text:
December 2016
By Matt's Gallery on 30 November 2016
Current Leah Capaldi, Lay Down, Matt's Gallery's new temporary space, 11 November – 18 December 2016, Friday – Sunday, 12 – 6pm Lay Down is the first major solo show by artist Leah Capaldi. The exhibition opens Matt's Gallery's temporary new space in Bermondsey, marking a new era for the gallery as it moves south […]
Posted in News | Tagged 12-hour action group, 1970s, 22/2/1992, 5A Studios, A Crack in the Light, A Tale I Know Nothing About, abstract film, abstraction, activism, Adele Patrick, Al Gunby, Alison Turnbull, Amelia Jones, American West, An Introduction to Bliss for Two Voices with Chorus, Angus Braithwaite, Anne Bean, Art Council England, Art Seen Contemporary Projects and Editions, Artangel, Arthur Manzo, Artist News, Artists News, audio, Barbara Capaldi, Benedict Drew, Bergen Triennale, Bermondsey, Bill Roberts, binaural, Blackout, Blackpool, Bless Klepcharek, Body, Bogota, Bolder 2, British Art Show 8. Southampton City Art Gallery, CCA, Centre of Contemporary Art, Centro de Memoria, Cheyenne, Close-Up Cinema, Cloud Diagram, Columbia, commission, Concreta Magazine, Cooper Gallery, Cowboy, Cyprus, decima street, Dee Smith, Derry, Divided Self, Dolph Projects, Domestique, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, dystopia, East London, Edge of Frame: Elemental Animation, Elias Bate, Eliza Gluckman, Elliot Ross, embodiment, Essex Road, Essex Road III, EXCHANGE, femininity, film, Fiona Crisp, gender codes, Glasgow Women's Library, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Gordon Raeburn, Graham Fagen. NEON: The Charged Line, Grundy Art Gallery, Hackney Council, Hayley Newman, Imogen Stidworthy, Imperfect geometry for a concrete quarry, installation, Jason Moffat, Jennet Thomson, John Frankland, John Hansard Gallery, Jonathan Bassett, Jonathan Caruana, Jordan Baseman, Josh Gardener, Kalkbrottet, KAPUT, landscape, Laura Mulvey, Lawrence Leaman, lay down, leah capaldi, lecture, Lee Smith, Liberties, Limhamn, Lindsay Seers, Little Boy, Liverpool, London, London Short Film Festival, Londonderry, Lucy Day, Lynda Morris, Mabley Green, Malmo, Mansion, Marina Vishmidt, Mas Arte Mas Accion, Matt's Gallery, Mike Nelson, motherhood, Multiplicities II, Negative Capability, Nicosia, North East Contemporary Arts Network, North London, Nowhere Less Now, of other spaces: where does gesture become event?, online commission, Paul Russell, Paz y Reconciliacion, PEER, Penzance, performance, petition, photography, possessions_inc, Price and Myers, Re:Bandera, Richard Grayson, Roddy Canas, sculpture, Sequencer, sex, Sex Discrimination Act, Shoreditch Park, somantic effects, Southampton, spectatorship, swansea, Sweden, systems of representation, The Artangel Collection, The Crazy House, The Dissolution of the Western Empire, the horror of the modern world, The Saw Tooth Wave, This Is Tomorrow, Thomas More, Tim Lucas, Tintype, University of Brighton, Utopia, video, wales, Walker Art Gallery, Wapiti, War/Garden (after Tubby), West Taylor, women, Wyoming, Wyoming State Archive | Leave a response
October 2016
By Matt's Gallery on 5 October 2016
Matt's Gallery's new space in Bermondsey opens with Leah Capaldi's Lay Down Matt's Gallery's new temporary space on Decima Street in Bermondsey opens with Leah Capaldi's solo show Lay Down on Saturday 29th October 2016 from 3 – 6pm. Join us to celebrate a new era in Matt's Gallery's 36 year history, as […]
Posted in News | Tagged 12-hour action group, 1786, 2016, 22/2/1992, A Crack in the Light, A Drama in Time, abstract art, Aesthetica Film Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Alison Turnbull, American West, An Introduction to Bliss for Two Voices with Chorus, Animal Condensed, Animal Expanded, Anne Bean, Anthony Bale, archive, Art Seen Contemporary Projects, Artist in Residence, BAFTA, Benedict Drew, Bergen Triennale, Bermondsey, Birckbeck School of Arts, Blackout, Blackpool, Block 336, Bloomsbury Festival, Body, Bogota, Boulby, Bow Gamelan Ensemble, breastmilk, British, British art, British Art Show 8, Brixton, Bronwen Buckeridge, California, Calton Hill, Calton Road, Centro de Memoria, Cheyenne, China, City of Malmo, Cloud Diagram, Collage, Columbia, Columbian flag, Concreta Magazine, Conway Hall, Cooper Gallery, Cyprus, decima street, Dee Smith, Deeper in the Pyramid, Dolph Projects, Domestique, Dublin, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, Durden and Ray, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, Ellen Zweig, Episode 5, Esther Leslie, EXCHANGE, femininity, film, Film and Drama Studio, Fiona Crisp, Fluid Physicalities, Fraser Muggeridge, Gdansk, Gdansk City Gallery 2, Graham Fagen, Grundy Art Gallery, Hayley Newman, Heart Beat Ear Drum, Imogen Stidworthy, Imperfect geometry for a concrete quarry, Irish independence, Jacob's Ladder, Jamaica, Jennet Thomas, Johann Jacobs Museum, Jordan Baseman, Kalkbrottet, Kerlin Gallery, Keynes Library, Kingston, lay down, leah capaldi, Lee Smith, Leith, Leverhume, Liberties, Limhamn, London, Loose Ends, Los Angeles, Lucy Gluckman, Malmo, Malmö Konsthall, Mansion, Margaret Tatcher, Mas Arte Mas Accion, Matt's Gallery, Matt's Gallery + BLACKROCK, Melanie Jackson, Mike Nelson, motherhood, Move, Negative Capability, NEON: The Charged Line, New Church, New Orleans, New Orleans Film Festival, New Street, New Town, Nicosia, North East Contemporary Arts Network, Norwich, Norwich University of the Arts, November, Now it is Permitted: 24 Wayside Pulpits, October, of other spaces: where does gesture become event?, Official Selection, oil on canvas, Old Street Dust (polychrome), Old Town, online commission, Oracle, painting, Patrick Geddes, Paul Burwell, Paz y Reconciliacion, Penzance, performance, performance lecture, photography, Poland, possessions_inc, Queen Mary University, Re:Bandera, Richard Grayson, Richard Wilson, Robert Burns, Roger Buergel, Roy Voss, Savanah-La-Mar, SE1, September, Sequencer, sex, Sex Discrimination Act, solo show, Solzhenitsyn's bread, sound piece, Stephan McNeilly, Suzhou, Suzhou Documents, Sweden, Swedenborg House, The Ground, The Grundy Gallery, The Live Authenticity Flesh, The Roselle, The Unspeakable Freedom Device, This Is Tomorrow, two-screen video, Unreliable Matriarchs, Unspeakable Freedom >> Tastes like Chicken, USA, Utah, video still, Wapiti, War/Garden (after Tubby), What I thought I saw saw me, Willie Doherty, Window Gallery, Wyoming, Wyoming State Archives, York, Z'EV | Leave a response


text:
Selena Gomez←Back
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Selena Gomez isnt going to let her breakup with Justin Bieber stop her from making her mark!
The 20-year-old actress and singer is the Style Ambassador for Adidas NEO and stars in the labels interactive lookbook for their Spring/Summer 2013 collection. The Spring Breakers
The coolest part of the lookbook is, of course, the interactive elements which allow viewers to click and purchase anything they see. Dont believe us? Get in on the action and check out the lookbook for yourself here.
Click here to read the full article by Danica Daniel of live.drjays.com
From selenagomez.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I vividly recall leafing through World magazine back in 2006 and reading the unsettling but hardly surprising news that Randall Terry – the firebrand evangelical who formerly headed Operation Rescue and was then financially wiped out following a series of lawsuits by pro-abortionists – had joined the Roman Catholic Church.
"Unsettling," because it provides further evidence of the growing weariness and disillusionment I'm seeing among spiritual "entrepreneurs" who've been laboring within evangelical circles to expand the Kingdom of God in all spheres of life and culture.
"Hardly surprising," however, as those "on point" for the Kingdom increasingly seek refuge from the prevailing pop-theology (or dare I say lack of theology) and me-focused brand of Christianity that pervades evangelicalism (which includes charismatics and Pentecostals), animates many of our local church and national leaders, and cuts believers off from the great historic doctrines and creeds of our faith.
Evangelical Drop Outs
Nor is Randall alone; several other cutting-edge evangelicals I've worked with in the past have made similar choices. One of my best friends recently undertook a comparable journey by becoming an Anglican (not Episcopalian!) priest, while continuing to serve as the founding dean of a college campus affiliated with the evangelical Assemblies of God denomination.
Such people find it increasingly difficult to stand in the gap between the broad Biblical worldview needed to address the challenges of our age, and the trivial thought and practice of most evangelical churches. Rather than burn out, they drop out (in whole or in part) and reconnect with a richer history of theological vigor and ecclesiastical order.
It's Time for Fruit Inspection
This is not to defend, or criticize, Randall's or anyone else's decision to find new church homes outside evangelical circles. But our national and local church leaders in Evangelical Land (especially in the subset of Pentecostal and charismatic churches from whence I've come) better wake up to a glaring reality: Christians who want a pro-active faith of substance and significance, a faith that daily seeks to pick up the cross and follow Christ, and a faith that transforms rather than conforms to our culture, are doing some "fruit" inspection.
- They are beginning to compare the flashy shallowness of Joel Osteen and his ilk to the humble power shown by Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa.
- They are turning from the theological fads of evangelical best sellers like "Look Great, Feel Great" and the "Left Behind" series to well reasoned, Biblically sound Papal Encyclicals that confront world leaders with the theological basis for human dignity and the problems of post-modern relativism.
- They are weighing in the balance their here-today, gone-tomorrow feel-good churches that operate under some of the most dysfunctional leadership and organizational structures imaginable, against the stability, awe and continuity of two thousand year church lineages that enjoy defined structure and ecclesiastical accountability.
- They are no longer content with self-affirming performance-based worship that proclaims "I am a friend God," while missing the grace of the cup, the fellowship of the bread and the renewal of confession.
Respect for Rome
No, I'm not in danger of joining Randall; I have significant theological differences with Rome and I will never abandon the biblical truths of salvation by grace alone, the supremacy of Scripture over tradition (although I'm growing much more willing to consider tradition as I seek to understand Scripture), and the priesthood of all believers. On these essentials, I am reformed through and through. But we evangelicals need to ask why Rome is routinely far ahead of us as it anticipates, analyzes and articulates cohesive, Biblically sound answers to the great issues of our age, while routinely transcending the inconsequential fads that so often distract our brand of Christendom.
What is the Gospel?
In my experience, evangelicals embrace a Gospel of salvation, but not the Kingdom. As a result, our focus primarily is on personal experience. In contrast, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologies embrace the Gospel of the Kingdom, but not salvation, with a focus on the broader application of God's precepts. (This is not to question whether Catholic or Eastern Orthodox communicants are "saved". I've come to appreciate over the years that God's grace is sufficient for all who truly call Jesus Lord, despite their secondary doctrinal distinctives.)
Many of those leaving evangelicalism for older traditions like Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy are Christian activists who feel this tension between a primarily individualistic faith and God's call to impact the nations and transform cultures. They believe in the progressive advance of the Kingdom of God as taught in Scripture, rather than the eschatologies of retreat, defeat and escape that currently are so popular within evangelical circles. They've also seen how Scriptural precepts throughout history have consistently redeemed not just individuals, but whole cultures and nations.
These entrepreneurs for the Kingdom have – or at least desire – a comprehensive theology and Biblical worldview that makes their faith relevant to all spheres of life and human endeavor. But they've grown weary of their evangelical brethren, who try to battle evil and promote virtue without understanding the fundamental and comprehensive precepts that God has integrated into the very fabric of creation and revealed in Scripture. Understanding those broader precepts requires hard study of God's Word, grounded in the great historic struggles of the Church and the resulting doctrines and creeds of our faith.
Transforming the Nations
No doubt, Christ wants to transform whole nations – that's clear from the Great Commission's mandate that we disciple the "nations" – but evangelicals too often become captive to the political agendas of those who have learned to manipulate us by tossing around a few Christian buzzwords. Tragically, we remain ignorant of Christianity's triumph, time and time again throughout history, over competing worldviews. Our ignorance obscures the core truths of a comprehensively Biblical worldview and we simply react to the hot issues of the day – as though the challenges of our culture somehow are unique or particularly intractable – rather than proactively building firm foundations for all aspects of life based on God's eternal truths.
Evangelicals instinctively feel God's grief over cultural disarray, but have avoided the discipline of learning what God actually tells us in Scripture about his precepts for transforming cultures and blessing whole nations. We have zeal and heart, but lack knowledge. We also fail to seek God's specific will in the tactics and methods used to address the problems of our age. For example, are we accommodating power, or speaking truth to power in the humility of God's grace? Our cause may be right, and our concerns Biblically sound (although frequently even this is not the case), but are we proceeding in God's way or man's way?
Our Evangelical Rut
Those who understand the times and what needs to be done, based on a comprehensive Biblical worldview that is rooted in the great historic doctrines and creeds of our faith, increasingly are leaving our evangelical churches.
- It's not that our core evangelical doctrines are wrong; it's just that our core doctrines are narrowly focused on us and our needs and desires, rather than God's majesty and sovereignty over all of life and creation.
- It's not that our cultural concerns are wrong; it's just that we've been too self absorbed with the theological fads of the day to engage in hard Biblical scholarship.
- It's not that those "on point" have any fundamental differences with other evangelicals; it's just that they no longer can endure being isolated by local church leaders who are more motivated with protecting their self-interested status in the Evangelical ghettos our churches have become than they are in broadly advancing the Kingdom of God.
Those "on point" likewise are tired of being humored with encouraging words by "leaders" who then won't join them in climbing out of our theological ruts.
Our Leaders Perpetuate "Me"-Focused Christianity
I lay this evangelical malaise at the feet of our national and local church leaders. As I travel and teach, I uniformly find that our laity are hungry for more than shallow "bless-me" Christianity. They are hungry for solid teaching, discipleship and a comprehensive faith that transforms not only their lives, but their cultures. But they aren't being challenged by their pastors, who seem more interested in accommodating than confronting our "me"-focused culture and attitudes.
At best, our pastors may encourage people to shun personal vice (if even that), but again the focus is on a purely individual faith that centers primarily on individual problems and personal aspirations. We should not be surprised, then, that our churches are filled with Christians who think God's highest purpose is their own fulfillment, and lack vision beyond their own needs and problems. Nor should we be surprised with local church leaders who mimic the same self-focused malaise by resisting, with mesmerizing "pastor's" faces of well-practiced but often self-serving concern, anything outside their complacent positions of settled privilege.
A Kindred Soul
I don't profess to know all of Randall's reasons for becoming Roman Catholic, nor do I claim to be a close friend. But I found in him a kindred soul as we engaged, off and on over a couple of years, in several deep, soul searching discussions. In those conversations we encouraged each other and struggled over how best to address the current state of affairs in evangelical circles.
At the same time, we lamented the Gnostic tendencies of many evangelicals to limit God's relevance to "spiritual" matters, rather than proclaim Jesus as sovereign Lord over all spheres of life and human endeavor; their tendency to embrace faddish eschatologies of retreat, defeat and escape that rob Christians of our heritage as overcomers in this world; and Sunday sermons which implicitly, if not explicitly, teach that the answer to every problem is getting our hearts right with God. It's as though our heart is the only issue and there's no need to renew our minds with a comprehensive Biblical framework that embraces all of life.
Such is the crazy world of modern evangelicalism.
Renewing our Hearts and Minds
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating dry intellectual faith. God created us for fellowship with him, and our hearts must remain tender as we routinely encounter him in a deep, personal way – including personal and also corporate prayer and worship. But this can't be at the neglect of sound doctrine and systematic theological training.
We need to renew both our hearts and our minds. Unfortunately, our Sunday morning church services seldom include didactic teaching on the great historic doctrines and creeds of our faith. Instead, we exhort people to "experience" Jesus so all our problems can be solved and all of our needs met. This is good as far as it goes, but critically needed theological instruction is often relegated to secondary ministries that impact only a small portion of a typical local church.
Kingdom of Self or Kingdom of God?
At the local church level, evangelicalism by and large has transformed itself into a brand of Christianity that accommodates, rather than challenges, the spirit of our age. It does this by pursing an experience-based, subjective "Kingdom of Self," where "I'm OK, You're OK" and God's highest goal is my self fulfillment. Like any deception, this sounds appealing because it contains an element of truth. After all, doesn't God want us to be happy and "purpose driven," with large churches, healthy families and successful careers?
Well, maybe.
But then again, maybe God wants us to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." In the Kingdom of Self, it is easy to be only a "heart" Christian because the heart is subjective and demands very little beyond emotional affirmation. A purely "heart" based faith values empathy, relationships and experience above all else. It is like a marriage that tries to sustain itself on feelings alone. While we need a heart relationship with God and each other, we also must train and discipline our minds to think and act God's way. After all, a good marriage requires hard work in addition to (but certainly not in lieu of!) passion, and we should expect that our relationship with God demands no less.
Scripture teaches that if we truly love God then we will keep his commandments – in our personal lives, in our churches, in our cultures and in our nations. To be authentically Biblical, evangelicals must leave the Kingdom of Self and enter the Kingdom of God. Subjective heart relationships are good, but not sufficient; we also need renewed minds that embrace God's precepts for all of life.
"Your Will be Done…"
There's only one way this can happen. We must make God's will – rather than our will – first and foremost as it applies to all aspects of life and creation. We must die to self and want nothing less than God's purpose not only for ourselves, but also for our families, our churches, our culture, our nation and the grand sweep of history.
The central focus of Christ's ministry on earth was proclaiming the present reality of the Kingdom of God. When you boil it all down, the core concept of the Kingdom of God is very straightforward, but utterly powerful. When grasped, it necessarily will transform individual lives, families, churches, cultures, nations and history.
Simply put, the Kingdom of God is the application of God's will "on earth, as it is in heaven." It is not some future "sweet by and by", it is not "feel good" church services (for which I'm not opposed, but there's so much more!), nor is it only concerned with the heart. Rather, it is now, it is real, and it encompasses not just individuals but all spheres of life and human endeavor.
Unfortunately, many evangelicals forget that Jesus calls us, in the Great Commission, to transform cultures when he commands us to "make disciples of all nations". In the original Greek text, "nations" is "ethne," which means whole cultures and ethnic communities. This can't be done with a purely subjective and me-focused faith built primarily on feelings and experiences. It requires the broad wisdom and understanding that comes only through a disciplined study of God's objective precepts and a comprehensive, Biblical worldview that is rooted in the great historic doctrines and creeds of our faith.
A Comprehensive Faith
The Kingdom of God is the application of God's will regarding all of creation to all of creation. Churches often are being built on feel-good Christianity, to the neglect of sound doctrine and theological vigor, but not on the Kingdom of God. Likewise, short-term personal contentment can come from a purely subjective relationship with God, to the neglect the precepts he has revealed in Scripture and built into the very fabric of creation, but this negates the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel of the Kingdom finds fulfillment in both the challenge and the promise of the Great Commission: Because our resurrected Lord has authority over all of heaven and earth, we are compelled to exhibit a level of discipleship that transforms not only individuals but whole cultures and nations. And a podium church focused on a sole-proprietor pastor or pastoral team is not going to get us there because it limits the plethora of gifts God has invested in his people in order to accomplish the much broader work of advancing his Kingdom.
Rather than swinging the pendulum too far in reaction to our Evangelical malaise by submitting to Rome or becoming a clog in some other vast, often moribund ecclesiastical structure that offers a measure of stability and security but is divorced from authentic New Testament patterns, why not take Scripture seriously? Why not once again "be the church" by ministering one to another in a comprehensive framework of authentic fellowship that affirms the great historic doctrines of our faith, while also progressively expanding God's Kingdom by equipping, engaging and giving voice to the full range of God's gifts and thus meeting the full challenges of our age? (See my blog on Participatory Church, Podium Church and Facilitating Leadership.)
Our Evangelical Disconnect
I have not asked him, but I think the dilemma for Randall Terry was that he understands that the Kingdom of God is the ever expanding application of the Father's will on earth as it is in heaven. He also sees the disconnect between the Kingdom of God – with the need for wholesale submission to God's will in the context of a theology that encompasses the whole of life – and evangelicalism's shallow, me-focused and experienced-based faith coupled with our dysfunctional local churches.
Randall has been a soldier constantly "on point," and I suspect he's suffered more fatigue and battle scars (some of which, he readily will admit, were self inflicted – but that's not unusual) than most Christians can even imagine. He needed to find a community of faith that possessed sufficient depth to sustain him while also providing a stable structure, a rich history and a theology that encompasses the whole of life. Although evangelicals can critique Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic doctrines on issues like soteriology, grace and the supremacy of Scripture, on the "worldview" issues confronting our age we have much to learn much from our Orthodox and Catholic brethren.
Prophet or Martyr?
As my father was apt to say, one step ahead and you're a leader, two steps ahead and you're a martyr. Those who are entrepreneurs for the Kingdom, because they seek to proactively apply God's will to the challenges of our age, sometimes see far beyond their brethren. Call them prophets, if you will. But as visionaries urging God's people onward, they sometimes become fatigued from lack of support and understanding. Most often, this lack of vision comes from short-sighted local church leaders or our all-to-common self-promoting national "leaders". It is not uncommon, then, for true visionaries to become emotional martyrs, if not worse.
With increasing frequency, I've watched those with the ability to understand the times – and what needs to be done – become so frustrated with our current evangelical malaise that they leave rather than become martyrs. My cry is for God to restore the New Testament concept of "church" as authentic communities of believers who identify, embrace and develop the broad range of gifts God places in his people to address the challenges of each age. Only a restoration of true "church" will allow each of us to come forth in mutual ministry as we are able, once again, to launch forth with the full plethora of gifts God has placed among us. Only this, I believe, will minimize the temptation and growing trend by the best among us to otherwise turn back to Constantinople or Rome.
Maybe God didn't call Randall to be a martyr. If not, I truly pray that he finds God's grace in his new church home. As for me, martyrdom likewise holds little appeal. While likewise growing weary of our evangelical follies, I decided to go in a different direction by finding authentic church with authentic community based on a restoration of New Testament fellowship.
Nonetheless, dear God, "not my will, but your will be done."
(c) Copyright 2009, Fulcrum Ministries. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Retirements surge, new hires plummet
The federal government's long-awaited retirement wave is here, and it's smacking headlong into the biggest hiring slowdown in a decade. ()
The federal government's long-awaited retirement wave is here, and it's smacking headlong into the biggest hiring slowdown in a decade.
And it's not just retirements. Overall attrition shot up in 2011, which caused the government's total workforce to drop by its greatest amount since the height of the government downsizing in 1999.
With no end to tight budgets in sight — and with even steeper sequestration cuts possibly on the horizon — employees worry things could break down even further.
One federal employee — an accountant who asked for his name and employing agency not to be published — agreed that the loss of institutional knowledge is becoming a significant problem with the retirement wave.
"It's the things that make the office run smoothly" that are being lost, the accountant said. "The people that understand why things are done, the people they need to speak to to get things done, things that worked or didn't work in the past, how we accomplished things in the past that people coming in wouldn't understand."
The accountant also said that his bosses are afraid to fill vacant positions, even though the vacancies are critical, because they don't know if they'll have the budget for them in the future. As a result, employees in his office have taken on additional duties, which he fears will make them disgruntled and spur them to leave.
"I think that between people retiring who have institutional knowledge, and reluctance to hire due to budget cuts themselves, agencies are going to find themselves critically shorthanded," the accountant said.
Other federal employees said they're seeing the same thing.
Phyllis Slayton, a command and evaluation officer at a Navy hospital that she asked not be identified, fears that if her colleagues keep having departed employees' work dumped on them, some will get fed up and quit themselves, creating a cycle of more work and more departures.
"It's a domino effect," Slayton said. "People are frustrated, and the morale issue is very much affected."
Former Office of Personnel Management executive Henry Romero hopes it doesn't come to that, but he said the current staffing challenges will put agencies' succession plans to the test.
One thing is certain, Romero said: The long-delayed retirement wave is here. For years, experts have predicted large numbers of baby boomers would retire and take years of experience and institutional knowledge with them. But until recently, that wave never seemed to arrive.
Romero said that delay was likely because the 2008 economic crash decimated Thrift Savings Plan accounts, eliminated private-sector jobs that might have provided second careers, and likely forced some feds to keep working because their family members lost their jobs.
But retirement nest eggs have had a few years to recuperate, and the time of mass retirements has come.
Romero said it's not just the recovering economy and TSP that are prompting more retirements — it is also the current pay scale freeze, due to continue at least through March. Because of the pay freeze, many feds will not see increases in their high-three salary averages, upon which their pensions are based.
Moreover, lawmakers and deficit reduction commissions in recent years have floated several cuts to federal pension benefits, such as switching from a high-three to a high-five system. Vocal fed-bashing from politicians has wearied many civil servants. And some feds may feel looming budget cuts will hamper their ability to do their jobs properly and decide it's time to leave.
Many cash-strapped agencies have offered buyouts and early retirements over the last two years to reduce their payrolls and avoid furloughs or layoffs.
Shrinking staffs have led, in some cases, to backlogs or losses in productivity. The Social Security Administration, for example, lost 6 percent of its staff last year and has repeatedly warned Congress that it cannot keep up with swelling workloads as baby boomers retire and more Americans file for benefits.
SSA has repeatedly cut hours at its field offices and leaned more heavily on overtime as its workforce has declined. And SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue earlier this year told Congress that his agency's progress at cutting down a massive case backlog has slowed as its workforce dropped.
The IRS also saw a 6 percent staffing cut last year. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, said fewer tax enforcement agents translates to $4 billion a year in uncollected revenues.
Romero said that all the talk about the retirement wave may have been the wake-up call some agencies needed to seriously work on their succession plans.
"They should have a pipeline ready to have people in place to take over jobs when key members of the organizations leave — especially if many people leave at the same time," Romero said.
This becomes especially important when agencies have either frozen or significantly reduced hiring. And the government — especially at agencies such as the Defense, Justice, Labor and Treasury departments — significantly scaled back hiring last year.
But even if agencies can bump up a junior employee to replace a departed manager without hiring, Romero said, that still leaves a gap where the newly promoted employee once was.
And employees say those gaps have ripple effects that can undermine an entire office.
Slayton said she's seen roughly a dozen employees in her area retire over the last 18 months, where only three or so would have retired in the past.
Hiring at her hospital hasn't entirely been frozen, but she said several of those positions remain unfilled. As a result, she said, "everybody gets more and more work to do."
"They won't fill jobs, and that really puts a load on a lot of people," Slayton said. "They've [already] got full-time, busy jobs, and they have to take on more and more. And you can't say no. You have no option."
And when employees do step up and assume more duties because of a shrinking staff, they often do not get recognized.
"You don't get promotions, and you're not making any more money for taking on this work," Slayton said.
Martin Baumgaertner, chief administrative judge for the Merit Systems Protection Board's Central Regional Office in Chicago, said some MSPB offices around the country haven't been able to replace departed judges and have had to get clever to keep up with the workload.
Baumgaertner said that because MSPB's Dallas office is short-staffed, the Denver and San Francisco offices have taken on some cases that would normally be assigned to Dallas.
"Agency heads … have to be prudent in the way they apportion money," Baumgaertner said. "We all understand that, and we appreciate the pressures that our senior leaders are under. But it falls to those who remain to make sure they can maintain the culture of timeliness, to get cases out and find ways to ensure we are keeping up with the law and still being fair to the parties."
The combination of trends — increased retirements and reduced hiring — creates a mentoring and training gap, Baumgaertner said. Retiring employees take years of institutional knowledge with them when they leave.
When hiring is suppressed, there often is not the overlap one wants to see between when a new employee is hired and when an older employee leaves so that knowledge can be passed on, he said.


text:
Faculty Appointment, Promotion & Tenure
Faculty Appointment Policy and General Statement
For administrative and professional ("A&P") positions, the President has the authority to appoint or recommend for appointment persons to the Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and to establish the responsibilities of individuals in those positions. The President also has the authority to appoint or recommend for appointment to the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System members of the faculty. The President may delegate this authority to other senior management officials within The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston ("university"). The method for selecting an individual to appoint to an A&P position or to a faculty position is discussed in HOOP Policy 143 Recruitment.
See HOOP Policy 189 - Faculty and Administrative & Professional Appointment
Faculty Promotion
To be considered for promotion, a faculty member must meet certain criteria, including outstanding performance in the areas of research, teaching and service. The university expects every member of the faculty to contribute to the educational programs of the university, whether with professional students, graduate students, postgraduate residents or fellows. Likewise, every member of the faculty is expected to engage in productive scholarship, as defined in the Statement on Scholarship.
See HOOP Policy 43 - Faculty Promotion
Faculty Tenure
Tenure denotes a status of continued, full-time appointment to the faculty of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston ("university"). To be eligible for tenure, a faculty member must have demonstrated excellence in scholarship, as defined in the Statement on Scholarship and as outlined in the Guidelines for Tenure; must serve full-time in the designated academic ranks; and, as applicable, must have completed a probationary period of service. In addition, the faculty member must show the promise of continued excellence in scholarship in the areas of teaching, research, professional service, service to the community and institutional citizenship.


text:
The product you're looking for is no longer available.
Are you looking for something specific? Please search here…
If you still can't find an alternative in the shop below contact Maeve here.
The Shop
What Our Customers Are Saying
"Lovely quality cotton jersey solid and ribbing! Very fast delivery got here just in time! <3 Immediately placed my next order!"
"Excellent quality fabric at reasonable prices. Great friendly service from Maeve herself. Couldn't recommend this shop more. I have both ordered online and visited in person. I will continue to be a loyal customer for as long as I sew!"


text:
Multiway Necklace - Light Green
"4 in 1 Pendant Necklace Design."
Kelvin Gems signature multi-combination pendant necklace. A gift widely acceptable by ladies, OL, bridesmaid.
Warning: Last items in stock!
Availability date:
Kelvin Gems Premium Multiway Fancy Light Green Pendant Necklace
"4 in 1 Pendant Necklace Design."
Kelvin Gems signature multi-combination pendant necklace. A gift widely acceptable by ladies, OL, bridesmaid.
Recipient :
* Required fields
or Cancel
Product Details
Kelvin Gems Premium Multiway Pendant Necklace Made With Fancy Light Green Swarovski Zirconia
Packaging: Premium Box
This product is packed in our Exclusive Jewellery Box by Kelvin Gems that holds jewellery well in place and is safe for shipping.
This purchase is entitled 3 months international product warranty from the date of purchase. We will also clean and polish your jewellery free of charge. Please keep your receipts for warranty
Care Instruction for Sterling Silver Jewellery
With proper care, your fine quality Sterling Silver will last a lifetime. To minimize scratches and other damage, store your silver jewelry either in a cloth pouch or in a separate compartment in your jewelry box. Avoid exposing your silver to household chemicals when cleaning with bleach or ammonia, or when swimming in chlorinated water, as these chemicals can damage silver.
GDEX Delivery to East & West Malaysia
We ship all items by GDEX or an equivalent courier service, and a tracking number will be provided after payment has been made.
Kindly be informed of our shipping lead time below after payment is completed:
Terms & Conditions
7 Days Observation Period
Thank you for shopping at Kelvin Gems. You may enjoy 7 days of observation period on all our products from the date of purchase. You may exchange the purchased product if you find any defects in the product, but please ensure the product is in its original condition and complete with original packaging. Workshops, classes, or courses are excluded from the exchange.


text:
Apple's taking stock of its stock situation, issuing updates for AirPort, and thinking about making it easier to exchange cash via your iPhone. The remainders for Thursday, February 7, 2013 are in the money.
Statement by Apple (Apple)
Apple was moved to publish a public note in which it explained that yes, it has just a metric ton of cash lying around, and that yes, it's thinking it ought to consider giving even more of that moolah to its investors. That message came in response to Greenlight Capital suing Apple, claiming that the Cupertino company isn't doing enough to unlock shareholder value. I'm no investment expert, but I'm fairly certain this means you should either buy or sell Apple stock. Maybe both!
Apple plans mobile to mobile cash loans (CBC Radio Canada)
Speaking of Apple and cash, the company reportedly filed a patent focused on cash loans between iPhone users. If Apple does ever release an app focused on exchanging money, I hope the data never gets stale: I'd hate to explain to someone how to clear the cash cache.
AirPort and Digital Camera RAW updates (Apple)
Apple on Thursday rolled out some minor software updates. There's AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6.3, which adds the ability to extend Guest Wi-Fi networks, WPS-capable Wi-Fi printer support, and support for additional countries. There's also AirPort Utility 6.2, which can take advantage of that new firmware. And then there's Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 4.04, which adds RAW image support for a variety of cameras from Leica, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony. And if you're like me, whenever you read about such a software update like that last one, you shout, "RAW!" out loud, since the capital letters always seem to suggest a healthy dose of enthusiasm for the photo format. RAW!
Sprint, Despite Best-Ever iPhone Sales, Posts $1.3 Billion Loss (eWeek)
You know how today you can get an iPhone for "free," so long as you commit to paying at least $1600 over the course of a two-year contract? That's not exactly what happened to Sprint, but it should at least help you empathize with the fact that they lost over a billion dollars while simultaneously selling more iPhones than ever before.


text:
(CNN) -- They don't call it "Twi Crack" for nothing.
Lisa Hansen, for example, thought she had lost her mind the first time she read "Twilight." Partly because she's 36.
"I was absolutely worried that something was wrong with me," the Utah mother of two said. "I just couldn't put it down -- I was obsessed completely."
She picked up the first of Stephenie Meyer's vampire novels -- recommended by a teen neighbor -- with few expectations. After devouring it, she couldn't get the images of doomed love between a vegetarian vampire, Edward, and an awkward teenage girl, Bella, off her mind. Hansen thought about the books so much she seriously wondered if she was experiencing some sort of midlife crisis.
"I thought I was the only woman in the world who was my age and was just obsessed with books," she said.
In reality, far from it. Hansen is just one of the thousands of women around the world who have gotten caught up in the vampire frenzy.
While they resemble the youthful, squealing "Twilight" fans on occasion -- Kellan Lutz, who plays vampire Emmett Cullen in the films, admitted some of the mail he gets from older fans makes him blush -- they're still not the typical fan girls.
For starters, being so in love with "Twilight" when you're "of a certain age" can come with a healthy dose of shame.
"The stigma of it being a teenager's book was the biggest issue," Hansen said. "Everyone felt the same way I did, like, 'What's wrong with me? Why am I obsessing over this teenager thing?' "
But, one by one, the women began to find each other online, relieved that they weren't the only ones.
"As grown women we know that we never forget our first love, the first time our heart was really broken," Hansen explained of the often indescribable pull of Meyer's work. "I just think that so many women can kind of identify with the experiences and emotions and underlying message of how difficult it is to make choices in life."
Since so many of "Twilight" fan sites were overrun with teenagers, adult women have erected their own digital havens for fans who could take only so much of the "OMG Edward's so hot!!!" reaction to "Twilight." There's Hansen's Twilight Moms Web site, which she started for married women and mothers who want to revel in their "Twilight" fandom, and sites like 49-year-old Patricia Kopicki's, which is for any adult "Twilight" fan, parent or not.
Both of them say they get steady streams of messages from women thanking them for helping them come out of their "Twilight" closet.
"Many of us [fans] are happily married with kids, some as old as the male leads in 'Twilight.' Some of them jokingly refer to themselves as 'cougars' because of this, but it's used as a humorous way of saying we realize we are old enough to be Robert Pattinson's mother [and] we still find him attractive," Kopicki said.
The cougar comes out of the closet
Historically, any woman nearing menopause was expected to be at home, raising kids and uninterested in sex, said Valerie Gibson, who claims credit for the concept of the "cougar."
"I wrote a book about older women and younger men in 1990, and let me tell you, the world was not ready for older women having sex with younger men," Gibson said. "Older women have always been indoctrinated to believe that they would get to a certain age and they were no longer wanted and sexy and desired. I think older women who have found their sexuality have always lusted after younger men but they were never, never allowed to say so."
She hopes the love and lust many of these women display for the "Twilight" characters and the much younger actors who play them will turn the stereotype on its head.
"We've got a whole new social phenomenon of older women saying, 'Who told me sexuality would die? It hasn't! Here it is still burning away, maybe not for the guy I've been with for 30 years, but it's still there,' " Gibson said. "They're embracing it now."
Indeed, the "Twilight" fans are very aware of the age gap between themselves and the objects of their oft-sexy fantasies, and, when given the space to express it, they aren't the least bit ashamed.
Jenny, a 32-year-old financial administrator who runs an adults-only "Twilight" blog mature enough to make her shy away from providing a last name, said women have thanked her for being so openly crass about her love of "Twilight" because it frees them to express desires in a way they wouldn't in real life.
"We love to talk about how sexy Rob Pattinson is and what we would do if we got close," she said. "We feed off each other -- we can be these racy, silly, just kind of goofy women about this. No one's being judged for being married and saying, 'I'm 54 and I think this 23-year-old is absolutely delicious.' "
Jenny, who runs the "Twitarded" site from New Jersey with her 41-year-old friend Debbie, said the books and movies have given her a new creative outlet.
"I get excited over things that I never have before," Jenny said. "I've never followed celebrities before and all of a sudden I'm talking about E! Online and Access Hollywood, and my boyfriend is like, 'You don't even watch TV.' "
If Robert Pattinson is on, she does now -- and her boyfriend doesn't mind. Neither does Debbie's husband. These women, for the most part, aren't desperately single and looking for love through a fictional book about teens, Debbie said.
"I wouldn't go back to dealing with teenage love in a million years. I'm happily married and I have a great relationship, so it's not that I feel that 'Twilight' is filling a void," Debbie added. "The appeal is that it's very simple and pure and it outlines this love story of someone who's average and normal with this stellar, amazing person who has eyes for no one but her and could save her from anything." Fans camp out for "New Moon"
Edward & Bella do S&M
It's the fantasy romance of Edward and Bella -- which all of the women acknowledge could never actually happen, a sign of maturity younger fans don't often express -- that inspires them to put some intensity back into their real-life relationships.
"It's helped relationships, because [the fans] are happier nowadays. They have more friends, even if it's just online friends, [and] they're racier now. We hear all the time that people's sex lives haven't been the same since," Debbie said.
Oddly enough, there's no sex in Meyer's novels, at least nothing that couldn't be replicated in the PG movies they're based on. That hasn't stopped the fans from creating their own sex scenes in copious amounts of fan fiction, some of which have themes like "Edward and Bella do steamy office affair," or "Edward and Bella try out S&M."
"It's a rekindling of old feelings, because when you're married and you've got kids and you're running around to the soccer and basketball and football games, [and you've got] work, bills ... the relationship gets pushed off to the side," explained Kopicki, herself a mother of two teenagers.
"Your husband may not look exactly like Edward, but just as men have their fantasies, women do too and they need to be able to express it," she added. "A book like 'Twilight' has brought that out."
Twilight Moms, by contrast, aims to keep things family-friendly. Hansen said she wanted the site to be something a woman can browse while in the presence of her kids. Nevertheless, Hansen acknowledges that even the more subdued older "Twilight" fans admit feeling attracted.
"Edward is just in a 17-year-old body, but he's actually 108," Hansen said with a laugh. "I have a friend who said she's able to justify her love for Jacob because she counts his age in dog years."
But when the actors are under 18, like Taylor Lautner, the 17-year-old who plays Jacob, is, all of the women agree that a line has to be drawn on the swooning.
"We're very careful about that, because even to me that would feel creepy," Hansen said. "And then we have the mothers who say, 'oh my gosh he's the same age as my son!'"
But, the fans said, no one's actually expecting to date Lautner, Pattinson or Lutz. In the end, the obsession with "Twilight" is all in the name of a good time between mothers and daughters, or new friends.
"We're having a really, really fabulous time being 30, 40, or 50. We're very unapologetic of our age," Jenny said. "Women are saying 'so what, I'm 45, I'm married, I have children, but there's no reason why I can't say that Robert Pattinson is hot.'"


text:
Explorer claims to have found Columbus' ship
What might be one of the world's greatest archaeological treasures nearly slipped through Barry Clifford's grasp.
Back in 2003, Clifford, an underwater archaeological explorer, and his crew discovered a tantalizing shipwreck off the coast of Haiti. The wreck sat in exactly the spot where Clifford reckoned Christopher Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, had sunk on Christmas Day in 1492, less than three months after Columbus reached the New World for the first time.
Archaeologists "eliminated the site as not being what we were looking for," Clifford told USA TODAY in an interview Tuesday. He went on to make an exhaustive survey of the waters off Haiti, "spending a small fortune … (and) eliminating every other possibility, to the point where I threw my hands up in the air, and I don't do that very often."
Today, a few weeks after returning to the wreck, Clifford, who discovered the pirate ship Whydah, says he thinks there's strong evidence his team has indeed snagged one of the most sought after archaeological sites in the history of human exploration. He says the once-scorned shipwreck is the Santa Maria, the slow, tubby but solidly built rental vessel that carried Columbus and his men on the voyage that revealed the existence of the New World to the Old.
"This shipwreck altered the course of human history," Clifford said. "We're very excited."
The team's return to what could be the bones of the Santa Maria sprang out of a late-night revelation about nine years after the team located the wreck. Clifford, who'd been studying 15th-century ordnance, bolted awake to the realization that a tube his son had photographed in the wreck in 2003 was a lombard, an open-ended cannon popular during Columbus' day. That led to the realization that he'd probably found the Santa Maria, only to abandon it.
He and his team returned to the site a few weeks ago, only to find it looted of the lombard, several wheels that would've been used to maneuver the cannon and a piece of the rudder mechanism. Other evidence from the site strongly points to the wreck being the Santa Maria, he said.
Columbus wrote that the wreck was 1½ leagues from La Navidad, the fortified encampment he founded in what is now Haiti after the loss of the Santa Maria, Clifford said. The wreck sits the equivalent of 1½ leagues from the site suspected to be La Navidad.
The wreck's resting place lies near breaking waves, as Columbus reported. It was in a sandy spot, as implied in Columbus' journal.
At the site, the team found a field of stones 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. That corresponds to the likely dimensions of the Santa Maria, which would've carried ballast stones in her hold.
"Everything fit the equation," said Clifford, who added that the team ruled out other wrecks in the same vicinity. He has a Haitian permit to explore the wreck but doesn't plan to proceed immediately. The top priority, he said, must be the protection of the wreck from looters.
Clifford suspects treasure hunters nabbed the most accessible artifacts, including the lombard. He has only a photograph of it, and he hopes a benefactor will step in to offer a reward for information on the whereabouts of the artifacts.
There may be much more to find. There could be wooden remnants of the ship buried in the sediments, Clifford said, and more.
"It's a big pile of rocks," he said, "but there's a lot more to it than that. I'm not going to tell you what it is."
One outside expert says Clifford may be onto something.
"There is some very compelling evidence from the 2003 photographs of the site and from the recent reconnaissance dives that this wreck may well be the Santa Maria," Indiana University's Charles Beeker told The Independent, the British newspaper that first reported the discovery.
Another expert expresses caution.
"If this is a very early Spanish shipwreck, it should be looked at by a number of different people who are experienced in … archaeological sites from that time period," said Roger Smith, Florida's state underwater archaeologist, who has long experience studying shipwrecks.
To be sure the ship is the right vintage, experts would have to examine the design of the hull, evidence for how the ship was rigged, the placement of its arms and how it was built, Smith said. When an early shipwreck was discovered off Pensacola, Smith and his colleagues brought in experts on coins, old wood, stones and plant and animal remains to help identify the vessel.
"It's easy to jump to conclusions when people keep asking, 'Is this Columbus's ship?' " Smith says. "The ship will tell its own story."


text:
America's Meanest Business Owner Will Make His Employees Regret Getting Health Care Coverage
After Barack Obama's reelection, some business owners went so far as laying off workers and attributing it to fear of new taxes; other employers vowed to reduce employees' hours in order to avoid paying for their health care under Obamacare. Those actions are despicable in their own way, but at least they may be defended as a sort of rational business move. How exciting that one fine business owner has figured out a way to become a bigger asshole on this issue than any of his peers.
John Metz, a Florida businessman who controls multiple Dairy Queen, Denny's, and Hurricane Bar & Grill locations, has made great progress in Asshole Business Owner Science. Simply reducing employee hours? Raising prices? Not enough. The employees themselves must feel the pain. HuffPo's Janean Chun reports:
John Metz said he will add a 5 percent surcharge to customers' bills to offset what he said are the increased costs of Obamacare, along with reducing his employees' hours.
"If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare," Metz told The Huffington Post.
Asshole Boss John Metz, quite brilliantly, will actively encourage customers to tip less in order to make up for the costs of Obamacare that he is passing on to them! And Metz expresses hope that his plan will "inspire employees rather than alienate them." What do you have to say to that, Wikipedia?
"The very idea of fragging served to warn junior officers to avoid angering their enlisted men through recklessness, cowardice, or lack of leadership."


text:
CHP honors fallen officer almost 80 years after he died in the line of duty
Officer Albert Donald Hoover died when he was hit by a motorist
A pledge by the California Highway Patrol to a son to honor his father, who is also one of its own, will be realized later this month.
It will happen almost 80 years after Albert Donald Hoover was killed in the line of duty as a CHP officer.
The commitment was made to Hoover's son, 84-year-old Richard Hoover, before he died in June.
VIDEO: Stretch of Hwy. 1 to be named after fallen CHP officer
The CHP brought Richard a miniature memorial sign to honor his father. Now, two huge signs will be posted along a stretch of Highway 1 to honor his father.
Richard was working with the CHP to dedicate a section of Highway 1 in his father's name when he was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer.
Richard's wife, Jean Hoover, said, as her eyes welled with tears. "I'm so grateful to be a part of this. It's so emotional."
"My husband and I had worked with the highway patrol for probably six years on the project when we just got a phone call. He was just ecstatic," Jean Hoover said.
Albert Hoover was driving his motorcycle back home when he was hit head-on by a driver along a stretch of roadway known as Slaughterhouse Curve.
He was the first officer killed in the line of duty in Santa Cruz County.
CHP Public Information Officer Bradley Sadek said, "They didn't do that back when Hoover initially laid down his life. They started doing it, I think, as early as the early '90s, but there was a holdup in the assembly when they put a moratorium on it and went back and started doing it again."
Not long after CHP officers presented the miniature sign to Richard, he passed away.
Richard was an adopted member of the CHP family.
"It was quite an honor for me to get to know officer Hoover's son, Richard, while he was with us, and take him up to the academy. We'd do our memorial every year. Richard would always go," said CHP officer Sarah Jackson.
The northbound lane of Highway 1 near Park Avenue and the southbound lane near the La Fonda Avenue Bridge will bear Albert Donald Hoover's name.
Drivers zipping along Highway 1 might ignore the sign honoring the fallen CHP officer, but to the Hoover family, it will always be special.
"It's going to be very emotional for a while, but (we will be) very proud every time we go by," said Jean Hoover.
The CHP is hosting a dedication and unveiling ceremony on Aug. 21. The public is invited but you must RSVP by Friday.


text:
Atlanta Celebrates Photography 9 officially opens this weekend, with an Opening Reception, Benefit Auction, My Atlanta, Film Series, Lecture Series and more.
This is an amazing annual event that impacts Atlanta and the Southeast is an extraordinary way.
"My Atlanta" is an amazing gift to the city! Here's more about it from the website:
"My Atlanta is an opportunity for photographers of all ages and with all levels of experience to exhibit their work and compete for prizes. Everyone is invited to bring work to Piedmont Park on Sat., Sept. 29, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pre-registration is not required. The theme for this year's My Atlanta is Evolution of a City. This year's judge is Jerry Cullum, Senior Editor of Art Papers and independent curator and writer."
Be sure to download the Festival Guide here.
I'll be in Atlanta participating in ACP by giving a lecture entitled "Finding Your Audience: An Introductino to Marketing Your Artwork" on Sunday, September 30th from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta:
1447 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30309
This lecture is free to MOCA GA members; $5 to non-members and $1 to students!
I hope to see you there!
NOTE: Next week's Portfolio Reviews have long been filled, with Reviewers and Photographers alike coming in from all over the country. Don't miss participating next year!
Lastly – KUDOS to outgoing Executive Director ANNE DENNINGTON for her innovative programming and effective leadership. And welcome to newly appointed Executive Director AMY MILLER who comes to ACP from serving as Gallery Director at the Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta. Amy, along with new Programs Manager Michael David Murphy, will no doubt build upon the great foundation that Anne has secured for this organization!


text:
Values and Benefits
Active Vitamins
There's no other product on the market that includes our age-defying formula CoQ10, vitamin D3, and resveratrol that promotes heart, brain, kidney, liver and muscle health.†
Restoring Within
CytoActives™ works to support your body at the cellular level using the latest bioactive ingredients to help maintain important physiological reserves and functions that contribute to healthy aging.†
The Difference
CytoActives uses technology making our CoQ10 800% more absorbable than dry powder. Our lipid-solubilized stable CoQ10 had a 12-fold increase in bioavailability.†
Your questions, answered
As the body ages, many of the physiological functions used to regenerate our body at the cellular level begin to weaken – the result: signs of aging such as wrinkles and loss of lean body mass, bone strength, and even temporary memory loss. CytoActives combines CoQ10 and vitamin D3, as well as age-defying resveratrol, to help support energy production, protect cardiovascular health, improve calcium absorption, and protect cells from oxidative stress and damage.†
Our bodies produce several key nutrients that help rebuild and restore vital systems. However, over time, we begin to lose our ability to fully synthesize them, a decline made worse by environmental impurities. While growing old is simply a part of life, you can still support your key systems with CoQ10 and vitamin D3, widely researched nutrients that support energy production at the cellular level and promote optimal health. Age-defying resveratrol supports cardiovascular health and helps the body maintain youthfulness. CytoActives also contain Adaptogens including wolfberry, ashwagandha, and turmeric which increase your resistance to stress, anxiety, and fatigue. Restoring your youth begins from within; CytoActives works to support your body at the cellular level using the latest bioactive ingredients to help maintain the physiological reserves and functions that contribute to healthy aging.†
Results will vary, but you may notice increased energy levels and feelings of well-being in just a matter of weeks. The longer you use CytoActives, the greater the benefits.†
As we get older, our ability to synthesize vitamin D from natural sources such as sunlight declines. Furthermore, being overweight, staying indoors, and using sunblock can leave many of us with dangerously low levels of circulating vitamin D3. CytoActives contains 1,000IU per serving of vitamin D3 – this is the active form needed to elevate blood levels. This clinically effective dose supports bone health, immune health, and cardiovascular health.†
Fueled by the "French Paradox," early studies suggest red wine was partly responsible for the observation that the French generally have healthier cardiovascular systems than others. One bioactive polyphenol of scientific interest is resveratrol, which is found in red grape skins. When studied in animals, resveratrol was found to support age- and obesity-related health. CytoActives features 250 mg per serving of trans-resveratrol, which is the most bioavailable form, along with exGrape™ TOTAL red grape polyphenols, which supports cardiovascular fitness.†


text:
Three miles outside the village of Quinhagak, archaeologists and locals are in a race against time to save thousands of artifacts being carried away by erosion. Dr. Rick Knecht and his team work around the clock to preserve the past for future generations.
Kaysie Ellingson
Kaysie Ellingson joined Alaska Public Media's team in January 2015. She made the move from Southern California to Alaska in pursuit of a cooler climate and quirky stories to tell, and that's exactly what she found. Before her life as a video producer at Alaska Public Media, Ellingson was an English major at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., a peace corps volunteer in Kazakhstan, and finally a journalism graduate student at the University of Southern California.
John Norris
John Norris attended the University of Alaska Anchorage where he earned a journalism degree. He immediately put said degree to work as a photographer and web producer at Anchorage's KTUU Channel 2. After years of making music videos and short films, Norris started the annual Anchorage 48-Hour Film Challenge, which has grown to be the largest film competition in the state with over 23 teams competing and multiple sold out screenings. He has worked at Alaska Public Media as a video producer for over two years.
Near the village of Quinhagak, Dr. Rick Knecht is diligently working to protect the history of an Alaskan community. With an eroding shoreline and unfavorable weather conditions working against him, his commitment to this project is moving. John Norris and Kaysie Ellingson take us back to the Nunalleq archaeological site and reveal the history behind the land and their favorite artifacts.
PBS: What was it like to witness Dr. Knecht and his team's hard work and determination to uncover what remains?
JOHN NORRIS: For me, it was really eye opening to see all the work Rick and his group were doing. I always imagined an archaeology dig as a few people delicately brushing dust off of pottery, but in reality it's a huge undertaking. The researchers spent full days hauling five gallon buckets of dirt and mud back and forth and pushing that muck through screens. Just to see the amount of dirt they had to move each summer — all by hand — was just stunning.
KAYSIE ELLINGSON: This was probably one of the coolest shoots I've experienced because you could feel the passion from the entire team, especially from Dr. Knecht. I always find that when I'm filming with someone I, in a way, take on their passion and am even more inspired to tell a story well because of that. After the two days we spent with them, I definitely felt a major responsibility to do their story justice.
You could feel the sadness when Dr. Knecht talked about the number of artifacts they know have been lost due to erosion. Since 2009 until now, I think they've lost at least more than 30 feet so you can only imagine how much [the locals] have lost in total. It was amazing to come at the end of their season to see this exhausted team still working tirelessly until the very last hour to uncover as much as they physically could.
PBS: Rick discusses the less-than-ideal weather during the excavation. From your perspective, what were the challenges of filming in those conditions?
JOHN: Weather is nearly always an issue when filming in Alaska, but we were lucky to get some really nice weather when filming at the Nunalleq site. The only downside was the vicious hordes of mosquitoes. I might have preferred rain and wind.
KAYSIE: The weather was absolutely beautiful when we were there, but the biggest challenge, hands-down, was the tiny bugs that were like microscopic mosquitos. They stuck to you. They'd fly into your pants, up your nose, everywhere. They were inescapable. The team had this spray (not sure what it was) but it was basically so strong it would kill them as soon as they landed on your skin... but they were still having to wipe off the dead little bodies. It was pretty terrible.
PBS: What was the most interesting find that the team discovered through filming?
JOHN: The group found a ton of really amazing artifacts at the site, but one thing I thought was really cool was that they found a bunch of human hair that was the remains of some ancient haircuts. For some reason, that really stuck with me. While it's really awesome to see the remnants of a kayak or a hunting spear, it's the mundane stuff like cooking utensils and hair scraps that remind me that these were just people living day-to-day not too unlike how we live today.
KAYSIE: While I was there, I think the most interesting thing I saw them find were the oyster shells... or the woven basket. I can't decide. The oyster shells were cool because there are no oysters anywhere in that area today, so either there was some serious climate change or they were trading with faraway people. Little findings like that really cracked open some serious mysteries about the people they were learning about.
There wasn't anything super interesting about the basket other than it was extremely intricate and that pattern is one that has been passed down the generations for so long that current residents of Quinhagak have been taught that method of weaving. That tidbit was actually one of the most interesting things I learned doing the research beforehand; it's actually what really drew me to this story. But if you were to ask the people involved with the dig, they would all agree that the walrus mask they uncovered was the best find of the entire dig. It's shown in the video, but I don't think that sound bite was included. It's the brown mask with the tusks coming out of it. It was so well preserved that there are still walrus whiskers on it.
PBS: What do you feel your film means to the local community and what message do you hope it will send out to future generations?
JOHN: Getting to see the local community explore some of the artifacts the team found that season was great. Watching elders describe to young kids how certain tools were used really shows how these communities in rural Alaska have strong connections to the past. I think the hope is that the research being done in these communities inspires people to build on those traditions and keep that connectedness to the land as they move forward.
KAYSIE: I like to think that this film helps to preserve a piece of this community's history. Who knows if next summer that site will still be there. Like Dr. Knecht said, one big storm could completely wipe it out. I'm happy that we were able to go out when we did to capture the boardwalk they uncovered and the different rooms of the house. They're documenting these findings on paper, and preserving the smaller pieces they find, but I don't think or know how they can preserve something like that.
I think Alaska Natives and Native Americans have been historically told by westerners that their history doesn't matter, that their oral history and legends aren't true. But this project has really helped to shatter that idea — this project meaning the excavation, not necessarily the video. One unique thing about this dig was the community aspect. Usually — from what I've read and heard — Native communities really don't like archeologists coming in to dig on their site because it sometimes contradicts local legends and disproves beliefs. In the case of the Nunalleq dig, the archaeologists were completely embraced. This project has actually inspired kids from that village to pursue careers in archaeology, which I thought was a very touching element. And it has actually verified those local legends and provided a lot of insight on how the locals lived at that time.
That's a long-winded non-answer, but basically I'm just honored were given the opportunity to document that process and I hope that it will stand as a video that could educate future generations even after that site is washed away.
Alaska Public Media harnesses the power of multiple media platforms to make a more informed and connected life possible for all Alaskans. Alaska Public Media produces and presents news and content that provides lifelong learning opportunities in public affairs, health and leisure, science and nature, economic and social development, civic engagement and world events. The company is located in Southcentral Alaska and is comprised of KSKA radio, KAKM TV and alaskapublic.org. Alaska Public Media also operates the Alaska Public Radio Network (APRN) and a shared television service with KTOO in Juneau and KYUK in Bethel. Alaska Public Media and its affiliates deliver content that reaches 96% of the population of Alaska.


text:
C9300-24UX-E - Cisco Catalyst 9300 Switch, Network Advantage, 24 mGig UPoE Ports - New
Manufacturer: Cisco
Manufacturer Part #: C9300-24UX-E
Condition: NEW
Availability: Stock Available - May Be Limited
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Switch - Network Essentials - managed - 24 x 100/1000/2500/5000/10000 (UPOE) Ports - 560w PoE Budget - rack-mountable
The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches are Cisco's lead stackable enterprise switching platform built for security, IoT, mobility, and cloud. They are the next generation of the industry's most widely deployed switching platform. Catalyst 9300 Series switches form the foundational building block for Software-Defined Access (SD-Access), Cisco's lead enterprise architecture. At up to 480 Gbps, they are the industry's highest-density stacking bandwidth solution with the most flexible uplink architecture. The Catalyst 9300 Series is the first optimized platform for high-density Wi-Fi 6 and 802.11ac Wave2. It sets new maximums for network scale. These switches are also ready for the future, with an x86 CPU architecture and more memory, enabling them to host containers and run third-party applications and scripts natively within the switch.
The Catalyst 9300 Series is designed for Cisco StackWise technology, providing flexible deployment with support for nonstop forwarding with Stateful Switchover (NSF/SSO), for the most resilient architecture in a stackable (sub-50-ms) solution. The highly resilient and efficient power architecture features Cisco StackPower, which delivers high-density Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+), 60W Cisco Universal Power over Ethernet (Cisco UPOE) and 90W Cisco UPOE+ ports. The switches are based on the Cisco Unified Access Data Plane 2.0 (UADP) 2.0 architecture which not only protects your investment but also allows a larger scale and higher throughput. A modern operating system, Cisco IOS XE with programmability offers advanced security capabilities and Internet of Things (IoT) convergence.
|Device Type
|Switch - 24 ports - managed - stackable
|Enclosure Type
|Rack-mountable 1U
|10 Gigabit Ethernet
|24 x 100/1000/2500/5000/10000 (UPOE)
|Power Over Ethernet (PoE)
|PoE Budget
|Stacking bandwidth: 480 Gbps ¦ Forwarding rate: 400 Mpps
|IPv4 routing table entries: 32000 ¦ IPv6 routing table entries: 16000 ¦ Flexible NetFlow entries: 64000 ¦ VLAN IDs: 4000 ¦ Switched virtual interfaces (SVIs): 2000
|MAC Address Table Size
|32000 entries
|Jumbo Frame Support
|9198 bytes
|Routing Protocol
|OSPF, IS-IS, RIP-1, RIP-2, IGMP, VRRP, PIM-SM, OSPFv3, PIM-SSM, policy-based routing (PBR), RIPng
|Remote Management Protocol
|SNMP 1, RMON 1, RMON 2, SNMP 3, SNMP 2c, CLI, NETCONF, RESTCONF
|Trunking, full duplex mode, Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED), Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) support, Access Control List (ACL) support, Quality of Service (QoS), Remote Switch Port Analyzer (RSPAN), Management Information Base (MIB), Cisco StackWise-480 technology, Cisco StackPower technology, Flexible NetFlow (FNF), 802.1x authentication, 16MB packet buffer, FTP client, 3 fans, Control plane protection (CoPP), Source-Specific Multicast (SSM), integrated Wireshark, VLAN Double Tagging (Q-in-Q), Private VLAN
|Compliant Standards
|IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.1D, IEEE 802.1Q, IEEE 802.3ab, IEEE 802.1p, IEEE 802.3af, IEEE 802.3x, IEEE 802.3ad (LACP), IEEE 802.1w, IEEE 802.1x, IEEE 802.1s, IEEE 802.3at
|AC 120/230 V (50 - 60 Hz)
|Power Redundancy
|Dimensions (WxDxH)
|18.5 in x 17.5 in x 1.7 in
|18.19 lbs
|System Requirements
|Cisco IOS Universal


text:
MONTREAL – Mark Hunt very well could be on the verge of a shot at the UFC's heavyweight title.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Hunt (9-7 MMA, 4-1 UFC) will meet Junior Dos Santos (15-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) in May in the co-main event of UFC 160 in Las Vegas. With a win, he very likely gets a shot at the winner of that night's title fight between champ Cain Velasquez and Antonio Silva.
That a win over JDS would give Hunt five straight wins in the UFC's heavyweight division makes a title shot seem fairly obvious. But you have to go back a few years, back to Hunt's PRIDE and DREAM days, to understand just why Hunt fighting for the UFC title would be such a big accomplishment.
Hunt dropped five straight fights in Japan – all to big names, mind you. Names like Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett. He was 5-6 in MMA, outside his successful kickboxing career.
So when the UFC signed him, it raised a few eyebrows. And as the story goes, the UFC's purchase of PRIDE came with some fighters owed some fights – including Hunt.
On Thursday, UFC President Dana White revealed just how close Hunt was to not even being in the UFC, let alone one more big win away from a shot at a belt. Hunt took the fight with Dos Santos only after White assured him that things he was upset about would be fixed.
Chief among those things? That the UFC didn't want to give him fights, but instead was willing to pay him the money owed him on his contract to just walk away.
"He felt very disrespected and felt like he never really belonged here," White said. "He had a losing record in PRIDE and we didn't want to bring him into the UFC, so we said, 'We'll pay you the money and you can ride off into the sunset and do your thing.' And he was like, 'F— that. I want to be paid to fight.' First of all, a losing record, his age, the guy hadn't fought in a long time. It just made no sense to bring the guy in."
But Hunt stood his ground.
"He fought it and fought it and fought it, and finally we said, 'Fine. You wanna earn the money and fight for the money, come on in,'" White recalled.
And so come on in, Hunt did. He was given a prelims-opening spot on UFC 119 in Indianapolis against hometown newcomer Sean McCorkle, and he was submitted with an armbar just 63 seconds into the fight.
At that point, it looked like the UFC brass knew what it was talking about by not wanting to bother with him. But they stuck with him, and five months later, Hunt got his first MMA win in nearly five years with a knockout of Chris Tuchscherer. Then he beat Ben Rothwell. Then he knocked out Cheick Kongo.
And the highlight of highlights came earlier this month when he shattered Stefan Struve's jaw for a knockout win at UFC on FUEL TV 8 in Japan, his second "Knockout of the Night" bonus in the UFC.
"Even though we weren't wrong (about not wanting him at first), we ended up being wrong," White told MMAjunkie.com. "He proved us wrong, he proved everybody who doubted him wrong. We just didn't cut him, we kept him – and imagine if we had cut him."
White said having the conversation with Hunt to find out how he felt and straighten some things out made all the difference between Dos Santos still needing an opponent after Overeem fell off with an injury and Hunt stepping up for the biggest fight of his career.
"Since that day, how we didn't want him, and just wanted to pay him and have him basically go away, he took incredible offense to that and never felt like he really belonged here," White said. "I understand that. I said, 'I'll fix the things that made you feel this way. You're right, and I'm sorry this happened to you. We do respect you and I think you're one of the greatest stories in sports right now, to be honest with you.' So I got everything worked out and now he's ecstatic and I'm happy I could do it.
"We have so many guys and as you're doing the daily grind, you don't think about things like this and this happens sometimes. We deal with different personalities, and there's always an issue with guys one way or another, whether it's their professional and personal life, that have to be dealt with. I'm glad we got it straightened out."
Hunt's turnaround has been one of the more remarkable in the heavyweight division, especially given his 5-foot-10 stature. But as White said about the chances of a Hunt title shot, if he goes in and stops Dos Santos, there's no way he could be denied the chance to fight for a belt.
For the latest on UFC 160, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.


text:
Dec. 2, 2007 — -- A group of well-known scientists calling itself Science Debate 2008 (link on page 4) has just called for a presidential debate on scientific issues. Such a forum would be a most-welcome development, but I would supplement it with something more revealing of mental firepower -- garden-variety puzzles.
Big high-tech corporations such as Google and Microsoft as well as a host of smaller ones routinely utilize puzzles in their hiring practices. The rationale for this is the belief that an employee, say a programmer of some sort, is more likely to contribute in a creative, insightful way to the company if they're creative and insightful when presented with a complex puzzle.
Why then are candidates for the presidency never presented with a few simple puzzles to help the electorate gauge their cognitive agility? The same goes for interviewers who ask the same dreary, insipid questions time after time and accept the same dreary, insipid non-answers time after time.
These puzzles shouldn't be difficult since, after all, the primary job of the president is to enforce the Constitution, ensure an honest and open administration, and, in some generalized sense, make things better. For this task, judgment and wisdom are more essential than the ability to solve puzzles. Nevertheless, I think some non-standard questions like the following would help winnow, or at least chasten, some of the candidates.
1. Scaling. Imagine a small state or city with, let's say, a million people and an imaginative and efficient health care program. The program is not necessarily going to work in a vast country with a population that is 300 times as large. Similarly a flourishing small company that expands rapidly often becomes an unwieldy large one. Problems and surprises arise as we move from the small to the large since social phenomena generally do not scale upward in a regular or proportional manner.
A simple, yet abstract problem of this type? How about the following (answers on page 4): A model car, an exact replica of a real one in scale, weight, material, et cetera, is 6 inches (1/2 foot) long, and the real car is 15 feet long, 30 times as long. If the the circumference of a wheel on the model is 3 inches, what is the circumference of a wheel on the real car? If the hood of the model car has an area of 4 square inches, what is the area of the real car's hood? If the model car weighs 4 pounds, what does the real car weigh?
2. Estimating. Proposing any sort of legislation or any action at all requires at least a rough estimate of quantity, costs, benefits, other effects. An ability to gauge them is critical (as is an ability to listen to others' unbiased estimates).
A couple of simple, yet abstract problems of this type? How about the following (hint and answer on page 4): A classic problem: How many piano tuners are there in New York City? And how many times the death toll on Sept. 11 is the annual highway death toll?
3. Sequencing. A president must think about how to gain support for an idea or policy. Some things must be accomplished before other things can be attempted. Legislative backing, popular opinion, domestic and international issues must be dealt with in a reasonable order if an administration is going to be successful. Steps can't be skipped with impunity.
A simple, yet abstract problem of this type? How about the following (answer on page 4): It's very dark and four mountain climbers stand before a very rickety rope bridge that spans a wide chasm. They know the bridge can only safely hold two people and that they possess only one flashlight, which is needed to avoid the holes in the bridge. For various reasons one of the hikers can cross the bridge in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, a third in 5 minutes and the fourth, who's been injured, in 10 minutes. Alas, when two people walk across the bridge, they can only go as fast as the slower of the two hikers. How can they all cross the bridge in 17 minutes?
4. Calculation. Being able to solve a problem using a bit of algebra, it should go without saying (except to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen -- link on page 4), can be useful to a politician, whether the issue is taxes, health policy or stock broker commissions.
A simple, yet abstract problem of this type? How about the following, which is not irrelevant to broker commissions (answer below): A 100-pound sack of potatoes is 99 percent water by weight. After staying outdoors for a while, it is found to be only 98 percent water. How much does it weigh now?
5. Deduction, Again, it should go without saying that the ability to make simple deductions is a prerequisite for good decision-making.
A simple, yet abstract problem of this type? How about the following (answer on page 4): Imagine there are three closed boxes, each full of marbles on a table before you. They're labeled "all blue marbles," "all red marbles," and "blue and red marbles." You're told that the labels do describe the contents of the boxes, but all three labels are pasted on the wrong boxes. You may reach into only one box blindfolded and remove only one marble. Which box should you select from to enable you to correctly label the boxes?
Although these problems are much easier than those employers use when hiring entry-level programmers, it would be nice to know that the various candidates, who often are more given to bombast than to logic or evidence, could solve them with ease (although being able to solve them wouldn't be a guarantee of anything). The venue for their solution would be a quiet study with no aides, no pundits, no hot lights, and no intense scrutiny.
What's your guess about how the various candidates would fare with such puzzles? Mine is that a few would find most of the problems trivial, some would have difficulty with them, and the rest wouldn't be sufficiently patient to even try them.
Answers to 1.) 90 inches, 3,600 square inches, 108,000 pounds. (the area increases by a factor of 30^2 (900), and the volume or weight increases by a factor of 30^3 (27,000).
Hint and answer to 2.) Estimate the population of New York City, the number of households in the city, the percentage of them (and other organizations) that have pianos, how frequently each piano will be tuned on average, how many pianos the average tuner tunes, and put these together for a rough estimate. (Such problems are called Fermi problems in honor of the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.) The annual highway toll is approximately 14 times the number of deaths in the 9/11 attacks.
Answer to 3.) Label the hikers with their times. First 1 and 2 go over (2 minutes), and 1 comes back (1 minute). Then 5 and 10 go over (10 minutes) and 2 returns (2 minutes). Finally 1 and 2 go over (2 minutes). The total is 17 minutes.
Answer to 4.) Since the 100-pound sack of of potatoes was 99 percent water, it consisted of 99 pounds of water and 1 pound of pure potato essence. After the evaporation, the sack weighed X pounds and was 98 percent water and 2 percent potato essence. Thus 2 percent of the new weight X is the 1 pound of potato essence. Since .02X = 1, we can solve to get that X = 50 pounds. The answer is that the potatoes now weigh just 50 pounds. This may seem an apolitical problem, but imagine your stockbroker's fixed fee constituting 1 percent of the original worth of your investment, but 2 percent of its present worth. Then the problem is not necessarily small potatoes.
Answer to 5.) You would take one marble from the box labeled "blue and red." Assume it's red. (Analogous reasoning follows if it's blue.) Since the marble is red and it comes from an incorrectly labeled box saying "blue and red," it must be the box with red marbles only. Thus the box labeled "blue" must have either red marbles only or red and blue marbles. It can't be the box with the red marbles only, so it must be the box with blue and red marbles. Finally the box labled "red" must contain the blue marbles.
John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University, is the author of the best-sellers "Innumeracy" and "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper," as well as of the forthcoming (in December) "Irreligion." His "Who's Counting?" column on ABCNEWS.com appears the first weekend of every month.


text:
The extensive connections of Michael Jackson, his family and friends became a challenge Monday for a judge trying to seat an impartial jury for his mother's wrongful death lawsuit against the company that promoted Jackson's ill-fated "This is It" concert.
As individual questioning finally began, some jury prospects who had passed the written portion of the process had to be excused because of personal connections.
Among them was David Walsh, a Canadian singer-songwriter who said he had met members of the musical Jackson family and was friends with Lisa Marie Presley, Jackson's ex-wife. He said his own manager was on the witness list.
"I've had friends in Michael's band and my best friend was a backup singer on the `This Is It' concert," Walsh said.
Walsh said he had formed opinions about the case that were probably unshakable.
Katherine Jackson's suit claims AEG endangered Jackson's life by hiring an incompetent doctor, Conrad Murray, to look after the superstar singer. AEG lawyers are expected to argue that Jackson was complicit in his own demise by insisting on hiring Murray and demanding the anesthetic propofol to help him sleep.
The latest phase of jury selection came after jurors filled out questionnaires about their views on Jackson, his family and his life and death.
A preliminary group of 104 prospects was immediately reduced by six when members reported hardships or acquaintances on the witness list.
A medical student said one of her UCLA professors was on the list, but she was allowed to remain when she said she would have no bias about the testimony.
Another panelist said she and her husband do business with one of the law firms involved in the case and that would get in the way of her impartiality.
A woman who is a superior court judge said she knew a number of people on the witness list but it would not interfere with her ability to be impartial, and she remained on the panel.
By day's end, 17 prospects had been excused, most because the extended length of the trial would cause them financial hardships. The case is expected to last through the summer.
More panelists sent notes to Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos before court recessed for the day, asking to be excused. She said she would consider their requests Tuesday.
One member of the jury pool said he had met Dr. Conrad Murray at a barbecue sometime after Jackson's death and they had a social conversation. But he said he didn't realize who Murray was, and once he did he stopped talking to him. He remained on the panel.
Murray is serving a prison term after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death from an overdose of propofol. Jackson died in his bed in June 2009 at the age of 50.
Complicating the case is the fact that neither Jackson nor AEG had signed Murray's $150,000-a-month contract. Jackson died before Murray was paid.
Katherine Jackson's lawyers contend AEG was negligent in failing to investigate Murray's qualifications before hiring him.