text:
I'm guessing the title of this post gives away the direction this post is going in. But even so…
Printerpix are a printing company (as the name might suggest) they a range of photo products like books, canvases, key rings etc. They're also forever doing Groupon deals and running special offers for 50% off and so on. You know like DFS on a permanent sale?!
My first experience with them was a while ago when I got a calendar printed for my aunt using a Groupon voucher. The quality was quite poor but since it was an offer, I just accepted it.
This year I decided to get some things made, like a tree decoration, a little canvas of Baby C, a print and mug (mostly gifts). I made this order on the 24th of November.
Obviously when you order something 4 weeks before Christmas you presume they will arrive in time.
So I waited and waited. Printerpix give you a link so you can log into your account and track the progress. I noticed for a white the items were stuck on 75% (waiting to dispatch) but not the mug I bought for Mother Candy, which was always waiting for 'production'. So I pop a few emails. I tweet. I ask politely for an update, and eventually get a reply on the 12th of December saying that it will be with me at the end of the week BY THE LATEST.
Whilst all this is happening, I am getting tons of emails from them offering 50% off calendars and books..so clearly they are still pitching for business despite running behind.
On the 17th of December I finally get 2 parcels with all my bits and pieces (annoyed the tree decoration arrived so late!). But the mug? It's missing. I immediately write them an email explaining that the mug was missing and incase they didn't believe me, someone actually stuck a note in the parcel saying "Waiting for….mug".
Mr C also phoned the company twice on the 19th and was told that it would be with us that Friday (21st Dec) definitely.
Friday (yesterday!) comes and no parcel. Mr C calls again and the woman he speaks to actually cannot comprehend what the hell he is going on about, despite waiting for FORTY MINUTES TO GET THROUGH. She does say that it will be with us before Christmas though.
I then get an email back from them which says,
Oh that's ok then I think. Although they are really really really pushing it, surely someone at Printerpix actually knows what they are doing?
Then I get this email at 6.35pm on Friday (which I will annotate):
Dear Rowena,
We are sincerely disappointed to inform you that we are not going to be able to deliver your order before Christmas. [LYING F*CKERS! FOUR members of staff told me it WOULD be here on time]
This is a deeply saddening notice that we have to send, [Not as sad as Mother Candy will be when she's supping a cup of chai without Baby Candy's face on it] and one that we will never forgive ourselves for. [I will never forgive myself for using your company] We have worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week [Hire more staff?], in order to fulfil all your orders. However, time has still managed to run away, [Must remember this phrase to use at next one to one with the boss] leaving us unable to guarantee you a Christmas delivery. [Then why oh why oh why did you instruct your staff to tell customers that items WOULD be here on time? Why not be honest and say, we can't fulfil the order?!]
We would love to hope that all your gifts will arrive before Christmas, but we can't rely on that now, [No because you haven't even sent it] and the last thing we want you to do is leave your loved ones empty handed at Christmas. And so we urge you to take our advice [Why would I?] and secure another little something this weekend for them, explain what happened, ["This company called Printerpix f-cked me over"] and assure them that their gift is on its way. [Thanks for the advice, but will you come over and clean my house, go Christmas dinner shopping, run a ton of errands and look after my tiny baby because that's what I had planned over this Christmas weekend rather than getting sardined in a shopping centre by a ton of ravenous shoppers and spend MORE money.]
We are so sorry for letting you down like this, and want you to understand that your items are being produced or are already finished. [Stick them in the f—-g post box then!] If you have any queries, please feel free to contact our Customer Service team by emailing. However, please note that, owing to the Christmas Holiday, we will not be able respond until 27th December 2012. [B*stards!! So you wait til 6.35pm to send this email out to customers knowing that you would not have to reply to any of them till AFTER Christmas?]
With our most sincerest of apologies. [I don't believe you]
Wishing you and all those you hold dear a Merry Christmas.
The Printerpix Team.
Yep, I am quite peed off by their awful customer service! Let me br-br-break it down…
1. You don't keep taking people's money when you can't supply the goods
Printerpix have been running lots and lots of big discounts, no doubt that has given them tons of custom. But they couldn't handle it; it was just far too much so why were they still promoting their special offers via email?
2. They had lots of time…
Lots and lots of time to produce the items I ordered. Do people have to order in October to get gifts by December?!
3. You're so inconsistent!
Emailed and phone various times, 99% of the time it was bullish-t and empty promises! Why does no one know what's going on?
4. Why the lies?!
The most annoying thing is that they waited and waited and waited til the last moment to tell customers that their items wouldn't be dispatched in time.
Remember they are on a break from Christmas Eve (Monday) til the 27th (Thursday). They only let me know on the Friday before at 6.35pm that they couldn't fulfil the order. Had they been honest and admitted a week ago that they couldn't fulfil the order I could've went elsewhere to order the product. Anyone who ordered a customised item will find impossible now to get something similar online or on the highstreet. They left us NO TIME WHATSOEVER to get replacements!
Why? Perhaps they just don't want to refund their customers because to admit that they can't produce the items would mean giving people their money back!
Ho Ho Ho. Luckily for me, the mug is a stocking filler for Mother Candy but that's not the point really…there will be people who have ordered their main presents from Printerpix and it's so disappointing to know their gifts won't be with them on time.
So Printerpix you well and truly deserve a massive SCREW YOU from me!
I hope everyone got all their presents on time!


text:
Ashburnham, Massachusetts
|This article is a stub. Help us to expand it by contributing your knowledge. For county and town page guidelines, visit U.S. County Page Content Suggestions.
Ashburnham is a town in Massachusetts. It was formed in 1765 and was previously called (Dorcester-Canada). It can be found in Worcester county and is a part of the Northern registry of deed district. For more information, contact the county at 32 Main St., Ashburnham 01430. On the attached map, Ashburnham is shown as 3 in Worcester county.
For information about the state of Massachusetts see Massachusetts Family History Research.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
VMware's hybrid cloud portfolio offers a combination of solutions that enable organizations to easily extend, protect, or replace on-premises infrastructure. These hybrid cloud offerings are built on a Software-Defined Data Center architecture, leveraging VMware's industry-leading compute, networking, and storage virtualization technologies.
Create a common operating environment across VMware-based on-premises environments and VMware-based public clouds (cloud solutions from VMware Cloud Provider Partners including IBM, and VMware Cloud on AWS), and native public clouds such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform using VMware technologies including VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware vRealize and VMware Cloud Services.
This approach enables a diverse set of use cases, including regional capacity expansion, disaster recovery, application migration, data center consolidation, new application development and burst capacity.
VMware Cloud Services
VMware Cloud extends VMware's hybrid cloud strategy with new public and private cloud capabilities that enable you to run, manage, connect and secure your applications across clouds and devices in a common operating environment.
Learn More About VMware Cloud Services
VMware Cloud Providers (including IBM)
More than 4,000 VMware Cloud Provider partners located in more than 100 countries provide public and private clouds that ensure hybrid compatibility with VMware customers' existing environments; enhanced security and compliance through trusted industry standards; vertical industry and horizontal application expertise and data sovereignty through local providers.
Learn More About VMware Cloud Providers (including IBM)
VMware Cloud on AWS
VMware Cloud on AWS will bring VMware's enterprise class Software-Defined Data Center software to the AWS Cloud. Powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, this service will enable customers to run any application across vSphere-based private, public and hybrid cloud environments.
Learn More About VMware Cloud on AWS
VMware vRealize Suite
VMware vRealize Suite is a comprehensive, enterprise-ready cloud management platform that speeds up IT service delivery, improves IT operations and delivers end-user choice with control across heterogeneous, hybrid cloud environments.
Learn More About vRealize Suite
Simplify application migration, workload rebalancing and optimized disaster recovery across data centers and clouds.Learn More


text:
Top Keyword SEO
All of our Pittsburgh SEO internet All of our Pittsburgh SEO internet marketing service packages are guaranteed to provide top search results on keywords within 90 days or we will keep working free of charge until the result is reached! No other internet marketing consultancy firm in Pittsburgh is offering this type of Guarantee!
Website Design
Local Citation
Social Media
Consumer Products
We are a company that offers design and build services for you from initial sketches to the final construction.
Pay Per Click Management
We are your top local Pittsburgh online internet marketing and advertising consultants providing guaranteed results!
Top Reasons to choose us:
- Guaranteed top keyword research result in 90 days
- Category exclusivity
- Pittsburgh family owned & operated
- A complete dedicated marketing and design team
- Free detailed listing report for small business
- No contracts or fees, cancel anytime!
- Only white hat ethical linking and marketing tactics
- Free local onsite consultation appointment
Jon Crain, owner of Pittsburgh SEO Services, has been a leading voice in the digital marketing industry for over a decade. His experience, wisdom, and intelligent ideas are the basis for success. He has a genuine interest in supporting others and takes active steps to make the right things happen.
Well known in the industry, long time link builder, and good company.
After a couple of false starts with other companies, I finally found the perfect partner, Pittsburgh SEO Services. They paid attention to what I needed and listened to my ideas. Their designer came up with the perfect look and feel for my business. Also, the audio on my site sounds great and works without a hitch, thanks to Pittsburgh SEO Services'Interactive multimedia expertise. Now that I'm higher-ranked in search engines, I've been getting more calls from prospective new clients.
"I wanted to take an opportunity to thank you for all of you're hard work, diligence and attention to detail throughout the entire process of creating our web site. We have been extremely pleased with all you have suggested, come up with and put into action. You are truly a team player. We would be happy to recommend you to any business owner who would like to create their own web site. Thanks again!!"
We've created many website designs for my clients with the help of Pittsburgh SEO Services. They are providing 100% satisfaction to my clients. Happy to work with you again!
"You did an excellent job ranking HAOL to #1 in yahoo; I got an offer from a competitor to buy me out! It's not an outrageous sum of money, but it worked! Thank you."
I just wanted to say, AGAIN, how delightful your staff is to work with… What a RELIEF! I am grateful – it seems like service with a smile should be the rule of the day, however it often is not. My experience doing the first webpage [with another company] bordered on abuse and I think I actually might have post-traumatic stress syndrome regarding it! I look forward to working with everyone at Pittsburgh SEO Services. Thanks!


text:
This should make it easy!
Ah this cleared things up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meakashi-hen
So >> Sonozaki Futago-tachi (aka Mion and Shion?) << are currently almost finished with Onikakushi-hen or the first of the four arcs of Himatsubushi-hen.
Been looking forward to seeing what the fuss is about )
Here's the demo
http://07th-expansion.net/Soft/Taiken.htmThe easiest and cheapest way is to download the demo from this site. Don't worry about the Japanese - the download mirror sites are at the bottom of the page, so scroll down and follow the directions in English for which mirrors to use, labeled "みら〜#?. You might have to right-click and select 'save link' if it doesn't automatically begin to download the .exe file.


text:
Gerber graduate snacks around the clock: Is it harmful to the infant?
Now that my son can handle solids, his father constantly feeds him those Gerber graduates. At first, they were supposed to be a snack for in the car. Now it seems like anytime...
Started by Princess on 07/09/2010 in Moms Under 30
Last update on 07/10/2010 by Kimberly


text:
By Staff Writer | December 10, 2012
Send Feedback
Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) has issued a supplemental type certificate (STC) for Donaldson's inlet barrier filter (IBF) on the AgustaWestland AW109. The STC covers both the AW109E Power and AW109SP GrandNew variants. The filters help prevent engine damage, reduce the effects of salt-air ingestion and lower operating costs.Related: Certification News


text:
Manuel Noriega
Episode 4 | 54m 11s
Watch Manuel Noriega rise through the Panamanian military to become chief of intelligence – and then, military dictator. He spied for the United States, but in the end, money laundering, drug trafficking and political crimes led to his downfall.
Aired: 01/30/19
Expires: 01/30/29Video has closed captioning.
Buy Now:
Problems Playing Video?
A Cream Production in association with Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. and PBS.


text:
As I was writing the Time and date in Unix scripts post last week, I've realized that there's one really useful feature of Unix shell scripting which I haven't covered on my pages here: it's the double bracket parenthesis which allows you to evaluate arithmetic expressions.
Basic arithmetic calculations in Unix scripts
In most scenarios, your script will need only basic arithmetic operations: summing or subtracting numbers, multiplying or dividing them. Using only these operations, you'll be able to implement all sorts of counters and calculate percentages or any other progress indicators you may need.
[Read more…] about Unix scripts: basic arithmetic operations


text:
Dedicated to providing education, support and resources during life's most difficult moments. We make every effort to enable individuals to achieve their final wishes, and empower families to make thoroughly informed decisions.
A funeral is a time to share the memories of a loved one and support family and friends. Our compassionate staff and well-appointed facilities enables you to focus on sharing this special moment without undo stress and anxiety.
We are living our mission by providing complete end-of-life services that are convenient, dignified, and affordable.
Cemeteries are unique. A sanctuary from the fast and often hectic pace of modern life. With their inspiring environments, our cemeteries are an inviting place to remember and be remembered.


text:
Will I Get Banned if I Buy Fifa 17 coins from Mmogah.com?
We cannot guarantee that you won't get banned, but so far, none of our customers got banned. However, buying coins from a third party violates one or more rules of EA's Agreement. It is out of our control if EA bans your account. But we can guarantee that we are always trying our best to offer the fastest delivery and the best customer services.Tags: banned


text:
|Excerpt from the 1930 US Census. Charles Jr still at home with his widowed father and unmarried.
Hubie Brown. Apparently he's a name that many basketball fans know. I don't watch basketball. It's a shame, I know...Final Four going on and all...a grandfather that was the basketball coach at the local Junior High...a baby sister that was a basketball phenom in elementary and middle school (very surprising considering she's shorter than me and I'm a giant 65-inches tall!), but when my cousin, gave me this article and told me that we were related to "The Great Hubie Brown", I kind of just looked at her and said, "Um, who?" Of course, at that, my mom, who was sitting next to our cousin, just stared at me like she didn't recognize me as her own child...how could I not know who Hubie Brown was!?!
The article was still relatively new when my 2C1R, Nancy O'Donoghue nee Brown, handed it to me in the Knotty Pine restaurant in Hazleton, PA on our first meeting. I had met Nancy online while researching and we realized we had a connection. We promised to get together when I visited Pennsylvania next and we kept that promise, my mom, husband and child in tow. Our genealogical relationship, while cut short by her death, was incredibly fruitful. Researching a common surname is never easy and we made some excellent dents in our Hazleton "Brown" family.
We were never able to figure in how this Basketball Hall of Fame coach fit into our tree though. It's not hard to do research on Hubie. There's a lot out there, but when researching we need to make sure that we don't force a fit into our family tree for the sake of verifying a Tall Tale/Family Legend. There was quite the write up on Hubie by Sports Illustrated back in 2007 so I started looking there.
The article verified that Hubie's parents were Charles Brown and Anna (no surname given, so perhaps the Hazleton, PA newspaper was correct with the "Brislin" surname), however according to Hubie and his wife he was an only child...I suppose the Hazleton Standard Speaker didn't only screw up on the section title to that article! Actually, you can see that Charles had a sister name "Geneive" in the 1930 census. Perhaps that is where the confusion lies!
So do I just sit here and wait patiently for one more year until the 1940 census comes out to locate Hubie and verify that his Charles is my Charles Jr? I don't have that kind of patience. What I can do since I know that he was Catholic and was born in Hazleton, PA is contact my family church and request information on my Charles Jr since he would have most likely been married in there (Saint Gabriel's Roman Catholic Church). I can also request a marriage certificate for Charles and Anna to find their parents' names, or look up some obits in the local newspaper when I return home during the summer, or request the New Jersey microfilm on interlibrary loan. I'm not at a dead-end, I'm just swimming through mud right now. Slow, but easy to stay afloat!
I suppose I could also simply write to Hubie Brown and ask if Neal Brown and Nancy McCoy are his ancestors. From what I've read about him, he'd probably appreciate the brass it would take to send a letter like that to a stranger! While I've got the brass, it's not really my style. I'll write if I find a link. Not to say "hey" to a famous distant cousin. Rather to ask..."So what about those ancestors of ours? Got any intel for me?" Now that's more my style.
So, have I busted this tall tale? There's still work to do so we'll give it a Myth Buster's "Plausible" for the next few months. Then we can change its status. Right now though, To Be Continued...


text:
Tiger Woods has an unlikely supporter in Hollywood — funnyman Jim Carrey.
On Friday, Jim hit his Twitter page where he defended the golfer, who returned to the course this week professionally to compete in The Masters, Tiger's first tournament since his infidelity scandal broke in November of last year.
"Tiger Woods owes nothing 2 anyone but himself," Jim Tweeted. "2 please his father he gave up his childhood and his freedom in the world. That's enough!"
Earlier this week, Nike unveiled a new ad featuring a solemn faced Tiger, who faces the camera as the voice of his late father, Earl Woods, asks, "What did you learn?"
It has since been revealed Earl Woods' words were taken out of context from a 2004 quote about Tiger's mom Kultida.
Jim, who announced on Monday some news of his own – that he and Jenny McCarthy had ended their five-year romance – also shared his opinion about Tiger's wife, Elin Nordegren.
"No wife is blind enough to miss that much infidelity," he wrote. "Elin had 2 b a willing participant on the ride 4 whatever reason. kids/lifestyle."
On Wednesday, Jim made several other pro-Tiger posts.
"If you really wanna see sexual disfunction get 2 know your favorite basketball star! Curling is the only safe sport 4 a married man!" he wrote.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Life Before The Scandal: Golf's King Of The Course — Tiger Woods!
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood's Man Of Many Funny Faces — Jim Carrey
PLAY IT NOW: Jim Carrey & Jenny McCarthy Announce Breakup Over Twitter
PLAY IT NOW: Access Preview: Jim Carrey Talks 'Yes Man'
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Tiger Woods - Jim Carrey - TV One - News - Elin Nordegren


text:
Montessori education information from a Montessori teacher and Mom. Personal art work and journal entries about my life as a busy Mom of three sons ranging in age from 7 years to 21 years. My hope: To create a place where parenting questions can be answered and conversations as well as ideas shared.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Lovin' this Book
Yesterday I participated in a workshop for early childhood educators and was given this beautiful book. [Thank you Born to Read!] Interestingly I was going to buy this book for my classroom.
If you haven't read it I highly recommend it. For the illustrations alone! It's so bright and beautiful. At the workshop we grouped together and came up with ideas about how to use this book children 3 to 6 years old.
Here are some of the ideas we came up with:
Remaking the title page (or any other beautiful image in this book!) as a bulletin board or display in classroom. Written on the petals of the flowers, a quote from each child in the class, "If Peace is..."
The leader of the day chooses one page to share and tells why they picked that particular page.
On the very last page of the book it says that this book was inspired by the students of a particular school. Read this page and ask your students if they would like to create their own peace book.
Also while there I met a lovely woman named Anne who turned me on to The Hunger Site PLEASE visit this site and make a contribution to help our world's children.
PEACE to all of you and your beautiful children,
Montessori Mama
7 comments:
- Dayna said...
I love the range of ideas you came up with for working with this book. I will have to add it to my growing list...and remember to keep such a thoughtful mind about some of the other books we love at our house.
- August 23, 2008 at 9:11 AM
- plaidshoes said...
This book was in our Montessori classroom, too. I also really love it. Although, I really like your ideas and I think I will try to have Peace bullitan board at home!
PS. I know you are super busy, but have you given any more thought to your shop? I would love to buy a set of those (and I forgot what you call them) inspiration words. Maybe when things settle down at the school?
- August 23, 2008 at 9:39 AM
oooh... I havent seen this book before. We once did a "peace" bulletin at Christmas time in my old class. We did a "unit" on different cultures that wrapped up with peace. We put our quotes on doves. I love the petal idea... I think it will be beautiful. Our doves kinda ended up looking like a flock of seagulls (lol)
- August 24, 2008 at 1:46 AM
- Jennifer Howard said...
Dear Plaidshoes and anyone else who would like to order a set of Affirmation cards or one of my prints:
Please see past posts for details or email me directly at
for a price list. My Etsy shop is not cooperating!!!
I would be happy to send you a set for your classroom!
In PEACE
Montessori Mama
- August 24, 2008 at 8:57 AM
- The Amazing Trips said...
Thanks for the tip on this book. We are always looking for new stories to add to our library and this looks like a winner.
My three-year-old triplets are starting Montessori next week and I am so excited. As are they, but not nearly as excited as me!
- August 25, 2008 at 2:43 AM
- Unknown said...
I love this book and it has a happy place here at home and in both of my girls' Montessori classrooms! :)
- August 25, 2008 at 7:14 PM
One of the things that has been saddest for me as my son has hit the tweener years is his leaving behind of picture books. We spent so many beautiful moments with such books throughout hsi childhood, but now he wants to read his own chapter books before bed and throughout the day. It's great that he loves to read, but I miss the picture books, too!
- August 26, 2008 at 12:59 PM


text:
You will find below information about Salvador airport. Use the links below to read detailed information about Salvador airport: location, route maps, live departures and arrivals etc.
Skyscanner allows you to find the cheapest flights to Salvador airport without having to enter specific dates or even destinations, making it the best place to find cheap flights for your trip to Salvador airport. Use the links at the side of the page to browse for flight information or use the flight search controls above to start a new search.
Airports near Salvador:
- Valenca airport (93km)
- Feira De Santana airport (100km)
- Ilheus airport (224km)
- Itabuna airport (234km)
- Aracaju airport (256km)
- See all airports in Brazil.


text:
Every week, Alan Siegel and Deadspin's crack video team will break down Rex Ryan's frequent use of profanity on HBO's Hard Knocks. This week: "shit" and "ass" end up deadlocked, while "nuts" drop left and right.
Perhaps Tony Dungy is influencing the show's production team. The second episode has a decidedly PG-13 feel. While Rex Ryan curses plenty — 32 times by our count — the coach is shown dropping only two f-bombs. He does, however, lean heavily on testicle euphemism this time around — specifically "balls" and "nuts." On a few occasions, Ryan talks about tentative defensive lineman Vernon Gholston's nuts finally dropping. Wishful thinking, in our opinion.
Below are our findings for Episode 2. If we missed any expletives, or if our tally is off, please let us know.
Note: "Other" includes three utterances of "hell" and one "balls."
Cumulatively, Rex's swearing breaks down like so.
Video by David Matthews. Pretty animated counter designed by Gawker.TV's Matt Toder. Pretty charts by Jim Cooke.
Alan Siegel is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. Contact him at asiegel05 [at] gmail [dot] com.


text:
Latin Beat
This story appears in the June 1998 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Successful entrepreneurs are always looking for new opportunities--those elusive untapped markets. So what would you do if you learned of a country with a population larger than Canada's? And what if this country's population was growing at a rate six times that of the United States and boasted consumer spending power of more than $273 billion? Even better, it's nearby, and there are no costly tariffs or import taxes. Surely forward-thinking small-business owners would want to introduce products or services there.
Welcome to Latino U.S.A., the most exciting marketing opportunity in America today. Here are some vital statistics about this dynamic market:
- It's large. With a total Latino population of about 30 million, the United States has the fifth-largest Latino population in the world, smaller only than those of Mexico, Spain, Colombia and Argentina.
- It's fast-growing. Between 1995 and 2000, U.S. Latinos will account for 37.5 percent of the total population growth in the United States. By 2005, Latinos will outnumber African-Americans as America's largest minority group. Most of this growth will be due to a natural increase (births over deaths) as opposed to immigration, as many mistakenly think.
- It's young. On average, Latinos are younger than the general population. With a median age of 25 (as compared to 34 for the general market), the Latino market is poised for even more growth. By some estimates, more than 40 percent of the babies born today in California are Latino.
- It's geographically concentrated. More than 70 percent of the U.S. Latino population lives in just four states: California, Florida, New York and Texas. More than 45 percent of the population lives in just five cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.
Latino U.S.A. is not just one behemoth, homogenous group, however. Understanding both the obvious and subtle diversities within the Latino market is your key to success.
Christy Haubegger is the founder and publisher of Latina magazine in New York City.
Parts Of The Whole
The words "Latino" and "Hispanic" refer to a broad spectrum of people with vastly different histories. Indeed, Latinos are not a racial group but an ethnic group. As such, they are defined by the common ancestry and derivative culture of not only Spain, but indigenous America and Africa as well.
The Latino market is comprised of various segments. Divided by nationality, the largest group of U.S. Latinos is Mexican.
- Mexican-Americans make up 64 percent of the total U.S. Latino population and reside predominantly in the Southwest, California and Texas.
- Central and South Americans comprise the next-largest segment, numbering about 4.5 million, or nearly 15 percent of the total U.S. Latino population. They primarily reside in Southern California but are emerging in other areas, such as Washington, DC, as well.
- Puerto Ricans, who represent about 10.5 percent of the total U.S. Latino population, are concentrated in New York and New Jersey. There are close to 4 million Puerto Ricans living on the island of Puerto Rico; there are nearly 2 million Puerto Ricans living in New York.
- Finally, Cubans, concentrated in Florida, represent about 4.7 percent of the total U.S. Latino population.
There are significant differences between groups of varying national origin, ranging from tastes in food and music to political and demographic differences. For example, Cuban-Americans tend to be older and more likely to vote Republican than Mexican-Americans.
Differences in national origin may not be as significant to marketers as acculturation differences, however. Acculturation is the process of adapting to another culture while keeping one's original culture intact. Generational, linguistic and cultural differences among at least three Latino subgroups can be described in terms of varying degrees of acculturation: unacculturated, partially acculturated and completely acculturated.
Unlike other immigrant groups throughout U.S. history, there has been little significant erosion of Hispanic culture among Latinos, even across generations. This is due to several factors, especially the proximity and accessibility of native countries, which allows for a near-constant infusion of culture, food and music from Latin America. At the same time, the geographic concentration of Latino communities in the United States helps to maintain Latino culture.
Nonetheless, there are degrees of acculturation you must understand to determine a market's readiness for your product or service. Acculturation differences explain why a second-generation Mexican-American who grew up in Dallas has more in common with a third-generation Puerto Rican from New York than with a Mexican who arrived from Jalisco last year.
A Mexican-American from Dallas and a Puerto Rican from New York grew up watching both the "Brady Bunch" and "Sábado Gigante." But because they both graduated from American high schools and are likely bilingual to English-dominant, they are as acculturated in their identities as other Americans.
Contrast that with the recent arrival from Jalisco who is completely unaccustomed to the culture of the United States. He is not yet likely to be proficient in English and, as such, may not have many choices in the way of employment. He may be focused on sending money back home to his family, whereas the person from Dallas has most of her family in the same city. You would not necessarily market the same products to both people. And if you did, you would use different methods and messages to reach each of them.
Three Degrees Of Acculturation
As the above example shows, while you can't ignore differences in national origin, relying on those differences alone to segment the Latino market can be a costly error. Acculturation, too, must be taken into account. Here's a closer look at the three key acculturation groups:
1. Largely unacculturated (28 percent): The unacculturated Latino market is the group that has generally spent the least amount of time in the United States, usually fewer than 10 years. Generally born outside the United States, this audience is largely Spanish-language-dependent. (The longer the person has been in the United States, the more likely he or she is to be proficient in English. English proficiency develops especially quickly in those under age 30). The unacculturated group tends to have lower incomes and relies almost exclusively on Spanish-language media.
2. Partially acculturated (59 percent): Partially acculturated Latinos were born in the United States or have spent more than 11 years here. Overwhelmingly bilingual, this group often speaks English at work and Spanish at home. Most likely to be middle-income, this group has one foot planted firmly in each culture. They access information through both Spanish- and English-language media.
3. Highly acculturated (13 percent): Some 4 million Latinos in the United States don't speak Spanish. This group is overwhelmingly U.S.-born and raised. As such, while their parents may fall into the "partially acculturated" category, this group is overwhelmingly bilingual, if not English-dependent. They are more likely to be upper-income than the rest of the Latino market. Nonetheless, they generally remain culturally Latino when it comes to values and traditions, even if they use English to communicate those values.
Effective marketing depends on understanding four key differences among acculturation groups.
1. Income differences. Given the expanded educational and employment opportunities available to more acculturated Latinos, these individuals tend to be significantly more affluent than their less acculturated counterparts. If you're selling premium products, it would probably not be wise to target the entire Latino market. If you're selling a mass-market household product, on the other hand, it makes sense to target the whole group. In fact, because less acculturated Latinos are targeted by fewer media, there may be even greater opportunities to sell your product to this group--at a lower marketing cost.
2. Motivational differences. Recognize possible differences in values and aspirations among acculturated and unacculturated Latinos. According to a 1998 survey by the Yankelovich Hispanic Monitor, a majority of acculturated Latinos agree with the statement "I like to buy brands that make me feel I've `made it.' " Less than half of unacculturated Latinos or non-Latinos expressed this sentiment.
3. Experiential differences. Since acculturated Latinos are likely to have been born in the United States or to have spent more than 11 years here, they are familiar with most U.S. products and services. Less acculturated Latinos are more likely to be loyal to brands that were available in their native countries.
4. Cultural differences. Unacculturated Latinos are much more likely to identify themselves by their countries of origin. This gives you an opportunity to reach these prospects by "customizing" your marketing message with music, photographs or other references to their native countries.
Seize Your Opportunity
Is the Latino market right for you? To analyze your product or service's potential with the U.S. Latino market, first look for any natural demographic or cultural affinity that might give you an advantage. For example, if you sell children's clothing, the fact that Latinos tend to have more children than the general population might mean there's tremendous potential for your product. On the other hand, if your product is an electronic denture cleaner, the fact that Latinos tend to be younger than the general population might suggest your opportunity is limited.
Second, do your homework. The following are a few examples of the kind of information that can be easily found in a library or on the Internet:
- Latinos tend to use more personal-care items (especially cosmetics and fragrances) than non-Latinos.
- Latinos tend to have larger households than non-Latinos. This means the primary shopper generally shops more often and buys larger quantities.
- Latino parents tend to outspend other parents when it comes to their children, particularly on clothing.
- Latinos spend a great deal of time (and money) keeping in touch with their families back home. Probably for this reason, they outspend their non-Latino counterparts in such areas as long-distance calling, air travel and wire money transfers.
One key to successfully targeting Latino customers: Don't make assumptions. If your product targets a relatively affluent group, such as a home improvement product targeted at homeowners, it would be a mistake to assume there's no opportunity in the Latino market. Almost 60 percent of Latinos in Dallas own their own homes. Where are they buying their home improvement products? Your opportunity might be enormous if you find that no one has addressed this group before--and you step forward to become their home improvement company.
Reach Out
Marketing and selling to the U.S. Latino audience is often easier and less expensive than reaching the general market. A variety of strategies can be effective in reaching this audience.
- Advertising. Latino and Spanish-language media reach their audiences more comprehensively and more intimately than mass media for two reasons. First, there is relatively little media targeting this market. The general market's attention is courted by five national networks and an average of 60 cable TV channels. In print, the general market has more than 500 magazines to choose from. For the Latino market, in contrast, there are just two national broadcast networks, Univision and Telemundo; a few cable channels, such as Gems Television; and only a handful of magazines, including Frontera and Latino Link. Consequently, the Latino media that exist deliver at a much higher penetration rate than non-Latino media.
In addition, Latino media usually have a more intimate connection with the reader, viewer or listener. Isabel Valdes, president of The Market Connections Group of Cultural Axis Worldwide, a research marketing firm in Los Altos, California, that helps clients develop marketing strategies to reach Latinos, notes that for Latino audiences, Spanish-language networks serve as a replacement for the culture of their native countries. As a result, Latino audiences welcome advertising as a good source of product information. Quite simply, the trust level associated with Spanish television can boost your advertising message.
Advertising in Latino media is considerably more economical than general-market advertising. The cost of a national TV ad may be prohibitive, but the price of a local cable or network spot may be cheaper than you think. Print advertising, too, is less expensive on a cost-per-thousand basis than comparable advertising in general-market print media.
Whether your ad should run in English or Spanish depends on the acculturation level of your target market. For example, the number-one radio station in San Antonio, Texas, has a bilingual format called "Tejano." The disc jockeys speak English, or a mixture of Spanish and English called "Spanglish," while the music is entirely in Spanish. An ad in either English or Spanish would likely be effective in this bilingual, acculturated city.
In Latina magazine, clients advertise in either English or Spanish. Because of the magazine's bilingual, acculturated audience, you can run your general-market ad without worrying that the audience won't understand it.
However, in Los Angeles, if you choose to advertise in the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion or on Spanish radio station KLAX, you must advertise in Spanish.
Keep a few caveats in mind before running a Spanish-language ad. First, if you can't serve customers in Spanish--whether over the phone or in person--advertising in Spanish-language media may be ill-advised. Second, it's rare that a literal translation of your English-language advertising message truly "translates." If you can't afford to use a Spanish-language focus group or other method to test your advertising campaign, run your Spanish translation by the publishers or broadcasters you're using. They're usually happy to be your proofreaders (or even your translators) because it isn't in their best interest to have you run an ineffective or insulting ad that garners no business and causes you to stop advertising with them.
- Direct mail. Direct mail can be one of the least expensive and most successful ways to promote your product or service for a few reasons. First, most Latinos have one of a few thousand common Latino surnames. This means any database can be examined and the Latino surnames culled, creating a new Latino database.
Numerous companies rent lists for as little as $50 per thousand names. The more specialized a list, the higher its cost and the smaller the number of available names. You can also ask your list rental company to sort names by ZIP code to help you hit a specific geographic target.
Latinos tend to be more responsive to direct mail than the general population, perhaps because they receive, on average, less direct mail than other Americans. Direct mail in Spanish can be even more effective. According to Rick Blume, general manager of Database Management, a division of Stevens-Knix and Associates Inc. in New York City, Latinos are more responsive to direct mail because they get one-tenth as much direct mail in Spanish as whites get in English (fewer than 35 pieces a year, compared to 350). "When Hispanics receive direct mail," Blume adds, "they open it to see what it is. And every direct marketer knows that getting someone to open the mail is half the game."
- Promotions. Most Latino communities hold events throughout the year, such as parades, cultural fairs and concerts, that attract large groups. For example, the New York City Puerto Rican Day Parade held every June typically attracts more than 1 million spectators. This is one of the advantages of the geographic concentration and cultural affinity for family activities that makes reaching the Latino audience easier.
Most cultural fairs and parades have low-cost sponsorship opportunities that allow you to set up a booth or distribute samples. Supporting the Latino community's activities will raise your profile and give you concentrated access to the market. Contact the nearest Hispanic Chamber of Commerce or community center to find out what events take place in your area.
- Public relations. There are publicists who specialize in the Latino market; they can help your product or service get coverage from the Latino media. The Los Angeles-based Hispanic Public Relations Association is a good place to start your search.
Targeting the Latino market takes time, patience and sensitivity. However, if you make the effort to learn about the Latino audience, examine how your business can serve this market and avoid making assumptions, you may just find that your new Latino customers turn out to be your most valuable.
Leading Role
By Michelle Prather
The was one of the Ms. Foundation for Women's Ten Role Models of 1997. "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw" dubbed her one of the Most Inspirational Women of 1996. These are just two of the many distinguished titles Christy Haubegger, president of Latina Publications LLC, has earned in her 29 years.
A Mexican-American, Haubegger was adopted by a white family when she was less than a year old and grew up in Houston. Being raised by a non-Latino family never threatened her knowledge of Mexican culture, however. "I grew up in a household that emphasized the importance of my own heritage," she says. "[My parents] made me speak Spanish." She's fluent as a result.
Attending racially and ethnically diverse schools, Haubegger never fell victim to the notion that being Latino was a "bad" thing. But the media's images of Latinos--or lack thereof--during her childhood could have easily conjured such ideas in the mind of an impressionable youngster. Surprisingly, Haubegger is grateful for the absence of media coverage and advertising targeting Latino audiences in the United States. "That [absence] showed me what an opportunity there was," she says.
Before launching Latina, the first bilingual magazine geared exclusively toward Latino women in the United States, in May 1996, Haubegger did plenty of homework. She researched which audience within the Latino market would benefit most from a fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazine. Latina is geared toward acculturated Hispanic women, but its bilingual editorial and advertising format crosses over to all levels of acculturation. "Those of us who are very acculturated want to keep in touch with who we are and maintain our values and interests and learn about what other people like us are doing," says Haubegger. "At the same time, people who are less acculturated use [the magazine] as a tool [to become more acculturated]."
Haubegger hopes advertisers will attempt to understand the subtleties of the Latino market, rather than let stereotypes guide their marketing decisions. "I think there is a tremendous opportunity," she says, "and if you don't heed [this] advice, your competitors will."
Next Step
- Hispanic Marketing Handbook by Isabel Valdes (Gale Research) is available for $69.95 by calling (800) 877-GALE.
- Database Management, (212) 388-8830
- The Hispanic Public Relations Association, (626) 793-9335
- Census Bureau information is available in all libraries or at http://www.census.gov
- Hispanic Business magazine and Latina magazine are available at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide.
Contact Sources
Cultural Connections Group of Cultural Axis Worldwide, 5150 El Camino Real, Ste. D-11, Los Altos, CA 94022, (650) 965-3859
Database Management, (212) 388-8830, fax: (212) 388-8855
Latina Publications, LLC, (800) 274-1521 http://www.latina.com


text:
The Thing with Feathers
Is it a bird or a haunting memory?
Wells Tower tracks an uncertain resurrection in the big woods of Arkansas
IF YOU WERE THE LAST BIRD OF YOUR SPECIES, looking for a comfortable place to evade extinction, the view flying over northern Monroe County, Arkansas, would probably not tempt you to touch down. You'd see abandoned trailer homes with saplings growing through their windows; asbestos-shingle shacks with discarded cars and appliances sinking into their lawns; rice fields sectioned into rectangular ponds like the plastic lagoons in a TV-dinner tray; and huge, insectile central-pivot irrigators patrolling oceans of soil where thousand-year-old cypress trees once stood.
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Yet Bayou de View—a spit of hardwood jungle here at the uppermost tip of Arkansas's 550,000-acre Big Woods, smack-dab between Little Rock and Memphis—is where the world's rarest avis, the ivory-billed woodpecker, has reemerged more than half a century after ornithological authorities pronounced it dead. Seen from above, Bayou de View looks about as primeval as a planter of ficus trees at a shopping mall. Below the treetops, though, the terrain looks less like eastern Arkansas and more like rural Mordor. The water, which is the color of beef au jus, flows in labyrinthine meanders boiling with toothy gar and cottonmouths as stout as a man's wrist. The forest is an endless gray weft of cypress and tupelo trunks that reduces the vista to nil. In the warmer months, when the trees haven't yet molted, trying to spot an ivorybill back here is roughly as rewarding as tracking a dust mite through the world's largest shag carpet.
"Damn close to pointless," said Gene Sparling, gently adrift in a kayak south of Bayou de View late last May, when I first met him. It was the 50-year-old Sparling—an amused, stoic Arkansan with blunt, sun-cured features—who first sighted one of the supposedly long-gone ivorybills, a red-crested male with lustrous black wings trailing a signature fringe of white, while on a solo pleasure cruise through the Big Woods in February 2004. (The embattled beauty of the place, a well-known birding destination, regularly drew him from his home in Hot Springs.) By mid-March, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Nature Conservancy, along with Sparling and other key players, had launched the top-secret Inventory Project. Sparling, a lifelong amateur naturalist who never attended college, was tapped to co-direct the subsequent quest for the bird, a 14-month, 100-person sub-rosa stakeout in the swamp.
"Here I am, a dumb, son-of-a-bitch hick from rural Arkansas, helping manage one of the most phenomenal conservation stories of the last 200 years, working with the most outstanding ornithologists on Planet Earth," said Sparling, whose name, with 16 others, appeared on the April 28, 2005, ivorybill announcement, which appeared on the journal Science's Web site prior to publication in the June 3 issue—a distinction most ornithologists would trade a finger for. "It's pretty cool."
Within four weeks of identifying the unextinct bird, Sparling had shuttered his stable, where he'd been running a horseback-riding business, and turned his attention to ivorybill stalking full-time. But the first long spate of concerted searching didn't exactly yield jaw-dropping results. Twenty-three thousand hours in the swamp turned up a mere six solid sightings, a few recordings of birdcalls and trees being bludgeoned, and a video: four blurry seconds of piebald wings flapping through the gloom, the hardest evidence going of the bird's revival. "Evidence means a photograph or, in this case, a crappy video with extensive analysis," says the video's author, David Luneau, a birder and technology professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. To certify that the footage shows an ivory-billed and not a pileated woodpecker, its closest look-alike, a battery of experts at Cornell subjected the footage to pixel-by-pixel scrutiny, concluding that, based on the bird's inordinate size and the broad trailing band of white on its wings—a pileated bears a lean white swoosh in the center of its otherwise black wings—Luneau's camera had indeed captured the genuine article.
Two dozen autonomous audio recorders, strapped to trees throughout the woods, logged a little over two years' worth of tape. Back at the Cornell Lab, in Ithaca, New York, a group of luckless people used pattern-recognition software to audition the recordings eight hours a day, ears pricked for the ivorybill's nasal, warbling tin-trumpet call ("kent, kent, kent") and the distinctive report of the bird tearing a tree trunk a new one. The mind-numbing work ultimately paid off, though. In July 2005, when a trio of rival scientists threatened to mount a challenge to the findings, the audio captures convinced the skeptics. Two months later, the Arkansas Audubon Society's Bird Records Committee amended the ivorybill's official status from "extirpated" to "present."
But two years after the rediscovery, the searching has yet to turn up signs of a breeding population or video evidence that doesn't require a team of Ph.D.'s to decipher. In the continuing quest to locate a remnant population of a bird that once flourished in the ancient forests that spanned the southern lowlands from North Carolina down to Florida and across to Texas, Ivorybill Search Team Two took to the Big Woods this winter. But it's an errand less reminiscent of the freewheeling adventures of John James Audubon than the nihilism of Samuel Beckett.
"Waiting for the Ivorybill," says Tim Gallagher, editor of Cornell's Living Bird magazine and author of 2005's woodpecker-quest narrative The Grail Bird. "It gets old pretty quick."
Despite the possibility of fame—at least among an unglamorous ghetto of bird enthusiasts—and the more slender chance of getting rich off your story, spotting an ivorybill has not always been something you would wish upon yourself. For decades, claiming to have seen one could get you lumped in with folks who swaddle their heads in tinfoil to ward off mind-control rays beamed from outer space. George Lowery, a professor of zoology at Louisiana State University, showed up at a 1971 ornithological conference with ivorybill snapshots supposedly taken in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin. His colleagues dismissed them as photos of stuffed specimens nailed to trees. In 1999, David Kulivan, an LSU undergraduate, professed to have seen a pair of ivorybills near Louisiana's Pearl River on April Fools' Day, but later searches (one of which relied on an animal psychic) turned up nothing. Doubters assailed Kulivan's credibility, and, weary of the ordeal, he clammed up.
But when that very first bird banked in front of Gene Sparling's kayak on February 11, 2004, he knew exactly what he'd seen. "I was familiar with the legend of the ivorybill," says Sparling, who speaks with a richly seasoned raconteurial drawl. "As a young man, I fantasized at great length of traveling to the Big Thicket, in Texas, finding a lost colony of ivorybills, and photographing them." Even so, he says, his jubilation at seeing the bird was marbled with pure terror. A wayfaring, neo-beatnik entrepreneur whose ré;sumé; includes a failed Baja whale-watching concern and an abandoned shiitake mushroom operation, Sparling was wary of a public drubbing: "I thought, Oh, shit. Here I am, a guy with no education, no formal training, saying he'd seen an ivorybill. I expected everybody to say, 'Sparling, you idiot, you moron, you're delusional.' "
So Sparling didn't shout the news so much as mumble it, posting an obliquely phrased description of the sighting on the Arkansas Canoe Club's online message board. His report eventually came to the attention of two veteran ivorybill searchers: Bobby Harrison, a humanities professor at Alabama's Oakwood College, and Tim Gallagher, of Cornell. Working together, they'd spent the two previous years investigating ivorybill encounters throughout the Southeast. Two weeks after Sparling's run-
in with the woodpecker, they were in Arkansas, and Sparling guided them out into the swamp. On February 27, the second day of the trip, a large black-and-white bird with a vivid band of white on its wings sortied past their canoe.
"We both yelled, 'Ivorybill!' " says Gallagher. "Scared the hell out of the bird. We jumped out and sank to our knees in mud, scrambling over logs and branches, on the verge of cardiac arrest. Bobby, who's kind of a big redneck, just sat down and started sobbing." The bird's appearance was too brief for either man to get it on film. They spent another three days in the swamp before heading home empty-handed. "I was in shock," says Gallagher. "I went back to Ithaca looking like a ghost. John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said I looked so bad, he thought I was going to tell him I had an incurable disease."
Though Gallagher and Harrison had urged Sparling to keep the sighting under wraps until they'd gotten hard proof, Sparling felt he had to alert the Nature Conservancy's Arkansas chapter, which had been working to preserve the Big Woods since the mid-eighties. "With the greatest respect to Cornell, I couldn't see leaving the discovery exclusively in the hands of people from New York—and not telling the key people in Arkansas who'd helped preserve the habitat where the bird was found," he says.
Soon the Cornell Lab and TNC scrambled their combined forces. In short order, they raised $1 million to help fund the search and took out a $10 million no-interest loan from an anonymous donor and put it toward reclaiming nearby farmlands to expand the bird's potential habitat. Cornell dispatched members of its crack birding team, the Sapsuckers. The mission was deeply classified; no one breathed a word to the press. To avoid suspicion from the locals, who were sure to cast a curious eye at out-of-towners prowling the woods without duck boots and shotguns, the searchers—between cold, wet vigils in the dense sliver of swampland—would spend the next year crashing at an unluxurious ranch house that had come with some of the newly acquired land.
OF ALL THE ENVIRONMENTAL HORRORS wrought by our destruction of the great forests of the South, the near-annihilation of the ivorybill is one of the most egregious. The largest woodpecker in North America, it stands just shy of two feet tall, talon to crest, with a three-foot wingspan and a sturdy white dagger of beak. The male wears a backswept vermilion crest radiating all the iconic power of a shark fin, and bolts of white plumage zigzag up its neck, as if poised to skewer its baleful golden eyes. The ivorybill's nickname is "the Lord God Bird." It's difficult, according to those who'd know, to behold the creature without being seized by the urge to roar, "Lord God, what a bird!"
Over the years, the creature's splendor has gotten it into trouble. Even before Columbus, Native Americans killed ivorybills in quantity, using the bird's vibrant feathers to jazz up their personal plumage. According to Phillip Hoose, author of 2004's The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, Indians also carried around little sachets of crushed ivorybill heads, hoping it might help them poke holes in their enemies. In the early 19th century, frontier tchotchke hawkers sold ivorybill heads as souvenirs. Before cameras, ornithologists didn't simply watch birds; they shot them. So a species's fondest admirers could be among its greatest threats. (In 1820, Audubon himself killed three and used them as models for one of his paintings, which shows the birds gang-harassing a black beetle.) Collectors paid top dollar for stuffed ivorybills; one Victorian naturalist cherished the birds so highly that he accumulated 61 specimens in his private inventory. Hungry backwoods philistines simply ate them.
According to one account, though, ivorybills didn't surrender without a fight. In 1809, Scottish ornithologist Alexander Wilson shot one in a North Carolina swamp but only grazed it, to his later regret. He brought the wounded bird back to his hotel room, where it chiseled a 15-inch hole in the wall. He then tied it to a mahogany table, which it quickly pecked to chips. When Wilson tried to restrain it, he was gored bloodily and repeatedly. The bird expired after three days on hunger strike.
The ivory-billed woodpecker's Latin title is Campephilus principalis, which translates approximately to "number-one caterpillar aficionado." The bird's fussy diet—beetles and grubs that dwell deep in the subdermis of ailing old-growth trees—depends on huge forests with enough old trees to support a healthy population of wood-boring insects. But in the aftermath of the Civil War, southern forests, their inhabitants be damned, suffered the most brutal massacre ever inflicted on an American wetland ecosystem, disappearing in the advance of metastasizing railroads, satisfying the nation's surging appetite for lumber and clear-cut farmland. Timber companies scalped mammoth tracts—some bought for as little as 12 cents an acre—and milled the ancient trees into wood for house frames, ammunition crates, automobile chassis, and coffins. Many of the bottomland forests in the upper South were razed entirely. Logging firms descended like locusts on the Big Woods, which once spanned 24 million contiguous acres across seven states. When the sawdust cleared, only 4.4 million scattered acres of habitat remained.
In the thirties, Cornell ornithologist James Tanner discovered 13 ivorybills in one of the last remaining islands of habitat, known as the Singer Tract, an 81,000-acre forest in northeastern Louisiana that the Singer company had been slowly turning into cabinets for its sewing machines. But in 1937, Singer sold the forest to the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company, which resisted conservationists' entreaties and destroyed the woods. In 1944, illustrator Don Eckelberry sketched a solitary female ivorybill roosting in an ash tree on the edge of the ruins. Outside of rumors and unconfirmed reports, the bird would not be positively identified by another person until Gene Sparling came along.
WHEN THE SEARCHERS finally revealed to the world, in April 2005, that the ivorybill had risen from the ashes, it touched off a media frenzy the likes of which the birding world had never seen. Every news organ from CNN to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch trumpeted the sighting. It hit the front page and editorial section of The New York Times; 60 Minutes sent a crew to the swamp; and NPR aired so many stories on the woodpecker, it seemed to have been adopted as the network mascot.
What fueled the furor was the ecstatic sensation that, for once, nature had pardoned our trespasses against it and returned to us a marvel we had tried our damnedest to destroy. After years of depressing portents of annihilated species, of ice caps in retreat, of the Kyoto Protocol ignored, of levee-bound rivers hurling our coastal wetlands out to sea, our mental picture of the future had begun to look like an endless desert with a single lonely species—our own—treading the sands. The ivorybill allowed us to savor the rare hope that the damage dealt our planet is not so wholly irreparable as we've feared.
One evening last May, I sat with Ron Rohrbaugh, Cornell's director of ivorybill research, on the edge of the swamp, pondering the woodpecker's resurrection. "That this bird squeezed through this bottleneck of time and habitat devastation—to think it made it through all that time . . ." Here Rohrbaugh trailed off, and his eyes grew red and moist. "It's just . . . miraculous."
And the woodpecker's odds in Arkansas are getting better, not worse. Since February 2004, the Nature Conservancy, with help from partners, has acquired or optioned more than 18,500 acres of potential habitat, with designs on a total of 200,000 acres in the next decade, half of which are to be reforested.
At the moment, no part of the forest is off-limits to the public, though access to 5,000 acres around Bayou de View is strictly managed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife, which issues a handful of area permits each day. Duck hunters are welcomed. It may seem a bewildering policy to allow people to discharge shotguns within range of the world's rarest bird, but the folks at Cornell and TNC are quick to point out that the ivorybill wouldn't have survived if duck hunters, starting back in the thirties, hadn't led the fight to preserve the habitat, financing the state and federal purchase of 300,000 Big Woods acres and, via a six-year legal showdown in the seventies, preventing the Army Corps of Engineers from draining the swamp.
If a nest should turn up, the ivorybill effort will probably close off a half-mile cordon around the tree and maintain a cautious watch. But so far, no nest has revealed itself. Nor can the searchers say with any certainty that they've laid eyes on more than one bird; all positive sightings where sex could be determined have been of a male. (And, of course, he may have been the last of his kind, an omega man doomed to disappear beneath the bayou's coffee-colored waters.) So, right now, anything but watching and waiting is out of the question.
"Until we know we've got a viable population, captive breeding would be way too risky," says Rohrbaugh. After all, the measuring and weighing of a wild California condor chick in 1980 stressed the animal enough to kill it, and no one is eager to go down in history as the person whose well-intentioned bungling accidentally murdered the last of the ivorybills.
It's also possible that the bird's gene pool has withered so drastically that the remaining individuals are too severely inbred for long-term survival. But people like Tim Gallagher cling to a faith that the ivorybill will endure. Take the whooping crane, he says, which by the forties had dwindled to 15 creatures, and the condor, which bottomed out at just 22 wild birds in 1983; both species are now reproducing well, if only after millions upon millions of dollars spent resuscitating them. Gallagher believes the ivorybill may also still lurk in swamps in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida: "It's hard to say how many are out there, but I'm certain we didn't run into the last one in the world."
THOUGH THE BIG WOODPECKER may be hard to come by out in the swamp, you can find thousands of them 15 minutes east of Bayou de View, in Brinkley, where the bird appears on billboards, commemorative platters, mobiles, key rings, and T-shirts advertised on roadside marquees along with cut-rate suitcases of beer.
It's oddly fortunate, for both the bird and its environs, that the ivorybill resurfaced in one of the poorest places in America. Locally, hopes run high that it could help reverse the fortunes of the long-downtrodden Delta towns via an influx of ecotourism dollars. And plummeting prices for soybeans, cotton, and rice have allowed the Nature Conservancy to snap up disused cropland at bargain-basement prices.
Emblems of a desperate hope for the bird's revival, and the money sure to follow, fairly overwhelm Brinkley (pop. 3,567) these days. The town's main drag now hosts the Ivory Billed Inn; the Ivory-Bill Nest, a gewgaw shop; a hair salon specializing in "woodpecker haircuts" (black and white finger paint slathered onto the forescalp and sides of the head, finished with a gelled red crest up top); and Gene's Barbecue, where the menu includes the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Burger, Salad, and Hot Fudge Brownie.
One day last spring, I stopped in on the mayor, Billy Clay, whose head was topped with an immaculate polygon of silver hair. "The saddest day in Brinkley is graduation, because we spend all that money putting them through school, then all the kids move on," he said, adding that, like the rest of the town's citizens, he was praying that the ivorybill might help deliver the place from destitution, though the riches weren't yet flooding in.
Fifteen miles south, Clarendon (pop. 1,859) was holding its annual Big Woods Birding Festival, a sort of miniature carnival nucleating around avian motifs. According to the advance press, the star of the show, the absent-in-flesh-only ivorybill, was to be improbably feted with, among other things, something called a "mini-lawnmower tractor pull," a fishing derby, and, apropos of crackpot obsessions and contested extinctions, a performance by an Elvis impersonator.
Clarendon sits on the White River, the Big Woods' main aquatic artery. Ambient conditions there approximated those at an open-air shvitz, and the atmosphere was suffused with the thick, diarrheal odor of decaying vegetable matter, courtesy of a sawmill on the outskirts of town. The aroma mingled now and again with sweet, grease-scented siroccos of funnel-cake smell drifting up from an undersized midway a few blocks down. TNC's Jay Harrod was walking along Main Street, inspecting the rear bumpers of parked cars. "I was looking for out-of-state tags," he said. "There don't seem to be any." Far-flung ivorybill seekers, aware that there was little hope in finding the refuge's most elusive inhabitant while the trees were green, had mostly stayed home.
Children wailed and brawled inside a huffing Moonwalk. Three bullish policemen stood fingering the butts of their revolvers, as though expecting a riot to erupt any minute. On the far side of the courthouse lawn, a couple from the Little Rock Zoo gave a presentation on birds of prey. The woman wore a tropical-print visor and narrated through a treble-heavy public-address system while her husband, a man with a head of frizzy red hair that looked like a disguise, milled through the crowd with a turkey vulture named Gomez perched on his forearm, which was gloved in a sort of talon-proof mukluk. The woman described how the vultures defecate on their legs to keep cool—and deter predators with impossibly noxious vomit. A man eating a barbecue sandwich turned ashen and stopped chewing. He looked up at the vulture, back at the sandwich, then resumed miserably.
I ran into Gene Sparling, who was on his way to give a presentation on the ivorybill at the American Legion Hall. I'd heard about a catfish fry happening later that night, and I asked if he was going. He said he'd be there but reminded me that we had a swamp-patrolling date scheduled for the crack of dawn, which I pointed out was going to cramp our style at the open bar.
"I know it," Sparling replied. "I was hoping I'd be able to get dead drunk and pass out somewhere." Then, seeming to remember his new status as a respectable member of the ornithological community, he quickly added, "Just kidding. Haven't done that in years. It'd probably kill me."
The couple from the zoo departed, and the imitation Elvis took the stage. A teenager stood looking on, nodding along with "G.I. Blues" and eating a dilute snow cone the color of boiled shrimp. Strapped to his feet were what appeared to be a pair of owls, his costume, he explained, for an upcoming performance of a tribal dance. I asked if he hoped to find the ivorybill.
"I heard they already found 'em," he said. "They got a bunch of 'em locked up."
"Who do?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said.
I'VE NEVER BEEN AN AVID WATCHER of birds, but after my fruitless trip to Arkansas I began suffering from a spell of ivorybill mania myself. During idle moments driving or sitting at home in North Carolina, I caught myself scanning the sky and nearby trees. At the public library one afternoon, I saw a yellow-bellied sapsucker hammering a pine outside. I stood up and yelled, "Hey, a woodpecker!"
Midsummer, I got hold of Gene Sparling, and we planned a weeklong kayak trip in the autumn, when the leaves would be off the trees and the media swarm would have thinned—and when I might have a shot at getting a glimpse, maybe even a photograph, of the phantom bird. The morning of our trip, I breakfasted at Gene's Barbecue with Sparling. We were joined by Nancy DeLamar and Scott Simon, of the Nature Conservancy. Simon, the state director, talked about TNC's local land acquisitions, which he said had been going well. The organization had just closed on an additional 5,000 acres, and earlier in the week they'd penned a $10 million state, federal, and private commitment for new conservation easements. "But if we had more money, we'd do more," he said.
When the plates were cleared, Sparling and I headed to Bayou de View. Sparling had spent his summer on the public-relations circuit, wooing donors for TNC's habitat-expansion efforts and reciting the tale of his sighting for a relentless battery of media. "It's good to get away from all that confusion," he told me.
We drove past fields of cotton, which still had downy microcumuli clinging to their brittle branches, remnants of the autumn harvest. Where the farmland ended, the Big Woods rose in a gray-green mantle. Crossing the bridge over the bayou, Sparling slowed his truck, panning his gaze through the sky above the road. "As many times as I've been over this bridge," he said, "I do always keep my eyes peeled when I drive through." (In fact, a Fish and Wildlife employee had supposedly seen the bird there a few days earlier, though he hadn't spotted enough of the field marks—bill, plumage, etc.—for the sighting to constitute big news.)
Sparling parked on a gravel landing and we began hoisting the kayaks off the rack of his truck. A pair of search-team members emerged from the forest, carrying a canoe. One wore a Sherpa hat and a five-o'clock shadow. The other was dressed as a shrub, in a camo jacket bristling with little leaflike tatters.
"Seeing anything, gentlemen?" Sparling asked.
"Nope," said the man in the Sherpa hat. They'd been out there erecting tree blinds in which the searchers were assigned to perch for eight cold hours a day.
A Ford F-150 with Montana plates rattled down to the landing. A small fleet of kayaks was belted to the roof. A middle-aged man got out and ambled over to us. He had big aviator shades and an air of highway loneliness about him.
"What are you guys looking for?" he asked, noting my camera, which was outfitted with a zoom lens the size of a soup thermos.
"Take a wild guess," Sparling said. He and Sparling exchanged introductions, and the man raised his eyes and rocked back on his heels.
"The number-one spotter," the man said. "I thought it might be you."
Sparling shifted somewhat uncomfortably, and he asked the guy what he did for a living back in Montana.
"Which career? Which life?" the man said. "Now mostly I'm just a vagabond bum, looking to do kayaking and birdwatching full-time."
Sparling said, "A man after my own heart; it's a wonderful life."
We slid our boats into the bayou. Paddling away, Sparling cast a sympathetic glance back at the nomadic birder. "I feel bad for these guys who drive all the way across the country to try to see this bird," he said. "I'd like to tell 'em I spent a year out here and didn't see a damn thing. Could've saved him the trip."
Sparling glided out into the silty water, threading his way through the cypress maze. A few minutes in, I saw a bird, a flash of white vivid against the tree trunks. "Gene!" I said.
"Kingfisher," he said, without bothering to look. "To be honest," he added, "I have somewhat let go of the need to see the bird again myself. Seeing it's not nearly as important as restoring the habitat. If we give him a place to live, he can take care of himself. It doesn't matter whether we know where he is or not."
The fall had been dry in Arkansas, and the water in the swamp was low. The vandals of the forest, beavers, had dammed the channel every few hundred yards, and we had to vault strenuously over their blockades, breathing in the spicy stink of their musk.
The bayou broadened into an oblong black lake, and Sparling suddenly got quiet, watching a black confetti of crows tumbling above the tree line about 150 yards away. "Hold on," he said. "The bird was seen right here, getting mobbed by crows, and these guys are sure as hell chasing something." But the crows veered out of sight. Their cawing faded and the only sound in the swamp was the conch-shell moan of Interstate 40, which the woodpecker(s) had almost certainly crossed to be seen up this way. Sparling shook his head at the thought of it. "It's amazing: Here you've got what's probably the rarest bird in the world, regularly flying over I-40." He shrugged and paddled on. "Sure hope he's flying high."
Farther down, we pulled out into a shallow canyon of trees where the forest had been cleared to accommodate a long, stolid parade of telephone poles. The sun was throwing a platinum glow on the dark water, and the trees blurred and shimmered with reflected, dying light. Dusk was coming on, and whatever birds were out there would soon be heading home to roost. I shipped my paddle, my boat turning idly in the autumn wind like the needle on a compass. And then something caught my eye, a far-off flare of red, white, and black. I raised my camera, nearly dropping it in my haste, and focused on the flitting colors, which turned out to be a load of glossy new sedans on an 18-wheeler barreling east along the interstate.


text:
Search Releases
Jump to filtersSubscribe to EPA News Releases
Search results
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1
EPA Approves Emergency Fuel Waiver for Virginia and Georgia
Release Date:09/12/2018
An official website of the United States government.
We've made some changes to EPA.gov. If the information you are looking for is not here, you may be able to find it on the EPA Web Archive or the January 19, 2017 Web Snapshot.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1


text:
The Architects Registration Board (ARB) has removed 2,043 architects from its register for failing to pay their annual retention fees on time
According to the board, almost six per cent of the UK's 34,000 registered architects did not manage to cough up the £105 fee before the 31 December 2013 deadline.
The number marks a 57 per cent rise on the 1,300 architects booted off in 2013, and is equivalent to almost half the architects employed by AJ100 practices.
Those wanting to be reinstated to the register will have to pay an 'accurate and proportionate' £65 administration charge to the board - together with the recently increased retention fee (see ARB confirms fee increase, AJ 18.09.13).
The ARB would net around £130,000 if all those who had been struck off rejoined the register and paid the additional administrative fee.
Karen Holmes, the ARB's deputy registrar and head of registration, said: 'The payment deadline and the reinstatement process are based on the principles of fairness to architects and clarity for consumers. The Act requires that the ARB maintains the Register of Architects. The online Register is searched, on average, over 500 times on a daily basis. Consequently, ensuring the Register is up-to-date is important for ensuring consumer confidence in this resource.
She added: 'We've reduced the cost [to rejoin the register] again this year, due to the online facilities and streamlining of the back-office process.'
Holmes said the £65 charge was not more than the removal and reinstatement process' acutal cost to ARB.
She continued: 'The Board is committed to ensuring the reinstatement charge is accurate and proportionate. They are also committed to ensuring the additional work created by the removal and reinstatement process doesn't place a burden on those who do pay on time.'
However architects, struck off for missing the deadline, have branded the ARB 'mean and miserable. Maurice Rodger from Kilmarnock said: 'After 40 years of carefully fulfilling my employers' and clients' architectural ambitions without resort to court or any disciplinary procedures, I woke this morning to find myself booted off the register by the bureaucrats at ARB. So endeth an unblemished career.'
He continued: 'If your ARB fee is one day late, you are summarily booted out. The ultimate sanction is no grace period and no appeal procedure - its the steppes of Siberia for you. But, if you admit to everything (except your leg length) and give us an extra £65 for 'authorised' fees, we will (possibly) let you back onto the Register.'
He added: 'The board, like its predecessor is an aberration. It is a mean and miserable quango - with disciplinary teeth and bovver boots.'
Former ARB president Jack Pringle added: 'Why does it cost any more to reinstate than to renew? Isn't it just a tick in an electronic box?'
Fran Balaam of Pie Architecture, said: 'The £65 charge is ridiculous. And for what? It's costing more [to be reinstated] than when I joined first time.
'I'm on maternity leave and so remembering my retention fee was due was not high on my agenda. I explained this when I called, but to no avail.'
Another year, another increase in ARB fees
ARB confirms fee increase
ARB kicks 2,000 architects off register for non-payment
RIBA slams ARB over 'mass strike-off' of 2,000 architects
ARB confirms fee increase
ARB kicks 2,000 architects off register for non-payment
Should the ARB be kept? Last chance to put your opinions to government
ARB kicks 2,000 architects off register for non-payment
RIBA slams ARB over 'mass strike-off' of 2,000 architects
Should the ARB be kept? Last chance to put your opinions to government
Another year, another increase in ARB fees
ARB kicks 2,000 architects off register for non-payment
Should the ARB be kept? Last chance to put your opinions to government
Readers' comments (10)
A £65 levy on those not paying close attention is hardly surprising from ARB. I joined the register this year and was charged £85 for 35 days registration. Someone is doing well out of all this, and I doubt it is the architects.
I have probably paid by DD for 30 years , this year
computer says "No"!!!
I was sent a reminder on Dec 31st,whilst I was climbing in the Anti-Atlas mountains. Our office manager is currently having to prove this was paid quite some time ago.
For an organisation already low on popularity, and of dubious benefit, a strange move. Karen Holmes should be removed not 6% of the profession !
The 6% should enjoy their freedom while it lasts.
If I'm not mistaken, ARB - without any pre-announcement that I am aware of - arbitrarily moved the registration date forward by a month (it used to be the end of January each year) so it's little wonder such a high number of architects have found themselves caught out. Quite apart from banking the registration fees a month earlier than usual, the £65 penalty to re-register does not suggest a proportionate charge - it indicates ARB's cost structure is way out of line and needs to be reined in. High time to move this organisation - if it is needed at all - out of its expensive central London eyrie.
I don't mind paying an increase in my retention fee but one does question where this money is being spent. How does an organisation such as this spend nearly £1 million pounds on IT charges in 3 years? I hope it was justified!
Since not renewing ARB in 2005 and leaving the RIBA after 25 years, business has massively improved. I may not call myself Architect but as the public and industry perception of Architects has been poor for some time I am unwilling to rejoin the formal ranks. I still operate as if registered and chartered in terms of conduct and professionalism and maintain full PI. The 'freedom' is not an operational one but a perceptional one for clients who now receive services from me far outside the scope of what Architects are perceived to provide. Perhaps some of the 2000 will follow suit and abandon ship?
If one is removed from the ARB register but continues to remain a Chartered Member of the RIBA, can that person retain his / her title of 'Architect', let alone 'Chartered Architect'?
And with the recent state of disarray in the profession; the RIBA membership shake-up, the prospective obliteration of the Part 3 qualification, the impending and mutual exchange of architects in the European Union possibly and eventually practicing in the UK...would anyone here consider having to combine both the ARB and the RIBA into a single, and perhaps a more robust and resilient entity?
A hybrid organisation set up to regulate the profession and maintain the register while promoting architecture all at the same time, and retention fee plus professional association membership all rolled into one. Why not.
I'd just like to point out to Architecture that you've just failed your part III exam, fallen at the first hurdle, do not pass go, do not collect £100...
'Architect' is a legally protected title and you can only call yourself so by being registered with the ARB. If you're off the list you lose the title!
That said I agree with your comments on rolling the two together. Why not have one one focused body that protects the profession and promotes it with one code of conduct to ensure we all tow the line... I'd'd pay for that.
In keeping with their current spirit I expect ARB will now be prosecuting the bulk of the 2000 ex-architects who are probably continuing to use the title Architect whilst trying to re-register.
The Architects' Act 1997 provides that where a registered architect has not paid the retention fee by the end of a prescribed period the Registrar may remove the architect from the register and may charge a fee for re-instatement.
ARB is, in fact charging two fees for re-instatement - a £35 'application fee' and a £30 re-instatement fee. The Act makes it clear that asking to be re-instated does not constitute an 'application' under the Act, so it seems clear that the £35 fee is ultra vires.
Since the retention fee for any particular year can not fall due before the 1 January it follows that the 'prescribed period' cannot start before the 1 January. By insisting on payment by midnight on the 31 December the ARB has set the prescribed period at zero. That cannot be lawful .
I received the removal e-mail on the 6 Jan and immediately paid the retention fee and the penalties under protest and wrote to the Registrar setting out the above points.
By the 14 January I had received no answer, other than a letter dated 9 January confirming my removal, and my name is still not back on the register.
Have your say
You must sign in to make a comment
Please remember that the submission of any material is governed by our Terms and Conditions and by submitting material you confirm your agreement to these Terms and Conditions.
Links may be included in your comments but HTML is not permitted.


text:
Strike a Pose
Yoga poses are great for stretching out your muscles and for helping you move with more ease and with greater flexibility. In fact, one study says that people improved their flexibility by up to 35 percent after only eight weeks of yoga.
Yoga poses can also support your levels of strength and endurance. For instance, downward dog, upward dog and the plank pose all can help build upper-body strength, while standing poses can help build strength in hamstrings, quadriceps and abs. For strengthening the lower back, upward dog and the chair pose are good poses to strike.
Overall, any of the yoga poses, when performed correctly, can build core strength as well as deep abdominal muscles. Additionally, yoga poses can help support better posture and breathing techniques as well as helping to relax you and supporting healthy blood pressure and a healthy heart rate.
If you are familiar with yoga poses, then go ahead and strike those poses. If you aren't sure where to begin, then here are a few poses you may want to try.
Downward Dog: Start out on all fours with your hands directly under your shoulders, and your knees under your hips. "Walk" your hands a few inches forward and then spread your fingers wide, pressing palms into mat. Curl your toes under and slowly press hips upwards toward the ceiling, bringing your body into an inverted V, and pressing your shoulders away from your ears. Your feet should be hip-width apart, with your knees slightly bent. Hold this position for three full breaths.
Tree Pose: Stand up straight, with your arms at your sides. Shift your weight onto your left leg and place the sole of your right foot inside your left thigh, keeping your hips facing forward. Once balanced, bring your hands out in front of you with your palms together. Inhale and extend arms over shoulders, palms separated and facing each another. Stay for 30 seconds. Lower and repeat on opposite side.
Bridge Pose: Lie down on the floor with your knees bent and directly over your heels. Place your arms at your sides, with your palms down. Exhale. Then press your feet into the floor as you lift your hips. Clasp your hands under your lower back and press your arms down, lifting your hips until your thighs are parallel to floor—all while bringing your chest toward your chin. Hold for one minute.
Go ahead. Strike a pose!
In order to avoid risk of injury, please seek advice directly from your physician, especially if you have existing medical issues, before beginning any exercise or nutritional program. Also, be sure to stretch after exercise to avoid muscle and joint tightness.
This information is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be used in place of an individual consultation or examination or replace the advice of your health care professional and should not be relied upon to determine diagnosis or course of treatment.


text:
(Windows servers "always" run PHP as a CGI app, so this FAQ may not apply to Windows hosts.)
While Zen Cart is "best" run on a server running PHP as an apache "module", some hosts only run PHP as a CGI application. There are generally more restrictions and limitations in functionality if this is how your PHP hosting is setup.


text:
Ask a Sommelier: What Should I Drink During the Super Bowl?
We ask top somms across the country for their wine-related advice.
I'm sure you've invited a sommelier to your Super Bowl bash, presented her with your menu ("We'll do the guacamole as an amuse bouche, and then the 7-layer dip as the first course") and asked for pairing advice. Oh, no? Not yet?
Well, we've done the asking for you. When chatting with 17 sommeliers from around the country, we asked for a little advice on the best drinks to serve with spicy wings and nachos, guac and chips, the whole shebang. Check out the slideshow for their picks, from sparkling wine to hoppy IPA to margaritas in a red Solo cup.
About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. She lives in San Francisco. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


text:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State alumna Patricia Greene , Paul T. Babson Chair in Entrepreneurship at Babson College, will present a lecture, titled "What do you do with entrepreneurship? Everything," at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in the Ruth Pike Auditorium (22 Biobehavioral Health Building) on the Penn State University Park campus. The talk, which is co-sponsored by the College of Health and Human Development and the Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, is part of the Schreyer Honors College's "Shaping the Future Summit" and Global Entrepreneurship Week.
According to Greene, entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as the necessary approach for identifying and solving economic and social problems around the world. "This approach only works if entrepreneurship is taught, learned and practiced as a mindset and specific skill set," she said. "In this talk, I will use the framework of the Gold man Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative i n the United States and United Kingdom and the 10,000 Women Program, which has reached women in 42 developing countries, to talk about what it means to be entrepreneurial and how entrepreneurial behaviors reach from the development of individual businesses to addressing health and prevention challenges, and even changing economic and social structures."
Greene's research focuses on the identification, acquisition and combination of entrepreneurial resources, particularly by women and minority entrepreneurs. She is a founding member of the Diana Project, a research group focusing on women and the venture-capital industry. In addition, she is the author or co-author of several books, including Clearing the Hurdles: Women Building High Growth Businesses and The Development of University-Based Entrepreneurship Ecosystems: Global Practices. As well, her work has been published in numerous journals, including Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Small Business Economics and The National Journal of Sociology. She serves on the editorial board of Academic of Management: Learning and Education.
Greene is a federally appointed member of the national advisory board for the Small Business Administration's Small Business Development Center Program. In addition, she is a fellow of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Her past service work includes serving as co-chair of the steering committee for the Entrepreneurship Affinity Group of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and sitting on the boards of the State of Missouri Small Business Development Centers, the Kansas Women's Business Center and the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program.
Greene served as provost, and before that, as dean of the Undergraduate School at Babson College before being named the Paul T. Babson Chair in Entrepreneurship at Babson College. Prior to joining Babson College, she held the Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Missouri from 1998 to 2003 and the New Jersey Chair of Small Business and Entrepreneurship at Rutgers University from 1996 to 1998. She earned a bachelor's degree at Penn State; a master's degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and a doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin.


text:
great news folks – you can now get your JBB fix all over the frikkin Bay Area!
yup, whether you wanna grab a loaf in SOMA, Oakland, Berkeley, Palo Alto, or Burlingame – IT'S ON. just order here.
the righteous folks at Good Eggs are making it easier and easier for makers such as myself to get our goods all over the place, so that's just what i'm gonna do. here's what we got:
- Tuesdays – bread available by subscription around the Bay Area, or walk-in sales at FourBarrel Coffee @ 4pm
- Wednesday – bread available by subscription at The Mill (736 Divisadero) only, 7am-2pm
- Saturday – bread available at The Mill (736 Divisadero), by subscription or walk-in sales, 8am-3pm
for the time being i just make a different type of bread each day. you can suggest a type if you like, but i don't take orders for specific types. soon my sweeties, you will have the pick of the litter, i promise.
so quit your lolly gaggin' and start your toastin.


text:
Member Services Team Member Job
Date: Feb 11, 2020
Location: Philadelphia, PA, US, 19145
Company: BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc.
BJ's Wholesale Club was the first retailer to introduce the warehouse club concept in the northeastern United States. Today, we're a multibillion dollar operation with more than 200 clubs in 16 states from Maine to Florida.
While our Members know us for helping them save up to 25% off grocery prices every day, our Team Members love us for providing a supportive and engaging workplace that's committed to developing great talent.
If you're a motivated and enthusiastic person who enjoys working collaboratively and is committed to providing great service for our Members, we want to hear from you. BJ's offers a fast-paced, team environment with great training opportunities and competitive salary and benefits packages to help you succeed.
Member Services Team Members are responsible for assisting members at the membership and service desk areas with courtesy and friendly customer service. Additional responsibilities include but not limited to:
- Handling merchandise returns, exchanges and merchandise pick-ups
- Responding to member inquiries and addressing issues
- Processing membership applications and renewals
- Maintaining membership files
- Strong interpersonal skills, basic math skills, an attention to detail and the ability to handle multiple tasks required
- Prior front-end experience helpful
Minimum Age Requirements:
Must be at least 16 years of age.
BJ's Wholesale Club is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for all qualified team members and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, ancestry, national origin, physical and/or mental disability, genetic information, atypical cellular or blood trait, marital and/or familial status, pregnancy, gender identity and expression, military or veteran status, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.
Nearest Major Market: Philadelphia


text:
Enroll in Online Banking
Help [+]
Take a Guided Tour of Our Solutions
Online Banking
Mobile Banking
You may have reached this page using a bookmark that you saved from an older version of the First Midwest Bank website.
We apologize for the inconvenience if your bookmark no longer works. You can find the information you were seeking either by using the website navigation above, the Search box, or the Instant Answer Center to the right.
For further help, please Contact Us or call Customer Support at 800-322-3623.
Thank you.


text:
Journal Article
Understanding the Chemical Effects of Increased Boost Pressure under HCCI Conditions
One way to increase the load range in an HCCI engine is to increase boost pressure. In this modeling study, we investigate the effect of increased boost pressure on the fuel chemistry in an HCCI engine. Computed results of HCCI combustion are compared to experimental results in a HCCI engine. We examine the influence of boost pressure using a number of different detailed chemical kinetic models - representing both pure compounds (methylcyclohexane, cyclohexane, iso-octane and n-heptane) and multi-component models (primary reference fuel model and gasoline surrogate fuel model). We examine how the model predictions are altered by increased fueling, as well as reaction rate variation, and the inclusion of residuals in our calculations. In this study, we probe the low temperature chemistry (LTC) region and examine the chemistry responsible for the low-temperature heat release (LTHR) for wide ranges of intake boost pressure.