text:
Frank, even MY high school had more cool kids than that, percentagewise.
1,400 submissions (at one submission per member) out of approximately 70,000 BMW CCA members.
You do realize that's only two percent of the entire membership? In fact it's probably less, since that 70,000 is likely not the exact figure.
Frank if high schools did that poorly selling THEIR yearbooks, you can bet it would either be discontinued, or they'd find a new plan for the yearbooks STAT. Two percent wouldn't even pay for the raw material, let alone the labor and printing costs. In fact, somebody would probably get kicked off the yearbook committee.
With all due respect, it sounds to me like 98 percent of the membership knows something you don't. I'm happy to be on the larger side of those numbers.
This is profoundly sad that the club "bought" the semi-scam and allowed this company access to the CCA mailing list of members and now hard sell them on this "directory". No telling where all those addresses will end up now (yeah, I know, they promise not to use them). However, that is a moot point as we all have had to put up with the yellow warning cards that imply that if you don't call to "update your information" your entry might be wrong. Initially they didn't want to clearly state you had to opt in to be included.
I've been a club member for almost 30 years now, and I don't recall anything like this ever been done in the past. It reminds me of all the charities that hire these firms to raise money for them, and then those firms pocket as much as 85% of the money raised. A local charity was interviewed about this a while back, and the reply was that they raise more money that way even if they only get 15%.
I don't know, maybe that's a harsh comparison, but count me out too.
Even if Frank is correct (and, for the purposes of argument, I will assume he is), this entire industry is little more than sleazy opportunists. It's kind of like having the 'best' rattlesnake for a bedtime pet.
Let's be careful not to fault Frank for trying different things. It's his job to make this club as good as it can be, which means cautious experimentation with new ideas not just stewardship of historic traditions. I am sure he too can smell rats, when rats are around.
Yeah some things may work out better than others, but it's the trying that counts. This club is a big club and needs professionals to manage and administrate the Organization. Us saying, "I tole ya so" is not constructive and not supportive of people who need to stick their neck out a little and try a few risky things.
Despite the whinging that occurred in this Forum last year regarding Membership fees, I feel impressed by the earnest efforts of The Board to run the Club well. What Bruce Hazard writes in "President's Page" in Roundel is interesting and inspiring. His topics always are about planning "the big picture" for the Club, reaching out, organizing, and planning. I always feel impressed (and in awe, since I sometimes can't even get my shirt on right side forward).
It is good to doubt, but it is important too to recognize just how lucky we are to already have a good (I did not say "perfect") club administration.
I don't fault Frank for trying different things.
If I fault him for anything, it's the impression that I don't feel he's taking membership concerns about this yearbook seriously. My concern is I don't see Frank defending the rest of us with respect to the missteps this company has taken.
If the BMW CCA is really in charge of this project, then the BMW CCA management, which WE the membership elect, have the last word in the conversation regarding how the yearbook project is handled. On the other hand, if it's been "sold" to this company without any say from the membership, then it's a fair question to ask what this company received in the bargain, especially when it's OUR personal information at stake.
It's one thing to make a "mea culpa" and admit making a mistake. After all, "to err is human, and to forgive is divine." Yet to continue defending this company amid its questionable and controversial practices, is to say "everything is fine" when everyone else is smelling smoke and failing to evacuate the building. I am having a tough time seeing Frank putting membership concerns ahead of putting out this marketing product. It's much too cozy a relationship with this outside company that doesn't seem accountable at all to the people it is ultimately supposed to be working for -- us, the BMW CCA membership.
I don't know about you people, but the stance Frank is taking doesn't fill me with confidence that my personal information is being handled appropriately. Especially since I did not give this company any consent to use my personal information for any purpose whatsoever.
Only 2 percent of the entire membership taking part in this project, Frank? That's abject failure, not resounding success. Please come clean about this.
(and in awe, since I sometimes can't even get my shirt on right side forward).
Whew!! I thought I was the only one! Thanks Brian A, good points.
This project came about as an offshoot of the history that was put together during the 40th anniversary of the club. Many members requested an opportunity to be able to submit photos and personal accounts of their experiences in the Club and with their cars.
With 70,000+ members it is impossible for us to accomplish that thru Roundel alone and we cannot absorb the cost of printing and distributing a special publication. Harris Connect is one of the oldest and most respected producers of alumni and association publications. I have personally worked with them on projects for other association that I have worked for. Their reputation, like ours, is their stock in trade. Your personal information is protected by contractual obligation and by their excellent track record.
It seems that it is being posited that this project was initiated by the board randomly, out of the blue, for no reason whatsoever, or only to make some money for the club, or for Harris, or from a solicitation from Harris.
Frank explains in his response that this project was initiated due to requests from many club members - is there some reason to begrudge the desire of other club members for such a product? Sounds to me like Frank, and presumably, the board, was simply responding in the best way they knew how to offer something desired by enough members to make the project worth offering by whatever means was feasible.
I see this as a win-win for the club; the club doesn't have to bear the costs, and offers a unique product that a portion of the membership definitely wants. I doubt there was any pre-supposition about or definition of "success" - whatever books Harris could/can sell, they can sell, and that's all there is to it. If they could sell more, I imagine, great for them, and if they sold one or none, then so be it. Presumably Harris is offering the books profitably at their price points; the club can't afford to do it for free (ie, not charging members), and I imagine if the club thought they could accomplish the project profitably and sell the books for less, they would have. In all likelihood, the books would have had to be priced higher if the club attempted to do this project in-house - how would that be better for anyone, particularly the members who want the books and whose requests initiated the project? It certainly wouldn't be fair, as Frank mentions, for the whole of the membership to bear the cost for a project that only a portion of the membership wants.
And, if Harris is contractually obligated to protect the membership contact information, why the skepticism over Harris fulfilling their contractual obligations? Harris wouldn't be in business for long if they consistently disregarded their business responsibilities to their clients - who would patronize them?
As far as I can tell, the main mistake made through this whole process was one of notification and timing. The notifications could have been better and more clearly explained, and the mailing went out before the email blast. As for how Harris conducts their response when one calls in, is there a 'perfect' way to sell something? Seemed to work just fine for some 1400 members... but, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement - that's up to Harris however, I suspect.
If there is one thing to take away from it all, it would appear the club perhaps might consider offering the option for members to opt-out from the club providing a member's contact information to anyone for any purpose, including 3rd parties specifically contracted by the club to communicate with members, or offer members products the club feels might be of interest to members. Then, anyone concerned enough about it, can simply opt-out, and fugedabowdit.
Opt OUT? Are you freaking kidding me?
"Hello member. This is BMW CCA. We've just sold your personal information to approximately 700 marketing companies to make an extra buck. If you DON'T want to receive unsolicited marketing offers, you're going to have to write each and every one of them individually to tell them you do not want to receive unsolicited marketing offers.
Have a good one, and thank you for your membership in the BMW CCA."
No - not the impractical approach. The CLUB offers an option for you to opt-out. Once. Then, a member is opted-out from anything the club might solicit on a member's behalf from 3rd parties.
The BMW CCA community must be just one great big candy store to you, right?
Brian, Brian, Brian. . .
Now now. Calm down. Take a deep breath. Time to adjust the dosage. . .
Unfortunately, some people in here could stand to start a pharmaceutical regimen.
Along with that, regarding my remark, if the horns and pointed tail fit, wear 'em.
Hardly. I trust the national office to safeguard the membership database and use our contact information responsibly. I don't think I can pinpoint it, but I recall there being an explanation someplace that the BMWCCA reserves the right to allow companies or non-BMWCCA parties to contact members (via access to the membership database contact info), IF the BMWCCA feels the products or services offered are, or may be, of general interest to the membership at-large. Thus, I was neither surprised nor alarmed by a small yellow card arriving in the mailbox offering the book. If there were members out there who did not understand this, I could see how the mailing could come across as a surprise, and with negative connotations, particularly if a member is negatively predisposed towards marketing efforts of any kind.
The BMWCCA has proven itself in that regard, as over the last 25 years of being a member, I haven't seen the national office release our mailing info for 3rd parties to contact us even occasionally - more like rarely, at most.
If companies feel the BMWCCA members are their target market, undoubtedly it's both more efficient and less expensive to advertise in the Roundel than to beg the club for access to it's member's address list and assume the expense of printing and mailing anything to club members.
As countless companies offer various privacy options, I don't see any reason why the BMWCCA can't offer a similar privacy/use-of-contact-info option, whereby members specify whether they want to be contacted by BMWCCA-authorized/endorsed organizations, or not. You check a box on your BMWCCA membership form (or wherever), and voila, don't get the mailing from some organization offering this or that or whatever, once ever, or once a decade, or whenever. Simple, & problem solved - for anyone that's concerned about it. I'm not too concerned about the club allowing telemarketers access to us; Since the board and the national office is not, oh, the Federal Government, I suspect that they are loaded with common sense, dislike telemarketers as much as the rest of BMWCCA members, and are intelligent enough to know that there would be a protest outcry of epic proportions were they to have the members bombarded by phone in some telemarketing campaign. That much ain't rocket science, besides which the Nat'l Office folks and board are waaaay smarter than to allow something like that.
If I had a product or service that I thought all BMWCCA members would purchase, were I ever so fortunate enough to profitably offer something with that broad of an appeal, even though it _might_ be tempting to look upon such an economic opportunity or those potential purchasers as a so-called 'candy store', I don't think I, or any profit-oriented capitalist who values their customers and potential for repeat business, would so shallowly disregard the potential customer base.
Yikes! After doing a quick search, looking to see how to submit some information for the yearbook, I wind up at this thread! Unfortuantely, there were no other results from my search.
After reading the five plus (5+) pages of whining and consoling, I found absolutely nothing that relates to the submission content.
To the Executive Director, and MGarrison, thank you for your sensible posts. To most of the rest, you are too paranoid! If anyone wants it, there's waaay more of your personal information on the www that's free for the taking, and a lot easier to access than buying it through this club.
Why do you think they call them Public Records?
I suppose that defends on how loose your definition of "personal information" is.
While not speaking for anyone else but myself, I responded to an insert in an issue of Roundel inviting me to call a toll free number for the purpose of submitting stories about my car for the personal yearbook. Nothing on the insert said anything about being subjected to a moderate to high pressure (level of pressure being defined as how many times I declined) "sale" for the selfsame yearbook. Had the generally agreed upon definition of "full disclosure" been put into practice, the insert would have informed users in advance that calling the toll free number meant also submitting to a sales opportunity for such a year book. I would have agreed to sharing information about my vehicle (it's locked, in a private storage facility, and I have the only key, being 36 miles away from the vehicle), but I would have not made the call if I had known I would be subjected to a moderate to high pressure sale.
Suppose I put an insert on your car's windshield inviting you to take advantage of a free detailing. You decide to take me up on the offer, and you provide me with your car key for the purpose of having access to the vehicle, purportedly so that I could clean and detail the interior. Instead, without your knowledge and consent, in addition to detailing the vehicle, I TAKE it on a cross country trip and keep it for a month before returning it to you.
Would the above example be considered "fair use" of your property? You gave me permission to detail the vehicle, not to drive it anywhere, and certainly not to keep it in my possession for a month. The claim that you didn't explicitly "opt out" of giving me permission to basically steal your car for a month would not be a realistic defense in any court of law in this country. By the same taken, I don't consider the defense that I didn't "opt out" first to be a valid excuse to subject me to an unsolicited, moderate to high pressure sales call for the same product I was led to believe I was contributing to.
I realize that your laissez-faire approach to the concept of "private information" would probably abhor the idea of the extra labor involved in shredding unwanted mail containing your social security number. But at the same time, it's pretty over the top to call those who ARE conscientious of how PRIVATE information is used (I don't know about you, but I still consider MY personal information MY property) paranoid "whiners and consolers."
While you're at it, since you're so open about how your personal property is used, please leave the address for your unlocked vehicle with the key in the ignition so that the rest of us can give your vehicle a "cross country" detailing. Also leave a valid credit card in the vehicle so we can refuel it at your expense as well.
I'm more convinced than ever now.
You should write fiction; the way you transend from a postcard in a magazine to a cross-country trip, via a vehicle detailing, is just fascinating.
How about signing the outside of the envelope too, just to make it easier for the identity thief?
Somehow I don't think you'd mind.
... and I AM PI$$ED!
Besides buying the damn thing, I purchased a feature page, and spend a lot of time to compose a couple paragraphs to describe my BMW experience.
Not only was the text completely omitted, the editor(s) did not even include my wife's name.
What a total F*&%ing waste of time and money.
Thoroughly disgusted with the way this was handled, including the fact that I submitted my entry to two (2) people that I had wrongly been convinced that they knew what they were doing.
The way I feel right now, I seriously doubt I will renew my membership.
Why don't you give me a calll with the details, or send me an e mail if that's easier (fpatek@bmwcca.org) and I will find out what happened to your feature page. I am sorry that it did not make it into the book and I am sure we can get a refund of your money.

industry_corpus2: Automobiles


text:
With a superb TV installation company such as Antenna Installation Melbourne, you are guaranteed to have a company that’s available 24/7 to provide you with your TV reception and antenna needs. When you encounter an issue with your antenna, give us a call, and we will show up within the next ten minutes. We guarantee exceptional services, making sure that you achieve the satisfaction of knowing that certified professionals are taking care of your antenna installation task.
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With Antenna Installation Melbourne as your partner in antenna installation services, you can guarantee that you will get the best antenna setup for your home.

industry_corpus2: Computing & Telecommunications


text:
This material is subject to the LaTeX Project Public Licence.
See http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/licenses.lppl.html for the details of that licence.
in the manual ``Tikz \& PGF Manual for Version~2.10''.
For a good usage of this package, LaTeX2e version is required.
- arrow tips used in drain/spout were corrected. The update to tikz3.0 caused a problem concerning the size of such arrows.
- first published at CTAN.
Download the contents of this package in one zip archive (198.6k).
The package defines macros and other utilities to design Reo Circuits. The package requires PGF/TikZ support.

industry_corpus2: Programming


text:
INDIANAPOLIS, I.N. -- The Niagara University Department Athletics tied its highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 92 percent, announced by the NCAA on Wednesday. Niagara's 92 percent GSR exceeds the NCAA Division I national average by five percent for the 2008-11 cohort.
Niagara had a cumulative GSR of 92 percent and eight of the Purple Eagles' athletic programs posted a perfect GSR of 100 percent: women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, women's golf, women's soccer, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball.
Each of Niagara's athletic programs included in the study matched or exceeded the federal GSR average for its respective sport: baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's ice hockey, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball.
The NCAA also released the Federal Graduation Rate (FGR), Niagara had an FGR of 70 percent, which exceeds the national average of 68 percent.
The NCAA developed the GSR to more accurately measure the academic success of student-athletes. The GSR does not include students who leave an institution while academically eligible, but does include students who transfer into an institution after initially enrolling elsewhere. The FGR is currently the only measure to compare student-athletes with an institution's general student body.

industry_corpus2: Sports


text:
There is nothing worse than a stale resume and just like stale food its place is in the dustbin. Yes you heard it right! One of the most common reasons for your resume to go into the wastepaper bin is because it is not an updated one. It still reflects your experience of working with Windows 7 when Windows 8 is already up! It also reflects very poorly when you mention in the cover letter that you have 7 years of work experience whereas the resume reflects only 5 years! Yes you forgot to update your crucial resume. With companies receiving hundreds of resumes for various posts, the HR executive will not glance through your resume for more than once. So it is very important to keep your resume fresh and relevant.
Here are some vital tips and tricks to update your resume with the best resume format and make it more relevant.
Start reviewing your resume from the bottom. It is at the end that you would need to add any extracurricular activities, workshops or seminars that you must have attended.
If you have changed jobs during a year, or had a promotion or a horizontal shift in your role, do not forget to mention it in the resume. Even if you have been in the same role for a year and half, you must have handled various projects or taken over some added responsibility. Do not forget to mention it.
In the course of the last update of your resume, you could have attended some professional certificates or degrees. Even if a certificate is not related to your field of your job, but you have taken up a course like language or an animation course, do not forget to mention the degree. You could have been also involved in some social service which will definitely add value to your resume.
Just to give your resume a crisp look, you can change or modify the look of your resume. If the format of your resume is still the same as it was 2 years back, it could be treated as an outdated one. At the same time ensure that your resume is compatible in all the current formats like Text only, Microsoft Word and PDF. Having a PDF format also gives the prospective employer a hint that you are a technically savvy candidate.
There are many professions which have different designations but follow more or less the same profile. The difference is only in the use of key words. For example communication manager and PR manager has more or less the same roles to deliver. But do go through the job profile in detail and ensure that the keywords currently being used in the industry are there in your resume and at the same time avoid words which appear over used. Alternatively, you can mold the language a bit to fit in the desired keywords without much of a change to the profile.
Your resume should highlight the current achievements and skill addition and not what you learnt when you were a rookie. Delete the obsolete software or technologies, the need of which is now almost negligible. If you have applied for a senior post then just a line of your highest educational qualification will do justice so you may avoid writing the grades you achieved in high school!
Proofread your article not once but several times. Edit and proofread it endlessly to ensure that your resume is error free. If you feel the need to delete or add any information do it now and do not leave it to be completed at a later date. If required, you can even ask your friend to proof-read it for yourself. Rewrite sections that need to hold the interest of your reader and in this case it is the HR.
Now, your resume is ready to be posted. Send it across confidently along with a well-written cover letter. But, don’t forget that updating your resume is a regular activity. You must ideally take a re-look at your resume and make relevant changes more than once in a year.
Tagged: resume, resume preparation, resume tips, update resume.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


text:
To run JSPs, one needs a web server that implements JSP and servlet specifications like Apache Tomcat, Jetty etc.
Have a look at the Tomcat installation instructions to get started.
Once a web server is installed, JSPs are installed as a part of web application i.e. war file. Once you have written a jsp, you can use these instructions to create war file and deploy war file for this.
As of now, let's proceed with writing our first jsp.


text: Looking for someone who take care of your big events? Our MICE team will make your event unforgettable occasion. We offer dedicated professional to arrange your Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events anywhere in the world. We offer any type of setup and arrangements to make sure the event is successful.

industry_corpus2: Travel & Geography


text:
Can Segmentation and Comparison Reports be generated based on embedded web vs. email campaign?
I have an ongoing survey with the “Feedback” link embedded in our web page. I want to send an email campaign of the same survey to those users of the web site who have not proactively taken the survey embedded in our page.
How best to set it up, if it can be done at all?
Essentially you could create one report for your email campaign response and another report for responses that are coming in via the embedded survey.


text:
The Medium Flush Hybrid-Fyre™ Wood Insert Rect. Is one of the cleanest burning, most efficient, mid-sized inserts in the world and certified to the new EPA 2020 standards! This wood insert burns so clean that it produces only 1.7 grams of emissions per hour using cordwood and tests at over 76% efficiency. Its revolutionary Hybrid-Fyre™ technology is what makes for an incredibly clean burn that emits virtually no smoke or carbon monoxide, all while saving you money and trips to the wood pile.
The Medium Flush Hybrid-Fyre™ Wood Insert is approved to fit large zero clearance and masonry fireplaces with its 19 inch depth and 3 cubic foot firebox. It features a huge fire viewing area that comes available with decorative rectangular and arched door options. It also features concealed 180 CFM convection fans that powerfully heat up to 2,000 square feet, while producing burn times of up to 10 hours.

industry_corpus2: Manufacturing


text:
Drive Vauxhall is an award-winning retailer providing an extensive selection of new and used cars and vans.
At the end of 2014, the retailer achieved the highest and most impressive combined scores from Vauxhall's Purchase Satisfaction and Service Satisfaction surveys.
The Drive Vauxhall centre has a range of services on site including a Body Shop, Servicing Facilities and a Motability Specialist. They also provide a young driver's scheme which helps to lover the cost of motoring.
Drive Vauxhall's customer-facing staff are trained in the "Drive Academy" to ensure a consistent high-level of customer service that you will expect from such a company.
Priding themselves on exceptional levels of customer care, you will feel safe in the knowledge you're buying your next car at the right place. With free wi-fi, refreshments and either a courtesy vehicle or a courtesy collection/delivery service where applicable, all your needs are catered for.


text:
Table 3 summarizes national weighted estimates of influenza vaccination coverage by race/ethnicity for children 6 months-17 years, across several recent influenza seasons. Coverage estimates have been previously published for the 2009-10 influenza season and the 2010-11 season, but estimates for 2007-08 and 2008-09 have not been previously published.
Please note: There have been changes in data sources, time periods, and vaccination recommendations across seasons. The 2009-10 influenza season was unique for several reasons: two vaccines and vaccination periods, and the availability of information for more high risk conditions. Detailed methods are available for the 2009-10 influenza season and the 2010-11 season. For 2007-08 and 2008-09 BRFSS adult estimates, the same analytic methods were used as for the 2010-11 season estimates just cited.
Additional estimates for 2009-10 vaccination coverage are available in Table 3-B or by selecting the column heading “2009-10 Seasonal (Trivalent)” in Table 3-A.
† For 2007-08 and 2008-09, data are from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). For 2009-10, data are from BRFSS and the National 2009 H1N1 Flu Survey (NHFS). For seasonal influenza vaccination, coverage estimates represent those interviewed October 2009–June 2010 who reported being vaccinated August 2009–May 2010. For more on methods see the Data Source and Methods of the report Final estimates for 2009–10 Seasonal Influenza and Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccination Coverage – United States, August 2009 through May 2010. For 2010-11, data are from the National Immunization Survey (NIS). Coverage estimates represent those interviewed September 2010–June 2011 who reported being vaccinated August 2010–May 2011. For more on methods see the Data Source and Methods of the report Final state-level influenza vaccination coverage estimates for the 2010–11 season–United States, National Immunization Survey and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, August 2010 through May 2011.
‡ Data for children, 6 months–17 years, not available (NA) for these seasons.
§ Seasonal: Seasonal influenza vaccination (trivalent).
|| Month of vaccination was imputed for respondents with missing month of vaccination data. Percentages are weighted to the non-institutionalized, U.S. civilian population.
** Includes Asian, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, multiracial, and other races.
†† AIAN: American Indian and Alaska Native.
‡‡ Includes Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, multiracial, and other races.
† For 2009-10, data are from BRFSS and the National 2009 H1N1 Flu Survey (NHFS). For seasonal influenza vaccination, coverage estimates represent those interviewed October 2009–June 2010 who reported being vaccinated August 2009–May 2010. For influenza A (H1N1) 2009 monovalent vaccination, coverage estimates represent those interviewed November 2009–June 2010 who reported being vaccinated October 2009–May 2010. For more on methods see the Data Source and Methods of the report Final estimates for 2009–10 Seasonal Influenza and Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccination Coverage – United States, August 2009 through May 2010.
‡ H1N1: Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 vaccination (monovalent); Seasonal: Seasonal influenza vaccination (trivalent).
§ Month of vaccination was imputed for respondents with missing month of vaccination data. Percentages are weighted to the non-institutionalized, U.S. civilian population.
¶ Includes Asian, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, multiracial, and other races.
** AIAN: American Indian and Alaska Native.
†† Includes Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, multiracial, and other races.

industry_corpus2: Health & Medicine


text:
As they prepared to leave the table around which we had gathered in the synagogue, they presented me with a beaded bag from Jerusalem, a bag filled with gifts. I was embarrassed to receive yet another gift from them. I told them that their presence was itself the greatest gift. I told them that my wife and I had been in Israel this summer in the midst of so much pain and sorrow, and that everywhere I went I asked people where they find hope. In the presence of these young people I found an answer to my own seeking, to the same question that in moments of enough courage I ask myself.
Planning to return for our service that evening, they were a group of ten Israeli high school students, five Jews and five Muslim Arabs. The Jewish students are from the south, all attending a regional school in Kibbutz Yotvata in the Arava region of the Negev desert. I lived on that kibbutz for a time many years ago. The Muslim students are all from a small village in the north near Natzeret/Nazareth. They are travelling together as part of a program called Friends Forever. It is an American based effort to bring young people together from places of conflict, people who could just as easily become enemies rather than friends. Having met each other a few times in Israel as part of the coordinating effort, they now travel and live together abroad, sharing in discovery of each other and themselves as they encounter new places, people, and experiences. Their guides are two teachers, one from each of their schools, and an American coordinator for the program. The goal and the hope of the program is that the friendships fostered will continue at home, and that these new friends will help to prepare new cohorts to engage in becoming friends forever.
We went around the table, sharing names and a little background. The interplay of names and backgrounds was like music, enveloping all of us with a sense of wholeness, only names, the essence of who we are and where we have come from, names telling of each one’s presence. I had to hold back tears several times. I did not share with them the sudden thought I had that the last time I heard an interspersing of Hebrew and Arabic names was at a peace vigil at which were read the names of all the dead from the Gaza war, Palestinian and Israeli, Hebrew and Arabic. To call each other by name is the beginning of friendship, a way of connection, and so may it be for these young people, and through them for all of us, the beginning of a new way. I asked them why they had chosen to be part of Friends Forever. Their answers showed that a new way was already unfolding through them. Knowing strife so close at hand, their answers were more than untried idealism, but reflected a yearning that is born of urgency and of a struggle not to despair. Several of them spoke of loving peace, of wanting to help bring peace to the world. In their being together, transcending their own fear and discomfort, of which they spoke honestly, they are taking the first steps toward making peace a reality in their own world of strife and separation.
When it came time to leave, we walked outside together. Suddenly, one of the Muslim students asked if they could see the Torah. “Ah, of course,” I said, and all turned around and walked back in. We gathered around the reading table and opened the scroll to where it was set from last week. There, jumping out at us, were the words of the Sh’ma, an affirmation of God’s oneness, Hear, O Israel, God our God, God is one (Deut. 6:4). I shared an essential teaching with them, one they already knew in their hearts: if God is one and all people are created in the image of God, then…, and I asked them, and they answered…, then all people are one. And so it was around the table. And then I rolled the scroll to that week’s Torah portion, Parashat Ekev (Deut. 7:12-11:25). I chanted the first few verses for them. Smiling, and making me smile, one of the Muslim students said it sounded like the chanting of Quran. And I asked them, “what does Ekev mean?” One of the Jewish students said right away, though all of them speak Hebrew, “it means because of.” And so it does, and I asked, “and what does akev mean,” and a teacher answered, “it means heal.” I added one more word formed of the same root, ikvot/footsteps. And I explained that this portion is about them. Most often when we speak of following in someone’s footsteps it is younger people or people coming later who follow in the footsteps of those who came before. But it is for us to follow in their footsteps, to pursue the way of friendship and peace in the way that they are modeling and living the ideal now.
There is a beautiful teaching of Rabbi Yitzchok Meir of Rothenberg (1799-1866), the Ri”m, that the first words of the portion, v’haya ekev tish’m’un/it shall come to pass as a result of your hearing…, perhaps on the heals of your hearing, are telling us to listen for the footsteps of the Messiah, ikvot m’shicha. Those are the footsteps that I could hear as we stood around the open Torah, Jews and Muslims together. In the bag of gifts they had given me was a small book of teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810) entitled, Ein Makom Rachok/Not a Far Away Place. Following in the steps of such young people, may that time of peace and wholeness, of swords turned to plowshares, be a little closer, not a far away place.
It always starts that way, with a few advisers, some bombing, and some promises that there won't be any serious "boots on the ground." So, here we go again in Iraq. The U.S. advisers are there. The bombing is underway. Next?
That's not to say that the latest manifestation of terrorism with ISIS isn't horrific. Anyone engaged in Holy War isn't bound by the same strictures as when it's just a normal war. Holy Warriors have God on their side and God, as we've seen over the ages, can be an extraordinary villain of nationalistic leaders and moralistic followers, those who are able to turn a faith inside out and upside down.
Especially in the U.S., we need to be careful about only laying responsibility for holy war on followers of Islam. When we look at the historical record, all of the monotheistic traditions have had (and are still having) their holy wars. One could hardly bear to watch the recent destruction in Gaza of the military overreaction on the part of Israel, seeming to carry an intensity and passion only understandable in a religious context. After all say many, it's all land God gave the Jewish people in ancient times.
It's also understandable that after such a horrific event as the holocaust, the Jewish people might say "never again." Still, who is to say the survivors in Gaza won't say "never again," and in the next engagement will have God on their side?
Nor can we ignore one of the reported reasons President Bush decided to invade Iraq. According to Thomas Romer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne, he was approached by the office of French President Jacques Chirac to help Chirac understand a reference Bush made to "Gog and Magog."
The words came up in 2003 while Bush was lobbying Chirac to become part of the "coalition of the willing" in support of an Iraq invasion. Bush told Chirac a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the middle east and how they had to be defeated.
If you don't know your books of Genesis, Ezekiel and Revelation in the Christian Bible, that's where the names Gog and Magog appear. They are the forces of apocalypse that are coming out of the north and will destroy Israel unless they are stopped. Bush believed the situation in the middle east was a cosmic struggle, prophesied in Scripture.
Bush told Chirac, "This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins." The same year he spoke with Chirac, he reportedly told the Palestinian foreign minister he was on a "mission from God," in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chirac has since confirmed Romer's report in a book published in France by Jean Claude Maurice, although he reportedly told the author if he repeated the story in his book, he would deny it.
If the story is accurate and I have no reason to doubt it, especially as George W. is a Christian millennialist, many thousands have lost their lives in a holy war, and Iraq continues to be the scene of enormous suffering, destruction and just plain terror.
For those Christians who affirm the concept of God in the first letter of John, "God is love," the so called "mission" of President Bush in Iraq was not only mistaken but absolutely contrary to the faith. And for those Christians who understand Old Testament prophecy and apocalyptic literature as referring to the times in which it was written, not some predicted future, the beliefs of President Bush in such a position of power and authority, is not only terrifying but utter madness.
Two sensible things have been communicated about the situation we are in now. President Obama said, we are doing better in Afghanistan because leadership there is in dialogue across the political divides. That never happened in Iraq with the Maliki government. Rather they alienated other groups even more than earlier.
The problem is, the President said this in almost the same breath as committing us to new strikes in Iraq.
The only other sensible response so far came from Pope Francis. He asked Islamic leadership to come forward and disown the kind of Islam represented by ISIS. We need this to happen! But if it doesn't, we might also understand that at least in the U.S., Muslims have hunkered down, with good reason. There are some holy warriors at work in U.S. society who can't distinguish between civilians and terrorists. One disturbing bumper sticker I saw on I-29 read, "Kill Them All: Let Allah Sort Them Out."
That kind of thinking needs to be condemned by all people of faith. Fear and religious prejudice create silence and bitterness, not dialogue. The same goes for coercion, manipulation, force and war. Peace is the fruit of justice and truth seeking.
Like concentric circles flowing out in Jamaica Pond, formed of stones cast from different places on the shore, becoming as one, so the confluence of yearning flowing out from the far-flung shores of humanity, becoming as one. In a time of so many sorrows, Mieke went for an early morning walk around the pond last Shabbos. On her return, she told me in disbelief of the sign she had seen on a bench by the boathouse. It said in quotes, “Noah’s Office,” and then told of a memorial gathering that morning at nine o’clock for Noah Katz. We were both shocked, how could it be? As I later wrote in sharing thoughts with my congregation, for those of you who were touched by Noah’s ebullient spirit around the pond, taken in by his garrulous warmth and love of people, I apologize if this is your first hearing of his death. He had died suddenly in his sleep a few days before. Upon the bench where he so often sat, his “office,” there were folded running shirts that told of marathons he had run, and there were flowers, and upon the ground beneath the bench his running shoes with their bright orange laces boldly announcing Noah’s arrival at the finish line.
I made my way over to the pond just before shul, raindrops forming so many circles on the water. Word had spread quickly, a crowd gathering in the bandstand in disbelief, a huddled circle of people comforting and seeking comfort from each other. Noah’s sister and brother-in-law were there, all the rest were his family from around the pond. One woman, an English teacher, spoke of how she and Noah would talk about words, “what word should we talk about today,” Noah would ask her each morning he saw her. One of his favorite words was “serene,” she said, as he looked out onto the pond and noted its serenity. Another spoke of her son whose name was also Noah, and how big Noah would always ask how “little Noah” is doing. A man familiar around the pond for the parrot perched upon his shoulder, a bright colored bird named Shakespeare, shared that Noah had recently wanted to talk about death, leaving us to wonder if it had been a premonition, a sense of coming change. “No, no, said the man, let’s not talk about that.” Instead, Noah confided that he had always been afraid of Shakespeare the parrot and asked if he could hold him. “Put up your hand and Shakespeare will decide,” said the man. Transcending fear, reaching beyond limitation, as though beyond the wall that runners fear to hit, Noah held the parrot on his hand, smiling upon that which he feared no longer.
I spoke in the circle of having gotten to know Noah over the last year and a half or so. I shared the embarrassment and shame I feel for having avoided him for some time before that. Here and there we would speak briefly or trade pleasantries. I was often wary of the amount of time it could take to engage with Noah. With deep sadness, I realize what I missed and take to heart the lesson to be learned. One of the first times I met Noah, running for a short distance together, he asked me if I had any events coming. Perplexed, I thought about coming Bar and Bas Mitzvahs, weddings, the kind of events in my life. Seeing my confusion, he said, “races, do you have any races planned?” In having earlier avoided too much engagement with Noah, I think it was in part that I wanted to avoid being the rabbi, wanting just to be a pond runner or walker. Noah was intrigued, though, that I was a rabbi and I began to share more openly with him. We talked of having elderly fathers. We spoke of a mutual friend, someone who was to him as family for so many years, a woman whom my dad hired for her first job. Noah bubbled with laughter, almost uncontainable in his joy for living and his delight in human connection.
The next Shabbat was Shabbos Nachamu/the Sabbath of Comfort. Following the sorrows remembered on Tisha B’Av, day of mourning and fasting for so much tragedy in Jewish history and in the world, we begin a cycle of time called the Seven Weeks of Comfort. The name of this Shabbos as the Sabbath of Comfort comes from words chanted from the prophet Isaiah, Nachamu, nachmu ami/Comfort, comfort my people (Isaiah 40:1). It is an imperative given to each of us, each of us called to be a comforter, each of us in need of comfort. So it was in the bandstand by the pond on that Shabbos, a huddled mass of people comforting and being comforted by each other. So it is in the world right now, people all along the shores of humanity so in need of comfort, of hope. Hearts breaking for the violence in the Middle East, Israel and Gaza so unbearable; from where shall comfort come, from where signs of hope? Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, the old ways of strife that lead to misery, none to comfort and show a new way. Only stones gently cast, as in the way of symbolically casting our sins into the water on Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Near, shall bring circles of life to intermingle with each other.
On that Sabbath of Comfort, we read from the Torah portion called Va’etchanan (Deut. 3:23-7:11), a prayerful word meaning in its root to beseech, to plead, to supplicate, an expression of so much desire and yearning. Wherever the word appears, it is understood to be an expression of a gift freely given/matnat chinam. That was the way of kindness as a gift freely given to all by Noah Katz. Of caring for each other simply because we are each human, each one carrying a story worth hearing, a precious connection waiting to happen, so shall the circles of life, circles of connection, intertwine and be unbroken, comfort upon the waters. May his memory be a blessing.
After several months of searching, my husband and I have found a new yoga teacher. Her classes are strenuous and we both come home feeling like we have had a good workout. She gives clear instructions and does a beautiful job of guiding both newcomers and old-timers in the execution of the postures.
Over the last several weeks I have been appreciating her increasing focus on pranayama – breathing practice. Noticing the breath – - following the breath - - holding the breath - - releasing the breath - - disciplining the breath while moving through the postures….
The breath – the Source of Life – so taken for granted until it is compromised in some way. As I try to be more faithful about incorporating yoga into my daily routines, focusing on the breath has become a central way of grounding myself, of entering into prayer, of finding my way through the day with just a little more equanimity. I find myself coaching myself to breathe when I begin to feel stressed. I am learning to follow the breath to a place of silence and balance and peace. I am not adept at staying there, but I am learning to find my way.
As I write, there is a three-day truce in effect between Israel and Gaza. Whether it will still be in place by the time this is posted is uncertain. But for the moment, there is space to breathe, to allow the Life Force some time to balance and restore itself.
The last several weeks of conflict have been so painful for so many people. It seems not to matter which side of the conflict is embraced as the “right one” - - the pain and the sadness and the anger and confusion afflict millions around the world. In response to it, I find my own breathing constricted, shallow, rapid - - not the kind of breath that nurtures fullness of life in my body – not the kind of breath that feeds my cells for the work they have to do. I have to stop and pay attention and take charge of my breath with intention. I have to observe it - - govern it - -slow it down - - deepen it - - hold it - - release it - - all in the service of bringing myself into a state of balance again.
What is becoming more clear to me is that when I am occasionally stressed beyond my ability to care for myself in this way, I depend upon the prayer and the breath of my fellow travelers to carry me through until I can re-engage with my own breath and regain balance again. At other times I do the same for them. It is a curious thing. By sharing in a disciplined practice of breathing, we are able to be present to one another in ways that strengthen and sustain and heal. Staying with the breath has the potential for allowing wisdom to surface - - perhaps even vision for life.
However brief or prolonged the current ceasefire may be, it represents a moment to breathe in the midst of the pain and suffering and chaos of war. It may allow time to re-balance – and –as with a yoga practice – it may falter and fail and need to be approached again and again until it is a stable way of entering life. With discipline, the pranayama of this time of mediated breath might be deepened to a point where all parties might recognize the power of stopping to take a breath – and then another - and then another in the service of life. We who are geographically at a remove from the various centers of conflict in the world can do this for one another until we are all breathing together.
For today, I offer the intention and the merit of my breath practice in the service of peace in the world.
I write from the turmoil of my heart. Mieke and I returned from Israel yesterday. It is good to be home and it is hard to be home. I struggle to find the place called home. I feel alone at times in the struggle to balance the swirl of emotions and feelings. I asked so many people, “how do you hold it all together, where do you find hope?” I ask myself the same questions, and I am not sure. Of how do you hold it all together, the woman of a couple with whom we had Shabbos dinner last week said, “barely.” Finding hope was in fact easier for her, in the details of day to day, mostly in caring for their little grandchild, changing diapers, walking, shopping. Over Shabbos lunch, my friend, Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, answered my questions with the prophetic resolve with which he lives and faces down despair, “we just have to keep going.” He is convinced that in the struggle for justice and peace, every act of goodness makes a difference.
In a strange and eerie way, it was easy to feel at home in a shelter when the sirens wailed, gathered with people of all views, where one’s politics and opinions didn’t matter, only one’s presence. I find it much harder here. I feel alone, no sense of home or belonging in gatherings that would only praise and defend Israel, and so too at gatherings that would only condemn and decry Israel. We have been here so many times before, lessons unlearned and then the question that churns of what to do in the midst of crisis. The crisis is real for Israel, as it is real for the people of Gaza. I feel sick with the worry of Israeli friends who are sick with worry for their children, young ones who wet their beds with the sound of the sirens, bundled off to safe rooms and shelters. I feel the worry of friends who dread to know where their soldier sons are and what they are doing, and who are beside themselves in not knowing. Feeling the worry of our own, how can we not feel as our own as well the terror wrought on Palestinians? More than the wail of sirens, how dare we not feel their horror as the bombs fall and houses cave in?
In Laila’s words, I find hope, sentiments felt by many Jews. We are one in fear and in hope, fear beneath the bombs and rockets, fear for our children, fear that we not lose our humanity. Knowing the fear we feel for Israel should open our hearts all the more to feel the unimaginable fear for those of Gaza who live beneath the bombs. All of the children are our own, all of them and all of us joined as branches on the tree of life. That is the message in the name of this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Matot (Numbers 30:2-32:42. It is a portion of great violence and vengeance, a reflection of the worst that we can be, the worst that we can do. And in that is its warning and its hope of transcendence, that in seeing the violence of which we are capable, we shall recoil with horror. It is the mirror of Torah in which we see ourselves and rise up to be who we are meant to be. The word mateh/tribe can also mean branch, rod, staff. We are all as branches on the same tree and we are all each other’s staff with which to guide and support on the journey of life.
These terrible days unfolding come as we enter the three weeks that lead to Tisha B’Av, day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the Temples and so much brokenness in the world. Of these three weeks, called the Three Weeks of Reproach/Sh’losha d’Puranuta, or the Bayn Ham’tzarim/Between the Straits, the Slonimer Rebbe says, they are the furrowed ground from which shall begin to blossom the great light revealed. May that be the hope of this time, that seeing the horror of so much violence we shall see a new light and a new way arise.


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Followers of chiptune and online game music normally have an entire bunch of freshly launched tracks to take pleasure in because of Capcom dropping a boatload of albums on Spotify. They vary from the basic NES Mega Man by means of PS1-era Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Phoenix Wright, Satan Might Cry, E.X. Troopers – the listing goes on.
First seen by Twitter consumer @_watsu, it is a sizeable drop.
Greater than sufficient to be getting on with, it is nice to see Capcom making these albums extra broadly out there, particularly contemplating how dear OSTs can get. In case your Japanese is not as much as scratch, you will must scrutinise the album artwork or, alternatively, simply hit shuffle – you’ll be able to’t go too far unsuitable.
See any private favourites on the listing? Something you’d wish to see Capcom add? Focus on your faves under.

industry_corpus2: Gaming


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OK. That’s all I could come up with on short notice, but it’s a fun exercise to think about what seemed to be so critical 365 days ago is all but forgotten now. Every time I do this exercise, I am reminded about the progression on leadership themes I have seen in the Navy since I was a midshipman. Let’s see if anyone remembers: Day-long Sensitivity Training, Management by Objective (MBO), Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean, Six Sigma, Navy Enterprise Model, Accelerated Learning, Business Process Reengineering. I can still see the TQM workshops with the red and white balls in my mind as well as watching videos of Demming droning on. I remember when it was declared that all SES and Flags should be at least a Brown Belt. I’m not quite sure what management fad we are in now, but if you have some ideas, please comment. By the way, I hope this page looks decent. It taxed my knowledge of HTML to get columns into the article…And harder still to get them to stop. By the way, for all you retired Flags and SESers, I will be happy to collect your brown belts and sell them on consignment.
OK, I know it’s been a while since I sat down and put some thoughts on paper…One of my New Year’s resolutions it to do a better job. Frankly, for me, writing these articles is a way to organize my thoughts and to vent (but not too much). And it seems that of late one risks a great deal by exposing one’s thoughts to the universe of tweet-ers, facebook-ers, linked In-ers, and web lurkers, given the apparent lack of tolerance for anything but the most extreme views. There. I feel better.
On to “Who do you trust?” I think it’s a good time to consider this question, especially in light of the “fake” news craze, endless exposure to unverified “Breaking News”, and a Congress seemingly motived by party politics and reelection fever over trust. I admit that’s harsh, but I’m pretty sure when you make a list of who you trust, your representatives on the Hill won’t be on it. I really don’t know what to think when I hear our elected representatives constantly using the most extreme superlatives, good or bad, when describing each bit of proposed legislation….It’s either “the most devastating blow to the middle class since the Great Depression” or “historic legislation which will restore the American Dream.” Really? Can it be that bad or that good? I don’t think so and hence, I don’t trust what is being said.
I’m thinking this will be a two-parter….There’s too much to cover in one article, so I will focus on who/what I don’t trust and why in this article. Tomorrow, I will follow up with who I do trust and why.
Airline Flight Status. Airlines always recommend you check with them before heading to the airport….I’ve yet to check on a flight that still three hours away that says anything but “On Time.” I’m talking about normal operations, no big storms or computer meltdowns in the offing….just an everyday trip to the airport. So I bop on over to the airport, go through security, check again on flight status (On Time) and head on over to the gate. I’ve got a nifty app on my phone that lets me see where the airplane is coming from so I can check on it….Lo and behold, my airplane is 30 minutes behind schedule ….but at my gate it still says “On Time.” If I ask the gate agent, usually I get a “nothing is showing on my system” reply. Eventually, they have to come clean and the announcement is made that there’s a delay. Now they post a new departure time, usually wildly optimistic, that they have no hope of making….I’d much rather they use technology and post actual status….6 minutes late, or 15 minutes early. By the way, ever had a delay because the aircrew was late arriving from another flight? The airlines know that way ahead of time. Why don’t they put a status up that reflects that? I don’t trust ‘em.
Weather Reports. Apparently actual temperatures are not very news worthy, so weather guessers have invented wind chills and heat factors. It’s not so interesting to say it’s going to be 15 degrees tonight. Instead, why not say, “We are going to have serious, life threatening wind chills of minus 5 tonight somewhere is our listening area. Stay tuned as this story develops.” Huh? Why say “There’s a chance of snow tomorrow” when you can say “I can’t rule out the possibility of over 12 inches of snow and blizzard conditions similar to Antarctica will be here tomorrow because the Manchurian model says so.” And why are we naming storms which we used to label northeasters except to make them seem as serious as a hurricane so the viewers will “stay tuned”? Since when has a cold spell become a “Bomb?” Everything the weather reporters say always emphasize the extremes. I’m interested in their best guess about what’s likely to happen, not their speculations on how bad it might be. They seem to be just opposite.
Congress. It’s all about the extremes over there too. Apparently, nothing can be solved by compromise, so they have invented ways to ensure the extremes always win (or lose). I get a kick watching coverage over there. It’s always the leadership slinging superlatives right and left while surrounded by 5 or 6 colleagues looking concerned. I would feel like such a dope standing in the background, nodding my head and furrowing my brow while having absolutely nothing to say. I always wonder what the stand-arounds are thinking. “Do I look concerned enough?” “I wonder if they are having meatballs in the cafeteria today?” “I hope they see me standing here back in the District.” Who knows what they are thinking?
I guess I’ve said enough to get me in trouble, but before I leave the subject of non-trust, I thought it might be interesting to think about why things/people show up on the non-trust list. I’m also interested in what’s on your list.
History of being wrong. I guess this one is obvious, but worth a comment. If you tell me something and it was wrong, I’m probably less likely to trust what you say in the future. It helps if you come to me and admit you were wrong and to express a desire to be more accurate in the future. There are plenty of reasons to be wrong, so fess up! Just remember, I tend to trust people who have a track record of being right. The weather is usually never as bad as the worst-case scenario pushed by the TV forecaster, so I tend to take what they say with a grain of salt. By the way, I woke up this morning with a white driveway, yet there was no mention of any precipitation for the next 24 hours.
Shifting reality. I don’t trust people or things that seem to change based on convenience, personal benefit, discovery of the truth, or crowd-think. Airlines know that flights aren’t “on Time” usually well in advance. Why not say so when they know? Sure, they eventually are truthful, but only after they have no other option but to be truthful. People are sorry after they get caught…..not while they are doing illegal or hurtful things.
Inward focused. When people are self-focused, saying and doing what’s best for them, not for others, I don’t trust them. One can usually tell when the “What’s in it for me?” rule is in effect and I find it hard to trust someone who hasn’t at least considered the consequences of their actions on me and others.
Agenda over truthfulness. If I sense that someone is more focused on their own agenda at the expense of being truthful, then I don’t trust them. They frequently are unresponsive to facts, seeking alternate facts (Whatever that means). This results in a situation where the opinion of others is seldom valued or even considered. I don’t trust people who develop solutions that haven’t considered all perspectives. I don’t think that many who seek our trust are intentionally un-truthful. They may “think” they are being truthful, but because they are so focused on their agenda, they have conveniently overlooked facts which don’t contribute to their version of the truth. Remember, one can tell the truth without being truthful.
Violation of Trust. When you have trusted someone who then wrongly takes advantage of your trust, it will be difficult to ever trust them again. This is the most important factor I consider when determining who to trust. Have they ever violated my or someone else’s trust? If so, they wind up at the top of my “Do not Trust” List.
It’s useful to spend some time to think about trust and who you do and don’t trust. More importantly, thinking about why people wind up on one of those lists will serve you well when a new person pops up. What list do you put them on? Is it possible to change lists? Probably the most important outcome of this little drill is to think about where you fall on other peoples’ lists. This article was about a list you don’t want to be on and the things which will put you there. We all want to be trusted, but we must earn that trust by our actions. Next time, how to be on the “Trusted” list.
I just finished reading this article concerning the Air Force waiting for things to break in their shore infrastructure instead of doing preventative maintenance. My first thought was, “I sure hope that doesn’t include nukes!!!” From what I can tell from the article, maybe yes, maybe no. So that has me a little worried. But there were several other things about that article that worried me.
First, it said that the Services only submitted about 80% of what they needed for facilities maintenance because they wanted to put priority on training and operations instead of maintaining their buildings. I believe the idea was to fix things as they fail. Who wants to be in a building that might “fail”? Not me. I’m puzzled as to why they wouldn’t ask for everything needed since the money for such things comes from different appropriations than training and operations. By the way, they got all that they asked for which leaves me wondering what would have happened if they asked for what they really needed.
By the way, this is not just an Air Force problem. Here is a similar article about Navy facilities and infrastructure. Stunningly, it says that of the 13 barracks at NAS Oceana, 10 of them are rated substandard. What happened to taking care of our number one asset….our Sailors. And we only asked for 80% of the money to fix them??
Thirdly, one Commander in the article is worried that money for repair is so short, that even when things break there will not be enough money to fix them. Little wonder, since they only asked of 80% of what they needed. I suppose they are hoping for some sort of natural disaster so they can go in for supplemental funding to fix everything.
Once something happens, there will be a feeding frenzy at the supplemental trough to fix not only what was damaged by said disaster, but also stuff that was damaged by neglect. What a world!
Finally, it says that the Air Force is not planning on returning to “full spectrum readiness” (whatever that means) until 2023. That must mean they have a plan….but since when has any service been able to stick to a plan more than a couple of years???? Heck, in the Navy, we change the 30 Year Shipbuilding plan just about every year!
I recall reading an article not long after the Berlin Wall fell which said the conditions in East German bases were puzzling. The barracks the soldiers were living in were barbaric…..but just across the street, the tanks, personnel carriers, trucks, artillery and lots of other weapons were sitting in pristine condition in air conditioned splendor. This is what happens when we value things over people. Hey, recruiting is at an all time high. We could probably stand a few people jumping ship anyway. Why not skimp on their facilities so that we can continue to pay for the cost overruns of the JSF and other out-of-control acquisition programs?
On the other hand, I suppose you could say that this problem is yet another symptom of the need for another round of BRAC. Good luck with that!
Oh, by the way, no facilities were damaged in the writing of this article.
Now hold on there you DoD buckaroos!!!!! I’m not saying that what you put out is not “True”, but I think we can all agree that words can be put together is a way that while they are true, they may not be “truthful.” I put on an occasional seminar on Ethical Decision Making and in that class I discuss some points concerning “truth.” Perhaps the most famous seeker of a definition of truth was Pontius Pilate when he asked, “What is truth?” He didn’t get an answer to his question then and the answer to his question has been debated for centuries. In my previous article , Sigh-ber, I touched upon the wisdom of always being completely truthful so I won’t jump into that morass again. But is always just telling happy truth, and ignoring some of the bad news, being completely truthful? I think not. I recall during one session on the Hill when I was asked if we had fully funded the ship maintenance requirement I replied, “Yes Sir. We have fully funded the ship maintenance line to 75% of the requirement!” True enough! Anyway, I digress.
I am somehow offended that DoD chooses to mark my email as [Non-DoD Source]. I suppose I should be grateful that they deign to open my “insecure” emails. Given the thousands of emails folks receive in the Pentagon, my guess is that they will all become desensitized to that phrase and will ignore it. But……if someone ever clicks on a [Non-DoD Source] email and causes some sort of bot or bug or worm or virus to be introduced into that bastion of security, the “dot mil” domain, the Cyber-police will descend upon them for ignoring the [Non DoD Source] warning. I am sure the cyber-Dons within DoD are correct when they believe that this sort of thing can’t happen from within the “dot mil” domain….But somehow I still see echos of Bradley Mannings, Ed Snowdens and a lot of others who had inside access, that could care less about [Non DoD Source], because they were a [DoD Source]!
PS. My N8 former self can help but wonder how much it cost to mark all non DoD email as [Non DoD Source].
Please help our wounded Sailors and Coast Guardsmen by attending a performance of “A Christmas Carol”, presented by the Little Theater of Alexandria on the evening of December 16th by clicking here.
And that is a real problem because cyber crime, cyber snooping, cyber intrusion, cyber war, and all manner of other things is perhaps the most significant challenge to the well-being of the good ole US of A in this century, IMHO. I’ve attended a series of meetings and had a couple of events in my personal life that have caused me to think a lot about this problem. But they way, I don’t claim ownership of any of these ideas. I have heard them in a variety of places from a variety of people. I just wrote them down in one place.
Nothing chafes me more than getting my credit card rejected, and then finding out that my credit card company has detected the unauthorized use of my card and I must get a new one. That’s when I realize just what a poor job I have done in protecting myself….I even have a spreadsheet now with all the web sites that I have to visit to update my credit card number. It has web addresses, user names, account numbers and passwords all laid out so I can spend about two hours on line changing them all…..Am I the only one with this problem??? I’ve started trying to put everything on line through PayPal, but who’s to say that won’t be hacked next?
Think about all the bad things that have happened due to cyber crime in the last year or so…..Target gets hacked, the Joint Staff email system is fried, the Pentagon Food Court is penetrated, the OPM debacle. BTW I just got my ( less than timely) letter last week from OPM informing me that all the information on my SF86’s was compromised….that’s efficiency for you!!! (No wonder they got hacked if the timeliness of their notification is any indication of their expertise) How long has it been since we all knew about the OPM fandango???? And yet…..no one has gone to jail on the criminal side and no one has been fired or disciplined ….for any of those things. And I’ve got to say that in the case of OPM, it seems to me the cure is worse than the disease….Let me get this straight…..I get free monitoring for a couple of years and all I have to do is enter in all the personal information they couldn’t keep secure anyway…They want me to enter driver’s license number, bank account numbers, credit card numbers….What kind of idiot do they think I am? They gooned it up once……and most likely will goon it up again…There’s no way I’m putting all that info into anything that has anything to do with OPM or the US Government, for that matter…( Isn’t the lowest bidder providing most of the government’s security packages?). They should just ask the Chinese or the Russians for my info, since they apparently already have it………but I digress.
Everyone is an operator. Except for a few holdouts from America’s Greatest Generation, virtually everyone is slammin’ away at a keyboard or tip-tapping on a touch screen or talking to Siri(for those who are unable to get anyone else to talk to them). You don’t need a license, or any training, or have any awareness of just how badly you can screw things up to “operate” on the Internet. You all know people who shouldn’t be allowed on the Internet….the people who actually reply to the email from Mr. H. J. Spankle, Esq. from South Africa telling them that their long-lost cousin has left them a fortune. Or the ones who hit the “reply” button on the email from their bank telling them to update their user name and password……And yet they are all out there spending hours on-line, causing who knows how much damage. Their vote counts just as much as yours, by the way. This is why cyber experts will tell you that in most breaches, it’s not technology, but people at the root cause.
No one is in control. This relates to the no boundaries problem. Since there are no boundaries, it’s not clear who is in charge. Of course, there are several organizations that may exercise some moderate influence, like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or maybe some of the companies maintaining Authoritative Name Servers (the keeper of the “phonebook” for domains like .com, .net, .org, etc) Until about 1999, a company known as Network Solutions,Inc. did this function, but now several entities claim this responsibility, along with organizations for domains like .biz and .edu. The United Nations has been monkeying around with Internet Governance as well, claiming that they don’t want the US in charge (BS IMHO) but in the end there is no single “belly button” in charge.
There in no difference between military, government and civilian operations. Everyone is in the same boat. This becomes a real problem after a hacking event when trying to attribute the attack to someone or something. Was it a hostile act by an opposing military power or was it a criminal act by some organized crime actor, or was it a terrorist act by a radical group, or was it just a random act of boredom by a “hackivist” wasting time between Minecraft games? Who knows? It all looks the same. This is a fundamental problem in determining what type of response is appropriate for any given attack. I have no doubt the US has the capability to “smoke check” every single computer in North Korea….or even turn my own laptop into a time bomb fueled by a “Phaser Overload” in my lithium battery pack, but to what end? Is it our responsibility to be the “Net Police”? Is it DoD, DHS, FBI, FCC, Radio Shack???? I just don’t know (and apparently neither does any of our leadership).
All share in the risk. Just look at the Target incident. Even though I might have been a completely hygienic internet user with impeccable security habits, all I needed to do was buy a lightbulb from Target using a credit card and BINGO….I’m hacked!! And think about the problem of someone else using your computer for whatever reason…all they need to do is click on one spam message and you are hacked. In fact, it takes just one ne’er-do-well on your vastly secure network to plug in one thumb drive, and you are hacked. You are at risk, even if you chose not to play the game. This has huge implications. BTW, do you all have the new credit cards with the chip that is supposed to enhance security? You know, the one that doesn’t work in any of the credit card readers?????? As far as I can tell it’s still swipe, swipe, swipe your personal information away!!!!!!
Cyber-Health is nonexistent in the masses. Probably an overstatement, but the point is that even very well educated folks are constantly falling prey to all sorts of scams, phishing schemes and electronic theft. Think about the little device that criminal stick to the ATM card slot that copies all your ATM card info. Or what about the scanners that can cue your smart phone to dump its address book (now we need metal card holders to prevent intrusion, a la the new Pentagon Badge Holders?). So my contention is that the vast majority of internet “operators” pay about as much attention to cyber-hygiene as they do about the dangers of texting and driving…..Once again, it only takes one to spoil the whole barrel and there are plenty of rotten apples running around out there.
So there are just a few reasons why cyber-related problems are unlike any we have tackled before. No great revelations here and sadly no solutions. But I contend that to get to the solution, we must first understand the problem we are fixing. I don’t think we are anywhere near understanding the extent, nature or consequences of living in a world where everything is connected. To my way of thinking, we have too much of a good thing and that can be bad thing. I am reminded of a discussion I once had with a prospective bridegroom when I was a marriage mentor. We were talking about the special relationship between married couples….no secrets, everything open and above board…Then I remembered that sometimes openness and honesty may not always be the best policy when it comes to marriage….I made that mistake early on in our marriage…..I recall coming home just weeks into our wedded life and passing on the blueberry pie the lovely Mrs. Crenshaw has spent many hours preparing (after attending classes all day). “Just so you know, I don’t like blueberry pie,” I said. Some four-two years later I regret that moment of honesty every day!!!!!!!!!!
I guess it’s that time of year when one must talk about all things budget. And since I am only a small gnu within the herd, I too will opine on the obvious. Several thoughts came to mind as I was reading some of the commentary on the budget. It’s always fun to read the DoD press releases and to see the latest spin. How well-educated and experienced people can say some of this stuff with a straight face is a mystery to me. Take the DoD article on its press site today, “Budget Request Balances Today’s Needs Against Tomorrow’s Threats.” The article is a summary of a press conference held by DoD Comptroller, Mike McCord. I love his characterization of the budget: “although planners were aware of financial constraints, the budget is a strategy-driven construct.” Translation–we ignored the budget caps. As an aside, you all know how I hate the way the Pentagon takes common words and complicates them…like “construct“. Don’t they mean plan? I confess that I used to be as bad as the next Pentagonian in inflating words to add an air of sophistication and deep-thoughtedness to them. The “construct” word stands out in my mind because I used it one day while briefing the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton. He stopped me and asked, “What the heck does that mean…construct’? I replied, ” Well, you know…the product of the assimilation of a multitude of facts and non-facts into a non-coherent stream of pseudo-strategy designed to defend an un-defendable position.” Mr. Skelton replied,” Just say plan. Don’t make it so complicated with strange words.” AMEN…..And after that, I tried to avoid Pentagonisms like the plague.
Once again this budget side-steps many of the large issues, like the runaway Joint Strike Fighter budget and focuses in on the marginal stuff…TRICARE rate hikes, cutting Commissary hours, as well as proposing the impossible…base closure, A-10 retirement and the like.
But that’s not the subject of today’s blog, so I will move on from that unpleasantness…….Today’s topic is about HOW the Pentagon arrives at its budget. Of course, it’s fairly common knowledge to this audience that it uses the Planning, Programming Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) system.
Sound familiar? I submit that all of these factors exist today to some degree or another, perhaps for different reasons than in 1961, but they exist nonetheless. That’s why I think it’s time for a serious discussion about changing the process. Over the past half-century we have fallen back into some very bad habits. They were good reasons for change then, and equally good for change now.
Many would say today’s budgets are very independent of plans. Despite the efforts of the 24,000 or so Pentagon workers, in the end the budgets are determined in large measure by political decisions. I note that the elegant planning process in the Pentagon has recommended decommissioning the A-10, laying up Aegis Cruisers, another round of BRAC, and on and on. These proposals were developed by thousands of planners chewing up millions of man hours, yet the analysis is ignored by the Congress. As the Navy’s N8 I came to the conclusion that at any given moment probably 90% of the people in the Pentagon are working on some part of the budget. But to what ends? At the end of the day, the budget never changes more than about 1% -1.5%, despite the hundreds of thousands of man hours devoted to changing it? Why bother? Given there is so little change, why not stop all the madness of millions of minor budget data base changes which in the end have less than a 1% impact? We could get by with half the people in the Pentagon and let them do something more constructive.
There’s no doubt that we have still to tackle the duplication of effort issue. We still have an unexplainable excess of tactical aircraft in the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps because no one is willing to give the mission up. Look how much money that one is costing us in the guise of the JSF.
With regard to independent budget development by the Services, that’s still a problem too. How often do you think Air Force budgeteers sit down with the Navy guys to go over their current budget plans…Answer: never…It’s not until OSD gets the budgets that the Services find out what each is really up to. Heck, the Marines don’t share much of their budget with the Navy until end-game, and they are in the same Department!
The one-third rule ( every Service is entitled to roughly a third of the DoD budget) is still alive and well in the Pentagon. But because of the growth of the Fourth Estate (DoD agencies and combatant commands according to SECDEF nominee Ash Carter) the pie has been further divided. It’s almost the one-fourth rule now. What’s up with that? The process will never work if one assumes equal shares for all.
As far as budgets being focused on one year, despite the best efforts of DoD to lay in a 5 year plan, it is essentially redone every year. I used to submit the Navy’s 30 Year Shipbuilding plan almost every year with major changes. What kind of long-range plan is that? The truth is that with the way we fight the budget wars from year to year, coupled with the inability of the Congress to regularly and reliably pass funding and authorization legislation, DoD has no choice but to focus on one year. It has become so challenging to execute the budget and build several (the base budget, the sequester budget, the President’s budget, Overseas Contingency Ops budget) that it is impossible to focus on later years.
It’s too complicated to explain here, but check out the presentation. Even though it was done in 2009, I think it’s relevant today.
So that’s my rail of the day. We need to change the PPBE. I don’t know how. I am not that smart. Maybe some smart combination of the above management systems… I do know that the same reasons we decided to re-twicker the DoD budget process in 1961 exist today. We should convene a group of smart folks (and not just old fogies like me who got us into this mess in the first place) to consider how to develop a process which eliminates the 1961 reasons. It’s time for some new and innovative thinking, done by all interested parties (Congress, DoD, Administration) on how to fix the problem.

industry_corpus2: Technology & Research


text:
Writing out key points that you want to get across during the hearing will help to keep you organized and on-point.
That said, during the hearing you may very well want to address most/ all of your key points, but warning: only do so to the extent that it makes sense in the contest of the hearing. In other words, use common sense.
To a big degree in this regards you need to go with the flow of the hearing, and so your desire to get across certain points during the hearing is not something that can be rigidly or inflexibly applied - as while you want to appear organized, you certainly do not want to appear as being someone who is rigid or inflexible, which could incorrectly be viewed by the judge as that you were likewise difficult during your employment and that you indeed committed the misconduct alleged by the Employer.
The importance of having a notepad (or blank paper) is that during the hearing things will be said that you may not then be able to immediately respond to (such as if the Employer/ Employer's witnesses are testifying), and so writing down the point(s) that you want to respond to/ address will keep you organized and help you remember the point(s) for when it is your turn to speak.

industry_corpus2: Law & Justice


text:
Open microsoft app store and type “Alexa”, and then “get” it to install automatically.
lets, setup alexa app account . Note : You must be plug-in your microphone on your windows 10 PC / Laptop. Now we’re going to launch, you need to set up it’s pretty straightforward. so to get started, give Alexa permission to access your microphone, and I will except to hear your request. Please click yes when your operating system ask for permission. Right, so you have to connect your microphone gonna say allow yes and you need to login to your Amazon account.


text:
Bevan, Gwyn (2015) Improving public services through ambitious targets and tough sanctions for failure. LSE Research Festival 2015, The London School of Economics and Political Science.
LSE's evidence-based research into health services has shown how and when ambitious targets and tough sanctions can improve performance of public services. Part of the LSE Research Impact Case Studies series.


text: LOXX peg with twin screw hole base plate 27mm wide (hole centres are 15mm apart). Nickel plated brass. Overall height 9mm.


text: People around the world celebrate St. Valentine’s Day on 14th of February. It’ a nice tradition to make a declaration of love and devote time only to beloved in a cosy and romantic atmosphere. Luce Restaurant is the most suitable place for special evenings. Dimmed light, the best sorts of wines from different countries, special heart-shaped dessert for couples and live music will make your evening unforgettable. Atmosphere and interior of the restaurant will take you away from daily grind and turn your dinner into romantic fairytale.

industry_corpus2: Hospitality & Catering


text:
Philly Fixers Guild is having its third Repair Fair! Find us on Saturday, January 31st at Memphis Street Academy, 2950 Memphis St. in Port Richmond. Starts at Noon and goes until 4pm.
Philly Fixers Guild is having its second Repair Fair! Find us on Saturday, November 22nd at Fishtown’s Shissler Rec Center, 1800 Blair St. Starts at Noon and goes until 4pm.
Announcing the Philly Fixers Guild’s very first Repair Fair! To be held at the Sculpture Gym in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood on Saturday, September 13th, 2014. Starts at Noon.
One of the Philly Fixers Guild’s goals is to enable a shift away from a disposable device culture and a move toward a “maintenance and repair” mindset. The first step in making this a reality is to build a simple-but-useful tool box you can call your own. With some basic repair tools and a bit of knowledge at your disposal, you’ll be less likely to think, “toss it and buy a new one” and more likely to attempt a repair.

industry_corpus2: Real Estate & Construction


text:
Several people adore repairing up their homes but they do not know how to go about it. With a evaluate of research and insight, you will locate many methods to increase your home. This article is a wonderful starting up location, so consider a peek within and understand the tricks of the experts.
You want to optimize the area you have when introducing a property workplace. Very good lighting is crucial to any workspace, and the desk and chair have to be comfortable as nicely. The place should be someplace that you look forward to working in and you can even make it visually intriguing at the identical time.
Various textures and patterns work well in space designs. Patterns and textures attract the eye and include visible interest. They can attract consideration to items you want to accentuate. Contrasting designs or textures lend a contemporary, modern day look to a house.
It is really critical that you hold the art perform at the eye’s stage. When the situation is over or under eye level, the stability will be off and the place will show up disorganized.
Maintain up with the newest style traits when working on your home’s inside layout. You wouldn’t want to appear to be stuck in the 1970’s with out-of-date decor. Do not be frightened to peruse inside layout blogs, magazines and tv plans for inspiration.
Put wallpaper on only one fifty percent of a wall. Redoing an entire wall isn’t essential and can value far a lot more than it wants to. If you want to reduce your outlays, only implement wallpaper to 50% of your wall. Give your wallpaper a bolder border and then paint the relaxation. This can make your residence appear stylish and place more money in your pocket.
Now that you have some great ideas swimming in your head about how to style the inside of your property, you are going to want to seek the advice of with other folks about your tips. Discuss what you are contemplating and inquire for opinions. From there, shift into actively making an attempt to redecorate your room.


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Congratulations to our EMS Raider Football Teams. The coaches are extremely proud of all the hard work they put into their practices and games.
7th Grade came in 2nd Place and 8th Grade showed some great improvement from the previous year.
Thank you to all the players, parents and coaches for all the great deal of commitment and sacrifice.