 AM
Wow, Anon 11:16 is a super ass. I certainly wouldn't want Anon 11:16 in my department -- and if there were a department of like-minded people like him or her, who wouldn't want a Zombie or Mr. Zero (I'm fairly certain he or she doesn't know who he or she is meaning to talk to) in his or her department, so much the better for the Z-person intended.
Please keep it up, Zero (and Zombie), regardless of what happens.
- January 22, 2011 at 12:36 PM
Gosh. I totally disagree. I would think that a hiring department would be thankful to have someone as plugged in, courteous, and ostensibly productive as Zero. No telling about his academic record since I haven't seen his CV, but my anecdotal experience seems to suggest that those who are frequently online and paying attention are also doing a fair bit of offline work. Moreover, if Zero has cleared the publication and expectation hurdle to make to the fly-out phase, this plainly suggests that even if somehow the blogging is cutting into his productivity, it's not cutting into his productivity enough to keep him from getting an interview or two.
I agree with Uncivil Discourser, 11:16 is being an ass.
- January 22, 2011 at 5:00 PM
That's right, Anon 11:16's "super ass" shines on multiple levels. Insult wrapped up as a "wise advice" was a nice move.
- January 22, 2011 at 10:09 PM
anon 8:48 here again.
what is in the water these days? so many nasty comments!
anon 11:16 - if your identity and zero's were revealed, i can guarantee that you'd be the one we'd reject, since we prefer not to have raging assholes in our department.
- January 23, 2011 at 8:00 AM
What's interesting is that 11:16's post is directed to Zombie, yet everyone's assuming it was supposed to be directed at Zero. To give 11:16 a charitable hearing (which no one else here has tried), I think we would all benefit from the advice: Spend less time blogging, more time doing research and writing. If Zombie and Zero are still moderating this blog in 5 years, I'd suspect that they failed to take 11:16's advice and were either still job-less or were floundering assistant professors with little hope of earning tenure.
- January 23, 2011 at 8:22 AM
8:22, Zombie isn't one of the bloggers here, just a commenter.
I'm with the majority on this: although from what I've read, I would count Mr. Zero's blogging as a positive and not problematic, I don't at all blame him for wanting to be anonymous.
- January 23, 2011 at 8:39 AM
Zero wrote: "If and when I'm a new TT assistant prof"
and then right after that, 11:16 wrote: "I'd stress the if rather than the when"
Despite the misdirected salutation, its pretty the post was about Mr Zero, not zombie.
- January 23, 2011 at 9:26 AM
- Mr. Zero said...
Hi Anon 8:22,
As others have pointed out, the reason everyone thinks 11:16 meant to be talking to me rather than Zombie is that Zombie hasn't said anything that it makes sense to regard 11:16's comments as a response to.
The reason nobody has been "charitable" with 11:16 is that his comment makes no sense. He thinks that the mere fact that I blog about my experiences on the job market is evidence that I am some kind of "troublemaker." That's pretty dumb.
As to the suggestion that this blog interferes with my scholarship, I would ask if you really think that maintaining this blog takes up so much of my time that it is incompatible with producing high-quality philosophy papers. I spend far less time blogging than many of my friends spend playing Guitar Hero, or raising their children. My actual job, with its heavy courseload, takes up much more of my time. And as I have tried to indicate, my scholarship is going well, and I'm doing pretty ok on the job market this year.
I remember how much the old Job Market Blog helped me my first year on the job market. It was amazingly valuable. Now that I'm a job market veteran, I'm in a position to keep the ball rolling. And I continue to get good advice from our commenters.
If I'm still here in 5 years, that would be a sign that I still find this blog enjoyable and rewarding.
Anyways, I don't see why we're talking about this. It's pretty silly.
- January 23, 2011 at 9:39 AM
When I am stressed about something I still find myself saying, "Get the job! Get the job!" This is almost two years after I got the offer. So yes, it does stress you out.
- January 24, 2011 at 1:45 PM
If being collegial is that important, maybe the thing to do is to spend the time until interview watching comedy shows and hanging out with friends, in order to hone your social skills...
Sounds like a good excuse to me...
- January 26, 2011 at 6:29 PM
Mr. Zero,
You say you messed up on certain interview questions in the past. Can you be more specific? What kinds of questions did you mess up on? It would be helpful to people like me, those who have not yet embarked on the interview process, to know more about what to expect. Thanks! Congrats on your sucess so far, and good luck!
- January 28, 2011 at 10:57 AM


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This question already has an answer here:
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The actor playing Diego in Gothic 1 has recently played Zeus in Remember the Titans, an episode of Supernatural. Man, he has an amazing voice.
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Meh, my bad, I think.
The actor playing Diego in Gothic 1 is named William Roberts. The actor playing Zeus is John Novak. The voice resemblance is quite amazing, though.
No it isn't. I was surprised how different their voices are actually. I mean I know that after 12-13 years the guy got older and his voice might have changed a bit, but his voice is a lot deeper and raspier than Diego's.
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actualy i saw the same episode and though exactly the same XD
Originally Posted by anytflage
actualy i saw the same episode and though exactly the same XD
Glad I am not the only one


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Students who need Winter Term Housing
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Note that SLA 2012 is in July, not June as in the past.
See you next year in Chicago!
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
Note that SLA 2012 is in July, not June as in the past.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
The closing endnote was by James Kane, an expert on loyalty and author of The Loyalty Switch and Virtual Loyalty. He began by introducing himself at some length by telling his life story along with many other details about himself and the minutiae of his life. He explained that this first lesson of loyalty. He does this because something that he shared might be familiar to you, and you would then think "I like him because he is like me". You may think that if we like one thing in common, we will like many other things in common.
Our brains are constantly looking for shortcuts. They find patterns, which is how we build relationships as well. We are not good about making predictions about the future, even though we like doing it. When someone in authority makes a future prediction, we all believe it. We tend to base our predictions on the present. When we are born, our brains have no information in them. We spend our lifetimes in gathering information from people (like librarians). We do not need to be above average, just be good at building relationships. Most of want to have our lives fulfilled and have the people around us care about us. It doesn't matter that you can connect to the rest of the world.
Humans do not have claws or fangs, cannot run very fast, and our skin is thin. Yet we dominate the planet because we have learned to work together. We are social animals. We have had to develop skills and emotions to tell us who we trust. From the moment we are born, we need other humans to survive. We cannot take care of ourselves very shortly after we are born, like animals can. We do not have instincts; our emotions protect us and help us get through life.
Loyalty is not made up. It is about making our lives easier and better. If I have you in my life and you do these things then I want you around. It does not come out of a competitive edge. We do not need to be loyal to want someone to make our life easier. You need to eliminate choice. We trust things that can simplify for us. Control is what makes us happy. Your brain hates losing control; too much choice will paralyze your brain. The real challenge is to develop relationships that are not simply about making lives easier, but also making them better. Making lives better is the core of what you have to do.
Trust is competency, character, consistency, capacity (can you fulfill the objectives?). It is an expectation. We trust people until we learn that we cannot trust them. What do your relationships already expect of you? If you do those things, you will not need to promote your value. The only way to fix a trust issue is to manage expectations of your boss, client, etc. (recognize that it may be unrealistic). That will force you to interact with people.
Purpose is vision, fellowship, and commitment and what we do for each other.
Belonging is made up of these characteristics:
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
Dorothea Salo, Digital Repository Librarian at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and one of Library Journal's 2009 Movers and Shakers gave a stirring challenge to librarians on the biggest threat to libraries today. Surprisingly, that is not money, but rather modern copyright practices. Network neutrality is a major worry for her. We are on the cusp of losing the Internet, and a major reason involves copyright owners who consider the Internet a platform for piracy. Today's Internet does not care what is being sent over it. Copyright interests want to make it care, and that should not happen! The DMCA is threatening the Internet in favor of huge corporations.
Where are libraries intersecting with CR and how is it threatening them? There are 4 major areas:
Despite this gloomy picture, some good things are happening in libraries and there is hope. Some universities have instituted open access policies, and new organizations like Unbound and Gluejar have proposed innovative ways to meet the costs of open access. Librarians can do collective collection development on a global scale. The HathiTrust has launched a major effort to identify orphan works. And libraries are taking open access seriously in their own industry; College and Research Libraries is now an open access journal.
Salo closed with the thought that the day of the nice librarian is over:
Good luck to all of us, we are going to need it!
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
Each year at SLA, the Sci-Tech or Chemistry Division presents a session on a subject of general interest, usually related to food. Last year we heard about hot peppers and salsa; previous sessions have been about coffee and beer. These are always fascinating, educational, and enjoyable. This year was no exception; the title was "The Science of Ice Cream".
Thomas Palchak, Manager of the Penn State Creamery gave an outstanding and detailed look at ice cream to an overflow audience. (Maybe the attendees thought they might some samples, but unfortunately none were available.)
The Romans made the first water ices in about 100AD. Only the upper elites were able to afford it. Crystalline sugar dates from Persia in 627AD. Beet sugar in the 19th century caused prices to drop so the masses could afford sweetened products. Ice cream became a sensation at the White House in 1812 at President Madison's 2nd Inaugural Ball. Ice cream as we know it today was became available in the US with the development of large scale freezing. The first freezer was patented in 1843, and the first ice cream plant was established in 1851 in Baltimore. In 1892, Penn State University offered the first course in ice cream manufacture. Today, ice cream production is 1.6 billion gallons/year. Annual consumption in the US is 24 quarts per capita, second only to New Zealand (26 quarts per capita). Ice cream is a great cementer of memories from childhood; it is one of the few foods with that capability.
Ice cream is unique because it is frozen when eaten. It melts to cool and refresh (its melting is endothermic–heat absorbing), tastes sweet, and its aroma is suppressed until eaten. It is smooth and creamy (producing a relaxed feeling), appearance is important, and it is available in many flavors (the PSU creamery makes over 150 flavors!).
The FDA Standard of Identity for ice cream is fairly rigorous. It must be frozen under agitation for rapid removal of heat and to prevent spoilage. Ice cream is a colloid; air and flavoring are added after pasteurization. Everything else is added before. Kelp is used in small amounts to aid in stabilization and emulsification.
There are a bewildering number of types of ice cream, including:
The roles of the ingredients in ice cream include:
Flavor is the most important characteristic of ice cream. It is not the same as taste, which includes body and texture. Flavor is very subjective and depends on the individual doing the tasting. Delicate over harsh is preferred, only intense enough to be recognized.
Ice cream is a major market for fruit growers. Fruit-flavored ice creams account for about 15% of sales, second after vanilla. Fruit flavors may be variegates, background flavors, and are often enhanced by the addition of fruits, nuts, and candies.
Consumers "eat with their eyes", so color must be delicate and attractive. Colors must be certified; the term "natural color" is not allowed.
Milk is sterile when secreted from healthy cows; contamination occurs afterwards. It is perishable, easily contaminated, and must be refrigerated at all times. Ice cream is not sterile, does not contain harmful bacteria, and must be pasteurized and homogenized. Every particle of milk must be heated to 175 degrees F and held for at least 25 seconds, which will kill every pathogenic organism. A primary concern is post-pasteurization contamination. Homogenization uniformly distributes the fat throughout the product and prevents separation of the milk. Homogenization is critical for sensory attributes of ice cream and promotes a smoother texture.
The US has the safest milk supply in the world. California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, and Pennsylvania account for over half of the milk supply in the US.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
It seems that almost every day we hear about another corporate library facing financial challenges, being downsized, or even eliminated entirely. Having spent a good many years of my early career in a corporate library at AT&T Bell Labs, I was interested to hear from two leaders in our field how things have changed. So I made the l-o-o-o-n-g walk to this session (the room was about as far away from everything else in the convention center as you could get!) and heard two pioneering and award-winning speakers give an outstanding presentation about how to identify warning signs of upcoming trouble and how to behave in challenging times. It was an outstanding presentation, very well worth the long walk, and to say the least, it brought back many memories for me.
This was a joint presentation by Jim Matarazzo, noted former Dean of the Graduate School of Information at Simmons College, and Toby Pearlstein, recently retired from Bain & Co. Matarazzo and Pearlstein have written a series of articles in Searcher on corporate libraries and how information professionals can survive in a time of upheaval by recognizing the danger signs and react to them.
The turbulence that corporate libraries are currently experiencing is the new constant. We are always being asked to explain what we do and prove our value to the organization, which makes corporate libraries very different from public or academic ones. We are having trouble thinking about what to call ourselves and what name to put to our skill sets. In some organizations, we are trying to figure out who we work for. This is an extremely challenging environment in which to work!
What did people do with the information they get from the information professionals? Libraries are not well known in organizations. If users knew what they wanted, their local information professional can find it. But for things they do not know about, they turn to the library. All they want to know is what has been done for them lately. This is different for special librarians: you have to continually prove your worth. Often, the person receiving the info takes it over as their own and does not credit the library. Recent economic difficulties have caused this to change in other areas; now academic libraries are being asked to prove their value (See a recent ACRL monograph for a detailed look at this subject).
Corporate librarians are in a constant state of having to do SWAT analysis: find strengths, weaknsses, threats, and opportunities coming from the threats. The best defense is a good offense: you must get out ahead of this and not be surprised at what is going on at your firm.
For a number of years, Matarazzo has been tracking the number of advertised job vacancies in the information industry in New England. The turbulence in the industry is obvious.
In the past, if you lost your job, there were many opportunities at new company libraries. Now it is doubly important to keep track of the state of your firm because few new libraries are being opened. There are also 40% fewer publicly held firms than there were in 1997. It is interesting to note that the largest number of vacancies in New England were in law libraries.
We can be masters of our own fate. Here is a predictive model of a way to think about what is going on in your own organization. If you can answer "yes" to one of more of the questions, that should be a red flag to you.
This case study of a publisher's library (the name has been changed) shows some danger signs.
Over 5 years, half the staff had left, and management bought into the recommendations of a consulting firm without consulting anybody in the library. Are we paying attention? We are all smart and can read the published information. Sitting by and watching is not a viable course. Don't be caught by surprise–assess where you stand.
You will never have enough resources to give your clients all they want. Competing for scarce resources in a company is how you have to work every day. As a manager, you must go out into the "real world" of your company and promote your value. Be aware of where the money comes from and which budget (i.e., capital or expenses). Get to know your financial people very well and help them understand what you do.
You are what you measure: customers, finances, internal processes, learning and growth metrics. Look at every one of your services and see if your customers are satisfied with them. Are people really using them? If you stopped doing them, would anybody notice?
The SLA Alignment Project identified driving priorities and roles–what librarians want to do and what users want. Don't manage containers! We cannot just do what we want to do or what we do well; we must do what the clients want. Who are we serving? Are the clients driving our actions? You cannot allow a disconnect to continue in your organization because you will never be able to prove your value. Service models include gatekeeper, intermediary, and facilitator. There is no single right model of service. You might play different roles for different customers. Understand which is the most effective role for the situation.
Strategic planning brings imagination into focus. Develop an internal vision statement, and refine it with stakeholder involvement (don't take an "I know what's best" attitude). Create a 360 degree view of information needs (ask everybody), and identify and prioritize target audiences (don't try to be all things to all people).
The well known recent case of the EPA libraries shows what can happen. The early business case was irrelevant to agency management, and there was no unifying strategy driving roles and priorities. But the data were all usage based. The EPA was interested in results, not the numbers. The call was for a business case, which was not made. So the funding was jeopardized and some of the libraries were closed. (Fortunately, protests got the funding restored.)
Scenario planning is a good sustainability tool. Be prepared to participate and position yourself to drive decisions. We may be afraid of outsourcing, but we have been using alternate sourcing for a long time, so get into the decision process and use your expertise to drive the decisions. If outsourcing happens, you want to be the one asking the questions about implementation. Here are some steps to take:
You must assume every company (including yours) is for sale any time.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
Visitors to the Exhibit Hall had to watch out for Segway traffic cruising the floor. A number of them were used by exhibitors to cover the entire hall quickly with their promotions.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
A Spotlight Session looked at information visualization in science. Some good examples can be found in the O'Reilly book, Beautiful Visualizations.
Chaomei Chen, Professor at Drexel University and author of Turning Points: The Nature of Creativity and other books looked at visualization from three viewpoints:
Kristi Holmes, Becker Medical Library, Washington University said that visualization lets us retrieve data from what we might consider noise. We begin to visualize at a very early age. The most iconic scientific visualization is the periodic table, where similar elements are visualized together. If you have a large amount of text and want to pull out the meaningful bits of information, a visualizations like Wordle can help you. In this visualization of terms used in Obama's (on the left in blue) and McCain's (on the right in red) nomination speeches, you can see what they agree on (the overlap in the center) and where they disagree.
Two tools to get started in visualization are Science of Science, a network of scholarly datasets, and Network Workbench.
There is a growing emphasis on information visualization, with a huge renaissance in mining bibliographic data to understand research outputs and identify impact, an increased emphasis of research, and increasing data sharing and management. Libraries hold the key to this because they understand data structures, curation, bibliographic data, and have technical expertise in these fields.
Gali Halevi, Director of Market Segment Marketing, Elsevier, reported on a recent symposium on mapping and measuring scientific output, which discussed research measurement metrics and visualization methods. A live webcast of the symposium attracted more than 500 people worldwide. Presenters' slides are available here.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
Many museums are implementing mobile services to benefit their visitors. This presentation focused on the efforts at the Smithsonian. Martin Kalfatovic, Assistant Director of Digital Services at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, reported on a survey of 1,600 Mall visitors to determine their mobile needs. Forrester Research conducted a conference and strategic planning workshops, resulting in the development of the Smithsonian's mobile strategy and key development tactics. The strategy envisions the use of shared tools across all the museums, followed by an infrastructure for mobile initiatives, products, and services. Here are some of the metrics for success:
The Smithsonian Libraries and the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press have formed a partnership for digital publishing. The library would like to turn its collections into an e-book platform, with the Press responsible for the editorial content. An initial test showed that this platform would be favorably received.
Katie Velazco, New Media Project Specialist at the Museum of Natural History, described the museum's first mobile app, MEanderthal. It allows users to morph a photo of themselves back in time to see what they would have looked like as a Neanderthal. The app has been downloaded 215,000 times in the last 14 months. 90% of the downloads were for the iPhone. Katie showed what she would have looked like:
Other mobile apps recently developed include:
Free WiFi is a priority for all the museums in 2011, so that visitors can browse content by museum and see current exhibits and museum highlights. The Natural History Museum's website has been optimized for mobile devices.
Here are the lessons learned from these activities:
Mary Savig described the Archives of American Art, which she said is the art world's "Ft. Knox". The Archives have 16,000 linear feet of storage, with about 16 million documents and 6,000 collections. It is currently accessible on microfilm and is one of the world's largest resources for preserving art. People get to the website in traditional ways, using social media, Flickr, Stumbleupon, etc. Many people only stay on the website only for a short time, just enough to see a single image that they are looking for. Some functions can be optimized for phones, but some aspects of the site will be difficult to read on phones.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
A standing-room-only audience turned out to hear Anne Mintz and Eli Edwards discuss intentional misinformation on the Internet. Anne concentrated on the recent rise in criminal activity, and Eli discussed how extremist views spread. Following their presentations, Anne read a presentation from a speaker who was unable to attend. Anne began by saying that the Internet is a Petri Dish for the growth and spread of misinformation. Some of it is innocent, but a lot is intentional, harmful, or even criminal. Anne is the author of a book published about 10 years ago, The Web of Deception, but now intentional misinformation goes much broader and beyond individual websites.
According to Consumer Reports, the annual damage from spyware and other forms of misinformation is in the billions of dollars, so this is not a small issue. For example, the Enron scandal began with intentional misinformation in a proxy statement, which was exposed by a 30 year old journalist, and the resulting economic impact was huge. Credit agencies were heavily implicated in the financial crisis of 2008 with inaccurate ratings and intentional misinformation, and a respected accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, was forced into bankruptcy as a result. The rise of social media has enabled criminal activity to spread far and wide. We do not know how widespread this is. One study reported that 26% of parents have exposed their children to predators by posting their names and photos. And some people post on Facebook when they will not be home, thus exposing themselves to robberies.
Social media has few editors or fact checkers, so it has become a common place for sophisticated criminal activity. Many job seekers fall victim to criminals preying on their vulnerability. In another scam, ads are placed by offshore money laundering operations looking for US citizens to engage in illegal activity such as opening bank accounts in false names and transferring the money to the offshore criminals. The citizens pay the price of this activity with prison terms.
Identity theft has become a much bigger business than ever before. More than 347 million records have been compromised in the US since 2005. The Haiti earthquake spawned nonexistent charities to siphon relief money through false websites with fake addresses and phone numbers. The FTC warns people about such scams within hours of a major disaster.
Information warfare is also used on social media. During the recent Egyptian uprising, activists protested, then loyalists created a shouting match on Facebook, causing the government to cut off Internet access. More than 23 million people were affected, costing Egypt millions of dollars. In another incident, a computer worm, Stuxnet, attacked nuclear reactor computer control networks. Intentional misinformation is evolving in the non-physical world. A growing problem for law enforcement is the development of sophisticated computer networks allowing attacks from outside the US. Technology enables the misrepresentation of information as truth which then spreads rapidly.
Knowing how to think for ourselves and act accordingly is critical for a democracy. We must find a way to agree on facts on which we base our decisions. What was once something connected to individual websites has evolved into a much more dangerous picture. Anyone using the Internet must use sound critical thinking.
Eli Edwards noted that supposedly our society is post-racial, multicultural and tolerant. However, in many areas there is still an "us vs. them" mentality, and people use the Internet to propagate extremist views. These views spread in three ways:
The use of authority to promote extremist beliefs is exactly the sort of thing of which information professionals must be aware. Our critical thinking skills are put to the test, and some things are designed to try and slip under our radar. Social media are being used heavily in dissemination of extremist views. The odds are that we will have to confront this sometime.
Anne Mintz presented a paper on political misinformation by Laura Gordon-Murnane of BNA, who was unable to attend. Much rumor, innuendo, and gossip never gets checked. Many people appear uninformed when they have been intentionally misinformed. Reasons for this are:
To fight political misinformation, we must demand that politicians hold to the facts, use fact checking tools and media organizations, political blogs, and accountability and transparency organizations that watch the media sites.
Here are some criteria to use in identifying political misinformation.
Gordon-Murane's presentation contained a number of slides with useful websites. These will be posted on the SLA News Division website.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor
Who would turn out out at 8AM on a Monday morning to hear a talk? Lots of people, that's who. And of course when the speaker is Steve Abram, that just increases the attraction! Steve hardly needs any introduction to readers of this blog. He has had a long and distinguished career in the information industry, and continues to entertain audiences wherever he speaks. Now with Gale Cengage Learning, Steve was formerly with Sirsi-Dynix and is a past president of SLA, as well as the Ontario and Canadian Library Associations.
Steve gave his usual excellent presentation and delivered a strong challenge to librarians as he discussed how they should behave in the coming technological environment. He said that we have a big opportunity to become the MBAs and CPAs of the next generation economy. Although there are some obstacles to this, some of us are not thinking through things. Are we marching towards irrelevancy if we are not marching where the people are? Why would we not take advantage of something (like Twitter or Facebook) that is aligning with something we care about? We are in the midst of huge changes that are bigger than the financial or industrial revolutions. Copyright is a big issue because copyright laws will govern how the next economy will work. This is a massively disruptive change. Active negotiations on copyright are happening in secret.
There are two kinds of people: those who work with changes, and those who resist them. We only get so many once-in-a-lifetime chances to do great things. Humans have materially changed in the last 25 years. Our brains have shifted, as have our understandings. We must align with what we know now instead of with our old prejudices.
The Internet has progressed into its infancy. We are at a critical juncture–control beginning to happen based on the device. Why should Steve Jobs dictate what should be banned from the iPhone and the iPad? We are being remarkably silent on the shifts that are happening now, and the shifts are happening extremely rapidly. In the past 20 years, remarkably little happened. The shift that is about to happen will cause 20 to 50 times more change than in the last 20 years. Our role is moving into a world of sense-making. How do we make sense of information? We have not begun to arrive at information overload yet. We can already index everything spoken on video–being overloaded is on a fundamentally different scale. There will soon be 150 million books online. Are you ready for that?
What are the 4 things getting in the way of doing something? According to Seth Godin, they are:
The emphasis is not about the technology any more; it is about representing our role in the technology. Now that everything is online do we need librarians any more? All the laws are online, but we still need lawyers! It is the same with librarians. If you believe that you suddenly have know-how by having virtual access to everything, then you haven't figured out what librarians do. We make sense of the information. We know that improves the quality of questions, and we know that libraries are for learning, discovery, and making progress. We are asking for money to explore something and we do not know what end result will be. We just know that if we are not on the journey, we will die. Here are some questions for libraries today. What is the role of human beings and end users?
End users have changed and are different. 75% of the Millennials are now in the workforce. Now we are looking at the post-Millennials who are all infinitely connected and read electronically like we read print. How do we train our colleagues to deal with different social behaviors? Physical access and basic reading have already evolved to intellectual access with new capabilities. The ecosystem has annotation and sharing capability embedded into it. Libraries will not be at the center of the campus in the future. Students are receiving their information at the lesson level of learning. Researchers are connected beyond their host institution.
We are moving into a world of intentional experiences. Can we help people find a job, get the health information they need, etc.? Then we get to experiences on demand: co-create experiences with your end users. What is the end user going to be like at the end of an experience with our products? Librarians have a vital role in building the critical connections between information, knowledge, and learning.
Many of us are good text-based learners, but that is a minority learning style. Many people are visual-based learners. How do we put together the learning styles? The visual part is the most important. How do we structure our organizations to integrate all these styles? We need to plan for interactions. What should a group of knowledge portals look like? Don't just give them databases! Users are not bad at searching, but they do not have good finding schools.
Librarians must be biased towards quality. Information from search engines can be manipulated and is dangerous for your company. What changes with ubiquitous access? Is your organization working to adapt to the learning styles of the users you serve? Information becomes knowledge through a process of learning.
Strategy is a choice. Find reasons not excuses. Our research results need to be customized to end users. As technology advances, emboldened librarians hold the key. Putting a mouse on a book or a library will not work; we must get mobility and bring the information to the users. When we make mobility free across the country, that will shift our users behavior.
There were many more valuable insights in Steve's talk. The slides are available on his blog, Stephen's Lighthouse.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor


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CDC nails hepatitis A in berry mix to pomegranate seeds from Turkey
The CDC and FDA have finally traced the growing number of hepatitis A cases directly to suspected pomegranate seeds from Turkey that were added into a frozen berry mix.
The outbreak has sickened at least 127 people so far, including at least 25 in Colorado. The virus is most often spread by a carrier who handles food and transmits the disease, which is not killed by freezing and can spread to food buyers.
The frozen berries were sold at more than one place, but the sick have reported only buying their supply at Costco stores.
Here's an update from the latest CDC report on traceback:
"Combining information gained from the FDA's traceback and trace forward investigations and the CDC's epidemiological investigation, it has been determined that the vehicle for the Hepatitis A virus is a common shipment of pomegranate seeds from Turkey used by Scenic Fruit Company in making the recalled Woodstock Frozen Organic Pomegranate Kernels and by Townsend Farms in making Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend."
"FDA will be working to identify and contact other food processors who may have also received pomegranate seeds from this shipment from Turkey, so that products using these seeds may be recalled."


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British diver Tom Daley just can't stop himself from posting sexy photos on Instagram, and while we're hardly complaining, we may need to cool off a bit. Does anyone else feel like going for a swim?
Tom Daley is a British diver who began diving at the age of seven and became a FINA World Champion at the age of 15. He competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he was Britain's youngest competitor. He's also appeared on the reality competition show 'Splash,' helping coach celebrities in diving techniques.
That's a lot of success for such a young dude. Now, at the age of 19 (holy smokes), Daley is heating things up on Instagram with tons of shirtless pics to make his fans swoon. He's been injured a couple of times this year, and while those injuries have kept him from competing in diving events, they haven't kept him from smiling for the camera, and for that we are so very grateful.
Check out some pics of shirtless Mr. Daley below, or head over to his Instagram account for (much) more, including shots of his adorable kitties!
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This resource is no longer available
Improve App Delivery with an HTML Rewrite
When it comes to using the web, the speed at which a website loads is of the essence. Due to this, many web content optimization startups are beginning to develop algorithms to automatically rewrite HTML so that web pages load more effectively on a user's browser.
In this E-Guide from SearchNetworking.com, learn about the startups involved in this space, why HTML coders are not network engineers, why you can pair ADCs with web content optimization, and much more!


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The Revolution WIthin The Revolution Is Still Needed/
I have always found the entrenchment of the bureaucracy a pretty normal occurence in any field or job I have had -- film or otherwise. People generally promote people who are like them. The status quo grows more homogenous with every passing year. This is particularly true in high cost enterprises like the film industry.
I have breathtakingly talented students in my classes (I teach over 150 students each year), but they can't create art at home. Many of them don't have a home. They are bouncing between relatives, foster homes, homeless shelters, or friends' couches. If they are at home, it's usually one or two room living with their siblings. Many of my students complain that they can't do homework at home because there isn't a quiet space to do it. They can't go to the library, because the nearby libraries have all been closed. The one downtown is surrounded by drug dealers and prostitutes *during the daytime* -- forget about night. They can't participate in an after school program because they don't exist (other than sports).
For my students, dreams don't come true without guidance and support from someone outside their families and neighborhoods. They need someone to believe in them on a continuous basis. They've had to fend for themselves all their lives for the most part. They are desperate to belong to something. That's why you see so many of them in gangs. If they're not in gangs, they belong to a sports team or a church group -- something with regular meetings that they can depend on.
The author of the IFC article means well, and I think this "do it
yourself" advice would work with the middle and upper classes, where there is already support at home and in their community. But it won't work with the lower classes who have so many strikes against them already.
Perhaps this is why we don't see more filmmakers from the lower classes. The film establishment wants to believe that if you're good enough, like cream you'll rise to the top. That is incredibly naïve (or maybe it's deliberate so their friends and relatives can get all the jobs because "there's no one else" to hire).
If anyone thinks class doesn't exist in this society, come hang out with me in three weeks when school starts again. I feel the separation in the classes. Poverty and lack of opportunity are like pieces of sandpaper that wear you down, slowly but surely, every single day until you're defeated. This is something that crosses ALL color lines. You can be white and poor.
Sorry to get on my soap box, but I am disturbed by how some people simply don't how it is for some people out there. But many of these people can't be blamed for their ignorance, as they haven't spent time living and working with a disadvantaged population. Once you have "ground truth," you'd know better than to say "do it yourself, kid." That's essentially telling the kid to figure it out for themselves, away from you, so you don't have to get involved. If you want to make a difference, you MUST get involved for the long haul. It's a marathon!


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My paintings are colorful abstractions that explore the structure of things both internally and externally. My focus is on inventing a personal imagery of evolving organic forms, the relationships of color and how images exist together in the space. I am interested in examining the interactions of form, striving to create a sense of connectedness while still maintaing the individuality of the forms within the framework of the painting. I am fascinated by how on the surface, nature appears to be chaotic with so many elements and life forms all struggling to exist together. Upon looking deeper, however, one can see the odd and beautiful order that nature creates of life's chaos. My paintings are explorations of this odd order - about making sense of small portions of the complexity of it all, and about creating a visual interpretation of the natural world.
Many of the titles of my paintings are taken from lines of poetry written by my mother who passed away in 2008. She was a poet and a painter. These titles are in homage to the memory of her and her influence on my work as an artist.


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U.S. Captures Bin Laden Son-in-Law and More
What's News: The U.S. captures a son-in-law of Osama Bin Laden, the United Nations Security Council votes to increase sanctions against North Korea and investigators release their report on the Boeing battery fires. Photo: Associated Press
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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Millions of iPhone customers may soon find themselves losing touch with an old friend: Google's maps.
On Wednesday, Apple released a software update for the iPhone that, among other changes, replaces the Google maps that have been on the phone since 2007 with Apple's own maps. So far the feedback from reviewers and early adopters of the new software is that it is attractive but suffers from holes and glitches.
For example, some have found that searches for an in-town destination can pull up an entirely different city, and there is no built-in information about public transportation.
Apple's previous versions of iOS, its mobile software system, included a Maps app that was made by Apple but powered by Google's mapping service. In iOS 6, the latest version, Apple has replaced the old app with a new version that uses mapping data collected or purchased by Apple itself.
The company has been preparing for this change for a while as Google, with its Android software for phones, has come to be more of a competitor than a partner. Over the last three years, Apple has acquired three mapping companies.Continue reading the main story
On the bright side, the new Apple-powered Maps app includes some features that were not in the old version, like spoken turn-by-turn directions and Flyover, a feature that shows 3-D models of buildings in major cities.
The colors in the Apple maps sparkle a bit more; zooming and panning is faster. Yelp, a popular review site for businesses and restaurants, supplies data for location searches. And iPhone users can ask Siri, the voice-powered assistant, to tell them how to get somewhere.
But because Apple is relatively new to mapping, it has a lot more work to do before its service is as robust as Google's.
Anil Dash, a New York-based entrepreneur, was critical of Apple and its maps on his blog, writing that Apple had "used their platform dominance to privilege their own app over a competitor's offering, even though it's a worse experience for users." He complained that a search for "Bloomberg" failed to turn up the company's headquarters, and one for an address on Lexington Avenue pulled up a street in Brooklyn, even when "NY, NY" was specified.
Trenton Fuller, an iPhone and iPad owner and a computer systems administrator in Louisville, Ky., said he liked the look of the Apple maps but found similar problems.
Mr. Fuller said he did a search for Heine Brothers, a popular coffee shop in Louisville, but substituted "Bros." The map service could not find the shop until he typed its name in precisely. Google Maps, in contrast, was able to find it, even with spelling variations. And the Apple service came up with an inaccurate street address for Mr. Fuller's office.
"Not being able to find businesses or points of interest without spelling a name 100 percent perfectly could cause some grief," Mr. Fuller said. "That problem combined with inaccurate street addresses could be superfrustrating."
Despite the problems, Mr. Fuller said he did not regret his decision to order the new iPhone 5, which will come with the new software installed when it is released on Friday.
For public transit schedules, Apple gives the option for customers to tap on a tab inside the Maps app and download a third-party transit app for their city, though the quality of these may vary.
Google could build its own maps app for Apple devices and submit it to Apple for approval. It declined to say whether it would do so. Brian McClendon, vice president for engineering for maps at Google, would say only that the company wanted to make its maps available to everyone.
All iPhone users will continue to be able to reach Google's mapping service through a mobile Web browser, a method that is somewhat clunky compared with an app. (The Google site prompts users to create a Google Maps icon that resides alongside app icons on the iPhone.) Users who choose not to upgrade to the new Apple operating system or buy a new iPhone will be able to keep using Google's maps, and there is no indication that either Google or Apple will stop providing that service.
As more people use Apple's maps, the company will learn how to improve them. There are 400 million devices running iOS, so it may only be a small matter of time before millions of people have the new maps. Over the next year or two, Apple's maps should become as good as Google's for most people, said Scott Rafer, chief executive of Lumatic, a company that has developed a transit app for iPhones.
"What no one's talking about is map usage is a lot more important than any of this crazy software" that Google's maps may have, Mr. Rafer said.
Google executives, though they will not talk directly about Apple's maps, are reminding people that Google is coming to the fight with years of expertise, and a lot of data of its own.
Google, which has offered maps since 2005, has taken photos of streets in 3,000 cities for its Street View service, photos that help it ensure the accuracy of its maps. And it has information about one million transit stops around the world, including things like photos of the inside of Tokyo subway stations and directions on which exit to use.
"It takes a long time and effort to figure out how to do this right," Mr. McClendon said. "Experience is important."
On the same day that Apple released iOS 6, Google introduced some small updates to its Android maps, like the ability to see a list of places that a user had previously searched for on his computer.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, said Apple was clearly not the market leader in maps, lagging both Google and Nokia. But Mr. Gartenberg said he did not think most consumers would be bothered by what was missing in Apple's maps and that, on the whole, they would be more pleased by the addition of turn-by-turn navigation.
"The granularity of how good mapping is on one platform versus another doesn't seem like it's going to matter a lot to consumers," he said.Continue reading the main story


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Pico Rodadero, Yauco
Pico Rodadero, Yauco
from 65.00
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DAHLONEGA, Ga. – The Georgia College baseball squad (29-17, 16-12 PBC) dropped a 6-3 contest at the University of North Georgia (18-29, 9-19 PBC) Friday night.
The Bobcats rallied from a 6-1 deficit with runs in each of the final two innings, but it wasn't enough to pull off the come-from-behind win.
UNG put up three in the fourth and two more in the fifth to make the 6-1 advantage. Saint first baseman Brad Barto hit a two-run home run in the fourth.
The Bobcats fell victim to the error, posting five total on the game. None of the six runs scored on Bobcat arms were earned.
Righty starter Matt LaMothe (Troy, Mich.) tossed four innings in the loss (6-4). Saint starter Clint Spratlin improved to 3-4 with five innings of work in the win.
Rightfielder Mikee Moore (Dunwoody, Ga.) was the lone Bobcat with a multi-hit contest, going 2-for-4. The Bobcats had the tying run at the plate in the ninth, but couldn't bring any more runs across. UNG's Brandon Agar picked up his sixth save of the year, throwing the final four innings.
The loss makes the Bobcats 16-12 in Peach Belt Conference (PBC) play, locking up the No. 7-seed for the upcoming PBC Tournament May 8 in Greenwood, S.C.
The Bobcats and Saints complete the final regular-season series with doubleheader action tomorrow, May 4 at 1 p.m.
The Georgia College Department of Athletics, two-time winners of the PBC Commissioner's Cup, sponsors 11 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement. Sign up at www.twitter.com/BobcatSports and www.facebook.com/gcbobcats for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit www.GCBobcats.com for more information, and to nominate your favorite former Bobcats and Colonials to the GC Athletics Hall of Fame.


text:
545 Lincoln Road
Peterborough PE1 2PB
Tel: +44 845 0548035
Fax: +44 1733 440239
E-mail: email@example.com
Knut Alvssonsvei 9
0574 Oslo
Tel: +47 22 222 773
Fax: +47 22 222 779
E-mail: email@example.com
Kalno g. 13
Tel: +370 65311469
23, The 4-th of January Str
4000 Plovdiv
Tel./Fax: +359 32625032
Tel: +359 898525352
Tel: +359 887945175
E-mail: email@example.com
For friendly and no obligation information request drop your details in the small form below or just call us on any of the numbers above.
This website is designed to provide information and daily updated ads of properties for sale in Bulgaria. Our aim is to offer a comprehensive, easily searchable database of thousands of properties available in Bulgaria. All listings and ads here are provided by our agents operating in different parts of Bulgaria, or private vendors offering their property for sale. To help the foreigners interested in buying or renting property in Bulgaria, there are a few sections with useful legal and market information, pictures and travel information about Bulgarian towns and regions, pictures of resorts and popular historical and cultural sites in Bulgaria.
We at Black Sea Estates realise how difficult for most of you it must be to buy properties in a foreign country like Bulgaria. Difficulty bolstered from the fact that Bulgaria was closed to most of the western world for number of years. We would like to help you gain some knowledge of Bulgaria before you venture into buying properties, and what better beginning than a large scale Road Map of Bulgaria. There are two versions available, a limited number of the old 2006 edition includes street plans of the main Bulgarian cities: Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Ruse and Bourgas. The second newer 2008 edition includes street plans and slope maps of the major Bulgarian ski resorts of Borovetz, Bankso and Pamorovo, as well as street plans of the renowned Bulgarian Black Sea Coast resorts of Sunny Beach, St. Vlas and Ravda.
Please drop us an email with any queries you may have about buying properties in Bulgaria and along with the answers we will send you for free the preferred Bulgarian Road Map.
Register your details and advertise for a full year up to 4 properties for a small fee.
We are keen to offer an unique for Bulgaria service for large industrial clients looking for properties or land.
Contact one of our offices with approximate parameters for the property and we will come up with number of suggestions for you.
LAND IN BULGARIA Aerial Pictures form Dolna Banya and Borovetc,Bulgaria
We have plots all across Bulgaria and we strive to present the plots in the best possible for the buyer format. Here are AERIAL pictures of Dolna Banya Valley, the ski resort of Borovec, the Ibar Golf Development where we have hundreds of plots for sale.
UNIQUE SEASIDE DEVELOPMENT of Log Villas in Bulgaria
Unique development in construction, location and facilities. The log villas come with 50 years guarantee and bring cosiness to this small development where the owners benefit form the picturesque location in close proximity to the sea and large array of equipment and possibilities for active holiday - riding, fishing and hunting amongst them.
NEW GOLF AND SKI Apartments, Bansko, Bulgaria


text:
6/6s Plus Elastic Folio$13
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Keep your iPhone secure along with your cards and cash in this one-of-a-kind case. Featuring an elastic strap closure this wallet provides protection for your phone and valuables. With three card slots for ID or credit cards, plus a cash pocket, this is the ideal case + wallet for those who like to travel light.
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Shipping and Returns
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- translation missing: en.general.accessibility.selection_help


text:
The introductory news conference for Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Ray Horton had a different tone than most.
He expressed excitement for his new gig, but didn't hide his disappointment at not getting a head-coaching job. His best shot seemed to be with the Arizona Cardinals, for whom he was defensive coordinator. But the Cardinals hired former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians.
"I had hoped (to be head coach)," Horton said, according to Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer. "I can't control that. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I excited to be here? Yes."
Horton was asked about the fact that no minorities were hired for the eight NFL openings.
"Not disappointed for minorities, I'm disappointed for Ray Horton," he said.
From there, Horton and Browns coach Rob Chudzinski described implementing a multi-front 3-4 defense. Chudzinski said he studied the Cardinals' defense, and wants to use the same scheme in Cleveland. Horton believes the necessary personnel is already on the roster.
"I want big men that can run and little men that can hit ... aggressive, attacking multi-front defense," Horton said. "I've got a perfect mix here of big guys that run and little guys that hit."
Horton can't be expected to not answer the job question honestly. If he's ticked about how things ended with the Cardinals -- it is what it is. But Horton's words can be interpreted as someone who has one foot out the door before he's fully walked in. Hopefully, for Browns fans, he'll move on from the previous ordeal.
Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.


text:
Use the mouse to change the viewpoint by dragging, use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
Please note that this is a preliminary version of the display, and improvements will be coming in the near future. We wanted to get it online as soon as possible, before
the objects become too spread out.


text:
Riding WhiteWave to Healthy Profits
The company is gaining market share in a growing category.
The company's largest growth opportunities are in plant-based beverages (PBB), which are drinks that include little to no animal products. It's one of the fastest-growing segments in the food and beverage industry with sales increasing some 15% year-over-year over the past two years, and it now represents a $3 billion per year category.
WhiteWave is the market share leader with about 25% of the total market; its brands include Silk, which has nearly 60% of the soy market, and Horizon Organic and International Delight which enjoy the No. 1 and No. 2 positions in their respective categories in the US. Overall, in 2012, organic and PBB beverages only accounted for 7.9% of the milk-related sales, up from 5.6% in 2011. The number is expected to grow to 12% by 2016.
A Fresh Play on an Existing Brand
Thanks to originally being owned by Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) (from which it was spun off last October), WhiteWave Foods has a wide and established distribution network, including Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), which accounts for 18% of total sales, and high-end stores such as Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM). But along with the benefits that come from being a spin-off -- launching with an embedded customer base and dominant shelf space -- the company also has to face a tailwind that has nothing to do with the product, namely the dynamics of stock price action that typically surrounds a spin-off in any company.
Most spin-offs come with a natural contingency of sellers -- that is, owners of the parent company that don't want the smaller business as part of their portfolio. This is due to the fact that spin-offs are often the result of the subsidiary being too small, offering slow or no growth, or simply operating outside the parent company's core competency. In WhiteWave's case, none of these issues were true. As mentioned above, it is enjoying much faster growth; it is a category leader that seemed to fit nicely under the Dean Foods umbrella. And with a market cap of $3.3 billion -- nearly double Dean Food's current $1.8 billion -- it certainly was not an inconsequential piece of the parent firm. The spin-off was done for near-term financial reasons rather than for a strategic long-term plan.
But that didn't prevent the stock from suffering from the overhang; shares were doled over a 10-month period from October 2012 to July 2013, and the stock couldn't make any headway. It basically traded from its opening day high of $19 per share down to a low of $15.80 in late June when the last of the divestiture was announced. Since that point -- after it announced a solid second quarter, analysts upgraded it, and investors became more comfortable with the story -- shares have climbed some 20% to today's $20 per share level. The stock is a little pricey, carrying a 29x forward P/E, but given its growth prospects, not unreasonable.
Growth From Inside and Outside
Within the PBB sector there are numerous growth opportunities. The company has recently ramped up its almond and coconut milk products which, while only representing 25% and 2% of the PBB market, have grown 37% and 9% over the past two years.
Deals with other industries will also help expand product lines and improve its already healthy (pun intended) 8.9% operating margin and 5.1% profit margin. WhiteWave recently announced a partnership with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ:GMCR) to market iced latte products using creamers made from WhiteWave PBB products. Coffee creamers themselves were an overall $3.9 billion business in the US in 2012. The category is growing 10% annually with the PBB sector comprising 15% of that, but growing at 25% per annum. Within the growing category WhiteWave is taking market share: its share rose from 14.7% to 18.1%, in the second quarter; by comparison, the company's share of the ready-to-drink coffee beverage market increased from 11.3% to over 16% within the same time frame.
The company gets around 84% of sales from North America and 16% from Europe, suggesting that there is ample room for overseas growth. While overall whole milk consumption is down in the developed world, consumption of PBB and skim milk products is still on the rise. Recently the company has been exploring the creation of a zero calorie or "diet" brand of milk that still offers nutritional benefits.
Get WhiteWave Foods. It could do a portfolio good.
Twitter: @steve13smith
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text: At One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning, our expert technicians are always ready to come to the rescue when Heat Pumps break down. We will inspect, diagnose, and remedy your Heat Pump emergency. Call our 24/7 help line, 410-629-0003 to schedule an appointment with one of our friendly and professional technicians.


text:
In August, summer begins to wind down and a new school year begins, which means extra expenses and more shopping for parents and students. So, in addition to backpacks and tennis shoes, what can you save on this month?
Are you looking for great deals at other times of the year? Check out our guide to the best things to buy in every month!
School lunch food. Brown bagging it is a guaranteed money saver and often healthier than cafeteria food, plus buying lunch options with coupons will save even more.
Breakfast options. Quick and easy breakfast foods also go on sale, so parents can scoot kids out the door on time and with a full stomach.
Sunscreen. Look for sunscreen in the clearance bin and stock up—the truth is, you should wear it year round.
Sanitizers. Going back to school equals exposure to more germs so look for promotions on hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and detergent, too.
Seasonal items. Expect deep discounts on summer gear that takes up a lot of real estate like lawn mowers, barbecues, swing sets and pool gear. Stores have to get this seasonal stuff out the door so they can move in new inventory.
Household items. You may be too old for a dorm room, but you're never too old for a good deal. Storage containers, towels, futons and other college essentials go on sale this month.
Quick Tip: Many states offer tax holidays in August to alleviate back to school shopping costs. Policies and dates vary by state, but in some places, you can get baby clothes and work uniforms tax free, too.


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According to a RightNow Customer Experience Impact Report, 85% of respondents stated they would be willing to pay up to 25% more to ensure a superior customer service experience. So with that in mind, it's pretty safe to say that most people, as customers, highly value being cared for by a company. And who wouldn't?
At WarmlyYours, we're dedicated to you. We promise you that our focus on customer service beats any other company in the industry. And we have evidence to back up our claim. Here are "The Top Ten Ways WarmlyYours is Committed to Customer Care."
- Our WarmlyYours Blog
Look no further! We post blogs each week in order to keep our customers informed about our products, tips, housing trends, and company news. If it has to do with radiant heat, chances are, we'll tell you about it.
- Social Networks
We want to have the ability to interact and engage with our customers and keep you up-to-date on all the latest product and company news, so make sure to follow us on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook.
- Community Forum
Another way we can interact with our customers is through our Community Forum feature on our website. This online support center allows customers to ask questions, share ideas, and give feedback while our staff of experts is there to respond.
- Our Industry Leading Warranties
WarmlyYours No Nonsense™ Warranty is the most comprehensive warranty in the industry. We guarantee them to be free from defects in material and workmanship for 5 (Environ II™), 10 (snow melting and slab heating cables and mats), and 25 (TempZone™) years from the date of purchase. Because we don't prorate your coverage, you have the same coverage over the entire life of the warranty. Unlike other companies, WarmlyYours will cover the cost of the warming roll AND the floor covering material AND labor, in the event of a defect. There is no other warranty like it.
- Fast Service
As with all of our radiant heating products, WarmlyYours will quote your project within 24 hours of your floor plan submission, complete with product recommendations and a custom SmartPlan™ design that is personalized specifically for your project details. And when you're ready to order, we'll ship the same day before 4:00 PM CST.
- A Variety of Purchasing Options
There are several ways to place your WarmlyYours product order. Call your Account Manager at (800) 875-5285. Or visit www.WarmlyYours.com to buy direct online and use our interactive design tool, MyProjects™, which allows you to get a quote and to find out which floor heating system is best for your project. Or, you can also find a WarmlyYours dealer in your area by choosing from our network of registered dealers using our dealer locator feature on our website.
- Personal Account Managers
Whatever type of radiant heating project, big or small, residential or commercial, we are here to assist you through every step. With your own personal and dedicated, radiant heating expert Account Manager, to support you, we can turn around your order with accuracy and expediency.
- 24/7 Technical and Installation Support Service for a Lifetime
WarmlyYours backs every product we manufacture and sell with a lifetime technical assistance guarantee. From our TempZone™ and Environ II™ floor heating systems to our towel warmers and mirror defoggers, we promise that we will be there to help resolve any technical issues that may arise. No matter when the product was purchased, WarmlyYours 24/7 technical support team will be there – for a lifetime, even if the warranty has expired, and even if you are not the original owner.
- Designed to Install Easily
Flooring professionals have ranked WarmlyYours electric floor heating systems as the most worry-free and easiest to install system on the market.
- You've Told Us So!
Our own customers tell us that our customer service is unmatched.
"I wish to send a quick note of thanks to the entire WarmlyYours staff. We have worked with your company for a number of years and have found your customer service and reliability second to none!"
-Karen Dillhoff, OH
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