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New in
Knitted sweater from Carlings
Romper from BikBok
1460 8-eye boots from Dr Martens
Some of yesterday's shopping. I got mostly money for christmas, so you could say that these are some of my presents. I also got a pair of new in-ear headphones from Jays (the a-Jays One), since I've had mine from Urban Ears for over two years, and I figured it was about time to move on from the giant mint-green that I've had going on.
Now, some of you might wonder (or not): didn't I already have a pair of Dr Martens that I sold? Yes. Yes, I did. But those were 10-eye with a steelcap in size EU36. These are none of that. I realized a while ago that I wouldn't be able to break in my old pair, because it just hurt too much. They were pressing far to hard on my bunions, and it just wasn't worth it. So I sold them, and got these instead. Naturally, they still hurt, but all real-leather-boots do when you're breaking them in. Even my JC ones, and they are my most comfortable shoes now (after my b/w converse). And after not even 24h of on-and-off wearing my new boots, they're alrady much softer. So yeah, good investment.
I plan on doing a best-of-2012 post for you at some point this week, and also maybe a retrospect of the past year. But no promises, because if I promise I will probably end up not doing it...
Cheerio, my sweets!
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All prices are in All prices are in USD
Think about the last time you had a perfectly cooked steak.
It probably had a great sear on the outside and was deliciously pink and warm on the inside. (If you are someone who prefers a well-done steak, this article probably doesn't have much to offer you, unless you are cooking for people who don't have a taste for shoe leather.)
Now think about the last time you tried to accomplish that task at home. Did you take a 2 1/2-inch thick rib-eye and throw it on a screaming hot grill for a few minutes a side, then transfer it to indirect heat only to have less of that desirable pink center than you wanted? Or are you hip to the reverse sear method that has become something of a worst kept secret for the backyard chef that gets you that beautifully warm pink-red center throughout the inside of your steak?
The inherent problem with trying to keep the interior of a cut of meat moist and tender while searing the exterior to a savory crust is the ideal processes for each result are drastically different.
Both of the aforementioned methods set out to tackle the low heat/ high heat conundrum, but the reverse sear method gives a bit more control when it comes to getting a warm, tender, pink center to a steak while achieving that delightful crust.
Here are the basic steps to executing the reverse sear on a steak:
1) First things first, get a good steak that is at LEAST 1 ½ inches thick. A quick sear, wrap in foil and rest method will generally allow favorable results for thinner cuts. Let your steak come up to room temperature while you prepare your grill.
2) Set up your grill for indirect heat cooking by turning on only one burner and placing an oven thermometer on the grates over the cooler area of the grill. This will allow you to monitor the temp more accurately. Keep your burner on a lower setting and close the lid. When the oven thermometer hits about 275 you are ready to go.
3) Season and place your steaks on a wire rack on a cookie sheet with high sides and position it on the grill away from the lit burner. Close the lid.
4) Allow the steaks to cook for at least 20 or so minutes and check their temperatures with a digital thermometer with a probe. If you desire a medium-rare steak 90 degrees or so will do, a little more for medium.
5) Once they reach the correct temperature remove the steaks and sheet from the grill.
6) Turn up the lit burner to high (or turn on Sear Zone burner if your Vintage grill has one) and close the lid for a few minutes to get the grates up to a nice, high heat.
7) Sear the steaks for 1-2 minutes a side. If your steaks are particularly thick, limit searing each side to 1 minute and continue to flip them to keep from over cooking.
Notes: USE YOUR THERMOMETERS! Don't guess. The digital thermometer is an essential tool and once you get used to using it you won't want to be caught without one.
This method also works with chicken and other meats, just be sure to cook the meat a little further during the direct heat step. Take chicken to about 120 degrees before the searing step to ensure you cook the meat thoroughly.
If at first you don't succeed; try, try again! The best part about experimenting with food is you get to eat your failures.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop me an email!
The Vintage Chef

subset: commoncrawl


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Our big welcome back to the county schools came in a big way.
Don't be jealous, it came in the form of a germ invasion.
All 4 kids have been hit hard. Carley J does not find it humorous one bit. She has reminded me that she is still homeschooling, she should not have to suffer such consequences because of her siblings choices.
Oh that girl of mine, she makes me smile.
I could tell she needed a bit of a "pick-me-up" today.
She looked pretty down and out. Once again reminding me that it wasn't fair that she was getting sick too. Poor thing has it worse than the others too.
I looked at our tree, and it was obvious something was missing...garland.
I put her to work, hoping to distract her from her debate on germ fairness with me. IT WORKED!
In a few hours we had a lovely, long strand of popcorn and Trix cereal garland.
She was glad to be done and happy with her work. We promptly added it to the tree and like magic in a matter of seconds it looked better.
We are quite certain it needs more garland but we decided her thumb didn't need to endure anymore needle pokes today.
I love how diving into something Christmas can just boost your outlook. It sure helped Carley J forget those nasty germs, even if it was just a couple of hours.


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Teacher Bonuses for Extra Work: A Profile of Missouris Career Ladder Program
Teacher Bonuses for Extra Work: A Profile of Missouris Career Ladder Program - Descarga este documento en PDF. Documentación en PDF para descargar gratis. Disponible también para leer online.
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
This report set out to profile the Missouri Career Ladder program by delving beneath the surface and comparing how the program works in practice (based on stakeholder accounts) with how it works in theory (based on published statutes and regulations). The authors found that in many respects the program operates as one might expect. Districts implement rules that tend to follow the state guidelines, with some local tailoring. Teachers of a given experience level must perform a set of allowed activities in order to receive payments at one of the three Career Ladder levels. While Career Ladder provided opportunities to supplement salaries by offering extra pay for extra work, in most cases it would not qualify as a performance incentive program for teachers. The use of an evaluation tool (the PBTE) to promote teachers along the career ladder suggests that it should provide incentives for teachers to improve their practice. However, the authors found little evidence that the Performance-Based Teacher Evaluation (PBTE) is applied rigorously or implemented uniformly in a way that would motivate teachers to raise their performance. Instead, Career Ladder payments were seen as a reward for longevity and completion (with documentation) of a set of allowable activities such as tutoring, after-school activities, or approved professional development. The authors also sought to explain how districts and teachers came to be in the program. They found that district size matters. Finally, a goal of the analysis was to identify the mechanisms by which Career Ladder might produce positive impacts. They identified plausible routes whereby the program could raise student achievement, improve teacher satisfaction/morale, and improve teaching via productivity and composition effects. Teachers reported that they get to know their students better as a result of tutoring them outside of class. Three appendices are included: (1) Data and Methods; (2) Protocol for District-Level Interviews; and (3) Focus Group Protocol. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures and 11 footnotes.)
Descriptors: School Activities, Incentives, Focus Groups, Academic Achievement, Program Effectiveness, Profiles, Occupational Mobility, Tutoring, Teaching Methods, Theory Practice Relationship, Teaching Experience, Faculty Development, Achievement Gains, Teacher Morale, Job Satisfaction, Teacher Motivation, Interviews, Merit Pay, Teacher Attitudes, Teacher Salaries, Teacher Persistence, School District Size, School Districts, Teacher Evaluation
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. P.O. Box 2393, Princeton, NJ 08543-2393. Tel: 609-799-3535; Fax: 609-799-0005; e-mail: info[at]mathematica-mpr.com; Web site: http://www.mathematica-mpr.com
Autor: Silman, Timothy; Glazerman, Steven
Fuente: https://eric.ed.gov/?q=a&ft=on&ff1=dtySince_1992&pg=2196&id=ED507471


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|Return to: Art News
Fotograf Bia?ystok
Saving Your Wedding Photos Online
With all the advancements in technology now you can save your wedding pictures on the internet after the big day is finished. With the greater usage of digital cameras, many professional wedding photographers are currently using these kinds of cameras. The camera can create high quality pictures that are fantastic for your wedding pictures online album.
You wish to recall though that lots of amateur photographers might not have the ability to make beautiful wedding photographs. A professional photographer will comprehend the need for great composition and lighting. If your photograph is badly recorded, no quantity of computer improvements techniques can repair it.
Wedding photographs can be costly and can easily consume a fantastic chunk of your wedding. The formal, casual and group photographs with friends and family are the most expensive. Some photographers will have a professional photographer take these photographs and utilize family members and friends armed with digital cameras to shoot extra wedding photographs.
These dull shots can be a wonderful way to keep in mind the enjoyment of their wedding day. Plus keeping your photographs on the internet can be a simple and inexpensive way to talk about your memories along with your visitors.
Another wonderful advantage of keeping your wedding pictures on the internet is the fact that it functions as a back up for your additional photographs. If you keep your pictures on your hard disk that they are lost forever in case your computer crashes. By keeping your photographs online they're also available at any time to other members of their wedding celebration. Your visitors can easily print and download any images they'd enjoy for themselves.
In nature storing your wedding pictures online can save money on the cost of having a professional shoot and publish all your photos.
Your photographs are a superb reminder of the wedding, these photographs have captured the joy and spirit of the particular moment. Wedding photographs commemorate the memorable events which happened throughout the duration of your wedding day. Safe storage of your photographs online really makes sense nowadays. With so many people using the net you can readily make a wedding album for the whole wedding party and provide them a backup burnt onto a CD.
You still wish certain photos of a top quality that you'll be able to hang on your own wall and utilizing a professional photographer to make these is your best idea. Photographers can be costly but do not opt for the most affordable bundle, you will likely want additional prints in the future and these can cost you more than if you had chosen for an updated package from the start.
Should you employ a professional photographer that you wish to be certain after you've hired them, you receive a signed agreement that summarizes each the terms of this contract. The contract must include when obligations are the result of the shipping of their wedding photographs.
Visit : http://www.fotomalarz.pl
Click For More Info Fotograf Bialy ...
News Release: Fotograf Bia?ystok
Submitted on: February 12, 2018 10:53:10 AM
Submitted by: Jason Edward
On behalf of: www.fotomalarz.pl


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I am a Year 5 student at Pt England School in Auckland, NZ. My teachers are Miss Scanlan, Mr Goodwin, and Miss Parrant.
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Tayah Let's Get Inventing!
Spy glasses is when it has cool stuff but I changed them even cooler I used it with a screen that can come up and night vision to see in the dark and when it breaks I can use my Remote control to fix it back up. I made it myself.
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About this book
Mathematical Modeling for Complex Fluids and Flows provides researchers and engineering practitioners encountering fluid flows with state-of-the-art knowledge in continuum concepts and associated fluid dynamics. In doing so it supplies the means to design mathematical models of these flows that adequately express the engineering physics involved. It exploits the implicit link between the turbulent flow of classical Newtonian fluids and the laminar and turbulent flow of non-Newtonian fluids such as those required in food processing and polymeric flows.
The book develops a descriptive mathematical model articulated through continuum mechanics concepts for these non-Newtonian, viscoelastic fluids and turbulent flows. Each complex fluid and flow is examined in this continuum context as well as in combination with the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids. Some details are also explored via kinetic theory, especially viscoelastic fluids and their treatment with the Boltzmann equation. Both solution and modeling strategies for turbulent flows are laid out using continuum concepts, including a description of constructing polynomial representations and accounting for non-inertial and curvature effects.
Ranging from fundamental concepts to practical methodology, and including discussion of emerging technologies, this book is ideal for those requiring a single-source assessment of current practice in this intricate yet vital field.
Bibliographic information
- DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25295-2
- Copyright Information Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
- Publisher Name Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
- eBook Packages Mathematics and Statistics
- Print ISBN 978-3-642-25294-5
- Online ISBN 978-3-642-25295-2
- Buy this book on publisher's site


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Tugger wrote:BerenErchamion wrote:Why? Killing people is wrong; we shouldn't support those who do it.
As a blanket statement that doesn't work.
Yes, it does. Killing another one of God's children--killing another bearer of the inner light, of God Godself--can never be justified, for any reason, under any circumstances. It is far, far, far, better to be killed than to kill. Jesus wasn't kidding when he said "love your enemies" and "offer the other cheek" and "bless those who curse you" and "do good to those who harm you."


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Honorary Doctorate Degree
Yearly deadline for nominations is December 31st
Click here to access our nomination form. >>
Faculty, staff, students and private citizens are welcome to nominate candidates for a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Honorary Doctorate Degree.
Honorary Doctorate Degrees are given to individuals of exceptional accomplishment and distinction who have made significant contributions to the university, region, state or nation. The UW Oshkosh Honorary Doctorate Degree Committee recommends candidates to the Chancellor who, with the University of Wisconsin System President, recommends nominees to the Board of Regents.
Strong consideration is given to those who: (a) have a current or past connection to the University, region (Oshkosh and Greater Fox Valley) or state of Wisconsin; (b) are distinguished alumni or (c) display excellence in reflecting the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh's vision of engaging people and ideas for common good.
Robert Keller, '69, received a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh honorary doctorate at the 144th spring commencement ceremony Saturday, May 12.
Keller received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, at the 2 p.m. commencement ceremony.
Keller is an award-winning alumnus of UW Oshkosh, the chair of the Board of J. J. Keller & Associates Inc., and an engaged and giving citizen and philanthropist dedicated to improving lives in the Fox Valley region.
The UW Oshkosh honorary doctorate recognizes individuals of exceptional accomplishment and distinction who have made significant contributions to the University, region, state or nation.
"Mr. Keller built a career upon forward-thinking business acumen, passionate philanthropy and significant engagement with the students and faculty members of UW Oshkosh," UW Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said. "He has long been dedicated to bold initiatives that confront some of the Fox Valley and Northeast Wisconsin's greatest challenges, including, but not limited to, poverty, hunger and the need for effective, accessible mental health services.
"Mr. Keller has been just as steadfast a supporter of UW Oshkosh, sharing experience and insight in the classroom while providing students and graduates paths to internships and rewarding careers. He has helped inspire and promote meaningful change and greater prosperity for more people," Leavitt said.
Keller began his career at J. J. Keller & Associates, his family's company, in 1956, sweeping floors and running errands. While attending UW Oshkosh and pursuing his degree in economics, he wrote his first advertising copy for the company and, soon thereafter, earned his role as advertising and marketing manager.
During the next 20 years, he would ascend to the company's CEO role while also serving as the president of the J. J. Keller Family Foundation Inc. Today, J. J. Keller & Associates has grown to support 600,000 clients and approximately 90 percent of Fortune 1000 companies. The company helps organizations in the transportation industry stay informed about and compliant with safety regulations. It currently employs more than 1,400 associates.
In an announcement to J. J. Keller associates, the company released the following: "This degree recognizes the wisdom with which Bob has led J. J. Keller & Associates Inc. through the years and as chairman of our board today. Our associates, the local community and our customers across the nation have all been influenced for the better by his contributions. It is a well-deserved honor!"
Keller received the UWO Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004. He has had deep and significant engagement with the students and faculty members of his alma mater, serving as an Executive in Residence within the College of Business.
In addition to supporting the growth and modernization of the campus's academic and athletic facilities, he and his family foundation have also helped launch and support the UW Oshkosh-founded Wisconsin Family Business Forum and the Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, entities sustaining family-owned businesses in the state and cultivating a culture of entrepreneurship among the student body. Keller also has served on numerous volunteer and advisory boards dedicated to advancing UW Oshkosh's mission.
Bob and his wife, Lynne, have four children: Marne and Rustin (both J. J. Keller associates), Rachael and Adam. Bob and Lynne also are proud grandparents of nine.
- Charles Fritz Hyde, chairman of the Board of Oshkosh B'Gosh
- Sister Irene Kohne, past administrator of St. Frances Home/St. Clare Terrace Apartments for the elderly
- F. John Barlow, president of AZCO Inc., Appleton
- David C. Leach, former president of Leach Co.
- Dennis J. Noone, retired president of Firstar Bank of Oshkosh
- Jean Nelson, retired director of UW Oshkosh Alumni Association
- Philip Nelson, former vice president of Wisconsin Public Expenditure Survey
- John L. Vette III, president and chief executive officer of SNC Manufacturing Co. Inc., Oshkosh
- Howard Curler, retired chairman of the Bemis Co.
- Allen Guentzel, retired director of Employee Relations/Corporate Staff, Kimberly-Clark, Corp.
- James Mather, district director of Department of Vocational Rehabilitation
- Roy Vander Putten, chairman and CEO of Trade Resources International
- Lorraine Sams, retired Green Meadow School elementary teacher
- Verna M. Fowler, founding president of the College of Menominee Nation
- Michael Wachtel, late executive vice president and chief operating officer of Oshkosh B'Gosh
- John Gilbert, chairman of the board of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
- Phyllis Leach, humanitarian and philanthropist, major supporter and ambassador for breast cancer research and awareness
- Paul Poberezny, founder of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
- Gaylord Nelson, former governor and founder of Earth Day
- Ruth DeYoung Kohler, director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
- Craig Culver, CEO of Culver's Franchises
- David Green, former president/CEO of Evergreen Retirement Community
- The Mercury 13, pioneer women of the 1960s space program
- Ted Leyhe, longtime president of Miles Kimball Co.
- Robert Pederson, CEO of Goodwill Industries
- Muriel Howard, president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)
- Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), initiated Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP)
- Edward Penson, former UW Oshkosh Chancellor who led the change in admission standards from open admissions to more standard criteria
- Jim VandeHei, cofounder and executive director of Politico, a leading web-based media company focusing on national politics
- Dr. Martin Viessmann, owner of The Viessmann Group GmbH, Germany, partnered with UWO and BioFerm Energy Systems to build an alternative power plant in Oshkosh (first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere)
- Stew, the Tony Award-winning musician, singer-songwriter, playwright, actor, and educator who performed and taught classes at UW Oshkosh on multiple occasions from 2011 to 2013 and whose work continues to be taught here
- Robert J. DeKoch & Kathi Seifert, accomplished leaders and co-chairs for New North, Inc. Both previously received the Chancellor's Medallion as founders of the regional economic development organization
- Oman's University of Nizwa Chancellor Ahmed Khalfan Al-Rawahi and Vice Chancellor Abdullaziz Alkindi who have a strong connection and partnership with UW Oshkosh. The University of Nizwa is a high quality academic institution that provides access to higher education for women in Oman with 85% women enrollment
- Stan F. Mack II, superintendent of the Oshkosh Area School District (OASD)
- Daniel Burrus, owner of Burrus Research
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25 Sep 2017
Loughborough achieves environmental management re-accreditation
Loughborough University has achieved re-accreditation to ISO 14001 for environmental management, including an upgrade to the new ISO 14001: 2015 standard.
In addition, Loughborough achieved its best audit results to date and the Loughborough University London campus and Imago Venues have now been encompassed into the accreditation.
ISO 14001:2015 specifies the requirements for an Environmental Management System (EMS) that an organisation can use to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner, fulfil its compliance obligations, and enhance its environmental performance.
Maintaining this standard provides the best opportunity for Loughborough to manage its environmental responsibilities across two inspiring campuses. It also supports the ambition in the University Strategy to 'embed sustainability and social responsibility into all our processes, operations and developments.'
As part of the EMS, the University must endeavour to ensure all staff and students are aware of their role in supporting the management of its environmental impacts.
The Environmental Essentials eLearning course provides an ideal opportunity for staff and students to understand the work of the sustainability team, the environmental aspects of the campus, key compliance obligations and how to help.
The course can be accessed via Learn. It is straightforward and can be completed in a short coffee break. Loughborough University London versions are also available.
Once you have completed the course and passed a short test, it is logged on your my.HR training record. The version for staff on grades 1-2 has no test and only needs to be completed.
Those completing the course and passing the test (if applicable) before 31 October 2017 will be entered into a prize draw. Prizes include vouchers, Loughborough Gold honey, Loughborough Cups and more.
For further information, please contact Nik Hunt, Environmental Manager on firstname.lastname@example.com or 01509 228083.


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Sunday, January 31, 2010
It all depends on who's counting
The story has been everywhere. Avatar is a $1 billion dollar movie. It is the highest grossing movie of all time. But as we have long heard, "There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Is Avatar's claim to be the biggest movie ever subject to this cliche? An interesting article in the Los Angeles Times makes the case.
The issue in question as the LA Times frames it, is Avatar the largest box office movie ever? As is so often the situation, the answer depends on how one frames the question. Avatar is indeed the biggest grossing moving of all-time when analyzing gross revenues, i.e. total dollars. However, when the metric is changed to adjust for inflation, the Avatar is nowhere to be found.
The biggest movie of all-time for individual ticket sales, i.e. fannies in the seats, and the biggest movie of all-time when considering inflation adjusted gross revenues are the same flick, "Gone With Wind." It garnered what would be in today's dollars nearly $1.5 billion in ticket sales. To give you an idea, dear readers, of just how different the two lists are, check this out from the Times: the all-time not adjusted for inflation gross revenue top 50 list includes only five films from before 1997, but check the adjusted for inflation gross revenue top 10 list, there's only one film, "Titanic," that was released in the last 30 years.
This phenomenon is part of longer term trend in American cultural history where folks conflate the most recent and the best. America wants everything that is new to be improved, new and improved are as linked as peanut butter and jelly in the American psyche. It is not good enough to simply be the best home run hitter or the best sprinter of one's era, one must be the best ever. The Clarion Content worries that this kind of thinking provokes a vicious cycle that labels far too many tremendous efforts failures. The movies are apparently not exempt. The LA Times writer, Patrick Goldstein sums it up well, "I don't know about you, but when I think of how much cultural heft a film has, I'm more interested in how many people enjoyed the communal delight of being in front of the big screen, not simply how much money they had to pay to see it."
Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Labels: Pop Culture, thought
BCS to be reviewed
The best team in the country was???
The Clarion Content was just excoriating the Obama administration last week on our politics page for its failure to object to the merger between two existing harmful monopolies, Ticketmaster and Live Nation. There is better news out of Washington, D.C. today. While the President was courtside watching the Duke game yesterday afternoon, with Veep Joe Biden who looked like he couldn't tell the teams apart without a program, the Justice Department was indicating its preliminary willingness to look into a harmful sports monopoly, the college football Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
The BCS is, of course, prima facie an anti-competitive system. It is deliberately designed to exclude and minimize opportunities for schools not in the six "power" conferences. The BCS worked just as its designers intended this year when it denied undefeated Boise State and Texas Christian a chance to compete for the national title. In fact, it not only excluded these schools from a national title game or any opportunity to play in one, but in a fit of extreme protectionism, it refused to allow them to play any team from the so-called power conferences in a BCS sanctioned bowl.
This behavior is monopolistic and highly objectionable. It would be bad enough if it were perpetrated by a private entity, but coming from an organization that includes many public universities, it is genuinely perverse. We agree, of course, that there are far bigger problems facing the country. However, we are glad to see the Obama administration is at least on the right side of this anti-trust issue. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote in a letter to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a leading rabblerouser on the topic, that, "This seemingly discriminatory action with regard to revenues and access have raised questions regarding whether the BCS potentially runs afoul of the nation's antitrust laws...The administration shares your belief that the current lack of a college football national championship playoff with respect to the highest division of college football ... raises important questions affecting millions of fans, colleges and universities, players and other interested parties."
Is it going anywhere? Probably not, much more likely it is strictly for public consumption, and the Obama folks showed their true colors in raising nary an objection of significance to the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation which will raise the already ridiculous prices for concert tickets even higher. The BCS signaled its inclination to continue to ignore any and all objections in a statement released by its chairman, "This letter is nothing new and if the Justice Department thought there was a case to be made, they likely would have made it already."
Labels: college football, Ethically questionable, sports, Sports Economics
Saturday, January 30, 2010
A win for the pirates?
The Maran Centaurus
The Greek-owned oil tanker Maran Centaurus was ransomed for between $5.5 million and $7 million by East African pirates. It carried two million barrels of Saudi Arabian crude oil valued at more than $156 million. Theoretically they paid pennies on the dollar to get their cargo back. Reportedly $5.5 million in cash was dropped directly on to the deck of the hijacked ship.
The Centaurus was taken about 700 miles northeast of Seychelles, an island country north of Madagascar. The captors subsequently docked the tanker along the Somali coast in the pirate town of Xaradheere, located in central Somalia. The crew promised to share part of the ransom with the pirates of Xaradheere in exchange for docking the tanker, according to the Wall Street Journal. On board at all times were pirates with rocket propelled grenades and twenty-eight hostages.
Unfortunately for the pirates, it was not quite as easy money as it seemed. The pirates fell prey to the old saw, there is no honor among thieves. Despite their apparent generosity, the pirates allegedly gave the crew about $400,000 to divide among themselves because they had been cooperative, the buccaneers fought amongst themselves. The Journal reported that according to residents of the town, by nightfall at least three pirates lay dead in the street. None of the crew were harmed.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
State of the State
The Clarion Content is doing our first live Twitter event tonight. President Barack Obama's first State of the Union speech is just about an hour away. Follow our live commentary on the event, the President and the speech at our Clarion Content Twitter feed. (We are asking you in advance, dear readers, to forgive the cynicism, it is the occupational hazard of the journalist.)
Labels: 2008's President, Economy, Politics
The President's most ardent defenders point to the reform of the Justice Department as one of Obama's significant breaks with the reign of King George the II. The Clarion Content does not buy that for a moment. Although, we are willing to grant the administration a temporary pass on Guantanamo, it has yet to stop warrantless wiretapping of phones or speed the declassification of documents. Yesterday in a move that underlines just how embedded corporatism is in American government, the Justice Department announced its approval of a merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. The DOJ claimed that this merger would not increase ticket prices. This is so patently bullshit that it would be easier to argue in favor of the Orwellian equation 2+2=5. Since Ticketmaster and Live Nation came to dominate over the last decade, concert prices have more than doubled and service fees for processing tickets have climbed to as high as 50% per order.
In the first major anti-trust case for the "new" Department of Justice what this opinion makes patently obvious is that Obama has not changed the government's support for big corporations over the little guy one iota. The more evident that becomes, the more likely he is swept aside by the same populists and progressives that brought him to power. Regardless of the claims of his defenders about the Department of Justice, given the choice and the chance, the Obama Administration has repeatedly stood with elite and entrenched interests over those of the outsider.
Like all of us, he will reap what he sows.
Labels: 2008 presidential election, economics, Politics
Monday, January 25, 2010
Airline Travel
The Clarion Content is not a big believer in interdiction. If the War on Drugs has taught us anything, it should be that one has to win on the level of motive. If one can't erode the motivation, one can't interdict everything. We think that this cross-applies. Hence, we were not too stressed by a couple of anecdotal reports we received recently about airline security after the near disaster in Detroit.
In two different place we heard essentially the same story, nothing has changed. One was a local Durham friend who traveled to Australia for ten days in early January. While there she obtained a European brand kitchen knife made from a ceramic composite. It is neon yellow, and we saw her caught raw chicken with it after her return. It is a sharp pairing knife with a three inch blade. Having purchased it while in Australia and done no cooking there, she somehow forgot that she had it in her handbag. She unthinkingly brought it on the plane on her flight out of Melbourne, unmolested, undiscovered and unaware.
While not as extreme we saw a comment that read much the same from one of our favorite football writers, Peter King in Sports Illustrated. He wrote in last week's column on the divisional playoff round, "Nine flight segments since the aborted terrorist on the plane in Detroit on Christmas. Zero difference in security that I've seen. Have I just missed it? Or is there just not the vigilance we should be seeing? Hard to tell, but I've not seen slower lines with more patdowns or anything I thought we'd see. I hope TSA knows what it's doing."
Things that make you go, hmmmmm. Anyone?
Labels: Pop Culture, thought
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Frank Rich on point
It is a mighty rare day when the Clarion Content agrees wholeheartedly with liberal ideologue and New York Times columnist Frank Rich. However, we think he got the tone and tenor of what the Massachusetts Senatorial election signifies about the mindset of American electorate just right.
Obama's plight has been unchanged for months. Neither in action nor in message is he in front of the anger roiling a country where high unemployment remains unchecked and spiraling foreclosures are demolishing the bedrock American dream of home ownership. The president is no longer seen as a savior but as a captive of the interests who ginned up the mess and still profit, hugely, from it.David Brooks and others who have written about the erosion of the American meritocracy, especially in things like college admissions, have sounded this alarm previously, and been ignored. Obama road this anti-elitist wave of anger to power, but has yet to provide any solutions. Until the ground shook this week he was kowtowing to the bankers' man, Timothy Geithner. In the Clarion Content's view the critiques of his health care bill as patently corporatist and written by lobbyists were accurate. Kennedy and Reagan both struggled in their first years, it is not too late for Obama to pivot. Now is the time. This is an inflection point. Can Obama adapt or is he a Clintonista proclaiming a "3rd Way" to appease while pushing the same old agenda?
That's no place for any politician of any party or ideology to be. There's a reason why the otherwise antithetical Leno and Conan camps are united in their derision of NBC's titans. A TV network has become a handy proxy for every mismanaged, greedy, disloyal and unaccountable corporation in our dysfunctional economy. It's a business culture where the rich and well-connected get richer while the employees, shareholders and customers get the shaft. And the conviction that the game is fixed is nonpartisan. If the tea party right and populist left agree on anything, it's that big bailed-out banks have and will get away with murder while we pay the bill on credit cards — with ever-rising fees.
Labels: economics, Politics, public protest
Still paying the price
For all the Clarion Content's criticism of Barry Obama's first year in the presidency, which has recently downshifted from simply poor (ala C-) to outright crummy (more like a D,) it is important to occasionally recall how truly awful his predecessor was. America and Americans should still be weeping at the legacy of the tyrant King George the II (and not just for starting two wars of choice that have cost thousands of lives).
This week another one of King George the II's bequests reached out and bit the country in the ass. The Supreme Court struck down large portions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. The vote was along strictly partisan lines. Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, several of whom would have been comfortable sitting on the bench in the CCCP, voted to eviscerate McCain-Feingold. The Clarion Content is reminded despite our disagreements with Al Gore and John Kerry neither of them would have nominated the likes of Alito and Roberts to the bench. (Goodness knows who Ralph Nader or Ron Paul might have put up there.)
The justices (it almost sounds farcical to call them that) King George the II wrought gave the Supreme Court a 5-4 majority to strike down the provisions of McCain-Feingold that banned political advertising paid for by corporations and unions in the thirty days before a presidential primary and sixty days before general elections. The court, cloaking its decision in the rubric of free speech, decided that American elections are indeed for sale. No doubt it was not far from their minds that unlimited corporate spending on elections will disproportionately benefit their benefactors, Republicans and entrenched political interests.
Labels: 2008 presidential election, constitutional issues, Politics
Monday, January 18, 2010
Kabul attacked
Has anybody told these folks what they are in for?
In a move that is less of a Tet offensive, and more simply designed to show both Afghanis and Americans that the government of Afghanistan has no more than the thinnest veneer of control, Tailban forces attacked the capital of Kabul today. It was a moved timed symbolically to coincide with the swearing in of Afghani President Hamad Karzai's new cabinet.
The assault was widespread aimed at creating as much panic and fear as possible. It was also designed to show the Taliban's reach (if also revealing their limits and inability to make frontal attacks on troops centers or hold territory). The BBC and other sources reported coordinated attacks at the Presidential Palace, the Defense Ministry, the Justice Department, Afghan Telecom, the Feroshgah-e-Afghan shopping center and the Serena Hotel, all located at the heart of an ostensibly very heavily protected capital.
The BBC quoted Afghan MP Shukria Barakzai, saying that it cast a shadow over a London conference later this month intended to demonstrate the Afghan government's ability and willingness to take charge. As the Clarion Content has said continuously since 1993, Afghanistan is not governable centrally as conceived by Western policymakers. The state of Afghanistan does not exist save as a mapmakers conceit and as an opportunity for local elites to accept bribes and siphon western aid into personal coffers.
The BBC notes, "A large number of cabinet posts remain vacant. Parliament has twice rejected many of Mr Karzai's nominations for a new cabinet, forcing the president to direct deputy ministers or other caretaker figures to run their ministries."
Among the conundrums facing American leadership, the Taliban does not need to win on the ground to achieve its desired outcome. For their purposes, a tie is sufficient, they must merely show that the American "way" and the American "stooge" are incapable of providing peace and economic stability.
Labels: Central Asia, war
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Wasted Food
In the dumpster?
In Durham, North Carolina we are lucky to have a reasonably competent local paper, the Independent. We are even more blessed to have a wonderfully vibrant and activist population. The Independent this week noted one such Durham citizen's efforts. Jonathan Bloom is writing a book about the food wasted in America.
His website, like the Clarion Content, is a conscious call to action. Bloom notes that "Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce for consumption." This feels like something we must have already known in our collective guts, but it is horrifying nonetheless. Bloom goes on to tell us that this "comes at an annual cost of more than $100 billion. At the same time, food prices and the number of Americans without enough to eat continues to rise." Worse a recent study found that America's food waste is bigger than ever, "US per capita food waste has progressively increased by ~50% since 1974...Food waste now accounts for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and ~300 million barrels of oil per year."
Durhamanian Bloom is working on an important issue. Check him out here at wastedfood.com. And keep an eye out for his book. In the meantime check out this practical advice link that we encountered on his site, "10 Tips to Reduce Food Waste in 2010."
Labels: Economy, food, Politics, Practical Advice
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Not a Puma ad
Of course, on the blog where we found it the robotic Google Ad Sense paired it with ads for Puma products.
Labels: Pop Culture
Train follow-up
The Clarion Content was just railing the Obama administration recently about its lack of relative expenditure on building and repairing train infrastructure in America. We were reminded here in North Carolina, that this lack of spending has real costs in terms of safety, and consequently lives. At a local railroad crossing long renowned for malfunctioning signals and crossing arms, a mother and her five year-old son were killed by an Amtrak passenger train Christmas week. A three month-old daughter survived. Nearby office workers in the small town of Efland where the accident happened said the crossing's signals and arms malfunctioned so frequently that one kept the railroad company's number on her desk.
Another local citizen was quoted in the Durham Herald-Sun "They've [the crossing arms] been going just wacko, up and down up and down, and there's no train coming. We've made calls before [to the Orange County Sheriff's Office] to report the problem." The grieving father told the press in the days after the accident that his wife and kids were on the way to a dentist appointment for his son and running early for it. He believed there is no way his twenty-six year-old wife tried to beat the train or the crossing arms. In his view the signal or crossing arms must have malfunctioned again.
According to InjuryBoard.com, "In the last 10 years, there have been more than 30,000 railroad crossing accidents and more than 3,600 train accident deaths." Which in all honesty, the Clarion Content has to concede is not that many considering the amount of trains on the rails and cars on the roads. However, the need to modernize the American rail system offers an opportunity to attack any of these deaths, like those in Efland, NC that come from old, dilapidated, inadequate equipment.
In another tragic accident from faulty crossing arms, this one in Minnesota, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp was fined an additional $4 million dollars by the state for attempting to cover-up the equipment's failure. Much like their initial reaction to the Efland accident, the railroad immediately attempted to blame the deceased victim. This is exactly the kind of situation where the government has a role to step in and protect the American taxpayer from a corporation with far deeper pockets for lawyers in the land of liability.
We urge our readers to please exercise caution at railroad crossings.
Labels: economics, infrastructure, Politics
Friday, January 15, 2010
NFL predictions
After last weekends games the Clarion Content has to say we have never seen a more wide open final eight in our NFL memory. We could make a reasonable case for each of these eight teams to win a Super Bowl. Vegas more or less agrees. The current odds are:
Indianapolis Colts 5 to 2
San Diego Chargers 3 to 1
New Orleans Saints 4 to 1
Dallas Cowboys 5 to 1
Minnesota Vikings 6 to 1
New York Jets 14 to 1
Baltimore Ravens 14 to 1
Arizona Cardinals 20 to 1
The only surprise in that list for the Clarion Content is the Cardinals at longer odds than the Jets, but Vegas is probably comparing their respective defenses.
Since we feel utterly unable to predict the outcomes of this weekends games, we thought we might steer you instead to our favorite sports columnist and his terrific column. Read the talented Bill Simmons on Week Two of the playoffs here.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Pandemic Scam
Wolfgang Wodarg
The Clarion Content has been saying it for some time, but it was nice have a public health official back us up. The World Health Organization calling Swine Flu a pandemic was a ridiculous scam contrived for the benefit of huge pharmaceutical companies. The head of health for the Council of Europe, Wolfgang Wodarg, said calling H1N1 a pandemic was "one of the greatest medical scandals of the century."
He went on to tell the UK tabloid the Sun that, "The great campaign of panic we have seen provided a golden opportunity for representatives from labs who knew they would hit the jackpot in the case of a pandemic being declared. A group of people in the WHO is associated very closely with the pharmaceutical industry."
How huge a money maker was it for big pharma? The CDC estimated 61 million people got vaccinated in America alone.
Labels: corruption, economics, Politics
Banking follow-up
Bank of America's HQ
The Clarion Content highlighted last month how the bankers made a pile on the front end of the mortgage market collapse. We quoted a New York Times feature that discussed the SEC's on-going investigation into banks that designed synthetic collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.'s and then bet against them.
At the time our banner read, "Bankers made it coming and going..." which is no surprise to veteran observers of market capitalism. Here at the Clarion Content, we were weaned on the Latin American debt crisis of the "Lost Decade" and the S&L collapse.
Our last feature was an investigation of how banks made out on the front end of economic chaos, this week we ran across a Business Week story about banks profiting on the back end after being bailed out by the American taxpayer. The flip side profiteering is rooted in the Public-Private Investment Program, (PPIP) which was introduced in March by Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, to buy as much as $1 trillion in toxic assets from U.S. banks.
Business Week reports that banks including Charlotte based Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs added a combined $2.74 billion of the debt that was frozen, and considered toxic, as recently as March of last year. Essentially they are investing in the very assets the government was coming in to bail them out of and wipe off their books. Business Week notes, too, "Prices of these securities may slump again, leaving the banks exposed to potential losses that the Treasury Department's rescue plan was designed to mitigate."
They were unable to get a comment from officials for Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley or the U.S. Treasury Department about this chicanery. It is inherent and systemic. The mechanism is designed for this to happen whether we are capable of acknowledging it or not. As Business Week notes, "Any time the government says, 'We're going to buy something in the securities market,' they're putting out a sign that says, 'Free money, come and get it!'" They also note that the government is an co-owner via warrants and shareholdings of most the banks involved.
Their conclusion, this is market timing and gaming of the system. These securities are supposed to trade on whether or not the underlying mortgages have value. If they do, then the securities have value. If they don't, well then as Business Week concluded, "PPIP is not going to fill up buildings."
Labels: corruption, economics, Politics
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Lane Kiffin to USC
Who's ready to take on the Trojans?
We could not have said it better than ESPN columnist Pat Forde did, "Paris Hilton has paid more dues than Lane Kiffin."
We are predicting that Lane Kiffin does about as well with USC football as Tim Floyd did with USC basketball. USC Athletic Director, Mike Garrett, can take credit for both hires. For those of you who do not recall, Floyd's Trojans looked good for a minute, making it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen (once). Unfortunately, four years after his arrival Floyd resigned as the head coach, USC vacated its 21 wins from the 2007-08 season, and ordered self-imposed sanctions which included withdrawing from postseason consideration (including the Pac-10 tournament) for the 2009-10 season.
Kiffin leaves Tennessee fourteen months into a five year contract, one game over .500, with a string of "minor" NCAA violations in his wake.
Smooth move, Ex-Lax, errrr, AD Garrett.
Labels: college football, Ethically questionable, sports
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A big economic ripple
Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner can tell us things are getting better until they are blue in the face, the facts on the ground, as we see them, continue to make us skeptical. As you know, the Clarion Content is fascinated by sports, and not simply for their own sake, but for what they communicate about a culture and its society. As such, we have been harping on for months that American sport is about to get its comeuppance, because American society hasn't seen economic turbulence like this is seventy years or more. And sports for all its claims to centrality in American life, has in places and regions less tenuous holds. There are teams in both the NBA and NHL that are here today, but that will be gone in less than five years. Heck, there might even be one or two of those in the golden goose, the NFL. The new American pastime has been the one impregnable sports fortress, a revenue generator non-parallel for the media empires and advertisers. But in this unpredictable economic climate, perhaps one presaging the fall of a hegemon, even the heretofore unassailable walls can be vulnerable.
A new item we ran across today underlined that premise. CBS reported that for only the second time since 1967, Super Bowl ads were generating less revenue this year than last. Forty-three Super Bowls, across vagaries that included the Vietnam War, stagflation, the oil embargo, the Carter years, the first Gulf War, 9/11, the second Gulf War, Katrina, and only once before has the Super Bowl's ad revenue declined. Ads are going for anywhere from 7% to 16% less than they were for last year's telecast. Pepsi won't place an ad for the first time in twenty-three years. Other big regulars, Federal Express and General Motors quit placing ads last year.
As our sources at Market Watch put it, "Once the Super Bowl begins to show signs of softening and weakness, nobody [in sports] should feel safe."
A painting
This time we ran across such a striking painting when we searched the phrase, "treading water at night," that we thought we would rather publish the whole painting. It was done by Maura H. Kenny. Check it out at the Libia Fine Art Gallery.
"Night Swim" is a 22"x30" watercolor painting.
Labels: Pop Culture
Monday, January 11, 2010
Artest struggling
The Clarion Content has been telling you since the beginning of the year that we didn't like the Ron Artest acquisition for the Lakers. We warned that he was a head case waiting to detonate. We had no idea how literally that might be true.
Since Artest took a header down a flight of stairs on Christmas night he has not been the same. Before the injury, he was averaging 12.3 points per game. He missed five games after falling and hasn't cracked double figures in the four games he has played since returning. In his most recent game against the Bucks, he crashed hard to the floor after being fouled by the Bucks Michael Redd less than a minute into the game. An Artest the LA Times called indifferent, managed only two shots on the night and totaled two points. Since being back in the line-up he has averaged less than an assist per game, too. After the Milwaukee outing Phil Jackson was saying maybe Artest needed to have his reexamined.
No joke.
Wassup in Massachusetts?
The Democrats couldn't lose his seat, could they?
How abysmal has the Obama presidency been so far?
If one simply judges from the perspective of the American citizen, it has been a C, maybe a C-. Starting with health care was an atrociously bad idea. Going for too ambitious a health care bill compounded the problem. And settling for a bill that may not only be not good, but actively bad, surely proved that three wrongs don't make a right. Escalation in Afghanistan was an even worse decision for the health of American. Still it is year one, the presidency has a steep learning curve, and Obama has at least managed to produce rhetoric on the right side of some constitutional issues. Recall the last guy was an F- who thought of the Constitution as an impediment, so Obama has been better than that by far.
However, if one were to rate Obama strictly as a member of the Democratic Party, which no one on the Clarion Content's current editorial board is, we would have to think that they would be tempted to give him that F. Democrats are on the run nationwide. Obama and health care have set them up to be routed in the mid-term elections. Last week saw retirement announcements by Senators Chris Dodd and Bryon Dorgan, as well as Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. But even more dismaying to Democratic party members has to be that Obama is perceived as so bad that the most solidly blue of states may be abandoning him. Nowhere on the political map is a state as blue as Massachusetts. The Democrats have viewed the state as a birthright since the Kennedy era. But amazingly the special election to fill Edward Kennedy's Senate seat, to be held on January 19th, is in doubt. Or so say some of the polls.
The Wall Street Journal quotes one pollster, "The Massachusetts Senate race is shaping up as a potential disaster for Democrats." Our favorite poll analyst, since the untimely passing of Tim Russert, is Nate Silver. He takes on the various Massachusetts polls on his blog, FiveThirtyEight. His conclusion, "part of being a good forecaster is knowing when to make a bold forecast and knowing when to proceed with more caution; the Massachusetts race calls for a heavy dose of the latter."
Labels: 2008 presidential election, Politics
Facebook makes you jealous
One of our Ohio readers recently emailed us this link from CNET News. The article discusses a study from the University of Guelph in Ontario published in the journal CyberPsychology and Behavior. The study says Facebook feeds a vicious cycle of partner snooping and jealousy. Some subjects in the study describe themselves as becoming addicted to such behavior.
"Ambiguous scenes involving a partner and contact with past romantic and sexual partners are among the common triggers of jealousy in romantic relationships, and these ambiguous scenes are a regular occurrence on Facebook... Heightened jealousy leads to increased surveillance of a partner's Facebook page. Persistent surveillance results in further exposure to jealousy-provoking information."The only way to win is not to play the game.
Labels: Pop Culture, Practical Advice, technology
Some good news in Cincinnnati
This left-handed fireballer will be joining the Reds come Spring...
There was some good sports news in Cincinnati this weekend. It surely was not the Bengals who got throttled by the New York Jets for the second week in a row. This loss ended the Bengals best season in a dogs age. No, the good news came from another Cincinnati franchise that has not won anything in what feels like forever, the baseball playing Reds.
Baseball does not have the revenue parity of the NFL so the Reds have a much more uphill climb than the Brown family's Bengals. The Bengals legendary stinginess has hurt them over the years, but is different than the Reds who simply don't have the revenue to compete for the biggest names, which is why this weekend's news came as such a surprise.
Word is that small-market Cincinnati stunned the rest of baseball yesterday by agreeing to a five-year, $30 million deal with Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban left-hander, whose fastball has been clocked near 100 mph. The Reds swooped past amongst others the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays for the unproven Cuban fireballer.
There is hope on the Ohio River, even in the middle of this bitterly cold winter. Pitchers and catchers report in less than two months.
Labels: baseball, sports, Sports Economics
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Soon to be everywhere
Once we at the Clarion Content saw the Annie Leibovitz photo of Tiger Woods on the cover of the February 2010 Vanity Fair, we could tell you unequivocally, it is about to be seen everywhere. Leibovitz is an amazingly gifted photographer. This shot of Tiger shirtless, in a black toboggan, pumping iron is sure to be iconic. Whether fairly or unfairly is almost unassessable. The story accompanying it is already attracting media buzz. Favorable and unfavorable. But the picture, the photo, it is thing. It is as if Leibovitz saw inside of Tiger before anyone else knew, this photo and six more inside the issue are four years old!
Had they been published four years ago they would have been seen and interpreted in an entirely different light. We were recently musing in our reaction to the movie Avatar that Art and society form a hall of mirrors. When examined in different ways, they reflect slices, pieces, different sections, different angles, different perspectives. It depends both on where one stands, and where things stand generally. Art processes through human consciousnesses. It is a cycle of reflection, refraction and interpretation. A cycle that it is constantly on-going and never static between people and our Art.
Tiger is in flux.
Labels: discrimination, Pop Culture, sports
Mad Respect
Brandon Roy still winning games for injury plagued Portland
The Clarion Content hasn't seen enough of the Portland Trailblazers to understand truly how they are doing it, but we have to give them mad respect. We must admit when their centers Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla went down with series injuries within days of each other we thought that the Blazers were in trouble. We figured in the ultra-competitive Western Conference, where even presumed scrubs like Memphis and Sacramento are showing resilience and talent, there was no way Portland could hang in there. We were sure they would slowly and steadily fall out of the playoff picture.
Brandon Roy and the rest of the cast have proven us wrong. We are definitely surprised. The Blazers are now seven up and three down in their last ten, including a win last night over the defending champion Lakers. It is not like Oden and Pryzbilla are their only injuries either, Portland is also playing without starting forward Nicolas Batum (shoulder surgery,) Travis Outlaw (broken left foot,) and guard Rudy Fernandez who had to have a back surgery. Seriously.
Who is doing it for the Blazers besides Roy? Would you believe thirty-five year-old former Fab Fiver, Juwan Howard? Howard is averaging nearly 12pts and 7 rebounds per in his last five games. What about straight out high schooler, now twenty-three year-old, Martell Webster? Once the highest NBA draft pick ever assigned straight to the D-League, Webster is only averaging 10.4pts and 4 rebs per on the season, but he has exploded since the big guy's injuries. Webster is averaging 19.2pts and 6+ rebs per in his last five.
Can these cast-offs, along with Andre Miller and Brandon Roy, keep it up and somehow allow injury decimated Portland to stay in the playoff race? The Clarion Content doubts it, but the Blazers have already proven us wrong once this season. Keep your eye on them.
One more note of local interest, the Blazers signed former Dukie Shavlik Randolph to a 10-day contract on Friday.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Canadian student evicted after 18 years in the dorm
Ya gotta love Canada, where he has been on provincial disability benefits since 2003! The first floor room costs Gerd'son $655/month. And he isn't going to leave just cause the court ordered him to, the Globe and Mail reports, "the case is also due to go before a human-rights tribunal in June, and Mr. Gerd'son said if he does receive an eviction notice, he'll [quote] discuss that with my legal counsel."
And you thought they were making that stuff up in Real Genius.
Labels: Pop Culture
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Facebook revenge
One of our California readers sent this one in to the Clarion Content. It is the single most wildly brutal piece of Facebook vengeance that we have seen to-date. Imagine this scenario if you will, older sister finds out younger brother (high school kids both of them) has a twelve pack of beer stashed in his room. For reasons unknown, she decides to rat him out to their parents. The ultra-strict parents ground him for three months.
He is pissed. He decides to rummage though her room seeking an opportunity for revenge. Boy did he find it, in the form of a handwritten list of hers detailing all the guys with whom she has hooked-up. What does he do with the list? Publishes it to Facebook!?! And tags all the guys on the list so they know about it! See his post here.
Wow. Technology.
Labels: Pop Culture, technology
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Hip-Hop know about this?
The Clarion Content ran across this fascinating Robert F. Kennedy quote in the most recent issue of Esquire, "After all the abuse the blacks have taken throughout the centuries, whites are just going to have to let them get some of these feelings out if we are all really going to ever settle down and have a decent relationship." Kennedy's quote was, inevitably, from some time before 1969. Today, forty years worth of context onward this relationship between the races is not hard imagine, but an atmosphere where a white politician could utter that kind of sentiment is difficult to envision indeed.
Labels: discrimination, political quips-n-quotes, Politics
A harbinger or two
What is over that next hill?
The Clarion Content stumbled across a two notes this week that we wondered if were harbingers. As regular readers know, although our hope is that the global economic turbulence has peaked and the world economy has bottomed out, we are not confident that is the case. In support of our concerned point of view we read an intriguing analysis in the Christian Science Monitor about the opening of the world's tallest building.
Come again you say?
Well according to the Monitor, when the newest "world's tallest building" opened this Monday in Dubai it was "an exuberant architectural triumph in the middle of a deep economic swamp." The Monitor notes that, "It's often that way. The tallest skyscrapers always seem to pop up just as the economy is headed down." They have interesting graph noting some of the previous correlations of new "world's tallest building" title holders and economic slumps. Their theory is "The skyscraper index works because developers tend to make ambitious gambles with huge new towers at the point of the business cycle when interest-rate and price signals can get distorted." They cite the Austrian School economist Mark Thorton. The Austrian School's austere teachings have been popping up more frequently in these hard economic times.
The second harbinger was from a political stability angle rather than an economic one. But perhaps, it is the way in which the world economy has wobbled that prompted the rarely hysterical Economist to run a chart of the day under the heading of "Global Tinderbox." The chart shows a world map that rates countries by their state of potential combustibility in 2010. Their conclusion? 2010 could be a year that sparks unrest.
Dark portends.
Labels: economics, Politics, Predictions, public protest
NFL Notes and predictions
Could this guy win another Super Bowl?
A few NFL quickies to tide you over, dear readers, until this weekend's NFL playoff games. The first is a trend NFL insiders have noted in the last several weeks. The Carolina Panthers hung on to Coach John Fox, the Bears elected to keep Coach Lovie Smith, ditto for the Houston Texans and Gary Kubiak, apparently the Bucs decided not to drop the over-matched Raheem Morris and it is possible even the Cowboys will let Wade Phillips survive. This trend, to allow the lame duck or all but fired coaches to survive, has surfaced suddenly. The NFL is a copycat league. As Clarion Content fave Petros Papadakis would say, "But why?"
The smart money says it is because of money. Once again, it is all about the benjamins. The owners think it is likely or at least quite possible that there will be an NFL work stoppage in 2011. If the owners of these franchises with lame duck coaches and in some cases staffs too, don't can the old guy and hire someone new, they will not be on the hook for any coaching salaries in a year where there may be no or fewer games. Conversely, fire a coach or a staff with more than one year remaining on their contract(s) and an owner might end up paying two coaches or worse two coaching staffs in a year were there is less or no football. Hmmmm. This is not a good sign for fans rooting against a work stoppage that affects the season.
Our second note is much more positive. We have to give a shout out and kudos to Tennessee Titans running back and East Carolina alum, Chris Johnson. Although his team just missed the playoffs thanks to Coach Jeff Fisher obstinent support of Kerry Collins, Johnson became the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. It is an amazing accomplishment. It is even more impressive set in the context of the team's 0-6 start. Johnson surely didn't get any freebie yards running out the clock in those games. Johnson passed a couple of remarkable Hall of Famers in Week 17. He wiped two of the best of the best from the record books, one of the baddest bruisers ever, and one of the fleetest afoot of all-time.
Johnson broke the franchise rushing record set by the immortal Earl Campbell, 1,934 yards. Forget Adrian Peterson's stiff arms, Campbell was a man amongst men, the single best banging, run directly over you running back in NFL history. Johnson also broke the NFL record for yards from scrimmage, Marshall Faulk's season for the ages, 1999, when he had 2,429 yards from scrimmage. Two totally different styles of back, and Johnson surpassed them both.
Remarkable. Congratulations Chris Johnson!
Our quick NFL predictions for this weekend.
The New York Jets at the Cincinnati Bengals
The Jets killed them in Week 17. The Bengals aren't exactly a veteran, playoff tested team. The Clarion Content sees a lot of things leaning the Jets way, but we can't believe a below-average rookie quarterback is going to win on the road. Sorry Sanchito.
Bengals 17-14.
The Philadelphia Eagles at the Dallas Cowboys
Another rematch of a Week 17 game, the Cowboys shocked the Clarion Content by winning that one. Could they end their long playoff win drought? And save Wade Phillips job? Maybe, but we will have to see it to believe it.
Eagles 30-21.
The Baltimore Ravens at the New England Patriots
The Patriots loss of wideout Wes Welker will be very tough to overcome. He represented 30% plus of Tom Brady's total completions this season. The Pats run defense is suspect. Ravens runner Ray Rice is excellent. It sure is awful tough to take Joe Flacco on the road over Tom Brady. But...
Ravens 24-17
The Green Bay Packers at the Arizona Cardinals
This is the toughest game of the weekend to pick. It is another rematch, the Pack crushed last week when the Cardinals turtled and went totally vanilla. It figures to be a shootout. Both teams have a lot of weapons. If Anquan Boldin plays, we like the Cards for sure. Even without him, we like them a little bit.
Cardinals 38-31
We recommend great caution investing real money in these picks.
Labels: NFL, Predictions, sports, Sports Economics
Food Rules
Michael Pollan author of The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food announced on his website recently that he has a new book forthcoming. It will be called Food Rules. Pollan in his own words explains the premise,
"The idea for this book came from a doctor—a couple of them, as a matter of fact. They had read In Defense of Food, which ended with a handful of tips for eating well: simple ways to navigate the treacherous landscape of modern food and the often-confusing science of nutrition. "What I would love is a pamphlet I could hand to my patients with some rules for eating wisely," they would say. "I don't have time for the big nutrition lecture and, anyway, they really don't need to know what an antioxidant is in order to eat wisely." Another doctor, a transplant cardiologist, wrote to say "you can't imagine what I see on the insides of people these days wrecked by eating food products instead of food." So rather than leaving his heart patients with yet another prescription or lecture on cholesterol, he gives them a simple recipe for roasting a chicken, and getting three wholesome meals out of it – a very different way of thinking about health.
Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet-- roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet. And a healthy diet is a whole lot simpler than the food industry and many nutritional scientists –what I call the Nutritional Industrial Complex—would have us believe. After spending several years trying to answer the supposedly incredibly complicated question of how we should eat in order to be maximally healthy, I discovered the answer was shockingly simple: eat real food, not too much of it, and more plants than meat. Or, put another way, get off the modern western diet, with its abundance of processed food, refine grains and sugars, and its sore lack of vegetables, whole grains and fruit.
So I decided to take the doctors up on the challenge. I set out to collect and formulate some straightforward, memorable, everyday rules for eating, a set of personal policies that would, taken together or even separately, nudge people onto a healthier and happier path. I solicited rules from doctors, scientist, chefs, and readers, and then wrote a bunch myself, trying to boil down into everyday language what we really know about healthy eating. And while most of the rules are backed by science, they are not framed in the vocabulary of science but rather culture—a source of wisdom about eating that turns out to have as much, if not more, to teach us than nutritional science does.
Pollan says that his is a simple and unconventional diet book. It consists of sixty-four basic rules, each with a paragraph of explanation. It sounds like a powerful tool to the Clarion Content.
Check out Pollan's website here.
Labels: ecology, economics, food, health
Monday, January 04, 2010
Its the infrastructure, stupid
The glide path for Reagan National is right down the Potomac
One would think that with all the signs of America deteriorating underneath us that Americans would react more strongly to so many of our precious dollars being spent on foreign wars of choice. Maybe the time is coming, in another context the Los Angeles Times was just talking about the movement of Ron Paul's ideas toward the political mainstream.
The infrastructure failure that caught the Clarion Content's attention today was the hour long power outage at Reagan National Airport from 12.30pm to 1.30pm. The Associated Press reported that, "the problem originated at an airport substation." You will recall, dear readers, just last week a power substation failure was blamed for massive holiday train delays.
Today outbound flights were grounded for an hour and the FAA stopped flights leaving for Reagan National from taking off during the power failure because electric jetways weren't working and there was no way to offload passengers at the terminal.
The signs are everywhere, just look around.
The Clarion Content encourages readers to send their stories and/or images of aging and failing infrastructure in their local areas. We will attempt to collate and post as much of it as possible.
Of course, Americans, ourselves included, must bear in mind that our infrastructure complaints are relative as this post from a Beijing blogger in the aftermath of the city's heaviest snowfall since 1951 reminds us.
Labels: infrastructure, Politics
"Don't tase me, bro," an official policy?
Who can forget the cries of the University of Florida student who demanded that he be allowed to ask a question of, out of all people, Senator John Kerry. While many may recall the YouTube clip of Andrew Meyer, fewer likely remember that Meyer was charged with resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, but the charges were later dropped. A twenty-one year-old, at the time of the incident, Meyer was indeed, tased by a University of Florida police officer as he was being forcibly removed from the room. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated the incident and cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing. The underlying sense that the event was a prank or staged detracted from its otherwise darker nature.
In this case, the state's apparatus ruled it was okay to tase.
When to tase and when not to has been a thorny issue since the appearance of the taser as a police weapon. A standard police taser delivers up to 50,000 volts of electricity to the body, usually causing overwhelming response in the nervous system resulting in muscle contraction and temporary incapacitation. Occasionally, a tase results in sudden cardiac arrest and death. Whoops.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to weigh in on the thorny issue. The San Jose Mercury News reports that the, "ruling came in a California case involving a Coronado police officer who used his Taser on a motorist who got out of his car, agitated but not threatening the officer after being pulled over." The problem is that the 9th Circuit has no better idea where to draw the line then the cops do. Their ruling says that, "stun guns should only be used under limited conditions, since they represent a more serious use of force than other nonlethal police weapons." Brilliant. No kidding.
Watch the Meyer video again and note the State said a tase was considered okay in this situation, despite the position of obvious physical dominance the police were already in. Note too, that the 9th Circuit Case started with a cop who thought it was okay to tase a motorist who was agitated about being pulled over by the law.
The Court has a series of tests the cops are supposed to consider pre-tasering, "Is there danger to the officer or others? Was the suspect accused of a felony or misdemeanor? Was the subject actively resisting, or was the resistance passive? Was there some less serious alternative way to quell the disturbance?" These kind of things are always shades of gray. Frequently, the police have to make the decision at high speed in potentially life threatening situations.
According to the Mercury-News, in the City of San Jose where police officers have killed six people with tasers since 2004, the "City Attorney Rick Doyle said he saw no contradiction between the ruling and city police policy, which he said is based on an officer using a 'reasonable' level of force."
Sounds like "Don't tase me, bro," isn't exactly an official policy yet.
Labels: constitutional issues, cop stories
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Nate gets out of jail
Nate Robinson was finally freed from Mike D'Antoni's doghouse yesterday and he exploded for 41 points and eight assists as the Knicks beat the Hawks in Atlanta in OT. Coach D'Antoni let go his grudge and Robinson blew up. After weeks and weeks of ignoring Nate, he let him play. Robinson had fourteen games in a row of, "Did not play, Coach's decision." D'Antoni had paid no mind to the "Free Nate" chants in the Garden as the Knicks ground out an 8 win and 5 loss December, their best month in ages. But following a defeat at 3 and 30 New Jersey, with no rhyme, reason or explanation Robinson was paroled.
Robinson, one of the Knicks leading scorers last year at 17.2ppg, and their second best player, wasted away while D'Antoni stubbornly played the retread, he'd be a has been, but he's a never was, Larry Hughes. D'Antoni followed this same pattern in Phoenix while he screwed up the peak of Steve Nash's career. He shortened his rotation like he was a Mafia Don and these were the only 6 or 7 guys in the whole world he could trust. At the Clarion Content, we have disliked the D'Antoni hire from the beginning, and we can only hope Nate stays in his good graces. Next up, the Knicks return to the Garden to face the Pacers Sunday.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Interesting Links Flash
This is a brief, brief version of our long overdue interesting links updates. The Clarion Content gratefully thanks all of the readers who have submitted an interesting link or two in the many months since we have posted a new batch. We will have a full interesting links recap in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
For now, may we stay your appetite with these morsels?
For starters our northern most New Jersey reader sent a link to an amazing and beautiful series of photos captured during a massive impromptu snowball fight in Times Square. These shots by Doug Kim, posted on his website, "Chasing Light: photography, sandwiches, cigarettes" will blow your mind and warm your heart. Kim admits that in addition to snapping these wonderful photos, "[he] had to put the gear down several times for some payback." Sweet!
This blog, "Interesting Finds", came to us because we used one of their photos as a banner header for the New Posts in the Sections. When we looked into the source behind the photo, as we are want to do, we found a cool blog. And how could a find, called "Interesting Finds" not be part of our Interesting Links post? Some of the latest Interesting Finds, "11 daring predictions for 2010 from ComputerWorld," a teaser and link to a fascinating article with tech predictions for the coming year. And how about, "10 Sensational Homes Built from Straw," a post with great photos and explanations about real homeowners discovering the beauty, comfort and energy savings of new straw bale construction techniques. Keep up the good work! Check it out here.
Finally this interesting link came our way through the "oddcrew" blog. It is called Facehunter and it is another superb photo site from a widely traveled photographer. It is filled with fantastic shots, billed as "eye candy for the style hungry." Find it here. We liked it so much we put it in our "Spots to Pop to" list in the Pop Culture section.
This is the link to old Interesting Links posts. (After clicking through the link, you have to scroll down past this one for oldies but goodies.)
Labels: interesting links, Pop Culture
2009, that's a wrap
Labels: sports


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Paper Smooches Sparks June 24-30 Picture Perfect Challenge
June 30, 2013 at 8:19 pm 1 comment
I love neutrals and this week's Paper Smooches Sparks challenge is all about that, or at least that's my take. Here's Paper Smooches banner.
This is the inspiration photo.
I just got back from the18th annual Stampfest Orlando and I'm still reeling. It was just a gas to see all the venders and products. Tim Holtz was there and a lot of other fabulously talented stamp designers. I used a "Just For Fun" Postage stamp sqaures set (that I just got there)for the background of this card. Then I stamped Paper Smooches "Green Thumb" images in the rectangles. I also stamped the ki memories speech bubble from their "Balloons" stamp set, and added the small crystal rhinestone.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Just for fun Postage stamp set, Paper Smooches Green Thumb stamp set, Paper Smooches Sparks June 24-30 Picture Perfect Challenge, Stampfest 18th Annual Orlando 2013, Tim Holtz at 18th Annual Stampfest Orlando.
1 Comment Add your own
What a cute combo– love that bee with that sentiment on those postage group! FAB design! THANKS so much for joining in the fun and playing along with our Picture Perfect challenge! I hope you join in the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge this week– it's a sketch:)
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Where you been homie? To answer this question, I could give a long list of excuses: Stretches of ridiculous hours at work (e.g. 80+ hrs/week in March and April), anxiety over what I'm doing with my life, stress over family stuff (including Dad being in Afghanistan), 2 completely unrelated trips to the emergency room, including one emergency surgery that resulted in 3 days in the hospital and the removal of some of my intestine (see below – fun times!), etc. It's no wonder that it's about a week before my 23rd birthday and I'm counting several gray hairs (either that or God is paying me back for all the times I teased my dad about his).
But nah, none of those things would really explain my virtual absence ("virtual" in both senses). People have been asking me via Facebook, Twitter, email and even (the really creepy ones) via Myspace (???) why I've been so quiet, so MIA, so invisible. Best way I can put it – I needed some "me time" to reflect, refocus, and get my mind right (no emo). Actually…"me time" is kinda inaccurate – I really needed the disruption in my self-centered routine so that I could turn my attention back to what's important. Psalm 119:71 reads:
It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
Sometimes a little (or a lot) of a pain proves useful to get us back on track. Anyway, I have nothing profound to share right now, other than to say that, yes, I'm still here, my family is the best, the people who support me are amazing, and God is still God. Stay tuned.


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This starts with strawberries bought too early, too optimistically, in a long, late, cold Spring. Some years Summer doesn't start until the second week of Wimbledon. Some years Summer doesn't get going at all. We've had a few good ones in a row so we're all feeling pretty cocky about it. At this point we still think that we somehow deserve sun on our faces instead of the icy wind we're getting. The beautiful 40ft tree opposite my flat came into leaf six or more weeks later than it did last year and I have a feeling it's going to be one of those years when we don't put our sweaters away.
So I bought a big punnet of almost red strawberries. My greengrocer assured me they were sweet and tasty. All Summer fruit needs sun to bring out the sugar. I tasted one and it was dull, bland and disappointing. The second was the same. I bought some rhubarb. I hulled the strawberries, sliced the rhubarb diagonally and added it, with some sugar and vanilla to the strawberries. I covered this with a crumbly mixture of flour, sugar, ground walnuts and butter that I'd quickly processed into rubble. I can't tell you quantities, this was commando cooking. I scattered some flaked almonds on top for another texture then let a 175° oven do its work for twenty-five minutes.
It also makes a stonking breakfast. Stonking.


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The daily deal marketplace has grown exponential over the past few years. It's hard to believe that only two or three years ago Groupon didn't even exist. And today, Groupon is staring down the barrel of close to a $1 billion IPO. And looking out across the daily deal spectrum, it seems new deal sites are popping up every day.
According to Yipit, there are 521 daily deal sites throughout the United States (as of May 2011), and these are only the ones that are easy to find online. This number doesn't account for the army of deal sites that are just getting started and still relatively unknown.
For consumers, engaging with a daily deal site used to be pleasurable experience. You'd enter your email to receive one deal a day, you'd see if that deal is appealing to you or not, and if so you'd make a purchase. Nice; clean; easy.
The problem is that today, you more than likely are getting bombarded with daily deal emails from multiple daily deal sites. This is jamming up your inbox and overtaking your precious time each day just to weed through them all.
The Daily Deal Search Engine
With so many daily deal sites, and so many incoming emails each day, it seems only logical that the next iteration in the daily deal marketplace is the daily deal search engine. From one search bar, enter your location (like your zip code), and instantly browse daily deals from multiple daily deal sites.
This problem is exactly what the new daily deal search engine ListYourDeals.com looks to solve.
With ListYourDeals.com, all you have to do is enter your zip code, and then instantly see deals that are in your neighborhood, or right next door. The deals are sorted from closest to furthest away so that you can always see the deals that are nearby first.
ListYourDeals.com instantly solves the problem of "too many deal sites" and "too many emails". From one application, you can search, browse, and purchase deals.
Mobile Daily Deal Search Engine
ListYourDeals.com is also has a mobile version of the site available. The mobile version of ListYourDeals is compatible with nearly every mobile device on the market – iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Treo, and all Android smartphones and tablets.
You don't need an app to get deals on your mobile device. Simply load "listyourdeals.com" (without quotes) from your mobile browser, select to use your location, and you'll instantly get deals that are closest to you.
ListYourDeals.com is the perfect solution to instantly search daily deals. And in the world of "too many deal sites" and "too many emails", this type of site makes perfect sense.


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Friday, October 26, 2012
NEW RELEASE Psychic Lies
14 comments:
Excited to read I can't wait.ReplyDelete
Ahhh!! I'm behind, I need to read Siren's Serenade before Psychic Lies!ReplyDelete
A Man Worth Fighting ForReplyDelete
I need to read psychic lis and I am caught upReplyDelete
I am sorry to say that I did not know about this series! *tear* I plan to rectify that soon! So I will be starting at the beginning!... Super Excited!ReplyDelete
Maycee Majors
I'd love to read Shifting Hearts or Siren's Serenade. And Psychic Lies sounds awesome too! So many books to choose from...ReplyDelete
I WOULD would choose Shifting Hearts, since I haven't read the series yetReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 27, 2012 at 6:54 PM
Very cool premise--love this universe! But I would have to start at the beginning--would that be Siren's Serenade?ReplyDelete
I'd love to read A Man Worth Fighting For.ReplyDelete
Follow GFC: Vanessa N.
I want to start at the beginning :)ReplyDelete
Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
I loved the first book, but now I am a little behind. I want to read, A Man Worth Fighting For. I need to slow down and clear my calendar for some reading. Great series.ReplyDelete
bournmelissa at hotmail dot com
Must confess - haven't read any. Would be happy to start from Book #1.ReplyDelete
Thanks for being part of the Hop,
(from Azerbaijan)
Hi. I've never been to your site before. I've marked it so I can come back and spend more time checking it out. I'm way behind on this Hop. I would like Shifting Hearts. Thanks.ReplyDelete
Happy Halloween!! Thank you so much for the awesome hop and giveaway! :) I would love to read Siren's Serenade please if i win. Thank you so much!!ReplyDelete
GFC: shadow_kohler


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Academic Appeal Sample
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Comments Off


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Historically, when two good things are combined the result is something great - peanut butter and chocolate, wine and cheese, tights and peep toe pumps, etc - so we can expect that the plans to merge Max Azria's young contemporary lines BCBGirls and To The Max labels will undoubtedly produce an über-brand of chic and affordable goods.
The new line will be called BCBGeneration (pronounced BCBG Generation) and the full Fall 2008 collection is scheduled to be presented at WWDMAGIC in Las Vegas next month (I'll be there!)
"With BCBGeneration, I look forward to offering an underserved consumer, regardless of age, superior fashion at competitive prices," Max Azria designer, chairman, and CEO of BCBG Max Azria Group told WWD.
Look for shop-in-shops at major retailers this fall with ready-to-wear dresses, outerwear, footwear, handbags, and small leather goods with price points ranging from $50 to $200.


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Shareware Industry Conference Birdseye View
By Dan Housley
This year's 15th annual Shareware Industry Conference was held at the Hyatt Regency
Tech Center in Denver, Colorado. Around 350 developers, from around the world, traveled
to participate in this conference. At a total of 4 days long, SIC is one of the
biggest and most popular shareware conferences.
Most developers attend SIC with hopes of meeting other shareware developers, exploring
business ventures, discovering new business opportunities, and locating potential
customers. SIC also offers the chance for attendees to acquire and share knowledge.
Developers have the choice to speak in sessions, or attend them. In total, there
are 30 sessions, each an hour long. A list of the sessions can be found at
This year's SIC was a great success! It had a record turnout, and the Board of Directors
plan to have SIC in Denver next year!
The following is my recap of SIC this year. When I arrived at the Hyatt Regency
Tech Center, for this year's Shareware Industry Conference, I was intrigued by the
intricate and unique design of the hotel building. After being ushered in, we checked
in at the hotel. The hotel had stellar service, and it made the process much easier.
After conversing with fellow developers, I hurried to my room.
After I brought my luggage to my room, I went back downstairs. I then helped in
the Registration Booth, and I stuffed complimentary bags you receive when you register
for the conference. Several hours later I went up to my room to change for the SIAF
Held in the Centennial Room, on the 12th floor, the SIAF Reception offered breath
taking scenery. Majestic mountains loomed close by, and the sun set behind them.
After taking in the scenery, I spoke to several developers I had "talked" to online,
but never actually seen. After talking with numerous attendees, I went to my room,
to sleep.
The sessions began the next day. After eating a wonderful omelet breakfast, I went
off to my first session, Cyber Crime, at 10:15. The session I attended was wonderful,
and one the best I've seen. In between sessions, I spoke to several developers,
and most of them were friendly and have great business ideas. After sessions were
over, I attended a reception hosted by
Digital River. Much to everyone's surprise, there was a mechanical bull
in the middle of the room!
While I didn't learn quite as much as in the sessions, Bull Riding was fun. Bull
Riding offered a chance to relax, and engage fellow developers in discussion. Participants
in the Bull Riding had a chance to: dress up, ride the bull, and get judged on how
well they rode. Winners of the competition received gifts from Digital River.
After observing many respected developers getting thrown from the bull, and surviving
a ride myself, I played "Starburst Blackjack". Instead of chips, you use Starbursts.
After winning a respectable amount of StarBursts, I headed up to my room, to sleep.
The next day, after eating a breakfast of tough and chewy waffles, I went off to
attend my first session, "Visual Studio Shareware Starter Kit". It was another great
session, and also one of my favorites. After the sessions ended, I went to my room
to get changed for Exhibit Night.
Exhibit Night was fabulous! Exhibition Night offered a chance to learn more about
products, and win prizes. Also, in the Exhibit "Show Room", there was a great buffet.
There were more than 20 exhibits (a list of the exhibits can be seen at
http://www.sic.org/exhibitnight.asp , and caricature artists! Exhibit Night
was certainly a bundle of fun.
After Exhibit Night there was a Dessert Buffet sponsored by
Dr. FileFinder and FeedForAll. The
Dessert Buffet was great! With a variety of different desserts, developers casually
walked around, enjoying themselves, and their desserts. After eating my fill, I
headed up to my room, to sleep.
The next morning, after I dined at the hotel caf�, I walked around, and talked with
several developers. After doing so, I found it was nearly 3:00! I attended the last
session, "Visual Studio 2005 for the Independent Developer", and it was quite educational,
and I learned more than I expected from it.
After the sessions I got changed for the banquet. The Awards Banquet was one of
the most interesting I've seen. First came dinner, which was either chicken or prime
rib. After polishing off a scrumptious meal, dessert was served. The dessert was
wonderful! It was composed of chocolate, chocolate, and chocolate.
After finishing the wonderful dessert, the comedian came on. He was extremely humorous,
and used physical humor to convey his opinions. After that, there was the award
ceremony. And so far, I think it was one of the most interesting. Phil Shnyder emceed
the ceremony, and he was very comical. A complete list of the winners can be seen
here: http://www.sic.org/2005nominees.asp
Overall, the Shareware Industry Conference this year was great. An immense amount
of people came, and the sessions were quite good. If SIC continues to be such a
success and educational experience, I urge all shareware developers to attend.
About the Author:
Dan Housley is a student intern at Software Marketing Resource http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com and http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts.
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