text:
Social media platforms
""Electronic Information tampers with your soul
|—Babylon Zoo - Spaceman
| Someone is wrong on
The Internet
|Log in:
Moving swiftly along, social media platforms help people keep in touch, now that people move around a lot because the tabloids tell them to (gotta keep those house prices up!).
- 1 Major sites
- 2 Non-English language
- 3 Wannabes
- 4 Cancer?
- 5 "Nym wars"
- 6 Social media consultants
- 7 See also
- 8 External links
- 9 Notes
- 10 References
Major sites[edit]
- You can find a RationalWiki page and a RationalWiki group on Facebook; see Fun:RationalWiki Facebook for a description of the latter
|But one thing is certain, and it's that I'm a jerk for making this site…
—Mark Zuckerberg[1]
Facebook is a
social media platform stalking tool for approximately everyone in the bloody world who has regular access to the internet. Facebook often receives a shitstorm of attention regarding its "privacy" settings, which people are generally too stupid to use - they're actually quite powerful and useful, from being able to easily restrict what you share with certain friends to sending you a one-time password via text message if you're using an unsecured connection that you don't trust. The privacy controversy really developed in November 2007 when Facebook's staff launched Facebook Beacon, in which Facebook's partner e-commerce websites, including eBay and Travelocity, provided Facebook with news of all your purchases (the partner websites knowing you are on Facebook because you have cookies from Facebook stored on your browser disclosing your Facebook identity to these other websites). Incredibly, Facebook then broadcast news of every purchase you made off-site to all of your Facebook "friends", and initially did this without even requiring the user to first opt-in to Beacon. Needless to say, a public outcry rapidly arose over this practice, and Beacon's "opt-out" status was quickly reversed. Facebook's integration with other websites has continued to be relentless, but is now far less creepy, and mostly used by social-media nerds.
As with other social-networking sites such as MySpace and LiveJournal, Facebook is very popular among college students who post all sorts of personal information about themselves - without realizing the potential for it later coming back to haunt them. So when they add their boss as a friend while they still have a profile picture of them being a drunken lunatic at a stag party, they're a little surprised to be passed over for promotion later. But in short, with Facebook privacy, if you don't want it public, don't fucking put it on the site - this includes the people who post their phone numbers to "public" groups.[2] Facebook makes it difficult to delete your account and data permanently and even when gone there is no guarantee that it isn't still in the database somewhere.[note 1] Although it is possible to delete everything by request, it's easier and quicker just to post some random anti-religious screed, to engage in openly racist diatribe or to start posting porn in order to get banned by the administrators. To make it easier for people to come back, Facebook administrator-gnomes prefer "deactivation", which basically is the same as deletion, but it keeps your data on the server in case you want to come back (how nice!). The site also engages in a little harmless emotional blackmail by telling you how many of your friends will "miss you" when you're gone.
Since Facebook replaced MySpace as the social networking site of choice for most people, some long-term users have noted a trend towards puerile harping and frivolity. Basically, all the people from MySpace came over because they were sick of how crap MySpace was, turned Facebook into MySpace and are now getting sick of how crap Facebook is now that they've turned it into MySpace. To get an idea of the average IQ of a Facebook user, just check out the complaints every time they make a change; with the "news feed" for example. Following a change from a feed that featured selected highlights of what your friends have done (which could be controlled via an options panel) they switched to a "live feed" which just threw everything at you as it happened. There were many complaints and groups demanding for it to be switched back. A later change altered this "live feed" into a news feed (pretty much identical to the first "news feed" incarnation) and people still complained, although in fairness many complaints were directed at the absence of any form of notification. If you ever needed proof that people are just plain scared of change that they don't understand, check Facebook.
Facebook is home to a number of online games, including the agriculture-based Farmville. Farmville incurred the wrath of white nationalist "Oscar Yeager", owner of the blog "Day of the Rope" (both names are references to books by William Luther Pierce) as eggs laid by black chickens are worth more points than those laid by white chickens. Or, as he puts it, eggs laid by "nigger chickens" are worth more than eggs laid by "Aryan chickens".[3]
Jesus himself endorses Facebook.[4] And, according to The Onion, so does the CIA.[5] However, the Daily Mail has a long running hate-on for Facebook.[6] The Mail's editorial staff thinks it may cause cancer. To see the best, or perhaps worst, of the site, visit lamebook.com.
Russia also endorses Facebook for its ability to destroy democracy. Despite President Obama warning about Russian dissemination of fake news on Facebook during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Zuckerberg[7] ignored the warning.[8] By 2017 Zuckerberg began to own up to Facebook's culpability in Russian interference in the US election,[9] admitting that Russia had purchased more that 3000 Facebook advertisements to influence the 2016 election and to sow racial and religious discord.[10] The Russians used the "Custom Audiences" Facebook tool to target specific messages to specific audiences.[11]
""We have a responsibility to protect your data[,] and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you.
|—Mark Zuckerberg[12]
In 2018 it emerged that Cambridge Analytica illegally obtained Facebook data, which it used to sway voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election towards Trump.[13] Facebook was directly responsible for the data breach, but due to shortcomings in the English legal system, the maximum fine was a pithy £500,000. Facebook makes that amount of cash every five-and-a-half minutes.[14]
Facing increased criticism for Facebook's facilitation of fake news and its influence upon the U.S. 2016 election, Facebook hired a Republican opposition research firm, Definers[15] or the PAC America Rising,[16] to… generate more fake news! The fake news included anti-George Soros fake news, which generally comes off as thinly-veiled antisemitism.[17] This is bizarre, to say the least, because Zuckerberg has controlling interest in Facebook and is himself ethnically Jewish.
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the Australian allegedly behind the deaths of Muslims in March 2019 in Christchurch, New Zealand, used the Facebook website to live-stream part of the shooting that killed 50 and injured 50 more at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre.
Google+, Google's third attempt at a social network, was going to revolutionise the way we communicate and interact online, just like Google Wave and Google Buzz did. Google+'s main selling point was that it wasn't Facebook, but its main failing was that it wasn't Facebook. That is, approximately no bugger was on it, despite the artificially-inflated numbers Google claimed for it (e.g., by trying to force everyone on YouTube to have a G+ login). It could be fun if you happened to have enough people you know there.
Like Facebook, it allowed users to organise their friends and contacts into groups so that information could only be shared with certain people; e.g., what you showed your friends would be different to what you let your parents or your work colleagues saw. Unlike Facebook, however, it effectively idiot-proofed this process by forcing users to use the "circles" feature, where friends were grouped (Facebook's "friend list" feature is exactly the same, but optional, so basically the Great Unwashed out there in internet-land don't know it exists). Some people, mostly YouTubers, complained about Google+'s poor layout and botched integration into all kinds of other Google websites,[18][19][20] which may have actually ended up having an impact on Google's later decision to end the forced integration strategy, since it didn't manage to save Google+ after all.[21]
Google+ claimed to no longer enforce the Real Names policy and its jawdroppingly racist effects. (Google is not racist. It just doesn't think actual proper people could have names like Ping[22] or Elaine Yellow Horse[23] and that people whose names don't fit "firstname lastname"[24] or are written in mixed scripts[25] should have their accounts suspended.) So that's nice.
In October 2018, Google announced that it would be shutting down the service due to a bug being discovered that left private profile data exposed,[26] and clearly it didn't have enough users to bother fixing. It was finally shut down on 2 April 2019. G+ is still available to businesses buying Google Apps.
""my favorite feature of this site is absolutely no consequences for my opinions sucking ffucking ass and me being 100% wrong about everything
Twitter's CEO is Jack Dorsey, a promoter of diet woo and alt-med.
Currently one of the most popular media for whale enthusiasts and celebrities to embarrass themselves, Twitter expects you to blog in under
140 280[28] characters!! Yeah… doesn't sound so cool when you tell it like it is, does it? Twitter is also popular with journalists.
It's not even that popular, really.[29] Multiply this by the complete lack of meaningful content[30] and you obviously have the makings of the greatest website ever...
Nevertheless, the short, soundbite nature of Twitter and the fact that mobile devices suit these short messages has made it very popular with social networking nerds. Its heavy users are really heavy, often posting, *ahem* "tweeting" dozens of times per day. It is most popular with celebrities or public figures who wish to interact with their fans — many "tweets" are actually posted by the people themselves, rather than managed by PR companies as typically on a relevant Facebook or MySpace profile. Though, to manage the flood of replies and mentions popular accounts may receive, which may include rational critiques or personal abuse, Twitter provides a range of mechanisms to filter out notifications about some replies. These range from the relatively benign, such as filtering out replies from suspiciously simple accounts with no profile picture or that were recently created (targeted at trolls and bots), to the extreme, such as filtering out all replies from people the account does not follow (presumably targeted for use by people who want to live in a hermetically-sealed filter bubble - let's hope no politicians are using this "feature").
BBC technology columnist Bill Thompson raved about the site before it was seriously big, Ben Goldacre once had a spat with Gillian McKeith over a Twitter comment, and Brian Cox likes to constantly rant about science funding (and where his next Wonders filming spree will take him) via the site.
It is also Donald Trump's social network of choice.
"Woofer" was an inevitable jab against Twitter's 140 (seriously, what the arse can you say in 140 characters?!?!) character-limit; the key point of Woofer was that you must have at least 1400 characters to make a post, leading to tl;dr all round — although one Woofer post per day would represent fewer characters and content than most serious Twitter users make in a month.
Twitter has done a thoroughly shitty job of policing itself against trolls, bots and hate campaigns.[31] Twitter admitted to a Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017 that Russian "fake-news" outlet RT purchased "$274,100 to promote 1,823 ads directed at followers of major media outlets" during the 2016 US presidential election,[32] but nonetheless Senator Mark Warner was deeply disappointed by Twitter's presentation to the Committee regarding Russian influence, a presentation that was "inadequate on almost every level".[33]
Nevertheless, Twitter officially bans its users from, for example, "affiliat[ing] with organizations that — whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform — use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes".[34]
On October 30th 2019 (perhaps to contrast current Facebook policy, who not only allows political ads, but refuses to take down political ads with known false content[35]), Twitter announced that they would be banning all political ads on the platform. [36] Predictably, this decision upset previous propagators or beneficiaries of this propaganda, such as Russian "fake-news" outlet RT and 2016 US presidential election winner Donald Trump.[37]
Alongside Facebook and 8chan, the Christchurch terrorist attacks shooter Brenton Harrison Tarrant had a Twitter account.
Instagram (IG) is a social networking site centered around pictures and videos. It is famous for its requirement that all content must be uploaded from a mobile phone, encouraging photos to be taken "in the moment." It is also known for its previous requirement that all photos be square; however, photos may now be uploaded in any aspect ratio. Instagram also offers filters to make the images appear more beautiful. Content ranges from posed self portraits ("selfies") to nature photography, and some accounts upload Internet memes. It is not uncommon for people to have hundreds or thousands of "followers", and some users make multiple accounts.
People can "like" photos on Instagram with a double tap, and they can leave comments. Users on Instagram often upload for ego boosts and self-importance. People tend to channel only their "best" moments. The site is infamous for making people feel bad about themselves. In short, you're kidding yourself if you think that being addicted to Instagram is any better than being addicted to Facebook or Twitter.
Tumblr is a "microblogging" platform that fits somewhere between Twitter and traditional blogs, with a particular focus on posting photos and short messages, and a "reblog" function that creates nested comments. Over half of Tumblr's users are under 25 and 55% are female, leading some to joke that Tumblr is the "obnoxious young woman" website to go with 4chan and Reddit's "obnoxious young men."
Tumblr attracts various subcultures, including a great many television and movie fandoms, Japanophiles, artists, writers, foodies, hipsters, otherkin, and social justice
warriors activists. The latter range the full spectrum from progressive liberals to outright Marxists and anarchists, but are often stereotyped as thin-skinned, judgmental, politically correct to a fault, vindictive, and prone to knee-jerk ("triggered") reactions, with an incomprehensible jargon of postmodern neologisms ("demisexual", "cogitogender", et cetera). Even people who are generally on board with the 2010s progressive/feminist/social justice memepool tend to find some of these folks to be extremists, and agreeing with some of them can range from being a bit of a strain to downright impossible. For this reason, Tumblr frequently comes up as a boogeyman among MRAs and like-minded people, who tend to cherry-pick the most egregious or hypocritical posts and pretend that the Tumblr community has a monolithic userbase. From time to time, these posts end up coming from troll blogs run by the same people mocking Tumblr in the first place.
The aforementioned reblogging system, which makes it difficult to track down post edits and replies to particularly popular posts (and thus corrections, responses, and factual rebuttals), has also led to cases of misinformation spreading like wildfire,[38][39][40][41] which doesn't help the stereotype at all.
In December 2018 its owners announced a ban on adult content (previously it was home to a wide range of porn from the misogynistic to the queer and trans); as a result 30% of users left by March 2019.[42] It had been bought by Yahoo! in 2013 for $1.1 billion dollars, with Verizon merging its internet stuff into Yahoo! in 2017 to form a new company called Oath, later renamed Verizon Media Group. In 2019, Verizon decided to sell Tumblr, with PornHub suggested as a potential buyer, but even reinserting the dick pics probably couldn't save it.[43] In the end, Automattic (the company behind popular blogging platform Wordpress), bought Tumblr for an undisclosed price, but reported by several sources as $3 million dollars (a little under .3% of the original purchase price). [44]
That said, one blog makes it all worth it.
The LiveJournal engine is open source, so anyone can create a fork. It turns out it's rather expensive in terms of server resources and bandwidth, the code has rotted badly, and most sites making the attempt have failed or become notorious for unreliability. DreamWidth was founded by ex-employees of LiveJournal with a mandate to be less stupid and evil than the various owners of LiveJournal and to take care to expand in a sustainable form. So far it's holding out quite well.
They've lured a lot of fanfic authors, as well as members of minorities thanks to their friendly diversity policies. Their extensive work to make the software suck less[45][46] has been adopted by most of the LJ forks.
- See: Reddit
In 2012 Reddit was known for having the largest jailbait forum on the internet (not to mention user ViolentAcrez's legendary outing and interview with CNN),[47][48] and in 2014 it was known for celebrity nude leaks and Gamergate.[49][50] Now it's a mixed bag of stupid, angry fascists (r/The_Donald) and rational, decent people.
Praise WOSH![51]
Remember those halcyon days when teenagers didn't want everyone reading their diary?
The English-speaking LiveJournal community is far too full of furries, neopagans, the sort of science fiction fans and role-playing gamers who confuse the difference between in-universe and real life, dragon and vampire wannabes, and other kiddie fantasy-land subculturists. Again, nothing like us. Their mascot is a goat, though, so they got that going for them.
LiveJournal pages are also mirrored and archived by at least two different (probably unauthorized) websites, making it a privacy risk to post anything there (same as with all other social networking sites), regardless of whether you set your LiveJournal account to block search engines from your page - everything will wind up on Google forever anyhow because of these mirror sites.
Though founded in the United States, LiveJournal proved surprisingly popular in Russia, to the point that it has become the standard Russian blog host, with high-profile Russian politicians and authors hosting their personal blogs on the site. The site was bought by a Russian company and Russian users now make up the majority of its base. The English- and Russian-speaking sides of LiveJournal are, for all intents and purposes, separate communities and rarely interact.
It was fine until December 2016, when their servers were relocated to Russia. Five months later, they changed the user agreement to
protect the children from teh evil gay menace conform to Russian law, and now, anyone who gets over 3,000 visits to their page in a 24-hour period must reveal their identity, so the Russian law enforcement can imprison re-educate any popular dissenters extremists.
Laughed off as the "Kinkster's Facebook" what many people don't realise is that FetLife is a fully functioning social network site, with many of the functions of Facebook (but not the annoying Farmville spam), with almost 3,000,000 members. In addition, while people wait to see what Diaspora's open-source project is like, FetLife is written entirely in open-source software,[52] which they make freely available on their site. They have also delivered presentations on their software at various conferences.[53]
The site is free to use, relying on advertising revenue and unsolicited subscriptions from its members (supporters receive additional, but non-essential functionality) and actively discourages — indeed has not enabled — meat-market-style searches by age, gender or kink. Unfortunately, their privacy rules make it difficult for people who have been victimized by others within the community to warn people or call out their attackers.[54]
Although it membership has swelled over the past few years, much of this can be attributed to curious "tourists," who have read 'Fifty Shades' and want to see what this is all about. This, of course, pisses off the old guard, who are leaving the site.[55][56]
MySpace (now streamlined to just Myspace, with only one capitalization) was one of the first major social networking websites to hit critical mass and go mainstream. Launched in August 2003, at its peak, it was the most popular, with over 250 million members and described practically as some sort of nation state in its own right.[57] In 2009, however, it was overtaken by Facebook in terms of membership and page views and popularity has steadily declined since, with its ranking on Alexa dropping from its peak in the top 5 to nearly 35 over the course of eighteen months; as of 2017, it has fallen outside the top 3,000.[58] Many think this decline is from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp buying it in 2005. While Facebook was rising dramatically, instead of changing MySpace to be with the times, they squeezed every last penny out of it, making the service like one of those pages full of ads you see when you're one letter off from a popular website. MySpace once required new users to fill in tons of personal info in order to join, info that would then be publicly shared with a million people they didn't know; of course, it was easy to fill in false information, as indeed many did (tons of profiles had their age listed at 69 years old and their income as over a million dollars). Nowadays, all they ask for is your gender, date of birth, and ZIP code. Also, your inbox will be filled with spam and "friend requests" promising you free porn if you add I_LIKE_KID_SEX_4 as your friend.
MySpace was famous for its association with the emo subculture, with a stereotypical profile often featuring emo pop-rock that played as soon as you entered. This auto-play feature could also act as an open invitation for viruses and other malware to just walk straight into your computer. Furthermore, as users had the freedom to heavily customize the layout of their page, most profiles appeared to have lime green text on purple scrolling backgrounds, or something similarly gaudy. Prolonged exposure to this dangerous combination of psychedelic text, whiny music, and potentially fatal HTML errors (even the homepage had enough errors in it to make the W3C lose sleep at night) led to mass defection to rival social network Facebook once it emerged as a viable alternative.
The Washington Post Magazine of March 16, 2008 listed MySpace as obsolescent, alongside such things as cassette tape mixes, rotary dial phones, answering machines, making cigarette ashtrays in kindergarten craft projects, and computer paper with holes in the side. Funny thing, print newspapers were somehow not on their list. Clearly then, MySpace is a thing of the past; after all, the Post is America's Newspaper of Record and would never jump the gun on a thing like this.
Viant, formerly known as Interactive Media Holdings and Specific Media, bought it from News Corp for $35m in 2011.[59] In 2013, MySpace relaunched with a shiny new image and working system. Predictably, despite the several years' work and untold truckloads of dollars poured into the relaunch, it was still shite. Just in a different way. And they pissed off their remaining userbase by deleting most of the old versions' user-generated content. This may be for the better in the long run, though, as it's likely that many former users are secretly glad that all record of their obnoxious teen years has been wiped off the internet.[citation NOT needed]
Its parent company Viant was purchased by Time Inc in 2016, mostly to get control of its user data for advertising purposes, rather than to continue Myspace as a going concern.[59][60] Myspace continued as an internet Mary Celeste, but in 2019 it was reported that its owners had "accidentally" deleted all content uploaded before 2016. Some conspiracy theorists speculated that it was trying to save on server space by deliberately dumping it, but few people cared.[61]
Friendster was the original social networking site, or at least the first one to become really popular. Its peak years were from its founding in 2002 to around mid-2004, when MySpace supplanted it in the US and made it the original joke about a fallen social network.[62] Since then, nearly all of its popularity has been in East and Southeast Asia, where it's evolved into a "social gaming" site (i.e. hive of "free-to-play" games that sucker you with microtransactions).
From the historical record: annoying little chavs like to announce at high volume who they've just "met" on Bebo whilst using a public library computer.
Bebo was founded in 2005 and in 2008 AOL bought it for $850m, but by then Facebook was already on the rise and its membership plummeted. AOL sold it in 2010, in one of the most embarrassing business fails of a company that's not short of idiocy (remember the AOL-Time Warner merger?). Bebo went bankrupt in 2013, and its founders bought it for $1m (they had personally made $595m from the sale to AOL). Since then it has attempted to reinvent itself as a failed messaging app (wanna Blab, anybody?) and an e-sports hub.[63]
Quora is both a question-and-answer site similar to a more informal version of Stack Exchange and a social media platform. The social media platform is very popular in the United States and India, to such a point where jokes about India being how you become well-known found across the social media or blog-style posters. [64]
- You can find RationalWiki Discord server here
Discord is a relatively recent social media platform that has quickly risen in popularity with over 200 million users. Touted as "by gamers, for gamers", it is an online chat client not unlike the IRC chats of old. Users can join various servers that host a wide variety of subjects, from videogames, to tv shows, or even just certain popular subjects. Of course, the intuitiveness of the client means that a lot of servers with... nasty subjects end up popping all over the place, with entire servers dedicated to CP, ATIFA, and many others. The website was utilized heavily by the alt-right and neo-Nazi groups with Unicorn Riot and other outlets such as Montreal Gazette leaking chat logs.
Friends Reunited[edit]
This British site was one of the first social networks, launched in 2000. Initially it focused on allowing people to connect with former schoolmates (and post libellous comments about former teachers) but gradually it added more social network features, while becoming famous/notorious for people (often married people) hooking up with their childhood sweethearts.[65][66] Unlike most social networks, it charged people to contact other users until 2008. It was bought by British commercial TV network ITV in 2005 for £120 million ($208 million), and in 2009 sold to DC Thomson (Scottish publisher of newspapers for elderly people like The Sunday Post and legendary kids comics like The Beano) for £25 million, before shutting in 2016.[67]
The network that the failed social network Diaspora is considered a part of, the Fediverse is a unique social media platform that is completely decentralized. Whilst it existed since 2008 thanks to GNU/Social, it mainly took off in popularity when the W3C defined the ActivityPub protocol and the Mastodon project (which is one of the projects that provides instance software for servers and aims to mimic Twitter) received media coverage. Unlike other social media, where users are essentially locked in to only talk with users that sign up on the same site as them, users on the Fediverse can instead talk to users on any site that implements the relevant protocols (called an instance) and it's possible to self-host an instance for as low as the cost of a domain name and a Raspberry Pi[68]. While the Fediverse is typically praised for allowing instance users a greater degree of protection against harassment (instance owners can opt to block instances from communicating with them entirely and compared to Twitter there is a more fine-grained control of who can see statuses), this has not stopped the alt-right from attempting to utilize it (notable examples of this include Gab and Kiwi Farms) to harass other users as well as providing a substantial amount of alt-tech sites. The size of the Fediverse, according to a dedicated tracking site (although due to it's decentralized nature, the actual number is likely to be larger) is 4,6 million users as of December 2019.
The latest member of the social media scene is TikTok which offers a series of short (up to a minute) video clips, primarily people karaoking songs or doing creative clips. The service is noted for two things, one is the clips themselves and secondly, it is one of few Chinese-owned social media services that are popular in the West. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, based in Beijing and was originally known and is still known by its Chinese name 抖音 (Dǒuyīn). As the company is based in the People's Republic, it has been accused kowtowing to the government and performing various forms of censorship over its service. Due to its Chinese connections, many government agencies from English-speaking countries including the U.S. Army, the British Home Office and Australian Defence Forces have banned the installation of TikTok on their devices. [69]
Non-English language[edit]
A Russian equivalent of Facebook, VKontakte (or VK) is notable for having cute cartoons to guide you through the sign-up process, and for happily hosting horrifyingly homophobic groups, allowing them a safe and largely unregulated forum to post videos of their exploits. On a side note, VK began enjoying a surge of popularity in the United States starting around 2013, largely boosted by the attempts of American males to find a Slavic female companion.[70] The network's founder and former CEO, Pavel Durov, is pretty onside with Internet freedoms, but in April 2014, he was fired from the position. Surprisingly, a large number of Israelis use the site. This may be due to the vast Russian diaspora located there. Starting in 2016, VK began seeing an influx of American neo-Nazis, likely due to the lack of censorship.[71]
A Chinese social media site, similar to Facebook, filling the gap in the market caused by the PRC's blocking of Facebook and Twitter in mainland China.
Another Chinese social media giant, roughly equivalent to Twitter. Once tried to ban LGBT content then changed its mind when a ton of people got pissed off.[72]
Used to be South Korea's most popular home-grown social media network until around year 2010. By year 2015, they became so unpopular that they couldn't even able to maintain services considered as their basic function.[1].
Google's first attempt at a social network, Orkut was popular in Brazil and India. However, this wasn't enough, and Google pulled the plug in September 2014.
Japan's answer to Twitter. Lets you build an avatar with their Pigg virtual community where you can talk with other people, and play games.
Get Closer[edit]
Get Closer was an attempt by UK record chain HMV to cash in on the "success" of social networking sites by making people buy stuff. It seemed to be about encouraging you to become "friends" with as much music and films as you can, by making obscure (or not so obscure) connections between them, then buying them from HMV. Funnily enough, it completely died in the arse.[73]
Gab is a social media network founded by Andrew Torba in August 2016 as an alternative to Twitter that proclaims itself to be for free speech, despite such good intentions it has unfortunately racked up an infamous reputation for being a breeding ground for white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers, Islamophobes, cranks, crazy conspiracy theorists, alt-righters, Internet trolls and other unsavory creatures of the web. It was the outlet of choice for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers who would go on to kill 11 and injure 6.
Created by Anthony Mayfield[74] as an "alt-tech" alternative to YouTube, PewTube was a dumping ground for conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists/nationalists, and 4chan users. The site shut down in 2018.[75]
Created by Ray Vahey[76], also as an "alt-tech" alternative to Youtube, BitChute is notable for claiming -- perhaps spuriously -- [77] to use peer-to-peer technology to avoid the high hosting costs of centralized servers streaming video. The site was founded on the principle of being very concerned about "censorship" at mainstream social media sites such as Youtube.[78] Consequently, as you might expect from such a stance, it has become a hot spot for white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers, Islamophobes, cranks, crazy conspiracy theorists, alt-righters, Internet trolls and other creatures of the web actually unsavory enough to violate Youtube's content policies. [79] BitChute's official Twitter and Gab accounts are happy to retweet small samples of the content they host, much of which concerns of a lot of complaining about mainstream social media content policies[80], along with various other alt-right political or paranoid-style topics. [81] Due to the proliferation of extremist content (including one arrest as of 2019 for racist advocacy of terrorism made on the platform)[82][83], BitChute has had problems keeping payment providers willing to support working with the site. [84][85]
Diaspora was touted as possible competition for Facebook, by offering a "privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network."[86][87] Unlike Facebook, which relies on centralised servers paid for by the company's advertising revenue, Diaspora is decentralised so that one could choose which server they use or set up their own. Like e-mail, one could communicate with users of other servers, too. However, it has not seen much success in gaining a big user base, obviously an important thing for a social media service. After its highly successful Kickstarter, one of the four developers committed suicide. As a result Diaspora is a poor shadow of its intended result. In 2012, the original developers apparently concluded that they cannot bear the task of challenging Facebook, and declared Diaspora a "community project" instead[88].
Touted as a "disruptive Facebook alternative" in early 2018, this social network got quite a bit of news coverage while Facebook was suffering from allegations related to Cambridge Analytica. It claims not to use trackers or algorithms, or collect users data (even though it probably does). The company failed to explain how they planned to make money since their subscription service was shown to be unprofitable, but since they also failed to get any customers, this didn't seem to matter much. Other "disruptive Facebook alternatives" floated around during the same period, failing in every way to gain traction or threaten Facebook, even though everyone hates Facebook.[citation NOT needed] Some of the users of its almost empty and supposedly unmonitored network are pretty dodgy, mainly lurking in the private groups.
Ello is the new Next Big Thing since Google+ and Diaspora failed to destroy Facebook. It seems to be based on fanatically idealistic principles, somehow intending to run a social network, with no visible income stream (besides flogging t-shirts) to support it. As the front page of the site states:
""Our social network is owned by advertisers.
Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that's bought and sold.We believe there is a better way. We believe in audacity. We believe in beauty, simplicity and transparency. We believe that the people who make things and the people who use them should be in partnership.[89]
However, Ello has already pulled one over on Facebook, attracting many members of especially the LGBT community, when Facebook decided to selectively apply their "real names only" policy (which they've since walked back[90]) thereby potentially outing, or worse, many members of the community. Ello's "choose any name you want" policy has become their biggest draw card for the time being.[91]
Voat is a Reddit
ripoff alternative founded in 2014 as "a community platform where you can have your say. No censorship". Originally, the website was WhoaVerse by Atif Colo/@Atko and Justin Chastain/PuttItOut prior to its current name. Its name is a portmanteau of goat and vote. The website has seen an influx of former Reddit users not satisfied with how the website is cracking down on hate speech, harassment, and trolling. The website has many racist sections which include but are not limited to: /v/Niggers, /v/NameTheJew, /v/GasTheKikes, /v/IslamHate, /v/IslamUnveiled, /v/HitlerWasRight, /v/altright, /v/Identitarian etc. Voat is one of the websites that make up the "alt-tech" (a cluster of alt-right websites as alternatives to mainstream websites).
Christian networking sites[edit]
At least fourteen Christian networking sites have sprung up, many of which are marketed at Christian-themed versions of popular sites like Pinterest (Godinterest) and YouTube (GodTube). They emphasise their clean, family-friendly nature — which mostly goes only as far as removing "offensive" content.
"If you post a picture on this site, everyone in the picture must be modestly dressed (by our standards), not promoting any sinful activity (drinking, smoking, tatoos, gambling, etc), and not crude in any way (sodomites, abortion pics,[note 2] etc.)," says Big Baptist while Christianblog says: "We have dedicated volunteers who review each and every blog entry to make sure that all content that is posted is family safe and Christian based." — in fact they all say different versions of this, so we won't bore you with minor variations in wording. Of the others, ChristUnion has found an appropriate Biblical quote as its strap — Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ — see, the Bible foretold social networking sites! And therefore, it's true. Ditty Talk allows linking to Myspace, which kind of misses the point. The scarily-named FaithFreaks has "a network of filters and monitors", so they're either control freaks or sound engineers.[note 3] Christian.com is "heavily monitored" and says It's not "My" space; It's "His" space! JCFaith's "about us" page is mysteriously blank, except for phone commercials.
Conservative networking sites[edit]
There are a few conservative social networking site as well.
Let's Get This Right promises to link to "100's (sic) of conservative resources" and has forums, some of whose posts get up to an incredible six[92] replies. Tea Party Community is the tea party answer to Facebook. Facebook is full of liberals that just love to report conservative pages and get them removed from Facebook (Despite the fact that conservative pages frequently have a higher number likes than liberal pages. However this is clearly a liberal plot to create a bunch of deep cover liberals that are trying to smear the good name of conservatives through the mud. Just ask any conservative!). Another conservative social network is Connect with Liberty. "ReaganBook" was shut down after the completely predictable deluge of Liberal trolls[93], and came back as "Freedombook", which was invitation only before it fell over and died. An option for mostly gun related talk is gunchannels.com
In early 2009, during their quest to split the entire inanimate world into things that cause cancer and things that cure cancer, the Daily Mail ran a story essentially entitled "Facebook causes cancer".[94] somewhere.[note 4] This was based on a report by Dr Aric Sigman in the Journal of the Institute of Biology. Noted science writer, blogger, and columnist Ben Goldacre then refuted the claims, stating that Sigman had selectively quoted his evidence and ignored all the evidence that social networking use had no effect — or even a positive effect — on people's social lives, particularly those suffering from loneliness. Ben later appeared on Newsnight specifically to tear Sigman a new arsehole over the scaremongering.[95]
"Nym wars"[edit]
"Nym wars" — short for "pseudonym wars" — is the term applied to the effort by social networks to end the practice of allowing subscribers to use a screen name that is not their legal one.[96] While Facebook discourages the use of pseudonyms, the nym wars really took off in the summer of 2011 when Google's new social network, Google Plus, prohibited the use of any pseudonyms, and Google employees even suggested that everyone start reporting questionable names. Then, to ensure that this policy was not being abused, Google Plus began aborting accounts with screen names that seemed to be even remotely pseudonymous, e.g. not sounding sufficiently white American.[97] This trashed the site's reputation with its initial seed audience of techies, and may have been the factor that crippled it out the gate.
Google claimed that real names encouraged better social behaviour. This is something people commonly assume about real-name policies — but no-one, including Google, has ever supplied actual evidence of this, rather than personal feeling and assertion. In fact, what evidence there is points the opposite way: South Korea required commenters on sites with over 100,000 users to supply their Resident Registration Number (national identity number), and this reduced malicious comments by ... 0.9%.[98] So if anyone makes this claim, ask for actual evidence: if they provide it, they'll be the first.
Yonatan Zunger from Google described in 2014 what actually happened, and its consequences (particularly in interacting with groups such as Gamergate):[99]
While there was an expectation that people would behave better when their activity was tied to their own identity, as that identity is presumably a highly valuable and non-renewable resource to them, the evidence weighed against it: people seem quite willing to be jerks under their own identities.
In practice, the forced revelation of information makes individual privilege and power more important. When everyone has to play with their cards on the table, so to speak, then people who feel like they can be themselves without consequence do so freely — these generally being people with support groups of like-minded people, and who are neither economically nor physically vulnerable. People who are more vulnerable to consequences use concealment as a method of protection: it makes it possible to speak freely about controversial subjects, or even about any subjects, without fear of harassment.
(A classic experiment which you can easily replicate is to change your profile photo to that of a young woman for a few weeks. Change nothing else, even your name, and see what happens to your interaction pattern. I've seen quite a few people run this test and the results are, shall we say, quite visible)
Every issue Zunger notes there was raised internally at Google before Google+ launched in 2011, and ignored by management who were determined to push through a Real Names policy on no data and no thinking it through.
Social media consultants[edit]
Social media consultants/strategists/experts/gurus help businesses manage their social networking profile. Since creating a Facebook page and Twitter account and then hiring college students to maintain them isn't rocket science, social media consultants often promote their services with hefty doses of bullshit and techno babble. Although not all social media consultants are scammers, the trend of large corporations spending vast amounts of cash in order to establish a social media "presence" has created somewhat of a Gold Rush atmosphere where snake oil merchants flourish.[100][101] Social media consultants may also offer a kind of "digital public relations" service to create buzz, spread stories, and polish their client's reputations, replacing the need for traditional PR agencies.[102]
See also[edit]
- Web of trust
- Internet relay chat — the original social network, still going strong-ish
External links[edit]
- ↑ Anecdote alert: I have occasionally seen the "groups" feature glitch and display the names and profile pictures of groups that were deleted several years ago (so it's not a local cookies or temp files glitch). Although clicking on them redirects to the main page like with most deleted accounts, there is the uncomfortable possibility that if the titles can still be accessed via a glitch, the content is still in the "recycling bin" even after 3-4 years.
- ↑ What an "abortion pic" even is is anyone's guess.
- ↑ of course, most sound engineers are control freaks, but we'll let that pass for now.
- ↑ I mean, to be fair...
- ↑ http://archive.fo/IMW19
- ↑ Evil
- ↑ http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=75302
- ↑ Jesus's Facebook profile.
- ↑ "CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Cost"
- ↑ BBC dot.Rory — Facebook v Daily Mail
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Mark Zuckerberg.
- ↑ Obama tried to give Zuckerberg a wake-up call over fake news on Facebook by Adam Entous et al. (September 24, 2017) The Washington Post.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
- ↑ Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America's racial and religious divisions by Adam Entous et al. (September 25, 2017) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Russians took a page from corporate America by using Facebook tool to ID and influence voters by Elizabeth Dwoskin et al. (October 2, 2017 at 8:00 PM) The Washington Post.
- ↑ http://www.biography.com/people/mark-zuckerberg-507402
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
- ↑ Facebook fined for data breaches in Cambridge Analytica scandal: Firm fined £500,000 for lack of transparency and failing to protect users' information
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Definers Public Affairs.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on America Rising.
- ↑ Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis by Sheera Frenkel (Nov. 14, 2018) The New York Times: "Facebook also used Definers to take on bigger opponents, such as Mr. Soros, a longtime boogeyman to mainstream conservatives and the target of intense anti-Semitic smears on the far right."
- ↑ A song about it
- ↑ "So the other day, my other channel was brutally forced into subduing to the wrath that is Google+. They may as well have just brutally fucking murdered the channel, ripped out its arteries and shot it in the back of the fucking head!"
- ↑ Lol fuk u spodermen ur usin googel+"
- ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/24/google-is-walking-dead/
- ↑ My Google+ profile has just been suspended for having an unusual name. (Ping, 23 July 2011). This is where they suspended their own employee because they didn't think his name was white enough.
- ↑ http://www.buzzfeed.com/joeflood/what-happens-when-google-doesnt-think-youre-a-human
- ↑ http://support.google.com/plus/answer/1228271?hl=en
- ↑ http://productforums.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!category-topic/gmail/contacts-and-sync/NRg0H6PxOW8
- ↑ Google+ is shutting down, and the site's few loyal users are mourning, CNBC
- ↑ http://twitter.com/dril/status/898578630367821825
- ↑ http://www.recode.net/2017/9/26/16364002/twitter-longer-tweets-character-limit-140-280
- ↑ Twitter hype punctured, BBC News
- ↑ Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble', BBC News
- ↑ Twitter, what the hell with all the harassment? by Ian Sherr (October 2, 2017 5:00 AM) CNET.
- ↑ Twitter finds links to hundreds of Russian-backed bot accounts: Facebook wasn't the only platform being used to spread propaganda during the 2016 election by Andrew Tarantola (09.28.17) engaget.
- ↑ Mark Warner calls Twitter presentation to Intel panel "deeply disappointing" (September 28, 2017, 4:38 PM) CBS News.
- ↑ "The Twitter Rules". 2018. http://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules.
- ↑ Mark Zuckerberg vs. Jack Dorsey is the most interesting battle in Silicon Valley, CNBC, October 31 2019
- ↑ Twitter Will Ban All Political Ads, C.E.O. Jack Dorsey Says, New York Times, October 30 2019
- ↑ Trump's campaign is upset Twitter banned political ads. So, oddly, is Russian state media., The Week, October 30, 2019.
- ↑ The Sea of Hoax Tumblr blog
- ↑ The Walking Dead scene mistaken for an actual picture of someone dying during an MRI, originally from ruoloc. Note: correction on actual post not visible in reblog.
- ↑ "The Statue of Liberty was originally black" myth, naturalbods. See also: Snopes
- ↑ Movie shot mistaken as a real photo of US war crimes in Vietnam, originally from angerr
- ↑ After the porn ban, Tumblr users have ditched the platform as promised, The Verge, Mar 14, 2019
- ↑ Even a Pornhub Acquisition May Not Save Tumblr From Brink of Collapse, Observer, 3 May 2019
- ↑ Verizon Sells Tumblr for a Bag of Nickels, Motley Fool, 16 Aug 2019
- ↑ Technical debt and the making of payments on it (denise, dreamwidth.org, 2011-03-29)
- ↑ Adding examples to the essay on technical debt (foxfirefey, dreamwidth.org, 2012-01-01)
- ↑ Chen, Adrian, "Unmasking Reddit's Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web", Gakwer (12 October 2012, 4:00P).
- ↑ Violentacrez on CNN, YouTube 18 October 2012.
- ↑ Roy, Jessica, "Reddit Made a Ton of Money Off of Those Nude Celebrity Photos". NY Mag (10 September 2014, 1:42 pm).
- ↑ "Wikileaks wades into #GamerGate, says Nato as corrupt as video games journalism", New Statesman 16 September 2014.
- ↑ Our Lord and Savior WOSH on Reddit.
- ↑ FetLife's open source Projects
- ↑ On-line versions of their presentations
- ↑ http://disruptingdinnerparties.com/2013/05/08/got-consent-3-fetlife/
- ↑ Fifty Shades of Grey poses a threat to online BDSM communities
- ↑ This BDSM community is furious about 'Fifty Shades of Grey'
- ↑ August 2003: MySpace, CBS News
- ↑ Alexa - MySpace.com site info
- ↑ 59.0 59.1 Time Inc. Buys Myspace Parent Company Viant, Variety, 11 Feb 2016
- ↑ Time Inc becomes the latest company to buy Myspace by mistake, The Inquirer, 12 Feb 2016
- ↑ Myspace loses all content uploaded before 2016, The Guardian, 18 March 2019
- ↑ The Onion. "Internet Archaeologists Find Ruins Of 'Friendster' Civilization."
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Bebo.
- ↑ http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-clever-life-hack-youve-learned/answer/Max-Searle
- ↑ Teacher wins damages in Friends Reunited libel case, The Guardian, 21 May 2002
- ↑ 'I met my wife on Friends Reunited', BBC, 18 Jan 2016
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Friends Reunited.
- ↑ http://feneas.org/pleroma-hosting-on-raspberry-pi/
- ↑ TikTok not approved for use on Australia's Defence devices ABC News
- ↑ archive.is Ukrainin' Men: How American Men Are Using the Russian Facebook to Find Brides] by Adrien Chen (2012 May 15) Gawker.
- ↑ American Neo-Nazis Are on Russia's Facebook: To escape Facebook's crackdown and connect with white-power groups worldwide, U.S.-based extremists are joining VK by Olga Khazan (May 20, 2016) The Atlantic.
- ↑ http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/16/602902197/weibo-bans-gay-content-and-quickly-reverses-itself-after-an-outcry
- ↑ http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/98088-hmv-shutters-getcloser-social-network
- ↑ http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/10/technology/culture/divided-we-code-alt-tech/index.html
- ↑ http://nkreider.com/news18/
- ↑ http://torrentfreak.com/bitchute-is-a-bittorrent-powered-youtube-alternative-170129/
- ↑ "Bitchute claims to be a decentralized platform—that's not true", Fredrick Brennan, Daily Dot, 2019-11-27
- ↑ http://twitter.com/bitchute/status/1166597249775886336?lang=en
- ↑ http://www.dailydot.com/upstream/bitchute/
- ↑ http://twitter.com/bitchute/status/1178807352159420416
- ↑ http://twitter.com/bitchute
- ↑ http://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/06/28/florida-man-arrested-racist-threats-once-attacked-african-american-police-officer
- ↑ http://www.sheriffleefl.org/how_do_i/learn_more_about/arrest_search/?view=inmateDetail&id=905163
- ↑ http://bitchute.info/bitchute-suspended-by-patreon-but-theres-more/
- ↑ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/11/14/paypal-blacklists-free-speech-youtube-alternative-bitchute/
- ↑ Join Diaspora's home page
- ↑ Facebook alternative Diaspora rolls out first code
- ↑ Announcement: Diaspora* Will Now Be A Community Project. Archived from the original at blog.diasporafoundation.org, 27 August 2012.
- ↑ Ello's main page
- ↑ http://www.pcworld.com/article/2689418/facebook-walks-back-real-name-policy-after-protests-ello-exodus.html
- ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/25/social-network-ello-gets-boost-after-facebook-boots-drag-queens/
- ↑ As of 17 May 2009.
- ↑ The swift death of ReaganBook, the Facebook for patriots
- ↑ How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer
- ↑ Ben's face halfway through Sigman talking is especially priceless.
- ↑ Kaste, Martin. "Who Are You, Really? Activists Fight For Pseudonyms", National Public Radio (USA) website, posted 28 September 2011, accessed 29 September 2011.
- ↑ Ross, Nick. "How much has Facebook just damaged Google Plus?", Australian Broadcasting Corporation website (technology and games blog), posted 14 September 2011, accessed 29 September 2011.
- ↑ http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/30/2011123001526.html
- ↑ http://plus.google.com/+YonatanZunger/posts/WegYVNkZQqq
- ↑ Social media scammers: be careful who you hire
- ↑ Stephen Baker Beware Social Media Snake Oil Bloomberg Business
- ↑ Learn Social Media Strategies for Effective Public Relations www.prsa.org


text:
Wetpaint Entertainment's Favorite Holiday Music
Brought to You by, 'Rock the Red Kettle,' Coming to a Computer Near You on December 15th.
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Whether you're in the market for She & Him's Christmas album or Justin Bieber's Under the Mistletoe, the next handful of weeks are going to be full of cheer and carols. When we're trimming our trees and spinning our dreidels (we're devotees of Chrismukkah around here), we like to kick out the old-school jams. You know, like from the '90s. Wetpaint Entertainment put together an eclectic guide to holiday music to help you create the perfect merry mix — though you might not want to listen to it with your parents.
Powered by: Rock the Red Kettle.
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To: YOU!
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"Christmas in Hollis" Run D.M.C.
"Last Christmas" Wham!
"Christmas Time Is Here" A Charlie Brown Christmas
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" Weezer
"Silent Night" Boyz II Men
"Feast of Lights" They Might Be Giants
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" Mariah Carey
"Joseph, Better You Than Me" The Killers featuring Elton John and Neil Tennant
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" Trans Siberian Orchestra
"Blue Christmas" Elvis Presley
"Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" John Lennon
"The Little Drummer Boy" Sufjan Stevens
"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" Death Cab for Cutie
"Fairytale of New York" The Pogues (NSFW)
"Chanukah Song" Adam Sandler
"Christmas in Harlem" Kanye West
"Jingle Bell Rock" Hall and Oates
"The Christmas Song" The Ravonettes
"Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" South Park (NSFW)
"Little Saint Nick" The Beach Boys
What's better than Holiday Music? FREE music for a GREAT cause. For the latest from Wetpaint Entertainment, "like" us on our Facebook page at facebook.com/Wetpaint, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/WetpaintTV.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Newark, CAHome Menu
Climate Action Plan
Every little bit helps when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Each of the residents here in Newark, California can make a significant contribution to decreasing its harmful effects.
To help motivate residents commit to reducing the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions, the City of Newark is working to lead by example. On January 28, 2010, the City of Newark adopted the Climate Action Plan Initial Framework. This document was completed as a result of a generous grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The plan includes actions the City has successfully implemented, as well as sections that guide the City, residents, and businesses to participate in future greenhouse gas emissions reduction activities. Based upon resources and interest, the plan will continuously be updated to reflect changes in this rapidly evolving field.
The Climate Action Plan represents the City's commitment to increasing sustainability, and accomplishes yet another goal in addressing climate change. The City has now completed 3 of the 5 step process established by ICLEI, an organization that is leading the way for local governments to take action on climate issues. The five step process is:
Step 1. Inventory Baseline Emissions - ICLEI assisted the City of Newark in collecting 2005 data to create an inventory of baseline emissions from the government (City operations) and community (residential and business) sectors.
Step 2. Set a Reduction Goal(s) - The City of Newark aligned its goals with the State of California, and included them in the Climate Action Plan (see link below).
Step 3. Create an Action Plan - The Climate Action Plan initial Framework was adopted by the Newark City Council on January 28, 2010. This plan includes reports on emission reduction projects such as the Recreation Centers Lighting Fixture Replacement, as well as research on potential future projects such as increasing our alternative fueled vehicle fleet and station. An additional report on energy efficiency options for the Silliman Activity and Family Aquatic Center is also attached.
Step 4. Implement the Action Plan - The City of Newark will seek grants and other opportunities to pursue action plan activities. Community outreach will be included, when City resources are able to coordinate these efforts.
Step 5. Monitor the Results - The City of Newark has access to many local government tools to evaluate the greenhouse gas emission reductions from Climate Action Plan activities. Using these tools and sharing our success stories with each other will ensure we continue and replicate those activities which provide the best results.
Just as the City created its action plan, you can create your own plan for you and your family. First, start by taking inventory of your greenhouse gas emissions. Many websites offer calculators to establish your current emissions. You may be surprised by what you are already doing to contribute to a greener Newark!
Next, write down ways you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One great resource, which includes simple actions you can adopt now, is the California Air Resources Board. You can also find additional ideas on recycling, driving, and energy efficiency. Review your plan and set a realistic, achievable goal with a specific time-frame and target reduction number.
Share your plan with friends and family. Encourage them to create a plan, and support each other in reaching your goals. Review your plan regularly, and make changes as needed to ensure your actions will allow you to achieve your goal.
Please share your personal climate action plan with us, too! Email your plan, or a simple pledge, to firstname.lastname@example.com. Thank you for helping Newark "Go Green"!


text:
please disregard shipping charges shown during checkout. we will email you with exact shipping charges. Or call us to place an order
54-Egg Plastic Trays for Chick Master and Other Incubators
We now offer as a replacement plastic egg tray, a staggered 48-egg plastic tray to fit Chick Mater and other model incubators. The outside dimension is 12" x 12" or 30.48 x 30.48 cms., it is 6 x 8 staggered and ideal for replacement on any units that are now needed for your current production. Consult our price list for our new low prices. No. CM-54 54-EGG INCUBATING TRAY. Packed 40 shipping Wt. 27 lbs. Measurements: 15" x 12.25" x 3" or 38.10 x 21.1 x 7.62 cms.


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text:
Nyan, nice art meme
Nyan, nice art meme
Your drawing of them are so small and cute!!
Panel 12 Pikachu-Daisy ftw
10 is awesome
chika stop posting the same art meme with your horribly ****** art, we know it's you.
next time try changing art style bitch
Are you foreign?
Gotta love Pikachu Daisy
Carter loves... Sandy?!? *brain-splosion*


text:
Mikhail Grabovski hasn't signed with any KHL team yet, despite numerous reports that suggested he'd play for either Dinamo Minsk or Barys Astana or even CSKA. The Maple Leafs forward was as surprised to learn about his transatlantic vocation as anybody.
"I have no idea where did this Sport-Express reporter get information about me signing with Dinamo," he said in an interview to Pressball. "Sport-Express loves stuff like that. They reported that Malkin would sign with CSKA like 10 times. My situation is still uncertain. I only know that I want to play and I have a few offers. I don't know how it's going to pan out. My agent is working hard on it as we speak. I can assure you I'm going to stay in Toronto for at least one week and practice here. Sure, I would like to play in Minsk. But at the same time I'd rather have lockout ended."
"I decided that if I have to go play somewhere else, I'm only going to play for a team I have something in common with. It may be my hometown team, or a team with a coach I already worked with or something like that. Of course, I take into consideration the financial part too. Hockey career isn't long. However, it's not my priority. Besides, my family has to feel comfortable there. So far I'm considering 3 teams," added Grabovsky.
So there is a third team, huh? A few hours after Pressball published the story, Sport-Express reported Grabovsky is going to sign with CSKA, who have already signed center Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings and Ilya Bryzgalov of the Philadelphia Flyers. Theoretically, the Moscow powerhouse can sign one more NHL player. How accurate is this report?
'Where did you get this information from?! This is also nothing but a rumor! I still haven't decided where I'm going to play", Grabovsky told Pressball later.
However, at 1am EST Pressball reported that Grabovsky indeed is going to sign with CSKA, while Sergei Kostitsyn, who also was previously reported to sign with Dinamo Minsk, is going to wear Salavat Yulaev jersey this lockout.
While Grabovsky refuses to comment his negotiations with Dinamo, his agent, Garry Greenstein, pointed out that his client's insurance could be an obstacle in this deal.
Dinamo Minsk head-coach, Kari Heikkilä, also brought this up in his recent interview to Goals.By.
"There are a lot of free agents on the market now. We have to decide if our team needs any of them. It is very important that the players would join our team motivated. We don't need experienced players to come here for vacation. I would like see Grabovski and [Sergei] Kostitsyn in Dinamo. Every coach wants to see good players on his team. But there's insurance we have to cover. We have to pay big bucks for these guys every month. Unlike Magnitogorsk, we can't afford it."
Metallurg Magnitogorsk signed this week Evgeny Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and Nikolai Kulemin.
Dinamo Minsk was reported to sign the Minnesota Wild goalie Nicklas Backstrom, but the deal hasn't been completed yet.
By the look of it, Minsk is craving for more than they can afford at this moment, which means Grabovsky is going to look for work elsewhere. Perhaps, Moscow is the answer while red and blue are the colors.


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20 Cu. Yard Dumpster (2.5 ton limit ) 5,000 LBS Morris County, NJ Overages will be charged at $97.00 per ton
Approximate dumpster dimensions are 22' x 8' x 3.5'. The weight limit on this dumpster is 2.5 tons. If the trash in the dumpster weighs more than allowable limit the customer agrees and authorizes Montella, Inc. to bill customer credit card for additional charges as appropriate per ton. The dumpster rental is for 2 weeks. Additional days over 2 week period will be billed at $10.00 per day till picked up. By ordering this dumpster you acknowledge you have read and agree to our terms of service .
Morris County Roll-off Dumpster Rental Service includes: Lk Hiawatha, Montville, Parsippany, Butler, Oak Ridge, Pequannock, Pompton Plains, Riverdale, Gladstone, Stockholm, Dover, East Hanover, Mine Hill, Budd Lake, Denville, Millington, Flanders, Hibernia, Lake Hopatcong, Florham Park, Landing, Ledgewood, Long Valley, Mt Arlington, Netcong, Chester, Boonton, Rockaway, Lincoln Park, Randolph, Schooleys Mountain, Mountain Lks, Succasunna, Pine Brook, Mt Tabor, Towaco, Wharton, Gillette, Basking Ridge, Brookside, Cedar Knolls, Whippany, Chatham, Green Village, Madison, Morris Plains, Kenvil, Morristown, Mt Freedom, New Vernon, Ironia, Stirling and Mendham. Contact the local Township or Borough for dumpster permit information.


text:
For 25 years, the University of Houston's "Gulf Coast, a Journal of Fine Arts and Literature" has showcased both new and established literary voices, as well as rising artists.
In its fall issue, the acclaimed magazine's focus is on the massive oil spill that has plagued the Gulf of Mexico since April.
"We wanted to use this issue to acknowledge what is happening in the gulf," said Ian Stansel, Gulf Coast editor and doctoral candidate in UH's Creative Writing Program. "We asked ourselves if a journal titled 'Gulf Coast' could ignore this situation. The answer was 'no.'"
The issue was produced over the summer during the spill's peak. Much of the content already had been planned before BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion in April. Stansel and Rebecca Wadlinger, co-editor and creative writing doctoral candidate coordinated an email conversation between poets whose works are rooted in environmental and social issues. These poets include Brenda Hillman, Nick Flynn, Patricia Smith, Laura Mullen and Dorianne Laux. Much of this dialogue will appear in the fall issue.
"We basically asked them one question and let them have a conversation thread for two weeks," Stansel said. "It turned into a very large conversation. Among the topics discussed is what a poet can do about this situation and what a poet can't do about it. In this dialogue, Brenda Hillman breaks down her obligations as both an artist and, more importantly, as a person who cares."
The fall issue also will feature two separate covers with artwork focused on the oil spill. The magazine's interior art includes video stills from Marina Zurkow and black-and-white sketches from Augusto Di Stephano.
It also will showcase the 2010 Gulf Coast Prize winners in poetry ("Flower Sonnet" by Anne Marie Rooney), fiction ("Cleavage" by Sara Batkie) and non-fiction ("Happy Families" by Judith Kroll).
"Gulf Coast" debuted in 1986. Founded by then-Creative Writing Program professors Donald Barthelme and Phillip Lopate, the publication delivers a mix of short fiction and non-fiction, poetry and visual art to a readership of more than 3,000. The magazine is student-run and housed in UH's English department.
For more information on "Gulf Coast" including details on subscriptions, visit http://www.gulfcoastmag.org/.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston is a comprehensive national research institution serving the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. UH serves more than 38,500 students in the nation's fourth-largest city, located in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region of the country.


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Statement of Objects and Reasons appended to the Constitution (Ninetieth Amendment) Bill, 2000 which was enacted as the Constitution (Eighty-first Amendment) Act, 2000.
Prior to August, 29, 1997, the vacancies reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, which could not be filled up by direct recruitment on account of non-availability of the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes, were treated as "Backlog Vacancies". These vacancies were treated as a distinct group and were excluded from the ceiling of fifty per cent reservation. The Supreme Court of India in its judgment in the Indra Sawhney versus Union of India held that the number of vacancies to be filled up on the basis of reservations in a year including carried forward reservations should in no case exceed the limit of fifty per cent. As total reservations in a year for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the other Backward Classes combined together had already reached forty-nine and a half per cent and the total number of vacancies to be filled up in a year could not exceed fifty per cent., it became difficult to fill the "Backlog Vacancies" and to hold Special Recruitment Drives. Therefore, to implement the judgment of the Supreme Court, an Official Memorandum dated August 29, 1997 was issued to provide that the fifty per cent limit shall apply to current as well as "Backlog Vacancies" and for discontinuation of the Special Recruitment Drive.
2. Due to the adverse effect of the aforesaid order dated August 29, 1997, various organisations including the Members of Parliament represented to the central Government for protecting the interest of the Scheduled castes and the Scheduled Tribes. The Government, after considering various representations, reviewed the position and has decided to make amendment in the constitution so that the unfilled vacancies of a year, which are reserved for being filled up in that year in accordance with any provision for reservation made under clause (4) or clause (4A) of article 16 of the Constitution, shall be considered as a separate class of vacancies to be filled up in any succeeding year or years and such class of vacancies shall not be considered together with the vacancies of the year in which they are being filled up for determining the ceiling of fifty percent. Reservation on total number of vacancies of that year. This amendment in the Constitution would enable the State to restore the position as was prevalent before august 29, 1997.
3. That Bill seeks to achieve the aforesaid object.
The 1st May, 2000.
[9th June, 2000]
An Act further to amend the Constitution of India.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fiftieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title: This Act may be called the Constitution (Eighty-first Amendment) Act, 2000.
2. Amendment of article 16: In article 16 of the Constitution, for clause (4A), the following clauses shall be inserted, namely: -


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A running discussion on the Cincinnati Reds and everything else in the baseball universe.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
2011 Season Pressing Question #2: Scott Rolen
Dusty Baker must be reading my mind, because today he came out with his plan to get 120 games from Scott Rolen. On first glance, that doesn't seem like much in light of Rolen's stature, but it's probably a fairly realistic goal.
Rolen played in 112 games in 2007, 115 games in 2008, 128 games in 2009, and 133 games in 2010. So, the past two years, he has played in more than 120 games, but he consistently wears down and declines in the second half. Over the past three seasons, he has a .293 batting average with a .850 OPS in the first half, but a .272 batting average and .774 OPS in the second half.
A more limited and better managed workload might enable Rolen to better maintain his performance level over an entire season. Rolen carried the team at times last year and was a key reason for the team's success. However, he'll be 36 this year and relying on him to carry the team is likely a losing strategy, as Rolen will have to fight off Father Time and the injury bug to repeat his success in 2010.
This offseason, I wanted the Reds to find a legitimate cleanup hitter to bump Rolen down to the 6th spot in the order. Such a move would have enabled us to not rely so heavily on Rolen, instead using him in a more complimentary role. Unfortunately, budgetary constraints prevented them from bringing in a cleanup hitter, so Rolen will again be leaned on to produce.
In 2010, Rolen was a 5.0 win player for the Reds, his best mark since his 2006 season with the Cardinals. But, given his age, a repeat performance might not be in the cards. As a result, it will be very important to get quality production from the other 42 games at third base. Who will step up to fill that roll?
It will likely be some unholy combination of Juan Francisco, Miguel Cairo, and Edgar Renteria. In the best case scenario, Juan Francisco justifies the organization's faith in him and becomes an impact hitter at the hot corner. If not, then the organization will be left with two players who join Rolen on the down slope of their careers. The organization's faith in and handling of Francisco has arguably prevented Todd Frazier from being a legitimate option at the hot corner, as he has been used in more of a utility role because Francisco has blocked him at third. So, the team does have quite a bit invested in Francisco. If Rolen back slides and Francisco fails to step up, then the hot corner could be a problem for the Reds in 2011.
Ultimately, the type of production the Reds get out of the hot corner will be a determining factor in the team's performance in 2011.
2 comments:
I completely agree and thought the reds should have given someone an automatic bench spot who is a legit option at third. Frazier, francisco, ect. doesnt matter but someone who is better than cairo both defensively and offensivelyReplyDelete
Yeah, I think it's going to be key. I never thought we could rely as heavily on Rolen this year, so we might actually need more than the 42 games his replacement is slated to provide.
I'm still not a fan, but I could Francisco getting hot in the bandbox that is GABP and making some noise. I really wonder if the Reds have shot themselves in the foot a bit by not giving Frazier more time at third. He seems the best candidate to step in for Rolen this year and maybe take over in the future.
Thanks for the comment.


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Do Other Internet Providers in Gretna Louisiana Compare With CenturyLink's Cheap Wireless Internet?
There are a few internet providers servicing the Gretna, LA area. While you might have internet options, if you're looking for the cheapest high speed broadband internet service offering a wireless connection, CenturyLink may be your best bet. A new ISP company offering a new kind of home internet service in Gretna, CenturyLink provides its customers good deals on fast broadband wireless internet. While our internet service plans are already low price, you can save even more when you choose to bundle your internet with television or phone service for one low price. Before you go with another internet provider, take a look and explore some of the possibilities for saving money that Century Link provides your home or business in Gretna, LA.
1-866-812-0698 to order. ×
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Exercise your American freedom of choice to decide which internet speed and service plan will serve your home's needs the best when you order CenturyLink Internet in Gretna, LA. Century Link is making high speed internet faster, more affordable and more accessible than it ever has been before in Louisiana. With CenturyLink, you'll experience uploads speeds up to 5 Mbps and download speeds of up to 40 Mbps in your home or at your company. CenturyLink wireless internet helps you do so much more than you ever could before in Gretna.
- Easily surf the Internet.
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At My Century Link, we understand that not every home and business in Gretna, LA wants or needs internet, telephone, and television service. Most of our customers like to mix and match, so that's why we introduced the Create Your Own bundle plan! Select the exact services you want instead of being forced to choose premade bundles. Design the bundle package that best fits your needs in Gretna, Louisiana. For the cheapest prices and additional savings, you can even avoid future rate increases by locking in your broadband Internet rate when you sign up for home services with CenturyLink. Century Link's bundle pricing always make home services affordable for you. Mix and match:
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- Springfield, LA - 70462


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One of my greatest pleasures is walking into a supermarket, picking up a few ingredients and coming home to create an unplanned meal. Recently, when my supermarket had a special on shrimp and some beautiful salmon fillets behind the seafood counter, I decided to create an impromptu meal.
Makes 4 servings.
Related Recipe Categories
Main Dishes


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โปรโมชั่น เทคนิคเล่นเกมยิงปลาโชคดี
Welcome To The WMRC Web Site
Thanks for visiting our site! We're sure you'll find lots of useful information here. Visit our news section for our latest updates. See what we are up to by checking our events schedule. To chat with the racers or club executives visit our message forums.
Picture by Allen Bargen
Come Race With Us!
We are the lower mainland's premier motorcycle racing club with over 50 years of rich racing heritage. Come join us and enjoy some of the most fun you could ever possibly have on 2 wheels!
Interested in getting started racing? Have a look at "How to get Started" and "Learn to Race" pages. Once finished with that section, continue to "Documents for Racers".
Check out some of the action by watching these videos!
New Racer School
Looking to get started racing? Take it to the track with your friends? Improve your riding skills? Check out our New Racer School!
Track Days
Have a fun day at the track hanging out with your friends and working on your skills in a safe environment. Check out our public track days!
Semi-Private Training
At one of our track days take your riding to the next level with coaching from one of our experts!
Taste Of Racing
Not sure where to get started? Come out to one of our race days and get a chance to ride Mission Raceway yourself by experiencing the track for your first time with some WMRC racer led laps! FREE! A class 6 license required. Learn more.
*Taste of Racing will not be held on Sunday, July 14th*


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Possible Duplicate:
QGIS Crashes when writing to PDF
My QGIS crashes during the export of maps to pdf. I already uninstalled and installed QGIS twice. The function worked for several times but quit functioning after a while. Does anyone know what this problem causes? I use a new Mac (2012). Could there be a problem with that?
Thanks a lot for your help!


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Game of Thrones star Michelle Fairley has been tapped to replace Judy Davis on 24: Live Another Day, TVGuide.com has confirmed.
Davis was set to play Margot, a British national and the widow of a notorious terrorist. However, Davis had to exit the project last week over personal reasons, and Fairley will now take over the role.
Jack is back! Watch the first promo for 24: Live Another Day
Fairley is best known for playing Catelyn Stark on the HBO series. She also recurred on Suits last year as Ava Hessington.
24: Live Another Day will feature the return of Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe and Kim Raver as Audrey. The limited series will also include new cast members such as Benjamin Bratt, Yvonne Strahovski, Tate Donovan, Gbenda Akinnagbe and Stephen Fry.
24: Live Another Day will bow Monday, May 5 on Fox.


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In our dialysis unit, the standard HCO3 bath is 35 mmol/L. While it is adjustable, it is rarely changed but recently we had a patient with a pre-dialysis HCO3 of 12 which got me thinking about what constitutes an abnormal serum HCO3 in a dialysis patient. Under normal circumstances, your serum HCO3 level is determined by alkali regeneration in the kidney but in dialysis patients this changes to alkali addition across the filter. As a result, there are significant swings in HCO3 levels across the week ranging from 26-30 mmol/L post-dialysis to 20-24 mmol/L pre-dialysis. The pre-dialysis HCO3 is determined by:
– End dialysis HCO3
– Rate of production of endogenous acids (which correlates closely with protein ingestion)
– Time between dialysis sessions
– Free water retention between sessions (HCO3 falls by 0.5 mmol/L for each liter of free water retained)
– Bicarbonate losses (urine/diarrhea)
The KDOQI guidelines suggest that pre-dialysis HCO3 should be around 22 but what is the evidence for this? There are two major studies which can guide us. The first is the DOPPS study where the authors took 7000 patients dialysis patients and found that there was a U-shaped curve of RR of death. Those with a HCO3 of less than 17 and greater than 24 were at an increased risk of death. However, when adjusted for nutritional factors and co-morbidities, a high HCO3 was no longer independently associated with mortality while a HCO3 of less than 17 remained significant.
In the second study the authors looked at 36000 dialysis patients and again found that a HCO3 of less than 17 was independently associated with mortalilty while the increased mortality seen in those with a HCO3 of greater than 24 could be entirely explained by nutritional status and co-morbidities.
Despite all of these data, neither of these studies address the issue of whether correcting acidosis in these patients influences outcome. There are a few small randomized trials in hemodialysis patients which show some benefit but are too small to really answer this question. There have, of course, been a number of studies in patients with CKD demonstrating that correction of acidosis improves outcomes. Probably the best advice at this time is that if you come across a patient with a HCO3 of greater than 24, you should assess them for the presence of an acute acid base disorder and then assess their nutritional status. In a patient with an unusually low HCO3, ensure that delivery of HCO3 during dialysis is adequate (by measuring post-dialysis HCO3), determine if HCO3-wasting is present and then increase the HCO3 bath to maintain the HCO3 greater than 18.
This is a great review on the subject published earlier this year.


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Snow White Costume
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This homemade costume for babies entered our 2015 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Melissa, the 'Snow White' costume creator:
This is my youngest daughter Ellie. She is Snow white this year. I order the outfit from a local lady who makes tutu dresses.


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Report describes Central Hardwoods forest vulnerabilities, climate change impacts
Higher temperatures, more heavy precipitation, and drought. It's all expected in the Central Hardwoods Region of southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and the Missouri Ozarks, according to a new report by the U.S. Forest Service, and partners that assesses the vulnerability of the region's forest ecosystems and its ability to adapt to a changing climate.
More than 30 scientists and forest managers contributed to the report, which is part of the Central Hardwoods Climate Change Response Framework, a collaboration of federal, state, academic and private partners led by the Forest Service's Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS). "Central Hardwoods Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment and Synthesis: A Report from the Central Hardwoods Climate Change Response Framework Project," was published by the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station and is available online at: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/45430
"People often think of climate change as being distant, either geographically or temporally," said Leslie Brandt, the report's lead author and a climate change specialist with NIACS. "Our intent was to create a climate change resource that will be relevant to people who work, study, recreate, manage and care about the ecosystems in the Central Hardwoods Region."
In the Central Hardwoods, the effects of a changing climate are expected to include rising temperatures due to a rise in greenhouse gas concentrations, leading to longer growing seasons. Winter temperatures are also expected to increase in the area, leading to changes in snow cover and soil frost. The nature and timing of precipitation will change, research suggests, with some studies showing that climate change will decrease soil moisture later in the growing season.
Other findings of the vulnerability assessment include:
- Conditions are expected to be less favorable for northern species such as sugar maple, American beech and white ash and become more suitable for southern species such as shortleaf pine.
- Forest fragmentation, an existing stressor for the region's forests, may reduce the ability of species that are adapted to future climate conditions to expand into new areas.
- Ecosystems that are adapted to frequent fire, such as open woodlands and savannas, may be more resilient to climate change because warmer temperatures are projected to increase the risk of wildfire.
"Plants, animals, and people all depend on forests and may all face additional challenges as temperatures increase and precipitation patterns shift," said John Shuey, a co-author of the study and Director of Conservation Science for the Indiana Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "But we don't have to wait until these changes wreak havoc on our forest habitats. We can start managing for the future today by nudging our forests towards species adapted to withstand future climates."
More than a century of weather records demonstrate a changing climate for the Central Hardwoods, a region that is 40 percent forested, with about 80 percent of forested land privately owned. Since 1900, minimum temperatures in the Central Hardwood Region have increased by 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit and maximum temperatures have decreased by a similar amount. The region is receiving 12 to 17 percent more precipitation, particularly in the spring and fall since the turn of the last century. Over the past 30 years, more rain has been falling as heavy precipitation events of 3 inches or greater. Since the 1970s, a decrease in snow cover has led to an increase in soil frost.
"Confronting the challenge of climate change presents opportunities for managers and other decision-makers to plan ahead, foster resilient landscapes, and ensure that the benefits that forests provide are sustained into the future," said Michael T. Rains, Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory. "Forest Service science is delivering tools and data that will help managers in the Central Hardwoods and throughout the nation meet this challenge."
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The state Senate released a $20.58 billion proposed budget late Sunday night that would eliminate class-size limits for the youngest public school students, move the State Bureau of Investigation to a department the governor�s appointee controls and puts various environmental programs under the control of a state agency.
The proposal represents a 2.3 percent increase over the current budget and is about $17 million short of the budget Gov. Pat McCrory proposed in March.
�This budget stands in sharp contrast to the failed attempts of previous leaders to tax, spend and borrow their way to prosperity,� Senate leader Phil Berger said in a statement. �We are eager to work with the House of Representatives to adopt a budget that smartly invests in our key priorities while living within our means.�
Lead Senate budget writers plan to answer questions about the budget Monday. The proposal is on a track to win Senate approval and be sent to the state House by the end of the week. This is the second session in modern times where Republicans have full control of the legislature. Unlike last year, when they battled with former Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, legislators are working with Republican Gov. McCrory on the document that is a broad reflection of government priorities.
Opposition was growing to provisions in the budget even before it was released Sunday night. Attorney General Roy Cooper plans to hold a news conference Monday to oppose the transfer of the state Bureau of Investigation from his department to the Department of Public Safety.
The N.C. Association of Educators and other education advocates don�t like the provision that lifts the limits on class sizes in kindergarten through third grades.
�We�d have very serious concerns if we see them get rid of class size limits,� said Rob Thompson, executive director of the Covenant with North Carolina�s Children. Research shows that �with smaller class sizes you get better outcomes for kids,� he said.
Senate leaders have proposed lifting the limit so school district administrators can decide how to deploy teachers. Sen. Jerry Tillman, an Archdale Republican and advocate for the idea, has said that administrators are in a position to make the best decisions, and they�ll be watchful because they won�t want students to perform poorly on standardized tests.
Unlike the McCrory budget proposal to add N.C. Pre-K slots, the Senate would reduce spaces in the public preschool for at-risk 4-year-olds by 2,500 in the first year of the budget and 5,000 in the second year, and turn them into subsidized childcare slots.
The Senate budget does not appear to include money to compensate victims of the state�s eugenics program. McCrory put $10 million in his budget proposal to compensate victims. A proposal by Perdue and the N.C. House last year to include $50 million for eugenics compensation failed because Senate Republicans didn�t want it.
The budget would dissolve the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, a favorite program for former Democratic Senate leader Marc Basnight, and transfer staff that supported a board of trustees to the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
One of the biggest spending increases is for Medicaid, the government insurance program for poor children, low-income pregnant women, the elderly and disabled. The Medicaid budget will increase by about $340 million next year. Senate budget writers learned that an error by the state Department of Health and Human Services last year in calculating Medicaid growth would force a big increase next year.
McCrory and legislative leaders announced last week that the budget would include a provision to allow state officials to take the next step in a controversial plan to turn Medicaid into a managed care program run by outside companies.


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Predict pre-eclampsia earlier through improved biomarkers.
Our PlGF (Placental Growth Factor) assay was the first developed commercially for first trimester screening. It measures free PlGF (isoform 1). Used in combination with biophysical markers and established risk factors, it is particularly effective for detecting preterm pre-eclampsia before 13 weeks gestation.
As additional safeguards for patients at later stages of pregnancy, the PlGF assay can also be used as part of the same combination of markers in the second and third trimesters.
PerkinElmer biochemistry assays and measuring instruments are complemented by essential items such as native controls to ensure the integrity of results. We also supply dedicated pre-eclampsia screening software for critical first trimester risk calculations. Together, these products constitute a complete, practical solution for pre-eclampsia prediction.
PerkinElmer aneuploidy and pre-eclampsia screening products are not available in the USA. Products may not be available in all countries. For information on availability, please contact your local representative.
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