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You might not know BroadSoft if you're not in the telecommunications space. But if you use a hosted unified communications service from a provider like Verizon, Swisscom, or any of about 500 other telcos around the world, you may be a BroadSoft customer without realizing it.
That's because BroadSoft made a strategic bet not to sell directly to enterprises. Rather, it assembles the pieces necessary for telcos to host and sell unified communications (UC) services -- think voice, messaging, video conferencing, and so on.
Michael Tessler cofounded BroadSoft in 1998 after coming from Alcatel, and has since grown it into a publicly traded company with annual revenue of more than $160 million. In a recent interview with IDG Enterprise Chief Content Officer John Gallant, Tessler explained how Broadsoft sees the hosted communications landscape and the role of mobile devices.
Here are some of the highlights:
Abstracting complexity is the key to success: "One of the most important things that we focus on is really making sure that the end users can actually effectively use all those capabilities .... The very massive amount of interoperability to all the devices that make up the solution, so handsets and gateways and all the things that need to be done, but the end user really doesn't want to know how complicated that is. We've done a tremendous amount of work in making sure all that is really simple, integrated, easy to use, so that the operators can deliver much more effectively."
Why the rise of mobile gives operators an edge in selling UC: "As mobile operators launch hosted unified communications solutions and all that unified communications capability now exists in their mobile core, now they'll be able to go to enterprises and basically present a fully integrated solution. What does that mean? Every employee gets a single subscription and then you, as an enterprise, can choose -- does that employee need a hard phone? Do they need a mobile? Do they need a soft line? Do they need two hard phones? Do they need a hard phone at their house and their remote office? All of that now changes to really treating this thing as one, one single subscription .... This is where our integration and strategic alignment with mobile operators is critical for delivering on the next-generation mobile enterprise solution. We really feel great about the strategic choice we've made. I think selling directly to enterprises would be a distraction."
Watch out for "open" solutions that aren't really open: "I think competitively you have lots of vendor lock-in, which ultimately goes against the whole concept of moving unified communications into the cloud. As an enterprise you want to be able to use the max devices. You want to be able to pick phones. You want to be able to pick clients. You want to be able to integrate with your technologies. You maybe will want to substitute out a particular element of the UC stack for something you think is better or fits better in your environment. You want to be able to have that flexibility in these solutions. Unfortunately, the unified communications field talks a lot about openness and interoperability, but everybody seems to be selling closed solutions with very little openness."
The full interview follows:
John Gallant: What is the BroadSoft mission and how do you deliver on that mission?
Michael Tessler: At BroadSoft, we are delivering unified communications solutions to service providers around the world and enabling them to deliver unified communications as a service, really a new category of capability. Instead of enterprises looking to purchase software and servers and do all that integration on their own, we're enabling the service providers to come to market with a full unified communications solution that enterprises can consume on a per month, per seat basis -- very much like the transformation that took place with CRM and companies like salesforce.com. We allow the service providers to brand, using their own branding. We become a kind of BroadSoft Inside, inside the carrier's networks, and allow them to build their own brand with these unified communications solutions. That's one of the reasons why enterprise customers may not know us as a brand name, but would see us as powering services that they might purchase from their operators, whether those are fixed operators, mobile operators around the world.
Today we power a little over 500 operators around the world, and of those operators we power about 20 of the top 25 by revenue size. We're certainly well penetrated in the service provider marketplace globally.
Q: There isn't always a consistent definition of what unified communications is. In your view, what are the key components of that? What do you have to deliver to make a great UC solution?
A: The functional elements would be things like the old, what we call PBX functions, unified messaging, audio conferencing capability, desktop sharing collaboration, instant messaging and call centers or group capabilities, the front-office capabilities, the ability to interact on lots of devices -- mobile and fixed devices. Those are the functional elements that make up what we would consider the unified communications suite.
One of the most important things that we focus on is really making sure that the end users can actually effectively use all those capabilities, so a huge focus on user experience, with that user experience crossing over from handsets to desktops, whether it's Windows or Mac, to tablets to mobile phones, all the various operating systems, and really being able to make sure that all those experiences allow the end user to take advantage of this unified communications capability. What does that mean? It allows me to be more productive internally, allows me to be more effective in getting a group of employees together to collaborate. We can start dialoguing on instant messaging at present, and promote through conference and video. We can share documents. The way I love to think about unified communications is really using all these tools to be making sure that the employees will end up being more productive, both internally and also externally, with partners, customers. That's really the drive for this.
Q: So how quickly is this hosted UC market taking shape?
A: The big shift has been building for quite some time. I think the big shift that has taken place recently is that a lot of the operators have been delivering what I would call hosted PBX functions, very much voice-centric capabilities...
Q: The managed Centrex kind of thing?
A: Exactly. Centrex was not a loved term, but definitely in the hosted voice world, a much richer experience, passing lots of the control over to the end users, but very much centered around replacing the PBX into the cloud. I think what's shifted in the last 18 months is really taking that core and adding on the rest of the productivity capabilities that I mentioned before and transforming what I would call hosted voice or hosted PBX to now it's hosted unified communications capabilities. It's not a U.S.-only phenomenon or a particular market. We're seeing this happen in every market that we participate in around the world. One of the things driving that is that unified communications is a very complex service to build. Lots of services, lots of functional elements, lots of complexity. The operator can reduce that complexity for the enterprise, so they can get this rich unified communications suite without all the complexity and with interoperability and upgrades. They can really take advantage of the productivity gains without all that major investment in both capex and ongoing operating expense.
Q: One of the things that service providers are criticized for is that they haven't moved very quickly into the cloud services market. At least in the customers' minds, they don't have a great track record. What is it about the product set that you deliver that would make the enterprise user comfortable with this hosted UC?
A: Many times the challenge the operators have is that they're delivered a set of components of technology and they're required to integrate and create the end service. We've brought everything together for the operator from user experiences, and what I mean by that is clients that run on all the various devices that are delivered out of the network, upgrade out of the network, to the core functions, to the bridging functions, audio conferencing functions. The very massive amount of interoperability to all the devices that make up the solution, so handsets and gateways and all the things that need to be done, but the end user really doesn't want to know how complicated that is. We've done a tremendous amount of work in making sure all that is really simple, integrated, easy to use, so that the operators can deliver much more effectively. We've also focused for the operators on how to deliver the value proposition. We've done lots of work in terms of helping them do a better job of understanding the customers' requirements, and how to match that to the capabilities in the suite.
Another area that we've spent quite a bit of time on is how to really help those operators with things around delivery. You're going to deliver a unified communications solution in the cloud. How do you make sure that service runs effectively? You can troubleshoot it, you can monitor 7/24. You can really provide superior performance on the service. We have all that in our suite. We deliver that to the operator, so the enterprise customer gets a much stronger capability through the operators than, I think, where traditionally the operators are forced to bring lots of components from multiple vendors together. We really helped them with the messaging, the packaging, the sales promotion, the way to go to market, really to help them figure out a segment into the various enterprise markets. Also, on the back side we really helped them with the delivery side of it, which can get complex as it's a big shift of moving from traditional premise delivery to cloud where the operators have scale and will shine in terms of running very highly scalable, reliable, redundant infrastructures.
Q: Companies like Cisco and Avaya are trying to outfit service providers or channel partners to offer hosted collaboration services as well. Talk about the competitive landscape. Who are the big competitors and how does your approach differ strategically from what they do?
A: Most of the competition is the operator-branded service competing with an enterprise solution from one of the enterprise PBX providers. That's most of the competition that we see today. Many years ago we chose strategically to align and build our business around making a big bet on operators as the channel. We don't sell direct to enterprise. Our technology is built for operators, designed around operator infrastructure, designed around operator deployment models. Enabling the operators to create their own branded services is a huge differentiator. In addition to that, allowing them to make a much more healthy return on their investment in our technology, versus others that see the operators more as channels or resellers and are really looking to push their brand through those operators. Those are the strategic set of differentiators.
Then there's a technology differentiator where we've been built from the ground up to being multi-tenanted in the operator network, able to interwork with both existing mobile infrastructures, 3G, 2G infrastructures and also next-generation IMS infrastructure. These are all the things that operators understand and care about. All of the what I would call enterprise communications companies don't really understand that operator environment, don't come from that environment, and haven't made a strategic bet that the operators are going to win a significant portion of this unified communications marketplace.
Q: Would you ever sell directly to enterprise? We have more and more of the readers that are trying to build private cloud kind of environments at scale. I know they can never replicate the scale or the capability that a service provider has, but they certainly are in the market to try to do things in a much more efficient and unified way. Is that a market you'd ever target?
A: Not really. Strategically we've decided to focus on service providers. We don't have an enterprise brand. We have a very well known operator brand and service provider brand. It's not really a strategic direction we'd like to follow. One of the things that we're very excited about is that we think this enterprise communications world is moving not only from enterprise to cloud, but from cloud to mobile cloud. This is where our integration and strategic alignment with mobile operators is critical for delivering on the next-generation mobile enterprise solution. We really feel great about the strategic choice we've made. I think selling directly to enterprises would be a distraction.
Q: You've mentioned mobile a number of times, and that's obviously a huge issue for our readers. I think they're getting through the first stage of dealing with mobile in the sense of coming up with the right policies or approaches to BYOD. But in your world, how do you see enterprises really capitalizing on it? What does this hosted UC allow them to do to really take better advantage of mobility?
A: What's really interesting is that most enterprises have considered the enterprise side of it, what we call the PBX functions inside the premise as one complex, and then all of the users running around using mobile phones as a separate challenge. With some feature-interworking through clients, or some bells and whistles they kind of make these things work together sometimes.
What really is the opportunity that is presenting itself is that as mobile operators launch hosted unified communications solutions and all that unified communications capability now exists in their mobile core, now they'll be able to go to enterprises and basically present a fully integrated solution. What does that mean? Every employee gets a single subscription and then you, as an enterprise, can choose -- does that employee need a hard phone? Do they need a mobile? Do they need a soft line? Do they need two hard phones? Do they need a hard phone at their house and their remote office? All of that now changes to really treating this thing as one, one single subscription.
And the really interesting thing here is with that transformation the enterprise customer gets something really important, which is cost savings. They're not buying a PBX extension or a unified communications suite and a mobile phone for their users. They're buying a single subscription and then outfitting that user with devices given their job function. They get this tremendous cost-saving of bringing down the number of subscriptions from two or three to one, and they get the power of equipping every single employee with a unified communications suite, from voice mail to audio conferencing to video conferencing, to instant messaging across the organization, to desktop sharing, a really rich set of capabilities that are now available to you anywhere on any mobile device. The real change is that moving that enterprise logic from the premise to the cloud. The next step that I think is just starting to emerge is moving that into what I call the mobile cloud or mobile core and making mobile the front and center of these solutions. I think there's going to be a dramatic change in the way that enterprises equip their employees to be productive.
Q: What are you doing to integrate these hosted UC capabilities into other cloud-based services and applications that people are using?
A: Because we're in an operator's network, a thing that is quite important to them and obviously important to the end users has got to be openness of the platform. We for many years have had a set of open APIs and a pretty rich recruitment of developers that build bridges from these hosted unified communications solutions to various vertical applications to various CRM systems. We really allow the unified communications capability to drive the business process, so linkages to CRM and to Salesforce.com or a number of other CRM products out there, linkages to vertical software for hospitality, education and professional services firms, legal. We try to find ways now to take that very rich UC suite and enable that across those business processes that the enterprise might be using. I'm using Salesforce and I'm using hosted unified communications and these two things work well together and the plugs that are available and the integrations that are available are really simple and scalable in the cloud network. It's a very important part of our strategy to make sure that this unified communications capability that we're delivering through the operators is really treated as a platform that enterprises can build on and integrate with their other capabilities.
Q: As a CIO or senior IT person, what are the key things you should be looking for in UC as a service?
A: I think the enterprise customer should really be looking at operators that have the ability to deliver a complete unified communications suite, not just one component of it. I think over time you're going to be looking for service providers that can deliver this mobile integration. I think it will become more and more critical to strategy. I think what's really important is to validate that the service providers can deliver the technology with scale, with high quality, with a high level of support. That's another element here. You're clearly trusting someone else to run your enterprise network. Make sure that trust is warranted, and that you feel comfortable that the operator can in fact deliver a high quality service.
Q: The flip side of that is what are the things they should watch out for when they're dealing with a service provider on hosted UC?
A: I think that you want to make sure you really have a solution that's open, expandable, that you can really mix and match components. I think competitively you have lots of vendor lock-in, which ultimately goes against the whole concept of moving unified communications into the cloud. As an enterprise you want to be able to use the max devices. You want to be able to pick phones. You want to be able to pick clients. You want to be able to integrate with your technologies. You maybe will want to substitute out a particular element of the UC stack for something you think is better or fits better in your environment. You want to be able to have that flexibility in these solutions. Unfortunately, the unified communications field talks a lot about openness and interoperability, but everybody seems to be selling closed solutions with very little openness.
Q: What should we expect to see from BroadSoft over the next year?
A: We're very focused on expanding the unified communications stack. We have quite a bit of work going on to continue to refine the user experience. We do lots of research. We have a fairly rich set of user experience clients out there. We continue to work with both our operators and their end users on fine tuning that experience, making sure that all these capabilities are easy to use. We're clearly building out more capabilities around integrating with mobile networks and we're going to see more and more of our customers go to market with these integrated mobile-led solutions. I mean that's going to be a huge differentiator in the market. We're going to see unified communications solutions that are really first and foremost led by mobile access, mobile devices, and then followed in with fixed devices and with soft clients. We have a number of operators, customers of ours, who launched services like that in Europe. The customer receptivity is really high, and they really never understood they could buy a single subscription. They really thought they'd have to buy PBXs and mobile subscriptions forever, and the concept of being able to buy just one has been extremely powerful in a number of market launches we've seen in the European marketplace. We've seen a really, really strong drive and I think you'll see a lot more of that over the next 12 months.
Q: Is there an enterprise customer that's working with one of your big service providers that we can show as an example of this?
A: I don't really have the ability to talk about the end users. But what I'll do is I'll use BroadSoft as a wonderful end user. We're about 700 employees in about 21 markets. We operate seamlessly across time zones and geography. I work effectively anywhere I am, I have hard phones and soft clients. I'm able to work at home, on the road. I can do video conferencing from hotel rooms on my iPad. The ability for us to just work so effectively across the global landscape is powerful. I think about what it would take to implement what we use internally with premise-based technologies, the cost, the complexity, the infrastructure, the installation - unbelievably complex. Eighteen months ago we moved into our latest office here. Basically, I just unplugged my phone from my last office, plugged my phone in and I was up and running in five minutes with all my unified communications capabilities. To be able to transport yourself anywhere and be connected with the cloud, and have access to all your unified communications capabilities, that's very powerful, very cost effective, very productive for employees.
Q: You have one sentence here in the elevator with a CIO, and you say 'you should care about BroadSoft because...'
A: We're powering the unified communications and the solutions service that's coming to you from your service provider.


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We have a habit, a bad habit, of demonizing leaders whom we don't like. We're usually correct in seeing them as bad men—they are mostly men. We seem to believe that if we could only get rid of them wonderful things would happen to their nations and our world. This is the other side of the "Great Man" theory of history.
My first experience of this was Stalin and how we waited for him to die. There was a hope that the Soviet Union would throw off the chains he forged. And they did, some 40 years later. He was not an anomaly but the expression of his nation for that time. Had he died or been removed earlier or later, history would most likely not have been materially changed.
In this past decade we have fixated on some truly bad leaders and have been guilty of magical thinking, believing that the world would change, inevitably for the good, if only we could dispose of them. And we did dispose or help to dispose of many of them. However, to what end?
The Shah of Iran was our choice to install and prop up after we disposed of Mosaddegh. Then, when the Shah became the problem, we pulled the carpet out from under him. Both acts, installing him and removing him, got us the Ayatollah Khomeini.
We next thought we could save the entire Middle East by getting rid of that unique monster Saddam Hussein. He killed his own people, tortured people he suspected of being disloyal and slaughtered rival tribes and ethnicities with both conventional weapons and gas. Well, we got rid of Saddam, and today there is more violence and death in Iraq than under him. Today Iraq is a client state of Iran and in a state of civil war. Nouri al-Maliki was not the answer to the problem that was Saddam.
Gadaffi was portrayed as a crazy man, someone who was irrational with strange appetites for large blonde women. We seemed to take it on faith that whoever or whatever came next would be an improvement. Well, he's gone—as is any stability or civility in Libya. In some ways Libya itself is gone and is at war with itself.
We were pretty sure that Bashir al-Assad was a bad guy who "killed his own people." While this is true, any faith that whoever might come next will be better should seem naïve—for it surely is. Remember that Bashir, many experts thought, was going to be much better than the previous monster, his father Hafiz al-Assad. Didn't turn out as forecast.
We've engaged in considerable magical thinking in Egypt, hoping that real democracy would come after Mubarak. It didn't. It isn't coming after Morsi either—al-Sisi being a not very benevolent dictator.
Now, as Iraq continues to self-destruct, we are starting to talk about "having to replace al-Maliki." I hold no brief for Maliki; he has mismanaged Iraq as badly as Saddam, if only for a different Muslim sect. We do have to ask ourselves from whence cometh our faith in his replacement being better and not worse?
What empirical experience do we have in picking the winners and losers for other nations? You might think we'd have some well-earned modesty in our ambitions and expectations. You might think so, but you'd be wrong.
©2014 Jonathan Dobrer
Follow me on Twitter @jondobrer
Order my new book: Scared Witless–The Use & Misuse of Fear
Post paid $18.50

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I'm a physics student at a large state university.
I'll put in more info, and maybe a few "user boxes", soon.
Christmas vacation is over. I will probably not be contributing here in the near future. Please try to keep the "counterexamples to relativity" page from getting overgrown with ridiculous items.
While I am a Protestant, I find myself in nearly complete agreement with GregG's essay on creationism here, and I highly recommend it. If I had time, I'd offer some contributions to the "todo" sections.
The vandal spree of December 29, 2012
A few comments about the recent vandal spree that I was involved with.
A note in Talk:Main Page seems to suggest that some admins take delight in the recent vandalism attack, as though it vindicated Conservapedia's position on certain issues. I doubt that the sysops actually took delight in reverting all that, and I certainly didn't find my small part in that effort much fun. (Though it was, in a perverse way, exciting being in the middle of all that.) Other people's hateful actions do not affect the correctness of, or vindicate, one's positions. They just show that those people are hateful. For example, I hate Kim Kong Un, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Bashar al-Assad, as I'm sure everyone here does. That doesn't vindicate al-Assad's war against his own citizens. The rightness of Conservapedia's positions on various issues is to be found in the writings of its contributors, not in the actions of vandals.
That note also contains the statement that "the general public is reading this". That is true; the talk page page has nearly half a million views. But a later note rails against "childish temper tantrums", and then bears a picture of John Wayne. What kind of impression is made on those people, most of whom are grownups, to see that?
Here is why I accept evolution. This is intended as an adjunct to my answers to the "quantifying openmindness" test.
To be clear, I specifically mean Darwinian macro-evolution. This has nothing to do with cosmic evolution, chemical evolution, geological evolution, molecular evolution, or abiogenesis.
Simply put, the scientific evidence is utterly overwhelming, and becomes more so with each passing year. Even though we don't see direct evidence of macro-evolution happening before our eyes (though we do see micro-evolution happening with E. Coli bacteria, with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and with pesticide-resistant pests), the evidence is totally overwhelming. It is not necessary to see something with ones own eyes to be absolutely certain that it is true—no one has seen an electron, or a proton, or a neutrino, or a W+ boson.
Specifically, what the scientific evidence tells us is that Darwinian evolution is the correct explanation for the diversity of the tree of living beings. In Darwin's time, the evidence was somewhat circumstantial, and his claims were not totally buttressed by genetic evidence. This made his theory somewhat controversial, and the scientific community at large took some time to accept it.
But recent developments in genetics, particularly DNA sequencing, make the case overwhelmingly strong. The DNA evidence showing the genetic relationships, buttressed by the geological evidence showing the timelines of the various phyla and species, is unmistakable. And it is getting more so as time passes. Every few months I come across another article showing how DNA analysis has helped put another piece of the puzzle in place, explaining yet another aspect of the biological "family tree".
There are thousands upon thousands of books, articles, and journal papers explaining and discussing these points. One can go to any bookstore, especially college bookstores, and get a wealth of information on the subject.
Other places to look
Are there alternatives that need to be considered? Of course. One needs to be openminded about this. As part of my openminded investigation of this topic, I looked at what really ought to be a good source for alternative explanations—Conservapedia itself. Conservapedia is known to take an editorial stance against evolution, so it ought to be able to explain why evolution is wrong.
Conservapedia's evolution page
But Conservapedia's page on the subject is filled with fundamentalist religious material, crowding out any attempt at a decent scientific analysis. It just goes on and on and on with fundamentalism, along with digressions into obesity, bestiality, atheism, Communism, and other totally unrelated topics, along with pictures of Hitler, Stalin, various creationists, a Lion, ants, and cats. This is not the way to do science. Discussion of some stupid thing someone said about how "black women are objectively less physically attractive than other women" is not the way to do science. Filling the page with links to creationist or fundamentalist websites is not the way to convince people looking for scientific explanations.
Conservapedia's front page
So maybe the evolution page itself wasn't the right place to look. Surely a web site that is so strongly against evolution will give, or point to, some convincing argument. I looked at the main page. Sure enough, the left side has quite a number of links to various web sites (as of July 22):
- 1 link referring to using technology to "overrun Darwinism"
- 4 links relating to Nobel prize selection and creationists
- 1 link relating to Adolf Eichmann and his beliefs relative to evolution
- 4 links relating to the notion of a "young earth" and "young universe"
- 1 link referring to Biblical creationism
- 3 links to "evolutionary indoctrination"
- 1 link to a "resource to refute evolutionists"
Every single one of these links is to a fundamentalist religious web page! Four are to a "blogspot" blog (which, in the first sentence, mentions its connection with "Creation Ministries International"), and the other 11 are to the "creation.com" web site. Conservapedia had 15 opportunities to make a scientific case against evolution in these front-page links, and threw them all away.
Conservapedia's thermodynamics page
There are other pages at Conservapedia that relate to this topic. One is the page on the second law of thermodynamics. It contains the claim that the second law disproves evolution. That is nonsense. (It also says that it disproves relativity, a claim which is even more nonsensical.) The scientific discussion on the page is totally confused and misguided, and appears to be written for the specific purpose of refuting evolution, rather than elucidating scientific points. It seems to make an all-encompassing claim that disorder never decreases anywhere, so evolution could not have happened. This is simply false. A number of people (including myself) have attempted to argue the case on the talk page, and those attempts were simply met with the steadfast refusal, by an admin, to allow this to be changed—"It's impossible to go into reverse ... Case closed."
In addition to the scientific discussion, the page has huge amounts of the usual irrelevancies—creationist web site discussion and links, a picture of a creationist, discussion of politics, and a quote from Genesis.
"Intelligent design"
Well, this is better than making an argument on purely Biblical grounds, but it still doesn't work. "Intelligent design" is well known to be creationism with religion scrubbed from it. It is widely believed that the point of this is to satisfy First Amendment principles about separation of church and state in scientific textbooks in school.
OK, fair enough. But, when Biblical arguments are removed, how good a case can be made? I looked at the www.intelligentdesign.org web site. It appears to make good on its promise not to use religious arguments. But its argument really boils down to this: The tree of life is too marvelous to have come into existence without some "intelligent designer" having made it happen.
This is a negative and totally unsatisfying argument. It really amounts to saying "because we don't [yet] understand how something works, we ascribe it to an intelligent being." This is not the way to do science. When you come across something you don't understand, you don't just throw in the towel this way. Thousands of things that were not understood at one time became understood later, through research and careful thinking. Such knowledge gaps as the evolution of eyes, or of bacterial flagella, or the failure to find certain transitional fossils, get explained all the time. There have been many cases of people claiming that certain transitional fossils are missing, and therefore evolution must be wrong, only to have the missing fossils found later. Science marches on.
There is no doubt that the universe in which we live is marvelous. Evolution is one of the marvels. The fine structure constant is another, as is the inhomogeneity of the universe just after the big bang, the strength of the strong force, the solubility of carbon dioxide, the crystal structure of water, and so on. Much has been written about the many seeming miracles that make the universe work and make life possible. (In the scientific literature, the phenomenon is often described as the "anthropic principle".) Unlikely or "miraculous" as the value of the fine structure constant might be, scientist don't just say that it isn't true. Biological evolution, like the value of the fine structure constant, may be marvelous or "miraculous", but it is nevertheless true.
Now we don't know why these things are true. Could it be that some intelligent designer made them so? Perhaps. But we don't say that, because we don't understand them, they aren't true. The marvelous/miraculous nature of the universe is really true. And that includes evolution. Did God cause all this to happen? Quite possibly. But it is not our place to second-guess just how He did it. That's for us to figure out. Using science.
So "intelligent design" is really just a cop-out. If you don't understand something, you don't just say that it can't be true.
If Conservapedia can't make, or point to, a case for believing evolution to be false, who can?


text:
From: "Kuczkowski, Jim" <Jim.Kuczkowski@s...>
Date: Tue Jan 18, 2000 5:17 pm
Subject: Slat wall
Hey folks, not sure if anyone will have an answer to this question, but
here goes:
My studio was built mainly from materials we came across cheap or free.
We lucked into a situation where an old record store was being torn down and
the owner told us to take what we wanted. We gutted the place. The main
building material we acquired was slat-wall---that stuff that stores use to
hang items on walls. You know the stuff, typical retail store crap. MARS
uses a variation with double-tall slats on which they hang their guitars.
We have the typical pressed-board variety w/slat-faces aprox. five inches
tall. We acquired about 70 4X8 sheets of the stuff, so naturally our place
is covered in the stuff.
This material is not listed on any absorption or stc tables that I have
seen. Anyone know where I could find specs on them? I believe the slats
are acting sort of like resonators. Although we have never done scientific
tests, we don't seem to have any of the typical build-up in the
low-mids--especially in the live room which is rather large.
I'm happy with what is going on, but wish I knew more of a reason why.


text:
By Jeffrey Kaye
The Public Record
Aug 18th, 2011
When considering the effects of unemployment, and the desultory, really uncaring response of the current Democratic administration, as well as Republicans in Congress, to the human devastation of joblessness, it is important to consider the terrible emotional and psychological effects of such unemployment. Such effects are well-documented, but rarely mentioned in articles or blog postings.
A well-regarded 2010 study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, "The Anguish of Unemployment," quantified the tremendous emotional suffering engendered by unemployment. "'The lack of income and loss of health benefits hurts greatly, but losing the ability to provide for my wife and myself is killing me emotionally,' wrote one respondent to the survey." (See PDF for Powerpoint presentation of results.)
Just last April, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a study that showed that suicide rates rise and fall in tandem with the business cycle. The study covered the years 1928-2007. According to the CDC press release:
The overall suicide rate rises and falls in connection with the economy, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released online today by the American Journal of Public Health. The study, "Impact of Business Cycles on the U.S. Suicide Rates, 1928–2007″ is the first to examine the relationships between age-specific suicide rates and business cycles. The study found the strongest association between business cycles and suicide among people in prime working ages, 25-64 years old.
"Knowing suicides increased during economic recessions and fell during expansions underscores the need for additional suicide prevention measures when the economy weakens," said James Mercy, Ph.D., acting director of CDC's Injury Center's Division of Violence Prevention. "It is an important finding for policy makers and those working to prevent suicide."
As a practicing psychologist, seeing clients for almost 20 years, I can say that the current economic depression has had a terrible effect on the people I see. I have also heard about more suicides in a short period of time than I have in years — actually, ever. While this could be a statistical fluke, and I myself would never draw stark conclusions from the sample of one clinician, the spike in reported suicides is certainly something that fits the known epidemiological risks that accompany high unemployment.
Because of confidentiality issues, I can't talk about my own clients, but let's consider some other academic studies over the years about the effects of economic stressors, such as unemployment.
"After unemployment, symptoms of somatization, depression, and anxiety were significantly greater in the unemployed than employed." — Effects of unemployment on mental and physical health. American Journal of Public Health, May 1985.
"Controlling for a number of individual characteristics, unemployed individuals are found to suffer significantly higher odds of experiencing a marked rise in anxiety, depression and loss of confidence and a reduction in self-esteem and the level of general happiness even compared with individuals in low-paid employment. This finding highlights the involuntary nature of unemployment." — "The effects of low-pay and unemployment on psychological well-being: A logistic regression approach." Journal of Health Economics, January 1998.
"Unemployment was associated with an increased risk of suicide and death from undetermined causes. Low education, personality characteristics, use of sleeping pills or tranquilizers, and serious or long-lasting illness tended to strengthen the association between unemployment and early mortality." — "Unemployment and Early Cause-Specific Mortality: A Study Based on the Swedish Twin Registry." American Journal of Public Health, January 2004.
"Unemployed individuals had lower psychological and physical well-being than did their employed counterparts." — "Psychological and Physical Well-Being During Unemployment: A Meta-Analytic Study." Journal of Applied Psychology, Jan. 2005.
"SPRC conducted a literature review of relevant research published in the past two decades. The review shows that a strong relationship exists between unemployment, the economy, and suicide. A common "chain of adversity" can begin with job loss and move toward depression through financial strain and loss of personal control. In fact, this chain leads to myriad financial, social, health and mental health outcomes—all of them negative. The most common (but by no means the only) mental health outcome is depression, which significantly increases suicide risk. The associated financial outcomes (such as mortgage foreclosures and loss of retirement security) have not been researched with respect to suicide. However, the potential link is that for vulnerable individuals, losses (whether real or anticipated) that result in humiliation, shame, or despair can trigger suicide attempts." — "Relationship between the Economy, Unemployment and Suicide." Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), November 2008.
"There was a strong independent association between suicide and individuals who were unemployed (odds ratio 2.6; 95% confidence interval 2.0 to 3.4) and permanently sick (2.5; 1.6 to 4.0)…. The association between suicide and unemployment is more important than the association with other socioeconomic measures." — "Suicide, deprivation, and unemployment: record linkage study." British Medical Journal, Nov. 1998.
"Socioeconomic events are known to produce important fluctuations in suicide mortality. Unemployment, in particular, seems related to suicide risk along direct and indirect pathways. Blakely and co- workers' paper in this issue adds to evidence indicating a causal association between unemployment and suicide. Their results indicate that this association is not attributable to confounding factors linked to the socioeconomic status and that it is only partly related to health selection or mental disorders." — "Unemployment and Suicide." Journal of Epidemiological Community Health, 2003.
Anemic Jobs Help from Washington Assures More Suffering
According to news reports, President Barack Obama has announced that he will be proposing in September a "jobs package" meant to stimulate job growth. The program, which reportedly will include yet more tax cuts, along with some infrastructure spending, appears yet another tepid approach to a problem that is seriously affecting millions of people. In fact, the government has sat and twiddled its thumbs while millions have languished in despair.
Unemployment is deadly. The effects of the capitalist boom-and-bust system seriously damage millions of lives. But with an almost daily bombast of propaganda about terrorism, the populace lives in fear, while wondering how they will make their bills, ground down between anxiety over ghostly terrorists and eviction, or how to put gas in their car, or afford a bus pass. Hopelessness stalks the land, not Al Qaeda. And yet the politicians in D.C. care little or nothing about the suffering their policies cause. Indeed, their pockets are lined with campaign donations from corporations that routinely layoff hundreds of thousands, and ship many thousands more jobs overseas.
Callous disregard for human lives is what links the terrible policies of war and torture with the policies of neglect and indifference towards the jobless. Such callousness is the by-product of a get-rich-quick ethos that worships profit over all else, over worship of a capitalist system that has brought about terrible world wars, massive depressions, colonial atrocities, and even genocide. U.S. society awaits its turn through the meat-grinder of history.
Meanwhile, the politicians only care about getting re-elected. Indeed, the blogosphere is too infected with following the minutiae of the fake political campaigns, while daily, minute by minute, people's lives are destroyed. Somewhere today, perhaps while you were reading this, someone has taken their life because they felt useless, with no hope of gainful employment, their self-esteem ground down, the sense of meaning and connection severed by redundancy and societal disconnection.
We need dramatic, radical change in this country, and we need it now. For many thousands, however, it will come too late. How many more individual lives, how many more families lives will be shattered by mental illness and suicide due to joblessness? The right to a job is the most fundamental of human rights.
Jeffrey Kaye, a psychologist living in Northern California and a regular contributor to Truthout, blogs about civil liberties and issues revolving around the US government's torture program at The Dissenter. He can be reached at sfpsych at gmail dot com. Follow Jeff on Twitter: @Jeff_Kaye


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FlyAnglers OnLine
The fraternity of fly fishers
Since 1997
Have a happy, happy birthday! Will there be cake??
Happy, happy birthday, dear Marco!!! Happy birthday to you! Hope it's a great one, and you get some cake! Hugs
HI Mark, I think it was probably too many cocktails but who knows. I know my inner 14 year old snickered even as I cringed.
Made made me think of you , could it be , na
Be safe
Thanks Marco,, hope our doing well ,
funny I was just thinking of you the other day
Hey Marco! Thanks for the birthday wishes. Yes, it would appear that the novelty that is me has warn off. lol
I hope you have a great birthday. Jim
You're probably right. The black ribbon idea sounds good in His honor.
I actually thought about it, but in the past I tried to get rid of the flags as they had been there too long. JC had very strong opinions about the symbolism of the flag and supporting our troops. Not sure that would be something he would approve of, as it would detract from the meaning of the flags. A black ribbon on your pole and getting everyone to go fishing on a remembrance day might be better.
Senior Member


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Visit the forum if you have a language query!
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Love is like a fruit. It may look good, but you shouldn't bite in it until it's ripe.Nick Hertl
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Posted by Editoress on 05/29/08
Pro teams deny knowing Quebec doping doctor
Professional sports teams in Montreal are denying any connection with Dr. Maurice Duquette, who has pleaded guilty to charges of doping athletes.
Duquette has been linked to former Canadian cycling champ Genevieve Jeanson, who tested positive in July 2005 for the banned substance erythropoietin.
She admitted in an interview last year that she had taken the performance-enhancer, better known as EPO, for several years before the test.
Read more at CBC
Former BMX champ in the race of his life
Parents pray for help in son's fight against tumour
Surrounded by the trophies and medals from their son's biking competitions that crowd his room, Drew and Lori Hemmingson pray for a miracle.
On the couch in the living room of their Seymour area townhouse lies their nine-year-old son Matt.
Read more at North Shore News
Victory at Tour D'Afrique
Toronto couple pedals 4 months and 12,000 km through 10 countries to the finish line.
"Four months ago, I had a goal of simply finishing the 2008 Tour d'Afrique. Now, here I am, the women's champion.
Starting in Cairo, Egypt, the 12,000-kilometre bike tour twisted south through 10 countries. Sixty people started this trip, but only 12 crossed the finish line with the status of having ridden Every Fabulous Inch.
My husband, Dave, was one of them. While others went on side trips or took a day off, sat on the bus or fell ill, Dave pushed through sickness and fatigue to ride every kilometre of the course."
Read more at Toronto Star
Milram sack Astarloa after positive test
German cycling team Milram have fired former world champion Igor Astarloa after a suspicious blood test.
Read more at CNN
High-tech cycling: Units map routes, navigate, measure workouts
When cycling enthusiasts also are computer geeks, almost anything can happen.
Besides wanting a fast bike and a connection with the outdoors, they also want a bike computer that measures everything about their rides: speed, distance, elevation, elapsed time, cadence, heart rate, the temperature, wind and even a satellite map of where they went.
Fortunately for cyclists craving such data, bike computers are getting better - with two of the latest satellite-navigation models offering turn-by-turn directions and color road maps right from the gadget mounted on their handlebars.
Launched this spring, the Garmin Edge 605 and 705 bike computers provide mapping capabilities and street navigation on a 2.2-inch color display, in addition to measuring just about everything else from a vigorous workout or a leisurely ride through the countryside.
Read more at centerdaily.com
Cycling Still Offers Quickest City Commute
To the surprise of no one -- with the possible exception of Bike Snob NYC -- bike commuter and social worker Jamie Favaro won Transportation Alternatives' 7th Annual Great NYC Commuter Race this morning, completing the 4.5-mile route between Fort Greene and Union Square in 16.5 minutes. Driver Emmanuel Fuentebella came in second at 22 minutes, and transit rider April Greene made the trip in 29 minutes.
Read more Streetsblog
A ghostly reminder of the dangers of cycling
one white and skeletal in structure, they are tucked beneath bridges and placed on deadly corners, serving as spectral reminders of the dead.
Ghost Bikes - or memorial bikes - are tributes to cyclists who died as a result of accidents on city streets.
Read more at Toronto Star
Get rolling for Bike Month
In just the past few hundred of our 150,000 years on Earth, we have invented everything from steam engines, cars and airplanes to sophisticated weapons and supercomputers.
But one invention, the bicycle, is so efficient, beneficial and simple that it may be the best thing we've ever made. And June, Bike Month, is the time to celebrate it. The "modern" version of the bicycle with pedals and cranks was invented by French carriage-maker Ernest Michaux in 1861.
Read more atMetroNews
Public transit spin is out of control
Public transit is making progress of a kind in Canada - though it's not always visible. In its report "Commuting Patterns", Statistics Canada noted last year that the percentage of Canadians who drive to work fell to 80.0 in 2006, a decline - wait for it - of 0.7 per cent in the last decade. The car maintains its enduring edge over public transit across the entire country. Thus, 78.2 per cent of Quebec commuters get to work by car (the lowest level in any of the provinces); 90.7 per cent of Prince Edward Island commuters get to work by car (the highest). In Ontario, it's 79.2 per cent. In New Brunswick, it's 89.1 per cent. In Saskatchewan, it's 86.5 per cent.
Read more at Business Journal
Cycling sets your heart racing to healthy levels. So does watching the antics of some cyclists.
See that red light? I did, and I stopped my bike. Shame about the guy who went sailing through. The rules of the road should apply to everyone, regardless how much you believe "Four wheels bad, two wheels good."
Read more at Ottawa Citizen
A study recently published by Cycling England found that most parents don't allow their children the cycling freedom they enjoyed themselves
Teaching a child to cycle can be both beautiful and challenging. For trainers, the two extremes of child cyclist behaviour can be summarised as the Connor and the Caitlin. Connor lives on his bike, pulls wheelies at every opportunity, doesn't particularly care which side of the road he cycles on and has decided to do a course to get out of maths. Caitlin has a shiny new mountain bike she rides on Sundays in the park, and mum and dad have drilled into her that roads are dangerous, so if she goes anywhere on her bike, she goes by pavement. She's doing a course (in her cycle helmet) because mum and dad think road safety is very important.
Read more at Guardian
16th Manulife Bike and Hike for Heart set to raise $200,000 for St. Mary's Hospital Regional Cardiac Care Centre
Donation total exceeds $2.5 million for local heart health
More than 1,200 cyclists and walkers are limbered up and ready to boost Kitchener-Waterloo's heart health this weekend as they take to the streets and paths to raise $200,000 for St. Mary's Regional Cardiac Care Centre.
Sponsored by Manulife Financial since 1993, this year's Bike and Hike
takes place Sunday, June 1. To date, the Bike and Hike has raised more than $2.5 million for regional heart health, with $1.4 million directly benefiting St. Mary's Cardiac Care Centre.
Read more at CNW Newswire
Unicycle racers invade Truro for unique event
Anyone travelling in downtown Truro on June 18 will be greeted by the sight of dozens of unicycles racing.
And it should be quite the show, said Margot Bégin-Gillis of the Colchester Regional Development Agency, one of several local sponsors for the event.
While support is strong, she said, sponsors initially weren't quite sure what to think when the concept was introduced.
Read more at Truro Daily News
A seasoned cyclist - Phyllis MacDonald of Stratford is working on her eighth tip-to-tip completion of the Confederation Trail, which coincides with her 80th birthday
Phyllis MacDonald is almost eight for 80.
That's because this cycling dynamo, who celebrated her 80th birthday in January, is on her way to completing the Confederation Trail for the eighth time. The majority of these cross-Island cycling sessions were with the Island Trails recreational cycling group that annually rides the trail in sections that are manageable for all levels of riders.
Read more at The Guardian
Cycling's Drug Test
After Years of Doping Controversies, the Tarnished Sport Knows It Has to Come Clean or Become Obsolete
Read more at Washington Post
Edmonton Celbrates Bike Month with MOVIES
June is Bike Month, but that doesn't mean you've got to break a sweat. Every Monday this month, Metro Cinema will present a different cycle-themed film for gearheads both active and sedentary. Here are some brief reviews, in ascending order of how much they made me want to turn off the TV, grab my own 18-speed and hit the streets.
Bike Month Rides Wave of Popularity in Edmonton
To the uninitiated, cycling on the increasingly car-choked streets of Edmonton might seem like an undertaking tantamount to attempted suicide.
There's the crumbling infrastructure that can turn the right-hand lane into a pothole-littered, rim-bending slalom. There's the issue of the particularly Albertan affinity for oversized trucks to contend with. There are the kilometres of wide-open, multi-lane sprawl that extends out in all directions, where it seems as though city planners are actively discouraging travel by any means save the automobile.
Read more at Vue Weekly
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Yuri Milner may not be a household name but the Russian billionaire sure knows how to shock a nation. The internet tycoon recently purchased a mega mansion in Los Altos Hills, CA for the jaw-dropping sum of $100 million, which marked "the highest known price paid for a single-family home in the U.S.", according to The Wall Street Journal.
Apparently, $100 million buys a lot these days in what has become a real estate market full of price reductions and slow sales. The billionaire's new Bay Area digs include 25,000 square feet of living space in the style of an 18th-century French chateaux. The magnificent home features five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, indoor and outdoor pools, a wine cellar, a ballroom, a home theater, and spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The 47-year old has built his empire by investing in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon, and according to Luxist, he appeared on the cover of the most recent issue of Forbes magazine. It was revealed that Milner's new $100 million Silicon Valley residence is in fact his second home away from home and that he and his family have no immediate plans to move in.
Copyright LXTVN - LXTV


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[a] frosted cake beauty ... [these] toys are always listening so politely; we want to know what they have to say.The New Yorker
Leanne Shapton gives voice to the toys on our shelves in this wry yet tender children's book
Always there to comfort and listen, stuffed animals provide a reassuring presence in many a childhood. With Toys Talking, acclaimed illustrator and author Leanne Shapton explores their inner lives, to reveal that their thoughts and feelings are just as complicated as our own. The concerns of these bunnies, bears, and ducks range from the mundane to the existential, and with each new pairing of character and text, we see a deeper portrait of their pensive, quiet world. Shapton holds a mirror to our own lives, to our insecurities and concerns, by revealing that the objects who comfort us have worries of their own. This book brings Shapton's gorgeously minimal brushstrokes to a younger audience, and will leave children and parents alike brimming with the beauty and melancholy of self-reflection.
Praise for Toys Talking
... Leanne Shapton gives voice to a selection of soft toys whose worries are not too dissimilar from our own ... a charming, funny and off-beat book that will no doubt fire the imagination of her youngest readers.The Creative Review
... exquisite, delightfully expressive ink illustrations ... Like most books published by Drawn & Quarterly, Toys Talking is a pleasure to look at and hold—If Shapton's fixation with time and its passing is idiosyncratic, for children's books it is foundational, linked to the inescapable reality of their being written and often read out loud by adults who were once themselves children.Literary Review of Canada
An offbeat illustrated board book of stuffed animals speaking in non sequiturs. A class menagerie.Nathalie Atkinson, Globe & Mailt
This is an extraordinary book—remarkable, but also odd.Financial Times


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Twin Stainless Steel Blades with a titanium finish to give it the rainbow electric look The Rainbow color will vary with the light Overall Length: 27-1/2 Width at handle: 10 Blade Material: Stainless Steel , Edges not sharpHandle Material: Custom Molded ABSThis is a HOT NEW item and our initial supply will not last long "741360516472
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Guide part 5
Super Street Fighter 4 Fighting Basics[edit]
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Combo Systems
There are lots of ways to combo in Street Fighter IV, but before we get into that we should define what a combo really is. From the Abridged BS Dictionary of MRS, EIC, San Francisco:
Any string of attacks that become unblockable once the first hit in the string has connected. Example: If Ryu lands a j.HK from deep in, he can land from the jump and connect a c.MK before the opponent can recover from the first hit and block. When the second hit, the c.MK, connects, Ryu can cancel into his Hadoken and, again, the attack will connect before the opponent can recover from the last hit.
So a combo isn't just any combination of attacks, but specifically a combination of attacks that connect, one after the other, with the opponent unable to block them. If you start a combo and land the first hit, the opponent will be helpless until the combo ends (or until you botch the combo). You'll know you've landed a combo in Street Fighter IV when the game shows the combo counter on the screen.
There are five basic combo types in Street Fighter IV, four of them dating back to the days before Street Fighter even counted combos.
Jump-In Combos
A cross-up is similar to a jump-in and sets up the same combo options as do jump-in attacks. For more details on cross-ups, read our wake-up game breakdown .
Jump-in combos are probably the easiest to connect with. For the sake of discussion, we'll assume you're Ryu. Jump at an opponent with a j.HK attack to start the combo. When the j.HK connects, it puts the opponent into a fairly lengthy hit stun, allowing you to land from the jump and combo another hit. For a very basic jump-in combo with Ryu, connect a j.HK and, as soon as you touch the ground, follow with a c.HK.
This isn't terribly important, but it's worth knowing why jump-in combos work. Jump-in combos are similar to link combos—described below—in that you are forcing the opponent into a lengthy hit stun with a strong attack and then following quickly with another attack before the opponent recovers from that hit stun. What makes jump-ins unique is that landing from a jump effectively cancels the recovery animation of your attack. For a self-demonstration of the canceling effect of landing from a jump, try this. As Ryu, jump straight up in the air and immediately press HK. Ryu kicks on the way up, and as he comes down from the jump his leg spins around behind him. Now try jumping straight up again, only this time pressing HK just before you hit the ground. Ryu will perform the same kick, but the landing will cancel the lengthy recovery animation, letting you instantly follow with a ground attack.
Link Combos
Link combos rely on hit stun and quick attacks that can take advantage of that hit stun. More powerful attacks generally cause more hit stun, leaving a bigger window for linking in another hit, but also usually have more recovery time, making it more difficult to attack again before the opponent's hit stun wears off. A quick example of an easy link combo can be performed with Ryu. Stand right next to the opponent and quickly fire off three c.LK attacks. The c.LK doesn't cause much hit stun, but because the following c.LKs are so quick they are still able to combo.
A more useful example of a link combo, also with Ryu, again starts with a c.LK. After the c.LK lands, follow with a quick c.LP which creates enough hit stun that you can follow by landing a c.MP. The timing of link combos is pretty exact, so don't be surprised if your link doesn't always create a combo. But link combos are excellent for starting even more devastating combos, by way of canceling.
Cancel Combos
A cancel, at its most basic, is an action that interrupts another action. As we detailed above, jump-in combos are possible because the act of landing from a jump cancels the j.HK animation. But there are much more interesting ways to cancel.
The most common cancel combo is a two-in-one combo. A two-in-one starts with a normal attack that is canceled by a special or super attack. Here's an example of a two-in-one combo with Ryu: Ryu does a c.MK by pressing + MK that hits the opponent, and two-in-ones into a Hadoken by inputting + P before the c.MK animation completes. The Hadoken interrupts the c.MK attack after the kick has connected, making the combo possible. If you were to attack with a c.MK and follow with a Hadoken without canceling, the two attacks would not combo.
Most normal attacks can be canceled into special or super attacks, but not all. And note that not all normal attacks create enough hit stun for the ensuing special or super attack to actually combo. Experiment with your character of choice to find out which normals can be canceled, which specials can cause the cancel, and which series of attacks and cancels actually results in a combo.
Street Fighter IV also allows super combos to cancel special attacks, letting you connect with a special (like a regular Hadoken fireball) and then cancel that special to super (like Ryu's Shinku Hadoken) to form a combo. Generally, you'll want to utilize the two-in-one in order to execute the super combo's input before the special attack is finished. As Ryu, input + P to fireball and immediately follow with + P to two-in-one the Shinku Hadoken.
There's one more type of cancel combo, this one involving the Focus Attack that's new to Street Fighter IV. It's complicated, so check out our Focus Attack breakdown for the phat skinny.
Target Combos
Target combos—also known as chain combos—are similar to link combos but are much easier to execute. Similar to link combos, target combos involve connecting multiple normal attacks together to form the combo. Unlike link combos, the normal attacks in target combos are specially formulated to allow each following attack to cancel the previous attack. Typically, a normal attack cannot cancel another normal attack. But target combos break that rule.
Only some characters have target combos and they are always very specific (and listed in the moves list). There's no room for creativity with target combos—you take what you're given. Some examples of target combos include Ken's standing MP xx HP. On their own, target combos are typically not impressive, but you can combine them with other combos (like jump-ins and cancels) to build effective damage.
Juggle Combos
The systems for juggle combos have historically been pretty varied in Street Fighter. Street Fighter Alpha 3 has perhaps the most robust juggle combos, and while Street Fighter IV's juggles don't approach the absurdity of A3's, there is some room for a bit of juggling fun. A juggle combo involves connecting with an attack that causes the opponent to fall from the air and then connecting with another attack before they hit the ground.
Not all attacks that drop the opponent from the air leave the opponent vulnerable to a juggle, and even if you find an attack that leaves the opponent vulnerable to a juggle, not all attacks are capable of juggling. Typically, EX versions of special attacks are more likely to successfully juggle than non-EX versions. Super combos and ultra combos are also usually good about connecting as juggles.
A quick example of an effective juggle can be demonstrated with Sakura. Executing her standard Shunpukyaku does not set up a juggle, but an EX-Shunpukyaku will knock the opponent into the air, leaving him/her vulnerable to a juggle combo. In this specific case, Sakura can juggle with most any of her attacks. Her Sakura Otoshi string is an especially ripe example of juggling, letting you juggle the opponent three times in the air.
Now that you've understood the basics of comboing, it's time to start experimenting. All of the above combo types can work together to form longer, more complicated and more damaging combos. Here's an example of a combo that combines multiple combo types with Ryu: j.HK, s.HP xx Shoryuken xx FADC, Metsu Hadoken. You've got a jump-in, a two-in-once cancel, a Focus Attack Dash Cancel, and an ultra combo juggle all in one. And that's just one example. The possibilities are endless if you've got the creativity and dedication to piece together the effective combos necessary for success in the competitive field of Street Fighter.


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The Cubs and the Cubs players' and coaches' wives are looking forward to the 10th annual food drive presented by Meijer on Saturday, August 11. Please visit Gate D before the game from the time the gates open until the end of the second inning where you can help support the local work of Lakeview Pantry. A donation of $20 allows the pantry to purchase 200 pounds of food. Fans that make a $20 donation will receive an autographed 5x7 Cubs player photo. Limit two per person while supplies last.
All proceeds from the food drive benefit our neighbor, Lakeview Pantry. Many in our community struggle to secure food for themselves and their families. This annual food drive makes a big impact and allows the Lakeview Pantry to get food to those in need -- this is the Pantry's largest food drive each year! So please join us at the Cubs game vs. the Reds on August 11. Together, we can combat hunger in our community. We appreciate your help in making this year's Wives 10th Annual Food Drive a big success!
For more information, please call 773-404-CUBS.
The Cubs Wives once again made a visit to Maryville Crisis Nursery this year. The wives spent time reading stories, playing board games and spending time with the children. The Maryville Crisis Nursery provides short term care for children of families who are experiencing a severe disruptive crisis and/or are challenged with an urgent family matter.
Each spring, the Cubs Wives host a food drive and garage sale at HoHoKam Park in Mesa, Arizona to benefit Paz de Cristo, a local community center serving those in need. Since 2005, this event has become a tradition that vies back to those in need in our Mesa Spring Training community.
The Chicago Cubs wives hosted a Breast Cancer day at the ballpark in conjunction with Advocate Health Care. The wives collected donations and distributed Cubs branded pink wristbands. All the proceeds help support Advocate Health Care breast cancer screening for uninsured and underinsured women.


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Welcome To Wired For Home
We're a little nuts about improving our living spaces, whether that's outdoors or indoors and if you're as crazy about it as we are then lets rock!
We bring together info from all corners of the internet to inspire a mad desire within you to get your tools out and start hammering away! We're here to give you the confidence you need to realise your dreams.
We cover everything from fixing your boiler to redecorating your nursery to building a beautiful home extension around the back of the house.
Want inspiration – you're in the right place!


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2010 Louis M. Martini Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvginon Lot 1
Description: Full-bodied and complex, our Louis M. Martini Lot 1 Cabernet Sauvignon captures the essence of Napa Valley's distinctive terroir. The opulent ruby color alludes to the deep, intense dark fruit flavors of blackberry and currant. Rich aromas and flavors of black cherry and cassis are framed by toasted sweet oak notes and hints of mocha. Velvety, plush tannins give this wine a full, luxurious mouthfeel and a long, elegant finish of fruit and spice. Winemaking Notes: The grapes for our Louis M. Martini Lot 1 Cabernet Sauvignon were hand-harvested in half-ton picking bins and hand-sorted before destemming and partial crushing. The must was then gravity-fed into open-top tanks at Cellar No. 254. Fifteen percent of the blend was fermented with a submerged cap for a more gentle extraction, which created more elegant tannins. After fermentation, the wine was racked by gravity into French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. After gently handling the wine as individual barrel lots through the winter and spring, we assembled the majority of the blend in June 2011, allowing the flavors to integrate before sending the wine back to barrel for another year of aging. Lot 1 was aged in French oak barrels, 95 percent of which were new, for a total of 21 months. The oak notes were seamlessly integrated into the final blend, adding hints of chocolate and brown spice without overpowering the intense fruit flavors.
Price: $145.00


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Had a great few days, but they have gone so so so quickly. Can barely remember the last time I posted, I even had to go and check what I actually wore last time I posted! Cardiff was great with my friend Hannah, we went to Jamies Italian and drank Processo (shortly followed by vodka and Desperados!). Then London with Gem & Emma yesterday was really great, we went to a Juicy Couture Vouge's Fashion Night out event which I cannot wait to post about. Was dead posh and we had Afternoon Tea at Claridges! ~fancy~
Haven't got any plans for the week or the next week thankfully. Hoping that I can relax a bit before the flurry that is London Fashion Week. I'm also in this months Company Magazine (the one with Tulisa on the front, October 2011) with a little feature about me which I've posted a scan on on my other blog. I feel really disconnected from my blog at the moment, Im really finding it hard to keep up. So much is happening and I just feel I dont know where to start trying to tell you all about the exciting things that are going on! Decided tomorrow is blog post day so I'm going to try and get as much written up and drafted as I can!


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GraphicConverter rises to yet greater heights with the latest upgrade from Lemke Software
From the mid 1980s until well into the 1990s, all of my workshops and seminars all around the country were conducted using GraphicConverter. First, there was no other "slide show" software that would run on the first Mac laptop -- which was actually an Outbound. Yes, this was before powerbooks. The sorter helped me sort and organize, the graphics engine let me edit, modify and build titling, and the slidshower helped me click through my presentations. And the slides were so beautiful, nobody ever wanted to see another PowerPoint. Some day, I'd like to meet Thorsten Lemke. He's the hardest working man in software -- he keeps on working and improving GraphicConverter's awesome capabilities. Now, here comes the next version . . . April 27, 2015


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Winsted budget problems As we send the Winsted budget out for the fourth time, I would like to address the recent Republican plan and comments. The Republicans complain, whine, growl and have been generally argumentative at every budget meeting. They have made outrageous suggestions that cannot be implemented without breaking the law. The postcards, flyers and papers, full of theory, contain no workable plans or specific dollar line items. And they waited six months to present it. I would like to address the Republican plan and why it doesn't work but merely sounds good. Claim: Revaluation will increase taxes. Fact: The revaluation does not effect this 2012-13 budget as revaluation is due Dec. 1. Your July 1, 2012 assessment applies. Fact: When the new assessments apply, in 2013, your taxes will depend on where you live in town. If the budget remains at 0% in additional spending, taxes may shift. Some will have an increase in taxes. Others will have a reduction in taxes due to the decrease in the value of your property. Solution: Stabilize downtown neighborhoods and create a strong school system to attract families to town. This is an important solution to stabilize and balance the tax burden between all areas of town. The Democratic budget proposal contains funds for neighborhood stabilization programs. Claim: "Let the school board come forward with a sub-MBR budget that reflects these savings, and commit to live within it, and we will support a schools budget allocation at the higher MBR. Legal niceties are respected. Fact: State statutes are not "niceties". Solution: The Education budget hasn't increased in years while rising costs have been offset due to lower enrollment at both K-6 and Gilbert and efficiencies made with grades 7 and 8 moving to Gilbert. The state pays 7.8 million and the town taxes 12.1 million. We are one of the most assisted school districts in Connecticut with over 55 percent free and reduced lunch. Special education is over 20 percent (state average 11 percent). We must rebuild the school district as well as improve the neighborhoods. School officials must continue to address special education and test scores. Claim: Reduce town hall employees by eight hours a week and limit benefits to individuals only. Fact: The labor lawyer indicates that this must be negotiated to be legal. Fact: The selectmen, including our critics, voted for these contracts as early as April 2010. Solution: the town manager is working on the supervisors contract with the labor lawyer to save as much money as possible. We have also directed that the three other union contracts be completed by March 15, 2013 to realize savings in the 2013-14 budget. Claim: Restructure town hall to save money (translate: eliminate employees). Fact: This has been ongoing for the past five years. The town no longer has a planner, housing inspector, three public works employees, four police officers, half a recreation director, half a wetlands officer, half a fire marshal, and no social services department. Fact: due to seniority and vacation time issues, savings are calculated to be $3000 - $10,000 a person each year for two years for each person we let go. The town is legally required to pay for 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. Some employees do not take health benefits and savings would be minimal in these categories. In a few cases the town has to pay employees to leave due to accumulated benefits over multiple administrations. In other words, taxpayers pay them to stay home! Solution: The Town Manager needs to be aggressive in negotiating the four labor contracts. The Town Manager will also be directed to have a plan in place to restructure the Building and Community Development departments by Jan. 1, 2013. Claim: Reduce funds to outside services such as the VNA, Youth Service Bureau, Mental Health, and the Chore Service. Fact: Is this what we have come to as a community? Our heritage is community. The earliest pioneers worked to build meeting houses and businesses for the sake of community. Historically the postal service, schools, library, hospital, roads, were built as a means of fostering community. Blacksmiths and carpenters, seamstresses and bankers and teachers were all the outcome of building community. We reached out to our neighbors, even if they were over the hill and out of sight, because we believed in our common welfare. Community is the foundation of working and living not simply in the same geographical area, but with the same social responsibility. Please help us move this budget forward so that we all can move forward. Candy Perez Winsted
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Kicking off the week with a strong portfolio of great Gold Coast properties to purchase or lease!
Please contact us to help you to sell your home and find the home of your dreams! We specialize in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente and our inland coastal communities.
Make it a great day!


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The U.S. Men's Soccer team is celebrating after defeating Mexico 1-0 in a friendly match before more than 40,00 fans at Nashville's Nissan Stadium last night. Tyler Adams made the only score of the game in the second half to give the American side its first win over Mexico in three years. The goal came minutes after Mexico's Angel Zaldívar earned a red card for a studs-up tackle. Next on the docket for the U.S. is Colombia in a friendly match set for October 11 at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium.
Photo: Getty


text: Environment If you drink wine and care about the planet, cork growers want your attention The World May 09, 2014 You may have noticed that more and more wine bottles — even expensive ones — are increasingly coming with screw tops and synthetic stoppers. You might not think much about the stopper when you make a purchase, but cork producers want you to start. They're mounting a campaign to show that real cork is better for the planet.


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Originally published May 6, 2010
When reviewing the popular literature on customer data integration and master data management, a frequently recurring business driver is the ability to establish a 360-degree view of the customer. This concept has turned into the holy grail of comprehensive customer intelligence. This paper provides questions that should be considered and reviewed during any project designed to deliver a 360-degree view. By using these questions for preliminary guidance, one may clearly articulate where the business can derive value, determine performance metrics and thresholds, and improve the chances of success. The paper then explores how information sharing and identity resolution combine to show the connection between MDM and enterprise customer centricity.
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Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Room Envy: Light & Dark
Hope you're having a great week - TGIt' almost F! Is it too soon to say that on a Wednesday?
(Image via House Beautiful, photography by Luca Trovato)
24 comments:
- pve design said...
I feel that my life is all about "light and dark" - I am drawn to the dark mysterious types and my husband tells me I am all about "light" - Our twins represent the sun and the moon, one wears light, the other dark so to have a home that reflects that is inspiring me that they truly can live happily ever after.
- March 24, 2010 at 7:57 AM
- Unknown said...
Love that bed and that striped chair! My last name sounds a lot like the word the Italians have for "light and dark contrasts":Chiaroscuro.
- March 24, 2010 at 8:09 AM
- dwelling and design said...
I love the contrast in this space. It is the perfect balance. Good find.
- March 24, 2010 at 8:13 AM
- Greet Lefèvre said...
These are my favorite colours for a bedroom! This is so cozy when you lighten the lamps in the evening!
Love that picture! Thank you.
- March 24, 2010 at 8:49 AM
- 1 Funky Woman said...
Beautiful room! What a cozy feeling room. The colors are great!
- March 24, 2010 at 8:57 AM
- Jeanette {A Passion for Home} said...
The contrast is fabulous! It makes the chair and other elements in the room stand out.
- March 24, 2010 at 9:25 AM
- Linda@ Lime in the Coconut said...
...Ok...but would it be wrong of me to write on the walls with chalk?
Yes you say?
- March 24, 2010 at 9:33 AM
That bed looks so comfortable!
- March 24, 2010 at 10:28 AM
- CarolAnne - camdesign said...
Room envy is an understatement...oh my I love this room...
- March 24, 2010 at 10:31 AM
- CarolAnne - camdesign said...
Just checked out the rest of the home, elegant beach, I love that look... we do not get asked for beach in Calgary... but we can dream...
- March 24, 2010 at 10:36 AM
- vignette design said...
I have always been drawn to light and dark rooms like the one you featured. I have in my inspiration file a similar bedroom torn from a magazine at least 5 years ago. Chocolate brown walls, white everything else. It's calm, serene and restful.
- March 24, 2010 at 11:00 AM
- Unknown said...
the dark walls keep the fabrics from being too feminine...smiles.
- March 24, 2010 at 11:16 AM
- Karena said...
I adore the contrast here, fabulous!
Chiaroscuro is right!!
Art by Karena
- March 24, 2010 at 12:06 PM
- LindsB said...
This room looks so cozy and inviting- I think its inviting me to take a nap now
- March 24, 2010 at 12:14 PM
- One of my Hobby Blogs said...
oh I do love that colour on the wall!
- March 24, 2010 at 2:33 PM
- Erica Cook said...
I thought I was following but I guess when I clicked it didn't register. Needless to say I'd missed a lot. LOVE every single post after the last one I saw (st.paddy's) Following now and will never miss again! xo
- March 24, 2010 at 4:10 PM
- Marija said...
I am a big "light + dark" girl. I've seen so many images showcasing strong contrasts but this is by far one of the best - livable, cozy and stylish. Very nice! Marija
- March 24, 2010 at 6:48 PM
- Terése said...
im in love with the dark and light rooms-- all my inspirations are coming from the neutral inspired black and whites--
love your blog
- March 24, 2010 at 11:15 PM
- vicki archer said...
Better than saying it on Tuesday....xv
- March 25, 2010 at 2:45 PM
- Renée Finberg said...
i am with you.
i like it to!!
it got a bit of a 'wow factor!'
- March 25, 2010 at 6:16 PM
- AnnaVallance said...
WOW, I love that bedroom. But I would never have thought to do that.
- March 25, 2010 at 8:04 PM
- Acanthus and Acorn said...
I love the contrast of opposites like this....it really is so inviting and comforting!
Makes me want to just crawl right into that bed...
- March 25, 2010 at 8:26 PM
- Amanda Teal said...
I just love chocolate colored walls. So classic and chic!
- March 25, 2010 at 11:54 PM
- Gwen Driscoll said...
Very, very pretty. I've used this same concept a lot in my house with brown and white. Love it.
- March 26, 2010 at 8:28 AM


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Myself and a friend are both having trouble making the Widget work with Greek or Hebrew texts. We have followed the advice to use the latest versions (NAS95S etc) but the text only appears in English. Any ideas? Running under Tiger 10.4.2 Is this a known bug?
Widget & Greek Texts
Started by JamesBB , Oct 01 2005 04:33 PM
4 replies to this topic
Posted 01 October 2005 - 04:33 PM
Posted 01 October 2005 - 06:17 PM
NAS95S is an English Text. Are you saying that when you try to display texts such as the BHS-W4 and GNT-T they come out as English jibberish? Also, what version of Accordance are you running?
Joel Brown
By day: Lead Software Engineer at Accordance
By night: Freelance Trombonist
Posted 02 October 2005 - 08:57 AM
Sorry, a moment of distraction. Yes, I do mean GNT-T etc. When you try to paste what you have copied into Word the clipboard is empty.
Posted 02 October 2005 - 11:19 AM
Word 2004 should support the Greek but not the Hebrew. However, the Greek is in unicode so it is NOT supported in earler editions of Word. Try TextEdit.
Helen Brown
OakTree Software
OakTree Software
Posted 02 October 2005 - 12:20 PM
Thanks. I tried TextEdit and it works. I then retried it with Word2004 and this time it also worked. No idea what was going on first time round. Thanks for the help; much appreciated.
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War Photographers: Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus: Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, GERMANY
8th March to 10th June 2019
Contrary to the widely held notion that war photography is a male preserve, there is a long history of women photographers working in war zones. Just like their male colleagues, they have documented crises worldwide and played a decisive role in shaping our image of war. As opposed to their male counterparts, women photographers often gained unrestricted access to families in their homes, of whom they took particularly emotional portraits. What is more, they worked at the front lines and took pictures of war victims that do not spare the viewer.
The exhibition presents around 140 works by eight women photographers from the past eighty years, among them Carolyn Cole (*1961), Françoise Demulder (1947–2008), Catherine Leroy (1944–2006), Susan Meiselas (*1948), Lee Miller (1907–1977), Anja Niedringhaus (1965–2014), Christine Spengler (*1945) and Gerda Taro (1910–1937). The photographers, whose subjects range from the European conflicts of the 1930s and 1940s to recent wars around the globe, employ a variety of photographic styles and strategies and tell their stories in many different ways, switching from neutral objectivity to raw directness or sympathetic engagement and empathy. They include intimate glimpses of daily life in wartime as well as evidence of shocking atrocities or illustrations of war's absurdity and its dire consequences.
Curators: Anne-Marie Beckmann, Felicity Korn


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Coyote chili
On our road trip through the cactus-studded desert in Baja California we glean the ingredients for a juicy, hot chili from one of the few truck stops along the way. Bud Spencer would have been proud, we think, as we prepare the spicy stew over the campfire.
Here's the original coyote chili recipe so you can conjure up a little bit of Wild West feeling in your own kitchen.
Original Coyote chili (Serves 4)
2 Tbsp sunflower oil
500 g ground meat
1 red onion
1 400 ml can of kidney beans
1 400 ml can of black beans
1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro)
1 orange pepper
1 dried ancho chili (or 1 dried pepper)
3 limes
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp Tabasco sauce
2 green chilis
Especies mixto (Mexican spice mix)
Our packet contained: coriander seeds, bay leaves, 1 dried chili, 1 clove, pimiento, black peppercorns, dried garlic)
salt & pepper
Things go best when you're cooking if you prepare everything that needs preparing ahead of time. So, start by cutting the pepper into stamp-sized pieces, dice the onion, roughly chop the fresh coriander, cut the limes in half, slice the chili peppers into very thin rounds and open the cans of beans.
Set a pot on the stove and turn the heat up high. Pour in the oil, wait a moment, add the ground meat and sear. Don't forget to stir it or it will turn to cinder. Once the meat is a beautiful golden brown, add the chopped pepper and onion, mix well and fry for another five minutes. Make sure the mixture doesn't burn!
Now dump in the beans along with their juice, adding the ancho chili, 2 Tbsp of the spice mix and the chopped coriander. Plus the Worcestershire sauce and the chili rings. Mix. Turn down the heat until the stew is bubbling happily in the pot. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, Tabasco and lime juice, and garnish with fresh coriander and chopped onion. When you're ready to eat, dip right into the pot with the wooden cooking spoon for a real Wild West experience.
Tastes best in a poncho with a sombrero on your head and a revolver in your belt.
Find out more about Salt & Silver on Facebook and Instagram.


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Artur necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 249 diseños de 86 diseñadores freelance.
I need a professionally designed logo for an up and coming hip hop record label. This logo will be incorporated into everything the company does - it will be included on websites and merchandise.
9 Lives
I need a really catchy, fresh and professional logo for an up and coming hip hop record label. The record label is named "9 Lives". The full name of the record label is "9 Lives Music Group".
- Item 1... IMPORTANT - The logo should be designed including the words "9 Lives" OR "9 Lives Music Group" OR "9L" OR "9LMG" - you can submit the design with any of those variations and we're going to pick the best looking one. I have a feeling we're going to pick a logo that just says "9 Lives" - Please use your own discretion and judgement when designing the logo - we're going to pick the best looking one, the one that stands out.
- Item 2... For logo design ideas please refer to the artists page - myspace.com/truth
- Item 3... We're leaving the design of the logo open-ended - meaning we're leaving it up to the designers to come up with their own unique designs so you can include anything on the logo like skulls, wings, etc or it can just say "9 Lives" or it can say "9 Lives" and including some sort of graphic to it... again please refer to the artists page to get a feel for the music for design ideas
- Item 4... I want ORIGINAL designs only - everything in the design must be your own created artwork.
- Item 1... I don't want barrowed or copied designs - all designs must be original.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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New: Can America Curb Gun Violence?
While Americans were horrified by the murders of 26 innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, many believe we lack the will to curb gun violence. Two years ago a crazed gunman severely wounded Representative Gabrielle Gifford and killed six others; we grieved for a few days and then returned to business as usual. Most Americans hope President Obama's speech at the Vigil for Sandy Hook Shooting Victims portends real change.
What was noteworthy was the way Obama framed gun violence. Instead of railing against it in the abstract, he linked it to "caring for our children." "Can we honestly say that we're doing enough to keep our children – all of them – safe from harm?"
The President named each of the 20 murdered first-graders and asked, "Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?' He shifted the terms of the gun violence debate from restriction of second-amendment rights to protection of our children.
Sadly, there's a long history of horrific gun violence followed by noble words and then congressional inaction. Mother Jones Magazine reports, "Since 1982, there have been at least 62 mass murders carried out with firearms across the country, with the killings unfolding in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii." The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has a 39 page document of "Major School Shootings in the United States since 1997." The Center for Disease Controlreports there are 32 US gun-related homicides each day.
We are a nation of gun owners, "There are 89 guns for every 100 civilians… That amounts to roughly 270 million guns owned nationwide, far and away the highest gun ownership rate in the world."
In his December 19th press conference the President indicated his plan to reduce gun violence.
1. Tie gun violence to protection of our children.
2. Renew the ban on assault weapons and multiple-round ammunition magazines. Passed by Congress on Sept. 13, 1994, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban prohibited the manufacturing of 18 specific models of semiautomatic weapons, along with the manufacturing of high-capacity ammunition magazines that could carry more than 10 rounds. The ban expired in September 2004 when the Bush Administration did not support its renewal. Senator Dianne Feinstein has pledged to reintroduce the bill when the new Congress opens on January 3rd.
3. Expand background checks on gun transactions. In 1993, President Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that mandates background checks on firearms purchasers. The Act establishes the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database for individuals who are banned from purchasing firearms. Although the Brady Act has broad support it has several defects. First, many states and federal agencies have not submitted mental health records to the system. Second, the act only covers purchases from federally licensed dealers. "Unfortunately, 40 percent of firearm acquisitions are from individuals who are not licensed gun dealers and do not undergo any background checks." Third, the database does not include "individuals on the federal government's watch list of terror suspects."
4. Improve mental health services. One of the problems with the current system is that it often does not encounter the dangerously mentally ill until it is too late. Speaking on the PBS News Hour, Dr. Katherine Nordal, from the American Psychological Association, observed
"At the root of a lot of the problems with violence in this country and the victims of violence are unmet mental health needs… [We] need to be able to better identify youth who are at risk to later develop mental health problems. We need better prevention programs in schools... We need school psychologists that are doing something other than testing children for special education classes that can work with teachers and administrators and families to identify young people that are developing problems... We need better-funded university counseling centers. And we need… better access to mental health treatment.President Obama said, "We're going to need [to make] access to mental health at least as easy as access to a gun."
5. Crack down on violence in the media. President Obama acknowledged, "We're going to need to look more closely at a culture that, all too often, glorifies guns and violence." Many observers connected the Newtown killings to violence in the media: movies, music, television, and video games. What's not mentioned often enough is the increased amount of violence in public discourse. On December 17th, gun lobbyist Larry Pratt observed that Americans need assault weapons to protect themselves from government intrusion. It's the kind of comment that feeds the background paranoid buzz in our society, the notion that the US is going to turn into a totalitarian state. We need to fine any public figure that preaches such rubbish.
What's clear is that America has to change and President Obama is willing to lead this effort. "Can we honestly say that we're doing enough to keep our children – all of them – safe from harm?"
Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at email@example.com


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Nominations for "Mothers, Mentors and Muses" End Jan. 25
"Mothers, Mentors and Muses" is the Women's Center signature event that honors Kent State University faculty or staff. The recognition honors women who have made a significant difference in the life of a student or colleague. More than 100 women across the university have received this honor.
You are invited to nominate a Kent State woman for the 2013 "Mothers, Mentors and Muses" Women's Center annual scholarship fundraiser. Nominations end Jan. 25.
This award is intended to honor women of Kent State who have served in any of three roles:
- Mother – one who has helped "birth" ideas, thoughts and academic endeavors in others, or who serves as a nurturing individual to others.
- Mentor – one who serves as a trusted counselor, colleague and role model.
- Muse – one who inspires creativity and artistic/academic passion in others.
Who can be nominated?
Any female Kent State faculty or staff, except those who have previously been honored at this event.
See the honorees from 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Who can nominate?
Any member of the Kent State community, including faculty, staff, emeriti and students can nominate.
To nominate a "Mother, Mentor or Muse," click here to fill out the nomination form.
Nominees will be celebrated at the "Mother's, Mentors and Muses" Women's Center annual scholarship fundraiser in early March.