text:
HANS HOLLEIN: The Showroom Master
He's designed mesmerizing interiors to display candles, Monets, and Bronze Age ceramics. His use of media, technology, and spectacle was prescient. He's long understood that commerce is cultural and that culture is commercial. His bold call for a "Return to Architecture" is only made stronger by his declaration that "Everything Is Architecture." It's time to rediscover HANS HOLLEIN.
Educated in Vienna and Berkeley, California, Hollein also designed a series of sunglasses for American Optical Corps in 1972. "The idea came very quickly," Hollein says, "while I was talking on the telephone." Here Hollein wears a pair layered with red transparent glass.
In 1964, at age 30, Austrian architect Hans Hollein successfully landed a spacecraft onto a quiet shopping street in Vienna. A keyhole punched from its monolithic, anodized aluminum front sucks passersby into a compact, immersive interior. The Retti candle shop, Hollein's first executed project, forms a showroom and sales area out of two linked cubes, the first rotated 45 degrees, with corners chamfered and mirrored to infinity. Dramatically lit niches exhibit the shop's candles, bundled like compound Gothic piers, standing or hanging from their wicks. If the facade echoes the machinic fantasies of Hollein's paper architecture, then the quasi-devotional interior answers his earlier manifesto call for a "Return to Architecture" as sacral, pure, and functionless (except that the function of this machine-for-selling is of course clear). More than the postmodern pastiche of the Pritzker Prize winner's later work, Hollein should be remembered for his unique approach to display – a precursor to our economy of spectacular cultural experience.
A machine-for-selling: The Retti candle shop's anodized aluminum facade recalls Hollein's youthful paper architecture, with its extruded machine parts of ambiguous scale and indeterminate function.
Having won the American Institute of Architects' largest cash prize for his architectural debut, and a string of further retail commissions along with it, Hollein soon turned to the sale of another luxury good. Three years after the Retti shop, the eminent gallerist Richard L. Feigen asked Hollein to design an Upper East Side New York location for his gallery. Feigen had been assembling an exhibition of "visionary architecture" for his downtown gallery, with works by Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto, Claes Oldenburg, and others. At the suggestion of his friend Armand Bartos – the art collector, philanthropist, and one-time architectural collaborator of Frederick Kiesler – Feigen included Hollein, and his photomontage of an aircraft-carrier-as-city imbedded in a rural landscape. When the two finally met, Feigen was surprised that he was "an architect who actually built." Nevertheless, he commissioned him on the spot to design a new uptown gallery.
Given the bottom two floors of an 1887 row house, and a white stucco facade of ornament-free regularity, Hollein pasted a shimmering, double-curve chromed-steel column, 18 feet tall (5.5 meters), over the structural brick pier in the two-storey entry. The enormous sheet of metal, Feigen recalls, took some wrangling to obtain, and was eventually pulled from an order for Minoru Yamasaki's World Trade Center, then under construction. This and all interior fittings were hand-polished by an Austrian craftsman, flown in on an artist visa, working under cover of night to avoid union conflicts.
Steel Gemini: A double-curve, hand-polished steel column announces the entry to Richard L. Feigen's gallery on New York's Upper East Side (1967–69).
Passing through a grid of windows into the double-height main gallery, visitors could follow the sinuous line of a polished Art Deco handrail up a flight of stairs to the second floor, and around to a double-curved viewing balcony – evocative of a theater box, an ocean liner, a pair of breasts. This offered a view onto the salon-style hanging across the way, and more importantly, the society spectacle of a gallery opening below. Alternatively, following the choreography of the sale, one could pass to the rear of the ground floor, through two smaller galleries, and into a back room – as long and nearly as wide as the main gallery.
Anchored on one end by Feigen's office, with a prototype of Hollein's "Roto-Desk" (a table-sized Lazy Susan in glass), the other end formed a "private showing area." The architectural seduction might continue in this space-age boudoir, with its semi-circular alcove upholstered in pink velvet, an integrated projector overhead, and Hollein's own acrylic furniture. Little wonder that the architect hoped the gallery would open with a show of the servile, semi-nude sculptures of Pop artist Allen Jones (instead he got Monet), or that he would propose a design for Vienna's Sigmund Freud Museum later that year (unrealized).
Hollein had specified Rolls-Royce grills for the gallery's air ducts, a motif that appeared in two photomontages the year before, one of which set the grill at colossal scale in the Wall Street skyline. Feigen vetoed the idea, on the grounds of its exorbitant cost, and perhaps also its too-close-for-comfort subtext (Hollein's exaggerated, exhaust-pipe air vents were barely less flamboyant). Like many of Pop's gestures, and no less those of Postmodernism, the consumer values here are ambivalent, sooner of complicity than critique. Still, these gleaming surfaces reflect an honesty about the collusion of high art and high finance that's repressed in the affected grittiness of so many loft-as-gallery exhibition spaces.
The columns were inserted off-center and into a plain stucco facade.
Yet Hollein's gallery was better at displaying itself than its art. "Nothing really worked well in that space," Feigen recalls. His contemporary artists refused to show there, and many left the gallery. And his collection of old masters was even more overpowered by the architecture. The gallery forced Kenneth Frampton, in his review, to "question how neutral or specific an art gallery should be and whether it should in itself constitute an object of aesthetic intensity." Given the pluralist forms and demands of contemporary art (as opposed to, say, candles), he answered the latter question in the negative.
Feigen sold the gallery to the Japanese boutique Hanae Mori in 1973, with an understanding that it would be preserved. When Hanae Mori went bankrupt in 2002, the building was sold to an unknown buyer, represented by an unreachable attorney, and the earlier agreement wasn't honored. Rapidly, and despite Feigen's appeals to the buyer and the city, and agitations in local media, renovations began, the column was torn from the facade, and the facade is now banal beyond recognition. Word has it, Feigen says, that the CIA bought the house to spy on the Iraqi embassy across the street. It would explain, he thinks, the speed and inevitability of the acquisition, the anonymity of the owner, and the singular lack of activity seen there since. Hollein's only building in North America, perhaps a better artwork than a place to display art, now survives only in pictures.
In a more successful display, the Iranian Empress Farah Pahlavi commissioned Hollein in 1977 to design a museum of glass and ceramics in Tehran. The Abgineh Museum opened on the threshold of the revolution, and was saved by the director's wife, who, before fleeing, posted a sign on its doors indicating that the building housed a kindergarten and primary school (it was effective; a glass relief portrait of the Shah's family was the museum's only casualty).
Space Odyssey: A field of columns with abstracted, pre-Classical capitals preserves the Abgineh Museum's original, Rococo ornament.
The Abgineh Museum is housed in a 19th-century palace of Rococo and Persian vernacular styles. Instead of using it as a shell for a new museum interior, Hollein retained the or-nate boiserie, and intervened instead with nearly 120 freestanding vitrines and wall-integrated displays. Using the non-load-bearing column favored by Postmodernists, Hollein's swelling, pre-Classical capitals are in fact highly functional, housing air conditioning, humidity control, and spotlighting. Uplighting to the ceiling continues their fictive lines of force, integrates them visually in the space, and of course demands attention.
In a room designated for lusterware and painted ceramics, already modified from its original form, Hollein took license for a more extensive intervention. A grid of chrome steel members covers the walls and ceiling, into which lighting and displays are integrated, and fifteen vitrines rise from the floor. From their mirrored bases, each custom-built display is topped by a unique, three-dimensionally cut motif of shifting sands under its cubic glass cover. An Orientalist gesture to the regional topography, the "sands" balance the undulating and orthogonal, nature and technology, eternal and mercurial, glass and its silicate precursor.
Mirrored platoon: A gridded shell dropped into the 19th-century Abgineh Museum (1977) contains vitrines, mirrored plinths, and an undulating-sand motif. A full-scale model was first created in Vienna to ensure correct light levels.
As aesthetic objects, the vitrines compete with the fetishistic brilliance of Southern California artist Larry Bell's 1960s mirror-coated volumes. And as elements of museum infrastructure, they evoke Hans Haacke's Condensation Cubes, whose internal weather event depends on the complex feedback mechanisms that guarantee climatic constancy in the surrounding gallery. These displays inscribe the object and viewer in telescoping levels of environmental control – both an innovative solution to the constraints of a 19th-century building envelope, and another side of the total museum environment.
Hollein had a strong hand in selecting the museum's objects. He included both the most precious works from the Empress's collection and more quotidian objects and tools. Elevating the (ancient) everyday with his jewel-like displays, Hollein's curatorial choice is anti-connoisseurial, and consistent with his presentation in other settings of man-made objects – both design and art, variously defined as all of a piece, worthy of both scrutiny and delectation. (A table laid out with breads of the world, or photo research on different forms of the common hammer, showed this anthropological interest in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's inaugural exhibition, MAN TransFORMS, organized by Hollein in 1976). In Tehran, Hollein displayed many of these objects in multiple, confounding the presumed uniqueness of the museum object and suggesting an ancient case of mass production.
The functional, freestanding column: Two massive showcases in the Abgineh Museum's gallery for prehistoric glass and ceramics provide air-conditioning, spotlighting inside, and uplighting from their fluted capitals.
Hollein's philosophy of display – and everything else, for that matter – can be traced back to 1968. That year he authored the manifesto "Alles ist Architektur" (Everything is Architecture) in an eponymous special issue of Bau, the architecture and planning magazine he edited. Here Hollein expands the disciplinary remit of architecture to include man's environment, his tools and his media. Television, air conditioning, transportation, clothing and shelter are of equal interest to this architect – and "all," he claims, "are architects."
A fissure running down the granite facade of Hollein's Schullin jewelry shop in Vienna (1972–74) reveals a molten metal core. The eroded facade signals both Hollein's sculptural ambitions and his technological preoccupations (the bundled tubes beneath are conduits for air-conditioning).
This also makes Hollein an architect of media. "A building can become entirely information," he declares. "Its message might be experienced through informational media (press, TV, etc). In fact, it is of almost no importance whether, for example, the Acropolis or the Pyramids exist in physical reality, as most people are aware of them through other media." Two years earlier, in 1966, Hollein had made the photomontage Extension of the University of Vienna, in which Heinrich von Ferstel's monumental Ringstrasse campus building is juxtaposed with a portable television set – long-anticipating the "virtual university."
The essay's visual material, a musée imaginaire across 13 page spreads, collects 20th-century art (especially Pop and Surrealist works in which everyday objects assume architectural scale); Hollein's own scale-shifting photomontage; found images of the barely-clad female body; inflatable architecture by his colleagues Haus-Rucker-Co. and Frei Otto; and a pill he labels "nonphysical environmental control kit."
Of this last, psychedelic suggestion, Hollein writes: "Little consequent experimentation has been undertaken to use nonmaterial means (like light, temperature, or smell) to determine an environment, to determine space … The purposeful use of chemicals and drugs to control body temperature and body functions as well as to create artificial environments has barely started." Hollein's 1968 design for the Austrian pavilion of that year's Milan Triennale would undertake some of this experimentation. He created 18 narrow, parallel corridors with different atmospheres behind each of their aluminum doors: One passage was refrigerated; another simulated a snowstorm. (This was a year before Bruce Nauman's luminous Corridors, and decades prior to immersive museum spectacles like Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project (2003), or this year's Rain Room at the Museum of Modern Art.) That visitors to Hollein's pavilion would also have been wearing souvenir plastic glasses – rolling off an in-situ injection moulding machine, with two-color lenses imitating the Austrian flag – added yet another layer of "environmental modification," and the participatory character of a happening.
The Schullin jewelry store is an architecture of erosion rather than extrusion, drawing passersby into the basic shell of a 19th-century building. Hollein used materials with flagrant disregard for their real value: some are precious while others are common, but all tease the visitor with an impression of wealth and mystery.
Prophetic about media, Hollein is also convinced of the need for the physical museum, now more than ever. As he has told me, the museum is a site of multisensory engagement with objects – and, of course, other humans – from multiple perspectives. He is also keenly aware of what motivates many people to visit museums. His contribution to the Documenta 8 exhibition in 1987 reproduced famous artworks as almost inscrutable thumbnails, hung low on the wall, while their wall texts assumed the outsize dimensions of the original artwork. For many viewers, he says, the moment of merely "having been there and seen the work" is sufficient – a logic that must explain the smart-phone-camera mode of documenting experience now standard in any major museum.
Beyond flashy, custom-built displays, Hollein is also capable of subtler architecture for large institutions with rotating collections – as with his Museum Abteiberg (1972–82) in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Here his sensitivity to a hilly site, achronological circulation, diverse spatial scales, varied natural and artificial light sources, and tactile material finishes is exemplary.
Abteiberg Museum (1972–82): "I strive to create a dialogue between architecture, space, and the work of art. The objective is not so much to integrate these but to confront them with one another, thus rendering visible and palpable the full potential of both the objects and the space. The space ought to evince complex neutrality."
When everything is architecture, all objects are fair game, as are all techniques to show them; what's in a museum, and what qualifies as one, are up for grabs. If the end of a rare artwork's "aura" is an early 20th-century problem, it's one that's hardly gone away – and few architects are more keenly aware of it than Hollein. Circulating images, atmospheric spaces, and uniquely physical experiences are all in his repertoire. Alive to the fact that there's no such thing as "neutral" architecture, Hollein is an enemy of lazy or self-abnegating design, and shows the virtues – and pitfalls – of boldness. (One reason for the recent, passionate defense of the original Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and the American Folk Art Museum in New York is precisely their idiosyncrasy.) Hollein's output is variously exhibitionary and exhibitionist, overwrought and immaterial, pious and participatory, cultural and commercial; and frequently, it's somewhere in between. Our spaces of display will continue to change as we do. Hans Hollein has long been ready for these contingencies.
By ROBERT WIESENBERGER
"The fashion industry doesn't understand SUPREME" says the stylist ANDREW RICHARDSON, who has helped facilitate several projects with the label including a calendar with Larry Clark. "And that doesn't bother James one bit. They want James out and about, paying for dinners and hosting parties. But he's not. Fashion people want something that is uncomplicated and easy to digest – those are the opposite things James embraces. But really at the end of the day, JAMES DOESN'T CARE. Why should he?"More August 22, 2012
FRANCESCO VEZZOLI: Plastic, Saturday Night, Milan
The artist FRANCESCO VEZZOLI recently had an epiphany. It was not the result of a spiritual journey or the discovery of a new author – Vezzoli had his revelation at PLASTIC, a disco heaven in Milan where the rules of club culture are upended and renewed. When he told us that the legendary institution was on the verge of closing, we knew what needed to be done: a series of embroidered record covers, dedicated to the Plastic Playlist, by Vezzoli for 032c. In addition, Carlo Antonelli – Editor-in-Chief at Rolling Stone Italy and film producer – sits down with the artist for a conversation that reveals the alchemical function of the nightclub: a place for dancing and discourse, now as much as ever.More July 13, 2011


Daylight optimizer is self-adjusting roof panelling technology to maximize (or optimize) the amount of day-lighting throughout the day inside a building.
This sustainable technology is an alternative for Conventional RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) roof Slab. It is superior as compared to Concrete Roof slabs because it saves electricity and has low cost. The concrete slab can be replaced by polyurethane Coated steel Panels which can be automatically adjusted. In addition, the technology enables the building occupant to set desired intensity of sunlight via mobile application. The technology also closes of panels during rainfall or snowfall automatically.
The panels positioning is done by a DC Motor which is done by a mechanically stable mechanism. A treaded rod is attached to axle of DC motor which enables panels to move. Limiting switches are used to limit the movement of the panels. Panel is designed in such a way that it drains rainwater quickly and avoid any kind of blockage.
The Panels are opened/closed by a Motor. The DC Motor is connected to a microcontroller which takes input from LDR and Rain detector. LDR (Light dependent Resistor) is used to measure the intensity of light inside the room. The microcontroller is connected to Android mobile via Wi-Fi module.
A cheap Rain detector is created in order to detect the rainfall. This detector senses the rainfall and send signal to microcontroller which allows the panels to shut down. Hence prevents the rainwater to enter inside the building.
The sensor, Motor Driver, Battery and microcontroller is embedded in a transparent acrylic casing. The product is designed in order to make a pleasant appearance inside the room. Mobile application is designed to control the light intensity. It is featured with options to set panels according to mood presets.
Moreover, this can also be used in skylights too. This technology can be effectively used in Workspaces, Institutes, and Factories etc.
The design is inspired by sukiya-style, a Japanese style composed of carefully-shaped members and intricate latticework, while others – such as minka (farmhouses) – us rustic timbers in their natural form. Louvered structures have been used since Middle ages.


text:
Monday Musings, Music, Music news and opinion
Monday Musing: Art, Folk, Pop And The Taxonomy Of Musical Culture
The critic is happy.
Date: July 18, 2011Author: Oli 0 Comments
There's a broad classification of musical types that has some common currency, in artistic, marketing and academic circles. I want to briefly consider what it is, where it draws the lines between musics, whether it holds water, and what use it might be to those of us that think about music for whatever reason.
There's two additional widespread categories I could add to art, folk and popular music: jazz and world music. When I was training to teach music, my knowledge of music was assessed through a questionnaire which classified music on this basis, although 'world' and 'folk' were grouped together. Anyone who has any need to distinguish musical types can probably see a few issues with this.
For one thing, the grouping of 'world' music (music that doesn't come from Europe or America) with 'folk' music (traditional music) suggests that there is some similarity in kind between, for example, Peruvian death metal and Northumbrian rant. For another, the status of jazz is by no means clear: 'art' music, in this Eurocentric scheme, refers to a tradition that clearly doesn't include jazz, yet few would argue that jazz is anything other than an art music. Which raises the question, what other art musics are there? Indian classical music, for one, but that's world music. It's also highly traditional, so isn't it folk? And isn't jazz, in fact, a strand of popular music?
Each of these categories, particularly the three I refer to in the title, refers to both a particular set of cultural practices, and a set of styles that are articulated under those practices, and consequently come to define them in turn (as rock, say, or funk are axiomatically 'popular music' styles). So lets have a look at how the territory of music is carved up by these ideas as classifications of practice.
An art music is one in which practitioners are professionalised creators, and works are autonomous objects of aesthetic contemplation; it is self-aware, and able to theorise its own practice; it is literate, not necessarily by means of detailed notation, but the site of its meanings is not exclusively the time and place of performance; its skills and techniques are transmitted by formal training processes; to appreciate it, its listeners require some specific knowledge themselves, beyond a bare familiarity with its sounds; and its practitioners are a minority of technical specialists.
A folk music is one the practice of which may be open to the entire community, may be restricted on social grounds (e.g. men only), or may, as with art music, be the province of a specialised (sometimes hereditary)minority; its practitioners are unlikely to theorise their praxis in depth, beyond an analysis of their physical technique, for example; it is not a notated music; it has existence exclusively in the moment of performance; techniques and repertoires are orally transmitted, with each generation passing on the baton they were handed by their predecessors; and all members of the community within which it exists will have the understanding necessary to appreciate it, and judge the relative quality of different performances.
A popular music is rendered possible by the development of some means of mass musical production, of sheet music in the first instance, then later on, piano rolls, and eventually audio recordings; its practitioners are trained professionals, but admittance to that group may be less stringently restricted than with art music; it is a self-aware music, although its theorisations will be on more prosaic grounds than those of art music; notation or recordings are central to its transmission; pretty much everyone can understand and evaluate it; its skills are learnt through a combination of formal training and on-the-job apprenticeship; and crucially, it is a commercial practice, where production is primarily directed at generating profit.
I've left a lot out there: I am neither attempting to classify music by these categories, nor to furnish them with watertight definitions. I'm simply trying to sketch out the territory. It strikes me that this may be quite a useful way of thinking about music: an identification of a musical utterance with one of these centres of praxis may help us to determine the appropriate grounds for its analysis or evaluation. However, it's when we try to nail something down as one thing or the other that problems start to arise: it's not just that it can be hard to tell which category a given piece should fall into (though it can be), but that it may fall into more than one, or even all three.
The water is considerably muddied by the fact that, in common use, these terms aren't used as set out above, but as commonsense stylistic catch-alls. Everyone knows that orchestral music goes in the box marked 'art music': it's pointless to argue that a particular piece has been written to a commercial imperative, or otherwise transgresses the boundaries described above. Likewise, a piece of electronica will never be classified as folk, or as art music, irrespective of whether it falls outside the category of popular music on all or most of the grounds given above.
Generally, as a shorthand, art music is serious, high culture, made by artists and heard by aesthetes; folk music is rural communal recreation, made together by people without televisions; and popular music is inconsequential fun, made by industrial processes for interchangeable consumers. Art is for the upper and middle classes; folk is for the rural poor; and pop is for the urban masses. Art is boring; folk is obsolete; pop is fun. Art is worthwhile; folk is worthy; pop is worthless.
These categories are often ordered: there's a spurious historicism that says the story went folk > art > pop. There's also a common perspective (among the elite arbiters of cultural value) that there is an order of merit that runs art > folk > pop. It's when looking at the hierarchies and narratives that are articulated around the ideas that it becomes clear why they exist: they represent a theoretical justification for structures that place value in the hands of the powerful. The historical narrative shows art building folk practice into something worthwhile, and popular music diluting and debasing that value. In other words, the artistic practices of the ruling classes are of more merit than those of the governed, and given that the ideological structures that propagate this view extend into the realm of education, it is a paradigmatic, commonsense perspective.
I'm sure it's obvious I don't buy into this taxonomy; the reviews I publish on this site are continually valorizing music from 'popular' and 'folk' styles as art music. While there is some merit in this system, its biggest problem is that it only works in laboratory conditions. All music is made in a way that crosses these boundaries: there is oral transmission everywhere; folk musicians train in conservatories; Romantic symphonies are distributed on CD by the million; experimental rock music is presented as an autonomous aesthetic object. And however much you might want to use these terms according to clear definitions, it's impossible. When the Michael McGoldrick Trio performs a combination of original and traditional Irish tunes, to the accompaniment of a bodhran and an acoustic guitar, they are playing folk music: words are for communicating ideas, and in a non specialist context it would be daft to refer to it as anything else. Nobody would know what you were talking about, although in many ways it's art music, and in other ways it's popular music.
But I do use these terms: if you read my reviews religiously (yeah, right) you'll know I use the term 'art music' to label my perception of creative integrity. The threefold division of musical practice into the artistic, the traditional and the commercial provides some useful tools for thinking about how certain sounds come about, or why certain sounds have certain associations. The ideologies of musical production are described by, but also articulated in, this scheme of the musical universe. The mechanisms of popular music production, in particular, have produced a good deal of essentially disposable music, although session musicians have sometimes amused themselves by injecting a great deal of creative effort into their commercial work (as The Funk Brothers did in the Motown studio). But the styles that have arisen from the history of these musics do not impose those production methods on their adherents, and the vast amount of independently produced music, in styles of rock, electronica, hip-hop and whatever the hell else is not predominantly commercial, mass-produced, widely distributed, or motivated by any urge other than creative self-expression.
Within the communities that make and hear them, many of these popular music styles function as the traditional, orally transmitted practices by which individuals delineate their identities, and there's an argument for calling them the folk musics of the internet age; but no music is made in quite the same conditions of cultural singularity as the traditional musics of the past, and in their efforts to forge an aesthetic statement from the stuff of their experience, their practitioners are making art.
It has happened throughout the history of popular music that serious endeavour has been applied to the making of art from some of its materials. The first time it happened, it happened in such spectacular style that it was impossible for the cultural elite to ignore its new status; it could not be included in an existing category without calling into question the very basis of cultural hierarchy (which is also an economic hierarchy, and so worth defending); so it was given its own category, given the name that had applied to it as a style, but reified into a set of practices, considered to be sufficiently distinct from popular music or art music, and of sufficient merit, to stand somewhere between them in the grand classification of musical types. The awful truth, that most music transgresses these conceptual boundaries, was kept under wraps, and the distribution industry got a new niche market. That music was called jazz.
critical theoryindependent musicmusic businessmusic criticismmusic historymusic newspopular music criticismpopular music history
Previous Previous post: Saturday Summary 019
Next Next post: Music Basti – Monkey On The Roof (world music/ children's)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Plot: It's a new take on the traditional werewolf mythology… Indians and wolves enjoyed a symbiotic utopia of tens of thousands of years, and then the white man came and started killing everything in sight. Some of the survivors of the genocide became a species of uber wolf (Wolfen) that inhabit American cities and thins the pack of human undesirables. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that laconic detective and his hip-hop sidekick (played by Edward James Olmos).
Review: An interesting idea that goes nowhere. For the first five minutes or so, I thought that I was in for an eerie, carefully executed thriller. I was wrong. The 'killer's eye view' effect is simply regular film stock presented in negatives. It's overused and quickly becomes annoying. Painstakingly and painfully slow pacing drags the movie to a crawl from the beginning. The cop's relationship with the police department is nonsensical at best… as is his relationship with reality.
Notable scene: For the first 10 minutes of the A plot, the protagonist talks with food in his mouth. Why?
Munchy Suggestion: Super size Sonic Tots with chili, cheese, bacon, ranch and onions.


text:
Q: Printing on two different printers at different times windows 7 firefox Ok, I am a greeting card maker, and this is what I'm trying to do:  I have two printers.  One is an ink-jet (color, of course).  One is a laser jet that only prints in black.  I need to be able to print a base color layer on the inkjet printer (for the colored elements) and then I need to be able to take that SAME sheet and run it through the laser printer for a detail layer to go on top of the base color design.  The reason being, the detail layer will be foiled with gold foil, and the foiling material will only react with a laser printing. I need these two prints to line up perfectly or at least semi-perfectly.  As of now, it is WAY off... as in my detail layer is way off the mark.
The ink jet is an HP & the laser printer is a Brother.  If there is any additional info needed to assist me, I am happy to provide it.  Thank you!
I'm adding an image to allow you to see what I'm going for -- notice the colored flowers with gold foil accents on top. (this isn't my creation, just an example)here's a link, it won't let me embed

A: Lining the printing up perfectly will prove to be impossible. It all depends on the paper transport in the printers, which never happens twice in exactly the same way - neither on the laser, nor on the inkjet. From the scanned image I can only guess how far the gold layer is shifted. If it's only 2 mm or so then it is probably within the specs of the printer.
Some high-end lasers let you move the image on the page, for the purpose of getting the 2 sides of a duplexed page to line up. If your printer supports that, you can have a play with it and see if it improves things. I do not know of any inkjets that support a similar feature.
What model Brother do you have?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Hotel Riviera is located 80 metres from the beach and 1 km from the historic centre of Limone.
A panoramic position from which it is possible to admire the whole Veronese coast from north to south.
Through the staircase which goes down a few metres from the bar of our hotel, in under 3 minutes, you can access one of the 4 beaches of Limone.
The village and the lake.
Canale di Tenno and its lake.
The visit to the Cascate del Varone provides more observation points from which you can enjoy different scenery.
The La Forra Road is considered "the most beautiful road in the world".
Winston Churchill called it the eighth wonder of the world.
Landscapes and history between Limone, Riva and Gargnano.
Those who choose to see the island are not only visiting a historic home, but are welcomed by a warm family atmosphere which makes them feel more like a guest than a visitor.


I have been a T-mobile G1 user since it launched. I am normally not a "PHONE GEEK" in that I dont need to have the newest phone, but my G1 is really starting to slow down with all the normal apps running.
I have been doing the math to see what the best option is. Since I am an existing t-mobile customer, this is kind of tricky.
I am currently on the 1000 Mins voice Unlimited web/text for 69.99 no contract.
I dont consider the 2 year contract a negitive here as the phone is pretty much useless in the US without t-mobile.(Can be used on ATT with out 3G but what is the point of that?). I am also working my math pretending that I have the 59.99 dollar 500 min plan comes standard from Google.
My additional cost is just the 529 for the phone.
Running the math further there is no sound reason to get the subsidized phone. Everyone is better off buying the phone outright by putting the 529.00 on a credit card that gets 20% interest and paying it off over 2 years This also allows you to get a cheaper plan or use t-mobil's fantastic Family plans.


text:
Follow us Print
About NASCUS
NISCUE
Credit Union Advisory Council
NCUA, more
Accredit-/
Examiner's Certification
Legacy Digital University
Symphony: New On Line University
NASCUS Report
Around the States
Home > News Story Archive >
Board discusses S rating in CAMEL, IRR changes
June 16, 2016 -- A "sensitivity to market risk" component (or an "S") for the NCUA CAMEL rating system likely won't be ready for use "for a few years," the NCUA Board heard during a special board briefing on the proposed, new component. However, no decision has yet been made on whether to proceed.
The briefing was held as part of the regular, open meeting of the NCUA Board Thursday in Alexandria, Va.
Initiating an "S" component was recommended by the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) in a Nov. 13, 2015 report, as well as a revision of the "L" to reflect only liquidity factors, because the current system "may not be effectively capturing interest-rate risk (IRR) when assigning a composite CAMEL rating to a credit union."
However, in the report, the OIG also pointed out that any change to the two components cannot come before the end of 2018, "because the process involves regulation changes, reprogramming of multiple data systems, and revisions to examination policies and procedures."
In a letter to NCUA Board members this week in advance of today's briefing, NASCUS President and CEO Lucy Ito urged the board to adopt the rating for federally insured credit unions "earlier rather than later."
In the letter, Ito wrote that in states that have adopted CAMELS (16 to date, with five more considering it), regulators and credit unions report positive outcomes with nearly no additional regulatory burden. She stated that, in practice, state supervisors have continued to use the same examination procedures for assessing liquidity and interest rate risks. However, she wrote, by rating the "L" and "S" components separately—rather than in a combined component—state regulators have been able to provide better information to credit unions to clearly delineate analysis between liquidity risk and interest rate risks.
In a release, NCUA pointed out that, presently, it assesses interest rate risk as part of the liquidity rating. Federal banking supervisors, however, already include an "S" in the rating system, as do 16 state credit union regulators. Five additional state credit union regulators are working to adopt this approach, the agency noted in the release (citing statistics provided by NASCUS).
At Thursday's briefing, NCUA staff acknowledged use of the S rating by states (and Board Chairman Rick Metsger acknowledged Ito's letter to him and Board Member Mark McWatters). Both Metsger and McWatters indicated that they intend to follow up with Ito and NASCUS about the S rating and states use of it.
During presentation, NCUA staff recommended that the agency solicit comments on both the S rating and on new interest rate risk (IRR) guidelines for credit unions. Those guidelines would establish four risk categories: low, medium, high and extreme. The focus, staff said, would be on the extreme category (although it would rely on credit unions' in-house stress tests).
During a Q&A, Metsger noted the five more state supervisory agencies are now making the move since the board first started talking about IRR. He asked whether under the Administrative Procedures Act NCUA will be required to open the entire CAMEL system to review as a result of adding the S rating. Staff said that's likely.
Additionally, the NCUA Chairman asked if credit unions would receive specific guidance on the new IRR measure and changes in CAMEL. Staff responded that it expects to send a Letter to Credit Unions and attach to it excerpts of the exam scope questions and the guidance sent to examiners. The letter is expected to be sent in late July or early August.
In other action, the NCUA Board:
Approved technical amendments to Part 705 of its rules and regulations regarding its Revolving Loan Fund.
Agreed to a technical change to Part 747 of its rules and regulations related to civil money penalties and adjustments for inflation.
Letter from Lucy Ito to NCUA Board members re: S rating in CAMEL
MORE NEWS, INFORMATION
(June 27, 2019) Bureau adds 3 months to HMDA data points comments
(June 24, 2019) Agencies give final OK to Reg CC adjustments, delay effective date to 2020
(June 11, 2019) Bureau plans first 'symposium' with focus on clarifying meaning of 'abusiveness'
SEE MORE CFPB UPDATES
Kansas credit union legislation enacted (April 17, 2019)
Georgia prize-linked savings legislation passes (April 17, 2019)
New Commissioner of Banking named in South Carolina (Feb. 11, 2019)
Accredit-Certify
State Regulators
Copyright © 2019 National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors
1655 North Fort Myer Drive, Suite 650, Arlington, VA 22209 • Phone (703) 528-8351 • Fax (703) 528-3248


text:
Eva Furtado
The Masiello Group is a full service agency that represents both buyers and sellers in residential as well as commercial real estate transactions. Go with the team that ranked #1 in MLS sales!
Office: 20(749) 029-0024
Rhonda Junkins
Rhonda is a Residential and Relocation Specialist to Southern Maine Lakes and Traditional Historical and Rural Areas. You can reach Rhonda at 207 793-8228.
Cornish, ME Real Estate News
Out and About in the York County/Sanford Lakes Region of Maine, April 22 to 28
By Jon Whitney
(Anne Plummer and Associates)
April 24, 9 a.m. 3-5 Mile Walk MS 2010, The Maine Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society fund raiser to support programs, services and research, food, drinks and great entertainment at the finish line, Consolidated Elementary School, 25 School Street, Kennebunkport. FMI: 800.526.8890, walkmem.nationalmssociety.org. April 24, 4-6 p.m. Baked Ham Supper, to benefit the Old Corner Church, which is located at the corner of Federal Street and West Road in Waterboro, $7/adults, free/ages 10 and under, take-out available, Masonic Hall, Waterboro Road (Route 202), Alfred. FMI: 207.247.3784, www.waterboro-me.net. April 24, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Vines in the Vault, a signature wine-tasting event, sample wines from around the world in the truly unique, behind-the-scenes setting of the Museum's... 05/25/2010
Three Shops in One for Summer Vacationers in the Cornish, Maine Area
Are you in southern Maine on your summer vacation? Maybe suffering from a little cabin/camp/cottage fever in this murky Maine weather? Need to buy a gift - for yourself, or a friend? Find a variety of gift ideas at Rosemary's Gift Shop on Main Street in Cornish, Maine, where there is truly something for everyone. On the first floor of Rosemary's you'll find her Maine Made and Beyond Gift Shop, stock full of a vast assortment of items including angels, baby and toddler gifts, books, bath and body products, candles, a Christmas corner, fishing flies, jams and jellies, games, gift bags, miniatures, moose, paintings and more. Located in the back of the gift shop is the Ice Cream Shop featuring Gifford's Ice Cream. While there, you might get to meet Rosemary's husband. Be sure to ask him abo... 06/26/2009
Explore Cornish, ME
Town Of Cornish
Cornish, ME Real Estate Professionals


text:
To Rail or not to Rail
Maximus January 31, 2008
The Wellington urban class really wants light rail. And why wouldn't they? Light rail is sexy transit…cruise smoothly, comfortably, and quickly to the local tiki bar; no more lurching starts and stops, no more endless waits behind four other buses boarding at the stop on Willis Street, no more fighting with cars for road space.
And so there seems to be a grumbling undercurrent regarding the position of the Ngauranga-to-Airport strategic study report. The report does mention light rail as a possibility, but only as far south as Newtown, and even then it rather clearly leans away from that option. So is the study group accepting kickbacks from the all-powerful Southern and Eastern Suburbs Car Lobby, or is there reason to this recommendation?
Wellington undeniably has a great, dense, transit-oriented corridor, particularly the Golden Mile, but also the greater transit lanes extending southward to Newtown. This corridor boasts an impressive number of riders for a city of Wellington's size. In fact, the ridership is such that, according to various metrics used by transit planners around the world, the corridor nudges the low end of numbers required to justify light rail (based on operational costs, land use efficiency, energy efficiency and other such dry-but-meaningful considerations). Furthermore, the report does note these facts, acknowledging the desire to intensify development (and therefore demand) along that corridor – and recognizing that light rail could be a driving factor to stimulate this development. All of which I'm onboard with…at that high level. But I fear the executive-summary level doesn't describe the situation sufficiently. Let's look a bit deeper at how this density is achieved.
Wellington is not, by and large, a very dense city. However, it has done a pretty brilliant job of concentrating the most desirable places in a compact area. Thanks to its geography, these are laid out in a notably narrow, linear corridor…the Golden Mile and environs. These factors are deserve a lot of credit for making Wellington feel 'citier' than many cities of comparable size.
The central transit corridor carries all the merry Wellingtonians to where they want to go. But—and here's the important bit—where they're coming from is rather likely not on that corridor. The bus network sends tendrils off at various points to collect people from quaint suburbs hither and yon. The great thing about the linear corridor of Stuff that Matters is that there's a good chance that the bus that goes by your house will also go by the place you want to go, exactly because most every bus is tied to this common corridor! Great convenience that.
So, let's now stick light rail into the middle of it. We justified the light rail based on the riders who were on all those buses. If we keep running the buses from Island Bay and Seatoun and Karori as we do today, those riders aren't riding the light rail. Bummer. So let's terminate the bus lines where they hit the light rail and make the riders transfer to continue their trip (which is, in fact, what the study more-or-less says would have to happen). Hooray, the people are on the light rail now! But wait…are they?
The transit-planning field has a technical term to describe transfers: they suck. They take more time, they disrupt your ride, they provide a significant psychological barrier. Witness, for example, the droves of people walking to and from the railway station every day. This can be a decent walk, and there are plenty of buses going there…but people can't be bothered with the hassle (and, to be fair, the additional expense that's imposed today).
I have visions of the same thing happening with light rail. A number of people may not bother with the transfer and just walk the remainder. I fear that a significant number of people would just not bother with the bus at all anymore, and take the car. Things can be done to make the transfer as painless as possible, but the fact remains that it's still a transfer, and my gut tells me that's a big deal.
Compare this to a similar situation in another transit-oriented city. San Francisco has Market Street, a wide, straight swath that cuts diagonally through the centre of the CBD. It is, like the Golden Mile, the main transit spine of the city. Amongst the transit options available are BART, the regional heavy-rail system, running under the street, several light-rail lines that converge into a second tunnel under the street, and a heritage streetcar line on the surface. But there are also tons and tons of plain-old buses, taking off to all parts of the city. San Francisco, at the core of a region an order of magnitude larger than Wellington, has the passengers to fill all these options, but it's important to note that you can take a bus all the way up the street. The light rail (and heavy rail) lines are there because each of them serves a corridor dense enough to support that line on its own.
I've experienced too many fragmented, hodge-podge transit systems in the past, and have seen that it's almost impossible to make them work, or at least work as well as they should work. I'd hate to see Wellington's system become one of them, and so I have a hard time getting behind this light rail proposal at this point in time. Important parts of this conclusion are based on gut feel, and if anybody has evidence to the contrary, I'd love to hear it. I want to want the light rail!
This is emphatically not to say that I think nothing should be done. For my thoughts on where we should head, stay tuned for a future post.
This is the first post in a series on the Ngauranga-to-Airport corridor strategic transport study report, comments on which are due February 22, 2008.
light-rail, ngauranga-to-airport, transit
erentz on February 1, 2008
The report states, "It means that all bus users wishing to travel through the CBD will be required to transfer from bus to light rail in order for light rail to maximise its economic viability."
This is a seriously misleading conclusion that I'm afraid is badly influencing some peoples opinions. The option is there for busses to continue operating in conjuction with light rail. Light rail and busses are *not* mutually exclusive options.
People must remember that the report you've linked to is not the technical report. It is the short interpretation, so it already contains biased opinions. If one reads the report with a preference for intensification in the Growth Nodes and longer term transport planning the light rail option appears to be very well favoured by it. People should provide their feedback based _all_ options, not just whats the various reports.
If people want to know more they should pop along to the meeting at St Johns (cnr Willis & Dixon St), 13th Feb, at 6pm to hear about the options and participate in the discussions if you wish.
Philip on February 2, 2008
I think what Aron is getting at is that light rail and bus transit are certainly not mutually exclusive; but when implemented alongside each other, one (or possibly both) may not able to operate at a viable capacity.
Im not quite as well versed on this as others (Im looking forward to the meeting), but it seems that light rail is obviously a great solution for those that require transit in areas close to the ngaurangi-airport line (which is quite a substantial area).
However if the economic viaibility of the rail relies on people outside of these immediate area making transfers to and from the stations, then it is potentially setting itself up for failure for the reasons Aron outlined.
If light rail it was implemented, I would be curious to see how the bus system adapts. Perhaps the Station and Kilbirnie nodes would become fairly independent, with light rail serving (largely) as the intermediate link. Then, each node could cater more exclusively to the suburbs of its greater area.
Aron on February 2, 2008
I have also read the technical report, which discusses the same issue and reaches similar conclusions. I understand that it's not a technical limitation preventing buses and light rail from running on the same corridor; it is, as Philip says, an economic consideration.
Yes, the report does speak of light rail viability in the longer term, the development of which would be eased by creation of the transit corridor (whatever vehicles ride on it at the time). My wording at the end of the post was meant to be rather precise: I have a difficult time with *this* light rail proposal at *this* time.
There are other light rail possibilities that sound very promising, which I intend to write about shortly.
Thanks for the heads-up about the meeting; I'll try to make it.
Stephen on February 5, 2008
I realise it's about Auckland, and buses, but this story seems like a salutary demonstration of the issues with transfers and ticketing.
Thats a great link, having recently taken a few buses around Auckland, there was a lot of room for improvement.
Its sounds like things are far from great, but hopefully a lot of the issues dealt with in the article are just growing pains or policy issues that can be overcome
Eye of the Fish » Light Rail Redux on February 8, 2008
[…] my last post, I expressed concerns with the light-rail proposal as detailed in the Ngauranga-to-Airport (N2A) […]
Fly my Pretty Roofs!
A New Farm for Ohariu


1916-The United States closes out its tour of Sweden and Norway with a 2-1 win over AIK Djurgardens in Stockholm.
1976- A Detroit record crowd of 23,682 at the Silverdome sees the New York Cosmos defeat the Dallas Tornado 3-2 on an overtime goal by Nelsi Morais.
1976-Boris Bandov scores for the United States in a 2-1 loss to Millonarios in Bogota, Colombia.
1981-Branko Segota scores two goals as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers advance to the NASL semi-finals with a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Kicks at the Metrodome.
2006-Landon Donovan and Alan Gordon score first-half goals as the LA Galaxy beat the Houston Dynamo 3-1 in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal at Home Depot Center.
2006-Paolo Guerrero scores in the 76th minute to give Peru a 1-1 draw with Ecuador in an international friendly at Giants Stadium.
2008-Clint Dempsey scores the only goal as the United States, playing in Havana for the first time in 61 years, wins a World Cup qualifier 1-0 over Cuba.
2009-Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey score as the U.S. overcomes an early deficit to beat El Salvador 2-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
2008-Guillermo Barros Schelotto has a goal and two assists as the Columbus Crew emphatically stake their claim to first place in the MLS East, walloping the New England Revolution 4-0 in front of 16,918 at Crew Stadium.
2011-The United States loses its second straight game under new coach Jurgen Klinsmann, 1-0 to Belgium at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.
2012-The Houston Dynamo earn a dramatic 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake at BBVA Compass Stadium after Colin Clark smashes a penalty kick into the net four minutes into stoppage time, extending Houston's home unbeaten streak to 22 regular season home games to equal the Columbus Crew for the second longest streak in MLS history.
2013-Costa Rica sprints out to an early two-goal advantage in front of a loud, enthusiastic and boisterous crowd and recorded a 3-1 victory over the United States before a capacity crowd of 35,000 at Estadio Nacional.
2015-Atiba Harris and David Texeira each have a goal and an assist as FC Dallas blanks Columbus Crew SC 3-0 at MAPFRE Stadium, their first victory in the Ohio capital since October 2007.
2016-Jozy Altidore sets a U.S. World Cup qualifying record with his 15th and 16th goals, and Christian Pulisic becomes the youngest player to start in a qualifier for the team as the U.S. takes a 4-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago before a 19,410 crowd at Everbank Field in Jacksonville.


A SHOWDOWN could occur at the annual meeting tomorrow as firms that advise large shareholders and activist groups are urging shareholders to withhold votes from several directors." So wrote Julie Creswell on Wednesday, in her detailed front-page article in The New York Times about the compensation package of Robert L. Nardelli, the chief executive of Home Depot.
This was a showdown I didn't want to miss. Mr. Nardelli, you see, has become this year's version of Mr. Overpaid C.E.O. He's earned this status, in part, by the sheer sum of money his board has awarded him in the five years since he was recruited from General Electric to take over Home Depot: $245 million, including $37.1 million just this last year. At the same time, Home Depot's stock has fallen 12 percent, while shares of its chief competitor, Lowe's, have risen 173 percent. You've heard of pay for performance? This is the classic definition of pay for pulse.
But as Ms. Creswell's article made clear, these facts barely begin to get at the richer story that is the Home Depot scandale. There's the lead director, Kenneth G. Langone, who's never met a chief executive he doesn't want to overpay. The cozy board. The other overpaid chief executives who sit on the Home Depot compensation committee, who have every incentive to keep lining Mr. Nardelli's pockets because his good fortune will rebound to them as well. Mr. Nardelli's compensation illustrates precisely what is so offensive about C.E.O. pay: it's a rigged game. Heads I win, tails you lose.
So I hopped on a train Wednesday night, and headed to Wilmington, Del., where the Home Depot meeting was being held. In all honesty, I cannot characterize what I saw the next day as a showdown. But it certainly was a show.
9:15 A.M.: I see a man in a chicken suit holding a sign. He's part a small group protesting Mr. Nardelli's pay package on behalf of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers. Unions like the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and government workers union have taken aim at executive pay in recent years, and have gotten shareholder proposals on the proxies at many companies. This year, the government workers' union has put forward a proposal calling for the Home Depot board to allow shareholders to hold an advisory vote on the compensation committee's report. The union is also among those urging shareholder to withhold votes from the directors as a way of protesting Mr. Nardelli's pay.
"Home Depot is a classic case of a board being nonresponsive to shareholders," says Richard Ferlauto, who is the union's director of pension investment policy. As I walk into the hotel where the meeting is taking place, I can hear the protesters chanting, "Hey Bob, why are you chicken/while the stock price takes a lickin'?"
9:45 A.M.: The ballroom doors finally open and a few shareholders and reporters trickle in. But where are all the Home Depot people? The corporate officers? The middle managers? Maybe a few local store managers who might be asked to stand up and take a bow? Nowhere to be seen. There are a few public relations people here and there, helpfully explaining why Mr. Nardelli really, really, really deserves all that money, but otherwise what I mainly see are big, strong men, some wearing Home Depot aprons, who look as if they could be bouncers at a rowdy club. Here's something else strange. In the front of the room, facing the audience, I see two large digital timers. It also seems odd that there is only one seat on each side of the podium. Where are the board members going to sit?
10 A.M.: Mr. Nardelli takes the podium, and the meeting is under way. He is accompanied by two people who sit in the seats next to him — and no one else. Suddenly, we all understand what's going on: the board isn't coming to the annual meeting! In all my years as a business reporter, I have never seen that before. As Charles Elson, the corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware, will tell me the next morning: "Your one obligation as a director is to show up at the annual meeting. The fact that the directors didn't show up is disgusting."
The first item on the agenda, Mr. Nardelli says, is the election of directors. He invites comments from shareholders. "Questions are limited to one minute and one person," he adds. Sure enough, when the first person gets up to speak, the timer starts counting down. The timer is another new one for me.
"I have a question about board independence and conflicts," says the first questioner — and then proceeds to rattle off a few of the conflicts that afflict the Home Depot board. "What steps will the board take to address these conflicts?" he asks.
"This is not the forum in which to address these comments," Mr. Nardelli replies.
Mr. Ferlauto steps to the microphone. Again, the timer starts counting down. "If the candidates are up for election, can we be introduced to them?" he asks.
"They are not in attendance today," Mr. Nardelli says.
"I think it is absolutely outrageous that the board is not here," Mr. Ferlauto retorts. "The board is too chicken to face the shareholders." As he speaks, the timer hits zero — and the microphone is shut down. Mr. Ferlauto continues speaking. Two of those big burly men take a step toward him. He sits down.
10:10 A.M. : The meeting moves to its next phase — the pleadings on behalf of the shareholder proposals. There are eight in all. This time, the speakers are allowed all of three minutes to make their case.
Mr. Ferlauto jumps up to discuss his union's proposal that shareholders be allowed an advisory vote on executive pay. He goes through the litany of Mr. Nardelli's compensation abuses: the guaranteed bonuses, the $10 million loan that costs the shareholders $21 million because the company pays the tax on it, and so on. When he has finished, Mr. Nardelli replies matter-of-factly, "The board recommends you reject this proposal."
Two speakers later, a shareholder named Sam Yake stands up to talk about his proposal to have Home Depot separate the job of chief executive and chairman of the board, a practice that many companies have instituted over the last few years. But Mr. Yake is so mad he doesn't really want to talk about his proposal. "I love Home Depot," he says. "I came here wanting to buy more stock. But I am totally offended by the way you are conducting this meeting. Are we even going to have an opportunity to ask questions?"
Mr. Nardelli refuses to answer the question about asking questions. "If this is the way you are conducting this meeting, I can see why G.E. didn't pick you." He storms off.
"The board recommends you reject this proposal," Mr. Nardelli says.
Next up: A woman from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, which has offered a nonbinding proposal calling for Home Depot to require its directors to get a majority of the shareholder votes to remain on the board. Currently, directors who run unopposed — as they invariably do — could have 99 percent of the votes withheld and still be re-elected as a director. This change to majority vote is also something many companies have begun to adopt.
"Thank you, Catherine," Mr. Nardelli says when she finishes. "The board recommends that you reject this proposal."
And so it goes. "This is really disturbing," says one man, referring to the way Mr. Nardelli is conducting the meeting. "It really reflects what we have been reading in the press about the style of this board." The room bursts into applause.
"Thank you," Mr. Nardelli says. "The board recommends that you reject this proposal."
Then, the proposals finished, Mr. Nardelli asks the bouncers to hand out voting cards to anyone who wants to vote. But of course the overwhelming majority of shareholders have already voted — and Mr. Nardelli can't even be bothered to wait for those in the room to hand in their votes.
"It appears that each of the directors has been selected for a one-year term," he says. "A majority of shareholders have supported management recommendations"— except, he quickly adds, No. 6, the one concerning majority vote. "Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our meeting." And just like that, he's gone.
10:37 A.M. I look down at my watch and I suddenly realize, Mr. Nardelli did not even tell his shareholders what the vote totals were, nor did he divulge how well the shareholder proposals did. It's mind-boggling. As for the proposal about majority vote — the one the company actually lost — it seems pretty unlikely that Mr. Nardelli and the rest of the board will abide by the wishes of the company's shareholders. If there is one thing the meeting proved, it is that they don't much care what their shareholders think.
Afterward, the words on people's mouths are "appalling," "disgraceful" and "arrogant." I would add one more: contemptuous. I'm sure there are plenty of boards and chief executives who have contempt for their shareholders, but most of them are at least smart enough to keep it to themselves. On Thursday morning, in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Nardelli and the Home Depot board let the world know exactly how it feels about the people for whom they are supposed to work.
One other thing: late yesterday, Home Depot issued a statement that said in part, "While we understand that the approach we took to the annual meeting was a departure from past practice, it should in no way be construed as either a lack of respect for our shareholders or a lessening of our commitment to high standards of corporate governance and transparency."
Apparently, Mr. Nardelli and the Home Depot board think their shareholders are stupid, too.


The following commentaries (blogs and photo-essays) contribute to a special series on the political ecology of extractive industries as they intersect with indigenous communities. Whether battles taking place are over oil and gas in Bolivia, Ecuador, or Canada, indigenous peoples are often at the forefront in efforts to "keep the oil in the ground" as a strategy to mitigate the ecological and social impacts of fossil fuel extraction. This is particularly relevant in the context of climate change. As of December 1, 2014, governments, civil society and industry have convened in Lima Peru to chart a way forward on climate change. It is also the first time the Conference of the Parties (COP) climate meeting will take place in an Amazon country. Questions of indigenous rights and oil extraction are bound to be discussed and negotiated. The work of political ecologists such as the ones contributing below can clarify some of these complex issues regarding extractive industries and indigenous peoples.


While we take our work seriously, we know that there needs to be time to unwind and enjoy our jobs. MyOrderDesk can be as fun as any Web-to-Print available, but we love to kick it up a notch. Each week we publish informative content that is enjoyable and informative. Give it a look and share if you are so inspired.


"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."
Why is it that a famous person's death brings clarity about our own mortality? During my recent visit to Palm Springs, I was inspired to explore the concept of time and mortality while taking pictures at the larger-than-life statute of the late Marilyn Monroe. This icon, as you know, died quite young. But in her short time, Ms. Monroe said some pretty powerful things.
I realized that she may have understood that her time was limited and that every life experience has some deeper and richer lesson when we contemplate it within the context of time and mortality.
Radical acceptance of what is and what will inevitably be can change how we live in the world – and how we choose to approach the things we can change. There's a dynamic paradigm shift happening here and now around the topic of mortality and how it informs our lives. Isn't it interesting that at the tail end of 2013 at least two major TV shows tackled this sacred exploration of death?
It seems quite natural for us to fear the unknown, especially about death. But many teachers who specialize in Personal Death Awareness share the multiple health benefits of deepening our ability to tolerate and even overcome the discomfort around the topic. In some ways, denying death is a form of adult magical thinking and can lead to aggressive and destructive behavior. On the other hand, a grounded acceptance of death as a part of life offers us a precious perspective on how abundant life can be. Beyond the fear, there's an opportunity to cherish all aspects of our lives.
In an earlier MINDFUL CHATTER entry I offered several practices and disciplines that anyone can develop to create this evolved relationship with time.
So, what are you doing to enhance the finite number of minutes, days, months, or years as we enter 2014? Can you take some of that time to devote to exploring your own fear or fascination with death?
Here are a few books and a few movies that might be a place to start.
Yoga, yoga therapy, and other healing modalities can also help you develop and share your thoughts and feelings about death and dying.
Ken is full of energy and love - you can feel that being around him and in his class. Come check it out.


"Sisters and brothers of America!" – this opening invocation of Swami Vivekananda was followed by thunderous applause. It was 9/11, 1893. Chicago Art Institute was the venue for World Parliament of Religions, celebrating 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the New World. The young Vedantic went on to greet the youngest nation in the world on behalf of the most ancient order of monks in the world. At a stage, where every speaker was bent upon claiming superior status for his own religion or sect, Vivekananda humbly submitted that no religion was superior and all the streams would meet eventually in the ocean. He struggled very hard to cross half the world and reach Chicago uninvited. But finally when his moment came, Swami Vivekananda became the cynosure of all eyes. This epoch-making speech would soon open the door for Indian philosophy and religion in the West and help to pave the way for revitalization of Hinduism back home.
For the next two years Vivekananda gave public lectures and private classes in the USA on Hinduism, Indian philosophy and Yoga. This was West's first direct introduction to Indian spirituality. Before him only a handful of academicians in the West were acquainted with these subjects. Through Vivekananda, common people for the first time came to realize India's great spiritual wealth. Till then India was regarded as a backward colony, where – they thought – the only way of salvation was to send more missionaries to spread the message of Christ. On the other hand, a new generation aware of the strains caused by materiality of industrialization and mass urbanization found solace in Vivekananda's teachings. As Romain Rolland – the great French writer and biographer of both Ramakrishna and Vivekananda – was to write later, the impact of Vivekananda's lectures was simply electrifying. From the USA, he travelled twice to England in 1895 and 1896. He met some of the great thinkers of his age in London and also attracted a large number of followers. When he travelled back to India, a number of them came along with him – one of them was Margaret Elizabeth Noble, Sister Nivedita, who would stay back to promote women's education in India.
On May 1, 1897, when Ramakrishna Mission was formally inaugurated at Belur, it had three units – Belur, Ramakrishna Mission of Madras and Vedanta Society New York, which Swamiji founded back in 1894. Very few people know that almost the entire Belur Math was built through the donation of Swamiji's select western pupils. Even today Ramakrishna Mission, which has its branches in 20 countries outside India, has maximum number of centres outside India in the USA. Unlike in India, where Ramakrishna Mission centres typically combine education and social service with promotion of Vedantic philosophy and classical culture; centres in the US solely focus on philosophy and culture. Today transcendental meditation, Yoga, Indian philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist religions are some of the strongest points in enhancing India's soft power quotient in the West. Many Indian religious teachers and organizations have since followed the same path to their Western audiences but it was the pioneering mission of Swami Vivekananda to introduce spiritual India in the West.
It was his reception in the West, which brought the spotlight on him back home. He sailed abroad at a time, when others were busy in deciding the punishment for kalapani for a monk. When he came back triumphant, a subjugated nation found her confidence in his success. In Sri Aurobindo's language, Vivekananda awakened India spiritually. This awakening came in the context of emerging nationalism and helped young people of India to find their inspiration in their civilization. Like all great Indians of his generations – Rabindranath, Jamshedji Tata – Vivekananda was greatly inspired by the success of Japan. In Japanese success they saw India's future. On one side, Vivekananda acknowledged India's past greatness but on the other hand he was equally pained to see ignorance and poverty all around. He was unwavering in his belief that the only way to rescue this country was through education and science and technology – nanyah pantha vidyathe ayanaya. Impressed by this young sadhu, when his co-passenger Jamshedji Tata offered him a large amount for his math, Swamiji asked him to build a scientific institution with that money – this led to the foundation of Indian Institute of Science, IISc Bangalore.


ecofective Cat & Dog Repellent Crystals are highly scented to help retrain Cats & Dogs not to foul in areas of your garden.
Ready to use gel crystals for retraining Cats & Dogs from fouling in areas of your garden.
In garden areas to retrain.
Ready to use squeeze bottle.
Ready to use gel crystals for retraining Cats & Dogs from fouling in areas of your garden. Use biocides safely. Always read the label and product information before use. Keep out of reach of children & pets.
Treats up to 51 square metres.


Loaded home with gas fireplace, Dormered Bonus room plus 3 bedrooms 2.5 bath. Master bath double sinks, walk in closet. Hardwood first floor thru-out plus stairs and hall up. All Stainless Steel appliances and granite thru-out. Island in kitchen and more....Last one left.


Talhenbont Hall on the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales dates back to 1607, when it was used as a garrison for Cromwell's army, and has a fascinating history. The property now offers an estate of 75 acres and five restored cottages which are used as holiday lets. The main manor house itself has been sympathetically restored over the past 30 years and retained much of its period charm, including oak-panelled rooms, superb fireplaces and its coat of arms.
Internally the reception rooms are elegantly arranged around the reception hall, and many have high decorative ceilings and let in lots of light. Upstairs is ample bedroom accommodation with six bedrooms on the first floor and four attic rooms, two of which are substantial.
In the grounds are five self-catering cottages which also retain character features like timber beams and exposed stone walls, and operate as a holiday lets business.
The gardens and grounds are an undisputed feature of the property and include a Japanese water garden, water fowl, roaming peacocks, outdoor chess, a putting green and a tennis court. The Afon Dwyfach river flows for a mile ad a half through the grounds and provides double bank fishing as well as running over a series of waterfalls in a ravine through the ancient woodlands; it's also a designated habitat for otters. Deep and shallow pools harbour salmon and trout throughout the season and there is rough shooting in the woodlands.
A coach house sits next to the manor house, as does a loose box and other outbuildings. Talhenbont Hall enjoys a magnificent location in the heart of the very pretty Lleyn Peninsular, on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park and within easy reach of Criccieth, Abersoch and the sea.
The guide price is £1.5m. For further information please contact Carter Jonas on 01248 362536 or visit www.carterjonas.co.uk.


text:
7 Signs Your Boyfriend Doesn't Want to Get Married
Updated on March 7, 2017
Jorge Vamos
Jorge doesn't want to get married, so he knows how other men feel and can hopefully show you a bit of insight that will help save you time.
Resisting the Ball and Chain: How to Tell If He Doesn't Want to Get Married
Do you want to get married, but your boyfriend doesn't seem all that interested in the prospect of holy matrimony? Does he seem uncomfortable with the idea of marriage and never notices when you hint that he should propose?
Before you get angry and call him "immature" to your friends, you have to consider that there are plenty of reasons why your boyfriend may not want to get married. For one, divorce rates in the developed world are sky high, and that's a huge risk for him.
He also might not want to give up the freedom that he has right now, and you can't really blame him for that. Growing older and becoming more mature does not automatically mean that someone should get married.
Still, you can never be sure how he feels about marriage unless you ask him. Here are some signs that he's really not into it, though:
1) He Says, "We Don't Need a Piece of Paper"
This is a common line. He might say that your relationship doesn't need to have a "piece of paper" from the government to make it official or meaningful.
And you know what? He has a point. And I'm not just saying that because I've used this line myself (even though I have). If your primary motive for getting married had to do with deepening the relationship, then you wouldn't need some document to make it real for you. Even many of the protections that come with marriage can be had through domestic partnerships or other contracts.
The real reasons most people want to get married don't have much to do with the internals of the relationship, so much as external factors. It usually comes down to two things:
You want to do what society expects, whether you realize it or not. There are lots of silent pressures to get married and many people act like your life isn't "complete" until you're married.
You want to tie your partner down and make it harder for him to easily leave you.
If either or both of the above aren't part of your motive for wanting to get married, then you are a rare person indeed. Chances are, though, that you do have these motives and your partner simply does not.
So it's not so much that you don't need "a piece of paper"--obviously nobody needs it--it's simply that he just doesn't want to get married.
An engagement bike is better than a ring.
2) He is Hesitant to Live With You
Usually, people who have been together for a few years will eventually move in together. If it's been awhile and he's been resisting, then he probably isn't going to want to get married, either. Obviously, most married people live with each other, so if he isn't willing to take that first big step, chances are good that he won't be into taking the huge, "forever" step.
An exception to this is if he's extremely religious and he doesn't want to shack up and "live in sin" before marriage, but if these are his reasons, he's probably mentioned it before.
The fact of the matter is that most men like their space. They like to have their own room with their own things and the thought of giving a woman control over this is distasteful. The only times they will be willing to compromise on this is if they intend to be with the woman over the long-term and they see the woman as possible marriage material.
3) He Laughs at His Married Friends
Does your boyfriend make a lot of negative comments whenever one of his buddies gets married--even if in jest?
Does he say things like, "Oh man, we lost another one!" Does he lament that his friend is now "tied down" and that they'll never be able to hang out again?
Your boyfriend could be projecting his own desires onto his friend. If he says things like this, he probably sees marriage as more of a burden than an asset. It could also be that he doesn't like his friend's spouse, but if he shows a consistent distaste for marriage, even when his friends marry good women, then he probably isn't too keen on getting married himself.
Watching the world go by.
4) He Doesn't Want Children
For a lot of men who otherwise wouldn't want to get married, what finally motivates them to agree to tie the knot is that they want to have a family. If your man has absolutely no interest in having children or building a family, though, the chances of his being interested in marriage will be lower.
Marriage offers a stable basis for a family, but if he plans to keep things going with just the two of you, why would you need to get married?
If you want children and a family, but he doesn't, don't try to convince him. Don't tell yourself that "he'll change" when he's older. Maybe he will, and maybe he won't. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people in this world who have no interest in ever having children, and it's not your place to try to change them. In fact, if you push him into it against his better judgement and he ends up having children that he didn't want, it could be a disaster.
You're much better off looking for someone else to marry if you truly want a family and he doesn't.
Some people don't want kids. Everyone wants a hammock, though.
5) He Says He Wants to Keep His "Options Open"
Yeah, a guy doesn't want to get married if he says this. Actually, he might not even want to be in a long-term, monogamous relationship!
And you know what? That's fine...if you know what you're getting into. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that you can change his mind. You may be great and everything, and he may love you, but that has nothing to do with his desire to commit.
Even a man who is madly in love with you may have other plans for his life and may be resistant to being tied down. Granted, most men are not like this, and will eventually propose to a woman if they fall in love, but there are people out there who allow other aspects of their lives to take precedence over their romantic relationships instead. This may be hard for you to believe if the idea of getting married and having a family has always been a goal of yours, but not all people feel this way.
6) He is Evasive When You Bring Up the Future
If you keep hinting at marriage or even just boldly bringing it up, but he acts dismissive or changes the subject, then he doesn't want to get married. He's just being polite about it and doesn't want to damage the relationship by telling you upfront that he's not interested.
Try a few times to get a clear answer from him, and you may be able to get a forced yes or no. However, if he's still evasive and you simply MUST get married, then consider ending the relationship. He probably doesn't want to be with someone who would view the relationship as a waste of time if it didn't end in marriage, anyway.
7) All of His Past Relationships Were Short
Finally, if he seems to have a casual attitude in general about relationships with women, and all his "long-term" ones were relatively short (one or two years), then he's probably not interested in getting married any time soon.
It could be that he's waiting until he's a little older, but who knows when he will come around. Take your chances if you must, but don't expect him to change.
Confronting and Asking Him
After much consideration, if you decide that marriage honestly is in your future, you might want to explain this to your boyfriend. A good relationship is built on honesty and communication, after all.
If he reacts badly or admits that he doesn't want to get married, then at least you'll know where you stand. I caution you here, though: Do not act judgmental if it turns out that he doesn't want marriage right now. Far too many women try to guilt men into marriage by telling them that they aren't "real men" until they've committed or that they are somehow immature for not wanting to get married.
Not only is this insulting to people who genuinely have no interest in marriage, but it is unlikely to motivate him. Even if somehow he feels that you're right and forces himself into a marriage like many people do, then it will almost certainly end badly because he married for the wrong reasons.
There is nothing wrong with feeling that marriage is not for you. A man is not taking anything away from you by simply wanting to date you or be in a relationship with no intention for marriage. He is not refusing to "buy the cow because the milk is free," as some people say--because you are not a cow, and he could get "milk" anywhere to be honest.
So don't listen to people who peer pressure you into judging him. Don't listen to friends who subtly insult him for not giving you his commitment. If a relationship with no chance of marriage doesn't work for you, then it simply doesn't work for you personally, and that's it. You don't owe each other anything, and there's nothing wrong with gracefully bowing out.
The Marriage Question
Do you think your boyfriend will ask you to marry him?
© 2017 Jorge Vamos
Signs Your New Girlfriend or Boyfriend Doesn't Like Your Kids
by Thor7362
Why Is My Boyfriend So Clingy? 7 Reasons Your Man Is Suffocating You
by Jorge Vamos2
Second Marriage? The "Should I Get Married Again?" Checklist
by Dr Billy Kidd11
How to Tell If A Guy Doesn't Like You: 10 Signs That Let You Know He Isn't Interested
by crankalicious23
How to Make Your Boyfriend More Confident: Getting a Shy Guy out of His Shell
by princesswithapen3
614+ Cute Nicknames for Girls & Guys
Attracting a Mate
8 Reasons You Should Text Him First and Make the First Move
How to Recognize If He Is Interested in You
Yes, those are good points as well, dashingscorpio. As guys, we kind of want to "sow our wild oats" so to speak, and if we've only been with the same girl for years, there's going to be a natural curiosity. I imagine women feel this as well to some extent, though.
Excellent article!
"1.You want to do what society expects, whether you realize it or not. There are lots of silent pressures to get married and many people act like your life isn't "complete" until you're married.
2.You want to tie your partner down and make it harder for him to easily leave you."
Those are often valid points. In other instances I imagine peer pressure from watching friends and siblings getting married plays a part as well.
There are two basic reasons why a man doesn't propose marriage.
1. Timing (He's happy with things as they are and has other priorities.)
2. You are not "the one".
According to statistics by age 44 over 85% of men have been married at least once. And now that there is "marriage equality" odds are that percentage will be going up. Therefore whomever a woman finds herself dating there is a very high chance he will be getting married to someone!
In the U.S. it's been reported the average age a person loses their virginity is age 17 with the average age of a first time bride being 27 and for grooms 29.
Therefore on average a person will have over 10 years of sexual experience before getting married. Odds are most people are not going to marry the first person they ever had sex with or maintain a courtship for 10 or more years of monogamy prior to marriage.
Unlike women most men didn't grow up pretending to be fathers, pushing dolls around in baby strollers, feeding and changing dolls, decorating Ken & Barbie's Playhouse, or dreaming of being a princess and living happily ever after as in a fairytale.
There is no such thing as a "Groomzilla".
Simply put most women have thought about their wedding day long before men gave marriage any serious thought!
This in my opinion goes back to the "timing" issue.
If on some subconscious level since the age 7 a girl has been pretending to be a wife and mother by age 22 she would have had 15 years to dream about (her) wedding day.
On the other hand the average 20 something year old guy either just moved out of his parent's basement or a college dorm room. His focus is on pursuing career goals, partying with friends, watching sports, playing video games, and getting laid.
The last thing on their mind is becoming their parents!
The very thought of getting married, signing a 30 year mortgage, and having children is like watching their lives flash before their eyes!
Men also don't have any real "biological clock" so there is no real urgency.
A young woman in her 20s who wants to get married would probably do better to date men in their late 20s or early 30s who have never been married.
One final piece of advice forget about hooking up with him early on at age 19 or 20 with the idea that in 7 or 10 years he's going to propose.
Most men crave an exploration period. If you're the only girl he's had sex with since high school odds are at some point he's going want to know what it's like to be with someone different.
It's not unheard of for a guy to end a long-term relationship of several years and turn around to get engaged to another woman in a year or less.
Clearly it proves he didn't have a "fear of commitment".
The timing was right or he felt he finally met "the one"!


The much raved about Tangle Teezer brush is now in Pakistan thanks to Super Brands International. I got two of these bad boys to test and I thought, 'eh? that looks like a toy. Why was everyone going crazy over this?" Then something even crazier happened . . .
This product caught me by surprise. I had serious doubts about a little plastic tool which seems like it's being sold for more than what it "looks" like. So whats is it that makes it a big OMG? Honestly, the actual brand's website doesn't say much about HOW it does it, but, it does it!
I have fine, wavy, silky hair so it is always tricky to detangle them. Wet, damp or dry they are a nightmare, no matter how careful I am. I recently got Balayage and then Extreme Ombre in my hair so the hair texture also varies, from root to tip, which actually leads to more tangles! Tough right?
There are several variants of Tangle Teezers; The original, Compact Styler, Salon Elite, Aqua Splash and even one for baby girls called Magic Flower pot. I got two different types of Tangle Teezers to test; the Original and the Salon Elite. Other than the original being pink and the elite being blue pink the only difference, I experienced, was a slightly different shape (unless there is a hidden secret!). You can read about the rest of the variants HERE. I tested both on wet hair, damp hair as well as dry hair. I don't know how it de-tangles, but it was so smooth that I gasped with excitement. I am seriously in love with this hair brush. Many claim that its the same as a paddle brush but believe me, I have a paddle brush and it ain't no Tangle Teezer.
Maybe it's the way the teeth on the comb are laid out, who knows. I am simply amazed by such a simple thing doing so much in no time. the detangling leads to no hair fall or breakage either.
It's light, sturdy and made of plastic so you can wash it easily or even take it into the shower (not that I would recommend).
Tangle Teezer Elite from Bianco16 on Vimeo.
These de-tangling cuties were just launched so at the moment only available at Amethyst Spa, Karachi but will be available soon in all leading salons in Pakistan. The Original retails at PKR. 1,700/- and the Salon Elite for PKR. 1,850/- For online purchase you can always check their WEBSITE.
Looks like an interesting product! :D Thanks for sharing!
it is a super cool product!


text:
Coldplay's Chris Martin Reveals If He Believes in Aliens (EXCLUSIVE)
The frontman opens up about extraterrestrial life, Coldplay's new era and his love of BTS.
PopCrush Staff
Kesha, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran + More to Perform at Elton John Tribute Concert
See some of your faves tackle Elton John classics at this star-studded TV special.
Dana Getz
With 'American Idol' Set to Return, 10 Industry Insiders Who'd Make Perfect Judges
Shania Twain's got the personality, Jack Antonoff's worked with every big name and why shouldn't original winner Kelly Clarkson consider another shot with the show?
The Most Charitable Celebrities of 2015
From Ed Sheeran to Christina Aguilera, some of our favorite celebs helped make a difference by giving back in 2015.
Gwyneth Paltrow And Ex-Husband Chris Martin Team Up On New Coldplay Track
The track is called "Everglow," and Gwyneth isn't the only surprise vocal guest...
What Is TIDAL? Jay Z's New Music Service Gets Help From High-Profile Friends
Jay Z's new music streaming site, TIDAL, is getting a huge boost from some big-name celebrities.
Ali Szubiak
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin Break Up
According to E! News, it looks like Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin have called it quits on their four-month relationship.
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin Enjoy Dinner Date in Beverly Hills
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin were spotted dining together in Beverly Hills on Monday, Sept. 8.
Maggie Malach
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin Reportedly Dating
We'll admit it -- we never saw this couple coming! If reports are to be believed, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin have started seeing each other.
Gwyneth Paltrow Gets Temporary Restraining Order Against Alleged Stalker
Gwyneth Paltrow is taking no shortcuts when it comes to protecting her family. The actress has secured a temporary restraining order guarding her family's safety from an alleged stalker who has been bugging her in two different countries.


Student loan debt has grown 250% in the last 10 years, according to a report by the consumer spending site ValuePenguin. Why should employers care?
The student loan debt of your employees can impact their stress and productivity, and the financial burden can reduce participation in benefits like 401(k) plans, life insurance and disability plans, voluntary benefits and even health insurance. Providing student loan repayment assistance is one way employers are improving their recruiting strategies and employee well-being to drive results.
Employer-provided loan repayment assistance is still relatively new and untested, but 45% of millennials say they would change jobs if this benefit was offered, according to a recent Gallup survey. Therefore, employers are using various benefits strategies to address employees whose ability to save for retirement and weather financial crises are affected by student loan debt.
In this session, tune in to learn about the data driving the demand for this benefit, advantages of evolving your benefit strategy to be flexible with a diverse workforce and how you can help your employees on the road to financial wellness.


I am a little late posting this.
Last week, I had bought a chicken at the supermarket for the vindaloo that turned out to be no good, but I had a very large chicken in the freezer, so I made a roast chicken and used leftovers to make vindaloo instead, which was a lot more frugal and came out excellent. So the chili has been moved to this week.
I am a little late posting this since our schedule has been up in the air this week; the Friday meal may change depending on plans.
The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread: More Than 200 Wheat-Free Recipes was a book that sounded promising, so I took it out of the library. There are definitely some good recipes in here, but the big disappointment was a lot of the recipes use odd ingredients and don't seem to offer an alternative: most recipes use egg replacer (which contains potato starch if you are avoiding potatoes), many recipes use powdered milk, and some recipes call for nut meal (which is bad if one is allergic to nuts). There was no reasoning for why these ingredients were used, leaving it as a sort of magic instead of science. I tried a few recipes that call for egg replacer by substituting an egg and then using less water, and it seemed to work, but required a little bit of math to do.
I did make the cinnamon raisin English muffins, and they were a hit. The non gluten-free members of the household enjoyed them, and toasted with a little goat cheese I felt almost like I was eating a cinnamon raisin bagel. There is a foccacia recipe I would like to try, a few bagel recipes, a pita recipe, and some crumpet recipes, as well as a recipe for graham crackers.
The big hits from this were the hot cross buns, French bread (it came out a little flat when I did the subs, but it was very tasty and was great with French onion soup), and pizza crust. The pizza crust (modified recipe) has to be the best gluten free pizza crust I have tried, in that it is the closest to "real" pizza crust. The various other substitute crusts that I have tried are good, but they don't taste like regular crust.
One thing that she does (which is annoying to just try one recipe but handy if you do a lot of baking) is offer a set of different types of mixes that you prepare, and then different breads are made from different types of mixes. This means some of the annoying measuring ingredients can be done ahead of time. None of the regular loaf breads seemed to appeal to me enough to try, but I probably will try them one of these days.
At the end of the day, if you are an experienced baker and don't mind experimenting with substitution (or don't have any issues besides gluten), I recommend this book, if only for the pizza recipe.
I keep meaning to post and things have been so hectic. I have a bunch of recipes that need to be typed up. I am trying to get back into the swing of posting, so I will start fresh with the meal plan for this week. The weather is cold this week, so it's nice to have a lot of warm meals planned.


text:
Here is a summary of article I thought you might be interested in. Psychiatry turned to drugs to treat depression to eliminate the competition, Robert Whitaker "[T]here is a historical story as to why our country is deluded, our society is deluded, and believes in this chemical imbalance story [of depression]" according to author and journalist Robert Whitaker as he noted in a 2010 interview that he did with Joseph Mercola, DO. Whitaker noted that in the 1970's, psychiatry felt like it was under siege because there were non-MD's — social workers, counselors, psychologists — who were all competing for the same patients. He also notes that anti-anxiety drugs were seen as addictive and harmful. So, starting in 1980, they put out the DSM3 — [ Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ] — "which put psychiatry and psychiatric disorders into a medical model" and they touted using drugs for these conditions because social workers, counselors, psychologists [ non-MD's ] could not prescribe drugs, so this would eliminate their competition. Here is the link to the entire article. http://www.fatnews.com/index.php/5954
Psychiatry turned to drugs to treat depression to eliminate the competition, Robert Whitaker
"[T]here is a historical story as to why our country is deluded, our society is deluded, and believes in this chemical imbalance story [of depression]" according to author and journalist Robert Whitaker as he noted in a 2010 interview that he did with Joseph Mercola, DO.
Whitaker noted that in the 1970's, psychiatry felt like it was under siege because there were non-MD's — social workers, counselors, psychologists — who were all competing for the same patients.
He also notes that anti-anxiety drugs were seen as addictive and harmful.
So, starting in 1980, they put out the DSM3 — [ Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ] — "which put psychiatry and psychiatric disorders into a medical model" and they touted using drugs for these conditions because social workers, counselors, psychologists [ non-MD's ] could not prescribe drugs, so this would eliminate their competition.