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For 22 days now, the Jets linebacker has been the target of his teammates as part of the "No Shave November" fad as he has been growing a beard and has refused to touch his burgeoning growth. Now itchy and thick, Bellore needs to endure a little more than a week before he can think about trimming let alone shaving the beard. It is a burden he feels he carries for the Jets team because of the sheer awesomeness of his facial hair.
"[Nick] Mangold has a nice beard but mine is darker which I think is better – it is better," Bellore told The Jets Blog.
"There aren't a lot of guys on this team who have the capability to grow a beard like this, of this caliber, so I feel the responsibility to do it. It is a one-man team. You'd think on a team of full grown men they could pull off a decent beard but I just don't see it. Look for yourself."
For those keeping track, Bellore often sports some sort of facial hair from the occasional goatee to a five o'clock shadow and now the full beard. After the aforementioned Mangold and left guard Matt Slauson, Bellore stands out on a Jets team that is rather clean-shaven for the most part.
He said that the beard has the blessing of quarterback Tim Tebow, himself clean shaven. "He does like it, obviously," Bellore said.
As he sits on his stool outside his locker, he sneaks in a quick itch of the beard every now and then as he talks about its superiority. It is a beard that he says brings out the jealousy in his teammates.
"I don't hear too much talk but I know, I'm sure people are jealous. There are haters," Bellore said. "Look at B.T. [Bryan Thomas], he can only get it down to the jawline. It's a little patchy up top. Same with Bart [Scott]. There's beard envy, it is clearly obvious."
At the end of the month, Bellore would like to make a contribution to charity to commemorate "No Shave November."
Growing a beard has been a Nick Bellore tradition since 15 years old. He said it will continue even through Thanksgiving with his family in town. They probably won't like it, he said, "but it is what I must do at this point. It is the burden I bear."
The beard does have its limitations and drawbacks, including with the ladies in his life. The reception hasn't been so great among the members of his female fan club.
"Terrible. Not good. It's not conducive to that at all. I have to bite the bullet for a month then I can trim it," Bellore said.
"I feel isolated right now in this locker room. Again, everyone is so jealous of what I'm doing here. It isn't easy being on top."
Bellore leans back on his stool and scratches his neck again, this time a little more vigorously. It is going to be a long nine days.
Kristian R. Dyer is a Jets beat reporter for Metro New York and contributes to The Jets Blog. Follow him at @KristianRDyer for Jets breaking news and info from Florham Park.


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There are a million iPhone apps out there, but not one of them helps you use your smartphone for domestic violence.
No one should know this better than New York Times tech columnist, David Pogue, yet according to WCBS in New York, that's exactly what Pogue is in trouble for.
Police captain Sam Arciola said an argument ensued after Pogue's wife, Jennifer, arrived uninvited during his time to visit with their children.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Allegedly, Jennifer bit Pogue on the arm, which resulted in him pinning her down, and hitting her in the head with an iPhone.
David Pogue's attorney said the arrests came from a brief confrontation between the two, who are in the process of divorcing, and expects his client to be cleared of any charges.

subset: commoncrawl


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Istvan Soos necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 447 diseños de 61 diseñadores freelance.
We are experienced people with strong IT technology backgrounds (development, system architect, cloud computing, performance analysis), learned the business (project management, agile methodologies, business as usual) and startup lessons (time management, focus, funding) in the hard way - we have tried everything. Now we shift our business focus to have best of both business and technology world, to provide agile methodologies, cutting edge technologies and business-value oriented consulting to our clients. Furthermore - as we are a Hungarian company - we will provide startup incubation and seed funding for Hungarian university students.
Agile methodologies and business consulting for larger firms, whole organizations, project teams, project managers.
Technology consulting and IT learning services for small teams and projects of any size.
Startup incubation and seed funding for university students.
We would like to identify with (any / all of) the following:
- 'agile' (the beginning of the brand), in the meaning of fast-responding, best value creator, flexible and clever
- 'royal' (the ending of the brand) - we are really good technical people, hence the association (this part is less important)
- best of 'business' and 'technology' world (if there is any idea that combines on these)
We like the letter 'g' in the Trebuchet font set, but that is optional (we use it in our website - now under construction: http://www.agilord.com ).
Two requirements:
- less is more (we like simplicity)
- we would like to have a contoured (single-colored) version of the logo, that can be printed on merchandise, pen, t-shirt, whatever...
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Friday, February 17, 2012
President Obama leads both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum by more than 20 points in California, as nearly six-out-of-ten voters approve of the way he's handling his job.
New Rasmussen Reports data shows that if Romney is the Republican nominee, Obama leads 57% to 35%.
If Santorum becomes the GOP standard bearer, the president leads 58% to 30%.
President Obama leads Romney by 23 points among unaffiliated voters and Santorum by 34 points among the same group. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
This California survey of 500 Likely Voters was conducted February 8-16, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.Rasmussen subscribers can log in to read the rest of this article.
ORBecome a member and get full access to all articles and polls starting at $4.95/month.
Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
To learn more about our methodology, click here.


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In our special report, "Journalists in Exile," CPJ examines the issues facing journalists who are forced to flee their countries due to intimidation, threats, or fear of imprisonment.
Batoor, 29, an Afghan photojournalist, began receiving threats soon after a photo essay he worked on, "The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan," was published in The Washington Post. The photographer would spend time in Pakistan and Indonesia, survive a journey in a boat that capsized, and escape from a detention center before receiving asylum in Australia.
Listen to the podcast on the player above, or right click here to download an MP3. (4:15)
Read CPJ's special report, "Journalists in Exile."


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Star Wars is everywhere. The Lucas empire extends far beyond the reach of any traditional franchise, with our friends C3PO and R2D2 being as ubiquitous as the kitchen sink. Some of the ancillary elements to the Star Wars world are great - Knights of the Old Republic, we're looking at you. Others, however, can be depressingly abysmal, ruining what is one of the greatest fantasy universes ever created.
Eyes turn to the likes of Super Bombad Racing and the Star Wars Holiday Special, both of which form their own unique blend of awfulness. Now in the build-up to Star Wars Kinect's release, there has been a bit of controversy - particular among hardcore fans - that the game just isn't going to deliver. Then videos of the Galactic Dance Off mode appeared on the internet. It made people very angry.
We have been playing Star Wars without our fanboy hats on. Our love of Yoda and his chums would make reviewing a game where Han Solo has a dance-off before being frozen in carbonite just too upsetting. This has meant that we have been able to deduce a few things - first, that on no account should anyone who likes Star Wars go near Galactic Dance Off and second, that it's actually a rather good Kinect game.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
...Someone invented Kinect Adventures. It was a fun game which showed off what Microsoft's new motion-sensing technology was capable of. Suddenly every family the world over wanted a Kinect. Now the device is at the forefront of nearly everything Microsoft does, with even hardcore titles like Mass Effect 3 getting support for it.
- HP's new Omen gaming PCs explored: We tear down these gaming beasts to see what's under the hood (promo)
We liked Kinect Adventures. It was great fun. Thankfully then Star Wars Kinect is very much an extension of this title, just with much more loveable characters. The magic is all there, the iconic music, C3PO and R2D2 guiding you through the Jedi archives. Heck, the pair will even quiz each other on master Luke's (you play as him in menus) whereabouts, should you step out of range of the sensor.
Above all though, it's fun. Playing with a light sabre is fun, beating Sebulba in a pod race feels cool and attacking Mos Eisley as an escaped Rancor is great. A lot of the gameplay concepts at their core are flawed, but then we can't see how else they could be handled, given the limitations Kinect creates. Take light sabre battles for example, there is just no way you could be back flipping around your living room swinging your arms all over the place. So the alternative they have created is actually rather clever.
The greatest story in the galaxy?
How does Kinect Star Wars actually work? Well, rather than just randomly hopping into Star Wars-related events, there is in fact a story mode, as well as other quasi mini-games. Starting out as a Padawan on Kashyyk, Yoda and some other Jedi masters send you off on a quest to stop an invasion by a race of reptile people called the Trandoshans. Cue light sabres, speeder bikes, Force powers and some epic music as well as the odd cameo from some series favourites.
For the most part the story experience works, although don't expect the tale told to be anywhere near the level of the movies of KOTR. Still, it gives you more than just a set of mini-games to get your teeth stuck into.
On top of the story mode are other selectable gameplay types - Podracing, Jedi Duels, Galactic Dance Off (don't even look at it) and Rancor Rampage. Most are pretty fully featured and offer enough different gameplay options to provide a good few hours' entertainment on top of the normal story itself. They are also perfect for those who want to pick at the game rather than engage in a longer play session.
We particularly like the podracing. Although you are practically guided around the track, it just feels great controlling different racers. You are fairly limited in your track choice, which is just six, but there are other drivers and their pods to unlock.
Rancor Rampage is also quite a laugh. It is basically a game in which you use your various limbs to smash up famous sets from the Star Wars universe. A choice of four different rancors, each with unique abilities, stops the mode from getting stale too quickly. We also really enjoyed being able to trash Jabba's Palace, just because he is such a bad guy.
Do you really feel like a Jedi?
This is the question that every fan wants answering. Galactic dance off aside, if Kinect Star Wars can even get close to what it might feel like to wield a light sabre, then most will be sold on it already.
First up is the question of movement. This is a difficult one to handle with Kinect because your living room can only be so long. No one can run more than a few steps forward or back, so moving your character on screen is either done by jogging on the spot or lunging. They have gone for the latter with Star Wars Kinect. It works, most certainly, but you are entirely on rails throughout because of it.
The Force is handled with either your left hand, should you want to push things about, or with both if you are lifting them. Kinect found this side of things particularly dodgy, making the Force feel a bit flimsy in reality.
But what about the light sabre? It essentially comes in two modes: either when you are duelling or deflecting bullets. When enemies are blasting away at you, swinging forward into blaster bullets will deflect them back at them. You can also do things like kick, run or jump. It works well enough and the movements we were making were translated nicely on to our character. This does mean then, that for a while, you feel like you are holding a light sabre.
Duelling is not so great. It would simply be too hard a game if you re-enacted taking on someone like Darth Maul exactly. Kinect just wouldn't cope. Instead what you do is either deflect swings, or attack by swinging, though not at the same time. In order to attack you need to wear down an enemy's meter by blocking their attempts at hitting you. The result is a sort of back and forth battle which is exciting enough.
Graphically Star Wars Kinect isn't great. It has gone for a rather clean look that clearly draws on the Clone Wars cartoons. Textures are fairly bland and character models lack detail, apart from C3PO and Yoda who look great. There is also noticeable slowdown when lots is going on on screen. Voice acting matches nicely with a character's facial animations, which while not quite Mass Effect good, are certainly convincing.
A lot of us really don't want to like Star Wars Kinect at all. The films have been so bashed and bruised by blatant cash-ins that 99 per cent of the time we would avoid games like this. At its core, however, it is a fun game and we suppose that is what really matters.
We may have given it a 3.5 stars, but for an 8-year-old this game would easily be a 5. Why? Because you can swing a light sabre , or be in a pod race. These are cool things which every 8-year-old dreams about after watching the movies. They might not be executed as nicely as they could have been, but this is a game clearly aimed at the younger crowd. It is super-easy for starters and you will have got through the story mode in just a few hours.
A game to sit and watch your kids play then - just make sure you leave when they play galactic dance off.


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A Pakistani court reinstated in their jobs on Thursday 17 health workers who were fired last year for allegedly participating in a CIA scheme to confirm the presence of Osama bin Laden in a town in northwest Pakistan, a defense lawyer said.
Lawyer Javed Awan said the court order affected 16 female health workers and one male whom a government health department suspended last year for failing to inform authorities about Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi's fake vaccination campaign. The health workers insist they did not know Afridi was working for the CIA.
The campaign aimed to collect blood samples from bin Laden's family to show that the al-Qaida leader was in the northern town of Abbottabad, where he was later killed in a U.S. raid in May 2011. Pakistan strongly protested the raid, considering it a violation of the country's sovereignty.
Afridi was sentenced to more than three decades in prison for ties to militants. But it is widely believed that he was punished for his role in the raid. Afridi's lawyer and his family have said he is innocent as he did nothing against the interests of Pakistan.
Awan said the 17 had been directed by senior health officials to participate in the vaccination campaign, which ran in the town from February 15 to May 15, 2010, and that they were innocent of wrongdoing. "The court has done justice to them," he said.
"I am happy that I got my job back," said Amraiza Bibi, one of the 17 who was present in the court during the ruling.


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Creating commercial images for business clients, from the very small to the largest PLC, expressing brand values & proposition.
Creating commercial images for business clients, from the very small to the largest PLC, expressing brand values & proposition.
Creating images of the brand, workplace, employees, investments & business partnerships for corporate & promotion use.
Capturing images of the workplace from office, engineering to processing plant for promotional use, training or health & safety.
Specialised images for construction & infrastructural projects as well as small engineering businesses, CNC and tool shop organisations.
Creating images of business events & conferences, sales functions, company presentations, training or demonstrations.
Publicity images for use by clients & their agencies from all aspects of industry for internal communications as well as external press & PR.
New builds, construction and architectural feature images from designers, architects, construction companies and manufactures.
Property images for estate agents and property management companies, investment groups & and yes, the householder.
Interior & lifestyle images for architects building companies & interior designers. Also for home furnishing manufacturers.
Working across the hospitality sector from hotels to restaurants, bars & pubs to artisan cafés & deli, cocktail lounges & whiskey bars.
Creating product images of all items types, from furniture to valuable jewellery, lifestyle as well as catalogue or 'clipped' images.
Creating images the length of the food chain and in hospitality for digital and print uses, menus, packaging & promotion.
We not only correct and enhance our own images - we do it for clients as well. Priced by the image for simple cost calculation.
Commercial Photographer, with specialist commercial photography studio working throughout Thurso & Caithness - indeed Scotland wide, creating images that demonstrate a business proposition and service or product value. YRSCommercial, Thurso Commercial Photography.
Thurso commercial photographer, YRSCommercial. Commercial photography for companies large & small, media, PR or marketing agencies throughout Thurso and the whole of Scotland. Example 4. Commercial photography covers such a huge range of commissions, many of which we cover off specifically in the collections themselves from PR to events, Product through to corporate, business portraits through to engineering in action. And yes, we do the lot!
YRSCommercial, the Thurso Commercial Photographer.
NOTE: Return to the portfolio [...]. Image Copyright Protected.
YRSCommercial although a small business of three, is lucky in that our commissions are wide and varied from event photography through to products, employee portraits and corporate photography through to hospitality. Literally we photograph it all.
We do specialise in industrial, workplace, product, food, architecture & building interiors. We do some property work but mainly for real estate agents and investment groups where the emphasis is in the property investment rather than selling a house.
This doesn't mean we do not get involved in other forms of commercial photography commissions - we do including public relations although we tend to work business to business PR rather than consumer. The one thing we do not do is weddings - and the only portraits we do are for business people. Why emphasise this - it's our focus, we are a specialist commercial photography business not a generalist and our clients are business or business owners. YRSCommercial, the thurso Commercial Photographer.
YRSCommercial & YRSFood. Thurso Commercial, Hospitality, Food, Architectural & Interiors, Product Photography.
YRSCommercial, the business and corporate photography studio. YRSCommercial (Your Reflection Studio) is a commercial photography studio and specialising in commercial, product, interiors and architecture images. We're based in the the Highlands, working throughout the Scotland. We work with businesses, producers, restaurants, media, designers and property owners, creating images for commercial, editorial, promotional, business and industrial needs, as-well-as for media and agencies and marketing designers all over Thurso, and wider - Scotland. Specialist Commercial Photographer, Your Reflection Studio (YRSCommercial & YRSFood).
Thurso Commercial Photographer | Thurso Corporate Relations Photography | Thurso Business Photographer | Thurso Corporate Photographer | Thurso Freelance Photographer | Thurso Industrial Photographer | Thurso Company Photographer | Thurso Commercial Photography | Thurso Business Press Photographer | Thurso Commercial Editorial Photographer |
Privacy Statement. Copyright Statement & Licence Explained . Site Map. Green Statement. Terms & Conditions. You can read our policy on Cookie Use here and our GDPR policy - beyond our privacy statement here. All images on this business site are copyright protected and monitored by the photographer and studio. Please do not copy the images or the CONTENT. Copying of content is prohibited by copyright law.


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The Raiders kept their NRL finals hopes alive with a 24-20 win over the Sydney Roosters in a spiteful clash in Canberra tonight.
Led by five-eighth Josh McCrone and man-of-the-match Josh Dugan, Canberra held on despite a late charge by the Roosters who had Anthony Minichiello sent off with six minutes remaining.
The victory put the Raiders equal on points with seventh-placed Brisbane and eight-placed Wests Tigers but in ninth on points difference.
A Jarrod Croker penalty after Minichiello's dismissal for an elbow to the head of rival fullback Dugan put the Raiders ahead 24-16 and Tautau Moga's athletic four-pointer with 90 seconds on the clock set up a tense finish.
The home side broke a 16-16 deadlock in the 66th minute following a Reece Robinson try when the Roosters defence allowed a cross-field kick to bounce into the winger's arms.
Blake Ferguson's long-range effort had put the Raiders ahead 16-10 in the 50th minute before Roosters back-rower Jack Bosden replied 10 minutes later, with a conversion from Braith Anasta levelling the scores.
The Roosters would have been happy when the sides went to halftime at 10-10 after the Raiders had 55 per cent of possession and nearly 200 extra running metres in the first 40 minutes.
Centre Shaun Kenny-Dowall put the Roosters ahead after eight minutes with a strong run to the tryline before the Raiders answered in the 17th minute after a sustained period of pressure in their opponent's 20m zone.
Joel Thompson was the first to cross before his second-row partner Josh Papalii barged over to truly reflect Canberra's dominance.
But Roosters lock Frank-Paul Nuuausala carried two defenders over the line following a rare entry into Raiders territory five minutes before halftime.
The Raiders face top of the table Canterbury at home next weekend and the Warriors away to finish the regular season.


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Laura Mercier
Velour Extreme Matte Lipstick
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This item is worth 123 loyalty pointsSign up to Liberty Loyalty to see your purchases converted into vouchers you can spend in-store or online.
- Product features
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- Delivery
Product features
- 1.4g
- Ultra-matte finish; full coverage
- Powerful, pigment-rich colour
- Built-in shaper for precision; no need for lip liner
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Editor's notes
Achieve the ultimate pin-up lip with Laura Mercier's Velour Extreme Matte Lipstick. Delivering intense colour in a single stroke, this creamy, long-lasting lipstick is as soft, sumptuous and saturated as pure velvet.
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Yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said President Bush's warrantless spying activies were part of a "very concentrated, very limited program."
But during today's press briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Wendell Goler stated his "understanding" that the program was used "18,000-plus times." Scott McClellan refused to confirm or deny Goler's numbers:
GOLER: It's our understanding this power has been used 18,000-plus times. Are we to presume that there are that many al Qaeda agents in this country?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not going to get into talking about more than what we've said publicly. That's getting into more than what we've talked about publicly, so I'm not in a position to confirm or deny the numbers that you threw out there.
If Goler is correct, Bush's program could hardly be described as "very concentrated" or "very limited."
UPDATE: As commenter jsp points out, Goler may be conflating the number of times Bush's program was deployed with the number of authorized FISA warrants, which number approximately 19,000.
Transcript continues below:
GOLER: You don't want to give us an indication of how often this power is used, and you don't want to give us an indication of the size of the potential threat in this country?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I think, again, the Attorney General and General Hayden talked a little bit about this yesterday, but I talked about the nature of this authorization and the scope of it, and I talked about the safeguards and oversight that are in place. This is very carefully reviewed every 45 days and it —
GOLER: I really don't need you to go there.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, no, but this goes to your question. It is limited to people who have — one of the parties to the communication have a clear connection to al Qaeda or terrorist organizations, and one of the parties is operating outside of the United States. I think that's important for people to know, because there's been some suggestions that it's spying inside the U.S. That's not the case.
GOLER: I'll stipulate that. But it is limited to that situation, are we to presume, then, that there are in excess of tens of thousands of al Qaeda agents in this country, because it's been used that many times?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm not confirming or denying those numbers. I don't think anyone has done that publicly, so I'm not going to get into a discussion of that nature.


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The Ben Bernanke Variety Hour
April 27th begins a new chapter in Federal Reserve history: the Fed joins other major central banks in having a press conference after its monetary policy meetings (the Federal Open Market Committee). Apparently the record lows in public support for the Fed, along with rising gas and food prices, have driven Bernanke to attempt to change the narrative. After all, his appearance on "60 Minutes" did wonders for the Fed's reputation. I'm excited to hear even more about his childhood in Dillon, South Carolina or his time working at South of the Border. Maybe an enterprising reporter could ask how much menu prices at South of the Border have increased since Bernanke took over the Fed.
Perhaps you've noticed that I don't have high expectations for his press conference. It is probably fair to say that no Federal Reserve Chair has had as much public exposure as Bernanke. Yet with all those public appearances, he has consistently managed to avoid any real discussion about the costs and benefits of the Fed's actions. Are we likely to hear concern about food and gas prices, and how such are being driven by loose money? Probably not…just more on how increasing world demand is to blame. Just like it was the "global savings glut" that drove interest rates earlier this decade, it is always somebody else's fault — never the Fed's. They are capable of only good.
Hopefully Bernanke will at least avoid the Obama line that it is those "speculators" that are behind the increase in energy prices. After all, if we believe the governments of Europe, those evil speculators brought down Greece too.
As per usual, I truly hope I'm wrong here. Bernanke has a real opportunity to be honest and straightforward with the American public. We don't need another lecture. We need to hear that the Fed isn't a slave to some imaginary Phillips Curve or that we can't have inflation with slack in the economy (where was Bernanke in the 1970s?). The real risk is that Bernanke uses the press conference to drown out the many voices of concern and dissent on the FOMC. Which, of course, would be a real irony given all of Bernanke's talk about "democratizing" the Fed when he first became chair.


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The UK's natural environment and its
biodiversity provides a vital and valuable role in supporting the
basic natural services we all depend on, such as food, fresh water
and clean air. For example, bees pollinate our crops and the
crops in turn provide us with food. Nature conservation aims
to maintain and enrich our biodiversity, and to sustain these
natural services.
Nature conservation in the UK is driven
by a wide range of policies, legislation and agreements, all
delivered by a range of bodies, from the statutory, voluntary,
academic and business sectors, which work together to conserve the
environment and its biodiversity. In 1994, the UK became the
first country to produce a national biodiversity action plan (the
UK BAP), as part of its commitment to the
Convention on Biological Diversity.
Since then, devolution has led the four countries of the UK –
England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – to produce their
own biodiversity conservation strategies.
JNCC plays an important role in helping to co-ordinate
conservation action and research at a UK level. In July 2012,
JNCC and Defra, on behalf of the Four Countries' Biodiversity
Group, published the 'UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework', which
aimed to set out the common purpose and shared priorities of the
four countries and the UK. This important document has been
endorsed by the environment ministers from all four countries.
Beyond the UK Biodiversity Framework, JNCC's involvement in
nature conservation at a UK level ranges from the publication of
annual updates of the UK Biodiversity Indicators (last update
August 2017), to work which assists in the protection of rare and
threatened UK habitats and species, the designation of protected
sites and the support of UK legislation.
Together with Defra, JNCC published the 'UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework' on 17 July
2012, on behalf of the Four Countries' Biodiversity Group, which
includes representatives from each of the devolved
The Biodiversity Framework has been developed in response to two
major drivers: the Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD's)
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity
2011-2020 and its five strategic goals and 20 'Aichi
Biodiversity Targets', published following the CBD meeting held in
Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010; and the launch of the
EU Biodiversity Strategy (EUBS) in May 2011.
The Framework is designed to show how the work of the four UK
countries joins up with work at a UK level to achieve the 'Aichi
Biodiversity Targets' and the aims of the EU Biodiversity
Strategy. It highlights where work in the country
biodiversity strategies contributes to international obligations,
and the activities required at a UK level to complement these
strategies. The development of the Framework reflects a
revised direction for nature conservation, towards an approach
which aims to consider the management of the environment as a
whole, and to acknowledge and take into account the value of nature
in decision-making.
For more information about the 'UK Post-2010
Biodiversity Framework'>>>
Indicators summarise complex data into more simple, standardised
and communicable figures. Within the UK, lots of information
about biodiversity is collected, across a wide range of species and
habitats, and a suite of biodiversity indicators is used to
communicate this information to a range of audiences, including the
general public, policy makers and government officials.
A set of biodiversity indicators for the UK was first published
in June 2007, and has been published annually ever since – most
recently on 3 August 2017. The indicators show
changes in various aspects of biodiversity, such as the population
size of important species, or the area of land managed for
The UK Biodiversity Indicators have been developed with input
from government, statutory agencies, non-governmental organisations
and academic institutes. The publication of the indicators is
compiled on behalf of the Biodiversity Indicators Steering Group by
JNCC and Defra, and is overseen by government statisticians.
For more information about the UK Biodiversity
The UK has a wealth of habitats and species, some of which are
of worldwide importance. JNCC supports habitat and species
conservation through advice, and the development of surveillance
and monitoring initiatives in the wider countryside. Through
surveillance and monitoring, the status and trends of species and
habitats, and the pressures that affect them, can be
recorded. The information gathered can be used to help
identify problems, target conservation action where it is most
needed, and to measure the success of conservation effort.
more information about UK habitats and species>>>
The UK has many different types of protected area, from those
established for nature conservation only, to those which serve a
range of purposes such as National Parks. Assisting in the
designation of protected areas in the UK is an important part of
the delivery of JNCC's requirement to conserve and enhance
habitats, earth science features and species. JNCC acts on
behalf of the statutory conservation agencies and associated
government departments by collecting information on designated
sites for nature conservation in the UK, and also assists in the
interpretation of criteria for site selection and in developing
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Laws and regulations to conserve biodiversity
or to regulate how it is used have their origins at global,
European Union, national and sub-national level. At a UK
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is some divergence in approaches to legislation between the four
The major legislation relating to nature
conservation in Great Britain is the Wildlife and Countryside Act
1981 (as amended). As part of the act, JNCC co-ordinates a
statutory five-yearly review of Schedules 5 and 8 (protected wild
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State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, has introduced a bill that would prevent law enforcement agencies from selling data gathered by license-plate-reading cameras to private parties such as parking and car-repossession companies.
The city of Menlo Park has bought license-plate readers but does not plan to use them until a privacy policy is approved, and one of the clauses of the policy is supposed to address the sale of data.
Senate Bill 893 would protect the driving public's privacy where there is now no protection, but still allow law enforcement the use of a technology on the roof of a police car that can capture as many as 2,000 plates a minute, according to a statement from Mr. Hill's office.
Citing a report from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, the statement says that over 30 days, the cameras led to the location of 495 stolen vehicles, five carjacked vehicles and 19 vehicles involved in felonies and 45 arrests.
Violations would entitle victims the right to sue and recover damages, including costs and attorneys fees.
The bill would also require agencies to get a court order to gain access to license plate data more than five years old.
"Law enforcement will still be able to continue to use (the) technology to catch criminals, but Californians will have peace of mind that their personal information is safeguarded," Mr. Hill said.


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The Hydrosite, a decontamination system by Hydro Engineering Inc., is totally portable and can be set up and operational in one day.
It includes a patented modular wash rack that collects wastewater and oil. The wastewater and oil is pumped to filtering and recycling equipment that separates the water from the oil and then supplies the water back to high pressure washers that reuse the recycled water.
The system arrives as a fully assembled package requiring just hours to become fully operational. This decontamination system can be used anywhere there is level ground, a water source and electric power from either the grid or a generator.
Originally designed for tactical deployment by the U.S. military, this self contained wash rack system can be delivered by either truck or transported by aircraft for quick deployment.
The wash pad can be disassembled and moved to another location quickly and easily making it suitable for use in the Gulf of Mexico for decontamination of watercraft and vehicles fouled by crude oil. The Hydrosite/Hydropad systems come in configurations from single operators to as many as eight operators working together to complete any wash and decontamination job requirement.


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Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 / 02:05 pm MT ().- Pope Benedict XVI has signed his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Church in the Middle East, "Ecclesia in Medio Oriente," during the first day of his visit to Lebanon.
"The Exhortation as a whole is meant to help each of the Lord's disciples to live fully and to pass on faithfully to others what he or she has become by Baptism: a child of light, sharing in God's own light, a lamp newly lit amid the troubled darkness of this world, so that the light may shine in the darkness," he said.
Pope Benedict made his remarks during the official signing ceremony at the Melkite Greek Catholic Basilica of St. Paul in the coastal town of Harissa, Sept. 14.
"The document seeks to help purify the faith from all that disfigures it, from everything that can obscure the splendor of Christ's light," he noted.
"For communion is true fidelity to Christ, and Christian witness is the radiance of the paschal mystery which gives full meaning to the cross, exalted and glorious."
The exhortation is the Pope's response to the deliberations of the Synod of Bishops of the Middle East held at the Vatican in October 2010. The topic for discussion then was "The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness."
The Pope, who is in the country from Sept. 14 -16, noted the providence of signing the document on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which has its origins in 4th century Jerusalem during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine.
He also reminded those present that next month is the 1700th anniversary of the appearance to Constantine of the Chi-Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek. It appeared to the emperor as a "radiant in the symbolic night of his unbelief and accompanied by the words: 'In this sign you will conquer!'" prior to victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge near Rome, thus paving the way for the acceptance of Christianity within the Roman Empire.
Reading the exhortation with these historic events in mind "leads to renewed appreciation of the identity of each baptized person and of the Church, and is at the same time a summons to witness in and through communion," said the Pope.
"For Christians, to exalt the cross means to be united to the totality of God's unconditional love for mankind. It means making an act of faith!" he said.
"To exalt the cross, against the backdrop of the resurrection, means to desire to experience and to show the totality of this love. It means making an act of love!"
"To exalt the cross means to be a committed herald of fraternal and ecclesial communion, the source of authentic Christian witness. It means making an act of hope!"
Listening to Pope Benedict was a packed congregation consisting of leaders of Lebanon's 40 percent Christian community – mainly Catholic and Orthodox – along with leaders of other religions including the region's dominant faith, Islam.
The Pope thanked God that it was the people of the Middle East "were the first to welcome his incarnate Son" but also recognized that following Jesus Christ in the region today often requires much "courage and faith."
This was why, he said, the Synod Fathers were keen to reflect upon the "joys and struggles, the fears and hopes of Christ's disciples in these lands."
"In this way, the entire Church was able to hear the troubled cry and see the desperate faces of many men and women who experience grave human and material difficulties, who live amid powerful tensions in fear and uncertainty."
Such is the way of the exultation of the cross, said the Pope, that it often requires following Christ "even in difficult and sometimes painful situations."
"It is here and now that we are called to celebrate the victory of love over hate, forgiveness over revenge, service over domination, humility over pride, and unity over division."
Middle Eastern Christians, therefore, should not fear the future but, instead, should "stand firm in truth and in purity of faith" that results from the "the cross, exalted and glorious."
"Churches of the Middle East, fear not, for the Lord is truly with you, to the close of the age!" urged Pope Benedict, "Fear not, because the universal Church walks at your side and is humanly and spiritually close to you!"
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Late last month, Smithsonian.com launched a "Department of Innovation" blog in hopes of reigniting President Barack Obama's call for this generation's "Sputnik moment"—in less glossy terms, that means taxpayer-funded corporate welfare to pursue the President's pet projects.
Fittingly enough, the "Department of Innovation" logo featured a series of cogs that, if put in motion, would grind to a halt. (We did our best to illustrate the likely results, above.) It seems that even when it comes to something as simple as putting together a logo depicting the gears of industry, government-funded enterprises like the Smithsonian can't get it right. After being mocked for its ironic error, the blog's author posted a retooled version of the logo (though its mechanics still remain unclear).
Nevertheless, thanks are owed to the Smithsonian for helping to illustrate a fundamental truth: When it comes to innovation, government doesn't know what it's doing. And that's because Uncle Sam is not the mother of invention. Individuals are. And when new ideas or new products are in demand and profitable, they find success in the free market.
What happens when government gets involved? Take a look at the U.S. educational system. Despite a tripling of federal per-pupil expenditures and $2 trillion of taxpayer money spent since 1965, academic achievement and graduation rates have remained flat.
How about the President's green energy pet project? Obama's plan to spend taxpayer dollars to create green jobs (and expand green energy) is already a loser. In testimony before Congress, Heritage's David Kreutzer cited four examples of companies that received millions in federal loan guarantees for clean energy projects—three of which ultimately struggled to secure private financing. Why? They weren't commercially viable.
Rather than trying to force innovation with bigger government and more federal spending, President Obama should take a step back and let the free market do what it does best. And if the Department of Innovation wants to see new ideas, it should look to individuals who make the wheels of innovation turn.


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Stadttheater Bremerhaven
The first professional theatrical productions were presented in Bremerhaven in 1837 by so-called traveling companies of actors. 160 years ago, was then in a former warehouse in the Fährstraße a theater with 200 seats. A few years later, the theater people moved into a new, expanded to 100 seats in the house corner Central and Leher Street, which today houses the municipal Sparkasse Bremerhaven. On the program were pleasure and tragedies, farces and ballets - usually one-act works. The first municipal theater, the "People's Theater in the Garden", saw his first opera performance at the third October 1849 with "The White Lady" by François Adrien Boieldieu.
In 1854 they founded the "United Theatre", which played among others in the "Tivoli" in Graz street. In the program: Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio" and "The Magic Flute" and "Martha" by Friedrich von Flotow. A steady development of the theater was distinguished from subscription since 1855. People in the garden, at the time, mostly privately operated municipal theater Bremerhaven, were literary and musical works of world literature, including the opera "Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin," presented by Richard Wagner.
In 1903 the theater had to be closed because of fire safety deficiencies, and so the theater came up with the idea of "Tales of Hoffmann" by Jacques Offenbach on a floating stage in the garden people listed. During this time, reinforced the initiatives of the population and the city government with the goal of a permanent house for a three-division set up theater. Thus the theater today, Theodor-Heuss-Platz, supported financially by the city and its citizens, in October 1911 with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was officially opened. Despite the global economic crisis that has survived since urban-subsidized theater ensemble.
Was destroyed to its foundations, the City Theatre of Bremerhaven in the 2nd World War on 18 September, 1944. Was retained only the facade of the Art Nouveau architect Oscar merchant from the year 1911.
Immediately after the war, the game began operating at the community center Lehe, and in 1950 it was decided to rebuild the city theater Bremerhaven on the Theodor-Heuss-Platz again. A theatrical lottery, with the participation of associations, companies and citizens of Bremerhaven, secured together with municipal funds to finance the new building, which opened in Easter 1952 with the opera "Don Giovanni" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was.
A special highlight of the 60's was undoubtedly the German premiere of the opera "Attila" by Giuseppe Verdi, under the baton of then Music Director Hans Kindler. This legendary "opera excavation" was on 25 December 2000 in the revival of artistic director Peter Grisebach, conducted by the new musical director Stephan Tetzlaff, the festive setting for the second re-opening of the Municipal Theatre of Bremerhaven. After a total renovation of the main house and stage, financially supported by the many spectators as well as the generous donations of citizens and institutions, this is another milestone in the history of the Municipal Theatre of Bremerhaven.
To finalize the reorganization, nor was the renovation of the Little House of distress. After a six-month closure could phase in the summer on 13 October 2006, the venue of the small town theater with Thomas Bernhard's "The theater" put back into operation and a complete renovation to be completed.
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About RBC > Media Newsroom > Speeches > Harvesting Opportunities Royal Bank of Canada's Long-Term View on Agriculture and Banking
Barbara G. Stymiest
Chief Operating Officer
RBC Financial Group
Pike Management Group Summer Conference 2006
July 6, 2006
Lethbridge, Alberta
Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here with you today - to be in the company of so many experienced and successful businessmen and women. I'm happy and I'm proud to note how many of you are long-time RBC Royal Bank clients. As for the rest of you - well, we're ready when you are.
I think I have a good sense of why Gary Pike invited me here today. The way I hear it, there's nothing a farmer or rancher enjoys more than when a Toronto banker blows into town to tell him his business. For maximum effect, I should probably wear a monocle and wag a finger as I speak.
Alas, I'm going to have to let you down. From a hands-on perspective, I don't know much about farming, and I'd be a fool to pretend otherwise. Where I come from, "working the land" means hauling out the weed-whacker once a week. The closest I ever get to a ranch is when I put on my leather coat.
But I'll tell you something else. As chief operating officer of RBC Financial Group, I understand full well the importance of your industry to the Canadian economy, and the importance of your businesses to the success of our company.
I also grasp and appreciate the scope of the challenge, and the extent of the opportunity, that lies ahead for everyone in this room - and everyone involved in Canadian agriculture - as we consider the state of this industry come 2016. What I hope to do today is give you a sense of our perspective on what the future holds and why we at RBC are optimistic about the next 10 years - about the agriculture and agri-food industry, and about you and your businesses.
Before we get to where we're going, let's begin with where we are.
At RBC, we employ a number of people who are engaged in a pursuit that's almost as nerve-wracking as farming - their job is to make economic forecasts, to predict what's to come. So what do we see?
We see the dollar ending the year at around 85 cents U.S. We expect that crude oil prices will ease off somewhat, finishing 2006 at $60 U.S. a barrel. Overall, we are forecasting continued strong overall economic growth and relatively stable interest rates over the coming year, which I know is welcome news for farmers. Job growth will remain strong. Canada will in many ways continue to be one of the world's economic success stories. That doesn't translate into assured prosperity in agriculture, of course, but it does mean the domestic market for food products should remain strong.
As Canadians, we should always remember that our country has an enduring comparative advantage in agriculture - one that so many others nations would love to possess. We have vast amounts of productive farmland and abundant fresh water. These resources are managed by highly skilled professionals. They have ready access to capital, to technology and, generally speaking, to trade.
Still, we live in a curious era. Demand for food has never been greater. Canadian farmers have never been more efficient. And yet these are tough times for many in your industry, perhaps even for some of you.
As I've said, I don't claim to understand the technical aspects of farming - but I'm pretty sure that when I saw all those farmers converging not long ago on Parliament Hill, they weren't there to assess its quality as arable land. They were there to express their frustration, their anger. For some, their desperation.
Competition is tougher today, and growing ever more global. Our dollar has increased by 45 per cent over the past four years, cutting deeply into export profits. Technology is bringing new and better ways but at great expense. Energy costs have soared while grain prices have declined to unsettling lows even after modest gains. And labour shortages are putting more pressure on farms to invest in more modern equipment and higher yielding crops. These factors have come together to create farming's version of the perfect storm. And there are many who have felt, and who continue to feel, its wrath.
Make no mistake about it: Farming is in the midst of transformative change. We can't see the result; we can't know how it will all play out. That's how it is when you're in the midst of the storm. But we can be certain that when the clouds clear this world, this industry, this as a way of life is going to look very different.
We get a hint of the magnitude of that change by looking within the day-to-day operations of our business. Some years ago, we organized our agriculture portfolio into two segments. One segment was intended to serve smaller farms and ranches, as well as farms that exist basically for lifestyle reasons: hobby farms, weekend farms, and so on. The other was focused on larger commercial farms and ranches.
I can tell you that the balance between smaller and larger producers has undergone a radical shift during the past five years. We're serving far fewer smaller operations, and far more big clients. The makeup of the industry is being consolidated, transformed, forever changed.
But that's only part of it. There's a more pivotal evolution that's well underway. We are in many regards witnessing the decline of traditional farming - the days when you would simply grow a crop, the same crop year upon year, harvest it and sell it. In retreat are the days of farmers as suppliers of simple commodities. As one futurist has noted: "If you're a farmer growing wheat, and all you're producing is undifferentiated wheat, then your margins are going to get slimmer and you'll wind up out of business."
Countries such as Brazil and Ukraine are producing bulk, undifferentiated commodities for less. And then there's China. When the agriculture industry looks to this rising power, you understandably see a huge potential trade partner - and, perhaps, a huge potential competitor.
Let me tell you about an innovative client of ours in Ontario— a vegetable producer who banded together with others to add value to what they grow. These producers were asked by their Ontario customers to do some of the processing themselves. Their buyers wanted the carrots to be chopped up or diced, then frozen and delivered in thousand-pound tote boxes.
The farmers built, or bought, large freezer tunnels to process the carrots the way the companies wanted. The producers earned more for adding value and they cemented long-term relationships with some top agribusiness companies. Now, there's a complication: China. The buyers have found they can get carrots cheaper from China than from local producers in Ontario.
Longer-term, it's debatable whether China can continue to be such a low-cost producer. Market forces, logistical issues and other factors could make it hard for them to continue to grow food so cheaply. Environmental issues are looming large in this equation, as China's air, soil and water resources are put under severe pressure.
Regardless of how we ultimately are influenced by the rise of China and its massive new middle class, the agriculture of tomorrow will be about extending value beyond the farm gate. It'll be about your ability to market and your willingness to be flexible - to change crops as demands change, to specialize in order to suit evolving tastes and take advantage of evolving trends. For instance, as we learn more about genetics and are increasingly able to discern the kind of diet that's right for us, specifically for us, a market may well be created for very specialized crops created for a very small but loyal group of consumers.
As we look to 2016, let me examine from our perspective the rise of value-added agriculture. When farmers make the transition from commodity producer to 'value-adder,' they become an agribusiness rather than a primary producer. We've seen the impact on our books. Five years ago, we had very little agribusiness lending. Today, we have a significant portfolio of agribusiness loans, and it's a sector we believe will continue to grow. We plan to make every effort to lead this market.
Indeed, our agribusiness lending often relates to a farm client's evolution into an agribusiness. Simpson Seeds in Moose Jaw is a fine example. They have grown from seed production to processing peas, lentils and chickpeas for export markets. This kind of innovation is happening all across the country.
The Mason family in Atlantic Canada, RBC clients since the 1940s, has been growing apples for many years. Awhile back, they planted 25 acres of a new apple variety called Honey Crisp. This variety has a high sugar content, and stays crunchy for much longer than other varieties. This is the type of apple that consumers want nowadays, and Mason apples are selling very well at local supermarkets.
It is perhaps understandable that the mainstream media tend to focus on the income crisis, weather calamities and trade challenges in their coverage of agriculture. These are important elements of your businesses and your lives. But there are a lot of good-news stories out there too - stories that demonstrate that Canadian farmers are progressive, self-determining business people with tremendous prospects and good reason for being confident.
And one conclusion is beyond doubt: the future will belong to those who embrace change and lead the way; those who know their customers and understand and appeal to their wants. It is impossible to predict how Canadian farmers and ranchers will do overall as an industry. But I feel very confident in saying that there will be major opportunities for those able to spot them, who are determined to pursue them, and who are willing to innovate to achieve them. We can't bring back the past, but there is still time to embrace the future.
I talked earlier about Canada's physical advantages for agricultural production: soil... water... climate... infrastructure. These are essential elements of a strong sector but they are not the root cause of our optimism. Next to these measurable resources, there's an intangible factor at work that trumps everything else. That factor is the ability of the Canadian farmer to adapt within a fast-changing environment.
Change brings challenge. We all understand that. But it also brings opportunity for those with a commitment to ingenuity, creativity and determination. I would add hard work to that list, but you're farmers and ranchers, so that seems kind of redundant.
As we look to the future from an uncertain time, I think it's important that you understand where we're coming from at Royal Bank. Over the past six years, we have seen significant growth in our overall agricultural loan portfolio. For several years running, in fact, our book has grown faster than the industry as a whole. In 2005, our portfolio grew by several times the industry's growth rate.
For us, it's always been more important to work with quality producers than simply with those who happen to be in the hot sectors. Regardless of what you produce, if you have a well-managed, well-financed operation, we want to deal with you. If you're a top producer, we want to provide you with banking, financing, insurance, currency hedging and more. In return we make this pledge: we will be committed to you for the long haul. We won't go running for the hills when things get a little tough.
Beyond that, we understand that modern agriculture isn't just about getting your hands dirty. It's about marketing and promoting, adding value, managing risk. It's about assessing and adopting new technologies. Thinking strategically. Planning long-term. And then improvising and adapting for the short-term.
Nowadays, when the time comes to make a big decision, you are going to need to rely not only on your own instincts but on the advice and counsel of others: the banker, the accountant, the production advisor, the agribusiness supplier. This is part of the progressive Canadian farmer adapting to change, and making it work for him.
I think of a client here on the Prairies, a family who operates a grain farm and also has a hand in dairy. After much analysis, and counsel from RBC, this family is diversifying into the hog business.
In Quebec, a first-rate soybean producer was determined to add value and secure a market, so with our help he joined forces with a tofu maker. Now, he's an agribusiness.
An Alberta greenhouse producer started out growing plants from seed. Today, the business imports specialized cuttings from around the world. They grow a higher value product, and they earn more for doing so.
That's innovation. Those are farmers who are riding the wave of the future, rather than waiting for it to wash over them. Here's another example: When high land prices prevented an Alberta producer from buying land for "cow-calf," they didn't complain. Instead, they hunted for the best and cheapest suitable land in Western Canada. They found it - hundreds of kilometres away - in northwestern Manitoba. They bought, they moved, they set up and today they're thriving.
That's the same kind of rapid response and flexibility that we saw during the BSE crisis. Once it was clear that Canada needed to be processing more of its own cattle, and shipping fewer "on the hoof," the response was swift and sweeping. Now, with more processing capacity, we can sell more of our beef either live or boxed, as the market dictates. BSE has also prompted advances in livestock identification and the use of technology, innovations that will serve the industry very well in the long term.
Indeed, even during the darkest days of the BSE crisis, producers never lost their creativity. Consider an RBC client in Saskatchewan. When BSE cut his income from calves, he went looking for alternatives. He hooked up with university research programs. Using his own stock, he's doing contract research work in animal science. In Manitoba, a family began to sell their farm-raised beef direct to consumers. In Nova Scotia, another farm family made a big push to ship hay to Quebec and the U.S.
When you consider these success stories, it's clear that the producers have much in common. They've found themselves confronted by a formidable obstacle, one not of their own making. They've reviewed their assumptions and options going forward. They've thought creatively about what to do. They've acted decisively, but not rashly. They've had due regard for risk management. That is the path to a successful future.
Just as your industry is changing, so is ours - and I would argue that it's altering and improving our relationship. Banking by phone or over the Internet can save you money and time - no more drives into town for basic account management. But even in the face of changing technology, we will never fail to remember the importance of a face-to-face relationship. In fact, we're investing in that relationship because we believe that you need to view your banking relationship as added value.
If you consider a loan to be a bulk commodity, one that you could get anywhere, then what is RBC's value-added? It is the expertise of our people, a resource we are constantly developing. Royal Bank was the first Canadian bank to provide specialized services and advice to farmers and ranchers. In 1980, we opened Canada's first dedicated Agricultural Banking Centre, in Red Deer. During the 1990s, we started to invest heavily in training and developing our agricultural bankers, to take their expertise to a higher level.
Today, we lend a lot of money to agriculture and increasingly, provide risk management services like currency hedging as well. Because we understand the importance of human relationships, we've dedicated ourselves to breaking down the old ways of our banking culture and now make it possible for account managers to stay and to thrive in their local areas - working with you over years and even decades.
You want to deal with a banker who understands your business and your industry. We get that. That's why we've added depth and knowledge in selected farm sectors. In Central Alberta, for example, we have two staff members who are credit specialists in the dairy industry. This is brainpower that local account managers can call on when needed.
And like you we're focused on the future. Our specialization, in fact, goes beyond farm sectors. In the future, carbon credits could provide major economic value to Canadian farmers. RBC wants to understand this issue in depth. On our staff now is a Ph.D. in environmental management, who is a specialist in carbon trading. As the market in carbon credits evolves, RBC will be able to help our agriculture clients make the most of it.
Our value-added thinking comes down to this: We understand that you are increasingly looking for ways to maximize your return, save time, reduce your risk and be more effective as a business. And we admire that. In our view, producers who think in these terms are likely to be the industry's long-term leaders.
When we evaluate our client base, we're not just concerned with how many bushels of canola people can produce. Excellent production skills are simply table-stakes in a much bigger game.
As a lender, we want to know what sort of risks our clients are facing. Are they nimble enough to prosper in the face of change? Do they see the importance of working with suppliers, processors and other producers up and down the value chain? How are they managing their price risk? What are they doing about the relationship between the Canadian and U.S. dollars?
To illustrate this growing basket of services, let me tell you about a producer we know in Atlantic Canada. For years, this producer grew bulk, undifferentiated potatoes for various markets. Through his own initiative and determination, this producer found an amazing business opportunity. Last February, he shipped 600 containers of potatoes to a potato chip plant ...in Indonesia. At that time of year, the plant finds it hard to get a supply closer to home. This producer has a 37-day window in which to get his potatoes overseas.
This is not a slam-dunk by any means. If the potatoes lose condition during shipping, he doesn't get paid. The potatoes need to be shipped in an air-conditioned container, and they need to arrive on time. Even if the potatoes arrive on time and in good shape, our client still has the risk of late payment or non-payment. Assuming our client gets paid, and paid on time, there's still a big risk of currency fluctuation.
This is a huge opportunity. But he needs friends. In the past, when this client was a straight producer of commodities, RBC could provide operational financing. Today, this producer may need trade financing, currency hedging, payroll, insurance and other services.
After a successful shipment in February, this producer is thinking about contracting his potato production to other growers. He is fast becoming, in short, an agribusiness. In fact, he's done so well, he's paid off his loans with us. That's how it goes: less financing, perhaps, but more risk management. In time, we hope to have a very satisfied and prosperous wealth management or private banking client.
To serve clients well and lead the market, we must continue to provide a basket of financial products and advice that's constantly growing. This will include services you might not associate with a bank, such as succession planning. Billions of dollars of farm assets will be transferred to a new generation over the next 10 to 20 years. And we are developing new services to help our clients achieve their succession goals. Overall, as your industry evolves, we will too. We'll evolve together.
Ladies and gentlemen, I've talked this morning about Canadian agriculture's road to the year 2016. And I've subtly added a very persuasive example or two of RBC's commitment to you and to this important industry.
From our perspective, the bottom line is this: RBC Financial Group lends more money to farmers and ranchers than any bank in Canada. And believe me: as much as we like you personally, we don't do it out of the goodness of our hearts. We do it because we believe in Canadian agriculture, and we believe in you. We believe our country has the potential to become a world leader in the new agri-business, growing food ever more efficiently, safely and sustainably, and adding value in a way that resonates with consumers here and around the world.
We live in a dynamic age, and 10 years is a long time. The coming decade will be a time of profound change in terms of products, markets and technology. What won't change is the creativity and innovation shown by Canadian farmers. That is your ultimate competitive advantage. And it's why we're bullish on your industry and bullish on you.
Thank you.


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Consider this combination: Rickety old bridges and the increasingly heavy firetrucks that must cross them during an emergency.
The Valley Center Fire Protection District — which owns engines as heavy as 55,000 pounds — has weighed the risks, and decided it's time private property owners get their bridges and culverts checked. This district launched a campaign last week requiring residents to verify the load capacity of their crossings and post signs showing those limits, or risk a slower response when emergencies strike.
The district mailed letters to owners of 360 crossings in the rural town northeast of Escondido, advising them of the new requirement.
Verifying a bridge's capacity could be as simple as showing a copy of a county permit from the time the bridge was built. Or, for bridges with no permit, it could be a long, expensive journey. A county spokesman said it would cost $1,774 and at least three to four weeks to permit a new bridge and said he believed the permitting cost was about the same for an existing bridge.
While Valley Center residents reached by a reporter said they were worried about the burden of the bridge checks, and any possible delayed response, district officials stressed that safety remains the district's top priority and is driving this campaign.
"We want to ensure the safety of the equipment and the safety of the people involved, so we don't lose a firetruck or injure a firefighter," said Weaver Simonsen, chairman of the fire district's board of directors. "We will still respond, but there may be a delay" without verification of the crossing.
"We cannot guarantee our fire apparatus will cross your bridge or culvert until such time as we receive verification that your elevated structure will support a capacity of 75,000 pounds," the district's letter states. "Rest assured we will continue to provide prompt service to your property; however, service will likely be delayed if the capacity of your structure remains unanswered."
Officials, including the district's Fire Marshal George Lucia, said they are not creating a new rule, but rather enforcing an existing one that appears in the 2010 edition of the California Fire Code, section 503.2.6., and the district adopted as an ordinance.
Officials added that the district does not have the authority to require improvements to the crossings, only the verifications and sign postings.
Fire officials said the effort is a response to finding "substandard, non-permitted" bridges throughout the district. A separate district's firetruck smashed through a culvert in the San Pasqual Valley in 2007, officials said. Fire departments in Vista and Fallbrook have issued similar crossing requirements, Valley Center officials said.
During a recent survey of about two-thirds of the Valley Center district, which stretches across 87 square miles of farms, ranches and rural estates, officials mapped 360 bridges and culverts plus another 300 small crossings, known as Arizona crossings, said John Byrne, the district's administrator.
The district has not decided whether the smaller crossings should be subject to the requirements.
Once the full survey is complete, Byrne said he expects the district will have mapped as many as 1,000 private crossings.
District fire crews are already showing more caution when they approach the newly mapped bridges, none of which display load capacity, officials said.
During a medical response two months ago, a district fire captain stopped her engine off Lilac Road because a crossing looked questionable, Byrne said. A sheriff's patrol deputy later provided a delayed response to what officials said was not a life-threatening incident.
Asked by a reporter why the district doesn't send lighter weight vehicles to medical emergencies, officials said the district can't afford the time or money it would take to send customized vehicles to each incident. They said engines are prepared to respond to medical incidents, traffic accidents and fires all without returning to a station.
Rich Rudolf, a member of the Valley Center planning group, said residents likely won't welcome the news of the bridge requirements.
"As libertarian as Valley Center generally is, they'll probably say: 'Thanks for sharing,' and toss (the letter) in the garbage."
The district's letter recommended residents contact San Diego County's planning department, at (858) 694-2960, to show proof of or obtain a bridge permit.
If a bridge or culvert cannot be permitted by the county, the district recommended residents obtain written verification of the crossing's load from a licensed structural engineer.
email@example.com | (760) 740-5426 |
Twitter @ChrisNicholsNCT


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It gives me great pleasure to launch the Federal Tax Ombudsman's (FTO's) website. This initiative is a critical component of our strategy to strengthen complaint filing and decision support system for the aggrieved taxpayers. The Website provides working knowledge of the legal and procedural framework, organizational and administrative set-up of FTO Secretariat and addresses of FTO Secretariat, Islamabad and the Regional Offices. It also contains FTO's landmark decisions on complaints which indicate the extent of relief being provided by FTO Secretariat to the aggrieved taxpayers.
The recent initiatives being undertaken by FTO Secretariat are focused on providing inexpensive and speedy justice to the taxpayer aggrieved by tax maladministration. For this purpose two more regional offices are being operationlised at Faisalabad and Peshawar. A state of the art online complaint filing system is also being put in place to reduce time and cost of complaint filing. The objective of introduction of information technology is to achieve a highly enabled paperless environment. In addition, an FTO - taxpayer interface has been established through periodic meetings with Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Trade Bodies, Business Associations, Tax Bars and the Civil Society Organizations in the country.
Similarly we have undertaken business process reengineering of our operating procedures to improve our output and productivity. The capacity building and professionalization of the FTO Secretariat is an ongoing process to achieve higher levels of professionalism and to ensure good governance in the revenue administration.
While, the core objective is to provide an efficient and effective external equalizer in the form of FTO Secretariat to the less privileged, underpowered and underserved taxpayers against tax maladministration, our priority goals are to induce taxpayer friendliness of tax administration, remove tax related irritants, reduce cost of doing business and promote a conducive tax culture in Pakistan.
I believe the Website is user friendly. Suggestions to improve it are welcome.
FTO Newsletter 2nd Issue 3rd Volume (April - June 2019)
FTO Newsletter 1st Issue 3rd Volume (Jan - March 2019)
FTO Newsletter 4th Issue 2nd Volume (Oct - Dec 2019)


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Omaha has produced some important people: Warren Buffett, Marlon Brando, Malcom X, Chris Klein. But what's all this about MMA fighter Jake "The Juggernaut" Ellenberger getting a key to the city? Hold on a tick. Ellenberger is a very good fighter who's beaten a couple very good fighters and a bunch of average ones and lost to a couple pretty good fighters. He's fighting Diego Sanchez in a free UFC event on Fuel TV on Wednesday night. Fuel TV! Where are your standards, Omaha?
Now, I know these keys are given out like party favors, so I'm mainly kidding. I won't even comment on the fact that it wasn't even mayor Jim Suttle who gave Ellenberger his key on the steps of the courthouse or anything. It was the mayor's deputy chief of staff at the UFC media workouts, if the photo below is any indication.
Deputy chief of staff! UFC media workouts! Where are your standards, Omaha?
All joshing aside, let's commend Suttle not only for his futuristic key design but for honoring a MMA fighter. In this instance, Omaha makes New York City look like a backwater, where MMA still feels like something out of a Van Damme movie. No keys to the city in New York. No doctors ringside either.
UPDATE: The reason the mayor couldn't present the key himself is because his mother died over the weekend and he was in West Virginia for the funeral, according to two readers. (I hereby retract my criticism of Omaha standards. Omaha is a lovely town.)


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Sisters Sarah Mallare and Christine Carr of Grand Island have opened a new bakery in the City of Tonawanda. Magpie's Bake Shop & Café, named after their mother, Christine "Maggie" Smith, recently celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting. Located at 38 Niagara St., they offer soups, pizza, cakes, pastries, many other baked goods.
Magpie's is the sister bakery of The Village Inn on Ferry Road on Grand Island.
Magpie's is open Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturdays, drop in from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed on Sundays and Mondays).
Friends and family gathered for the ribbon-cutting. Pictured, from left: Cindy Burkett, Alexa Mallare, Forrest Carr, Christine Carr, City of Tonawanda Mayor Ron Pilozzi, Sarah Mallare, Mikayla Mallare, Hayden Carr, Mike Carr and Joyce Santiago, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas.


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Posted on August 13, 2012
As stated on the American Celiac Disease Alliance web site:
Last week, members of the American Celiac Disease Alliance (ACDA) carefully read the press release and watched the video prepared by the national restaurant chain Domino's regarding its new 'gluten free' pizza. The initial enthusiasm quickly gave way to bewilderment. Within hours, individuals shared their frustration about the safety of the pizza as well as confusion over the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness' tiered restaurant certification program.
In parsing the news from May 7th, it is clear that Dominos, like many other companies sought to capitalize on the growing gluten-free market by developing a 'certified' gluten-free crust. Unfortunately, cross-contamination in the preparation process effectively renders the pizza unsafe for the celiac consumer. Media information was distributed to members of our community, using the words individuals love to see, 'gluten-free' with the clear intent of generating a buzz about the pizza. The pizza is not 'gluten free,' though clearly marketed as such, and is not recommended by Domino's or NFCA for persons with celiac disease and gluten related disorders. The misrepresentations made in rolling out this product were irresponsible.
This product is inherently unsafe and should never have been labeled or marketed as 'gluten free,' implying it could be consumed by members of our community.
Almost everyone with celiac disease or a related gluten-disorder knows that currently there are no gluten free labeling requirements in the United States, and that consumers are routinely misled by inappropriate labeling. Last October, the NFCA, like many organizations, shared its views on FDA's proposed standards for gluten-free products. At that time NFCA stated it "strongly opposes the implementation of a dual-tier regulation" for labeling foods as gluten-free because "it would cause confusion among consumers."
The same rationale holds true for restaurant certification programs. Green and red are universal colors for safe and not safe and are represented as such in the NFCA restaurant program. An intervening tier or level indicates that something in-between may be OK. To keep members of our community safe, the dividing line must be clear, and unambiguous. Individuals who are required for medical reasons to follow the medically prescribed gluten-free diet must be able to make clear distinctions, in a timely manner. Clarity for consumers is best achieved through a program with a simple safe or not safe approach, nothing in-between.


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Shrimp and mango couscous
Makes 4 servings
Couscous, an ideal pasta for speedy cooking, pairs nicely with baby shrimp and juicy mango. You can enjoy this dish immediately or cover, refrigerate, and be prepared to serve later for a cool lunch on a sunny summer day.
1 cup water
1 cup couscous
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ cups jarred mango in 1-inch chunks
½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeño, or to taste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
5 ounces (1 cup) cooked salad shrimp
Salt to taste
Heat the water, until hot but not boiling, in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove the pan from the heat; stir in the couscous. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium skillet over high heat. Add the mango, bell pepper, jalapeño, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes or until the mango is softened but not mushy.
Fluff the couscous with a fork and stir into the sauté pan. Stir in the shrimp. Season with salt.
Paulette Mitchell, a culinary instructor, television personality, spokesperson, freelance food writer, and the award-winning author of 13 cookbooks, is known internationally for her quick-to-prepare recipes with gourmet flair. Paulette's most recently published cookbook is "The Complete 15-Minute Gourmet: Creative Cuisine Made Fast and Fresh." She is also the author of "A Beautiful Bowl of Soup" and "The Spirited Vegetarian," which was voted "Best Book in the World on Cooking with Wine" at the 2005 Gourmand World Media Awards. Paulette says that international travel is her favorite source of culinary inspiration.


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Charging Ahead with Electric Cars
As the electric car is business gets more and more crowded, it feels like we are approaching a breakthrough. It could come from a U.S. automaker like GM with its Volt, from a European company like Renault (and its partner Nissan) which are committed to electric cars through an alliance with Better Place, from a Japanese firm like Toyota which has led the way with hybrid cars like the Prius, from a Chinese or Indian carmaker, or from one of the many startups—Tesla, Think, Fisker, ZENN—that are hurrying to market.
I'm fascinated by electric cars, so I went to a panel on "Bringing Electric Cars to the Mass Market" at the Net Impact conference at Wharton. They had great people—Michael Granoff of Better Place who has the title, "head of oil independence policies;" Charles Gassenheimer who is CEO of Ener1, a startup company that makes lithium-ion batteries for electric cars; Vicki Northrup, an industry veteran who has worked for Think, Zen and is back at Think, and moderator Bill Moore, who runs a terrific website, EV World, and knows the business inside and out.
Of course, it's not much of a business yet. Sure, Toyota has sold more than 1 million hybrids, but most everyone agrees that today's hybrids (which recharge their batteries from the braking power of the car) are an interim technology, a bridge to the future. They are likely to give way, first, to plug-in electric hybrids (where the battery can be recharged by plugging in the car) and then to pure electrics. After all, it doesn't make a lot of sense of build a car with both an internal combustion engine and an electric engine—that's one reason the Prius and other hybrids are pricey. Besides that, the Prius battery technology will soon be surpassed by lithium-ion batteries, the kind used in laptops and cell phones, most experts think. They are more efficient, lighter weight and more powerful. Gassenheimer said a government energy lab tested a Prius with one of his company's lithium-ion batteries and found that it delivered 77 miles per gallon, even before the software was optimized for the new battery.
Batteries are the key to the electric car business. The trouble is, lithium ion batteries that are powerful enough to provide a reasonable range—say, 60 to 100 miles on a single charge—and long-lasting enough so that they can be charged and discharged year after year are frightfully expensive. They can easily cost $15,000 to $20,000, the panelists said, accounting for as much as 50% of the cost of a plug-in electric hybrid or an all electric car.
So how do you get costs to come down? Several ways, it turns out.
First, obviously, is by improving the technology. Lots of big and small companies are working on that—Panasonic, Toyota, Sanyo, BYD, startups Ener1 and A123 and a venture-backed firm called eeStor.
Economies of scale will surely help. "Getting the battery into volume production is the best way to drive down costs," Gassenheimer said. Ener1 has a deal to make batteries for the Think cars, which should ramp down their costs; they are building a production line now in Indianapolis.
Another approach: Radically transform the automobile business model, as Better Place wants to do. Their plan is to own the batteries and charging stations, and recharge and replace them when needed. This should assure wary buyers, if they believe in Better Place. "You subscribe to Better Place for your energy," Granoff says. "You pay for the miles that you drive." Better Place has struck deals to build out electric-car infrastructure in Israel, Denmark and Australia, with more to come, I'm told. You can watch this video of Shai Agassi, Better Place's charismatic CEO, at the EV World website.
Still another approach is to lease the batteries. Think is thinking about this idea, according to Northrup, but is wary of trying to introduce a new technology and a new business model at the same time. "We're not sure Americans will go for it," she says.
One thing I learned from the panel: Batteries, when they are no longer powerful enough to drive a car motor, can still hold enough charge so that they could be resold to electric utilities that want to store intermittent renewable energy from the wind or the sun.
Finally, the government can and probably will play a role in driving the adoption of electric cars. The $700-billion financial rescue bill included $7,500 tax credits for the first 250,000 buyers of plug-in electrics, which could help the Chevy Volt and the Prius plug-in if they come to market, as expected, by 2010.
Gassenheimer says: "The only way to encourage penetration at this early stage ,when the prices are higher than consumers are willing to pay, is government intervention."
I've come to believe that plug-in hybrids and then all-electric cars will reach the mass market in the next three to five years, although I can't tell you how we will get from here to there. The fundamental reason is that electric car engines are more efficient than gasoline engines, although there's debate about how big the efficiency advantage turns out to be. Besides that, electric cars are cleaner, they will help wean us from imported oil and they are quieter than gas-powered cars.
As Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan and Renault, said last month, when Nissan and France's biggest utility announced plans to roll out an electric-car network in France:
We have decided to introduce zero-emission vehicles as quickly as possible in order to ensure individual mobility against the background of high oil prices and better environmental protection.


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Gary Ellison rejoined the Willamette family as assistant chaplain in the fall of 2012, having previously served as a part-time adjunct professor from 1997-2006 in the Department of Religious Studies.
Gary has served as rabbi of congregations in Modesto, California and Salem, Oregon. He is a graduate of Clinical Pastoral Education and is currently working toward Board Certification in Chaplaincy with a specialization in providing spiritual support to patients and families living with cancer.
Gary is a Pacific Northwest native who is proud to call Salem home. He is a passionate and creative teacher, musician and facilitator invested in fostering discourse and understanding among people of all spiritual orientations.
- B.A. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
- M.H.L. Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Wyncote, Pennsylvania


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Join 206245 others who are connecting with their cousins and common researchers!
FamilyTreeCircles is easy and free.
I am researching the family history of the evans family in tasmania. Thomas William arrived here in Tasmania as a Convict on the Nile. He married Mary Ann Atkins who was also a Convict.


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Excuse my smut: UVA cranks the heat
Gregg Kendrick noticed black marks on his children's clothing. Brad Jones saw a black substance on his car. And Deloris Goins' kids asked, "What's this black stuff? This snow is so dirty."
Throughout the Venable and Cherry Avenue neighborhoods, witnesses reported a sooty film. Many eyes turned suspiciously toward the UVA power plant.
On January 20, after phone calls from Venable residents, UVA spokesperson Carol Wood sent an email to the neighborhood explaining the source of the soot.
Two of the university's primary boilers went down in the main heating plant on January 16, when temperatures dipped into the teens. To keep the hospital warm, heat was cut off to administrative buildings, and two remaining boilers– one gas and one coal– were "worked hard" until repairs were completed at 3:30am January 17, according to Wood's email.
UVA doesn't believe that any EPA rules were violated but acknowledges that "more soot settled on parts of the Venable neighborhood than any of us would have wanted," Wood wrote, adding that the blocks around 14th Street and the Gordon Avenue Library– north of the Jefferson Park Avenue plant– were hit heaviest.
UVA instructed Venable residents to call Barbara Palmore at 924-3850 with questions and concerns. By 1pm January 21, the hotline had received "six or seven" calls, says Wood, including a couple from other neighborhoods.
The Department of Environmental Quality, which is already pushing the university to reduce emissions from the antiquated power plant, received at least one complaint over the long weekend and sent an inspector to the heating plant January 21.
"There are provisions that allow for excess emissions during malfunctions," says the DEQ's regional air permit manager Sharon Foley, who added that she did not know the details yet from the DEQ inspector.
Jones calls the black rain "tarry" and "very messy." When he handled a piece of wood covered with the soot, he says, it left residue all over his hand, and "It took some scrubbing to get off." And he's worried about the health hazards of breathing the stuff.
Kendrick describes it as a "very oily ash, very difficult to clean. And it was everywhere"– houses, cars, pets, and plants. He's investigating the hazards of the "mucky, ashy film" and how to clean it.
Is the soot a health hazard? "So far we've heard it is not," says Wood. "It's very similar to chimney smoke."
The DEQ's Foley says that until she hears from the inspector, she can't say whether the blanketing poses a health hazard for residents. In general, "particulate matter emissions are regulated because they can potentially cause health problems," she concedes.
Jones has the soot on his skylights, and Kendrick doesn't know if he'll have residual property damage from the enveloping ash.
Goins was able to get the substance off her car when she went to the carwash January 20. "It was smutty, very smutty, like old-fashioned coal dust," she says.


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Nearly a week before the start of this year's Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, I got a phone call from Father Sinclair Oubre, head of the Catholic Labor Network, one of the gathering's many co-sponsors that holds a "wrap-around" meeting the day before the formal kickoff.
The discussion topics at the Catholic Labor Network meeting, he told me, would be off-the-record so that participants could speak candidly, although I would be free to talk to speakers afterward to offer comments for the record. Father Oubre then told me, "You'll probably be getting some more calls like this."
Technically, it wasn't a call, but I did receive an email a couple of days later from Ian Mitchell, the Catholic social teaching education coordinator for the U.S. bishops' Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. Also off-the-record would be the issue briefings and the state captains' meetings on the first full day of the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, but all of the strategy sessions on the gathering's last day (which, I presume, included the Our Father that kicked off one of those strategy sessions) (oops).
No matter. Many speakers were happy to release their comments for on-the-record status, and follow-up interviews proved beneficial.
But I can remember one time when a speaker may have wished for an off-the-record proviso.
It was 2003. George W. Bush, a self-styled "compassionate conservative," was in the White House. Republicans had strengthened their hold on the House and had regained the Senate — the first time that had happened since before Franklin D. Roosevelt — and they weren't necessarily feeling as compassionate as the president. Moreover, Americans were half-anticipating, half-dreading going to war in Iraq.
It was in this atmosphere that Nancy Wisdo, now retired but at that time the head of the U.S. bishops' domestic polify office, was outlining for Catholic Social Ministry Gathering participants methods of winning congressional support for more tax relief for low-income families. She said that going into the fine points of a tax-relief formula would only divert attention from the bishops' broader agenda.
"We don't have to understand. All we have to do is win. That's our motto," Wisdo said.
Perhaps a week after the gathering, Wisdo accosted me in the cafeteria at the U.S. bishops' headquarters to ask why I had included that quote in my article. I replied that it was illustrative of the frustrations people were feeling in the political climate. I don't think she entirely bought into my reasoning, but it seemed like she understood.