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Every time there's a shooting, people all over the place come out of the woodworks. We're bombarded with views in all directions on what to do about it, but nobody can seem to come to a compromise.
The crazy thing is, most gun owners that I know (including myself) can agree that the laws are too relaxed. Unfortunately, nobody can seem to come up with any reasonable solutions to the problem. It's always "ban all guns" or "guns for everybody", without any middle ground. Neither will likely ever happen during our lifetimes, and neither is an appropriate response.
What To Fix
Before I go into the solution, here are my views on the problems that need to be solved. You might not agree with all of them, and that's okay. The important thing is that you read this with an open mind and think critically on an overall scale, rather than putting political or personal feelings towards it.
Ease of Access
Guns are stupidly easy to get. Plain and simple.
Outside of state regulations that may vary, guns can be legally purchased without any sort of background check or waiting period via person-to-person sales. All you need is a bit of cash and someone willing to sell you a gun. In my experience, even when buying from a dealer, background checks take less than 10-20 minutes and you're on your way.
Illegal sales are even easier. Want to buy a gun? Find someone selling that won't run a background check on you. Since background checks (at least in Virginia) are voluntary for private sales, it's super easy for a felon to buy a gun from a private party. What happens if they do and are caught? Well, first it has to be proven that the person knowingly sold the gun to a felon.
Relaxed Penalties
Like I said in the last portion, the penalty for selling a gun to a felon only applies if it's done knowingly. Removing the provision and enforce harsher punishments would force private sellers to be more careful about who they sell to. If you faced 20 years in prison for selling a gun to a felon, would you make 100% sure to do your due diligence? I sure as shit know that I would.
I'm sure you've heard of 80% lowers receivers. If not, let me explain it to you:
A gun consists of multiple parts and not every part is considered a "gun". For example, the part on an AR-15 that is considered a firearm by the ATF is the lower receiver. If it's not more than 80% complete (basically a block of metal in the shape of the receiver), it's not a firearm (yet).
With a simple drill press, an 80% lower can be purchased online, completed, and assembled with other readily available parts (bolt carrier group, barrel, stock, etc.) without any checks whatsoever.
Availability of Highly Destructive Parts
Things like bump stocks, Sig stocks, suppressors, and high-capacity magazines are readily available and super easy to obtain. While they're fun to shoot, they don't serve any practical purpose other than to cause mass damage. Should they be completely outlawed? Probably not as they're not inherently dangerous on their own, but the potential is there when used maliciously. Let me clarify a bit:
Bump stocks can be fun, but they're mainly just a loophole and mostly impossible to actually write a law to prevent them since it's still a semi-automatic weapon. They serve a practical purpose of lessening recoil, but let's face it, that's not what you're actually using it for.
Sig stocks allow for a shorter weapon while keeping a rifle legally a "pistol". They can make sense when someone may need more control on a handgun, but once again, it's not exactly what it's being used for in the majority of cases. It's a short-barreled rifle and should be treated as such. Sure you could still shoulder it with an exposed buffer tube, but most wouldn't bother because of the lack of comfort.
Suppressors can help with hearing but obviously will lessen the sound. No, it's not silent or anything like you would hear in movies, but if you've ever shot with or been around someone using a suppressor, there's no denying that there's a noticeable difference in the sound. Just wear ear protection. Problem solved.
I keep a 15-round magazine in my Glock 19. Why? Because in the event that I ever need my gun, I might miss 14 times during the chaos. I can even defend higher capacity magazines because constantly reloading sucks. That said, we shouldn't get rid of them but we should at least look into the situation. We'll get into that in a bit.
A Possible Solution: Federally-Enforced Licensing
In thinking these things over, I've been able to come up with a possible solution to the previously mentioned issues. It's not an idea set in stone and it wouldn't solve all of the issues, but it's progress and something I think we could all be okay with.
How do we keep private-party sales legal, gun registrations optional, and concealed carry laws consistent? Licensing. Let me explain:
If someone decides to become a gun owner, they would simply go through a process similar to a combination of a concealed carry permit and a driver's license. They would file paperwork similar to obtaining a concealed carry permit (or more likely, a passport), prove competence (similar to taking a driving test), and undergo a federal background check with an appropriate waiting period. Just like a concealed carry permit, it would be valid for a set number of years and revoked in the event that the individual becomes a felon or any other reason that would cause a background check to fail.
Easier Gun Purchases For Law-Abiding Citizens
The benefits of a system like this would be that gun purchases would be simplified for both the buyer and seller. Individual background checks wouldn't be needed and anyone with a license could walk into a store and buy a gun just as easily as they can a case of beer. Obvious needs for checking the validity of the license would exist, but with the technology we have today, it wouldn't be hard at all.
Private-party sales would also be protected. Want to know if you're selling a gun to a felon? Something as simple as using a portable device to check the validity of a license would be a cakewalk. If everything checks out, make the transaction and call it a day. Locations such as gun ranges could even check validity at the door and validity would be assumed for any transactions that take place.
Assumed Competence
Most people probably know someone who we think shouldn't own a gun, but can legally purchase and carry one. With the idea of showing competence to acquire a license, we could likely decrease things such as accidental discharge or injuries to bystanders in the event that a weapon has to be used. You probably shouldn't carry a gun daily if you can't hit your target at a reasonable distance or know how to properly handle and maintain your gun. You can't always fix stupid, but someone understanding their effective distance could help greatly in the event that they need to shoot something.
License Endorsements
Similar to needing an endorsement on your driver's license to drive a motorcycle or 18-wheeler, an endorsement could be required to purchase or possess things like large capacity magazines, bump stocks, or even fully automatic weapons. A bit of extra training and monitoring could simplify the process of owning "the fun stuff" while lessening the availability of said items. No more tax stamps or wondering what laws the ATF is going to change next. Just have the endorsement and you're ready to rock.
Harsh Penalties For Failed Compliance
If a license is easy to obtain for a law-abiding citizen and laws are clear, penalties can be ramped up for those who fail to comply. If you're caught with a gun without a license, extreme penalties like large amounts of prison time could apply. It wouldn't stop every bad guy from having a gun, but it would make the risk far greater if the proper steps aren't taken first.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. If you have any thoughts on how this idea could be better, let me know in the comments.
Photo by nscottbadger


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I finished my Sid jumper in Bouvardia from Spotlight.
I had it drying in the sun all day, but it is still damp. This made me very sad, considering I wanted to wear it out tomorrow.
I don't usually buy yarn at $7 a ball (remember I'm quite thrifty and take a look at my mission statement), but this stuff… I know it's a Noro rip-off, but darn the long colour repeats are so sexy and the yarn is squooshy as all get out.
I'm working on something from Sandra Knit Trends #4, design 67 Tunic with Divided Sleeves. More on that later, but for those who may be trying it out for themselves, the chart is wrong. The downward arrow is supposed to mean slip one as if to purl with yarn in front, but it should really be a \ which means slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over. Trust me.
I'm using BeeCount, a free Android app to keep track of the rows. It's good – no ads, no screwing around and the most aesthetically pleasing of those I've tried.
I'm also trying to download Diablo III over dial-up (long story, suffice to say Australia's National Broadband Network initiative can eat my shorts) which is terribly frustrating, but I don't want to go out and buy the game when I already technically own it, and just need to download it. I've already waited 10 years for them to release it, what's another 30 days? Incredibly irritating, that's what.

subset: commoncrawl


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Facts and figures
Sentinel-3A: launched on 16 February 2016
Sentinel-3B: launched on 25 April 2018
|Rockot, from Plesetsk, Russia
|Polar, Sun-synchronous at altitude of 815 km
|Revisit time (ocean)
|SLSTR ~1 day, OLCI ~2 days, SRAL has a 47 km ground track separation after 27 days – all cases using two- satellite constellation at the equator.
|Planned for seven years (carries consumables for 12 years)
|2.2 m long, 2.2 m wide, 3.7 m high and a mass of 1150 kg (including 130 kg fuel)
Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) covering 21 spectral bands (400–1020 nm) with a swath width of 1270 km and a spatial resolution of 300 m
Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) covering 9 spectral bands (550–12 000 nm), dual-view scan with swath widths of 1420 km (nadir) and 750 km (backwards), and a spatial resolution of 500 m for visible and near-infrared, and 1 km for thermal infrared channels
Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (SRAL) Ku-band (300 m after SAR processing) and C-band with a spatial resolution of approx 300 m
Microwave Radiometer (MWR) dual frequency at 23.8 & 36.5 GHz
|Receiving stations
Scientific data: transmitted to core Sentinel ground stations
Telemetry data: transmitted to and from Kiruna Sweden
|Main applications
Sea-level change & sea-surface temperature mapping, water quality management, sea-ice extent and thickness mapping and numerical ocean prediction; land-cover mapping, vegetation health monitoring; glacier monitoring; water resource monitoring; wildfire detection; numerical weather prediction.
|Developed by ESA, jointly operated by Eumetsat
|ESA Member States and the European Union
|Prime contractors
Thales Alenia Space France for satellite, OCLI & SRAL; Selex ES Italy for SLSTR; EADS-CASA for MWR
|Data access


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The natural world is all around us. Informing creativity, inspiring wonder, and encouraging us to explore. Good Natured showcases art that is inspired by, related to, or in appreciation of nature. Join us in celebrating the work of artists with and without disabilities.
Good Natured opens April 27th, 2019 from 11:00am - 4:00pm.
Helms Design Center
8745 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
Featured artwork by Bryan Arnold and Joe Mills.
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You know when you finish a book and it's so good…so perfect…that you just sit there in awe and stare at it?
That was me when I finished Ready Player One.
Written by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is set in the very near future–the year 2044.
The planet has become an ugly place. Most people live in trailer stacks (yes, that's exactly what it sounds like), the fossil fuels have been almost completely used up and global warming has become a reality.
Luckily, there is an oasis…Called OASIS. The internet has become everything we've dreamed it will be. OASIS is total virtual reality, where you interact with people and the world completely inside a huge, immersive game.
The creator of OASIS, James Halliday, has died and leaves behind a will. In that will, which is broadcast around the OASIS world at the time of his death, he left an easter egg.
An easter egg worth all of Hailliday's fortune, 344 billion dollars.
To find the easter egg, you must find a solve all of the puzzles that Halliday has hidden in the gigantic word of OASIS.
Halliday's love was all things 80's. The music, the movies, the TV, the video games, the culture.
He was a teen in the 80's and, being a geek and an outcast as a kid, he lost himself in the wonderful world he remembered as a teenager.
Enter Wade Watts, who is one of millions of people trying to find Halliday's puzzles. Since Halliday's death, Wade has been studying everything Halliday loved in an attempt to try to find the easter egg.
Pac-Man and Devo, Monty Python and Family Ties, Rush and Max Headroom…EVERYTHING 80's is popular again!
This book is so full of geek culture and retro mentions that every page turn will make Gen Xer's (like myself!) grin with delight.
Have the whole script of Monty Python and the Holy Grail memorized? Beat Pac-Man? Know all the lyrics to Rush's 2112? Love giant robots? Then you'll fit right in to the author's amazing world.
I read this book so fast…I basically just gobbled the whole thing up. I had to tell myself to slow down so I wouldn't miss anything, I was just SO immersed in this book!
I was so involved that, at one point when something happens that really ticks the reader off, I actually THREW the book across the room, then had to run to get it so I could keep reading!
Then at the other end of the spectrum, there's one part where I actually cheered OUT LOUD (and scared the heck out of my dog), and laughed with complete glee and triumph!
Not five minutes after I'd finished it, I'd already sent a tweet to the author (@erniecline) THANKING him for writing such a brilliant book. It blows my mind that THIS is Cline's very first book!
Two minutes after that, I was telling EVERYONE they had to read this book.
I'm not exaggerating when I say it felt like this book was written specifically for me. It was like someone went into my head, took out everything I loved as a teen and put them all in this book.
If you grew up in the 80's, you'll LOVE this book. If you're a gamer, you'll LOVE this book. If you're a geek, you'll LOVE this book. If you love someone that's any of these things, you'll LOVE this book!
Here's my list of favourite books-
1. LOTR/The Hobbit
2. Ready Player One
I'm not kidding, here!
What else can I say? READ THIS BOOK! Three thumbs up! 6 out of 5 stars! A+++++!!
I would LOVE to hear what you thought of Ready Player One! Comments are very welcome!
More articles you may enjoy:
Charon's Claw by R.A. Salvatore
Once Upon A Time: Hat Trick
Dungeons & Dragons Launches The Sundering; Invites...
The Twenty-Year Death - Book Review
Review: Supernatural: Rite of Passage
Wormholes: The Only Way to Travel
Alpha Blue (OSR)
Scourge of the Tikbalang (NGR/OSR)
Wanderlust Seasons I - Vagrant Summer (Novel)
Dinosaur Art – The World's Greatest Paleoart
Fellowship of Lightning #11
Review - Once Upon A Time 1.12 - Skin Deep
The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People - A Bo...
Fellowship of Lightning #6


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- Are you feeling in over your head with the whole hiring process?
- Have you tried figuring it out on your own, but can't make sense of it all?
- Are you on the verge of burn out and know you need help, but have no idea where to start?
- Do you feel desperate to get people on your team but want to do it the right way?
If you've ever had any of these thoughts before,
then there's no need to worry anymore
– I've got your back!
Whether you just need a quick call to chat about a couple of questions you have about HR for your small business, or you're looking for help with crafting a full-blow strategy and action plan, I partner with you as your HR expert!
I help…
- ease your mind and heart by simplifying HR for you, so you can stop wasting time spinning your wheels and get clear on what you really need and want for your business.
- understand the steps you need to take for hiring a team member – whether it's your first time or you've tried and struggled before – to help you hire the right person for the job the first time.
- think about the big picture, so you can plan and prepare for the future of your business – helping you avoid getting "pants on fire" syndrome later on down the road.
- learn how to effectively onboard and train your new team member, to get them up and running to help you in your business more quickly.
- develop the leadership skills you'll need to successfully guide and manage your new team, without it feeling icky or awkward.
After working together, you'll feel more confident in your abilities to hire, train and lead your thriving team, all with heart!!
Ready to get started?


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Manhattan Community Board 4 and HYCAC developed this document to synthesize information about the MTA's guidelines for the rail yards site, as well as overviews of the five proposals. It was intended for discussion at the December 10 public forum, but serves as a good reference for comparing the plans side-by-side.
Download the PDF (Be patient: It's 9MB)
Filed under: Community Input | Tagged: CB4, Community Input, HYCAC, MTA, Proposals |


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McCann couple demands books to be fully destroyed
Maddie's parents return to Portugal for lawsuit against Gonçalo Amaral
by Nuno Miguel Maia
The McCann couple requests Portuguese Justice to order the destruction of all copies of the book and the movie that were authored by Gonçalo Amaral, the former PJ coordinator who defends the thesis of Madeleine's death. The parents return to Portugal this week.
Kate and Gerry McCann will be present the day after tomorrow, at the start of the rial over the injunction that forbids the sale of "Maddie – The Truth of the Lie", at the Civil Court of Lisbon.
Gonçalo Amaral and the editor oppose the continuation of the order that removed the book and the documentary, that defend the thesis of the little English girl's death and the involvement of her parents in concealing her cadaver, from the market.
This injunction is linked to a main lawsuit in which the McCann couple makes several requests. The main ones include the full destruction of all copies of the book and of the DVD documentary that still exist in warehouses, as well as the prohibition to cede author's rights or divulgation rights into other countries or on the internet.
If they win the action, the parents of the child that disappeared in Praia da Luz, Lagos, on the 3rd of May 2007, further demand the publication of the final decision in national newspapers, on two consecutive days, in a way to, albeit partially, reconstitute their image.
As well as the prohibition to divulge the thesis of the little girl's death, the couple asks Gonçalo Amaral and the other defendants in the lawsuit to be condemned to pay 100 thousand euros for every action that goes against the judicial decision.
1.2 million euros
In another lawsuit, Gonçalo Amaral is demanded to pay a compensation of 1.2 million euros. It was under this action that the seizing of all of the former PJ coordinator's assets was ordered.
Gonçalo Amaral has summoned PJ colleagues that took part in the investigation as witnesses, including Luís Neves, the national director of the heavy crime unit.
Even the Public Ministry prosecutor who archived the process, Magalhães Meneses, was summoned as a witness. This magistrate, together with joint general prosecutor Melchior Gomes, have lamented the English people's refusal to participate in a reconstitution of the facts. In this way, the McCanns did not manage to "prove their innocence".
source: Jornal de Notícias, 10.01.2010


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Miami, Florida. January 27, 2017
Re-printed from the Minority Chamber of Commerce
The Minority Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual Cyber Security Miami Conference on January 27, 2017 at the Hotel Intercontinental, in Doral, Florida.
The high level premier Cyber Conference was aimed at helping businesses of all sizes to develop and the diverse industries, evaluate, and strengthen their cybersecurity programs, explore in many ways and connect with law enforcement community before and after cyber incidents occur. The conference focus was the panel presentation looking at the meshing of law enforcement with the private sector, including the financial service industry's perspective on cyber security, and a special discussion on socially engineered cyber risks by Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. In addition, topics included insights in how all businesses, large or small, can secure their information infrastructure.
The MCC Cyber Security Miami Conference 2017 provided an impressive panel of speakers that included: Special Agent Kevin Parker, FBI's South Florida representative in Cyber Attack strategies and business partnership programs; Mr. Rob Vazquez, Clarium a global cyber security services company and Chairman of the Cyber Attack Committee of the Minority Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Tim McGuinness, co-founder of TigerDirect, CEO of Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. & Company the leader in web services & consulting in South Florida and Chairman of SCARS a non-profit focused on Socially Engineered Cyber Scams; as well as Mr. Steve Detwiler of the Miami Dade County Emergency and Preparedness office, among others local leaders.
The premier event presented an unparalleled opportunity for local companies to explore current cyber-threats with more than 10 distinguished speakers from government, the private sector, and business leaders at the Chamber. Each brought unique insights from their expertise in the disciplines of emerging technologies, operations and enforcement, digital asset protection, and pragmatic experience in the use of the web, and law enforcement to coordinate their efforts to create a more secure business environment.
About the Cybersecurity Conference:
To educate and produce a multi-stakeholder consortium that brings together industry, government and local business leaders interests in an effort to improve the local companies of cyber security on both a domestic and international level. The main goal is to discuss information on how to protect local business from one of the greatest threats facing almost every business in the world today, there is something for every business, regardless of size or industry.
About Minority Chamber of Commerce:
The Minority Chamber's Cyber Committee was created to assist members and partners to develop and implement, with its multifaceted stakeholders, a strong protection and security response awareness that helps safeguard their private business information, their digital assets and their ways of doing business. In that, the Chamber advocates through its Cyber Security Committee and working groups, this initiative to work with a competitive and secure local, national and international trade environment, strong private sector cyber networks and systems, and a disaster resilient business community.
[Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. & Company was thankful for the opportunity to present as a principal speaker. However, in no way endorses nor recommends the Minority Chamber of Commerce in any way, not claims any affiliation with that organization.]


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SAN DIEGO — In a tournament that was up for grabs, Scott Stallings hit a 4-iron worthy of a winner Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open.
SAN DIEGO — In a tournament that was up for grabs, Scott Stallings hit a 4-iron worthy of a winner Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open.
Stallings was in a five-way tie for the lead when he hit his second shot on the par-5 18th hole as hard as he could. It was enough to barely clear the water, and he took two putts from 40 feet for birdie and a 4-under 68 at Torrey Pines.
That was enough for a one-shot victory when no one could catch him.
It was the third career PGA Tour victory for Stallings, who earned a return trip to the Masters and should move high enough in the world ranking to qualify for the Match Play Championship next month in Arizona.
K.J. Choi had the best score of the week on the South Course with a 66 and was among those who tied for second. The pins were set up in favorable positions for birdies, making the course play the easiest it had all week.
But that didn't make it easy — not for Gary Woodland, Jordan Spieth, Pat Perez and so many others who squandered a good chance to win.
Woodland appeared to have the best chance to catch Stallings. He was one shot behind — with plenty of length to reach the 18th in two — until he chose fairway metal off the tee on No. 17 and hooked it into the canyon. He felt he had to make his 45-foot par putt to have any chance, and three-putted for double bogey. Woodland, who had a one-shot lead going into the final round, missed an easy birdie attempt on the 18th and closed with a 74.
"This will be hard to swallow," Woodland said. "I felt like I kind of gave one away today."
Marc Leishman of Australia had the last chance to force a playoff, but his drive on the 18th went well right and bounced off the cart path and a fan. He had no shot at the green in two, and his wedge for an eagle stopped a few feet to the side of the hole. His tap-in birdie gave him a 71 and a share of second. Stallings finished at 9-under 279.
Jason Day (68) and Graham DeLaet of Canada (68) each made birdie on the last hole to tie for second. Perez missed a 10-foot birdie chance on the 17th. He closed with a 70.
"It's great and bad," Perez said about his runner-up finish. "This is the one I want to win more than anything in the world, and I came up short. ... I thought today would have been my day. I would like to be in that position again."
Spieth didn't make a birdie over the last 15 holes, and he fell back with back-to-back birdies late in the round. The 20-year-old Texan made a meaningless bogey on the last hole that only cost him a spot in the top 10. By then, his day was over.


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HOST Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Roundup, October 6, 2017
November 1, 2017
The latest in our regular roundups of healthy eating and physical activity news from HOST members and others.
- Afterschool Alliance suggests "3 ways to team up" for healthy schools during Lights On Afterschool, their upcoming national event celebrating afterschool programs.
- It's Time Texas is kicking off its 2nd annual Texas Walks campaign, a way for Texans to rally family, friends, and colleagues to walk in support of a healthy lifestyle and healthier state.
- Alliance for a Healthier Generation gives us a few resources to help meet guidelines for the new Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) meal pattern that went into effect October 1.
- Salud America! is offering Water Bottle Fountain Action Packs with Coaching to help schools get Water Bottle Fountains, giving students access to safe and environmentally friendly drinking water during the school day!


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If you're in the market for a new car, 'five-star safety rating' is probably a term you've encountered umpteen times. It's easy to assume all new cars will be relatively safe cars but, as Ford's hugely popular Mustang recently proved, when it comes to helping you avoid a crash or protecting you and your family in the event of an accident, not all new cars are created equal.
According to the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), someone in Australia (and New Zealand) is either killed or seriously injured in a motor vehicle crash every 15 minutes and at an estimated cost to the community of a staggering $70 million a day.
With stark figures like that, it's easy to see why we should be putting as much importance on a potential new car's safety rating as we do on comparatively frivolous must-haves like the brand, options list and colour.
ANCAP has been providing Australasian consumers independent safety assessments on new cars since 1993. Right now, it has comprehensive (and downloadable) reports on 233 current-model vehicles. The program takes a new vehicle and simulates a crash in five common scenarios (see below) before assessing the damage to both the vehicle and the dummy occupants inside. Electronic safety aids also contribute to the overall score and each vehicle needs to meet or surpass a pre-determined minimum score across each category in order to earn the coveted five-star rating.
The stakes are about to get higher for manufacturers, too, as the organisation announced changes to the Australian testing process in a bid to bring it more in line with the European NCAP scheme. While the two programs are largely similar, the changes will see the addition of a full-frontal crash assessment, more consideration will be given to a vehicle's ability to protect kids and there will be an increase in the emphasis placed on crash-avoidance technology.
If 2017 is the year of the new car for you, then this is the testing process the vehicle has been subject to in order to assess just how safe it is for you and your family.
Frontal Offset Test
To mimic the scenario of a head-on style crash, 40 percent of the front of the car is forced into an aluminium barrier at a speed of 64km/h. Both the speed and the behaviour of the crushable-type barrier simulate a head-on collision of two vehicles travelling at the same speed. During the simulation, two adult-sized dummies are properly restrained in the two front seats, while two child-sized dummies (a three-year old and an 18-month old) are appropriately restrained in the rear of the vehicle. Sensors fitted to the dummies' legs, knees, arms, head and neck all detect and record potential injuries which contribute to the car's overall score.
Side Impact Test
As the name suggests, this test is designed to simulate two vehicles colliding at 90 degrees. Often referred to as being 't-boned,' ANCAP's testers ram a 950kg trolley into the side of the vehicle being tested, with the impact point using the same crushable-type aluminium to mimic the crumple zone of the front of another car. The trolley is travelling at a speed of 50km/h at the point of impact and the same four dummies are appropriately restrained within the vehicle.
Pedestrian Test
Fifteen percent of fatal crashes in Australia and New Zealand are the result of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian. The outer design of the car can greatly influence the severity of injuries in such a scenario and so is put through a series of pedestrian tests as part of the ANCAP assessment. The tests simulate both a child-sized and adult-sized head hitting the vehicle's bonnet and the subsequent injuries estimated, while the same is done with the simulation of both a child-sized and an adult-sized leg being hit by the leading edge of the vehicle in question. In all scenarios, the vehicle is travelling at a speed of 40km/h.
Pole test
This test sees the vehicle sliding into a rigid vertical pole at a speed of 29km/h. The pole is narrow to mimic a tree or a telegraph pole and impacts the vehicle on the driver's side and penetrates the side of the car aligned with the driver's head. Three accelerometers inside the dummy's head measure forces experienced by the would-be driver and vehicles fitted with curtain airbags typically score far better in the pole test than vehicles without.
Whiplash Test
Designed to measure the forces experienced by the occupants' head and neck in the event of being rear-ended, the vehicle's driver's seat is removed and mounted to a trolley. With a properly restrained adult-sized dummy placed in the seat, the trolley is propelled at a force which mimics a stationary car being hit from behind by another vehicle which is travelling at 32km/h. As well as accelerometers mounted inside the dummy's head, other sensors in the neck measure the bending, shearing and tension forces felt during the impact.
Now read about how to read WhichCar safety ratings.


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Bubble Bumber Soccer League
Once you see this, we know you'll want to try it!
Our Bubble Bumper Soccer brings the excitement to any party, fundraiser, or event. Day or night, indoor or outdoor, birthday or large carnival!
All of our packages include our state-of-the-art bubble bumper suits and all neccesary equipment including goals, cones, soccer balls and trained team members to construct a bubble bumper soccer field in your home's backyard or local park and deliver you the best party experience possible guaranteed.
Ask about our Bubble Bumper Soccer League! If enough people are interested we'd love to start a league in the Orange County area. If you or someone you know may be interested, share this blog with them or contact us!


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a_haworthroberts wrote:Sounds from what Sorensen writes that Gordons may have gone crying to him and Sorensen has deduced that Gordons has given up - which is a bit odd if my reasoning powers are so poor as this proven liar will never ever stop falsely alleging.
Ashley Haworth-Roberts has admitted in the past that Cowboy Bob Sorensen reads posts in this forum. Suddenly he suggests that I contacted him about this. Such a suggestion is ridiculous.


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Set in the late Roman Republic, in the first century B.C.E., The Forgotten Legion is a tale of the greatest empire of the ancient world from the perspective of those on the lowest rungs of its society. Romulus and Fabiola are twins, born into slavery to a enslaved mother who is much beloved by them, and much abused by their owner. At 13 years old, they and their mother are sold: Romulus to gladiator school, Fabiola into prostitution, where she will catch the eye… (more)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (January 04, 2010)
Collection: The Forgotten Legion Chronicles
Format: EPUB
Page count: 544 pages
File size: 1 MB
Protection: DRM
Language: English


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Observer photos by Steven Frank
John Morton, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced Monday that ICE's National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center has expanded its operations center in Williston. The new space has been in use for approximately one month and the center's director, John Burke, said it's 'over five times bigger' than the former space — established in 2009 in another part of Williston. Morton said it's the first facility in the world solely dedicated to the investigation of bulk cash smuggling. The center deals with cases where more than $10,000 has been transported into the United States, which Morton said is illegal without reporting. Morton added that agents in Vermont played a key role in the seizure of $41 million in Colombia and Mexico used in a cocaine smuggling operation — a case known as Operation Pacific Rim that began in September 2009. 'Vermont has been a great place for us to conduct national operations,' Morton said during Monday's announcement.


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Gold Glitz Sequins
All prices are for a single use event rental and include free round trip ground shipping within continental USA.
Your clients will love adding fun and trendy pieces-especially at our pricing! They are beautiful additions to a head table, cake table and of course those elegant cocktail tables.
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The consultation regarding the new Townlands Hospital in Henley is now open. The public who are directly affected by the proposals are welcome to contribute. To participate in the consultation online, please follow this link:
You will need to sign in or create an account to participate online. If you experience any issues responding to the consultation online, you can choose to download the survey and post it back or copies can be emailed to firstname.lastname@example.com
You can also view the consultation document online or via this attachment.
If you would like to attend the next public workshop regarding the consultation on Thursday 21 May please contact Julie Stackhouse on 01865 334638 or email email@example.com


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Reaching into my mail bag today for a fun book club do-it-yourself project!
First of all, check out the centerpiece that this fifth grade book club put together when they discussed THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB:
I love it! Skates to represent Cassidy, a notebook and pen for Emma, sewing basket for Megan, and what looks like a stuffed dog for animal-lover Jess. Oh, and a copy of LITTLE WOMEN, of course.
But wait! There's more! Check out the mood pillows that they made:
Cuuuuuute! Wondering what a mood pillow is? Click here to find out (hint: if you read LITTLE WOMEN, you'll know).
Ann, who leads this particular book club, generously offered to share directions with all of my blog readers for making a no-sew mood pillow. Ready? Here you go!
You will need — cylindrical pillow insert, sweatpants or pajama leg (or sewn cylinder), sturdy rubber bands (2 each), ribbon (about 1 yd. each).
Take a pajama leg or a sweatpants leg and cut it the length of the pillow plus from six to ten inches on each side. Stuff the insert into the pants leg so that it is in the center. Gather up the excess fabric on either side, and make a 'pigtail' with it, securing it with sturdy rubber bands.
Finally, cut the yard of ribbon in half, and tie a bow over each rubber band!
Thanks, Ann, and thanks to your book club girls and moms, too!


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This page is dedicated to Alliances on the S11 Server. If you are looking for an Alliance please feel free to check out the following entries.
Each Alliance may post one ad, there will be no flaming or long discussions. Please go to the forums if you would like to discuss Alliances in more depth. In addition posters are strongly urged to contribute to this wiki, please help the game grow along with you Alliance.
Please add your alliance name on S11 in alphabetical order. A more complete list of alliances can be found on the Alliance & Chamber section of the Forums at http://forum.koramgame.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=175.
- BloodBrothers
- Ragnarok
- ReBoRn
- Sworn_Eagles
- TreeHuggers
- Conquistadors
- The_HellHounds
- Phoenix.Rising
King Arthur:Edit
- Brotherhood
- death
- Retribution
- TheOverseers
- Viet_Pro
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Last week, we listed some ideas to celebrate Valentines and Galentine (really, anyone who you love taking to the park). Here's the second half of our list of park adventures for your bae or buds!
14. Find serenity lakeside
Love a little peace and quiet? Skipping rocks? The perfect scene to Instagram? Look no further than the lovely water features throughout the parks. We think you and your someone special will love a trip to Panther Hollow Lake in Schenley Park or Lake Carnegie and the reservoir in Highland Park.
15. Grab a cuppa at the Schenley Park Cafe and Visitor Center
Warm your hands around a tasty beverage of your choice and take in the views of Panther Hollow from the big open windows of the Schenley Park Cafe and Visitor Center. After enjoying your vantage from above, follow the chunky Belgian block trail behind the Cafe through peaceful Panther Hollow.
16. Play docent all of the art
Pittsburgh parks are art. For art aficionados and history buffs, the parks are like a free museum, open year-round. Brush up on art in the parks with this helpful Pittsburgh Art Places website.
17. Snap a selfie with Dippy and bask in the bosque
Diplodocus carnegii is just too cute not to be a part of any selfies shot around the Plaza. Once you've visited Dippy, walk on through the bosque in front of the Carnegie Library - Main with its ceiling of overarching London plane trees.
18. Join the parties that are volunteer days
It's always a good time when you gather happy, energized folks to beautify the parks. Rain or shine (even snow or sleet), volunteer days are full of positive vibes, perfect for a day spent with your friend or sweetheart.
19. Prowl for owls
Getting on around dusk, the silent winged denizens of the park come to life. If you keep your voice down and your ears open, you might be lucky enough to hear owls on the move.
20. Promenade in Allegheny Commons
The allées of Allegheny Commons were designed to accommodate the wide hoop skirts of the late 19th century when the park was designed. Walking on through this park today can be like going back in time, especially since some of the park's trees growing there today date almost as old as the park itself.
22. Go for a ride, start a war
Be a kid again: grab some saucers, toboggans, cafeteria lunch trays, whatever you can get your hands on and hit the sled-riding slopes or go all in on an all-out snow ball battle.
23. Eat to your heart's content at The Porch
The Porch at Schenley, the only full-service restaurant at Schenley Plaza, is always a popular spot for a bite indoors before or after your adventures in Schenley Park.
24. Skate the night away
Citiparks' annual Valentines on Ice event attracts couples from across the land for a night of skating under the stars with the city as a backdrop. Added bonus: the first 200 couples to arrive receive complimentary sweets and flowers. Can't make this event? The Schenley Park Skating Rink is open daily; find the schedule and pricing here.
25. Venture to places unknown
You're a modern-day explorer on a quest to conquer new park lands. Pack a bag and venture out to parks uncharted by you and your date. Unsure where to start? Find a park that you have yet to visit on our site.
Have other date ideas that we've missed? Post them below or through Facebook and Twitter!
The Matchmakers at the Parks Conservancy
Psst... There's still time to get a gift that the people you care about will dig. Give daffodils or trees in the parks, and we'll send your someone special a personalize e-card! Learn more here.


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A single light pendant made from solid metal with matte rubber detailing.
This light features a BRASS pendant, the drop length can be adjusted manually and hooked onto a solid metal hook which screws into the ceiling rose. The hook can also be removed and reinstalled into your ceiling to allow the pendant to be moved above any furniture you wish.
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Today's New York Sun carries an article about Sue O'Malley's law suit against Sharad Karkhanis. O'Malley had been an elected officer of the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents CUNY faculty and is a crony of the Barbara Bowen/Steve London group that is up for reelection in a few years.
The Professional Staff Congress, led by Barbara Bowen, who made a speech at the Manhattan Institute a few years ago in which she vehemently insisted that Aristotle was a misogynist, has every reason to aim to silence Karkhanis. Karkhanis's widely read newsletter Patriot Returns has a circulation of 17,000 readers and has exposed incompetence among the PSC leadership. Given O'Malley's insider status, my speculation in the Sun article below that O'Malley is suing to help the PSC stands to reason although admittedly I have no direct evidence.
The PSC denies that it has anything to do with the law suit, much as they avoided disclosing that they had given a donation in honor of now-convicted terrorist Sami al Arian.
Brooklyn College history professor KC Johnson has a blog on History News Network which raises an interesting question:
>"PSC president Barbara Bowen has suggested that "academic freedom" protected Shortell's assertion (in a non-academic blog) that all religious people were "moral retards." Will she now similarly apply her flexible definition of the concept, and rebuke O'Malley's attempt to silence Karkhanis?
If O'Malley is suing Karkhanis to further the PSC leadership's reelection bid, as I claim, then we would expect the PSC leadership to remain hypocritically silent about O'Malley's aim to suppress Karkhanis's speech, even as the PSC leadership apologizes for terrorists like al-Arian.
Emeritus Professor at CUNY Is Sued for Defamation, Libel
BY ANNIE KARNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 30, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/65483
A former head of the faculty senate at the City University of New York is suing an emeritus professor for $2 million for accusing her of recruiting terrorists to teach at the university and campaigning for administrative positions to avoid teaching classes herself.
Susan O'Malley is accusing professor Sharad Karkhanis of libel and defamation for writing in a widely distributed anti-union newsletter that she was "obsessed" with finding jobs for terrorists at the university. Mr. Karkhanis, a former professor of political science at Kingsborough Community College, wrote that Ms. O'Malley was "recruiting naïve, innocent members of the KCC faculty into her Queda-Camp to infiltrate college and departmental Personnel and Budget Committees in her mission — to recruit terrorists in CUNY."
Mr. Karkhanis made the claim last spring after Ms. O'Malley, a professor of English at the Brooklyn college and an officer of the faculty union, proposed to rehire Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic-language translator convicted of supporting terrorist activities. He was fired from York College.
"Given the opportunity, she will bring in all her indicted, convicted, and freed-on-bail terrorist friends" to the university, Mr. Karkhanis wrote in the newsletter, the Patriot Returns.
Mr. Karkhanis also criticized Ms. O'Malley for defending the right of an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College, Susan Rosenberg, to teach at the school after press reports showed that she was a member of a radical group, the Weather Underground, and had served 16 years in prison for keeping explosives in her apartment. The Patriot Returns is a newsletter that has been distributed since 1992 to about 13,000 faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees at CUNY, and is available online. A lawyer for Ms. O'Malley, Joseph Carasso, said in a letter to Mr. Karkhanis that the statements were made with actual malice and intended to "inflict harm through their falsehood."
Mr. Karkhanis said he viewed the lawsuit, which was filed in state Supreme Court last month, as an attempt to infringe on his freedom of speech. He said he would rather serve time in jail than retract his statements.
The professor defended his use of the phrase "Queda-Camp," saying it was meant as satire, and he said it is his right to criticize a leader at CUNY.
"She's a public figure, and I have a right to say that, based on the evidence I have and the pattern I've seen of this woman," Mr. Karkhanis said. "Why would someone try to assist the terrorist people when you have good Americans who are looking for the job?"
A professor of business and economics at Brooklyn College, Mitchell Langbert, said Mr. Karkhanis was acting within his rights. "Sharad is an extremely influential force," Mr. Langbert said. "The union, an ingrown left-wing group, has every motivation to try to silence him. Getting him embroiled in a lawsuit like this would be advantageous to the union leadership."
A spokeswoman for the Professional Staff Congress, Dorothee Benz, said yesterday that the union had nothing to do with the lawsuit.
Ms. O'Malley, reached at her home in Brooklyn, said she did not want to discuss the case. "It's all very, very silly," she said.
No trial date has been set.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Professional Staff Congress and O'Malley v. Karkhanis
Posted by Mitchell Langbert at 5:16 PM
Labels: CUNY, higher education, KC Johnson, professional staff congress, sharad karkhanis, susan o'malley, unions
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By introducing an entirely new and mysterious universe full of colorful, hilarious aliens and bringing back the intense arcadey space battles, Star Control: Origins gets about two thirds of the way toward recapturing the magic of Star Control 2, the revered 1992 adventure about forming an interstellar alliance against a greater threat. If it weren't for the tedious chore of gathering resources from planets' surfaces, it'd be a revival to celebrate.As humanity takes its first step into the stars we find we're not alone, and that many of our neighbors are delightfully stupid. There's the pathetically needy Tywom banana slugs, the obsessively bureaucratic Measured, a sleazy race of con artists who're basically Watto from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace with longer necks, and plenty more – each stranger and more surprising than the last. All the major aliens have a distinct style and personality that's brought to life by diverse character models and fun voice acting.
The absurdist and occasionally laugh-out-loud humor of Star Control: Origins' dialogue is its greatest asset, and it uses it effectively to cover up some of its deficiencies – there are various jokes about why every member of each alien race looks and sounds exactly like the others, for example. Listening to aliens casually discuss interstellar fish genocide or the proper number of ears to everyone should have is usually well worth taking the time. Dialogue could've used a bit more variety for common interactions, though: having every conversation with the malfunctioning starbase AI end with "EXCEPTION - CIVIL FAREWELL NOT FOUND!" and every rescue when you run out of fuel come at the cost of listening to the Tywom's god-awful Star Trek fanfic gets old pretty quickly.
It's a reminder that Star Control: Origins is an adventure game, not an RPG.Funny as they often are, it's very rare that the dialogue decisions you make seem to have any effect on the outcome of an encounter other than to play your character straight or as a wise-cracking captain with a mean streak. There are definitely a few points where you can choose to accept or decline an offer from an alien, and what you choose may have consequences that must be resolved through a sidequest, but there's never a risk of endangering an alliance by insulting your allies or anything like that. Nearly all of the quests are solved by traveling to a location, checking it out (maybe blowing something up), and returning to the questgiver. Sometimes you can opt to attack a ship you've approached, but I don't think I've ever been able to talk my way out of being attacked. That lack of control over the outcome of conversations is a reminder that despite its open-galaxy map, Star Control: Origins (like all the Star Control games before it) is an adventure game rather than an RPG – which is fine, except that there's less value to replaying this 35-hour adventure.
Navigating the galaxy to chase your quest objectives can be a hassle sometimes because, unless you're meticulously marking your map with the multi-colored marking tool, it can be a pain to find what you're looking for. If you're given a star system's name you can search for it in the map screen easily enough, but if someone asks you to travel to another species' homeworld without mentioning it by name you can't just click on that race's name on the map, even if you've been there before. Instead, you have to scroll through the detailed captain's log screen until you find where they've specifically been mentioned, at which point you can click on the name to auto-pilot your way to them. I can certainly understand not wanting navigation to feel so automatic that you barely have to look at the map, but putting it behind this much annoying menu fiddling is a step too far.It's also frustrating that Star Control: Origins doesn't keep track of which systems or planets you've already visited and stripped bare of resources (or passed over). Especially in the late game, it was aggravating to find that I'd already been to a system a few days earlier.
Star Control: Origins' greatest sin, though, is that it failed to learn the lessons of the original Mass Effect. Remember how just about everybody loved that game except for the parts where you had to drive the Mako landing vehicle around empty planets? Star Control: Origins is a lot like that, except that its annoying driving makes up a much greater percentage of your playtime.
Star Control: Origins' greatest sin is failing to learn the lessons of the original Mass Effect.Everything you do on a planet's surface is boring at best and an annoying chore at worst. After a simple landing minigame (where success usually feels all but guaranteed but occasionally seems impossible) you zip across the colorful and visually interesting landscapes of your choice of what must be thousands of planets on the galaxy map. That's all well and good – these tiny spheres range from hospitable Earth-like worlds to frozen wastelands to toxic, volcanic hellscapes to planets that seem to be made entirely of gold. But there's precious little to do there beyond driving over glowing pickups representing dozens of different elemental resources (almost all of which are effectively junk loot, since there's no crafting system to use them in) and finding crashed alien ships to salvage. On the aforementioned golden planets it can look suspiciously like something out of Sonic the Hedgehog as you zoom along picking up a long row of floating gold rings, but without any of the high stakes of that gameplay.
That in itself would be boring, but like the Mako before it, Star Control: Origins' landing vehicle is cursed by bouncy physics. Anytime your landing vehicle runs up against an obstacle it's anybody's guess whether you'll glide over it smoothly or bounce around wildly, potentially ending up facing 180 degrees from where you were intending to go. You can't actually flip over and get stuck, at least, but the unpredictability of it never stopped being annoying.
Other than that, the only thing to do on planets is combat, but it's absolutely dismal. Most planets are uninhabited or populated with mostly docile wildlife that barely even reacts to being shot (a rhino-like animal will charge you if you don't kill it quickly, but it's kind of hard not to), and hunting them barely seems sporting. But fairly frequently you'll find resource-rich worlds defended by utterly incompetent drones or turrets that are completely incapable of hitting a moving target unless it's headed directly toward them. They can all be easily defeated by circle-strafing, but generally you can ignore them entirely and scoop up the resources they're protecting as if they weren't even there. That is, unless you manage to get your lander killed by one of the far more deadly natural hazards; then the drones might camp your landing site, destroying you instantly when you attempt to land again. And as far as I've seen there are only two weapons available for the lander, but neither is fun to use.
Once I hit the point about two-thirds of the way through the story where money no longer seemed to matter as much because I was able to get all the resources I needed from running the story missions instead of landing on planets, things improved considerably. The story became much more interesting and expansive, and boss fights and new enemy types made space battles even more diverse and challenging.
Space is where the real action is, and the punchy, top-down arcadey space combat is the most fun I had in Star Control: Origins.Space is where the real action is, and the punchy, top-down arcadey space combat (which is almost directly lifted from the original games) is the most fun I had in Star Control: Origins. These one-on-one arena battles have a lot of variety thanks to a wide selection of offensive and defensive abilities. There are straightforward missiles, beams, and laser bolts, but also mines, area-of-effect attacks, shields, cloaking devices, speed bursts, and many more. Each ship gets a combination of two abilities in addition to its own speed, acceleration, turn rate, recharge rate, and durability, and that keeps dogfights interesting as you bounce off of planets' gravity wells, warp through wormholes (which can also teleport projectiles), and pick up stat-boost items. Judging a target's trajectory well enough to peg it with a relatively slow-moving missile by while simultaneously shifting your own ship's movement to avoid incoming fire is a good challenge, and outmaneuvering a slow, heavy-hitting ship with a nimble but fragile fighter craft feels great. It makes a lot of sense that this head-to-head combat was what Stardock chose to break out as its Fleet Battles multiplayer mode, which can be played against the AI (which actually gets tough!), online, or in local two-player mode.
Like with Fleet Battles, in the campaign you can collect a fleet of ships to send into combat before you endanger your flagship (which must survive or it's game over) but the vast majority of those I found felt pointless. If I was up against an inferior opponent it made the most sense to send in my much more powerful flagship to destroy it quickly; if I was facing a strong enemy, like a Scryve battlecruiser, the weaker ships in my fleet would be destroyed comically quickly with area-of-effect attacks and my flagship was the only one that stood a chance. It doesn't help that Star Control: Origins doesn't give you a view of the capabilities of your ships or your opponent's ships at the moment you're selecting which one to use, so it's extremely easy to pick one that has no chance at all against the attacker.
Though the ships are in general creatively designed, I found it weird that even though this is a game about bolting alien tech onto your human-built spacecraft to dramatically improve its speed, capacity, and combat abilities, the look of your flagship doesn't change at all from start to finish no matter how many fancy engines and weapons you acquire. That's especially bizarre considering that since this is a game that includes a highly customizable ship-builder tool for use in Fleet Battles that allows you piece together a custom craft from a healthy assortment of parts. When the technology is built in already, why would Stardock would completely miss this important, rewarding aspect of an action-RPG upgrade loop?
The Verdict
Star Control: Origins does a great job of creating a new universe and stocking it with a diverse range of weird and funny aliens to fight in intense arcadey space battles. But everything you're forced to do on a planet's surface is boring at best and an annoying chore at worst, and that kills a lot of momentum. Because of that, I didn't really start to click with Star Control: Origins until the last third of the campaign when money became mostly irrelevant and the focus shifted to its strong points of story and space combat.


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Galactic Nights: Food, Drinks, and Fun
The first ever Galactic Nights, hosted at Disney's Hollywood Studios during Celebration Orlando 2017, was an event to remember. The second iteration will be held December 16, 2017, to celebrate the launch of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Although the Galaxy's Edge preview panel and the updated Star Tours ride will be highlights of the evening, the food should not be overlooked. Here is a preview of some of Tricia Barr's favorites, after an early tasting offered to media.
1) Lightsaber Churros
Disney Parks have the best churros. Getting to choose your side – Sith or Jedi – and duke it out while munching on a favorite snack takes this treat up to the next level.
2) Ribeye Steak Puff
The ribeye steak puff was hands down my savory favorite. Crafted for a nerfherder on the run, this dish is one worth trying. Beware of Wookiees who may want to wrestle you for it!
3) C-3PO Charcuterie
Charcuterie boards make great nibbling food when stopping at the cantina for a cold drink. Biscuits in the shape of Threepio's head take you back to the Bespin days.
4) Jettison Juice
A refreshing watermelon lemonade topped off with a Death Star glow cube, this drink hit the spot. Remember Alderaan.
5) Light and Dark Side Eclairs
While churros make a tasty snack, the eclairs feel like a sumptuous dessert. The light side vanilla was sweet and airy. The dark side has a heavy taste of chocolate that calls to you.
A Galactic Tasting package is available with reserved seating for "Inside the Saga: A Galaxy in the Making," located at the Epic Theater.
Related links:
- FANgirl's recap of the first Galactic Nights
- Star Tours Updates Reveal a Narrative Shift
- Disney World's Galactic Nights page
- Disney Parks Blog feature on Galactic Goodies Galore
Tricia Barr's novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library's successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena's Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
Latest posts by Fangirl (see all)
- Tricia Barr Talks Writing Star Wars With Who's The Bossk Podcast - July 21, 2020
- Hyperspace Theories: The Clone Wars Season 7 – The Siege of Mandalore - June 3, 2020
- E. Anne Convery Sits Down With Fangirls Going Rogue - May 29, 2020


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George W. Bush owns what he calls a "treasured" picture that depicts him being sworn in as governor of Texas for the first time—the image also shows what he says is his "pensive" brother Jeb in the background. George W. has studied the picture and come to a conclusion about the moody look on Jeb's face as he stands, in the second row, directly behind their misty-eyed father: Jeb, George W. wrote in his autobiography, is "no doubt thinking of what might have been."
The picture was taken in 1995, not long after Jeb had lost his own gubernatorial race in Florida. It wasn't supposed to have ended that way. George W. was "supposed" to lose to the popular incumbent Ann Richards; Jeb was "supposed" to win against Lawton Chiles. And maybe it was supposed to be Jeb Bush being groomed for the presidency.
The metaphor in the picture is glaring. The second son, seven years younger than George W., is literally behind both his father and his brother. The younger brother didn't just lose Florida—he had lost the chance to bypass George W. on the road to the White House. That day, as Jeb watched his brother being sworn in, Karl Rove, Bush's political architect, had already begun mapping out the prospects for a Texas-coordinated White House bid in 2000. "It really hurt my parents and it kind of created an uncomfortable situation when I've seen George W.," Jeb admitted in a newspaper interview shortly after his loss.
Life in the House of Bush was bound to be provocative with two brothers vying for power at the same time—and made even more so as they wrestled with their connection to their father's political legacy. In a conversation I had with Jeb in 1999, while I was researching my book First Son: George W. Bush & The Bush Family Dynasty, I asked him what role his father had played in the lives of his children. "He was just a beacon that simplified life tremendously," Jeb said.
His brother George W., by marked contrast, has often done little but complicate Jeb's career. And things may soon grow even more complicated: For the first time in more than 20 years, Jeb is emerging from George W.'s shadow and being seriously talked about as a contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Most of the chatter about his prospects focuses on whether, as a fairly moderate Republican who's taken heretical stands on immigration and education, he can win over the party base. And if he does run, a thornier issue for Jeb could well be the tense relationship he now has with his older brother's presidential legacy. As the Atlantic's Peter Beinart recently put it, "You can't easily Sister Souljah your own brother."
It may be the final plot line in a familial tug-of-war that traces back to their days growing up in Texas. Competition was a bit of a blood sport for the four boys and one girl in the Bush household—from the tennis court to the golf course and to the debates about who-was-getting-admitted-to-what-school.
In his formative years in the 1960s, a teenaged Jeb saw his 20-something brother George W. as a hero with a malfunctioning halo. "It wasn't like he was an angel," Jeb told me. But he idolized his brother. George W., he said, was someone who could always make him laugh—someone who was "really funny."
Early on, some thought that Neil, the fourth child, would emerge as the golden one—"Mr. Perfect," the family called him. But in the end there were two clear, but very distinct, children who would go to the political starting line: The cocky and rambunctious George W., and the slightly more cerebral Jeb.
They were never openly at war with each other, but George W. was clearly louder, more insistent. Fidgety and garrulous, he filled up a room. Jeb wasn't mute, but he was quieter and not as antsy. Where George W. was a C student who could rattle off baseball statistics for the players on the Houston Astros,Jeb would graduate as a Phi Beta Kappa who could reference history, current affairs and the books he had been reading. A political consultant in Texas once told me that even as a young man Jeb was a bit akin to Al Gore. Almost dutiful in his approach, more of a policy wonk.
Most of all, as he grew into politics, Jeb carried far less baggage than his brothers: George W. lugged nagging questions about his early run-ins with the police in Maine and Connecticut, and the exact nature of his service in the Texas National Guard; Neil was haunted by his connection to the billion-dollar Silverado Savings and Loan scandal.
All of the children, of course, would put their shoulders to the wheel for their father's political missions. But because George W. was so much older, he was tapped to be his father's proxy during early campaigns in Texas—and it all simply shoved him more quickly and firmly into the foreground. The sense was that the young George W. was barreling into politics—not because it was a deep, soulful calling, but because it was what the Bushes do. And Jeb? He was different: When he got older and began dabbling in politics in Florida, some family observers told me, he was driven by deliberate choice and a genuine interest in the puzzles of public affairs.
Growing up, they had one thing in common: They were fiercely loyal to their father, and each served in the campaign trenches on behalf of the old man. But they also did it in singular ways that spelled out their personality differences. George W. was the backslapping soldier sent to serve as his father's surrogate at the grip-and-grin political affairs. He worked the front room and was able to memorize all the names of the donors. Jeb was often in the back rooms or off to the side, talking strategy and mapping out the best ways to finesse public policy positions.
Now, if he goes forward toward 2016, Jeb will be confronting edgy voters and pundits with their own lingering image of George W. Bush—who left office as one of the most unpopular presidents in American history—and who will be predisposed to instantly exile Jeb alongside his brother.
The United States has never had brothers as presidents, and so the questions will be intense and lingering: Will America be getting another George W. Bush if Jeb runs for office? Will he have to publicly disavow his brother's handling of Hurricane Katrina, Iraq and the economy? Will he drown from guilt by association with the nadirs of his brother's presidency?
Family members have always dismissively referred to speculation about this kind of dynastic drama in the House of Bush as "psychobabble"—that the annoying media, in the age of Oprah Winfrey, was always putting public figures on the proverbial couch. Jeb even had a derisive word for it; he told me one day that we lived in the "therapeutic" age of politics.
But parsing George W.'s rare meditations on his brother's pensive psyche, there seems to be at least a hint of indelible tension, or at the minimum, something awkward. In his autobiography, George W. pointedly notes that in 1999, after Jeb had finally won his second bid for the governor's seat in Florida, he skipped George W.'s second-term swearing-in—even though George W. had found time to travel to celebrate in Florida with Jeb.The excuse: Jeb was too busy organizing his own gubernatorial administration.
Behind the awkwardness was the fraught question of who would inherit the old man's mantle. Some family members prescribed to a clear order of ascendancy: John Ellis, a cousin to the Bush boys, told me that George W. was the "primogenitor" among the children. It suggested that Jeb was on notice to make sacrifices if he needed to. And he knew about sacrificing for the family: He once stared down the rambunctious Lee Atwater when the family was thinking of hiring the godfather of smash-mouth politics to run the elder Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. Jeb told Atwater: "If someone throws a grenade at our Dad, we expect you to jump on it."
Over a decade after he issued that muscled-up test to Atwater, Jeb Bush told me that he had been studying his brother—and that his brother needed to be honest about how being born a Bush utterly defines your existence. "There might be more to it for him than the rest of us, because he is the oldest and it is his namesake, he more directly followed my dad's path," Jeb told me one day, just as his brother's first presidential campaign was moving into high gear. "If he was openly honest about it, he might say that it had some effect, that it might define him in some way."
If he was openly honest about it. The intimation lingers that George W. was in denial about his father's influence, lending credence to the "psychobabble" that W. spent portions of his early presidency trying to escape his father's shadow—and even outdo him. There was, in just one example, his hiring of Donald Rumsfeld, a man his father loathed. (Rumsfeld, as Gerald Ford's chief of staff, reportedly tried to sideline the elder Bush in 1974 by having him appointed CIA director, a charge Rumsfeld denies.)
And there was W.'s general smash-mouth approach to politics and governance, another silent rebuke to his father: George H.W. Bush had once been labeled "anemic" by the media and then assailed by muscled-up party activists as too cautious. In his first term, George W. seemed hell bent on avoiding the same accusations—and it was only well into his second term that he seemed to come to peace with his father's more deliberative style.
But Jeb, too, has sought distance from his famous family. By the time he finally became the governor of Florida, in 1998, he had traveled a circuitous route. Like his father and brother, Jeb had gone to Andover for prep school and he could have followed a very specific Bush-family trajectory—go to Yale, go to the Texas oil patch or Wall Street, maybe live in Houston, Dallas or somewhere in Connecticut. Instead, he went to the University of Texas at Austin, married a woman born in Mexico, moved to Florida and then made a fortune in real estate.
He dabbled in other business interests—a minor-league baseball team, a shoe company, an oilfield-equipment supplier—but also became chairman of the Dade County Republican Party. He was appointed Florida's secretary of commerce, and that paved the way for his first gubernatorial bid, in 1994. When he lost, supporters said he was the victim of last-minute campaign shenanigans. But he won in 1998, served two terms and left office in 2007 with approval ratings around 60 percent—albeit drowned out by the operatic highs and lows of his brother's presidency.
Seven years earlier, around the time he opened up to me in that surprising way about his family's almost Shakespearean relationship with its father—there was a stiff, cautionary moment that Jeb Bush is no doubt reflecting on as he maps out his plans for 2016. In early 2000, John McCain threw the Bush presidential campaign into full-on panic mode with a bruising win in the New Hampshire primary. Insiders said things were not helped at all by voters seeing a misty-eyed George H.W. Bush in New Hampshire, referring to his "boy." It made the Bush children look, well, like children. Going forward, the old man was seldom seen on the campaign trail.
For Jeb, it raises a double-edged dilemma today: Does he banish both his father—and, more glaringly, his brother—from his 2016 campaign? And how would Jeb run a campaign—and a White House? Will he be more compromising, like his father?
What few hints he has given have been carefully guarded. When he emerged from political hibernation last year, in a rare appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, he said only: "In [my father's] four years as president a lot of amazing accomplishments took place. So my guess is that history will be kind to my brother, the further out you get from this and the more people compare his tenure to what's going on now."
And in a recent speech to the Manhattan Institute, it sounded like Jeb would embrace the kinder elements of his father—and marry them to the harder-edged impulses of his brother. He vowed to push for immigration reform, just as his father had when he passed the 1990 Immigration Act, and as his brother had urged with increasing frustration. But, he argued it was simply good for the economy: "Once settled, immigrants start more businesses, they form more families, they have more children, they have a higher percentage home ownership than their native-born counterparts."
At another speech, a commencement address at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, he suggested he was not afraid of what people would say about another Bush running for office: "If you feel inspired to serve your fellow citizens, don't let the ugliness of politics keep you from pursuing public office."
As for George W., he claims not to have spoken with his brother much about the job, though he told CNN in a recent interview that he hoped Jeb would run (unlike his mother, who thinks "we've had enough Bushes") and that he would make "a great president." At one point, in an oddly distant moment, he blurted out: "So hey, Jeb, if you need some advice, give me a call."
In the late 1990s, a mercurial editor at Random House, Jon Karp, was convinced that some voters wanted to know about the inner workings of powerful American families – perhaps more than they wanted to know about a candidate's public policies. Karp was working with McCain to produce the requisite presidential campaign autobiography—an eventual bestseller titled Faith of My Fathers, in which McCain explored his ties to the two heroes in his life, his grandfather and father. At the exact same time, Karp had also commissioned me to do an unauthorized biography of George W. Bush.
For both books, Karp was interested in seeing the psyches of presidential aspirants: Diving into their deepest motivations … and, of course, how internal family machinations molded them. How children born into powerful clans chased their versions of the American Dream (Karp was also serving as the editor for Mario Puzo, author of the Godfather and someone who wrote a lot about children living in the shadows of their mighty elders).
Working on my book, I increasingly turned my attention to hunting down Jeb. I'd already been told by family friends that he was more inclined to open up than any of the Bush children. Fate, circumstance and Karl Rove had converged to exile him to the back of the presidential pack, behind his brother. Surely he'd be in a position to weigh what it meant for the members of a political family to survive with one another.
We wound up talking one Friday morning, Jan. 26, 1999—after months of asking for an interview. His political calculus was hard to figure, other than to think: "Jeb Bush had decided to throw himself on the grenade." That as painful as it was, the campaign had issued the green light for him to talk to a reporter interested in that psychobabble about what it means to be one of the Bush children.
"I learned a while back my estimation of my father is so powerful that if I felt like I had to follow in his footsteps and follow a path that he has set for me, I would fail. I came to grips with that a while back," he said. And he added something cautionary and maybe even prophetic as it relates to his brother: that the pressure of inheriting huge political legacies could be utterly debilitating to a presidential candidate: "A lot of people who have fathers like this, or moms, who have lived such extraordinary lives, feel a sense that they have failed because they haven't reached the same level of just being a human being as their predecessor—and it creates all sorts of pathologies."


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Learn one-of-a-kind polymer clay doll-making tips from an award-winning expert! The amazingly realistic artist dolls of Lynn Cartwright celebrate diverse cultures and ethnicities, from Native American to African, and are widely acclaimed in the doll market. Here, in a photo-rich combination of how-to and inspiration, Cartwright provides a window into her doll-making studio process, and offers her tips and techniques. Follow her step-by-step guidance through key parts of the process, from material choices to armatures to facial modeling to accuracy in costuming. Cartwright has won numerous awards for her work, including six DOTY (Doll of the Year) Industry Awards, and a wealth of her detailed museum-quality dolls are featured, making this a valuable resource for doll collectors, makers, and enthusiasts.
Size: 11″ x 8 1/2″ | 160 color & b/w images | 128 pp
ISBN13: 9780764354779 | Binding: soft cover
Lynn Cartwright's career in fashion design, spanning more than four decades, accidentally led to her second career in doll making. In the world of fashion design Cartwright made innovative strides in activewear, swimwear, lifestyle sportswear, athletic footwear, and uniforms. Her warmhearted textile prints revolutionized nurses' scrubs in the 1990s. Designing the US gymnastics team's Olympic uniforms (1984, 1988) was Cartwright's most prestigious undertaking; recall Mary Lou Retton! Doll making is the perfect reflection of Cartwright's autobiography, combining fashion design, art, and travel experiences. She has won six DOTY (Doll of the Year) Industry Awards, the DOTY Public Award, two Diamond Industry Awards of Excellence, five Apex Award nominations, and other accolades.


text: Looking for a hostel in Whitney? Look no further, all the good deals in Whitney are on Dorms.com. Like thousands of other people every month, book your hostel securely at the best price in all neighbourhoods of Whitney. On this site, you can easily find a hostel downtown, in a trendy neighbourhood; a hostel in the student- university district, close to bus or train stations, airports or major attractions of Whitney.


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NC Renegade
Strange that a terrorist can also be considered a rebel or freedom fighter depending on the perspective. Our perspective is formed by the media and the government. It is hard to believe that the Muslim Brotherhood/Al Qaeda rebels in Syria are not terrorists, but freedom fighters that need our support. It appears that the United States is about to become involved in yet another war (or kinetic action) just in time to become a campaign issue and distract us from the economic collapse. Obama has become embroiled in a no win scenario in Syria and I seriously doubt that Hillarious Clinton is up to this challenge. No more easy button for her.
Russia Conference Aimed at Forcing US to End Support for Terrorists in Syria


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Last night I made myself Spicy Calabrian Pork Ribs from this recipe I found in Bon Appetit. I had high hopes for the ribs, but I have to admit the flavors weren't life changing.
That didn't stop me from devouring the dish like a dinosaur, however.
I even got into the cold leftovers for lunch this afternoon.
Because today is Tuesday. And Tuesday is the day to do battle.
I didn't have time to sit around and have a leisurely lunch. I had to tackle things like a boss.
See, I recently listened to a sermon series Hank Fortener did on the origin of the days of the week, and in it Hank talks about how Tuesday was originally named for the ancient gods of war. The whole series is fascinating (you can find it here), and each talk ends with a guided meditation that is intended to invigorate you. The words that resonated with me in today's meditation were these, "Thank you, God, for making me for this battle," and I'm putting action behind the words.
I didn't wake up looking for a fight because it's Tuesday. I woke up knowing I needed to fight because the battle has been brought to me, and it's my job to fight it. My health and my finances have suffered while I've been focused writing, so I'm taking action to ensure that I can continue writing with a clear mind that is not distracted by such things.
And even though my hallway looks like a hurricane hit it as I sort through my files, I'm doing the tough stuff necessary to make everything better.
And even though my body aches, I'm heading out to a park to strengthen my posterior chain of muscles because that's what I have to do to stop the pain in my back.
I was made for this battle, bitches.


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Naked Winery 2014 Foreplay Chardonnay, Kama Sutra Tranquility Massage Kit and Intimate Encounters Intimate Rewards Game
Creative interplay is a great way for couples to enhance their relationship and to deepen their intimate communication. A sexy gift for your girlfriend, wife or lover is the perfect way to introduce the idea of frisky foreplay. The Alluring Chaperone Sexy Pairing makes it easy for couples interested in adult games and intimate accessories to become quickly immersed in sexy fun. This pairing presents three unique components that lead a couple into bond-building interaction with the approachable ease of sharing a glass of flirty wine, the sublime appeal of mutual massage and the cerebrally stimulating aspect of an interpersonal knowledge quiz game. This gift set is a veritable guide through an enriching time between lovers — appealing to the faculties of taste, touch and thought.
The light, crisp flavor of Foreplay Chardonnay sets the tone for an evening of fun and flirtatious play. Unwind with a silky sip of this sweet-bodied treat that has a subtle, fruity finish. Uncork the bottle and as you let it breathe you can relax your partner with a massage using one of the five aromatic oils in the Kama Sutra Tranquility Massage Kit. It's true that a little Foreplay goes a long way as the two of you build up the anticipation inspired by the Intimate Encounters Intimate Rewards Game. You will be able to demonstrate innermost knowledge of one another that is rewarded with redeemable cards that are good for romantic dinners, unique dates or more massages.
This sexy gift for couples provides all the components for experiencing an unforgettable night together. Regardless of what stage you are at in a relationship, taking the time to remove distractions and focus on one another for an evening can stoke the fire of attraction and help keep the romance ablaze.
Enjoying the simple pleasure of a glass of wine, an intimate touch and the allure of sharing intimate knowledge can reverse the dampening effect that modern living can have on a relationship. Embarking on a journey with The Alluring Chaperone as your guide can help nurture joy and breathe the life and fun back into a partnership.
Buy it HERE!
Vibe Wines creates Sexy Pairings that combine fun, sexy wines with adult play accessories and innovative intimate games. Please drink responsibly and always be sure that play is consensual.
Latest posts by Luke Schmaltz (see all)
- Duration-based Approaches to Sex: How to Last Longer in Bed Through Measured Phases - April 17, 2019
- Menopause and Sex: How to Enhance Intimacy During Times of Change - March 7, 2019
- Happily Ever Laughter: The Role of Humor in Healthy Relationships - June 27, 2018
- Sexless Marriage: Common Causes, Sexy Solutions - June 14, 2018
- How to Satisfy Your Fifty Shades of Grey Curiosity - May 29, 2018


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I'm usually against 'welcome' messages on web sites but seeing as you've specifically clicked to learn more about this site and/or its author I feel like I should make you feel at home before you are launched into a bit of background…
This is my little place online to share recipes I've invented or adapted and hacks I've discovered relating to Baby Led Weaning. I hope you'll stay a while and take away some piece of useful information or some new recipe ideas.
I also hope you'll come back often to let me know how things went if you tried a recipe. Do feel free to ask any questions you may have too.
Although I write the blog and do the cooking around here, I really couldn't do any of it without my little girl and partner. So, the 'team' behind this blog is really:
- Me / Josie / 'The Feeder'
- Elsa / The Feedee, and
- Daddy
Daddy takes Elsa to the shops or out to the park for a couple of hours each Sunday so that the blog or recipes can be worked on in peace! He is also tech support.
I am a soon-to-be-returning-to-work mum. Elsa is currently 10 months old and really would be happy to eat just fruit at every meal. She humours me well though and at least tries everything I make for her before pitching it off the side of the high-chair!
We are big fans of baby led weaning (that is, giving babies solid food that's of an appropriate size/shape and softness) mainly because it's fun, but also because we think it's less messy and less bothersome than purées.


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About Us - Board Meetings
CARE in Our Schools
Teacher Grants
Please Donate
CARE Foundation Facebook News
We are kicking off our fundraising campaign for the 2019-2020 school year and beyond! We have many exciting programs we are supporting - Arts, Music, Language, Books, Gardens and Field Trips. Our students rely on community partnerships to enhance their education. Please Donate!
Look for a letter in your mailbox, read our solicitation letter below, OR skip straight to the chase and feel free to use our PayPal donation button. Thank you for supporting Cloverdale's students!
Previous News:
Join Us At Friday Night Live! CARE Board members and Supporters have an information booth at Cloverdale's Friday Night Live markets from 5:30 - 8:30 on
August 24 and August 31,
2018. We are located on Cloverdale Boulevard just north of Eagle's Nest Deli.
Come and chat with us! We look forward to seeing you.
While out and about THIS SATURDAY at the
Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce
1st Annual Summer Sidewalk Sale, come on by to
Dahlia & Sage Community Market
where the CARE Foundation will have a FLEA MARKET set-up from 9am-4pm!!
ALL proceeds benefit CARE (Cloverdale Adds Resources for Education) and directly supports Cloverdale schools!
Healdsburg Community Band and
Cloverdale CARE Foundation Present -
"Songs of the Sea"
Cloverdale, CA—April 9, 2018—It has been said that music has the power to bring people together, and that is exactly the goal of the Healdsburg Community Band and the Cloverdale CARE Foundation. On May 11, 2018, the Healdsburg Community Band will play a benefit concert titled "Songs of the Sea," including performances by the Cloverdale High School Wind Ensemble and Coro de Paz, Cloverdale's community peace choir for children.
"When Jim DeMartini and his colleagues from the Healdsburg Community Band reached out to us regarding a concert partnership to support Cloverdale's students, we were immediately on board," says Joanne Parker, President of the CARE Foundation. "Mr. Collins and his high school ensemble and Janice Hawthorne Timm and her community choir quickly and enthusiastically joined up. This performance will be a wonderful collaboration of musicians and a great opportunity to share our mission, including the support of music in the schools." CARE, an acronym for Cloverdale Adds Resources for Education, is a privately funded, non-profit which supports the Cloverdale Unified School District to provide educational experiences for CUSD students through assistance and partnerships.
All are welcome to enjoy this evening of music and song on Friday, May 11, 2018 at 7:30pm (doors open at 7pm) in the East Gym at Cloverdale High School, 509 N. Cloverdale Blvd. Tickets are a $10 suggested donation and kids are free. The event is generously sponsored by Syar Industries Blue Ridge Quarry so that all money raised will go directly to school programs. Tickets may be purchased at Dahlia & Sage Community Market, at Cloverdale Key Club pop-up tables around town, and at the door to the event. Light refreshments and beverages will be available for purchase and all proceeds benefit the CARE Foundation and Cloverdale's schools.
If you have additional questions about this event, including how to contribute or become involved, please email us at
Welcome to the CARE Foundation
a privately funded non-profit, founded in 1992 by parents, teachers, educators, and concerned citizens to support the Cloverdale Unified School District. The purpose of CARE is to provide educational experiences for our students through assistance and partnerships.
Cloverdale Unified
serves over 1,45
Pre-K through 12th graders at Jefferson
, Washington
, and Cloverdale High School
As described on the
CUSD website
, the schools'
"student achievement plan, Building on Student Success, provides a template for student learning
has been used as a model for dis
tricts throughout California."
The many successes of our schools "are attributable to the extraordinary efforts of our highly qualified teachers, exemplary principals, dedicated support personnel, numerous parent and community volunteers and strong instructional leaders in our schools."
CARE Foundation PO Box 770, Cloverdale, CA 95425
Email Us
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About Us - Board Meetings
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- Rakuten Mobile: No ordinary telco 4 August 2020 | 9:15 pm
- MTN explains how working together with customers creates brighter lives 4 August 2020 | 9:09 pm
- Cloud-native operational and business support systems 4 August 2020 | 9:03 pm
- How ICT targeted policies boost national economies 4 August 2020 | 4:24 pm
- European Commission probes Google's Fitbit acquisition 4 August 2020 | 3:24 pm
Big Challenges for Big Data
The majority of industry respondents believe it is more important for operators to harness the power of Big Data to drive new revenues streams externally than to drive efficiencies internally. By 2016, almost every operator to which Big Data is relevant should have embarked upon their strategy with a view to bringing greater advantages in customer retention, segmentation and targeting as well as network planning and optimisation.
Key takeaways:
• 80 per cent of operators will have a Big Data strategy in place by 2016.
• 60 per cent of operators see customer retention as a key application for Big Data.
• The greatest challenge to bringing Big Data projects to fruition is poor inter-departmental communication.
Moving on from last year's questions about the Cloud, we were keen to learn how operators intend to make use of Big Data to boost their revenues and capabilities.
In last year's industry survey over 80 per cent of respondents said they expected operators to own their own cloud infrastructure by 2015, with over 90 per cent expecting operators to be selling cloud services within thesame time frame. Over the past year there has been a great deal of activity in this area—and not a little hype—indicating that
these expectations were on the money. This year we chose to make our cloud focus more granular and cast a searching eye over Big Data initiatives in the telecoms sector. From the responses we found that around 60 per cent
of operators—and a similar proportion of the industry at large—believe that it is more important for telcos to harness
the power of Big Data to drive new revenue streams externally than it is to turn it to the advantage of their own
internal operations. Yet when questioned in more depth about their Big Data strategy, the spread of responses suggested a real ambiguity in the purpose of such an initiative. Almost a quarter of operators said that their organisation has Big Data initiatives in place for addressing both internal and external opportunities. Twelve per cent of respondents said there was an internally focused Big Data strategy in place and ten per cent an initiative focused on external revenue streams. Among those operators that do not currently have Big Data strategies in place it is clearly on the agenda; 22.2 per cent of operators said introduction of such an initiative was planned for this year and ten per cent said one was planned for 2015.
Click here to read the full article.