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The California Experiment
Busted budgets, failing schools, overcrowded prisons, gridlocked government—California no longer beckons as America's promised land. Except, that is, in one area: creating a new energy economy. But is its path one the rest of the nation can follow?
Amid all the starpower assembled in the White House Rose Garden on a crystalline afternoon last May, the unassuming gray-haired woman who sat beaming in a prime first-row seat went largely unnoticed. But if not for California state Senator Fran Pavley, none of the other people who had gathered might have been there at all. In 2002, as a first-term member of the California Assembly, she had steered through the nation's first law requiring automakers to reduce the tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming. Fourteen other states indicated they planned to adopt the California law. But George W. Bush's administration refused to provide the federal waiver the state needed to proceed, and the major auto companies added new hurdles by challenging the state law in court. In January 2009, when Bush left office, the California plan was as stuck as a commuter caught behind a rush-hour pileup.
With the change of administrations, though, the road suddenly cleared. Candidate Obama endorsed the California initiative, and once he became president, his aides negotiated an agreement between the state, environmentalists, the auto-workers union, and the leading auto companies to use the California law as the basis for nationwide regulations to dramatically improve the fuel efficiency, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, of all new cars and trucks. The result was the unprecedented, almost unimaginable, scene that unfolded, fittingly enough, under perfect California weather that May afternoon in the Rose Garden. On the podium, President Obama stood flanked by senior executives from 10 global auto companies (including eight that the U.S. government did not own). In the chairs arrayed across the lawn, environmentalists mingled with auto-industry lobbyists, and Californians who had led the fight for stronger fuel-economy standards, like Pavley and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, wedged in beside Michigan legislators who had fiercely resisted them. Obama didn't acknowledge Pavley by name, but he made clear that without California's "extraordinary leadership," the landmark environmental agreement he was announcing might never have been reached. Californians "have led the way on this," Obama said, "as they have in so many other efforts to protect our environment."
In politics and policy at large, the time is long past when the nation routinely looked to California, as it did in the 1960s and the '70s, as the most fertile incubator of new ideas. On many fronts, the state government appears almost dysfunctional, hobbled by constitutional constraints and partisan polarization. The collapse of the state's (latest) real-estate bubble has sent California's economy into free fall. A short list of the state's current problems would include surging unemployment, struggling schools, and a budget deficit larger than the entire budget in almost every other state.
But on energy and climate change, the story is very different. Ever since the first Arab oil embargo, in 1973, California has consistently defined the forward edge of energy-policy innovation in America. In 2006, California's per capita energy consumption was the fourth-lowest in the country. The state emits only about half as much carbon per dollar of economic activity as the rest of America. It generates significantly more electricity than any other state from non-hydroelectric renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and biomass. California registers more patents associated with clean energy than any other state and attracts most of the venture capital invested in U.S. "cleantech" companies exploring everything from electric cars to solar power generation.
"I unequivocally believe we are a model for the rest of the country," says F. Noel Perry, the founder of Next10, a nonpartisan Silicon Valley–based think tank, whose "California Green Innovation Index" studies have tracked these trends.
Some of California's edge can be traced to the state's natural advantages, particularly a temperate climate that does not require as much heating in the winter or cooling in the summer as do many other parts of the country. But the difference is also rooted in conscious policy decisions. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a leading nonprofit research group, recently ranked California first among the states in promoting energy efficiency.
"California has fouled up plenty of things," said John Bryson, the former chairman of both the California Public Utilities Commission and Southern California Edison, the major Los Angeles–area utility that is a national leader in energy efficiency. "But on this set of issues—the clean-energy issues, the kind of things that need to be done in terms of the risk of climate change—I think California is getting it right… More than any other state I know of, California has done already most of the things that need to be done."
California hasn't solved all the puzzles associated with replacing fossil fuels. And its successes cannot necessarily be easily replicated. But the state is grappling with every major energy-related issue that currently faces the country. Its experience doing so is also likely to shape an intensifying national debate, because so many key players have roots in the state, from Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman, who chair the Senate and House committees that are considering climate change, to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. California's story illuminates some of the obstacles the nation will need to overcome as it seeks cleaner forms of power. But more broadly, California demonstrates how sustained political leadership can reshape how we produce, sell, and use energy—can "bend the curve," as they say in Silicon Valley.
The epicenter of California's energy revolution might justifiably be considered a roomy, dimly lit office in the bunker-like Energy Commission building in downtown Sacramento. There, behind a long conference table, surrounded by an untouched cup of chili and plates of apples, bananas, grapes, and tomatoes, sits Art Rosenfeld, at 83 years of age compact and contained, with thinning gray hair and a slight hunch. Looking natty in a hunter-green wool sport coat and a plaid shirt, Rosenfeld has hearing aids in both ears and a BlackBerry on his belt. Nothing about Rosenfeld is imposing, except his ideas, which for decades have earned him an audience at the highest levels of government. Former Vice President Al Gore, for one, described him to me as "a national resource. He's quite a thinker. I like him a lot." Then Gore laughed. "I also like that he starts to get more innovative as he gets older."
In 1973, Rosenfeld was working as a particle physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That September, the Democratic-controlled state legislature passed a bill creating a commission to manage California's energy policy. Ronald Reagan, then governor, vetoed it as an intrusion on free enterprise. But after the first Arab oil embargo caused energy prices to spike, two things happened. First, Reagan switched his position. Stung by popular discontent in car-conscious California, he agreed in 1974 to create what eventually became known as the California Energy Commission. Second, Rosenfeld shifted his focus toward energy efficiency, organizing a working group (which eventually became the Center for Building Science) at the laboratory. "I thought," he told me dryly, "we had better do such things as learning how to turn out the lights."
California's new commission was born with something of an identity crisis: environmentalists hoped it would promote conservation, while utilities wanted it to fast-track production (particularly of nuclear power) to close a potentially crippling shortage in electricity generation. Rosenfeld, who had initially come to the commission's attention when he critiqued its first energy-efficiency standards for residential buildings, quickly proved instrumental in setting the agency's direction. In 1976, San Diego Gas & Electric Company asked the commission to approve a nuclear-power plant called Sundesert. Jerry Brown, the eclectic Democrat who succeeded Reagan as governor, didn't want to authorize the plant, but he faced pressure to close the anticipated gap between electricity demand and supply. Rosenfeld squared the circle for him, telling Brown that if the state imposed efficiency standards on refrigerators (which then consumed about 20 percent of a typical home's power), it would save at least as much electricity as Sundesert could produce. The state went on to block the Sundesert plant, and in 1977 the commission approved aggressive efficiency standards not only for refrigerators and freezers but also for air conditioners.
"Efficiency just gradually took over," Rosenfeld said. In the next decade, the Energy Commission followed with efficiency standards for furnaces, dryers, swimming-pool heaters, household cooking appliances, heat pumps, showerheads, and fluorescent-lamp ballasts, among other products. Those rules became models for use in other states and, eventually, for federal appliance standards. In 1978, using a pioneering computer program developed by Rosenfeld and his colleagues, the Energy Commission opened another front by approving more-sophisticated energy-efficiency standards for new buildings. Other states, and even other countries, followed.
Around the same time, an even more obscure California regulatory agency produced another landmark innovation. Utilities traditionally make more money when they sell more electricity, especially since the fixed investment of building power plants and transmission lines comprises such a large part of their costs. As a result, their natural inclination is to encourage their customers to use more. With the state trying to save energy through its efficiency standards, that incentive seemed increasingly perverse—especially after energy prices again soared after the second oil shock, in 1979. John Bryson, a founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, whom Brown had appointed as chairman of the California Public Utilities Commission, began looking for ways to enlist the utilities in promoting efficiency.
"I thought it was evident that [they] could make a big difference," Bryson recalled. "But there was the fundamental fact that you were asking utilities, under the regime that existed at the time, to forego returns for their shareholders, because their returns were meaningfully based on increasing electricity sales."
The solution was a policy known as "decoupling" because it severed the link between consumption and profits. Here's how it worked: the commission first set a revenue target for utilities by calculating how much money they needed to make to recover their fixed costs, plus an approved profit rate. Next, the commission estimated how much power it expected the utility to sell. Then, it established an energy price that would allow the utility to meet its revenue target at the expected level of sales. If the utility sold more power than it needed to meet its target, the difference was returned to consumers. If it sold less, rates were increased to make up the difference. Applied to natural-gas sales in 1978 and electricity in 1982, decoupling had a profound effect.
"Utilities were rendered indifferent to sales," says Ralph Cavanagh, a senior NRDC attorney and central figure in California energy policy since the late 1970s. "They couldn't make more money by selling more; they didn't lose money by selling less. Their addiction to increased sales was eliminated." In September 2007, the state utility regulators shifted the incentives for utilities further toward conservation by allowing them to split the savings with customers whenever energy use falls below state targets.
How much those twin rules—decoupling and decoupling-plus, as they are known—have changed the motivation of utility companies became clear when I visited Peter A. Darbee, the chairman, CEO, and president of Pacific Gas & Electric. Darbee works on the 24th floor of a San Francisco office tower in a glass-enclosed corner office that looks like a ship's bridge. The office has panoramic views of the Embarcadero, and on the windy, sunny day we spoke, boats silently glided through the water in the distance, as if a painting had somehow been set into motion.
"I think the biggest key to the success in California was putting in place the right incentives for California utilities," Darbee noted. Echoing Cavanagh, Darbee said that decoupling made the utilities "neutral or indifferent" to sales; then decoupling-plus provided utilities "an incentive to sell less power rather than more." With those economic signals nudging the utilities, he continued, "all of a sudden you've unleashed the power of these huge organizations to work with you rather than against you." Darbee said that sometimes when he's out sailing with customers, they will say to him, "'Peter, you would love us, because we have all sorts of lights and air conditioning and we are using a lot of your power.' And I look at them and say, 'Well, actually I'd prefer that you use a lot less.' And they look at me like I'm crazy. And then I say to them, 'We actually make more money if we sell you less power, and we make less if we sell you more power.'"
Efficiency and decoupling have helped California to consume electricity far more thriftily than the rest of America. At the time of the 1973 oil shock, California used about 17 percent less electricity per person than the country at large. Since then, as Rosenfeld likes to point out in a chart that has been dubbed "the Rosenfeld Curve," per capita electricity use in the nation has increased by about 50 percent to about 12,000 kilowatt-hours annually. Meanwhile, over that same period, per capita electricity use in California has remained absolutely flat at about 7,000 kilowatt-hours per year. That means the average Californian today uses about 40 percent less electricity per year than the average American.
James Sweeney, who runs Stanford University's Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, has calculated with Anant Sudarshan, a colleague, that much of that difference can be explained by factors such as California's temperate climate, less heavy industry, and even smaller-sized households. But, Sweeney says, the state's policy decisions still account for a substantial amount—roughly one-fifth to one-fourth—of the gap in electricity usage between California and the nation. The focus on efficiency has produced huge savings: though per kilowatt electricity rates are higher in California than in most other places, consumers pay lower electricity bills because they use so much less power than people elsewhere. A few years ago, the California Energy Commission calculated that the state's efficiency efforts had preempted the need for 24 large-scale power plants and saved state consumers $56 billion.
Rosenfeld says the past generation's gains indicate the state can improve its energy intensity (the amount of energy required to produce each dollar of GDP) by about 30 percent every decade. "Efficiency," he says with a twinkle, "seems to be a renewable resource."
And there is the initial lesson from California's energy experience: efficiency is the foundation of any effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. As California has learned, the most cost-effective way to replace coal or natural gas or petroleum isn't to rely on solar or wind or biofuels; it's to squeeze more work out of less energy.
After the state's early breakthroughs, the 1990s were largely a lost decade for California on energy. The state detoured into a failed experiment with utility deregulation that produced price spikes and rolling blackouts, forced PG&E into bankruptcy, and helped to make Enron a household name. But even that disaster, which ended when the state legislature suspended the deregulation experiment in 2001, fueled another burst of energy innovation in California.
In July 2002, the legislature passed Fran Pavley's bill establishing the precedent-setting requirement for auto companies to reduce the tailpipe emissions of the gases linked to global warming, a standard the companies had been expected to meet primarily by improving the fuel efficiency of their vehicles. Since the Clean Air Act in 1970, California—alone among all states—has had the authority to impose pollution-control standards more stringent than the national rules, so long as the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that the regulations were not arbitrary or unreasonable. But the lawsuits from the major auto companies, and the Bush administration's refusal to provide an EPA waiver, had prevented California from implementing the Pavley law until President Obama announced the breakthrough with the auto industry this May.
Those anticipating that the name Pavley is some clever policy acronym like CAFE or COBRA are sometimes surprised to find attached to the legislation the actual Fran Pavley. "It's really quite hysterical," she says. "I've been at some conferences and there will be legislators from different states and they will go around the room and they're like, 'We've adopted Pavley.' 'They killed Pavley.' 'I can't bring up Pavley.' And I'll go, 'I'm Pavley.' And they'll go, 'What?' I don't know what they thought."
Disarmingly informal and chatty, Pavley is in her spare but somehow homey office in the California Capitol in Sacramento, talking as if we were sitting across a kitchen table. Though we were deep inside the dusky Capitol building, a pair of sunglasses was improbably perched in her hair. Before going into state politics, first in the Assembly and now in the Senate, she had spent most of her career as a middle-school teacher. Even though she had accumulated some political and environmental background as a local mayor and a member of the state Coastal Commission, Pavley might have seemed an unlikely architect of such important legislation. In fact, she benefited from being underestimated ("First-term freshman, middle-school teacher—the opposition didn't show up in droves," she recalls), and ultimately she assembled a broad coalition.
Pavley also benefited from another factor she had not anticipated: California's legacy as an environmental pace-setter. That work dates back to the 1940s, when concern about smog in Los Angeles led the state to establish the nation's first county-level air-pollution-control districts. Rather than being intimidated by the prospect of setting a new national standard, legislators seemed to welcome that role, particularly after George W.Bush in 2001 renounced the global climate-change treaty. "They weren't going anywhere [in Washington]," Pavley said. "We had pushed the envelope on unleaded gas and catalytic converters. This was sort of the same." Governor Gray Davis signed the tailpipe bill into law in late July 2002.
Just weeks later, in September, Davis signed another landmark bill. This one required the state's three investor-owned utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2017. This wasn't the nation's first so-called Renewable Portfolio Standard for utilities, but it was among the most ambitious. After Schwarzenegger arrived, the state raised the bar on the utilities' renewable-power requirement twice more: the utilities must generate 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010 and fully 33 percent by 2020.
The state approved its initial renewable-sources standards law soon after the collapse of the dot-com bubble. The new mandates on utilities to buy renewable power reinforced the nascent sense among investors and entrepreneurs that clean energy might be the Next Big Thing. From 2005 through 2008, the amount of venture capital flowing into cleantech start-up companies in California exploded from about $456 million a year to $3.3 billion. By one estimate, California was home to nearly three-fifths of all the U.S. venture capital invested last year in clean energy. With the investment spigots opened, the number of clean-energy companies in California increased by nearly 30 percent between 1995 and 2007.
All of this activity points to the second lesson from California's energy experience: regulations can create markets. "It's much easier to make a big investment knowing that there will be a market and an opportunity to participate in it," says Ellen K. Pao, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading Silicon Valley venture firm. Initially, neither the utilities nor the investors seemed convinced that state regulators would enforce the renewable standards. But once the legislature and Schwarzenegger sent a clear message by toughening the requirements, the pace of activity enormously accelerated. Solar energy today provides less than 1 percent of the state's power, but over the past few years, PG&E and Southern California Edison have leapfrogged each other in signing contracts with start-up companies for what is planned as the world's largest solar production facility. (The California utilities find solar more attractive than wind because the sun's energy is available on the hottest days, when demand is greatest, but hot days in California are usually still; the wind in the state blows mostly at night, when demand is lower.) Both SoCal Edison and, more recently, PG&E are also seeking approval from state regulators to operate their own large-scale photovoltaic arrays, many on the roofs of warehouses and other big commercial buildings.
The slow start, and the long lead time needed to construct large renewable facilities and the associated transmission lines, mean the utilities are unlikely to reach the state's 20 percent threshold by 2010. But most experts believe they will meet the goal not long thereafter. And the tilt in the utilities' priorities toward alternative energy now appears irreversible.
"There is a smattering of activity in other states… but not what you'd call a marketplace with a recurring flow of opportunity," says Mike Ahearn, the CEO of First Solar Incorporated, which is manufacturing thin-film solar panels for SoCal Edison's rooftop project. "California is the solar market in the United States."
Storm clouds, both literal and metaphoric, were buffeting the Capitol building on the blustery day when I met with Schwarzenegger to discuss the state's energy strategy. Schwarzenegger and Democrats in the state legislature were still locked in a budget standoff with legislative Republicans. (The immediate impasse was finally broken two days later, but the state didn't reach a final resolution on the budget until this summer, after voters rejected all but one of the ballot initiatives central to the original agreement.) We met in a tent Schwarzenegger has had constructed, complete with Astroturf flooring, in an interior courtyard of the Capitol building, where he can smoke cigars without violating the building's no-smoking rule. When I arrived, Schwarzenegger, in a blue suit and cowboy boots emblazoned with the California state seal, was contentedly puffing a stogie. For a man facing fiscal meltdown, he appeared remarkably relaxed, though the weather seemed to be offering its own commentary: the torrential downpour lashing Sacramento that day drummed on the tent so loudly that at times it was hard to hear him talk.
Schwarzenegger had pledged to advance environmental causes during his initial gubernatorial campaign in 2003. But when he arrived in Sacramento, environmentalists and legislative Democrats were skeptical about the commitment of a Republican governor whose most prominent previous association with energy issues had been to encourage General Motors to adapt the Humvee for civilian use. "They felt … when I came here, 'Oh, here's a Republican, he is going to set us back seven years, so let's not hope for much,'" Schwarzenegger told me. Legislators may have heard all his campaign promises, but "they thought it was just stuff that you say in order to get elected."
In fact, Schwarzenegger would bang heads with environmentalists and their legislative allies on some regulatory issues. But on questions surrounding the transition toward a new energy economy, no governor would prove as visionary or determined. Ambitious new initiatives have cascaded out of Schwarzenegger's office—including the two measures raising the renewable-power requirement on utilities, a state subsidy program to encourage the installation of electricity-generating solar panels on 1 million California roofs, and in January 2007, an executive order establishing the nation's first "low-carbon fuel standard," which requires a reduction of at least 10 percent in the carbon emissions from transportation fuels by 2020.
"People make decisions in this building, a lot of times, based on what is their term," he told me, gesturing with his cigar toward the offices around him. "So they make a decision, what can be done in the next four years … I always look 50 years ahead, because to me, I cannot think just about what can I accomplish while I am in office. The thing that is important is, what should the state look like 20, 30, 40 years from now." The search for a new energy strategy also spoke to Schwarzenegger's desire to define California (and undoubtedly himself) as the forward edge of innovation. "My idea [was] that you shouldn't just do it for California, that everything we do, we should use as a way of pushing the rest of the world, because I am a big believer in marketing," he said.
Schwarzenegger's interest in big, course-changing initiatives, and the continuing desire among Democratic legislative leaders to challenge then-President Bush's energy policies, converged to produce yet another landmark initiative in 2006. After some occasionally tense maneuvering, the legislature passed and Schwarzenegger signed a Pavley-sponsored bill imposing the nation's first mandatory statewide reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. The bill required the state by 2020 to roll back its emissions to the 1990 level—a reduction of about 15 percent from the current level. (By separate executive order, Schwarzenegger also committed the state to an 80 percent reduction by 2050.) Environmentalists had been promoting exactly those goals as national policy without success under Bush. Once again, the stalemate in Washington emboldened Sacramento. California acted, Schwarzenegger told me, "because we saw no hope on the national level." It was, he continued, "very important to let Washington know, 'Look, you are not the one making all the decisions.'"
Once California had passed its greenhouse-gas-emissions law, Schwarzenegger deputized Terry Tamminen, his key environmental adviser, to encourage other states to follow. That effort has been a striking success: six states, and four Canadian provinces, have joined with California in the Western Climate Initiative, which has pledged to impose mandatory greenhouse-gas-emission reductions comparable to California's 2020 goal through a market-based regional cap-and-trade system.
The passage of California's climate-change legislation captured a third major lesson of the state's experience: just as regulations create markets, markets create constituencies. Much of the state's business establishment opposed the bill. But the legislation drew countervailing support from the state's cleantech community, which was growing partly in response to the state's earlier alternative-energy initiatives. At a critical moment, a delegation of Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs led by John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers visited the Capitol to declare that the greenhouse bill would, in the group's words, "stimulate innovation, efficiency, and economic benefits." "It changed the whole dynamic," Pavley said. "Before, all the papers were [saying], 'This is an environmental bill,' and businesses were opposed. After that… It changed the whole discussion." Schwarzenegger meanwhile helped coax support from more-traditional business interests, including PG&E.
Peter Darbee, a self-described conservative, has become an ardent proponent of mandatory carbon-emission reductions. After assuming PG&E's top job in 2005, he convened a series of meetings for senior executives with scientists on both sides of the climate issue. The conclusion he reached was unequivocal: "The Earth was warming, mankind was responsible, and the need for action is now." And partly because of the utility's experience at meeting the state's energy-efficiency goals, he said, he also concluded that while there will be "some cost" to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, "that cost is very small, compared to the cost of not doing something. If people approach this, as we have, as an opportunity, it could actually have zero or little cost, or [produce] a net benefit."
Darbee's optimism reflects a larger truth about the politics of energy in California: unlike in most states, enough industries in California have found ways to profit from the state's first waves of reform to create a durable constituency for continued change and innovation.
As a result of the climate-change bill, the state is several years ahead of the country again, this time in exploring what reducing carbon emissions will actually take. "There was no model to work from," said Mary D. Nichols, the chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, which has been tasked with administering the climate bill. Last December, the board approved a "scoping plan" that offered the most detailed road map any government agency has yet charted for reducing greenhouse emissions. It pointed to a fourth major lesson from the California energy experience: moving toward a low-carbon economy will require attacking the problem from almost every conceivable angle.
The plan anticipates that the largest reductions will come from the major reforms the state has adopted in recent years, including the Pavley emissions law, the renewable portfolio requirement, and the cap-and-trade system itself. But it also envisions renewed efficiency efforts, improved regional planning to reduce sprawl, more installation of distributed solar power on rooftops, changes in forestry and water-distribution practices, and so on.
For all of the changes required, Nichols is confident the state is on course to launch its cap-and-trade system one year early (in 2011) and to meet its 2020 carbon-reduction goals. Still, California's experience highlights several obstacles the country may face in any transition toward a lower-carbon economy. Foremost among these, ironically, may be the environmental challenges of producing more renewable power. Large-scale solar arrays consume substantial amounts of land. As plans move forward for new facilities in the Mojave Desert and elsewhere, environmentalists are uneasily monitoring the potential impact on sensitive habitats. Even more daunting are the extended permitting and regulatory processes for building the transmission lines required to carry wind and solar power to population centers.
"Transmission is the biggest constraint," says Michael R.Peevey, who is the president of the California Public Utilities Commission. Typically, he says, it takes eight to 10 years to plan, permit, and build a high-voltage transmission line. The commission has projected that California will need to build five such lines to meet its 2020 renewable-power goals. The likelihood that that will happen is even lower than the likelihood that Los Angeles will ban Botox.
Another challenge is the precarious financial condition of some of the start-up alternative-energy companies that the California utilities are relying upon to deliver wind and solar power. Even before the credit crunch, skeptics questioned whether the new energy companies possessed the financial, engineering, and logistical capacity to fulfill their agreements with state utilities to build huge generation plants. The difficulty in obtaining credit will likely make it harder for some suppliers to reach the size required to deliver their technologies at an industrial scale. Some analysts think many of the alternative-energy start-ups may instead need to license their technology to the utilities, which can more easily raise the money to build generating facilities themselves. But while more direct ownership by the utilities (or, for that matter, oil companies) might speed the deployment of alternative energy, it would also raise concerns about concentrating control over the next century's energy supplies in the same behemoths that dominated the fossil-fuel era.
Other technological challenges also loom—from upgrading the electricity grid so it can handle the intermittent nature of solar and wind power, to developing the battery capacity required to make electric cars more than a niche competitor. But the greatest unknown may be whether the state's energy agenda will eventually provoke a backlash among voters. To meet the greenhouse-gas reduction targets, the state may need to consider measures that average families might consider too intrusive, like imposing fees on the owners of cars that emit the most carbon dioxide. Energy prices are another wild card. If household utility bills noticeably rise, the political calculus might change, particularly if the economy remains weak.
Yet, for now, the key to energy politics in California is that the state has transcended the assumption, common in many other regions, that sustainability requires scarcity. The California perspective reflects the fusion of the state's long-time environmental ethos with the techno-optimism of Silicon Valley. "We look at this as an economic opportunity," says Doug Henton, an economic consultant to Next 10 and the chairman and CEO of Collaborative Economics. "What's been holding back other states and [the nation] is this fear that we're going to lose more than we gain."
Clearly, some structural advantages have encouraged that attitude in California. It is easier for California to shift toward renewable sources of electricity, for instance, because it never relied as much as most states on low-cost coal (even including its imports of coal-generated power from neighboring states); it also has an unusually favorable climate for generating solar energy.
"This isn't something you can design as an exact blueprint, a cookie cutter that is applicable everywhere," says Mary D. Nichols. But in moving toward a low-carbon future, California has its own unique challenges, starting with its excessive reliance on cars. On balance, the state's energy successes have been shaped less by the state's underlying circumstances than by the public policies California has pursued.
The big lessons of the California energy experience—rely on efficiency first, use regulation to create markets, use markets to create constituencies, attack the problem from all angles—might be implemented in different ways, but their basic principles can be applied everywhere. California's experience says the evolution to a lower-carbon, more energy-efficient economy is possible and compatible with economic growth, but that the change requires endurance, consistency, and flexibility. Schwarzenegger captures the point with a characteristically personal metaphor:
"The key thing with everything is not to concentrate so much on the process but to concentrate on the goal. When I said I am going to be Mr. Universe, and I was 15 years old in Austria, I had no idea how to train and how to get there. But I had the fire in the belly, and I had the will to say that I will be the world champion even though it was not an Austrian sport, and no one had ever done it in Austria … The will was there. So the same is here. We have the will to get there by 2020 …and therefore we are going to … make decisions based on getting there."
No one exemplifies that spirit of persistence more than Art Rosenfeld. He has been around long enough that as a graduate student he studied under Enrico Fermi. The wall of Rosenfeld's office is covered with awards that stretch back decades. Yet, at 83, he has a new passion. Rosenfeld is crusading to replace dark roofs, which trap most of the sun's heat, with white or "cool" roofs that are far more reflective, and thus save energy by keeping the building below cool. California has accepted his logic by requiring all newly constructed commercial buildings with flat roofs to use white. In 2010, Energy Commission rules will encourage new homes and remodeling projects in the state's five hottest regions to use "cool color" roof surfaces in green, brown, or other shades that reflect more heat than dark roofs.
Rosenfeld finds those rules a little disappointing, because the cool-color roofs reduce energy use by only about one-third as much as white roofs, but he understands the need to ease homeowners into a new approach. And even those requirements could yield substantial reductions. Rosenfeld has calculated that a global conversion, over the next 20 years, to white flat roofs and cool-color sloped roofs as far north as Chicago and as far south as Buenos Aires would reduce carbon emissions by an amount equivalent to taking about one-half of the world's passenger cars off the roads. Rosenfeld is content to start small but, as always, he's thinking big. To him, after all, it seems an eminently reasonable proposition that one American state can prompt the entire country, if not the world, to save massive amounts of energy and combat climate change, by reconsidering a central pillar of how buildings have been designed for centuries. Based on California's experience over the past 35 years, I wouldn't bet against him.


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Sunday, May 24, 2009
Most Laws Mandating "Counseling" and Waiting Periods Before Abortion Have Little Impact
The Guttmacher Institute has published a report, Most Laws Mandating Counseling and Waiting Periods Before Abortion Have Little Impact, by Rebecca Wind. Here is the news release:
Most Laws Mandating Counseling and Waiting Periods Before Abortion Have Little Impact
However, Laws Requiring In-Person Counseling Cause Delays, Create Additional Burdens; Poor Women Most Likely to be Affected
Laws that require counseling and waiting periods before abortion, but that allow counseling to be delivered over the Internet, by phone or by mail, appear to have little impact on birth and abortion rates. Yet, according to a new Guttmacher Paperanalyzing the relevant literature, these laws may postpone the timing of some abortions. These findings imply that counseling requirements do not cause women to change their minds about having an abortion, and that waiting period requirements do not impose significant barriers to abortion services.
Currently, 24 states require women to wait, usually for 24 hours, between an initial counseling session and the abortion procedure. The laws in seven of these statesrequire in-person counseling at least 18–24 hours prior to the procedure. Multiple studies of such a law in Mississippi have found that the requirement was associated with a decline in the state's abortion rates, an increase in the number of residents going out of state for an abortion, and delays in accessing abortion services. These findings suggest that an in-person counseling requirement places an additional burden on some women by forcing them to take more time off from work, arrange child care or stay away from home overnight when the distance to the clinic is great.
"When we looked at the laws across the board, we found little impact," said the lead author of the new report, Theodore Joyce. "But the Mississippi studies consistently found that an in-person counseling requirement was associated with fewer abortions overall, but more abortions obtained out-of-state and more second-trimester procedures. In other words, some women had to travel greater distances, and as a result, they decided not to have the procedure or to have it later in pregnancy, when the procedure is less safe and more expensive."
Research from other Guttmacher studies has shown that poor and low-income women—who have the highest unintended pregnancy and abortion rates—are also those most affected by abortion restrictions. Disadvantaged women who have trouble raising the funds for their abortion frequently take up to three weeks longer than better-off women to obtain an abortion and have the greatest difficulties taking time off from work, getting child care and affording the travel costs to obtain the procedure. A requirement of multiple in-person visits imposes even more barriers, which disproportionately affect the most vulnerable women.
According to previous Guttmacher research, abortion providers report that almost all women obtaining abortions are sure of their decision to terminate their pregnancy before they have even picked up the phone to make an appointment. While it is important to ensure that women have the information they need to make an informed decision, the evidence suggests that mandated counseling serves only to delay women's access to a procedure they have already chosen, rather than to inform their decision making.
"Requiring women to make two trips to obtain an abortion is unnecessary," says Guttmacher Paper coauthor Lawrence Finer."These laws are intended primarily to block abortion access, and the most disadvantaged women, who already have trouble accessing services, are disproportionately affected."

subset: commoncrawl


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Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, didn't announce any new games at Konami's pre-E3 2011 press conference today—though he did announce new versions of his older games. Instead, Kojima introduced us to the new Fox Engine.
Kojima told interviewer Mark MacDonald of 8-4 that developer Kojima Productions began creating the multiplatform engine shortly after the completion of Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3. Kojima indicates that the Fox Engine is designed for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, at the very least, and is indicative of the developer's future direction.
"Until now, we have been developing games for exclusively for specific platforms, but in the future, we look to go more global," Kojima says. "We are paving the road to go multiplatform for future titles."
Kojima says he hopes to use the Fox Engine for an "upcoming unannounced game" and that the images and video released today do not necessarily represent a game currently in development. Konami has released three images of the Fox Engine in action, which can be seen in the gallery above, along with Kojima's interview.
Meta Quest Pro
Mixed reality
The Meta Quest Pro centers on working, creating, and collaborating in a virtual space.


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ENMAX Energy in Grande Prairie Offers Retail Plans
ENMAX Energy in Grande Prairie offers retail energy options to energy consumers. These offerings consist of two programs: Choose Light and EasyMax. In Grande Prairie, energy deregulation gives you the opportunity to make your own energy supply decisions. Alberta has been deregulated in both electricity and natural gas for decades and residents have the opportunity to choose a competitive supplier for one or both commodities. As an Albertan, you are encouraged to explore your options.
The energy market in Grande Prairie offers competitive pricing. Therefore it's sometimes easy to quickly become impressed with an energy plan. However, be advised that an appealing plan doesn't always come with the best value. To find the best plan for electricity or natural gas in Grande Prairie for your home or business, explore your regulated rate options and different competitive suppliers to compare their plans. For instance, comparing ENMAX Energy's Choose Light and EasyMax with other options can land you the best Grande Prairie electric rates and gas deals for you.
Choose Light and EasyMax in Grande Prairie
According to ENMAX Energy, its Choose Light and EasyMax customers are able to alternate between fixed-rate plans to floating-rate plans once per month. This allows customers to protect themselves from floating rate hikes or take advantage of floating rate lows. EasyMax customers can cancel their agreement, without consequence, with one month's notice while Choose Light requires a term agreement that may involve exit fees.
Your Choose Light or EasyMax bill
If you sign up for Choose Light or EasyMax, you will receive an ENMAX Energy in Grande Prairie bill. Your bill should include any new charges for electricity or natural gas supply, as well as any past due balances. Along with supply charges, your bill should include utility fees, such as meter reading information, delivery charges and administrative fees.
Finding new Grande Prairie electric rates and gas prices on supply
In deregulated areas such as Grande Prairie, electric rates and gas rates for supply are susceptible to change per competitive supplier and also change alongside the market. Since you have the option to receive electricity and natural gas from your utility or a marketer, you should educate yourself on the differences between regulated rates and competitive rates.
The Alberta Utilities Commission handles the regulated rate approval process. The AUC verifies that all utility rates properly align with market prices. The commission, however, does not control Grande Prairie electric rates and gas rates offered by competitive suppliers, including programs such as Choose Light or EasyMax. To find new Grande Prairie electric rates and gas prices, find information about marketers and their plans with EnergyCompaniesAlberta.com. If you're interested in discussing some plans available to you, give us a call and one of our energy specialists can help you find a plan that meets your needs.
Source: www.enmax.com. Updated: 12-21-15.


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Professional tints vehicles windows aiming to reduce the amount of sunlight that gets inside and ensure a comfortable ride
Groupon Customer Reviews
About This Deal
Choice of:
- Tinting for Five Windows on a Standard Size Car, Suv, or Truck
- Tinting for Two Windows on a Standard Size Car, Suv, or Truck
- Tinting for Seven Windows on a Standard Size Car, Suv, or Truck
Tinted Glass: Soaking Up the Shade
Whether it's on a rented limousine or a family sedan, tinted glass can do a lot for a car. Read on to learn how it works and how it's applied.
A car's windshield and windows can keep out a lot of things: wind, bugs, snow, obnoxiously fresh air. Most modern auto glass has some UV protection built in, but if you want to keep things cooler—or prevent people from stealing your idea for an invention on your way to the patent office—tinting film might be a solution. There are four main types on the market:
Dyed: When the sun's rays hit a surface coated with dyed film, the dark color absorbs the sun's light and heat. The natural flow of air around a car then whisks it away from the glass, reducing how much penetrates to the vehicle's interior. Dyed films tend to be less expensive than other options, but some can discolor over time.
Metallic: In metallic films, extremely thin layers of reflective metals rest between layers of polyester—you might be able to identify a car with this type of film by its slightly mirrored look. These metals do an excellent job of blocking harmful rays and reducing interior heat, but there's one potential drawback: the metal in some of these films can slightly distort radio, phone, or GPS signals.
Hybrid: Made using a combination of dyed and metallic materials, hybrid films boast many of the benefits that these separate techniques offer. For instance, combining a gray dye with a thin layer of titanium produces a window film that's neither too dark nor too reflective.
Ceramic: This durable, scratch-resistant material was developed for the thermal-protection systems of NASA's space shuttles, and it works exceptionally well on earth. Ceramic films are among the thinnest on the market and are even available for windshields, since they can be made completely transparent. Beyond their automotive use, ceramic films are a popular choice for home windows, blocking out heat in the summer and holding it in during the winter.


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Spring Update – Game 4
The Phllies minor leaguers were back in action on Friday, as they faced the Tigers minor leaguers for a second-straight day. The Double-A Phillies team beat the Double-A Tigers team 4-0.
Let's take a look at some of the leaders:
Austin Hyatt –
Hyatt, who ended the 2010 campaign as a member of the R-Phils, started for the Double-A squad on Friday, and was sharp. He tossed three scoreless innings, and allowed just one hit, one run, while fanning four batters. He threw 44 total pitches.
Hyatt, a Georgia native, posted a 1-0 mark with a 4.91 ERA over four games last season for the R-Phils. He began the season with Clearwater and was solid over 23 games (21 starts). Hyatt, 24, posted an 11-5 mark with a 3.04 ERA. Originally drafted in he 15th round of the 2009 draft, Hyatt should be in for a big 2011 season.
Joe Savery –
The Texas native continued his assault on Double-A pitching on Friday — ripping two more hits. Savery, 25, is now hitting .500 (6-12) this spring, as he continues to try his hand at an everyday hitting role. Savery started at DH on Friday, and finished the contest 2-4 with a run scored.
Fidel Hernandez –
Hernandez had a nice day at the dish on Friday. Hernandez, who spent the majority of the 2010 season with Clearwater, went 2-5 with a run and a stolen base for the Double-A squad on Friday.
The Venezuelan native spent four games last season with the R-Phils and hit .467 (7-15). hernandez, a middle-infielder, has spent most of his Minor League career with Clearwater. The 25-year-old has played for the Threshers for four-straight seasons (2007-2010). It will be interesting to see where Hernandez begins 2011.
Stephen Susdorf, Darin Ruf, & Travis Mattair each had an RBI for the Phils Double-A team on Friday. Justin Friend, Jonathan Velasquez, and Eric Pettis each tossed two scoreless innings.
Other News & Notes from Phillies Minor League camp:
Michael Schwimer
Schwimer tossed two scoreless innings for the Triple-A Phils on Friday. Schwimer, 25, posted a 5-3 mark with 11 saves and a 3.60 ERA in 32 games for the R-Phils last season. He threw 32 total pitches on Friday and fanned three batters.
Matt Rizzotti
"Rizz" went 1-3 with a run scored in the Triple-A team's 5-3 loss to the Tigers Triple-A team on Friday.
John Suomi
Suomi ripped two hits on Friday for the Triple-A Phils. He finished 2-3 with an RBI. A native of Ontario, CA, Suomi, 30, is back for his fourth season in the Phillies organization (2007-2008, 2010).
Leandro Castro and Cameron Rupp each had two hits for the Single-A Phillies on Friday.


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A simple call-to-action at the top of your site easily drives traffic to your highest converting pages.With AWeber & Use Header Leads & AWeber Together On LeadSites!
Want to show visitors a new loan program, downpayment assistance, or promote a local charity? Header Leads puts your best foot forward, showing site visitors an attractive call-to-action. Set the link or page, the call-to-action text, and choose colors in this simple but important app.
AWeber and LeadSites integrate to give you the best of real estate followup with landing page lead capture. Your LeadSite can send leads over to AWeber via our Path's webhook. This means leads will instantly be in your CRM upon filling out any form on your LeadSite.
You can do so much more with LeadSites by connecting it to the other apps you use in real estate. Whether it's your IDX, CRMs, Paperwork managers, or our custom apps LeadSites automate the tedious tasks in your workflow.Get Started
A simple call-to-action at the top of your site easily drives traffic to your highest converting pages.
Send Your Real Estate Leads Directly To AWeber From LeadSite's Landing Pages & Apps
With Header Leads, you get to display are prominent call-to-action button at the top of every page. Send visitors to any source of lead capture you want!
Pick a design that matches your LeadSite and emphasizes your call-to-action. Combine a great message with a great look.
Don't want to always show Header Leads to the same visitor over and over again? You can control how often your call-to-action displays after a visitor dismisses it!
Are you tired of sending your clients terrible emails from terrible CRMs? LeadSites integrate with your favorite CRM's to make it easy for you to bump your lead conversion. Our Path's app gives you the ability to connect your LeadSite to multiple CRMs, and you can create various routes for different types of leads. For example, you can create a Squeeze pages for referrals and send those referral opportunities down a path designed just for them.
Easy Agent Pro has written several email scripts in our help center that you can access when you order your LeadSite. These scripts can be put into any of the 100's of CRMs and email marketing systems we integrate with to help boost your lead conversion.
Easy Agent Pro gives you two blogs per week, our SEO boosting InstaFarm system, and a content driven website. This content gives you more things to send to your leads. And helps you boost conversion.
LeadSites is a complete real estate website with custom lead capture apps that integrates with your IDX provider. When you signup, we'll get design information from you. In 2-3 business days, we'll build your site on a temporary staging link. And from there, we can point it at your custom domain.
You can use Header Leads to get more clients and to grow your real estate business. This easy to use tool lets you create landing pages, blog posts, followup sequences, text messages, Google optimized pages, and more. On top of that, we hold daily office hours training sessions to keep you on top of your game.
Learn how we make your CRM work like never before!
Learn how we make your website work like never before!


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Request for a RMA number
When returning a product you need a RMA number. To apply for a RMA number we request that you complete the following form.
Please describe the error as precisely as possible. The information you give will allow a more targeted, rapid and efficient troubleshooting both here, in house, and at the manufacturer.
If further inquiries become necessary, our repair service will contact you by e-mail or by telephone.
(1) General note: Items under warranty are repaired free of charge, provided they have not been misused. Repairs will be made by us or by the original manufacturer, provided that the repair is not considered uneconomical. The repair costs are composed of expenses and material costs.
If the inspection of the device is without result, we will charge you an inspection fee of 92 € regardless of the current warranty status of the device. Transportation costs will be charged at our regular rates.
The general term of payment for repair bills is 14 days net independent of other agreements. Further information can be found in our General Terms and Conditions of Business.


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Story highlights
NEW: Analyst: Criminals are sending a message of power, impunity
NEW: Mexico´s state prosecutors are scheduled to meet nearby
The attorney general says investigators have a video of the scene
The bodies were found near a shopping mall in Veracruz state
On the eve of a meeting of Mexico´s top prosecutors and judicial officials in Veracruz state, authorities Wednesday were still trying to determine who left 35 bodies in a busy thoroughfare there – and why.
Investigators said a video may hold clues to how unidentified men managed to drive two open-back trucks filled with corpses through rush-hour traffic and then abandon them, blocking traffic as stunned onlookers watched.
Police in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz found the abandoned trucks and the bodies near a shopping mall in the municipality of Boca del Rio on Tuesday. Mexico´s state prosecutors and court presidents are scheduled to meet there Thursday.
Photos of the scene showed the two trucks with their back gates open, the bodies falling out onto the street. People on a nearby overpass looked down on shirtless bodies piled on top of each other.
¨This is a way of making yourself known, and saying, ´We have the power, we can do this with impunity,´¨ said Jose Reveles, a security analyst. "'We do it at five in the evening, in a heavily traveled avenue. We drive two trucks loaded with cadavers, and nobody stops us.'"
Drug-related violence has been on the rise in Veracruz as cartel members battle over territory.
But the large toll gripped headlines across Mexico and drew attention from peace activists gathering in a conference in the nation´s capital Wednesday.
"They were left like trash in the street," said Edgardo Buscaglia, president of the Institute of Citizen Action for Justice and Democracy.
Buscaglia, an expert on organized crime, told audience members that the bodies found in Veracruz are a reminder that Mexicans must not become desensitized to violence, even if authorities say the victims had criminal histories.
"The value of a human life does not decrease because it has a criminal background or not," he said.
The dead included 12 women and 23 men.
The video may show that the two trucks were guarded by other cars that could have doubled as getaway vehicles, Veracruz Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez said Wednesday in a radio interview. He did not say where the video came from.
Investigators also are looking into whether police colluded with the people who discarded the bodies, he told W Radio.
As of Wednesday, morning, 95% of the bodies had been identified through databases, Escobar Perez said.
Most of them had criminal records, he said. One of them was identified as a local policeman who disappeared about 15 days ago, he said.
In another interview, the attorney general said that the victims died of suffocation. Only one had a bullet wound, he said. The state of the bodies led investigators to deduce they died shortly before being abandoned, Escobar Perez said.
The attorney general on Tuesday described the grisly discovery as "unprecedented."
"It hasn't happened before in the state of Veracruz," he said.
The two trucks were abandoned in the middle of the highway, witnesses said. Their gates were open and bodies had fallen out.
Hours later, bloodstains remained on the road as troops stood guard.
Boca del Rio is in Veracruz state's most populated area. It has become a frequent site of clashes between armed groups as drug-related violence grows.
Earlier Tuesday, 32 inmates escaped from three prisons in Veracruz, authorities said. At least 14 of them have been apprehended.
Escobar Perez said none of the bodies that had been identified by Tuesday night appeared connected with the prison breaks.
Government figures indicate that more than 34,600 people have been killed in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a crackdown on cartels in December 2006. Other reports estimate that more than 40,000 have died. The latest government figures were released in January.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, Calderon decried the violence caused by drug trafficking and called on fellow leaders to put a stop to the burgeoning weapons trade and rampant drug consumption fueling it.
¨Today we must be aware that organized crime today is killing more people and more youth than all the dictatorial regimes combined at this time,¨ he said.
CNN´s Rey Rodriguez, Mario Gonzalez and Catherine E. Shoichet and CNNMexico.com contributed to this report.


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Have you ever tried to call someone at Microsoft or Google? I have. I've even memorized Microsoft's number but won't give it here cause I'd hate for Jeff Sandquist to get a ton of crank calls. Anyway, both Microsoft and Google have switchboard numbers. Today I called someone (or tried to, anyway) at Google and found the experience to be far less useful than when you try to call someone at Microsoft. By the way, at both companies all you need is someone's name. Yeah, calling Bill Gates or Eric Schmidt probably won't prove fruitful, but try someone deep down in the bowels of the company and you'll probably get right through.
Anyway, Microsoft has a really cool voice-controlled system. You dial the number, an electronic voice answers and asks you for the person's name you're trying to reach. You SAY it. "Jeff Sandquist" and then it comes back with a recording of Jeff Sandquist so you know you're going to the right place. "Are you looking for 'Jeff Sandquist, Channel 9′"? Why yes I am! The call goes right through. If it doesn't, or you hacked Jeff's name, it prompts you for a whole lot of other things. "Do you know the email address of the person you are trying to reach?" Etc. Etc.
But compare that to Google's switchboard. When it answers it immediately prompts you for that person's extension. That's not nearly as human as Microsoft's approach to "Welcome to Microsoft. To reach a specific person just say their name at any time."
I didn't know the extension of the person I was trying to reach. So, the voice on the phone says to push 8 to reach someone by their name. I entered in the first few digits of the person's last name I was trying to reach. It immediately sent me to the voice mail box of someone completely different without prompting the way Microsoft's system does to make sure I entered the person's name right.
Why is Microsoft's system so good? Because they've been working on speech stuff for a long time. It's also why the acquisition of TellMe was so interesting. Imagine if Microsoft just focused its search efforts on voice and gave up the attempt to clone Google.com. Now THAT would be a winning strategy.
Imagine calling a number and saying "Starbucks, San Francisco" and getting routed to the right answer.
Maybe Microsoft's search engineers should call the switchboard to see just how to beat Google and move the goalposts to a new game?
UPDATE: Richard Sprague, who runs the speech team at Microsoft, says Google can buy its solution if it wants to improve its switchboard.


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- Search
Publications: Murphy, Jamie
Journal Article
Syed-Ahmad, S.F., Musa, G., Klobas, J.E.ORCID: 0000-0003-2146-7059 and Murphy, J. (2013) Audience response to travel photos and Arab destination image. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30 (1-2). pp. 161-164.
Ismail, A.F., Zorn, S.F., Boo, H.C., Murali, S. and Murphy, J. (2013) Information technology diffusion in Malaysia's foodservice industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 4 (3). pp. 200-210.
Bellman, S., Murphy, J., Treleaven-Hassard, S., O'Farrell, J., Qiu, L. and Varan, D. (2013) Using internet behavior to deliver relevant television commercials. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27 (2). pp. 130-140.
Varan, D., Murphy, J., Hofacker, C.F., Robinson, J.A., Potter, R.F. and Bellman, S. (2013) What works best when combining television sets, PCs, tablets, or mobile phones? How synergies across devices result from Cross-device effects and Cross-format synergies. Journal of Advertising Research, 53 (2). pp. 212-220.
Zorn, S., Olaru, D., Veheim, T., Zhao, S. and Murphy, J. (2012) Impact of animation and language on banner click-through rates. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 13 (2). pp. 173-183.
Murphy, J. (2012) LMS teaching versus Community Learning: a call for the latter. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 24 (5). pp. 826-841.
Lee, H., Law, R. and Murphy, J. (2011) Helpful reviewers in TripAdvisor, an online travel community. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 28 (7). pp. 675-688.
Collins, N. and Murphy, J. (2010) Playing the infinite game: marketing in the postindustrial economy. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 9 (4). pp. 345-355.
Syed-Ahmad, S.F. and Murphy, J. (2010) Social networking as a marketing tool: the case of a small Australian company. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 19 (7). 700 -716.
Hashim, N.H., Murphy, J., Purchase, S. and O'Connor, P (2010) Website and email adoption by Malaysian hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29 (1). pp. 194-196.
Lee, R.Y., Klobas, J.E.ORCID: 0000-0003-2146-7059, Tezinde, T. and Murphy, J. (2010) The underlying social identities of a nation's brand. International Marketing Review, 27 (4). pp. 450-465.
Treiblmaeir, H., Neale, L.G. and Murphy, J. (2009) Action learning of online marketing via a global contest. Central Asia Business Journal, 2 (1). pp. 47-50.
Hofacker, C. and Murphy, J. (2009) Consumer web page search, clicking behavior and reaction time. Direct Marketing: An International Journal, 3 (2). pp. 88-96.
Neale, L., Treiblmaier, H., Henderson, V., Hunter, L., Hudson, K. and Murphy, J. (2009) The Google Online Marketing Challenge and research opportunities. Journal of Marketing Education, 31 (1). pp. 76-85.
Lavin, M., Van Alstine, L., Scott, A., Oliver, J. and Murphy, J. (2009) The Google Online Marketing Challenge: Fostering student learning of search advertising. Journal of Advertising Education, 13 (1). pp. 38-43.
Murphy, J., Hudson, K., Hunter, L. and Neale, L. (2009) The Google Online Marketing Challenge: Hands on teaching and learning. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 21 (1). pp. 44-47.
Murphy, J. and Olaru, D. (2009) How information foraging styles relate to tourism demographics and behaviours. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 15 (4). pp. 299-309.
Flaherty, T.B., Jansen, B., Hofacker, C. and Murphy, J. (2009) Insights on the Google Online Marketing Challenge and its successful classroom implementation. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 5 (2). pp. 446-457.
Soutar, G.N. and Murphy, J. (2009) Journal quality: a Google Scholar analysis. Australasian Marketing Journal, 17 (3). pp. 150-153.
Zorn, S.F., Lee, R.Y. and Murphy, J. (2009) Marketing implications of traditional and ICT-mediated leisure activities. Behaviour & Information Technology, 31 (4). pp. 329-341.
Murphy, J., Olaru, D. and Hofacker, C. (2009) Rigor in tourism research: formative and reflective construct. Annals of Tourism Research, 36 (4). pp. 730-734.
Scaglione, M., Schegg, R. and Murphy, J. (2009) Website adoption and sales performance in Valais' hospitality industry. Technovation, 29 (9). pp. 625-631.
Jansen, B.J., Flaherty, T.B., Baeza-Yates, R., Hunter, L., Kitts, B. and Murphy, J. (2009) The components and impact of sponsored search. Computer, 42 (5). pp. 98-101.
Lee, R.Y., Murphy, J. and Neale, L.G. (2009) The interactions of consumption characteristics on social norms. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 26 (4). pp. 277-285.
Lee, R., Murphy, J. and Swilley, E. (2009) The moderating influence of hedonic consumption in an extended theory of planned behaviour. The Service Industries Journal, 29 (4). pp. 539-555.
Jansen, B.J., Hudson, K., Hunter, L., Liu, F. and Murphy, J. (2008) The Google Online Marketing Challenge: classroom learning with real clients, real money, and real advertising campaigns. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 9 (1). pp. 49-55.
Murphy, J. and Law, R. (2008) Google Scholar visibility and tourism journals. Annals of Tourism Research, 35 (4). pp. 1078-1082.
O'Connor, P. and Murphy, J. (2008) Hotel yield management practices across multiple electronic distribution channels. Information Technology & Tourism, 10 (2). pp. 161-172.
Lee, R. and Murphy, J. (2008) The moderating influence of enjoyment on customer loyalty. Australasian Marketing Journal, 16 (2). pp. 11-21.
Hashim, N. and Murphy, J. (2007) Branding on the web: evolving domain name usage among Malaysian hotels. Tourism Management, 28 (2). pp. 621-624.
Hashim, N., Murphy, J. and Hashim, N.M. (2007) Islam and online imagery on Malaysian tourist destination websites. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12 (3). pp. 1082-1102.
Neale, L.G. and Murphy, J. (2007) Perceived justice in email service recovery. Australasian Marketing Journal, 15 (3). pp. 5-21.
Murphy, J., Schegg, R. and Olaru, D. (2007) Quality clusters: Dimensions of email responses by luxury hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26 (3). pp. 743-747.
Murphy, J. and Scharl, A. (2007) An investigation of global versus local online branding. International Marketing Review, 24 (3). pp. 297-312.
Murphy, J., Schegg, R. and Olaru, D. (2006) Investigating the evolution of hotel internet adoption. Information Technology and Tourism, 8 (3/4). pp. 161-177.
Murphy, J., Hofacker, C. and Mizerski, R. (2006) Primacy and recency effects on clicking behavior. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 11 (2).
Murphy, J., Schegg, R. and Qiu, M. (2006) An investigation of consistent rates across Swiss hotels' direct channels. Information Technology and Tourism, 8 (2). pp. 105-119.
Murphy, J., Ho, P. and Chan, C. (2005) Competitive analyses for marketing electronic wine tourism. International Journal of Wine Marketing, 17 (3). pp. 39-54.
Scharl, A., Dickinger, A. and Murphy, J. (2005) Diffusion and success factors of mobile marketing. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 4 (2). pp. 159-173.
Conference Paper
Bellman, S., O'Farrell, J., Qiu, L., Murphy, J. and Varan, D. (2010) Using the internet to snychronize television and IPTV advertising. In: The Direct/Interactive Marketing Research Summitt, 9 - 10 October 2010, San Francisco, CA
Syed-Ahmad, S.F., Klobas, J.E.ORCID: 0000-0003-2146-7059, Ahmad Fareed, I. and Murphy, J. (2009) Pictures on the web: Normative photo sharing with friends and travellers. In: ANZMAC 2009: Sustainable Management and Marketing, 30 November - 2 December 2009, Crown Promenade, Melbourne, Australia
Conference Item
Varan, D., Murphy, J., Hofacker, C., Robinson, J., Potter, R. and Bellman, S. (2012) Cross-device synergy VERSUS Cross-media synergy. In: EG II: What works in the new age of advertising & marketing, 31 May - 1 June 2012, Wharton University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
Book Chapter
Klobas, J.ORCID: 0000-0003-2146-7059, Mackintosh, B. and Murphy, J. (2015) The anatomy of MOOCs. In: Kim, P., (ed.) Massive open online courses: The MOOC revolution. Routledge, New York, pp. 1-22.
Budd, D.B., Ismail, A.F. and Murphy, J. (2014) Comparing Australian and Malaysian Destination's Internet Diffusion. In: Kubacki, K., (ed.) Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing the Old. Springer, Cham, pp. 794-797.
Tuzovic, S., Wetsch, L. and Murphy, J. (2011) The Google online marketing challenge: A transnational comparison of classroom learning with real clients, real money, and real advertising campaigns. In: Tripathi, P. and Mukerji, S., (eds.) Cases on Innovations in Educational Marketing: Transnational and Technological Strategies. IGI Global, Hersey, PA, pp. 46-65.
Scaglione, M., Schegg, R. and Murphy, J. (2006) Investigating website performance in Valais' hospitality industry. In: Keller, P. and Berger, T., (eds.) Marketing Efficiency in Tourism: Coping with Volatile Demand. Verlag, Berlin, pp. 131-142.
Hofacker, C. and Murphy, J. (2005) Using server log files and online experiments to enhance internet marketing. In: Krishnamurthy, Sandeep, (ed.) Contemporary research in e-marketing. Idea Group, Hershey, Pennsylvania, pp. 226-249.
Bellman, S., Qui, L., O'Farrell, J., Murphy, J. and Varan, D. (2009) Internet synchronized television advertising. Murdoch University. Audience Research Labs, Murdoch University, Murdoch, W.A.


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When your swimming takes you to the pool year round, winter can become quite brutal on your body, especially your muscles. It is important to protect the condition of your muscles before and after you hit the water to prevent cramping or impeding your swimming skills. If your swimming takes you into the winter, whether your climate gets cold or not, it would be wise to invest in a quality swim parka to keep you warm and to avoid unnecessary injury.
Speedo Team Parka
If you are looking for a way to make your entire team look united while they stay warm this winter, the Speedo Team Parka is the perfect choice. Available in solid Black or Navy, this parka is water resistant, allowing your team to wear it near the water without worry about getting it wet. The interior is lined with fleece to keep everyone as warm as possible and contains several pockets on the interior and exterior of the parka to allow them to carry their important swimming accessories without worrying about losing them. This parka is a great way to provide a united front for your entire team.
TYR Alliance Swim Team Parka
For swimmers in really cold areas, the TYR Alliance Swim Team Parka promises the utmost protection with its polyester outer shell and micro fleece lining that not only keeps swimmers warm but also eliminates moisture. In addition, the barrel lock bungee cord on the hood keeps the wind out. Unlike many other parkas, the TYR parka offers a slim fit to reduce the bulk that is usually felt when wearing a swim parka. It also contains front and back venting to allow swimmers to regulate their temperature without feeling overheated. For important items, such as an MP3 player or keys, there is a secure inner pocket to keep belongings safe.
Nike Swim Parka
For those swimmers who are partial to the Nike brand, the Nike Swim Parka offers incredible warmth and style. Available in Black, Navy and Red, each color has a contrasting white stripe down each arm for a flattering look. This parka is made from fabric that is water resistant, making it possible to wear it on deck without the worry about getting wet. It also has comfortable elastic cuffs, a drawstring hood and mesh vents to prevent overheating or sweating before swimmers enter the pool.


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Editor's Note: We're excited to welcome Dan Ridge as a contributor to the CCC blog!
The customer is always right has long been a business adage. In today's highly competitive environment, it's more than just selling products to customers; it's about providing them with a seamless and enjoyable experience throughout the time they're in touch with your business.
Whether they're looking at your website, talking to a sales rep, or reading one of your brochures, the customer should gain value and insight from their experience of dealing with your business, which is why everyone is talking about customer experience.
Good customer experience has a huge role to play in whether a customer buys from you and can be the key decision-making factor. I interviewed Rory at Promotions Warehouse and asked for his view on why customer experience should be your focus for 2018.
A good experience increases overall customer satisfaction
Research has shown that providing a consistent approach to customers throughout their customer journey with your business can increase customer satisfaction by around 20%. If every touch point the customer has with you from initial contact to purchase to post-sales communication is consistent and positive, that customer will be far happier than one who bought your product, but experienced poor service while doing so.
A good experience means customers are more likely to come back
It's far less expensive for businesses to carry out repeat business with loyal customers than to constantly attract new customers all the time. Enjoying a great customer experience is a very good way to ensure customer loyalty to your brand. If they have a positive experience dealing with you, they're more likely to come back again and again. Customer experience is what will make you stand out from your competitors and adds value to your customers, so they won't want to risk switching their business elsewhere.
Customers who are happy will spread the word
If your customers have a good experience, they're more likely to spread the word among their friends and colleagues, which can lead to an increase in referrals.
They're also more likely to write favorable reviews on your website and to praise you in online forums or groups on social media. All this free word of mouth publicity can only enhance your business reputation and spread your name to other potential customers who might not otherwise have heard of your business.
"Good customer experience is more than just selling customers a product they need at the right price; it's about providing them with consistent communication, tailored messaging and information which is valuable and interesting to them."
Good customer experience is your key differential
Unless your product or service is completely unique, you have some competition out there in the marketplace. With others offering the same product, the only differential for customers is their experience buying from your business.
Offering superior customer service compared with your competitors is a clear way to make your brand stand out and help your customers with their decision-making process. It's also a better long-term strategy than trying to beat competitors solely on price.
Happy customers spend more money
Customers who enjoy the experience of working with you or dealing with your business are far more likely to spend more money with you. Research has shown that customers who enjoy good customer service are 70% more likely to spend more money with a business than those who have experienced an adequate level of service.
They're not just more likely to become loyal and repeat customers but also customers who spend more each time they use your products or services. This is one of the biggest reasons why customer experience should be your focus for this year if you want to grow your business.
Building long-term customer relationships
If you can create a great customer experience, you'll be able to build a long-term relationship with your customers, keeping them coming back repeatedly.
In today's consumer society, customers are bombarded with messages and marketing material at every turn. Creating consistent personalized, tailored customer communications will help your brand break through the noise and stand out in their minds.
If customers look forward to your emails/mailers/catalogues/offers because they know they'll be relevant and interesting, you'll be able to build lasting relationships with them to help create a sustainable business.
Good customer experience is more than just selling customers a product they need at the right price; it's about providing them with consistent communication, tailored messaging and information which is valuable and interesting to them. Customers need to have a great experience at every single touch point with your company, from the first ad they see to when they walk through the doors. If that happens, your business will benefit.
Weigh In on Customer Experience
How does your company offer a good customer experience?
What companies provide you with an enjoyable customer experience?
What other benefits do a quality customer experience deliver?
Dan Ridge is a freelance writer specializing in marketing and small business.


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Badger's outstanding post "29/31″: A Time-Travel Video About The Wall had me wanting to see if the 2011 Census data was out. I was in luck, but it doesn't look good for the ladies hoping to leap from the carousel into marriage.
In the past I've shown ten year snapshots side by side. This time I decided to see what the yearly trend looks like for the key age brackets. All data presented is for White Non-Hispanic women in the US. Other races and/or countries will look different. I have been focusing on White women because this avoids the possibility of racial demographic shifts adding confusion, and the vast bulk of the "will I be able to marry?" hand-wringing in the media is coming from White women. If anyone wants to compile this for another race or country please let me know and I'll link to it.
When I considered the possibility of a marriage strike two years ago I angered a number of readers for not being convinced*. Some readers even accused me and/or the US Census of fudging the data. At the time the trend of reduced marriage rates was very clear for women under 35, but it wasn't there for women 35 and over. 2009 was the most recent year data was available then, and as you can see from the chart above the percent of never married 35-39 year olds went up by only 0.8% between 1999 and 2009. In the last two years it has gone up dramatically from 11.8% to 14%. At the same time, the trends for the younger age brackets have all continued as well**. While we still can't know for certain how all of this will be resolved, the more data that comes in the worse it looks for women planning on pulling the marriage ripcord at the last minute.
It is hard to say how much of the recent trend is driven by the economic downturn since 2008. However, the problem for the women who delayed marriage until the last minute is they don't have the flexibility of time. Their fertility, youth, and beauty don't care about the business cycle.
The compounding problem which seems likely is that as they and their peers become more urgent in their search for a husband, the power in the marriage market could shift from women to men. Consider the real estate bubble in places like Southern California a decade ago. Buyers who found the home they wanted would offer asking price or at times above asking price out of fear that someone else would snatch their dream home out from under them. However, once the bubble burst the psychology reversed, and now sellers are the ones urgent about closing the deal.
The makings of a possible spinster panic would seem to come from the way the flow of would be brides is backing up in the pipeline. Late 30s is the absolute last minute for women to expect to marry and have children. From what we have seen the husband panic tends to set in during the late 20s to very early 30s. This makes the recent rise in never married 35-39 year olds striking. The picture below takes a closer look at the recent trend for women in their 30s:
Note the relationship between the data points in the green and blue ovals. The women in their late 30s today are the same women we have data for in their early 30s five years prior. What the respective trends in the circled areas show is that in the last few years the rate of marriage for mid 30s women has been declining. This must be the case because when we look at these same cohorts five years prior they all started with roughly the same levels of marriage.
What should make this albeit short trend alarming for marriage delayers is that there is also a dramatic increase of younger never married women making their way through the pipe. Imagine never married women in their thirties as water in a bucket. At the bottom of the bucket there is a hole (marriage), and at the top is a pipe pouring additional unmarried women in each year. The hole in the bottom of the bucket has become constricted, and we know that the flow filling the bucket will be increasing based on the increasing numbers of unmarried women in their late 20s.
*I'm still not convinced what we are seeing is driven primarily by men deliberately avoiding marriage. I can't prove this either way, but my own sense is that it is being driven initially by young women deliberately postponing marriage. This movement to delay marriage by women has had unintended consequences. Part of the group of men they would traditionally have married have registered the lack of interest by young women in marriage and have not seen the incentive to do the hard work to put themselves in a position to be a provider. Additionally, as men get older their SMV increases, especially in their late 20s and early 30s. At some point for many men marrying an ageing carouseler/career woman seems to become less attractive than sticking it out in the dating market with their own rising SMV.
** I left off the 20-24 age bracket from the chart above because it changes the scale, making it more difficult to see the trend for the older ages. You can see the same chart with the younger group included here.
See Also: Committed to the trail


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- ascend in the spring, so less snow issues, crevasses are still full, and tons of daylight
- make sure the access road is drivable before you leave the house
- allow a lot of extra time so that you can adapt to weather and other unforseen issues
We did all that. We were feeling great. Really prepared.
Then, the weather forecast lied. 3 times. The border crossing took hours and hours. The access road washed out and was undrivable 3 days before we got there. The same rain that washed out our planned access road also washed most of the snow off of the secondary access road....except for a big, deep, undrivable patch 2 km before we could start skiing. We finally made a break for the summit when the fog lifted, only to discover that the forecast had been wrong yet again, it was much colder than we expected, and we no longer had appropriate gear to ascend safely.
So next year, I guess.
A more formal trip report:
Maps: National Geographic 1:100,000 "North Cascades" (MEC) and USGS 1:24,000 "Mount Baker" (shows complete Heliotrope ridge route, does not show the complete Easton Glacier route)
Access: Heliotrope ridge access road is shut within 1km of the main highway. Totally impassable, and the locals do not estimate a quick fix. Look here for updates (#39, Glacier Creek road). We ended up using the Easton Glacier route, access is just past Baker Lake (FSR's #12 and #13 off of Baker Lake road). At this point this season, the road was almost drivable right to the trailhead. If we had been 5 days earlier, we would have parked 3km away and skinned the whole way. As it was, we parked 3km away and had to walk 2 of them due to lack of snow.
We followed the well used snowmobile route up to the easton glacier moraine. Protip: bring a case of beer to bribe a snowmobiler for a lift. This section is long, boring, and full of snowmobiles. Try to avoid melting snow for water from here, unless you like motor oil aftertaste.
We camped in the moraine at about 853975 (truncated UTM: see section 3 here for details).
We were planning on getting to high camp the next day, but barely made it out of the moraine before soupy fog rolled in. With zero visibility and crevasses on the mind, we spent the rest of the day in the tent.
The next day started at around 4am. The Easton glacier is very straightforward, with a huge, nearly unbroken highway right up to the summit cone. At this point this season, the crevasses were either non-existent or almost completely filled in. While we ascended with ropes on, another party did not and we were very confident to ski down unroped. On this day it was much colder than expected, and the previous days mush had turned to ice. Without crampons, we ended up turning around at ~2600m - the final route up the summit cone was significantly steeper than the rest of the glacier and the icefall below did not look like a fun place to slide into. We made it out the same day without difficulty, although as soon as we were back in the moraine the temperature raised by about 30 degrees.
First (unexpected) major obstacle: getting off the bridge across the creek.
Finally out of the moraine.
After a day in the tent, the clouds cleared on Sunday night.
Early morning start, but the sun was up at 4am.
Skis and skins not much use: ski crampons would have been useful.
Heading up the Easton highway. Our final route would have been to the right side of the summit cone.


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Clubs and groups
Submit listings at www.fosters.com/calendar. (Send longer articles, photographs to email@example.com as word files and attached .jpg photo files.)
PORTSMOUTH — Talking Black: Sunday Tea Talks, Sunday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m., Discover Portsmouth Center, 10 Middle St., Portsmouth; Kerima Lewis leads discussion of Slave Arson as a Strategy of Resistance in Colonial New England. Free. JerriAnne Boggis, 603-436-8433, firstname.lastname@example.com, www.pbhtrail.org.
DOVER — UNH Robotics Team Demonstration, Monday, Jan. 21, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Children's Museum of New Hampshire, 6 Washington St., Dover; Meet the UNH student robotics team as they demonstrate their lunar robot vehicle. $9/$8
PORTSMOUTH — Transitions...The Memorial Bridge, by photographer Bill Moore, Monday, Jan. 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Hall-McGee Realtors, LLC, Buyers Brokers of the Seacoast Office, 33 Deer St., Ste. 4A, Portsmouth; Bill Moore has compiled a wide range of images of the Memorial Bridge during its transition. Free. Carolyn McGee, 603-436-6636 x 101, firstname.lastname@example.com, hallmcgee.com/more/OfficeGallery/TheArtists.aspx.
KITTERY — Just Us Chickens Artist of the Month Show, Tuesday, Jan. 22, all day., Just Us Chickens Gallery, 9 Walker St., Kittery, ME; Sue Wierzba Silk Paintings and Accessories Showcased at Just Us Chickens. Free. Just Us Chickens Gallery, 207-439-4209, email@example.com, www.justuschickens.net.
PORTSMOUTH — Anger Help For Everyday Parenting, Tuesday, Jan. 22, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., The Community Campus, 100 Campus Dr., Portsmouth; Learn ways to reduce and handle anger so you can be the parent you want to be. Free. Parkie Boley, 603-422-8208 x 124, email@example.com, familiesfirstseacoast.org/calendar2.html.
YORK — Veterans' Benefits-Video Conference, Tuesday, Jan. 22, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., York Public Library, 15 Long Sands Road, York, ME; Attorney Francis Jackson will discuss veterans' benefits through video conference.
DOVER — Bereavement Support Group, Wednesday, Jan. 23, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Wentworth Hospice, 121 Broadway, Suite 117, Dover; Bereavement group for those grieving death from terminal illness of family member/close friend. Free. Ed Vaeni, 603-750-3024.
NORTH HAMPTON — Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, Wednesday, Jan. 23, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., United Church of Christ, Atlantic Ave., North Hampton; For anyone struggling with anorexia, bulimia or overeating. Free. Laura, 603-964-7036.
PORTSMOUTH — Portsmouth Buddhist Center Sangha Nights, Wednesday, Jan. 23, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Portsmouth Buddhist Center, 40 Congress St., Suite 400 (4th Floor, enter on Fleet Street), Portsmouth; An open evening for those interested in learning more about Buddhism. $10/$5 Viriyalila Racine, 603-617-2285, firstname.lastname@example.com, www.portsmouthbuddhistcenter.com.
RYE — Local Authors Night at Rye Public Library, Thursday, Jan. 24, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., Rye Public Library, 581 Washington Road, Rye; Local Authors Night at Rye Public Library. Free. Andrew Richmond, Library Director, 603-964-8401, firstname.lastname@example.com, www.ryepubliclibrary.org.
SOUTH BERWICK — The Wabanaki in Southern Maine, 1600-1725, Thursday, Jan. 24, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Berwick Academy, 31 Academy St., South Berwick, ME; Dr. Emerson 'Tad' Baker will discuss the native inhabitants of southern Maine, the Wabanaki people. Free. Norma, 207-384-0000, email@example.com, www.oldberwick.org.
DOVER — Community Discussion on Educational Choices, Saturday, Jan. 26, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Dover Baptist Church, 151 Washington St., Dover; Are your children thriving at their current school? Do they feel safe? Are they challenged? Free. Sharon Mlynarski, 603-742-3617 x 101, firstname.lastname@example.com, www.pcaschool.org/.
ROLLINSFORD — Seacoast Eat Local Winter Farmers' Market, Saturday, Jan. 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wentworth Greenhouses, 141 Rollins Road, Rollinsford; Winter Farmers' Market. Free. Info: email@example.com, www.seacoasteatlocal.org.
DURHAM — New Hampshire Authors Series, Sunday, Jan. 27, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Dimond Library Reading Room, 18 Library Way, 5th Fl., Durham; New Hampshire Authors Series event presents author Joe Monninger. Free. Kathleen Letellier, 603-862-1540, firstname.lastname@example.com, www.library.unh.edu/friends.
RYE — Digging In the the Isles of Shoals, Sunday, Jan. 27, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Rye Public Library, 581 Washington Road, Rye; Archaelogist Nathan Hamilton shares tales and findings from digs at the Isles of Shoals off Rye. Free. Andrew Richmond, Library Director, 603-964-8401, email@example.com, www.ryepubliclibrary.org.
BARRINGTON — TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly and its purpose is to help people who want to lose weight to do so wisely and healthily. This chapter meets every Tuesday night basically from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. at the Restoration Church on Rte. 125 next to the Federal Savings Bank. Both men and women (and children) are welcome to join. Patricia Newhall, Weight Recorder, 664-2816.
DOVER/ROLLINSFORD — Knitting For World Peace is a group of volunteers who knit, crochet, quilt and use fiber to create items for community members in need. They meet at Panera Bread, Dover, on Wednesday, 6:30-8 p.m.; and Sun Moon Stars Herbals, 38 Front St., Rollinsford, Sundays 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Call Lin Richard at 603-337-5124 for more information.
The Seacoast Community Garden Network website can be found at www.SeacoastCommunityGardenNetwork.org and is on Facebook at "Seacoast Community Garden Network." For more information, contact Jenny Isler, email@example.com, 207-809-3102.
DOVER — Create a peaceful world by sustaining our future. For over 5 years a multimedia discussion series has explored building community and sustaining the earth's resources through sessions on renewable/nonrenewable energy, food issues, economic, financial and health issues. Wednesdays, 7 p.m., Dover Friends Meeting, 141 Central Ave, Dover.
DOVER — The GFWC Dover Area Woman's Club meets the second Wednesday of each month at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, 6:30 p.m. The organization is looking for women 18 and older to join. The club strives to enhance the lives of others through community service. For more information call 603-842-4654.
DOVER — Dover Duplicate Bridge Club games are held on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the McConnell Center on Locust Street. Games are open to players of all abilities and are stratified. Coffee and desserts are served. The cost is $5 per person. Contact Carl Vancelette at 664-7129 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com for more information.
DOVER — The Widowed Support Group of Southern New Hampshire meets at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, 2nd floor auditorium, second Sundays of the month. For information call Toni, 742-0208.
KENNEBUNK, Maine — The Astronomical Society of Northern New England (ASNNE) meets on the first Friday of the month at the New School, 38 York St. (Route 1) in Kennebunk. Beginning Astronomy classes start at 6:45 pm. Regular meeting at 7:30 pm Please see the club's website for details (asnne.org).
KINGSTON — The Sit 'n' Stitch group meets every first and third Tuesday from 5:30-7 p.m. in the children's room of the Nichols Memorial Library, 169 Main St., Kingston. 603-642-3521.
LEE — The Lee Firemen's Association meets on third Tuesdays monthly at 7 p.m., at the Lee Safety Complex. For more information, call Barbara Gingras at 659-3919.
NOTTINGHAM — Do you love horses? Have you always wanted to learn to ride? Join the 4-H Deerfield Riders Horse Club. The club is open to ages 8 and up and will focus on horses, horse management, and styles of riding. You do not need to own a horse to join! For more information, call Kim Gilman at (603) 509-7366.
OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine — The Zonta Club of York County meets the second Thursday of the month, September through June, at 6 p.m. at the Captain's Galley Restaurant in Old Orchard Beach. For more information, contact the club president, KT Snyder, at email@example.com or at www.zontadistrict1.org.
PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Good Sam RV Club, area chapters throughout Maine focus on family friendly RV fun, as well as activities that "give back to the community." For information go to www.MaineGoodSams.org or email@example.com.
PORTSMOUTH — The Knit-Wits have changed their name to Sit 'n Stitch and now welcome all needle crafters. Meeting every Wednesday from 10-Noon, the Sit 'n Stitch gathering offers an open space to knit, crochet, embroider or work on other lap work. It's a time to pick up tips and share projects. All skill levels and ages welcome! The meeting is held in the Hilton Garden Room on the second floor of the library at 175 Parrott Avenue.
For more information please contact librarian, Lisa Harling at 603-766-1713 or via email, email@example.com.
PORTSMOUTH — The Portsmouth Area NAACP Unit holds its monthly meetings on the first Monday of each month, unless the first Monday falls on a holiday weekend or there is extreme inclement weather in which case the meeting will be held on the second Monday. The general membership meeting begins at 7 pm. The meeting location is: One New Hampshire Avenue Portsmouth, (Pease Tradeport) 03801. Meetings are held in the third floor conference room, take the elevator. For more information contact Fred Purnell at 603-749-6362 or visit www.seacoastnaacp.com.
PORTSMOUTH — The Portsmouth Toastmasters club meets from 7-9 p.m. at the United Methodist Church on Miller Avenue in Portsmouth on the first and third Thursday of every month. Guests are always welcome. Contact bessette. firstname.lastname@example.com. Visit www.toastmasters.org for more information.
PORTSMOUTH — Great Bay Duplicate Bridge Club meets at 10 a.m. every Monday at First United Methodist Church, 129 Miller Avenue in Portsmouth. You may come without a partner. Refreshments available. Short break for lunch. For information visit www.greatbaybridge.com or call (603) 436-8357.
ROCHESTER — Rochester Humane Lodge 21 was constituted March 1810 and Chartered in 1811. It has a long history of chartitable fund raising and local community involvement and is located at 31 Hanson St in Rocheser. Our meetings are held several times a month. For more information or membership contact Secetary Jeff Brown at 603-320-7010.
ROCHESTER — All are welcome at the monthly Healing Circle in the Community & Education Center next to Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester. We meet the 4th Wednesday of every month from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
WAKEFIELD — Community String Band in Wakefield: Come Join the Fun! Come and learn to play traditional music with others (jigs, reels, hornpipes, waltzes and other tunes) in a very supportive and fun atmosphere! No previous experience needed. All instruments welcome. Thursday evenings at the First Congregational Church of Wakefield, 2718 Wakefield Rd., across from the Wakefield Inn. A group for beginners starts at 6, and a mixed levels group begins at 7. Classes are $10 and are taught by wonderful multi-instrumentalist Seth Austen. Call 522-3189 for more information.