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My crew was busy assembling floss packets for ornament kits this week. (Yes, amazingly, it's that time of year again!) For the majority of the early summer I had pretty much decided that I probably wouldn't design an ornament kit this year, just because I've been so busy with the web site and am fried. Then, one day when my computer was broken and I was sitting there with nothing to do for an hour and a half, I started drawing and wouldn't you know it three ideas for new ornaments popped out. I guess that's what it takes — a whole hour and a half with nothing to do and I can think of a major project to do. So the machine started it squeaky but irrepressible crank back up again. And so we will re-issue a limited edition of the past four years' ornament kits, as well as this new one, of which there have been glimpses around here lately and which is called Winter Cabin. Wouldn't you know it's probably my favorite one of them all. I love the palette for it so much. More details on the new kit (and the old kits) to come! For now, my trusty sidekicks assemble floss packs and I make them cappuccinos in the afternoon (good trade off for me, no?). I got this little stovetop espresso maker the other day, and the little milk frother I got last winter has been awesome. These were actually pretty good little cappuccinos, I was surprised!
Hot coffee in the afternoon will probably be a thing of the past this weekend — it's supposed to get up to the high 80s and maybe even 93 over the weekend. Once again, it's only 59 right now so I am enjoying that while I can. Thank you for the perfume recommendations!!! I ordered several testers from CB I Hate Perfume, which several of you recommended, I think. I can't wait for them to come. Maybe my sissy and I will spend a day searching around town for the others you recommended and having a smell-a-thon while she is here. I will report back. :-)
I didn't make the roasted corn soup above (it's from New Seasons), but I aslo have to think of some things to cook while Susie is here. Dear chocolate lovers, she says she has brought the Best Chocolate Cake Recipe in the Whole World with her. She told me I had to get this kind of baking chocolate (Cacao Barry Extra Brute), which I did, so I am ready to taste proof! I'm also hoping she might help me clean my oven with the self-cleaning function because I am afraid of it and need a professional chaperone. Do we know how to entertain our guests here, or what??? Perfume shopping and oven cleaning — thrilling!!!
***The seed pod in photo six is called scabiosa — thanks Jessica!

subset: commoncrawl


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The Barefoot Contessa is one of the most talked about chefs nowadays. Her recipes are easy to do, and the end result looks as if you were slaving away in the kitchen. While many of her recipes mix dairy and meat, they can be adapted to fit our kosher lifestyle.
Rack of Lamb Persillade
Adapted from Barefoot in Paris
Persillade refers to a combination of minced fresh parsley and garlic that's added to a dish near the end of the cooking.
Serves 4
2 racks of Lamb, Frenched
Good Olive Oil
2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, rinsed well and dried
1 tablespoon chopped garlic (about 3 cloves)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted margarine, melted
1 cup matzoh meal crumbs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
1. Place both racks of lamb in a roasting pan, fat side up. Rub the tops with the olive oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast the lamb for ten minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place the parsley, garlic, and margarine in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until finely minced. Add the matzoh meal and lemon zest and process for a second until combined. Taste mixture and adjust seasoning if necessary.
3. Take the lamb out of the oven and quickly press the parsley mixture on top of the meat. Return immediately to the
oven and roast for another 15-20 minutes.
4. Remove lamb out of the oven and cover with aluminum foil. Allow it to rest for 15 minutes, cut in double chops, and serve.


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Processing time
1-2 weeks
Customs and import taxes
Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I'm not responsible for delays due to customs.
Monogrammed golf towel.
This listing is for one golf towel any color, I have most.
Towel is 11 x 16 with grommet in corner.
Please list all your choices in note to seller on your order.
**Towel color
**Golf design and colors
**Name and colors
I try for fast turn around 3 business days or less. If I have all the information I need.
Thanks for looking and have a great day.
1-2 weeks
Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I'm not responsible for delays due to customs.
Just contact me within: 3 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 7 days of delivery
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for:
Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value.
Yes I do.
Towel sizes
Terry velour 11 x 18 with or without hook in most colors
Terry velour 16 x 26with or without corner hook in most colors
Terry velour 16 X 27 tri-fold in some colors
Terry velour 30 X 60 limited colors
Terry velour 12 x 42 limited colors
Cotton extra large Flour sack kitchen towels
Yes. Please list ALL lettering, fonts, and colors in note to seller on your order when you check out.
If you don't list it I don't stitch it.
No hook means no hook or grommet in the towel.
Just order as many as you need and list
team name
Names and numbers
Name #
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text:
Confetti. Lots of it.
What's worse is the confetti seemed to fall only on Nastia Liukin after they announced the 2012 Olympic gymnastics team, which Liukin was ousted from after a devastating face-plant during the qualifier.
But the former world champion and Olympic gold medalist still managed a smile as they presented the 2012 team, instead taking her frustration out on the confetti raining down from the sky, like "soil falling over [her] head," as she realized it was the end.
This video features the song "I Know It's Over" by the Smiths.


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Lawyer for Forward Township police chief downplays client's role in alleged gambling ring
Mark Holtzman faces charges including criminal conspiracy after 'Operation Pork Chop' investigation
The lawyer for a local police chief accused of being part of an illegal gambling ring said Thursday his client had little involvement and the scheme, and was just trying "to serve coffee."
Forward Township Police Chief Mark Holtzman faces four charges, including criminal conspiracy and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities. The charges stem from 2012, when investigators say Holtzman was running a coffee shop owned by alleged gambling ringleader Ronald "Porky" Melocchi. Holtzman appeared for a district court hearing in Forest Hills Thursday morning.
"I don't even think that we could call him a player," said Holtzman's lawyer, Chuck LoPresti. "Our goal is to make something very positive happen here in the end, and we will continue to cooperate with the Attorney General's office to have that happen."
Before Holtzman became the chief in Forward Township, he was an officer with the McKeesport Police Department. He's also a member of the McKeesport Area School District Board of Directors. His lawyer couldn't explain why Holtzman ended up being put in charge of a coffee shop owned by an alleged organized crime leader.
"That's a very good question. I wish I could answer it here and now, but it's something that, someday, there will be an answer that I'll be able to give you," LoPresti said. "But I can tell you, it was just to serve coffee."
State police and the state Attorney General's Office believe Melocchi, through his company Back Alley Vending, provided gambling machines to restaurants and cafes -- including the Coffee Pot, which at one time was run by Holtzman, and the Viking Lounge, which is owned by McKeesport City Councilman Daniel Carr. Melocchi is accused of offering business owners a cut of the profits, along with an upfront payment.
SLIDESHOW: Photos of all the suspects
"As we all know, he's charged with corrupt organizations and gambling, and we'll see what happens when we go to court," said Melocchi's lawyer, Bruce Carsia.
The criminal complaints against the suspects allege that the ring also took illegal sports bets and ran lotteries. Several people are accused of acting as "collectors," visiting the businesses to get the proceeds from the machines, which one suspect said generated between $5,000 and $7,000 per week. Investigators say one collector was Robert Bogesdorfer, a well-known local Frank Sinatra impersonator who goes by the stage name "Bo Wagner."
Holtzman was hired by the township at the beginning of 2013, after the alleged crimes occurred. He remains on the job and on the school board.


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New study links early explanations of 9/11 to long-term adjustment
According to new research led by John Updegraff, a Kent State University professor, individuals who are able to quickly make sense of collective traumas such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks cope better in the long run.
The study, which appears in the September issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, suggests that finding meaning in the immediate aftermath of the attacks was an important coping response that helped many Americans adjust by reducing their fears of future terrorism.
Dr. Updegraff, an assistant professor of psychology, used a large national sample to examine Americans' responses to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, beginning immediately after the event and continuing for the following two years. Two months following the attacks, respondents were asked about whether they were able to make sense of the attacks.
"Most Americans were trying to find a way to explain why the attacks occurred, but less than half were successful in doing so", says Updegraff. Explanations ranged from blaming the events on either the terrorists or on American foreign policy, focusing on positive consequences of the attacks such as patriotism or greater appreciation of social ties, or interpreting the events in a historical or religious context.
"Regardless of how people explained the events, those who came to some personal understanding of why the attacks occurred fared better over time than those who were unable to", Updegraff says. "They were less plagued by fears of future terrorism and less distressed by the attacks over the following two years."
These findings support the idea that being able to make sense of traumatic events helps people adjust. However, most previous studies have focused on direct personal trauma such as bereavement. This is the first study to find that meaning facilitates adjustment for individuals indirectly exposed to large-scale collective traumas such as terrorist attacks, school shootings, or natural disasters.
Source: Kent State University


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Prince William and wife the Duchess of Cambridge marked the 16th anniversary of his mother's death by taking their six-week-old baby son Prince George to visit Diana's family.
The new parents spent the weekend with Diana, Princess of Wales's eldest sister Lady Sarah McCorguodale at the farm in Stoke Rochford where Lady Sarah lives with her family, according to the Daily Express.
The Duke and Duchess were seen boarding a helicopter with Prince George at Belton Woods country club near Grantham, which is located close to the home of Diana's sister.
William enjoys a close relationship with his aunt and last year he, Kate and brother Prince Harry attended the wedding of their cousin and Lady Sarah's eldest child Emily McCorquodale to James Hutt.
Last week, the Duchess of Cambridge made her return to public life as she joined Prince William to start to the Ring O'Fire Marathon in Anglesey.
Kate revealed George was doing "really well" and the little Prince was being looked after by his grandmother, Carole Middleton, at home.
The couple are preparing to move to London permanently later this month, when William's tour of duty comes to an end in Anglesey.
William and Kate with their son George will move into their new apartment at Kensington Palace as renovations are due to completed shortly.


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|Swansea 19 miles - Cowbridge 13 miles
Rest Bay beach Porthcawl © Crown copyright (2013) Visit Wales
The seaside town of Porthcawl developed as a coal port in the 19th century but because of developments at other larger ports this trade declined and in line with many coastal resorts in the Victorian era the town developed its tourist trade.
Balmoral Pleasure Steamer Porthcawl
© Crown copyright (2013) Visit Wales
In order to improve the area and make it more attractable a promenade was built in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and then in 1932 the Grand Pavilion was opened to cater for the tourists and has provided a much needed venue for shows. It seats 635 people and is still a popular venue today for various events with the towns annual pantomime being a popular show.
One of the key attractions of Porthcawl is its splendid beaches with a total of seven spread along the shore line, with some being awarded Blue flag status. Some of these beaches are secluded and allow the visitor to have a quiet relaxing time, whilst some are busy with families and there are plenty of walks in the area for the more energetic tourists.
Trecco Bay Funfair Porthcawl
© Crown copyright (2013) Visit Wales
For those that want something more exciting there are amusement and fun parks which will keep you occupied but for those that are interested water sports the area regularly hosts surfing competitions which are open to locals and visitors and have become a regular feature for the town.
The area around Porthcawl also has a number of interesting venues that you may be interested in, these range from the Mythyr Mawr and Kenfig Dunes National Natures Reserves and for those interested in historic buildings there is Newcastle and Ogmore Castle with all these venues being within six miles of Porthcawl.
Visitors to the area will have a number of options when looking for restaurants and places to stay as the resort has a variety of hotels, B&B's, cafes and take aways.
This weather forecast is generated by the Met Office Weather Widget
Kite Surfing Porthcawl
Copyright © Croeso Net 1998 -


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Kris Humphries is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury while the Nets continue to slide, losing their fifth straight last night to the Pacers.
Meanwhile, Hump's getting booed in nearly every NBA arena New Jersey visits and even the rim is rejecting him. It's almost enough to make you feel some sympathy for Hump—until learning about his "performance" on the episode of Kourtney & Kim Take New York that premiered over the weekend, one in which he's obsessed with determining whether a friend is gay.
A longer montage of Humphies's homophobic moments from the episode can be found elsewhere, though if you value your sanity and brain cells I'd recommend limiting your exposure to the show as much as possible. (I had to watch the whole thing, and am already losing friends.) So here's the big climax, where Hump after repeated admonition for his insensitivity again declares his friend to be gay.
Maybe this is old news to you poor saps who watch Kardashian-related programming on a regular basis, but my overall impression of Hump is that he's a clueless, homophobic d-bag—moreso than your average pro athlete. It's a miracle anyone bought into their sham marriage in the first place.
Boo on, NBA fans. Boo on.


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Fire head coach and Director of Soccer Frank Yallop had a week full of comings and goings last week as he saw two players join other teams while also welcoming C.J. Brown back to the club as an assistant coach and trading to bring Lovel Palmer to the Fire from RSL.
With a little bit of domestic work done, Yallop confirmed at Saturday's Season Ticket Holder Town Hall meeting that he would be heading out for scouting in Europe that night.
"I'll be going to a number of clubs," Yallop told Chicago-Fire.com last week. "Namely Tottenham and Norwich – where there are people I know well and I'm just looking at young players that we'd have the possibility of signing or getting on loan. I'm going to [Fire Team for the World Partner] Atletico Madrid as well and just looking for players.
"I've got scouts I've spoken to already going to watch games and we'll be getting a good feel of what the market is like. I'll bounce around as much as I can and really get after it, seeing as much soccer as I can in two weeks."
Yallop won't be the first Fire representative to go through Norwich or Atletico Madrid this offseason.
The Fire manager confirmed Saturday that starting goalkeeper Sean Johnson had just concluded a two-week stay with the Canaries as he continues to build towards a spot on next summer's U.S. World Cup roster, while Dilly Duka and Victor Pineda also recently completed a two-week training stint with Atleti earlier this month.
Following the U.S. Men's National Team's two friendlies against Scotland and Austria last month, Johnson stayed to train with Norwich, marking the fourth straight offseason the Fire netminder had taken in time abroad.
"You can't beat training at that level and in that environment," Johnson told Chicago-Fire.com on Monday. "From a routine standpoint, it was good for me to continue what I've done in the past and set myself up to come back stronger in the new year.
Considered to be a contender for the USMNT's third goalkeeper spot, Johnson recognizes how crucial the start of the 2014 MLS season will be to his chances as he battles the likes of Nick Rimando and Bill Hamid for a place on the team's roster in Brazil.
"I think my chances are good. It's important to stay focused on the task at hand and that's the 2014 MLS season and hopefully the rest will fall into place. It's going to be a big year for U.S. Soccer and for myself personally. A major goal of mine since I became a professional was always to be better than I was the year before.
"Obviously I'm hoping on the World Cup roster and the season will dictate what will happen but I'm going to do as much as I can to influence things for myself."


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While I definitely had quite a bit of excitement over this year's CES and Digital Health Summit, I have to admit that I ended up leaving CES a bit disappointed. I'm trying to decide if it being the fifth year I've attended CES is making me immune to the hype that surrounds the event or if I've just been going to too many conferences in general and so I've already heard much of the hype. At the end of the day, I describe this year's CES as incremental versus trans formative.
There were a few exceptions of things that caught my eye while navigating the CES circus that are worth mentioning.
Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer
Probably the most amazing thing I saw for healthcare was the Life Technologies Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer. Plus, I'm not alone with this feeling. Dan Costa of PC Mag called it "The Coolest Thing I Saw at CES 2012." To be quite frank, it is pretty amazing. It's part of the amazing movement happening in bringing genomic data to healthcare.
The Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer (they need a better name) is awesome cause you can do a full genome in a day on a machine that costs about the same as an MRI machine. Plus, I personally think they're just getting started on optimizing the technology. As they continue to improve the technology the cost of the machine and the time and cost to do the analysis will continue to drop. We still don't know exactly how to use the genomic data in healthcare, but machines like this are going to make it possible for us to find new ways to use this data for good.
I still can't help but imagine an EHR having all of our genomic data available to it.
Probably the coolest general technology and innovation that I saw at CES was called Liquipel. Liquipel is a technology that makes your device repel water using a nano coating. The best way to understand how it works is to check out some of the Liquipel videos and I'll embed one below that gives a nice overview.
Of course, they have the disclaimer that it should never be submerged in water, but it was amazing to see it repel the water and still work. Plus, probably the coolest demonstration they did was with a Kleenex. They'd applied the nano-coating to a Kleenex and then they placed it in water. You'd think it would shrivel up and absorb the water. Nothing. I then asked if I could touch the Kleenex to see if I could feel the coating. Nothing. It felt like a Kleenex.
Many health IT people would love this technology. Then, it wouldn't be such a concern to put your iPad next to the sink in the exam room. I wonder if the nano technology can do anything with infection control with devices. I imagine it doesn't solve that issue.
I'm sure many are wondering how they can get their device treated with Liquipel. Right now they said you have to drop it by their office in California to get it done over a lunch or something. However, they're working with phone manufacturers to get their technology in every phone. Pretty amazing stuff.
John Sculley
Another highlight of CES for me was the chance to hear John Sculley talk at the Digital Health Summit. I can't say he said anything too groundbreaking. Although, he did say that health IT companies should stop focusing their revenue model on corporate health programs. I found that interesting. The most interesting comment came from colleague Dan Munro after John Sculley's talk. He commented how interesting it was that so many of these older ex-CIO's of major tech companies are getting into healthcare. I carried the thought through for Dan that as you age, you start to care about healthcare a lot more than you did when you were younger and healthier. I wonder if we'll see this trend continue as more tech people get older and start to care more about healthcare.


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President Barack Obama in 2011 typed out the first presidential tweet, a question about America's debt: "In order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep? BO."
Political discourse has changed with the rise of social media, as it did when Calvin Coolidge gave the first presidential radio address in 1923 and again when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon shared the screen during the first televised presidential debate in 1960.
Never before have political leaders been able to converse so immediately and directly with the unwashed masses (aside from handshaking and baby-kissing on the campaign trail). Today, elected officials and media outlets use social media accounts and interactive Web tools to solicit suggestions on important policy issues.
So how has Internet crowdsourcing changed political discourse? Well, to start, there's the little matter of a Death Star…
Obama and the outlandish petition
The First Amendment prohibits Congress from making any law prohibiting the right of the people "to petition the Government for redress of grievances," but now those unprohibited petitions have become a little more sophisticated.
The White House in 2011 started a Web initiative, called "We the People," that allows Americans to draft digital petitions on a range of issues. President Obama promised to consider any petition that garnered 5000 signatures within 30 days of being posted.
Apparently the White House didn't expect "We the People" to become so popular. First, the Administration raised the minimum to 25,000 signatures. After 34,435 people signed a petition for the government to begin construction on a Death Star by 2016, the Administration penned an official response—to the effect of "absolutely not"—and then raised the threshold from 25,000 to 100,000 signatures.
"The Administration does not support blowing up planets," the White House said.
Plus, the project would cost about $850 quadrillion—arguably not the best way to reduce the federal deficit.
More-realistic petitions, such as those addressing gun violence, have elicited more-serious responses from Obama.
Advice from the peanut gallery
Gun violence is one of many issues that NPR listeners have written about for the public radio network's " Dear Mr. President" project. NPR is crowdsourcing advice for President Obama as part of its inauguration coverage on Monday.
Obama might not be listening, but readers have contributed photos of themselves holding signs emblazoned with words they want the president to remember during his second term.
An assault weapons ban is at the top of many voters' lists, as is marriage equality—many gay couples submitted family photos to remind the president of his new stance on the issue—and climate change. You needn't have voted for the President, or indeed at all, to be welcome to submit photos and letters to the project.
Crowdsourcing's future
Political crowdsourcing in America is largely used for recreational purposes (see: Death Star, federal debt reduction calculators).
In other countries, however, people have used the Internet and social media as grassroots organizing tools to change their government. During the Arab Spring, activists used Twitter and Facebook to plan protests and to spread revolutionary messages, eventually toppling regimes in Egypt, Yemen, and Libya.
Americans are slowly getting into the swing of online activism. In the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last month, people on both sides of the gun debate took to Twitter to voice their concerns and to reach out to their representatives. The outcry prompted President Obama to propose new gun legislation and the National Rifle Association to offer its own prescription.
Iceland took crowdsourcing to its logical conclusion in 2011 when it drafted its new Constitution using input from Twitter and Facebook users.
In Finland, politicians last year began using a crowdsourcing platform called Open Ministry to draft new legislation.
Individual U.S. citizens might not be able to write their own bills, but Americans today can easily communicate with their representatives via sites like the nonpartisan PopVox, which creates individual pages for bills proposed in Congress and lets voters provide feedback on them.
PopVox CEO Marci Harris was a congressional aide when she realized that representatives needed a more effective and centralized way to hear from constituents.
"We didn't have a good way to process it all, which topics were bubbling up," Harris says. "Each office acts like its own small business, and each office has its own way of processing it. There was no hub to manage, in a public and transparent way, what people are telling Congress."
House Democrats last summer integrated PopVox, which launched in 2011, with their Intranet, so feedback now automatically populates their inboxes. Gun violence garnered the most feedback on the site during the 112th Congress.
Harris says that PopVox isn't intended to crowdsource legislation—at least not yet. Like electronic voting, crowdsourcing legislation has technical and political hurdles to clear before it can become a reality in the United States, and it may never succeed. In Finland, officials use bank and mobile carrier APIs to verify voter identity. That process would be more challenging in this country. PopVox requires its 250,000 users to submit their real names and addresses so the site can place voters in the correct Congressional district, but that's not exactly a foolproof ID system.
Nevertheless, just as social media has changed our access to politicians and our means of communicating with them and our fellow citizens, technology may one day make direct democracy a reality.
This story, "Power to the people: Crowdsourcing in politics" was originally published by TechHive.


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text:
For some years they were missionaries
in the Fiji Islands and now they are serving in Guyana (S. America)
Akka had beautiful long hair,
which reached down to her ankles.
Below are Dr's Emmanuel and their fellowship group
in South India.
Brother is the head of a department in a College of Engineering
Dr Marjorie (his wife) works in a Leprosy hospital
started by the famous Dr Paul Brand.
They have 2 lovely daughters and 2 sweet grand kids.
Akka and Anna were based in my home town for several years.
They started their married life here.
They were the pillars of our fellowship.
Investing their home, resources and energy
for the kingdom.
They were like glue which cemented us together.
The more I talk about them is less.
Here in their home in South India
they are having a fellowship Birthday Feast.
Every one who had a birthday in August
got together with friends to celebrate.
(akka is serving the food)
(above Dr E and Dr M in front of the bookcase)
They had dinner and prayer


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EDMONTON - For almost 20 years, thick, toxic sludge has poured into Syncrude's tailings pond, the leftovers from the massive oilsands mine just off Highway 63, north of Fort McMurray. But not for much longer.
In just three weeks, the flow of tailings into Base Mine Lake will be stopped, the giant pipes removed and millions of litres of fresh water added as the company begins its landmark — and long-term — effort to turn the large tailings pond into a clean lake.
Syncrude has been working on the technology for 25 years in smaller tests ponds. If it works on this larger scale, the company will have the answer for a very stubborn problem facing every oilsands miner — how to clean and reclaim the toxic tailings ponds.
For a closer look at the process, check out our photo gallery
It's a big shift from small test ponds now growing plant life to Base Mine Lake, which is eight square kilometres. The tailings, the texture of thick yogurt, are a mix of sand, clay, naphthenic acids and leftover bitumen — the by product of the process of separating the oil and sand to get sticky bitumen.
Syncrude is confident and the provincial government is watching closely. Last week the province gave the go-ahead for the "demonstration project" that will help Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development and the Energy Resources Conservation Board determine if the technology works on a commercial scale and is therefore a proven reclamation technique.
Syncrude got the green light Nov. 26 after coming up with an acceptable monitoring program to measure progress over the next decade on reducing toxicity of tailings at the bottom, cleaning the water on top and establishing aquatic life in the proposed end pit lake.
In May 2011, Alberta Environment gave Syncrude a permit to take water from nearby Beaver Creek reservoir — 12 million cubic litres annually — to pour into the tailings pond. That starts in the spring. The pond needs five metres of clean water on top of the tailings to keep a calm surface and make sure tailings don't get stirred up.
If all goes as planned, the heavier tailings will settle to the bottom of the lake. Then, according to Syncrude, naturally occurring bacteria in the bottom sludge will eat the leftover hydrocarbons, naphthenic acids and other chemicals that make the tailings toxic to birds landing on the ponds.
Fresh water draining into the lake from a nearby forest — a restored old mine site — will also help support the aquatic life, from algae to zooplankton initially, says Syncrude.
Other oilsands companies are watching closely too. Syncrude has plans for about 30 new end pit lakes to be created on the landscape when the mining is finished, and about half of those will be used to store tailings — if Syncrude's technology is successful. Most of the artificial lakes won't appear for another 50 years or more.
The key question is how long it will take to turn liquid tailings into water clean enough to support natural eco-systems, says Brett Purdy, tailings expert in Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources.
"The real crux of the matter is how long is acceptable? What is the acceptable timeline that meets the needs of the stakeholders and the government of Alberta which is responsible for protecting the public interest?," said Purdy, who declined to be specific about an acceptable time limit.
A recent research report into end pit lakes raised a red flag on exactly that issue — that it could take decades to find out if the technology works. If it doesn't, the province could be left with dozens of toxic lakes and not a real cleanup solution.
That report, written by the province's Cumulative Effects Management Association, an agency that includes industry, environmentalists, First Nations and conservation groups, is now sitting with the environment department.
The report doesn't make any recommendation for or against whether end pit lakes should be designated an appropriate way to store tailings or reclaim the landscape when a mine closes. But it suggests some regulations the province should consider if it approves end pit lakes as an appropriate technology.
Syncrude took issue with the report, saying it was biased against research it has conducted. The company, which started producing bitumen in 1978, has always supported research and worked for 25 years on the test ponds. It puts $60 million into research annually — fully half of which goes into environmental work.
In 1989, Syncrude took six small ponds, filled them with fine tailings and capped them with fresh water. Underwater plants soon appeared. In 1993, the company had similar success with larger test ponds, said company researcher Warren Zubot.
That year, the company was given conditional approval to create the end pit lake with tailings in the bottom.
"All our small ponds have underwater plants and the micro-organisms in the tailings are eating the hydrocarbons left in the fine tailings," Zubot said.
"This hasn't been done on a large scale, but we have a high confidence level in the technology."
Three large permanent platforms are under construction to sit on the lake for testing water quality and a dozen smaller monitoring stations will keep track of how fast the algae and plankton start to grow, he added.
"We have to monitor it until the water is clean enough to flow out into the natural watershed," said Zubot, adding it will take some years.
Glen Rovang, Syncrude's manager of research and development, said the project achieves two goals. "It's very exciting — we'll get aquatic reclamation and very efficient low-energy tailings management."
Tailings ponds have long come under fire from critics of the oilsands, especially after a 2008 incident when 1,600 ducks died in another Syncrude tailings pond. A year later, the Energy Resources Conservation Board came up with Directive 74, ordering companies to speed up their reclamation efforts and to reduce the amount of tailings that go into the massive ponds.
Syncrude, the second oldest operator in the mining area, is working on several new technologies to handle tailings.
In 2012, the company will spend $500 million on tailings facilities, including building a commercial demonstration of new centrifuge technology that spins sludge to remove water from the tailings.
It also devised a large-scale coke filter that takes particles out of tailings water.
A full-scale centrifuge, costing more than $3 billion, will be running in 2015. Canadian Oilsands Ltd, a partner in Syncrude, said in a release last week it will spend $700 million, their one-third share of the cost for the centrifuge.
As for the new lake, "We know the whole industry is watching," said Cheryl Robb, Syncrude's media relations adviser.
Syncrude, she noted, was the first oilsands company to get a reclamation certificate, for 104 acres of land that it restored.
That's the end goal with the tailings pond, though it will be years before Syncrude could apply for a similar certificate on the new lake, Robb added.


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Avid local players say they have issues with the new shade cover, benches and lighting at the courts near the corner of 79th Street and Juniper Boulevard North.
Peter Bozanic, better known to his bocce-playing peers as "The Croatian," explained the overall consensus is that many aspects of the project were simply overlooked.
"The court is okay, but we have a problem with the canopy," Bozanic said, pointing up at the new steel and fiberglass structure over the ends of each court. "When it rains, it leaves damage."
According to Bozanic, nearby benches are too far for onlookers to watch the game, the step to the newly built third court is too high for the elderly players and the lights are too dim to play past dusk.
"I don't know why the architect designed it like that," he said. "It looks nice, but mostly people are not happy with this."
Following the reopening on July 4, Steve Shakarchy, an avid bocce player and coach with the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation, said he would be happy with a cheaper waterproof canopy in place of the new shade.
"They did a great job that they fixed it on time, and we're really surprised, but the problem is they wasted money on the canopy," Shakarchy said. "They spent thousands of dollars to put this in and they made the courts lopsided. They should have built this without a canopy so the rain just falls straight down."
He added that the banks along the inside walls of the courts are also in need of repair.
"The ball is hugging the wall," he explained.
Now with the required three courts to host citywide tournaments, Shakarchy said he hopes the problems are quickly addressed.
"For the past five years we haven't had tournaments here," he said. "And now that there are three new courts here, they should be fixed right."
Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley said she has heard their concerns and has been in touch with Parks officials since they were finished.
"I will continue to work with the Parks Department to expeditiously address functionality and any outstanding concerns with the new bocce ball courts at Juniper Valley Park," Crowley said.
Parks responded to complaints from the bocce players stating that there are plans to meet with players to discuss ways to best improve the new amenities.
"The new bocce courts at Juniper Valley Park were designed in collaboration with local bocce players, and the final plans were approved by both these players and Queens CB5," the spokesperson said. "Parkgoers vote with their feet, and since these courts reopened they have become a very popular amenity."
The spokesperson added that lighting at the courts was a fix that was never included in the original scope of the project and that the shade structures and trees were included to protect players from the sun.


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Robinson expects to return from DL when eligible
ST. LOUIS -- Shane Robinson, who went on the disabled list last Wednesday with a right shoulder strain, resumed hitting Monday and said afterward that he felt only minimal discomfort in his shoulder.
Though Robinson has not yet resumed throwing, he has every expectation of being ready to come off the disabled list on Aug. 15, his first day of eligibility.
"I can obviously feel a little bit of dull pain in there, but it's nothing that's worrying me," Robinson said. "I was worried at first when it first happened because of my history with injuries, but it didn't feel like my other shoulder. From the beginning, it wasn't too big of a deal. The doctors and trainers looked at everything, and it just looks like I aggravated it and there is some swelling."
Robinson's last shoulder injury was indeed more severe. A dislocation of his left shoulder in May 2008 cost Robinson the rest of that season. Robinson suffered this strain sliding back into first on a pick-off attempt in the first game of last Tuesday's doubleheader against Pittsburgh.
He continues to treat the injury with ice and anti-inflammatory medicine, and has not yet been told of plans to go out on a rehab assignment.
"Knock on wood, it's a good thing that it wasn't anything serious," Robinson said. "I was kind of scared there for a minute."


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E3 is always a tough week for anything to release, which is why we're probably seeing the likes of Katy Perry's Sweet Treats and an old-school six-platform movie adaptation. Inversion is the week's big name.
• Inversion (PC, 360, PS3)
• Rayman Origins (3DS)
• Bang Bang Racing (PSN)
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (PSN)
• Deadly Association (PC)
• Madagascar 3: The Video Game (360, DS, 3DS, PS3, PS Vita, Wii)
• The Sims 3 Katy Perry's Sweet Treats (PC)
• Bang Bang Racing (XBLA)
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (XBLA)
• Bang Bang Racing (PC)
• Strategic War in Europe (PC)
G/O Media may get a commission
Nanfu AAA Batteries (48-Pack)


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El Meco is a ruin in Cancún.
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Honest Man Emerges From Muck of Banking Crisis
Commentary by Jonathan Weil
April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Remember this man's name: Charles Bowsher. He's one of the few people leaving the banking crisis behind with his reputation enhanced.
Bowsher, who was comptroller general of the U.S. from 1981 to 1996, had a simple reason for resigning last week as chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank System's Office of Finance. He didn't want to put his name on the banks' combined financial statements, because he was uncomfortable vouching for them. Bowsher, 77, had held the post since April 2007.
With so many top executives complaining they can't figure out what their companies' assets are worth, the real wonder is that more corporate directors haven't quit rather than certify financial reports they don't understand.
The job Bowsher left is a crucial one. The Office of Finance issues and services all the debt for the 12 regional Federal Home Loan Banks. That's a lot of debt -- $1.26 trillion as of Dec. 31, making the FHLBank System the largest U.S. borrower after the federal government. The government-chartered banks, which operate independently, in turn supply low-cost loans to their 8,100 member banks and finance companies. If any of the FHLBanks were to fail, taxpayers could be on the hook.
The finance office's board also oversees the preparation and auditing of the FHLBanks' combined financial statements. Some of the banks have run into trouble the past year because of plunging values for mortgage-backed securities they own.
Becoming Aware
"I was not comfortable as an audit-committee member in signing off on the financial statements, after I became aware of the standards and processes for valuing the mortgage-backed securities," Bowsher told me.
The finance office didn't say why Bowsher was quitting, when it issued its March 24 press release announcing his resignation. On March 30, a spokesman, Michael Ciota, told me the people who work there didn't know, including its chief executive, John Fisk. "We're not aware of any reason," Ciota said. "There's not a whole lot to tell."
After I told Ciota yesterday about Bowsher's comments to me, Fisk called me back. He confirmed that "Mr. Bowsher has expressed his concerns to me around the complexity of valuing mortgage-backed securities and the process of producing combined financial statements from the 12 home loan banks." He added: "I don't think it's appropriate for us to speak for Mr. Bowsher."
Bowsher told me he was concerned, in part, with the methods used for determining when losses on hard-to-value securities should be included in banks' earnings and regulatory capital. The way the accounting rules work, as long as such losses can be labeled "temporary," they don't count in net income.
Net Loss
For the fourth quarter of 2008, the FHLBanks said their total preliminary net loss was $672 million. It would have been many times larger, had they included all their red ink.
The year-end balance sheet at the FHLBank of Seattle, for example, showed $5.6 billion of non-government mortgage-backed securities that it says it will hold until maturity. Yet the estimated value of those securities was just $3.6 billion. The bank, which reported a $199.4 million net loss for 2008, said the declines were only temporary. They've been anything but fleeting, though. Most of those securities have been worth less than they cost for more than a year.
The FASB's rules on this subject, which have never been well defined, are now in flux. Today, after caving in to pressure by the banking industry and members of Congress, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is set to vote on a plan to relax its rules on mark-to-market accounting, so that companies can disregard market prices and ignore losses on their securities indefinitely.
Pressing for Change
While that wouldn't make the banks any healthier, it would make their numbers look prettier. The FHLBanks have been among the most vocal lobbyists pressing for the change.
Bowsher said the process of valuing such assets was fraught with doubt already. "Now if you think about it, the FASB might be changing the whole thing, and everybody might mark their assets up," he said. "Who wants to be part of that?"
The finance office hasn't released the banks' audited combined financial statements for 2008. It was scheduled to do so March 31, but issued a press release saying it would delay the disclosure, because the FHLBank of Boston was late filing its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tough stands are nothing new to Bowsher. As comptroller general, he was in charge of the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. At his direction, the GAO was among the first to warn the public about the brewing savings-and- loan crisis during the 1980s. He testified before Congress in 1994 that there was an "immediate need" for "federal regulation of the safety and soundness" of all major U.S. derivatives dealers. (How's that for prescient?)
Most recently, in 2007, he led an independent committee that issued a blistering report on financial missteps at the Smithsonian Institution, whose board of regents included U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts.
Now the question for taxpayers is this: If Charles Bowsher can't get comfortable with these banks' financial statements, why should anybody else be?
Somebody ought to give this guy a medal.
What's there to say about this other than the obvious… we need more like him, we need people like him in the Administration, adults should be leading instead of the children who are loose in the candy shop.
Morals and Ethics… hard to find these days.
The FHLB is MASSIVE. What kind of rot is waiting for us there?


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Get Informed, Discover Possible Treatments, and Find A Specialist.
Learn about ways that you can prevent back pain injury.
Search for specialists that are right for you, all in your area.
Up-to-date posts written by Spine Care Professionals for patients.
The North American Spine Society is pleased to provide resources for patients. In this section, you'll find basic information about the spine, Patient Q&As, videos, success stories from other patients, and more. If you are in need of a spine care professional, please visit our Find a Specialist feature.
While your back is a complex system of bones, nerves, discs, muscles and other tissues,
keeping it healthy is actually pretty simple.
All Tips (3:52)
Tip 01: Get regular exercise (:30)
Tip 02: Don't smoke! (:37)
Tip 03: Maintain a healthy body weight! (:37)
Tip 04: Keep your core strong! (:30)
Tip 05: Use proper body mechanics! (:43)
Tip 06: Have good posture! (:30)
Tip 07: Reduce stress! (:37)
Tip 08: Keep healthy, strong bones! (:37)
Tip 09: Don't be a weekend warrior! (:37)


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Winter Foods
Warm yourself with the foods Hongkongers go for to beat the chill
The pinnacle of Cantonese cooking is fresh seafood and Hong Kong has a well-earned reputation for the quality of its seafood restaurants. An especially interesting and enjoyable way to enjoy seafood here is to head out of the city and find a 'seafood street' — a cluster of seafood restaurants often found along a seafront or near a fish market. The restaurants will often have large tanks of live fish and crustaceans from which you can choose. In some cases, you can buy your fish fresh from a market or off a fishing boat and have a nearby restaurant prepare it for you.
Most seafood streets are found in the New Territories and on outlying islands. Some of the most popular include Lei Yue Mun in Kowloon, Sai Kung Seafood Street, Sok Wu Wan Village on Lamma Island and Pak She Praya Road on Cheung Chau.
Prices of seafood items are often charged by weight and can vary by season. Different restaurants use different systems to weigh the food, so be sure to confirm the price before ordering. Also, in situations where the fish is purchased outside the restaurant, such as in Lei Yue Mun, cooking charges are added to the price.


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*December 3, 2020 is that last day to e-file*
Department of Finance
Division of Municipal Income Tax
E-Filing your City of Mansfield Income Tax Return
To utilize the eFile system, you will need your social security number and the numeric portion of your address. For security purposes, each year you're are required to create a new PIN for your online account – even if you have filed with us online previously. Simply follow the screen prompts when accessing this site for the first time: Choose your account type, enter your SSN and and click the "Don't have a PIN?" link.
In the event YOU ARE NOT IN OUR SYSTEM it will be necessary to register with the City of Mansfield Income Tax Division BEFORE e-filing. It will take two (2) business days to activate your account.
Registering is simple and can be done by:
Calling our office at: 419.755.9711, or by e-mailing, faxing or mailing the Income Tax Registration Form found below.
Mailing address: 30 North Diamond Street, Mansfield, Ohio 44902


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Man carries large cross in downtown Torrington hoping to 'bring people back to Christ'
Torrington >> Every morning for the past eleven days people traveling up Main Street could have seen a man carrying a 10-foot long wooden cross with bible verses written on it from the FISH Shelter on South Main Street up to Primetime House on North Main Street.
He is John Schweppe, 50, a homeless man, who hopes to bring Christ back to people.
"I carry the cross as a distraction to bring people back to Christ," Schweppe explains when asked why he's carrying it.
He said he feels that people are too lost in smartphones, cars, computers, designer clothes, food and television. He aims to distract us back from those distractions to Christ. Schweppe moved from Orlando to Torrington in May 2012 and became homeless in July 2012, which led him to suffer a bout of depression. In August he was accepted into the FISH shelter and has been there since.
Schweppe has managed life with mental health problems for over 40 years, which has led him to be a strong advocate for others in his situation. He is a volunteer for the Planning Committee and Food Committee's for Project Homeless Connect that is led by Nancy Cannavo of Charlotte Hungerford Hospital. He also is an advocate for Keep the Promise Coalition which was formed to address the mental health crisis in Connecticut.
Schweppe is dedicated to what ever he does. He was a bellringer for the Salvation Army this past Christmas season. By spreading his love of Christ he was able to raise $11,000 which according to Michelle Lowrey, assistant to Envoy Phil Hostetler, accounted for 20 percent of all funds raised through the bellringer program that season.
The cross was created after Schweppe finished a project for Primetime House. He said he saw some leftover wood and heard the word of the Lord tell him that now is the time to build the cross. He started building the cross on Feb. 6, finished it six days later, made some modifications and started carrying it on Feb. 13, Ash Wednesday.
On the cross he put the words "I am my brother's keeper." He also put the bible verses on the cross that essentially explain his purpose in carrying the cross.
Acts 26:15-18 explains his purpose the best: "(15)And I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. (16) But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, (17) delivering you from your people and fro the Gentiles-to whom I am sending you (18) to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me,"
Schweppe has been stopped by people asking him what he's doing, why he's doing it. He talks to them and takes any prayer requests that they may have.
Schweppe has spoken to about 10 to 12 people in the eleven days that he has been carrying the cross. One of the most note-worthy encounters Schweppe spoke of was with a man who was in Torrington from Florida for his brother's funeral. The man stopped and they spoke and prayed together, then the man went on his way. Later on that day the same man pulled over and gave Schweppe some money. The man explained that the his brother (the deceased) wanted him to have the money, someone had owed his brother money and had given it to the man at the funeral.
Schweppe took this donation as the word of Lord telling him he should start a ministry.
"I knew as a child that I would end up evangelizing someday," says Schweppe. "I'm on fire. My heart is filled with the holy spirit."
To talk to him you feel as though you are talking to someone that is free from worldly constraints and devoted to God.
Another passage on the cross, Luke 4:18-19 "(18)The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, (19) to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Jenny Golfin can be reached at (860)489-3121, ext. 357. Find an error in this story? Email firstname.lastname@example.com


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I'll admit that, other than knowing his name and that he was a Hollywood actor in some big budget films, I didn't know very much at all about Shia LaBeouf. However, apparently he's been facing some "controversy" over a few different examples of plagiarism in his work, with the "biggest" being plagiarizing a cartoon by Daniel Clowes called Justin M. Damiano with the short film HowardCantour.com. Others also pointed out that, in a comic book created by LaBeouf, he apparently plagiarized a bunch of others, including Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski (if you're going to plagiarize, plagiarize from the best, apparently).
While plagiarism scandals pop up every so often, there are a variety of standard responses -- usually involving some sort of apology and then someone laying low for a while before reappearing (just ask Joe Biden). LaBeouf initially appeared to be following the same script... tweeting out apologies, before people started realizing that the apologies themselves were "plagiarized." That includes using Tiger Woods' apology after his scandal: "I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart." Also, former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's famous apology concerning his role in the Vietnam War: "I was wrong, terribly wrong. I owe it to future generations to explain why."
From there, he finally admitted on New Year's eve that he was really mocking everyone -- which should have been obvious from the beginning, by saying:
You have my apologies for offending you for thinking I was being serious instead of accurately realizing I was mocking you.Oh, and if you hadn't figured it out already, that line is also plagiarized.
He then decided to give an email interview with BleedingCool, much of which itself appears to be plagiarized as well. BleedingCool initially claimed that it believed the statements were "original" to LaBeouf, but then has gone back and noted repeated lines in the interview that are plagiarized from others. I'm guessing that they're missing quite a few others.
But what comes out of it is what is likely a highly plagiarized defense of plagiarism, as well as a condemnation of the state of copyright law today, and how it limits forms of expression. Take this tidbit, for example:
The problem begins with the legal fact that authorship is inextricablyAt least some of that is from Larry Lessig. Almost certain other parts are from others. But, in a way he's proving the point. He is creating something new, unique and interesting, even as he's plagiarizing others, even to the point of talking about outdated copyright laws.
bound up in the idea of ownership and the idea of language as
Intellectual property. Language and ideas flow freely between people
Despite the law. It's not plagiarism in the digital age – it's repurposing.
Copyright law has to give up on its obsession with "the copy"
The law should not regulate "copy's" or "reproductions" on there own.
It should instead regulate uses – like public distributions of copyrighted work -
That connect directly to the economic incentive copyright law was intended to foster.
The author was the person who had been authorized by the state to print there work.
They were the ones to be held accountable for the ideas.
Simple – should creation have to check with a lawyer?
For what it's worth, even this idea is not unique. Back in 2007 we wrote about author Jonathan Lethem writing an entire defense of plagiarism, which was 100% plagiarized. If Labeouf is looking for more material, he might want to check that one out, if he hasn't already. Oh, and also Malcolm Gladwell's 2004 defense of plagiarism, which has some great quotes as well.
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Professional Community for Car Dealers, Marketing, Advertising and Sales Leaders
"It seemed really simple to me. So in trying to make others understand, I wrote this great paper where I illustrated the idea, dissected it piece by piece, and gave step-by-step instructions as to how to make it work with detailed justifications and cost analysis each step of the way. But still they couldn't see how simple it really was…. Why, why, why?"
We seem to love to take things that are fairly simple to understand and work hard at making them more difficult to understand. Point and counterpoint… If you squint real hard, you might envision the future, but with eyes wide open, you can see where we're going right now.
I was featured in an article recently where I declared dealers should take Social Media on faith. It sounds naïve but it isn't. It's not a great leap of faith. It's right in front of us. In fact, it's not staring us in the face; it's slapping us in the face. It's only required to keep your eyes wide open, and accept what you're seeing.
Traditional marketing, shotgun advertising, email blasts, or inbound marketing, push/pull marketing, conversion points, ZMOT… all great and interesting topics to explain what we should or shouldn't be doing to get a customer in the door. All are important, as are SEO and SEM and landing pages and calls for action. They are all great marketing solutions and ideas for today. But they are tactics. What is the strategy and the long-term trend?
The long-term trend is a return to the very earliest basics, the most basic form of marketing, too traditional for traditionalists... it's word-of-mouth. The true value in Social Media is in turning a global marketplace into a small town. The small town created allows people to share their experiences with a product or company and recommend or reject them by word-of-mouth.
Definition: An unpaid form of promotion in which satisfied customers tell other people how much they like a business, product or service.
It's the most credible form of advertising or marketing. The person recommending has no reward for doing so.
Social Media creates word-of-mouth marketing in various ways. The most obvious is Customer Reviews and Testimonials. But sites such as Facebook offer equally fruitful possibilities where a dealer can create social relationships with their customers and potential customers. They can become the experts that others turn to for advice and solutions. They can show they are part of a community and gain referrals.
New ideas do require a bit of faith. Without it, nothing new would come into being. When I'm discussing a new idea or project and I'm asked, "Who else is doing it?" I answer, "I hope nobody!"
Do you feel more comfortable with studies and polls? Steve Jobs said, "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new… You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever."
So when staring at 800 million Facebook users, try having a little faith. This is a new idea with hundreds of years of history. Waddaya think?
Written by Tom Gorham
Editor, From The Trenches
Professional Community
Views: 433
Cole, get ready everyone and hold on indeed! I like your statement, "And those dealerships that didn't "get it" originally will very frustrated that the process of establishing an online identity is organic..." Yes, indeedy!
Silia, you amaze me. I love the NASA quotes and the way you relate the learning process. If we knew all the answers, we wouldn't come to places like ADM. What a quandary! Thanks to both of you for insightful comments!
Here's what I think, Tom:
When in a quandary (start social media or not? when? how?) I like to look outside myself for the answers (because, duh, if I knew the answer myself I wouldn't be in a quandary.) And because I'm a perfectionist I like to look at what the most successful entities are doing, oft outside my immediate industry (otherwise I start critiquing on reflex).
So, in answering "should I start social media?" "when?" "how?" I liked what NASA had to say on the matter (I mean, these guys do things like fly into space & stuff which in my mind is way harder than anything I've ever attempted to do. Besides, they're literally stratospheric geniuses. Plus, I liked the fact that there isn't a direct link per se on how doing a great job on Twitter can help NASA.)
Here is an excerpt from a Social Fresh article about what Stephanie Schierholz, NASA's Social Media Manager, has to say:
Foster the community but don't own the community. Stephanie explained that's it's important to foster NASA's space community but it's not good to try to own the community. To this end, NASA encourages and engages with non-NASA groups like the Space Tweep Society.
Stephanie's quote from David Rosen:
"You may not have a spaceship, but your company has a fan base. They won't think of themselves as fans until they're in a room with like-minded people. They won't think of themselves as members of a community until YOU bring them together."
Cheers to all.
What's going to be interesting is a year or so down the line when social media is finally widely adopted in the automotive industry and dealerships are scrambling to figure it all out... mainly because the dealerships that have taken the time to establish themselves in their online community are going to have an incredible advantage. And those dealerships that didn't "get it" originally will very frustrated that the process of establishing an online identity is organic... simply throwing money at it isn't going to fix the problem (well... depends how much...).
I'm very excited to see what is going to happen in the next few months, I think that we all know social media is important, but the next few months is really going to be indicative of how the very fabric of the internet will be woven with a fine thread of social media. Get ready everyone and hold on!
Jim, like I said at the begining, "It seemed so simple to me." ;-) Thanks for the comment!
Enjoyed this article, Tom. Thanks.
I've been preaching this for years now... the value in Social Media is as obvious as the value of good customer service...and just as difficult to quantify. The value of good/great customer service has never been questioned (to my knowledge.) It's just that obvious. And, isn't "Social Media", fundamentally, an extension of customer service (a.k.a.; The customer experience)??
In short.. I agree with Tom. So why is it NOT that obvious to everyone?
Thanks Bill, I don't think it's takes much faith to realize that a billion people in Social Media have inertia. You just need to figure out where that inertia is taking them (and us). I am bemused by people who say Facebook will crash just as MySpace did. I'm thinking, "So what?" It's not an individual site that matters, it's the movement.
Philip, thanks for the insightful comments. I believe you're right that the greater your reputation, the easier it is to fail a customer's higher expectations. This calls for true professionalism and attention to detail and customer service. It can only improve our industry.
Great points Tom,
You have to ask yourself why so many people are broadcasting their opinions. I think the motivations fall into three categories:
1) vanity
2) anger
3) surprise
I guess it's human nature to want to be acknowledged so vanity is probably not the right word, but it will do as a label. People want other people to know they exist, so they put on makeup or wear snazzy clothes or drive fancy cars or become international clog dancing champions. This is likely the strongest reason for the continuuing success of Facebook, etc. This is important, because it means people want to share their opinions as long as the sharing makes them seem smart, relevant, in-the-know, caring, conscientious, etc.
So if people have a natural tendency to share their opinions and social media gives them a channel to fulfill that tendency, then all they need is content, e.g. something to say. So anything out of the ordinary will get commented on. Most people don't say "I went to the grocery store and they had groceries." If something meets expectations, commenting on it makes the commentator seem daft. So it's the unusual or unexpected that justifies the social media post.
This is REALLY good news for car dealers. Thanks to the wonderful stereotype that movies, jokes, popular culture, and really bad dealers have perpetuated it is EASY to exceed customer expectations. Unless you've already built a great personal brand through Cars.com, Yelp, Dealerater, etc., most of your new customers are going to walk in hoping for a good experience rather than expecting one. So take advantage of the negative stereotype and exceed their rather low expectations. This will generate great WOW (Silia).
The one downside of being a well-known, well-liked, highly regarded auto dealer is that you don't have the negative stereotype to protect you. If you already have a good online brand, then the negative stereotype amplifies any missteps. Customers walking in the door of a dealer with 5-stars on Yelp expect a good experience. If they get 1-star treatment they feel justified in calling you a "typical" car dealer. We know the "typical" car dealer delivers great customer service and fair prices, but if everyone else knew that too, it would be much harder to exceed expectations and get good online ratings.
Wonderful compliment, Mr Siddiqui. Thank you!
Quiet Rightly said and buitifully potrait Mr. Tom Gorham this is really what the future effective advertisement is going to be, Social media have to be taken seriously by us around the world.
Thank you Silia! Glad you appreciate.
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Astros, Altuve agree to four-year contract extension
23-Year-Old Is Signed Through 2017; Deal Includes Club Options For 2018, 2019 Seasons
The extension begins in 2014 and runs through the 2017 season and provides the Club with options for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"Jose has quickly become the face of the franchise in less than two years, and we are excited to keep him here for many years to come," Luhnow said. "He provides leadership both on and off the field and has become a big part of the Houston sports community."
Altuve, who turned 23 years old in May, has been a mainstay in the Astros starting lineup since making his Major League debut in July of 2011. Since that time, he has been one of the steadiest and most productive second basemen in the Majors. In 2012, he became the second-youngest Astros player ever named to an All-Star team at just 22 years old. He was also the second-youngest member of the 2012 NL All-Star squad behind Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper. Additionally, he was named the Astros Team MVP in 2012 by the Houston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America after hitting .290 with 34 doubles, four triples, seven homers and 33 stolen bases.
In 2013, Altuve currently leads all Major League second basemen in stolen bases (21) and double plays turned (74) and is hitting .280 with 15 doubles, a triple, three home runs and 28 RBI. He also ranks fourth among AL second basemen in hits with 98. Altuve has also been a durable performer for the Astros since his ML debut on July 20, 2011, appearing in 287 games at second base in that span, which ranks T-5th in the Majors among second basemen (with Brandon Phillips). At 23, Altuve is the youngest everyday second basemen in the Majors (min. 50 games).
"This contract is consistent with our strategy of developing and retaining the best young talent in baseball," said Astros Owner and Chairman Jim Crane. "All along, I've maintained that we will make the necessary investments to create a winning team long-term and this is an important step in that direction."
"I'm really happy to be a part of the Houston Astros organization," Altuve said. "I just want to keep playing hard and help this team win games. I love my teammates and the people of Houston and I'm going to do everything I can to improve and win baseball games."
Altuve was the Astros Minor League Player of the Year in 2011, leading all of minor league baseball with a .389 batting average before being called up to the Majors on July 19 of that season. In the Majors and minors in 2011, he combined for 200 hits. Altuve has also been one of the top hitters in the Venezuelan Winter League the last two off-seasons, hitting .336 and .339 for Magallanes in 2012-13 and 2011-12, respectively.


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Photography by Gabriel R.
On New Year's Day, Said Jasir Nasar Ali, an icon of the village of Kafr Qaddum, suffocated when Israeli forces tear-gassed his home during a demonstration inside the Palestinian village. He was pronounced dead in a Nablus hospital later in the day, becoming the first fatality of the village's two-and-a-half year popular struggle and the first Palestinian martyr of the year.
The Palestine Monitor was greeted warmly at the solemn occasion of Said's memorial on 4 January. Per custom, the bereaved men of the family lined a long row of chairs in a local community hall, rising to greet and shake hands with visitors as they arrived to pay their respects. Over refreshments, we were permitted to take pictures and conduct interviews, speaking extensively with two of Said's sons, Yasser and Nasser, along with Murad Shtaiwi, spokesman for the village's popular resistance committee. We were also taken to the nearby family home, where the gassing occurred.
According to numerous witnesses, thick clouds of teargas deluged the family home around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The canister landed just outside the house, and dense clouds of noxious fumes drifted heavily in through nearby open windows, including into Said's bedroom, where the old man was found moments later, struggling to breathe and turning blue.
Said was soon unconscious, and his sons called a doctor to the scene. The doctor, Mohammad al-Ott, applied first aid but warned that the symptoms were grave. An ambulance took Said to a Nablus hospital where the patient was treated with oxygen in the emergency room. His condition deteriorated, and at about 8 o'clock in the evening, he was transferred to an intensive care unit. After hours of struggle, Said's heart stopped working, and he was pronounced dead at 11:10 PM.
Although Said was 88 years old, he was in good health and often busy on foot around the village.
"He was a man who tried to make all the things in Kafr Qaddum very good and beautiful," his son, Yasser, 40, reflects. "Any opportunities and occasions, any celebrations, he would share these occasions. He was a real man, with all the meanings of the words."
With posters of the deceased watching over his shoulder, the son continues, "All the people in the village loved this man, and we are very sorry to lose such a life."
According to Murad, Said was a pillar of the community: "If you ask this question to anyone in the village, he will answer you the same […] Everyone in Kafr Qaddum can give you this picture about the man."
Said Jasit's portrait on the martyr posters.
The popular struggle in Kafr Qaddum
Since July 2011, the hillside village, home to more than 4,000 people, has held regular political demonstrations against the loss of their land to a neighboring Israeli settlement and the military's closure of the main road that historically connects the village to the major Palestinian commercial center, Nablus.
Kafr Qaddum is one of dozens of rural Palestinian communities waging an unarmed popular struggle against the Western-backed Israeli occupation. Like many others, the weekly Friday demonstrations are often covered by the press and attended by up to a dozen or more Israeli and international supporters, and army dispersal methods and incursions into the village spark violent clashes with youth hurling stones and setting up defensive roadblocks.
Kafr Qaddum, which frequently holds multiple demonstrations a week, also has a reputation for meeting particularly fierce and intrusive repression. According to locals, the Israeli military comes into the village almost every day and night, making frequent arrests and firing barrages of teargas, sound bombs, and rubber-coated bullets that cause extensive injuries and property damage.
Among the most serious injuries suffered since the demonstrations began, Wesam Walid Burhum lost his speech and suffered three skull fractures when he was struck with a teargas canister on 27 April 2012.
Yasser describes how his own six-year old son was shot in the knee with a teargas canister during a peaceful march. "What is the fault of my son?" he asks. "No one is safe in the village."
"Let me say," Murad adds. "The chickens are not safe. The donkeys are not safe, the goats are not safe, because we had more than 2,000 chickens die because of the tear gas attacks," among other livestock losses.
Kafr Qaddum's troubles are intimately tied to the neighboring Israeli settlement of Qedumim, which begins scarcely 500 meters from the edge of the village. Qedumim has expanded onto Palestinian land through processes described as "theft," even by Israeli authorities.
"If we want to talk about the general situation for Kafr Qaddum, 'Kafr Qaddum' means 'ancient village,'" Murad explains. "Qedumim settlement was established in 1978. Kafr Qaddum is 4,000 years old. It's very important to focus on this issue […] because the Israeli occupation tries to steal the history of the village."
Israeli settlements commonly take on the name of a Palestinian village, usually with a slight modification, while simultaneously attempting to isolate the original community and pressuring its indigenous occupants to vacate the land. This is done through the imposition of harsh daily living conditions, such as uprooting olive trees, physical assaults, and poisoning animals and water wells. The Israeli military often facilitates these attacks by protecting the settler communities and rarely prosecuting the offenders. For a severe case, see a recent report by Amira Hass, although the practice is systematic and increasingly common across the West Bank.
All Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law. While the settlers enjoy full legal and civil rights as Israeli citizens, the Palestinian communities in their midst are subject to military rule, permitted neither Israeli citizenship nor political independence.
Murad Shtaiwi, spokesman for the popular resistance committee of Kafr Quddum (right), with Said Jasir's son, Yasser.
According to Murad, Kafr Qaddum traditionally held 24,000 dunums of agricultural and pastoral land, of which 4,000 dunums were lost to the establishment of Qedumim (the neighboring Israeli settlement). A further 11,000 dunums were subsequently cut off by military closures, and the landowners are now required to obtain individual and highly restrictive permits to access their fields, including four thousand dunums that line the now-closed road to Nablus. (For Kafr Qaddum land statistics, see also this ARIJ report.)
Re-opening the ancient road remains the central demand of the village's popular resistance. The road dates back to the Ottoman Empire and connects the village to Nablus in a direct route of 13 km. Since it's closure in 2003, the villagers have been forced to travel a network of back roads, doubling the total distance to 26 km, more than tripling the travel time, and dramatically increasing public and private transportation costs.
"The road which you came from—it's not our road," Murad wants to make sure we understand. Indeed, our Nablus taxi driver had to ask for directions nearly a dozen times on our way to Kafr Quddum. And Murad says the current route was scarcely drivable before repairs and upgrades. Still, it remains circuitous, winding often through narrow alleyways of adjoining villages. "And so, it's a lot of cars, and it's very narrow, and we have a lot of accidents."
The closure of the main road has also been linked to deaths in medical emergencies. Heavy restrictions on permitting ambulance access, and delays in obtaining proper Israeli permission, were factors in the deaths of three villagers in 2004, according to Murad.
Occupation forces blocked Palestinian access to the road as part of a series of closures across the Nablus governorate during the Second Intifada, citing "security reasons." The villagers were told that the road would reopen along with Nablus, but since the latter was opened in 2009, the road has remained closed.
As the road leaves the village, it runs along the length of the settlement and is used by the settlers. The villagers believe that the road remains closed to them because the settlers are intent on keeping it for their exclusive use, along with the 4,000 dunums of land that come with it.
Still, the people of Kafr Quddum have hope that they can succeed in re-opening the road and regaining their restricted lands, following the "popular struggle" model set by other resistance villages, such as Bil'in and Budrus, both of which have achieved comparable goals in recent years.
While the family mourning their New Year's Day loss suspects that Said's suffocation would have proven fatal either way, based on the severity of the symptoms, they are left to speculate about the time that could have been saved had the road been accessible. "Maybe if the ambulance came earlier," Yasser wonders, "Maybe, the doctors could have done something for him."
Murad, who has been arrested twice, including last month on charges of encouraging "illegal" political demonstrations in his village—and released several days later on 7,000 shekels bail—makes a plea for international solidarity.
"I have an important message, not for the governments, or states, exactly. My message is for the people, for the civilian people," he says, expecting change to begin with the grassroots rather than the politicians. "We need someone in the world to oblige Israel to respect agreements which are calling for Palestinian rights."
"We are born under occupation, and grew up under occupation, and maybe we'll die under occupation, but our children, what's their fault?" he asks. "We are human beings. We have children. We have wives. We have a future, and we want our future to be safe and free."
The sons of the late Said Jasir at the memorial ceremony.
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Newtown did not change everything in Connecticut public life. The slaughter of 26 innocents at the Sandy Hook School has not caused Democratic and Working Families Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to shed his expensive addiction to corporate welfare. Last week, Malloy's administration announced that it will provide at least $22 million to Bass Pro Shops for a 150,000-square-foot store in Bridgeport.
Bass Pro is one of the nation's most prominent purveyors of guns. It sells the semi-automatic rifles, known as assault weapons, that Adam Lanza used on Dec. 14 to kill 20 children and six adults. Those guns are now illegal in Connecticut, but Bass Pro sells them in stores around the country. It also sells online and in stores the high-capacity ammunition magazines that are also illegal in Connecticut.
When President Barack Obama signed 23 executive orders regulating guns in January, Malloy hailed the action. He declared that in December, "there was one question on the minds of people across Connecticut and around the nation: How do we make sure that this never happens again?" The answer we seek cannot be the one Malloy has provided. Unlike him, we do not want to go into business with sellers of these and other weapons.
Malloy is just beginning heaping his largesse on Bass Pro. The first round of public funds comes from what looks like a political arm of his administration, Connecticut Innovations, known as CI. That's the agency that hired the wife of Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson last year for an executive assistant's job with, to put it kindly, the thinnest of qualifications.
Now CI is doing more of Malloy's dirty work. The governor is a hostage to the Democratic political machine in Bridgeport that delivered his narrow margin of victory in 2010. Though gun violence continues to rip the social fabric of bloody Bridgeport, the city's leaders want economic development projects at any price, even if it comes with the sale of more guns within its borders as it initiates gun buybacks.
Just before the Newtown killings, Malloy tried to lure an assault weapons manufacturer into the state. His conversion to the ban was born of those horrifying events on that Friday morning. The impact on Malloy's new attitude toward guns has not lasted eight months. It will get worse. The state's Department of Economic and Community Development, the Connecticut Post reported last week, is also negotiating a package of taxpayer goodies with Bass Pro. Expect the hapless commissioner, Catherine Smith, to give the retailer whatever it wants.
The millions for a gun seller is also bad economic policy. Several studies show that Bass Pro stores as anchors for retails centers often fail. The privately owned company is worth billions. It has a pattern of taking hundreds of millions from taxpayers with dubious long-term economic returns.
This is absurd for Connecticut. The legislature banned assault weapons and certain ammunition clips this spring. One result has been high-paying manufacturing jobs are leaving the state. At the same time, taxpayers will hand over millions to a company that sells the weapons the state has banned to create low-paying retail jobs. It makes no sense.
This is all about politics and Malloy's dreary standing with the public. The state's economy continues to decline, so any activity is a plus in the governor's cynical worldview. With his decency deficit, insulting the memory of the innocent dead is no reason for Malloy not to lard other people's money on a gun seller.
This not the first time raw politics has been injected into the Newtown killings. U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy have used the victims to raise campaign contributions. Murphy last week appealed for funds with an attack on the National Rifle Association. You can bet he and Blumenthal will say nothing of Malloy's costly alliance with a major gun seller.
The people know better. Every time a victim's surviving loved ones pay a tax in Connecticut, Malloy forces them to underwrite the proliferation of the weapons they despise. That's his legacy on guns.
Kevin Rennie is a lawyer and a former Republican state legislator. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.