text:
Latest News
Arab summit a symbolic win for Iraq, but with no breakthrough on Syria
BAGHDAD — Arab leaders who gathered Thursday in Baghdad broke no new ground on Syria or other regional crises, but their summit was still hailed as a success — for returning Iraq to the Arab fold after years of isolating war and occupation.
Ten of the Arab League's 22 member nations sent a head of state to the summit, most notably Kuwait, whose emir traded ceremonial kisses with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a rapprochement that comes two decades after Saddam Hussein invaded that tiny neighbor in a provocation that sparked the first Persian Gulf War.
Other Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar sent pointedly lower-level delegations, but none of them boycotted the summit, which was organized by Iraq's ruling Shiite Muslims and Kurds, whom many Sunni leaders have shunned since the U.S.-led invasion swept them into power.
"This is a country that was distanced, overlooked, boycotted and sanctioned. And now it is back," a triumphant Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told journalists after the summit.
With Syria and other sectarian-tinged conflicts still dividing Arab nations, no one would call the member states' relations warm. However, the very presence of Gulf notables as guests of Shiites in a palace that was once the headquarters of the American occupation was a milestone for Iraq, and an achievement for an Arab League caught in the limbo between the old authoritarian order and a new crop of revolutionaries-turned-leaders.
The lack of disruptive violence also gave a boost to Iraq's security forces, which have struggled to stop sporadic bombings that still plague the country after the U.S. military's withdrawal at the end of 2011.
Security measures for the conference were extraordinary even in Baghdad's typical warren of blast walls and checkpoints. The capital was virtually shut down, with no civilian vehicle traffic and cellphone signals jammed in many areas, frustrating ordinary Iraqis who won't directly benefit from the conference.
Authorities noted three separate rocket attacks — barely a blip by Iraq's grim standards. They all occurred away from the conference site and with no apparent casualties, according to news reports.
"It was an impossible dream to meet you here in Baghdad," Maliki told the gathering in his welcoming speech. "Until three years ago, Baghdad was a city of ghosts, its neighborhoods isolated, its universities closed, its streets empty and its hospitals filled with martyrs and the wounded."
The conference also was remarkable for the absences of former Arab League stalwarts — Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh and Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, all autocrats who were swept aside in last year's Arab Spring uprisings.
Syria's chair was conspicuously vacant in the ornate hall. It was the only member nation not in attendance, uninvited because the league has suspended it over President Bashar Assad's bloody, yearlong crackdown on protesters.
The Arab League's annual summit is notorious for its toothless proclamations, and the muted response to the Syrian crisis appeared to follow that tradition. With its own series of proposals to stanch the Syrian bloodshed stalled, the Arab League on Thursday essentially relinquished the matter to the U.N. Security Council.
"The Security Council is the sole party that has the authority to issue binding decisions. Now the Syrian file has been sent to the Security Council. It will be studied and solutions will be recommended, and the ball is in Syria's court," said Arab League chief Nabil al Araby, an Egyptian.
Member states refused to demand Assad's ouster, dialing back on a call in January for the president to hand over authority to a deputy and begin a transition that would culminate in elections supervised by Arab and international monitors.
Now, Arab leaders are pinning hopes on U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general whose own initiative calls for an immediate ceasefire by both government and rebels, a withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from residential areas, humanitarian aid, prisoner releases and more access for journalists.
Assad has agreed to Annan's six-point plan, but there's little confidence from leaders in the West or the Middle East — and none among Syrian opposition activists — that the regime will abide by the peace plan.
"The government has failed to protect its people and to rise to the level of their ambitions and aspirations, and now it's conducting military attacks and the crisis is getting worse," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the summit as a guest, told the Arab leaders. "It's not enough to make commitments, but commitments should be translated into actions and implementation."
White House spokesman Jay Carney in Washington also expressed skepticism. "We've seen a lot of empty rhetoric from Assad and his government, a lot of promises that were never fulfilled and never meant to be fulfilled," he said.
There were efforts to deal with topics other than Syria. The Saudi envoy, whose government has urged arming the Syrian rebels, didn't even mention Syria in a brief speech calling for regional economic reform.
Others dwelled on the stagnant Palestinian peace process, a perennial agenda item for the annual summits, or the need for better counterterrorism cooperation among member states.
There are worries, especially among Iraq's secular Shiites and Sunni Arab minority, that the Baghdad hospitality would be short-lived and that the country's Shiite leaders would return to their longtime allies in Iran, enemy No. 1 to Gulf states, once the visiting Arab dignitaries had departed.
Ismael Zayer, a pro-government commentator and editor of the Baghdad newspaper Sabah al Jadid, said that Iran was too busy with its domestic problems and Syria to meddle in Iraq at the same level it did a few years ago. And, he said, Iraq wouldn't squander the high-profile position the summit has earned it among fellow Arab states.
Zayer noted, with a laugh, that one of the rockets fired Thursday landed just outside the Iranian diplomatic compound in Baghdad.
"See what good guys we are?" he said. "The only bullet fired during the summit was at the Iranian Embassy."
(Issa is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
Islamist will chair panel that's writing Egypt's constitution
A new generation of Syrians adapt to life in exile
Syria plants anti-personnel mines on Turkish border
Follow Hannah Allam on Twitter


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Click Server Certificates tab > Request button.
Select a configuration from the configuration list for which you need to install the certificate.
Select the token (Cryptographic Device), which contains the keys.
If your key is stored in the local key database maintained by the server, choose internal. If your key is stored in a Smart Card or other external device or engine, choose the name of the external token from the drop-down list box. Enter the password for the selected token.
Enter Details.
Before you begin the request process, make sure you know what information your CA requires. Whether you are requesting a server certificate from a commercial CA or an internal CA, you need to provide the following information:
Server Name must be the fully qualified hostname used in DNS lookups (for example, www.sun.com). This is the hostname in the URL that a browser uses to connect to your site. If these two names do not match, a client is notified that the certificate name doesn't match the site name, creating doubt about the authenticity of your certificate.
You can also enter wildcard and regular expressions in this field if you are requesting a certificate from an internal CA. Most vendors will not approve a certificate request with a wildcard or regular expression entered for common name.
Organization is the official, legal name of your company, educational institution, partnership, and so on. Most CAs require that you verify this information with legal documents (such as a copy of a business license).
Organizational Unit is an optional field that describes an organization within your company. This can also be used to note a less formal company name (without the Inc., Corp., and so on).
Locality is an optional field that usually describes the city, principality, for the organization.
State or Province is optional.
Country is a two-character abbreviation of your country name (in ISO format). The country code for the United States is US.
All this information is combined as a series of attribute-value pairs called the distinguished name (DN), which forms the subject of the certificate.
Choose Certificate Options
You are required to provide the key information. For key type, you can choose RSA or ECC. If the key type is RSA, the key size can be 1024, 2048 or 4098. If your key type is ECC you will also need to select a curve. Keep in mind that generating a new key pair takes time. The longer the key length the longer the time the wizard takes to generate it.
Be sure to select a key type that the CA (to which you will later submit the request for signing) can support.
Select Certificate Type.
Select the Certificate Signing Authority (CSA) for the certificate (self-signed or CA signed). If you are selecting a self-signed certificate, you can also associate an HTTP Listener for the certificate. You can also perform this action later.
Generate Request.
The generated certificate request will be available in ASCII format in case of CA signed certificate. In case of self-signed certificate, it will be installed directly. If the type is self-signed, provide values for nickname, validity (Months) and the HTTP Listener name for handling secure requests.
View Results.
This page provides you with the summary of selected options. Click Finish to complete the request generation.
Using CLI
To request a certificate through CLI, execute the following command.
wadm> create-cert-request --user=admin --password-file=admin.pwd --host=serverhost --port=8989 --config=config1 --server-name=servername.org --org=sun --country=ABC --state=DEF --locality=XYZ --token=internal
See CLI Reference, create-cert-request(1).
To create a self-signed certificate through CLI, see Creating a Self-Signed Certificate.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tue, 16 August 2011
Congressman Steve King...issues...nearly explodes when the food stamp program was described as a jobs program... Ryan Rhodes is the T-Party guy who asked President Obama questions. Then, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz talks about the Straw Poll Vote.
Direct download: mickelson-2011-08-16.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:44pm CDT


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Find Your Perfect Home.
Tekonsha Real Estate
Tekonsha is located in Michigan. Tekonsha, Michigan has a population of 704. Tekonsha is less family-centric than the surrounding county with 20.11% of the households containing married families with children. The county average for households married with children is 25.86%.
The median household income in Tekonsha, Michigan is $36,080. The median household income for the surrounding county is $43,199 compared to the national median of $53,482. The median age of people living in Tekonsha is 43.9 years.
Tekonsha Weather
The average high temperature in July is 82.1 degrees, with an average low temperature in January of 16 degrees. The average rainfall is approximately 36.5 inches per year, with inches of snow per year.
View Homes for Sale in Tekonsha
Tekonsha Map
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Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/494191
5 AEG is one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world. AEG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company, owns, controls or is affiliated with a collection of companies including over 100 of the world's preeminent facilities such as STAPLES Center (Los Angeles, CA), Sprint Center (Kansas City, MO), Citizen's Business Bank Arena (Ontario, CA), O.co Coliseum (Oakland, CA), Oracle Arena (Oakland, CA), Valley View Casino Center (San Diego, CA), American Airlines Arena (Miami), Best Buy Theater (Times Square, NY), Verizon Theatre (Grand Prairie, TX), Colosseum at Caesars Palace (Las Vegas, NV), Target Center (Minneapolis, MN), BBVA Compass Stadium (Houston, TX), Allphones Arena (Sydney, AU), MasterCard Center (Beijing, China), Ahoy Arena (Rotterdam), Ericsson Globe Arenas (Stockholm), Qatar National Convention Centre (Doha), O2 World Hamburg, O2 World (Berlin) and The O2, a 28-acre development located in the eastern part of London along the Thames River which includes a 20,000-seat arena and over 650,000sf of leisure and entertainment use which are all part of the portfolio of AEG Facilities; AEG Merchandising, a full ser vice merchandising company; and AEG Global Partnerships, responsible for worldwide sales and ser vicing of sponsorships naming rights and other strategic partnerships. In addition, AEG developed and operates StubHub Center, a $150 million national training center located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, CA which is an Official U.S. Olympic Training Site and features elite facilities for soccer, tennis, track & field, track cycling, boxing, lacrosse, rugby, football and other sports, as well as concerts and family shows, and is home to back to back MLS Champion LA Galaxy and Chivas USA MLS franchises. The company is also spearheading the development of Farmers Field, a 72,000-seat stadium and Event Center in downtown Los Angeles designed to host an NFL franchise, conventions and special events as well as a sports and entertainment arena in Las Vegas in partnership with MGM Resorts Intl. Teams including the 2012 Stanley Cup Champion LA Kings (NHL), Manchester Monarchs (AHL), Ontario Reign (ECHL), Houston Dynamo & MLS Champion LA Galaxy (MLS), three hockey franchises in Europe as well as the Hammarby (Sweden) Futbol Club, management of privately held shares of the Los Angeles Lakers, events such as the Amgen Tour of California cycling race and a schedule of soccer exhibitions in the United States featuring the most popular international teams are part of AEG Sports. AEG Live, the live-entertainment division of Los Angeles-based AEG, is dedicated to all aspects of live contemporary music performance. AEG Live is comprised of touring, festival, exhibition, broadcast, merchandise and special event divisions, fifteen regional offices and owns, operates or exclusively books thirty five state-of-the-art venues. The current and recent concert tour roster includes artists such as Taylor Swift, The Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Justin Bieber, Leonard Cohen, Wisin & Yandel, Kenny Chesney, P!nk and Paul McCartney. The company is also currently producing productions including Shania Twain at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The division's exhibition portfolio boasts the most successful exhibition of all time, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, which has attracted more than seven million visitors since 2005. AEG Live is also the largest producer of music festivals in North America from the critically acclaimed Coachella Music & Arts Festival to Stagecoach and New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. AEG directed the overall creation and development of L.A. LIVE, the 4 million square foot / $2.5 billion downtown Los Angeles sports, residential & entertainment district featuring venues such as Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE, Club Nokia and The Conga Room; the GRAMMY Museum, saluting the history of music and the genre's best know awards show; a 54-story, 1001- room convention "headquarters" destination (featuring The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels and 224 luxury condominiums - The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton L.A. LIVE - all in a single tower), Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium 14 movie theatre, "broadcast" facilities for ESPN, along with entertainment, restaurant and office space making it the region's most active 'live content and event campus.' In 2012, AEG Facilities launched its Turf Pro sports turf management program designed to provide and maintain company managed stadiums and teams with the highest quality playing surface. An annual Turf Pro Conference will be launched in 2013 for venue operators from around the globe to convene and discuss techniques and technologies to advance the management of professional sports playing surfaces. In 2010, AEG launched its AEG 1EARTH environmental program with the announcement of 2020 environmental goals and the release of the industry's first sustainability report while in 2011, AEG introduced axs Ticketing, the first phase of its new entertainment platform ser ving as the company's primary consumer brand which will also feature a mobile ser vice as well as a video content ser vice now in development. In summer 2012, in partnership with HDNet, Ryan Seacrest Productions and Creative Artists Agency, AEG launched AXS TV, a new linear cable channel focusing on live entertainment and lifestyle programming available in nearly 40 million homes. Contact: Michael Roth, V.P., Communications - (213) 742-7155 – email@example.com For more information on AEG, visit: www.aegworldwide.com


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Danny Boyle could barely be heard over the low-flying helicopter. "It's like 'Apocalypse Now,'" he yelled as he fastened his helmet and tightened a climbing harness around his waist, preparing to descend into a narrow canyon.
The British director had brought his moviemaking team to this remote locale just outside Canyonlands National Park to film several key scenes in "127 Hours," Boyle's first feature since 2008's " Slumdog Millionaire." Every supply — sleeping bags, tents, toilets, cameras, makeup, forks, beef jerky — had to be flown in, and the latest delivery had just noisily arrived.
Yet as soon as the chopper lifted off again that April day, a stillness settled over the Utah landscape — the same haunting quiet that surrounded hiker Aron Ralston after he was pinned by a falling chockstone here in 2003, famously forcing him to amputate his right forearm to escape.
Boyle climbed down a series of ladders to the precise spot of Ralston's solitary, five-day ordeal of dehydration, starvation, hypothermia and sleep deprivation. The actual rock that trapped the hiker was removed years ago so that Ralston's hand could be recovered and cremated; in its place was an artificial boulder, splattered with fake blood added for the scene.
In the sequence being filmed, Ralston (played by James Franco) had just severed his forearm with a dull multi-tool. In the next shot, he was to stagger out of the tight coulee, only to be faced with another unthinkable task: to rappel about 70 feet down a sheer cliff, using one hand. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, tethered by a rope to a large shrub, leaned over the gorge from an opposing precipice to shoot Franco's walk from the dark slot to the sunny rappel spot — "into God's light," as Boyle described it.
"His last, worst fear is that he'll lose control of it," Boyle instructed a gaunt Franco, who had lost 25 pounds for the role. "And he's got to be careful that he doesn't pass out from the blood loss."
A middle-of-nowhere location, precarious camerawork and physical strains were hardly the only challenges Boyle's team faced in filming "127 Hours," a Fox Searchlight release arriving in theaters Nov. 5. They also dodged scorpions and weathered a freak late-season snowstorm that delayed production.
Yet those were all trivial tribulations compared to what Boyle, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and producer Christian Colson had to wrestle with even before the "127 Hours" cameras rolled: first, sell a reluctant Ralston on any number of dramatic liberties; second, craft a compelling narrative in which the hero has no one to talk to and can't move; and third, figure out how to depict a grisly procedure that wouldn't make moviegoers pass out or run for the exits.
Even if Boyle succeeded on all those fronts, the "127 Hours" director admitted, "This will be a difficult movie to sell."
Eclectic choices
Boyle's filmography is extraordinarily varied: the zombie thriller "28 Days Later," the sci-fi story "Sunshine," the children's fantasy "Millions," the dystopian drama "The Beach," the crime movie "Shallow Grave," and the hallucinatory "Trainspotting." The 54-year-old has tackled every genre, it seems, outside of musicals and biography.
Six years ago, he tried to adapt "3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It," a book about six firefighters who died in a 1999 Massachusetts blaze. But he and Universal Pictures canceled production at the last minute when some survivors objected.
"I remember thinking after '3000 Degrees' that I'll never do another real-life story," Boyle said. "It's just too complicated. You don't have control over the material."
After turning "Slumdog Millionaire" into an art-house chartbuster and Academy Awards champion, Boyle contemplated directing the next James Bond film or remaking "My Fair Lady." But he kept thinking about Ralston's near-death experience, previously having given the hiker's 2004 book, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," to Colson.
"I read it and said, 'There's no way you can do this,'" the producer said. "It's one bloke with his arm stuck. How could you make that dramatic?"
Boyle had an answer, albeit a strange one, and gave Colson his outline for the film. Rather than focus as much on the mounting rescue effort as on Ralston's predicament, as some filmmakers might, Boyle said his cameras would never leave the hiker. That way, spectators in a multiplex could be transported to the canyon.
"I wanted it to be a subjective experience for the audience," Boyle said. "My feeling is that we're all capable of what Aron did. So if it's subjective, you won't avert your eyes. You'll say, 'Go on, do it!'"
But Ralston wasn't initially buying Boyle's vision.
Smitten with the Andean survival movie "Touching the Void," a 2003 feature combining interviews with the real climbers and reenactments by actors, Ralston thought the same fact/fiction mash-up would best serve his story. He joined forces in 2004 with "Touching the Void" producer John Smithson and filmmaker Alex Gibney, the documentarian behind the Oscar-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side." But their movie went nowhere for two years.
"We had a vision, and still we couldn't get financing," Ralston said. "So we had to challenge that initial assumption that I was the best person to tell the story."
Ralston met Boyle in 2006, before the making of "Slumdog Millionaire," and the director told him how he would tell his tale. "He wanted to work within that very challenging framework. It's a tight space. There's one guy. And he's not moving for two-thirds of the movie," Ralston said.
What's more, Boyle told Ralston, he needed to dramatize Ralston's state of mind, embellishing small details — such as Ralston's fleeting mention in his book of a girlfriend — into larger narrative passages with emotion. "If you want me to do it," Boyle told Ralston, "you have to lend us your story."
In other words, the filmmakers would make sure the climbing gear was right, and would resist the studio's suggestions for product placements like candy bars, but they would have to make stuff up. "You have to sacrifice the small truths," Colson said, "to honor the larger one."
Ralston still wasn't convinced. "I thought accuracy was the channel to inspiration — that it had to be absolutely the truth to touch people and inspire audiences," said Ralston, who has been a popular motivational speaker. "And then I started realizing that's not the only avenue to get to that goal." After "Slulmdog Millionaire" swept the Oscars in early 2009, he was willing to let "127 Hours" proceed.
So with screenwriter Beaufoy, Boyle sketched out a story that attempted to answer the big questions of how the experience transformed Ralston, while including moments that Ralston never discussed or actually didn't happen: In one scene, the trapped hiker masturbates. "Come on, he must have tried to," Boyle said, though Ralston has remained silent on the issue.
Ralston had quit an engineering job at Intel in 2002 to dedicate himself to mountain climbing. Before the accident, he said, he was "more hedonistic, more narcissistic and more concerned with ego-fulfillment." But Boyle needed to capture that evolution in the compressed time span of a 90-minute movie. So, for example, his script employs the girlfriend character of Rana (Clémence Poésy) to dramatize Ralston's selfishness and remind the hiker of what he had left behind.
In reality, the 34-year-old said, it was his family, not a former flame, that filled his thoughts during his ordeal. "Basically, they needed more girls in the movie," Ralston said.
Visual feats
Because the narrow confines of Blue John Canyon made it impossible to film the entire movie there, production designer Anne Suttirat Lalarb built a precise replica of the crevasse in a Salt Lake City warehouse. On that set in late March, before the team headed to Blue John Canyon, Franco was taking the first step in Ralston's backcountry surgery.
With a prosthetic arm in place of his own, Franco folded out a knife from the multi-tool and plunged it into his (fake) flesh, the blade stopping when it hit (fake) bone. Syrupy imitation blood — thick, like Ralston's would have been due to dehydration — oozed from the wound. Looking exhausted, the actor took a swig of the only drink the hiker had left: his own urine (fake), stored in a CamelBak hydration pouch.
"Oh that's it, James, brilliant," Boyle said after Franco finished gagging. "If you can get in that position again, you can see it moving through the tube into your mouth."
Boyle knew that a movie focused almost exclusively on one stuck man, even with some flashbacks and an encounter with two female hikers before the fateful moment of entrapment, could quickly turn tedious. So he used an array of visual flourishes to keep the story moving — like putting a lens in the CamelBak so that the audience would see the urine traveling toward Ralston's mouth. He also takes the viewer into Ralston's arm, to witness knife hitting bone.
Boyle also took the highly unusual step of employing two cinematographers: "Slumdog Millionaire's" Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, who shot "28 Weeks Later." While Dod Mantle was setting up one shot, Chediak was filming another — giving Franco little time to rest.
"It's partly about harnessing Danny's energy. He doesn't like sitting around," Colson said.
While Ralston was trapped, he recorded himself on video, including moments where, convinced of his impending death, he made an impromptu will and offered instructions about where his ashes should be scattered. While Ralston hasn't shown the videos publicly — "I promised my mom not to," he said — he shared them with Franco and the "127 Hours" team.
"They feel like the scariest home movies you've ever seen. For an actor, it's just gold," Franco said. "It's not Aron retelling the story in one of his speeches. It's a guy who thinks he is going to die but not wallowing in self-pity."
Ultimately, Boyle believed, Ralston would have an epiphany in the canyon, and it wouldn't simply be how to break his arm bones so he could cut off his hand. Ralston would lose a limb, but the experience would make him whole.
Two things would compel his escape: the hallucinatory image of his not-yet-conceived son (which is mentioned in Ralston's book) and the nearly magnetic draw of humanity, a yearning to rejoin everyone else both literally and metaphorically (which isn't).
"For me, what the film is really about is the pull of the crowd," Boyle said. "It's an incredibly powerful thing."


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Edie and the CEO
Author: Mary Hughes
Release Date: 4 February, 2013
Review Copy Provided by the Author
Edie Rowan is passionate about workers' rights, wanting her Sixties protester grandparents to be proud of her. But championing the little guy gets her in trouble with sexy CEO Everett Kirk. Kirk is Mr. Ultra-Executive with his expensive hand-tailored suits and his eyes the steel blue of a finely tempered sword—but for the intriguing contradictions of his neat ponytail and square workman's hands.
Edie's latest disaster, a teambuilding exercise gone facepalm wrong, leads to a knockdown drag-out with rival manager Bethany "The B"—or add the "Itch"—Blondelle. The incident is the last straw for Kirk. He sends Edie to management camp and to her shock, announces he will drive her there himself. She wonders why he would want eighteen hours of enforced intimacy with her, even as she's dazzled by his sparkling white smile and killer dimple.
Everett walks away from the confrontation with a headache. For years he has protected Edie from the fallout of her righteous crusading, but this may be the last time. A corporate backstabber is trying to eject Everett from his job. Even so, he's looking forward to spending time on the drive with Edie, attracted to her sunny red curls, fiery personality and fine dark eyes.
Then a snowstorm forces them to seek shelter in an empty mountain cabin. Edie thinks she will take the lead in wilderness survival but Kirk proves more durable than his Italian loafers and silk sweater would suggest. The extended stay rubs them together in all sorts of ways, kindling emotional and physical flames. But when their corporate shells burn away, what secrets will be revealed?
Pretty much since I joined Goodreads in 2009, I have heard various friends talk about Mary Hughes books – they gush their love for her Biting Nixie series and say that it is completely insane. Yet, for some reason, I have been dragging my feet on reading them – maybe because I'm afraid they will be too hyped up and disappoint – I don't know. Anyways, one of my friends contacted me and said that Mary was looking for reviewers for her newest contemporary romance and would I be interested – since I hadn't heard much about it, I jumped at the opportunity (since ultimately, contemporary romances are for the most part my guilty pleasure).
Anyways, from the get-go, I was laughing out loud at Edie's antics in the office – working with some of the people I do, I'm amazed that stuff like that hasn't happened yet. She is the kind of manager that I would love to work for – dedicated to the mission and yet caring of her people at the same time – able to walk that fine line between hard work and over work (which is hard for many people to do, I know that I struggle with it).
And then there was Kirk, or Everett – since she referred to him as Kirk through-out most of the book, its hard for my brain to process and flip back/forth between the two (I also had images of Captain Kirk stuck in my head for most of the time that I was reading the book).
I could apparently continue to gush over this book, but I'll save you guys from that – but I do recommend it and would give it 4 stars. It is also a relatively quick read at about 34k words (about 115ish pages – give or take).


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Ignoring complaints the United States has already lost 100,000 textile jobs to similar trade legislation, the House and Senate voted to approve a tax and trade bill that grants almost unlimited access to the U.S. market for apparel products assembled in Haiti from yarn and fabric made elsewhere.
The Haiti measure was one of a handful of tax and trade bills adopted literally at the 11th hour by House and Senate leaders anxious to have something to show for the 109th Congress. The others extended or modified tax breaks that had already or were scheduled to expire at the end of 2006 and authorized oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
Farm groups such as the National Cotton Council and National Corn Growers Association supported many of those, although the NCC joined with the National Council of Textile Organizations in opposing the bill's provisions giving preferential treatment to textile products assembled in Haiti.
The NCC and the NCTO argued the Haitian provision would result in the displacement of U.S. cotton and yarn exports to Haiti by Chinese products since it contained no preferential treatment for U.S.-manufactured yarn and fabrics.
"We continue to urge the congressional leadership to reject any backroom deal that will send U.S. jobs to foreign countries like China," said NCTO President Cass Johnson. "When China wins and U.S. workers lose because of a backroom deal made at 2 a.m. in the halls of Congress, then that is a sad day.
"The ultimate irony deal is that in its eagerness to sacrifice U.S. jobs to help Haiti, all the U.S. Congress has accomplished is to make Haiti a transshipment point for apparel from China at the expense of the entire Western Hemisphere."
The approval of the Haiti measure came despite a letter written by eight Republican senators from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky urging the Senate leadership to drop it and new tariff preference levels for products made by African countries.
In the letter, the senators said 100,000 textile jobs in their region had already been lost due to trade agreements, and they would oppose "as forcefully as possible" the Haiti measure.
"No hearings have been held on these measures," said Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, which also lobbied against the provisions. "No vetting has been done. No formal debate has occurred. All that is going on is a blatant attempt to ramrod ill-advised legislation through Congress to favor foreign special interests in countries like China at the expense of the U.S. textile industry and its workers."
Johnson said the Haiti legislation contained in H.R. 6406 could eliminate most or all U.S. exports textile and apparel exports to Haiti and harm U.S. exports to Mexico and the CAFTA countries. U.S. textile and apparel exports to Haiti totaled $220 million in 2005.
Haiti is the lowest-wage apparel producer in the Western Hemisphere, he said. "As a result, its apparel exports to the United States have grown by 29 percent during the last year to 240 million square meters equivalent. By value, Haiti's exports are up 11 percent and now total $432 million. This is in sharp contrast to the CAFTA countries which have seen their apparel exports to the United States fall by 10 percent."
The African Growth and Opportunity Act provisions also passed by the House and Senate include a tariff preference level for African countries equal to 775 million SME beginning in year one, with future increases tied to the growth of U.S. apparel imports. "The TPL will enable African producers to use inputs from third-party countries like China and still export apparel to the United States duty-free," Johnson noted.
According to Cotton Council officials, the legislation also establishes a value-added rule of origin that, according to Customs, is unenforceable. The industry offered alternative measures, which would assist Haiti, but they were not considered.
The tax bill passed by both houses would extend through 2007 or 2008 and, in some cases, modify tax cuts that expired at the end of last year or are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
The package also includes about $1.5 billion in energy tax breaks and extensions of provisions due to expire at the end of 2007. The package's major tax provisions extend the research and development tax credit; deduction for state and local sales taxes in lieu of state and local income taxes; deduction for tuition and related expenses; and, shorter depreciation periods for leasehold improvements.
The energy tax provisions in the legislation will extend renewable-electricity production credit, clean renewable-energy bonds, the deduction for energy-efficient commercial buildings, the credit for energy-efficient homes and the credit for business installation of alternative energy equipment and the excise tax break for methanol and ethanol produced from coal; new special depreciation allowance for cellulosic biomass ethanol plants; modification of the tax credit for coke and coke gas production.
Besides the duty-free trade benefits for Haiti and the expanded TPL for African countries, the legislation establishes permanent normal trade relations for Vietnam and extends for one year the duty-free treatment of some products from Andean countries, including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; and amends the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule to suspend or reduce the tariff rate on more than 500 products unavailable in the United States.
The last-minute legislation also protected doctors from a 5 percent cut in Medicare payments that would have taken effect Jan. 1.
The flurry of activity as the House and Senate prepared to leave Washington belied what has become known as one of the least effective sessions of Congress in recent memory.
The 109th Congress adjourned after passing only two of 11 appropriations bills, instead passing a continuing resolution that allows the government to continue operating with the fiscal 2006 budget until Feb. 15.
Republican leaders, in effect, left the unfinished budget work to the Democrats who will assume a leadership role when the 110th Congress gets down to business in January.
"They are leaving us with a tremendous mess," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who will take over the reins of the Senate next month. "We do have alternatives, none of which are very good."
The House and Senate did approve legislative language that provides for Outer Continental Shelf oil and natural gas exploration and development that includes new fields in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Corn Growers Association hailed the vote as a victory that will ensure domestic development of natural gas and lead to increased supplies of feedstocks for nitrogen fertilizers.


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Leap Day
Instead of giving you, my readers, another diatribe about the world of psychiatry, I've decided to use this holiday to do something different. During clerkship lectures I get so bored that I usually spend the hour surfing the web on my palm pilot. Unfortunately, the mental health building at my hospital does not get WiFi. Therefore, I'm stuck trying to find other ways to keep myself entertained/sane. I've taken to writing poetry and making little drawings on note cards. I want to post some of the haikus that I've been writing.
The MMSE:
Do you know the day, month, year?
Can you draw this shape?
Psychiatry (noun):
Real patients, fake physicians.
Why wear the white coat?
The shrink's battle cry:
Here's a script to Wellbutrin.
Take it with water.


text:
June 19, 2010
Do You Remember Your First Time?
It wasn't much of a step for me to start asking my grandmother questions. I was only 13 when I began writing down what she told me! I made little charts with the names of her parents, her grandparents and her siblings. I asked for details - when were they born, where did they live, go to school, who did they marry.....
Here is one of the first charts I made at age 14. Lots of blank spaces and question marks for names!
I'm a packrat and I kept all my original notes. I knew nothing about genealogy, in fact I didn't even know that word! No one in my family was interested and no one knew about family trees or ancestry or... anything genealogical. So I invented my own system for keeping track and recording facts. It looked much like the Family Group Sheets we see in genealogy programs today.
Then I began creating charts which helped me figure out what I had and what I was missing. Of course I had no idea how I would ever find the missing bits but I guess I was an investigator-researcher even at a young age. I figured there must be a way.
My next step at age 15 was to go to our local library (where I worked!) and find a book on finding out about one's ancestors. Luckily I discovered Angus Baxter's books on searching for ancestors in Canada and in England, which were the two countries I needed. Then I put my genealogy notes and interests aside for the next 10 or more years.
My next surge into genealogy was in my mid 20s. I was newly married, living in a new town, didn't know anyone and so I pulled out all my notes and charts to review them. I phoned my aunt to ask questions and created new charts and note pages. Here's one from those years.
Then I started searching census records on microfilm. That was my first step into the big wonderful world of libraries, archives, museums, microfilm and all the records I could find.
But how times have changed! Now there are thousands of times more records available. And they're available online. I'm so glad I started my genealogy research at a young age and have been able to take advantage of the amazing record collections available today.
But sometimes I long for those first early days when everything was new and I could sit with my aunt or my grandmother (who are long dead now) and ask a zillion questions. Do you remember your first time?
5 comments:
- Sarah said...
I laughed when I read this. I remember, when I first started, I was ONLY going to research my maiden name (Walker). I wasn't going to include anyone else! (How in the world did I think I got here??)
Boy, did things change ....immediately. Thanks for the memories.
- Greta Koehl said...
Do I ever remember the day I got started - 1 September 2005 (kinda late, but better late than never). I was showing a co-worker how doing an Internet search on my distinctively spelled maiden name turned up only people who were related to me. One of the search results had some information on my Dad's ancestors indicating that those family myths I was so skeptical about were true. Couldn't stop after that.
- Jo said...
Of course I remember (it's what started all THIS, afterall!). I was 17, having a conversation with my father about our family and he told me that myself and my brothers were the only LOOPS in the US. I thought that was a fascinating idea. The internet had just "arrived" at my university so I did a US White-Pages search and came up with more than just my family?!?!? Who Were These People? If our name was made-up, how did they have it too? Ooh, I was hooked from then on. :-)
Good stuff!
- Geniaus said...
I think it was in 1988, Australia's Bicentenary, when there was a lot of focus on our history and the convicts who were transported here. I, too, set up my own system using library catalogue cards. I used one card for each ancestor and, yes like you, I still have those original notes.
- The Grandmother Here said...
My family history research started when I was a teenager and it was almost time for the Facey picnic and I wanted to know how I was related to all those people. I drew a chart starting with my great grandparents. Because of the large families, my chart stretched sideways with many pages taped together, and I rolled it up like a scroll. I still have it.


text:
I have no idea what this means and I was wondering if someone could help. The only explanation I can think of is that the patient has some sort of leukaemia which results in antigen shedding/abnormal immunoglobulin production.
Any help? )
Edited by glutamate, 26 March 2013 - 09:53 AM.


text:
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Suggest video details
Wähle die nachstehenden Einzelheiten, die dieses Video beschreiben. Wir wissen deine Hilfe zu schätzen und werden diese Informationen nutzen, um unseren Service zu verbessern.
Erkennst du den Pornostar in diesem Video? Hilf uns, Pornostars auf YouPorn einfacher zu finden, indem du uns sagst, wer in diesem Video zu sehen ist.
Hilf uns: Erscheint dieser Pornostar in diesem Video?
what that dude is standing there wanking himself as they lick cunt I would lick cunt of the one licking cunt
hmm sure would love 2 fuck the brunette
Sounds like somebody is more than a little jealous (hint: NotAnAussieWoman). You go Lance!
the blonde looks better here before she stuffed her tits with sillicone. Jims mrs is so hot!!
Jim slip is a lucky cunt
Thanks was a fantasy and a half... perfect, something I enjoy in swinging :-) Mac
@Lance, nobody cares for your boring story...this is a porn site, not YourNovel :P At least include interesting details that stimulate people's fantasies...but not this *yawn*
Love the ass fingering!
Never fucked a Brit yet, but I did have a 3some with 2 Aussie women. We worked for the same company, and they flew into Dallas for a big training seminar for a full 7 days. I hit it off with one of the women immediately and we talked between breaks, and when it was lunch time, she asked me if her friend and co-worker could join us. I said sure, she was about 10 years older than us, but she was fun as well. After work, I asked the one if she would like to go out to eat somewhere and she said she would, but didn't want to leave the other woman to fend for herself. I said well bring her along then, we'll just enjoy each other's company. I had no idea that I was actually being prophetic as we went back to their hotel room and although I was trying to be careful not to make the older woman feel like a 3rd wheel, she actually said... it would be more fun if we all 3 enjoyed each other. Oh yes, and the nex 9 days were great... they stayed over a coupole of days and we had such a great time. I communicated with both after they went home. A little over a year later, the older one came back for a manager's meeting and we spent all her free time at my house. We actually had the other one on the phone while we fucked in Dallas. Aussie women are awesome.
That's the last scene from either 'UK Student House' or 'London Sorority House'... I had them both on DVD in the olden times.
The guy was the lead singer in the 1980's British new wave band Tears for Fears. Their platinum-selling debut album, The Hurting, reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, while their second album, Songs from the Big Chair, reached number one on the US Billboard 200, achieving multi-platinum status in both the UK and the US. Their second album contained two Billboard Hot 100 number ones: "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"', the latter winning the Brit Award for Best British Single in 1986. To date, Tears for Fears have sold over 30 million albums worldwide, including more than 8 million in the US, and I love the fact that they are still "Sowing the Seeds of Love"!
actually the "strong southern british accents" are the reason i like this vid so much. Love a british woman talking dirty, regardless of how coarse the accent is.
The blonde is Donna Marie
Damn that was hot
Fucking HOT!!!
Fucking HOT!!!
You can't beat British porn!!
Crazy cumshot!!! amazing haha
love to slip one up them wet cunts owwwwwwww yerrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Whose the blonde ? Great tits, is it Danielle Kelson ??
Who is the blonde girl?
lara latex
Who is the dark haired girl again?
Great romp - though he have been better to stick to dicking their pussies at the end; the blond didn't like the anal, I don't think.
I'm all for more British porn. However there are certain things we should not broadcast to the world. Strong southern English accents are one. Also can we avoid the local phenomenon of ladies with asexual hair cuts?
Thats Jim Slips Wife
Woman in the short hair is very nice...really sexy...
Download Full Video
No download links available now


text:
About The Artist
Originally influenced by Australia's Heidelberg School of artists, Mr. Williams has been the recipient of numerous juried art prizes and routinely shows in both joint and solo exhibitions.
His work succeeds brilliantly in capturing the essence of the panoramic harbors, bays and beaches that he depicts and his paintings reflect his delight for the outdoor life.
Copyright © 2019 Lahaina Printsellers, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Chapel Hill: Sports
Auto Racing: Mike Chambers looking for a breakout year
Leo Durocher supposedly once said "Nice guys finish last."
What the famed National League manager really said was "The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place."
That might be closer to the truth.
And that's one reason Mike Chambers can be happy with his second-place finish last week in the Sherry Love Johnson Memorial race for Late Model Stock cars. A 36-year-old native of Person County, Chambers is universally regarded as a "nice guy" by folks around the Orange County Speedway, and he's doing a lot better than seventh this year.
"I'm like anyone else. I'd like to win," Chambers said. "But it was cool last week just being up there at the front and being close enough at the end to see the winner."
After years of running in Rougemont, Chamber's previous best was a third place last year. He also won the track's Sportsmanship Award in 2013, which says more about him than his standing in the points race.
He operates Chambers Automotive outside of Timberlake, on U.S. Highway 501 at the Durham-Person County line, located right next door to the Country Kitchen, which is run by his mother.
Chambers spends more time working on other drivers' cars than his own. He does some maintenance on regular street vehicles, but admits to not liking that very much. He prefers tinkering with the engines and frames of cars of people like Pure Stock driver Jared Gillis, Street Stock driver Richard Hayden, Limited Late Model driver Chris Henderson, former Limited Late Model driver Thomas Chappell and his own sister, Tracey Chambers.
Maybe it's Durocher's Curse, or more likely that Chambers is just a fine mechanic, but those drivers have all finished higher in their divisions than he has.
Chambers started in go-carts when he was just 15, and has stayed around cars ever since, encouraged by his dad, who also was racing mechanic.
"He tried racing once and decided right away that it was too crazy for him," Chambers said. "You've got to be passionate about this sport to stay in it, and I've been around it my whole life."
Chambers has spent 14 years racing Limiteds and Late Models, occasionally taking a car north to tracks like Martinsville but mostly staying at Rougemont.
He usually finished in the top 10 when he raced, but rarely cracked the top five. In 2011, he earned a third place in one race, but still ended up in 12th place in the points standings. (His sister, meanwhile, took fourth place in the Late Model standings.)
"He has raced OCS for a very long time," track photographer Thomas Lee said. "This seems to be a breakout year for Chambers."
Chambers agrees.
"Things seem to be coming around," he said. It's mostly little things, but we seem to be getting to the point where we've got the car running right."
The only thing that would make Chambers happier than a win in this Saturday's Late Model race at Orange County Speedway would be to have a few more people there to see it.
"You always want more fans to support the track," he said. "Watching on TV is just not the same. It's a completely new experience.
"And if you've never been to a short-track race, you need to check it out. They're a lot more fun than places like Charlotte or Martinsville. If you come out once, you'll want to come back."


text:
The example
ACL2 !>(app 7 27)illustrates the fact that while ACL2 is an untyped language the ACL2 evaluator can be configured so as to check ``types'' at runtime. We should not say ``types'' here but ``guards.'' Click here for a discussion of guards.
ACL2 Error in TOP-LEVEL: The guard for the function symbol ENDP, which is (OR (CONSP X) (EQUAL X NIL)), is violated by the arguments in the call (ENDP 7).
The guard on
endp requires its argument to be a true
list. Since 7 is not a true list, and since ACL2 is checking guards
in this example, an error is signaled by ACL2. How do you know
ACL2 is checking guards? Because the prompt tells us
(click here) with its ``!''.


text:
Interviewing Family: Kim von Aspern-Parker of Le Maison Duchamps, Part 2
In this second half of my interview with Kim von Aspern-Parker (Kim von Aspern-Parker, Part 1) about interviewing family, Kim talks about her approaches to get permission from people for her interviews, describes her hardest interview (and why it's hard), and she gives her final morsels of advice (plus, I put all her advice in one handy list).
Kim is one of the four people I interviewed about interviewing family at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree this past June. (Series introduction)
Kim von Aspern-Parker blogs at Le Maison Duchamp. Highlights of Part 1: For Dad to start talking, he had to be in an altered state. Using a genealogy chart to interview? Surprise! Advice for interviewing: remember to listen for the stories, don't interrupt people, and work from photo albums.
Disclosure and Permissions
In the first half, while Kim talked about her visit with her 90-year old aunt and the misunderstanding over the genealogy chart, she described putting her recorder out on the table with a bunch of other items (keys, phone, etc.), and interviewing her aunt, and letting her know after the fact. We revisit a bit of that conversation for this later section on disclosure and permissions.
Kim von Aspern-Parker: I said, "You know, all these stories you're telling me. They're all about our family, It's not so much that they're dead people but they're our family." And I said, "And I didn't grow up in this family, so I don't know these stories. So I've been taping them so I can have them."
She said, "Oh, okay."
She was okay with that.
A little later on, I mentioned a video I created. Which brought up the topic again:
Kim von Aspern-Parker: If you're going to videotape [the interview], I think, too—or even tape record it it's okay if they know it [beforehand], usually it's better if you tell them afterwards. Because they tend to get uptight that they're on camera or that they're being taped.
If they say, "Oh, no no no I don't want that taped,"
you can say, "Okay, nobody's going to hear it but me, Mom."
Or "It's not okay for ME to have it? Really? You know how my memory is, Mom. Really? You want me not to have that?"
You can always erase it if they really are uncomfortable. Assure them of that.
FOHUDT: Have you—?
KvAP: I've never had anybody ask me to erase it.
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools: In your case, you've told them after the fact, and my family's "I'm cool with doing this" when I ask beforehand. But I'm interested in the varieties of experience. Because I'm a member of the Oral History Association, where the whole idea of taping surreptitiously is a total "No no" …for me…
[Here, Kim went in another direction, but I wish to finish my thought. I think that if you're going to record an interview, you get permission ahead of time. This series is about finding out what it's really like for people to interview family members. I'm collecting real-world information on what people tell their family members about the recording. I'll revisit this issue at the conclusion of the series.]
Kim von Aspern-Parker: If it's your family members and I fully say don't record it and not let them know. They absolutely deserve to know that you've taped it.
I've only done that to my family members who, if I pull the recorder out, will say, "What are you doing? Put that away."
I'll record it. [Afterwards,] I'll say, "Now, I recorded that. Is it okay? Cause you know, I just wanted the stories. I forget the stories."
And they say, "yeah, okay, that's fine."
I found, too, that if you set up the video camera, if you're interviewing somebody who's not your family member, let's say, because when I was interviewing for school, I used to have to interview people that were not family members, and of course you have to disclose right off the front: "I'm going to record this."
If you set up the video camera and get it ready and then you just chit chat and talk and get things rolling, they forget that the camera's there. You have to get them comfortable, first. Otherwise they tighten up and it's like, "Did I say that right?" They're worried about correctness and not stuttering and not saying "um" and not saying "you know" and all those things that you see in yourself when you're practicing a speech or something.
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools: I don't have experience videotaping people during an interview. I do all mine audio. And something like this (Livescribe pen, what I used to record this interview) is pretty unobtrusive.
Do you have any family interview disaster stories? Like Omigod it was a fiasco, or something close to a fiasco?
The Hardest Interview
Kim von Aspern-Parker: The hardest interviews I'm still working on right now. I haven't done very much of them. I started breaking ice.
It's my aunt Filo, and she's deaf and she's 92. Her memory's not all it used to be. And most of her life people have done things around her thinking she didn't get it, because she's deaf. So she's always been a kind of the fly on the wall; people thought she didn't know what was going on, brcause she's deaf. But of course she reads lips perfectly. She's not stupid. And a long time ago, people equated deafness with a mental illness, you know, they thought you were "touched."
She's got great stories. But I'm still getting her warmed up to the fact. I speak some sign language, and so I'm practicing my sign language so I can get it better so I can get it better and she'll be more comfortable with me. I try to go see her at least a couple of times a year.
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools: How far of a distance is that?
Kim von Aspern-Parker: She's in Louisiana, and I'm in California. So it's not like I can talk to her on the phone. I can't Skype her. So it's a hard interview.
As far as a fiasco, it hasn't crashed and burned yet. But it's a hard interview because she's deaf so everything's in sign language. And she'll talk, I had the photo album thing out and we were doing the photo album thing, and I said, "who are these people?" And she says, "That's Dickie. That's my brother. He's dead." I said, who's this? "Oh, that's my sister Audrey, that's your Mama. She dead, too." Because she's 92, she's outlived all of them. And so she can speak, for the most part, she signs some of it, but she speaks for the most part.
Because of her stilted speech, because she can't hear—she lost her hearing when she was nine. So you've got this kind of stilted speech. She's got great stories.
She was telling me stories about when she lost her hearing—she was really really sick—and supposedly it was an influenza epidemic. But my aunt- a different aunt—thinks it might've been a spinal meningitis thing that went around. My great grandmother died, And several people in the neighborhood died, and my aunt Filo lost her hearing. So when Aunt Filo woke up she wasn't dead, but a lot of other people were. So she had been unconscious for a week, and when she woke up all these people were dead that she knew. And she was 9. And then because she was deaf, they basically sent her away to go to a school for the deaf. And so then she was ostracized from her family. So it was a very hard experience growing. And then her family started treating her like she was "touched"—she wasn't all there. Mommy coddled her and Daddy felt she was defective, somehow. She's going to have great stories to tell.
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools: yeah. But how to do that. Now is that one where because of sign language or whatever, you'll say, videotape it because you may have more fluent sign and I'd like to get help with interpreting it, or looking it.
Kim von Aspern-Parker: Yeah, I probably will videotape it. I'm still in the ice-breaking stage. I'm doing just a recording of her. Because she does speak. Plus, I wanted to have her voice. She is 92, and should she pass away, I want to have that. This next trip is going to be videotaped. Because they're getting up there in age.
More advice: Don't put it off, Take a class
And that's probably my next bit of advice: Don't put it off. If you have relatives that are anywhere over the age of 50, start interviewing them, because that's when heart attacks happen. That's when their dementia sets in, and things like that. Anytime after 50 and it starts going downhill. [laughter] I know.
FOHUDT: Scary.
KvAP: I'm 53
FOHUDT: I just had my 52nd birthday. Right.
KvAP: It's starting to go down. Get my stories now.
FOHUDT: cool. Cool. Well [pause] is there any other thing you'd like to say about the experience?
KvAP: Of interviewing?
FOHUDT: yes.
Kim von Aspern-Parker: Well, it doesn't hurt to go and take some classes on interviewing techniques which I know you can get through journalism schools and in junior colleges/community colleges; oral history programs.
I think that my state archives in California has an oral history program where they'll teach you how to interview. Because it is a technique. You have to know how to lead the person into telling you their stories. And helping them when they stutter and they kinda go, "well, I don't know what you're looking for? What kind of story are you looking for, what do you want me to tell you?"
Once you get them talking, then it's great. But a lot of people aren't—I'm a chatterbox; I'll talk to fence posts (laughs). The cows in the pasture, we have great conversations—
FOHUDT: Moo.
Kim von Aspern-Parker: Yeah (laughs) But as far as some people, they'll sit there and they're like, "What do you want me to tell you?" My mother was kind of like that. she was never really a storyteller.
It's like, "I don't know what you want me to say? I don't know what you want me to tell you."
"Just tell me about when you were a kid. I mean, did you ever remember being sick? Were you ever sick when you were in school?" "not that I can remember." She makes story dragging it out of her. And those are hard. And again, I think the photo albums help with that. I found that if you find yourself trying to draaaag a story out of somebody:
"Well, did you ever play a practical joke on anybody?"
"Oh, no, I was much too serious for that."
"Okay. Did you have younger siblings?"
"How many younger siblings do you have?"
When you have a drag it out story like that, when you're dragging the information out of a person, I think that a photo album is the best technique that I've found.
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools: In your experience as an interviewer, where you are dragging something out, is there a shift in mental attitude , where you think, "how do I approach this?" ?
KvAP: You start kind of panicking as the interviewer. It's kind of like, "Oh, this is going to be hard."
Everybody has a button.
FOHUDT: So you recognize panic?
KvAP: Yeah. oh yeah.
FOHUDT: Do you stay in panic mode, or do you find—what happened with you after panic?
KvAP: Well, my usual first reaction is like, "Oh god, this is going to be hard; she's not a chatterbox. What'll I do?" Then I say to myself, "Okay, you have to find their button." Everybody has a button—something they love to talk about.
With my mother, it was her children. It wasn't her parents, or her life when she was growing up. She didn't consider her self important, but her children were everything. My mother was talking about me and my sister. Like, "Why did you put me and Debbie into dancing lessons?" And then she'd talk about that. And that leads into talking about how she'd always wanted to do that as a child, but they lived during the Depression, they didn't have that kind of money.
"You lived in the depression? Really? What was that like?" and "Where did you live during the depression?"
"I was in Texas."
"Well, what was that like in Texas?" … You see pictures of the dust bowl. So then if you can relate it to history, and say, "I've seen pictures of the dust bowl, was it like that in Texas?" And then she might start talking about that. "No."
"Did you have a car?"
"Yeah, we had a car."And then she might start talking about that.
And so you find the button—which was, for my mother, talking about her children—and then you turn it, you twist it to where you want the interview to go. Obviously, I didn't want her to talk about me. I know about me. But I wanted it to twist around to her childhood.
"Okay, so you never got to take dance lessons, did you take baton lessons? Did you take ice skating lessons? Did you do anything fun like that? Did you belong to any groups?" …and then you can get her talking.
"You had me in Girl Scouts, Did you do Girl Scouts, is that why you had me in Girl Scouts?"
"No, we had this other group, we did this church group thing…" and then she might start talking about that.
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools: So tell me about your church, what else about it? Right. It's finding the way in—
Kim von Aspern-Parker: Yeah, finding the door in.
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools: Finding the way in.
All of Kim von Apsern-Parker's advice
Here, in one place, is Kim's advice for people doing interviews.
- Don't ask yes or no questions. Ask questions that will bring out a story.
- Listen. Stories happen in the weirdest times. Pay attention. Take advantage of a story opening and ask a follow-up quesiton if it sounds like the person has mentioned something that might lead to a story.
- Don't interrupt them. Don't be so focused on the one data point you're after that you miss the story they are telling you.
- Use photo albums to get people talking.
- Don't put it off. Start interviewing any family member over the age of 50.
- Take a class on interview technique to draw stories out of someone. Journalism classes or oral history workshops are two good places to learn interview techniques.
- Find the topic that the person loves to talk about—and use that to drive the interview in the direction you want to go. (Mom loves to talk about her children, so jump from what you did as a mother to your kids to what you experienced as a child growing up).
Jamboree Geneabloggers on Interviewing
Kim von Aspern-Parker, Part 1
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens on November 16, 2011 in
• Genealogy
• Interviewing
1 Comments • Permalink
« Previous Interviewing Family: Kim von Aspern-Parker of Le Maison Duchamps, Part 1 | Interviewing Family At Thanksgiving: What Happened Last Year & This Year's Plans (Updated) Next »
I definitely agree on don't put it off. I never interviewed two of my dad's cousins who knew lots of family stories; I was shy, and procrastinated. And they went and died too soon.
I've since found that elderly relatives, especially, really appreciate that anyone younger is interested in them. So go ahead and contact them. Use a family go-between to get in touch the first time if you haven't met.
I have spoken to a few cousins via phone only (but didn't tape) and they were sweet people happy to talk about family. I need to follow up with them, and I'd like to tape them if they are OK w/it.
I do ask before taping; I don't want to lose someone's trust. But I get that Kim's family may be a different situation, and that's her call.


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May 30, 2003
BuilConn Forum leaves impression on systems integrators
More than 200 members of the systems integration community converged in Dallas for the premier BuilConn Forum. The forum brought together manufacturers, dealers, contractors, and integrators to explore the benefits of total building systems integration. Members from the HVAC, security, lighting, access control, and IT communities were also present. The convergence of IT and building systems was discussed, and many of the discussions and presentations centered on TCP/IP and XML technologies.
BuilConn 2004 will be held April 14-16, 2004, in Dallas. Visit www.builconn.com for further information.
May 30, 2003
NESCO expands national account coverage
NESCO, Canton, Mass., recently completed a planned expansion to include a West Coast office located in San Francisco. This expansion supports a strategy to enhance NESCO's electrical offering with additional national coverage.
Joining NESCO in the West Coast office is Nancy Ramdon, a 15-yr veteran in the national account marketplace. She will use the NESCO team to respond to customers on the West Coast and elsewhere.
May 29, 2003
Phoenix Contact expands distribution agreement with Hagemeyer
Phoenix Contact, Harrisburg, Pa., recently announced it has expanded its distribution relationship with Hagemeyer North America to include most Northeast and Southeast U.S. locations. This alliance with Charleston, S.C.-based Hagemeyer supports Phoenix Contact's strategy to focus on and support electronic and industrial customers through distribution.
May 29, 2003
Philips Lighting receives Web site award
Royal Philips Electronics, Somerset, N.J., recently announced that its U.S.-based Philips Lighting Co. received IMARK Group's award for "Outstanding Web Site of 2002." IMARK Group used the following criteria to make the selection: user friendliness, progressive nature of Web site, usefulness in conducting business, and ease in obtaining information. Light Site North America is the source for all information on Philips Lighting products and is located at www.lighting.philips.com/nam/.
May 28, 2003
Hubbell Premise Wiring initiates technical discussion groups on Web site
Hubbell Premise Wiring, Stonington, Conn., has opened the industry's first online technical discussion forum at www.hubbell-premise.com. Industry professionals can find answers to frequently asked questions in every product segment or post their own questions and comments. Hubbell product managers, technical support representatives, and engineers monitor the discussion groups, giving users direct links to the people responsible for the products.
Users can gain access to the discussion groups by joining Hub's Club at www.hubbell-premise.com/HubsClub/Forum/register.asp.
May 28, 2003
Equity Electrical Associates merges with Electrical Distribution Network
Equity Electrical Associates, East Walpole, Mass., and Electrical Distribution Network, Concord, Ohio, recently announced the two companies have merged, forming a $6 billion plus network. The two entities will remain as separate operating divisions, maintaining existing company names and personnel. The new parent company will be called Power Marketing Management, with Richard Noel of Equity as Board Chairman and Matthew Roos of EDN as President and CEO.
May 27, 2003
Cooper B-Line equipped solar home wins honors in international competition
With the help of Cooper B-Line, a team from the University of Texas at Austin participated in finals of the 2002 Solar Decathlon, an event where students compete to design, build, and operate the most effective and efficient solar-powered home. Last fall 14 teams representing universities participated in Washington, D.C. to establish a village of self-sustaining houses powered by solar energy.
Cooper B-Line supplied the team with steel strut for the home. The team used the strut as the metal framing for the home, which made quick assembly and disassembly possible while also providing a built-in wiring conduit, creating a pre-wired module system.
May 27, 2003
eBay Business expands
industrial supply category
eBay Business, the business marketplace portion of the online auction site has expanded its industrial supply categories as of late to try to reach small and medium-sized businesses. The site is located at www.ebaybusiness.com.
Based on Q1 2003 results, buyers of industrial supplies accounted for more than $46 million in annual gross merchandise sales on eBay, representing an annual growth rate of 65% year-over-year. More than 20,000 new industrial supply listings are showing up on eBay Business every week, ranging from forklifts, generators, compressors, electrical equipment, motors, and HVAC equipment.
May 23, 2003
Testing project shows most patch cords fail
A new study from Quabbin Wire & Cable, Co., Ware, Mass., shows that most open-market patch cords do not meet the TIA's published requirements. Almost 70% of Cat. 5e cords and 80% of Cat. 6 cords failed a series of tests designed to determine the current quality level of patch cords and observe if there was any correlation between performance, sales channel, or cost. Cords were purchased on the open market and tested using Fluke Network's patch cord test adapter and DSP 4000 series cable analyzer. All cords were tested to the full requirements of TIA/EIA-568-B; including propagation delay, delay skew, wire map, NEXT, and return loss.
May 23, 2003
More than 135 papers to be presented at EIC/EMCW Expo '03 Conference
The Electrical Insulation Conference/Electrical Manufacturing & Coil Winding (EIC/EMCW) Expo '03 Conference will present more than 135 papers during 36 conference sessions Sept. 23-25, 2003. Design, manufacturing, production, and electrical engineers are invited to attend the conference. The event includes an exhibition where more than 200 companies will display products and equipment, including electrical insulation and insulating materials, testing and measurement equipment, and transformer and stator equipment.
May 22, 2003
Proposed legislation would reduce NLRB involvement in the workplace
In response to the lobbying efforts of IEC members and staff, Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) recently introduced H.R. 1909 to limit the number of businesses subject to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also introduced similar legislation (S.783) in the Senate in April.
The NLRB is an independent federal agency created in 1935 to enforce the National Labor Relations Act and settle labor disputes between unions and management. In 1959, Congress passed a law to give the NLRB jurisdiction over businesses based on their gross receipts. Once a business passes that level, it's subject to intervention by the NLRB. Businesses below the threshold are subject to actions within state law. As inflation has increased over the years, the NLRB has acquired jurisdiction over much smaller businesses that wasn't originally intended, raising the expense and workload for the NLRB as well as for businesses.
May 22, 2003
Lightfair International 2003 posts record number of attendees
The organizers of Lightfair International, including the International Association of Lighting Designers, recently announced that the number of attendees at the 2003 show, held May 3-8 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, broke all previous records set by the event. In it's 14th year, the show has drawn an attendance of more than 19,000, a figure that marks a 16% increase over the final results from the 2002 show.
May 21, 2003
House panel debates electricity portion of energy bill
The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee defeated Democratic attempts to remove electricity grid provisions from an energy bill, and instead focused on preventing a repeat of the market manipulation that occurred in California.
The House panel is writing a broad energy bill that includes incentives for oil drilling, nuclear plants, and hydrogen-powered automotives. After the bill is drafted and approved by the panel, it will go to the full House for debate.
The committee debated Republican-written proposals to open the U.S. electricty grid to greater competition. The fate of such provisions is entwined with a proposal by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to create new super-regional power grids to boost reliability and supply. Many lawmakers from the South and West from both parties see the FERC plan as an imposition on their turf and have sought to block it.
May 21, 2003
Motor Decisions Matter campaign adds three sponsors
A.O. Smith Electrical Products Company, Tipp City, Ohio, Siemens Energy & Automation, Alpharetta, Ga., and TECO-Westinghouse Motor Co., Round Rock, Texas, recently because sponsors of the Motor Decisions Matter (MDM) campaign, a national effort promoting NEMA Premium motors and motor management. MDM campaign sponsors include motor manufacturers and service centers, trade associations, electric utilities, and government agencies.
Through MDM, these sponsors are working together to promote the benefits of motor planning. MDM sponsors also provide tools that enable commercial and industrial customers to develop a motor plan, with the assistance of their local distributor/repair center or utility representative.
The campaign is coordinated by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE), a national nonprofit organization that promotes energy-efficient products and services.
May 20, 2003
LEDtronics announces new tool on Web site
LEDtronics, Torrance, Calif., recently announced that the company's Web site, www.ledtronics.com, now includes an online energy calculation tool that computes the energy and monetary savings derived from replacing incandescent bulbs with LED lamps.
By entering the requested information into the blank fields and clicking on the calculate button, the user can generate a report that lists such things as the annual energy savings, how long it takes for the company's LED lamps to pay for themselves, the return on the investment, the amount of energy saved over the lifetime of the lamp, and the total savings (labor, energy, number of lamps) throughout the operating life of the lamp.
May 20, 2003
Web sites united under new single identity
HVACjob.com, Plumbjob.com, and Electricjob.com have been united under the MEP at Work brand and will be live at www.mepatwork.com. These three job and resume Web sites served the mechanical, electrical and plumbing trades. The change made by the boards' operator, MECHdata, Inc., Des Moines, Iowa, reflects the changes in how their current and prospective MEP customers work, according to a company press release.
"The move to bring all three boards under one roof makes tremendous sense for those customers of ours that focus on more than one vertical market such as HVAC or Electrical," says MECHdata founder and CEO Marc Sampson. "Both job seekers and employer-recruiters have asked for tools to manage and measure their respective accounts. They can now manage all the activity in their account, including number of inquiries, modifying, archiving; or for the job seeker, recalling their resume and pasting it to a job posting."
May 19, 2003
Philips Lighting announces Innovations Roadshow 2003 schedule
Philips Lighting recently announced the dates and locations for Innovations Roadshow 2003, its seminar series on sustainable lighting and design that is accredited by the American Institute of Architects.
The locations and dates include:
May 20, San Antonio
May 22, Little Rock, Ark.
June 3, Phoenix
June 5, Denver
June 6, St. Louis
June 17, Anchorage, Ala.
June 18, Kansas City, Mo.
June 18, Seattle
June 19, Portland, Ore.
June 20, Minneapolis
September 9, Chicago
September 11, Detroit
September 23, Baltimore
September 23, Los Angeles
September 25, San Francisco
October 8, Boston
October 23, Miami
October 30, Atlanta
AIA members that attend one of the 18 seminars will qualify for 1.0 AIA/CES Learning Unit/HSW. The seminars are also open to other building professionals and licensed architects who aren't members of the AIA.
May 19, 2003
Klein Tools introduces the Tradesman Club
Klein Tools, Chicago, recently introduced the Tradesman Club, a membership-based program designed to provide loyal customers with industry news, product information, special promotions, brand merchandise, and other exclusive offers. Klein customers can enroll in the club at www.kleintradesmanclub.com. Membership is free.
Members of the club will receive a quarterly newsletter called The Tool Bag offered via e-mail or regular mail. The publication will provide readers with a range of industry- and job-related news, information on new products, as well as opportunities to purchase the company's merchandise.
May 16, 2003
Cooper Lighting announces 27th Annual National Lighting Competition
Cooper Lighting has announced a call for entries for its 27th Annual Source Award national lighting design competition. The competition, which focuses on furthering the understanding, knowledge, and function of lighting as a primary element in design, is open to any lighting designer, architect, interior designer, or professional who uses light in interior or exterior permanent applications. Students in any of these fields are also eligible to enter any conceptual work dealing with lighting They will be judged in a separate student category.
Judging for the competition will take place in November 2003 by a panel of lighting and design professionals. All winners for both the professional and student categories will be notified in December.
May 16, 2003
Congress looks into expanding Labor Relations Act
The U.S. House of Representatives recently introduced legislation that would curb union abuses. The legislation, the Truth in Employment Act (H.R. 1793) was introduced by Rep. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-NC) and Rep. John Carter (R-TX).
This bill would amend the National Labor Relations Act to make clear that an employer isn't required to hire any person who is not a "bona fide applicant" because the applicant is simply seeking a job to promote interests unrelated to those of the employer.
May 15, 2003
IEC Executive Committee invited to hear President Bush's remarks on tax relief
President Bush recently invited the IEC National Executive Committee to attend a meeting of the Tax Relief Coalition (TRC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The President's plan calls for tax relief that would create one million new jobs by the end of next year. He's calling on all small business owners to contact their Congressional representatives and push for the passage of the plan.
The package would benefit contractors because it contains a provision that increases the allowable amount a business can deduct on all or part of the cost of machinery and office equipment from $25,000 to $75,000 for a taxable year.
May 15, 2003
BICSI releases newest edition of the TDMM
BISCI, Tampa, Fla., recently announced the 10th edition of its Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual (TDMM). TDMM is a resource for those who design telecommunications infrastructure in commercial and multi-dwelling residential buildings. It contains an overview of telecommunications distribution, from design through construction, installation, and maintenance.
First published in 1980, the manual is updated every three years to provide the latest information on techniques, methodologies, codes, and standards.
May 14, 2003
North American plug-in surge suppressor market perseveres despite tough times
According to a recent report by Venture Development Corporation (VDC), the plug-in power line surge suppressor market averaged 5% growth during the last two years, despite a difficult 2001. The primary driver of these changes has been the winning of accounts.
The study points out that the plug-in surge suppressor market shows signs of becoming more like a commodity business. There are few barriers to entry, and the competition for shelf space is growing. There has been a relatively slow trend towards consolidation in the industry, one that is not expected to increase rapidly in the near future. Such an intense business environment is forcing vendors to look for means by which they can gain a competitive advantage.
May 14, 2003
Rockwell Automation saves with energy-efficient lighting project
Rockwell Automation, Eau Claire, Wis., recently announced the completion of an energy-efficient lighting project located in its 89,000-sq-ft facility. The company expects to save nearly 250MW per year using the Illuminator lighting fixture, which is manufactured by Orion Lighting & Energy Services of Plymouth, Wis. The Illuminator uses electronic ballasts and T8 fluorescent bulbs.
Overall, Rockwell has been able to cut its electrical consumption for lighting in half and it expects to pay for the lighting project investment in a little more than three years.
May 13, 2003
Arlington settles with Bridgeport
Arlington Industries, Inc., Scranton, Pa., announced the settlement of its lawsuit filed against Bridgeport Fittings, Inc. The suit was filed in connection with a patent Arlington holds on low-voltage device-holder products. Although the precise terms of the agreement are confidential, Bridgeport has stopped selling the products that were in contention, according to Arlington.
May 13, 2003
PowerLight Corp. to install 1.05MW solar array
The largest solar electric system at any university in the world and one of the largest solar energy systems in the nation will be installed this summer at California State University in Hayward, Calif. The 1.05MW solar electric system, manufactured and installed by Northern California-based PowerLight Corp., will deliver about 30% of the campus' peak electricity demand during the summer months.
Covering more than 110,000 sq ft, the system will feature both rooftop and ground-mounted installations. This project will generate roughly 1.45 million kw hr annually, producing enough electricity in the daytime to power more than 1,000 homes.
May 12, 2003
Graybar wins exclusive five-year contract to sell electrical supplies
Graybar, St. Louis, has been awarded an exclusive five-year contract to provide electrical supplies to state and local governments, school districts, and other tax-funded agencies that are participants in the U.S. Communities program. The contract enables purchasing managers, installers, and other representatives of public agencies to buy electrical products that range from wiring, conduit, and circuit breakers to lighting fixtures, outlets, and switches.
U.S. Communities enables state and local government agencies to pool their collective purchasing power and improve the overall effectiveness of their purchasing processes. The Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO), the National Association of Counties (NACo), the National Institute of Government Purchasing (NIGP), the National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors are national founding co-sponsors of U.S. Communities.
May 12, 2003
Nicolet College participates in renewable energy program
Nicolet Area Technical College, Rhinelander, Wis., recently announced the installation of a 10-kW, 120-ft.-tall wind turbine funded through an $80,000 grant from Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program. The college also launched a project called EcoVillage that will include renewable energy systems and energy efficient structures for residential and institutional use. The college will use these buildings and systems to teach sustainable building practices and installation and maintenance of renewable energy systems.
The first phase of the renewable energy project, the installation of a photovoltaic system and the wind turbine, will generate electricity for the college and reduce energy costs. Both renewable energy systems will be connected to the Wisconsin Public Service Corp. power grid. When more electricity is generated than what is needed at the site, the excess will be sold to the utility.
May 9, 2003
FERC grid plan could collapse without AEP
A group of large industrial plants say that if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) won't force American Electric Power Co. (AEP) to join a 27-state Midwestern regional transmission grid, the agency may see its plan for a U.S. network of regional markets collapse.
Three years ago FERC approved a merger of AEP and Central and South West Corp. on the condition that AEP join a regional transmission organization to lessen its marketing power. However, the state of Virginia passed a law last month that bars its two utilities, including a unit of AEP, from joining any regional grid until after June 2004.
The Electricity Consumers Resource Council said in documents filed with FERC that the agency must order AEP to join at least one or more regional grids "to avoid disintegration of the commission's regional transmission organizations initiative." They also said the Virginia's legislature's action may be unconstitutional because it's a protectionist action aimed at giving state consumers "favored access" to natural resources.
The FERC is developing a set of broad rules for regional power markets to ease congestion, create real-time trading, and monitor questionable price spikes. The proposed rules are already opposed by lawmakers in the South and Pacific Northwest, who see them raising electricity rates.
May 9, 2003
Ametek acquires Solidstate Controls, Inc
Ametek, Inc. Paoli, Pa., recently announced the acquisition of Solidstate Controls, Inc., a supplier of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems for the process of power generation industries, from Columbus Sales Corp., an affiliate of Marmon Industrial Companies LLC. Ametek paid approximately $36 million for the acquisition.
Located in Columbus, Ohio, Solidstate Controls has about 250 employees and estimated 2002 sales of $45 million. Key markets for Solidstate's products include oil production, oil refining, chemical, petrochemical, steel, and power generation, including fossil fuel and nuclear power utilities.
May 7, 2003
Black & Veatch forms global Renewable Energy Group
Engineering and design firm Black & Veatch, Overland Park, Kan., recently announced the formation of its global Renewable Energy Group, which provides comprehensive services for renewable energy projects in the areas of wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal, and ocean energy. The firm formed the group to respond to emerging renewable energy opportunities both in the United States and internationally.
The group consists of experts in all renewable energy technologies with the ability to perform strategic analyses, feasibility studies, design build, owner's engineering and independent engineering, making it a full-service provider.
May 7, 2003
Texas-based power system company lays off workers
Power system company Active Power, Inc., Austin, Texas, recently laid off 41 employees, or about one-quarter of its work force, and reported a 61% drop in sales for the first quarter. The job cuts are the second in seven months for the Austin-based Active Power. The company laid off 30 manufacturing workers in October.
For the quarter that ended March 31, Active Power lost $6.3 million, or 15 cents a share, on sales of $1.6 million. Investors sent shares in Active Power down 13%, or 18 cents, to close at $1.18.
May 5, 2003
Electrical contractors prepare to restore power after deadly tornado in Midwest
The morning after a series of tornadoes leveled homes in Missouri and Kansas, killing at least 21 people, Kansas City electrical contractors prepared to restore power to area homeowners. Shawn Gifford, general manager for North Kansas City, Mo.-based Bart's Electric Co., Inc., says his staff met Monday morning to determine a game plan for handling the emergency situation.
"We weren't out and about last night because crews were still trying to clean up everything after the tornado," Gifford says. "We expect to get some calls starting [Tuesday]."
The twisters were the first deadly tornadoes in Kansas City in more than 20 years. While tornado warnings are relatively frequent in the region, tornadoes rarely touch down or cause damage.
"This is new territory for us," Gifford says. "We're trying to decide how many people to send out. We have about 50 electricians, and we may have to take them off other jobs. I think there are still more than 1,000 people without power."
Kansas City's electrical contractors have prior experience dealing with natural disasters. Last February, tree limbs weighed down by ice crashed on to power lines and ripped meter housings away from homes. The ice storm left 420,000 homes without power, and many of the area electrical contractors rushed in to help local homeowners.
Tann Electric, a service company that specializes in electrical and low-voltage work for residential customers, handled more than 250 service calls in the aftermath of Kansas City's ice storm. The contractor is now ready to help restore power to its clients after Sunday's tornadoes. Randy Smith, vice president of operations for Tann Electric, says the twisters damaged the electrical grid in many parts of the city.
"I'm sure that in a lot of cases the grid itself is totally gone, and the poles, overhead lines, and primary power lines are significantly compromised," he says.
Teams worked throughout the evening to shut off electrical power and natural gas to the homes in the tornado's path. Since most of the electrical equipment was often destroyed, crews had to shut off power at the transformer or the distribution center.
"You have to go to the source to find a way to turn off the power," he says. "When the house is totally demolished, you won't have the opportunity to check the breaker box or main disconnect. You'll have to go to the different power points or power stations within the electric utility system itself."
Before restoring power to a home, it's critical to first check the condition of the power lines. If the lines aren't down, then the next step is to inspect the conductors from the poles to the house. Teams will have to assess each home individually since some homes received more damage than others. While some of the houses are completely destroyed, others sustained minimal damage. In those cases, the service entrances will often need to be rebuilt. As many homeowners learned in the ice storm disaster, it's their responsibility to call an electrical contractor to install the meter housings.
"The homeowner's responsibility is everything after the point of attachment, which includes the meter and the riser," Smith says. "Sometimes the utility will complete a temporary repair for the convenience and safety of the homeowner, but the homeowner would need to call a licensed electrician back to complete the repairs."
Once the utility companies restore power to the houses that are still standing, electrical contractors' phones will most likely begin to ring. Smith says his company is ready to handle the influx of calls from homeowners.
"We have a model that we work from, and part of it was developed from the ice storm," he says. "We can shift our resources, people, material, and trucks, to respond to our clients' needs."
May 2, 2003
New lights help Wisconsin plant put the finishing touches on printers
A Wisconsin packaging plant was recently able to increase ambient light in its five facilities while reducing energy consumption, thanks to the installation of a new lighting system. The project to retrofit 820 existing fixtures at Warren Industries, Racine, Wis., began as an effort to reduce energy costs. However, the plant found that the new fixtures it chose could also improve light output in the facilities.
The lights from Orion Lighting and Energy Services, Plymouth, Wis., recently won Wisconsin's Spirit of Ecology Award. David Namowicz, president of Warren Industries, says the improved color-rendering made possible by the fixtures is important for a facility like his. "We are a finisher for printers, and our new energy-efficient lighting assures that the colors in our facilities are more vivid," he says.
The project was another in the state's Focus on Energy Program.
May 2, 2003
GE completes acquisition of electronic security systems provider
GE Industrial Systems, Plainville, Conn., recently announced its acquisition of International Fiber Systems, Inc. (IFS), a Newton, Conn.-based manufacturer of digital fiber optic transmission products and systems for electronic security and intelligent transportation systems.
IFS will become a subsidiary of GE Interlogix, a part of GE Industrial Systems, also based in Plainville, Conn. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
IFS manufacturers products for traffic signaling networks, variable message/changeable message signs and electronic toll collection systems.


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alex951 wrote:"freestyle" speed games are basically casual game now. so i dont see the point in buying premium again?
Are you referring to 2 player freestyle speed exclusively? I only ask because I fail to see how this would have impacted multiplayer games in such a drastic fashion, because in multiplayer games people will still be playing simultaneously and the turn order will constantly be changing.