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After a few weeks away from blogging due to work and family vacation time, I thought it was about time I got the laptop out and started talking about my visit to TechEd North America 2014.
The Lowdown
TechEd is Microsoft's flagship conference aimed at the IT Pro and Enterprise Developer. It's a large scale event that will see thousands of nerds come together for the best part of a week of technical presentations and networking.
For me, I'm a newbie when it comes to TechEd. Over the last few years, the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) was where you'd find me hanging out as this was the place to be in the Cloud & Datacenter Management space. This year however, Microsoft have made a decision not to run MMS as a stand-alone event and to instead, integrate it into the TechEd conference to bring the whole CloudOS story to the table. There's been a lot of debate over the past year about whether or not this was a good move by Microsoft and as a result, a number of newer Cloud & Datacenter Management focused conferences have gained prominence - System Center Universe and IT/Dev Connections for example.
One things for sure, TechEd NA 2014 is completely sold out now and I guess a lot of people are expecting big things from the coming week due to the MMS integration so fingers crossed it'll live up to expectations!
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
TechEd North America is being held in Houston, Texas this year and my journey over has started a few days early and taken a little bit of a detour on the way. The reason for this is that I have family living in south Texas that I haven't seen in a long time so thought that it'd be a sin if I didn't make the effort to visit - seeing as though I'm in the same state as them. That being said, Texas is the second largest state in the USA and is nearly three times the size of Ireland!
I left my house on Wednesday morning at 6am with a drive up to Dublin, enjoyed a very comfortable flight over to Chicago, had a 4.5 hour layover there (hotdogs and beer are an excellent way to pass the time in Chicago airport), jumped on another plane to Houston and finally managed to check-in to a hotel close to George Bush International Airport close to 11pm local time. All-in-all it was approximately 21 hours total journey from when I closed the front door back in Ireland!
I then managed 5(ish) hours of sleep before getting back on the road with a shuttle bus over to the airport, a connecting train between two terminals and a short-hop 45 minute flight from Houston down to Corpus Christi. In stark contrast to the massive scale of the airport in Houston, the tiny one in Corpus Christi was more reminiscent of something that we're used to in Ireland - think Knock Airport and you'll get the idea! A final 45 minute drive down to Alice, Texas and I've reached my destination and base for the next few days.
Hooking up with family and friends (of which I haven't seen in 13 years), consuming copious amounts of Mexican food and beer (this city is pretty close to the border and I'm known as a Gringo in these parts) - and life is good!
On Saturday afternoon I'll be flying back up to Houston to meet up with all of my buddies that are starting to make their way over for TechEd next week.
The Conference
Like myself, most people will be arriving into Houston from tomorrow and after some (quiet) drinks that night, on Sunday, a few of us are going to try and head over to NASA and see if we can give them any advice on how to manage their IT infrastructure with System Center.......
Also on Sunday, ten pre-conference sessions are kicking off TechEd NA 2014 and there's a nice mix of technical goodness between them to keep everyone happy.
At 9am on Monday morning, Microsoft's Brad Anderson delivers the Keynote presentation that will kick off the conference proper and immediately following that, we get down and dirty with a full day of sessions right the way up until 18:00. After a long day's work, I'm sure we'll have one or two things to do at night to keep us occupied and stave away the hunger and thirst :)
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will follow pretty much the same agenda as Monday without of course a keynote presentation so it'll be a pretty full-on week of deep-dive sessions and fun. The graphic below shows the available tracks that attendees have to choose from for each day.
I'll be keeping this blog reasonably up-to-date throughout the week based on some of the sessions, vendor offerings and new announcements that I've seen and heard. If you're looking for a live 'up-to-the-minute' update of some CloudOS sessions, then I highly recommend you check out my buddy Aidan Finn's blog over the few days that the event runs. Aidan always has some great tips and tricks to take on board when attending these conferences and loves to live-blog his way through the sessions he attends.
As a side game, if you want to try and win a copy of Aidan's excellent Hyper-V book, then check out his Hyper-V Amigo Selfie Game for some fun (note to Aidan, that's a pretty old-school mallet head picture of me you have up there!)
#TE14D5 (a.k.a Friday)
Unfortunately for me I'll be returning home on the Friday - unfortunate purely from a nerd perspective but to be fair, I don't think I'd get a sick-note from my ever-suffering wife for any more than the 11 days I already have away from her and our two kids! As I booked my tickets so long ago in advance, I wasn't aware of the plans that my pals Cameron Fuller and Maarten Goet had put together to keep people entertained on a day when the official four-day conference ended.
They came up with the ingenious idea that seeing as there would still be many attendees floating around Houston on Friday and many MVP's still there too, why not have a side-event uniquely titled 'Day 5', whereby a number of MVP's and community leaders would present some sessions that couldn't be squeezed into TechEd around two different tracks. These tracks will focus on System Center, Hyper-V, Azure and Device Management.
If you're around on the Friday and are looking to hear some of the best speakers around do their thing again, then you can still register for Day 5 here.
Make Sure to Say Hello
So, that's it from me for now, if you're coming over to Houston, make sure to say hello if you see me rambling around and I'll be glad to try and answer any CloudOS questions you might have to help you get ahead in work.


text: Global Politics Death of Chinese Watermelon Vendor Sparks Online Outcry The World July 22, 2013 Last week a Chinese farmer died as he tried to sell his watermelon in Linwu county, Hunan province, China. After moving his stall, urban management officers beat him to death. The incident has created a storm online.

subset: commoncrawl


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Copyright Resources
This site looks at copyright from the perspectives of all key academic stakeholders and suggests what each group can do to enhance their copyright practices and advance academic interests.
an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system
a nonprofit organization that develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.
Use this site to find a summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.
to further the public interest in facilitating widespread access to works of authorship by assisting and representing authors who want to disseminate knowledge and products of the imagination broadly.
Stanford Copyright & Fair Use Center
Its emphasis is on copyright issues especially relevant to the education and library community, including examples of fair use and policies. Useful copyright charts and tools are continually added to help users evaluate copyright status and best practices.
Stanford's Copyright Renewal Database
This database makes searchable the copyright renewal records received by the US Copyright Office between 1950 and 1992 for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963.
Cornell Copyright Information Center
While designed for the Cornell University community, this site contains a number of tools uselful to the academic, research, and library communities.
Frequently Asked Quesions About Copyright
From CENDI, the interagency working group of senior scientific and technical information (STI) managers from 14 U.S. federal agencies
To promote creativity by administering and sustaining an effective national copyright system.
When you need permission to re-use content


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I have an example of a method using openmp to create several threads which add "1" about 1 million times to an integers pointer, it's called "number*".
My task is to do the same using the clone call. I did this, but my calling process always counts to two million instead of one.
The openmp version shows a for - loop in which the increment method is called 2 times, the result is unstable due the lack of synchronization, but that is not my problem. It results in about 5% more than 1 million.
This is the increment method:
Code:void increment(uint64_t* number, uint64_t end ){ for( uint64_t i = 0; i < end; i++ ) { *number += 1; } }
So I created a new loop and added the clone call. The loop counts to two, but my result is not 1 million + 5%, it is always 2 million. The clone procedure got the CLONE_VM flag and so the two threads use the same address space, but when calling the increment method, both of them count on their own.
My Idea is to use a shared counting variable, but I'm not allowed to modify the increment method in any way.
What can I do to solve this problem?


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Rio de Janeiro - Rafael Nadal is taking it easy at the Rio Open, nursing a back injury and hoping it gets better.
No. 1-ranked Nadal defeated fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver in his first-round match on Tuesday night, his first in more than three weeks after losing the Australian Open final to Stanislaw Wawrinka.
Nadal was an overwhelming favorite in Australia to win his 14th Grand Slam title, but he picked up the back strain warming up and was never the same.
"When one comes back from an injury in a short period of time, you can always feel a need to be cautious," he said. "I felt it (the back) a bit. But I hope things continue to improve day by day. Little by little the back will be strong again. I'll get used to the competition and the back won't keep me from playing future tournaments."
The Spaniard's next test is on Thursday against countryman Albert Montanes.
"I had a problem from Australia," Nadal said. "I tried to work on it at home and I'm back playing again. At the beginning one is a bit afraid coming back from a problem. I've worked hard to try to come back."
Nadal was sidelined for much of the 2012 season with a left knee injury. He used the Latin American clay-court circuit as his testing ground for the knee early in 2013.
It went OK. He won the French and US Open.
He's at it again early in 2014 with his back, reminding some that Nadal's big swings and aggressive play may be taking a toll on his 27-year-old body.
Nadal said after Tuesday's match — his 800th — that he'd played better than he'd practiced.
"Of course there are aspects of the game I have to improve," he said. "It's been a long time since I've played on the surface (clay), so It's normal to return without the best feeling."
Results on Wednesday from the third day of the WTA and ATP Rio Open (x denotes seeding):
First round:
Kurumi Nara (JPN x5) bt Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) 6-3, 6-2
Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) bt Nadiya Kichenok (UKR) 6-2, 6-3
Second round:
Paula Ormaechea (ARG x3) bt Kiki Bertens (NED) 7-5, 7-5
Katarzyna Piter (POL) bt Dinah Pfizenmaier (GER) 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
Second round:
Tommy Robredo (ESP x4) bt Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 6-2, 6-1
Pablo Andujar (ESP x8) bt Martin Klizan (SVK) walkover


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"Modern Living Accessories: 100 Years of Design"
One of the most extraordinary design museums we ever witnessed belonged to an octogenarian who had spent the final sixty years of his life in a floor-through apartment in Manhattan's renowned River House.
If you live long enough, you accrue enough possessions to mark the changes in design, decade by decade. Our homes become repositories of each decade's design trends, so that by the time we're eighty, we're living in a design museum, with bits and pieces from the continuum of design history.
Published by H.F. Ullmann, "Modern Living Accessories: 100 Years of Design" presents a retrospective of the most important developments and highlights in design of the past 100 years, beginning with the latest trends for 2011.
Arranged in reverse chronology, the book's table of contents starts with 2011 and moves backwards in time to the year 1900. Each decade in the table of contents is marked by a particular design achievement, such as Philippe Starck's juice sculpture in the Nineties, the lava lamp for the Sixties, and the television for the Fifties. George Nelson's Wallclocks are icons of the Forties, while Alvar Aalto's Savoy Vase marks the Thirties.
Throughout the 512-page book, concise texts complement the photographs of the various design accessories. Incisive essays by respected design historians chart the history and evolution of the global design industry.
The design tome opens with an homage to Hector Serrano's "Natura Jars" (2011), a recycled glass collection in brilliant jewel tones that utilizes cork and glass to evoke wine bottles, while also nodding to the sustainability of today's best designs.
A light sculpture by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec called "Lighthouse" (2010) evokes the craftsmanship of Murano glass blowers, marrying artisan tradition to modern manufacturing technology.
Jaime Hayon's "Crystal Candy" series (2009) for Baccarat, the venerable French luxury crystal maker, are objets d'art with narratives associated with their anthropomorphic shapes, which is in keeping with Hayon's habit of wearing a pink bunny suit at the commencement of his career.
With its Pee Wee's Playhouse color palette, Marc Newsom's "Dish Doctor" (1998) looks more fanciful than practical - and yet, the dish stand is remarkably functional, thanks to flexible matchstick fingers that hold the dishes while allowing them to drip water into the basin.
Few design accessories have been more scrutinized and debated than Philippe Starck's "Juicy Salif" for Alessi. Released in 1990, the lemon squeezer, which recalled Ridley Scott's "Alien" mother or, at the very least, E.B. White's Charlotte, was functional when absolutely necessary, although a decided majority of buyers purchased "Juicy Salif" for its sculptural qualities and its propensity to validate the good taste of those who placed it in a minimalist and sleekly-designed stainless steel kitchen.
Certainly one of the most recognizable masterpieces of 20th-century design is Pietro Chiesa's vase "Cartoccio No. 2029" (1932). The undulating folds of Chiesa's wavy paper bag vase are every bit as mesmerizing today, eighty years after its creation.
The cover photo of Alessi's 1983 "kettle 9091" by Richard Sapper (which whistles its pitch pipes in the notes "E" and "B") harks back to the 1924 silver-and-ebony teapot of Marianne Brandt, the German designer, sculptor, photographer, and art teacher who was the most illustrious female associated with the male-dominated Bauhaus.
Brandt's designs for ashtrays, tea and coffee services, and other household objects were, subsequently, recognized as the best of Bauhaus design and, as the authors attest, "the harbinger of modern industrial design." In 2007, one of Brandt's teapots sold at auction for a record-breaking $361,000.
The editors, Martin Wellner and Andrea Mehlhose, alias Fremdkörper, are the authors of another H.F. Ullmann publication "Modern Furniture" (2009). International design consultants in the fields of interior design, exhibition design, corporate identity, and graphic design, Fremdkörper established their own design studio 1996 in Cologne.
As the book makes abundantly clear, good design is timeless and a wander through "Modern Living Accessories: 100 Years of Design" is likely to open your eyes to your own home. Invest wisely; good design holds its value.
Modern Living Accessories: 100 Years of Design
Martin Wellner (Editor), Andrea Mehlhose (Editor), alias Fremdkörper
Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: hf ULLMANN (November 15, 2012)
Language: English, French, German
Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.4 x 1.9 inches
Price: $59.99


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Did You Know May is National Skin Cancer Awareness Month?
05.02.2012, 13:45 CDT | Posted In: Prevention & Protection, Uneven Skin Tone & Dark Spots, Health & Beauty, Products
May has quickly approached us, which means it's Skin Cancer Awareness Month. Considering the disease is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in the United States,1 it's easy to see the importance of the initiative. Fortunately, skin cancer is also one of the most preventable forms of cancer.2 Before heading outdoors this summer, we encourage you to educate yourself on ways to maintain superior skin health.
In the meantime, here are some of the most noteworthy skin cancer preventative tips.
Say no to tanning beds. Don't believe the hype—just because tanning indoors is a controlled dose of ultraviolet radiation does not make it okay. Believe it or not, indoor tanners are typically less safe than the rays of the sun, as new high-pressure sunlamps can deliver as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose as natural exposure.3
Don't feel confident just because you're young. While the average age of those diagnosed with skin cancer lies somewhere between 45 and 55, it turns out a quarter of all cases occur in people under the age of 40.4 So regardless of age, make sure you protect yourself—always use sunscreen and wear protective clothing while outdoors.
Be vigilant with sunscreen—even if you're not light-skinned. While it's true that those with darker skin are less likely to develop the disease than those with lighter, fairer skin,5 the risk still exists for everyone. This is why it's important for everyone to protect themselves. So lather up and protect all exposed areas with a broad-spectrum sunscreen, such as our award-winning Obagi Nu-Derm® Sun Shield SPF 50, before venturing outside. For all skin types, it applies with an elegant, matte finish that feels great on your skin.
Check non-exposed parts of the body for signs of the disease. Believe it or not, melanoma can be diagnosed anywhere from the soles of one's feet to beneath the fingernails.6 That's why it's important to regularly see your dermatologist and continually check your moles for signs of any changes.
Looking for more tips on how to best protect you and your skin? Visit the Skin Cancer Foundation at SkinCancer.org for more information!
Tags: cancer, sun damage, Sun Shield, sunscreen


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Development Resources/Changing Leadership
Project leadership is discussed in the "Leaders" section of the Eclipse Development Process.
Electing a new Project Lead
New Project Leads, or co-Leads must be elected by the project committers. Typically this done by calling for a vote using the project's main (dev) mailing list. As a general rule, the nomination should include some discussion of the individual's qualifications (a short paragraph will do). The vote should run for a minimum of five generally-accepted business days, or until all committers have voted. A vote that results in a minimum of three +1s, and no unresolved -1s is considered successful (for projects with fewer than three committers, unanimous consent will suffice).
The results of a successful vote should be brought to the attention of the Project's PMC for their approval (via the PMC mailing list). Once that approval has been obtained, contact EMO for approval by the EMO(ED). The change will be effected immediately upon approval by the EMO(ED).
Retiring Project Lead
A project lead may retire their position by sending their request to EMO.
Disruptive or Dysfunctional Project Leadership
In the event that a project's leaders or committers have become disruptive or dysfunctional, contact EMO.
This page is moderated by the EMO.


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Sales Opportunity Tracking
|1. The Process of collecting and managing data and information about a Sales Opportunity Item and its various traits and/or states as it is followed or tracked throughout different phases of its Life Cycle (Lifecycle).
Read More
|1) The Semantic Root Noun for this term is: Sales Opportunity
2) Semantically Related Terms: The "Sales Opportunity Management Glossary"
3) The Sales Opportunity Management Home Page covers much more about other related terms and concepts associated with this term or phrase.


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Inspired by the story of the two men who detailed all the fun they had while trapped in Camden Yards, Nick Davis sent in his story about the day he and a female cohort busted into the Old Yankee Stadium in what he calls one of the best days of his life.
In May 2009, I went to a Sunday day game at the new Yankee Stadium and fueled by plenty of Coors Light, I made it my personal mission to break into the old stadium and enjoy a cold beer on the same cement as some the greatest ballplayers in history. Somehow I managed to remove an 8x4 nailed sheet of plywood and then found myself at a southside ticket stand of which I promptly passed through with no breaking-and-entering skills at all. After passing through a few long dark corridors I found myself in the hallowed tomb, the Yankee locker room. It was obviously in a state of disrepair, but the "26 World Championships" mural was still intact. The lockers were all torn out and non functioning toilets were all filled with waste. I promptly exited as I had a good female friend with me at the time. We made it down the hallway and out to the dugout and proceeded to slam Silver Bullets and live the good life. We lasted a good 45 minutes before found and promptly asked to leave. No harm no foul.
Video: Emma Carmichael
Music: Deadspin Family Orchestra
Have you ever broken into a sports arena and would love to tell the tale? Email us with your photographic evidence.


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Jan. 15, 2014
Box Score |Notre Dame at Maryland Box Score
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) – Dez Wells scored all 17 of his points in the second half as Maryland beat Notre Dame 74-66 Wednesday night to climb back over .500 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
Seth Allen contributed 14 points in his first start of the season and Nick Faust added 13 to help the Terrapins (11-7, 3-2) end a two-game skid.
Maryland shot just 39.7 percent and went 7 for 26 from beyond the arc, but that was good enough to hand Notre Dame its third straight defeat.
Pat Connaughton scored 19 for the Irish (10-7, 1-3). Notre Dame went 10 for 26 from the floor and committed eight turnovers over the final 20 minutes while letting a nine-point halftime lead get away.
The Irish opened the second half by going scoreless for 6 1/2 minutes, but during that time Maryland could muster only four baskets to cut a nine-point deficit to 34-33.
After Garrick Sherman made a layup for the Irish, Maryland center Charles Mitchell scored in the lane and Jake Layman made one of two free throws after Notre Dame coach Mike Brey was called for a technical foul.
Allen followed with a 3-pointer to give the Terrapins their first lead since 12-11.
It was 43-41 before Evan Smotrycz hit a 3-pointer to spark a 15-7 spurt that pushed Maryland's advantage to 10 with 5:08 remaining.
Notre Dame closed to 66-61 with 1:46 to go before Faust buried a 3-pointer to clinch it.
Connaughton scored 15 points and the Irish went 14 for 24 from the field in taking a 34-25 halftime lead.
Maryland made four of its initial five shots, then went 1 for 12 while Notre Dame got 10 straight points from Connaughton during a 17-2 run that made it 21-12.
Faust ended the drought with an alley-oop dunk, but Connaughton followed with a 3-pointer and Sherman scored in the lane to up the margin to 12 points.
Maryland went 11 for 34 from the floor in the first half, including 3 for 16 from beyond the arc. The Terps collected 13 offensive rebounds but only converted two of them into baskets.
Wells missed all six of his field goal tries and was 0 for 2 from the line before halftime.


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Bookkeeping Services
All approved membership application representatives and those representatives added by the member business or organization will automatically be added to our communication list. This communication list includes event and e-news email. The Andover Area Chamber of Commerce will not send emails that are spam. Each member investor has the same benefit of promoting their business through the e-news. Our Chamber events are educational and informative or they are networking based. If you so choose not to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe at any time but be aware that email is the Chamber's basic form of communication and your business may be missing out on something that could be a benefit for business growth.


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OTTAWA – Canada Post's abrupt announcement Wednesday that it will be ending door-to-door delivery in urban centres and sharply increasing the price of stamps represents a significant shift in the way many Canadians receive their mail. Here are the numbers and what they mean to you:
$1: This is how much you'll pay for a stamp starting March 31, 2014, if you buy individually. That's a 59-per-cent increase over the $0.63 you're paying now. Stamps bought in packages or coils will cost $0.85 each (a mere 35-per-cent increase). Canada Post hopes it can generate an additional $200 million this way. But Denis Lemelin, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, has attacked the increase, saying "skyrocketing stamp prices will make the postal service inaccessible to many people." For posterity's sake, a stamp cost $0.46 in 2000.
5.1 million: The number of Canadian households currently getting door-to-door mail delivery. These will switch over to community mailboxes over the next five years, starting in the second half of 2014. They represent about one-third of households in the country. The remainder won't see any change as they're either already served by community mailboxes, rural mailboxes or centralized points such as apartment building mailrooms. Transport Critic Olivia Chow blasted the "short-sighted service cuts" Wednesday, saying the loss of door-to-door delivery would hurt seniors and people with disabilities. But Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton disagreed: "We have served a variety of Canadians for 30 years through community mailboxes and we've been able to make that work and work well."
78: The percentage of Canadian households with high-speed Internet, a 14-per-cent increase from 2007. Canada Post has blamed the Internet, including e-billing and online banking, for a dramatic decline in the type of traditional mail its business model has long relied on.
6,000 to 8,000: The number of positions Canada Post is hoping to shed over the next 10 years. That represents about 10 per cent of the Crown corporation's workforce. Canada Post says it should be able to reduce its workforce without significant layoffs as 15,000 current employees are expected to retire in the next five years. However, it doesn't rule out the possibility of pink slips. "My expectation was that the package of measures that was going to get Canada Post back to financial sustainability would probably involve layoffs and what I'm seeing today suggests that attrition is going to be sufficient … That's a significant achievement," said David Stewart-Patterson, an executive at the Conference Board of Canada who studied the future of Canada Post this spring.
$269: The annual cost of door-to-door delivery to a single address, making it the most expensive of all delivery methods. It costs $117 for delivery to a community mailbox and eliminating door delivery will, Canada Post says, save $400 million to $500 million per year.
$1 billion: The amount Canada Post was expected to lose each year by 2020, according to a Conference Board of Canada report published in April. The Crown corporation reported in November that it had lost $134 million for the first nine months of this year, though the number would have been $243 million if it hadn't sold off a mail processing plant in downtown Vancouver for $109 million.
$700 million to $900 million: The amount Canada Post says it expects to save with the changes that were announced Wednesday. Those figures do not include expected savings through work force reductions, nor do they take into account the company's plan to fight the union over workers' pension benefits.
106,000: The approximate number of community mailboxes that will be built over the next five years. Hamilton said there's no"cookie cutter" formula for the number of households served by a single post box, but the average is 48. Community mailboxes also double as mail drop-off centres.
4 billion: The number of pieces of domestic letter mail delivered by Canada Post in 2012. That's about one billion pieces fewer than in 2006 and works out to about 3.7 million fewer pieces of mail in the system each day. Much of the decline occurred between 2011 and 2012, when letter mail volumes decreased by 255 million over the year.
845,000: The number of new addresses Canada Post serves now, as compared to 2007. The Crown corporation says this increase, combined with an overall decrease in the volume of mail delivered, has exacerbated its poor financial situation.
6,400: The number of postal outlets Canada Post had across the country at the end of 2012, making it the largest retail network in Canada. That's more outlets than MacDonald's and Tim Hortons combined. These include stand-alone post offices and Canada Post "franchises" set up in existing businesses. In an effort to reduce costs, Canada Post says operating hours and inventory could be reduced at stand-alone offices and some self-serve services could be created.
60: The number of corporate-owned postal outlets (the remainder are franchised). Canada Post says the corporate outlets are responsible for less than half of all revenue generated by the network.
1,000: The number of new franchise outlets expected to be opened in existing businesses in the next five years. Hamilton said 200 postal franchises a year will be set up until 2019. There are no plans to close Canada Post offices or remove street post boxes as franchises are established, but Hamilton acknowledges that they'll "make decisions as they go" because community post boxes will eliminate the need for some existing sidewalk boxes.
15: The farthest distance, in kilometres, most post offices are from where people live. The Canadian Postal Service Charter says Canada Post needs to ensure that 98 per cent of Canadians live within 15 kilometres of a postal outlet, 88 per cent within five kilometres and 78 per cent within 2.5 kilometres. The charter also imposes a moratorium on the closing of rural post offices, but is up for review in 2014.
2: The number of business days it usually takes to deliver a letter within the same city. Letters to an address within the same province should arrive in three days, and four days nationally (excluding the day of mailing). International letters are usually delivered within four to seven business days. None of these numbers is guaranteed by Canada Post – as consumers know.
46: The number of public consultations and roundtables that Canada Post and the federal government say were held across the country in developing the plan announced Wednesday. But opposition parties have questioned how complete those consultations were. "The consultation that Canada Post apparently did is singularly lacking in metrics, in numbers," said Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. "It's basically anecdotal. We need to make sure that Canadians are being properly served by an institution like Canada Post and that will require a little more robust discussion and study than this government has actually taken on."
47: Days until members of Parliament return to Ottawa when they can discuss the new plan. The House of Commons rose for Christmas break Tuesday, the day before the announcement. "The fact that they're announcing this after Parliament has adjourned tells you everything you want to know about how the Conservatives think Canadians will react," NDP MP Peter Julian said. "They're trying to shuffle this off and I think Canadians will be profoundly appalled about the cuts in services and cuts in jobs across the country." The House next sits Jan. 27. The Senate managed a question or two on the issue Wednesday, since it was still sitting.
$0: The amount of taxpayer money being used to help Canada Post fight its way to financial sustainability. The Crown corporation says the changes it announced Wednesday are necessary to ensure this remains the case, and that it doesn't become a drag on taxpayers. (By contrast, the CBC got $1.1 billion in tax funding for fiscal year 2012-13).
0: The number of senior Canada Post executives available to comment on the changes Wednesday. Canada Post spokesman Hamilton said, "They are focused on one of two things today: either talking to employees or trying to ensure we deliver Christmas without any disruption." He suggested they might be available for interviews after the holiday season.
You can view the Canada Post video on changes here: http://youtu.be/2ejbgBECWEs
"The Government of Canada supports Canada Post in its efforts to fulfil its mandate of operating on a self-sustaining financial basis in order to protect taxpayers, while modernizing its business and aligning postal services with the choices of Canadians." — Transport Minister Lisa Raitt.
"I think Canadians will be profoundly concerned of what the impacts will be in their communities. It's not just those job losses, it's the service losses across the country" — NDP caucus leader Peter Julian.
"We need to be mindful of costs and as mail volumes have continued to drop and we've taken a huge hit to our bottom line … we need to adjust." — Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton.
"This decision will disproportionately affect the elderly and Canadians living with disabilities … Canada Post claims to be listening to Canadians, yet I've yet to hear anyone tell me that they no longer want letters delivered to their homes." — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.
"We are extremely concerned that these changes will send Canada Post into a downward spiral … The skyrocketing stamp prices will make the postal service inaccessible to many people." — Denis Lemelin, Canadian Union of Postal Workers president.
"These job-killing and service-cutting measures will isolate seniors, the poor and the disabled living in urban areas." — NDP transport critic Olivia Chow.
A History of Postal Services in Canada:
16th century: French colonists follow the native custom of moving mail along the St. Lawrence by canoe.
1753: Benjamin Franklin, the deputy postmaster general for the British Colonies, opens the first "Canadian" post office in Halifax.
1771: Weekly mail service becomes available year-round. Mail for Europe is shipped to New York, then to Europe.
1851: The colonies in North America gain control of their postal service from Britain.
1857: The time to move mail from Quebec City to Windsor, Ont. drops from 10 days to 49 hours with implementation of railway delivery.
1867: Confederation. The Post Office Department is created and Alexander Campbell is appointed the first Postmaster General.
1874: Free door-to-door letter carrier delivery of mail begins in Montreal.
1886: Free national mail service from Halifax to Port Moody, B.C. begins.
1899: The NorthWest Mounted Police get out of the mail delivery business when they contract out mail delivery in the Yukon.
1981: Canada Post is privatized and becomes a for-profit company. The Postmaster General position is replaced by a CEO, the first of whom is Michael Warren.
1985: Canada Post begins phasing in community mailboxes instead of delivery to the door in new subdivisions.
1986: An Ontario court rules the Canada Post Act does not impose a duty of door-to-door delivery of mail.
1989: Canada Post reports a profit for the first time in 32 years.
2000: Post Office launches ePost, a digital mailbox for bills.
2007: First decline in domestic letter mail delivered in Canada.
2012: Canada Post notes decrease of one billion pieces of letter mail compared to 2006.
2013: Canada Post begins charging developers $200 per address for the set-up of community mail boxes in new neighbourhoods.
(Sources: Canada Post, Canadian Encyclopedia, news sources.)


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Ad spending in the presidential campaign has now topped $800 million and is on pace to reach or come close to $1 billion, according to an NBC analysis of data provided by ad-buying firm SMG Delta.
Jim Young / Reuters
President Barack Obama looks over at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the second presidential campaign debate on Oct. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y.
So far, $807 million has been spent on political ads for radio and television -- local and national, cable and broadcast.
The Obama campaign is one ad buy away from reaching $300 million by itself. But with outside money factored in, "Team Romney" (the campaign plus outside groups supporting him or attacking the president) is outspending "Team Obama" $455 million to $352 million.
The Romney campaign, which has come on since Labor Day, is now the second-biggest spender at $164 million.
Time Magazine's Nancy Gibbs, Bob Herbert, the distinguished fellow at Demos, and Politico's Maggie Haberman join Chuck Todd to talk about the path to 270 and the town hall debate.
Following the Romney campaign are the combined Karl-Rove backed Crossroads groups -- American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. Combined, the two groups have spent $124 million ($65 million for American Crossroads, $59 million for GPS).
GPS's spending has dropped off in the past couple of months, ceding the presidential ground to American Crossroads, which announced an $11 million ad buy just this week.
Other big spenders: Restore Our Future (pro-Romney) $69 million, Priorities USA (pro-Obama) $48 million, Americans for Prosperity (pro-Romney) $46 million, the Republican National Committee (pro-Romney) $24 million, and late-comer Americans for Job Security (pro-Romney) $9 million.
The states seeing the biggest spending are the usual suspects: Florida, Ohio, and Virginia, where more than half of all the money's been spent -- $452 million.
In the last three weeks, Ohio is gaining on Florida for the top spot. Florida still leads at $166 million, followed by Ohio $160 million, and Virginia $126 million.
Also rising fast -- Colorado, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
Colorado has now passed North Carolina for the No. 4 spot at $72 million spent.
North Carolina, which saw a lot of spending early in the campaign, has seen a reduction of the pace of ads since Labor Day. It now sits fifth at $69 million total.
Iowa is next at $62 million, followed by Nevada $49 million, New Hampshire $34 million, and Wisconsin $32 million.
What's fascinating about Wisconsin is it was barely a blip on the ad-spending radar before the pick of Paul Ryan to be Romney's vice president.
Markets like Green Bay and Madison are now routinely in the top 10 hottest markets by number of ads being run. In fact, this week they clock in at Nos. 1 and No. 5 on that list.
Top Markets:
1. Green Bay
2. Denver
3. Cincinnati
4. Columbus
5. Madison
6. Toledo
7. Cleveland
8. Orlando-Daytona Beach
9. Las Vegas
10. Reno
Despite polling showing the race closing in Pennsylvania and Romney's birth state of Michigan, little to no money is being spent in either state. Neither the Romney nor Obama campaigns, in fact, have spent ANY money at all on ads in Michigan. The Obama campaign spent about $5 million early on in Pennsylvania.
And of the 17 "swing markets," ones won by both Obama and George W. Bush, the only two that have seen little action are Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo and Lansing, both in Michigan.


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Pollen Monitoring Programme
Pollen is a very important source of information for botanists because it is small and can be preserved in large numbers for thousands years in the right conditions. Different plant species produce pollen that has a characteristic appearance.
Current projects
The European Pollen Monitoring Programme (EPMP) is a new initiative aimed at increasing the precision with which pollen analysts can interpret fossil pollen diagrams. The Programme is a Working Group of the Holocene Commission of the International Quaternary Association (INQUA). The aims of the Programme are 1) to study patterns of pollen influx across natural and anthropogenic tree-lines, 2) to look for pollen assemblages that are characteristic of a range of forest types across Europe and 3) to improve our understanding of the quantitative relationship between vegetation communities and the pollen they produce.
Already there are more than 22 transects established across Europe. Heather Pardoe and Heather Tinsley are the two British co-ordinators of the Programme. They have transects set up in Snowdonia, West Wales, the Forest of Dean and on Exmoor. Heather Pardoe is co-ordinating a meeting of EPMP participants in Cardiff in April 2000.


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Intergraph to install new CAD system in Columbus
Major upgrades for Midwest metropolis' safety network
By Scott M. Bruner
FireRescue1 Product Editor
When Columbus, Ohio, dispatchers watched in horror as their computer aided dispatch system (CAD) went down on New Year's Day 2010, because their system couldn't handle the numbers of the new decade, they knew it was time to upgrade.
Enter Intergraph Corporation, a 40-year-old, Alabama-based company that has provided CAD services, and geospatial mapping, to cities around the world. Their challenge was to deliver a new CAD system based on 21st century technology that would be able to serve Columbus' 755,000 residents without fear of crashes or meltdowns. It also needed to be able to provide information to responders that the current system could not.
Their answer was a $7.2 million combination of hardware, software, and training to meet the city's unique needs. The new CAD system begins installation on Feb. 1, with completion projected for the middle of 2011.
"The current system is outdated and old, the last update was in 2003 and it's no longer even serviced by the vendor. We've been working off a platform from 1991," Ramona Potts, assistant division administrator for Columbus' Department of Public Safety, said. "The Intergraph system is 21st technology. It's Web-based, user-friendly and includes the most up-to-date hardware."
Columbus' outdated system previously kept police officers, firefighters, and EMTs at a distinct disadvantage, needing to call through the radio system simply to access mapping and incident information. The new system will be able provide that information on the go. The map-driven system also allows dispatchers to know where responders are at all times.
"Officers, firefighters, and EMTs on the street are very excited to have more information at their fingertips," Potts said. "They'll no longer have to call from their radio to find out critical information…we can't wait to get our hands on it."
Intergraph's pedigree is impressive. In 1989, the company developed the first CAD system that used a map, and has since expanded into 27 countries, from locations as small as Vail, Colo. (pop. 5,000) to Mumbia, India (pop. 13 million). They are also the emergency dispatch providers to the nation's capital.
Intergraph's worldwide presence allows them to learn from innovative dispatch techniques from around the globe, such as community policing, and some of those will make it to Columbus. Another advantage of Intergraph's CAD system will be the ability to routinely upgrade the system, a feature that Columbus' antiquated current system sorely lacks.
"Bigger cities need a 911 system to be able to adapt as the city's emergency needs change and evolve," Steve Marz, a vice president of public safety for Intergraph, said. "Intergraph has the largest global presence of any system in the world because our system has the flexibility to adapt and change to meet the daily needs of any emergency service."
Intergraph Corporation is a global provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualize complex data. Businesses and governments in more than 60 countries use Intergraph's software applications. You can visit them at www.intergraph.com.
Request product info from top Dispatch Equipment companies
Thank You!


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Soft and subtle, fresh and breezy, the Kate Hudson dress collection boasts a beautiful array of boho styles, for natural dresses that make any occasion one to be celebrated. Featuring everything from soft yellow tones and detailed floral prints, to lightweight linen fabrics, natural cotton, ruffles, pintucking, lace details and more, Kate Hudson dresses make it all look easy, with unique pieces for everyday:
- Dresses In Every Style. Whether you love sweet swing dresses or short printed styles, perfect-length midis, tie-front maxis, ruffle dresses, or off-the-shoulder looks, you'll find ultra-feminine, natural dresses in refreshingly new designs. From weddings to weekends, and every event in between, you'll achieve an easy and effortless look that perfectly complements your distinctive style.
- Jumpsuits and Rompers. Want to try something a little different? Create a look that's as unique as you are by choosing a wrap-front jumpsuit, tie-front midi, or button-front romper, each designed to let you be authentically you. Naturally eye-catching and carefree, our jumpsuits and rompers come in the prettiest colors and patterns, for casual statement pieces and lux utility pieces that shine in any season.
- Add Your Own Details. Pair any of our dresses, jumpsuits or rompers with breezy sandals, heels, boots, flats and more to accentuate your look. Top it all off with a cute jacket or hat (and your favorite jewelry!) and you've added some flair that's naturally you.
Start your day in the most amazing way, with select pure fabrics dresses from the Kate Hudson Clothing Line. Discover the effortless and airy feel of fashion that celebrates beautiful, natural you while also making a difference.


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Other Publications
Revised NAB Psalter, with Textual Notes
Work on this Psalter was completed in 1991. The aims of the revision were to produced a translation that is true to the original texts, is inclusive in language, and is carefully constructed for smooth and beautiful singing and recitation. In addition to the cross references and exegetical notes normally found with the NAB texts, this edition also provides text critical notes to indicate readings of ancient manuscripts and versions adopted by the translators. Price: $7 (members, $6).
Try a sample psalm or two:
Textual Notes on the New American Bible
This publication provides 126 pages of translators' notes on readings adopted in translating the NAB Old Testament. (N.B. Textual notes on the Psalter in this publication will be for the original NAB; for revised Psalter [1991], see above.) Essential for scholarly use of NAB Old Testament. Price: $2 (members, $1.60) + postage.
Supplement to Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 66 (2004)
This volume provides a history of the CBA, Costitution and By-laws, listing of past presidents and general meetings, and names and addresses of active and associate members, along with education and professional experience, as reported in 1997. 220 pp. Provided free to those who were members at time of publication and to new members. Price for others: $10.
To order any of these publications, use the Periodical Order Form (PDF); print it, fill it out, and mail it to the CBA Office.
CBA Members can also use our online CBA Shop.


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Feted environmentalist James Balog has been doing photography for 30 years, leading the way in understanding and interpreting the natural environment. He founded the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), the most comprehensive study of glaciers ever conducted, the results of which were published in the June 2007 and June 2010 editions of the National Geographic. His documentation is now presented in a riveting, feature-length documentary, "Chasing Ice" which is an unbiased visual accounting of the reality of global warming.
Filmmaker Jeff Orlowski founded Exposure, a film production company dedicated to producing socially relevant films. He initially worked with Mr. Balog on the EIS expedition, which eventually evolved into this most devastatingly beautiful chronicle of a planet headed for multiple environmental disasters.
Balog and Orlowski recently sat down with a group of select journalists to discuss this topic and the following has been edited for content and continuity for print purposes.
What motivated you make this spectacular film?
Balog: I've been a great fan of Arctic and Alpine environments my whole adult life. I always thought they were incredibly wonderful, beautiful places, but then I became aware that the climate change story was manifested in the ice and a series of assignments in 2005 and 2006 brought me into those places and at the end of those assignments, I realized there was something here that required putting cameras out there to try to see what happens in the course of a short period of time and on a regular basis, instead of just going back once a year. So that's what motivated me.
The camera technology you needed was not available. What happened when you approached the various manufacturers?
Balog: They were really intrigued by this and I thought that the knowledge of how this thing could be engineered would really be straightforward. I was truly incredibly naïve about that and very quickly learned that the techies at these camera companies said probably it will work, but we don't really know. So, eventually it became a matter of just doing the experiment and finding out if it worked. It was nerve racking. If this had been a proper corporate science experiment, where a NASA-style, big science-funded project had been sending these cameras up to Mars, you'd spend five years doing R & D, but I felt the pressure of time. I knew the glaciers were receding and I wanted to get eyes on them quickly. Also, didn't have the financial capacity to be doing experiments for a year or two. I needed to get the cameras out there, make it happen, and hope for the best.
Orlowski: To add to that, I think it's somewhat understated in the film the degree to which James literally designed and invented a new camera system that did not exist. He is not a technician, he is not an electronics guy, he hates that stuff, yet in spite of all of that, he did invent something new. Nothing existed that could have handled this task.
How did the two of you initially hook up and how did the project unfold?
Orlowski: We met through a mutual friend. I was familiar with James' work and was a big fan. When I learned that he was doing this trip to Iceland, my friend helped get me in the door. I volunteered to shoot video and that was my opportunity to work with him and get close to the project. Then he invited me to go to Greenland and Alaska and it kept rolling from there. But, we weren't making a film at first. I had no intention of making of a film at the beginning. James had been working for two years doing photography on the ice and then he had the idea of doing time lapses of the glaciers and knew that it would be a big undertaking and thought he should film it and document it – even if the video was just for promotional purposes.
Orlowski: The first year-and-a half I was just there to shoot videos and help with the cameras wherever I could and at that point, we had a couple hundred hours of footage and the time lapses were showing some very significant changes. It was then that I suggested that we make a movie.
The shots are amazing and obviously dangerous. What was your personal experience as that doesn't show on camera?
Orlowski: There's something about the harsh weather that James experienced, I had to experience as well, so for me, it doesn't matter whether my story is part of the film in terms of those difficulties. We both went through all of those landscapes and those shooting conditions.
This is a great chronicle of what we've done to the planet. Can this be turned into some kind of action?
Balog: The easiest part of this work is going out in the field and it occupied a lot of our time and energy the first few years, but now we're in the education and outreach phase and telling the story. We will soon have an iPad Ap and we'll become expanded for educational purposes by the springtime. I've presented to President Obama's Energy and Climate Change staff on Capitol Hill and Jeff gave a screening and handed out DVDs to every senator and congressman's office and through various staff members, we have had a number of opportunities to put DVDs on President Obama's desk. Hopefully this will help them understand the evidence and the immediacy and reality of climate change.
Orlowski: We didn't come into this as activists or environmentalists. We came to this as image-makers and storytellers and we saw the reality and the significance of this issue and felt a responsibility to do something about it. So we do screenings and people ask us what they can do. We don't have all those answers, but we're partnering with people and trying to get involved with political activism. The message I like to share is that nobody told James to do this. Nobody told him to go out there and install time-lapse cameras and spend five years risking his life to tell the story.
What do you hope the film accomplishes?
Orlowski: Where we see the film having an influence is by shifting perception. We don't have a problem with economics or policy. We know we have the tools and technology to solve this issue. We want to do something about it so if people can use the film as a tool to help motivate others to care and prioritize this as a real issue, then we will see some difference.
Was there a time that you were frightened during this dangerous shoot?
Balog: It was more of a sort of a grinding, never-ending fear and it would often be at its worst the last couple of days before I was leaving home. It was in the packing phase that I would get really deeply anxious that this might be the last time - that I would not come back and see my daughters and wife again and that was a really hard thing to travel with – to close the back packs, close the duffle bags, put them in the car, and get on an airplane.
So with that fear, what drove you?
Balog: It was my duty. It was my responsibility. It was my privilege as a creative artist and my burden as a human being – to be aware, to recognize that I was seeing this thing happen and I could not turn away from it. We've done a combination of art and science and the integration of those two modalities is a powerful way to illuminate and bring alive some of these scientific concerns.
Cameras are readily available to just about anyone, but what makes a National Geographic photographer such as yourself?
Balog: You have to have passion and you have to have obsession and you have to have the ability to work incredibly hard. You also have to have the desire to look under the surface of reality and extend your vision further. It's all of those elements and in fact, a lot of people who work professionally may have all of those first characteristics, but don't necessarily have the drive to look under the surface of obvious appearances and inherited wisdom.
What did you learn creatively from James?
Orlowski: I learned that it's easy to make a beautiful picture, but the difficult thing is to make a beautiful picture that tells an important story and James figured it out. He came at images almost backwards, coming up with the concept first. The idea was there first and driven by the ideas and the greater theme, we then figured out a way to represent that photographically. So, it's not just coming up with an idea for a picture and trying to execute a specific image.
The moment where you discovered the first round of cameras were not working was crushing. How did you get your second wind to keep moving forward after that terrible disappointment?
Balog: The crushing thing about that moment was that a week later I was going on a big, expensive expedition to Greenland and I realized when I'm there at the camera in Alaska, I don't really know if those 12 cameras we're deploying in Greenland are going to work. I don't know if all the money we're spending on having five or six people out in the field will be money well spent. I'm idiot. I haven't tested these cameras enough and that's what the hard thing was, so it was a number of weeks of anxiety until we got out in the field in Greenland and started to discover, where the problem was coming from. It was a while before this sense of anxiety and uncertainty started to dissipate, but we knew we still had a lot of uncertainty and it was another year or so before everything settled down and we knew that everything was working fine.
How did you raise the money for this project?
Balog: There were no private donors in the beginning. I went to Nikon for sponsorship and they generously gave us 25 camera bodies and 45 lenses. Pelican, the manufacturers of those cases, gave us a whole truckload of cases. Mann Photo gave us all the tripod heads. National Geographic provided the bulk of the seed money that got us out the door and some of my academic collaborators had grants that were already in the pipeline from NASA in the National Science Foundation to do work in Greenland and Alaska so with all of those pieces put together, we had barely enough support to get out the door. I collected no salary the first year. Everybody got paid except me. So, it was pretty lean but eventually we started to get foundation support and a lot of private donors came on. I also spent a lot of personal cash the first couple of years to support this. My parents and brothers helped out. It was crazy. This was not a good business plan, but it was a way to get the thing done.
How much financial support did you actually get from National Geographic?
Balog: Over three years, National Geographic was in it for well into the six figures, but this project went well into the seven figures so as substantial as their support was, and as ambitious as it was, and as grateful as I am for it, it still was only a piece of the bigger pie. In the current media age of print media, that kind of money doesn't exist anywhere, but they were willing to do it, but the costs were so ridiculous, that it was even beyond their capacity.
Did you have several teams?
Orlowski: At the beginning, we were really just one team – the four of us or in luxurious times, five or six people. That was probably the largest crew we ever had. Often, it was James, a third person, and me.
What's going on now with your project?
Balog: As we sit here, we have 34 cameras on 16 glaciers including Nepal, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Montana, and Alaska and I hope to expand into South America.
How will you shift perceptions of those people who refuse to believe in climate warming?
Balog: We'll keep beating on the doors, keep putting the story out there, keep telling the truth. I am idealistic enough to believe that the truth will eventually get assimilated into societal behavior. I'm sure it doesn't always happen that way, but I believe that, because this is the correct thing to be paying attention to, that we will eventually pay attention to it. There's a famous quote from Winston Churchill in 1940 or 1941 when Europe was already at war. The French and the English were trying to get us to enter that war and Churchill said that you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, but only after they've exhausted all the other options. I believe that we will eventually do the right thing. I heard another quote this morning on TV, when I was working out in the gym. I'm paraphrasing, but Lincoln said that just because the probability is that you might fail at a task, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't try it, so I think that's the basic challenge in front of us. We should try it anyway and I think we are going to win. We know how the David and Goliath story turned out. David eventually wins. It may not be easy and it may be a high-risk thing, but I believe, because this is such a real and imminent danger, that this issue will prevail over skepticism.
For those skeptics, what are the advantages of dealing with this problem?
Balo: It's good for the country. If we deal with climate change, we create new industries. We create new job possibilities, we create a healthier air supply for us to breathe, and we can stabilize some of the geopolitical risks that are inherent in this. There's lots of positives that come from addressing the excess burning of fossil fuels and treating that beautiful cerulean air supply out there as a garbage dump, which is what we've been doing. We consider that to be a place, where for free, we can throw our refuse. We've been doing that for four million years since Homosapiens came down out of the world of the chimpanzees. We can't afford to do that anymore.
Do you feel optimistic that the planet will take action?
Balog: I can be depressed about this almost on a daily basis and for the sake of my sanity, and for the sake of my belief in my daughters' futures, I can't let myself go there. I've got a 24-year-old and an 11-year-old and want to offer them, in my own individual, solitary way, a better world and just refuse to fall into cynicism and despair.
Orlowski: I've been getting more and more optimistic over the last couple of weeks. Because of events like Sandy, climate change has become more and more of an issue. People are talking about it again and in the president's acceptance speech, he acknowledged it. I think we have to address the consequences of climate change. There is no way to avoid it and it's just a matter of when it happens and it's a matter of how bad the damage will be until that point.
Balog: We're all thinking Hurricane Sandy but it's important to recognize that the current issue, in terms of the earth's system overall, is that the pattern of extreme, violent events was predicted and recognized by the climate scientists decades ago. They were predicting that we're going to see more extreme precipitation, whether it's snow or rain, more violent storms, more droughts, more wild fire seasons that will be much more intense because the droughts make wild fires more possible. All of that is coming to pass and that's what is amazing to me. Damage has already happened. Climate is changing. We're seeing the consequences and getting whacked in a big way with disasters, forest fires, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes and there are major, multi-billion dollar expenses connected with this. The idea carbon in the atmosphere would warm the air was put forward at the end of the 19th Century for God's sake. This is not cutting edge stuff that some guy in an atomic physics lab in Berkeley just invented. This is over 100 years old.
How is climate change manifesting in the rest of the world?
Orlowski: There are island nations that have announced that they have to relocate their entire population of 100,000 people because they know they're going under water. We know that hundreds of millions of people will have to relocate as a result of flooding homelands and we don't need three feet of actual sea level rise to impact three feet of the coastline. We know just a couple of inches can have a huge impact because the storms are getting bigger.
Is the damage reversible?
Balog: It's going to be a long process to pull it back to stabilize it and we won't see the benefits of right action now for many decades in the future, but I think we could get many positive effects right now that will have even more positive effects in the future and a more positive environment. Not taking positive action, at a minimum, is selfish, immoral, and unethical and to the people of the future, it may actually appear to be criminal behavior.
What could we, as individual, do starting today?
Orlowski: Unfortunately, there's only so much an individual person can do. The big stuff has to happen from the governmental level and needs to happen on a very large scale, and we need to have regulations on how we burn fossil fuel. The public can use their voice to try to influence that and that change is going to happen either by the public demanding it, or when certain leadership recognizes that they have a responsibility to protect the public from evil they might not even know about.
Can you cite historic morality references?
Balog: Back in the early 19th Century, right up until 1861, people were saying we can't stop the industry of slavery. Slaves were machines for manufacturing goods. That's how it worked and there was a big sector of the country that was saying we can't stop, you're going to destroy us and they were willing to go to war over that. But, stopping slavery was the right thing to do. It was the ethical and moral position and I don't think any rational person would see it otherwise.
Orlowski: People of the future will look back at our use of fossil fuels the same way we look back at slavery. It's a moral issue and we're at the point right now.
Balog: You know 100 years ago, ten-year-old kids worked in coalmines and textile factories and that was thought to be normal and necessary economic behavior. People argued like crazy about that. Up until I think 1928, women weren't allowed to vote. These were fundamentals principles of the societies at that time. Women can't vote. Kids can be used in labor. Slaves should be employed for economic value, but eventually you look back on it and think what was wrong with those people. Were they crazy?
Orlowski: It's a shame that this issue has become politicized – that it's become this Left vs. Right. We don't care what your political stance is. We don't care what your views on the environment are. We know that climate change will have an impact on future generations and it's a shame that it's been turned into a political football. I believe, deeply, that this is an opportunity right now for people who have been in that skeptic camp to stand up and say ok, I recognize what's going on with the science and I'm going to stick my neck out and go on the trajectory of where the future is going and say this is something we need to fight for – this is something that I recognize is a real concern and those people are going to be looked at as the heroes. There's an opportunity right now for the Republican leadership to be the heroes that the future will look back on.
Editor' Note: "Chasing Ice" is on screen at Laemmle's Monica 4 in Santa Monica, Sundance Sunset 5 in West Hollywood, Laemmle theaters in Pasadena and Encino, the Nuart and The Landmark in West LA. Check your local paper for screening times.


text: Birmingham Heroes Lecture: Music of the Stars - 16 May 2013 In 'reportsandgalleries2013' "Brummie Masters of Hydrogeology" dinnerAlumni Gathering in Chennai - 28 February 2013Alumni Gathering in Delhi - 26 February 2013Alumni Gathering in San Diego - 5 January 2013Alumni Reception in Kuala Lumpur - 26 February 2013Alumni Reception in Singapore - 21 February 2013Anniversary Reunions - 8 June 2013Class of 1988 Mechanical Engineering Reunion - 7 June 2013Festive Drinks 2013GGAA AGM & Forum: 14th September 2013Hong Kong-April 2013House of Lords 2013Inaugural Alumni Gathering in Guangzhou - 28 February 2013Leaders of Tomorrow Reception - 25 April 2013London Professional Network - 6 March 2013Music of the StarsPub Night in Toronto Back to 'Events and Reunions' On Thursday 16 May, alumni and supporters of the University attended the second Birmingham Heroes Lecture featuring Professor Bill Chaplin (1990 BSc Physics with Astrophysics, 1994 PhD Physics), Professor of Astrophysics, at the esteemed Institute of Physics in London. Hosted by Professor Andy Schofield, Head of School of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Chaplin delivered a stimulating lecture on asteroseismology (the study of the "music" of the stars), the leading role Birmingham has been playing in this area, and his exciting work with NASA's Kepler Mission. Following the lecture, guests were invited to participate in a Q&A session with Professor Chaplin; Professor Schofield; Dr Graham Smith, Director of the University Observatory; and Keelia Scott (2011 MSci Physics with Astrophysics), PhD Physics student. In lieu of a ticket price, guests were invited to make a donation towards upgrading the facilities at the Wast Hills Observatory. Through their generous support, £660 was raised. This donation will go towards refurbishing the University's telescope, which will transform the face of undergraduate skills training at the University and increase public engagement in science within the West Midlands. More information about the future of the University's Wast Hills Observatory can be found on our website. Following the lecture, alumni and supporters were given an opportunity to network and personally speak with Professor Chaplin and the other panel members. If you missed the lecture, you can watch it in full alongside the Q&A here: This was our second academic lecture in London. We would like to hold more in the future and would greatly appreciate your input. Please email firstname.lastname@example.com with any ideas for future subjects. Bill Chaplin LectureRSS FeedAtom Feed May13 Heroes 1 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 10 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 11 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 12 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 13 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 14 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 15 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 16 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 17 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 18 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 19 UploadedMay 22, 2013 May13 Heroes 2 UploadedMay 22, 2013 Displaying 1 to 12 of 41 Previous 1 2 3 4 Next


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Mega Man 2 (Wii U)
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Android, DoJa, iPad, iPhone, NES, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation, Wii | Combined View
ESRB Rating
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DescriptionAfter defeating Dr. Light's six robots that were reprogrammed by the villainous Dr. Wily in Mega Man, it seemed like the world was safe. But it was not to be. Dr. Wily has escaped from prison and is madder than ever, this time creating eight new Robot Masters of his own to take over the world and crush Mega Man! Is the world doomed?
Mega Man 2 is the sequel to the NES game Mega Man. In this game, Metal Man, Air Man, Bubble Man, Quick Man, Crash Man, Flash Man, Heat Man and Wood Man are Dr. Wily's eight prize creations that have been sent to take over the world. As Mega Man defeats these bosses, he can steal their powers and use them for himself. Each Robot Master is weak against another's weapon, and through experimentation, Mega Man can gain the upper hand by using the weapon they're vulnerable against.
Other additions to the game include the 'E-Tank' - an item that can be used at any time to completely refill Mega Man's energy, and a Password System, which allows players to continue their game by recording which Robot Masters have been defeated and how many E-Tanks they have. Mega Man 2 also removes the scoring system from the original game.
There are no Wii U user screenshots for this game.
There are 28 other screenshots from other versions of this game or official promotional screenshots.
Promo Images
Alternate Titles
- "Rockman Complete Works: Rockman 2: The Enigma of Dr. Wily" -- Japanese title
- "Rock Man 2" -- Brazilian CCE's Top Game title
- "Rockman 2" -- Japanese Famicom title
- "Mega Man II" -- In-game title
- "ロックマン2 Dr.ワイリーの謎" -- Japanese spelling
Part of the Following Groups
- Game Center CX challenge games
- Games made into books
- Mega Man / Rockman games
- Mega Man / Rockman series
- Protagonist: Robot
- Setting: Future now Past
- User / fan contributed content
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DevelopmentKeiji Inafune actually had to create Mega Man 2 on his own time, to a certain extent. The original game hadn't been successful enough to warrant a fully produced sequel, but he so wanted to create another Mega Man title, that he was given permission to work on it so long as it didn't interfere with any of his other scheduled work.
ReceptionMega Man's creator Keiji Inafune considers Mega Man 2 his favorite Mega Man game. Thanks to its creative levels, cool weapons, excellent bosses, and fantastic music.
SalesAccording to publisher Capcom, Mega Man 2 has sold 1.51 million copies worldwide since its initial release (as of June 30, 2016).
- Electronic Gaming Monthly
- December 1989 (Issue 5) - Best Sequel to an Existing Game (tied with Ghouls 'N Ghosts)
- Game Informer Magazine
- August 2001 (Issue 100) - voted #32 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll
Related Web Sites
- Howard & Nester do Mega Man 2 (A regular feature in Nintendo Power magazine, Howard & Nester was a comic strip about two game whizzes who would one-up each other, while disclosing hints and tips, in the settings of various recently-released games for the NES platform. In the September/October 1989 two-page installment, Nester competes against a robotic version of Howard in a trivia contest organized by Dr. Wily -- hints and tips abound.)
- Mega Man 2 Trivia (10 question quiz to test fans' knowledge about Mega Man 2.)
- OC ReMix Game Profile (Fan remixes of music from Mega Man 2.)
ResidentHazard (3566) added Mega Man 2 (Wii U) on Sep 12, 2013
Other platforms contributed by CrankyStorming (3005), Sciere (637711), Kabushi (244696), gamewarrior (5048), Satoshi Kunsai (2074) and Ben K (23900)
There are no game credits on file for this release of the game. Everything in MobyGames is contributable by users.


text:
University of Hawaii generates $8.3 million in debt service savings through successful bond refinancing
University's financial strengths also recognized with an upgrade in credit ratingsUniversity of Hawaiʻi
Mia Noguchi, (808) 956-9095
External Affairs & University Relations
HONOLULU — The University of Hawaiʻi successfully sold its Series 2006A University Refunding Bonds on September 28, 2006. The Series 2006A bonds generated approximately $8.3 million in debt service savings ($6.9 million in present value terms). The Series 2006A bonds refinanced a portion of the university's outstanding Series 2002A financing, which was the original funding mechanism for the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).
In addition, the bond offering was structured to match the State's projected proceeds from its settlement agreement with tobacco companies, which are pledged for payment of the debt service on the Series 2002A and Series 2006A bonds.
Investor demand for the offering was solid and Hawaiʻi retail investors expressed strong interest, accounting for close to $10 million of the total orders placed for the transaction. UBS Investment Bank served as senior manager for the Series 2006A bonds.
"We appreciate the support of the Governor and the Department of Budget and Finance in our successful effort to refinance the JABSOM Bonds and save significant dollars for both the university and the state," said UH Board of Regents Chair Kitty Lagareta.
As part of the financing, the university requested underlying ratings from each of the three rating agencies currently monitoring the university's credit. Moody's Investors Services upgraded the university to an Aa3 from an A1, while Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings reaffirmed their confidence in the university by rating the upcoming bonds at an A+. Fitch also upgraded its outlook from "stable" to "positive." Bonds rated in those categories are judged to be of a high quality by all standards.
The ratings follow a series of update meetings held between the rating agencies and top university officials in July. At that time, university officials briefed the rating agencies on various aspects of the academic program, capital program, strategic goals and financial performance of the university.
The rating agencies lauded the strong management policies and financial performance executed by the university system administration. Rating analysts further cited stability in management and prudent long-term strategic goals as credit strengths.
In a press release, Moody's states that "stabilizing senior management after a period of turmoil has enabled a renewed focus on strategic initiatives and relationship building with the state." Standard & Poor's echoed the strengths of the university's "good financial performances, current levels of state support, and growth in its research activities" and added that they "anticipate a successful capital campaign effort and steadying of enrollment and applications." Similarly, Fitch Ratings states that the positive rating outlook "is attributed to an increase in research funding, management changes with a focus in planning on greater revenue diversity and a stronger state economy."
"I'm gratified to receive this external recognition from the capital markets of our success in acquiring more resources to finance the hopes of the people of Hawaiʻi and to provide responsible stewardship of those resources," said UH President David McClain.
Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawaiʻi is the state's sole public system of higher education. The UH System provides an array of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees and community programs on 10 campuses and through educational, training, and research centers across the state. UH enrolls more than 50,000 students from Hawaiʻi, the U.S. mainland, and around the world. For more information, visit www.hawaii.edu .