As a small business owner, there are a number of scams you need to be aware of designed to steal your money and harm your company. The Federal Trade Commission is bringing you a series highlighting these scams and what to do to protect your business. We're kicking off this series with a focus on a scam involving unordered office supplies.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the nation's consumer protection agency. The FTC investigates and sues companies and people for unfair or deceptive acts or practices that target individual consumers or small businesses like yours. With its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and eight regional offices, including in Cleveland, the agency is well-positioned throughout the country to learn about scams and deceptive advertising affecting the local community. The FTC also has a database of more than 13 million complaints filed by consumers that it uses to determine trends in scams and which scams are affecting the most consumers. This information helps prioritize who the FTC should be investigating and can then be used to educate consumers on how to avoid the trending scams.
In addition to preventing scams and deceptive advertising, the FTC also works to keep consumers' data safe. The FTC ensures that companies that collect information from consumers only use the information in ways that consumers expect and that the companies take appropriate precautions to keep consumer information safe from hackers.
The FTC also spearheads National Consumer Protection Week, a time to help people understand their consumer rights and make well-informed decisions about money, which is running now until March 10 this year.
In conjunction with National Consumer Protection Week, staff from the FTC's East Central Region will discuss, in this and future articles in this series, some of the scams and deceptive practices affecting businesses. Some of these tactics have been around forever but continue to make millions for scammers, while others are cutting-edge and the full impact hasn't yet been seen. We will also talk about how to keep data secure and what to do in the event of a breach. Stick with us and your customers and your bottom-line will be grateful.
The first scam to tackle is what we call the "unordered merchandise" scam. It typically starts with a schmoozy call to an unsuspecting small business or nonprofit. Sometimes the caller claims to be "confirming" an existing order, "verifying" an address, or offering a "free" catalog or sample. Then comes the supplies surprise—unordered merchandise arriving at the company's doorstep followed by high-pressure demands to pay up. When business owners refuse to pay, the scammers may claim to have audio recordings that prove the order was placed, but never come forward with the purported "proof." The scammers may also have the birthdate of one of the employees as "proof" that the employee agreed to the merchandise, when, in reality, the employee was conned into giving their birthdate during the initial call. Sometimes the scammer will insist on payment, but offer a "discount" of less than the invoice amount.
In one recent case, FTC attorneys in Cleveland successfully sued a group of businesses and individuals for sending and billing for unordered merchandise. The defendants' telemarketers called organizations and used deceptive tactics to get employee names—usually someone in the maintenance department—and delivery addresses. The next step: a seemingly innocuous conversation in which the defendants' telemarketers offered to send a catalog, a small promotional gift (like a knife or gift card), and sometimes a sample of products. The defendants then shipped light bulbs and cleaning supplies to the business or organization, following up with high-priced invoices for those supplies, listing the employee's name on the invoice as having ordered them.
If a business or nonprofit paid an invoice, the defendants would send more merchandise and more invoices, often using different company names (although they were all part of the same organization). When challenged, the defendants would try to bluff or trick victims into paying for the goods anyway. For example, they would argue that the fact that an employee had accepted the promotional gift showed that the employee also must have ordered the supplies. The defendants took more than $58 million from businesses and nonprofits just between 2010 and 2014.
Tip No. 1: Keep unordered merchandise but don't pay for it. If your business receives merchandise no one on your staff ordered, the law says you don't have to return it and the vendor can't legally collect on it. You don't have to pay for it, even if you used the item before you realized it was unordered.
Tip No. 2: Your best defense is a trained staff. Spend five minutes at a staff meeting educating your team about the signs of a supply scam. Caution them about fake friendly callers who worm their way in by claiming to have done business with you before or who say they have an "urgent" need to speak to someone in your maintenance department. If more than one person answers the main phone at your business, post a warning nearby about supply scams. For nonprofits, let volunteers know that fraudsters target charities, churches and community groups, too.
Tip No. 3: Consolidate contacts. Supply scammers try to exploit the fact that small businesses aren't likely to have purchasing departments. But you can still designate one person to respond to all inquiries about office supplies, "free" offers or "existing" orders. Putting one person in charge—especially a staffer with a well-calibrated baloney detector—can help protect your company from con artists.
Tip No. 4: Investigate every invoice. Don't pay a penny unless you know the bill is for items you or your staff actually authorized. If someone tries to pressure you into paying for unordered merchandise, complain to the FTC and Ohio's Attorney General and let the pushy caller know you're on to them.
Tip No. 5: Bookmark the FTC's site on protecting small businesses. The FTC's website features resources to help protect your company. For example, Small Business Scams clues you into typical tactics of business-to-business cons.
The FTC works to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. You can file a complaint online at www.ftc.gov/complaint or by telephone at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
Have we gotten too casual on the phone? Are we being lazy when communicating with clients or prospective clients? Don't just phone it in—or maybe you can! Give your image a facelift by taking these quick and easy actions toward improved phone communication.
Most small businesses facing the challenge of improving their image in the marketplace are staring at major investments of time and money. Properly planned and launched, those investments can earn significant positive results.
Not to worry. Here are five simple and easy phone tactics to overhaul your image. So easy you can phone them in. They require no investment—only some creativity and effort. Start small and simple. See how many you can add to your small business tool kit and start using them immediately.
Most small businesses use a voice mail greeting when they can't answer incoming calls. This message might be the first impression a prospect or new customer gets of the company's style and values. And it might reinforce those impressions with repeat callers. Listen to your voice mail greeting like a caller would. How do you feel about the business and the people running it? Do you want to do business with them?
What kind of impressions does this recorded message cast?
Probably not favorable. More like lazy, dumb and cheap. How simple to invest a few minutes to personalize that greeting?
Job done—concise, courteous and helpful. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?
So, what do callers hear when you do answer the phone? What kind of an image does your greeting cast? "Hi …" is a good start, but it needs help: "Hi, this is Ben with Glitztronics …" is better, but "Hi … this is Ben Dover with Glitztronics. How can I help you today?" really works well. Which one casts the best image of Ben? Which is the most like yours?
What do you say when a caller needs help, asks a question or just says, "Thanks"? I do have a problem with responding, "No problem", which seems to be most everyone's default response these days. Simply say, "You're welcome" instead. And even better is, "My pleasure." While the shift from "problem" to "pleasure" is subtle, it does say something about your attitude.
And if the other person says it's not a good time, no need to apologize. If you knew that, you wouldn't have called and also, remember, they picked up the phone in the first place.
Because most people have some version of Caller ID installed on their phone, make sure the read out isn't lame like "unknown caller", "not available" or blank. Those all signal a robo or spam call. Would you answer a call like that yourself? If I don't recognize the name or number, I let the call go into voice mail where they hear my concise and courteous message. Most don't leave a message, which tells me they were robo or spammers.
When you do leave a voice message, what do they hear? "Hi … This is Ben returning your call" Is a good start, but not enough to really be helpful. "Hi … This is Ben Dover with Glitztronics returning your call. I can meet with you Tuesday at 10 or Thursday at 3. Let me know what works for you at 459-703-3162.' While longer, it's a more courteous and complete communication.
As you've seen, it doesn't take much time or effort to phone in your image-casting make-over tactics that differentiate your business from the competition who don't think it matters or have even bothered to try.
Everything your customers and prospects hear over the phone should be on purpose and for a purpose. What kind of an image-casting score would they give your business?
Phil Stella runs Effective Training & Communication, www.communicate-confidently.com, 440-449-0356, and empowers business leaders to communicate confidently. A popular trainer and executive coach on workplace communications and sales presentations, he is also on the Cleveland faculty of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative.
Good employees can be the most important ingredients in a successful business. But finding and hiring good employees can be among the most challenging aspects of running a small or growing company.
Numerous federal and state laws govern the various processes of soliciting employees, including advertising, interviewing and hiring. If you don't follow the rules, you may find yourself as the defendant in a lawsuit over your hiring (or non-hiring) practices. Or, you may end up being stuck with a very costly and unproductive employee who you have trouble firing.
Employers are subject to many laws requiring equal employment opportunity and prohibiting discrimination in employment, which can include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1966, the Immigration Reform and Control Act, the American with Disabilities Act and numerous other federal and state laws.
Are you married with kids?
Focus on questions relating to the skill and experience of the candidates and the qualifications needed to perform the job.
From a fact checking perspective, think about checking out school experience (some people embellish their degrees or where they went to school); talk to the candidate's former supervisor(s), if possible, who may provide more meaningful information than the company's HR department; for sensitive jobs, check for felony convictions; and verify past employment (ensure the candidate actually worked at each of the companies listed, in the position listed, and check dates of employment).
Part 2 of this blog will offer helping hints for your hiring tool kit.
What Happens to Your Business After You?
Many of you own your own business. Have you thought about what comes next? Both for you and the company? With respect to your business there are only three options: You can die still owning it, you can pass it on, or you can sell it. Many entrepreneurs fail to realize that without succession planning there is no value in the business.
There are four triggers that can create problems if not planned for in advance. What happens if the owner dies? What if the owner becomes permanently disabled? What happens when the owner leaves? And what if multiple owners cannot resolve their disagreements?
Succession planning calls for certain events to trigger a change, such as those in the preceding paragraph, and sets forth the method to determine the value of the company at the time of such triggering event. Succession planning also encourages the owner to remember to dress up the business for sale at a later date. The owner should start early in preparing both herself and the company for an eventual sale.
There are numerous steps in the selling process, from creating your team, finding a buyer, setting terms, determining the appropriate structure, financing, and so on. The key is to plan, in advance, not to wait for a triggering event to set the wheels in motion.
In order to best realize the value of your business, run it with the objective of someday selling it.
What an awesome experience I had on June 19, being sworn into the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is very humbling to stand in front of nine justices in black robes in such a regal environment. My good fortune continued as I had the opportunity to have a brief one-on-one conversation with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. What a day!
As a business lawyer, an outsourced general counsel, I don't expect to ever argue before the Court. However taking the oath to join the group of lawyers allowed to practice before the nation's highest court was an opportunity not to be missed.
Whenever I go to court, I have the same stupid thought: is that judge wearing a real shirt and tie under that robe or is it a dickey? It's sophomoric and immature but I can't get rid of that image of Judge Harry Stone in Night Court wearing that half-shirt in those countless 80's childhood nights in front of the tube. That and Arnie Becker from LA Law made me want to be a lawyer. Night Court, that is, not the idea of wearing a dickey.
That's my Wizard of Oz behind-the-green-curtain question today. If anyone knows the answer, or if any judges out there are bold enough to fess up, let me know. Anonymity is guaranteed on pain of a contempt order.
Here's another one: what do in-house corporate counsel do all day? I used to think they split their time between golf courses and suites at the Q. Wish I did more of that. I can't speak for all of them but I can tell you what I did much of the time during my ten years as general counsel for Broadvox. It all fell into two buckets: proactive and reactive. You want it to be a lot more of the former and a lot less of the latter. More planning for disasters and avoiding them equals less time, less energy, less stress and less money spent reacting to them, and to the government agencies, plaintiffs and plaintiffs' lawyers that start investigations when a disgruntled employee or customer, or a curious investigator, files a complaint. It seems obvious because it is obvious.
The way to be proactive is to conduct a good old-fashioned internal audit. You have to take it seriously and you have to pretend to be someone else. It's tough, it's time-consuming, but it's worth it.
And here's the thing: you don't need to have an in-house GC in your office to do that for you. In fact, you really don't even need an outside attorney to do that for you, though relying on one will be much more helpful, for reasons I'll mention in a minute. Like a lot of things in my world, if you study up and plan well enough, then doing an audit with a good lawyer is better than doing one with a bad lawyer, doing one with a lawyer is usually better than doing one without one, but doing one without one can be better than not doing one at all, and that's what most companies do — or don't do. Most companies don't audit themselves. That keeps their lawyers much busier later on, when they're reacting and responding to subpoenas, lawsuits and investigations.
Step 1: Create a written plan. I used a gantt chart. I love gantt charts. If you don't know what a gantt chart is, go google gantt charts. Every good project needs one. It's a chart that shows you a visual, calendar-style depiction of who's doing what and when. (Another little nugget you pick up in-house, along with how to read financial statements and how to use excel for things other than shopping lists.) Business people have outpaced lawyers in this area for years.
Your plan or gantt chart will specify all the tasks in audit, name the person responsible for each task, and state how long that task will go from a start date to an end date. Go ahead, google it and you'll see what it looks like. In fact, google some combination of "internal audit gantt chart" and you'll see what other folks have done.
Step 2: Identify the universe of legal exposure areas that your company is likely to have. One way of thinking about this is picturing your company as a leaky bucket and trying to figure out what's likely to cause those leaks. Another image I like to use is something Tony Robbins uses. It's a car or bike wheel divided into pie-pieces radiating outwards from the center, with each pie only going out as far as the company is compliant in that area. When one pie piece is shorter than the other ones (because, for example, hiring practices are 60% compliant while most of the other areas are 90% compliant), your car or bike is going to have a bumpy ride.
Usually, the exposure areas (or pie pieces) fall into these categories: employment, tax, corporate, contracts, government regulation, real estate and information technology / security. You want your wheel to be relatively smooth and well-rounded, your bucket devoid of major leaks.
Step 3: Next, get specific. Drill down in those leaky areas to the ones specific to your business. Here, talking to a lawyer helps.
Let's do an aside here. Here are a couple of reasons why talking to an attorney at this stage is helpful. The first is issue-spotting. For example, on the employment piece of your bucket / wheel, your business lawyer will ask you if you have independent contractors. If you do, one of the drill-down areas will be proper classification of contractors and employees. (For more info on this topic, check out our earlier blog post, here. Another issue your business lawyer will spot is proper exemption classification. A misclassification of a true employee as a disguised contractor, or of a non-exempt employee as an exempt employee, is a major leak, a major bump in the wheel that is your business. Don't get that wrong. But it's hard to spot those issues if you're not a lawyer. So that's one reason why it helps to talk to one.
Another really good reason to have an attorney run your audit is that she's more likely to be objective. Business owners are like parents of small children, or writers of crappy novels. They think their creations are better, or smarter, or more interesting than they actually are. I can't tell you how many times I've had to wake clients up from the sweet slumber of blissful ignorance, simply because they had fallen madly in love with the exceptional analytical skills they'd gleaned from that one semester of business law at Cleveland State (no offense to Cleveland State).
One of the best reasons to have a lawyer conduct your audit though is the attorney client privilege. With few exceptions, you can protect your compliance audit and all the nasty cobwebs it uncovers with a confidentiality that may be far stronger than any non-disclosure agreement you've signed with your employees, assuming you've signed one (something a good audit would uncover and a good lawyer would issue-spot). Lawyers don't need such agreements. Confidentiality is an ethical obligation for us and we can lose our ticket if we don't comply with it. If your lawyer is guiding your audit, and stamping your plan and your findings with a "performed at the direction of counsel" label, and you don't waive the privilege by (for example) posting it online or sharing it with your girlfriend, your audit should be protected from later subpoenas.
If your lawyer is involved, he's creating more specific compliance areas based on the type of business you run and the facts and circumstances inside your business. If you're a manufacturer or a car dealership, one specific area within the government regulation pie may be OSHA compliance or environmental compliance. If you're a retailer, one specific area under government compliance may be FTC (Federal Trade Commission) or CSPA (Consumer Sales Practices Act) compliance.
If your lawyer is not involved, you may be able to get close by googling (is that a real word now?) "Ohio employment compliance areas" or "[your state] safety compliance" or "[your industry] government regulations". Spend a lot of time on this and try to create a hierarchy of compliance areas as best as you can.
Step 4: Create a compliance checklist for each area. Again, there's a lawyer and a non-lawyer answer here. Lawyers will pull checklists from Lexis or Westlaw or Practical Law or some other research database for each compliance area specific to your business from Step 3. If you're not a lawyer, you may still be able to buy access to one of these databases, or you can google that too. Creating good checklists is really important.
Another aside: whether you do or do not use a lawyer, don't expect a perfect checklist or a perfect audit. The goal is to plug big leaks, the ones that either draw the most attention from plaintiffs' lawyers and government agencies, the ones that have the highest rates of investigation, the ones that have the highest exposure points, the ones that will cost you the most if you get it wrong. Again, employee classification tends to be a big-ticket item. Same with IT security and customer contracts. If you're in a regulated industry, agency activity among your peers tends to be well known and easy to research. Your particular business will also have its own priorities.
I start with Pareto's Principle: what are the 20% of compliance issues that tend to be responsible for 80% of the exposure? I then expand that to 30% or 40%, until I can account for 90%-95% of the exposure points in terms of liability and expense. This is probably more art than science, but you're unlikely to create a 100% compliant company without making the audit process more of a pain than it's worth.
One way to do this is to prioritize your drill-down areas and your checklist items into high-, medium- and low risk items, and note them as such on the checklist. Later, when you create a report card, you'll use weighted values to create a sliding scale of scores based on the risk level of each item.
Step 5: Create your team. Choose them wisely, assign tasks and then meet with them to explain. Employee communications should be on a need to know basis. Let employees not involved in the audit go about their business and their lives without worrying about what an audit might mean. When we do one for our clients, we do an introductory call or meeting with managers at various tiers of the company who will be involved in the audit. Managing communications is important to avoid panic or anxiety. We tell managers that this is intended to help the company keep more of its money and stay out of trouble, nothing more. We tell them it's not intended to embarrass or punish anyone, just identify and fix legal issues. They tend to be receptive to this message.
We also talk about confidentiality, candor and integrity of the process. This is important and should be carefully scripted.
Step 6: Document requests and spot checking.
Here we/you will send a document request to the people in your company most likely to have relevant documents. If you get any pushback, you're probably on to something. Review the documents closely against the checklist items specific to documents. If you're in a regulated industry, there are probably disclosure obligations or magic language about privacy or warranties or something similar. They often need to match the regs verbatim.
Many of your document requests will involve spot checking. Sometimes you'll want to send someone trustworthy to file locations to pull their own documents. For checklist items that don't involve documents (for example, is there a proper eye washing station in your garage bay, if one is required; are fire extinguishers located where they're supposed to be, etc.), you or your lawyer or your designee will physically go to the department to observe compliance or non-compliance.
Step 7: Conduct interviews. This is necessary to learn about processes and practices that are difficult to read in a document or observe when spot checking. I use the "funnel technique", where you start with open-ended questions and then drill down to the compliance checklist items, veering off when you hear something worthy of a detour. If you're delegating to managers, coach them on how to conduct proper interviews.
Step 8: Make written findings. At this point, you're going to generate a report. Ideally, your checklist was specific enough to tell you what was necessary to comply or not comply. Your finding should reference those items.
Step 9: Create a report card. Here, you'll grade your compliance and non-compliance. We use grades like my kids use. People seem to like that. It's easy to administer, and gives businesses goals to strive for in the next go-round. Remember that not all compliance areas are equal, and not all checklist items within those compliance areas are equal. Having an employee handbook with strict anti-discrimination policies, and having the right labor law posters on the wall, may be more important than ensuring that your vacation policy has been properly communicated to that one remote employee you have in Alaska.
Step 10: Create a fix-it report. Once you've identifies your leaks, create a new checklist to plug them. This is often a copy/paste job from your report card. Start with the high dollar / high-risk items and work your way down, flagging any show-stoppers (or as one of my friends calls them, door-closers). Assign each fix to a particular manager and create a new gantt chart that says who is doing what and when.
Step 11: Follow up. You're almost there. Don't waste all that effort. You need to follow up on the fixes to make sure they're getting done, and then you need to do a periodic follow up on the entire audit to make sure no one's sloughing off and that your car is still running on a smooth wheel. I recommend revisiting your audit at least every six months, at the very least on the high-dollar items. You also want to revisit your checklists once a year to ensure that new regulations haven't created new compliance areas or new individual checklist items.
So, okay, I know that seems like a lot. If you've read this far, though, then you're either my mother or a business-person who's interested in operating free of legal problems in our business. Take my word for it — or don't, you know this already: be proactive, be a boy scout, be prepared. You know I'm right.
And now you know what in-house counsel do for their clients, and what former in-house counsel do for their clients when they start a law firm.
Now, who can tell me if judges wear dickeys under their robes?
Lack of diversity of ideas reinforces "business as usual".
"Business as usual" often results in little business in the future.
Although many people think of federal trademark or service mark protection, if your mark will not be used in interstate commerce you may want to consider an Ohio filing. Registration of a mark provides two things. First, it provides actual public notice. By registering the mark with a central filing agency, the mark is available for public scrutiny. This benefits both the owner, who seeks exlusive use of the mark, and a potential filer who seeks to ensure that her mark does not conflict with a mark already in use. Second, registration of a mark might be used as evidence in the event an infringement claim is pursued by the registrant.
A mark that resembles a mark registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by another entity and is not abandoned, and which is likely to cause confusion, mistake or is deceptive.
In addition to a sig ned security agreement, a security interest is not enforceable unless the secured party has given value, such as if the secured party provides the debtor with a loan, or sells or otherwise delivers goods to the debtor.
A security agreement may provide for past, current or future loans that a creditor may make to a debtor. With the debtor's consent, an existing creditor might obtain collateral for a past loan, and the earlier loan provides the necessary value. A security interest may also secure a loan made at the same time the security interest is taken. In addition, the security agreement may specify that the collateral will secure a loan that will be made in the future. If the creditor makes a binding commitment to make a future loan, that binding commitment provides the necessary value. However, if the creditor merely retains the option to make a future loan, value is not given and the security interest does not attach until the future loan is made.
A part nership is an association of two or more people to carry on as co-owners of a business for profit. A partnership can be a general partnership or a limited partnership.
Many people decide to form a partnership because it allows for a pooling of owner assets, both monetary and skill sets. In a general partnership, owners have unlimited personal liability for all debts of the partnership. Unless there is an agreement stating otherwise, any partner may bind the partnership to an agreement with a third party. Even in the case of an agreement stating otherwise, a partner's actions may still be binding up the partnership.
It is for this reason that I caution people not to refer to other people as partners. Third parties can rely on this representation, which may result in you being bound to obligations to which you did not actually agree.


Gregg Hurwitz, author of Orphan X (Minotaur, an imprint of Macmillan) is the first author slated to speak at RUSA's Literary Tastes author panel in June at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Orphan X was selected as the Adrenaline category winner for the Reading List, an annual Best of List comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers.
"Literary Tastes: Celebrating the Best Reading of the Year," is one of our favorite annual conference traditions featuring authors from RUSA's book awards and best of lists for adults. Book signings immediately following the event and light refreshments will be served. This event is free for all ALA Annual Conference attendees and takes place on Sunday, June 25, 8-10am (location TBD).


As pointed out by MacGeneration [Google translation], Apple's Mac App Store has reached a new milestone with 10,000 apps available for purchase or free download through the marketplace.
Our own sister site AppShopper confirms the milestone, currently indexing 10,339 applications in the store. Apple launched the Mac App Store in January 2011 and has quickly moved to offer its own major software titles through the marketplace, viewing it as the future of software distribution on the Mac platform. Even OS X Lion itself is distributed via the Mac App Store.
The 10,000 Mac App Store apps pale in comparison to the 600,000 apps available through the iOS App Store, but the Mac App Store remains a success by desktop software sales standards. Last December, the store passed 100 million downloads, making it the "largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world".
It's nice but until they come up with a far better way to actually *find* useful apps it's just a meaningless statistic. Like the iOS app store -- unless you know what you're looking for or if it's just whatever's popular you will never find it.
Apple would have a LOT MORE APPS available if they would continue to support the Apple II. It is a shame that Apple has discontinued those. The hardware is plenty powerful to do the emulation. There are enormous numbers of titles for educational, small business and tools that could run under emulation. These great titles are now no longer available. Apple is destroying this programming art. The 1980's was the hay day of creative educational titles. Shame on Apple.
Better filters for all those apps?
The one thing I am missing most from both Mac app store and IOS app store is a filter to view only none game apps or only games.
I'll get serious. I wish Apple was a much bigger Nazi about accepting apps. The icons of 99% of apps are absolutely hideous, many games just stretch random art to the full 512x512 box. The first few apps I downloaded also looked like Java apps on acid.
And that's the Mac, where previously even tiny hobbyist apps and FOSS ports looked surprisingly good.
Can't tell if trolling, or just stupid.
Apple would have a LOT MORE APPS available if they would continue to support OS9 and PPC. It is a shame that Apple has discontinued those. The hardware is plenty powerful to do the emulation. There are enormous numbers of titles for educational, small business and tools that could run under emulation. These great titles are now no longer available. Apple is destroying this programming art. The 1990's was the hay day of creative educational titles. Shame on Apple.
LOL, alright. Enough with the jokes. You had your fun.
EDIT: oh wait . . .
Apple should support MacOS9 on the iPhone! (and Macs) Actually, this wouldn't be all that hard.
How long are they supposed to continue development for something they haven't sold in like 7 or 8 years? Apple supports old platforms better than anyone out there. What your asking for is ridiculous.


The Highest Paying Bingo night in North Cork! With payouts of €20.00 for a line, €50.00 for a full house. Full House on Games 5 and 10 are €100.00 We hold our Community Development Draw at the Bingo interval TUCK shop is open, serving minerals, crisps and sweets.


ASL is distinguished by its requirement that all second-year students complete a mandatory Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) class. The school has also held ADR training in local schools; this program drew national attention, particularly from former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who has publicly congratulated the school on this effort. Students are given an overview of different types of conflict resolutions, particularly mediation, negotiation, and arbitration. Ethical issues are explored in addition to legal and policy ramifications. Students learn the strengths and weaknesses of each method of dispute resolution and learn which methods are appropriate for certain situations. Students also have the option of taking additional courses in their second and third years to earn certification for mediation under the "Lawyer as a Problem Solver" Certificate Program. Students must complete basic law school procedure courses, two ADR focused courses, and an additional problem solving skills course. ASL offers two courses to fulfill this requirement: certified civil mediation, and advanced negotiation. The school has two faculty members who solely teach alternative dispute resolution related courses.


text:
Dorian, now Category 2, eyes Georgia and Carolinas
After Hurricane Dorian
SANDRA, WHERE IS DORIAN RIGHT NOW? SANDRA: TO THE SOUTH AND EAST OF JACKSONVILLE. 100 FILE -- 100 FILE MILE-PER-HOUR WIND -- 105 MILE-PER-HOUR WIND. WE'RE GETTING AN OCCASIONAL RAIN BAND AND CERTAINLY WIND GUSTS SURROUND THE TREASURE COAST IN OUR AREA AND DORIAN HAS PICKED UP SPEED. IT IS HEADED NORTH, NORTHWEST AT NINE MILES PER HOUR. COAST WITH A LITTLE MORE THAN IMPACT OR A POSSIBLE LAND FALLING HURRICANE AS WE HEAD INTO THURSDAY 8:00 SOMETIME OVER THE EASTERN SOUTH CAROLINA SHORELINE. THESE ARE T -- THERE IS A REAL RISK THERE. A POSSIBLE BRUSH WITH HURRICANE DORIAN, CATEGORY TWO, BUT OR IT MOVES PAST THE LARVA AND OUT TO SEA. THE EYES TO THE NORTH OF DAYTONA BEACH, BUT WE ARE GETTING BANDS TO THE NORTH OF THE PALM BEACHES AND TREASURE COAST. YOU CERTAINLY KNOW THERE IS SOMETHING AWRY. 29 MY PER HOUR GUSTS -- 29 MILE-PER-HOUR GUSTS IN WEST PALM. WE'RE TURNING THE CORNER AND HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT OUTSIDE. >>, TALKING ABOUT WIND THAT IS GUSTY. WE HAVE A WIND ADVISORY FOR INDIAN RIVER COUNTY THAT HAS BEEN ISSUED A COUPLE OF MINUTES THAT MEANS WE WILL SEE WIND UP TO 30 MILES PER HOUR. AND GUESS BETWEEN 40 AND 45 MILES PER HOUR. VERY WINDY, AND WE TALK ABOUT UP TO 30 MILES PER HOUR. BOCA RATON, TEMPERATURES IN THE 90'S AND IT FEELS LIKE 100 DEGREES. THE RADAR LOOKS QUIET. A COUPLE SPRINKLES OFFSHORE, BUT CLOUD COVERAGE WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE TREASURE COAST UNTIL 5:00 AND 6:00, AND THINGS WILL IMPROVE AS THE DAY GOES ON. THAT HOUR-BY-HOUR FORECAST, PLENTY OF SUNSHINE FOR THE PALM BEACHES, BUT CLOUDY CONDITIONS FOR THE BR
Hurricane Dorian – now a Category 2 storm – is moving away from the Florida coast, now eyeing Georgia and the Carolinas. Dorian will move away from Florida by Wednesday night. As of 11 a.m., the storm center is now off the coast of Jacksonville. It's still a fierce storm, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, and it's quickly moving up the coast at 9 mph.All Tropical Storm Warnings have been lifted for the West Palm Beach area.+ WPBF 25 Hurricane Survival Guide // Latest weather alertsThe storm still has a pretty decent eye. "It has widened for sure," said WPBF meteorologist Sandra Shaw. "But the expanse of its tropical storm-force winds is extensive. We're still seeing some bands – particularly on the southern side – near Vero Beach."Following Dorian, the West Palm Beach area is still seeing higher wave heights. Several of the area's beaches have taken a beating. There have also been a few breaches with some flooding. The storm even prompted a tornado warning up the Treasure Coast. Wave heights have improved from yesterday, but it's still rather dangerous along the Florida coast. At its peak, over 2 million people along the coast in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were warned to evacuate.While the threat of a direct hit on Florida had all but evaporated, Dorian was expected to pass dangerously close to Georgia and South Carolina - and perhaps strike North Carolina - on Thursday or Friday.The hurricane's eye passed to the east of Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Wednesday.Even if landfall does not occur, the system is likely to cause storm surge and severe flooding, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said."Don't tough it out. Get out," said U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency official Carlos Castillo.+ Click here for more Weather Maps The massive storm completely devastated the Bahamas, striking as a catastrophic Category 5 storm.Bahamians rescued victims of Hurricane Dorian with jet skis and a bulldozer as the U.S. Coast Guard, Britain's Royal Navy and a handful of aid groups tried to get food and medicine to survivors and take the most desperate people to safety.At least seven deaths were reported in the Bahamas, with the full scope of the disaster still unknown.The storm's punishing winds and muddy brown floodwaters destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes, crippled hospitals and trapped people in attics."It's total devastation. It's decimated. Apocalyptic," said Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a local hurricane relief group and flew over the Bahamas' hard-hit Abaco Islands. "It's not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again."She said her representative on Abaco told her there were "a lot more dead," though she had no numbers as bodies being gathered.The Bahamas' prime minister also expected more deaths and predicted that rebuilding would require "a massive, coordinated effort.""We are in the midst of one of the greatest national crises in our country's history," Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said at a news conference. "No effort or resources will be held back."Five Coast Guard helicopters ran near-hourly flights to the stricken Abaco, flying more than 20 injured people to the capital's main hospital. British sailors were also rushing in aid. A few private aid groups also tried to reach the battered islands in the northern Bahamas."We don't want people thinking we've forgotten them. ... We know what your conditions are," Tammy Mitchell of the Bahamas' National Emergency Management Agency told ZNS Bahamas radio station.With their heads bowed against heavy wind and rain, rescuers began evacuating people from the storm's aftermath across Grand Bahama island late Tuesday, using jet skis, boats and even a huge bulldozer that cradled children and adults in its digger as it churned through deep waters and carried them to safety.One rescuer gently scooped up an elderly man in his arms and walked toward a pickup truck waiting to evacuate him and others to higher ground. + Be sure to download the WPBF 25 News App for the latest on Tropical Storm Dorian
MIAMI —
Hurricane Dorian – now a Category 2 storm – is moving away from the Florida coast, now eyeing Georgia and the Carolinas.
Dorian will move away from Florida by Wednesday night. As of 11 a.m., the storm center is now off the coast of Jacksonville.
It's still a fierce storm, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, and it's quickly moving up the coast at 9 mph.
All Tropical Storm Warnings have been lifted for the West Palm Beach area.
+ WPBF 25 Hurricane Survival Guide // Latest weather alerts
The storm still has a pretty decent eye.
"It has widened for sure," said WPBF meteorologist Sandra Shaw. "But the expanse of its tropical storm-force winds is extensive. We're still seeing some bands – particularly on the southern side – near Vero Beach."
Following Dorian, the West Palm Beach area is still seeing higher wave heights. Several of the area's beaches have taken a beating. There have also been a few breaches with some flooding.
The storm even prompted a tornado warning up the Treasure Coast.
Wave heights have improved from yesterday, but it's still rather dangerous along the Florida coast.
At its peak, over 2 million people along the coast in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were warned to evacuate.
While the threat of a direct hit on Florida had all but evaporated, Dorian was expected to pass dangerously close to Georgia and South Carolina - and perhaps strike North Carolina - on Thursday or Friday.
The hurricane's eye passed to the east of Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Wednesday.
Even if landfall does not occur, the system is likely to cause storm surge and severe flooding, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
"Don't tough it out. Get out," said U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency official Carlos Castillo.
+ Click here for more Weather Maps
The massive storm completely devastated the Bahamas, striking as a catastrophic Category 5 storm.
Bahamians rescued victims of Hurricane Dorian with jet skis and a bulldozer as the U.S. Coast Guard, Britain's Royal Navy and a handful of aid groups tried to get food and medicine to survivors and take the most desperate people to safety.
At least seven deaths were reported in the Bahamas, with the full scope of the disaster still unknown.
The storm's punishing winds and muddy brown floodwaters destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes, crippled hospitals and trapped people in attics.
"It's total devastation. It's decimated. Apocalyptic," said Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a local hurricane relief group and flew over the Bahamas' hard-hit Abaco Islands. "It's not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again."
She said her representative on Abaco told her there were "a lot more dead," though she had no numbers as bodies being gathered.
The Bahamas' prime minister also expected more deaths and predicted that rebuilding would require "a massive, coordinated effort."
"We are in the midst of one of the greatest national crises in our country's history," Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said at a news conference. "No effort or resources will be held back."
Five Coast Guard helicopters ran near-hourly flights to the stricken Abaco, flying more than 20 injured people to the capital's main hospital. British sailors were also rushing in aid. A few private aid groups also tried to reach the battered islands in the northern Bahamas.
"We don't want people thinking we've forgotten them. ... We know what your conditions are," Tammy Mitchell of the Bahamas' National Emergency Management Agency told ZNS Bahamas radio station.
With their heads bowed against heavy wind and rain, rescuers began evacuating people from the storm's aftermath across Grand Bahama island late Tuesday, using jet skis, boats and even a huge bulldozer that cradled children and adults in its digger as it churned through deep waters and carried them to safety.
One rescuer gently scooped up an elderly man in his arms and walked toward a pickup truck waiting to evacuate him and others to higher ground.
+ Be sure to download the WPBF 25 News App for the latest on Tropical Storm Dorian

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In the last article, we saw how to forward a user to edit their own page in the Manager after they successfully log in. In this one, we'll look at a quick shortcut that lets you preserve the formatting of text or code when pasting it into PhpStorm.
If you're a regular use of PhpStorm, you probably know this, but for new users, this can save a lot of headaches.
I write these blog posts in PhpStorm in filenames ending with .html. PhpStorm is great at formatting code when you paste it into a .php document, but I often write test PHP and JS code and make sure it works before adding it to an article. If I paste that code into the .html files, it ends up being left justified, removing all indentation from the code. Each line remains as a separate line, but all of them are flush left.
The solution is to paste the code with Ctrl-Shift-Alt-V. That will preserve the formatting. You may still have to massage the code slightly, but it will be much easier than if it's all left justified.
You can highlight a section and move it right or left with tab and Shift-tab.
In the next article, we'll look at what causes the "Call to a member function get() on null" error and how to prevent it.
For more information on how to use MODX to create a web site, see my web site Bob's Guides, or better yet, buy my book: MODX: The Official Guide.


text:
Pellet testing
20 yards Testing
Tenrings Coaching
Pellet Performance
Advanced pellet testing with the Steyr LP10E pistol at 10 metres
It is quite some time since we carried out any serious pellet comparisons tests and we have not had a chance to put the new pistol test rig into action.
The object of this comparison test is to establish two related, whilst different factors, which are as follows.
1) To determine the difference and variation in the muzzle velocity when using RWS R10 4.49 air pistol and RWS R10 4.49 air rifle pellets without making any adjustment to the Steyr LP10E pistol.
2) To determine the size of the strike pattern on the target and the change in the point of impact without making any changes to the test rig or the pistol.
The RWS R10 4.49 air pistol pellets that were used weigh 7.0 grains or 0.45 grams and the RWS R10 4.49 air rifle pellets that were used weigh 8.2 grains or 0.53 grams.
It was thought that the difference in the pellet weights should make some noticeable difference in both the muzzle velocity and the point of impact.
The temperature during the whole test was 16°C and the relative humidity was 70%RH, so the flight of the pellets should not be adversely affected.
The test rig was set up at 10metres, the Steyr LP10E was positioned in the rig and the Combro CB625 chronoscope was fitted to the pistol. A few test shots were fired to establish a representative point of impact using the air rifle pellets.
Test Rig - photo copyright of Tenrings Coaching
None of the pellets used were selected, they were taken at random straight from the respective tins, as we did not want to create an artificial or controlled pellet input.
Ten shots were fired using the RWS R10 4.49 Air Rifle pellets and the muzzle velocity was recorded for each shot as follows:
RWS R10 4.49 Air Rifle Pellets
505 fps 504fps 501fps 500fps 502fps
499fps 503fps 501fps 499fps 504fps
The average velocity was 501fps with a deviation of 6fps.
The deviation achieved was well within the expected tolerance of 10fps.
The ten shot group created by the air rifle pellets has not been modified or electronically enhanced and shows a good, centrally placed point of impact group in the diagram. The maximum size of this group is 8mm across.
A new target was carefully fitted to the frame and without making any adjustments to any of the equipment.
Ten shots were fired using the RWS R10 4.49 Air Pistol pellets and the muzzle velocity was recorded for each shot as follows:
RWS R10 4.49 Air Pistol Pellets
The deviation achieved was again well within the expected tolerance of 10fps.
The ten shot group created by the air pistol pellets has not been modified or electronically enhanced and shows a good, however slightly higher and to the left placed, a point of impact group in the diagram. The maximum size of this group is 6mm across.
The change in the position of the point of impact has obviously been caused by the considerable increase in muzzle velocity, however considering that this represents a 10% increase in the muzzle velocity, without any changes to the point of aim, all of the shots from the lighter air pistol pellets have still remained well within the ten scoring ring.
Upon closer inspection, the achieved group size is fractionally smaller using the air pistol pellets than the one obtained using the air rifle pellets. It was also noticed that the heavier air rifle pellets were not cutting quite as clean a hole in the target.
From the several previous pellets test that have been carried out over a period of time, it had been established that the Steyr barrels appear to perform the most consistent with a muzzle speed of about 525fps.
Therefore it is possible that the size of the air rifle pellet point of impact group might become slightly improved if the muzzle velocity had been increased to 525fps and likewise there may also have been an improvement to the shape of the air pistol pellet point of impact group if the muzzle velocity had been reduced.
The increased muzzle velocity might also have improved the quality of the holes created by the air rifle pellets and should, in theory, have moved the point of impact up slightly, to bring it nearer in comparison to the point of impact group achieved with the air pistol pellets.
These theories are pure conjecture as it was neither practical nor intended to start making adjustments to the Steyr LP10E air regulator, as the sole purpose of this comparison test was to establish the physical difference in the point of impact group for the two different weights of pellets.
Whilst both types of air pellets tested have proven to be capable of maintaining a very good group which would be well within the ten ring.
However from these fairly small sample figures, despite the considerably lower deviation in the muzzle velocities of the air rifle pellets, which ought to give a more consistent trajectory, it would appear to be favourable to continue using the RWS R10 4.49 air pistol pellets for 10 metre pistol target shooting.
Pellet testing session of the LP1 at 10 metres
Pellet testing session 2.pdf
See how we got these results with the LP10E
Pellet group testing of Steyr Sportwaffe[...]
For full details please contact pistol@tenrings.co.uk
All images are the copyright © of Tenrings Coaching and www.tenrings.co.uk unless otherwise stated.
Helping you to achieve your natural shooting potential
Copyright © 2003 - 2019 tenrings.co.uk and Tenrings Coaching


Is it time the robots joined the fray to contain Ebola in Africa?
A scientific community-sponsored teleconference to be held on November 7, may very well decide the future of robotics in handling crisis situations. The scientists and aid-workers from across the world will convene on the crucial technology as well as logistical issue – is it high time for the robots to be sent to West Africa, to fight against the contamination threat posed by the Ebola virus?
Well, theoretically speaking, robots do have a huge advantage over humans in disease-prone areas, and that pertains to their biology-free 'anatomy'. But before we put on our science-fiction inspired highfalutin hats, the robots in question here will serve more down-to-earth tasks, instead of flying around and dashingly saving humans from the clutches of the viral enemy.
To that end, some researchers like Taskin Padir (who is an assistant robotics professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute) have thought of a few crucial functions for our robotic allies. For example, wheeled robots can be used to decontaminate a particular zone, by the use of sprayers and other equipment (pictured below).
Another handy scenario would involve telecommunication between the health workers and the patients via robots, which would avoid the need for direct human presence. In other words, doctors can remotely communicate with the affected (or quarantined) people – thus significantly limiting the scope of viral contact.
Of course, beyond theory, there is the great realm of practicality – and that is where the predicaments would probably arise. For starters, we do not possess enough resources or technology to build newer robot models that are tailored to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. So, as a 'makeshift' solution, scientists and engineers have to 'hack' and modify existing robotic designs to make them feasible for the brewing emergency situation.
And moreover, there is always the ethical side of affairs that might conflict with the use of robots as disease-controlling mechanisms. Like we mentioned before – robots can come in handy for remote telecommunication systems, but that nullifies the 'humane' side of human contact that many patients may crave for. Furthermore, robotic care in such baleful emergency scopes might also stretch to burying contaminated bodies – which once again is in loggerheads with traditional religious customs (as mentioned by Robin Murphy, professor at Texas A&M).
All of these potential problems obviously do not mean that robots can't be used in battling scenarios arising from diseases or natural calamities. But the question still remains – in what capacity can they be used for not only Ebola, but also emergency cases that will surely arise in the future of mankind?


A well-designed chair accommodates not only the customer, but also the stylist. If you want your customers to have the best possible salon experience, it's important to put yourself in the best position to provide them quality services—literally and figuratively!
We chatted with Takara Belmont to get the details on what type of features you should look for in a specialty service chair—safety, efficiency, versatility and durability all made the list. And, with their new Riche Chair that's specifically built for administering eyelash extensions, you'll get all that and then some. Here's what to look for when choosing a chair and how the Riche Chair can help.
The Riche Chair from Takara Belmont brings key features together, making additional services like eyelash extensions, manicures and pedicures easier at the salon.
1. Safety: Salon and spa services are so luxury focused, safety is often an underrated concern.
Consider this: Comfort and safety go hand in hand. Why? If a stylist is comfortable they can focus more on the service and give more precise treatments for longer periods of time. And if the customer is comfortable, they are less likely to shift, squirm, or jerk during their service.
Know this: The Riche's stool, wagon, and chair all align with each other, which is very important during a lengthy and intricate service like eyelash extensions, manicures/pedicures or a waxing. Systems that work together and provide smooth action will help keep everyone involved safe and comfortable.
2. Efficiency: You can keep your services more efficient based on the products you purchase.
Consider this: Ergonomically-designed chairs are always a good choice because they relieve physical strain and fatigue of the technician during services. This will help them work faster while also creating optimal customer comfort.
Know this: The Riche is ergonomically designed, has a hammock-shaped seat for optimal customer comfort, features a headrest cushion to cradle the client's head/position them correctly and adjusts and reclines with ease.
3. Versatility: Sure, chairs are designed with a specific purpose, but that doesn't mean that they can't be versatile!
Consider this: Add-on tables with the option to sit comfortably upright allows you to more easily administer additional services. Plus, it prevents clients from having to switch chairs throughout their services.
Know this: The Riche features all of the above and includes a telescopic tray that has the ability to swivel and change height easily, allowing technicians to keep the tools they need close by. Plus, it comes in white, ivory, and brown to match almost any salon decor.
4. Durability: If you're going to invest in a specialty service, you'll want your equipment to last.
Consider this: A chair produced with quality materials and an efficient design is more expensive upfront, but worth the investment. Cheaper chairs usually mean more problems in the future.
Know this: The Riche is created with quality materials, plus its ergonomic design and crafted upholstery means less problems in the long run.
Any questions? Contact your local show room for more information!


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timestamp dateTime element 0/1 The timestamp of the last update to this record.
user user element 1/1 required The user that requested the loading of the record.


Cycles UK Braintree is located in the centre of town on Great Square. It is a well-established bike shop and has a strong relationship with local road cycling and triathlon clubs. Our Braintree shop staff regularly attend local races and events, offering free mechanical support and tune-ups. As the shop is just minutes away from the Flitch Way Sustrans route it is also popular with those interested in more leisurely cycling.
Cycles UK Braintree sells a wide range of bikes including road bikes, mountain bikes, Hybrids, BMX and kids bikes. We have two fully trained bike fitters on staff who can ensure that whatever type of bike you buy you get one that fits and will be comfortable to ride. You can also be sure that you will be getting a mechanically sound bike that has been properly put together.
The mechanics at our Braintree bike shop are Cytech qualified, which is the UK industry standard for cycle repairs. Their workshop caters for all types of bikes and bike repairs, from simple fixes and upgrades to full strip downs and servicing. Our extensive network of suppliers means we are able to source a massive range of spare parts and keep all brands of bikes running smoothly.


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Porn Scenes » Big Asses
29.Mar
Bikini Bod Babe
Featuring: Giselle Humes
Giselle Humes is one of those gorgeous, in-demand babes who doesn't want to be anything more than a fuck-toy for the horny man. Her face is flawless, her ass incredible, her body smokin'. No one can keep their fingers off her, especially off her butt.
Heavy Workload
Featuring: Serenity Evans
There's a lot of pressure on students today, and sometimes they need to blow off steam. And if you ask us, there's no better way to blow off steam than blowing your load. Especially when a girl like Serenity Evans is your classmate.
A Rump By Any Other Name Would Still Be …
Featuring: Madison Rose
Madison Rose is a bartender from NY who has curves for days and a horny streak like no other. This hottie likes to get frisky in public and loves having her asshole thrilled, filled and drilled. When she is not busy slanging drinks, she likes to hang out with guys who are laid back and know how to treat a lady.
High-Quality Fuck
Featuring: Kiki Carter
Kiki Carter is a low-maintenance chick. You can leave all the bells and whistles at home with her. For example, if you ask her what her perfect idea for a date would be, her answer is pretty simple.
Roller Booty
Featuring: Georgia Peach
Georgia Peach is 5'2", 128 pounds and measures 34-27-36. Her ass is not like your average white chick's bottom. She has an ass like Sara Jay's.
22.Feb
Private Dancer
Featuring: Layla Monroe
Layla Monroe, who used to be a dancer, says she gave up dancing to pursue more exciting things--like fucking on-camera for us. We don't think a chick this bad should give anything up, though. We knew she would feel right at home on our BootyLicious stage.
Featuring: Felicia Clover
Felicia Clover is one of those rare finds. She is somewhat like a unicorn, actually. You see, just like that mystical creature, Felicia's assets are practically magical.
Featuring: Stacy Love
With an ass and body like Stacy's, it's no surprise she decided to try her hand at fucking on-camera. And when you see this Grade-A certified freak fuck, you're surprised it took her so long to pop that cherry. "I was at a crazy party a little while ago," Stacy said.
Cravin' that BBC
Featuring: Emily Eve
Emily Eve can't wait to get fucked. That should be evident by the fact that she is wearing hooker boots and has her ass in the air. And the fact that she says, "I can't wait to get fucked," in the first minute and some odd seconds of this video.
25.Jan
5'5'' with brown eyes and a booty built to make both our heads rise to attention. That's what Serenity Evans is workin' with, and we love every inch of this California chick. Serenity says she's a huge fan of basketball and the Los Angeles Lakers.
White Girl, Big Booty
Featuring: Sara Jay
When you see an ass like Sara Jay's, there is only one thing you can do to it..and that's smack it up, flip it and rub it down. And that is exactly what this stud does. There aren't too many white women packing the kind of junk in the trunk that Sara is and that is a shame.
A Boy's Best Friend
Featuring: Diamond Starr
It's not every day you come across a true dime piece. You know what we mean. A true 10 out of 10.


Bhutan's non-formal and continuing education program of the Department of Adult and Higher Education has been awarded the 2012 UNESCO International Literacy Price.
Bhutan and Colombia will receive the UNESCO Confucius Prize for literacy that was started in 2005 by the Chinese government worth US $ 20,000. The recognition comes at a time when the country is celebrating its 100 years of modern education journey.The awards will be given next month at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, as part of the International Literacy Day celebrations observed every year on September 8.
Non Formal Education program was first initiated by the national women's association of Bhutan to empower women in rural areas, and later taken over by the ministry of education under its department of adult and higher education.


If you are delivering high stakes tests in linear forms – or piloting a bank for CAT/LOFT – you are faced with the issue of how to equate the forms together. That is, how can we defensibly translate a score on Form A to a score on Form B? While the concept is simple, the methodology can be complex, and there is an entire area of psychometric research devoted to this topic. There are a number of ways to approach this issue, and IRT equating is the strongest.
Why do we need equating?
The need is obvious: to adjust for differences in difficulty to ensure that all examinees receive a fair score on a stable scale. Suppose you take Form A and get s score of 72/100 while your friend takes Form B and gets a score of 74/100. Is your friend smarter than you, or did his form happen to have easier questions? Well, if the test designers built in some overlap, we can answer this question empirically.
Suppose the two forms overlap by 50 items, called anchor items or equator items. They are each delivered to a large, representative sample. Here are the results.
Because the mean score on the anchor items was higher, we then think that the Form B group was a little smarter, which led to a higher total score.
Now, we have evidence that the groups are of equal ability. The higher total score on Form B must then be because the unique items on that form are a bit easier.
How do I calculate an equating?
You can equate forms with classical test theory (CTT) or item response theory (IRT). However, one of the reasons that IRT was invented was that equating with CTT was very weak. CTT methods include Tucker, Levine, and equipercentile. Right now, though, let's focus on IRT.
There are three general approaches to IRT equating. All of them can be accomplished with our industry-leading software Xcalibre, though conversion equating requires an additional software called IRTEQ.
With this approach, you need to calibrate each form of your test using IRT, completely separately. We then evaluate the relationship between IRT parameters on each form, and use that to estimate the relationship to convert examinee scores. Theoretically what you do is line up the IRT parameters of the common items and perform a linear regression, so you can then apply that linear conversion to scores. But DO NOT just do a regular linear regression. There are specific methods you must use, including mean/mean, mean/sigma, Stocking & Lord, and Haebara. Fortunately, you don't have to figure out all the calculations yourself, as there is free software available to do it for you: IRTEQ.
The second approach is to combine the datasets into what is known as a sparse matrix. You then run this single data set through the IRT calibration, and it will place all items and examinees onto a common scale. The concept of a sparse matrix is typically represented by the figure below, representing the non-equivalent anchor test (NEAT) design approach. The IRT calibration software will automatically equate the two forms and you can use the resultant scores.
The third approach is a combination of the two above; it utilizes the separate calibration concept but still uses the IRT calibration process to perform the equating rather than separate software. With this approach, you would first calibrate your data for Form A. You then find all the IRT item parameters for the common items, and input them into your IRT calibration software when you calibrate Form B. You can tell the software to "fix" the item parameters so that those particular ones (from the common items) do not change. Then all the item parameters for the unique items are forced onto the scale of the common items, which of course is the underlying scale from Form A. This then also forces the scores from the Form B students onto the Form A scale.
How do these approaches compare to each other?
Concurrent calibration is arguably the easiest, but has the drawback that it merges the scales of each form into a new scale somewhere in the middle. If you need to report the scores on either form on the original scale, then you must use the Conversion or Fixed Anchor approaches. This situation commonly happens if you are equating across time periods. Suppose you delivered Form A last year and are now trying to equate Form B. You can't just create a new scale and thereby nullify all the scores you reported last year. You must map Form B onto Form A so that this year's scores are reported on last year's scale and everyone's scores will be consistent.
If you want to do IRT equating, you need IRT calibration software. All three approaches use it. I highly recommend Xcalibre since it is easy to use and automatically creates reports in Word for you. If you want to learn more about the topic of equating, the classic reference is the book by Kolen and Brennan (2004; 2014). There are other resources more readily available on the internet, like this free handbook from CCSSO. If you would like to learn more about IRT, I recommend the books by de Ayala (2008) and Embretson & Reise (2000). A very brief intro is available on our website.
Psychometrics 101: What is it, and why do I need it?


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Here's John Legend's duet with Kelly Clarkson and his "updated" lyrics
John Legend has officially released the deluxe edition of his album A Legendary Christmas and along with it his new "Baby, It's Cold Outside" duet with Kelly Clarkson. Legend rewrote the lyrics to the classic song with Insecure's Natasha Rothwell to address the controversial lyrics that people consider to be about date rape. In the original version of the song, the female character is trying to leave while the male character continuously tries to get her to stay. In the new version, John is completely encouraging of Kelly leaving and even calls her a driver and tells her to text when she gets home. The new tracks on the album also include "This Christmas," "My Favorite Things" and "Christmas in New Orleans."


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Built in 1914, Balboa Stadium was located behind San Diego High School and was the Chargers home from 1961-66. A high school field with concrete slab seats, Balboa Stadium witnessed the Chargers glory years and hosted the 1961, 1963, and 1965 American Football League championship games, as well as the 1961, 1962, and 1963 All-Star contests. In their six seasons here, head coach Sid Gillman's club finished with combined record of 28-12-2, winning four Western Division titles and one league crown. In 1967, the team left Balboa for new San Diego Stadium in Mission Valley, where the club's glory slowed and the titles stopped.
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Salsa dancing, arm-wrestling, 25-cent beer, and more.
Jump-start your week at the newest outpost of the Dogfish Head Alehouse, now offering excellent beers on tap in Virginia's Seven Corners area. Try one of its signature India Browns, like the 90 Minute IPA, or the creamy and chocolatey Chicory Stout. On weekdays, the 4-to-7-pm happy hour cuts the price of all drafts by $1.50. Seven Corners Center, Falls Church; 703-534-3342. Wine lovers might prefer starting the week with a guided winetasting at Vidalia. From 5:30 to 6:30 pm each weekday, sip and soak up tips from the sommelier. The pours can be small, but hey, they're also free. 1990 M St. NW; 202-659-1990.
The quirky Palace of Wonders—an H Street, Northeast, club, vaudeville stage, and oddball museum—features a monthly female arm-wrestling championship. The battles of strength start at around 10:30 pm and can earn the winner a free bar tab. 1210 H St., NE; 202-398-7469. Not in a wrasslin' mood? Grab some friends and head to the spacious lounge at Famoso, where all bottles of wine are half off every Monday and Tuesday evening from 5 pm. 5471 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase; 301-986-8785.
Step inside McGinty's Public House in Silver Spring and you'll think you've been spirited away to a country pub in Ireland. Authentic decor, friendly bartenders, and chatty patrons have earned McGinty's a loyal following since it opened last year. For quiet conversation, gather around the fireplace; for a livelier evening, head upstairs where there's dancing, a 75-foot bar, several plasma TVs, and live music on occasion. 911 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring; 301-587-1270.
Salsa lovers head to Cecilia's in Arlington on Thursday nights. One of the best Latin clubs in the area, it offers three levels of salsa lessons every Thursday (7:30 for beginners, 8:30 intermediate, 9:30 advanced) before salsa band Rudy y Su Lokura lets loose and everybody hits the dance floor. $10. 2619 Columbia Pike, Arlington; 703-685-0790. Thursdays also find crowds—and great drink specials—at Tapatinis on Capitol Hill. Starting at 5 pm, top-shelf martinis are just $5. After 10, a sponsored drink is on the house. The bar receives free samples of liquors each week and gives away drinks made from them until the bottles run out. 711 Eighth St., SE; 202-546-8272.
On Friday nights, the Arlington Cinema 'n' Drafthouse, which sells food and drink during screenings of films that have had their runs in the big theaters, also features a winetasting before its feature film. Experts from the Washington Wine Academy set up and lead the tasting, which begins at 6 to 6:30. The winetasting is $1; the film is $5.50. 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington; 703 486-2345.
The 25-cent beer special at Asylum in Adams Morgan is legendary. It's exactly as advertised—at 5 pm, drafts of Miller High Life cost just a quarter and go up 50 cents every hour. The divey atmosphere of the biker bar adds to the early-Saturday-evening fun. 2471 18th St., NW; 202-319-9353.


text:
GBIF Registration
Taxonomic Coverage
Sampling Methods
Alien Flora of Nepal at KATH
Latest version published by Test Organization #1 on Sep 22, 2020 Test Organization #1
The database contains occurrence records of the alien plants of Nepal based on the herbarium specimens that have been deposited at the National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) of the Department of Plant Resources, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Kathmandu, Nepal. The species included are invasive as well as non-invasive naturalized species. It has records of 133 alien species included in 3513 herbarium records. The digitization and publication process of this database was supported by Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA; project no. BIFA3_025) program of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) funded by Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan.
DwC-A
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 3,513 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:
Data as a DwC-A file
download 3,513 records in English (265 KB) - Update frequency: unknown
Metadata as an EML file
download in English (15 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, DPR) (2019): Alien Flora of Nepal at KATH. v1.1. Department of Plant Resources, MoFE, Government of Nepal. Dataset/Occurrence. http://rds.icimod.org:8080/hkh-bif/resource?r=alien_flora_of_nepal_kath&v=1.1
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Test Organization #1. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License.
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 63017d76-b065-4ef1-831c-e1bc983e351d. Test Organization #1 publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Secretariat.
Occurrence; Occurrence
Who created the resource:
KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, DPR)
Godawari Lalitpur Bagmati dhakalsajita0@gmail.com 977 1 5174047
http://www.kath.gov.np
Who can answer questions about the resource:
Who filled in the metadata:
National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, DPR
National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, DPR Godawari Lalitpur Bagmati dhakalsajita0@gmail.com 977 1 5174047
Who else was associated with the resource:
Sajita Dhakal
A country in Asia located between India and China
Bounding Coordinates
South West [25.523, 79.343], North East [31.072, 89.648]
Flowering plants that are naturalized in Nepal
Tracheophyta (Flowering plants)
Start Date / End Date
A research project on Mobilizing occurrence data of the alien and endemic plant species of Nepal was implemented by the Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University (CDB TU), Kathmandu and the Department of Plant Resources (DPR), Ministry of Forest and Environment, Government of Nepal, in association with Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. The CDB TU is managing Tribhuvan University Central Herbarium (TUCH) and the DPR is managing National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH). Herbarium specimens that have been deposited at TUCH and KATH were digitized (photography and data capturing).
Mobilizing occurrence data of alien and endemic plant species of Nepal
BIFA3_025
The main funding for this project (BIFA3_025) came from the Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA) program of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) which was funded by Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan. Co-funding came from the Central Department of Botany (Tribhuvan University), Department of Plant Resources, and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (UK).
Study Area Description
This work covered the entire area of Nepal which lies between India and China in Asia. The country has been divided into three ecological regions: western (west of 83 degree east longitude), central (between 83 and 86.5 degree east longitude) and eastern (east of 86.5 degree east longitude). Politically, the country has been also divided into 77 districts (previously 75 districts). During this project, we digitized herbarium specimens of the flowering plants (limited to alien and endemic plants) collected since 1925 AD.
The aim of the project was to digitize and publish occurrence data of the alien and endemic plants of Nepal based on the herbarium specimens. The project started with the preparation and validation of the checklist of the alien and endemic plant species of Nepal. We finalized the checklist of 179 alien species and 313 species of endemic species. Herbarium specimens of these species that have been deposited at Tribhuvan University Central Herbarium (TUCH) and National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were sorted out and identification confirmed with the help of taxonomic experts. In each herbarium specimen, barcode and institutional stamp were put. In addition, color chart and scale were put at the time of the photography of the specimens. We used camera at TUCH and scanner at KATH for capturing image of the specimens. Information associated with each specimen were entered in database using MS excel and formatted according to the Darwin Core Standard.
The personnel involved in the project:
Mohan Siwakoti
Sanjeev Kumar Rai
Bharat Shrestha
Suresh Kumar Ghimire
Subash Khatri
Using the checklist of alien flowering plants of Nepal (179 species), herbarium specimens deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were checked and sorted out. Identification of the specimens were checked and verified by taxonomic experts. All the herbarium specimens of the alien plant species were photographed and related information were captured.
Study Extent
The database includes the occurrence records of the alien (invasive as well as non-invasive naturalized species) plants of Nepal based on the herbarium specimens that have been deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH), Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal. The specimens were collected from different part of Nepal by Nepalese and foreign researchers.
Identification of plants were confirmed by taxonomic experts of the project team. In situation when geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) were absent in the original records, geo-referencing was done but this was limited to only those specimens which has sufficiently detail description of the collection localities. We also used information available in the website of the Flora of Nepal (http://www.floraofnepal.org/data/localities) for geo-referencing some locations. The geographic coordinates obtained from the geo-referencing were presented up to two digit after decimal point. Entire data were managed in Darwin Core Standard format.
Method step description:
Using the checklist of the alien flowering plants of Nepal (179 species), herbarium specimens deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were checked and sorted out. Identification of the specimens were checked and verified by taxonomic experts. All the herbarium specimens of the alien plant species were photographed and related information were captured. In situation when geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) were absent in the original records, geo-referencing was done but this was limited to only those specimens which has sufficiently detail description of the collection localities. We also used information available in the website of the Flora of Nepal (http://www.floraofnepal.org/data/localities) for geo-referencing some locations. The geographic coordinates obtained from the geo-referencing were presented up to two digit after decimal point. Data were captured by research assistants. The raw data were checked for uniformity of the format and accepted scientific names including author citation. Entire data was managed in Darwin Core Standard format in the template that was available online in GBIF. OccurrenceID was designed by combining institution code (i.e. KATH), district code (two letters for each district; for example KT for Kathmandu district) and bar code number with colon in between them. We considered 75 districts in Nepal (In current system the number of districts is 77 but all the herbarium collections mentioned district according to 75 district system). In situation when district was not known and geographic coordinates were absent, we used 'NP' (which stands for 'Nepal') instead of district code in the OccurrenceID. We mentioned ecological regions (eastern Nepal, central Nepal and western Nepal) under the heading of 'stateProvince' and district name under 'county' in the DwC format. Before starting publication, the database was validated and inconsistencies identified during validation were fixed by checking raw data and original specimens. When data was ready, we communicated with data hosting institution which has installed Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT). Earlier to this, we registered the organization as data published in GBIF.
The database has been developed and published to fill geographic gap of the freely available occurrence data of plants and inform policy process for the conservation of biodiversity. Specifically, the database helps to meet Nepal's commitment to make biodiversity data available as a part of Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011-2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Maintenance Description
Database will be updated when needed and resources to do that is available.
63017d76-b065-4ef1-831c-e1bc983e351d
https://ipt.gbif.org/resource?r=test-marie-citation
IPT Version 2.4.2-rd9bfb4b
About the IPT
Request new feature


text:
package org.jgroups.protocols.kubernetes.stream;

import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;

import javax.net.ssl.TrustManager;
import javax.net.ssl.X509TrustManager;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;
import java.util.stream.Stream;

import org.junit.Test;

/**
 * Verify {@link TokenStreamProvider} and {@link CertificateStreamProvider} correctly parse all certificates from the file.
 *
 * @author Radoslav Husar
 */
public class StreamProviderTest {

    private static String CA_FILE = StreamProviderTest.class.getResource("/certificates/ca.crt").getFile();

    @Test
    public void testTokenStreamProviderCaCert() throws Exception {
        testConfigureCaCert(TokenStreamProvider.configureCaCert(CA_FILE));
    }

    @Test
    public void testCertificateStreamProviderCaCert() throws Exception {
        testConfigureCaCert(CertificateStreamProvider.configureCaCert(CA_FILE));
    }

    private static void testConfigureCaCert(TrustManager[] trustManagers) {
        assertEquals(1, trustManagers.length);
        X509TrustManager trustManager = (X509TrustManager) trustManagers[0];
        X509Certificate[] acceptedIssuers = trustManager.getAcceptedIssuers();

        // Assert all 4 CA certs are parsed
        assertTrue(Stream.of("CN=kube-apiserver-localhost-signer", "CN=kube-apiserver-service-network-signer", "CN=ingress-operator@1559194394", "CN=kube-apiserver-lb-signer")
                .allMatch(cn -> Stream.of(acceptedIssuers)
                        .anyMatch(c -> c.getSubjectDN().toString().startsWith(cn)))
        );
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Brave German Woman' Rebukes Islam's Lie!!
Islam continues to grow in power and influence across Europe. But in Germany one Christian woman has decided to stand up and declare Christ alone as Lord over her country!! God Bless the Brave Woman for Standing up with Jesus Christ on her Side!! She Spoke the Truth to the EVIL Imam inside a Christian Church!!
This Brave German Woman is a DEVOUT Christian and she is 1000% Right!! Yeshua Jesus Christ is the only TRUE MESSIAH and SAVIOR!!
Yeshua Jesus Christ is the SON of GOD our FATHER who art in Heaven!! Yeshua Jesus Christ is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, No one comes unto the FATHER, but through Me ( Jesus-Yeshua Christ )!!
Yeshua Jesus Christ is KING of kings LORD of lords!! Yeshua Jesus Christ is the ALPHA and OMEGA, the FIRST an the LAST! The HOLY BIBLE is INSPIRED HOLY WORD of our LIVING GOD in Heaven, Given to us by His Prophets alone in the HOLY BIBLE!!
Islamic Muslims WORSHIP a FALSE PAGAN moon god named allah, and a FALSE prophet named muhammad!!
Muslims are TERRORISTS / MURDERERS / RACISTS / FASCISTS / MARXISM / NAZISM/ COMMUNISM / RAPISTS / PATHETIC PATHOLOGICAL LIARS / EVIL Jihad!!
Islam Religion Stared about 1400 years ago in Mecca when Muhammad thought he seen a FALSE PAGAN moon god named allah–satan Baal, when it was REALLY Satan ( the devil ) who Deceived muhammad!!
Satan gave muhammad a FALSE book named the Koran ( qu'ran ) and said it was holy, it is NOT holy at all!! The Koran ( qu'ran ) is FILLED with LIES and SLANDERS Yeshua Jesus Christ and the REAL TRUE HOLY BIBLE!!
WAKE UP Islamic Muslims, your Imam's are NOT holy neither is your FALSE PAGAN moon god named allah, or your FALSE Prophet named muhammad !!
Yeshua Jesus Christ LOVES everyone UNCONDITIONALLY!! That means you Islamic Muslims, Jesus-Yeshua Christ is the one and Only SON of GOD our FATHER in Heaven!!
( Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV ) "Trust in the LORD ( ADONAI ) with all thine Heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways Acknowledge HIM, and HE shall direct thy Paths."!! TRUST in the LORD Jesus-Yeshua Christ with All Thine HEART and SOUL!! ( John 14:6 KJV ) "Jesus saith unto him, I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man ( or anyone ) cometh unto the Father, but by ME."!!
« Democratic Official Admits Plan To Confiscate Guns!!


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text:
Tag: Globe & Mail
Wildrose demands transparency from NDP and PCs but holds its annual meeting in secret
11 Comments on Wildrose demands transparency from NDP and PCs but holds its annual meeting in secret
Wildrose leader Brian Jean
Alberta's conservative Wildrose Party is holding its annual general meeting this weekend in Calgary and, according to one media source, the event will be closed to the media with the exception of leader Brian Jean's speech ahead of the leadership review vote on the evening of Nov 13, 2015.
It feels like an eternity in Alberta politics since the Wildrose Party's last annual meeting in Nov. 2014, which saw then-leader Danielle Smith clash with the party's social conservative base over support for sexual minority rights. Wildrose members at the open door meeting voted down a definitive statement on equal rights for all Albertans, destroying the party's attempt to appear more mainstream on social issues.
Now, the Wildrose Party led by Mr. Jean will spend its first annual meeting after its spectacular return from the dead debating policy and politics behind closed doors.
Wildrose members will debate motions ranging from equalization payments, public sector pensions, ending mandatory membership in students' unions, increasing access to firearms, abolishing the Canadian Senate, and allowing private enterprise to receive government grants to compete against public essential services.
Members will also debate a series of motions aimed at banning MLAs from crossing the floor to another party, an issue that nearly destroyed the party when 13 of its MLAs crossed the floor to join the Progressive Conservatives in the final months of 2014.
This type of anti-floor crossing policy could prove difficult to enforce, as it is against the spirit of the Westminster parliamentary system and idea of responsible government. Wildrose members should also note that none of the floor-crossers were re-elected in this year's general election, providing some evidence that elements of our system of democracy worked without unneeded tinkering.
The closed door meeting could help hide controversial comments or embarrassing eruptions that regularily happen when political party members line up to speak at the microphone.
Rumours have circulated for months about a group of party members who still harbour bad feelings from the party's March 28, 2015 leadership race and could create trouble for Mr. Jean at this annual meeting. The leadership vote, which Mr. Jean won with 54 percent to Drew Barnes' 40 percent, was held days before the provincial election was called.
An internal investigation was launched amid allegations of illegal robocalls and the party imposed a $15,000 fine against Mr. Barnes' campaign. The message in the robocalls allegedly attacked Mr. Jean for his $10,000 donation to Jim Prentice's PC leadership campaign only months before he entered the Wildrose Party leadership race.
Mr. Jean is now carefully manufacturing his pitch to convince members of the former governing PC Party to join his party's ranks. Later in November, the Wildrose Party is hosting a "conversation" fundraiser in Calgary where Mr. Jean will make his pitch to conservatives to unite behind his party against the NDP. Any embarrassing or divisive fights at this meeting could derails those attempts.
Wildrose MLAs have eclipsed the tiny PC opposition in media attention while relentlessly hammering almost every decision made by Rachel Notley's NDP since they won the May 2015 election. But recently Wildrose MLAs have found themselves tied up in an embarrassing missteps including fighting a new 9:00 a.m. start time for the Legislature and a very public dispute with a Globe & Mail reporter.
Partisan debates about policy can be divisive and messy, but it is hypocritical for Wildrose Party MLAs to lambast the NDP for failing to be transparent and the PCs for being secretive and entitled while holding their own policy meetings behind closed doors.
If Mr. Jean's Wildrose Party truly wants to prove it is ready to govern and represent mainstream Alberta, they should demonstrate it by giving Albertans a view into how their grassroots members really believe our province should be governed.
Tags Alberta NDP, Brian Jean, Danielle Smith, Drew Barnes, Equalization Payments, Globe & Mail, Jim Prentice, Leadership Review, Progressive Conservatives, Public Sector Pensions, Rachel Notley, Robocalls, Wildrose AGM, Wildrose Floor Crossings, Wildrose Party
This Week in Alberta Politics
1 Comment on This Week in Alberta Politics
Here are a few items to watch out for in Alberta politics this week:
Which of the four Liberal Members of Parliament will be appointed to the federal cabinet on Nov. 4, 2015? Most speculation points toward newly elected Calgary-Centre MP Kent Hehr being given a cabinet spot. Mr. Hehr, along with Calgary-Skyview MP Darshan Kang, were the first federal Liberals to be elected in Calgary since 1968. But will one of the two Liberal MPs from Edmonton – Amarjeet Sohi and Randy Boissonnault – get a cabinet spot? If not, it would mark the first time since before Jim Edwards was appointed as President of the Treasury Board in 1993 that Edmonton has not had representation in the federal cabinet.
Two Conservative MPs from Alberta – Edmonton-Wetaskiwin MP Mike Lake and Sturgeon River-Parkland MP Rona Ambrose – have joined four other Conservative MPs with bids to become the interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. That party has only had one permanent leader, Calgary MP Stephen Harper, since the party was formed in 2003 and is expected to choose a new permanent leader next year.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci will continue their sales pitch for the Alberta NDP's first provincial budget this week. The NDP budget received some sensible and encouraging reviews when it was released from Calgary Economic Development and the Alberta Chambers of Commerce.
Overshadowing debate about the Alberta NDP's first provincial budget last week was the Wildrose Party Finance critic Derek Fildebrant's war with a Globe & Mail reporter and House leader Nathan Cooper's war against a 9:00 a.m. start time for the Legislative sitting. Will the Wildrose Official Opposition be able to move on to actual issues of substance in the second week of the fall session?
It was always expected that uniting the Wildrose and PC parties will be tough. Richard Starke, the PC MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster, had some choice words for his Wildrose counterparts in the Legislature last week: "…the Official Opposition rather reminds me of the chippy hockey player that hacks and slashes in the corner and then, as soon as something similar happens back to them, goes running to the referee."
I will be taking a short break from blogging this week. In my absence, check out David Climenhaga's informative and entertaining AlbertaPolitics.ca blog.
Tags 9:00 am start time, Alberta Chambers of Commerce, Alberta NDP Budget, AlbertaPolitics.ca, Amarjeet Sohi, Calgary Economic Development, Calgary-Centre, Calgary-Skyview, Conservative Party Interim Leader, Darshan Kang, David Climenhaga, Derek Fildebrandt, Edmonton-Wetaskiwin, Federal Cabinet, Globe & Mail, Jim Edwards, Joe Ceci, Kent Hehr, Mike Lake, Nathan Cooper, Rachel Notley, Randy Boissonnault, Richard Starke, Rona Ambrose, Stephen Harper, Sturgeon River-Parkland, Vermilion-Lloydminster, Wildrose Party